Shape Memory Polymer Composites (SMPC) is a compound of resin matrix and fiber reinforced material. It has advantages of lager restoring force, lower density, higher stiffness and strength. The stiffness of laminate and thin walled tube using SMPC materials was discussed in this paper. Experiment was made to verify the different structures influences on deployment at the same temperature. The initial stiffness of laminate decrease at 40°C to 50°C, but that's for tube was about 70°C to 80°C. It illustrated that the structural influence should also be concerned except the Tg. At the last of the paper, stiffness of laminate, tube and semicircular were calculated respectively to see the influence of structure at normal temperature.


Pulmonary vascular remodeling and increased arterial wall stiffness are two major causes for the elevated pulmonary vascular resistance and pulmonary arterial pressure in patients and animals with pulmonary hypertension. Cellular copper (Cu) plays an important role in angiogenesis and extracellular matrix remodeling; increased Cu in vascular smooth muscle cells has been demonstrated to be associated with atherosclerosis and hypertension in animal experiments. In this study, we show that the Cu-uptake transporter 1, CTR1, and the Cu-efflux pump, ATP7A, were both upregulated in the lung tissues and pulmonary arteries of mice with hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. Hypoxia also significantly increased expression and activity of lysyl oxidase (LOX), a Cu-dependent enzyme that causes crosslinks of collagen and elastin in the extracellular matrix. In vitro experiments show that exposure to hypoxia or treatment with cobalt (CoCl2) also increased protein expression of CTR1, ATP7A, and LOX in pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMC). In PASMC exposed to hypoxia or treated with CoCl2, we also confirmed that the Cu transport is increased using 64Cu uptake assays. Furthermore, hypoxia increased both cell migration and proliferation in a Cu-dependent manner. Downregulation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) with siRNA significantly attenuated hypoxia-mediated upregulation of CTR1 mRNA. In summary, the data from this study indicate that increased Cu transportation due to upregulated CTR1 and ATP7A in pulmonary arteries and PASMC contributes to the development of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. The increased Cu uptake and elevated ATP7A also facilitate the increase in LOX activity and thus the increase in crosslink of extracellular matrix, and eventually leading to the increase in pulmonary arterial stiffness.


Objectives : Though Tsutsugamushi disease has been reported with increasing frequencies in rural communities in Korea, it is not easy to find the nursing investigations.
 Method : We have conducted a survey on 30 cases who had the fever as a chief complaint, then clinically ruled out the Tsutsugamushi disease in autumn of 2000~2001. Data were collected retrospectively by investigation of the general characteristics, clinical and laboratory findings, their nursing care.
 Findings : Of 30 cases, 46.7% were farmers, and 60.0% had chances of exposure to fields or mountains. The characteristic symptoms and signs were febrile sense and chill(100.0%), headache(80.0%), and eschar(66.7%). Abnormal laboratory findings were anemia(23.3%), elevated AST(60.6%), ALT(63.3%), and abnormal urinalysis findings(50.0%). 53.3% were serologically confirmed as Tsutsugamushi disease. Therapeutic nursing cares were composed with warm up by blancket(50.0%). Ice bag(50.0%) and doxycycline antibiotic therapy(100.0%). Other nursing care for them included fluid therapy(100.0%) and nutritional support with regular(56.7%) or soft diet(43.3%).
 Conclusion : The above results indicate nurses who take care of acute febrile clients should make herself responsible for the fever and pain management as well as give education for infection control for the community inhabitants.


Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) is the second most common urological malignancy and ranking among the top ten malignancies in men and women, respectively (1). At initial presentation, the majority of patients have non muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), but some patients have muscle-invasive UCB (MIBC) (2). The natural UCB history of both, NMIBC and MIBC, is highly variable and considerably depending based on treatment strategies. While some patients never experience disease recurrence, others experience disease progression and eventually decease of their disease (3). Despite significant improvements in the clinical management, technical accouterment, surgical techniques, perioperative management as well as introduction of modern drugs over the past decades, in general UCB outcomes have only marginally improved. Although NMIBC and MIBC derive from the identical epithelial lining, both UCB types show distinct differences in their biologically behavior.


The extent of gap junctions and dye coupling between insulin-producing B-cells was analyzed on islets of Langerhans isolated from adult rats treated for one day with glibenclamide, an insulin secretagogue, or diazoxide, a blocker of insulin release, or a combination of the two drugs. Glibenclamide treatment was associated with a marked depletion of the islet insulin content, an effect which was blocked by pretreatment of the rats with diazoxide. Diazoxide alone caused a marked increase in the plasma glucose level, and a decrease in the level of circulating insulin and in the hormone content of the B-cells. Quantitative analysis showed that (1) under control conditions, B-cells are connected by minute gap junctions (as evaluated on freeze-fracture replicas) and show a nonuniform and apparently restricted dye coupling (as determined by microinjection of the low-molecular-weight fluorescent probe Lucifer Yellow CH); (2) each of the three treatments tested significantly increased the relative and absolute gap junction area of the B-cells and the number of detectable, dye coupled B-cells per microinjec-tion. After treatment with glibenclamide alone or with diazoxide plus glibenclamide, a 1.5–1.8-fold increase in gap junction area and a 2.7–3.7-fold increase in the number of dye-coupled B-cells were observed. In contrast, following treatment with diazoxide alone, gap junctions and dye coupling were found increased 1.8 and 8.7 times, respectively, as compared with control values. The results suggest that small territories of coupled B-cells may exist within adult islets of Langerhans, and show that such a pattern can be modulated in vivo via changes in the gap junctions and dye coupling of B-cells. The mechanism(s) regulating these changes is unknown but is clearly operative after both stimulation and inhibition of insulin release.


As part of their routine investigations, law enforcement conducts open source research; that is, investigating and researching using publicly available information online. Historically, the notion of collecting open sources of information is as ingrained as the concept of intelligence itself. However, utilising open source research in UK law enforcement is a relatively new concept not generally, or practically, considered until after the civil unrest seen in the UK's major cities in the summer of 2011.

While open source research focuses on the understanding of bein'publicly available', there are legal, ethical and procedural issues that law enforcement must consider. This asks the following mainresearch question: What constraints do law enforcement face when conducting open source research? From a legal perspective, law enforcement officials must ensure their actions are necessary and proportionate, more so where an individual's privacy is concerned under human rights legislation and data protection laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation. Privacy issues appear, though, when considering the boom and usage of social media, where lines can be easily blurred as to what is public and private.

Guidance from Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and, now, the National Police Chief's Council (NPCC) tends to be non-committal in tone, but nods towards obtaining legal authorisation under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 when conducting what may be 'directed surveillance'. RIPA, however, pre-dates the modern era of social media by several years, so its applicability as the de-facto piece of legislation for conducting higher levels of open source research is called into question. 22 semi-structured interviews with law enforcement officials were conducted and discovered a grey area surrounding legal authorities when conducting open source research.

From a technical and procedural aspect of conducting open source research, officers used a variety of software tools that would vary both in price and quality, with no standard toolset. This was evidenced from 20 questionnaire responses from 12 police forces within the UK. In an attempt to bring about standardisation, the College of Policing's Research, Identifying and Tracing the Electronic Suspect (RITES) course recommended several capturing and productivity tools. Trainers on the RITES course, however, soon discovered the cognitive overload this had on the cohort, who would often spend more time learning to use the tools than learn about open source research techniques.

The problem highlighted above prompted the creation of Open Source Internet Research Tool (OSIRT); an all-in-one browser for conducting open source research. OSIRT's creation followed the user-centred design (UCD) method, with two phases of development using the software engineering methodologies 'throwaway prototyping', for the prototype version, and 'incremental and iterative development' for the release version.

OSIRT has since been integrated into the RITES course, which trains over 100 officers a year, and provides a feedback outlet for OSIRT. System Usability Scale questionnaires administered on RITES courses have shown OSIRT to be usable, with feedback being positive. Beyond the RITES course, surveys, interviews and observations also show OSIRT makes an impact on everyday policing and has reduced the burden officers faced when conducting opens source research.

OSIRT's impact now reaches beyond the UK and sees usage across the globe. OSIRT contributes to law enforcement output in countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia and even Israel, demonstrating OSIRT's usefulness and necessity are not only applicable to UK law enforcement.

This thesis makes several contributions both academically and from a practical perspective to law enforcement. The main contributions are:
• Discussion and analysis of the constraints law enforcement within the UK face when conducting open source research from a legal, ethical and procedural perspective.
• Discussion, analysis and reflective discourse surrounding the development of a software tool for law enforcement and the challenges faced in what is a unique development.
• An approach to collaborating with those who are in 'closed' environments, such as law enforcement, to create bespoke software. Additionally, this approach offers a method of measuring the value and usefulness of OSIRT with UK law enforcement.
• The creation and integration of OSIRT in to law enforcement and law enforcement training packages.


Several new immunodeficient mouse models for human cell engraftment have recently been introduced that include the Rag2−/−γc−/−, NOD/SCID, NOD/SCIDγc−/− and NOD/SCIDβ2m−/− strains. Transplantation of these mice with CD34+ human hematopoietic stem cells leads to prolonged engraftment, multilineage hematopoiesis and the capacity to generate human immune responses against a variety of antigens. However, the various mouse strains used and different methods of engrafting human cells are beginning to illustrate strain specific variations in engraftment levels, duration and longevity of mouse life span. In these proof-of-concept studies we evaluated the Balb/c-Rag1−/−γ−/− strain for engraftment by human fetal liver derived CD34+ hematopoietic cells using the same protocol found to be effective for Balb/c-Rag2−/−γc−/− mice. We demonstrate that these mice can be efficiently engrafted and show multilineage human hematopoiesis with human cells populating different lymphoid organs. Generation of human cells continues beyond a year and production of human immunoglobulins is noted. Infection with HIV-1 leads to chronic viremia with a resultant CD4 T cell loss. To mimic the predominant sexual viral transmission, we challenged humanized Rag1−/−γc−/− mice with HIV-1 via vaginal route which also resulted in chronic viremia and helper T cell loss. Thus these mice can be further exploited for studying human pathogens that infect the human hematopoietic system in an in vivo setting.


