Each DBMS represents a solution in a design space covering hundreds of parameters. The sheer size of this space leaves large parts unexplored, but also requires courage. The open-source MonetDB system is used to exemplify the pitfalls and opportunities of such an exploration into the realm of column-stores. We illustrate the vistas of high-risk projects based on radical changes in the design parameters, e.g., database cracking for self-organization, informative query summaries and database storage rings where the database is on the move. The missing jigsaw pieces identified are important for real innovations and provide an inspiration for changing the legacy architecture embodied in (relational) database products.


The Non-Frustration Rule (Art. 9), the Breakthrough Rule (Art. 11) and the Reciprocity Rule (Art. 12) of the EU Takeover Bid Directive (Directive 2004/25/EC) constitute the core regulation of the takeover bid process on EU level. The first two rules (Articles 9 and 11) regulate the behavior of the management of the target company during the pre- and post bid period. The intended contribution of these Articles is watered down due to a complicated opt-in/opt-out/reciprocity system which renders their application optional on both company and national legislation level. Moreover, there are some additional substantive deficiencies of those provisions, which are something negative for the integration of the European market for corporate control. It seems that the main goal of the EU Takeover Bid Directive, the establishment of a level playing field for Takeovers at European level, is not a reality. This paper will try to explain in a concise way the basic features of the Breakthrough Rule of the EU Takeover Bid Directive and will adopt a critical stance towards some choices of the European legislature.


Causal inference using the difference-in-differences (DD) method relies on the untestable assumption of parallel counterfactual trends across units that are assigned to different treatments. To facilitate the application of the method in settings where the parallel trends assumption is seemingly violated, I suggest weighting observations such that the conditional correlations between treatments and pre-treatment outcome trends are minimized, that is, weighted trends are parallel. I evaluate the performance of a weighted parallel trends (WPT) DD estimator in a Monte Carlo study and provide an application to a case study context in which a benchmark estimate exists. The WPT DD approach can be applied in settings with multiple continuous treatment variables as well as to estimating time-varying treatment effects.


The aim of the study was to assess whether increased energy expenditure causes the negative energy balance (tissue catabolism) commonly seen in children with insulin dependent (type I) diabetes. Resting metabolic rate and thermogenesis induced by adrenaline were measured in five healthy children and 14 children with type I diabetes who were all free of clinical signs of late complications of diabetes mellitus but differed in their degree of glycaemic control (in eight glycated haemoglobin concentration was less than 10% and in the six others greater than or equal to 10%). When compared with the control subjects children with type I diabetes had normal resting metabolic rates but their urinary nitrogen excretion was significantly raised (11.5 (SD 5.4) mg/min in those with glycated haemoglobin concentration less than 10%, 11.6 (5.2) mg/min in those with concentration greater than or equal to 10% v 5.4 (3.0) mg/min in control subjects). During the infusion of adrenaline the diabetic children showed a threefold and sustained increase in thermogenesis and disproportionate increases in the work done by the heart, in lipid oxidation rate, and in plasma concentrations of glucose, free fatty acids, and ketone bodies. The increased thermogenic effect of adrenaline did not correlate with the degree of glycaemic control. Increased thermogenesis may explain the tissue wasting commonly seen in children with type I diabetes during intercurrent stress.


This work deals with semantics of programming languages (or equivalently, thanks to Curry-Howard isomorphism, with semantics of proofs). We introduce a framework in which both static semantics (Ehrhard's hypercoherences) and dynamic semantics (Hyland-Ong's games), can be presented. The work is carried in a multiplicative subsystem of Laurent's polarized linear logic with weakening. Like Böhm trees for lambda-calculus, designs, adapted from Girard's ludics, play the role of intermediate objets between the syntax and the (two) semantics. Our framework allows us to define a new coherence semantics and to prove its full completeness.


Community living adjacent to forests and Protected Areas, especially in South Asian countries, have a common practice in extracting resources for their living and livelihoods. This extraction of resources, because the way it is done, destroys the biophysical features of the area. Deforestation, wildlife poaching, illegal logging, unauthorized hill cutting etc. are some of the serious issues of concern for the sustainability of the natural resources that has a direct impact on environment and climate as a whole. To ensure community involvement in conservation initiatives of the state, community based forest management, commonly known as Comanagement, has been in practice in 6 South Asian countries. These are -India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Involving community in forestry management was initiated first in Bangladesh in 1979 and reached as an effective co-management approach through a several paradigm shifts. This idea of Comanagement has been institutionalized through a Government Order (GO) by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of Bangladesh on November 23, 2009. This GO clearly defines the structure and functions of Co-management and its different bodies. Bangladesh Forest Department has been working in association with community to conserve and manage the Forests and Protected areas of Bangladesh following this legal document. Demographically young people constitute the largest segment of population in Bangladesh. This group, if properly sensitized, can produce valuable impacts on the conservation initiatives, both by community and government. This study traced the major factors that motivate community youths to work effectively with different tiers of comanagement organizations in conservation of forests and Protected Areas of Bangladesh. For the purpose of this study, 3 FGDs were conducted with 30 youths from the community living around the Protected Areas of Cox's bazar, South East corner of Bangladesh, who are actively involved in Co-management organizations. KII were conducted with 5 key officials of Forest Department stationed at Cox's Bazar. 2 FGDs were conducted with the representatives of 7 Co-management organizations working in Cox's Bazar region and approaches of different community outreach activities conducted for forest conservation by 3 private organizations and Projects have been reviewed. Also secondary literatures were reviewed for the history and evolution of Co-management in Bangladesh and six South Asian countries. This study found that innovative community outreach activities that are financed by public and private sectors involving youths and community as a whole have played a pivotal role in conservation of forests and Protected Areas of the region. This approach can be replicated in other regions of Bangladesh as well as other countries of South Asia where Co-Management exists in practice. Obaidul Fattah Tanvir is with USAID's Climate-Resilient Ecosystem and Livelihoods (CREL) Project, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh (phone: +8801847052111; e-mail: email@example.com). Zinat Ara Afroze is with USAID's Climate-Resilient Ecosystem and Livelihoods (CREL) Project, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh (phone: +8801716211906; e-mail:firstname.lastname@example.com). Keywords—Community, co-management, conservation, forests, protected areas, youth.


Ammonia biosorption by using Enceng Gondok, Eichhornia crassipes, was conducted in outdoor laboratory with objective to study the influence residence time and plant age to ammonia biosorption rate. The research uses reactor test consisting of wet land and sludge. Enceng Gondok is planted on reactor test flown by ammonia as bacth with relatif low enough concentration (2 mg/L), water height 20 cm, plant's number in each reactor of 4 stems with variatious plant's length 10, 20, 30, and 40 cm, and various residence time 2, 4, 6, and 8 days. Each test conducted was completed by controlling reactor. Research result showed that maximun biosorption occurs at 2 days culturization; ammonia biosorption rate by roots increases as residence time increases. Residence time 2, 4, 6 and 8 days can decrease ammonia concentration up to 1.568 mg/l, 0.245 mg/l, 0.204 mg/l (10%), and 0.022 mg/l, respectively, at plant length 10 cm. Further, research results showed that the more the plant's age, the larger the biosorption by plant. Keywords: ammonia biosorption, enceng gondok, plant's age, residence time


The rise of the 'customer' concept within public services has been a hallmark of 'New Public Management' style reforms seen widely since the 1990s. As local authority employees, planners in Great Britain have been impacted by this but, drawing on extensive empirical evidence, I find that planners are redefining the customer concept as they embed it in practice in ways which are far removed from the traditional model of the 'sovereign customer'. In doing so, planners draw on older conceptions of planning serving society which form a key part of their professional identity, resulting in a weakening of the customer concept.


The traditional position in human-computer interaction usability studies is that confusion is anathema -- an entirely undesirable experience. But in art, gaming, and experience design, confusion can be a contributing factor to immersion and engagement. For this to occur, the prerequisites are some of the properties of play: agency, delineation in time (and space), and the potential for resolution. In the continuum of experience from total confusion to manifest resolution, there is a range of responses from lack of interest to anger and/or fear, via enjoyment and excitement. Artworks that create confusion (disorientation and/or uncertainty) tend to elicit polarised audience responses that broadly fall into two categories: frustrated denouncement and enthusiastic approval.
 There are many factors that have a fundamental role in determining how welcome confusion is to an individual within an experience: e.g. the context, the structure of the experience, and the audience subculture. Pervading the context are the audience's expectations (and the ability of the audience to manage their own expectations), which can be crucial for immersive confusion. Theatre and events companies apply considerable resources to designing not just the experience itself, but also the build up to the experience. In spite of such efforts, immersive artworks polarise audiences. A possible explanation for this may be personality factors such as ambiguity tolerance, openness to new experiences, and a low need for cognitive closure, which may be important for transforming confusion into immersion.


OBJECTIVE
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease characterized by unpredictable flares of disease activity and irreversible damage to multiple organ systems. An earlier study showed that SLE patients carrying an interferon (IFN) gene expression signature in blood have elevated serum levels of IFN-regulated chemokines. These chemokines were associated with more-severe and active disease and showed promise as SLE disease activity biomarkers. This study was designed to validate IFN-regulated chemokines as biomarkers of SLE disease activity in 267 SLE patients followed up longitudinally.

METHODS
To validate the potential utility of serum chemokine levels as biomarkers of disease activity, we measured serum levels of CXCL10 (IFNgamma-inducible 10-kd protein), CCL2 (monocyte chemotactic protein 1), and CCL19 (macrophage inflammatory protein 3beta) in an independent cohort of 267 SLE patients followed up longitudinally over 1 year (1,166 total clinic visits).

