Background Cryptococcal meningitis is a leading cause of HIV-related mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, however, screening for cryptococcal antigenemia has not been universally implemented. As a result, data concerning cryptococcal meningitis and antigenemia are sparse, and in Mozambique, the prevalence of both are unknown. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of routinely collected data from a point-of-care cryptococcal antigen screening program at a public hospital in Maputo, Mozambique. HIV-positive patients admitted to the emergency department underwent CD4 count testing; those with pre-defined abnormal vital signs or CD4 count ≤ 200 cells/μL received cryptococcal antigen testing and lumbar punctures if indicated. Patients with CM were admitted to the hospital and treated with liposomal amphotericin B and flucytosine; their 12-week outcomes were ascertained through review of medical records or telephone contact by program staff made in the routine course of service delivery. Results Among 1,795 patients screened for cryptococcal antigenemia between March 2018—March 2019, 134 (7.5%) were positive. Of patients with cryptococcal antigenemia, 96 (71.6%) were diagnosed with CM, representing 5.4% of all screened patients. Treatment outcomes were available for 87 CM patients: 24 patients (27.6%) died during induction treatment and 63 (72.4%) survived until discharge; of these, 38 (60.3%) remained in care, 9 (14.3%) died, and 16 (25.3%) were lost-to follow-up at 12 weeks. Conclusions We found a high prevalence of cryptococcal antigenemia and meningitis among patients screened at an emergency department in Maputo, Mozambique. High mortality during and after induction therapy demonstrate missed opportunities for earlier detection of cryptococcal antigenemia, even as point-of-care screening and rapid assessment in an emergency room offer potential to improve outcomes.


This study endogenously generates the asymmetric verification concept of conservatism, using evolutionary biology as a foundation. A producer produces (or hunts) a consumable with a stochastic production technology, and possibly faces a stealer thereafter, who seeks to expropriate the consumable. The producer, for fear of being perceived as weak, will never share her output with the stealer, but will launch an all-out fight. This all-or nothing gamble demonstrates the producer's convex utility in losses. On the other hand, the optimal choice in production (or hunting) indicates a concave preference in gains. These endogenously derived asymmetric risk-profiles towards gains and losses, when applied to choice theory, generate a demand for higher verifiability standards for probable gains than losses. The model then shows how this preference is modulated by various social and informational configurations of individuals. Our findings explain observed conservatism patterns in a variety of institutional settings.


Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of Cu pattern wafer based alkaline slurry in GLSI with R(NH2)n as complexing agent was investigated. In Cu CMP procedure, it is necessary to minimize the surface dishing and erosion while maintaining good planarity. This requirements are met through the complexing agents. Based on the reaction mechanism analysis of Cu in alkaline slurry with R(NH2)n as complexing agent in CMP, the performance of Cu dishing and erosion were discussed. The results showed that the slurry stability can be improved obviously by the addition of R(NH2)n as complexing agent, both Cu1 and Cu2 have good dishing and erosion performance. Furthermore, the dishing condition of Cu2 (180-230nm) is better than that of Cu1 (280-370nm), and the erosion condition of Cu2 (230-260nm) is also better than that of Cu1 (450-500nm).


This experiment tested the effects of expectations of future discussion (oriented toward either persuasion or understanding) and the presence (or absence) of non-news entertainment options on partisan selective exposure. Among Democrats but not Republicans, a non-news entertainment option reduced time spent watching other-party media. Republicans responded to expectations of understanding-oriented discussion by watching more own-party media, whereas Democrats responded by watching less ownparty media. These findings are important for isolating causal factors that lead to partisan selective exposure and may help suggest conditions under which this phenomenon could be reduced.


OBJECTIVES
This study examined variables associated with post-traumatic growth (PTG) in stroke carers and compared predictions of two models of PTG within this population: the model of Schaefer and Moos was compared to that of Tedeschi and Calhoun (1992, Personal coping: Theory, research, and application. Westport, CT: Praeger, 149; 1998, Posttraumatic growth: Positive changes in the aftermath of crisis. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 99; 2004, Psychol. Inq., 15, 1, respectively).

DESIGN
A cross-sectional survey design was employed.

METHODS
Carers of stroke survivors (N = 71) completed questionnaires measuring PTG, coping style, social support, survivor functioning, age, and carer quality of life. Correlation, multiple regression, and mediation analyses were used to test hypotheses.

RESULTS
All carers completing the PTG measure (N = 70) reported growth, but average scores differed from cancer carers (Chambers et al., 2012, Eur. J. Cancer Care, 21, 213; Thombre et al., 2010, J. Psychosocial Oncol., 28, 173). PTG was positively correlated with deliberate and intrusive rumination, avoidance coping, social support, and quality of life. Regression analysis showed that factors identified by Tedeschi and Calhoun (deliberate rumination, intrusive rumination, social support, acceptance coping, survivor functioning) accounted for 49% of variance in PTG, whereas those identified by Schaefer and Moos (active coping, avoidance coping, social support, survivor functioning, and age) accounted for only 21%. Rumination, especially deliberate rumination, explained most variance in PTG and mediated the effect of social support on PTG.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings add to the limited body of evidence suggesting that stroke carers experience growth. Deliberate rumination and social support are important in explaining growth, and the findings support the model proposed by Tedeschi and Calhoun over that of Schaefer and Moos.

STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION
What is already known on this subject? Literature on caring for stroke survivors focuses on negative outcomes (Ilse, Feys, de Wit, Putman, & de Weerdt, 2008) to the exclusion of positive outcomes such as post-traumatic growth (PTG; Calhoun & Tedeschi, 1999). Studies of a variety of health conditions have demonstrated that PTG occurs in patients and carers after illness events and is associated with well-being (Gangstad, Norman, & Barton, 2006; Helgeson, Reynolds, & Tomich, 2006; Kim, Schulz, & Carver, 2007). Exploratory studies and studies of benefit finding have shown that PTG occurs in stroke carers (Bacon, Milne, Sheikh, & Freeston, 2009; Buschenfeld, Morris, & Lockwood, 2009; Haley et al., 2009; Thompson, 1991), but there are no studies using standard instruments to assess PTG in this population. Moreover, current theories posit different explanations for PTG (Schaefer & Moos, 1992, 1998; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004), and there is a need for empirical tests (Park, 2010). What does this study add? This study extends knowledge by measuring PTG with a standard instrument in a sample of UK stroke carers and investigating associated variables. The study also compared the predictive power of the models of PTG proposed by Tedeschi and Calhoun (2004) and Schaefer and Moos (1992, 1998). PTG was found in UK stroke carers, but levels differed from cancer carers in other countries. Factors associated with PTG were identified; Tedeschi and Calhoun's model best predicted PTG. Deliberate rumination had a direct effect on PTG and also mediated the effect of social support. Deliberate rumination is a possible target for therapeutic interventions to enhance PTG.


ABSTRACT
 To provide information for public health policy on mosquito nets in the Amazon region of Colombia, we conducted landing catches to estimate Anopheles species composition and biting activity. Two hundred twenty person-nights of catches were done in seven locations over a period of 14 mo. A total of 1,780 Anopheles mosquitoes were caught (8.1 per person-night). Among the nine species found, An. oswaldoi Peryassú was the most common (776 mosquitoes, 44%), followed by An. darlingi Root s.l. (498, 28%). An. oswaldoi was the most common species collected outdoors, where its biting rate dropped steadily from a peak of >15 bites/person-night at the start of the night (1800–1900 hours) to ≈2 bites/person-night before dawn. An. darlingi was the most common species collected indoors, with a biting rate of ≈3–4 bites/person-night until about midnight, when the rate dropped below 1 bite/person-night, before showing a secondary peak before dawn. Sixty-four mosquito nets were analyzed by the technique of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for levels of deltamethrin (DM). Allbuttwo (62) of these were reported by their owners to have been impregnated with insecticide, and 53 were found by HPLC to have deltamethrin. However, one half (32) of the nets had concentrations <4 mg/m2 and therefore were likely to have been inadequately protective. An inverse association was found between the reported time between washes and deltamethrin concentration. These findings show a need for additional protection from mosquitoes when not inside nets, as well as for more effective impregnation, possibly through wash-resistant insecticide formulation.


This paper adopted explicit dynamics FEM software ANSYS/LS-DYNA and carried out the numerical simulation calculation of 9 roller horizontal straightening and 8 roller vertical straightening for 60 kg/m heavy rail with original curvature. The reductions of straightening rollers are taken as the main effective factor to the residual stress in the straightening regulation. It adopted orthogonal experimental method to obtain the main effective factors for straightness and residual stress. In the assurance of meeting the straightness, it obtained the regulation in which the residual stress is the smallest, so it makes the important theoretical and actual sense to formulate the rational straightening process and improve the straightening quality of rail.