Study Objective: The presence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with cancer appears to be accompanied by poorer outcomes. However, the mechanisms underlying such association are unknown. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), including CD8+ T cells, function as cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and mount immune responses to cancer by the release of cytolytic enzymes, including granzyme B (GzmB), perforin (Prf), and cytokines such as interferon (IFN)‐&ggr;. Methods: Using established in vivo mouse models, we investigated CD8+ T cells and cancer stem cells (CSCs) in intermittent hypoxia (IH) and sleep fragmentation (SF) in the context of tumor environment. Results: Both IH and SF promoted increased tumor growth and invasion toward adjacent tissues compared to controls. The number and frequency of GzmB‐producing CD8+ T cells per milligram of tumor tissue was significantly reduced in IH‐exposed mice with impaired cytolytic function in both the groups and correlated with tumor weight. We also found that Oct4+ and CD44+CD133+ expressing CSCs were considerably increased in IH and SF tumors, respectively. Conclusions: Reductions in GzmB in intratumoral CD8+ T cells in combination with the changes in tumor microenvironment that maintain the ability of CSCs to self‐renew and even confer this capability to the nonstem population are compatible with reduced immunosurveillance and adverse tumor outcomes in animal models of OSA.


Knowledge about human cognitive and physical state is a key factor in physical Human-robot collaboration (pHRC). Such information benefits the robot in planning an adaptive control strategy to prevent or mitigate human fatigue. In this paper, we present a method to detect upper limb muscle fatigue during pHRC using a low-cost myoelectric sensor. We used Riemann geometry to extract robust features from the time-series data and designed a classifier to detect the binary state of human fatigue i.e. fatigued vs not fatigued. We evaluated the method using a fine-motor coordination task for the human to guide an industrial robot along a virtual path for sometime followed by a muscle curl exercise until it induces fatigue in the muscles, and then repeat the robot experiment. We recruited nine participants for the study and recorded muscle activity from their dominant upper limb using the myoelectric sensor and used the data to develop a classifier. We compared the accuracy and robustness of the classifier against conventional time-domain and wavelet-based features and showed that Riemann geometry-based features yield higher classification accuracy (∼ 91%) compared to conventional features and require less computational effort. Such classifier can be used in real-time to develop a human-aware adaptation strategy to prevent fatigue.


For the automatic revision of homework assignments in Prolog programming courses, in general one has to rely on testing or on validating programs with respect to a specification. Here, we present a pragmatic and flexible method for the partial specification of program properties. Within the AT(P) system, partial specifications can be used for automatic analysis of student solutions to Prolog exercises, yielding automatically generated feedback to the student. AT(P) is integrated into the Virtual University system of the FernUniversitat in Hagen.


Quantum state transfer by propagating wave packets of electromagnetic radiation requires tunable couplings between the sending and receiving quantum systems and the propagation channel or waveguide. The highest fidelity of state transfer in experimental demonstrations so far has been in superconducting circuits. Here, the tunability always comes together with nonlinear interactions, arising from the same Josephson junctions that enable the tunability. The resulting non-linear dynamics correlates the photon number and spatio-temporal degrees of freedom and leads to a multi-mode output state, for any multi-photon state. In this work, we study as a generic example the release of complex quantum states from a superconducting resonator, employing a flux tunable coupler to engineer and control the release process. We quantify the multi-mode character of the output state and discuss how to optimize the fidelity of a quantum state transfer process with this in mind.


The advance of mobile and wireless technologies in recent years is permitting the development of new and more complex context-aware and pervasive systems. These applications cover a wide spectrum of problems, sectors, scenarios, and environments that aim to build smart environments, such as educative innovation. In this paper we present a proposal for a pervasive system providing students the access to bibliographic sources recommended by teachers on the subjects or courses on which the students are enrolled. In order to define the educational contents of a subject or course the IMS Learning Design standard has been used. Finally, we describe the use of NFC Near Field Communication for the development of the proposed pervasive system, showing the usefulness of the proposal and user acceptance.


The creation of unwrapped stitched images of pipework internal surfaces is being increasingly used to augment routine visual inspection. A significant challenge to the creation of these stitched images is the need to estimate the pose and position of the camera for each frame, which is often alleviated through the use of a mechanical centralizer to ensure the camera is held in the center of the pipe. This article proposes a novel method for image centralization and pose estimation, which is particularly beneficial to circumstances where mechanical centralization is impractical. The approach involves post-inspection centralization of the captured video, by first estimating the probe's position relative to the pipe, using an integrated laser ring projector combined with the camera sensor, and then using this position to unwrap the image, so it produces an undistorted view of the pipe interior (equivalent to unwrapping a centralized view). These unwrapped images are then stacked to produce a stitched image of the pipe interior. In this paper pose estimation was successfully demonstrated to have a 90% confidence interval of ±0.5 mm and ±0.5° in translation and rotation changes. This pose estimation is then used to create stitched images for both a visual test card image mounted inside a pipe and an aluminum pipe sample with artificial defects, in both cases demonstrating near equivalent results to those obtained using traditional mechanical centralization.


We propose a nonparametric approach for estimating single-index, binary-choice models when parametric models such as Probit and Logit are potentially misspecified. The new approach involves two steps: first, we estimate index coefficients using sliced inverse regression without specifying a parametric probability function a priori; second, we estimate the unknown probability function using kernel regression of the binary choice variable on the single index estimated in the first step. The estimated probability functions for different demographic groups indicate that the conventional dummy variable approach cannot fully capture heterogeneous effects across groups. Using both simulated and labor market data, we demonstrate the merits of this new approach in solving model misspecification and heterogeneity problems.


Several North African wetlands are classified as wetlands of international importance (Ramsar sites and Important Bird Area) because thousands of Shelducks (Tadorna tadorna) winter in these habitats. However, Shelduck's patterns of habitat use in these protected wetlands during the wintering season are still hindered by lack of information in arid and semi-arid regions regarding population dynamics and the effects of climate variables. This ornithological survey aims to study population dynamics and temporal patterns of diurnal activities of the Shelduck at two Ramsar and Important Bird Area sites (Chott Tinsilt and Sebkhet Ezzemoul) with respect to the effect of climatic parameters of the habitat in order to deepen our understanding of wintering strategies and habitat use. Populations were weekly censused from 06:00 to 19:00 during the entire wintering season (September 2015–May 2016). Diurnal behavioural activities were monitored at the same rate, and then the variation of time budget was tested using generalized linear model to determine the effects of climate variables and conspecific density dependence. The Shelduck was observed at both sites from the end of November and remained there until the total desiccation of both lakes in early May. Trends of Shelduck's population dynamics differed between the two sites. Generalized linear models revealed the significant effects of temperature, wind speed and number of snowy days on population dynamics. Feeding was the main diurnal activity of the Shelduck at both sites with 80.2% of time budget at Chott Tinsilt (mainly feeding at lake shores) and 82% at Sebkhet Ezzemoul (mainly feeding in water). The generalized linear models showed that the variation of time budget allocated to different diurnal activities was not density-dependent, but rather it was negatively affected by the increase of air temperature. Significant effects of the interaction between population size and some climatic variables were found and discussed. During the whole wintering season, Chott Tinsilt and Sebkhet Ezzemoul play an important ecological role since they offer a wide-ranging diurnal forging habitat and a shelter for thousands of this waterfowl.


In this paper, we adopt information infrastructure design principles and concepts from the theory of critical mass to analyze and evaluate the socio-technical conditions that hindered the successful bootstrapping processes of a crowdsourcing tool for environmental research. The crowdsourcing tool was designed to improve the estimation of emissions from burning wood for residential heating in urban areas in Norway by collecting geolocation data on wood consumption and stove types. Our analysis identifies three groups of users, namely scientists, wood consumers (end users), and key stakeholders, that the IT capability of the tool needs to support. At this stage, we determined that the tool was more useful to the scientists than the other two groups, which was attributed to its low uptake. We uncovered various underlying issues through further analysis of means by which the tool becomes useful to key stakeholders. One particular issue concerned the tension between existing data collection practices, which are based on statistical methods, and the nature of crowdsourcing, which is based on the principle of open call with no sampling techniques. From our analysis, we concluded that developing crowdsourcing tools for research requires increasing the tool's benefits for key stakeholders by addressing these underlying issues. Inferring from the theory of critical mass for collective action, we recommend that developers of crowdsourcing tools include a function that allows users to view the contributions of other users.


