Define social as relationship that forms community, society, as that community from its economic material base to its cultural philosophical-institutional superstructure. Society is a sum and dimension of all its relationships which define it - as to what kind of society. E.g., how people get their food, clothing and shelter - i.e., what they have to do, absolutely, to be here. These are the fundamental shapers of what we call society. There is no such thing as society without the relationships of those in it to create, change even destroy whatever it is these relations exist as. Social Change can be progressive i.e. toward a more organically and consciously related entity as Human Earth. Toward the proliferation and enhancement, in all ways, of Life. Or that change can be backward, reactionary, deathly, as the one we live in here. The gains from the democratic straggles of the sixties rolling back down Sisyphus mountain, as the U.S. loses its national sovereignty and is ruled now more directly by an imperialist ruling class, an international network of capital. Poetry is an expression of Human Society, an aspect of its living description. And like society itself, the huge living culture is related and ordered (by whatever) lives. Art is "an ideological expression of society," says Mao at Yenan. "Where Do Ideas Come From?" asks Mao. From "Social Life." Our real objective lives as well as the psychological reflection, clear or "through a glass darkly," of those lives. So in the arts, the culture, the society, there are classes, histories, experiences, values, assumptions, ways of rationalization, of class perception. "All ideas are stamped with class," says Marx. "For whom do you write?" Mao says at Yenan. What do you celebrate, what do you attack? What do you think beautiful, what ugly? Art expresses this, all art, even our own! In society there are classes, groups formed by the socio-economic development of society and our place in it. Groups of people formed by their relationship to the production process, how material life goes on. Do we own these factories, television stations &c or work for them? Are we the purchasers of labor or the labor which is purchased? What is our place in the social organization of labor? Do we give orders or take them? What is the size of the social product (salary) and how do we get it? For instance, most of us here are petty bourgeois by education and socialization, the vast majority of people can only sell the muscles in their arms. A tradition is a historical social process in which certain recurring themes, motifs, forms, philosophies, institutions present a continuous tale of their social presence and impact. There is in any nation, two cultures, Lenin says, likewise in the U.S. there is the culture of the oppressed and the culture of the oppressors. So there is, as well, a tradition of the oppressed and a tradition of the oppressors. In the U.S., a minority of the oppressed are often utilized to shape the look, the approach, the themes, and message and psycho-social biases and presumptions on the majority of the oppressed, by adopting the forms of the oppressed. To look poor, for instance the jeans with the holes torn into them, which cost more money. Or Gangsta Rap. This is bourgeois commercial culture. Which takes the popular, as in rap, perverts the recurring themes of democracy, resistance, straggle, oppression and transforms them into a glorification of lumpen criminal Thuggishness. Extolling gangsterism not revolution. In the arts and cultural expressions there is a sector enriched by the U.S. rulers, while the most democratic expressive and objective reflections of society are quickly covered, attacked, dismissed, while the art which expresses and confirms and legitimates the rule of capital, oppression, exploitation, imperialism, anti-democratic social relations, will be well-paid and ubiquitously in evidence and celebrated, given prizes, declaring the supremacy of them as person, artifact, tradition (and white supremacy) in whatever pose. …


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory neurological condition characterised by both focal and diffuse neurodegeneration and demyelination throughout the central nervous system. However, associations between these individual pathological processes remain poorly defined. Here we present a highly novel combination of whole brain post-mortem diffusion and structural MRI with quantitative histology to assess patterns of MS pathology. Two white matter tracts and their associated grey matter structures were assessed in nine fixed whole brains on the basis of their documented involvement in MS: that running from lateral geniculate nucleus to primary visual cortex, and from mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus to prefrontal cortex. Cortical thickness was correlated significantly with both tract myelination and thalamic nucleus cell density within the anatomically distinct tract structures. Such correlations were not observed between these markers of neurodegeneration across the two tract types. In addition, diffusion MRI metrics in all tracts were correlated significantly with histologically defined levels of tract myelination. These data demonstrate for the first time the potential relevance of functional anatomical connectivity to the spread of MS pathology in a "tract-specific" pattern. Furthermore, the persisting relationship between metrics from post-mortem diffusion-weighted MRI and tissue microstructure in fixed samples validates the exciting potential of this imaging modality for future neuropathological studies.


The blood is a very complex organ in our body and coagulation, in particular, is coordinated by various mechanisms. It is known from experience that in order to truly learn and comprehend the different coagulation processes and disorders, most medical students take much time and great pains. The topic is often regarded as not comprehensible and very abstract. This article is supposed to provide you with a basic overview of the fundamentals of coagulation disorders and clearly introduce to you the plasma coagulation defects in particular.


Based on Goldman Sachs' model and the state of current affairs, an underlying possibility of a financial crisis occurring in the foreseeable future does exist. This could be due to ongoing trade war and negotiations with different countries, the new policies introduced by political parties and their respective impacts, high amounts of corporate and student debts along with auto loans in the economy, thus indicating signs of excessive leverage and resulting in depressing consumer confidence. International issues such as Brexit, the existing currency and debt crisis with Turkey, and China's debt bubble could also contribute to the global growth slowdowns. Experts such as Nouriel Roubini, Brunello Rosa, Diego Zuluaga, Arthur Guarino, and many more believe that the macroeconomic variables highlighted above are the probable catalysts of the next crisis. Therefore, this paper discusses two issues, Shadow Banking and Financial Technology, which could potentially imbalance the financial markets but are not well addressed to the stakeholders of the macroeconomy, regarding their causes and implications. Moreover, it chats about how they stemmed from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2000-2008 and how they pose growing risks to the current monetary system. This paper does not consider or highlight the influences of the global pandemic known as the COVID-19 pandemic.


In this paper we conduct an empirical investigation of a large-scale combinatorial auction (CA)---the Chilean auction for school meals in which the government procures half a billion dollars worth of meal services every year. Our empirical study is motivated by two fundamental aspects in the design of CAs: (1) which packages should bidders be allowed to bid on and (2) diversifying the supplier base to promote competition. We use bidding data to uncover important aspects of the firms' cost structure and their strategic behavior, both of which are not directly observed by the auctioneer; these estimates inform the auction design. Our results indicate that package bidding that allows firms to express their cost synergies due to economies of scale and density seems appropriate. However, we also found evidence that firms can take advantage of this flexibility by discounting package bids for strategic reasons and not driven by cost synergies. Because this behavior can lead to inefficiencies, it may be worth evaluating whether to prohibit certain specific combinations in the bidding process. Our results also suggest that market share restrictions and running sequential auctions seem to promote competition in the long run, without significantly increasing the short-run cost for the government due to unrealized cost synergies. Our results highlight that the simultaneous consideration of the firms' operational cost structure and their strategic behavior is key to the successful design of a CA. More broadly, our paper is the first to provide an econometric study of a large-scale CA, providing novel and substantive insights regarding bidding behavior in this type of auction.

This paper was accepted by Martin Lariviere, operations management.


Introduction: Lower respiratory tract infections, due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Acinetobacter baumannii, are frequently encountered in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) or in patients developing nosocomial pneumonias. Both of these conditions bear a high mortality risk and aggressive antibiotic therapy is necessary. Inhaled antibiotics might represent an effective therapeutic approach for these diseases as it has demonstrated good bactericidal efficacy and safety in both preclinical and clinical studies. This colistin formulation might be useful particularly in patients with respiratory tract infections due to multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Its main advantages are a better safety profile with a minimal or absent risk of nephrotoxicity. Areas covered: This paper discusses the available systemic formulations of colistin, with pharmacokinetic and safety profiles, followed by an overview of inhaled antibiotics in lower respiratory tract infections. Expert opinion: Inhaled colistin should be used selectively as monotherapy in chronic infections with P. aeruginosa in CF patients, whereas in patients with hospital/ventilator-acquired pneumonia (HAP/VAP), it should be used in a combined regimen with systemic antibiotics.


The article presents the literature data concerning the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations as postcholecystectomical syndrome and syndrome of bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine (ARIS). Was provided information on the microflora of the small intestine and factors affecting its formation. It is shown that the main clinical manifestations of ARIS influenced by intestinal motility disorders, the processes of intestinal digestion and absorption. Are also given own results, which allowed to justify the selection of a clinical variant postcholecystectomical syndrome associated with bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine.


Objectives At this single centre, tri-modal monitoring of ICP, temperature and direct brain tissue oxygen tension (PbtO2) is used to guide management of delayed cerebral ischaemia (DCI). We describe our experience of PbtO2 monitoring and its relationship with symptoms of DCI, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF, perfusion imaging), intra-arterial chemical angioplasty and CSF diversion. Design Prospective cohort. Subjects Patients with aSAH who underwent over 24 hours of multi-modal PbtO2, temperature and intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring via a Raumedic NEUROVENT-PTO probe. Methods Longitudinal analysis of PbtO2 values, presented as mmHg (mean±SD). Results Analysis of 1392 hours of tri-modal monitoring in 13 SAH patients. PbtO2 decreases >50% consistently reproduced focal neurological deficit. Symptomatic PbtO2 values ranged from 12–20 mmHg. Of the six patients who had reduced rCBF, all had a mean PbtO2 <15 mmHg. Five patients underwent intra-arterial chemical angioplasty (10 mg Verapamil in 100 ml NaCl over 30–40 mins). PbtO2 increased by at least 30% for 3.4±0.47 hours. CSF diversion resulted in a sustained mean increase in PbtO2 of 7.6±2.94 mmHg over the first 5 min (p=0.034). Conclusions PbtO2 <15 mmHg may predict development of a clinical deficit. Chemical angioplasty resulted in a pronounced but short-lived increase in PbtO2. CSF diversion resulted in a persistent increase in PbtO2. PbtO2 targeted management may be a valuable addition to the clinicians' arsenal against DCI.


