Language variety (multilingualism) gains today more and more significance in our community. Children in their early school years have already access to different language sources. There is a friendly educational environment that allows further students fit into new practices whereas languages are able to help them (re)orienting their educational frame. In times past the rigid curriculum of the school system restricted language variety. The decision to exclude Low German (Niederdeutsch) in schools in the 19th century led to a partial extinction of the language and its dialects in Northern Germany nowadays, whereas miles away in South Europe the Basque language reshaped its ideological terrain and turned from a banned language in Franco's dictatorship (about 40 years ago) into a co-official regional language in nowadays Spain with an increasing number of speakers. This paper investigates firstly the status of a language as a minority/local/regional language in opposition to a dominant/national/official language, whereas denominations such as: minority or official languages need further explanations. In Ireland the Irish language has the status of an official language, on the other hand the number of people who declared they speak the language amounts to 6-7% in the whole population. This gives Irish both a minority and an official status, nevertheless: the name of a so called minority language can vary depending on region and tradition. Low German, also known as Nether German or Low Saxon (Niederdeutsch, Plattdeutsch, Nedersaksisch) is still competing for an official name. Whereas in Spain there is Euskera or el Vasco. Secondly, the paper analyses the role of two minority languages within the national educational system of Spain, France and Germany. The two languages are: the Basque language which is spoken in Northern Spain (more exactly in the Basque Country and northern Navarre) and France (in the French Basque Country), the second language is: Low German (spoken mainly in northern parts of Germany). Thirdly, the present paper concludes the fact that within a multilingual/bilingual/monolingual milieu of nowadays Europe a revitalization of a minority language can be achieved due to certain social mechanisms. There is the school system on one hand, then the tradition and identity values a certain group of people may perform and of course there are the authorities and the language policies they develop on the other hand. Accordingly, by means of a collaboration of these mechanisms a revitalization of the Basque language was possible in Spain, respectively because of a malfunction of these structures we notice a decline of Low German in Germany.


There is currently a worldwide debate on reliability and variation in property capital values. Empirical surveys in Nigeria have followed the general trend of statistical evaluations with a focus on valuers. However, the views of the Nigerian valuers' clients (defined in the paper as the public valuation offices, the mortgage, commercial and merchant lending institutions, and private/public property investors) on valuation accuracy are rarely aired, except where voice is given to their bitter official complaints of negligence to the valuers' professional institution. The paper reasoned that that a survey of clients' perceptions should complement the existing valuer surveys by providing valuer/client comparisons and valuable insights on touchy issues such as maximum acceptable percentage of error of estimates, the efficiency of valuations as a proxy for market prices, as well as inferences on the way forward to more client friendly valuations. The paper accordingly conducted a questionnaire survey of valuers' clients in Lagos metropolis, a metropolis where sixty per cent of Nigerian valuers are based. Results showed that the maximum acceptable margin of error from the viewpoint of clients was in the region of 5%. It was also deduced that a majority of respondents preferred capital value estimates to be presented as a range of likely estimates (with a point estimate showing the most likely estimate in the range), rather than as point estimates alone as is conventionally done. Generally, clients were evenly split on whether valuations were reliable or consistent; however, a slight majority was of the opinion that the valuations generally fell within the 5% acceptable margin of error. The dissenting group of clients pointed to valuations generally falling outside of this margin of error, and traced reasons for this to alleged valuer incapability, particularly in the alleged use of inappropriate - and sometimes conflicting - valuation methods. The paper concluded that the clients of Nigerian valuers expect a higher quality of valuation accuracy, presentation and analysis than their valuers are currently providing, and recommended that valuers embrace client oriented standards - incorporated into a valuation practice manual - as a framework for improving the quality of their valuations.


Sport, recreation, wellness, medical sport programmes and other types of sport activities offered in tourism and hospitality enterprises, can be presented, in organizational design, in form of operated department. For the accounting information system it represents responsibility centres from standpoint of management authority in organizations structure. Responsibility centre is a broad term, meaning any part of an organization that has control over the incurrence of cost, the generating of revenue, or the use of investment fund. They can be organised as cost, revenue, profit or investment centres. Responsibility centre reporting system is defined through the international accounting standards and principles, and is known as " segment reporting" . Sport' s income segment reporting is the result of responsibility accounting as subsystem of managerial accounting. Sport segment can be defined as part of activity of hotel or tourism enterprise, about which, the middle level of sport' s departmental managers seek cost, revenue or profit data and information. The fundamental principle of responsibility accounting as a subsystem of managerial accounting is that costs are assigned to the hierarchical levels sport' s department management which are in charge of their control to make managers responsible for the difference between budgeted and realised results. The efficiency of responsibility accounting reporting system depends on the level and comparability with the management information system. The conception of sport' s segment should be based on principles review, decentralisation, responsibility, because only with correct application of these principles. The shaping of relevant information has to be directed towards decision making processes and real needs of the sport' s department management. These data and information in accounting reports assure control that is based on the management responsibility for realised or not realised results on every hierarchic level or segment. It is connected with the specialization, departmentalisation, authority, span of control and coordination to ensure efficient coordination and control of activities, and prepare the information in the process of decision-making. The content of sport' s income statement depends on internal enterprise organisation, individual management requirements and cost allocation bases. Responsibility accounting is the most important segment of management accounting in particular needs to be singled out as an important system and methodological prerequisite for preparation of relevant information about specific costs, revenues and results in sport departments in tourism and hospitality industry.


BACKGROUND
In August 2000, the Minnesota Department of Health was notified of and investigated an outbreak of febrile respiratory illness among workers at a sugar-beet processing plant.

METHODS
A case was defined as fever and respiratory symptoms occurring in a worker at the sugar-beet plant on or after 31 July 2000. Case patients were interviewed, medical and work records were reviewed, and clinical samples were obtained. The plant was inspected, and environmental samples were collected.

RESULTS
Fourteen of 15 case patients performed high-pressure water cleaning in the confined space of an evaporator vessel. Symptoms included fever and chills (100%), chest tightness (93%), cough (80%), and shortness of breath (73%). In case patients, median temperature was 39.4 degrees C, median oxygen saturation was 93%, and median white blood cell count was 12x10(3) cells/ mu L. Four (29%) of 14 case patients showed evidence of Legionella pneumophila exposure, according to serologic testing. Water sources contained up to 10(5) cfu/mL of L. pneumophila and 22,200 endotoxin units/mL.

CONCLUSIONS
Outbreak features were consistent with Pontiac fever. Respiratory symptoms, which are atypical for Pontiac fever, could be attributed to a high exposure dose of L. pneumophila from confined-space aerosolization or to endotoxin exposure. This outbreak demonstrates the potential occupational hazards for those performing high-pressure cleaning in confined spaces.


This paper investigates a human body posture estimation method based on the back projection of human silhouette images extracted from multi-camera images. The multi-camera system is based on a server-client system with local network of 1000 Base-T to achieve a voxel 3D reconstruction of human body posture in real-time. In order to extract significant points of the human body such as head, neck, shoulders, elbow joints, hands, waist, knee joints, and toes in 3D, an articulated cylindrical human model is applied to the voxel reconstruction of human body. To evaluate the proposed human body posture estimation method, 3D reconstruction experiments of human body posture and extraction experiments of human bodypsilas significant points are carried out. The system runs in real time (9 frames/sec with 50 times 50 times 50 voxel resolution) and the experimental results confirm both the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system in 3D human body posture estimation.


We present a closed formula for all Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) numerators describing D-dimensional tree-level scattering amplitudes in a heavy-mass effective field theory with two massive particles and an arbitrary number of gluons. The corresponding gravitational amplitudes obtained via the double copy directly enter the computation of black-hole scattering and gravitational-wave emission. Our construction is based on finding a kinematic algebra for the numerators, which we relate to a quasishuffle Hopf algebra. The BCJ numerators thus obtained have a compact form and intriguing features: gauge invariance is manifest, locality is respected for massless exchange, and they contain poles corresponding to massive exchange. Counting the number of terms in a BCJ numerator for n-2 gluons gives the Fubini numbers F_{n-3}, reflecting the underlying quasishuffle Hopf algebra structure. Finally, by considering an appropriate factorization limit, the massive particles decouple, and we thus obtain a kinematic algebra and all tree-level BCJ numerators for D-dimensional pure Yang-Mills theory.


With the advent of the Internet and intranets, substantial interest is being shown in Asian language information retrieval; especially in Chinese, which is a good example of an Asian ideographic language (other examples include Japanese and Korean). Since, in this type of language, spaces do not delimit words, an important issue is which index terms should be extracted from documents. This issue also has wider implications for indexing other languages such as agglutinating languages (e.g., Finnish and Turkish), archaic ideographic languages like Egyptian hieroglyphs, and other types of information such as data stored in genomic databases. Although comparisons of indexing strategies for Chinese documents have been made, almost all of them are based on a single retrieval model. This article compares the performance of various combinations of indexing strategies (i.e., character, word, short-word, bigram, and Pircs indexing) and retrieval models (i.e., vector space, 2-Poisson, logistic regression, and Pircs models). We determine which model (and its parameters) achieves the (near) best retrieval effectiveness without relevance feedback, and compare it with the open evaluations (i.e., TREC and NTCIR) for both long and title queries. In addition, we describe a more extensive investigation of retrieval efficiency. In particular, the storage cost of word indexing is only slightly more than character indexing, and bigram indexing is about double the storage cost of other indexing strategies. The retrieval time typically varies linearly with the number of unique terms in the query, which is supported by correlation values above 90%. The Pircs retrieval system achieves robust and good retrieval performance, but it appears to be the slowest method, whereas vector space models were not very effective in retrieval, but were able to respond quickly. For robust, near-best retrieval effectiveness, without considering storage overhead, the 2-Poisson model using bigram indexing appears to be a good compromise between retrieval effectiveness and efficiency for both long and title queries.


