REQUIRED) The law-making process is the source of legislation and is inextricably bound up with the developments of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of e-government. Against this backdrop, both the normative law-making process (as prescribed in law) and the law-making processes as found in practice are being analyzed. Both types of processes are modeled using Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and the process descriptions are compared with each other. The retrospective analyses of several cases show deviations from normative processes as prescribed in law. It was found that the law-making process is a highly fragmented process and that there is hardly any back office integration. Paradoxically, law (resulting from the law-making process) complicates the improvement of the law-making process. Our analysis shows that the law-making process can be treated like any other business process. We recommend the use of business process (re-)engineering and transformation instruments to improve the law-making process.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer diagnosed worldwide and is heterogeneous both morphologically and molecularly. In an era of personalized medicine, the greatest challenge is to predict individual response to therapy and distinguish patients likely to be cured with surgical resection of tumors and systemic therapy from those resistant or non-responsive to treatment. Patients would avoid futile treatments, including clinical trial regimes and ultimately this would prevent under- and over-treatment and reduce unnecessary adverse side effects. In this review, the potential of specific biomarkers will be explored to address two key questions—1) Can the prognosis of patients that will fare well or poorly be determined beyond currently recognized prognostic indicators? and 2) Can an individual patient's response to therapy be predicted and those who will most likely benefit from treatment/s be identified? Identifying and validating key prognostic and predictive biomarkers and an understanding of the underlying mechanisms of drug resistance and toxicity in CRC are important steps in order to personalize treatment. This review addresses recent data on biological prognostic and predictive biomarkers in CRC. In addition, patient cohorts most likely to benefit from currently available systemic treatments and/or targeted therapies are discussed in this review.


A new methodology for monitoring the performance of forest chain was here proposed and described. The target of this methodology is to develop a system to analyse operational time monitoring. The aim of this study is to propose an innovative and standardized approach of Precision Forestry in the use of GNSS for performance and productivity relief. GNSS is used as an integrated tool for measuring the efficiency of the forest mechanisation chain. So far, these surveys have been carried out through the application of GNSS only for logging operations. The validation data has been done through the comparison with a clock time relief. The preliminary overview about the application of this approach on harvesting operations has permitted to assess a good feasibility of the use of GNSS in the relief of operative times in high mechanised forest chain. Results showed an easy and completely identification of the different operative cycles and elementary operations phases, with a maximum difference between the two methodologies of 11.49%.


The relationship between the so-called nonstandard finite-difference schemes and the nodal integral method (NIM) is investigated using the Fisher equation as a model problem. Exact and best finite-difference schemes are reviewed first. Next, the NIM for the Fisher equation is developed. It is shown that the NIM leads to a nonstandard evaluation of the derivatives. Moreover, the resulting scheme possesses the desirable characteristics of the nonstandard finite difference schemes, such as the nonlocal evaluation of the nonlinear terms. Thus, the NIM provides a systematic framework to obtain schemes similar to the best finite-difference schemes. Numerical results for a propagating front problem show that the NIM can capture the shape and speed of the front very accurately. Results also show that the best finite-difference scheme is stable for large grid sizes but only at the cost of inaccuracy in the front propagation speed. Additional results are obtained using the NIM for symmetric and asymmetric initial conditions. These describe the interaction of two fronts of advantageous genes that approach each other and merge. It is noted that the traveling fronts evolving from certain asymmetric initial conditions become indistinguishable from those that evolve from symmetric initial conditions.


This thesis discusses the differences and similarities between the South Korean and the Swedish view on design in relation to innovation. It sets off introducing theories and recent studies upon the subject matter and also the closely related business discipline called "design management". The subject is then studied through analyzing and comparing of governmental actions within the field. Also the result from a brief questionnaire study has been used as basic material to find out how Swedish and Korean people look upon the subject matter. The questionnaire was carried out for this thesis exclusively and the results include answers on design-innovation-related questions from 35 Swedish and 35 Korean people. The result of the study shows that even though South Korea has a policy for innovation-related design and a governmental organ working exclusively with these questions, which Sweden has not, the countries share a lot of similarities in their approaches towards the subject.


For inspection of steam generator tubes in nuclear power plants using eddy current testing, it is a very crucial task to extract the flaw signal from signals compounded by flaws and supporting structures. To perform such an important task, the multifrequency eddy current testing method is widely adopted. In this study, we explore the performance of a linear mixing technique based on the discrete cosine transform method by experiments. The results obtained using the DCT based method agree very well to those obtained by commercial software demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach.


To reduce the severity of shoot blight and prevent the resulting development of cankers on perennial apple wood, we evaluated eight fire blight post-infection spry programs of prohexadione-calcium (PCA) alone or with acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) over two years. On mature trees of cv. Royal Court, a single application of the high PCA rate (247 mg/L) at 2 to 3 days after inoculation resulted in 89.5 and 69.5% reduction of shoot blight severity after inoculation. Two applications of PCA 247mg/L, 12 or 14 days apart, with the first one applied 2 to 3 days after inoculation, resulted in 78.8 and 74.5% reduction of shoot blight severity in both years. A 100% control of canker incidence on perennial wood from infected shoots in both years was achieved with a single application of PCA (247mg/L) applied at 2 or 3 days after the inoculation, while three applications of PCA (125 mg/L) + ASM (25mg/L) 12 - 16 days apart, reduced canker incidence by 83.5 and 69% in the two years. The other programs with lower PCA rates and frequencies of application reduced shoot blight severity for 50.8 and 51.8% (PCA) and for 62.6 - 72% and 59.3% (PCA + ASM), over two years, respectively. Reduction of canker incidence on wood by other programs was 66.5% and 69 - 90.4% in the two years, respectively. As fire blight cankers lead to death of dwarf apple trees and serve as primary sources of inoculum, our effective PCA and PCA + ASM programs could serve as viable post-infection management options. These treatments can reduce or prevent canker development and thus significantly abate tree losses in high-density apple orchards after fire blight epidemics occur.


Abstract: Verification of the authenticity of natural and agricultural foods has become a potential application of spectroscopic methods such as ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS), near infrared (NIR), and mid-infrared (MIR). Adulteration can take many forms, including the addition of sugars, acids, volatile oils, overdilution of concentrate, addition of juices of other fruits, use of concentrate in a fresh product, and use of low-quality product recovered from what are normally waste products of manufacture. Food adulteration has been practiced since ancient times but has become more sophisticated in the recent past. Foods or ingredients most likely to be targets for adulteration include those that are of high value or subject to the vagaries of weather during their growth or harvest. The practice of adulteration commonly arises for two main reasons: firstly, it can be profitable, and secondly, adulterants can be easily mixed and are subsequently difficult to detect. To counter this problem, manufacturers subject their raw material and by-products to a series of quality controls, including high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), thin-layer chromatography (TLC), enzymatic tests, and physical tests. This mini-review highlights recent applications on the use of NIR and MIR spectroscopy to trace and authenticate natural and agricultural products.


This thesis investigates the prospect of Online Language Teacher Education (OLTE) among the secondary level's English teachers in Bangladesh for their ongoing development. Therefore, this study explores the drawbacks of traditional face-to-face training system, as well as the efficacy of OLTE for minimizing those drawbacks. At the same time, this study examines the English teachers' perspectives, along with the requirements for OLTE and their availability to identify the opportunities of OLTE in Bangladesh. This study adopted the approach of social constructivism for recognizing the efficacy of OLTE for ongoing development. Mixed-methods were used for identifying the English teachers' and the teacher educators' perspectives regarding traditional training system and OLTE. Essentially, the findings suggest that the English teachers face problems in traditional training system due to location, schedule, time limitation and lack of ongoing support; integration of OLTE can help them to attend trainings beyond location and time constraints. Thus, OLTE will allow them to be updated concerning the changes of English language teaching. This study also reflects the current supportive situation for OLTE in Bangladesh and the teachers' enthusiasm to participate in such programme.


A novel microbalance technique has been used to study diffusion and adsorption in a commercial HZSM-5 zeolite. This new technique uses an inertial microbalance TEOM (Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance) to measure mass changes in the zeolite bed. Time resolution as short as 0.1 s, a flow-through design where all the probe molecules see the zeolite bed and high sensitivity allowing zeolite loadings down to a few milligrams are the three most important properties of the TEOM. The probe molecules studied were o-xylene, p-xylene and toluene which were introduced at 303, 373 or 473 K and at partial pressures in the range of 0.2-10 kPa. The inverse characteristic uptakes (D/L2), corrected (D0/L2) and steady-state (Dss/L2) diffusion times are reported. The thermodynamic correction used for D0/L2 calculations almost eliminated the concentration dependence of the diffusivities. The Dss/L2 values were found to be rather unaffected by both temperature (373-473 K) and concentration, suggesting a certain degree of unification for diffusivities. o-Xylene uptake rates in the TEOM were found to be significantly higher than in a gravimetric microbalance under identical conditions, probably as a result of additional mass transfer resistance other than intracrystalline diffusion caused by poor contact between the gas phase and the zeolite in a conventional gravimetric microbalance.


Active leakage power dissipation is considered in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and two "no cost" approaches for active leakage reduction are presented. It is well known that the leakage power consumed by a digital CMOS circuit depends strongly on the state of its inputs. The authors' first leakage reduction technique leverages a fundamental property of basic FPGA logic elements [look-up tables (LUTs)] that allows a logic signal in an FPGA design to be interchanged with its complemented form without any area or delay penalty. This property is applied to select polarities for logic signals so that FPGA hardware structures spend the majority of time in low-leakage states. In an experimental study, active leakage power is optimized in circuits mapped into a state-of-the-art 90-nm commercial FPGA. Results show that the proposed approach reduces active leakage by 25%, on average. The authors' second approach to leakage optimization consists of altering the routing step of the FPGA computer-aided design (CAD) flow to encourage more frequent use of routing resources that have low leakage power consumptions. Such "leakage-aware routing" allows active leakage to be further reduced, without compromising design performance. Combined, the two approaches offer a total active leakage power reduction of 30%, on average.


