OBJECTIVE
Early childhood (< 3 years of age) is a critical period for neurodevelopment. This study investigated the correlation between early childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI) and subsequent risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and developmental delay (DD) by analyzing a national-scale cohort.

METHODS
Data from the National Health Insurance Research Database, which comprises health care information from > 99% of the Taiwanese population, were analyzed. Children with TBI in their early childhood were enrolled from 1998-2008, and the incidence of subsequent ADHD, ASD, or DD (according to ICD-9 criteria) was assessed and compared with controls without TBI. Patients' age, number of TBI events, and TBI severity were investigated for the risk of ADHD, ASD, or DD.

RESULTS
A total of 7,801 and 31,204 children were enrolled in the TBI and control cohorts, respectively. The TBI cohort exhibited a higher incidence of subsequent ADHD, ASD, or DD than the controls (all P < .001). Diagnoses of ADHD, ASD, or DD in the TBI cohort were made at a younger age compared with the controls. Cox regression demonstrated the highest hazard ratios (HRs) of ADHD, ASD, or DD with repeated TBI events, severe TBI, and TBI events before 1 year of age, with the exception that the HR of ASD did not significantly increase after repeated TBI (P = .335). In addition, cumulative HRs (> 10 years) of ADHD, ASD, or DD were increased after TBI (all P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS
Data from this study suggest that the incidence of ADHD, ASD, and DD significantly increased after TBI events in early childhood (< 3 years of age). The risk factors include severe TBI, repeated TBI events, and TBI at a younger age. The long-term follow-up demonstrated an increased cumulative risk of ADHD, ASD, and DD after TBI.


We study random assignment economies with expected-utility agents, each of them eventually obtaining a single object. Inspired on Hylland and Zeckhauser's (1979) Pseudomarket mechanism (PM) and on a serial dictatorship, we introduce the Sequential Pseudomarket (SP) where groups of agents are called turn by turn and participate in a pseudomarket for the remaining objects. To measure efficiency, we focus on the set of ex-ante Pareto-optimal (PO) random assignments and on the ex-ante weak core (CO). We find: 1) PM âS' PO but the converse is not always true (there is no Second Theorem of Welfare Economics), 2) PO ⊂ SP but the converse is not always true, 3) SP âS' CO


A bipolar disjunction is an extreme, yet common, biogeographic pattern in non-vascular plants, yet its underlying mechanisms (vicariance or long-distance dispersal), origin and timing remain poorly understood. Here, combining a large-scale population dataset and multiple dating analyses, we examine the biogeography of four bipolar Polytrichales mosses, common to the Holarctic (temperate and polar Northern Hemisphere regions) and the Antarctic region (Antarctic, sub-Antarctic, southern South America) and other Southern Hemisphere (SH) regions. Our data reveal contrasting patterns, for three species were of Holarctic origin, with subsequent dispersal to the SH, while one, currently a particularly common species in the Holarctic (Polytrichum juniperinum), diversified in the Antarctic region and from here colonized both the Holarctic and other SH regions. Our findings suggest long-distance dispersal as the driver of bipolar disjunctions. We find such inter-hemispheric dispersals are rare, occurring on multi-million-year timescales. High-altitude tropical populations did not act as trans-equatorial 'stepping-stones', but rather were derived from later dispersal events. All arrivals to the Antarctic region occurred well before the Last Glacial Maximum and previous glaciations, suggesting that, despite the harsh climate during these past glacial maxima, plants have had a much longer presence in this southern region than previously thought.


This paper is devoted to comparison of the capabilities of various methods to predict the bankruptcy of construction industry companies on a one-year horizon. The authors considered the following algorithms: logit and probit models, classification trees, random forests, artificial neural networks. Special attention was paid to the peculiarities of the training machine learning models, the impact of data imbalance on the predictive ability of models, analysis of ways to deal with these imbalances and analysis of the influence of non-financial factors on the predictive ability of models. In their study, the authors used non-financial and financial indicators calculated on the basis of public financial statements of the construction companies for the period from 2011 to 2017. The authors concluded that the models considered show acceptable quality for use in forecasting bankruptcy problems. The Gini or AUC coefficient (area under the ROC curve) was used as the quality markers of the model. It was revealed that neural networks outperform other methods in predictive power, while logistic regression models in combination with discretization follow them closely. It was found that the effective way to deal with the imbalance data depends on the type of model used. However, no significant impact on the imbalance in the training set predictive ability of the model was identified. The significant impact of non-financial indicators on the likelihood of bankruptcy was not confirmed.


This paper reviews land tenure reform on communal land against the background of the repossession of private land occupied by white settlers. The purpose and scope of the proposed tenure reform in the former homelands of South Africa are described, as well as the attempts by South Africa's neighbours to resolve tenure problems in the Communal Areas.


BACKGROUND: The genetic etiology of primary immunodeficiency disease (PID) carries prognostic information. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a whole-genome sequencing study assessing a large proportion of the NIHR-BioResource - Rare Disease cohort. METHODS: In the predominantly European study population of principally sporadic unrelated PID cases (n=846), a novel Bayesian method identified NFKB1 as one most strongly associated with PID, and the association was explained by 16 novel heterozygous truncating, missense and gene deletion variants. This accounted for 4% of common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) cases (n=390) in the cohort. Amino-acid substitutions predicted to be pathogenic were assessed by analysis of structural protein data. Immunophenotyping, immunoblotting and ex vivo stimulation of lymphocytes determined the functional effects of these variants. Detailed clinical and pedigree information was collected for genotype-phenotype co-segregation analyses. RESULTS: Both sporadic and familial cases demonstrated evidence of the non-infective complications of CVID, including massive lymphadenopathy (24%), unexplained splenomegaly (48%) and autoimmune disease (48%), features prior studies correlate with worse clinical prognosis. Although partial penetrance of clinical symptoms was noted in certain pedigrees, all carriers have a deficiency in B lymphocyte differentiation. Detailed assessment of B lymphocyte numbers, phenotype and function identifies the presence of a raised CD21lowB cell population: combined with identification of the disease-causing variant, this distinguishes between healthy individuals, asymptomatic carriers and clinically affected cases. CONCLUSION: We show that heterozygous loss-of-function variants in NFKB1 are the most common known monogenic cause of CVID that results in a temporally progressive defect in the formation of immunoglobulin-producing B cells.


Problem statement: The use of diatoms to reconstruct past ecological conditions in lakes is well established. Diatoms are microscopic algae that forms siliceous frustules which allow them to preserve well in sediments. Rawapening Lake is one of 15 Indonesian lakes identified as 2010-2014 National Priority Lakes. Naturally, Rawapening is a tectono-volcanic lake. In the early 1900s, the sole outlet of the lake, Tuntang River, was impounded for hydroelectricity, irrigation and fisheries. Since then Rawapening had become a semi natural lake. The main problem of Rawapening Lake is blooming of water hyacinth that reduce lake function. This research was conducted in order to reconstruct the nutrient history of Rawapening Lake, Java. Approach: Sediment samples were taken from four sites and were sliced every 0.5 cm for diatom analysis and bulked across 2-5 cm for 210Pb radiometric dating of sediment. Diatom analysis consisted of three steps: the digestion process to separate the diatoms from the sediment; preparation and mounting of diatom residues onto slides and identification-enumeration. Results: The diatom-inferred condition of Rawapening Lake may be divided into four phases represented by zone 1 (1967-1974), zone 2 (1974-1983), zone 3 (1984-1990) and zone 4 (1990-2008). The predominance of Synedra from 1967 to present indicates that Rawapening Lake has been fresh and meso-eutrophic throughout. Zone 1 is also characterized by Fragilaria capucina Desm, Luticola goeppertiana (Bleisch) Mann, Mayamae atomus (Kutzing) Lange-Bertalot, Navicula radiosa Kutzing, Nitzschia palea (Kutzing) W. Smith and in one site, Tryblionella apiculata Gregory, that reflect eutrophic, but clear waters. An increase in epiphytic Gomphonema spp. in zone 2 marks an increase in aquatic macrophyte plants, perhaps in response to high nutrient levels. This change is followed promptly by an increase in acidophilous Eunotia spp. reflecting high organic production. A transition to a diatom community dominated by planktonic forms occurs c. 1983. This community was initially dominated by more clear water, oligotrophic species such as Discostella stelligera (Cleve and Grunow) Houk and Klee and Aulacoseira distans (Ehrenberg) Simonsen, but transitions in 1990 to one dominated by A. granulata (Ehrenberg) Simonsen and ultimately Aulacoseira ambigua (Grunow) Simonsen. This is interpreted as a shift to a turbid water phase that has advantaged phytoplankton, at the expense of benthic or epiphytic taxa that require clear water. Conclusion: The dominance of A. granulate (Ehrenberg) Simonsen since the 1990s indicates the lake experienced hypertrophic conditions with pH > 9. A high proportion of the taxa in Rawa Pening sediments are not represented in the European data set, so the development of data set of tropical lakes is recommended to provide stronger inferences in local settings.


The paper examines the underlying reasons for the trade war and is mainly aimed at China. It was suggested that there is an underlying motive apart from trade imbalance or intellectual property issues as accused by the United State of America government. It examines to some extent the possible contributions of countries such as Canada, England, Australia and the European Union (EU) to isolate China strategically. As this topic is contemporary and is evolving daily, it is difficult to conduct any primary data gathering or to develop any theory apart by reviewing only secondary data. None the less, the authors posit that there could be a say between the US and China if the current trade war continues along this path.

