OBJECTIVE
Social distancing is crucial in order to flatten the curve of COVID-19 virus spreading. Isolation, scarcity of resources and the lack of social contacts may have produced a negative impact on people's emotions and psychological well-being. This study aims to explore the reasons and the ways through which social distancing generates negative emotions in individuals who experienced the lockdown. To a larger extent, the objective is to check the existence of relations between negative emotions and the satisfaction of basic needs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In Italy 140,656 online interviews were collected from March 22 to April 2, 2020. Data analysis was carried out using mono and bivariate statistical analysis, K-means clustering and the Principal Components Analysis (PCA). The parameters for the identification of six clusters were: the intensity of the respondent's basic emotions and the layers of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

RESULTS
The majority of people involved in an emergency situation, implying a collapse of social contacts, experience some kind of emotional reactions. In our study, we found a correlation between basic emotions and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In times of crisis, the most basic needs are the physiological ones. Fear, anger and sadness are predominant in all population groups; anger and disgust mainly appear when people are exposed to the risk of not being able to meet subsistence needs, thus perceiving a lack of economic security.

CONCLUSIONS
The well-known Maslow's theory of human needs seems to fit well with the outbreak of negative emotions in the context of COVID-19. This study demonstrates the existence of links between negative emotions and primary needs that mainly refer to the first three levels of Maslow's pyramid. As a result of COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, many people have been sucked into the bottom layers of the pyramid. This change in individual basic needs has triggered a relevant transformation in individual emotional status and a shift towards negative emotions.


This paper has argued that for an enterprise to be sustainable its operational processes should be aligned to its strategic goals. We have focused on a part of the complex issue of business and IT alignment by addressing the problems of aligning business models with goal models and a method for this was proposed. The method approach offers a number of benefits: clear and uniform goal model formulation, well founded business model design, and traceability between models.


1. The absence of the nares in either the male or the female South African clawed toad, or simultaneously in both partners of injected pairs of animals does not interfere in any way with the correct orientation of the male in the adoption of the normal lumbar embrace during coupling.

2. The mating reflex occurred spontaneously in Rana temporaria at the time of the breeding season under captive conditions in 70 per cent. of the animals observed. This reflex was completely inhibited in pairs of animals which had the anterior lobes of their pituitaries removed before the breeding season in both the males and the females (23 pairs); in the males only (10 pairs); or in the females only (10 pairs).

3. Oviposition did not occur regularly in the control animals which mated in the laboratory. The eggs laid were not always fertilized. Fertilized eggs were not viable for more than 2 or 3 days.

4. Removal of the gonads in both the males and the females (28 pairs of Rana ) before the breeding season completely inhibited the mating reflex in these animals during the breeding season.

5. Injection of active anterior pituitary extracts into South African clawed toads previously hypophysectomized (anterior lobe alone or both lobes) elicited the normal mating reflex after the normal post-injection interval.

6. Injection of these extracts into gonadectomized clawed toads, or toads with gonadal hypofunction, failed to elicit the mating reflex.

7. Evidence is considered in support of the hypothesis that the pituitary gonadal relation involved in the act of mating is a hormonal one.

1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholar.


Many agent-based simulation kernels rely on message passing in their core implementation. As the number of agents in a simulation increases or as the complexity of their communication expands the number of messages can increase exponentially. This is troublesome because the message content itself may be quite small, while the overhead, including message headers can dominate bandwidth and processing time. In these cases message passing becomes a bottleneck to scalability. The overhead of message exchange may saturate the network and degrade performance of the simulation. One approach to this challenge that has been investigated in related networking and simulation research centers is combining or "piggy-backing" multiple small messages together with a consolidated header. In many applications performance improves as larger, but fewer messages are sent. However, the pattern of message passing is different in the case of agent- based simulation (ABS), and this approach has not yet been explored for ABS systems. In this work we provide an overview of the design and implementation of a message piggy- backing approach for ABS systems using the SASSY platform. SASSY is a hybrid, large-scale distributed ABS system that provides an agent-based API on top of a PDES kernel. We provide a comparative performance evaluation for implementations in SASSY with a combined RMI and shared memory message passing approach. We also show performance of our new adaptive message clustering mechanism that clusters messages when advantageous and avoids clustering when the overhead of clustering dominates.


Background: Neuroblastoma (NB) is a rare childhood cancer but accounts for 15% of paediatric cancer deaths. MYCN amplification and/or ATM loss through 11q deletion may cause an increase in replication stress (RS) in a substantial proportion (~80%) of high-risk NB. RS creates a dependency on ATR-mediated S and G2 checkpoint control. This study aimed to determine if MYCN amplification or ATM loss identifies cells which are sensitive to ATR inhibition (ATRi). As PARP inhibition causes RS through unrepaired single-strand DNA breaks progressing to replication, we also examined the effect of ATRi on PARP inhibitor (PARPi) cytotoxicity and PARPi-induced RS, cell cycle arrest and homologous recombination repair (HRR) activity. Methods: Cell proliferation in response to 72 h of treatment with the ATR inhibitor, VE-821, was assessed by XTT (Roche) and clonogenic survival assays in a panel of 11 NB cell lines and the effect of VE-821 on growth inhibition caused by the PARPi, Olaparib, in 4 cell lines. CHK1S345 (a marker of ATR activity) and RPA2S8 and H2AXS129 phosphorylation (RS markers) were assessed by Western blotting and immunofluorescent microscopy. HRR was examined by the formation of RAD51 foci by immunofluorescent microscopy. Cell cycle analysis was carried out by flow cytometry. Results: VE-821-induced growth inhibition and cell death was significantly increased in MYCN-amplified cell lines and cell lines with low ATM protein expression (p < 0.05 Mann–Whitney U test). Olaparib (5 µM) treatment increased CHK1S345 and H2AXS129 phosphorylation after 24 h of treatment in all cell lines. ATR inhibition prevented CHK1S345 phosphorylation and reduced Olaparib-induced RAD51 foci formation. VE-821 abrogated Olaparib-induced S and G2 checkpoint arrest. Conclusion: MYCN amplification and low ATM protein expression are determinants of ATRi sensitivity in NB cell lines. ATRi sensitises NB cells to PARPi by abrogating S/G2 checkpoint arrest and impairing HRR.


This study explores the effect of semi-active friction damping on vibration isolation systems by means of numerical simulation. Since the Lugre friction model can describe many phenomena observed in laboratories, it is chosen to provide accurate friction force model for the analysis and simulations. The drawback of the passive friction damping system is that it decreases the resonance response at the cost of worsening the performance for high frequencies. A semi-active control method (skyhook method) is used to tune the normal force so that the energy dissipated by the friction force is maximized. Such semi-active friction damping system is simple but efficient, and it can achieve result almost as good as that of active systems. Results from numerical simulations show that compared with passive system, semi-active control method decreases the response significantly for both low and high frequencies, with harmonic and random excitations.


We apply and evaluate a new efficient algorithm for finding maximally link disjoint pairs of paths in a network. We apply this algorithm for QoS routing in connection-oriented networks that support calls with multiple QoS requirements. Our algorithm (called MADSWIP) is applied for precomputing paths in advance of call arrivals. Through simulations, we compare our QoS routing method to another method that is typical of what a switch vendor might implement today. We then examine the performance of three different policies for selecting a path among multiple potential paths. We also study the effects of decreasing the density of a network topology. We study two styles of topologies: commercial-style and random topologies. We demonstrate that precomputing paths that have minimal overlap is more important than precomputing paths that explicitly address all QoS metrics in a network. We also show that load balancing policies outperform call packing policies in networks that support diverse applications.


Harmonic pollution and low power factor in power systems caused by power converters have been of great concern. To overcome these problems several converter topologies using advanced semiconductor devices and control schemes have been proposed. This investigation is to identify a low cost, small size, efficient and reliable ac to dc converter to meet the input performance index of UPS. The performance of single phase and three phase ac to dc converter along with various control techniques are studied and compared. This project presents a novel ac/dc converter based on a quasi-active power factor correction (PFC) scheme. In the proposed circuit, the power factor is improved by using an auxiliary winding coupled to the transformer of a cascade dc/dc fly back converter. The auxiliary winding is placed between the input rectifier and the lowfrequency filter capacitor to serve as a magnetic switch to drive an input inductor. Since the dc/dc converter is operated at high-switching frequency, the auxiliary windings produce a high frequency pulsating source such that the input current conduction angle is significantly lengthened and the input current harmonics is reduced. Since the use of a single inductor, the cost z reduced a lot and the efficiency of the system is improved. The power factor is maintained constant by using a buffer capacitor in parallel to the system for compensating the inductive components. It eliminates the use of active switch and control circuit for PFC, which results in lower cost and higher efficiency. Finally an Rload is applied and simulation results are presented