The Privacy Act of 1974 was designed to protect personal privacy captured in the records held by government agencies. However, the scope of privacy protection has expanded in light of advances in technology, heightened security, ubiquitous threats, and the value of information. This environment has raised the expectations for public sector management of sensitive personal information and enhanced privacy protections. While the expanse of privacy policy implementation is broad, this study focuses specifically on how agencies implement privacy impact assessments (PIAs) as required under Section 208 of the E-Government Act of 2002. An enhanced understanding of the PIA implementation process serves as a portal into the strategic considerations and management challenges associated with broader privacy policy implementation efforts. A case study of how the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have implemented PIAs provides rich insights into privacy policy implementation and outcomes. Elite interviews enriched by process data and document analysis show how each organization undertook different approaches to PIA implementation over time. This study introduces the sociology of law literature using Lauren Edelman's conceptual framework to understand how organizations respond to and interpret law from within the organization, or endogenously. Building upon Edelman's model, certain characteristics of the PIA implementation are analyzed to provide rich description of the factors that influence the implementation process and lead to different policy outcomes. The findings reflect valuable insights into the privacy policy implementation process and introduce the sociology of law literature to the field of public administration. This literature furthers our understanding of how organizations enact policy over time, how the implementation process unfolds and is impacted by critical factors, and for identifying emergent patterns in organizations. This study furthers our understanding how privacy policy, in particular, is implemented over time by examining the administrative capacities and levels of professionalism that are utilized to accomplish this effort. This research comes at a critical time in the context of the emerging legal and political environment for privacy that is characterized by new expectations by the public and the expanding role of government to manage and protect sensitive information.


A chronic Rhodococcus equi metaphysitis involving the distal growth plate of the left third metatarsal bone had induced a longstanding lameness in a young foal. Abnormal hematologic values included mild anemia, hyperfibrinogemia, mild leukocytosis, and neutrophilia. Radiography of the distal portion of MT3 revealed a radiolucent zone on the medial aspect of the growth plate, and small pieces of bone suggestive of sequestra. Treatment with erythromycin estolate and rifampin, aggressive surgical debridement, and cancellous bone grafting helped resolve the bone infection.


In this paper, a current-to-voltage combiner is proposed to realize a highly linear, balanced noise-cancelling low-noise amplifier (LNA) capable of low-voltage operation. The current-to-voltage combiner, implemented in the load of the amplifier, converts the output currents of the parallel common-gate (CG) and common-source (CS) stages of the LNA to voltages, equalizes the amplitudes of the voltages, and combines the voltages to a single output voltage. Since only a CS stage and passive components are employed to cancel the noise and distortion due to the CG input impedance matching circuit, high linearity is achieved in spite of the low supply voltage of 1.2 V. The LNA achieves a noise figure (NF) of 3.0 dB at 2.1 GHz with an input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP3) of +10.5 dBm while consuming 10.5 mA from a 1.2-V supply. The amplifier is fabricated in 0.13-mum CMOS process.


IZA DP No. 14277 APRIL 2021 Effects of Measures of Teachers' Quality on Tertiary Education Attendance: Evaluation Tests versus Value Added* Using Chilean administrative datasets for the period 2011-2017, we study which of the most used tools to evaluate teacher quality, namely teachers' evaluation tests (TET) and teacher's value added (TVA), predicts more accurately not only short run (as most of the literature focus on) but also middle run students' outcomes. For this evaluation we follow the same cohorts of students and teachers. Our results suggest that the correlation between (TET) and (TVA) appears to be null in school outcomes. However, our analysis also reveals that both measures, TET and TVA, positively affect the probability of tertiary education attendance, indicating that both measures are complementary in measuring teacher quality in the middle run. These results have relevance from the public policy point of view as unlike countries (e.g. USA) where TVA is used for teacher's promotions and personnel decisions, in countries where TVA is not used for teacher's personnel decisions (e.g. Chile), TVA seems to be useful to measure teacher quality. Furthermore, our findings are consistent with the argument of the multidimensionality of teaching quality, because even though in the short run TVA and TET seem to be orthogonal, in the medium run they seem to be complementary tools to measure teacher effectiveness. JEL Classification: I20, I23, I26, I28


The taphonomic overprinting of diatom assemblages has been underemphasized in paleoecological studies. Subrecent ( ˂ 700 YBP) cohesive muds, interpreted on the basis of previous macrofloral and macrofaunal evidence as intertidal salt marsh deposits, are exposed on Middle Beach, St. Catherines Island, Georgia. Analysis of nine diatom-bearing sediment samples from a 1.2 meter section yielded a total of 79 species representing 34 planktic and benthic genera. Depth vs percentage plots for selected taxa yielded no clear-cut ecological zonation among the diatom assemblages. Diatoms from all samples display strong diagenetic and taphonomic overprinting. Delicate benthic taxa reported to be living in the marshes on Sapelo Island, to the south, are either absent, rare, or severely altered in the relict marsh muds of St. Catherines Island, most likely due to fragmentation and dissolution. As a result, the most abundant species, Cymatosira belgica , although rare in modern salt marsh environments, has been proportionally enriched. This species accounts for up to 75% of the diatom individuals in the upper third of the section and approximately 50% at greater depths. Fragmentation and dissolution can alter a salt marsh diatom assemblage so drastically that the end product does not even resemble the initial living flora. In the interpretation of temporal sequences of littoral diatoms, taphonomic intensity has to be considered in terms of possible selective removal of certain key taxa. Taphonomic processes can mask the original ecologic relationships that exist in 8 salt marsh flora, and result in proportional over-representation of resistant species (e.g. Cymatosira belgica ) confounding paleoecologic and paleogeographic reconstructions.


Curtis Bradley and Mitu Gulati's provocative article on "Withdrawing from International Custom," 120 Yale Law Journal (2010) (forthcoming), shines light onto a central yet under-analyzed issue of customary international law and brings to bear thought-provoking research and analysis. Ultimately, however, the proposal that states should be able to individually withdraw from international custom as they often can from treaties is unconvincing and concerning because (1) it is based on questionable analogies between custom, on the one hand, and treaties and contract law, on the other, and (2) when understood in its real world context, rather than in the academic laboratory, it has the potential to facilitate opportunistic and abusive claims that undermine the interests of the international community.


In experiments on the intracerebral inoculation of herpes virus, type I, into 38 CBA mice the phagocytic activity of peritoneal exudate, cells, spontaneous migration of leukocytes and their response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA), the activity of key enzymes of gluconeogenesis, lipid peroxidation in liver tissue, as well as the level of glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin in the blood, were determined simultaneously with the histological study of the brain and the main internal organs of the animals, receiving thymalin treatment and not receiving it. As demonstrated in these experiments, the development of experimental infection was accompanied by the inhibition of the phagocytic activity of peritoneal macrophages and response of leukocytes to PHA, as well as metabolic shifts in liver tissue. Treatment with thymalin produced a combined immunomodulating and metabolic effect.


"The system of labour market statistics in Australia is in need of reform. The principal measure of labour market performance, the unemployment rate, was developed in an era when the labour market was characterized by full-time male bread-winners. Over the last two decades, deregulation and structural change have transformed the labour market radically. Underemployment of part-time and casual workers is now a serious problem, as is the issue of overwork. Yet a proper understanding of these important trends is missing from public debate and policy-making because they are not captured in the official statistics. A single summary indicator cannot capture all of the dimensions of labour market. Rather than continue to attempt to place all Australians into one of three labour force categories and describe the performance of the labour market by dividing one category by another, this paper advocates a different approach. This would incorporate information on how many hours people would prefer to work as well as how many hours they do work. By asking respondents to the ABS's Labour Force Survey to state both the number of hours they worked and the number of hours they desired to work it is possible to measure the nature and extent of unemployment, underemployment and overwork simultaneously, and to do so much more accurately than is currently the case."


BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS
Surgical repair of paraesophageal hernia is mandatory, due to the risk of severe complications, and it can be accomplished via the laparoscopic route. This study presents the results of laparoscopic repair of paraesophageal hernia combined with anterior hemifundoplication.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
During a two-year period, ten consecutive patients with paraesophageal hernia (six men, four women; mean age 73, range 55-82) underwent laparoscopic treatment. Five patients presented with symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux, while another four reported lower chest pain. There was one patient in whom the paraesophageal hernia was manifested with upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Six patients had type III hiatal hernia. They all underwent esophagography, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, stationary manometry, and 24-hour ambulatory pH-metry, preoperatively and within three months postoperatively. At laparoscopy, the hernia content was completely reduced, the sac excised, and the diaphragmatic crura approximated. The operation was completed with an anterior hemifundoplication. In three cases, a prosthetic mesh was applied to close the hiatal defect securely.

RESULTS
Operating times ranged from 75 min to 125 min (mean 90 min). There were no postoperative deaths. One patient developed atelectasis, and another had empyema of the left pleura, treated with drainage and antibiotics. All patients but one were discharged on the second or third postoperative day. At the three-month follow-up examination, none of the patients had symptoms related to the paraesophageal hernia, gastroesophageal reflux, or fundoplication. Esophagography demonstrated restoration of normal anatomy at the gastroesophageal region, while esophageal motility was improved, and esophageal pH-metry showed no gastroesophageal reflux.

CONCLUSION
Laparoscopic repair of paraesophageal hernias is a safe, technically feasible, and well tolerated procedure, which offers rapid and total relief of symptoms. The addition of an anterior hemifundoplication not only cures preexisting gastroesophageal reflux, but also prevents the development of postoperative gastroesophageal reflux.