 Key words: Trade, thucydides, tariff, political, war, China


We present a highly birefringent fiber with a core made of artificial anisotropic glass material. The fiber core is composed of interleaved subwavelength layers of two types of soft glasses ordered in a rectangular structure. A pair of thermally matched glasses, a low refractive index borosilicate glass and a high refractive index lead oxide glass, are used. The fiber has a unique flat profile of birefringence over one octave, weakly dependent on wavelength. The group birefringence and effective mode area were measured in a broadband range across the visible and the near infrared for the fundamental mode and were found to be equal 1.8 × 10−3 and 20 μm2, respectively. The group birefringence is uniquely flat over the wavelength range of 0.8-1.7 μm and the relative difference of birefringence is below 0.2 × 10−3. The measured dispersion shows also relatively flat characteristics varying from −60 ps/(nm × km) at 1150 nm to 20 ps/(nm × km) at 1690 nm with Zero Dispersion Wavelength at 1520 nm. We demonstrated an application of the fiber for polarization maintaining broadband supercontinuum generation in the range of 1210-1830 nm when pumped with a subpicosecond fiber-based laser at 1560 nm.


Background and aims Preterm birth predisposes to neurological sequelae. Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) may further increase the susceptibility to neurological damage, possibly via gut-derived inflammatory signals. To investigate this, we test if NEC severity and intestinal permeability in formula-fed preterm pigs is associated with histopathology, microglial activation, and increased proinflammatory cytokine levels in the hippocampus. Methods Forty-four preterm piglets were fed increasing doses of formula and euthanized on day five. Macroscopic NEC lesions were scored in five regions of the gut (stomach, proximal, middle, and distal small intestine, colon). Intestinal permeability was assessed by urinary lactulose-mannitol-ratio. Hippocampal IL-1β and IL-8 levels were determined by ELISA. Histopathology, neurodegeneration, and microglia were investigated by analyses of hematoxylin-eosin, Fluoro-jade B (FJB), and Iba-1 stained coronal sections, respectively. Results Proximal, middle, and distal small intestinal NEC score, and intestinal permeability correlated positively with IL-8 levels (all p < 0.05) but not with IL-1β. In preterm piglets with severe NEC lesions, numerous shrunken, hyperchromatic neurons were observed. Neurodegeneration was confirmed by positive FJB staining. Iba-1 positive cells with a morphology resembling activated microglia populated the area in which neurons had disappeared. Conclusions Acute development of NEC is associated with neuron loss, microglial activation, and increased IL-8 levels in the hippocampus of preterm pigs. Gut inflammatory disorders and increased intestinal permeability may affect the immature brain and contribute to long term neurological disorders.


The Dodo is perhaps our most famous extinct species. Now in this unusual book it is brought back to life. In a fascinating reconstruction of the past, award winning Finnish photographer Harri Kallio uses his considerable photographic skill and imagination to create the illusion that these fascinating creatures are alive and abundant, living as they once did in their own unspoilt haven, the island of Mauritius. The island now attracts increasing numbers of tourists with its mix of beauty and diverse culture and Kallio's Dodos are featured in its landscape, near rivers, on mountains, in lush valleys and dense woodlands, undisturbed and blissfully unaware of the earlier human invasion which ultimately led to their extinction in the 17th century. The photographs are accompanied by a thorough history of the Dodo, including eyewitness accounts, pictorial sources and physical evidence from museums and libraries all over the world. There are only four museums that house true Dodo remains: Oxford University Natural History Museum, Natural History Museum London, Copenhagen University and the Zoological museum, Prague. Kallio used these resources, and many more, to meticulously research his subject, before carefully constructing his own, very accurate Dodo models. The Dodo and Mauritius Island: Imaginary Encounters, is a wonderful photographic tribute to the curious, comical Dodo and the beautiful island of Mauritius.


The Nigeria fiscal system evolved and operated on principles that negated the main features of public expenditure management which include among others allocation, efficiency and equity, guided by the principles of needs, equity, stability and national interest, the Nigeria tertiary institution seem to be in perpetual traumas. Tertiary education in Nigeria is faced with a lot of challenges ranging from the historical factors of the misappropriation of funds caused by the high level of corruption and embezzlement in conjunction with the lackadaisical attitude of government officials towards the growth of the sector. This study call for a revisit on the management and administration of public funds allocated to the tertiary institutions. The study is a qualitative research and based on secondary data. The pieces of information gleaned from the foregoing sources are weighed in relation to the topic using both deductive and inductive reasoning. It was recommended that there should be a legal procedures for administrative and other restrictions on the expenditure of public resources that enhance transparency, accountability, fairness and objectivity.


This paper demonstrates how social and political conflict is inscribed in urban space by focusing on the neoliberal political–economic collapse of Argentina, which was a conflict-ridden process with ordinary people protesting against institutions responsible for the neoliberalization of the economy. These protests affected the architecture of banking and government institutions, especially in Buenos Aires, which is the political and financial center of Argentina. Facing popular unrest and continuous political mobilizations, these institutions decided to physically fortify themselves and in the process displayed their vulnerability and illegitimacy. The fact that spatial fortification became a permanent feature of state institutions but only a temporary feature of international banks, raises questions about the way that neoliberalism operates and the way that blame for neoliberal failures is allocated. It also provides hints about the unsatisfactory political–economic outcome that emerged after the collapse, despite the fact that orthodox neoliberalism was at least rhetorically abandoned.


Purpose : To develop a scale for assessment of three components-dependence, pain and insecurity - related to motor functions of importance for activities of daily living among older rehabilitation patients and to establish its clinical practicality and reliability. Method : A General Motor Function Assessment Scale (GMF) with the above aims was constructed. Clinical practicality was explored by questionnaires to 14 physiotherapists. Inter-rater and test-retest reliability was tested on patients in three different forms of geriatric rehabilitation ( n =20-25) and analysed by percentage agreement (PA) and a non-parametric statistical method, which provide measures of the random disagreement separately from the systematic part of the disagreement. Results : In the clinical test the GMF was found to be time efficient and clinically adequate. Analysis of reliability showed overall high values of PA (PA U 70) and of the rank-order agreement coefficient ( r a >0.82), and low degrees of systematic disagreement. Conclusions : GMF was found to be a clinically useful assessment scale in geriatric rehabilitation. The statistical analyses indicted a high degree of reliability. Comparison of these results with reliability of comparable rating scales is difficult on account of the statistical methods used in other studies, which commonly do not take into account the non-metric properties of the data.


Driver behavior, among other factors, plays an important role in road safety. To better understand it, driving simulator studies and field operational studies and/or naturalistic driving studies are often used for analyzing human factors in road safety. In an attempt to eliminate road fatalities and serious injuries on European roads, the EU is adoping a "Zero Vision" (European Commission, 2011), setting targets and investigating the factors affecting road crashes, including infrastructure, vehicle safety, driver behavior, and emergency response. The on-going EU project i-DREAMS (https://idreamsproject.eu/wp/) aims to develop a tool for monitoring driving safety and bringing in the appropriate interventions (real–time and post–trip gamification). The mathematical modeling of a safety tolerance zone as postulated in i– DREAMS is a complex dynamic problem, benefiting from advanced technologies including OBDII, smart phone application (OSeven), Mobileye (ADAS advanced features using a single camera mounted on the windshield), CardioWheel (physiological based on electrocardiogram (ECG)). The proposed methodology in this paper is a data–driven approach using discrete choice models with safety levels as a dependent variable and driving behavior as a latent explanatory variable in these models; this could be formulated as well as "normal"/"abnormal" driving, or in a broader sense aggressiveness indicator. The developed discrete choice models will be tested under different forms (multinomial, nested, but also ordered); the overall methodology also focuses on how to implement these models dynamically. A preliminary step for this is to cluster driving observations into safety levels, based on several clustering techniques, including k–means, hierarchical clustering, and Gaussian Mixture Models. An application of the proposed methods on a dataset from a previous Greek driving simulator study demonstrated that the optimal number of clusters would be four using k–means (elbow) method. In the hEART 2020 conference, the developed discrete choice models will be presented using the safety clusters showcased in this paper.


Every day, doctors are faced with the dilemma of starting a postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) against HIV, HBV and HCV. A 28 days course of highly active antiretroviral therapy, chosen on the basis of the source's HIV resistance profile, should be initiated, as soon as possible, to reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission. Complete vaccination against HBV (3 doses) is associated with a 100% seroprotection in children and 95% in adults. There is no specific prophylaxis against HCV. Because of the complexity of these situations, we have edited local guidelines, which take into account not only international and Swiss recommendations, but also our experts' opinions. It is important to stress that PEP does not replace standard precautions.


The due process right of notice—isolated from its close cousin, the opportunity to be heard—is relatively understudied and under-analyzed compared to other fundamental rights. This analytical deficit would be less troubling if the modern American execution of notice and its mechanics were mostly unproblematic, but for a number of participants in the modern-day adversarial system, notice does not function particularly well. This Article provides a new and comprehensive account of why notice matters as a due process right and why it has been largely ignored.

The current case-by-case approach articulated in Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank contains the seeds of adaptability, but its central paradox is that, by encouraging judges to consider the individual circumstances of the parties and case before them, judges have failed to see the broader changes in circumstances within which litigation and notice take place. This "modern" standard for notice is actually an expansion and reification of the old and the project of this Article is to unpack the hidden contents of this Pennoyer/Mullane standard. It serves as a benchmark against which judges and lawmakers evaluate the sufficiency of new tools and methods. The permissibility of such innovations depends on how closely they mimic or improve on the methods within an existing hierarchy of old methods. Once one understands how the new circumstances of notice no longer fit the old framework, it becomes far easier to evaluate and promote newer and more technologically advanced methods of notice because they need not be evaluated against antiquated benchmarks that reflect older circumstances.