RESULTS
Serum chemokine levels correlated with lupus activity at the current visit (P = 2 x 10(-10)), rising at the time of SLE flare (P = 2 x 10(-3)) and decreasing as disease remitted (P = 1 x 10(-3)); they also performed better than the currently available laboratory tests. Chemokine levels measured at a single baseline visit in patients with a Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index of < or =4 were predictive of lupus flare over the ensuing year (P = 1 x 10(-4)).

CONCLUSION
Monitoring serum chemokine levels in SLE may improve the assessment of current disease activity, the prediction of future disease flares, and the overall clinical decision-making.


Background Juvenile systemic sclerosis (jSSc) is an orphan autoimmune disease. It was rarely looked at the differences between the clinical presentations of patients at different paediatric age groups. The juvenile scleroderma inception cohort (www.juvenile-scleroderma.com)is a prospective standardized register for patients with jSSc. Objectives Comparison of clinical characteristics of patients with different age range at the time of inclusion in the registry. Methods Patients with jSSc were included worldwide to the juvenile scleroderma inception cohort. We compared the demographics and clinical characteristics of the patients at different age ranges. We created 3 cohorts with different age ranges at onset of disease. Patents aged less than 5 years (Group1), 5–10 years (Group2) and over 10 years (Group3) at the time of diagnosis of the first non-Raynaud involvement of jSSc. Results Up till now 88 patients were enrolled,14 patients (15%) in Group1, 22 (25%) in Group2 and 52 (59%) in Group3. Diffuse subtype occurred in 71% in Group1, in 82% in Group2 and in 65% in Group3. Most patients were Caucasian. Disease duration at time of inclusion into the cohort was 3.9 years in Group1, 4.9 years in Group2 and 2.2 years in Group3. ANA positivity was 57% in Group1, 77% in Group2 and 86% in Group3. Anti-scl 70 was around 30% in all groups. Anti-Centromere positivity was 7 to 10%. Mean modified skin score was 12.4 in Group1, 16.5 in Group2 and 15.9 in Group3. Raynaud Phenomenon occurred in 85 to 95% of the patients. History of active or inactive ulceration occurred in 57% in Group1, 62% in Group2 and 43% in Group3. Decreased FVC under 80% occurred in 43% in Group1, 32% in Group2 and 30% in Group3. Pulmonary hypertension occurred in 7% in Group1 and in 10% in Group3. No renal hypertension was observed. Urinary sedimentary changes occurred in 7% in Group1 and in 10% in Group3. Gastrointestinal involvement occurred in 21% in Group1, 45% in Group2 and 27% in Group3. Musculoskeletal involvement occurred in 58 to 64%. Patient global disease activity (VAS 0–100) was 42.8 to 47.9. Patient global disease damage (VAS 0–100) was 39.6- to 45.0. Physician global disease activity (VAS 0–100) was 35.4–40.0. Physician global disease damage (VAS 0–100) was 37.1 in Group1, 41.3 in Group2 and 27.7 in Group3. Conclusions It seems to be that patients, with onset of the disease in younger age have more severe disease as patients with disease onset after the age of 10 years. We need more patients in our cohort to gain more sufficient data to prove our preliminary observation. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Globalization started sometime ago and is an ongoing process. It is a diverse phenomenon, which has had tremendous impact on all aspects of human life (Larry Ray, 2007). The spread of the culture of globalization can predominantly be attributed to the usage of modern electronic media such as the internet. As Islam is a global phenomenon, it becomes apparent that its principles should be held in the esteem befitting its status and not disregarded as irrelevant. Religious people of all age categories must deign to adapt their traditions to deal with the challenged of modernity. The end goal of globalization is thus to assess and integrate common ground into the world views of Islamic versus Western values rather than provoke bi-polarization and discord. As globalization in its current iteration predominantly stems from the influences of the West, it is paramount to scrutinize the differences in the Muslim interpretation of globalization in relation to its modern incarnation, to explore its differing definitions, the fluctuating goals of the educational systems, the sidelining of local traditions and languages, factors derived from the advent of "brain-drain" from certain nations, appropriate Muslim actions in response to globalization, and finally onto the question, how public sector management should be reformed in line with the reality of globalization and Islamic philosophy of government and administration in the contemporary era? However, following the example of the Western capitalist models and excluding religious public sector reform has produced varied reactions in MMCs. Such reactions include widespread social alienation and accelerated unhappiness and promotion of restless competition rather than cooperation. All these realities raise some unavoidable questions and debates that need to be properly addressed both from theoretical and practical perspectives. A refocused attention at the philosophy of public sector governance in light of the role of religion on the globalized and technology-driven world is an important endeavor to undertake. Thus the main objective of this paper is to explore an administrative model for public sector governance that will fulfil the socio-economic, technological and spiritual needs of a society. Data for this paper will be collected mainly from secondary sources i.e. content analysis. 'Islamic administrative model' as suggested by Al-Buraey will be used as the theoretical underpinning for this study.


If you are new to Reason 4 and want to get up to speed quickly, this CSi Starter is for you. This hands-on, interactive training CD-ROM provides a unique way to work through a basic production from start to finish. Gain a solid understanding of Reason while learning how to use all the exciting new features in version 4. Packed with approximately 3 hours of movie tutorials, this interactive training product guides you through the business of producing a song. Sit back and watch as a pro shows you the ins and outs of Reason 4, and then practice what you've learned with the quizzing feature. With the updated CSi MT Player 4 interface, you'll enjoy a new custom movie playback bar with fast forward and rewind scan options, and location markers that provide an easy way to instantly access the key location of each movie tutorial.


LoRa has emerged as a prominent technology for the Internet of Things (IoT), with LoRa Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) emerging as a suitable connection solution for smart things. The choice of the best location for the installation of gateways, as well as a robust network server configuration, are key to the deployment of a LoRaWAN. In this paper, we present an evaluation of Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) values collected from the real-life LoRaWAN deployed in Skellefteå, Sweden, when compared with the values calculated by a Radio Frequency (RF) planning tool for the Irregular Terrain Model (ITM), Irregular Terrain with Obstructions Model (ITWOM) and Okumura-Hata propagation models. Five sensors are configured and deployed along a wooden bridge, with different Spreading Factors (SFs), such as SF 7, 10 and 12. Our results show that the RSSI values calculated using the RF planning tool for ITWOM are closest to the values obtained from the real-life LoRaWAN. Moreover, we also show evidence that the choice of a propagation model in an RF planning tool has to be made with care, mainly due to the terrain conditions of the area where the network and the sensors are deployed.


Uruk and Ur were two of the most important centres in the early development of the world's first urban settlement in Lower Mesopotamia in the later fourth and early third millennia BC. And yet our knowledge of their socio-political structures and inter-city interactions during these earliest centuries of urban development is highly restricted. For Uruk, the earliest levels underlying the extensive Uruk IV and III precincts are known only from limited soundings and without extensive architectural contextualisation, while the Uruk IV-III buildings themselves were rebuilt and eventually severely truncated in a programme of planned rebuilding at ca. 3100 BC. For Ur, while recent studies have significantly augmented our understanding of the city's early development, we are nevertheless limited to glimpses of Ur's early urban phases through small soundings at the base of Woolley's major trenches within the sacred precincts. Any new information and insights into the socio-political landscapes within which Uruk and Ur operated at the turn of the fourth-third millennia BC are therefore greatly to be welcomed, especially as it is likely to be a long time before modern scientific excavations at either of these key sites investigates levels of this period.


In Egypt, questioning the country's victory in the 1973 War and its implications can lead to media blackout, public outrage, imprisonment and even exile. Public representations of this alleged victory continue to be thus regulated in spite of 40 years of socio-political change, and in the face of a mass corpus of external and even internal literature which tells a different
story. This thesis explores and problematises this persistent war discourse, by tracing the shifting process through which it was constructed and reconstructed by the state throughout the periods of President Anwar Sadat and his successor Hosni Mubarak. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis to combine analysis of texts commemorating the war with a study of the
socio-political milieu related to personal authoritarianism and the state's intricate relations with the army, the press and Islamists. In doing so, it makes an original contribution to theoretical knowledge about the relationship between war and discourse with reference to the Arab world specifically: it unpacks a particular discursive form of legitimacy existing,
equitably and significantly, alongside physical forms centred on the 'use of force' to rule and endure in power. The thesis, furthermore, is empirically innovative in its use of largely untapped sources of Egyptian war discourse such as newspaper archives, textbooks along with war memorials, stamps and even song scripts. The study finds that the interplay of language and politics left the war represented through three coherent and logically structured patterns over 40 years: (1) Egypt had a 'massive and consistent' victory; (2) war was always personalised and personified; and (3) war was always miraclised or/and 'religionised'.Although these patterns were reordered over time (with both change and continuity evident
between the era of Sadat and Mubarak), the official discourse retained an appearance of coherence since it was always so closely attuned to its broader political context. Rather than inferring from this legitimacy that the discourse was as historically 'truthful' as any other, however, the thesis provides hard evidence that it relied on intentional falsehoods.


This paper presents our investigations aimed at improving the orthogonality properties of polynomial higher-order hierarchical basis functions leading to better conditioned MoM matrices and more stable solutions, in both volume integral equation (VIE) modeling and surface integral equation (SIE) modeling. Three different types of polynomial basis functions are implemented in the large-domain Galerkin SIE method, enabling cross-validation of the results and comparison of numerical properties of the three sets of basis functions. We show that by combining the simple 2D power functions of parametric coordinates in accordance to ultraspherical and Chebyshev polynomials, and modifying them so that the current-continuity condition across the quadrilateral edges is automatically satisfied, higher-order polynomial MoM basis functions are obtained that have much better orthogonality properties.


