This article deals with the exclusion of non-profit-making entities from the right of freedom of establishment of Articles 49 and 54 TFEU. The article analyses the historical reasons for this exclusion. It is argued that the exclusion from freedom of establishment is no longer justified on the basis of two elements. Firstly, the development of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice in the fields of competition law, free movement of capital and tax law makes such exclusion systematically no longer tenable. Secondly, a law and economics treatment of non-profit firms as organisations that efficiently provide goods and services in alternative to for-profit firms weakens the reasons for the exclusion. The article proposes a uniform, European notion of non-profit entity based on a law and economics analysis of this type of firm for the purposes of Article 54 TFUE as opposed to possible different national notions. The article then analyses briefly the hypothesis of regulatory competition among jurisdictions for the provision of the law regulating the corporate governance of non-profit entities.


Objectives: Chronic Otitis Media with Effusion (COME) is a clinical condition characterized by an effusion in the tympanic cavity. In this retrospective study, we aimed to compare the MPV and PDW value of patients with chronic otitis media with effusion (COMA) to those in healthy subjects as an inflammatory indicator.
Materials and Methods: Demographic features: age, race and gender and laboratory parameters; White Blood Cell count (WBC), Red Blood Cell count (RBC), Hemoglobin (Hb), Hematocrit (Hct), Platelets (PLT), MPV and PDW were recorded after obtaining from the computerized database.
Results: We included 149 patients who underwent ventilation tube insertion between with those of age and sex compatible 151 healthy subjects into the study. In our study no statistically significant differences were identified between paediatric patients diagnosed with COME and healthy controls in terms of WBC, RBC, Hb, Hct, and MPV levels (p>0.05). However, we found significant differences both the platelet count (p<0.05) and PDW levels (p<0.001) between the COME and control group.
Conclusion: This study is the first to evaluate the relationship between PDW and COME. With regards to clinical and laboratory findings, novel inflammatory markers derived from routine hemogram test may be used.


The new National Gambling Bill introduces a system of voluntary and court-ordered exclusion of problem gamblers from casinos. A wide range of exclusion techniques for access control could be applied to South African casinos. However, there are no clear criteria on which to base the decision of which system is to be implemented. Various role players need to be considered to determine what can be deployable in casino applications. A framework, from a business perspective, is proposed which allows multiple role players and varied criteria to effectively evaluate a range of possible solutions. The framework is applied to the role players affected by the proposed exclusion of problem gamblers from gambling. The main role players evaluated a number of possible exclusion techniques according to a range of important criteria. The current solution of a security guard at the entrance is superior according to the casino operations department. The casino marketing division places a high emphasis on ease of use for the pUblic. Of the alternative solutions, comparison-based solutions (using an identity book) were preferred by Gambling Anonymous while card-based solutions (proximity card) was found to be preferable by the public. The casino surveillance department preferred non-contact, overt, biometric acquisition (such as iris recognition). Covert biometric acquisition (face recognition) is found to be the most acceptable to all the role players, with fingerprint recognition being the least acceptable. The application of the framework allowed multimodal exclusion techniques (face recognition linked to casino loyalty cards) to emerge as a promising way forward.


This volume of EPTCS contains the proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on Proof Exchange for Theorem Proving (PxTP 2017), held on September 23-24, 2017 as part of the Tableaux, FroCoS and ITP conferences in Brasilia, Brazil. The PxTP workshop series brings together researchers working on various aspects of communication, integration, and cooperation between reasoning systems and formalisms, with a special focus on proofs. The progress in computer-aided reasoning, both automated and interactive, during the past decades, made it possible to build deduction tools that are increasingly more applicable to a wider range of problems and are able to tackle larger problems progressively faster. In recent years, cooperation between such tools in larger systems has demonstrated the potential to reduce the amount of manual intervention. Cooperation between reasoning systems relies on availability of theoretical formalisms and practical tools to exchange problems, proofs, and models. The PxTP workshop series strives to encourage such cooperation by inviting contributions on all aspects of cooperation between reasoning tools, whether automatic or interactive.


Aluminum matrix composites reinforced with Al2O3 and SiC particles (5 Vol%) were produced using the hot powder extrusion method. Extrusion temperature and extrusion reduction in area were chosen in the range of 500 to 600°C and 90 to 95%, respectively. The physical and mechanical properties of the extruded composites such as density, tensile strength, elongation and microhardness were evaluated and discussed as a function of extrusion parameters. The microstructure and fracture surface of the products were examined using SEM. The results showed that the composites were fully densified and reinforcement particles were distributed uniformly in the matrix. Presence of Al2O3 and SiC particles increased both strength and microhardness, but decreased the ductility of the composites. Experimental results for hot extrusion of the compacted powder billets also showed that the extrusion pressure was dependent on the ram speed or deformation strain rate.


Rangelands are the most important feed sources for animal husbandry in Turkey. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of different improvement methods on pasture yield and quality obtained from the rangeland harvested at the grazing maturity stage. This study was conducted on a rangeland that cultivated 30 years ago and then abandoned in the Samsun region in Turkey between 2007 and 2008. Treatments were control, aeration, commercial fertilization; sheep manure application, over-seeding, aeration+fertilization, aeration+sheep manure, fertilization+over-seeding, and sheep manure+over-seeding. Harvest was realised when dominant grass+legume plants reached at grazing maturity. According to the results of two-year mean, the highest hay yield was obtained from the aeration+fertilizer treatment with 3720.5 kg ha -1 and from fertilization treatment with 3412.4 kg ha -1 . In both years, the highest yields were generally obtained from each of the first cuts. Compared to control, all improvement methods generally increased the total yields in both years. In general, the first cut gave higher crude protein and RFV content and lower ADF and NDF content compared to the second or third cuts. According to quality standards of American Forage and Grassland Council, rangeland hay samples were generally classified in the first class. Rangeland improvement methods, especially aeration and its combinations, increased the hay yield and quality.


The first deep seismic sounding experiment in Northwestern Anatolia was carried out in October 1991 as part of the "German - Turkish Project on Earthquake Prediction Research" in the Mudurnu area of the North Anatolian Fault Zone. The experiment was a joint enterprise by the Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics of Frankfurt University, the Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) in Ankara, and the Turkish Oil Company (TPAO). Two orthogonal profiles, each 120 km in length with a crossing point near Akyazi, were covered in succession by 30 short period tape recording seismograph stations with 2 km station spacing. 12 shots, with charge sizes between 100 and 250 kg, were fired and 342 seismograms out of 360 were used for evaluation. By coincidence an M b = 4.5 earthquake located below Imroz Island was also recorded and provided additional information on Moho and the sub-Moho velocity. A ray tracing method orginally developed by Weber (1986) was used for travel time inversion. From a compilation of all data two generalized crustal models were derived, one with velocity gradients within the layers and one with constant layer velocities. The latter consists of a sediment cover of about 2 km with V p » 3.6 km/s, an upper crystalline crust down to 13 km with V p » 5.9 km/s, a middle crust down to 25 km depth with V p » 6.5 km/s, a lower crust down to 39 km Moho depth with V p » 7.0 km/s and V p » 8.05 km/s below the Moho. The structure of the individual profiles differs slightly. The thickest sediment cover is reached in the Izmit-Sapanca-trough and in the Akyazi basin. Of particular interest is a step of about 4 km in the lower crust near Lake Sapanca and probably an even larger one in the Moho (derived from the Imroz earthquake data). After the catastrophic earthquake of Izmit on 17 August 1999 this significant heterogeneity in crustal structure appears in a new light with regard to the possible cause of the Izmit earthquake. Heterogeneities in structure are frequently also heterogeneities in strength and stress that impede or even lock rupture. The Izmit earthquake is discussed in relation to a large stepover or jog at the North Anatolian Fault.


Is my patient septic or not?—that is the question. Sepsis (from the ancient Greek, σήψις) is an "antique" medical issue, a multi-faced life threatening disease characterized by organ dysfunction due to a dis-regulated host response to infection (1). Hyper-inflammation and immunoparalysis (2) along with tissue damage caused by pathogens play a key role into the onset and progression of the disease.


To refine further the structure-activity relationships of D1 dopamine receptor agonists, we investigated the roles of three conserved serine residues [Ser198(5.42), Ser199(5.43), and Ser202(5.46)] in agonist binding and receptor activation. These transmembrane domain 5 (TM5) residues are believed to engage catechol ligands through polar interactions. We stably expressed wild-type or mutant (S198A, S199A, and S202A) D1 receptors in human embryonic kidney cells. These receptors were expressed at similar levels (approximately 2000 fmol/mg) and bound the radioligand [3H]R(+)-7-chloro-8-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine (SCH 23390), although S198A and S199A displayed significant losses of affinity compared with that for wild-type receptors. The endogenous agonist, dopamine, had losses of potency at each of the mutant receptors. We tested cyclohexyl-substituted isochroman, carbocyclic, and chroman bicyclic dopamine analogs and found that the mutations affected the chroman to a lesser extent than the other compounds. These results support our hypothesis that the decreased D1 activity of chroman analogs results from a ligand intramolecular hydrogen bond that impairs the ability of the catechol to engage the receptor. Sensitivities of these rigid catechol agonists to the effects of the serine mutations were dependent on ligand geometry, particularly with respect to the rotameric conformation of the ethylamine side chain and the distance between the amino group and each catechol hydroxyl. Functional experiments in striatal tissue suggest that the ability to engage TM5 serines is largely correlated with agonist efficacy for cAMP stimulation. These results provide a new understanding of the complexities of D1 ligand recognition and agonist activation and have implications for the design of rigid catechol ligands.


