Changes in global fire activity are influenced by a multitude of factors including land‐cover change, policies, and climatic conditions. This study uses 17 climate models to evaluate when changes in fire weather, as realized through the Fire Weather Index, emerge from the expected range of internal variability due to anthropogenic climate change using the time of emergence framework. Anthropogenic increases in extreme Fire Weather Index days emerge for 22% of burnable land area globally by 2019, including much of the Mediterranean and the Amazon. By the midtwenty‐first century, emergence among the different Fire Weather Index metrics occurs for 33–62% of burnable lands. Emergence of heightened fire weather becomes more widespread as a function of global temperature change. At 2 °C above preindustrial levels, the area of emergence is half that for 3 °C. These results highlight increases in fire weather conditions with human‐caused climate change and incentivize local adaptation efforts to limit detrimental fire impacts.


The paper deals with international and Russian structural problems in agriculture. The objective of the paper is the research of structural changes in the agricultural sector of Russia and their change under the effect of the 'sectoral' sanctions and the food commodity import substitution policy. The theoretical base for this paper has become the works of the scientists dealing with the problems of the structural economic development at the macro level. The nature of the structural shifts in the Russian agrarian sector was discovered, as well as the disproportions in development of different countries, especially those producing the threat to the food supply security and thus the economic safety of the states. The authors have studied the structure of the main commodity groups influencing the solution of the import substitution problem; computed the basic indicators of the corresponding structural shifts; and highlighted the most efficient groups of the agricultural producers. Also, the paper represents the econometric model of the structural shifts and the assessment of the level of self-sufficiency with agricultural production in Russia. The research has been conducted based on the methodology of structural analysis represented in the scientific pursuits of the foreign and national scientists. It also contains the conclusion about the necessity of strengthening the structural policy in the animal husbandry. In particular, import substitution in the sub-branches of the agriculture and food industry should be combined with the export development in the other spheres (based on the methodology of full and efficient use of the available agricultural potential).


This thesis is an exploration of some problems involving flexible boundaries subjected to transmural pressure differences. During the thesis, we explore a few example problems with the common theme of finding the shape profile of these flexible boundaries. We begin with the problem of a cross section of an elastic tube that is subjected to a pressure difference between the inside and outside pressures. This chapter is based on Flaherty et al. [10], but is essential to the thesis as a whole as we use the structure here to define the governing equations for the flexible boundary that we will refer to throughout the rest of the chapters. We then look at these circular cross sections as a fluid annulus where we have fluid contained between two of these flexible boundaries, and this fluid flow causes the pressure differences. The thesis then takes the governing elastic equations (again with the transmural pressure differences) but instead of an enclosed ring, we have a setup where the boundary is fixed at two points. Interestingly here we discover the existence of non-symmetric solutions that have not been found before. The setup of the elastic boundary that is fixed is then extended by passing a flow across the elastic boundary to create the pressure differences, firstly as a weak flow perturbation analysis and then via numerical computation.


A class of immigration superprocesses (IMS) with dependent spatial motion is considered. When the immigration rate converges to a non-vanishing deterministic one, we can prove that under a suitable scaling, the rescaled immigration superprocesses converge to a class of IMS with coalescing spatial motion in the sense of probability distribution on the space of measurevalued continuous paths. This scaled limit does not only provide with a new type of limit theorem but also gives a new class of superprocesses. Other related limits for superprocesses with dependent spatial motion are summarized. §


This paper is an introduction to some of the main present issues in the theory of structural glasses. After recalling a few experimental facts, it gives a short account of the analogy between fragile glasses and the mean field discontinuous spin glasses. The many valley picture is presented, and a brief account of recent attempts to obtain quantitative results from first principle computations is summarised.


New data from Sudan question an influential approach to reducing female genital cutting The World Health Organization defines female genital cutting as any procedure that removes or injures any part of a female's external genitalia for nonmedical reasons (1). Cutting brings no documented health benefits and leads to serious health problems. Across six African countries, for example, a cohort of 15-year-old girls is expected to lose nearly 130,000 years of life because of cutting (2). We report data that question an influential approach to promoting abandonment of the practice.


UNLABELLED
In order to estimate incidence, severity and associated factors in the development of the degenerative arthritis of the knee following a cruciate ligament injury, a multicenter, longterm follow-up study was undertaken. The time interval between injury and follow-up exam was a minimum of 15 years (range 15-52 years). Extensive physical examination and radiographic analyses from four "Knee Centers" (Hospital for Special Surgery, New York; Orthopädische Klinik, Bruderholz; Orthopaedic and Arthritic Hospital, Toronto; Orthopaedic Department Wichita, Kansas) on 328 patients revealed that the best correlation to the degree of osteoarthritis could be found to the time of meniscectomy. All other operations (suture of cruciate ligament, intraarticular or extraarticular reconstruction) showed much less correlation to the severity of the degenerative arthritis found at the follow-up exam.

IN CONCLUSION
Preservation of as much meniscus tissue as possible at the time of injury seems to be the best warranty for slowing down degenerative arthritis after cruciate ligament injury.


The insertion of spherical, nonadsorbing colloidal particles into a swollen planar polymer brush is characterized using Monte Carlo simulations with umbrella sampling focusing on small particles whose radius Rp is smaller than the unperturbed brush thickness, h0. This process plays a key role in the modeling antifouling poly(ethylene glycol) brushes that repress protein adsorption. Two properties are studied as a function of Rp and the altitude within the brush z: (i) The particle induced perturbation of the monomer concentration profile and (ii) The insertion free energy penalty, Fins. The perturbation of the concentration profile is short ranged involving pure depletion at high z and depletion followed by a maximum at low z. When the particle does not experience the surface depletion layer Fins grows with the monomer volume fraction ϕ and Rp. Fins ∼ Rp3 for the larger Rp reflects an osmotic insertion penalty at the high ϕ range of the brush. At the lower ϕ range a surface tension correction plays a role...


Joint ventures are different from traditional organizations in terms of their life cycle and therefore their performance measures tend to be somewhat different. The traditional approaches to performance evaluation for an organization offer a diverse set of measures in financial management. However, they omit an aspect in case of IJVs – IJVs are a new form of entity with at least two partners with varied interests - which, both IJV managers and business theoreticians are now paying increasing attention to. Apart from traditional financial performance criteria, non-financial performance criteria show strong promise for measuring IJV performance. This research paper presents various IJV performance criteria and assesses them as perceived by the Indian automotive IJVs. It attempts to look for a holistic measure that can be used to quantify the performance of an IJV.


In the last decade, we have observed major advancements in different modeling techniques for hydraulic fracturing propagation. Direct monitoring techniques such as fibre-optics can be used to calibrate these models and significantly enhance our understanding of subsurface processes.
 In this study, we present field monitoring observations indicating consistently oriented, planar fractures in an offset-well at different landing zones in the Permian basin. Frac hit counts, location, and timing statistics can be compiled from the data using offset wells at different distances and depths. The statistics can be used to calibrate a detailed three-dimensional fully coupled hydraulic fracturing and reservoir simulator. In addition to these high-level observations, detailed fibre signatures such as strain response during frac arrival to the monitoring well, post shut-in frac propagation and frac speed degradation with length can be modeled using the simulator for further calibration purposes.
 Application to frac modeling calibration is presented through different case studies. The simulator was used to directly generate the 'waterfall plot' output from the fibre-optic under a variety of scenarios. The history match to the large, detailed synthetic fibre dataset provided exceptional model calibration, enabling a detailed description of the fracture geometry, and a high-confidence estimation of key model parameters. The detailed synthetic fibre data generated by the simulator were remarkably consistent with the actual data. This indicates a good consistency with classical analytical fracture mechanics predictions and further confirm the interpretation of planar fracture propagation.
 This study shows how careful integration of offset-well fibre-optic measurements can provide detailed characterization of fracture geometry, growth rate, and physics. The result is a detailed picture of hydraulic fracture propagation in the Midland Basin. The comparison of the waterfall plot simulations and data indicate that hydraulic fractures can, in fact, be very well modeled as nearly-linear cracks (the 'planar fracture modeling' approach).


The purpose of this study is to examine the empirical relationship between insider ownership and firm performance. Based on resource dependence theory, this study argues that the positive convergence-of-interests effect and the negative entrenchment effect can coexist in various industrial settings. Fixed-effect panel data regression models are applied to a sample of 1,156 effective observations. To reflect the contextual role of resources, we defined industrial settings along with industrial complexity and firm scale dimensions. The empirical results supported our research hypotheses, showing that insider ownership exerts a positive effect on firm performance in a high-complexity and large-scale setting, but a negative effect in a low-complexity and small-scale setting. The results of this study imply that contextual fitness must be deliberately considered to determine effective regulations of corporate governance. In addition, this study contributes a new aspect to related discussion, which synthesizes conflicting theoretical arguments by introducing the contextual role of resources.


