CHINESE FACE/OFF: THE TRANSNATIONAL POPULAR CULTURE OF HONG KONG Kwai-Cheung Lo. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005, 253 pp. For most nonresidents, Hong Kong has always been the most visible face of China, second only to the US in film exports. Westerners have both enjoyed and been puzzled by Hong Kong popular culture as it is seen in films. In Chinese Face/Off, Lo attempts not so much to explain as to place this popular culture in its proper multicultural perspective. Dissociated from China for one hundred fifty years, Hong Kong developed a culture that, while still Chinese, is unique to itself yet staunchly international. Lo argues that this Hong Kong is searching for a new identity while holding on to the traditional and standing as an example to mainland China. Yet he also argues that the traditional "Chineseness" of Hong Kong is a myth held on to by mainlanders as they see the stability of their own culture change and grow, and, to some extent, disappear. He delves into the reality of this struggle by examining the fantasies and realities as well as the meanings and sources of Hong Kong's popular culture. In the first of the book's three parts, Lo focuses on the print culture of Hong Kong and how it has influenced popular culture and the use of language. He focuses on how Hong Kong popular newspapers, a significant element of residents' daily lives, have changed from literate and literary to visual and graphic, from emphasizing reason to emphasizing sensation and feeling; in particular, he looks at how this shift is reflected in the ever-increasing number and diversity of newspaper "columns," most of which are incomprehensible to non-Chinese speakers or nonresidents. These columns contain immediate discussions of happenings in the daily life of Hong Kong, as well as shameless gossip mongering. Lo's analysis of these columns as a kind of community conscience could just as easily apply to Western media, with their almost obsessive focus on the spectacular, the frightening, and the titillating. The book's second part examines how subtitling in Hong Kong films represents not only a forming cultural identity but also a split in the national forms of speech, a split that defies easy explanation. Lo looks at the power struggles between languages and the tension between voice and script, dialect and language. While most films are made in Mandarin, most Hong Kong residents don't speak Mandarin, nor do most mainlanders; thus a "national" language seems to be in formation, with films subtitled in this national language for most viewers. Lo also argues that English subtitles are deliberately made bad and humorous, as this increases the enjoyment of Western audiences. Some badly subtitled films are elevated to cult status as a direct result of what appears to be inadvertently comic mistranslation. One could wish he had spent a bit more time examining the unique and often misunderstood Chinese sense of humor seen in Hong Kong films-a humor Western audiences often don't comprehend. …


The present communication reports a scientific investigation of a simple and versatile synthetic route for the synthesis of palladium nanoparticles decorated with copper oxide and supported on reduced graphene oxide (rGO). They are used as a highly active catalyst of Suzuki, Heck, and Sonogashira cross coupling reactions with a remarkable turnover number of 7000 and a turnover frequency of 85000 h-1. The Pd-CuO nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (Pd-CuO/rGO) exhibit an outstanding performance through a high catalytic activity towards cross coupling reactions. A simple, reproducible, and reliable method is used to prepare this efficient catalyst using microwave irradiation synthetic conditions. The synthesis approach requires a simultaneous reduction of palladium and copper nitrates in presence of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets using hydrazine hydrate as a strong reducing agent. The highly active and recyclable catalyst has many advantages including mild reaction conditions and short reaction durations in an environmentally benign solvent system. Moreover, the catalyst prepared can be recycled for up to five times with nearly identical high catalytic activity. Furthermore, the high catalytic activity and the recyclability of the catalyst prepared are due to the strong catalyst-support interaction. The defect sites of the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) act as nucleation centers that enable anchoring of both Pd and CuO nanoparticles and hence, minimize the possibility of agglomeration which leads to a severe decrease of the catalytic activity.


Objective The validated Predicting Abusive Head Trauma (PredAHT) clinical prediction tool calculates the probability of abusive head trauma (AHT) in children <3 years of age who have sustained intracranial injuries (ICIs) identified on neuroimaging, based on combinations of six clinical features: head/neck bruising, seizures, apnoea, rib fracture, long bone fracture and retinal haemorrhages. PredAHT version 2 enables a probability calculation when information regarding any of the six features is absent. We aimed to externally validate PredAHT-2 in an Australian/New Zealand population. Methods This is a secondary analysis of a prospective multicentre study of paediatric head injuries conducted between April 2011 and November 2014. We extracted data on patients with possible AHT at five tertiary paediatric centres and included all children <3 years of age admitted to hospital who had sustained ICI identified on neuroimaging. We assigned cases as positive for AHT, negative for AHT or having indeterminate outcome following multidisciplinary review. The estimated probability of AHT for each case was calculated using PredAHT-2, blinded to outcome. Tool performance measures were calculated, with 95% CIs. Results Of 87 ICI cases, 27 (31%) were positive for AHT; 45 (52%) were negative for AHT and 15 (17%) had indeterminate outcome. Using a probability cut-off of 50%, excluding indeterminate cases, PredAHT-2 had a sensitivity of 74% (95% CI 54% t o89%) and a specificity of 87% (95% CI 73% to 95%) for AHT. Positive predictive value was 77% (95% CI 56% to 91%), negative predictive value was 85% (95% CI 71% to 94%) and the area under the curve was 0.80 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.92). Conclusion PredAHT-2 demonstrated reasonably high point sensitivity and specificity when externally validated in an Australian/New Zealand population. Performance was similar to that in the original validation study. Trial registration number ACTRN12614000463673.


The effect of using a shaped or transparent cathode to enhance key performance parameters in the Michigan magnetron, such as output power, power efficiency, and mode purity, was examined using a massively parallel electromagnetic particle-in-cell code improved concurrent electromagnetic particle-in-cell. In simulations, we saw a dramatic increase in the range of magnetic field and input voltage over which the magnetron functions, an increase in output power, an increase in efficiency, an elimination of mode competition, and immediate start-up for both the shaped and transparent cathodes relative to the standard cathode. These simulations also revealed that the mechanism that is responsible for the improved performance that accompanies the transparent cathode may not be RF-azimuthal-field penetration but rather perturbations in the "dc" field resulting from the design of the novel cathodes themselves.


From 1992 on the K-Pop culture has spread from South Korea all over the world and Thailand is no exception. The objective of this study was to analyze the variables that influence purchasing intentions of K-Pop fans in Thailand in terms of customer expectations, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and customer brand loyalty. The four hundred thirty-one Thai respondents provided great insights into the purchasing intentions of Thai K-Pop fans in terms of theoretical and practical applications. Overall, the customers were very satisfied with the artists and exhibited a high brand loyalty to the products endorsed by the K-Pop groups. The Korean performers met the expectations of their followers which also let them to be loyal to their favorite boy or girl group. Understanding Thai Korean Pop music fans and their purchasing behavior helps the artist to capitalize on their influence through product endorsement and advertisement contracts which in turn are based on ratings of the artists in the before mentioned categories. It is hoped to replicate this study in the future in other ASEAN countries and other parts of the world.


A case is made for active evaluation of the finished product by the end-users, where studies of an experimental nature are carried out in order to collect information from the end-users about the product after release. Rubin (1994) viewed these studies as primarily for the collection of data for the next product release, and stated that follow-up studies are probably the most accurate appraisals of usability. It is not intended that an active evaluative process should replace either preceding user involvement in earlier stages of the life cycle or existing passive evaluation by end-users, but rather be viewed as an additional activity. Although reference is made to a specific experimental study, it is not the intention of the paper to propose a particular end-user methodology for active evaluation, but to pass on some generic conclusions which could be drawn from this work.


Sources of economic growth can be explained both from supply-side and demand-side. Supplyside explanation, firstly, calculates contribution of input growth to output growth, and then remaining part of the output growth is admitted as growth rate of technology. Similarly, after calculating contributions of domestic demand and foreign demand, growth rate of technology which is motivated by domestic and foreign demand growth can be calculated. In this study, sources of growth from demand-side are calculated for China for 1972 and 2012. According to the results, growth is completely stemmed from domestic demand growth and technological progress, which is motivated by domestic demand. Since economic growth is motivated by domestic demand, then, macroeconomic policy should focus on domestic demand.


To facilitate progressive failure structural simulation of short fiber filled injection molded parts, Autodesk has developed multiscale modeling methodology and software to seamlessly link the results of injection molding simulation with subsequent nonlinear multiscale structural response simulation. The key features of the methodology include: 1) Automated mapping of the predicted fiber orientation distribution onto the finite element mesh that will be used for the nonlinear structural response simulation, 2) Enhancement of the structural response simulation with a multiscale, progressive failure, constitutive model for short fiber filled plastic materials that accounts for plasticity and rupture of the matrix constituent material, resulting in a composite material that exhibits an anisotropic, nonlinear response, and 3) A robust, automated material characterization process that uses a minimal amount of simple tensile test data from the short fiber filled plastic material to fit the parameters of the multiscale, progressive failure, constitutive model. Recently, this multiscale modeling methodology has been improved to accurately capture the peak load for different load angles relative to the flow direction of the injection molded plaque in uniaxial experiments. To accurately resolve the uniaxial response at different load angles of short fiber filled injection molded parts, two different enhancements are required. First, the material characterization process must be enhanced to consider the actual predicted distribution of fiber orientation over the test specimens used for characterization. This enhancement is necessary because, the material stresses predicted by the model are sensitive to fiber orientation tensor which varies significantly through the thickness of the injection molded plaque. In addition, the basic multiscale material model must be enhanced by improving the failure criterion used to predict rupture of the short fiber plastic. Finally the improvements are compared against biaxial coupon results for different load ratios in tension.