Zoysiagrass (Zoysia sp.) is extensively used in turf establishment and livestock herbage due to its many outstanding characters. Native Zoysia sp. are widely distributed in China. Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used to investigate the genetic diversity and genetic relationships of 81 Chinese wild zoysiagrass accessions and three commercial cultivars. The results show that 33 ISSR primers produced 388 clear bands, among which 375 were polymorphic. The genetic similarity coefficients (GSCs) among 84 zoysiagrass accessions or cultivars ranged from 0.644 to 0.866 with an average of 0.751. The GSCs within species were significantly higher than that among species. Cluster analysis using an unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) method showed that the 84 zoysiagrass accessions could be classified into 10 major groups. Accessions from similar geographic regions were generally clustered together, which indicated a correlation between molecular groupings and the geographical origin. The investigation demonstrated the genetic diversity of different germplasm, and that ISSR markers are an effective tool for the study of genetic variation in zoysiagrass.


Port of Brisbane (PBPL) is developing the new AUD$177 million Brisbane International Cruise Terminal (BICT) located at Luggage Point at the mouth of the Brisbane River. The project has successfully progressed through the detailed design phase, and construction is currently underway. BICT will be the first purpose-built megacruise ship terminal in Australia when it opens in 2020. It will cater for cruise vessels of all sizes including the world's largest ocean-going ships and will function as both a base port and port of call facility. The planning and design of an international cruise terminal requires a fully integrated multi-disciplinary approach. There are a number of inter-dependencies from different disciplines based on a number of variables. This presentation will explore how the terminal masterplan was developed to address the key site constraints and how significant challenges for the marine design were overcome.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/qIC3aL0FqYg


We propose a semi-formal specification of the elicitation conditions and prototypical coping strategies for three of the moral emotions: anger, contempt and disgust. We utilize existing psychological theories - appraisal theories of emotion and the CAD triad hypothesis - and incorporate them into a unified framework. Key features of the approach, such as its dynamic and epistemic natures, allow for modeling qualitative, quantitative and dynamic aspects of the moral emotions. We show that successful conceptualization is not only possible, but can shed light on the rationality behind moral emotions, as well as their importance to building socially aware agents.


Patients with autistic disorders (AD) exhibit irritability, aggression, deliberate self-injury, and tantrums, which often exacerbate social and communication problems and impair family life and/or school adjustments. Risperidone and aripiprazole have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating irritability in children and adolescents with AD. The efficacy of other second-generation antipsychotics (SGA), such as quetiapine and olanzapine, for AD-associated irritability have been demonstrated in open-label trials. However, no study has yet evaluated the effectiveness and safety of blonanserin (BNS) for treating irritability in patients with AD in Japan. In this case report, we describe an AD patient who exhibited irritability while on standard antipsychotics that was improved by BNS. BNS may be effective and safe for treating AD-associated irritability. Further large-scale controlled studies will be needed to confirm our findings.


This work combines black business and civil rights history to explain how economic concerns shaped the goals and objectives of the black freedom struggle. Brandon K. Winford examines the "black business activism" of banker and civil rights lawyer John Hervey Wheeler (1908–1978). Born on the campus of Kittrell College in Vance County, North Carolina, he came of age in Jim Crow Atlanta, Georgia, where his father became an executive with the world-renowned North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (NC Mutual). As president of Mechanics and Farmers Bank (M&F Bank), located on Durham's "Black Wall Street," Wheeler became the Tar Heel State's most influential black power broker and among the top civil rights figures in the South.
Winford places Wheeler at the center of his narrative to understand how black business leaders tackled civil rights while continuously pointing to the economy's larger significance for the success and advancement of the postwar New South. In this way, Wheeler articulated a bold vision of regional prosperity, grounded in full citizenship and economic power for black people. He reminded the white South that its future was inextricably linked to the plight of black southerners. He spent his entire career trying to fulfill these ideals through his institutional and organizational affiliations, as part and parcel of his civil rights agenda.
Winford draws on previously unexamined primary and secondary sources, including newspapers, business records, FBI reports, personal papers, financial statements, presidential files, legal documents, oral histories, and organizational and institutional records.


This paper presents the arguments in favor of government intervention in financing and regulation of health in Brazil. It describes the organizational arrangement of the Brazilian health system, for the purpose of reflection on the austerity agenda proposed for the country. Based on the literature in health economics, it discusses the hypothesis that the health sector in Brazil functions under the dominance of the private sector. The categories employed for analysis are those of the national health spending figures. An international comparison of indicators of health expenses shows that Brazilian public spending is a low proportion of total spending on Brazilian health. Expenditure on individuals' health by out-of-pocket payments is high, and this works against equitability. The private health services sector plays a crucial role in provision, and financing. Contrary to the belief put forward by the austerity agenda, public expenditure cannot be constrained because the government has failed in adequate provision of services to the poor. This paper argues that, since the Constitution did not veto activity by the private sector segment of the market, those interests that have the greatest capacity to vocalize have been successful in imposing their preferences in the configuration of the sector.


Water, energy, and agriculture have been conventionally dealt with separately in investment planning. For each of these sectors, regulatory frameworks, organizations, and infrastructures have been put in place to address sector-specific challenges and demands. As the Middle East and North Africa works towards building a more sustainable future, a nexus approach that considers the risks and synergies among these sectors is needed. To demonstrate the added value of a nexus approach, this report applies scenario analysis and integrated assessment modelling of the water-energy-food nexus to the Middle East and North Africa. The analysis finds that water scarcity increases in all countries in the region over the coming decades, mostly due to growing demands. More importantly, the analysis finds that many countries in the region could run out of fossil groundwater by 2050 unless measures to curb unsustainable abstraction are implemented. The impacts of growing scarcity on agriculture are significant, with production projected to drop by 60 by 2050 in some countries. On the upside, reducing the dependence of the agricultural and energy sectors on water and transitioning to renewable energies can reduce water scarcity, at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This report is targeted to policy makers, the academic community, and a wider global audience interested in exploring the interactions between water, agriculture, and energy.


Twitter is one of the most popular and well known micro blogging platforms. Its usage in all walks of life as a short message service makes it a highly valuable and trendy asset of today's web. But the knowledge and content delivered by Twitter explicitly or implicitly as short messages remains mostly unstructured and hidden for machine usage. In this paper, we have addressed the aforementioned problems by using the Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies. We explore an integrated approach by building a proof of concept framework, which uses Semantic Web technologies to triplify and link the unstructured content of tweets with Linked Data clouds as structured data. We are of the view that this proof of concept framework will be helpful in investigation of case studies like opinion mining, trend analysis in various settings and more importantly will bring the Social Web closer to the Semantic Web. In future we will extend our proposed framework in the domain of terrorism informatics.


This paper studies the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on industrial agglomeration. Using the differential effects of FDI deregulation in 2002 in China on different industries, we find that FDI actually affects industrial agglomeration negatively. This result is somewhat counter-intuitive, as the conventional wisdom tends to suggest that FDI attracts domestic firms to cluster for various agglomeration benefits, in particular technology spillovers. To reconcile our empirical findings and the conventional wisdom, we develop a theory of FDI and agglomeration based on two counter-veiling forces. Technology diffusion from FDI attracts domestic firms to cluster, but fiercer competition drives firms away. Which force dominates depends on the scale of the economy. When the economy is sufficiently large, FDI discourages agglomeration. We find various evidence on this competition mechanism.


Kernels for structured data are rapidly becoming an essential part of the machine learning toolbox. Graph kernels provide similarity measures for complex relational objects, such as molecules and enzymes. Graph kernels based on walks are popular due their fast computation but their predictive performance is often not satisfactory, while kernels based on subgraphs suffer from high computational cost and are limited to small substructures. Kernels based on paths offer a promising middle ground between these two extremes. However, the computation of path kernels has so far been assumed computationally too challenging. In this paper we introduce an effective method for computing path based kernels; we employ a Burrows-Wheeler transform based compressed path index for fast and space-efficient enumeration of paths. Unlike many kernel algorithms the index representation retains fast access to individual features. In our experiments with chemical reaction graphs, path based kernels surpass state-of-the-art graph kernels in prediction accuracy.


A common structural feature of natural communities is the non-random distribution of pairwise interactions between organisms of different trophic levels. For plant-animal interactions, it is predicted that both stochastic processes and functional plant traits that facilitate or prevent interactions are responsible for these patterns. However, unbiased manipulative field experiments that rigorously test the effects of individual traits on community structure are lacking. We address this gap by manipulating floral scent bouquets in the field. Manipulation of floral scent bouquets led to quantitative as well as qualitative restructuring of flower-visitor networks, making them more generalized. Olfactometer trials confirmed both positive and negative responses to scent bouquets. Our results clearly show that the distribution of insect visitors to the two abundant study plant species reflects the insects' species-specific preferences for floral scents, rather than for visual or morphological floral traits. Thus, floral scents may be of major importance in partitioning flower-visitor interactions. Integrating experimental manipulations of plant traits with field observations of interaction patterns thus represents a promising approach for revealing the processes that structure species assemblages in natural communities.


Stimulated emission depletion (STED) in confocal fluorescence microscopy enables a visualization of biological structures within cells far below the optical diffraction limit. To meet the demand in the field for simultaneous investigations of multiple species within a cell, a couple of different STED techniques have been proposed, each with their own challenges. By systemically exploiting spectral differences in the absorption of fluorescent labels, we present a novel, beneficial approach to multispecies STED nanoscopy. By using three excitation wavelengths in nanosecond pulsed interleaved excitation (PIE) mode, we probe quasi simultaneously multiple species with fluorescent labels having absorption maxima as close as 13 nm. The acquired image is decomposed into its single species contributions by application of a linear unmixing algorithm based on present reference patterns. For multispecies images containing single species regions, we introduce the image correlation map (ICM). Here, the single species regions easily can be identified in order to generate the necessary single species reference patterns. This avoids the otherwise cumbersome and artifact prone preparation and recording of additional reference samples. The power of the proposed imaging scheme persists in species separation quality at high speed shown for up to three species with established reference samples and dyes commonly used for cellular STED imaging.


Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a campaign by the government of India that aims to make it as a best and clean country of the world. With expansion of Internet of Things(IoT), devices such as Smartphones& sensors, we present a solution about the Smartbin is a network of dustbins which integrates the idea of IoT with wireless Sensor Network. It is possible to collect large amount of garbage. In the metropolitan cities it is not possible to check each and every place where the garbage dump yard is full or not. So these dustbins are interfaced with microcontroller based systems having sensors system. In this approach the sensors are placed in the dustbins that are located in the public areas, to sense the level of garbage in the dustbins. When the garbage reaches the threshold limit, the status of the dustbin is updated and this status is concerned by the authorities. Then the authority will give an indication to the concerned person by sending SMS using GSM technology. The webpage created shows the collection of waste and the particular date and arrival time of the vehicle. The main motto of the system is to avoid overflowing and stinking dustbins. The presented solution provides calculation of more efficient garbage truck routes. As an output, we manage the waste in different type of box using automation. The system detect the wet and dry waste and also separate it by automatically. Index termInternet of Things (IoT), Android application, Sensors, Raspberry Pi, Wireless Sensor Network.


Abstract. River systems that support high biodiversity profiles are conservation priorities world-wide. Understanding river eco-system thresholds to low flow conditions is important for the conservation of these systems. While climatic variations are likely to impact the streamflow variability of many river courses into the future, understanding specific river flow dynamics with regard to streamflow variability and aquifer baseflow contributions are central to the implementation of protection strategies. While streamflow is a measurable quantity, baseflow has to be estimated or calculated through the incorporation of hydrogeological variables. In this study, the groundwater components within the J2000 rainfall/runoff model were distributed to provide daily baseflow and streamflow estimates needed for ecological reserve determination. The modelling approach was applied to the RAMSAR-listed Verlorenvlei estuarine lake system on the west coast of South Africa which is under threat due to agricultural expansion and climatic fluctuations. The sub-catchment consists of four main tributaries, the Krom Antonies, Hol, Bergvallei and Kruismans. Of these, the Krom Antonies tributary was initially presumed the largest baseflow contributor, but was shown to have significant streamflow variability, attributed to the highly conductive nature of the Table Mountain Group sandstones and quaternary sediments. The Bergvallei tributary was instead identified as the major contributor of baseflow. The Hol tributary was the least susceptible to streamflow fluctuations due to the higher baseflow proportion (56 %), as well as the dominance of less conductive Malmesbury shales which underlie this tributary. The estimated flow exceedance probabilities indicated that during the wet cycle (2007–2017) the average inflow supported the evaporative demands if the lake was at 40 % capacity, while during the dry cycle (1997–2008), only 15 % of the lake's capacity would be met. The exceedance probabilities estimated in this study suggest that inflows from the four main tributaries are not enough to support the lake during dry cycles, with the evaporation demand of the entire lake being met only 38 % of the time. This study highlighted the importance of low occurrence events for filling up the lake, allowing for regeneration of lake supported ecosystems. While the increased length of dry cycles are likely to result in the lake drying up more frequently, it is important to ensure that water resources are not overallocated during wet cycles, hindering ecosystem regeneration and prolonging the length of these dry cycle conditions.


The Process-Variation (PV) effect is a major reliability concern in semiconductor industry as the technology node continues shrinking. As the crucial component in modern processors, cache is vulnerable to PV-induced timing-errors due to its large scale while low logic path depth. To tolerate this timing-error in cache, asymmetric pipelining has been employed, which has low implementation costs while induces unnecessary latency overhead thus degrades the performance of the whole processor. In this paper, we proposes a novel approach to apply variable latency in L1 cache access thus significantly reduce the performance overhead in tolerating the PV-induced timing-errors. Our results show that the performance loss of our approach on processors with low, medium and high error_rate L1 cache is 0.1%, 1.5% and 3.5%, respectively. While the area and power overhead of our approach is 3.1% and 2.8%.


INTRODUCTION
A number of different theoretical approaches to understanding the etiology of ejaculatory dysfunction have been proposed, but no behavior genetic study has yet, to our knowledge, been conducted to explore the genetic and environmental influences on ejaculatory dysfunction.

AIM
The aim of the present study was to explore the genetic and environmental effects on premature (PE) and delayed (DE) ejaculation in a population-based sample.

METHODS
The genetic and environmental influences on PE and DE were investigated in a population-based sample of 1,196 Finnish male twins, age 33-43 years, with 91 identical and 110 complete twin pairs. Several different aspects of ejaculatory function were measured by a self-report questionnaire (e.g., latency time, subjective experience of ejaculatory control). Factor analyses distinguished two subcomponents of ejaculatory function, and subsequently, composite variables measuring PE and DE were created. Structural equation modeling was performed on the composite variables.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Measurement of genetic and environmental effects on PE and DE.

RESULTS
The results suggested moderate genetic influence (28%) on PE, but not on DE (0%). There was a moderate familial effect on DE with shared environmental effects accounting for 24% of the variance. However, omission of the shared environmental component did not directly result in a significantly decreased model fit for DE, and omission of the additive genetic component did not directly result in a significantly decreased fit for the PE model.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings from the present study provide useful information regarding the etiology and understanding of ejaculatory dysfunction.


Open-top chambers (OTCs) were used to investigate the mechanism of antioxidant enzymes to eliminate reactive oxygen species (ROS) of plants under troposphere O3 stress. The results indicated that, compared to control, the O3 concentration of 80±10 nL·L-1 and 110±10 nL·L-1 induced an increase on malondialdehyde (MDA) content and a decrease on superoxide anion (O2)production rate and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content during the whole growth stage. Simultaneity, it showed a trend of increasing in earlier stage and decreasing in later stage of the activities of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) and glutathione reductase (GR), while the dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) activity was increased in earlier period, decreased in middle periods and then increased in later period compared to control, respectively. The results show that elevated O3 concentration accelerates ROS metabolism rates, reduces the efficiency of antioxidant enzymes that can not tolerate oxidative damage caused by elevated O3 concentration, which represents injured affects to soybean.


We studied the effect of attention on the processing of auditory sensory inputs by means of the mismatch negativity (MMN) potential, which can be derived from event-related EEG. A series of frequent standard and rare deviant auditory stimuli were presented to 20 healthy subjects in two recording sessions about five weeks apart. Deviant stimuli were either low or highly deviant as compared to the standard stimulus. While MMN was recorded, subjects were performing a visual and, subsequently, an auditory discrimination task. Directing attention towards the auditory task was associated with increased MMN amplitude only in response to low deviant stimuli and only in the first recording session. No change of MMN amplitude was found when directing attention towards the visual task or when MMN was recorded in response to highly deviant auditory stimuli. The latter may trigger an involuntary switch of attention, thereby overwriting the effect of task-directed attention. Conversely, the effects of attention on the processing of low deviant stimuli appear to be fragile and diminish with increasing automaticity of task execution.


Nitric oxide (NO) is a potent signaling molecule that needs to be tightly regulated to maintain metabolic and cardiovascular homeostasis. The nitric oxide synthase (NOS)/dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH)/asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) pathway is central to this regulation. Specifically, the small-molecule ADMA competitively inhibits NOS, thus lowering NO levels. The majority of ADMA is physiologically metabolized by DDAH, thus maintaining NO levels at a physiological concentration. However, under pathophysiological conditions, DDAH activity is impaired, in part as a result of its sensitivity to oxidative stress. Therefore, the application of high-throughput chemical screening for the discovery of small molecules that could restore or enhance DDAH activity might have significant potential in treating metabolic and vascular diseases characterized by reduced NO levels, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, and insulin resistance. By contrast, excessive generation of NO (primarily driven by inducible NOS) could play a role in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, sepsis, migraine headaches, and some types of cancer. In these conditions, small molecules that inhibit DDAH activity might be therapeutically useful. Here, we describe optimization and validation of a highly reproducible and robust assay successfully used in a high-throughput screen for DDAH modulators.


Online virtual globe applications such as Google Earth and Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and Yahoo! Maps, allow users to explore realistic models of the Earth. To provide the ground-level detail of interest to users, it is necessary to serve and render high resolution images. For planetary coverage at high resolution, a very large number of images need to be acquired, stored, and transmitted, with consequent high costs and difficulty for the application provider, often resulting in lower than expected performance. In this work we propose a supplementary approach to render appropriate visual information in these applications. Using super-resolution techniques based on the combination and extension of known texture transfer and synthesis algorithms, we develop a system to efficiently synthesize fine detail consistent with the textures served. This approach dramatically reduces the operational cost of virtual globe displays, which are among the most image-intensive applications on the Internet, while at the same time improving their appearance. The proposed framework is fast and preserves the coherence between corresponding images at different resolutions, allowing consistent and responsive interactive zooming and panning operations. The framework is capable of adapting a library of multiscale textures to pre-segmented regions in the highest-resolution texture maps available. We also describe a simple interface to obtain class label information from contributing users. The presentation of the constituent techniques is complemented with examples simulating our framework embedded in Google Earth.


