Daily pressure observations recorded by William Derham (1657–1735) at Upminster, Essex (near London), from 1697 to 1706 and 1708 have been corrected, converted to modern units and the Gregorian calendar, and adjusted for homogeneity. These pressure readings have been compared with previously published contemporary observations from Paris, and the two sets of early instrumental data used to calculate a daily series of the pressure difference between Paris and London. Frequency analysis of the daily series reveals that reversals of the south–north pressure gradient and easterly winds were more common from 1697 to 1708 than during the 1990s. Monthly mean values of Paris–London pressure differences have been compared with previously published monthly mean reconstructed surface pressure maps and to a reconstructed North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. There is a good agreement between the strength and direction of monthly mean flow between London and Paris estimated from the circulation maps and the sign and magnitude of the Paris–London westerly flow index, but the correlation between the Paris–London index, known to be a good proxy for European zonal circulation, and the reconstructed NAO index, is low (0.2). Correlations between the monthly mean Paris–London zonal circulation index and central England temperatures suggest a strong relationship during winter and late summer from 1697 to 1708. The meticulous daily instrumental observations and the monthly and seasonal climate descriptions of Derham, his collection of instrumental observations and climatic descriptions from contemporary observers throughout Europe, and his early theories on the causes of climate change make his publications a valuable source of information for studies on climate during the early instrumental period. It is hoped that more of Derham's papers related to weather and climate may eventually come to light. Copyright © 2001 Royal Meteorological Society.


The economic growth may be reviewed both at macro level – the economy of the country as a whole, and at micro level – different regions, industries or enterprises. The economic growth of the country's economy as a whole refers to the increase of the total volume and value of goods and services produced by it during the relevant period in comparison to the previous period. If the value of produced, respectively, sold products, goods and services for the current year is higher than their value for the previous year, the economy has achieved economic growth. However, if the volume and value of produced, respectively, sold products, goods and services, have decreased during the current year, there is a negative economic growth – recession. The economic growth of an enterprise may be analyzed and assessed by means of varied indicators that characterize both the composition and structure of staff, sources of funding of the operations and their structure, growth of the assets, respectively, revenue, net sale revenue, book profit and gains from sales, as well as the financial stability and financial equilibrium of the enterprise. The economic growth of enterprises operating on the territory of the respective regions across the country is the main factor for economic growth and sustainable development of the regions themselves, and thus of the economy as a whole. This fact determines the importance and the topical nature of the economic growth of the enterprise and the methodology for its analysis. Enterprise's growth rate can be differentiated as internal growth rate and sustainable growth rate. The internal growth rate shows the maximum growth rate that the enterprise can achieve at the expense of equity increase in the form of retained earnings. This means that in this particular case, the enterprise operates without any borrowings. The sustainable growth rate shows the maximum growth rate of the enterprise that it can achieve under the conditions of relatively permanent borrowing to equity ratio, i.e. debt ratio. In this particular case, the enterprise maintains relatively permanent financial policy with regard to the capital structure. This publication is aimed at determining a theoretically correct and practically feasible methodology for analysis and assessment of the enterprise's growth rate, which is useful for the business. The publication highlights the enterprise's growth rate – internal growth rate and sustainable growth rate. It studies the methodologies for analysis of the enterprise's internal growth rate and sustainable growth rate.


We present the design and implementation of a component for the preprocessing of position data taken from moving objects. The movement of mobile objects is represented by piece wise functions over time that approximate the real object movement and significantly reduce the initial data volume such that efficient storage and analysis of object trajectories can be achieved. The maximal acceptable deviation - an input parameter of our algorithms - of the approximations also includes the uncertainty of the position sensor measurements. We analyze and compare five different lossy preprocessing methods. Our results clearly indicate that even with simple approaches, a more than sufficient overall performance can be achieved.


The major argument in this article is that the contemporary concept of jihad inclines to have a heavy personal political baggage. In Southeast Asia, the talibanization and the influence of the al-Qaeda interpretation of the jihad appear to have made their inroad in regional radical salafi movements such as the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), Jama'ah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), and Hizbut Tahrir (HT). Radical salafi differs from the traditional salafi given its belief in the use of force to achieve religious-political objectives. Indonesia has been the center for these movements and their presence has been felt in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and Philippines. Some of them have been active in propagating the new concept of jihad. Therefore, this article maps out the conception of jihad as it is propounded by the three movements. It discusses how the conception of these movements of jihad has departed from the earlier salafi movements. In addition, it discusses how the idea has been expanded from Indonesia to other parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago.


With the development of a series of educational reforms in China, transforming to applied colleges and universities has become a hot spot for the development of higher education. Under the background of college and university transformation, the optimization and promotion of the teaching quality of applied courses is the core and difficult point for the connotation construction of applied colleges and universities. Taking the teaching of steel structure course as an example, this paper comprehensively applies the case analysis method, literature analysis method and experiential summary method to determine the nature of the problem speculatively, and puts forward method and path selection for optimizing teaching effect of the course and improving the teaching quality from several aspects of precise course orientation, reconstruct teaching content, innovate teaching mode and strengthen security conditions. The method and path selection for optimization and promotion of the teaching quality of applied courses proposed in this paper have important practical and theoretical significance for improving the quality of talent training in applied colleges and universities.


This paper explores technoethical inquiry as a social systems theory and methodology used within the field of Technoethics. The purpose is to leverage readers understanding of theoretical concepts and considerations underlying technoethical inquiry. To this end, the paper is divided into three sections. First, it sketches out social systems theory, its general principles, and its unique approach to the study of society. This helps to situate social systems theory within a larger context of social study and distinguish it from other approaches. Next, the paper discusses technology as a central organizing construct of contemporary society viewed as a technological system. This helps to clarify the nature of contemporary society, explain the intermediating role of technology in society, and address the new social/ethical considerations arising from the intermediation of technology in society. Finally, techoethical inquiry is posited as a social system theory and method for guiding social and ethical inquiry. Examples derived from the study of mass media are used to illustrate basic principles of technoethical inquiry.


Aluminium alloys display complex phase transitions to achieve their desired properties.Many of these involve elaborated precipitation sequences where the main role is not played by ther-modynamically stable species, but by metastable precipitates instead. An interplay between phasestability, crystal symmetry, diffusion, volume and particle/matrix interfaces sets the pace for the ki-netics. Thermodynamic modelling, which focuses on stable precipitates, is not an aid in describingsuch processes, as it is usually transitional phases that achieve the desired properties. The model pre-sented here combines first--principles to obtain the transition precipitate energetics (both at the bulkand at the interface with the matrix) with thermochemical databases to describe the overall kineticsof stable precipitates. Precipitate size and number density are captured via the Kampmann--Wagnernumerical approach, which is embedded in a genetic algorithm to obtain optimal compositional andheat treatment scenarios for the optimisation of the mechanical properties in aluminium alloys of the 7000 series.


Babesiosis is a world-wide distributed protozoal zoonosis, and Babesia spp. are the most ubiquitous of the blood parasites of mammals, except the trypanosomes. The tick-transmitted protozoa infect various vertebrate reservoir hosts, like rodents, cattle and horses. Approximately 100 million cattle is exposed to the disease. In tropical and subtropical regions the infection causes considerable losses in livestock industry, but clinical cases of human babesiosis in these areas have not certainly been identified. In 1957, the first case of human babesiosis in an asplenic Yugoslav farmer was reported (35). Hitherto, hundreds of cases of human babesiosis in adults and children from Europe and the U.S., with a broad range of clinical presentations, have been published (3, 4, 38). Most of the patients suffer from mild to moderate symptoms, whereas in asplenic individuals a fatal course of the infection prevails. Tick-bites in areas where human babesiosis occurs--mainly parts of Europe and the USA--can result in a deadly illness for persons without a spleen. The effect of treatment in splenectomized patients and when treatment is delayed, still is poor.


Increases in the expression of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) are widely known to be involved in aberrant growth in the early stage of colon cancer development. We herein demonstrated that the novel indole compound MW-03 reduced PGE2-induced cAMP formation by catalization to an inactive metabolite by inducing 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase through the activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ. MW-03 also inhibited colon cancer cell growth by arresting the cell cycle at the S phase. Although the target of MW-03 for cell cycle inhibition has not yet been identified, these dual anti-cancer effects of MW-03 itself and/or its leading compound(s) on colon cancer cells may reduce colon cancer development and, thus, have potential as a novel treatment for the early stage of this disease.


We report the temperature T and magnetic field H dependence of the thermopower S of an itinerant triangular antiferromagnet PdCrO_{2} in high magnetic fields up to 32 T. In the paramagnetic phase, the zero-field thermopower is positive with a value typical of good metals with a high carrier density. In marked contrast to typical metals, however, S decreases rapidly with increasing magnetic field, approaching zero at the maximum field scale for T>70  K. We argue here that this profound change in the thermoelectric response derives from the strong interaction of the 4d correlated electrons of the Pd ions with the short-range spin correlations of the Cr^{3+} spins that persist beyond the Néel ordering temperature due to the combined effects of geometrical frustration and low dimensionality.


