Hospital leaders face unprecedented pressure to improve traditional supply chain performance measures such as cost, quality, and customer experience. As such, healthcare executives are increasingly turning to the operations and SCM field to provide thought leadership and establish best practices around coordinating information, material, and financial flows in healthcare delivery. Unfortunately, our learnings from traditional manufacturing, and to some extent other service supply chains, do not always easily port to the downstream healthcare delivery supply chain due to regulatory issues and distinctive characteristics present in this network. Grounded in Institutional Theory, this study conceptualizes the downstream healthcare delivery supply chain, highlights important regulatory pressures that influence this supply chain, and examines the effects of government regulation and the unique characteristics of this network on coordination. In doing so, this conceptual study brings to bear important contextual considerations and motivates novel research areas where the SCM field can make substantial contributions.


Thomas Piketty's book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, reopens fundamental questions about the role and rewards of capital that economists have never resolved. It does so by exploring the history of capital and derives much of its credibility from the evidence it marshals in defence of its claims. In this paper, I evaluate the basis for Piketty's arguments by considering them in light of the history of US capitalism. I argue that it is extremely difficult to make economic sense of Piketty's historical analysis of capital in the US in the 19th and 20th centuries. That is true, only in part, due to the distinctive choices he makes, compared to mainstream economists, in defining and measuring capital. Much more problematic, in fact, are theoretical commitments he shares with them that preclude an understanding of capital's historical role and rewards in the US economy. Based on a discussion of several important features of US economic history, I have argued that such an understanding demands an historical analysis of capital, both productive and financial capital, in relation to the evolving social organisation of capitalism in the US.


Side effects of metrizamide (Amipaque) and meglumine iocarmate (Dimer-X) were compared in lumbar myelography of 161 patients by a prospective, parallel, interview study. Severe complications were not observed. The percentage pairs of smaller complications were mainly in favour of Dimer-X, but in 2 of the 54 pairs only the difference did raise to a significant level. In one pair there were less symptomless patients after Amipaque-myelography (p less than 0.05) and in another pair the men had more headache after Amipaque-myelography (p less than 0.01). It may be possible to show with larger comparative series, that Amipaque has a tendency to cause more central-subcortical or meningeal-side effects than Dimer-X.


This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Alessandro (Sandro) D'Atri, who passed away in April 2011. Professor D'Atri started his career as a brilliant scholar interested in theoretical computer science, databases and, more generally information processing systems. He journeyed far in various applications, such as human-computer interaction, human factors, ultimately arriving at business information systems and business organisation after more than 20 years of researc hbased on "problem solving". Professor D'Atri pursued the development of an interdisciplinary culture in which social sciences, systems design and human sciences are mutually integrated. Rather than retrospection, this book is aimed to advance in these directions and to stimulate a debate about the potential of design research in the field of information systems and organisation studies with an interdisciplinary approach. Each chapter has been selected by the Editorial Board following a double blind peer review process. The general criteria of privileging the variety of topics and the design science orientation and/or empirical works in which a design research approach is adopted to solve various field problems in the management area. In addition several chapters contribute to the meta-discourseon design science research.


Immune complex-like material was studied using the platelet-aggregation test (PAT) in 114 patients with idiopathic glomerulonephritis and 55 patients with SLE nephritis, and the results obtained compared with Raji cell and Clq-binding assays. The platelet-aggregating material was not thrombin, and eluted from Sepharose CL/6B columns with a molecular weight of greater than 500,000 daltons. Sera from 17 of 55 patients with SLE nephritis were positive in all three assays, 50/55 in at least one assay. No circulating material was detected by the Raji cell assay in idiopathic glomerulonephritis patients, but both the Clq-binding and PAT assays detected material in patients with acute post-infectious nephritis and mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis. Patients with membranous nephropathy and Henoch-Schönlein purpura were positive in the PAT, although generally negative in the other assays of immune complexes. The amount of platelet-aggregating material (PAM) found in the sera of patients with both idiopathic glomerulonephritis and SLE nephritis correlated closely with the depletion of intraplatelet serotonin, suggesting that this material is a major mechanism of in vivo platelet activation in these patients.


The plans for the gigantic Monument to the Third International were completed in 1920 by Vladimir Tatlin, the Russian painter and visionary designer who was a key figure of Russian constructivism. Planned as the headquarters and monument of the Comintern in Petrograd, it was to be made from industrial materials--iron, glass, and steel--as a towering symbol of modernity. Because of the political turmoil and housing shortages in Russia after the 1917 Revolution, the building was never constructed, but it remains a celebrated icon of revolutionary art. In this insightful book, Norbert Lynton investigates the sources and symbolism of Tatlin's Tower and considers not only its significance but also the broader role of allegory in abstraction and as an expression of man's highest aspirations. Then, in light of his new symbolic reading of the Tower, Lynton examines Tatlin's flying machine, Letatlin, and earlier works in his career and discusses their impact on other Russian painters, sculptors, designers, and architects of his era.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the disclosure of HIV-positive status and its associated factors to sexual partners among patients attending antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinic follow-up at Mekelle Hospital, Tigray, Ethiopia. Patients and methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted at Mekelle hospital. Samples of 324 individuals were selected by using systematic random sampling techniques from July 1 until July 30, 2013. The data were collected by trained data collectors through a pretested semi-structured questionnaire. The collected data were cleaned, coded, entered, and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 Windows program. Descriptive statistics and binary and multivariable regression analysis with 95% confidence interval was carried out and P- value less than 0.05 used to determine the significant association. Results: A total of 324 people on ART care follow-up were interviewed with 100% response rate. The overall HIV status disclosure to sexual partner was 57.4%. Among those who disclosed their HIV status, 58% of them told their partner after 1 month after diagnosis. The study showed that there is significant association between knowing HIV status of sexual partner (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 16.69, 95% CI: 5.4, 51.65), duration of HIV-related care follow-up (AOR = 5.48, 95% CI = 2.17, 13.80), and discussion before HIV testing (AOR = 4.33, 95% CI = 1.43, 13.08), with HIV-positive status disclosure to sexual partner. Conclusion: An HIV-positive status disclosure to a sexual partner in this study was lower than what was reported in other studies in Ethiopia. The duration of HIV-related care follow-up, knowing partner's HIV status, and prior discussion were the main factors that affected the practice of HIV-positive status disclosure to their sexual partners.


Two types of activated carbons were produced by chemical activation respectively with and without pre-carbonization procedure, and were used in organic electrolyte supercapacitors. Galvanostatic charge and discharge results show that voltage upper limit and activated carbon type obviously influence the cycle stability of the capacitors. And cyclic voltammograms reveal the better capacitive behavior and cycle stability of the activated carbon produced with carbonization procedure implying the correlation between these two factors. While Nyquist plots disclose the tendency of equivalent circuit component parameters and electrode processes with cycling.


A method proposed for concurrent error detection in ALU's is used in the design of multiplier and divider arrays. This method, called recomputing with shifted operands (RESO), can detect all errors caused by failures confined to a cell of the cellular array. The assumption that the failures are confined to a small area of an integrated circuit and the precise nature of the failures is not known is very applicable to VLSI circuits. RESO uses time redundancy for error detection and requires only a small increase in the hardware of a multiply and divide array.


Under the ambitious low-carbon goals set forth by the recent Paris Accord as well as the prospects for large penetration of renewable energy-generation technologies, the need for advances in quantitative insights and foresights into the current and future availability of renewable energy resources is greater than ever. We have analyzed the changing risks in worldwide wind-power resource availability using large-ensemble simulations that span a range of human-forced climate scenarios. To enable this analysis, we construct estimates of wind power density (WPD) via a hybrid method that combines the emerging patterns of change in near-surface winds from climate models with the large-ensemble, probabilistic projections of the MIT Integrated Global System Model (IGSM). Globally speaking, at a "75% consensus" threshold criterion (at least 3 out of every 4 members agree in the sign of change), by mid-century under an emissions scenario that assumes no further actions to limit emissions, an increase of about 2% in annual-averaged WPD is expected. Under the most aggressive mitigation scenario considered associated with a global climate warming target of 1.5 ̊C, the expected increase is reduced to 0.5%. There is a notable seasonality to these expected global changes, with global WPD increases during December-February, and decreases across all remaining seasons. Salient and coherent geographic patterns are also found, however, there is a strong sensitivity of these results to the strictness of model-trend consensus applied, particularly in the spatial extent of the results that exceed the consensus criterion. At 90% consensus (at least 9 out of every 10 ensemble members must agree in sign of change) only 5%-8% of globe passes this threshold in the ensemble of WPD changes. When contrasting the global-scale trends with respect to onshore and offshore regions, annual WPD will increase slightly offshore (median and average less than 1%) but slightly decrease onshore (-1% in the median), yet the seasonality of these WPD changes is more pronounced.


We present a new proximity control bundle algorithm to minimize nonsmooth and nonconvex locally Lipschitz functions. In contrast with the traditional oracle-based methods in nonsmooth program- ming, our method is model-based and can accommodate cases where several Clarke subgradients can be computed at reasonable cost. We propose a new way to manage the proximity control parameter, which allows us to handle nonconvex objectives. We prove global convergence of our method in the sense that every accumulation point of the sequence of serious steps is critical. Our method is tested on a variety of examples in H∞-controller synthesis.


