What drives newcomers to adopt behaviors that, while perhaps helping them meet short-term role demands and organizational objectives, may also place themselves and/or their organization at risk in the long term? Based on social learning theory, research on onboarding and newcomer socialization suggests that such behavior may be explained by peer modeling. But is this always the case? Using heavy drinking with clients as an empirical referent and incorporating factors from research on learning in risky choice into a model grounded on social learning theory, we examine how contextual variables moderate the effect of veteran peer modeling on newcomer adoption or intensification of work-related risky behaviors over time, and demonstrate the impact of adoption/intensification on newcomer outcomes. Data from a longitudinal study of newcomers, their veteran peers, and supervisors in sales and client-service indicate that the extent to which veteran modeling influences the adoption/intensification of newcomer heavy drinking with clients depends on newcomers' prior experiences and veteran peer (but not supervisor) guidance. Moreover, they indicate that steeper increases in heavy drinking with clients over time, while associated with improved job performance, also link to higher work-to-family conflict and turnover risk. Implications for research on onboarding and newcomer socialization are discussed.


Financial institutions still neglect to address agricultural clients. The main reasons for that are their perception that farmers bear higher risks than non-farmers and that their loan products are inadequate to accommodate the needs of agricultural entrepreneurs. As a result, many farmers still lack access to external finance. The aim of this paper is to investigate determinants of credit risk for agricultural loans disbursed by a Microfinance Institution (MFI) in Azerbaijan. In this context special attention is paid to repayment flexibility and the role of collaterals. MFIs are among the first financial institutions recently focusing on farmers with new loan products. We find that farmers are less risky than non-farmers, which is surprising because the opposite is widely believed. We furthermore find that the level of collateral has a negative influence on credit risk. Beyond that, we find that repayment flexibility increases credit risk.


It is argued that the banking crisis in Chile had its origin in the deterioration of key macroeconomic variables and that financial liberalisation played a secondary role. Proponents contend that no financial system can be expected to withstand a fall in output of nearly 15% in 1982 and they draw parallels here with the banking crisis of the 1930's in the US. On the other side, it is argued that the ability of the financial system to withstand any macroeconomic shock have been shaped by the financial liberalisation which took place in the years before the collapse of the macroeconomy. Conduct derived from ownership concentration and "related portfolios", sharp deregulation on interest rates, belief in an implicit bail-out provision, and the ineffective and inadequate prudential regulation led to pervasive banking structure and a pattern of behaviour marked by moral hazard. As a result, banks exhibited excessive risk taking with a deterioration of banks' financial position. Only the prompt rescue by the Central Bank of leading financial institutions averted a massive loss of confidence and a bank run.
This thesis examines the evolution of the Chilean financial system during the period of economic reforms and banking failures. Three specific questions are examined and evaluated empirically: How important was the adverse macroeconomic environment relative to the banking conduct and management which exhibited considerable moral hazard and adverse selection type of behavior in the banking failures in Chile? Secondly, in what ways might a more favourable general economic conditions and/or a more effective prudential regulation have helped to reduce the likelihood of bank failures? Finally, might some of the bank failures been anticipated years before the crisis by an early warning system?
In order to answer these questions this thesis develops a logit model for cross-section and panel data with information from banks' balance sheets to estimate the probability of bank failure/problem for the period between 1979 and 1983.


As a part of a German nuclear safety project on the combustion behavior of hydrogen-carbon monoxide-air mixtures small scale experiments were performed to determine the lower flammability limit and the laminar burning velocity of such mixtures. The experiments were performed in a spherical explosion bomb with a free volume of 8.2 liter. The experimental set-up is equipped with a central spark ignition and quartz glass windows for optical access. Further instrumentation included pressure and temperature sensors as well as high-speed shadow-videography. A wide concentration range for both fuel gases was investigated in numerous experiments from the lower flammability limits up to the stoichiometric composition of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and air (H2-CO-air) mixtures. The laminar burning velocities were determined from the initial pressure increase after the ignition and by using high-speed videos taken during the experiments.


Despite growing appreciation for the potential of the Indian market, competitors often experience greater success penetrating it than do Japanese companies. This paper addresses possible reasons for Japanese reticence in addition to strategies that Japanese companies have started and would do well to continue to adopt. Among these are: 1) large-scale initial investment, 2) joint ventures, 3) central decision making, 4) adaptation of products to the Indian market, 5) large-scale advertisement campaigns, 6) alternative corporate culture models, and 7) human resource relations. In order to make suitable comparisons, the cases of Korean companies are often applied. Nevertheless, the long-term future of Japanese corporate interests in India may not remain at a disadvantage given the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Japan and India, which only took effect in August 2011, and the considerable demand for infrastructure in India; an area where Japanese expertise might surpass that of South Korea.


AbstractBACKGROUND: Latinos have low representation in cancer prevention trials and intervention studies. Culturally appropriate recruitment strategies are needed to address this issue.
 OBJECTIVE: To describe and summarize the effectiveness of recruitment strategies used by the Latin American Cancer Research Coalition (LACRC).
 DESIGN: Descriptive report of recruitment methods.
 PARTICIPANTS: Uninsured Latino immigrants (N=1,170; 77% female, 23% male) from Central and South America recruited to 7 cancer control studies.
 APPROACH: The LACRC recruitment model involved inclusion of Latino researchers and providers, and use of culturally acceptable materials released through culturally appropriate outlets such as Latino radio stations.
 RESULTS: The overall participation rate was high—96% of patients identified as eligible agreed to participate. Women were excellent referrals for recruiting men to research studies. Additionally, a local Latino radio program was used to efficiently recruit eligible study participants.
 CONCLUSIONS: Latinos are interested and willing to participate in cancer control studies when culturally relevant approaches are used. Research teams that partner with Latino researchers and with Latino service providers are important in educating Latinos about cancer control and encouraging participation in research.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although the risk factors of human HCC are well known, the molecular pathogenesis of this disease is complex, and in general, treatment options remain poor. The use of rodent models to study human cancer has been extensively pursued, both through genetically engineered rodents and rodent models used in carcinogenicity and toxicology studies. In particular, the B6C3F1 mouse used in the National Toxicology Program (NTP) two-year bioassay has been used to evaluate the carcinogenic effects of environmental and occupational chemicals, and other compounds. The high incidence of spontaneous HCC in the B6C3F1 mouse has challenged its use as a model for chemically induced HCC in terms of relevance to the human disease. Using global gene expression profiling, we identify the dysregulation of several mediators similarly altered in human HCC, including re-expression of fetal oncogenes, upregulation of protooncogenes, downregulation of tumor suppressor genes, and abnormal expression of cell cycle mediators, growth factors, apoptosis regulators, and angiogenesis and extracellular matrix remodeling factors. Although major differences in etiology and pathogenesis remain between human and mouse HCC, there are important similarities in global gene expression and molecular pathways dysregulated in mouse and human HCC. These data provide further support for the use of this model in hazard identification of compounds with potential human carcinogenicity risk, and may help in better understanding the mechanisms of tumorigenesis resulting from chemical exposure in the NTP two-year carcinogenicity bioassay.


SUMMARYThe mathematical formula, by which Einstein calculated his predicted deflection of 1″.75 for light rays passing the edge of the sun, is a well known and simple formula of physical optics. In this formula he substituted an hypothetical "retardation" of light in its passage through a gravitational field; and this purely theoretical retardation is the sole new concept involved in the prediction. Not a single one of the fundamental concepts of varying time, of warped or twisted space, of simultaneity, or of the relativity of motion is in any way involved in Einstein's prediction of, or formulas for the deflection of light. The many and elaborate eclipse expeditions have, therefore, been given a fictitious importance. Their results can neither prove, nor disprove the relativity theory: at the best their results can prove that light is retarded by gravitational action, and is retarded by a certain definite amount.But the actual results of the eclipse expeditions do not even prove this. Not a single expedition, so far reporting, has made use of effective checks or controls for eliminating the effects of temperature upon their instruments, or for determining the possible effects of abnormal atmospheric conditions during the eclipse. And further not a single party has made a systematic study of all the data obtained. In the South American eclipse of 1919 less than 15% of the actual measured data wag used in obtaining the announced results: in the Australian eclipse of 1922 only about 50% of the data was used. All non-radial components of the actual measures were discarded as "accidental errors." The radial components were then forced into a semblance of "exact accord with the requirements of the Einstein theory" through an assumption written into the methods and formulas of reduction: an assumption for which there is not the slightest observational evidence. In fact the only evidence available—the evidence furnished by independent check fields photographed on the eclipse plates—would seem to show that this basic assumption is utterly wrong.The actual stellar displacements, if real, do not show the slightest resemblance to the predicted Einstein deflections: they do not agree in direction, in size, or in the rate of decrease with distance from the sun.