This paper describes the central relevance to public policy processes of social intuitionism, a well-developed theoretical and empirical approach in psychology and cognitive science. This body of research suggests that in human decisionmaking and moral judgment, the use of reason and rationality are subordinated to rapid, gut-level, emotion-laden cognition, and that people rely heavily on heuristics and narratives that often carry certain inherent biases. Such tendencies, I suggest, extend from individual-level citizen and elite belief formation about policy issues, to influence agenda setting, alternative selection, and the use and abuse of expert policy analysis. The findings of social intuitionism, furthermore, are quite congruent with some important aspects of well-known theories of the U.S. policy process, including Kingdon's multiple streams, the advocacy coalition framework, punctuated equilibrium, the social construction of target populations, Wilson's typology on the distribution of costs and benefits, and Stone's emphasis on causal stories. To illustrate social intuitionism's potential uses, I provide a brief sketch of how its insights help illuminate the current policy debate over immigration policy reform.


Attachment and belonging to place can be expressed in a myriad of ways. At its core is the need to legitimise presence. Historically, several strategies have been employed by different individuals or groups to establish their claim to Whananaki. This thesis explores attachment and belonging from several perspectives – from that of hapu who competed amongst each other for resources, a settler who affected to legalize a pre-Treaty of Waitangi transaction, government officials securing Crown ownership culminating in a sale in 1864, Maori drawn to the developing village settlement who married into local families, and finally the village settlers who attempted to transform the land into a familiar countryside.
The paradox of belonging but not quite belonging was played out in many contexts at Whananaki, including through landmarks and their associated narratives. Landmarks can be sites asserting ancient beginnings, carefully crafted props validating legal title, symbols of progress and development, memorials denoting loss and abandonment, or neutral ground. In looking at the narratives that affix landmarks to place, we can arrive at a closer understanding of how residents of nineteenth-century Whananaki viewed and defined their environment.


Habitat types occurring within the same region differ in the number and proportion of alien plant species they harbour, but the same habitat types in different regions are invaded to the similar extent. Observed patterns of levels of invasion indicate underlying factors that operate independently of large geographical distances, including habitat invasibility and colonization pressure. However, habitat-specific regional pools of alien species adapted to recipient habitat types can also affect habitat levels of invasion. Traits of alien species are influenced by adaptations to original (donor) habitat types in their native range. Thus if those habitat types differ in their donor role, regional species pools consisting of ecologically compatible aliens also differ and observed levels of invasion of analogous recipient habitat types should depend on those differences. We compared habitat's levels of invasion with the contribution of each habitat type to the regional alien species pool among 27 habitat types occurring in two regions of temperate North America and Central Europe. We found that the more of its native species a habitat type contributed as aliens, the more of them established in analogous recipient habitat type on the other continent as a result of the direct species-pool effect. We also found that the proportion of alien species in a habitat type increased with the proportion of native species that given habitat type donated to the other continent as a result of the reciprocal species-pool effect.


We consider an assemble-to-order system with a high volume of prospective customers arriving per unit time. A companion paper established that with optimal product prices, component production capacity, and sequencing of orders for assembly, the system can be approximated by a diffusion process with dimension equal to the number of components (rather than the number of components plus the number of products). This state space collapse allows us to incorporate product-specific delay constraints and dynamic control of component inventory. First, we choose product prices, component production capacities, and propose a discrete review policy for expediting components and sequencing orders for assembly that satisfies delay constraints perfectly, and is asymptotically optimal when expediting is very costly. We also propose a simpler version of this policy, based on the backlog of demand for each component, that asymptotically complies with delay guarantees and achieves the same limiting expected discounted profit. Second, we numerically solve an approximating diffusion control problem for systems with both expediting and salvaging of components, and highlight useful structural properties.


The structural analysis of a rock mass within the scope of a tunnel construction project entails, in most cases, conducting an assessment of the discontinuities present through use of borehole imaging techniques. This site surveying method is combined with other techniques in recording the entire set of rock mass characteristics. Such a highly-useful technique however carries with it some application limitations that need to be taken into consideration. To illustrate these remarks, we have relied upon the surveying campaign undertaken for the Saint-Beat Tunnel, in proceeding with a comparison of the discontinuities identified on a digital image of borehole walls and manually on core samples. We have highlighted the biases induced using these methods, and such biases must be incorporated in order to better characterize the geometry of the given fracture network.


The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of choline chloride supplementation at 1500 ppm in diets containing various levels of methionine on egg production and egg quality in quails. A total of 180 birds, at 6 week-old quail were divided into 18 experimental units, and assigned to a 2 x 3 factorial design experiment with 3 replications (10 birds each) in each treatment. The birds were offered diets containing choline chloride at either 0 (A1) or 1500 ppm (A2), with three levels of methionine namely, low (0.19%, B1), standard (0.79%, B2) and, high (1.05%, B3). The feeding trial lasted for 8 weeks. Supplementation of choline chloride in low methionine diet significantly (P<0.05) increased egg production, egg mass, and egg weight as compared to those without choline chloride supplementation. Supplementation of choline chloride significantly (P<0.05) increased egg yolk weight but decreased albumen and egg shell weight as compared to those fed diets without choline chloride supplementation. It can be concluded that supplementation of choline chloride to a diet containing low methionine increased egg production, without affecting egg quality.


Perturbations in immune processes play an important role in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), a multifactorial disorder mainly characterized by severe and prolonged fatigue and tipically affecting a variety of bodily systems including the immune system. Recent reports have shown that CFS/ME is an inflammatory disorder may be associated with autoimmune responses, mainly characterized by reduced functional activity of most immune cells, including neutrophils, natural killer cells, monocytes/macrophage and dendritic cells, together with dysregulations in cytokine levels, responsible for changes in the adaptive immune system. Interactions between gut microorganisms and host immune function have been shown to contribute to aberrant inflammation in CFS/ME patients. Commensal and/or pathogen-associated molecular patterns detected by Toll-like receptors (TLRs) expressed on intestinal epithelial cells appear to trigger inflammatory signaling cascade leading to neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. This paper examines the role of TLR-mediated innate immunity in CFS/ME with evaluation of the current literature, also discussing about innovative therapeutic approaches represented by immunomodulators TLR-targeting.


This research paper is an art-based heuristic influenced study on the fear of aging and the self using an art-based modality of exploration. The researcher sought to study three questions. First, to explore the relationship between aging, beauty, youth, and social pressures. Second, to explore the fears related to aging, (losing appearances, finance, health, and death). Thirdly, to considering the implications of findings to the clinical realm. The art based methodology offered a form of investigation which, informed by heuristic steps of inquiry, augmented both personal meaning and growth. Data consisted of art made over a three-month period as well as structured journaling regarding the research questions and art making process. The imagery, journaling and observations were then collected during the illumination and explication phase, culminating in a final art response of the findings in a creative synthesis.


Influences of the bag constant on the properties of hybrid stars are investigated by using relativistic mean field theory and the MIT bag model to describe the hadron phase and quark phase in the interior of neutron stars, respectively. Our results indicate that the onset of hadron-quark phase transition is put off and the appearance of hyperon species is increased with the increase in bag constant. As a result, the hybrid star equation of state for a mixed phase range stiffens whereas that of the quark phase range softens, and the gravitational mass as well as the corresponding radius of hybrid stars are increased obviously. The gravitational mass of a hybrid star is increased from 1.42 M (M is solar mass) to 1.63M and the corresponding radius is changed from 9.1 km to 12.2 km when the bag constant (B1/4) is increased from 170 MeV to 200 MeV. It is interesting to find that hybrid star equations of state become non-smooth when the TM2 parameter sets in the framework of relativistic mean field theory used to describe the hadronic matter, and consequently, the third family of compact stars appear in the mass-radius relations of hybrid stars in the narrow scope of the bag constant from 175 MeV to 180 MeV. These show that the choice of the bag constant in the MIT bag model has significant influence on the properties of hybrid stars.


A theorem is proven which shows that the position and orientation of a specular-reflecting object may be determined using a single camera and unconstrained light source. The camera and light are moved together in a straight line, and specular peaks are noted. From the changes in the location of the peaks, and knowledge of the surface function, the pose of the part may be determined. This paper includes the basic theorem and its proof. Experimental results will be presented at the conference.


This paper examines two key questions to put the COVID-19 pandemic into a broader perspective: What does our past tell us about pandemics? What can it teach us for the future? Moreover, the paper considers three independents but interconnected analytical perspectives. The first one is about advancing our species on the planet and examining the great technological transformations from a historical viewpoint. The second perspective consists of a reflection on food taboos and their relationship to biodiversity issues and zoonotic processes. The third perspective involves a thoughtful exploration of big men, multilateralism, and the society of risk. In addition to overcoming the pandemic's economic impact, the main challenges of the post-COVID-19 world will be overcome by its ideological implications and the need to strengthen both multilateralism and scientific and technological cooperation solidarity among people.