Silicon Valley leads the world in technological innovation. Because of this, Silicon Valley is one of the most influential places in the world. Unfortunately, there is a division between Silicon Valley and the Christian Church causing the Church to have less of a voice in this influential area. This division can be seen in the fact that less than half of the people of Silicon Valley are Christian. This project will explore the causes of this division. One of the main causes is that Silicon Valley's political and religious views vary greatly from many of those in the Christian Church, leading to misunderstanding and resentment between the two groups. This project will explore these differences, and how the Church can begin to resolve them. This project will also investigate how Christians can prevent technological developments, such as artificial intelligence, from contributing to this division. By assessing the individual causes of this division, this project will show how the Church can begin the process of reconciliation with Silicon Valley.


A not-so-subtle divide separates empirical and constructionist software research. Constructionists maintain that software research should be about creating technologies, devising new methods. Empiricists are interested in studying and understanding existing approaches. The antagonism between the two camps does not serve our industry well—it needs both modes of research.


Norms in multi-agent systems are used as a mechanism to regulate the behavior of autonomous and heterogeneous agents and to maintain the social order of the society of agents. Norms define what is permitted, prohibited and obligatory. One of the challenges in designing and managing systems governed by norms is that they can conflict with another. Two norms are in conflict when the fulfillment of one causes the violation the other and vice-versa. Several researches have been proposed mechanisms to detect conflicts between norms. However, there is a kind of normative conflict not investigated yet in the design phase, here called runtime conflicts, that can only be detected if we know information about the runtime execution of the system. This paper presents an approach based on execution scenarios to detect normative conflicts that depends on execution order of runtime events in multi-agent systems.


This research is conducted to develop an interactive learning media of spreadsheet software and to know the validity percentage of the media.
The researcher used research and development method to be conducted in this research. This research was taken on SMA Negeri 2 Wates. The subject of this research was the students from two classes which are XI IPA 1 and XI IPS 2. The object of this research was an interactive learning media of spreadsheet software which was developed using Macromedia Flash Profesional 8. The data collection method that the researcher used was observation and questionnaire, then the data analysis technique was descriptive qualitative analysis technique.
The alpha testing that was conducted by the media expert showed 97.67% of validity percentage while the content expert showed 81.82%. The beta testing which was conducted by user showed 81.67% of validity percentage, so the learning media developed is to be considered as very good.
Key words: learning media, spreadsheet.


The bed is a main component of the large precision linear rolling guide CNC grinding machine tool. Its thermal-structure characteristics affect on machine tool's machining precision and stability directly. In this paper, boundary conditions on the bed of a machine tool factory's production are analyzed; using FEA method, the bed finite element models for thermal-structure coupling analysis are established and then calculated. By analysis, the simulation of the CNC machine tool operating conditions can effectively obtain the distributions of the bed temperature, thermal deformation and thermal stress; and the results are closed to the true situation.


In The Qumran Manuscripts of Lamentations, Gideon Kotze draws on text-critical analyses to establish how the content of the biblical book differs in the four Lamentations manuscripts from Qumran when compared to the Masoretic text and the ancient translations.


Abstract We argue that the multiple contemporary converging crises have significantly altered the context for and object of political contestations around agrarian, climate, environmental and food justice issues. These shifts affect alliances, collaboration and conflict among and between state and social forces, as well as within and between movements and societies. The actual implications and mechanisms by which these changes are happening are empirical questions that need careful investigation. The bulk of our discussion is dedicated to the issue of responses to the crises both by capitalist forces and those adversely affected by the crises, and the implications of these for academic research and political activist work. More specifically, we explore four thematic clusters, namely (1) class and intersectionality; (2) sectoral and multisectoral issues and concerns; (3) importance of immediate, tactical and concrete issues of working people; and (4) links between national and global institutional spaces and political processes. We know only a little about the questions we framed here, but it is just enough to give us the confidence to argue that these questions are areas of inquiry that deserve closer attention in terms of both academic research and political debates and actions.


Introduction:
 Despite relatively high in hospital mortality, studies on withdrawal of life sustaining therapy (WOLST) and physician ability to predict in hospital death after intracranial hemorrhage remain sparse.

 Methods:
 Prospectively collected data from 2008-2011 was reviewed in patients with intraparencymal (IPH), subdural (SDH), and subarachnoid (SAH) hemorrhage. Baseline demographic data, medical comorbidities, and admission clinical status were assessed to determine predictors of WOLST. Statistically significant variables were included in a forward stepwise multivariable logistic regression model to identify independent predictors of WOLST. The model was then tested as a predictor of in hospital death amongst patients who received maximal medical and surgical therapy.

 Results:
 379 patients were enrolled: 127 (33.5%) SDH, 133 (35.1%) SAH, and 119 (31.4%) IPH. 31 (8.2%) patients underwent WOLST and died, 36 (9.5%) continued maximal therapy and died in hospital, and 312 (82.3%) continued maximal therapy and survived to discharge. Patients who underwent WOLST had more medical comorbidities, worse baseline functional status, worse clinical admission status, and were more likely to have IPH. There were no ethnic or level of education predictors of WOLST. Additionally, there were no differences in hospital complications, cost, or length of stay amongst patients who underwent WOLST versus those who died despite maximal therapy. On multivariable analysis, admission GCS, herniation, and history of cardiovascular disease predicted WOLST (Area under the curve [AUC]=0.83, all p<0.01). This model predicted in hospital death amongst patients who received maximal therapy with a sensitivity of 76.5% and specificity of 83.5% (AUC=0.89, all p<0.001).

 Conclusions:
 Physicians identified intracranial hemorrhage patients who would die irrespective of maximal medical and surgical therapy with a high sensitivity and specificity. Physicians may be able to transition to WOLST more quickly to attenuate hospital complications, cost, and length of stay.


The working relationship between business and IT is predominantly a product life cycle based approach for meeting IT requirements through the specification of product and production management methods. There is evidence that this is an incomplete and unsatisfactory model. We illustrate how a service based relationship model using new concepts, validated in practice, can improve the business experience and provide more comprehensive methods of alignment and governance. The research method used is based on two overlapping and interacting phases: empirical, situated research and Grounded Theory development. The findings are timely because the convergence with business and the commoditisation of IT are changing the dynamics between the two and changing the nature of the IT supply industry. We discuss the emerging business-focused approach to IT management, alignment, and governance as it applies today and in the context of self-adaptive and self-managing systems.


We present a Reduced Order Model (ROM) which exploits recent developments in Physics Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) for solving inverse problems for the Navier--Stokes equations (NSE). In the proposed approach, the presence of simulated data for the fluid dynamics fields is assumed. A POD-Galerkin ROM is then constructed by applying POD on the snapshots matrices of the fluid fields and performing a Galerkin projection of the NSE (or the modified equations in case of turbulence modeling) onto the POD reduced basis. A $\textit{POD-Galerkin PINN ROM}$ is then derived by introducing deep neural networks which approximate the reduced outputs with the input being time and/or parameters of the model. The neural networks incorporate the physical equations (the POD-Galerkin reduced equations) into their structure as part of the loss function. Using this approach, the reduced model is able to approximate unknown parameters such as physical constants or the boundary conditions. A demonstration of the applicability of the proposed ROM is illustrated by two cases which are the steady flow around a backward step and the unsteady turbulent flow around a surface mounted cubic obstacle.


There are wide differences in the quality of mental health nurse education at Bachelor and Master's level throughout Europe. Furthermore, there are wide variations in content. However the concerns, challenges and development needs of mental health practice are shared in many countries. These issues form the basis for the EU-funded eMenthe-project (2013-2016) which aims to enhance Master's level education in mental health practice by developing eLearning materials through a European co-operation.The co-operation includes seven European universities from Finland, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. These organizations and their respective Master's students are associated partners of the project. International co-operation is seen as a quality assurance process; each of the partners is a highly esteemed university with extensive experience in mental health education, research and strong links with practice.ELearning –materials will be developed during this co-operation on three different themes. The themes include: mental health promotion and prevention, recovery and social inclusion and engaging with families and caregivers. These themes were agreed as common issues of concern for all partners prior to the application process. During the final year of the project (2016) eLearning materials will be made available to students undertaking Master's level education and those working in clinical practice. This dual approach to dissemination will support the professional competencies of practitioners as well as academic progression.


Transient computing has become popular in public cloud environments for running delay-insensitive batch and data processing applications at low cost. Since transient cloud servers can be revoked at any time by the cloud provider, they are considered unsuitable for running interactive application such as web services. In this paper, we present VM deflation as an alternative mechanism to server preemption for reclaiming resources from transient cloud servers under resource pressure. Using real traces from top-tier cloud providers, we show the feasibility of using VM deflation as a resource reclamation mechanism for interactive applications in public clouds. We show how current hypervisor mechanisms can be used to implement VM deflation and present cluster deflation policies for resource management of transient and on-demand cloud VMs. Experimental evaluation of our deflation system on a Linux cluster shows that microservice-based applications can be deflated by up to 50% with negligible performance overhead. Our cluster-level deflation policies allow overcommitment levels as high as 50%, with less than a 1% decrease in application throughput, and can enable cloud platforms to increase revenue by 30%.


