OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to analyze and compare the exposure to individually prescribed drugs and the prevalence of polypharmacy according to age group and concomitant disease in South Korea.

METHODS
The use of prescribed drugs was evaluated according to average numbers of prescription drugs used daily during a year or month, using the Korean Health Insurance Claims Database, which is representative of over 90% of citizens, in 2010 and 2011. The use of prescribed drugs was also analyzed according to concomitant diseases and age. Polypharmacy was defined as the use of 5 or more drugs daily during a specific observation period, and proportions of polypharmacy users were calculated according to comorbidity and age group.

RESULTS
The annual average numbers of daily used prescription drugs in 2010 and 2011 were 0.3 (SD = 0.5), 0.4 (SD = 0.7), 1.2 (SD = 1.5), and 2.3 (SD = 2.0) for people aged < 20 years, 20-49 years, 50-64 years, and ≥ 65 years, respectively. Proportions of individuals demonstrating polypharmacy increased with age and were 9.5% and 44.1% for elderly individuals in the year- and month-based analyses, respectively. The annual average number of daily medications used increased by ~2 drugs in the concomitant disease group, and the higher mortality group used a higher number of prescribed drugs than the lower mortality group.

CONCLUSIONS
The results highlight the elevated burden of multi-medication in elderly patients, and the study found that prescribed drug use increased with age and the number of concomitant diseases.


The picture on the cover of this journal is taken from the Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus ofOlaus Magnus, printed in Rome in 1555. The author was the exiled last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden . The picture illustrates Book 13, Chapter 8: On Various Ways of Harvesting . Many years ago the author of this paper noticed that the picture, laterally reversed, is closely similar to one by Hans Holbein the younger in his I cones veteris testamenti, printed in Leiden in 1538. The paper analyses departures made from the prototype in order to give the content a more Scandinavian character. It is shown how Olaus Magnus builds wholly or partly on Holbein's Bible illustrations in other cases too. Finally, some reflections are made on the value the former Archbishop attached to the pictorial material. Not least because of this material, his work became the oldest source of major significance for knowledge of Scandinavian folklife at the beginning of the modern era.


Hippocampal sclerosis is a frequent pathological finding in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and can be caused by prolonged single or repeated brief seizures. Both DNA damage and endoplasmic reticulum stress have been implicated as underlying molecular mechanisms in seizure-induced brain injury. The CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP) is a transcriptional regulator induced downstream of DNA damage and endoplasmic reticulum stress, which can promote or inhibit apoptosis according to context. Recent work has proposed inhibition of CHOP as a suitable neuroprotective strategy. Here, we show that transcript and protein levels of CHOP increase in surviving subfields of the hippocampus after prolonged seizures (status epilepticus) in mouse models. CHOP was also elevated in the hippocampus from epileptic mice and patients with pharmacoresistant epilepsy. The hippocampus of CHOP-deficient mice was much more vulnerable to damage in mouse models of status epilepticus. Moreover, compared with wild-type animals, CHOP-deficient mice subject to status epilepticus developed more spontaneous seizures, displayed protracted hippocampal neurodegeneration and a deficit in a hippocampus-dependent object-place recognition task. The absence of CHOP was associated with a supra-maximal induction of p53 after status epilepticus, and inhibition of p53 abolished the cell death-promoting consequences of CHOP deficiency. The protective effect of CHOP could be partly explained by activating transcription of murine double minute 2 that targets p53 for degradation. These data demonstrate that CHOP is required for neuronal survival after seizures and caution against inhibition of CHOP as a neuroprotective strategy where excitotoxicity is an underlying pathomechanism.


: An analysis of the work content of the physician-specialist at Apia General Hospital, Western Samoa, over a 12-month period in 1973-74 is described. Respiratory infections, rheumatic heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, peptic ulcer, and various forms of liver disease were encountered most commonly.


In contrast to orthodox presentations of 'long distance nationalism' as an abstract politics without accountability or responsibility by theorists like Benedict Anderson, I argue that it is essential in the case of conflict diasporas to conceptualize the nature of diaspora support for homeland insurgencies as a contingent product of lived experience, perception, culture and history.
Based on qualitative, ethnographic fieldwork, including an analysis of in-depth personal narratives from within the London Tamil diaspora, I attempt to describe the (trans) formative effects of violence, loss and displacement. I contend that the resulting viewpoints and aspirations carry the imprint of the de-territorialised 'imagining' of relationships, belonging and moral community which define the content of long distance nationalism.
Using inter-disciplinary ideas from a range of theorists including Arjun Appadurai, I focus on a 'process of becoming' by which a specific transnational consciousness is engendered. The idea that conflict diaspora identity is defined by a complex interplay between a contextual and subjective understanding of political discourse; as well as the intellectual, moral, psychological and existential experience of being in diaspora is developed and held up against the current literature. Rather than seeing such displaced communities through the prism of a society in conflict in a distant homeland, I argue that we should consider how conflict has produced a particular epistemology of diasporic space and identity.
I conclude by arguing that diaspora identity has its roots not only in a distant homeland but also in the hearts, minds and imagination of diaspora Tamils, where the complex obligations of being human in a time of conflict, override that of being a citizen, physically emplaced within a particular territory. I contend that such a perspective is both essential and yet often overlooked when seeking to interrogate the content of long distance nationalism in the dominant literature.


The polarization event camera PDAVIS is a novel bio-inspired neuromorphic vision sensor that reports both conventional polarization frames and asynchronous, continuously per-pixel polarization brightness changes (polarization events) with fast temporal resolution and large dynamic range. A deep neural network method (Polarization FireNet) was previously developed to reconstruct the polarization angle and degree from polarization events for bridging the gap between the polarization event camera and mainstream computer vision. However, Polarization FireNet applies a network pretrained for normal event-based frame reconstruction independently on each of four channels of polarization events from four linear polarization angles, which ignores the correlations between channels and inevitably introduces content inconsistency between the four reconstructed frames, resulting in unsatisfactory polarization reconstruction performance. In this work, we strive to train an effective, yet efficient, DNN model that directly outputs polarization from the input raw polarization events. To this end, we constructed the first large-scale event-to-polarization dataset, which we subsequently employed to train our events-to-polarization network E2P. E2P extracts rich polarization patterns from input polarization events and enhances features through cross-modality context integration. We demonstrate that E2P outperforms Polarization FireNet by a significant margin with no additional computing cost. Experimental results also show that E2P produces more accurate measurement of polarization than the PDAVIS frames in challenging fast and high dynamic range scenes. Code and data are publicly available at: https://github.com/SensorsINI/e2p.


During the last glacial period, when sea level was low, meltwater discharge drove incision of the lower Mississippi valley, with valley filling and delta construction during Holocene sea-level rise. Isostatic modeling shows that sediment volumes removed and replaced were sufficient to induce uplift of >9 m along valley margins followed by subsidence of the same magnitude, with effects dissipating only over distances of >100–150 km along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Recognition of cyclical uplift and subsidence refutes recent interpretations of delta stability, and suggests that late Holocene relative sea-level curves from the delta region are instead a record of subsidence of the pre-Holocene depocenter. More broadly, incised valley cutting and filling is a common fluvial response to glacioeustasy, and cyclical uplift and subsidence should be common to large alluvial-deltaic systems elsewhere.


Abstract Introduction: Clinical trials currently evaluate the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for the treatment of non-union bone fractures. The stem cells are injected directly into the non-union area of a bone via a cannula. During this injection process, pressure and shear forces affect the MSCs which could influence the viability of the cells. One parameter that influences the level of the shear forces is the volume flow. The aim of this study is to show whether the injection process with two different volume flows influences the cell viability. Methods: MSCs were isolated from bone tissue, harvested during arthroplasty. Afterwards, they were diluted to a concentration of 1 million cells/mL and 1 mL of this suspension was injected through a cannula with 200 mm length and 2 mm diameter (14 G) with volume flows of 38 and 100 mL/min. The evaluation was performed by detecting living, apoptotic, and dead cells using flow cytometry. The statistical analysis was performed with a Kruskal-Wallis-test to identify significant differences and with a TOST procedure for significant equivalence. The significance level was set to 5 % and the equivalence margin to 20 %. Results: The cell population of healthy cells was in the control group 85.88±2.98 %. After an injection with 38 mL/min the population of healthy cells was 86.04±2.53 % and with 100 ml/min 85.48±1.64 %. The statistical analysis revealed no significant difference between these groups (p = 0.99), but a significant equivalence between the control group and the two volume flows (38 mL/min: p = 0.002, 100 mL/min: p = 0.001). In addition the results show no increase of apoptotic and dead cells in the population after injection. Conclusion: The results indicate that the injection process through the cannula with these volume flows has no effect on the viability of the MSCs.


The objective of the present study was to evaluate the anxiolytic and antidepressant activities of methanol extract of Aegle marmelos (AM) leaves as well as its interaction with conventional anxiolytic and antidepressant drugs using elevated plus maze and tail suspension test in mice. Albino mice were treated with AM (75, 150 and 300 mg/kg, po), imipramine (20 mg/kg, po), fluoxetine (20 mg/kg, po), and combination of sub-effective dose of AM with imipramine or fluoxetine. Effects were observed on (a) time spent on (b) number of entries into (c) number of stretch attend postures (d) number of head dips in arms of elevated plus maze and on duration of immobility in tail suspension test. Effects of pretreatment with prazosin (0.062 mg/kg, po), haloperidol (0.1 mg/kg, po) and baclofen (10 mg/kg, po) were also studied on AM induced decrease in duration of immobility. Effects of AM (75, 150 and 300 mg/kg po) were observed on locomotor activity using photoactometer. Results showed that AM significantly (P<0.05) and dose dependently increased proportionate time spent on and number of entries into open arms while decreased number of stretch attend postures and head dips in closed arms. Dose dependent and significant (P<0.05) anti-immobility effect was found in mice treated with AM. Combination of AM (75 mg/kg, po) with imipramine (5 mg/ kg, po) or fluoxetine (5 mg/kg, po) also produced significant (P<0.05) anxiolytic and antidepressant activity. Antidepressant activity of AM (150 mg/kg, po) was significantly (P<0.05) decreased by prazosin, haloperidol and baclofen. Methanol extract showed insignificant (P>0.05) effect on locomotor activity of mice. It is concluded that AM possess potential anxiolytic and antidepressant activities and it enhances the anxiolytic and antidepressant activities of imipramine and fluoxetine.