These invisible circumstances of notice are a set of shared assumptions about what "real" or "good notice" is—who serves it and how; who receives it and where; and what "process" is. The extent to which other forms of service deviate from the Pennoyer/Mullane world of invisible circumstances and determines their constitutional and sub-constitutional acceptability. The invisible circumstances of notice center around five core attributes of in-hand personal service, the paradigm of ideal notice and service from the Pennoyer era. These attributes—thought to be long discarded as mandates—continue to dominate how notice rules are promulgated and how notice plans and practices are evaluated.

The Article concludes by suggesting that lawmakers and courts must rethink the "circumstances of the circumstances," the idea that the circumstances of notice are unique to each lawsuit and arrive fully formed. Contrary to this implicit assumption, courts and lawmakers are active participants in creating and maintaining the invisible circumstances of notice. Lawmakers should not wait for the circumstances of notice to change – key changes can be forged by the state and the judiciary itself.


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within a round brilliant cut diamond. From this model, GIA researchers developed proportionbased metrics to predict how diamonds would perform with regard to brilliance and fire. Continued research revealed several important variables that could not be evaluated effectively by computer modeling alone. Thus, the authors asked diamond manufacturers, dealers, retailers, and potential consumers to evaluate brightness (a term selected as more appropriate than brilliance), fire, and overall cut appearance of diamonds representing many different proportion combinations. These observations and discussions confirmed that additional factors, besides brightness and fire, contribute to diamond cut appearance, and that factors in addition to face-up appearance are important in assessing the quality of a diamond's cut. With the trade interactions as a foundation, the authors (1) tested the brightness and fire metrics to find the best fit with human observations, (2) identified and quantified factors in addition to brightness and fire that contribute to face-up appearance, (3) developed a standard viewing environment that mimics common trade environments, (4) created the foundation for a comprehensive diamond cut grading system, and (5) began development of reference software to predict the overall cut grade of a particular diamond. The GIA diamond cut grading system described here includes the components of brightness, fire, scintillation, polish, and symmetry, as well as weight and durability concerns, into a single overall grade for cut quality for standard round brilliants.


Tirzepatide, a once weekly GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist in development for T2D, demonstrated superior glycemic control in the Phase 3 SURPASS clinical trial program. This post-hoc analysis assessed glycemic control with tirzepatide in participants stratified by baseline (BL) HbA1c (≤8.5%, >8.5%) . Mean change from BL in HbA1c was assessed in tirzepatide-treated participants (5, or 15 mg) from SURPASS-1 (monotherapy) , SURPASS-2 (add-on to MET) , SURPASS-3 (add on to MET ± SGLT2i) , SURPASS-4 (add-on to MET, SGLT2i, or sulfonylurea) and SURPASS-5 (add-on to insulin glargine ± MET) at trial endpoints (40 or 52 weeks) . Safety was also presented. Treatment comparisons were estimated using data while participants were on treatment and without rescue medications (efficacy estimand) . Across each SURPASS trial, ranges in mean BL HbA1c were 7.94-8.52%, mean BMI were 31.9-34.2 kg/m2 and mean diabetes duration were 4.7-13.3 years. At trial endpoints, HbA1c reductions from BL ranged from 1.55-2.14% in the BL HbA1c ≤8.5% subgroup and 2.70-3.46% in the BL HbA1c >8.5% subgroup (Table) . Gastrointestinal side effects were similar to those reported in the incretin class and hypoglycemic events (blood glucose <54 mg/dL or severe) were low. In conclusion, significant and clinically meaningful HbA1c reductions were observed with tirzepatide, irrespective of BL HbA1c.

 G.Aleppo: Consultant; Insulet Corporation, Research Support; AstraZeneca, Dexcom, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Fractyl Health, Inc., Insulet Corporation, Novo Nordisk, Speaker's Bureau; Dexcom, Inc. C.De block: Advisory Panel; Abbott Diagnostics, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Eli Lilly and Company, Medtronic, Novo Nordisk, Research Support; Indigo Diabetes, Speaker's Bureau; AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk. J.A.Levine: Employee; Eli Lilly and Company, Stock/Shareholder; Eli Lilly and Company. E.Gomez-valderas: Employee; Lilly, Stock/Shareholder; Lilly. B.D.Benneyworth: Employee; Eli Lilly and Company, Stock/Shareholder; Eli Lilly and Company.

 Eli Lilly and Company


Orientation: An alcohol breathalyser test is one of various methods of assessing alcohol consumption behaviour of workers in the workplace. Its awareness can yield insights on behavioural change of alcohol-consuming individuals in safety-sensitive settings when being aware of alcohol breathalyser testing. Research purpose: A breathalyser test provides an efficient means of measuring blood alcohol concentration within seconds of an employee blowing into the device. The purpose of this research was to examine awareness of breathalyser testing to capture meaning that can offer insights on behaviour under research. Motivation for research: The research was prompted by a quest to gain understanding of thought processes (motivation to control behaviour) when alcohol is involved. By focusing on awareness, it was possible to interpret behaviour. The research is a basis for future studies and can contribute to discussions related to alcohol testing in the workplace. Research approach/design and method: A qualitative approach was followed to gain insights into the topic under research. Eight alcohol-consuming individuals who performed jobs considered high-risk consented to participate in semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. The data were analysed through interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Main findings: The findings revealed excessive alcohol consumption and intoxication in spite of awareness of breathalyser testing. Individuals prone to external inducements were more likely to abuse alcohol. Behaviour therefore tends to be unstable and impulsive when alcohol is involved. Practical implications: Reporting for work after excessive drinking of alcohol is not an indication of total soberness. Individuals may physically be present in the workplace without making any contribution to work processes because of effects of alcohol. Contribution/value-add: The research highlights behavioural insights that can contribute to studies related to locus of control and control over alcohol in relation to testing to workplace testing.


A method which models two- or three-dimensional cavitating hydrofoils moving with constant speed under a free surface is described. An integral equation is obtained by applying Green's theorem on all surfaces of the fluid domain. This integral equation is divided into two parts: (i) the cavitating hydrofoil problem, and (ii) the free-surface problem. These two problems are solved separately, with the effects of one on the other being accounted for in an iterative manner. The cavitating hydrofoil surface and the free surface are modeled with constant strength dipole and source panels. The source strengths on the free surface are expressed in terms of the second derivative of the potential with respect to the horizontal axis by applying the linearized free-surface conditions. The induced potential by the cavitating hydrofoil on the free surface and by the free surface on the hydrofoil are determined in an iterative sense. In order to prevent upstream waves the source strengths from some distance in front of the hydrofoil to the end of the truncated upstream boundary are enforced to be equal to zero. No radiation condition is enforced at the downstream boundary or at the transverse boundary. The method is applied to 2-D and 3-D hydrofoil geometries in fully wetted or cavitating flow conditions and the predictions are compared with those of other methods in the literature.


This study evaluated the achievement of TRC objectives in Moshi Municipality. Specifically, it investigated the relationship between TRC programmes and TRC objectives; it assessed the challenges facing TRCs in achieving its objectives. The last task was to investigate the measures taken against the challenges encountered by TRC in achieving its objectives. The study was mainly qualitative, researcher employed interviews, focus group discussion, documentary review and observation as methods of data collection. Researcher used a case study design and purposively sampled 66 participants. Data were subjected to content analysis for interpretation. Based on the findings of this study, it is concluded that TRC objectives have not been achieved perfectly. Most of the TRCs professional programmes like seminars, workshops, discussions on difficult topics, teaching techniques, skills on producing and developing teaching and learning materials are not frequently conducted. Review of related literature focused on origin of TRCs globally and its spread to the other part of the world including Tanzania. Few studies such as Shoo, (2004) and Mujumba, (1995) inspired this study. Such studies dealt with the impact of donors support to TRCs and the management and sustainability of TRCs in Tanzania. The findings from these studies justify that currently, TRCs are not operating properly to achieve their objectives as intended. The study recommends on making TRCs alive, improvement of infrastructures, evaluation process of the programmes, budgeting for more teaching and learning resources development of man power who work in TRCs and recognition of teacher's needs to develop.


Pavement condition assessment is essential when developing road network maintenance programs. In practice, the data collection process is to a large extent automated. However, pavement distress detection (cracks, potholes, etc.) is mostly performed manually, which is labour-intensive and time-consuming. Existing methods either come along with high equipment and computation costs, or make use of acceleration data, which can only provide preliminary and rough condition surveys. In this paper, we present a method for automated pothole detection in asphalt pavement images. In the proposed method, an image is first resized and converted to grayscale. It is then histogram equalized. This is followed by thresholding and basic edge detection using the Sobel filter. Morphological operations such as dilation and eroding are performed and median filtering removes excess noise. A logical addition of the results obtained till then, results in a relative pothole shape. A structuring element allows for the pothole to be defined and opened and a skeleton of the pothole is formed. A bifurcation process is applied so as to remove any branches. Subsequently, the result of this operation is used for multiplying image matrices and the pothole is extracted. This methodology has been implemented in a MATLAB prototype and tested on 24 pavement images. The stereoscopic camera technique is used to improve accuracy and to determine the depth or volume of the pothole. The volume of the pothole may be used to estimate the amount of asphalt material required to fill it. The results indicate that this method can detect potholes in asphalt pavement images with reasonable accuracy. Keywords— Asphalt, Bifurcation, Grayscale, Median Filtering, Morphological Operations, Sobel


Laparoscopic cholecystectomy represents elective the treatment of symptomatic lithiasis of gallbladder, due to advantages of shorter hospitalization and lower cost. The evolution of technological instruments permits today an easy and rapid execution of intraoperative cholangiography (IC). Therefore the elective or selective application of IC is debated, because of the effective determination of iatrogenic lesions and the real possibility of diagnosis for unknown lithiasis of biliary tract. Some authors agree that anatomic lesions cannot be prevented by IC, because 50% of its occur during the surgical dissection to prepare structures of Calot's triangle to make cholangiography. On the other hand the early diagnosis of iatrogenic lesions is fundamental for the results. The previous biliary symptomatology (jaundice), the elevation of biochemical parameters of biliary function (bilirubinemia, transaminase and alkaline phosphatase) and the dilatation of biliary ducts represents the indication to IC. The examination is also recommended in case of difficulties of dissection due to inflammatory process, to clarify the anatomy with more safety. Finally, the technique is well defined. The choice of patients is made on the basis of surgeon's opinions but we think that a good selection of patient is the only chance to perform IC with the best results.