The international financial crisis of 2007/2008 and the 'Great Recession' that followed, along with the euro crisis, have highlighted a range of problems and difficulties that are related to some fundamental weaknesses of the euro. There are the well-known difficulties of macroeconomic policies under the Stability and Growth Pact and the more recent Fiscal Compact, including their deflationary nature and the 'one size fits all problem' of imposing common deficit requirements on all European Economic and Monetary Union countries. There are also problems with monetary policy in view of the fact that the European Central Bank does not properly possess the functions of a central bank, especially that of lender of last resort. We discuss the reforms that are needed, most important of which is the requirement for a substantial Economic and Monetary Union-level fiscal policy as part of political integration, along with a banking union. In this context the recent proposals of the 'Five Presidents' Report' (European Commission 2015b; see, also, European Council 2012) are relevant and the question is whether they will save the euro. It is concluded that the 'Five Presidents' Report' is unlikely to resolve the deep-seated problems, casting a dark shadow over the future of the euro.


The potential of the spontaneously fissioning isotope, 252Cf, to provide epithermal neutrons for use in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) has been investigated using Monte Carlo simulation. The Monte Carlo code MCNP was used to design an assembly composed of a 26 cm long, 11 cm radius cylindrical D2O moderator followed by a 64 cm long Al filter. Lithium filters are placed between the moderator and the filter and between the Al and the patient. A reflector surrounding the moderator/filter assembly is required in order to maintain adequate therapy flux at the patient position. An ellipsoidal phantom composed of skull- and brain-equivalent material was used to determine the dosimetric effect of this beam. It was found that both advantage depths and advantage ratios compare very favourably with reactor and accelerator epithermal neutron sources. The dose rate obtainable, on the other hand, is 4.1 RBE cGy min-1, based on a very large (1.0 g) source of 252Cf. This dose rate is two to five times lower than those provided by existing reactor beams and can be viewed as a drawback of using 252Cf as a neutron source. Radioisotope sources, however, do offer the advantage of in-hospital installation.


Agriculture is a minor contributor to local economies in European mountain and fjord areas where tourism is predominant; however, it is essential to maintain the agricultural landscape and other important nonmarket functions of mountain agroecosystems. Policy-makers have aimed to support agriculture in these areas, but farmers' perspectives are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to analyze (1) the main characteristics of livestock farming systems and the recent changes they have undergone, (2) farmers' perceptions of different functions of agriculture, (3) farmers' goals, and (4) the relationships among these elements in order to support more targeted policy-making in fjord and mountain areas in Scandinavian countries. We collected data from 27 farms and conducted univariate and multivariate (principal components and cluster) analyses. Most recent changes in farming have been related to improving working conditions and increasing tourist activity. According to the farmers, the main nonmarket functions of agriculture were (1) maintaining cultural heritage and rural development, (2) delivering environmental services, and (3) promoting traditional agriculture. The farmers' primary goals were (1) innovating for better farming, (2) improving the family's quality of life, and (3) achieving economic objectives. We identified 2 clusters of farmers based on divergent perceptions of rural development and the goal of improving the family's quality of life. These results point to the importance of integrated policies that address agricultural, environmental, and rural development together and take into account farmers' diverse perceptions and goals.


1 In growing forest stands, above‐ground net primary production peaks early in stand development and then declines. The causes for this decline are not yet well understood, but hypotheses include physiological and ecophysiological effects, as well as changes in stand structure due to local competition among neighbouring trees. 2 The majority of existing studies address mono‐causal explanations of this decline. Here we study the combined effects of intrinsic growth limitation of individual trees, growth limitation due to neighbourhood competition, and self‐thinning. 3 We use an individual‐based model to analyse forest wood production of a mangrove species described by a sigmoidal growth function, and two hypothetical species with exponential or linear growth. The model reproduces a decline for all species investigated, even when individual growth rates did not become limited. 4 We conclude that individual, sigmoidal growth curves are sufficient but not necessary to explain the production decline in natural forests where neighbourhood competition is appreciably active. 5 We show that the causes for production decline change during forest development. Whereas growth reduction through neighbourhood competition is the main process at the beginning, imbalanced wood loss dominates the later stage of the decline.


The suppression of war has been the primary objective of the United Nations for almost fifty years, and stopping a war before it starts is easier than ending a war already underway. History, however, has shown that military interventions and economic sanctions often do more harm than good. In Preventive Diplomacy, Nobel prize winners, top officials, and revered thinkers tackle these issues and explore the process of conflict prevention from humanitarian, economic, and political perspectives. This cross-disciplinary reader on global politics demonstrates that when new insights and methodologies on public health are applied to the handling of international disasters, the change in policy perspective is intriguing--even hopeful.


When Ebola first hit Sierra Leone on 24 May 2014, the country struggled to stem the outbreak. There was difficulty running the project through Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS), which led to the establishment of the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC). This initiative developed the principles and operational model for strong regional, district and local collaboration, transforming NERC into Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) with minimum attention to country-led laboratory capacity strengthening. Health laboratory services are essential for the efficient delivery of quality and cost-effective healthcare. Training in laboratory services has long been a neglected part of the health system in Sierra Leone. Perceived by the fact that it is one of the eight core capacities of the International Health Regulations, necessitated the urgency for this project at Njala University. The laboratory system is crucial for rapid detection and safe sample management, timely and accurate sample testing and timely results communication. Less attention is given to building capacity of laboratories in the second and third tier institutions to enable rapid diagnosis for possible emerging diseases in the country. The Royal Netherlands Embassy (RNE) in Ghana has, therefore, provided a 22-month project support otherwise known as the "Post-Ebola Resilience Project." In keeping with the activities for the work package 2 (WP2), training has been accomplished on Bio-safety, Bio-security and Good Laboratory Practices for laboratory staff. Ethical approval for mini projects on Ebola, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever; Rabies and Influenza have been received from the Njala University Institutional Review Board (NUIRB). Staff involved at Njala University is actively working together, further reinforcing the One Health Concept by focusing on both human and animal health and its interface.


A study was conducted in 2010 and 2011 at the West Tennessee Research and Education Center in Jackson, TN to evaluate the tolerance of Phytogen ® 375 WRF (WideStrike ® ) cotton to glufosinate or a premix of glyphosate and s-metolachlor alone or when tank mixed with selected insecticides used for the control of thrips. Significant differences in visual injury were caused by the herbicides and the insecticides in 2010, but not in 2011. Glufosinate delayed crop maturity in 2010, but did not delay maturity in 2011. Total yield was reduced by glufosinate application but not by insecticide treatment in 2010. Herbicide treatment did not affect yield in 2011 (P = 0.3496) but insecticide application increased yield. There was no interaction between herbicide and insecticide on total yield in 2010 or 2011. These data show that maturity might be delayed and yield decreased by an early-season glufosinate or glufosinate + insecticide application to WideStrike cotton. This measurable level of yield loss from glufosinate on WideStrike cotton differs from most previous research. The measurable level of yield loss in WideStrike cotton in this case might be due to early-season stress injury just prior to the glufosinate application.


In preparation for this DNP project and, in reviewing research and evidence-based practices it was found that there are limited research study articles available specifically focusing on caring science educational programs utilized as an intervention to inform and impact the nurses caring behaviors while caring for patients within a heath care environment. There are multiple survey tools directed at the patient which assess the caring behaviors based on the patient's perception however, there are limited tools that examine the nurse's perception of their caring behaviors and their personal professional practice as it relates to caring science or relationship-based care and the change in clinical practice post intervention. This, along with the organizations continued commitment to advancing the art and science of the nursing staff through deepening their understanding of the theory of human caring, engaging their hearts and minds, deepening their understanding of the theory as the foundation for all professional nursing practices within the organization. This has led to the co-creation and delivery of a standardized Caring Science/Heart Science education program within an organization that has adopted Dr. Jean Watson's theory of Human Caring in 2010. The purpose of this article was to better understand the impact of the cocreation of the Caring Science/Heart Science standardized educational series in a large multi-site organization and the impact on the nurses' perception of their caring behaviors moving them from being to becoming in their personal nursing practices and, patient's perception of being "treated with loving kindness" following implementation of the standardized education program.


A time-delayed failure due to stress-activated creep (cold-creep) is a failure that occurs under a constant load and with no growth due corrosion, fatigue or some other environmentally assisted time-dependent degradation mechanism. A time-delayed failure is prevented by reducing the pressure.
 ASME B31.4 and B31.8 recommend a 20 percent reduction, to 80 percent of the pressure at the time of damage or discovery. T/PM/P/11 Management Procedure for Inspection, assessment and repair of damaged (non-leaking) steel pipelines, an internal procedure used by National Grid, specifies a 15 percent reduction. The guidance in ASME B31.4 and B31.8, and in T/PM/P/11, is directly or indirectly based on the results of tests on the long term stability of defects conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute and British Gas Corporation in the 1960s and 70s. The line pipe steels were Grades X52 or X60, and the full-size equivalent Charpy V-notch impact energy (where reported) did not exceed 35 J. The tests indicated that the threshold for a time-delayed failure was approximately 85–95% SAPF (straightaway-pressure-to-failure).
 The strength and toughness of line pipe steels has significantly increased over the decades due to developments in steel-making and processing. The question then is whether an empirical threshold based on tests on lower strength and lower toughness steels is applicable to higher strength and higher toughness steels.
 In the Tripartite Project, the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association (APGA), the European Pipeline Research Group (EPRG) and the Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI) collaborated in conducting full-scale six step-load-hold tests on higher strength and higher toughness steels. Companion papers present the other aspects of this multi-year project.
 An empirical threshold for a time-delayed failure is estimated using the results of the six step-load-hold tests. That estimate is also informed by the other published small and full-scale tests (on lower strength and lower toughness steels). The Ductile Flaw Growth Model is used to infer the effect of strength and toughness on the threshold for a time-delayed failure.
 A 15 percent pressure reduction, to 85 percent of the pressure at the time of damage (or of the maximum pressure that has occurred since the time of damage), is considered to be sufficient to prevent a time-delayed failure due to stress-activated creep in lower and higher toughness, in lower and higher strength, and in older and newer line pipe steels.