Background: More than 250,000 people die annually of pancreatic cancer, worldwide. The highest incidence and mortality rates of pancreatic cancer are reported in developed countries. In developing countries the rate have been stabilizing over the past two decades but in countries which rates have been low for decades is now increasing. Recognizing pancreatic cancer's risk factors and its prevention are important roles in reducing pancreatic cancer mortality. Risk factors for pancreatic cancer are not well recognized. The aim of the study is to review the environmental risk factors of pancreas cancer. Materials and Methods: We performed a systematic review of the published literature to identify all studies that provided environmental risk factors in association with pancreatic cancer .we conducted MEDLINE search limited to last 5 years up to June 2011, for all relevant case -control, meta analysis, systematic review and cohort studies. Citations were limited to those published in the English language. Review and comment articles have been excluded. Results: Sixty six independent studies met the predefined inclusion criteria. Seven studies out of 15 found positive association between cigarette smoking and pancreatic cancer.Five articles out of 10 reviewed articles found high alcohol intake as a risk factor for pancreas cancer and the other 5 articles found dose related association with pancreas cancer.Coffee: according to 2 reviewed studies coffee not only does not have a substantial impact on pancreatic cancer risk but also coffee drinking has been associated with a reduced risk of pancreatic cancer in men. Frequent intakes of red meat and well-cooked meatand Vitamin D deficiency have positive association with pancreatic cancer risk. Conclusion: Cigarette smoking is the most consistent risk factor for pancreas cancer in relevant studies about pancreas cancer risk factors.


In celebration of Native American heritage, this guide lists books, articles, and websites on Native Americans in California with an emphasis on Ohlone Indian heritage. Books, articles, and websites about the Ohlone Indinas


Emeritus Professor C.K. Stead, CBE, ONZ, a fifth generation New Zealander, is his country's most important, influential and internationally acclaimed writer – the author of thirteen collections of poems, two of short stories, eleven novels, and six books of literary criticism. He is, by definition, a postcolonial writer, and almost everything written by him or about him relates, in one way or another, to the concepts of postcolonial literature. As he admits: 'I am indelibly part of the notion of postcolonial literature and don't even have to think about it or acknowledge it for that to be the case'. In his essay 'What I Believe', first published in 1993, Stead wrote: 'Intellectually I see the human condition as bleak – though it is a bleakness that has a certain tragic glory'. The so-called 'great mysteries' of life – infinite time, infinite space, the apparent uniqueness of our world - cannot, for Stead, be explained by religion. In their place, Stead considers man's sense of beauty as a true mystery and his sense of comedy as a trait 'which truly distinguishes the human animal'. Stead's acclaimed and controversial novel, My Name was Judas (2006), takes the above concepts and utilises them in a fictional and revisionist view of the lives of Jesus and Judas. Witty, acerbic, and occasionally moving, Stead's Judas does not 'betray' Jesus – he simply does not believe in his divinity. Now an old man revisiting past memories, and with a clear conscience, Judas shows that his charismatic childhood friend was merely deluded in believing himself to be the Son of God, and that far from having miraculous powers, he was merely carried away by his own eloquence. Jesus as radical revolutionary? Yes. Jesus as Messiah? No. This paper will discuss Stead's agnosticism - the notion of faith and rational scepticism - and relate it to the above novel's radical reworking of the Gospels, and, more broadly, to Stead's life as a writer


Prosecutions of former heads of state are becoming increasingly common. In 1990, the United States arrested and convicted General Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian leader, on drug charges. United States v. Noriega set a powerful precedent, rejecting traditional immunity and jurisdiction defenses. In recent years, domestic and international tribunals alike have similarly exercised jurisdiction over foreign leaders, such as Augosto Pinochet and Slobodan Milosevic. While many in the international community praise these recent developments, others warn of the erosion of national sovereignty and justice without limits.


The objective of this thesis is to investigate how health economic evaluation methods could be applied to optimise clinical trial designs. The study focuses on trial design during the development of new drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. The methods developed account for many of the motivations, constraints, and uncertainties faced by a pharmaceutical company that have not been factored in to previous Expected Net Benefit of Sampling (ENBS) methods.
The study focussed on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) because it is a disease area with a history of failed clinical trials, attributed to poor trial design. Almost no health economic modelling studies had been published in this area. The work in this PhD made substantial contributions to developments in the economic modelling for SLE.
In chapter 2, I systematically reviewed previous clinical trials in SLE and extracted and summarised their design features. In chapter 3, I identified health economic methods that have been used to design clinical trials and which methods would be adopted. In chapter 4, I reviewed observational cohort studies for SLE to develop (i) a conceptual model of SLE (ii) identify quantitative estimates of the natural history of the disease. I found that there was insufficient data from the published literature to describe the natural history of SLE according to the conceptual model so I undertook statistical analysis of an SLE registry. The analysis produces statistical models to extrapolate disease activity, steroid dose, organ damage incidence and mortality over the short and long term. In chapters 6 and 7, I described a Bayesian Clinical Trial Simulation for a Phase III SLE trial to evaluate the value of alternative research designs and a cost-effectiveness model for SLE. In chapter 8, I compared six trial designs for an SLE Phase III RCT using an ENBS approach adapted to the pharmaceutical perspective. For each simulated trial the expected profits were calculated conditional on expected regulatory and reimbursement approval. The study found that the analysis was extremely time consuming and is currently not feasible with individual patient simulation models. However, the framework for evaluating trial designs from a pharmaceutical perspective use value-based pricing can be applied to trial designs in simple decision problems.


One of the Sharīʿah's requirements in conducting transactions is realising the Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah. The Modern online banking system is very common to everyone, so it is considered as al-ʿUrf or al-ʿādah (common practice or custom) under the Sharīʿah. However, its practice is surrounded with security concerns, ease of use, and trust and cost implications that need observance of some Sharīʿah rulings. This qualitative analytic study uses the framework for the Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah to explicate the ideal practice of online banking in service delivery to realize the Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah. While Islam places more attention on the essential needs, online banking should as well be intended to provide essential services to customers and remove hardship in financial transactions. Banks should hence desist from causing any harm through the charging of hidden fees, causing more confusion to their clients, and even devising deceptive means that lead to the charging of ribā. Instead, banks should use online services to introduce means that promote the realization of the Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah. This paper stresses the importance of financial technology in realising the Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah.


In order to improve the efficacy of therapeutic systems to treat bone tumours, novel drug delivery vehicles should be developed that have strong and specific affinity to mineralised tissue and at the same time are able to release anticancer molecules locally in a controlled and sustained manner. Recently, we developed mineral-binding gelatine nanoparticles with enhanced affinity to calcium phosphate by conjugating alendronate (ALN) molecules onto their surface. Herein, we have enhanced the functionality of these nanoparticles by rendering them potentially therapeutically active via covalent linking of an anticancer platinum–bisphosphonate (Pt–BP) complex. Different functionalisation schemes and molar ratios between reactants were screened and the effective functionalisation of gelatine nanoparticles with Pt–BP (or with both Pt–BP and ALN) was assessed. Our results revealed that the degree of functionalisation could be tailored by varying the molar ratio of Pt–BP and ALN relative to glutaraldehyde used as crosslinker. A sustained and tunable release of platinum as a function of the initial Pt–BP/ALN/glutaraldehyde molar ratio was achieved for both Pt–BP- and dual-functionalised gelatine nanoparticles. Moreover, dual-functionalised gelatine nanoparticles also displayed a high affinity to hydroxyapatite-coated surfaces thanks to the presence of ALN. Summarising, it was demonstrated that mineral-binding gelatine nanoparticles can be loaded with tailored amounts of anticancer molecules, which may benefit the development of bone-seeking carriers for targeted delivery of drugs to treat bone tumours.


Situated in the field of computer assisted language learning (CALL), this article reports an instrumental case study on the use of audioblogs for developing students' Chinese speaking skills. The intervention focused on scaffolding students in metacognitive reflection of their oral performances. The case focused on seven students who completed substantial part of the activities, and the main sources of data came from the oral recordings and interactions in their audioblogs. A significant improvement in the mean scores of pre- to post-test oral performance was found, which indicated the benefits of this approach. The students were found to adopt a systematic approach in their reflection: evaluating --> monitoring --> planning, with greater amount of attention devoted to the monitoring strategy. However, a disproportionate distribution of metacognitive knowledge usage was found in students' self-assessment. Task knowledge was the predominant metacognitive knowledge used by students, whereas person knowledge and strategy knowledge were neglected by the students. Teachers who are keen to implement a similar instructional approach could develop strategies to focus the students' attention on the latter two types of metacognitive knowledge.


Abstract:Reassessing Claude McKay's writing about North Africa, this article contends that McKay saw sites in this region as uniquely felicitous to staging conversations between global socialism and the Black diasporic avant-garde. His attention to site-specific interracial urban cultures serves as a counterpoint to the Depression-fueled Pan-Africanism that increasingly defined W. E. B. Du Bois's editorials for the Crisis. At the same time, McKay's persistent interest in the activities of the Liberator suggests a surprising resonance between their aesthetics to his locodescriptive verse. Bringing these strands together, the article finds that McKay did not seek a synesthetic resolution to the question of organizing an urban community or an integrationist racial future but, rather, sought to highlight the importance of dissensus despite global uncertainty. The article considers McKay's formal poetics and fiction together, comparing his visual tactics with the French and British Colonial Expositions' "panoramas."