BACKGROUND
A number of studies in European and North American populations have reported associations between Chlamydia pneumoniae seropositivity and coronary heart disease (CHD). Our objective was to assess the association of IgG and IgA antibodies to C. pneumoniae with acute myocardial infarction (MI) in a population-based case-control study in a Middle Eastern country.

METHODS
Eligible cases aged 25-64 with a first acute MI were ascertained through an active surveillance system in Jerusalem hospitals between 1987 and 1989 (85% response). Controls were Jerusalem residents aged 25-64 sampled from the national population registry (83% response). Data on sociodemographic variables, CHD history and risk factors were collected by interview. Chlamydia serology, available for 93% of eligible participants, was performed by microimmunofluorescence on frozen stored samples using the TWAR antigen. Altogether, 251 male and 51 female cases, and 324 male and 162 female controls were analysed.

RESULTS
Overall, high IgG titres (> or = 128) were not associated with increased risk of acute MI (Odds ratio [OR] = 0.74 for men [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.47-1.17] and 0.91 for women [95% CI: 0.43-1.94]); neither were high IgA titres (> or = 80) (OR = 1.11 for men [95% CI: 0.71-1.73] and 1.15 for women [95% CI: 0.33-4.0]). At IgG and IgA titres of > 32 and > 20 respectively there was also no relation.

CONCLUSIONS
An association of C. pneumoniae seropositivity with acute MI was not confirmed in this population with a very high IgG seropositivity prevalence of 84% in males and 69% in females. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that a postulated recent outbreak obscured an association with chronic C. pneumoniae infection.


This thesis analyses a change in the ways people composed and engaged with texts during the Warring States (481-221 BCE) period in Early China. It examines changes in the textual sphere as a result of an emergent manuscript culture, that is to say, the increased spread and reliance on manuscript texts for the communication of ideas. This shift moved away from the predominantly oral, commemorative, and ritual use of text in earlier periods, and provided key elements that would function in the text based discourse of the early empires. It influenced the way text across a variety of genres of writing was used and understood, structured and composed, and how it was collected and combined to form new arguments. I focus on texts from the Documents 書, and Odes 詩 genres, in addition to philosophical texts dealing with the past, and collections of sayings and arguments dealing with questions from cosmological to ethical issues. These materials form the mainstay of Warring States intellectual discourse, and exemplify the following textual developments: 1) the rise of collecting materials into compilations; 2) the emergence of genre classification; 3) the development of new authorship functions, 3) an increase in textual structuring and the integration of lore about the past, 4) the development of commentarial traditions, 5) the emergence of an explicit, self-reflexive understanding of writing and transmission, 6) advances in material structuring of manuscript-texts that interrelate form and content. The analysis is based primarily on excavated materials not edited during the early empires, and engages with comparative and interdisciplinary theory. It argues against models solely based on transmitted sources, which explained Warring States developments as a response to socio-political contexts. Instead, it posits developments in the textual culture itself as a necessary condition to explain the changes in intellectual discourse of the period.


As Aristotle stated, scientific explanation is based on deductive argument - yet, Wesley C. Salmon points out, not all deductive arguments are qualified explanations. The validity of the explanation must itself be examined. "Four Decades of Scientific Explanation" provides a comprehensive account of the developments in scientific explanation that transpired in the last four decades of the twentieth century. It continues to stand as the most comprehensive treatment of the writings on the subject during these years. Building on the historic 1948 essay by Carl G. Hempel and Paul Oppenheim, "Studies in the Logic of Explanation," which introduced the deductive-nomological (D-N) model on which most work on scientific explanation was based for the following four decades, Salmon goes beyond this model's inherent basis of describing empirical knowledge to tells us "not only what, but also why." Salmon examines the predominant models in chronological order and describes their development, refinement, and criticism or rejection. "Four Decades of Scientific Explanation" underscores the need for a consensus of approach and ongoing evaluations of methodology in scientific explanation, with the goal of providing a better understanding of natural phenomena.


A 305 base pair DNA sequence isolated from the Y chromosome of the inbred mouse strain C57BL/10 was used to investigate the pattern and tempo of evolution of Y chromosome DNA sequences for five species in the subgenus Mus, including Mus spretus, Mus hortulanus, Mus abbotti, Mus musculus and Mus domesticus. Variation in hybridization patterns between species was characterized by differences in fragment lengths of both intensely and faintly hybridizing fragments, whereas variation in hybridization patterns within species was characterized primarily by differences in fragment lengths of faintly hybridizing fragments. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted based on fragment size variation within and among species. Phylogenetic relationships inferred from these analyses partly agree with the phylogenetic relationships obtained from biochemical and mitochondrial DNA data. We conclude that a set of DNA sequences common to the Y chromosomes of a closely related group of species in the subgenus Mus has evolved rapidly as reflected by sequence divergence and sequence amplification.


Fulminant hepatitis is a potentially fatal clinical form of viral hepatitis. The experience at the Infectious Disease Hospital of the I.M.S.S. in Mexico City is presented. Twenty-two children with encephalopathy, grade III or IV managed with exchange transfusion were included. Results between these patients and a similar control group treated conservatively were compared. The mortality rates for the exchange transfusion and the control group were 91 and 100% respectively. A review of the literature revaled great differences in results obtained by several other authors. We conclude that well controled, prospective studies should be done, before the true efficiency of exchange transfusion can be properly evaluated.


Beci Carver identifies the heir of literary naturalism in the "granular" modernism of Joseph Conrad, Evelyn Waugh, William Gerhardie, Henry Green, W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot and Samuel Beckett. Characterized by the performance of plotlessness, arbitrariness, miscellaneousness, and futility, "granular" modernism is seen to make a virtue of naturalism's tendency towards amorphousness and irrelevance. Finding cognates in early twentieth-century photography, Carver discloses a modernist literary tradition which—unlike the modernism of James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf, and others—refuses to generate meaning from inconsequent detail. Incipient in the work of Conrad, this tradition is seen to reach its zenith in the midcentury fiction of Beckett.


Evaluating particular assets for information security risk assessment should take into consideration the availability of adequate resources and return on investments (ROI). Despite the need for a good risk assessment framework, many of the existing frameworks lack of granularity guidelines and mostly depend on qualitative methods. Hence, they require additional time and cost to test all the information security controls. Further, the reliance on human inputs and feedback will increase subjective judgment in organizations. The main goal of this research is to design an efficient Information Security Control Prioritization (ISCP) model in improving the risk assessment process. Case studies based on penetration tests and vulnerability assessments
were performed to gather data. Then, Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used to prioritize them. A combination of sensitivity analysis and expert interviews were used to test and validate the model. Subsequently, the performance of the model was evaluated by the risk assessment experts. The results
demonstrate that ISCP model improved the quality of information security control assessment in the organization. The model plays a significant role in prioritizing the critical security technical controls during the risk assessment process. Furthermore, the model's output supports ROI by identifying the appropriate controls to mitigate risks to an acceptable level in the organizations. The major contribution of this research is the development of a model which minimizes the uncertainty, cost and time of the information security control assessment. Thus, the clear practical guidelines will help organizations to prioritize important controls reliably and more efficiently. All these contributions will minimize resource utilization and maximize the organization's information security.


Positive affective states guide the proximate performance of the appetitive and consummatory components of behaviours, such as foraging, that ultimately increase an animal's fitness. Accordingly, promoting foraging in captive animals can enhance their welfare, defined as a predominance of positive (e.g. pleasure) over negative (e.g. stress) affective states. In three sets of experiments, I examined social foraging in two captive baboon troops housed at the Johannesburg Zoo, South Africa. I investigated (1) whether watching a demonstrator baboon forage cued conspecific observers to also forage; (2) how two factors known to influence the social transfer of foraging information and the motivation to forage (demonstrator status and hunger/satiation respectively) affected whether an animal was cued to forage upon watching a demonstrator forage; (3) the psychological mechanism through which this change in motivation to forage occurred; and (4) how socially-cued foraging behaviour could be incorporated into environmental enrichment protocols. I recorded the frequency of foraging for individual baboons and for each troop as a whole. I also scored the incidence of aggression in both troops. Upon watching a demonstrator forage from a monopolisable food source, observers increased their foraging efforts elsewhere in the enclosure. Demonstrator identity influenced the incidence of foraging by observers, with how well the demonstrator predicted food reward, rather than its status per se, determining observer foraging frequency. The psychological mechanism mediating the increase in foraging behaviour, as well as the effect of observer hunger/satiation on foraging, were unclear. The increased frequency of foraging by observers was accompanied by only a small rise in aggression. My data indicate that the use of social cues to motivate foraging behaviour could be employed to augment standard foraging enrichment protocols aimed at improving the welfare of captive animals. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract iii


Groundwater supply in the Ogallala Aquifer is diminishing at an unsustainable rate, which is affecting the crop and animal production in the region. The desired future condition adopted by the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District states that at least 40% of the volume of groundwater should remain in the Ogallala Aquifer after 50 years in Dallam, Sherman, Hartley, and Moore counties. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of 3 proposed groundwater management policies on future groundwater levels using a calibrated MODFLOW model. The 3 groundwater management policies considered are permanent conversion of 10% of the total irrigated area to dryland production, temporary conversion of 10% of the total irrigated area to dryland production for the first 15 years, and adoption of advances in biotechnology that allow groundwater use reductions at a rate of 1% per year during the next 50 years. Results indicated that if future average groundwater pumping rates are kept at 2010 withdrawal rates, then 50% of groundwater in the Ogallala Aquifer would remain in 50 years, thus meeting the groundwater district's desired future condition in Dallam, Sherman, Hartley and Moore counties. The most favorable impact on diminishing depletion was obtained with the adoption of advances in biotechnology, which would leave 60% of groundwater remaining in 50 years in the study area. Similar results can be obtained if 1% of irrigated cropland is retired per year.
Citation: Hernández JE, Gowda PH, Marek TH, Howell TA, Ha W. 2015. Implications of 3 alternative management policies ongroundwater levels in the Texas High Plains. Texas Water Journal. 6(1):86-102. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21423/twj.v6i1.7005.