Raising the sanction will always reduce the utility of the criminal. However, raising the sanction will not always lead to less crime, and may lead to more crime. If a criminal has the opportunity to commit multiple criminal acts and has fixed and variable costs of committing these acts, then an increase in the criminal sanction, over a certain range of sanctions, may actually lead the criminal to commit more crime. The reason is that as the sanction is increased, the criminal may increase his expenditures on fixed costs, which may decrease his variable costs of committing a criminal act. Once the criminal pays his fixed costs, they will be sunk costs, and thus they will no longer enter into the criminal's decision process of committing criminal acts. But the variable cost of crime will enter into the criminal's decision process. If raising the sanction leads to decreasing variable costs of crime then raising the sanction may actually lead to more crime. The example of the criminal's decision to purchase a radar detector and to speed is used to illustrate the point.


ABSTRACT Remains of a bat, Australonycteris clarkae, gen. et sp. nov., are reported from freshwater clays radiometrically dated at 54.6 million years old in southeastern Queensland, Australia. It is the oldest bat yet recorded for the Southern Hemisphere and one of the world's oldest. Previously, the earliest records for bats came from the Northern Hemisphere and were of Sparnacian age in Europe, Wasatchian in North America, and late early Eocene in North Africa. The North American Wyonycteris chalix, originally described as a latest Paleocene bat and as such the world's oldest, is re-examined. Its lack of key bat synapomorphies and overall morphology do not support the claim that it is a bat. Early bats probably entered Australia via Asia rather than South America, although their appearance in Australia predates the final breakup of Gondwana. The Australian fossils described here (a lower molar, upper premolar, edentulous dentary fragment, and part of a periotic) may corroborate the hypothesis that moder...


The "high index" response of the northeast Pacific westerlies to big positive anomalies of equatorial sea temperature, observed in the winter of 1957-58, has been found to repeat during the major equatorial sea temperature maxima in the winters of 1963-64 and 1965-66. The 1963 positive temperature anomaly started early enough to exert the analogous effect on the atmosphere of the south Indian Ocean during its winter season. The maxima of the sea temperature in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific occur as a result of anomalous weakening of the trade winds of the Southern Hemisphere with inherent weakening of the equatorial upwelling. These anomalies are shown to b-e closely tied to the "Southern Oscillation" of Sir Gilbert Walker.


The identification of mixtures of fatty acids from biological materials is possible by electron impact ionization mass spectra of methyl esters after their capillary gas chromatographic separation. Mass spectra of pyrrolidine derivatives are used for the determination of double bond positions in unsaturated fatty acids. 97 different fatty acids (saturated, unsaturated, branched, cyclic, hydroxy, oxo, epoxy and methoxy) and other compounds (alkanes, halogens, phthalates, ketones, aldehydes) were identified in yeast and bacterial biomasses, lipid-containing animal tissues and human sera as well as fish and plant oils (77 preparations).


N-acylphosphatidylethanolamines are a class of phospholipids present at low concentrations in cellular membranes1. They have been studied as fatty-acid ethanolamine (FAEs) precursors, given FAEs bioactive effects such as control of inflammation2, pain sensation and neuroprotection3 as well as control of food intake4.
However, NAPEs may also have biological functions of their own: they might participate in the control of membrane fluidics5, organization of lipid raft5, arrangement of cell division site domains7 and protein anchorage.
Evidence indicates that NAPEs are produced in the brain following injurious stimuli of diverse nature.
In this context, we have recently observed that this lipid molecules are increased following the administration of the neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine in mice13, a widely used model of Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease is a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by the loss of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons14, which results in an impairment of the control of voluntary movements, leading to a motor symptomatology.
Parkinson's disease represents a substantial burden for public health. Unfortunately to date no therapies have been developed to cure neurodegenerative disease. Thus, there is the need to understand in greater depth Parkinson's disease pathophysiology and to further develop new therapeutic approaches for this condition.
The aim of the present work was to elucidate whether and how NAPE production is involved in the neurodegenerative process.
Using a combination of genetic, pharmacological and behavioral techniques, I showed that locally produced NAPEs exert protective effects against 6-OHDA-induced toxicity by regulating the expression and activity of LRRK2, a multifunctional protein that is known to be involved in both familial and sporadic Parkinson's.
The evidence collected in my experiments may thus provide a starting point for the development of new therapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative disease, as well as for the identification of biological markers useful in the early detection of these pathological diseases.


Our objective was to determine the prevalence and identify the factors that influence antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence among patients in Bamako and Ouagadougou. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 94 men and 176 women receiving ART. Data were collected through questionnaires and chart reviews. Logistic regressions were performed to isolate determinants of adherence. Overall, 58% of the patients were adherent, but there were differences in the levels of adherence according to country and treatment site. Sociodemographic factors were not associated with adherence. However, social characteristics such as having children, in Ouagadougou, or being a housewife and not planning to have a child in the next year, in Bamako were associated with adherence. Time on ART was negatively associated with adherence in both countries with decline occurring later in Bamako. Levels of adherence are inadequate particularly among more experienced patients. Further adherence research and monitoring using longitudinal designs are warranted to assess the extent to which adherence is declining with time on treatment.


Abstract Raptors are long-lived apex predators with a lower rate of breeding success than smaller birds. Therefore, their responses to the construction of wind farms must be documented to assess the impact of wind energy on birds. We estimated the home ranges of three pairs of Mountain Hawk-Eagle Nisaetus nipalensis orientalis before, during, and after construction of a wind energy facility to assess changes in home range. We also compared altitude, inclination, and land cover composition of habitats within home ranges during the construction phase. For one pair, the home range of which included wind farm construction, the distance from the home range to the construction area during the first year of construction increased significantly compared with that during pre-construction, but there was no significant difference between the post-construction and construction phase. It is thought that the construction of a wind farm within the home range caused the displacement, and that displacement began during the first phase of construction and continuing during the second phase and afterwards. Because the birds moved about 500 m away from the wind farm during the construction and post-construction phases but succeeded in breeding, we think that the distance of 500 m may be meaningful in terms of mitigating disturbance. The nest trees of all three successful breeding pairs were more than 1.3 km from the closest wind turbine, perhaps indicative that impact on breeding is light if construction takes place this far away from breeding sites. No significant differences in either land cover or inclination within home ranges were found during the construction phase, which might explain why all birds bred successfully during the second construction phase. After construction, all three pairs continued to use areas with similar habitat.


Abstract Subject and purpose of work: The present paper assesses the loan utilisation and repayment behaviour of loanee or indebted farmers in Haryana, India. Materials and methods: The study was conducted in Haryana state. The study is based on primary data that have been collected through schedules from a sample of 600 indebted farmers. Proportionate sampling was employed. Further, a percentage is used for data analysis. Results: The study found that about half of the loan amount was utilised by farmers in nonproductive activities that directly stimulate the debt burden on them, because this type of expenditure did not contribute to the earnings of farmers. Further, around two-fifth of the farmers were regularly repaying their loans, one fifth were defaulters and remaining two-fifth were paying their loan irregularly. Overall, Farmers' repayment behaviour is not satisfactory. Conclusions: The non-productive usage of the loan amount is one of the main causes of their indebtedness. Reducing such expenditure is one of the main challenges for farmers without generating other sources of income.


From the Publisher:
Most managers realize that information is among their company's most important assets. However, many don't know how to leverage their investments in information technology. Often, says Jerry N. Luftman, companies rush to acquire state-of-the-art systems without considering their long-term impact. For example, in the 1980s, retail banks invested heavily in ATMs--until ATMs ceased to be a competitive advantage and became merely another (and increasingly expensive) cost of doing business. Stemming from IBM's highly regarded Consulting Group, combining the expertise of consultants and leading academics, Competing in the Information Age shows managers how to avoid being blindsided by information technology. It outlines how to match information systems with business strategy to forge a strong competitive edge and bring powerful solutions to bear on real-world problems.


Abstract Objectives: While studies have looked into the effects of Maitland mobilization on symptom relief, to date, no work has specifically looked at the effects of Mulligan mobilization. The objective of this work was to compare the effectiveness of Maitland and Mulligan's mobilization and exercises on pain response, range of motion (ROM) and functional ability in patients with mechanical neck pain. Methods: A total sample of 60 subjects (21–45 years of age) with complaints of insidious onset of mechanical pain that has lasted for less than 12 weeks and reduced ROM were randomly assigned to: group I – Maitland mobilization and exercises; group – II Mulligan mobilization and exercises; and group-III exercises only, and assessed for dependent variables by a blinded examiner. Results: Post measurement readings revealed statistical significance with time (p < 0.00) and no significance between groups (p > 0.05) indicating no group is superior to another after treatment and at follow-up. The effect sizes between the treatment groups were small. Conclusion: Our results showed that manual therapy interventions were no better than supervised exercises in reducing pain, improving ROM and neck disability.


Sun-valley of Expo-axis is irregular large-span steel structure building. For the complicacy and specialty of tubular joint conformation, existing domestic and oversea professional software are incapable of solving the detailing work of this structure. Characteristics, difficulties and function requirements of the engineering are analyzed; the framework, data structure kernel and implement algorithm of important functions are designed for a specialized integrated detailing/manufacture CAD/CAM information system. This software comprises the functions from 3D solid modeling to automatic output of shop drawing and NC data, and it has been successfully applied to the actual construction work of sun-valley project.