European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) have recently been identified as a conservation threat in New Zealand. Hedgehogs were kill-trapped at 14 wetland and braided riverbed sites in the upper Waitaki Basin between late October 1997 and early February 1998 and their gut contents described. The most commonly eaten prey were Coleoptera (present in 81% of 192 guts), Lepidoptera (52%; n = 192), Dermaptera (49%; n = 192), Hymenoptera (42%; n = 192) and Orthoptera (31%; n = 319). Large numbers of single invertebrate prey types were frequently eaten by individual animals, likely indicating hedgehogs' ability to take advantage of rich patches of food. Weta remains occurred in 22% of guts, with the gut of one adult male containing 283 Hemiandrus legs. No remains of the endangered robust grasshopper were found. Eggshell was recorded in 4% of 615 guts. Native lizard remains were found in 6% of 615 guts and three times as many adult female hedgehog guts contained lizards compared with adult males. This difference may be linked to females' high energetic demands during the breeding season. The dependence of hedgehogs on invertebrate prey is likely to have significant implications for the conservation of threatened endemic invertebrates, which often show restricted ranges. While birds' eggs and native lizards appear to be of lesser importance, small, localised populations of these fauna may still be threatened by hedgehog predation.


In the second half of 2019, collective bargaining was conducted in only five of the 19 sectors included in the German Economic Institut's wage monitoring system: In the chemical industry, construction, cleaning services, aviation and hospitals. In addition, in the East German metal and electrical industry, an obligation to explore possible solutions for an East-West adjustment of weekly working hours was fulfilled. Collective bargaining focuses 2019 in the first half of the year. In this half-year, the number of conflicts examined was twenty. An analysis of all conflict events during 2019 shows that the printing industry, banking, cleaning services and aviation were the most conflict-intensive sectors. However, ballots and strikes only occurred in the collective bargaining disputes over cabin crew between UFO and Lufthansa and between UFO and Eurowings. In a long-term comparison, 2019 was more conflict-intensive than the long-term average. The conflict intensity averaged 10.8 points out of 22 analyzed collective bargaining conflicts. For the period from 2005 to 2019, on the other hand, the figure is only 9.5 points. Since 2005 there have been nine years with a lower conflict intensity than in 2019, but only five years with a higher one.


Any injury affecting peripheral nerve continuity is followed by a degenerative reaction from nerve itself and its muscle. Nerve regeneration is possible when the two ends are put in direct contact (direct suture), proximity (autologous or artificial grafts), or through muscle neurotization. The aim of this experimental study was to evaluate sciatic nerve degeneration and regeneration in rats after no suture (group 1), direct suture (group 2), nerve grafting (group 3) and muscle neurotization (group 4). Nerve samples were analyzed by optical microscopy at 8 and 16 weeks after surgery, and nerve degeneration (group 1), axonal growth (group 2) and neuromuscular regeneration (group 4) were assessed. Optical microscopy and different staining techniques confirmed nerve degeneration, regeneration, and axonal growth in different moments. Cholinesterase test after direct muscle neurotization showed enzymatic activity at the level of muscle implantation of nerve fibers, indirectly confirming the presence of neuromuscular synapse.


A novel multi-agent particle swarm optimization algorithm (MAPSO) is proposed for optimal reactive power dispatch and voltage control of power system. The method integrates multi-agent system (MAS) and particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO). An agent in MAPSO represents a particle to PSO and a candidate solution to the optimization problem. All agents live in a lattice-like environment, with each agent fixed on a lattice-point. In order to decrease fitness value quickly, agents compete and cooperate with their neighbors, and they can also use knowledge. Making use of these agent-agent interactions and evolution mechanism of PSO, MAPSO realizes the purpose of minimizing the value of objective function. MAPSO applied for optimal reactive power is evaluated on an IEEE 30-bus power system. It is shown that the proposed approach converges to better solutions much faster than the earlier reported approaches.


Metamaterials were first introduced for dealing with electromagnetic waves. By creating a material with negative magnetic permeability and electric permittivity, it is possible to manufacture perfect optical lenses, electromagnetic absorbers, technologies for rendering objects invisible and so on. Later researchers began to look into metamaterials for dealing with acoustic waves. This thesis presents the modeling and analysis techniques for design of metamaterial beams as elastic wave absorbers. An acoustic metamaterial beam is designed by attaching tiny subsystems to an isotropic beam at separate locations. Each unit cell consists of a beam segment and a mass-spring-damper subsystem so that it could be modeled as a discrete system of two degrees of freedom. By integration, the idealized model becomes a dispersive medium with a frequency stopband. The work shows that the metamaterial beam uses the local resonance of subsystems to generate inertia forces to work against the external load and prevent elastic waves from propagating forward. Dispersion analysis and frequency response analysis are conducted to find the stopband of a metamaterial beam. Moreover, the working mechanisms of the metamaterial beam, the concept of negative effective mass, and acoustic and optical modes are presented. This concept is also extended to design a multi-frequency vibration absorber that works for absorbing broadband elastic waves. Numerical simulations by using finite elements validate the design and reveal a set of optimized parameter values. This work shows that, for a multi-frequency vibration absorber, a high damping ratio for the secondary absorber combines two stopbands into a broad one while a low damping ratio for the primary absorber guarantees quick response to the coming excitation elastic wave.


We report for the first time the use of a carbonyl-bridged triarylamine core with diketopyrrolopyrrole terminal units to generate a three-dimensional, non-planar non-fullerene electron acceptor with favourable properties for use in organic photovoltaic devices. The carbonyl-bridged triarylamine-functionalized, small molecule non-fullerene electron acceptor, 2,6,10-tris(5-(2,5-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3,6-dioxo-4-(thiophen-2-yl)-2,3,5,6-tetrahydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrol-1-yl)thiophen-2-yl)-4H-benzo[9,1]quinolizino[3,4,5,6,7-defg]acridine-4,8,12-trione (coded as R1), was synthesized via the industrially viable, Suzuki cross-coupling reaction using commercially and cheaply available substrates. Using PTB7 as a donor, a power conversion efficiency of 9.33% was achieved in simple, solution-processable bulk-heterojunction devices, a result that is amongst the best in the literature for three-dimensional non-fullerene acceptors.


This paper reflects on the possible role of legal positivism in (the cognition of) international law and makes three specific points. First, we need positivism, but only to the extent that it is assigned a few very limited functions. This is the idea of reductionism. Second, positivism should be stripped of all the straw men that are commonly attached to it: voluntarism, state-centricism, rigid and static theories of sources, theories of interpretation and techniques of content determination, etc. This is the idea of emancipation. Third, if restricted to one particular function and emancipated from such approximations, legal positivism can prove to be a useful approach to international law that complements — and can be complemented by — other existing approaches, and which, in that sense, does not claim any monopoly on the cognition of international law. This is the idea of ecumenism. Reductionism, emancipation, and ecumenism are the three prerequisites without which it is not possible to make sense of international legal positivism at all, and short of which international legal positivism cannot make sense of our complex world. They simultaneously constitute three steps that ought to be taken in order to move away from the straightjacket of classical legal positivism. The paper says a few words about each of them.


Background/Aims Ongoing and recent clinical trials for geographic atrophy (GA) have used different outcomes. The goal of this study was to identify a core outcome set (COS) important for patients, clinicians and researchers, and to propose the use of COS in the design of future GA trials. Methods Five-component project including: Delphi method with patients and experts, focus groups and interviews with patients, relatives and workers supporting patients. Three hundred and one patients (301) with age-related macular degeneration participated in round 1 of a Delphi exercise. Most subjects had GA; 183 patients (61%) were females and the median (range) age was 77 (50–99) years. In round 2, of the 301 of the first round, 100 participants were randomly selected of whom 76 agreed to take part. In a parallel Delphi exercise, panellists comprised a mix of non-clinical scientists and clinicians (43 in the initial and 21 in the final round). In addition, interviews and focus groups consisting of patients (n=20), family members (n=4) and support workers (n=5) were undertaken. Results Core outcomes identified as important for age-related macular degeneration trials were the health of the outer retina, multimodal estimation of lesion size, reading speed, best corrected distance and near acuity, low luminance visual acuity, patient reported visual performance and safety. Conclusion This study identified a set of core outcomes that should be used in GA trials. The COS include patient-reported outcome measures, near visual acuity, reading speed and assessment of the outer retina.


We analyze how bank profitability impacts financial stability from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. We first develop a theoretical model of the relationship between bank profitability and financial stability by exploring the role of non-interest income and retail-oriented business models. We then conduct panel regression analysis to examine the empirical determinants of bank risks and profitability, and how the level and the source of bank profitability affect risks for 431 publicly traded banks (U.S., advanced Europe, and GSIBs) from 2004 to 2017. Results reveal that profitability is negatively associated with both a bank's contribution to systemic risk and its idiosyncratic risk, and an over-reliance on non-interest income, wholesale funding and leverage is associated with higher risks. Low competition is associated with low idiosyncratic risk but a high contribution to systemic risk. Lastly, the problem loans ratio and the cost-to-income ratio are found to be key factors that influence bank profitability. The paper's findings suggest that policy makers should strive to better understand the source of bank profitability, especially where there is an over-reliance on market-based non-interest income, leverage, and wholesale funding.


Thermoelectric materials can convert thermal energy into electrical energy without any moving part which leads its path of application to the era of printed and flexible electronics. CsSnI3 perovskite can be a promising thermoelectric material for the next-generation energy conversion due to its intrinsic ultra-low thermal conductivity and large Seebeck coefficient but enhancement of electrical conductivity is still required. CsSnI3 can be prepared by wet process which can reduce the cost of flexible thermoelectric module.
 In this work, CsSnI3 thin films were fabricated by spin coating wet process. Thin films were structurally and chemically characterized using XRD and SEM. Thermoelectric properties such as electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity were measured at 300 K. Uni-leg thermoelectric modules were fabricated on a glass substrate using CsSnI3 thin films. The maximum output is about 0.8 nW for 5 legs (25 mm × 3 mm × 600 nm) modules for the temperature difference of about 5°C. These results will open a new pathway to thermoelectric modules for flexible electronics in spite of low output power.