As mortality in childhood decreases due to advances in modern medicine, presence of better nutrition and fresh water supply, the impact of disability has become increasingly important especially in resource poor countries. Children living in sub- Saharan Africa are also exposed to a number of potentially debilitating infections which have been shown to have long-term cognitive effects even in absence of clinical neurological sequelae. The objective of the study is to demonstrate that event related potentials (ERPs) can be used to detect neurocognitive impairment following the most common central nervous (CNS) system infections affecting children in sub-Saharan Africa, namely falciparum malaria, acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) and human immune-deficiency virus (HIV). Four groups of children were recruited: children previously admitted with severe falciparum malaria (n= 50), or acute bacterial meningitis (n = 65), or mY-infected (n= 39) or were unexposed to any of these conditions (n= 177). Passive auditory and visual oddball ERP protocols were used. The results of the group of 50 children aged 6-7 years old with a history of severe falciparum malaria (cerebral malaria, CM= 27, malaria plus seizures, M/S= 14 and prostrated malaria, PM= 9) show that children exposed to CM, MIS and PM had significantly longer auditory N200 and P3a latencies and smaller N200 amplitudes than study controls. The results of 65 children aged between 4-15 years old with a history of pneumococcal meningitis shmved that children with a history of bacterial meningitis had significantly smaller auditory P100 amplitudes, longer N200 latencies and longer visual P200 latencies than community controls. Finally, the results of 40 children aged between 18-40 months infected with IllV showed that they had longer auditory P100 latencies, larger auditory P200 amplitudes and smaller Negative component, Nc, amplitudes than community controls. It is concluded that the CNS infections may result in neuro-developmental delays in childhood. Further, CNS infections may interfere with normal education outcomes by precipitating attention deficit amongst children post infection.


This paper introduces a suit of advanced human-machine interface (HMI) with gesture interaction. Related hardware component of the system and used signal processing methods are illustrated. The design of embodied conversational geography teaching system which applies this HMI system to game-based learning is described. Finally, the advantages and meanings of the usage of this geography teaching system with gesture interaction are analyzed and presented.


We compare the predictive ability and economic value of implied, realized, and GARCH volatility models for 13 equity indices from 10 countries. Model ranking is similar across countries, but varies with the forecast horizon. At the daily horizon, the Heterogeneous Autoregressive model offers the most accurate predictions, whereas an implied volatility model that corrects for the volatility risk premium is superior at the monthly horizon. Widely used GARCH models have inferior performance in almost all cases considered. All methods perform significantly worse over the 2008–09 crisis period. Finally, implied volatility offers significant improvements against historical methods for international portfolio diversification. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 36:1164–1193, 2016


This paper presents the findings of research investigating language maintenance ⁄ shift among second-generation Arabic speakers in Athens using adolescents of mainly Egyptian origin and their parents as informants. Quantitative data on language competence and on patterns of language use within Egyptian households indicate language shift in adolescents of the Coptic religion. In contrast, Muslim informants emerge as language maintainers. Qualitative results originating from interviews with parents indicate that the significance of religious practice leads Muslims and Copts to view Arabic and Coptic respectively as core values for their identity. This distinction leads to a differentiation in patterns of Arabic language transmission between Muslim and Coptic Egyptian parents, reflecting both the different internal dynamics of these sub-communities, and their different relationships to the host society.


Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been recognized as one of the most important classes of porous materials due to their unique attributes and chemical versatility. Unfortunately, some MOFs suffer from the drawback of relatively poor stability, which would limit their practical applications. In the recent past, great efforts have been invested in developing strategies to improve the stability of MOFs. In general, stable MOFs possess potential toward a broader range of applications. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the design and synthesis of stable MOFs and MOF-based materials via de novo synthesis and/or postsynthetic structural processing. Also, the relationships between the stability and functional applications of MOFs are highlighted, and finally, the subsisting challenges and the directions that future research in this field may take have been indicated.


Much of the discussion of 9/11 has debated its historical significance, but it is equally important to explore the geographical dimensions of the wars that have been conducted in its shadows. Subsequent transformations in the American way of war have played a major role in the increased militarisation of the planet. Most attention has been focused on Afghanistan and Iraq as the principal theatres of the 'war on terror', but one of the characteristics of late modern war is the emergent, 'event-ful' quality of military, paramilitary and terrorist violence that can, in principle, occur anywhere. Vulnerabilities are differentially distributed but widely dispersed, and in consequence late modern war is being changed by the slippery spaces through which it is conducted. This paper explores three global borderlands to bring those changes into focus: Afghanistan–Pakistan (particularly the deployment of CIA-controlled drones in Pakistan), US–Mexico (particularly the expansion of Mexico's 'drug war' and the US militarisation of the border), and cyberspace (particularly the role of stealth attacks on critical infrastructure and the formation of US Cyber Command).


The Social Exclusion Unit's Report Bridging the Gaphas had a major influence on the British government's policy towards socially excluded young people. This article argues, however, that the Report contains fundamental contradictions in its analysis of non-participation in learning and the solutions proposed. Despite appearing to re-instate a concern for the social, it locates the causes of non-participation primarily within individuals and their personal deficits. Yet it denies individuality and diversity by representing the socially excluded as stereotyped categories. In a flawed move, the Report presents non-participation not just in correlation to a raft of other social problems, but as cause to their effect. Deep-seated structural inequalities are rendered invisible, as social exclusion is addressed through a strongly individualistic strategy based on personal agency. At the same time, measures to enhance individual agency, notably the new 'ConneXions' service, are formulated within a prescriptive structural framework. Structure and agency are thus reversed in current English policy approaches. While such approaches will doubtless assist some young people, there is a significant risk that they may make things worse for others.


In the past decade many important advances have taken place in the field of quantum optics, with numerous potential applications. This textbook provides an up-to-date account of the basic principles of the subject, and is ideal for graduate courses. Focusing on applications of quantum optics, the textbook covers recent developments such as engineering of quantum states, quantum optics on a chip, nano-mechanical mirrors, quantum entanglement, quantum metrology, spin squeezing, control of decoherence, and many other key topics. Readers are guided through the principles of quantum optics and their uses in a wide variety of areas including quantum information science and quantum mechanics. The textbook features over 150 end-of-chapter exercises with solutions available for instructors at www.cambridge.org/9781107006409. It is invaluable to both graduate students and researchers in physics and photonics, quantum information science, and quantum communications.


Various regularization methods have been designed to prevent overfitting of machine learning models. Among them, a surprisingly simple yet effective one, called Flooding, is proposed recently, which directly constrains the training loss on average to stay at a given level. However, our further studies uncover that the design of the loss function of Flooding can lead to a discrepancy between its objective and implementation, and cause the instability issue. To resolve these issues, in this paper, we propose a new regularizer, called individual Flood (denoted as iFlood). With instance-level constraints on training loss, iFlood encourages the trained models to better fit the under-fitted instances while suppressing the confidence on over-fitted ones. We theoretically show that the design of iFlood can be intrinsically connected with removing the noise or bias in training data, which makes it suitable for a variety of applications to improve the generalization performances of learned models. We also theoretically link iFlood to some other regularizers by comparing the inductive biases they introduce. Our experimental results on both image classification and language understanding tasks confirm that models learned with iFlood can stably converge to solutions with better generalization ability, and behave consistently at instance-level.


During Ming (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), many memorial archways were built in ancient Huizhou. They were regarded as culture symbols of Chinese ancient architectures. Owing to the natural and man-made disasters, many of them vanished with time. Today, in total 129 memorial archways scatter in the ancient Huizhou district. In this paper, the origin, development and culture connotation of Huizhou memorial archways are discussed with examples of existing ones. At last, several risks to these memorial archways are presented, which can be categorized as natural reasons, including weathering, flood and landslide etc., and man-made reasons such as demolition, influences of adjacent modern constructions. Several risks were illustrated with example of Tangyue Memorial Archway group, which indicates the urgency of conservation.


