This paper demonstrates experimentally a wide bandpass filter based on an electrothermally tuned single MEMS arch resonator operated in air. The in plane resonator is fabricated from a silicon-on-insulator wafer with a deliberate curvature to form an arch shape. A DC voltage is applied across the anchors to pass current through the resonator to induce heat and modulate its stiffness, and hence its resonance frequencies. We show that the first resonance frequency increases up to twice of the initial value while the third resonance frequency decreases until getting veiny close to the first resonance frequency. This leads to the phenomenon of veering, near crossing, where both modes exchange roles. Hence, the first resonance frequency becomes insensitive to axial forces and thermal actuation whereas the third resonance natural frequency becomes very sensitive. We demonstrate an exploitation of the veering phenomenon to realize a bandpass filter where the first and third resonance modes are excited electrostatically simultaneously to achieve a bandpass. We demonstrate also that by driving both modes nonlinearly near the veering regime, so that the first mode shows softening behavior and the third mode shows hardening behavior, sudden jumps in the response from both modes are induced leading to sharp roll off from the bandpass to the stop band. We show a flat, wide, and tunable bandwidth and center frequency by controlling the electrothermal actuation voltage.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by a wide interpatient clinical variability and available biomarkers of disease severity still have suboptimal reliability. We aimed to assess immunological and MRI-derived measures of brain tissue damage in patients with different motor impairment degrees, for in vivo investigating the pathogenesis of MS-related disability. Twenty-two benign (B), 26 secondary progressive (SP), and 11 early, nondisabled relapsing-remitting (RR) MS patients and 37 healthy controls (HC) underwent conventional and diffusion tensor brain MRI and, as regards MS patients, immunophenotypic and functional analysis of stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Corticospinal tract (CST) fractional anisotropy and grey matter volume were lower and CST diffusivity was higher in SPMS compared to RRMS and BMS patients. CD14+IL6+ and CD4+IL25+ cell percentages were higher in BMS than in SPMS patients. A multivariable model having EDSS as the dependent variable retained the following independent predictors: grey matter volume, CD14+IL6+ and CD4+IL25+ cell percentages. In patients without motor impairment after long-lasting MS, the grey matter and CST damage degree seem to remain as low as in the earlier disease stages and an immunological pattern suggestive of balanced pro- and anti-inflammatory activity is observed. MRI-derived and immunological measures might be used as complementary biomarkers of MS severity.


For quite some time, we have been hearing about minimally invasive techniques for the esthetic rehabilitation of the oral cavity. Whether a patient wishes to have stains removed, teeth bleached or the tooth shape and general appearance improved, the range of treatment options is almost unlimited.


In response to uncertainties about whether laboratory feeding rate measurements of bivalves reflect those occurring in situ, this study compares bivalve feeding rates experimentally determined both in the laboratory and in situ for a mussel (Mytilus chilensis) and a clam (Mulinia edulis), species exposed to a wide range of seston concentrations. Artificially prepared seston was administered in the laboratory using a mixture of Isochrysis galbana and sediment at concentrations ranging from 2 to 200 mg l -1 . Field measurements were carried out at Yaldad Bay, southern Chile, during 2 tidal cycles in March and April 1999 with naturally occurring seston ranging from 3 to 665 mg l -1 . We found that: (1) Clearance rate (CR) and selection efficiency (SE) were similar in labo- ratory and in situ conditions, but the rates of filtration (FR), ingestion (IR) and absorption (AR), and absorption efficiency (AE) were significantly higher in the laboratory than in the field. This was attributable to the greater retention efficiency and digestibility of I. galbana compared to the natu- rally occurring microalgae in the seston, and also to the greater acclimation time of specimens to the laboratory diet. (2) The responses to the changes in seston concentration (TPM) were similar under both conditions and validated previous results; CR decreased exponentially with increasing TPM while the FR, IR and AR increased. At high seston concentrations (200 mg l -1 in the laboratory and 665 mg l -1 in situ), almost all the feeding rates decreased, showing an impairment of food processing under these conditions. (3) The resuspended sediment in the intertidal zone of Yaldad Bay, especially under the influence of southerly winds and near the lowest tidal level, is an important food source for M. edulis and M. chilensis populations, allowing continued growth during the winter season when primary productivity is very low.


The high power medium frequency transformer (HPMFT) is one of the key elements of an isolated, bi-directional DC-DC converters in applications such as future all-DC offshore wind farms, traction and solid state transformers. This paper describes a design methodology taking into account the loss calculation, isolation requirements and thermal management. Incorporating this design methodology, an optimization process with a wide range of parameter variations is applied on a design example to find the highest power density while the efficiency, isolation, thermal and leakage inductance requirements are all met.


There is interest in the global community on how fire regimes are changing as a function of changing demographics and climate. The ground‐based data to monitor such trends in fire activity are inadequate at the global scale. Satellite observations provide a basis for such a monitoring system. In this study, a set of metrics were developed from 6 years of MODIS active fire data. The metrics were grouped into eight classes representing three axes of fire activity: density, season duration and interannual variability. These groups were compared with biophysical and human explanatory variables on a global scale. We found that more than 30% of the land surface has a significant fire frequency. The most extensive fire class exhibited high fire density, low duration and high variability and was found in boreal and tropical wet and dry environments. A high association was found between population distribution and fire persistence. Low GDP km−2 was associated with fire classes with high interannual variability and low seasonal duration. In areas with more economic resources, fires tend to be more regular and last longer. High fire duration and low interannual variability were associated with croplands, but often with low fire density. The study was constrained by the limited length of satellite data record but is a first step toward developing a comprehensive global assessment of fire regimes. However, more attention is needed by the global observing systems to provide the underpinning socio‐economic observations to better quantify and analyze the human characteristics of fire regimes.


Numerical simulations are an essential part of a river engineer's toolbox. Models are used to
predict flow and sediment transport and to solve complex problems. Depending on the problem
different types of models are used, often grouped by their dimensionality. Two- dimensional
depth-averaged models are used to solve for complex flow conditions. They are sufficiently accurate
for intervention design or local flow studies, but are computationally too expensive for certain
tasks such as operational forecasting or uncertainty analysis.
Increasing the computational speed of 2D models can be done with surrogate modelling. Physics-based
1D surrogate models can be constructed to emulate 2D model results. The aim of such surrogates is
to increase computational efficiency while maintaining the accuracy of the 2D model results. One
such method has been proposed by Berends et al. (2016). Termed FM2PROF, the method aggregates flow
information from 2D model output to construct 1D models.
In this thesis cases of various complexity were set up to test the performance of FM2PROF. Based on
the initial results several improvements were identified and implemented. The FM2PROF output was
verified and the constructed, uncalibrated 1D models were validated. It was found that the method
passes verification for simple cases. The produced 1D model cross-section profiles and roughness
values are accurate and volume errors between 1D and 2D are small. The validation for the simple
cases with uniform profiles shows that the generated 1D models emulate the general 2D model
behaviour. The waterlevel errors are between 0 and 25 centimetres, with the 1D model often
underestimating the waterlevels. For the complex case of a 2D model of the river Waal, the storage
in the cross-section is underestimated, while the main channel roughness section width is greatly
overestimated. The 1D model results are also less accurate: for most of the simulation the
waterlevels are underestimated up to 1
metre, but overestimations occur of up to 3 metres for low waterdepths.
In conclusion it has been shown that the proposed method has potential. For simple cases,
physics-based and validated 1D hydraulic river models have been constructed that approximate 2D
model results. The validation has also shown that for complex 2D models the constructed surrogates
do not accurately reproduce the waterlevels, meaning that either further improvement to FM2PROF or
calibration of the constructed 1D models is necessary.


The classical model of the declarative memory system describes the hippocampus and its interactions with representational brain areas in posterior neocortex as being essential for the formation of long‐term episodic memories. However, new evidence suggests an extension of this classical model by assigning the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) a specific, yet not fully defined role in episodic memory. In this study, we utilized 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis to lend further support for the idea of a mnemonic role of the mPFC in humans. By using MRS, we measured mPFC γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate/glutamine (GLx) concentrations before and after volunteers memorized face–name association. We demonstrate that mPFC GLx but not GABA levels increased during the memory task, which appeared to be related to memory performance. Regarding functional connectivity, we used the subsequent memory paradigm and found that the GLx increase was associated with stronger mPFC connectivity to thalamus and hippocampus for associations subsequently recognized with high confidence as opposed to subsequently recognized with low confidence/forgotten. Taken together, we provide new evidence for an mPFC involvement in episodic memory by showing a memory‐related increase in mPFC excitatory neurotransmitter levels that was associated with better memory and stronger memory‐related functional connectivity in a medial prefrontal–thalamus–hippocampus network.


Incoherent scatter autocorrelation function measurements are difficult to make in the F region at Jicamarca because of very strong clutter contamination by coherent echoes from unstable plasma waves in the E‐region electrojet that are aligned with the magnetic field. We have developed a more effective way to deal with this clutter that improves the quality of the temperature (and composition when light ions are present) data. Other coherent echoes (much weaker than electrojet echoes but stronger than incoherent scatter) are also received through the antenna sidelobes from field‐aligned irregularities in the 140–170 km altitude range during daytime. These latter echoes have a very narrow bandwidth, and so it is easy to measure their Doppler shift and obtain the vertical plasma drift velocity, which is proportional to the zonal electric field.


