As the use of mobile technology for personal and business applications continues to grow, it naturally follows that educators and researchers will investigate the use of mobile devices for knowledge sharing and learning.Refining Current Practices in Mobile and Blended Learning: New Applications provides perspectives on new approaches to learning theory and practice in increasingly mobile, immersive environments. Situated at the intersection of theory and practice, this book provides foundational research on the development and implementation of mobile games, the delivery of mobile and blended learning, and philosophical underpinnings of this emerging discipline.


This paper presents a cylindrical Shape memory alloy (SMA) fan clutch for automobile cooling system application. The resilience of pre-strain 2% SMA alloy wire is analyzed in the processes of heating and cooling. The Design method of SMA helical spring is described. The expression of transmission torque provided by SMA spring is established. The relationship between transmission torque and temperature is analyzed in detail. The results indicate that the transmission torque increases gradually with the increasing of airflow temperature and decreases with the decreasing of airflow temperature, respectively. The cylindrical SMA fan clutch has the property that its transmission torque changes rapidly according to the temperature of airflow from radiator.


Annual ryegrass has been proposed as a cover crop in the corn–soybean cropping systems of the U.S. Midwest because of its low seed cost, rapid establishment, contribution to soil quality, weed suppressive abilities, and susceptibility to common broad-spectrum herbicides. However, cover crops can reduce the subsequent main crop yield by creating unfavorable germination and emergence conditions, harboring pests, and if not controlled, competing with the main crop. This study, conducted in Illinois, Oregon, and Tennessee, investigated the efficacy of glyphosate for annual ryegrass winter cover crop removal. Glyphosate at 415, 830, and 1,660 g ae/ha was applied to annual ryegrass at late tiller, second node, boot, and early flowering stages. Annual ryegrass control was consistently maximized with the highest glyphosate rate applied at the boot or early flower stage. Annual ryegrass biomass was generally the lowest with the highest rate of glyphosate applied at the earlier stages. Overall, no single application timing at any glyphosate rate provided complete control or biomass reduction of the annual ryegrass cover crop. A sequential herbicide program or a glyphosate plus a graminicide tank-mix probably will be needed for adequate annual ryegrass stand removal. Nomenclature: Glyphosate, annual ryegrass Lolium multiflorum L. LOLMU, corn, Zea mays L, soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr


Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common type of dementia, progressively impairs memory, concentration and the ability to learn new things and accomplish everyday activities. Although scientists do not yet fully understand the causes of cognitive impairment associated with AD, a group of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has discovered that type I interferon (IFN), an inflammation-eliciting molecule abnormally produced in the AD brain, is a major driver of memory and cognitive loss in a mouse model of the disease. Importantly, blocking IFN reversed these memory and cognitive deficits in the animal model.


This review paper examines accounts of design practices in social action settings. Drawing on the conceptual model of the 'sociotechnical interaction network' from the social informatics literature it identifies examples of novel roles evident in sustaining sociotechnical networks, arguing that understanding such roles is essential to understanding and designing effective social action technologies. It characterises and discusses four aspects of design in social action settings: participation, learning, critique and entrepreneurship.


Stability conditions for 2-D shift-varying systems are presented. The shift-varying nature of such systems emerges in applications such as adaptive filtering or adaptive image processing, where the coefficients are neither static nor periodic. The forms considered in this paper are the Givone-Roesser and the Fornasini-Marchesini models, both of which are discrete 2-D state-space filters. The sufficient conditions for BIBO stability that are proven herein are an outgrowth of the 1-D time-varying state-space conditions that have been previously established. The nature of feedback in the 2-D space is explored and found to be much more complex than for the 1-D case. However, it is also shown that when every feedback path is guaranteed to satisfy a variation on exponential stability, then BIBO stability of these two models can be assured. Further conditions are also established which engage the Lyapunov equation and guarantee the exponential stability requirement.


Ischemic cerebral edema occurring with cerebral infarction may cause increases of intracranial pressure and neurological deficits or death. Certain other types of cerebral edema are influenced by adrenal glucocorticoids; there is conflicting evidence about effects on ischemic edema, largely due to differences in experimental models and dosages. Therefore, dexamethasone in large doses was studied in 15 cats with experimental cerebral ischemia and infarction produced by transorbital occlusion of one middle cerebral artery (MCA). Five cats received dexamethasone, 4 mg per kilogram intramuscularly, twice daily for two weeks before and two weeks after MCA occlusion; five received dexamethasone for two weeks after occlusion; and five received no dexamethasone. There were no apparent differences among the three groups in the neurological deficits resulting from MCA occlusion, and no statistically significant differences in the sizes of cerebral infarcts. Dexamethasone is ineffective for the treatment of experimental cerebral ischemia produced by MCA occlusion.


Semiquantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze intralesional cytokine gene expression in 28 patients with post–kala azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) and 14 patients with kala azar (KA). The data revealed mixed T helper cell type 1 (Th1) and T helper cell type 2 (Th2) responses, as reflecte by elevated expression of interferon (IFN)–g, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)–a, transforming growth factor (TGF)–b, interleukin (IL)–10, IL-6, and IL-4 mRNA, with minimal expression of IFN-g receptor 1 (IFNgR1) mRNA in PKDL lesions, compared with that in normal skin tissue. In comparison with those in KA lesions, mRNA levels for IFN-g, TNF-a, and IL-6 were found to be significantl elevated in PKDL lesions, implying that these cytokines play an important role in PKDL pathogenesis. In the presence of elevated levels of IFN-g and TNF-a, interference with type 1 effector activity in PKDL may be due to minimal expression of the IFN-gR1 gene or the simultaneous presence of elevated levels of IL-10, IL-6, and TGF-b, which have counteracting effects. After treatment, the restoration of IFN-gR1 at both mRNA and protein levels, coupled with down-regulation of counteracting cytokines, may facilitate the action of signals associated with IFN-g, yielding parasite clearance. Therefore, unfavorable clinical evolution in PKDL may not be due to the absence of an intralesional Th1 response but rather may be due to the presence of counteracting cytokines along with the down-modulation of IFN-gR1.


This paper aims to analyze the relationship between the gross national income per capita and the premiums per capita of life insurance in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The data used comes from OECD.org, a collection of data from the OECD countries collected over the time period of OECD's existence. We analyzed data over a three year period, from 2010 to 2012, using data from 22 of the 46 OECD countries. We included a total of six variables in our restricted model: gross national income per capita, life expectancy, youth dependency population (017), long term interest rates, life insurance as share of the entire insurance market, and fertility rate. In both our simple and multiple regression models, we can see the positive correlation between gross national income per capita and premiums per capita of life insurance. This brings us to state that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the level of gross national income per capita and the premiums per capita of life insurance in OECD countries.


Lamellar keratoplasty specimens from a patient with Terrien's marginal degeneration and a patient with Mooren's ulcer were compared using routine histopathologic and immunohistochemical staining with an avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex. Less than 25% of the resident cells in the Terrien's marginal degeneration specimen expressed major histocompatibility class II antigens compared with 75% to 100% of the resident cells in the Mooren's ulcer specimen. The ratio of CD4 cells (T-helper/inducer) to CD8 cells (T-suppressor/cytotoxic cells) in the Terrien's marginal degeneration specimen was almost 1:1 compared with 24:1 in the Mooren's ulcer specimen. In addition, less than 5% of the infiltrating cells from the Terrien's marginal degeneration specimen stained positive for CD22 (B cells), compared with 25% to 50% from the Mooren's ulcer specimen. These data may help explain why Terrien's marginal degeneration runs a more benign course than does Mooren's ulcer and provides a rationale for the use of immunosuppressive drugs to treat Mooren's ulcer.


imperfections on the surface are occasionally apparent (2009) is for ten players, each with a coffee cup and five different surfaces. Players draw their cup across their surfaces as a means of sounding them, through a sequence of timed actions.The title is taken from Sol LeWitt's text Wall Drawings (1970). The piece is part of the series divisions that could be autonomous but that comprise the whole (2009- ) and was written for Michael Pisaro. It was first performed by Experimental Music Workshop at the wulf, Los Angeles, 16 October 2009.


Trypsin (EC 188.8.131.52) and Chymotrypsin (EC 184.108.40.206)

Trypsin (EC 22.214.171.124) and Chymotrypsin (EC 18.104.22.168) are proteolytic pancreatic enzymes which are secreted as inactive precursors trypsinogen and chymotrypsinogen, respectively. They have several clinical pharmacological as well as laboratory applications and they are used in protein chemistry, especially in the preparation of insulin. Exposure to enzyme dusts has long been known to cause occupational immediate hypersensitivities of the airways. Also trypsin and chymotrypsin are potential inhalable sensitizers; cases of specific airway sensitization caused by trypsin and chymotrypsin containing products could be shown clearly by several studies. Positive skin prick and challenge tests as well as specific IgE antibodies have been described. Since these results and the clinical symptoms usually matched well, an immunological mechanism of action is suggested. There is no clear evidence of allergic cell‐mediated late type eczematous skin reactions. Trypsin and chymotrypsin are designated with "Sa" (for substances causing airway sensitization) but not with "Sh" (for skin‐sensitizing substances).


OBJECTIVE
To compare serum B-cell activating factor (BAFF) levels in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) with those in control subjects without MG.

