Currently, Taiwan's major source of gravel for construction purposes is its river systems; however, over exploitation could potentially deplete this source. To address this problem and reduce dependence on natural aggregate exploitation, this article investigates artificial lightweight aggregates (ALWAs) synthesized from industrial waste such as sewage sludge and sewage‐sludge‐derived ash. The ALWAs were synthesized from the sewage sludge and ash using Na2CO3. The sodium carbonate helps produce the required viscous glassy phase (needed for ALWA sintering) at a lower co‐melting temperature than would otherwise be possible. Water absorption, apparent porosity, bulk density and compressive strength of the ALWAs were tested to assess resource‐recycling feasibility. The required dosages of Na2CO3 were 16 and 22 wt % for conditioned sludge and ash, respectively. The dosed sludge sample required preheating at 400°C for 0.5 h, followed by sintering at 900°C for 5 min. The ash sample required sintering only at 900°C for 15 min. The sludge‐derived ALWAs gave the following percentages 2.84%, 3.31%, 1.20 g/cm3, and 13.0 MPa for water absorption, apparent porosity, bulk density, and compressive strength, respectively. The corresponding values for ash‐derived ALWAs were: 4.85%, 6.55%, 1.41 g/cm3, and 87.3 MPa, respectively. The characteristics of ALWAs derived in this study were then compared to those of commercially available lightweight aggregates—Lytag and Arlita F7. The characteristics mentioned above of the former were superior than those of the latter except that the value ofdensity was an interval value between Lytag and Arlita. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 32: 740–748, 2013


Au-Sn solid-liquid interdiffusion (SLID) bonding is a novel and promising interconnect and die attach technology for high temperature (HT) applications. In combination with silicon carbide (SiC), Au-Sn SLID has the potential to be a key technology for the next generation of HT electronic devices. However, limited knowledge about Au-Sn SLID bonding for HT applications is a major restriction to fully realizing the HT potential of SiC devices. Two different processing techniques-electroplating of Au/Sn layers and sandwiching of eutectic Au-Sn preform between electroplated Au layers-have been studied in a simplified metallization system. The latter process was further investigated in two different Cu/Si3N4/Cu/Ni-P/Au-Sn/Ni/Ni2Si/SiC systems (different Au-layer thickness). Die shear tests and cross-sections have been performed on as-bonded, thermally cycled, and thermally aged samples to characterize the bonding properties associated with the different processing techniques, metallization schemes, and environmental stress tests. A uniform Au-rich bond interface was produced (the ζ phase with a melting point of 522°C). The importance of excess Au on both substrate and chip side in the final bond is demonstrated. It is shown that Au-Sn SLID can absorb thermo-mechanical stresses induced by large coefficient of thermal expansion mismatches (up to 12 ppm/K) in a packaging system during HT thermal cycling. The bonding strength of Au-Sn SLID is shown to be superb, exceeding 78 MPa. However, after HT thermal ageing, the ζ phase was first converted into the more Au-rich β phase. This created physical contact between the Sn and Ni atoms, resulting in brittle NixSny phases, reducing the bond strength. Density functional theory calculations have been performed to demonstrate that the formation of NixSny in preference to the Au-rich Au-Sn phases is energetically favorable.


The diffusion of new innovations into a business ecosystem is an interesting phenomenon. In order to gain competitive advantage for SMEs and also to add value in SME networks, the dynamic nature of the business ecosystem demands the capability to adapt new ideas. On the other hand, the risk-bearing ability of SMEs alone can be a barrier to the utilisation of novel innovations. In order to answer our research question - how to improve innovation diffusion in a business ecosystem via SME networks in collaboration with academia? - in this article we introduce the mediator-assisted innovation diffusion (MAID) model. The model was tested in multiple case studies where a total of 18 organisations participated. In the conceptual part of this paper we discuss the context of business and innovation ecosystems, the process of innovation diffusion and the mediator's role in value creation for SME networks in such an evolving ecosystem.


The present work comprises a theoretical and experimental study of nucleate pool boiling with particular reference to the effects of varying the inclination of heated surface. Distilled water is used as the boiling liquid and is maintained at atmospheric pressure throughout. An electrically heated metallic ribbon forms the boiling surface. Typical boiling curves are constructed for each inclination of the heated surface to provide a comparison of rates of energy exchange. Pool boiling heat transfer mechanisms are examined by considering convection cooling, latent heat transport, liquid temperature gradients, nucleation site density, and the incipient temperature requirements for boiling. The Rohsenow heat transfer correlation is extended to enable boiling heat transfer data to be correlated for all inclinations of the heated surface. An investigation of vapour bubble dynamics is made using high speed cinematography. Waiting period, initial bubble radius, growth and departure of vapour bubbles on the heated surface are examined for a range of heated surface inclinations. Theoretical models are developed to predict the above phenomena, and the results are found com parable with those obtained experimentally.


Background:
 Dizziness is a very common Emergency Department (ED) complaint and can be a harbinger of stroke, yet there is no consensus on how to reliably and efficiently assess this risk. The ABCD2 score was originally developed to predict the short-term risk of stroke after transient ischemic attack and has showed promise when applied to dizzy patients presenting to a single tertiary care center ED. We sought to further validate the performance of the ABCD2 score by applying it across dizzy patients presenting to multiple community-based EDs.

 Methods:
 We conducted a nested-case control study within a cohort of all adults who presented to 19 EDs of a large Northern California integrated health program with a primary triage complaint of dizziness over a one-year period. Cases were defined as patients with an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke at presentation or within 7 days and were identified using systematic search of electronic health records and medical record review by a vascular neurologist. An equal number of controls were randomly selected from among the remaining dizzy patients without stroke. Components of the ABCD2 score (age, blood pressure, clinical features, and diabetes) were collected from medical records by a trained medical record abstractor masked to the study outcomes. As in a prior study, since the duration of symptoms was not readily available, all patients were assumed to have had symptoms for greater than one hour. We calculated descriptive statistics, compared scores among cases and controls using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and assessed the discrimination performance of the ABCD2 score for stroke using ROC curves and the c-statistic. We used the sampling fraction to extrapolate these results to the cohort at large.

 Results:
 In a cohort of 9,566 ED patients with dizziness, 147 (1.54%) had a stroke. The mean ABCD2 score was 4.72 (SD 1.2) in cases and 3.66 (SD 1.1) in controls (p<0.001). The c-statistic for the ABCD2 score as a predictor of stroke was 0.73 (95% CI 0.67-0.79)_slightly lower than the previously reported experience from a single academic center ED of 0.79 (95% CI 0.73-0.85). Extrapolating these data to the entire cohort, those with the lowest score had a predicted risk of stroke of less than one in 500 (0.17%) whereas those with the highest score had a risk of stroke of 11.0%.

 Conclusion:
 The ABCD2 score holds promise as a way to stratify the risk of stroke in ED patients with dizziness when applied across multiple EDs and identifies low-risk group where neuroimaging may not be warranted. However, formal evaluation of other clinical predictors and prospective validation is required before applying this score at the bedside to better target neuroimaging studies to the most appropriate patients without adversely impacting outcomes.


Abstract Early preimplantation embryos are extremely sensitive to dysregulation of cell volume, which can lead to developmental arrest. It was previously shown that mouse embryos at the two-cell stage respond to a cell volume decrease by quickly activating Na+/H+ exchange via a signaling mechanism that involves the tyrosine kinase Janus kinase 2 (JAK2). However, it was not known whether this mechanism is active at the one-cell stage, when embryos are most sensitive to perturbed cell volume. Na+/H+ exchanger activity elicited by an induced cell volume decrease was significantly lower at the mid one-cell stage than at the late one-cell stage or during the two-cell stage. This activity could be completely blocked by the broad specificity tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein at either stage, but only at the two-cell stagewas there a substantial component of activity that was sensitive to low concentrations of the JAK2-selective inhibitors TG101348 or ruxolitinib. Western blots to detect active JAK2 phosphorylated on tyrosine Y1007/8 revealed that JAK2 became substantially phosphorylated in response to a cell volume decrease at the mid two-cell, but not mid one-cell stage. Such cell volume decrease-induced JAK2 phosphorylation appeared by the late one-cell stage. At least in part this appears to be due to an increase in total JAK2 protein at the late one-cell stage. Furthermore, TG101348 impaired maintenance of cell volume at the two-cell, but not mid one-cell, stages. Thus, cell volume homeostasis requiring Na+/H+ exchange signaled by JAK2 first becomes prominent during mouse embryonic development at the late one-cell stage. Summary Sentence The major mechanism of acute recovery from decreased cell volume in somatic cells, activation of sodium hydrogen exchanger NHE1 (SLC9A1) by the tyrosine kinase Janus kinase 2 (JAK2), first develops at the late one-cell stage of mouse embryo.


At the beginning of 1941, Professor Ludwig Föppl published an eight‐page paper "Elastische Beanspruchung des Erdbodens unter Fundamenten" (Elastic stress in the ground under foundations). It was further developed by his doctoral student Gerhard Schubert and led to a publication by Schubert in 1942, which contains many results obtained by researchers in contact mechanics in the subsequent decades of the 20th century and would make many of these efforts unnecessary… if it had become known. Unfortunately, both papers have been forgotten, which is not particularly surprising considering the years when they appeared (1941–1942), the language (German), as well as the location of the publisher (Munich). Yet, these are true classic works that are still very worth reading, not just as historical artifacts, but also in terms of content. It is most regrettable that this excellent work, which in itself nearly represents a small "handbook of contact mechanics", remained essentially unknown for a long time and has only been "rediscovered" in recent years. The present paper provides a historical background and a guideline to the mentioned works by Föppl and Schubert, followed by a complete English translation of Schubert's paper.


