Purpose - Prior accounting research views impression management predominantly though the lens of economics. Drawing on social psychology research, this paper seeks to provide a complementary perspective on corporate annual narrative reporting as characterised by conditions of " Design/methodology/approach - A content analysis approach pioneered by psychology research is used, which is based on the psychological dimension of word use, to investigate the chairmen's statements of 93 UK listed companies. Findings - Results suggest that firms do not use chairmen's statements to create an impression at variance with an overall reading of the annual report. It was found that negative organisational outcomes prompt managers to engage in retrospective sense-making, rather than to present a public image of organisational performance inconsistent with the view internally held by management (self-presentational dissimulation). Further, managers of large firms use chairmen's statements to portray an accurate (i.e. consistent with an overall reading of the annual report), albeit favourable, image of the firm and of organisational outcomes (i.e. impression management by means of enhancement). Originality/value - The approach makes it possible to investigate three complementary scenarios of managerial corporate annual reporting behaviour: self-presentational dissimulation, impression management by means of enhancement, and retrospective sense-making.


While electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) has become an established technique within materials characterization labs around the world, the technique is still relatively young and new applications are continuing to emerge. Automated EBSD or Orientation Imaging Microscopy (OIM) systems are being used in combination with other equipment within the scanning electron microscope (SEM) to perform in-situ measurements. This includes tensile stages for observing changes in local orientation during deformation and heating stages for studying orientation changes arising during recrystallization and grain growth as well as phase transformations. In addition to these temporally three-dimensional studies, spatially three-dimensional studies can be performed by in-situ serial sectioning in microscopes equipped with both electron and focused ion beams. These in-situ techniques are briefly reviewed. The review is followed by a detailed analysis of in-situ heating experiments on copper. The movement of grain boundaries during recrystallization and subsequent grain growth are tracked. The effect of orientation relationships on grain boundary mobility and nucleation are explored. No special relationship with grain boundary mobility was observed. However, twins appear to play a significant role in the nucleation process.


The Missouri General Assembly, like a number of other state legislatures, undertook to reform its statutes relating to eminent domain during the 2006 legislative session. This article is the story of that effort and an analysis of the result. I write from a personal perspective. I was fortunate to have been personally involved in many of the decisions that were made as the bill, House Bill 1944, made its was through the legislative process. This opportunity was, I think, fairly unusual for a law professor; in thirty-seven years of teaching property law, I had never previously been so closely engaged in the creation of legislation, and I suspect that few of my peers have done so. Hence, I propose to write about what I think was right and wrong about the process that House Bill 1944 underwent. There are no villains in this story, but there are heroes - those who turned a potential legislative debacle into a workable and, for the most part, beneficial statute. My hope is that this story, and my analysis of its results, will be of value to legislators, lobbyists, and interest groups in other states as they attack the issue of eminent domain reform in the future. Of course, every state is different; the forces that act on legislators and the personal and political agendas they follow vary over a wide range from state to state. However, I believe there are enough commonalities that this article about the Missouri experience can help to inform the process in other states. It may also be of value to the Missouri courts, and litigants before them, when they are called upon to interpret the impact of the 2006 amendments affecting eminent domain law in Missouri.


Growing concern over the potentially devastating impacts of climate change on biodiversity and food security, considered together with the growing world population, means that taking action to conserve crop wild relative (CWR) diversity is no longer an option—it is an urgent priority. Crop wild relatives are species closely related to crops, including their progenitors, which have the potential to contribute beneficial traits for crop improvement, such as biotic and abiotic resistances, leading to improved yield and stability. Having already made major contributions to crop improvement in the 20th century, CWR are recognized as a critical resource to sustain global food security; therefore, their systematic conservation is imperative. However, extending their conservation and promoting more systematic exploitation is hindered by a lack of understanding of their current and potential value, their diversity, and practically how they might be conserved. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to (i) demonstrate the current and potential use of CWR in crop improvement, (ii) estimate how many CWR species exist and how many are a global priority for active conservation, and (iii) describe how a global network for the in situ conservation of CWR might be established that could help to underpin future food security.


Over the past few years Internet has become one of the most convenient modes of multimedia content distribution. It has provided unique opportunity for multimedia content creators and distributors. However, it has also increased the fear of illegal content copy creation and distribution. Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems emerge as one of the possible solutions to prevent illegal distribution and usage. Traditional DRM systems are two-level systems and comprise of owner and consumers as main entities. But a two-level DRM system may not provide sufficient business scalability to the owner. The owner may not be able to make proper business strategies for all regions and cultures. Thus, a multi-level DRM system containing owner, consumers, and multiple levels of distributors (e.g. distributors at national, regional and local levels) is required. However, inclusion of multiple levels of distributors in multi-level DRM systems presents several new concerns. These concerns include design of content packaging and distribution mechanism suitable for multilevel DRM system, design of suitable privacy preserving mechanisms, and design of suitable redistribution and usage rights distribution protocols. To take care of these concerns, in this thesis, we propose a multi-level DRM architecture, and present a cryptographic content packaging and distribution mechanism, privacy preserving mechanism, and redistribution and usage rights distribution mechanism. Distributors are given redistribution rights using redistribution licenses. A redistribution license is a contract between owner and distributor that defines conditions on the content redistribution by the distributor. However, a malicious distributor may violate the conditions in the redistribution licenses. So, it is necessary to detect the violations of redistribution rights. Also, multi-level DRM systems are distributed in nature so efficient violation detection mechanisms may be required. For this purpose, we propose two new license validation techniques namely, instance based validation and aggregate validation. For efficient instance based validation, we propose bit-vector transform based licenses organization and an efficient data structure using bit-vector transform. For efficient aggregate validation, we propose a prefix tree based data structure, a graph theory based algorithm, and a data structure by determining the relationship between validation inequalities used for the aggregate validation.


Background Studies from high-income countries report moderate-to-strong positive associations between alcohol use disorder (AUD) and other mental disorders, but there is little evidence about the comorbidity of AUD from low-and-middle-income countries. Methods A sample of 74 752 adults from five provinces that account for >12% of China's adult population was screened using the General Health Questionnaire, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV was administered by psychiatrists to a subsample of 9619 males. The associations between AUD and other mental disorders at each site and the characteristics of men with AUD with and without comorbid mental disorders were estimated using logistic regression and summarized across sites using meta-analysis. Generalized estimation equations estimated the associations between the clinical features of alcohol dependence and comorbidity. Results Robust inverse associations were found between current AUD and any mood disorder (adjusted OR = 0.6, 95% CI = 0.4–0.8) and any anxiety disorder (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3–1.0). Compared with men without AUD, men with AUD without comorbid disorders were more likely to be middle-aged, to be currently married, and to have higher family incomes. Men with comorbid AUD and other disorders were more likely to have the clinical features of alcohol dependence than men with AUD without comorbid disorders. Conclusions Inverse associations between AUD and other mental disorders and the higher social status of men with AUD than men without AUD found in this large, representative sample of community-dwelling Chinese males highlight the importance of considering the local substance-use culture when designing clinical or preventive interventions for addictive conditions.


Diabetes mellitus is a disease that requires frequent medical attention. The hospitalization of a person with diabetes for an incurrent illness mandates ongoing medical evaluation and treatment of the diabetic state. Such close attention is best performed by a physician with special interest and expertise in diabetes. Thus, quality care for the hospitalized patient with diabetes usually requires concurrent care by a physician expert in diabetes and by a physician responsible for the patient's intercurrent illness.


he firing squad synchronization problem (FSSP) on cellular automata has been studied extensively for more than fifty years, and a rich variety of synchronization algorithms has been proposed. Goto's FSSP algorithm (Goto [1962]) has been known as the first minimum-time FSSP algorithm, however the paper itself had been a completely unknown one in the research community of cellular automata for a long time due to its hard accessibility. In the present paper, we reconstruct the Goto's FSSP algorithm and present the first small-state implementation.  The implementation is realized on a cellular automaton having 165-state and 4378 transition rules and the realization is far smaller than Goto [1962] imagined, where he thought that it would require many thousands of thousands states. It is shown that the reconstructed algorithm uses a quite different synchronization mechanism in comparison with the designs employed in Waksman [1966], Balzer [1967], Gerken [1987], and Mazoyer [1987].  We show that the algorithm has ...


The nonlinear dynamics of an inhomogeneous plasma with hot electrons and cold ions, in the frequency range below the ion cyclotron and magnetosonic frequencies, is studied in the presence of magnetic shear. Both the finite electron mass and electron stress-tensor effects are accounted for, permiting arbitrary parallel phase velocities. A class of nonlinear travelling solutions is found, which are fully determined by the boundary conditions in the infinity, even on closed nonlinear characteristics. For the typical tokamak scaling β < (Ln/Ls)2, two different regimes are distinguished. In the shear Alfvén regime, β ≪ me/mi, the solution has the form of a complex vortex chain, possessing both the magnetic and flow components, supported by a self-organized, localized plasma flow and poloidal field. In the drift-wave regime, me/mi ≪ β ≪ 1, the solution is a nonlinear electromagnetic drift wave, whose amplitude is determined by its wavelength and the angle of propagation.


