Although much of the research into source use by international students has tended to focus on issues of plagiarism, there has recently been recognition that their difficulties in this respect may be more pedagogical than moral. However, much remains to be known about the nature of such students" source use. In order to throw light on the ways in which novice L2 writers use source material in their writing and to understand what difficulties they experience, this paper reports on a small case study involving a group of Japanese postgraduate students. Analysis of five Pre-Master"s dissertations written by these students, as well as interviews conducted with the writers, revealed that they varied in their ability to handle source material effectively. In many cases, their use of source material appeared to be symptomatic of weak authorial stance and apparent lack of a clear argument. Based on these findings, the study concludes with the recommendation that instruction on the use of source material focus to a greater extent on its rhetorical function in constructing knowledge.


Water supply and its distribution are of increasing concern in Georgia. Aggressive water conservation programs offer an alternative source of water and a means to protect environmental needs. Georgia must take action to improve water use efficiency in all sectors of society. This requires efficient and effective policy development and administration. Comprehensive statewide water conservation planning and implementation has the potential to improve water quality and instream flow levels, decrease the need for new capital investments, reduce vulnerability to drought, and provide other benefits to the people and ecosystems of Georgia. Several states have effectively implemented statewide water conservation planning. Thus, we have analyzed the elements of several state programs to determine what characteristics are instrumental in getting results from conservation. As Georgia rises to meet the challenges of water supply planning, we must create a comprehensive water supply and conservation plan that provides for (1) acceptance of the need for aggressive water conservation by political leaders, (2) a detailed water conservation policy, (3) comprehensive monitoring of water use and instream water levels, (4) stable funding sources for water conservation initiatives, (5) technical assistance, (6) strong educational and media outreach, (7) sufficient staff to implement the statewide plan, and (8) stakeholder involvement in the planning and implementation process. Georgia has the opportunity to become the leader of comprehensive water supply planning in the Southeast by making water conservation an alternative water supply source. To be successful, however, we must embrace all eight conditions discussed herein.


We construct a new dataset of quarterly capital flows by sector and establish four facts. First, the co-movement of capital inflows and outflows is driven by banks. Second, procyclicality of capital inflows is driven by banks and corporates, whereas sovereigns' external liabilities move acyclically in advanced and countercyclically in emerging countries. Third, procyclicality of capital outflows is driven by advanced countries' banks and emerging countries' sovereigns (reserves). Fourth, capital inflows and outflows decline for banks and corporates, when global risk aversion (VIX) increases, whereas sovereigns' flows show no response. These facts are inconsistent with a large class of theoretical models.


We present a micromanufacturing method for constructing microsystems, which we term 'micro-masonry' based on individual manipulation, influenced by strategies for deterministic materials assembly using advanced forms of transfer printing. Analogous to masonry in construction sites, micro-masonry consists of the preparation, manipulation, and binding of microscale units to assemble microcomponents and microsystems. In this paper, for the purpose of demonstration, we used microtipped elastomeric stamps as manipulators and built three dimensional silicon microstructures. Silicon units of varied shapes were fabricated in a suspended format on donors, retrieved, delivered, and placed on a target location on a receiver using microtipped stamps. Annealing of the assembled silicon units permanently bound them and completed the micro-masonry procedure.


The pharmaceutical industry has encountered major shifts in recent years, both within the industry, and in its external environment. The cost of healthcare rising due to an ageing population, the intensification of regulatory requirements and mergers within the industry have led to an increased need for restructuring, cost reduction and culture change projects. Project management is the key to addressing these needs, and also to effective drug development. Given the costs of development and the critical issue of 'time to market', project management techniques - appropriately used - are a key factor in bringing a drug to market. In this book, Laura Brown and Tony Grundy's pharmaceutical expertise and experience offers the reader a guide to the most relevant project management tools and techniques and how to rigorously apply them in the pharmaceutical industry. The authors cover the technical, strategic and human aspects of project management, including contingency planning, simulation techniques and different project options. Complete with decision-tree diagrams, checklists, exercises and a full glossary, Project Management for the Pharmaceutical Industry provides clinical research, drug development and quality assurance managers or directors with a one-stop reference for successfully managing pharmaceutical projects. The text has been revised for this edition and now includes some additional material on risk management.


The current version of the Dutch Atmospheric Large-Eddy Simulation (DALES) is presented. DALES is a large-eddy simulation code designed for studies of the physics of the atmospheric boundary layer, including convective and stable boundary layers as well as cloudy boundary layers. In addition, DALES can be used for studies of more specific cases, such as flow over sloping or heterogeneous terrain, and dispersion of inert and chemically active species. This paper contains an extensive description of the physical and numerical formulation of the code, and gives an overview of its applications and accomplishments in recent years.


We have investigated the morphological changes with varying the substrate temperature in the range of 350-400°C, in synthesizing the indium oxide (In2O3) rod-like structures by using the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition method. The as-synthesized rod-like structures was aligned perpendicular to the Si substrate. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) analyses demonstrated that the rods had a cubic In2O3 structure. PL spectra of the In2O3 rod-like structures exhibited the visible light emission. We discussed the possible growth mechanisms.


Background: The aim of the study was to examine the incretin-based therapy on glycemic control, insulin sensitivity parameters, weight loss and adipokines in overweight or obese patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: This was a 24-week prospective study of 75 enrolled overweight or obese subjects (body mass index (BMI) is greater than or equal to 25 kg/m 2 ) with newly diagnosed T2DM randomly assigned to the liraglutide, metformin, and sitagliptin groups. Outcome measures were fasting blood glucose (FBG), HbA1c, weight, BMI, waist circumstance, plasma lipids, fast insulin, fast C-peptide, HOMA-IR, HOMA-B, leptin, adiponectin, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). Results: At the endpoint of 24 weeks, administration of liraglutide, metformin or sitagliptin all resulted in significant improvements of glycemic control, weight loss and insulin sensitivity parameters. It was also demonstrated that liraglutide was superior to metformin and sitagliptin in terms of achieving target HbA1c values and sustaining weight loss after 24-week treatment, but not to the incidence of adverse events (AEs). Moreover, liraglutide administration showed beneficial effects on reducing leptin levels and L/A ratio as well as elevating adiponectin levels compared to the metformin and sitagliptin administration. Conclusion: Liraglutide treatment during 24 weeks in newly diagnosed T2DM patients led to reduction of BMI and improvement of glucose control, insulin sensitivity and resistance parameters. Additionally, circulating levels of adipokines could play an important role in GLP-1 treatment. J Endocrinol Metab. 2015;5(5):284-290 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jem304w


The focus of this paper is to optimize the solar energy utilization in the water desalination process. Due to variable nature of solar energy, new system design is needed to address this challenge. Here, reverse osmosis units, as the electrical loads, are considered as an ON/OFF units to track these solar energy variations. Reverse osmosis units are different in sizes and numbers. Various combinations of reverse osmosis units in size and capacity provide different water desalination system performances. To assess each scenario of reverse osmosis units, the total capital cost and operation and maintenance (O&M) cost are considered. The implemented optimization algorithm search all of the possible scenarios to find the best solution. This paper deploys the solar irradiance data which is provided from west coast (Red Sea) of Saudi Arabia for model construction and optimization algorithm implementation.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


The November elections have meant new federal lawmakers will be overseeing spending for important slices of the U.S. research pie. That includes two key changes in the House of Representatives: Representative Tom Cole (R–OK) will lead the subcommittee that oversees the budget of the National Institutes of Health, and Representative John Culberson (R–TX) will head the panel responsible for NASA and the National Science Foundation. Cole, who holds a Ph.D. in history, has a reputation as a thoughtful legislator who prefers compromise to ideological purity on contentious issues. Culberson, a lawyer, is simultaneously a staunch advocate for a smaller government and a huge fan of space exploration to distant bodies in search of extraterrestrial life. Science met recently with the two appropriations "cardinals" to discuss their new roles in crafting a budget for the 2016 fiscal year that starts in October.


Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a family of related statistical techniques that lend themselves to understanding the complex relationships among variables that differ among individuals in the population. SEM techniques have become increasingly popular in the study of personality disorders (PDs) and maladaptive personality traits. The current article takes a critical look at the ways in which SEM techniques have been used in the study of PDs, PD symptoms, and pathological personality traits. By far the most common use of SEM in the study of PDs has been to examine the latent structure of these constructs, with an overwhelming bulk of the evidence in favor of a dimensional, as opposed to categorical, conceptualization. Other common uses of SEM in this area are factor models that examine the joint multivariate space of PDs, maladaptive personality traits, and psychopathology. Relatively underused, however, are observed or latent variable path models. We review the strengths and weaknesses of the work done to date, focusing on ways that these SEM studies have been either theoretically and/or statistically sound. Finally, we offer suggestions for future research examining PDs with SEM techniques.


Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a widespread chronic pain disorder affecting 2−5% of the general population and particularly women of middle age (McBeth and Mulvey, 2012). The syndrome is frequently comorbid with a variety of clinical, functional and psychological disorders (Weir et al., 2006) and associated with a large socio-economic burden (Lachaine et al., 2010). In spite of significant previous research, the underlying aetiology and pathophysiology of FMS is not fully understood (Schmidt-Wilcke and Clauw, 2011). However, aberrant structural and functional brain alterations have been proposed as a casual or maintaining factor of the disorder (Schweinhardt et al., 2008). This thesis utilised functional and structural imaging methods and novel experimental paradigms to explore brain alterations in FMS patients. A comprehensive review of previous experimental findings was performed to identify novel research questions. EEG and MRI data for 5 unique studies was collected over two sessions.