This socio-technical pilot involved qualitative interviews with social housing tenants, combined with basic energy modelling of the individual dwellings to estimate the carbon emissions of that house. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between fuel poverty and carbon-saving synergies in the UK domestic housing stock. Fuel poverty, the circumstance where a household spends more than 10% of its income on energy bills, is predicted as being 21% of the entire domestic stock. The fuel poor behaviours described in this study, including frugality and rationing of energy use, may become more common, and even be seen as the "norm". If domestic energy bills increase with predictions, the number of fuel poor households will continue to rise. It is likely that their practices will become more diverse. This diversity is important as it will affect not only the choice of measures for reducing energy consumption but also the likely post-measure "rebound effect", where a perceived energy saving might not be achieved as households increase their energy use directly, or indirectly, as a result of having lower energy bills. The study found that "electricity as entertainment" is very apparent in low-income homes, particularly those with children. This can have a significant impact on the household's fuel poverty status. It is important not to discount this effect as the choices for reducing fuel poverty may not only be related to building refurbishment. This study concludes that lack of energy inefficiency is not the main driver of fuel poverty in the UK. Small changes in the efficiency of the UK stock have had minimal impact on fuel poverty numbers because this is driven by gas prices. But if large-scale changes were made to such homes then it may be possible to ameliorate the effect of rising fuel prices, though without eliminating fuel poverty altogether. The work ascertained that the fuel poor do not recognise themselves as living 'low-carbon lifestyles' but it seems likely that they do from the frugal responses that our sample display. Helping those in fuel poverty to recognise this, and rewarding this through policy, could be a positive way of encouraging continued action If a substantial impact to both fuel poverty and domestic carbon emissions is to be made, large-scale changes to buildings are necessary. Existing energy behaviour, energy frugality (as governed by income) and the response of the occupant to any potential energy-saving improvement will not be universal across the stock. Given the fuel poverty context, the authors suggest that the proposed 2011 Energy Act Green Deal is not suitably structured for achieving large-scale reductions in fuel poverty and domestic carbon emissions. The provision intends to provide loans of up to £6.500 to eliminate the need to pay upfront for energy efficiency measures. The cost of repayment should be covered by electricity bill savings. If large-scale measures are needed to have a genuine, and long lasting, effect, then £6,500 per home is not likely to be sufficient for fuel poor social housing tenants to rise out of fuel poverty. It is currently unclear whether the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) will be sufficient to compensate for any of the weaknesses of the Green Deal when applied to fuel poor homes. ECO will place one or more obligations on energy companies requiring them to facilitate the installation of energy efficiency measures in homes.


In this paper, we present a new perceptual grouping algorithm using sparse semi-supervised learning (SSSL). In SSSL, KD-tree is used for effective representation and efficient retrieval. SSSL performs both transductive and inductive inference with a new dynamic graph concept. The perceptual grouping problem is tackled using SSSL to group different patterns into one object and separate similar patterns into different objects. The proposed system is tested on three typical object patterns ranging from highly textured (zebra), to medium textured (tiger), to inhomogeneous appearance (horse). We compare the results with many alternatives such as normalized cuts, direct discriminative classification, conditional Markov random fields (CRF), and a discriminative structure learning algorithm. The overall results are promising, with several interesting empirical observations.


In this paper we examine the effect of cooperation between complementary incumbent monopolists on consumer welfare. While divided technical leadership makes it difficult for firms to integrate into complementary markets, firms induce entry in complementary markets by reducing the cost of entry in those markets. This is accomplished through, for example, the development and dissemination of royalty-free intellectual property. We present and analyze a model in which incumbents can influence the ease of entry in complementary markets. Cooperation between complementary monopolists decreases consumer welfare by reducing or even eliminating the entry inducement incentive but increases consumer welfare by eliminating double marginalization. We show that cooperation may decrease consumer welfare, contrary to Cournot's celebrated double monopoly result, and that the welfare comparison can be determined in terms of straightforward economic concepts. We also present and analyze a model in which each incumbent can induce entry in the complementary market through long-term price commitments which are common in patent licensing.


Logistic regression analysis examines the impact of different factors on dichotomous outcomes by way of estimating the chance of the event occurrence logistic regression, additionally called a logistic model, is a statistical procedure used to model dichotomous effects. In the logistic model the log odds of the dichotomous outcome is modeled as a linear combination of the predictor variables. The log odds quantitative relation in logistic regression provides an outline of the probabilistic relationship of the variable and also the outcomes. In conducting logistical regression, choice procedures are utilized in choosing vital predictor variables diagnostics are used to test that assumptions are legitimate which include independent of errors, linearity is the logit for continuous variability absence of multicolinearity, and shortage of strongly influential outliers and take a look at data point is calculated to see the aptnes of the model. This study used the binary logistic regression model to analyze obese (overweight) and obesity among rural area in Visakhapatnam, distance, AP, India. The idea of their demographics profile, records, weight loss program and lifestyle.The results indicate that overweight and obesity of peoples are influenced via obesity in family and also the interaction between a Students quality and routine meals intake.


Decomposition of the electromagnetic energy into its stored and radiated parts is instrumental in the evaluation of antenna Q and the corresponding fundamental limitations on antennas. This decomposition is not unique and there are several proposals in the literature. Here, it is shown that stored energy defined from the difference between the energy density and the far field energy equals the energy expressions proposed by Vandenbosch for many but not all cases. This also explains the observed cases with negative stored energy and suggests a possible remedy to them. The results are compared with the classical explicit expressions for spherical regions where the results only differ by the electrical size ka that is interpreted as the far-field energy in the interior of the sphere.


This study measures the effects of the Marathon/Ashland Petroleum (MAP) joint venture on rack and retail reformulated (RFG) gasoline prices in the four cities where both firms sold RFG before the joint venture. MAP was an early transaction in the recent era of petroleum mergers and resulted in large regional increases in concentration. While wholesale (rack) prices increased in the two cities experiencing the largest change in market structure in the year following the transaction, retail prices did not increase. Our results also highlight the importance of identifying the marginal source of supply in correctly identifying merger effects.


In March/April 1994 a hydrographic and ichthyoplankton survey was conducted in the area of Porcupine Bank, west of Ireland, to study the distribution and feeding of blue whiting larvae. The Porcupine Bank area was characterized by 2 distinguishable water masses separated by a thermal front: (1) the warm and saline waters of the secondary shelf edge current (sSEC) and (2) the cooler and less saline waters above Porcupine Bank associated with an anticyclonic circulation. Highest concentrations of recently hatched larvae 4.0 mm SL were more abundant in the cool waters above Porcupine Bank and larvae >5.0 mm SL were exclusively found above the bank. Copepod nauplii density was extremely low, with an overall mean density of 5.2 l -1 , Nauplii were most abundant in the water of the sSEC. However, proportionally more large calanoid nauplii were observed above Porcupine Bank. The diet of blue whiting larvae also varied among water masses, with larvae having higher feeding incidences and numerical feeding intensities in the sSEC but significantly higher feeding intensities by weight and, thus, a higher energetic gain in the waters above the bank. These contrasts resulted from differences in the composition of the larval diet. Larvae in the sSEC preyed heavily on tintinnids and small cyclopoid nauplii, while larvae above Porcupine Bank also ingested large calanoid nauplii. In addition, blue whiting larvae had different selectivity patterns depending on the foraging environment, with larvae retained above Porcupine Bank selecting strongly for calanoid nauplii, which were never selected for by larvae in the sSEC. Instead those larvae demonstrated a preference for smaller cyclopoid nauplii. In summary, we conclude that in 1994 blue whiting larvae benefited from being retained above Porcupine Bank not only by maintaining a close horizontal distribution but also by utilizing the more favorable feeding environment above the bank.


For decades, Mongolia remained underexplored because it was a landlocked country sandwiched between Russia and China. Interest in its mineral deposits was minimal. However, as the center of global economic growth shifted to Asia in the last decade, foreign investors flocked to Mongolia because of its resource potential, and an isolated nomadic nation has become the focus of a modern day gold rush. Its strategic location next to China has given Mongolia a unique advantage over other mineral-rich exporting countries as transportation costs to that expanding market are likely to be minimal. Two world-class deposits were recently announced, Oyu Tolgoi (copper and gold) and Tavan Tolgoi (coal).


In the first six months of a formal Internal Quality Assessment Scheme operating in the Department of Histopathology, Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool, 1005 items of data were gathered, relating to 80 cases. The scheme entails a random 2% sample of biopsy specimens being selected, each case being analysed using a structured proforma, and a numerical scoring system being allocated to all aspects of specimen handling. Technical and secretarial performance was good while the quality of clinical information provided by the requesting clinician was poor. There was a wide variation in reporting times, which related partly to the complexity of the specimen, and partly to the degree of supervision required by the reporting pathologist. Month by month analysis of reporting times showed a significant increase in reporting times associated with rotation of junior staff, but not with periods of annual leave. Pathologist performance scores were good, but close examination of components of the overall score for an individual pathologist indicated occasional areas of weakness (such as the adequacy of the macroscopic report). It is concluded that this scheme is worthwhile and its practice will be continued indefinitely. The comprehensive nature of the analysis allows for the formal identification of areas of work which need improvement, and the allocation of a formal numerical score allows improvement in these areas to be monitored. The monthly meetings provide a means whereby performance scores are fed back to the participating pathologists, and they are also of general educational value regarding histological reporting practice. It is intended that the scheme be extended to include the assessment of special stains, frozen sections, and adequacy of the report delivery service. The system is easily adaptable for use within other histopathology departments.


OBJECTIVE
To describe epidemiologic features of pet evacuation failure after a hazardous chemical spill in which residents had no warning and only a few hours notice to evacuate.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

SAMPLE POPULATION
Pet-owning households that evacuated from a hazardous chemical spill with (n = 119) or without (122) their pets. Procedures-Evacuees were surveyed by mail.