A single moving mass-spring-damper model is adopted to simulate the vehicle model. The equation of vehicle-bridge coupling vibration is derived, using D'Alembert principle and the conditions of displacement compatibility. The dynamic responses of a double cable suspension bridge to the vehicle moving at different speeds are analyzed, considering the geometric nonlinearity and the bridge carriageway irregularity factor, under two types of vehicle loading conditions, namely moving along the center and the eccentric longitudinal axis. Then the influence of vehicle velocity and bridge carriageway irregularity on impact coefficient of double cable suspension bridge is discussed. Single cable suspension bridge can be taken as a special case of double cable suspension bridge, after the main cable shape coefficient is introduced. The dynamic responses of double cable suspension bridge and single cable suspension bridge are compared to reveal the character of vehicle vibration of double cable suspension bridge. The study of the dynamic responses character of double cable suspension bridge has a positive significance on structural form selection of such type bridge during designing, dynamic performance evaluation and vibration control.


This paper examines Canadian models of criminal justice in a European and Islamic comparative perspective. The traditional model of Canadian criminal justice is a state centred adversarial one intended to punish, deter and/or rehabilitate offenders who are accorded formal due process protections embedded in a liberal constitutional and procedural rights. This model has been transformed recently into an ambiguously tripartite adversarial model through an overlay of victims' rights at all stages. However, Canadian law also recognizes alternative processes through various forms of problem solving courts and sometimes comprehensive restorative justice approaches, the latter rooted in relational notions of rights. Meanwhile, criminal models in Europe have been evolving as well. The British common law model of criminal justice has arguably been transformed by statute into a state-centred managerial approach which has shifted the balance from due process toward crime control in a somewhat continental manner, while tolerating restorative justice experimentation at its periphery. On continental Europe, traditional judge-centered investigatory/accusatorial models have been the subject of adversarial due process reforms in differing ways, while "penal mediation" has been introduced to enhance victim satisfaction beyond historically available civil party recovery procedures. In the Muslim world, there has been a revival of Shar'iah law to varying degrees in many states, centered upon Islamic jurisprudential sources based on the Qu'ran, and Sunnah or Hadith, and reasoning through qiyas (analogy) to achieve consensus (ijma) in relation to the three traditional forms of Islamic offences with their distinct procedural characteristics. The victim-centred nature of flexible aspects of Islamic criminal law has led some to characterize Shar'iah as being suffused with restorative justice principles, despite widespread views to the contrary. Examination of the differences and similarities among these various models of criminal justice from "pure" and "applied" perspectives, leads to reflection on the capacity for criminal justice systems to evolve and change, and to tolerate significant levels of internal diversity, while demonstrating a wide range of potential forms for the instantiation of plausibly common values.


To improve equalization performance of the constant modulus algorithm (CMA), we study that error functions have an influence on the performance of the algorithm in this paper. Aiming at the character of different error functions, a new style of error function weighted by a variable coefficient is proposed. And a new CMA based on the new error function (VCMA) is proposed too. Because of variable-coefficient adjustability, the value of this new error function can become larger at the beginning of iteration and smaller at the end of iteration in the new algorithm. From gradient descent method, VCMA can have faster convergence rate and lower residual error than the CMA. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results have shown the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


The dynamic cast operation allows flexibility in the design and use of data management facilities in object-oriented programs. Dynamic cast has an important role in the implementation of the Data Management Services (DMS) of the Mission Data System Project (MDS), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's experimental work for providing a state-based and goal-oriented unified architecture for testing and development of mission software. DMS is responsible for the storage and transport of control and scientific data in a remote autonomous spacecraft. Like similar operators in other languages, the C++ dynamic cast operator does not provide the timing guarantees needed for hard real-time embedded systems. In a recent study, Gibbs and Stroustrup (G&S) devised a dynamic cast implementation strategy that guarantees fast constant-time performance. This paper presents the definition and application of a cosimulation framework to formally verify and evaluate the G&S fast dynamic casting scheme and its applicability in the Mission Data System DMS application. We describe the systematic process of model-based simulation and analysis that has led to performance improvement of the G&S algorithm's heuristics by about a factor of 2. In this work we introduce and apply a library for extracting semantic information from C++ source code that helps us deliver a practical and verifiable implementation of the fast dynamic casting algorithm.


This system is concerned with the design and implementation of a community health information system which fulfils some of the local needs of fourteen nursing and para-medical professions in a district health authority, whilst satisfying the statutory requirements of the NHS Korner steering group for those professions. A national survey of community health computer applications, documented in the form of an applications register, shows the need for such a system. A series of general requirements for an informations systems design methodology are identified, together with specific requirements for this problem situation. A number of existing methodologies are reviewed, but none of these were appropriate for this application. Some existing approaches, tools and techniques are used to define a more suitable methodology. It is unreasonable to rely on one single general methodology for all types of application development. There is a need for pragmatism, adaptation and flexibility. In this research, participation in the development stages by those who will eventually use the system was thought desirable. This was achieved by forming a representative design group. Results would seem to show a highly favourable response from users to this participation which contributed to the overall success of the system implemented. A prototype was developed for the chiropody and school nursing staff groups of Darlington health authority, and evaluations show that a significant number of the problems and objectives of those groups have been successfully addressed; the value of community health information has been increased; and information has been successfully fed back to staff and better utilised.


Using extended sinusoidal gratings to avoid potential problems of eccentric fixation, the authors have studied orientation discrimination in amblyopia. For all subjects, elevated orientation discrimination thresholds at high spatial frequencies were found. However, raised thresholds decrease with decreasing spatial frequency, and can be normal at low frequencies. Orientation discrimination thresholds for both amblyopic and non-amblyopic eyes are independent of contrast over most of the visible range. Therefore, amblyopic orientation discrimination thresholds cannot be mimicked in non-amblyopic eyes by reducing contrast. Control experiments show that the orientation discrimination deficits are not restricted to vertical stimuli and that they are not a result of exaggerated cyclotorsional eye movements.


Accidental coincidence (randoms) is one of the factors that degrade the accuracy of positron emission tomography (PET). In contrast to widely-held beliefs, we have previously shown that randoms can significantly affect quantitative PET even after current hardware/software randoms correction is applied. In order to have better estimation of randoms for our Scanditronix scanner, we investigated the limitation of the vendor-provided randoms estimation and proposed a simple modification. Methods: Multiple short-frame data of a homogeneous circular cylinder were collected over 12 hours. Summed data were generated by summing up selected frames. Randoms of the summed data estimated by the vendor-provided method and our modified method were compared. Results: The vendor-provided randoms estimation did not work as well as the modified method when frame duration is much larger than the half-life of the radioactive agent used. Conclusion: Our minimal modification of the vendor-provided method significantly improves randoms estimation.


In vitro data suggest that blood-borne Listeria monocytogenes organisms enter the central nervous system (CNS) by direct invasion of endothelial cells or by cell-to-cell spread from infected phagocytes to endothelial cells. However, a role for infected phagocytes in neuroinvasion and dissemination of L. monocytogenes in vivo has not been confirmed experimentally. Experiments described here tested whether L. monocytogenes-infected peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) circulated in bacteremic mice and could establish organ infection in vivo. A mean of 30.5% of bacteria cultured from whole blood were PBL associated, and microscopy showed that 22.2% of monocytes and 1.6% of neutrophils were infected. PBL-associated bacteria spread to endothelial cells in vitro, indicating their potential for virulence in vivo. To test this possibility, mice were injected intravenously with infected PBL and CFU of bacteria in liver, spleen, and brain were quantified and compared with values for mice injected with broth-grown bacteria and in vitro-infected macrophage cell lines. An inoculum of infected macrophage cell lines led to greater numbers of bacteria in the liver than the numbers produced by a similar inoculum of broth-grown bacteria. In contrast, brain infection was best established by infected PBL. Results of intraperitoneal injection of infected peritoneal cells compared with results of injection with infected J774A.1 cells suggested that unrestricted intracellular bacterial replication within J774A.1 cells contributed to excessive liver infection in those mice. These data show dissemination of intracellular L. monocytogenes and indicate that phagocyte-facilitated invasion has a role in CNS infection in vivo. Heterogeneity with regard to bactericidal activity as well as to other phagocyte characteristics is a critical feature of this mechanism.


A retrospective study was performed of 183 newly diagnosed seminoma cases and 73 newly diagnosed non-seminomatous germ cell tumours (NSGCT) presenting from 1985 to 1989 to a tertiary referral cancer hospital. The purpose was to assess the contribution of bipedal lymphography (LG) to the management of these patients. As the main value of LG is in detecting small retroperitoneal lymph node (LN) metastases, analysis concentrated upon early stage disease, specifically N0 and N1a LN disease. Comparison between LG results, abdominopelvic computed tomography (APCT), final clinical stage and treatment outcome was performed. We found that with the LG and APCT criteria used (filling defects > 2 mm and LN diameter > 20 mm, respectively), LG was much more sensitive in disease detection. However, with modern techniques APCT can reliably detect disease 10 mm or greater. In addition, tumour marker status, primary tumour vascular invasion status and initial clinical examination were each more important in staging NSGCT disease than LG alone. Thus, LG is now rarely used in our institution but we will have to monitor our excellent survival data to confirm that this change in policy is warranted.


