ABSTRACT As a result of institutional and stakeholder pressures, companies have increasingly implemented various internal and external carbon management practices, reflecting different carbon disclosure strategies. Existing research, however, is limited to distinguish between different types of carbon disclosure strategy and to explain the dynamic interaction between internal and external pressures. In response, drawing from institutional and stakeholder theory, this study (1) proposes a framework that depicts different carbon disclosure strategies based on internal and external pressures, and (2) using a sample of 40 leading global logistics companies, subsequently categorises the companies based on the extent of applied internal and external carbon management practices. Using data from Bloomberg ESG and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reports, the analysis and the categorisation is based 26 specific carbon management practices during the timeframe from 2012 to 2014. The findings show that the majority of companies align internal and external carbon management practices, reflecting a consistent strategic approach towards carbon disclosure. However, most companies follow either a transparent or a symbolic approach, indicating these companies either are engaged in both internal and external practices or in neither. We found that the key internal drivers are the companies' policies and procedures, while key external drivers include high engagement with policy makers and NGOs.


Background: Anaerobic physical exercise is a high intensity physical exercise performed in a short time. This exercise can stimulate apoptosis in left ventricular cardiomyocytes. The aim of this study is to analyze the apoptosis of cardiomyocytes after anaerobic exercise and detraining. Methods: Thirty two wistar rats Ratus Novergicus 250-350 grams (8-10 weeks old) were divided into the following groups (n = 4) and given naerobic physical exercise four and 12 weeks (group Exc-4, Exc-12) and anaerobic exercise followed by four weeks of detraining (Exc-4-D, Exc-12-D). The control groups were only observed in the same period (group CTL-4, CTL-12, CTL-4-D, CTL-12-D). At the end of observation, the rats were sacrificed and examination of the expression of caspase-3 as an indicator of apoptosis was done using immunohistochemical staining. Data were analyzed with ANOVA test. Results: An increase in expression of caspase-3 in the group Exc-4 (72.03%) compared to the CTL-4 (27.22%), (p < 0,001); and Exc-12 (79.30%) compared to the CTL-12 (30.53%) (p = 0.027). Detraining process showed a significant decline Capase-3 expression (31.12% in exc-4-D and 30.44% in the exc-12-D). Conclusion: Anaerobic physical exercise can increase apoptosis in rat left ventricle cardiomyocyte characterized by increased expression of caspase-3. Detraining can improve heart condition characterized by decreased expression of caspase-3.


Wildebeests carry asymptomatically alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1), a γ-herpesvirus inducing malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) to several ruminant species (including cattle). This acute and lethal lymphoproliferative disease occurs after a prolonged asymptomatic incubation period after transmission. Our recent findings with the rabbit model indicated that AlHV-1 infection is not productive during MCF. Here, we investigated whether latency establishment could explain this apparent absence of productive infection and sought to determine its role in MCF pathogenesis. First, whole-genome cellular and viral gene expression analyses were performed in lymph nodes of MCF-developing calves. Whereas a severe disruption in cellular genes was observed, only 10% of the entire AlHV-1 genome was expressed, contrasting with the 45% observed during productive infection in vitro. In vivo, the expressed viral genes included the latency-associated nuclear antigen homolog ORF73 but none of the regions known to be essential for productive infection. Next, genomic conformation analyses revealed that AlHV-1 was essentially episomal, further suggesting that MCF might be the consequence of a latent infection rather than abortive lytic infection. This hypothesis was further supported by the high frequencies of infected CD8+ T cells during MCF using immunodetection of ORF73 protein and single-cell RT-PCR approaches. Finally, the role of latency-associated ORF73 was addressed. A lack of ORF73 did not impair initial virus replication in vivo, but it rendered AlHV-1 unable to induce MCF and persist in vivo and conferred protection against a lethal challenge with a WT virus. Together, these findings suggest that a latent infection is essential for MCF induction.


This exploratory study elicited descriptions of the experience of depressed mood in later life as well as older adults' knowledge about depression. The researcher purposively recruited thirty-six participants age 75 and older, who participated in an in-depth, in-person interview. The research design and analysis were informed by a conceptual framework integrating Pearlin's Stress Process model and social learning theory. Three major themes emerged from the data: the importance of context and life experience, the power of personal choice, and the disconnection between knowledge and personal experience. Study participants, in describing their experiences of depressed mood, reported the importance of the context in which their depressed mood developed. Further, they saw themselves in light of their whole life experience and conveyed the relevance of earlier significant life events to their late life depressive symptoms. Early life events shaped both how they saw the world and how they coped with stressful life events in later life. Study participants also described the power of their own attitudinal and behavioral choices to improve their mood, often choosing to do things by sheer force of will, even though they didn't feel like doing these things because of their depressive symptoms. Participants understood depression in terms of both social and biological explanatory models. However, though they understood that depression may be caused by biological factors, none of the participants attributed such causes to their own depressed mood, but instead, relied on social causes to explain their own experience. In other words, no one spoke about biological causes of their own depressive symptoms even though they knew about such possible causes when relaying their knowledge about depression. This finding has possible implications for the stress process theory, which suggests that knowledge influences the judgments we make about our own experience. However, these study findings suggest that the influence of external knowledge may not be as powerful an influence on the judgments and meanings older adults ascribe to their own experience of depressive symptoms as are the context and lived experience of the individual.Practice and research implications of these findings include the need to explore across more diverse samples of older adults the choices older adults make related to improving their mood. Research exploring the knowledge older adults have about depression and the explanatory models they use to describe their own experience is an important next step. Study participant's stress on the importance of context in understanding depressive symptoms in later life should cause clinicians to rethink their dependence on diagnostic and treatment tools that ignore the larger experience in which depressive symptoms arise for older adults.


The polymer‐supported wet transfer of chemical vapor deposition‐grown graphene provides high‐quality large‐area graphene on a target substrate. The transfer‐induced defects that result from these processes, such as micrometer‐scale folds and cracks, have been regarded as an inevitable problem. Here, the transfer processes are thoroughly examined stage‐by‐stage and it is found that lamination wrinkles, which cause defects in the graphene, are generated as a result of the high contact angles of the trapped transfer medium liquids. Systematic theoretical and experimental studies demonstrate that a liquid droplet with a low surface tension trapped between the polymer/graphene film and the substrate minimizes lamination wrinkles during the transfer process by completely wetting the target substrate, regardless of the surface energy. In connection with these results, a simple and broadly applicable transfer method is developed using an organic liquid with a low surface tension to uniformly transfer high‐quality graphene onto arbitrary substrates, even onto superhydrophobic substrate. The graphene obtained using the proposed organic liquid transfer method displays better electrical and mechanical properties than the graphene transferred by the conventional method using water. This effective and practical transfer method provides an approach to obtaining high‐quality graphene for use in graphene‐based devices.


A numerical solution of non-interacting salt flow simultaneously with water in unsaturated soil was devised and programmed. Solutions were obtained for infiltration, redistribution, and evaporation under different wetting and boundary conditions. The effect of diffusion on salt distribution was neglected in the computations. The method was found to give reasonable results for non-interacting solutes. When compared with measured total salt distribution after one wetting and drying cycle, the model gave fairly good results when a source term was added to the computations. The method can be applied to some practical problems, such as leaching of salts and fertilizer movement.


TerraSAR-X has been in orbit since June 15th, 2007 and has continuously been collecting data. Thousands of images have been acquired for evaluation during the commissioning phase that has lasted until end of 2007. In order to proof the phase quality of the overall system a number of interferometric pairs and even small stacks of repeated InSAR data have been scheduled during this phase. Our paper explains necessary modifications on the InSAR algorithms to process the TerraSAR-X data. The interferometric characteristics of these data have been checked by case studies and a representative overview of our evaluation results is given. The technical quality and performance of the sensor and data processing system has been proofed by application case studies. We illustrate the information content of spotlight SAR images in urban areas and focus on the new potentials of high resolution SAR interferometry by processing examples. Using spotlight mode, the pixel size is reduced to 1 meter allowing to distinguish and monitor different parts of buildings. Our current results are encouraging us to predict that spotlight interferometry will be a hot topic in the next years with many practical applications e.g. coherent stacking for PSI time series and tomography.