RESULTS
261 of 433 (60.3%) dogs and cats in 241 households were not evacuated. Of the 241 households, 119 (49.4%) evacuated with their pets, 98 (40.7%) evacuated without them but later attempted to rescue them, and 24 (10.0%) neither evacuated their pets nor attempted to rescue them. Pet evacuation failure was most common in households that thought the evacuated area was safe for pets. Risk of pet evacuation failure increased in households with many animals, low pet attachment and commitment scores, and low levels of preparedness. Cat evacuation failure was associated with not having cat carriers. Nearly 80% of households that evacuated with their pets found accommodation with friends and family.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Pet evacuation failure was common and jeopardized pets' health and well-being. Logistical challenges to transporting pets were substantial contributors to pet evacuation failure, whereas not knowing where to house a pet was only a minor concern. Most pet owners seemed self-reliant and acted appropriately towards their pets. Such self-reliant behavior by pet owners should be encouraged prior to disasters as part of an evacuation plan for households.


A quasistatic problem of thermoelasticity for a solid infinite cylinder with a ringshaped crack is considered. The cylinder is enclosed in a rigid thin heat absorbing shell with a slip joint which reduces thermal impact. The external surface of the shell is subjected to a linear heat transfer by radiation to the surroundings. We assumed that the cylinder had initially a temperature changing along the radius and the surrounding temperature was a function of time. The main result is an expression obtained for the stress intensity factor depending on time. Various particular cases are considered obtained both by the authors of this paper and by other scientists. An analysis of the dependences of the stress intensity factor (SIF) on time shows that with an assigned critical SIF, there are minimum and maximum crack sizes below and above which the crack will not grow under the given cooling conditions. For these dimensions, the maximum of SIF does not reach the critical value. For intermediate crack sizes, growth of the crack begins at the moment SIF reaches the critical value. Here, the crack first grows irregularly to the size for which at the given moment of time SIF is equal to the critical value. Extension of so called "hot "cracks in a solid cylinder is also considered. These cracks arise when a cold cylinder is placed in a fusion of the same material at the melted temperature. Further on this cylinder is rapidly taken out of the fusion and on its surface the melting layer linked with the cylinder surface arise. Under cooling of the cylinder, residual tensile stresses arise in the layer which may cause growth of ring-shaped surface cracks which are dangerous for further exploitation of this system.


ABSTRACT How science and policy interact has been a major research focus in the International Relations (IR) tradition, using the epistemic community (EC) concept, as well as in the alternative perspective of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Should science be autonomous and as apolitical as possible in order to 'speak truth to power', as suggested by EC or should the inevitable entanglement of science and politics be accepted and embraced so as to make advice more conducive to negotiating the explicit travails of political decision-making as suggested by STS? With this point of departure, we compare similarities and differences between science–policy interactions in the issue areas of eutrophication and fisheries management of the Baltic Sea. To examine how knowledge is mobilised, the concepts of 'uncertainty' and 'coherence' are developed, drawing on both EC and STS thinking. We then reflect on the explanatory value of these approaches in both cases and discuss how a separation of science and policy-making in the pursuit of achieving scientific consensus leads to ineffectual policies. Drawing on STS thinking, we urge for a re-conceptualisation of coherence in order to accommodate a more reflexive practice of science–policy interactions.


We present an optical heterodyne method for measuring amplitude and phase responses of electrooptic modulators over an ultrawide frequency range. The microwave input signal for the modulator under test (MUT) is produced by heterodyning the outputs of two lasers. The output of one of these two lasers is modulated by a subcarrier to produce dual tones separated by twice the subcarrier frequency. The output of the MUT is optically filtered to extract the components carrying the amplitude and phase information. Experimental results of measurements made up to 50GHz are presented


For the past twenty years or so, the Austrian cultural theorist Robert Pfaller has been positing and analyzing the concepts of "interpassivity" (as opposed to interactivity) and the delegation of enjoyment both in sacred rituals and in relation to various media of reproduction (such as video recorders and photocopiers). Steintrager and Chow argue that Pfaller's insights into delegation as a key and understudied feature of media ecologies are particularly relevant today, as delegation of various activities has intensified. However, the latest media and technologies, which gather so much information about us that we end up in a state of informational debt, pose a challenge to his thesis that delegation is an unconscious strategy for seeking relief from the onslaught of images, commodities, and information.


Introduction: To evaluate whether maternal serum α-fetoprotein (MSAFP) improves the detection rate for open neural tube defects (ONTDs) and ventral wall defects (VWD) in patients undergoing first-trimester and early second-trimester fetal anatomical survey. Material and Methods: A cohort of women undergoing screening between 2005 and 2012 was identified. All patients were offered an ultrasound at between 11 weeks and 13 weeks and 6 days of gestational age for nuchal translucency/fetal anatomy followed by an early second-trimester ultrasound at between 15 weeks and 17 weeks and 6 days of gestational age for fetal anatomy and MSAFP screening. All cases of ONTD and VWD were identified via query of billing and reporting software. Sensitivity and specificity for detection of ONTD/VWD were calculated, and groups were compared using the Fisher exact test, with p < 0.05 as significance. Results: A total of 23,790 women met the criteria for inclusion. Overall, 15 cases of ONTD and 17 cases of VWD were identified; 100% of cases were diagnosed by ultrasound prior to 18 weeks' gestation; none were diagnosed via MSAFP screening (p < 0.001). First-trimester and early second-trimester ultrasound had 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity for diagnosing ONTD/VWD. Discussion: Ultrasound for fetal anatomy during the first and early second trimester detected 100% of ONTD/VWD in our population. MSAFP is not useful as a screening tool for ONTD and VWD in the setting of this ultrasound screening protocol.


In allusion to 300 Reversible cold mill, the composing and the theory of the auto gauge control system is presented. To meet the characteristic of the 300 reversible cold mill, the PID algorithm With Variable Integral Action is used in position and pressure inner loop control of press down hydraulic cylinder to elevate the response characteristic, and the dynamic press compensating algorithm is used in the gauge control outer loop to elevate the precision of strip thickness, and the stability of rolling process. Fig.1. 300 cold roling mill1 Introduction


Abstract. The definition of the network resolution power is an important parameter to be considered when evaluating most of the seismic analysis, being connected to the location quality and earthquakes detectability. We estimated the resolving power of the seismic network of Campi Flegrei. The results show that the actual moment magnitude threshold is 0.5 in the Solfatara area, center of the caldera, but increases sharply going away from the center. We also estimated the theoretical resolution power of the actual seismic network of Campi Flegrei plus 5 hypothetical borehole stations, moving the borehole stations into 3 different wells. As expected, big improvements in the location parameters come from the use of borehole stations. The results show that a 3000 m deep borehole located close to the actual hypocentral area would allow to detect and locate the very low magnitude earthquakes, probably connected to the hydrothermal system characterizing the Campi Flegrei caldera. Finally, we performed an optimization analysis of the permanent seismic network of Campi Flegrei finding the best 3 station positions that would increase the resolution power of the network to locate earthquakes in the South and offshore part of the caldera. We evidenced that the actual network has an improvable resolution in the South and West part of the caldera.


This paper presents a novel approach for the design of microwave circuits using Adaptive Network Fuzzy Inference Optimizer (ANFIO). The method takes advantage of direct synthesis of subsections of the amplifier using very fast and accurate ANFIO models based on exact simulations using ADS. A mapping from course space to fine space known as space mapping is also used. The proposed synthesis approach takes into account the noise and scattering parameters due to parasitic elements to achieve optimal results. The overall ANFIO system is capable of designing different LNAs at different noise and scattering criteria. This approach offers significantly reduced time in the design of microwave amplifiers within the validity range of the ANFIO system. The method has been proven to work efficiently for a 2.4GHz LNA example. The S21 of 10.1 dB and noise figure (NF) of 2.7 dB achieved for ANFIO while S21 of 9.05 dB and NF of 2.6 dB achieved for ANN. Keywords—fuzzy system, low noise amplifier, microwave amplifier, space mapping


Compensating for intercarrier nonlinear distortion allows launching higher power into the transmission fiber and it leads to an increase in the transmission distance. Numerical calculations show that the launch power is increased by 10 dB and the maximum transmission distance is more than tripled, when the optical repeater spacing of 80 km, dispersion-shifted fiber, and signal format of 10 Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero are assumed. It is experimentally demonstrated that waveform distortion due to the four-wave mixing (FWM) among different carriers in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) becomes deterministic by phase-locking optical carriers and that FWM distortion can be compensated at 5 Gb/s with three-channel condition by employing DSP at the transmitter or receiver.


ABSTRACT This paper examines the relationship between China's changing economy and its global business tax diplomacy. Three trends dominate: China is becoming a net capital exporter, emerging as a major consumer market, and is home to digital giant firms including Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba. The resulting drive to promote both 'going out' and 'bringing in' foreign direct investment has led China to engage selectively and strategically with Western-led institutions. We show how China variously challenges, defends, and develops alternatives to global tax standards in three cases: global efforts to tackle corporate tax avoidance, bilateral tax treaty negotiations, and administrative tax cooperation.


About the book: This book provides the first critically informed discussion of work and workers in the UK welfare sector under New Labour. It examines the changing nature of work and explores the context of industrial relations across the welfare industry.


A cost-effective design is proposed for circuit-switching multistage interconnection networks (CSMINs). Increase of the network bandwidth and reduction of the network size (and thus low costs) are accomplished by network overlapping and memory interleaving (NOMI), instead of by increasing the number of switches or adding buffers. NOMI and its control principle are described on the basis of the structure and interconnection functions of CSMINs. Detailed accounts of both the network design and the drastic reduction in hardware costs are given. The impact of NOMI on system performance is also analyzed.