1. Of the four main types of locomotion observed in snakes, three (serpentine, concertina and crotaline) can be elicited from the common grass snake ( Tropidonotus natrix ) by appropriate modification of the animal9s environment. 2. Serpentine motion depends on three factors, (i) The body must be thrown into one or more curves each of which exhibits an increase of curvature when measured towards the head of the animal, (ii) Active muscular tension must develop in the axial muscles which lie on the same side of the body as that in which the curvature is increasing, (iii) The body must be subjected to at least three external resistances acting normally to the surface of the body. The propulsive force is the resultant of the reactions exercised by all these external resistances. 3. A snake cannot propel itself by serpentine movement along a straight or circular path. Under such conditions Tropidonotus progresses by concertina movements, the nature of which are described. 4. The muscular cycle of a snake exhibiting 'crotaline', or side-winding, movements is essentially the same as that during serpentine motion; the difference in the type of movement relative to the ground is due to a difference in the nature of the external resistances offered by the animal9s environment. The mechanical principle of crotaline movement is, fundamentally, that of a caterpillar tractor. 5. Serpentine, concertina, and crotaline movements do not depend on active movements on the part of the ribs or scales. Rectilinear movement involving these structures has not been observed in Tropidonotus .


Melt fragmentation, quenching and long term coolability in a deep pool of water under reactor vessel are employed as a severe accident mitigation strategy in several designs of light water reactors. Success of the strategy is contingent upon effectiveness of natural circulation in removing the decay heat generated by the porous debris bed. Geometrical configuration of the bed is one of the factors which affect coolability of the bed. Boiling and two-phase flow inside the bed serve as a source of mechanical energy which can change the geometry of the debris bed by so called "self-leveling" phenomenon. The goals of this work are (i) to further develop self-leveling modeling approach and validate it against data produced in a new series of PDS-C (Particulate Debris Spreading Closures) experiments, and (ii) to carry out sensitivity-uncertainty analysis for the debris bed spreading for the selected cases of prototypic severe accident conditions. The model has been extended to predict spreading in both planar and axisymmetric geometries. The performed sensitivity analysis ranks the importance of different uncertain input parameters such as accident conditions, debris bed properties, modeling parameters and closures. The knowledge about the most influential parameters is important for further improvement of the model and for efficient reduction of output uncertainties through focused, separate-effect experimental studies. Finally, we report results for particulate debris spreading in prototypic severe accident scenarios with assessment of uncertainties.


A baseline biological survey of plants and vertebrates was undertaken in summer of 1980 on a 12, 355 ha tract of sandsage prairie near Holcomb, Finney County, Kansas. Eighteen species of amphibians and reptiles, including seven new county records, were found on the prairie and a nearby uncultivated \island.\ Two additional species were discovered near the site. Nine species constituted the known breeders on the site, five were probable breeders, two were possible breeders, and two were doubtful breeders. Five habitat types--floodplain, dune sands, choppy sands, level sands, and center pivot diamond - -were utilized based on differences in soil and vegetation. A variety of techniques, including drift fences, pitfall traps, funnel traps, artificial cover, seining, walking, and cruising roads, was employed to sample the herpetofauna of each habitat type.


Retrieval augmentation enables large language models to take advantage of external knowledge, for example on tasks like question answering and data imputation. However, the performance of such retrieval-augmented models is limited by the data quality of their underlying retrieval corpus. In this paper, we propose an algorithm based on multilinear extension for evaluating the data importance of retrieved data points. There are exponentially many terms in the multilinear extension, and one key contribution of this paper is a polynomial time algorithm that computes exactly, given a retrieval-augmented model with an additive utility function and a validation set, the data importance of data points in the retrieval corpus using the multilinear extension of the model's utility function. We further proposed an even more efficient ({\epsilon}, {\delta})-approximation algorithm. Our experimental results illustrate that we can enhance the performance of large language models by only pruning or reweighting the retrieval corpus, without requiring further training. For some tasks, this even allows a small model (e.g., GPT-JT), augmented with a search engine API, to outperform GPT-3.5 (without retrieval augmentation). Moreover, we show that weights based on multilinear extension can be computed efficiently in practice (e.g., in less than ten minutes for a corpus with 100 million elements).


: The incidence of tuberculosis was analyzed in all 16 districts and Kyzyl (the capital) of the Republic of Tyva in 1998-2002. There was an increase in its incidence rates (from 13.15 to 133.6%) in 9 districts and a decrease in this index (from 15.3% to 45.2%) in 7 districts and by 6.6% in Kyzyl. In terms of the average annual rates, there were 3 districts with relatively low incidence rates those were 64.9, 60.5, and 53.0%, respectively, less than the average republican rate and 2 districts with high incidence rates that were 46.9 and 27.9%, respectively, higher than the average republican rate. The geographical location of districts and the density of the population were found to be one of the factors that influence the incidence of tuberculosis. According to the age-specific structure of morbidity, the highest peak fell on young age (18-44 years) in both the districts with low and high rates and the republic as a whole. According to sex, more frequently patients were males in the districts with low incidence rates and females in those with high rates, which is a poor predictor of a further epidemiological situation. The found specific features of the prevalence of tuberculosis in the districts of the Republic of Tyva should be taken into account in implementing tuberculosis-controlling measures.


More than 300 characteristics have been proposed to explain the cross-section of stock returns. The existing literature employs Fama-MacBeth regressions to examine which characteristics are significant when considered jointly, but this approach ignores portfolio selection features such as diversification and transaction costs. We study which characteristics are jointly significant for portfolio construction and why. Using the parametric portfolios of Brandt et al. (2009), we find that although 12 characteristics are significant in the absence of transaction costs, only five are significant once transaction costs are taken into account. Moreover, we find that prominent characteristics such as momentum and book to market are not significant because, although their expected returns are higher than their associated transaction costs, these characteristics do not help to diversify the portfolio. We also propose a class of big-data parametric portfolios that an investor can use to exploit a large set of characteristics, and show that these portfolios attain out-of-sample Sharpe ratios around 150% larger than those of the benchmark value-weighted portfolio and around 75% larger than that of portfolios that exploit only the traditional size, momentum, and book-tomarket characteristics.


We have studied the process of creation of solitons and generation of fractal structures in the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation when the relation between the nonlinearity and dispersion is abruptly changed. We observed that when this relation is changed nonadiabatically the solitary waves present in the system lose their stability and split up into ones that are stable for the set of parameters. When this process is successively repeated the trajectories of the solitary waves create a fractal treelike structure where each branch bifurcates into others. This structure is formed until the iteration where two solitary waves overlap just before the breakup. By means of a method based on the inverse scattering transformation, we have obtained analytical results that predict and control the number, amplitude, and velocity of the solitary waves that arise in the system after every change in the relation between the dispersion and the nonlinearity. This complete analytical information allows us to define a recursive L system which coincides with the treelike structure, governed by KdV, until the stage when the solitons start to overlap and is used to calculate the Hausdorff dimension and the multifractal properties of the set formed by the segments defined by each of the two "brothers" solitons before every breakup.


Masatake Honda majored in inorganic chemistry at the University of Tokyo and then pursued graduate studies in geochemistry. In 1943, he completed his first research project, which yielded new data on the behavior of strontium in carbonates. He then spent the next two years as a technical officer in the Japanese Imperial Navy. While on duty, he gained expertise in the important new field of ion exchange methods, which he ultimately chose as the topic for his Ph.D. thesis and then expanded into a book. In 1955, Honda traveled to Switzerland and spent a year in research laboratories at Bern and Zrich. He then joined Professor James R. Arnold at Princeton University and soon began focusing his research on cosmic-ray produced nuclides in meteorites. Two years later, he accompanied Dr. Arnold to the University of California at La Jolla where they joined the research group of Professor Harold C. Urey. Honda developed techniques for measuring terrestrial ages of meteorites and showed that most of them have survived weathering for vastly longer periods than had been anticipated. After spending nearly eight years abroad, he returned to Japan in 1962 as a full professor at the University of Tokyo. During the Apollo missions, he performed research on cosmogenic nuclides in lunar rocks, surface soils, and deep drill cores. In the same period, he studied terrestrial histories of numerous Antarctic meteorites. In 1992, he retired from his professorship but he continues to carry on his research and to publish papers. In 1987, the Meteoritical Society presented its Leonard Medal to Masatake Honda for his pioneering work in establishing the abundances and production rates of stable, long-lived, and short-lived nuclides by cosmic irradiation of meteorites and lunar samples.


PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effect of service authenticity, customer participation (CP) and customer-perceived service climate on customers' service evaluation within the context of smartphone repair services in South Korea. A conceptual model, including customer-perceived service climate, service authenticity, CP, service value and service satisfaction, was proposed and tested.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test the research model using a structural equation modeling approach (Amos) based on a mobile survey of 430 South Korean consumers. The authors design the research based on causal relationships and collect the data using the convenience sampling method.FindingsThe authors found that the independent variables (customer-perceived service climate, service authenticity and CP) have a positive effect on service value as well as service satisfaction. Further, service value has a mediating effect on the relationships between the independent variables and service satisfaction.Originality/valueThis is the first study to examine the effects of smartphone repair service on customers' evaluation. As the number of smartphone users increases, the results obtained from this study will provide important managerial implications for service managers.


In hydrology, two somewhat competing philosophies form the basis of most process-based models. At one endpoint of this continuum are detailed, high-resolution descriptions of small-scale processes that are numerically integrated to larger scales (e.g. catchments). At the other endpoint of the continuum are spatially lumped representations of the system that express the hydrological response via, in the extreme case, a single linear transfer function. Many other models, developed starting from these two contrasting endpoints, plot along this continuum with different degrees of spatial resolutions and process complexities. A better understanding of the respective basis as well as the respective shortcomings of different modelling philosophies has the potential to improve our models. In this paper we analyse several frequently communicated beliefs and assumptions to identify, discuss and emphasize the functional similarity of the seemingly competing modelling philosophies. We argue that deficiencies in model applications largely do not depend on the modelling philosophy, although some models may be more suitable for specific applications than others and vice versa, but rather on the way a model is implemented. Based on the premises that any model can be implemented at any desired degree of detail and that any type of model remains to some degree conceptual, we argue that a convergence of modelling strategies may hold some value for advancing the development of hydrological models.