Significance The frequency of intraindividual mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphisms—heteroplasmies—can change dramatically from mother to child owing to the mitochondrial bottleneck at oogenesis. For deleterious heteroplasmies such a change may transform alleles that are benign at low frequency in a mother into disease-causing alleles when at a high frequency in her child. Our study estimates the mtDNA germ-line bottleneck to be small (30–35) and documents a positive association between the number of child heteroplasmies and maternal age at fertilization, enabling prediction of transmission of disease-causing variants and informing mtDNA evolution. The manifestation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diseases depends on the frequency of heteroplasmy (the presence of several alleles in an individual), yet its transmission across generations cannot be readily predicted owing to a lack of data on the size of the mtDNA bottleneck during oogenesis. For deleterious heteroplasmies, a severe bottleneck may abruptly transform a benign (low) frequency in a mother into a disease-causing (high) frequency in her child. Here we present a high-resolution study of heteroplasmy transmission conducted on blood and buccal mtDNA of 39 healthy mother–child pairs of European ancestry (a total of 156 samples, each sequenced at ∼20,000× per site). On average, each individual carried one heteroplasmy, and one in eight individuals carried a disease-associated heteroplasmy, with minor allele frequency ≥1%. We observed frequent drastic heteroplasmy frequency shifts between generations and estimated the effective size of the germ-line mtDNA bottleneck at only ∼30–35 (interquartile range from 9 to 141). Accounting for heteroplasmies, we estimated the mtDNA germ-line mutation rate at 1.3 × 10−8 (interquartile range from 4.2 × 10−9 to 4.1 × 10−8) mutations per site per year, an order of magnitude higher than for nuclear DNA. Notably, we found a positive association between the number of heteroplasmies in a child and maternal age at fertilization, likely attributable to oocyte aging. This study also took advantage of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) to validate heteroplasmies and confirm a de novo mutation. Our results can be used to predict the transmission of disease-causing mtDNA variants and illuminate evolutionary dynamics of the mitochondrial genome.


In recent years Internet of Things (IoT) technology has noticed abundant attention for problems on health care systems caused by an aging population and an increase in chronic health problem. The customary model for future application in web of Things for health care systems have introduced, because during this area Standardization could be a main pin. The progressive analysis about every area of the model presents in this paper. The evaluation of strength and weakness of healthcare system has observed and resolve. The future analysis directions is created for recommendations area unit and challenges that health care IoT would be faces including privacy and security of people in healthcare.


Analysis of clay mineralogy and illite crystallinity in the clay-size fraction (<2 μm) of 102 whole-rock samples from 33 drill cores of the Campana Mahuida porphyry copper deposit has identified (1) a central chlorite-rich zone superimposed on the potassic core, (2) a peripheral chlorite-rich zone in the outermost propylitic halo, (3) an illite-rich zone within the south and southwestern quadrangles of the phyllic halo that has overprinted the outer potassic core and inner propylitic zone, and (4) a smectite-rich zone within the northeast and northwest quadrangles of the phyllic halo. Lateral and vertical variations in clay mineralogy and illite crystallinity are attributed to alteration and mineralization such that surficial or remotely sensed mineralogy can be used to see through superimposed supergene alteration.

In the chlorite zones, the chlorite octahedral cations vary between 11.62 and 11.99 per O20(OH)16 formula unit and the tetrahedral cation composition is between (Si7Al1) and (Si4.6Al3.4) with an overall composition of (Al2.3–2.85Mg5.8–7.9Fe2+1.5–3.1)(Si5.5–5.9Al2.1–2.5)O20(OH)16. Thus, all are trioctahedral chlorites and, based on Fe2+/(Fe2+ + Mg) and Si contents, can be classified as Fe-Al clinochlore and Fe clinochlore. The chlorite zone in the potassic core formed mostly by destruction of hydrothermal biotite during sulfide precipitation as temperature decreased and f S2 increased. The chlorite contains more Mg than the biotite it replaces and has higher Fe2+/(Fe2+ + Mg) but lower Al2O3 than chlorite formed in the outer propylitic halo.

The phyllic zone that surrounds the potassic core is dominated by illite (K1.25–1.84Na0.0–0.15)(Al3.24–3.98Fe0.01–0.35 Mg0.06–0.64)(Si6.04–6.78Al1.22–2.07)O20(OH)4. Illite from the centers and selvages of veins has a composition close to muscovite, whereas disseminated illite in altered protoliths contains more Mg and Fe cations in the octahedral sites, although all belong to the 2 M 1 polytype. This hypogene alteration resulted from fluids with lower pH, temperature, and salinity than fluids responsible for the potassic alteration, propylitic alteration, chlorite formation after biotite, and Cu mineralization. The K content of illite decreases outward from the potassic core and from early, disseminated illite to late crosscutting veinlets.

A smectite-rich zone occurs in the northeast and northwest quadrangles of the phyllic halo. Based on X-ray diffraction analysis and a structural formula of (Ca,K,Na)0.18–1.2(Al2.8–3.8Fe0.11–0.78Mg0.1–1.04Mn0–0.01Ti0–0.07)(Si6.9–7.9 Al0.1–1.07)O20(OH4), the analyzed smectites are of the aluminum montmorillonite-beidellite dioctahedral series. Smectites from the deepest parts of the porphyry copper system, either from the potassic core or the phyllic halo, are montmorillonite-type smectite, with high total MgO and interlayer cation contents, and are probably hypogene, whereas shallow samples above the potassic core and phyllic halo contain beidellite-type smectite that has the highest FeOtotal and Al2O3 contents. This likely resulted from intense leaching at low temperatures as is typical of a supergene environment.

Illite is widespread in the Campana Mahuida porphyry Cu deposit and in the unaltered Tordillo Formation that hosts the deposit. The Kubler index (illite crystallinity) in the clay-size fraction of fresh sandstone (0.7° 2𝛉) corresponds to the highest grade of diagenesis, whereas in the altered rocks in the uppermost level of the deposit, the Kubler index ranges from 0.5 to 0.2° 2𝛉, values that are indicative of high temperature and/or high fluid/rock ratios. Within the deposit, illite crystallinity increases from the outer limit of the phyllic zone toward the center of the deposit, above the potassic core, and with depth, from the leached cap to the hypogene sulfide copper zones. Contours of illite crystallinity from the leached cap roughly delineate the outer limits of the ore zones at depth.


ABSTRACT Considerable research has investigated work/life balance challenges faced by professional women in the West; considerably less research has focused on challenges faced by Sub-Saharan African women, in spite of the dramatic increase in women professionally employed in these countries. One strategy used to cope with work/life challenges is hiring domestic helpers, and interpersonal conflicts often arise between these workers and their female employers. Therefore, this qualitative study focuses on these conflicts that arise in Kenyan households. Seventy university female faculty and staff members completed a questionnaire asking them to describe these conflicts and the conflict strategies they use during these difficult interactions. Follow-up interviews also were conducted. Data analysis revealed specific areas of conflict that reflected the unique dialectical tensions that occur in this work context; for example, the workspace is both public and private and the employer–domestic worker relationship is both intimate and distant. Communication strategies used by these professional women to deal with these conflicts also were identified as were suggestions for reducing conflict and maintaining a collaborative working environment to ensure more equitable and satisfying work relationships. Finally, suggestions for future research as well as theoretical challenges for organizational communication scholarship are presented and discussed.


This paper discusses why Greece has done so poorly in comparison with all other European Union countries since the onslaught of the global financial crisis in 2008. To show what was wrong with its fiscal adjustment, this paper compares Greece with the other European Union country that was hit be the most severe fiscal crisis, namely Latvia. The conclusion is that front-loaded fiscal adjustment works much better. Greek economic policy has been a popular topic among opinion writers, notably Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who claimed that Greece suffered from austerity. Because of his prominence in the international public debate, I shall scrutinize his arguments on the Greek crisis. The paper also examines what policy the International Monetary Fund has pursued with regard to Greece, and how its views have been influenced by the debate and Greek economic developments. Finally, the paper assesses what lessons can be drawn from the contrasting experiences of Latvia and Greece. The conclusion is that a fiscal adjustment should be sufficient to resolve the crisis to restore confidence and that it should be as front-loaded as is practically and politically possible.


Collection of essays on new concepts of supervision in practice-based counselling and psychology. Also covers professions such as the clergy and rural counsellors. Introduces models of peer supervision and explores the differences between peer support and peer supervision. Includes references and index. Editors both lecture and research in the School of Learning and Development at Queensland University of Technology.


The objective of this study was to compare the values of basal metabolic rate (BMR) obtained by indirect calorimetry (IC) and by predictive model (PM). Methodology: 6 women, age (23.8 ± 3.1 years), height (165 ± 5.8 cm), body mass (55.9 ± 4.9 kg), fat free mass (43 ± 2.1 kg), fat body mass (12.9 ± 3.3 kg), percentage of body fat (22.8 ± 4.2%) were subjected to the test of IC. The IC test was done early in the morning, after 12 hours of fasting, without attainment of physical activity within the last 24 hours and abstinence of alcohol in the last 48 hours. Initially, the volunteers remained at rest for 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of measurement by gas analyzer VO2000. To obtain the BMR by the EP the Harris Benedict formula was used , applied for women between 15-74 years: 655.0955 + 9.5634 (weight kg) + 1.8496 (height cm) 4.6756 (age). For the processing of data the statistical program "Instat" was used through the paired t test (p <0.05), and the results were expressed as mean and standard deviation of the mean. Results: The value of BMR through the IC was 1423.0±6 calories and through PM 1383.5±6 calories, with no statistically significant differences between the two methods. There was no significant difference between the methods, and thus, the PM can be considered a useful tool to estimate the BMR, as a more accessible and less costly method to this population.


