The relationships between socioeconomic status, low birth weight, births to teenagers, and inadequate prenatal care were compared among white and black infants. A cohort of 127,558 singleton births, born from 1982 to 1983 in Los Angeles County, California, was evaluated. Socioeconomic status was estimated by the 1979 median family income of the census tract of maternal residence. For both racial groups the deterioration of residential area socioeconomic status was associated with a significant increase in the percentage of high-risk teenage mothers (less than 17 years of age), in the percentage of mothers with either no, only third trimester, or unknown prenatal care, and in the percentage of low birth weight infants. The rate of increase in the percentage of low birth weight in response to the socioeconomic deterioration of residential area was similar in black and in white groups. There was, however, a racial gap of 5% low birth weight that remained constant across all income areas. At the individual level, there were marked racial differences in the relative risks imposed by one's residential median family income, age, prenatal care, and pattern of interactions.


The concepts of media accountability, media criticism and media governance are analysed and discussed in a Swedish setting; how they relate to each other and interact. This is achieved by using various methods – a survey to editors, analy- ses of parliamentary debates, interviews, direct observation and document stu- dies – in studying different stakeholders, media representatives and governance conditions in Sweden during the last 70 years.The findings point in a direction of dynamic complexities with a central role for media criticism. The type, level and intensity of media criticism may affect the functioning of the media governance structure and is a vital part of the media accountability process. The media governance structure – which in addi- tion to media criticism is influenced by international conditions, technological developments and political factors – may in turn affect the media accountability process. In this process, media representatives aim to defend obtained positions of societal influence, achieve and maintain positive PR and enhance editorial quality at the same time.Media criticism may start a substantial media accountability process if the discontent is widespread and not countered by market approval or political iner- tia. The process is facilitated if the critique is connected to more than one frame of accountability and if stakeholders see opportunities for dual objectives. Very strong and widespread media criticism may be difficult for media organizations to neglect.The accountability process in Sweden has become less dependent on corpora- tive negotiations between organized interests and political assemblies. Instead, two other tendencies seem to have emerged: on the one hand a possibility for media organizations to favour such accountability processes that they are able to control, and on the other hand the rise of a rich variety of sometimes short-lived accountability instruments that may develop for specific occasions and are difficult to control.


Why humans are less sensitive to increment than decrement contrast remains unknown. One hypothesis is that the psychophysical asymmetry in increment and decrement thresholds results from an asymmetry in respective ON and OFF cell contrast gains. Contrast gain also differs, however, by the visual pathway within which the ON and OFF cells travel. Cells show greater contrast gain in the magnocellular (M) than parvocellular (P) pathway. Therefore, the asymmetry in increment and decrement thresholds may also differ by visual pathway. My first three experiments established that observers were more sensitive to decrement than increment contrast in both pathways, in monocular as well as dichoptic conditions. Contrast gain model analyses revealed greater asymmetry in increment and decrement contrast gains only in the P pathway. Lower decrement relative to increment contrast gains resulted in progressively lower decrement than increment contrast discrimination thresholds. Also found was that only decrement binocular summation increased as stimulus contrast increased. Therefore, the two remaining experiments assessed P pathway binocular summation of disparate increment or decrement contrast. An interocular contrast disparity in stimulus contrast generated a strong nonlinear weighting towards the eye with greater delta pedestal contrast during decrement binocular summation and reduced contrast discrimination threshold. Manipulation of two mediating contrast gain normalization processes reduced the disparity and increased the threshold. Combined, the five experiments provide psychophysical evidence that differences in increment and decrement contrast gain normalization underlie the asymmetries in increment and decrement contrast discrimination threshold and binocular summation.


Walkability, one of the planning and design topics with a rising importance in Turkey and the world, has been recognized as an urban strategy to conserve and regenerate the historic city centres, to create healthy societies and to generate sustainable and liveable cities. In Turkey, it has been seen as a means of increasing the accessibility of people with disabilities to the urban space in the early-2000s. With the onset of the Healthy Nutrition and Active Life Program of Turkey, walkability has been recognized as a way of combatting obesity and promoting healthy life since 2013. Despite these promising advances, it is still questionable how far Turkish cities have been planned and designed in consideration of walkability. This research, focusing on this question, aims to develop a micro-scale assessment model for examining the walkability capacity of urban space. After investigating the notion of walkability as a component of liveability and quality of life, it describes the measures of the micro-scale 'walkability' assessment model and explains in depth the research methodology. Using the historic city centre of Mersin as a pilot study area, it examines the walkability capacity of Ataturk and Uray Streets in detail. In the final section, it discusses the major planning and design strategies that can improve not only walkability capacity of the historic city centre, but also its liveability and quality of life. Additionally, with reference to a rule-based planning and design approach, it underlines the contributions of the model to the current planning practice, and makes a debate on how the model can be used and developed in the future not only for assessing the walkability capacity of urban space, but also for modelling and investigating the alternative urban scenarios to improve liveability and walkability of cities.


A total of 360 weanling pigs (initially 11.4 lb and 18 ± 3 d of age, PIC) were used to determine the effects of intermittent use of water-based medication on nursery pig growth performance. Pigs were given one of eight experimental treatments: negative control (no antibiotics in the feed or water); positive control with Neo-Terramycin in the feed (140 g/ton Neomycin sulfate, 140 g/ton Oxytetracycline HCl); continuous use of either 38.0 or 75.5 mg Neomycin sulfate per L of water; use of either 38.0 or 75.5 mg of Neomycin sulfate per L of water, during weeks 1 and 3 after weaning; and use of either 38.0 or 75.5 mg Neomycin sulfate per L of water during weeks 2 and 4 after weaning. Overall (d 0 to 28 after weaning), pigs provided Neomycin sulfate in the water continuously and pigs fed the positive control diet had greater ADG (P<0.05) and ADFI (P<0.04) than did pigs provided non-medicated water and feed. Pigs fed the positive control diet tended (P<0.15) to have greater ADG than did pigs provided an intermittent supply of water-based Neomycin sulfate, but there was no difference in growth performance and feed efficiency between pigs fed the positive control diet and those provided a continuous supply of water-based Neomycin sulfate. Pigs provided a continuous supply of either dosage of Neomycin sulfate in the water had greater (P<0.05) ADG and ADFI than did pigs provided water-based Neomycin sulfate on an intermittent basis. These data demonstrate that providing neomycin in the feed or water results in a growth response, but there is no carryover effect. Thus, pig performance returns to the control level immediately after the supply of Neomycin is removed.


Aim: The aims of the study were unravelling patients' health-seeking behaviour pathways to seek medication in healthcare facilities and key factors that determined patients' immediacy in seeking medical treatment. Method: By involving 5 pulmonary TB patients who were undertaking treatment at Pegirian Primary Health Centre, Surabaya, Indonesia, the research was carried out using an explorative qualitative research design, and the chosen data collection technique was semi-structured interview. Results: The research findings demonstrated that all participants showed five rather similar health-seeking behaviour sequences, such as: (a) defining symptoms; (b) asking laypeople opinions on symptoms; (c) undertaking non-medical treatment to reduce the symptoms; (d) taking laypeople's suggestions to visit healthcare facilities into consideration; (e) deciding to undergo treatment process. Several barriers that caused treatment delay were inaccurate symptom definition and poor health-related risk perception. Meanwhile, reinforcing factors were relatives' appeal to seek treatment, the existence of comorbid/previous diseases, access to healthcare facilities, and increasing perceived severity of the symptoms. Conclusion: Research findings showed that participants performed similar health-seeking pathways. Hindering factors that caused treatment delay were mostly related to cultural-based illness definition and knowledge. Research findings would be potentially beneficial to local primary healthcare for designing interventions that encourage patients to seek professional help and reduce treatment delay.


Isotachophoresis, a technique to separate components by constant current electrophoresis, was used to differentiate between bloodstains of male, female, menstrual, bovine, and ovine bloods on cotton cloth and filter paper. Bloodstain analysis by isotachophoresis of stains from male and female subjects showed identical cationic patterns, but gave different profiles in the anionic system. Plasma had one extra peak in the anionic system when compared to the profile of serum. This extra peak is due to the presence of fibrinogen in plasma. Some hemoglobin peaks overlapped with serum protein peaks, but these could be identified by comparisons at lower concentrations. Menstrual blood had a much different pattern than normal human blood as was expected since many more compounds are found in menstrual blood than in normally circulating blood. Human, bovine, and ovine bloodstains showed different profiles both in the cationic and anionic systems. These results indicate that isotachophoresis can be used for the rapid and simple analysis of bloodstains to differentiate reliably human male, female, and menstrual blood and also to distinguish human bloodstains from those of cattle or sheep.


This LibGuide is aimed at supporting student research on the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), which has had an enormous, but not comprehensive or undisputed, effect on the Catholic Church since it began to be implemented.


Network theory-based approaches provide valuable insights into the variations in global structural connectivity between different dynamical states of proteins. Our objective is to review network-based analyses to elucidate such variations, especially in the context of subtle conformational changes. We present technical details of the construction and analyses of protein structure networks, encompassing both the non-covalent connectivity and dynamics. We examine the selection of optimal criteria for connectivity based on the physical concept of percolation. We highlight the advantages of using side-chain-based network metrics in contrast to backbone measurements. As an illustrative example, we apply the described network approach to investigate the global conformational changes between the closed and partially open states of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. These conformational changes in the spike protein is crucial for coronavirus entry and fusion into human cells. Our analysis reveals global structural reorientations between the two states of the spike protein despite small changes between the two states at the backbone level. We also observe some differences at strategic locations in the structures, correlating with their functions, asserting the advantages of the side-chain network analysis. Finally, we present a view of allostery as a subtle synergistic-global change between the ligand and the receptor, the incorporation of which would enhance drug design strategies.