From 9 to 11 September 2015, the Kanto and Tohoku regions of Japan experienced an extremely heavy rain fall event. The synoptic-scale field was characterized by two typhoons, Etau (T1518) and Kilo (T1517). After Etau made landfall in the Tokai region and transformed into an extra-tropical cyclone over the Sea of Japan, meridionally-oriented rain bands persisted over the Kanto region for about 12 hours and caused heavy rainfall, particularly over the Tochigi prefecture. During this time, Kilo approached the eastern ocean of the Kanto region. In this study, we examine the role of Kilo in this event by conducting numerical experiments using a stretched version of the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model, configured with a minimum grid interval of about 5.6 km. The control experiment reproduced intense rain bands around the same period and place as the observed event, although they were not reproduced in an experiment with a longer lead time. Sensitivity experiments were conducted, in which Kilo was weakened by removing moisture in its central region with a longer lead time. In contrast to the expectation that reduced moisture would lead to a weaker typhoon, and hence weaker rain, the sensitivity experiment reproduced the rain band with a realistic location, but 5 % less precipitation than the control experiment. Furthermore, this experiment indicated that precipitation over the outer band of Etau, which covers the Kanto region, increased by 10 % compared to the control experiment. We found that a southeasterly wind, induced by a high pressure ridge between Kilo and the Kanto region, played a greater role in supplying moisture to the Kanto region than the strong easterly wind produced by the pressure gradient between Kilo and the Okhotsk high. In this case, weaker Kilo resulted in an enhanced northwestward moisture flux associated with the ridge, thereby inducing heavier rainfall over the Kanto region.


Few researchers have explored how individuals remember details of criminal events in the context of eyewitness testimony. With more detailed information, jurors, for example, could deduce psychological causality and attribute responsibility more accurately. Memory research reveals that remembering specific details is dependent on the type of task used. When using recall, individuals have difficulty remembering emotional details that could provide insight into the intentions of the criminal. However, recognition favors memory for emotional details, providing greater depth of knowledge. Differences in personality, such as emotional intelligence, can influence memory as well. We explored these factors by testing memory of a fictional rape scene using three categories of information: emotional, central and peripheral. For recall and recognition, there were significant differences between emotional, central and peripheral details. Recognition favored emotional details; recall favored central and peripheral details. In addition, we found advantageous processing of in-formation for emotionally intelligent individuals. Our research reveals how individuals possess a range of knowledge about criminal events, which provides valuable information to jurors for deducing psychological causality. We show how individual differences and the type of memory task used can impact remembering, which has implications for the cognitive interview.


Sir, Our article in the Peritoneal DialysisBulletin Vol1, No.4, March 1981 has an error in Figure 2. It should read ,,* per cent actual growth --; predicted growth", instead of ,,* per cent predicted --; actual growth". I would like to compliment you on your editorship of the "Bulletin". With each issue one can see a real improvement to the point that if it continues to advance along current lines, I would expect it to become a bonafide journal. It is filling a communication gap in the field of peritoneal dialysis.


Abstract Background: Many patients with psychiatric illnesses have difficulty maintaining medication over time. Many take their medicine irregularly and studies show that it is the most vulnerable patients who have the greatest problems adhering to treatment. Often only 50% are still under medical treatment after 6 months. Aim: In this study we investigated whether text message reminders could improve medicine compliance amongst vulnerable young people with psychiatric disorders who were being treated in the outpatient department for child and adolescent psychiatry and who either are under or were to commence medicinal treatment. Methods: This study was conducted as a randomized controlled trial including all non-acute referrals to an outpatient department for adolescent psychiatry within a group aged 15–20 years starting medical treatment. The patients were followed until the end of their treatment, for a minimum of 3 months. To enhance medicine compliance, text messages were sent daily to one group. No message was sent to the other group. Results: Compliance was not associated with text message intervention in any of the drug interventions. The effect size was calculated to 0.3013, which is low and therefore indicates a weak association between text message and compliance. The power in this study was calculated to 0.3539, which is also low and therefore the likelihood of finding significant association is low. Conclusion: This study does not show increased medicine compliance from the text message intervention group. The conclusion of this study is that it is essential that significant resources are spent preparing and testing a text message strategy.


Purpose The incidence of subthreshold depression (StD) in adolescents is growing rapidly, which in turn is known to impair functioning and increase the risk of major depression. It is therefore important to provide effective intervention to prevent the transition from StD to major depression. As a traditional Chinese mind-body exercise, Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) may be an available selection. Researchers have shown the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy on depression; however, for the StD youth, there have been no studies to investigate whether mindfulness-based Tai Chi Chuan (MTCC) can be recommended as an effective exercise for improving their psychological state. The aim of present study was to evaluate the effect of MTCC on psychological outcomes of StD adolescents including the depression levels and mindfulness state in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Patients and methods An RCT was carried out. A sample of 64 participants who meet the inclusion criteria agreed to be arranged randomly to either the MTCC group (n=32) or the control group (n=32). Participants of the MTCC group received an 8-week, 2 days per week, 90-minute MTCC intervention for each session. Usual physical curriculum was administered to the participants in the control group. The effectiveness of MTCC training was measured by blinded evaluators through validated scales, which included depressive symptoms, stress, and mindfulness level before and after the intervention. Results Significant improvements in psychological health were observed from MTCC groups. After 8-week intervention, superior outcomes were also observed for MTCC when compared with control group for decrease in depression (F=59.482, P<0.001) and stress level (F=59.482, P<0.001) and increase in mindfulness (F=59.482, P<0.001). Conclusion The findings of this preliminary study indicated the effects of the MTCC intervention on depression level among StD youngsters. This study provides preliminary evidence that MTCC is suitable for Chinese adolescents and is effective in decreasing depression level.


This report explores five specific aspects of infants' and children's experiences, exposures and environments in relation to their Outcome Index scores:* key sociodemographic characteristics covering the child, mother, family and neighbourhood* non-parental care experiences* child health - prenatal and postnatal experiences and exposures* maternal physical and mental health* the early educational experiences of the child cohort in the home and out-of-home contexts.Background:The researchers used Wave 1 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) dataset - 5,107 infants aged between 3 to12 months (infant cohort) and 4,983 children aged between 4 to 5 years (child cohort). LSAC is a large, nationally representative dataset with an early childhood development and social policy focus. Therefore the findings are broadly applicable to all Australian families with young children and directly relevant to social policy development and practice.Most children are doing well and a few have pervasive difficulties:* Most of the children in both cohorts were making good developmental progress. * The findings revealed that development does not occur uniformly across all domains (physical development, social and emotional functioning, learning and cognitive development) at these ages.* The findings of the paper highlight the dangers in drawing conclusions about children's developmental status from information on limited aspects of their early developmentSociodemographic factors are more strongly related to child than to infant developmental outcomes:* In the infant cohort, child, family and neighbourhood characteristics had minor associations with outcomes. This may in part reflect less sensitivity in the measures for this age group, but also the fact that contextual factors impact on children's development in a cumulative process over time.* In the social-emotional and learning domains girls in the child cohort consistently had more positive outcomes than boys. This well-replicated finding is thought to involve both biological dispositions and differences in parenting practices and societal expectations for boys and girls. * In the child cohort, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children had poorer outcomes in all but the physical domain; and children in families where a language other than English was spoken tended to have poorer outcomes. An important task will be to track these children's trajectories in future waves of LSAC.* Children in the child cohort were more likely to have positive outcomes in the context of higher maternal education, higher family income, higher parental occupational status, and in the absence of financial stress.* Family type (single or two-parent family) and neighbourhood disadvantage did not make unique contributions to child outcomes for the child cohort, suggesting that their influence is mediated through family variables such as income, financial stress and family functioning.* These data provide clear evidence of a socioeconomic gradient, with poorer outcomes in the context of greater family disadvantageDifferent forms of non-parental care and early education programs have differential effects on developmental:* Children in the infant cohort participating in group-based child care programs were at most risk of impaired physical outcomes in the first year. Authors comments that this is probably due to exposure to infectious diseases. Later waves of LSAC will be very valuable in determining the longer-term implications of this finding.* Children in the infant cohort who experienced only informal care tended to have higher learning scores than infants not in care. Since most informal care was provided by grandparents, this finding suggests the value of further research on the influences of extended family as care givers.Child health variables affect developmental outcomes:* While most mothers breastfed their children, few mothers had met the current National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recommendations for exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months. The majority of the children had diets that did not meet nutritional guidelines and many preferred less physical activities. These findings suggest the need for ongoing public health initiatives regarding breastfeeding and nutrition.* Many child health variables were associated with child social-emotional and learning outcomes, emphasising the relation between children's health to other aspects of their functioning and wellbeing.Maternal physical and mental health affects child outcomes* Mothers of LSAC children were broadly representative of all Australian mothers on parameters such as smoking and alcohol in pregnancy, mental health status, and prevalence of overweight and obesity.* Current maternal general health, serious psychological distress and enjoyment of physical activity were related to children's outcomes, especially in the physical and social-emotional domains of the Outcome Index.Family learning environments are strongly associated with children's learning outcomes:* For the child cohort, children's overall and learning outcomes were associated with family factors such as being read to by a family member, the number of children's books in the home, and the child's access to a computer at home.* Overall development tended to decrease as time spent watching television increased. This appeared to be related to a decrease in the physical and social-emotional outcomes, as television viewing had no significant impact on learning outcomes.* These findings highlight the significance of a home environment that encourages and supports early learning, and imply an important role for parenting education.