The aim was to assess costs and cost-effectiveness of additional acupuncture treatment in patients with headache compared with patients receiving routine care alone. A randomized, controlled trial was conducted, including patients (≥18 years old) with primary headache (more than 12 months, at least two headaches/month). Outcome parameters were quality of life (Short Form 36), direct and indirect costs differences during the 3-month study period and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of acupuncture treatment. A total of 3182 patients (1613 acupuncture; 1569 controls) with headache were included (77.4% women, mean age and standard deviation 42.6 ± 12.3; 22.6% men, 47.2 ± 13.4). Over 3 months costs were higher in the acupuncture group compared with the control [€857.47; 95% confidence interval 790.86, 924.07, vs. €527.34 (459.81, 594.88), P < 0.001, mean difference: €330.12 (235.27, 424.98)]. This cost increase was primarily due to costs of acupuncture [€365.64 (362.19, 369.10)]. The ICER was €11 657 per QALY gained. According to international cost-effectiveness threshold values, acupuncture is a cost-effective treatment in patients with primary headache.


This paper presents variable power and rate allocation (PRA) for a multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiple access code division multiplexing (OFDMA-CDM) system which exploits both orthogonality among users and symbol-level diversity. To predict the link performance, we analyze the postprocessing SNR as the transmit power (TP) varies when the minimum mean square error combiner (MMSEC) is employed. It is shown from analysis that the MMSEC SNR is nonlinear in TP, but is bounded by the harmonic and the arithmetic means of the subcarrier SNRs. From the observation, we propose two variable PRA methods using a simple channel quality indication and a required TP estimation method. Simulation results show that the proposed methods not only guarantee the target performance but also increase the throughput at the same or slightly increased feedback overhead compared with the fixed TP allocation case.


The relationship between technological changeand environmental policy has receivedincreasing attention from scholars and policymakers alike over the past ten years. This ispartly because the environmental impacts ofsocial activity are significantly affected bytechnological change, and partly becauseenvironmental policy interventions themselvescreate new constraints and incentives thataffect the process of technologicaldevelopments. Our central purpose in thisarticle is to provide environmental economistswith a useful guide to research ontechnological change and the analytical toolsthat can be used to explore further theinteraction between technology and theenvironment. In Part 1 of the article, weprovide an overview of analytical frameworksfor investigating the economics oftechnological change, highlighting key issuesfor the researcher. In Part 2, we turn ourattention to theoretical analysis of theeffects of environmental policy ontechnological change, and in Part 3, we focuson issues related to the empirical analysis oftechnology innovation and diffusion. Finally,we conclude in Part 4 with some additionalsuggestions for research.


Five programs, i.e. ASTER, GOSAT, GCOM-W1, GPM and ALOS-2 are going on in Japanese Earth Observation programs. ASTER has lost its short wave infrared channels. AMSR-E stopped its operation, but it started its operation from Sep. 2012 with slow rotation speed. It finally stopped on December 2015. GCOM-W1 was launched on 18, May, 2012 and is operating well as well as GOSAT. ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) was successfully launched on 24th Jan. 2006. ALOS carries three instruments, i.e., PRISM (Panchromatic Remote Sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping), AVNIR-2 (Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer), and PALSAR (Phased Array L band Synthetic Aperture Radar). Unfortunately, ALOS has stopped its operation on 22nd, April, 2011 by power loss. GOSAT (Greenhouse Gas Observation Satellite) was successfully launched on 29, January, 2009. GOSAT carries 2 instruments, i.e. a green house gas sensor (TANSO-FTS) and a cloud/aerosol imager (TANSO-CAI). The main sensor is a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) and covers 0.76 to 15 μm region with 0.2 to 0.5 cm-1 resolution. SMILES (Superconducting Millimeter wave Emission Spectrometer) was launched on September 2009 to ISS and started the observation, but stopped its operation on April 2010. GPM (Global Precipitation Mission) core satellite was launched on Feb. 2014. GPM is a joint project with NASA and carries two instruments. JAXA has developed DPR (Dual frequency Precipitation Radar) which is a follow on of PR on TRMM. ALOS F/O satellites are divided into two satellites, i.e. SAR and optical satellites. The first one of ALOS F/O is called ALOS 2 and carries L-band SAR. It was launched on May 2014. JAXA is planning to launch follow on of optical sensors. It is now called Advanced Optical Satellite and the planned launch date is fiscal 2019. Other future satellites are GCOM-C1 (ADEOS-2 follow on), GOSAT-2 and EarthCare. GCOM-C1 will be launched on 2017 and GOSAT-2 will be launched on fiscal 2018. Another project is EarthCare. It is a joint project with ESA and JAXA is going to provide CPR (Cloud Profiling Radar). EarthCare will be launched on 2019.


INTRODUCTION
self-medication and use of several products as peliculicides seem to be common procedures for those persons living with schoolchildren, in order to eliminate head lice.

OBJECTIVE
to analyze the deliberate use of several products by the people living with elementary school children, so as to control their pediculosis capitis.

METHODS
a questionnaire- and exchange of opinion-based survey on the products used to control or eliminate head lice was administered to 896 people who lived with children aged 5 to 10 years. These children studied in 19 elementary schools in urban and suburban areas located in the western, central and eastern provinces of Cuba.

RESULTS
the surveyed population mentioned more than 40 products. Among the most reported substances were alcohol, DDT and lindano which were previously rejected owing to their toxicity and ineffectiveness. There were also reports on products from agricultural, public health and veterinary medicine, including those devoted to plague control such as temephos, steladon, malathion, parathion, baytex; also oil derivatives like brake fluid, kerosene and gasoline.

CONCLUSIONS
the paper mentioned a number of toxic substances used in treating Pediculus capitis in children, the risks of which outweighted the expected benefits. The percentage of persons who manually remove lice from the head as the only treatment is low; however, this is the less harmful and more effective method.


SUMMARY: Four species of the genus Lysobacter, especially L. brunescens and L. gummosus, produced amylase when grown in liquid medium containing starch. The amylase was purified nearly 1200-fold with a 36% yield from the culture supernatant of L. brunescens by ammonium sulphate precipitation, CM-52 cellulose chromatography and gel filtration. An M
r of 47000–49000 was estimated for the enzyme from results of SDS-PAGE and glycerol gradient centrifugation, respectively. Metal ions such as Mg2+, Ca2+, Mn2+ or Zn2+ are not required for activity. The amylase is active from pH 5.0 to 7.5, degrades starch endohydrolytically and has a K
m of 2.08 mg starch ml-1. Amylopectin, amylose and glycogen were also hydrolysed. Dextran, maltose, maltotriose, maltotetraose and 4-nitrophenyl α-d-glucoside were hydrolysed very slowly, or not at all. Other enzymes capable of degrading starch, maltose or malto-oligosaccharides were not detected in the culture supernatant of L. brunescens.


If information technology trends continue and, more importantly, if other countries begin to exploit these trends, the US focus on defeating a cyberwar threat will have to evolve into a focus on defeating a broader information warfare threat. It is far less plausible to imagine a cyber attack campaign unaccompanied by other elements of information warfare—in large part because almost all situations where cyber attacks are useful are those which offer no good reason not to use other elements of information warfare. Thus the various elements of information warfare should increasingly be considered elements of a larger whole rather than separate specialties that individually support kinetic military operations.


Begin in 1971 a new era in the Malaysian development has been started in which the emphasis on national unity became the national agenda. Tun Abdul Razak policy become an important person to bring the development through the New Economy Policy which the last product is unity. The impact of the policy the community has changed from traditional society to a modern society. Emile Durkheim already uses the concept as mechanical solidarity (rural community) and organic solidarity (modern community) to describe the changes. Ferdinand Tonnies described the changes through the concept of Gemeinschaft (community) to Gesellschaft (society). Through changes and modernization, society has changed to a more individualistic but still blend in among them in a new way, through association. In Malaysia, we have a department that manages the unity called the Rukun Tetangga-RT (Neighbourhood Watch). RT is the institution that officially is under the Department of National Unity and Integration (JPNIN). Therefore, RT plays important roles, especially in organizing the community, especially in the state of multicultural society. RT in this study area covers the district of Hulu Langat Selangor, Malaysia. There are seven zones in the district that includes Kajang, Ampang, Cheras, Beranang, Hulu Langat and Semenyih and Bangi. This study uses the questionnaire. This paper attempts to look at social cohesion in the community, especially in the neighborhood of RT in the district. This study has used the concept of social cohesion brought by Jenson (1998) and Paul Bernard (2000). There are six dimensions used to measure social cohesion: Belonging-Isolation, Inclusion-Exclusion, Participation-Non-involvement, Recognition-rejection, Legitimacy-Illegitimacy and Equality-inequality. A total of 588 questionnaires were analyzed. The discussion in this paper try to get feedback and input from presenters and participants of the seminar to improve the research was conducted.


With the sustainable development of China's economy, the engineering consulting industry plays an important role in various types of construction, in particularly in the huge construction projects. The purpose of the paper is to research the innovation of knowledge service for network-based engineering consulting industry. With the method of combining theory with practice and the application of connecting advance with feasibility, the situations and challenges of the network-based engineering consulting industry are introduced in this paper. What is more, the development strategy in the innovation of knowledge service for network-based engineering consulting industry is summed up, which can provide supports to adapt to the new situations for the engineering consulting industry.