This paper analyzes China's economic performance in the last 25 years and discusses its prospect for growth in the future. China has enjoyed high annual GDP growth rates of about ten percent in the last 25 years. Exports and investment were the two driving forces of the growth process. FDI plays an important role. However, property rights, a crucial element in transforming a communist society, are far from being clearly developed. Structural issues such as the state-owned firms and the loss-making of the banking industry have to be solved. Monetary policy is complicated by the accumulation of reserves. Major policy issues in the future include the institutional deficit, especially with respect to the rule of law and the lack of democracy.


Microfossils have been found in most of the Mesozoic basins of Brazil, allowing the establishment of important biozones. Despite being recognized for more than half century in the Barremian from the Reconcavo Basin, the taxonomy of the benthic foraminifera remained unsolved likewise its paleoenviromental implications. In this study, we have applied 2D and 3D imaging techniques to resolve this issue and have identified two agglutinated foraminiferal genera (Glomospirella and Paratrochamminoides) and a new species Paratrochamminoides kaminskii sp. nov. Moreover, based on the taxonomy, few paleoenvironmental insights on the foraminifera-bearing strata are discussed. The occurrence of the typically shallow marine species Glomospirella arctica in the studied section, does not allow the proposition of a marine ingression, since it is not supported by a marine/ transitional association of microfossils. On the other hand, the hypothesis of transport of foraminifera by birds (avian zoocoria) is plausible, although there are no further elements to corroborate it.


Systemic sclerosis (systemic scleroderma) is characterized by a heterogeneous range of clinical manifestations. Systemic sclerosis is classified into limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis and diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis subgroups based on the extent of skin involvement. Randomized controlled trials in scleroderma have mainly focused on diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis partly because the measurement of skin involvement, critical for evaluating a therapeutic intervention, is more dynamic in this subset. Nonetheless, limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis, the most common cutaneous subset (about two-third), is also associated with significant morbidity and detrimental impact on health-related quality of life. The lack of interventional studies in limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis is partly due to a lack of relevant outcome measures to evaluate this subgroup. Combining several clinically meaningful outcomes selected specifically for limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis may improve representativeness in clinical trials and responsiveness of outcomes measured in randomized controlled trials. A composite index dedicated to limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis combining such relevant outcomes could advance clinical trial development for limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis by providing the opportunity to test and select among candidate drugs that could act as disease-modifying treatments for this neglected subgroup of systemic sclerosis. This proposed index would include items selected by expert physicians and patients with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis across domains grounded in the lived experience of limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis. This article reviews the reasons behind the relative neglect of limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis, discusses the current state of outcome measures for limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis, identifies challenges, and proposes a roadmap for a combined limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis-specific treatment response index.


This paper describes and analyzes a particular application of high duty-cycle time-division multiplexing to the separation and identification of signals from an interferometric sensor array. Using the method discussed here, the coherence length of the laser is no longer a severe design constraint. Also, the source phase-induced intensity noise which limits some other multiplexing methods may be overcome, leading to a higher sensitivity. The arrays of all-passive remote sensors exhibit minimal crosstalk between sensors, and have downlead insensitivity. A synthetic heterodyne demodulation technique prevents environmentally induced signal fading. Analysis includes coupling ratios for all directional couplers in the system, signal and noise spectra, minimum detectable phase shift, and the effect of ac coupling on noise and crosstalk. An experimental all-fiber implementation of a two sensor array has yielded a measured sensitivity of approximately 10 μrad/ \sqrt{Hz} over a range of signal frequencies, and a crosstalk level of better than 55 dB.


In this article the author explores aspects of young children's private speech, examining characteristics of their development of discourse knowledge in utterances that are not directed to actual conversants. Two routes are taken, which the author tries to interlink without seeking a hard and fast juncture. The first is a study of what children are doing when they talk into a toy telephone, with reference to a transcript taken from empirical research. Knowledge of the essential structure of telephone discourse is displayed, as are emotional motivations behind the construction of pretence talk. The second is the notion of 'egocentric speech' as coined by Piaget and developed, within his sociocultural perspective to language acquisition, by Vygotsky. The author argues that dominant contemporary presentations of Vygotsky's notion of 'egocentric speech' tend to stress the self-regulatory or planning function at the expense of its role in expression of the imagination. The two discussions come together in the suggestion that the deployment of the imagination in reassembling sociocultural knowledge for the creation of pretence play, sometimes expressed in private speech, can be a significant factor in the exercise of discourse competencies for young children.


This report demonstrates the process involved to identify the most economic renewable energy generation system for Murdoch University (MU). The most economic renewable energy generation system that would help in reducing the annual electricity consumption off the grid for MU. The analysis involved PV System, Wind System, Wind-PV System and Wind-PV System including the battery storage system. The analysis commenced with the assessment of the availability of solar and wind resource at the MU. Western Australia gets a significant amount of solar irradiance throughout the year and it was available to download from the website of Bureau of Meteorology. The wind speed data were obtained from the weather station located Murdoch University, which helped to determine the strength and intensity of wind speed. For the purpose of the analysis, solar irradiance data and wind speed data for the year 2015 was used for the specific reason, explained further in the report. Murdoch University electricity consumption in the year 2015 was 22.29 GWh with the maximum load of 5.78 MW. Mr Andrew Hanning, Energy Manager at MU helped to obtain the load consumption data of MU. Then analysis followed by the identification of the energy production potential of solar and wind using the photovoltaics and wind turbines. Microsoft Excel and Homer, a computer software model helped to calculate the energy production of photovoltaics and wind turbines. A 2.0 MW PV system was used for the analysis, as the study conducted by the previous student concluded it to be the maximum size that could be installed on the rooftop of MU. Wind system included two Enercon E-53 wind turbines each with 800kW rated capacity. The selection of the wind turbine for the purpose of the analysis was based on its maximum power output corresponding to the wind speed at MU. Enercon E-53 was tallest among other wind turbines analyzed to identify to the most suitable wind turbine for the proposed location at MU. Further, the analysis included the assessment of reduction in the electricity consumption from the grid, of the MU for the year 2015, by integrating different renewable energy generation system in the distributed network of MU. From different combinations of renewable energy systems used for the analysis, the combination of Wind-PV system produced the significant amount of reduction in the annual energy consumption from the grid. The annual electricity consumption of MU reduced from 22.29 GWh to 13.31 GWh. Analysis also included the assessment of reduction in the capacity and network demand charges affected by the decline in the annual electricity consumption of MU from the grid. The Wind-PV system produced annual savings of $743,144 on the cost of electricity consumed from the grid by MU and annual savings of $555,242 on the network demand and capacity charges.


The thesis entitled 'A qualitative exploration of the movement disorder experience' explores both the experience of diagnosis of several, and the lived experience of one specific, common movement disorders. Section One presents a meta-synthesis of 24 research papers, each of which explores the diagnostic experience of either Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease or Huntington's disease from the individual's perspective. Three major themes emerged: "A bomb that could not be absorbed": The emotional experience of receiving a diagnosis; "You've got what your cousin died from": Feeling dismissed and powerless and "Know thy enemy": To information seek or not? The findings provide insight into the traumatic experience of receiving a diagnosis, with certain factors found to exacerbate the situation, although some positives were identified. Clinical implications are discussed. Section Two presents a research study exploring the lived experience of essential tremor. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis as the specific method, nine participants were interviewed and the data analysed. Three major themes were constructed: "But they often look at you like you're some drug addict or smack head": Social attitudes to difference; "I just couldn't do it anymore": The restrictive nature of ET and "You've got to cope; you've got to learn to fight different ways": Rescuing some normality amid physical deterioration. The findings provide much needed experiential understanding and interpretation of one of the most prevalent neurological conditions. Clinical implications are discussed. Section Three presents a critical appraisal of the research study. The author has reflected upon the research study findings in the context of findings from the meta-synthesis. Furthermore, reasons for conducting the research, its strengths and limitations, reflexivity and ideas for future research are also explored.


ABSTRACT The cadenzas Mozart supplied for his piano concertos are designed to close with a standard schema that conforms to the cadence as it was understood by musicians of the 18th century and described by such writers as Heinrich Christoph Koch. Melodic ingredients included the note of preparation, the cadential note, and the caesura note. The cadential schema may be elongated and manipulated in diverse ways, and in extreme cases, as witnessed in Mozart9s practice, manipulations of the schema may yield sophisticated strategies that encompass several phases of approaching closure. Since the cadence of the cadenza served as a crucial means of communication between soloist and orchestra, its playful handling by the soloist presumably elicited amusing behavior among the orchestral musicians as they prepared to enter for the end of the final ritornello. This factor contributed a certain visual dimension to the communication between soloist and audience, in accordance with the aesthetic of witticism ascribed to the cadenza by 18th-century writers.