In the first study dynamic mechanical stimulation was applied to the forearm of FMS patients and healthy participants, and an ERD analysis of corresponding EEG data was performed. The results revealed that FMS patients exhibited alterations to cortical excitability during brushing stimuli which correlated with clinical measures. These findings indicate that abnormal processing of innocuous somatosensory stimulation may contribute to the pathophysiology and clinical symptom severity of FMS. Secondly, an ERP analysis of EEG data from the observation of pain and non-pain pictures was performed. FMS patients exhibited differences in ERP components and source activation patterns during observation of pain pictures relative to healthy people. Alterations to processing of observed pain occurred in parahippocampal gyrus and may relate to clinical and psychological aspects of FMS, this finding could be utilised to further understand the heterogeneity of psychological profiles of FMS patients in order to better target therapeutic interventions.

The third study of the thesis describes a novel comparison of functional connectivity with resting-state network structures utilising fMRI recordings. Functional connectivity with default mode network structures was shown to be altered in FMS. This finding may reflect an ongoing time-dependent reorganisation of resting-state networks due to ongoing chronic pain. In the fourth study, a morphological analysis of subcortical structures was performed using high-resolution T1-weighted MR images. FMS patients demonstrated alterations to the morphology of the brainstem, an important structure in descending nociceptive control. Volumetric alterations in this structure correlated with clinical measures of symptom severity suggesting an important role for brainstem alterations in FMS pain symptoms. In the final study the microstructural integrity of white matter was compared between FMS patients and healthy participants. Although no significant differences were identified the findings indicate that FMS is not likely to be related to abnormal development of white matter tracts. Therefore structural alterations associated with FMS are likely to occur only in the grey matter.


While deep neural networks achieve great performance on fitting the training distribution, the learned networks are prone to overfitting and are susceptible to adversarial attacks. In this regard, a number of mixup based augmentation methods have been recently proposed. However, these approaches mainly focus on creating previously unseen virtual examples and can sometimes provide misleading supervisory signal to the network. To this end, we propose Puzzle Mix, a mixup method for explicitly utilizing the saliency information and the underlying statistics of the natural examples. This leads to an interesting optimization problem alternating between the multi-label objective for optimal mixing mask and saliency discounted optimal transport objective. Our experiments show Puzzle Mix achieves the state of the art generalization and the adversarial robustness results compared to other mixup methods on CIFAR-100, Tiny-ImageNet, and ImageNet datasets. The source code is available at this https URL.


The aim of the present study was to characterize the composition and metabolism of HDL in subjects with complete hepatic lipase (HL) deficiency. Analyses were carried out in three complete and three partial HL-deficient subjects as well as in eight normotriglyceridemic (NTG) and two hypertriglyceridemic controls. Complete HL deficiency was associated with hypertriglyceridemia and with a 3.5-fold increase in HDL-triglyceride (TG) levels. The in vivo kinetics of apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and apoA-II (d < 1.25 g/l) were studied in the fasted state using a primed-constant infusion of l-(5,5,5-D3)leucine for 12 h. Complete HL deficiency was associated with a reduced fractional catabolic rate of apoA-I in the HL-deficient female proband (−47%) and in her two brothers (−21%) compared with gender- and TG-matched controls. Total plasma and HDL from complete HL-deficient patients were able to mediate normal cholesterol efflux from human skin fibroblasts labeled with [3H]cholesterol. Complete HL deficiency was also associated with normal levels of preβ-migrating apoA-I-containing HDL separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and with an accumulation of large HDL particles compared with NTG controls. These results suggest that HL activity is important for adequate HDL metabolism, although its presence may not be necessary for normal HDL-mediated reverse cholesterol transport.


It is beyond dispute that today any relevant mention of education and educational reforms automatically includes the concept of lifelong learning. Due to various changes we have to get a brand new perspective on the situation in education, business, and management. This innovative learning environment changes and redefines the role both of the library and the librarian in the context of educational system. Analysing the organization and the activities of the libraries at the Fac-ulty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb the authors of the paper try to establish how well the academic libraries and librarians in Croatia can support recent changes in education and what efforts are being made for the improvement of their efficiency and general standards. Primarily the authors will indicate that pro-viding some extra space for the libraries and ensuring adequate training for the librarians can strongly stimulate the improvement in the efficiency and quality of the libraries so they would conform to the con-temporary educational innovations.


The need for low-power embedded systems has become very significant within the microelectronics scenario in the most recent years. A power-driven methodology is mandatory during embedded systems design to meet system-level requirements while fulfilling time-to-market. The aim of this paper is to introduce accurate and efficient power metrics included in a hardware/software (HW/SW) codesign environment to guide the system-level partitioning. Power evaluation metrics have been defined to widely explore the architectural design space at high abstraction level. This is one of the first approaches that considers globally HW and SW contributions to power in a system-level design flow for control dominated embedded systems.


A vast literature exists on Zhu Xi's metaphysical and political philosophy; however, his status and views as a legal thinker have not garnered much scholarly attention. Most broadly, this Article argues that Zhu Xi made important contributions to the development of Chinese legal philosophy – by intertwining law closely with both morality and his metaphysical views on li (principle), Zhu Xi further empowered law and elevated its importance in Chinese society. This Article will first lay out and analyze Zhu Xi's legal philosophy (focusing especially on his view on punishments), situating it within his broader metaphysical philosophy. Then, Zhu Xi's legal thought in practice, particularly his views on some cases during his time and also his career as a local official, will be examined. Attention will also be given to his community compacts, which the paper argues should be viewed as quasi-legal institutions that supplemented and buttressed the formal legal system. Through this discussion of Zhu Xi's legal thought in practice, this Article hopes to show that there was consistency between Zhu Xi's legal philosophy in both theory and practice. Finally, this Article will briefly argue for the relevance of Zhu Xi's legal thought today in China's program of legal reform. Ultimately, Zhu Xi can be viewed as a model legal thinker for China who offered a complete, total vision of the place of law in society. Zhu Xi's views on law challenge continued notions that Confucianism is incompatible with a modern rule of law system, and also further emphasizes the deep engagement Neo-Confucians historically wanted to have with actual policy-making and society.


This article describes the design of WikiTUI, a tangible user interface system that allows readers to manipulate multimedia information tied to page-level locations in common books. This system will also facilitate the exchange of information with other readers using wiki technology. While other projects have coupled the dual worlds of atoms and bits, few have combined the idea of collaborative and distributed authoring with tangible interfaces. WikiTUI not only bridges the real and digital worlds, but facilitates multiple contributions to a reference base spanning across these worlds. The goal of our work is to apply the paradigm of coupling atoms and bits in order to extend the collaborative annotation and authoring possibilities of wiki media.


Deep neural networks with remarkably strong generalization performances are usually over-parameterized. Despite explicit regularization strategies are used for practitioners to avoid over-fitting, the impacts are often small. Some theoretical studies have analyzed the implicit regularization effect of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) on simple machine learning models with certain assumptions. However, how it behaves practically in state-of-the-art models and real-world datasets is still unknown. To bridge this gap, we study the role of SGD implicit regularization in deep learning systems. We show pure SGD tends to converge to minimas that have better generalization performances in multiple natural language processing (NLP) tasks. This phenomenon coexists with dropout, an explicit regularizer. In addition, neural network's finite learning capability does not impact the intrinsic nature of SGD's implicit regularization effect. Specifically, under limited training samples or with certain corrupted labels, the implicit regularization effect remains strong. We further analyze the stability by varying the weight initialization range. We corroborate these experimental findings with a decision boundary visualization using a 3-layer neural network for interpretation. Altogether, our work enables a deepened understanding on how implicit regularization affects the deep learning model and sheds light on the future study of the over-parameterized model's generalization ability.


The unique tri-layered atomic structure of MoS2 monolayer favors formation of sulfur vacancy lines (SVL), which has been confirmed by both theoretical and experimental studies. This defect could be used as a template to accommodate atomic metal chains, which is an interesting research topic in recent years. In this study, we investigated the magnetic properties of atomic 3d transition metal (V, Cr, Mn and Fe) chains adsorbed along a SVL of monolayer MoS2 using first-principles calculations. All atomic transition-metal (TM) chains could adsorb stably with large binding energies. The magnetic orders and exchange interactions of 3d transition-metal chains were dramatically influenced by the MoS2 substrate. The magnetic ground state of the V and Cr chains remained unchanged after anchoring onto MoS2; however the magnetic interactions weakened compared to those of their free-standing cases. Mn and Fe chains showed transitions from ferromagnetic (FM) coupling in a freestanding chain to antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling on the SVL of MoS2. The magnetic coupling in atomic transition metal chains is mediated by Mo atoms in the vicinity of atomic chains, which is governed by the combination of through-bond and through-space interactions. It was found that through-bond coupling is dominant in FM V/MoS2, and through-space coupling is dominant in the AFM state of Cr/MoS2, Mn/MoS2 and Fe/MoS2. The electronic properties, magnetic order and exchange interactions of atomic 3d transition-metal chain on SVL of MoS2 can be tuned by the uniaxial strain applied along the chain direction.