Li-ion conduction in electrolyte materials and its intercalation properties in active materials are key factors that determine the electrochemical performances of batteries. Sulfide electrolyte coating onto active materials was done to form a favourable electrode–electrolyte interface and to increase the electrochemically active surface area. In this study, to obtain higher packing density pellets, a mixture of LiCoO2 particles with different grain sizes was used as a host material during the electrolyte deposition. The cell performance enhancement was achieved by the formation of a denser environment within composite electrodes. However, the influence of electrode microstructures on ion-conductive pathways has not been elucidated clearly and completely because of difficulties in conducting the experiments. In this context, a simulation model would provide insightful information about the potential of appropriate electrode structural designs. We proposed the implementation of the phase-field method, where the temporal evolution at electrode microstructures is calculated based on a free-energy function to construct realistic 3D images of the electrode structure. This study theoretically evaluated the constant current discharge properties of positive electrodes consisting of LiCoO2 with sulfide electrolyte coatings. The simulation results were able to reproduce an experimentally obtained correlation between the electrode potential and discharge capacity. The present simulation provided an estimation of the material properties required under specific discharge conditions. The preliminary examination demonstrated that the mutually connected fine network of ion-conductive pathways benefits from sulfide electrolyte coatings, and that it affects the discharge properties at higher rates than a conventional microstructure of mixed powder electrodes.


HIV-1 protease inhibitors (PIs) contribute to hyperlipidemia in persons treated for HIV infection. There are potential drug-drug interactions between PIs and some statins, which are drugs frequently used to treat hyperlipidemia. We performed a retrospective cohort study using the TennCare program to determine prescribing rates of contraindicated combinations of PIs and statins in HIV-infected persons in Tennessee and to assess changes in prescribing after publication of treatment guidelines. Computerized files identified adult patients with antiretroviral prescriptions and overlapping prescriptions for PIs and statins from January 1, 1996 through June 30, 2002. A subset of these combinations was defined as contraindicated based on published guidelines. Changes in patterns of prescribing after publication of preliminary treatment guidelines were examined using a mixed-effects logistic regression model. There were 3448 persons who received PIs during the study period. The proportion of PI users receiving statins increased from 3.5% during January 1996 through December 2000 to 7.9% during January 2001 through June 2002 (P < 0.001). Contraindicated PI-statin use decreased from 42.0% of combinations to 20.8% during the same periods (P < 0.001). Use of PIs and statins has increased in the adult TennCare population. Contraindicated combinations have decreased but remain unacceptably high.


This article reports on the impact of the thickness and/or the composition on the performance of type-II n+ InGaAs/p+ GaAsSb tunnel junctions. The InGaAs/GaAsSb staggered band-offset heterojunction is expected to improve tunneling properties. Devices have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy with various thicknesses and/or Sb and In concentrations. For thin elastically strained type-II tunnel junctions, the electrical characteristics exhibit degraded transport performances compared to the reference p+ GaAs/n+ GaAs tunnel junction structures, while much better tunneling peak currents are achieved with strain-relaxed thick type-II tunnel junctions. Based on a theoretical analysis of the local density of states and the band-edges profiles of the type-II tunnel junctions, we propose a suitable design for type-II tunnel junctions with high tunneling current density toward their use in multi-junction solar cells.


Isolated perfused rat livers have been used for various studies, but detailed investigation into the structural integrity of hepatocytes of this system is lacking. In this study, isolated rat livers were perfused in vitro with oxygenated Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate buffer solution, for 2 minutes and 1, 2, 3, and 4 hour(s) at 37 degrees C, using a non-recirculating perfusion system. The perfused livers were processed for semithin section light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Sectional areas of cell deaths were measured by a camera-tracing assembly from 1.5 microns thick Araldite sections stained with toluidine blue. Progressive nuclear and cytoplasmic changes, leading to cell death, occurred in the hepatocytes of the centrilobular zone, during the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th hour of the perfusion at a rate of 9.03% +/- 1.5%, 38.7% +/- 2.7%, and 55.1% +/- 5.9% (mean +/- standard deviation) of the total sectional areas respectively. Midzonal hepatocytes showed normal basophilic staining but exhibited loss of glycogen granules, loss of microvilli, development of aqueous vacuoles and formation of blebs. The fine structures of cell organelles, glycogen granules, microvilli and plasma membrane of the cells in the periportal zone were well preserved throughout the experimental period. For further quantitative, metabolic and functional studies using isolated rat liver perfused with Krebs-Ringer solution, it is evident from the present investigation that the periportal zone represents the functional region of the hepatic lobule. Whilst progressive changes, leading to cell death, occurred in the centrilobular zone.


A total of 472 weanling pigs (initially 13.5 lb) were used in two experiments to evaluate the effects of wheat gluten source (WG) and combinations with spray-dried animal plasma (SDAP) on growth performance of nursery pigs. In Exp. 1, the five dietary treatments included a control diet containing 6% SDAP, wheat gluten that was enzymatically hydrolyzed (Source 1), and a non-hydrolyzed wheat gluten (Source 2). The wheat gluten sources replaced L-lysine HCl and replaced 50% or 100% of the spray-dried animal plasma. From d 0 to 7, 7 to 14, and 0 to 21, increasing wheat gluten decreased (linear; P<0.05) ADG. There were no differences between wheat gluten sources. Average daily feed intake decreased similar to ADG, with the exception that ADFI of pigs fed wheat gluten Source 2 had only a slight decreasing trend (P<0.11) from d 0 to 7. Pigs fed the diet containing 6% SDAP had the greatest ADG and ADFI from d 0 to 21. When the SDAP was replaced with either wheat gluten source, ADG and ADFI linearly decreased (P<0.01) but F/G improved (P<0.04). When pigs were fed the common diet from d 21 to 35, there were no differences (P<0.05) in ADG, ADFI or F/G. In Exp. 2, the six dietary treatments included a negative control with no SDAP or WG (0:0 ratio), 9% WG (100:0 ratio), 6.75% WG and 1.25% SDAP (75:25 ratio) combination, 4.5% WG and 2.5% SDAP (50:50 ratio) combination, 2.25% WG and 3.75% SDAP (25:75 ratio) combination, and a positive control with 5% SDAP (0:100 ratio). The wheat gluten (Source 1) was enzymatically hydrolyzed, but from a different lot than Exp. 1. From d 0 to 14, pigs fed 6% SDAP had numerically greater ADG and ADFI compared to pigs fed the negative control diet. However, replacing SDAP with increasing amounts of WG tended to decrease (P<0.10) ADG and ADFI. These results confirm the improved ADG and ADFI of pigs fed SDAP immediately after weaning. In these experiments, replacing SDAP with WG resulted in decreased ADG.


Anaphoric expressions, such as pronouns and referential descriptions, are situated with respect to the linguistic context of prior turns, as well as, the immediate visual environment. However, a speaker's referential descriptions do not always uniquely identify the referent, leading to ambiguities in need of resolution through subsequent clarificational exchanges. Thus, effective Ambiguity Detection and Coreference Resolution are key to task success in Conversational AI. In this paper, we present models for these two tasks as part of the SIMMC 2.0 Challenge (Kottur et al. 2021). Specifically, we use TOD-BERT and LXMERT based models, compare them to a number of baselines and provide ablation experiments. Our results show that (1) language models are able to exploit correlations in the data to detect ambiguity; and (2) unimodal coreference resolution models can avoid the need for a vision component, through the use of smart object representations.


This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study and done in four seasons during April 2011 to March 2012.The objective of the present study was to examine Physico-chemical properties of groundwater around Tehran. The results are also compared with the guideline values of Iranian legislation. A total of 160 drinking water samples were collected from different drinking groundwater around the Tehran. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), conductivity and pH, were measured by using standard methods and the concentration of ions Cl-, F-, NO3-, NO2-, Br-, SO4(2-), PO4(3-), Ca2+, K+, Na+ and NH4+ in groundwater was performed using Ion chromatography (Metrohm Company, USA) with standard method. This study showed that most of the parameters in groundwater were below the Iranian permissible limit except total dissolved solids (N = 2), conductivity (N = 2), nitrate as NO3- (N = 22), chloride (N = 3), sulphate (N = 2), fluoride (N = 3) and ammonia (N = 8). There were significant differences (p < 0.05) between physico-chemical parameters such as pH, nitrite (NO2-), sodium, potassium, sulphate, ammonia, bromide and phosphate in different seasons. These results are important, not only for the many people who drink groundwater but also for the health supervisory agencies such as Ministry of Health and Institute of Standards and Industrial of Iran (ISIRI) to have more effective control on groundwater.


We present a new discriminative feature transform approach to large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) using Gaussian mixture density hidden Markov models (GMM-HMMs) for acoustic modeling. The feature transform is formulated with a set of context-expanded region-dependent linear transforms (RDLTs) utilizing both long-span features and contextual weight expansion. The RDLTs are estimated by lattice-free, tied-state based discriminative training using maximum mutual information (MMI) criterion, while the GMM-HMMs are trained by conventional lattice-based, boosted MMI training. Compared with two baseline systems, which use RDLTs with either long-span features or weight expansion only and are trained using the conventional lattice-based discriminative training for both RDLTs and HMMs, the proposed approach achieves a relative word error rate reduction of 10% and 6% respectively on Switchboard-1 conversational telephone speech transcription task.


Argentine tango tends to be associated with highly gendered images of women and men locked in contorted embraces. These images constitute a tango imaginary that is removed from the lived experience of the dance. Remaining close to the experiential core of tango, this paper provides a Heideggerian-inspired phenomenological account that re-imagines tango as a mode of being-in-the-world. By situating us in direct and constant relationship with an attentive partner and furnishing a complex grammar of constraints, tango generates a frame for creating and sustaining worldhood. By examining the how of dance, the kind of experience it offers up, we approach the dynamic emergence of Being. In what follows, I draw on my years of dancing tango to elaborate an understanding of the experiential dimensions of the dance, and how these relate to the development of shared focal practices that disclose insights associated with embodied being-in-the-world.