The growth and expansion of commercial locations followed by urban sprawl and significant change in demographic and socio-demographic characteristics of urban resident have taken place in the Stavanger region, Norway - partly due to its role as 'the Petroleum Capital of Norway'. Most notable evidence are: (1) suburbanisation of employment due to the rapid development of the petroleum-based businesses, manufacturing companies and service enterprises in the region and its satellite region; (2) increased labour force participation, in particular by skilled workers and women; (3) growing proportion of immigration from inter-region of Norway as well as international, responding its dynamic labour market; (4) general increases in income; (5) changing population structure caused by significant percentage of young professional individuals; (6) and also great proportion of auto ownership and auto dependency. For example, the local authority has developed the industrial parks, known as the Forus area which is situated in the south-west of the Stavanger city centre. Currently, there are more than 1200 businesses located in this area and this provides opportunities for more than 24000 professionals, indicating that its employment density is extremely high. This, however, means that auto dependency of the Forus area-based commuters has reached by nearly 82 % of total mode choices used. The effects of industrialisation in suburbs on travel behavior are complex and not clear yet. One argues that suburbanisation of employment is inevitable in recent era in order to provide better accessibility of jobs and to reduce attractiveness of city centre in the same time. Therefore, how local authority connects their residents and workplaces and to break dependency on auto is the issue since commuters tend to use auto. This case is more obvious in particular if the quality of installed transport infrastructure is relatively poor. Whiles, others recommend jobs-housing balance supported by mixed-zone policy to control negative impacts of workplace sprawl. Allowing urbanisation of employment alone without considering travel distance balance leads to a less sustainable travel patterns because the higher the commuting distance the much more likely individuals tend to be depending on auto. This study is an attempt to determine the effects of suburbanisation of employment on commuting travel patterns. The questions raised are: Does suburbanisation of employment lead to an increase of commuting travel time (and distance), auto use, energy consumption, and the spatial extension of their action space? If so, who still have more sustainable commuting travel patterns? Who don't? Also, how sustainable is their commuting travel patterns compared to other groups of commuter in the region? Which factors tend influence auto dependency? The focus of this study is on commuters. Results of travel behaviour survey in the Stavanger area, conducted in summer 2008, are examined in this study to evaluate the effects of suburbanisation of employment on travel. The study depicts the commuters in the Forus area as the sample size and compares its behavioural patterns with the city centre-based commuters of the Stavanger region and the other commuters who reside in between the city centre and the Forus area. A set of multivariate analyses and other statistical tools are utilised to examine at the individual level, with auto ownership, public transport use, travel distance and travel time performed as its dependent variables. Using the results it is shown who tends to commute longer and who don't. Also factors that influence auto dependency are captured and the characteristics of the sustainable commuters are identified. Evaluating this policy location is necessary as a study reported that it may be pragmatically and politically more acceptable to change policies in primarily employment areas, because the users of those areas may have fewer complaints about more intense development than residential users typically do. In addition, the resultant model system is applied in a scenario analysis to forecast possible changes in future auto travel that will follow hypothetical spatial changes in the Stavanger region.


Induction of erythrodifferentiation was carried out by addition of dimethyl sulfoxide or butyric acid to the culture medium among 80 subclones of T-3-Cl-2 Friend mouse leukemia line. Hemoglobin-positive cells were counted on day 5 of the inducer treatment on the hemocytometer after benzidine staining. Some cell lines were inducible by both of the inducers, but others were insensitive to dimethyl sulfoxide, but sensitive to butyric acid. Eight characteristic T-3-Cl-2 subclones have been selected; 2 highly inducible, 2 moderately inducible, and 4 minimally inducible. The data of differentiation inducibility together with the history of the T-3-Cl-2 line may facilitate extensive application of the T-3-Cl-2 system.


A political-economic model largely influenced by the monetarist school inspires European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Accordingly, neither income redistribution nor resource allocation is the cornerstone of economic policy mix. That role is reserved to the stabilisation function. Among those scholars who discuss whether the EU is comparable to existing cases of "conventional fiscal federalism", the analysis is frequently concentrated on allocation and redistribution. Despite macroeconomic stabilisation is the key aspect of EMU, the paper undergoes a comparative analysis between the European Union (EU) and five mature federations (United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Switzerland) as far as resource allocation is concerned. It first surveys the operation of the allocation function in these countries, concluding that there are remarkable differences when the countries under examination are measured within a centralisation/decentralisation continuum. Resource allocation is subsequently reviewed in the context of EMU to capture convergences and divergences with the federations examined - and to what extent do convergent aspects contribute to put a label on the EU in terms of fiscal federalism. The awareness that the discussion is sometimes plagued with conceptual oversight - the confusion between the desirability and feasibility of fiscal federalism in the European integration context - paves the way to the empirical dimension. The paper concludes with an input from statistical data assessing to what extent inter-state solidarity exists (or is absent) in the EU.


The Lie symmetry theorem of fractional nonholonomic systems in terms of combined fractional derivatives is established, and the fractional Lagrange equations are obtained by virtue of the d'Alembert–Lagrange principle with fractional derivatives. As the Lie symmetry theorem is based on the invariance of differential equations under infinitesimal transformations, by introducing the differential operator of infinitesimal generators, the determining equations are obtained.Furthermore, the limit equations, the additional restriction equations, the structural equations, and the conserved quantity of Lie symmetry are acquired. An example is presented to illustrate the application of results.


A putative lipolytic enzyme gene, named as est9x, was obtained from a marine microbial metagenome of the South China Sea. Sequence analysis showed that Est9X shares lower than 27% sequence identities with the characterized lipolytic enzymes, but possesses a catalytic triad highly conserved in lipolytic enzymes of the α/β hydrolase superfamily. By phylogenetic tree construction, Est9X was grouped into a new lipase/esterase family. To understand Est9X protein in depth, it was recombinantly expressed, purified, and biochemically characterized. Within potential hydrolytic activities, only lipase/esterase activity was detected for Est9X, confirming its identity as a lipolytic enzyme. When using p-nitrophenol esters with varying lengths of fatty acid as substrates, Est9X exhibited the highest activity to the C2 substrate, indicating it is an esterase. The optimal activity of Est9X occurred at a temperature of 65°C, and Est9X was pretty stable below the optimum temperature. Distinguished from other salttolerant esterases, Est9X's activity was tolerant to and even promoted by as high as 4 M NaCl. Our results imply that Est9X is a unique esterase and could be a potential candidate for industrial application under extreme conditions.


Objective: To investigate the long-term effects on children of parental stroke, with respect to care-giving tasks, children's behavioural problems and stress, and to study the relationship between stress and child, patient and partner characteristics. Subjects: A total of 44 children (age range 10–21 years) were assessed 3 years after parental stroke. Main measures: Behavioural problems were assessed with the Child Behaviour Check List and the Youth Self-Report. Stress was measured using the Dutch Stress Questionnaire for Children. Results: Most children (66%) assisted their parent in self-care or mobility. Some of the children (31%) experienced behavioural problems. The results showed that 37.5% of younger children show externalizing problems on the Child Behaviour Check List. Stress was significantly related to fe - male gender of the child, and to depression, limitations in extended activities of daily living and life satisfaction of the patient. Conclusion: Most children do well 3 years after parental stroke. However, some children of patients after stroke have behavioural problems and need attention in clinical practice.


The radical polymerization kinetics of non-ionized and fully-ionized monomers in organic and aqueous solution was investigated by SP–PLP–EPR, i.e., highly time-resolved single-pulse–pulsed-laser–polymerization (SP–PLP) in conjunction with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy.
Dicumyl peroxide as the photoinitiator allowed for investigations into the chain-length dependence of the termination rate coefficient, kt, of styrene bulk polymerization. The Composite Model perfectly represents the chain-length-dependence of kt for styrene and for all other monomers studied within the present investigation. The temperature dependence of the termination rate coefficient of two monomeric radicals, kt(1,1), scales with inverse viscosity, η−1, of the reaction mixture prior to polymerization. The product kt(1,1)∙η thus turns out to be a temperature-independent quantity for non-ionized radicals, which allows for estimates of kt(1,1) on the basis of easily accessible viscosity data.
The impact of monomer concentration and temperature on the termination kinetics of charged radicals, as studied for fully-ionized methacrylic acid (NaMAA) at 5 wt.% and 10 wt.% monomer, is distinctly different. The measured activation energy, EA(kt(1,1)), is far below EA(η−1) and kt(1,1) for the more viscous solution at 10 wt.% NaMAA is higher than at 5 wt.%. This effect is assigned to the action of counter ions which is also seen with quaternary ammonium trimethylaminoethyl acrylate chloride (TMAEA) radicals.
A novel SP–PLP–EPR method has been developed for investigation into the propagation kinetics of slowly terminating radicals. The integral over radical concentration measured after applying a single laser pulse is related to the separately measured monomer-to-polymer conversion per laser pulse thus providing the propagating rate coefficient, kp. The technique is illustrated for the fully-ionized methacrylate trimethylaminoethyl methacrylate chloride (TMAEMA) and the reliability is checked by investigations into di(n-butyl) itaconate (DBI) bulk polymerization. For the acrylate-type TMAEA radicals, the remarkably low value of the pre-exponential factor, A(kp), demonstrates the large entropy penalty associated with the formation of the transition state for propagation due to the restricted internal mobility induced by the charged side group. The bulky side groups in DBI cause a similar mobility restriction.
First evidence for mid-chain radicals (MCRs) formed from end-chain radicals (SPRs) by the backbiting process was provided for TMAEA and acrylamide (AAm) polymerizations via the EPR spectra recorded during stationary polymerization. AAm exhibits a molar fraction of MCRs, xMCR, which is significantly lower than with butyl acrylate polymerization. The analysis of MCR concentration vs time profiles reveals the relatively high activation energy for the rate coefficient of backbiting, kbb, as the main reason behind the low value of xMCR. The MCR propagation and the cross-termination kinetics of SPRs and MCRs of AAm are similar to the associated values for acrylates. Although kbb is similarly low, significantly higher numbers for xMCR are found in TMAEA polymerization, which is due to the small rate coefficients of MCR propagation, kpt, and of SPR-MCR cross-termination, ktst(1,1), in the case of fully-ionized species. The comprehensive kinetic picture obtained for TMAEA and AAm homo-polymerizations underlines the enormous potential of the SP–PLP–EPR technique.