Optimal therapeutic strategies for serious infections caused by borderline and heterotypic oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (BORSA and ORSA) strains have not been fully characterized. Recent evidence suggests that the dominant penicillin-binding protein of ORSA strains (PBP 2a) shows good affinity for ampicillin and that these strains commonly produce beta-lactamase. Therefore, we compared the in vivo efficacy of the combination of ampicillin plus sulbactam with that of vancomycin against ORSA strains. Also, the moderate resistance of BORSA strains appears to be attributable mainly to the hyperproduction of beta-lactamase. Therefore, we also studied the in vivo efficacy of ampicillin plus sulbactam against such organisms. Experimental aortic endocarditis was induced in rabbits by the following three strains: beta-lactamase-producing BORSA strain VP-986, beta-lactamase-producing ORSA strain 67-0, and its beta-lactamase-negative clone. In animals with BORSA endocarditis, ampicillin plus sulbactam and oxacillin were highly effective in reducing mean intravegetation bacterial densities, with each being significantly better than either ampicillin alone or no therapy. In animals with endocarditis caused by the beta-lactamase-producing ORSA strain, ampicillin plus sulbactam was significantly better at reducing mean vegetation bacterial densities than the other regimens. For endocarditis caused by the beta-lactamase-negative ORSA clone, ampicillin was better than vancomycin in reducing mean intravegetation bacterial densities. These data show that infections caused by beta-lactamase-producing BORSA strains respond therapeutically in a manner similar to that of infections caused by oxacillin-susceptible strains, with both oxacillin and ampicillin plus sulbactam being highly efficacious. Moreover, high-dose ampicillin treatment strategies were effective in the therapy of ORSA endocarditis; this efficacy is presumably related to the relatively high affinity profile of this compound (compare with that of oxacillin) for the functionally dominant ORSA PBP 2a.


The water monitoring environment has the characteristics of more measuring points, longer measuring time, more complex measuring situation and so on, in order to solve the problem of high cost and routing difficulty during monitoring, a new type of multi-parameter wireless monitoring system based on ZigBee is designed. This system realizes the multi-parameter collection, transmission and display, such as dissolved oxygen, pH and temperature. The fast and accurate transmission of the data between sensor node and coordinate is achieved through wireless sensor network. Then the system realized the real-time remote monitoring. Because of its simple structure, fast data transmission, easily function extended, and high self-organization and self-recovery ability, the system is suitable for many fields such as industry aquaculture, water environment, intelligent greenhouse and other domains.


Dementia is associated with severe spatial memory deficits which arise from dysfunction in hippocampal and parahippocampal circuits. For spatially-sensitive neurons, such as grid cells, to faithfully represent the environment these circuits require precise encoding of direction and velocity information. Here we have probed the firing rate coding properties of neurons in medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) in a mouse model of tauopathy. We find that grid cell firing patterns are largely absent in rTg4510 mice, while head direction tuning remains largely intact. Conversely, neural representation of running speed information was significantly disturbed, with smaller proportions of MEC cells having firing rates correlated with locomotion in rTg4510 mice. Additionally, the power of local field potential oscillations in the theta and gamma frequency bands, which in wildtype mice are tightly linked to running speed, was invariant in rTg4510 mice. These deficits in locomotor speed encoding likely severely impact path integration systems in dementia.


In India, the 1971 Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, while allowing abortions under a broad range of circumstances, can be considered a conservative law from a feminist perspective. The Act allows healthcare providers rather than women seeking abortion to have the final say on abortion, and creates an environment within which women are made dependent on their healthcare providers. On October 29, 2014, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released a draft of the MTP (Amendment) Bill 2014 (1), which proposes changes that could initiate a shift in the focus of the Indian abortion discourse from healthcare providers to women. Such a shift would decrease the vulnerability of women within the clinical setting and free them from subjective interpretations of the law. The Bill also expands the base of healthcare providers by including mid-level and non-allopathic healthcare providers. While the medical community has resisted this inclusion, the author is in favour of it, arguing that in the face of the high rates of unsafe abortion, such a step is both ethical and necessary. Additionally, the clause extending the gestational limit could trigger ethical debates on eugenic abortions and sex- selective abortions. This paper argues that neither of these should be used to limit access to late-trimester termination, and should, instead, be dealt with separately and in a way that enquires into why such pregnancies are considered unwanted. On October 29, 2014 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) released a draft of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill (1), which proposes to improve access to abortion through steps that will expand the healthcare providers' base and simultaneously reduce women's dependency on healthcare providers during the process of seeking abortion. The Bill proposes to train and allow non- allopathic and mid-level healthcare providers to perform abortions. It also outlines the methods of abortion more MTP Amendment Bill, 2014: towards re-imagining abortion care


Software architecture, the underlying structure to a software system, is an asset which can be invested in. Such investments can later be capitalized on in the form of e.g. increased flexibility and enhanced maintainability. These benefits may be gained in a system developed in one project, but are much more visible in a strategic perspective when several projects share resources. Architectural decisions must then be based not only on technical considerations, but also on organizational and business factors. Organizational factors come into play as the software development process is tightly related to the design rules surrounding the software architecture. Business factors are important, as any attempt at generating value by investing in the software architecture must be aligned with the organization's overall view on value generation. Challenges in this field lie in raising the awareness of organizational and business factors for developers, and the abstractness of software architecture from a management point of view. This thesis has involved multiple case studies at organizations facing challenges related to these aspects of software architecture. The research has been conducted mainly from a qualitative standpoint, to build theory from empirical observations. Interviews as part of architecture and process assessments have been the primary tool for gathering information, and the results have been validated by a continuing effort to find cases that broaden the emerging theories. Different development models linked to architectural strategies have been investigated, and the flexibility of software processes has been assessed with respect to e.g. architectural changes. Study of the implementation of architectural changes has lead to a suggestion for a process for architectural change. Architectural decisions and changes drive the evolution of a software architecture, and the thesis gives a framework for evolution of software architecture and development strategy in general. One such strategy, Open Source Software development, is analyzed in-depth. An attempt to quantify the benefit of an architectural strategy is also made, when a model for decision support on reuse is implemented in a tool. The thesis contributes to increasing the awareness among both developers and managers of the role of the software architecture as an enabler and mediator of technical as well as business goals. (Less)


This paper describes a vision and 3D laser based registration approach which utilizes visual features to identify correspondences. Visual features are obtained from the images of a standard color camera and the depth of these features is deter mined by interpolating between the scanning points of a 3D laser range scanner, taking into consideration the visual information in the neighbourhood of the respective visual feature. The 3D lase r scanner is also used to determine a position covariance estimate of the visual feature. To exploit these covariance estimates, an ICP algorithm based on the Mahalanobis distance is applied. Initial experimental results are presented in a real world indoor laboratory environment.


To test mechanisms underpinning action prediction, we directly controlled experience in a dart-throwing training study. A motor-visual group physically practiced throwing darts and a perceptual training group learned to associate dart throw actions (occluded video clips) with landing outcomes. A final control group did not practice. Accuracy was assessed on related prediction tests before and after practice (involving temporally occluded video clips). These tests were performed while additionally performing simple, action-incongruent secondary motor tasks with either the right (observed throwing arm) or left effector, in addition to an attention control task. Motor proficiency tests were also performed. Although both trained groups improved their prediction accuracy after training, only the motor-visual group showed interference associated with the right-arm secondary motor task after practice. No interference was shown for the left-arm motor task. These effects were evidenced regardless of whether predictions were made in response to video stimuli or static clips. Moreover, improvements on the motor proficiency test were only shown for the motor-visual group. These results show evidence in support of motor simulation processes during action prediction among observers with motor experience. Prediction accuracy can be achieved via nonmotor processes (for the perceptual group), but there was no evidence that physically experienced performers could effectively switch processes to maintain prediction accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record


A Review of:
Miller, F., Partridge, H., Bruce, C., Yates, C., & Howlett, A. (2017). How academic librarians experience evidence-based practice: A grounded theory model. Library & Information Science Research, 39(2), 124-130. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2017.04.003

Abstract

Objective – To explore and enhance the understanding of how Australian library and information science (LIS) practitioners experience or understand evidence based practice (EBP) within the context of their day-to-day professional work.

Design – Constructivist grounded theory methodology.

Setting – University libraries in Queensland, Australia.

Subjects – 13 academic librarians.

Methods – Researchers contacted academic librarians by email and invited each participant to take part in a 30-60 minute, semi-structured interview. They designed interview questions to allow participants to explain their process and experience of EBP.

Main results – This study identified six categories of experience of EBP using a constructivist grounded theory analysis process. The categories are: Empowering; Intuiting; Affirming; Connecting; Noticing; and Impacting. Briefly, empowering includes being empowered, or empowering clients, colleagues, and institutions through improved practice or performance. Intuiting includes being intuitive, or using one's own intuition, wisdom, and understanding, of colleagues and clients' behaviours to solve problems and redesign services. Affirming includes being affirmed through sharing feedback and using affirmation to strengthen support for action. Connecting includes being connected, and building connections, with clients, colleagues, and institutions. Noticing includes being actively aware of, observing, and reflecting on clients, colleagues, and literature within and outside of one's own university, and noticing patterns in data to inform decision-making. Impacting includes being impactful, or having a visible impact, on clients, colleagues, and institutions. Together, these categories represent a model that explains the nature of academic librarians' experiences of EBP. The theory describes academic librarians' experiences as complex and highly contextualized phenomena. There is no clear relationship between these categories, as data analysis did not generate a specific hierarchy of categories.

Conclusion – Based on the research findings the authors hypothesize that their study is one of a growing number of studies that has begun to establish an empirical basis for EBP in the LIS profession.


The U.S. government's recent indictment on Huawei—the Chinese telecom giant—can be used as a case study to unpack the increasing complexity in global Internet governance. By delineating the history of Huawei's development and encounters in the United States, this article addresses the questions: In what ways and to what extent is the U.S. government using trade sanctions over a Chinese corporation to shape the future of 5G technology? The nature of this case is not much about bilateral trade disputes but, rather, the intensification of the geopolitics surrounding exterritorial Internet infrastructure. Connecting the Huawei case to the historical struggles in global communication order, the study explores implications for the debates in Internet governance concerning the "multistakeholderism" and the role of nation-states.


BACKGROUND
Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programs or hip and knee replacements have had a significant effect on streamlining patient care with shorter stays, no increase in complications, and improved outcomes including reduced mortality.