DESIGN
Case-control study. Subjects Forty-three patients with MG were compared with control subjects without MG. These included 48 healthy subjects, 25 patients with multiple sclerosis, and 3 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

RESULTS
In all subjects studied, there was no correlation between the serum BAFF level and the concentration of total IgG, IgA, or IgM. The BAFF levels in patients with multiple sclerosis or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were not significantly different from those in healthy subjects. However, BAFF levels in patients with MG were significantly higher than those of all the control subjects. There was no correlation or dependence between the serum BAFF level and the extent or severity of disease. There was a trend for BAFF levels to be higher in patients who were seropositive for acetylcholine receptor-specific antibodies.

CONCLUSIONS
We report that BAFF levels are increased in patients with autoimmune MG. Our data suggest that BAFF is likely to play a role in the pathogenesis of MG by promoting the survival and maturation of autoreactive B cells.


Game AI Pro2: Collected Wisdom of Game AI Professionals presents cutting-edge tips, tricks, and techniques for artificial intelligence (AI) in games, drawn from developers of shipped commercial games as well as some of the best-known academics in the field. It contains knowledge, advice, hard-earned wisdom, and insights gathered from across the community of developers and researchers who have devoted themselves to game AI. In this book, 47 expert developers and researchers have come together to bring you their newest advances in game AI, along with twists on proven techniques that have shipped in some of the most successful commercial games of the last few years. The book provides a toolbox of proven techniques that can be applied to many common and not-so-common situations. It is written to be accessible to a broad range of readers. Beginners will find good general coverage of game AI techniques and a number of comprehensive overviews, while intermediate to expert professional game developers will find focused, deeply technical chapters on specific topics of interest to them. Covers a wide range of AI in games, with topics applicable to almost any game Touches on most, if not all, of the topics necessary to get started in game AI Provides real-life case studies of game AI in published commercial games Gives in-depth, technical solutions from some of the industrys best-known games Includes downloadable demos and/or source code, available at http://www.gameaipro.com


Minimum volatility strategies enjoy broad support in the academic literature and have been applied extensively by institutional investors to reduce portfolio volatility. In this article, the authors discuss how such strategies can adapt to address risks beyond price volatility. Specifically, concentration, sustainability, and crowding risks could be mitigated using appropriate but simple optimization constraints. However, adding a diversification constraint increased exposure to residual volatility and had a negative impact on risk reduction and risk-adjusted performance. In contrast, to help manage environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks, adding a significant sustainability constraint had only a small effect on the risk reduction properties. Finally, introducing constraints on the value exposure ensured the market-relative valuations of the strategy remained attractive for only a small increase in realized volatility. The authors show that simple constraints could be used effectively in minimum volatility strategies to manage risks beyond volatility.


"Methods in Protein Sequence Analysis - 1988" - contains selected contributions on modern protein- analytical techniques as presented by speakers at the Seventh International Conference on "Methods in Protein Sequence Analysis," held from July 3rd to July 8th, 1988 in Berlin. The book contains information on new methodologies for sensitive amino acid analysis, N- and C-terminal sequence analysis, and protein and peptide purification. In addition recent mass spectrometric approaches are described, as an alter native technique to the common stepwise degradative sequence analysis of polypeptides by the Edman method. The book presents new possibilities in the design of sequencers and sophisticated equipment for the structural analysis of peptides and proteins. It describes practical approaches for the investigation of protein domains and protein complexes, and contains review chapters on the crystallization of cell organelles as well as on recent theoretical aspects of protein folding mechanisms. The nature of protein folding is not yet understood, but further advances in this area would greatly enhance our present knowledge of protein structure and function. Further, the book gives examples of the application of gene technology to protein characterization and to the design of new proteins. This enables new studies on the structure and function of proteins to be made, and opens up efficient approaches to the design of drugs."


In this paper we introduce the Constrained Minkowski Weighted K-Means. This algorithm calculates cluster specific feature weights that can be interpreted as feature rescaling factors thanks to the use of the Minkowski distance. Here, we use an small amount of labelled data to select a Minkowski exponent and to generate clustering constrains based on pair-wise must-link and cannot-link rules. We validate our new algorithm with a total of 12 datasets, most of which containing features with uniformly distributed noise. We have run the algorithm numerous times in each dataset. These experiments ratify the general superiority of using feature weighting in K-Means, particularly when applying the Minkowski distance. We have also found that the use of constrained clustering rules has little effect on the average proportion of correctly clustered entities. However, constrained clustering does improve considerably the maximum of such proportion.


Nanoparticles show a variety of size-dependent properties due to the dramatic changes in the ratio of surface area to volume. The characteristics of nanoparticles different from the bulk material make the properties of the powders composed of these nanoparticles attract more attention. The heat transfer in the powder composed of nanoparticles is experimentally investigated in this paper. The powder is wrapped up in the slender tube made of insulating material. One end of the slender tube filled with powder is maintained at low temperature and the other end is kept at room temperature. The temperature histories at two different locations in the slender tube are recorded using thermalcouples. The results show that the heat transfer depends on the bed porosity and the thermal conductivities of the solid and the gas. The pressure on the Al powders enhances the rate of heat transport due to the decrease of the bed porosity and a small fraction of gas.


Morphology of the urostylid ciliate Hemicycliostyla sphagni Stokes, 1886, the type of Hemicycliostyla Stokes, 1886, is investigated based on live and protargol-impregnated specimens from a Brazilian population. The absence of transverse cirri, which has been considered the main diagnostic feature of Hemicycliostyla, separating it from Pseudourostyla Borror, 1972, was found to vary within the studied population, with 50% of the specimens exhibiting inconspicuous and/or rudimentary transverse cirri. A redefinition of Hemicycliostyla was possible based on combined features of interphase and divisional morphogenesis: Retroextendia Berger, 2006, with bi- or multicoronal frontal cirral pattern; fronto-terminal cirri present; multiple left and right marginal cirral rows that replicate independently via within-row development, each parental row producing one primordium per divider; caudal cirri lacking; and presence/absence of transverse cirri may be intrapopulationally variable. Phylogenetic analyses of the 18S rDNA marker unambiguously placed H. sphagni as sister group of Pseudourostyla franzi Foissner, 1987, which is herein transferred to Hemicycliostyla as Hemicycliostyla franzi comb. nov.


The performance of the Alamouti space time block coding (STBC) technique and single-input single-output (SISO) system is compared in the presence of A/D clipping. Square clipping, imposed by a direct conversion receiver structure was considered. With the target symbol error rate of 10/sup -3/ it was shown that STB coded signals have higher clip floor, and sensitivity to noise, when compared to the SISO system.


The work deals with the molecular mechanisms of the development of resistance of HIV to modern preparations for treatment of HIV infection and AIDS: inhibitors of reverse transcriptase and protease. The principles and concrete schemes of the use of modern methods of geno- and phenotypic resistance determination of HIV are described in detail. The comparative characterization of both approaches together with the problems and difficulties connected with the interpretation of the results of resistance tests are presented, their probable clinical importance is discussed. Practical recommendations concerning the use of tests for the determination of HIV resistance under different clinical conditions, based on the conferences and literature data on HIV infection and for the period of 1999-2000, are reviewed.


If we are to engage a younger generation to become future engineering and science innovators, we need to widen participation and interaction with technology and science. Maker movements have the potential to do this by making tools, materials, and processes more readily available to people in a more informal learning setting who may not initially self-identify as makers. We address a chief limitation of such maker communities, where it can be difficult for participants to develop and continue an application outside the inherent limited time and space of the maker event. We ran a series of 6 maker events aimed at groups of six 14-15 year olds that focused on learning through making the BBC micro:bit device interact as part of an Internet of Things (IoT) application. We report on one event and a challenge to develop a sharable wearable IoT application to address the aim for participants that could sustain interest outside the event. This application was a club badge to send secret messages to members. The evaluation revealed a keen engagement and commitment to social wearable design, as seen through the students building and participating in the successful use of the application through authenticity. This authentic engagement to problem solving at a technical level to motivate personal goals was inspired through a sharable wearable design that participants deemed to be beneficial.


Executives are subjected to relentless onslaught of information. Many strategies have been suggested in the past to negotiate the torrents of information flows confronting executives. This paper recommends modifying the structure of information flows reaching the executives as an effective strategy to manage information overload. Such a strategy will enhance the actionability of the decisions taken by the executives who use information inflows as inputs to such decision making. Autonomous software agents can be used for the purpose of building more effective information inflow structures.


The high demand for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has been dominantly supplied by the anthraquinone process for various applications globally, including chemical synthesis and wastewater treatment. However, the centralized manufacturing and intensive energy input and waste output are significant challenges associated with this process. Accordingly, the on-site production of H2O2 via electro- and photocatalytic water oxidation and oxygen reduction partially is greener and easier to handle and has recently emerged with extensive research aiming to seek active, selective and stable catalysts. Herein, we review the current status and future perspectives in this field focused on carbon-based catalysts and their hybrids, since they are relatively inexpensive, bio-friendly and flexible for structural modulation. We present state-of-the-art progress, typical strategies for catalyst engineering towards selective and active H2O2 production, discussion on electro- and photochemical mechanisms and H2O2 formation through both reductive and oxidative reaction pathways, and conclude with the key challenges to be overcome. We expect promising developments would be inspired in the near future towards practical decentralized H2O2 production and its direct use.