To determine whether signaling through TNF and/or nuclear factor-kappaB contributes to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced activation of type 2 iodothyronine deiodinase (D2) in tanycytes lining the floor and infralateral walls of the third ventricle, the effect of a TNF antagonist on D2 gene expression and LPS-induced Ikappa-Balpha expression in tanycytes were studied. Animals treated with soluble, rat, polyethylene glycol-conjugated TNF receptor type 1 (4 mg/kg body weight) before a single ip injection of LPS showed a significant reduction in circulating IL-6 levels but no effect on LPS-induced D2 mRNA in the majority of tanycytes with the exception of a subpopulation of alpha tanycytes in the wall of the third ventricle. LPS induced a rapid increase in Ikappa-Balpha mRNA in the pars tuberalis and a delayed response in alpha tanycytes but absent in all other tanycyte subsets. The LPS-induced increase in Ikappa-Balpha in the pars tuberalis was associated with increased TSHbeta gene expression in this tissue, but cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation was observed only in a subset of alpha tanycytes. These data suggest that TNF and nuclear factor-kappaB signaling are not the primary, initiating mechanisms mediating the LPS-induced D2 response in tanycytes, but may contribute in part to sustaining the LPS-induced D2 response in a subset of alpha tanycytes. We hypothesize that in addition to TSH, other factors derived from the pars tuberalis may contribute to LPS-induced D2 activation in tanycytes.


The behavior of Mesamphiagrion laterale (Selys, 1876) is described based upon 2430 hours of observation. A total of 2820 individuals were observed for 270 days from 2014 to 2015 using mark-recapture. Probabilities of resight, highest reproductive activity, time-perch and time of perch-temperature were statistically analyzed. Mesamphiagrion laterale is not a territorial species, the individuals perch on grass, trees, garbage, ground, and rocks, they feed on hemipterans, mosquitoes, spiders and other damselflies, and are prey to spiders and birds. Conspecific siege and interspecific interactions by perch were observed. No courtship was observed. During tandem, which lasted for 3–90 min, the ventral side of the male's abdominal segment 2 was in contact with the female's abdominal segments 8–10 until a wheel was formed. We observed three tandem pair combinations: sexually mature males and females, immature males with mature females, and immature males and females. While copulation lasted from 7 to 20 min, oviposition lasted from 12 to 15 min. Irrespective of male presence, oviposition occurred in submerged or emerged areas of Eichornia crassipes. We recorded the highest reproductive activity between 12:00 and 12:35 (Colombia Time-COT, UTC-5). Above 20°C, a larger perching area close to the water allows more reproductive events. However, a more extensive canopy cover impedes achieving optimal reproductive temperatures. Species interactions within this community may be explained by temporal and spatial niche partitioning.


Summary

Four different chemical treatments, GA3, 1-MCP, essential oils and nano-Cu, were applied immediately after harvest to Petroselinum crispum (Mill) plants. The efficacy of the above chemicals on shelf life extension of parsley stored at 5 °C and 20 °C was determined by analysing physiological and biochemical factors that determine quality standards of storage fresh parsley. Nonsprayed parsley revealed the highest loss of weight, ascorbic acid, pigments and an enhancement of CO2 production and lipid peroxidation at 5 °C and 20 °C of storage. Nano-Cu was more effective for delaying weight loss and revealed a better storage capacity. GA3, 1-MCP and essential oils sprays were more effective in ascorbic acid retention at 20 °C than at 5 °C, whereas all substances protect samples from lipid peroxidation. Essential oils were more clearly inhibitory towards both total viable counts and yeast infection. Our results suggest that GA3, 1-MCP, essential oils and Nano-Cu exert their function through different mechanisms during ripening and could provide an effective and complementary means for maintaining high-quality parsley leaves after harvest.


In this paper, energy absorption characteristics of PVB laminated windshield subject to human head impact are studied. SHPB method is carried out to obtain the constitutive relationships of PVB laminated glass in dynamic behavior. With the SHPB results embedded, finite element simulation is used to study the dynamic behavior of PVB laminated windshield. In particular, energy absorption characteristics are investigated. Two parameters for measuring the energy absorption property of windshield are suggested, i.e. loss of head velocity and HIC value and a parametric study is carried out to see the effect of impact velocity and impact position. Results can shed lights on the research of energy absorption capability of PVB laminated windshield.


A climate network of six climate indices of the North Pacific air-sea system is constructed during the period of 1948-2009.In order to find out the inherent relationship between the intrinsic mechanism of climate index network and the important climate shift,the synchronization behaviour and the coupling behaviour of these indices are investigated.Results indicate that climate network synchronization happened around the beginning of the 1960s,in the middle of the 1970s and at the beginnings of the 1990s and the 2000s separately.These synchronization states were always followed by the decrease of the coupling coefficient.Each synchronization of the network was well associated with the abrupt phase or trend changes of annually accumulated abnormal values of North Pacific sea-surface temperature and 500-hPa height,among which the one that happened in the middle of the 1970s is the most noticeable climate shift.We can also obtain this mysterious shift from the first mode of the empirical orthogonal function of six indices.That is to say,abrupt climate shift in North Pacific air-sea system is not only shown by the phase or trend changes of climate indices,but also might be indicated by the synchronizing and the coupling of climate indices.Furthermore,at the turning point of 1975,there are also abrupt correlation changes in the yearly mode of spatial degree distribution of the sea surface temperature and 500-hPa height in the region of the North Pacific,which further proves the probability of climate index synchronization and coupling shift in air-sea systems.


Transferability estimation has been an essential tool in selecting a pre-trained model and the layers in it for transfer learning, to transfer, so as to maximize the performance on a target task and prevent negative transfer. Existing estimation algorithms either require intensive training on target tasks or have difficulties in evaluating the transferability between layers. To this end, we propose a simple, efficient, and effective transferability measure named TransRate. Through a single pass over examples of a target task, TransRate measures the transferability as the mutual information between features of target examples extracted by a pre-trained model and their labels. We overcome the challenge of efficient mutual information estimation by resorting to coding rate that serves as an effective alternative to entropy. From the perspective of feature representation, the resulting TransRate evaluates both completeness (whether features contain sufficient information of a target task) and compactness (whether features of each class are compact enough for good generalization) of pre-trained features. Theoretically, we have analyzed the close connection of TransRate to the performance after transfer learning. Despite its extraordinary simplicity in 10 lines of codes, TransRate performs remarkably well in extensive evaluations on 32 pre-trained models and 16 downstream tasks.


SIR,-I suppose that according to Moss and Calam's criteria (Gut 1992; 33: 289-92) I should be called 'perverse,' yet I find it difficult to totally accept the concept that eradication of Helicobacter pylori is pivotal in preventing duodenal ulcer recurrence. In particular, the apparent parallelism between the lower relapse rate of ulcers treated with colloidal bismuth subcitrate and the antibacterial activity of the drug does need to be accepted with caution. First of all colloidal bismuth subcitrate alone does not eradicateH pylori but only suppresses temporarily the microorganism and within one month only 10 per cent of subjects remain free ofH pylori.' The reduction in the rate of ulcer recurrences, if related to the disappearance of H pylori, should be limited to early relapses occurring during the first month after colloidal bismuth subcitrate withdrawal. On the contrary, follow up studies carried out over 12 months show that colloidal bismuth subscitrate healed ulcers remain in remission to a greater extent than those healed with H2 blockers throughout the observation period.2 Furthermore, if more than 70% of relapsing ulcers are H pylori positive, on the other hand 75% of Helicobacter-positive duodenal ulcers do not relapse.3 Thus other factors must explain the longer remission of colloidal bismuth subcitrate healed ulcers. A decrease in the rate of duodenal ulcer recurrence after treatment is discontinued has been seen also in patients healed with sucralfate, an anti-ulcer agent devoid of any effect on H pylon. Although evidence is conflicting, an analysis of pooled data from the literature shows that duodenal ulcers healed with sucralfate stay healed significantly longer than those initially treated with cimetidine or ranitidine.4 Therefore, as already suggested by us,' and by others67 it would seem that treating ulcers with drugs strengthening mucosal defences (irrespective of which gastroprotective drug is used and regardless of H pylon) results in longer lasting healing than after treatment with gastric acid inhibitors. M GUSLANDI Gastroenterology Unit, S Raffaele Hospital, Via Olgettina 6


Diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) (DBM) is a major pest of forage brassica crops in New Zealand. This study evaluated the effects of DBM larval feeding on three forage brassica crops in a greenhouse experiment. DBM eggs in batches of 5, 10 or 50 were placed on 6-week-old potted kale, rape and turnip plants. Plant growth and development (main stem diameter, plant height, total number of stems and leaves, and dry matter weight of roots and foliage (including stems)) were measured at harvest. Additionally, the number of pupae recovered was recorded. None of the measurements of plant growth was influenced (P>0.05) by DBM egg density. Percentage pupal recovery was consistent between treatments. Larger DBM population sizes may have been required to show an effect on plant growth. Implications of these results for DBM pest management are discussed.