The future of the insurance industry will be affected greatly by any developments that significantly reduce underwriting, distribution, or capital costs. Given the theme of this conference and recent concern with the supply of catastrophe insurance and reinsurance, my brief remarks focus on possible reductions in the costs of providing catastrophe coverage through securitization of catastrophe risk and changes in tax policy. CAPACITY PROBLEMS AND CAPITAL COSTS In recent years, markets for catastrophe reinsurance and primary insurance have experienced episodes of sharp price increases and/or limits on available coverage following major catastrophe losses. Theory suggests that these short-run effects of large catastrophe losses can be explained by upward revisions in catastrophe loss forecasts for new and renewal policies and, perhaps more important, by temporary reductions in capital below desired levels (e.g., Winter, 1994, and Cummins and Danzon, 1997, in the context of the 1980s liability insurance crisis; also see Berger, Cummins, and Tennyson, 1992). The cost of raising capital immediately following large catastrophe losses will generally be high due to uncertainty and asymmetric information concerning the magnitude of past claim costs and the fact that raising new capital increases the economic value of liabilities for old claims. Absent regulatory restrictions on catastrophe insurance rate changes or the adoption or expansion of state-mandated insurance plans that might discourage voluntary supply of coverage by insurers, these capacity problems should diminish fairly quickly over time. However, the popular and trade press, many insurers, and a number of state legislatures suggest a chronic capacity shortage for catastrophe reinsurance, which is alleged to have major adverse effects on the primary market. In the long run, and apart from the possible adverse effects of regulation that could discourage additional capacity, limited capacity for catastrophe insurance and reinsurance must reflect the underlying costs of providing capacity in conjunction with the willingness of consumers to pay for catastrophe coverage. Insurers have two main motives to hold capital: (1) to achieve higher premiums by making their promise to pay claims credible to policyholders, and (2) to avoid loss of franchise value that could occur if the insurer is financially threatened from a catastrophe.(1) But total capital costs for writing catastrophe coverage are high because of the large amounts of capital that are necessary to achieve these goals. While most catastrophe risk might be diversifiable by insurance company investors, tax and agency costs for large pools of capital held by insurers can have a large effect on the price of catastrophe coverage. Regarding tax costs, in addition to the usual tax disadvantages of equity finance, basic theory of insurance pricing suggests that prices must increase due to the double taxation of returns on insurer financial capital compared to the tax treatment of mutual funds that would have comparable portfolios (Myers and Cohn, 1986). The key point is that issuing insurance policies to obtain additional funds exposes returns on insurer capital invested in financial assets to the corporate income tax. The magnitude of this cost depends on the corporate tax rate and the extent to which the effective personal tax rate for insurer shareholders is lower than would be the case if shareholders held claims to an identical portfolio of assets in a mutual fund.(2) Agency and tax costs of capital affect all types of insurance. The effect on catastrophe coverage is especially large due to the large capital requirements for providing such coverage. Income tax rules also can produce relatively high costs for catastrophe coverage for another reason. Because the distribution of catastrophe losses is highly skewed, possible loss or deferral of tax write-offs for claims in the event of a large catastrophe probably increases expected taxes on underwriting income compared to other lines of business and further increases the price needed to offer catastrophe coverage. …


This paper reports on our present achievement toward the intelligent control of a boiler-turbine power-plant based on switching control scheme, recently revived by some active reports. To overcome strong nonlinearity emerging in load following operations of boiler-turbine power plants, which is not efficiently compensated by the conventional PI-based gain scheduling control, a neural-based nonlinear feedforward switching control scheme is employed. Owing to its 2-degree freedom type instalment in the control system and proper switching of nonlinear feedforward control by monitoring contribution of inverse dynamics error to control error, effective suppression of nonlinearity is achieved.


Infrared sensing technology has come a long way since Hershel made the unexpected discovery in 1800 that radiation at wavelengths beyond the visible spectrum were measurable by his rudimentary bolometer instrument. The tremendous advancements in this technology have been propelled heavily through defense research and development, aimed at providing important night vision and target detection capabilities for surveillance, reconnaissance, targeting, and threat warning systems. The maturation of the underlying infrared sensing technology, specifically infrared optics and focal plane arrays, has not only enhanced the system capabilities for these missions, but has also resulted in the proliferation of infrared systems into a more diverse set of air, land, sea, and space-based platforms. Furthermore, infrared sensing has become more affordable through the advent of uncooled and high-operating-temperature focal plane arrays, which has opened up civilian and commercial applications such as thermography, law enforcement, fire and security, weather monitoring, transportation, and spectroscopy.


The parkinsonian symptoms and increased Mn accumulation in dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons of the basal ganglia implicate impaired dopamine signaling in the neurotoxic effects of chronic manganese overexposure. Using blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) pharmacological magnetic resonance imaging (phMRI), we mapped brain responses to acute amphetamine (AMPH; 3 mg/kg, ip), which stimulates midbrain DAergic systems, in male Sprague-Dawley rats following 6 weeks of chronic MnCl(2) (5 mg Mn/kg, one per week, iv) or saline treatment. Plasma Mn content, measured immediately following phMRI, was elevated twofold in Mn-treated animals (p < 0.05), but the twofold increase in mean striatal Mn content did not reach significance. In saline-treated animals, AMPH stimulated robust positive BOLD responses throughout the basal ganglia and their reciprocally innervated connections. In contrast, acute AMPH stimulated a negative BOLD response in many of these structures in the Mn-treated group, resulting in significant differences between saline- and Mn-treated AMPH-evoked BOLD responses within caudate putamen, globus pallidus, substantia nigra, mediodorsal thalamic nucleus, and somatosensory cortex. These results demonstrate the utility of AMPH-evoked phMRI as readout of the DAergic signaling in vivo and confirm the vulnerability of DAergic systems to Mn.


Efficacy and safety of neuroleptics in behavioral disorders associated with dementia. J Clin Psychiatry 1998;59:550-61. 4. Knapp MJ, Knopman DS, Solomon PR, Pendlebury WW, Davis CS, Gracon SI. A 30-week randomized controlled trial of high-dose tacrine in patients with Alzheimer's disease. The Tacrine Study Group. JAMA 1994;271:985-91. 5. Knopman DS. Metrifonate for Alzheimer's disease: is the next cholinesterase inhibitor better? Neurology 1998;50:1203-5.


Purpose
The current paper aims to analyse the antecedents of leader–member exchange relationships (LMX) by specifically focusing on the influence of the supervisor's feedback delivery tactic.

Design/methodology/approach
This study uses qualitative research methods with primary interviews as the main data source. Primary interviews with 40 managers from top supermarkets in Nigeria, South Africa and the UK were undertaken.

Findings
The authors found that both high-quality positive feedback and constructive criticisms produced the same feelings – more positive interpersonal relationships with their supervisors, higher levels of commitment to their organisations, higher job satisfaction and thus, high-quality LMX relationships. Where criticisms were delivered without greater interpersonal treatment, feedback was perceived as negative, and participants revealed lack of job satisfaction, lack of commitment to their organisations, poor interpersonal relationship with their supervisors, high turnover intent and thus low-quality LMX relationship.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current paper is one of the first studies to highlight the consequences of different feedback delivery tactics on subsequent LMX quality particularly in African context. The authors specifically develop a process-based model of enhancing high-quality LMX, which shows the role of the supervisor's feedback delivery tactic in the process. The authors also develop a process-based model that illustrates how negative/unconstructive feedback could result in a low-quality LMX. Finally, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is also one of the first to offer a comparative assessment between African and British (the UK) empirical settings and highlight some interesting dynamics concerning LMX quality and role of supervisor's feedback delivery tactic.


Humans have an extremely long history of transporting and introducing mammal species outside their native geographic range. The characteristics of the species introduced (taxonomy, life-history, ecology, environment) can all influence which traits are available (and selected) for establishment, and subsequent invasive spread. Understanding the non-randomness in species introductions is therefore key to understanding invasions by alien species. Here, we test for selectivity in the identities and traits of mammal species introduced worldwide. We compiled and analysed a comprehensive database of introduced mammal species, including information on a broad range of life history, ecological, distributional and environmental variables that we predicted to differ between introduced and non-introduced mammal species. Certain mammal taxa are much more likely to have been introduced than expected, such as Artiodactyls in the families Bovidae and Cervidae. Rodents and bats were much less likely to have been introduced than expected. Introduced mammal species have significantly larger body masses, longer lifespans and larger litter sizes than a random sample of all mammal species. They also have much larger native geographic ranges than expected, originate from significantly further north, from cooler areas, and from areas with higher human population densities, than mammal species with no recorded introductions. The traits and distributions of species help determine which have been introduced, and reflect how the evolutionary history of mammals has resulted in certain species with certain traits being located in the way of human histories of movement and demands for goods and services. The large amount of unexplained variation is likely to relate to the intrinsically stochastic nature of this human-driven process.


This paper describes the implementation of a wireless sensor network for a multimedia guidebook scenario incorporating a pointer-sensor system for the selection of locality-aware information. An Information Point Station Network (IPSN) was developed and consists of several Information Point Stations (IPSs) placed at locations of significance, with access to information items on a centralized server. In the multimedia guidebook scenario, a user selects a particular information item to view, either by way of a menu system appearing on their mobile computing device (MCD) or a more intuitive pointer-sensor system as described in this paper. Laser sensors are placed next to prominent or relevant objects, and can be either directly connected to an IPS, or function as isolated sensor nodes. The pointer is attached to the MCD by way of a serial port and the user points the pointer at the laser sensor next to the object for which they require information. The information is then sent to the MCD via Bluetooth. The implementation was found to be successful and was tested with multiple users accessing information items from a given IPS as well as multiple IPSs attached to the centralized server. Still, there is further work to be done on the isolated sensor nodes.