Oceanic accretion is thought to be the process of oceanic crust (and lithosphere) edification through adiabatic melting of shallow convecting mantle at oceanic spreading ridges. It is usually considered as a post-breakup diagnostic process following continents rupturing. However, this is not always correct. The structure of volcanic passive margins (representing more than 50% of passive continental margins) outlines that the continental lithosphere is progressively changed into oceanic-type lithosphere during the stage of continental extension. This is clear at least, at crustal level. The continental crust is 'changed' from the earliest stages of extension into a typical -however thicker- oceanic crust with the typical oceanic magmatic layers (from top to bottom: lava flows/tuffs, sheeted dyke complexes, dominantly (sill-like) mafic intrusions in the lower crust). The Q-rich continental crust is highly extended and increases in volume (due to the magma) during the extensional process. At the continent-ocean transition there is, finally, no seismic difference between this highly transformed continental crust and the oceanic crust. Using a large range of data (including deep seismic reflection profiles), we discuss the mantle mechanisms that governs the process of mantle-assisted continental extension. We outline the large similarity between those mantle processes and those acting at purely-oceanic spreading axis and discuss the effects of the inherited continental lithosphere in the pattern of new mafic crust edification.


Introduction Dolichoectatic dilatation in intracranial arteries may enlarge, however the evolution of this progression has not been described. We present 3 cases with intracranial vascular imaging spanning for a period of 10 years demonstrating growth of dolichoectatic dilatations to large and giant aneurysms, which were eventually treated by various modalities. Cases Case 1: 49 year old man who had brain imaging in 2002 demonstrating dolichoectatic dilatation of the right internal carotid, anterior cerebral and middle cerebral arteries with maximal diameter of 6mm, presented in 2011 with seizures related to mass effect in the right mesial temporal lobe. Cerebral angiogram demonstrated growth of the aneurysm to a maximal diameter of 29mm, involving the right internal carotid, anterior and middle cerebral artery (figure demonstrating MRI from 2002 and angiogram from 2011). The patient was treated successfully with high flow bypass and right ICA endovascular sacrifice. Case 2: 63 year old woman who had brain MRI in 2000 demonstrating no aneurysms, presented in 2011 with headache and subacute subarachnoid haemorrhage. The angiogram demonstrated dysplastic left MCA with fusiform dilatation and 3 irregular aneurysms. She was successfully treated with SCA/MCA bypass. Case 3: 37 year old man with an MRI from 2000 demonstrating dolichoectatic basilar artery with maximal diameter of 6mm, presented in 2013 with brainstem compression and the angiogram showed growth into a dysplastic giant basilar aneurysm with maximal diameter of 30mm. The patient was treated surgically. Discussion These cases describe symptomatic and imaging progression of dolichoectatic vessels to large and giant aneurysms in the anterior and posterior circulation for extended period of time. Interval and duration of follow up in this patient population has not been well described, however, progression may occur for long period of time, as demonstrated in our cases with imaging for over ten years. Frequent and long term imaging evaluation may be recommended in the follow up of these patients. Abstract E-027 Figure 1 Disclosures E. Cheng-Ching: None. G. Toth: None. R. Burgess: None. M. Hussain: None. M. Bain: None.


IMAGINING CHINA: THE VIEW FROM EUROPE, 1550-1700. Exhibition curation by Timothy Billings with Jim Kuhn and video curation by Alexander Huang. 18 September 2009-9 January 2010. This exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library (2009) was a testament to how views of China changed and developed during the 150 years concerned, as Europe learned about the country, as well as how balances are shifting in the United States today. It included information on how Shakespeare performance has developed in Chinese film and theatre, especially since 1986, via video examples selected by Alexander Huang that were available in a well-developed media kiosk. Though the artifacts in the exhibit reflected Elizabethan and Jacobean views of China, as a viewer I left thinking how presenting China has complexified in contemporary American museum display and how China--the "bamboo curtained" other of my childhood--has shifted from periphery of American consciousness toward China's historically self-conceived place, the center of things, culturally, economically, politically. The Folger library sits at the head of the national mall close to the Supreme Court, US legislative buildings, and Library of Congress. Henry Folger of Standard Oil established the library in the 1930s to plant Shakespeare firmly in the head of the American nation. His dream is alive and well in today's Washington: for example, the NEA's Shakespeare in American Communities program (http://www.shakespeareinamericancommunities.org), established in 2003 under the Bush administration, continues, sending teachers free DVDs featuring American teens of all ethnicities enraptured as they play Shakespeare and funding groups to crisscross the nation with Shakespeare performances. Paul Collins's lecture at the Folger, which greeted my arrival in Washington, included readings from his The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World (Collins 2009) detailing his pilgrimages to the first folios in Japan. So I went to the Folger with visions of a literary-industrial complex dancing in my head. Was this a celebration of Shakespeare appropriating China, and did not the current debt economics have something to do with China being featured here? (Contemporary politics indeed "made this exhibit very easy to fund," as one staff member volunteered when we chatted during a break at a conference associated with the exhibit.) But the display was not a case of finding "new sites for Shakespeare" (to borrow John Russell Brown's (1999) enthusiastic phrase regarding his Asian theatre adventures). Rather, the display showed Timothy Billings's careful choices of books, images, and historical figures to clarify sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European perceptions of and encounters with China. Huang's video choices likewise convince us that, while there is definite West to East influence going (especially British to Asia) in film or theatre, it would also be productive to spend time researching inter-Asian influences (mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore were all included here) and seeing how different Chinese Shakespeares reflect the variety of Chinese relationships to Shakespeare (and of course other areas of Asia, notably Japan), historically and at present. This review will briefly consider the exhibit and then discuss Huang's video kiosk, inset near the entrance to the display. Billings selected a number of themes, and I will only hit on a few. The exhibit started with Jesuit-inflected images and writings on China, including those of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Athanasius Kircher (1622-1680). It continued with early maps and images and then explored oddities that struck the European imagination--cormorants, medicines (including rhubarb and musk, as well as moxa), sail coaches ("cany wagons light" mentioned by John Milton in 1667, small vehicles which used wind power to move over flat beaches in the windswept south)--and showed an undelivered letter from Elizabeth I to the "Emperour of Cathaye. …


Normal regulation of uterine fluid volume, its ionic compositions and normal development of uterine receptivity are important factors that determine successful embryo implantation. The female sex hormones i.e. oestrogen and progesterone, are essential for the reproductive events, including sperm transport, capacitation, fertilization, embryo transport and implantation. In females, testosterone is produced in a very low amount by the ovaries and adrenal glands and is required for some of the normal physiological processes in the uterus. However, when present at the supra-physiological levels, such as in the pathological conditions examples polycystic ovarian disease and in excessive anabolic steroid intakes, the effects of this hormone may be detrimental for some of the physiological processes in the uterus. Up-to-date, effects of supra-physiological levels of testosterone on the regulation of uterine fluid and uterine receptivity have not been fully revealed. We hypothesized that supra-physiological levels of testosterone can affect these uterine parameters, thus could adversely affect the reproductive processes, which could compromise fertility. In this study, we have revealed that testosterone administration to ovariectomised rats, with or without 17β-estradiol decreased the uterine luminal fluid volume, chloride concentrations and cAMP levels and down-regulated CFTR expression but significantly enhanced the expression of Aqp-1, 5 and 7 in the uterus (p<0.05 when compared to in the absence of testosterone). Similarly, supra-physiological testosterone administration in sex-steroid replaced ovariectomised rats mimicking hormonal changes in early pregnancy reduced the pinopode development and MECA-79 expression, decreased the complexity of endometrial tight junction and down-regulated the expression of tight junction proteins i.e. claudin-4 and occludin. Additionally, the expression of αvβ3 integrin, E-cadherin and Muc-1 were also significantly reduced. The effects of testosterone in sex-steroid replaced ovariectomised rats were found to be mediated via the androgen receptor
iv
however did not involve the active testosterone metabolites, DHT. Meanwhile, in the intact rats, testosterone administration from day 1 to day 3 of pregnancy suppressed pinopodes development, reduced the complexity of endometrial tight junctions and expressions of MECA-79, claudin-4, occludin, αvβ3 integrin, E-cadherin, Muc-1, Msx-1, Fgf-1 and Ihh proteins. Testosterone also reduced the number of embryo implantation. In conclusions, high levels of testosterone could adversely affect the female fertility via altering the normal regulation of uterine fluid volume, its chloride concentration as well as suppresses the endometrial receptivity development. These effects could suppress fertility.