Turning is a very complicated technological process. To increase the quality of the product and minimize the cost of turning, we should know the physical phenomena that exist during the process. In some of the literature the thermo-mechanical models and other dependencies between the shape of the tool and the shape of the chip are presented. This paper is a continuation of previous issues and focuses on proper determination of active cutter geometry. A new method of determination of tool rake angle  in two steps is presented. In the first step the basic angle  is determined on the basis of the crack angle of the specimen in a tensile test. In the second step the optimal angle  is determined using numerical simulations. The influence of the cutter geometry in the active part and the tool rake angle  on the states of strain and stress in the surface layer during turning is explained. The phenomena on a typical incremental step were described using a step-by-step incremental procedure, with an updated Lagrangian formulation. The turning process is considered as a geometrical and physical non-linear initial and boundary problem. The finite element method (FEM) and the dynamic explicit method (DEM) were used to obtain the solution. The application was developed in the ANSYS/LS-DYNA system, which makes possible a complex time analysis of the physical phenomena: states of displacements, strains and stresses. Numerical computations of the strain have been conducted with the use of methodology, which requires a proper definition of the contact zone, without the necessity to introduce boundary conditions. Examples of calculations are presented.


Building an enabling scientific community of educated or professional people is a growing focus for many American cities. The retention of home-grown graduates increases the intellectual capacity in a region. Arising from technology-driven accelerated growth, the geographical mobility of young skilled workers has become a key issue in recent studies, attracting the attention of both academics and policymakers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence the retention or draining of graduates from a mid-sized higher education instruction's Child and Youth Studies (CYS), an innovative transformational educational program. The program is focused on developing a socially entrepreneurial mindset on the part of the learner. The study is also aimed at identifying how urban areas in southwest Florida would work toward retaining a large pool of young innovative graduates and enjoy the benefits of smart growth. The data for the study was collected by sending out a survey to 115 current students or those who are about to graduate. The selected 50 (43.5%) participated in the study by completing the survey. The data was analyzed using several descriptive statistics. Several retention factors were identified. They included socio-economic and recreational factors. The research found that the majority of the graduates left not just because it was not easy to find competitive-paying jobs in the region but rather because of lack of awareness of the availability. Other significant factors included inadequate housing, lack of support for their entrepreneurial incubators, and poor public transport. It was also evident that a large number of potential local employers were not aware of the benefits of hiring the CYS graduates. Greater involvement of college students and recent graduates in the community projects would increase retention. It is proposed that each of the SW Florida cities should develop policies that will make them more attractive to the graduates. They should also identify ways of increasing awareness of opportunities available for the graduates in the region. 10.46303/jcve.2020.5 Journal of Culture and Values in Education Volume 4 Issue 1, 2021 Ndiangui, P. (2021). From Brain Drain to Brain Gain: The Battle Against Talent Drain Journal of Culture and Values in Education 2021 E-ISSN: 2590-342X https://cultureandvalues.org 35


Theoretical and experimental support is presented for the hypothesis that many organic compounds may form under conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium. This possibility must be considered along with special effects of selective catalysts, radiation, and degradation from biological matter, in explaining the origin of organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites. Similar considerations may apply to solar nebulas and planetary atmospheres. The equilibrium distribution of organic compounds at temperatures between 300�K and 1000�K and pressures of 10-6 to 50 atm for the C—H—O system have been computed. At moderate temperatures and low pressures, conditions where graphite production is inhibited, aromatic compounds may form even in the presence of large excesses of hydrogen. Such conditions exist in the solar nebula and in the atmospheres of some of the major planets. Equilibrium concentrations of a large number of compounds at 1000�K with nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine added to the system have also been determined. In some cases, a limited equilibrium method is employed in which those few compounds which form with the most difficulty are excluded from the computations, while representatives of all other families of compounds are included. This approach is shown to be useful in the interpretation of certain experimental data in which complete equilibrium has not been attained. We have also found that gases, activated to the plasma state by a high-energy radio frequency field, recombine on cooling to yield product mixtures which are in qualitative agreement with those predicted by the equilibrium computations. We believe that such products can be profitably studied as if at a metastable limited equilibrium.


Workers in the meatpacking industry face many health risks. Musculoskeletal disorders, including both acute injuries and repetitive strain injuries, are the most commonly reported problem in these workers. Other health hazards include infectious diseases, skin and respiratory disorders, and problems caused by environmental stressors such as cold, heat, noise, chemical exposures, explosions, fires, and work stress. Several studies are reviewed to show strengths and weaknesses of the purported association between work in the meatpacking industry and the development of cancer. Workplace programs designed to decrease health risks in this industry and governmental initiatives and legislation are discussed.


In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the development and validation of rapid and easy-to-perform diagnostic methods are of high priority. We compared the performance of four rapid antigen detection tests for SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory samples. Immunochromatographic SARS-CoV-2 assays from RapiGEN, Liming bio, Savant, and Bioeasy were evaluated using universal transport medium containing naso-oropharyngeal swabs from suspected Covid-19 cases. The diagnostic accuracy was determined in comparison to SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR. A total of 111 samples were included; 80 were RT-PCR positive. Median patients' age was 40 years, 55% were female, and 88% presented within the first week after symptom onset. The evaluation of the Liming bio assay was discontinued due to insufficient performance. The overall sensitivity values of RapiGEN, Liming bio, and Bioeasy tests were 62.0% (CI95% 51.0–71.9), 16.7% (CI95% 10.0–26.5), and 85.0% (CI95% 75.6–91.2), respectively, with specificities of 100%. Sensitivity was significantly higher in samples with high viral loads (RapiGEN, 84.9%; Bioeasy, 100%). The study highlighted the significant heterogeneity of test performance among evaluated assays, which might have been influenced by the use of a non-validated sample material. The high sensitivity of some tests demonstrated that rapid antigen detection has the potential to serve as an alternative diagnostic method, especially in patients presenting with high viral loads in early phases of infection. This is particularly important in situations with limited access to RT-PCR or prolonged turnaround time. Further comparative evaluations are necessary to select products with high performance among the growing market of diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2.


This paper presents three modulation scenarios of first pillar aid with a view to reinforcing the second pillar. Taking into account the weight of aid in the income, a more egalitarian redistribution of subsidies does not systematically correspond to a marked drop in the inequality of incomes. Income distribution also broadly depends on the evolution of the relative prices of farm products.


We seek to understand why persons develop their musical preferences by identifying with a particular cultural group and social background. This identification is greatly shaped by experience in their environment. Resources employed for this identification are mostly different from those employed in schools to foster academic knowledge. We argue that there needs to be renewed attention to the epistemological and ontological bases of education to examine how we can most effectively educate for the 21st Century in a relativistic and globalized world. Our focus is on music education but with the entire curriculum near at hand, together seeking to bring about a better intellectual, sociological, and aesthetic process of education. Our interest in music stems from a perceived necessity that persons trained in the arts will have special answers to the challenges of this so-called postmodern world. We offer: (1) elements of epistemology, discussing how education and music education have traditionally been focused on propositional rather than interpretive knowledge; (2) a particular perspective on ontology, making evident the ways that individuals construct meanings, interacting with their cultural environment in the shaping of social identity; and (3) the need, today more than ever, for a music curriculum fostering aesthetic experiences that develop interpretive understanding of reality and personal self. Characteristics of postmodernism in cultural studies will be employed throughout the paper.


This publication covers basic statistical data on the Indonesia economic condition. Economic aspects are presented here, including price indices, finance, banking, investment, production, balance of payments and international trade, transportation, hotel and tourism, and national income.


The aim of this paper is to offer a critique of the proposal of "methodological cosmopolitanism" in theoretical terms and to substantiate this critique by providing an account of the dynamics of collective memory and identity in postunification Germany. In the first part, we look at the arguments about methodological cosmopolitanism and their derivative, the idea of cosmopolitan memory, illustrated by the case of Holocaust memory. In the second part we look at the case of Germany: firstly at its postwar experience of the attempted construction of "postnational" identity, and then at more recent trends, contemporaneous with the Berlin Republic, towards a "normalization" of national identity in Germany. The Holocaust plays a crucial, but different, role in each phase, we suggest. In the conclusion we return to more general themes, asking what the German case tells us about the cosmopolitanization thesis more generally.


Recent research has shown that co-occurring primary and secondary habitat-forming species typically support higher biodiversity than do monocultures of the primary habitat-former alone. However, these 'habitat cascades' may not be universal and it is important to know whether, when and where positive effects on biodiversity from secondary habitat-forming species change to negative effects. Here, we tested how anthropogenic stressors (fertilisation and sedimentation) and unattached secondary habitat-forming Ulva seaweeds affected the primary habitat-forming seagrass, Zostera muelleri, and its associated invertebrates in the Avon–Heathcote Estuary, New Zealand. We experimentally stressed Zostera by adding different fertilisation and sediment levels. Fertilisation had little impact, whereas even low sedimentation levels had strong negative effects on Zostera and its associated fauna. In a second experiment, sediments and Ulva were added to seagrass beds and unvegetated mudflats to test whether sediment stress modifies habitat cascades. We found again strong negative effects of sediments on Zostera, irrespective of spatio-temporal conditions, and that negative effects of sediments on invertebrates were enhanced in the presence of the secondary habitat former. These results highlighted that anthropogenic stressors can destabilise habitat cascades; processes that may be of particular importance in estuaries that are characterised by low biodiversity and stressful environmental conditions.


