BACKGROUND
To date, there is conflicting evidence that high-end "motion control" running shoes can correct and control rearfoot pronation. Many methods have been used to evaluate the efficacy of motion control footwear in reducing hindfoot pronation during gait, including stop-motion photography, three-dimensional camera kinematic analysis, and three-dimensional bone modeling using computed tomography. Until now, there have been no radiographic studies that examined the effect of motion control running shoes on the static posture of the foot. Murley et al devised a reliable system that correlated noninvasive clinical examinations to radiographic values that correspond to foot pronation. The aim of this prospective investigation was to determine whether motion control running shoes are able to produce a significant difference in pronation through a radiographic study, using the angular relationships as described by Murley et al, in two different shoe conditions as compared to the barefoot condition in female subjects.

METHODS
This prospective study screened 28 female subjects ranging in age from 22 to 27 years on the basis of arch height index. The 24 subjects with a standing arch height index less than 0.370 were invited to participate in the study. Unilateral weightbearing dorsoplantar and lateral foot radiographs were taken in barefoot, neutral shoe, and motion control shoe conditions. Calcaneal inclination angle, calcaneal-first metatarsal (CFMA) angle, talonavicular coverage angle (TNCA), and talus-second metatarsal angle were measured in each condition by two independent observers using the Opal-Ortho PACS software package and then averaged. Angles were compared to barefoot baseline values using paired t tests.

RESULTS
The motion control running shoe produced average decreases of 2.64% in CFMA, 12.62% in TNCA, 5.3% in talus-second metatarsal angle and an average increase of 1.3% in calcaneal inclination angle. Statistically significant ( P > .05) improvements in CFMA were noted in both the motion control ( P < .000) and neutral shoe conditions ( P < .000) when compared to barefoot, whereas TNCA improved only in the motion control shoe condition as compared to barefoot ( P = .003).

CONCLUSIONS
This investigation found evidence that the particular models of motion control running shoes studied could correct foot pronation in the transverse and sagittal planes in stance. Motion control running shoes improved CFMA and TNCA from the barefoot condition and were more effective in correcting pronation compared with neutral running shoes in this radiographic study simulating static foot posture in stance.


ABSTRACT Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a conservation tool designed to adequately manage and protect marine resources threatened by human activity by addressing both biological and socioeconomic needs. The Irish Sea is a busy waterway under the jurisdiction of six entities (Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, England, and Wales). Within this body of water there are almost 200 conservation designations across 111 MPA sites, with many sites having multiple designations (national, EU, and international). Data is lacking on the effectiveness of these protected areas in reaching their conservation objectives due to sites being inadequately monitored. The race to meet the 10% marine protected area target set by the Conservation on Biological Diversity, however, may be compromising effective planning. Do multiple designations ensure better protection of the marine environment, or is the Irish Sea home to paper parks, offering little protection? Metadata compiled from the World Database on Protected Areas and conservation reports from MPA managers were used to investigate this question. The results show a positive correlation between the number of designations of a site and the existence of a publicly available management plan. The presence of a management plan was also linked to whether or not site assessments were conducted by the relevant authorities, and sites having multiple designations was weakly correlated with favourable assessment outcomes. The results of this study highlight the need to better understand the requirements of national, regional and international-level conservation designations and how they interact with each other.


Rocket (Eruca sativa Mill.) is a green leafy vegetable that is increasingly used as an ingredient in salad. The floating system is a way to grow this crop, at high density from sowing to harvest and easy to use in relation substrate culture, and it is well known water culture can be limited by hypoxia. Few studies have examined the use of peroxides or peracetic acid in nutrient solutions as a source of oxygenation. The aim of the study was to evaluate the rocket grown in substrates as compared to the floating system, with a stabilized mixture of peracetic acid in the nutrient solution. The experiment was carried out in and Talca (Chile) from October to November 2008. The treatments were substrate culture perlite and composted pine bark (1:1); floating system with trays filled with the same substrate and 0, 40 and 80 mg·L−1 of stabilized peracetic acid mix (PA). The fresh and dry weight of rocket leaves at harvest we evaluated. We recorded total nutrient solution uptake; the average dissolved oxygen; pH and electrical conductivity (EC). A randomized complete block design with four replicates was conducted using Tukey's multiple range test (P < 0.05). The results suggest from 40 to 80 mg·L−1 PA applied to the nutrient solution, increases the fresh and dry weight in the rocket crop grown by floating system and may compensate this limiting factor in the growth, if it was compared with higher oxygen available substrate culture.


Viridaxis is a Belgian company which developed a new, plant-less way of mass-rearing aphid parasitoids. Due to its innovative and unique technology, Viridaxis has been able to develop and produce one new parasitoid species every year. A parasitoid is a wasp able to parasitize aphids in a host-specific way. These natural enemies of aphids are used in organic or integrated pest management strategies. In order to apply the matching parasitoid against a given aphid species, the latter one has to be (a) detected in the crop and (b) subsequently identified. By the time the aphids are spotted by the grower and then identified by himself or a specialized technician, it becomes increasingly difficult to gain control over an increasing aphid population. Viridaxis developed a new concept of aphid control, based not on the species identified but on the crop treated. For each crop, the expected aphids are well known. What was needed was a product controlling the largest possible variety of aphid species susceptibly present in the crop. Viridaxis studied the aphids attacking strawberry and berry crops in various regions and over many years, and developed two unique cocktails of parasitoids species (FresaProtect and BerryProtect) parasitizing and controlling all aphids. FresaProtect and BerryProtect contain six or five different species of natural aphid enemies, respectively, and are able to control all commonly appearing aphids attacking strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and currants. The fact of mixing of not only different species, but also different ages of different mummies allows to prolonge hatching. The ready-to-use units contain an integrated feeding point which contributes to longevity and efficiency of the parasitoids. Their application in the crop is much faster than even any chemical treatment. Numerous field trial results and modeling of population dynamics data resulted in a protection scheme for soft fruit crops in which releases only every three weeks assure constant presence of fresh parasitoid adults and hence continuous and reliable aphid control.


Background Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is usually involved in nosocomial infections. Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) and a state of high haemodynamic instability are common in ICU patients, thus continuous venovenous haemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) is gaining significance in this setting. Timely and adequate antibiotics are needed according to resistance data (EUCAST-2013). To date, vancomycin (VAN), linezolid (LNZ) and daptomycin (DAP) doses during CVVHDF have not been fully established. Purpose To evaluate the pharmacokinetics (PK) of vancomycin, linezolid and daptomycin in critically ill patients undergoing CVVHDF to further optimise antibiotic dose regimens. Materials and methods Prospective, one-year PK study in ICU patients with AKI requiring CVVHDF and treated with VAN, LNZ or DAP. Data collected: patient demographics; dosage; CVVHDF characteristics; venous blood samples pre-dose and several times post-dose. Drug concentrations were analysed by HPLC/UV. PK parameters were determined by non-compartmental analysis [elimination half-life (t1/2), area under the concentration-time curve (AUC0-τ), total clearance (CLtot) and apparent volume of distribution at steady-state (Vss)]. Optimal PK/PD indices (AUC–24/MIC): VAN >400; LNZ >100; DAP > 600. Results Fourteen patients (10 VAN: 15 mg/kg/24 h; 2 LNZ: 600 mg/12 h; 2 DAP: 8 mg/kg/48 h) were included in the study. Mean (SD) age: 61.1(14.6) years. Mean (SD) weight: 72.1(13.9) kg. Ten patients were male. CVVHDF was performed at a dialysate flow rate: 0.7–1.5 L/h and ultra-filtration flow rate: 0.7–2 L/h. The blood flow rate ranged from 140 to 200 mL/min. Median [range] t1/2 and Vss were: 18.2 h [6.8–30.9 h] and 1.7 L/kg [0.8–3.1 L/kg]; 6.1 h [4.9–7.4 h] and 0.6 L/kg [0.5–0.7 L/kg]; 24.1 h [19.5–28.7 h] and 0.25 L/kg [0.2–0.3 L/kg], for VAN, LNZ and DAP, respectively. Median [range] CLtot of VAN, LNZ and DAP was 5.2 L/h [2.9–8.3 L/h], 4.45 L/h [3.6–5.3 L/h] and 1.15 L/h [1.1–1.2L/h] respectively. The percentage of total dose removed by CVVHDF was: VAN 40.1%; LNZ 36.5% and DAP 53%. Median [range] VAN, LNZ and DAP AUC–24 was 125.3 mg*h/L [71-–83.8 mg*h/L], 263.5 mg*L/h [214.1-–12.9 mg*h/L] and 468.6 mg*h/L [379.9-–68.6 mg*h/L], respectively. Conclusions A VAN dose higher than 15 mg/kg/day is required to optimise the PK/PD target. Therapeutic VAN monitoring is strongly recommended in CVVHDF patients. Standard LNZ dose: 600 mg bid is appropriate to optimise the AUC–24/MIC ratio for susceptible microorganisms. In contrast, a dose of 8 mg/kg/48 h of DAP appears to be insufficient to achieve the PK/PD target. Higher DAP doses would be needed (10-–2 mg/kg/48 h). No conflict of interest.


Ancient suture belts within continents are deformed regions which contain the remnants of former ocean basins. They form when two continents or island arcs that earlier were separated by an ocean basin converge and collide during plate tectonic activity. These belts provide the only record we have of deep oceanic crust and of ancient sea-floor processes for the first 94 percent of the earth's history, that is, prior to the oldest preserved crust in the oceans. Ten criteria for the recognition and interpretation of these ancient belts are discussed. A comprehensive program for the study of these belts should have great scientific and economic benefit for the United States and would be relatively cheap compared to other large national scientific efforts.


