Dark matter consist of about 25% of our universe, yet the nature of the dark matter is still unknown. Our current understanding of the cosmology is presented in the theory of?CDM. The theory predicts a cold dark matter (CDM). It is very successful at explaining large-scale structures in the distribution of galaxies and of the cosmic microwave background. However, at small-scale there are controversies. One persistent controversy regards the darkmatter density profi?le at the center of the dwarf galaxy. The theory of CDM predicts a steep profi?le that diverges as r-1, while the observations tend to suggest a flatter pro?file.The resolution of this controversy could provide a milestone in our understanding of the nature of dark matter. This work is intended to contribute to that eff?ort by studyingthe dark matter density profi?les of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSph). Dwarf satellite galaxies around Milky Way are some of the most dark matter dominated system we know, and without active star formation they are excellent laboratories to resolve this dichotomy. This thesis presents new methodology that analyzes data with foreground contamination to create the ?first fully consistent inferences of dSph mass density pro?file. We analyze Fornaxand Sculptor dSph as the fi?rst applications. Direct Bayesian inference is made with the kinematic data of each galaxy, using both Osipkov-Merritt and Strigari Frenk and White(SFW) stellar distribution functions. The result shows that Fornax has enough data to constrain the dark matter central density profi?le. It also shows that depending on theconsistency of modeling foreground contaminants, totally opposite results in central density profi?le can be obtained. That shows the importance and the need for consistent treatment of foreground contaminants in future analysis. For the cases where likelihood calculation becomes intractable, kernel density estimation is applied to sample points to approximate the underlying density. Test inferences show that the approximation can reliably recover dark matter density profi?les. Machine learning methods are also applied to address this challenge. Mixture Density Network (MDN) shows great promise, although improvement in training is needed to narrow down the prediction uncertainty.


In this paper, we investigate the optimum carrier-to-sideband ratio (CSR) for maximizing the transmission performance of an optically modulated millimeter-wave signal in a fiber-wireless system via experiment, theory, and simulation. We present a simple analytical model to assess the performance enhancement resulting from optical CSR variations. The model is capable of analyzing systems incorporating binary phase-shift keyed and quaternary phase-shift keyed modulation formats. We quantify the optical CSR of a point-to-point fiber-radio link and establish that the performance of the fiber-wireless links can be significantly improved when the optical signal is transmitted at the optimum CSR of 0 dB. The analysis further shows that the optimum optical CSR is independent of transmission bit rates.


Based on Shamir's threshold scheme and elliptic curve, a new secret sharing scheme for general access structure is proposed. It is able to prevent adversaries from getting the secret and efficiently guard against cheating among participants. Each participant's secret is selected by participant himself and the dealer need not deliver any secret information to each participant. The secret does not need to be changed when the shared secret is renewed, the access structure is altered, and participants are added or deleted. The scheme is characterized by excellent security as well as high efficiency because of no secret communication required in the secret distribution phase.


Introduction: Cancer, a chronic disease that has a high incidence with 14.1 million people and more than 8.1 million deaths, generating a large access gap according to the user's perception. Objectives: To determine the gaps in access to cancer treatment in a Hospital in Peru in 2019, due to predisposing, enabling and necessary factors. Method: observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study with 185 patients diagnosed with cancer who were treated at the oncology department of the Hospital María Auxiliadora between March and December 2019, applying a random survey. Results: The predisposing factors for the gap in access to cancer care were: primary education or none (p= 0.000), female gender (p=0.043), being afraid of a cancer diagnosis (p=0.000), being afraid of interventions (p=0.043) and being over 65 years old (p=0.000), having feelings of helplessness (p=0.000). Within the enabling factors as a gap: not having a job (p=0.011), payment for exams in a private way (p=0.035), stop working (p=0.039), payment for medicines in a private way (p= 0.000), resort to the loan (p= 0.009), health expenditure between 501-1000 soles in health (p=0.048). Of the necessary factors: having moderate to severe anemia (p=0.002) or having required more than one treatment in combination (p=0.003). Conclusions: there is a gap for cancer care such as those concerning the predisposing factor (fear of cancer diagnosis and treatment); enabling (infrastructure and equipment, payment for medicines) and necessary factor (severe anemia).