Little is known about how lymphocytes migrate within secondary lymphoid organs. Stromal cells and their associated reticular fibers form a network of fibers that radiate from high endothelial venules to all areas of the lymph node and may provide a scaffold for lymphocyte migration. We studied interactions of lymphocytes with cultured human tonsillar stromal cells and their extracellular matrix using shear stress to distinguish transient interactions from firm adhesion. Tonsillar lymphocytes and SKW3 T lymphoma cells tethered and rolled on monolayers of cultured tonsillar stromal cells and their matrix. A significant proportion of these rolling interactions were independent of divalent cations and were mediated by CD44 binding to hyaluronan, as shown by inhibition with mAb to CD44, soluble hyaluronan, as hyaluronidase treatment of the substrate, and O-glycoprotease treatment of the rolling cells. O-glycoprotease treatment of the substrate also blocked binding completely to stromal matrix and partially to stromal monolayers. SKW3 cells tethered and rolled on plastic-immobilized hyaluronan, confirming the specificity of this interaction. By contrast, monolayers of resting or stimulated human umbilical vein endothelial cells failed to support CD44- and hyaluronan-dependent rolling. SKW3 cells added under flow conditions to frozen sections of human tonsil bound and rolled along reticular fibers in the presence of EDTA. Rolling was blocked by either CD44 mAb or hyaluronan. We propose that lymphocytes migrating through secondary lymphoid organs may use CD44 to bind to hyaluronan immobilized on stromal cells and reticular fibers.


AbstractThis study explores how well teachers think they succeed in their mission to include children with special needs into their ordinary groups of children. Interviews were carried out with five teachers in practice of the public school (year 2,3,5 and 6). The teachers were asked what support they have got from the schools manager, initially and ongoing, (information, necessary education, supportive expertise personnel, assistant teacher to the child and schoolmaterial.) The teachers were also asked how inclusion is arranged by three indicators of participation: physically, socially (interaction) and didactically -in educational situations of reading and writing. One finding of the study was that inclusion is difficult to arrange if parents of included children demand secrecy of the diagnosis their child has. Three cases reveal severe problems of acceptance for the included child by the peers. In the other two cases the groups show great understanding and allowance. Furthermore, in the first mentioned groups the child was forced to be physically excluded from the peers and the group. All teachers were questioning if an included school form is the best for the child. There are few signs of progress due to inclusion and a lot of these children's problems depend on low cognitive ability. Peers don´t have much response from their included friends. All teachers lack time, education and support for their mission to include a dysfunctional pupil. A dilemma perspective was employed to highlight the findings.


Information Security Standards such as NIST SP 800-39 and ISO/IEC 27005:2011 are turning their scope towards business process security. And rightly so, as introducing an information security control into a business-processing environment is likely to affect business process flow, while redesigning a business process will most certainly have security implications. Hence, in this paper, we investigate the similarities and differences between Business Process Management (BPM) and Information Security Management (ISM), and explore the obstacles and opportunities for integrating the two concepts. We compare three levels of abstraction common for both approaches; top-level implementation strategies, organizational risk views & associated tasks, and domains. With some minor differences, the comparisons shows that there is a strong similarity in the implementation strategies, organizational views and tasks of both methods. The domain comparison shows that ISM maps to the BPM domains; however, some of the BPM domains have only limited support in ISM.


This paper deals with fault-tolerant master-slave synchronization for Lur'e systems using time-delay feedback control. Taking a general nature of fault in the master system into account, a new synchronization scheme, namely, fault-tolerant master-slave synchronization, is proposed, by which the master-slave synchronization can be achieved no matter if the fault occurs or not. By making use of an observer-based fault estimator and a modified time-delay feedback controller, the fault-tolerant master-slave synchronization is formulated so as to discuss the global asymptotic stability of the error system and the bound of energy gain from fault to state and fault estimation error vectors. Some new delay-dependent criteria are derived to analyze the synchronization error system, and based on the analysis results, a sufficient condition on the existence of such a master-slave synchronization scheme and a solution to the controller and fault-estimator gain matrices are obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, a Chua's circuit is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) metastasizes to the regional lymph nodes and to the lungs, liver and bones. Only one case of recurrence of MTC involving the upper gastrointestinal tract has been reported so far. We describe the case of a 38-year-old woman with MTC, who developed an upper esophageal submucosal recurrence after two previous local recurrences treated surgically and one ethanol injection. After resection of the right lateral esophageal wall, calcitonin dropped by 60% and showed a doubling time >1 year. We cannot rule out the role of deep ethanol injection in the involvement of the cervical esophagus wall.


Purpose

The purpose of this study is to expand our understanding of performance determinants in foreign-owned subsidiaries (FOSs) located in an emerging economy.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey has been conducted of all known FOSs in Taiwan.

Findings

The results show that intra-organisational relationships and subsidiary competences are positively associated with various performance dimensions. Being located in a global city, as well as geographically distant from the home country, seem to have the opposite impact. The moderating factors of subsidiary age and authority are partially relevant.

Research limitations/implications

This study is based on a cross-sectional sample of FOSs in Taiwan.

Practical implications

The study shows that in an emerging market context, being strongly linked with the rest of the multinational enterprises might still be more conducive to subsidiary performance than venturing out. This is an important consideration, given the constant resource constraints for managers.

Practical implications

This study highlights important factors that ought to be taken into consideration by policymakers to attract suitable foreign direct investment.

Originality/value

This study provides a comprehensive test of major performance determinants for FOSs located in an emerging economy.


Summary form only given. The integration of Renewable Energy Resources (RER) into an existing distribution system is an important topic in dealing with energy challenge the world is facing. With rapid development of Electric Energy Storage (EES) technologies, there is a growing interest in integrating both EES and RER into power systems to improve their reliability and economy. In this paper, the adequacy and economy of distribution systems integrated with both EES and RER are assessed. A novel Model Predictive Control (MPC)-based operation strategy is presented to minimize distribution system energy purchasing cost by coordinating multiple power supplies from EES, RER and external grid. An islanding operation is implemented to improve the distribution system reliability and reduce customer interruption cost. A reliability and economy assessment framework based on sequential Monte Carlo method integrated with the MPC-based operation and islanding operation is proposed. Case studies are conducted to demonstrate the reliability and economy improvement by implementing the proposed operation strategies together with integration of EES and RER, and also investigate how EES capacity, power limit, and wind turbine generation capacity affect system reliability and economy.


Temporomandibular disorders are of multifactorial origin. If it is determined that the patient's occlusal scheme is a contributing factor to his/her TMD symptoms, it is accepted that reversible, noninvasive procedures be instituted at the outset of treatment. Splint therapy conforms to this guideline and serves to provide temporary, reversible alteration of the occlusal scheme in order to provide this relief. In a mutually protected occlusion, the posterior teeth accept the occlusal force of closure, while the anterior teeth serve to separate the dentition during excursive movements. The purpose of the disclusion splint described in this article is to eliminate muscle hypertonicity, along with its ensuing problems, by establishing a mutually protected occlusion via the guide planes created by the acrylic portions of the splint. Simultaneously, it does not compromise the patient's freeway space but acts as a preorthodontic, adjunctive-orthodontic, or post-TMD "stabilization-retentive" appliance because of its inherent ability to promote disarticulation of occluding dental surfaces during function.


Estuaries are subject to diverse anthropogenic stressors, such as shellfish aquaculture, which involve extensive use of estuarine tidelands. Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas aquaculture is a century-old practice in US West Coast estuaries that contributes significantly to the regional culture and economy. Native eelgrass Zostera marina also commonly occurs in intertidal areas where oyster aquaculture is practiced. Eelgrass is federally protected in the USA as 'essential fish habitat', restricting aquaculture activities within or near eelgrass. To contribute scientific information useful for management decisions, we sought to compare fish habitat use of oyster aquaculture and eelgrass, as well as the edges between these 2 habitats, in Willapa Bay, Washington, USA. Furthermore, given a recent shift towards off-bottom culture methods, in part to protect seagrasses, long-line and on-bottom oyster aquaculture habitats were compared. A combination of direct (underwater video, minnow traps) and indirect (predation tethering units, eelgrass surveys) methods were employed to characterize differences in fish habitat use. Eelgrass density declined within both aquaculture habitats but less so within long-line aquaculture. Most fish species in our study used long-line oyster aquaculture and eelgrass habitats similarly with minimal edge effects, and on-bottom aquaculture was used less than either of the other 2 habitat types. These results are consistent with previously observed positive relationships between fish abundance and vertical habitat structure, but also reveal species-specific behavior; larger mesopredators like Pacific staghorn sculpins were sighted more often in aquaculture than in interior eelgrass habitats.


Active federal management of U.S. national forests began with President Theodore Roosevelt's creation of the U.S. Forest Service in 1905. The Forest Service exercised substantial independence in its operations until after World War II. In the early 1950s it was one of the most popular and respected federal agencies. After WWII sociopolitical developments and Congressional inducements led the Forest service to expand logging in national forests using clear cutting techniques. These and other policies aroused widespread opposition, ultimately contributing to enactment of the Wilderness Act (1964) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) of 1976. Clear cutting was curbed, along with the longstanding earlier policy of fire suppression. The NFMA's detailed guidance provisions sharply reduced the Forest Service's independence. It mandated public input into all forest management plans. From the 1980s lack of confidence in the Forest Service's independence (i.e. ability to operate without undue influence by pressure for logging or other commercial uses of forest lands) fostered increasing activism toward forest preservation (as contrasted with conservation) by environmental organizations. Their legal and political influence on Forest Service actions and policies had been greatly enhanced by 1970s laws including the National Environmental Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. When initial attempts to stop logging of old growth and other forested areas proved unsuccessful, a series of lawsuits invoking protection of the habitat of the Northern Spotted Owl ultimately curtailed logging in major areas of federal lands in the Western states. Downsides of the current legal and sociopolitical constraints on the Forest Service and other federal agencies' policies include major constraints on their ability to adopt flexible management strategies to deal with insect diseases. A major current threat is posed by bark beetle epidemics in lodgepole pine forests in Colorado and Wyoming. These epidemics are reported to be aggravated by drought and warming trends associated with climate change. Another affected area is the U.S.'s ability to use wood products from federally managed forests to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both problems are documented by recent comparisons of German and American forest policies made by a Montana professor of forest science. Germany has a long tradition of interest in and skilled management of its forests. Germany has about the same area and forest cover as Montana. Scientifically managed harvest of insect-infested and killed trees in the province of Bavaria alone has not only prevented insect epidemics. These harvests produce 2 billion board feet of wood annually, equaling the total production of wood from all U.S. national forests. One third of the Bavarian population uses forest products for home heating.