Admittedly, tourism is not merely aiming at encouraging the regional economy, but also preserving the surrounding environment and culture. In this context, the development of the homestay industry in tourist villages is essential. Homestay combines affordable lodging and authentic local cultural experiences and restores the Traditional Architecture of the Archipelago. Therefore, it is necessary to provide tax incentives as pull factors and economic, social, and political engineering to accelerate the development of the homestay industry in tourist villages. This study was conducted in Ubud, Bali's tourist village, employing a constructivist paradigm and collecting data through literature study, documentation study, FGD, and observation. This study concludes that a quintuple helix perspective is relevant to explain the urgency of providing tax incentives (to accelerate the homestay industry's development in tourist villages). Based on the quintuple helix perspective, as revealed by the study's finding, sustainable development is a primary goal. Thus, it is important to consider the longterm benefits of tax incentives comprehensively. Tax incentives shall certainly cause tax expenditure, either directly or subsequently, in a certain period. However, the lost potential of taxes shall be compensated through a multiplier effect in the form of not merely quantitative benefits, but also qualitative benefits such as cultural preservation, traditional architecture of the archipelago, local wisdom, and the achievement of sustainable development goals.


For college students, mindfulness may capture and promote innate strengths and abilities, and potentially improve student academic success, enhance university performance, and increase graduation rates. However, these practices may not be equally accessible based on geographic location and culture. The purpose of this exploratory, cross-sectional survey was to assess students' perceptions of, use and barriers to mindfulness practices. A total of 533 students enrolled in a public college located in rural North Carolina participated in an online study that examined the interest in contemplative practices and perceptions about potential benefits. Results of this survey indicated that the majority of respondents thought that practices associated with contemplative pedagogy were beneficial, and these students would like to have increased opportunity to engage in mindful practices while pursuing their studies.


Three species of marsupial frogs of the genus Gastrotheca are at the forefront of amphibian conservation concern in Argentina. Most of the data available on these amphibian species in the country are in the form of museum collections. In this study, we use the recent rediscovery of G. gracilis to test the applicability of a series of probabilistic methods and a trend analysis to analyse the sighting records in the marsupial frog species of Argentina, and to assess the probability that G. christinani and G. chrysosticta are still extant. The results suggest that the two marsupial frog species are still extant, but probably declining. Based on these results, we suggest as a precautionary measure to raise the actual conservation status of these marsupial frog species to Critically Endangered.


SINCE the initial description of torsion of the testis in an infant by Taylor 1 in 1897, a total of 22 cases have been reported in children under 24 hours of age. This is the first reported case of simultaneous bilateral torsion of the testis in a newborn infant. Report of Case The patient (BCH 2051884), a Negro male infant, weighing 3.8 kg (8 lb 5 oz) was the product of a full-term, uncomplicated pregnancy. He was delivered from the cephalic presentation with low forceps after a two-hour period of active labor. There were no signs of distress and no abnormalities were noted except for a diffusely enlarged and discolored scrotum. There was no bulge in the inguinal canals to suggest an inguinal hernia. The abdomen was not distended and the rectal examination was normal. The infant had a meconium stool at 10 hours of age. The scrotum was dark


The trucking industry faces a number of issues as it tries to meet growing demand for services. Trucking services are stifled by three factors: (1) strict enforcement of hours of service requirements which preclude carriers from meeting scheduled appointments; (2) over-the-road driver shortages; and (3) the absence of tort reform or federal preemption to trump nuclear judgments which reach upstream to shippers and brokers. However, rail may be an alternative for a growing number of commodities. This article examines the viability of rail services for the wine industry.


Abstract Allen, CR, Fu, Y-C, Cazas-Moreno, V, Valliant, MW, Gdovin, JR, Williams, CC, and Garner, JC. Effects of jaw clenching and jaw alignment mouthpiece use on force production during vertical jump and isometric clean pull. J Strength Cond Res 32(1): 237–243, 2018—This study examined the effects of jaw clenching, a self-adapted, jaw-repositioning mouthpiece on force production during maximum countermovement vertical jump and maximum isometric midthigh clean pull assessments in an attempt to determine any ergogenic effect attributable to clenching, jaw-repositioning mouthpiece use, or the combination of both. Thirty-six male subjects performed vertical jump and isometric clean pull assessments from a force platform under various mouthpiece and clench conditions. A 3 × 2 (mouthpiece × clench) repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to analyze each of the following force production variables for both assessments: peak force, normalized peak force, and rate of force development. In addition, jump height was analyzed for the vertical jump. Results revealed improvements in peak force (F1,35 = 15.84, p ⩽ 0.001, = 0.31), normalized peak force (F1,35 = 16.28, p ⩽ 0.001, = 0.32), and rate of force development (F1,35 = 12.89, p = 0.001, = 0.27) during the isometric clean pull assessment when participants maximally clenched their jaw, regardless of mouthpiece condition. There were no statistically significant differences in jump height, peak force, normalized peak force, or rate of force development during the vertical jump for any treatment condition. This study supports previous research demonstrating that the implementation of remote voluntary contractions such as jaw clenching can lead to concurrent activation potentiation and a resulting ergogenic effect during activities involving and requiring high-force production.


A carbon tax is a promising tool for discouraging the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. In principle, a well-designed tax could reduce the risk of climate change, minimize the cost of emissions reductions, encourage innovation in low-carbon technologies, and raise new public revenue. But designing a real-world carbon tax poses significant challenges. We analyze those challenges from a public finance perspective, emphasizing three tax policy design issues: setting the tax rate, collecting the tax, and using the resulting revenue. The benefits of a carbon tax will depend on how policymakers address those issues.


The mainlobe interference is a noticeable issue in the passive bistatic radar (PBR). Because the direction of arrival of interference is close to the target echo, the mainlobe interference can hardly be suppressed effectively by the conventional method. The mainlobe interference will mask the low-level targets of interest, and the blind area of detection will be formed in the direction of the interference source. The mainlobe interference signals, which come from the unrelated transmitters can be assumed to be mutually independent on the statistics. In this study, the method based on the independent component analysis (ICA) is proposed to suppress the mainlobe interference. The method exploits the principal components analysis to extract the mainlobe interference components which are whitened and compressed. Then, the ICA based on the negentropy is applied to separate the mainlobe interference components for the samples in the time domain. The mainlobe interference can be suppressed by the extensive cancellation algorithm with the separated interference sample as the reference. The proposed method based on the ICA is able to suppress the multiple mainlobe interferences and improve the performance of detection in the PBR. The simulation results prove the feasibility of the method proposed in this study.


Spearheads of the Sesklo type are among the characteristic products of Late Middle Helladic metalworking. As a transitional form between the early Bronze Age leaf-shaped points and the socketed spearheads of the late Bronze Age they are noteworthy on account of their being shoe-socketed, a means of mounting the spearhead that is limited to the Aegean. To the few known examples we can now add another, previously unrecognized specimen from the Erlangen Collection of Antiquities. It entered the collection in 1911 and allegedly originates from Epirus. Typologically this very well preserved specimen is very close to the items from Shaft Grave IV at Mycenae and from the tomb of Dramesi and with them it forms a discrete variant that is to be distinguished from the classical Sesklo type and may be regarded as a late development of that type.


Crusaders were not the only Europeans drawn to the Holy Land during the twelfth century. Many lay people and followers of religious orders made pilgrimages to the East to visit the holy sites, and many felt compelled to stay there, settling as monks or hermits in established monasteries or founding hermitages of their own. So widespread was the exodus that Bernard of Clairvaux spoke out against Cistercian monks who were "deserting the flock." The Perfection of Solitude is the first comprehensive study of the Latin monastic presence in the Holy Land at this time. Andrew Jotischky looks at the reasons why Latin monks were drawn to the Holy Land (building upon the work of historical geographer J. K. Wright) and what happened after they arrived there. Since very little is known about the history of western monastic settlement in the Holy Land, this book navigates mostly uncharted territory. Jotischky makes use of the recently discovered, but little exploited, writings of Gerard of Nazareth, whose collection of brief lives of twelfth-century Frankish hermits sheds new light on the nature of the Latin Church in the Crusader States. Jotischky's most important conclusions are that solitary and communal monastic practices overlapped each other in the East and that this was due in part to the influence of Eastern practice which was less structured than its counterpart in Europe.


Multiwire proportional chamber is a conventional technique to study radiation in general, and cosmic rays in particular. To study cosmic rays, it was planned, designed, constructed, characterized, and tested a four channel mini wire chamber, based on two 3 cm × 3 cm × 0.6 cm Aluminum frames, two 3 cm × 3 cm × 0.6 cm plastic frames, two 3 cm × 3 cm × 0.3 cm Aluminum frames, two electronic planes each with two Tungsten Gold plated 1 mil diameter wires, parallel and 1 cm apart each other at 25 g stretched -each plane was 90o rotated each other in the final assembleand two Aluminum foil window to define the gas volume; it was operated with Argon 90%-CH4 10% gas mixture at 1 atmosphere and ambient temperature (20oC in the average). It is presented technical details, results on characterization, and preliminary results on cosmic rays detection.