Background Despite the importance of their perspectives, end users (eg, patients, caregivers) are not typically engaged by academic researchers in the development of mobile health (mHealth) apps for perioperative cardiac surgery settings. Objective The aim of this study was to describe a process for and the impact of patient engagement in the development of an mHealth app that supports patient and caregiver involvement with enhanced recovery protocols during the perioperative period of cardiac surgery. Methods Engagement occurred at the level of consultation and took the form of an advisory panel. Patients who underwent cardiac surgery (2017-2018) at St. Boniface Hospital (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and their caregivers were approached for participation. A qualitative exploration determined the impact of patient engagement on the development (ie, design and content) of the mHealth app. This included a description of (1) the key messages generated by the advisory panel, (2) how key messages were incorporated into the development of the mHealth app, and (3) feedback from the developers of the mHealth app about the key messages generated by the advisory panel. Results The advisory panel (N=10) generated 23 key messages to guide the development of the mHealth app. Key design-specific messages (n=7) centered around access, tracking, synchronization, and reminders. Key content-specific messages (n=16) centered around medical terms, professional roles, cardiac surgery procedures and recovery, educational videos, travel, nutrition, medications, resources, and physical activity. This information was directly incorporated into the design of the mHealth app as long as it was supported by the existing functionalities of the underlying platform. For example, the platform did not support the scheduling of reminders by users, identifying drug interactions, or synchronizing with other devices. The developers of the mHealth app noted that key messages resulted in the integration of a vast range and volume of information and resources instead of ones primarily focused on surgical information, content geared toward expectations management, and an expanded focus to include caregivers and other family members, so that these stakeholders may be directly included in the provision of information, allowing them to be better informed, prepare along with the patient, and be involved in recovery planning. Conclusions Patient engagement may facilitate the development of a detail-oriented and patient-centered mHealth app whose design and content are driven by the lived experiences of end users.


Data is growing at an enormous rate in the present world. One of the finest and most popular technologies available for handling and processing that enormous amount of data is the Hadoop ecosystem. Enterprises are increasingly relying on Hadoop for storing their valuable data and processing it. However, Hadoop is still evolving. There is much vulnerability found in Hadoop, which can question the security of the sensitive information that enterprises are storing on it. In this paper, security issues associated with the framework have been identified. We have also tried to give a brief overview of the currently available solutions and what are their limitations. At the end a novel method is introduced, which can be used to eliminate the found vulnerabilities in the framework. In the modern era, information security has become a fundamental necessity for each and every individual. However, not everyone can afford the specialized distributions provided by different vendors to their Hadoop cluster. This paper presents a cost-effective technique that anyone can use with their Hadoop cluster to give it 3-D security.


Raised beach deposits are widespread on the north-western coast of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. To elucidate the importance of these deposits in an ecosystem carbon cycle, we measured the concentrations of organic carbon and adenosine 5-triphosphate (ATP; an index of living microbial biomass) in a raised beach deposit found under terrestrial vegetation in Ny-Ålesund. A shell in the deposit found at a depth of ca. 20 cm below the ground surface had a (not calibrated) 14C age of 11080 140 yr BP, whereas soil organic carbon in the same deposit showed an older 14C age (22380 90 yr BP). Organic carbon concentration in the layer of 20–40 cm belowground was about 1–2%, which was comparable to those in shallower mineral soil layers. Results of ATP analyses suggested that low but non-negligible amounts of microorganisms existed in the deposit. The proportion of biomass carbon to soil organic carbon tended to decrease with increasing depth, suggesting that organic carbon in the deep layer was less available to microorganisms than that in the shallow layers.


Power produced by a wind turbine is dependent on many factors with different importance degrees. Main factors can be found by a thorough analysis of all the factors and their correlation and impact on the main output. Therefore, it is important to monitor the performance of the wind turbines in order to minimize the operation and maintenance costs by pointing out abnormalities. This paper analyzes the main factors affecting active output power of a wind turbine which are Gearbox Temperature, Pitch Angle, Rotor Speed and Wind Speed. The data are measured over a 12-month period. Several techniques, Kohonen Maps, Multilayer Perceptron, Decision Trees and Rough Sets, are applied to these data. The objective is to show a comparison of different techniques, their positive and negative points and give the reader the ability to choose the best technique for the study based on the their advantages and disadvantages. For the assessment of data, MATLAB and WEKA software are utilized. Each study presents its accuracy based on the output error.


Open-cast mining in the vicinities of the town of Cheremkhovo is cause of environmental pollution with Al, Pb, Zn, Cu, As, B, Ni, Be, Sn, Y, Cr, V. Assessing the health status of children living in this area revealed the following: a high incidence of diseases; multimorbidity with a tendency for chronicity; reduced concentrations of a complex of essential trace elements in the children's hair below the physiological level; abundant hair heavy metals; the relation of hair trace element composition to the coal output. Micro- and macroelement imbalance is likely to cause high morbidity in the children living in the open-cast mining area.


While free trade agreements and other intermediary trade agreements allow emerging nations increased access to markets, many low- and middle-income countries lack the capacity required to meet global standards. Deficiencies in quality of product, speed of transport, or quality of regulation can prevent countries from reaping the benefits of trade agreements, particularly with the United States. This report of the CSIS Congressional Task Force on Trade Capacity Building-cochaired by Representatives Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Jared Polis (D-CO)-focuses on how projects to build trade capacity can be planned and coordinated to maximize the benefits of new trade agreements, both for the United States and its partners.


Mites that affect animals (acariasis) can occasionally be transmitted to humans by incidental contact producing pruritus and dermatitis. Animals such as dogs, cats, mice, birds and reptiles, harbour several mite species. Hemophage mites and those that feed on lymph have the potential of transmitting important zoonotic agents (cuales??). The presence of lesions of unclear origin and a history of contact with pets or wild animals should alert towards the possibility of acariasis. Diagnosis is based on direct visualization of the mite,analysis of its morphology and obtaining information on the animal host. Awareness of these acarosis and the responsible care of pets and animals are the most relevant preventive measures.


Analysis of the polypeptides induced by 29 herpes simplex virus type 1/type 2 intertypic recombinants and correlation of the data with the crossover points in the recombinant DNAs have enabled the map positions of many polypeptides to be deduced. These include 25 polypeptides which label with [35S]methionine, 11 which label with [32P]orthophosphate, and 4 which label with [14C]glucosamine. Together with the data of Preston et al. (J. Virol., in press) on the mapping of five immediate-early polypeptides, the results show that representatives of four groups of proteins--immediate-early, late, phosphorylated, and glycosylated--map in both long and short regions. The functional organization of the herpes simplex virus genome does not therefore restrict any of these four groups to either the long or the short region.


Two main families of reinforcement learning algorithms, Q-learning and policy gradients, have recently been proven to be equivalent when using a softmax relaxation on one part, and an entropic regularization on the other. We relate this result to the well-known convex duality of Shannon entropy and the softmax function. Such a result is also known as the Donsker-Varadhan formula. This provides a short proof of the equivalence. We then interpret this duality further, and use ideas of convex analysis to prove a new policy inequality relative to soft Q-learning.


After excitation by femtosecond laser pulses, Gd and Tb exhibit ultrafast demagnetization in two steps, with the time constant of the second step linked to the coupling strength of the 4f magnetic moments to the lattice. In time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements of Gd1−xTbx alloys, we observe a decrease in this time constant from 33 to 9 ps with Tb content x increasing from 0 to 0.7. We explain this behavior by the stronger spin-lattice coupling of Tb compared to Gd, which increases the effective spin-lattice coupling in Gd1−xTbx with x. In contrast, the faster time constant of the first demagnetization step exhibits no dependence on x. Additional time- and element-resolved x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements show a two-step demagnetization of Gd and Tb in Gd0.6Tb0.4 with an equivalent time scale of the second step but a different magnitude of demagnetization which persists for 15 ps. We explain this by an increased coupling of the Gd 4f magnetic moments to the lattice compared to pure Gd, via interatomic exchange coupling to the neighboring Tb 4f moments mediated by 5d electrons, which has limited efficiency and allows an estimation of a characteristic time scale of the interatomic exchange coupling. We assign the first demagnetization step to the dynamics of the laser-excited 5d electrons, while the second demagnetization step is dominated by the strength of spin-lattice coupling of the 4f electrons.


Electrocoagulation (EC) is a well-known technique for the treatment of water as well as wastewater. The principle of EC involves a sacrificial anode which dissolves in an electrolytic cell containing the feed water to release ions of the coagulant material which form polymeric hydroxide complexes. These complexes can then remove dissolved and suspended pollutants by flocculation thereby removing them. The objective of this study was to optimize operating conditions for nitrate removal using electrocoagulation and filtration. Continuous-flow experiments for nitrate removal were conducted with tap water or ground water obtained from within IIT Kharagpur campus. Mild steel electrodes were used for anode and cathode. Tracer studies were performed with different baffle configurations to evaluate the flow regime in the EC reactor and to compare analytical results obtained using an ISE probe versus ion chromatography. The differences in the results are discussed in detail. The reactor proved to be close to a CSTR even at a very low flow-rate of 1 L/h. Nitrate removal efficiency was inversely proportionate to the initial nitrate concentration. Removal efficiencies ranged from 87% in tap water to 99% in groundwater. Similar removal efficiencies were obtained with distilled water and ground water in this study and addition of kaolinite as a coagulant aid did not result in any significant difference in nitrate removal. While the final, treated water met nitrate standards for drinking water, turbidity standards were not met. Longer settling time, longer filtration time along with finer filtration media will be required to meet turbidity standards.


