The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the first intergovernmental statement in world history to approve a set of basic principles on universal human rights. Since the 1940s, when Articles 55 and 56 of the United Nations Charter required states to co-operate on human rights matters, almost all states -- not just Western ones -- have regularly reaffirmed the existence of universal human rights without negative discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, race, creed, or colour. This reaffirmation occurred most saliently in Vienna at the 1993 United Nations World Conference on Human Rights. Regional developments have supplemented this global trend, most notably in Europe and the western hemisphere, but also in Africa and, to a lesser extent, the Arab world. The European Court of Human Rights regularly issues binding judgments on states. The Organization of American States (OAS) in its 1991 Santiago Declaration indicated that the presence or absence of democratic government in the hemisphere was an international, not a domestic, matter. The international or transnational law of human rights is now a well developed corpus of law, far more concentrated and specified than in other fields such as international environmental law.The twentieth century, however, is not only a time of increasing professions of international morality and human rights; it is also the bloodiest century in human history. As the 21st century approaches, a fundamental challenge is to reduce the enormous gap between the liberal legal framework on human rights that most states have formally endorsed and the illiberal reality that is so evident from Algeria to Afghanistan, from Belarus to Burma, from China to Croatia. The most important problem is not that certain Asian states at the 1993 Vienna conference tried to elevate cultural relativism and national particularism over universal (or regional) human rights. It is rather that after the cold war we are faced with glaring genocide and other crimes against humanity on a massive scale. Treaties to protect the rights of women and children are juxtaposed to a global industry in the sex trade. Treaties to outlaw slavery, the slave trade, and slavery-like practices are combined with daily press accounts of people held in de facto bondage -- whether sugar-cane cutters in the Dominican Republic, shirt makers in Guatemala, or child labourers in India and Pakistan. Two 1977 protocols to the 1949 Geneva conventions for victims of war meant nothing to those who killed Red Cross workers in Chechnya or United Nations aid workers in Rwanda.While intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and private transnational groups dealing with human rights proliferate, states and their foreign policies remain key to progressive developments. IGOs, from the United Nations through the OAT to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have extensive human rights programmes. Independent international officials in these organizations have some influence, but it is state-members of these IGOs that take the most important decisions and that are, along with non-state parties, the targets of reform efforts. Likewise, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Physicians for Human Rights are highly active in human rights matters and also wield some influence. But again, it is states that approve treaties and their monitoring mechanisms, states that (may or may not) arrest war criminals -- either singly or via international organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), states that manipulate foreign assistance in relation to rights.This article looks at human rights and state foreign policy in comparative perspective. It focusses on the United States, the most important actor in international relations on the eve of the 21st century, showing that it has a particular slant to its foreign policy on rights and is more prone to preach to others than to take international rights standards very seriously at home. …


OBJECTIVES
To explore the associations among clinical characteristics, fatigue, diabetes mellitus (DM) self-care activities, and quality of life (QOL) in individuals with resectable pancreatic cancer and DM.

SAMPLE & SETTING
57 individuals with resectable pancreatic cancer and DM from an outpatient pancreatic surgical department in Taiwan were included in the final analysis.

METHODS & VARIABLES
A cross-sectional, correlational design was used. QOL, fatigue, and DM self-care were measured by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer QOL Questionnaire-Core 30, the Fatigue Symptom Inventory, and the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities.

RESULTS
Participants who had a shorter duration of DM and higher levels of fatigue (including intensity, duration, and interference) reported lower QOL scores. Participants who performed more DM self-care activities and physical activity per week had higher QOL scores. Fatigue, DM self-care activities, and DM duration were significant factors related to QOL.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Shorter DM duration, increased fatigue, and fewer DM self-care activities were determinants of worse QOL in individuals with resectable pancreatic cancer and DM.


The high density recording characteristics of perpendicular magnetic recording using a single-pole head are affected by the magnetic interaction between the medium and the head. By decreasing the relative thickness of the Co-Cr layer in the double-layer medium to that of the main-pole of the head, and increasing the saturation magnetization of the Co-Cr layer, the high density recording characteristics are enhanced. When requisite conditions are realized, the reproduced voltage vs. bit density characteristics are improved considerably for a thinner main-pole of the single-pole head.


This paper presents a study to identify the required work competencies by modern industry in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Various stakeholders in the Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) system in Bahrain, namely teachers, specialists from human resources departments in industry, and industrial supervisors, were asked to provide information by completing a questionnaire on the competencies delivered to TVE students in schools, and the competencies that are needed by industry.
The questionnaire's responses were statistically analysed and it was obvious that a considerable skills gap exists between the TVE students' level of competencies and modern industrial requirements. Also, the studies indicated that TVE is facing a number of problem areas and operational challenges in the delivery of appropriate engineering education courses (EECs) and technical competencies. In addition, the questionnaire responses indicated that affective domain competencies, which are so important in an industrial setup, were not integrated in the curriculum content of EECs in Bahrain's TVE system.
The authors have developed a two-dimensional model for affective integration of domain competencies in EECs in the course curriculum. The first dimension concerns the categories of affective learning levels being employed for content development in EECs. The second incorporates the categories of attitude being learnt during the teaching and learning processes. The aim of the model is to develop TVE students' affective domain competencies in order to meet the identified industrial requirements. In addition, the model will be the basis for suggested modifications in both curriculum content structures for various engineering courses, and teaching and learning processes in the TVE system.


In the present study, the influence of four 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bromine ionic liquids (ILs), CnMImBr (n=4, 8, 12, 16) on the sorption of acid dyes by nylon fibers was investigated. The quantity of dye sorption at pH 5 and pH 7 was found to be greatly dependent on the concentrations of ILs and the length of alkyl groups in ILs. The quantity of dyes adsorbed by nylon increased in the presence of C8MImBr at all the concentrations employed, and in the presence of C12MImBr and C16MImBr at appropriate concentrations. The mechanism of the increase in dye sorption in the presence of ILs at appropriate concentrations is due to the existence of the new positively charged dyeing sites in nylon induced by the sorption of ILs on nylon. The further increasing concentrations of C12MImBr and C16MImBr decreased the extent of dye sorption, which can be explained by the greatly reduced quantity of free dyes in solution induced by the interaction between anionic dyes and cationic ILs in solution as well as the increasing aggregation of the complex of dyes and ILs.


The Triassic genus Kurrzinno Frenguelli is taxonomically studied and validated for vegetative fronds without cuticles. The two known species, K. cacueuiensis Frenguelli and K. brandmauri Frenguelli are discussed and their geographic distribution is given; a new species, K. paipotensis, is described frorn the Upper Triassic of Chile. The only specimen of K. cacneuiensis (LP-PB 11522) from the Early Jurassic which shows fragments of cuticle does not provide sufficient additional characters to ernend the genus as defined by Petriella and Arrondo, but it permits to state certain differences with Alicurana nov. gen. This material is he re referred to the new genus with a different specific narne. Specimens formerly in K. brandmauri with well preserved cuticles from the Early Jurassic Nestares Forrnation of Neuquen Province (Argentina) are transferred to the new genus Alicurana, based on their anatomical characters. The specific epithet brandmavri is retained for Kurtziana.


We report magnetic manipulation of non-magnetic particles suspended in diluted ferrofluid. Diamagnetic particles were introduced into a circular chamber to study the extent of their deflection under the effect of a non-uniform magnetic field of a permanent magnet. Since ferrofluid is a paramagnetic medium, it also experiences a bulk magnetic force that in turn induces a secondary flow opposing the main hydrodynamic flow. Sheath flow rate, particle size, and magnetic field strength were varied to examine this complex behaviour. The combined effect of negative magnetophoresis and magnetically induced secondary flow leads to various operation regimes, which can potentially find applications in separation, trapping and mixing of diamagnetic particles such as cells in a microfluidic system.


This implementation project supports streamlined project delivery, one of the goals outlined by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) leadership to achieve an efficient and effective transportation system in Texas. The project benefits TxDOT divisions, districts, and metropolitan planning organizations during the project development process. This project was developed to help TxDOT implement the findings of TxDOT Project 0-6758: Maintaining Project Consistency with Transportation Plans throughout the Project Life Cycle with an Emphasis on Maintaining Air Quality Conformity. The research team organized and conducted four training workshops in Houston, El Paso, and Dallas District offices; and at the 2014 TxDOT Environmental Conference in Galveston. In addition to the training slides, the participants received the Project Consistency Guidebook, which documents procedures, tools, and recommendations to prevent and address project inconsistencies throughout the project development process. The research team collected and documented feedback from the participants. Researchers then finalized the training materials based on workshop feedback. The research team submitted the final training materials to TxDOT's Human Resources Training Program for inclusion in the TxDOT employee training catalog and the TxDOT iWay training system.


OBJECTIVES. The goals were (1) to compare pediatricians' heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine shortage experience and adherence to shortage recommendations during 2 heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine shortages, (2) to assess factors associated with nonadherence to second shortage recommendations, and (3) to assess opinions about national immunization policy during vaccine shortages. METHODS. We mailed surveys to all pediatrician immunization providers in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio, metropolitan area. We assessed heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine supply and immunization practices during the shortages and provider attitudes regarding immunization shortage policy. RESULTS. The response rate was 61% (171 of 282 providers). Most pediatricians experienced heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine shortages (first shortage: 86%; second shortage: 84%). The rate of adherence to recommendations to defer the fourth heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine dose for healthy children was significantly higher during the second shortage, compared with the first shortage (first shortage: 62%; second shortage: 89%). Adherence to recommendations to administer the fourth dose to high-risk children remained unchanged (first shortage: 43%; second shortage: 45%). Controlling for other factors, pediatricians who reported a severe second shortage had greater odds of not fully vaccinating high-risk children, compared with those who reported no shortage. Contrary to recommendations, many pediatricians did not maintain tracking systems during the heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine shortages (first shortage: 37%; second shortage: 46%). Most pediatricians (91%) thought that national vaccine shortage recommendations were needed to protect them from liability. CONCLUSIONS. The rate of adherence to recommendations to defer heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine doses for healthy children increased significantly from the first shortage to the second shortage. The nonadherent practice of deferring the fourth dose for high-risk children was associated with more severe shortages and, potentially, an inability to vaccinate.