Stray capacitance effects and their influence on Kelvin probe's performance are studied using mathematical and computer simulation. Presence of metal surface, even grounded, in vicinity of vibrating Kelvin probe produces the additional stray signal of complex harmonic character. Mean value and amplitude of this stray signal depends mostly on the ratio of stray and measurement vibrating capacitors gaps d1/d0. The developed model can be used for theoretical analysis of Kelvin probe configuration and probe electrometer's input circuit.


To study the relationship of serum antibody neutralization activity (determined by IC50) and the B cell immune response, we face two challenges: (i) IC50 values can not be observed when they are below the detected limitation, and (ii) the number of factors is larger than the number of observations. To address these two challenges, we propose a Tobit model for the analysis of the study, and an adaptive LASSO penalized variable selection procedure to identify important factors. Furthermore, we suggest extended Bayesian information criterion for selecting the tuning parameter. Our analysis indicates that three measured B cells, specifically the frequency of CD19+CD20+, CD19-CD20+, and IgD-B220-CD27peripheral blood B cell subsets have significant effects on IC50. We have also run simulation studies to evaluate the numerical performance of the proposed method.


Semantic Web Services (SWS) are Web Services (WS)
whose description is semantically enhanced with markup
languages (e.g., OWL-S). This semantic description will enable external agents and programs to discover, compose and
invoke SWSs. However, as a previous step to the specification of SWSs in a language, it must be designed at a conceptual level to guarantee its correctness and avoid
inconsistencies among its internal components. In this
paper, we present a framework for design and (semi)
automatic composition of SWSs at a language-independent
and knowledge level. This framework is based on a stack of
ontologies that (1) describe the different parts of a SWS;
and (2) contain a set of axioms that are really design rules to be verified by the ontology instances. Based on these ontologies, design and composition of SWSs can be viewed as the correct instantiation of the ontologies themselves. Once these instances have been created they will be exported to SWS languages such as OWL-S.


In this instance 30 British laboratories (and a few others) took part in the second collaborative survey organised by the UK Environmental Mutagen Society. Two pairs of analogous chemicals were provided (benzidine and diaminoterphenyl, and dimethyl amino azobenzene and cyanodimethylamiline) for examination by defined procedures in a wide range of in vitro and in vivo tests, ranging from point mutation in bacteria to DNA binding and cytogenetics in vivo. The results are fully presented, warts and all. They


A study was made of the predominant culturable bacteria and ciliate protozoa present in the rumen of two steers that were regularly bloating on a pelleted ratio containing 22% alfalfa meal, 16% soybean oil meal, 61% barley, and 1% common salt. The ruminal microorganisms in the two animals differed as indicated by a high total culture count of bacteria, an almost complete absence of ciliate protozoa, a low pH, and a difference in the proportions of presumptively identified predominant bacterial groups in one animal (steer 26) as compared with the other (steer 32). The first exposure of the animals to procaine penicillin (75 or 150 mg per day on 2 successive days) resulted in an abnormal ruminal flora 31 hr after the first treatment as indicated by drastic drops in total and cellulolytic bacterial counts and a change in the proportions of predominant bacterial groups. The animals refused feed for 32 to 48 hr after the first treatment. After feed consumption resumed, further treatment with 75 mg penicillin on 4 successive days did not appear to greatly alter the flora and did not result in feed refusal in animal 32. In animal 26, amounts of penicillin progressing from 50 to 200 mg per day did not result in feed refusals and observations on rumen ingesta samples during this period indicated a decrease in total bacterial count, a great increase in numbers of ciliate protozoa, a higher pH, and a change in the proportions of predominant bacterial groups so that the ruminal picture was much more similar to that of animal 32 than to its own during the pre-penicillin period. Bloat was not relieved except during the period of feed refusal. The results indicate that the ruminal flora rapidly adapts to penicillin and that bloat of the feedlot type can occur in animals with widely differing numbers and kinds of bacteria and protozoa. Feedlot bloat does not appear to be correlated with the occurrence or numbers of any of the individual predominant groups of bacteria cultured.


The objective of this work was to assess the pulp resistance, soluble solids and yield of watermelon fruits grown under different irrigation managements (determined by the ISAREG model) and mulches, and their interactions. After a survey carried out on local producers, two experiments were conducted, using a completely randomized block design in split-plot arrangement with four replications, in the Teaching, Research and Extension Unit (UEPE) of the Federal Institute of Ceara (IFCE), Jaguaribe-Apodi Irrigation District (DIJA), State of Ceara, Brazil. The treatments consisted of four irrigation managements in the plots, M1 (100% of the available-water capacity (AWC) of the soil), M2 (80%), M3 (60%) and M4 (average water depth used by local producers) and four mulch types in the sub-plots, without mulching (C0) with rice husk (C1), white plastic (C2) and black plastic (C3) as mulches. The results were subjected to analysis of variance, and significant results were subjected to regression (irrigation managements), average test (mulches) and trend graphs (interaction between the factors). The irrigation management practiced during the watermelon crop cycle by the local producers of the Irrigation District of Jaguaribe-Apodi (DIJA) in the State of Ceara, Brazil, is not appropriated, since they usually apply more water than the highest water depth determined by the ISAREG model (100% of the AWC). The plants grown under irrigation water depth of 365.20 mm (M1) and soils with mulches of rice husk or white plastic had the highest yields and fruits with better quality of soluble solids and pulp resistance.


In 1834, the German physiologist Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878) measured for the first time the tactile discrimination threshold with a compass. This paper describes an application of this technique to measure mental fatigue on students by Hermann Adolf Griesbach (1854-1941) and Alfred Binet (1857-1911). The former was the first to suggest, in 1895, the use of this technique, and Binet and his collaborator Victor Henri (1872-1940) published in 1898 the first monograph on mental fatigue, in which they devoted a chapter to the innovative work by Griesbach. The analysis of this book's content shows the origins of Binet's interest in aesthesiometry as related to mental fatigue. The second part of this paper examines Binet's work using aesthesiometry as an objective measure of mental fatigue.


Offshore wind is seen as part of the solution for reducing the world's dependency on nonrenewable sources with CO2 intensive production processes. Developing wind turbines that float will enable us to harness wind in deep waters, where the winds are strong and less turbulent than over land. It also means that wind farms can be installed in sites where there are fewer conflicts of interest than onshore. Both wind turbines and floating platforms are well known technologies, but combining them can introduce unexpected interaction effects. A floating wind turbine will experience large loads from wind, waves and rotating blades. These loads will be influenced by each other to a larger extent than for fixed wind turbines, and the interaction needs to be considered in order to predict the loads accurately. By coupling well known aero- servoelastic and hydro-elastic codes, which was done as a part of this thesis, the interaction effects could be accounted for. The large, fluctuating loads experienced by a floating wind turbine will cause fatigue damage to the structure, and could be an important design driver. Accurately predicting the fatigue life requires simulating a large number of load cases, and it also requires long simulation durations due to slowly varying loads and stochastic uncertainty. This thesis focuses on methods to reduce the simulation time for fatigue life prediction. Using a catenary moored, three-column semi-submersible wind turbine with the NREL 5MW turbine mounted on one of the columns as a case study, the following aspects of FWT fatigue analysis were investigated: Frequency domain versus time domain analysis. Simulation length, number of seeds and bin sizes for selection of environmental conditions. Misaligned wind and wave directions. Morison versus potential theory for hydrodynamic modelling. A frequency domain method for finding the variance spectrum for tower base bending moment in moderate environmental was developed and compared to results from coupled time domain simulations. The results showed that applying a frequency domain method including an approximation of dynamic excitation of the first flexible bending mode of the tower and blades, could predict bending moment standard deviations with reasonable accuracy. The necessary simulation length can be up to 3-6 hours in extreme value analysis for compliant offshore platforms, but a long term fatigue analysis showed that reasonable accuracy can be obtained using shorter simulation lengths and fewer random seeds. It was also indicated that assuming wind and waves to come from the same direction will give a conservative fatigue estimate In all the case studies, fatigue was calculated for nominal stress. As the purpose was to study the simulation parameters affecting fatigue life, and not the fatigue life itself, it was assumed that the hot-spot stress amplitudes for the different load components are proportional to the nominal stress. Proper representation of wave loads could be obtained using Morison's equation, provided that the inertial coefficients were determined separately for each sea state.