Islamic banking, a financial innovation, has come to be seen as the most 'visible' aspect of Islamization. Notwithstanding its novelty, it has made considerable progress, measured by the rapidity with which it has been adopted in the Muslim (even non-Muslim) countries in a relatively short period of time. However, the progress made by Islamic banking is seen by some Muslim economists as more apparent than real because it is not being run exclusively (or even mostly) on the basis of the Sharicah-favored profit and loss sharing (PLS) principle; rather, the fixed-rate type of financial instruments, which are seen as a 'deviation' from the Islamic ideal, have proliferated. It is argued in this paper that there is no warrant whatsoever for this misplaced 'financial puritanism', which has obfuscated the subject and its manifestations. The fact of the matter is that, deviation or not, the fixed-rate financial instruments, duly approved by the Sharicah, form an integral part of Islamic banking; and that it would be counterproductive to limit the possibilities of this institution just to the PLS principle. Hence, respecting the preferences of the consumers, Islamic banks should aim to evolve a risk-minimizing 'mixed' investment portfolio, containing both the variable and fixed-rate of return types, without any 'imperfection complex'. Even more important, rather than pursue an ambiguous financial ideal, which cannot be reached, the focus of the future reform should be to produce something strikingly original which can win the acknowledgement of the people. To this end, Islamic banking should be informed with an earnest knowledge of the ethical objectives of an Islamic economic system, the truth of which can be established only by the quality of social justice and the primacy it accords to the needs of the underclass in society. If Islamic banking is unmindful of its economic consequences and remains hooked on 'procedural purity', it will wither on the vine of public apathy, even its disapproval.


To investigate the role of cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1) haplotypes in modulating susceptibility to coronary artery disease (CAD), a case-control study was conducted by enrolling 352 CAD cases and 282 healthy controls. PCR-RFLP, multiplex PCR, competitive ELISA techniques were employed for the analysis of CYP1A1 [m1 (T→C), m2 (A→G) and m4 (C→A)] haplotypes, glutathione-S-transferase (GST)T1/GSTM1 null variants and plasma 8-oxo-2'deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) respectively. Two CYP1A1 haplotypes, i.e. CAC and TGC showed independent association with CAD risk, while all-wild CYP1A1 haplotype i.e. TAC showed reduced risk for CAD. All the three variants showed mild linkage disequilibrium (D': 0.05 to 0.17). GSTT1 null variant also exerted independent association with CAD risk (OR: 2.53, 95% CI 1.55–4.12). Among the conventional risk factors, smoking showed synergetic interaction with CAC haplotype of CYP1A1 and GSTT1 null genotype in inflating CAD risk. High risk alleles of this pathway showed dose-dependent association with percentage of stenosis and number of vessels affected. Elevated 8-oxodG levels were observed in subjects with CYP1A1 CAC haplotype and GSTT1 null variant. Multiple linear regression model of these xenobiotic variants explained 36% variability in 8-oxodG levels. This study demonstrated the association of CYP1A1 haplotypes and GSTT1 null variant with CAD risk and this association was attributed to increased oxidative DNA damage.


JPEG is one of the most extensively used image formats. Understanding the inherent characteristics of JPEG may play a useful role in digital image forensics. In this paper, we introduce JPEG error analysis to the study of image forensics. The main errors of JPEG include quantization, rounding, and truncation errors. Through theoretically analyzing the effects of these errors on single and double JPEG compression, we have developed three novel schemes for image forensics including identifying whether a bitmap image has previously been JPEG compressed, estimating the quantization steps of a JPEG image, and detecting the quantization table of a JPEG image. Extensive experimental results show that our new methods significantly outperform existing techniques especially for the images of small sizes. We also show that the new method can reliably detect JPEG image blocks which are as small as 8 × 8 pixels and compressed with quality factors as high as 98. This performance is important for analyzing and locating small tampered regions within a composite image.


Jayasuriya seeks to address issues of agency and autonomy implicit in contractual social policy thinking of the new welfare state. One of the distinguishing features of the new social policy thinking of contractual welfare proponents is the emergence of strongly agent centred social policy frameworks tinged with a high degree of paternalism. The new social policy raises an interesting paradox: the entanglement of illiberal social policies within liberal notions of individual autonomy and agency. Jayasuriya suggests that the resolution of this paradox lies in identifying some of the problematic assumptions about agency and autonomy implied in the new neo-liberal contractualism. The core of neo-liberal contractualism resides in a notion of responsible agency that is conceived in a highly moralistic manner. Such a moralism is most evident in neo-liberal welfare contractualism. This, above all, is a point of view which serves to marginalise the 'public' or the political attributes of agency, and in particular, one which elides the direct as well as indirect coercive context of individual action. In other words, it presents a deeply anti-political understanding of the nature of agency. However, the author argues that contractualism remains deeply contested, and an alternative notion of democratic contractualism is proposed. While contesting individualised notions of responsible agency, the article seeks to advance an alternative vision of individual agency that accords primary emphasis to the embeddeness of agency and autonomy on its relational context. Adopting a 'relational' notion of autonomy enables us to locate a conception of individualisation within structures of power and domination.


The Guide to Road Design - Part 3: Geometric Design contains guidance that provides road designers and other practitioners with information that is common to the geometric design of road alignments. Road designers have to consider many factors and disciplines that may affect, or be affected by the design of roads and intersections. Therefore, reference should also be made to the other parts of the Austroads Guide to Road Design which are shown in Section 1 of this guide. Part 3 covers topics that are common to geometric design such as operating speed, sight distance, horizontal and vertical geometry, including the coordination of those two elements and consideration of cross-section element. It also provides relevant information relating to the design of on-road cyclist and parking facilities. The information in this guide generally replaces that which was previously provided in the Austroads Urban and Rural Road Design Guides.


Background: High follow-up rates are critical for robust research with minimal bias, and are particularly important for breast implant Core Studies seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. The Core Study for IDEAL IMPLANT, the most recently U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved breast implant, used a novel incentive payment model to achieve higher follow-up rates than in previous breast implant trials. Methods: At enrollment, $3500 was deposited into an independent, irrevocable trust for each of the 502 subjects and invested in a diversified portfolio. If a follow-up visit is missed, the subject is exited from the study and compensated for completed visits, but the remainder of her share of the funds stay in the trust. At the conclusion of the 10-year study, the trust will be divided among those subjects who completed all required follow-up visits. For primary and revision augmentation cohorts, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published follow-up rates from Core Studies were compared for all currently available breast implants. Results: Five-year follow-up rates for the IDEAL IMPLANT Core Study are higher for both primary augmentation and revision augmentation cohorts (94.9 percent and 96.7 percent, respectively) when compared to all other trials that have used U.S. Food and Drug Administration standardized follow-up reporting (MemoryShape, Allergan 410, and Sientra Core Studies). Conclusions: This trial demonstrates the utility of a novel incentive strategy to maximize follow-up in cosmetic surgery patients. This strategy may benefit future cosmetic surgery trials and perhaps any prospective research trial by providing more complete data. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, IV.


Public extension service delivery system has been unable to satisfactorily respond to the challenges of agricultural development, poverty eradication and rural transformation in Nigeria, resulting in continued calls for alternative systems, including commercialization of extension service. Because of their strategically significant role in farming household decision-making, this paper studied the perceptions of heads of rural household heads on commercialization of extension service in Kwara State. A four-stage systematic random sampling technique was used to select 460 respondents, while a structured questionnaire was used in data elicitation. The questionnaire also consisted of ten positively presented perceptions of commercialization on a 5-point Likert-type scale that was used to calculate Extension Commercialization Perception Coefficient (ECPC) for each respondent. Data analysis revealed that respondents were generally negatively disposed to commercialization (X=2.29). Furthermore, most respondents believed that farmers should be encouraged to support commercialization and that charges, if at all, should be based on farming income. Correlation analysis showed that education (r = .719, p = .002), farming income (r =.684, p =.005), and farm size (r =.676, p =.003) were positively significant correlates of ECPC among respondents. Also significant were income and size of personal farm. It is thus imperative that any form of commercialization of extension service be preceded by farmer empowerment and proper orientation to insure widespread acceptability. Key Words: women farmers, perceptions, extension, commercialization.


It is weIl known that the diagnostic potential of seismic data may be severely dependent on the acquisition and processing procedures. This is certainly true for any kind of interpretation approach or inversion algorithm but it becomes of the utmost importance when we deal with prestack seismic data. Namely, the Amplitude Vs. Offset (AVO) and the cornbined Amplitude, Phase and Frequency Vs. Offset (APF.VO) analyses may be very sensitive to the previous acquisition and processing. The main purpose of this paper is to show the impact that processing procedures have on the APF.VO responses of reflected signals pertaining to an offshore seismic line. We focus on two separate targets that give rise to bright reflections on the stack section: a cineritic layer and a gas-sand bed.


Representation is to symbolize, to depict as, and to help describe an idea that reinforces the descriptive, symbolic and recognizable role of representations in explanations. Representations, which are not literal interpretations nor considered as the real thing, are used in chemistry depicted as models, analogies, equations, graphs, diagrams, pictures and simulations. These representations serve as essential avenues of measuring the extent of understanding in the disciplinal content as alternative to traditional assessment methods (Lansangan, 2018). Kozma (2003) proposed a conceptual structure showing representational competence into characteristic patterns of representational use at five stages or level, which was the basis of the current study in constructing representational tasks for measuring understanding of the electron distribution of atoms. The study employed the mixed-method sequential explanatory design. The representation task rubric was developed, validated and pilot tested to 30 Pre-service physical sciences students and 30 in-service physical science teachers. Both quantitative and qualitative data collected substantiate the conclusion that the task feasibly corresponds to the rubrics developed. Among the respondents' takeaway of the experience is about the importance of organizing and re-organizing their thoughts on the concepts and pictures out the idea, giving importance in checking and correcting misconceptions, measuring their level of understanding and reflecting on how to improve their understanding on the topic.