ABSTRACT Background: Existing literature suggests that mental health literacy is positively associated with mental health services utilization. Despite an aging population that faces significant mental health concerns in Korea, the role of mental health literacy on mental health services utilization is not known among older adults in Korea. This study aimed to (1) identify whether mental health literacy mediates the association between population characteristics and mental health services utilization and (2) identify an optimal path model for mental health services utilization among Korean older adults. Methods: Using a cross-sectional survey with a quota sampling strategy, we collected and analyzed responses from 596 community-dwelling individuals ages 65 years and older. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to estimate the effect of mental health literacy as a mediator. Results: When controlling for other relevant covariates in the optimal path model, mental health literacy mediated the relationships between three socio-demographic factors (education, general literacy, and health status) and mental health services utilization. The model fit index shows that the SEM fits very well (CFI = 0.92, NFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.07). Conclusions: Efforts to improve mental health literacy through community-based education programs may need to particularly target Korean older adults with the relevant socio-demographic characteristics to enhance their utilization of appropriate mental health services.


Many contemporary climate change and food security initiatives, including climate-smart agriculture (CSA), call for connecting and integrating different government levels, policy domains, and organizations. This boundary-crossing is frequently accompanied by difficulties including turf wars and power struggles, which risk to thwart policy development. Although the literature argues that policy entrepreneurship contributes to the crossing of level, domain, and organizational boundaries, knowledge on these dynamics is fragmented, and insights into entrepreneurial strategies, and how these are embedded in the policymaking context, are limited. Consequently, the aim of this dissertation is to understand how policy entrepreneurship contributes to the crossing of boundaries to achieve CSA. The aim is addressed through three research questions: How and why do policy entrepreneurs cross boundaries for climate-smart agriculture? How does the policymaking context influence cross-boundary policy entrepreneurship for climate-smart agriculture? How can cross-boundary policy entrepreneurship in the policy process for climate-smart agriculture be conceptualized? To understand policy entrepreneurship's contribution to the crossing of boundaries, the dissertation focuses on two case studies of CSA policy development: the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, and the National Climate-Smart Agriculture Strategy in Kenya. These cases have been studied through a mixed-methods research design, including a systematic literature review, congruence analysis, and frame analysis. The dissertation proposes a conceptual framework that describes cross-boundary policy entrepreneurship as a complex set of strategies that interplay with the policymaking context. This strategizing process is characterized by entrepreneurship interpreting and acting upon the policymaking context in order to reconfigure the policy process, with both intended and unintended effects. This is an ongoing process, whereby the dynamic policymaking context requires entrepreneurs to continuously reassess their strategies. The key strategies to cross boundaries include patchwork framing, impartial leadership, and process manipulation. The policymaking context is characterized by differences in interests, ideas, and institutions. Although many strategies can influence the ideas, interests, and institutions in certain levels, domains, and organizations, my findings show that patchwork framing serves mostly to adapting interests, whereas impartial leadership and process manipulation are predominantly linked to altering ideas and institutions, respectively. Through their actions, entrepreneurs are continuously engaged in defining and redrawing boundaries. In order to accommodate different actors entrepreneurs kept the boundaries of CSA consciously vague. Despite various resulting challenges including to work with differing interests, facilitate idea exchange in light of distrust, and face eroding support for initiatives, the entrepreneurs in both the analysed cases managed to realize CSA policy development. This dissertation shows that whereas CSA accommodates the continued existence of differences in ideas and interests and enables the rebranding of existing practices, simultaneously it streamlines discussions and facilitates the creation of new initiatives. However, contrary to the often highlighted notion of CSA as radical transformation, it rather signifies a small but significant reconfiguration of existing policies.


We use quantile treatment effects estimation to examine the consequences of a school voucher experiment across the distribution of student achievement. In 1997, the School Choice Scholarship Foundation granted $1,400 private school vouchers to a randomly-selected group of low-income New York City elementary school students. Prior research indicates that this program had no average effect on student achievement. If vouchers boost achievement at one part of the distribution and hurt achievement at another, zero or small mean effects may obscure theoretically important but offsetting program effects. Drawing upon prior research related to Catholic schools and school choice, we derive three hypotheses regarding the program's distributional consequences. Our analyses suggest that the program had no significant effect at any point in the skill distribution.


This study presents the synthesis of 5,6-fused bicyclic conjugated energetic compounds through a combined strategy of anchoring the catenated nitrogen-atom chain and introducing vicinal C-amino and C-nitro groups into a tetrazolo-pyridazine ring. Their crystal structures were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Both compounds display good thermal stability, high energetic properties and low sensitivities as energetic materials.


Composite axisymmetric shells have numerous applications; many researchers have taken advantage of the general shell element or the semi-analytical formulation to analyze these structures. The present study is devoted to the nonlinear analysis of composite axisymmetric shells by using a 1D three nodded axisymmetric shell element. Both low and higher-order shear deformations are included in the formulation. The displacement field is considered to be nonlinear function of the nodal rotations. This assumption eliminates the restriction of small rotations between two successive increments. Both Total Lagrangian Formulation and Generalized Displacement Control Method are employed for analyzing the shells. Several numerical tests are performed to corroborate the accuracy and efficiency of the suggested approach.


In this paper, the application of high reliability distribution system (HRDS) in the economic operation of a microgrid is studied. HRDS, which offers higher operation reliability and fewer outages in microgrids, is applied to looped networks in distribution systems. The microgrid model in this study is composed of distributed energy resources (DER) including distributed generation (DG), controllable loads, and storage. The microgrid would utilize the local DER as well as the main grid for supplying its hourly load economically which is subject to power quality and reliability requirements. The HRDS implemented at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is used as a case study along with the local DER to increase the load point reliability and decrease the operation cost of the IIT microgrid. The availability of distribution lines, main grid supply, and microgrid generation is considered using the Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation in the microgrid scenarios. The reliability indices based on frequency and duration of outages are measured at the microgrid level and the load point level, and the potential system enhancements are discussed for improving the economic operation of the IIT microgrid.


We analyze the impact of unemployment benefits and minimum wages using an equilibrium search model which allows for dispersion of benefits and productivity levels, job-to-job transitions, and structural and frictional unemployment. The estimation method uses readily available aggregate data on marginal distributions of unemployment durations as well as wages and benefit levels. Different causes of structural and frictional unemployment are investigated. We investigate the efficiency of the imposition of a single benefit level for all household types and the introduction of an Earned Income Tax Credit.


Three-dimensional integration is an emerging fabrication technology that vertically stacks multiple integrated chips. The benefits include an increase in device density; much greater flexibility in routing signals, power, and clock; the ability to integrate disparate technologies; and the potential for new 3D circuit and microarchitecture organizations. This article provides a technical introduction to the technology and its impact on processor design. Although our discussions here primarily focus on high-performance processor design, most of the observations and conclusions apply to other microprocessor market segments.


The current study is an exploratory study into the potential of integrating research on worked examples and physics games. Students were assigned to either a base version of a physics game, called the Fuzzy Chronicles, or assigned to a version of the Fuzzy Chronicles augmented with worked examples. Students in both conditions demonstrated significant gains on the pre-post-test, but students in the base game version dem - onstrated significantly greater gains than the students in the worked example version. The results from the current study reinforce results from other studies by our research group demonstrating how important it is that scaffolds based on multimedia research (a) do not over scaffold the student or promote passive, automatic behaviors, (b) do not excessively detract from the student's gameplay time, and (c) do not disrupt game cognition and flow.


The Port of London Authority (PLA) has for many years maintained a radar station at Warden Point, Isle of Sheppey, on the south side of the Thames Estuary. Until 1991, the station was manned continuously, but at that time, the cliff edge encroached close to the (unmanned) radar building seaward of the main station, and when the radar antennae were moved to a site further inland (but still within the same small compound), the opportunity was taken to convert to wholly unmanned operation and to demolish the existing buildings. The aerial photographs in this photographic feature have been selected from a sortie by Commission Air made on 27 January 2011 at or around low tide, specifically to permit the foreshore and cliffs in the vicinity of Warden Point to be viewed in connection with the PLA's continuing interest in the cliff retreat at this site. These photographs are reproduced by kind permission of the Port of London Authority, who hold the copyright. The radar station is situated close to a small hamlet that is affected by the retreat of the coastal cliffs, having lost its church (St James's) in the 19th century. A pile of rubble on the foreshore may mark the eventual position of its remains.

Figure 1 is a long distance view in a southerly direction from the start of the sequence showing Warden Point. An account of the landslides at this site has been given by Dixon & Bromhead (2002). Outcomes of that research included confirmation that there were low pore water pressures in the clay owing to undrained unloading, and added significantly to the stock of back analysed residual strengths.

Fig. 1.
General aerial view of Warden Point looking in a southerly direction. Figure reproduced with kind permission of Port of London …


We relate the combinatorial definitions of the type $A_n$ and type $C_n$ Stanley symmetric functions, via a combinatorially defined "double Stanley symmetric function," which gives the type $A$ case at $(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{0})$ and gives the type $C$ case at $(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{x})$.  We induce a  type $A$ bicrystal structure on the underlying combinatorial objects of this function which has previously been done in the type $A$ and type $C$ cases.  Next we prove a few statements about the algebraic relationship of these three Stanley symmetric functions. We conclude with some conjectures about what happens when we generalize our constructions to type $C$.