Although law enforcement is an effective way to manage speeds, it requires significant resources to ensure adequate spatial and temporal compliance. In some cases, alternative speed management methods may be necessary to deter drivers who travel faster than the posted speed limit. One such method is through the use of dynamic speed display signs (DSDSs) that help motorists self-enforce their speed. DSDSs measure the speed of approaching vehicles and communicate the speed to drivers on a digital display. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation invested in several portable DSDSs and selected several locations to use them along two-lane, rural highway transition zones. Transition zones are longitudinal roadway sections that contain changes in the posted speed limit; they are commonly encountered in Pennsylvania where high-speed, two-lane highways pass through rural communities. The section of highway that passes through the rural community has a lower posted speed limit than the upstream, high-speed section of the highway. A before, during, and after observational study of free-flow vehicle operating speeds was undertaken at 12 transition zones to determine the effectiveness of DSDSs. The results of the analyses indicate that the DSDSs are effective in reducing free-flow passenger car operating speeds by an average of 6 mph (10 km/h) while in place and activated. However, the speed reductions observed while the DSDSs were in place faded after the devices were removed from the study sites.


To examine the inconsistency and ceiling effect when using the visual analogue scale (VAS) in measuring labor pain, data from four repeated measures of the sensation of labor pain in the early active phase from a clinical trial were re-analyzed. That study examined the effect of music on the labor pain experienced by 55 primiparas, while 55 control cases underwent labor under normal conditions. Both groups were balanced for demographic and obstetric data and other pain confounding factors. The re-analysis shows a 5 to 13% inconsistency in both groups in reported pain between the perception of whether pain was changing or not compared to their previous rating on VAS. The control group had more cases of ceiling effect in their reports of labor pain than the music group but analysis with and without the 13 cases of ceiling effect showed similar results that the music group experienced less pain than the control group. In the analysis without ceiling effect cases, the homogeneity of variance improved. This study supports the premise that a strong design and large sample size helps to make the statistics robust to the violation assumption of homogeneity of variance.


The purpose of this article is to focus on the importance of depressive symptoms in patients suffering from schizophrenia, and the dilemma posed by hierarchical classification methods, which exclude co-morbid diagnoses such as Major Depressive Disorder in patients with schizophrenia. The question arises that if Major Depressive Disorder is only categorized under the diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder (depressed type), are we able to recognize these symptoms promptly and treat them sufficiently? The duration of the substantial period of depressed mood referred to in the DSM IV TR criteria for Schizoaffective Disorder is unspecified. We suggest that one should only allocate the latter diagnosis if the substantial period is that of one third or more of the whole duration of the illness. Identification of the optimal cutoff point can generate further hypothesis testing research and refinement of the diagnostic model. It is not only important to refine the diagnosis, but it is even more important to detect these symptoms and treat promptly and effectively. According to the latest literature, the best possible treatment for depression in schizophrenia appears to be the combination of a second-generation antipsychotic and cognitive psychotherapy.


Balzac's Cane is an English translation of Delphine de Girardin's 1836 novella, La Canne de M. de Balzac, which centers around a protagonist named Tancred Dorimont, a brilliant young man plagued by his devastating good looks. In a social context in which appearance is everything, it seems for several chapters that beauty will break, rather than make, this young man's fortune. One evening as Tancred seeks to forget his problems by spending an evening at the opera, he observes M. de Balzac and learns the secret to this famous author's ability to know the innermost secrets of all walks of life with such detail and intimacy; M. de Balzac's cane, a famously hideous walking stick, has the power to render the bearer invisible. A deal, which straddles the line between a favor and blackmail, is worked out between these two men and the cane comes into Tancred's possession. With this tool Tancred is able to overhear state secrets, make his fortune, and then set his sights upon finding a woman truly worthy of his love. Voyeurism, surveillance, courtship, feminism, authorship, and the vanishing distinction between public and private lives are all raised in this novella. This work will be a useful text in either French literature or comparative survey courses due to its examination of contemporary nineteenth-century life, social organization and morals, its parody of bildungsroman and romance novels, and its combination of genres: several lengthy poems are an essential part of the novella's text.


In recent years we have piloted and then adapted our learning, teaching and assessment methods to the needs of the international students. As these methods have become more diverse, so have our methods of giving feedback. Our students receive formative and final feedback through different forms and media (in person, in group discussions, written on turnitin or pebblepad, written on paper, peer feedback, mentor feedback, voice recorded).

Influential behaviourist theories have argued that feedback is a strong external stimulus which influences both positive and negative behaviour (Skinner, 1968). Handley et.al (2010) argue that although the learner may not always recognise the benefits of feedback; they are in the best position to evaluate the effectiveness of feedback.

International students are especially dependent on feedback as they have come from different teaching methods and assessment structures and have a need to identify if they are on the right track and if not, what steps to take to get there (Andrade, 2006; HEA, 2010; Kingston and Forland, 2008).

The aim of this practice exchange is to evoke debate on how effective the different forms of feedback are or the international students; if it helps them to achieve higher results and if there are ways we can improve our methods.

Session Outline (200 words maximum) Please include an indication of how the session will be structured (and timings). Activities and discussion time are essential criteria for a workshop:

To initiate the discussion; participants will be presented with the results of a survey completed by 40 international students on a graduate diploma course which asked them to reflect on the effectiveness of the various types of feedback received from lecturers.
The delegates will then be divided into equal groups and will be joined by a student mentor; a student who has progressed from the course and is now a mentor to the current students on the course, and by one of workshop host. Each group will discuss a different survey outcome and present back for further discussion to all delegates.


Globalization and increased outsourcing have redefined project management. The complex dynamics involved in today's long-distance projects require a new skill set and knowledge base unlike anything needed before. Here, leading project management expert Marcus Goncalves presents a complete guide to implementing the virtual project management office (ePMO). Leveraging his information technology expertise and PM experience, Goncalves offers cutting-edge techniques for managing projects across borders, working with colleagues and clients from different cultures, and utilizing the necessary telecommunication/Internet technologies ePM managers and their virtual teams and remote PM offices must have. Implementing the Virtual Project Management Office complies with the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guidelines and extends them to ePMO. After analyzing the benefits of ePM versus conventional project management, Goncalves presents an in-depth discussion of ePM practices, scenarios, and challenges, aided by real-world examples and insightful case studies. Providing a full focus on the management and execution of virtual projects, Goncalves demonstrates the time- and cost-saving advantages, showing how to begin realizing those advantages immediately. He gives you: Guidelines for building virtual project teams Step-by-step best practices for keeping an eProject on course Techniques for measuring project performance and earned value eTools for controlling project quality Ways to integrate speed, change, and innovation for ePM success A customer-driven approach to ePM Goncalves provides comprehensive information on developing a state-of-the-art virtual project management office, from the necessary structure and environment to the technology. He also defines what concurrent ePM is and the need for change management during the process. The bonus CD features sample policies, forms, budgets, checklists, and software (including the award winning Mindmanager, from Mindjet) to assist in your ePMO implementation.


Spousal Caregivers' Challenges When Caring for Their Loved Ones Battling Alzheimer's Disease by Patricia A. Light M.A., Walden University, Minnesota, 2008 B.A., Christopher Newport University, Virginia, 2004 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Counseling Psychology Walden University November 2018 Abstract In the United States, the occurrence of Alzheimer's dementia is growing. This chronic illness is highly prevalent in the elderly population. Studies have advised that the elderly population is primarily affected by this chronic illness as age progresses. Aging may lead to mental or physical deterioration. This chronic illness can be extremely challenging for the spousal caregivers involved and the challenging decisions that must be made. There remains a crucial gap in the literature concerning the challenges experienced by spousal caregivers and how they cope with these factors daily. Specifically, there are no studies exploring the perceptions of spousal caregivers and the emotions involved with long-term placement. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to use the grounded theory method and to explore the perceptions of 7 spousal caregivers and the emotions attached to decision making. The method involved openended interview questions to attain answers to the research questions involving experiences and observations of the caregiving role. Interview data were open-coded and analyzed for themes. The outcomes of this research will help aid in overcoming the challenges spouses face with the new role of spousal caregiving. This will add existing literature associated with elderly spousal caregivers and challenges faced when caring for an Alzheimer's individual. These outcomes can lead to social change and development through the implementation of positive coping strategies when dealing with the caregiving challenges and emotions attached to this role.In the United States, the occurrence of Alzheimer's dementia is growing. This chronic illness is highly prevalent in the elderly population. Studies have advised that the elderly population is primarily affected by this chronic illness as age progresses. Aging may lead to mental or physical deterioration. This chronic illness can be extremely challenging for the spousal caregivers involved and the challenging decisions that must be made. There remains a crucial gap in the literature concerning the challenges experienced by spousal caregivers and how they cope with these factors daily. Specifically, there are no studies exploring the perceptions of spousal caregivers and the emotions involved with long-term placement. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to use the grounded theory method and to explore the perceptions of 7 spousal caregivers and the emotions attached to decision making. The method involved openended interview questions to attain answers to the research questions involving experiences and observations of the caregiving role. Interview data were open-coded and analyzed for themes. The outcomes of this research will help aid in overcoming the challenges spouses face with the new role of spousal caregiving. This will add existing literature associated with elderly spousal caregivers and challenges faced when caring for an Alzheimer's individual. These outcomes can lead to social change and development through the implementation of positive coping strategies when dealing with the caregiving challenges and emotions attached to this role. Spousal Caregivers' Challenges When Caring for Their Loved Ones Battling Alzheimer's Disease by Patricia A. Light M.A., Walden University, Minnesota, 2008 B.A., Christopher Newport University, Virginia, 2004 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Counseling Psychology Walden University November 2018 Dedication This study is dedicated to my husband and my children. Thank you all for the support and unconditional love you have always shown me and pushing me to conquer my dreams. I love you all so very much. (Derick, Hannah, Emma, Bryson & all our fur babies!)