Abstract Despite institutional declarations, women still rank second in key areas of society related to employment. The goal of this study was to analyse the perceptions of Spanish women taking occupational training courses and of gender equality experts with respect to the relationship between initial formal education, occupational training, continuing education and employment, as well as the role played by the family in this relationship, in order to elucidate conceptions of women's social reality in the fields of education and employment. A qualitative methodology was employed, consisting of semi-structured, in-depth individual and group interviews with women taking occupational training courses. Interviews were also conducted with experts in gender equality. Working women's conception of the relationship between training and employment is heavily influenced by the effect of gender socialisation, which leads them to assume the role of carer in the family. Women's choice of training presents a clear gender bias that directly influences the jobs they hold. In many cases, these comprise subsistence activities that coincide with traditional female roles. However, women with a higher education present less dependence on gender roles. Socialisation in gender stereotypes is evident in working women's discourse, and generates frustration at the impossibility of reconciling all the areas of responsibility assigned to them, leading them to relinquish any expectations of professional or personal development.


In this paper, it starts with Human Resource Management and explains the method of performance evaluation and its importance. Then, this article comes up with the comprehensive evaluation Indicators, on the basis of using the cluster theory of the data mining to design and analyze, it gives the rating judgment and sorting of the performance level and evaluates the overall level of each evaluation indicators. At last, through case studies, it proves that the method has a good application value in the human performance appraisal.


Purpose
Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and primary congenital glaucoma (PCG) with Mendelian inheritance are caused by mutations in at least nine genes. Utilizing whole-exome sequencing, we examined the disease burden accounted for by these known Mendelian glaucoma genes in a cohort of individuals with advanced early-onset POAG.

Methods
The cases exhibited advanced POAG with young age of diagnosis. Cases and examined local controls were subjected to whole-exome sequencing. Nine hundred ninety-three previously sequenced exomes of Australian controls were called jointly with our dataset. Qualifying variants were selected based on predicted pathogenicity and rarity in public domain gene variant databases. Case-control mutational burdens were calculated for glaucoma-linked genes.

Results
Two hundred eighteen unrelated POAG participants and 103 nonglaucomatous controls were included in addition to 993 unexamined controls. Fifty-eight participants (26.6%) harbored rare potentially pathogenic variants in known glaucoma genes. Enrichment of qualifying variants toward glaucoma was present in all genes except WDR36, in which controls harbored more variants, and TBK1, in which no qualifying variants were detected in cases or controls. After multiple testing correction, only MYOC showed statistically significant enrichment of qualifying variants (odds ratio [OR] = 16.62, P = 6.31×10-16).

Conclusions
Rare, potentially disease-causing variants in Mendelian POAG genes that showed enrichment in our dataset were found in 22.9% of advanced early-onset POAG cases. MYOC variants represented the largest monogenic cause in POAG. The association between WDR36 and POAG was not supported, and the majority of POAG cases did not harbor a potentially disease-causing variant in the remaining Mendelian genes.


The objective of this study is to investigate the structure for learning and the learning outcomes from a paper exercise based on multiagency collaboration, and point to potential benefits for crisis leadership and management in civil organizations. The current study was conducted by participant observation in one exercise and a questionnaire was handed out in the following exercise to measure outcomes. Social interaction and concurrent learning are used as the theoretical foundation in the current study. The exercise can be used as an input for multiagency collaboration when linked to the strategic and operative context. The Norwegian Armed Forces operate from a leadership perspective of intention-based leadership. The organization has also developed a pedagogical platform that guides learning activities. In a complex world, we aim at finding training areas that can prepare the cadets for scenarios that also heavily involve the unforeseen. Improvisation is seen as important for military leaders and the exercise provides a sound arena for this purpose. We have seen that even for a table exercise, important lessons can be learned. The current study makes suggestions as well as improvements that could be performed based on the lessons learned for both the Norwegian Armed Forces as well as for other organizations that find the experiences interesting. The article identified five management principles for interaction under unforeseen conditions: (1) develop a pedagogical view for the organization, (2) facilitate and train using processes for complementary process development, (3) develop precise and common language, (4) train the organization in concurrent learning, (5) develop tolerance and mutual respect.


Determined efforts are being exerted to shore up the integrity of high-pressure high temperature (HPHT) gas wells, which includes studying all observed integrity failures and adjusting practices to prevent potential failures from reoccurring. In high-pressure high-temperature gas wells, casing thermal expansion is a challenge that should be considered in order to maintain the integrity of the well and surface equipment. The objective of the paper is to describe observed growth in a HP gas wells in relation to the wellhead temperature and how it behaves after cycling the well and how it can affect the annuli pressures.
 As methodology, two elements varying during shutdowns were studied thoroughly to determine the extent of the impact they may have on the integrity of HP gas wells. These elements are pressure and temperature. While the linear increase of the wellhead growth with increasing temperature was apparent, the subsequent actions of shutting in the well to cool down and then reopening it led to further deterioration of the cement and the wellhead growth increased even further. The engineering solutions and stress analysis at surface facilities is designed to overcome the growth allowance.
 The main observation looks at the temperature element and its effect on well integrity in that it analyses the temperature impact on the well's tubulars and links it to the stresses caused to casing cement and the resulting wellhead growth. Study will also provide recommendations on maintaining well integrity and avoiding any further deterioration. The temperature impact was also observed in one of the wells after it was shut in and wellhead sensors were left to record shut-in wellhead pressure and temperature for about 14 hours. This gave a reasonable indication of how fast it takes for the wellhead to cool down to ambient conditions. In the subject well, the wellhead temperature dropped by 50% in about 2 hours.
 As result of the study, in detail reasons for increased wellhead growth in HPHT gas wells and how to avoid it. It also gives recommendations on maintaining well integrity and reducing the impact of full contraction of the well's tubulars during cooling; such as maintaining wells on constant production, minimizing open and shut-in cycling, and reducing the shut-in time duration.


Oxytocin has been best known for its roles in female reproduction. It is released in large amounts during labor, and after stimulation of the nipples. It is a facilitator for childbirth and breastfeeding. However, recent studies have begun to investigate oxytocin's role in various behaviors, including orgasm, social recognition, bonding, and maternal behaviors. This small nine amino acid peptide is now believed to be involved in a wide variety of physiological and pathological functions such as sexual activity, penile erection, ejaculation, pregnancy, uterine contraction, milk ejection, maternal behavior, social bonding, stress and probably many more, which makes oxytocin and its receptor potential candidates as targets for drug therapy. From an innocuous agent as an aid in labor and delivery, oxytocin has come a long way in being touted as the latest party drug. The hormone of labor during the course of the last 100 years has had multiple orgasms to be the hormone of love. Many more shall be seen in the times to come!


Male sex-biased parasitism (SBP) occurs across a range of mammalian taxa and two contrasting sets of hypotheses have been suggested for its establishment. The first invokes body size per se and suggests that larger individuals are either a larger target for parasites, trade off growth at the expense of immunity or cope better with parasitism than smaller individuals. The second suggests a sex-specific handicap whereby males have reduced immunocompetence compared to females due to the immunodepressive effects of testosterone. The current study investigated whether sex-biased parasitism is driven by host 'body size' or 'sex' using a rodent–tick (Apodemus sylvaticus–Ixodes ricinus) system. Moreover, the presence or absence of large mammals at study sites were used to control the presence of immature ticks infesting wood mice, allowing the impacts of parasitism on host body mass and female reproduction to be assessed. As expected, male mice had greater tick loads than females and analyses suggested this sex-bias was driven by body mass as opposed to sex. It is therefore likely that larger individuals are a larger target for parasites, trade off growth at the expense of immunity or adapt behavioural responses to parasitism based on their body size. Parasite load had no effect on host body mass or female reproductive output suggesting individuals may alter behaviour or life history strategies to compensate for costs incurred through parasitism. Overall, this study lends support to the 'body size' hypothesis for the formation of sex-biased parasitism.


The theoretical investigation of the off-axis z-scan technique for the measurement of nonlinear optical refraction in materials is presented. The normalized transmittance is calculated for different aperture radii and positions. The dependence of both the normalized transmittance amplitude (DeltaT(pv)) and the distance between maximum and minimum (Deltaz(pv)) on the aperture radius is analyzed. A condition for the applicability of the pinhole approximation is given.


Sociocultural history of the machine metaphor Vladimir Glebkin Gymnasium 1514, Moscow Abstract: Most theories of metaphor in modern cognitive linguistics either highlight the metaphorical system of human beings in general or describe differences in metaphorical systems of various cultures as a fact and do not explain the reason for these differences. When does some metaphor appear in the language? Why does it appear in this period of time but not earlier or later? Such questions sound weird in the context of this discourse, but prove to be important for understanding of sociocultural nature of some basic metaphors. The most obvious answer to these questions is: metaphor appears in language when its source domain begins to play an important role in social life. However, the history of metaphor of machine shows that this answer is not always correct. The metaphor of machine was not known in antiquity, but it had appeared in the Middle Ages long before the machines became widely used.


The dominance of the TCP protocol on the Internet and its success in maintaining Internet stability has led to several TCP-based stored media-streaming approaches. The success of these approaches raises the question whether TCP can be used for low-latency streaming. Low latency streaming allows responsive control operations for media streaming and can make interactive applications feasible. We examined adapting the TCP send buffer size based on TCP's congestion window to reduce application perceived network latency. Our results show that this simple idea significantly improves the number of packets that can be delivered within 200 ms and 500 ms thresholds.