This study evaluates the Web Content Accessibility (WCA) guidelines, developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The first aim of this study was to investigate whether the Guidelines can be used effectively by Web page authors. To this end students of HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) used the Guidelines to adapt Web pages. The second aim of the study was to examine whether pages developed using the Guidelines are accessible to visually impaired people. In order to achieve this visually impaired Web users assessed the accessibility of the pages developed by the Web page authors. The study found some difficulties in the use of the Guidelines that were similar to those identified by previous research. There were unexpected results regarding the accessbility of certain HTML elements.


The shift in sovereignty accompanying globalization has meant that non-state actors are more involved than ever in issues relating to human rights. This development poses challenges to international human rights law, because for the most part that law has been designed to restrain abuses by powerful states and state agents. While globalization has enhanced the ability of civil society to function across borders and promote human rights, other actors have gained the power to violate human rights in unforeseen ways. This Article looks at the legal frameworks for globalization and for human rights, then asks to what extent globalization is good for human rights and to what extent human rights are good for globalization. It then considers several legal responses to globalization as they relate to the promotion and protection of human rights. This Article concludes that responses to globalization are significantly changing international law and institutions in order to protect persons from violations of human rights committed by non-state actors.


Designed for the East Asian history course, this text features the latest scholarship on the region and offers a range of cultural, political, economic and intellectual history. Coverage is balanced among East Asian regions, with approximately 20 per cent of the text focused on Korea, an area that has become increasingly important in East Asian courses and in world politics. Special attention is devoted to coverage of gender and material culture - themes that are reinforced through the text's pedagogical features. Colour inserts illustrate the rich artistic heritage of East Asia and bolster the coverage of material culture.


Binary melts of S-ethyltetrahydrothiophenium iodide and dicyanoamide (or tricyanomethide) have been employed for dye-sensitized solar cells with high power conversion efficiencies up to 6.9% under the illumination of AM 1.5G full sunlight. We have further shown that the transport of triiodide in ionic liquids with high iodide concentration is viscosity-dependent in terms of a physical diffusion coupled bond exchange mechanism apart from the simple physical diffusion. In addition, we have found that some anions of ionic liquid electrolytes such as dicyanoamide have a significant influence on surface states and electron transport in the mesoporous semiconducting film.


This volume brings together empirical and conceptual papers that investigate the challenges of organizing creativity in the innovation journey in and across different empirical contexts. Seen as the basis for innovating new products, processes or services, organizing creativity is studied as intentional efforts that occur in teams, organizations, and fields. What creativity is, how it is defined, negotiated and recognized is hereby co-constructed with different audiences and in different economic and societal spheres. The papers in this volume extend our understanding of these contextualized social dynamics of organizing creativity in four directions. The first direction sheds light on the temporal dynamics of organizing creativity in artistic fields. The second direction compares creative processes in arts and science, thereby examining tensions and uncertainties in the creative process unfolding in two distinctive contexts of creativity. The third direction examines identity struggles of creative agents in organizations with clashing roles, professional norms, and ambiguities in creativity assessment. The fourth and final direction unravels the communicative journey of ideas from pitching to feedback, revealing how ideas are challenged, enriched, and acquire meaning in communicative interaction. Overall, the papers in this volume contribute to a situated view of creative processes in innovation which goes beyond questions of idea generation to account for dynamics of idea development, judgment, and dissemination which involve identity struggles, evaluation, and communication – processes which are at the heart of organizing for innovation.


We have designed a single photon emitter based on a single quantum dot embedded within a single mode parabolic solid immersion lens (pSIL) and a capping low-index pSIL. Numerical simulations predicted that the emitter performance should exhibit a high photon collection efficiency with excellent far-field emission properties, broadband operation, and good tolerance in its geometric (spatial configuration) parameters. Good geometric tolerance in a single-mode pSIL without yielding significant losses in the photon collection efficiency is advantageous for device fabrication. The low-index top pSIL layer provided this structure with a high photon collection efficiency, even in the case of a small numerical aperture (NA). Photon collection efficiencies of 64% and 78% were expected for NA values of 0.41 and 0.5, respectively. In addition to the benefits listed above, our combined pSIL design provided excellent broadband performance in a 100 nm range.


Soft wearable sensors are essential components for applications such as motion tracking, human-machine interface, and soft robots. However, most of the reported sensors are either specifically designed to target an individual stimulus or capable of responding to multiple stimuli (e.g., pressure and strain) but without the necessary selectivity to distinguish those stimuli. Here we report an elastomeric sponge-based sensor that can respond to and distinguish three different kinds of stimuli: pressure, strain, and temperature. The sensor utilizes a porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sponge fabricated from a sugar cube sacrificial template, which was subsequently coated with a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) conductive polymer through a low-cost dip-coating process. Responses to different types of stimuli can be distinguished by simultaneously recording resistance and capacitance changes. Because pressure, tensile strain, and temperature change result in different trends in resistance and capacitance change, those stimuli can be clearly distinguished from each other by simultaneously measuring the resistance and capacitance of the sensor. We have also studied the effect of the pore size on the sensor performance and have found that the sponge sensor with smaller pores generally offers greater resistance change and better sensitivity. As a proof-of-concept, we have demonstrated the use of the porous sponge sensor on an artificial hand for object detection, gesture recognition, and temperature sensing applications.


The English National Health Service (NHS) is a contested organisational terrain where what it means to be 'professional' is under threat from a dominant 'new managerialism' discourse. Sustained organisational change and reform during the past thirty years has impacted on the nature of professional work and role relationships between health care practitioners, managers, patients and the public. Identity is a useful analytic frame for exploring professional role dynamics and has pertinence for studies of health care professionals as they negotiate these changes.

This study considers professional identity as constructed through the enactment of a nursing role, Modern Matron, in an English NHS Trust. The role has been introduced into the nursing hierarchy in response to public and political demand for an authoritative clinical leader to take responsibility for managing standards of care within nursing; it is a hybrid management role, performed across professional and managerial boundaries, and across different organisational levels. The research has been conducted within an interpretive paradigm of social constructivism; qualitative data from semi-structured interviews is the primary source from which findings are drawn.

The findings illustrate the contradictory nature of the Modern Matron role as performed across occupational and organisational boundaries and within competing discourses of professionalism, managerialism and holistic patient-centred care. The empirical contribution of this research is to suggest that the Modern Matron role is constituted of multiple and different identities which are mediated through 'syncretic action' whereby individuals act singularly and collectively upon elements of competing discourses to create uniqueness in role and identity reflective of the specific structural, socio-political and historical circumstances in which Modern Matron is performed; this is epitomised in the collective presentation of Corporate Matron. The concept of syncretic action offers an alternative perspective through which to consider and understand the processes of identification in organisational role reconfiguration within health care; the concept has broader application to identity studies in general.


Abstract Vine copulas are multivariate dependence models constructed from pair-copulas (bivariate copulas). In this paper, we allow the dependence parameters of the pair-copulas in a D-vine decomposition to be potentially time-varying, following a restricted ARMA(1, m) process, in order to obtain a very flexible dependence model for applications to multivariate financial return data. We investigate the dependence among the broad stock market indexes from Germany (DAX), France (CAC 40), Britain (FTSE 100), the United States (S&P 500) and Brazil (IBOVESPA) both in a crisis and in a non-crisis period. We find evidence of stronger dependence among the indexes in bear markets. Surprisingly, though, the dynamic D-vine copula indicates the occurrence of a sharp decrease in dependence between the indexes FTSE and CAC in the beginning of 2011, and also between CAC and DAX during mid-2011 and in the beginning of 2008, suggesting the absence of contagion in these cases. We evaluate the dynamic D-vine copula with respect to Value-at-Risk (VaR) forecasting accuracy in crisis periods. The dynamic D-vine outperforms the static D-vine in terms of predictive accuracy for our real data sets. We also investigate the dynamic D-vine copula in a simulation study and the overall results of the Monte Carlo experiments are quite favorable to the dynamic D-vine copula in comparison with a static D-vine copula.


Single-stranded DNA-binding proteins (SSBs) from different bacteria ( E.coli, B. abortus, P. mirabilis and S. marcenecens) were crystallised and their structures determined by X-ray crystallography. The overall topology of all four SSB structures are similar. The important residues His-55, which is involved in tetramerization, Trp-40, Trp-54, Trp-88 and Phe-60, which are involved in ssDNA-binding, are sequentially, structurally and conformationally conserved. The four structures do however, show difference in and near their loop regions. Two new cryo-cooling techniques are described. They have been shown to work favorably for SSBs and several other proteins.


The present paper deals with the structure and properties of two types of tool steels with high chromium content (12% Cr) hardened by means of Concentrated Energy Fluxes (CEF). The treatment conditions are chosen to ensure liquid state transformations. The melted zone of the surface layer features a quasi-ledeburite structure, consisting of inhomogeneous residual austenite and Cr-containing carbides of MmCn type. This austenite is strongly cold hardened and over-saturated with Cr and carbon. The micro-hardness of this region varies from 400 up to 800 HV0.1. The higher the energy density, the lower the hardness and the wider the modified layers. The lower hardness is due to the presence of nearly 100% austenite. Higher hardness was obtained in the heat affected zone. Carbides of M23C6, M7C3, M6C, M3C and МС types were identified. A scheme of carbide changes after treatment with CEF is given.