In this study, stem bark of Crossopteryx febrifuga (Rubiaceae), a traditional medicinal, plant used for treatment of various diseases. The diseases was phytochemically screened by cold maceration using hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol extracts. Results revealed the presence of bioactive compounds such as alkaloids, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, and phytosterols. Separation and purification of the ethyl acetate extracts by column chromatography (CC), thin layer chromatography (TLC), vacuum liquid chromatography (VLC) and characterization with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic analyses, led to isolation of spinasterol, established on the basis of both 13C and 1H NMR spectral data and by comparison with literature. It was also confirmed that, spinasterol cures diabetes by reducing serum triglycerides. This is the first report on isolation of spinasterol from the stem bark of Crossopteryx febrfuga.


This paper presents long-term results of a randomised study of ornidazole as a radiosensitiser in locally advanced carcinoma of the cervix. A total of 76 patients were randomised and followed-up with a median of 85 months. All patients were treated with external and intracavitary irradiation. The 10 year actuarial local control rate was 61% in patients receiving ornidazole, compared with 50% for placebo group. This difference was not statistically significant. Ten year actuarial overall and disease-free survival rates were also similar in the two treatment groups. Although, when analysed by stage, there was a significant advantage in the local control (54% vs 15%; P = 0.044) and disease-free survival rates (37% vs 8%; P = 0.047) in ornidazole group for stage IIIB cases, its implication is obscure because of the small number of patients. In this study moderate and severe complication rates were found to be 30%. These results suggest that ornidazole seems to have relatively weak sensitisation and it may show a possibility of a marginal benefit with unconventional irradiation using relatively large radiation doses. However, the results are insufficient for a real gain in the probability of local tumour control and survival.


A one-dimensional control volume formulation is developed for the determination of jet mixing noise reduction due to water injection. The analysis starts from the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy for the control volume and introduces the concept of effective jet parameters (jet temperature, jet velocity, and jet Mach number). It is shown that the water-to-jet mass flow rate ratio is an important parameter characterizing the jet noise reduction on account of gas-to-droplet momentum and heat transfer. Two independent dimensionless invariant groups are postulated and provide the necessary relations for the droplet size and droplet Reynolds number. Results are presented illustrating the effect of mass flow rate ratio on the jet mixing noise reduction for a range of jet Mach numbers and jet Reynolds numbers. Predictions from the model show satisfactory comparison with available test data on perfectly expanded hot supersonic jets. The results suggest that significant noise reductions can be achieved at increased flow rate ratios.


In recent times, there has been an increase in drug abuse in the general population and in women of reproductive age. Our objectives were to identify, classify, and describe the spectrum of complications, the average number of admissions, and the length of hospital stay among pregnant women with substance abuse. The aim was to understand complication prevalence better to improve management in this ever-growing population. A retrospective chart review was conducted of pregnant women ages 18-45 with a history of substance abuse from 2013-2018 in the tri-state area of West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. We collected the following data: demographics, medical history, specific substances abused, inpatient admission dates and diagnoses, and delivery information. A total of 411 patients met the inclusion criteria, comprising 525 pregnancies. Out of 525 pregnancies, 71.6 % used buprenorphine (i.e., Subutex), 43.4% used opiates (excluding heroin), and 35% of patients used heroin. Out of the 525 pregnancies, there were 714 inpatient antepartum admissions. Of these, 376 were admissions due to withdrawal symptoms (52.7%). A total of 263 pregnancies had at least one admission for withdrawal, drug abuse, overdose, or buprenorphine/ methadone conversion (50%). The average hospital stay for withdrawal admissions was 3.4 days (SD). There were 62 admissions for infectious causes, 24 due to pyelonephritis (38.7%). The findings highlight multiple areas for future studies and areas for quality improvement in managing this population.


Impaction bone grafting (IBG) with human allograft remains the preferred approach for replacement of lost bone stock during revision hip surgery. Associated problems include cost, disease transmission, and stem subsidence. Synthetic grafts are therefore appealing, and ideally display similar mechanical characteristics as allograft, but with enhanced ability to form de novo bone. High and low molecular weight forms of three different polymers [poly(DL-lactide) (P(DL) LA), poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (P(DL) LGA), and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)] were milled, impacted into discs, and then examined in a shear testing rig, in comparison to allograft. In addition, skeletal stem cells (SSCs) were combined with each of the milled polymers, followed by impaction and examination for cell viability and number, via fluorostaining and biochemical assays. The shear strengths of high/low mwt P(DL) LA, and high/low mwt P(DL) LGA were significantly higher than allograft (p < 0.01). High/low mwt PCL had significantly lower shear strengths (p < 0.01). WST-1 assay and fluorstaining indicated significantly increased cell viability on high mwt P(DL) LA and high mwt P(DL) LGA over allograft (p < 0.05). Mechanical and biochemical analysis indicated improved properties of high mwt P(DL) LA and high mwt P(DL) LGA over allograft. This study indicates the potential of these polymers for use as substitute human allograft, creating a living composition with SSC for application in IBG.


ABSTRACT Bayesian analysis provides a convenient setting for the estimation of complex generalized additive regression models (GAMs). Since computational power has tremendously increased in the past decade, it is now possible to tackle complicated inferential problems, for example, with Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation, on virtually any modern computer. This is one of the reasons why Bayesian methods have become increasingly popular, leading to a number of highly specialized and optimized estimation engines and with attention shifting from conditional mean models to probabilistic distributional models capturing location, scale, shape (and other aspects) of the response distribution. To embed many different approaches suggested in literature and software, a unified modeling architecture for distributional GAMs is established that exploits distributions, estimation techniques (posterior mode or posterior mean), and model terms (fixed, random, smooth, spatial,…). It is shown that within this framework implementing algorithms for complex regression problems, as well as the integration of already existing software, is relatively straightforward. The usefulness is emphasized with two complex and computationally demanding application case studies: a large daily precipitation climatology, as well as a Cox model for continuous time with space-time interactions. Supplementary material for this article is available online.


Chromosomal examination was made in the bone marrow and lymphocytes of the peripheral blood of 37 children with acute leukemia. Of them 25 had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 12 had acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL). NA karyotype was registered in 13 patients (5 with ALL, 9 with ANLL), AA karyotype in 17 children (12 with ALL, 5 with ANLL). In All the following chromosomal markers were identified: del(6)/(q22), del(7)(q32), del(11)(q23), 9p+, t(8; 14) (q24; q32). In ANLL there were: 46, XY, t(3; 8)/46, XY; 47, XY, +16, +(2; 14)--M1-form; 46, XX, t(8; 21); 46, XX, t(8; 21)/46, XX--M2-form; 47, XX, +mar/46, XX; 47, XY, +12--M4-form; 46, XX, del(16)/46, XX, 47, XY, +16; 48, XY, +5, +8--M5-form FAB.


Retirement migration has been well documented over the past 2 decades. Initially, there were many reservations expressed about the economic impact of retirees on receiving communities; however, several recent studies have documented a positive financial benefit of retirement migration for the destination areas. Although acknowledging the economic benefit of retirees on receiving communities, this article addresses the broader implications of the retirement boom on sparsely populated, nonmetropolitan coastal counties. The relationship between this aspect of economic development and the rise of the tourist industry in these areas is also examined. Other issues investigated include infrastructure requirements; environmental concerns; medical facilities and personnel, and rising taxes, utilities, and other costs.


3896 Epidemiological and experimental studies suggest that diminished folate status increases the risk of colorectal carcinogenesis, and that this effect may be mediated through the induction of abnormalities in DNA methylation and nucleotide synthesis. Folate's biochemical functions within one-carbon metabolism are dependent on adequate availability of several other B-vitamins, including vitamin B2, B6 and B12. This study therefore investigated if mild depletion of vitamins B2, B6 and B12 superimposed upon the effects of mild folate depletion would impact on select molecular events in the colonic mucosa relevant to carcinogenesis: genomic DNA methylation, uracil misincorporation and gene expression. Four-month old C57BL/6J mice (n=108) were divided into 6 groups and pair-fed one of six diets for 10 wks: vitamin replete, mild folate (0 mg/kg) depletion alone, or mild folate depletion combined with mild inadequacies of vitamin B2 (0.5 mg/kg), vitamin B6 (0.5 mg/kg), and/or vitamin B12 (0 mg/kg). Genomic DNA methylation, uracil misincorporation and gene expression were measured in colonic DNA by LC/MS, GC/MS and real-time PCR, respectively. Assays of vitamin status in the blood showed that very mild, but significant, inadequacies of vitamins B2, B6 and B12 were successfully induced in the corresponding groups (p ≤ 0.05). Although genomic DNA methylation in the folate-deplete group (1.55+0.13) was not significantly reduced when compared to the folate-sufficient group (1.60±0.28), DNA hypomethylation (0.90±0.18) did occur with mild folate depletion combined with mild inadequacies of B2, B6, and B12 (P ≤ 0.05). Similarly, minor reductions in the expression of the APC and p53 genes produced by mild folate depletion alone were significantly magnified by the combined depletion of all the abovementioned B-vitamins, resulting in a 5-fold and 16-fold reduction in expression, respectively (P ≤ 0.01). Uracil incorporation was not significantly altered by vitamin depletion (P ≥ 0.05). These findings indicate that a mild depletion of folate that is of insufficient magnitude by itself to produce adverse molecular consequences in the colon may produce such effects when present in conjunction with mild inadequacies of other one-carbon nutrients, producing large decreases in the expression of relevant tumor suppressor genes even in the absence of any genetic predisposition to colon carcinogenesis. This underscores the potential impact that 'subclinical' B-vitamin depletions may have when they act in concert with one another.