Purpose
Previous research on brand crisis has introduced the difference between a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis. However, little remains known regarding consumers' varying negative responses towards these two different types of brand misconduct. This paper aims to investigate and compare consumers' affective and behavioural negative reactions (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention) towards a faulty brand during a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis by testing the mediation of negative emotions and introducing the moderating role of cultural belongingness (collectivistic vs individualistic).

Design/methodology/approach
The authors tested a model of moderated mediation in a cross-cultural investigation on a sample of 229 Italian and Asian consumers. The study is a 2 (cultures: collectivistic vs individualistic) × 2 (crisis: performance-related vs values-related) between-subjects experimental design. The moderated mediation model shows that consumers' negative reactions (negative word of mouth and negative purchase intention) towards a faulty brand involved in different crisis typologies is explained by the mediating role of negative emotions, and that this mediation depends on a consumer's cultural belongingness.

Findings
The results suggest that consumers belonging to a collectivistic culture (e.g. Asian culture) tend to react in a more severe and strict manner when faced with a values-related brand crisis event then when faced with a performance-related crisis. The arousal of negative emotion towards a brand represents the mediating variable in behavioural responses (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention).

Originality/value
The present study extends current knowledge in the field of consumers' negative response to brand irresponsibility behaviours while introducing the role of crisis typology and cultural belongingness. In particular, individualistic people are more sensitive to a values-related crisis in comparison with a performance-related one. The findings of this study have strong managerial implications for defining effective response strategies to negative events involving brands in different markets.


Abstract There are numerous aspects to becoming an effective, culturally competent health practitioner, among these is the need to "become knowledgeable about the historical and sociopolitical backgrounds of clients" (Bemak et al., 2003, p. 26). It has been established that culturally sensitive empathy has the potential to contribute greatly to the healing process when working across cultures. It is therefore essential for an effective and productive client-healer relationship. Indeed it is said that "empathy bridges the gap" between practitioner and client (David & Erickson, 1990). This paper explores a model to develop cultural competence within health related courses.


Introduction : The objective of this study was to compare the outcomes of initial nonsurgical root canal therapy (NSRCT) for different tooth types provided by both endodontists and other providers. Methods : Using an insurance company database, 487,476 initial NSRCT procedures were followed from the time of treatment to the presence of an untoward event indicated by Current Dental Terminology (CDT) codes for retreatment, apical surgery, or extraction. Population demographics were computed for provider type and tooth location. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates were calculated for 1, 5, and 10 years. Hazard ratios for provider type and tooth location were calculated using the Cox proportional hazards model. Analyses were performed using SAS 9.4 (Cary, NC). Results : The survival of all teeth collectively was 98% at 1 year, 92% at 5 years, and 86% at 10 years. Significant differences in survival based on provider type were noted for molars at 5 years, and for all tooth types at 10 years. The greatest difference discovered was a 5% higher survival rate at 10 years for molars treated by endodontists. This was further evidenced by a hazard ratio of 1.394 when comparing other provider's success to endodontists within this ten-year molar group. Conclusions : These findings show that survival rates of endodontically teeth is high at ten years post treatment regardless of provider type. Molars treated by endodontists after 10 years have significantly higher survival rates than molars treated by non-endodontists.


Telling one's identity is a strategy on which public and private companies have begun to invest for a long time. If storytelling has always been understood as a means of interpreting and transmitting the corporate values, we are now moving to storytelling intended as a tool for realizing the identity of the company itself, and this identity is read as a fluid narrative that develops through the stories of its employees and stakeholders. Besides, storytelling is the oldest form of communication between individuals, and it can date back to the origin of our social life: humanity has always made meaning through narration. This paper, starting from theoretical studies on storytelling and the narrative thinking, investigates some samples of organizational storytelling in order to understand what are the advantages of a narrative approach over the reality of those who do business.


Abstract. We present a revision to the astrometric calibration of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), an instrument designed to achieve the high contrast at small angular separations necessary to image substellar and planetary-mass companions around nearby, young stars. We identified several issues with the GPI data reduction pipeline (DRP) that significantly affected the determination of the angle of north in reduced GPI images. As well as introducing a small error in position angle measurements for targets observed at small zenith distances, this error led to a significant error in the previous astrometric calibration that has affected all subsequent astrometric measurements. We present a detailed description of these issues and how they were corrected. We reduced GPI observations of calibration binaries taken periodically since the instrument was commissioned in 2014 using an updated version of the DRP. These measurements were compared to observations obtained with the NIRC2 instrument on Keck II, an instrument with an excellent astrometric calibration, allowing us to derive an updated plate scale and north offset angle for GPI. This revised astrometric calibration should be used to calibrate all measurements obtained with GPI for the purposes of precision astrometry.


The aim of this study is to investigate whether income has different relationships to subjective well-being in richer countries compared to poorer ones. We report analyses based on interview data collected in the European Social Survey (n = 72,574) that examine how income relates to life satisfaction (LS) and emotional well-being (EWB) in 28 European countries, varying in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Our results indicate that the within-country correlations of income with LS and EWB decrease as GDP per capita increases. Partial correlations controlling for EWB are positive but do not vary with GDP per capita, whereas partial correlations controlling for LS vary inversely with GDP per capita. We hypothesise that the invariant income-LS relationships result from effects of relative income on social comparisons, while the varying income-EWB relationships result from the negative impacts of time scarcity in richer countries and the buffering of negative experiences in poorer ones.


The world of fashion illustration is one of the richest design sources available today, and all students of fashion, as well as graphic design, are hungry for visual material that challenges and inspires but also gives them instructional information to help them in their own designs. Martin Dawber showcases over 30 of the most accomplished and experimental illustrators from around the world. Fashion illustrators from America, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, France, Sweden and the UK reveal how to harness the many different media to convey fashion - but just as importantly mood and street style - combining line drawing, crayon, collage, digital graphics and even embroidery. Each stunning visual is complemented by information from the artists themselves on how they approach their work, their inspiration and their techniques. This inside information is a valuable resource for all fashion illustrators, particularly students. All illustrators need to feed their imagination and this indispensable guide provides a feast of the world's most adventurous fashion illustrations today.


The purpose of this research was to know the interaction of giving composted contains cow rumen and NPK fertilizer, main factor are contains cow rumen and NPK fertilizer and to get the best treatment to supporting the seedling growth of palm oil ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq) on main nursery. This research had been conducted on the experimental garden, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Riau from May to September 2015. This research had been conducted in 4 x 4 factorial experiment arranged with completely randomized design consisted of two factors. The first factor is the of composted contains cow rumen consisted of 4 levels are 25 g/plant, 50 g/plant, 75 g/plant, and 100 g/plant and the second factor is the dose of NPK fertilizer consist of 4 levels are 1,5 g/plant, 2,0 g/plant, 2,5 g/plant and 3,0 g/plant. In this research there are 16 combinations treatment with 3 replications thus obtained 48 experimental units. Each experimental unit consisted of two seedling so total number are 96 seedlings. Observation were carried out are increase of plant height, increase of leaf number, increase of diameter hump and leaf wide. The result showed that the interaction composted contents cow rumen and NPK fertilizer gave unreal effect. Composted contents cow rumen treatment and NPK fertilizer treatment were gave unreal effect. To get maximum result need continuous research with increasing dose of composted content cow rumen and NPK fertilizer. Keywords : Composted contents cow rumen, palm oil, NPK fertilizer


We present a hierarchical evolutionary approach to hardware/software partitioning for real-time embedded systems. In contrast to most previous approaches, we apply a hierarchical structure and dynamically determine the granularity of tasks and hardware modules to adaptively optimize the solution while keeping the search space as small as possible. Two new search operators are described, which exploit the proposed hierarchical structure. Efficient ranking is another problem addressed. Imprecisely specified multiple attribute utility theory has the advantage of constraining the solution space computation overhead. We propose a new technique to reduce the overhead. Experiment results show that our algorithm is both effective and efficient.


A steel plate is one of the critical components of a scroll expander system that can experience cavitation micro-pitting while in service. The content of the present paper consists of two distinct but interrelated parts. The first part aims to highlight that the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations can constitute a potential tool for the prediction of cavitation erosion areas in scroll expander systems. For this purpose, a three-dimensional CFD, steady-state numerical simulation of the refrigerant working fluid is employed. Numerical results revealed the critical areas where cavitation bubbles are formed. These numerical critical areas are in direct qualitative agreement with the actual eroded regions by cavitation, which were found by microscopic observations across the steel plate on an after use, scroll expander system. The second part of the paper aims to further investigate the behaviour and the durability of the steel plate of the studied scroll expander system subjected to cavitation erosion by using an ultrasonic experimental test rig. Scanning electron microscopy and optical interferometer micrographs of the damaged surfaces were observed, showing the nature of the cavitation erosion mechanism and the morphological alterations of the steel plate samples. Experimental results are explained in terms of the cavitation erosion rates, roughness profile, accumulated strain energy, and hardness of the matrix. The experimental study can serve as a valuable input for future development of a CFD numerical model that predicts both cavitation bubbles formation as well as cavitation damage induced by the bubbles that implode on the steels plates.


Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the agent of Lyme disease, is a zoonotic spirochetal bacterium that depends on arthropod (Ixodes ticks) and mammalian (rodent) hosts for its persistence in nature. The quest to identify borrelial genes responsible for Bb's parasitic dependence on these two diverse hosts has been hampered by limitations in the ability to genetically manipulate virulent strains of Bb. Despite this constraint, we report herein the inactivation and genetic complementation of a linear plasmid-25-encoded gene (bbe16) to assess its role in the virulence, pathogenesis, and survival of Bb during its natural life cycle. bbe16 was found to potentiate the virulence of Bb in the murine model of Lyme borreliosis and was essential for the persistence of Bb in Ixodes scapularis ticks. As such, we have renamed bbe16 a gene encoding borrelial persistence in ticks (bpt)A. Although protease accessibility experiments suggested that BptA as a putative lipoprotein is surface-exposed on the outer membrane of Bb, the molecular mechanism(s) by which BptA promotes Bb persistence within its tick vector remains to be elucidated. BptA also was shown to be highly conserved (>88% similarity and >74% identity at the deduced amino acid levels) in all Bb sensu lato strains tested, suggesting that BptA may be widely used by Lyme borreliosis spirochetes for persistence in nature. Given Bb's absolute dependence on and intimate association with its arthropod and mammalian hosts, BptA should be considered a virulence factor critical for Bb's overall parasitic strategy.


The Compliance Plan Volume (Volume I) identifies project activity schedule milestones for achieving compliance with Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR). Information regarding the technical evaluation of treatment options for SRS mixed wastes is contained in the Background Volume (Volume II) and is provided for information.


The present work is based on the previously reported purification study of TaqI endonuclease5 and aimed to simulate the experimentally obtained chromatograms in order to reduce the time and cost in the design, optimization and scaling up of purification processes. Three different models depending on equilibrium, rate and plate theories are used in the mathematical description of experimental elution profiles and the solutions of the model equations are compared. The equilibrium-dispersive theory provides excellent results in predicting the experimental chromatograms. It is thus recognized that band dispersion takes place in the column through axial dispersion and nonequilibrium effects. The user-friendly software written in Visual Basic can be used in the design of purification processes as well as in the determination of optimal separation conditions for many other enzymes.


The key players in corporate governance worldwide are often associated with their potential for enhancing corporate governance practices. This paper presents a review of academic research concerning the effectiveness of these players. Given the importance of these key players, as emphasized by the regulators in most countries, it is crucial to explore their contributions, as documented in the literature. Hence, fundamental insights for analysing the inputs that contribute to their effectiveness, as well as the processes and the outcomes of their effectiveness are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, there is limited evidence that discusses the effectiveness of these players from the perspective of process issues. However, as such studies pertaining to the process issues are important for understanding how they actually perform their roles and enhance their effectiveness, more studies that focus on the process issues are suggested for future research to provide a better understanding of the effectiveness of key players.
Keywords: Corporate Governance, Key Players, Effectiveness, Inputs, Process, OutcomesJEL Classification: G30


This thesis focusses on litigation for migrants' rights in the UK, and in particular litigation conducted by lawyers and activists motivated by the cause of promoting and protecting migrants' rights. The thesis conceptualises this form of migrants' rights activism as 'cause litigation'. The thesis asks the question, what happens when immigration and migrants' rights questions are litigated for political purposes in the UK? In answering this question the thesis shows that cause litigation has in some circumstances been able to develop some highly significant forms of rights-protecting systemic change. However, the thesis also shows that cause litigation is vulnerable to adverse Executive reactions. Executive conduct in the area of immigration and migrants' rights is governed by an overarching imperative to exercise and be seen to be exercising control. Cause litigation presents direct challenges to this imperative. In response to these challenges the Executive has engaged in both evasion and an increasingly aggressive backlash against changes secured through cause litigation and the activity of cause litigation itself. This backlash has succeeded in undermining many of cause litigation's achievements and has ultimately diminished the role of cause litigation and the rule of law in regulating immigration control in the UK. This is not to argue that the advancements obtained through cause litigation are irrelevant; those that survive, albeit in a reduced form, are non-negligible in the otherwise highly adverse context of the UK's immigration politics. Cause litigation is, therefore, one of the few avenues open for migrants' rights to be protected and advanced, even if it is in a compromised and vulnerable form. It is argued, though, that an activism technique that was a response to the political disadvantage migrants' rights campaigners face, by securing practical change without mainstream political support, has ultimately not been able to escape from the UK's adverse immigration politics.


Homogeneous membranes were prepared by casting chloroform solutions of methyl methacrylate-N-[2-methyl-5-(dimethylamino)phenyl]maleimide copolymers containing 2.3-8.7 mole % of the imide. After quaternization with methyl iodide, diffusive permeabilities and electric resistances (both with alternating and direct current) of the membranes were determined. During the passage of electric current a substantial decrease (2-10 fold) in the membrane resistance was observed; the lower the imide content was, the greater was the effect. The decrease suggests structural changes in the membranes due to electrohydrodynamic convection of unstable polymer chains caused by electric force. Significant correlations between the imide content and the resistance, both before and after the treatment with electric current, were found. According to oriented concentration potentials, the internal symmetry of the membranes was also affected by electric current.


Abstract. Various interpretations are available for when -clauses featuring present-tense verb forms: the clause may refer either to a past or future time-sphere, or to a world other than the "real" one. The reference may also be widened to a generic value, or processed as a nontemporal locus. Whether the interpretation is temporal or nontemporal, the reference value can never be strictly limited to to, or temporal zero-point. This paper explores the temporal properties of t0 and the construction of temporal and nontemporal loci. It is shown that although the temporal locus constructed by when is incompatible with t0, such is not the case for as. The incompatibility is therefore accounted for in terms of when's role as a particular kind of aspectualizer: indeed, all the examples tend to show that when imparts a perfective format to the locus constructed on the basis of the w/ien-clause situation.


Perylenediimide (PDI) possesses intense absorption, a low-lying energy level, and a high electron mobility. However, its highly planar conformation and thus strong intermolecular π–π stacking prevents its application as an electron acceptor used in efficient bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, we report a structurally non-planar molecule TRIP-PDI3, in which a rigid and shape-persistent triptycene (TRIP) unit is employed as a central unit to collect three PDI arms at the periphery. As an electron acceptor, TRIP-PDI3 exhibits a low-lying LUMO energy level of −3.81 eV similar to that of conventional PCBM, but with an intensive light absorption in the range of 450–600 nm. BHJ OSCs were fabricated using TRIP-PDI as an electron acceptor and a low band gap polymer PBDT-TS1 as an electron donor, exhibiting a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.53%. The result demonstrates that TRIP is a promising building block for the construction of structurally non-planar PDI derivatives as non-fullerene (NF) electron acceptors for efficient OSCs.


The existing design of sucker rod string mainly focuses on the simplifying assumptions that rod string was exposed to simple tension loading. And its goal was to have equal modified stress at the top of each taper. The improved rod design was to have the same degree of safety at each section, and it used a dynamic force distribution that was proportional along the whole string. Moreover, the available procedures did not provide the desired accuracy of its pertinent analysis, and the operators could not identify the specific phenomena that occur in CBM wells. In this paper, the mathematical models of rod loads and string length were developed based on the cyclic nature of rod string loading. And the fatigue endurance method is utilized to design the single rod string, and the tapered rod string is designed to have an equal equivalent stress at the top of each section. Its application characteristics are demonstrated by the example of CBM wells in Ordos Basin. The interpretations of results show that the previous design gave the single rods a larger diameter and the top rods in the string a greater percent than the proposed method would dictate. The calculation should concern about inertial, vibration and friction forces to illustrate the elastic force waves travelling in the rod material with the speed of sound. The single string should be designed using fatigue endurance ratings due to asymmetric pulsating tension of rod loading. And the tapered string involves a balanced design by setting the fatigue endurance at each section equal. A shorter stroke length gives a greater rod taper percentage and an increased load capacity results to an enhanced rod diameter. The rod diameter increases with the pump size and load capacity for the single string, and the rod taper percentage of the top rod strings increases with plunger diameter for the tapered string. The proposed research improves efficiency of the pumping system, assures good operating conditions, and reduces total production costs.


The physical complexities of progressive and life threatening disease, coupled with attendant emotional and psychological consequences, demand careful coordination between primary, secondary, and tertiary care. Across the whole range of health services, an increasing amount of care is being provided on an outpatient basis or independently of hospitals altogether: most terminally ill patients spend most of their time at home.

#### Issues of concern for terminally ill patients

In the planning of care and agreeing a management plan, patients must be given an opportunity to express their wishes and these must be taken into account. Patients can make valid choices between treatment options only if they know what is happening, what help is available, what is likely to happen, and what help will be available in the future.

Patients who make advance statements must be made aware that they cannot authorise or refuse in advance what they could not normally authorise or refuse— unlawful procedures such as euthanasia or futile or inappropriate treatment

It is important to document accurately at each point what a patient's wishes are. Information must be tailored to patients to meet their need for knowledge and given at a pace with which they can cope. Rarely, patients may choose not to be informed. Some patients may wish to complete an advance statement, giving instructions about their wishes in the event of their losing the capacity to decide or to communicate.