Aim: To investigate biopharmaceutical and antifungal properties of pure and complexed ellagic acid. Materials & methods: Caco-2 cells cultured in a Transwell® inserts were infected with Candida albicans to develop an in vitro model. Ellagic acid was complexed with cyclodextrins. Microbial compositions, ellagic acid concentration as function of time and characterization studies of complexes were evaluated. Results: Ellagic acid presented ability to reduce C. albicans invasion, although this was not statistically significant. Its poor water solubility and absorption probably limited this ability. Water solubility was increased after complexation with hydroxypropyl-β-CD; however, ellagic acid/hydroxypropyl-β-CD did not improve the antifungal activity. Conclusion: Although ellagic acid presented a promising antifungal activity, its biopharmaceutical properties limit such activity and should be improved.


An injectable collagen matrix gel containing the antimetabolite methotrexate and the sympathicomimetic agent epinephrine with potential antineoplastic activity. After intratumoral injection, methotrexate binds to and inhibits the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase, resulting in inhibition of purine nucleotide and thymidylate synthesis and, subsequently, inhibition of DNA and RNA syntheses. Epinephrine, a potent vasoconstrictor, is added to the gel to enhance penetration of methotrexate into the tumor tissue and reduce dispersion to the surrounding tissues thereby enhancing the local concentration of methotrexate and increasing its anti-tumor activity. Intratumoral injection of methotrexate combined with epinephrine may potentially increase chemotherapeutic efficacy compared to systemic administration and reduce systemic toxicity and side effects. Qeios · Definition, February 2, 2020


The task of designing product forms is becoming increasingly challenging as consumers demand visually pleasing products that meet functional requirements. Researchers have been working on product concept generation systems that support designers in exploring design spaces to produce large numbers of product concepts from which possible solutions can be selected and developed. Such systems typically utilize the searching capabilities of metaheuristic techniques to explore solution spaces and generate variations of product forms. Recent research work in this domain has focused on hybrid approaches that combine metaheuristic techniques with other methods such as shape description and neural network approaches. This paper provides a review of the application, effectiveness and prospects for these approaches.


R. J. Morris has spent at least the last forty years studying the social history of Leeds. In this excellent volume he shows that these decades of careful and painstaking scholarship have paid off. None of the sources used by Morris will be unfamiliar to other researchers, and most of his hypotheses can be found somewhere else, in embryo.(1) Morris has simply milked his sources harder, and pressed his hypotheses farther than anyone hitherto. The empirical core of Morris's book is a study of 374 Leeds wills, probated between 1830 and 1834. He uses these documents to capture a snapshot picture of middle class family structure and its relationship to property, but also to trace this relationship forward and backward in time. An effective will had to accomplish multiple purposes: it had to provide for widows and minor children, it had to divide up family property for the next generation and it had to keep a family business going as long as necessary for the support and security of the members. But then it also had to throw this business on the market at an opportune moment, liquidate the assets, and distribute them to individual heirs, in a manner appropriate for their age, gender and personal capability.


Terrorism and global insecurity present Australia with a number of defence challenges: are Australian voters and election candidates concerned? Survey data, drawn mainly from the 2004 Australian Election Study, show that around half the electorate want to boost defence, ten per cent believe we are secure and any increase is unnecessary, while around one third take a nonchalant attitude. They are unsure whether Australia can be defended (or are certain that it cannot be) but are not inclined to take further action. Candidates standing for election to the federal parliament are even less likely to want to boost defence, and more likely to display a nonchalant attitude. A surprisingly high proportion of Australians, and their potential leaders, take this attitude. In 2004, 36 per cent of voters and 48 per cent of candidates were not sure that Australia could defend itself but, despite this, did not want to spend more on defence.