Dyslipidaemia is known to be one of the major contributory factors in atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disorders. In particular, increased circulating low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and accumulation in the vascular bed is thought to have damaging effects. Abnormal lipid profiles in patients with psoriasis have also been identified and it is hypothesised that a similar pathogenesis underlies the two conditions. In particular, the oxidative modification of the LDL particle (oxLDL) is thought to promote inflammation. This thesis therefore aims to investigate whether lipid accumulation and oxidation influences inflammation and vascular function. The inflammatory events occurring in psoriasis were modelled in this thesis using in vitro assays for angiogenesis, endothelial cell migration, inflammatory cell recruitment under flow and immune cell proliferation. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were used as a model endothelium to study the effects of oxidised lipids on vascular function. In order to analyse the lipid contribution to inflammation, serum was depleted of lipids and compared to serum with a full lipid profile. The addition of lipids such as ox-/LDL was evaluated in complete and delipidated serum. This investigation showed that in the absence of serum lipids, endothelial tube formation was significantly impaired, in addition to endothelial cell migration being inhibited. The proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was also abrogated in the absence of serum lipids. Serum lipid depletion did not, however, have any effect on the ability of TNFα- or IFNg-stimulated endothelial cells to recruit leukocytes under shear stress. The addition of oxLDL had biphasic effects on endothelial responses by significantly enhancing migration at lower concentrations of 5µg/mL, yet significantly inhibiting this response at higher concentrations of 100µg/mL. In the recruitment assay, higher concentrations of oxLDL were able to increase the basal recruitment of neutrophils to the endothelial monolayer whereas lower concentrations had no effect on recruitment. Native LDL had no significant effect on these parameters at equivalent concentrations. OxLDL-induced endothelial migration was inhibited by the addition of a sphingosine kinase inhibitor and a blockade of S1P1 on endothelial cells. OxLDL induced migration was not affected by the inhibition of PAF-R. Flow cytometry was used to assess the expression of oxLDL receptors on HUVEC, showing no expression of LOX-1 but slight increases in CD36 expression, although not reaching statistical significance. These data indicate that serum lipids are key in supporting in the angiogenic response, likely by affecting endothelial cell migration, in addition to having an important role in the maintenance of immune cell proliferation. Oxidised lipids have also been shown to have biphasic effects on inflammatory processes, dependent on concentration. These results also highlight the critical role for S1P in oxLDL-induced endothelial cell migration, with the blockade of sphingosine kinase and S1P1 effectively inhibiting these vascular responses. This thesis highlights the importance of the oxidation of LDL and subsequent oxLDL concentration on regulating inflammation. Further understanding in the mechanisms of oxLDL-induced inflammation may provide a therapeutic target in psoriasis and other related inflammatory conditions.


The hepatitis B virus X protein stimulates transcription from a variety of promoter elements, including those activated by transcription factor NF-kappa B. A diverse group of extra- and intracellular agents, including growth factors and the human immunodeficiency virus tat protein, have been shown to require a functional protein kinase C (PKC) system to achieve activation of NF-kappa B. In this study we have investigated the molecular mechanism by which X protein activates NF-kappa B. We demonstrate that in hepatocytes, X protein induces a maximal activation of NF-kappa B corresponding to the sequestered pool of factor, which is also activated by phorbol esters. To determine whether X protein requires activation of PKC to stimulate transcription by NF-kappa B, we attempted to prevent transactivation by X protein in the presence of the PKC inhibitors calphostin C and H7. We show that PKC inhibitors do not block X protein activation of NF-kappa B, whereas they largely impair activation by phorbol esters. In addition, activation of PKC is correlated with its translocation from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane. The subcellular distribution of PKC was investigated by introducing X protein from a replication-defective adenovirus vector, followed by immunochemical detection of PKC in cell fractions. These data also indicate that X protein stimulates transcription by NF-kappa B without the activation and translocation of PKC.


Sideritis caesarea (SC) Duman, Aytac&Baser is a member of the Lamiaceae family. The present study was designed to investigate the antioxidant properties of the aerial parts of island green tea SC against TCA effects in rats. Biomarkers selected for monitoring antioxidant capacity were the activities of glutathione reductase (GR), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione-S-transferase, catalase (CAT), GSH level and malondialdehyde (MDA) content in various organs of rats. Three experimental groups, A (untreated = control), B (only TCA-treated) and C (TCA+SC-treated), were studied. At the end of the 50 d experiment, the MDA content in tissues increased significantly in group B, whereas no significant changes were observed in group C as compared with that of the control group. Antioxidant enzyme activities such as SOD and CAT increased significantly in the brain, liver and kidneys of group B but decreased significantly in group C as compared with group B. The GSH level and GR activity increased significantly in the brain and liver of group C as compared with the control and TCA-exposed rats. Hence, the study reveals that the constituents present in SC impart protection against chemical-induced oxidative injury that may result in the development of cancer.


This study examines the relationship between narrative disclosure properties in terms of readability, optimism, and ambiguity of annual reports and audit fees, and how the relationship changes across firms' various life‐cycle stages. Using 54,883 observations for the years from 2000 to 2016, we find that these textual disclosure properties have positive audit pricing consequences. We suggest that narrative disclosure properties play an important role in estimating audit risk, and thus in audit fees. We further posit that the audit fee consequences of these disclosure characteristics vary across different phases of a client firm's corporate life cycle. Though we observe that with a decrease in readability and an increase in optimism and ambiguity of disclosure language that audit fees increase in the introduction phase, a firm's entry to the growth phase moderates the influence of these narrative disclosure features on audit fees. However, the impact of these lexical features on audit fees increases as client firms switch (1) from the growth phase to the maturity phase and (2) from the maturity phase to the decline phase. Based on these findings, we argue that, when examining the audit fee implication for management's disclosure strategies, researchers should treat client firms as dynamic evolving entities.


Motivated by the ongoing investigation of SrCu2(BO3)(2) under pressure, we study a variant of the two-dimensional Shastry-Sutherland (SS) spin-1/2 model with two types of dimers. Combined with the frustration of the SS model, this modification induces, in a large parameter range, a dimensional reduction at low energies, with nearly decoupled effective S = 1 Haldane chains forming along one of the diagonals of the lattice. We also present evidence that the intermediate plaquette solid phase of the undistorted SS model remains stable in a finite region of the phase diagram.


We provide a novel approach to the design of fast algorithms for matrix multiplication. The operation of matrix multiplication is reformulated as a convolution, which is implemented using pseudo-number-theoretic transforms. Writing the convolution as multiplication of polynomials evaluated off the unit circle reduces the number of multiplications without producing any error, since the (integer) elements of the product matrix are known to be bounded. The new algorithms are somewhat analogous to the arbitrary precision approximation (APA) algorithms, but have the following advantages: (1) a simple design procedure is specified for them; (2) they do not suffer from roundoff error; and (3) reasons for their existence is clear. The new algorithms are also non-commutative, so that they may be applied recursively to block matrix multiplication. This work establishes a link between matrix multiplication and fast convolution algorithms and so opens another line of enquiry for the fast matrix multiplication problem. Some numerical examples illustrate the operation of the new proposed algorithms.


The young chronically psychiatrically disabled adult (YAC) is a challenging new clinical subgroup for whom specialized treatment approaches are being developed. This paper examines the role of the partial hospital in the treatment of YACs and asserts that it should play a central role in such treatment. Specific YAC partial-hospital program characteristics are explicated.


CLIMATOLOGY
Although Atlantic hurricanes frequently strike the southeastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico coast, some reach as far north as New England. The most recent devastating hurricane hit New England in 1938; the storm surge covered parts of Long Island, produced widespread destruction, and devastated many coastal areas. Donnelly et al. used the historical records of major New England hurricanes, which extend back to 1635, to develop a 700-year sedimentary record from a salt marsh in Rhode Island. Hurricanes with large storm surges deposited a clear sandy layer in the marsh. Dating these layers showed that major hurricanes, which produced storm surges that flooded the marsh, have occurred about once per century during this period. — BH

Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 113 , 714 (2001).