The Commonwealth of Australia has recently adopted a new innovative system of supporting people with disability; the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Its objectives are grounded in a disability rights framework that endeavours to support people with permanent and significant disability in improved independence, community involvement, education, employment, health and well-being. To align with NDIS objectives, a major shift in perspective has occurred that moves disability service provision from a traditional funding scheme based entirely on the presence of a health condition, to one focussed on the functional impact of the person's health condition. However, despite this new approach, the capacity of a person with vision impairment to meet NDIS eligibility criteria for funding will not be judged by measures that indicate the functional impact of their vision impairment. Rather, the person's clinical measurements such as visual acuity and visual fields will be applied to predetermined criteria that have been deemed as suitable indicators of vision impairment. This paper examined the existing professional literature that questions the application of clinical measurements to determine the functional impact of a person's vision impairment. Several models that recognise vision as a more complex entity were discussed. It is suggested that a broader approach to the assessment of a person's vision inclusive of both the clinical and functional domains, will assist ophthalmic reporting to more closely align with NDIS objectives, to enhance the support of Australians with vision impairment.


An imbalance between anabolism and catabolism causes an accumulation of amyloid β-peptide (Aβ), which is a proposed trigger of the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Neprilysin is a rate-limiting peptidase that participates in the catabolism of Aβ in the brain. We examined whether rats continuously infused with thiorphan, a specific neprilysin inhibitor, into the hippocampus develop cognitive impairments through accumulation of Aβ. Thiorphan infusion elevated hippocampal Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels in the insoluble but not the soluble fraction. Thiorphan-infused rats displayed cognitive impairments in the ability to discriminate in the object recognition test, associative learning in the conditioned fear learning test, and spatial memory in the water maze test, tasks that depend on the hippocampus. These cognitive abilities in the battery of behavioral tasks inversely correlated with insoluble Aβ contents in the hippocampus. The nicotine-stimulated release of acetylcholine in the hippocampus of thiorphan-infused rats was significantly lower than that in vehicle-infused rats. These results indicate that continuous infusion of thiorphan into the hippocampus causes cognitive dysfunction and reduces cholinergic activity by raising the level of Aβ in the hippocampus and suggest that a reduction of neprilysin activity contributes to the deposition of Aβ and development of Alzheimer's disease.


There is a growing interest in the debate on aid effectiveness for assessing the impact of aid not only on economic growth and poverty reduction, but also on intermediate outcomes such as health and education. This paper reviews evidence from recent in-depth country work on the impact of government policies and service provision in health and basic education in Zambia, and examines to what extent new aid approaches have contributed to the observed outcomes. It finds that limited coordination and lax adherence to good aid principles undermine the effectiveness of these approaches. The discussion of the findings sheds light on the underlying political economy and incentive structures on both sides of the aid relation that lead to casual adherence to the principles for more effective aid in these new aid approaches. It argues that most of the observed coordination failures can be explained by collective action problems on the part of both donors and recipients. If the international aid effectiveness agenda is to move forward, it will have to devise adequate mechanisms to address these coordination disincentives.


As changes in climate, governance, and organization reshape the dynamics of small-scale fisheries around the globe, the persistence of many local livelihoods appears contingent upon the ability of resource users to respond and adapt. Though significant scholarship has considered the limiting roles of resources and infrastructure, recent research has highlighted the importance of local learning and knowledge. Rather than being driven by forces exogenous to local communities, it is increasingly recognized that adaptation may be limited by perceptions and processes within them. Here we explore knowledge production and adaptive response within a small-scale fishery in the central Gulf of California following system perturbation. Using mixed methods from the natural and social sciences, we 1) identify local drivers of socio-ecological change, 2) document knowledge concerning their causes and consequences across a diverse group of small-scale fishermen and 3) identify patterns of intracultural agreement and disagreement associated with divergent adaptive response. Results indicate that perceptions of socio-ecological change were heterogeneous and that gear ownership and target species diversification were critical factors in determining the cultural models through which fishermen understood and responded to changes in the resource system. Unlike other user groups, owner-operator fishermen pursuing generalist livelihood strategies held consensus beliefs regarding changes to system structure and function and demonstrated increased ability to modify fishing tactics with the best practices for sustainable use. Our findings highlight how local knowledge can be used to assess the proximate impacts of external drivers of change and provide insight into the cultural models influencing in situ decision-making and adaptive response within modern fishery systems.


In case studies we relate dayside auroral transients to IMF B y -distorted plasma convection cells based on high-resolution observations from the ground. We selected three days representing positive and negative IMF B y conditions when SuperDARN returned reliable dayside convection patterns in the sector of our optical observations from Ny Alesund, Svalbard (76° MLAT). We combine two perspectives on the dayside aurora, the local and the global. In the first we derive the fine-structure of dayside precipitation/convection as a function of magnetic latitude (MLAT) and magnetic local time (MLT), which is necessary to understand the local M-I coupling processes (Birkeland current structure). The larger perspective (quasi-global dayside aurora) may be used to shed light on the solar wind-magnetosphere interconnection topology. The auroral morphology consists of brightening events and poleward moving auroral forms (PMAFs) in the pre- and postnoon sectors longitudinally separated by a band of strongly attenuated aurora near noon. We find that the MLT-dependent spatial structure in the dayside aurora (PMAFs/prenoon – "midday gap aurora" – PMAFs/postnoon) which is present during stable IMF conditions is altered by temporal structure during intervals of IMF/solar wind plasma transients. The focus is on the PMAF substructure (so-called "rebrightening forms") which we identify as dynamical plasma flow shear arcs (FSAs) in B y -distorted dawn- and dusk-centered convection cells in the close vicinity of the cusp.


We present a method to separate and deconvolve sources which have been recorded in real environments. The use of noncausal FIR filters allows us to deal with nonminimum mixing systems. The learning rules can be derived from different viewpoints such as information maximization, maximum likelihood and negentropy which result in similar rules for the weight update. We transform the learning rule into the frequency domain where the convolution and deconvolution property becomes a multiplication and division operation. In particular the FIR polynomial algebra techniques as used by Lambert present an efficient tool to solve true phase inverse systems allowing a simple implementation of noncausal filters. The significance of the methods is shown by the successful separation of two voices and separating a voice that has been recorded with loud music in the background. The recognition rate of an automatic speech recognition system is increased after separating the speech signals.


Abstract. High spatial resolution images acquired with drones can provide useful information to farmers for devising suitable management practices and increase crop yield. Data collected as individual frames or images have to be mosaiced using pattern recognition and matching process. Most flight missions collect hundreds of photos with high overlap and side overlap in order to generate mosaic without data gaps or distortion. These frames are aligned using the location information associated with each image. The same features are identified in multiple frames for generating the mosaic. In this process, it is common to use all or most of the images which requires a lot of resources. Uploading and processing hundreds of images could take several hours to days. Many farmers and crop consultants in developing countries may not have the necessary resources to upload hundreds of images. This study assessed the optimal number of images required to generate an image mosaic for a crop field without any data gaps or distortion. Images were collected at two different heights and directions. First, the mosaic was generated using all (100%) frames followed by subsets containing 90%, through 50% of images. Results obtained will assist us to plan the settings in future flight missions for acquiring optimal number of images required for generating image mosaic.


More elders will be in the system at every level. By now, we all have been subjected to a surfeit of predictions, ruminations, and warnings about the demographic "pig in the python": the aging baby boomers. Given the data, it seems perfectly reasonable to conclude that we can expect to see significant increases in the numbers of older people directly involved in the legal system-as judges, lawyers, litigants, witnesses, law enforcers, legislators, and more. Age bias "ageism"-is already operative in the system and almost certainly will continue to be so. What role will it play in a legal regime populated by enhanced numbers of older people? AGEISM OR OLD-AGEISM? Before any further discussion, however, one must distinguish between "ageism" and "oldageism." Ageism is commonly understood as a malign mechanism doing harm just to the old. Indeed, the integral linkage of ageism and old people was set forth when the term was coined by Butler (1975): Ageism can be seen as a process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender. Old people are characterized as senile, rigid in thought and manner, old-fashioned in morality and skills. . . . Ageism allows the younger generations to see older people as different from themselves; thus they subtly cease to identify with their elders as human beings. Butler, Palmore, and others have articulately and convincingly established that a slew of undeserved, harmful, negative stereotypes and images are associated with older people (Palmore, 1990; Eglit, 2004; see also Butler, this issue, and Palmore, this issue). Nonetheless, the foregoing analogies that Buder drew to racism and sexism, while effective at an emotive level, are from the lawyer's perspective misleadingly inexact. How so? For one, there is an implicit erroneous assumption that ageism equates with racism and sexism because these vices all afflict only those who hold minority status or who are less powerful in our society-the old, racial minorities, and women. In fact, race-based adversity can be experienced by whites just as well as blacks, and sexism can afflict men just as it does women. Examples are readily available. Alan Bakke, a white male, won his lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 when he challenged on both constitutional and statutory grounds a state medical school's denying him admission even as it accepted minority applicants with lesser standardized scores (Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 1978). More recendy, two white applicants denied admission to the University of Michigan because of a similar program won their 2003 Supreme Court case, based on the Fourteendi Amendment's Equal Protection Clause (Gratz, 2003). Likewise, mentypically (and understandably) thought of in American society as being the perpetrators rather than the victims of sexism-have successfully secured protection under both the Equal Protection Clause (Craig, 1976) and Title VTI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Oncale, 1998). Racism and sexism can afflict anyone, given the right (or wrong) circumstances. That same universality applies in the case of ageism: Age can be, and is, used as a basis for generating stereotypes and imposing treatment both when the targets of such stereotypes or treatment are old (as Buder would have it) and when they are not old. And so it is bodi fair and accurate to label as victims of ageism the millions of people who do not receive federal healthcare coverage because they are younger than 65 years oldthe age of Medicare eligibility. Likewise, albeit at a more mundane level, the is-year-old ineligible for a driver's license for being too young also is subjected to ageism. The second point that is relevant in correcting the popular, but too narrow, view of ageism concerns the generally accepted notion that agebased bias is an unadorned evil. …


PHOENIX is one of 2U CubeSats in QB50 project. The CubeSat was designed, assembled, integrated, tested and operated by National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. After the deployment from International Space Station (ISS) in May 2017, magnetometer calibration has been viewed as one of the important tasks during the mission operation. This paper is concerned with the in-flight magnetometer calibration which will naturally be influenced by the variation of temperature during the course of orbiting around the earth. A temperature-dependent magnetometer model is proposed and a particle swarm optimization method is adopted in the estimation of calibration parameters. The proposed model and method are verified and tested by using in-flight data from PHOENIX. It is shown that the use of the proposed model together with the optimization method renders a closer match between the magnitudes of the measurement vector and IGRF model. Additionally, the calibration method can be extended to find the suboptimal solution for the satellites with magnetometers without temperature compensation. The proposed approach is believed to be beneficial for small satellites and CubeSats that rely on magnetometer data for attitude determination, orbit determination, and attitude control.