The essay reviews critically that stream of literature, dominant in a wide part of the current «neo-constitutionalist» culture, which identifies principles and values. It tries to demonstrate how the overlapping of values and principles prevents us to grasp a key distinction in the history of modern constitutionalism. This distinction is the one between the external regulatory function of the law - its so called objective function, which puts order and pacifies conflicts - and the freedom of the inner forum of the interpreter of the law - realm of freedom of conscience which is relentlessly looking for which value to adhere. Within this distinction, specific attention is devoted to the role of the judge as a qualified interpreter with real decision-making powers. The paper advocates a renewed judicial modesty, especially in those controversial cases dealing with divisive issues which are widely debated within public opinion and in the political fora.


In this paper, we present the performance of maximum likelihood (ML) estimator for number of multipath and SNR scenarios. Here the multipath acoustic channel output signal is modeled as a superposition of the delayed, attenuated, and filtered version of the stationary Gaussian stochastic input signal. Accuracy percentage (AP) performance measure has been used to characterize the performance of the estimator. The performance of the ML estimator is compared via computer simulation, using AP, with a generalized autocorrelation estimator (GAE) for different number of multipath and SNRs. Simulation results show that the performance of the ML estimator deteriorates as the number of multipath increase and/or SNR decreases, however its performance is superior to the GAE under the same circumstances.


Though partially automated, developing schema mappings remains a complex and potentially error-prone task. In this paper, we present TRAMP (TRAnsformation Mapping Provenance), an extensive suite of tools supporting the debugging and tracing of schema mappings and transformation queries. TRAMP combines and extends data provenance with two novel notions, transformation provenance and mapping provenance, to explain the relationship between transformed data and those transformations and mappings that produced that data. In addition we provide query support for transformations, data, and all forms of provenance. We formally define transformation and mapping provenance, present an efficient implementation of both forms of provenance, and evaluate the resulting system through extensive experiments.


Throughout the country, prosecutors have begun to mandate victim participation in domestic violence cases. In this Article, Professor Hanna examines the tensions that arise when the state uses its powers to compel women to assist in the prosecution of their batterers. Although feminist theory has been responsible for increased attention to domestic violence, it does not adequately address the tensions between state accountability and victim autonomy. Professor Hanna illustrates these tensions with dilemmas that she confronted while prosecuting domestic violence cases. Using a pragmatist approach to explore these issues more deeply, Professor Hanna argues that prosecutors can decrease the costs associated with mandated participation by reducing their reliance on victim testimony. She also outlines practical steps that prosecutors can take to achieve this goal. Professor Hanna concludes that prosecutors must take the choice of prosecution away from the victim if they are serious about sending a clear message that domestic violence is criminally unacceptable.


Microbubble contrast agents hold great promise for drug delivery applications with ultrasound. Encapsulating drugs in nanoparticles reduces systemic toxicity and increases circulation time of the drugs. In a novel approach to microbubble-assisted drug delivery, nanoparticles are incorporated in or on microbubble shells, enabling local and triggered release of the nanoparticle payload with ultrasound. A thorough understanding of the release mechanisms within the vast ultrasound parameter space is crucial for efficient and controlled release. This set of presented protocols is applicable to microbubbles with a shell containing a fluorescent label. Here, the focus is on microbubbles loaded with poly(2-ethyl-butyl cyanoacrylate) polymeric nanoparticles, doped with a modified Nile Red dye. The particles are fixed within a denatured casein shell. The microbubbles are produced by vigorous stirring, forming a dispersion of perfluoropropane gas in the liquid phase containing casein and nanoparticles, after which the microbubble shell self-assembles. A variety of microscopy techniques are needed to characterize the nanoparticle-stabilized microbubbles at all relevant timescales of the nanoparticle release process. Fluorescence of the nanoparticles enables confocal imaging of single microbubbles, revealing the particle distribution within the shell. In vitro ultra-high-speed imaging using bright-field microscopy at 10 million frames per second provides insight into the bubble dynamics in response to ultrasound insonation. Finally, nanoparticle release from the bubble shell is best visualized by means of fluorescence microscopy, performed at 500,000 frames per second. To characterize drug delivery in vivo, the triggered release of nanoparticles within the vasculature and their extravasation beyond the endothelial layer is studied using intravital microscopy in tumors implanted in dorsal skinfold window chambers, over a timescale of several minutes. The combination of these complementary characterization techniques provides unique insight into the behavior of microbubbles and their payload release at a range of time and length scales, both in vitro and in vivo.


Early Modern European Creating Christian Granada: Society & Religious Culture in an Old-World Frontier City, 1492-1600. By David Coleman. (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. 2003. Pp. xii, 252. $39.95 clothbound.) "When did Granada become a Christian city?" With this question, David Coleman begins his book, insisting that the superficial response, "1492," is only the beginning. Coleman's answers illuminate complex processes of the early modern world. He clarifies the Castilian incorporation of Granada, the influx of immigrants, the transformations of the indigenous inhabitants, and the religious reforms developing in the frontier city. Although a unique example, Granada's history framed Spanish American experience, Tridentine reforms, hoaxes, multi-ethnic societies, and, according to Coleman, a better way to understand the "policy that underlay early modern Catholic reform." People and events of post-conquest Granada vividly emerge. Domingo Ferez de Herrasti, a Castilian soldier, benefited so successfully from his public positions that he was often accused of corruption. Or Yaya el Fisteli, a Muslim from Malaga, who lived in Granada, and when baptized in 1498, became Fernando Morales with positions on both city councils. Francisco Nunez Muley lobbied both Charles V and Philip II but remained frustrated in defending his morisco traditions. Pedro Sânchez and Juana Gonzalez, Christian immigrants, came for frontier opportunities but ended up beggars. Coleman balances archival materials with secondary histories. He examines cathedral sources, chancellery cases, municipal notes, and notarized documents. He blends the histories of Granada and analyzes religion in the sixteenth century. Council of Trent details are retold through the experience of Peclro Guerrero, Archbishop of Granada from 1546 to 1576 and leader of the Spanish delegation during the last period. At home in Granada, Guerrero overruled clerics who wanted to challenge his authority. Coleman points to the force with which Guerrero signed "PETRUS granatens" and not just the normal "P. granatens." Coleman sympathizes with the Archbishop of Granada, but the portrayal conforms more to an Italian observation that Guerrero was "harder and more obstinate than a rock." Coleman notes the irony of the surname:guerrero means warrior in English. Even Pedro, Guerrero's given name, is apt. The fighting, rock-like Archbishop of Granada had to work in a world of compromises. No one leads by brute force. The first chapters of Creating Christian Granada identify the Christian immigrant community and Granada's indigenous inhabitants, the mudejares and moriscos. …


We intend to narrow the gap between concrete implementations of cryptographic protocols and their verified models. We develop and verify a small functional implementation of the Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS 1.0). We make use of the same executable code for interoperability testing against mainstream implementations, for automated symbolic cryptographic verification, and for automated computational cryptographic verification. We rely on a combination of recent tools, and we also develop a new tool for extracting computational models from executable code. We obtain strong security guarantees for TLS as used in typical deployments.


The purpose of this work is to identify the level of phenotypic diversity of the morphological features of Populus × sibirica leaves, including qualitative signs-phenes. To reveal the variability, the authors examined 90 trees, on which 1,350 leaves were measured in the green areas of the cities of Novosibirsk, Novokuznetsk and Berdsk. When analyzing the qualitative features, there were selected the following morphological markers: leaf pubescence, development of basal glands, leaf form, its base and apex. The conducted studies of Populus × sibirica samples showed that it is characterized by very low and low variability of the quantitative traits of a leaf. Leaf-shaped ovoid plates and leaves with developed basal glands (78–89 %) are predominant. Close indicators of averaged endogenous and individual variability reflect its cultural origin. Probably, Populus × sibirica in the Siberian region consists of several clones selected from the same hybrid family. A number of studied morphological qualitative features of a leaf, which are distinguished by the absence of endogenous variability, can be attributed to phenes: the shape of the apex and the shape of the base of the lamina, as well as the nature of the development of pubescence. The most controversial issue in the origin of Populus × sibirica remains the presence of basal glands at the base of the leaf blade.