Climate change is altering patterns of seed production worldwide with consequences for population recruitment and migration potential. For the many species that regenerate through synchronized, quasiperiodic reproductive events termed masting, these changes include decreases in the synchrony and interannual variation in seed production. This breakdown in the occurrence of masting features harms reproduction by decreasing the efficiency of pollination and increasing seed predation. Changes in masting are often paralleled by warming temperatures, but the underlying proximate mechanisms are unknown. We used a unique 39‐year study of 139 European beech (Fagus sylvatica) trees that experienced masting breakdown to track the seed developmental cycle and pinpoint phases where weather effects on seed production have changed over time. A cold followed by warm summer led to large coordinated flowering efforts among plants. However, trees failed to respond to the weather signal as summers warmed and the frequency of reproductive cues changed fivefold. Less synchronous flowering resulted in less efficient pollination that further decreased the synchrony of seed maturation. As global temperatures are expected to increase this century, perennial plants that fine‐tune their reproductive schedules based on temperature cues may suffer regeneration failures.


Summary The complexity of polyploid Saccharum genomes hindered progress of genome research and crop improvement in sugarcane. To understand their genome structure, transcriptomes of 59 F1 individuals derived from S. officinarum LA Purple and S. robustum Molokai 5829 (2n = 80, x = 10 for both) were sequenced, yielding 11 157 and 8998 SNPs and 83 and 105 linkage groups, respectively. Most markers in each linkage group aligned to single sorghum chromosome. However, 71 interchromosomal rearrangements were detected between sorghum and S. officinarum or S. robustum, and 24 (33.8%) of them were shared between S. officinarum and S. robustum, indicating their occurrence before the speciation event that separated these two species. More than 2000 gene pairs from S. spontaneum, S. officinarum and S. robustum were analysed to estimate their divergence time. Saccharum officinarum and S. robustum diverged about 385 thousand years ago, and the whole‐genome duplication events occurred after the speciation event because of shared interchromosomal rearrangements. The ancestor of these two species diverged from S. spontaneum about 769 thousand years ago, and the reduction in basic chromosome number from 10 to 8 in S. spontaneum occurred after the speciation event but before the two rounds of whole‐genome duplication. Our results proved that S. officinarum is a legitimate species in its own right and not a selection from S. robustum during the domestication process in the past 10 000 years. Our findings rejected a long‐standing hypothesis and clarified the timing of speciation and whole‐genome duplication events in Saccharum.


During spring f 003 Oregon endured the worst school budget crisis in the nation. To understand teacher experiences during this period, 90 teachers across the state were interviewed. Questions focused on teacher attitudes, personal/financial issues, working conditions, and changes in teaching, analyzed with simple statistics and qualitative descriptive methods. Teacher satisfaction declined; teachers were pessimistic about schools, angry about salary freezes, and wanted to retire immediately. Most expressed frustration with politics and dissatisfaction with working conditions. Almost all experienced salary loss, even when days were not cut. Teachers made many personal sacrifi.ces and most experienced health problems. Working condition changes included class size increases, loss of specialists, longer working hours, and more special needs students with less help. Teaching changed to "no frills. "Loss of materials, supplies, time with students, and morale problems were common. Stable and adequate funding and teacher working conditions have not been addressed in policy.


Background: Adolescent/young adult (AYA) Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is one of the most common cancers in this age group in developed countries. High socioeconomic status, small sibship size and lack of crowding in childhood are risk factors. We also found that among twins, the twin who had more oral exposures in early life was 80% less likely to develop AYA Hodgkin lymphoma. These risk factors are compatible with the hygiene hypothesis. We wanted to further explore additional risk factors consistent with this etiologic model.
 Methods: In a case-family control study, we examined past exposure to 12 infections in serum samples from 291 AYA HL cases and 194 of their unaffected family members. Cases were ascertained from the USC International Twin Registry (n=36) and the USC Cancer Surveillance Program (n=255). We measured antibodies to HSV1, HSV2, VZV, EBV, HHV7, HCMV, HHV6, KSHV, T. gondii, H. pylori, Rubella virus and Parvovirus B19 using a multiplex serology bead array (Luminex) (Waterboer Laboratory, German Cancer Research Center). A positive history of exposure to each infection was determined by a titer threshold specific for each infection. We did not examine the association between antibody levels and risk because of the possible impact of AYA HL diagnosis or treatment. We made the assumption that disease or treatment would not affect detection of a low level of antibody indicating previous exposure. A logistic regression model was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% Confidence Interval (95% CI) adjusting for age at blood draw, sex and family. The sample was mostly non-Hispanic white, thus we did not adjust for race/ethnicity. We performed stratified analysis for histologic subtype where possible. Linear regression was used to calculate the p-for trend for 0, 1 or 2 fecal-oral or respiratory infections, with 0 infections as the reference.
 Results: The mean age at diagnosis in AYA HL cases was 30 years and the mean age at blood draw was 36 years. 57% of the cases were female. Out of the 186 cases with EBV tumor status, 78% were EBV-. Out of the 242 cases with histologic subtype, 72.5% were nodular sclerosis. The mean age of the 194 family controls at blood draw was 53 years and 63.4% were female.
 Evidence of past HHV6 infection was associated with an increased risk of AYA HL (OR= 1.80; 95% CI= 1.06-3.07; for nodular sclerosis only: OR= 1.92, 95% CI=1.05-3.42). Having antibodies to H. pylori was associated with a decreased risk (OR= 0.49; 95% CI= 0.25-0.98; for nodular sclerosis only: OR= 0.33, 95% CI= 0.14-0.77). An increasing number of fecal-oral infections (H. pylori, T. gondii) was associated with a decreasing risk of AYA HL (ptrend=0.015), while an increasing number of respiratory transmitted infections (Rubella virus, Parvovirus) was not significantly associated (ptrend=0.43). After adjusting for family, infection with Parvovirus was strongly and significantly associated with AYA HL (OR=3.8,1.06-13.6; for nodular sclerosis only: OR=10.5, 95% CI=1.71-65.25). Past infection with EBV was not associated with risk of overall HL, or with EBV- or EBV+ AYA HL separately, probably because of the high frequency of this infection in the overall population.
 Conclusions: We found continuing evidence for an inverse association between fecal-oral transmitted agents and risk of AYA HL, supporting the hypothesis that a deficit of early life fecal-oral transmitted microbes may be associated with susceptibility. HHV6 and Parvovirus were associated with an increased risk, possibly due to a subclinical immune deficiency or another unknown mechanism

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Two kappa genes, one (5.7 kb) from parental myeloma cells that were used for fusion, and the other (7.5 kb) from lymphocytes have been detected in the genome of PTF.02 hybridoma. Functionally important regions of the second gene were sequenced. In the 5'-region, positions and nucleotide sequences of the L-fragment, TAATA- and CAAT-boxes were established. Deca (dc)- and pentadecanucleotide (pd) sequences, obligatory for effective transcription of Kappa genes, were localized at the distance of 91 and 118 bp from the ATG initiating codon of the leader sequence. Together with a true pd, a shadow pd sequence was localized. This sequence was overlapped with the first sequence and shifted by one helical twist. The structure of the region of the enhancer localization was established. Comparison of this sequence with known consensus of the papova virus enhancer allows us to suggest the following structure of the enhancer core for kappa chains: TGTGGCTAA... 10 bp... TGTGGTTA. In the kappa gene under study, the variable fragment is linked to the J5 segment. In the latter, a point mutation C----G was found, to which a conservative substitution Ala - Gly in a hypervariable region of the chi-chain should correspond. Somatic mutations were also observed within the intron region adjacent to the J5 segment.


AIMS
It is generally accepted, but not yet documented that the risk of future alcoholism increases with the amount of alcohol consumed. The objective of this study was to investigate this association using the Copenhagen City Heart Study.

METHODS
Quantity and frequency of alcohol intake was measured in 19 698 men and women randomly drawn from the Copenhagen Population Register in 1976-78. The study population was linked to three different registers in order to detect alcoholism, and average follow-up time was 25 years.

RESULTS
After adjustment for all putative confounders, the risk of alcoholism for women increased significantly at 1-7 drinks per week with a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.02 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16, 3.53) compared to never/almost never drinking; the HR for drinking monthly was 1.75 (95% CI: 1.08, 2.85). The risk for men did not increase significantly before 22-41 drinks per week (HR = 3.81, 95 % CI: 2.18, 6.68) or if they had a daily alcohol intake (HR = 3.55, 95 % CI: 2.11, 5.99). Smoking was independently associated with the risk of alcoholism for both men and women.

CONCLUSION
The risk of developing alcoholism increased significantly by very low intakes of alcohol in women, while the risk is only increased significantly in men consuming more than 21 drinks per week.


Tissue-engineered biomaterials have existed approximately 40 years as simple biomimetic structures. Replacement of human tissue with new tissue can be accomplished by generating replacements outside of the body or in situ in the body. In each case, the key elements are described as the tissue engineering triad of scaffolds, cells, and signals. Scaffolds can be produced synthetically or derived naturally. Similar to other sciences, operative dentistry has been using regenerative approaches to treat dental disease. The use of calcium hydroxide or Mineral Trioxide Aggregate to stimulate reparative or reactionary dentin is clearly an example of such a therapeutic strategy. Tissue engineering is a multi-disciplinary science that brings together biology, engineering and clinical sciences with developing new tissues and organs. It is based on fundamental principles that involve the identification of appropriate cells, the development of conducive scaffolds and an understanding of the morphogenic signals required to induce cells to regenerate the tissues that were lost. In this paper is focused on the presentation and discussion of existing literature that covers the engineering of enamel, dentin and pulp, as well on the engineering of entire teeth. There are clearly major road blocks to overcome before such strategies move to the clinic and are used regularly to treat patients. However, existing evidence strongly suggests that the engineering of new dental structures to replace tissues lost during the process of caries or trauma will have a place in the future of operative dentistry. Keywords: Tooth Regenration, Operative Dentistry.