The logic of appropriateness is a perspective that sees human action as driven by rules of appropriate or exemplary behavior, organized into institutions. Rules are followed because they are seen as natural, rightful, expected, and legitimate. Actors seek to fulfill the obligations encapsulated in a role, an identity, a membership in a political community or group, and the ethos, practices and expectations of its institutions. Embedded in a social collectivity, they do what they see as appropriate for themselves in a specific type of situation. The paper is divided into five parts. First, we sketch the basic ideas of rule-based action. Second, we describe some characteristics of contemporary democratic settings. Third, we attend to the relations between rules and action, the elements of slippage in executing rules. Fourth, we examine the dynamics of rules and standards of appropriateness. And, fifth, we discuss a possible reconciliation of different logics of action, as part of a future research agenda for students of democratic politics and policy making.


Among the recurring suggestions listed in the responses to the 1993 membership survey undertaken by the Society, was the request for a higher profile for hydrogeology, and the inclusion of environmental geology. Hydrogeology has always featured in the QJEG (a paper on groundwater in Tehran appeared as early as Volume 1, Part 3) but the journal has not published in the environmental geology field before. We feel, however, that there is considerable potential for publications in both fields, and it has been decided that, as there are a number of excellent hydrogeological papers awaiting publication at the moment, a special Hydrogeological thematic part will be issued alongside Part 3 of the QJEG this year at no extra cost to subscribers. In addition, it is proposed to include environmental geology and waste management within the scope of the journal from now on. Readers of the QJEG can help this exciting new development by spreading the word that papers on the engineering geological or hydrogeological aspects of environmental protection and waste management can now be considered for publication. Construction materials have always been of interest and concern to engineering geologists and this has been reflected in the pages of the QJEG from its inception. As early as Volume 1, No. 2, we had a seminal paper on the polishing of roadstones that described a test that is still in use today and which, over a quarter of a century, has contributed greatly to road safety in many countries. Construction materials continue to


A fundamental property of a progressive income tax is that it provides implicit insurance against shocks to income by dampening the variability of disposable income and consumption. The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA) in combination with the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) greatly reduced the number of marginal tax brackets and the maximum marginal rate, which limits the stabilizing effect of the tax system on household consumption when pre-tax income fluctuates. We examine the effect of the federal income tax reforms of the 1980s on the associated degree of automatic stabilization of consumption. The empirical framework derives from the consumption insurance literature, where the ideal outcome is spatially equal changes in households' marginal utilities of consumption, and permits partial insurance, which we use to identify how the degree of consumption insurance has changed since ERTA and TRA86. Our data come from interview years 1980–1991 in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find that in certain cases the tax reforms of the 1980s actually increased the automatic stabilization inherent in the United States income tax. Overall, ERTA and TRA86 reduced consumption stability by about 50 percent. More recent tax reforms, most notably increased EITC generosity, have restored or enhanced consumption insurance. A welfare analysis indicates that the cost of moving to the post-TRA86 system is sizable for relatively risk averse households facing large income risk, but is much more modest for the typical household.


Abstract. The chemical ageing of aeolian dust, through interactions with air pollution, affects the optical and hygroscopic properties of the mineral particles and hence their atmospheric residence time and climate forcing. Conversely, the chemical composition of the dust particles and their role as coagulation partners impact the abundance of particulate air pollution. This results in an anthropogenic radiative forcing associated with mineral dust notwithstanding the natural origin of most aeolian dust. Using the atmospheric chemistry climate model EMAC with a detailed parametrisation of ageing processes and an emission scheme accounting for the chemical composition of desert soils, we study the direct radiative forcing globally and regionally. Our results indicate large positive and negative forcings, depending on the region. The predominantly negative forcing at the top of the atmosphere over large parts of the dust belt, from West Africa to East Asia, attains a maximum of about −2 W/m2 south of the Sahel, in contrast to a positive forcing over India. Globally averaged, these forcings partially counterbalance, resulting in a net negative forcing of −0.05 W/m2, which nevertheless represents a considerable fraction of the total dust forcing.


Thrombocyte production from megakaryocytes of healthy humans, dogs, guinea pigs and mice was observed continuously for one to six days in tissue culture.

Approximately 70 per cent of the explanted megakaryocytes broke down to give rise to numerous platelets, while the remaining 30 per cent of the cells remained unchanged.

The newly formed thrombocytes were separated from the rest of the bone marrow tissue, counted and their serotonin absorbing capacity determined.

There was invariably a gradual increase in both the number of thrombocytes and in their serotonin absorbing capacity during the one to six days of observation.

The results obtained were similar in human megakaryocytes and in those of experimental animals.


In this article, I show how systemic social constructionist premises and practices transform, enliven, and expand the range of possibility within my everyday work.  The article highlights intentional steps taken towards social collaboration in educational systems. Social collaboration is possible when "self" is regarded as relational and narrative.  Individualistic definition of self is critically viewed as an obstacle to social collaboration. I present my work as a family therapist in the form of a case vignette that shows how collaborative work between parties in conflict can significantly impact outcomes for the child and others in relations to "bullying" at school. I describe how I work with students, parents, and school staff to utilise conflict in a way that improves conditions for children and brings about change in school systems. From this, new possibilities become available to co-construct meaningful and dialogical conversations between parents and school administrators. My argument is that this form of collaboration with families and their children supports change at multi layers.


In order to improve human thermal comfort of residential buildings in urban village, the study of indoor thermal environment is necessary. Three typical selected houses in Huangpu Village were taken as an example to study. After a seven-day field measurement under the condition of natural ventilation, thermal neutral temperature and PMV indices were calculated based on the collected data. It is shown that the PMV values of the houses vary from -0.5 to 2.1, and the acceptance rate differ significantly in different houses and human activities states. The parameters including outdoor air temperature, indoor air temperature and PMV were studied through the linear regression, and the results demonstrate that their correlation coefficients are high, and their relationships have been developed. The results of this work create a precedent for the indoor thermal environment design and control of urban village buildings in China.


A study of the increases over the past twenty years in the cost of the journals included in the 1977 Brandon list was conducted. This information is compared to the general U.S. rate of inflation for the same period as represented by the consumer price index. Results indicate that the Brandon list journal's prices have been increasing at a significantly higher rate than the general rate of inflation for this period. This information should be useful to the hospital librarian who must justify to administrators the need for increased funding beyond the general rate of inflation.


We find that 16 firms are not in compliance with California Senate Bill No. 826 (SB 826), which requires all publicly held companies that trade on a major exchange with principal executive offices in California to have at least one female director on their board. The names of non-compliant firms and the location of their principal executive offices are provided in Table 1. To verify compliance, we search SEC filings and company websites. Statistics are provided as of January 13, 2020.


Previous work [Metcalfe, Ott, Patel, Singh, Mistry, Goff and Raven (2004) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 16242-16248] has shown that the introduction of a methionine residue (S160M variant) close to the 2-vinyl group of the haem in ascorbate peroxidase leads to the formation of a covalent haem-methionine linkage under oxidative conditions (i.e. on reaction with H2O2). In the present study, spectroscopic, HPLC and mass spectrometric evidence is presented to show that covalent attachment of the haem to an engineered cysteine residue can also occur in the S160C variant, but, in this case, under reducing conditions analogous to those used in the formation of covalent links in cytochrome c. The data add an extra dimension to our understanding of haem to protein covalent bond formation because they show that different types of covalent attachment (one requiring an oxidative mechanism, the other a reductive pathway) are both accessible within same protein architecture.


In recent years considerable portion of the computer science community has focused its attention on understanding living cell biochemistry and efforts to understand such complication reaction environment have spread over wide front, ranging from systems biology approaches, through network analysis (motif identification) towards developing language and simulators for low level biochemical processes. Apart from simulation work, much of the efforts are directed to using mean field equations (equivalent to the equations of classical chemical kinetics) to address various problems (stability, robustness, sensitivity analysis, etc.). Rarely is the use of mean field equations questioned. This review will provide a brief overview of the situations when mean field equations fail and should not be used. These equations can be derived from the theory of diffusion controlled reactions, and emerge when assumption of perfect mixing is used.