We have reported that a 10-herbal traditional formula containing Korean Angelica gigas Nakai (AGN) exerts potent anti-cancer efficacy and identified decursin and decursinol angelate (DA) from AGN as novel anti-androgens. Here, we determined whether AGN would exert in vivo anti-cancer activity and whether decursin or DA could account for its efficacy. The AGN ethanol extract was tested against the growth of mouse Lewis lung cancer (LLC) allograft in syngenic mice or human PC-3 and DU145 prostate cancer xenograft in immunodeficient mice. The pharmacokinetics of decursin and DA were determined. The AGN extract significantly inhibited LLC allograft growth (30 mg/kg) and PC-3 and DU145 xenograft growth (100 mg/kg) without affecting the body weight of the host mice. Biomarker analyses revealed decreased cell proliferation (Ki67, PCNA), decreased angiogenesis (VEGF, microvessel density) and increased apoptosis (TUNEL, cPARP) in treated tumors. Decursin and DA injected intraperitoneally were rapidly hydrolyzed to decursinol. Decursinol and decursin at 50 mg/kg inhibited LLC allograft growth to the same extent, comparable to 30 mg AGN/kg. Therefore the AGN extract possessed significant in vivo anti-cancer activity, but decursin and DA only contributed moderately to that activity, most likely through decursinol.


New methods for interpolating and analyzing magnetic fields observed over the earth's surface are described and applied to the quiet-day magnetic daily variations during the sunspot minimum 1932—3. The methods avoid some of the disadvantages inherent in the use of spherical harmonic analysis. The field components are interpolated over the earth for selected instants of universal time. A potential is determined by numerical methods, the north and east components being used simultaneously. The potential is separated into parts of external and internal origin by the use of surface-integral formulae. The methods are described in part I, and tables required for their application are given. Part II deals with the results thus obtained for the Sq field for the combined months 1933 May to August. The definition of the Sq field and the reduction of the data to a standard form are also discussed.


Cordierite based ceramic porous materials are very promising for filtering applications, due to their low thermal expansion coefficient, but also due to high chemical stability and good mechanical resistance. The cordierite powders were obtained through the co-precipitation method, while the porous ceramics were prepared by mixing the ceramic powder with an organic compound, which will burn during consequent thermal treatments, leading to an open pore ceramic web. Samples with different proportions of glucose were thermally treated at temperatures between 1050 and 1400oC. The samples were analyzed in what it concerns the mineralogical composition, open porosity and pores distribution, compressive strength and microstructure.


The material in this book is drawn from presentations and discussions at the conference 'New Financial Flows for NHS Hospitals – Introducing Payment by Results in England - Some Lessons from Overseas' held at The Commonwealth Club, London, on 31st March 2004. The conference was jointly organised by the Office of Health Economics and the University of York Centre for Health Economics. This book is based on the conference held to examine the issues that are likely to result from paying NHS hospitals on a case-by-case basis. The intention of the conference was to draw lessons for England from the experience and economic research in the US andEuropean countries, where similar payment systems have already been introduced. The aim is to enable policy makers, NHS managers and academics in the field to consider these issues whilst the specifics of the English NHS payment by results system are still being developed, the hope being to help shape and influence improvements to the system and to determine priorities for future research to help the policy achieve its objectives. The English Department of Health's key policy objectives for 'payment by results' are set out by Bob Dredge in the first chapter of this book, where some of the policy risks are also recognised. An advantage of being a late-adopter of this form of financial regime is that there is a wealth of international experience to build upon. In Chapter 2 Tom McGuire draws lessons from the US, which was at the forefront in introducing case mix based payments, about the incentive effects of different design specifications of the financial system. Egil Kjerstad, in Chapter 4, provides evidence from Norway showing the extent to which case payments can stimulate higher levels of activity. In Chapter 5, Miriam Wiley summarises the experience in Western Europe with using case mix to adjust hospital funding. Nigel Edwards suggests in Chapter 7 various ways in which NHS trusts and PCTs may react to the new policy. In Chapter 8 Andrew Street probes the likely consequences of the attempt to fix prices that is contained within the English 'payment by results' policy; and the final chapter presents the main points raised in the discussion of that policy at the seminar.


Abstract In vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted reproductive technologies present an enormous hope to couples with fertility difficulties. Assisted reproductive technology is one of the risk factors that can result in anxiety in these couples. Indeed, IVF-treatments cause a stress, for both the woman and her partner. The different stages of the IVF-procedure can affect the emotional life of the man and the woman negatively. In fact, depression and anxiety are highly common in infertile women. These psychotic symptoms may either be the cause of infertility or the consequence of it, or both. Depressive and anxiety disorders existed in high frequency in women who were undergoing a new course of assisted reproduction treatment. Another reason of anxiety may be the ageing making them more anxious and disappointed about having a child. Other factors creating anxiety in women are exposure to high level of hormones, side effects of medication (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome), surgical procedures and heavy costs of treatments. After an unsuccessful IVFcycle, couples may experience high level of stress. Moreover, disappointment after an IVF-failure is common. Other commonly causes of unsuccessful IVF are sadness and anger, which are more observed in women than in men. Thus, it should be paid attention to this issue because anxiety in these couples may be constant and after pregnancy, these emotional disorders could influence their child.


Members of the BNaC/ASIC family of ion channels have been implicated in mechanotransduction and nociception mediated by dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. These ion channels are also expressed in the CNS. We identified the PDZ domain protein PICK1 as an interactor of BNaC1(ASIC2) in a yeast two-hybrid screen. We show by two-hybrid assays, glutathione S-transferase pull-down assays, and coimmunoprecipitations that the BNaC1·PICK1 interaction is specific, and that coexpression of both proteins leads to their clustering in intracellular compartments. The interaction between BNaC1 and PICK1 requires the PDZ domain of PICK1 and the last four amino acids of BNaC1. BNaC1 is similar to two other BNaC/ASIC family members, BNaC2 (ASIC1) and ASIC4, at its extreme C terminus, and we show that PICK1 also interacts with BNaC2. We found that PICK1, like BNaC1 and BNaC2, is expressed by DRG neurons and, like the BNaC1α isoform, is present at their peripheral mechanosensory endings. Both PICK1 and BNaC1α are also coexpressed by some pyramidal neurons of the cortex, by pyramidal neurons of the CA3 region of hippocampus, and by cerebellar Purkinje neurons, localizing to their dendrites and cell bodies. Therefore, PICK1 interacts with BNaC/ASIC channels and may regulate their subcellular distribution or function in both peripheral and central neurons.


This book contains Lectures on Continuum Mechanics with emphasis on its physical and mathematical foundations. The lectures are directed towards anyone who wishes to understand fundamental assumptions implicit in the continuum modelling of physical phenomena, and are intended to be of interest to mathematicians, physicists, and engineers.


Intonation is often considered to play an important role in the vocal communication of emotion. Early studies using pitch manipulation have supported this view. However, the proper-ties of pitch contours involved in marking emotional state remain largely unidentified. In this contribution, a corpus of actor-generated utterances for 8 emotions was used to measure intonation (pitch contour) by identifying key features of the F0 contour. The data show that the profiles obtained vary reliably with respect to F0 level as a function of the degree of activation of the emotion concerned. However, there is little evidence for qualitatively different forms of profiles for different emotions. Results of recent collaborative studies on the use of the F0 patterns identified in this research with synthesized utterances are presented. The nature of the contribution of F0/pitch contours to emotional speech is discussed; it is ar-gued that pitch contours have to be considered as configurations that acquire emotional meaning only through interaction with a linguistic and paralinguistic context.


This paper presents a novel method for suppressing multimodal vibrations in structures by using the controlled harvesting and storage of vibration energy as electrical charge. Unlike a traditional semi-active system in which vibration energy is dissipated using a controlled variable dissipater, the proposed system harvests vibration energy for storage. The stored energy can then be recycled enabling the system to achieve a vibration reduction performance superior to that of a traditional semi-active system and approaching that of a fully active system. In the proposed method, an array of one or more precharged capacitors is employed to provide a selection of various voltages, which may be selected to approximate a desired control signal defined by an LQR multimodal vibration controller. The capacitors can apply a control voltage to the piezoelectric actuators and can also collect current generated by the actuators as the structure strains in vibration. Both a single capacitor system and a multi-capacitor system are considered and applied to a cantilevered beam. The response to impulse disturbances and random force disturbances are studied. The results are compared to a previously proposed energy harvesting based semi-active method. Advantages in both vibration suppression and energy harvesting performance over the previously proposed method are demonstrated. The multicapacitor method is found to be most effective due to its ability to apply sufficiently large control voltages while moderating large step inputs therefore reducing the excitation of higher frequency uncontrolled modes, which otherwise parasitically dissipate energy in the circuit resistance.


The paper offers a detailed analysis of Andrey Bely's (melo)declamatory style in the context of his poetic and theoretical experimentations. Bely's contemporaries described his recitals as adhering to the typically 'decadent' manner of declamation: with the poem's meter emphasized by monotonous melodization. On examining the written mentions of his recitals, one is moved to agree with Bernstein's statement that the poet had undergone a change in his declamatory manner, confirmed by Bely himself. And indeed, a first-ever digital analysis of the audio recordings made by Bernstein in chronological order sheds light on the inner causes of Bely's poetic experimentation ('melodism') in his later years, and, together with the printed version of the poetry, points to the connection between the poet's declamatory style and the general direction in which he went with his work as a poet and a theorist. Bely's later poetry called for two distinctive manners of recital: one, relatively stable in terms of pauses and melodization, for traditional meters, and the other, more elaborate, for his 'melodic' verses. The latter is more in affinity with the poet's manner of reciting his rhythmical prose. The two declamatory styles originate in the voiceless recital during composition, as described by Bely to Bernstein.