TATION: SERVICES, TREATMENTS AND OUTCOMES. Anne Chamberlain, Vera Neumann, Alan Tennant, eds. Chapman and Hall, 1995. 273pp. £16.99. ISBN 0 412 48970 8. This publication is a compendium of research papers shared at the 'Care of the Head Injured' conference held at Leeds University in 1991. The care of people with brain injury has caused concern for health care teams over recent years. Patients discharged into the community often experience fragmented and poorly coordinated services, problems adjusting to physical disability, personality changes (which also affect family relationships) and many other personal, financial and employment issues which are not always addressed. This book addresses all of these issues, with each chapter being fully referenced and having a sound research base. The first part of the book describes ways of approaching the management of traumatic brain injury (TBI), including clear descriptions of treatment and recovery in the acute stage and the place of national, regional and rural head injury and community rehabilitation units, both in the UK and Europe. There is an extended chapter on the development, audit and evaluation of a commu-


Core competence area is a collection of skills and technologies that enable an organi-zation can provide its own benefits for its customers. Thus, the high unique core com-petencies needed to achieve organizational objectives. The uniqueness of the organi-zation can make it difficult for competitors to imitate. By adopting the concept of onevillage and one product and concept SAKA SAKTI (one county / city of the corecompetencies) then to build the competitiveness of the region required the creation ofcore competencies for the area. This is necessary so that all resources and capabilitiesof the region focused on efforts to create a core competency. Based on the seven aspects of the value chain, namely raw materials, human resources, competitiveness,infrastructure, technology and information, social capital and institutional and secu-rity conditions, it is found that the commodity becomes a core competence area inBelu Regency is a patchouli plant and the results of various scent of patchoulioil. Patchouli plants available uniformly across the district and surrounding areas byabsorbing the workforce in large numbers, while patchouli oil industry with a distinc-tive aroma has penetrated the international market. Plants patchouli and patchoulioil industry (essential) to give high economic value added for those who manage it.


ABSTRACT The growth of electronic commerce (EC) may be impeded because payment systems (PS) designed for offline commerce have been adapted for online use, but without all of the information contained in physical meetings among transaction parties. Resulting problems add costs to transactions and affect profitability for EC transactions. New PS have been developed and are in various stages of implementation and rollout, but none have been widely adopted by users. Here we identify eleven generic PS features and nine of transaction characteristics, the interaction of which is expected to affect the cost of completing online transactions. We use a review of literature, as well as focused group and individual interviews, to develop 35 propositions for how interactions between PS features and transaction characteristics affect transaction costs. Finally, we propose a research agenda to determine the importance of each proposition, the functional form of its impact on cost, and to design effective sets of PS for online transactions. INTRODUCTION Electronic commerce (EC) is expected to continue to grow in volume and importance (Sraeel, 2002), however, there have been suggestions, e.g., (Apicella, 2000), that its adoption by suppliers and customers, consumers and businesses alike, has been hampered by a variety of concerns about how best to pay for goods and services over the Internet. Participants in the automobile manufacturing industries, for example, are holding back on investments in online payment systems (Kisiel, 2002). Observers, like Burns (2000), worry, EC growth may be hindered unless new payment systems (PS) are successfully adopted soon. In ordinary commerce, both business to consumer and business to business, five major PS, with variations, are used to facilitate almost all transactions, globally: cash, checks, giros, credit cards, and electronic funds transfers (O'Mahony et al., 1997). The specific implementations of these systems matured in an offline commercial world, but these methods have been adapted, ad hoc, to the online commercial world in which we have found ourselves over the course of just a half-decade or so. In the process of adapting these PS for online use, the transactions, ironically, have suffered from lost information. For example, credit cards and their variants (debit cards and charge cards) were designed to be presented in person by the buyer to the seller. Information contained in physical possession of the card, in the magnetic stripe, and in the specimen signature is not conveniently and reliably transmitted to the seller online. Notwithstanding the missing information, credit cards have become the only widely accepted means of payment for purchases in business-to-consumer (B2C) EC. They work, but only at the cost of substantial problems for buyers, sellers and intermediaries. The adaptation of PS that were developed offline to an online commercial world results in or exacerbates several problems for the transaction parties, including vendor fraud, customer fraud and repudiation, third party fraud, excessive costs, and lost transactions. Recently EC transactions represented 1% of all credit card transactions, but 47% of disputes (Beyer, 1999). Other PS also suffer from limitations when transferred from an offline to an online commercial environment. These problems appear to be serious, representing at least part of the reason why profitability has been elusive for B2C vendors (Keen, 2000; Peffers, 2001). In business-to-business transactions, because of higher transaction values and greater sensitivity to costs, most transactions that have been initiated online have, nonetheless been paid offline (Bowen, 2000), for example, by paper invoice and check. This suggests that, for such transactions, some of the hoped for benefits of supply chain integration from EC are not being realized, placing the hoped for dramatic takeoff for B2B EC at risk. …


nformation is investor's basic need for investing decision. It can decrease the uncertainty, so the decision that has been made will achieve the purpose. Including such of information is the announcement of right issue. It will be so much valuable if the existence of the information cause the investor makes trading in the stock market and that will be reflected from stock price eanging and stock trading activity.
The main issues of this research is bow the response of Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) to the announcement of right issue and will the right issue influence stock return and stock trading volume activity in JSX?
The purpose of this study is to analyses market stock reaction to the annoucement of right issue and to find out the effect of right issue announcement to the stock return and stock liquidity.
The methodology of this research explored by event study with using historical data series implemented in purposive sampling method. The model used in this research is market model and to measure the effect of right issue
announcement on stock return and liquidity in JSX used statistics test, t-test.
Based on the result this research has found the right issue announcement do not effect stock return and liquidity in JSX. It is showed with no significant differences (p>O. 10) has been found in average return, abnormal return, cumulative abnormal return, and stock trading volume activity during five days after right issue (compared) to the day the right issue announced. Right issue announcements tend to be negatively responded by sthck market. It has been proven by negative average return, abnormal return, cumulative abnormal return, and stock trading volume activity during five days after right issue (compared) to the thy the right issue announced


In this paper, we propose a system for face verification. It describes in detail each stage of the system: the modeling of the face, the extraction of relevant features and the classification of the input face as a client or an impostor. This system is based on LDA feature extraction, successfully used in previous st and MLP for classification. Experiments were carried out on a difficult multi-modal database, namely BANCA. Results show that our approach perform better than the state-of-the-art on the same database. Experiments show also contradictory results in the state-of-the-art literature.


The construction industry has a limited understanding of its role in creating and delivering customer
value. Existing responses to requests for value delivery focus on Value Management and Value
Engineering. These approaches do not necessarily consider the subjective nature of the value
judgements made by individuals as they experience their built environment. This paper suggests
that designers and stakeholders should address the personal, organisational and societies values
against which value judgements are formed. A continuous dialogue of value delivery is proposed.
The Managing Value Delivery in Design project at Loughborough University is seeking to help both
designers and stakeholders express and communicate their values so that subjective value
judgements can be anticipated in design development. A "Framework of Value" is presented to
illustrate the issues that value delivery should address. The Framework has been synthesised
from review of literature and current industrial practice and has been validated by industrial
partners. The future work required to broaden the construction industry's approach to value
delivery is outlined.


Falling remains one of the chief causes of injury and reduced lifespan among people over 65 years of age. Clinical practice guidelines for primary care physicians instituted in 2004 have improved surveillance of seniors at significant risk of falling, resulting in a reduction in the annual prevalence of falls in people over 65, but still leaving more than one in 4 seniors subject to falling every year. Our research used a modified version of the multi-factorial risk screening (MFRS) and biomechanical measures of gait function, together with monthly follow-up over a 12-month period, to investigate the extent to which therapeutic intervention before patients enter the clinical fall-risk algorithm will reduce the risk of falls. A sample of 30 subjects were recruited in 3 age groups (65-74, 75-84, and 85+), and were randomly assigned to 3 treatment groups: control (initial data and MFRS with follow-up); managed (MFRS and biomechanical risk reported to subject, with follow-up); and mitigated (MFRS and biomechanical risks reported to geriatrician, with physical therapy and follow-up). Follow-up involved asking about falls, exercise type, and weekly exercise duration each month. MFRS and biomechanical measures were repeated after 12 months for the mitigated and managed groups.Physical therapy reduced the odds of falling by 8% among the youngest cohort, by 10% in the middle cohort, and by 3% in the oldest cohort, as measured by the logistic regression of MFRS scores. The mitigated group as a whole showed 16% lower prevalence of falling than the managed group. The mitigated group also maintained improved post-therapy gait mechanics by the end of the follow up period.In comparison, the managed group showed decreased gait function by the end of the follow up period. Managed subjects, who were given detailed reports about their risk of falling and how to reduce it, showed only modest changes in their overall risk of falling over the course of the year. Stratification of subjects into groups that exercised <90 minutes per week and >=90 minutes per week equally divided each of the three treatment groups. Reported exercise had no impact on fall risk. Problems with statistical power and exercise classification limited our ability to draw valid conclusions about the impact of exercise on the risk of falling in each sub-group.Our results indicate that use of a simple, clinically validated, multi-factorial risk assessment can identify people 65 and older who are at risk of falling before their physicians would otherwise recognize this. Targeted physical therapy can significantly reduce the risk of falling among this group. A more proactive clinical approach can prove more effective long-term than simply offering options for exercise, even when patients understand their risk of falling. Future work needs to investigate the dose-response and resilience of the response of specific types of exercise on gait biomechanics in different age groups.


An optimal subcarrier allocation algorithm is proposed for orthogonal frequency division multiple access systems over Rayleigh fading channels with channel state information feedback. The transmitted orthogonal frequency division multiple access frame is divided into groups called subchannels according to the detected number of users at the base station. The pilots are reduced for the stable subchannel and replaced with additional data subcarriers in order to increase the total system throughput. Simulation and semi-analytical results demonstrate that the throughput performance of the proposed method outperforms the conventional approaches.