#### Equipment and modifications that may be needed for home care of patients

#### Practical equipment

#### Medical equipment

#### Home modification

It can be much easier to care for patients in a hospital, hospice, or nursing home because of the infrastructure and immediate support available. Caring for a patient at home presents a challenge, and sometimes …


The first ever survey of all seven potential breeding lakes for Velvet Scoter Melanitta fusca fusca in the Javakheti plateau region of southern Georgia found that nesting was confined to just one traditionally occupied site, at Lake Tabatskuri. Intensive observations revealed that c. 25–35 pairs were present at Lake Tabatskuri during mid- May to mid-June in 2017 and 2018, but substantially fewer pairs actually nested at the lake, and all that did so built nests on the only island in the lake. Hatching success (65% of eggs successfully hatched in 2017, 51% in 2018) was lower than in North American White-winged Scoter M. f. deglandi studies (67–92%) and fledging success was relatively poor (29% of hatched ducklings survived to fledging compared to 5–10% in North America and 30% in Finland), suggesting challenges to the longterm perpetuation of the population. More research is required to determine the direct causes of the scoters' poor reproductive success. Information from a questionnaire survey of local residents and observations made during the study suggested that interactions with Armenian Gulls Larus armenicus nesting on the islands, disturbance and removal of eggs by humans, and drowning of ducklings in active or abandoned fishing nets all contributed to poor overall reproductive success. Conservation actions to ameliorate some of these factors have already been initiated, but further research, monitoring and conservation is needed to safeguard for future generations this tiny disjunct population at its last location in Georgia, potentially in the entire region.


Patients with chronic cardiovascular or metabolic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and heart failure, often have comorbid kidney disease. Long-term outcomes are worse in the setting of both cardiac and kidney disease compared with either disease in isolation. In addition, the clinical presentations of certain acute cardiovascular events (such as heart failure) and worsening kidney function overlap and may be challenging to distinguish. Recently, certain novel treatments have demonstrated beneficial effects on both cardiac and kidney outcomes. Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors have exhibited concordant risk reduction and clinically important benefits in chronic kidney disease with and without diabetes, diabetes and established cardiovascular disease or multiple atherosclerotic vascular disease risk factors, and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction with and without diabetes. Primary trial results have revealed that sacubitril-valsartan therapy improves cardiovascular outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and post hoc analyses suggest favorable kidney effects. A concordant pattern of kidney benefit with sacubitril-valsartan has also been observed in chronic heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Given the complex interplay between cardiac and kidney disease and the possibility that treatments may show concordant cardio-kidney benefits, there has been recent interest in formally acknowledging, defining, and using composite cardio-kidney outcomes in future cardiovascular trials. This review describes potential challenges in use of such outcomes that should be considered and addressed before their incorporation into such trials.


The field of human-computer interface design profits from understanding potential users and exploring difficult design problems. Addressing the design of enabling technology for users with special needs offers both those advantages. Adapting computer interfaces for access and use by people with various physical and cognitive impairments exposes many basic human-computer interface design issues. Likewise. these efforts will result in computer interfaces which are more attractive and usable by all.


A phenomenological model is proposed for a 3-D spectrum of temperature inhomogeneities generated by inter- nal waves in the atmosphere. This model is a development of the theory based on the assumption that a field of Lagrangian displacements of fluid particles, induced by an ensemble of internal waves with randomly independent amplitudes and phases, is statistically stationary, homogeneous, axially sym- metric in horizontal plane and Gaussian. For consistency of this model with measured spectra of temperature fluctuations in the stratosphere and mesosphere the additional assump- tion was introduced in to the model about the anisotropy of inhomogeneities to be dependent on their vertical sizes. The analytic expressions for both the 3-D and 1-D spectra are obtained. A model vertical wave number spectrum fol- lows a 3 power law, whereas a horizontal spectrum con- tains two regions with a 3 slope, and the intermediate re- gion with the slope between 1 and 3 depending on the rate of anisotropy decrease as a function of increasing sizes of the inhomogeneities. In the range of a few decades the model showed a good agreement with the results of mea- surements of the spectra in the troposphere, stratosphere and mesosphere.


INTRODUCTION
Research shows that Australian Aboriginal women experience a significantly higher rate of mortality from cervical cancer than non-Aboriginal women. We now understand that infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is a necessary pre-requisite for cervical cancer. This knowledge, together with the development of prophylactic vaccines against the HPV types most commonly associated with cervical cancer (16 and 18), made it vital to gain nationally representative HPV genotyping data for Australian women, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. A research project, the 'Women, Human papilloma virus prevalence, Indigenous, Non indigenous, Urban, Rural Study' (WHINURS) was designed to obtain the HPV status of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women when they presented for their routine cervical screen. Family Planning NSW (FPNSW), an organisation that had previously worked in community based projects to increase Aboriginal participation in cervical screening, provided an investigator site in western NSW with the intention to recruit 50 Aboriginal women and 100 non-Aboriginal women.

METHODS
The method was a consultative approach, including national and local frameworks for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recruitment. The FPNSW Dubbo team devised a series of strategies to maximise recruitment when this did not progress according to plan. Strategies were developed to meet this challenge, including street walks, attendance at community forums, flexible appointments, drop-in times and assistance with travel and babysitting.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
As a result of the activities listed above, 43 women were recruited to WHINURS, just seven short of the target. Collaborative community-based consultation, as well as the research study itself increased the number of Aboriginal women accessing cervical screening at the family planning clinic. This was sustained a year after the conclusion of the study.


We consider the problem of disseminating an update known to a set of servers to other servers in the system via a gossip protocol. Some of the servers can exhibit malicious behavior. We require that only the updates introduced by authorized clients are accepted by non-malicious servers. Spurious updates, in particular those generated by compromised nodes, are not accepted by non-malicious servers. We take the approach of collective endorsement where each server endorses an accepted update by computing a list of message authentication codes with symmetric keys allocated to it. We use a novel key allocation scheme that allocates a set of symmetric keys to each participating server to minimize the total number of keys. Our protocol is designed to minimize update diffusion time. In the absence of faulty nodes, its diffusion time is O(log n), which is the best possible time achieved when nodes only suffer from benign faults. If the actual number of Byzantine faults experienced during an update's dissemination is f, diffusion time increases to O(log n) + f. This is better than the latency of previously known protocols that take O(log n) +b time, where b is the assumed threshold that defines the maximum number of malicious servers that can be tolerated rather than f, the actual number of failures. The buffer requirements and message sizes are higher in our protocol than other known protocols, thus it trades off memory and bandwidth resources to improve latency.


Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy targeting CD19 has significantly improved outcomes in the treatment of refractory or relapsed large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL). We evaluated the long-term course of hematologic recovery, immune reconstitution, and infectious complications in 41 patients with LBCL treated with axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) at a single center. Grade 3+ cytopenias occurred in 97.6% of patients within the first 28 days postinfusion, with most resolved by 6 months. Overall, 63.4% of patients received a red blood cell transfusion, 34.1% of patients received a platelet transfusion, 36.6% of patients received IV immunoglobulin, and 51.2% of patients received growth factor (granulocyte colony-stimulating factor) injections beyond the first 28 days postinfusion. Only 40% of patients had recovered detectable CD19+ B cells by 1 year, and 50% of patients had a CD4+ T-cell count <200 cells per μL by 18 months postinfusion. Patients with durable responses to axi-cel had significantly longer durations of B-cell aplasia, and this duration correlated strongly with the recovery of CD4+ T-cell counts. There were significantly more infections within the first 28 days compared with any other period of follow-up, with the majority being mild-moderate in severity. Receipt of corticosteroids was the only factor that predicted risk of infection in a multivariate analysis (hazard ratio, 3.69; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-16.5). Opportunistic infections due to Pneumocystis jirovecii and varicella-zoster virus occurred up to 18 months postinfusion in patients who prematurely discontinued prophylaxis. These results support the use of comprehensive supportive care, including long-term monitoring and antimicrobial prophylaxis, beyond 12 months after axi-cel treatment.


Abstract Antihistamines are effective for treatment of seasonal nasal allergy. Recently, prophylactic treatment with antihistamines in patients with pollinosis was reported to be more effective when started before the pollen season. The administration with antihistamines from 2 to 6 weeks before onset of the pollen season is recommended for management of allergic rhinitis in Japan. To determine the reason for the effectiveness of prophylactic treatment with antihistamines, the effects of repeated pre-treatment with antihistamines before provocation with toluene 2,4-diisocyanate (TDI) on their nasal allergy–like behavior and up-regulations of histamine H1 receptors (H1R) and interleukin (IL)-4 mRNAs in their nasal mucosa were examined. Provocation with TDI induced sneezing and up-regulations of H1R and IL-4 mRNAs in the nasal mucosa of TDI-sensitized rats. Repeated pre-treatments with antihistamines including epinastine, olopatadine, or d-chlorpheniramine for 1 to 5 weeks before provocation with TDI suppressed TDI-induced sneezing and the up-regulations of H1R and IL-4 mRNAs in the nasal mucosa more than their administrations once or for 3 days before TDI provocation. Our data indicate that repeated pre-treatment with antihistamines before provocation with TDI is more effective than their single treatment in reducing nasal allergy–like behavior by causing additional suppression of up-regulations of H1R and IL-4 mRNAs in the nasal mucosa.


This research aimed to examine the effect of the value of student co-operation in enterpreneur courses through the implementation of co - operative learning and experiential teaching method. Research was conducted on 57 psychology students who take enterpreneur courses treated in method cooperative teaching and experiential learning. Data collected through the scale were analyzed using the t test to see differences in the ability of co-operation between the students before teaching method experiential learning and cooperative learning with teaching method after doing experiential learning and cooperative learning. T test results prove that there are significant differences between the data pre and post data. This study means that there is a significant difference in the value of co-operation caused by the treatment by student cooperative learning and experiential learning method.