This paper addresses a new challenge in active learning: objects are described in different levels of quality and we can obtain a better version of an object at a given cost. This setting is very useful in robotics, where computing and time resources are limited. We aim to improve and label only a few objects under a given budget in an active learning setting.


Once an individual becomes a naturalized citizen, the U.S. government can revoke citizenship only upon a discovery that the individual was not eligible to procure naturalization at the time of application. The process to revoke naturalization, referred to as denaturalization, may begin with a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1425, a criminal statute broadly prohibiting any attempt to procure naturalization "contrary to law." This "contrary to law" language created confusion regarding the required statutory elements of § 1425. Most courts to address this issue, including the Supreme Court in Maslenjak v. United States, held that § 1425 requires proof of a material misrepresentation to sustain a conviction, meaning the misrepresentation at issue must have actually impacted an applicant's eligibility to procure citizenship. However, prior to Maslenjak, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals created a circuit split in holding that any misrepresentation made during the naturalization process sufficed for conviction under § 1425. This Comment argues that the Supreme Court's opinion in Maslenjak ignored the plain meaning and purpose of 18 U.S.C. § 1425. This Comment begins by examining the history of naturalization in the United States and the evolution of denaturalization procedures. Next, this Comment examines the plain meaning of § 1425 and discusses the purpose of the statute within the broader framework of the laws governing naturalization. Finally, this Comment addresses relevant case law, particularly the Maslenjak case, and argues that the legislative process is the proper vehicle to change the statutory elements for criminal denaturalization under § 1425. * J.D. Candidate, the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University, 2018.


Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of inhaled salbutamol for the treatment of transient tachypnea of the newborn (TTN). Background The most commonly reported cause of neonatal respiratory distress is TTN, with estimated incidence of 0.5–2.8% of all newborn. Patient and methods This is a randomized controlled trial study considering patient with even registration number as cases. Inhaled salbutamol or normal saline solution was administered to 60 infants diagnosed as having TTN. The response was evaluated by determining respiratory rate, heart rate, TTN clinical score, and level of respiratory support, before and at 30 min and 1 and 4 h after drugs therapy. The standard dose of salbutamol was 0.15 mg/kg added to 2 ml normal saline. The second group received dose of 2 ml nebulized (0.9%) normal saline only. Results The studied neonates were between 36 and 39 weeks of gestation. There were 30 (50%) males and 30 (50%) females. Comparing the two groups after 4 h of inhaled therapy, highly significant lower respiratory rate, oxygen, TTN score, respiratory support, and duration of hospitalization were detected in salbutamol group rather than saline group. Regarding arterial blood gas findings after 4 h of inhaled therapy, pH and partial pressure of arterial oxygen were significantly higher in salbutamol group than saline group. No significant difference was detected between the two groups regarding heart rate and serum potassium. Conclusion A single dose of inhaled salbutamol resulted in better clinical aspect and better laboratory outcome measures in cases of TTN.


Purpose: Sessile serrated lesions (SSL) are precursors to colon carcinoma, and their distinction from other polyps, in particular hyperplastic polyps (HP), presents significant diagnostic challenges. We evaluated expression patterns in colonic polyps of previously identified colon carcinoma–associated extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins to identify markers distinguishing SSLs from other polyps. Experimental Design: Gene-expression analyses of ECM proteins were performed using publicly available data on preneoplastic colonic polyps. In parallel, we evaluated by IHC the expression of agrin (AGRN) in over 400 colonic polyps, including HP, SSL with and without dysplasia, traditional serrated adenomas (TSA), and tubular adenomas (TA), and compared the consistency of standard histologic diagnosis of SSLs by experienced gastrointestinal pathologists with that of AGRN IHC. Results: Differential gene expression analysis and IHC identified AGRN, serine peptidase inhibitor (SERPINE2), and TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 1 (TIMP1) elevated in SSLs and HPs but decreased in TAs and absent in normal colon. AGRN-positive basal laminae were noted in all TA, TSA, HP, and SSL in distinguishable patterns, whereas other polyps and normal mucosa were negative. SSL with or without dysplasia consistently showed IHC staining for AGRN in the muscularis mucosae, which was absent in HP, TSA, TA, and other polyps. In contrast, histologic evaluation showed only weak interobserver agreement (kappa value = 0.493) in distinguishing SSLs. Conclusions: Muscularis mucosae–based AGRN immunostaining is a novel biomarker to distinguish SSL from HP, TSA, and TA, with a specificity of 97.1% and sensitivity of 98.9% and can assist in diagnosis of morphologically challenging colonic polyps.


Gender, Technology and Knowledge During the last 15 years questions concerning gender, technology and knowledge, have become increasingly recognized as central to the field of the sociology of technology. Nonetheless, critical questions remain unanswered. These issues are addressed here through investigations of the relationship between gender, work, knowledge and technology. This thesis is composed of an introduction and four independent but related chapters. The first chapter "Computerization and the Skill in Women's Work" critically reviews and explores issues of skill, computerization and women's work. In a discussion of gendered construction of skill, the notion of skill is problematized as a social –historical category. The relation of women's employment to new technologies is explored further in the paper, "The Implications of Computerization and Microelectronics on Women's Employment in South-East Asia. This chapter addresses the issues of technological change and women's work in an international perspective. A major question developed here is why has the introduction of new technology has differential effects on women's and men's work both in the context of industrialized countries and in the Third Worlds. The analysis uses an impact approach to assess the influence of new technology, i.e. computerization on women's work, but also gives an indication of social shaping of technology in which the form and organization of work after computerization influences the skill and knowledge which women use in work. The chapter finishes with a review of the literature on women, work and micro-electronics in South-east Asia. While critical the chapter is not anti¬technological; rather, it seeks to open a critical discussion about technological change in women's work. This critical stance needs to be seen in the context of the rosy promises made about new technologies by their industrial advocates. Chapter three "Technology, Knowledge and Ethics in the Practice and Tradition of Swedish Midwives", presents a study of Swedish midwives' use of technology, and is framed by a discussion of feminist research and research on working life. The central argument is that a more nuanced perspective on the medicalization thesis opens a new perspective on knowledge, bodies and technologies. The method of research circles is presented. The last chapter, "Globalization, Technological Discourses and Gender – New Technology in the Workplace: The Case of Computerization in Indian Banking", presents research from a project about the introduction and diffusion of new technologies in the office service sector of developing countries. Centr4al issues in this research are globalizing processes and technological change in Third World countries, the impact of work and skills, and changes in gender divisions of labor. The research method is a modified social actor network approach. (Less)


. The semiospherical approach to semiotics and especially to semiotics of culture entails the need of juxtaposing several terminological fields. Among the most important, the fields of textuality, chronotopicality, and multimodality or multimediality should be listed. Textuality in this paper denotes a general principle with the help of which it is possible to observe and to interpret different aspects of the workings of culture. Textuality combines in itself text as a well-defined artefact and textualization as an abstraction (presentation or definition as text). In culture, we can pose in principle the same questions both to a concrete and to an abstract text, although an abstract text is only an operational means for defining, with the help of textualization, a certain phenomenon in the interests of a holistic and systemic analysis. The practice of textualization in turn helps us to understand the necessity of distinguishing between articulation emerging from the textual material itself and articulation ensuing from textuality or textualization — the former provides for comparability between texts made from the same material, the latter makes comparable all textualized phenomena irrespective of their material. Textuality is a possibility that culture offers to its analyser, and at the same time it is an ontological property of culture and an epistemological principle for investigating culture.


Various alloplastic materials are used for nasal augmentation in Asian patients. Of these, silicone is the most prevalent because it is durable and facilitates sculpting. However, silicone grafts have been associated with complications, including tip extrusion, infection, and graft shifting. Often the nasal tip is involved, with skin discoloration and possible implant extrusion due to increased mechanical pressure. Autogenous material provides a safer alternative for nasal augmentation, but the supply of septal or auricular cartilage in Asian patients is limited. To augment optimally and reduce extrusion risk, we use auricular cartilage grafts at the nasal tip and silicone implants for the nasal dorsum in Asian patients. We report the results of this technique in 100 Asian patients with up to 5 years of follow-up. Patients were extremely satisfied, and no implant extrusions resulted. Other complications included further surgical revision due to misalignment of the silicone dorsal implant (5 patients), tip graft shifting (2 patients), and recurrent dorsal edema over the implant requiring removal (1 patient).


Bases in the opposite strands of DNA cross-linked by clinically ineffective trans-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (trans-[Pt(NH3)2Cl2]) have been identified by means of three experimental approaches. These include HPLC analysis of enzymatic digests of synthetic oligonucleotide duplexes containing the interstrand cross-link, footprinting experiments on the interstrand cross-linked oligonucleotide duplexes, and termination of the duplex transcription on trans-[Pt(NH3)2Cl2]-treated fragments of plasmid DNA. The results reveal that deoxyguanine and complementary deoxycytosine residues are preferential binding sites of trans-[Pt(NH3)2Cl2] in the interstrand adducts. The interstrand cross-linking reaction was studied by means of gel electrophoresis for the cis and trans isomers. The rate of formation of interstrand cross-links was lower for the trans isomer; however, trans-[Pt(NH3)2Cl2] formed about twice the amount of interstrand cross-links as compared with the cis isomer after 48 hr. The present results are suggested to be relevant to differences in clinical activity of the two platinum(II) isomers.