Beetles are arguably the most diverse group of animals on Earth with over 400 000 described species. Yet the timing of main diversification events among these insects remains debated. The use of phylogenomic data generated using next‐generation sequencing recently resolved most recalcitrant phylogenetic relationships across Coleoptera. However, limited taxon sampling for some major clades still prevents the use of important fossil calibrations that could provide more accurate estimates of the timing of lineage diversification events among beetles. Here, we present a new fossil‐based dated framework with a focus on the suborder Adephaga. We rely on an integrative phylogenomic approach using a combination of genomic, ultraconserved element and RNAseq transcriptomic datasets, further revealing the prevalent exonic nature of ultraconserved elements in Coleoptera. We infer a robust phylogenomic tree under various optimality criteria and analytical conditions. Our preferred phylogenetic reconstruction is consistent with those of previous phylogenomic studies in recovering the paraphyly of 'Hydradephaga', Gyrinidae as sister to all other Adephaga, the monophyly of Geadephaga and Haliplidae as sister to a monophyletic Dytiscoidea. We further recover strong support for paraphyly of Aspidytidae and the placement of Hygrobiidae as part of a clade comprising Aspidytes, Ribera, Beutel, Balke & Vogler, Sinaspidytes Balke, Beutel & Ribera and Amphizoidae. Using 23 carefully chosen fossil calibrations across Coleoptera, we infer the origin of modern beetles ca. 317 Ma in the mid‐Carboniferous, the divergence between Archostemata and Adephaga ca. 296 Ma in the early Permian, and the crown of Adephaga in the end‐Permian ca. 255 Ma. Importantly, our analyses provide more precise estimates of divergence times for internal splits within Adephaga, including ground beetles, tiger beetles and aquatic adephagan lineages. These results represent a major step forward in our understanding of beetle diversification and will serve as a fundamental framework to unravel the evolutionary history of many clades within Adephaga.


The in vitro effects of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) on MGC 80-3 cells were studied by light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and biochemical methods. The results indicated that the inhibitory effects of DMSO on the growth of MGC 80-3 cells was concentration dependent and 1.5% DMSO was suitable in the present study. The growth rate, mitotic index, colony forming efficiency and Con A-aggregation of the cells treated with 1.5% DMSO in vitro for 7 days was reduced respectively by 35.15%, 18/1000, 90% and 55.8%. It was remarkable that the activity of membrane-associated alkaline phosphatase, which is not presented in normal human gastric mucosa, was decreased by 90% in the treated cells. There was a 75% decrease of the rate of tumorigenesis in the treated cells as compared with the tumorigenic rate of the untreated MGC 80-3 cells inoculated into nude mice. Gross morphological changes of MGC 80-3 cells treated with 1.5% DMSO were evident including enlargement and flatness of the cells, stumpy microvillies instead of long and rigid ones, and extremely well-developed Golgi apparatus and rough endoplasmic reticulum. This data indicated that DMSO was able to induce differentiation of MGC 80-3 cells and change their malignant phenotypes.


Mutations in the human EYA1 gene are associated with several congenital disorders, as for example BOR (branchio-oto-renal) syndrome. BOR patients suffer from severe malformations of the ear, the branchial arches and the kidneys. The mechanisms by which EYA1 mutations cause human disease are only poorly understood. Several disease-associated EYA1 mutations were characterized in this work regarding their effect on Eya1 protein function. Some of the mutations lead to enhanced proteasomal degradation of the protein in mammalian cells. Loss of Eya1 activity due to loss of Eya1 protein might represent a so far unknown mechanism for the onset of EYA1-associated diseases. Further analyses revealed that ubiquitination occurs in the C-terminus of Eya1 and is inhibited by interaction with Six1. These findings indicate that Six1 is involved in the regulation of Eya1 protein stability. A central aim of this work was the identification of novel Eya1-interacting proteins. Using yeast two-hybrid analysis two novel interaction partners were identified: Sipl1 and Rbck1. Binding studies demonstrated that the interaction is mediated via the C-terminus of Eya1 and the Ubl domain of Sipl1 or Rbck1, respectively. Furthermore, orthologs of Sipl1 and Rbck1 were identified in zebrafish. Sipl1 and Rbck1 are co-expressed with Eya1 in several organs during embryogenesis of both mouse and zebrafish. Interestingly, knockdown of one Sipl1 ortholog in zebrafish led to a BOR syndrome-like phenotype. The results of expression studies and knockdown analyses indicate that, indeed, the Eya1-Sipl1/Rbck1 interaction is of physiological relevance in the context of organ development. This hypothesis was underlined by the identification of SIPL1 and RBCK1 mutations in patients suffering from BOR syndrome. A first mechanistic basis was provided by results from transactivation studies showing that Sipl1 and Rbck1 enhance the function of Eya proteins to act as co-activators for the Six transcription factors.


The problem of spectrum sensing in bandwidth-constrained cognitive sensor networks with quantised sensing observation is studied. In particular, the quantisation bit budget for achieving performance close to that of spectrum sensing with raw sensing observation is investigated. Both single-user spectrum sensing and collaborative spectrum sensing schemes are proposed. In single-user spectrum sensing, a sensor quantises its sensing observation and sends the quantised sensing observation to a processing point. The processing point performs spectrum sensing based on the reconstructed sensing observation. In collaborative spectrum sensing, each sensor sends a quantised sensing observation to a processing point and each processing point performs local spectrum sensing based on the reconstructed sensing observation. Then, each processing point sends a binary decision bit to a fusion centre. The fusion centre combines the decision bits by using a counting rule to generate the final spectrum sensing result. The detection probability and the false alarm probability are derived and simulated. The results show that there exists an optimal quantisation bit budget for which the detection probability and the false alarm probability are almost the same as those in spectrum sensing with raw sensing observation. Compared to existing spectrum sensing schemes with quantised sensing observation, the proposed schemes are more suitable for implementation in cognitive sensor networks.


Mechanical Regulation in Cell Division and in Neurotransmitter Release Sathish Thiyagarajan During their lifecycle, cells must produce forces which play important roles in several subcellular processes. Force-producing components are organized into macromolecular assemblies of proteins that are often dynamic, and are constructed or disassembled in response to various signals. The forces themselves may directly be involved in subcellular mechanics, or they may influence mechanosensing proteins either within or outside these structures. These proteins play different roles: they may ensure the stability of the force-producing structure, or they may send signals to a coupled process. The generation and sensing of subcellular forces is an active research topic, and this thesis focusses on the roles of these forces in two key areas: cell division and neurotransmitter release. The first part of the thesis deals with the effect of force on cell wall growth regulation during division in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a cigar-shaped, unicellular organism. During cytokinesis, the last stage of cell division in which the cell physically divides into two, a tense cytokinetic ring anchored to the cellular membrane assembles and constricts, accompanied by the inward centripetal growth of new cell wall, called septum, in the wake of the inward-moving membrane. The contour of the septum hole maintains its circularity as it reduces in size—an indication of regulated growth. To characterize the cell wall growth process, we performed image analysis on contours of the leading edge of the septum obtained via fluorescence microscopy in the labs of our collaborators. We quantified the deviations from circularity using the edge roughness. The roughness was spatially correlated, suggestive of regulated growth. We hypothesized that the cell wall growers are mechanosensitive and respond to the force exerted by the ring. A mathematical model based on this hypothesis then showed that this leads to corrections of roughness in a curvature-dependent fashion. Thus, one of the roles of ring tension is to communicate with the mechanosensitive septum growth processes and coordinate growth to ensure the daughter cells have a functional cell wall. The second part of the thesis deals with how ring tension is produced and sustained, using experimentally measured ultrastructure of the cytokinetic ring itself. Recent super-resolution experiments have revealed that several key proteins of the fission yeast constricting ring are organized into membrane-anchored complexes called nodes. The force producing protein myosinII in these nodes exerts pulling forces on polymeric actin filaments that are synthesized from polymerizers residing in the nodes. How these forces are marshalled to generate ring tension, and how such an organization maintains its stability is unclear. Using a mathematical model with coarse-grained representations of actin and myosin, we showed that such a node-based organization reproduces previously measured ring tension values. The model explains the origin of experimentally observed bidirectional motion of the nodes in the ring, and showed that turnover of the nodes rescues the ring from inherent contractile instabilities that would be expected when a force-producing structure is made up of small object that effectively attract one another. Finally, the third part of the thesis deals with the role of forces produced by SNARE proteins at synapses between two neurons during neurotransmission. A key step here is synaptic release, where inside a neuron, membrane-bound compartments called vesicles filled with neurotransmitter fuse with the membrane of the neuron forming a transient fusion pore, and release their contents to the outside of the cell. These neurotransmitter molecules are sensed by another neuron that is physically separate from the neuron in question and this neuron propagates the signal henceforth. Thus, regulation of neurotransmitter release is a key step in neurotransmission. A fusion machinery consisting of several proteins facilitates membrane fusion, and pore nucleation requires the formation of a SNARE protein complex in this machinery, whose role during pore dilation is unclear. Using electrophysiological measurements, our collaborators experimentally measured the statistics of the size of single fusion pores in vitro, and observed that average pore sizes increased with the number of SNARE proteins. Using mathematical modeling, we showed that this effect was due to an entropic crowding force that expands the pore and increases with the number of SNAREs, and counteracts the energy barrier to fusion pore expansion.