This paper addresses two important, conspicuous topics for the understanding of contemporary capitalism: the world market and the knowledge economy. By locating these within Marx's value theory, its authors take issue with other interpretations that explicitly reject or misinterpret Marx's value theory in light of these themes. More generally, these exercises point to the need for value theory and the fact that it should and can move beyond its traditional terrain, collaborating with other strands of critical thought in understanding developments within contemporary society.


Cellular communication is a technology which mainly makes the mobile phones to communicate with each other. In Cellular communication the end user that is the mobile phone user doesn't stay at a particular place but moves from one place to another. Handoff is allot as handover. The channel change due to handoff may be through a time slot, codeword or combination of these for TDMA, FDMA and CDMA or a hybrid scheme. For cellular communication systems, mobility and limited radio coverage of a cell requires calls to be handed over from one base station system (BSS) to an another BSS.There are occurrences where a handoff is unsucceful.Lots of research was conducted regarding this in the late 80's main reason was found out. Because frequencies cannot be reused in adjacent cells, when a user moves from one cell to another, a new frequency must be allocated for the call. If a user moves into a cell when all available channels are in use, the user's call must be terminated. In this paper the inter technology handovers where a calls connection is transferred from one access technology to another GSM/UMTS handoff to Wi Fi and Vice versa.


The high-emulation meat with 60% ~ 80% moisture content made use of high humidity extrusion technology. The effect of extrusion system parameters (extrusion temperature, screw rpm , moisture content and soybean protein isolate content) on product texture was studied. Results showed that: protein isolate content had the largest impact on elastic and hardness of the product. And screw speed mainly affected the chew of product. With the increasing of protein isolate content, hardness and elastic decreased and flexibility increased first and then decreased. Hardness and chewiness of product decreased with the increasing of moisture content. With the increasing of extrusion temperature, hardness decreased, flexibility increased first and then decreased, and chewiness decreased. Elastic increased and chewiness decreased with the increasing of screw speed.


In the Westminster system of responsible government, constitutional conventions have traditionally safeguarded the secrecy of Cabinet proceedings. In the modern era, where openness and transparency have become fundamental values, Cabinet secrecy is now looked upon with suspicion. The justification and scope of Cabinet secrecy remain contentious. The aim of this article is to address this problem by explaining why Cabinet secrecy is, within limits, essential to the proper functioning of our system of government. Based on the relevant literature and precedents, it is argued that Cabinet secrecy fosters the candour of ministerial discussions, protects the efficiency of the collective decision-making process, and enables Ministers to remain united in public, whatever disagreements they may have in private. In addition, Cabinet secrecy ensures that the Cabinet documents created by one Ministry do not fall into the hands of its political opponents when there is a change in power. To force Ministers to settle their policy in public, or prematurely publish their Cabinet documents, would not bolster government openness and transparency; it would rather undermine it, as ministerial discussions would likely move underground, and Cabinet documents would probably cease to exist. This would impair the national historical records. Yet, while Cabinet secrecy is an important rule, it is not absolute. Political actors accept that Cabinet secrets are not all equally sensitive and that their degree of sensitivity decreases with the passage of time until they become only of historical interest. They also recognize that the public interest may justify that an exception be made to the rule in some circumstances, for example, when serious allegations of unlawful conduct are made against public officials. It is submitted that, properly construed and applied, Cabinet secrecy is politically legitimate in Canada.


Abstract The growth of the private rented sector (PRS) since the 2000s in countries with lightly regulated markets has led to significant questions over its ability to provide a homely environment for tenants. Much of the research in this area argues that legal frameworks, lack of regulation and financial motives of landlords are not conducive to the provision of homes which are secure, affordable, good quality and which offer tenants an opportunity to meet their health and wellbeing needs. This is despite legislative changes that seek to raise standards in the sector and promote greater professionalisation. This paper presents findings from an evidence review of research concerning home within the PRS across OECD countries. Rather than focusing on the experiences of tenants, it considers the impacts of landlord and letting agent behaviours on tenants' ability to make their rented house a home. We argue that landlords and letting agents can play a positive role in helping their tenants create a home, and that this offers benefits for both landlords and renters.


This study aims to characterize longitudinal blood pressure (BP) trajectories from childhood in black–white and sex groups and examine the association between childhood level–independent trajectories of BP and adult hypertension. The longitudinal cohort consisted of 2732 adults who had body mass index and BP measured 4 to 15 times from childhood (4–19 years) to adulthood (20–51 years). Model-estimated levels and linear slopes of BP and body mass index at childhood age points were calculated at 1-year intervals using the growth curve parameters and their first derivatives, respectively. Linear and nonlinear curve parameters differed significantly between race–sex groups; BP levels showed race and sex differences 15 years of age onward. Hypertensives had higher long-term BP levels than normotensives in race–sex groups. Although linear and nonlinear slope parameters of BP were race and sex specific, they differed consistently, significantly between hypertension and normotension groups. BP trajectories during young adulthood (20–35 years) were significantly greater in hypertensives than in normotensives; however, the trajectories during middle-aged adulthood (36–51 years) were significantly smaller in hypertensives than in normotensives. Level-independent linear slopes of systolic BP showed significantly negative associations (odds ratio=0.50≈0.76; P<0.001) during prepuberty period (4–11 years) but significantly positive associations (odd ratio=1.44≈2.80, P<0.001) during the puberty period (13–19 years) with adult hypertension, adjusting for covariates. These associations were consistent across race–sex groups. These observations indicate that adult hypertension originates in childhood, with different longitudinal BP trajectory profiles during young and middle-aged adulthood in black–white and sex groups. Puberty is a crucial period for the development of hypertension in later life.


The adrenogenital syndrome (AGS; congenital adrenal hyperplasia [CAH]) is caused by a congenital defect in biosynthesis of cortisol. It is transmitted by the autosomal recessiv mode of inheritance. Its frequency in Central Europe is about 1:5000 live births, which means two to three times more frequent than phenylketonuria. The following enzyme deficiencies have been described so far: 21-kydroxylase (mild and severe type), 11-hydroxylase, 3-beta-hydroxysteroiddehydrogenase, 17-alpha-hydroxylase, cholesterol desmolase, 18-hydroxylase, 18-dehydrogenase. The clinical symptoms of AGS consist of signs of virilism in girls and macrogenitosomia praecox in boys. In addition, life threatening salt losing crises occur in patients with the severe form of 21-hydroxylase deficiency and the rare cases of 3-beta-hydroxysteroiddehydrogenase and 18-hydroxylase deficiency. The diagnosis should be made as early as possible by a thorough clinical examinations revealing signs of virisism and by the determination of elevated concentrations of androgens in plasma and urine. The therapy consists of substitution of cortisol (hydrocortisone) in the doses of 25--40 mg per m2 body surface per day. If synthetic derivatives are used glucocorticoid equivalent doses must be considered. Regular, short-term follow-ups on outpatient basis are necessary in order to monitor proper growth, bone age development and urinary steroid excretion. On this supposition almost normal growth and development can be achieved in children with AGS. Girls may become fertile following additional corrective surgery. Only in patients with the salt losing form of AGS normal growth appears to be limited despite optimal medical supervision.


Porous Clay Heterostructures (PCHs) have been prepared by the surfactant-directed assembly of mesostructured silica within the two-dimensional interlayer galleries of clays. The PCH is an interesting material to use as entrapping system such as ethylene scavenger, owing to its high surface area with uniform and specific pore size. In the present work, the PCH was synthesized within the galleries of Na-bentonite clay by the polymerization of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) in the presence of surfactant micelles. In addition, a mesoporous clay with organic-inorganic hybrid (HPCH) is modified via co-condensation reaction of TEOS with methyltriethoxysilane (MTS) to enhance hydrophobicity of PCH material for entrapping system. According to pore characterization, PCHs have surface areas of 421-551 m2/g, an average pore diameter in the supermicropore to small mesopore range of 4.79-5.02 nm, and a pore volume of 0.57-0.66 cc/g while HPCHs have surface areas of 533-966 m2/g, an average pore diameter of 4.28-6.38 nm, and a pore volume of 0.42-0.77cc/g.


Solution processed Ir(mPPy)3 based phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (PhOLEDs) were fabricated, in which mCP and a TADF copolymer, COPO, were selected as host and assistant host components, respectively. The COPO has a lower triplet energy and a higher singlet energy than Ir(mPPy)3. Compared with traditional Ir(mPPy)3 doped mCP type PhOLEDs, the introduction of COPO as an assistant host can effectively improve the electroluminescent performance. Utilizing 20% COPO and 70% mCP (w/w) as a mixed-host system for Ir(mPPy)3 in solution-processed devices, a considerably higher current efficiency of 56.8 cd A−1 has been achieved with great improvement, compared to traditional Ir(mPPy)3 based devices with mCP as the single host (24.5 cd A−1). Moreover, the EQE displays only a slight roll-off from an EQEmax of 17.3% to an EQE of 16.0% at 500 cd m−2. The improved PhOLED performance is mainly attributed to the full utilization of triplet excitons as COPO may facilitate the triplet transfer due to a closer physical contact with mCP and Ir(mppy)3 molecules. Moreover, the presence of COPO also improves the ambipolar transport of charge carriers.