BACKGROUND
Sexual dysfunction is characterized by disturbances in sexual desire and/or psycho-physiological changes associated with the sexual response cycle in men and women. Studies suggest that it is prevalent in 10-52% of women and 25-63% of men, and could have a tremendous impact on the individual, interpersonal relations, and on the family quality of life.

OBJECTIVE
To assess attitudes, knowledge and sexual dysfunction management by Israeli primary care physicians.

METHODS
Two hundred and ninety-two physicians from approximately 800 participants who attended a Family Medicine and General Practice conference took part in the study. A self-reply questionnaire was distributed among the participants and 179 completed the full questionnaire (61%).

RESULTS
Seventy nine percent of the physicians thought the primary care physician should be the address for treating most sexual dysfunction problems. Physicians indicated that only 12% of their patients treated for sexual dysfunction were female. Significant differences were found between male and female physicians, board certified family physicians, general practitioners and residents in family medicine regarding sexual dysfunction treatment. Board certified family physicians treated more patients with sexual dysfunctions than general practitioners (GP) and residents in family medicine [53% vs. 23% vs. 22% respectively, (p < 0.05)]. The main barriers for treating sexual dysfunctions noted by physicians were lack of time (62%) and knowledge (47%).

CONCLUSIONS
Family physicians consider themselves to be the main address for the patient for sexual dysfunction problems. Physicians believe they need more training to overcome lack of knowledge barriers and they need to organize their time to adequately address their patients sexual dysfunction problems.


Open-source software (OSS) nowadays holds a very large share of the software market. Furthermore, a great number of companies save millions of Dollars by using open-source instead of proprietary software. Additionally, many governmental and educational institutions, alongside millions of private users, profit financially by using open source software, e.g. the operative system Linux, instead of a proprietary software, such as Microsoft's Windows or Apple's OS X. With this increasing economic power of OSS the number of articles related to the topic has increased steadily. Nowadays OSS has become a topic in a variety of research disciplines. However, continuous intention of contributors to open-source software projects which is an important condition for success of open-source software and the survival of open source software projects is scarcely investigated. My dissertation addresses this lack of research by investigating the most relevant determinants of continuous intention of contributors to open-source software projects. An adapted version of the job characteristic theory (JCT) from Hackman and Oldham the open-source software work characteristics theory (OSSWCT), which illustrates the formation of continuous intention and the role of these determinants in its creation, is developed in this work. Furthermore, it has been tested and supported using partial least squares structural equation model in this dissertation. By analyzing survey data from 855 contributors to open-source software projects it can be supported that experienced sense of belonging has the greatest direct effect on continuous intention. Enjoyment has the second greatest effect on continuous intention and experienced responsibility has the third strongest effect. Furthermore two paths could be identified of related constructs that form continuous intention: one "enjoyment path" and one "social path".


Purpose - This paper aims to demonstrate the need for an improved understanding of the opportunities offered by privacy online. This is contextualized in the case of supermarket purchases of food in particular, often described as an intimate and personal choice. In the case of grocery shopping, the "intimacy" may be at the household level between members or/and between e-grocers' food offerings, and their other "non-food" related services Design/methodology/approach - This paper draws upon social practice theory research, retailing and consumer behaviour in order to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the value of positive privacy. The research uses 39 in-depth interviews of e-grocery shoppers in the area of Portsmouth (UK). Findings - This paper suggests a framework for embedded elements of positive privacy into retailing strategy as a driver for growth in the e-grocery sector. Three meta-themes requiring different approaches to privacy are uncovered. Positive privacy is dynamic and contextual at the consumer/household levels as well as for product/e-grocery brands. Research limitations/implications - This paper advocates the building of long-term sustainable relationship through sharing, offering, and exchange of information rather than pure technological chasing of data. Originality/value - A consumer centred bottom-up approach is employed demonstrating the value of two-way dialogues with consumers on sensitive issues. E-grocery is used as an illustration that involves regular re-purchase of a basket of staple goods over a long period of time where privacy becomes a latent long-term concern. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.


The return on a portfolio is the weighted average of the returns on the individual assets in the portfolio. But the dynamics of portfolio returns are not so simple. The standard assumption that the underlying asset for an option follows geometric Brownian motion is convenient for individual stocks, but it runs into trouble for combinations of stocks, because a linear combination of lognormal returns does not have a lognormal distribution. Luckily, the true portfolio return distribution can be closely approximated by a generalized lognormal using the technique of matching moments, even when some weights are negative, as in a spread trade. This makes it easy to price European options on baskets of stocks or spreads. In this article, the authors show how to extend the same basic idea to construct a binomial tree for the portfolio return, which allows for efficient pricing of contracts with American exercise.


Abstract The ship finance is no more a fixed science than is any other sort of finance. Financial terms, conditions, banks and shipowners become ever more sophisticated. Because shipping is a highly capital intensive industry, with its 32,000 world- wide companies is one of the three most finance intensive industries in the world, about 80 billion dollars per year for financing new buildings alone. The financing of large ocean-going ships are undertaken by banks all over the world, by no means just for owners in their own country. This is so as banks are willing to finance, during boom periods, shipping loans for new buildings but by this way 'create' oversupply and thus depress the freight market by their own actions. Therefore, ship values can change by up to 65 percent in a few months. A five year old Panamax bulk carrier, for example, could be purchased for US$ 13.5m and achieve freight rates of US$ 5,500 per day in 1999 while a similar profile vessel was worth US$ 46m and achieved freight rates in excess of US$ 46.000 per day in 2005. For this reason, the shipowner can make, or lose millions of dollars and so can his bankers if things go badly wrong. For these reasons, the principle subject of this study is to examine a significant increase in alternative capital sources in recent years. Debt and equity from the public markets, German KG systems and Islamic finance, can all now be regarded as commonplace in the shipping finance market.


This chapter discusses the challenges that school systems face as a result of globalisation and sustainability. It considers how the development of policy and effectiveness research in the new emerging paradigm will in future be tied to the process of translating global trends to national and local contexts. This realignment (in many ways a reverse) of earlier approaches anticipates micro-level intervention alongside macro-level socio-political and environmental innovation. Whereas policy-makers around the world have up to now driven education in large measure using industrially derived economic imperatives and have devolved liability for ineffective outcomes to communities, the emergent ecological sustainability paradigm points towards metrics that establish connections between different parts of systems, and assesses how these connections can be changed so that systems can work more harmoniously, global-to-local and back again.


Introduction In 1965, I was in Montgomery, Alabama, working as a member of the group that supported the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, called "Friends of SNCC." After a day of hard demonstrations in which many of us had been beaten, we all took refuge in an African-American church that night. In the heat and humidity of that sanctuary, surrounded by sheriff's deputies and the KKK, not knowing if we would be shot, burned out, or just beaten, we rallied our spirits. At one point, SNCC organizer James Foreman stood up and said, in effect, "If they won't let us sit at the f----- table, we'll knock the legs off the table." Surrounded by the forces of law and order, with the entire apparatus of a completely white power structure aiming to crush us, Foreman's imagery made perfect sense. Today, largely as a result of such struggles by civil rights activists, farm workers, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, the American Indian Movement, the women's and gay/lesbian/bisexual movement, environmental activists, and many others, an important fundamental transformation has occurred and is still occurring. Prepositioned elements for a positive rebirth of community now exist that can transform the United States. The main task is to pull these elements together. Unlike 1965, when we confronted an essentially homogenous system, we now have a more diverse and nuanced environment in which many progressives from these earlier struggles occupy "gatekeeper" positions in what used to be exclusively white, male-dominated, mainstream institutions.(1) think of my friend, Dr. Hardy T. Frye, a determined and courageous young SNCC field organizer, who went from the burned church fields of Alabama and Mississippi to become the director of the entire University of California's "Community, University, School Partnership" program that is linking inner-city communities with educational opportunity. I think of the Hispanic, Black, and Women's Caucuses in the Congress, none of which were possible in 1965. For example, in 1960, only three percent of delegates to the Democratic National Political Convention were African-American. In the 1980s, this climbed to 17.7%. The number of African-American teachers increased from 150,743 in 1960 to over 500,000 in the 1990s. Similarly, the number of African-American elected city officials went from 280 nationwide in 1965, to over 7,000 in the 1990s. There are now some 30,000 caucus groups of African-American and Latino professionals in institutions ranging from police departments to churches (Childs, 1992). However small such numbers are relative to the general white population, they represent important increases in the number of people from previously excluded groups occupying gatekeeper positions in U.S. institutions. Of course, as demonstrated by the example of the anti-affirmative action, African-American Ward Connerly, who serves on the Board of Regents of the University of California, there are no guarantees that being a "person of color" equals having a progressive attitude. Nor is gender a guarantee of worldview. Nonetheless, numerous surveys continue to show that, overall, there are fundamental liberal/progressive outlooks that many African-American and Latino men and women gatekeepers bring with them. As Vilfredo Pareto suggested in his theory of elites, many of those who get "absorbed" into institutional settings bring with them a portable set of community "inclinations" that come from their cultural-political roots. Pareto points out that: In moving from one group to another, an individual generally brings with him certain inclinations, sentiments, attitudes that he has acquired in the group from which he comes, and that circumstance cannot be ignored (1965:112). For a highly visible example of such portable community "inclinations," consider California Representative Ron Dellums, a social democrat and former Chair of the House Armed Services Committee. Dellums continues to emphasize his original support for social programs, even while engaging in the compromise politics that are part of being a member of Congress. …


Bile duct polyps are a very uncommon cause of obstructive jaundice. We present our experience of three patients diagnosed in the last 10 years. Initial presentation usually takes the form of obstructive jaundice associated with abdominal pain, which simulates biliary lithiasis. The diagnosis is usually surgical. Although in some cases radiological studies and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) may sometimes detect bile duct polyps, exact diagnosis before surgery is very unusual. The radiological signs that suggest the existence of a bile duct polyp in the ERCP seem to be the presence of repletion defects, fixed unilaterally to the biliary conduit, without meniscus and without circumferential stenosis of the affected conduit. The most frequently found polyps are fibroinflammatory, and less frequently adenomatous.