In this New Ideas and Emerging Results paper, we present a novel visualization, THE BRAIN, that reveals clusters of source code that co-execute to produce behavioral features of the program throughout and within executions. We created a clustered visualization of source-code that is informed by dynamic control flow of multiple executions; each cluster represents commonly interacting logic that composes software features. In addition, we render individual executions atop the clustered multiple-execution visualization as user-controlled animations to reveal characteristics of specific executions-these animations may provide exemplars for the clustered features and provide chronology for those behavioral features, or they may reveal anomalous behaviors that do not fit with the overall operational profile of most executions. Both the clustered multiple-execution view and the animated individual-execution view provide insights for the constituent behaviors within executions that compose behaviors of whole executions. Inspired by neural imaging of human brains of people who were subjected to various external stimuli, we designed and implemented THE BRAIN to reveal program activity during execution. The result has revealed the principal behaviors of execution, and those behaviors were revealed to be (in some cases) cohesive, modular source-code structures and (in other cases) cross-cutting, emergent behaviors that involve multiple modules. In this paper, we describe THE BRAIN and envisage the uses to which it can be put, and we provide two example usage scenarios to demonstrate its utility.


Architecting networks capable of providing scalable, efficient, and fair services to users with diverse QoS requirements is a challenging problem. The differentiated services framework has advanced a set of building blocks comprised of per-hop and access point behaviors. We provide a theoretical framework for reasoning about differentiated services networks, constrained to be implementable in IP networks. The control framework incorporates assumptions, albeit weak, about selfish user behavior and service provider behavior. This is necessitated by the essential role they play in influencing end-to end QoS, without which an effective evaluation of DiffServ architectures remains incomplete. We show that there is an intimate relationship between the properties exported by per-hop and edge control, and the "goodness" of the resource allocation and QoS attained in a noncooperative network environment. Our control framework-Scalar QoS Control-generalizes the per-hop and edge control achievable by setting a scalar value in packet headers, e.g., the TOS field of IP. We develop a theory of optimal classifiers and the properties they exhibit which facilitate end to-end QoS via the joint action of aggregate flow control per hop and per-flow control at the edge. We show the stability and efficiency properties of the overall network system when users are allowed to influence the choice of scalar values in the DS field at the edge, and service providers export costs to users commensurate with the QoS received.


Autonomous mobility-on-demand (AMoD) systems represent a rapidly developing mode of transportation wherein travel requests are dynamically handled by a coordinated fleet of robotic, self-driving vehicles. Given a graph representation of the transportation network - one where, for example, nodes represent areas of the city, and edges the connectivity between them - we argue that the AMoD control problem is naturally cast as a node-wise decision-making problem. In this paper, we propose a deep reinforcement learning framework to control the rebalancing of AMoD systems through graph neural networks. Crucially, we demonstrate that graph neural networks enable reinforcement learning agents to recover behavior policies that are significantly more transferable, generalizable, and scalable than policies learned through other approaches. Empirically, we show how the learned policies exhibit promising zero-shot transfer capabilities when faced with critical portability tasks such as inter-city generalization, service area expansion, and adaptation to potentially complex urban topologies.


Introduction Colchicine, commonly classified as an anti-inflammatory agent, is a mainstay for the treatment of gout and a second-line therapy for other conditions, including pericarditis, familial Mediterranean fever and Behcet's disease. Recent studies suggest that colchicine may be beneficial in a wide spectrum of cardiovascular diseases. We carried out a systematic review to investigate whether, in randomised controlled trials, colchicine has an effect on the rate of cardiovascular events. Method Controlled clinical studies were searched in BioMedCentral, the Cochrane Collaboration Database of Randomised Trials (CENTRAL), ClinicalTrials.gov, Google Scholar, MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus and EMBASE provided they focused on whether colchicine had an effect on primary or secondary prevention of cardiovascular events The PubMed search was performed with the term 'colchicine' and 'randomised'. Results From 244 citations, eleven randomised controlled trials were identified, of which seven were double-blind. Four trials focussed on the effects of colchicine on coronary atheroma, three on pericarditis, two on atrial fibrillation, one on both pericarditis and atrial fibrillation and one on chronic heart failure. Altogether, 1360 patients were assigned to control and 1323 to colchicine. One substantial trial (n = 523 followed for a median of 3 years) showed that colchicine 0.5 mg/day reduced vascular events (hazard ratio: 0.33; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.18 to 0.59; p < 0.001). However, a trial of colchicine 0.5 mg/day in 278 patients with chronic heart failure failed to demonstrate an effect on death or heart failure hospitalisation. Meta-analytic pooling showed that colchicine use was associated with a reduced risk of overall cardiovascular events (ACS, in-stent restenosis, postop AF, postop pericardiotomy, postop pericardial effusions, pericarditis and death) with a similar risk of adverse events as placebo. Focussing on the composite of acute vascular occlusion (MI, CVA or CV death), there were 78 events in control groups versus 50 on colchicine. There were 21 deaths in patients assigned to control compared to thirteen assigned to colchicine. Conclusion Long-term prophylaxis with low-dose colchicine appears safe and may be effective for a number of cardiovascular conditions. Whether colchicine can modify the course of coronary artery disease or heart failure, two cardiovascular conditions associated with activation of inflammatory pathways, deserves further investigation.


The temperature distribution of the work roll affects the shape and size of final product in aluminum strip cold rolling process. The segmental model is presented to explore the boundaries of the roll. The surface of the work roll is divided into 5 different regions including the outlet roll-strip contact region, the inlet roll-strip contact (bite) region, the roll-spray region, the roll-air region and the roll-roll contact region. Based on the analysis of the roll pressure, the mathematical models of the plastic doformation work and friction heat are proposed to calculate the temperature variation in bite region. The boundaries, including heat convection with lubricant/air and heat conduction with the backup roll, are considered to model the work roll's temperature distribution.


In order to study the environment or climate of an area, it is necessary to understand the composition of atmospheric aerosol particles, as well as microphysical properties, such as extinction cross section, scattering cross section, polarization degree, etc. For a long time, when calculating the microphysical properties of atmospheric aerosol particles, the aerosol particles are always be considered as spheres. Mie theory has been used to calculate the scattering properties of spherical particles with high accuracy. However, in reality, aerosol particles are not only spherical, they have complex composition and different shapes. The influence of non-spherical aerosol particles on atmospheric radiation, scattering and absorption cannot be ignored. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand the micro-physical characteristics of non-spherical aerosol particles for fully understand the real atmospheric environment. Until now, TMatrix method is one of the most effective and extensive methods to study the light scattering characteristics of non-spherical rotationally symmetric aerosol particles. In this paper, the non-spherical aerosol particles extinction section, scattering cross section, the absorption cross section are calculated using T-Matrix method. The extinction, scattering, and the absorption properties are calculated with variety of different types aerosol particles, and compared with the properties calculated by Mie scattering theory. It lays a foundation for more accurate simulation of the microphysical properties of aerosol particles in real atmosphere. ∗ Corresponding author:Hu Zhao, E-mail: email@example.com


OBJECTIVE
We evaluated factors contributing to activity limitations in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health model.

METHOD
In a cross-sectional study, we measured five activity constructs in 81 people with RA.

RESULTS
Multiple regression analysis revealed the following results for the five constructs: (1) RA Activities (R² = .512) included handgrip strength, range of motion deficit, deformity, and mental health; (2) Upper-Limb Activities (R² = .473) included time since diagnosis, dexterity, handgrip strength, and range of motion deficit; (3) Timed Activities (R² = .320) included dexterity and work activities; (4) Physical Autonomy Activities (R² = .562) included range of motion deficit, vitality, pain, and functional classification; and (5) Physical Conditions for Activities (R² = .416) included functional classification and vitality.

CONCLUSION
Factors most associated with activity limitations were handgrip strength and hand range of motion deficits. Activity limitations in people with RA are multifactorial.


The spread of malaria is determined by factors called Host (host), Agent (plasmodium parasite) and Environment (Environment). The spread of malaria occurs when the three components above support each other. Basically every person can be infected by the agent or the cause of the disease and is the breeding place or the propagation agent (plasmodium parasite). Behavior of society is human behavior or activity of man itself that can support the happening of malaria disease. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of community behavior on the incidence of malaria in Sungai Raya Kepulauan Subdistrict, Bengkayang District in 2017. This research type was observational analytic with cross sectional research design. This study wanted to see the effect of community behavior on the incidence of malaria disease during the period of January to July 2017 where two villages (Karimunting and Sungai Keran) become sample of research location. The results obtained from this study there was the influence of behavioral use of bed nets (sometimes) to the incidence of malaria with p-value 0.048. Advice can be given is to avoid and prevent mosquito bites by improving the behavior of clean and healthy life and still use the correct mosquito net while sleeping. Keywords: Malaria, Behavior, Mosquito


Background: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the major cause of neurobehavioral disorder. It often causes persistent and progressive symptoms, such as mental disorder, dizziness and balance problems. The relationship between subjective measurement of balance and the objective instrument of dizziness remains unclear.
Methods and findings: We enrolled 210 mTBI patients, including 94 patients with dizziness problems and 116 patients without dizziness problems. The participants completed the dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) and stability and sway indices through the Biodex stability System. A Box-Cox transformation for each index was performed to assess the linear regression relationship with all aspects (physical, emotional, and functional) of the DHI. After a propensity score adjustment, gender and age were significant predictors for all stability and sway indices. In addition, body height was a significant factor in balance test results when eyes were open. Furthermore, the emotional aspect of the DHI significantly correlated with stability and sway indices, except the mediolateral stability index (MLSI).
Conclusion: The three aspects of the subjective instrument of dizziness were significantly related with anxiety, depression and sleep problems. For mTBI patients, the objective changes in balance were associated with the emotional aspect of DHI.