In the frame of shock-induced depoling, PZT 95/5 ferroelectric ceramics with niobium doped has been assembled for the pulsed power supply, and the electrical current output has been investigated under the action of shock wave in a "normal mode". The electrical response of LRC load especially for the small resistance (R) and small inductance (L) load was studied. Plane-shock-wave tests were conducted, and the PZT 95/5 ceramics stacked in parallel were devised to generate high-power electrical pulse. An output current of 7 kA has been obtained, and the corresponding rise time of the front edge is under 500 ns. Theoretical calculations were conducted and a good agreement with the experiment presented.


Adding redundant passive joints to a robotic arm is an effective way to make the robot overcome the inherent incision constraint of minimally invasive surgery (MIS). However, due to the limited motion accuracy, it is difficult to realize full-dimensional intuitive motion based on traditional multi-axis coordinated control technology in this kind of MIS robots. To solve this problem, a separated position and orientation mapping strategy for MIS robot with redundant passive joints is proposed in the paper. The position and orientation mapping of the strategy are realized by coordinate motion control and joint direct control technique, respectively. To realize the intuitive motion under this condition, an inverse motion mapping method is further proposed. Compared with the existing mapping strategy, the proposed strategy is much more compact as the orientation mapping is greatly simplified. A large number of in vivo trials based on the newly developed prototype have been conducted and results fully verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.


Fractures often influence production in hydrocarbon reservoirs, yet the pressure transients observed in the wells might not show the conventional well-test signatures. In this case, the effect of fractures on production would be misinterpreted or even completely missed. The heterogeneous nature of fractured reservoirs makes them difficult to characterize and develop. In addition, the location of a producer within the fracture network also affects the pressure response; however, conventional well-test analysis assumes that the producer is located in symmetrical fracture networks.
 In this paper we investigate the effects of variations in fracture conductivity and location of the producer in the fracture network on the pressure-transient responses. To overcome the limitations of the dual-porosity (DP) model, this study uses a discrete fracture/matrix (DFM) modeling technique and an unstructured-grid reservoir simulator to generate pressure transients in all analyzed fracture networks. Our rigorous and systematic geoengineering work flow enables us to correlate the pressure transients to the known geological features of the simulated reservoir model.
 We observed that the simulated pressure transients vary significantly depending on the location of the producer in the fracture network and the properties of the fractures that the producer intercepts. Our findings enable us to interpret some unconventional features of intersecting fractures with variable conductivity. We observed that the behavior of two intersecting fractures, in which the well asymmetrically intercepts a finite-conductivity fracture, can be similar to that of a well intercepting a fracture in a connected fracture network with uniform fracture conductivity. Furthermore, a well intercepting a finite-conductivity fracture in naturally fractured reservoirs (NFRs) with both finite- and infinite-conductivity fractures would yield a DP response (V-shape) that might otherwise be absent if the fracture network is assumed to have uniform conductivity.


Objective We aimed to compile evidence for the efficacy and safety of therapeutic options for the peripheral arthritis domain of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) for the revised 2021 Group in Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) treatment recommendations. Methods A working group consisting of clinicians and patient research partners was convened. We reviewed the evidence from new randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for PsA treatment from February 19, 2013, to August 28, 2020. We used the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE)-informed approach to derive evidence for the classes of therapeutic options for 3 patient groups: (1) naïve to treatment, (2) inadequate response to conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs), and (3) inadequate response to biologic DMARDs (bDMARDs). Recommendations were derived through consensus meetings. Results The evidence review included 69 RCTs. We derived GRADE evidence for each class of therapeutic options and achieved consensus for the recommendations. For patients naïve to treatment, the working group strongly recommends csDMARDs (methotrexate, sulfasalazine, leflunomide) and phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitors, and emphasizes regular assessment and early escalation to achieve treatment target. bDMARDs (tumor necrosis factor inhibitors [TNFi], interleukin 17 inhibitors [IL-17i], IL-12/23i, IL-23i) and Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi) are also strongly recommended. For patients with inadequate response to csDMARDs, we strongly recommend TNFi, IL-17i, IL-12/23i, IL-23i, and JAKi. For those who had prior experience with bDMARDs, we strongly recommend a second TNFi, IL-17i, IL-23i, and JAKi. The evidence supporting nonpharmacological interventions was very low. An expert panel conditionally recommends adequate physical activity, smoking cessation, and diet to control weight gain. Conclusion Evidence supporting optimal therapy for the peripheral arthritis domain of PsA was compiled for the revised 2021 GRAPPA treatment recommendations.


According to superposition compression arch structure and the interaction mechanical characteristics of cavern rock, based on limit equilibrium theory, set up reliability analysis model of large-span cavern of a high-stress mine. Using FOSM method determines the reliability index of the large-span and high-stress cavern. By the mean and variance calculations of simplistic variations parameters of construction features, geological investigate and rock mechanics of Jinchuan Mine large-span cavern obtains a suitable jinchuan mine's reliability index formula, and calculates the reliability index()of Jinchuan Ⅲ mine crashing cavern, the minimum value of 1.137. On the assumption that random variables of affecting the stability of the crashing cavern obey normal distribution, and the reliability index()and failure probability()have established relationship. According to the standard normal distribution function can be calculated less than the risk probability()of instability of the structure of 5.87%, that is the stability of the cavern is greater than 94.13% reliability to suffice the stability requirements of the cavern.


An Indian Traditional drug 'AKIL' which is of controversial source was taken for analysis. Eight woods which were available in the name of AKIL in market were collected from various places and subjected for standardization studies with the authentic wood. In the present paper some plant metabolites were estimated, TLC and HPTLC profiles for all eight woods and the authentic sample were performed. Further ananticancer marker was extracted from the authentic source. The specific amount of primary and secondary metabolites, the chromatographic finger printings and the chromatogram of the marker isolated for the authentic wood will help to substantiate the original identity from its market adulterants.


One of the investor's aims in investing on emiten is to get a return. To get a stock's return, the loss risks cannot be denied, and it is affected by the stock's price fluctuation that is cannot be determined. However, as the stocks exchange is rapidly developed, it does not mean that the risk limit cannot be decreased. The technical and fundamental analysis have become a solution for the investor to predict the stocks' price. Specifically, this research discusses about the fundamental analysis by appraising the companies' performance which is depicted on the companies' financial report with ratio as a tool to analyze the financial report. By using the financial ratio, it can be seen and it can be an image for the investors about the good and bad images of the companies' condition, so that it would be a basis for the investors for choosing the companies that have a higher return level than the loss risks. The aim of this research are too understand the influences of Return On Assets (ROA), Return On Equity (ROE), Debt to Equity Ratio (DER), Earning Per Share (EPS), and Price Earning Ratio (PER) toward Stock's Return. The population in this research is the companies that are listed on the sub-sectored stocks in property and real estate during the period of 2012-2016. There are 22 companies that are matched with the following criteria as the research's sample. The quantitative analysis use the classic assumptions' test, coefficient correlation determination coefficient, simple regression, double regression, and significances test (uji t and F). The result from this research shows that Return on Assets (ROA) affects the stock's return. Return on Equity (RO) affects the stock's return. Debt to Equity Ratio (DER) is not affected the stock's return. Earning Per Share (EPS) affects the stock's return. Price Earning Ration (PER) affects the stock's return. The dependent variable simultaneously influence the stock's return. As a suggestion, there will be better if a company make a decision to efficient the budget in order to improve the profits, identify and group the assets that either have a potential or not which are used to support the companies' operational procedure and to optimize the modal's using.


A university campus is not only a complex of living, education and auxiliary facilities. It is a certain style of life. It is developed to fulfill a certain task: knowledge preservation and generation. The system of preservation and processing of the society's knowledge has functions similar to the nervous system. The stronger the society's scientific and academic network is, the more intellectual, advanced, diverse and flexible is the society's response to extrinsic stimuli. The nervous system of present day states is similar to the nervous system of insects – with ganglions and different sense organs. A university campus is an elaborate complex of "sense organs" (research laboratories) and "ganglions" (theoretic groups, seminars etc.). The nervous tissue is the most delicate and volatile of all tissues in the organism. Under nutritional deficiency, too strong or too light external effects, the nervous system fails. Its signals malfunction, and either neuralgia or anesthesia occurs. If disorders in the nervous system become more serious, they can lead to a complete paralysis. A university campus is to provide comfortable working conditions for scientists – preservers and generators of knowledge. Comfort is a special thing for them. The level of material needs among campus residents is usually not very high. Their food, clothing and housing requirements are rather modest. Certainly, the sense of security is necessary – any violation in the campus is very painful, like touching a naked nerve. But the most important and vital thing in the campus is a constant and intense flow of all kinds of information. The Internet, libraries, scientific conferences, symposiums and forums are necessary to the campus as the breath of life. It makes dying gasps without it. At the same time, all these "adventures of a thought" are outwardly almost undistinguished. Intensively thinking people look lazy and even inert. A true brainwork is not intension of the Thinker by Roden, but relaxation and meditative calm. (Isn't it the reason why mental workers seem to be idlers in the eyes of administrators?...) In the Late Medieval and Renaissance eras, first universities adopted from monasteries the practice of creating the forms of life comfortable for the society's "nervous system". It is difficult to add something crucially new to this millenarian experience. Therefore, modern campuses (or modern elements of old campuses) are built on the same principles as in the 13th century. Cambridge, one of the oldest university complexes in Europe, can serve as a fine example of an effectively organized campus. Its image is less aristocratic and more applicable than the image of its eternal competitor – Oxford. But they are organized almost equally. Their financial and political independence protects them from economical fluctuations and governmental crises, like a skull protects brain from strokes and cold. The campuses' interior is traditional, comfortable and calm. Their intellectual life is full of intense flows of new knowledge. What is the life like in the Cambridge campus? The article "On the English Land, on Another Planet… Interview with a resident of Cambridge" by Ekaterina Antipina contains an interview from the first person.