Remote sensing and climate digital products have become increasingly available in recent years. Access to these products has favored a variety of Digital Earth studies, such as the analysis of the impact of global warming over different biomes. The study of the Amazon forest response to drought has recently received particular attention from the scientific community due to the occurrence of extreme droughts and anomalous warming over the last decade. This paper focuses on the differences observed between surface thermal anomalies obtained from remote sensing moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and climatic (ERA-Interim) monthly products over the Amazon forest. With a few exceptions, results show that the spatial pattern of standardized anomalies is similar for both products. In terms of absolute anomalies, the differences between the two products show a bias near to zero with a standard deviation of around 0.2 K, although the differences can be up to 1 K over particular regions and months. Despite this general agreement, the proper filtering of MODIS daily values in order to construct a new monthly product showed a dramatic reduction in the number of reliable pixels during the rainy season, while for the dry season this reduction is only seen in Northern Amazonia.


Background The health, social, and economic costs of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) represent a major public health concern. Young people are considered one of the groups most at risk for acquiring and transmitting STIs. Correct and consistent condom use has been shown to be the most effective method for reducing STIs; however, condoms are often not used properly. Evidence shows that brief behavior change interventions that focus on skills, communication, and motivation to acquire safe sex practices should be adopted into routine care to reduce STIs. Funding for sexual health services in England has declined dramatically, so novel ways of reducing clinic attendance are being sought. The home-based intervention strategy (HIS-UK) to promote condom use among young men has shown promise in feasibility and pilot studies by demonstrating high acceptability of the intervention in participant and health professional feedback, including aiding men to find condoms they like and feel more confident when using condoms. Objective The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of HIS-UK when compared to usual condom distribution care among young men. Methods The 3 trial arms consisting of "e-HIS" (HIS-UK delivered digitally), "ProHIS" (HIS-UK delivered face-to-face), and control condition (usual National Health Service [NHS] care) will be compared against the following 3 primary outcomes: the extent to which correct and consistent condom use is increased; improvement of condom use experiences (pleasure as well as fit and feel); and decrease in chlamydia test positivity. Eligibility criteria include men aged 16-25 years at risk of STIs through reporting of condom use errors (ie, breakage or slippage) or condomless penile-vaginal or penile-anal intercourse with casual or new sexual partners during the previous 3 months. Prospective participants will be recruited through targeted advertisements and an opportunistic direct approach at selected sexual health and genitourinary medicine services and university-associated health centers and general practitioner practices. Community and educational establishments will be used to further advertise the study and signpost men to recruitment sites. Participants will be randomly allocated to 1 of 3 trial arms. A repeated measures design will assess the parallel arms with baseline and 12 monthly follow-up questionnaires after intervention and 3 chlamydia screening points (baseline, 6, and 12 months). Results Recruitment commenced in March 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study was halted and has since reopened for recruitment in Summer 2021. A 30-month recruitment period is planned. Conclusions If effective and cost-effective, HIS-UK can be scaled up into routine NHS usual care to reduce both STI transmission in young people and pressure on NHS resources. This intervention may further encourage sexual health services to adopt digital technologies, allowing for them to become more widely available to young people while decreasing health inequalities and fear of stigmatization. Trial Registration ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN11400820; https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN11400820


Today's tech savvy young learners are equipped with a variety of technological tools used as easily as pencils and paper. Many reach for the laptop first when it's time to write or look for an ebook when it's time to read. Ebooks are increasingly viewed as an appropriate source for literacy exposure to books and reading by parents and educators, as net sales revenue from ebooks surpassed hardcover books in the first quarter of 2012 (Boog, 2012).

As educators consider adopting ebooks as instructional resources, we must consider how to effectively merge content, pedagogy and technology in the early literacy classroom. In this article we discuss the emerging role of ebook technology in early reading instruction, along with describing how the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) can assist teachers in understanding the dynamic relationship between content, pedagogy and technology in the literacy classroom.


Bioactive fabrics are described. These offer the following types of behaviour: anti-bacterial, antimicrobial, anti-mould and anti-dust mite. These are products that satisfy the growing demands of the public sector's household needs in a more permanent way than ever before. Mention is also given to so-called healthy fabrics that actually have a positive effect – not just protection – on our health, or that produce pleasurable sensations that are also healthy.


Ultrasonic wave phenomena constitute the leading physical mechanism for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) of solid composite materials such as carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates. Computational models of ultrasonic guided-wave excitation, propagation, scattering, and detection in quasi-isotropic laminates can be extremely valuable in designing practically realizable NDE and SHM hardware and software with desired accuracy, reliability, efficiency, and coverage. This paper presents comparisons of guided-wave simulations for CFRP composites implemented using three different simulation codes: two commercial finite-element analysis packages, COMSOL and ABAQUS, and a custom code implementing the Elastodynamic Finite Integration Technique (EFIT). Comparisons are also made to experimental laser Doppler vibrometry data and theoretical dispersion curves.


The public enforcement of competition law is a daunting task which has kept generations of lawyers busy. Over the last few decades, many economists have joined their ranks, and it is now a common phenomenon that economists and lawyers interact in testing theories of harm, bringing evidence and crafting legal documents. It seems fair to say that, today, there is a consensus that the proper enforcement of competition law requires a thorough economic analysis of the cases under study.Nevertheless, lawyers and judges often worry about the growing use of economic analysis in the enforcement of competition law. A particular concern is that the widespread use of economic analysis might cause legal uncertainty, where the latter term typically refers to a (perceived) lack in the "predictability of outcomes in specific cases" (Hawk and Denaeijer 2001,129, emphasis in the original). This concern is particularly relevant for the enforcement of competition law towards vertical restraints, for which economic analysis recommends a rule of reason approach rather than imposing a set of relatively easily administrable but often inadequate per se rules (see e.g., Motta 2004; Rey and Verge 2008).The key problem with the rule of reason approach is that it provides business with less guidance than per se rules as to "what is legal and what is not" (Phlips 1995,16), thereby reducing the predictability of law enforcement. In exchange, the rule-of-reason approach offers more accuracy in determining whether a particular vertical restraint is actually anti-competitive. Therefore, if properly executed, the rule-of-reason approach is less error-prone than per se rules in identifying anti-competitive behavior. Taken together, these statements suggest that there is a tradeoff between predictability and accuracy in the enforcement of competition law.In this paper, I explore how the growing use of economic analysis might affect the predictability and accuracy of the enforcement of competition law. To do this, I build on Polinsky and Shavell's (2007) canonical model of public law enforcement. In Section B, I briefly sketch optimal law enforcement when the detection of noncompetitive behavior is uncertain. Next, I show in Section C how two types of errors -- mistaken acquittal and mistaken conviction, respectively -- impair the accuracy of law enforcement.Based on this analysis, I argue in Section D that economic analysis serves three important purposes in the context of enforcing competition law: (i) it increases the accuracy of law enforcement by eliminating errors in identifying anti-competitive behavior; (ii) it supports the predictability of law enforcement by providing the foundations for guidelines and notices that inform business about law enforcement under the rule of reason; (iii) it supports the credibility of law enforcement by identifying its potential "chilling" effects (Png 1996; Kaplow 2011) and cautioning against over-deterrence.Consequently, I conclude in Section E that the growing use of economic analysis is part of the solution rather than the problem when it comes to enforcing competition law in the presence of legal uncertainty.


Competency management has become a new trend in the public sector. There is some doubt, however, if competency management is really something new or whether it is just old wine in new bottles. Academics seem to be more sceptical about its novelty than practitioners. This article attempts to combine theory and practice. Some theoretical aspects of competency management are explored and definitions, reasons for implementation, novelty and implications for the HRM function are discussed. The theory is then confronted with two cases of competency management in the public sector. The first deals with the appraisal system in the Flemish administration and the second with the HR‐policy towards public managers in the Dutch civil service. The research material for the case studies was collected during a research project on international perspectives for HRM in the Flemish government.


St. Martin le Grand, a precinct within the walls of London, was both a sanctuary and a liberty: it offered asylum to accused felons, and it allowed immigrant craftsmen to work and sell within its bounds despite London's strict restrictions on alien labor. St. Martin's privileges had long rankled civic governors and guilds, sparking a series of legal and political skirmishes between the City and St. Martin's in the 1520s and 1530s. This article examines St. Martin's community of Dutch and French immigrants, who constituted the densest concentration of aliens in the metropolitan area. Living cheek by jowl with felonious sanctuary seekers, the strangers came to share both a conceptual and a physical space with the felons who sought St. Martin's sanctuary privilege. In the reign of Henry VIII the control of labor and retailing came to be tightly imbricated with the larger issues surrounding crime, mercy, and punishment that sanctuary inspired.


Millions of women suffering from urinary incontinence (UI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) globally, and many had synthetic sub-urethral procedures which is one of the mainstay therapy of stress urinary incontinence. It is paramount to learn from patients with mesh complications; in this particular case, perineal pain and dyspareunia related to complication of synthetic suburethral sling procedure. This patient has cessation of debilitating pain with the conservative use of bowel aid, and yet she remains to be continent in uresis.