OBJECTIVE
To successively examine intranuclear inclusions and nuclear grooves in the same papillary thyroid cancer specimens using a light microscope (LM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM).

STUDY DESIGN
We stained cells by the Papanicolaou method after fixation in 1.25% glutaraldehyde for LM and then attempted to observe them successively by SEM-TEM after fixation in 2% paraformaldehyde and 2% osmium tetroxide.

RESULTS
On SEM, intranuclear inclusions were observed as elevated parts, like hills, and nuclear grooves were observed as deep fissures or shallow cracks, sometimes with a few in one cell. On TEM, both intranuclear inclusions and nuclear grooves seemed formed by the nuclear membranes. Intranuclear inclusions also possessed cytoplasm and/or cytoplasmic organelles within some expanded areas in the nuclear grooves.

CONCLUSION
It was evident from our three-step technique that intranuclear inclusions and nuclear grooves were essentially the same structures.


We investigate rules which allow variable elimination in binary CSP (constraint satisfaction problem) instances while conserving satisfiability. We study variable-elimination rules based on the language of forbidden patterns enriched with counting and quantification over variables and values. We propose new rules and compare them, both theoretically and experimentally. We give optimised algorithms to apply these rules and show that each define a novel tractable class. Using our variable-elimination rules in preprocessing allowed us to solve more benchmark problems than without.


The effect of crystal orientation on the recovery and recrystallization of cold-rolled Ni (99.96% purity) has been investigated. Particular attention was paid to the annealing response of regions with either the Copper (C), Brass (B) or S rolling texture orientations. Samples with an initial average grain size of approx. 500μm were deformed to strains of up to εvM = 4.5. As a result of the large initial grain size, even after high rolling reductions it is possible to find sufficiently large regions of material with similar crystal orientation to analyze the recovery and recrystallization behaviour as a function of crystal orientation. Microstructural investigations were carried out in the scanning electron microscope using both electron channeling contrast and electron backscatter diffraction orientation mapping. Both the S and C orientation regions exhibit a heterogeneous microstructure containing bands of localized deformation. The presence of volumes surrounded by high angle boundaries in these regions strongly influences both the recovery and recrystallization behaviour of the material. Twinning was observed also to play an important role in the generation of recrystallized grains, with twin chains of up to 3 generations being observed.


This review paper summarizes the authors' recent studies on the Baiu, the summer monsoon, over the Japan Islands and the adjacent areas. The most important feature of the Baiu is the formation of the Baiu front, which is a long quasistationary precipitation belt extending from the southeastern foot of the Tibetan Plateau to Japan and further to the northwestern Pacific. The cold Baiu trough, the polar front and the Pacific subtropical anticyclone are the major large-scale circulation systems which have influence on the Baiu front. The frontogenesis and the generation of convective instability in the southwesterly flows along the westnorthwest periphery of the Pacific subtropical anticyclone are the primary factors for the formation of the Baiu front. The structure of the Baiu front and the associated Baiu low-level jet stream, and the water vapor budget during the peak Baiu period are studied. The generation and release of the convective instability in the intense Baiu precipitation area are also analyzed. The features of the meso-α-scale disturbances in the Baiu frontal zone are studied by the spectral analysis of the relative vorticity field and the cloud amount. The meso-β-and meso-γ-scale fine structures within the meso-a-scale disturbances are demonstrated. The most outstanding feature of the Baiu is that the motions of many scales (planetary, synoptic, meso-α-, meso-β-and meso-γ-scales) are interacting with each other. The multi-scale aspects of the Baiu are stressed in this review paper.


Author's objective is to develop a new, easy, reliable, and efficient method to detect isomorphism and prepare a catalogue of fixed link and its corresponding equivalent links in the distinct mechanisms in kinematic chains of Group B. It will help the new researchers / designers to select the best mechanism kinematic chain and mechanism to perform the desired task at the conceptual stage of design. The proposed method is presented by comparing the structural invariants 'sum of the absolute values of the characteristic polynomial coefficients' [SCPC] and 'maximum absolute value of the characteristic polynomial coefficient' [MCPC] of [JJ] matrices. These invariants may be used to detect isomorphism in the mechanism kinematic chain having simple joints. The method is explained with the help of examples of planar kinematic chain having simple joints.


Crowdsourcing enables one to leverage on the intelligence and wisdom of potentially large groups of individuals toward solving problems. Common problems approached with crowdsourcing are labeling images, translating or transcribing text, providing opinions or ideas, and similar—all tasks that computers are not good at or where they may even fail altogether. The introduction of humans into computations and/or everyday work, however, also poses critical, novel challenges in terms of quality control, as the crowd is typically composed of people with unknown and very diverse abilities, skills, interests, personal objectives, and technological resources. This survey studies quality in the context of crowdsourcing along several dimensions, so as to define and characterize it and to understand the current state of the art. Specifically, this survey derives a quality model for crowdsourcing tasks, identifies the methods and techniques that can be used to assess the attributes of the model, and the actions and strategies that help prevent and mitigate quality problems. An analysis of how these features are supported by the state of the art further identifies open issues and informs an outlook on hot future research directions.


Aerocapture offers a near propellantless and quick method of orbit
insertion at atmosphere bearing planetary destinations. Compared to
conventional propulsive insertion, the primary advantage of using
aerocapture is the savings in propellant mass which could be used to
accommodate more useful payload. To protect the spacecraft from the
aerodynamic heating during the maneuver, the spacecraft must be enclosed
 in a protective aeroshell or deployable drag device which also provides
 aerodynamic control authority to target the desired conditions at
atmospheric exit. For inner planets such as Mars and Venus, aerocapture
offers a very attractive option for inserting small satellites or
constellations into very low circular orbits such as those used for
imaging or radar observations. The large amount of propellant required
for orbit insertion at outer planets such as Uranus and Neptune severely
 limits the useful payload mass that can delivered to orbit as well as
the achievable flight time. For outer planet missions, aerocapture opens
 up an entirely new class of short time of flight trajectories which are
 infeasible with propulsive insertion. A systems framework for rapid
conceptual design of aerocapture missions considering the
interdependencies between various elements such as interplanetary
trajectory and vehicle control performance for aerocapture is presented.
 The framework provides a step-by-step procedure to formulate an
aerocapture mission starting from a set of mission objectives. At the
core of the framework is the ``aerocapture feasibility chart", a
graphical method to visualize the various constraints arising from
control authority requirement, peak deceleration, stagnation-point peak
heat rate, and total heat load as a function of vehicle aerodynamic
performance and interplanetary arrival conditions. Aerocapture
feasibility charts have been compiled for all atmosphere-bearing Solar
System destinations for both lift and drag modulation control
techniques. The framework is illustrated by its application to
conceptual design of a Venus small satellite mission and a
Flagship-class Neptune mission using heritage blunt-body aeroshells. The framework is implemented in the Aerocapture Mission Analysis Tool
(AMAT), a free and open-source Python package, to enable scientists and
mission designers perform rapid conceptual design of aerocapture
missions. AMAT can also be used for rapid Entry, Descent, and Landing
(EDL) studies for atmospheric probes and landers at any
atmosphere-bearing destination.


Youngsun Koh discusses various policy options to improve the effectiveness of Korea's social safety net, to secure long-term fiscal sustainability, strengthen the activation policy, target welfare programs at the most needy and delineate the respective roles of the central and local governments. Koh begins by discussing Korea's income inequality. Korea experienced rapid economic growth up through the 1980s, while income distribution remained stable. The trend of inequality began to appear, however, in the 1990s, with a jump in the Gini coefficient from 0.245 in 1992 to 0.295 in 2009. Particularly vulnerable are the elderly, who represent roughly one-eighth of the total population. Koh then turns to the main features of the social safety net that has been developed in Korea since the 1970s, including health insurance, pension plans, employment insurance, public assistance, tax credits for poor households and active labor market programs. The author notes that, despite rapid spending growth, the social safety net has played a limited role in reducing poverty in Korea. He discusses three problems: gaps in the safety net, inadequate attention to activation policies and the inefficient delivery system.


Purpose – Six Sigma has been part of our business lexicon for more than a decade. Debates on its emergence as a strategic initiative have created critics who consider it as an old wine in a new bottle. Is Six Sigma a management fad? This article presents some common myths and realities of Six Sigma business strategy. The paper provides an excellent resource for those people who would like to know whether Six Sigma is just a management fad or fact.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses some common myths and realities of Six Sigma by critically reviewing the existing literature on Six Sigma and also provides a greater insight into the viewpoints of leading academics and practitioners.

Findings – Six Sigma is neither a fad nor just another quality initiative. It relies on factual data coupled with hard work and is a disciplined and structured problem-solving methodology. The authors strongly argue its integration with other continuous/breakthrough improvement initiatives for sustaining the merits of Six Sigma in the twenty-first century. The paper also elucidates the role of academia in further developing and establishing the best practices of Six Sigma management strategy. Six Sigma will evolve over time like many other initiatives – however, the key concepts, the principles of statistical thinking, tools and techniques of Six Sigma, will stay for many years, irrespective of whatever the "next big thing" will be.

Practical implications – In the authors' opinion, Six Sigma will continue to grow as a powerful management initiative for achieving and sustaining operational and service excellence. However, what will eventually determine whether Six Sigma is viewed by businesses as just a passing management fad or not, largely depends on the leadership and success of its execution. The authors believe that organisations developing and implementing Six Sigma should not view it as an advertising banner for promotional purposes.