: A 39-year-old woman who suffered from migraine is described. She developed analgesic nephropathy due to phenacetin, and constrictive pericarditis, probably due to methysergide treatment.


A new study by C. Fred Bergsten shows that India could increase its exports by $500 billion per year by joining the next stage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Bergsten argues trade liberalization would enable India to increase its annual economic growth to 8 to 10 percent, as targeted by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Millions of new jobs would be created as a result, and poverty would be substantially further reduced. By contrast, India will lose as much as $50 billion of current exports because of increasing discrimination against it by other countries if it remains outside the new global trade network. This network includes the plurilateral agreements on international services, environmental goods, and government procurement now being negotiated in and around the World Trade Organization as well as the TPP and other megaregional arrangements. To be accepted into these agreements, India will have to implement the economic reform program proposed by the Modi government. It will also have to liberalize its own markets to international trade and investment in order to persuade other countries to open their markets to its exports. To join the TPP, or a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific as proposed by China that might succeed it, India will probably first have to join the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum within the next couple of years. President Barack Obama has welcomed India's interest in APEC and, if India adopts the needed policy changes, should strongly support Indian membership.


Whereas most previous works treating color or hyper- spectral image restoration use hybrid filters or data splitting, some new approaches consider multidimensional or tensor signal processing techniques. Tensor processing methods are based on multilinear algebra and are more efficient than 2-D filtering. However, they rely on orthogonal tensor flattening. The aim of this letter is to show that this orthogonal flattening may not be optimal for multidimensional images. We propose a method to adapt the flattening depending on the data set. Our proposed method is based on the estimation of main directions in multidimensional data. For this purpose, we extend the straight line detection algorithm. Multidimensional filtering method HOSVD - (K1,..., KN) is applied along the estimated directions. We also adapt a quadtree partitioning in order to split tensors into homogeneous sub-tensors to keep local characteristics. Considering some examples of color and hyperspectral images, we present some promising results.


On January 19, 2008, long-time APSA member and Damon Wells Professor Emeritus of political science at Yale University H. (Holt) Bradford Westerfield died from complications of Parkinson's disease in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. He was 79. Douglas Martin's obituary in the January 27 issue of The New York Times provided a full account of his illustrious career, the details of which do not need to be repeated here. The APSA archives would not, however, have included the fact that over four decades of teaching at Yale, from 1957 when he joined the faculty as an assistant professor of international relations until his retirement in 2001, Professor Westerfield's largely undergraduate classes attracted some 10,000 students. Those classes included President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Senators John Kerry and Joseph I. Lieberman, and other public officials who "… cited his influence in framing their approach to public policy. Mr. Cheney repeatedly said Dr. Westerfield helped shape his hard-line approach to foreign policy. But an article in The Nation in 2004," noted Martin, "reported that Dr. Westerfield came to regret the hard-nosed lessons Mr. Cheney said he had learned. Dr. Westerfield explained that his own politics had become much more dovish since."


To counteract constructions of race in the minstrel tradition and in segregationist Jim Crow legislation, Harlem Renaissance leaders, W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, sought to construct the 'New Negro' as modern urbanite whilst wishing to preserve the cultural particularisms of a folk past. By the 1920s, migration to the urban North had begun to disrupt the African-American rural culture of the South and necessitated the creation of new forms of expression that could still be designated as folk culture. Alain Locke, in 'The New Negro' (1925), seized upon the 'transformed and transforming psychology' of the 'migrating peasant' as the source of authentic racial expression that should lead and inform both artist and critic in a project towards cultural self-determination. Locke's focus on the centrality of folk expression for black creativity led him to align Harlem, as a diasporic cultural capital, with nationalist struggles for self-determination in Europe after the First World War: 'Harlem has the same role to play for the New Negro as Dublin has had for the New Ireland or Prague for the New Czechoslovakia'.
To privilege tradition involved Harlem Renaissance modernists in complex, sometimes fraught, relationships with a discourse of the folk. Claude McKay, Nella Larsen and Jessie Fauset sought to negotiate the psychological, political and aesthetic problems encountered in establishing a literary movement in the context of valorisations of the folk.
This paper examines the relationship between folk discourse, modernism and nationalism through a consideration of key works by Harlem Remaissance writers. I argue that to delineate new urban identities, Harlem wirters were compelled to engage with the contours of Anglo-European primitive modernism as well as African-American folk discourse. In doing so Harlem wiriters established a unique form of modernism for the expression of racial identity in the context of migration from Southern states to the North and, after the First World War, to Europe.


This is a guide for students in Prof. Meyer's Native Americans course. It will help get them started in locating information for their research project.


Is morphology a discrete and independent element of lexical structure or does it simply reflect a fine-tuning of the system to the statistical correlation that exists among orthographic and semantic properties of words? Hebrew provides a unique opportunity to examine morphological processing in the brain because of its rich morphological system. In an fMRI masked priming experiment, we investigated the neural networks involved in implicit morphological processing in Hebrew. In the lMFG and lIFG, activation was found to be significantly reduced when the primes were morphologically related to the targets. This effect was not influenced by the semantic transparency of the morphological prime, and was not found in the semantic or orthographic condition. Additional morphologically related decrease in activation was found in the lIPL, where activation was significantly modulated by semantic transparency. Our findings regarding implicit morphological processing suggest that morphology is an automatic and distinct aspect of visually processing words. These results also coincide with the behavioral data previously obtained demonstrating the central role of morphological processing in reading Hebrew.


Friedman, Mischa E. (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel), and Uriel Bachrach. Inhibition of protein synthesis by spermine in growing cells of Staphylococcus aureus. J. Bacteriol. 92:49–55. 1966.—Staphylococcus aureus SFL 9725 incorporated valine-C14 into cellular protein. This incorporation was inhibited by spermine when the pH of the culture was adjusted to 7.8, and the inhibition was antagonized partially by Mg++. The incorporation of C14-labeled leucine, phenylalanine, lysine, arginine, and possibly glutamic acid was inhibited to a much greater extent than that of alanine, glycine, or threonine. The uptake of spermine-C14 by S. aureus cells was rapid. More than 50% of the radioactivity resided in the soluble extract. The protein fraction of the soluble extract contained 99% of the recovered label, whereas the ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid fractions contained little or no spermine-C14.


Elections do not always advance democratisation, yet they can. We outline a democratisation-by-elections model according to which the opportunities for political change opened up by each electoral round build on previous election-related democratic progress. We focus on Nigeria, interpret the recent executive turnover in light of previous elections, and set the country within the comparative context of Africa's democratisation. Using a new Africa Leadership Change dataset, we use election-related events to examine the diverse routes that African regimes have taken since 1990. The analysis highlights two major syndromes: democratic stagnation and recession. In a sizeable group, however, the institutionalisation of democracy has been making gradual progress. While there is no predetermined way to advance democracy, the reiteration of elections can be instrumental in such advancement.


Astroglia in lower vertebrate optic nerves are unusual: as shown recently (Giordano et al., 1989; Rungger-Brandle et al., 1989), they express abundant Type II cytokeratin, not glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), the cytoskeletal marker for astrocytes elsewhere. To determine the implications for the glial cells of these epithelial-type cytoskeletons, which are linked up by desmosomal junctions, we analyzed the tissue patterning of fish optic nerve astroglia, which we term reticular astrocytes on account of their uniquely specialized arrangement. The processes of the reticular astrocytes fasciculate extensively with one another in a pattern stabilized by the desmosomes, forming a network laid out in thin planar sheets, or partitions. These are arranged transversely, that is at right angles to the optic fibers and are repeated at regular intervals of about 15 microns longitudinally throughout the optic nerve. They merge periodically forming a 3-dimensional framework whose pattern we speculate provides a flexible tissue skeleton for the optic nerve, capable of accommodating eye movements. Virtually all fibers in mature regions of the optic nerve are myelinated, and we show that nodes of Ranvier mostly occur in register with the partitions, displaying perinodal astrocytic associations resembling those found at CNS nodes in mammals. This clustering may account for the unexpectedly high observed incidence of neighbor pairs of nodes. Among other peculiarities associated with the reticular astrocytic network, one is that up to 20% of all cells comprise foamy macrophages not found elsewhere in the CNS.


The influence of the content of rare-earth La on the microstructure and corrosion-resistance of hot-dipped aluminum was studied in this paper .The results show that ,under the same technology conditions, the thickness of hot-dipped aluminizing layer by adding the appropriate content of rare-earth La is about 2~3 times as much as that without rare-earth La, and the microstructure of hot-dipped aluminizing layer has also greatly changed ,and a great deal of phase Fe3Al was precipitated along the boundary of a phase. The corrosion resistance of the hot-dipped layer with rare-earth La is greatly increased.