In this paper, we propose a very effective method for removing blocking artefacts that are typically introduced by a block-based coding. The method combines an error-compensation interpolation and an adaptive spatial-varying filtering (SVF). Without destroying most key image information, the proposed method uses different filtering processes based on a simple region classification. It is observed that, compared with the coded image, this proposed scheme not only increases the resulting PSNR, but also significantly improves the visual quality. In addition, the gains (subjective and objective) that are achieved with our method are comparable to or slightly better than several other de-blocking schemes recently reported in literatures.


The additivity number of a topological property (relative to a given space) is the minimal number of subspaces with this property whose union does not have the property. The most well-known case is where this number is greater than א0, i.e. the property is σ-additive. We give a rather complete survey of the known results about the additivity numbers of a variety of topological covering properties, including those appearing in the Scheepers diagram (which contains, among others, the classical properties of Menger, Hurewicz, Rothberger, and Gerlits-Nagy). Some of the results proved here were not published beforehand, and many open problems are posed.


This guide presents resources for exploring the digital humanities, including digital archives projects, text analysis, maps, simulations, big data, and the transformation of art and humanities through the use of digital media.


Annona muricata Linn. (soursop) is one of  tropical plants which have relatively complete chemical compounds. It has flavonoid, tannin, phytosterol, alkaloid, etc. The high antioxidant compound in soursop is believed as cancer prevention so the cancer threat in the world can be minimized. The antioxidant compound in soursop can be found not only in its fruit, but also in other parts like leaves, seeds, etc. Based on that potency, this study aimed to compare antioxidant capacity of soursop leaves and seeds, also to study about the utilization of soursop parts which is usually not used. This research began with maceration to extract leaves and seeds with 96% ethanol. Ethanolic extract of soursop leaves and seeds were then tested for antioxidant capacity with DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) method. The result showed that antioxidant capacity of soursop leaves and seeds are 85,66875% and 39,0166, respectively. The antioxidant capacity of leaves is higher than seeds due to seed's extraction difficulty so its antioxidant compound could not be extracted optimally. However, either leaves or seeds extract in this study are potential as antioxidant resources because there are no significant differences between antioxidant capacity of both extract.


Women affected by pain during penetrative sexual intercourse are often treated using fixed-size vaginal dilators that are regularly perceived as uncomfortable and leading to premature treatment drop-outs. These dilators could be improved by making them adaptive, i.e., able to exert dynamically different pressures on the vaginal duct to simultaneously guarantee comfort levels and achieve the medical dilation objectives. Implementing feedback control would then benefit from models that connect the patients' comfort levels with their experienced physiological stimuli. Here we address the problem of data-driven quantitative modeling of pain/pleasure self-assessments obtained through medical trials. More precisely, we consider time-series records of pelvic floor muscles pressure, vaginal dilation, and pain/pleasure evaluations, and model the relations among these quantities using statistical analysis tools. Besides this, we also address the important issue of the individualization of these models: different persons may respond differently, but these variations may sometimes be so small that it may be beneficial to learn from several individuals simultaneously. We here numerically validate the previous claim by verifying that clustering patients in groups may lead, from a data-driven point of view, to models with a significantly improved statistical performance.


This study estimates the rates of return (RoR) of non-contributory social transfer programmes in Cambodia using household data and going beyond standard cost efficiency analyses by developing a dynamic micro simulation. It shows that social protection promotes equitable economic growth by enhancing human development and fostering economic performance at the micro level. A positive RoR is achieved after 12 periods and can reach between 12 per cent and 15 per cent after 20 periods. This study shows that micro simulation models can be extended in order to analyse the economic returns on social protection.


The main objective of this paper is to determine the impact of the Romanian Japanese cooperation project entitled "The improvement of farm management by developing agricultural cooperatives", that was produced on the activity of farmers in our country. The overall objective was to increase the income of the farmer members of agricultural cooperatives by access to adequate services, the purpose being the rationalization of agricultural activities by establishing model cooperative in the target areas. The launching of the project took place in July 2006 and the project was developed on a period of 30 months up to December 31, 2008. The two institutions responsible with the implementation were Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA and the National Agricultural Advisory ANCA (agency under the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Rural Development in Romania). For monitoring purpose, during the project took place assessments (intermediary and final) by teams of mixed composition. The research undertaken has been found unequivocally that the immediate impact of the project was positive, creating both a large number of cooperatives and also their superior structures. In conclusion, it can be said that the consultancy services offered by the project activities have resulted in more efficient activity of the farmers, through their integration into a modern associative structure.


Indoor localization has a wide range of applicability in personal health applications. There is a need for specialized indoor localization methods [1] like Time of Arrival (TOA), Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA), Angle of Arrival (AOA) and Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) due to limited usability of global positioning system (GPS). The proposed work uses a novel commensal radar system (inspired by biological inter-species coexistence where one system exploits other without detrimental effect) which uses communication radiation as the illuminator, called CommSense[2]. It uses LTE communication infrastructure due to its wide availability in indoor environments. Therefore, we call this system LTE-CommSense [3]. We believe, utilization of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) may provide better resolution for this scenario. LTE signal provides high range resolution due to its wide bandwidth ranging from 1.4 to 20 MHz. Following this principle, the proposed system uses only passive receiver nodes that uses existing LTE communication signal. Communication receiver modules extracts information which is affected by the channel condition. It uses the same spectrum of the communication system without any detrimental influence on it. The communication signal strength between LTE (user equipment (UE)) and (eNodeB) gets affected by the span of the channel. Following the CommSense principle, we use three passive nodes (PN) for two dimensional (2D) indoor localization. These PNs determine respective distances of the (UE) by measuring incident signal power at the PNs with which it communicates with the (eNodeB). After the respective distances are calculated, we use these distances for trilateration to determine the co-ordinate of the UE. Depending on the PN placements, the trilateration algorithm is modified to have less calculation complexity. The calibration of the system to calculate the distance of the UE from a PN is performed. We setup a testbed to calculate the accuracy of our proposed method in a indoor laboratory environment. Without any loss of generality, we place the PNs at right angle to each other to reduce the computational complexity for trilateration. Use of LTE for RSSI based indoor localization and demonstration on SDR platform is a novel effort. First we evaluated the accuracy of distance calculation of individual PNs. The evaluated distance values using our proposed approach along with the actual distance values are compared with the ground truth measurements.


In this paper I explore the capacity of Moodle to enhance the teaching and learning of Leaving Certificate Biology within a small urban secondary school. I simultaneously investigate the potential of the technology to enhance higher-order cognition and motivation to learn among the students. Adopting an action research approach has led me to a much deeper understanding of the tacit knowledge that inspires my work. The chief stimulus to my research was the realisation that my explicit practice was in negation of my implicit values. I have come to know my practice and over time changed it. I can now see evidence of a greater congruence between my espoused core educational values and my explicit actions. Cycle one of the research focuses on setting up and introducing Moodle to a group of Biology students. The second cycle shows the feasibility of a community of enquiry through a discussion-forum. A process of social validation runs concurrently, in which interested individuals substantiate my claim that my core educational values are being translated into my practice. Throughout I learn to strike a balance between co-learner and guide. Consequently the students come to act as co-authors in moving away from authoritarian dissemination of facts. This facilitates a community of inquiry, revolving around the collaborative negotiation of meaning. There is clear evidence of increased higher-order cognition and motivation to learn among the participants within this virtual community.


Psychological interventions are a mainstay of modern pain management practice and a recommended feature of a modern pain treatment service. Systematic reviews for the evidence of psychological interventions were summarized. The evidence for effectiveness is strongest for cognitive behavioural therapy with a focus on cognitive coping strategies and behavioural rehearsal. Most evidence is available for treatments of adult pain, although adolescent chronic pain treatments are also reviewed. It is clear that treatment benefit can be achieved with cognitive behavioural methods. It is possible to effect change in pain, mood and disability, changes not achieved by chance or by exposure to any other treatment. However, the overall effect sizes of treatments for adults, across all trials, are modest. Reasons for the relatively modest treatment effects are discussed within the context of all treatments for chronic pain being disappointing when measured by the average. Suggestions for improving both trials and evidence summaries are made. Finally, consideration is given to what can be achieved by the pain specialist without access to specialist psychology resource.


The discussions about cyber hate has become a burning question, and there is an increasing debate about the conflict of interests between the freedom of speech and how to avoid online content that offends the personal integrity. It is often reported that celebrities have been targets of the harmful comments, but cyber hate is something that can affect us all. With the development of the Internet, more people have been able to make their voice heard and to participate actively in the public debate. Scientists believe that the Internet promotes a free exchange of opinions and improves democracy. The question is though whether it actually could lead to the opposite? The climate on the Internet gets tougher, and we see that some people use the social media comment fields in order to hurt and offend others. There is a risk that the fear of becoming a victim of cyber hate becomes greater than the will to say what you want, without limitations. This leads to widespread self-censorship and that people might feel inhibited when expressing themselves on the Internet.The aim of this thesis is to investigate a possible link between cyber hate and self-censorship, in relation to the public space and free, open and respectful debates. Through this paper we have found that there is a relationship between cyber hate and the degree of self-censorship. People affected by cyber hate tend to increase their way of censoring themselves when publishing on the Internet, although in different ways and extent.