Analysts often use a single average or otherwise aggregated price series to represent several geographic or product markets even when disaggregate data are available. We hypothesize that such an approach may not be appropriate under some circumstances, such as when only long-term relationships hold among price series or when homogeneous but relatively perishable products are considered. This question is of particular relevance in agriculture because of seasonality in production and harvest across various production regions, and the effect of changes in demand as substitute crops become available. We analyze this question in the context of fresh strawberry production. We find that in the case of the strawberry market, aggregate series are appropriate for long-term decision analysis, but some information loss occurs when conducting short-term decision analysis.


Listeria monocytogenes has been proposed as a carrier to elicit major histocompatibility complex class‐I restricted immune responses able to protect against tumor challenge. In this study the properties of the attenuated L. monocytogenes Δmpl2 mutant has been evaluated in vivo against a highly aggressive mouse fibrosarcoma which expresses β‐galactosidase (β‐gal) as a tumor‐associated antigen (TAA). Immunization with the vaccine prototypes resulted in both elicitation of specific antibodies and generation of cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTL). Oral vaccination protected 55–64% of the immunized animals from tumor take (p < 0.01) and strongly reduced the average size of the tumor in the other 34–45% (p < 0.01). Vaccinated mice developed a long‐lasting response, which resulted in 100% protection from a subsequent tumor challenge. Substitution of the whole TAA by its CTL‐defined immunodominant epitope resulted in 43% protection, suggesting a contribution of the humoral response to the observed antitumor effect. No statistically significant differences were observed in the antitumor response when mice were immunized with strains expressing the immunodominant TAA epitope in the context of carrier proteins which were either exported or restricted to the bacterial cytoplasm. This suggests that the topology of the recombinant antigen does not play a major role in the outcome of the protective response.


Self-adaptation enables software to execute successfully in dynamic, unpredictable, and uncertain environments. Control theory provides a broad set of mathematically grounded techniques for adapting the behavior of dynamic systems. While it has been applied to specific software control problems, it has proved difficult to define methodologies allowing non-experts to systematically apply control techniques to create adaptive software. These difficulties arise because computer systems are usually non-linear, with varying workloads and heterogeneous components, making it difficult to model software as a dynamic system; i.e., by means of differential or difference equations. This paper proposes a broad scope methodology for automatically constructing both an approximate dynamic model of a software system and a suitable controller for managing its non-functional requirements. Despite its generality, this methodology provides formal guarantees concerning the system's dynamic behavior by keeping its model continuously updated to compensate for changes in the execution environment and effects of the initial approximation. We apply the methodology to three case studies, demonstrating its generality by tackling different domains (and different non-functional requirements) with the same approach. Being broadly applicable and fully automated, this methodology may allow the adoption of control theoretical solutions (and their formal properties) for a wide range of software adaptation problems.


OBJECTIVES. Recognition and treatment of evolving critical illness is a fundamental element of hospital care. Hospital systems should triage patients to receive appropriate levels of care. We describe here the levels of care, the frequency of near or actual cardiopulmonary arrest (code-blue events), identification mechanisms, and responses to evolving critical illness in hospitalized children. METHODS. A cross-sectional telephone survey of Canadian and American hospitals with ≥50 pediatric acute care beds or ≥2 pediatric wards was performed. Regression analysis identified factors associated with the frequency of code-blue events after adjustment for hospital volume. RESULTS. Responses from 388 (84%) hospitals identified the 181 eligible pediatric hospitals included in this survey. All had a PICU, 99 (55%) had high-dependency units, 101 (56%) had extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy, and 69 (38%) used extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy for refractory cardiopulmonary arrest. All of the hospitals had immediate-response teams. They were activated 4676 times in the previous 12 months. Twenty-four percent of hospitals had activation criteria for immediate-response teams. Urgent-response teams to treat children who were clinically deteriorating but not at immediate risk of cardiopulmonary arrest were available in 136 (75%) hospitals; 29 (17%) had formal medical emergency teams, and 92 (51%) consulted the PICU. Code-blue events were more common in hospitals with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy, cardiopulmonary bypass, and larger PICU size. CONCLUSIONS. Currently, the organization of Canadian and American pediatric hospitals includes dedicated areas to match patient acuity and additional personnel to stabilize and facilitate transfer. The functioning of these systems of care results in calls for immediate medical assistance for ward patients ∼5000 times annually.


The aim of this paper is to explain what functional changes happen with the normal cells when they are transforming in cancerous cells. The human body is composed of trillions of cells, which constantly grow, divide and die. For the most part, cells are healthy and perform vital functions, but sometimes, cells do not form or behave properly. Cancer begins when an abnormal cell grows and does not stop dividing. Also, cancer cells do not obey the laws of contact inhibition, which means that cancerous cells propagate when they touch another cell (normal cells stop dividing when this happens). This proliferation of cancerous cells enables the disease to quickly form tumors and spread throughout the body.


This paper presents a novel surgery navigation system based on a three-dimensional (3D) imaging technique, integral videography (IV). In our system, the 3D structure of the object of interest is reconstructed using surface rendering and corresponding pixel distribution methods. We developed a high-speed algorithm that renders high-quality IV images from the surface model in real time and allows interactions like rotating and scaling to be done smoothly. Using the patient-image registration method, IV images can be displayed with the correct size and relative position with respect to the surgical instruments. Experiments were carried out with various anatomical models, and the results show that our system could be useful in many clinical situations such as orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery.


This study designs a film monopole antenna for WiBro (wireless broadband internet, 2.3-2.4GHz) and WLAN (wireless local area network, 2.4-2.48GHz) bands. A variety of design parameters were used to optimize frequency properties, and radiating and grounding elements were placed on the same plane for maximized radiation efficiency. Cloverleaf-shaped radiating elements were used to induce a phase difference of 180 degrees and thus obtain improved bandwidth. This paper presents the possibility of realizing broadband by using parasitic elements. The antenna created in this study achieves a peak gain of up to 3.18dBi and satisfies WiBro (2.3-2.4GHz) and WLAN (2.4-2.48GHz) bands with a bandwidth of 2.30-2.54GHz (9.8%) at -10dB or lower.


We present a novel technique for animating self-avatar eye movements in an immersive virtual environment without the use of eye-tracking hardware, and evaluate our technique via a two-alternative, forced-choice-with-confidence experiment that compares this simulated-eye-tracking condition to a no-eye-tracking condition and a real-eye-tracking condition in which the avatar's eyes were rotated with an eye tracker. Viewing the reflection of a tracked self-avatar is often used in virtual-embodiment scenarios to induce in the participant the illusion that the virtual body of the self-avatar belongs to them, however current tracking methods do not account for the movements of the participants eyes, potentially lessening this body-ownership illusion. The results of our experiment indicate that, although blind to the experimental conditions, participants noticed differences between eye behaviors, and found that the real and simulated conditions represented their behavior better than the no-eye-tracking condition. Additionally, no statistical difference was found when choosing between the real and simulated conditions. These results suggest that adding eye movements to selfavatars produces a subjective increase in self-identification with the avatar due to a more complete representation of the participant's behavior, which may be beneficial for inducing virtual embodiment, and that effective results can be obtained without the need for any specialized eye-tracking hardware.


Typical anatomy of the supraclavicular nerve (SCN) is described as originating from the cervical plexus and dividing into medial, intermediate, and lateral branches. The SCN is vulnerable to injury during clavicular surgery, leading to altered sensation post-operatively. There is also increasing interest in anaesthetising the SCN in shoulder or clavicular surgery. Utilising a high-frequency (20MHz) ultrasound probe, 20 healthy volunteers were scanned, giving data for 40 SCNs. For each nerve, anatomical course and branches were graphically plotted using a custom Python 3.8.12 program and Microsoft Excel. Of 40 nerves, only 19 (47.5%) demonstrated a typical course, with the rest showing considerable variability of branching patterns. Crossing branches (CBs) were found in 24(60%) with a total of 54. Just over half (29, 54.7%) of these crossed the clavicle lateral to its midpoint, with 32 (59.6%) CBs having a diameter of ≥25% compared to that of the SCN main trunk. The distance from the mid-clavicular point at which the branches crossed the clavicle was recorded. This study demonstrated that over half the SCNs had atypical branching patterns with intra-volunteer variability. Preoperative mapping may be useful in preventing injury and subsequent numbness.


Banks often rely on collateralised intraday liquidity from the central bank in order to be able to effect payments in a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) payment system. If a bank is holding insufficient eligible collateral in a particular country, and therefore cannot obtain credit from the local central bank, it may have to delay payments. This constitutes a liquidity risk to the system. Furthermore, a bank operating in multiple systems may face a mismatch between the location of its collateral holdings and liquidity needs. In this paper, we examine the extent to which the liquidity risk arising from such a mismatch may be mitigated by allowing cross-border use of collateral. We develop a two-country, two-bank model in which risk-neutral banks minimise expected costs with respect to their collateral choice in each country. In our baseline model, in which each bank faces a liquidity need in only one country, we find that liquidity risk is indeed reduced by cross-border use of collateral. This result holds despite the fact that banks may find it optimal to economise on their total holdings of collateral. However, when we extend the model to allow for the possibility that a bank faces liquidity needs in both countries simultaneously, the total quantum of collateral held is important. Indeed, when a bank finds it optimal to reduce its total holdings, there may be an increase in liquidity risk in at least one country when simultaneous liquidity demands are realised.