Inspection Maintenance and Repair activities can typically be reactive in nature, often relying on adequate inspection intervals in addition to Risk Based techniques to minimise production down times.
 To compliment current IMR technologies, a suite of Digital Applications is currently being developed to provide operators with additional 'real time' remote condition monitoring information. The aim is to provide a focused up-to-date status of subsea equipment and insights on equipment remining life, in the form of both predictive and prescriptive analytics. Combining this information with more traditional inspection techniques will provide a powerful tool in defining support strategies including planning activities to support operations through planned ROV/intervention campaigns, use of remaining life metrics to drive spares holding, location and SIT of spares or use of deep understanding of equipment performance to drive campaign based ROV maintenance activities.
 The condition monitoring services and digital suite currently in development will enable, optimisation of operational performance, early identification of system degradation, prediction of equipment failures before they occur (prognostics) and immediate notification of equipment failure.
 Although the condition monitoring services and digital suite currently focuses on Subsea Production System Performance, development of an ongoing 'vulnerability matrix' with participating operators is providing impetus to broaden the breadth of scope to include process measurands. The goal being to provide a useful suite of focused applications and services which have the potential to significantly improve overall production efficiency tailored to the specific needs of the oil and gas production industry.


Hybridization presents a unique challenge for conservation biologists and managers . While hybridization is an important evolutionary process, hybridization is also a threat formany native species . The endangered species recovery effort for the red wolf Canis rufus is a classic system for understanding and addressing the challenges of hybridization. From 1987?1993, 63 red wolves were released from captivity in eastern North Carolina, USA, to establish a free-ranging, non-essential experimental population. By 1999, managers recognized hybridization with invasive coyotes Canis latrans was the single greatest threat to successful recovery, and an adaptive management plan was adopted with innovative approaches for managing the threat of hybridization. Here we review the application and results of the adaptive management efforts from 1993 to 2013 by comparing: (1) the numbers of wolves, coyotes, and hybrids captured, (2) the numbers of territorial social groups with presumed breeding capabilities, (3) the number of red wolf and hybrid litters documented each year and (4) the degree of coyote introgression into the wild red wolf gene pool. We documented substantial increases in the number of known red wolves and red wolf social groups from 1987–2004 followed by a plateau and slight decline by 2013.The number of red wolf litters exceeded hybrid litters each year and the proportion of hybrid litters per year averaged 21% . The genetic composition of the wild red wolf population is estimated to include < 4% coyote ancestry from recent introgression since reintroduction . We conclude that the adaptive management plan was effective at reducing the introgression of coyote genes into the red wolf population, but population recovery of red wolves will require continuation of the current management plan, or alternative approaches, for the foreseeable future . More broadly, we discuss the lessons learned from red wolf adaptive management that could assist other endangered species recovery efforts facing the challenge of minimizing hybridization.


Abstract Venom research is a highly multidisciplinary field that involves multiple subfields of biology, informatics, pharmacology, medicine, and other areas. These different research facets are often technologically challenging and pursued by different teams lacking connection with each other. This lack of coordination hampers the full development of venom investigation and applications. The COST Action CA19144–European Venom Network was recently launched to promote synergistic interactions among different stakeholders and foster venom research at the European level.


Experiences of local women and men who served in the war, from fighting at the front to caring for the wounded.


The study was aimed to identify major coffee production problems that affected coffee farmers' production and productivity. The study was conducted in four districts of Jimma zone namely Gera, Manna, Limu Kosa and Gomma. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select the population for the study which involved both purposive and random sampling techniques. Data was collected through structured questionnaire administered to sampled farmers from 285 coffee producing households. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the gathered and cleaned data. Kendall's coefficient of concordance was used to rank the most important coffee production constraints. The study has identified three top constraints on coffee production. Low and fluctuating coffee price, coffee market information problem and lack of coffee seed and seedling varieties preferred were the major problems explored. Strengthening cooperatives and unions, sustainable supply of improved coffee seeds and seedlings, and sustainable coffee seed system are suggested to tackle coffee production problems.


V/STOL aircraft, if they are to be used effectively in the air-transport system, will require special terminals and support facilities that do not presently (1965) exist. The location and design of these terminals (V-ports) will be governed by land and construction costs, convenience of the using public, acceptability to the neighboring communities, and the operational capabilities and limitations of the aircraft. This paper is concerned with the operational characteristics of V/STOL aircraft as they might influence the terminal requirements. In particular, consideration is given to take-off and landing characteristics, noise propagation, downwash characteristics, sensitivity to wind, and instrument-flight factors. Two hypothetical V/STOL transports—one powered by a turboprop system and the other by a jet system—are described to serve as examples. The V/STOL aircraft characteristics are finally examined in relation to a hypothetical terminal arrangement.


The Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows (PDPTW) is an important problem in fleet planning where decisions can involve not only dispatching company fleets but also the selection of carriers on certain routes. In this problem, vehicles travel to a variety of locations to deliver or pick up goods and to provide services. The increasing costs for additional vehicles motivate managers to optimize fleet usage. Managers also seek to achieve economical use of fuel, maintenance and overtime costs by minimizing travel distance and duration. As such, PDPTW impacts the interface of supplier-customer relationship management in the supply chain process and is essential for any linked decision support system. In this paper, we describe deployment of a relatively new optimization technique, known as "Squeaky Wheel" Optimization (SWO), to the PDPTW. Our objective is to minimize the fleet size, travel distances, schedule durations and waiting times. We implement an SWO framework for the PDPTW, integrating Solomon's Insertion Heuristic and Local Search into a construction phase. In addition, we design a blame assignment and prioritizing schemes to facilitate problem solution. Our new method has been tested on the Solomon's 56 benchmark cases for which we have obtained encouraging results with this new technique.


REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY
Clinical experience has suggested that foaling rates following colic surgery in the pregnant mare are influenced by days of gestation. This premise has not been supported in previous studies. We also aimed to determine the effects of other potential influencing factors.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the influence of age of gestation on foaling rates in pregnant mares following colic surgery and evaluate the relationships between other factors and foaling rates.

METHODS
Medical records of Thoroughbred mares, which had colic surgery performed from 1993 to 2007 at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, were reviewed. Mares identified in the record as pregnant or bred within the previous 15 days were included in this study. Age of the mare, date of surgery, gestational age, duration of colic at admission, packed cell volume at admission, surgical diagnosis, duration of general anaesthesia, intraoperative hypotension, intraoperative hypoxaemia and post operative signs of endotoxaemia were recorded. A mare was considered to have a live foal if that foal was registered with the North American Jockey Club.

RESULTS
Of the 228 mares, where pregnancy had been confirmed, 152 (66.7%) had a live foal registered after surgery. Mares bred <40 days before surgery had a lower foaling rate compared with mares undergoing surgery ≥40 days after breeding: 48.7% vs. 69.8% (odds ratio [OR] = 0.41 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.20-0.83], P = 0.012). Foaling rate was also influenced by mare's age (P = 0.008) and duration of colic signs before surgery (P = 0.03).

CONCLUSIONS
The prognosis for a live foal after colic surgery in the pregnant Thoroughbred mare is significantly better if the mare is ≤15 years of age and ≥40 days of gestation.

POTENTIAL RELEVANCE
The results of this study are useful for clinicians offering a prognosis for a live foal following colic surgery in pregnant mares.


A micro-pattern gas detector named leak microstructure (LM) has been studied. A new chemical electrolytic technique is introduced to make perfect shaped LM needles with very sharp tips, and this method may be developed to make LM array detectors in batches. The experimental results are presented for both a single needle LM detector and a small LM array detector. The gas gain is up to 105 by calculation from the waveform. Good gain stability and uniformity are achieved. The light emission from the needle tip is also measured in Ar/CF4(95/5) gas mixture. The result shows a promising application for imaging.


Effluents from sewage treatment works are a major source of antibiotic resistance and thus create a serious risk to public health and in ecosystems. In this work, the application of alternative advanced treatment systems including iron-based heterogeneous and homogenous photochemical advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) were examined for the elimination of antibiotic resistant bacteria and their genetic materials in tertiary treated urban wastewater. Within the scope of this study, zero-valent iron (Fe0) and goethite (α-FeOOH)-activated hydrogen peroxide (HP) oxidation as well as UV-A light-assisted photo-Fenton and photo-Fenton-like (Fe2+/3+/HP/UV-A) treatment systems were applied to simulated tertiary urban wastewater bearing the conjugative, multi-antibiotic resistance plasmid RP4 carrier, multi-resistant E. coli J53 strain. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removals and in particular disinfection performance (removal of antibiotic resistance) were assigned as the target parameters and compared with those of conventional disinfection processes (chlorination, ozonation and UV-C radiation) by measuring inactivation of the selected multi-resistant bacteria and their genetic materials. Among the conventional disinfection methods, UV-C treatment at low doses was most effective in bacterial inactivation and reducing the gene copy numbers, followed by chlorination at high doses, whereas ozonation resulted in appreciable DOC reduction but was not very effective in reducing the gene copy numbers even at elevated doses. Fe0, Fe0/HP, and α-FeOOH, α-FeOOH/HP treatment systems were successful in removing DOC but exhibited very poor performance in the elimination of multi-resistant E. coli J53. Regarding the homogenous, photochemical iron-based AOPs, the photo-Fenton-like process was most efficient in DOC removal, whereas photo-Fenton treatment appeared to be superior in terms of bacterial inactivation. The genetic material of multi-resistant super bacteria was not efficiently removed by the application of selected homogenous photochemical, iron-based AOPs. Conclusively, although iron-based AOPs have a great potential in this application area, apparently inactivation of super bacteria and their genes by high-dose conventional disinfection remains the best option.