OBJECTIVEUse of surgical site drains following posterior cervical spine surgery is variable, and its impact on outcomes remains controversial. Studies of drain use in the lumbar spine have suggested that drains are not associated with reduction of reoperations for wound infection or hematoma. There is a paucity of studies examining this relationship in the cervical spine, where hematomas and infections can have severe consequences. This study aims to examine the relationship between surgical site drains and reoperation for wound-related complications following posterior cervical spine surgery.METHODSThis study is a multicenter retrospective review of 1799 consecutive patients who underwent posterior cervical decompression with instrumentation at 4 tertiary care centers between 2004 and 2016. Demographic and perioperative data were analyzed for associations with drain placement and return to the operating room.RESULTSOf 1799 patients, 1180 (65.6%) had a drain placed. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified history of diabetes (OR 1.37, p = 0.03) and total number of levels operated (OR 1.32, p < 0.001) as independent predictors of drain placement. Rates of reoperation for any surgical site complication were not different between the drain and no-drain groups (4.07% vs 3.88%, p = 0.85). Similarly, rates of reoperation for surgical site infection (1.61% vs 2.58%, p = 0.16) and hematoma (0.68% vs 0.48%, p = 0.62) were not different between the drain and no-drain groups. However, after adjusting for history of diabetes and the number of operative levels, patients with drains had significantly lower odds of returning to the operating room for surgical site infection (OR 0.48, p = 0.04) but not for hematoma (OR 1.22, p = 0.77).CONCLUSIONSThis large study characterizes current practice patterns in the utilization of surgical site drains during posterior cervical decompression and instrumentation. Patients with drains placed did not have lower odds of returning to the operating room for postoperative hematoma. However, the authors' data suggest that patients with drains may be less likely to return to the operating room for surgical site infection, although the absolute number of infections in the entire population was small, limiting the analysis.


The moving contact line problem of liquid-vapor interfaces was studied using a mean-field free-energy lattice Boltzmann method recently proposed [Phys. Rev. E 2004, 69, 032602]. We have examined the static and dynamic interfacial behaviors by means of the bubble and capillary wave tests and found that both the Laplace equation of capillarity and the dispersion relation were satisfied. Dynamic contact angles followed the general trend of contact line velocity observed experimentally and can be described by Blake's theory. The velocity fields near the interface were also obtained and are in good agreement with fluid mechanics and molecular dynamics studies. Our simulations demonstrated that incorporating interfacial effects into the lattice Boltzmann model can be a valuable and powerful alternative in interfacial studies.


The information metric provides a unique notion of distance along any continuous family of physical theories, placing two theories further apart the more distinguishable they are. As such, the information metric is typically singular at quantum critical points, reflecting the fact they make qualitatively different scale-invariant predictions when compared to other theories in the family. However, such singularities are always at finite distance. The goal of this paper is to study infinite distance metric singularities and understand what type of physics generates them. We argue that infinite distance limits in the information metric correspond to theories in which expectation values factorize, and that unitarity restricts the asymptotic form of the metric to have a universal logarithmic singularity whose coefficient only depends on how the factorization limit is approached. We illustrate this relationship in a set of wide-ranging examples. Furthermore, we argue that it provides a particularly simple bottom-up motivation for the seemingly universal behavior of quantum gravity in asymptotic regions of moduli space described by the Swampland Distance Conjecture: gravity universally couples to stress-energy and thus abhors factorization limits. The towers of light fields that appear in these limits in so many examples serve to decouple gravity and consistently allow for factorization. We make this more precise via holography and suggest a way to consistently realize infinite distance limits without a tower of light fields. ar X iv :2 20 8. 08 44 4v 1 [ he pth ] 1 7 A ug 2 02 2


ABSTRACT This article investigated the causality relation between biomass energy consumption and economic growth in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan, the UK and the US by using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing method, and Granger causality test. The dataset covers the 1980-2010 period. For Canada, France, the UK and the US, the results of short-run causality determined the evidence that the conservation hypothesis is supported and the evidence of the growth hypothesis for Australia, Belgium, Finland and Japan. Strong causality results found the evidence of feedback hypothesis for the US, UK, and France.


A practical microtome may be built with nominal skill, hand tools, and a drill press. Thermal specimen advance and cutting action by rod flexion eliminate pivots and critical moving parts. The cost of materials is negligible. Resultant sections are adequate for routine work in electron microscopy. sectioning for electron microscopy.


Hope Is Not a Plan takes the reader inside the war in Iraq courtesy of participant-observers brought there to diagnose the insurgency and develop a get-well plan. Focusing on the critical months of late 2004 and early 2005, it looks at a slice of the war not previously examined. This is not the Beltway story, nor the grunt and jarhead story. Rather, the book looks at the process of taking political and military goals and turning them into action. In telling that story, Hope Is Not a Plan helps explain how Iraq got to where it is today. The book compares the reality of what happen in the Green Zone during this period with what history, experience, and doctrine suggest should have happened. Finally, it reflects on what can be learned from the experience. From the outset, the war in Iraq was directed from Washington and executed by troops on the ground. Between Washington and the battlefields was the Green Zone, a four-square-mile enclave that hosted the American Embassy annex, the Iraqi Reconstruction Management Office, the planning, policy, strategy, and communications sections of Headquarters, Multi-national Force-Iraq, and the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq.


This paper considers empirical evidence for a small open economy, characterizing and identifying the dynamic effects of foreign and monetary policy shocks on Chilean macroeconomic variables. A structural VAR approach is used with non-recursive contemporaneous restrictions. The analysis provides several interesting results. First, consistent with the predictions of a stochastic rational-expectations model, a domestic monetary contraction generates a temporary reduction of output and monetary aggregates. Second, there is no evidence of price and exchange rate puzzles. Third, the source of Chilean output, price level, and real exchange rate volatility is similar to that identified in industrial countries; monetary policy explains a relatively small fraction of output, price level, and exchange-rate variability. Finally, foreign monetary policy innovations have short-lived effects on domestic interest rates and have no major influence over other Chilean macroeconomic variables. However, risk premium shocks influence significantly both the interest rate and the exchange rate.


Group housing of gestating sows is currently replacing individual housing systems around the world. Modern group housing systems allow performance in groups to be equal to that in individual housing systems. A crucial element in the success of a housing system is the way in which it deals with social (aggressive) interactions of the animals: sows will fight to ascertain their position in the group, or to get access to resources. This is normal sow behaviour, but management, feeder design and pen layout can help to avoid potential negative consequences such as injury, reduction in welfare and loss of production. Applied research has identified several elements of successful management of group housing systems. It appears that mixing unfamiliar animals during weeks 2-4 of pregnancy should be avoided. Sows should have sufficient space to be able to avoid each other or to flee from aggression, particularly shortly after unfamiliar animals are introduced. The size of the group seems less relevant, but it is advisable to house first and second parity sows separate from older parity sows. Presence of a (vasectomised) boar in the group may help to reduce aggression among the sows. Finally, gilts can be taught to deal with social interactions in an adequate way, or can be familiarised with the group they are about to enter. Both approaches will reduce the impact of social interactions at introduction into the group. The design and type of feeder have a great impact on aggression over access to food. Sequential and consecutive feeding systems are used and can both be effective. Important elements are the level of protection from other sows during feeding, and the degree to which dominant sows can steal food from subordinates. Feeding level can also affect aggression: restricted feeding promotes activity level and social interactions near the feeder. Finally, the layout of the pen should allow for separate feeding, sleeping and defecating areas. In addition, climate control to avoid overheating and presence of a comfortable lying area will support normal resting behaviour, and promote sow health and welfare. Several types of group housing systems exist, one of the main distinctive features being the way in which the food is offered to the sow. The choice of system depends on what the farmer finds most important: economic aspects, animal health and welfare, level of control and labour requirement are all elements which may differ between systems. With the right management, each system can be the basis of a successful way to keep gestating sows in groups. Keywords : sow, group housing, animal welfare, aggression, sow productivity, sow housing system


Tobacco-free (TF) college campus policies have potential to be a high-impact tobacco control strategy. The purposes of the study presented here were to (a) determine the demographic and personal characteristics associated with students' beliefs about and perceived effectiveness of a TF campus policy and (b) assess whether tobacco use status and exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) predicted beliefs and perceived effectiveness. Five thousand randomly selected students from a large southeastern university were invited by e-mail to participate in an online survey in April 2013, three and a half years after policy implementation. Students held positive beliefs about the policy (average rating 84% of the maximum possible score). Sixty-one percent believed that the policy was successful at reducing SHS exposure; and 40% thought the policy encouraged quitting. Males were less likely than females to believe the policy was effective in reducing SHS exposure and encouraging quitting. Lower undergraduates were more likely to perceive the policy as less effective in reducing SHS exposure; international students were more likely than domestic students to perceive the policy as more effective at encouraging quitting. Students most exposed to SHS were less likely to perceive the policy was effective. Compared with nonusers, those who smoked cigarettes were less likely to perceive the policy as effective in encouraging quitting. Tailored messaging regarding policy benefits are necessary. Perceived effectiveness of TF policies may be related to compliance with the policy and should be further investigated. Objective measures of effectiveness and tobacco use behaviors are needed to fully measure the success of TF campus policies.