Slides from a presentation given December 7, 2018 at the Library Assessment Conference in Houston, TX. Digital literacy skills are essential for 21st century students to succeed in their academic work and future professions. Academic libraries around the country have implemented digital media services to assist students in developing videos, 3D objects, posters and other media for course assignments and other projects. Staff in these services also work with faculty to create and assess effective assignments so that students learn these important skills. At a high-research university a Digital Media Commons (DMC) was implemented in 2012 with technology and expertise in a separate service area to focus on media production projects Services have grown to also include a green screen lab, maker space, virtual reality, drones and a gaming lab. In 2017-18 an assessment project was implemented to determine how the DMC contributes to student success. The project included three phases -- a faculty survey, customer service survey and focus groups. Results of the assessments will be used for a variety of purposes including improvement to instruction, addressing service issues and adding needed services or resources. It will be distributed to Libraries' administration to use for planning future improvements, services and to address staffing issues. The data will also be used to inform an upcoming major library renovation and addition. The Libraries have employed a consulting firm to provide a master building plan. These assessment results will be most beneficial for planning an updated Digital Media Commons.


In order to solve the problem of lack of effective active personalized education resources active service mode for online education, massive educational resources have led to the problem of information overload and learning confusion, resulting in a situation with many resources and difficulties in obtaining information, it has been researched on active service system based on educational resources. Firstly, the related theoretical basis for online education resources is elaborated. Then, the existing problems are analyzed and sorted out. Finally, the measures for high-order singular value decomposition algorithm are proposed. The practical application proves that the higher-order singular value decomposition algorithm can effectively realize the personalized educational resource active service and provide help for related scholars in learning resources.


A 20-year-old white woman with Takayasu's arteritis had headaches, neck soreness, and a right carotid bruit. Corticosteroid treatment only temporarily relieved symptoms and caused Cushing's syndrome because of high dosage requirements. Progressive narrowing of the right common carotid artery occurred despite treatment. The diseased portion of the artery was successfully resected and replaced by a Dacron graft. Corticosteroid treatment was then tapered and discontinued, and the patient has remained wellfor 3 years. Carotid Doppler and real-time ultrasound studies performed more than 2 years after surgery showed a patent graft and no new disease process. This technique may be of value in selected cases for both prevention of cerebral ischemia and the elimination of local symptoms of the inflammatory process.


Anaerobic capacity/anaerobically attributable power is an important parameter for athletic performance, not only for short high-intensity activities but also for breakaway efforts and end spurts during endurance events. Unlike aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity cannot be easily quantified. The 3 most commonly used methodologies to quantify anaerobic capacity are the maximal accumulated oxygen deficit method, the critical power concept, and the gross efficiency method. This review describes these methods, evaluates if they result in similar estimates of anaerobic capacity, and highlights how anaerobic capacity is used during sporting activities. All 3 methods have their own strengths and weaknesses and result in more or less similar estimates of anaerobic capacity but cannot be used interchangeably. The method of choice depends on the research question or practical goal.


Objectives The goal of this study is to assess the performance of the modified semisolid Rappaport Vassiliadis media (MSRV) for detecting Salmonella spp. in comparison with conventional media especially xylose lysine desoxycholate agar (XLD agar) and Salmonella Shigella (SS) agar. Results The analysis showed that the overall Salmonella prevalence was 10% (18/180). Of the 18 Salmonella-positive samples, 16 (89%) were isolated from patients suffering from gastroenteritis, while one Salmonella strain (5.5%) was detected in the 45 stool samples of food handlers, and one Salmonella strain (5.5%) isolated from the 45 food samples. SS culture results comparable to serotyping resulted in sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, negative predictive, accuracy values of 83.3, 98.2, 83.3, 98.2, and 96.7%, respectively, while XLD generated 83.3% sensitivity, 97.5% specificity, 79% positive predictive value, 98.1% negative predictive value, 96.1% accuracy. Statistically, the MSRV method resulted in higher values of sensitivity (94.4%), specificity (99.4%), positive predictive value (94.4%), and negative predictive value (99.4%), and accuracy (98.9%) than those obtained by the other two culture methods. Conclusions The current study showed that the overall diagnostic performance of MSRV for the detection of Salmonella spp., including sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy, was significantly (P<0.05) greater than that of SS and XLD culturing methods. The incidence of Salmonella in diarrheal patients was significantly (P<0.05) higher than in food handlers and food samples. The occurrence of Salmonella was not significantly (P<0.05) related to the age and the sex of diarrheal patients. Salmonella typhimurium and Salmonella lamberhurst were the most prevalent serotypes in the tested samples.


In this paper, we study electron radial diffusion coefficients derived from Pc4‐Pc5 ultralow frequency (ULF) wave power during the intense geomagnetic storm on 17–18 March 2015. During this storm the population of highly relativistic electrons was depleted within 2 hr of the storm commencement. This radial diffusion, depending upon the availability of source populations, can cause outward radial diffusion of particles and their loss to the magnetosheath, or inward transport and acceleration. Analysis of electromagnetic field measurements from Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite (GOES), Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) satellite, and ground‐based magnetometers shows that the main phase storm‐specific radial diffusion coefficients do not correspond to statistical estimates. Specifically, during the main phase, the electric diffusion ( DLLE ) is reduced, and the magnetic diffusion ( DLLB ) is increased, compared to empirical models based on Kp. Contrary to prior results, the main phase magnetic radial diffusion cannot be neglected. The largest discrepancies, and periods of dominance of DLLB over DLLE , occur during intervals of strongly southward IMF. However, during storm recovery, both magnetic and electric diffusion rates are consistent with empirical estimates. We further verify observationally, for the first time, an energy coherence for both DLLB and DLLE where diffusion coefficients do not depend on energy. We show that, at least for this storm, properly characterizing main phase radial diffusion, potentially associated with enhanced ULF wave magnetopause shadowing losses, cannot be done with standard empirical models. Modifications, associated especially with southward IMF, which enhance the effects of DLLB and introduce larger main phase outward transport losses, are needed.


Electronic commerce is the products of the development of Internet and information technology in the twentieth century. It makes commodity trading changing dramatically, not only to shorten trading hours, transactions faster, but also greatly reduce the transaction costs of commodity transactions. As a rapidly developing e-commerce industry, logistics and distribution system has become an unavoidable bottleneck to E-commerce Businesses. The efficiency level of logistics and distribution system is the key to the success of e-commerce, the currently logistics problems plaguing the e-commerce are: high cost of delivery of goods, high storage costs, imperfect distribution channels. In this paper, discuss how to build a value of the galaxy in which e-commerce businesses as the core member, thereby strengthening and improving contact to commodity suppliers, service providers and customers. Format a harmonious and win-win situation by mutual promotion and common development to solve the logistics problems of the e-commerce business development constraints.


Introduction Resting state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) is currently used in numerous clinical and research settings. The localization of resting state networks (RSNs) has been utilized in applications ranging from group analysis of neurodegenerative diseases to individual network mapping for pre-surgical planning of tumor resections. Reproducibility of these results has been shown to require a substantial amount of high-quality data, which is not often available in clinical or research settings. Methods In this work, we report voxelwise mapping of a standard set of RSNs using a novel deep 3D convolutional neural network (3DCNN). The 3DCNN was trained on publicly available functional MRI data acquired in n = 2010 healthy participants. After training, maps that represent the probability of a voxel belonging to a particular RSN were generated for each participant, and then used to calculate mean and standard deviation (STD) probability maps, which are made publicly available. Further, we compared our results to previously published resting state and task-based functional mappings. Results Our results indicate this method can be applied in individual subjects and is highly resistant to both noisy data and fewer RS-fMRI time points than are typically acquired. Further, our results show core regions within each network that exhibit high average probability and low STD. Discussion The 3DCNN algorithm can generate individual RSN localization maps, which are necessary for clinical applications. The similarity between 3DCNN mapping results and task-based fMRI responses supports the association of specific functional tasks with RSNs.


The aim of this study was to analyse the frequency and expression of biosynthesis genes in 47 Streptococcus mutans isolates with different mutacin-producing phenotypes. Detection of the frequency and expression of genes encoding mutacin types I, II, III and IV were carried out by PCR and semi-quantitative RT-PCR, respectively, using primers specific for each type of biosynthesis gene. In addition, a further eight genes encoding putative bacteriocins, designated bsm 283, bsm 299, bsm 423, bsm 1889c, bsm 1892c, bsm 1896, bsm 1906c and bsm 1914, were also screened. There was a high phenotypic diversity; some Streptococcus mutans isolates presented broad antimicrobial spectra against other Streptococcus mutans clinical isolates, including bacteria resistant to common antibiotics, as well as Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis and Streptococcus pyogenes. The expression frequency of the bsm gene was higher than that of the previously characterized mutacins (I-IV). There was no positive correlation between the number of indicator strains inhibited (antimicrobial spectra) and the number of biosynthesis genes expressed (Spearman correlation test, r=-0.03, P>0.05). In conclusion, the high diversity of mutacin-producing phenotypes, associated with high frequency of expression of the biosynthesis genes screened, reveals a broad repertoire of genetic determinants encoding antimicrobial peptides that can act in different combinations.