PURPOSE
To compare outcomes following the introduction of an ERAS program for hip and knee replacements developed at our institution with a historical cohort of patients.

METHODS
ERAS protocols were developed at our institution for patients undergoing hip and knee joint replacements. Key aspects were changes in preadmission, a new education session, improved management of perioperative anemia, standardized anesthetic guidelines, day of surgery mobilization, and improved discharge planning. The results of the first 18 months (528 consecutive patients) were compared with those of a historical cohort of 507 patients from the 18 months prior to their introduction.

RESULTS
In the ERAS group, the mean age was 68.3 years for patients who underwent hip replacement and 70.4 years for patients who underwent knee replacement. Thirty-two percent of patients were ASA (American Society of Anesthesiologists) Grades III and IV. The average preoperative Oxford score was 11. The average length of stay (ALOS) fell from 5.6 to 4.3 days for patients who underwent hip replacement and from 5.7 to 4.8 days for patients who underwent knee replacement (p < .001). Ninety-six percent of patients were discharged home. The 30-day readmission rate increased from 3.2% to 5.5% (p = .065). Six-month Oxford knee scores were higher in the ERAS group (39.8 vs. 36.3, p = .03). There was no increase in mortality or early revision rate.

CONCLUSIONS
Substantial reductions in ALOS can be gained with the introduction of ERAS protocols, with high patient satisfaction and no increase in complications in a consecutive unselected group of public hospital patients. This requires a multidisciplinary approach and a strong clinical input.


A new type of mobile robots with the inch worm mechanism is presented in this paper for inspecting pipelines from the outside of pipe surfaces under hostile environments. This robot, Mark III, is made after the successful investigation of the prototypes, Mark I and II, which can pass over obstacles on pipelines, such as flanges and T-joints and others. Newly developed robot, Mark III, can move vertically along the pipeline and move to the adjacent pipeline for the inspection. The sensors, infra ray proximity sensor and ultra sonic sensors and others, are installed to detect these obstacles and can move autonomously controlled by the microprocessor. The control method of this robot can be carried out by the dual control mode proposed in this paper.


The goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of 36 wheat winter (Triticum aestivum L.) lines in organic systems in three locations in Nebraska, to compare the performance of the released cultivars with experimental lines to help in the process of selection, to study the magnitude and behavior of genotype-by-environment interaction for grain yield, anthesis date, plant height, protein content, grain volume weight and vegetation index, and to identify the more stable genotypes. Linear mixed models and site regression model was implemented for reaching the objectives of the present research. Genotypic and GE interaction are significant across the three locations for all traits except for anthesis date. Environment were significant for the six traits. Yield is negative correlated with protein content and plant height. In general the genetic correlation explained more of the genotype performance, although the GE interaction was significant. The best genotypes for grain yield across the three environments were genotypes NW03666, SD07165, NE07444 and Overland. For vegetation index the best lines were: Lyman and Buckskin. For grain volume weight the best lines were: Lyman, NW03681, Danby and Goodstreak. For anthesis date all genotypes were similar. For plant height, the best lines were Goodstreak, Buckskin and Clarkscream.  For protein content, the best lines were Goodstreak, Karl92, Lyman, and Clarkscream. In general the average grain yield of the experimental lines was better than the released lines. For anthesis date, the performance was similar between experimental and released lines. However, for vegetation index, plant height, grain volume weight and protein content, the average performance of the experimental lines was lower than the released lines.


We explore variations in dust emission within the edge-on Sd spiral galaxy NGC 4631 using 3.6-160 μm Spitzer Space Telescope data and 450-850 μm JCMT data with the goals of understanding the relation between PAHs and dust emission, studying the variations in the colors of the dust emission, and searching for possible excess submillimeter emission compared to what is expected from dust models extrapolated from far-infrared wavelengths. The 8 μm PAH emission correlates best with 24 μm hot dust emission on 1.7 kpc scales, but the relation breaks down on 650 pc scales, possibly because of differences in the mean free paths between photons that excite the PAHs and photons that heat the dust and possibly because the PAHs are destroyed by the hard radiation fields within some star formation regions. The ratio of 8 μm PAH emission to 160 μm cool dust emission appears to vary as a function of radius. The 70 μm/160 μm and 160 μm/450 μm flux density ratios are remarkably constant even though the surface brightnesses vary by factors of 25, which suggests that the emission is from dust heated by a nearly uniform radiation field. Globally, we find an excess of 850-1230 μm emission relative to what would be predicted by dust models. The 850 μm excess is highest in regions with low 160 μm surface brightnesses, although the magnitude depends on the model fit to the data. We rule out variable emissivity functions or ~4 K dust as the possible origins of this 850 μm emission, but we do discuss the other possible mechanisms that could produce the emission.


Prediction of traffic-flow in Istanbul has been a great concern for planners of the city. Istanbul as being one of the most crowded cities in the Europe has a rural population of more than 10 million. The related transportation agencies in Istanbul continuously collect data through many ways thanks to improvements in sensor technology and communication systems which allow to more closely monitor the condition of the city transportation system. Since monitoring alone cannot improve the safety or efficiency of the system, those agencies actively inform the drivers continuously through various media including television broadcasts, internet, and electronic display boards on many locations on the roads. Currently, the human expertise is employed to judge traffic-flow on the roads to inform the public. There is no reliance on past data and human experts give opinions only on the present condition without much idea on what will be the likely events in the next hours. Historical events such as school-timings, holidays and other periodic events cannot be utilized for judging the future traffic-flows. This paper makes a preliminary attempt to change scenario by using artificial neural networks (ANNs) to model the past historical data. It aims at the prediction of the traffic volume based on the historical data in each major junction in the city. ANNs have given very encouraging results with the suggested approach explained in the paper.


We investigated the effects of two carbohydrate-based sports drinks on fluid intake and immunoendocrine responses to cycling. Six well-trained male cyclists completed trials on three separate days that involved cycling at 60% VO(2peak) for 90 min in hot conditions (28.1 ± 1.5ºC and 52.6 ± 3.1% relative humidity). During each trial, the subjects consumed ad libitum (1) an isotonic sports drink (osmolality 317 mOsm/kg), (2) a hypotonic sports drink (osmolality 193 mOsm/kg) or (3) plain water. The cyclists consumed significantly (p<0.05) more of the isotonic drink (1.23 ± 0.35 L) and hypotonic drink (1.44 ± 0.55 L) compared with water (0.73 ± 0.26 L). Compared with water (-0.96 ± 0.26 kg), body mass decreased significantly less after consuming the hypotonic drink (-0.50 ± 0.38 kg) but not the isotonic drink (-0.51 ± 0.41 kg). Blood glucose concentration was significantly higher at the end of the isotonic and hypotonic drink trials compared with the water trial. Neutrophil count and the plasma concentrations of catecholamines, interleukin 6 (IL-6), myeloperoxidase, calprotectin and myoglobin increased significantly during all three trials. IL-6 and calprotectin were significantly lower following the hypotonic drink trial compared with the water trial. In conclusion, hypotonic sports drinks are appealing for athletes to drink during exercise, and may help to offset fluid losses and attenuate some inflammatory responses to exercise.


In the field of information sciences, attention has been focused on developing mature information retrieval systems that abstract information automatically from the contents of information resources, such as books, images and films. As a subset of information retrieval research, content-based image retrieval systems automatically abstract elementary information from images in terms of colors, shapes, and texture. Color is the most commonly used in similarity measurement for content-based image retrieval systems. Human-computer interface design and image retrieval methods benefit from studies based on the understanding of their potential users. Today's children are exposed to digital technology at a very young age, and they will be the major technology users in five to ten years. This study focuses on children's color perception and color association with a controlled set of digital images. The method of survey research was used to gather data for this exploratory study about children's color association from a children's population, third to sixth graders. An online questionnaire with fifteen images was used to collect quantitative data of children's color selections. Face-to-face interviews investigated the rationale and factors affecting the color choices and children's interpretation of the images. The findings in this study indicate that the color children associated with in the images was the one that took the most space or the biggest part of an image. Another powerful factor in color selection was the vividness or saturation of the color. Colors that stood out the most generally attracted the greatest attention. Preferences of color, character, or subject matter in an image also strongly affected children's color association with images. One of the most unexpected findings was that children would choose a color to replace a color in an image. In general, children saw more things than what were actually represented in the images. However, the children's interpretation of the images had little effect on their color selections.


This article presents the results of a cognitive analysis of metaphors used in conceptualisation of Particle Physics and shows how they shape our knowledge of the field. Taking as a starting point Lakoff's Theory of Metaphor (1993), it assumes that human beings observe physical reality through their own models of experience, not as independent phenomena, many aspects of our thought and our language falling beneath cognitive awareness (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999). Hence, the language that emerges to conceptualise Physics reflects historical, emotional factors that characterise the authors of this language as witnesses of a given period of time. Examples provided contribute to demonstrate that metaphor constitutes a fundamental part of our conceptual system (Gleitman & Lieberman, 1995; Smith & Osherson, 1995), even in science.