Objective. To assess associations between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), measured as peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, measured by arterial stiffness, in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods. VO2peak was assessed by a maximal walking test on a treadmill. Arterial stiffness was measured noninvasively (Sphygmocor apparatus). Cross-sectional associations between VO2peak and arterial stiffness were analyzed using backward multivariable linear regression. Results. Among 118 participating patients, there were significant inverse associations between VO2peak and arterial stiffness, independent of traditional CVD risk factors and measures of disease activity. Conclusion. Reduced CRF may be related to increased risk of CVD in AS.


One of the hallmarks of the public education system in the United States is its diversity. While in other countries, students are segregated in academic and vocational tracks, in the US students commonly attend the schools in their neighborhood with other students from the neighborhood. In 1954, the Supreme Court struck down the idea of separate but equal in Brown v. The Board of Education and mandated that schools be desegregated. In 1975, Public Law 92-142 mandated the free appropriate public education (FAPE) to students with disabilities. Subsequent legislation (IDEA-1997, IDEA-2004) has specified that students with disabilities are to be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE). LRE means that, to the maximum extent appropriate, school districts must educate students with disabilities in the regular classroom with appropriate aids and supports, along with their nondisabled peers in the school they would attend if they were not disabled. The first placement that must be considered is the general education classroom alongside typically developing peers. It is only if this placement is deemed to be ineffective that segregation is to be considered.


This thesis is a study of the white-led Protestant Sunday school in the inner city London Borough of Newham. The research accepts the basic premise that the contemporary Sunday school is in numerical decline and has lost the social significance it once had and attempts to examine some of the reasons for this. The study is set in an historical context, reviewing the development of the Sunday school movement over the past hundred years. This is set against the changing social patterns within society as a whole as these affect the child and the school, and special reference is made to the major characteristics of the London Borough of Newham. In particular, the distinction between the "rough" and the "respectable" working classes is noted, and the historic alienation of the "rough" working classes from institutional Christianity may also be observed in Newham. Field work for the research was carried out in Newham in 1978. Initially, a survey was conducted with the superintendent in each of the white-led Protestant schools. As well as providing an overview of the current situation within the Sunday school, the results of this survey identified the theological orientation of the Sunday school and the geographic area in which the school was located taken as an indicator of socio-economic class as the two principal variables affecting the role and function of the inner city Sunday school. Based on these two variables, four schools were selected for in-depth study, using the techniques, of participant observation and focussed interviewing with the children, parents, teaching staff and clergy in each of the four schools. The interviews examined in depth the children's personal goals or expectations in attending Sunday school, and compared these with the school's official goals as these related to religious education and socialisation. The major conclusion of the research is that the Sunday school today is seen by the children primarily as a recreational activity. In this respect, it functions as one of a number of alternative leisure-time pursuits for the child, often failing to draw the children who are accustomed to more attractive forms of recreation. Thus the official goals of the school are bypassed by the child, and he generally attends. regularly only if his personal goals relating to sharing an enjoyable recreational activity with his friends are being fulfilled.


Historical and political science research into the role and significance of elections in state-socialist societies points to the variety of functions that these elections fulfilled, notwithstanding their deficiency if compared to liberal democratic conceptions such as the legitimation of the political  regime and the mobilisation and socialisation of the population. This paper takes a novel approach towards the social significance of state-socialist elections, arguing that they conveyed imaginary understandings of the societies and polities of which they were part. The concept of the imaginary is discussed in conversation with Charles Taylor, who argues that public social practices are informed by mostly latent "understandings" that render them subjectively meaningful in the first place. Referring to historical research on state-socialist elections, imaginary understandings are identified that pertain in particular to the relationship between officially proclaimed "truths" and unofficial positionings towards them.


This paper introduces the Delphi research method and analyses its usefulness in multi-agency research. In particular, the authors examine how it was used in a project aimed at making the material generated by the Victoria Climbie Inquiry accessible to child welfare/protection professionals through organizing the oral evidence in such a way that it can become a web-based data corpus. The thematic analysis of research data-sets usually only reflects the theoretical and analytical ideas of the researchers; however, our research demonstrates that using the Delphi method incorporates thematic ideas both from researchers and from active professionals, thereby pooling expertise. Thus we argue that the Delphi method represents a valuable tool in multidisciplinary child welfare research as it embeds a breadth of expertise throughout the research process.


Social play is a frequent behaviour in great apes and involves sophisticated forms of communicative exchange. While it is well established that great apes test and practise the majority of their gestural signals during play interactions, the influence of demographic factors and kin relationships between the interactants on the form and variability of gestures are relatively little understood. We thus carried out the first systematic study on the exchange of play-soliciting gestures in two chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities of different subspecies. We examined the influence of age, sex and kin relationships of the play partners on gestural play solicitations, including object-associated and self-handicapping gestures. Our results demonstrated that the usage of (i) audible and visual gestures increased significantly with infant age, (ii) tactile gestures differed between the sexes, and (iii) audible and visual gestures were higher in interactions with conspecifics than with mothers. Object-associated and self-handicapping gestures were frequently used to initiate play with same-aged and younger play partners, respectively. Our study thus strengthens the view that gestures are mutually constructed communicative means, which are flexibly adjusted to social circumstances and individual matrices of interactants.


This contribution describes the use of the RoentDek hexanode delay line detector to detect fragments from the dissociative recombination of O2+ in an experiment at the ion storage ring CRYRING, Manne Siegbahn Laboratory, Stockholm. In this experiment, the fragments have a maximum time- and position-separation of 20 ns and 40 mm, respectively. The position resolution obtained was 0.16 mm (FWHM) on the 67 mm diameter detector. The time resolution obtained from the time-of-arrival difference between the product fragments was about 1 ns. The detector system handles event rates as large as 30 kHz. Techniques for the calibration of the absolute position of particles on the detector are discussed.


The paper provides the results of treating 118 patients aged 16 to 78 years who had complicate bullous emphysema. The most frequent complication was spontaneous pneumothorax (n = 107). Chronic respiratory failure was observed in 8 patients with bullous formations occupying 1/3-2/3 of the hemithorax volume. Two patients had recurrent hemoptysis. Eighty patients with spontaneous pneumothorax underwent thoracic operations: endoscopic bullectomy, endoscopic pleurodesis with MK-7 and MK-8 medical glues, endoscopic electro- and laser coagulation of pulmonary bullae through infrared gallium arsenide and argon lasers. Thoracotomy with marginal resection of the lung, bullectomy, parietal pleurectomy was performed in 29 (25%) patients. The paper shows indications and contraindications for endoscopic and surgical operations, methods for applying IGA laser for marginal resection of the lung, bullectomy, pleurectomy, endoscopic coagulation of the bullae, complications of endoscopic and surgical treatments.


Existing transceiver designs in amplify-and-forward (AF) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) relay systems often assume the availability of perfect channel state informations (CSIs). Robust designs for imperfect CSI have less been considered. In this paper, we propose a robust nonlinear transceiver design for the system with a Tomlinson-Harashima precoder (THP), a linear relay precoder, and a minimum-mean-squared-error (MMSE) receiver. Since two precoders and imperfect CSIs are involved, the robust transceiver design is difficult. To overcome the difficulty, we first propose cascading an additional unitary precoder after the THP. The unitary precoder can not only simplify the optimization but also improve the performance of the MMSE receiver. We then adopt the primal decomposition dividing the original optimization problem into a subproblem and a master problem. With our formulation, the subproblem can be solved and the two-precoder problem can be transferred to a single relay precoder problem. The master problem, however, is not solvable. We then propose a lower bound for the objective function and transfer the master problem into a convex optimization problem. A closed-form solution can then be obtained by the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. Simulations show that the proposed transceiver can significantly outperform existing linear transceivers with perfect or imperfect CSIs.