The increasing demand for large data downloads on cellular networks is increasing congestion which decreases end user quality of service. This work addresses the problem of offloading the cellular network while distributing common content to a group of mobile devices that cooperate during the download process by forming device-to-device communication networks. The base station unicasts different chunks of the content to selected mobile devices that multicast it to each other over local ad hoc networks using multihop cooperation while maintaining fairness constraints on the energy consumption of the mobile devices. The optimal cellular offloading problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming problem and the corresponding complexity is analyzed. Then, a dynamic programming approach is proposed to adapt the solution to the dynamics of the network as the mobile devices move. Cellular offloading assuming single hop cooperation among the mobile devices proves to be significantly less computationally complex than cooperation using a higher number of hops; however both problems are NP-complete. Thus, polynomial time greedy algorithms are presented to obtain computationally fast solutions with good performance. Performance results demonstrate that significant cellular offloading gains can be achieved, even if only a very small fraction of the mobile devices' battery levels can be consumed for cooperation.


On 10 November 1898 hundreds of white men took to the streets of Wilmington, North Carolina, to retake the city from the clutches of "negro domination." The rioters began their day of death and destruction by reducing the offices of the local black newspaper to rubble. They then headed into the predominantly black section of the city, where shooting ensued. Most African Americans were defenseless against the onslaught of white violence, destruction, and murder. Estimates vary widely, but by the end of the day, anywhere from 14 to 250 people, most of them black, were dead, and many prominent Republicans, Populists, and African Americans were banished or had fled the city in fear.(1) The Wilmington race riot of 1898 marked the violent culmination of the Democratic party's white supremacy campaign in North Carolina. In their efforts to end political control by the Populist-Republican coalition, also known as Fusion, Democrats used the protection of white women as a rallying cry to unite white men in Wilmington and across North Carolina. The use of white supremacist ideology to incite the riot is well documented in historical accounts, while the importance of women and gender, defined here as societal expectations based on perceived sexual differences, is often ignored.(2) Gender greatly influenced the power structure of late-nineteenth-century political developments in North Carolina. Adding fuel to the fire of the white supremacist campaign, the combined power of gender ideology and sexual anxieties shaped the dynamics that led to the Wilmington race riot. The Democratic political machine effectively combined the fear of aggressive black male sexuality and the ideal of white female purity to create a sexualized and gendered political rhetoric that incited members of the white community to violence. Democratic, Populist, and Republican newspapers all used this rhetoric to greater and lesser advantage throughout the white supremacy campaign. In 1877 President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew all of the Federal troops remaining in the South, marking the end of Reconstruction. Across North Carolina, Republican control ended as Democrats regained the majority of political offices in elections held around this time. In Wilmington, Democrats had regained power one year earlier by electing a majority to the board of aldermen, the governing body of the city. As the Democratic party consolidated control after 1877, the number of black officeholders and voters in North Carolina shrank rapidly. Party leaders then enacted several measures to ensure their continued power. Democrats gerrymandered Wilmington voting districts in order to reduce the political strength of the black population. Under the new system, blacks would be a majority in only one of the five wards even though they constituted 56 percent of the city's population. According to the city charter, each ward would elect two representatives to the board of aldermen; the board would then elect one of its members as mayor and fill the vacant position by election or appointment. As in many larger urban areas, the government of Wilmington consisted of a small cadre of powerful city bosses who ensured that people supportive of their views were elected to the board of aldermen.(3) The Democrats held power in North Carolina until 1894, when they lost control of both houses of the legislature to the statewide fusion of the Populist and the Republican parties. "Frequent reminders of the turbulent era of carpetbaggers and scalawags had for years kept the mass of white men voting solidly Democratic," notes historian Helen Edmonds. "But to many white farmers, by 1894, the familiar cry of defending the state against Negro rule was becoming an outworn shibboleth."(4) The Populist party was formed in the late 1880s out of the Farmers' Alliance, an organization created to voice agrarian discontent with economic conditions across the South and Midwest. Prices for farm products had dropped steadily since the Civil War, and farmers were struggling to survive economically. …


Question: Low back pain is an increasing global health problem, which is associated with intervertebral disc (IVD) damage and de- generation. Major changes occur in the nucleus pulposus (NP), with the degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) [1]. Further studies showed that growth factors from the transforming growth factor (TGF) and bone morphogenic proteins (BMP) family may induce chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) [2]. Focusing on non-viral gene therapies and their possible translation into the clinics, we investigated if GDF6 (syn. BMP13 or CDMP2) can induce regeneration of degraded NP. We hypothesized that IVD transfected with plasmid over-expressing GDF6 also up-regulates other NP- and chondrogenic cell markers and enhances ECM deposition.
Methods: Bovine IVD cells were isolated by pronase/collagenase II overnight digestion. After monolayer expansion up to passage 3, cells were transfected with the plasmid pGDF6 (RG211366, Origene, SF) or with green fluorescence protein (GFP) control using the NeonO transfection system (Invitrogen, Basel), both equipped with a Cy- tomegalovirus (CMV) promotor to induce over-expression. We tested a range of yet unpublished parameters for each of the primary disc cells to optimize efficiency. To test a non-viral gene therapy applied directly to 3D whole organ culture, bovine IVDs were harvested from fresh tails obtained from the abattoir within 5 h post-mortem [3]. Discs were then pre-incubated for 24 h in high glucose Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium and 5 % fetal calf serum. Each disc was transfected by injection of 5 lg of plasmid GDF6 (Origene, RG211366) into the center by 25G needle and using Hamilton sy- ringe. Electroporation was performed using 2-needle array electrode or tweezertrodes; 8 pulses at 200mv/cm with an interval of 10 ms were applied using ECM830 Square Wave Electroporation System (Harvard Apparatus, MA) (Fig. 1). After transfection discs were cultured for 72 h to allow expression of GFP or GDF6. Discs were then fixed, cryosectioned and analysed by immunofluorescence against GDF6.
Results: We successfully transfected bovine NP and AF cells in monolayer culture with the two plasmids using a 1,400 V, 20 ms and 2 pulses with a *25 % efficiency using 0.15 M cells and 3 lg DNA (Fig. 1). Organ IVD culture transfection revealed GFP6 positive staining in the centre of the disc using 2-needle array electrode. Results from tweezertrodes did not show any GFP posi- tive cells.
Conclusions: We identified novel parameters to successfully transfect primary bovine IVD cells. For transfection of whole IVD explants electroporation parameters need to be further optimized. Acknowledgments: This study was supported by the Lindenhof Foundation ''Forschung und Lehre'' (Project no. 13-02-F).
References
1. Roughly PJ (2004) Spine (Phila) 29:2691–2699
2. 3.
Clarke LE, McConell JC, Sherratt MJ, Derby B, Richardson SM, Hoyland JA (2014) Arthritis Res Ther 16:R67
Chan SC, Gantenbein-Ritter B (2012) J Vis Exp 60(60):e3490


A round table discussion was held during the AAPS Annual Meeting on October 27, 2015, with the somewhat provocative topic of whether we need more or less lipophilic compounds in drug development. The session was attended by more than 250 participants, and the feedback was very positive as this round table became a forum for the exchange of ideas from scientists within the academia and industry. Most importantly, the discussion highlighted the difference in approaches to compound selection and development strategies in various companies and organizations. As moderators of this session, we are writing this report to highlight the points and counterpoints made at the session and to bring the importance of the dialogue and debate to the forefront of discussions on how to select the best drug development candidates to enable efficient delivery and, hence, treatment of diseases.


This report presents the final results from the national evaluation of the impact of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award on young people. Chapter 2 gives the background to this work and describes the research methods for the whole project. An extensive literature review of previous work relating to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and other youth programmes is included as Chapter 3.
Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 present the results of the research by participant group. The first results chapter (Chapter 4) presents the results from all phases of the research with young people. Chapter 5 focuses on the results from both
quantitative and qualitative research with delivery partners and Chapter 6 summarises the interviews with other stakeholders. Chapter 7 reports the findings from the oral history interviews with five decades of past participants in the DofE. The themes emerging from all of these strands of the research are collated and discussed in Chapter 8, which also gives the recommendations for
future action.
This project was commissioned by The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and funded by The Pears Foundation. The project was undertaken by the Centre for Children
and Youth (CCY) – a research centre based at The University of Northampton


This paper presents an automatized, on-wafer time-domain active load-pull set-up developed for a Doherty-oriented characterization of High Power GaN High-Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs). From the on-wafer measured Time-Domain Waveforms (TDW) acquisition, all data required for the design of a Doherty Power Amplifier (DPA) are then directly extracted. With this measurement process, designers have then the direct knowledge of the optimal characteristics of high power transistors along the Output Back-Off (OBO). They also can deduce the maximum obtainable operating bandwidth of the final Doherty PA. Simultaneously to this measurement process, simulations based on the use of non-linear foundry electro-thermal model have also been performed to prove the validity of the method to predict Power Added Efficiency (PAE) performances versus OBO. Measurement and simulations have been applied to an 8×125μm AlGaN/GaN GH25 transistor from UMS foundry.