A blind separation method proposed by Bell et al. [Proc. ICASSP 95 (1995)] is a novel approach for source separation based only upon the assumption that the source signals are statistically independent of each other. In this paper, only simple computer‐simulation results were described. The conditions of the experiments were extended and the method was evaluated under real conditions. In the first experiment, the SNRs of source signals are controlled by adding white Gaussian noise in order to clarify to what extent the source signals can be regarded as independent. The results clarify that SDR (i.e., signal‐to‐deviation ratio between the source and the separated signals) is proportional to the SNR of source signals when the SNR is below 20 dB, and the SDR saturates at 40 dB when the SNR is better than 20 dB. In the second experiment, the lengths of the signals are controlled to find the sufficient source signal length of processing. From the results it is found that the source signal length must be more than 2000 points to achieve an SDR of 30 dB.


Despite recent progress in the uptake of evidence-based health promotion (EBHP) programs within communities, many factors contribute to the need to focus on dissemination. These include the growth in the aging population, health care resource limitations, and interests in preserving community-based opportunities for maintaining independence and maximizing quality of life. For these reasons, The Prevention Research Centers' Healthy Aging Research Network (HAN), funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Healthy Aging Program, has as its core mission, to translate effective healthy aging interventions into sustainable community-based programs. Researchers and community-based stakeholders collaborate across HAN's seven member center and two affiliate universities (Figure (Figure1)1) to develop and implement health promotion programs for older adults at individual, organizational, environmental, and policy levels (1–3). This commentary highlights selected HAN contributions to the EBHP movement from 2001 to 2014. These contributions serve as examples of potential models for future partnership efforts to enhance implementation, dissemination, and sustainability of EBHP programs.

Figure 1

CDC Healthy Aging Research Network (HAN) member centers and affiliates (FY 2009-2014).


Recognition of the extent and consequences of HIV/AIDS in Africa has resulted in many large scale health promotion programmes. These programmes usually provide information about how to avoid contracting HIV as well as information to dispel false beliefs about the virus. However there also exist anti-health promotion ideas about HIV/AIDS which often challenge the very premises on which health promotion messages are based. Such anti-health promotion ideas may represent reassuring benefits and these are likely to vary not only across cultures but also between different communities and 'at risk' groups within the same culture. The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is a participative exercise which can be used with small groups to achieve a consensus concerning which anti-health promotion ideas are most influential in terms of encouraging people to ignore health promoting messages. The application of the NGT is illustrated with a group of Malawian students.


Using adhesive tape for patient positioning Key words: adhesive tape, surgical tape, patient positioning, pressure injury, contamination. Border sterility of open sterile wrappers Key words: wrapped sterile item, unsterile border, wrapper flap, contaminated, aseptic technique. Cost per minute of OR time Key words: cost comparison, direct costs, cost savings, perioperative efficiency, product evaluation. Packages containing an incorrect number of suture needles Key words: multipack, retained surgical item (RSI), counting, needle, package.


In this work we focus on transferring supervision signals of natural language generation (NLG) tasks between multiple languages. We propose to pretrain the encoder and the decoder of a sequence-to-sequence model under both monolingual and cross-lingual settings. The pre-training objective encourages the model to represent different languages in the shared space, so that we can conduct zero-shot cross-lingual transfer. After the pre-training procedure, we use monolingual data to fine-tune the pre-trained model on downstream NLG tasks. Then the sequence-to-sequence model trained in a single language can be directly evaluated beyond that language (i.e., accepting multi-lingual input and producing multi-lingual output). Experimental results on question generation and abstractive summarization show that our model outperforms the machine-translation-based pipeline methods for zero-shot cross-lingual generation. Moreover, cross-lingual transfer improves NLG performance of low-resource languages by leveraging rich-resource language data. Our implementation and data are available at this https URL.


After the Global Financial Crisis a controversial rush to fiscal austerity followed in many countries. Yet research on the effects of austerity on macroeconomic aggregates was and still is unsettled, mired by the difficulty of identifying multipliers from observational data. This paper reconciles seemingly disparate estimates of multipliers within a unified and state-contingent framework. We achieve identification of causal effects with new propensity-score based methods for time series data. Using this novel approach, we show that austerity is always a drag on growth, and especially so in depressed economies: a one percent of GDP fiscal consolidation translates into 4 percent lower real GDP after five years when implemented in the slump rather than the boom. We illustrate our findings with a counterfactual evaluation of the impact of the U.K. government's shift to austerity policies in 2010 on subsequent growth.


Device localization is a highly important functionality for a range of applications. It is particularly beneficial in mmWave networks, where it can be used to reduce the beam training overhead and anticipate handovers between access points. In this paper, we present JADE, an algorithm that estimates the location of a mobile user in an indoor space without any knowledge about the surrounding environment (floor plan, location of walls and presence of reflective surfaces) or about the location and number of access points available therein. JADE leverages the beam procedure used in pre-standard and commercial mmWave equipment to estimate the angle-of-arrival of multipath components of the signal sent by visible access points. This information is then employed to localize the mobile user, estimate the position of access points and finally form a map of the environment. No radar-like ranging operations are required for this. Our results demonstrate that JADE can localize a user with sub-meter accuracy in the broad majority of the cases, and that it even outperforms localization algorithms that require full knowledge of the environment and access point positions.


AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Project RIGHT (Research for the Identification of the most effective and hIGHly accepted clinical guidelines for cancer Treatment) is promoted by the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) to evaluate the concordance between AIOM breast cancer guidelines and clinical practice in Italy. In RIGHT-1, feasibility and the appropriateness of indicators were assessed in patients with early breast cancer. RIGHT-2 evaluated the compliance with guidelines in a nationwide program.

METHODS
Thirty-five Italian centers participated in the RIGHT-2 survey. Ten indicators were evaluated to verify an agreement between 2005 AIOM breast cancer guidelines and practice. Patients with clinical stage I-II invasive breast cancer, age ≤70 years, who had their first visit at the oncology center between October 2005 and November 2006 were included.

RESULTS
In RIGHT-2, ≥90% adherence for the diagnosis indicator and three therapy indicators were observed. The lowest degree of compliance (0%) was observed for the follow-up indicator in asymptomatic patients.

CONCLUSIONS
In RIGHT-2, compliance to the 2005 AIOM breast cancer guidelines was 64%. When the follow-up indicator was eliminated, overall adherence to AIOM guidelines was 71%. The results highlight the need to continue improving the already good standards of breast cancer care.


: Reticuloendothelial system (RES) depression has been correlated with diminished resistance to trauma, shock, and sepsis in man and animals. Previous studies have related the depression of RES hepatic Kupffer cell phagocytic function after trauma to diminished bioassayable opsonic activity. The present study determined if the loss of biological activity and RES alteration correlated with immunoreactive serum opsonic alpha 2 SB glycoprotein levels after trauma. Serum opsonic activity was measured by liver slice bioassay, and immunoreactive opsonic protein was measured by rocket electroimmunoassay. RE function was determined by colloid clearance over a 24-hour post-trauma period. Anesthetized rats (250-300 gm) subjected to sublethal or severe (greater than LD50) whole-body NCD trauma were the shock models investigated. Immunoreactive levels in 63 rats prior to injury were 518 +/- 24 microgram/ml. Neither biological nor immunoreactive levels were altered over 24 hours in anesthetized sham-traumatized controls. Temporal alteration in the initial decrease and recovery pattern of biologically active and immunoreactive opsonic protein levels significantly correlated following both sublethal and severe injury. Moreover, the patterns of immunoreactive levels of the opsonic protein correlated with the functional phagocytic activity of the RES as determined by vascular clearance of a test dose of blood-borne radiolabeled particulates. This glycoprotein falls after trauma, and the magnitude and duration of the decline increases with severity of injury. Immunoreactive opsonic alpha 2 SB glycoprotein appears to be an accurate measurement of circulating opsonic activity and RE Kupffer cell function after trauma, especially with respect to clearance. Thus, immunoreactive opsonic protein warrants clinical consideration as a noninvasive measure of reticuloendothelial systemic defense in patients after trauma and burn.


Turnover research has traditionally examined intention to turnover rather than actual turnover. Such studies assume that leave intent serves equally well as both a proxy for and predictor of employees' actual turnover behavior. The purpose of this study is to provide an agency-level evaluation of the usefulness of turnover intention as a reliable proxy and predictor of actual turnover across 180 U.S. federal agencies, using hierarchical (stepwise) multiple regression. Our findings suggest that, at the organizational level, turnover intention and actual turnover are distinct concepts, predicted by different sets of variables. Based on these findings, we conclude that public managers tasked with retention might have better foresight concentrating on their agencies' unique demographic characteristics and specific management practices, rather than on their employees' self-reported aggregated turnover intention rate.


: The alpha-ray thickness gauge is used to measure non-destructively the thicknesses of thin films, and up to the present day, a thin film with uniform thickness is only taken up as the object of alpha-ray thickness gauge. When the thickness is determined from the displacement between the absorption curves in the presence and absence of thin film, the absorption curve must be displaced in parallel. When many uniform particles were dispersed as sample, the shape of the absorption curve was calculated as the sum of many absorption curves corresponding to the thin films with different thicknesses. By the comparison of the calculated and measured absorption curves, the number of particles, or the mean superficial density can be determined. This means the extension of thickness measurement from uniform to non-uniform films. Furthermore, these particle models being applied to non-uniform thin film, the possibility of measuring the mean thickness and non-uniformity was discussed. As the result, if the maximum difference of the thickness was more than 0.2 mg/cm2, the non-uniformity was considered to distinguish by the usual equipment. In this paper, an alpha-ray thickness gauge using the absorption curve method was treated, but one can apply this easily to an alpha-ray thickness gauge using alpha-ray energy spectra before and after the penetration of thin film.