Radiation is not a modern manmade creation and it is a direct, simple, and efficient one-time process. Food irradiation may be considered as a second big break through after pasteurization. Irradiation should be our next step in food safety and should play an integral part in our continued demand for food safety. Irradiation is the process of exposing food to ionizing radiation in order to destroy microorganisms or insects that could be present in the food and some time to improve the functional properties of food. Foods that contain physiologically active compounds that provides health benefits beyond basic nutrition. A functional food is similar in appearance to conventional food, is consumed as part of a usual diet, and helps to reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions. Mushrooms have attracted the attention of man from very ancient times, and the use of mushrooms as food is as old as human civilizations. Mushrooms are fleshy fungi, being used as food and medicine. Mushrooms have medicinal value in inhibiting tumor growth and enhancing immune system. Indian medicinal mushrooms are potential sources of antioxidant and anticancer compounds. The present review is related to studies on mushroom irradiation and their functional properties.


Departing from ecological uses of the notion of neighbour that simply extend the idea of neighbour love to other than human creatures, the chapter offers a reading of the parable of the Good Samaritan that builds on ongoing work in ecomaterialist hermeneutics. The focus is on the senses as a mode of engagement between texts, bodies and matter, as the underlying "stuff" of the text. In the introduction to the parable, the materiality of the text is evoked in the question: how do you read? Reading is a corporeal mediation between the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the voice, the breath and the material text which can be imagined as a visible voice. In the parable itself, where sight is a primary sense, the neighbour also becomes a visible voice through which the reader/hearer is asked to imagine themselves otherwise. The chapter sets up a conversation between a reading of the parable and critical theory on neighbour love in the context of a political theology, notably the work of Eric Santner, to suggest a revisioning of neighbour love as a critical intervention in destructive cultural and social patterns, such as those exacerbating anthropogenic climate change.


Spacer devices are becoming increasingly popular for the delivery of inhaled drugs in the treatment of asthma. They reduce the problems of poor inhaler technique with metered dose inhalers, largely eliminate oral absorption of inhaled corticosteroids,1 and have been shown to be as effective as nebulisers in the treatment of acute severe asthma. By the attachment of facemasks they can be adapted to treat patients of all ages.2 Their popularity has led to a rapid increase in the number of different types of spacer available.

As with other inhalation devices, such as nebulisers, the proportion of the dose of the drug that the patient actually inhales may vary greatly with different spacers. Despite the apparent simplicity of the designs, spacer choice and method of use may dramatically alter the amount of drug available for inhalation. Recent laboratory studies,3 4 5 6 7 supported by emerging pharmacokinetic evidence and radiolabelled deposition studies,8 9 10 demonstrate where the incorrect use of a spacer can affect the amount of drug delivered.

Multiple actuations of the metered dose inhaler into the spacer before inhalation may reduce the proportion of the drug inhaled.3 4 5 6 Five actuations of …


Objectives: To identify factors associated with Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT) satisfaction and to determine whether these relationships are gender specific. Methods: This study was based on data collected in a cross-sectional study among long-term opioid-dependent individuals (n ¼ 160; 46.3% women). Participants completed the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire in reference to OAT episodes. Sociodemographic, illicit substance use, health, and addiction treatment history data were collected. Multivariable linear regression was used to determine the relationship between these variables and treatment satisfaction. To explore the potential role of gender in these identified relationships stratified multivariable models were tested. Additional open-ended questions regarding positive and negative perceptions of treatment were collected, and a thematic analysis was conducted. Results: In the multivariable linear regression model, participants who were older, of Aboriginal ancestry, and currently receiving OAT had higher OAT satisfaction scores, whereas participants who had methadone dose preferences of 30mg or less had lower OAT satisfaction. In stratified analyses among women, the relationship between preferred methadone dose and current OAT remained significantly associated with satisfaction. Open-ended positive and negative perceptions complemented and provided further valuable data to interpret these identified relationships. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the potential role of gender in factors associated with OAT satisfaction. These findings provide valuable information to health care providers working in OAT settings regarding how to address women and men's OAT needs and improve treatment satisfaction. ( J Addict Med 2015;9: 391–398)


Supply chains can often be complex due to the large mesh of interconnected suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and customers. Recent advances in communication technologies can help participants collaborate across a supply chain. However, the huge amount of data generated can impede effective decision-making, particularly since some data may be incomplete or have errors. Inaccurate estimates of the state of the supply chain system can lead to incorrect decisions, with consequent adverse effects on product availability, lead times and inventory levels. What would be beneficial in overcoming this problem is an approach to obtain a better state estimation of the supply chain system. The paper aims to address this issue by proposing an approach that combines an extended Kalman filter with a network approach that models the supply chain as an abstraction. This approach is termed Augmented Trans-Nets and has several potential advantages: multiple participants in a supply chain can be modelled without undue complexity; and different considerations can be examined, such as cost and lead time. Furthermore, by using this approach, it is relatively straightforward to achieve an improved system estimation, which can help in managing the supply chain effectively.


A diode-pumped Q-switched Tm(3+)-doped double-clad silica fiber laser is reported providing average powers of up to 30 W at pulse widths of only 41 ns and repetition rates in the range of 10-125 kHz. Up to 270 microJ pulse energy was produced. Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) buildup limits the maximum peak power, and the pump power and average output power at the point of ASE induced clamping were found to depend linearly on the repetition rate.


Hirsutism is a common disorder affecting between 5 and 15% of the population. One of the most devastating consequences of hirsutism is the presence of unwanted facial hair. Treatment of hirsutism involves a two-pronged approach: treating the underlying cause and reduction of visible hair. Laser hair removal is one of the most effective options for reducing visible hair, however, it may not be wholly effective in all patients and combination therapy may need to be considered. Pharmacological therapy is often used in combination with mechanical hair removal due to the time needed for the drug treatment to demonstrate visible results. Clinical data investigating the use of laser treatment in combination with other treatments has focused on laser with topical eflornithine. The expert working group reviews existing data and provides guidance on the use of eflornithine in combination with laser for resistant hirsutism.


This paper investigates the optimal capacities of solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage (BES) for grid-connected households in South Australia. The optimisation is based on the net present cost of the electricity in a 20-year lifespan. Real data of load pattern, solar insolation and temperature at hourly interval as well as the electricity rates (retail price and feed-in-tariff) of South Australia are used in this study. Three different configurations with appropriate rule-based home energy management are proposed. Optimal capacities of the PV and BES are found in each configuration based on four different scenarios of PV capacity limited by the availability of roof size. The maximum export power limitations for South Australian households is considered for the optimization. The cost of electricity (¢/kWh) is selected as an index for comparison between the proposed systems. It is found that the proposed optimal system can be more beneficial for the households with lower electricity consumption. The study examines the sensitivity of the results to the average load consumption and costs of PV and battery. Annual load, PV power, battery charging/discharging, dumped energy, state-of- charge of battery as well as the grid export/import power are shown and discussed. The optimal system is compared with a zero net energy home in South Australia. A general guideline is demonstrated for the customers to purchase the optimal capacities of PV and BES.


Across the globe teachers are increasingly using online communication tools to bring together learners from different countries, and offer them social interaction opportunities to learn a new language or a new skill via Virtual Exchange (VE). While there is some mostly anecdotal evidence of VE on satisfaction and improving language skills, few studies have investigated the impact of VE on pre-service teachers' TPACK development using mixed methods. To remedy this gap, in this study we used a robust pre-post design of TPACK in two VEs with 55 pre-service teachers to explore its impact on their perceived TPACK development. Using k-means cluster analysis of TPACK, we identified three groups of participants who reported high-medium-low TPACK gains. We then triangulated these gains with the actual lived experiences and reflections of 25 participants by analysing over 400 online diary entries. Our findings indicated that most participants reported positive TPACK gains but the narratives of their VE experiences differed widely. The results of this study can inform the design of VE and can help identify pre-service teachers who might need more support when learning and collaborating online.


You ought to have a theme issue on "America as a global threat to health" suggested one of our correspondents, perhaps facetiously. Imagining the downcast face of our North American editor, the plummeting circulation of BMJUSA, and the wagging finger and circumlocutions of Donald Rumsfeld, we promptly decided against. But this issue could have provided the beginnings for such a theme. A serious response to global warming needed American leadership. Instead, we got the opposite. The United States, which produces a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, turned its back on the Kyoto agreement. As a result we are not responding adequately to global warming, and our grandchildren will find themselves in an increasingly degraded world. Now the American creativity and flair, which most of us admire, has produced not a solution to the problem but a film to scare us witless. Our cover picture, taken from the film The Day After Tomorrow, shows New York under water. Global warming is causing disasters. New Delhi is snow covered, and Britain is in the grip of an ice age because the Gulf Stream has switched off. Shakoor Hajat writes that the film presents "the worst case scenario" (p 1323), but Jonathan Patz tells us that global warming means not just a gradual climb in temperature but also an increased frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events—heat waves, droughts, floods, and storms (p 1269). It is also likely to increase the number of hungry people by 90 million this century (p 1324). Peter Drahos and David Henry are upset by the United States because it is using its trade powers to undermine rational drug policies in Australia (p 1271). The Australians have a tough policy on subsidising only drugs that are cost effective, but a new trade agreement creates a body to dispute decisions of the committee that decides on subsidies. This agreement, argue the editorialists, is one of several that is diluting the Doha declaration of the World Trade Organisation that aimed "to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all." Before I'm accused of being "anti-American" I must tell you that I will be leaving the BMJ to become chief executive of a European company being created by the UnitedHealth Group, the largest health and wellbeing company in the United States, to work with European public health systems, including the NHS (p 1276). The company will be aiming to help speed modernisation of the NHS. My main reason for leaving is that a quarter of a century is enough. I've had a wonderful time, and, like Woody Allen sweeping the floors in a strip club, I would have paid for the privilege of editing the BMJ. I hope that I hand the journal on in as a good a shape as I found it, and I thank the BMJ staff, authors, and readers for tolerating my eccentricities for so long. (PS. I'm not going just yet.)