Fractionation and reconstitution/fortification techniques were utilised to study the role of gluten in Arabic bread. Glutens from two wheat cultivars of contrasting breadmaking quality were fractionated by dilute HCl into gliadin and glutenin. Gluten, gliadin and glutenin doughs from the good quality flour had higher G ′ and lower tan δ values than those from the poor quality flour at all the frequencies examined. Interchanging the gliadin and glutenin fractions between the reconstituted flours showed that the glutenin fraction is largely responsible for differences in the breadmaking performance. Fortification of an average quality flour with the gliadin and glutenin fractions from the poor and good quality flours, at the levels of 1% and 2% (protein to flour mass), induced marked differences in the mechanical properties of bread. The resilience of the loaves was not adversely affected by the addition of gliadins and increased, with a concomitant significant (p<0·05) improvement in quality, at the 2% level of fortification with gliadins from the good quality flour. Addition of glutenin resulted in loaves with leather-like properties that became particularly apparent at the higher level of fortification; the observed deterioration in quality paralleled the increase in the elastic character of the doughs. It is suggested that highly-elastic doughs are not compatible with the rapid expansion of gases at the high-temperature short-time conditions employed in the baking of Arabic bread and that there exists a threshold in dough elasticity beyond which a rapid decline in quality takes place.


Test ordering is an integral part of clinical decision making. Variation in test-ordering behavior appears to reflect uncertainty in the clinical reasoning and decision-making process. Among decision makers, novices function mostly in the analytic mode of reasoning, experiencing high levels of uncertainty and, therefore, account for the most variance. While less discriminate test ordering has both economical and clinical downsides, it nevertheless remains a rite of passage along the road toward expertise. In response to the article by Iwashyna and colleagues, the author of this commentary reflects on the implications of test-ordering behavior in the academic medicine setting. The process of ordering tests can serve purposes other than the obvious, not the least of which allows the decision maker additional time for reflection in the decision-making process, perhaps leading to a less mindless and more mindful approach. The author observes that test-ordering behavior of novitiates might be optimized through a variety of strategies that improve both active and passive learning in the clinical environment. In addition to specific education around costs, as well as Bayesian considerations, active learning importantly requires exposure to those processes that may subvert clinical reasoning, notably cognitive biases. Passive learning is enhanced in supportive environments. Throughout, those who supervise and teach should provide effective models.


This work addresses the robust fuzzy control problem for discrete-time nonlinear systems in the presence of sampling time uncertainties in a visual-servoing control scheme. The Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is adopted for the nonlinear geometric model of a pin-hole camera, which presents second-order nonlinearities. The case of the discrete T-S fuzzy system with sampling-time uncertainty is considered and a multi-objective robust fuzzy controller design is proposed for the uncertain fuzzy system. The sufficient conditions are formulated in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMI). The effectiveness of the proposed controller design methodology is demonstrated through numerical simulation, and then tested on an EVI-D31 SONY camera.


Due to increasing consciousness of sustainability and pressure from legislation, numerous studies and managers have sought to integrate traditional operations management with green environment and social responsibility. One such effort is remanufacturing, which has emerged as a growing topic. Although outsourcing remanufacturing operations to third-party remanufacturers (TPRs) has been well studied in the literature, the research has paid little attention to the fact that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have the flexibility of outsourcing to other agents but not TPRs. In practice, besides TPRs, many brand-name OEMs have outsourced remanufacturing operations to their suppliers. The question this raises is: TPR vs. supplier, which remanufacturer is better for the economic, environment and social responsibility? To understand this fundamental question, in this paper, we develop two models that allow an OEM to have potential flexibility to (1) outsource remanufacturing operations to a TPR (Model T) or (2) outsource remanufacturing operations to a supplier (Model S). Among other results, we find that, although the Model T creates more potentially sustainable economic, social, and environmental situations, this strategy is not supported by the supplier because it always leaves the supplier worse off. In order to achieve a "win-win-win" outcome that meets economic, social, and environmental requirements for all parties, a revenue-sharing contract is proposed and incorporated into Model T.


Identification of curli-specific dyes for biofilm communities of microorganisms is an important task. We describe here a curli fluorescent light-up probe called bromophenol blue, which binds to curli via recognizing CsgA. This platform may provide a new perspective for the research on biofilm, amyloid disease and living materials.


We consider linear initial-boundary value problems that are a coupling like second-order thermoelasticity, or the thermoelastic plate equation or its generalization (the α-β-system introduced in [1, 26]). Now, there is a delay term given in part of the coupled system, and we demonstrate that the expected inherent damping will not prevent the system from not being stable; indeed, the systems will shown to be ill-posed: a sequence of bounded initial data may lead to exploding solutions (at any fixed time).


Abstract Background and aims Limited research has investigated how individuals' problem gaming affects significant others. The present study investigated the extent to which partners and parents were personally affected by their partner or child's problematic gaming behavior and what steps, if any, were taken in relation to treatment and other help-seeking by the gamers and the respondents themselves. Methods Two targeted samples (parents, n = 104; partners, n = 264) in Australia were recruited and administered an online survey. The survey assessed gaming-related harm across multiple domains, including financial, relationship, emotional wellbeing, physical health and work/study. Treatment and help-seeking questions referred to seeking psychological assistance, self-help, and community support. Non-parametric tests compared groups on harm measures based on GD status. Results Parents and partners of individuals rated in the 'problem gaming' range reported significantly greater harms compared to those in the at-risk and non-problem categories. The most frequently endorsed harms were in the relationship domain, including neglected household responsibilities, withdrawal from social events, and relationship conflict. Some parents consult with friends and family (15%) to resolve their child's gaming-related problems. Partners reported to seek outside support and assistance for themselves, including 30% who sought a psychologist. No partners reported having consulted a psychologist for their gaming partner. Discussion Problem gaming affects significant others across multiple life areas, but few seek outside help or support, suggesting there may be significant unmet needs. Conclusions Further research should examine factors that influence acceptance and engagement with problem gaming help options. Harm indicators may be useful for evaluating targeted interventions and other measures to reduce problem gaming.


ABSTRACT The Phlomis kurdica Rech.fil. (Lamiaceae) essential oil was investigated for its chemical constituents and in vitro biological activities. Volatile components were characterized, antimicrobial and anticholinesterase activities were performed. The oil was analyzed both by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-flame ionization detector, simultaneously. The in vitro antimicrobial microdilution method was used against Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 10145, Escherichia coli NRLL B-3008, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, Helicobacter pylori ATCC 43504, Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 14990, and Candida albicans ATCC 90028, respectively. Additionally, the cholinesterase enzyme inhibition activities were tested in vitro using the Ellman method. A total of forty-four different volatile constituents were identified, where the main components were characterized as germacrene D (55.4%), (Z)-β-farnesene (11.2%), and hexadecanoic acid (8.4%), respectively. The P. kurdica oil showed moderate inhibition of cholinesterases, where inhibitory antimicrobial activity was against B. cereus among the tested microorganisms.


This article examines the experience of a group of commercial banks in Latin America and the Caribbean in catering to microenterprise clients and to women in particular. The results indicate that a small number of commercial financial institutions are expanding the coverage and depth of financial services to these businesses, both at the wholesale and retail levels. Rather than focusing on one specific type of institution as the viable alternative, the overall supply of financial services to women microentrepreneurs – credit for enterprise and household investments, savings and payment services – should and does come from a variety of institutions including NGOs, banks, credit unions and other formal and semi-formal financial intermediaries. This variety will contribute to a larger and more efficient supply of financial services to heterogeneous groups of microentrepreneurs in the region.


It is a commonplace that we live in an era of increasing international interdependence, in which there has been a proliferation of international law and international organizations. Yet our understanding of the workings of international law has not kept pace. While we have a good deal of work on international law doctrine, our analytic tools are much weaker, and we are far from anything approaching a science of institutional design. We are therefore ill prepared to advise policy makers in the project of developing effective tools to solve transna-tional problems, and to provide global public goods. The contributions to this special issue, though they involve a wide range of different approaches and topics, share a commitment to using the core methodological assumptions of the rational choice approach in seeking to answer important question in International Law. The papers published in this issue were first presented at a conference at the Max-Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn, Germany in December 2006. In putting together the conference, we had two aims, one interdisciplinary and one intercultural. We wanted to contribute to the nascent law and economics of public international law. We noticed, however, that the use of the rational choice approach to international law has been largely confined to the United States, creating a methodological gap between European and American international law scholarship. We sought to generate a trans-Atlantic discussion not only about the substantive papers but on the appropriateness of the rational choice approach to international law.


This paper describes a system for managing dialogue in a natural language interface. The proposed approach uses a dialogue manager as the overall control mechanism. The dialogue manager accesses domain independent resources for interpretation, generation and background system access. It also uses information from domain dependent knowledge sources, which are customized for various applications.Instead of using complex plan-based reasoning, the dialogue manager uses information about possible interaction structures and information from the specific dialogue situation to manage the dialogue. This is motivated from the analysis of a series of experiments where users interacted with a simulated natural language interface. The dialogue manager integrates information about segment types and moves into a hierarchical dialogue tree. The dialogue tree is accessed through a scoreboard which uses exchangeable access functions. The control is distributed and the dialogue is directed from action plans in the nodes in the dialogue tree.