: In rats with 4- or 5-day reproductive cycles various responses to the blockade of ovulation with sodium pentobarbitone at pro-oestrus (or at pro-oestrus and on the next day) were compared. The blood concentrations of oestradiol decreased rapidly during the 24 h period after injection of sodium pentobarbitone at pro-oestrus in rats with 5-day cycles. In those with 4-day cycles this response took almost a day to develop. Injection of sodium pentobarbitone at pro-oestrus and on the next day interfered with ovulation of the present crop of large follicles in rats with 5-day cycles. In 4-day cyclic rats this procedure delayed ovulation of these follicles by 48 h. Receptive behaviour was absent on the day after the second injection of sodium pentobarbitone in rats with 5-day cycles; some receptivity was, however, induced by the injection of gonadotrophin. The latter injection resulted in the release of a low number of eggs; fertilization of these eggs, however, did not occur. In 4-day cyclic rats receptive behaviour was recorded on the day after the second injection of sodium pentobarbitone: fertilization of delayed ovulated eggs took place normally but pregnancy was seen only rarely. The results indicated clear differences in responses to blockade of ovulation with sodium pentobarbitone between rats with 4- or 5-day cycles. The differences most probably result from a more advanced 'age' of preovulatory follicles at pro-oestrus of 5-day cycles compared with those of 4-day cycles. Experimental delay of ovulation reveals ageing changes and the probable onset of atresia at an earlier time after blockade in 5-day cyclic than in 4-day cyclic rats.


Nuclear myosin 1c (NM1) mediates RNA polymerase I (pol I) transcription activation and cell cycle progression by facilitating PCAF-mediated H3K9 acetylation, but the molecular mechanism by which NM1 is regulated remains unclear. Here, we report that at early G1 the glycogen synthase kinase (GSK) 3β phosphorylates and stabilizes NM1, allowing for NM1 association with the chromatin. Genomic analysis by ChIP-Seq showed that this mechanism occurs on the rDNA as active GSK3β selectively occupies the gene. ChIP assays and transmission electron microscopy in GSK3β−/− mouse embryonic fibroblasts indicated that at G1 rRNA synthesis is suppressed due to decreased H3K9 acetylation leading to a chromatin state incompatible with transcription. We found that GSK3β directly phosphorylates the endogenous NM1 on a single serine residue (Ser-1020) located within the NM1 C-terminus. In G1 this phosphorylation event stabilizes NM1 and prevents NM1 polyubiquitination by the E3 ligase UBR5 and proteasome-mediated degradation. We conclude that GSK3β-mediated phosphorylation of NM1 is required for pol I transcription activation.


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Quantitative analysis of time scale effects is conducive to further understanding of vegetation water and soil conservation mechanism. Based on the observation data of the grass covered and bare soil (control) experimental plots located in Hetian Town, Changting County of Fujian Province from 2007 to 2010, the characteristics of 4 parameters (precipitation, vegetation, RE and SE) were analyzed at precipitation event, month, season, and annual scales, and then the linear regression models were established to describe the relationships between RE(SE) and its influencing factors of precipitation and vegetation. RE (SE) means the ratio of runoff depth (soil loss) of grass covered plot to that of the control plot. Results show that these 4 parameters presented different magnitude and variation on different time scales. RE and SE were relatively stable either within or among different time scales due to their ratios reducing the influence of other factors. The coupling of precipitation and vegetation led to better water conservation effect at lower RE (0.7) REs at precipitation event scale as well as at annual scale (R2 > 0.78). For the soil conservation effect, precipitation or/and vegetation was/were the dominated influence factor(s) at precipitation event and annual scales, and the grass LAI could basically describe the positive conservation effect (SE 0.55), while the maximum 30 min intensity (I30) could describe the negative conservation effect more accurately (SE>1, R2>0.79). More uncertainties (R2≈0.4) exist in the models of both RE and SE at two moderate time scales (month and season). Consequently, factors influencing water and soil conservation effect of grass present different variation and coupling characteristics on different time scales, indicating the importance of time scale at the study on water and soil conservation.


This paper briefly highlights some of the most influential ideas in the literature on the economics of energy and (energy-related) climate change. This paper will use bibliometric evidence to examine the trends in related research over the last forty years, and analyse the explosion in energy and climate change research in the last ten years. It will also, more controversially, consider the validity of the hypothesised rise in original ideas in the literature (during the 1990s) and then decline (or relative decline) since the explosion in research output (since 2005). This paper proposes that if economists are going to make an equally important and constructive contribution as they did up to 2012, then their ideas will need to move forward and evolve, offering exciting and stimulating new solutions for the post-Kyoto era.


Article history: Received 25 March 2015 Accepted 20 April 2015 Available online, ISSN: 2148-127X The objective of this study was to determine the effect of different treatments times of aclonifen, which is used as preand post-emergence herbicide in the control of blackgrass [Alopecurus myosuroides Huds. (Poaceae)] on the critical concentration values resulting in 100% success. The plants of A. myosuroides were grown on pots under greenhouse conditions. In the study, to determine the herbicide contraction on the plant tissues accurately, 14 Caclonifen was added to the aclonifen suspension concentrate (SC) Challenge 600 and suggested dose (270 g e.m. da -1 ) was treated. The trials were initiated in march and april of 2011 and the treatments were applied the first (pre-emergence), 20 th (early post-emergence) and 40 th (later post-emergence) days. 10-day after each treatment, the symptoms were evaluated; and, the fresh and dry weights of the leaves were recovered. The aclonifen concentration on the fresh and dry leave samples were determined by the measuring the total radioactivity amount in dpm using liquid scintillation analyzer. The results of the trials indicated that the suggested doses of aclonifen critical concentration on the A. myosuroides leaves were: 1.58 ± 0.16 nmol/mg dry weight for pre-emergence; 3.04 ± 1.57 and 0.94 ± 0.81 nmol/mg dry weight for early and late post-emergence, respectively. It was also determined that the treatment of aclonifen with suggested dose when applied either as pre-emerge or as early post emergence until the plants reach 1-2 leaf stage before emergence or until 1-2 leaf stage result in 100% control; however, the treatments applied after 3-4 leaf stage are not successful although they result in delays of plant development.


Background: Although its etiology is not fully known, the accepted view is that bruxism is a multifactorial disorder. Aims: This study aims to evaluate the prevalance of self-reported bruxism and to investigate its relationship with psychological and sociodemographical factors amongst undergraduate dental students in Zonguldak, Turkey. Subjects and Methods: 250 dental students were asked to fill the bruxism questionnaire – to detect the prevelance of bruxism; personal information form – to determine sociodemographic variables; and symptom checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) – to asses psychological state. Data were analyzed statistically by Kolmogorov Smirnov, Shapiro Wilk, Mann Whitney U, and Kruskal Wallis tests through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program. Results: The prevalance of self-reported bruxism was 40%. 46% of the students showed higher levels of psychological symptoms. SCL-90-R subscales showed statistically significant differences in students with bruxism compared to those without bruxism (P < 0.05). It was observed that bruxism was associated with gender (P < 0.05) and both bruxism and psychological symptom levels were statistically higher in females (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The findings revealed that, although bruxism was common among dental students, gender and psychosocial factors are also mostly associated with the etiology of bruxism. In this context, during the challenging dentistry education period, it is important to direct students who are found to have high levels of psychological symptoms to psychological counseling and guidance services.


The entire mucosa from 30 normal frontal sinuses was removed, stained by the whole mount method, and the density of goblet cells and mucous glands was determined. There was an average of 6,300 goblet cells per square millimeter without statistically significant differences between the various walls. The glands were small and seromucous. In 87% of the sinuses, the gland density was less than 0.2 glands per square millimeter, and the total gland count did not exceed 40. This represents a totally negligible mucus production, which must be derived predominantly from the goblet cells. The density proved significantly higher in the inferior parts of the sinuses. The findings are discussed in relation to other areas of the respiratory tract.


The chemokines are a large family of cytokines that regulate the complex and precise recruitment of immune cells into inflammatory foci. To fully appreciate their role in the pathogenesis of human diseases, the entire spectrum of chemokines, their receptors, their cellular targets, and mechanisms of regulation need to be delineated. Using eotaxin as a probe, we isolated a cDNA for a novel human beta (or CC) chemokine that, based on its biological and structural features, we have named monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-4. Purified recombinant MCP-4 protein was a potent chemoattractant for monocytes and eosinophils and stimulated histamine release from basophils. MCP-4 induced a calcium flux in HEK-293 cells transfected with the monocyte selective MCP-1 receptor (CCR-2B) and the eosinophil selective eotaxin receptor (CCR-3), but not in the more widely expressed CCR-1 or CCR-5. This novel chemokine is expressed in TNF-alpha and IL-1 activated epithelial and endothelial cells in vitro, and in the epithelial mucosa of patients with both Th2-type allergic and Th1-type nonallergic sinusitis. Furthermore, both IFN-gamma and IL-4, products of Th1 and Th2 cells, respectively, synergized with TNF-alpha and IL-1 in inducing MCP-4 mRNA accumulation. These properties of MCP-4 offer a molecular explanation for the observed accumulation of monocytes, eosinophils and basophils in both Th1- and Th2-type immune responses.


This article wrote to certain effect of inquiry learning on student's science process skill and scientific literacy with some variable used metaanalysis method. The data of this study were seconder data which taken from other study result. Resources data of this study were nine reputation journal of national and international. Collected of data in online with taken same of topic on independent and dependent variable. Nine of articles used in this research. Five articles dicuss about science process skill and four articles discuss about scientific literacy. Data analyzed using effect size count. Result study were being means effect size from inquiry learning model on student's science process skill were 1.43 and scientific literacy were 0.84. It means inquiry learning given positive effect on science process skill and scientific literacy. High effect size from inquiry learning on science process skills were in junior high school (1.95) grade with GIL (1.84) using macromedia flash (1.67) in IPA region (1.71). Beside that, high effect size from inquiry learning on scientific literacy were in college (1.44) with GI-BL (1.44) using non-media (0.87) in biology region (1.44).