464 STAT4 deficiency exacerbates atherosclerosis by promoting mobilization of myeloid cells, polarization of M1 macrophages and formation of foam cells L. Xu1; S. Ding2; J. Yang1; X. Yang2; J. Ge1 Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Cardiology Department, Shanghai, China People's Republic of; Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Shanghai, China People's Republic of


Kidney function declines with age in the majority of the population. Although very few older people progress to end stage, the consequences of doing so are burdensome for the patient and very expensive for the society. Although some of the observed decline is likely due to changes in the vasculature, much is associated with the development of age-associated glomerulosclerosis. This article will review the well-established structural and functional changes in the glomerulus with age. The role of calorie restriction in modifying age-related pathology will be discussed. The importance of the podocyte as a critical cell in the aging process is considered using animal models and human biopsy material. Newer data on changes in gene expression driven by nuclear factor kappa beta (NFkB) and possible changes in biology in the glomerulus are discussed. The relationship between pathways involved in aging and the decline in kidney function is reviewed. There is speculation on the significance of these changes in relation to normal and pathological aging.


In this paper, a novel bearingless motor (50 N·m /2.5 kW) for high-purity mixing applications is presented. The motor consists of a stator with concentrated windings and an exterior rotor with permanent magnets. The rotor is propelled and spatially suspended only by means of magnetic fields. This paper deals with the functionality and the mechanical setup of the new motor. Thereby, the optimization of the motor design is presented in detail. In order to evaluate the load of the bearingless motor in mixing operation, a fluid simulation is set up. Moreover, after the identification of the losses, a thermal simulation is established in order to predict the temperature distribution within the motor. Finally, a functional model is built up to verify the results.


: The time course of neurophysiological parameters (EEG, evoked potentials of various modalities, including P300, and polysomnography) was followed up in 10 patients with apallic syndrome (AS) of nontraumatic origin (heart arrest, stroke, neuroinfection, etc.) during the formation of the syndrome and the condition of various severity: incomplete formation of AS eventuating in gross psychoneurological defects and complete formation of AS (a stable vegetative state). A dynamic follow-up of not only EEG of awaken and sleeping patients, but of their evoked potentials, specifically somatosensory and P300, were shown to be significant for assessment of the course of AS and prediction of its outcome.


This study examined the impact of resource constraints on the psychological well-being of survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), testing whether resource constraints is one mechanism that partially mediates the relationship between IPV and women's well-being. Although within-woman changes in resource constraints did not mediate the relationship between change in physical abuse and change in well-being, change in resource constraints fully explained the relationship between change in psychological abuse and change in psychological well-being over time. Survivors' resource constraints were fully responsible for the significant mental health consequences that women experienced after psychological abuse. Between-women differences in initial resource constraints were also examined; however, they did not mediate the relationship between women's earlier experiences of abuse and change in their well-being over time. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. C 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


papillae (Ota et al., 2009), but the underlying cellular mechanism of this defect remains email@example.com) Accepted 14 June 2011 SUMMARY Taste buds, the taste sensory organs, are conserved in vertebrates and composed of distinct cell types, including taste receptor, basal/presynaptic and support cells. Here, we characterize zebrafish taste bud development and show that compromised Fgf signaling in the larva results in taste bud reduction and disorganization. We determine that Fgf activity is required within pharyngeal endoderm for formation of Calb2b + cells and reveal miR-200 and Delta-Notch signaling as key factors in this process. miR-200 knock down shows that miR-200 activity is required for taste bud formation and in particular for Calb2b + cell formation. Compromised delta activity in mib –/– dramatically reduces the number of Calb2b + cells and increases the number of 5HT + cells. Conversely, larvae with increased Notch activity and ascl1a –/– mutants are devoid of 5HT + cells, but have maintained and increased Calb2b + cells, respectively. These results show that Delta-Notch signaling is required for intact taste bud organ formation. Consistent with this, Notch activity restores Calb2b + cell formation in pharyngeal endoderm with compromised Fgf signaling, but fails to restore the formation of these cells after miR-200 knock down . Altogether, this study provides genetic evidence that supports a novel model where Fgf regulates Delta-Notch signaling, and subsequently miR-200 activity, in order to promote


Deep cryogenic treatment is an add on process, which is done in between quenching and tempering processes of conventional heat treatment. This paper presents the optimization of the deep cryogenic treatment process parameters for the improvement of wear resistance of 100Cr6 bearing steel using Taguchi technique. The process parameters considered for the optimization are, the cooling rate, soaking temperature, soaking time and tempering temperature with the quality target of wear resistance. The optimum parameters for the 100Cr6 bearing steel were arrived at the cooling rate of 1.5 o C/min, soaking temperature of -150 o C, soaking period of 48 hrs and tempering temperature of 150 o C, based on the Taguchi technique. Analysis of variance is performed to identify the most influential factor, and it is found that the soaking period is the most influential factor for the deep cryogenic treatment of 100Cr6 bearing steel.


New porous materials with hybrid pore structure "Fibers-In-Pores" structure were produced by developing Si3N4 whiskers in pores of partially-sintered silicon by nitriding. Because silicon and Si3N4 have excellent heat resistance, the proposed porous materials are expected to utilize high-temperature applications such as gas filters. Porous silicon was produced by sintering Si powder at 1300°C for 1 h in a stream of Ar gas. Porous Si bodies were nitrided at 1300°C for 1 h with N2 gas to develop long Si3N4 whiskers in pores of partially-sintered silicon. Specific surface area was increased and gas permeability was decreased by applying the nitridation process at 1300°C.


Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) were fed diets containing 1, 5, 10, 25 or 100 ppm selenium as sodium selenite, a diet containing 10 ppm selenium as seleno-DL-methionine or a control diet. There were no effects of 1, 5 or 10 ppm selenium as sodium selenite on either weight or survival of adults or on reproductive success, and there did not appear to be a dose-response relationship at these lower levels. The 100 ppm selenium diet killed 11 of 12 adults; one adult male fed 25 ppm selenium died. Selenium at 25 and 100 ppm caused weight loss in adults. Females fed 25 ppm selenium took longer to begin laying eggs and intervals between eggs were longer than in females in other treatment groups. Hatching success appeared to be reduced in birds fed 10 ppm selenium as selenomethionine, but the reduction was not statistically significant. The survival of ducklings and the mean number of 21-d-old ducklings produced per female were reduced in the 25 ppm selenium as sodium selenite group and the 10 ppm selenium as selenomethionine group. Egg weights were not affected by any selenium treatment, but 25 ppm selenium lowered the Ratcliffe Index. Duckling weights at hatching and at 21 d of age were reduced 28 and 36%, respectively, in birds fed 25 ppm selenium, as compared with controls. Body weights measured on day 21 were lower for ducklings fed 10 ppm selenium as selenomethionine than in some other groups. Selenium in concentrations of 10 and 25 ppm as sodium selenite caused mainly embryotoxic effects, whereas 10 ppm as selenomethionine was more teratogenic, causing hydrocephaly, bill defects, eye defects (microphthalmia and anophthalmia) and foot and toe defects, including ectrodactyly. Selenomethionine was much more readily taken up by mallards and passed into their eggs than was sodium selenite, and a greater proportion of the selenium in the eggs ended up in the white when selenomethionine was fed. Adult males accumulated more selenium than did females, probably because of the females' ability to eliminate selenium in their eggs.


Although image-based visual servoing provides superior performance in many vision-based robotic applications, it reveals fatal limitations when initial pose discrepancy is large. The feature points may leave the camera's field of view, and also, the robot may not converge to the goal configuration. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to resolve these limitations by planning trajectories in the image space using uncalibrated stereo cameras. Intermediate views of the robot gripper are synthesized to generate the image trajectories such that the gripper can track a straight path in the three-dimensional workspace. The proposed method utilizes screw motions of the gripper represented in the projective space with the help of the fundamental properties of projective geometry. Computational issues are also considered to enhance the estimation of the projective transformation from initial to goal configuration. The validity of this approach is demonstrated through computer simulations and limited experiments.


Soil water is an important driving force of the ecosystems, especially in the semiarid hill and gully region of the northwestern Loess Plateau in China. The mechanism of soil water migration in the reconstruction and restoration of Loess Plateau is a key scientific problem that must be solved. Isotopic tracers can provide valuable information associated with complex hydrological problems, difficult to obtain using other methods. In this study, the oxygen and hydrogen isotopes are used as tracers to investigate the migration processes of soil water in the unsaturated zone in an arid region of China's Loess Plateau. Samples of precipitation, soil water, plant xylems and plant roots are collected and analysed. The conservative elements deuterium (D) and oxygen (18O) are used as tracers to identify variable source and mixing processes. The mixing model is used to quantify the contribution of each end member and calculate mixing amounts. The results show that the isotopic composition of precipitation in the Anjiagou River basin is affected by isotopic fractionation due to evaporation. The isotopic compositions of soil waters are plotted between or near the local meteoric water lines, indicating that soil waters are recharged by precipitation. The soil water migration is dominated by piston-type flow in the study area and rarely preferential flow. Water migration exhibited a transformation pathway from precipitation to soil water to plant water. δ18O and δD are enriched in the shallow (< 20 cm depth) soil water in most soil profiles due to evaporation. The isotopic composition of xylem water is close to that of soil water at the depth of 40–60 cm. These values reflect soil water signatures associated with Caragana korshinskii Kom. uptake at the depth of 40–60 cm. Soil water from the surface soil layer (20–40 cm) comprised 6–12 % of plant xylem water, while soil water at the depth of 40–60 cm is the largest component of plant xylem water (ranging from 60 to 66 %), soil water below 60 cm depth comprised 8–14 % of plant xylem water and only 5–8 % is derived directly from precipitation. This study investigates the migration process of soil water, identifies the source of plant water and finally provides a scientific basis for identification of model structures and parameters. It can provide a scientific basis for ecological water demand, ecological restoration, and management of water resources.