This guide supplements instruction provided in the sections of Contemporary Issues in. It contains links to resources demonstrated and mentioned in the instruction session.


PURPOSE
To analyze the impact of learning curve on operating room (OR) times, femtosecond laser times, procedure time (time for laser and non-laser steps combined), and surgical time (procedure time minus transfer and preoperative times) during transition to femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) and comparison with conventional phacoemulsification.

METHODS
In this retrospective, comparative case series, patients undergoing FLACS by an experienced surgeon between November 2012 and June 2014 were reviewed using the Catalys Precision Laser system (Abbott Medical Optics, Santa Ana, CA). The cohort was divided into five sequential groups of roughly equally sized cohorts (n = 33 for groups 1 to 4, n = 34 for group 5) and temporal change in surgical times was compared. For controls, 50 consecutive patients who underwent phacoemulsification concurrently were reviewed.

RESULTS
There were 166 eyes evaluated that underwent FLACS. Femtosecond laser time shortened through the first three groups (group 1: 4.37 minutes vs group 3: 3.37 minutes, P < .05) but plateaued thereafter (group 4: 3:43 minutes, group 5: 3:35 minutes, P > .05). Total FLACS OR time reduced through sequential groups (group 1: 44 minutes vs group 5: 34 minutes, P < .001). Procedure time reduced from 33 (group 1) to 23 (group 5) minutes (P < .001). However, surgical and total OR time for group 5 (0:17 ± 0.02 and 0:34 ± 0:04 minutes, respectively) remained longer than phacoemulsification (0.14 ± 0:04 and 0:29 ± 0:05 minutes, respectively, both P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS
Despite significant reduction in OR times with increasing surgeon experience, FLACS required longer overall procedure times and surgical times compared to phacoemulsification, even when approaching 200 cases. Surgeons and institutions should budget for increased surgical times and associated costs when transitioning to FLACS. [J Refract Surg. 2016;32(5):311-317.].


3 Abstract: If any algorithm has n-shortest path then it has some problem like path similarity among the network expansion and determined path describing turn prohibition. GPS system is an application in the road network field. the meaning of path similarity that is alternative paths derived from k-shortest path algorithm which is connected to lots of links, hence heterogeneity cannot be represented .In road network computing optimal path routes is not easy it's like a showpiece of real world application algorithm. For computing the optimal route in real road network we can use classic solution from the graph theory which is describe by Dijkstra's algorithm. But for the large network this is not suitable algorithm. This works too slow for the large road network. This paper proposed link based shortest path algorithm which find out the different path for travelling for node to node network where turn prohibition exist. In this process there is no need of extra node and edge for expanding the network. Dijkstra's algorithm tested with some example networks then will be expanded to dynamic case.


We have studied diffuse scatterings appearing in Ti-(50-x)Ni-xFe (x = 6, 7, 8, 10) alloy, which shows negative temperature coefficient in electrical resistivity below a temperature Tmin. Electron diffraction pattern of each alloy exhibits diffuse scatterings below Tmin on cooling. The intensity maximum of the diffuse scatterings is located at an incommensurate position of g+, where g represents reciprocal lattice points of the B2-phase. The value ζ is slightly smaller than 1/3 and decreases with increasing Fe content. The diffuse scatterings of the present alloys are well explained by the nesting effect of the Fermi surface in the B2-type structure, i.e., ζ of each alloy agrees with the length of nesting vector in the [110] direction, which is evaluated by a first-principle calculation.


As described recently (Janse et al. 1999; Limnol Oceanogr 44(6):1447-1457), muco- polysaccharides of the marine microalga Phaeocystis can be degraded in enrichment cultures. In this paper we report on the characterization of the microbial community in such enrichments. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles that were obtained during mucopolysaccharide degra- dation showed a substantial number of sequence types, suggesting the occurrence of multiple bacterial species in the enrichments. Only after the rate of mucopolysaccharide degradation had slowed down to less than 5% of its initial value could a significant change in the relative abundance of certain bacterial species in the enrichments be detected. Therefore, degradation of this complex substrate does not seem to require a succession of bacterial populations. Several mucopolysaccharide-degrading enrichments ob- tained by inoculation from different sources (colony mucus, the water column and sediments), and grown under either oxic or anoxic conditions, appeared to contain very different microbial communities with only a few overlapping species. Therefore, the selection pressure imposed by mucopolysaccharides as growth substrates is only one of the factors shaping the species composition in the enrichments. Attempts to isolate pure cultures of bacteria capable of mucopolysaccharide degradation using plating and dilu- tion techniques failed. However, following a new approach which couples community analysis (using DGGE) and the physiological capability of the enrichment to degrade mucopolysaccharides, bacteria involved in the degradation process could be identified. This was based on the correlation between inhibition of mucopolysaccharide degradation and absence of certain bands from DGGE profiles when enrichment cultures were incubated at an elevated temperature. Phylogenetic analysis on clones of DNA fragments that were excised from DGGE gels, placed the putative mucopolysaccharide degraders in the α and γ subdivisions of the Proteobacteria, the Cytophaga-Flexibacter cluster, and the Planctomyces and Verrucomicrobiales clade. These findings directly link representatives of these abundant bacterial clus- ters with the degradation of complex algal polymers in the sea.


The ability to estimate power consumption during early-stage definition and trade-off studies is a key new methodology enhancement. Opportunities for saving power can be exposed via microarchitecture-level modeling, particularly through clock-gating and dynamic adaptation. In this paper we describe the approach of using energy-enabled performance simulators in early design. We examine some of the emerging paradigms in processor design and comment on their inherent power-performance characteristics.


Problem statement: We revealed the reason behind a haptic illusion called the Velvet Hand Illusion (VHI) by FEM analysis. In VHI, a person rubs his/her hands together on both sides of wires strung through a frame and produces the sensation of rubbing a very smooth and soft surface like velvet. We focus on VHI to determine the specifications of an actuator for a tactile display enhanced by VHI. Approach: A simulated fingertip was modeled under the same contact condition that an actual finger was believed to undergo when under VHI. We collected the simulated responses of a number of SAI afferents, which were responsible for detecting the edges, to relate them to the mechanism of the illusion. Results: Even with a simple model that treats only one finger, we noticed a considerable difference between the responses of a number of SAI receptors compared with that of a fingertip touching wires without the effect of the opposing finger. The SAI responses for the VHI case are less (some receptors' response is up to 50% less) than those for a finger touching the wires, which corresponds to a decrease of the perception of the wires. Conclusion/Recommendations: SAI might play a role in the mechanism of the VHI illusion. This study could benefit the development of a haptic display that utilizes the illusion and makes a person experience the same feeling using the proposed display.


According to the previous benchmark, Autodock Vina (Vina) achieved a very high successful-docking rate, p ̂, but give a rather a low correlation coefficient, R, for binding affinity with respect to experiment. This low correlation can be an obstacle for ranking of ligand-binding affinity, which is a main objective of docking simulations. The accuracy of Vina likely depends on the empirical parameters, which include the Gaussian steric interaction, repulsion, hydrophobic, hydrogen bond, and rotation metrics. In this context, we evaluated the dependence of Vina accuracy upon empirical parameters. Although changing of six parameters alters the obtained R values, the gauss2 and rotation terms form more effects. The p ̂ terms are sensitive to the alterations of the gauss1, gauss2, repulsion, and hydrogen bond parameters. Therefore, three sets of empirical parameters were proposed as well as more to modestly focus on R (set1), modestly focus on p ̂ (set3), and keep a tradeoff between R and p ̂. The testing study over 800 complexes indicated that the Vina with proposed sets of parameters can provide more accurate results since forming the larger R value (R_set1=0.556±0.025) compared with the original one (R_Default=0.493±0.028) and Vina version 1.2 (R_(Vina 1.2)=0.503±0.029). Besides, the testing study over 48 biological targets indicated that the modified Vina can be applied more widely compared with the default package. These newly proposed parameters achieved a higher correlation coefficient and reasonable correlation coefficients (R>0.500) for at least 32 targets, whereas the default parameters provided by the original Vina gave only 31 targets with at least 0.500 correlation. In addition, validation calculations for 1315 complexes obtained from the version 2019 of PDBbind refined structures suggested that set1 of parameters are more appropriate than the other parameters (R_set1=0.621±0.016) compared with the default package (R_Default=0.552±0.018) and Vina version 1.2 (R_(Vina 1.2)=0.549±0.017). The version of Vina with set1 of parameters can be downloaded at https://github.com/sontungngo/mvina. The outcomes probably enhance the ranking of ligand-binding affinity using Autodock Vina.


Wave-theory arguments often used to explain colors of thin films are applied to derive simple, physically instructive relations providing a quantitative understanding of transmission spectra of hollow optical waveguides with a complex structure of the cladding. Antiresonant phenomena in complicated optical waveguide systems are shown to weaken the coupling between certain groups of waveguide modes, suggesting ways to substantially reduce optical loss and radically improve the beam quality of radiation transmitted through hollow waveguides. It has been revealed that the presence of a single Fabry–Perot type antiresonant layer in a waveguide cladding considerably lowers the waveguide loss and enhances the suppression of high-order waveguide modes relative to standard, capillary waveguides with a solid cladding. Transmission of optical signals over large distances, however, requires waveguides with a periodically structured antiresonant cladding. The loss in such waveguides exponentially decreases, while the efficiency of high-order mode suppression exponentially increases with the growth in the number of structure periods in the waveguide cladding.