Abstract This paper compares the findings of two studies, conducted in 1998 and 2004, of academic staff in British universities. It examines the stability over time of working hours, specific work stressors and levels of psychological distress. Comparisons are also made between the levels of psychological distress currently reported by academic staff and those reported by other professional groups and the general population in the UK. Finally, the paper assesses the extent to which UK universities are meeting minimum health and safety at work standards for the management of job stressors. The findings indicate that: there has been little change in the levels of most stressors experienced over the six year period; the high levels of psychological distress found in the 1998 study are undiminished and exceed those of other professional groups and the population generally; the majority of the health and safety at work standards are not met. Possible implications of these findings for the quality of UK higher education are discussed.


This essay draws upon the author's performance script Fall and Walter Benjamin's The Arcades Project as a provocation for considering the ways performance texts provide a threshold for somatic inquiry, and for recognizing the limits of scholarly analysis that does not take up performance-as-inquiry. Set at the Empire State Building, this essay embodies the connections and missed possibilities between strangers and intimates in the context of urban modern life. Fall's protagonist is positioned within a landscape of capitalist exchange, but defies this matrix to offer instead a gift at the threshold of life/death, virtual/real, and love/loss. Through somatic inquiry and witnessing as threshold experiences, the protagonist (as Benjamin's flaneur) moves through urban space and time, proving that both scholarship and performance remain irrevocably embodied, and as such invariably tethered to the visceral, the stranger, risk, and death.


Over the past years the use of anonymization services has gained significant relevance as more users are interested in protecting their data and privacy on the internet. One of the most popular ways to achieve this result is Tor. The anonymity and untraceability that Tor provides, however, can also be used by ill-intentioned users who try to take advantage of bypassing security control and policies. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) mentions two methods of recognizing Tor traffic in the enterprise: indicator- or behavior-based analysis. The first one uses log analysis and lists of Tor exit nodes to identify the suspicious activity while the latter inspects patterns in TCP and UDP ports, DNS queries and inspecting the payload of the packets. In this paper, we propose a different approach using white-box machine learning models such as decision trees and Random Forest. On the one hand, our classifier achieves accuracy levels above 95%. On the other hand, our approach is the first one to allow understanding the importance of each traffic feature in the classification. Our results demonstrate that the TCP window size, the frame size and time related traffic features can be used to identify Tor traffic. In this paper we will describe a Machine Learning methodology used to identify Tor network traffic utilizing decision trees C5.0 and Random Forest. We followed a white-box approach and accomplished accuracy of over 95% in the prediction in both models. We also present an analysis of the importance of the top predictor variables.


The article considers the modern practice of urban innovation, based on the principles of biosphere compatibility. The project solution of providing organizational and technological reliability of construction from the point of view of the possibility of realizing the functions of a biosphere compatibility city and introducing innovative constructive and architectural and planning solutions is analyzed. In relation to the construction project, the formalization of the methodology for calculating the indicators of the biosphere compatibility of cities and settlements, the quantitative indicators of the implementation of the functions of the city are determined. The obtained results of numerical analysis of the realization of city functions can predict the development of urban areal, assess the comfort and safety of the urban environment from the standpoint of biosphere compatibility of construction objects in order to harmonize the characteristics of the life cycle of these projects with the characteristics of the microenvironment of their implementation. The basis of such tools is: multifactorial, multicomponent modeling and multicriterial selection of alternatives for building construction for projects, provided that the level of biosphere compatibility is used as the leading analytical coordinate of such simulation. These models, implemented in the format of modern construction, will serve as a basis for organizational and technological and environmental expertise of projects.


The target article proposes to use neural networks to model learning within existing grammatical frameworks. This is easier said than done. There is a fundamental gap to be bridged which does not receive attention in the article: how can we use neural networks to examine whether it is possible to learn some linguistic representation (a tree, for example), when, after learning is finished, we cannot even tell if this is the type of representation that has been learned (all we see is a sequence of numbers)? Drawing a correspondence between an abstract linguistic representational system and an opaque parameter vector which can (or perhaps cannot) be seen as an instance of such a representation is an implementational mapping problem. Rather than relying on existing frameworks that propose partial solutions to this problem, such as harmonic grammar, I suggest that fusional research of the kind proposed needs to directly address how to "find" linguistic representations in neural network representations.1


The idea to professionalize studies has gradually emerged as the best way to overcome youth unemployment across Europe. Amongst the different schemes developed from the '80s, internships appear to have been favoured by employers and have grown significantly. However the effective contribution these schemes are making to training is contested, while interns employment terms and condition are often denounced. The research presented in this paper explores and compares interns situations in six countries – France, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom – and put into perspectives the different demands raised by social actors in this particular field. It is based on a systematic collection of available statistical data, a comparative analysis of national legislation and a dozen of case studies conducted in the six countries. This research was founded by the European Commission DG employment and social affairs. Summary


In the contemporary technological era, the significance of marketing for educational institutions has experienced a significant surge. The effective execution of marketing tactics can aid in the recruitment of prospective students and concurrently elevate the standing of the institution. Marketing initiatives should be carried out prudently and in accordance with the technological progressions that occur. The objective of this study is to furnish insights for early childhood education institutions in formulating efficacious marketing tactics that align with contemporary demands. The primary emphasis of this investigation is on qualitative analysis. Methods for gathering information include paying close attention and taking detailed notes, with subsequent analysis including data reduction, visualisation, and conclusions. The results of this study show that to develop marketing strategies in the digital era, schools need to consider factors such as market characteristics and needs, the use of social media and online platforms, data security, the quality of educators, and the needs of students. Therefore, they should consider the needs and characteristics of the market and develop educational content that is relevant and appealing to prospective students and parents, which implies that by optimising technology and online platforms and considering the needs and characteristics of the market, schools can improve the reputation and quality of education offered and help increase parental and community involvement in promoting education.


Our peoples, Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples, have suffered global injustice as a genocide group. The ferocity and intensity of our colonisation was such that Raphael Lempkin used our experience to help define his 1940's neologism 'genocide' and the terms of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Curthoys 2005; Van Der Wilt et al. 2012). Although we are survivors of genocide, our continued existence as Indigenous peoples had not been guaranteed or enshrined within Australian legislation. A lack of certainty over our legislated existence has meant that the management of Tasmania's protected areas has been one of exclusion for our peoples. This has been particularly evident in our precious TWWHA country, the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The TWWHA country covers one-fifth of the Tasmanian land mass, or approximately 1.8 million hectares (DPIPWE 2014). In 1982, it was one of the first properties to be listed as a mixed natural-cultural WHA. This culturally rich country fulfils seven of the WHA criteria and is only matched by Mt Taishan in China as possessing the most numerous Outstanding Universal Values (OUVs) (Lee 2015).


AIM
We analysed one-year refractive results and the incidence of complications in patients with correction of low-to-high myopia or myopic astigmatism by femtosecond laser in situ keratomileusis (FS-LASIK) using femtosecond laser LenSx® (Alcon, Fort Worth, Texas, USA) a excimer laser Excimer Amaris 500 (Schwind eye-tech-solutions GmbH and Co KG, Kleinostheim, Germany).

METHODS
To the retrospective study were included 171 eyes of 87 patients (38 men, 49 women) who underwent correction of myopia and myopic astigmatism by FS-LASIK in the outpatient Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital in Hradec Králové between 2013-2017. We assessed uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), subjective refraction, central corneal thickness (CCT) in the thinnest point, patients satisfaction and the incidence of complications in the one-year follow-up period.

RESULTS
At the time of laser procedure the mean patients age was 29,26 ± 6,47 years (range 18 to 46 years). In 21 eyes was corrected myopia (range -6,5 to -2,5 D sph) and in 150 eyes myopic astigmatism (range -8,75 to -0,25 D sph and -3,0 to -0,25 D cyl). The mean preoperative UCVA 0,06 ± 0,08 (range 0,02 to 0,8) got better to 1,12 ± 0,17 (range 0,8 to 1,5) at the end of follow-up period. There wasnt statistically significant change in BCVA between preoperative and postoperative values. Preoperative mean value of subjective refraction was -4,14 ± 1,43 D sph (range -8,5 to -1 D sph) and -0,57 ± 0,58 D cyl (range -3 to 0 D cyl) and after 12 months -0,02 ± 0,16 D sph (range -0,1 to 0,75 D sph) and -0,01 ± 0,1 D cyl (range -0,5 to 0,5 D cyl). The initial mean CCT was 554,76 ± 30,07 μm (range 485 to 660 μm), after 6 months 494,06 ± 34,99 μm (range 421 to 594 μm) and after 12 months 492,92 ± 34,55 μm (range 411 to 592 μm). We observed peroperative complications in 3 eyes. The suction loss of femtosecond laser occurred during flap creation due to sudden eye movement. Postoperatively in one case we enrolled flap pucker first postoperative day. In other case flap dislocation occurred after abdonimal surgery under general anesthesia which was performed 3 months after refractive procedure and we had to indicate flap reposition. The mean grade of patients satisfaction was at the end of follow-up period 1,04. The most often complaints were the sensation of dry eye (10 patients) and blurry vision during computer working, inadequate lighting and fatique (6 pacients).