The impact of different dietary protein sources (whey, casein, soybean, red meat) on the incidence, burden and mass index of intestinal tumors induced by dimethylhydrazine in male Sprague-Dawley rats was assessed. A purified diet (based on AIN-76A) with a fat concentration of 20 g/100 g and other proteins substituted for casein (20 g/100 g) was used. Whey and casein diets were more protective against the development of intestinal tumors than were the red meat or soybean diets, as evidenced by a reduced incidence of rats affected (P = 0.15), fewer tumors per treatment group (burden, P < 0.005), and a reduced pooled area of tumors (tumor mass index) that formed (P = 0.39). Intracellular concentration of glutathione, an antioxidant and anticarcinogenic tripeptide, measured in liver, was greatest in whey protein- and casein-fed rats and lowest in soybean-fed animals (P < 0.001). For other tissues (spleen, colon, tumor) the differences were not significant, although the whey-fed animals had the highest concentrations of glutathione (P = 0.8). Whey is a source of precursors (cysteine-rich proteins) for glutathione synthesis and may be important in providing protection to the host by stimulating glutathione synthesis. A positive correlation was observed between mean fecal fat concentrations for rats in each treatment group and large intestinal tumor burden (r2 = 0.898, P = 0.05). Fecal fat could be involved in aiding initiation and/or promotion of carcinogenesis. Whatever the mechanism(s), dairy proteins, and whey proteins in particular, offer considerable protection to the host against dimethylhydrazine-induced tumors relative to the other protein sources examined.


INTRODUCTION
The reverse sural artery flap eliminates the need for long and technically demanding free tissue transfers, which have become the gold standard for significant tissue defects in the distal third of the leg and ankle. Unfortunately, the originally described reverse sural artery flap technique has a risk of partial or total flap necrosis as high as 25%. We hypothesized that delaying the flap (the delay time ranged from 48 hours to 2 weeks) and using a 4-cm wide pedicle would decrease the amount of partial flap necrosis that commonly occurs with this flap.

PATIENTS
Five patients (3 women, 2 men) with open wounds in the distal lower extremity were treated with delayed fasciocutaneous reverse sural artery flaps elevated on a 4-cm wide pedicle.

RESULTS
The patients ranged from 22 to 75 years of age and had sustained defects in the ankle region resulting from trauma. All five wounds healed with favorable functional and asthetic results without any evidence of flap necrosis.

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with known vasculopathy, a surgical delay of 1 week and increasing the pedicle size to 4 cm may increase the likelihood of graft survival and decrease the amount of partial flap necrosis by dilating the arterial network.


Introduction: Although not an inevitable part of ageing, frailty is an increasingly common condition in older people (Savva et al., 2013). The associated  potential for serious adverse outcomes means that even a relatively minor event such as an infection can result in a dramatic change in health status: from independent to dependent; mobile to immobile; postural stability to falling; lucid to delirious (Clegg, 2013). Furthermore, frailty has been shown to be a strong and independent predictor of emergency department visits and hospitalisations, hospital readmissions (Pugh et al., 2014) and in-hospital mortality (Bagshaw et al. 2013). Healthcare professionals need to understand the risk factors for frailty to enable them to implement effective programmes for detection, prevention and management.   Frailty: What We Know The recognition of frailty is important and should form part of any interaction between an older person and a healthcare professional.  An individual's degree of frailty is not static. It may improve or deteriorate, and is influenced by factors including the care received when an individual presents to a health professional. One of the major challenges posed by an ageing population is the ability of healthcare professionals to understand, recognise and manage frailty Programme Aim: Frailty is an emerging science and this programme was developed to provide healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills required to provide effective care to older people living with frailty, wherever they access health services. It aims to provide healthcare professionals with an enhanced understanding of frailty and frailty assessments, thereby ensuring earlier recognition , improved healthcare management and better health outcomes for frail older adults. The programme philosophy is based on the belief that education increases knowledge and enhances healthcare professional's skills in the clinical area. Methodoogy: The National Frailty Education Programme (NFEP) is a collaboration between NCPOP and The Irish Longtitudinal Study on Aging (TILDA), in partnership with the Acute and Emergency Medicine Programmes. Using a "proof of concept" design the programme is being piloted in three Hospital Groups and corresponding Community Healthcare Organisations. The programme methodology involves: Step 1: Nominated facilitators from  participating hospitals and CHOs attend a one day "Insights into Frailty" education Programme with TILDA. These nominees are representitive of all members of the multidisciplinary team. Step 2: This group attend a one-day workshop with the NCPOP Step 3: These facilitators roll-out  the NFEP in an integrated manner across their local organisation. Parallel to this a local governance group is established to support the programme roll-out and to consider new ways of working that will  enhance outcomes for the frail older person accessing their services Evaluation: Survey of facilitators knowledge pre and post TILDA Analysis of NFEP participants learning Service outcome evaluation may include: implementation of an assessment tool, audit of the use of the chosen tool, documented referral pathways, initiation of CGA and audit of numbers undertaken. Further examination of impact may involve decreased length of stay, reduction in falls, and audit of delirium management. All outcome measures would be aligned to the NCPOP KPI's and national strategy.


This paper examines the evolution of national agricultural sectors m European Commumty (EC) member countries over the last decade of general econom1c turbulence. It assesses the degree of between-country "convergence" in trends in sectoral variables achieved under the influence of the EC's common agricultural pohcy (CAP). Principal components analysis 1s used to identify similarities and differences. S1milanties were particularly noticeable between certain subgroups of countries. Despite considerable divergences m rates of 1nflatton, an overall tendency towards convergence emerges for internal tenns of trade and for real incomes considered as real value added per agricultural labour unit. The patterns of convergence emerging from this study show a certain parallel with those found in studies of convergence conducted at macro level. The result 1s considered as a positive achievement for the CAP, which appears to have inserted the agncultural sector mto the process of economic mtegration foreseen by the founders of the European Community.


Science and engineering of fiber reinforced advanced composite materials (FRC) is an actively broadening research field with more and more emphasis on their multi-phase and multi-scale characteristics. While emerging manufacturing and characterization techniques provide ability to manipulate the materials at all scales from traditional macro to relatively recent emergence of nano-scale, computational tools provide better understanding of behavior of composite materials. Collective and coherent use of these abilities and tools can make composites better. This thesis is an effort to address how and why engineers can and should associate other characteristic scales with the traditional macro-scale engineering of composites. Three different studies on structural composites which exemplifies the need for multi-scale overlook are reported, each contained in individual chapters. Nano-Macro associated case study: In-house synthesized poly(styrene-co-glycidyl methacrylate) based nano-fibers manufactured by electro-spinning were implemented to carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites as interlayers. As a result of several mechanical tests and fracture analysis a significant increase in resistance against mode II delamination (70%) and transverse matrix cracking (25%) with literally no weight penalty was observed. This increase was attributed to the chemistry tuned epoxy compatibility of nano-fibrous interlayers. Micro-Macro associated case study: A systematic statistical tool built upon an intensive amount of finite element analyses. Surrogate models on the micromechanics based stress amplification factors for CFRP reinforced epoxy composites are offered. Quadratic models are reported taking longitudinal fiber stiffness (Ef), fiber volume fraction (Vf) and matrix stiffness (Em) as input and calculates each term of the stress amplification matrix that can connect macro-level stresses to micro-level stresses. Meso-Macro associated case study: The fiber bundle width and inter-bundle distance of non-crimp fabric reinforcements (NCF) was considered. The effect of reinforcement architecture on the mechanical response was evaluated through the manufacturing and testing of vinyl ester based composite laminates containing glass fiber NCF of 300 TEX, 600 TEX, 1200 TEX and 2400 TEX yarn numbers with constant aerial weight. Overall results suggested that the inter-bundle distance was a tunable meso scale property that was effective especially under in-plane shear and longitudinal tensile loads.


OBJECTIVE
To assess current knowledge on development and associated structures.

DATA SOURCES
Current scientific publications in the pubmed data base on the development of human female urethra were reviewed. The embryology of human female urethra and its associated structures is presented.

STUDY SELECTION
The following search words: urethra development, female urethra development, and male urethra development were used.

DATA EXTRACTION
The first 100 publications from urethra development search and thereafter 100 publications excluding those in the first search were reviewed to determine whether they described development of female urethra.

DATA SYNTHESIS
There are limited studies describing the formation of female urethra. Unlike male urethra, female urethra does not undergo masculinisation meaning there is no formation of clitoral urethra. Like the male urethra, there are female urethra associated glands whose presence and functions remain speculative. Female urethra associated structures including Skene's glands also referred to as female prostate, corpus spongiosum of female urethra and what has been described as the G-Spot may all be congenital malformations considering that they are not uniformly present.

CONCLUSIONS
Female urethra development differs from that of males though there are some similarities. Studies to elucidate the development of female urethra are needed to clarify some of the misconceptions and to provide embryological explanation of gross and histological features of female urethra.