The provisional serovar 1621-54 of "Shigella" was isolated from 36 (13.2%) of 273 cynomolgus monkeys newly imported into Tsukuba Primate Center for Medical Science (TPC) from Indonesia during the period from 1980 through 1981. The biochemical properties of the isolates were in good agreement with those of previously described provisional "Shigella" serovar 1621-54. Clinically, 13 (36.1%) of 36 monkeys being positive for the organisms excreted diarrheal stools on arrival at TPC. In addition, the organisms were isolated also from three other monkeys contracting dysentery during the quarantine period at TPC. One of them died 2 days after the onset of dysentery. Histopathological findings of this case were essentially the same as those of Shigella-infected monkeys. Pathogenicity of the isolates was examined in three experimental infection models; (1) the infection model using cultured HeLa-S3 cells, (2) the keratoconjunctival infection model of the guinea pig, and (3) the intestinal infection model of the cynomolgus monkey. All the strains tested showed positive results in these experimental models, causing intracellular penetration and multiplication in HeLa-S3 cell cultures, keratoconjunctivitis in guinea pigs, and dysentery in cynomolgus monkeys. These results indicate that provisional "Shigella" serovar 1621-54 is a causative agent of dysentery in man as well as in monkeys.


Modelling highly multi-modal data is a challenging problem in machine learning. Most algorithms are based on maximizing the likelihood, which corresponds to the M(oment)-projection of the data distribution to the model distribution. The M-projection forces the model to average over modes it cannot represent. In contrast, the I(information)-projection ignores such modes in the data and concentrates on the modes the model can represent. Such behavior is appealing whenever we deal with highly multi-modal data where modelling single modes correctly is more important than covering all the modes. Despite this advantage, the I-projection is rarely used in practice due to the lack of algorithms that can efficiently optimize it based on data. In this work, we present a new algorithm called Expected Information Maximization (EIM) for computing the I-projection solely based on samples for general latent variable models, where we focus on Gaussian mixtures models and Gaussian mixtures of experts. Our approach applies a variational upper bound to the I-projection objective which decomposes the original objective into single objectives for each mixture component as well as for the coefficients, allowing an efficient optimization. Similar to GANs, our approach employs discriminators but uses a more stable optimization procedure, using a tight upper bound. We show that our algorithm is much more effective in computing the I-projection than recent GAN approaches and we illustrate the effectiveness of our approach for modelling multi-modal behavior on two pedestrian and traffic prediction datasets.


Abstract Diabetes mellitus (DM) is prevalent in patients with pancreatic cancer and tends to improve after tumor resection. However, the glycemic response of non-pancreatic cancer patients after surgery has not been examined in detail. We aimed to investigate the changes in glucose metabolism in patients with pancreatic cancer or non-pancreatic cancer after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD). We prospectively enrolled 48 patients with pancreatic cancer and 56 patients with non-pancreatic cancer, who underwent PD. Glucose metabolism was assessed with fasting glucose, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), plasma C-peptide and insulin, quantitative insulin check index (QUICKI), and a homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and &bgr; cell (HOMA-&bgr;) before surgery and 6 months after surgery. Patients were divided into 2 groups: "improved" and "worsened" postoperative glycemic response, according to the changes in HbA1c and anti-diabetic medication. New-onset DM was defined as diagnosis of DM ⩽ 2 years before PD, and cases with DM diagnosis >2 years preceding PD were described as long-standing DM. After PD, insulin resistance (IR), as measured by insulin, HOMA-IR and QUICKI, improved significantly, although C-peptide and HOMA-&bgr; decreased. At 6 months after PD, new-onset DM patients showed improved glycemic control in both pancreatic cancer patients (75%) and non-pancreatic cancer patients (63%). Multivariate analysis showed that long-standing DM was a significant predictor for worsening glucose control (odds ratio = 4.01, P = .017). Favorable glycemic control was frequently observed in both pancreatic cancer and non-pancreatic cancer after PD. PD seems to contribute improved glucose control through the decreased IR. New-onset DM showed better glycemic control than long-standing DM.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to compare the levels of stress, social support, and marital satisfaction between married immigrant women living in urban areas and women living in rural areas to identify ways to improve their mental health.

METHODS
Two hundred married immigrant women were recruited from multicultural family-support centers located in Daejeon City and Chungcheong Province. From July, 2009 to January, 2010, data were collected using self-administered questionnaire. Study instruments were scales for acculturative stress, housewives life stress, support from spouse, and marital satisfaction.

RESULTS
Urban married immigrant women had lower levels of acculturative stress and higher levels of support from spouse and more positive marital satisfaction compared to rural women. Both groups reported similar levels of stress in life as a housewife. Factors influencing marital satisfaction in both group were lower levels of acculturative and housewives life stress, higher levels of support from spouse, and living with parents-in-law.

CONCLUSION
Rural married immigrant women may have more problems in adjusting to Korean culture and marriage compared to urban women. Therefore, to improve the physical and psychological wellbeing and marital adjustment of married immigrant women, development of nursing strategies according to area of residence is needed.


This paper reports the design and investigation of a digital micro magnetofluidic platform for lab-on-a-chip applications. The platform allows a ferrofluid droplet to be driven along a preprogrammed path. The platform consists of a programmable x-y-positioning stage, a permanent magnet and a glass plate coated with a thin layer of Teflon. First, the actuation of a stand-alone water-based ferrofluid droplet was investigated. Circular, rectangular, triangular and number-eight-shape trajectories were tested and analyzed. The speed of the droplet is evaluated from the position data of the black ferrofluid using a customized MATLAB program. The results show that better positioning accuracy and steady movement can be achieved with smooth trajectories. Next, the ferrofluid droplet as the driving engine for a cargo of other diamagnetic liquid droplets is demonstrated. The characteristics of different cargo volumes are investigated. Due to the liquid/liquid cohesion, a large cargo of five times the volume of a 3-μL ferrofluid droplet can be transported. If the cargo is larger than the driving ferrofluid droplet, the liquid system forms a long trail that faithfully follows the preprogrammed path. Various mixing experiments were carried out. The effectiveness of mixing in this system is demonstrated with a titration test as well as a chemiluminescence assay. The platform shows a robust, simple and flexible concept for implementing a complex analysis protocol with multiple reaction steps.


The gas-phase thermal rearrangement of exo-7-methylbicyclo[3.2.0]hept-2-ene yields almost exclusively 5-methylnorbornene products. Inversion (i) of configuration dominates this [1,3] sigmatropic shift although some retention (r) is also observed. Because the [1,3] migration can only occur suprafacially (s) in this geometrically constrained system, the si/sr ratio of 7 observed for the migration of C7 in exo-7-methylbicyclo[3.2.0]hept-2-ene indicates that the orbital symmetry rules are somewhat permissive for the [1,3] sigmatropic migration of carbon.


The rate of CO(2) assimilation by plants is directly influenced by the concentration of CO(2) in the atmosphere, c(a). As an environmental variable, c(a) also has a unique global and historic significance. Although relatively stable and uniform in the short term, global c(a) has varied substantially on the timescale of thousands to millions of years, and currently is increasing at seemingly an unprecedented rate. This may exert profound impacts on both climate and plant function. Here we utilise extensive datasets and models to develop an integrated, multi-scale assessment of the impact of changing c(a) on plant carbon dioxide uptake and water use. We find that, overall, the sensitivity of plants to rising or falling c(a) is qualitatively similar across all scales considered. It is characterised by an adaptive feedback response that tends to maintain 1 - c(i)/c(a), the relative gradient for CO(2) diffusion into the leaf, relatively constant. This is achieved through predictable adjustments to stomatal anatomy and chloroplast biochemistry. Importantly, the long-term response to changing c(a) can be described by simple equations rooted in the formulation of more commonly studied short-term responses.


Tungsten carbide - Cobalt (WC-Co) reinforced metal matrix composites are most commonly used as tool and die materials. The machining of WC- Co metal matrix composites is usually done by wire electric discharge machining. However during WEDM of WC-Co samples possibility of defects and electrolyzation is high. Also coating of Cu-Zn tool electrode on machined surface and void space takes place, thereby affecting material integrity. Analyzing the microstructures can remarkably reveal the identification, location, extent and criticality of the defects. In this study WC-Co metal matrix composite was wire electric discharge machined with two critical parameters, pulse on time and delay time. The machined samples were analyzed using micrographs, scanning electron microscope, EDAX and the results tabulated. It was found, that lower pulse-on time and medium pulse-off time leads to less rapid quenching and subsequent improvement in surface finish, less craters, voids. This prevents potential sites for defect and weakening of material by filling with cu-zinc particles for unbounded tungsten particle.


Sulforaphane [1-isothiocyanate-(4R) -(methylsulfinyl) butane] is a natural dietary isothiocyanate produced by the enzymatic accomplishment of the myrosinase on glucopharanin, a 4-methylsulfinylbutyl glucosinolate contained in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbage. Exploring of this compound against various oxidative degenerative diseases such as hepatic, nephro and cardiac diseases is growing because of its anticarcinogenic and cytoprotective properties. In several invivo and invitro experimental paradigms proved SFN and its compounds are having capacity to protects against various xenobiotics induced oxidative stress mediated diseases such as focal cerebral ischemia, lung inflammation, intracerebral hemorrhage, ischemia and reperfusion induced acute cardiac, hepatic, renal failure, and cancer etc. Sulforaphane is an indirect antioxidant compound is able to induce/activate numerous cytoprotective proteins, including antioxidant enzymes, through the Nrf2/ARE pathway. Because, it poses the powerful electrophiles, attributable to the central carbon atom of the -N= C= S group, which reacts readily with sulfur- nitrogen- and oxygen-based respective antioxidant genes such as heme oxygenase-1, NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase, glutathione-S-transferase, gamma-glutamyl cysteine ligase, and glutathione reductase and induced Nrf2 gene for Phase II enzymes. In conclusion, sulforaphane is a promising antioxidant agent that is effective to attenuate oxidative stress and tissue/cell damage in different in-vivo and in-vitro experimental animals. Keywords: Sulforaphane, Oxidative stress, rats, liver, kidney, heart, ROS Cite this Article Thangapandiyan S, Ramesh M, Miltonprabu S et al . Protective role of Sulforaphane against multiorgan toxicity in rats: An In-vivo and In-vitro review study. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Toxicology . 2018; 8(1): 1–8p.