Abstract— Natural human-robot interaction requires robots to link words to objects and actions through grounding. Although grounding has been investigated in previous studies, none of them considered grounding of synonyms. In this paper, we try to fill this gap by introducing a Bayesian learning model for grounding synonymous object and action names using cross- situational learning. Three different word representations are employed with the probabilistic model and evaluated according to their grounding performance. Words are grounded through geometric characteristics of objects and kinematic features of the robot joints during action execution. An interaction experiment between a human tutor and HSR robot is used to evaluate the proposed model. The results show that representing words by syntactic and/or semantic information achieves worse grounding results than representing them by unique numbers.


In response to the gradual disappearance of the Movimiento Nacional Socialista as the dominant force of the extreme right during the course of 1938, new groups emerged on Chile's political scene. The Partido Nacional Fascista and the Movimiento Nacionalista de Chile, established in October 1938 and February 1940 respectively, attempted to assume the role of nacismo after it had turned to the left. Operating in a national and international environment, which became increasingly detrimental to the development of national fascist organisations, these new voices of Chilean fascism never managed to build up substantial support. They remained on the sidelines of the political system. The return of the Vanguardia Popular Socialista (the name of the MNS since January 1939) to its fascist roots in the (Chilean) autumn of 1940 did not revive the dwindling forces of the radical right. The Vanguardia, the Movimiento Nacionalista and a number of smaller groups that followed the former dictator Carlos Ibáñez established the Unión Nacionalista in March 1942, but this was a last desperate attempt to breathe new life into a dying cause.


This article questions the priority that Carl Plantinga accords to the viewer's emotions in his theory of the rhetorical power of screen stories, and makes the case that reason, in the sense of practical reasoning, plays just as important a role as emotion in our ethical response to such fictions. Practical reasoning is the form of reasoning concerned with the actions of agents and what they should do in specific situations. The protagonists of screen stories often engage in practical reasoning, articulating and deliberating about the reasons for their actions, and secondary characters around them regularly question their reasons. In this way, these stories prompt us to understand and question their reasons too and thereby to engage in practical reasoning, a species of which is moral reasoning. Screen stories also often stage a confrontation between divergent ethical perspectives and ask audiences to reflect about which one is more morally compelling.


Associations between plants and microorganisms are very complex and are the subject of an increasing number of studies. Here, we specifically address the relationship between poplar and its endophytic bacteria. The role and importance of endophytic bacteria in growth and development of their host plants is still underestimated. However, since many endophytes have a beneficial effect on their host, an improved understanding of the interaction between poplar and its endophytic bacteria has the potential to provide major breakthroughs that will improve the productivity of poplar. Endophytic bacteria can improve plant growth and development in a direct or indirect way. Direct plant growth promoting mechanisms may involve nitrogen fixation, production of plant growth regulators such as auxins, cytokinins and gibberellins, and suppression of stress ethylene synthesis by 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase activity. Endophytic bacteria can indirectly benefit the plant by preventing the growth or activity of plant pathogens through competition for space and nutrients, antibiosis, production of hydrolytic enzymes, inhibition of pathogen-produced enzymes or toxins, and through systemic induction of plant defense mechanisms. Examples of applications for custom endophyte-host partnerships include improved productivity and establishment of poplar trees on marginal soils and the phytoremediation of contaminated soils and groundwater. A systems biology approach to understand the synergistic interactions between poplar and its beneficial endophytic bacteria represents an important field of research, which is facilitated by the recent sequencing of the genomes of poplar and several of its endophytic bacteria.


According to the engineering demands of the manufacturability evaluation, the blade part information model built up based on the generalized feature and STEP standard, and based on the secondary development of UG software, a CAD system based on features is realized. The system can realize automatic feature recognition. Based on the part information model that has been built up, the system can generate STEP document automatically, can provide various blade part information for the subsequent manufacturability evaluation of the design. This helps to realize the integration and parallel of CAD and the subsequent process. The CAD/CPAPP/DFM information integration can be realized by using the blade part information that has been built up.


This paper will discuss the coherent interference which has been determined to be ships on the ocean, and review the ship signal phenomenon that has been detected numerous times with the incoherent scatter radar at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. V-shaped coherent structures have been observed when the magnitude of raw power bounced back to the receiver is plotted against time and altitude. These structures have been determined to be ships due to the slow velocity of the objects, the high amount of power reflected back to the receiver and the relatively short range. While the radar apparatus at Arecibo is the world's most sensitive and is able to monitor electron density changes in the different regions of the ionosphere it is unable to detect large cruise ships beyond a distance of 90 kilometers. The main reason for this is that the radar at Arecibo was never intended to monitor ships as the dish and antenna are aimed directly towards the sky. However, we will investigate the reason why ship signals observed at Arecibo are not able to be detected beyond a range of 90 kilometers and demonstrate that the causation for the inability of the radar to detect ships beyond this range is due to the line of sight of the radar at this specific location and the curvature of the Earth.


This article builds series of wage shares in gross domestic product (GDP) for 15 Latin American economies individually and as a group for the period 1950-2010. Using different methodologies, it is established that wage share is non-linear and has undergone two major cycles. The article discusses various authors, especially classic and post-Keynesian thinkers, who have explored the relationship between wage share in GDP and economic activity. It is also shown that the post-Keynesian approach is relevant in explaining that the main variables determining real gdp variations include wage share, gross capital formation and exports of goods and services. However, the contribution of wage share to real output growth has declined from the 1980s onwards.


Purpose To report a case of acute quinine poisoning, document acute and chronic macular changes with optical coherence tomography imaging and fluorescein angiography (FA), and to review the literature on ocular toxicity of quinine. Methods A 32-year-old white female presented to our Emergency Department after ingesting over 7.5 g of quinine. She underwent a complete ophthalmologic examination, fluorescein angiography, Stratus time-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT), and electroretinography at 72 hours and 15 months postingestion. Stratus time-domain and Cirrus spectral-domain OCT, fundus autofluorescence, and FA were obtained at 28 months postingestion. Results Fluorescein angiography at 72 hours postingestion revealed normal filling times and vasculature. OCT showed marked thickening of the inner retina bilaterally. At 15 and 28 months follow-up, fundus photography and fluorescein angiography demonstrated optic nerve pallor, severely attenuated retinal vessels while OCT showed inner retinal atrophy. Fundus autofluorescence did not reveal any retinal pigmentary abnormalities. Conclusions Quinine toxicity as seen by OCT reveals increased thickness with inner retinal hyperreflectivity acutely with development of significant retinal atrophy in the long-term. Fundus autofluorescence reveals an intact retinal pigment epithelial layer at 28 months. These findings suggest that quinine poisoning may produce a direct toxic effect on the inner retina in the acute phase resulting in long-term retinal atrophy.


One of the most prominent claims to emerge from the field of public opinion is that citizens can vote for candidates whose issue positions best reflect their own beliefs even when they cannot remember previously learned stances associated with the candidates. The current experiment provides a unique and powerful examination of this claim by determining whether individuals with profound amnesia, whose severe memory impairments prevent them from remembering specific issue information associated with any particular candidate, can vote for candidates whose issue positions come closest to their own political views. We report here that amnesic patients, despite not being able to remember any issue information, consistently voted for candidates with favored political positions. Thus, sound voting decisions do not require recall or recognition of previously learned associations between candidates and their issue positions. This result supports a multiple memory systems model of political decision making.


CONTEXT
The effects of dehydration induced by wrestling-related weight-cutting tactics on clinical concussion outcomes, such as neurocognitive function, balance performance, and symptoms, have not been adequately studied.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of dehydration on the outcome of clinical concussion measures in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I collegiate wrestlers.

DESIGN
Repeated-measures design.

SETTING
Clinical research laboratory.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Thirty-two Division I healthy collegiate male wrestlers (age = 20.0 ± 1.4 years; height = 175.0 ± 7.5 cm; baseline mass = 79.2 ± 12.6 kg).

INTERVENTION(S)
Participants completed preseason concussion baseline testing in early September. Weight and urine samples were also collected at this time. All participants reported to prewrestling practice and postwrestling practice for the same test battery and protocol in mid-October. They had begun practicing weight-cutting tactics a day before prepractice and postpractice testing. Differences between these measures permitted us to evaluate how dehydration and weight-cutting tactics affected concussion measures.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 2 (SCAT2), Balance Error Scoring System, Graded Symptom Checklist, and Simple Reaction Time scores. The Simple Reaction Time was measured using the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics.

RESULTS
The SCAT2 measurements were lower at prepractice (P = .002) and postpractice (P < .001) when compared with baseline. The BESS error scores were higher at postpractice when compared with baseline (P = .015). The GSC severity scores were higher at prepractice (P = .011) and postpractice (P < .001) than at baseline and at postpractice when than at prepractice (P = .003). The number of Graded Symptom Checklist symptoms reported was also higher at prepractice (P = .036) and postpractice (P < .001) when compared with baseline, and at postpractice when compared with prepractice (P = .003).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that it is important for wrestlers to be evaluated in a euhydrated state to ensure that dehydration is not influencing the outcome of the clinical measures.


Abstract. Single spacecraft measurements from the Cluster 3 satellite are used to identify nonlinear processes in ion-sound turbulence observed within the front of the quasiperpendicular terrestrial bow shock. Ion sound waves possess spatial scales that are too small for the efficient use of multipoint measurements on inter-satellite separation scales. However, it is shown how frequency domain modelling can be applied to single spacecraft electric field data obtained using the EFW internal burst mode. The resulting characteristics of the nonlinear processes are used to argue about the possible wave sources and investigate their dynamics.