The structure of the microbial community inhabiting the copper bioleaching heap at Escondida mine has been systematically monitored since the operation was started up (2006), using biomolecular and microbiological analyses. Recent molecular analyses showed that L. ferriphilum was one of the most abundant organisms in the process during year 2012. In order to study the biological dynamics of carbon and nitrogen in the process, the expression levels of thirteen genes of L. ferriphilum were analyzed by RT-qPCR. The 16S rRNA and alaS genes were used as reference, and two relative quantification methods (ΔΔct and and Pffafl) were applied to estimate the relative expression levels of metabolic genes. On the day 110 of operation, a significant increment in the expression level of one gene involved in the cycle of tricarboxilic acids (2-oxoglutarate-acceptor oxidoreductase, oorA) was detected. By other hand, the expression level of two genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism (glgP, Glycogen phosphorilase, and glgA, Glycogen synthase) gradually increased, as the operation time progressed. The expression levels of genes involved in the fixation and assimilation of nitrogen increased at later stages of the process. A significant increase of the expression level of the gene annotated for Nitrogenase iron protein (nifH) was detected on the day 185 of operation. The opposite trend was observed for the gene annotated as Ammonium transporter protein (amt), as an elevated expression level was observed in earlier stages to suddenly decrease on the day 185 of operation, suggesting a change of the nitrogen source. In agreement with molecular quantitative analyses, this work confirmed that L. ferriphilum was an active member of the community during the period studied. This work gives new insights into biological dynamics of carbon and nitrogen, and suggests the potential guidelines to enhance the efficiency of biological components in industrial heap bioleaching processes.


Epilepsia partialis continua (EPC) is a form of focal motor status epilepticus, associated with multiple etiologies. Etiology-specific treatments, such as hemispherotomy for Rasmussen encephalitis, lesionectomy for focal cortical dysplasia, and metabolic correction for non-ketotic hyperglycemia, have proven to be efficacious in treating EPC, but, in general, EPC is difficult to treat and often drug-resistant, and there is little evidence to guide therapy. We report the successful treatment of EPC with perampanel in two pediatric patients. The first patient was a 12-year-old boy with neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL) who started to have EPC around the age of 10 years, characterized by left hemifacial myoclonic twitches and hemi-body jerks that were almost continuous throughout the day and disappeared during sleep. He had failed several antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). The EPC stopped within three days of initiating perampanel. The second patient was a six-year-old boy with POLG-related mitochondrial disease who presented to the emergency room with continuous jerky movements of the right arm and face after a trivial head injury. After failing several AEDs, including a midazolam drip, the EPC was controlled with perampanel. Both patients showed dramatic improvement and continue to show sustained efficacy after around five months of follow-up. Based on our observations, perampanel, which has a unique mechanism of action, appears to be a promising therapeutic option for treating EPC. [Published with video sequence].


HIV-1 Env is dynamic and undergoes large conformational changes that drive fusion of virus and host cell membranes. Three Env proteins in a trimer contact each other at their apical tips to form a closed conformation that presents epitopes recognized by broadly neutralizing antibodies. The apical tips separate, among other changes, to form an open conformation that binds tightly to host receptors. Understanding how Env sequence facilitates these structural changes can inform the biophysical mechanism and aid immunogen design. Using deep mutational scans decoupled from virus replication, we report mutational landscapes for Env from two strains interacting with conformation-dependent binding proteins. Residues in the Env trimer interface and apical domains are preferentially conserved in the closed conformation, and conformational diversity is facilitated by electrostatic repulsion and an underpacked core between domains. Specific mutations are described that enhance presentation of the trimeric closed conformation across diverse HIV-1 strains. ABSTRACT HIV-1 infection is initiated by viral Env engaging the host receptor CD4, triggering Env to transition from a "closed" to "open" conformation during the early events of virus-cell membrane fusion. To understand how Env sequence accommodates this conformational change, mutational landscapes decoupled from virus replication were determined for Env from BaL (clade B) and DU422 (clade C) isolates interacting with CD4 or antibody PG16 that preferentially recognizes closed trimers. Sequence features uniquely important to each bound state were identified, including glycosylation and binding sites. Notably, the Env apical domain and trimerization interface are under selective pressure for PG16 binding. Based on this key observation, mutations were found that increase presentation of quaternary epitopes associated with properly conformed trimers when Env is expressed at the plasma membrane. Many mutations reduce electrostatic repulsion at the Env apex and increase PG16 recognition of Env sequences from clades A and B. Other mutations increase hydrophobic packing at the gp120 inner-outer domain interface and were broadly applicable for engineering Env from diverse strains spanning tiers 1, 2, and 3 across clades A, B, C, and BC recombinants. Core mutations predicted to introduce steric strain in the open state show markedly reduced CD4 interactions. Finally, we demonstrate how our methodology can be adapted to interrogate interactions between membrane-associated Env and the matrix domain of Gag. These findings and methods may assist vaccine design. IMPORTANCE HIV-1 Env is dynamic and undergoes large conformational changes that drive fusion of virus and host cell membranes. Three Env proteins in a trimer contact each other at their apical tips to form a closed conformation that presents epitopes recognized by broadly neutralizing antibodies. The apical tips separate, among other changes, to form an open conformation that binds tightly to host receptors. Understanding how Env sequence facilitates these structural changes can inform the biophysical mechanism and aid immunogen design. Using deep mutational scans decoupled from virus replication, we report mutational landscapes for Env from two strains interacting with conformation-dependent binding proteins. Residues in the Env trimer interface and apical domains are preferentially conserved in the closed conformation, and conformational diversity is facilitated by electrostatic repulsion and an underpacked core between domains. Specific mutations are described that enhance presentation of the trimeric closed conformation across diverse HIV-1 strains.


: Bronchial asthma (BA) course and menopausal features were studied in 58 perimenopausal women. Effects of menopause on BA clinical manifestations were considered. 19 patients on climonorm therapy were examined immunologically. It was found that premenopause and perimenopause deteriorate BA clinical picture whereas hormone replacement therapy with climonorm produce a positive effect on menopause and BA. In long-term hormone treatment it is necessary to follow up immune status.


Recent studies have evidenced that alterations of cardiac metabolism can be present in several cardiac syndromes. In heart failure, wasting of subcutaneous fat and skeletal muscle is relatively common and suggests an increased utilisation of non‐carbohydrate substrates for energy production. In fact, fasting blood ketone bodies as well as fat oxidation during exercise have been shown to be increased in patients with heart failure. This metabolic shift determines a reduction of myocardial oxygen consumption efficiency. A direct approach to manipulate cardiac energy metabolism consists in modifying substrate utilisation by the heart. To date, the most effective metabolic treatments include several pharmacological agents that directly inhibit fatty acid oxidation. Clinical studies have shown that these agents can substantially increase the ischaemic threshold in patients with effort angina. However, the results of current research is also supporting the concept that shifting the energy substrate preference away from fatty acid metabolism and towards glucose metabolism could be an effective adjunctive treatment in patients with heart failure, in terms of left ventricular function and glucose metabolism improvement. In fact, these agents have also been shown to improve overall glucose metabolism in diabetic patients with left ventricular dysfunction. In this paper, the recent literature on the beneficial therapeutic effects of modulation of cardiac metabolic substrates utilisation in patients with heart failure is reviewed and discussed.


Extreme weather events such as heavy snow can severely disrupt urban transportation systems. When this occurs, travelers often seek information about the status of transportation services. This study aims to assess information utilization during an extreme weather event by analyzing data from a smartphone application ("app") called Transit, which provides real-time transit and shared mobility information in many cities. This research focuses on a snowstorm that hit the northeastern United States in January 2016 and severely disrupted transit and shared mobility services. An analysis of Transit app data is conducted in four parts for New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. First, hourly app utilization during the snowstorm was compared with mean hourly app utilization prior to the storm. Second, the rate of app usage was calculated by dividing hourly utilization during the storm by the mean hourly volume before the storm. Third, an ordinary least squares regression model of hourly app usage was estimated for each city. Last, a feature within the app used to request Uber vehicles was examined. The results of the first three analyses reveal that overall app usage decreased during the snowstorm in all three cities; after the storm, New York experienced a significant increase in overall app use during the first Monday commuting period. The analysis of Uber data reveals that app users continued to search for ridehailing services during the snowstorm, despite travel bans. These findings are important for transportation operators and app developers to understand how travelers use information during extreme weather events.


Many students find it difficult to apply certain physics concepts to their daily lives. This is especially true when they perceive a principle taught in physics class as being in conflict with their experience. An important instance of this occurs when students are instructed to ignore the effect of air resistance when solving kinematics problems. To a student, this assumption disconnects from their everyday experience. Mathematically, ignoring the effect of air resistance is crucial, however, since it renders such problems tractable. However, this step is rarely, if ever, provided with justification in undergraduate texts, leading students to believe that what they are taught does not apply to their everyday experience. Taking the additional step of clarifying when it is reasonable to ignore air resistance makes students' reconciliation of their everyday experiences with the physics principle of free fall more likely. In this paper we develop a graphical tool intended to make this step as simple and effective as possible. We do this by summarising the results of a set of numerical simulations of various balls falling under the effects of both gravity and air resistance by means of a carefully chosen graph: a plot of an object's cross-sectional surface are versus its mass. We further use our numerical results to evaluate how these two variables relate to the effects of air resistance for balls dropped from varying heights.


The effects of increased intracranial pressure on the pulmonary circulation were investigated in fetal and neonatal goats. Pulmonary vascular resistance and systemic arterial pressure increased with elevation of intracranial pressure in neonatal animals. Alpha-adrenergic blockade completely eliminated both of these responses. The response of the fetal pulmonary circulation was unlike that seen in the postnatal animal. Although there was a slight elevation of pulmonary vascular resistance initially, the predominant response was a decrease in resistance. The decrease in fetal pulmonary vascular resistance was unaffected by phenoxybenzamine, but reversed by propranolol. After the beta-adrenergic blockade, increased intracranial pressure produced an increase in pulmonary vascular resistance. Similarly, ventilation of fetal lungs resulted in an increase in pulmonary vascular resistance after increased intracranial pressure. These results demonstrate for the first time that pulmonary vascular resistance may be altered in fetal and neonatal animals by increasing intracranial pressure. The elevation of pulmonary vascular resistance after elevated intracranial pressure must be due to an active pulmonary vascular constriction.