Kurek NS, Chandra SB. Nanotechnology based Diagnostics for Neurological Disorders. ARBS Annu Rev Biomed Sci 2012;14:1-15. Nanotechnology involves probing and manipulating matter at the molecular level. Nanotechnology based molecular diagnostics have the potential to alleviate the suffering caused by many diseases, including neurological disorders, due to the unique properties of nanomaterials. Most neurological illnesses are multifactorial conditions and many of these are also classified as neurobehavioral disorders. Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington disease, cerebral ischemia, epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders like Rett syndrome are some examples of neurological disorders that could be better treated, diagnosed, prevented and possibly cured using nanotechnology. In order to improve the quality of life for disease afflicted people, a wide range of nanomaterials that include gold and silica nanoparticles, quantum dots and DNA along with countless other forms of nanotechnology have been investigated regarding their usefulness in advancing molecular diagnostics. Other small scaled materials like viruses and proteins also have potential for use as molecular diagnostic tools. Information obtained from nanotechnology based diagnostics can be stored and manipulated using bioinformatics software. More advanced nanotechnology based diagnostic procedures for the acquisition of even greater proteomic and genomic knowledge can then be developed along with better ways to fight various diseases. Nanotechnology also has numerous applications besides those related to biotechnology and medicine. In this article, we will discuss and analyze many novel nanotechnology based diagnostic techniques at our disposal today.  by São Paulo State University – ISSN 1806-8774


In Papua, the practices of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in hunting were: limiting hunting on particular species, performing hunting using traditional hunting techniques, protecting specific land tenure from hunting and hunting on particular period of time.  These practices were highly complex and highly variable across Papua – a set of unwritten and cultural law that passed on verbally from one generation to another that played important roles on nature protection


Within the last 15 years a vast literature has arisen, which associates increased levels of proteinase activity with most in vitro transformed malignant cells and many tumor cells in vivo. As a consequence, proteinase inhibitors have been widely proposed as potential candidates for therapeutic use. The present review shows that in some studies proteinase inhibitors produced significant anti-tumor effects, while in most other studies only limited effects or no effects were observed. In some instances, opposite, or tumor enhancing, effects by proteinase inhibitors were observed. The reasons for the lack of a clear-cut success of proteinase inhibitors in tumor therapy may be: (1) proteinases may not be crucially involved in tumor growth and spread; (2) proteinases which may be crucially involved have not yet been identified; (3) lack of potent inhibitors with appropriate specificity, or use of inappropriate inhibitors or regimens.


The well-known Knightian distinction between quantifiable risk and unquantifiable uncertainty is at odds with the dominant subjectivist conception of probability associated with de Finetti, Ramsey and Savage. Risk and uncertainty are rendered indistinguishable on the subjectivist approach insofar as an individual's subjective estimate of the probability of any event can be elicited from the odds at which she would be prepared to bet for or against that event. The risk/uncertainty distinction has however never quite gone away and is currently under renewed theoretical scrutiny. The purpose of this article is to show that de Finetti's understanding of the distinction is more nuanced than is usually admitted. Relying on usually overlooked excerpts of de Finetti's works commenting on Keynes, Knight and interval valued probabilities, we argue that de Finetti suggested a relevant theoretical case for uncertainty to hold even when individuals are endowed with subjective probabilities. Indeed, de Finetti admitted that the distinction between risk and uncertainty is relevant when different individuals sensibly disagree about the probability of the occurrence of an event. We conclude that the received interpretation of de Finetti's understanding of subjective probability needs to be qualified on this front.


This dissertation analyzes the various scientific, political and cultural narratives about and the official public health responses to the recent 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. The historical planning emphasis on avian influenza, or `bird flu,' unintentionally created a large amount of uncertainty about how to respond to the threat from a milder, less severe, strain of influenza. I suggest that the specter of a future deadly global pandemic of avian influenza spurred a fascination or myopia in global health policy reminiscent of the mythical danger of listening to the Greek Sirens' song. Throughout this dissertation, I attempt to make sense out of the various and still-emerging accounts of the swine flu or 2009 H1N1 outbreak. Thus, I define `pathography' here as the combined historical, biological, social, political, economic and cultural narratives of the 2009 pandemic. The first section explores the historical and biological origins of influenza. Chapter one examines influenza research and early attempts to sequence the H1N1 virus. I use the genetic structure of the virus to suggest that public health agencies are related through a `viral kinship.' Chapter two details the material processes involved in the sequencing and discovery of influenza viruses. In it, I argue that what virology laboratories construct through these material processes of DNA sequencing is not - reductio ad absurdum - the virus itself, or even simply `knowledge' about a virus, but rather a complex network of scientists, laboratories, farms, public health institutions and other `actors' involved in the circulation of influenza samples and genetic information about influenza viruses. Chapter Three explores Hong Kong's history as an international `lab' for disease research, its local identity crisis as a former colony and current position as a Chinese city, and its unique role within global scientific and public health networks. The H1N1 virus is not simply a symbol of the complex global forces that shaped its emergence and its spread, the microscopic 2009 H1N1 virus embodies those macroscopic forces. Using the terms of molecular biology itself, I would like to suggest here that influenza viruses are not born sui generis out of larger economic, political or social processes, but are both created from and used to create the worlds in which they inhabit. The second section of the dissertation deals with this macro-level of analysis, or the political and cultural ramifications of influenza pandemics. Chapter four examines the seemingly new paradigm shift within global public health from the use of a scientific certainty to a biological and situational uncertainty as one of the foundations of response to infectious disease outbreaks. Chapter five analyzes the production, collection and sharing of epidemiological information during a pandemic. Scientific facts about the virus and the pandemic were freely circulated and agreed upon, but their cultural and political interpretations needed to be continuously negotiated. I argue that not only are cultural politics alive and well, but that they played a vital role in the global response to the influenza outbreak. Finally, I argue that to understand the pandemic as more than just a biological, social, political or historical event, one must look at all these narratives at once. The influenza virus is not thus merely a symbol of our times or for an increasingly globalized world; instead, I argue that it has partially constructed - and continues to shape - the contours of our world.


Music, this complex and mysterious act, precise as algebra and vague as a dream, this art made out of mathematics and air, is simply the result of the strange properties of a little membrane. If that membrane did not exist, sound would not exist either, since in itself it is merely vibration. Would we be able to detect music without the ear? Of course not. Well, we are surrounded by things whose existence we never suspect, because we lack the organs that would reveal them to us. – Guy de Maupassant


Objectives: To explore the relationship between fundamental movement skill (FMS) competence, perceived FMS competence, and physical activity (PA) in adolescents. Methods: The Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD), the TGMD 2nd Edition (TGMD-2), and the Victorian Skills manual were used to assess FMS competence (locomotor, object control, and stability). The Physical Self Confidence scale was used to assess perceived FMS competence (locomotor, object control, and stability). Moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) was measured via accelerometry. Multi-level modelling analyses was used to examine (i) actual FMS as the predictor and perceived FMS as the outcome, (ii) perceived FMS as the predictor and MVPA as the outcome, and (iii) actual FMS as the predictor and MVPA as the outcome. All analyses were completed for each subtest of FMS (locomotor, object control, and stability). Results: A total of 584 adolescents (boys n = 278) aged 12.82–15.25 years (M = 13.78, SD = .42) participated in this study. Actual stability was associated with perceived stability (p < .01) and MVPA (p < .05) in boys. This was not found true for girls; however, actual locomotor skills were associated with MVPA (p ≤ .05). Boys scored significantly higher than girls for FMS proficiency, perceived FMS, and MVPA (p < .05). Discussion: Gender differences may exist due to cultural gender differences in sport participation norms. Considering the magnitude of physical and psychological changes occurring during adolescence, it is recommended to track young people over time to better understand the relationship between perceived and actual FMS, as well as PA participation.


This article reviews the primary results of a taxonomic revision of species of the genus Aploparaksis Clerc, 1903 (Cestoda: Cyclophyllidea: Aploparaksidae), which are widespread parasites of birds. We consolidate a deep, primarily Russian, literature that has not been easily accessible, including insights from the recent monograph of Bondarenko & Kontrimavichus (2006a). A revision of Aploparaksis has been based on an extensive review of the literature and on the study of diverse specimens from the Palearctic (Lithuania, European and Asian parts of Russia) and the Nearctic (Alaska) regions assembled from our field collections. We also conducted the re-examination of type and voucher specimens from various museums and institutions in Russia, Europe, and the USA, and material from the personal collections of several scientists. Taxonomic conclusions in the revision combine observations of morphological characters for adults and data regarding metacestode ontogeny and life cycles of 36 species of Aploparaksis . The validity of 58 species of Aploparaksis among the 102 described is confirmed. Summaries for each valid species include: taxonomic synonyms, a range of both definitive and intermediate hosts (if known), site within the hosts, geographical distributions, morphological modifications of the cysticercoid, and a short specific diagnosis with illustrations of the principal characteristics. Collection numbers of specimens deposited in museums are provided for each species. Within the genus, two phylogenetic lineages differing in the topography of female gonads have been recognized: the nominotypical subgenus Aploparaksis ( Aploparaksis ) Clerc, 1903, with the female gonads arranged along the longitudinal axis of the proglottid, and Aploparaksis ( Tanureria ) Spassky et Yurpalova, 1968, with the female gonads disposed in a transverse row in the median field of the proglottid. Diagnoses of subgenera and identification keys to their species are presented. A list of invalid species with brief comments regarding each of them is also given. The taxonomic value of ontogenetic features and complex issues concerning the definition of Aploparaksis are discussed.


Background: Endothelin-1 (EDN1) and EDN receptor type A (EDNRA) are implicated in melanocyte functions. Aim and Objectives: This study examines the role of EDN1 (G5665T and T-1370G) and EDNRA (C + 70G and G-231A) polymorphisms as a risk factor for vitiligo, and evaluates the relationship between genotypes and clinical characteristics of vitiligo patients. Materials and Methods: We analyzed genotype/allele distributions of EDN1 and EDNRA polymorphisms in 100 patients with vitiligo and 185 healthy controls by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: There was no notable risk for vitiligo afflicted by studied polymorphisms. However, the presence of EDNRA +70 variant G allele was found to be related with decreased risk for development of generalized type of vitiligo (odds ratio [OR]: 0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.21–0.86, pcorr = 0.03) and showed protective effect against associated diseases seen in vitiligo (OR: 0.49, 95% CI = 0.27–0.88, pcorr = 0.034). Haplotype analysis demonstrated a strong (disequilibrium coefficient = 0.73, r2 = 0.405) linkage disequilibrium between EDN1 G5665T and T-1370G polymorphisms. The EDN1 5665/-1330 TT haplotype was over represented significantly in controls than in patients (P = 0.04). Conclusion: The studied polymorphisms do not seem to be a major risk for vitiligo. Haplotype analysis denoting protective effects against vitiligo may indicate an indirect interaction in the course of vitiligo. In addition, EDNRA + 70 polymorphism is protective against generalized type of vitiligo and associated diseases.