The perfluorinated surfactants perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) are recognized as widespread in the environment as well as recalcitrant toward most conventional water treatment technologies. In this study, acoustic cavitation as driven by high-frequency ultrasound is shown to be effective in the degradation of aqueous solutions of PFOS and PFOA and effective over a wide range of concentrations from 10 nM to 10 muM for a given compound. Sulfur, fluorine, and carbon mass balances indicate that mineralization occurs immediately following the degradation of the initial perfluorinated surfactant. Near complete conversion of PFOS and PFOA to CO, CO2, F-, and SO42- occurs due to pyrolytic reactions at the surface and vapor phase of transiently collapsing cavitation bubbles. The initial PFOS or PFOA pyrolytic degradation occurs at the bubble-water interface and involves the loss of the ionic functional group leading to the formation of the corresponding 1H-fluoroalkane or perfluoroolefin. The fluorochemical intermediates undergo a series of pyrolytic reactions in the bubble vapor leading to C1 fluoro-radicals. Secondary vapor-phase bimolecular reactions coupled with concomitant hydrolysis converts the C1 fluoro-radicals to carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and HF, forming a proton and fluoride upon dissolution. Sonochemical half-lives, which are calculated from high-temperature gas-phase kinetics, are consistent with kinetic observations and suggest that mineralization occurs shortly after initial perfluorinated surfactant interfacial pyrolysis.


BACKGROUND
Renal sympathetic denervation (RSD) is emerging as a new therapeutic option for patients with severe hypertension refractory to medical therapy. The presence of a renal artery stenosis may be both a cause of secondary hypertension and a contraindication to RSD if a renal artery stent is implanted; therefore, the definition of the functional importance of a renal artery stenosis in a patient with refractory hypertension is crucial.

METHODS
We describe the imaging and functional intravascular assessment of an angiographically severe stenosis of the renal artery in a patient with severe refractory hypertension, by means of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), and measurement of the translesional pressure gradient with a pressure wire.

RESULTS
Pressure wire examination excluded any severity of the stenosis, and IVUS showed the presence of a dissected plaque that resolved spontaneously after 3 months of intensive medical therapy and high-dose statin. Subsequently the patient was treated with RSD, achieving a significant effect on blood pressure control.

CONCLUSIONS
Intravascular imaging and functional assessment of renal artery anatomy in patients with atherosclerotic disease may prove particularly suited to patients with refractory hypertension and multilevel vascular disease who are considered for endovascular therapies, either renal artery stenting or RSD.


Research Highlights: The efficacy of planting for restoration is important for ecosystem managers. Planting efforts represent an opportunity for conserving and managing species during a population crisis. Background and Objectives: Federal agencies have been planting whitebark pine (WBP), an important subalpine species that is late to mature and long-lived, for three decades in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). These efforts have been met with varying success, and they have not been evaluated beyond the first five years post-planting. Ecosystem managers will continue to plant WBP in the GYE for years to come, and this research helps to inform and identify higher quality habitat during a period of changing climate and high GYE WBP mortality rates. Materials and Methods: We use a combination of field sampling and a water balance model to investigate local biophysical gradients as explanatory variables for WBP performance at twenty-nine GYE planting sites. Results: We found that the WBP growth rate was positively correlated with actual evapotranspiration (AET) and was greatest when cumulative growing season AET was above 350 mm. Growth rate was not strongly affected by competition at the levels found in this study. However, site density change over time was negatively affected by mean growing season temperature and when more than five competitors were present within 3.59 m radius. Conclusions: If they make it to maturity, trees that are planted this season will not begin to produce cones until the latter half of this century. We recommend planting efforts that optimize AET for growth rate objectives, minimize water deficit (WD) that cause stress and mortality, and removing competitors if they exceed five within a short distance of seedlings.


In a short-term clinical study, 60 insomniac outpatients were randomly assigned to receive either 30 mg of quazepam or placebo orally for five consecutive nights. All measures of sleep quazepam-treated patients had better sleep from the first night of treatment onward. Quazepam is a safe and effective hypnotic agent, and its efficacy is manifested on the first night of administration.


This work investigates the effects of changes in both fishing pressure and the environment on the trophic dynamics, abundance and diversity of species in the artisanal commercial fisheries off the northern coast of Senegal. Using artisanal commercial fishing data (provided by the Centre for Oceanographic Research of Dakar-Thiaroye [CRODT] in Senegal), we identify changes in the catch per unit effort, mean trophic level, biomass trophic spectrum and species diversity between two fishing periods (1990–1999 and 2000–2009). Decreases in mean trophic level, the biomass of high trophic level species and indices of species diversity between 1990 and 2009 were observed in commercial catches. These decreases were then related to changes in fishing pressure, fishing strategy and the combined effects of fishing and environmental factors (as derived from satellite observations). This paper helps to better inform the management of fisheries resources by providing decision makers with more effective biological indicators that incorporate the effects of fishing pressure and environmental change and that are applicable at local, regional and global scales.


The utilization of compost vineyard wastes as suppressive growing media against Fusarium wilt is a good alternative for the disposal and recycling of these organic wastes. Inoculation of biological control agents (BCAs) enhances the biocontrol activity of compost. In this experiment, vineyard compost was sampled at different stages during the composting process, rating the values of acceptability for growing media. Under greenhouse nursery conditions, composts inoculated with Trichoderma harzianum T-78, (Th T-78) gave higher plant fresh weights, as well as lower pathogen incidence and disease severity than treatments with Th T-78 inoculated at muskmelon sowing and non-inoculated composts. Comparing the two composts inoculated with Th T-78 at different stages of the composting process, the one inoculated at the beginning of maturation phase showed lower pathogen incidence and disease severity than the one inoculated at the beginning of the composting process.


The present edition of Panopticon versus New South Wales and other writings on Australia consists of fragmentary comments headed 'New Wales', dating from 1791; a compilation of material sent to William Wilberforce in August 1802; three 'Letters to Lord Pelham' and 'A Plea for the Constitution', written in 1802–3; and 'Colonization Company Proposal', written in August 1831, the majority of which is published here for the first time. These writings, with the exception of 'Colonization Company Proposal', are intimately linked with Bentham's panopticon penitentiary scheme, which he regarded as an immeasurably superior alternative to criminal transportation, the prison hulks, and English gaols in terms of its effectiveness in achieving the ends of punishment. He argued, moreover, that there was no adequate legal basis for the authority exercised by the Governor of New South Wales. In contrast to his opposition to New South Wales, Bentham later composed 'Colonization Company Proposal' in support of a scheme proposed by the National Colonization Society to establish a colony of free settlers in southern Australia. He advocated the 'vicinity-maximizing principle', whereby plots of land would be sold in an orderly fashion radiating from the main settlement, and suggested that, within a few years, the government of the colony should be transformed into a representative democracy.


Many female sex workers begin sex work as mothers, or because they are mothers, and others seek childbearing. Motherhood may influence women's livelihoods as sex workers and their subsequent HIV risks. We used qualitative research methods (30 in-depth interviews and three focus group discussions) and employed Connell's theory of Gender and Power to explore the intersections between motherhood, sex work, and HIV-related risk. Participants were adult women who self-reported exchanging sex for money within the past month and worked in entertainment venues in southern Tanzania. Participants had two children on average, and two-thirds had children at home. Women situated their socially stigmatised work within their respectable identities as mothers caring for their children. Being mothers affected sex workers' negotiating power in complex manners, which led to both reported increases in HIV-related risk behaviours (accepting more clients, accepting more money for no condom, anal sex), and decreases in risk behaviours (using condoms, demanding condom use, testing for HIV). Sex workers/mothers were aware of risks at work, but with children to support, their choices were constrained. Future policies and programming should consider sex workers' financial and practical needs as mothers, including those related to their children such as school fees and childcare.


Lemming population cycles in the Arctic have an important impact on the Arctic food web, indirectly also affecting breeding success in Arctic-nesting birds through shared predators. Over the last two decades lemming cycles have changed in amplitude and even disappeared in parts of the Arctic. To examine the large scale effect of these recent changes we re-analysed published data from the East Atlantic Flyway (EAF), where a relationship between lemming cycles and wader breeding success was earlier found, and new data on breeding success of waders in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF).

We found that 1) any long-term periodicities in wader breeding success existed only until the year 2000 in the EAAF and until the 1980s in the EAF; 2) studying these patterns at a smaller spatial scale, where the Siberian–Alaskan breeding grounds were divided into five geographical units largely based on landscape features, breeding success of waders from the EAAF was not correlated to an index of predation pressure, but positively correlated to Arctic summer temperatures in some species. We argue that fading out of lemming cycles in some parts of the Arctic is responsible for faltering periodicity in wader breeding success along both flyways. These changed conditions have not yet resulted in any marked changing trends in breeding success across years, and declining numbers of waders along the EAAF are therefore more likely a result of changing conditions at stop-over and wintering sites.


Here, we apply aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy to quantify chemical ordering in the relaxor Pb(Mg1∕3Nb2∕3)O3 (PMN). We find that contrary to the prevailing model of a binary distribution of chemically ordered regions within a disordered matrix, the degree of ordering smoothly varies within an ordered domain and approaches a minimum at anti-phase boundaries. These results provide direct insight into the nature of cation ordering in this important prototypical relaxor material.