Ancillary services are intended to ensure the quality, reliability, and security conditions of the electricity supply. Active power‐related ancillary services are considered balancing services, including mandatory services, such as spinning or primary regulation, and optional services, such as secondary and tertiary regulation. These optional balancing services have typically been supplied by conventional power plants, but since their contribution to the production share is decreasing due to high renewable energy penetration, power system operators are currently in need of alternatives. In addition, the recent advances in both the wind power industry and power system observability and controllability, and the necessary changes in balancing markets have made it technically and economically possible for wind power plants to contribute to optional balancing services. Under this framework, our study focuses on the contribution of wind power to balancing markets in the Spanish power system. Specifically, this work analyses the operational capability test for wind energy active power ancillary services provision and the results of the participation of wind energy to tertiary regulation and imbalance management from February 2016 to July 2017. Furthermore, the analysis includes a comparison with other generation technologies and the identification of upward and downward direction margins. These results show the real experience of the contribution of Spanish wind energy to optional active power ancillary services.


Erasmus yearned to make the Bible an effective instrument of reform in society, church, and everyday life. To this end, he composed the Paraphrases, in which the words of Holy Scripture provide the core of a text vastly expanded to embrace the reforming 'philosophy of Christ.' Matthew was Erasmus's first paraphrased Gospel and was thus the great theologian's first opportunity to set out a full portrait of the life of Jesus. In this Paraphrase, the wonderful complexity of Jesus's life finds coherence in the conception of Him as a teacher. The baptism, the dove, and the divine voice attesting sonship are called the 'inaugurating ceremonies' that authenticate Jesus as the divine teacher of heavenly philosophy. His students are the disciples, who are to be teachers themselves, initiating an unending line of Christian teachers. The Jesus of this Paraphrase understands pedagogy: He adapts His teaching to the developing abilities of His pupils, quizzes them, and gently rebukes them. His actions as well as His words have one primary objective: to teach the disciples. As a Preface to the Paraphrase, Erasmus wrote a 'Letter to the Pious Reader,' which became one of his most provocative and important essays. Like the more published Paraclesis, this 'Letter' vigorously advocates the translation of scripture into the vernacular languages, and proposes a 'confirmation' ceremony to encourage young people to assume responsibility for the vows taken for them at baptism by their sponsors. This volume illuminates the early thinking of Erasmus and is a welcome addition to the Collected Works series.


The hit rate, a major metric for evaluating proxy caches, is mostly limited by the replacement strategy of proxy caches. However, in traditional proxy caches, the hit rate does not usually successfully predict how well a proxy cache will perform because the proxy cache counts any hit in its caching space which has many pages without useful information, so its replacement strategy fails to determine which pages to keep and which to release. The proxy cache efficiency can be measured more accurately using the valid hit rate introduced in this paper. An efficient replacement strategy based on the Site Graph model for WWW (World Wide Web) documents is also discussed in this paper. The model analyzes user access behavior as a basis for the replacement strategy. Simulation results demonstrate that the replacement strategy improves proxy cache efficiency. 


In Hobart, a litany of winter festivals flopped and failed until the arrival of Mona (Museum of Old and New Art), a private museum owned by mathematician, successful online gambler, and autodidact David Walsh. Since 2013, its new festival, Dark Mofo, not only has reignited long-somnolent traditions of midwinter festival imaginaries among its postcolonial society but also has proved to be an effective vehicle for galvanizing an all-of-community form of urban activation, engagement, and regeneration. It has also completely overwhelmed the city with visitors keen to participate in a no-holds-barred ritual week with major global artists and musicians keen to be on its carnivalesque platforms. While Mona has explored grotesque realism themes of sex, death, and the body in its darkened, labyrinthine and subterranean levels, Dark Mofo has permitted their mix of carnivalesque and Dionysian metaphors and embodied practices/politics to take over the entire city in a week of programmatic mischief and misrule at midwinter. Research by an Australian Research Council–funded study of Mona and its festive register will be used to account for its origins and innovation as well as its social, cultural, and economic composition and impact.


In this work, the change of frequency of a sound wave due to the Doppler effect has been measured using a smartphone. For this purpose, a speaker at rest and a smartphone placed on a cart on an air track were used. The change in frequency was measured by using an application for Android™, 'Frequency Analyzer', which was developed by us specifically for this work. This made it possible to analyze four types of mechanical motions: uniform linear motion, uniform accelerated linear motion, harmonic oscillations and damped harmonic oscillations. These experiments are suitable for undergraduate students. The main novelty of this work was the possibility of measuring the instantaneous frequency as a function of time with high precision. The results were compared with alternative measurements yielding good agreement.


How authentic is Mildred D. Taylor's depiction of African American life in the South during the 1930's in the historical novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry? Let's explore that question in this guide.


: This paper examines the profit-shifting behaviour of emerging multinational firms from India. It is found that the before-tax profitability of subsidiaries differs according to whether they were established directly or via an Offshore Financial Centre (OFC). The impact of the corporate tax rate on profitability is examined using a fixed-effects model for the period 2010–19. In the case of subsidiaries established via OFCs, a negative relationship between corporate tax rate and profitability is found, indicating profit-shifting behaviour. However, a disaggregated investigation by characteristics of parent firms reveals that the negative relationship holds primarily for via-OFC subsidiaries that belong to multinational firms with limited transactions of intangible assets, lower export intensity, and limited dependence on external commercial borrowing. The evidence of profit shifting is not all pervasive. However, in the presence of these transaction channels, multinational firms establish better control over intra-firm resources, which enables the transfer of resources within the multinational firm when the network of subsidiaries is connected through the OFC. The results are robust to the inclusion of economic and institutional factors pertaining to the host country.


sing interferon gamma and interleukin-4 (IL-4), and lacking CD28 molecules, were responsible for the dynamic interplay between peripheral blood and inflammatory sites. Introduction : The aim of the current study was to define in Behçet's disease (BD), CD8 T-cell subsets using CD28 and CD11b monoclonal antibodies, and the characterization of the Tc1/Tc2 ratio and perforin expression. Methods : Flow cytometry was used for intracytoplasmic cytokines and perforin expression. Effector cells were investigated by adhesion of CD8 T cells to human microvascular endothelial cells and by chemotaxis using b-chemokine. Results : Interferon-gamma-producing CD8 T cells in active and remission BD patients were increased, which induce a significant increase of the Tc1:Tc2 ratio in BD. CD8 CD28 CD11b T cells were found to be more expanded in BD patients than in agematched healthy controls. The expression of CD11b molecules in active BD allowed to CD8 CD28 / CD8 CD28 subsets to adhere to human microvascular endothelial cells, with more efficiency in BD. Using MIP-1a, we observed that the migratory process of CD28 CD11b is more important in BD. CD28 CD11b exhibited an increased perforin expression in BD patients. Conclusion : Taken together these results suggest the presence of immune activation, probably in response to a profound inflammation affecting BD patients. The physiopathological significance of these results were toward autoimmune diseases and/or infectious process.


The spectacular evolutionary history of terrestrial vertebrates is uncharacteristically poorly documented between the Paleozoic subequatorial exposures of the Permo–Carboniferous of North America and Europe, and the much higher latitude, Upper Permian deposits of central Russia and southern Africa. We report here that the discovery of the reptile Macroleter in Oklahoma provides the first direct vertebrate evidence of biochronological correlation between continental sediments from the Upper Permian of North America and Russia. The presence of the reptile Macroleter, a member of a major group of Upper Permian amniotes known previously only from central Russia, in North America improves dramatically our understanding of this early phase of amniote evolution, and also provides evidence of terrestrial tetrapod faunal interchange between North America and Russia in Late Permian time.


3H-labeled T-2 mycotoxin was dissolved in various aqueous media and stored for up to 3 weeks at 4, 22, and 37 degrees C. At periods ranging from 1 to 21 days, aliquots were assayed by thin-layer chromatography. Thin-layer chromatography plates were scanned for breakdown products by use of a radioisotope scanner, and breakdown products were identified based on their comigration with known standards. Results indicated that T-2 toxin was more stable in tissue culture medium with or without serum, than in Hanks balanced salt solution (HBSS), at all temperatures. The metabolites HT-2, T-2 triol, and T-2 tetraol were detected as early as 1 day (HBSS; 37 degrees C) and as late as 3 weeks (HBSS; 4 degrees C) after storage. Stability of the toxin in aqueous media decreased with increasing temperature.


Performance degradation of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) from in-service abuse was analyzed using novel dynamic abuse tests and sensor-based in-situ monitoring of battery state of health (SOH). The relation between dynamic impact and structure changes of LiCoO2 (LCO) electrode was analyzed through a nano-impact test directly applied to the electrode and Raman imaging. After the electrode structure damage induced by the dynamic loading was analyzed, the performance of the LIBs with the abused electrodes was evaluated to establish the relation between the number of impact cycles and LIB performance degradation. The mechanism of impact related LIB capacity decrease was analyzed, and the capacity change can be predicted based on the impact abuse history using this approach. In order to provide more detailed information on the battery performance degradation caused by the in-service dynamic loads, a dynamic aging testing platform was designed to simulate in-service vibration and impact experienced by the LIBs. Based on the lessons learned, a sensor network was constructed to provide a comprehensive in-situ evaluation of the SOH of commercial batteries. Mechanisms of LIB capacity fade, temperature increase, and cell deformation from cycling in representative dynamic environments were analyzed and correlated with theoretical predictions. Difference between the aging of a battery pack and that of a single cell was also investigated, which presented the influence of current imbalance on the SOH decay of battery packs. SEM imaging, Raman imaging, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis were also applied to support the sensor network measurements. In order to provide an early detection of catastrophic LIB failure such as thermal runaway, an internal resistance temperature detector (RTD) based electrode temperature monitoring approach was developed. By embedding the RTD into LIBs with 3D printing technique, electrode temperature can be collected during ordinary cycling and electrical abuse of LIBs, such as external short circuit and overcharge. The internal RTD presented high measuring efficiency, while there was no interference between the sensor measurement and battery operation. The internal RTD detected the short circuit event and overcharge failure prior of time: the efficiency of the internal RTD was 6-10 times higher than the external RTD in the short circuit test. This provided the chance for early detection and prevention of catastrophic LIB failures. Besides, with the detailed information on electrode temperature evolution during LIB thermal runaway available, the internal RTD also provided the chance to enhance the understanding of the thermal runaway mechanism.