An ultrafine grained structure was obtained in the two grades of a 5083 Al alloy with or without scandium by using equal channel angular pressing and its superplastic behavior was characterized. For the alloy without scandium, low temperature superplasticity was obtained but high strain rate superplasticity was unlikely to occur. By contrast, the alloy containing a small amount of scandium exhibited high strain rate superplasticity. It was found that, in both cases, the strain rate region showing superplasticity was very limited, i.e. one order of magnitude. From the mechanical data, the deformation mechanisms were examined.


This paper examines the appropriation and re-elaboration of the traditional encyclopaedic discourse in the discursive practice that gave form to the late Ming anthology of narratives Qing shi (History of Love, ca. 1628–1630). It focuses on the analysis of elements of the paratextual apparatus, such as titles and intertitles, internal textual markers and the prefaces, in order to outline the main aspects of the literary tradition running through the composition of the Qing shi in the context of late Ming print culture.


This paper aims to determine the groundwater quality at Najran town and nearby villages, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Physical and chemical analyses have been carried out for seven groundwater samples collected from Najran area. This study indicates that the groundwater quality in the study area is fit for human purposes except at few localities which contain high amounts of total dissolved solids (TDS) and electrical conductivity (EC) above the permissible limits of the World Health Organization standards. The groundwater is also fit for irrigation purpose and agricultural use.


We have performed partial serial reconstructions of an acinus of the rabbit lung and determined the apparent existence of numerous heterogeneities in length, diameter, and local curvature in individual generation branches of the lung. We believe that structural changes during respiratory movements may include changes in the length and diameter of the whole duct. Alveoli are seen to be side differentiations secondary to the ducts in the gas-exchanging parenchyma of the rabbit lung. We have developed a technique for measuring local curvature in simple reconstructed ducts from the average of the integral curvation of the section contour. The contour curvature is measured from the chain code representation of the sampled contour from digital image analysis. The stereological requirements of an unbiased and random selection of contours is approached here by the random orientation of the individual alveoli of a single duct. Over 700 sections through the last four airway generations (alveolar ducts) at 3-micron intervals were analyzed. The average integral curvature ranges from 7.7 to 9.5 (mean 8.9) mm-1 for sixth- and seventh-generation branches from the start with volumes for the segments from 0.022 to 1.198 (mean 0.497) mm3.


Technology is responsible for major systemic changes within the global financial sector. This sector has already developed into a comprehensive network of mutually connected people and computers. Algorithms play a crucial role within this network. An algorithm is in essence merely a set of instructions developed by one or more people with the intention of having these instructions performed by a machine such as a computer in order to realize an ideal result. As part of a development in which we as human beings have ever higher expectations of algorithms and these algorithms become more autonomous in their actions, we cannot avoid including possibilities in these algorithms that enable ethical or moral considerations. To develop this ethical or moral consideration, we need a kind of ethical framework that can be used for constructing these algorithms. With the development of such a framework we can start to think about what we as human beings consider to be a moral action executed by algorithms that support actions and decisions of interconnected and self-organizing machines. This chapter explores an ethical framework for interconnected and self-organizing moral machines.


The evidence that mobile data traffic is enormously increasing is forcing the whole telecommunications industry to rethink most of the paradigms which have driven until now the design of mobile networks, traditionally very efficient for voice and limited data communications. It is foreseen that 5G technology will introduce disruptive changes with respect to how radio resources are managed and consumed. In past years cognitive radio made its way to enable more intelligent and autonomous wireless networks but it has encountered several practical problems which have slowed down the massive adoption of this technology. Recently, an apparent turnaround has risen from the adoption of Software-Defined Network (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) principles. In this work we shall restart from known cognitive radio concepts which have been innovative in terms spectrum management in past years, paying particular attention to the concept of Radio Environment Maps (REMs). The main contribution of this work is hence to propose a high-level architecture in which SDN and NFV are the enablers that will facilitate the adoption of REM as the tool for spectrum management, since 5G will exhibit unprecedented levels of flexibility in managing different types of resources.


Point cloud segmentation is fundamental in understanding 3D environments. However, current 3D point cloud segmentation methods usually perform poorly on scene boundaries, which degenerates the overall segmentation performance. In this paper, we focus on the segmentation of scene boundaries. Accordingly, we first explore metrics to evaluate the segmentation performance on scene boundaries. To address the unsatisfactory performance on boundaries, we then propose a novel contrastive boundary learning (CBL) framework for point cloud segmentation. Specifically, the proposed CBL enhances feature discrimination between points across boundaries by contrasting their representations with the assistance of scene contexts at multiple scales. By applying CBL on three different baseline methods, we experimentally show that CBL consistently improves different baselines and assists them to achieve compelling performance on boundaries, as well as the overall performance, e.g. in mIoU. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method and the importance of boundaries for 3D point cloud segmentation. Code and model will be made publicly available at https://github.com/LiyaoTang/contrastBoundary.


Indonesia with its large, but partially unexplored geothermal potential is one of the most interesting and suitable places in the world to conduct geothermal exploration research. This study focuses on geothermal exploration based on fluid-rock geochemistry/geomechanics and aims to compile an overview on geochemical data-rock properties from important geothermal fields in Indonesia. The research carried out in the field and in the laboratory is performed in the framework of the GEOCAP cooperation (Geothermal Capacity Building program Indonesia-the Netherlands). The application of petrology and geochemistry accounts to a better understanding of areas where operating power plants exist but also helps in the initial exploration stage of green areas. Because of their relevance and geological setting geothermal fields in Java (Wayang Windu, Tanguban Perahu) have been visited so far. Mount Salak, Gunung Slamet (Java) and Flores surveys are planned in the near future. Operators, universities and governmental agencies will benefit from this approach as it will be applied also to new green-field terrains. By comparing the characteristics of the fluids, the alteration petrology and the rock geochemistry we also aim to compile an overview of the geochemistry of several geothermal fields in Indonesia. The gathering of this information is the base for the geomechanical experiments on-going at TUD. At the same time the rock petrology and fluid geochemistry will be used as input data to model the reservoir fluid composition along with T-P parameters with the geochemical workbench PHREEQC. The field and laboratory data are mandatory for both the implementation and validation of the model results. If successful, this approach can be applied in many geothermal fields characterized by steep terrain and tropical vegetation, which hampers the classical seismic-geophysical exploration methods.


This paper proposes a novel mechanically tunable waveguide filter design, based on a coupled resonator topology. The resonator geometry consists of a rectangular waveguide cavity and a dielectric cylinder. Unlike conventional cylindrical resonators which are made out of a single part, here the cylinders are cut in half. By changing the distance between these two parts, the resonating frequency of the resonator can be changed, which allows for a tunable filter design. A filter using the proposed geometry has a large tuning bandwidth as well as relatively constant passband frequencies. The performance of the proposed filter is demonstrated by evaluating the filter using 3D simulation software CST Studio Suite.


The stereochemical course of the reaction catalysed by endo-1,3-1,4-beta-D-glucan 4-glucanohydrolase (EC 220.127.116.11) has been determined by 1H n.m.r. The enzyme-catalysed hydrolysis of barley beta-glucan proceeds with overall retention of the anomeric configuration, indicating that the enzyme operates through a double-displacement mechanism. The structures of the final oligosaccharide products, 3-beta-O-cellobiosyl D-glucopyranoside and 3-beta-O-cellotriosyl D-glucopyranoside, have been completely assigned by 1H- and 13C-n.m.r. spectroscopy.


PURPOSE
To explore changes in the quality of life of caregivers of amputees due to type 2 diabetes ten months after amputation.

METHODS
This is a longitudinal study with three moments of evaluation (T1: one month after surgery, T2: 7 months, T3: 10 months). The sample comprised 110, 101, and 84 caregivers of amputated patients with type 2 diabetes. Caregivers answered a Socio-demographic questionnaire; the Self-Assessment Caregiver; the Family Disruption from Illness Scale; and the Short Form Health Survey (SF36).

RESULTS
Stress levels were not significantly reflected in changes on mental quality of life over time, except in the caregivers who presented less stress, emphasizing the adverse role of stress when experienced on a continuous basis for ten months on the caregivers' mental well-being. Caregivers presented greater number of physical symptoms at T2 that decreased at T3.

CONCLUSIONS
According to the results, in order to promote caregivers' physical and mental quality of life, it would be important to evaluate stress levels especially in patients who presented somatic complaints.


Numerous previously uncharacterized molecules resident within the low molecular weight circulatory proteome may provide a picture of the ongoing pathophysiology of an organism. Recently, proteomic signatures composed of low molecular weight molecules have been identified using mass spectrometry combined with bioinformatic algorithms. Attempts to sequence and identify the molecules that underpin the fingerprints are currently underway. The finding that many of these low molecular weight molecules may exist bound to circulating carrier proteins affords a new opportunity for fractionation and separation techniques prior to mass spectrometry-based analysis. In this study we demonstrate a method whereby nanoporous substrates may be used for the facile and reproducible fractionation and selective binding of the serum-based biomarker material, including subcellular proteins found within the serum. Aminopropyl-coated nanoporous silicon, when exposed to serum, can deplete serum of proteins and yield a serum with a distinct, altered MS profile. Additionally, aminopropyl-coated, nanoporous controlled-pore glass beads are able to bind a subset of serum proteins and release them with stringent elution. The eluted proteins have distinct MS profiles, gel electrophoresis profiles, and differential peptide sequence identities, which vary based on the size of the nanopores. These material surfaces could be employed in strategies for the harvesting and preservation of labile and carrier-protein-bound molecules in the blood.