This paper focuses on the connections between long-term development and Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) in China. It aims to investigate how the evolution of RIS fits with China's overall process of economic upgrading. The analysis relies on Chinese patent applications filed to the EPO during the period 1981 to 2009, which authors have regionalised at a prefectural level. Conceptu-ally, the investigation concerns the relative prevalence of indexes derived from inventors' and ap-plicants' localisation to describe local innovation activities in terms of emergence, development and reinforcement. The hypothesis ranks higher those prefectures where indigenous applicants prevail, that is, the initiative, organisation and exploitation of innovation activities are foremost local (or endogenous). Results return the possibility of grouping Chinese prefectures into six clusters. On this basis, RIS features appear to diffuse, even while regional concentration of innovation activities is still increasing. This pattern is deemed to fit the process of industrial development in China very well. As it was in the past, RIS benefit from the opportunities that a long-term development strategy provides, but face its limits as well.


Natural law and tragedy have been long intertwined, but the tragic dimension has been lost in the way contemporary legal orders tend to equate natural law with human rights. The "institutionalisation" of these rights as part of political and administrative culture, the adoption of procedural paradigms such as those of "the priority of rights over the good", and the idea that to each legal question there is a single right answer have led to a judicialisation of the political sphere and to the development of a technocratic culture that leaves no room for the articulation or realisation of competing conceptions of good. The present paper seeks to bring to the forefront the tragedy inherent in human rights' adjudication – i.e., the fact that when deciding between two different values or goods expressed in human rights, an adjudicator may have to fully sacrifice one of them, or both of them partially.
In particular, this paper is concerned with the implications of incommensurability for rights adjudication, which tends to be overlooked in much of contemporary constitutional theorising. To understand these implications, an overview of the development of the present rights' culture and the history of the intellectual underpinnings of the "right-answer" postulate will be pursued. This paper will then proceed to identify the limitations of this position and intellectual tradition. Lastly, an attempt will be made to understand, and even justify, rights' adjudication in contemporary pluralistic legal orders.


Bluetooth technology aims at allowing short-range communication between portable and/or fixed devices. It uses short-range radio links to replace cables between Bluetooth-enabled devices. In this way, it is similar in purpose to the Infrared Data Association (IrDA), however, Bluetooth is a radio frequency (RF) technology utilizing the unlicensed 2.5 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band. The key features of Bluetooth technology are robustness, low power and low cost with its primary market for data and voice transfer between communication devices and PCs.

In this project, a simulation study is done with three major goals in mind: (i) to gather expertise on and evaluate a Bluetooth simulation tool called Bluehoc for further use, (ii) to gather measurements of some Bluetooth characteristics such as throughput in post connection state and (ii) to describe a model that can be used to get maximum throughput for voice and data applications. We also review some of the key aspects in Bluetooth simulation and present models of the Bluetooth devices to get maximum throughput. We show that user data transfer rate (throughput) between Bluetooth master and slaves is effected by distance, number of slaves and slave's start time.


Questions: Are exotic plant species favoured by non-native ungulate herbivores and disadvantaged by native herbivores in forested rangelands? Do the impacts of ungulates on exotic vs native plants depend on forest management activities such as prescribed fire and stand thinning? Location: Northeastern Oregon, USA. Methods: We recorded changes in richness and cover of different exotic and native plant life forms in experimental plots that were grazed only by cattle (a non-native herbivore), only by elk (a native herbivore) or not grazed by any ungulate over a 7-yr period at bothmanaged (recently burned and thinned) and unmanaged (where no fire and thinning has occurred in >40 yr) forest stands. Results: There was a general decrease in exotic plant species richness and cover across all treatments. However, the decrease in exotic richness, particularly of exotic annual forbs, was slightly lower in plots grazed by elk than in ungrazed plots at managed stands. Managed stands also displayed a larger increase in native annual forb richness and exotic graminoid richness, and a larger decrease in native perennial graminoid cover with cattle grazing than elk grazing. At unmanaged stands, cover of woody native plants such as shrubs, sub-shrubs and trees as well as native perennial forbs decreased or remained relatively constant with elk grazing while increasing strongly at plots that were ungrazed or grazed by cattle. Conclusions: Cattle and elk have variable effects on different plant guilds at managed vs unmanaged forest stands. Overall, cattle grazing tends to have a larger impact on herbaceous plant guilds at managed stands, while elk grazing tends to have a larger impact on woody plant guilds at unmanaged stands. However, in contrast to findings from other ecosystems, grazing only has a minor impact on exotic plant dynamics in our study area, and cattle grazing does not favour exotic plants anymore than grazing by elk or ungulate exclusion.


: Testerone and 17alpha-hydroxyprogesterone were measured in the peripheral plasma of 6 young post-pubertal bulls of 1 year of age, by separate radioimmunoassays. Samples were collected every hour for 25 h at the beginning of each of four seasons. On a separate occasion blood samples were collected from one bull every 10 min for 2 h. As a result of the study, testosterone and 17alpha-hydroxyprogesterone appeared to be secreted episodically. These two steroid peaks showed good correlation. Each 24 h period showed its own characteristic pattern of pulsatile changes. Episodic secretion seems to be progressive rather than rapid and short lived. No real circadian rhythm was observed but at about 10.00 a.m. a trough in these steroid secretions occurred. This was followed by an increase in peripheral plasma concentration. These troughs occurred at all seasons after the morning feed and while semen was being collected in the performance test station.


This thesis explores the complex voices of militants, associated with the capture of oil resources in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The persistent violent conflict involving militant groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is a major concern for many within the country and the international community. Understanding the conflict in the Niger Delta has triggered a wide range of discussions and debates among researchers, politicians and policy makers. However, these debates have overlooked the views of the militants, who are actively engaged in the conflict over resource governance in the region. Moreover the ideology of self-determination and resource control, which these militants use to legitimise their actions, seem to generate different meanings and labelling that tend to cloud an understandings of the conflict in the region. In this thesis, I adopt the theoretical assumptions of the New Social Movement literature and the epistemological views of the Interpretivist Social Constructionist approach to explore (a) what features shaped the emergence of militancy and its diverse forms (b) how do militias make sense of their role as militants? (c) how does the role of militias impact on the politics of oil governance in the Niger Delta? I argue that militia actions that appear to challenge the legitimacy and authority of the Nigerian state to control oil resources, are embedded in complex webs involving formal and informal interactions of political elites and militia leaders. From analysis of this research, key dominant concepts such as Identity, opportunism and competition, emerged to give insight as to why and how militancy has become significant in the region.


A quarter of all strokes occur in people under the age of sixty-five providing stark economic consequences in potential lost productivity in people being unable to return to work. Consequently and not surprisingly, return to work following stroke is considered an important outcome of stroke recovery. However, there is little research evidence exploring the actual process and quality of intervention during the stroke survivor's journey to return to work, or to suggest the wider impact of vocational rehabilitation. This study took an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach using semi-structured interviews as the method to understand the world of seven individuals experiencing vocational rehabilitation at a Work Rehabilitation Service (WRS) including the impact of the WRS on their stroke journey. Five main themes were identified from the findings – the stroke journey, rebuilding the whole person, the WRS, psychosocial benefits of the WRS and the future. The findings emphasised the less overt or hidden aspects and perceived benefits for individuals attending the WRS, suggesting that it is far from just a process for returning to work, but instead contributes to a far wider set of values and contributions in the individual's stroke journey, road to recovery and future life. This study has provided a rich and interpretive description, with new and novel exploratory insights, into the lived experiences of individuals attending the WRS. Three key conclusions can be drawn from the findings of this research study: 1. The WRS is a service embedded in the philosophy and principles of OT; consequently this provides a rich vocational rehabilitation experience demonstrating positive patient outcomes due to a successful fusion of client-centred practice and meaningful activity within a group/peer environment. 2. The 'hidden extras' and unexpected outcomes of the WRS in terms of its perceived psychosocial benefits are considered by the participants to be as important to their recovery as the core treatment and rehabilitation. 3. The WRS provides rehabilitation beyond that of vocational rehabilitation to return to work. The philosophy and principles of the WRS combined with the hidden extras to support the individual to develop self-management strategies to prepare them for life post stroke.


In landscape planning, visualization of landscape is a powerful tool for public understanding and for selection of alternative plans. In recent years, three dimensional (3D) computer graphics (CG) were used as visualization tools of environment because it has the ability to accurately simulate the changes caused by a proposed plan. In particular, virtual reality (VR), which enables to walk through in a modeled park or in a visualized forest, was considered as the advanced technique of landscape visualization. In this study, we developed a landscape visualization system with graphic user interface, which we named VR-Terrain (GUI version), to generate the virtual reality image easily by using VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and plant modeling techniques. In order to test the feasibility of the landscape visualization system, we applied the system to Ichinoe Urban Design Plan. Ichinoe is located at Edogawa Ward, Tokyo. There is a Sakaikawa Shinsui Park with water space surrounded by large amount of green. In the case study, we simulated the landscape of Sakaikawa Shinsui Park with about 200 plants and 300 buildings. We used the images simulated by VR-Terrain to explain the concept (such as building height limit) to the residents in the public meetings. It took about 30 hours to make the 3D model of the town. After ten minutes of training, anybody can walk through in the simulated town freely. The results showed that the VR image by the system helped the public understanding of the concept of the urban plan.