A pilot study was carried out in a city teaching hospital in North West England. This descriptive study focused on patients from general surgical wards who post-operatively had passive abdominal wound drains in situ. The use of sterile drainable plastic bags over these wound drains was investigated. For the purpose of this study such drainage bags were included in the category of surgical dressings. Observations recorded included the type of operation undergone by the patient, length of time the wound drain was in position, frequency of wound drain dressing change and the reason for change. Relevant comments volunteered by patients and nursing staff were also recorded. Nineteen patients, male and female, from three general surgical wards were followed up post-operatively. The study, completed in 4 months, was limited to English speaking patients who were alert and willing to participate. In addition, qualified nursing staff, from the wards where the study was carried out were asked to complete and return a questionnaire related to the project. A variety of problems were found to be associated with the use of sterile drainable plastic bags over Yeates tissue drains and corrugated wound drains and areas where further research is needed are highlighted.


The asymmetric farm-retail transmission has been well documented in the general fluid milk market. However, little attention has been given to the possible heterogeneous cost pass-through process of private labels. Given the leading role of private labels in the fluid milk market, it is of special interest to focus on its possible different effect on farm-retail price transmission. In this paper, we examine the heterogeneous effects of private label and branded products on price transmission in the fluid milk market. We incorporate and extend the Error Correction Model (ECM) approach to specify and estimate the farm-retail pass-through using panel data. To capture the heterogeneous effects of brand types on price transmission, we include interaction terms of brand type dummies with increasing and decreasing phases of farm price and then test the asymmetry in farm-retail pass-through for different brand types. Our results indicate that private label and branded milk all show asymmetry in price transmission. However, brand types affect the magnitudes of the asymmetry and private label milk presents the lowest asymmetry in price transmission, compared with national and regional branded milk. One possible explanation is that retail chains have a greater ability to affect prices of their own private label products through integrated distribution channels and thus impose a strong lessening power of the asymmetry in farm-retail price transmission.


Some factors which influence the choice of plural markers in German are discussed: frequency of nouns and plural allomorphs, iconicity, cue validity, productivity, and gender specific distribution of plural allomorphs. The evidence comes from studies on a language screening conducted in the state of Hesse in Germany in 2007-2010 with three-, four-, and five-year-old monolingual and multilingual children.


The aim of this article is to set a macro-historical narrative concerning the emergence of warfare and social ethics as symplesiomorphic features in the lineage of Homo sapiens. This means that these two behavioral aspects, representative of a very selected branch in the phylogenetic tree of the Primate order, are shared by the two lineages of great African apes that diverged from a common ancestor around six million years in the past, leading to extant humans and chimpanzees. Therefore, this article proposes an ethological understanding of warfare and social ethics, as both are innate to the social high-specialized modular mind present in the species of genera Pan and Homo. However behavioral restraints to intersocietal coalitionary violence seems to be an exclusive aspect of the transdominial modular cognition that characterizes modern humans. Thus, if in the evolutionary long durée, warfare and restrictions to intrasocial violence both appear to be ethologically common to humans and chimpanzees to a certain extent, an ethics of warfare - and, of course, the cognitive capability for intersocietal peace - seems to be distinctly human.


Development of TBCs allowing higher combustion temperatures in gas turbines is of high commercial interest since it results in higher fuel efficiency and lower emissions. It is well known that TBCs produced by suspension plasma spraying (SPS) have lower thermal conductivity as compared to conventional systems due to their very fine porous microstructure. Moreover, columnar structured SPS TBCs are significantly cheaper to produce as compared to the conventionally used electron beam – physical vapour deposition (EB-PVD). However, SPS TBCs have not yet been commercialised due to low reliability and life expectancy of the coatings. Lifetime of a TBC system is significantly dependent on topcoat-bondcoat interface topography. The objective of this work was to study the effect of topcoat-bondcoat interface in SPS TBCs by changing bondcoat spray parameters and bondcoat surface heat treatment. High velocity air fuel (HVAF) spraying was used for bondcoat deposition while axial-SPS was used for topcoat deposition. Same topcoat spray parameters were used for all samples. Lifetime was examined by thermal cyclic fatigue and thermal shock testing. The influence of surface roughness on lifetime has been discussed. The results show that HVAF could be a suitable process for bondcoat deposition to achieve long lifetime SPS TBCs.


The amino-terminal propeptide of type III procollagen (PIIINP, M(r) 42,000) is a promising marker for the formation of type III collagen of granulation tissue in experimental and clinical studies. The disposal kinetics of circulating PIIINP is, however, almost unknown. In conscious pigs with a thoracic duct-venous shunt, 125I-labeled PIIINP was injected intravenously. The initial distribution volume was 2.2 liters, which was 1.7 times the plasma volume (P < 0.01). The disappearance curve was three-phased, with an initial steep decline (t1/2 58 min), followed by two slower phases (t1/2 239 min and 289 h). Consecutive gel filtrations showed that the initial slope of the plasma disappearance curve corresponded to the plasma clearance of the intact PIIINP. The initial plasma clearance was 26.5 ml plasma/min, whereas the urinary clearance was 8.7 ml plasma/min (P < 0.01). The other components of the plasma disappearance curve originated from the formation and disappearance of a high and a low molecular weight (MW) fraction as part of the degradation of PIIINP. The high MW fraction (approximately M(r) 90,000) was similar to a previously described, but not further characterized, PIIINP immunoreactive component. The existence of the low MW fraction (approximately M(r) 20,000) has not been reported before. The lymphatic recirculation of intact PIIINP was rapid, and the lymph-serum ratio was almost constant within 1 h of injection. We conclude that the t1/2 of circulating PIIINP is 58 min, that PIIINP escapes the circulation very quickly, and that the degradation of PIIINP includes at least two intermediary steps.


Intellectual disability is one of the most complex phenomena, involving interventions from the medical, psychological, pedagogical and sociological spheres, interventions that must be carried out as early as possible and that lead to the shaping of the child's personality. Despite the large number of problems and limitations, children with intellectual disabilities can acquire motor skills, but, for this, they need special conditions adapted to their own abilities, coupled with permanent supervision. This paper aims to analyze the level of handling skills training in children who suffer from the Down syndrome, following the implementation of a kinetic stimulation program that uses applicative paths. The research brought together a sample of 19 children suffering from the Down syndrome aged 3 to 8. The results obtained showed an improvement in the level of the fundamental motor skills training (objects handling) of the research subjects.


Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in children largely causes mild disease. Some of these recovered children may present with delayed manifestations described as Hyperinflammatory syndrome resembling closely with Kawasaki disease (KD) or Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). Timely identification, supportive treatment and treatment with immunomodulatory drugs make a significant difference in the outcome.


Grounded theory is a widely used qualitative research methodology and has been used in a variety of disciplines including anthropology, medicine, nursing, and sociology. Although qualitative research methodologies, including grounded theory, have existed for some time, there is lack of attention to the rigorous use of qualitative methodology in the field of audiology. Today, three major schools of grounded theory are present in the literature. It is important for clinicians and researchers new to grounded theory research to be familiar with the different schools of grounded theory that can be implemented in research including the history and philosophy of each. Such an understanding will enable researchers and clinicians to critically appraise applications of grounded theory methodology and to understand its potential, perhaps for inclusion in their own research programs. This article will provide a brief history of grounded theory, define the three major schools of grounded theory and the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of each, as well as discuss the use of grounded theory in audiology research.


A process for fabricating GaP metal semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFET's) capable of operating at temperatures of up to 295??C has been developed. The characteristics of the fabricated devices suggest a need for tighter control and further research involving channel doping and thickness uniformity as well as drain and source durability.


This article explores the possibility of using chaotic attractors to control sound processing with software instruments in live electroacoustic composition. The practice-led investigation involves the Attractors Library, a collection of Max/MSP externals based on iterative mathematical equations representing nonlinear dynamical systems; Attractors Player, a Max/MSP patch that controls the attractors' performance and live processing; and the two compositions based on the software: Strange Attractions for flute, clarinet, horn, and live electronics, and Sabda Vidya No. 2 for flute, tenor saxophone, and live electronics. In the article I discuss some specific attractors' characteristics and their use in interactive composition, relying on the experience from the performances of these two compositions. The idea is to highlight the experience with these nonlinear systems and to encourage other composers to use them in their own works.