CONCLUSIONS
According to our experience correction of low-to-high myopia or myopic astigmatism by using FS-LASIK is an effective, relatively safe and predictable method. The basic assumption of good postoperative results and patients satisfaction is thorough and comprehensive preoperative examination with respect to indication criteria.


The initial value representation IVR of semiclassical SC theory is used in conjunction with the Meyer-Miller/Stock-Thoss description of electronic degrees of freedom in order to treat electronically nonadiabatic processes. It is emphasized that the classical equations of motion for the nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom that emerge in this description are precisely the Ehrenfest equations of motion the force on the nuclei is the force averaged over the electronic wave function but that the trajectories given by these equations of motion do not have the usual shortcomings of the traditional Ehrenfest model when they are used within the SC-IVR framework. For example, in the traditional Ehrenfest model a mixed quantum-classical approach the nuclear motion emerges from a nonadiabatic encounter on an average potential energy surface a weighted average according to the population in the various electronic states, while the SC-IVR describes the correct correlation between electronic and nuclear dynamics, i.e., the nuclear motion is on one potential energy surface or the other depending on the electronic state. Calculations using forward-backward versions of SC-IVR theory are presented to illustrate this behavior. An even more approximate version of the SC-IVR, the linearized approximation LSC-IVR, is slightly better than the traditional Ehrenfest model, but since it cannot describe quantum coherence effects, the LSC-IVR is also not able to describe the correct correlation between nuclear and electronic dynamics. © 2007 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2759932


Within the fast growing era of the internet and distributed systems, a need presented itself to establish a virtual platform where you can perform all your tasks and computations without incurring all the costs associated with building an infrastructure, maintaining it and at the end having to upgrade it in order not to lose your competitive advantage. That need was translated into a scheme called "Cloud Computing". As the case with any cut of the edge technology, there are people who support the trend and others who oppose it; usually for good reasons. The main concern for adopting cloud computing in a wide scale implementation is the security and privacy issues that can be viewed as residual risks associated with the cloud. In this research paper, we are going to present these security and privacy setbacks and explain how they can tremendously affect the shift to the cloud computing scheme. Another pillar in our research is how to mitigate these risks by addressing the cause/result of each one of them to hinder their ability to limit the scope of adoption for the cloud.


the utilization and the quality of public transport are important for the customers, maintainers and service providers. Passive measurement techniques, when humans are not involved are the cheapest way for collecting large amounts of long-term data from multiple public transport lines. useful data can be collected from various sources, such as from cameras, infrared sensors and Wi-fi routers. We addressed the problems of estimating passenger counts in two different ways, and also to get travel statistics like the number of passengers getting on or off a vehicle at a bus stop; and even to compute an origin– destination matrix from Wi-fi monitoring data. in this study, we focus on Wi-fi data, which can be still useful for extracting relevant data after many years. here we describe Wi-fi data collection methods, and then prove the usefulness of applying simple artificial intelligence-based methods to extract information from the huge amount of Wi-fi data. We will also show that 'lower-level re-estimation' can be useful for further optimization, which means that globally modelled data may have to be re-modelled on partially selected groups to get better results. namely, after building linear models and estimating absolute and relative errors, we found that the relative error of the Wi-fi-based estimation can be markedly reduced if data are processed and analysed in more detail. When a daily Wi-fi analysis is split into between-stops parts, an additive linear correction can be computed and applied to these parts, and as a result, the relative error of estimates can be reduced.


In this paper we derive conditions on the internal wear process under which the resulting time to failure model will be of the simple collapsible form when the usage accumulation history is available. We suppose that failure occurs when internal wear crosses a certain threshold or a traumatic event causes the item to fail. We model the infinitesimal increment in internal wear as a function of time, accumulated internal wear, and usage history, and we derive conditions on this function to get a collapsible model for the distribution of time to failure given the usage history. We reach the conclusion that collapsible models form the subset of accelerated failure time models with time-varying covariates for which the time transformation function satisfies certain simple properties.


We demonstrate a tunable transmitter, integrating a hybrid III-V/Si laser fabricated by wafer bonding and a silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator. The integrated transmitter exhibits 9 nm wavelength tunability by heating an intra-cavity ring resonator, high extinction ratio from 6 to 10 dB, and excellent bit-error-rate performance at 10 Gb/s.


Introduction Adolescent pregnancy represents a serious public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa, and stigmatising attitudes are contributing factors. This study investigates stigmatising attitudes related to adolescent pregnancy, abortion and contraceptive use among healthcare providers working with postabortion care (PAC) in a low-resource setting in Kenya. Methods A mixed methods approach in a convergent design was utilised to capture attitudes related to abortion and contraceptive use among 86 (f=62; m=19) PAC providers in Kisumu, Kenya. Two Likert-scale questionnaires were used: the 18-item Stigmatising Attitudes, Beliefs and Actions Scale (SABAS) and the 7-item Contraceptive Use Stigma Scale (CUSS). 74 PAC providers responded to the SABAS, 44 to the CUSS and 12 participated in two focus group discussions. Descriptive statistics, psychometric tests of instruments and qualitative content analysis were conducted and reported in accordance with Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research. Results Cronbach's α coefficients for the total instrument was 0.88 (SABAS) and 0.84 (CUSS). The majority, 92% (68/74) agreed that a woman who has had an abortion should be treated equally to everyone else, 27% (20/74) considered abortion a sin and 30% (22/74) believed she will make abortion a habit. Contraceptive use among adolescent women was associated with promiscuity (39%; 17/44), hence contraceptives should only be available to married women (36%; 16/44), and 20% (9/44) believed that contraceptive use causes infertility. The providers encouraged women's autonomy and their rights to sexual and reproductive health; however, unclear regulations reinforce religious and cultural beliefs, which hampers implementation of evidence-based contraceptive counselling. Conclusion Stigmatising attitudes towards young women in need of abortion and contraception is common among PAC providers. Their work is characterised by a conflict between human rights and societal norms, thus highlighting the need for interventions targeting PAC providers to reduce stigma and misconceptions related to abortion and contraception among adolescent women.


Secondary thickening in pteridophytes.-The known cases of secondary thickening in recent Pteridophyta have been brought together by HILL23 in a useful resume. After stating the criteria for secondary growth, Botrychium, which has a distinct cambium, and Ophioglossum, which lacks a definite layer, are described, followed by Angiopteris and Marattia, in which a cambium forms a few xylem elements. CORMACK'S observations on the secondary wood in the nodes of Equisetum are cited, though no reference is made to the cambium in the young cone as reported by J]FFREY.24 The other cases of secondary growth include Psilotum, Selaginella spinulosa, and several species of Isoetes, especially I. hystrix, which may show a cambium outside the vascular cylinder.-M. A.


Human purchasing behavior is affected by many influential factors. Culture at macro-level and personality at micro-level influence consumer purchasing behavior. People of different cultures tend to accept the values of their own group and consequently have different purchasing behavior. Also, people in the same culture have some differences in their purchases which can be described by their personal characteristics. Therefore, this paper studies Uncertainty Avoidance dimension of Hofstede culture model in consumer behavior as well as four personality traits. The consumer model includes three important module including perception, evaluation of the alternatives and post-purchase. Our experimental results show that people of high uncertainty avoidance tend to purchase the high quality products as well as famous brands to reduce the risk of their purchases. On the other hand, people in high uncertainty tolerant culture tend to purchase the new products. The paper discusses about the validity of the proposed model based on empirical data


Given a finite set of m scenarios, computing a portfolio with the minimum value-at-risk (VaR) is computationally difficult: the portfolio VaR function is nonconvex, nonsmooth and has many local minimums. Instead of formulating an n-asset optimal VaR portfolio problem as minimizing a loss quantile function to determine the asset holding vector Rn, we consider it as a minimization problem in an augmented space Rn, with a linear objective function under a probability constraint.We then propose a new gradual nonconvexification penalty method, aiming to reach a global minimum of nonconvex minimization under the probability constraint. A continuously differentiable piecewise quadratic function is used to approximate step functions, the sum of which defines the probabilistic constraint. In an attempt to reach the global minimizer, we solve a sequence of minimization problems indexed by a parameter pk > 0, where -pk is the minimum curvature for the probability constraint approximation. As the indexing parameter increases, the approximation function for the probabilistic inequality constraint becomes more nonconvex. Furthermore, the solution of the kth optimization problem is used as the starting point of the .kC1/th problem. Our new method has three advantages. First, it is structurally simple. Second, it is efficient, since each function evaluation requires O.m/ arithmetic operations. Third, a gradual nonconvexification process is designed to track the global minimum. Both historical and synthetic data are used to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed VaR minimization method. We compare our method with the quantile-based smoothed VaR method of Gaivoronski and Pflug in terms of VaR, CPU time and efficient frontiers.We show that our gradual nonconvexification penalty method yields a better minimal VaR portfolio. We show that the proposed method is computationally much more efficient, especially when the number of scenarios is large.