One of the requirements for advancement of nanotechnology are the development of reliable experimental protocols for the synthesis of nanomaterials over a range of biological compositions, sizes and high monodispersity. An attractive possibility of green nanotechnology is to use micro-organisms in the synthesis of nanoparticles. Recently, the utilization of biological systems, especially fungi, has emerged as a novel method for the synthesis of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are considered as fundamental molecular building blocks for nanotechnology. They are the starting points for preparing many nanostructured materials and devices. In this paper we report the extracellular biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by using a fungus named Trichoderma Reesei (also known as Hypocrea jecorina). In the biosynthesis of AgNPs by this fungus, the fungus mycelium is exposed to the silver nitrate solution. That prompts the fungus to produce enzymes and metabolites for its own survival. In this process the toxic Ag+ ions are reduced to the nonetoxic metallic AgNPs through the catalytic effect of the extracellular enzyme and metabolites of the fungus. Absorption UV-Visible light spectroscopy is used to follow up with the reaction process. Fluorescence emission spectroscopy is used to produce detailed information on the progress of reduction of silver nitrate (formation of silver nanoparticles) on the nanosecond timescale. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is used for quantitative analyses of the reaction products. Our measurements indicate that extracellular biosynthesis of AgNPs by Trichoderma reesei produces AgNPs with the diameters in the range of 5-50 nm. Trichoderma Reesei is an environmentally friendly fungus, and it is well known for its formation of extracellular enzyme and metabolites in very large amounts, much higher than other fungi. The present process is an excellent candidate for industrial scale production of silver nanoparticles.


Abstract This article explores in what ways and to what extent the Swedish state uses Swedish Seconded National Experts (SNE) as part of its early mover strategies. Early mover strategies are defined as policies and organizational arrangements aimed at ensuring that national preferences have an impact on the Commission's agenda setting and proposals. The article draws on three organization perspectives – an instrumental, a cultural and a myth perspective – to increase the understanding of how states use SNEs as early mover tools. The article shows that Sweden's early mover strategies linked to SNEs are poorly developed regarding both policies and organizational arrangements. It also shows that all three explanatory perspectives contribute to the understanding of this state of affairs.


With the expected increase in hog production in Saskatchewan, concern has risen regarding the availability of sufficient land to utilize the manure resource to its full potential as a source of plant nutrients. Increases in inorganic fertilizer costs and concerns about the environmental effects of alternative manure disposal methods have stimulated interest in the use of livestock manure as a plant nutrient source (Hoff , Nelson and Sutton, 1981). Liquid hog manure is a valuable plant nutrient source, which is best perceived as a dilute multinutrient solution fertilizer blend. Therefore, application rates in the order of several thousand liters per hectare are required to meet the nutrient requirements of the crop versus 90 to 200 liters per hectare for concentrated commercial solution fertilizer blends (Schoenau, 1997). Ammonia-N losses from livestock manure have been reported to range from 10 to 90% when surface-applied to the soil (Vanderholm, 1975). Hoff, Nelson and Sutton, (1981) showed that 14 to 65% of the ammonia-N was lost over a 3.5 day period, when the hog manure was broadcast on the soil surface. However, if the hog manure was injected, the ammonia-N losses were reduced to 2.5% or less. Hoff, Nelson and Sutton, (1981) suggested that injecting hog manure into the soil would maximize the nutrient value of the hog manure as a fertilizer and would minimize surface water and atmospheric N contamination. There currently is little information on the plant and soil response to injection of hog manure into grasslands on the Canadian prairies. The objectives of the study are (1) to evaluate the practicality of shallow injection of hog manure into typical grassland stands in Saskatchewan (2) to determine the effect hog manure has on forage yield, forage quality and forage nitrate levels at various application rates (3) and to determine the effect on soil nutrients under various hog manure application rates.


Background. Perioperative treatment with plasmapheresis and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), combined with a tacrolimus-based immunosuppressive regimen, has been used successfully to allow renal transplantations in crossmatch-positive recipients. A common finding in biopsy specimens of these allografts is isometric vacuolization of proximal tubular epithelium. This finding presents a diagnostic dilemma because it may occur secondary to IVIG treatment or tacrolimus nephrotoxicity. Methods. We compared the frequency and severity of isometric tubular vacuolization in renal allograft biopsy specimens obtained during the first 10 days after transplantation in 24 patients who received one or more postoperative treatments with IVIG (100 mg/kg; as part of a desensitization protocol also involving plasmapheresis) with specimens obtained in 91 patients who did not receive IVIG. All patients received tacrolimus. Isometric vacuolization was graded on a 0 to 4 scale based on the fraction of proximal tubules involved: 0, none; 1, less than 10%; 2, 10% to 25%; 3, 26% to 50%; 4, more than 50%. Results. There was a higher frequency of isometric tubular vacuolization (71% vs. 31%) and more widespread involvement in patients who received IVIG and tacrolimus versus tacrolimus alone, although mean tacrolimus levels were not significantly different between these groups. In control, but not IVIG, biopsy specimens, there was a significant association between vacuolization score and blood tacrolimus level on the day of biopsy. Conclusions. Isometric tubular vacuolization is a common finding in renal transplant biopsy specimens of patients who receive low-dose IVIG and in many cases is likely to be related, at least in part, to IVIG. In these patients, this finding should not necessarily be interpreted as indicative of tacrolimus (or cyclosporine) nephrotoxicity.


A previous study has suggested that complex cells perform a MAX-like operation on their inputs: when two bar stimuli are presented within the receptive field, regardless of their relative separation, the cell's response is similar in amplitude to the larger of the responses elicited by the individual stimuli. This description of complex cells seems at odds with the classical energy model in which complex cells receive input from multiple simple cells with overlapping receptive fields. The energy model predicts, and experiments have confirmed, that bar stimuli should facilitate or suppress one another depending on their relative separation. We have recorded intracellularly from a population of complex cells and studied their responses to paired bar stimuli in detail. A wide range of behavior was observed, from the more classical separation-dependent interactions to purely MAX-like responses. We also found that the more MAX-like a cell was, the broader its spatial-frequency tuning as measured with drifting gratings. These observations are consistent with energy models in which classical complex cells receive input from simple cells with similar preferred spatial frequencies, and MAX-like complex cells receive input from simple cells with disparate preferred spatial frequencies. Generalized energy models, then, can account for diverse modes of computation in cortical complex cells.


Generally speaking, cyclic redundancy checks (CRCs) are used to detect errors from noise in digital data transmission. The technique is also sometimes applied to data storage devices, such as a disk drive. They also have been turned to verify the integrity of files in a system in order to prevent tampering and suggested as a possible algorithm for manipulation detection codes.


Presented during Session 22: Performance Based Contracts, moderated by Ian Greenwood, at the 9th International Conference on Managing Pavement Assets (ICMPA9) in Alexandria, VA.


This study provides the first set of empirical evidence on the determinants of social benefits received by urban families in China and the impact on income inequality using the China Household Income Project (CHIP) 1988 and 2002 data. It finds that the total urban social benefits strongly targeted the bottom pre-tax pre-transfer income decile. Cash transfers were negatively associated with income distribution in both years, while important in-kind benefits (namely health and food in 1988 and education in 2002) were positively related to income levels. The presence of elder members and higher education levels were significantly related to more total social benefits. Urban social benefits played a significant role in reducing income inequality in both 1988 and 2002. However, the social benefit transfers were not able to close the increasing income gap caused by the growing market income inequality of the period. As a result, post-tax post-transfer income inequality level in 2002 was higher still than in 1988.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the significant and high death toll of COVID-19 on care home residents and social care staff in England and Wales These mortality figures, alongside differential treatment of residents and staff during the pandemic, are conceptualized as a form of structural abuse Arguments are made for the inclusion of structural abuse as a separate category of elder abuse Design/methodology/approach: This paper is predominantly conceptual but it also draws on available secondary data, such as mortality statistics, media reports and developing research Findings: The lack of appropriate personal protective equipment, paucity of guidance and high mortality rate among care home staff and residents during the pandemic is indicative of social discourses that, when underpinned by ageism, reflect structural elder abuse Research limitations/implications: The research is limited by its focus on a specific time period and its recency It is also limited in not being based on primary empirical research but it remains exploratory and conceptual and provides a base for ongoing research in this area Social implications: If structural elder abuse was to be included in classifications, it demands a rethink of social and health-care services and the policies and practices associated with them and reinforces the government message that safeguarding is everyone's business Originality/value: Research concerning the effects and impact of COVID-19 are still in their early stages However, the central element of originality in the paper concerns the linking of practices, policies and underlying social assumptions and structural, or societally ingrained, elder abuse © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited


At congested highway interchanges, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) uses narrow concrete piers and shallow depth steel cap girders. Research Project ()"1302 is concerned with the connection detail between these two elements. This report deals with the shear strength and reinforcement details at the top of the concrete pier in the vicinity of the bearings. Since no formal design procedure currently exists for determining the required amount and distribution of reinforcing steel in a pier cap, this research also had the purpose of providing design guidelines for the pier cap. To in'vestigate the behavior of the pier caps, six test specimens were constructed at a 30% scale. Five different reinforcing steel patterns were used in the six specimens to examine the contributions of different reinforcing types to the pier cap strength. Eleven static load tests were conducted to failure on the six pier caps. For all specimens, load on the pier cap was carried primarily by the action of a tied arch which transferred load from the base plates into the column. Overall, specimens that had a greater quantity of horizontal reinforcing steel and adequate development of horizontal reinforcing had a greater capacity. Three design methods were used to analyze the strength of the pier caps tested: (1) AASHTO (1992) Corbel Provisions; (2)ACI 318-89 Deep Beam Provisions; and (3) Strut-and-TIeMethod. The corbel and deep beam provisions were very conservative in predicting the capacity of the pier cap because they consider only concrete capacity in shear. On average, these two methods underestimated the pier strength by a factor of 3 to 4. Testing showed that the pier cap resisted loads through a tied arch, which is a much stronger load-carrying mechanism than concrete in shear. The strut-and-tie models used were much more accurate than conventional design methods in predicting the capacity of the pier caps because they model the compression arch action observed during testing. The strut-and-tie method is suggested for design because strut-and-tie analyses gave the best correlation with test results, modeled true behavior, and were still conservative. To detail the use of the strut-and-tie method, a design example using a proposed strut-and-tie model is presented. Also, recommendations are given for evaluating existing pier caps through field inspection.