Language teaching and education have been so long influenced by developmental psychology, namely constructivism. This idea enlightens the world of language teaching. Constructivism has received both praises and critics. Communicative approach followers claim that the principles in constructivism support their thoughts while the followers of a more traditional approach, namely, Grammar Translation Method, claim that the constructivism is just another experiment in language teaching, just like other methods. This article is based on a classroom action research investigation of how scaffolding instruction, the operational 'terms' of constructivism, based on its 'ZPD' (Zone of Proximal Development), play roles in language teaching, specifically in Business English Writing. The investigation has perceived several important aspects in scaffolding instruction for teaching Business English Correspondence, such as the importance of modeling or giving examples, as well as corrective and immediate feedback, together with positive reinforcement, to improve the learners' performance. It showed that modeling or giving examples, peer reviewing, together with immediate feedback, brought significant influence on the learners' perspective, about their learning performance.
Keywords: constructivism, Scaffolding, ZPD, Business English Writing


Village chicken production holds much potential for the alleviation of malnutrition and poverty in rural communities in Africa. Owing to their subsistence nature, however, such systems are rife with infectious poultry diseases such as Newcastle disease (ND). Strategies common for the management of ND and other poultry diseases in intensive production systems, including vaccination and biosecurity measures, have seen limited success in the village production systems. New approaches are needed that can successfully deliver animal health inputs and services for the effective management of poultry health challenges in low-input systems. Our study utilized focus group discussions with men and women farmers as well as other poultry value chain actors such as input suppliers, live bird traders and processed poultry meat retailers, to investigate potential options for delivery of animal health care to village poultry systems in northern Ghana and central Tanzania. ND was commonly reported as a major disease constraint in the study sites of the two countries, with resulting fatalities particularly impactful on men and women producers and on traders. We therefore also conducted interviews that focused specifically on the gender component of village chicken production. The key health related challenges prioritized by women and men participants included limited access to, and poor quality of, vaccines and veterinary drugs, a shortage of veterinary officers, and insufficient knowledge and training of farmers on flock management practices. Women, more than men, emphasized the difficulties of accessing poultry health services. Our assessments suggest that for poultry health care delivery in the studied communities to be effective, there is need to improve the supply of good quality drugs and vaccines in rural areas, respond to the needs of both men and women, and recognize the different incentives for farmers, traders and other value chain actors. Community-based approaches and increased use of ICT technology such as mobile phones have much to offer in this regard.


This paper argues that subversion is a necessary tool for survival and opening up of new possibilities in the context of the 21 st century where neoliberalism and its extreme market-driven ideologies and institutional practices permeate and impact all social settings public and private. Subversion is defined as subtle mechanism(s) of resisting abusive forms of power that create and/or maintain oppression and harm. At the heart of subversion and engaging in subversive acts is a hope for creation of new possibilities, imaginable and unimaginable, to facilitate attaining social justice and implementing justice-oriented practices that have moral implications. It is within the context of neoliberalism, and its ability to control power relations yet appear undetected, that we argue for a necessity of subversion and subversive acts as a form of resistance, as a tool and a grassroots action-oriented mechanism(s), to challenge abusive and immoral forms of power. The paper argues that subversion is, in many instances, the most moral and integral way to act in the face of abusive and exploitive practices that cause harm to certain social groups through policies that are normalized and perpetuated by social institutions. This paper identifies and critically challenges some common misunderstandings and popular myths about subversion in education.


Ion channels participate in cell homeostasis and are involved in the regulation of proliferation and differentiation in several cell types; however, their presence and function in embryonic stem (ES) cells are poorly studied. We have investigated the existence of voltage-dependent inward currents in mouse ES cells and their ability to modulate proliferation and self-renewal. Patch-clamped ES cells had inactivating tetrodotoxin (TTX)-sensitive Na(+) currents as well as transient Ca(2+) currents abolished by the external application of Ni(2+). Biophysical and pharmacological data indicated that the Ca(2+) current is predominantly mediated by T-type (Ca(v)3.2) channels. The number of cells expressing T-type channels and Ca(v)3.2 mRNA levels increased at the G1/S transition of the cell cycle. TTX had no effect on ES cell proliferation. However, blockade of T-type Ca(2+) currents with Ni(2+) induced a decrease in proliferation and alkaline phosphatase positive colonies as well as reduced expression of Oct3/4 and Nanog, all indicative of loss in self-renewal capacity. Decreased alkaline phosphatase and Oct3/4 expression were also observed in cells subjected to small interfering RNA-induced knockdown for T-type (Ca(v)3.2) Ca(2+) channels, thus partially recapitulating the pharmacological effects on self-renewal. These results indicate that Ca(v)3.2 channel expression in ES cells is modulated along the cell cycle being induced at late G1 phase. They also suggest that these channels are involved in the maintenance of the undifferentiated state of mouse ES cells. We propose that Ca(2+) entry mediated by Ca(v)3.2 channels might be one of the intracellular signals that participate in the complex network responsible for ES cell self-renewal.


This paper describes practical algorithms and experimental results concerning illuminant classification. Specifically, we review the sensor correlation algorithm for illuminant classification and we discuss four changes that improve the algorithm's estimation accuracy and broaden its applicability. First, we space the classification illuminants evenly along the reciprocal scale of color temperature, called "mired," rather than the original color-temperature scale. This improves the perceptual uniformity of the illuminant classification set. Second, we calculate correlation values between the image color gamut and the reference illuminant gamut, rather than between the image pixels and the illuminant gamuts. This change makes the algorithm more reliable. Third, we introduce a new image scaling operation to adjust for overall intensity differences between images. Fourth, we develop the three-dimensional classification algorithms using all three-color channels and compare this with the original two algorithms from the viewpoint of accuracy and computational efficiency. The image processing algorithms incorporating these changes are evaluated using a real image database with calibrated scene illuminants.


The unsupervised selection and posterior recognition of visual landmarks is a highly valuable perceptual capability for a mobile robot. Recently, we proposed a system that aims to achieve this capability by combining a bottom-up data driven approach with top-down feedback provided by high level semantic representations. The bottom-up approach is based on three main mechanisms: visual attention, area segmentation, and landmark characterization. The top-down feedback is based on two information sources: i) An estimation of the robot position that reduces the searching scope for potential matches with previously selected landmarks, ii) A set of weights that, according to the results of previous recognitions, controls the influence of different segmentation algorithms in the recognition of each landmark. In this paper we explore the benefits of extending our previous work by including a visual tracking step for each of the selected landmarks. Our intuition is that the inclusion of a tracking step can help to improve the model of each landmark by associating and selecting information from its most significant views. Furthermore, it can also help to avoid problems related to the selection of spurious landmarks. Our results confirm these intuitions by showing that the inclusion of the tracking step produces a significant increase in the recall rate for landmark recognition.


Monitoring and analysis of energy use and indoor environmental conditions is an urgent need in large buildings to respond to changing conditions in an efficient manner. Correct estimation of occupancy will further improve energy performance. In this work, a smart controller for maintaining a comfortable environment using multiple random neural networks (RNNs) has been developed. The implementation of RNN-based controller is demonstrated to be more efficient on hardware and requires less memory compared to both artificial neural networks and model predictive controllers. This controller estimates the number of room occupants by using the information from wireless sensor nodes placed in the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) duct and the room. For an occupied room, the controller can switch between thermal comfort mode (based on predicted mean vote set points) and user defined mode (i.e. occupant defined set points for heating/cooling/ventilation). Furthermore, the hybrid particle swarm optimisation with sequential quadratic programming training algorithms are used (for the first time to the best of the authors' knowledge) for training the RNN and results show that this algorithm outperforms the widely used gradient descent algorithm for RNN. The results show that occupancy estimation by smart controller is 83.08% accurate.


Infauna, including foraminifera and metazoans, were enumerated and identified from five types of seep habitats and two adjacent non-seep habitats. Collections were made with the deep submergence research vesselAlvinfrom three areas of active seepage in the Gulf of Mexico (Alaminos Canyon (2220 m), Atwater Canyon (1930 m), and Green Canyon lease block 272 (700 m)) and on the Blake Ridge Diapir (2250 m), which is located off the southeastern coast of the United States. The seep habitats sampled included four types of microbial mats (Beggiatoa, Thioploca, thin and thick Arcobacter) and the periphery of a large mussel bed. Sediments under large rhizopod protists, xenophyophores, were sampled adjacent to the mussel bed periphery. A non-seep site, which was >1 km away from active seeps, was also sampled for comparison. Densities of most taxa were higher in the Gulf of Mexico seeps than in Blake Ridge samples, largely because densities in the thick microbial mats of Blake Ridge were significantly lower. Diversity was higher in the Thioploca mats compared to other microbial-mat types. Within an ocean basin (i.e., Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico) we did not observe significant differences in meiofaunal or macrofaunal composition in Beggiatoa versus Thioploca mats or thin versus thick Arcobacter mats. Foraminifera represented up to 16% of the seep community, a proportion that is comparable to their contribution at adjacent non-seep communities. In general, the observed densities and taxonomic composition of seep sites at the genus level was consistent with previous


In the article there are presented the results of the evaluation of cytokine profile in males working in the production of vinyl chloride (trained workers without signs of disorders of the neuropsychic status and persons with early signs of neurointoxication with vinyl chloride, characterized by asthenic (emotional lability) disorder with the autonomic dysfunction). There are established differences of pro- and anti-inflammatory responses in workers in dependence on the severity of disorders of the neuropsychic status. The most pronounced imbalance of cytokines was in workers with initial manifestations of neurointoxication with vinyl chloride. The increase in the concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α) in trained employees without signs of disorders of the neuropsychic status is the one of the early and sensitive indices characterizing the formation ofthe body's resistance to exposure of adverse factors of production.