This paper describes an ecological approach to designing children's play props. By studying the world with the help of intermediary objects, children learn about the physical and "mythical" characteristics of their three-dimensional surroundings through physically active play. Starting from the universal pull-along toy as inspiration, a new category of space explorer emerges that interacts with children as they engage their outdoor play environment. Early design experiences are described and directions for future research are given.


Silver iodide was emitted from ten burners from 09 to 13 CST on about half the days, randomly selected before the start of the five-month rainy season, June-October, south and southeast of Mexico City in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Five burners were of voltiac arc type, operating at approximately 2500 C; the other five used butane gas, burning at about 1,000 C. Neither type was calibrated, so no infor- mation is available on their output of freezing nuclei. On each seeded day, an average of seven burners operated, consuming 0.24 kg of Agl per day.


Anyone who has worked on planning a program that spans both hospital and community knows the differences in focus, philosophy and general organization. Kelowna General Hospital and the community of South Okanagan, B.C. worked beyond these differences, using the strengths and expertise of both spectrums of care, to implement a successful home infusion program. But first, the pros and cons of program ownership.


Two branches of discourse studies, critical discourse analysis (CDA) and discourse theory (DT), could benefit through extending their critical focus and incorporating findings and methodologies of neighbouring disciplines. While indebted to the attentiveness of CDA to ordinary language, ideology studies have by contrast developed interpretative, non-judgmental analytical frameworks that explore the many-faceted features of ideology, power, and the political. In turn, the macro-focus of DT on binary distinctions, articulatory equivalences, and the construction of hegemony through empty signifiers, overlooks the complex internal conceptual morphology that produces multiple ideological vocabularies. Through a layered filtering of texts, utterances, and linguistic intensities, ideological micro-morphology reveals processes of semantic decontestation in order to defend, alter or criticize political thought-practices. It illuminates the complex interrelationship between word and concept and accepts fantasies as ineluctable and decodable features of communal life. By reaching out beyond their disciplinary confines, the interplay of these parallel approaches could enrich the scholarly understanding of the political.


Baryons are the combination of three quarks(antiquarks) configured by qqq(q¯q¯q¯). They are fermions and obey the Pauli's principal so that the total wave function must be anti-symmetric. The SU(5) flavor group includes all types of baryons containing zero, one, two or three heavy quarks. The Particle Data Froup (PDG) listed the ground states of most of these baryons and many excited states in their summary Table. The radial and orbital excited states of the baryons are important to calculate, from that the Regge trajectories will be constructed. The quantum numbers will be determined from these slopes and intersects. Thus, we can help experiments to determine the masses of unknown states. The other hadronic properties like decays, magnetic moments can also play a very important role to emphasize the baryons. It is also interesting to determine the properties of exotic baryons nowadays.


Myeloid cell leukemia 1 (Mcl-1) overexpression is found in various human tumors and has emerged as a promising new target for pancreatic cancer treatment. Recent research has found that most pancreatic cancers develop resistance to the current first-line chemotherapeutic drug, gemcitabine (Gem), and high expression of Mcl-1 can reduce the sensitivity of pancreatic cancer cells to Gem chemotherapy. Therefore, novel strategies, such as combination therapy, to overcome resistance of Gem chemotherapy are needed urgently. Here, we employed a lipid-based delivery system (LPs) to codeliver Mcl-1 siRNA and Gem for pancreatic cancer treatment, named LP-Gem-siMcl-1. LP-Gem-siMcl-1 exhibited an increased cellular uptake, enhanced Mcl-1 down-regulation efficacy, and significant cytotoxicity in the human pancreatic carcinoma cell lines PANC-1 and BxPC-3. Furthermore, tumor inhibition in vivo proved that LP-Gem-siMcl-1 has higher anti-tumor efficiency than LP-siMcl-1 plus LP-Gem, indicating the synergistic anti-tumor effects of Gem and siMcl-1. Meanwhile, histological analysis demonstrated that LPs could efficiently co-deliver Gem and Mcl-1 siRNA to cancerous cells and overcome the resistance of Gem. Taken together, our results offer proof that LP-Gem-siMcl-1 is an effective co-delivery system to treat pancreatic cancers and may serve as a valuable tool for developing new strategies for cancer therapy.


Summary — This paper present the possibility to achieve biodegradable copolymers with succinimide and lactic acid units via two different routes of synthesis processes. The first one (va-riant A) involves in situ copolymer synthesis using maleic anhydride, ammonium hydroxide and L(+)-lactic acid and the second (variant B) involves poly(succinimide) synthesis and then its modification with L(+)-lactic acid by mass polycondensation procedure. The prepared copolymers were characterized by IR and 1 H NMR spectroscopy, molecular weights and particle size distribution. The synthesized copolymers can be used as possible matrix to achieve some matrix/active principle systems with medical and pharmaceutical applications, especially owing to their biodegrad ability and biocompatibility.


This paper presents simulation analysis of load effects of bridges under random fleet. Based on actual data of vehicle loads on Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway and relevant statistical results, mid-span bending moments of long-span virtual simple-supported beams are calculated. Then probability distribution of the bending moments and extreme value distribution of the load effects within design reference period are obtained. Finally, characteristic values of mid-span bending moments and recommended values of design lane load are calculated, sequentially. The results studied in this paper can be as a reference for long-span bridge design, and also can be a reference for overloading control or weight charge policy.


Background: Moral distress has been studied in critical care nurses and has shown to have deleterious effects on nurses' physical and psychological well-being. To date, little research has been conducted on the experience of moral distress in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses (PMHNs). Purpose: The purpose of this research is to describe the experience of moral distress in PMHNs. Method: The study utilized a descriptive cross-sectional electronic survey design to collect demographic data and responses to the Moral Distress Scale for Psychiatric Nurses (MDS-P) in a sample of PMHNs (n=28) drawn from a professional community psychiatric nursing organization in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Results: Moral distress scores for this sample were low to moderate with a mean score of 1.50 (SD=1.31). The lowest score mean score of 0.54 (SD=1.20) was reported for one question related to being honest with the patient. The highest mean score was 3.36 (SD =2.45) was reported for questions related to nurses being treated like a machine. A statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) was found between those who had not considered leaving (total mean MDS-P score of 0.83) and those who left (total mean MDS-P score of 3.03). Conclusion: This study found low to moderate levels of moral distress in PMHNs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The results from this sample support other research findings indicating a relationship between moral distress and the intent to leave.


The nineteenth-century German homosexual rights movement adopted the rhetoric of the "emancipation of the flesh," which had its roots in Romanticism. Friedrich Schlegel's Lucinde (1799) promoted the emancipation of the flesh by calling for a strong female sexuality that would help overcome the tyranny of the conventional bourgeois family. Karl Gutzkow's controversial novel Wally (1835) harked back to Schlegel as it championed the emancipation of Jews as well as women. Heinrich Hossli, author of Eros, the two-volume apology for male-male love that appeared in 1836 and 1838, clearly read the journals in which the controversies about Wally played out. He and subsequent activists in the homosexual rights movement, particularly Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, drew on these radical Romantic calls for sexual emancipation.


The article surveys the available data on food of plant origin used in the period of the First Bulgarian Empire. The information is based on written sources and paleobotanical data, which show the presence of diverse plants used for food. It is also evident that these data are rather scarce compared to those from Byzantium. No food recipes have survived from this period, but there is some secondary evidence allowing the reconstruction of some foods. It suggests that grain porridges, rather than bread, were the main food.


Energy conservation of large data centers for high-performance computing workloads, such as deep learning with big data, is of critical significance, where cutting down a few percent of electricity translates into million-dollar savings. This work studies energy conservation on emerging CPU-GPU hybrid clusters through dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS). We aim at minimizing the total energy consumption of processing a batch of offline tasks or a sequence of real-time tasks under deadline constraints. We derive a fast and accurate analytical model to compute the appropriate voltage/frequency setting for each task and assign multiple tasks to the cluster with heuristic scheduling algorithms. In particular, our model stresses the nonlinear relationship between task execution time and processor speed for GPU-accelerated applications, for more accurately capturing real-world GPU energy consumption. In performance evaluation driven by real-world power measurement traces, our scheduling algorithm shows comparable energy savings to the theoretical upper bound. With a GPU scaling interval where analytically at most 36% of energy can be saved, we record 33-35% of energy savings. Our results are applicable to energy management on modern heterogeneous clusters.


This article is concerned with unresearchedarea of child welfare—factors that affect decision making in child protection, particularly as it is related to the decision whether or not to remove a child from home. Social work in Estonia has not had a long tradition (21 years of practice), therefore there is a strong need to develop an effective child protection system that responds to adequate satisfaction of children's needs. The author of this article sought to understand how Estonian child protection workers make assessment related decisions in cases where child protection concerns have been identified. Given that child protection workers must exercise a high degree of professional judgment, it was important to understand based on what decisions are made in practice. This article gives an overview of the relevant literature, followed by a description of methods, findings and conclusions. Practice implications and future directions of research are discussed.