Objective: Greater intake of Cruciferous vegetables (e.g. broccoli) may prevent cancer at several sites. Urinary excretion of isothiocyanate conjugates (dithiocarbamates, DTC) provides a specific biomarker of Cruciferous vegetable consumption suitable for epidemiological investigations. However, no gold-standard referent is available for evaluating urinary DTC levels as an estimator of Cruciferous vegetable consumption. We compared urinary DTC levels to intake as measured by two selfreported dietary assessment techniques. Design: Cruciferous vegetable consumption was measured before and after a behavioural dietary intervention using multiple 24-hour recalls (24HR), a food-counting questionnaire (VFQ) and urinary DTC excretion levels. Analysis included a structural equation approach (Method of Triads) combining these three assessment techniques to estimate the relationship between DTC level and the study population's 'true' Cruciferous vegetable intake. Setting: The intervention curriculum assisted participants in consuming about 2 servings per day for a 6-week period. Participants attended four classes emphasising problem-solving skills, dietary counselling and vegetable preparation skills. There were no dietary restrictions. Subjects: Thirty-three healthy, free-living, post-menopausal women. Results: Although few participants reported Cruciferae consumption prior to the intervention, 30 participants reported Cruciferae consumption after the intervention (Post-intervention). Urinary DTC levels were correlated with estimated intake derived from either the 24HR ( r ¼ 0 : 57; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.28, 0.76) or VFQ ( r ¼ 0 : 49; 95% CI 0.17, 0.71). The validity coefficient (Method of Triads) between urinary DTC excretion and an index of true Cruciferous intake was stronger than the Pearson correlation ( r v ¼ 0 : 65; 95% CI 0.35, 0.90), and comparable to estimates derived from the 24HR ( r v ¼ 0 : 82; 95% CI 0.65, 1.00) or VFQ ( r v ¼ 0 : 76; 95% CI 0.47, 0.92) method. These associations were not affected by adjustment for body mass index, energy intake, or social approval or desirability response sets. Conclusions: Food-frequency questionnaires (FFQ) suitable for large epidemiological studies may not be designed to measure all Cruciferae, and cannot capture exposure to phytochemicals derived from those vegetables. Urinary DTC measurement was significantly correlated with Cruciferae intake derived from two dietary assessment approaches, and urinary DTC levels could supplement traditionalFFQ databyproviding an index of recent Cruciferous vegetable intake not susceptible to reporting biases.


New interdisciplinary material and manufacturing technologies make local configuration of material properties possible. The availability of material property information in the early construction process and adequate welding technologies are essential needs to realize a maximum utilization of material. The research objective of two cooperating institutes at the Technical University of Clausthal is to develop a design strategy with related design rules in order to engineer high strength coupling elements of requirement optimized composite materials. Special attention is paid to the usage of future welding technologies and their influence on material properties of locally altered materials. Further objective is an early survey of the consequences caused by the usage of locally altered materials in mixed architecture design projects to the whole production process.


In image processing, the idea of considering an entire image as a collection of its small overlapping regions has recently attained significant popularity. Algorithms that work with image patches, instead of an image as a whole, produce state-of-the-art results in solving reconstruction problems. Meanwhile, it has been shown that manifold models may provide a good approximation for the set of natural image patches. In this paper we consider one such popular model. We will show some interesting and aesthetically appealing geometric structures arising from an attempt to visualize an embedding of the patch manifold in three-dimensional space.


We study the properties of dark matter (DM) halos in several models in which we have included dark energy (DE). We consider both dynamical DE, due to a scalar field self-interacting through Ratra-Peebles or supergravity potentials, and DE with constant negative w = p/ρ > -1. We find that at zero redshift, both the nonlinear power spectrum of DM and the mass function of halos do not depend appreciably on the state equation of DE, which implies that both statistics are almost indistinguishable from those of Λ-dominated cold dark matter (ΛCDM). This result is consistent with the nonlinear treatment in the accompanying paper and is also a welcome feature, because ΛCDM fits a large variety of data. On the other hand, DE halos differ from ΛCDM halos in that they are denser in their central parts, because DE halos collapsed earlier. Nevertheless, such differences are not so large. For example, the density at 10 kpc of a ~1013 M☉ DE halo is only 50% denser than the ΛCDM halo. This means that DE does not ease the problem with cuspy DM profiles. Addressing another cosmological problem, the abundance of subhalos, we find that the number of satellites of halos in various DE models does not change with respect to ΛCDM when normalized to the same circular velocity as the parent halo. Most of the above similarities are related to choosing for all models the same normalization factor σ8 at z = 0. At high redshifts, different DE and ΛCDM models have different amplitudes of fluctuations, which causes substantial deviations of halo properties to occur. Therefore, the way to find which DE equation of state gives the best fit to the observed universe is to look at the evolution of halo properties. For example, the abundance of galaxy groups with mass larger than 1013 h-1 M☉ at z ≳ 2 can be used to discriminate between the models and thus to constrain the nature of DE.


A three-dimensional groundwater-flow model was developed for the aquifer system of Long Island, New York, to evaluate (1) responses of the hydrologic system to changes in natural and anthropogenic hydraulic stresses, (2) the subsurface distribution of groundwater age, and (3) the regionalscale distribution of groundwater travel times and the source of water to fresh surface waters and coastal receiving waters. The model also provides the groundwater flow components used to define model boundaries for possible inset models used for local-scale analyses. The three-dimensional, groundwater flow model developed for this investigation uses the numerical code MODFLOW–NWT to represent steady-state conditions for average groundwater pumping and aquifer recharge for 2005–15. The particle-tracking algorithm MODPATH, which simulates advective transport in the aquifer, was used to estimate groundwater age, delineate the areas at the water table that contribute recharge to coastal and freshwater bodies, and estimate total travel times of water from the water table to discharge locations. A three-dimensional, 1-meter (3.3-foot) topobathymetric model was used to determine land-surface altitudes for the island and seabed altitudes for the surrounding coastal waters. The mapped extents and surface altitudes of major geologic units were compiled and used to develop a three-dimensional hydrogeologic framework of the aquifer system, including aquifers and confining units. Lithologic data from deep boreholes and previous aquifer-test results were used to estimate the three-dimensional distribution of hydraulic conductivity in principal aquifers. Natural recharge from precipitation was estimated for 2005–15 using a modified ThornthwaiteMather methodology as implemented in a soil-water balance model. Components of anthropogenic recharge—wastewater return flow, storm water inflow, and inflow from leaky infrastructure—also were estimated for 2005–15. Groundwater withdrawals for various sources, including public water supply, industrial, remediation, and agricultural, were compiled or estimated for the same period. These data were incorporated into the model development to represent the aquifer system geometry, boundaries, and initial hydraulic properties of the regional aquifers and confining units within the Long Island aquifer system. Average hydraulic conditions—water levels and streamflows— for 2005–15 were estimated using existing data from the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System database. Model inputs were adjusted to best match average hydrologic conditions using inverse methods as implemented in the parameter-estimating software PEST. The calibrated model was used to simulate average hydrologic conditions in the aquifer system for 2005–15. About 656 cubic feet per second of water was withdrawn on average annually for 2005–15 for water supply and an average of about 349 cubic feet per second of water recharged the aquifer annually from return flow and leaky infrastructure. Parts of New York City have drawdowns exceeding 25 feet, mostly because of urbanization and associated large decreases in recharge rates. Large areas in the western part of the island have drawdowns exceeding 10 feet, mostly from large groundwater withdrawals and sewering, which largely eliminates wastewater return flow. Water-table altitudes in eastern parts of the island increased by more than 2 feet in some areas as a result of wastewater return flow in unsewered areas and changes in land use. Changes in streamflows show a similar pattern as water-table altitudes. Streamflows generally decrease in western parts of the island where there are large drawdowns and increase in eastern parts of the island where water-table altitudes increase.


Reactive-optimisation procedures are responsible for the minimisation of online power losses in interconnected systems. These procedures are performed separately at each control centre and involve external network representations. If total losses can be minimised by the implementation of calculated local control actions, the entire system benefits economically, but such control actions generally result in a certain degree of inaccuracy, owing to errors in the modelling of the external system. Since these errors are inevitable, they must at least be maintained within tolerable limits by external-modelling approaches. Care must be taken to avoid unrealistic loss minimisation, as the local-control actions adopted can lead the system to points of operation which will be less economical for the interconnected system as a whole. The evaluation of the economic impact of the external modelling during reactive-optimisation procedures in interconnected systems, in terms of both the amount of losses and constraint violations, becomes important in this context. In the paper, an analytical approach is proposed for such an evaluation. Case studies using data from the Brazilian South-Southeast system (810 buses) have been carried out to compare two different external-modelling approaches, both derived from the equivalent-optimal-power-flow (EOPF) model. Results obtained show that, depending on the external-model representation adopted, the loss representation can be flawed. Results also suggest some modelling features that should be adopted in the EOPF model to enhance the economy of the overall system.


Abstract. The biogenic volatile organic compound α-pinene is one of the dominant monoterpenes emitted to the Earth's atmosphere at an estimated rate of ~50 Tg C yr−1. Its atmospheric oxidation products in the presence of NO can lead to ozone production, as well as production of secondary organic aerosol (SOA). The major oxidation pathway of α-pinene is reaction with OH, which in the presence of NO can form either α-pinene nitrates or convert NO to NO2, which can photolyze to form ozone. In this work, we successfully synthesized four α-pinene hydroxy nitrates through three different routes, and have identified these 4 individual isomers in α-pinene/OH/NO reaction chamber experiments. From the experiments, we determined their individual production yields, estimated the total RONO2 yield, and calculated the relative branching ratios of the nitrate precursor peroxy radicals (RO2). The combined yield of the four α-pinene nitrates was found to be 0.130 (±0.035) at atmospheric pressure and 296 K, and the total organic nitrate yield was estimated to be 0.19 (+0.10/−0.06). We also determined the OH rate constants for two of the isomers, and have calculated their overall atmospheric lifetimes, which range between 22 and 38 h.


Currently 500,000 inguinal herniorrhaphies are performed annually in United States. Most surgeons approach the inguinal region anteriorly. Very few surgeons use the posterior approach. Cheatle in 1920 followed by Nyhus in 1960, described the preperitoneal hernia repair. The preperitoneal approach has been used for recurrent hernias and for complicated hernias. In 1975, Stoppa added the use of a prosthetic mesh to the preperitoneal herniorrhaphy to improve the recurrence rate (1.4%). In the past few years, laparoscopy has replaced the traditional open technique in certain general surgical procedures (cholecystectomy, appendectomy). In this article, we will show that laparoscopic hernia repair is a viable alternative to the open herniorrhaphy because it combines the use of a proven method (preperitoneal prosthetic hernia repair) and the advantages of laparoscopy (less pain, fast recovery, better cosmesis).