EPR 2017: The International Conference on Biomedical Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Imaging Combined Meeting: 16th In Vivo EPR Spectroscopy and Imaging and 13th Spin Trapping/Spin Labeling July 16–22, 2017 Lakeview Resort Conference Center Morgantown, West Virginia www.hsc.wvu.edu/epr2017 Calcium Signalling Gordon Research Conference July 18–23, 2017 Renaissance Tuscany II Ciocco Lucca (Barga), Italy www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=12389


This paper discusses possible conceptual foundations of formal models of endogenous change processes, understood here as movements between market and non-market transactions at the level of the national economy. It links but does not merge movements of resources with shifts in the pattern of transaction types. In focussing on transaction types, it deploys insights from Commons, Coase, and Godelier, to discuss how framing transaction types as the fundamental 'thing to be explained' points to the value of choices about how activity may best be organised, which requires a general concept, which can be found in Commons' 'going concern', applicable to transactions focussing on markets or not. It entails the possibility of institutional change and shifts in the location of economic resources without formal policy change. It suggests that the main requirement for such change processes are dualistic incentive patterns that operate upon institutional choice and/or development, which derive at root from experienced contrasts between the realities of existing and normatively privileged systems, and others, normatively initially deemed inferior, that offer key actors greater economic efficiency. Moves of institutional activity from one to the other are thus conceptually processes of endogenous systemic change. System in this sense is thus viewed as a coexistence of alternatives. The motivation comes directly from consideration of two very different historical moments: endogenously driven shifts 'from plan to market' in countries attempting central planning, and contemporary pressures in market economies from areas of the economy, such as services, where joint production and/or own consumption imply irremediable market failure and so non-market based economic institutions offer greater economic efficiency and may therefore attract both resources (factors of production) and investment in development of suitable transactions and their organisation.


We report a continuous nanoscale encapsulation of cancer drugs 5-Fluorouracil (FU) and Paclitaxel into biocompatible polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers (NFs) using core-sheath electrospinning process. A high potential electric field of 19–23.2 kV was used to draw a compound solution jet from a specialized coaxial spinneret. Using of DMF in both core and Sheath resulted in NFs within 50–160 nm along with large beaded structures. Addition of Trichloromethane (TCM) or Trifluoroethanol (TFE) in sheath turned NFs in more uniform and thin fiber structure. The diameter range for paclitaxel encapsulated fibers was 22–90 nm with encapsulation efficiency of 77.5% and the amount of drug was only 4 to 5% of sheath polymer. Addition of PVA within core resulted drug nanocrystal formation outside of sheath and poor encapsulation efficiency (52%) with rapid initial release (52–53%) in first 3 days. Drug release test of NFs in different pH exhibited increase of release rate with the decrease of media pH. In-vitro cell viability test with FU encapsulated NFs in human prostatic cancer PC3 cells exhibited 38% alive cells at 5 μM concentration while in pristine FU 43% cells were alive. Paclitaxel encapsulated NFs with breast cancer cells also exhibited increased efficacy in comparison to pristine anticancer drugs. Continuous decrease of cell density indicated the slow release of cancer drugs from the NFs. Both PCL+Paclitaxel and PCL+5FU treated conditions caused breast cancer cell death between 40% to 50%.


For some time in the past century, the issue of racism emphasized color or race. However, it included religion in many cases. This attitude, which has subsided for some time, is making a strong comeback in many countries, foremost among them the United States, the world's principal superpower. This study comments on the current racial ideas and compares them with ideas of a similar nature that were prevalent in the early twentieth century. It focuses on comparing the thinking of US President Donald Trump today with that of Lothrop Stoddard, known for his interest in the Muslim world, around the time of World War I and immediately after it.


In order to understand the role of transmembrane signal transduction of host cells in the early steps of infection,the adherence of E. coli to HEp-2 cells and the change of activity of phospholipase C-γ (PLC-γ) induced by the adherence were investigated. The adherence of enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), strain E. 7, induced a significant increase of inositol-triphosphat (IP-3) level in HEp-2 cells. The adherence of the bacteria and the increase of IP-3 was kinetically correlated.Whereas the increase of IP3 level induced by the adherence of the control strain EPEC (H511), a non-piliated strain, was much meager than that by E7, a piliated strain. The results highlighted an important role of transmernbrane signals like IP-3 in the pathogenesis of EPEC.


Display resolution is frequently exceeded by available image resolution. Recently, apparent display resolution enhancement (ADRE) techniques show how characteristics of the human visual system can be exploited to provide super-resolution on high refresh rate displays. In this paper, we address the problem of generalizing the ADRE technique to conventional videos of arbitrary content. We propose an optimization-based approach to continuously translate the video frames in such a way that the added motion enables apparent resolution enhancement for the salient image region. The optimization considers the optimal velocity, smoothness, and similarity to compute an appropriate trajectory. In addition, we provide an intuitive user interface that allows to guide the algorithm interactively and preserves important compositions within the video. We present a user study evaluating apparent rendering quality and show versatility of our method on a variety of general test scenes.


This article explores the making and tasting of wine through the anonymous processes of nonhuman consumption that participate in the production of its relational ontology (the terroir) and shape its visceral encounter with the human tongue (taste). First, the author defines a notion of consumption that is neither reduced to the human, the subjective, or the phenomenological nor dematerialized into sociocultural or politico-economic anthropic schemes. Second, he explores wine's terroir as a prism through which to challenge the two main ideologies that frame the contemporary wine world: a normative territoriality premised on spatio-legal frameworks, and a consumer-oriented marketing approach. Third, the author introduces the natural wine movement, an umbrella term loosely gathering different wine makers who share a common reaction against those ideologies. In the constellation of thinking, making, and tasting that constitute the movement, he finds the lineament of a strategic materialism that aims to make visible and is open toward the agency of the nonhuman matter, and which does so by addressing simultaneously wine's terroir and taste, by means of profanating their taken-for-granted normativity. The article concludes by suggesting that this strategy may hold promising insights for implementing radical food politics in the age of agro-industrial capitalism.


[Extract] Let me begin this commentary by suggesting that many of the ideas contained in this special issue will be important to the future of correctional psychology. Although each of the authors offer different perspectives on the role that the criminal justice system has to play in the process of desistance from crime, they all identify the importance of a value-oriented analysis to effective offender rehabilitation. Their focus is on promoting desistance at all points of the justice process; from how the legal system can promote therapeutic outcomes through to the provision of post-release support services and the need for community engagement. By approaching the tasks of both rehabilitation and reintegration from a values perspective, they have been able to identify a range of novel and innovative approaches that have the potential to make a real difference. Even more encouragingly, these draw on resources that may already be available to correctional psychologists and yet are often underutilized. In addition, the confidence, and indeed the optimism, expressed in these articles provides a refreshing counter to suggestions that contemporary correctional practice has become pre-occupied with the need to "manage" offenders and for professionals to focus on fulfilling their administrative obligations (see Hardy, 2014).


Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of deaths worldwide, claiming an estimated total of 17.9 million lives each year, of which one-third of the people are under the age of 70 years. Since adult cardiomyocytes fail to regenerate, the heart loses the ability to repair itself after an injury, making patients with heart disease suffer from poor prognosis. Pluripotent stem cells have the ability to differentiate into cardiomyocytes in vitro through a well-established process, which is a new advancement in cardiac regeneration therapy. However, pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes have certain drawbacks, such as the risk of arrhythmia and immune incompatibility. Thus, amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSCs), a relatively novel source of stem cells, have been exploited for their ability of pluripotent differentiation. In addition, since AFSCs are weakly positive for the major histocompatibility class II molecules, they may have high immune tolerance. In summary, the possibility of development of cardiomyocytes from AFSCs, as well as their transplantation in host cells to produce mechanical contraction, has been discussed. Thus, this review article highlights the progress of AFSC therapy and its application in the treatment of heart diseases in recent years.


This thesis centers on that aspect of superpower strategic nuclear systems that lies beyond pure deterrence. Much has been offered under the rubric of deterrence, but little analysis of compellence has been attempted. Considering the widespread criticisms of deterrence theory, this is surprising. A comprehensive look at nuclear strategy from the conceptual framework of compellence helps clarify the limits of deterrence and indicates that deterrence and compellence are increasingly interrelated. To demonstrate these assertions, this dissertation provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of intercontinental nuclear systems. The thesis is that nuclear strategy in the United States and the Soviet Union from 1970-1986 may be described at least equally well by compellence rather than deterrence. By looking closely at technological capabilities, the real capability of these nuclear systems can be more accurately determined. This analysis includes an assessment of how these nuclear systems could interact in combat, based on a Soviet correlation of nuclear forces model. This is the first time in the West that this model has been used for this purpose. It provides a unique Soviet perspective on nuclear strategy. This dissertation begins with the theoretical basis of deterrence and compellence, and then establishes two models based on these two concepts which provide the conceptual framework for the dissertation. The second chap ter examines the theoretical basis for arms control based on each paradigm. The next two chapters address alternately the American and the Soviet nuclear strategies, attempting to draw out the deterrent and compellent aspects therein. The fifth chapter narrows the focus to the role of arms control in identifying actual nuclear strategy; to what extent are the superpowers attempting to achieve foreign policy objectives in SALT I, SALT II and START. The sixth chapter considers the NATO-Warsaw Pact relationship to determine to what extent the superpowers are using their respective alliance systems in their strategic interrelationship. The next three chapters analyze quantitatively and qualitatively the American and Soviet strategic nuclear force structures to determine a correlation of forces trend and develop some predictions as to the viability of each force structure in supporting its respective strategy. The paradigmatic analysis of superpower nuclear strategy clearly portrays the limitations of deterrence as an explanation for international strategic behaviour. The compellent paradigm is shown as a reasonable alternative that in many ways better explains what has happened in superpower strategic relations from 1970-1986.