Originality/value – The paper yields a great value to both researchers and practitioners of Six Sigma in dispelling the myths of Six Sigma, which have been quite prevalent in the business fraternity.


In a liberalized and fragmented market, with many operators involved, ancillary services are provided by several actors. Distribution utilities take part in the reduction of the vulnerability of the electrical system in agreement with guidelines and rules stated by independent system operators. In Italy, most of emergency defence systems are implemented on HV/MV distribution sub-stations and on MV grids. After the 2003 Italian blackout many projects have been undertaken to improve emergency plans both in medium and long term perspective. In the short term, the collaboration among the Italian ISO and distribution companies brought to experiment new equipment and strategies in distribution networks. In the long term, research is focusing also in the exploitation of the use of Electronic Meters to manage peak demand. Even if demand side management (DSM) cannot be properly considered an emergency plan for the security of an electric systems, it could contribute to stabilize it, assuring a sufficient generation margin, through a better use of energy. DSM through AMR can benefit from statistical models for load profile fitting and forecasting. Using a combination of regression and times series models, it is possible to obtain accurate short-term predictions of the load at any load point. Schemes and layouts of local automation systems are presented. Limits are considered.


Fasting readily induces hepatic steatosis. Hepatic steatosis is associated with hepatic insulin resistance. The purpose of the present study was to document the effects of 16 h of fasting in wild-type mice on insulin sensitivity in liver and skeletal muscle in relation to 1) tissue accumulation of triglycerides (TGs) and 2) changes in mRNA expression of metabolically relevant genes. Sixteen hours of fasting did not show an effect on hepatic insulin sensitivity in terms of glucose production in the presence of increased hepatic TG content. In muscle, however, fasting resulted in increased insulin sensitivity, with increased muscle glucose uptake without changes in muscle TG content. In liver, fasting resulted in increased mRNA expression of genes promoting gluconeogenesis and TG synthesis but in decreased mRNA expression of genes involved in glycogenolysis and fatty acid synthesis. In muscle, increased mRNA expression of genes promoting glucose uptake, as well as lipogenesis and β-oxidation, was found. In conclusion, 16 h of fasting does not induce hepatic insulin resistance, although it causes liver steatosis, whereas muscle insulin sensitivity increases without changes in muscle TG content. Therefore, fasting induces differential changes in tissue-specific insulin sensitivity, and liver and muscle TG contents are unlikely to be involved in these changes.


Exascale computing is regarded as a major milestone for a number of application fields. However, utilizing the massively parallel power of such architectures requires a significant paradigm shift in the software structure of both simulation and visualization systems. A suboptimal workload distribution, communication bottlenecks between processes, as well as global memory accesses are often the limiting part in current approaches when it comes to the execution of such software in an exascale environment. Recent cases of malaria and Ebola in Africa have shown that there is a need for disease-spreading simulations to help healthcare workers better predict unexpected scenarios and take the necessary precautions. Reaction time plays an important role when it comes to containing a disease. Therefore, converting these kinds of demanding simulations to highly parallel computing systems as well as interactively visualizing the results is key. This paper demonstrates an approach towards a worldwide simulation of disease-spreading and an integrated---in situ---visualization. Instead of applying large-scale stochastic models, our agent-based method simulates the complete population of the world, accounting for daily tasks and routines of each subject. We focus on massive parallelization and efficient scaling to benefit from existing petascale to upcoming exascale setups. In particular, workload distribution is performed based on space partitioning and not on the population count, which is nonetheless included as an initial optimization. The resulting simulation is combined with a query-driven in situ visualization client that directly utilizes the spatial partitioning and the employed hierarchy. Our preliminary benchmarks underline the scalability of our approach in terms of rising computing power and encourage further research in the direction of worldwide, agent-based simulations and the corresponding in situ visualizations.


To date Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is recognized as an independent risk factor for the development of atrial fibrillation (Afib) and re-occurrence of Afib after cardioversion and/or ablative therapies. Thus, little is known about the influence of successful restoring of sinus rhythm on SDB's severity. A total of 45 patients (30 males, 15 females, mean age 67 years) with Afib (n = 40) or atrial flutter (Aflu) (n = 5) were investigated for the presence and severity of SDB by multichannel cardiorespiratory polygraphy (PG) before and after successful synchronized electrical cardioversion into stable sinus rhythm. Apnoea-hypopnoea-index (AHI) as well as apnoea index (AI) dropped significantly immediately after successful cardioversion into stable sinus rhythm. While SDB has been shown to be an independent risk factor for rhythm control therapy, this study reveals an effect of successful rhythm control (restoring of sinus rhythm from Afib/Aflu) on SDB. Further studies are needed to prove context and impact of rhythm control in patients with atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter regarding their characteristics of sleep-disordered breathings for their respective status of rhythm.


Abstract A rise in CSR (corporate social responsibility) has accompanied rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries in the 1990s. CSR may be serving a signalling function when the entering firm is of an unknown type. Although countries are now competing keenly to attract foreign firms, even so, excessive tax or excess transfers by firms can still cause a Prisoner's Dilemma structure to the payoffs resulting in an inefficient Nash equilibrium. CSR allows the accommodating firm to reveal its type, making cooperation the equilibrium outcome. The game differs from standard models since signalling changes the payoffs. A unique separating equilibrium exists where only the accommodating firms signal. But, under certain parameter values, a pooling equilibrium where all firms signal, becomes possible. A number of results are derived including the size of CSR expenditure required as a fraction of profits. An example demonstrates their relevance in practical situations.


There are direct links between water and energy use, sometimes referred to as the energy-water nexus. Water rights issues have confronted the southwestern U.S. for a long time. Furthermore, climate change is decreasing the already limited water resources in this region, and the growing population in the Southwest has also increased the consumption of freshwater. Here we study solar energy, which is abundant in the Southwest, as both an electric power source and the energy source to operate a desalination plant. We compare the use of different desalination technologies for seawater and brackish groundwater, which have different salinities. The data show that the dual-purpose reverse osmosis desalination plant is the most economical choice. However, since a multiple-effect desalination (MED) and a multistage-flash (MSF) can use waste heat for water production, desalinated water becomes a byproduct of the electric power plant, thus dual-purpose MED and MSF plants will be more economical than a single-purpose power plant. A MED plant using seawater or brackish water produces fresh water for $1.73/m3, while the costs are $2.81/m3 and $2.65/m3 for a MSF plant using seawater and brackish water, respectively.


State-of-the-art models for unpaired image-to-image translation with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) can learn the mapping from the source domain to the target domain using a cycle-consistency loss. The intuition behind these models is that if we translate from one domain to the other and back again we should arrive at where we started. However, existing methods always adopt a symmetric network architecture to learn both forward and backward cycles. Because of the task complexity and cycle input difference between the source and target image domains, the inequality in bidirectional forward-backward cycle translations is significant and the amount of information between two domains is different. In this paper, we analyze the limitation of the existing symmetric GAN models in asymmetric translation tasks, and propose an AsymmetricGAN model with both translation and reconstruction generators of unequal sizes and different parameter-sharing strategy to adapt to the asymmetric need in both unsupervised and supervised image-to-image translation tasks. Moreover, the training stage of existing methods has the common problem of model collapse that degrades the quality of the generated images, thus we explore different optimization losses for better training of AsymmetricGAN, and thus make image-to-image translation with higher consistency and better stability. Extensive experiments on both supervised and unsupervised generative tasks with several publicly available datasets demonstrate that the proposed AsymmetricGAN achieves superior model capacity and better generation performance compared with existing GAN models. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to investigate the asymmetric GAN framework on both unsupervised and supervised image-to-image translation tasks. The source code, data and trained models are available at this https URL.


Moving pictures existed for over a decade before anything resembling a star system appeared. Then, within the space of a very few years, American cinema went from being completely devoid of stars to being completely dependent on them. "Picture Personalities" is an invaluable account of this crucial development in cinema and modern culture. Conventional wisdom attributes the rise of the star system to the charisma of individual performers or to the public's desire to idolize an appealing star. In "Picture Personalities", Richard deCordova argues that the fledgling movie industry and the press conspired to develop the star system, along with a system of discourse to support it. How actors became stars and how they began to assume public identities distinct from their fictional roles was closely tied to the journalistic discourse of the period, produced by the trade press, newspapers, general periodicals, fan magazines, publicity stills, posters, and other material. DeCordova shows how the studios worked to fabricate moral images of the stars' marriages and personal lives and how a series of star scandals in the 1920s challenged those images and brought about changes in the conventions of representing stars. A new foreword by Corey K. Creekmur enhances this first paperback edition.


Glutathione conjugation of foreign compounds is the first step in the mercapturic acid pathway for the detoxication and elimination of toxic compounds in mammals. Plants have been found to metabolize and detoxify some organic herbicides by glutathione conjugation, but the terminal products seem to be different from that in mammals. The terminal product in plants appears to be insoluble residue and not the mercapturic acid derivative which is normally excreted in mammals. The insoluble residue very likely remains in the plant body during the life of the plant. The differences in metabolism between plants and animals may have been necessitated by the lack of an excretory system in plants.


The Basel III banking accord introduced the concept of capital buffers -- extra capital cushions on top of regulatory capital minimums -- to absorb unexpected shocks. These buffer requirements are now phasing in for U.S. banks. Federal Reserve officials are considering including these buffers in bank stress tests. With such a change, some banks will need to hold more capital to pass stress tests. However, another potential change would permit banks to use static balance sheets (that is, balance sheets unchanged from the prior period) in stress tests, which could make the tests less effective.