Objective: The present study compared the effects of a variety of mobile phone usage conditions to different levels of alcohol intoxication on simulated driving performance and psychomotor vigilance. Methods: Twelve healthy volunteers participated in a crossover design in which each participant completed a simulated driving task on 2 days, separated by a 1-week washout period. On the mobile phone day, participants performed the simulated driving task under each of 4 conditions: no phone usage, a hands-free naturalistic conversation, a hands-free cognitively demanding conversation, and texting. On the alcohol day, participants performed the simulated driving task at four different blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels: 0.00, 0.04, 0.07, and 0.10. Driving performance was assessed by variables including time within target speed range, time spent speeding, braking reaction time, speed deviation, and lateral lane position deviation. Results: In the BAC 0.07 and 0.10 alcohol conditions, participants spent less time in the target speed range and more time speeding and took longer to brake in the BAC 0.04, 0.07, and 0.10 than in the BAC 0.00 condition. In the mobile phone condition, participants took longer to brake in the natural hands-free conversation, cognitively demanding hands-free conversation and texting conditions and spent less time in the target speed range and more time speeding in the cognitively demanding, hands-free conversation, and texting conditions. When comparing the 2 conditions, the naturalistic conversation was comparable to the legally permissible BAC level (0.04), and the cognitively demanding and texting conversations were similar to the BAC 0.07 to 0.10 results. Conclusion: The findings of the current laboratory study suggest that very simple conversations on a mobile phone may not represent a significant driving risk (compared to legally permissible BAC levels), whereas cognitively demanding, hands-free conversation, and particularly texting represent significant risks to driving.


One hundred thirty four cases of spontaneous intraparenchymatous hematomas have been studied. They were separated into six groups according to criteria related to topography, level of consciousness, and hematoma volume. Treatment protocols--conservative, conservative with I.C.P. monitoring, and surgical--were different in each group. Results have shown an increased mortality (p < 0.05) among patients whose level of consciousness were more severely compromised, in those older than 50 years old, and in those harbouring quadrilateral, intraventricular or brainstem hematomas. Overall mortality was 26.1%.


1,6-Dimercapto-1,6 -diamino-2,4,5-triaza-3-phenyl-3-hexene (MAAPHE) was synthesised and used as a spectrophotometric reagent for nickel. Ni (II) forms pale yellow coloured complex between pH range 7.0 to 11.0 and shows maxm absorption at 385 nm. Molar absorptivity for Ni- MAAPHE is 2.850 x 103 L/mol/cm. Ni-MAAPHE has 1 : 2 (M : L) stoichiometry. Beer's law is obeyed up to 16.49 ppm for Ni (II). The reagent has been found to give satisfactory results for the analysis of nickel in German-silver alloy. Formation of the complex has been supported from the IR spectral data.


Bridges are highly complex structures exposed to heavy environmental and mechanical loads, which require immense financial investments in all life cycle periods, from planning, design, operation and end of life phase. The longest period in whole life cycle of a bridge is operational phase which includes numerous maintenance and repair activities. Timing of these activities and their extent is a crucial factor that influences bridge future performance.
Traditionally, the decision to perform maintenance is based on the infrastructure managers' observations, judgments and choices which are derived from inspection results, available budgets and abrupt failures. Though, maintenance based on these drivers very often leads to undue maintenance with increased cost. For this reason, predictive maintenance is considered to be a most effective maintenance policy that suggests to perform maintenance only where it is promptly needed. However, predictive maintenance poses decision-making challenges for infrastructure managers. Particularly for road infrastructure networks, the maintenance decision-making is a difficult task due to a widespread network of diverse infrastructure objects, availability demands, deterioration rate and budget constraints. Such infrastructure maintenance requirements pose decision-making dilemmas to the infrastructure managers, where maintenance planning is challenged by the number of conflicting issues (e.g. limited budget vs. aging network, the risk of failures vs. traffic intensity over an object).
This paper tries to examine the effect of two opposing maintenance strategies for life cycle management of bridges, corrective and preventive maintenance based on historical data about bridges in three countries and 30 years of experience. The maintenance costs for bridge structural elements at different condition levels are analysed, based on the data from three countries, Croatia, Slovenia and the Netherlands, where different approaches to maintenance strategies are being applied. The overall maintenance costs over a longer period of time, up to 30 years are collected and analysed, with the aim to clearly define pros and cons for both approaches.


The Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS) Large Program provides a detailed, high-resolution (∼10–20 au) view of molecular line emission in five protoplanetary disks at spatial scales relevant for planet formation. Here we present a systematic analysis of chemical substructures in 18 molecular lines toward the MAPS sources: IM Lup, GM Aur, AS 209, HD 163296, and MWC 480. We identify more than 200 chemical substructures, which are found at nearly all radii where line emission is detected. A wide diversity of radial morphologies—including rings, gaps, and plateaus—is observed both within each disk and across the MAPS sample. This diversity in line emission profiles is also present in the innermost 50 au. Overall, this suggests that planets form in varied chemical environments both across disks and at different radii within the same disk. Interior to 150 au, the majority of chemical substructures across the MAPS disks are spatially coincident with substructures in the millimeter continuum, indicative of physical and chemical links between the disk midplane and warm, elevated molecular emission layers. Some chemical substructures in the inner disk and most chemical substructures exterior to 150 au cannot be directly linked to dust substructure, however, which indicates that there are also other causes of chemical substructures, such as snowlines, gradients in UV photon fluxes, ionization, and radially varying elemental ratios. This implies that chemical substructures could be developed into powerful probes of different disk characteristics, in addition to influencing the environments within which planets assemble. This paper is part of the MAPS special issue of the Astrophysical Journal Supplement.


Bullying - The Perspective of the Accused takes a practical, realistic view of interactions between people and demonstrates that accusations of bullying are not always as easy to interpret and to unravel as might be thought.
This work considers that whilst research and understanding of the bullying and the effect on targets, the voice of the alleged bully is seldom heard.

The confusion between performance management and bullying is considered along with a comprehensive examination of employers' duty of care, organizational policies and procedures and the levels of support offered to those accused of workplace bullying.

While there are many case studies outlining shocking, undoubtedly bullying behaviour by individuals or organizations, it seems there are very few detailing the extremely negative impact on some of those who are accused.


In order to evaluate the deep bedding technology as alternative for
fattening pigs in the rural sector, in Cuba. Two rearing cycles of 106
days with 108 animals each (castrated males and females), YL
(Camborough) cross, of approximately 21,0 kg live weight and 75 days
average age were used. The pigs were distributed into a random block
design with three treatments for each cycle: T1, deep bedding based on
gramineous hay; T2, deep bedding based on dried sugar cane bagasse
(80%) and gramineous hay (20%) and T3, solid concrete floor, with four
repetitions by treatments. The animal performance traits (up to
approximately 100 kg live weight) were studied. A chemical and
microbiological evaluation of the bedding material was made. There were
significant differences for the consumption and the alimentary
conversion (P <0,05) to the pigs housed in hay bed, bagasse and hay
bed and solid concrete floor: 2,53; 2,50; 2,74; 3,42; 3,38 y 3,60
respectively. Significant differences were obtained (P <0,01) for
the nitrogen and the phosphorous in the bedding material at the end of
the experience: 1,43 and 1,85, respectively. There was not presence of
Salmonella sp and helmints eggs. It was saved 360 m3 of water. It was
conclude that the deep bedding technology is an alternative that
satisfies the current demands of the rural pig producers in Cuba.


Cleat and clastic dikes of Middle Pennsylvanian-age coal beds of the Illinois and Forest City basins of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas locally contain appreciable amounts of sphalerite within a kaolinite-pyrite-sphalerite (+ or - pyrite)-calcite paragenetic sequence. The sphalerite and associated minerals are of interest as a partial record of the history of fluids in the sedimentary basin and as possible indicators of Mississippi Valley-type mineralization. Moreover, zinc from the sphalerite may represent an exploitable by-product of coal mining and combustion.Pyrite is abundant in these coals both as fine-grained disseminated framboids that formed during early diagenesis and as coarser grained cleat fillings, etc., that formed much later. The delta 34 S values of this later pyrite, the sphalerite, and the coal organic matter range from -12 to 19 per mil. Within individual samples, however, pyrite, sphalerite, and organic matter sulfur delta 34 S values are nearly identical. This similarity strongly suggests related origins. The delta 34 S values of pyrite, sphalerite, and organic matter from coals of the Illinois basin and the central and southern Forest City basin range from -12 to 0 per mil. This range is not unique to the sphalerite-bearing coals; pyrite and organic matter from sphalerite-free high sulfur coals have similar delta 34 S values (Price and Shieh, 1979). We believe that sulfur produced by the breakdown of organosulfur compounds in the coal is incorporated into the epigenetic sulfides. In the northern Forest City basin, however, many samples have delta 34 S values between 8 and 19 per mil. These are similar to the delta 34 S values of sphalerite and pyrite from the Upper Mississippi Valley Zn-Pb district which lies northeast of the Forest City basin and north of the Illinois basin. This similarity suggests input from a Mississippi Valley-type hydrothermal system.Cleat kaolinite has delta D values of -36 to -24 per mil and delta 18 O values of 19.2 to 20.2 per mil. Assuming that clearing postdated the lignite rank of coalification implies that kaolinite was deposited between 40 degrees and 100 degrees C. At the lower temperatures, the kaolinite fluid would have had an isotopic composition similar to seawater; at the higher temperatures, it would have had a composition similar to the sphalerite-depositing fluid. Sphalerite was deposited from a fluid that was chemically and isotopically similar to the fluids responsible for the main-stage ores of the Upper Mississippi Valley Zn-Pb district (75 degrees -113 degrees C, approximately 21 equiv wt % NaCl, delta D = -65 to -3ppm, and delta 18 O = -0.9-9.9ppm). The isotopic compositions (delta 13 C = -12.4 to -2.7ppm and delta 18 O = 21.1-25.8ppm) and paragenetic positions of the cleat calcite samples are similar to those of the late-stage calcite of the Upper Mississippi Valley Zn-Pb and Illinois-Kentucky fluorspar districts. Calcite inclusion fluids had delta D (sub H 2 O) values of -80 and -58 per mil, implying a meteoric water source. At probable temperatures of 15 degrees to 75 degrees C, this calcite formed from fluids having calculated delta 18 O (sub H 2 O) values of -9 to 1 per mil, implying slight to moderate exchange with sedimentary rocks. The diagenetic-epigenetic history of fluids recorded by the cleat minerals probably began with a slightly evolved seawater, followed by a metal-bearing deep basin brine, and concluded with a cooler, slightly evolved, meteoric-water fluid.