We obtained a hybridoma using immune spleen cells from a mouse injected with human brain tissue factor that had been purified on a factor VII-agarose affinity column. This monoclonal IgG1, HTF1-7B8, inhibits tissue factor procoagulant activity. The concentration of HTF1-7B8 producing half-maximal inhibition is influenced by the concentration of factor VIIa, suggesting that the antibody and enzyme compete for the cofactor. The antibody was successfully used to detect both human and bovine tissue factor on nitrocellulose dot blots, indicating that the epitope recognized by this antibody is conserved in both species. This antibody clearly reveals tissue factor on a Western blot. An HTF1-7B8 affinity column was used to purify tissue factor from both human brain and placenta. The electrophoretic mobilities in polyacrylamide gels in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and the amino acid compositions of the purified tissue factor from brain and placenta are indistinguishable, as are their specific procoagulant activities in reconstituted systems. This antibody will be useful for immunopurification and characterization of tissue factor structure and mechanism.


Interferometric lithography with curved wavefronts produces chirped gratings. The chirp can be longitudinal, with the periodicity changing along the grating wavevector, or transverse, with the periodicity changing in the perpendicular direction. The chirp is investigated for a range of configurations, and specific optical systems to generate a wide range of grating chirp parameters are analyzed.


Auto-bidding is now widely adopted as an interface between advertisers and internet advertising as it allows advertisers to specify high-level goals, such as maximizing value subject to a value-per-spend constraint. Prior research has mainly focused on auctions that are truthful (such as a second-price auction) because these auctions admit simple (uniform) bidding strategies and are thus simpler to analyze. The main contribution of this paper is to characterize the efficiency across the spectrum of all auctions, including non-truthful auctions for which optimal bidding may be complex. For deterministic auctions, we show a dominance result: any uniform bidding equilibrium of a second-price auction (SPA) can be mapped to an equilibrium of any other auction – for example, first price auction (FPA) – with identical outcomes. In this sense, SPA with uniform bidding is an instance-wise optimal deterministic auction. Consequently, the price of anarchy (PoA) of any deterministic auction is at least the PoA of SPA with uniform bidding, which is known to be 2. We complement this by showing that the PoA of FPA without uniform bidding is 2. Next, we show, surprisingly, that truthful pricing is not dominant in the randomized setting. There is a randomized version of FPA that achieves a strictly smaller price of anarchy than its truthful counterpart when there are two bidders per query. Furthermore, this randomized FPA achieves the best-known PoA for two bidders, thus showing the power of non-truthfulness when combined with randomization. Finally, we show that no prior-free auction (even randomized, non-truthful) can improve on a PoA bound of 2 when there are a large number of advertisers per auction. These results should be interpreted qualitatively as follows. When the auction pressure is low, randomization and non-truthfulness is beneficial. On the other hand, if the auction pressure is intense, the benefits diminishes and it is optimal to implement a second-price auction.


"The Companion Guide to St Petersburg" has been published in spring 2003 to coincide with the tercentenary of the founding of the city. Most visitors to St Petersburg have heard at least four facts about it: that it is 'the Venice of the North'; that a vast number of workmen, perhaps a hundred thousand, died in the early years of its construction; that it was built on uninhabited marshes; and that it was founded on territory which did not and never had belonged to Russia. These 'facts' have one feature in common: none of them is true. Few people can say this with more authority that Kyril Zinovieff, who comes from a family associated with the administration of St Petersburg since the eighteenth century. He recalls being taken as a child in 1917 to see the damage done to the Winter Palace - which he found regettably unspectacular. And more: 'My sister and I may have been two of the last people still alive to have seen Rasputin' is the startling beginning of another chapter. His knowledge of the history of his city, where every stone tells a story, is encyclopaedic; his respect for the spiritual strength of its inhabitants unbounded; he has produced a work of charm, humour and erudition with a unique insight into this amazing city. Kyril Zinovieff, as Kyril Fitzlyon, has made noted translations from the Russian, including the "Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky"; this book has been written with Jenny Hughes, formerly of the "Economist" and the "Guardian".


Sperm competition and cryptic female choice profoundly affect sperm morphology, producing diversity within both species and individuals. One type of within‐individual sperm variation is sperm heteromorphism, in which each male produces two or more distinct types of sperm simultaneously, only one of which is typically fertile (the 'eusperm'). The adaptive significance of nonfertile 'parasperm' types is poorly understood, although numerous sperm‐heteromorphic species are known from many disparate taxa. This paper examines in detail two female‐centred hypotheses for the evolution and maintenance of this unconventional sperm production strategy. First, we use game theoretical models to establish that parasperm may function to protect eusperm from female‐generated spermicide, and to elucidate the predictions of this idea. Second, we expand on the relatively undeveloped idea that parasperm are used by females as a criterion for cryptic female choice, and discuss the predictions generated by this idea compared to other hypotheses proposed to explain sperm heteromorphism. We critically evaluate both hypotheses, suggest ways in which they could be tested, and propose taxa in which they could be important.


Psychedelic compounds are regaining widespread interest due to emerging evidence surrounding their therapeutic effects. The controversial nature of these compounds highlights the need for extensive bioethical input to guide the process of medicalisation. To date there is no bioethics literature that consults the voices of psychedelic-using communities in order to help guide normative considerations of psychedelic medicalisation. In this paper I argue that psychedelic-using communities ought to be included in bioethical discussions that guide normative elements of psychedelic medicalisation. I argue this by presenting two points. First, psychedelic-using communities hold a degree of epistemic expertise regarding psychedelics by virtue of their embodied experiences with these compounds. Therefore, these communities are able to identify normative considerations that communities without embodied experiences would overlook. Second, psychedelic-using communities are uniquely and heavily affected by psychedelic medicalisation. Therefore, the needs of these communities ought to be considered when evaluating and implementing normative changes that alter psychedelic usage in society. The counterargument that psychedelic-using communities should not guide normative considerations of psychedelic medicalisation is presented by highlighting empirical data that suggest groups of the public with embodied experiences regarding a topic are less able to engage in deliberative reasoning on the said topic than the lay public. However, I propose that even if this is the case, psychedelic-using communities are owed consultation by agents of psychedelic medicalisation in order to undo and cease perpetuating epistemic injustice against these communities.


Ice hockey is a team sport that requires players to perform at high intensity for a short duration (~ 30 to 45 seconds), thereby necessitating anaerobic conditioning. Off-ice performance measures have long been used for ice hockey players however their usefulness has been debated. This has resulted from potential differences in muscle recruitment, metabolic cost, and level anaerobic conditioning to name a few.
Objective:  The purpose of this investigation was to determine if a relationship exists between off-ice and on-ice performance measures for sprint, power, and agility tests in male and female Division III ice hockey players.
Methods: 51 Division III ice hockey players (M=32; F=19) performed five performance measures for sprint, agility, and power performance (2 sprints; 2 agility; 1 power). The performance measures were the 20 and 40 yard sprints, M test, Pro-Agility, and the Wingate test. Fastest times were recorded for the 20 and 40 yard sprint tests, and the average time of two trials in each direction was recorded for the M test and Pro-Agility. Wingate peak powerwas recorded.
Results: There was a significant relationship between the 20y, 40y and M test in males (r=0.54, 0.62, and 0.56, respectively) on and off-ice.
Conclusion: When using off-ice performance measures for speed and agility, male performance measures were transferrable from off-ice performance to on-ice performance in straight ahead speed measures and agility measures that do not require a hard stop. The lack of a relationship between off and on-ice performance measures in females is not clearly understood and may be related to differences in skating age, and body composition between male and female ice hockey players at the Division III level.


Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is widely accepted as an appropriate method to treat tumors at many different anatomic locations including lung. Dose calculation algorithms that have different degrees of accuracy are used to produce clinical IMRT treatment plans. In this study, Monte Carlo (MC) dose calculation was used to evaluate the reliability of plan evaluation parameters compared to a pencil beam (PB) dose calculation for IMRT of the lung.Twenty fi ve lung IMRT cases were randomly selected for analysis. Plan evaluation parameters were calculated using PB and MC methods for the targets and organs at risk (OARs). Comparisons were made using dose-volume histograms, mean dose, and equivalent uniform dose. The following doses-volume histogram points were compared: D98, D95 of the GTV and PTV, V20 and V30 for the lungs, D33 for the heart and esophagus and Dmax for the spinal cord. Mean dose differences were 3.6 ± 2.3% and 4.3 ± 2.8% for the GTV and PTV, respectively. The average EUD differences were 4.1 ± 2.4% for the GTV and 5.7 ± 4.9% for the PTV. Less than 2% differences were observed between the MC and PB algorithms for all OAR plan evaluation parameters. However, minimum and maximum differences for some plan evaluation parameters ranged from about ±20%.There are appreciable differences in plan evaluation parameters between the PB and MC calculations for the targets. The mean dose and EUD have a weak but statistically signifi cant inverse dependence on the number of fi elds, total MU, GTV volume and PTV volume for the targets. There can be large case-to-case differences between PB and MC for both the targets and OARs. Accurate MC calculations can remove those remaining systematic errors from treatment plans compared to PB calculations.