In this paper, we map and analyze the structure and content found on Twitter centered around users in mainland China. This study offers a rare look at the activity of Chinese Internet users on a platform that is largely unregulated by the state and only reachable through the use of tools that circumvent state-mandated Internet filters. For Internet users that reside in mainland China, Twitter offers access to news from around the world and a wealth of ideas and perspectives that might otherwise be unavailable there, as well as a platform for building online communities that is not under direct control of the government. This study of Chinese Twitter — to our knowledge the first such study — offers a unique window into the online activities and global connections of Chinese Internet users who actively circumvent content restrictions. Based on a mixed-methods approach, combining social network analysis and a qualitative review of the content and activity of Chinese Twitter, we are able to map and provide detailed accounts of the topically based clusters that form among these networks. We identify 36 clusters that focus primarily on three areas: politics, technology, and entertainment. From one perspective, the discourse in the politically engaged portions of Chinese Twitter suggests that Twitter serves an alternative public sphere. The political group is formed of journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, and scholars, who are free to discuss topics typically not permitted in China, such as the Tiananmen Square protests, Tibetan and Uyghur issues, political scandals, and pollution. Yet China's Internet repression is clearly succeeding. Chinese Twitter falls well short of supporting a broadly accessible networked public sphere. The proportion of the Chinese populace with direct access to the debates, communities, and shared resources on Twitter is relatively small, and the avenues by which such discourse might find its way into mainstream political discussion are severely constrained. The firewall between Twitter and the much larger social media platforms in China remains a formidable barrier.


Abstract Background Machine learning models that are used for predicting clinical outcomes can be made more useful by augmenting predictions with simple and reliable patient-specific explanations for each prediction. Objectives This article evaluates the quality of explanations of predictions using physician reviewers. The predictions are obtained from a machine learning model that is developed to predict dire outcomes (severe complications including death) in patients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP). Methods Using a dataset of patients diagnosed with CAP, we developed a predictive model to predict dire outcomes. On a set of 40 patients, who were predicted to be either at very high risk or at very low risk of developing a dire outcome, we applied an explanation method to generate patient-specific explanations. Three physician reviewers independently evaluated each explanatory feature in the context of the patient's data and were instructed to disagree with a feature if they did not agree with the magnitude of support, the direction of support (supportive versus contradictory), or both. Results The model used for generating predictions achieved a F1 score of 0.43 and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.81–0.87). Interreviewer agreement between two reviewers was strong (Cohen's kappa coefficient = 0.87) and fair to moderate between the third reviewer and others (Cohen's kappa coefficient = 0.49 and 0.33). Agreement rates between reviewers and generated explanations—defined as the proportion of explanatory features with which majority of reviewers agreed—were 0.78 for actual explanations and 0.52 for fabricated explanations, and the difference between the two agreement rates was statistically significant (Chi-square = 19.76, p-value < 0.01). Conclusion There was good agreement among physician reviewers on patient-specific explanations that were generated to augment predictions of clinical outcomes. Such explanations can be useful in interpreting predictions of clinical outcomes.


The arising awareness about functional food has created a boom in this new millennium. Mushrooms are widely consumed by the people due to their nutritive and medicinal properties. Belonging to taxonomic category of basidiomycetes or ascomycetes, these mushrooms possess antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. They are also one of the richest source of anticancer and immunomodulating agents. Thus these novel myochemicals from these mushrooms are the wave of future.


Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a multisystem disease caused by mutations in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. CFTR is expressed in the apical surface of cholangiocytes. Homozygous CFTR gene mutation results in viscous and acidic bile secretions secondary to deficient surface fluid and bicarbonate efflux. Viscous, inspissated bile causes ductular obstruction and hepatotoxicity from retained bile components, leading to fibrosis and ultimately cirrhosis, known as CF liver disease (CFLD). CFLD is the third leading cause of death in CF patients. CFLD manifestations can take many forms. They range from asymptomatic elevation of transaminases to cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease. CFLD is diagnosed after excluding other causes of chronic liver disease. To date, there is no effective therapy to prevent or treat CFLD. Management of CFLD emphasizes on optimizing nutritional status. Ursodeoxycholic acid is the only available treatment that may prevent progression of CFLD at present. All CF patients with CFLD need annual investigations and follow-up for early detection of the disease. Liver transplantation should be considered in patients with decompensated cirrhosis and portal hypertension, with acceptable long-term outcomes. Novel therapies of CFLD are promising. This review article aims to summarize the published literature on CFLD, its pathophysiology, clinical features and complications, and management including new therapeutic options.


Progress in GANs has enabled the generation of high-resolution photorealistic images of astonishing quality. StyleGANs allow for compelling attribute modification on such images via mathematical operations on the latent style vectors in the W/W+ space that effectively modulate the rich hierarchical representations of the generator. Such operations have recently been generalized beyond mere attribute swapping in the original StyleGAN paper to include interpolations. In spite of many significant improvements in StyleGANs, they are still seen to generate unnatural images. The quality of the generated images is predicated on two assumptions; (a) The richness of the hierarchical representations learnt by the generator, and, (b) The linearity and smoothness of the style spaces. In this work, we propose a Hierarchical Semantic Regularizer (HSR) which aligns the hierarchical representations learnt by the generator to corresponding powerful features learnt by pretrained networks on large amounts of data. HSR is shown to not only improve generator representations but also the linearity and smoothness of the latent style spaces, leading to the generation of more natural-looking style-edited images. To demonstrate improved linearity, we propose a novel metric - Attribute Linearity Score (ALS). A significant reduction in the generation of unnatural images is corroborated by improvement in the Perceptual Path Length (PPL) metric by 16.19% averaged across different standard datasets while simultaneously improving the linearity of attribute-change in the attribute editing tasks.


Abstract Smoking prevention among adolescents is a public health challenge that is even more significant in low- and middle-income countries where local evidence is limited and smoking rates remain high. Evidence-based interventions could be transferred to low- and middle-income country settings but only after appropriate cultural adaptation. This paper aims to describe the process of the cultural adaptation of two school-based smoking prevention interventions, A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial and Dead Cool, to be implemented in Bogotá, Colombia. A recognized heuristic framework guided the cultural adaptation through five stages. We conducted a concurrent nested mixed-methods study consisting of a qualitative descriptive case study and a quantitative pre- and post quasi-experiment without a control. Contextual, content, training, and implementation modifications were made to the programs to address cultural factors, to maintain the fidelity of implementation, and to increase the pupils' engagement with the programs. Modifications incorporated the suggestions of stakeholders, the original developers, and local community members, whilst considering the feasibility of delivering the programs. Involving stakeholders, original program developers, and community members in the cultural adaptation of evidence-based interventions is essential to properly adapt them to the local context, and to maintain the fidelity of program implementation.


The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of Hepatozoon spp. infection in recently captured snakes from Botucatu, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. Blood was collected from all snakes by ventral tail venipuncture. Blood smears were air dried, fixed with methanol, and stained with 10% Giemsa solution. The slides were microscopically examined for detection of hemoparasites by light microscopy at 250x magnification. A total of 238 snakes from 23 species were examined, of which 135 (56.7%) were venomous and 103 (43.3%) non-venomous snakes. The more numerous venomous species sampled were Crotalus durissus terrificus (n=108) and Bothrops jararaca (n=17) and non-venomous snakes were Oxyrhopus guibei (n=35), Boa constrictor amarali (n=18), and Waglerophis merremi (n=13). Hepatozoon spp. infection was detected in 39 (16.4%) snakes. The prevalence in venomous and non-venomous snakes was 20.0% and 11.7%, respectively. The highest prevalences observed were 38.9% for Boa constrictor amarali, 35.3% for Bothrops jararaca, and 19.4% for Crotalus durissus terrificus.


Social Security retirement benefits were first introduced in 1935 as a financial safety net for a large and rapidly growing older American population. The program was intended to be economically selfsustaining, but population aging and rising life expectancies threaten the program's solvency. The 1983 Social Security Amendments mandated that the full retirement age increase to 67 by the year 2027. In this essay, we present evidence demonstrating that the rate of improvement in life extension at older ages accelerated after 1983. If the 1935 ratio of working years to retired years is maintained, early and full retirement ages of 66.5 and 69.4, respectively, were justified in 2009. Additional delays in the age of eligibility beyond those currently in effect would place significant financial burdens on individuals with lower life expectancies, the poor and near-poor, and the very old, and – absent additional reform – would exacerbate existing unequal access to entitlements within the system.


The state of rural social infrastructure and its impact on the quality of life and functioning of rural communities are traditionally seen as marginal to the "mainstream" development activities. The low quality of social infrastructure is, however, an important factor in the marginalization of rural areas. In the period 2007-2013 there is a possibility to implement thousands of projects related to rural social infrastructure. The main question is: in view of the large financial scope of the projects implemented from EU funds, will there be enough commitment and common sense to ensure appropriate impact on social capital?