Ankyloglossia is a pathology of the tongue in which the frenulum appears anchored to the floor of the mouth. The treatment of choice for this pathology is frenectomy, but myofunctional therapy is emerging in recent years as a complement to surgical intervention. This systematic review aims to synthesize the scientific evidence and assess its quality regarding the use of myofunctional therapy in ankyloglossia. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, Pubmed, Web of Science and Scopus were searched. Study quality was determined using the PEDro scale, STROBE statement and single-case experimental design scale. Eleven studies were selected. Based on the studies included in this review, surgery is more effective than myofunctional therapy, although better results are achieved if both are combined. Improvements have been found in maternal pain, weight gain of babies, duration of breastfeeding, tongue mobility, strength and endurance, sleep apnea, mouth breathing and snoring, quality of life, clenching teeth, myofascial tension, pain after surgery and speech sound production. These findings must be taken with caution because of the small number of articles and their quality. Future clinical trials using larger sample sizes and with higher methodological quality are needed.


Through case studies of 2 working-class Latino middle school students (ages 12 and 14), we examine how the young people negotiated economic and cultural barriers to digital media and mobilized opportunities to use media in pursuit of their own interests. For the young people in our study, school assignments offered opportunities to use digital media tools and become 'content creators.' However, the nature of the assignments and the restrictions placed on technology use in the classroom stood in contrast to the interests that motivated the teens' participation in popular media culture outside of school. We argue that this disconnect limited the potential of media production assignments to connect to student interests and provide youth with meaningful access to new technology.


The authors demonstrate the possibility and describe the method for expert evaluation of mercury in biological material (urine, blood, organs and tissues from cadavers) using mercury-hydride attachment to the Carl Zeiss AAS-30 atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Germany). This method is an integral component of chemical toxicological analysis in expert evaluation of poisonings.


Research has consistently established the robustness of the bystander effect, or the tendency of individuals to not intervene on behalf of others in emergency situations. This study examines the bystander effect in an online setting, focusing on factors that lead individuals to intervene, and therefore enact informal social control, on behalf of others who are being targeted by hate material. To address this question, we use an online survey (N=647) of youth and young adults recruited from a demographically balanced sample of Americans. Results demonstrate that the enactment of social control is positively affected by the existence of strong offline and online social bonds, collective efficacy, prior victimization, self-esteem, and an aversion for the hate material in question. Additionally, the amount of time that individuals spend online affects their likelihood of intervention. These findings provide important insights into the processes that underlie informal social control and begin to bridge the gap in knowledge between social control in the physical and virtual realms.


The relationship between species abundance and environmental factors such as the bottom water temperature and salinity, the texture and organic matter content of the sediment and the distribution of Pleoticus muelleri and Artemesia longinaris were investigated. Specimens and samples of abiotic factors were collected monthly from May 2008 to April 2010 at 4 locations in Santos Bay on the southern coast of the State of Sao Paulo. A shrimp boat equipped with an otter-trawl net with an 8 m mouth aperture and a mesh size of 20 mm tapering to 18 mm at the cod end was used for sampling. Shrimp abundances were compared with an analysis of variance (ANOVA). However, when the data did not follow a normal distribution, we used the Kruskal-Wallis test. The relationship between environmental factors and the abundance of individuals was assessed with a Pearson's correlation. The largest catches of individuals of both species occurred in the late spring of 2008. The greatest abundance occurred at the outer part of the bay (collection point 4). The greatest abundance of P. muelleri was associated with lower temperatures and sediments with higher clay and organic matter content, whereas for A. longinaris, there was no significant correlation with any of the abiotic factors recorded. However, the occurrence of both species was related to lower bottom temperatures associated with the intrusion of the South Atlantic Central Water in the region.


The study highlights the social and physical entrapments of women in two novels: Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy Man and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. Both writers belong to two different cultures. Bapsi Sidhwa is a Punjabi, Parsi, Pakistani novelist while Arundhati Roy is an Indian Author. Regardless of their different cultures, they have discussed similar issues faced by women of their contemporary societies. This case study adopted exploratory research framework to gather data and undergo its content analysis from the text of two selected novels. The findings explicate that woman exploitation can be observed evidently among different societies irrespective of any culture, religion, caste or creed. In both novels, women are represented as shallow creatures and they are utterly victimized physically as well as emotionally. They are raped and beaten brutally by males being their unbidden masters. Sidhwa and Roy enlighten the plight of women in their novels, though slight elements of unjust maltreatment of the male characters can also be seen at many places.


─ In present day world more picture and video compression enhancing bit by bit. The Compression capacity of a few eras of video coding measures is analyzed by method for peak signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR) and subjective testing results Yet, real hindrance of the new advances ideas are rehashed from creators. Since creators can't discover top to bottom of the papers from different innovations Video compression has been the object of serious research in the most recent thirty years. Video compression method is presently develop as is demonstrated by the vast number of utilizations that make utilization of this innovation. This paper gives the thought regarding diverse methods accessible for Video compression. H.264/AVC shows better coding execution change over its ancestors. The principle center of this paper is to examine video compression methods needed for feature preparing particularly to find the amount of measure of information to compressed, which procedures is speedier and visual quality better etc We assess the video compression methods for discovering compression proportion as far as execution, pace and precision. So Survey of Video Compression Techniques exceptionally accommodating for these sorts issues in Video Compression regions. Video Compression strategies, for example, DCT coding, Quantization, Entropy coding, Motionestimation are broadly utilized as a part of Video Compression methods. The HEVC configuration is indicated to be particularly compelling for low bit rates, high-determination feature content, and low-defer correspondence applications. The deliberate subjective change to some degree surpasses the change measured by the PSNR metric.


While the influence of caffeine on the regulation of brain perfusion has been the subject of multiple publications, the mechanisms involved in that regulation remain unclear. To some extent, that uncertainty is a function of a complex interplay of processes arising from multiple targets of caffeine located on a variety of different cells, many of which have influence, either directly or indirectly, on cerebral vascular smooth muscle tone. Adding to that complexity are the target-specific functional changes that may occur when comparing acute and chronic caffeine exposure. In the present review, we discuss some of the mechanisms behind caffeine influences on cerebrovascular function. The major effects of caffeine on the cerebral circulation can largely be ascribed to its inhibitory effects on adenosine receptors. Herein, we focus mostly on the A1, A2A, and A2B subtypes located in cells comprising the neurovascular unit (neurons, astrocytes, vascular smooth muscle); their roles in the coupling of increased neuronal (synaptic) activity to vasodilation; how caffeine, through blockade of these receptors, may interfere with the "neurovascular coupling" process; and receptor-linked changes that may occur in cerebrovascular regulation when comparing acute to chronic caffeine intake.


A 69-year-old male presented with a rare dural cyst manifesting as numbness and pain in the limbs. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a mass anterior to the medulla oblongata appearing as low intensity on T1-weighted and high intensity on T2-weighted imaging, with no enhancement. A cystic lesion ventral to the medulla oblongata was removed via the lateral suboccipital transcondylar approach. Histological examination showed the wall of the cyst consisted of fibrous connective tissue with a dense zone and a loose zone, similar to the structure found in the dura mater. The lesion was diagnosed as dural cyst. Dural cysts can be defined as cyst with the wall consisting of dura mater-like fibrous tissue, and attached to the dura mater. The origin of the present dural cyst was considered to be congenital.


One of the primary reasons why firms fail to meet their customers' needs and expectations is due to their lack of awareness of exactly what those needs and expectations are, i.e. there is a gap between company perceptions of customer
expectations and what customers actually expect. With five million people, in two million properties estimated to be living in flood risk areas in England and Wales, flooding and flood damage to property are somewhat inevitable. In fact, the increased frequency of flooding and the growing number of properties being constructed on floodplains suggest that these statistics are set to worsen in future. However, there is inadequate understanding of domestic property occupiers' needs regarding flood damage reinstatement. Therefore, as part of a wider investigation, a review of those needs and concomitant issues is presented. The severity of the impact of a particular flood event on a household is influenced, in part, by factors that can be classified into two main categories: flood characteristics and the individual household characteristics. An initial assessment classifies homeowners' needs as: time, utilitarian needs, relations and communication, health and safety, commitment and flexibility, economy and aesthetics. In order for insurers and repairers to offer services that will satisfy their clients, sound knowledge and consideration of the needs and expectations of homeowners is vital.