Background—Reappearance of low-frequency (LF) (±0.10 Hz) oscillations in RR interval (RR) after cardiac transplantation is indicative of sympathetic efferent reinnervation. We hypothesized that restored LF oscillations in RR in heart transplant recipients (HTRs) are linked to oscillations in muscle sympathetic nerve traffic (MSNA). Methods and Results—RR, RR variability, and MSNA were recorded 5±2 months (n=7, short-term HTRs) and 138±8 months (n=7, long-term HTRs) after heart transplantation and compared with matched hypertensive patients (n=7). A coherence function determined the coupling between LF oscillations in MSNA and RR. RR variance did not differ between short-term and long-term HTRs. However, LF variability was only 1±0.5 ms2 in the short-term HTRs but was 15±8 ms2 in the long-term HTRs (P <0.05). Normalized LF variability was also higher in the long-term HTRs (40±14 normalized unites) versus the short-term HTRs (6±3 normalized united, P <0.05) but did not differ from the LF variability of the hypertensive patients. Long-term HTRs were taking less cyclosporine (P <0.01) but had higher MSNA than the short-term HTRs (62±7 versus 31±7 burst/min, respectively, P <0.05). Coherence between LF oscillations in MSNA and RR was similar in the long-term HTRs (0.59±0.11) and the hypertensive patients (0.60±0.07) and was 3-fold greater than in the short-term HTRs (0.20±0.06, P <0.05). Conclusions—Cardiac reinnervation after long-term heart transplantation is characterized by a restoration of the coherence between LF oscillations in RR and MSNA. Higher MSNA in long-term than in short-term HTRs suggests that time elapsed after cardiac transplantation may be a major determinant of sympathetic excitation in heart transplant recipients.


A solid can be regarded as a set of contiguous elementary units. The distribution within the solid of any properties, measurable within each elementary unit, can be characterized using two parameters. These parameters are built using the constitution and distribution heterogeneities of P. Gy (1982, 1988). The former account for the granularity of the elementary units, whereas the latter assess the spatial distribution of the property. A texture which definition involves several properties can be described using a diagram where both parameters work as variables. Potential applications encompass: (i) the textural classification of soils, ore, breccia and concrete and (ii) the monitoring of textural transformation during process like dolomitization, metamorphism, weathering, deformation or annealing.


Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the hydrodistilled essential oils from aerial parts and roots of Aster subulatus Michx. (Asteraceae) from Turkey were investigated. The essential oils of A. subulatus were analyzed by combination of GC-FID and GC-MS. Twenty-nine components comprising 79.0% of the essential oil of the roots and forty-nine components comprising 89.3% of the essential oil of the aerial parts were identified. The major constituents of the essential oil from the aerial parts were found to be elemol (21.5%), β-eudesmol (6.3%) and caryophyllene oxide (5.2%), while the main components of the root oil were hexadecanoic (33.0%), tetradecanoic (5.3%) and octanoic (4.6%) acids. The antimicrobial activities of the oils were tested against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans using a TLC-bioautography method. Both of the oils showed inhibitory activity against S. aureus and C. albicans, while the oils were found to be inactive against tested E. coli strain at 1 mg/mL concentration. This is the first report on the chemical composition and preliminary antimicrobial activity of the essential oils of A. subulatus from Turkey.


This work investigates the new problem of image-based egocentric shopping cart localization in retail stores. The contribution of our work is two-fold. First, we propose a novel large-scale dataset for image-based egocentric shopping cart localization. The dataset has been collected using cameras placed on shopping carts in a large retail store. It contains a total of 19,531 image frames, each labelled with its six Degrees Of Freedom pose. We study the localization problem by analysing how cart locations should be represented and estimated, and how to assess the localization results. Second, we benchmark different image-based techniques to address the task. Specifically, we investigate two families of algorithms: classic methods based on image retrieval and emerging methods based on regression. Experimental results show that methods based on image retrieval largely outperform regression-based approaches. We also point out that deep metric learning techniques allow to learn better visual representations w.r.t. other architectures, and are useful to improve the localization results of both retrieval-based and regression-based approaches. Our findings suggest that deep metric learning techniques can help bridge the gap between retrieval-based and regression-based methods.


e18210 Background: Although many studies have investigated the association of blood 25OH-vitamin D (vit-D) levels with breast cancer prognosis, the results have been mixed. It has been suggested that low vit-D concentrations were associated with advanced tumor stage and triple-negative (TNBC) subtype. We retrospectively investigated associations of serum vit-D levels with triple negative breast cancer outcome. Methods: Out of 797 cases of TNBC diagnosed at William Beaumont Hospital between 2006-2017, 163 patients had vit-D level available within 1 year prior to diagnosis. Analyses of vit-D levels was classified by 3 cut points (deficient, < 20.0 ng/mL; insufficient, 20.0-29.9 ng/mL; sufficient, ≥30.0 ng/mL). Primary outcomes are disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). SPSS statistics 25 software was used to analyze the data. Results: Median age of diagnosis of TNBC was 60. Of these patients 43.6% were diagnosed with stage I, 37.4% at stage II, 4.9% at stage III and 4.9% at stage IV. 47.2% of the patients had sufficient vit-D level prior to diagnosis, 28.2% with insufficient vit-D level and 24.5% with deficient vit-D. Vit-D deficiency was more prevalent in premenopausal than in postmenopausal women (33.3%, 41% and 25.6% in premenopausal women for deficient, insufficient and sufficient levels respectively vs 21.8%, 24.2% and 54% in postmenopausal women). Rates of Vit-D deficiency were not different between early disease and advanced disease (24.3% of patient with stage I-II vs 25% in patients with stage III-IV). Median OS and disease-free survival were not statistically different among the 3 different categories. 5-year OS was 91%, 91% and 85% for deficient, insufficient and sufficient levels respectively. 5-year DFS was 93%, 95% and 95% for deficient, insufficient and sufficient levels respectively. Multivariate COX regression analysis demonstrated that age and stage were associated with mortality, whereas vit-D level was not. Conclusions: The results from this study show that adequate vit-D level do not have an impact on OS and DFS in patients with triple negative breast cancer. Premenopausal women are more likely to have inadequate vit-D level. Identification and treatment of vitamin D deficiency is still important for musculoskeletal health and possibly extraskeletal health in general population and breast cancer survivors specifically.


Diamond and diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films possess a number of unique and attractive material properties that are unattainable from Si and other materials. These include high values of Young's modulus, hardness, tensile strength and high thermal conductivity, low thermal expansion coefficient combined with low coefficients of friction and good wear resistance. As a consequence, they are finding increasing applications in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). This paper reviews these distinctive material properties from an engineering design point of view and highlights the applications of diamond and DLC materials in various MEMS devices. Applications of diamond and DLC films in MEMS are in two categories: surface coatings and structural materials. Thin diamond and DLC layers have been used as coatings mainly to improve the wear and friction of micro-components and to reduce stiction between microstructures and their substrates. The high values of the elastic modulus of diamond and DLC have been exploited in the design of high frequency resonators and comb-drives for communication and sensing applications. Chemically modified surfaces and structures of diamond and DLC films have both been utilized as sensor materials for sensing traces of gases, to detect bio-molecules for biological research and disease diagnosis.


Bilateral communication between bone and nerves is crucial for optimal repair of large bone defects as well as repair of peripheral nerves within the skeleton. However, simultaneous regeneration of bone and nerves is an issue that has long been overlooked in prior literature. Incongruous or even contradictory requirements or regeneration environments for bone and nerves make simultaneous regeneration of multiple tissues challenging. The present review commences with introducing natural crosstalk between bone and nerves, highlighting the rationale for simultaneous regeneration of bone and nerves. These issues will pave the way for the development of inspirational materials design concepts that capitalize on the principles of osteoconduction, osteoinduction, neuroconduction, neuroinduction, and neuroattraction. Potential strategies based on selection of appropriate scaffolds, acellular biological factors and architectural design will be addressed.


The World Bank's Community Empowerment and Local Governance Project (CEP) was the key donor programme to assist with community reconstruction in a newly independent Timor-Leste. Commencing in 2000, the US$18 million project provided funds to over 400 local development councils that had been newly created to meet their community's development needs. Rather than creating genuine participatory structures, tight deadlines to disburse project funds and bureaucratic project rules reduced the councils to little more than transmission lines to Bank-controlled dollars. By bypassing existing governance structures, including that of the fledging government, the councils also bypassed sources of local legitimacy and technical knowledge, which resulted in community conflict, indifference, and poor project sustainability. The CEP's poorly administered microcredit scheme led to a proliferation of unviable kiosks—underlining the folly of hastily attempting to construct a market economy on a deeply scarred subsistence economy.


In this paper the Coherent Ray Tracing SAR Simulator (CohRaSS) developed at Fraunhofer IOSB is described. While there exists a version of CohRaSS that is custom-tailored to the creation of many images of small scenes e.g. for automatic classification purposes, the focus of this paper is set on the creation of simulated SAR images of large scenes for urban scene analysis. The computational challenges encountered in the processing of large amounts of data are discussed as well as some ways to overcome them that have been included in the version of CohRaSS designed for the simulation of large scenes at very high resolutions. Examples of simulated urban scenes are shown that are representative for the applications this simulator was developed for.


Four kinds of the welding tools made of PCBN, W, WC and Al2O3 were applied to FSW of 304 stainless steel, and then the wear and reaction between the tool debris and the steel matrix were examined for each tool material. Severe tool damage was found in W, WC and Al2O3 tools after FSW, while the PCBN tool was hardly worn. Formations of Cr-rich borides, ferrite phases containing the high W contents and Cr-rich carbides were found in the stir zones produced using PCBN, W and WC tools, respectively. It was suggested that formation of those phases could be expected by calculation using the thermochemical database.