It takes about 3000 genes to make a mitochondrion. Mitochondrial DNA encodes just 37 of these genes; the remaining genes are encoded in the cell nucleus and the resultant proteins are transported to the mitochondria. Only about 3% of the genes necessary to make a mitochondrion (100 of the 3000) are allocated for making ATP. More than 95% (2900 of 3000) are involved with other functions tied to the specialized duties of the differentiated cell in which it resides. Mitochondria contain the rate-limiting enzymes for pyrimidine biosynthesis (dihydroorotate dehydrogenase) and heme synthesis (d-amino levulinic acid synthetase) required to make hemoglobin. In the liver, mitochondria are specialized to detoxify ammonia in the urea cycle. Mitochondria are also required for cholesterol metabolism, for estrogen and testosterone synthesis, for neurotransmitter metabolism, and for free radical production and detoxification in addition to oxidizing the lipids, protein, and carbohydrates. Mitochondrial disease confirmation and establishment of a specific molecular diagnosis requires extensive clinical and laboratory evaluation. Dual genome origins of mitochondrial disease, multi-organ system manifestations, and an ever increasing spectrum of recognized phenotypes represent the main diagnostic challenges. To overcome these obstacles, compiling information from a variety of diagnostic laboratory modalities can often provide sufficient evidence to establish an etiology. These include blood and tissue histochemical and analyte measurements, neuroimaging, provocative testing, enzymatic assays of tissue samples and cultured cells, as well as DNA analysis.


Rheological properties of the water solutions of H+- and Na+-DNA were studied at shear rates in the range of 0.12-126 sec-1. It was found that the concentration dependences of reduced viscosity of these systems have the maxima which displaced to the left along abscissa after ultrasonic degradation or long keeping and to the right after the salt or urea addition. Na+-DNA solutions have the rheological curve of flow typical of pseudoplastical systems (RCF-1): the viscosity decreases with increasing shear rate. H+-DNA solutions undergo RCF-1 RCF-2 transition leading to reverse dependence of viscosity on shear rate after long keeping or sonicating (i. e. the systems become dilatant). At centrifugation and in shear fields RCF-2 RCF-1 transition occurs. Urea prevents both transitions. These discovered phenomena as well as weakening of the dilatant properties in concentrated H+-DNA solutions allow us to assume that in these systems exist circular structures consisting of single strands of DNA associated by means of ionic bonds between phosphates and protonated bases. Rheological behaviour of DNA obtained by the method of Georgiev and Struchkov was explained by the presence of circular double stranded DNA molecules in their preparations. The analysis of the non-equilibrium behavior of water solutions of DNA allows to determine the rate constants of H+- and Na+-DNA unwinding.


Cognitive representations of musical structure have long been of interest to psychologists and musicians. This project addresses comprehension of and long-term memory for musical form, a debated topic in music cognition. We use three methods: a corpus of Billboard magazine's top 10 songs for each of the last 20 years; a probabilistic grammar derived from this corpus; and an experiment testing predictions of the grammar. Two statistical analyses of the corpus are presented here, dealing with its zeroand first-order Markov properties. These provide a probablistic grammar of form in popular songs. We have tested this grammar by prompted recall of listeners' memory for popular songs they claim to know well. Recalls average over 70% correct; errors in these recalls most often correspond to low-frequency 2-tuples in our networks. Our results show that listeners learn statistical regularities of form in popular music, much as they learn melodic and harmonic structure.


We present here the crystallisation outcomes for 319 publicly available compounds in up to 18 different solvents spread over 5710 individual single solvent evaporation trials. The recorded data is part of a much larger, corresponding in-house database and includes both positive as well as negative crystallisation outcomes. Such data can be used for statistical analyses of solvent performances, machine learning approaches or investigation of the crystallisation behaviour in structurally similar compound classes. The presented data suggests that crystallisation behaviour in different solvents is not correlated with chemical similarity among clusters of highly similar compounds. Further, our machine learning models can be used to guide the solvent choice when crystallising a compound. In a retrospective evaluation, these models proved potent to reduce the workload to a third of our initial protocol, while still guaranteeing crystallisation success rates >92%.


Atherosclerotic ailments play a major role in industrial societies. Atherosclerotic disease causes stenotic narrowing of the arterial vessel system. These narrow passages can be widened with balloon angioplasty and stents are introduced to keep the passage open. In this study, stents designed for the aorto-iliac bifurcation are considered. Most of these stents used in peripheral arteries are self-expanding stents made from Nitinol, a thermo-reactive alloy. The insertion is done under radiographic control. However, the delicate metallic structure of the stent usually casts only a weak radiographic shadow and thus is difficult to detect. A stent with an innovative radio opaque tantalum marker (Luminexx®, C.R. BARD – Angiomed, Karlsruhe), overcomes this problem. However, the markers extend into the blood flow and the question arises whether the markers may cause the generation of thrombi. In a model study in an enlarged model of the aorto-iliac bifurcation with an inserted stent the flow was visualized. The enlarged scale permits the observation and video recording of the flow in great detail. The Reynolds similarity is kept. A subsequent analysis of the flow in the vicinity of the markers shows a short residence time. These results indicate that the additional markers do not increase the risk of thrombus generation.


Non-organ confined prostate cancer (PCa) is often effectively, but only transiently treated by targeting the androgen receptor (AR) signaling axis through androgen depletion strategies, often coupled with AR antagonists. Unfortunately, disease recurs within a median of 3-4 years, presenting as castration resistant PCa (CRPC), for which there are limited therapeutic options. This emphasizes the need for more efficacious drugs and a patient-tailored approach towards cancer therapy to improve disease outcome. One class of drugs currently tested clinically, Cdk4/6 kinase inhibitors, blocks phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor, thereby boosting its function, and likely preventing castration resistance. As Cdk4/6 inhibitor resistance has already been reported in other cancers, some PCa patients are anticipated to develop drug resistance. Here, we created palbociclib-resistant PCa cell models by continuously culturing them in presence of the drug to unravel mechanisms of acquired resistance, and assessed them for cross-resistance to ribociclib and response to other therapeutics. While the parental PCa cell models, Cdk4/6 inhibitors efficiently induce a G1 cell cycle arrest, the resistant cell lines bypass this cell cycle checkpoint. Although loss of RB is a known mechanism for Cdk4/6i resistance, none of the models lost RB expression. Strikingly, these originally hormone-sensitive cell lines, upon developing Cdk4/6 inhibitor resistance display altered response to selected therapeutic regimens. Mechanisms of resistance, as informed by Whole Exome Sequencing and RNASeq, will be discussed. Citation Format: Renee de Leeuw, Matthew J. Schiewer, Christopher McNair, Michael A. Augello, Akihiro Yoshida, Edward S. Hazard, Sean Courtney, Gerard T. Hardiman, Justin Drake, Felix Y. Feng, Scott Tomlins, Maha H. Hussain, J Alan Diehl, William K. Kelly, Karen E. Knudsen. Cdk4/6 kinase inhibitor resistance in prostate cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5874. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5874


: Experimental infection of piglets with a fecal pool containing hepatitis E virus (HEV) strains Osh-25 and Osh-228 confirmed previous results obtained with HEV strain Osh-205 on susceptibility of these animals to hepatitis E. A biphasic increase of transaminase activities, histopathologic changes in the liver, virus excretion with feces were observed in the animals. The genome of viral particles in piglet feces conformed, at least partially, to human HEV RNA. Ultrastructural abnormalities of piglet hepatocytes resembled those in primates with experimental hepatitis E. The number of positive results (during follow-up of the particles and HEV RNA in various organs of experimental animals) was the highest on day 10 after infection. Both the particles and HEV RNA were present in the lymphoid tissue over the entire follow-up period, from day 5 to day 15 postinfection.


The aim of this study was to determine the composition and antimicrobial effect of Helichrysumarenarium L. essential oil in "in-vitro" condition. For this purpose, the chemical composition of the essential oil which obtained by hydro-distillation was examined by GC/MS and the antimicrobial effectwas studied on the growth of threefood born pathogens including Serratiamarcescens, Streptococcus agalactiae and Staphylococcus aureus using micro-dilution method. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) andminimumbactericidalwere determined for the essential oil at ten concentrations. Chemical composition analysis of the essential oil identified a total of 38 compounds. Themain components of essential oilwere a-pinene (32%), 1,8-cineole (16%), a-humulene (15%), â-caryophyllene (8%). Other separated components accounted for less than 29% of the oil. Results of antimicrobial analysis showed MIC values of 406, 812 and 812µg/ml respectively for Serratiamarcescens, Streptococcus agalactiae and Staphylococcus aureusbut the MBC was observed respectively at 812, 3250 and 3250µg/ml for the mentioned bacteria.


Strontium ranelate is one of the first-line agents with proven anti-fracture activity used in the therapy of post-menopausal osteoporosis. Its mechanism of action makes it, however, different from other drugs, since it simultaneously stimulates two reverse processes: bone formation and bone resorption. The action of the agent depends on various mechanisms, including the activation of calcium receptors, localised on osteoblasts and osteoclasts, and on the influence on the OPG/RANKL system. The drug effectively prevents spinal, hip and extravertebral fractures. The agent's anti-fracture efficacy within the spine does not depend on the patient's age, or on base BMD values, or on the concentration of bone metabolism markers. As to the anti-fracture efficacy in the hip, it concerns women with an increased bone fracture risk. Strontium ranelate increases bone mineral density within the lumbar spine and the hip, decreases the concentrations of bone resorption markers, and increases the concentrations of bone formation markers. The drug is administered in a daily 2.0 g oral dose. This paper presents indications to therapy with strontium ranelate, specifying also its side effects and contraindications. We compare the anti-fracture efficacy of strontium ranelate to the efficacy of other agents of proven anti-fracture activity, based on published clinical studies.