Detailed gambling market data are used to investigate allegations of pointshaving in college basketball by Wolfers. Data on actual sportsbook betting percentages on favorites and underdogs and changes in pointspreads are used to test for evidence of corruption by players and/or coaches of NCAA basketball teams. After establishing a rejection of the balanced book hypothesis, the authors test for corruption in a variety of ways by investigating the games that Wolfers describes as likely situations for pointshaving, specifically games involving big underdogs. In a variety of tests, which include differences in betting percentages on big underdogs who cover and do not cover the pointspread, betting simulations based on thresholds of percentage bet on underdogs, analysis of pointspread movements toward big underdogs, and an analysis of coaches and programs that meet the conditions of Wolfers, little evidence is found to suggest rampant pointshaving in this market.


Abstract: The prevalence of coccidial infections in dairy cattle was examined in Shanghai from November 2010 to March 2011. In total, 626 fecal samples from 24 dairy farms were examined; oocysts were identified to the species level based on morphological features. All herds were infected with Eimeria species. The overall prevalence of coccidia was 47.1%, with the highest prevalence in <4-mo-old calves (51.8%) and the lowest in >12-mo-old cattle (27.0%). The number of oocysts per gram of feces was significantly higher in young calves than in weaners and adults. Ten species of Eimeria were identified, among which Eimeria ellipsoidalis, Eimeria bovis, Eimeria zuernii, and Eimeria alabamensis were the predominant species. Concurrent infection with 2–8 species was common.


The American Law Institute ("ALI") and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws ("NCCUSL") are in the process of revising the Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC"), and recently promulgated the final draft of Article 9. Their efforts have been hobbled by the allegation that banks and other special interest groups have captured the revision process and that the revised statutes do not protect consumers or people who are not parties to the particular transaction. This article suggests that, where Article 9 is concerned, the difficulty lies not in capture of the uniform law process per se, but in the interaction between the dynamics of federalism and the desire for uniformity. Uniform law drafters seek uniform and universal adoption. They must therefore anticipate the possibility that capture of state legislatures and competition among states (in the form of a so-called "race to the bottom") may lead states to reject an efficient rule. Therefore, even where the uniform law process itself is not captured, the dynamics of federalism may force the uniform law drafters to approximate the results of capture or of a "race to the bottom" in order to ensure widespread adoption of the uniform law. Based on this insight, the article proposes a decision rule which predicts when the uniform law process will fail because of anticipated capture or an anticipated "race to the bottom" and applies this rule to current efforts to revise Article 9 and show that the rule is descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive. It describes what has already happened in connection with the Revision of Article 9 and other articles of the UCC; and it can be used to define and circumscribe the appropriate domain for uniform laws.


The bromination of dimethyl 8-methoxy-1,6,10-trimethylheptalene-4,5-dicarboxylate (6; Scheme 2) with N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) leads in acceptable yields to the corresponding 9-bromoheptalenedicarboxylate 10 (Table 1). Ether cleavage of 6 with chlorotrimethylsilane (Me3SiCl)/NaI results in the formation of oxoheptalenedicarboxylate 13 in good yield (Scheme 4). The latter can be acetyloxylated to the (acetyloxy)oxoheptalenedicarboxylate 14 with Pb(OAc)4 in benzene (Scheme 5). Oxo derivative 14, in turn, can be selectively O-methylated with dimethyl sulfate (DMS) in acetone to the (acetyloxy)methoxyheptalenedicarboxylates 15 and 15′ (Scheme 6). The AcO group of the latter can be transformed into a benzyl or methyl ether group by treatment with MeONa in DMF, followed by the addition of benzyl bromide or methyl iodide (cf. Scheme 9). Reduction of the ester groups of dimethyl 7,8-dimethoxy-5,6,10-trimethylheptalene-1,2-dicarboxylate (25′) with diisobutylaluminium hydride (DIBAH) in tetrahydrofuran (THF) leads to the formation of the corresponding dimethanol 26′, which can be cyclized oxidatively (IBX, dimethyl sulfoxide) to 8,9-dimethoxy-6,7,11-trimethylheptaleno[1,2-c]furan (27; Scheme 11).


All clinical isolates of enterobacteria received at the laboratory were monitored for trimethoprim resistance over six months in 1978. The survey was repeated in 1979 and the incidence of trimethoprim resistance showed a slight decrease, but the proportion of resistant strains owing their trimethoprim resistance to transferable R plasmids had almost trebled. There was also a large increase in the proportion of resistant strains exhibiting high-level non-transferable trimethoprim resistance. These findings suggest transposition of genes conferring trimethoprim resistance from plasmids to the bacterial chromosome.


Psychiatrists must be alert to the possibility of patients with herpes encephalitis being admitted to psychiatric units, and they should be aware of the difficulties in differential diagnosis of catatonic stupor. One case history demonstrates how catatonic stupor can easily be equated with catatonic schizophrenia. The differential diagnosis of such patients requires (1) a careful study of the mental status, focusing on such cognitive functions as attention, orientation, and memory; (2) examination of the pupils, eye movements, respiration rate, and motor movements; and (3) amobarbital (Amytal) interview and possible electroencephalogram. Further work-up is best performed by the neurologist.


In this thesis, interactions between surfaces with adsorbed highly branched polyelectrolytes were studied with the colloidal probe technique. By studying the adsorption behavior of highly branched polyelectrolytes, the lateral distribution of the surface charge could be tuned by the appropriate adsorption conditions. By choosing different polyelecrtrolytes, namely highly branched poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) and poly(amido amine) (PAMAM) dendrimers, it was possible to investigate the forces between homogeneously charged layers, as well as surfaces compodes of charge patches where both the patch size and the distance between them could be tuned. The output of the force measurements allowed not only to know its dependence on the surface charge heterogeneity, but also some properties of the individual adsorbed polymers.


Increasing freight train axle loads and continued development of high speed rail has placed significant demands on North American rail infrastructure. To adequately address these demands, concrete crosstie and elastic fastening system design and performance must be improved. Field experimentation was conducted at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with the intent of proposing recommendations for improved concrete crosstie fastening system design and performance. The focus of this paper is on quantifying the distribution of lateral forces by use of the Lateral Load Evaluation Device (LLED) developed at UIUC to quantify the loading demands placed on fastening system components (e.g. insulators, clips, shoulders). Loading environment parameters (e.g. magnitudes, location, and train speed) were varied while recording lateral force and displacement measurements at critical interfaces. Other recorded measurements (e.g. vertical loads) are compared and discussed with the intent of investigating potential areas of track instability. Data will be used to improve the understanding of the lateral load path and the effects it has on demands placed on the fastening system. Ultimately, analysis of these data will influence future research on understanding the lateral load path and lead to improved mechanistic design practices for concrete crossties fastening systems.


This study proposes a super-low-complexity detection scheme to control the surviving symbols at each stage of near-maximum-likelihood detection for MIMO-OFDM systems. The new scheme can reduce not only the number of surviving symbol replica candidates at each stage, but also the number of Euclidian distance calculations required for selecting each surviving symbol replica candidate. The former is implemented by adaptively controlling the number of survived candidates according to the estimated level of interference plus noise while the latter is performed by a quadrant detection method. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme has a much lower complexity than that of conventional approaches.


A new oleanane-type saponin oleiferasaponin C6 (OSC6) was isolated and identified from Camellia oleifera seeds through NMR, HR-ESI-MS, and GC-MS spectroscopic methods. This new oleanane-type saponin exhibits potent cytotoxic activities on five human cancer cell lines (BEL-7402, BGC-823, MCF-7, HL-60 and KB), especially in HL-60 and BEL-7402 cell lines. The action mechanism of the anti-cancer activity of OSC6 was further investigated and it showed significant induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in HL-60 and BEL-7402 cell lines by down-regulating CDK4, cyclin D1 and Bcl-2; up-regulating p21, caspase-3/9, p-p53 and Bax protein expression in vitro. These results suggested that the newly isolated saponin OSC6 is a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of human cancer.


Positional scoring rules in voting compute the score of an alternative by summing the scores for the alternative induced by every vote. This summation principle ensures that all votes contribute equally to the score of an alternative. We relax this assumption and, instead, aggregate scores by taking into account the rank of a score in the ordered list of scores obtained from the votes. This defines a new family of voting rules, rank-dependent scoring rules (RDSRs), based on ordered weighted average (OWA) operators, which, include all scoring rules, and many others, most of which of new. We study some properties of these rules, and show, empirically, that certain RDSRs are less manipulable than Borda voting, across a variety of statistical cultures.


Designing products for recyclability is driven by environmental and economic goals. Several design for assembly (DFA) rules and parameters can be used to gauge the recyclability index of product designs. These indices can be used for comparative analysis of the recyclability of different products. This assists the designer in making design choices related to the product's end of life. However, many of the existing recyclability indices are only available after design and manufacturing decisions are made. If such design decisions could be made earlier in the design process, when the design space is less bound, recyclability could be considered earlier. A case study is performed to determine if DFA parameters could be utilized to determine product recyclability. The parameters were obtained from existing DFA time estimate tables. The results of the study indicated that the recyclability of the product, as defined by established recyclability metrics, could be predicted through DFA measures. A negative correlation was realized between recyclability and insertion time. Components that required greater time to mate during assembly adversely affected the recyclability of the product. Conversely, handing time was found to have no predictive capability on product recyclability. These findings are used to develop a recyclability index that utilizes the DFA measures, allowing designers and engineers to determine recyclability earlier in the design process. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4038515]


The development of distributed systems software poses unique challenges due to the diversity of hardware, software, and network protocols in the market today. Achieving interoperability with legacy systems and between systems provided by different vendors has, in the past, required the development of intricate interface specifications or proprietary bridging software. Real time, embedded distributed systems introduce additional performance and resource requirements. Real time systems require the ability to schedule tasks, predict the performance of those tasks, and perhaps most important, predict how the system will react to an overload situation or resource failure. Embedded systems are often characterized by resource constraints, diverse operating systems, and non-TCP/IP transports. Most real time and/or embedded systems share the requirement of reasonably high performance. High performance systems seek the lowest possible communication overhead and streamlined, optimized software layers. The paper discusses how CORBA has evolved to meet all these requirements, and uses ORBexpress CORBA from Objective Interface as a reference implementation of real time, high performance CORBA for embedded developers.