The current research examines the conceptual overlap of established leadership styles. Study 1 investigates six positive leadership styles: transformational, charismatic, ethical, servant, authentic, and LMX. Analyses suggest that charismatic leadership has the potential to encompass the others, except servant leadership, which seems to measure a different concept. Study 2 examines five negative leadership styles: petty tyranny, abusive supervision, despotic leadership, supervisor undermining, and laissez-faire. Analyses suggest that abusive supervision and supervisor undermining have the potential to encompass petty tyranny and despotic leadership, and could be integrated into one broader active leadership construct. Laissez-faire leadership stands on its own as a result of its passive nature. Overall, results confirm there is significant overlap between leadership styles, and that these may not be measuring different concepts as they are defined in the literature. The results of this research suggest revisiting the conceptual and measurement perspectives of both positive and negative leadership styles.


In this work, numerical analyses on the Volterra's ancient walls are performed to understand the causes of a collapse occurred after an extreme rainfall (2014) and to identify the mechanical parameters that most influenced it. The stretch of collapsed wall is modelled with finite elements by distinguishing the material composing the multi-leaf wall. Non-linear static analyses are carried out with the DIANA software considering different levels of hydraulic head up to reach the collapse of the structure. The impact on the failure modes of the involved parameters, such as tensile strength, fracture energy and shear strength, are discussed. Tensile strength is found as the most relevant parameter in the failure mode. Finally, a 3-dim model is presented, and the results show a very good agreement with the failure mode actually occurred in terms of both failure modes and displacement fields. The safety evaluation is performed in the as-built and the retrofitted configuration, consisting in the wall restrained by tie-rods. The results show a significant increasing of the safety level of the retrofitted configuration showing a considerable improvement not only in terms of limit equilibrium but also in terms of structural capacity of the wall.


Amyloid deposition plays a significant, albeit overlooked, role in neurologic disorders. Deposition of amyloid proteins in both the central and peripheral nervous systems lead to debilitating, and often deadly, organ dysfunction, including cerebral amyloid angiopathy, familial amyloid neuropathy, and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Alzheimer's disease is discussed in some detail in a separate chapter within this book, and therefore will not be discussed in detail in this chapter. In this chapter, we present the pathological mechanisms, disease manifestations, diagnostic approach, and treatment modalities for diseases of the nervous system caused by amyloid deposition. While significant strides have been made over the years in identifying key underlying pathologic mechanisms, the medical community's understanding of these rare conditions remain limited. The primary goal of this chapter is to provide additional resources and information for clinicians to help identify these disorders early in their course before they cause irreparable damage to their patients.


Objectives The MoBa study includes data from mothers on several occasions during pregnancy and after birth. The purpose of this study was to compare education level and mid-pregnancy sickness absence in self-report MoBa data and in national registries. Methods We followed MoBa participating mothers, born in Norway 1967–1976, in several national registers. The first pregnancy 1999–2009 to 36 629 mothers was considered for analysis of education level in MoBa and the National Education Database, and for mid-pregnancy sickness absence from work in MoBa and in the national event database FD-Trygd. The degree of agreement in 5-level education level and dichotomous absence >14 days between gestational weeks 13 and 30 were estimated in tabular analyses. We computed associations between sickness absence and years of education in binomial regression as a measure of educational gradient in sickness absence. Results The agreement in education level among 31 833 mothers with data from both sources was 70%, the self-report level was higher than the register data for 24%, register data level was higher for 6%. The main discrepancy was for master level education (25% in self-report data and 12% in registry data). The sickness absence risk was 38% in self-report data and 44% in registry data, with an 81% agreement for the 11 801 mothers with data from both sources. A one-year increment in education was associated with a 3.2 percent point risk reduction in absence both for self-report data and registry data (95% confidence intervals 2.9 to 3.7 percent points for self-report data and 2.8 to 3.5 percent points for registry data). Conclusions Participating MoBa mothers tended to report higher education level and lower sickness absence than for data collected in national registries. This difference did not seem to influence associations between education level and sickness absence risk in mid-pregnancy.


The experimental wave paddle signal is unknown to the numerical modellers in many cases. This makes it quite challenging to numerically reproduce the time history of free surface elevation for irregular waves. In the present work, a numerical investigation is performed using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based model to validate and investigate a non-iterative free surface reconstruction technique for irregular waves. In the current approach, the free surface is reconstructed by spectrally composing the irregular wave train as a summation of the harmonic components coupled with the Dirichlet inlet boundary condition. The verification is performed by comparing the numerically reconstructed free surface elevation with theoretical input waves. The applicability of the present approach to generate irregular waves by reconstructing the free surface is investigated for different coastal and marine engineering problems. A numerical analysis is performed to validate the free surface reconstruction approach to generate breaking irregular waves over a submerged bar. The wave amplitudes, wave frequencies and wave phases are modelled with good accuracy in the time-domain during the higher-order energy transfers and complex processes like wave shoaling, wave breaking and wave decomposition. The present approach to generate irregular waves is also employed to model steep irregular waves in deep water. The free surface reconstruction method is able to simulate the irregular free surface profiles in deep water with low root mean square errors and high correlation coefficients. Furthermore, the irregular wave forces on a monopile are investigated in the time-domain. The amplitudes and phases of the force signal under irregular waves generated by using the current technique are modelled accurately in the time-domain. The proposed approach to numerically reproduce the free surface elevation in the time-domain provides promising and accurate results for all the benchmark cases.


The aims of this article are to increase the awareness of sustainability as a tool to obtain more sustainable infrastructure and to show how sustainability may be calculated. The sustainability of an infrastructure may be assessed by using a set of indicators and a subsequent weighing process implemented on these indicators. Politicians should take part in the final weighing process in projects of importance. The indicators should reflect the three main dimensions of sustainability: ecology, sociology and economy. The system borders for the analyses are important. A wider or narrower definition of the system studied may alter the result of the assessment completely. The system borders should be large enough to include not only the infrastructure itself, but also the community it serves. The assessment of a system requires considerable amounts of data and may be very time consuming. It is therefore advisable to start with a screening assessment, in which only a core set of indicators are analysed and discussed. A screening may thus include more alternative system designs, and more future scenarios than the final detailed assessment.


This thesis is about the RF-DC conversion efficiency analysis of a rectifier when it is fed with multi-sine signals. To do it, a 900-930 MHz rectifier has been designed using Keysight ADS with Harmonic Balance, also, the parameters of the multi-sine signal,such as Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR), Complementaty Cumulative Distribution Function (CCDF) and Instantaneous Power Variance (IPV) have been studied, and, how they affect to the efficiency and to the load impedance. The designed prototype has been fabricated in the laboratory and it has been used to measure the efficiency given by the different multi-sine signals. The main conclusion is that, depending on how the CCDF,PAPR and IPV are, the behavior of the efficiency versus the load changes, specifically as much higher they are, much higher ha to be the load to obtain the optimum efficiency. It has been seen that the average power used for powering the rectifier also affects to the efficiency and the load, making the efficiency higher as the power increases and decreasing the optimum load. The main motivation for this project has been the interest in Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer systems.


All over the world, governments are compelling water utilities to improve their efficiency and productivity through reforms and tougher regulatory tools. Despite the different strategies and approaches, the goals remain the same: to make the whole sector more efficient, to curb the profits and 'quiet life' of water utilities and pass the productivity gains to customers through reduced prices or better environmental protection and quality of service. The water sectors in Portugal and Italy underwent deep reforms in the 1990s, in pursuit of higher levels of performance. Therefore, there is added interest in measuring the performance of water utilities in these two Mediterranean countries. We assess their performance using composite (global) indicators on a sample of 88 water utilities, for the year 2007. While we compare the performance of the two countries in this sector we also try to identify the impact of the ownership structure on efficiency. Finally, this paper discusses the benchmarking results of our research and draws some policy implications.


Objective To identify whether the clinical maturity of medical trainees impacts upon the level of trainee competency in evidence-based medicine (EBM). Materials and methods Undergraduate and graduate-entry medical trainees entering their first year of training in the clinical environment were recruited for this study. Competency in EBM was measured using a psychometrically validated instrument. EBM competency scores were analysed using Student's t tests, in order to differentiate between undergraduate and graduate-entry trainee performance. Ten focus group discussions were conducted with undergraduate and graduate-entry trainees. Audio transcripts were thematically analysed. Results Data on a total of 885 medical trainees were collected over a 5-year period. Undergraduate trainees had significantly higher EBM competency scores during years in which the programme was presented in a didactic format (mean difference (MD)=1.24 (95% CI)CI 0.21 to 2.26; 1.78 (0.39 to 3.17); 2.13 (1.16 to 3.09)). Graduate trainee EBM competency scores increased when a blended learning approach to EBM was adopted, demonstrating no significant difference in EBM competency scores between undergraduate and graduate cohorts (−0.27 (−1.38 to 0.85); −0.39 (−1.57 to 0.79). Qualitative findings indicated that differences in learning and teaching preference among undergraduate and graduate-entry trainees influenced the level of competency obtained in EBM. Conclusions Clinical maturity is the only one factor that may influence medical trainees' competency in EBM. Other predictors of EBM competency may include previous training and exposure to epidemiology, biostatistics and information literacy. While graduate-entry medical students may have more 'life' experience, or maturity, it does not necessarily translate into clinical maturity and integration into the clinical environment.