PurposeThe rollout of individualised disability funding in Australia resulted in an increased demand for services for people with a disability, particularly support for the high percentage of Australians with autism spectrum disorder. Continuing professional development is one way to grow and maintain a skilled workforce; however, face-to-face opportunities can be limited in remote areas of Australia. Technology may provide a low-cost and widely accessible platform for providing education and support for staff in these areas.Design/methodology/approachThe current study evaluated a novel webinar training and individual online support program for 36 allied health, education and community support staff. Data were collected via a survey on changes in perceived "knowledge and skills" and "confidence" in supporting children with autism, as well as mode of participation, and accessibility of the program.FindingsParticipants reported a significant increase in their "knowledge and skills" and "confidence", in working with children with autism. This increase was positively related to the number of webinars the participants accessed. The mode of webinar access was predominantly via watching recordings of webinars (asynchronous learning). Synchronous learning via individual online sessions was accessed by a small number of participants, mostly allied health professionals. Workload and scheduling were identified as barriers to engaging in the program. The technology platform was found to be accessible and acceptable.Originality/valueA predominantly asynchronous mode of delivery was successful, thereby increasing program access and flexibility for remote staff. Technology was not a barrier to accessing the program regardless of remoteness or job role.


ABSTRACT David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage is now two centuries old, but it remains at the heart of economists' theories of international trade. It also continues to provide the underlying economic ethic for liberal International Political Economy (IPE). Ricardo's numerical illustration of the mutually shared gains from specialisation and trade involved complementary structures of comparative advantage being exhibited by a productively superior hypothetical 'Portugal' and a productively inferior hypothetical 'England'. Yet, the historical back-story of actual eighteenth-century trading relations between the two countries reveals Portugal's repeated struggles to meet its treaty obligations to the English in the context of the European quest for empire. Those difficulties persisted even when it harnessed its (less profitable) commercial trade to (much more profitable) slave trading practices. Ricardo's account of the purely mathematical logic of comparative advantage writes out of economic history the centrality of both imperial wars and African slavery to the early English and Portuguese experience of 'free' trade. Given this historical back-story, liberal IPE thus appears to be in urgent need of new normative foundations to decouple it from these highly illiberal economic processes.


"The Green European Foundation (GEF) has published its report on UBI: European Green Perspectives on Basic Income, on 18th February 2019. GEF is one of the 'political foundations at European level' (a.k.a. Eurofoundations) that are research and advocacy organisations funded by the European Parliament. GEF ran a project 'Basic Income for all EU citizens?' for the past two years (2017-2018). This report is one of its outcomes. The report's forewords by Susanne Rieger and Ville Ylikahri outlines the aim of the project: 'investigating the [UBI] proposal's potential in relation to employment, the recognition of work beyond paid work, and the gendered division of the labour' (p.5). This threefold aim is in sharp contrast to the narrow focus of the Finnish Government experiment run concurrently with the GEF's project. The Finnish Government only focused on employment and paid no attention to unpaid work and the gender division of labour. The report contains the accessible introduction, 'Twelve Questions and Answers on Universal Basic Income' by Natalie Bennet, a former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. It is followed by 9 substantial articles. The report's concluding chapter evaluates the EU-wide UBI proposal from 'Social Europe' perspective."


The root mean square deviation (RMSD) and the least RMSD are two widely used similarity measures in structural bioinformatics. Yet, they stem from global comparisons, possibly obliterating locally conserved motifs. We correct these limitations with the so-called combined RMSD, which mixes independent lRMSD measures, each computed with its own rigid motion. The combined RMSD can be used to compare (quaternary) structures based on motifs defined from the sequence (domains, SSE), or to compare structures based on structural motifs yielded by local structural alignment methods. We illustrate the benefits of combined RMSD over the usual RMSD on three problems, namely (i) the analysis of conformational changes based on combined RMSD of rigid structural motifs (case study: a class II fusion protein), (ii) the calculation of structural phylogenies (case study: class II fusion proteins), and (iii) the assignment of quaternary structures for hemoglobin. Using these, we argue that the combined RMSD is a tool a choice to perform positive and negative discrimination of degree of freedom, with applications to the design of move sets and collective coordinates. Combined RMSD are available within the Structural Bioinformatics Library (http://sbl.inria.fr).


We present new results of simple acid leaching experiments on the Pb isotope composition of USGS standard reference material powders and on ocean island basalt whole rock splits and powders. Rock samples were leached with cold 6 N HCl in an ultrasonic bath, then on a hot plate, and washed with ultrapure H2O before sample digestion in HF‐HNO3 and chromatographic purification of Pb. Lead isotope analyses were measured by Tl‐doped MC‐ICPMS. Intrasession and intersession analytical reproducibilities of repeated analyses of both synthetic Pb solutions and Pb from single digests of chemically processed natural samples were generally better than 100 ppm (2 SD). The comparison of leached and unleached samples shows that leaching consistently removes variable amounts of contaminants that differ in Pb isotopic composition for different starting materials. For repeated digests of a single sample, analyses of leached samples reproduce better than those of unleached ones, confirming that leaching effectively removes most of the heterogeneously distributed extraneous Pb. Nevertheless, the external reproducibility of leached samples is still up to an order of magnitude worse than that of Pb solution standards (∼100 ppm). More complex leaching methods employed by earlier studies yield Pb isotope ratios within error of those produced by our method and at similar levels of reproducibility, demonstrating that our simple leaching method is as effective as more complex leaching techniques. Therefore, any Pb isotope heterogeneity among multiple leached digests of samples in excess of the external reproducibility is attributed to inherent isotopic heterogeneity of the sample. The external precision of ∼100 ppm (2 SD) achieved for Pb isotope ratio determination by Tl‐doped MC‐ICPMS is thus sufficient for most rocks. The full advantage of the most precise Pb isotope analytical methods is only realized in cases where the natural isotopic heterogeneity among samples in a studied suite is substantially below 100 ppm.


The teaching of English for Young Learners has become a global phenomenon, but many countries are facing dilemma in terms of teacher preparation (Nunan, 2003; Kaplan, Baldauf, & Kamwangamalu, 2011). Indonesia is of no exception. Its pre-service system has not been adequate to sufficiently prepare elementary English teachers with knowledge and skills pertaining to their occupational needs. Moreover, systematic ways to overhaul the pre-service system remain yet to be seen. This study investigated the perceptions of English teachers and language teacher educators on educational policy measures for the improvement of pre-service education to better prepare elementary English teachers. The findings of the study validate the need for redesigning pre-service education curricula as well as specific preparation for the elementary English teachers. The study also highlights the importance of a training scheme for teacher educators in teaching EYL. Although the implications of the study are derivational from Indonesian present context, they may also shed some light to the quandary currently faced by other countries facing a similar dilemma.


Electromagnetic forming is one of the sheet metal forming processes in which force is applied by an electromagnetic pulse. In this process, sheet metal is deformed rapidly at high strain rates. In this paper, FE simulation has been applied to study distribution of magnetic field formed by spiral coil and inducted eddy current in a circular sheet. At first, magnitude and components of magnetic field intensity have been calculated and compared with experimental results taken from literature. After verifying of simulation results, the effects of sheet thickness on magnetic force magnitude and distribution have been investigated.


This paper describes the return loss characteristics for four typical contact type connectors: perpendicular and oblique endface connectors employing either physical contact or contact via index matching material. The high index layer on the polished fiber endface and the index matching material, which are important connector parameters, are investigated by measuring the return loss from one perpendicular fiber endface coated with the material and by etching the fiber endface. It is useful to apply two materials with different refractive indices to derive the refractive index and thickness of high index layers on perpendicular fiber endfaces. The index matching material we use has a refractive index of 1.467 at 20/spl deg/C and a thermal coefficient of -2.9/spl times/10/sup -4///spl deg/C at 1.3 /spl mu/m. We performed return loss calculations and experiments of the four contact type connectors. The worst value at any temperature from -40 to 80/spl deg/C can be estimated, by measuring the return loss of these connectors at room temperature.


The construction, demolition and excavation waste arising in the UK is estimated
at 109 million tonnes per year. Much had been published on ways to improve
on-site waste management and recycling activities but very few attempts made to
address design generated waste. This paper examines previous studies on
architects' approach towards construction waste minimisation; and by means of a
postal questionnaire sent to the 100 top UK architectural practices, investigates:
the origins of design waste; waste minimisation design practices in the UK; and
barriers to design out waste. The findings reveal that architects consider that
waste is mainly produced during site operations and rarely generated during the
design stages. However, about one third of construction waste could essentially
arise from design decisions. Results also indicate that a number of constraints,
namely: lack of interest from clients and attitudes towards waste minimisation
are seen as disincentives to a proactive and sustainable implementation of waste
reduction strategies during the design process.


The purpose of this paper is to explore the government and private sector collaboration by focusing on their roles in influencing the innovation activities crucial for the development of a knowledge economy (KE) in Bahrain.,A qualitative methodology based on an explorative single multi-unit case study strategy was used with individual and focus group interviews as primary sources of data collection. Perspectives of 22 individuals and three focus groups involving participants working in private, semi-government and government sectors that influence the economy of Bahrain were collected along with reports and articles published regarding those sectors as second sources of data compilation.,The preliminary findings show that Bahrain's pursuit of a KE has already begun by the government developing policies and regulations for the financial sector to innovate in financial technology (FinTech). It was also found that in order for innovation processes and products to be developed further in Bahrain, the government had to play a stronger role in promoting, facilitating and incentivizing those processes and developments. The role of the private sector emerged as the sole producer of innovation and the main entity responsible for producing innovative products and services that would inject direct values into the commercial economy of the innovation ecosystem.,This is the first study that examines the influence of collaboration between the government and the private sector on innovation development in Bahrain. This research also provides an assessment tool that can serve as the groundwork for studies in the Gulf Cooperative Council countries since those countries share similar culture, language, religion and a hydrocarbon-dependent economy as Bahrain and are aiming to develop KE strategies.