Background: Cortical lesions are highly inconspicuous on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Double inversion recovery (DIR) has a higher sensitivity than conventional clinical sequences (i.e. T1, T2, FLAIR) but is difficult to acquire, leading to overseen cortical lesions in clinical care and clinical trials. Objective: To evaluate the usability of artificially generated DIR (aDIR) images for cortical lesion detection compared to conventionally acquired DIR (cDIR). Methods: The dataset consisted of 3D-T1 and 2D-proton density (PD) T2 images of 73 patients (49RR, 20SP, 4PP) at 1.5 T. Using a 4:1 train:test-ratio, a fully convolutional neural network was trained to predict 3D-aDIR from 3D-T1 and 2D-PD/T2 images. Randomized blind scoring of the test set was used to determine detection reliability, precision and recall. Results: A total of 626 vs 696 cortical lesions were detected on 15 aDIR vs cDIR images (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.92). Compared to cDIR, precision and recall were 0.84 ± 0.06 and 0.76 ± 0.09, respectively. The frontal and temporal lobes showed the largest differences in discernibility. Conclusion: Cortical lesions can be detected with good reliability on artificial DIR. The technique has potential to broaden the availability of DIR in clinical care and provides the opportunity of ex post facto implementation of cortical lesions imaging in existing clinical trial data.


Vegetation and soils were sampled in 22 old fields ranging in age from 1 to 56 yr since abandonment. Soil nitrogen concentration increased significantly with field age. Vegetation cover, total aboveground plant biomass, and litter cover increased significantly with soil nitrogen. Light penetration to the soil surface was negatively correlated with total plant biomass. Field age and soil nitrogen concentration were used as independent variables in simple regression and partial correlation analyses to determine the relative importance of such time-dependent processes as dispersal vs. the availability of a limiting resource (nitrogen) as predictors of patterns in species richness or the abundance of various plant groups. Species richness per field and within-field heterogeneity in species composition increased with field age. Local species richness decreased with increasing soil nitrogen. Cover of annuals and introduced species decreased with field age and nitrogen; however, annuals contributed an important part of total vegetative cover even in 25-yr-old fields. Cover of perennials and woody species increased with soil nitrogen and field age. Although the fields were bordered by woods, woody species contributed <15?/o cover even in the oldest fields. For several plant groups the relationship between cover and soil nitrogen within individual fields was the opposite of that among all fields. These patterns suggest that while soil nitrogen is an important determinant of local species composition and abundance, dispersal and colonization, which are dependent on field age, determine which species are present in a field.


The formation and field-induced switching of defect dipoles in acceptor doped lead titanate is described by a kinetic model representing an extension of the well established Arlt-Neumann model [Ferroelectrics 76, 303 (1987)]. Energy barriers for defect association and reorientation of oxygen vacancy-dopant (Cu and Fe) complexes are obtained from first-principles calculations and serve as input for kinetic coefficients of the rate equation model. The numerical solution of the model describes the time evolution of the oxygen vacancy distribution at different temperatures and dopant concentrations in the presence or absence of an alternating external field. We predict the characteristic time scale for the alignment of all defect dipoles with the spontaneous polarization of the surrounding matrix. In this state the defect dipoles act as obstacles for domain wall motion and contribute to the experimentally observed aging. Under cycling conditions the fully aligned configuration is perturbed and a dynamic equilibrium is established with defect dipoles in parallel and antiparallel orientation relative to the spontaneous polarization. This process can be related to the deaging behavior of piezoelectric ceramics.


The estimation of flood losses is an essential component for risk-oriented flood design, risk mapping or financial appraisals in the reinsurance sector. However, only simple models, e.g. stage-damage curves, have been used frequently. Further, the reliability of flood loss and risk estimates is fairly unknown, since flood loss models are scarcely validated. In the aftermath of flooding in August 2002 large data sets of flood losses were collected at affected properties in Germany. These data were used to derive multi-factorial loss models. This paper presents FLEMOps – the Flood Loss Estimation Model for the private sector, which estimates direct monetary flood losses of residential buildings and household contents considering water level, building type and building quality. In an additional model stage (FLEMOps+), the effects of private precautionary measures as well as of the contamination of the floodwater can be quantified. Together with census data and land use information the model is adapted for applications on the meso-scale. Further, different data sets of repair costs for single buildings and in whole municipalities were used to validate loss estimates on the microas well as on the meso-scale. First results show that the model FLEMOps+ outperforms simple stage-damage-functions.


I contend that a form of contractualism more individualistic than Rawls' would do better at addressing concerns about justice and the family raised by feminist theorists, and that it would also compel us to be more egalitarian. Dissatisfactions expressed with Rawls's neglect of issues related to gender and the family can only be addressed if 'parties in the original position' are strictly defined as individuals. Thus defined, they are not only able to address questions of justice within families, but can also explore the less familiar question of justice of the family, namely whether the family should exist, from the point of view of justice. I conclude by exploring the question of whether the family should be abolished, in view of its leading to life chances unequal between individuals, and compare the family with a generalized, well resourced and well run orphanage.


A quick scan of the business and legal press reveals that, compared with a few years ago, many more disputes are being resolved through negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. The change is an incremental one, on the upper end driven by costly, difficult cases involving business risks that have called for the innovative handling of dispute resolution processes, and on the everyday level driven by the need for lower-cost, streamlined ways to handle growing numbers of ordinary disputes. Policy makers at all levels of government have encouraged this trend. Accompanying this public policy movement, increasing numbers of law firms and corporate legal departments are establishing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practice sections, acquiring expertise or hiring experts in dispute resolution. Many corporations are encouraging the use of ADR not only where it has traditionally been used but also to solve an ever-widening range of conflicts between the corporation and other businesses, individuals, and government agencies. In each of these relationships, it appears that the overwhelming costs of litigation have pushed corporations toward increasing their use of ADR processes. This growing trend and the widespread need for information about appropriate means of resolving corporate disputes motivated us to conduct the survey reported on here.


Asymmetric rolling is a novel technique for giving rise to an intense plastic shear strain through the sheet thickness. The shear strain also develops shear deformation textures close to the {001}<110> and <111>//ND orientations, among which the latter is the most wanted component for the deep drawability, and give rise to the grain refinement. Previously we analyzed various rolling variables influencing the texture development and grain refinement in aluminum sheets obtained by asymmetric rolling with different roll-radius ratios at the same rotation rate and varied reduction per pass. In this study, AA1050 Al alloy sheets were asymmetrically rolled with a two-high mill of which two rolls had the same diameter, but rotated at different rotation rates, with emphasis on effects of combinations of shear directions in several passes. Textures and microstructures of the rolled sheets were investigated by x-ray diffraction and electron backscattered diffraction analyses.


"Salviamo le Apuane" is a non-structured organisation, like the ancient mountain communities were. It was established in 2010 with the publication of the Charter of Apuan Alps and the preparation of the Plan-Program of alternative economic development for Apuan Alps (Pipsea). It is mostly active on a social network, used as a tool for communication and struggle. The organisation, active on the Apuan mountains in close contact with its communities, works at building an alternative economic development – based on the principle "change the world without taking power" – pointed at solving the two main problems of Apuan Alps: monoculture of marble and demographic desertification. The organisation counts 10.500 members and tries to rebuild an economy based on agriculture, sheep-farming, tree-farming and different kinds of tourism. Relying also on the elders' knowledge, it works as a free planning agency, providing support and advice to young people who want to establish agricultural and pastoral businesses, building short supply chains. It is currently working on the quality label "Qualita Apuana" for the products of companies tied in the association "The spirit of mountain", and on the design of trade forms based on an alternative currency (the Apuo). "Salviamo le Apuane" is committed to the recovery and revitalisation of the Apuan cultural identity, by innovating and expanding the concepts of birth and belonging to a general "taking care" of Apuan Alps.


In the UK, implementing personal development planning (PDP) is an obligatory requirement across all Higher Education awards. This has led to a number of institutions requiring students to produce electronic portfolios to meet this requirement. However, far too little attention has been paid to utilising the powerful functionalities and high levels of connectivity of emerging mobile technology. This social study seeks to discover a potential role of emerging mobile technology in portfolio development and its effects on students' reflective capacity and engagement with PDP. To raise students' engagement with PDP, a mobile application (HUD iPDP) for Apple mobile devices was developed with fifty-one undergraduate students participating in this study. The data collected was both qualitative and quantitative. Results revealed a high level of interest among students and the potential for mobile technology to enhance the process of PDP.