This paper presents on the cracking mechanisms of fiber-eutectics and transformation particles composite ceramic. First, supposing that the tensile stress among fiber eutectics is transmitted by means of shear stress along the interfaces of fiber eutectics, based on fiber eutectics having lengths smaller than the critical length, the force acting along the fiber eutectic can be determined by the shear stress. Then, the probability of ending fiber eutectics and bridging fiber eutectics can be gotten by defining a critical district. Finally, according to the random orientations and the lengths of the fiber eutectics, composite ceramics will crack by slip incompatibility among bridging fiber eutectics. The cracking stress of the composite ceramics is built.


The exclusive reaction ?? → ??( ∗0 ̄∗0 → +c− −c+) for the LHC experiments is discussed. The amplitudes for the reaction are formulated within the tensor-pomeron approach. We consider two diffractive mechanisms: the 52(1950) B-channel exchange mechanism and the ∗0-exchange mechanism. First mechanism is a candidate for central diffractive production of tensor glueball and the second one is an irreducible continuum. Comparison with data from WA102 experiment are made and predictions for LHC experiments are given. We find that including the continuum contribution alone one can describe the WA102 data reasonably well. A similar behaviour of the continuum and resonance contributions makes an identification of a broad tensor-glueball state in this reaction rather difficult.


The Islamic dress code for women has been a highly debated topic in both the Islamic world and Europe. Women wear a headscarf (hijab) and cover their bodies, with the exception of the face, hands, and feet. Culturally, some women may also cover their faces behind a veil and wear a cloak ('abaya) covering their bodies. Several secular laws have been introduced in parts of Europe to make it illegal to wear the veil in public for security reasons. Secular countries, such as Turkey, with a majority Muslim population, have also made it illegal to wear the headscarf by any woman in public offices or universities. Prior to their later repeal, similar laws also existed in Iran, during the reign of Shah Reza Pahlavi, and Tunisia. Most research on reasons behind the Islamic dress code discuss modesty issues. However, this paper looks deep into the inner meanings of women's Islamic dress code. It analyses the linguistic meanings of the terms used within the dress code and their usage in the Qur'an. The term for women is (nisa'), which is the feminine term for people, and its root meaning is forgetful. The Qur'an portrays souls, which is a feminine term in Arabic, that forget G-d as (nisa'). By linking the many terms used in Qur'anic passages, it becomes clear that the physical law is only mirroring the reality of a spiritual truth. The souls of people, who forget G-d, are veiled from G-d. In many parts of the Qur'an, it shows how G-d puts veils in people's hearts from understanding the Qur'an and the message. In reality, souls are veiled from G-d. The Islamic dress code tries to teach this spiritual truth through physical portrayal.


Schizophrenia prevalence in the United States is highest in urbanized Northeastern, Northwestern, and Great Lakes States. The viral theory of schizophrenia attributes this distribution to enhanced susceptibility to viral infections in crowded, urban areas. Such infections during fetal or perinatal development are hypothesized to result in the eventual onset of schizophrenia . This study attempts to identify which viral infections have a similar geographical distribution to schizophrenia . Examination of the geographical distribution of infectious diseases in the United States reveals that the spreading foci of Lyme disease and its primary vectors, Ixodid ticks, correlate significantly with high schizophrenia rate areas. Ixodid ticks are vectors in North America and throughout the world of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). The international distribution of TBE is shown to be concentrated in countries where the highest rates of schizophrenia are found: Croatia, Norway, Finland, Germany, Ireland, and others. The geographical specificity of this correlation and the plausibility of a tick-associated or TBE theory of schizophrenia are discussed.


With the C# language and Access database, Building Foundation Pit Monitoring Information System (BFPMIS) was developed. At the process of developing the excavation monitoring system, the design of the system data structures and the data types are discussed. The excavation monitoring system contains main data structure and assistant data structure. The data structure, data element and data type of projects, bids, sections, monitoring point types, point property, alert values, bore information, pile information and beam information are analyzed emphatically. The application of the tree structure in the main data structure is introduced. And the monitoring points are classified according to the monitoring objects to describe and store the monitoring data. The system set orange alarm and red alarm to every monitoring point.


The microbial community of 21 full-scale biogas reactors was examined using 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene sequences. These reactors included seven (six mesophilic and one thermophilic) digesting sewage sludge (SS) and 14 (ten mesophilic and four thermophilic) codigesting (CD) various combinations of wastes from slaughterhouses, restaurants, households, etc. The pyrosequencing generated more than 160,000 sequences representing 11 phyla, 23 classes, and 95 genera of Bacteria and Archaea. The bacterial community was always both more abundant and more diverse than the archaeal community. At the phylum level, the foremost populations in the SS reactors included Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Spirochetes, and Euryarchaeota, while Firmicutes was the most prevalent in the CD reactors. The main bacterial class in all reactors was Clostridia. Acetoclastic methanogens were detected in the SS, but not in the CD reactors. Their absence suggests that methane formation from acetate takes place mainly via syntrophic acetate oxidation in the CD reactors. A principal component analysis of the communities at genus level revealed three clusters: SS reactors, mesophilic CD reactors (including one thermophilic CD and one SS), and thermophilic CD reactors. Thus, the microbial composition was mainly governed by the substrate differences and the process temperature.


The space concept of the Unified Scaling Law for Earthquakes (USLE), which generalizes the Gutenberg-Richter relationship making use of the fractal distribution of earthquake sources in a seismic region, has been applied to seismicity in Northeastern Italy. In particular, the temporal variations of USLE coefficients have been investigated, with the aim to get new insights in the evolving dynamics of seismicity within different tectonic domains of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region (FVG) and its surroundings.

For this purpose, we resorted to the catalog compiled at the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), considering earthquakes occurred in the period 1995 – 2019, with epicenters within three sub-regions of the territory under investigation, delimited based on main geological and tectonic features (Bressan et al. 2018,  J. Seismol. 22, 1563–1578). To quantify the observed variability of seismic dynamics, a multi-parametric analysis has been carried out for each sub-region by means of several moving averages, including: the inter-event time, τ; the cumulative Benioff strain release, Σ; the USLE control parameter, η and the USLE coefficients, estimated for moving six-years time intervals. The analysis evidenced that the USLE coefficients in FVG region are time-dependent and show up correlated (Nekrasova and Peresan 2021, Frontiers in Earth Science, 8, 624). Moreover, the dynamical features of the considered parameters in the three sub-regions highlighted a number of different seismic regimes; in particular, major changes in the parameters are associated to occurrence of the 12 April 1998 (M5.6) and the 12 July 2004 (M5.1) Kobarid (Slovenia) earthquakes within the corresponding sub-region.

The results obtained for seismicity in Northeastern Italy and surrounding areas confirm similar analysis performed on a global scale, in advance and after the largest earthquakes worldwide. In addition, the analysis evidenced the spatially heterogeneous and non-stationary features of seismicity, in agreement with results from independent analysis of background seismicity within the investigated territory (Benali et al. 2020, Stoch. Environ. Res. Risk. Assess. 34, 775–791), thus suggesting the opportunity of resorting to time-dependent models of earthquakes occurrence for improving local seismic hazard assessment.


In the graduation thesis, I present database, its history of origin, and where it is placed from the perspective of cases of use on the software market. I make a short overview of examples of use from the real world, and shortly research trends of its popularity compared to related products and market as a whole. Based on my own experience, literature, official documentation, and experience of other users, I examine the cases which caused problematic operation of the database. For each of the cases I examine the possibility and advisability of solving the problem with automatic optimisation of queries. I examine the case also historically, since Elasticsearch has in the last year significantly changed. I note that automation of queries is not advisable, since the developers in Elasticsearch solved most of the cases with architectural changes, internal optimisation, and a change of query language, which takes away from the user ambiguity in expressing the queries. I establish that the most important feature of well-functioning cluster is a proper size of shards, which cannot be easily changed. For that, an experimental planning of activities is necessary, which I also describe. In addition to optimum size of shard, there are some bad practices, which I also describe in the thesis; with them we can collapse cluster, and it is important that they are known by the user.


Natural proteins are often confined within their local microenvironments, such as three-dimensional confinement in organelles or two-dimensional confinement in lipid rafts on cytoplasmic membrane. Spatial confinement restricts proteins' entropic freedom, forces their lateral interaction, and induces new properties that the same proteins lack at the soluble state. So far, the phenomenon of environment-induced protein functional alteration still lacks a full illustration. We demonstrate here that engineered protein fragments, although being non-functional in solution, can be re-assembled within the nanometer space to give the full activity of the whole protein. Specific interaction between hexahistidine-tag (His-tag) and NiO surface immobilizes protein fragments on NiO nanoparticles to form a self-assembled protein "corona" on the particles inside the nanopores of mesoporous silica. Site-specific assembly forces a shoulder-by-shoulder orientation and promotes fragment−fragment interaction; this interaction together with spatial confinement of the mesopores results in functional re-assembly of the protein half fragments. To our surprise, a single half fragment of luciferase (non-catalytic in solution) exhibited luciferase activity when immobilized on NiO in the mesopores, in the absence of the complimentary half. This shows for the first time that spatial confinement can induce the folding of a half fragment, reconstitute the enzyme active site, and re-gain the catalytic capability of the whole protein. Our work thereby highlights the under-documented notion that aside from the chemical composition such as primary sequence, physical environment of a protein also determines its function.