This report deals with some problems in connection with the school situation of children from sparsely populated areas. 515 pupils at the middle level of the 9-year compulsory school ir. Vasterbotten took part ir. the investigation. 200 of these we*-e children from sparsely populated areas according to the following definition: children having no friends of their own age except in their families closer than one kilometre from their homes. School performance was measured with standard tests in the subjects Swedish, mathematics, English and with marks in grade 6. School adjustment and maturity were measured with teacher estimates. The attitudes of the pupils to school, friends, home and leisure time were studied with questionnaire« in grades 3 and 6 and for the latter ones with a questionnaire in grade 7 as well. Children from sparsely populated areas obtained as good a result as other pupils on the standard tests. In B-schools, above all in grade 6, the children from sparsely populated areas tended to perform better than teir class-mates. Boys from sparsely populated areas obtained somewhat worse results in A-schools in grade6. Girls performed better than boys throughout. The teacher's estimates of school adjustment and maturity favoured the group from sparsely populated areas compared with other pupils. The attitudes of the pupils to school and school work were somewhat more positive and stable in B-classes. When they reached the senior level of t.he 9-year compulsory school the pupils from B-schools were more insecure in the school situation whereas they seemed less stressed by marks and competition than pupils from A-schools. Children from sparsely populated areas have positive altitudes towards forming new contacts both at the middle level of the 9-year compulsory school and in grade7. The results indicate on the whole that both B-schools and life in sparsely populated areas favour performance in school. The same is true of school adjustment and comfort in spite of the fact that children from this environment are considered to be a negative sample according to prevalent social group norms.


The use of fluorinated contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) facilitates improved image quality due to the negligible amount of endogenous fluorine atoms in the body. In this work, we present a comprehensive study of the influence of the amphiphilic polymer structure and composition on its applicability as contrast agents in 19F MRI. Three series of novel fluorine-containing poly(2-oxazoline) copolymers and terpolymers, hydrophilic-fluorophilic, hydrophilic-lipophilic-fluorophilic, and hydrophilic-thermoresponsive-fluorophilic, with block and gradient distributions of the fluorinated units, were synthesized. It was discovered that the CF3 in the 2-(3,3,3-trifluoropropyl)-2-oxazoline (CF3EtOx) group activated the cationic chain end, leading to faster copolymerization kinetics, whereby spontaneous monomer gradients were formed with accelerated incorporation of 2-methyl-2-oxazoline or 2-n-propyl-2-oxazoline with a gradual change to the less-nucleophilic CF3EtOx monomer. The obtained amphiphilic copolymers and terpolymers form spherical or wormlike micelles in water, which was confirmed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), while small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) revealed the core-shell or core-double-shell morphologies of these nanoparticles. The core and shell sizes obey the scaling laws for starlike micelles predicted by the scaling theory. Biocompatibility studies confirm that all copolymers obtained are noncytotoxic and, at the same time, exhibit high sensitivity during in vitro 19F MRI studies. The gradient copolymers provide the best 19F MRI signal-to-noise ratio in comparison with the analogue block copolymer structures, making them most promising as 19F MRI contrast agents.


Algorithms for automatic fall detection are often studied in the field of ambulatory human health supervision. These algorithms are developed to generate hospital emergency alarms. In the present paper, Involuntary Lateral Movements (ILM) are presented. ILM are a premature sign of health deterioration. Therefore, this algorithm embedded in a sensor device could be used for continuous health monitoring in ambulatory situations. Several studies show that human bodies try to minimize acceleration body movements, so they are based on minimum jerk. The proposed algorithm is based on a jerk threshold detection. In this work it is supposed that ILM will produce important jerk values above other daily movements, so that they can be distinguished using a threshold.


Jennifer Kirstin Benz: A Framework for Understanding the Role of Self-Interest in Attitude Formation (Under the direction of Thomas Carsey) In this paper I present a framework based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion to explain the interplay of self-interest with symbolic beliefs and sociotropic perceptions in determining policy preferences. In developing the self-interest framework, I generate three testable hypotheses. I address two of these hypotheses in this paper using individual level survey data on preferences for a system of universal health insurance. The results of these tests provide preliminary support for the self-interest framework and suggest that a new conception of the effect of self-interest on policy preferences is in order.


Although rubber expansion joint has been used in a variety of field in abroad before World War II, its production in Japan began after the war. Since then, the rubber expansion joints have been recognized to be one of the most important modules to support power plants which have been necessary for economical renovation. Other rubber lined products such as pipes and valves are also often used for power plants utilizing the chemical stability and elasticity of the rubber. In this review, practical usage of rubber expansion joints and rubber-lined modules used in power plants is described.


With the rapid development of information technology, online platforms have produced enormous text resources. As a particular form of Information Extraction (IE), Event Extraction (EE) has gained increasing popularity due to its ability to automatically extract events from human language. However, there are limited literature surveys on event extraction. Existing review works either spend much effort describing the details of various approaches or focus on a particular field. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art event extraction methods and their applications from text, including closed-domain and open-domain event extraction. A trait of this survey is that it provides an overview in moderate complexity, avoiding involving too many details of particular approaches. This study focuses on discussing the common characters, application fields, advantages, and disadvantages of representative works, ignoring the specificities of individual approaches. Finally, we summarize the common issues, current solutions, and future research directions. We hope this work could help researchers and practitioners obtain a quick overview of recent event extraction.


Taking on the language of golf in a manner that is interesting and entertaining for players of all levels, this book contains humorous translations of 100 of the game's most frequently used terms in English, Spanish, and German. Golf terms such as dogleg, shank, bunker, and bogey are among the chosen terms defined, along with tips and recommendations that will help golfers play better and derive more enjoyment from the game. A specially concocted series of 100 cocktails is also included, each bearing the name of one of the book's golf terms. This humorous book is great not only for golf enthusiasts, but for lounges and restaurants where golfers and their friends gather.


Aim: To assess the spatial and temporal expression of germ cell nuclear factor (GCNF) in male mouse germ cells during postnatal development and in sperm before and after capacitation. Methods: The indirect immunofluorescence method with anti-GCNF antiserum was used to investigate the GCNF expression in mice at day 8, 10,14, 17, 20, 28, 35, 70, and 420 after birth and in sperm before and after capacitation. Results: With the proceeding of spermatogenesis, GCNF was first detected in the nuclei of spermatogonia and a few early stage primary spermatocytes at day 8, which was increased gradually at day 10 to 14 inclusive. From day 17 to day 20, the GCNF was concentrated in round spermatids, while both spermatogonia and early stage primary spermatocytes became GCNF negative. From day 28 until day 420, strong GCNF expression was shown in round spermatids and pachytene spermatocytes, while spermatogonia, early primary spermatocytes and elongating spermatids were all GCNF negative.In addition, it was also found that GCNF was localized on the acrosomal cap region of spermatozoa and there was a big change in GCNF expression during capacitation, from 98 % GCNF positive before capacitation to about 20 % positive following capacitation. The localization of GCNF in caput and cauda spermatozoa was similar. Conclusion:GCNF may play important roles in spermatogenesis, capacitation and fertilization. (Asian J Androl 2004 Sep; 6: 217-222)


We define saving regret as the wish in hindsight to have saved more earlier in life. We measured saving regret and possible determinants in a survey of a probability sample of those aged 60-79. We investigate two main causes of saving regret: procrastination along with other psychological traits, and the role of shocks, both positive and negative. We find high levels of saving regret but relatively little of the variation is explained by procrastination and psychological factors. Shocks such as unemployment, health and divorce explain much more of the variation. The results have important implications for retirement saving policies.


Three decades ago, Acropora palmata was one of the main reef-building coral species throughout the Caribbean, forming an essential component of the structural complexity of shallow coral reef habitats. These colonies still provide microhabitats for settlement, food and shelter to many vertebrates and invertebrates. The recent decline of A. palmata has been followed by a significant loss in spatial heterogeneity and possibly in species diversity. Studies addressing whether dead and living stands of Acropora hold different fish and benthic assemblages are scarce. The status of Acropora colonies and their associated species were assessed in October 2012, at two reef zones of Cayo Sombrero, Venezuela. Visual censuses of fish abundance and the number of macrofaunal individuals were recorded for both live and dead zones. Living Acropora colonies had the lowest abundance (˂31%). In both zoned the fish community was dominated by damselfishes (˂53%) and wrasses (˂36%), the benthic macrofauna by peracarid crustaceans (˂40%) and polychaetes (˂38%). Fish and benthic communities were not correlated with the condition (live or dead) of the Acropora habitats; possibly branching structures provide the necessary shelter and protection no matter if they are dead or alive. More replication is necessary to test this unexpected result. Rev. Biol. Trop. 62 (Suppl. 3): 85-93. Epub 2014 September 01.