In this article, we will introduce you to measurements for power transistor characterization: why they matter, why they are such a complicated, highly specialized field, and where we think the technology of power transistor characterization is headed. The characterization of microwave power transistors is an important and emerging field with many interesting engineering challenges. One can basically distinguish two areas: model extraction measurements and model validation measurements. To make things simple, isothermal pulsed-bias pulsed S-parameter measurements are typically used for model extraction purposes and load-pull measurements are typically used for model validation purposes. Both areas are rapidly evolving in order to keep track of new power transistor technology. The main issue with pulsed-bias pulsed S-parameter characterization is the need to apply pulses with ever-increasing amplitude (up to 200 V and 10 A) and ever-decreasing pulse width (smaller than 400 ns). The load-pull measurements can be done with a variety of setups, with active or passive approaches, and with or without handling harmonic frequencies. The challenges of load-pull system development are to offer time-domain voltage and current waveforms at the transistor terminals-an invaluable tool to provide insight in highly nonlinear transistor behavior-in addition to the capability to present low input impedances (1 Omega) and to handle high power levels (up to 100 W).


Historical specimens of Liagoraceae (Rhodophyta) collected by Eugene Vieillard from New Caledonia in the 1850s and housed in the Leiden herbarium have been examined and their identities clarified. Included are: Liagora ceranoides, L. maderensis (a new record for New Caledonia), Ganonema farinosum, Ganonema filicoides (Kutzing) comb. nov., and Yamadaella caenomyce. Type material of two species, Liagora tomentosa Kutzing and Nemalion filicoides Kutzing, is present. The former is shown to be a heterotypic synonym of Ganonema farinosum (Lamouroux) Fan et Wang. The latter is incorrectly placed in Nemalion and displays the cortical structure and reproductive development of Ganonema. Thus, the combination Ganomema filicoides (Kutzing) Huisman et Millar is proposed. Ganonema filicoides is similar, if not identical, to the later named Ganonema samaense (Tseng) Huisman.


This paper aims at breaking new ground in modeling and estimation of recording noise of surveillance video for further development of new techniques to restore video images. In order to tackle the video denoising problem with non-stationary image contents and various noise sources, a critical task is estimation of varieties of noise in video signals. The estimation is based on a new general integrated surveillance video noise model (GISVNM), which integrates all typical realistic noise models, including signal independent noise model and signal dependent model to model behaviors of Poisson, additive and impulse noises. In particular, the parameters of the Poison and Gaussian based noise models are estimated by using spatial-temporal noise characteristics of the static background of surveillance video, and the parameters of the impulse model are estimated by geometric properties based on spatial characteristics of the video. The experiments showed promising results obtained using the proposed techniques.


Previous studies have shown that the activity of human red cell catechol-O-methyltransferase (RBC COMT) is significantly correlated in sibs, that the population distribution is bimodal, and that RBC COMT from individuals with low activity is more thermolabile than that from individuals with high activity.

These observations and additional data from family studies are consistent with the hypothesis that RBC COMT activity is controlled by two alleles at an autosomal locus [Weinshilboum and Raymond, 1977], giving rise to genotypes with different but overlapping activity distributions.

In the present study, this hypothesis has been explored with various types of analyses. Given the assumption of Hardy-Weinberg genotype frequencies, we find that the population distribution of RBC COMT activity is explained much better by codominant or "intermediate" inheritance than by either dominant or recessive inheritance.

The intermediate genetic model has also been used to analyze the data of Scanlon et al [1979] on thermal inactivation of RBC COMT in a random sample of blood donors. Hypothesis tests based on this analysis confirm the conclusion of Scanlon et al that individuals with different COMT genotypes differ in the thermostability of their RBC COMT.

Using the RBC COMT activities of low-activity probands and their parents, we have derived the expected distribution of activity among the proband's sibs on the assumption of three genotypes in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the population. The fit of this expected distribution to that observed is excellent, supporting the genetic model.


Intrusion detection systems rely on a wide variety of observable data to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate activities. We study one such observable-sequences of system calls into the kernel of an operating system. Using system-call data sets generated by several different programs, we compare the ability of different data modeling methods to represent normal behavior accurately and to recognize intrusions. We compare the following methods: simple enumeration of observed sequences; comparison of relative frequencies of different sequences; a rule induction technique; and hidden Markov models (HMMs). We discuss the factors affecting the performance of each method and conclude that for this particular problem, weaker methods than HMMs are likely sufficient.


Lasers: We have created lasers with operating properties that we never would have dreamed of when the technology was invented 50 years ago.


Dispersions of colloidal particles of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were obtained by nanosecond laser ablation. Aqueous suspensions of micron-sized crystals were irradiated with the second harmonic output of a Nd:YAG laser and converted into colloidal particles. Ionic and nonionic surfactants were used in the ablation process to stabilise the particles. Dispersions with good long term stability were obtained. A strong dependence of particle formation rate on laser fluence was found and the particle formation process is discussed on the basis of UV-Vis spectra and microscopic examination of the crystals.


BACKGROUND
There is an increasing prevalence of physical inactivity during childhood, concurrent with a rise in obesity rates, which is associated with a variety of health problems. However, the extent to which increased body mass index (BMI) influences acute physical activity (PA) benefits on cognition in childhood remains unknown. The aim of this study was to examine whether BMI influences the effects of acute PA on inhibitory control task performance.

METHODS
In a sample of 116 children pooled from four prior studies (ages 8-11; 51 females), demographic measures of age, sex, IQ, socioeconomic status, and aerobic fitness were considered along with BMI. Children participated in a counterbalanced, randomized crossover study, whereby they completed two different interventions; 20 minutes of treadmill walking (60-70% heart rate max) and restful reading (non-exercise control). Following each intervention, children performed a modified flanker task that manipulates inhibitory control demands. Correlations were conducted to determine the influence of demographic variables, fitness, and BMI on inhibitory control following each intervention. Subsequent hierarchical regression analyses were performed with significant demographic factors in the first step, aerobic fitness in the second step when significant, and BMI in the final step.

RESULTS
Analyses indicated that children exhibited improved task performance (p's ≤ 0.001) and decreased interference (p = 0.04) following the walking intervention compared to the restful reading control condition, indicating greater benefits following acute PA across task condition, with selectively greater benefits for the task condition requiring greater inhibitory control. Regression analyses revealed that greater BMI was related to decreased performance following acute PA (p = 0.001); an association not observed following restful reading (p's ≥ 0.11). These results suggest that BMI negatively influences the effect of acute exercise on performance.

CONCLUSION
Confirming previous studies, these findings indicate beneficial effects of acute PA on a flanker task that modulates inhibitory control requirements, but the effects are significantly greater for task conditions requiring greater amounts of inhibitory control. Further, these beneficial effects of PA appear to be blunted in children with higher BMI. These findings suggest that the acute benefits of PA on cognition may not be fully realized in children with higher BMI.


The mechanism by which ethanol induces β-endorphin (β-EP) neuronal death during the developmental period was determined using fetal rat hypothalamic cells in primary cultures. The addition of ethanol to hypothalamic cell cultures stimulated apoptotic cell death of β-EP neurons by increasing caspase-3 activity. Ethanol lowered the levels of adenylyl cyclase (AC)7 mRNA, AC8 mRNA, and/or cAMP in hypothalamic cells, whereas a cAMP analog blocked the apoptotic action of ethanol on β-EP neurons. The AC inhibitor dideoxyadenosine (DDA) increased cell apoptosis and reduced the number of β-EP neurons, and it potentiated the apoptotic action of ethanol on these neurons. β-EP neurons in hypothalamic cultures showed immunoreactivity to transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) protein. Ethanol and DDA increased TGF-β1 production and/or release from hypothalamic cells. A cAMP analog blocked the activation by ethanol of TGF-β1 in these cells. TGF-β1 increased apoptosis of β-EP neurons, but it did not potentiate the action of ethanol or DDA actions on these neurons. TGF-β1 neutralizing antibody blocked the apoptotic action of ethanol on β-EP neurons. Determination of TGF-β1-controlled cell apoptosis regulatory gene levels in hypothalamic cell cultures and in isolated β-EP neurons indicated that ethanol, TGF-β1, and DDA similarly alter the expression of these genes in these cells. These data suggest that ethanol increases β-EP neuronal death during the developmental period by cellular mechanisms involving, at least partly, the suppression of cAMP production and activation of TGF-β1-linked apoptotic signaling.


The tax rules governing newly legalized marijuana in Washington and Colorado are described and evaluated here, with particular attention to revenue estimates and likely federal reaction. Washington imposes three tiers of cascading 25-percent taxes.Colorado caps excise taxes at 15 percent until 2017. Any percentage-based excise tax as well as any additional taxes will require voter approval, which cannot come before next November. The relatively weak revenue rules of failed 2012 legalization proposals in Oregon and California are also discussed.


This paper presents research conducted with a unique college level course called "The Art and Math of Origami". As the title suggests, this course teaches about the art of paper folding while integrating mathematical concepts. Data collected over a seven year period is presented illustrating the impact Origami can have on spatial ability, a mathematical skill linked to geometry and with ties to careers such as architecture and engineering. The most current year's research also shows potential benefits related to students behaviors including creativity and attitude. Results, as a whole, are promising illustrating that Origami itself has an inherent connection to mathematics and can benefit those that practice it.