Because of the extra risk, tenants who cash lease land should earn more money than those tenants with share leases. A competitive land market and the need to support bigger and newer machinery can easily lead tenants to pay more than they should for a cash lease. Share leases tend to avoid the overpayment problem as the share percentage is usually relatively fixed. Since share leases are not always available, this paper presents a way for tenants to determine if a cash lease rate is reasonable for the area by using a partial budget approach that compares lease types.


BACKGROUND
Many hospitalized patients do not understand or agree with their clinicians about their discharge plan. However, the effect of disagreement on discharge outcomes is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To measure the correlation between patient-clinician care agreement and discharge outcomes.

DESIGN
A prospective cohort study was performed from September 2019 to March 2020 (Rochester, MN, USA).

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS
Internal medicine patients and their primary clinician (resident, advanced practice clinician or attending) hospitalized from September 2019-March 2020 at Mayo Clinic Hospital. Participants were independently surveyed following hospital day #3 ward rounds regarding the goals of the hospitalization and discharge planning.

MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES
Patient-clinician agreement for main diagnosis, patient's main concern, and four domains of discharge planning was assessed. Readiness for hospital discharge, delayed discharge, and 30-day readmission was measured. Then, associations between patient-clinician agreement, delayed discharge, and 30-day readmissions were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression.

RESULTS
Of the 436 patients and clinicians, 17.7% completely agreed about what needs to be accomplished before dismissal, 40.8% agreed regarding discharge date, and 71.1% agreed regarding discharge location. In the multivariable model, patient-clinician agreement scores were not significantly correlated with discharge outcomes. Patient-clinician agreement on discharge location was higher for those discharged to home (81.5%) versus skilled nursing facility (48.5%) or assisted living (42.9%) (p < .0001). The agreement on the expected length of stay was highest for home-goers (45.9%) compared to skilled nursing (32.0%) or assisted living (21.4%) (p = .004).

CONCLUSIONS
Patients and their clinicians frequently disagree about when and where a patient will go after hospitalization, particularly for those discharged to a skilled nursing facility. While disagreement did not predict discharge outcomes, our findings suggest opportunities to improve effective communication and promote shared mental models regarding discharge earlier in the hospital stay.


The structure of biological components such as enzymes with active centers buried in hydrophobic pockets has inspired the design of new nanoreactors for efficient chemical processes. To address the current limitations of conventional hydrophobic catalysts or hydrophilic ones, herein, we reported the synthesis of core–shell structured catalysts with Pd-loaded fluoro-modified silica spheres as hydrophobic cores and mesoporous silicas as hydrophilic shells. The resultant nanoreactors allow the catalyst to not only be well dispersed in water but also be able to adsorb hydrophobic reactants to its active centers from water, which makes the catalyst exhibit much higher activity than its analogous catalyst Pd/SiO2 in the aqueous hydrogenation of olefins. Moreover, at the end of the reaction, we demonstrated that this nanoreactor can be directly used for the next reaction cycle after the removal of the upper layer of the organic product, making in situ catalyst recycling possible. Such a process significantly decreases the loss of the catalyst during recycling, which is unattainable for conventional catalyst separation methods such as filtration and centrifugation. After 12 reaction cycles, its activity has no significant decrease. These results illustrate the preparation of efficient solid catalysts for innovative green and sustainable chemical processes.


Many parts of the world are characterized by a worsening economic, political, religious and cultural bankruptcy. Many countries are plagued by a culture of death and are engulfed by the forces of evil structures and sinful situations. Our world is in dire of need people who are empowered by a "transformative spirituality". We need people who are loyal to the promptings of the Divine Spirit. We need people who breathe a spirit of freedom from all forms of personal and social corruptions. We need people who have interiorized the mission of Christ and who are courageous enough to proclaim it in today's context. We need the breath of fire. We need transformative Spirituality. Thus, we need this book!


Oxidative stress plays an important role in obesity-related metabolic diseases. Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) is an antioxidant enzyme downregulated in adipose tissue of obese mice. However, the role of GPX in adipocytes remains elusive. The objective of this study was to clarify the pathophysiological changes in GPX activity and glutathione metabolism and their roles in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in adipocytes. To achieve this goal, we measured cellular GPX activity, glutathione (GSH) contents, GSH/GSSG ratio, and mRNA expression of gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (gamma-GCS), a rate-limiting enzyme for de novo GSH synthesis, in adipose tissue of control and ob/ob mice and in 3T3-L1 adipocytes treated with insulin, H(2)O(2), free fatty acid (FFA), or TNFalpha. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of GPX inhibition with a specific GPX inhibitor or RNA interference against GPX, H(2)O(2), and reduced GSH on insulin signaling in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. ob/ob Mice showed not only a decrease in cellular activity of GPXs (GPX1, -4, and -7) but also an increase in gamma-GCS expression, resulting in increased GSH contents in adipose tissue. These alterations in glutathione metabolism were also observed during differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells and their exposure to insulin, FFA, or H(2)O(2). Inhibition of GPX activity, addition of GSH, and H(2)O(2) resulted in impaired insulin signaling in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. These results suggest that decreased GPX activity and increased gamma-GCS expression lead to overaccumulation of GSH, which might be involved in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in obesity.


SINCE surgical repair of the troublesome lower esophageal ring has not been universally accepted, other modes of treatment have been sought. In 1964, Mossberg reported an excellent result by pneumatic dilatation. Encouraged by this report, pneumatic dilatation was employed in a similar instance with a very gratifying response. Report of a Case A 57-year-old married white male steelworker was admitted to the hospital for the first time in 1958 with the major complaint of intermittent dysphagia since 1955. The episodes of swallowing difficulty did not occur regularly at the same time during the meal. At times, the sensation of food stopping in the lower portion of his chest or upper epigastrium would begin at the very onset of eating, at some times during midmeal, and at others, at the completion of the meal. With the onset of this food sticking sensation, he would become aware of an unpleasant, tight,


Despite decades of research about the agriculture teacher shortage problem, we still know little about the ways in which secondary agriculture teachers assume their roles and responsibilities as members of social and cultural communities. Expanding how we have historically researched this problem is crucial, especially if we hope to mitigate the teacher shortage problem. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to use a hermeneutic phenomenology to explore the experiences of secondary agriculture teachers as they navigate, manage, and attend to the landscape of practice in which they live and work. Our specific research questions included, 1) how do agriculture teachers conceptualize the social landscape of SBAE? and 2) how does the landscape influence the way they go about their work? When interpreting the findings through the theoretical lens of Landscapes of Practice, five themes emerged: 1) multiple accountability partners, 2) different people, different expectations, 3) no room for error, 4) arms race, and 5) validation. Our findings illuminate the struggles agriculture teachers encounter as they manage the different people and practices of their work. As a result, we offer implications and recommendations to help propel the profession forward and pose critical questions to further critique current systems in SBAE.


This paper presents a hand-shape recognition algorithm based on using multi-dimensional grids (MDGs) to divide the feature space of a set of hand images. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used as a feature extraction and dimensionality reduction method to generate eigenspaces from example images. Images are blurred by convolving with a Gaussian kernel as a low pass filter. Image blurring is used to reduce the non-linearity in the manifolds within the eigenspaces where MDG structure can be used to divide the spaces linearly. The algorithm is invariant to linear transformations like rotation and translation. Computer generated images for different hand-shapes in Irish Sign Language are used in testing. Experimental results show accuracy and performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of blurring level and MDG size.


Detection of P. carinii in lung sections of 35 immuno-suppressed albino rats was evaluated using five histological stains (toluidine blue "O", Giemsa, Gram's stain, PAS and H & E) and two immunological assays (indirect immunofluorescence [IIF],, and indirect immunoperoxidase [IIP]) using polyclonal antibody, raised in white New Zealand rabbits, against rat P. carinii. In spite of the high sensitivity of the histological stains, they yield hazy details insufficient for easy identification with difficult interpretation. However, Gram and PAS stains provided a better visualization with easy identification of the parasite. On the other hand, both immunological assays allowed an accurate rapid interpretation of the stained slides. The IIP technique, having 100% sensitivity in detecting the precipitated parasite antigens with absolute specificity, seems to be a good diagnostic tool for detecting P. carinii in lung sections.