Research on open innovation in firms has grown significantly over the last decade. While scholars have started to address the knowledge gaps around open innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), there is still much to be done to develop more systematic evidence on the open innovation practices of SMEs. Given this, and in order to develop a greater understanding of open innovation practices at the SME level, this chapter develops a methodology for capturing, measuring, and benchmarking open innovation practices of SMEs. The theoretical framework proposes and develops six composite indicators to measure the different elements of open innovation within SMEs. These six pillars of open innovation practices are knowledge and technology sourcing activities; innovation expenditure; sources of knowledge; human capital; innovation networks; and intellectual property protection. They allow the examination of this phenomenon across spatial, temporal, and firm-level dimensions. The theoretical framework proposed herein has the potential to provide useful insights on the open innovation activity of SMEs across different size, sectoral, and spatial measures. This has value for policymakers, practitioners, and academic scholars seeking to better understand the differences in open innovation activity at these levels. This can be achieved by utilizing data from Community Innovation Surveys as the main data source for measuring innovation in Europe. The harmonized nature of these surveys provides a unique opportunity for benchmarking and comparative analysis on open innovation activities of different sectors and regions utilizing the proposed framework of open innovation practices. A further impact of the methodology that we propose in this chapter is its potential integration with the annual European Innovation Scoreboard and Regional Innovation Scoreboards. Currently, such an approach is lacking from both these EU-level scoreboards.


The progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with marked alterations in circulating immune cell populations, but no studies have characterized alterations in these cell types across the full spectrum of lung function impairment in current and former smokers. In 6,299 subjects from the COPDGene and ECLIPSE studies, we related Coulter blood counts and proportions to cross-sectional FEV1 adjusting for current smoking status. We also related cell count measures to three-year change in FEV1 in ECLIPSE subjects. In a subset of subjects with blood gene expression data, we used cell type deconvolution methods to infer the proportions of immune cell subpopulations, and we related these to COPD clinical status. We observed that FEV1 levels are positively correlated with lymphocytes and negatively correlated with myeloid populations such as neutrophils and monocytes. In multivariate models, absolute cell counts and proportions were associated with cross-sectional FEV1, and lymphocytes, monocytes, and eosinophil counts were predictive of three-year change in lung function. Using cell type deconvolution to study immune cell subpopulations, we observed that subjects with COPD had a lower proportion of CD4+ resting memory cells and naive B cells compared to non-COPD smokers. Alterations in circulating immune cells in COPD support a mixed pattern of lymphocyte suppression and an enhanced myeloid cell immune response. Cell counts and proportions contribute independent information to models predicting lung function suggesting a critical role for immune response in long-term COPD outcomes. Cell type deconvolution is a promising method for immunophenotyping in large cohorts.


This study is based on observations from a short seminar series that were held at a Swedish university on the topic of how to write successful research proposals. In an attempt to present a view of "how professors think" about peer review and research funding, several universities has in recent years organized seminars where senior scholars talk about how to write successful grant proposals. The seminars are a practical response to the changing nature of research funding in general, and to the fact that Swedish universities has become a kind of "entrepreneurial universities" with an external pressure to be highly competitive and productive.The results of the analysis suggest that the message being delivered to the young scholars in the audience is quite ambivalent. Although the organization and the speakers seem genuinely sincere in their wish to guide the new generation of scholars, the performances contain at the same time a gentle form of symbolic violence. One of the hypotheses put forward in this paper is that this seminar series is only a minor aspect of a more general crisis of legitimacy within Swedish academia concerning issues of funding. It is also suggested that these seminars play a vital part in the socialization process of the new generation of scholars, a socialization process that normalizes the meaning and the consequences of the precarious and uncertain conditions of today's academic life.


During its last complete business cycle, from 2001 to 2007, the United States experienced unsustainably high trade deficits. Policymakers are considering a number of measures to avoid a recurrence of such large external imbalances. One such measure is the promotion of better labor rights around the world. Proponents argue that higher labor standards would boost U.S. exports by increasing income growth abroad and reduce U.S. imports by shrinking international price differences. Opponents of such a policy move argue that it is disguised protectionism that will impede trade and harm living standards in the United States and abroad. In this paper, I combine U.S. trade data with data on international labor standards and other relevant economic variables to study if there is a link between labor rights abroad and U.S. trade. The results suggest that the United States would have benefited from more exports if there had been better worker rights around the world, while labor rights would not have had any measurable impact on U.S. imports. That is, the promotion of better worker rights around the world could contribute to fewer external imbalances without impeding international trade flows.


RAKE receivers suffer degradation in performance under fast fading due to errors in channel state estimation. The wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scatterer channel model lends itself to time-frequency canonical representation, and provides additional diversity in the frequency axis. Using the joint spatial-multipath-Doppler diversity model based on this canonical representation, we propose a nonlinear space-time-frequency decorrelating decision-feedback multiuser detector for synchronous CDMA which utilizes decisions of the stronger users when forming the decisions for the weaker ones. Simulation results based on realistic fast-fading assumptions demonstrate that the proposed decorrelating decision-feedback multiuser detector promises substantially improved bit-error-rate Performance compared to space-time-frequency decorrelating multiuser detector for the weaker users, while the error probability of the weakest user approaches the single-user bound as the interferers grow stronger. The proposed detector exhibits strong resistance to the near-far effect for all users and the time-complexity-per-bit is linear in the number of users.


Although the prognostic value of p53 abnormalities in Stage III microsatellite stable (MSS) colorectal cancers (CRCs) is known, the gene expression profiles specific to the p53 status in the MSS background are not known. Therefore, the current investigation has focused on identification and validation of the gene expression profiles associated with p53 mutant phenotypes in MSS Stage III CRCs. Genomic DNA extracted from 135 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues, was analyzed for microsatellite instability (MSI) and p53 mutations. Further, mRNA samples extracted from five p53-mutant and five p53-wild-type MSS-CRC snap-frozen tissues were profiled for differential gene expression by Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 arrays. Differentially expressed genes were further validated by the high-throughput quantitative nuclease protection assay (qNPA), and confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Survival rates were estimated by Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses. A higher incidence of p53 mutations was found in MSS (58%) than in MSI (30%) phenotypes. Both univariate (log-rank, P = 0.025) and multivariate (hazard ratio, 2.52; 95% confidence interval, 1.25–5.08) analyses have demonstrated that patients with MSS-p53 mutant phenotypes had poor CRC-specific survival when compared to MSS-p53 wild-type phenotypes. Gene expression analyses identified 84 differentially expressed genes. Of 49 down-regulated genes, LPAR6, PDLIM3, and PLAT, and, of 35 up-regulated genes, TRIM29, FUT3, IQGAP3, and SLC6A8 were confirmed by qNPA, qRT-PCR, and IHC platforms. p53 mutations are associated with poor survival of patients with Stage III MSS CRCs and p53-mutant and wild-type phenotypes have distinct gene expression profiles that might be helpful in identifying aggressive subsets.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to verify if adult education can contribute to social mobility by analysing how the socioeconomic and professional background of the students affects dropout and graduation hazards in higher education.

Design/methodology/approach
An event history analysis approach, with competing risks and discrete time, implemented under a multinomial logit model, is used to investigate how an extensive set of covariates affects the risk of graduation, dropout and persistence of 834 adult student workers from a higher education institution in Portugal.

Findings
Adult education may indeed be effective in promoting social mobility, as academic achievement is higher for student workers that have low educated parents and low income levels. Also, the probability of achieving graduation seems to be higher for those seeking for higher transformation.

Practical implications
Adult education should be encouraged as it generates both efficiency and equity benefits. Some policy recommendations are suggested for the higher education system to adapt better to the particular characteristics of adult workers and provide conditions to improve the job–study–family conciliation, namely, by adjusting the schedule and composition of classes, appreciating the curriculum and providing orientation to candidates, and introducing shorter/simplified versions of the degrees.

Originality/value
A separate treatment is given to adult student workers, whose characteristics are very particular, enriching the literature on academic achievement that has been focussed on traditional students. Additionally, the studied data set merges five sources and provides extensive and original information on personal, degree and employment variables of the students.


Objective: This project identifies emerging trends in mental health in-patient care for people living in the Northern Territory's Top End. There is a specific focus on trends for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people given the high proportion living in this region. Methodology: The Admitted Patient Mental Health National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) for the Darwin Mental Health Services In-patient Unit from 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2010 was analysed using Stata 11 and other statistical web based programs. There were 6079 separations for the 10 years captured by this dataset. The results are discussed in context, using findings from the literature review. Key Findings:  Key Finding 1: The overall number of short stay separations from the Darwin Mental Health In-patient Unit is decreasing.  Key Finding 2: The overall number of long stay separations from the Darwin Mental Health In-patient Unit is increasing.  Key Finding 3: The average length of stay for Indigenous patients is increasing.  Key Finding 4: The proportion of separations for female patients for both short and long stays is increasing.  Key Finding 5: There are a higher proportion of female patients admitted for long stays.  Key Finding 6: The proportion of separations (short and long stay) for Indigenous people is increasing.  Key Finding 7: The proportion of short and long stay separations for those patients whose usual place of residence was in an NT Rural or NT Remote region is increasing.  Key Finding 8: The average age on separation for Indigenous patients is lower than the average age for non-Indigenous patients.  Key Finding 9: The proportion of separations for male patients is higher where there has been involuntary treatment during the in-patient stay. Conclusions: This project found that whilst overall separations for each year are decreasing, the number of separations continues to increase for Indigenous people living in remote areas of the Northern Territory's Top End. This increased service utilisation may link with improved access to mental health care through primary and specialist services, and improved mental health literacy but may also be due to increased prevalence of mental illness. The challenge for the Darwin Mental Health In-patient Unit will be to continue to meet demand while maintaining the quality of in-patient mental health care and providing a culturally safe environment.