The Petroglyphs and Pictographs of Missouri. CAROL DIAZ-GRANADOS and JAMER R. DUNCAN. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 2000. 331 pp., 21 figs., 20 charts, 47 maps, 32 plates, 12 tables, 3 appendices, biblio., index. $34.95 (paper), ISBN 08173-0988-8. Reviewed by Joseph C. Douglas This book, a small, brown volume issued by the University of Alabama Press in 2000, languished for years at the bottom of the stack of books in the book review editor's office, and then for months more on this reviewer's desk. This lack of attention should perhaps comes as no surprise, as archaeologists, historians, and cultural resource managers have, with a few notable exceptions, devoted little serious research to the (unfortunately named) field of rock art, especially in the eastern United States. This is regrettable, as the study of anthropogenic markings on rock, whether in open air, rocksheiter, or deep cave sites, offers an important window into the ideology, iconography, and technology of prehistoric (and historic) societies in the Southeast, ranging from (at least) the late Archaic period well into the twentieth century. It is especially lamentable in this case, as this book by Carol DiazGranados and James R. Duncan, which grew out of Diaz-Granados dissertation, offers a solid model for the recordation, analysis, and interpretation of an important category of artifact. Focusing on the prehistoric rock art of Missouri, this survey is comprehensive, and it sets a high standard for both the identification of styles and for the interpretation of specific motifs and combination of motifs (called panels). It also points the way for establishing temporal parameters for parietal art through direct radiocarbon dating, an innovation in the study of eastern sites which has subsequently been expanded upon in more recent works by the authors as well as other researchers in the region. The authors begin their study by clearly laying out the terrain of the field. After first introducing the terminology they employ, they note previous investigations of rock art in the region and their relevance to the current research. Then they discuss the natural environment of Missouri, including its geology, fauna, and flora, especially emphasizing the patchwork pattern of open glades intermixed with forests. A lengthy section follows where Diaz-Granados and Duncan delineate their methodology for site inventory and investigation, beginning with locating reports of rock art in the Missouri state archeological records and from knowledgeable private individuals. Once a potential site was discovered, fieldwork included locating the reported site and documenting its content, media, and spatial relationships utilizing photographs, drawings, and copious notes. The context of the site was always carefully noted, including macro and micro-environments, orientation, elevation, and the presence of any surface (as opposed to parietal) artifacts or material. A search for satellite sites was also conducted, which often proved successful. After recordation was complete, which sometimes took several research trips, the state site files were updated and the authors processed the photographs, drawings, and any related artifacts in the lab. By moving beyond description and emphasizing the physical context of rock art, the authors ground their analysis in place, which itself was an important consideration for the creators of prehistoric markings. By dividing the physical environment into four categories, of caves and shelters, glades with outcrops, river and creek sites, and spring sites, patterning emerges. On a smaller scale, the specific location chosen by the artists and the spatial relationships within the sites show connections between motifs and environment (such as concentric circles and water), and it demonstrates that what we today might consider an "ideal" location was not necessarily true for the artist at the time. This contextual approach provides an important corrective for a field that previously tended to be both physically and theoretically disconnected from the landscape. …


A criminal act must be proved by legal reasons, but in addition to the necessity of legality of the reasons, the ways for obtaining the reason should not be in violation of the law. In Iran's criminal code, there are relatively detailed rules on the grounds reasons to prove crime and legal grounds for their probative powers but there is no systematic approach to obtaining reason in Iran's penal code and this leads to a difference in the value of the evidence obtained in contravention of the law. The new Criminal Procedure Code stipulates new rules on the value of evidence obtained in illegal ways. For this reason, the present thesis deals with research and study on the evaluation of evidence obtained in contravention of law and in this regard, we have investigated the declarative reasons (confessions, testimonies, oaths and testimonies) and acquiring reasons(inspections and tricky police actions) obtained through illegal means and this is the result of the fact that the  declarative evidence obtained in a way contrary to the law has not legal value But there is no ban on tricky police actions in Iranian criminal law and the Iranian law's stance on unlawful inspections is ambiguous.


Introduction The purpose of this study was to analyze 2003 Mississippi Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data to describe the health of Mississippians with arthritis or chronic joint pain. For this study, we made statistical estimates of the extent of arthritis burden among the respondents and delineated measurable differences in sociodemographic factors, health status, and the prevalence of associated risk factors. Our findings compare health-related quality of life, physical activity, and key demographic characteristics and obesity rates, controlling for differences among the subgroups by age, sex, educational attainment, income, and race/ethnicity. Methods Respondents to Mississippi's 2003 BRFSS were assigned to 1 of 5 distinct and mutually exclusive subgroups: 1) those with intermittent joint symptoms (IJS), 2) those with chronic joint symptoms (CJS), 3) those with doctor-diagnosed arthritis without CJS (DDA − CJS), 4) those with doctor-diagnosed arthritis with chronic joint symptoms (DDA + CJS), and 5) those with no joint symptoms (NJS). To determine the prevalence of arthritis and the continuum of disease progression, we compared the health-related quality of life, physical activity, and obesity of the respondents. Results Respondents with DDA + CJS were older than those with NJS (mean age, 57.1 years vs 38.7 years); they were more likely to be female (60.5% vs 51.7%), to have a high school diploma or less education (59.3% vs 45.4%), to be in fair to poor health (odds ratio [OR], 10.0), to be physically inactive (OR, 2.7), and to be overweight or obese (OR, 2.5). Conclusion Health status, physical disability, and weight control may be substantially improved through heightened levels of physical activity. However, in spite of the potential for marked improvement, adult Mississippians, especially those clients with DDA + CJS, remain reluctant to commit to exercise regimens. Findings from this study suggest a need to encourage Mississippians with DDA + CJS to engage in some regular physical activity, which could reduce the damaging effects of disease and improve their health. Increasing the health care resources earmarked for arthritis self-help and physical activity programs is one potential avenue to address the problem.


To meet the demand for accountability, a teacher education program in a university located in South China has established processes at the college, the program, and the faculty levels to assure its program quality. Highlights of the processes are: involvement of stakeholders and the examination of program effectiveness. Although much has been done to help program candidates succeed, more effort is needed in the areas of program assessment and continuous improvement to assure program quality. An accountability implementation plan, a beginning teacher mentoring program, and a comparative study of beginning teacher performance were recommended to further enforce its strategies toward program accountability.


Ensembl Genomes (http://www.ensemblgenomes.org) is an integrative resource for genome-scale data from non-vertebrate species. The project exploits and extends technology (for genome annotation, analysis and dissemination) developed in the context of the (vertebrate-focused) Ensembl project and provides a complementary set of resources for non-vertebrate species through a consistent set of programmatic and interactive interfaces. These provide access to data including reference sequence, gene models, transcriptional data, polymorphisms and comparative analysis. Since its launch in 2009, Ensembl Genomes has undergone rapid expansion, with the goal of providing coverage of all major experimental organisms, and additionally including taxonomic reference points to provide the evolutionary context in which genes can be understood. Against the backdrop of a continuing increase in genome sequencing activities in all parts of the tree of life, we seek to work, wherever possible, with the communities actively generating and using data, and are participants in a growing range of collaborations involved in the annotation and analysis of genomes.


This research proposed the blow molding simulation method for determining of a cross-section thickness of bottles. The finite element method (FEM) was employed to simulate the extrusion blow molding process of the complex shape bottles. The full bottle shape of blow molding process had been attempted to simulate with a rectangular shape bottle for comparing with the cross-section technique. Particularly, the physical experiment of the extrusion blow molding process was performed to verify the FEM. The cross-section technique was obtained a deviation result less than the full bottle shape simulation. The average error of full bottle shape simulation was 32.35% while the cross-section simulation obtained an average error of 17.02% when they were compared with the experimental data of the blow molding process. The FEM of blow molding simulation using the cross-section technique which was developed in this research had been found the satisfactory method to determine the initial thickness of the parison flowing through the extrusion die. It was advantaged to shape dies of the extrusion blow molding process in order to achieve the complex shape of bottles.


The dorsalis pedis artery (DPA) was renamed from the anterior tibialis artery after it passed under the extensor retinaculum, a nd DPA travels between the extensor hallucis longus and extensor digitorum longus muscle along the dorsum of the foot. After giving off the proximal a nd distal tarsal, arcuate and medial tarsal branches, DPA enters the proximal first intermetatarsal space via the first dorsal metatarsal artery (FDMA), which courses over the first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDIM). For detailed knowledge of the neurovascular anatomy of a dorsalis pedis artery flap (DPAF) as a routine reconstructive procedur e after the resection of oral malignant tumors, the precise neurovascular anatomy of DPAF must be studied along the DPA courses as above. In this first review article in the Korean language, the anatomical basis of DPAF is summarized and discussed after a delicate investigation of more than 35 recent articles and atlas textbooks. Many advantages of DPAF, such as a consistent flap vascular anatomy, acceptable do nor site morbidity, and the ability to perform simultaneous flap harvest using oral cancer ablation procedures, and additional important risks with the pitfalls of DPAF were emphasized. This article will be helpful, particularly for young doctors during the special curriculum periods for the Korean National Boar d of Specialists in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery, otolaryngology, orthopedic surgery, etc.


Foreign body inhalation is still a major cause of morbidity and even mortality in the under-fives. To reduce its frequency, more severe preventative measures must be imposed and to allow for early diagnosis, a low threshold for bronchoscopy is necessary. This retrospective study is based on 33 children referred to us for suspicion of inhaled foreign body. Symptomatology, clinical and paraclinical data are reviewed. Based on our practice and on the experience gained from the literature, we propose a management algorithm which will need to be further assessed by a prospective study.