Multiple layers of single-crystal silicon and boron phosphide have been grown on silicon and silicon-on-sapphire substrates. Up to four layers have been grown on silicon and two layers on silicon-on-sapphire. The quality of the silicon layers was confirmed by fabricating PMOS integrated circuits on the top silicon layer in all of these structures. The integrated circuits contained individual transistors, p-n diodes, inverters, flip-flops, and ring oscillators. All circuits successfully operated on all of the layers tested. The transistor mobilities tended to drop as more layers were added to the structure. The delay time of the ring oscillators rose as the number of layers increased reflecting the drop in transistor mobilities. By fabricating circuits on the various layers, the quality of the individual layers has been shown to be sufficiently high to consider this material combination as a possible candidate for 3-D integrated circuits. The boron phosphide was used not only as an insulator but also for the fabrication of vertical resistors and p-n junctions.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to appraise the association between Physical Activity and T2DM, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and other comorbidities in a series of Saudi volunteers. Methodology: The present study investigated 304 healthy Saudi volunteers for reported chronic illness and the status of physical activity. Results: Out of the 144 individuals, 62/144 (43%) were males and 82/144 (57%) were females. About 64/304 (21%), 75/304 (24.7%), and 21/304 (7%) of the participants practicing physical activity for one hour, 2-5 hours, and ≥ 6 hours, in this order. Conclusion: PA rates are relatively lower among Saudi people in Northern Saudi Arabia. PA was found to be an effective factor in reducing diverse comorbidities including hypertension, T2DM, hypercholesterolemia, CVDs, asthma, and other comorbidities.


Research carried out by academics at higher education institutions (HEIs) has substantially contributed to nations' development, particularly in a time of globalisation and internationalisation of higher education (HE). A range of studies on academics' research have been undertaken in western contexts. Those studies can be classified into studies of academics' research perceptions and studies of factors affecting academics' research productivity. However, there has been a very limited number of studies on academics' research capacity and HEIs' research capacities in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Government has attempted to develop its HE system to contribute to the success of its national development. Over the past ten years, the Vietnamese Government has issued a series of research related policies and has had a greater investment into the development of its HE system. However, the research capacity of Vietnamese HEIs has been lower than that of its neighbouring countries in the region. Therefore, this study was conducted with the hope that it might provide an in-depth understanding of the research capacities of Vietnamese HEIs and their academics and how they can be better fostered in the Vietnamese HE system.  The study was conducted in three public HEIs at different levels in southern Vietnam: provincial, regional, and national. The study employed an interpretive case study approach with a lens of historical and sociocultural theory. Three key tools used for data collecting were surveys, individual semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. The research participants were purposefully selected from the three institutions. For data analysis, the study utilised a combined framework adapted from the predictive model department research productivity of Bland, Center, Finstad, Risbey, and Staples (2005), the model of factors affecting academics' research productivity of Chen, Gupta, and Hoshower (2006), and Moore's (2015) social-ecological model: Looking beyond the individual. The study's findings indicated that the research capacities of Vietnamese HEIs and their academics were influenced by various factors at different levels. At societal level, they include socioeconomic, sociocultural, and political factors. At community level, they comprise resources, research orientation, research networks, professional development practices. At institutional level, they consist of establishment history, geographical location, and organisation. Additionally, the study identified that institutional contexts affected the academics' research motivation and research engagement at this level. Finally, this study suggested some recommendations for both academic leaders and academics from the three HEIs and Vietnamese HE policy makers to consider so that they may find ways to enhance the research capacities of the Vietnamese HEIs and their academics' research engagement.


Like good human tutors, intelligent tutoring systems should detect and respond to students' affective states. However, accuracy in detecting affective states automatically has been limited by the time and expense of manually labeling training data for supervised learning. To combat this limitation, we use semi-supervised learning to train an affective state detector on a sparsely labeled, culturally novel, authentic data set in the form of screen capture videos from a Swahili literacy and numeracy tablet tutor in Tanzania that shows the face of the child using it. We achieved 88% leave-1-child-out cross-validated accuracy in distinguishing pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral affective states, compared to only 61% for the best supervised learning method we tested. This work contributes toward using automated affect detection both off-line to improve the design of intelligent tutors, and at runtime to respond to student affect based on input from a user-facing tablet camera or webcam.


Our knowledge of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) genetics is still very limited, amplification of L-MYC , N-MYC , and C-MYC being some of the well-established genealterations. Here, we report our discovery of tumor-specifi c inactivation of the MYC-associated factorX gene, MAX , in SCLC. MAX inactivation is mutually exclusive with alterations of MYC and BRG1 , thelatter coding for an ATPase of the switch/sucrose nonfermentable (SWI/SNF) complex. We demonstratethat BRG1 regulates the expression of MAX through direct recruitment to the MAX promoter, and thatdepletion of BRG1 strongly hinders cell growth, specifi cally in MAX-defi cient cells, heralding a syntheticlethal interaction. Furthermore, MAX requires BRG1 to activate neuroendocrine transcriptional programsand to upregulate MYC targets, such as glycolysis-related genes. Finally, inactivation of the MAXdimerization protein, MGA, was also observed in both non–small cell lung cancer and SCLC. Our resultsprovide evidence that an aberrant SWI/SNF–MYC network is essential for lung cancer development. SIGNIFICANCE: We discovered that the MYC-associated factor X gene, MAX , is inactivated in SCLCs.Furthermore, we revealed a preferential toxicity of the inactivation of the chromatin remodeler BRG1in MAX-defi cient lung cancer cells, which opens novel therapeutic possibilities for the treatment ofpatients with SCLC with MAX-defi cient tumors. Citation Format: Manuel Torres-Diz, Octavio A. Romero, Eva Pros, Suvi Savola, Antonio Gomez, Sebastian Moran, Luis M. Montuenga, Jun Yokota, Montse Sanchez-Cespedes. MAX inactivation in small cell lung cancer disrupts the MYC-SWI/SNF programs and is synthetic lethal with BRG1. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Myc: From Biology to Therapy; Jan 7-10, 2015; La Jolla, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2015;13(10 Suppl):Abstract nr A35.


Modified cyclodextrins used in intravenous drug formulation have often been regarded as inert carriers. This expectation has occasionally been challenged with few examples where the presence of the cyclodextrin results in significant changes to drug distribution. Such changes have been further exemplified by clear alterations in pharmacodynamics, toxicity profiles and plasma and urinary pharmacokinetics. These rare occurrences have been attributed to unusually strong association between drug (D) and cyclodextrin (CD). The studies presented in this thesis were designed to gain further understanding of the implications and relevance of in vitro binding constants on in vivo situations. The main areas explored were the impact of intravenous cyclodextrin formulations on the systemic and renal disposition of various drugs. Previous expectations have been that altered pharmacokinetics arise from unusually strong D-CD interactions. As literature precedents have indicated a particularly good fit between adamantane rings and β-CD, the pharmacokinetics of a series of structurally similar adamantane analogues was assessed. In vitro partitioning and in vivo pharmacokinetic studies demonstrated that equilibrium binding constant studies between D and CD cannot be used to predict the potential for systemic CD to influence the plasma pharmacokinetics of rimantadine (RIM), a compound with a "typical" binding constant (K = 2.1 x 10⁴ Mˉ¹). Rather, the altered pharmacokinetics appeared to be related to a series of competing equilibria between red blood cell (and tissue), protein and SBE7-β-CD binding; a dynamic system which can only be estimated rather than simulated in vitro. Intravenous SBE7-β-CD was also found to increase the urinary excretion of chlorpromazine (CPZ) and indinavir (IND). Unlike RIM, this occurrence was not attributed to glomerular filtration of intact complex from plasma. In the absence of any alteration of plasma pharmacokinetics, the increase in urinary excretion of CPZ and IND may be indicative of decreased tubular reabsorption of drug resulting from the formation of D-CD complexes within the renal tubules. In the case of CPZ, the binding of drug molecules and SBE7-β-CD was found to be dependent on total drug concentration, with self-association of CPZ at higher concentrations decreasing binding affinity with SBE7-β-CD. There was a 7-fold increase in the urinary solubility of IND despite a low binding constant ( 67 Mˉ¹). This was reflected in increased urinary concentrations of IND following co-administration with intravenous SBE7-β-CD. Pharmacokinetic studies demonstrated that early urinary concentrations of IND were often close to or above the equilibrium solubility of IND determined during phase solubility studies. This is consistent with the reported crystalluria associated with IND which has led to decreased clinical usage of IND. Chronic intravenous administrations of IND in rats (50 mg/kg daily for 15 days) resulted in characteristic changes to the renal histology. Co-administration of intravenous. SBE7-β-CD did not decrease the extent of these histological changes, however due to a number of experimental design-related factors, inconclusive results from the IND toxicity study presented in this work demonstrate a need for more specific studies to assess the impact of biological variability on the progression of renal damage.


Price elasticities of energy demand have become increasingly relevant in estimating the socio-economic and environmental effects of energy policies or of other events with influence on the prices of energy goods. Since the 1970s a large number of academic papers have provided both short and long-term price elasticity estimates for different countries by using several models, data and estimation techniques. Yet the literature offers a rather wide range of estimates for the price elasticities of demand for energy. This paper quantitatively summarizes the recent, but still sizeable, empirical evidence on this matter to facilitate a sounder economic assessment of energy price changes. It does so by using meta-analysis to identify the main factors affecting the elasticity results, both short and long term, for energy in general as well as for specific products: electricity, natural gas, gasoline, diesel and heating oil.