We develop a multivariate credit risk model for the term structures of sovereign and bank credit default swaps. First, we separate the probability of joint defaults of large Eurozone sovereigns (systemic risk) from that of sovereign-specific defaults (country risk). Then, we quantify individual banks' exposures to each type of sovereign risk, as well as bank-specific credit risk. Banksi?½ sovereign risk exposures vary with banksi?½ size, their holdings of sovereign debt, and expected government support. On average, 45% of French and Spanish banks' credit risk consists in sovereign risk, compared with only 30% for Italian and 23% for German banks. Furthermore, short- to medium-term contracts are particularly informative on sovereign systemic risk.


While the marriage of mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy is not new, developments over the last few years in this relationship have opened up new horizons for the spectroscopic study of biological molecules. The combination of electrospray ionisation for producing large biological molecules in the gas phase together with cooled ion traps and multiple-resonance laser schemes are allowing spectroscopic investigation of individual conformations of peptides with more than a dozen amino acids. Highly resolved infrared spectra of single conformations of such species provide important benchmarks for testing the accuracy of theoretical calculations. This review presents a number of techniques employed in our laboratory and in others for measuring the spectroscopy of cold, gas-phase protonated peptides. We show examples that demonstrate the power of these techniques and evaluate their extension to still larger biological molecules.


The study analyzed effectiveness of e – wallet system of Growth Enhancement Scheme (GESS) distribution among arable crop farmers' in Imo State, South East Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select one hundred and twenty (120) registered Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) farmers. Data for the study were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Probit regression and Z–test analysis). The result revealed that a high proportion (60%) of the respondents were males, with mean ages of 49.8 years, 35.50% acquired secondary education, mean farming experience of 16.50 years, mean farm size and household size of 1.1 hectares and 9.5 persons respectively. Result showed that farmers perceived the scheme was effective ( = 2.0) by enhancing timeliness of notification ( =2.8), increases responsiveness of staff to disburse inputs ( =2.5), effective in notifying clients through SMS and ensures quality to cost effectiveness of inputs, increases responsiveness of GESS staff to certify farmer's notification of inputs and helps in the management of clients and inputs at the redemption centre with mean ratings of 2.1. The result of Probit regression showed that coefficients for availability, quality and cooperation were significant and influenced effectiveness of e – wallet system at 1% and 5% levels of probability respectively in the study area. Location of the redemption centres, bureaucratic bottlenecks, network problems and inadequate farm inputs were challenges encountered by farmers in the scheme. The study therefore recommends formation of cooperatives, easy access to redemption centres and improved telecommunication network to enhance input delivery and effectiveness of the system


A planetary surface's resistance to change is generally described as its "strength" (units of stress). The surface strength of small, rubble-pile asteroids, which consist of fragments of larger bodies that were collisionally disrupted, is poorly constrained due to their wide departure from terrestrial analogs. Here, we report the observation of an ejecta deposit surrounding an impact crater that limits the maximum surface strength of the near-Earth rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu. The presence of this deposit implies that ejecta were mobilized with velocities less than the escape velocity of Bennu, 20 cm/s. Because ejecta velocities increase with surface strength, the ejecta deposit can only be explained if the effective strength of the surface material near the crater is exceedingly low, ≤100 Pa. This is three orders of magnitude below values commonly used for asteroid surfaces, but is supported by previous observations of an artificial impact crater on a similar asteroid, Ryugu. Our findings indicate a mobile surface that has likely been renewed multiple times since Bennu's initial assembly and have far-reaching implications for interpreting observations of Bennu and other rubble piles.


Objective This study investigates the role of age for the prospective association between physical work demands and long-term sickness absence (LTSA). Methods We followed 69 117 employees of the general working population (Work Environment and Health in Denmark study 2012–2018), without LTSA during the past 52 weeks preceding initial interview, for up to 2 years in the Danish Register for Evaluation of Marginalisation. Self-reported physical work demands were based on a combined ergonomic index including seven different types of exposure during the working day. Using weighted Cox regression analyses controlling for years of age, gender, survey year, education, lifestyle, depressive symptoms and psychosocial work factors, we determined the interaction of age with physical work demands for the risk of LTSA. Results During follow-up, 8.4% of the participants developed LTSA. Age and physical work demands interacted (p<0.01). In the fully adjusted model, very high physical work demands were associated with LTSA with HRs of 1.18 (95% CI 0.93 to 1.50), 1.57 (95% CI 1.41 to 1.75) and 2.09 (95% CI 1.81 to 2.41) for 20, 40 and 60 years old (point estimates), respectively. Results remained robust in subgroup analyses including only skilled and unskilled workers and stratified for gender. Conclusion The health consequences of high physical work demands increase with age. Workplaces should consider adapting physical work demands to the capacity of workers in different age groups.


Endometrial stromal tumor (EST) is an uncommon and unusual mesenchymal tumor of the uterus characterized by multicolored histopathological, immunohistochemical, and molecular features. The morphology of ESTs is similar to normal endometrial stromal cells during the proliferative phase of the menstrual cycle. ESTs were first classified into benign and malignant based on the number of mitotic cells. However, recently WHO has divided ESTs into four categories: endometrial stromal nodules (ESN), undifferentiated uterine sarcoma (UUS), low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma (LG-ESS), and high-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma (HG-ESS). HG-ESS is the most malignant of these categories, with poor clinical outcomes compared to other types. With advances in molecular biology, ESTs have been further classified with morphological identification. ESTs, including HG-ESS, is a relatively rare type of cancer, and the therapeutics are not being developed compared to other cancers. However, considering the tumor microenvironment of usual stromal cancers, the advance of immunotherapy shows auspicious outcomes reported in many different stromal tumors and non-identified uterine cancers. These studies show the high possibility of successful immunotherapy in HG-ESS patients in the future. In this review, we are discussing the background of ESTs and the BCOR and the development of HG-ESS by mutations of BCOR or other related genes. Among the gene mutations of HG-ESSs, BCOR shows the most common mutations in different ways. In current tumor therapies, immunotherapy is one of the most effective therapeutic approaches. In order to connect immunotherapy with HG-ESS, the understanding of tumor microenvironment (TME) is required. The TME of HG-ESS shows the mixture of tumor cells, vessels, immune cells and non-malignant stromal cells. Macrophages, neutrophils, dendritic cells and natural killer cells lose their expected functions, but rather show pro-tumoral functions by the matricellular proteins, extracellular matrix and other complicated environment in TME. In order to overcome the current therapeutic limitations of HG-ESS, immunotherapies should be considered in addition to the current surgical strategies. Checkpoint inhibitors, cytokine-based immunotherapies, immune cell therapies are good candidates to be considered as they show promising results in other stromal cancers and uterine cancers, while less studied because of the rarity of ESTs. Based on the advance of knowledge of immune therapies in HG-ESS, the new strategies can also be applied to the current therapies and also in other ESTs.


Latin America, as other regions in the world, imposed mobility restrictions to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Although recent research has analyzed the effect of mobility restrictions on air quality in several regions, a scarce literature explores the causal effects of the lockdowns in Latin America at a city scale whose results may guide local policymaking. This article, based on a quasi-experimental approach, estimates the causal short-term impacts of lockdowns on air quality considering the influence of forest fires on pollution in four megacities in Latin America (Bogotá, Mexico City, Santiago, and Sao Paulo). Results show that nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide consistently declined (from 16% to 68%), nevertheless, fine particles rarely decreased across cities. Only Bogotá exhibited an overall reduction in fine particles (45% for PM2.5). Mexico City obtained the lowest reduction in pollutants, whereas Bogotá outperformed other cities in several pollutants. Evidence from mobility statistics supports the decrease in air pollution by a reduction in driving, transit use, and other mobility indicators.


This paper reviews the origins of organisational economics and critically examines its influence on business-school scholarship and pedagogy in the eighties and nineties and argues three points. First, it is useful to analyse the infiltration of economic ideas about internal organisation of firms into organisational science within the context of the methodology of scientific research programmes. Second, the adoption by management theorists of organisational economics as part of a new science of organisations represented a significant change in research style within business schools and may have contributed to practices that came under heavy criticism in the last decade. Third, the influence of economic ideas on management science represented not only an infusion of methods and models, but an infusion of ideology as well, raising important philosophical questions concerning the development of management science.


The ternary ceramic Ti3AlC2 has an interesting combination of electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. Single crystal elastic constants under the Reuss approximation for the micromechanical state were obtained by analysing the shifts of neutron diffraction peaks while a polycrystalline sample was subjected to a compressive load varying from 5 to 300 MPa. The values of Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio computed from the single crystal compliances are in good agreement with those obtained directly from strain gauges and from the average changes in the a and c unit cell parameters.


Water splitting is a promising technology for sustainable conversion of hydrogen energy. The rational design of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) bifunctional electrocatalysts with superior activity and stability in the same electrolyte is the key to promoting their large‐scale applications. Herein, an ultralow Ru (1.08 wt%) transition metal phosphide on nickel foam (Ru–MnFeP/NF) derived from Prussian blue analogue, that effectively drivies both the OER and the HER in 1 m KOH, is reported. To reach 20 mA cm−2 for OER and 10 mA cm−2 for HER, the Ru–MnFeP/NF electrode only requires overpotentials of 191 and 35 mV, respectively. Such high electrocatalytic activity exceeds most transition metal phosphides for the OER and the HER, and even reaches Pt‐like HER electrocatalytic levels. Accordingly, it significantly accelerates full water splitting at 10 mA cm−2 with 1.470 V, which outperforms that of the integrated RuO2 and Pt/C couple electrode (1.560 V). In addition, the extremely long operational stability (50 h) and the successful demonstration of a solar‐to‐hydrogen generation system through full water splitting provide more flexibility for large‐scale applications of Ru–MnFeP/NF catalysts.