The manufacturers of future aero engines would need new ultra-high temperature alloys for blade applications with capabilities beyond those of Ni based superalloys to meet performance and environmental targets. The new alloys should meet property goals set by industry and would be expected to operate under conditions where turbine entry temperatures could be as high as 1800 °C and alloy surface temperatures  1300 °C. Ni based alloys cannot be used because of the melting temperature of Ni. Nb silicide based alloys are strong candidates for blade applications owing to their lower density and potential to offer a balance of properties that can satisfy property goals. The oxidation of the new alloys in service must be comparable with that of single crystal Ni based superalloys, such as CMSX4, at 1050°C. The oxidation of the new alloys is significantly improved by additions of Sn. However, to date it is not understood how Sn affects the oxidation of these alloys in the pest regime and high temperatures. The research described in this thesis attempts to understand how Sn on its own and in synergy with Al and Cr individually and simultaneously contributes towards improving the oxidation behaviour, how the stability of Nb3Sn, Nbss, Nb5Si3 and Nb5Si3 and Laves phase in Nb silicide based alloys is affected by the addition of Sn in the alloys and what the role played by Sn is in the isothermal oxidation behaviour of alloys at 800 °C (in the pest regime) and 1200 °C.
Model Nb-Si ternary alloys with low and high concentrations of Sn and higher order model Nb-24Ti-18Si based alloys with 5 at.% of each Al and Cr added individually and simultaneously were studied in the cast and heat treated conditions (100 h at 1200 °C, 1500 °C or 1450 °C depending on alloy). The nominal compositions (at.%) of the alloys were Nb-14Si-3Sn (ZX1), Nb-12.5Si-7.5Sn (ZX2), Nb-24Ti-18Si-5Cr-2Sn (ZX3), Nb-24Ti-18Si-5Cr-5Sn (ZX4), Nb-24Ti-18Si-5Al-2Sn (ZX5), Nb-24Ti-18Si-5Al-5Sn (ZX6), Nb-24Ti-18Si-5Cr-5Al-2Sn (ZX7) and Nb-24Ti-18Si-5Cr-5Al-5Sn (ZX8). The thesis presents a brief review of relevant literature on Nb silicide based alloys and outlines a method for making Sn containing alloys with control of Sn losses during clean melting using arc melting. The microstructures of the alloys were studied using XRD, SEM, SEM-EDS, EPMA-WDS and TGA.
Tin suppressed the Nb3Si. The Nbss + Nb5Si3 metastable eutectic formed in all alloys except the alloy ZX8. Depending on alloy composition and solidification conditions transitions from anomalous to anomalous + normal to normal eutectics were observed from the bottom towards the bulk of ingots. Tin on its own increased the stability of the lamellar microstructure of the eutectic up to 1500 °C but the additions of Al and/or Cr had the opposite effect. Increasing the Sn content in the ternary alloys accelerated the Nb5Si3  Nb5Si3 transformation during heat treatment. The latter was also enhanced during the solidification of the alloys with only Cr (ZX3, ZX4). The Nb5Si3 was stable in all the heat treated higher order alloys. Increasing the Sn content led to formation of Nb3Sn in the cast microstructure. With the exception of alloy ZX3 (low Sn, only Cr) the A15 phase was stable at 1500 °C in all alloys. Aluminium on its own destabilised the Nbss in the heat treated alloy ZX6. Only in the alloy ZX3 (low Sn, only Cr) the Laves phase was not stable at 1500 °C.
Tin with Al and/or Cr suppressed pest oxidation. The scales formed on all alloys at 1200 °C spalled off. The "best" alloys at 800 °C and 1200 °C respectively were the alloys ZX4 and ZX6. All alloys at 1200 °C followed linear oxidation kinetics. Cr and the presence of Laves phase and Al and the absence of Laves phase were important for oxidation at 800 °C and 1200 °C, respectively. The oxide scales formed at 800 °C consisted of Nb rich and Nb and Si rich oxides. The same oxides plus Ti rich oxide were in the scales formed at 1200 °C in all alloys with the exception of the alloy ZX5. Ti rich oxide was also observed in the scale of the alloy ZX4 at 800 °C.
The improved oxidation behaviour of Sn containing alloys was attributed to Sn rich area(s) that formed below the scale/substrate interface in all alloys at 800 °C and 1200 °C, with the exception of the alloy ZX7 at 800 °C. The thickness of the Sn rich area increased with Sn concentration in the alloy and with temperature. In the Sn rich areas the Sn rich intermetallics Nb3Sn, Nb5Sn2Si, NbSn2 were formed. The latter was absent in the alloys ZX5 ("best" low Sn alloy at 1200 °C) and ZX6 ("best" high Sn alloy at 1200 °C) and in the alloy ZX8.
In all the alloys all phases in the diffusion zone and bulk were contaminated by oxygen. In the diffusion zone the effect was very severe for the Nbss. In general the contamination of the Nbss by oxygen was worse than Nb5Si3. The oxygen concentration in the A-15 phase in the bulk did not change ( 6 at.%) with increasing Sn in the alloy, but its Sn content increased.
At 800 °C the contamination of the bulk of ZX4 and ZX8 by oxygen shifted the phase equilibria and in the former alloy made the Laves phase unstable and in the latter caused the formation of Nbss and Nbss + Nb5Si3 lamellar microstructure (the Nbss was absent in the cast alloy). The contamination of the bulk of the alloy ZX8 by oxygen at 1200 °C caused a shift in phase equilibria and led to the destabilisation of the Nbss in the microstructure.


We are immersed in a rich and complex visual environment. Foveal animals such as primates interact with this environment primarily by shifting their gaze to objects of interest, an act colloquially known as "looking". Gaze shifts involve a sensory-to-motor transformation of the visual world into a movement command that redirects the line of sight. Several brain regions involved in the gaze control network enable this transformation by representing sensory, cognitive, and movement-related information in the same population of neurons. For example, neurons in the intermediate layers of the superior colliculus, a critical gaze control node in the midbrain, fire action potentials both in response to the onset of a visual target, during cognitive processing such as target selection and decision-making, and during an eye movement to that target. However, it is not known how this multiplexed dynamics of sensorimotor integration is read out by a downstream decoder. From the perspective of the decoder, when does sensory and cognitive processing end and movement programming begin?

We asked whether sensorimotor integration occurs in sequential stages or is implemented in parallel. Our approach was to 1) study the role of gaze fixation in shaping sensorimotor activity, 2) chart the time course of movement preparation by removing inhibitory gating on the network, and, 3) look for signatures of aforementioned multiplexing in neuronal population dynamics. Influential theories have proposed that sensory and movement processing occur in a cascade implemented by different subsets of neurons, and neural activity must accumulate to a pre-determined level in order to actuate the gaze shift. In contrast, we found that sensorimotor information is represented in a flexible continuum of neurons. Furthermore, ongoing low-frequency activity during the transformation has motor potential - latent ability to produce an eye movement - that is revealed under the right conditions. Together, these results suggest that the brain performs sensorimotor integration in parallel. Finally, the temporal structure of population activity evolved differently for sensory and movement-related processes, providing a novel substrate by which downstream neurons may discriminate between the two in order to decide when to generate a movement.


In this paper, we build a multi-style generative model for stylish image captioning which uses multi-modality image features, ResNeXt features, and text features generated by DenseCap. We propose the 3M model, a Multi-UPDOWN caption model that encodes multi-modality features and decodes them into captions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our model on generating human-like captions by examining its performance on two datasets, the PERSONALITY-CAPTIONS dataset, and the FlickrStyle10K dataset. We compare against a variety of state-of-the-art baselines on various automatic NLP metrics such as BLEU, ROUGE-L, CIDEr, SPICE, etc \footnote{code will be available at https://github.com/cici-ai-club/3M}. A qualitative study has also been done to verify our 3M model can be used for generating different stylized captions.


The rate of females imprisoned worldwide has increased by more than 50% during the last two decades, with recent figures suggesting that, worldwide, the female prison population may still be increasing at a faster rate than males. Despite prevalence rates for psychiatric conditions among female prisoners being significantly higher than males, there is a particular lack of programs specifically designed for women. This preliminary study evaluates the initial effectiveness of a mindfulness and acceptance–based group program in an uncontrolled pragmatic pilot study of a heterogeneous group of incarcerated women with a range of mental health issues. Participants were 59 incarcerated women who engaged in a 10-session group program. Outcome measures comprised the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire–II, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, and three screening tools derived from the full version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), to measure depression, binge eating (Patient Health Questionnaire–Binge Eating Disorder [PHQ-ED]), and somatoform disorders (PHQ-15). Results of linear mixed modelling showed improvements in mindfulness and acceptance, and reductions in depression, anxiety, and somatoform symptoms. Furthermore, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) was shown to be an acceptable and feasible intervention for female Indigenous Australian prisoners. A mindfulness and acceptance–based group approach appears to be feasible and acceptable in a prison environment for a female prisoners with a range of mental health symptomatology.


The formation of natural hybridomas during the course of malignant lymphoproliferative diseases was first observed in 1969, and many times thereafter. This natural phenomenon remains experimentally unexplored even though it exerts fundamental influence on the natural history and outcome of neoplastic cell proliferations. Instead, hybridomas artificially constructed in the laboratory from 1975 on are being extensively studied and utilized for the production of highly specific monoclonal antibodies in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious and malignant diseases. This review lists examples of natural hybridomas formed in murine and human neoplasms. Indirect evidence supports the notion that hybridomas are generated in African Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) in the form of large, immunoresistant tetraploid BL cells emerging in immunoreactive relapsed patients; and in Hodgkin's disease (HD) in the form of Reed-Sternberg (RS) cells. RS cells may be formed when retroviral antigens expressed by the mononuclear HD cell attract reactive B and T cells, and instead of an immune attack by reactive cells, fusion with reactive cells takes place. The resulting RS cells may further fuse with other reactive cells (e.g., with two B cells, one expressing kappa, the other lambda light chains) or with each other, forming quadromas. RS cells appear multinucleated and hyperploid; they express the products of activated genes of the interdigitating dendritic cell (the retrovirally infected mononuclear HD cell) and those of reactive B and/or T cells. Thus, RS cells present themselves with a great variety of marker expression. Molecular mediators and immunoglobulins released from RS cells are responsible for the activities of proliferating polyclonal reactive cells and/or for the depletion of these cells in HD lesions. Multinucleated giant RS cells in anaplastic lymphomas and the syncytial subtype of RS cells of nodular sclerosing HD should be studied first for retro- or herpes viral antigen expressions and for fusion with reactive cells or with other RS cells.