Managerial problems and the process of their solving play an important role both in the theory of management science and practice of organisations' functioning. There is a gap in the literature related to the evolution of management problems in the context of the methodological approaches to solve them. The main goal of this paper was to analyse the evolution of the managerial problems from the perspective of management science and to present dominant methodological approaches for problem solving. Based on the extensive literature analysis in the discipline of management science, the evolution of the managerial problems was described with relation to the sixteen streams of management science. The author reviewed the selected classifications of the management theory as well as proposed his own perspective, which took into account managerial problems and their evolution over time. Moreover, there was presented an attempt to depict sources of management problems from the historical perspective within the methodological approaches of management science. Despite the broad view on management problems presented in this paper, such perspective gives a good ground for developing new more specific problem classifications, addressing different facets of managerial problems.


The beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s placed tremendous strain on the Food and Drug Administration, regulator of one quarter of the domestic US economy and protector of the nation's drug supply. Much has already been written on the AIDS epidemic, and this body of literature continues to expand, but careful consideration of this subject matter is of crucial significance to understanding the interaction between regulatory agencies, the executive branch, industry, and the public. Periodically, the FDA has gone through phases in which various priorities dominated. At one point or another it has distinguished itself as a regulatory agency, law enforcement agency, and science agency, depending on the political party in power, the ideology of the FDA Commissioner, and the influence of external stakeholders. The AIDS epidemic, which gave rise to a new and robust coalition of AIDS activists, reformers, and libertarians, tested the agency's institutional identity. To some commentators, the FDA s management of the AIDS crisis was a serious blunder, akin to the Reagan administration's failure. This paper contends, however, that despite the absence of presidential leadership, the FDA succeeded in rising to the challenge of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s by refashioning its existing regulatory rules, reaching out to the AIDS movement and the pharmaceutical industry, and maintaining its strong commitment to consumer protection.


The development for data mining technology in healthcare is growing today as knowledge and data mining are a must for the medical sector. Healthcare organizations generate and gather large quantities of daily information. Use of IT allows for the automation of data mining and information that help to provide some interesting patterns which remove manual tasks and simple data extraction from electronic records, a process of electronic data transfer which secures medical records, saves lives and cuts the cost of medical care and enables early detection of infectious diseases. In this research paper an improved Apriori algorithm names Enhanced Parallel and Distributed Apriori (EPDA) is presented for the health care industry, based on the scalable environment known as Hadoop MapReduce. The main aim of the work proposed is to reduce the huge demands for resources and to reduce overhead communication when frequent data are extracted, through split-frequent data generated locally and the early removal of unusual data. The paper shows test results, whereby the EPDA performs in terms of the time and number of rules generated with a database of healthcare and different minimum support values.


ABSTRACT U.S. and Europe-based banks and international financial institutions including the IMF have been central to critical accounts of Africa's place in global capitalism. And yet since 2008 these institutions have been in retreat on the continent, partially replaced by Pan African Banks. Putting ethnographic work with Africa-based finance professionals into dialogue with heterodox economic thinking on banks and currency sovereignty, I argue that we must not only analyze the geographic shift in where banks are headquartered and who owns them, but also generate empirical and theoretical shifts in what a bank is, what it does, and to what effect, especially in terms of the relationship between currencies, social violence, and imperial and racial power.


We propose a new physics guided machine learning (PGML) paradigm that leverages the variational multiscale (VMS) framework and available data to dramatically increase the accuracy of reduced order models (ROMs) at a modest computational cost. The hierarchical structure of the ROM basis and the VMS framework enable a natural separation of the resolved and unresolved ROM spatial scales. Modern PGML algorithms are used to construct novel models for the interaction among the resolved and unresolved ROM scales. Specifically, the new framework builds ROM operators that are closest to the true interaction terms in the VMS framework. Finally, machine learning is used to reduce the projection error and further increase the ROM accuracy. Our numerical experiments for a two-dimensional vorticity transport problem show that the novel PGML-VMS-ROM paradigm maintains the low computational cost of current ROMs, while significantly increasing the ROM accuracy.


The Challenge Challenges in accessing health services are related to local services, itinerant services, and services for which residents must leave their communities. Such health services include primary health care, diagnostics, obstetrical and surgical services, dialysis, home care, emergency services, mental health services, preventative services and health promotion/education. Related issues of transportation compound the difficulties.


We investigate transmission through a short wire with electron-electron interactions which is coupled to noninteracting metallic leads by coupling matrix elements. We identify two temperature regimes (a) T Kondo < T ≤ T wire = ¯ hv F /k B d (d is the length of the interacting wire) and (b) T < T Kondo ≪ T wire. In the first regime the effective (renormalized) electron-electron interaction is smaller than the coupling matrix element. In this situation the single particle spectrum of the wire is characterized by a multilevel " quantum dot " system with magnetic quantum number S = 0 which is higher in energy than the SU (2) spin doublet S = ±1/2. In this regime the single particle energy is controlled by the length of the wire and the backward spin dependent interaction. The value of the conductance is dominated by the transmitting electrons which have an opposite spin polarization to the electrons in the short wire. Since the electrons in the short wire have equal probability for spin up and spin down we find G = G ↑ + G ↓ , e 2 /h ≤ G < 2e 2 /h. In the second regime, when T → 0 the effective (renormalized) electron-electron interaction is larger than the tunneling matrix element. This case is equivalent to a Kondo problem. We find for T < T Kondo the conductance is given by 1 G = 2e 2 /h. These results are in agreement with recent experiments where for T Kondo < T < T wire the conductance G obeys e 2 /h ≤ G < 2e 2 /h, and for T < T Kondo , G = 2e 2 /h. In both regimes the current is not spin polarized and the SU (2) symmetry is not broken. Our model represents a good description of the experimental situation for an interacting wire with varying confining potential in the transverse direction.


Background and objective: Heterotopic ossification (HO) is a known complication of hip arthroscopy and may significantly affect the outcomes of patients undergoing hip arthroscopy. Its incidence in the literature varies from 0–44% following hip arthroscopy without prophylaxis. Our primary goal was to find the local rate of HO after hip arthroscopy as determined by the Brooker Classification. Secondary outcomes included determining risk factors for development of HO by sex, age, body mass index, hip pathology and effects on outcome scores. Subjects and methods: Patients who underwent hip arthroscopy by a local high-volume surgeon from July 2012 to June 2015 were reviewed for the presence of pre- and postoperative HO retrospectively. Patients required at least 12 months of postoperative radiographic follow-up with anteroposterior pelvis radiographs. Patients were excluded if they had any other procedure performed at the time of hip arthroscopy or if medical records were not accessible. Radiographs were reviewed for HO according to the Brooker Classification. Demographic data including sex, age, body mass index, presence of labral tear and repair and outcome score were obtained. The incidence of HO and demographic averages were calculated and compared. This study received approval from the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) Research Ethics Board (REB) (approval No. 1021503) on August 8, 2016. Results: A total of 307 hips met inclusion criteria, 152 females and 155 males. The overall incidence of HO was 23.45% (72 hips). Fifty-six hips (78%) had Brooker class I HO, 13 (18%) hips had Brooker class II HO, and 3 (4%) hips had Brooker class III HO. No specific demographic variables or the pathology were seen to be associated significantly with development of HO. Outcome score differences were not significantly different between the HO and non-HO groups (P = 0.94). Conclusion: The incidence of HO in our series matched the range found in other studies of HO incidence in the literature. The incidence of HO dose not appear to be influenced by demographic variables including sex, age, and body mass index in our study. This data will add to the developing base of literature on HO incidence in hip arthroscopy and will serve as a comparison and benchmark for future study on HO prophylaxis.


In this paper, we study the optimal differentiated subsidies from a mobile network operator (MNO) to form a shared small cell network using social network information. It is a win-win strategy for the MNO to offload data and for small cell users (SUs) to receive enhanced QoS. We formulate the problem as a Stackelberg Game: in Stage I, the MNO sets differentiated subsidies and maximizes a subsidy elasticity of sharing metric, which captures the goal of using the least subsidies to obtain the most shared network; in Stage II, each SU decides the degree of sharing by maximizing a utility function, which is a tradeoff between proportional-fair capacity and subsidy. In our model, at subgame perfect equilibrium, the shared network can be maintained with the termination of subsidies. Our results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, we propose a deterministic framework where each SU's type information is known to the MNO and show that SUs' sharing strategies only depend on their type information. The subsidies act as intermediate variables, which will not affect the intrinsic structure of the shared network. The sensitivity analyses and the robust counterpart are investigated in terms of capacity perturbations and mobility uncertainties, respectively. Furthermore, we propose a dynamic framework by assuming that the mobility of each SU is an independent lazy random walk. We show that our proposed framework converges to the optimal solution at a geometric rate. Utilizing SU's type information, our work provides a framework on how to formulate a stable shared network with a unique equilibrium via subsidies as intermediate helpers.


The quality of contracting institutions has been thought to be of second-order importance next to the impact that good property rights institutions can have on long-run growth. Using a large range of proxies for each type of institution, we find a robust negative link between the quality of contracting institutions and long-run growth when we condition on property rights and a number of additional macroeconomic variables. Although the result remains something of a puzzle, we present evidence which suggests that only when property rights institutions are good do contracting institutions appear also to be good for development. Good contracting institutions can reduce long-run growth when property rights are not secured, presumably because the gains from the (costly) contracting institutions cannot be realised. This suggests that contracting institutions can benefit growth, and that the sequence of institutional change can matter.