In the present study, we conduct a discourse analysis on a set of longitudinal observations of government venture capitalists' decisions to identify how gender stereotypes are socially constructed and activated when assessing entrepreneurs' potential in the financial distribution of venture support. The present study finds that female entrepreneurs risk receiving significantly less venture capital, which is caused by the language and rhetoric used that relates to gender differences when funding decisions are made. We consider and discuss the implications of our results for related research about distributing venture capital and the social constructions of female and male entrepreneurs.


The direct contact of a tree or a branch of tree with Covered Conductors (CC) overhead lines causes Partial Discharges (PD) inside the insulation. The presence of PD degrades the insulation systems and eventually destroys insulation, which may lead to power delivery interruption. The detection and diagnosis of PD is an important tool to address the problem of tree caused faults in forested terrains. The PD occurs in the impulse component of the signal, which is usually measured by Rogowski coil (current signal) or single layer inductors (voltage signal). In this paper, we introduce a possibility to detect the tree caused faults with the usage of whip antenna. The advantage of the antenna is a very low price and the possibility to install antenna under voltage. The disadvantages are sensitivity to ferromagnetic materials and impossibility to distinguish affected phase. The measurements were carried out in the real environment in forested terrain in Jeseniky Mountains. The real environment is different from a laboratory conditions due to heavy noise (e.g. corona, radio emissions). This paper provides an examination of the background noise from the antenna signal. The experimental results indicate that the antenna may be successfully used instead of the current approach.


Not all people age the same way. Some people remain healthy until very old age, whereas others have health problems as they age and die early. Many healthy older adults are refused treatment because of their age, whereas many frail older adults who are treated do not survive. Decisions for clinical treatment based primarily on age are not best suited to the complexity of the human body, especially the complexity of older humans. The evaluation of a patient's frailty status appears to represent a better way to approach the care and treatment of complex older patients, but more research is needed before the precise benefit realized by screening for frailty is known.


Creating and editing source code are tedious and error-prone processes. One important source of errors in editing programs is the failure to correctly adapt a block of copied code to a new context. This occurs because several dependencies to the surrounding code usually need to be adapted for the new context and it is easy to forget one of them. Conversely, this also makes such errors hard to find.
 This paper presents a new method for identifying some common types of errors in cut, copy and paste operations. The method analyzes the context of the original block of code and tries to match it with the context in the new location. It utilizes a simple, pattern-based model of context, which we found to be well suited to the analysis of relocated blocks of text. Furthermore, we discuss the ability of our technique to detect semantic errors. While semantic errors are relatively difficult to recognize in a static document, our new technique can infer important information from the original context to detect some semantic mismatches. Finally, we present a proof-of-concept implementation and discuss our simple user interface for context-sensitive cut, copy and paste.


We derive and analyze the 'SHE' (Spherical Harmonics Expansion) type system of equations coupled in energy. We also show that diffusive behavior occurs on long time and distance scales and we determine the diffusion tensor. The analysis is based on the governing kinetic equations arising in electron transport in semiconductors.


Summary form only given. Data stream management systems are being developed to process continuous queries over multiple data streams. These continuous queries are typically used for monitoring purposes where the detection of an event might trigger a sequence of actions or the execution of a set of specified tasks. Such events are identified by tuples produced by a query and hence, it is important to produce the available portions of a query result as early as possible. A core element for improving the interactive performance of a continuous query is the operator scheduler. An operator scheduler is particularly important when the processing requirements and the productivity of different streams are highly skewed. The need for an operator scheduler becomes even more crucial when tuples from different streams arrive asynchronously. To meet these needs, we are proposing a preemptive rate-based scheduling policy that handles the asynchronous nature of tuple arrival and the heterogeneity in the query plan. Experimental results show the significant improvements provided by our proposed policy.


It is essential to develop a cost effective fleet of machinery for the present day various standard sizes of plants. In the case of the small units it is essential to develop equipment and cost saving mechanical solutions, but there is also demand for the building up of systems of machinery with modern, cutting edge technology and profit improving attributes for the middle-sized farms, which more favourable specific cost level. The changing and modernising of the Hungarian fleets of machinery, the majority of which is obsolete is unavoidable. Farmers working from different amounts of capital on farms, which provide different levels of mechanical development potential, have to develop mechanisation solutions using the wide range of types and price range of the power and work machinery. Taking into consideration the current partitioned structure of the farms the goal was established to determine that in the case of the different branches of plant production on small and middle-sized farms which combination of fleet of machinery can be used effectively.


We have performed an amino acid composition (AAC) analysis of the complete sequences for 235 secondary transport proteins from Escherichia coli, which have functions in the uptake and export of organic and inorganic metabolites, efflux of drugs and in controlling membrane potential. This revealed the trends in content for specific amino acid types and for combinations of amino acids with similar physicochemical properties. In certain proteins or groups of proteins, the so-called spikes of high content for a specific amino acid type or combination of amino acids were identified and confirmed statistically, which in some cases could be directly related to function and ligand specificity. This was prevalent in proteins with a function of multidrug or metal ion efflux. Any tool that can help in identifying bacterial multidrug efflux proteins is important for a better understanding of this mechanism of antibiotic resistance. Phylogenetic analysis based on sequence alignments and comparison of sequences at the N- and C-terminal ends confirmed transporter Family classification. Locations of specific amino acid types in some of the proteins that have crystal structures (EmrE, LacY, AcrB) were also considered to help link amino acid content with protein function. Though there are limitations, this work has demonstrated that a basic analysis of AAC is a useful tool to use in combination with other computational and experimental methods for classifying and investigating function and ligand specificity in a large group of transport or other membrane proteins, including those that are molecular targets for development of new drugs.


In this article, we provide practical recommendations to help promote self-regulated strategies for the use of lecture capture for both students and instructors. For students, we suggest that the importance of attendance and effective note-taking should be reinforced, as well as specifying how lecture capture can best be used as a catch-up or revision aid. For instructors, we highlight the need to provide guidance for students on how to learn and to adopt a context-dependent approach to lecture capture based on pedagogical considerations, rather than all-or-nothing. Regarding the issue of the relationship between lecture capture and attendance, we suggest the focus should move to a more nuanced discussion of why students fail to attend lectures and how they are using lecture capture. Finally, we discuss other concerns commonly raised by instructors related to lecture capture. Our student guidance is available for dissemination in infographic form at https://osf.io/esd2q/files/.


Copy number variation (CNV) contributes to disease and has restructured the genomes of great apes. The diversity and rate of this process, however, have not been extensively explored among great ape lineages. We analyzed 97 deeply sequenced great ape and human genomes and estimate 16% (469 Mb) of the hominid genome has been affected by recent CNV. We identify a comprehensive set of fixed gene deletions (n = 340) and duplications (n = 405) as well as >13.5 Mb of sequence that has been specifically lost on the human lineage. We compared the diversity and rates of copy number and single nucleotide variation across the hominid phylogeny. We find that CNV diversity partially correlates with single nucleotide diversity (r2 = 0.5) and recapitulates the phylogeny of apes with few exceptions. Duplications significantly outpace deletions (2.8-fold). The load of segregating duplications remains significantly higher in bonobos, Western chimpanzees, and Sumatran orangutans—populations that have experienced recent genetic bottlenecks (P = 0.0014, 0.02, and 0.0088, respectively). The rate of fixed deletion has been more clocklike with the exception of the chimpanzee lineage, where we observe a twofold increase in the chimpanzee–bonobo ancestor (P = 4.79 × 10−9) and increased deletion load among Western chimpanzees (P = 0.002). The latter includes the first genomic disorder in a chimpanzee with features resembling Smith-Magenis syndrome mediated by a chimpanzee-specific increase in segmental duplication complexity. We hypothesize that demographic effects, such as bottlenecks, have contributed to larger and more gene-rich segments being deleted in the chimpanzee lineage and that this effect, more generally, may account for episodic bursts in CNV during hominid evolution.


Forward voltage degradation has been reduced by fabricating diodes on the (000-1)C-face. The reverse recovery characteristics of the 4H-SiC pin diode on the (000-1)C-face have been investigated. The pin diode on the C-face has superior potential to that on the Si-face among all parameters of the reverse recovery characteristics. The pin diode on the Si-face after conducting a current stress test tends to exhibit a fast turn-off as compared with that before conducting the stress test. On the C-face, however, there is little difference in reverse recovery characteristics between before and after conducting the current stress test.


Pyrolysis, a thermal cracking process in inert environment, may be used to produce bio-oil from biomass and plastic waste thus accommodating the use of renewable energy. Abundant amount of biomass wastes in Indonesia are not utilised and plastic wastes are not well processed for clean environment. The aim of present work was to evaluate effect of mass ratio of plastic material to biomass in the feed blend of corn cobs and high density polyethylene (HDPE) of co-pyrolysis on bio-oil yield and chemical composition of bio-oil products. The heating rate of the co-pyrolysis was kept low and residence time was in the order of seconds to accommodate high yield of oil originating from plastic pyrolysis. Corn cobs have high cellulose and hemicellulose content (84%) which is potential to produce bio-oil. The pyrolysis was conducted in a laboratory-scale using a fixed bed reactor with final temperature of 500 °C, heating rate 5 °C/min, flow rate N2 750 mL/min, total weight of biomass and plastic material of 20 g, and hold time after peak temperature of 30 min. Mass ratio of plastics to biomass in the feed blend was varied 0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25 and 100:0. It was found that by increasing HDPE content up to 100% in the feed blend above, the yields of bio-oil decreased, i.e. 28.05, 21.55, 14.55, 9.5, and 6.3 wt%, respectively. Furthermore, for the same variation of the mass ratio, yields of the non-oxygenate mixture of paraffins, olefins and cycloalkanes contained in bio-oil increased, i.e. 0, 28.35, 40.75, 47.17, and 67.05 wt%, respectively. Analysis of the synergetic effect indicates that this effect did work effectively both in bio-oil and non-oxygenate yields due to improper conductive heat transfer from N2 gas to melting plastics, which contained biomass particles. By increasing composition of HDPE in the feed blend, viscosity and pH of bio-oil changed approaching to those of commercial diesel oil.