In this paper, we present a modified version of an algorithm inspired on the T-Cell model, it is an artificial immune system (AIS), based on the process that suffers the T-Cell. The proposed algorithm is called TCEC (T-Cell Epsilon Constrained) due to it is increased with epsilon constrained method, for solving constrained (numerical) optimization problems. We validate our proposed approach with a set of 36 test functions provided for the CEC 2010 competition. We indirectly compare our results with respect to a version of the differential evolution algorithm. Our results show that TCEC can found feasible solutions on almost test functions with 10 and 30 decision variables.


A hurricane model developed at GFDL, NOAA, was combined with each of A"N and NO GAPS global analyses to construct typhoon prediction systems GFDS and GFDN, respl~ctively. The GFDS system performed 125 (178) forecast experiments for 16 (24) storms in the western North Pacific basin during 1995 (1996). It exhibited considerable skill in the forecast of tropical cyclone tracks. The average forecast position errors at 12, 24, 36, 48 and 72 h in 1995 (1996) were 95 (108), 146 (178), 193 (227), 249 (280), and 465 (480) km. The improvement with GFDS in the typhoon position forE~cast over CLIPER was roughly 30 %. The reduction of position errors in both average and standard deviations indicates superior forecast accuracy and consistency of GFDS, although there existed systematic; northward bias in the forecast motion at low latitudes. On the other hand, intensity forecast was not satisfactory, showing a tendency to overpredict weak storms and underpredict strong storms, similar to the tendency in the Atlantic. Two sets of forecasts performed in the 1996 season, the one by GFDS ,I.nd the other by GFDN, were compared with each other. Forecast skills of the storm position with the 1~\1ro systems were comparable. However, the two forecast positions tended to be systematically biased toward different directions. As a result, when the two forecasts were averaged, the mean error was 10 % smaller than that of each forecast. Also, overall improvement in track forecast was obtained in supplemental experiments in which individual forecasts were corrected for systematic biases. Though systematic bias is not steady, there may be ways to utilize it for improvement of tropical cyclone forecasts.


Any entity found in the development phase of its activity, or in phase of maintenance of production capacity, needs to attract resources to finance its activities. One of the issues the management has to deal with is related to the type of financing to which it should make use of: external sources or their own. Choosing appropriate financing sources for the entity's activity requires a balanced analysis of several factors: the period for which financing sources are needed, the cost of financing sources, the flexibility of the financing contract, the impact of taxation on the financing policy of the company, etc.. The management of an entity ought to understand that attracting a financing source means more than getting a sum of money! Paper: http://ccefa.spiruharet.ro/materiale/dder.pdf


In the last few decades, the rapid urbanisation process has led to an exponential growth of resource use, making increasingly difficult to ensure the principles of sustainability within urban systems. Similar to living organisms, cities have always required resources and energy to survive. However, technological development and population growth have consequently led to increasing urban inflows and outflows, in so deeply altering the relations of cities with the environment as a source and a sink. Examples include the extraction of minerals for built environment and industrial processes providing manufactured goods; the conversion of fossil energy into electricity for buildings and fuel for vehicles; the use of natural resources (e.g., land or water) to support urban expansion activities. In a planet with limited resources, the challenge should not be to find new resources but to improve the way we use them and the lifestyles that they support, or in other words, to plan strategies to generate more value and higher quality of life with fewer inputs. It is well-known that cities depend on imports of external resources; however, they also benefit from internal resources and ecosystem services. Based on this framework, an urgent effort is needed to explore crucial urban issues that have not yet been adequately investigated. A strategic resource management is needed to actually move towards sustainable cities. In particular, a special focus should be placed on: (i) to monitor and properly manage the city's resources and energy systems within the metaphor of "urban metabolism;" (ii) to define innovative approaches, actions and strategies that ensure the sustainable management of non-renewable urban resources; (iii) to protect and restore urban ecosystem services as valuable renewable resources, and finally (iv) to envisage participatory governance processes for the appropriate allocation of resources to the common well-being.


In this article we analyse the regulation of female genital surgery in Australia with a focus on New South Wales. We argue that the categorisation of some surgeries as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and others as Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery (FGCS) participates in the production of a constellation of gendered legal subjects, produced in language and law, that contribute to maintaining the raced and gendered status quo in Australia. Our analysis demonstrates that there is not one legal subject (or object) position for women produced through these laws; a range of legal subject positions are produced in and through this specific set of legal provisions, and these subject positions may shift over time. We analyse three legal subjects, produced relationally. First, anti-FGM feminists and female parliamentarians, who, through campaigning for and participating in passing these laws, enter into a partnership across gender with male lawmakers, become authors of law and full legal subjects of western liberal democracies in that process. Necessary to the emergence of these women as full legal subjects and authors of the law are those subjected to these legal provisions. The creation and prohibition of the category of FGM, through the definition of a wide range of varying cultural practices of female genital cutting, or female circumcision, as 'mutilation', creates the image of the 'mutilated (brown) female' as subjected to the law. Finally, a new subject of FGCS also emerges through these laws: the figure of a relatively privileged (white) woman who is saturated with sexuality and defined through the decision to mutilate her body in the pursuit of sexual pleasure. This figure, which we call the 'new hysteric', is the third gendered legal subject that we discuss.


Constitutively active nitric oxide synthases (NOS) are a unique class of NADPH-dependent, calcium/calmodulin-dependent enzymes that catalyze the conversion of L-arginine to nitric oxide and L-citrulline. However, little is known about the molecular similarities or differences between the two prototypical constitutive NOS enzymes, endothelial NOS (ECNOS) and brain NOS (bNOS). The aims of this study were to begin characterizing the gene structure and tissue distribution of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) for ECNOS and bNOS and to examine the immunological resemblance of the proteins by Western blotting. Full-length complementary DNAs (cDNAs) encoding bovine ECNOS and rat bNOS hybridized, under high stringency, to different-sized fragments of endonuclease-digested bovine, rat, and human genomic DNA. In addition, more than one fragment was detected with both cDNAs, suggesting that ECNOS and bNOS genes contained multiple introns. Tissue distribution of ECNOS mRNA (4.4 kb) and bNOS mRNA (9.5 kb) in the rat was detected by Northern blotting. Patterns among tissue extracts were strikingly different, with ECNOS mRNA being most abundant in aorta, heart, lung, kidney, adrenal gland, spinal cord, and urogenital tissues and bNOS mRNA most prominent in brain regions, intestine, stomach, spinal cord, adrenal gland, and aorta. Interestingly, ECNOS cDNA detected two equally abundant RNA transcripts (4.4 and 4.0 kb) in most brain regions tested, suggesting an alternative splicing of the ECNOS pre-mRNA. Western blotting, using an ECNOS monoclonal antibody, recognized ECNOS protein from native bovine endothelial cells, cultured bovine endothelial cells, and COS cells transfected with ECNOS cDNA but did not recognize purified bNOS.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


: Purpose: This work explains the theoretical background of these various changes among various countries. This article aims to demonstrate the heuristic capacity of the institutional analysis of O.E. Williamson in deductively explaining differences in institutional solutions introduced as part of activities aimed at counteracting the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in different countries. Design/Methodology/Approach: The article is primarily based on deductive-nomological considerations. In addition, the analysis of selected literature and the case study method was used to show how the government imposed various institutional changes in society and the economy of selected countries. Findings: The research results indicate that the issue of the pandemic and the actions taken to combat the crisis it triggered, as well as the attitude towards social distancing, varied even though the COVID-19 pandemic had similar effects in different countries. Interestingly, the same approach to the pandemic and the adopted institutional solutions were presented differently by politicians and public media during pandemia COVID-19. Practical Implications: Research shows different sources of varying institutional changes that can be analyzed and explained from the point of view of O.E. Williamson's concept. Originality/Value: The research shows that topics important for the functioning of the state, such as the rapidly deteriorating condition of public finances or the entry of the economy into recession, were not the main reason for introducing varying institutional solutions.


Dear Editor, During an informal dinner, a guest referred to a distant relative's death caused by a severe lower respiratory tract infection treated at an unprestigious small private hospital in a rural area. To my surprise, it was argued that the patient's outcome would be better if treated at a reputable private hospital in the capital without any support of such an argument with evidence. A strange correlation was created between unprestigious hospitals and authors without prestigious affiliations with the "unfair" treatment of subjects and the "unfair" rejection of studies during the peer-review process. Without losing time, an online search revealed that the potential influence of the affiliated authors' institutional prestige on reviewers and editors is a real enemy of the unbiased peer-review process that has been well-known since 19821. Editors of high-impact journals have recognized the susceptibility of the review process to bias2,3. Back in 1990, a randomized study showed that reviews' quality was graded slightly higher for blinded versus unblinded manuscripts4. Furthermore, a recent study compared the review bias in single-blind (blinded for authors, while not blinded for reviewers) versus double-blind (the identities of both authors and reviewers are hidden from each other) peer-review process5. Interestingly, the authors found that the acceptance rates for papers from famous authors, top universities, and top companies were significantly higher in single-blind reviews5. Additionally, another study confirmed these results showing that the single-blind peer-review process favors reputed authors compared to the double-blind process6. Interestingly, in a randomized study, reviewers were arbitrarily grouped to receive either a single-blind or a double-blind version of a fabricated manuscript in a single journal7. The authors achieved a 28 % higher acceptance rate and higher overall reviewer scores when their prestigious names and institutions were visible7. These data provide strong evidence that the existing unblinded peer-review process that most medical journals use is prone to bias. Even though the problem is well-known, medical journals have not implemented a double-blind, triple-blind (in addition to blinding the reviewers' identity, the authors' identity is also hidden from the editors) or quadruple-blind (the blinding is augmented by hiding the identity of the handling editor) peer-review process. At the same time, such a measure can eliminate peer review bias8. Also, "honorary authorship" is a common cause of misconduct in research practices9. The implementation of blinding in the review process could eliminate the "honorary authorship" of prestigious authors that mainly occurs to increase the likelihood of achieving a publication in high impact journals. Why do the prestige and affiliation bias still exist as enemies of medical journals' peer-review process when there are many less biased methods? Why is no action taken while the review bias directly affects outcome that depends on the peer-review process? As currently, the peer review process does not universally address such concerns, the prestige bias remains "an old, untreated enemy of the peer-review process..."