Background Advance Care Planning (ACP) is a process of discussion and shared decision making between an individual and their care provider. Discussion takes place in the context of an anticipated deterioration of the individual's condition. Shared decision making promoted by ACP has been highlighted as a key component in coordinating care at the end of life. This has particular significance for people who may lose mental capacity, enabling them to discuss, plan and document their wishes for possible future care. Greater understanding of how ACP may support patients and their families is required. Accordingly, a study is currently engaged in the Care Home (CH) setting to assess the impact that ACP discussions have on all participants; residents, relatives/friends and healthcare professionals. Aim(s) To examine; the timing of discussions around residents choices at the end of life and planning for future care the process of shared decision making in ACP. Method(s) Interpretive phenomenology underpin the research methods employed; In-depth semi-structured interviews with CH residents (where possible), relatives/friends of residents and health care staff are being undertaken using a longitudinal case study design (n=10): Initial interview after first ACP discussion Follow up interview(s) at 3 monthly intervals throughout the study period Post bereavement interview with relative/friends and healthcare professionals Results Results to date show discussions about choices at the end of life and planning for future care are mostly happening between relatives and health care professionals due to a lack of mental capacity in care home residents at the time of ACP discussions. Conclusion(s) More understanding is required, why discussions about choices at the end of life and planning for future care with residents in Care Homes are not taking place earlier in the residents disease trajectory and whilst they have capacity.


In recent years data-driven methods of machine translation (MT) have overtaken rule-based approaches as the predominant means of automatically translating between languages. A pre-requisite for such an approach is a parallel corpus of the source and target languages. Technological developments in sign language (SL) capturing, analysis and processing tools now mean that SL corpora are
becoming increasingly available. With transcription and language analysis tools being mainly designed and used for linguistic purposes, we describe the process of creating a multimedia parallel corpus specifically for the purposes of English to Irish Sign Language (ISL) MT. As part of our larger project on localisation, our research is focussed on developing assistive technology for patients with limited English in the domain of healthcare. Focussing on the first point of contact a patient has with a GP's office, the
medical secretary, we sought to develop a corpus from the dialogue between the two parties when scheduling an appointment. Throughout the development process we have created one parallel corpus in six different modalities from this initial dialogue. In this paper we discuss the multi-stage process of the development of this parallel corpus as individual and interdependent entities, both for
our own MT purposes and their usefulness in the wider MT and SL research domains.


Neuromodulators have risen to the forefront of aesthetic medicine. By reversibly relaxing target muscles, neuromodulators exhibit their effect by softening hyperfunctional lines. An understanding of their physiology, relevant facial anatomy, and current agents is imperative for a successful aesthetic practice.


CD40 ligand (CD40L)/CD40 interactions play a central role in T-cell-dependent B-cell activation as previously shown by in vitro studies, the phenotype of CD40L knockout mice and the defective expression of CD40L in patients who have X-linked immunodeficiency with hyper-IgM. The distribution of CD40 in cells other than of myeloid and lymphoid lineages has suggested additional functions for this receptor/ligand couple. Here we show that CD40L stimulates myelopoiesis with a noticeable effect on megakaryocytopoiesis in cocultures of hematopoietic progenitor cells and bone marrow stromal cells. These results suggest a mechanism by which T-cell or platelet-associated or soluble CD40L may regulate myelopoiesis. (Blood. 2000;95:3758-3764)


Accidental or intentional misuse of acetaminophen (APAP) is the leading cause of acute liver failure in the Western world. Although mechanisms that trigger APAP‐induced liver injury (AILI) are well known, those that halt the progression of APAP liver disease and facilitate liver recovery are less understood. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) bind to and regulate various tissue injury factors through their heparan sulfate (HS) chains, but the importance of HSPGs in liver injury in vivo remains unknown. Here, we examined the role of syndecan‐1, the major cell‐surface HSPG of hepatocytes, in AILI. Ablation of syndecan‐1 in mice led to unopposed progression of liver injury upon APAP overdose. However, direct APAP hepatoxicity and liver injury at early times post‐APAP overdose were unaffected by syndecan‐1, suggesting that syndecan‐1 influences later mechanisms that lead to liver repair. The exuberant liver injury phenotypes in syndecan‐1 null (Sdc1−/−) mice were traced to a deficiency in protein kinase B (Akt) activation in hepatocytes, which led to a delayed increase in glycogen synthase kinase‐3β (GSK‐3β)‐mediated hepatocyte apoptosis. Inhibition of Akt worsened, whereas inhibition of GSK‐3β and caspases protected mice from AILI. Moreover, administration of purified syndecan‐1, HS, or engineered heparan compounds containing 2‐O‐sulfate groups rescued Sdc1−/− mice from AILI by potentiating Akt signaling and inhibiting GSK‐3β‐mediated apoptosis in hepatocytes. In addition, HS showed a significantly prolonged therapeutic efficacy as compared to N‐acetylcysteine. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that 2‐O‐sulfated domains in syndecan‐1 HS halt disease progression and promote liver repair by enhancing hepatocyte survival in AILI. We propose that syndecan‐1 is a critical endogenous factor that controls the balance between prosurvival signaling and apoptosis in hepatocytes in APAP liver disease. (Hepatology 2017;66:1601–1615).


For several years now, scientists have been proposing numerous models for defining anything "as a service (aaS)", including discussions of products, processes, data & information management, and security as a service. In this paper, based on a thorough literature survey, we investigate the vast stream of the state of the art in Everything as a Service (XaaS). We then use this investigation to explore an integrated view of XaaS that will help propose approaches for migrating applications to the cloud and exposing them as services.


This paper presents the intelligent automation of functional test of services (unit testing) and services architectures (end-to-end testing) that has been developed by the MIDAS project, and is accessible on the MIDAS SaaS. In particular, the paper illustrates how the extreme automation implemented in the MIDAS prototype includes the solutions of tough problems such as: (i) the configuration of the automated test execution engine against large and complex services architectures, (ii) the test input generation based on formal methods and constraint propagation, (iii) the test oracle generation based on state machine execution, (iv) the dynamic scheduling of test cases and the reactive, evidence-based planning of test campaigns with on the fly generation of new test cases, both based on based on probabilistic graphical inference. This paper reports some feedback from real-world case studies in the health-care and in the logistics sectors.


With the continual miniaturisation of sensors and processing nodes, Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) systems are becoming feasible options for indoor tracking. These use inertial and other sensors, often combined with domain-specific knowledge about walking, to track user movements. There is currently a wealth of relevant literature spread across different research communities. In this survey, a taxonomy of modern PDRs is developed and used to contextualise the contributions from different areas. Techniques for step detection, characterisation, inertial navigation and step-and-heading-based dead-reckoning are reviewed and compared. Techniques that incorporate building maps through particle filters are analysed, along with hybrid systems that use absolute position fixes to correct dead-reckoning output. In addition, consideration is given to the possibility of using smartphones as PDR sensing devices. The survey concludes that PDR techniques alone can offer good short- to medium- term tracking under certain circumstances, but that regular absolute position fixes from partner systems will be needed to ensure long-term operation and to cope with unexpected behaviours. It concludes by identifying a detailed list of challenges for PDR researchers.


This chapter details a range of perspectives which effectively question the underlying assumptions behind the concept of 'punishment'. This represents a shift in emphasis from the system 'as it is' to a critical evaluation of its social and ideological foundations, along with some ideas about how it might be different if we follow through the implications of these critical arguments. The chapter explores ideas about the use of punishment as a vehicle for maintaining the dominance of particular interests within society, and using it to exert social control. Implicated in this is the suggestion that claims of legitimacy, fairness, and justice must be called into question, especially in light of the evidence of the unequal treatment of certain groups, such as members of the black and minority ethnic communities. Critical perspectives also invite us to consider why some forms of behaviour, such as corporate negligence and tax fraud, appear to be much less heavily penalised (if at all) than crimes more typically associated with other groups and communities, such as benefit fraud or drug offences.


The Glaurocarini are a small Old World tribe of tachinids belonging to the subfamily Tachininae. Two genera are currently recognized, Glaurocara Thomson with 16 species and Semisuturia Malloch with eight species. In this study we describe Semisuturia moffattensis Inclan, O'Hara, Stireman & Cerretti sp. n. from Queensland and New South Wales and compare it with congeners as well as other glaurocarines. The new species is readily identifiable among world glaurocarines by having a row of setae on lower 2/3 of facial ridge. We further evaluate the monophyly of the Glaurocarini on the basis of morphological characters of both adult and larval stages. A molecular phylogenetic analysis also supports monophyly of the tribe but does not support a close relationship between Glaurocarini and Ormiini as has been suggested previously. Finally, we provide new morphological evidence from both adults and first instar larvae to support the monophyly of both Semisuturia and Glaurocara.