Objective The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the evidence about the efficacy of the several synovial fluid (SF) biomarkers proposed for knee osteoarthritis (OA), categorizing them by both molecular characteristics and clinical use according to the BIPEDs criteria, to provide a comprehensive and structured overview of the current literature. Design A systematic review was performed in May 2020 on PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases about SF biomarkers in patients with knee OA. The search was limited to articles in the last 20 years on human studies, involving patients with knee OA, reporting SF biomarkers. The evidence for each selected SF biomarker was quantified according to the 6 categories of BIPEDs classification. Results A total of 159 articles were included in the qualitative data synthesis and 201 different SF biomarkers were identified. Among these, several were investigated multiple times in different articles, for a total of 373 analyses. The studies included 13,557 patients with knee OA. The most promising SF biomarkers were C4S, IL-6, IL-8, Leptin, MMP-1/3, TIMP-1, TNF-α, and VEGF. The "burden of disease" and "diagnostic" categories were the most represented with 132 and 106 different biomarkers, respectively. Conclusions The systematic review identified numerous SF biomarkers. However, despite the high number of studies on the plethora of identified molecules, the evidence about the efficacy of each biomarker is supported by limited and often conflicting findings. Further research efforts are needed to improve the understanding of SF biomarkers for a better management of patients with knee OA.


In this study, methods based on ultrasonic attenuation and optical time-of-flight measurements are used simultaneously in determining both the fibres and fines mass fractions, respectively, of a cellulose pulp fibre suspension. The optical measurements are done by a laser radar and the acoustical measurements are based on ultrasonic attenuation measurements in a pulse-echo set-up. Two kinds of long-fibre fractions are studied, thermo-mechanical pulp and chemical softwood pulp. Fibre and fines mass fraction ranges are 0.25–1.0% and 0–0.75%, respectively. The results show that the fibres are the predominant source for absorption and scattering of ultrasonic waves and are thus mainly contributing to the attenuation of ultrasound in the pulp. It is also found that the fines are the predominant source for optical scattering and fines are thus mainly contributing to the propagation delay of the light pulse in the laser radar set-up. By combining the ultrasonic attenuation and the optical time-of-flight measurements, it is shown that the mass fraction of fines and the mass fraction of fibres in a pulp sample could be determined, respectively.


We provide a complete description of the Wadge hierarchy for deterministically recognisable sets of infinite trees. In particular we give an elementary procedure to decide if one deterministic tree language is continuously reducible to another. This extends Wagner's results on the hierarchy of omega-regular languages of words to the case of trees.


An all-digital fast-lock synchronous multi-phase clock generator is presented. By using a time-to-digital converter for fast-lock operation and delay measurement, the proposed multi-phase clock generator generates four-phase clocks and synchronizes the reference clock with the output clock within 45 cycles. Furthermore, the clock generator uses a fine binary scheme and de-skewing circuit for fine delay measurement and compensation. The proposed clock generator was designed in a 0.18um CMOS technology. It operates over a wide frequency range from 400MHz to 1.22GHz and consumes 34mW at 1.22GHz.


The article defines the importance of the non-fictional text of V. S. Naipaul Michael X and the Black Power Killings in Trinidad in the creative work of the writer. The article provides the features of a journalistic investigation, the history of its creation and the analysis of its place in the bibliography of V. S. Naipaul. The text is also considered as the key to the evolution of the hero and theme in the author's creative heritage.


ABSTRACT Fifty-five epidemiologically linked Aspergillus fumigatus isolates obtained from six nosocomial outbreaks of invasive aspergillosis were subtyped by sequencing the polymorphic region of the gene encoding a putative cell surface protein, Afu3g08990 (denoted as CSP). Comparative sequence analysis showed that genetic diversity was generated in the coding region of this gene by both tandem repeats and point mutations. Each unique sequence in an outbreak cluster was assigned an arbitrary number or CSP sequence type. The CSP typing method was able to identify "clonal" and genotypically distinct A. fumigatus isolates, and the results of this method were concordant with those of another discriminatory genotyping technique, the Afut1 restriction fragment length polymorphism typing method. The novel single-locus sequence typing (CSP typing) strategy appears to be a simple, rapid, discriminatory tool that can be readily shared across laboratories. In addition, we found that A. fumigatus isolates substructured into multiple clades; interestingly, one clade consisted of isolates predominantly representing invasive clinical isolates recovered from cardiac transplant patients from two different outbreak situations. We also found that the A. fumigatus isolate Af293, whose genome has been sequenced, possesses a CSP gene structure that is substantially different from those of the other A. fumigatus strains studied here, highlighting the need for further taxonomic study.


Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) catalyzes the production of nitric oxide (•NO) from L‐arginine in several tissues in the body. Nitric oxide is believed to play a critical role in cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer. For this reason, selective inhibition of NOS isoforms is currently under investigation for their potential as targets in drug design. All known isoforms of NOS require binding of calmodulin (CaM), a calcium binding protein ubiquitously expressed in eukaryotes, for activity. The interactions among the NOS isoforms and CaM vary, and therefore pose a good place to study in differentiating these enzymes. We have previously demonstrated that suramin, a polysulfonated naphthylurea, can distinguish between the CaM binding region of the inducible NOS and the neuronal NOS. When bound to NOS, suramin inhibits its activity by preventing CaM binding and activation. Suramin's inhibition was found not to be time dependent, and IC50 values were found to be ~8 μM and ~120 μM for the inducible NOS and neuronal NOS, respectively. SDS‐PAGE and Western analyses demonstrated that suramin is able to inhibit the interaction between NOS and CaM. AutoDoc analysis further demonstrated that suramin most likely interacts with a portion of the NOS molecule believed to be crucial to CaM's interaction. These studies implicate suramin as a potential lead compound.


Several working hypotheses can be drawn relative to measuring diesel exhaust particles and organics. They are: 1. Passenger car dynamometer simulation and driving cycles are adequate for determining mass emission rates. The choice of a simulation condition appears to make little difference. Evidence for trucks is fragmentary, but high load freeway driving produces especially high particle emissions. 2. Sampling of particles and organics can be done in a variety of ways. Since most sampling systems yield similar results, the choice is not critical. If measuring mutagenic agents is the issue, then the distribution between gas and particle phase is also not critical. 3. Artifactual generation of mutating agents in sampling seems to be relatively unimportant. Filter media studies are negative, with respect to artifacts. Although there is evidence of artifact formation from NO2 concentrations above 5 ppm, this condition is not generally present under normal sampling conditions. Consequently, in the context of laboratory studies of diesel emissions, it appears difficult to choose conditions that will produce totally invalid samples. Differences in particle emission factors from various vehicle types are substantial, however, and these influences on air quality are important.


The competitiveness of an organization especially in the present day competitive business environment will be anchored on the employee motivation and their perception of the rewards being offered being commensurate to the work they perform. The never-ending problem of high attrition rate has seen most organizations offer a number of rewards with the idea of attracting and then motivating the employees to stay in the organization and in order to determine whether the rewards offered by the organization commensurate with the employee expectations, then the same should be established by assessing the employee perception on the same reward management. The objective of the study was to determine employee perception on competitiveness of performance based rewards in Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited. The research design adopted was a descriptive survey method. The population of the study consisted of three hundred and sixty employee form all the cadres in the company. The study used primary data which were collected through self-administered structured questionnaires. The data was analyzed and presented using mean and percentages. The company found out that the company was using performance based rewards in order to satisfy its employees with the work and encourage the employees to work towards the attainment of the organizational objective. The use of the rewards by the company changed their perception and as a result leads to additional interactions with management and provides new opportunities for employees to develop trust in management. The company is however faced by challenges emanating from lack of promotion policy that ensures fair and equitable promotion, the rewards system in the organization being unpredictable and not based on employee performance, the company not embracing new compensation trends in the market depending on the employee performance and there lack of fairness and equity in the company on compensation practices.