An update of the inventory of alien marine species from the coastal and offshore waters of Greece is presented. Records were compiled based on the existing scientific and grey literature, including the HCMR database of Greek alien species (ELNAIS), technical reports, scientific congresses, academic dissertations, websites, and unpublished/personal observations. 47 species were added to the inventory, including 34 invertebrates, one vertebrate (fish), three plants, eight protozoa, and one cyanobacterium. With the new records, the inventory of alien marine species of Greece now includes a total of 237 species (33 macrophytes, 131 invertebrates, 42 vertebrates, two bacteria and 29 protozoans). Among these, the presence of the gastropod Hypselodoris infucata , the bivalves Dendrostrea frons and Septifer forskali and the chondrichthyan Rhizoprionodon acutus is reported here for the first time. Based on molecular analysis, the occurrence of Bulla arabica in Greek waters is confirmed, and the suggestion that previous records of Bulla ampulla in the Mediterranean should be considered as misidentification of B. arabica is further supported. The acclimitization status of earlier records was revised in the light of new data, and thus the fish Enchelycore anatina , Seriola fasciata and Tylerius spinosissimus , the red algae Hypnea cornuta and Sarconema scinaioides , the scyphomedusa Cassiopea andromeda , the cephalopod Sepioteuthis lessoniana , the nudibranch Chromodoris annulata and the bivalves Gastrochaena cymbium and Pseudochama corbieri were upgraded from casual records to established populations. The increased rate of introductions of warm water species confirms previous findings, which link the rate of introduction in the eastern Mediterranean to climate change.


A multi-stage thin film transistor (TFT)-based active pixel sensor (APS), capable of successfully detecting small impulses of charge resulting from incident alpha particle strikes, is presented. Detection of alpha particles is important in the field of neutron detection, where fully integrated thin-film-based detectors are an attractive alternative to conventional 3He-based proportional counters owing to their low-cost and large-area scaling capability, combined with the use of readily available materials. A typical TFT process, however, produces only N-type devices with low electron mobilities – making high-gain CMOS amplifier designs unfeasible. The disadvantages of using a TFT-only APS design are mitigated by cascading multiple low-gain TFT amplifiers, which results in a higher overall pixel gain – subsequently allowing for the successful detection and readout of alpha particle strikes. Presented is a new APS fabricated in an indium gallium zinc oxide TFT process is presented, and successful initial alpha response measurements are reported.


The prior relation extraction approaches were relation-specific and supervised, yielding new instances of relations known a priori. While effective, this model is not applicable in case when the number of relations is high or where the relations are not known a priori. Open Information Extraction (OIE) is a relation-independent extraction paradigm designed to extract relations directly from massive and heterogeneous corpora such as Web. One of the main challenges for an Open IE system is estimating the probability that its extracted relation is correct. A confidence measure shows that how an extracted relation is a correct instance of a relation among entities.
This paper proposes a new method of confidence estimation for OIE called Relation Confidence Estimator for Open Information Extraction (RCE-OIE). It investigates the incorporation of some proposed features in assigning confidence metric using logistic regression. These features consider diverse lexical, syntactic and semantic knowledge and also some extraction properties such as number of distinct documents from which extractions are drawn, number of relation arguments and their types. We implemented proposed confidence measure on the Open IE systems' extractions and examined how it affects the performance of results. Evaluations show that incorporation of designed features is promising and the accuracy of our method is higher than the base methods while keeping almost the same performance as them. We also demonstrate how semantic information such as coherence measures can be used in feature-based confidence estimation of Open Relation Extraction (ORE) to further improve the performance.


Introduction of the broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) will enable network users to make use of advanced multimedia, multiparty services. With this aim in view, RACE II project R2044, MAGIC, is investigating long-term signalling requirements, architecture and protocols for B-ISDN. New service concepts are being developed in MAGIC which will provide more flexibility when compared to narrowband ISDN (N-ISDN). The service requirements and other signalling requirements, such as the separation between call and associated connections at the network–node interface (NNI), are used to determine the distribution of functions over the network. The signalling protocols which are used to exchange the signalling information are subsequently developed. These signalling protocols will be simulated to prove the performance and the feasibility of call handling concepts.


Graph neural networks (GNNs), an emerging deep learning model class, can extract meaningful representations from highly expressive graph-structured data and are therefore gaining popularity for wider ranges of applications. However, current GNNs suffer from the poor performance of their sparsedense matrix multiplication (SpMM) operator, even when using powerful GPUs. Our analysis shows that 95% of the inference time could be spent on SpMM when running popular GNN models on NVIDIA's advanced V100 GPU. Such SpMM performance bottleneck hinders GNNs' applicability to large-scale problems or the development of more sophisticated GNN models. To address this inference time bottleneck, we introduce ESSpMM, a cache-first edge sampling mechanism and codesigned SpMM kernel. ES-SpMM uses edge sampling to downsize the graph to fit into GPU's shared memory. It thus reduces the computation cost and improves SpMM's cache locality. To evaluate ES-SpMM's performance, we integrated it with a popular GNN framework, DGL, and tested it using representative GNN models and datasets. Our results show that ES-SpMM outperforms the highly optimized cuSPARSE SpMM kernel by up to 4.35x with no accuracy loss and by 45.3x with less than a 1% accuracy loss.


Objectives To determine an effective framework for supplying emergency drugs under various scenarios using 'modular design' and information technology. Additionally, medicinal safety was improved by combining pharmacy monitoring with a safety alert system for medication. Methods Data from various emergency events and details of the disease related to the incident were analysed using Cluster, Delphi and Decision analyses. The optimal drug combination was determined and then divided into the different modules. We established the 'drug supply expedited system in emergencies' based on the above modules, and we organised emergency drills to verify the system's effectiveness and to improve efficiency. Pharmaceutical care services were performed by rehearsing the unexpected emergency incident and associated pharmaceutical care. Results We developed a drug supply framework for 'traffic accidents, poisoning first aid, natural disasters, epidemics and mass disturbances' and established an 'emergency drug supply expedited system'. We quickly equipped the drugs that were needed for the special emergency events, and we developed a 'green channel' between the emergency and drug supply centres. Medication safety was also important for the emergencies, and clinical pharmacists played a role in medicating the safety service personnel. The utility of our findings was demonstrated through several emergency drills. Conclusions In this study, we explored the optimal drug supply and pharmacy assistance models for emergency medicine. The clinical innovation of this study was that we provided a modular supply of medical supplies for traffic accidents. We also established a drug supply information system. This study provided effective reference values for emergency drug therapy.


We propose a new criterion for identifying strong flow regions in turbulence. This criterion may also be used as a first approximation to characterise where and when dissolved polymer molecules may become deformed by a turbulent flow, which is, for example, important for drag reduction. In arriving at the new criterion, we first review several existing criteria for identifying strong flow regions. They have the disadvantage of being either not objective or hard to compute with good accuracy. The new criterion, which depends on the second and third invariant of the rate-of-strain tensor, does not suffer from these disadvantages. After an analysis of the criterion and a comparison with an existing criterion using a simulated turbulent pipe flow, we conclude that it is indeed suitable for identifying strong flows. Finally, we show that the criterion is related to enstrophy production, and thus may also have some dynamical relevance.


Over the past few years Russian cities, and in particular Moscow, have been changing in a new direction. More emphasis has been put on the development of public space, parks have been refurbished, embankments made accessible, temporary cultural spaces have sprung up in many interstices, urban interventions and activism from various groups have become more visible and engaging of local communities, and what was hitherto unimaginable appears to have become possible—bicycling in the megacity. All in all, this most recent urban development is coinciding with an increased awareness and interest in all things urban in Russia. However, these changes are rarely reflected in academic publications. Microurbanism: The City in Details is a refreshing Russian publication on urban studies in Russia that attempts to fill this gap. Editors Olga Brednikova and Oksana Zaporozhets have surveyed Russian publications and contemporary urban-studies discourses within and outside academia and have selected the articles in this book to fit an innovative approach to studying the city that puts its dwellers and visitors in focus.


We investigate implementation of social choice functions, where we impose severe restrictions on mechanisms, such as boundedness, permitting only tiny transfers, and uniqueness of an iteratively undominated strategy profile in the ex-post term. We assume that there exists some partial information about the state that is verifiable. We consider the dynamic aspect of information acquisition, where players share information, but the timing of receiving information is different across players. By using this aspect, the central planner designs a dynamic, not a static, mechanism, in which each player announces what he (or she) knows about the state at multiple stages with sufficient intervals. By demonstrating a sufficient condition on the state and on the dynamic aspect, namely full detection, we show that a wide variety of social choice functions are uniquely implementable even if the range of players' lies that the verified information can directly detect is quite narrow. With full detection, we can detect all possible lies, not by the verified information alone, but by processing a chain of detection triggered by this information. This paper does not assume either expected utility or quasi-linearity.


Laboring in the new economy has recently drawn tremendous social, legal, and political debate. The changes created by platform-facilitated labor are considered fundamental challenges to the future of work and are generating contestation regarding the proper classification of laborers as employees or independent contractors. Yet, despite this growing debate, attention to gender dimensions of such laboring is currently lacking. This Article considers the gendered promises and challenges that are associated with platform-facilitated labor, and provides an innovative empirical analysis of gender discrepancies in such labor; it conducts a case study of platform-facilitated labor using computational methods that capture some of the gendered interactions hosted by a digital platform.
These empirical findings demonstrate that although women work for more hours on the platform, women's average hourly rates are significantly lower than men's, averaging about 2/3 (two-thirds) of men's rates. Such gaps in hourly rates persist even after controlling for feedback score, experience, occupational category, hours of work, and educational attainment. These findings suggest we are witnessing the remaking of women into devalued workers. They point to the new ways in which sex inequality is occurring in platform-facilitated labor. They suggest that we are beholding a third generation of sex inequality, termed "Discrimination 3.0," in which discrimination is no longer merely a function of formal barriers or even implicit biases. The Article sketches Equality-by-Design (EbD) as a possible direction for future redress, through the enlisting of platform technology to enhance gender parity. In sum, this Article provides an empirical base and analysis for understanding the new ways sex inequality is taking hold in platform-facilitated labor.