We present the first fully dynamic algorithm for maintaining all pairs shortest paths in directed graphs with real-valued edge weights. Given a dynamic directed graph G such that each edge can assume at most S different real values, we show how to support updates deterministically in O(S/spl middot/n/sup 2.5/log/sup 3/n) amortized time and queries in optimal worst-case time. No previous fully dynamic algorithm was known for this problem. In the special case where edge weights can only be increased, we give a randomized algorithm with one-sided error which supports updates faster in O(S/spl middot/nlog/sup 3/n) amortized time.


The antibacterial reaction rate kt (CFU/g-hr) and total antibacterial capacity qT (CFU/g) were calculated to evaluate the performance of antibacterial Ag-zeolite (AgZ) with a series of experiments. The continuous antibacterial reactions at 10 and 80 hr were respectively repeated nine times to evaluate the AgZ antibacterial ability. An antibacterial system was conducted in a fixed bed reactor packed with AgZ to reduce bacterium and fungus counts in the indoor environment. The AgZ used in this study was prepared in two steps including Y-type zeolites synthesis and Ag ion-exchange. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) were carried out to identify the characteristic of AgZ. The results demonstrated that the antibacterial efficiencies of 1, 2 and 3 wt% AgZ against bacterium and the fungus were all higher than 95% after 120 min of operation, and 1 wt% AgZ was considered to be more cost-effective since its antibacterial efficiency could approach 90% in less than 60 min. The 1 wt% AgZ had excellent performance repeated usage up to nine times.


Constructing the ordered catalyst layer is one of the most effective strategies to maximize the catalyst utilization in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). To gain insight into the mass and charge transports in ordered catalyst layer, herein, a two-dimensional two-phase mass-transport model involving Knudsen diffusion was proposed. It is found that the simulation results of the model with Knudsen diffusion are more consistent with the experimental results than that of the model without Knudsen diffusion. It has been demonstrated that higher porosity near the oxygen diffusion layer facilitates the oxygen transport, and the optimal porosity is obtained by balancing mass and charge transport resistances in the ordered catalyst layer. In contrast, higher catalyst loading near membrane improves the cell performance significantly. The highest peak power density of 56.5 mW/cm2 is achieved, when the catalyst loading of the outer and inner layer is 0.15 mg/cm2 and 0.85 mg/cm2, respectively.


Dynamic renormalization-group (RG) methods were originally used by Forster, Nelson, and Stephen (FNS) to study the large-scale behavior of randomly stirred incompressible fluids governed by the Navier-Stokes equations. Similar calculations using a variety of methods have been performed but have led to a discrepancy in results. In this paper, we carefully reexamine in d dimensions the approaches used to calculate the renormalized viscosity increment and, by including an additional constraint which is neglected in many procedures, conclude that the original result of FNS is correct. By explicitly using step functions to control the domain of integration, we calculate a nonzero correction caused by boundary terms which cannot be ignored. We then go on to analyze how the noise renormalization, which is absent in many approaches, contributes an O(k(2)) correction to the force autocorrelation and show conditions for this to be taken as a renormalization of the noise coefficient. Following this, we discuss the applicability of this RG procedure to the calculation of the inertial range properties of fluid turbulence.


Background and Purpose— NXY-059 is a free radical-trapping neuroprotectant demonstrated to reduce disability from ischemic stroke. We conducted analyses on additional end points and sensitivity analyses to confirm our findings. Methods— We randomized 1722 patients with acute ischemic stroke to a 72-hour infusion of placebo or intravenous NXY-059 within 6 hours of stroke onset. The primary outcome was disability at 90 days, as measured by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS), a 6-point scale ranging from 0 (no residual symptoms) to 5 (bed-bound, requiring constant care). Additional and exploratory analyses included mRS at 7 and 30 days; subgroup interactions with final mRS; assessments of activities of daily living by Barthel index; and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) neurological scores at 7 and 90 days. Results— NXY-059 significantly improved the distribution of the mRS disability score compared with placebo at 7, 30, and 90 days (Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test P=0.002, 0.004, 0.038, respectively; 90-day common odds ratio 1.20; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.42). The benefit was not attributable to any specific baseline characteristic, stratification variable or subgroup interaction. Neurological scores were improved at 7 days (odds ratio [OR], 1.46; 95% CI, 1.13, 1.89; P=0.003) and the Barthel index was improved at 7 and 30 days (OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.22, 1.98; P<0.0001; OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.01, 1.59; P=0.02). Conclusions— NXY-059 within 6 hours of acute ischemic stroke significantly reduced disability. Benefit on neurological scores and activities of daily living was detectable early but not significant at 90 days; however, our trial was underpowered to measure effects on the neurological examination. The benefit on disability is not confounded by interactions and is supported by other outcome measures.


This paper addresses community participation issues in the sanitation sector. A brief introduction is provided, including a historical explanation of the origins of participation in sanitation projects. Subsequently, Participatory Hygiene And Sanitation Transformation (PHAST), a participatory methodology, is defined and its advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Additionally, this paper addresses the importance of community participation in the design and implementation of sanitation projects and provides background information on the sanitation sector. Two case studies on dry sanitation taking place in Northern Mexico are presented and analyzed. Finally, conclusions are drawn and recommendations for future projects are given.


This article studies the relationship between religion and political identity in Eastern Kurdistan located in Iran. For this purpose, it reviews at first the theoretical debates on social and political identities, the bases of Kurdish individual's political identity and the situation of religion in Kurdish society as one of them. Then, the quantitative and analytical methods are used to measure the effect of religion. The results show that religion and religious identity are still important determinants of political identity in Kurdistan that is affected by the situation of society. Because of both the influence of religion in this traditional society and the existence of a totalitarian religious government, the other social factors and identities cannot practically affect the political identity, though they are also important and powerful in the society, especially the Kurdish identity. Hence, the political identity of Kurdish youth is further affected by the government's politics and policies that reinforce both Iranian and religious identities and prevent the manifestation of the other identities in political arena.


Cutaneous metastasis of gallbladder cancer is an exceedingly infrequent phenomenon. Herein, we report a case of cutaneous metastases of gallbladder carcinoma as a rst clinical manifestation in a 73-year- old woman. Physical examination revealed a violaceous nodule with central ulceration on left upper abdominal wall, ranging in diameter about 3 cm. Biopsy specimen demonstrated middle differentiated carcinoma. Immunohistochemical analysis showed diffuse staining with cytokeratin (CK)-7, CK-19 and carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA). Further computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET)/CT scanning con rmed a large occupying lesion in the gallbladder, enlarged lymph nodes in front of the portal vein and behind the common bile duct. The diagnosis of metastatic adenocarcinoma was made. The patient received four-cycle chemotherapy. However, CT scan showed tumor progression with multiple metastatic nodule in lung and subcutaneous nodules. The patient eventually succumbed to the disease less than half a year. As for gallbladder cancer, the skin is an uncommon metastatic site with only a few reported cases. Clinicians should be aware that metastatic cutaneous lesions could be the initial presenting sign for gallbladder cancer.


I was hired at my current institution to build writing support for graduate students. I hold the title Instructional Consultant and work in the campus Writing Center, which is part of Academic Affairs. Two and half years ago, when I entered this job, I considered myself well prepared for interacting with graduate students and their writing: I had been a writing tutor for graduate students at two other universities, worked as an editor at two interdisciplinary research journals, and experienced three graduate programs myself, spanning an R1 institution, a natural sciences program and a fine arts program, and both decamping and graduating. Yet the service I provide in my current position is not what I expected to offer; I was not fully prepared to support these graduate students in these kinds of graduate programs. It occurs to me now that there's perhaps no way I, or any incumbent, could have come ready to resolve the gaps in service and support for graduate student writers at this institution and others like it. This essay aims to illustrate the lived experience at the intersection of writing, student, tutor, professor, and graduate school. With a close description and analysis of one representative student, writing project, and student-tutor relationship, the essay approaches an answer to What kinds of support do graduate student writers from underserved populations need and want, and how does it compare to the kinds of support students are currently getting? The essay invites further inquiry into how support, scholarship, and academic socialization interrelate for students and academic support staff.


Amazon EC2 and Google Compute Engine (GCE) have recently introduced a new class of virtual machines called "burstable" instances that are cheaper than even the smallest traditional/regular instances. These lower prices come with reduced average capacity and increased variance. Using measurements from both EC2 and GCE, we identify key idiosyncrasies of resource capacity dynamism for burstable instances that set them apart from other instance types. Most importantly, certain resources for these instances appear to be regulated by deterministic, though in one case unorthodox, token bucket like mechanisms. We find widely different types of disclosures by providers of the parameters governing these regulation mechanisms: full disclosure (e.g., CPU capacity for EC2 t2 instances), partial disclosure (e.g., CPU capacity and remote disk IO bandwidth for GCE shared-core instances), or no disclosure (network bandwidth for EC2 t2 instances). A tenant modeling these variations as random phenomena (as some recent work suggests) might make sub-optimal procurement and operation decisions. We present modeling techniques for a tenant to infer the properties of these regulation mechanisms via simple offline measurements. We also present two case studies of how certain memcached workloads might benefit from our modeling when operating on EC2 by: (i) temporal multiplexing of multiple burstable instances to achieve the CPU or network bandwidth (and thereby throughput) equivalent of a more expensive regular EC2 instance, and (ii) augmenting cheap but low availability in-memory storage offered by spot instances with backup of popular content on burstable instances.