Spatio-temporal data streams that are generated from mobile stream sources (e.g., mobile sensors) experience similar environmental conditions that result in distinct phenomena. Several research efforts are dedicated to detect and track various phenomena inside a data stream management system (DSMS). In this paper, we use the detected phenomena to reduce the demand on the DSMS resources. The main idea is to let the query processor observe the input data streams at the phenomena level. Then, each incoming continuous query is directed only to those phenomena that participate in the query answer. Two levels of indexing are employed, a phenomenon index and a query index. The phenomenon index provides a fine resolution view of the input streams that participate in a particular phenomenon. The query index utilizes the phenomenon index to maintain a query deployment map in which each input stream is aware of the set of continuous queries that the stream contributes to their answers. Both indices are updated dynamically in response to the evolving nature of phenomena and to the mobility of the stream sources. Experimental results show the efficiency of this approach with respect to the accuracy of the query result and the resource utilization of the DSMS.


In this review of studies on the hemorrhagic fevers of Southern Africa carried out in the South African Institute for Medical Research, attention has been called to occurrence of meningococcal septicemia in recruits to the mining industry and South African Army, to cases of staphylococcal and streptococcal septicemia with hemorrhagic manifestations, and to the occurrence of plague which, in its septicemic form, may cause a hemorrhagic state. "Onyalai," a bleeding disease in tropical Africa, often fatal, was related to profound thrombocytopenia possibly following administration of toxic witch doctor medicine. Spirochetal diseases, and rickettsial diseases in their severe forms, are often manifested with hemorrhagic complications. Of enterovirus infections, Coxsackie B viruses occasionally caused severe hepatitis associated with bleeding, especially in newborn babies. Cases of hemorrhagic fever presenting in February-March, 1975 are described. The first outbreak was due to Marburg virus disease and the second, which included seven fatal cases, was caused by Rift Valley fever virus. In recent cases of hemorrhagic fever a variety of infective organisms have been incriminated including bacterial infections, rickettsial diseases, and virus diseases, including Herpesvirus hominis; in one patient, the hemorrhagic state was related to rubella. A boy who died in a hemorrhagic state was found to have Congo fever; another patient who died of severe bleeding from the lungs was infected with Leptospira canicola, and two patients who developed a hemorrhagic state after a safari trip in Northern Botswana were infected with Trypanosoma rhodesiense. An illness manifested by high fever and melena developed in a young man after a visit to Zimbabwe; the patient was found to have both malaria and Marburg virus disease.


In this paper a two-step integrated process consisting of CO2 supercritical extraction of volatile coffee compounds (the most valuable) from roasted and milled coffee, and a subsequent step of selective removal of pungent volatiles by adsorption on activated carbon is presented. Some experiments were carried out with key compounds from roasted coffee aroma in order to study the adsorption step: ethyl acetate as a desirable compound and furfural as a pungent component. Operational parameters such as adsorption pressure and temperature and CO2 flowrate were optimized. Experiments were conducted at adsorption pressures of 12-17 MPa, adsorption temperatures of 35-50oC and a solvent flow rate of 3-5 kg/h. In all cases, the solute concentration and the activated particle size were kept constant. Results show that low pressures (12 MPa), low temperatures (35oC) and low CO2 flowrates (3 kg/h) are suitable for removing the undesirable pungent and smell components (e.g. furfural) and retaining the desirable aroma compounds (e.g. ethyl acetate). The later operation with real roasted coffee has corroborated the previous results obtained with the key compounds.


Experimental M-shell nickel spectra in the 14.4–16.5 nm region from the JET tokamak (from both divertor and limiter configurations) and from the reversed field pinch RFX have been simulated. These spectra include lines from five ionization states, namely from K-like Ni9+ to P-like Ni13+ ions. For the JET limiter configuration the spectrum upper wavelength limit was higher (18.0 nm) and lines from Si-like Ni14+ ions were also observed. Collisional–radiative (CR) models have been built for these six Ni ions, considering electron collisional excitation and radiative decay as the main populating processes for the excited states. These models give photon emission coefficients (PECs) for the emitted lines at electron density (ne) and temperature (Te) values corresponding to the experimental situations. Impurity modelling is performed using a 1D impurity transport code, calculating the steady state radial distribution of the Ni ions. The Ni line brightnesses are evaluated in a post-processing subroutine and simulated spectra are obtained. The spectrum from a single ion, in the absence of blendings, depends only on the Te and ne values in the emitting shell of the ionization state considered. On the other hand, the superposition of these spectra depends on the experimental conditions, as a consequence of the fact that the ion charge distribution depends not only on the radial profiles of Te and ne, but also on the chosen ionization and recombination rate coefficients and on the radial profiles of the impurity transport coefficients in the region of the emitting shells. Since the aim of the paper is the investigation of the atomic physics of the M-shell ions, the section discussing the plasma physics phenomena is purposely limited. For each experimental spectrum a few simulations are presented, since a unique choice has not been found by selecting the input parameters of the transport code. The effect of the Te and ne values on the emitting shells as well as the influence of line blendings on the single-ionization-degree spectra are stressed. These, in turn, are then compared with the predictions. For the ne range considered the PECs are practically independent of ne. The Te dependence is much reduced due to the fact that the spectral fits performed are actually comparisons of line ratios. The agreement found between experimental and simulated single-ionization-degree spectra gives confidence in the atomic data used in the CR models.


Dwell time is the principal indicator of the Port's efficiency. Dwell time can be broken into three components: operational dwell time, transactional dwell time and discretionary dwell time. All customs and terminal inefficiencies are absorbed in the first two components above. The aim of this study was to determine delivery patterns and find evidence of discretionary behaviours by the importers taking advantage of the long free storage time offered for transit containers. The study was conducted by extracting terminal handling data for import containers for the first quarter of 2014 from Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) terminal and linking this data with clearance data from Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) for the same container records so as to study the trends. Pearson's Correlation Coefficient was used to determine the strength and direction of relationship between the two variables and was found to be equal to 0.725 which shows strong positive correlation. The findings from the analysis suggest that the actual time required to complete customs and terminal procedures is very minimal and that the majority of the deliveries tend to happen in the last days of the expiry of free storage. The general impression from study findings is that delivery of containers is dictated by free time given at the Dar es Salaam Port; subsequently influencing average dwell time of the containers. The study recommends reduction of free time from 14 days to 7 days or less to meet a target of 5 days by 2015 and introduction of punitive demurrage fees to discourage importers from leaving their containers at the port despite finishing clearance processes. Lastly, findings like these should be made available to importers to justify new measures to be taken.


Electrical performance of bonding wire is critical to the reliability of electrical interconnection systems of chip-level packaging for high frequency operation. In this paper, the electrical performance of various bonding wires between chips and packages is presented. The impact of the length, spacing, height and diameter between the bonding wires was carefully examined. In order to investigate the impacts of bonding wire configuration parameters on signal transmission performance, a design of experiment (DOE) was set up. Based on data of DOE, two parameter equations were obtained to express the Radio Frequency characterization of bonding wires. From these equations, the optimized geometric structure parameters were obtained by optimization design. Compared with the previously reported geometric structure, the optimized geometric structure has better electrical performance, making the return loss and coupling decrease 3dB and more than 10 dB, respectively.


Background: Risk factors that are associated with HIV infection are also associated with HBV and HCV infections in sub-Saharan Africa. The HIV-infected pregnant cohort represents a unique population and infection with the hepatitis virus is considered a public health problem worldwide. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis B and C virus parallel and overlapping infections among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Method: Five hundred (500) blood samples were collected from three district hospitals in the FCT and tested at Wuse General Hospital, Abuja for the presence of antibodies to HIV and Hepatitis C virus, and HBsAg by ELISA technique in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. HIV seropositive sera were confirmed by Western blot. Result: Of the 500 pregnant women, those detected with HIV antibodies, HBsAg and anti-HCV antibodies were 42 (8.4%), 19 (3.8%) and 8 (1.6%) respectively. The overall seroprevalence of HIV and HBV or HCV co-infection was 9.5% while 7.1% and 2.4% HIV positive pregnant women were specifically co-infected with HBV and HCV respectively. Those within the age bracket of 15-20 years had the highest prevalence of HIV (13.4%), HBV (5.1%) and HCV (1.9%) infections. Among the occupation characteristics of the women, those of them involved in trading recorded the highest prevalence of HIV (60.6%), HBV (30.3) and HCV (6.1%). HIV was higher among the married women than the singles ((8.6% vs 6.5%); with HBV infection the reverse was the case (3.0% vs 9.8%) while HCV was same for both groups. History of blood transfusion did not reflect a higher rate of HIV and HBV (1.4% vs 9.6%; 2.8% vs 4.0% respectively) unlike HCV infection with 0.5% recorded only among those that had transfusion experience. Conclusion: When monitoring the risk of hepatotoxicity to antiretroviral drugs among these group of patients caution should be maintained. Moreover, evidence of parallel and overlapping HIV, HBsAg and HCV infections among this cohort should motivate inclusion of HBV and HCV among the diseases of surveillance in the national sentinel survey in order to ascertain the bigger picture of these infections in Nigeria.