ABSTRACT The effect of sediment composition on the growth of Potamogeton pectinatus and Myriophyllum spicatum was evaluated by a greenhouse experiment in which segments of both species were grown on 37 sediments, which ranged from highly flocculent to sandy, collected from the calcareous, shallow eutrophic Lake Krankesjon. The two species responded similarly to the 37 sediment types; there was a strong correlation between the final biomass of M. spicatum and the final biomass of P. pectinatus for a given sediment type. Our results indicated that in these sediments, organic matter and density were not effective predictors of macrophyte growth. Root:shoot ratios of both P. pectinatus and M. spicatum were inversely related to the final biomass, and phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations of M. spicatum shoots were inversely related to root:shoot ratios. This suggests that plants were responding to sediment infertility by allocating proportionately more growth to root formation. Tissue analysis indicated that ...


This study evaluated the factorial structure of the Pedagogical and Social Climate in School (PESOC) questionnaire among 307 teachers in Bulgaria. The teacher edition of PESOC consists of 11 scales (i.e., Expectations for Students, Unity Among Teachers, Approach to Students, Basic Assumptions About Students' Ability to Learn, School–Home Relations, Teacher Cooperation, Teachers' Professional Development, Teaching Activities, Student Valuation, Principal's Pedagogical Leadership, and School Management). A confirmatory factor analysis conducted with structural equation modeling supported a bi-dimensional factor model (Students and Teachers; School Leadership and Management). School climate indicators were also significantly and positively correlated. PESOC is an asset to the literature on assessment of school climate with evidence for factorial validity and reliability in an underresearched international context.


Two proteins have been purified from culture filtrates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, H37Ra strain by a procedure combining gel filtration, diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-cellulose chromatography, and zone electrophoresis. The two proteins are similar in molecular weight but differ slightly in charge. The faster migrating protein, designated a1, is not antigenic. The slower migrating protein, designated a2, is antigenic both with respect to antisera and as a skin-testing antigen.


Cervical projections of neurones located in the second sacral segment of the spinal cord were electrophysiologically investigated in 12 adult cats under alpha-chloralose anaesthesia. Extracellular or intracellular antidromic potentials from 41 neurons following stimulation of their axons in the spinal grey matter in the C6 segment brought evidence of sacro-cervical connections. Cell bodies of the investigated neurones were found mainly in the medial part of laminae IV, V and VI. Axons of these neurones ran in lateral funiculi, mostly in their dorsal parts (dlf). Most of the axons (26) ascended bilaterally. Fibres of 15 cells ran unilaterally--on the ipsilateral (13) or the contralateral side (2). Conduction velocities of axons measured between S2 and C6 segments were in the range from 38.4 to 69.1 m/s. It is suggested that these neurones may play an important role in movement coordination between hindlimbs and forelimbs.


Advanced Materials. C. Z. Caroll-Porczynski. Astex Publishing, Guildford. 1969. 382 pp. Illustrated. 95s. The reader of a technical book expects it either to educate him in his own speciality or to satisfy his general curiosity. In the former case a detailed well-considered presentation which, particularly in the case of books on materials, judiciously balances the theoretical and practical aspects of the subject is needed; in the latter an interesting narrative should lead the reader from page to page, explaining away the difficulties and avoiding undue technical details. The present volume does neither and it is indeed difficult to think for whom it was produced. The serious student will find no theoretical treatment of such topics as fibre strengthening while the practical man will despair of descriptions and diagrams that appear to have been taken directly from the Patent literature, not usually considered to be the most informative of sources. The curious will be rapidly deterred by the dull, catalogue-like style. The present book is a second edition of a work originally printed in 1962 and is brought up to date by the addition of a Part 2. The presentation of this composite is most misleading. On reading the Preface and Introduction the reader may be forgiven for thinking that most of the Chapters in Part 1 have been extensively revised. Reference to the original printing shows, however, that the original text is unchanged, even in the pagination. The quality of the illustrations in the actual volume reviewed is inferior to that of the original printing. It is particularly regrettable that the Introduction, which sets the scene for the whole volume, has not been amended. What was a reasonable review of the materials situation in 1962 is now no longer accurate. Much has happened in the past seven years! The new Part 2 gives the impression of a haphazard collection of a lot of data, put together with no real thought for the subject and little attention to detail. The repetition, word for word, of passages on pages 282 and 288 illustrates this, as also do such things as the absence of Figure 134 referred to on page 299, the absence of references 2 and 3 quoted on pages 311 and 315, etc. Even the material presented lacks clarity of exposition and in one important topical area, that of carbon fibres, the treatment is definitely misleading. The best Chapter in Part 2 is that on Ceramic Fibre Composites, written by P. T. B. Shaffer. The 1962 printing may well have served as a valuable introduction to a then new subject. Re-issuing it in its present form in 1969 achieves nothing. One cannot help but feel that P. T. B. Shaffer could have produced a more informative and interesting book.—A. R. G. BROWN.


The cement industry is recognized as being responsible for a large amount of CO2 emission during the production of portland cement. In order to minimize CO2 emissions by limiting the use of cement, natural pozzolans may be a sustainable solution for making concrete. One such natural pozzolan is alumina-silicate based clinoptilolite type of natural zeolite. It has three dimensional crystalline frame structures with extremely small pores having alkali and alkaline earth cations. In the present research, application of natural zeolite as a supplementary cementitious material for producing durable concrete has been investigated. In this respect, clinoptilolite zeolite with very high purity (97%) replaced portland cement at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% by mass. Setting time, workability, as well as heat of hydration of paste via isothermal calorimetry was conducted to assess the effects on early age properties. Research results revealed that replacement of zeolite increase the demand for water in the fresh mixture, although this situation can be overcome by adding low amount of high range water reducing admixture without any segregation. Research results also shown that zeolite accelerates the setting time due to the nucleation effect of C-S-H precipitation. Additionally, replacement of portland cement with zeolite can produce lower heat of hydration in the cementitious paste due to adsorption of water by its grain along with slow dissolution process of the fresh mixture. However, from practical point view, incorporation of 15% natural zeolite was found as an appropriate option for improving the early age properties.


Services commissioned to support women with mental health problems, problematic substance use and experiences of domestic and sexual violence often work in isolation, despite the intersectionality of these issues. Frontline practitioners do not always have the training, assessment tools and referral pathways to address all three issues when they occur. Operational and monitoring frameworks do not always make the links between the issues which result in women falling through the gaps in service provision. The aim of the Stella Project Mental Health Initiative (SPMHI), therefore, is to empower services across the three sectors of substance use, mental health and violence against women to develop this work through knowledge transfer, policy development support and promoting strong partnerships and monitoring mechanisms. In assessing the efficacy of the SPMHI, an evaluation was commissioned which will collect data before and after the intervention takes place. Before we consider the scope and findings of that evaluation, it is necessary to first outline the nature of the SPMHI. There are several components, encompassing an action research based intervention, practice guidance development and the creation of online learning tools:

Policy and procedure development, training and partnership working. The SPMHI will work with selected agencies working in the fields of violence against women, substance use and mental health in three regions of the UK to develop an integrated response to survivors of gender based violence and who are experiencing problematic substance use and psychological distress. This will focus on providing:

- Support to agencies to develop their policies and procedures (including risk assessments and care plans), referral pathways and multi-sector partnerships
- Training to equip staff with skills and confidence to work with the complex issues and;
- Support to embed issues in local authority and PCT strategic policies.

Good practice guidance. Following completion of the action research, good practice guidance will be developed and widely disseminated across the UK through our extensive networks. We also propose to run a series of inter-active and innovative workshops which focus on equipping practitioners with the skills and understanding to implement the good practice guidance. Online training course. A web-based interactive training course will be developed to address the overlapping issues.

This could be accessed by any practitioner across the UK for free.

The Stella Project selected three sites across the United Kingdom: Bristol, Nottinghamshire and the London Borough of Hounslow in the summer of 2010. Frontline agencies were invited to submit expressions of interest to the identified strategic leads in their site, who were responsible for selecting participating agencies (a total of seventeen agencies (who together provide a total of twenty services) across the three sites). The selection was based on the capacity and commitment of each agency to engage with the work. This work is fully funded by a three-year grant from the Department of Health.