In recent years, the growing Chinese presence in Latin America has triggered heated academic and policy debates, as well as social and political conflict across countries in the region. Against this background, the present paper explores the specific characteristics taken on by this dynamic in the Bolivian case, by adopting a novel research strategy in which we tested these debates with a combined process-tracing analysis of the evolution of the structural geo-economic relationship between Bolivia and China, and a survey of the state of negative and positive perceptions of the Bolivian population about the growing presence of China in Bolivia. The objective was to attain a complete overview of the political implications of the structural changes in the sources of geopolitical power in the bi-lateral relationship. Empirically, there is room to conclude that the region and Bolivia are geo-economically turning more dependent on China and that relations are not benefiting broad-based development; however, there is less room to talk about a deterministic relationship between the above and a direct geopolitical influence in the region. Bolivian public opinion is divided in a way that mirrors the regional debate on the issue, and the divide has reached high levels of politicization, as it overlaps with an internally polarized political system. The Bolivian case is important because this dynamic could replicate in the region and define the orientation of the region's foreign policy towards China in the future.


This paper is concerned with the role of network administrative organizations (NAOs) in the development of social capital in inter-organizational networks aiming at supporting their members to innovate in the food sector through interacting with one another. A multi-case study approach is used whereby three Belgian inter-organizational networks are investigated i.e. Wagralim, Reseau-Club and Flanders Food. Our study shows that there are many options available to NAOs to build social capital within the networks they are responsible for; options which we propose to categorize in three main distinct groups: creation of boundary objects, careful selection of members and effective communication.


Purpose: To investigate the occurrence of hearing loss in children with HIV and its association with viral load, opportunistic diseases, and antiretroviral treatment. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 23 HIVpositive children under care at two specialized centers in Joao Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil. Their parents or legal guardians responded to a questionnaire, containing data on the clinical situation and the hearing health of the children, who were then submitted to audiological assessment. We complied with the guidelines for human research contained in the CNE (National Education Council) Resolution number 196/1996. The findings were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Results: We observed that lamivudine (3TC) was the antiretroviral drug most used in 17 (94.4%) patients, followed by Kaletra (KAL), administered in 14 (77.8%) patients, d4T in 11 (61.1%) patients, and zidovudine (AZT) in 7 (38.9%) participants. Otitis was the most frequent opportunistic disease, with 11 (61.1%) cases. In the audiometric examination, we observed 39 (84.8%) ears with hearing loss and 7 (15.2%) normal ears. After the immitance testing, we found five (10.9%) normal ears, characterized by type A tympanometric curves. The other 41 (89.1%) ears were revealed as altered, with predominance of type B curves in 67.4% of the cases. Conclusion: There were hearing alterations in children with HIV/AIDS analyzed in this study. Discreet hearing losses were the most occurring. We verified statistically significant associations with the use of antiretroviral therapy and otitis. Therefore, we point out the importance of auditory monitoring and intervention as soon as possible, thus favoring adequate development in language and decreasing possible difficulties in learning and social inclusion.


We consider the problem of analyzing the visual imagery that can be found in a neighborhood of just one image selected from a visual image space. The image space we shall explore is a variant of the space of "expressions" as formulated by Karl Sims. Sims' expressions are rooted trees that can be manipulated and searched using the art-by-choice technique known as "evolving expressions." We present a search methodology and give examples from the catalog of imagery we obtained in searching a neighborhood of a fixed image which contained in excess of 1020 instances of possible images. We draw conclusions about what this portends for future work on search engines developed for exploring artistically non-linear spaces.


On an experimental basis the culture of blood clam Anadara granosa was taken up in the Kakinada Bay. Three pens made of split bamboo screens, each measuring 100 m", were stocked with clams of 25.1,23.4 and 24.3 mm mean size at the rate of 3,000, 7,000 and 14,000 per pen respectively in May 1979. In order to determine the optimum stocking density 6 deal wood cases were filled with mud up to
10 cm depth and were stocked with clams at the rate of 40 to 240/m". The results of these studies together with the environmental data are given in this paper.


The mechanisms linking parental resources to their children's opportunities are of fundamental interest to sociologists. This study is the first to provide a dynamic life course assessment of the origin–education–destination triangle using causal mediation analysis. While the age-as-equalizer hypothesis suggests that for the highly educated, direct effects of social origin are high at young ages and decrease over the life course, the age-as-stratifier hypothesis suggests that for individuals with low educational attainment, direct effects of social origin are low at young ages and increase over the life course. Findings using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study are largely consistent with these hypotheses for various measures of social origin and social destination. Overall, this study demonstrates how causal mediation analysis provides precise effect definitions that allow scholars to assess mechanisms when status transmission processes depend on educational attainment


We introduce the lookahead-bounded Q-learning (LBQL) algorithm, a new, provably convergent variant of Q-learning that seeks to improve the performance of standard Q-learning in stochastic environments through the use of ``lookahead'' upper and lower bounds. To do this, LBQL employs previously collected experience and each iteration's state-action values as dual feasible penalties to construct a sequence of sampled information relaxation problems. The solutions to these problems provide estimated upper and lower bounds on the optimal value, which we track via stochastic approximation. These quantities are then used to constrain the iterates to stay within the bounds at every iteration. Numerical experiments on benchmark problems show that LBQL exhibits faster convergence and more robustness to hyperparameters when compared to standard Q-learning and several related techniques. Our approach is particularly appealing in problems that require expensive simulations or real-world interactions.


The evidence base review for the Crime Domain examined some of the leading theories
used to explain the manifestation of crime (i.e. what makes some neighbourhoods and
places more vulnerable to crime than others), presented information on levels of reported
and unreported crime and discussed current policy initiatives aimed at preventing and
reducing crime. Particular attention was paid to developments relevant to Area Based
Initiatives (ABIs).
The extent of the evidence base on 'what works' in crime prevention was then examined.
Variations in the quality and robustness of the evidence base was discussed and examples
of best practice were identified drawing upon the Home Office's 'Toolkits' for crime
prevention and a comprehensive review of crime prevention evaluation studies carried
out for the US National Institute of Justice. The latter identified crime prevention
strategies that work, those that are promising and those that demonstrably do not work
(Sherman et al 1998).
Current and forthcoming evaluations of crime prevention initiatives that NDC
Partnerships might draw lessons from were identified and efforts to build a
comprehensive evidence base on effective crime prevention measures (the Campbell
Collaboration – www.campbell.gse.upenn.edu) were outlined.
Lessons were identified for the NDC evaluation teams in terms of known problems and
pitfalls in conducting crime prevention evaluations and in obtaining consistent crime
data. Lessons for partnerships were also defined, particularly, in relation to project
management, maximising the positive impacts of crime prevention interventions and
partnership working.
Where feasible and appropriate, the review also sought to identify the extent to which
local authority areas with NDC programmes had been successful in securing funds
through the Home Office's Crime Reduction Programme. Particular attention was paid to
the Reducing Burglary Initiative, Targeted Policing and the CCTV programme


The use of smart phones and similar devices are increasing day by day and mobile devices are moving towards becoming the mainstream computing hardware. In parallel, the number of mobile applications is increasing exponentially. Besides the many advantages of being mobile, in these applications limited battery power is a fundamental constraint. With "Energy Aware" programming techniques, the new generation of software developers are willing to spread the battery life time as long as possible. In this study, trends of energy consumption are examined for various types of mobile software in terms of software component. For this purpose, The energy profile PowerTutor software is used and without the use of additional hardware, details of energy consumption figures are reported. For selected types of mobile software, energy consumption ratio of GSM radio, processor, screen, sound system and GPS components is examined and a general characterization is sought about these applications.


Advancements in information technology allow information to be collected and analyzed quickly within a corporation. As a result, technology also allows the quicker release of information to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)—much quicker than the Form 10-K and Form 10-Q releases that are currently required for publicly traded companies. Although publicly traded companies must also disclose certain significant events in Form 8-K, the reporting requirements for publicly traded companies are not nearly as expansive as they could be considering the easy access these companies have to their business information. Even with this in mind, the SEC is well into a reevaluation of Regulation S-K primarily because requirements have accreted over time to become not just burdensome to companies but also blinding to investors who are overwhelmed by the volume of disclosure thrown at them. This paper expounds on these arguments and posits additional arguments for why the SEC should not expand reporting requirements for publicly traded companies. Specifically, expanded requirements are associated with high compliance costs; market forces already induce higher-quality disclosures; the more information companies file with the SEC, the more advantages they give to their competitors; and both the liability concerns and the doctrinal issues already associated with the current requirements will be exacerbated with an expansion of the requirements.