We propose a scalable and efficient algorithm for coclustering a higher-order tensor. Viewing tensors with hypergraphs, we propose formulating the co-clustering of a tensor as a problem of partitioning the corresponding hypergraph. Our algorithm is based on the random sampling technique, which has been successfully applied to graph cut problems. We extend a random sampling algorithm for the graph multiwaycut problem to hypergraphs, and design a co-clustering algorithm based on it. Each iteration of our algorithm runs in polynomial on the size of hypergraphs, and thus it performs well even for higher-order tensors, which are difficult to deal with for state-of-the-art algorithm.


Over the last two decades a number of African countries have been implementing large structural adjustments which have significantly improved the investment environment in the continent. Nevertheless, very limited literature about African investment market exists and, this has substantially contributed to a poor inflow of international capital. Using the case of Tanzania, this paper looks into real estate investment opportunities available for European institutional investors. Tanzania being one of the African countries has similarly over the last 20 years been engaged in major structural reforms. Among the outcomes of the reforms is a noticeable evolution in real estate investment market. Institutional investors have substantially rebalanced their portfolios in favour of real estate assets. Currently, pension and insurance institutions` allocation to real estate is more than 30%. There have also been major changes to real estate related legislation to accommodate more forms of investment. Many other laws have been enacted and some amended to attract and protect foreign investors. This paper dwells on major initiatives that have enhanced investment opportunities in the real estate sector. Various economic trends incidental to the evolution of real estate market over the past 20 years are also considered in this paper. Results show that, despite the existence of clear investment prospects in real estate, this sector still accounts for less than 10% of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Tanzania. Among others, it is thus recommended that European real estate investors start considering Africa as an option for international diversification.


The use of mobile devices is often limited by the battery lifetime. Some devices have the option to connect an extra battery, or to use smart battery-packs with multiple cells to extend the lifetime. In these cases, scheduling the batteries or battery cells over the load to exploit the recovery properties of the batteries helps to extend the overall systems lifetime. Straightforward scheduling schemes, like round-robin or choosing the best battery available, already provide a big improvement compared to a sequential discharge of the batteries. In this paper, we compare these scheduling schemes with the optimal scheduling scheme produced with two different modeling approaches: an approach based on a priced-timed automaton model (implemented and evaluated in Uppaal Cora), as well as an analytical approach (partly formulated as nonlinear optimization problem) for a slightly adapted scheduling problem. We show that in some cases the results of the simple scheduling schemes (round-robin, and best-first) are close to optimal. However, the optimal schedules, computed according to both methods, also clearly show that in a variety of scenarios, the simple schedules are far from optimal.


The dimension, contractility, and regional wall motion of the right and left ventricles were scored on the angiograms of 13 patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. In 10 patients the right ventricle was enlarged, in eight the contractility of the right ventricle was reduced, and in all but one patient there were regional wall motion abnormalities of the right ventricle. The most common abnormality of regional wall motion was mild hypokinesia. There were bulging or dyskinetic areas in seven patients. Regional wall motion abnormalities of the left ventricle were found in five patients, two of whom also had bulging or dyskinetic areas. The reproducibility of right ventricular dimension, contractility, and regional wall motion scores was generally fair but varied unexpectedly both within and between two observers (Kendall's Tau 0.38-0.92). The score values of regional wall motion for some of the segments differed considerably within and between observers. One of the observers consistently gave higher scores than the other. These data suggest that a more objective approach is needed for evaluating angiographic changes in arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.


The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was designed to measure automatically activated attitudinal associations, free of the influence of processes that affect their expression. Subsequent research has shown that IAT performance also is influenced by non-associative processes, but the extent to which these non-associative processes are content-specific or if they operate similarly regardless of the attitude being measured has largely gone unexamined. In the current research, participants completed pairs of IATs that varied in conceptual overlap: Tests shared a high, moderate, or low degree of overlap in the measured attitudes. The Quad model was applied to estimate the contributions of four processes to IAT performance. Evidence was found for two relatively general, non-attitudinal processes and two relatively attitude-specific processes. Implications are discussed for interpretation of IAT scores, individual differences in IAT scores, and IAT score malleability.


The current decision-making practices in construction projects, such as road construction, are largely based on tacit knowledge, craftsmanship, tradition, and custom. This results in considerable variability in the execution of projects and deviation between as-planned and as-executed practices. New simulation-based planning techniques try to address this issue by offering a more realistic representation of the construction processes through capturing uncertainties and interdependencies between parameters that impact project execution. However, the current simulation-planning techniques are limited because they tend to present spatial and temporal characteristics of projects separately. This segregated approach ignores the interdependencies between spatial and temporal aspects of projects especially with respect to safety and process quality assessment. This is more palpable in the asphalt compaction projects because the quality of the compaction depends on a myriad of temporal (e.g., compaction speed) and spatial (e.g., homogenous compaction of the mat) parameters. Therefore, this research aims to develop a novel framework to capture the factors affecting the compaction process in a holistic manner and translate them into relevant decision variables. This framework achieves this objective by integrating simulation and virtual reality technologies. In this framework, simulation is responsible for capturing the affecting factors and generating temporal decision variables, whereas VR virtualizes them and provides high (3D) spatial assessment and awareness. The proposed framework provides a stepwise guideline into (a) collection of appropriate data for the simulation, (b) development of agents, physics, and environment for the simulation, (c), integration of the simulation output with VR, (d) generation of a VR environment with data-driven agents and physics, and (e) assessment of the equipment behavior and operational quality feedback. A prototype is developed and tested with ASPARi case studies to demonstrate the feasibility of the framework. It is shown that compared to current planning practices, the integrated model can significantly improve various aspects of planning the construction process, especially by improving awareness among decision-makers concerning the development of more standardized compaction patterns. Therefore, this work provides to the body of knowledge a framework for a holistic HMA planning tool able to capture all the temporal and spatial characteristics of a project and translating them into relevant decision variables for planners. A of of and (3) An approach for the behavior of the the physics, and the environment is presented. It was shown that the development of realistic agents is feasible and thus ensure the model accuracy. (4) An approach for translating physics and equipment behavior as data-driven physics and data-driven agents for the VR environment is presented. It was shown then that an integration of the technologies is possible to construct the model.


Open systems are part of a paradigm shift from algorithmic to interactive computation. Multiagent systems in nature that exhibit emergent behavior and stigmergy offer inspiration for research in open systems and enabling technologies for collaboration. This contribution distinguishes two types of interaction, directly via messages, and indirectly via persistent observable state changes. Models of collaboration are incomplete if they fail to explicitly represent indirect interaction; a richer set of system behaviors is possible when computational entities interact indirectly, including via analog media, such as the real world, than when interaction is exclusively direct. Indirect interaction is therefore a precondition for certain emergent behaviors.


The gender revolution aims to achieve gender equality in both the public and private spheres. Yet, empirical studies show that, despite enjoying progress in both spheres, women's advancements tend to be concentrated in the public sphere, while progress in the private sphere lags. I argue that underneath this lopsided gender progress between both spheres, is the uneven development in gender attitudes, embodied by a proportion of Americans who are gender ambivalents – that is they support gender equality in the public sphere but not in the private sphere. This article addresses two research questions: (a) how persistent are gender ambivalents; (b) how different are they from other subgroups? I used the General Social Survey (1977-2014) to conduct latent class analysis and multinomial logit latent class regression on four gender attitudes. Results showed that beginning from 1989 and persisting until 2014, more than 25% of Americans are gender ambivalents, constituting the second largest latent class after egalitarians who support gender equality in both spheres. Also, gender ambivalents tend to be pre-Baby-boomer men who have less than a high school education and are outside the workforce. I discuss the implications of my results for the current state and future of the gender revolution.


The population of exoplanetary systems detected by Kepler provides opportunities to refine our understanding of planet formation. Unraveling the conditions needed to produce the observed exoplanet systems will allow us to make informed predictions as to where habitable worlds exist within the galaxy. In this paper, we examine, using N-body simulations, how the properties of planetary systems are determined during the final stages of assembly, when planets accrete from embryos and planetesimals. While accretion is a chaotic process, trends emerge allowing certain features of an ensemble of planetary systems to provide a memory of the initial distribution of solid mass around a star prior to accretion. We also use epos, the Exoplanet Population Observation Simulator, to account for detection biases and show that different accretion scenarios can be distinguished from observations of the Kepler systems. We show that the period of the innermost planet, the ratio of orbital periods of adjacent planets, and masses of the planets are determined by the total mass and radial distribution of embryos and planetesimals at the beginning of accretion. In general, some amount of orbital damping, via either planetesimals or gas, during accretion is needed to match the whole population of exoplanets. Surprisingly, all simulated planetary systems have planets that are similar in size, showing that the "peas in a pod" pattern can be consistent with both a giant impact scenario and a planet migration scenario. The inclusion of material at distances larger than what Kepler observes (>1 au) has a profound impact on the observed planetary architectures and thus on the formation and delivery of volatiles to possible habitable worlds.