Chronic inflammation of the adipose tissue (AT) is a major contributor to obesity-associated cardiometabolic complications. The olive oil polyphenol hydroxytyrosol (HT) contributes to Mediterranean diet cardiometabolic benefits through mechanisms still partially unknown. We investigated HT (1 and 10 μmol/L) effects on gene expression (mRNA and microRNA) related to inflammation induced by 10 ng/mL tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in human Simpson–Golabi–Behmel Syndrome (SGBS) adipocytes. At real-time PCR, HT significantly inhibited TNF-α-induced mRNA levels, of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, C-X-C Motif Ligand-10, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, vascular endothelial growth factor, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, cyclooxygenase-2, macrophage colony-stimulating factor, matrix metalloproteinase-2, Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase-1, and glutathione peroxidase, as well as surface expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and reverted the TNF-α-mediated inhibition of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor coactivator-1α, and glucose transporter-4. We found similar effects in adipocytes stimulated by macrophage-conditioned media. Accordingly, HT significantly counteracted miR-155-5p, miR-34a-5p, and let-7c-5p expression in both cells and exosomes, and prevented NF-κB activation and production of reactive oxygen species. HT can therefore modulate adipocyte gene expression profile through mechanisms involving a reduction of oxidative stress and NF-κB inhibition. By such mechanisms, HT may blunt macrophage recruitment and improve AT inflammation, preventing the deregulation of pathways involved in obesity-related diseases.


The objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of rapid digit naming, phonological memory, letter sound naming, and orthographic knowledge to the prediction of responsiveness to a school-based, individual intervention of word reading fluency problems of 122 Dutch second and third graders whose reading scores were below the 10th percentile in comparison with the normative group. Degree of responsiveness was determined by comparison of a pre- and posttest measure of word reading fluency with a 6-month interval. At posttest, 38% of the children had improved their reading scores above the 10th percentile. Maintenance scores revealed no significant growth on average, confirming that word reading fluency skills of poor readers are hard to remediate. Except rapid digit naming, none of the measures predicted responsiveness after controlling for the autoregressive effect of initial performance on fluency of word reading. A large part of the variance remained unexplained, supporting the advantage of a response-to-intervention approach above traditional psychometric testing to identify severe reading disabilities.


Background Pneumonia among nursing home (NH) residents has increased considerably in recent years, but it remains unclear whether it should be considered as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) or a new category of infection. Methods 150 consecutive cases of NH-acquired pneumonia (NHAP) (from 1 February 1997 to 1 July 2007) were analysed. Results Patients (median age, 82 years; range, 77–87 years) showed numerous co-morbidities, (neurological, 55%; pulmonary, 38%; cardiac, 35%) and severe disability for daily activities (partial, 32%; total, 31%). Cases of NHAP were mainly classified as mild to moderate according to the CRB-65 score (CRB-65 classes 0–1 and 2, 41% each). In-hospital and 30-day mortality were 8.7% and 20%, respectively. Aetiology was defined in 57 cases (38%). The most common isolates were Streptococcus pneumoniae (58%), Enterobacteriaceae (Gram-negative bacteria (GNB)) (9%), atypical bacteria (7%), respiratory viruses (5%), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (5%) and Legionella pneumophila (5%). The most frequent causes of treatment inadequacy were use of β-lactams alone (25%) and lack of aspiration assessment (15%). Prognostic factors of 1-month mortality were neurological comorbidities (OR 4.5; 95% CI 1.3 to 15.7; p=0.020), septic shock (OR 6.6; 95% CI 1.3 to 34.0; p=0.025), pleural effusion (OR 3.6; 95% CI 1.1 to 11.7; p=0.036) and isolation of GNB or MRSA (OR 16.4; 95% CI 2.1 to 128.9; p=0.008). Conclusions The patients show clinical characteristics (eg, age and co-morbidities) comparable with those with hospital-acquired pneumonia. However, microbiological and mortality data of patients with NHAP are more similar to the data of those with CAP. Isolation of GNB or MRSA was associated with increased mortality risk. CAP empirical antibiotic coverage is still indicated in NHAP, although specific risk factors for multidrug-resistant infections should be assessed on an individual basis.


Purpose: To demonstrate the utility of high resolution 20 MHz ophthalmic ultrasound in serial follow-up of optic nerve head melanocytoma patients. Methods: This study is a retrospective review of 30 patients with melanocytoma of the optic nerve head studied with echography. All patients were evaluated with standard ophthalmic A-scan and B-scan ultrasonography and 10 (33%) underwent high-resolution ultrasound. Results: Sixty-two percent (62%) of patients had dome-shaped lesions on ultrasound, twenty-eight percent (28%) presented with mild elevations. The maximum elevation of any lesion was 2.6 mm. The vast majority (89%) of lesions had medium or high internal reflectivity and 89% demonstrated avascularity. Mean follow-up for all patients was nearly 7 years. High-resolution ultrasound enabled enhanced accuracy for detection of lesion dimensions and documentation of growth and possible malignant transformation. Conclusions: In this study, we demonstrate a new and important role for the use of ultrasound in this disease as a complementary tool in identifying and following patients with high-risk growth characteristics. These tumor characteristics can be accurately detected with 10 MHz ultrasound in conjunction with standardized A-scan and better differentiated with the 20 MHz technology. Use of these modalities can aid in distinguishing the melanocytomas that grow from choroidal melanomas and can prevent unnecessary treatments.


With the proclamation of 'The Death of the Author' in 1968 by Roland Barthes came the rise of the notion that the author, along with the text s/he creates, is a construction.1 Textual authority has shifted from authorial intention to the text, and with it the reader. This breakdown in authority has led to an anxiety of form in the author. In metafictional novels, novels that draw attention to their fictionality, this anxiety is made explicit through consistently highlighting the construction of the author. Alasdair Gray's novels, whilst varying in content and form, all include metafictional devices that consider the construction of the author. Patricia Waugh in Metafiction argues that modern writers are aware of theoretical concerns regarding the constructed nature of fiction, and through this are able to manipulate and draw attention to the formation of a text2. Waugh also argues that metafictional writers 'all explore a theory of fiction through the practice of writing fiction.' 3With this in mind, I argue that Alasdair Gray's novels are consistent with the idea raised in Lanark: 'I want Lanark to be read in one order but eventually thought of in another.' 4 Each of his novels can be read as independent texts, but can also be thought of as a body of work that, when read as such, influences the reading of the individual novel. Whilst this is true of all bodies of work, I argue that Gray explores the influences of creating various authorial positions on the construction of the author in both an individual text and in a collection of works. Metafiction holds that the author engages with theoretical questions regarding literature and therefore manipulates theoretical ideas in the texts to address these questions.


The University of Oregon undergraduate program is based on the premise that the best professional communicator is broadly educated. In accordance with national accrediting standards, students must take at least 104 credits in courses outside the School of Journalism and Communication. A maximum of 76 credits in the 180-credit undergraduate program may be in journalism and communication courses. Students learn about media practice and effects. They study the role of the media in society, the history of journalism, visual communication, the ethics of media practices, the economics of the media, new media technologies, international communication, diversity in the media, and the legal and social responsibilities of the media.


BACKGROUND
Postoperative stereotactic body radiotherapy (pSBRT) is an emerging indication for spinal metastases (SM).

OBJECTIVE
To report our experience with pSBRT for SM.

METHODS
A retrospective chart review was performed for prospectively collected data of patients treated between September 2008 to December 2015 with pSBRT and followed with serial spinal MRIs every 2 to 3 mo until death or last follow-up. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed to identify predictive factors.

RESULTS
A total of 83 spinal segments in 47 patients treated with a median dose of 24 Gy in 2 fractions were included, with mostly lung and breast primaries. A total of 59.3% had preoperative high-grade epidural disease (ED) and 39.7% were unstable. The 12-mo cumulative incidence of local failure was 17% for all segments, and 33.3%, 21.8%, and 0% in segments with postoperative high-grade, low-grade, and no ED, respectively. Downgrading preoperative ED was predictive of better local control (P = .03). The grade of postoperative ED was also predictive for local control (P < .0001), as was a longer interval between prior radiotherapy and pSBRT in those previously irradiated (P = .004). The 12-mo overall survival rate was 55%. One case of radiculopathy, 3 vertebral compression fractures, and no cases of myelopathy, hardware failure, or skin breakdown were observed.

CONCLUSION
pSBRT is an effective and safe treatment. The association between downgrading preoperative ED and better local control following pSBRT is confirmed and supports the concept of separation surgery.