Companies regularly need to communicate information about their employeesO performance to a variety of people who need to know; internally to co-workers involved in audits or evaluations, and externally to customers and clients, the media, and prospective employers seeking references. Where the information is negative, companies fear the backlash of defamation lawsuits from employees. If the employees are themselves managers or professionals, the quantity and quality of information, the need for its disclosure, and the magnitude of the legal threat all rise. Highly publicized defamation cases have prompted a wave of no or limited comment policies. By reading brief case synopses illustrating the various communications settings, managers can gain a more accurate sense of the practical dynamics and law of employee disclosure. They can then better evaluate the view that the risk reduction offered by no-comment policies does not justify the adverse effect on their own companies, their productive employees, and other stakeholders in accurate information. Managers can create policies and procedures that make both business and legal sense.


A model predictive control algorithm based on the second order Volterra model is proposed, and simulation results for the control of two isothermal continuous stirred tank reactors are presented. The responses of both reactors controlled with a linear MPC scheme and the second order Volterra MPC scheme are compared to a desired, linear reference trajectory. In the majority of the cases examined, the response obtained by the Volterra controller followed the reference trajectory more closely.


The present study focuses on the linguistic category of gender conceived as a set of any kind of linguistic means and devices encoding the information of the natural gender (sex) of a human referent. The semantic core of the examination is the extralinguistic and ontological 'male vs female' distinction. Our corpus-based analysis aims to describe and compare various linguistic markers of a female referent, as opposed to a male referent and to a group of mixed, male and female, referents, available in two Indo-European languages, i.e. Italian and Polish. The proposed typology of female gender indicators includes morphological, syntactic, lexical and contextual (semantic-pragmatic) cues.


A detailed discussion of the role of art in understanding cyborgs, and the power of art in shaping us. A contextualization of the articles of the special issue of Teknokultura on cyborgs, power, art, race, gender and class is made. Particular attention is paid to The Acceleration, Prefguration, and Participatory Evolution.


Technological innovation is frequently a means for reducing uncertainty in organizational activities. At the same time, uncertainty also arises about the potential consequences of introducing the innovation. Innovation involving complex new information systems (IS) often carries uncertainty about consequences, particularly when goals or expectations are unclear. Previous research has reinforced the significance of the problem whereby anticipated consequences have less impact, no impact or the opposite impact to that anticipated. Unanticipated consequences, particularly when also undesirable, emerge to frustrate organizations' innovation efforts. A process research framework is proposed for examining the linkages between uncertainty and consequences. The contribution of this paper is an explanation of theory and method for developing a model linking the management of uncertainty to knowledge of consequences. A case study in an Australian healthcare organization and the case methodology are described. The research is work in progress in the organization, tracking through nine months of implementation period and three months of routine use.


This paper proposes a novel UPQC system based on dual-output four-leg converter. The proposed system completely fulfils the main functions of the conventional UPQC system. It is also capable of compensating any unbalance characteristics at load side (parallel side) or grid side (series side) such that the drawn currents from the grid and the voltage of the load are balanced and sinusoidal, regardless of the load or utility voltage characteristics. Another advantage of the proposed system is that despite the conventional type in which series convertor is underutilized due to its low modulation index, the proposed system is fully utilized at both series and parallel sides. Moreover, the number of semiconductor devices is reduced compared to counterpart topologies. The validity of operation of the proposed UPQC is verified via simulation.


The progressive inhibition of plasmin by pancreatic trypsin inhibitor and by alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor in the presence of D-valyl-L-leucyl-L-lysine 4-nitroanilide was investigated. The kinetics with plasmin were compared with those with miniplasmin. The kinetic properties of two functionally different forms of alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor described by Clemmensen [(1979) in The Physiological Inhibitors of Coagulation and Fibrinolysis (Collen. D., Wiman, B & Verstraete, M., eds.), pp 131-136, Elsevier, Amsterdam] were characterized. The two forms differ in their plasminogen-binding capability, and this difference can account for a difference in secondary site interaction suggested from the kinetics. The binding of inhibitor to miniplasmin is a simple pseudo-first-order reaction with both pancreatic trypsin inhibitor and the two alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor forms. Such simple kinetics are also observed for the reaction between plasmin and the non-plasminogen-binding form of alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor. More complicated kinetics are obtained for the reaction between plasmin and the alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor form that binds to plasminogen. With both forms of the alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor, a complex stable to acetic acid/urea and gel electrophoresis is present and fully developed 15 s after initiation of the reaction with plasmin.


Abstract Background Clinical intuition suggests that personality disorders hinder the treatment of depression, but research findings are mixed. One reason for this might be the way in which current assessment measures conflate general aspects of personality disorders, such as overall severity, with specific aspects, such as stylistic tendencies. The goal of this study was to clarify the unique contributions of the general and specific aspects of personality disorders to depression outcomes. Methods Patients admitted to the Menninger Clinic, Houston, between 2012 and 2015 (N = 2352) were followed over a 6–8-week course of multimodal inpatient treatment. Personality disorder symptoms were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition Axis II Personality Screening Questionnaire at admission, and depression severity was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 every fortnight. General and specific personality disorder factors estimated with a confirmatory bifactor model were used to predict latent growth curves of depression scores in a structural equation model. Results The general factor predicted higher initial depression scores but not different rates of change. By contrast, the specific borderline factor predicted slower rates of decline in depression scores, while the specific antisocial factor predicted a U shaped pattern of change. Conclusions Personality disorder symptoms are best represented by a general factor that reflects overall personality disorder severity, and specific factors that reflect unique personality styles. The general factor predicts overall depression severity while specific factors predict poorer prognosis which may be masked in prior studies that do not separate the two.


Perceptual effects of room reverberation on a "sir" or "stir" test-word can be observed when the level of reverberation in the word is increased, while the reverberation in a surrounding 'context I utterance remains at a minimal level. The result is that listeners make more "sit" identifications. When the context's reverberation is also increased, to approach the level in the test word, extrinsic perceptual compensation is observed, so that the number of listeners' "sir" identifications reduces to a value similar to that found with minimal reverberation. Thus far, compensation effects have only been observed with speech or speech-like contexts in which the short-term spectrum changes as the speaker's articulators move. The results reported here show that some noise contexts with static short-term spectra can also give rise to compensation. From these experiments it would appear that compensation requires a context with a temporal envelope that fluctuates to some extent, so that parts of it resemble offsets. These findings are consistent with a rather general kind of perceptual compensation mechanism; one that is informed by the 'tails' that reverberation adds at offsets. Other results reported here show that narrow-band contexts do not bring about compensation, even when their temporal-envelopes are the same as those of the more effective wideband contexts. These results suggest that compensation is confined to the frequency range occupied by the context, and that in a wideband sound it might operate in a 'band by band' manner.


Based on documents collected with local community members and advocates over the course of more than a decade, this paper begins by describing the legal processes whereby the Campesino Community San Andres de Negritos allegedly "consented" to its own dispossession in favor of the large foreign-owned Yanacocha Mine located in Northern Peru. It frames this story within the larger unfolding story of agrarian reform, neoliberal globalization, transnational resource extraction, the rise of community-based activism, and the emergence of Indigenous rights in international law and domestic constitutions in Latin America. In this highly-textured context, this paper describes how advocates developed an innovative rights framework for problematizing the Negritos Community's dispossession and challenging the legality of Yanacocha's operations. This unprecedented turn to the law ultimately reveals a disjuncture between the expansion of Indigenous rights recognition in international and constitutional tribunals at one level, and the absence of appropriate causes of action and procedures for operationalizing these rights on the ground. As the Negritos Community litigates its case against one of the most powerful mining companies in the world, it has faced numerous challenges inside and outside of the courtroom. This paper critically analyzes the response of the state, the company and the domestic legal system. It focuses in particular on the limitation period procedural rule and the formalist and discriminatory view of consent that has permeated the courts' decisions to date. In formulating this critique, the paper theorizes "the dynamics of dispossession" and reflects on human rights law's promise and pitfalls as an instrument of global economic justice. The conclusion articulates this study's findings and consequences for future research and law reform.


The effect of the thickness and relative permittivily of a dielectric cover on a printed microstrip dipole has been analyzed. It is shown that the current distribution and the input impedance are, in general, very sensitive to variations of the cover parameters. For a dielectric plate with a constant thickness the dipole resonant length decreases substantially with an increase of the relative permittivity. Because of the limited bandwidth presented by single-element microstrip antennas the effects of the dielectric cover on the design of these antennas have to be carefully considered. For the calculation of the current distribution, the Hertz vector potential associated with the problem was determined for an element of current located in a stratified medium with four layers. Pocklington's integral equation was solved for the currents, using Galerkin's method with piecewise-sinusoidal expansion and weighting functions.


The most common functional disorder of the biliary tract and pancreas relates to the activity of the Sphincter of Oddi. The Sphincter of Oddi is a small smooth muscle sphincter strategically placed at the junction of the bile duct, pancreatic duct, and duodenum. The sphincter controls flow of bile and pancreatic juices into the duodenum and prevents reflux of duodenal content into the ducts. Disorder in its motility is called Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. Clinically this presents either with recurrent abdominal biliary type pain or episodes of recurrent pancreatitis. Manometry may identify the motility abnormalities, the most clinically significant being an abnormally elevated basal pressure. The most effective treatment once an abnormal basal pressure is identified is division of the sphincter. This is associated with good long‐term results.