In this work, I conduct a preliminary analysis of the Phocaea family region. I obtain families and clumps in the space of proper elements and proper frequencies, study the taxonomy of the asteroids for which this information is available, analyse the albedo and absolute magnitude distribution of objects in the area, obtain a preliminary estimate of the possible family age, study the cumulative size distribution and collision probabilities of asteroids in the region, the rotation rate distribution and obtain dynamical map of averaged elements and Lyapunov times for grids of objects in the area. Among my results, I identified the first clump visible only in the frequency domain, the (6246) Komurotoru clump, obtained a higher limit for the possible age of the Phocaea family of 2.2 Byr, identified a class of Phocaea members on Mars-crossing orbits characterized by high Lyapunov times and showed that an apparently stable region on time-scales of 20 Myr near the ν6 secular resonance is chaotic, possibly because of the overlapping of secular resonances in the region. The Phocaea dynamical group seems to be a real S-type collisional family, formed up to 2.2 Byr ago, whose members with a large semimajor axis have been dynamically eroded by the interaction with the local web of mean-motion and secular resonances. Studying the long-term stability of orbits in the chaotic regions and the stability of family and clumps identified in this work remain challenges for future works.


Aphids and other herbivorous insects are able to travel between plants in their environment. While plants cannot directly choose their consumers, they may stop or mitigate the harmful effects of herbivory using secondary metabolites. A salicylic acid (SA) pathway facilitates defense from biotrophic fungi and some necrotrophic pathogens, while a jasmonic acid (JA) pathway is associated with defense from other necrotrophic pathogens and chewing insects. We investigated the effect of deficiency in SA or JA in Arabidopsis thaliana on plant growth and on herbivory by green peach aphids (Myzus persicae). Three ascensions of A. thaliana were placed in two blocks with three aphids on each individual. The genotypes consisted of a SA-deficient ascension (Sid2), a JA-deficient ascension (Lox2), and a wild type (Col). Wild-type A. thaliana showed significantly greater growth relative to the other ascensions, suggesting better performance, as well as dramatically higher aphid count. Aphid count showed a significant positive correlation with plant growth, suggesting that M. persicae is attracted to signs of growth in A. thaliana, or reproduces more on growing plants. It appears that wild-type plants showed greater growth throughout the experiment, and were thus targeted by the highly responsive M. persicae. This behaviour may be exploited for agricultural purposes; herbivorous insects may be diverted to fast-growing trap crops lacking agricultural value in order to protect primary crops. Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Chad Harvey


It has been suggested that angiotensin II (ANG II) activation after renal ablation contributes to the altered glomerular dynamics and proteinuria that characterizes this model of chronic renal failure. In the present study, male Munich-Wistar rats underwent 75% renal ablation (Nx group). Two weeks later, micropuncture studies were performed in sham-operated rats (sham group) and Nx group rats during intravenous infusion of either a vehicle or two ANG II inhibitors, namely [Sar1, Ala8]ANG II or MK-421 administered at a rate of 0.3 and 1 mg.kg body wt-1.h-1, respectively. Acute ANG II inhibition in sham group had no effect on mean arterial pressure (MAP), glomerular dynamics, or proteinuria. In contrast, in Nx group ANG II inhibition lessened glomerular hypertension (from 64.7 +/- 1.0 to 55.4 +/- 1.7 mmHg, P less than 0.0001) the result of postglomerular vasodilation (P less than 0.01), normalized the glomerular ultrafiltration coefficient (from 0.038 +/- 0.002 to 0.005 +/- 0.002 nl.s-1.mmHg-1, P less than 0.0001), and attenuated proteinuria (from 42.1 +/- 6.5 to 28.1 +/- 5.4 micrograms/min, P less than 0.01). MAP, single-nephron GFR and plasma flow were unaffected. These results suggest that ANG II activity is enhanced in nephrectomy, contributing in a major way to altered glomerular dynamics and proteinuria.


A broadband microstrip patch antenna with multi-layer substrate for fuze application is designed. The multi-layer substrate is composed of the bottom layer of Si with low electric conductivity, the middle and the top layers of Si with high electric conductivity. An air cavity is fabricated by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching in the middle layer of Si to reduce the effective dielectric constant of the multi-layer substrate. The multi-layer substrate microstrip patch antenna is simulated and optimized by finite element method. The simulation results show that operating at 10GHz, the bandwidth and the gain of the multi-layer substrate microstrip patch antenna are 15.5% and 6.1dB respectively, which meet the needs of the application in fuze well.


Abstract:Pure TiO2 water sol, pure ZnO water sol and three compound TiO2/ZnO water sols are prepared under low temperature. Then the padding and baking process is used to put the functional sol liquid on the fabric. SEM is use to analyzed the change of surface feature and the result show that all of the water sol except pure ZnO water sol liquid formed a thin film on the fiber The stability of pure ZnO water sol is the best one and the pure TiO2 water sol is the worst one at temperature of 15°C. The compound water sols stabilities are between these two water sols and with the more amount of ZnO, the stability last longer. Both mole of TiO2 and ZnO with the rate of 5 to 5 and 7 to 3 display the best antistatic behavior, but the washing fastnesses are not good. After treatment, the moisture regain displays most dramatically changes; the next one is whiteness of fabric, but the other physical and mechanical properties have a little change.


In this letter, we experimentally demonstrate Brillouin echoes-based distributed optical fiber sensing with centimeter spatial resolution. It is based on a differential phase-shift-keying technique using a single Mach-Zehnder modulator to generate a pump pulse and a π-phase-shifted pulse with an easy and accurate adjustment of delay. The results are compared to those obtained in standard Brillouin echo-distributed sensing system with two optical modulators and clearly show a resolution of 5 cm in a spliced segment between two fibers by applying a π -phase-shifted pulse of 500 ps.


The incidence of a number of site-specific cancers is increased among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) as compared to non-diabetic individuals. Similarly, the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is higher in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) when compared to patients without MS. These observation statements are said to be of a descriptive nature in that they merely state the frequency and distribution of disease among specific populations. However, merely knowing that a disease occurs in certain patient groups is not the issue of ultimate interest. Observing an association between two health-related conditions raises the more substantial question as to why they are related. In other words, we want to know whether the observed association has a causal nature. Scientific explanations invariably relate to knowledge on how particular phenomena can be explained in terms of the factors that cause them. In epidemiology, however, reaching an unambiguous verdict regarding the nature of an association is hampered, mainly because of the inherently flawed comparisons that are made as a result of its non-experimental nature. Consequently, alternative explanations to a causal link between the exposure and outcome are not systematically remedied in epidemiologic studies. That is to say, the difference observed between groups in non-experimental comparison studies is not necessarily attributable to the variable under study but could be the result of systematic, or non-random, variability. Against this complex background, the thesis concentrates on the assessment of the influence of specific risk factors in the etiology of (particular types of) cancer in patients with T2DM and in the etiology of VTE in patients with MS. More specifically, issues related to the exclusion of alternative explanations for observed exposure-effect relationships in order to facilitate the assessment of causality from epidemiologic evidence are addressed. With respect to the increased incidence of certain types of cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, the research covers the effect of exogenous insulin use on cancer risk, the influence of choices in study design on the observed association between exogenous insulin exposure and the risk of several site-specific cancers, the effect of body mass-index and duration of obesity on colorectal cancer incidence, and whether metformin use affects survival among female type 2 diabetic patients with breast cancer. Regarding the increased incidence of VTE among patients with MS, focus lies on the influence of several general and MS-related risk factors that might explain why these two health-related conditions appear to be associated with each other. General risk factors include a prior VTE, varicose veins, major trauma, pregnancy, and infection, while disability, spasticity, inflammation, and exposure to glucocorticoids are considered MS-related risk factors. This thesis concludes with a theoretical investigation into whether epidemiologic evidence ultimately can contribute to our understanding of why certain health-related conditions occur. Based on a deliberation of the foundation of knowledge and the abstract concept of causality, the controversies surrounding the attribution of causality from epidemiologic evidence are put into perspective. Central to this discussion is the question: what is good epidemiologic knowledge?


Solid wastes from the oil-shale industry produce leachates containing toxic compounds such as heavy metals and persistent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The hazard to the environment represented by waste leachates depends not only on their chemical composition, but also on the mobility and bioavailability of toxic contaminants in soils. We evaluated the applicability of bioassays for toxicity assessment of the bioavailable fraction of heavy metals and PAH in soils, in experiments with samples of four different soil types (Rendzina, Brown pseudopodzolic, Typical brown, Sodpodzolic), the pH of which ranged from 6.2 to 7.2. The toxicity of the bioavailable fraction of the soil contaminants was assessed with the dehydrogenase enzyme activity assay, and with a Toxkit microbiotest with the crustacean, Thamnocephalus platyurus, after treatment of the soil samples with an artificial solution containing chromium (III), lead (II), copper (II), cadmium (II) and pyrene. The test results confirm those of earlier experiments, which characterised the sorption potential of investigated soils for the same compounds. Both tests turned out to be sufficiently sensitive, and hence can be recommended as effective and useful tools for the assessment of the bioavailable fraction of soil contaminants.