We propose an pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) tracking method to keep the target object at the center of the image with a predefined size in image. For this purpose, we develop an efficient method for object size estimation using only the tilt sensory data. First we investigate the relational function between the object size in image and the tilt sensory data, and find its approximated function to estimate the object size. Using the approximated function, the object size in each frame is estimated recursively from the known initial size. The proposed method requires smaller amount of computation and shows higher accuracy to keep the size preserving PTZ tracking than the existing state-of-the-art method.


This project examines what the effect of styrene emissions are on the marine industry. The marine industry is constantly changing and developing with current legislations and implications on styrene emissions becoming stricter with time.

The main material used in the construction of vessels is Fibre Reinforced Plastics (FRP) combined with a resin. Within many of the resins used in the industry is a chemical called styrene. Styrene is used as a cross linking agent, linking the polymers together, and also lowers the viscosity of the polyester polymer, to provide a workable product.

The occupational exposure limits for styrene are shown by Time Work Average (TWA) based on an eight-hour reference period and by Short term maximum Exposure Level (STEL) based on a fifteen-minute reference period. In the UK, the (TWA) is set to one hundred ppm, and the (STEL) is set to two hundred and fifty ppm.

The UK has one of the highest allowable concentrations of styrene compared to other countries. There is a voluntary continuous exposure limit of fifty ppm, set out by the workers, which applies at all times within the workplace.

This project examines the different materials and techniques used within the marine industry detailing the advantages and disadvantages of each. It also examines the relevant legislations and implications that are related to this type of manufacture.

The companies involved with using FRP are aware of the possible issues related with styrene and make a conscious effort to monitor and reduce their emissions. The atmospheric monitoring is carried out by use of absorbent tubes, passive devices and detector tubes. Low styrene resins and resin suppressants are used as a method of emission reduction along with the closed moulding technique. The closed moulding technique is used to either extract or contain the emissions to keep them away from the workers, as well as being able to provide a high quality laminate.

There have been many risk assessments carried out on the effect of styrene, which indicate that styrene is not as harmful as originally thought.

If new legislations were brought in, evolution will take place. Many of the smaller companies will be forced to cease trading due to being unable to cope, although larger companies will still continue to develop their materials and techniques. These companies will survive until the next legislations and implications come into force when the companies will be forced to either improve again or back down and cease trading. The companies at the top end of the market are generally survivors in this kind of situation as they keep on top by familiarising themselves with the new materials and techniques.


During the "Archipelago of Common Memory" Summer School our group traveled through Karelia to the Solovetskie Islands. Participants of the school visited museum exhibitions dedicated to the White Sea–Baltic Sea Canal in Medvezh'egorsk (the former center of the canal's construction) and Povenets (the canal's current administrative headquarters); the Solovetskii museum, including exhibitions about the "new martyrs" and the history of the Solovetskii camp; Sandarmokh, the site of mass executions of Soviet victims; and memorial sites on Solovetskie Islands. This essay presents preliminary results of my research in which I focus on the narratives presented in different memory sites, including museums and memorials. I show how the victims of Soviet purges are portrayed at the different sites. One of the issues that became apparent during the summer school is that narratives about purges represent victims of these purges differently. A categorization of victims is often present. On Solovki, in the monastery exhibition, the victims are categorized by their religion, and Orthodox victims are made more visible than others. On the Avenue of Remembrance on Solovki and on Sandаrmokh victims are categorized by their nationality: diasporas have put up memorials to their compatriots. At the White Sea–Baltic Sea Canal Museum in Povenets, on the other hand, victims are represented through the eyes of the canal administration as either hard working or lazy. The categorization of victims illustrates some issues surrounding Russian memory of the Soviet purges more broadly—the lack of a single national narrative about the Soviet past and the drive to make sense of this difficult past.
Text in English.
DOI: 10.25285/2078-1938-2018-10-2-122-133


Since many advanced applications require specific assemblies of nanoparticles (NPs), considerable efforts have been made to fabricate nanoassemblies with specific geometries. Although nanoassemblies can be fabricated through top-down approaches, recent advances show that intricate nanoassemblies can also be obtained through self-assembly, mediated for example by DNA strands. Here, we show, through extensive molecular dynamics simulations, that highly ordered self-assemblies of NPs can be mediated by their adhesion to lipid vesicles (LVs). Specifically, Janus NPs are considered so that the amount by which they are wrapped by the LV is controlled. The specific geometry of the nanoassembly is the result of effective curvature-mediated repulsion between the NPs and the number of NPs adhering to the LV. The NPs are arranged on the LV into polyhedra which satisfy the upper limit of Euler's polyhedral formula, including several deltahedra and three Platonic solids, corresponding to the tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron.


The ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases play important role in normal physiological processes occurring during development; moreover, their deregulated expression has been implicated in human cancer. Cancer patients, whose tumors have alterations in ErbB1 or ErbB2, tend to have a more aggressive disease associated with parameters predicting a poor clinical outcome, including tumor metastases. For tumors to metastasize, the cells have to possess specific characteristics, including the ability to migrate and to invade the surrounding basal membrane. The role of the Neu/ErbB2 receptor in cancer cell migration is the major topic of this thesis. The Neu/ErbB2 receptor is often overexpressed in different human tumors, including breast and ovarian tumors. Clinical and in vitro studies revealed that Neu/ErbB2 plays important functions in tumor cell motility. Upon ErbB receptors activation via ligand-induced dimerization, receptors autophosphorylate specific tyrosines in the carboxy domain leading to activation of downstream signaling cascades, including the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathways. These pathways, which are known to be important for cell migration, are involved in actin cytoskeleton remodeling, leading to formation of lamellipodia and actin stress fibers. In this work we used T47D breast carcinoma cells expressing Neu/ErbB2 add-back mutants harboring none or only one of the five major autophosphorylation sites, to study the contribution of individual Neu/ErbB2 tyrosine autophosphorylation sites in cell migration. We showed that activation of MAPK and PI3K in T47D cell failed to induce efficient cell motility in the absence of the Neu/ErbB2 tyrosines 1201 or 1227 phosphorylation. Moreover, we present evidence that efficient, long-term cell migration depends upon ongoing transcription and translation. Signaling downstream of tyrosine 1201 and 1227 is required for de novo synthesis of RNA and protein involved in cell migration. Further investigation of the function of these two tyrosines led to the identification of a novel protein that specifically interacts with the phosphorylated tyrosine 1227. We called this new protein Memo for mediator of ErbB2-driven cell motility. Memo does not bind directly to the phosphorylated tyrosine 1227 of the Neu/ErbB2 receptor, but very likely via the adaptor molecule Shc. Memo is required for ErbB2-driven breast carcinoma cell migration, because its downregulation leads to decreased motility of cells expressing the receptor with the tyrosine 1227. Interestingly, we found that Memo is not only required for migration downstream of the ErbB receptors, but it may be a general mediator of growth factor-induced breast carcinoma cell migration. Cell migration is a multistep process and we further defined at which step Memo is required. We found that upon Neu/ErbB2 activation, wild type cells, but interestingly also Memo-deficient cells form actin stress fibers and extend lamellipodia. However, Memo-deficient cells are not able to extend microtubules toward the cell cortex. There is increasing evidence that not only the actin cytoskeleton but also the microtubule cytoskeleton plays a crucial role for cell migration. For instance, microtubules are required for the polarization of the cells and also for the transport of proteins required for motility to the cell leading edge. Further studies have to be done to understand the exact role of Memo in microtubule outgrowth and its contribution to cell motility.
In summary, the work presented in the thesis shows the identification of a novel protein, Memo, which is required for breast carcinoma cell migration. We propose that Memo controls cell motility by transmitting extracellular chemotactic signals to the microtuble cytoskeleton.


Chestnut blight, caused by Cryphonectria parasitica, was identified in Devon, UK, in December 2016. Intensive surveys detected the disease at further sites in Devon (seven), Berkshire (one), Dorset (one), Derbyshire (four) and a cluster of eight sites in southeast London. Over 570 survey samples were tested, and 227 were positive for C. parasitica by isolation and real-time PCR. A total of 227 isolates were tested for mating type, and 197 screened for vegetative compatibility group (VCG) and compared with VCGs known from mainland Europe. The same isolates were also screened for the presence of Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV-1). Eleven VCGs were identified within the UK population. Five corresponded to already known European VCGs but six were unique. The European VCGs mainly came from the Devon, Dorset, Berkshire and Derbyshire disease outbreaks, whilst unique VCGs were almost exclusively from the southeast London cluster. Both mating types were detected, but only one mating type was present at each site, with the exception of a single Devon site. Perithecia of C. parasitica were never observed at any site. CHV-1 was found in seven isolates from three different locations and was always subtype-I, which has limited hypovirulence. Therefore, although CHV-1 is associated with C. parasitica at some outbreaks, it probably has limited impact on virulence. The diversity of VCGs and their distribution at outbreak sites, together with findings of CHV-1, suggests C. parasitica has been introduced to the UK multiple times over at least two decades through international plant trade.