The University of Pennsylvania Criminal Law Research Group was commissioned to do a study of offense grading in New Jersey. After an examination of New Jersey criminal law and a survey of New Jersey residents, the CLRG issued this Final Report. (For the report of a similar project for Pennsylvania, see Report on Offense Grading in Pennsylvania, http://ssrn.com/abstract=1527149, and for an article about the grading project, see The Modern Irrationalities of American Criminal Codes: An Empirical Study of Offense Grading, http://ssrn.com/abstract=1539083, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (forthcoming 2011).)The New Jersey study found serious conflicts between the relative grading judgments of New Jersey residents and those contained in existing New Jersey criminal law, as well as instances where mandatory minimum sentences often require sentences that exceed the maximum appropriate punishment, inconsistencies among the grading of similar offenses, overly broad offenses that impose similar grades on conduct of importantly different seriousness, and a flawed grading structure that provides too few grading categories, thereby assuring pervasive problems in failing to distinguish conduct of importantly different seriousness.These systemic failures risk undermining the criminal justice system's moral credibility with the community, improperly delegate the value judgments inherent in grading decisions to individual sentencing judges ad hoc, fail to give citizens notice of the relative importance of conflicting duties, and invite application of different sentencing rules to similarly situated offenders. The Report examines how these grading problems came about, how they might be fixed, and how such grading irrationalities might be avoided in the future.


We sought to determine the epidemiological characteristics of patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) who developed ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) caused by piperacillin-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PRPA; n=34) or piperacillin-susceptible P. aeruginosa (PSPA; n=101). According to univariate analysis, the factors associated with the development of PRPA VAP were presence of an underlying fatal medical condition, immunocompromised status, longer previous hospital stay, less-severe illness at the time of ICU admission, duration of mechanical ventilation before onset of VAP, number of classes of antibiotic received, and previous exposure to imipenem or fluoroquinolone. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified the following significant independent factors: presence of an underlying fatal medical condition (odds ratio [OR], 5.6), previous fluoroquinolone use (OR, 4.6), and initial disease severity (OR, 0.8). We concluded that the clinical characteristics of patients who develop PRPA VAP differ from those of patients who develop PSPA VAP. Restricted fluoroquinolone use is the sole independent risk factor for PRPA VAP that is open to medical intervention.


Article history: Received March 6, 2014 Accepted 23 August 2014 Available online 15 October 2014 Leaf springs in vehicles are used to absorb, store and release energy. During this cycle stresses induced in the springs must not exceed design stress, in order to avoid settling or premature failure. Number of experiments are done in order to determine the stresses, load rate and deflection, which involves lot of time and cost. Today, the technologies in leaf springs are changing gradually; therefore new tools are required to keep aligned with worldwide technological requirements. The work presented in this paper provides a CAE solution to static analysis of 65Si7 leaf springs used in light commercial vehicles (LCV's). A practical model of leaf spring used in LCV has been taken into consideration for this study. It has been experimentally tested for deflection, stress and load rate on a full scale leaf spring testing machine. A static structural CAE analysis of leaf spring has been done under similar loading condition. The CAD model of the leaf spring has been prepared in solid works and analyzed using ANSYS. Using CAE tools, ideal type of contact and meshing elements have been proposed to achieve results closer to the experimental results. The analytical method for static analysis of the leaf springs has also been described. CAE results have been compared with experimental and analytical results for validation. © 2015 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


This thesis describes two signi cant research achievements. Part I describes the development of a novel System on Chip (SoC) hardware neural network simulator for diverse and biologically accurate neural network simulations. This work seeks to contribute to research in neuroscience which requires large and fast simulations of biological nervous systems. The presented embedded FPGA neural network simulator utilizes time-multiplexed hardware neuron models to simulate thousands of complex biological neurons on embedded hardware. A high level synthesis method has been developed to automatically convert high level neuron and synapse models to synthesizable VHDL hardware models and automatically implement and test the models on FPGA hardware. The accuracy of the converted models has been validated by comparison to reference software simulations. The state of the art in neural network simulations is presented. A new FPGA-based neural network simulation platform has been designed, implemented and veri ed. The high level synthesis method has also been implemented as part of the Si elegans platform which aims to simulate the nervous system of the Caenorhabditis elegans organism in FPGA hardware. Part II of this thesis examines the use of Ultra Wideband Radar as a bladder-state sensing technique for the potential application in urinary incontinence support. The research has explored and developed e cient and practical methods to simulate radar signal propagation in biological tissues. A genetic algorithm has been developed to t arbitrary tissue dielectric Debye models. This algorithm has been applied to all relevant tissues in the human pelvis, and has been used to provide a database of Debye tissue dielectric models for a large selection of human tissues. The thesis combines the tissue dielectric Debye models with anatomically accurate models of the human pelvis (one male and one female), derived from IT'IS Foundation Magnetic Resonance images. Electromagnetic simulations of UWB-radar passing through an anatomically-plausible bladder growth model have been performed, to acquire simulated bladder volume measurements. Two standard classi ers have been applied to the simulated UWB measurements. This work concludes that with su ciently high quality UWB measurement devices and minimal device movement classi cation of bladder volume using UWB radar is possible.


Research carried out in Cuba has led to the design and construction of automatic polarimeters that use the He‐Ne laser as a luminous source and work on a magnetooptic principle of measurement. Physical and chemical investigations including the use of the He‐Ne laser as a light source are discussed. The principle of measurement for the design and construction of polarimeters, resulting in three different types of these instruments, is described. Finally, applications for magnetooptic polarimetry are described, beginning with the use of simple path polarimetry in a gel chromatography detector which makes use of features of high‐sensitivity magnetooptic polarimetry and small‐dimension laser beams. Its use for urinary glucose, which saves both reagents and time compared to conventional techniques, is described. The use of laser polarimeters in sugarcane laboratories and in the control of the process of wine production is also described.


A ball bonding process in wire bonding generally involves impact followed by ultrasonic (US) bonding prior to wedge bonding. During the ball bonding process, the impact force flattening the free-air ball introduces significant localized out-of-plane compressive stress on the pad and the low-k structure beneath. The subsequent process of US bonding induces in-plane and shear stresses to the structure. High induced stress during bonding is not desirable, as it may lead to pad damage or cratering of the silicon structure. In this paper, we report on studies conducted on using four piezoresistive sensors embedded underneath the center of the bond pad for the evaluation of in-plane and out-of-plane stresses, which covers both the impact and US stages during the ball bonding process. Different levels of impact force, bond force, bonding duration, and US power are investigated using gold wire bonding for feasibility and sensitivity studies of the stress sensors. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) and inverse FFT are used for noise filtering and to isolate the US signal yielding a continuous output signal from the in situ measurement of contact and US stages during the ball bonding process. It is found that the stress sensors are sensible to capture different impact force, bond force, bonding duration, and US power.


This paper analyzes a disturbance observer with a focus on parameter variations. The parameter variations are the inertia variation and the variation of torque coefficient. Conventionally, their nominal values are designed not as control parameters but the same values as the actual ones. However, disturbance observer is able to include the effect of phase compensation by properly selecting the nominal model parameters. In this paper, these nominal model parameters are actively designed to achieve the phase compensation. This paper proposes the design method of observer to achieve phase compensation based on disturbance observer. Compared with implementing phase compensator, the control system is simple and easy to design. The selection of these parameters has some restriction. When the nominal model parameters are much separated from the actual ones, the stability of the control system deteriorates. This paper focuses on the inertia variation and neglects the variation of torque coefficient. Furthermore, the stability of position and force control systems is analyzed. The validity of the proposed design method and the effect of phase compensation are verified by some experimental results.


Cooper and Whyte (eds. 2017) outline the violent and isolating impact of austerity policies on increasing numbers of vulnerable people across the UK. The concerns outlined are reinforced by an increasing body of research, providing further evidence of the factual basis of the damning country report by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (2016). This undisseminated report listed 73 action points related to the planned replacement of the Human Rights Act with a diluted Bill of Rights against a backdrop of issues relating to poverty, food insecurity, rising homelessness, increasing insecure work contracts and diminution of workers' rights, lack of parity between mental and physical health in service planning, limited support for refugees and asylum seekers, limited childcare, removal of housing benefit to under 21s and failure to ensure payment of the minimum wage to under 25s causing poverty and homelessness, failure to regulate corporate tax and ensure income to support the population. In October 2016, in the aftermath of the BREXIT referendum, the EU Commission on Racism and Intolerance (2016) Report on the UK highlighted the role of press and politicians in normalizing overtly xenophobic and racist behavior.

Despite the increasingly compelling body of evidence, and an indictment of the policy focus delivered in the results of the 2016 General election, there are only the smallest of changes to national policy, and the people affected most 'denied recognition', (Honneth 1995), disconnected at a structural level, socially invisible, prey to stigma and disdain.

This paper represents an attempt to overcome that disconnect and link the hidden narratives of austerity across a city with those able to effect local change. It will more fully analyse the impact of, and responses to, austerity at a local level across one industrial northern city. Using established local professional networks, the paper will initially provide results from a research pilot recording the biographies of one group of those 'unseen' lives touched by austerity, and seek to reconnect those biographies with policy makers, and social change agents, at least at a local level. The aim of the pilot will be to trial approaches to supportive, research conversations which extend the concept of intersubjectivity to 'recognise' individual participants, and enable a 'forum of participation' (Delcroix & Inowlocki, 2007). In empowering people to co – produce local solutions to local issues, it is hoped that the research process will be a process of reconnection, rekindling a sense of control, ability to exercise influence over individual and community lives and, as a consequence, well being. The research design will seek to identify pressure points, points of disconnection and potential connection, points with the potential for support, (re) actualisation and change, with a view to helping identify specific issues and solutions.