Video conferencing is a relatively new technology for primary schools in England and it is normally used as a tool for distance learning. This thesis is a phenomenological case study that describes a course of mathematical enrichment sessions delivered through the medium of video conferencing to a group of 36 able children across six primary schools. The sessions are delivered by me, which gives the study a reflective and reflexive aspect since I have a dual role as both the teacher and the researcher.

As well describing the experiences of the children, there is a focus on the teaching strategies that are used in this virtual environment and how they evolve over time. The thesis is structured around a framework of teaching strategies consisting of four categories; cognitive, compensation, metacognitive and affective strategies. The project makes use of video recordings, children's diaries, a personal log, lesson plans and interview transcripts and the methods used include visual discourse analysis and Bloom's method of stimulated recall.

Successful and effective are the terms used for describing the outcome of a video conference in relation to technology and pedagogy respectively. This study shows that the evolution of teaching strategies is centred around creating routines to address the uncertainty of the virtual environment rather than focusing directly on pedagogy.

The three major findings of this study are:

1. Site facilitators are not an essential requirement for ensuring the smooth running of a video conference. This study has shown that the participants themselves are able to take on any required responsibilities in this area if the number at each endpoint is relatively small (i.e. between four and eight participants).

2. Remote behaviour management and monitoring strategies are an important aspect of the video conferencing tool-kit for teachers. This study has demonstrated the importance of screen layouts in facilitating the use of such strategies.

3. The production features associated with children's educational television programmes may be able to inform effective pedagogy for teaching and learning through video conferencing. In particular, this study has highlighted the potential of using theme tunes as auditory anchors to emphasise key points during a video conference.

By the end of this study, it will be argued that the children enjoyed taking part and they became more independent as learners. Furthermore, it will be shown that if the teaching strategies are appropriate and if the mathematical content is enriching and open-ended, then video conferencing can create valuable learning opportunities for children that are not readily available in the traditional classroom environment.


As state legislatures begin to regulate utilization review activities, some appear to be utilizing the URAC standards for guidance. Still others (e.g., Iowa, Nebraska, and New Hampshire) require URAC accreditation as a prerequisite for utilization review organizations to operate in their states, while others (e.g., Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Rhode Island) accept URAC accreditation in lieu of state certification. "States Look to Accreditation for Managed Care Seal of Approval," Medical Utilization Review, Vol. 22, No. 20, Oct. 27, 1994, at 7-8. The remarkable consistency between the 1994 URAC standards and the new California law are a hopeful sign that managed care decision-making will in the future be undertaken on a more uniform and objective basis. Only through this type of consensus building will the historical chasm between providers and payors be made smaller.


Worldwide, anxiety disorders are the sixth leading cause of all years of life lived with disability, ahead of diabetes, cancers and stroke. In the United States, anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders among older adults. It is well documented that anxiety and cognitive impairment co-occur in older adults, however, the nature of this relationship remains unclear. Further, medications that are used to manage anxiety symptoms and disorders appear to be increasing in the general population with paucity of information about trends in older adults. Using three population-based studies, this dissertation investigated anxiety symptoms in older men and women with a focus on anxiety-related medications and impact of anxiety on future cognitive functioning. We found that the use of anxiolytic and antidepressant medications increased in an aging cohort over ten years with higher prevalence in women than men. We also found that some predictors of anxiolytic and antidepressant medications use were common among both men and women, while some predictors were potentially gender-specific. In a cohort of oldest old women, we found that mild anxiety symptoms were associated with increased odds of incident dementia over five years. We also found that change in anxiety symptoms over time was associated with increased risk of dementia. We did not observe an association between anxiety symptoms and mild cognitive impairment. In a cohort of older men, we found that anxiety symptoms were associated with greater declines in both global cognitive function and executive function over three years. We also found that such a decline reached clinically significant level in executive function but not in global cognitive function. Taken together, these findings are of major public health relevance as they highlight the significance of anxiety symptoms in older adults. Findings from this research will improve our understanding of the role of anxiety as a predictor of future cognitive impairment. It is critical to clarify whether anxiety can early identify those at higher risk or it is a potentially modifiable risk factor. Findings from this research will also inform future intervention research that targets older users of anxiety-related medications.


PURPOSE
The c-met proto-oncogene encodes a receptor tyrosine kinase (Met) and has been shown to play a role in oncogenesis. Given that high titers of hepatocyte growth factor, the specific ligand for Met, are excreted in the urine and tend to reflect disease activity of bladder cancer, we performed this study to examine the clinical significance of Met in human bladder cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We studied the mRNA expression and genomic alteration of c-met in five bladder cancer cell lines. Significance of Met overexpression was then compared with p53 nuclear accumulation (TP53) in primary bladder cancer (n = 142 patients).

RESULTS
Expression of c-met mRNA tended to positively correlate with differentiation of cancer cell lines in the absence of point mutation. High expression of Met was found in seven cases (4.9%), low expression in 32 cases (22.5%), and negative expression in 103 cases (72.5%). Expression of Met was positively associated with histologic grade, stage classification, tumor size, and nodular tumor growth (P <.05, respectively); however, it was not related to TP53 status. Factors that predicted disease progression were tumor stage, Met status, and TP53 accumulation (P <.05, respectively). Indicators for poor long-term survival were invasive cancer, multiple tumors, and Met overexpression (P =.0006,.01, and.04, respectively).

CONCLUSION
The c-met proto-oncogene plays a more important role in the progression of bladder carcinogenesis than p53. Evaluation of Met expression could identify a subset of bladder cancer patients who may require a more intensive treatment strategy.


Ever since the since the serendipitous discovery of the antipsychotic effect of chlorpromazine, the dopamine theory of schizophrenia has been the predominant one in both the understanding of its pathology and pharmacological management. Although this has had success in the management of positive symptoms of schizophrenia, this is not the case with negative symptoms of this disease. These are the ones which lead to the most long-term disability and consequent poor outcome. Pharmacological interventions for schizophrenia which concentrate on the dopaminergic pathways have had little success in alleviating negative symptoms of this disabling illness. Indeed, there has been a dearth of pharmacological initiatives addressing negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Drug development seems to have been led by identifying and targeting a single explanatory mechanism for the disease. While each proposed explanatory mechanism has clear merits, each also has limitations. The most probable neuropathological explanation of schizophrenia is not confined to a single receptor or neural system, but the interaction of several dysfunctional ones. The especially aggressive nature of schizophrenia leads to a (variable) degree of cerebral tissue loss with each exacerbation of the illness. Understanding schizophrenia as a potentially neurodegenerative disease with neurodevelopmental antecedents may thus be a useful shift in the therapeutic appreciation of this illness. It is essential to remember that psychological and social factors also have neurological consequences: epigenetic influence is one way to understand the psychopathology of these consequences. This is, of course, the rationale for holistic treatment of the illness generally. The wide-ranging pathology of schizophrenia means that holistic management of it will always be required and the concentration on a single pathological pathway is one which both leads researchers to unrewarding conclusions and results in an unsatisfactory outcome for the person who suffers from schizophrenia. Successful management of this illness is therefore always holistic, including the maintenance of appropriate suitable medication as well as psychological and social interventions which are recovery focussed. A thorough understanding of all of the factors involved in schizophrenic illness therefore narrows the translational gap.


the site of Morgantina, located on a ridge in the rolling landscape of east-central sicily about 60 km from the ionian sea coast, has been the locus of continuous archaeological investigation since 1955 (fig. 1).1 the ridge controlled the western end of the fertile Plain of Catania and stands above the source of the gornalunga River. Farther west, behind the inhabited zone, the land rises toward the Heraian Hills, which form a protective barrier. between approximately 1000 b.c. and a.d. 50, two distinct settlements—both apparently called Morgantina in antiquity—existed on the ridge: an earlier village on the hill at the northeastern end, known today as Cittadella, and a later one on the neighboring plateau, called serra orlando, to the southwest (fig. 2). Research carried out at the site has revealed a great deal of information about both towns. the history and preserved material culture of Morgantina specifically (and of sicily generally) allow for a detailed examination of the transition from Cittadella to serra orlando, as well as of the identities and lifeways of the people who settled in those towns during the archaic and classical periods (roughly 600–400 b.c.). evidence that will be applied to these issues will include contemporary and later ancient historical accounts, the urban plans of the two towns, and the artifacts—especially pottery—uncovered by archaeologists at Morgantina. Most significantly, this evidence reveals the great extent of indigenous presence in the settlement of the town at serra orlando, and perhaps even their participation in the town's foundation, a fact all the more striking for the historical context in which it occurred. identity, at its core, is the expression of membership in a larger group of people (or its inverse: exclusion from a group). such expression is made through claims to similarity or difference. Central to the analysis presented here is the problem of understanding ethnic and cultural identity (and the relation between those two concepts) in the ancient world, which is far from straightforward.2 the


As populations grow we are facing concerns regarding future resource risks and uncertainties. In 2011 nearly one third of profit warnings issued by FTSE 350 companies were attributed to rising resource prices [1]. Our global ecological footprint is expected to grow to more than two plant Earths by 2030 [2]. There is therefore increasing International pressure to use our resources more sustainably and to increase the transition to a Circular Economy. WRAP [3] define circular economy as an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life. A 2015 Ellen MacArthur Foundation report estimates that by 2030, a shift towards a circular economy could reduce net resource spending in the EU by €600 billion annually, bringing total benefits estimated at €1.8 trillion per year -once multiplier effects are accounted for [4].