Keeping It Wild 2 is an interagency strategy to monitor trends in selected attributes of wilderness character based on lessons learned from 15 years of developing and implementing wilderness character monitoring across the National Wilderness Preservation System. This document updates and replaces Keeping It Wild: An Interagency Strategy for Monitoring Wilderness Character Across the National Wilderness Preservation System (Landres and others 2008), and provides a foundation for agencies to develop a nationally consistent approach to implement this monitoring. This monitoring strategy addresses two questions: How do stewardship activities affect attributes of wilderness character? How are attributes selected as integral to wilderness character changing over time within a wilderness, within an agency, and across the National Wilderness Preservation System? The primary audiences for the information from this monitoring are agency staff who manage wilderness day-to-day, and regional and national staff who develop wilderness policy and assess its effectiveness. The results of this monitoring will provide these staff some of the key data they need to improve wilderness stewardship and wilderness policy. Keeping It Wild 2 is designed to be nationally consistent across the four wilderness managing agencies and locally relevant, to be cost-effective, and to facilitate communication across the many resource programs that are responsible for preserving wilderness character. Implementing this monitoring strategy does not guarantee the preservation of wilderness character, but it informs and improves wilderness stewardship, and ensures managers are accountable to the central mandate of the 1964 Wilderness Act—to preserve wilderness character.


The role of metabolic acidosis in the regulation of transepithelial potassium transport was examined in rabbit cortical collecting ducts (CCD) using in vitro isolated tubular microperfusion and conventional microelectrode techniques. Basolateral metabolic acidosis, created by reduction of bicarbonate concentration from 25 to 5 meq/l, pH 7.40 to 6.80, depolarized the transepithelial voltage significantly (-6.5 +/- 1.0 to -2.7 +/- 1.3 mV). Basolateral acidosis also suppressed net potassium secretion (-14.3 +/- 2.1 to -9.0 +/- 1.7 pmol.min-1.mm-1). Electrophysiological study in CCD cells demonstrated that basolateral metabolic acidosis depolarized transepithelial voltage and apical and basolateral membrane voltage with an increase of transepithelial and fractional apical resistance. Basolateral acidosis did not affect the 22Na efflux nor 86Rb efflux. The inhibitory action of basolateral acidosis on net potassium secretion remained in the presence of luminal barium and in the absence of bicarbonate. Ouabain could not abolish the effect of basolateral acidosis on transepithelial voltage completely. These data lead us to conclude that basolateral acidosis affects multiple transport pathways, and it inhibits mainly apical barium-sensitive potassium transport. Additionally, it inhibits apical sodium conductance, barium-insensitive potassium transport, and stimulates a ouabain-insensitive electrogenic transport pathway to some degree.


Conjugate ductile shear zones developed mostly on granite-greenstone margins are a dominant structural feature of the Yilgarn craton. These greenstone belt–scale shear zones lack both gold deposits and gold-related alteration. Previous interpretations of the shear zones as part of a linked system, as craton-scale terrane boundaries, or as crustal-scale pathways for gold-mineralizing fluids, all appear equivocal. Instead, gold mineralizing fluids in the Yilgarn craton (illustrated here by the gold-rich Yandal Belt) were focused by a network of middle to upper crustal brittle faults in the Late Archean. The faults are 040° to 060° trending dextral, and 090° to 120° trending sinistral; the maximum compression direction is about 075°. Gold mineralization occurs in laminated and other schistosity-parallel quartz veins where brittle faults refract along earlier subsidiary within-greenstone ductile shear zones, and in quartz veins within Late Archean faults.


Biogas production by biodigestion is considered as an important method for the production of renewable energy. One of the most important methods in utilization biogas is the production of electrical energy by means of special generators. In West Bank, there are a lot of animals such as cattle, goats, sheep and poultry. These animals produce a huge amount of dung which can be anaerobically digested and produces what is called biogas. In order to estimate the amount of electrical energy that can be generated from biogas produced by the biodigestion of animal dung, many statistical data were collected according to the type and number of animals and the mass of daily manure production. This was done for most villages in ten governorates in West Bank. This research is aimed at studying the economic feasibility and environmental impact assessment for electrical energy production from biogas plants. After the calculation of annual waste production in each village, the biodigester volume, the capacity of electrical generator and the potential of production electrical energy were calculated. Consequently, Annual Worth (AW) was calculated. Moreover, the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) was calculated. For profitable and environmentally friendly production, the selling price for one kWh of electricity is considered to be 0.3 NIS in order to compete with Israel electrical company which sells electricity for local electricity distribution companies by 0.4 NIS /kWh. XV To guarantee short payback period, it was found that biodigesters of volume less than 100m were infeasible. Since the levelized cost of energy depends directly on the volume of the biodigeter, the design of centralized biogas stations were investigated. The proposed methods depends on collecting the manure from all nearby villages and construct a single centralized biodigester for each clusters at one of the villages taking in consideration the environmental impacts and the feasibility. It was obvious that all of proposed centralized biogas power plant is feasible from economical aspects with shorter payback period than decentralized biogas power plant. It was also found that from environmental impact assessment that centralized biogas power plant is better from social and environmental aspects. Based on the results of this study, it was found that the proposed Hebron governorate biogas power plant has the largest amount of biogas production from all governorates, which has 45,670 m daily biogas production that is equivalent to annual electrical energy of 28.8GWh. The least biogas production was found to be in Salfeet governorate, with a daily biogas production of 2,860 m which is equivalent to annual electrical energy of 2GWh. Potential electrical energy production is estimated to be 2% of total energy consumption in west bank. In the case of proper utilization of these bioenergy sources, it is expected to minimize the amount of greenhouse emissions equivalent to 100,000 ton CO2 which may produced from the same amount from the production of electrical energy from coal.


ABSTRACT: Online Social Networks (ONS) is an important part of our everyday life...At present people are very interested to share the photo on online social networks, unluckily which is used for the purpose we not at all imagine. To check possible confidentiality outflow of a group photograph, we prepared a mechanism in which each person can take part in the decision making on the photograph posting, so everyone in the photograph must be recognized. It is important to have a professional facial recognition (FR) system that cans distinguish each person in the photograph. Haar cascade classifier and CBIR (content based image retrieval) algorithm are used in the proposed system for face detection and recognition. Once the faces are recognized from the group photograph then acceptance or reject notifications are sending automatically to each identified people within the close friend circle. The photograph will be posted if all the individuals within the friend circle are accepting the notification and it will not be posted if any of them rejects the notification. We expect that this proposed system would be very useful in protecting users' confidentiality in photo/image sharing over online social networks. .


The aim of the study is to investigate students' evaluations of sanctions used by elementary school teachers for improving responsibility. Twelve elementary schools in Adana province has been selected in this research. "Punishment Applications in Improving Responsibility Survey" was applied to 412 students (184 girls, 228 boys) attending 5th grades and interviews were carried out with 48 students in this group. The data obtained through both instruments were analyzed by qualitative and qualitative analysis methods. According to the study results, teachers have been using punishment in addition to sanctions having no punishment for improving responsibility. Also, they mostly prefer verbal punishment. Students stated that they changed their behavior in a permanent manner. On the other hand, students made their choices for teachers who did not use punishment.


What are the effects of no-take marine reserves on trophic relationships of coral reef fish? Previous studies often have lacked detailed dietary information on major predators, and have often been confounded by differences in habitat complexity between reserve and fished sites. This study investigates the effects of marine reserve protection on predator-prey interactions of coral reef fish on the inshore islands of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The abundance of species of prey fish of Plectropomus leopardus (Serranidae), a piscivore and the major target of the hook and line fisheries on the GBR, were estimated in protected and fished zones. These prey species were identified from previous detailed studies of the diet of P. leopardus. Fish populations and habitat characteristics were surveyed by underwater visual census. Previous studies had determined that the biomass of P. leopardus was 3–4 times higher in protected than fished zones in the Whitsunday and Palm Islands, central GBR, after 14 years of protection. Eight of the nine prey species had a higher density within fished zones than protected zones, six significantly so. The density of all prey fish was twice that in the fished than the protected zone (p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in availability of different sized refuge holes, structural complexity or live coral cover between zones. Thus, important attributes of habitat complexity did not confound the comparisons between reserve and fished zones. Finally, a significant negative correlation (r = 0.46) between coral trout biomass and summed prey fish biomass suggested that predation may be an important structuring process in this system. The results have implications for the conservation of fishery targets and their prey. The study highlights the potential ecosystem implications of the use of no-take marine reserves as conservation and fisheries management tools.


A method of constructing piecewise G/sup 1/ continuous spline surface using boundary C-curves is presented. C-curves are developed by the basis (sin t, cos t, t, 1), and it overcomes some shortcomings of the nonuniform rational B-splines (NURBS) model. How to develop C-curve into surface becomes a very important problem. Using the convex combination method proposed by Nielson, a piecewise G/sup 1/ spline triangular surface is constructed by boundary C-curves.


This chapter outlines the historical development of police education in the United Kingdom, more precisely in England and Wales, and highlights new strategies and planning for the professional development of the police. There is a plethora of research carried out regarding professionalism in policing to meet the needs and challenges of the twenty-first century. Considering the recent developments in police education and training, this chapter mainly discusses three newly introduced routes for recruitment and education of police constables under the Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF), namely Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA), Degree Holder Entry Programme (DHEP), and Pre-Join Degree (PJD). Higher education institutions (HEIs), in partnership with the police forces, are providing professional qualifications for policing as a graduate level profession. Though they have made remarkable progress in developing police education programmes, they are facing various challenges in implementing the qualification framework. This chapter also explores pedagogical aspects of police education including the effectiveness and contrast between different forms of teaching and learning. While featuring the challenges and prospects of the new police education programmes, this chapter also outlines different aspects of partnership for delivering these professional qualification programmes.