An electrically functional freestanding Si interposer for 3-D heterogeneous integration applications is designed and successfully fabricated. The interposer employs multilevel metallization (MLM) on the frontside of the wafer and Cu-filled through-Si vias (TSVs) and MLM on the backside. The MLM structures use electroplated Cu and polymer dielectrics of the type used in wafer-level packaging. The fabrication flow of the 3-D interposer test vehicle incorporates the formation of TSVs, the deposition and patterning of two routing levels of frontside MLM, wafer thinning, and the deposition and patterning of backside MLM. TSVs 80 μm in diameter, 315 μm in depth, and 80 μm in diameter, 265- μm depth (4:1 or 3:1 aspect ratio, respectively) are demonstrated. The frontside and backside MLM were formed with 3- μm-thick Cu routing layers and 5- μm-thick spin-on dielectric layers. Daisy chains consisting of 528 TSVs connecting the frontside and backside metal layers are tested for electrical continuity. Individual TSV operability exceeds 99.98%. Details of the MLM and TSV process modules, including thermal stabilization of Cu-filled TSVs and process integration required to successfully obtain the high TSV operability, are described.


Genotoxic properties of the essential oils extracted from Artemisia dracunculus (tarragon), Ocimum basilicum (basil), Cinnamomum loureirii (cinnamon), Laurus nobilis (laurel), Satureja montana (savory) and Rosmarinus officinallis (rosemary) are studied by Drosophila melanogaster Somatic Mutation and Recombination Test (SMART). The high bioactivation crossed with a high cytochrome P450-dependent bioactivation capacity is used. This assay is principally based on the loss of heterozygosity of the suitable recessive markers' multiple wing hairs (mwh) and flare-3 (flr3) which can lead to the formation of mutant clones of larval cells, and which are then going to be expressed as spots on the wings of adult flies. Third-instar larvae are treated for 48 hr with different concentrations of the essential oils dissolved in Tween-80 at 0.2% or 2%. The wings of the emerging adults are analyzed for the occurrence of different types of mutant spots. No statistically significant differences in spot frequencies between negative controls and treated series are observed. These results suggest that the six essential oils at concentrations tested are not genotoxic towards somatic cells of D. melanogaster.


Variant design is a common technology in mechanical design, but it's inefficient to measure the variant parts using the traditional programming methods. In order to get the inspection procedures of variant parts quickly, this article puts forward a method that aims at the automatic inspection planning of customized products, which based on tabular layouts of article characteristics (TLAC). It studies the TLAC of parts which included the tolerance, the main model and its inspection template, and generation of the inspection procedures about parts. The result shows that the method can effectively improve the efficiency of inspection procedure generation.


Uterine contraction is essential for genital tract functioning among mammal females. For women, the main interest are the possible alterations, and the ability to manage them with drug use. Due to the fact that contraction regulation is multifactorial, several medications are used in basic and clinical research, both to know contraction mechanisms, and to interfere with its alterations. This review considers contraction mechanism at molecular-cellular level, and the different molecules regulating it; as well as the effects that different medications produce upon such mechanism.


Joining of the dissimilar materials is necessary and important from a manufacturing viewpoint. Therefore, the authors have developed a new laser direct joining method between metals and plastics. In this research, such joining was applied to join Si3N4 ceramic and PET engineering plastic, although the metal was replaced by the ceramic. The shear strength of the joints was 3100 N, which was strong enough to elongate PET plates of 2 mm thickness and 30 mm width. It was confirmed that this laser joining process was effective to directly produce a strong dissimilar material joint of a ceramic and an engineering plastic.Joining of the dissimilar materials is necessary and important from a manufacturing viewpoint. Therefore, the authors have developed a new laser direct joining method between metals and plastics. In this research, such joining was applied to join Si3N4 ceramic and PET engineering plastic, although the metal was replaced by the ceramic. The shear strength of the joints was 3100 N, which was strong enough to elongate PET plates of 2 mm thickness and 30 mm width. It was confirmed that this laser joining process was effective to directly produce a strong dissimilar material joint of a ceramic and an engineering plastic.


OBJECTIVE--To determine the roles of the putamen and pallidum in ocular motor control. METHODS--Eye movements were recorded electro-oculographically in nine patients with bilateral focal lesions affecting the lentiform nucleus, and in 12 age matched control subjects. Reflexive visually guided saccades (gap task), antisaccades, memorised sequences of saccades, memory guided saccades (with visual input only, and with both visual and vestibular inputs), and predictive saccades (with and without gap) were studied. RESULTS--Latency and accuracy of visually guided saccades were normal. The percentage of errors in the antisaccade task and latency of correct antisaccades did not differ significantly from the results of controls. The percentage of errors in saccade sequences was significantly increased. Accuracy of the two types of memory guided saccades was impaired bilaterally. The percentage of predictive saccades was significantly decreased when a gap existed, but unchanged without a gap, compared with controls. Therefore, saccades made immediately in response to an external target (reflexive visually guided saccades and antisaccades) were performed without difficulty, whereas those requiring an internal representation of such a target (such as memory guided saccades, predictive saccades, and saccade sequences) were performed with significant disturbances. CONCLUSIONS--The lentiform nucleus influences the cortical areas involved in the control of saccades when the experimental paradigm requires the use of an internal representation of the target for correct planning and execution of the ensuing saccade.


In Lotus v. Borland the First Circuit held that the menu command hierarchy of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program was a method of operation, and thus outside the protection of copyright law. The decision has been criticized and acclaimed by the opposing camps in the battle over copyright protection for software. International Business Machines Corporations' Assistant General Counsel Anthony L. Clapes and Arizona State University Professor of Law Dennis S. Karjala ably represent the opposing points of view.Mr. Clapes criticizes the decision as an abrupt and unsettling paradigm shift, which is ungrounded in copyright jurisprudence, driven by the desired result, and which may pose serious problems for the software industry in the long term. Professor Karjala concludes that the Court's holding properly recognizes the statutory distinction between a protectable computer program and the unprotectable user interface which the program generates and that the decision also recognizes the proper relationship between patent and copyright protection, which reserves tot patent law the protection of functional aspects of a user interface.


After millions of deaths worldwide and months of widespread social and economic devastation, the first vaccine against SARSCoV-2 (COVID-19) was given emergency use listing by the WHO. Approved only 1 year after the virus was first identified in Wuhan, China, this historic achievement was the result of public and private institutional partnerships, as well as decades of foundational scientific research. Two of the earliest vaccines authorised for widespread use were the BNT162b2 (Pfizer/BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, demonstrating 95% and 94.1% efficacy, respectively, in phase II/III clinical trials. Notably, both vaccines have strong safety profiles, with the most common adverse events including injection site reactions, fever, chills, fatigue, headache, and muscle and joint aches. 3 Postauthorisation reports of severe reactions, including anaphylaxis, have been extremely rare, occurring in only 4.5 reported cases per million doses. In this issue of Thorax, Park and colleagues present the first published case of COVID-19 vaccinerelated interstitial lung disease (ILD). An 86yearold man developed an acute onset of fever, weakness, shortness of breath and hypoxaemia requiring highflow nasal cannula 1 day after receiving a dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. He had no history of ILD, connective tissue disease, tobacco use or exposure to offending medications. CT of the chest showed bilateral, diffuse ground glass opacities, with areas of focal consolidation and centrilobular nodules. Evaluations for alternative aetiologies, including nasal and sputum testing for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, an ECG, a brain natriuretic peptide test, and serological testing for connective tissue diseases, were normal or negative. The patient declined to undergo bronchoscopy or surgical lung biopsy. Based on the time course and available information, he was diagnosed with druginduced ILD and treated with highdose methylprednisolone, with rapid improvement in his clinical condition and imaging. He was discharged on a steroid taper, and followup imaging nearly 3 months after discharge confirmed resolving ground glass opacities and consolidations without the development of fibrosis. Druginduced ILD is a rare disease, for which the true incidence and prevalence are unknown. The severity of illness can range from subclinical disease to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, and it is a diagnosis of exclusion, with a differential that includes infection, haemorrhage, oedema and exacerbation of an underlying ILD. In the absence of an alternative diagnosis, druginduced ILD should be suspected if a temporal association between symptom onset and an offending agent can be identified. The most common medications associated with drug toxicity of the lungs include chemotherapeutic agents, rheumatological medications (disease modifying antirheumatic drugs(DMARDs) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)alpha inhibitors), amiodarone and nitrofurantoin, although a complete list of medications that may cause pulmonary toxicity can be found on the website Pneumotox ( www. pneumotox. com). Symptoms may include cough, shortness of breath, fever and hypoxaemia, and both imaging and histology findings are nonspecific, often overlapping with other types of ILD. While more invasive testing, such as bronchoscopy and surgical lung biopsy, is often nondiagnostic, it may aid with the exclusion of alternative diagnoses and should be considered on an individual basis. Risk factors vary and are poorly understood; however, older age, underlying pulmonary disease and tobacco use have been most commonly reported. Treatment depends on the degree of disease severity, and highquality evidence is lacking. Mild cases may resolve with medication discontinuation alone, while corticosteroids are often added to treat more severe cases. The pathogenesis of druginduced ILD is incompletely understood, although both cytotoxic and immunemediated pathways of injury have been described. Cytotoxic injury may occur directly to pneumocytes or the alveolar capillary endothelium, and immunemediated reactions occur through T cell regulation. Whether one or both of these pathways are involved in COVID-19 vaccineinduced ILD is unknown; however, reports of vaccineinduced ILD after influenza vaccination may suggest a shared mechanism of lung injury that is not specific to the molecular composition of the vaccine. While more studies are needed, the presence of lymphocyte sensitisation, demonstrated using in vitro drug lymphocyte stimulation testing after exposure to various types of vaccines, could possibly support a common immunemediated mechanism of lung injury. There are important limitations for clinical practice that accompany published case reports. First, while reporting and recognising potential adverse events in the postauthorisation period are essential, a causal relationship cannot be established from a single case report. Further, these findings cannot be generalised to any specific risk group or population. While the authors note that other potential cases of ILD due to COVID-19 vaccination were identified in VigiBase, a drug safety database managed by the WHO, the accuracy of these reports must be interpreted with caution due to differences in international coding criteria, errors, lack of transparent diagnostic criteria, and lack of distinction between a new, acute ILD and the exacerbation of an existing ILD. Nevertheless, continuous monitoring of both patients and international drug safety databases for pulmonary toxicity from these vaccines is warranted. In conclusion, clinicians should consider drug toxicity in their differential of any unexplained acute respiratory failure or ILD and should be aware of this reaction as COVID-19 vaccination efforts continue. However, the benefits of widespread COVID-19 vaccination in the general population continue to strongly outweigh the risks. COVID-19 vaccination is the most effective and safe method for preventing COVID-19related serious events.