In nondestructive testing, in order to avoid the processing waste and repair the defects, the accurate location of the inner defects of components has been used to determine the danger of defects, which is very helpful to eliminate the workpiece as soon as possible. In the paper, the theory of binocular vision has been successfully applied to locate the inner defects accurately in the nondestructive testing field. Firstly, a simple and effective mathematical model has been built. Secondly, the simulation method has been used to verify the model. At last, the error theory has been applied to analyze the error, which would have effect on the test result. The most direct and effective method with high precision has also been proposed. It has been proved that the method has high precision and great simplicity to design. Through the X-ray image, the method could also been used to locate the depth information of the inner defects in metal casting, which would provide a good solution to the DR and CT deficiency.


Kakamega forest, the only tropical rainforest in Kenya is divided into three different parts each under a distinct management approach: a state-led incentive-based approach of the Forest department (FD), a privately-owned incentive-based approach of a local Quakers church mission (QCM) and a state-led protectionist approach of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Since conservation involves use of resources and distribution of resulting benefits, economic concerns require that resources be allocated in a way that generates maximum net benefits. In addition, understanding the distribution of costs and benefits of conservation among stakeholders is important for informing equity decisions. Cooperation and support of communities living close to forests is essential for ensuring success of conservation efforts. However, more often than not, views of local communities are not systematically elicited, analyzed and incorporated in conservation decisions. The study applied the framework of cost-benefit analysis to analyze the economic efficiency and to compare the distribution of costs and benefits among stakeholders under the three management approaches at the local, national and global levels. The study further applied the concept of consumer satisfaction to analyze local community satisfaction levels with, and their perceptions of the three management approaches and factors influencing them. Further the study investigated the relative importance of different aspects of forest management offered by forest management agencies to the overall satisfaction of local communities. The results indicate that from a global point of view, the three management approaches are economically efficient. However, from the local and national perspective, the opportunity
costs of conserving the forest outweigh the benefits. The protectionist approach was ranked highest overall for its performance in forest management by the local communities. Educated households and those located far from market centers were more likely to be dissatisfied with all the three management approaches. The location of the households from the forest margin influences negatively the satisfaction with the protectionist approach whereas land size had a similar effect on the private incentive-based approach of the QCM. In general, the three management approaches are perceived in terms of; involvement in decision-making processes, forest extraction and other mitigation measures and conservation incentives offered in order of importance. Regression results showed that these perceptions were influenced by different sets of demographic and socio-economic factors across the three management approaches. To correct the skewed burden of conservation costs, appropriate compensatory mechanisms are needed. Measures should be taken to enhance more participation of people in conservation processes by all the three management approaches. The overall national development goals of increasing income earning opportunities by integrating communities in modern economy and of promoting education could increase their satisfaction with conservation efforts.


Though communicative goals are an important element in language production, few studies investigate the extent to which these goals might affect the form and content of referring expressions. In this study, we directly contrast two tasks with different goals: identification and instruction giving. Speakers had to refer to a target building nearby or further away, so that their addressee would distinguish it between other buildings (identification) or give route directions and use the same building as a landmark (instructions). Our results showed that irrespective of goals, the referring expressions consisted of the same types of attributes, yet the attribute frequency and formulation differed. In the identification task, references were longer, contained more locative and more post-nominal modifiers. In addition, referential choices were influenced by the visual distance between the speaker and the target: when the speaker observed the target from far, references were longer and contained more often locative modifiers.


Flavopiridol (L86-8275), a N-methylpiperidinyl, chlorophenyl flavone, can inhibit cell cycle progression in either G1 or G2 and is a potent cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 1 inhibitor. In this study, we used MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells that are wild type for p53 and pRb positive and contain CDK4-cyclin D1 and MDA-MB-468 breast carcinoma cells that are mutant p53, pRb negative, and lack CDK4-cyclin D1 to investigate the G1 arrest produced by Flavopiridol. Recombinant CDK4-cyclin D1 was inhibited potently by Flavopiridol (Kiapp, 65 nM), competitive with respect to ATP. Surprisingly, CDK4 immunoprecipitates derived from Flavopiridol-treated MCF-7 cells (3 h, 300 nM Flavonolpiridol) had an approximately 3-fold increased kinase activity compared with untreated cells. Cyclin D and CDK4 levels were not different at 3 hr, but cyclin D levels and CDK4 kinase activity decreased thereafter. The phosphorylation state of pRb was shifted from hypercoincident to hypocoincident with the development of G1 arrest. Asynchronous MDA-MB-468 cells were inhibited in cell cycle progression at both G1 and G2 by Flavopiridol. Flavopiridol inhibited the in vitro kinase activity of CDK2 using an immune complex kinase assay (IC50, 100 nM at 400 microM ATP). Immunoprecipitated CDK2 kinase activity from either MCF-7 or MDA-MB-468 cells exposed to Flavopiridol (300 nM) for increasing time showed an initial increased activity (approximately 1.5-fold at 3 h) compared with untreated cells, followed by a loss of kinase activity to immeasurable levels by 24 h. This increased immunoprecipitated kinase activity was dependent on the Flavopiridol concentration added to intact cells and was associated with a reduction of CDK2 tyrosine phosphorylation. Cyclin E and A levels were not altered to the same extent as cyclin D, and neither CDK4 nor CDK2 levels were changed in response to Flavopiridol. Inhibition of the CDK4 and/or CDK2 kinase activity by Flavopiridol can therefore account for the G1 arrest observed after exposure to Flavopiridol.


Clostridium difficile toxin was associated with chronic diarrhea without classic symptoms of colitis in seven children (age range, 7 weeks to 7 years). All patients had received antibiotics. Six of the seven were treated with vancomycin hydrochloride and demonstrated improvement. After treatment, four patients suffered relapses, and three required further therapy. One patient had four relapses. During all clinical relapses, toxin reappeared in the stool; recovery was always associated with its disappearance. Fifty-six percent of family contacts examined had positive cultures. These findings document C difficile as a probable cause of chronic diarrhea in childhood and emphasize its infectious potential.


Original title: "Syriers in Nederland"

The large influx of refugees between 2014 and 2016 meant the Netherlands was faced with a major challenge in organising sufficient reception facilities, establishing an adequate asylum procedure and for those granted a residence permit, arranging accommodation in Dutch municipalities. Now that the flow of refugees has decreased markedly, the emphasis has increasingly moved from dealing with reception facilities and housing towards integration.

Syrians in the Netherlands presents a picture of the Syrian asylum status-holders who have come to live in the Netherlands over the last few years. In this report we describe their flight from Syria and their experiences on the journey. We collected information on how long they spent living in reception centres and their opinion about these centres. We investigate how much attention Syrians devote to the civic integration process and learning the Dutch language, and how good their command of Dutch is. We look at the sociocultural and socio-economic position of Syrians in the Netherlands, including their education level. We also look at what Syrian status-holders think of the Netherlands and to what extent they already feel an affinity with their host country. In addition, the report describes their health status and use of care services. Finally, we present a picture of the lives of Syrian children in the Netherlands aged between 4 and 17 years.

The report is largely based on a new survey in which 3,200 Syrians participated. The study was carried out in collaboration between researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC), the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS). This study forms part of a longitudinal cohort study of asylum-seekers and asylum status-holders which is being carried out at the request of four Dutch ministries (Social Affairs and Employment; Justice and Security; Education, Culture and Science; and Health, Welfare and Sport). We will continue to monitor progress in the integration of asylum status-holders over the coming years using a combination of new surveys, qualitative research and register data.


We study the evolution of an inflation-generated magnetic field, due to its coupling to fluid motions, during cosmological phase transitions. We find that the magnetic field stays almost unchanged on large scales, while on small scales, the spectrum is modified in such a way that power at small scales becomes progressively suppressed. We also show that the magnetic field generates turbulent motions in the initially turbulence-free plasma. On large scales, the slope of the resulting kinetic energy spectrum is consistent with that of white noise.


ABSTRACT The dasycladacean green alga Acetabularia antillana periodically appears in large numbers in shallow-water sheltered environments in the Florida Keys. The calcified aplanospores or reproductive cysts are known as calcispheres when fossilized. The hollow calcispheres from this alga are characteristically 140 to 185 µm in dia. with a 10 to 25 µm thick wall, and are composed of granular to acicular aragonite. The crystals are radiaxially oriented on the outer surface of the calcisphere and randomly oriented within the wall. A circular operculum 40 µm diameter is present in intact calcispheres. When found in abundance calcispheres are excellent indicators of inshore well-sheltered environments. The heavily calcified growth form of A. antillana is approximately 74% skeletal carbonate by dry weight and produces up to 720 gm of aragonite per standing crop per m2 of bottom area. This alga is an important local producer of aragonitic sediments in the less than 10 µm size range.