Mikhail Bakhtin proposed that a 'hero is not only a discourse about himself and his immediate environment, but also a discourse about the world'. This short article examines the working practice of an applied theatre practitioner, drawing on Bakhtin's interpretations of the hero and his writings on dialogism. Artist Kate Sweeney's facilitation of a storytelling workshop with older people is explored in order to place the practitioner as the central protagonist in a narrative of participatory theatre processes. My research, using a process of reflective dialogues, has found that experienced practitioners are themselves open to a process of change through the work, which I have articulated as a mode of 'responsivity'. The research method of reflective dialogues connects observation of working processes with a subsequent conversation with the practitioner about moments of practice, and the meanings that emerge are therefore infused with practitioners' discourses on the work. Although this research places the facilitator at the centre of the analysis, I also acknowledge the importance of the experiences of participants as collaborators and their role as coauthors of the work. The analysis presented here draws on the motif of the practitioner as hero not as a fixed model but as a shifting co-produced protagonist shaped dialogically through the work.


Abstract. The statistical and dynamical properties of bias correction and linear post-processing are investigated when the system under interest is affected by model errors and is experiencing parameter modifications, mimicking the potential impact of climate change. The analysis is first performed for simple typical scalar systems, an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process (O-U) and a limit point bifurcation. It reveals system's specific (linear or non-linear) dependences of biases and post-processing corrections as a function of parameter modifications. A more realistic system is then investigated, a low-order model of moist general circulation, incorporating several processes of high relevance in the climate dynamics (radiative effects, cloud feedbacks...), but still sufficiently simple to allow for an extensive exploration of its dynamics. In this context, bias or post-processing corrections also display complicate variations when the system experiences temperature climate changes up to a few degrees. This precludes a straightforward application of these corrections from one system's state to another (as usually adopted for climate projections), and increases further the uncertainty in evaluating the amplitudes of climate changes.


PURPOSE
Although laparoscopy is considered the mainstay for most renal procedures in adults, its role in the pediatric population is still controversial, especially for smaller children. We reviewed our experience in pediatric renal laparoscopic surgery in three pediatric age groups in an attempt to identify if age has an impact on feasibility and surgical outcomes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
From November 1995 to May 2006, 144 pediatric laparoscopic renal procedures were performed at our institution. The charts of these patients were reviewed for demographic data, urologic pathology and surgical procedure, as well as perioperative complications and post-operative outcomes. The findings were stratified into 3 groups, according to patient age (A: < 1 year, B: 1 to 5 years and C: 6-18 years).

RESULTS
Median age of the patients was 4.2 years (42 days - 18 years). We performed 54 nephrectomies, 33 nephroureterectomies, 19 upper pole nephrectomies, 11 radical nephrectomies, 22 pyeloplasties and 4 miscellaneous procedures. The 3 age groups were comparable in terms of the procedures performed. Conversion rates were 0%, 1.4% and 1.9% for groups A, B and C, respectively (p = 0.72). Incidence of perioperative complications was 5%, 8.2% and 7.8% for age groups A to C, respectively (p = 0.88).

CONCLUSIONS
Most renal procedures can be performed safely by laparoscopy in the pediatric population, with excellent aesthetic and functional outcomes. The morbidity related to the procedure was minimal irrespective of the age group.


It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the UMAP 2017 Workshop on Surprise, Opposition, and Obstruction in Adaptive and Personalized Systems (SOAP). Following the successful first edition of the workshop at UMAP 2016, we are happy to see a continuing and increasing interest in the workshop's topics. As with the first edition, for the second edition we were able to accept four highly relevant submissions, allowing us to discuss the challenges of recommending unexpected, nonetheless relevant and impactful artifacts during a focused half-day workshop. With the workshop being originally motivated by interviews with music creators and producers who articulated a strong rejection of "more-of-the-same" search engines and recommender systems as they challenge their notion of originality and, ultimately, pose a threat to their artistic identity, we realized that a demand for adaptive and personalized systems that not only have the capability to surprise, but also to oppose and even obstruct can be found in a wider field. In fact, this coincides with ongoing trends to deal with and escape generally negatively connoted effects of automatic recommender systems, such as the so-called "filter-bubble". Apart from the potential dangers of such effects on the unreflecting user, there seems to be a growing impression that collaborative, as well as content-based recommender systems keep making obvious, uninspiring, and therefore disengaging suggestions based on previous interactions. Over the last years, this has emphasized the value of system qualities beyond pure accuracy, e.g., diversity, novelty, serendipity, or unexpectedness, to keep the user satisfied. In fact, these approaches to kicking the user out of his or her "comfort zone" seem to be highly promising methods to increase satisfaction with a system in the long run.


The aim of this paper is to discuss, on the basis of an extensive literature review, the role of magnesium in health and disease. Magnesium is an essential cation playing a crucial role in many physiological functions. It is critical in energy-requiring metabolic processes, in protein synthesis, membrane integrity, nervous tissue conduction, neuromuscular excitability, muscle contraction, hormone secretion, and in intermediary metabolism. Serum magnesium concentration is maintained within a narrow range by the small intestine and kidney which both increase their fractional magnesium absorption under conditions of magnesium deprivation. If magnesium depletion continues, the bone store helps to maintain serum magnesium concentration by exchanging part of its content with extracellular fluid. The abundance of magnesium within cells is consistent with its relevant role in regulating tissue and cell functions. Recent data suggest that large fluxes of magnesium can cross the cell plasma membrane in either direction following a variety of hormonal and non-hormonal stimuli, resulting in major changes in total and, to a lesser extent, in free magnesium content within tissues. Imbalances of magnesium are common and are associated with a great number of pathological situations responsible for human morbidity and mortality. A large part of the population may have an inadequate magnesium intake, and in particular elderly subjects and athletes may be prone to chronic latent magnesium deficiency. Magnesium deficit is frequently observed in alcoholics and diabetic patients, in whom a combination of factors contributes to its pathogenesis. We will discuss some of the aspects of the involvement of magnesium in the etiology of some pathological situations, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, sickle cell disease and chronic alcoholism.


We examine the decays of excited heavy mesons, including the leading power corrections to the heavy quark limit. We find a anew and natural explanation for the large deviation of the width of the {ital D}{sub 1}(2420) from the heavy quark symmetry prediction. Our formalism leads to detailed predictions for the properties of the excited bottom mesons, some of which recently have been observed. Finally, we present a detailed analysis of the effect of power corrections and finite meson widths on the angular distributions which may be measured in heavy meson decays. {copyright} {ital 1995 The American Physical Society.}


A series of 27 concrete beams were tested to investigate the behavior of beams strengthened with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates under impact loading. Two out of the 27 beams were not retrofitted and were used ascontrol specimens. The impact force was delivered with a steel cylinder drop weight. The test results revealed that bonding composite laminates to concrete beams could significantly improve the performance of this type of structure to resist impact loading. In addition, bonding laminates increased cracking and flexural strength, as well as residual stiffness of the beams. Furthermore, it reduced the number of cracks, crack widths, and the maximum deflection. The residual stiffness of the strengthened beam after first impact was two to three times that of an unretrofitted beam, and the maximum deflection decreased by 30 to 40%. The improvement depends on the type and weight of composite laminate. compared with the static test results, the ultimate deflection. number of cracks, and crack width were smaller, but the maximum reaction force was three to four times larger than those of the beam under static loading. The residual stiffness of the strengthened beam after first impact can be calculated using a regression equation. The impact force can be obtained with a semi-empirical equation, which is derived from Spring-Mass models and modified by the test results. From flexural wave theory. an equation has been developed for predicting the deflection of a beam caused by impact loading.


More stringent state regulations on incinerating and autoclaving infectious medical waste on site, coupled with the high costs involved with having the waste hauled off site to be incinerated, is causing hospitals to look at alternative off-site disposal.


Canadian e-waste management practices have not yet achieved high levels of environmental performance. Our methodology is based on information systems research, organization studies, and critical theory. We find evidence that – absent of strong environmental regulations – management systems designed by industry may become based on contradictory notions of responsibility (corporate, social, environmental, legal, fiscal). We posit that if such contradictions exist, the system will lack coherence, and will ultimately be unable to achieve high levels of environmental performance. Using a mixed-methods research design including critical discourse analysis and two-stage least squares regression – we offer an empirical method of environmental impact measurement - and, we conduct a comprehensive assessment of ewaste management practices in Canada in order to adequately observe and measure actual environmental benefit as impact on per capita CO2. Comments are provided with implications for further management and academic research.


This is a selection of internationalisation resources produced by ESCalate to support the project A Changing World: the internationalisation experiences of staff and students (home and international) in UK Higher Education. Fifteen focus groups were run with staff and with students, both home and international, to listen to their views on what internationalisation meant to them, how it had influenced teaching and learning, and what challenges and successes they had experienced. Participants came from a range of disciplines and from across the UK. Staff in particular showed great awareness of the issues surrounding internationalisation with an appreciation of some of the complexities. Topics raised by participants included recruitment strategies, entry requirements for non-native speakers, PMI, fees, the British degree, higher education institutions (HEIs) competition for students in the global marketplace, and internationalising the curriculum. Staff and students described various techniques and strategies for creating inclusive learning environments. Many said how students and staff from across the world had enriched their lives, both personally and professionally. Staff discussed the difficulties of meeting the needs of culturally diverse groups, and both students and staff talked about how far we still have to go in encouraging some students to break out of their familiar cultural groups to socialise cross-culturally. Home students were the hardest group to recruit for this project. Given that they have so much to gain from learning in a culturally diverse environment it is suggested that more work needs to be done in the research area of Internationalisation at Home (Teekens, 2006, Joris, van den Berg a van Ryssen, 2003), and within institutions, to engage not only staff but also home students so that all students and staff can gain maximum benefit from the changing higher education landscape. A Changing World: the internationalisation experiences of staff and students (home and international) in UK Higher Education is a report produced by ESCalate and LLAS, that is made available as a PDF file of some 40 pages