Full-reference image quality assessment methods seek to measure visual similarity between two images (in practice, one original and the other its altered version). It has been established that traditional methods, such as Mean Square Error and Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio poorly mimic the human visual system and much of the recent research in image quality assessment has been directed toward developing image similarity measures that are more consistent with assessments from human observers. Some extensively tested popular methods in this regard are Visual Image Fidelity (VIF), Structure Similarity Index (SSIM) and its variants Multi-scale Structure Similarity Index (MS-SSIM) and Information Content Weighted Multi-scale Structure Similarity Index (IW-SSIM). However, experiments show that these methods may produce drastically different similarity indices for different images contaminated with the same source of random noise. In this article, we propose a new full-reference image quality assessment method, namely, Wavelet-based Non-parametric Structure Similarity Index (WNPSSIM), specifically designed to detect visual similarity between images contaminated with all sorts of random noises. WNPSSIM is based on a rank test of the hypothesis of identical images conducted on the wavelet domain. Our experimental comparisons demonstrate that WNPSSIM provides similar ranking as MS-SSIM, IW-SSIM and VIF for images contaminated with different random noises in general though the methodology is very different. In addition, WNPSSIM corrects the aforementioned shortcoming of assigning sharply different similarity indices for different images contaminated with the same source of random noise. AMS 2000 subject classifications: Primary 68U10, 97K80, 62H35; secondary 62G10.


In the multisport of triathlon cycling is the longest of the three sequential disciplines. Triathlon bicycles differ from road bicycles with steeper seat tube angles with a change to saddle height altering the seat tube angle. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a tri axial accelerometer to determine acceleration magnitudes of the trunk in outdoor cycling in two saddle positions. Interpretation of data was evaluated based on cadence changes whilst triathletes cycled in an aerodynamic position in two saddle positions. The evaluation of accelerometer derived data within a characteristic overground setting suggests a significant reduction in mediolateral acceleration of the trunk, yielding a 25.1% decrease when saddle height was altered alongside reduced rate of perceived exertion (3.9%). Minimal differences were observed in anteroposterior and longitudinal acceleration. Evaluation of sensor data revealed a polynomial expression of the subtle changes between both saddle positions. This study shows that a triaxial accelerometer has capability to continuously measure acceleration magnitude of trunk movements during an in-the-field, varied cadence cycle protocol. Accessible and practical sensor technology could be relevant for postural considerations when exploring saddle position in dynamic settings.


In this work we introduce a low-level system that could be employed by a social robot like a robotic wheelchair or a humanoid, for approaching a group of interacting humans, in order to become a part of the interaction. Taking into account an interaction space that is created when at least two humans interact, a meeting point can be calculated where the robot should reach in order to equitably share space among the interacting group. We propose a sensor-based control task which uses the position and orientation of the humans with respect to the sensor as inputs, to reach the said meeting point while respecting spatial social constraints. Trials in simulation demonstrate the convergence of the control task and its capability as a low-level system for human-aware navigation.


This article is positioned within critical and strategic social marketing literature (Andreasen, 1995; Goldberg, 1995; Gordon, 2011, 2013; Gordon, Moodie, Eadie, & Hastings, 2010), which asserts the importance of conducting community-based research to gain insights that assist in strategic social program design (Andreasen, 2002; French & Gordon, 2015). Campaign design failures associated with 'top down' or 'expert led' approaches, have been linked to poor in-depth community research (French & Gordon, 2015, p.13). The policy design/implementation of New South Wales shark management strategy has been an example of a top down, expert driven implementation design strategy. The aim of this research is to demonstrate how a multi-method research design may assist in enhancing social program design and better inform policy makers, with the ultimate aim of a reduction in public risks of unprovoked shark encounters. Disciplines Business Publication Details Mehmet, M., Simmons, P. & Clarke, R. (2018). Sharks, Social Sentiment and Science. In R. Hay (Ed.), Conference Proceedings of the International Social Marketing Conference: Broadening Cultural Horizons in Social Marketing (pp. 254-258). Townsville, Australia: James Cook University. This conference paper is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/buspapers/1604


Purpose This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate Chinese coronary heart disease (CHD) patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL) using various measures and explore influencing factors associated with HRQoL. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to September 2019 in the General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University. A convenience sampling framework was used to successively recruit 316 inpatients with CHD. Two generic preference-based instruments (EQ-5D-5L and 15D), a disease-specific instrument (Seattle Angina Questionnaire, SAQ), and the WHO-5 well-being index (WHO-5) were administered. Tobit regression model and multiple linear regression were used for data analyses. Results A total of 305 patients (mean age was 62.9) with CHD participated in this study. The mean health state utility (HSU) scores of EQ-5D-5L and 15D were 0.85 (SD=0.14) and 0.89 (SD=0.07), respectively. For EQ-5D-5L, pain/discomfort was the most frequently reported, followed by anxiety/depression. As for 15D, discomfort and symptoms was the most severely impaired dimension. For SAQ, more limitations were found in the domains of angina stability and disease perception. For WHO-5, the mean score was 16.93. Marital status, disease state and comorbidity were influencing factors associated with HRQoL, patient's subjective well-being had a positive impact on HRQoL. Conclusion To improve the HRQoL of CHD patients in China, more attention needs to be paid to unmarried and relapsed patients, especially those with comorbidity of hypertension. Additionally, more social support and psychological counseling should be provided to patients.


The object of study of Psychiatry is hybrid, that is, it is both natural and social. It combines the methods of natural Sciences and those of social Sciences. Currently, Psychiatry is the branch of Medicine where epistemological and hermeneutical conflicts are more than evident; it is the medical discipline where this debate is most intense and problematic. However, the conceptual foundations of all these debates and conflicts are already preconfigured within the framework of the Greek philosophy of the Classical period. Without knowing these conceptual foundations it is impossible to adequately clarify all these conflicting aspects. During the period of Classical Greece it was the time when the conceptual foundations and rationale of the tekne iatrike (of which Psychiatry was and is a part) were established as well as the theoretical principles of epistemological issues such as the validity of categories, the controversy between diagnostic categories and psychopathological dimensions, the approach towards both subjectivity and phenomenology, the inquiry for Psychopathology, the concept of mental health, the possibilities and limits of the scientific method in Psychiatry, the role of Psychotherapy and, naturally, some key ethical issues in mental health, such as the existence of the stigma on psychiatric disorders and all of the problems raised by the coercitive practices. To answer all of these questions, a review of the literature on this topic has been made in this paper, as well as a discussion and analysis of the key points of the epistemological and ethical debate.


The high power grid integrated solar energy system (GISES) prefers multilevel inverters for reduced switching losses and lower harmonics in the injected current. The integration of solar PV array with multilevel inverters (MIs) requires a proper selection of multioutput dc–dc converters. Moreover, the performance of two-stage GISES with isolated multioutput dc–dc converters and dc–ac multilevel inverters are less investigated in the literature. In this article, a cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter with isolated multiple-output zeta converter is used. It exhibits reduced switching stresses and improved efficiency, concerning to multiple dc–dc converters fed MI. The maximum power point tracking method, based on the firefly algorithm, is implemented on the isolated multiple output zeta converter to ensure maximum power extraction at adverse irradiation conditions. The power quality improvement and active power exchange through a band stop generalized integral control, and the grid synchronization is achieved through an enhanced phase-locked loop method. The proposed system is designed and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink, and the results validate the theoretical claims. The performance of the GISES is verified using an experimental prototype developed with the help of a dSPACE Micro Lab Box and a solar PV simulator.


Abstract. Characterizing spatiotemporal irradiance variability is important for the successful grid integration of increasing numbers of photovoltaic (PV) power systems. Using 1 Hz data recorded by as many as 99 pyranometers during the HD(CP)2 Observational Prototype Experiment (HOPE), we analyze field variability of clear-sky index k* (i.e., irradiance normalized to clear-sky conditions) and sub-minute k* increments (i.e., changes over specified intervals of time) for distances between tens of meters and about 10 km. By means of a simple classification scheme based on k* statistics, we identify overcast, clear, and mixed sky conditions, and demonstrate that the last of these is the most potentially problematic in terms of short-term PV power fluctuations. Under mixed conditions, the probability of relatively strong k* increments of ±0.5 is approximately twice as high compared to increment statistics computed without conditioning by sky type. Additionally, spatial autocorrelation structures of k* increment fields differ considerably between sky types. While the profiles for overcast and clear skies mostly resemble the predictions of a simple model published by Hoff and Perez (2012), this is not the case for mixed conditions. As a proxy for the smoothing effects of distributed PV, we finally show that spatial averaging mitigates variability in k* less effectively than variability in k* increments, for a spatial sensor density of 2 km−2.