Search Engine Optimisation was a term used by web developers in the late 90s to highlight the importance of increasing a website's position in search engines' results. Further development of the Internet in terms of the diversity of its users and uses such as e-commerce, blogging and wikis have highlighted the need for technical staff to work more closely with marketing professionals resulting in a new area of work – Search Engine Marketing Management.

The paper highlights the emerging role of Search Engine Marketing Management as a new and increasingly important area for future information systems researchers and research. Reaching beyond the 'simple' undifferentiated goal of increasing visitors to a website, a mature perspective of marketing is developing - that of realising strategic marketing objectives. The practical contribution of this paper is found in the development of awareness among management roles of the importance and nuances of search engines and the tactics required to harness the benefits of multiple online communication channels within organisational marketing strategy.


Fabrication and terahertz wave properties of alumina micro photonic crystals with a diamond structure were investigated. The three-dimensional diamond structure was designed on a computer using 3D-CAD software. Acrylic diamond structures with alumina particles dispersion were formed by using micro-stereolithography. Fabricated precursors were dewaxed and sintered in the air. The electromagnetic wave properties were measured by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. A complete photonic band gap was observed at the frequency range from 0.40 to 0.47 THz, and showed good agreement with the simulation results calculated by the plane wave expansion method. Moreover, a localized mode was obtained by introducing a plane defect between twinned diamond structures. The one-way transmission of the electromagnetic wave was realized by using this twinned photonic crystal with the graded diamond structure. They corresponded to the simulation by the transmission line modeling (TLM) method.


Metrics is the process by which numbers or symbols are assigned to attributes of entities in the real world in such a way as to describe them according to clearly defined rules. Software metrics are instruments or ways to measuring all the aspect of software product. These metrics are used throughout a software project to assist in estimation, quality control, productivity assessment, and project control. Object oriented software metrics focus on measurements that are applied to the class and other characteristics. These measurements convey the software engineer to the behavior of the software and how changes can be made that will reduce complexity and improve the continuing capability of the software. Object oriented software metric can be classified in two types static and dynamic. Static metrics are concerned with all the aspects of measuring by static analysis of software and dynamic metrics are concerned with all the measuring aspect of the software at run time. Major work done before, was focusing on static metric. Also some work has been done in the field of dynamic nature of the software measurements. But research in this area is demanding for more work. In this paper we give a set of dynamic metrics specifically for polymorphism in object oriented system. Keywords—Metrics, Software, Quality, Object oriented system, Polymorphism.


In this paper, we describe the size reduction and phosphorus doping of silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) fabricated using a very high frequency (VHF) plasma deposition system. The size reduction of SiNCs is achieved by changing the VHF plasma power. The size of SiNCs changes from 10 to 5 nm. We discuss the relationship between VHF plasma power and the size of SiNCs in terms of radicals in the VHF plasma, such as SiH3, SiH2, SiH, and H. On the other hand, we have fabricated phosphorus-doped SiNCs by adding PH3 gas diluted with Ar gas. To confirm where phosphorus atoms are located, electrically detected magnetic resonance (EDMR) measurements are conducted. We have observed a hyperfine interaction between unpaired electrons and phosphorus atoms and enhanced hyperfine splitting owing to a quantum size effect. As a result, we can conclude that phosphorus atoms exist at substitutional sites of SiNCs and they act as donors.


FICTION has never been "original." It is not in its nature to be so. But as that fact became apparent at least some two hundred years ago it seems a trifle unnecessary to dwell upon it. The dreadful thing is that, like the other arts, fiction now finds itself at the edge of the world of invention, staring into an abyss of nothingness, a Ginungagap of emptiness. It can conceive no new situations or conditions, mental or spiritual, its inventive powers are bankrupt, its fashions and expressions of dialogue are fast becoming matter for public jape, food for the flighty interludes of the wisecracker and the Smart Aleck. Its general aspect has become fantastic because of an obliquity to the life‐plane, a tilt almost as extreme as that exhibited by recent painting or music. Its folk are often monstrous and as unrelated to the actualities of existence as the shapes of nightmare. In short, it is the workshop of a guild or trade caste. And just because man is what he is, castes are the worst enemies of Art, and when, by accident or misfortune, they succeed to its functions and become its "bureaucrats," Art is in mortal peril.


A novel hydroxyapatite/chitosan composite plate enhanced by polylactic acid fiber is prepared via in–situ hybridization in the semipermeable mold. The influence factors of the composites are evaluated by orthogonal test; FT–IR, XRD and SEM are also used to determine the relevance between the composition and performance. Analyses show that: hydroxyapatite with weak crystalline state is generated in the composites; there is hydrogen bonding associating existing in the complex system; preferable interface junction is created between the fiber and hydroxyapatite /chitosan matrix, which is able to play benign potentiation to the mechanical strength. Orthogonal test finds that the pecking order of the influencing factors to physical properties is: fiber content > fiber length > hydroxyapatite content. HA/CS composite plate enhanced by PLA–fiber can get a significantly increase on flexural strength and bending modulus, therefore, it will be a kind of potential orthopaedic materials which possesses the ability of completely degraded.


The generalized optical interference model for interfacial contributions to vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopic signals from organic thin film systems is extended to include a description of optical interferences contained in the thin film bulk response. This is based on electric quadrupolar interactions with the input fields and includes a discussion on possible contribution from the electric quadrupolar polarization. VSFG data from the first of this two part report are analyzed and include effects from higher order responses, for both bulk and higher order interfacial terms. The results indicate that although it is capable of capturing many of the data features, the electric dipole treatment is likely not a complete description of the VSFG intensity data from this system. An analysis based on the signs of the resulting response amplitudes is used to deduce the relative magnitude of the electric dipole and higher order interfacial terms. It is found that the buried interface is closer to satisfying the electric dipole approximation, consistent with smaller field gradients due to closer index matching between the organic thin film and substrate relative to air. The procedure outlined in this work allows for the difficult task of deducing a physical picture of average molecular orientation at the buried interface of a multilayer organic thin film system while including higher order effects.


Permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) for rope-less hoist system, which has the advantages of simple structure, small volume, high force, unlimited hoisting height and speed, is a research focus and difficulties in the vertical hoist field. In this paper, according to the key technical problems of PMLSM for rope-less hoist system, a design scheme of direct driving high-speed elevator is proposed, and then a small-sized home elevator prototype drove by PMLSM is built. Experimental results show the safe and stable operation performance of the experimental device, with good prospects for the development and application of PMLSM rope-less hoist system.


Changes in the occupational structure and political economy of advanced capitalism, explained in Daniel Oesch's chapter in this volume, and related shifts in the formation of political mass preferences, examined by Silja Hausermann and Hanspeter Kriesi in the subsequent chapter, are consequential for political partisan alignments, the subject of this chapter. As previously small occupational groups with distinct political preference profiles gained numerical weight in the electorate, particularly highly educated sociocultural professionals, established party families saw their vote shares decline, unless they modified their programmatic appeals. Established parties with new strategies or new party creations went on to capture novel voter coalitions, a process that has played out in cross-nationally diverse ways. Shifts in electoral partisan coalitions coincided with (1) a steep decline in party membership; (2) a moderate to sharp increase in electoral volatility signaling the availability of more voters to competing party appeals; (3) a decline in voter turnout, as people no longer acted simply on parental party identifications or associational ties; and (4) a corresponding rise of nonpartisan social movements and interest groups. At least three rival theoretical arguments have claimed to make sense of party system change in postindustrial democracies, all consistent with these basic facts: the postindustrial realignment; the postindustrial dealignment; and the cartel party detachment perspectives. Examining empirical trends over time and cross-national variance among party systems, we conclude that a political realignment perspective explains observable patterns best. Three Perspectives on Postindustrial Political Alignments The disagreements on political alignments concern facts about the nature of citizen-politician linkages and causal mechanisms that produce them in postindustrial democracies. There are three prominent perspectives on this topic: • Postindustrial Realignment (PiR): Voters continue to coalesce around parties on the basis of durable socioeconomic interests and policy preferences, but since political-economic postindustrialization, highlighted by changing occupational profiles, has changed the distribution of preferences, established parties have been compelled to alter their appeals or tolerate the electoral success of new parties that represent voter preferences ignored by established alternatives. […]


We study quantum frequency estimation for N qubits subjected to independent Markovian noise, via strategies based on time-continuous monitoring of the environment. Both physical intuition and an extended convexity property of the quantum Fisher information (QFI) suggest that these strategies are more effective than the standard ones based on the measurement of the unconditional state after the noisy evolution. Here we focus on initial GHZ states and on parallel or transverse noise. For parallel noise, i.e. dephasing, we show that perfectly efficient time-continuous photo-detection allows to recover the unitary (noiseless) QFI, and thus to obtain a Heisenberg scaling for every value of the monitoring time. For finite detection efficiency, one falls back to the noisy standard quantum limit scaling, but with a constant enhancement due to an effective reduced dephasing. Also in the transverse noise case we obtain that the Heisenberg scaling is recovered for perfectly efficient detectors, and we find that both homodyne and photo-detection based strategies are optimal. For finite detectors efficiency, our numerical simulations show that, as expected, an enhancement can be observed, but we cannot give any conclusive statement regarding the scaling. We finally describe in detail the stable and compact numerical algorithm that we have developed in order to evaluate the precision of such time-continuous estimation strategies, and that may find application in other quantum metrology schemes.