The purpose of this research was to analyze and compare the mechanical properties of parts made using both Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and traditional manufacturing methods like casting or forging. Previous research in DMLS was conducted using various materials, but there has been very little done for 17-4PH stainless steel. All the samples used for testing were conducted using the EOSINT® M 270 metal sintering system made by EOS GmbH. The samples produced were tested under various post-processing conditions including solution treatment and age hardening. Metallurgical testing was also conducted in order to determine the effects of sintering with regards to phase formation during heat treatment. Tensile tests revealed that parts straight from the machine corresponded with values published by EOS GmbH, but results from age hardening were much lower than wrought components aged to the H 900 condition. When cross checking the results with hardness and microstructure, it was found that hardness vastly decreased during solutionizing and only increased marginally during aging. The microstructure was, there was also vastly different, little evidence of martensite was present in the solution treated condition, and the aged condition showed no transformation to tempered martensite. This lack of transformation points to inconsistences in either the DMLS process or from furnace conditions during heat treatment. 17-4PH stainless steel may be inferior in the precipitation hardened state, but produces comparable properties straight from the machine.


This article is aimed to investigation of four different PVD coatings of STATON company in order to determine a wear behavior on twist drills when drilling C45 material. A pearlite-ferrite structure of C45 material is common material for automotive industry and highly abrasive to cutting tools. Our comparative study is focused on flank wear of the cutting wedge of observed drills deposited at STATON. The article shows differences in chemical composition and their effects on wear behavior at the corner of the drill and along the cutting edge. We also demonstrate that chemical composition has significant influence on the temperature of a build-up edge during cutting.


Abstract Background The lymph node ratio (LNR), defined as the number of positive lymph nodes (LN) divided by the total number of harvested LN, has been demonstrated to be an independent factor in the prognosis of surgically treated colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. This study aims to establish the prognostic value of LNR in stage III CRC patients with high numbers of LN removed. Methods Stage III CRC patients who underwent curative resections over an 8-year period were included to the study. Demographics, clinicopathological features, surgical as well as recurrence and survival outcomes were recorded and statistically analyzed. Calculations for LNR were carried out as a function of percentage rates and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed to determine its effect on disease-free and overall survival. Results Among a total of 493 surgically treated CRC cases, 104 patients were included to the study consisting of 68 (65.4%) men and 36 (34.6%) women with a median age of 64 (inter-quartile range: 55–74) years. The mean number of harvested LN was 31.6 ± 21.0 (range: 12–103). Multivariate Cox regression analyses proved LNR to be a significant factor in both disease-free and overall survival (p = 0.007 and p = 0.003, respectively). Forward elimination analyses showed that a 1% increase in LNR resulted with a 2% increase in both the risks of recurrence and mortality. Conclusions The LNR may be assessed as an adjunct to the current staging systems for the prediction of oncological outcomes and survival of surgically treated stage III CRC patients.


: Wear particles from joint endoprostheses vary considerably in size, and may be detectable in tissue only by electron microscopy. Wear debris plays a central role in the non-infectious late loosening of prostheses, and it has been estimated that the submicron particles induce increased liberation of mediators of osteolysis by activated macrophages. From the types of prostheses currently in use, bone cement and polyethylene particles greatly predominate over metallic and ceramic particles. Since it had formerly not been possible to reliably identify wear particles in the transmission electron microscopy, and descriptions of them in the literature varied considerably, we analysed ultrathin sections obtained from periprosthetic tissue containing wear particles previously identified by laser microprobe mass analysis. Using this method, it proved possible to classify almost all the wear particles detected in the electron microscope, to determine their size range and to represent the cellular alterations caused by them.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Purpose: Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) has been shown to affect the myocardium, resulting in a worse clinical outcome. In this registry study, we aimed to identify differences in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) between COVID-19 and all-cause myocarditis. Materials and Methods: We examined CMRI of patients with COVID-19 and elevated high-sensitivity serum troponin levels performed between March 31st and May 5th and compared them to CMRI of patients without SARS-CoV-2 infection with suspected myocarditis in the same time period. For this purpose, we evaluated Lake-Louise Criteria for myocarditis by determining nonischemic myocardial injury via T1-mapping, extracellular volume, late gadolinium enhancement, and myocardial edema (ME) by T2-mapping and fat-saturated T2w imaging (T2Q). Results: A total of 15 of 18 (89%) patients with COVID-19 had abnormal findings. The control group consisted of 18 individuals. There were significantly fewer individuals with COVID-19 who had increased T2 (5 vs. 10; P=0.038) and all-cause ME (7 vs. 15; P=0.015); thus, significantly fewer patients with COVID-19 fulfilled Lake-Louise Criteria (6 vs. 17; P<0.001). In contrast, nonischemic myocardial injury was not significantly different. In the COVID-19 group, indexed end-diastolic volume of the left ventricle showed a significant correlation to the extent of abnormal T1 (R 2=0.571; P=0.017) and extracellular volume (R 2=0.605; P=0.013) and absolute T1, T2, and T2Q (R 2=0.644; P=0.005, R 2=0.513; P=0.035 and R 2=0.629; P=0.038, respectively); in the control group, only extracellular volume showed a weak correlation (R 2=0.490; P=0.046). Conclusions: Cardiac involvement in COVID-19 seems to show less ME than all-cause myocarditis. Abnormal CMRI markers correlated to left ventricle dilation only in the COVID-19 group. Larger comparative studies are needed to verify our findings.


We report optically pumped lasing action at the attractive wavelength of 650 nm in the common organic dye 1-amino-2-methylanthraquinone (Disperse Orange 11). The dye was incorporated into poly(methyl methacrylate) rods, and amplified spontaneous emission was studied under second-harmonic Nd:YAG laser excitation in a transverse pumping configuration. Gain and conversion efficiency were found to be comparable with those for other laser dyes. Dye photodegradation was found to be superior and reversible.


OBJECTIVES
Oat cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder is extremely uncommon. To date, 87 cases have been reported in the literature. Histologically, these tumors are similar to oat cell carcinoma of the lung and in slightly more than half of the cases the tumor is associated with another carcinomatous component: urothelial, squamous carcinoma, adenocarcinoma or, more rarely, sarcomatoid carcinoma. A case of sarcomatoid small cell carcinoma is described herein.

METHODS/RESULTS
We report a case of sarcomatoid small cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder in a 79-year-old female patient. The tumor was in the advanced stages and was unamenable to resection. The patient was treated with multi-drug systemic chemotherapy, but she died five months after diagnosis. Light microscopy disclosed a carcinomatous component similar to oat cell carcinoma of the lung that stained with epithelial and neuroendocrine markers. The sarcomatoid component was histologically nondescript and showed extensive immunoreactivity to mesenchymal and epithelial markers.

CONCLUSIONS
Sarcomatoid small cell carcinoma of the bladder is rare. To our knowledge, only five cases have been previously reported. It is aggressive, metastasizes early and has a poor diagnosis. Surgical resection with adjuvant multidrug systemic chemotherapy is currently the best available treatment.


While the traditional view of financial innovation emphasizes the risk sharing role of new financial assets, belief disagreements about these assets naturally lead to speculation, which represents a powerful economic force in the opposite direction. This paper investigates the effect of financial innovation on portfolio risks in an economy when both the risk sharing and the speculation forces are present. I consider this question in a standard mean-variance framework. Financial assets provide hedging services but they are also subject to speculation because traders do not necessarily agree about their payoffs. I define the average variance of traders' net worths as a measure of portfolio risks for this economy, and I decompose it into two components: the uninsurable variance, defined as the average variance that would obtain if there were no belief disagreements, and the speculative variance, defined as the residual variance that results from speculative trades based on belief disagreements. Financial innovation always decreases the uninsurable variance because new assets increase the possibilities for risk sharing. My main result shows that financial innovation also always increases the speculative variance. This is true even if traders completely agree about the payoffs of new assets. The intuition behind this result is the hedge-more/bet-more effect: Traders use new assets to hedge their bets on existing assets, which in turn enables them to place larger bets and take on greater risks. The net effect of financial innovation on portfolio risks depends on the quantitative strength of its effects on the uninsurable and the speculative variances. I consider a calibration of the model for new assets linked to national incomes of G7 countries, which were recommended by Athanasoulis and Shiller (2001) to facilitate risk sharing. For reasonable levels of belief disagreements, these assets would actually increase the average consumption risks of individuals in G7 countries. In addition, a profit seeking market maker would introduce a different subset of these assets than the ones proposed by Athanasoulis and Shiller (2001). The endogenous set of new assets would be directed towards increasing the opportunities for speculation rather than risk sharing.


Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to observe the adaptation experience process of adolescents with hematologic malignancies. Methods: The Grounded Theory Method, developed by Strauss & Corbin (1998), was used in this study. The data were collected through in-depth. interviews with 10 adolescents with cancer. Data collection and analysis occurred concurrently. Theoretical sampling technique was used until the data reached saturation. Results: "A deviated life" was verified as the central phenomenon for adolescents with cancer. The adaptation experience process was divided into 3 steps: "Self-confusion", "Reinterpretation", and "Regeneration of self". Through these 3 steps, the adolescents with hematologic malignancies fitted a new life by self-integration. Conclusion: The results of this study provide a frame for individualized nursing intervention strategies in helping with the psychosocial adaptation of adolescents with hematologic malignancies.