A visual navigation and control architecture for the final-approach phase of autonomous spacecraft rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) with unknown targets is presented. Two spacecraft are considered: a maneuvering chaser, and a possibly tumbling non-cooperative target. The target spacecraft is assumed to be unknown, therefore none of its physical characteristics (geometry, moments of inertia, etc.) are available to the chaser a priori. An image-based visual servo (IBVS) controller is implemented to compute maneuvers for the chaser to achieve a desired goal pose with respect to the target. The controller seeks to minimize pixel location error of matched image feature points on the target. Importantly, because control error is calculated in the image space, a full relative pose estimate between the chaser and target is not required. In order to assess the controller under realistic conditions, the stochastic nature of image feature tracking is modeled via four types of errors: image feature location error, feature nonidentification (occlusion), feature misidentification (outliers), and feature depth estimation error. A bank of Kalman filters are used to track feature points and residual monitoring is used to reject feature measurement outliers. Two novel methods are proposed to generate goal images needed to implement IBVS with unknown targets. The architecture is implemented in a 6DOF simulation using nonlinear relative spacecraft dynamics and camera modeling. Results show that this architecture can robustly control complex RPO maneuvers, to include RPO with tumbling targets.


This special supplement of Cadernos de Saude Publica/Reports in Public Health presents the comparative results of three birth cohorts followed in Pelotas Rio Grande do Sul Brazil in relation to the childrens first 12 months of life. The analyses included more than 15 thousand births from 1982 1993 and 2004 a period in which Brazil experienced profound political social and economic transformations. Accompanying this process during these 22 years the country has witnessed important changes in the epidemiological profile of health problems and risk exposures as well as a total reorganization of the national health system with the creation of the Unified National Health System in 1988. The results presented in this supplement paint a faithful portrait of these changes viewed from the perspective of a medium-sized city in the southern region of the country. However the uniqueness of the data source does not limit its validity for representing a more general reality -the comparison of some results from the Pelotas cohorts to national averages shows great similarities. Meanwhile the quality of information from cohort studies preserving the temporality of the events gives special importance to the panorama presented here. The fact that not just one but three birth cohorts have been performed in the same geographic base and at 11-year intervals places Brazil in a prominend position in the international epidemiological scenario. This is a unique situation among developing countries. Some wealthy countries like the United States and France although experienced in conducting adult cohorts are just now launching their own birth cohorts. The advantages of this type of study include the possibility of testing hypotheses on long-term effects of exposures occurring during pregnancy (through fetal programming) and in early childhood on morbidity and causes of mortality in adulthood. At a time when complex chronic non-communicable diseases dominate the morbidity profile of both wealthy countries and poor countries undergoing demographic and nutritional transition the early identification of individuals at risk of becoming ill assumes a vital role. In addition cohorts allow a detailed follow-up of the life cycle and effect of life histories (for example gaining/losing weight; getting richer/poorer; and vice versa) on this cycle. The Pelotas cohorts have been visited regularly and the oldest of the three launched in 1982 has already undergone more than a dozen follow-ups (including either the entire cohort or sub-samples). The youngest cohort from 2004 is already in its fifth follow-up at four years of age. Follow-up of the three cohorts when the study participants reach the same chronological age has allowed documenting the "epidemiological transition" in various health aspects. As appears clearly in the following articles during these 22 years important changes were observed in relation to economic situation birth weight prematurity mortality and nutritional status among others. We urge readers to examine this information in the articles in the hope that it can be used to back action programs and policies. At the local level based on the results for infant mortality the Pelotas Municipal Health Secretariat has requested support for planning and implementing interventions to improve the infant health situation. A series of measures were implemented resulting in a reduction in infant mortality from 20 to 12.3 per thousand live births from 2004 to 2007 thus equaling the mean value for the State of Rio Grande do Sul as a whole. (full-text)


Introduction: The increasing prevalence of chronic disease in Ireland means there are increasing numbers of patients managing, in partnership with health services, their chronic disease. It is clear that most patients with the right supports can and want to manage their disease within their own local communities.   To support this, the Health Service Executive in Ireland has developed and initiated Demonstrator Projects for an enhanced primary care based service for patients with four chronic diseases: Diabetes, Heart Failure, COPD and Asthma. This service is delivered by  integrated care clinical nurse specialists working with primary care teams to support these patients. The support includes face to face visits and the provision of information, education and monitoring of  patients disease outcomes. This service will be delivered in selected sites across the country with the intention that in the future it will be delivered nationally.  Aim: Measuring impact of practice change on targeted population:  It is important for the future development and planning of this integrated care service to measure the success of the implementation and the impact on patient outcomes of the demonstrator projects. Therefore a number of measures, focusing in the initial phase on the role of the Clinical Nurse Specialist, are being developed. This involves the establishment of an advisory group with representation from the individual clinical programmes, Clinical Nurse Specialists, the chronic disease programme and primary care. This group, led by a Consultant in Public Health, is developing a suite of measures that will reflect the implementation of the enhanced service and the impact on patient outcomes. The challenge is to develop measures that reflect structure, process and outcome as this will give a balanced view of implementation but also importantly the impact of this service on patients. It is also important from a planning and feasibility focus to have good quality process measures, including activity measures. It is important that the collection and monitoring of these measures does not place undue burden on the integrated care team. These important factors have to be taken into account in the development and agreement of the suite of measures.This suite following targeted consultation will be finalised and agreed by the Integrated Care Chronic Disease Programme. Timeline: To ensure the integration of these measures into the early stages of the establishment of the demonstrator projects the suite of measures will be developed, agreed and finalised for implementation from July 2017. Outcomes: Although certain core measures are useful for trending and comparing impact over time the measures should evolve, adapt and expand in the future. There are a number of reasons for this including that initial data or information will inform developments in the service or that in the future with the addition of more members to the integrated care team for example  allied health professionals that the focus of the measures changes to other team members roles. The measures developed and agreed will inform the development, planning and delivery of integrated care services for chronic disease in Ireland in the future.


Background Ceftaroline is a broad spectrum antibiotic used to treat complicated skin and soft tissues infections and community acquired pneumonia. To prevent emergence of resistant strains and conserve its effectiveness, ceftaroline prescription should be limited to specific recommended cases. Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate proper use and effectiveness of ceftaroline in our establishment. Material and methods This was a retrospective study performed between January 2014 and December 2015. Patients who received ceftaroline and their biological and clinical data were collected by extraction from our prescription software (DXCARE and CLINISOFT). Seven items analysed the 'correct use' of ceftaroline: clinical setting, indication, referred germ, sensibility to other antibiotics, dosage, advice from an infectious disease and type of treatment (empiric, prophylactic or reassessed). Four items evaluated the 'effectiveness': treatment time, time for negative culture result, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and healing of the infection. Results During the period, 13 patients received ceftaroline; 1 patient's record was unusable. Prescriptions for ceftaroline were off-label in 83.3% (10/12, in the majority for osteo-articular infection), and 83.3% (10/12) of prescriptions were documented with identification of a methicillin resistant staphylococcal (once associated with Escherichia coli and another with Haemophilus parainfluenza). Each time, germs were resistant to glycopeptides. Dosage was adapted to renal function for 83.3% of cases and the last 2 cases benefited from pharmaceutical intervention to obtain adequate posology. Advice from an infectiologist was given for each treatment initiation. Average and median treatment time were, respectively, 15.5 days and 10 days. Average time to culture negative result was 9.2 days, but was assessed for osteo-articular and not documented infections (7/12). Ceftaroline MIC was measured in 6 cases and was strictly below 1 mg/mL. All patients were cured of their infection, with a minimum step back 6 months. No adverse reactions were observed during the study. Conclusion This study showed important off-label use for ceftaroline but specialist advice was systematically requested due to the complexity of the patients. In all cases, patients were cured of their infection. Despite the off-label prescriptions, ceftaroline was used properly, with good therapeutic efficacy in our institution. A multicentre study should be performed to compare practices between several hospitals. No conflict of interest


This paper considers an air cargo capacity allocation problem with multi-leg network. It mainly bases on the differences between the air passenger and air cargo revenue management. We develop a stochastic model of the problem and solve the model with the chance constrained programming method. Through the numerical simulation, we can find the model's feasibility. Finally we give an allocation policy which is near optimal. The results show that it can improve the revenue of the air company


The paper analyzes the process of global diffusion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the oil industry and how interactions between different actors have contributed to this outcome. It starts from the empirical puzzle that CSR has spread globally among transnational corporations since the mid 1990s (diffusion of CSR as a dependent variable). To explain this phenomenon, the paper presents a theoretical argument based on insights from sociological neo-institutionalism. It uses the concept of organizational fields as social spaces where organizations interact with one another. The structuration of an organizational field leads to processes of homogenization among the organizations belonging to it. Empirically, the paper explores the case of the oil industry. It can be shown that an organizational field has developed around the issue of CSR. Actors constituting the organizational field are identified, including multi-stakeholder-initiatives (e.g. EITI and Voluntary Principles), international organizations, NGOs, governmental actors and transnational corporations. The organizations interact with each other and engage in the definition and promotion of CSR standards. As a result of field-level interactions an increasingly dense normative transnational environment has developed where expectations regarding the appropriate behavior of corporations are formulated. With regard to the dependent variable, data on the diffusion of CSR is presented and similarities and differences between corporate CSR approaches are discussed.