Background Canada's North is a diverse, sparsely populated land, where inequalities and public health issues are evident, particularly for Aboriginal people. The Northern public health workforce is a unique mix of professional and paraprofessional workers. Few have formal public health education. From 2009 to 2012, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) collaborated with a Northern Advisory Group to develop and implement a strategy to strengthen public health capacity in Canada's 3 northern territories. Access to relevant, effective continuing education was identified as a key issue. Challenges include diverse educational and cultural backgrounds of public health workers, geographical isolation and variable technological infrastructure across the north. Methods PHAC's Skills Online program offers Internet-based continuing education modules for public health professionals. In partnership with the Northern Advisory Group, PHAC conducted 3 pilots between 2008 and 2012 to assess the appropriateness of the Skills Online program for Northern/Aboriginal public health workers. Module content and delivery modalities were adapted for the pilots. Adaptations included adding Inuit and Northern public health examples and using video and teleconference discussions to augment the online self-study component. Results Findings from the pilots were informative and similar to those from previous Skills Online pilots with learners in developing countries. Online learning is effective in bridging the geographical barriers in remote locations. Incorporating content on Northern and Aboriginal health issues facilitates engagement in learning. Employer support facilitates the recruitment and retention of learners in an online program. Facilitator assets included experience as a public health professional from the north, and flexibility to use modified approaches to support and measure knowledge acquisition and application, especially for First Nations, Inuit and Metis learners. Conclusions Results demonstrate that appropriate adaptations to online professional development can provide practical, accessible means for a wide range of Northern/Aboriginal public health workers to acquire core competencies for public health.


This paper addresses the topic of quality assessment in interpreting, from a perspective that defines quality as equivalent effect of source text and target text. The experimental study described uses an innovative methodology based on comprehension testing, to evaluate the widely accepted norm that an interpretation should produce the same effect — in the sense of effect on the listener's knowledge of a specific subject — as the original. More specifically, the study compares communicative effect between a marketing-related speech of about 15 minutes in non-native English and its simultaneous interpretation into German. The comparison is thus between two directly competing modes of communication, the use of English as a lingua franca being seen by many interpreters as a threat to their profession. Three experimental runs were completed, involving an Italian speaker comfortable with English as a medium for lecturing and a total of 139 listeners attending professionally oriented Austrian university courses. Results showed that in this setting the interpretation led to a better cognitive end-result in the audience than the original speech in non-native English.


In the past few years there has been an accumulating amount of evidence to suggest that the structural features of nanoparticles are responsible for dramatically different pharmacokinetic and body-excretion profiles. For example, a recent study convincingly illustrated that the mean hydrodynamic diameter of quantum dots (spherically shaped nanocrystals) is a determinant factor in achieving effective urinary excretion through the renal filtration barrier. In that study, however, the effect of nanoparticle shape on renal filtration was not examined at all. Our group has investigated the pharmacokinetic and excretion profiles of nonspherical, fibrilous carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and, in the present study, we have attempted to elucidate the mechanism by which such cylindrical nanoparticles can be excreted through the renal route. We have previously reported that surface-functionalized, water-dispersible, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs; average diameter 1 nm; average length 300–1000 nm) were capable of rapid and effective renal clearance and urinary excretion with a blood-circulation half-life of a few hours. These observations were in agreement with other studies


This paper presents a framework and process for a visual language that is developing as a systemic
visual method, and to integrate and outline aspects of this synthetic map formulation as the
"synthesis map" both with reference to contributing authors, but also as a comparison to design
principles and the method of visual design language. In this way the technique's purpose as an
emergent and creative tool ‐ method can be illustrated, in contrast to the approaches of
infographics, and other visual map making associated with design ideation, and design schema
representation. Synthesis maps integrate evidence and expertise in a visual narrative for
knowledge translation and communication


Published by the IEEE Computer Society 0018-9162/10/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE  Pay-as-you-go utility computing services by companies such as Amazon and new initiatives by Google, IBM, Microsoft, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have begun to provide applications researchers in areas such as machine learning and scientific computing with access to large-scale cluster resources. However, system researchers, who are developing the techniques and software infrastructure to support cloud computing, still have trouble obtaining low-level access to such resources. Open Cirrus (http://opencirrus.org) aims to address this problem by providing a single testbed of heterogeneous distributed data centers for systems, applications, services, and open source development research. The project is a joint initiative sponsored by Hewlett-Packard (HP), Intel, and Yahoo! in collaboration with the NSF, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore, the Russian Academy of T here is growing interest in cloud computing within the systems and applications research communities. However, systems researchers often find it difficult to do credible work without access to large-scale distributed data centers. Application researchers could also benefit from being able to control the deployment and consumption of hosted services across a distributed cloud computing testbed. Open Cirrus is a cloud computing testbed that, unlike existing alternatives, federates distributed data centers. It aims to spur innovation in systems and applications research and catalyze development of an open source service stack for the cloud. Arutyun I. Avetisyan, Institute for System Programming of the Russian Academy of Sciences


The analytical constant modulus algorithm (ACMA) is a deterministic array processing algorithm to separate sources based on their constant modulus. It has been derived without detailed regard to noise processing. In particular, the estimates of the beamformer are known to be asymptotically biased. In the present paper, we investigate this bias, and obtain a straightforward weighting scheme that will whiten the noise and remove the bias. This leads to improved performance for larger data sets.


The circular economy is anticipated to bring a disruptive transformation in manufacturing technologies. Robust and industrial scalable microbial strains that can simultaneously assimilate and valorize multiple carbon substrates are highly desirable, as waste bioresources contain substantial amounts of renewable and fermentable carbon, which is diverse. Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) is identified as an inexhaustible and alternative resource to reduce global dependence on oil. Glucose, xylose, and arabinose are the major monomeric sugars in LCB. However, primary research has focused on the use of glucose. On the other hand, the valorization of pentose sugars, xylose, and arabinose, has been mainly overlooked, despite possible assimilation by vast microbial communities. The present review highlights the research efforts that have explicitly proven the suitability of arabinose as the starting feedstock for producing various chemical building blocks via biological routes. It begins by analyzing the availability of various arabinose-rich biorenewable sources that can serve as potential feedstocks for biorefineries. The subsequent section outlines the current understanding of arabinose metabolism, biochemical routes prevalent in prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems, and possible products that can be derived from this sugar. Further, currently, exemplar products from arabinose, including arabitol, 2,3-butanediol, 1,2,3-butanetriol, ethanol, lactic acid, and xylitol are discussed, which have been produced by native and non-native microbial strains using metabolic engineering and genome editing tools. The final section deals with the challenges and obstacles associated with arabinose-based production, followed by concluding remarks and prospects.


Addition of tributylstannylmetallics to (R)-tert-butanesulfonimine derivatives of arylaldehydes provides α-sulfinamidostannanes with high (>98% de) diastereoselectivities. Oxidation of these compounds with m-CPBA gives α-sulfonamidostannanes which undergo Pd/Cu-catalyzed Stille-type couplings with benzoyl chloride. Best yields are achieved using the electron-rich tris(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)phosphine as the ligand. Inversion of configuration at the benzylic carbon is observed.


This paper considers the robust control of an active radial magnetic bearing system, having a homopolar, external rotor topology, which is used to support an annular fiber composite flywheel rim. A first-order dynamical compensator, which uses only position feedback information, is used for control, its design being based on a linearized one-dimensional second-order model which is treated as an interval system in order to cope with parameter uncertainties. Through robust stability analysis, a parameterization of all first-order robustly stabilizing dynamical compensators for the interval system is initially obtained. Then, by appropriate selection of the free parameters in the robust controller, the H/sub 2/ norm of the disturbance-output transfer function is made arbitrarily small over the system parameter intervals, and the H/sub /spl infin// norm of the input-output transfer function is made arbitrarily close to a lower bound. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate both stability and performance robustness of the developed controller.


This special section of Annals of Translational Medicine focuses on important topics and techniques in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA). It is not only meant for the orthopaedic audience, but also for the general readership who are interested in learning about the application of various surgical concepts. Therefore, we purposefully included studies evaluating a wide range of procedures and patient populations.


The importance of women as a largely untapped pool of entrepreneurs has been widely recognised by economic development agencies. However, despite a number of initiatives designed to stimulate female self‐employment, relatively few women are starting in business. Research has shown that the experience of business ownership for women is very different than for men. While early studies of female entrepreneurship suggested that the start up period posed particular constraints for women, it was assumed that these barriers were resolved once trading commenced. The use of more sophisticated methodologies and sampling strategies has revealed profound gender differences in both women's experiences of business ownership and the performance of women owned firms. Some of the key research findings which have emerged from gender based studies of business ownership are outlined, and the implications of these findings for training and advisory services dealing with the small business sector are examined.