The tractor is introduced closed into the bladder, through a slit in the membranous urethra, and is then opened by turning the thumb-screw five or six times to the left. Then slide the large nut back to the thumbscrew, and hold it with the right hand while the shaft is turned to the left with the left hand until the groove on the nut is in line with the groove on the shaft. Then slide the large nut back to its place and lock by turning the thumbscrew to the right. The end of the tractor is now elevated and the instrument is used as a lever; the pubes being the fulcrum of the lever and the prostate the body moved. This maneuver brings the broad flat surfaces of the blades of the instrument in contact with the bladder wall through which the force must be applied to the prostate. The tractor is taken apart for cleaning by simply removing the thumbscrew.


The recrystallization behaviors of cold rolled aluminum alloys in electric field up to 400kV/mm and the phase transformation processes of proeutectoid steels under magnetic field up to 14 Tesla have been experimentally examined. It has been found that both the electric field and the magnetic field have influence on the evolution of texture and microstructure characteristics. During the recrystallization annealing under the electric field of the cold-rolled 3104 aluminum alloy sheets, the electric field postpones the recovery and recrystallization progress. First principle calculation was performed to study the electric structures of aluminum atoms and vacancies. It shows that vacancies that are helpful for recovery are electrically negative. As the sample worked as anode during electric field annealing, it was covered with positive surface charges that attract the electronegative vacancies in the vicinity of the free surface and annihilate them. In this way, the recovery and then the recrystallization are postponed. The magnetic field applied changes the precipitation sequence of transitional carbides during low temperature tempering that makes the relatively high-temperature monoclinic χ-Fe5C2 carbide precipitated without following the usual precipitation sequence, i.e. by skipping the precipitation of the usual orthorhombic η-Fe2C carbide. To reveal the working mechanism of this phenomenon, first principle calculations were performed to study the formation energies of the two iron-carbide systems and their electronic and magnetic structures and properties. Calculation results show that η-Fe2C has lower formation energy, which is proved by the formation sequence observed during the usual low temperature tempering process. However, χ-Fe5C2 has the higher magnetic moment, which enhances the stability under the magnetic field through magnetization. Therefore, under the magnetic field its precipitation tendency is increased.


In view of the deficiency of algorithm for VRS (Virtual Reference Station) based on the triangular network, a novel algorithm for VRS which is based on star network is proposed. Firstly, a kind of baseline solution method of network RTK/VRS based on star structure is established and an ambiguity resolution method is also proposed in this paper. Then further research is done to analyze the algorithm of ionospheric and tropospheric correction separately. Finally, the network ambiguity resolution and correction calculation in both star structure network and traditional triangular network are verified and analyzed through two tests. These tests indicate that the Network RTK (VRS) based on star structure this paper proposed can obviously accelerate the fixed time of network ambiguity resolution, which can be up to 50%, and can achieve higher precision and reliability in the generation of network correction.


In a mobile cooperative caching environment, we observe the need for cooperating peers to cache useful data items together, so as to improve cache hit from peers. This could be achieved by capturing the data requirement of individual peers in conjunction with their mobility pattern, for which we realized via a GROup-based COoperative CAching scheme (GroCoca). In GroCoca, we define a tightly-coupled group (TCG) as a collection of peers that possess similar mobility pattern and display similar data affinity. A family of algorithms is proposed to discover and maintain all TCGs dynamically. Furthermore, two cooperative cache management protocols, namely, cooperative cache admission control and replacement, are designed to control data replicas and improve data accessibility in TCGs. A cache signature scheme is also adopted in GroCoca in order to provide information for the mobile clients to determine whether their TCG members are likely caching their desired data items and to perform cooperative cache replacement Experimental results show that GroCoca outperforms the conventional caching scheme and standard COoperative CAching scheme (COCA) in terms of access latency and global cache hit ratio. However, GroCoca generally incurs higher power consumption.


This paper uses queer and disability perspectives to argue that sexual agency is central to political agency, and that a group's experience of sexually-based harms and constraints on sexual agency should be recognized as a hallmark of oppression. It explores the political implications of erotophobia as it affects oppressed groups, the role of sexual shame in oppression based on sexuality and gender, and medical constructions of the sexuality of people with disabilities and others. The use of counter-discourses and coalition politics is proposed as one strategy for overcoming the corrosive effects of erotophobia on oppressed groups and their sexual/political agency.


Under extreme conditions (e.g. changes in temperatures and pressures) phase transformations can proceed along various different transformation routes that are not accessible under equilibrium conditions, involving non-equilibrium processes, and can therefore result in various unusual and novel microstructures. The investigation of the transformation path for specific thermodynamic and kinetic conditions and understanding of the resulting microstructural evolution is both scientifically intriguing and technologically important, as many materials properties are strongly dependent on the scale and morphology of the microstructure of a material. Pulsed-laser-irradiation of thin films is a relatively novel processing route that induces melting and rapid re-solidification under extreme conditions of rapid heating-cooling cycles in thin films on amorphous substrates. To date most studies on laser processing of thin films have focused on rapid solidification of Si and Cu thin films. This thesis reports on the application of pulsed-laser processing and rapid solidification of technologically important Al thin films. It is demonstrated that pulsed-laser melting and rapid re-solidification is feasible for Al thin films in various configurations. Rapid solidification after pulsed-laser melting has been accomplished for Al films on bulk Si supported amorphous underlayers, with and without a thin synthetic amorphous capping layer, and also on free-standing and electron-transparent (no bulk Si support) Al films on thin amorphous underlayers, with and without thin synthetic amorphous capping layers. This dissertation reports only on a comparison of the microstructures resulting after laser processing of free-standing and electron-transparent (no bulk Si support) Al films on thin amorphous underlayer without thin synthetic amorphous capping layers. Excimer-laser-induced melting and rapid solidification of such Al thin films have been carried out in air. The resulting microstructure has been investigated post-mortem using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The thin film microstructure resulting from re-solidification after pulsed-laser melting consisted predominantly of directionally solidified columnar grains, approximately 80nm thick (full film thickness), 0.5 micrometer wide and up to 5 micrometer long. Additionally, laser induced melting and re-solidification experiments were carried out using the dynamic transmission electron microscope (DTEM) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which enabled in-situ observations of the transient phenomena associated with the liquid-solid transformation with its unprecedented 15ns temporal and nano-meter (nm) spatial resolution. The in-situ DTEM experiments were used to study details of the morphology and dynamics at the liquid-solid interface, revealing a planar liquid-solid interface that moves at an average velocity of ~ 3m/s. Ex-situ post-mortem TEM investigations of samples that were laser-processed during the in-situ DTEM experiments showed that microstructures were similar in morphology for the in-situ and the ex-situ rapid solidification experiments.


Sharing similar colonial and postindependence civil war experiences, Mozambique's and Angola's development paths are often contrasted, with foreign aid–dependent Mozambique hailed a success compared to oil-rentier Angola. This article questions the so-called Mozambican miracle and revisits Angola's trajectory over the past two decades. Paying attention to ruling parties and postwar political economy transitions, we discuss differences and similarities in postconflict reconstruction paths, policy, and institutional fragility. We suggest that large aid flows to Mozambique have contributed to a relaxation of its government's urgency in creating the financial structure capable of capturing rents from natural resources in contrast to Angola, where the relative absence of official development aid has led Angolan elites to seek tenure prolongation partly through high rent capture and incipient socialization of massive oil rents. We conclude by discussing the likely consequences of these factors in terms of the r...


IT service providers are faced with a dilemma when trying to ensure proper function and effective operation of their clients' infrastructure. On one hand, frequent changes to the IT infrastructure are required to ensure smooth operation; on the other hand, studies show that changes are responsible for 80% of all incidents that result in client outages. This paper proposes a novel methodology for investigating the role of change in incident prevention. We provide a detailed analysis of the change-incident space, offer algorithms on linking incidents to changes that caused them, and show how such data can be effectively used to build predictive models for incident prevention. We conclude by presenting our methodology applied to a real-world dataset and use cases.


Globally, wildlife managers often control predator populations to protect biodiversity, livestock or other valued resources. Most assume that the predation impact of each individual predator is the same and that removing any individual predator produces a benefit to the target species. However, research suggests predation efficacy can vary within a predator species according to phenotypic characteristics. Understanding these individual differences may be critical for managing predation impacts on particular categories of prey including small populations where predation effects are amplified. We used dietary data from 1748 feral cats euthanized over 30 years during a control programme in arid Australia to determine whether any predator attributes could predict their effect on different prey weight classes. Feral cats in our study ate a wide range of prey including reptiles, mammals, birds and invertebrates. Demography (body mass) was a highly significant predictor of diet. Cats weighing 3 kg fed predominantly on prey <50 g increasing to >500 g when cats attained a body mass of 6 kg. Of more significance was that diet varied between demographic groups but also within a single demographic group (adult males) based on body mass, with results having significant implications for threatened prey. Modelling indicated that for a fixed predator population size, the predation rate on prey in a >500 g weight class increased by 28% when the ratio of large (>4.2 kg) to small adult males varied according to its natural range (12%–80% over the 30‐year study). Results suggest that variations in predator demography can significantly impact predation rates on prey species and should be included in predator–prey models for small prey populations. On average, large male cats comprised 23% of the population and our findings suggest that targeting this 'lethal demographic' and manipulating predator demography should be prioritized along with lowering predator density to reduce predation impacts on prey weighing more than 500g.