Mental representations are more than emulations. Different types of representations, including external representations, various mental models (distorted and abstract), and emulative models, can all play important roles in human cognition. To explain cognitive performance in a specific task, a systematic analysis of the underlying representational structures and their interactions is needed.


OBJECTIVE
To clarify the potential function of miRNA-96 in accelerating the malignant progression of ovarian cancer (OC) and its underlying mechanism.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The expression patterns of miRNA-96 in 36 matched OC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were determined by qRT-PCR. We analyzed the correlation between the miRNA-96 level and the clinical parameters of OC patients. Subsequently, the cellular levels of miRNA-96 in OC cell lines were determined as well. To construct miRNA-96 inhibitor and NC, the regulatory effects of miRNA-96 on the proliferative and migratory abilities in OC cells were examined. The target gene of miRNA-96 was verified by Dual-Luciferase Reporter Gene Assay. Finally, the rescue experiments were conducted to clarify the regulatory role of miRNA-96/FOXO3a axis in the malignant progression of OC.

RESULTS
MiRNA-96 was upregulated in OC tissues relative to adjacent normal ones. Compared with OC patients presenting high-level of miRNA-96, those with low-level miRNA-96 suffered more advanced tumor staging and a worse overall survival. The transfection of miRNA-96 inhibitor markedly attenuated proliferative and migratory abilities in SKOV3 and CAOV3 cells. In addition, FOXO3a was identified to be the target gene of miRNA-96, which was negatively regulated by miRNA-96. FOXO3a exerted a lower abundance in OC tissues relative to adjacent normal ones. Finally, the rescue experiments revealed that FOXO3a knockdown could abolish the inhibitory role of miRNA-96 knockdown in the proliferative, migratory, and invasive abilities in OC cells.

CONCLUSIONS
The knockdown of miRNA-96 attenuated the proliferative and migratory abilities in OC cells by targeting FOXO3a. We believed that miRNA-96 accelerates the malignant progression of OC, which could be utilized as a therapeutic target in clinical application.


The urban and architectural heritage of Moroccan medinas has received national and international awareness and increased interest since the early 1980s. To reinforce the protection and preservation of this heritage, judicial and political means were set up in the early 20th century and have been revised several times since then. Despite efforts on both national and international levels, the physical degradation of the historic cities and the unhealthy living conditions of the people in those cities still constitute a threat to the protection and preservation of this valuable cultural and architectural heritage. The medinas are currently subject to continuous degradation caused by overpopulation, uncontrolled tourism and the forced intrusion of modern functions and non-adapted structures into the historical fabric. In the past decades, a gentrification movement has been observed in Moroccan medinas. This movement has mainly been characterized by the return of richer and middle class population (Moroccan residents and foreign tourists) who reinvested traditional houses of modest size. They help in the restoration of degraded buildings and change the spaces around them. The traditional techniques of consolidation are based mainly on relatively simple and corrective interventions. These techniques use traditional methods, materials and tools. They are easy to implement and can be carried out by small-sized companies, within the particular context of medinas (high-density housing, hazard, presence of inhabitants, etc.). In addition, most of the urban and architectural heritage has been exposed to violent earthquakes, which caused partial destruction and seriously damaged the heritage structures. Usually after such events, new construction techniques were adopted. These types of techniques are still in use today and have proven their efficiency throughout the centuries. A sampling of these local construction practices apparent in the medinas is presented in this paper. The paper also proposes a protection strategy of the historic buildings. It combines conservation requirements with safety, within the restoration of historic city centres, which should help in selecting adequate and efficient techniques that respect local culture and limit future damage.


The most widely used class of automated testing tools leads senior software testers into software development blunders that a first year programming student shouldn't make. This paper proposed a novel approach to test the software at the initial stage itself so that it will be easy for software testers to test the software in the later stages. The most common style of Automated testing is Create a test case. This paper focuses on test cases generation by means of UML Sequence diagram using Genetic Algorithm which best test cases are optimized and the test cases validated by prioritization. Lastly, the results of experiments show that this method has a better performance.


To design viable strategies to implement sustainable forest management, tools are needed that allow the understanding and management of the driving forces behind conflicting opinions and divergent solutions. The approach of Thompson et al. (1990) to cultural theory--because of its descriptive power--may be an ideal basis to create such tools. The possibility of determining empirically the cultural bias of the actors and groups involved is fundamental to this approach. We conducted a pilot study in the eastern Amazon region to explore the possibility of characterizing individuals according to the four types of political culture defined by Thompson et al. The findings indicated that the empirical classification of individuals is possible but complex. A relation between the types of political cultures and perceptions of sustainable forest management was observed. A systematic elaboration of adequate indicators and assessment methods is crucial in exploring the potential of transferring the theoretical approach into practice.


Diacylglycerol (DAG) mediates transmembrane transduction for a wide variety of extracellular signals. Though pattern formation in multicellular organisms is, as a rule, based on intercellular signalling, reports on the participation of DAG in pattern-forming processes are lacking. Here evidence is presented for the involvement of DAG in pattern control in Hydra. Upon daily exposure to 1,2- dioctanoyl-sn-glycerol, wild-type polyps form ectopic heads along the gastric column in a periodic pattern and transform into phenocopies of a multi-headed mutant. The appearance of ectopic head structures is preceded by a (wave-like) increase in the positional value. Long before ectopic tentacles appear in the intact animal and, beginning with the first pretreatment, excised segments progressively fail to regenerate feet, form heads also at their lower end and eventually over the entire segment. DAG is the first physically defined substance found to induce, in hydra, an increase in the positional value and to evoke ectopic head formation.


Pharmaceutical companies worldwide tend to apply chiral chromatographic separation techniques in their mass production strategy rather than asymmetric synthesis. The present work aims to investigate the predictability of chromatographic behavior of enantiomers using DryLab HPLC method development software, which is typically used to predict the effect of changing various chromatographic parameters on resolution in the reversed phase mode. Three different types of chiral stationary phases were tested for predictability: macrocyclic antibiotics-based columns (Chirobiotic V and T), polysaccharide-based chiral column (Chiralpak AD-RH), and protein-based chiral column (Ultron ES-OVM). Preliminary basic runs were implemented, then exported to DryLab after peak tracking was accomplished. Prediction of the effect of % organic mobile phase on separation was possible for separations on Chirobiotic V for several probes: racemic propranolol with 97.80% accuracy; mixture of racemates of propranolol and terbutaline sulphate, as well as, racemates of propranolol and salbutamol sulphate with average 90.46% accuracy for the effect of percent organic mobile phase and average 98.39% for the effect of pH; and racemic warfarin with 93.45% accuracy for the effect of percent organic mobile phase and average 99.64% for the effect of pH. It can be concluded that Chirobiotic V reversed phase retention mechanism follows the solvophobic theory.


PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the current rate of observing and reporting of child neglect among Massachusetts dentists and to identify possible factors associated with child neglect observation and reporting behaviors. METHODS: A web-based questionnaire was emailed to 3,451 members of the Massachusetts Dental Society (MDS). The questionnaire was divided into three parts: demographic information on the dentists and their practices; knowledge and reporting behaviors of child maltreatment; and educational experiences with child maltreatment. RESULTS: The response rate to the survey was 19.6 percent, with 678 dentists completing the questionnaire. In the year prior to taking the survey, the responding dentists encountered 239 cases of child neglect, of which 20 percent were reported to authorities. The most powerful predictor for seeing and reporting cases of child neglect was the dentist's participation in child maltreatment continuing education courses. CONCLUSIONS: Massachusetts dentists do see and report cases of child neglect; however, only a minority of these cases was reported. Participation in continuing education courses was a strong predictor of dentists' both seeing and reporting cases of child neglect. Language: en


Prescription of a drug outside of the indications for which it was originally approved by regulators is internationally known as "off-label" prescription. We describe off-label treatments for the diabetic foot reported in international scientific literature. This is a qualitative and descriptive bibliographical review based on the results of a search of the Medline international database. The criteria for review were publication between January 1985 and November 2013, and the MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) keywords "off-label use" OR "off-label" OR "off-label prescribing" plus "diabetic foot" were input on the search form. Nine studies were selected that contained information about off-label treatments for the diabetic foot. We conclude that the practice of off-label prescribing has potential benefits. In some situations an off-label prescription is the only treatment available for patients, either because a more targeted drug does not exist, or because other methods of treatment are ineffective or unavailable due to patient intolerance.