Brand management is a contemporary topic in the marketing literature. A proof of this are the scarce published investigations that analyze and discuss this key construct and there are even fewer published researches that link brand management with the growth of small businesses since both constructs have usually been analyzed and discussed in big enterprises by investigators, scholars and professionals in the field of marketing even when small companies represent more than 90% of all enterprises in any country of the world. The main objective of this empirical research is the analysis and discussion of the existing link between brand management and the level of growth of small enterprises. For this, a sample of 300 small businesses was used and a model of structural equations was used in order to know more deeply the current connection between brand management and the level of growth of small businesses. The results obtained show that brand management have a positive and significant effect in the level of growth of small businesses.


Rapid advances in high performance computing (HPC) and the Internet are heralding a paradigm shift to network-based scientific software servers, libraries, repositories and problem solving environments. According to this new paradigm, vital pieces of software and information required for a computation are distributed across a network and need to be identified and 'linked' together at run time; this implies a 'net-centric' and collaborative scenario for scientific computing. This scenario requires the application to dynamically choose the best among several competing resources that can solve a given problem. For these systems to become ubiquitous, efficient mechanisms for collaboration and automatic inference of the abilities of multiple 'compute servers' need to be established. The authors demonstrate a methodology to facilitate collaborative scientific computing. Their idea is comprised of (i) a concept of 'reasonableness' to automatically generate exemplars for learning the mapping from problems to 'servers' and (ii) a neuro-fuzzy technique developed earlier by the authors that conducts supervised classification on the exemplars generated. The techniques work in an on-line manner and cater to mutually non-exclusive classes which are critical in the collaborative networked computing landscape.


Musical imagery is a relatively unexplored area, partly because of deficiencies in existing experimental paradigms, which are often difficult, unreliable, or do not provide objective measures of performance. Here we describe a novel protocol, the Pitch Imagery Arrow Task (PIAT), which induces and trains pitch imagery in both musicians and non-musicians. Given a tonal context and an initial pitch sequence, arrows are displayed to elicit a scale-step sequence of imagined pitches, and participants indicate whether the final imagined tone matches an audible probe. It is a staircase design that accommodates individual differences in musical experience and imagery ability. This new protocol was used to investigate the roles that musical expertise, self-reported auditory vividness and mental control play in imagery performance. Performance on the task was significantly better for participants who employed a musical imagery strategy compared to participants who used an alternative cognitive strategy and positively correlated with scores on the Control subscale from the Bucknell Auditory Imagery Scale (BAIS). Multiple regression analysis revealed that Imagery performance accuracy was best predicted by a combination of strategy use and scores on the Vividness subscale of BAIS. These results confirm that competent performance on the PIAT requires active musical imagery and is very difficult to achieve using alternative cognitive strategies. Auditory vividness and mental control were more important than musical experience in the ability to perform manipulation of pitch imagery.


A laser marking process is described which is based upon a unique phenomenon of photothermally transforming oriented microcrystallites of a vapor-deposited dichroic dye. It is shown that writing with linearly polarized laser light on an oriented film improves contrast and sensitivity over the unoriented film. The improvement stems from the increased optical sensitivity when an oriented film of one polymorphic form of the dye is photothermally transformed by irradiation with suitably oriented linearly polarized laser light. It is shown that the laser marking process proceeds via three stages. At low power the laser pulse causes a crystal-crystal transformation within microcrystallites of an oriented film of the dichroic dye. At medium power the dye also migrates and coalesces around nucleating sites in the written spot during the crystal transformation process. At the highest powers the unovercoated film ablates. A simple polishing process is described for producing large areas of oriented thin vapor-deposited films.


Abstract.
 Physical attractiveness is an important social factor in our daily interactions. Scholars in social psychology provide evidence that attractiveness stereotypes and the "halo effect" are prominent in affecting the traits we attribute to others. However, the interest in attractiveness has not directly filtered down to questions of political behavior beyond candidates and elites. Utilizing measures of attractiveness across multiple surveys, we examine the relationship between attractiveness and political beliefs. Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican. These findings suggest an additional mechanism for political socialization that has further implications for understanding how the body intertwines with the social nature of politics.


Human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (hDHODH) is an enzyme that catalyzes the fourth step in de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis, and its inhibitors restrict the growth of rapidly proliferating cells. Therefore, hDHODH has been reported as an attractive target for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. In this study, several quinoline derivatives were identified as potent inhibitors against hDHODH, among which compound A9 was the most potent one with an IC50 value of 9.7 nM. We further verified by thermal shift assay (TSA), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and X-ray crystallography that A9 could directly bind to the target hDHODH. The crystal structure of hDHODH in complex with compound A9 was refined to 1.90 A and the binding mode of compound A9 was summarized. Moreover, structure–activity relationship (SAR) analysis of quinoline derivatives with hDHODH indicated that quinoline derivatives with a carboxyl group in R1, a bromine atom in R2 and a para-alkyl-substituted phenyl group in R5, were beneficial for potency against hDHODH, which plays an important role in inhibitor design and optimization.


The formation of new blood vessels is an essential process in embryonic development and wound healing, for tumor growth and metastasis. In situ hybridization studies have revealed that the protooncogene c-est1 is expressed in endothelial cells at the beginning of blood vessel formation, in normal and pathological conditions. c-ets1 encodes a transcription factor, a protein which binds specifically to DNA and which regulates the transcription of genes containing these specific binding sequences in their promotors. Thus, in vitro experiments suggest that c-ets1 may activate the transcription of genes encoding collagenase 1, stromelysine 1 and urokinase plasminogen activator, proteases involved in extracellular matrix degradation. A working hypothesis is that c-ets1 takes part in regulating angiogenesis by controlling the transcription of these genes whose activity is necessary for the migration of endothelial cells from pre-existing capillaries. This hypothesis is discussed with respect to current experimental evidence and to the complexity of the regulatory network controlling gene transcription and extracellular matrix degradation.


In preparation for being shed into the environment as infectious cysts, trophozoites of Giardia spp. synthesize and deposit large amounts of extracellular matrix into a resistant extracellular cyst wall. Functional aspects of this developmentally regulated process were investigated by expressing a series of chimeric cyst wall protein 1 (CWP1)-green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter proteins. It was demonstrated that a short 110 bp 5' flanking region of the CWP1 gene harbors all necessary cis-DNA elements for strictly encystation-specific expression of a reporter during in vitro encystation, whereas sequences in the 3' flanking region are involved in modulation of steady-state levels of its mRNA during encystation. Encysting Giardia expressing CWP1-GFP chimeras showed formation and maturation of labeled dense granule-like vesicles and subsequent incorporation of GFP-tagged protein into the cyst wall, dependent on which domains of CWP1 were included. The N-terminal domain of CWP1 was required for targeting GFP to regulated compartments of the secretory apparatus, whereas a central domain containing leucine-rich repeats mediated association of the chimera with the extracellular cyst wall. We show that analysis of protein transport using GFP-tagged molecules is feasible in an anaerobic organism and provides a useful tool for investigating the organization of primitive eukaryotic vesicular transport.


A case of a 79-year-old man with risk factors of ischaemic heart disease is presented. He was admitted to the Cardiology Ward because of recurrent angina pectoris with ST-segment elevation in the anterior electrocardiographic leads. Coronary arteriography revealed 90% stenosis of the marginal branch of the left coronary artery, which was supplied by coronary angioplasty. During hospitalisation recurrent episodes of angina pectoris were noted, only in night hours, with ST-segment elevations in anterior electrocardiographic leads. Pharmacotherapy with calcium blockers and nitrates eliminated the episodes of chest pain in a ten-month follow-up.


Introduction: Skin is the largest organ among all the organs of the body. The clinical manifestations of diseases of skin are vary in nature both in clinical presentations and behavior. It is necessary to cross talk between pathologist and dermatologist for better management of patients. Histopathological examination plays a significant role and the gold standard in providing accurate diagnosis for a variety of skin lesions.
Objective: 1. To evaluate histopathology as an ideal diagnostic method for vesiculobullous (non–neoplastic) and neoplastic (tumourous) skin lesions. 2. To establish the correlation between the microscopic pathological findings of various skin lesions with the presenting clinical features.
Materials and Methods: 100 patients of skin diseases were included for the study. Punch, excisional or incisional biopsy techniques were used to get the tissues. The tissue was obtained for detailed histopathological examination. The histological sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin stains and histochemical stains were used as supplementary diagnostic tool.
Results: Out of 100 patients, 54% had vesiculobullous lesions, 22% granulomatous morphology and 24% were neoplastic. Epidermoid cysts included in benign neoplasm category and accounted for 37.5% of neoplasms. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common malignant tumor (52.8%).
Conclusion: Histopathological study of skin biopsies helps to make an early and accurate clinically useful diagnosis in almost all of the normal looking or vesiculobullous or non neoplastic and neoplastic skin lesions, as the study of microscopic morphological features of different types of skin lesions had differentiating findings under the microscope.

Keywords: Vesiculobullous lesions, Histopathology, Pemphigus, Herpes.