The use of Information Technology (IT) in public sector organizations cannot always be applied properly. This could lead to failure of Information Systems. Many literature states that successful implementation of an information system is very dependent on the acceptance level of the system by its users. The Government of Bogor City as a public sector organization in Indonesia has been active in the development of IT. From 2008 to 2013, the Government of Bogor City developed nine application, four of which has running with low utilization and the other five applications no longer operate as a result of very minimum user. This study analyzes the individual factors that influence the acceptance of implementation of IT in the Government Environment using TAM. This is quantitative Survey Research using sample of 410 employees of Bogor city. Data processing was performed using descriptive statistical techniques and PLS-SEM. The results prove that the Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use has a significant influence on the Behavioral Intention to use IT at Government of Bogor City. Behavioral Intention has a significant influence on the Actual IT Use and Perceived Ease Perceived Ease of Use had a significant effect on the Perceived Usefulness.


Stress echocardiography is increasingly used for the assessment of coronary artery disease and is valuable in the treatment of patients with known disease as well. Although several studies are available on the accuracy of stress echocardiography in the detection of coronary artery disease and evaluation of its severity, studies on the use of this technique for evaluation of prognosis are just now emerging. Over the past decade, few studies have investigated its prognostic value in different patient populations. The versatility and advantage of stress echocardiography lie in the fact that it provides information on both resting ventricular function and stress-induced ischemia, two important determinants of cardiac events. Exercise echocardiography with the bicycle or posttreadmill approach is used in subjects who can exercise and provides important additional prognostic data from physiologic exercise variables. In patients unable to exercise, pharmacologic stress echocardiography with dobutamine or vasodilators is used. Stress echocardiography has been shown to identify different populations of patients at risk of cardiac events, including those with stable or suspected coronary artery disease, those with acute myocardial infarction, and those scheduled for major noncardiac surgery. In the early postinfarct setting, exercise and vasodilator stress have been used more often, whereas dobutamine echocardiography has been used predominantly at low doses for the assessment of residual myocardial viability. This review focuses on recently published investigations evaluating the prognostic effect of stress echocardiography in patients with stable coronary artery disease or acute myocardial infarction.


A development of humanoid robot HRP-3P, which is a humanoid robot HRP-3 prototype, is presented in this paper. HRP-3 is under development as the succession humanoid to HRP-2, which we developed in phase two of HRP (humanoid robotics project). One of futures of HRP-3P is that its main mechanical and structural components are designed for protection against dust and water. Another is that node controllers are developed for realization of distributed control system. Real-time communication on Ethernet is also newly developed for communication between main controller and node controllers. In this paper, mechanical features and electrical features are presented with specifications of HRP-3P


Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) is the most important forage crop in temperate livestock agriculture. Its nutritional quality has significant impact on the quality of meat and milk for human consumption. Evidence suggests that higher energy content in forage can assist in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ruminants. Increasing the fatty acid content (especially α-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid) may thus contribute to better forage, but little is known about the genetic basis of variation for this trait. To this end, quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified associated with major fatty acid content in perennial ryegrass using a population derived from a cross between the heterozygous and outbreeding high-sugar grass variety AberMagic and an older variety, Aurora. A genetic map with 434 restriction-associated DNA (RAD) and SSR markers was generated. Significant QTLs for the content of palmitic (C16:0) on linkage groups (LGs) 2 and 7; stearic (C18:0) on LGs 3, 4 and 7; linoleic (C18:2n-6) on LGs 2 and 5; and α-linolenic acids (C18:3n-3) on LG 1 were identified. Two candidate genes (a lipase and a beta-ketoacyl CoA synthase), both associated with C16:0, and separately with C18:2n-6 and C18:0 contents, were identified. The physical positions of these genes in rice and their genetic positions in perennial ryegrass were consistent with established syntenic relationships between these two species. Validation of these associations is required, but the utility of RAD markers for rapid generation of genetic maps and QTL analysis has been demonstrated for fatty acid composition in a global forage crop.


Data is an important asset for any individual or organization and must be protected from intruders or hackers. The need to
hide data from hackers has existed since ancient times, and nowadays, there are developments in digital media, such as
audio, video, images, and so on. To secure secret information, different media methods are used and steganography is
one. Steganography hides the data under other data without any differentiable changes. Many individual steganography
tools can be used to transfer data securely and, in this report, a new tool is proposed that decreases time and effort.
Using this tool, we hide the text in images in one place, so there was no need to have access to multiple tools. This
proposed tool developed using the least significant bit (LSB) approach.
Steganography is a method of hiding secret messages in a cover object while communication takes place
between sender and receiver. Security of confidential information has always been a major issue from the past times to
the present time. It has always been the interested topic for researchers to develop secure techniques to send data without revealing it
to anyone other than the receiver. There for from time to time researchers have developed many techniques to fulfil secure transfer of
data and steganography is one of them. In this paper we have proposed a new technique of image steganography i.e. Hash-LSB with
RSA algorithm for providing more security to data as well as our data hiding method. The proposed technique uses a hash function to
generate a pattern for hiding data bits into LSB of RGB pixel values of the cover image. This technique makes sure that the message has been encrypted before hiding it into a cover image. If in any case the cipher text got revealed from the cover image, the
intermediate person other than receiver can't access the message as it is in encrypted form.


Smad2 is a receptor-regulated Smad that is activated specifically by transforming growth factor and activin signaling. We disrupted the mouse Smad2 gene by gene targeting. Homozygous Smad2 mutant mice died around E8.5 with impaired visceral endoderm function and deficiency of mesoderm formation. Heterozygotes were fertile and had no apparent abnormality up to at least 1 1/2 year of age. To examine the role of Smad2 inactivation in the process of carcinogenesis, we prepared compound heterozygous mice, which carry both Apc and Smad2 mutations on the same chromosome in the cis-configuration. Compound inactivation of Smad2 in heterozygous Apc mutant mice did not change the total number of intestinal tumors but increased sudden death from intestinal obstruction caused by extremely large tumors. Furthermore, histological examination revealed that Apc/Smad2 cis-compound heterozygotes developed multiple invasive cancers that had never been observed in Apc single heterozygotes. These results indicate that loss of Smad2 does not initiate tumorigenesis by itself but accelerates malignant progression of tumors to invasive cancer in the late stages of carcinogenesis.


This paper presents a new approach for hyperlocal data sharing and delivery on the base of discoverable Bluetooth nodes. Our approach allows customers to associate user-defined data with network nodes and use a special mobile application (context-aware browser) for presenting this information to mobile users in proximity. Alternatively, mobile services can request and share local data in M2M applications rely on network proximity. Bluetooth nodes in cars are among the best candidates for the role of the bearing nodes.


Aim: Even though laparoscopic hepatectomy (LH) has proved to be both safe and effective in specialized centers; the restricted indications for resection in the case of benign liver lesions has resulted in poorly reported outcomes. Our aim was to describe the short term results of LH to treat benign hepatic lesions, including quality of life (QoL) evaluation. Method: Thirty-one LHs were performed between 2016 and 2018 in 31patients. We evaluated QoL with the short form(SF-36)questionnaire and a body image satisfaction questionnaire by personal interview before surgical treatment and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after surgery. Results: Median age was 38 years (range 21-71) and the majority were females (68%). The most frequent etiology was hepatic adenoma in(n = 16) patients (52%), followed by focal nodular hyperplasia (n = 4), cavernous hemangioma (n = 3), hepatic abscess (n = 3), cystadenoma (n = 5) . The majority of resections were minor (66%) and the conversion rate was 6.2%. Pathological examination confirmed negative margins in all patients. Postoperative mortality was nil, while morbidity was 6.2%. Median hospital stay was 4 days (range 1-32 days). In a median follow-up of 48 months (range 2-120), 2 patients experienced recurrence. QoL variables were similar between the preoperative and postoperative periods. Conclusion: LH should be considered the main therapeutic approach for treating selected patients with benign liver lesions who require surgical resection because it presented both null mortality and low morbidity, along with rare recurrence, a good quality of life and high esthetic satisfaction.


Abstract
One of the main reasons for the failure of branding activities, is that marketers and brand managers consider branding as an input activity or as "something done to the consumer." It is argued in this thesis that consumers actively participate in this practice by evaluating branding efforts and in many cases they do not associate branding endeavours with product category. This thesis is attempting to explore consumer behaviour toward branding and discover variables that could be used to explain the role and contribution of consumers in branding activities.
Two main reasons have been introduced in this thesis to explain the characteristics of consumer contribution in branding endeavours. First, the consumer side of brands and second, the situational variables in a purchase and consumption environment. The consumer side of the brand consists of three main factors: firstly, what customers expect from the brand per se, independent from the product; secondly, the extent to which the brand is considered by customers and finally, their consideration of the relationship between product and brand.
The Behavioural Perspective Model (BPM), introduced by Foxall (1997), is applied in this research to explore both situational variables and the consumer's side of the brand. This behaviouristic approach to consumer research considers setting and learning history as twodeterminants of consumer behaviour. Involvement has been used for quantifying learning history and it is argued that to a very high extent involvement could be considered as the same as learning history in BPM.
Three different methodologies have been used in this research to investigate the aforementioned variables using a case study of skincare and OTC products in Iran. Interviews, focus groups and questionnaires have been applied to explore the aforementioned variables and any potential relationships among them.
The results show that brand image is the main situational variable in these two groups of products. For OTC products the dominant expected brand image is functional; in skincare products, although some level of symbolic brand image is expected, the brand image is mainly functional.
The variables introduced in this thesis could be used as a framework for brand managers when deciding how to prioritise their efforts. More importantly, they could use this information for choosing the right brand image based on the type of consumer involvement.