A nanometer-scale optical switch and transistor were fabricated with thioacetyl-end-functionalized poly(para-phenylene ethynylene)s and Au nanogap electrodes by self-assembly. With photoirradiation, the switch can be switched on/off quickly with a switching ratio as high as 1000. Moreover, the device works well as a p-type transistor. With an increase in gate bias, strong conductance oscillation was observed in this self-assembled transistor (under low temperature 147 K), which is very likely due to single-electron charging oscillations arising from electron tunneling through the nanometer-scale transistor.


The aim of this study was to investigate how sex (male and female) and gender-role (masculinity and femininity) and their interaction were associated with risky driving behaviors, traffic offences, and accident involvement among young Turkish drivers. Three-hundred and fifty-four young drivers (221 males and 133 females) filled in a form including the short form of Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ), questions about a driver's accident history, and background information. The effects were tested on outcome variables by using hierarchical regression analysis. It was found that sex (being male) predicted only the ordinary violations. While masculinity score predicted positively the number of offences, and aggressive and ordinary (highway code) violations, femininity score predicted negatively the number of accidents and offences, aggressive and ordinary violations, and errors. The effect of interaction between masculinity and femininity was only found on the number of accidents and aggressive violations among young drivers. There was no significant interaction effect between sex and gender roles on criterion variables.


This paper establishes, and illustrates for the case of the UK, a temporal method for calculating the labour values of outputs from any process or sector of a market economy. It exhibits the temporal calculation of the Monetary Equivalent of Labour Time (MELT), the general ratio between monetary and labour time magnitudes, for a single national economy, but does not correct for the consequences of value transfers within the world economy as a whole. The method is nevertheless generalisable, provided international value transfers are properly accounted.


People who score higher on intelligence tests tend to have larger brains. Twin studies suggest the same genetic factors influence both brain size and intelligence. This has led to the hypothesis that genetics influence intelligence partly by contributing to development of larger brains. We tested this hypothesis with molecular genetic data using discoveries from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment, a correlate of intelligence. We analyzed genetic, brain imaging, and cognitive test data from the UK Biobank, the Dunedin Study, the Brain Genomics Superstruct Project (GSP), and the Duke Neurogenetics Study (DNS) (combined N=8,271). We measured genetics using polygenic scores based on published GWAS. We conducted meta-analysis to test associations among participants' genetics, total brain volume (i.e., brain size), and cognitive test performance. Consistent with previous findings, participants with higher polygenic scores achieved higher scores on cognitive tests, as did participants with larger brains. Participants with higher polygenic scores also had larger brains. We found some evidence that brain size partly mediated associations between participants' education polygenic scores and their cognitive test performance. Effect-sizes were larger in the population-based UK Biobank and Dunedin samples than in the GSP and DNS samples. Sensitivity analysis suggested this effect-size difference partly reflected restricted range of cognitive performance in the GSP and DNS samples. Recruitment and retention of population-representative samples should be a priority for neuroscience research. Findings suggest promise for studies integrating GWAS discoveries with brain imaging data to understand neurobiology linking genetics with individual differences in cognitive performance.


The relationships between grapevine (Vitis vinifera) vigor variation and resulting wine anthocyanin concentration and composition and pigmented polymer formation were investigated. The study was conducted in a commercial vineyard consisting of the same clone, rootstock, age, and vineyard management practices. Vine vigor parameters were used to designate vigor zones within two vineyard sites (A and B) to produce research wines (2003 and 2004) and conduct a model extraction experiment (2004 only) to investigate the vine-fruit-wine continuum. Wines and model extracts were analyzed by HPLC and UV-vis spectrophotometry. For the model extractions, there were no differences between sites for pomace weight, whereas juice volume was higher for site A. This was not related to a larger berry size. Site A had a higher anthocyanin concentration (milligrams per liter) in the model extracts than site B specifically for the medium- and low-vigor zones. For anthocyanin composition in the model extraction, site B had a greater proportion of malvidin-3-O-glucoside and less of the remaining anthocyanin glucosides (delphinidin, cyanidin, petunidin, and peonidin) compared to site A. In the wines, there was a vintage effect, with the 2003 wines having a higher anthocyanin concentration (milligrams per liter) than the 2004 wines. This appears to have been primarily due to a greater accumulation of anthocyanins in the fruit. In general, the medium-vigor zone wines had higher anthocyanin concentrations than either the high- or low-vigor zone wines. There was also vintage variation related to anthocyanin composition, with the 2003 wines having a higher proportion of delphinidin and petunidin glucosides and lower malvidin-3-O-glucoside compared to 2004. In both years, there were higher proportions of delphinidin and petunidin glucosides in wines made from low-vigor-zone fruit. Wines made from low-vigor zones showed a greater propensity to form vitisin A as well as pigmented polymers. Low-vigor-zone wines had a approximately 2-fold increase in pigmented polymer concentration (milligrams per liter) over high-vigor-zones wines. There was a strong positive relationship between pigmented polymer concentration, bisulfite bleaching resistant pigments, proanthocyanidin concentration, and color density in wines. Overall, differences found in the wines magnified variation in the fruit.


Recently, an increase of global incidence has been observed for various types of cancers. Diet, lifestyle and environmental factors have an evident correlation to the development of breast cancer. Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related death in women. Several studies also revealed that excessive free radical generation and decreased antioxidant status had been implicated in cancer. These factors rekindled our interest upon the interaction of free radicals and antioxidants and hence the present study was undertaken to evaluate the significance of non enzymic antioxidants: glutathione, albumin and ascorbic acid levels in breast cancer patients. The study population was divided into 3 groups as follows: Group I control subjects (age group 21-60), Group II: breast cancer Patients (age group 21-35) and Group III breast cancer patients (age group 36-60). Highly statistically significant increases in glutathione, albumin and ascorbic acid levels were observed in Group I as compared to other groups. No significant differences in glutathione, albumin and ascorbic acid levels were observed in a group comparison between Group II and Group III. This relative decline of non enzymic antioxidants in breast cancer patients may be due to an increased generation of reactive oxygen species or free radicals. The results obtained emphasize the need of more detailed study involving a large number of newly detected cancers for evaluating the role of these antioxidant parameters in the prevention of cancer.


The problem investigated within this research is how an organisation can overcome its skills gaps, whilst ensuring national and international recognition of those skills, and contribute to an increase of skills nationally. This problem is addressed through the formulation of competencies. The eclectic approach forms the theoretical paradigm of the studies. The methodology used for the formulation of competencies is an adaptation of Spencer and Spencer' s (1993) classic competency study model. Competencies formulated are aligned with the latest developments within the South African vocational qualification system and incorporate elements of the behaviourist approach. The study is conducted in an international food manufacturing company. The' target population consists of male Zulu-speaking workers. Education levels established through assessments indicate that the population is situated at an adult basic education level of four, the equivalent of a grade nine within the formal schooling system. Demographics show that workers have on average more than two years' experience within their current job roles and their mean age is forty years, an indication of their experience within the manufacturing environment.


In the last years, Peer Data Management Systems (PDMS) came into the focus of research as a natural extension to distributed databases in the peer-to-peer (P2P) context. PDMS are P2P networks where every contributing peer has its own data and intends to share parts of its data with other peers. The main data management issues that a PDMS must deal with when sharing structured and semi- structured data are the identification of schema mappings and the query processing. Such issues can be facilitated if an efficient strategy for peer connectivity is employed, for example, grouping semantically similar peers within semantic communities. In this case, better quality semantic mappings can be generated, enhancing query results. Also, queries can be addressed only to relevant peers, minimizing network traffic and improving system scalability. In this work, we propose an approach for semantic-based peer connectivity in a PDMS. Such PDMS provides a P2P infrastructure that facilitates identification of semantic mappings and query processing. The data shared by peers are represented through ontologies which are employed for grouping peers within semantic communities and clusters. Due to the dynamic behavior of peers, approaches for load balancing of semantic clusters and fault tolerance are also proposed.


We describe a high-performance liquid-chromatographic method for measuring histamine, norepinephrine, octopamine, normetanephrine, dopamine, serotonin, and tyramine in plasma (2 ml), brain (0.2 g), or urine. These amines are modifed by pre-column derivatization with o-phthalaldehyde, which stabilizes the molecules, facilitates extraction, and improves detection of nanogram amounts. Before separation, samples were neutralized with KOH and immediately derivatized and extracted into ethyl acetate, in which derivatives were stable for longer than 24 h. Interfering amino acids were removed from ethyl acetate by partitioning twice with Na2HPO4 buffer (pH 10.0). Separation was complete in about 90 mm on a "t Bondapak/phenyl" column, with which a stepwise gradient of methanol/phosphate buffer (pH 5.1) was used. A variable-wavelength fluorometer was used (exciting wavelength, 340 nm; emission wavelength, 480 nm). Amount and response were linearly related from 1 to 200 pmol. Precision (CV) for retention times was 1 %, for derivatization and injection 2.5%. Analytical recoveries of the seven amines from 2 ml of plasma fortified with 200 pmol averaged 65% (CV '-j 8%). Data on rat-brain tissue samples are compared with results by the trihydroxyindole method. Application of the method to urine from normal persons and a patient with a brain tumor is demonstrated.