Seminoma is frequently observed in human and canine testes (MacLachlan and Kennedy, 2002; Grieco et al., 2004). In the WHO classification of animal canine seminomas, these types of tumors are reported as having an intratubular or diffuse pattern (Kennedy et al., 1998, Grieco et al., 2007). Canine Seminomas, often developing in old dogs, are less aggressive than their human counterparts (Scully and Coffin, 1952; Benazzi et al., 1995; Grieco et al., 2004). Nevertheless, the low malignancy and low metastatic potential of most canine seminomas, together with their tendency to develop in older animals, has suggested to several authors that they usually represent the counterpart of human spermatocytic seminomas (DeVico et al., 1994; Maiolino et al., 2004; Grieco et al., 2007). Both canine and human seminomas are typically associated with leukocytic infiltration. Testicular seminoma is characterized by prominent lymphoid infiltrates that were predominantly T cells, but B cells were also identified as some follicular aggregates in tumoral parenchyma. T cells were distributed diffusely with the predominance of the CD 8 phenotype (Grieco et al., 2004). The presence of a large number of activated T cells, despite the complete absence of MHC I and MHC II antigens, is an Immunological paradox (Nouri et al., 1993). Some investigators believe that tumor infiltrating lymphocytes contain a high percentage of |g|/|d| T cells, ranging from 17.3 to 35.1%. |g|/|d| T cells often accumulate within the granulomatous inflammation of tumor tissues (Xia Zhao). In contrast to the distribution of T cells, B cells tended to accumulate and occasionally formed lymphoid follicles showing a phenotypic pattern of B cell antigens. This was comparable with secondary lymphoid follicles in lymphoid organs (Takashi et al., 1992).


We examine the role of memory accessibility across two different memory-related judgments: episodic recognition (e.g., "Was this person's name presented earlier in the experiment?") and probabilistic inference (e.g., "How famous do you consider this person to be?"). For both judgments (episodic recognition and probabilistic inference), we observe the influence of both pre-experimental exposure, which is approximated by web-frequencies (e.g., Google search results), and experimental exposure, which is manipulated through an incidental study phase (e.g., a vowel counting task). The results of these experiments allow for an integrative understanding of how different sources of memory accessibility (experimental vs. pre-experiential) are combined, and possibly interfere with one another, depending on the type of memory-related judgment.


The essential oil of Stachys pubescens Ten. growing wild in north-west of Iran was examined by GC and GC-MS methods. The yield of total volatiles was 0.06% (v/w). A total of 21 compounds were characterized in the essential oil. The main components of the oil were thymol (87.4%), trans-4-octene (4.8%) and linalool (1.6%). Other compounds present in appreciable amounts were nerol (0.7%), docosane (0.7%),α-terpineol (0.5%), and linalyl acetate (0.5%).


Purpose Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has enabled "virtual biopsy" of the living human retina, revolutionizing both basic retina research and clinical practice over the past 25 years. For most of those years, in parallel, adaptive optics (AO) has been used to improve the transverse resolution of ophthalmoscopes to foster in vivo study of the retina at the microscopic level. Here, we review work done over the last 15 years to combine the microscopic transverse resolution of AO with the microscopic axial resolution of OCT, building AO-OCT systems with the highest three-dimensional resolution of any existing retinal imaging modality. Methods We surveyed the literature to identify the most influential antecedent work, important milestones in the development of AO-OCT technology, its applications that have yielded new knowledge, research areas into which it may productively expand, and nascent applications that have the potential to grow. Results Initial efforts focused on demonstrating three-dimensional resolution. Since then, many improvements have been made in resolution and speed, as well as other enhancements of acquisition and postprocessing techniques. Progress on these fronts has produced numerous discoveries about the anatomy, function, and optical properties of the retina. Conclusions Adaptive optics OCT continues to evolve technically and to contribute to our basic and clinical knowledge of the retina. Due to its capacity to reveal cellular and microscopic detail invisible to clinical OCT systems, it is an ideal companion to those instruments and has the demonstrable potential to produce images that can guide the interpretation of clinical findings.


This paper presents a multi-channel piezoelectric acoustic transducer that is working within the audible frequency band (250- 5500 Hz). The transducer consists of eight cantilevers with thin film PLD-PZT piezoelectric layers. The transducer is well suited to be implanted in middle ear cavity with an active volume of 5×5×0.6 mm3 and mass of 4.8 mg excluding the test frame. Finite Element Method (FEM) is used for modelling cantilever resonance frequencies and piezoelectric outputs. This model and shaker-table experiments are in good agreement on the frequency (97%) and output voltage (89%) values. Transducer can generate up to 139.36 mVpp under 0.1 g excitation at 316 Hz, which is the highest reported output voltage from a piezoelectric acoustic sensor to the best of our knowledge.


A new architecture based on multi-mode optical interconnect technology is proposed and described for the realization of a compact time delay opto-electronic reservoir computer. VCSEL and photodiode chip arrays are flip-chip mounted on a polymer waveguide structure containing micro-mirrors. A node is made of a photodiode and a laser connected back-to-back, with an amplified signal. The specifications for this amplifier are investigated and it is found that the cutoff frequency can be lower than the incoming sample rate for signal recovery and chaotic time series prediction tasks. An optical waveguide delay line sample is also presented and characterized experimentally. Results are promising for the realization of a compact platform for reservoir computers that could easily be scaled up to several physical nodes.


Martin Daunton's major study of the politics of taxation in the 'long nineteenth century' examines the complex financial relationship between the state and its citizens. Around 1800, taxes stood at 20 per cent of national income; by the outbreak of the First World War, they had fallen to less than half of their previous level. The process of fiscal containment resulted in a high level of trust in the financial rectitude of the government and in the equity of the tax system, contributing to the political legitimacy of the British state in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a result, the state was able to fund the massive enterprises of war and welfare in the twentieth century. Combining new research with a comprehensive survey of existing knowledge, this lucid and wide-ranging book represents a major contribution to our understanding of Victorian and Edwardian Britain.


In this article, we explore the nature of the urban system in the Valley of Oaxaca as it has developed in the late 20th century, when Mexico joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (1986) and negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada (1994, with final aspects of the agreement going into effect in 2008). Both the events exposed Mexico and, by extension, Oaxaca to powerful external economic forces. Global integration significantly altered the urban and regional economic systems in the central valleys of Oaxaca. The conquest of Mexico by Spain in the early 16th century brought Mexico into the global economic system centered in Europe. For most of the five centuries since the arrival of the Spanish, Oaxaca was part of what Immanuel Wallerstein described as the periphery, that is, regions whose primary role in the system was to provide raw goods and labor to core regions such as Mexico City, Madrid, London, and New York. This article describes how the integration of Oaxaca into the world economy that resulted from Mexico's entry into GATT and NAFTA altered the nature of the urban system in the central valleys of Oaxaca. These changes significantly increased the role of Oaxaca City in the extraction of resources from the state into the world economy and increased wealth disparities in the central valleys.


We describe a methodology for modeling, analysis and distributed control design of a large vehicular formation whose information graph is a D-dimensional lattice. We derive asymptotic formulae for the closed-loop stability margin based on a partial differential equation (PDE) approximation of the formation. We show that the exponent in the scaling law for the stability margin is influenced by the structure of the information graph and by the control architecture (symmetric or asymmetric). For a given fixed number of vehicles, we show that the scaling law can be improved significantly by employing a higher dimensional information graph and/or by introducing small asymmetry (mistuning) in the nominally symmetric proportional control gains. We also provide a characterization of the error introduced by the PDE approximation.


Cocoa pod husk is abundant as a waste product of cocoa plantation and potential as feed ingredient but has low nutritional value. To increase the nutritive value of cocoa pod husk (CPH), biological process through solid substrate fermentation using Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus niger and addition of two doses (N1 and N2) of nitrogen mixture had been done. The product is Fermented Cocoa Pod Husk (FCPH). Protein content increased from 50 g/kg before fermentation to 133.8 g. kg -1 for N1 for A. niger and 150 g/kg using A. oryzae . True protein were 99.8 and 93.5 g/kg for N1 and N2 treatments ( A. niger ); 119 and 104.1 g/kg for N1 and N2 treatments ( A. oryzae ). Aspergillus niger showed a superiority in term of enzymes production when compared to Aspergillus oryzae . Mannanase activy in A. niger fermentation product with N1 dose reached up to 2654 U/g and A.oryzae was 1122 U/g. Dry matter and protein digestibility for A. niger FCPH were 47 and 57% and A. oryzae FCPH were 52 and 62% repectively. Fermentation processed of CPH yield a product that very potential as an alternative feed with higher in protein content and contain mannanase enzyme.


In the textile industry, washing process after printing or dying is very costly for the companies because it needs more energy, water, chemical and time during the process. Eventhough more money is spent for washing, usually the obtained consequences like fastness, fabric strength are not satisfactory. It can be said that end product quality depends on the washing process even if previous processes which the fabric is treated until washing process is perfect. The technology used now for washing does not give the desired result in terms of quality and cost, and producers are waiting for a newly enhanced and designed process for washing. The main aim of this study is to propose a new washing process. This survey has been carried on by using industrial standards and international test methods related with washing and fabric quality. As a result, a new washing method will be proposed at the end of the studies.