In this work, Zn(BH4)2, Ni, or Ti were selected as additives to improve the hydriding and dehydriding rates of magnesium. Zn(BH4)2 was prepared by milling ZnCl2 and NaBH4 in a planetary ball mill under an Ar atmosphere. The prepared Zn(BH4)2 sample contained NaCl. 13.6 wt% MgH2+49.1 wt% Zn(BH4)2+30.2 wt% NaCl+7.0 wt% Ni (named 14MgH2+49Zn(BH4)2+30NaCl+7Ni) and 13.6 wt% MgH2+49.1 wt% Zn(BH4)2+30.2 wt% NaCl+7.0 wt% Ti (named 14MgH2+49Zn(BH4)2+30NaCl+7Ti) samples were prepared by horizontal ball milling. The gas release properties, especially the metal hydride decomposition temperatures (the onset temperature of the metal hydride decomposition and the maximum rate of released gas quantity change with temperature change), of the prepared samples were investigated using a Sievert's type volumetric apparatus. The quantity of the gas released under 1.0 bar H2 was measured as the temperature was increased and the variation in the rate of released gas quantity Gr change with temperature T change, dGr/dT, as a function of temperature was obtained. This analysis method can be used instead of thermal analysis methods such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The investigated properties of the samples were then compared. In the as-milled 14MgH2 +49Zn(BH4)2+30NaCl+7Ni, it is believed that Zn(BH4)2 begins to decompose at about 350 K and the rate of Gr change with T change, dGr/dT, reaches its peak at about 390 K, and that MgH2 begins to decompose at about 670 K and dGr/dT reaches its peak at about 698 K.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.23.1.14270


Background: Triplets are often born premature and with a low birth weight. Because the incidence of triplet births is rare, there are relatively few studies describing triplet birth weight characteristics. Earlier studies are often characterized by small sample sizes and lack information on important background variables such as zygosity. The objective of this study is to examine factors associated with birth weight in a large, population-based sample of triplets registered with the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR). Methods: In a sample of 1230 triplets from 410 families, the effects of assisted reproductive techniques, zygosity, birth order, gestational age, sex, maternal smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy on birth weight were assessed. The resemblance among triplets for birth weight was estimated as a function of zygosity. Birth weight discordance within families was studied by the pair-wise difference between triplets, expressed as a percentage of the birth weight of the heaviest child. We compare data from triplets registered with the NTR with data from population records, which include live births, stillbirths and children that have deceased within days after birth. Results: There was no effect of assisted reproductive techniques on triplet birth weight. At gestational age 24 to 40 weeks triplets gained on average 130 grams per week; boys weighed 110 grams more than girls and triplets of smoking mothers weighted 104 grams less than children of non-smoking mothers. Monozygotic triplets had lower birth weights than diand trizygotic triplets and birth weight discordance was smaller in monozygotic triplets than in diand trizygotic triplets. The correlation in birth weight among monozygotic and dizygotic triplets was 0.42 and 0.32, respectively. In nearly two-thirds of the families, the heaviest and the lightest triplet had a birth weight discordance over 15%. The NTR sample is representative for the Dutch triplet population that is still alive 28 days after birth. Conclusion: Birth weight is an important determinant of childhood development. Triplet status, gestational age, sex, zygosity and maternal smoking affect birth weight. The combined effects amount to a difference of 364 grams between monozygotic girl triplets of smoking mothers compared to dizygotic boy triplets of non-smoking mothers of the same gestational age. Birth weight in triplets is also influenced by genetic factors, as indicated by a larger correlation in monozygotic than in diand trizygotic triplets.


When a periodic 1D system described by a tight-binding model is uniformly initialized with equal amplitudes at all sites, yet with completely random phases, it evolves into a thermal distribution with no spatial correlations. However, when the system is nonlinear, correlations are spontaneously formed. We find that for strong nonlinearities, the intensity histograms approach a narrow Gaussian distributed around their mean and phase correlations are formed between neighboring sites. Sites tend to be out of phase for a positive nonlinearity and in phase for a negative one. Most impressively, the field correlation takes a universal shape independent of parameters. These results are relevant to bosonic gas in 1D optical lattices as well as to nonlinear optical waveguide arrays, which are used to demonstrate experimentally some of the features of this equilibrium state.


Background While intensive and novel treatments have significantly extended life expectancy in multiple myeloma, the cumulative impact of disease and treatment related factors on quality of life in relapsed patients is poorly characterised. Aims To define the spectrum of quality of life, fatigue, pain, peripheral neuropathy and work disability affecting patients living with advanced relapsed myeloma. Methods The authors prospectively recruited patients with myeloma who had undergone intensive management of myeloma and had received at least one subsequent treatment for progressive disease. Patients were assessed for generic (SF-12) and cancer specific (EORTC) health related quality of life parameters, pain (BPI-SF), peripheral neuropathy (s-LANSS), and concerns (adapted from the Profile of Concern's Questionnaire). Results 32 patients (median age 61 years) participated: median duration from diagnosis was 5.5 years (range 2–12) and the median number of lines of previous treatment was 3 (range 2-6). The majority (69%) of patients were on regular analgesia. Despite stable disease, ongoing fatigue and pain were predominant symptoms. Pain had a predominantly neuropathic element in half of the cohort. Other features of neuropathy, paraesthesiae and sensory loss, were also common. Physical functioning scores were highly correlated with pain (r=−0.671; p=0.001) and QoL (r=0.576; p=0.001) and fatigue (r=−0.558; p=0.001). Social functioning was also compromised and patients reported dwelling on their current and future illness, worried of recurrence and shortened lifespan. Work disability was reflected by a fall in active or recent employment from 72 to 44% from diagnosis to the date of assessment. Conclusion The late effects of myeloma and its treatments result in compromised quality of life with fatigue, pain, peripheral neuropathy and functional disability despite disease control with modern therapy. Models for comprehensive care of myeloma should actively address physical and social quality of life in this expanding population of patients.


Based on the visualization technology, we investigated experimentally the effect of different flow patterns on anode fluid behaviors of the μDMFC (Micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) with a transparent material under the same condition. Stainless steel mesh was utilized as the current collector which was distinct from the carbon cloth or carbon paper. Four dissimilar flow patterns were developed and tested. The observation of the effect of different flow patterns revealed that movements of dilute methanol solutions and CO2 gas bubbles in the dot and parallel flow fields represented more difficult, which could result in a decline of the μDMFC performance. The study also showed that a channel blocking in the single-serpentine flow field would be extremely terrible which could lead to a fuels leaking of the μDMFC, meanwhile the liquid-gas flow was more fluent and stable in a double-serpentine flow field. Therefore, due to its advantages, a double-serpentine flow pattern is more suitable for the μDMFC application compared with the other flow patterns.


Obtaining water microstructures is very difficult because of low viscosity and high surface tension. We produced stable freestanding thin films of pure water by x-ray bombardment of small liquid volumes in capillary tubes. A detailed characterization with phase-contrast radiology demonstrated a lifetime beyond 1 h with no chemical stabilizer for micron-thickness films with half-millimeter-level diameter. This can be attributed to the interplay of two x-ray effects: water evaporation and surface charging.


This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of an operating system module, the Congestion Manager (CM), which provides integrated network flow management and exports a convenient programming interface that allows applications to be notified of, and adapt to, changing network conditions. We describe the API by which applications interface with the CM, and the architectural considerations that factored into the design. To evaluate the architecture and API, we describe our implementations of TCP; a streaming layered audio/video application; and an interactive audio application using the CM, and show that they achieve adaptive behavior without incurring much end-system overhead. All flows including TCP benefit from the sharing of congestion information, and applications are able to incorporate new functionality such as congestion control and adaptive behavior.


The professional challenge of this paper is education systems do not have a road map to achieve the Target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote a culture of peace. The Covid 19 is causing fear about economic stability and individuals experience conflict physically, mentally emotionally, and spiritually. It is very important that policy makers support education systems, teacher training and teacher leadership empirical models to foster self-knowledge for good decision making. This will prepare citizens to optimise alignment of commercial interests with sustainable interests with a labour market replete of citizens with Competency Levels of the European Qualification Framework gained through life long learning situated in rich diverse cultural heritages. We apply A Blueprint for Character Development for Evolution with Assessment for Personal and Social Learning to the Classics curriculum and reveal applying ABCDE in five steps maps to the incremental Competences Levels 1 – 5 respectively of the European Qualifications Framework. Step A asks questions to establish what the problem is. Step B asks what solutions have or have not worked before. Step C asks how the problem is understood in context. Step D provides empirical, logical, ethical and innovative solutions to the problems emerging from the data. Step E establishes principles to inform good decision making that can be readily transferred to other domains. ABCDE with APSL applied to classics curriculums provides a road map to empowering young societal innovators for equity and renewal.


The thermally-induced crystallization of anodically grown TiO2 amorphous nanotubes has been studied so far under ambient pressure conditions by techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry and in situ X-ray diffraction, then looking at the overall response of several thousands of nanotubes in a carpet arrangement. Here we report a study of this phenomenon based on an in situ transmission electron microscopy approach that uses a twofold strategy. First, a group of some tens of TiO2 amorphous nanotubes was heated looking at their electron diffraction pattern change versus temperature, in order to determine both the initial temperature of crystallization and the corresponding crystalline phases. Second, the experiment was repeated on groups of few nanotubes, imaging their structural evolution in the direct space by spherical aberration-corrected high resolution transmission electron microscopy. These studies showed that, differently from what happens under ambient pressure conditions, under the microscope's high vacuum (p < 10−5 Pa) the crystallization of TiO2 amorphous nanotubes starts from local small seeds of rutile and brookite, which then grow up with the increasing temperature. Besides, the crystallization started at different temperatures, namely 450 and 380 °C, when the in situ heating was performed irradiating the sample with electron beam energy of 120 or 300 keV, respectively. This difference is due to atomic knock-on effects induced by the electron beam with diverse energy.


Infectious endocarditis is a life-threatening disease, and diagnostics are urgently needed to accurately diagnose this disease especially in the case of prosthetic valve endocarditis. We show here that maltohexaose conjugated to indocyanine green (MH-ICG) can detect Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infection in a rat model of infective endocarditis. The affinity of MH-ICG to S. aureus was determined and had a Km and Vmax of 5.4 μM and 3.0 X 10−6 μmol/minutes/108 CFU, respectively. MH-ICG had no detectable toxicity to mammalian cells at concentrations as high as 100 μM. The in vivo efficiency of MH-ICG in rats was evaluated using a right heart endocarditis model, and the accumulation of MH-ICG in the bacterial vegetations was 2.5 ± 0.2 times higher than that in the control left ventricular wall. The biological half-life of MH-ICG in healthy rats was 14.0 ± 1.3 minutes, and approximately 50% of injected MH-ICG was excreted into the feces after 24 hours. These data demonstrate that MH-ICG was internalized by bacteria with high specificity and that MH-ICG specifically accumulated in bacterial vegetations in a rat model of endocarditis. These results demonstrate the potential efficacy of this agent in the detection of infective endocarditis.