This paper investigates the use of different model reduction methods accounting for geometric nonlinearities. These methods are adapted to retain physical degrees-of-freedom in the reduced space in order to ease contact treatment. These reduction methods are applied to a 3D finite element model of an industrial compressor blade (NASA rotor 37). In order to compare the different reduction methods, a scalar indicator is defined. This performance indicator allows to quantify the accuracy of the predicted displacement both locally (at the blade tip) and globally. The robustness of each method with respect to variations of the external excitation is also assessed. The performances of the reduction methods are then compared in the case of frictional contact between the blade tip and the surrounding casing. This work brings evidence that reduced order models provide a computationally efficient alternative to full order finite element models for the accurate prediction of the time response of structures with both distributed and localized nonlinearities.


Carbonate stones on site undergo severe weathering processes, that make consolidation and protection necessary. However, currently available consolidants and protectives are far from being satisfactory when applied to this kind of materials. For this reason, in this thesis an innovative hydroxyapatite-based treatment was developed for limestone consolidation, marble consolidation and marble protection.
Firstly, a new treatment protocol was set up for limestone and marble consolidation: solution precursor, concentration and pH, application method and possible additions were investigated to improve the treatment performance. Then, efficacy, compatibility and durability of the treatment were evaluated on these two lithotypes, in comparison with the products currently used for the same aim (ethyl silicate and ammonium oxalate). For marble, the treatment protocol developed in laboratory was also tested on a real historic artefact and on site.
Moreover, a surface treatment for protecting marble against acidic rain was formulated, investigating how different parameters (starting solution pH and concentration, organic and inorganic additions) affect the morphology, composition and acid resistance of the treated surface.
Excellent results were achieved: hydroxyapatite resulted an effective, compatible and durable consolidant for carbonate stone. Moreover, ethanol addition allowed to obtain a uniform, acid resistant protective hydroxyapatite layer on marble.


The aim of this work is to study the phase stability and sinterability of bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) doped HA ranging from 0.05 wt% to 1 wt%. The green samples were sintered in air at temperature ranging from 1000oC to 1400oC. In this experiment, the results from XRD analysis revealed that the stability of HA phase was disrupted when addition of 0.3, 0.5 and 1.0 wt% Bi2O3 were used and when samples sintered above 1100oC, 1000oC and 950oC, respectively. In general, HA containing 0.5 wt% of Bi2O3 and when sintered at 1000oC was found to be beneficial in enhancing densification, Young's modulus, Vickers hardness and fracture toughness. Throughout the sintering regime, the highest value of relative bulk density of 98.7% was obtained for 0.5 wt% Bi2O3-doped HA when sintered at 1000oC. A maximum Young's modulus of 119.2 GPa was observed for 0.1 wt% Bi2O3-doped HA when sintered at 1150oC. Additionally, 0.5 wt% Bi2O3-doped HA was able to achieve highest hardness of 6.04 GPa and fracture toughness of 1.21 MPam1/2 at sintering temperature of 1000oC. Furthermore, the Young's modulus of HA was found to vary linearly with bulk density.


In this thesis two topography preserving Gaussian Mixture Models are used to model cortical maps. Two major novel contributions are presented; the application of the Generative Topographic Mapping (GTM) to the formation of ocular dominance stripes and using the Elastic Net (EN) as a visual category representation. The applications are motivated by Marr's computational framework in that the contributions correspond to different levels of abstraction. Firstly, motivated by theoretical and experimental comparisons of the GTM and EN, the GTM is applied for the formation of ocular dominance stripes. Simulations are presented that demonstrate that the GTM can indeed produce realistic looking patterns in some instances, though careful parameter selection is required. In addition the GTM exhibits properties that the EN does not, such as twisting and 'hyper sensitivity'. Consequently it is proposed that further mathematical investigation may relate the neuronal interoprability of the GTM to that of the EN. In the second application the EN is used to model population of neurons in higher level processing that are postulated to code visual categories. Using the EN visualisations are presented that allow some novel insights. Motivated by the ability of the EN to capture 'high level' concepts a novel visual categorisation scheme is suggested. The proposed system is evaluated on the Caltech101 data set and shows good performance. A number of interesting future directions that pertain to both artificial and biological vision are suggested.


The chlorophylls, carotenoids, total polyphenols contents and antioxidant activity in fresh and stored Parsley, celery and dill leaves were comparatively determined by spectrophotometric and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods. Results indicated that freezing does not induce significant changes in chlorophyll concentration. Drying induces significant decreases, varying according to the analyzed plant; parsley (60%), followed by dill (56.4%) and celery (45.3%). The carotenoids identified in all plants were lutein, b-carotene and cis-β-carotene. Fresh parsley leaves showed the highest total carotenoid concentration (21.64 mg/100g FW), followed by celery (15.41 mg/100g FW) and dill (14.95 mg/100g FW). Total polyphenols had an average concentration of 2.15 mg/g FW in parsley; 2.7 mg/g FW in dill and almost the double, 4.13 mg/g FW in celery. Drying of leaves induced a decrease with approximately 50% of the total polyphenol concentration, while freezing, did not significantly affect it. The highest antioxidant activity was observed in the dill, followed by parsley and celery. In both types of methods (freezing and drying in the oven), decreases in antioxidant activity were observed.


In order to enforce the least privilege principle in the operating system, it is necessary for the process privilege to be effectively controlled; but this is very difficult because a process always changes as time changes. In this paper, based on the analysis on how the process privilege is generated and how it works, a hierarchy implementing the least privilege principle with three layers, i.e. administration layer, functionality control layer and performance layer, is posed. It is clearly demonstrated that to bound privilege's working scope is a critical part for controlling privilege, but this is only mentioned implicitly while not supported in POSIX capability mechanism. Based on analysis of existing control mechanism for privilege, not only an improved capability inheritance formula but also a new complete formal model for controlling process based on integrating RBAC, DTE, and POSIX capability mechanism is introduced. The new invariants in the model show that this novel privilege control mechanism is different from RBAC's, DTE's, and POSIX's, and it generalizes subdomain control mechanism and makes this mechanism dynamic.


The increasingly stringent regulatory requirements on the quality and cost-effectiveness of biopharmaceuticals as well as the escalating upstream titre are placing considerable pressure on downstream bioprocessing. In particular, batch chromatography is fast becoming the process bottleneck due to its limited capacity and expensive operation. Recent developments in multi-column counter-current chromatography (MCC) for the separation of biomolecules have demonstrated the potential to overcome these limitations. However, the uptake of MCC processes by the biopharmaceutical industry is hindered by system complexity and the liable validation difficulties. This research provides a solution to the above challenges through the development of an integrated experimental and modelling design approach and a process analytical technology (PAT)-compliant controller. These tools were exemplified using protein A chromatography, because of its key role in purification and the associated adsorbent cost. Sequential multi-column chromatography (SMCC) was the MCC process of choice as it is universal to a wide range of chromatographic principles. The design approach was applied to both batch chromatography and SMCC for fair comparison of the two processes at their optimal performance. Significantly higher productivities (up to two-fold) were found for SMCC than for batch chromatography with varying improvements in each case. The integrated use of experimentation and modelling enabled sufficient process understanding to be gained quickly and efficiently, and thus providing a dramatic reduction in the time and costs to find the optimal design (up to an estimate of five-fold). The SMCC controller ensures robust and optimal process operation by controlling a set of characteristic points that were monitored within the system loop for various zones. Such a controller is simple to implement and offers quick actions (within 15 cycles for loading due to the multi-column effect and within 2 cycles for the other zones) against possible process disturbances and system uncertainties at system start-up.


Attempts to perform systematic literature reviews have identified a problem with the quality of software engineering abstracts for papers describing empirical studies. Structured abstracts have been found useful for improving the quality of abstracts in many other disciplines. However, there have been no studies of the value of structured abstracts in software engineering. Therefore this paper aims to assess the comparative length and readability of unstructured abstracts and structured versions of the same abstract. Abstracts were obtained from all empirical conference papers from the Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering Conference (EASE04 and EASE06) that did not have a structured abstract (23 in total). Two novice researchers created structured versions of the abstracts, which were checked by the papers' authors (or a surrogate). Web tools were used to extract the length in words and readability in terms of the Flesch reading ease index and automated readability index (ARI) for the structured and unstructured abstracts. The structured abstracts were on average 142.5 words longer than the unstructured abstracts (p < 0.001). The readability of the structured abstracts was better by 8.5 points on the Flesch index (p < 0.001) and 1.8 points on the ARI (p < 0.003). The results are consistent with previous studies, although the increase in length and the increase in readability are both greater than the previous studies. Future work will consider whether structured abstracts increase the content and quality of abstracts.


Abstract We consider a game with K ≥ 2 players, each having an integer-valued fortune. On each round, a pair (i,j) among the players with nonzero fortunes is chosen to play and the winner is decided by flipping a fair coin (independently of the process up to that time). The winner then receives a unit from the loser. All other players' fortunes remain the same. (Once a player's fortune reaches 0, this player is out of the game.) The game continues until only one player wins all. The choices of pairs represent the control present in the problem. While it is known that the expected time to ruin (i.e. expected duration of the game) is independent of the choices of pairs (i,j) (the strategies), our objective is to find a strategy which maximizes the variance of the time to ruin. We show that the maximum variance is uniquely attained by the (optimal) strategy, which always selects a pair of players who have currently the largest fortunes. An explicit formula for the maximum value function is derived. By constructing a simple martingale, we also provide a short proof of a result of Ross (2009) that the expected time to ruin is independent of the strategies. A brief discussion of the (open) problem of minimizing the variance of the time to ruin is given.