Aero engine rotor burst evaluation is one of the most important problems to be taken care off, whenever it comes to designing a turbo machinery disc. The consequences of a failure can be intense, since the disc fragments into multiple pieces and they are hurled away in all the possible direction at high speeds. Due to high thermo-mechanical loading conditions the disc is subjected to varying degrees of temperature from bore to rim. However, the centrifugal force dominates in the disc which ranges from 80%-90% and the rest can be treated as thermal and gas loads. The challenge lies at designing a disc for off-design conditions with their varying loads and duty cycles. In present work evaluation of safety limits and low-cycle fatigue (LCF) life estimation of an aero engine disc through classical methods and blending the terminologies with simulation engineering to arrive at a probable interpretation of number of duty cycles is carried out. The methodology compares the fatigue parameters involved in evaluation of disc life at off-design condition through sensitivity analysis. The design tool closely connects the flight certification FAA and EASA the regulating agencies for safety in air transportation vehicles. The off-design speed regulations through API and MIL handbook for material specification are considered to carry out design of experiments using finite element analysis approach


We have used the fundamental and frequency-doubled output of a single-frequency tunable laser locked to a precisely known transition in molecular iodine to provide calibration of a Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) in the visible and near-ultraviolet regions and to investigate the limiting uncertainty involved in calibrating spectra by using a single multiplicative correction to the entire optical frequency scale. An integrating sphere was used to introduce the laser light as a pseudoincoherent source and provide uniform illumination of the FTS field of view. The sphere also served to combine the laser beams with light from a series of mercury electrodeless discharge lamps containing argon carrier gas at selected pressures. Four strong lines in the spectrum of 198Hg were measured with these lamps to obtain precise wavelengths and argon-pressure-shift coefficients. These lines, emitted from lamps with argon pressures in the range 33 Pa (0.25 Torr) to 1330 Pa (10 Torr), are suitable for future calibration of FT spectra without need for the laser source. The limiting relative uncertainty component in the reported wavelengths is 6.19×10−9, as estimated from observed deviation of the frequency ratios of the calibration lasers from the exact value of 2. The adequacy of a single multiplicative correction factor for the absolute calibration of an individual FT spectrum is supported by our data, at the level of better than a part in 108.


This paper attempts to improve upon the range of applicability and predictability of the empirical highly accelerated lifetime testing (HALT) equation that has been traditionally used to estimate time dependent breakdown strength performance in multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) and integrated thin film capacitor structures. The present and traditional HALT equation shows evidence of being limited in thin dielectric layers under high fields, for example, in high capacitance MLCCs. When the traditional HALT equations are applied to MLCCs with higher operating electric fields, there are often field dependent voltage acceleration factors resulting in ambiguous data analysis. Here, we introduce a physical model to account for a critical ionic space charge accumulation preceded by the ionic hopping or electromigration of oxygen vacancies leading to an ultimate increase in leakage current typical of dielectric resistance degradation. Mean time to failure degradation data on experimental capacitors indicates superior predictions with the new non-linear equation than with the traditional HALT equation to provide more accurate and simpler testing in future components. It is further noted that this approach may be applicable to many capacitive devices that operate under a high bias and can have ionic space charge accumulation at interfaces prior to breakdown.This paper attempts to improve upon the range of applicability and predictability of the empirical highly accelerated lifetime testing (HALT) equation that has been traditionally used to estimate time dependent breakdown strength performance in multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) and integrated thin film capacitor structures. The present and traditional HALT equation shows evidence of being limited in thin dielectric layers under high fields, for example, in high capacitance MLCCs. When the traditional HALT equations are applied to MLCCs with higher operating electric fields, there are often field dependent voltage acceleration factors resulting in ambiguous data analysis. Here, we introduce a physical model to account for a critical ionic space charge accumulation preceded by the ionic hopping or electromigration of oxygen vacancies leading to an ultimate increase in leakage current typical of dielectric resistance degradation. Mean time to failure degradation data on experimental capacitors indicates s...


Majority of drugs are usually introduced through oral or intra-venous route for fast action, better patient compliance and ease of drug administration. However, the low bioavailability and limited brain exposure of orally administered drugs pose a huge challenge to treat neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. So, the situation demands for targeting the drug to brain. For brain targeting, a number of factors are considered viz. molecular weight, route of administration, lipophilic character of drug and blood brain barrier (BBB). These factors limit the movement of drug into brain tissue through BBB. To overcome these problems, intranasal drug administration is one of the promising routes that bypasses BBB and cuts down the dose to be administered with better brain exposure to drug. Nasal route has been used for the administration of antihistamines, local analgesics and corticosteroids intended for local drug delivery in nasal allergy, nasal congestion and nasal infection. However, systemic drug delivery through this route has also been explored in recent times. For nose to brain drug delivery, olfactory and respiratory region are utilized which also enable delivery of larger molecules to reach brain tissues. Such delivery systems are generally pH or temperature dependent. Certain diseases of nervous system like migraine, dementia, parkinsonism, epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease can be successfully treated through this route. This review attempts to highlight the anatomy of nose, mechanisms of drug delivery from nose to brain, critical factors in the formulation of delivery systems, nasal formulations and applications of nasal route for delivery of various drugs.


Many side-channel attacks on implementations of cryptographic algorithms have been developed in recent years demonstrating the ease of extracting the secret key. In response, various schemes to protect cryptographic devices against such attacks have been devised and some implemented in practice. Almost all of these protection schemes target an individual side-channel attack and consequently, it is not obvious whether a scheme for protecting the device against one type of side-channel attacks may make the device more vulnerable to another type of side-channel attacks. We examine in this paper the possibility of such a negative impact for the case where fault detection circuitry is added to a device (to protect it against fault injection attacks) and analyze the resistance of the modified device to power attacks. To simplify the analysis we focus on only one component in the cryptographic device (namely, the S-box in the AES and Kasumi ciphers), and perform power attacks on the original implementation and on a modified implementation with an added parity check circuit. Our results show that the presence of the parity check circuitry has a negative impact on the resistance of the device to power analysis attacks.


From 2008 Representation will have new editors – Dr. Andrew Russell and Dr. Stephen de Wijze. Both work in Politics, at the University of Manchester. Representation is a journal of long standing repute. It has been publishing since 1960 and has a general interest in all matters relating to the theme of representative democracy and to this end it has established itself as a recognised journal of record and comment both in the UK and internationally. While building on its present strengths, the new editors wish to expand the journal's remit and introduce more normative concepts of democracy and representation, to consider more than parliamentary versions of representation and to broaden the geographic scope of the journal. This change in scope follows two paths. Firstly, it seeks contributors who are interested in exploring the interface between democratic practice and theory. In particular, this focus seeks contributions that apply theoretical insights to actual examples of current practice. Some examples of areas where theoretical discussions could make a significant contribution to the actual current practices are debates within topics such as: (i) overcoming the democratic deficit, (ii) ensuring adequate representation for women and minorities in liberal democratic pluralist societies, (iii) finding ways of modernising elections, and (iv) voter education and (v) debating the need, extent and plausibility of democratic institutions at a trans-national, or even global, level. Secondly, while not neglecting the current focus of the journal, the editors would like to expand its international coverage so that the journal will offer the readers insights in the state of democracy worldwide. The editors hope that the widening of the journal's scope will bring with it a new set of readers and especially those working on the interface between theory and practice. Representation will offer a place for debates and scholarship, both empirical and normative, on democratic practices around the world. The introduction of the theoretical dimension does not preclude a focus on empirical studies of non-electoral forms of representation and decision-making. Indeed, it is just these areas where the editors believe a theoretical input would be valuable. As in the past, the new editors of Representation are interested in furthering links with national and international groups involved in the study of elections, representation and voting systems and will continue to publish high quality papers on elections, institutions and electoral systems.


This book presents the theory of complementary variational principles, which can be used to calculate upper and lower bounds to many physical quantities. The reader will find an elementary knowledge of the calculus of variations and operator theory helpful. The Euler-Lagrange theory provides either an upper bound or a lower bound to the stationary value of a functional. In order to obtain both upper and lower bounds, the canonical equations are introduced. (These are Hamilton's equations in classical dyna mics.) The derivation of the complementary variational principles from the canonical theory is given for the simplest problem, where the functional is a one-dimensional integral with fixed end-points. With a more abstract presentation, the author extends the theory to a more general problem, which is later seen to have a wide range of application. The theory has been applied to linear and nonlinear problems in potential theory, neutron transport theory, quantum theory, plasma physics, network theory and hydro dynamics. Details of how the mathematical problem arises from the physical situation are not given, but there is an adequate bibliography, which includes many original papers. Since the book is concerned with a fairly specialised topic, it will probably be of most interest to graduates. The printing and presentation are good, with the main theorems being clearly stated and the contents of each chapter carefully summarised. a set an undergraduate Operating System Theory. outlining the of complex supervisory the early monitors. The basic concept of an operating system as a set of processes controlled by semaphores is introduced. The hardware described starting with basic facilities such as interrupts and autonomous peripheral devices and concluding with concepts such as paging and virtual machines which, although not essen tial, considerably improve the efficiency of an operating system. Facilities such accounting and scheduling with a number of examples majority 1969. conference was jointly the Operations The papers cover a very wide range of subjects, as is clearly shown by listing the titles of the nine sections into which the papers have been divided: mathematical programming, application of optimisation methods, stochastic systems, application of probability and statistics, planning, traffic and transportation, public services, game theory and military applications. There is something for everybody in this collection of papers which range from the analysis of a theoretical problem to the description of a practical study. For instance, in the first section, there is a theoretical paper discussing mathematical program ming in complex variables, and in the application of optimisation methods section there is a description of a straightforward use of linear programming to a distribution problem.