This paper investigates a puzzle and possible policy concern: Why do platforms such as eBay and Visa that enable the trade of goods of different unobserved costs and values rely predominantly on linear ad-valorem fees, that is, fees that increase in proportion to the sale price of the trades that they enable? Under a broad class of demand functions, we show that a linear ad-valorem fee schedule enables a platform to maximize its profit as if it could actually observe the costs and values of the goods traded and set a different optimal fee for each good. Surprisingly, we find for this class of demands, allowing the platform to set ad-valorem fees (i.e. price discriminate) increases social welfare, both when the platform is regulated to recover costs and when the platform is unregulated.


The edited volume Reanimating Industrial Spaces: Conducting Memory Work in Post-Industrial Societies , which developed out of two panels at conferences of the Theoretical Archaeology Group and the European Association of Archaeologists, examines the varied afterlives of industrial sites after the abandonment of active production. Deindustrialization has radically transformed places and their communities and led to economic degeneration, material decay, and unemployment, with 22 million jobs lost between 1969 and 1976 in the United States alone.


Conductivity parameters of an aqueous solution of benzylidene substituted anilines (I-IV) have been determined at five different temperatures in the range of 283.15-318.15 o K, through accurate conductance measurements. The obtained data were analyzed in accordance to Lee-Wheaton equation taking into account the activity of the electrolyte in the solution. The conductance measurement results were used to determine the association constants (KA) of ion-pairs, the mean distance between ions in solution, in addition to the molar conductance at infinite dilution (Λo) for the free ion in the solution. The dependence of (KA) values on the temperature has been examined by plotting Log KA against the reciprocal values of temperature (1/T), which showed linear relationship, where (KA) values decrease with increasing temperature. Moreover, the enthalpy (∆H), Gibbs free energy (∆G) and the entropy (∆S) have been derived from this linear relationship.


Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterized by decreased bone mineral density (BMD) and micro-architectural deterioration with, consequently, an increase in bone fragility and susceptibility to fractures. It is caused by an imbalance in bone remodelling: bone resorption by osteoclasts exceeds bone formation by osteoblasts. Osteopenia, a condition preceding osteoporosis, can be characterized by unbalanced metabolic-nutritional-oxidative status. If, by means of prevention tests, you realize in time you have this condition, it could be treated with success. Increasing evidence suggests that dietary silicon (Si) is beneficial to bone and connective tissue health; a positive association between dietary Si intake and BMD has been demonstrated. Our aim was to evaluate the possible beneficial effects of an antioxidant compound enriched with Si dioxide (CELLFOOD® SILICA PLUS, Nu Science Corporation, CA, USA) on osteopenic women's BMD and metabolic-nutritional-oxidative status. A retrospective observational pilot study was carried out on 10 osteopenic women (aged 65,6±5,5) at baseline (T0) and after 3 (T1) and 5 (T2) months' CELLFOOD® SILICA PLUS supplementation, by assessing anthropometric, metabolic (bone metabolism), nutritional (glycaemia status; lipid panel; homocysteinaemia, Hcy), oxidative (Reactive Oxygen Species, ROS; Total Antioxidant Capacity, TAC; oxidized LDL, ox-LDL) parameters. All the analytes were measured by routine methods. DBM evaluation was carried out by using phalangeal ultrasonographic examination (DMB Sonic Bone profiler, IGEA, Italy). During the study the subjects' glycaemia status, lipid panel and homocysteinaemia were and remained within the reference values, taking into account intra-individual variability. Bone metabolism improved too (at T1, slight reduction in T-score, and, at T2, a significant increase in Calcium and Alkaline Phosphatase levels). Ox-LDL is an innovative marker of oxidative stress. Interestingly, oxidative status showed that ox-LDL levels decreased significantly after 5 months' CELLFOOD® SILICA PLUS supplementation. This marker could be associated with the slight improvement in TAC. As expected, high ROS concentrations remained approximately unchanged. In fact, osteopenia following menopause causes oxidative stress because of estrogen (molecules with antioxidant properties) deficiency and unbalanced oxidative status (ROS and TAC imbalance) possibly depending on high osteoclastic activity. The preliminary data of this pilot study suggest that CELLFOOD® SILICA PLUS can produce beneficial effects on osteopenia.  Interestingly, this supplement might be a valuable coadjuvant in the prevention and treatment of oxidative stress and of bone mineral resorption, thanks to both its antioxidant properties and Si dioxide fortification.


This paper argues that a China-US "G2" is neither necessary nor sufficient for the resolution of crucial global order issues such as excessive global payments imbalances. Although the bilateral payments imbalance between both countries constitutes the largest component of global imbalances, the acuteness of relative power concerns and their reverberation in domestic politics has rendered the G2 unable to address this problem effectively. Their bilateral conflict has also hampered the efforts of the G20 and the IMF on global imbalances, but these two bodies together offer much better prospects for progress in this area. Reducing global imbalances requires them to address their main origins, which lie in the domestic political constraints on national policymakers and the asymmetries of international power that have progressively delegitimized the IMF and the multilateral surveillance process. Domestic political constraints will remain important, but the latter problem is, surprisingly, less intractable. The G20 and IMF could achieve progress by (1) undertaking more ambitious reforms of IMF governance to improve the legitimacy of IMF finance and of the multilateral surveillance process, and (2) promoting a more symmetrical multicurrency reserve system with associated policy guidelines for actual and potential reserve currency issuers, and reserve accumulation guidelines among the rest of the IMF membership


This paper explores the perceptions of employees of different ages regarding the flexibility they need at work (flexibility fit) and their engagement with work. Using 49,209 observations representing 183,454 employees in 22 different companies, we estimated a hierarchical linear model (HLM) to explain variation in employee engagement as a function of flexibility fit and age. Although flexibility fit was a powerful positive predictor of engagement for all employees, it was a more powerful predictor of engagement for employees ages 45 and older. The positive moderating effect of flexibility fit provides employers with guidance about how to maintain the engagement of workers of all ages, but especially older workers who want to extend their participation in the labor force.


: Distribution of myelinated nervous fibers in the layer 9 of the optic tectum of the frog Rana temporaria has been investigated in normal animals as well as 6--9, 60 and 134 days after contralateral enucleation. Counts were made on long and oriented sections at the screen of electron microscope. Fields of myelinated fibers in the layer 9, visible under light microscopic, are not distinguished by higher density of these fibers and differ from the other parts of sections probably due to some qualitative differences, especially because of parallel orientation of these fibers within a field. In rostral part of the tectum, myelinated fiber density in the most superficial zone of the layer 9 (0--50 millimicrons from the outer surface) is higher as compared with central and caudal parts. After degeneration of myelinated optic fibers, there are many unchanged fibers of this type in the layer 9.


Spectral direct numerical simulations (DNS) are carried out for a source–sink flow in an annular cavity between two co-rotating disks. When the Reynolds number based on the forced inflow is increased, a self-sustained crossflow instability of finite amplitude is observed. We show that this nonlinear global mode is made up of a front located at the upstream boundary of the absolutely unstable domain, followed by a saturated spiral mode, and that its properties are in good agreement with results of the local stability theory. This structure is characteristic of the so-called elephant mode of Pier & Huerre (J. Fluid Mech. vol. 435, 2001, p. 145). The global bifurcation is subcritical since only large-amplitude initial perturbations are found to trigger the elephant mode. Small-amplitude perturbations induce a long-lasting transient growth but lead eventually to a damped linear global mode, showing that non-parallel effects counteract the absolute instability and restabilize the flow. A similar linear global stabilization due to non-parallel effects has been found in the case of the flow above a single rotating disk. For the single-disk geometry, the existence of an elephant mode would imply, together with results of Davies & Carpenter (2003) a subcritical global instability, which has not yet been demonstrated. Although the present geometry differs from the single-disk case, the existence of a subcritical global bifurcation is now established, allowing a precise analysis of the transition scenarios.


Very few research studies have been dedicated to understanding the role of social media, diversity and vulnerability during a highly impacting event for a society. Social media are very important nowadays as a way to be in "connection to" and "link between" individuals. Thanks to technological support it is possible to create new virtual and real social relationships and networks and to be always up to date about what happen in the world. The role that virtual space plays "reducing distances", connecting people and places and facilitating the provision of support to people in need, has been receiving increasing interest in disaster studies in last years. In particular, connectivity has assumed an increasing role in relation to the diffusion of means to reach people and places in virtual mode. Furthermore, the use of social media as a means of providing information on disasters and risks could help to reduce exposure in disasters. However, several knowledge gaps are still opened, and in particular which are the potential repercussions of a high connected disaster management process on vulnerability? How can the weight of diversity change into the virtual space? The premise is that not everyone has the same possibility of accessing social media (e.g. to be informed, to know what is happening and to link with rescuers). The difficulty of accessing social media can make people invisible into the disaster management process with the risk that someone could be left behind. Thus, this presentation aims to discuss the challenges that derive from an increasing use of social platform in providing and receiving information during disasters. A second relevant point, that this presentation aims to discuss, is linked to the way citizens perceive communication platforms and how the flow of information significantly impacts on the interpretation and on the management of risk. Conclusions of this work suggest that communication should take into account the risk perception models by the public and therefore the peculiarities of each vulnerable group, to provide "targeted" communications in relation to the cultural context with the aim of reducing vulnerability growing up citizens’ awareness and knowledge. This presentation is the result of the work provided as part of the EU H2020 founded project LINKS (http://links-project.eu).