This paper presents a taxonomic revision of filicopsid taxa from the lower to middle Westphalian strata of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Maritime Provinces of Canada. Most of the material represents sporadic historical collecting by Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) personnel, and specimens are in the GSC collections in Ottawa. Additional specimens are in the New Brunswick Museum at Saint John, the Fundy Geological Museum at Parrsboro, and the Joggins Fossil Institute at Joggins. Two specimens from outside Canada clarify specific characteristics. The revision involved the detailed examination of 20 adpression (mainly impression) taxa, of which one, Germera brousmicheae, is new. Detailed synonymy lists, with particular focus on records from Canada and the USA, facilitate a refinement of the stratigraphic and geographic distribution of these species. Most of the taxa from the Maritimes are the same as those from other parts of the paleoequatorial belt of Pennsylvanian times. The Maritimes record of filicopsid taxa closely resembles the filicopsid floras of western Europe, most notably the British Isles.


Present communication records the traditional uses of Eclipta prostrate L. (Asteraceae) reputed traditional healers known as Vaidyas or Hakeem were identified on the basis of a pilot survey before the study commenced. Usually the elderly (age group 55-75) herbal healers were preferred. After collecting, healthy plant is shade dried, powered and paste is prepared.


We examine the size and composition of flows of Mexican migrants intending to cross the border and enter the United States. We focus on two characteristics which relate to eligibility for Social Security retirement benefits: legal immigration status and prior US migration history. We compare estimates from before and after the onset of the Great Recession in 2007. We analyze data from the Survey of Migration at the Northern Border of Mexico (EMIF-Norte), an innovative survey of migration flows fielded in border cities and towns in Mexico. We find that the declining overall level of migration from Mexico to the US since 2007 is driven entirely by declines in the level of undocumented immigration. The size of the legal immigrant flow from Mexico has actually increased since the recession began. We find an overall shift away from migrants with no previous trips to the US, toward migrants with 11 or more previous trips. There was no significant shift in the distribution of previous US trips among undocumented migrants, but among work-authorized migrants, the representation of both first time migrants and those with more than 11 previous US trips grew. The increasing share and absolute number of work-authorized Mexican immigrants with 11 or more past trips to the US seems likely to affect the share of Mexican immigrants qualifying for Social Security retirement benefits in the future, and it may be valuable to continue to examine these trends.


The paper shows how four combinations of 1st person pronoun + epistemic verb emerge as adverbs in contemporary spoken Estonian, arguing that word classes have fuzzy boundaries. Excerpts from naturally occurring conversations demonstrate how ma tean 'I know', ma usun 'I believe', ma arvan 'I think', and mai tea 'I don't know' are used in varying positions in relation to the commented clause with the prosody that usually suggests their integration into these units. The items display somewhat divergent semantics as compared to their components, expressing degrees of epistemic certainty and uncertainty as well as personalized stance.


. The Personal Radiation Detector (PRD) γ-Tracer GT2-1 was developed with a focus on gamma-radiation searches and detection and offers a gamma-radiation source localization function, enhanced PRD features and the capability of isotope energy pattern analysis. The device complies with general requirements and includes all typical features of PRD-class devices as well as supplementary modes such as multi-channel scaling (MCS), a spectrometer, library-driven analysis and a data logger. The GT2-1 uses a detector module built around a 0.4 cm 3 counting-grade planar CdZnTe detector. CdZnTe offers high-efficiency gamma-radiation detection for a small detector volume and energy discrimination down to 30 keV. The GT2-1 was designed with power consumption in mind; its typical lifetime after a full battery charge exceeds 600 hours in measurements mode. Energy compensation techniques are employed for the dose rate calculations. The typical accuracy of the device in the energy range of 30 – 1500 keV is better than 10% for factory-calibrated devices. The GT2-1 features a library-driven isotope identification function. Its underlying concept is the use of a library of pre-calibrated user-defined isotope patterns for comparison with the isotope under investigation. The identification algorithm is designed to evaluate the isotope energy pattern match. The execution of the algorithm yields the matching results between the tested isotope and the library in graphical form. The device's search mode employs a proprietary Background Variation Tracking (BVT) algorithm. The implemented search and gamma-radiation source localization mechanisms facilitate the rapid (1 – 3 sec) detection of weak gamma- radiation sources with intensities that exceed the background level by a factor of 1.5 – 3. Analysis of the time intervals between adjacent pulses in the input sequence is used to determine numeric characteristics that are also displayed in a user-friendly graphical form. The dedicated GUI approach and sound capabilities are tailored to facilitate search activities and support the operator in gaining experience with the device. The dedicated search algorithm implementation allows the device to be used as a homeland security detector by services responsible for the control of the relocation of radioactive materials, such as those at airports, border control checkpoints, and tolls. Test results for the GT2-1 in search mode are presented.


Networking China provides a nuanced introduction to the policy decisions and transnational economic forces, which have contributed to the emergence of China's increasingly profitable digital economy. Yu Hong conducts this analysis using a traditional political economy approach, which allows her to provide a macro-account of China's technological development in exacting detail. She draws on an impressive body of statistics and grey literature to emphasise the significance and extent of China's transition. Hong also makes extensive use of Chinese language material, which means that the work functions as an important bridge between Western and Chinese scholarship. Subsequently the reader is left with a comprehensive understanding of China's information and communication technology (ICT) policies, contextualised in relation to global markets, regional disparities within the country and China's own political history. Indeed, these broad themes stand as the major insights from Hong's monograph. The book provides necessary local insight, allowing the reader to place transnational economic phenomena, such as the production of computer parts and the questionable labour practices involved in smartphone production, within a national context. Hong explains how the long-standing economic disparity between the global east coast and remote and rural western China maintains an ongoing influence on ICT policy. The state originally encouraged transnational companies to build factories across the west with the goal of boosting the economic potential of the region. However, Hong shows that such an approach relies on suppressed wages and cheap operating costs, with major companies unwilling to invest in high-level production in order to facilitate positive economic outcomes. While China has subsequently attempted to nationalise various elements of the supply chain in later policies, this has done little to change the economic position of the west. The work also provides an important counter to scholarly caricatures of China as an allpowerful state that embeds a dominant economic and social logic across its ICT policies. Hong's analysis of China's broadband policy reveals an incredibly conflicted Government with Councils and Ministries arguing among one another about the most appropriate roll-out strategy, bringing to mind the painful policy uncertainty around the NBN. In a later example, the state reorganises industrial policy to reduce their dependency on international supply chains. While this reform allows certain 'national champions' such as Huawei to emerge, these companies do not always follow state demands and have to negotiate between national policy goals and transnational market forces. The book offers a comprehensive account of the dance between the state and the market and does an excellent job of showing that while China continues to intervene in the market to shape outcomes that are always contingent and subject to external pressures. Hong notes that such interventions support the growth of national industries and allow entire sectors to develop and change with some level of support. However, she also constantly reminds the reader that this approach has not reduced long-standing economic inequities and is ultimately embedded in broader transnational markets. This monograph is a must-read, offering the reader a complete guide to Chinese media policy.


The purpose of this paper is to study the characteristics of competitiveness in firms' sectors of the Greek manufacturing industry, based on firm-level accounting and qualitative data attempting to identify key issues regarding Greek SMEs. An unbalanced data set of 407 Greek manufacturing SMEs is implemented, covering the period of 2003-2011 with the use of a multivariate regression model (EGLS) with explanatory variables characterizing firms' operational activity. Although considerable empirical work has been done on this subject, research on the topic is limited and non-existent for Greece. An Index is developed in order to measure competitiveness characteristics in the Greek SMEs. The method to determine these characteristics in Greek manufacturing SMEs is novel using factors related to knowledge management, information technology, innovation in comparison with accounting data presenting main competitiveness characteristics especially in the during the crisis period .


Background: The development of anitiretroviral drug resistance may limit the benefit of antiretroviral therapy. Therefore the need to closely monitor these mutations, especially the use of ART is increasing. This study was therefore designed to determine the ARV drug resistance pattern among ART naive and expose individuals attending a PEPFAR supported by antiretroviral clinic in Nigeria. Methodology: The study participants included patients attending the PEPFAR supported by University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan ART clinic who have been on HIV treatment for at least one year with consecutive viral load of over 2000 copies/ml as well some ART Naive individuals with high (>50,000 copies/ml) baseline viral level attending the hospital for pre-ART assessment. Blood sample was collected from each individual for CD4 enumeration, viral load level determination and DNA sequencing for genotypic typing. Antiretroviral drug resistance mutations (DRM) were determined by using the Viroseq software and drug mutations generated by using a combination of Viroseq and Stanford algorithm. DRM were classified as major or minor mutations based on the June 2013 Stanford DR database. Results: The most common major NRTI, NNRTI and PI mutation were D67N (33.3%), Y181C (16.7%) and M46L/I (55.6%) respectively. Lamivudine (3TC) and emtricitabine (FTC); nevirapine (NVP) and nelfinavir (NFV) were the most common NRTI, NNRTI, and PI drugs to which the virus in the infected individuals developed resistance. Isolates from 4 patients were resistant to triple drug class, including at least one NRTI, NNRTI and a PI. Only one (4.8%) of the isolates from drug Naive individuals had major DRM that conferred resistance to any drug. Conclusion: Demonstration of high rates of antiretroviral DRM among patients on 1 st and 2 nd line ART and the presence of DRM in drug Naive individuals in this study show the importance of surveillance for resistance to ARV in line with the magnitude of scaling up of treatment program in the country.