To bring about a Circular Economy we need to rethink how we use and value our resources, innovate in the way we access products and services and find ways of using things for longer. The EU has realised the imperative of the Circular Economy and as part of it's Circular Economy Package has set a number of Challenges and targets [5]
• EU target for recycling 65% of municipal waste by 2030;
• A common EU target for recycling 75% of packaging waste by 2030
• A binding landfill target to reduce landfill to maximum of 10% of municipal waste by 2030;
• A ban on landfilling of separately collected waste;
• Promotion of economic instruments to discourage landfilling ;
• Simplified and improved definitions and harmonised calculation methods for recycling rates throughout the EU;
• Concrete measures to promote re-use and stimulate industrial symbiosis - turning one industry's by-product into another industry's raw material;
• Economic incentives for producers to put greener products on the market and support recovery and recycling schemes (eg for packaging, batteries, electric and electronic equipment, vehicles).

Alongside the legislative drivers there are a number of research projects that have been undertaken to provide businesses with the evidence and confidence to rethink current linear business models and make them more circular.

REBus - Pioneering resource efficient business models (REBMs) for a circular economy – an EU Life+ funded project worked with UK companies to help them transform to profitable, resilient and more resource efficient business models. The business models piloted were
• Products as services
• Hire and leasing
• Incentivised return and re-use
• Longer life
Each REBM was applied to a range of sectors and those from one of the fast moving sectors that of electrical and electronic goods will be presented. The benefits and barriers will be discussed.
REBM are only a part of the business models that can be adopted to transform businesses to a more circular approach. In the minds of many people the key sustainable wastes management activity is recycling, despite not being at the top of the waste hierarchy – in either economic or environmental terms. Despite efforts around waste prevention activities and reuse, recycling will be vital to ensure better resource use and widespread adoption of the circular economy. PolyCE is an EU Horizon2020 project that is addressing the challenge of transforming the lifecycle of e-waste plastics to a more sustainable one by reducing the use of virgin materials and enhance the use of recycled plastics in new applications. Initial results and challenges from this EU wide project will be discussed.


In this paper, I aim to understand how IOT technology can improve the development of smart cities' infra- structures and alleviate the strains of population growth. In order to understand this inquiry, I will begin by defining IOT technology. Then I will examine the function and capabilities of IOT technology and how it helps smart cities' urban devel- opment in areas such as architectural, agricultural, safety and surveillance, and health and sanitary needs. I will develop a prognosis that provides targeted solutions for how IOT can specifically reduce urban population strains and challenges in particular urban sectors, and analyze the environmental implications of IOT technology. Lastly, in the discussion section, I propose applying sustainable frameworks, that can incorporate IOT technology, and showcase IOT weaknesses. This research concludes with describing the impact of implementing IOT technologies to address specific urban infrastructure and overcrowding problems. It can allow readers to view the interdisciplinary potential of sustainability with the use of technology, environmental science, and engineering, and social science through urban development and planning. Internet of things technology, through a cross disciplinary approach, can alleviate and resolve humanity's rising problems.


Recently, chalcogen bond catalysts with telluronium cations have garnered considerable attention in organic reactions. In this work, chalcogen bond catalysis on the bromination reaction of anisole with N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) with the telluronium cationic catalysts has been explored with density functional theory (DFT). The catalytic reaction is divided into two stages: the bromine transfer step and the proton transfer step. Based on the computational results, one can find the rate-determining step is the bromine transfer step. Moreover, the present study elucidates that a stronger chalcogen bond (ChB) between catalysts and NBS will give better catalytic performance. Additionally, this work also clarified the importance of the electrostatic and polarization effects in the chalcogen bond between the oxygen atom of NBS and the Te atom of the catalyst in this bromination reaction. The electrostatic and polarization effects are significantly influenced by the electron-withdrawing ability of the substitution groups on the catalysts. Moreover, the structure-property relationship between the strength of ChB bond, electrostatic effect, polarization effect and catalytic performance are established for the designation of more efficient chalcogen bond catalysts.


Soluble fractions from chick liver and aorta were examined for copper-binding proteins. In liver a zinc-binding thionein appeared to be the major binding protein for copper. Aortic tissue contained only traces of this thionein protein. Unlike liver, moderate amounts of soluble copper in aorta showed no association with macromolecules. Chicks fed on copper-deficient diets for 8 days had one-third the liver copper concentrations of controls. Aortic copper concentration was decreased only slightly, but the activity of lysyl oxidase, a copper-dependent enzyme in aorta, was decreased significantly. Treating the deficient chicks with CuSO4 (1 mg/kg) restored liver copper rapidly. The increase correlated with the binding of copper to a 10 000-mol.wt. component in the soluble fraction. Aortic copper concentrations responded much less to the CuSO4 treatment, but lysyl oxidase activity was again measurable in the tissue. Radioactive isotopes of copper bound almost exclusively to the 10 000-mol.wt. component in liver and to components of mol.wt. 30 000 or above in aorta. Hardly any of the administered radioactivity appeared with the 10 000-mol.wt. components in aorta, and none was found with unbound copper. The 30 000-mol.wt. components in aorta showed superoxide dismutase activity that was sensitive to NaCN. They also showed the highest specific activity of copper of any other aorta component. A clear distinction was seen between the metabolism of copper in liver and aortic tissues. Whereas a copper thionein, metallothionein, was a major component in the liver pathway, it is doubtful that this protein plays a major role in the intracellular metabolism of copper in aortic tissue.


World Health Organization (WHO) defines pharmacovigilance as the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse drug reactions or any other possible drug related problems.1 Pharamcovigilance is important for the safe and efficient usage of drugs. Pharmacovigilance is just not an indicator it's a discipline for detecting and reporting ADRs.2,3 In 1968 after thalidomide tragedy (phocomelia in babies, whose mothers have taken thalidomide during pregnancy) WHO established adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reporting system. WHO defines ADR as any response to a drug which is harmful and accidental and occurs at doses that are normally used in human for prophylaxis, diagnosis, treatment or the mitigation of disease.1The Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) is the WHO cooperating center for global pharmacovigilance. The aim of UMC is to support and publicize patient protection through efficacious and worldwide pharmacovigilance practice. It provides autonomous and high excellent medical reference sources universally. It encourages indigenous pharmacovigilance initiatives by giving approach to passable resources and providing appropriate assistance.1Pre marketing clinical trials do not give the sufficient knowledge about adverse drug reactions because the minimum number of population is included in these clinical trials and exposure time of targeted drug is also short so clinical trials are unable to detect those ADRs who are race specific or occur in 1/1000 or 1/10,000 ratio. Post marketing surveillance and pharmacovigilance are the essential steps to ensure the safety and efficacy of drug.4,5
Pakistan FrameworkThe government of Pakistan in collaboration with drug regulatory authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has started the online pharmacovigilance (PVRSD) system in 2017. This program collects information from medicals professionals, pharmaceutical companies and patients on ADRs.6
Role of PharmacistThe professional responsibility of community pharmacist is far more than just preparing and dispensing medicines. Pharmacist can play a patient centric role by ensuring the safety of medicines through pharmacovigilance. Community pharmacists can ensure the safe and efficacious use of medicines by identifying and commentating ADRs.4Community pharmacists can play there part in safe usage of medication and prevention of ADRs.1 The data composed by community pharmacists on pharmacovigilance is worthwhile.7The role of pharmacist in pharmacovigilance differs from state to state but the professional concern remains similar irrespective of territories.6 Community pharmacists can report ADRs based on their clinical experience and interacting and counseling with the patients at community pharmacy. The pharmacovigilance program of government can only be successful if the community pharmacists play their role actively in reporting ADRs. The most important step for the pharmacovigilane is to inform the all healthcare practitioners.1Community pharmacists can act as a bridge between physicians and patients to ensure drug safety and efficacy. Community pharmacists can prevent ADRs by counseling with patients and providing them communication materials newsletters and other drug information resources utilized by other healthcare professionals for drug safety information.8Community pharmacists can educate and counsel patients in order to reduce medication errors and to improve the patient's quality of life.8In our community pharmacy setting most of the pharmacists do no report ADRs because they are not acquainted with the ADR reporting process.9Apart from reporting ADRs community pharmacists can play their role by keeping the record of identified ADRs at their workplace. Community pharmacists can also contribute in drug safety by updating their knowledge regarding new drug inventions and aspects of drugs. For pharmacovigilance pharmacist should have a sound regarding the usage of over the counter medications.6Pharmaovigilance knowledge can strengthen the role of community pharmacist in a productive way. Educational trainings and workshops can improve the understanding of community pharmacists regarding ADR identification and reporting. This can assist the community pharmacists to perform a better part in pharmacovigilance and safe usage of medications.