Precision medicine (PM) is an advanced high-model approach under which standard therapy for the right patient at an accurate time is provided, which is necessary for cancer therapy. Problems such as an individual diversity in gene, lifestyle, environment cause variability of the treatment response, and resistance to medication have been long-term challenges in oncology. Statics show that traditional clinical practices sometimes give poor health outcomes and a misuse of medical resources. In this model, a diagnostic is based on combined therapy using biomarker along with cellular, molecular, and genetic analysis. Diseases such as cancer including lung, breast, colorectal as well as leukemia, and melanomas can be controlled under this effective treatment by a physician to improve the chance of survival, reduce exposure to adverse effect, prevent harmful drug interaction, and increase overall efficacy. This revolutionized technology create a new era of medicine, in which researcher, health providers, and patient work together to improve health, treat diseases, and develop individualized care. Fighting against cancer is common to all countries. The GLOBOCAN statistics data revealed about 14.1 million newly diagnosed cancer patients, 32.6 million people living with cancer, and 8.2 million deaths from cancer worldwide. The cancer PM will hold advanced technology in other field including biotechnologies such as proteomics, next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics, and pharmacology to identify the actual cause for cancer and also tailor-fit personalized therapies.


Soil samples from the sugar cane fields and muscovado samples from the manufacturing processes at sugar manufacturies in many parts of Okinawa Prefecture were collected, mainly in 1988 and 1989, and examined for Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium tetani. Of 290 soil samples 21 (7.2%) were positive for C. botulinum. Four (1.4%) and 17 (5.9%) contained types E and C respectively. C. botulinum type E was demonstrated in the North and South areas of Okinawa main island. Type A and B were not demonstrated from soil samples in Okinawa Prefecture. Of 53 samples of the manufacturing processes of muscovado 5 (9.4%) were positive for C. botulinum type C. Type A, B and E were not found from muscovado samples in Okinawa Prefecture. Of 290 soil samples 54 (18.6%) were positive for C. tetani. Among the 53 muscovado samples from the manufacturing processes of the sugar cane, 10 (18.9%) were positive for C. tetani.


By adding a subsystem that provides continuous network service to a host system such as a PC (Personal Computer), even while the host system is sleeping, it is possible to achieve efficient use of the system and energy reduction. Remote management is a typical example. Recently, to maintain network service anytime and anywhere, WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network) technology such as 3G (3rd generation mobile telecommunications) has been employed. The design of the subsystem should be independent of the network device in terms of development cost because once modifications are made, they are dependent on a network device, this would lead to extra work being required to use the new network devices and retain the modification. Furthermore, modification to the logic or firmware of a wireless network device may make re-certification necessary owing to rules and regulations for radio devices. Therefore, realization of a method that does not require any modification to wireless network devices, network drivers, and connection software is considered ideal, however, it has not been achieved thus far. In this paper, we propose a unique architecture for a subsystem that overcomes this design issue by introducing two elements to achieve host unaware network service: pseudoresponse and bridge functionality for communicating through the subsystem. In general, a highly independent design contributes to processing overhead and tends to degrade performance. Hence, we prototype the subsystem on an ARM7 board and evaluate it using actual 3G network and cloud services. The results show that the proposed technique works transparently, even when the host system uses the network, and the required CPU (Central Processing Unit) frequency is more than 70 MHz. Furthermore, it is confirmed that power reduction of around 60% can be achieved while downloading.


Apart from traditional metal–organic frameworks as sensory materials, materials incorporating discrete cages or clusters to sense hazardous species are uncommon. Keeping this view in mind, a new hybrid discrete material comprising a decavanadate anion and copper complex cations was designed for such a purpose. Consequently, a novel polyoxovanadate (POV)-based inorganic–organic hybrid compound showing a unique combination of first anagostic (V⋯H) interactions was synthesized. Single-crystal X-ray data ascertained the bonding modes and geometry of the complex along with the novel anagostic weak intermolecular interactions in the complex material. X-ray crystallography confirmed the composition of the cluster as {Cu(Pyno)4}{NEt3H}2[H2V10O28] (1), containing a decavanadate unit as the anion with a square planar copper(II) complex and triethylaminium as the cations. The complex was further characterized by FT-IR, time decay and magnetic studies. The magnetic studies confirmed the presence of the Cu2+ state in the complex at room temperature as well as at low temperature. The cluster displayed rare intermolecular V⋯H, lp⋯π, V–O⋯H, π⋯π and C–H⋯H interactions, which generated a supramolecular framework. These interactions were verified by Hirshfeld surface analyses. The hybrid material is reported herein as the first aqueous-phase sensor for picric acid (PA) as well as for Pd2+. The complex showed a highly sensitive, discriminative and selective sensing behaviour for the said species and is the first reported example of its type in this discrete molecular category. The sensing pathways were investigated by spectral titrations, and by time decay and DFT (B3LYP/def2-SVP) studies. The lowest detection limit was discovered for the present POV towards the sensing of both PA and Pd2+ ions with values of ∼0.18 and ∼0.80 ppb, respectively.


Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was conducted to test 300 samples of orchid plants, collected from commercial orchid nurseries around Malaysia. The orchid samples were either apparently healthy or exhibited virus-like symptoms. ELISA results showed that 88% of the samples were infected with cymbidium mosaic virus (CyMV) including the orchid samples that did not exhibit any viral symptoms and looked healthy in appearance. Shoot tips from virus free plants were used to induce protocorm-like bodies (PLBs). The generated PLBs were bombarded with gold particle coated with plasmid pRQ6 and pJIT.CyMVcp containing hygromycin phosphotransferase (hptII) selectable marker gene and CyMVcp gene respectively. A total of 500 PLBs were bombarded and after 5 months selection in hygromycin media, 63 putative transgenic lines were recovered. Based on polymerase chain reaction analysis (PCR) on putative transgenic lines, 53 showed positive for the presence of hptII and CyMVcp genes. This study revealed that cotransformation of hptII and CyMVcp genes in two different vectors manage to achieve 10.6% transformation efficiency. The transgenic orchid plants were established in pots and acclimatised in the greenhouse. The transgenic plants were found morphologically similar compared to untransformed plants.


Nuts are recognized as a healthy snack and a daily intake of 30-50 g is recommended as part of a healthy diet. However, their health benefits depend on their nutritional composition. The nutritional composition of nuts varies depending on their cultivar and post-harvest handling, and it is not always clear how much variation can be expected among nuts purchased from retail markets. We evaluated the variability in crude protein and mineral nutrient concentrations of four brands of almonds purchased from different commercial retailers. The mean concentrations of crude protein and minerals in almond kernels were: crude protein (22.31% weight), aluminium (3.90 mg kg-1), boron (18.50 mg kg-1), calcium (0.20% weight), copper (8.90 mg kg-1), iron (32.20 mg kg-1), magnesium (0.30% weight), manganese (25.60 mg kg-1), potassium (0.60% weight), phosphorus (0.50% weight), sodium (35.40 mg kg-1), sulphur (0.20% weight) and zinc (21.30 mg kg-1). Nutrient concentrations varied widely among almond samples from different brands, with the largest variations found in sodium and aluminium and the smallest variations found in crude protein and potassium. The following ranges were observed: crude protein (17.06-26.52% weight), aluminium (0.80-25.80 mg kg-1), boron (12.60-33.80 mg kg-1), calcium (0.12-0.33% weight), copper (3.90-13.60 mg kg-1), iron (17.60-64.50 mg kg-1), magnesium (0.16-0.36% weight), manganese (12.40-41.10 mg kg-1), potassium (0.43-0.78% weight), phosphorus (0.37-0.69% weight), sodium (0.20-134.30 mg kg-1), sulphur (0.11-0.22% weight) and zinc (12.50-30.70 mg kg-1). Aluminium, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium and zinc concentrations differed significantly among brands of almond kernels but there were no significant differences in crude protein, boron, copper, manganese, potassium and sulphur concentrations. There is a need for rapid quality assessment of mineral nutrient composition of nuts before marketing and consumption. This will help in recommending quantities for consumption to meet daily health requirements.


Soils play a decisive role in the manufacture of building materials, especially, tiles and bricks. Production techniques cause negative impacts on the environment and add additional time to the production process. Three samples obtained from Paraíba State were characterized by thermal characterization, granulometric and physical-mechanical techniques. Thermal analysis was undertaken in two different atmospheres, at a flow rate of 110 ml/min and a heating rate of 10oC/min. Evaluation of the soils through their thermal characteristics for use in soil-cement bricks production is elucidated.


Incorporating exchange rate fluctuations into the analysis of an international investment substantially alters the expected risk and return characteristics of the investments. With fluctuating rates, the value of a successful investment property could be devastated when converted to the investor′s home currency. This risk should be recognized and incorporated into the investment decision but, as results show, the ultimate strategy may not be periodic adjustments which have been used by many researchers, nor trying to hedge fully as others have suggested, but rather to examine returns in home market currency and leave exchange rate exposure decisions to the currency portfolio managers. Explores the possibilities of mitigating currency risk through several hedging instruments – forward and futures contracts, options, back‐to‐back loans and currency swaps. Results from a survey of international investors are also summarized and comments provide substantial evidence that investors are unsophisticated in deali...