A neural network approach for online parameter estimation in unknown or poorly known processes with a time delay is proposed. The case of plants with unknown time delay and/or steady state gain has been considered. The main result of the paper is the analytical proof of the weight distribution as a sampling centred on the correct value of the time delay. Such a property, along with the estimation of the steady-state gain of the process from the sum of the weights, leads to an accurate identification of the unknown parameters of a process with time delay. A practical application of such a result is the design of an adaptive Smith controller. Simulation results are included in the paper to illustrate the proposed technique.


The Internet coupled with agent technology presents a unique setting to examine consumer trust. Since the Internet is a relatively new, technically complex environment where human-computer interaction (HCI) is the basic communication modality, there is greater perception of risk facing consumers and hence a greater need for trust. In this dissertation, the notion of consumer trust was revisited and conceptually redefined adopting an integrative perspective. A critical test of trust theory revealed its cognitive (i.e., competence, information credibility), affective (i.e., benevolence), and intentional (i.e., trusting intention) constructs. The theoretical relationships among these trust constructs were confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to investigate antecedent and moderating factors affecting consumer trust in HCI. This dissertation focused on interface-based antecedents of trust in the agent-assisted shopping context aiming at discovering potential interface strategies as a means to enhance consumer trust in the computer agent. The effects of certain interface design factors including face human-likeliness, script social presence, information richness, and price increase associated with upgrade recommendation by the computer agent were examined for their usefulness in enhancing the affective and cognitive bases for consumer trust. In addition, the role of individual difference factors and situational factors in moderating the relationship between specific types of computer interfaces and consumer trust perceptions was examined. Two experiments were conducted employing a computer agent, Agent John, which was created using MacroMedia Authorware. The results of the two experiments showed that certain interface factors including face and script could affect the affective trust perception. Information richness did not enhance consumers' cognitive trust perceptions; instead, the percentage of price increase associated with Agent John's upgrade recommendation affected individuals' cognitive trust perceptions. Interestingly, the moderating influence of consumer personality (especially feminine orientation) on trust perceptions was significant. The consequences of enhanced consumer trust included increased conversion behavior, satisfaction and retention, and to a lesser extent, self-disclosure behavior. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications as well as future research directions were discussed.


Aim of this study is the correlation among magnetic properties, tensile deformation and microstructure of the duplex stainless steel 2205. This correlation is achieved by the magnetic ferrite phase of the two phase microstructure. The amount of Barkhausen noise for a given material is linked with the amount of impurities, crystal dislocations, etc. and can be a good indication of mechanical properties of the material. Specimens of the alloy DSS2205 were tested under tensile deformation in different percentages and the magnetic measurements were taken online, during the tensile deformation. The measurements of the parameters of BHN combined with the percentages of the deformations and their graphic plot showed an exponential relationship. Microstructure studied with SEM technique. Macro hardness also measured and its measurements compared with those of BHN. The resultant plots showed a linear proportion among them.


Continuous sedation at the end of life is a practice that has attracted a great deal of attention. An increasing number of guidelines on the proposed correct performance of the practice have been drafted. All of the guidelines stress the importance of using sedation in proportion to the severity of the patient's symptoms, thus to reduce the patient's consciousness no more than is absolutely necessary. As different patients can have different experiences of suffering, the amount of suffering should, ideally, be assessed subjectively; that is, via communication with the patient. Continuously sedated patients are often unable to communicate, however, making subjective methods of pain assessment unusable. For these patients, the degree of consciousness is the sole available measure. It therefore seems important to adequately measure how deeply the patient is sedated, thereby allowing sedation to be increased when it is too light and decreased when it is too heavy. This is in accordance with the idea that reducing consciousness is not an ethically neutral act. Although consciousness measuring techniques are a hot topic in anesthesiology, almost no research exists on the use of such techniques in the context of continuous sedation at the end of life. This article aims to review existing techniques to measure consciousness and to evaluate their applicability, efficiency, and invasiveness for patients who are continuously sedated until death. Techniques commonly used to assess the depth of sedation in continuously sedated patients are basic clinical assessment and sedation scales, as they are often considered reliable and noninvasive. These techniques might not be very reliable, however, since it is known that some patients are nonresponsive and yet aware. Moreover, sedation scales require stimulation of the patient (for example prodding, shaking, or providing painful stimuli), and can thus be considered invasive of one's bodily integrity or dignity. Other techniques, such as EEG (electroencephalography) derivatives, may score better on reliability and invasiveness. Yet these have so far never been compared to sedation scale scores for patients receiving continuous sedation at the end of life. Therefore, we conclude that, for both clinical and ethical reasons, research into the efficiency and applicability of other techniques, such as derivatives of EEG, are urgently needed.


As scientific experiments and their analysis become increasingly automated, the need for workflow management support rises. Many workflow management systems tailored to scientific workflows have been developed. However, they are mainly stand-alone systems and ignore that many scientific research groups already store and manage experimental data in laboratory information systems, called LIMS. LIMS are typically web-based and allow researchers to insert and view experiment related data. In this paper we describe Exp-WF, a workflow management module that is designed to be incorporated into a typical LIMS such that workflow management and the traditional functionality of a LIMS co-exist. Scientists describe the execution order of experiments as a workflow model. Exp-WF then automatically selects experiments for execution and dispatches them to the people or machines responsible for performing them. Exp- WF extends existing workflow models to be able to handle the particularities of scientific experiment workflows. Exp- WF can be incorporated into an existing web-based LIMS in a nonintrusive way by using servlet filter technology to observe user actions and act upon them. Exp-WF uses agentbased technology with asynchronous communication to dispatch tasks to remote machines.


Background
 Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) has a median age at diagnosis of 67 years. The only curative therapy remains an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT), yet it is complicated by non-relapse mortality (NRM) and ongoing morbidity including graft versus host disease (GVHD) that may impact survival, particularly in older patients. We examined the outcomes and predictors of success in a large cohort of patients aged 60 years and older receiving a HCT for AML in first complete remission (CR1).
 Methods
 HCT recipients 60 years or older with AML in CR1 reported to the CIBMTR were included. Cox models were used to compare rates of overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), non-relapse mortality (NRM), relapse, acute GHVD, chronic GVHD in 3 separate age groups: 60-64 years vs. 65-70 years vs. 70+ years (Figure 1A).
 Results
 1,327 patients undergoing HCT from 2007-2017 were included. The three age cohorts (60-64; 65-69; 70+) were comparable in demographic and disease characteristics, except the older cohort had more males, more de novo AML, and a higher incidence of measurable residual disease (MRD) pre-HCT. Fewer had sibling donors and more were performed in recent years. With median follow-up of nearly 3 years, patients aged 60-64 had significantly better OS, DFS and lower NRM than those aged 65-69 and 70+. Those aged 65-69 and 70+ had similar outcomes (Figure 1). Three-year OS for the 3 cohorts was 49.4%, 42.3%, and 44.7% respectively (p=0.026). NRM was higher with increasing age, cord blood as graft source and HCT-CI score of ≥ 3. Conditioning intensity was not a significant predictor of outcomes with HR for OS for 60-69 cohort of 0.46 for RIC and 0.49 for MAC (p=0.38). There was no difference in the relapse rate, incidence of G3/4 acute GVHD, or incidence of moderate-severe chronic GVHD across the age cohorts. Poor risk cytogenetics, presence of MRD prior to HCT, cord blood as graft source, and transplant prior to 2016 were significant predictors of poor OS.
 Discussion
 In this large retrospective series of HCT for AML in CR1, age had a small effect OS and NRM after accounting for other predictors. High-risk features such as poor cytogenetics and presence of MRD prior to HCT were significantly associated with relapse and accounted for most of the adverse impact on OS and DFS. Age did not influence the incidence of either acute or chronic GVHD; graft type and associated GVHD prophylaxis were most important. These data suggest that age alone is not a barrier to successful HCT for AML in CR1 and should not exclude patients from HCT. Efforts should focus on minimizing residual disease and better donor selection.
 Table

 Kebriaei: Ziopharm: Other: Research Support; Novartis: Other: Served on advisory board; Jazz: Consultancy; Amgen: Other: Research Support; Kite: Other: Served on advisory board; Pfizer: Other: Served on advisory board. Weisdorf:FATE Therapeutics: Consultancy; Incyte: Research Funding.


This study assesses how customer value affects a firm's market orientation and consequently, competitive advantage and organizational performance in a service industry — the global hotel industry. The findings show that if a firm perceives its customers as valuing service, the firm is more likely to adopt both a customer and a competitor orientation; if the firm thinks its customers are price sensitive, the firm tends to develop a competitor orientation. Moreover, the greater a firm's customer orientation, the more the firm is able to develop a competitive advantage based on innovation and market differentiation. In contrast, a competitor orientation has a negative effect on a firm's market differentiation advantage. Finally, innovation and market differentiation advantages lead to greater market performance (e.g., perceived quality, customer satisfaction) and in turn, higher financial performance (e.g., profit, market share).


In 2006, the Australian Institute of Criminology assessed the effectiveness of state and territory drug diversion programs established by the Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative (IDDI) to reduce illicit drug users' contact with the criminal justice system. This report examines programs run by policing agencies. It looks at the structure and effectiveness of Australian state and territory approaches to IDDI programs through comparison of offending behaviour before and after program attendance. The type and number of prior offences, Indigenous status, age, gender and compliance with intervention programs were examined as potential predictors of post-diversion levels of recidivism. While varying in significance between jurisdictions, these issues show their influence in affecting offender numbers, offending frequency, offence type and associated factors.