We study the consequences of misreporting in settings where ambiguity-averse investors face uncertainty about two aspects of the firm: its productivity and the weakness of its reporting system. We show that the joint presence of these two sources of uncertainty distorts the firm's investment choices in opposing ways, leading to overinvestment by large firms (to signal productivity) and underinvestment by small firms (to signal that the reporting system is not weak). Our analysis suggests that uncertainty regarding reporting weakness affects both the level of the market-to-book ratio and its association with firm size. In addition, we show that, under plausible circumstances, reductions in uncertainty can be detrimental to social welfare: lower information asymmetry about reporting weakness always encourages more aggressive misreporting and boosts investment, thereby exacerbating the possible overinvestment problem faced by some firms. This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting.


The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the Y-trellis (YT) and vertical shoot-positioned (VSP) training systems on the incidence and severity of Botrytis cinerea , on cluster compactness, and total polyphenol (TP) contents of 'Sauvignon Blanc' grapevine ( Vitis vinifera ) in the municipality of Sao Joaquim, in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Field trials were carried out in a randomized complete block design during the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 crop seasons, with assessments performed at harvest. The YT system causes a higher incidence and severity of botrytis bunch rot under climatic conditions favorable to the pathogen, as well as greater cluster compactness, than the VSP system, without affecting the content of total polyphenols of 'Sauvignon Blanc' grapevine.


Abstract This study designed to evaluate the clinical usefulness of IgE as a serological marker for diagnosis of nodular scabies. Sixty eight patients suffering from nodular scabies and twenty apparently healthy subjects as control group were included .The mean age of patients group was ( 31.67±1.67)years compared with (33.5 ±2.27) years in control group .Among patients group, males represent(76.5%) compared with (23.5%) females. Among control group males represent (55%) versus (45%) females .The mean of IgE concentration among control group was (59.25 ± 5.36 U/ml) compared with (160.16 ±16.78 U/ml )among patients group with statistical significant difference (p<0.05 ).In (34/ 68) of scabietic patients, the concentration of IgE was lower than cutoff concentration with the mean (46.23 ±5.09IU/ml ).The rest (34/ 68) scabietic patients have elevated concentration of IgE(274.08 ±18.18IU/ml ).There was a statistical significant difference (p<0.05) between patients groups in IgE concentrations. This study concludes that the diagnostic value of IgE as a serological marker cannot be considered as a single parameter for diagnosis of nodular scabies without clinical manifestations. This study proved that the serological concentration of IgE not necessarily elevated in all cases of nodular scabies


OBJECTIVE
Investigate how a multitude of patient demographics and extracorporeal membranous oxygenation (ECMO)-related complications affect 30-day survival or survival to discharge.

DESIGN
Retrospective observational study.

SETTING
Urban university hospital, quaternary care center.

PARTICIPANTS
Patients who underwent ECMO circulatory support from January 2012 to May 2016.

INTERVENTIONS
Date-based data extraction, univariate and multivariate regression analysis.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
The hospital database contained complete data for 235 adult patients who received venoarterial ECMO (74.04 %) and venovenous ECMO (25.96 %); 106 patients (45.11%) survived. The independent predictors significant in the odds of in-hospital mortality in a multiregression model were age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.028, p = 0.008), extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) after unsuccessful high-quality CPR (OR = 7.93, p =0.002), cardiogenic shock as the primary indication for circulatory support (OR = 2.58, p = 0.02), acute kidney injury (AKI) before ECMO initiation (OR = 7.53, p < 0.001), time spent on ECMO in days (OR = 1.08, p = 0.03), and limb ischemia (OR = 3.18, p = 0.047).

CONCLUSION
The most significant findings of advancing age, time spent on ECMO, AKI, ECMO use in the setting of cardiogenic shock, ECPR, and limb ischemia as a complication of ECMO all independently increase the odds of in-hospital and 30-day mortality. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate a significant relationship between limb ischemia and mortality.


Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is one of the most frequent autosomal recessive diseases in Europe. Treatment is a challenge for pediatric endocrinologists. Important parameters to judge the outcome are adult height and menstrual cycle. We report the follow-up from birth to adulthood of two Caucasian sisters with salt-wasting CAH due to the same mutation, homozygosity c.290-13A>G (I2 splice), in the 21-hydroxylase gene. Their adherence to treatment was excellent. Our objective was to distinguish the effects of treatment with hydrocortisone (HC) and fludrocortisone (FC) on final height (FH) from constitutional factors. The older girl (patient 1), who showed virilized genitalia Prader scale III–IV at birth, reached FH within familial target height at 18 years of age. Menarche occurred at the age of 15. Her menstrual cycles were always irregular. Total pubertal growth was normal (29 cm). She showed a growth pattern consistent with constitutional delay. The younger sister (patient 2) was born without masculinization of the genitalia after her mother was treated with dexamethasone starting in the fourth week of pregnancy. She reached FH at 16 years of age. Her adult height is slightly below familial target height. Menarche occurred at the age of 12.5, followed by regular menses. Total pubertal growth was normal (21 cm). The average dose of HC from birth to FH was 16.7 mg/m2 in patient 1 and 16.8 mg/m2 in patient 2. They received FC once a day in doses from 0.05 to 0.1 mg. Under such therapy, growth velocity was normal starting from the age of 2.5 years with an overall average of +0.2 SD in patient 1 and −0.1 SD in patient 2, androstenedione levels were always within normal age range. Similarly, BMI and blood pressure were always normal, no acne and no hirsutism ever appeared. In conclusion, two siblings with the same genetic form of 21-hydroxylase deficiency and excellent adherence to medication showed different growth and menstrual cycle patterns, rather related to constitutional factors than to underlying CAH. In addition, the second patient represents an example of successful in utero glucocorticoid treatment to prevent virilization of the external genitalia.


A novel node-based smoothing element for triangular and quadrilateral meshes is presented for static analysis of planar piezoelectric structures. In contrast to the smoothed finite element formulation that was based on sub-cells within an original quadrilateral element, this new method transforms a general original finite element mesh into a mesh of new smoothing cells individually associated with a single node which is termed as node-based elements. The displacement fields of the element are approximated by the linear interpolation functions of the original mesh while the approximations of mechanical strains and electric potential fields are normalized using the stabilized conforming nodal integration technique over each node-based element. This technique allows field gradients to be directly computed from interpolating shape functions by using boundary integrations along each edge of the node-based element. Furthermore, the present elements do not require any additional degrees of freedom and are insensitive to bad element shapes in the original mesh. Several numerical examples and comparative studies with other numerical results as well as analytic solutions in the literature are carried out in order to demonstrate the simplicity, efficiency and reliability of the novel elements.


Island area is frequently a major determinant of the species composition of biological communities; community structure, in turn, often has important effects on ecosystem-level properties. Fifty islands of varying area were selected in an archipelago in the northern Swedish boreal forest zone, in which larger islands burn more frequently than smaller ones through wildfire arising from lightning strike, thus inducing a significant relationship between island area and plant species composition. This relationship was found to be a major factor in determining several ecosystem-level properties of these islands, including standing biomass, plant litter decomposition, nitrogen mineralization, terrestrial carbon partitioning, humus accumulation, and plant nitrogen acquisition.


ABSTRACT By 2013, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had adopted college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics, placing a greater emphasis on argument writing to prepare students for life after high school. Solving the specific problem of how to help teachers teach to new standards for argument writing as well as the broader problem of improving teaching and learning requires continued efforts to understand how to support teachers in making substantial changes in instruction. This paper reports on a district-randomized controlled trial of the National Writing Project's College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP), implemented in high-need rural districts in 10 states, testing one instance of professional development paired with supporting curricular resources and a formative assessment tool designed to shift instruction to align with the new college- and career-ready standards in English language arts classes in Grades 7–10. Researchers randomly assigned 44 rural districts either to receive two years of CRWP or to be in a business-as-usual control group and found positive impacts on teacher practice and student source-based argument writing.


Most studies on eco-evolutionary feedbacks concern the influence of abiotic factors, or predator–prey and host–parasite interactions, while studies involving sexual interactions are lagging behind. This is at odds with the potential of these interactions to engage in such processes. Indeed, there is now ample evidence that sexual selection is affected by ecological change and that sexually selected traits can evolve rapidly, which may modify the ecological context of populations, and thus the selection pressures they will be exposed to. Here we review evidence for such eco-evolutionary processes. We discuss examples of eco-evolutionary change in an attempt to understand the challenges related with identifying and characterizing such processes. In particular, we focus on the challenges associated with accurately identifying the components of the feedback as well as their causal relation. Finally, we evaluate scenarios where understanding eco-evolutionary feedbacks of sexual selection may help us appreciate the effects of sexual selection in shaping evolutionary processes. (Less)


Emerging in the mid-2010s, the Foundational Economy has been heralded as 'a compelling counter-project against neoliberalism' and 'an alternative pathway … [for] progressive political renewal'. Grounded in a review of cross-disciplinary debates, this paper introduces the concept of the Foundational Economy and places it in relation to heterodox geographic theories of socio-economic development such as the 'social economy' and 'diverse economies' literature. Whilst there are clear overlaps, the concept of the Foundational Economy can be distinguished through its commitment to (a) a zonal perspective; (b) a focus on maximalist social innovations; and (c) the reconstitution of citizenship. In radical combination, it is argued that the lens of the Foundational Economy facilitates 'a trenchant critique and denaturalization of current conditions, in tandem with creative explorations of the political economy of alternatives'. The paper concludes by reflecting on current oversights and future research trajectories for Foundational Economy research.