In this paper, we present the results of re-ranking for N-best list on machine translations. The main purpose of this research is to determine the upper bound of MT success that can be gained by reordering possible candidate translations. We use Google Translate Research API1 as our Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) system to get the N-best lists consisting of possible Turkish translations for a given English sentence. We evaluate the effect of reordering using three simple methods: unigram count (UC), unigram ratio (UR), and first four characters match (FFCM). We collected 720 sentences in order to give to the SMT system, and then we used 3 different sets of Turkish translations of them to evaluate our work on the N-best lists. Success of re-ranking is determined by using BLEU metric, besides an inclusive investigation which is necessary especially for agglutinative languages (e.g. Turkish, Czech, Hungarian, and Finnish) is performed by using BLEU+ MT scoring tool. We observe an improvement in BLEU score from 31.71 for the baseline system to 35.46 which is about 11.81% relative for the re-ranked model using UR.


This paper presents new look-ahead schemes for backtracking search when solving constraint satisfaction problems. The look-ahead schemes compute a heuristic for value ordering and domain pruning, which influences variable orderings at each node in the search space. As a basis for a heuristic, we investigate two tasks, both harder than the CSP task. The first is finding the solution with min-number of conflicts. The second is counting solutions. Clearly each of these tasks also finds a solution to the CSP problem, if one exists, or decides that the problem is inconsistent. Our plan is to use approximations of these more complex tasks as heuristics for guiding search for a solution of a CSP task. In particular, we investigate two recent partitionbased strategies that approximate variable elimination algorithms, Mini-Bucket-Tree Elimination and Iterative Join-Graph Propagation (ijgp). The latter belong to the class of belief propagation algorithm that attracted substantial interest due to their surprising success for probabilistic inference. Our preliminary empirical evaluation is very encouraging, demonstrating that the countingbased heuristic approximated by by IJGP yields a very focused search even for hard problems.


3D weaving technology enables the manufacturing of advanced near net-shape profiles, through incorporating geometric features such as bifurcations, and varying cross-sections into the preform, for use as reinforcements in composite materials. Their design space is very large due to a wide range of weave patterns in their 3D fibre architectures, and currently the lack of analysis techniques that relate weave architectures with the resulting processing and structural performance restricts the application of such advanced 3D woven composites.

In this thesis, the effect of fibre architecture on mechanical properties was shown to be significant for 3D woven composite T-joints, which further illustrates the challenges for designing an optimum 3D woven reinforcement. This work is an attempt to develop modelling techniques that are able to accurately predict the resulting structural performance for composites based on 3D woven architectures.

Geometric models were developed to account for the deformation in the fibre architecture caused by the bifurcation process in manufacturing of 3D near net-shape T-joint preforms, in order to improve the accuracy of the reinforcement geometry in finite element models. A methodology based on voxels was proposed to overcome the current meshing problems whilst allowing delamination modelling for composites with complex fibre architecture.

Consequently, a meso-scale modelling framework for predicting weave architectures of 3D woven composite T-joints and the resulting mechanical behaviour under quasi-static pull-off loading was proposed, in which damage modelling incorporates both interface and constituent material damage, in conjunction with a continuum damage mechanics approach to account for the progressive failure behaviour. Results were shown to agree well with experimental data beyond initial failure.

Based on the proposed predictive modelling method, the effect of fibre architecture, in which the design space was simplified by three design variables, i.e. weft yarn path straightness, weft yarn path entanglement and weft yarn path cross-over, on mechanical performance was investigated. Varying yarn path cross-over was found to improve both stiffness and failure load. Increasing the proportion of yarn path entanglement also improved the damage resistance capability, but a high level of yarn path entanglement caused a reduction in yarn path straightness and therefore the structural stiffness would be compromised. Based on the above findings, a design optimisation philosophy for 3D woven T-joint reinforcements under tensile pull-off loading was proposed.


In order to stabilize yields in an Oxisol in Isabela, north coast of Puerto Rico, lime was applied yearly over a four-year period according to lime requirements determined by titration in CaCl,, to pH 6.0. Due to high soil variability, the land was divided into two-acre fields and analyses performed on composite samples from each. In some cases the variability was so high that these fields were further subdivided and the subdivisions analyzed separately for soil properties. While water pH values did not increase significantly in most areas, CaCl2 pH and yields did. In plots which showed particularly poor growth, numerous nodules high in manganese and iron were found. These plots corresponded to areas very high in Mehlich 3 extractable manganese and many were low in extractable zinc. Extractable manganese decreased steadily over the course of the study as yields increased. When problem areas were sidedressed with 560 kg ha- 1 lime, the corn and sunflowers recovered rapidly and gave good to reasonable yields.


This article uses cross-country data to explore the role of cultural attributes in the inequality of income distribution and poverty within countries. Using the Hofstede cultural dimensions, we found that individualism is negatively correlated with the Gini index and the poverty ratio. We also found that the lower the status of women in a society, the higher the level of poverty in that society. Furthermore, we found that adding the cultural variables into the analysis significantly improves the ability to explain the differences in inequality and poverty in different countries.


Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare but aggressive skin cancer with frequent metastasis and death. MCC has a mortality rate of 30%, making it more lethal than malignant melanoma, and incidence of MCC has increased almost fourfold over the past 20 years in the USA. MCC has long been considered to be an immunogenic cancer because it occurs more frequently in immunosuppressed patients from organ transplant and HIV infection than in those with immunocompetent. Chronic UV light exposure and clonal integration of Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) are two major causative factors of MCC. Approximately 80% of MCC are associated with MCPyV, and T cells specific for MCPyV oncoproteins are present in the blood and tumors of patients. Several studies have shown that a subset of MCCs express PD-1 on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and express PD-L1 on tumor cells, which suggests an endogenous tumor-reactive immune response that might be unleashed by anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 drugs.


Prostatic adenocarcinoma may manifest with morphologic features that may be mistaken for benign glandular atrophy. The incidence, morphometric extent, and diagnostic attributes of atrophic prostatic adenocarcinoma have not been defined in radical prostatectomy cases. The size, grade, and stage at which prostatic carcinomas manifest atrophic change and whether these atrophic appearing adenocarcinomatous glands are proliferative, quiescent, or dying (apoptotic) also have not been established. To characterize prostatic adenocarcinoma with atrophic features, we studied 202 consecutive completely embedded radical prostatectomy specimens from previously untreated patients. The histomorphologic attributes of atrophic carcinoma were compiled and compared with benign atrophy and usual prostatic adenocarcinoma without atrophic features. The atrophic carcinoma volume was quantitated by image analysis, the proliferation index was determined by Ki-67 immunolabeling, and the apoptosis index was assessed by TdT [terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase]-mediated dUTP [deoxyuridine triphosphate]-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL). Of 202 prostatic adenocarcinoma cases, 32 (15.8%) demonstrated atrophic features. The malignant glands resembled benign atrophic glands by showing profound cytoplasmic volume loss, yet these glands almost always (96.4%) exhibited an infiltrative growth pattern, always lacked basal cells (confirmed by 34betaE12 immunostaining), and exhibited nuclear atypia with nucleomegaly and nucleolomegaly. The atrophic carcinoma foci had a mean volume of 0.3 cc (range, 0.01-2 cc), representing a mean of 16% of total carcinoma volume. The mean proliferation index for atrophic prostatic carcinoma was 4% compared with 1.2% for benign atrophy and 5.3% for usual nonatrophic carcinoma. Apoptosis was identified in only 1 of 32 atrophic prostatic carcinomas. Carcinomas with and without atrophic features did not differ in histologic grade, tumor volume, or pathologic stage. Most atrophic carcinomas were moderately differentiated, of Gleason grade 3. We conclude that the atrophic pattern of prostatic carcinoma is a distinctive morphologic presentation of proliferating, intermediate-grade, prostatic adenocarcinoma that has significant diagnostic rather than prognostic implications.


Why did productivity rise during recent recessions? One possibility is that average worker quality increased. A second is that each incumbent worker produced more. The second effect is termed "making do with less." Using data from 2006 to 2010 on individual worker productivity from a large firm, these effects can be measured and separated. For this firm, most of the gain in productivity during the recession was a result of increased effort. Additionally, the increase in effort is correlated with the increase in the local unemployment rate, presumably reflecting the costs of losing a job.


Field studies on saline water use (6 dS/m) for carrot, lettuce and pepper production in smallholder's farms were conducted in the arid region of Medenine-Tunisia. The irrigation regimes were full (FI) and deficit (DI-80, DI-60, FI-DI60) irrigated with levels of 100, 80 and 60% of ETc when 40% of total available water in the root zone in the FI treatment was depleted, and farmer method (Farmers). Results show that the greatest values of soil salinity were observed under farmer and DI-60 treatments. Relatively low ECe values were also recorded under FI-DI60 and DI-80 treatments. The highest mean yields of carrot (26.8-28.7-29.5 t/ha), lettuce (42.6-45.8 t/ha) and pepper (22.3-24.4 t/ha) were recorded for the FI treatment who is not significantly different with the FI-DI60 and DI-80 treatments. Compared with FI100, significant reductions in carrot, lettuce and pepper yields were observed under the DI60 and farmers treatments resulting from a reduction in yield components. The farmer's method increased soil salinity and resulted in an increase of water use of 43-57% for carrot, 26-29% for lettuce and 11.5-16% for pepper. Water productivity (WP) values reflected the differences in yields and varied between 3.4 (Farmers) and 9.7 kg/m3 (DI-80) for carrot, 7.5 and 19.1 kg/m3 for lettuce and 2.4 and 5.5 kg/m3 for pepper across different years and treatments. The soil water balance-based irrigation method (FI) generated the greatest net income compared to the Farmers treatment in carrot, lettuce and pepper productions under arid environment and the lowest soil salinization. FI scheduling technique is suggested for optimizing saline water use for vegetable crops. Under water scarcity, the adoption of the FI-DI60 and DI-80 strategies results in 4.5 to 20% water savings as compared to FI with small impact on salinity in the root zone and yield and net income reductions.