BACKGROUND: news proposals of rehabilitation for children with auditory processing disorders associated to language and learning disorders are necessary to increase the efficacy of speech and language treatment. So, the purpose was to check the applicability of Fast Forword (FFW) software for managing auditory processing disorder (APD) in three Brazilian kids. PROCEDURE: these three children, ranging from 9 to 14-year old, were selected in basic auditory evaluation, auditory process evaluation, language evaluation and phonological awareness. These tests applied before and after the training with FFW, ran during 100 minutes a day, five days a week along eight weeks. The following strategies were applied: Circus sequence, Old Mac Donald's Flying Farm, Phoneme identification and Phonic Match, involving detection, discrimination, sustained attention and auditory memory. RESULTS: after about 30.67 days using FFW, we noted adequacy in auditory process of two kids. In one of the kids that were not the case, the same alterations showed in the auditory process re-evaluation. After a third week of stimulation a diminution of interest for the strategies was observed, which demanded a more intense and creative intervention of the researchers. CONCLUSION: it is possible to infer that FFW presents applicability for Brazilian kids with auditory process disturbances; however, research with larger samples is necessary in order to check the effectiveness of this software on Brazilian kids.


Human sodium-dependent vitamin C transporters, SVCT1 and SVCT2, share 66% sequence identity yet localize in the apical and basolateral membranes of epithelial cells, respectively. This pair thus serves as a model for studying multipass membrane protein targeting. Domain swaps, deletions, insertions, and point mutations were performed on EGFP-tagged hSVCT1 and hSVCT2 plasmids. Mutant proteins stably expressed in MDCK cells were analyzed by confocal microscopy and Transwell ascorbate transport assays. These studies identified an SVCT2 basolateral targeting sequence (BTS) in the N-terminus, which is conserved among mammalian SVCT2 forms. The less conserved N-terminus of SVCT1 is not required for apical localization. The destruction of SVCT2 BTS led to apical localization of the protein in a manner independent of the C-terminal sequence. A C-terminal sequence present in both SVCTs appears to be required for plasma membrane incorporation and retention as its deletion led to an increased level of intracellular appearance of both apically and basolaterally targeted SVCTs in the absence or presence of BTS. Nevertheless, all C-terminal deletion mutants showed preferential apical transport activity, suggesting a greater importance of this sequence for basolateral targeting. Our results collectively suggested a default apical targeting of SVCT, which is consistent with the evolution-based prediction. The SVCT sorting model with a hierarchal contribution of N- and C-terminal sequences was compared to the observations made for other multipass membrane proteins. The involvement of both intracellularly localized termini of multipass membrane proteins in the sorting pathway suggests a more complex sorting mechanism compared to that for single-pass proteins.


Background: Low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem — sitting on a chair for a prolonged time is considered a significant risk factor. Furthermore, the level of LBP may vary at different times of the day. However, the role of the time-sequence property of sitting behavior in relation to LBP has not been considered. During the dynamic sitting, small changes, such as slight or big sways, have been identified. Therefore, it is possible to identify the motif consisting of such changes, which may be associated with the incidence, exacerbation, or improvement of LBP. Method: Office chairs installed with pressure sensors were provided to a total of 22 office workers (age = 43.4 ± 8.3 years) in Japan. Pressure sensors data were collected during working days and hours (from morning to evening). The participants were asked to answer subjective levels of pain including LBP. Center of pressure (COP) was calculated from the load level, the changes in COP were analyzed by applying the Toeplitz inverse covariance-based clustering (TICC) analysis, COP changes were categorized into several states. Based on the states, common motifs were identified as a recurring sitting behavior pattern combination of different states by motif-aware state assignment (MASA). Finally, the identified motif was tested as a feature to infer the changing levels of LBP within a day. Changes in the levels of LBP from morning to evening were categorized as exacerbated, did not change, or improved based on the survey questions. Here, we present a novel approach based on social spider algorithm (SSA) and probabilistic neural network (PNN) for the prediction of LBP. The specificity and sensitivity of the LBP inference were compared among ten different models, including SSA-PNN. Result: There exists a common motif, consisting of stable sitting and slight sway. When LBP level improved toward the evening, the frequency of motif appearance was higher than when LBP was exacerbated (p < 0.05) or the level did not change. The performance of the SSA-PNN optimization was better than that of the other algorithms. Accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score were 59.20, 72.46, 40.94, and 63.24%, respectively. Conclusion: A lower frequency of a common motif of the COP dynamic changes characterized by stable sitting and slight sway was found to be associated with the exacerbation of LBP in the evening. LBP exacerbation is predictable by AI-based analysis of COP changes during the sitting behavior of the office workers.


Malaria during pregnancy poses a substantial risk to mother and foetus especially an infection with Plasmodium falciparum . This study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of falciparum malaria among pregnant women in Aba South Local  Government Area, Abia State, south-east Nigeria. Blood samples from 432 pregnant women who attended Primary Health Care Centre and Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) were examined using Giemsa stained thick and thin films. Structured questionnaires were also administered to the women from whom blood samples were collected. A total of 173 (40.0%) were found to be infected with P. falciparum. It was the only type of malaria parasite species encountered. Distribution of infection among age groups was highest 12 (60.0%) among age group 15-20 years and lowest 121 (36.7%) among age group 26 years and above with significant difference (p<0.05). Occupational distribution showed that traders had the highest prevalence 88 (63.3%) while students were least infected 21 (17.9%) with significant difference (p<0.05). Primigravida had the highest prevalence rate of 99 (50.3%) while multigravida had the lowest rate 38 (27.1%) with significant difference (p<0.05). Respondents who were at their first trimester also showed a high prevalence rate 69 (56.6%) while those in their third trimester were least infected 28 (30.1%) with significant difference (p<0.05). It is therefore necessary to design an effective public health education programme targeted at this high risk group and also instituting an intermittent preventive treatment in hospitals and health centres in Aba South LGA that is known to have a high malaria prevalence. Keywords : Prevalence; malaria; pregnant women; trimester; Aba; Nigeria.


Literatures about factors affecting demand scale of rural land circulation are reviewed. Based on this, a total of 5 deficiencies in these literatures are put forward, which are the inconsistency between model selection and sample data type in some literatures, the lack of analysis from the perspective of internal family, the incomplete or inaccurate research factors, the lack of analysis on causation, and the mixture of inflow and outflow of land circulation. According to the 109 valid questionnaires in Lanshan Area, Rizhao City, Shandong Province, China, Optimal Scaling Regression Analysis is used to conduct empirical study on the land circulation status of Rizhao City by selecting three variables including family size, the annual net income of rural household and the proportion of cultivating income in annual net income. Function model of factors affecting demand scale of rural land circulation is established. Result shows that, as for a single rural household, these three variables are the most significant factors affecting demand scale of rural land circulation, and have positive correlation with the demand scale of land circulation.


A large part of the daily life today means being active online and to take part in the interactions that occur there. The accessibility which social media brings, means that you can reach and be reached in several ways and there are many different ways in which information can be disseminated. Social media supports the learning process. The aim of this study is to examine how upper secondary schools students' use of social media and how it can be used as a tool for informal learning. Our study is based on the socio-cultural perspective where interaction and social cohesion is a big part. A quantitative survey was distributed among third year students in a secondary school. The results of the survey show that students use a lot of social media, that they consider themselves proficient in information literacy, and that it is difficult to see that informal learning might occur in social media.


The analysis of IT infrastructure processes has shown that their manual execution without automation can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, as well as increases the risk of errors. Designing an IT infrastructure using Amazon Web Services (AWS) allows to identify the required resources and components for building an efficient infrastructure. Therefore, this study aims to improve the processes of building and managing IT infrastructure by automating them using the AWS platform. Hence, in this paper we propose a mathematical model to determine the IT infrastructure desired configuration. The proposed model assumes solving a linear programming problem with integer constraints on the optimization variables. The Branch-and-Bound algorithm is used to study the proposed mathematical model, by considering different AWS server input data and defining optimal IT infrastructure configurations.


Named entity (NE) extraction in Chinese is very difficult task because of the flexibility in the language structure and uncertainty in word segmentation. It is equivalent to relation and information extraction problems in English. This paper presents a hybrid rule induction approach to extract NEs in Chinese. The method induces rules and names and their context, and generalizes these rules using linguistic lexical chaining. In order to handle the ambiguities and other contextual problems peculiar to Chinese, we supplement the basic method with other approaches such as the default-exception tree and decision tree. We tested our method on the MET2 test set and the method has been found to out-perform all reported methods with an overall F<inf>1</inf> measure of over 91%.


In a 5-month experiment on Dal Lake kashmir, Water temperature (10.4e10.6(C), pH (7.2e7.4) and oxygen concentration (8e10 mg l_1) were similar among other sites with little difference. Concentration of total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) was similar among groups for the first half of the experiment (0.3e0.4), but during the last month it was 0.6, 1.3, and 1.5 mg l_1 in Groups1, 2, and 3, respectively. There was a negative correlation (r2 1⁄4 0.48, n 1⁄4 36) between relative growth rate and TAN, suggesting that ammonia may have been a limiting factor in there circulating system. The apparent threshold limit of TAN for reduced growth wasapproximately1 mg l_1.


This report discussed about the recession has shown us more clearly than ever before just how economically interdependent the nations of the world have become. What economic policies the developing countries adopt; what reforms they implement; and how effectively they adjust to the changed global economic environment.