The minimum legal drinking age 21 (MLDA 21) legislation in the United States (U.S.) has been documented as one of the most effective public health measures adopted in recent times. This study reports on an effort to evaluate and interrelate a basic set of 16 laws directed at younger than age 21 youth that are designed to (a) control the sales of alcohol to youth, (b) prevent possession and consumption of alcohol by youth, and (c) prevent alcohol impaired driving by those younger than age 21. The first objective of this study was to determine whether there was any relationship between the existence and strength of the various underage drinking laws in a State and the percentage of younger than age 21 drivers involved in fatal crashes who were drinking. After controlling for various factors, the only significant finding that emerged was for the existence and strength of the law making it illegal for an underage person to use fake identification ( p <0.016). The second objective was to determine if the enactment of two of the sixteen provisions (possession and purchase laws) was associated with a reduction in the rate of underage drinking driver involvements in fatal crashes. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was a national 11.2% reduction ( p <0.05) in the ratio of underage drinking drivers to underage non-drinking drivers in fatal crashes after the possession and purchase laws were adopted in 36 States and the District of Columbia (DC). This suggests that the two mandatory elements of the Federal MLDA 21 law are having the desired effect of reducing underage alcohol-related highway deaths.


: Eleven neonatal cotton rats were infected with Coxsackie B3 viruses, 9 animals served as controls. The course of the disease was followed for 44 to 154 days. Electro- and phonocardiography, two-dimensional Doppler echocardiography, morphological and histological studies were performed in the experiment. All the histologically examined infected rats were found to develop myocarditis, whereas 75% of the animals had valvulitis. The total number of the afflicted values was 10, out of them the mitral, tricuspid, and pulmonary trunk valves accounted for 40, 40, and 20%, respectively. Doppler echocardiography revealed organic mitral and tricuspid insufficiencies in the outcome of valvulitis induced by Coxsackie B3 viruses due to the impairment of valvular cusp.


: The biomechanism of labour pains was examined by analysing the amplitude, frequency, and duration of the pains during labours accompanied by arrests in the course of cervical dilatation and fetal forward movement. The forces driving out the fetus from the uterus were shown to be formed of two components: 1) uterine wall muscular layer tension and 2) amniotic fluid hydraulic pressure, the former being of greater importance than the latter.


Background: Internationally recognized guidelines recommend the judicious use of low oxygen (21–30%), titrated to peripheral oxygen saturation targets, for the initiation of resuscitation of very and extremely preterm infants (<32 weeks' gestation). However, despite more than 10 randomized controlled trials on this question, the ideal initial oxygen concentration for this group of vulnerable infants remains uncertain. Aims: This study aims to assess the effect of various initial oxygen concentrations on (1) all-cause mortality, chronic lung disease, intraventricular hemorrhage, and retinopathy of prematurity; and (2) reaching the prescribed oxygen saturation targets by 5 min after birth, in preterm infants requiring resuscitation. Methods: We will conduct a systematic review and network meta-analysis using individual participant data. Studies of preterm infants <32 weeks' gestation, randomized to initial oxygen concentration, will be included. We will systematically search medical databases and trial registries for eligible studies (published or unpublished). Records will be screened by two independent reviewers, with conflicts resolved by the inclusion of a third reviewer. Identified initial oxygen concentrations will be grouped into the following nodes: low (≤30%), intermediate (60%), and high (≥90%) oxygen. A two-step random-effects contrast-based network meta-regression will be calculated to compare and rank different oxygen concentrations. Analyses will be intention-to-treat, with the primary outcome of all-cause mortality. Discussion: This is the first individual participant data network meta-analysis of initial oxygen concentrations for the resuscitation of preterm infants. This novel approach may address long-standing uncertainty regarding optimal oxygen supplementation practice for the resuscitation of preterm infants <32 weeks' gestation.


Green power, environment protection and emission reduction are key factors nowadays in the telecom industry. Balancing of these modes while reducing the capital and operational costs are of prime importance. Cost efficient and reliable supply of electricity for mobile phone base stations must be ensured while expanding the mobile phone network. In this context, solar energy, using sophisticated photovoltaic cell technology, is considered to be playing very important role. Currently, companies such as ABI research, Flexenclosure AB, etc believe that the solar powered cellular base stations are capable of transforming the telecom industry into one of the greenest in the world. Hence, lot of research is in progress across the globe to use solar power in telecom industry. In this thesis work, the significance of solar power as renewable energy source for cellular base stations is reviewed. Moreover, simulation software called PVSYST4.37 is used not only to obtain an estimate of the cost of generation of solar power for cellular base stations but also to obtain the system parameters such as the number of modules, batteries and inverters needed for designing the solar powered cellular base stations. The simulations were carried out for the Grid-Connected and the Stand-Alone solar power systems by considering the cases of New Delhi, India and Stockholm, Sweden. The PVSYST4.37 simulation results shows that the power generation costs for the grid connected solar powered system is less compare to standalone solar powered system both in New Delhi, India as well as in Stockholm, Sweden.


As the nature of information stored digitally becomes more important and confidential, the security of the systems put in place to protect this information needs to be increased. The human element, however, remains a vulnerability of the system and it is this vulnerability that social engineers attempt to exploit. The Social Engineering Attack Detection Model version 2 (SEADMv2) has been proposed to help people identify malicious social engineering attacks. Prior to this study, the SEADMv2 had not been implemented as a user friendly application or tested with real subjects. This paper describes how the SEADMv2 was implemented as an Android application. This Android application was tested on 20 subjects, to determine whether it reduces the probability of a subject falling victim to a social engineering attack or not. The results indicated that the Android implementation of the SEADMv2 significantly reduced the number of subjects that fell victim to social engineering attacks. The Android application also significantly reduced the number of subjects that fell victim to malicious social engineering attacks, bidirectional communication social engineering attacks and indirect communication social engineering attacks. The Android application did not have a statistically significant effect on harmless scenarios and unidirectional communication social engineering attacks.


An unsophisticated highly precise mercuric electron-mechanic oncometer is proposed. It is intended for measuring paw edema in small laboratory animals during screening of new antiphlogistics. The device consists of two communicating vessels. The change in the mercury level after paw immersion transforms to the electrical signal by the induction technique. The controller of the displacement consists of a float, a ferromagnetic rod and a coil with windings. The movement of the rod changes mutual induction of the windings, amplitude modulation of the carrier frequency of the generator and unbalance of the differential diode bridge. The magnitude of the unbalance is recorded with the aid of appropriate units.


by gender, regarding the age and time of service and applied statistical procedures for the edition of data. Results: Were observed average tonal hearing thresholds with configuration from acoustic notch, being more accentuated in the male gender. There is sensorineural hearing loss in 28 (24,34%) dentists, 8 (14,54%) between female gender and 20 (33,33%) between the male gender, the proportion of subjects with altered hearing is significantly bigger in the male gender (p=0,0208). The tonal hearing thresholds for the male gender shown to be worse than in the females when analyzed by age and time of service, but the men were older and with more time of service than the women. Conclusion: The dentists presented sensorineural hearing loss with acoustic notch (being more present in the male gender) with worsening of hearing and time of service, especially after 21 years of work.


The aims of this PhD research were to investigate the nature of environmental
pollution in the Libyan Cement and Iron & Steel Industrial Sectors, identify
associated environmental improvements from abatement measures and to develop an
approach by which to measure the yield returns on such environmental investments.
The study reviewed a range of research literature related to three key areas that form
the core foundation of the research. These were investment theory, environmental
issues and imputing values for non-market assets. A set of criteria was developed and
adopted for searching, selecting and reviewing the research literature related to these
areas. Using a two case-study approach, data collection methodologies were carried
out by structured face-to-face interviews with thirty-three environmental managers
and financial managers of the Libyan Cement Company (LCC) and the Libyan Iron &
Steel Company (LISCO). The data collection and analysis involved identifying and
assessing environmental pollution concerns within each company and the
corresponding improvements in environmental performance from the abatement
measures.
The research developed cost benefit analysis valuation techniques to award monetary
values to the identified environmental productivity improvements, measured in
percentage dust particulates reduction, gas emission reduction, and water percentage
usage and solid waste efficiency improvements. Under the cost benefit approach, the
research determined the yields on the environmental investments by the use of
hedonic price valuation. Sensitivity analysis was used to determine the calculated
yields for a range of estimated productivities and discount rates to reduce uncertainty
in the estimations. Experimentation with a range of values offered insights into yields
under different situations. The study results identified the impacts relating to air
pollution, liquid pollution, and solid pollution and valued those that had economic
significance and for which data was available. The interview findings revealed that
the mam environmental issues of the LISCO Company was water usage and the
quantity of solid waste, while the main environmental issues of LCC Company was
air pollution, predominantly in the form of dust and gas emissions. The environmental
investment returns of these two companies were higher than the interest rate in Libya.
The study contributed to knowledge in the environmental management field. It
furthermore fills the gap in knowledge in environmental investments in the Libyan
context.