Fuel is an essential commodity in both the economy and society. Indonesian fuel demand continues to increase annually, whereas fuel production has decreased. Gasoline accounts for more than 50% of fuel consumption for transportation. A reliable gasoline product demand forecast is required to plan the gasoline supply. The objective of this study is to forecast the demand for total gasoline and its three components, which are gasoline 88, gasoline 90, and gasoline 92. This study compared the Holt–Winters additive model and autoregressive integrated moving average for the time-series data for the 2017–2019 period. Because the Holt–Winters additive model generates more accurate results, it was applied to predict the total demand for gasoline during 2020–2022. The results of the combination of the Holt–Winters model and a neural network to forecast gasoline 92 demand had lower errors than the individual Holt–Winters method. The forecast results show that total gasoline demand is forecasted to increase, but the components indicate a different trend. Gasoline 92 and gasoline 88 decreased, but gasoline 90 increased.


The design of adhesively bonded structures requires accurate material property data. These data are often best obtained from bulk test specimens. Such data can give an indication of the cohesive strength of the materials but designers also need to consider the strengths of the interfaces between the adhesive and substrates. Information on interface strengths is normally obtained from adhesives joint tests. However, the complexity of stress distributions in bonded joints leads to difficulties in obtaining quantitative interface strengths that are applicable to other loading configurations. As part of a DTI funded Measurements for Materials Systems project, Interfacial Adhesion Strength, a number of test methods for adhesion strength were studied as methods for quantifying adhesion strength. These test methods have been evaluated, in experimental and Finite Element (FE) studies, for their ability to quantify the strength of adhesion between adhesive and adherend. The properties of the surfaces being bonded are critical for the manufacture of strong, durable adhesive bonds. Techniques for inspecting surfaces have been assessed as part of this work. There is no universal surface or adhesion test suitable for all situations – methods need to be selected on the basis of the materials (adherend and adhesive), expected structural loading and service conditions, degree of accuracy required and budget (time and cost) for the assessment. Guidance is given to the selection and use of surface characterisation and adhesion strength test methods.


As an archipelagic country, Indonesian government gives subsidy and public service obligation (PSO) to Sea Tollway, Pelni and Pioneer vessels to distribute freights to small islands. These three types of vessel are independently managing their own time and network. As the result, the distribution network becomes unintegrated and not optimal in suppressing transport cost and subsidy-PSO. The aim of this paper is to develop and implement bi-level model in sea transport network integration on freight distribution system on archipelagic territory. Upper level model is intended to minimalize the number of operated vessels, while lower level model is intended to determine the route that maximize the profit in freight distribution that involves Sea Tollway, Pelni and Pioneer vessels. The application of genetic algorithm (GA) in problem solving on milk run time windows (MRTW) network can accommodate the uncertainty variable, namely load and wave height. The result of model validation with empirical test on the case in Indonesia shows that the model can gives optimal value in solving the network integration problem. The sensitivity analysis shows that the number of operating vessels and the uncertainty variable intervention on the determination of vessel route affect the clustering. The management of vessel route should be integrated in real time by factoring the wave height variable, with consequence that the received gross profit is decreasing by 11,8% when compared to the condition without the wave height consideration.


In this paper, we consider the application of the Lotka-Volterra model with churn effects, LVch, (Guidolin and Guseo, 2015) to the case of a confectionary product produced in Italy and recently commercialized in a European country. Weekly time series, referring separately to quantities of regular and promotional sales, are available. Their joint inspection highlighted the presence of compensatory dynamics suggesting the study with the LVch to estimate whether competition between regular and promotional sales exists and how it affects product life-cycle. The study of sales under promotion with respect to regular ones represents a new way of dealing with promotional activities effects, whereas the innovation diffusion literature on new product growth has typically considered the effect of pricing and advertising through the generalized Bass model (Bass et al., 1994). In that model, the total amount of sales, regular plus promotional sales, is analyzed with a univariate approach, while price and advertising expenditures are used as exogenous inputs, without a feedback control. Conversely, exploiting the availability of two distinct time series and studying their interaction, our results show that competition has a symmetric character. Regular sales may access the residual market of those under promotion indicating the beneficial effect of promotional efforts, but the reverse effect is also present. Short-term forecasts on the evolution of the two series are then built with a two stage procedure based on an iterated SARMAX. The predicted values are further validated with observed real data.
A comparison with Euler standard predictions is also performed.


Using the $O(N)$ model as an example, we investigate the self-interaction effects of inflaton on the dynamics of the primordial perturbations. When taking interactions into account, it is essential to employ a self-consistent off-equilibrium formalism to study the evolution of the inflationary background field and its fluctuations with back-reaction effects. Within the Hartree factorization scheme, we show that the $O(N)$ model has at least two observable remains left behind by the off-equilibrium processes: the running spectral index of primordial density perturbations and the correlations between perturbation modes in phase space. We find that the running of the spectral index is fully determined by the rate of the energy transfer from the inflationary background field to its fluctuations via particle creation processes as well as the dynamics of the background field itself. Furthermore, the amplitude of the field fluctuations turns out to be scale dependent due to the off-equilibrium evolution. As a consequence, the scale dependence of fluctuations yields a correlation between the phase-space modes of energy density perturbations, while the one-point function of the fluctuations in each Hartree mode is still Gaussian. More importantly, the mode-mode correlation of the primordial perturbations depends upon the dynamics of the self-interaction as well as the initial conditions of the inflation. Hence, we propose that the running spectral index and the correlation between phase-space modes would be two observable fossils to probe the epoch of inflation, even beyond.


Background: Macrolides have anti-inflammatory and antioxidative stress function, but their pharmacological regulation remains unclear. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is redox-sensitive protein belongs to class III histone/protein deacetylases, SIRT1 regulates the acetylation/expression of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and is involved in the airway inflammation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Objectives: The present study was designed to examine the effects of erythromycin (EM) on the SIRT1-NF-κB axis and NF-κB-dependent proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: Human macrophages were preincubated with EM and then treated with cigarette smoke extract (CSE). The mice were treated by injecting drugs to gastric with EM before cigarette smoke exposure. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) released by treated human macrophages were detected using flow cytometry. The expression of SIRT1 and NF-κB was analyzed by western blotting. SIRT1 and the RelA/p65 subunits of NF-κB interaction were detected by coimmunoprecipitation. We found that EM suppressed CSE-induced ROS released in human macrophages, which coincided with increases in SIRT1 protein expression in the macrophages and lungs of mice, resulting in suppressed NF-κB acetylation and expression correlated with a reduction of inflammatory mediators. Conclusion: These findings suggest that EM increased SIRT1, leading to acetylation/expression of NF-κB, and thereby decreasing cigarette smoke-driven NF-κB-dependent proinflammatory cytokine.


Wnt and estrogen signaling represent important regulatory pathways, each controlling a wide range of biological processes. While an increasing number of observations suggest potential convergence between these pathways, no direct evidence of their functional interaction has been reported. Using human colon and breast cancer cells, we found that estrogen receptor (ER) alpha- and beta-catenin precipitated within the same immunocomplexes, reciprocally enhanced the transactivation of cognate reporter genes, and were reciprocally recruited to cognate response elements in the promoters of endogenous target genes. Using transgenic Drosophila that ectopically expressed human ERalpha alone or together with metabolically stable beta-catenin/Armadillo mutants, we demonstrated genetic interaction between these signal transducers in vivo. Thus, we present here the first direct evidence of cross-talk between Wnt and estrogen signaling pathways via functional interaction between beta-catenin and ERalpha.


In "The Catholic Hospital Today: Mission Impossible?" (Origins, March 16, 1995, pp. 648-653), Rev. Richard A. McCormick, SJ, STD, questions whether Catholic hospitals can continue their missions in a society with so many factors and influences that seem to oppose efforts to perpetuate the healing ministry of Christ. As Fr. McCormick states, the matrix of good medicine is centered on the good of the individual. But too often, the patient has been considered an individual isolated from others. The rights of families, people who belong to the same insurance program, and the society funding much of healthcare must also be considered. Fr. McCormick points out that an obstacle to the healing mission arises because healthcare is often treated as a business instead of a service. If not-for-profit healthcare facilities come to exist for the well-being of the shareholders, as do for-profit healthcare facilities, then a perversion of values results. This should lead us to renounce for-profit healthcare and the behavior that some Catholic health organizations have borrowed from the for-profit sector. In addition, Fr. McCormick calls attention to our society's denial of death and tendency to call on medicine to cure personal, social, or economic problems. This denial-of-death phenomenon helps us realize the need for the mission of Catholic hospitals. Continuing the mission of Catholic hospitals will require the attention of all involved in them-physicians, trustees, nurses, administrators, and ancillary personnel. These healthcare providers must not be distracted from the mission by joint ventures and economic issues.