This paper presents an enhanced 32-bit carry look- ahead(CLA) adder implementing using the constant delay (CD) logic, targeting at full-custom high-speed applications. The CD characteristic of this logic style regardless of the logic type makes it suitable in implementing complicated logic expressions such as addition. CD logic exhibits a unique characteristic where the output is pre-evaluated before the inputs from the preceding stage is ready. This feature offers performance advantage over static and dynamic domino logic styles in a single-cycle multistage circuit block. Several design considerations including timing window width adjustment and clock distribution are discussed. Using 65-nm general-purpose CMOS technology, the proposed logic demonstrates an average speed up of 94% and 56% over static and dynamic domino logic, respectively, in five different logic gates. Simulation results of 8-bit ripple carry adders show that CD logic is 39% and 23% faster than the static and dynamic-based adders, respectively. CD logic also demonstrates 39% speedup and 64%(22%) energy-delay product (EDP) reduction from static logic at 100% (10%) data activity in 32-bit carry look ahead adders. For 8-bit Wallace tree multiplier, CD logic achieves a similar speedup with at least 50% EDP reduction across all data activities.


Minimizing the difference of two submodular (DS) functions is a problem that naturally occurs in various machine learning problems. Although it is well known that a DS problem can be equivalently formulated as the minimization of the difference of two convex (DC) functions, existing algorithms do not fully exploit this connection. A classical algorithm for DC problems is called the DC algorithm (DCA). We introduce variants of DCA and its complete form (CDCA) that we apply to the DC program corresponding to DS minimization. We extend existing convergence properties of DCA, and connect them to convergence properties on the DS problem. Our results on DCA match the theoretical guarantees satisfied by existing DS algorithms, while providing a more complete characterization of convergence properties. In the case of CDCA, we obtain a stronger local minimality guarantee. Our numerical results show that our proposed algorithms outperform existing baselines on two applications: speech corpus selection and feature selection.


The flow formulation was founded as console formulation, and with the body-fitted coordinate system and standard k - ε turbulent model, the numerical analysis of the internal 3-D incompressible turbulent flow of the agitated flow field was carried out by CFD software Fluent. The results showed that: the mixer impeller produced vortex jet flow, the constant velocity lines advanced as ellipse, the velocity along the centerline are larger than others, and utilized volume flow to transport the liquid. And, by changing some design parameters of mixer impeller, we can compare and analyze the numerical analysis results and find that: for the same impeller diameter, the mixer impeller whose hub/tip radius ratio is smaller has larger advancing speed in the agitated flow field, and the advancing speed is more evenly distributed, so the overall effect is better. Therefore, we should select the hub diameter of the submersible mixer properly.


In the past three years, we have been implementing a VOD system over ATM networks based on a hierarchical three-level network architecture. One of the most important design problems is how to organize video programs stored at different level of servers. We propose an optimal video placement strategy which gives the optimal number of video copies should be stored at each level of server such that the cost function can be minimized while a lower bound of the request rejection probability for each video is guaranteed. Our major contribution is that we model the time-variant-request arrivals as a non-homogeneous Poisson process.


We identify asset purchases and sales as channels through which both external and internal governance affect corporate decisions and shareholders wealth. Firms with more antitakeover provisions (ATPs) are significantly more likely to engage in asset purchases (instead of making efficient internal investments) and asset sales (rather than efficient internal restructuring of existing assets). The internal governance mechanisms of insider ownership reduce the likelihood of asset purchases and sales consistent with incentive alignment. Additional results reveal that (1) the likelihood of asset buys is decreasing in insider ownership, but only among larger firms, and (2) the likelihood of asset sales is increasing in institutional ownership, but only among less profitable firms. The unexpected purchasers and sellers with more ATPs experience lower abnormal announcement returns. Also, the announcement effect of asset buys is concave (increasing at a decreasing rate) in insider ownership, and convex in institutional ownership. We also document that just as in the case of buyers and sellers with more ATPs, higher insider and institutional ownership lead to lower post-deal idiosyncratic risk (and lower shareholder wealth), suggesting higher agency costs of managerial conservatism and opacity.


Considerable research in consumer experimental psychology has examined the self-expressive role of brands but has found little support for the premise that the interaction of the personality traits associated with a brand and those associated with an individual's self-concept influence attitudes. The current research focuses on the influence of the malleable self-concept on consumer attitudes toward a brand, based on the its personality associations. The results of two experiments demonstrate that traits that are made accessible by salient situational cues and those that are chronically accessible (schematic traits) positively influence consumer attitudes toward a brand based on its personality associations. More important, these effects are tested in a set of theory-based interactions that rely on the self-monitoring individual difference variable. Self congruity is enhanced for low versus high self-monitoring subjects, whereas situation congruity is enhanced for high versus low self-monitoring subjects. Together, these experiments shed light on the self-expressive use of brands and the role of the malleable self-concept in influencing consumer attitudes.


The South African population involves huge numbers of young people. The majority of these young people are unemployed and unable to make a living as a result of the inability of the economy to absorb them into the labour market. Other young people attempt to make a living through entrepreneurship. However, the participation of young people in entrepreneurship is very low. Young people face many challenges associated with lack of funding and business development support services, technical skills and development. The problems facing the country substantially caused socio-economic challenges resulting in a shrinking economy. This translated into an inability of both the private sector and government to create and sustain jobs. The government of South Africa established the National Youth Development Agency (here called the Agency) with the mandate to reduce poverty by making sound investments. This facilitates opportunities for young people to acquire skills, promote creation of jobs or pursue meaningful self-employment opportunities through various enterprise development initiatives. The agency developed the Enterprise Development Finance Programme as an economic development approach. The agency provides access to financial and non-financial services to the previously disadvantaged youth in a sustainable manner that improves and promotes sustainable livelihoods for the low-income groups. The study evaluates the effectiveness of the EDFP. The public and private sector offers different programmes aiming at equipping aspiring and established entrepreneurs with skills, knowledge, and motivation to enable business development and growth in the country. However, the challenge is that many do not have entrepreneurial minds. Those who have entrepreneurship knowledge do not know about the programmes, or the programmes are not easily accessible particularly to people in the rural areas. In addition, these programmes are not co-ordinated and as result we are not in a position to tell immediately as to who is doing what and where. This also makes it difficult to identify gaps and to maximise the impact of the programmes. There is a need to audit all programmes aimed at improving the economic development of the country. The government of South Africa must instil a culture of entrepreneurship at all levels to promote and nurture entrepreneurship skills. Vigorous entrepreneurial activity and innovation is needed to alleviate high unemployment levels through a combination of improved quality education and skills development. Promotion and support of entrepreneurship should form an important component of policy options considered to increase economic growth for the long term. The Economic Development Finance programme provides SME and microfinance funding which is seen as an important strategy for economic growth. Education and skills Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy sliding-mode controller (AF-SMC) based on fractional calculus for uncertain chaotic nonlinear systems were proposed. Three fuzzy logic systems were designed to approximate the unknown system functions and the switching term of SMC, respectively. Stability of the closed-loop system was proved and adaptive laws for the tuned parameters were obtained by using Lyapunov arguments. Numerical simulations are done on the chaotic nonlinear gyroscope system and results show that the proposed fractional order controller is effective and feasible.


Purpose: To highlight diagnostic challenges of pseudotumoral abdominal tuberculosis. Materials and methods: Three cases of pseudotumoral abdominal tuberculosis were compiled in our department between 2014 and 2015. They were aged 34 years, 42 years and 61 years respectively. They were immunocompetent and had no personal or family history of tuberculosis. Clinical presentations were non-specific, represented by abdominal pain and weight loss in the three patients and chronic diarrhea in one patient. Abdominal ultrasound and computed tomography CT were performed in all patients. Abdominal MRI was performed in one case as well as a colonoscopy. Results: Retroperitoneal tuberculosis and colic tuberculosis were noted in the 1st and 2nd case. Macro-nodular and biliary hepatic tuberculosis was retained in the third case. The diagnosis was based upon histopathology in the 3 cases showing tubercular granuloma with caseation. Anti-tuberculosis therapy was prescribed for 6 months. Evolution was favorable in all patients. Conclusion: Tuberculosis continues to present diagnostic difficulties, particularly in its pseudo-tumoral form, even in endemic tuberculosis countries like ours.


A shared awareness of other teams' roles and tasks has been linked to successful performance in joint ventures. However, emergency management organizations responding to incidents do not always share critical information necessary for maintaining shared awareness. An instrument called Shared Priorities has previously been applied to measure aspects of shared situation awareness at level 2 and 3 in Endsley's (1995) model. This paper reports on a shared awareness instrument focused on level 1 situation awareness and its associated level of team shared awareness. Participants in a large emergency response exercise were asked to locate and rank geographical locations based on importance for overall mission success. The results show that organizations tended to rank locations relevant for their own work higher than positions relevant to other organization's tasks. The different organizations displayed different levels of inter-rater agreement within themselves concerning the ranking of these positions.


Purpose Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is the most common form of scoliosis and occurs in children between 10 to 18 years old, during periods of growth spurts and puberty changes. In patients with central precocious puberty (CPP), due to early growth spurt, AIS is expected to develop before 10 years of age. Both AIS and CPP are more common in girls than in boys. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of AIS in girls with CPP and to evaluate the effect of treatment with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists on progression of scoliosis in these patients. Methods We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 553 girls, 338 with CPP and 215 without CPP. Scoliosis angle was measured on the standing frontal radiograph of each patient according to the Cobb method. Patients with a Cobb angle of 10° or more were diagnosed with scoliosis. For girls with CPP, follow-up spine radiographs were collected 1 year after treatment with GnRH agonists. Progression of scoliosis before and after treatment was compared in terms of Cobb angle changes. Results AIS was more prevalent in girls that were affected by CPP compared tocontrols without CPP (11.5% vs. 6.0%, CPP girls vs. non-CPP girls, respectively, P=0.031). The peak serum luteinizing hormone level positively correlated with Cobb angle (R2=0.015, P=0.023) in the CPP group. No progression of scoliosis was observed in CPP girls after one year of GnRH agonist treatment. Additionally, the prevalence of scoliosis decreased in CPP girls after 1 year of the treatment. Conclusions We report that the prevalence of AIS is higher in girls with CPP than in non-CPP patients. A regular follow-up schedule for spine radiographs should be considered to reduce the risk of progression. Furthermore, GnRH agonist treatment for CPP may have a suppressive effect on progression of AIS.