Introduction: Despite existing policy actions on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), many community members in Bududa still continue to settle in high-risk areas re-zoned for nonsettlement. There seems to be an apparent information asymmetry on expectations between the community and Government. The challenge then is 'how to consult communities and seek their opinion in an adequately representative unbiased way'. This paper sets out to explore policy options on resettlement management as a DRR approach and how engaging with communities in a public discourse using the Deliberative Polling (DP) approach; to obtain their opinions and insights on these policy issues, revealed underlying challenges to policy implementation. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted in Bududa in eastern Uganda with fourteen group discussions; comprising 12-15 randomly assigned participants of mixed socio-economic variables. Trained research assistants and moderators collected data. All discussions were audio taped, transcribed verbatim before analysis. Data were analyzed using latent content analysis by identifying codes from which sub-themes were generated and grouped into main themes on policy options for resettlement management. Results and Discussion: We used Deliberative Polling, an innovative approach to public policy consultation and found that although the community is in agreement with most government policy options under resettlement management, they lacked an understanding of the rationale underlying these policy options leading to challenges in implementation. The community members seemed uncertain and had mistrust in government's ability to implement the policies especially on issues of compensation for land lost. Key Words: Policy, Deliberative Polling, Climate change, risk-reduction, landslides, Uganda


To the Editor: Recently, a new treatment for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma has come into use.' This procedure involves giving the patient an oral dose of a photoactive drug, methoxsalen, which is followed by an apheresis procedure in which the patient's blood is removed and the white cells (WBCs) are separated and exposed to ultraviolet (W) light. Methoxsalen intercalates in the DNA of the WBCs, and with exposure to UV light, causes covalent crosslinking. The WBCs are then returned to the patient, along with the unexposed plasma and red cells. Irradiated lymphocytes die over several days, thus destroying many cells of the expanded malignant clone. Furthermore, i t is thought that the exposure of these defunct lymphocytes to the reticuloendothelial system leads to a specific immunologic reaction against the clone, having a beneficial anti-tumor effect. This therapeutic process has been variously termed extracorporeal photochemotherapy' or photopheresis.2 The term apheresis comes from two Greek words apo and haireinY3 which taken together mean the taking away or removal of something. Brevity is commendable but should be accompanied by accuracy, so calling this procedure photopheresis is a misnomer, as that would, in fact, mean the removal or obscuration of light, that is, an eclipse, whereas in reality, UV light is transmitted to WBCs during the procedure. Because speaking of "extracorporeal photochemotherapy" every time we wish to refer to this procedure is tiresome and time-consuming, we believe that the use of an acronym is desirable, but this term should reflect the reality of the procedure. As extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is known as "ECMO," we propose calling extracorporeal photochemotherapy "ECPHO." Thus, those of us who use acronyms can be brief but accurate, showing that we understand what semantics is about. CAROL A. TALACW SAMIR K. BALLAS, MD Cardeza Foundation for Hematologic Research Department of Medicine Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Blood Bank Philadelphia, PA 19107 Letters to the Editor


Background and Hypothesis: Despite improvements in recruiting trainees from underrepresented backgrounds, there is a paucity in programming designed to enhance underrepresented in medicine (URM) students' sense of belonging and well-being. In addition to academic stressors, URM students may experience discrimination and stereotype threat, all of which contribute to burnout. Although Indiana University School of Medicine is one of the largest and more diverse medical schools in the country, URM students continue to experience disconnectedness from peers, mentors, and faculty from URM backgrounds due to the regional campus model. To address the complex challenges URM students face, the Cross-Cultural Student Success Retreat (CCSSR) was created. We hypothesize that URM students will feel an increased sense of belonging through participation in the retreat.
Project Methods: The CCSSR was developed in partnership between Medical Student Education and the Office of Diversity Affairs as a response to concerns of isolation and burnout among URM students. The program is designed to be cohort style where day-long events take place twice an academic year to engage students with minority faculty and activities designed to promote sense of belonging, retention, and success. The retreat is broken into four sessions; self-discovery, self-efficacy, bias/perception, and well-being. Each of the sessions includes a presentation, discussion, and activity.
Results: The retreat was found to be a success, with positive responses received from 36 participants across each session. Outcomes included an increased awareness of personal biases and prejudices, heightened sense of belonging among peers, and a feeling of empowerment to make their environment more inclusive.
Conclusion and Potential Impact: The positive outcomes of the retreat strongly suggest a need to implement long and short-terms programs catering specifically to the success of URM students. Ultimately, addressing the specific challenges faced by URM students will decrease rates of burnout and isolation among this population.


Graph-structured data is ubiquitous in practice and often processed using graph neural networks (GNNs). With the adoption of recent laws ensuring the ``right to be forgotten'', the problem of graph data removal has become of significant importance. To address the problem, we introduce the first known framework for \emph{certified graph unlearning} of GNNs. In contrast to standard machine unlearning, new analytical and heuristic unlearning challenges arise when dealing with complex graph data. First, three different types of unlearning requests need to be considered, including node feature, edge and node unlearning. Second, to establish provable performance guarantees, one needs to address challenges associated with feature mixing during propagation. The underlying analysis is illustrated on the example of simple graph convolutions (SGC) and their generalized PageRank (GPR) extensions, thereby laying the theoretical foundation for certified unlearning of GNNs. Our empirical studies on six benchmark datasets demonstrate excellent performance-complexity trade-offs when compared to complete retraining methods and approaches that do not leverage graph information. For example, when unlearning $20\%$ of the nodes on the Cora dataset, our approach suffers only a $0.1\%$ loss in test accuracy while offering a $4$-fold speed-up compared to complete retraining. Our scheme also outperforms unlearning methods that do not leverage graph information with a $12\%$ increase in test accuracy for a comparable time complexity.


An electrical – thermal coupled finite element model (FEM) is developed to investigate the temperature distribution during spark plasma sintering (SPS) with a pre-designed graded graphite die. The sample used in this investigation consists of five layers with different contents of Ti and TiB (45 wt % Ti, 55 wt %Ti, 65 wt % Ti, 75 wt % Ti and 85 wt % Ti). The temperature distribution in gradient Ti-TiB composites was obtained. Owing to the use of the die with changing cross section, a temperature difference of 142K in the axial direction inside the sample is achieved, while the maximum radial temperature difference is 6.2 times less than the axial one.


The recent economic crisis still lingering in Europe has deeply affected the way individuals look at the investment market. Understanding the trust processes underlying the decision to invest with financial intermediaries is of particular importance both at managerial (product development and advertisement) and at normative level (how intermediaries are regulated). Using an online experiment, this paper investigates whether discrepancies in the financial literacy of investors and brokers can be used to explain the decision to trust, thus, to invest in the financial market. The results show that trust is affected by the information disclosure in somewhat unexpected ways.


Regular expressions are a classical concept in formal language theory. Regular expressions in programming languages (RegEx) such as JavaScript, feature non-standard semantics of operators (e.g. greedy/lazy Kleene star), as well as additional features such as capturing groups and references. While symbolic execution of programs containing RegExes appeals to string solvers natively supporting important features of RegEx, such a string solver is hitherto missing. In this paper, we propose the first string theory and string solver that natively provides such support. The key idea of our string solver is to introduce a new automata model, called prioritized streaming string transducers (PSST), to formalize the semantics of RegEx-dependent string functions. PSSTs combine priorities, which have previously been introduced in prioritized finite-state automata to capture greedy/lazy semantics, with string variables as in streaming string transducers to model capturing groups. We validate the consistency of the formal semantics with the actual JavaScript semantics by extensive experiments. Furthermore, to solve the string constraints, we show that PSSTs enjoy nice closure and algorithmic properties, in particular, the regularity-preserving property (i.e., pre-images of regular constraints under PSSTs are regular), and introduce a sound sequent calculus that exploits these properties and performs propagation of regular constraints by means of taking post-images or pre-images. Although the satisfiability of the string constraint language is generally undecidable, we show that our approach is complete for the so-called straight-line fragment. We evaluate the performance of our string solver on over 195000 string constraints generated from an open-source RegEx library. The experimental results show the efficacy of our approach, drastically improving the existing methods (via symbolic execution) in both precision and efficiency.


The preeminent motivation to the scientific practice – stated in a weak way – can be recognized in the individuation of recurring phenomena (or else empirical regularity), along with the manipulation, both experimental and theoretical, of these. One can thus pose the issue of the necessity of adopting a set of rules for the logical inferential process, in order to assign a syntax, a semantic content, and possibly an interpretation, to the empirical evidences. According to Aristotle, non-contradiction is "the firmest principle of all": irrefutable, otherwise the very possibility of formulating thoughts fails. Throughout the present report, the entailments of refusing some of the laws of classical logic – e.g. non-contradiction – are exposed. Such a possibility sheds light on a plurality of logical systems: some traits of these, which are significant for Mathematics and Physics, are examined. For instance, the relevance of dialetheism and intuitionism will be discussed. Besides, the report discusses on which basis one should choose the logical system to be adopted for the scientific activity. The peculiar case study given by Quantum Theory serves as fil rouge in developing the reported matters.