Alternative equity index strategies are a variation of passive indexing, where the "index" is based on initial active decisions as to how to create the universe of stocks, the stocks' weights, and the rebalance procedure, and then passively follow these procedures forward through time. The authors of this article replicate prior research that shows popular alternative indexes, such as fundamental indexing and minimum volatility, have higher returns and Sharpe ratios than the S&P 500. They present a new alternative index that creates a portfolio with the lowest predicted volatility of return on equity (ROE), the "stable ROE portfolio." The stable ROE portfolio delivers higher and more stable earnings, and higher returns and Sharpe ratios than other alternative indexes or the S&P 500.


CONTEXT
In connection with health care reform, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commissioned a "mystery shopper," or simulated patient study, to measure access to primary care. But the study was shelved because of public controversy over "government spying" on doctors. Opponents of the study also raised ethical concerns about the use of deception with human subjects without soliciting their informed consent.

METHODS
We undertook an ethical analysis of the use of simulated patient techniques in health services research, with a particular focus on research measuring access to care. Using a case study, we explored relevant methodological considerations and ethical principles relating to deceptive research without informed consent, as well as U.S. federal regulations permitting exceptions to consent.

FINDINGS
Several relevant considerations both favor and oppose soliciting consent for simulated patient studies. Making research participation conditional on informed consent protects the autonomy of research subjects and shields them from unreasonable exposure to research risks. However, scientific validity is also an important ethical principle of human subjects research, as the net risks to subjects must be justified by the value to society of the knowledge to be gained. The use of simulated patients to monitor access is a naturalistic and scientifically sound experimental design that can answer important policy-relevant questions, with minimal risks to human subjects. As interaction between researchers and subjects increases, however, so does the need for consent.

CONCLUSIONS
As long as adequate protections of confidentiality of research data are in place, minimally intrusive simulated patient research that gathers policy-relevant data on the health system without the consent of individuals working in that system can be ethically justified when the risks and burdens to research subjects are minimal and the research has the potential to generate socially valuable knowledge.


This acclaimed book provides a comprehensive approach to issues of social cohesion and ecological concern, synthesizing insights from religion, ethics, and environmental science in a single vision for creating a sustainable community of the Earth. With environmental ethics as its primary focus, Larry Rasmussen brings together insights from diverse sources on the state of the environment -- and what can be done, now, to halt the degradation of life. Larry Rasmussen first scans our global situation and the threats to life posed by the modern world. Next, he turns to the realms of religious faith and human symbolism, gleaning from them the resources for a "conversion to earth" needed for global survival. Finally, Rasmussen offers a constructive ethic, a program of "Earth Action" that can shape a global movement toward sustainable community. For all those concerned with the environment, religion, and society, Earth Community, Earth Ethics provides a deeply nuanced and brilliantly illuminating vision of where we are, and where we must go from here.


Background and Objective: The role of EUS-FNA biopsy (EUS-FNAB) for detection of metastatic lesions (mets) to adrenals has not been evaluated systematically. Our aim is to systematically evaluate the performance characteristics of EUS-FNAB in detecting metastasis to the adrenal glands. Materials and Methods: We performed a systematic search on PubMed and OvidSP from January 1990 to July 2016 using various search terms for EUS and adrenal lesion. Only articles published in English literature were included in the study. Studies with fewer than 10 patients were excluded from the study. Publication bias was assessed using Begg-Mazumdar test and visual inspection of funnel plots. Results: Eight studies including 360 adrenal lesions that underwent EUS-FNAB were identified. Of these, 137 FNABs were conclusive for malignancy. Sensitivity of EUS-FNAB in detecting metastasis to the adrenals was 95% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 90%–98%) and specificity was 99% (95% CI: 96%–100%). Pooled positivity of EUS-FNAB in detecting lung cancer metastasis to the adrenals was 44% (95% CI: 31.5%–57.3%). No evidence of publication bias was noted. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that EUS-FNAB is highly sensitive and specific in detecting metastasis to adrenals. It also shows that up to about half of the patients with lung cancer and adrenal lesions on imaging have metastasis, a finding with profound implications on lung cancer staging and treatment.


Background The Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus and the human disease caused by this virus has been described in the Americas in 2015. ZIKV has been identified as an etiological agent of acute exanthematous disease in Brazil. In the same year, an epidemic of microcephaly with images suggestive of congenital infection raised the suspicion of a relationship between these alterations and ZIKV infection. Epidemiological and histopathological studies point to a strong relationship between prenatal Zika virus infection and microcephaly. Newborns with microcephaly, may also present auditory and visual changes, seizures and severe neurodevelopmental impairment. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika virus (ZIKV) infection a public health emergency of international concern. Aims Clinical observation in the ambulatory school of ABRAH (Brazilian Association of Recycling and Homeopathy Assistance) of patients with encephalopathy of various origins, using the medicine Helleborus niger as equalizer of the NS (Nervous System), as described in the Complex Systems of Carillo, shows improvement in motor, cognitive and seizure disorders. Based on this observation, we propose to use this method in patients with ZIKV congenital infection. Methodology To evaluate 15 patients in follow-up at the AFR (Fluminense Rehabilitation Association), through homeopathic anamnesis, clinical, diathesic, biotypological and temperamental classification. The Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) will be used. All patients will receive Helleborus niger 6 Ch daily for 6 months. Results and discussion This study was forwarded to the research ethics committee and will begin in July 2019.
Will be evaluated the use of Helleborus niger in patients with congenital infection by ZIKV, as equalizer of NS. The expected result is overall neurological improvement. Conclusion Helleborus niger, probably stimulating self-regulation through uninjured neurological pathways, will promote autopoiesis and construction of new programs of action, and will enable the improvement of patients with congenital ZIKV infection.


: An analysis of the data on the effect of lymphoid cells on the proliferation and differentiation of hemopoietic stem cells has led to a conclusion that radiation injury of lymphocytes plays an important role in the pathogenesis of the cerebrospinal syndrome. The molecular mechanisms of lymphocyte interphase death were considered. It was shown that due to some peculiarities in the energy supply of these cells the appearance of breaks in DNA causes the development of biochemical processes resulting in a decrease in NAD, an increase in the activity of nucleases, a decrease in ATP, and the accumulation of active metabolites of glycolysis. These reactions result in an increase in the disintegration of DNA, chromatin and pyknosis of lymphocyte nuclei.


This study examines the effect of defining the country of destination of the international debt of Brazilian multinationals, based on the Upstream–Downstream hypothesis. To deepen the discussion of stability suggested by the theory, this paper inserted institutional variables of the target countries of internationalization in econometric models used by previous studies, testing whether the hypothesis Upstream-Downstream remains valid. Starting from a sample involving Brazilian publicly traded multinational and domestic companies between the years 2007 to 2011 and as a statistical method, we performed a regression with panel data. The results show that Brazilian companies when defining the destination countries of internationalization, regardless of these countries presenting higher or lower stability in relation to Brazil, increase their indebtedness. The results showed that among the characteristics present in countries considered as more stable, only the Corruption Perception Index was positively associated with the level of indebtedness of multinationals.


The bolt in a bolt and thimble assembly used to connect a wire rope to a crane hanger bracket was worn excessively. Two worn bolts, one new bolt, and a new thimble were examined. Specifications required the bolts to be made of 4140 steel heat treated to a hardness of 277 to 321 HRB. Thimbles were to be made of cast 8625 steel, but no heat treatment or hardness were specified. Analysis (visual inspection, hardness testing, and metallographic examination) supported the conclusion that the wear was due to strikingly difference hardness measurements in the bolt and thimble. Recommendations included hardening and tempering the bolts to the hardness range of 375 to 430 HRB. The thimbles should be heat treated to a similar microstructure and the same hardness range as those of the bolt. Molybdenum disulfide lubricant can be liberally applied during the initial installation of the bolts. A maintenance lubrication program was not suggested, but galling could be reduced by periodic application of a solid lubricant.


Intelligence and Knowledge play more and more important roles in build- ing complex intelligent systems, for instance, intrusion detection systems, and oper- ational analysis systems. Knowledge processing in complex intelligent systems faces new challenges from the increased number of applications and environment, such as the requirements of representing domain and human knowledge in intelligent systems, and discovering actionable knowledge on a large scale in distributed web applications. In this paper, we discuss the main challenges of, and promising approaches to, intel- ligence metasynthesis and knowledge processing in open complex intelligent systems. We believe (1) ubiquitous intelligence, including data intelligence, domain intelligence, human intelligence, network intelligence and social intelligence, is necessary for OCIS, which needs to be meta-synthesized; and (2) knowledge processing should pay more attention to developing innovative and workable methodologies, techniques, tools and systems for representing, modelling, transforming, discovering and servicing the uncer- tain, large-scale, deep, distributed, domain-oriented, human-involved, and actionable knowledge highly expected in constructing open complex intelligent systems. To this end, the meta-synthesis of ubiquitous intelligence is an appropriate way in designing complex intelligent systems. To support intelligence meta-synthesis, m-interaction can play as the working mechanism to form m-spaces as problem-solving systems. In build- ing such m-spaces, advancement in knowledge processing is necessary.


The involvement of all relevant stakeholders into the elaboration process of shared goals is generally considered as a key factor for a successful regional development. However, no empirical research has been conducted to confirm this claim yet. In the last years, increasing efforts have been made to evaluate participatory processes, but the focus of that research was on the quality of the processes. This paper presents a recent study which had the objective to measure the effect of consensus building proces- ses, a particularly interactive form of participation, in a systematic and reliable way. To this end, a new evaluation method based on the methodology of intervention research of environmental psychology was developed and tested in a case study.