We present a novel precise angle measurement scheme based on parallel multiplex laser feedback interferometry (PLFI), which outputs two parallel laser beams and thus their displacement difference reflects the angle variation of the target. Due to its ultrahigh sensitivity to the feedback light, PLFI realizes the direct non-contact measurement of non-cooperative targets. Experimental results show that PLFI has an accuracy of 8″ within a range of 1400″. The yaw of a guide is also measured and the experimental results agree with those of the dual-frequency laser interferometer Agilent 5529A.


The paper critiques current thinking in the area of dynamic capabilities, exploring and challenging previous research on Dynamic Capabilities (DC) utilizing an application and empirical research within the Russian steel industry. Multiple sources of evidence arising from an in-depth study over a period of three years are deployed including semi-structured interviews with senior managers, as well as internal management reports, and other documentary evidence. The research concludes that practitioners need not choose between either routine-building on the one hand, or radical renewal on the other, but must recognize that dynamisms typically derive from the establishment of respective internal processes, followed by rapid-decision making. This paper focuses on the higher education area in a small Central European country. Its purpose is to explore the concept of culture, the concept of knowledge management (KM) as well as the correlations among their dimensions at the university level. Since we assume that it is educational personnel who is involved in KM processes, our research covered the teaching staff. Our questionnaire is based on a similar research carried out by Wilkens et al. (2004). The literature is reviewed and the empirical analysis is performed in order to examine and to explain the relationship between organisational culture and knowledge management. The findings presented in the paper can be important for further development of the higher education sector in Central and Eastern European countries as well as for other profit oriented industries.


This paper is proposed genetic algorithm tuning(GAT) controller for high performance of induction motor drive. We employed GA to the classical PI controller. The approach having ability for global optimization and with good robustness, is expected to overcome some weakness of conventional approaches and to be more acceptable for industrial practices. The control performance of the GAT PI controller is evaluated by analysis for various operating conditions. The results of experiment prove that the proposed control system has strong high performance and robustness to parameter variation, and steady-state accuracy and transient response.


The thesis presents the field and laboratory work conducted to investigate the applicability of different thermal comfort indices and equations to assess the thermal sensation of very young children (6-10 years) and older children (11-17 years) in Kuwait classrooms under different ventilation modes (hybrid, natural and air-conditioned), in addition to investigating the quality of the air inside the classrooms. Few thermal comfort and indoor air quality studies have been conducted to determine the thermal comfort and indoor air quality situation inside the classrooms (especially where the young children are presents) in comparison to that for adults in other building environments such as offices or vehicles. The aim of this thesis was to provide baseline data and expand the knowledge for young children s thermal comfort (as well as older children) and the effects of the indoor air quality inside classrooms on them throughout different ventilation modes (hybrid, natural and air-conditioned). The work was achieved by conducting both laboratory and field experiments, as follows:

Laboratory tests were conducted to measure the insulation value of the different schoolwear ensembles used in Kuwait classrooms. Three methods were used to indicate and compare the thermal insulation values of different schoolwear ensembles worn by girls and boys in Kuwait classrooms during summer and winter seasons. Results suggest that the clothing insulation values found from the measured and adapted data were similar to the adult s data in standards tables for the same summer and winter seasons ensembles. In addition, the temperature ratings of the clothing are close to, and in agreement with, the scholars comfort temperature.

A new thermal comfort questionnaire has been designed for gathering thermal sensation and reflected data from younger children. The questionnaire has been designed employing learning and educational techniques for very young people, and was statistically tested against the standard questionnaire and with old age groups to ensure no bias was introduced. The results show that the new designed thermal comfort questionnaire can help children to assess their sensation in a better manner than that of the standard questionnaire, and that it can be considered as a new subjective assessment tool that can support the thermal comfort standard by investigating the thermal comfort sensations of younger children age groups.
A large scale field study was then conducted to investigate the applicability of different thermal comfort indices for Kuwait classrooms along the academic year and under different ventilation modes to assess the thermal sensations for younger (6-10 years) and older (11-17 years) students age group during the school day. The newly designed thermal comfort questionnaire and the clothing insulation values mentioned previously were used to collect the subjects responses for comparison with a range of thermal comfort indices (PMV, ePMV, PMV10 and adaptive, and various comfort equations).
Results show that no difference in the neutral temperature between both age groups during the different ventilation modes and the PMV model is the most appropriate model to predict the thermal sensations of the younger subjects during the different ventilation modes, including the natural ventilation mode, since Kuwait classrooms largely considered as air-conditioned spaces. This work provides knowledge of thermal comfort and comfort conditions in Kuwait classrooms.
The final part of the field study was conducted to investigate the adequacy of the ventilation rates during naturally and air-conditioned ventilation modes inside 10 elementary classrooms in Kuwait occupied by 6-10 year old children by measuring the CO2 concentration levels inside these classrooms. The findings showed that naturally ventilated classrooms have lower average CO2 concentration levels (708 ppm) than air-conditioned classrooms (1596 ppm). The main reason for the high CO2 concentration in air-conditioned classrooms is attributed to the possibly inappropriate selection of ventilation system type (wall-mounted split units) inside the classrooms. This type of ventilation system cools recirculated room air provides no outside air (fresh air), which is may not be appreciated for high occupancy zones like classrooms. Suitable means for fresh air provision must be made for this mode of operation.

Some remedial solutions are theoretically suggested to reduce the high CO2 levels in air-conditioned classrooms which may enhance the students and staffs performance. The latter data on CO2 levels being above recommended values have been communicated to Kuwaiti government.


Kevin Roberts has extended the comprehension of strong consumer brands to a higher level where loyalty beyond reason is established. He calls this new status Lovemarks. As the concept of Lovemark has only been applied in B2C markets, this thesis is directed to find out the applicability of Lovemarks in B2B context. In order to fulfill the research purpose, three main questions are answered based on a cross-sectional research approach: What role do intangible factors play in B2B branding? Is the idea of B2C Lovemarks transferable to B2B context? How should a B2B Lovemark be characterized? The results of the qualitative interviews indicate insights of high investment and involvement, integrated brand communication, balance between function versus emotion, brand's trustworthy personality, customer partnership, and finally, the potential establishment of B2B Lovemarks. Conclusively, first, functional performance is stressed as the key foundation of strong B2B brands. Second, emotional values are regarded as the driver of sustainable differentiation. Third, integration of internal and external branding building is crucial for overall brand loyalty. Fourth, trust plays a dominant role in emotional communication. Fifth, companies need to highlight customer partnership in industrial markets due to the high demand of commitment and cooperation. Integration and consistency are crucial for B2B brand building; at the same time, a balance between functional and emotional benefits is strongly required for Lovemarks in B2B industry. Therefore, it can be concluded that in a B2B environment, a redefinition of Lovemarks is realizable. The findings of this thesis are twofold; first, the authors present a conceptual framework which entails the developing process, prerequisites, key attributes and benefits of B2B Lovemarks. Second, managerial insights are provided both from the perspective of successful companies and less experienced companies in emotional branding, integrated brand communication and partnership building. This study offers a reflection on the possible efforts of incorporating intangible values into the brand strategy and thus improving and advancing brand management.


Over the past several years after the civil rights movement, there has been an increase in Black-on-Black violence. The former sense of community, unity and Black power from the civil rights era has faded away. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, African Americans were united for one purpose: to overcome injustice and segregation across America. However, this is not true for African Americans today. If the Value Added Model Theory is tenable, then a comparison of the African American community during the civil rights era with that of the modern African American community would reveal that the strains on today's society along with the "violence for profit" promoting media have caused this increase in violence and decrease in the movement perpetuating "Black Power." This paper features a triangulative comparative analysis of both African Americans from 1960 to 1980 and African Americans between the years of 1990 and 2010. The data collected were analyzed by using a multi-lag time series analysis technique to view salary, population density, incarceration rates, graduation rates, welfare status, and social economic status provided by the United States Census Bureau. The data for this paper were collected by using the document analysis technique, and the synchronic approach was employed to analyze the data from both primary and secondary sources utilizing document analysis. This paper hypothesizes that using the Value Added Model Theory, one observes the similarities not only in the social strains from society but also in various other areas which would be basis for a revolutionary change.


Probiotics show protective effects against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, their efficacy against NAFLD and the mechanisms are still unknown. In this study, Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) relative quantitative proteomics was utilized to track the changes in liver protein expression in rats fed with Lactobacillus rhamnosus LV108. A total of 4155 corresponding proteins were identified by MS. A total of 26 differentially expressed proteins were found between the L. rhamnosus LV108 treatment group and mode group, and there are 16 proteins up-regulated and 10 proteins down-regulated. Most of the differentially expressed proteins were involved in apoptosis and lipid metabolism. The key differentially expressed proteins (BFAR and Cyt-C) were verified by parallel reaction monitoring to be reliable. Our study is the first attempt to analyze the protein profile of probiotic-treated NAFLD model rats by quantitative proteomics. The identified proteins in this study will likely contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the effect of probiotics on NAFLD.