Quorum sensing (QS) refers to the phenomenon characterized by the accumulation of signaling molecules enabling a cell to sense a bacterial population triggering a coordinated response. Enterococcus faecalis is a resistant microorganism commonly found in oral infections. Salvadora persica has been traditionally used in Middle East countries to clean the teeth due to its antimicrobial activity. The study investigated the anti-quorum sensing (AQS) ability of S. persica extracts on E. faecalis. Extracts from the bark, leaves, root and shoots were tested against Chromobacterium violaceum. AQS ability was determined using differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF) and elastolytic assay to detect the level of protease and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) to detect cytolysin (cylR1) and gelatinase (gelE) virulence factors. Preliminary disk diffusion assays revealed AQS activity by inhibiting violacein pigment production in C. violaceum without affecting its growth. Furthermore, only negligible amount of proteases was detected in DSF and elastolytic assays. CylR1 and gelE gene expression revealed no detectable signals even from the lowest possible threshold. The results indicate that S. persica has AQS ability against E. faecalis. S. persica extract can be used as alternative or in combination with other anti-microbial agents against infections caused by E. faecalis.


The number of older people in the western world is increasing. Advancing age creates the need for care, including respite care. The aim of this study is to describe the experience of older people of becoming and being respite care recipients. Admission to respite care is a response to a range of practicalities in the home, such as the need to maintain privacy, dissatisfaction with home care, and deterioration in health. However, the participants in this study had little or no involvement in the decision regarding respite care placement. Activities, training, and medical treatment were found to be important to respite care recipients' satisfaction with their care.


Background: Cancer-associated thrombosis is a cause of increased morbidity and mortality in patients with hematological malignancies. Thromboprophylaxis may reduce this risk and improve the patients' prognosis and quality of life. Objectives: The study evaluates the awareness and practice of thromboprophylaxis by physicians managing patients with hematological malignancies and identifies challenges with such practice. Subjects and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted during the 42nd Annual General Meetings of the Nigerian Society of Haematology and Blood Transfusion held in Lagos 2016. A 12-item pretested questionnaire was used to obtain data on the perception and practice of thromboprophylaxis of hemato-oncologic patients from the 55 consenting hematologists in attendance. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 21. Results: The awareness and practice rate of cancer thromboprophylaxis are 96.4% and 92.7%, respectively. Multiple myeloma is the most common neoplasm of which hematologists practice thromboprophylaxis. Warfarin is the most prescribed anticoagulant. Doppler ultrasonography and basic coagulation screening tests are most readily available investigations. Funding and laboratory insufficiency are the leading challenges mitigating against effective management of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Conclusion: There is a high level of awareness and practice of thromboprophylaxis in cancer patients by Nigerian hematologists; however, scarcity of fund for investigation and drug procurement and limited laboratory capacity to diagnose and monitor patients still constitute a challenge to effective management of VTE.


Siamese approaches have achieved promising performance in visual object tracking recently. The key to the success of Siamese trackers is to learn appearance-invariant feature embedding functions via pair-wise offline training on large-scale video datasets. However, the Siamese paradigm uses one-shot learning to model the online tracking task, which impedes online adaptation in the tracking process. Additionally, the uncertainty of an online tracking response is not measured, leading to the problem of ignoring potential failures. In this paper, we advocate online adaptation in the tracking stage. To this end, we propose a failure-aware system, realised by a Quality Prediction Network (QPN), based on convolutional and LSTM modules in the decision stage, enabling online reporting of potential tracking failures. Specifically, sequential response maps from previous successive frames as well as current frame are collected to predict the tracking confidence, realising spatio-temporal fusion in the decision level. In addition, we further provide an Adaptive Failure-Aware Tracker (AFAT) by combing the state-of-the-art Siamese trackers with our system. The experimental results obtained on standard benchmarking datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed failure-aware system and the merits of our AFAT tracker, with outstanding and balanced performance in both accuracy and speed.


Science in the Arctic Region Convener:*Sei-Ichi Saitoh(Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University), Jun Inoue(National Instituteof Polar Resarch), Naomi Harada(Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology), Rikie Suzuki(Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology), Chair:Sei-Ichi Saitoh(Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University) Wed. Apr 30, 2014 2:15 PM 2:45 PM 311 (3F) The Arctic region and surrounding circumpolar region is the key area for the study of global change because the anthropogenic impact is projected to be the largest in this area due to the complicated feedback processes of the nature. A number of international and interdisciplinary research projects are in progress for the studies on the atmosphere-ocean-land system under the extension program of the International Polar Year (IPY) during 2007 to 2008. In order to understand the feedback processes occurring in the Arctic and to project the global warming in the future, we need to establish the intense observational network and to exchange the knowledge and information by combining the different scientific communities under the common interest of the Arctic. Contributions from Green Network of Excellence (GRENE) Arctic Climate Change Research Project are also welcome.


The focus of this case study is the analysis of offshore Oil & Gas facilities recorded downtime data which are classified into gas turbine downtime categories and causes. Each event is then correlated with the maintenance repair records to determine the respective root cause. The key objective of this study is to establish the Critical Success Factors (CSF) for unit health after a gas turbine has been in operation for more than 10 years. The outcome is used to enhance the unit performance, efficiency, maintainability, and operability. As a first step, Content Analysis technique was employed to systematically decipher and organize the downtime causes from collected data. Over 500 data samples collected over a period of 3 years were sorted into relevant categories and causes: comprising a total downtime of 11,410 hours. The downtime data, which is interval scale in nature that is in 'hours', is meticulously tabulated against respective downtime categories and causes location by location for the 11 gas turbines sites and correlating this to the repair work. Within scope is downtime related to: Forced Outage Automatic Trip; Failure to Start; Forced Outage Manual Shutdown; and Maintenance Unscheduled while those out of scope are Non-Curtailing and Reserve Shutdown as these are external to gas turbine operational influence. In the second step, descriptive statistics analysis was carried out to understand the key downtime drivers by categories. Pattern recognition is used to identify whether the cause is a "One Time Event", "Random Event" or "Recurring Event" to confirm data integrity and establish the problem statement. This approach assists in the discovery of erroneous data that could mislead the outcome of statistical analysis. Pattern recognition through data stratification and clustering classifies issue impact as reliability or availability. Simplistic analyses can miss major customer impact issues such as: frequent small shutdowns that do not accumulate a lot of hours per event but cause operational disruption; or infrequent time consuming events resulting from a lack of trained personnel, spares shortages, and difficulty in troubleshooting. In the third step, statistical correlation analysis was applied to establish the relationship between gas turbine downtime and repair works in determining the root causes. Benchmarking these analyses outcome with the actual equipment landscape provides for high probability root cause, thus facilitating solutions for improved site reliability and availability. The study identified CSF in the following areas: personnel training and competency; correct maintenance philosophy and its execution in practice; and life cycle management including obsolescence and spares management. Near term recommendations on changes to site operations or equipment based on OEM guidelines and current available best practices are summarized for each site analyzed.


We consider testing the null hypothesis of no spatial autocorrelation against the alternative of first order spatial autoregression. A Wald test statistic has good first order asymptotic properties, but these may not be relevant in small or moderate-sized samples, especially as (depending on properties of the spatial weight matrix) the usual parametric rate of convergence may not be attained. We thus develop tests with more accurate size properties, by means of Edgeworth expansions and the bootstrap. The finite-sample performance of the tests is examined in Monte Carlo simulations.


Data from Twitter have been employed in prior research to study the impacts of events. Conventionally, researchers use keyword-based samples of tweets to create a panel of Twitter users who mention event-related keywords during and after an event. However, the keyword-based sampling is limited in its objectivity dimension of data and information quality. First, the technique suffers from selection bias since users who discuss an event are already more likely to discuss event-related topics beforehand. Second, there are no viable control groups for comparison to a keyword-based sample of Twitter users. We propose an alternative sampling approach to construct panels of users defined by their geolocation. Geolocated panels are exogenous to the keywords in users' tweets, resulting in less selection bias than the keyword panel method. Geolocated panels allow us to follow within-person changes over time and enable the creation of comparison groups. We compare different panels in two real-world settings: response to mass shootings and TV advertising. We first show the strength of the selection biases of keyword panels. Then, we empirically illustrate how geolocated panels reduce selection biases and allow meaningful comparison groups regarding the impact of the studied events. We are the first to provide a clear, empirical example of how a better panel selection design, based on an exogenous variable such as geography, both reduces selection bias compared to the current state of the art and increases the value of Twitter research for studying events. While we advocate for the use of a geolocated panel, we also discuss its weaknesses and application scenario seriously. This article also calls attention to the importance of selection bias in impacting the objectivity of social media data.


An implicit preference for the self over others may be beneficial when pursuing one's own desires but costly when adjusting the self to the desires of others. On the basis of this reasoning, the authors hypothesized that Agreeableness and implicit self-esteem would interact in predicting measures of neurotic distress. Three studies and one meta-analysis, involving 235 undergraduate participants, confirmed that high levels of implicit self-esteem were beneficial (i.e., less neurotic distress) within the context of low levels of Agreeableness but costly (i.e., more neurotic distress) within the context of high levels of Agreeableness. Because findings were robust across various measures of Agreeableness, implicit self-esteem, and neurotic distress, the interpersonal principles examined here appear to have broad relevance for understanding this particular form of intrapsychic conflict and its manifestation in neurotic distress. Results therefore support Horney's (1945) theory concerning the consequences of intrapsychic conflicts related to interpersonal motivation and cognition.