An Automated Design Environment for MMIC design is presented. The architecture of the Environment based upon the use of expert systems is described and the methods by which different levels of design knowledge are presented to and addressed by the system are discussed. A detailed view of the program architecture based upon a validated MMIC design algorithm is given. The paper concludes with a brief look at the advantages obtained through use of the system.


Progress in software engineering has been made through the development of natural high-level abstractions with which to model and develop complex systems. The abstraction and modelling of agent technology play an important role in distributed systems. Multi-Agent System paradigm introduces a number of new abstractions when compared to more traditional systems. They may be used by software developers to more naturally understand, model and develop an important class of complex distributed systems. Accordingly new analysis and design methodologies are needed to effectively engineer such systems. In this paper, we propose the analysis and design of a multi-agent system for the provisioning of context-aware services in an ambient intelligence domain: an airport.


"The purpose of this study is to examine the demographic evolution of the Brazilian homogeneous microregions in the period 1970/80. It is based on the relative variations observed [in] the population as a whole.... Microregional unities were classified according to the intensity of their populational increase and loss. The different classes were spatially identified in order to establish the relation between demographic growth and the characteristics of the areas." (summary in ENG)


A rapid, robust and accurate ultra-high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for determination of impurities of simvastatin in drug and its pharmaceutical formulation. A systematic Quality-by-design approach was used for method development with the Fusion AETM software, to screen and optimize the column, mobile phase, column temperature, gradient time and other chromatographic conditions. The optimized method uses Waters Acquity Charged Surface Hybrid, Octadecylsilane C18 (1.7μm×2.1 mm×100 mm) column with gradient elution. Orthophosphoric acid pH was adjusted to 4.5 with triethylamine and acetonitrile with a ratio of (80:20) was used as mobile phase A, whereas methanol:acetonitrile (20:80) as mobile phase B, with a flow rate of 0.35 ml/min. Ultra Violet detector was programmed at 238 nm with a runtime of 13 min, wherein all the impurities were well resolved and were separated from main peak of simvastatin. The method was validated for accuracy, repeatability, reproducibility and robustness. All the validation parameters were in acceptable range. The linearity, limit of detection and limit of quantitation was established for all the impurities and for simvastatin. The method was also applied suitably for determining the degradation products of simvastatin using stress degradation studies


Glaucoma Unit, Glaucoma and Optic Nerve Disease Department, Research Institute of Ophthalmology; RIO, Giza, Egypt Introduction: Primary congenital glaucoma (PCG) is a challenging disease that needs to be surgically managed with more innovative methods. Conventional incisional surgery, such as goniotomy and trabeculotomy, has a primary high success rate, but does not seem to be a very effective treatment in advanced stages. Design: A prospective clinical case study. Purpose: To qualify the outcome, in terms of success rate, of goniotomy combined with trabeculotomy as a surgical option to treat eyes affected by PCG with a corneal diameter larger than 14 mm. Patients and Methods: This study included 50 eyes of 50 patients diagnosed with PCG with corneal diameter larger than 14 mm who underwent ab interno goniotomy combined with ab externo trabeculotomy. Intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured preoperatively and 24 months postoperatively. A statistical analysis was performed to detect correlations between the success rate and corneal diameter, preoperative IOP, age of onset, axial length, and consanguinity. The main outcome was reduction in IOP; secondary outcomes were factors affecting the success rate, complications, and the need for additional surgical intervention to control IOP. Results: The mean age of the patients was 18.86±9.94 months. Males made up 52% of cases and females 48% of cases. Positive consanguinity was present in 38% of cases. Axial length ranged between 20 and 22 mm, with a mean of 20.98±0.8 mm. Mean preoperative IOP was 29.56±3.36 mmHg, which decreased postoperatively to 12.6±2.5, 14.1±3.2, 16.8±5.5, 14.4±2.3, 14.3±1.6, 14.3±1.6, 14.3±1.6, 14.3±1.7, and 14.3±1.7 mmHg at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, and 24 months respectively (p˂0.001). Use of medical treatment was decreased from 2.7±0.4 preoperatively to 1.4±0.7 postoperatively (p˂0.001). Hyphema was the only complication that appeared, occurring in 47% of cases. The success rate was 94%. Complete success (IOP <21 mmHg without treatment) was achieved in 70% of cases, 24% were considered a qualified success (IOP <21 mmHg with treatment), while failure was documented in 6% of cases (IOP >21 mmHg with treatment). The success rate was significantly related to preoperative IOP, corneal diameter, axial length, consanguinity, and age of onset (p˂0.001). All cases were followed for 24 months. Conclusion: Ab interno goniotomy combined with ab externo trabeculotomy improves the success rate of buphthalmos surgery. A significant correlation was detected between success rate and preoperative IOP, corneal diameter, axial length, consanguinity, and age of onset.


Charles Bujold presents his comments on Jevne's (1981) article and treats three aspects: (1) Utilization of psychometry and information in counselling in its broadest sense; (2) the role of the educator in the training of counsellors; (3) the general practice versus specialization in the training of counsellors. Jevne exposes a certain amount of data related to the skills considered to be important for Canadian counsellors and points relating to their training. The data is based on "informed opinions" rather than on empirically verifiable knowledge which would be sufficiently consistent and convergent to be used as a frame of reference in the elaboration of policies relating to the professional preparation of future counsellors.


This article explores the construction of narrative suspense in Edgar Allan Poe's and Alfred Hitchcock's works. Central to their creations is a dual narrative structure that builds tension by articulating two stories in one. Narratological analyses of Poe's tales and of Hitchcock's thrillers indicate that their suspense does not stem from gothic topoi, but from plots skilfully wrought to manipulate the readers/viewers' attention. The first part of the article introduces the concept of narrative suspense. Next, structural principles defended by Poe and Hitchcock are presented. The last two parts discuss narrative techniques in the works by both authors. Given the authors' influence within their respective media, the analysis has implications for studies of the short story and of the suspense thriller as a narrative genre.


The paper deals with phase diagram calculations and predictions of selected binary, ternary, and Zr-Nb-O-H quaternary system. These systems are important as alloy base for cladding materials involving fissionable fuel in nuclear industry. The main attention is focused on the phase diagram prediction of Zr-1wt.%Nb-O alloy system at temperature conditions up to 2 000 °C. In addition, the influence of hydrogen content on the Zr-1wt.%Nb-O phase diagram is discussed. According to service conditions in nuclear industry, 1 000, 2 000 and 3 000 ppm of hydrogen contents are considered. The achieved results are presented as iso-concentration section of the phase diagrams. Impact on mechanical properties of the material under view is discussed.


The voyages of exploration and discovery during the period of European maritime expansion and the immense amount of information and artefacts they produced about our knowledge of the world have maintained a difficult, if not non-existent, relationship with the main historiographical lines of the history of early modern science. This article attempts to problematize this relationship based on a historical account that seeks to highlight the scientific and institutional mechanisms that made the Magellan-Elcano voyage, the first modern voyage, possible. The text argues that this voyage was the first modern voyage because it allowed the construction of a new scientific and cartographic image of the globe and contributed to our understanding of the world as a global world, altering the foundations on which modern European economic and geographic thought was based. In that sense, the voyage was something extraordinary, but not completely unexpected. It responded to a complex process of expansionary policy and technical development that dated back to the 15th century, which in 1519 was sufficiently articulated to carry out a great feat.


Therapy of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is undergoing a revolution: in early stage NSCLC surgical treatment possibilities have been enhanced by the introduction of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) offering patients relevant benefits including less pain and a better quality of life (1). For advanced stages the implementation of targeted and immune-therapies have just begun to emerge and are about to replace classical chemotherapy as first line treatment option in selected cases (2,3). These developments will significantly change established treatment algorithms.


In the foreseeable future, major cloud vendors will need to store multiple zettabytes of data in their cloud storage infrastructure. Like all storage, cloud storage systems need to trade performance for cost, and they currently achieve this by using storage tiers backed by different storage media. The ultimate goal for cloud storage would be to provide zero-cost storage with low access latencies and high throughput. But all the storage media being deployed in the cloud today were created before the cloud existed, and were designed to support many usage scenarios. With cloud storage, the focus is on cost, and storage needs to be designed to be right-provisionable. The limits of what is possible with existing storage technologies are being reached, and a new clean-slate approach is needed for cloud storage. Hence, the time is right to seek out a new physical media to underpin novel storage systems designed exclusively to support the cloud. In Project Silica, Microsoft Research and Southampton University, are exploring whether quartz glass could be the future media for mass storage in the cloud. In this paper, we describe the basis for the technology, and discuss conventional assumptions about storage that we are challenging in Project Silica.