"Business tax breaks are an expensive and inefficient way to attempt to stimulate a state economy. Because of the small effect of tax breaks on business costs, and the much larger importance of other production costs and location considerations, tax breaks will have little if any positive effect on private sector employment.... Furthermore, the private sector employment effects of such tax cuts could be reduced or even eliminated by a long-term deterioration in the quality of public services, which themselves have been shown to be important to businesses making location decisions, and which provide an important part of the foundation for the state economy." http://www.iowafiscal.org/corporate-taxes-and-state-economic-growth/


This study aims to explore the determinants of the venue selection for youth political participation. The research question of the study is "What are the motives of young people in Turkey in deciding their venue for political participation?" In addition, the sub questions aim to discover the young people's stories of political involvement, their opinions about the institution they are involved in, their political activities in their organizations and through those institutions, their involvement in ongoing constitutionmaking process in Turkey. The findings reveal that the determinants of young people's venue selection include their families or the social group they belong to, and their definition and expectations from politics. They also reflect the similarities and differences between different organizations. Lastly, the study concludes with suggestions for further research. The first part explains the aims of this study and its contributions to the literature. In the second part, the comprehensive literature review consists of the different definitions of the concept of youth, and continues with youth political participation both in general and in Turkey and the literature on constitution-making and political participation. In the third part, the focus group research design, case selection and data analysis used in this study is explained. The fourth part consists of the in-depth analysis of focus group data both summarizing the focus group interviews and presenting highlighting themes arising from discussions. In the last part, the highlighting themes of focus groups are compared and contrasted, and the discussion on the current study is presented.


This clearly written and well-organized book provides a balance of etiology, prevalence, medical diagnosis, health care concerns, and practical ideas needed by teachers who serve students with special needs. Whether the students disability is a degenerative disease, muscular dystrophy, AIDS, or a hearing impairment, the authors present all the facts and information that teachers (or potential teachers) need to plan and administer an appropriate education. The book addresses a wide variety of conditions, and provides an overview of physical disabilities, multiple disabilities, health impairments, and medical management needs.


The monsoon season is a natural phenomenon that occurs over the Asian continent, bringing extra precipitation which causes significant impact on most tropical watersheds. The tropical region's countries are rich with natural rainforests and the economies of the countries situated within the region are mainly driven by the agricultural industry. In order to fulfill the agricultural demand, land clearing has worsened the situation by degrading the land surface areas. Rampant land use activities have led to land degradation and soil erosion, resulting in implications on water quality and sedimentation of the river networks. This affects the ecosystem services, especially the hydrological cycles. Intensification of the sedimentation process has resulted in shallower river systems, thus increasing their vulnerability to natural hazards (i.e., climate change, floods). Tropical forests which are essential in servicing their benefits have been depleted due to the increase in human exploitation. This paper provides an overview of the impact of land erosion caused by land use activities within tropical rainforest catchments, which lead to massive sedimentation in tropical rivers, as well as the effects of monsoon on fragile watersheds which can result in catastrophic floods. Forest ecosystems are very important in giving services to regional biogeochemical processes. Balanced ecosystems therefore, play a significant role in servicing humanity and ultimately, may create a new way of environmental management in a cost-effective manner. Essentially, such an understanding will help stakeholders to come up with better strategies in restoring the ecosystem services of tropical watersheds.


Abstract Costa Rica has become a new centre of international competitiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its share in the imports of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); has gone up from 0.07% to 0.09% (0.15% to 0.23% of the North American market); and in the market for manufactures from 0.01% to 0.04% (0.03% to 0.16% in North America);. Costa Rica's pattern of exports to those markets has varied, with the slow-growing natural resource sector, which accounted for 91.2% of total exports in 1980 (85.2%);, losing ground to fast-growing manufacturing sectors, which made up 38.5% of the total in 1995 (56.6%);. The share of the 10 main export products (at three digits of the Standard International Trade Classification); in total exports came to over 78% (72%);, while clothing become the most important category of the new line of exports, with a 24.5% (37.7%); share of the total. The striking success of the garment industry, however, is threatened by two factors. First, clothing manufacturers in the Caribbean Basin cannot hope to match the advantages Mexico enjoys as a signatory of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);. With regard to tariffs, Mexico has a six-point advantage in the United States; many garments it produce are no longer subject to import quotas; and, even more importantly, in order to fulfil minimum content requirements, inputs of Mexican origin are considered as produced within NAFTA. Second, other countries in the Caribbean Basin -such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras- have begun to compete with Costa Rica, on the strength of their lower wages. Together, these two factors have precipitated a drop in garment exports and a decline in the share of some articles in United States imports. In order to study the experiences and competitive situation of garment assemblers in Costa Rica, a total of 16 such firms (12 foreign and 4 local); were surveyed. Particularly revealing and significant were the findings with respect to the interrelationship between the three groups of factors associated with international competitiveness: the global market, corporate strategies and national policy. It has possible to identify the main features of three distinct groups in the sample. As becomes clear, each competitive situation has a certain logic. Group I, consisting of large United States underwear manufacturers, operates in a well-defined competitive situation. In terms of the global market, over a decade ago the parent companies faced a strong challenge from Asian competitors in their domestic market. They responded by setting up manufacturing operations in Latin American countries, which offered them cheap labour and specific incentives (chiefly duty-free import facilities and tax breaks); and preferential access to the United States market (through the HTS 9802 mechanism);. This enabled them to face down the Asian challenge. Underwear exports from the Caribbean Basin, especially Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, increased exponentially, and as a result United States producers were better able to defend their shares in their own market. It is interesting to note that these companies have tended to create more extensive networks by establishing assembly plants in several Caribbean Basin countries, a strategy that gives them the ability to respond to changes in the competitive situation of each cost centre. Each assembly plant is a small part of the overall organization, and with similar operations in various countries the companies can add production lines depending on the efficiency of each individual plant, without having to abandon any particular site, except in extreme circumstances. For these firms, international competitiveness becomes to a large extent an internal matter at the corporate level, and most consider that their main competitors are other United States companies rather than Asian firms. These strategic factors confer security on the integrated production systems of parent firms. They have, in fact, managed to deal successfully with the Asian challenge. This situation is generating significant results in Costa Rica. The underwear industry has become the leading source of garment exports from Costa Rica to the United States. This industry is comprised of three firms established before 1982, along with two others set up in the late 1980s; together, they make up Group I. This group of firms accounts for close to 60% of exports and total employment in the sample. In terms of the number of employees, their operations doubled from 1985 to 1989, and again from 1990 to 1995. Their expansionary corporate strategies were extremely successful. The competitive situation of the four local firms that make up Group III represents the other extreme of the sample. This is a homogeneous group of small and long-established producers of men's and boys' outer garments (SITC 842); and other garments; they operate primarily via export contracts to the United States market, with several categories subject to quotas. These firms were set up as part of the import-substitution industrialization strategy, and, with the policy shift of the 1980s, they lost local market share as a result of import penetration. This forced them to adapt to obtain contracts from foreign buyers, chiefly large department stores or manufacturers of name-brand clothing. They compete with the rest of the world for relatively short contracts, the main determinant of which is price. This group of companies does not enjoy the advantages of the transnational garments firms that assemble in Costa Rica. Unlike foreign companies, the corporate strategies of these firms are based on their competitiveness, rather than global market factors. They tend to adopt defensive positions and have shown mixed results. One of the local firms went bankrupt in 1996. The third competitive situation typifies the remaining foreign firms in the sample. They make up Group II, which is less homogeneous, as it includes new small foreign firms (five from the United States and two from Asia); that produce men's and boys' outer garments (SITC 842); as well as other garments for export to the United States under EPZ or temporary admission arrangements or the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS); 9802 mechanism. Many of the products they export are subject to quotas. Firms in this group are in an intermediate situation that includes elements of both Group I and Group III. As with Group I, firms in this group have a corporate network with many advantages; generally speaking, however, their networks are thinner and more widely extended, and feature larger but less specialized components. They identify their competitors and their competitive situation as the local firms do, i.e., their competitors are other assemblers located in the Caribbean Basin and competition is based either on competitive pricing or defence of their parent companies market share. Their strategies are more focused on cost centres. Five of the seven firms surveyed stressed that the main motive that would induce them to leave Costa Rica would be to reduce labour costs. In addition, an Asian firm that started out by supplying its corporate network in the United States has begun to compete for contracts with large buyers not related to its parent company. Firms in this group are important and account for about 30% of exports and employment in the sample. They did not show the same sort of job growth as firms in Group I; they increased employment by only 50% in the period 1990-1995; however, this was considerably better than in the case of the Group III firms. Three of the seven firms increased their share of the global market in 1990-1995. The export categories that lost the most momentum in 1995 were suits, men's and boys' pants and women's pants. In conclusion, analysis of the successes and challenges of Costa Rica's garment industry was facilitated by the study of the three competitive situations of the different groups of firms operating in that country.