In this work the structural and morphological changes of Ce1-xPrxO2-δ (x = 0.20, 0.35 and 0.75) films grown on Si(111) due to post deposition annealing are investigated by low energy electron diffraction combined with a spot profile analysis. The surface of the oxide films exhibit mosaics with large terraces separated by monoatomic steps. It is shown that the Ce/Pr ratio and post deposition annealing temperature can be used to tune the mosaic spread, terrace size and step height of the grains. The morphological changes are accompanied by a phase transition from a fluorite type lattice to a bixbyite structure. Furthermore, at high PDA temperatures a silicate formation via a polycrystalline intermediate state is observed.


SUMMARY Growth of the contact-inhibited 3T3 and its SV40-transformed derivative, 3T3T is unbalanced. Despite obvious exponential increase in cell number, cell volume, RNA and protein show a marked decrease with increasing population density in both cell types, greater in 3T3 than 3T3T. Daily medium change does not correct this growth pattern but merely seems to equalize initial growth rates of the 2 cell types and prolong the period during which the cell number continues to increase. The evidence suggests that the lag period that ensues following plating of the cells is a period of intense metabolic activity during which a large proportion of cellular protein and RNA is synthesized in preparation for exponential growth.


Objective To study the inhibitory effect of CXCR4-targeted small interference RNA on invasion capability of NCI-H446 in vitro.

Methods To design chemical synthesis of CXCR4-specific siRNA based on the target sequence for CXCR4 cDNA with NCI-H446 cells transfected with siRNA. To detect the expression of CXCR4 by RT-PCR and Western Blot. Invasion capability of NCI-H446 cells in vitro was evaluated by transwell chamber model and the proliferation capability was determined by CCK-8 assay.

Results After transfected with CXCR4-siRNA, the expression of CXCR4 mRNA and protein was down-regulated significantly. The invasion capability of cells in vitro decreased compared with the empty liposome group. The penetrating number in CXCR4-siRNA transfected group was 32.3±3.8 VS 62.1±8.2(P<0.001).There was no effect on cell proliferation after transfection of CXCR4 siRNA on NCI-H446 cells.

Conclusion CXCR4 siRNA effectively down-regulated the expression of CXCR4 gene and decreased invasion capability of NCI-H446 cells in vitro.


Background Levels of serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) indicate thyroid function, because thyroid hormone negatively controls TSH release. Genetic variants in the vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) gene are associated with TSH levels. The aim of this study was to characterise the association of VEGFA variants with TSH in a Danish cohort and to identify and characterise functional variants. Methods We performed an association study of the VEGFA locus for circulating TSH levels in 8445 Danish individuals. Lead variants were tested for allele-specific effects in vitro using luciferase reporter and gel-shift assays. Results Four SNPs in VEGFA were associated with circulating TSH (rs9472138, rs881858, rs943080 and rs4711751). For rs881858, the presence of each G-allele was associated with a corresponding decrease in TSH levels of 2.3% (p=8.4×10−9) and an increase in circulating free T4 levels (p=0.0014). The SNP rs881858 is located in a binding site for CHOP (C/EBP homology protein) and c/EBPβ (ccaat enhancer binding protein β). Reporter-gene analysis showed increased basal enhancer activity of the rs881858 A-allele versus the G-allele (34.5±9.9% (average±SEM), p=0.0012), while co-expression of CHOP effectively suppressed the rs881858 A-allele activity. The A-allele showed stronger binding to CHOP in gel-shift assays. Conclusions VEGF is an important angiogenic signal required for tissue expansion. We show that VEGFA variation giving allele-specific response to transcription factors with overlapping binding sites associate closely with circulating TSH levels. Because CHOP is induced by several types of intracellular stress, this indicates that cellular stress could be involved in the normal or pathophysiological response of the thyroid to TSH. Trial registration number NCT00289237, NCT00316667; Results.


Cadaveric studies indicate that adductor magnus is structurally partitioned into at least two regions. The aim of this study was to investigate the direction‐specific actions of proximal and distal portions of adductor magnus, and in doing so determine if these segments have distinct functional roles. Fine‐wire EMG electrodes were inserted into two portions of adductor magnus of 12 healthy young adults. Muscle activity was recorded during maximum voluntary isometric contractions (MVICs) across eight tests (hip flexion/extension, internal/external rotation, abduction, and adduction at 0°, 45°, and 90° hip flexion). Median activity within each action (normalized to peak) was compared between segments using repeated measures nonparametric tests (α = 0.05). An effect size (ES = z‐score/√sample size) was calculated to determine the magnitude of difference between muscle segments. The relative contribution of each muscle segment differed significantly during internal rotation (P < 0.001; ES = 0.88) and external rotation (P = 0.003, ES = 0.79). The distal portion was most active during extension [median (interquartile range); 100(0)% MVIC)] and internal rotation [58(34)% MVIC]. The proximal portion was most active during extension [100(49)% MVIC] and adduction [59(64)%MVIC], with low level activity during external rotation [15(41)%MVIC]. This study suggests that adductor magnus has at least two functionally unique regions. Differences were most evident during rotation. The different direction‐specific actions may imply that each segment performs separate roles in hip stability and movement. These findings may have implications on injury prevention and rehabilitation for adductor‐related groin injuries, hamstring strain injury, and hip pathology. Clin. Anat. 31:535–543, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


More and more applications supported by MANETs require quality of service (QoS). QoS can be expressed in terms of bandwidth or delay. In this paper, we study the impact of the scheduling policy used by each MANET node on the QoS granted to flows. We first show how to use WCBQ, a class based queueing scheduling, in a wireless network. We then compare the performances achieved by WCBQ and priority queueing. Simulation results show that WCBQ protects flows with low throughput. All flows receive a bandwidth proportionally to their weights. WCBQ tends to minimize the variations of the average bandwidth granted to a flow as well as the end-to-end delay. We finally propose two solutions allowing the coexistence of flows with delay requirements and bandwidth requirements. These solutions guarantee a low delay to low throughput flows without penalizing the bandwidth granted to other flows


Praecordial ST segment elevation was measured at 35 electrode positions in each of 40 patients admitted to a coronary care unit after acute transmural anterior myocardial infarction. Serial praecordial electrocardiographic maps were recorded to determine (a) the time course as well as reproducibility of measurements of ST segment alterations, and (b) the degree of correlation between the magnitude of ST segment elevation and the severity of infarction, as assessed clinically or by sequential estimations of serum creatine kinase activity. Large variations in ST segment elevation were found in different patients with a comparable degree of myocardial damage, and at intervals of as little as four hours in the same patient. These variations were greater than could be explained by technical factors, and were not related to apparent changes in the patients' clinical status. The patterns of release of myocardial creatine kinase showed that the time course of ST segment elevation was longer than the period of myocardial necrosis. No correlation was found between the myocardial infarct size as determined by enzyme release and the highest levels of ST segment elevation recorded. The findings suggest that ST segment elevation as measured by praecordial electrocardiographic mapping does not constitute a reliable index of the size or severity of myocardial infarcts in man.


This paper discusses the use of a probability-based analysis incorporating expected value methodology in the evaluation of slope stability issues during the reclamation of the Spenceville Mine, a flooded, open-pit mine dating from the mid-1800s. Site conditions, necessitating the use of this analysis, are discussed. Resulting data and analyses are presented as an example of the methodology, rather than as an isolated case history. The study resulted in an estimate for the probable volume of material that would fail into the open pit in the course of reclamation. This expected failure volume is a function of the failure mode, the probability of occurrence of each failure mode, the probability of failure of each failure geometry, and the maximum volume of material that could be incorporated into a failure. The resulting value for expected failure volume was not intended to serve as a deterministic solution for individual slope stability problems, but as an index to guide the reclamation team in proactively addressing slope stability concerns. Results of the study were used to determine an appropriate slope monitoring plan, to guide construction activities and designs, and to dictate safety precautions for personnel working in and around the open pit during the de-watering and backfill phases of the reclamation process. A discussion of conditions and events observed during, and immediately following, de-watering of the pit is presented to illustrate differences between analytical predictions and actual conditions. In general, the ability of probability-based analysis to highlight areas of slope stability hazard within the mine was validated by the general agreement between prediction and the actual types and locations of failures observed during the reclamation process.


The insect order Hymenoptera originated during the Permian nearly 300 Mya. Ancestrally herbivorous hymenopteran lineages today make up the paraphyletic suborder 'Symphyta', which encompasses c. 8200 species with very diverse host-plant associations. We use phylogeny-based statistical analyses to explore the drivers of diversity dynamics within the 'Symphyta', with a particular focus on the hypothesis that diversification of herbivorous insects has been driven by the explosive radiation of angiosperms during and after the Cretaceous. Our ancestral-state estimates reveal that the first symphytans fed on gymnosperms, and that shifts onto angiosperms and pteridophytes – and back – have occurred at different time intervals in different groups. Trait-dependent analyses indicate that average net diversification rates do not differ between symphytan lineages feeding on angiosperms, gymnosperms or pteridophytes, but trait-independent models show that the highest diversification rates are found in a few angiosperm-feeding lineages that may have been favoured by the radiations of their host taxa during the Cenozoic. Intriguingly, lineages-through-time plots show signs of an early Cretaceous mass extinction, with a recovery starting first in angiosperm-associated clades. Hence, the oft-invoked assumption of herbivore diversification driven by the rise of flowering plants may overlook a Cretaceous global turnover in insect herbivore communities during the rapid displacement of gymnosperm- and pteridophyte-dominated floras by angiosperms.