Calpionellid study has provided new evidence of early and late Tithonian age of the top of the Gintsi Formation, and of late Tithonian and early Berriasian age of the Glozhene Formation in the Yavorets section (Western Balkan Mts, Bulgaria). The calpionellid Chitinoidella, Praetintinnopsella, Crassicollaria, and Calpionella zones have been documented in successive order. Three calcareous dinocyst zones – Colomisphaera tenuis, Colomisphaera fortis and Stomiosphaerina proxima, have been determined in this lower Tithonian to lower Berriasian interval. From the base upwards, the following microfacies have been recognized: Saccocoma (Gintsi Formation, lower and upper Tithonian), Globochaete alpina, and calpionellid (Glozhene Formation, upper Tithonian and lower Berriasian). The base of the Berriasian has been traced at the explosion of the uniformly shaped spherical variety of Calpionella alpina. Evolutionary lineages of species of the genus Calpionella are discussed, as well as the vertical distributions and abundance peaks of crassicollarians. The calpionellid zones described herein are correlated with coeval zonations from the Western, Central and Eastern Tethyan domains. The regional correlation with previously studied sections of Tithonian/Berriasian pelagic carbonates in the Western Balkan Mts revealed a transition to hemipelagic deposition of the limestone-marl succession of the Salash Formation and/or sandstone accumulation during the middle to late Berriasian (Elliptica and Simplex calpionellid subzones) due to unstable conditions of the sedimentary environment. From the west to the east in the Western Balkan Unit (i.e., from the Rosomač section in eastern Serbia to the Sarbenitsa, Bov and Yavorets sections in the Iskar River Valley area), there is a trend of slight progressive deepening of the basin. This is manifested in the occurrence of redeposited shallow-carbonate-platform microfossils in the west to greater thickenesses of the Gintsi and Glozhene formations and occurrence of sandstone channel deposits in the east.


Diarrhea is a common complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) due to multiple etiologies, including toxicity from the conditioning regimen and Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection. We hypothesized that C. difficile infection is uncommon in recipients of autologous HSCT (auto-HSCT) and testing for C. difficile is over utilized at our institution. We performed a retrospective, single center analysis of the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for C. difficile among adult auto-HSCT recipients in the first 45 days post-procedure. Patients were identified by cross referencing the existing list of patients who had an auto-HSCT between May 2011 and May 2014 with the Premier SafetySurveillor® list of C. difficile PCR tests conducted in patients during the same time period. Among the 160 patients identified, the incidence of C. difficile infection was 5.0% with nearly three-quarters of auto-HSCT patients being tested. We further reviewed C. difficile PCR positive patients for risk factors according to Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines for C. difficile infection. Based upon assessment of risk factors in patients who tested positive for C. difficile infection, we recommend additional study to evaluate for the need for antimicrobial prophylaxis with fluoroquinolones during the neutropenic post-transplant period as well as proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy in this patient population. Limiting the use of these agents could be a method to decrease C. difficile risk factors; therefore, potentially decreasing PCR testing and C. difficile infection.


Gaining Ground focuses on six key technologies -computer science, biotechnology, mechatronics, opto and microelectronics, telecommunications, and advanced materials. The authors discuss the importance of each technology, the relevant research organizations in Japan, and the major funding mechanisms for that technology area. The book begins with a description of how the Japanese research and development systems works, concentrating on funding for R&D, collaborative research, exploitation of foreign science and technology, management of scientific and technical personnel, and science education.


The tensile specimen of nanocrystalline Ni–W alloys with 50 μm × 20 μm in area and 4 mm in gauge length was made by using an electrodeposit together with ultraviolet light lithographic technique. The composition and grain size were Ni-16.9 at.% W and about 6 nm, respectively. Tensile testing of the alloy was carried out. The nominal tensile strength and Young's modulus were about 2.7 GPa and 123 GPa, respectively. The elastic strain and plastic strain were about 2 % and 1 %, respectively. The stress-strain curve showed work hardening. The macroscopic fracture part yielded necking and the microscopic fracture surface showed dimple pattern. As mentioned above, this electrodeposited nanocrystalline Ni-W alloy showed high strength, low elastic modulus and high ductility.


This is a case report of a 7 year old male child who presented with an unusual foreign body a glass marble in upper esophagus. The child was a case of global developmental delay, seizure disorder, patent ductus arteriosus, congenital hydrocephalus with VP shunt in situ. The case was a challenging one to the entire team of surgeons, anesthesiologist and pediatricians. Under general anesthesia the foreign body was removed using a foley's catheter. Spherical foreign bodies like glass marbles are always challenging as the usual instruments cannot grasp such foreign bodies and there is always a chance of pushing the foreign body downwards during the attempt to remove. In this case foley's catheter was used to retrieve the foreign body which is cheap, easily available and non-traumatic.


The modelling and/or describing of texture (i.e. preferred crystallographic orientation (PO)) is of critical importance in powder diffraction analysis - for structural study and phase composition. In the present study, the GSAS Rietveld refinement with generalized spherical harmonic (GSH) was used for describing isostatically-pressed molybdite powders neutron powder diffraction data collected in the ILL D1A instrument. The results showed that for texture in a single ND data of molybdite the reasonable crystal structure parameters may be obtained when applying corrections to intensities using the GSH description. Furthermore, the WIMV method was used to extract the texture description directly from a simultaneous refinement with 1368 whole neutron diffraction patterns taken from the sample held in a variety of orientations in the ILL D1B texture goniometer. The results provided a quantitative description of the texture refined simultaneously with the crystal structure. Finally, the (002) molybdite pole-figures were measured using the GKSS TEX2 texture goniometer. The results showed that neutron diffraction is an excellent tool to investigate the texture in molybdite.


We have studied proteoglycan secretion using a recently developed system for the preparing of polarized primary cultures of rat uterine epithelial cells. To mimic their native environment better and provide a system for discriminating apical from basolateral compartments, we cultured cells on semipermeable supports impregnated with biomatrix. Keratan sulfate proteoglycans (KSPG) as well as heparan sulfate- containing molecules (HS[PG]) were the major sulfated products synthesized and secreted by these cells. The ability of epithelial cells to secrete KSPG greatly increased in parallel with the development of cell polarity. Furthermore, KSPG secretion occurred preferentially to the apical medium in highly polarized cultures. In contrast, HS(PG) secretion did not increase along with development of polarity, although most HS(PG) (85%) were secreted apically as well. Pulse-chase studies indicated that highly polarized cultures secreted 80-90% of the sulfated macromolecules they synthesized, predominantly to the apical secretory compartment. The half-lives for KSPG and HS(PG) secretion were approximately 3 and 4 h, respectively. Parallel studies of cells cultured on tissue culture plastic-coated with biomatrix indicated that neither the state of confluency nor the biomatrix was primarily responsible for inducing the KSPG secretion observed in polarizing cultures. Experiments with uterine strips indicated that the steroid hormone, 17-beta-estradiol, markedly stimulated synthesis and secretion of sulfated macromolecules, but had no preferential effect on KSPG production. The ratio of KSPG to HS(PG) secretion from uterine strips was similar to that found in the apical medium of highly polarized cell cultures. Thus, the pattern of proteoglycan secretion observed in polarized cell cultures mimicked that observed for uterine cells, although the preferential increase in KSPG production by polarized cells could not be attributed to an estrogen response. Collectively, these studies describe the major sulfated molecules secreted by rat uterine epithelial cells under varying conditions and provide evidence for a novel influence of cell polarity on the cell's ability to secrete sulfated glycoconjugates.


Two methods are presented for the determination of the propagation constants and field distribution of the fundamental and higher order modes of an optical waveguide with a rectangular cross-section and a step index distribution profile. The number of guided modes as a function of the operating wavelength is computed. The interval of a single mode operation is also determined. These methods are the effective index method and the perturbation method. The results of the two methods are compared and satisfactory good agreement between them are obtained. The effective index method is more rapid than the perturbation method where the later needs to calculate some integrals. The perturbation method has accurate results rather than the effective index method but this accuracy is not enough to substitute the time consumed by this method. So, the effective index method is an optimal method to study the propagation characteristics of a rectangular optical waveguide.


Despite multiple layers of regulation, UCITS exchangetraded funds (ETFs) have been the subject of much scrutiny in recent months. In the face of the continued development of ETF strategies and more sophisticated methods of replication, regulators have grown concerned about the risk of product confusion for investors with additional considerations surrounding counterparty risk, liquidity impacts, and possible destabilizing effects on markets. Despite the fact UCITS ETFs are already highly regulated products and will be affected by the forthcoming MiFID II regime, the European Commission's Packaged Retail Investment Products initiative, UCITS V, and such local initiatives as the Retail Distribution Review in the U.K., ETFs continue to be the focus of increased scrutiny from both regulators and institutions, such as BIS, the IMF, the FSB, and IOSCO. It is arguable whether the focus should be on ETFs or whether it would be better placed on the sale of investment products and on other products equally sold to retail investors but not subject to a regulatory regime as robust as UCITS.


Inappropriate behaviors are very common in dementia and impose an enormous toll both emotionally and financially. Three main psychosocial theoretical models have generally been utilized to explain inappropriate behaviors in dementia: the "unmet needs" model, a behavioral/learning model, and an environmental vulnerability/reduced stress-threshold model. A literature search yielded 83 nonpharmacological intervention studies, which utilized the following categories of interventions: sensory, social contact (real or simulated), behavior therapy, staff training, structured activities, environmental interventions, medical/nursing care interventions, and combination therapies. The majority are reported to have a positive, albeit not always significant, impact. Better matching of the available interventions to patients' needs and capabilities may result in greater benefits to patients and their caregivers.