Privacy preservation remains a key challenge in data mining and Natural Language Understanding (NLU). Previous research shows that the input text or even text embeddings can leak private information. This concern motivates our research on effective privacy preservation approaches for pretrained Language Models (LMs). We investigate the privacy and utility implications of applying dχ-privacy, a variant of Local Differential Privacy, to BERT fine-tuning in NLU applications. More importantly, we further propose privacy-adaptive LM pretraining methods and show that our approach can boost the utility of BERT dramatically while retaining the same level of privacy protection. We also quantify the level of privacy preservation and provide guidance on privacy configuration. Our experiments and findings lay the groundwork for future explorations of privacy-preserving NLU with pretrained LMs.


Earlier contributions have shown that analysis of variance (ANOVA) can be successfully used for finding good regressors for nonlinear models in a nonlinear black-box system identification context. In this paper, it is shown that the ANOVA problem can be recast as an optimisation problem. Two modified, convex versions of the ANOVA optimisation problem are then proposed, and it turns out that they are closely related to the nn-garrote and wavelet shrinkage methods, respectively. In the case of balanced data, it is also shown that the methods have a nice orthogonality property in the sense that different groups of parameters can be computed independently


http://ctt.canterbury.ac.nz Abstract: My focus is on the Biblical prophetic warning about, and solution to, severe debt injustice – whether individual or collective. I seek to demonstrate the New Testament's continuity with the Jubilee theme of economic justice and debt cancellation laid out in the Hebrew Scriptures. In particular, I argue that Paul of Tarsus well understood the economic difficulties faced by wage laborers in the first-century Roman Empire and the all-too-real possibility of debt bondage, and – through his collection "for the poor among the consecrated at Jerusalem" – devised a creative means to reclaim the Biblical tradition of debt cancellation. In short, Paul envisioned what we could call a "gift economy" based not only on mutuality but also, and especially, on addressing the needs of the weak, vulnerable, and poor.


All universities are seeking to develop their students' skills. Typically, they deploy either or both an independent 'skills' offering, separate from disciplinary learning ('bolt-on'); and/or individual academic staff embedding skills assessment in some modules ('built-in'). What are the drawbacks of 'bolt-on' and 'built-in'? To what extent does a partnership model, involving an integrated and longitudinal skills curriculum, resolve those drawbacks? Under what circumstances is this possible? What are the main barriers? We present a case study of a major curriculum development in the School of Law at the University of Sheffield to argue that the benefits of partnership probably outweigh either 'bolt-on' or 'built-in'. However, some of the enablers and inhibitors associated with contemporary higher education (HE) may suggest that 'built-in' is more viable. This is not primarily because of the difficulties of engaging academic disciplinary specialists; rather it is better explained by structural and institutional rigidities. We therefore recommend courage to take a long view, to aim high, and to celebrate small successes.


This paper aims at analyzing innovation in corporarions located within the so called innovation areas. Namely it will be studied wether there are significative differences in terms of innovation between firms located inside and outside innovation areas. Furthermore, it have been studied which factors might have the strongest effect on the attraction of innovative firms.


We report on our experimental work concerning a planar metamaterial exhibiting classical electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Using a structure with two mirrored split-ring resonators as the dark element and a cut wire as the radiative element, we demonstrate that an EIT-like resonance can be achieved without breaking the symmetry of the structure. The mirror symmetry of the metamaterial's structural element results in a selection rule inhibiting magnetic dipole radiation for the dark element, and the increased quality factor leads to low absorption (<10%) and large group index (of the order of 30).


Moderate to high levels of soil nitrate suppress nodulation and N₂ fixation in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], resulting in some instances in a net loss of N from the soil when the high-protein seed is harvested. Development of nitrate tolerance, i.e., the ability to nodulate and fix N₂ in the presence of soil nitrate, in cultivars of soybean is desirable. Our objectives were to (i) combine, through hybridization, the reported nitrate tolerance of Korean genotypes 464, 466, 468, and 469 (Commonwealth of Australia Plant Introduction nos CPI66126, CPI66141, CPI66157 and CPI66159, respectively) with the agronomic and seed traits of cultivars Valder, Reynolds, Forrest and Bossier; (ii) assess heritability and repeatability of N₂ fixation between individual F₂ plants and F₂-derived F₃ lines, and F₃-derived lines in the F₆ and F₇ generations; and (iii) examine correlations of N₂ fixation with agronomic and seed traits. Individual plants and lines were evaluated during five seasons between 1986–1987 and 1990–1991 on alkaline vertisol soils (Typic Pellustert) at Breeza and Narrabri, Australia, and in glasshouse culture at Narrabri. The xylem ureide technique was used to estimate N₂ fixation activity of individual F₂ plants, and of F₂-derived F₃ lines and F₃-derived F₆ and F₇ lines. Data from F₂ and F₃ generations showed that relative ureide-N values for the individual F₂ plants was of low heritability. We concluded that single-plant selection for N₂ fixation in the F₂ generation was largely ineffective. Data from F₆ and F₇ plot trials, however, indicated that repeatability on a plot basis for relative ureide-N was about 0.5 (P< 0.01). Phenotypic correlations between relative ureide-N in xylem sap and other plant and seed traits were variable and generally non-significant. The selection of site was vital for detecting enhanced N₂ fixation. Sites with low soil nitrate did not allow discrimination among genotypes. Three F₃-derived lines, D22-8, K78-1, and A46-4, which were identified in the F₆ and F₇ trials at the high-nitrate sites, had the N₂ fixation characteristics of the Korean parents and near-commercial yields (75–83% of that of the highest yielding cultivar, Forrest. Supported by GRDC grant DAN 33-0.


In many real-world communication systems, the extent of nonGaussian impulsive noise (IN) rather than Gaussian noise, poses practical limits on the achievable system performance. The decoding of IN-corrupted signals is complicated by the fact that accurate IN statistics are typically unavailable at the receiver. The conventional method is to mark the IN corrupted symbol as erasures before an error-and-erasure decoding is applied. In this work, we investigate a joint erasure marking Viterbi algorithm (JEVA), which allows significant error rate performance improvement over the separate erasure marking and decoding approach to be obtained at the expense of a higher complexity.


The development of objective speech quality measures generally involves fitting a model to subjective rating data. A typical data set comprises ratings generated by listening tests performed in different languages and across different laboratories. These factors as well as others, such as the sex and age of the talker, influence the subjective ratings and result in data heterogeneity. We use a linear hierarchical Bayes (HB) structure to account for heterogeneity. To make the structure effective, we develop a variational Bayesian inference for the linear HB structure that approximates not only the posterior over the model parameters, but also the model evidence. Using the approximate model evidence we are able to study and exploit the heterogeneity inducing factors in the Bayesian framework. The new approach yields a simple linear predictor with state-of-the-art predictive performance. Our experiments show that the new method compares favorably with systems based on more complex predictor structures such as ITU-T recommendation P.563, Bayesian MARS, and Gaussian processes.


It is hardly a revelation to say that in the Soviet Union, law served not as the foundation of government but as an instrument of rule, or that the judiciary in that country was highly dependent upon political authority. Yet, experience shows that effective democracies and market economies alike require courts that are independent and trusted. In Courts and Transition in Russia, Solomon and Foglesong analyze the state and operation of the courts in Russia and the in some ways remarkable progress of their reform since the end of Soviet power. Particular attention is paid to the struggles of reformers to develop judicial independence and to extend the jurisdiction of the courts to include constitutional and administrative disputes as well as supervision of pretrial investigations. The authors then outline what can and should be done to make courts in Russia autonomous, powerful, reliable, efficient, accessible and fair. The book draws upon extensive field research in Russia, including the results of a lengthy questionnaire distributed to district court judges throughout Russian Federation.Written in a clear and direct manner, Courts and Transition in Russia should appeal to anyone interested in law, politics, or business in Russia -- scholars and practitioners alike -- as well as to students of comparative law, legal transition, and courts in new democracies.


ABSTRACT Reflecting Dialogues have been used in a high-security prison in Trondheim, Norway since 2004, offering conversations on the inmates' own terms. Important elements in Reflecting Dialogues are attentively listening and reflecting on what is being said, in order to open up for new meaning and understanding. In this study, prisoners, released prisoners, and prison staff are interviewed about their experiences with Reflecting Dialogues. Applying Reflecting Dialogues in prisons seems to cover a need that many prisoners have; to be able to talk freely about their feelings and thoughts, which build up easily during imprisonment. We find that Reflecting Dialogues can contribute to reducing the level of conflict, and subsequently create a better prison environment. The prisoners express that they are more at ease, more in contact with their own needs, and find it easier to communicate with other people.


As various drugs might have an effect on the fetus during pregnancy, the use of drugs should be minimized in the pregnant woman. Since bacterial vaginosis (BV) can be associated with prematurity and postpartum complications, we searched for alternative therapy for its cure during pregnancy. Commercial yoghurt incorporates both factors necessary for maintaining the protective mechanism of the vagina, vaginal pH and lactobacilhis. A total of 32 women with BV in the first trimester of pregnancy were treated with intravaginal application of yoghurt. The result was favorable indicating that the continuous correction of vaginal pH and lactobaccillus flora is crucial for normal vaginal ecology. During pregnancy, a local treatment restoring the normal acidity and vaginal flora, without systemic effect, may be preferable to any other treatment.


An increasing contamination of our environment with estrogen-like acting substances and a growing number of reports about negative health effects of endocrine disruptors in human and wildlife lead to one question: is our food polluted with harmful substances? Studies have shown that wheat and flaxseed are contaminated with estrogen-like acting substances and both are often used in the preparation of our staple food bread. Especially flaxseed contains significant amounts of different phytoestrogens and of the metalloestrogen cadmium. Estrogens have a stimulating effect on the uterine tissue and the mammary gland of ovariectomized rats, who are an established model for testing estrogen-like acting substances, as they are a hormonal equivalent to the postmenopausal woman. The present paper consequently examines, if the consumption of the whole food item wheat bread resp. flaxseed bread has an estrogenic effect on the uterine tissue and the mammary gland of the ovariectomized rat. Therefore 43 Sprague- Dawley rats were ovariectomized and then fed estrogen-free chow (negative control-group), estrogen-containing chow (positive control-group), wheat bread and flaxseed bread. After a trial-period of two months the rats were sacrificed and the following data was collected: uterine weight, uterine layer thickness and the mammary gland morphology. While the positive control-group showed a significant stimulation of the uterine tissue and the mammary gland, no effect was seen in the wheat bread- and the flaxseed bread group. Hence we can conclude that the endocrine-like acting substances contained in wheat and flaxseed seem to have no significant effect on the examined organs when fed as a whole food item like bread. This suggests that the consumption of wheat bread and flaxseed bread has no harmful effects on human health.


This report treats the Kernel function of the integral equation that relates a known or prescribed downwash distribution to an unknown lift distribution for harmonically oscillating wings in supersonic flow. The treatment is essentially an extension to supersonic flow of the treatment given in NACA report 1234 for subsonic flow. For the supersonic case the Kernel function is derived by use of a suitable form of acoustic doublet potential which employs a cutoff or Heaviside unit function. The Kernel functions are reduced to forms that can be accurately evaluated by considering the functions in two parts: a part in which the singularities are isolated and analytically expressed, and a nonsingular part which can be tabulated.


We review and extend several recent results on the existence of the ground state for the nonlinear Schr\"odinger (NLS) equation on a metric graph. By ground state we mean a minimizer of the NLS energy functional constrained to the manifold of fixed $L^2$-norm. In the energy functional we allow for the presence of a potential term, of delta-interactions in the vertices of the graph, and of a power-type focusing nonlinear term. We discuss both subcritical and critical nonlinearity. Under general assumptions on the graph and the potential, we prove that a ground state exists for sufficiently small mass, whenever the constrained infimum of the quadratic part of the energy functional is strictly negative.


Ginger is a natural herb used in our day to day life. It has potential health benefits which are yet to be explored. Its potential properties are known in natural medicine for thousands of years. Its use is more popular in south East Asia as a kitchen spice. Its uses are reported in many respiratory, digestive and inflammatory disorders. Uses of ginger in dentistry are minimal but significant. This review furnishes the niceties concerning the uses of ginger in oral care.


The independent pixel approximation (IPA), which treats radiative properties of each pixel independently by using standard plane-parallel calculations preserves scale-invariance found in the analyses of the horizontal variability of liquid water in marine stratocumulus clouds. Several studies, however, report a violation of scale-invariance in LANDSAT cloud radiance fields that are much smoother than cloud structure on small scales. This shows a limitation of IPA on small scales: it is unable to simulate the smooth small-scale behavior that is due to the horizontal photon transport. This paper introduces a "nonlocal" independent pixel approximation (NIPA) that extends the IPA by incorporating empirically the smoothing effects of horizontal interpixel fluxes through a convolution product of the IPA and an approximate Green function for radiative transfer. The authors also address the inverse problem of cloud optical depth retrieval from satellite data, showing how NIPA can be used to overcome the limitations of current IPA-based methods at small scales.


This article offers reflections and insights on Management Communication Quarterly from a younger scholar in the field of organizational communication. After providing a brief history of the journal, topics of internationality, interdisciplinarity, and identity are explored. This is followed by a discussion among other "emerging scholars" in the field of organizational communication about these topics. The article concludes with a discussion about the role and format of Management Communication Quarterly in the digital age.


A broadly accepted framework for prospective environmental risk assessment (ERA) of sediment-bound organic chemicals is currently lacking. Such a framework requires clear protection goals, evidence-based concepts that link exposure to effects and a transparent tiered-effect assessment. In this paper, we provide a tiered prospective sediment ERA procedure for organic chemicals in sediment, with a focus on the applicable European regulations and the underlying data requirements. Using the ecosystem services concept, we derived specific protection goals for ecosystem service providing units: microorganisms, benthic algae, sediment-rooted macrophytes, benthic invertebrates and benthic vertebrates. Triggers for sediment toxicity testing are discussed. We recommend a tiered approach (Tier 0 through Tier 3). Tier-0 is a cost-effective screening based on chronic water-exposure toxicity data for pelagic species and equilibrium partitioning. Tier-1 is based on spiked sediment laboratory toxicity tests with standard benthic test species and standardised test methods. If comparable chronic toxicity data for both standard and additional benthic test species are available, the Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) approach is a more viable Tier-2 option than the geometric mean approach. This paper includes criteria for accepting results of sediment-spiked single species toxicity tests in prospective ERA, and for the application of the SSD approach. We propose micro/mesocosm experiments with spiked sediment, to study colonisation success by benthic organisms, as a Tier-3 option. Ecological effect models can be used to supplement the experimental tiers. A strategy for unifying information from various tiers by experimental work and exposure—and effect modelling is provided.


The term confluent education describes a flowing together of the affective and cognitive elements of learning. Confluent education accords high value to affect because of its core principle that the realization of human potential includes attention to the affective elements of human nature. This article reviews the literature on confluent education, extends a previous introduction of the topic, and proposes an integration of affect into all realms of occupational therapy practice. The visual metaphors, philosophical principles, and practical strategies developed in the literature on confluent education are useful when applied to the functions of occupational therapy practitioners engaged in direct care, education, or research. Because the contexts within which occupational therapy practice occurs today often challenge its affective elements, the author proposes confluence as a timely approach. To advance into the future with the affective strength that has characterized occupational therapy since its inception is a matter of reclaiming the profession's heart.


The coastal ocean of the climatically-sensitive west Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing changes in the physical and (photo)chemical properties that strongly affect the phytoplankton. Consequently, a shift from diatoms, pivotal in the Antarctic food web, to more mobile and smaller flagellates has been observed. We seek to identify the main drivers behind primary production (PP) without any assumptions beforehand to obtain the best possible model of PP. We employed a combination of field measurements and modeling to discern and quantify the influences of variability in physical, (photo)chemical and biological parameters on PP in northern Marguerite Bay. Field data of high-temporal resolution (November 2013 – March 2014) collected at a long-term monitoring site here were combined with estimates of PP derived from photosynthesis-irradiance incubations and modeled using mechanistic and statistical models. Daily PP varied greatly and averaged 1764 mg C m-2 d-1 with a maximum of 6908 mg C m-2 d-1 after the melting of sea ice and the likely release of diatoms concentrated therein. A non-assumptive random forest model (RF) with all possibly relevant parameters (MRFmax) showed that variability in PP was best explained by light availability and chlorophyll a followed by physical (temperature, mixed layer depth and salinity) and chemical (phosphate, total nitrogen and silicate) water column properties. The predictive power from the relative abundances of diatoms, cryptophytes and haptophytes (as determined by pigment fingerprinting) to PP was minimal. However, the variability in PP due to changes in species composition was most likely underestimated due to the contrasting strategies of these phytoplankton groups as we observed significant negative relations between PP and the relative abundance of flagellates groups. Our reduced model (MRFmin) showed how light availability, chlorophyll a and total nitrogen concentrations can be used to obtain the best estimate of PP (R2 = 0.93). The resulting estimates from our models suggest summer PP to have been between 214.4 g and 176.1 g C m-2. Through the employment of a modeling technique without any assumptions apart from a representative sampling strategy, we showed and estimated how PP in this climatically sensitive and changing region can best be predicted and described.


Fault reactivation plays a fundamental role in the generation of plate tectonics from mantle convection. Converging and transform plate margins are
mechanically weak due to both preexisting faults and preserved shear zones within the crust and lithosphere, on the one hand, and continuous brittle
failure of lithosphere, on the other hand. Transform margins are the site for nucleating new converging margins. Lithospheric earthquakes demonstrate
that oceanic lithosphere within a trench can deform as fast as the upper mantle. Models demonstrate that faulted converging plate margins
contribute to producing plate tectonic-like motion. Preexisting faults and a power law plastic rheology dynamically interact and together give rise to
plate-like motion. Faults have an important influence over outer rise and trench topography and by comparing models with observations, interplate
stress is about 10-30 MPa. Subduction can initiate on preexisting faults when interplate coupling is as high as 10-30 MPa if the oceanic plate already
has slabs attached to it - as was the case for the Pacific plate when the Marianas nucleated. Modeled plates only change velocity slowly in response
to the initiation of new subduction zones; the initiation of subduction in the Western Pacific at ≈ 45 Ma was likely the result of a change in Pacific plate motion as opposed to causing the change in the direction of plate motion. The locations of the greatest amount of present day brittle failure within oceanic lithosphere are not located at arbitrary positions on oceanic plates, rather brittle failure occurs in close proximity to long lived zones of preexisting weakness. Old weak structures are reused by the convecting system because it takes less energy to reactivate a preexisting structure than it does to create an entirely new plate margin from pristine, intact lithosphere.