Previously thought to primarily be a male trait, more recent research efforts into aggression have found that females are just as likely to aggress as males. Rather, gender differences exist in the preferred aggressive styles of males and females. Whilst males tend to be more physically aggressive, female aggression is often less direct, more covert, and tends to target social relationships. However, social forms of aggression are frequently rated as less harmful than direct forms, such as physical or verbal, despite evidence that indirect aggression may be just as harmful as direct aggression. This has implications for the way in which aggressive behaviours, including bullying, are dealt with in several social contexts, including schools, workplaces, and universities. Perceptions of the gendered nature of aggression, and the severity of aggression were investigated using 15 undergraduate students. Using a Q methodological approach, participants underwent two sorting tasks, ranking 25 bullying scenarios according to their own perceptions. Results indicated that there is universal agreement about male and female behaviours. Physical behaviours were most associated with males, and social behaviours were most associated with females. One emergent perspective strongly rated physical behaviours as the most severe form of aggression, while several social scenarios were ranked among the least severe. It was theorised that the 'visibility' of physical behaviours perhaps influenced perceptions. The other perspective appeared to rank based on perceived harm to the victim as the ranking order in this perspective was far more diverse. Overall, designated 'female' behaviours were perceived to be less severe than designated 'male' behaviours. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are addressed.


LHCb is one of the four main experiments located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, and has collected about 3 fb-¹ of proton-proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV and 8 TeV between December 2009 and December 2012. Designed for the study of B-meson decays and for precision CP-violation measurements, the LHCb detector requires a high resolution vertex reconstruction, a precise measurement of the charged particle's momentum and an excellent particle identification. In this thesis, a study of the LHCb magnetic field map and two physics analyses are presented. Based on the magnetic field measurements collected during a dedicated campaign in February 2011, the magnetic field map is corrected for mis-alignments, considering global translations and rotations. A more reliable mapping of the field is provided, and is used for the LHCb event reconstruction since June 2011. As a consequence of this study, the mass resolution is improved, and a better agreement between the software alignment and the survey measurements of the tracking stations is obtained [...]


ABSTRACT This article uses the case study of UNIFIL in South Lebanon to provide fresh empirical evidence on how peace operations influence their security environment. This article discusses the micro-processes of peace operations to show how peace and stability can be maintained through small incremental measures employed consistently over time. Threats to stability are controlled by the actions of both military and civilian actors within a peacekeeping mission: Peacekeepers and Political Affairs Officers. Response mechanisms used by peacekeepers include: a visible security presence; responding to violations; reporting; and collaboration with the Lebanese Armed Forces. Preventative measures used by Political Affairs Officers include, liaison with the military, monthly tripartite meetings and the generation of micro-security arrangements. This article argues two factors facilitate the effectiveness of these mechanisms: good coordination between civilian actors and military actors in a peacekeeping mission and the use of a technocratic approach to resolving disputes on the ground.


Background Researchers are increasingly using social media advertisements to recruit participants because of their many advantages over traditional methods. Although there is growing evidence for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of social media recruitment in the health sciences, no studies have yet examined this in the context of suicide prevention, which remains to be a highly stigmatized and sensitive topic. Objective This study aims to recruit a general community sample to complete a survey on suicide literacy, stigma, and risk via Facebook advertisements. Specifically, we aim to establish the performance of the advertisements, cost-effectiveness, sample representativeness, and the impact of gender-specific advertising on recruiting men into the study. Methods From June 2017 to March 2019, we released Facebook advertisements targeted at adults 18 years or older, residing in the New South Wales (NSW) trial or control regions, and involved in the LifeSpan suicide prevention trial. Cost-effectiveness was examined descriptively using metrics provided by Facebook. Chi-square analyses were conducted to determine demographic differences between our sample and the general NSW population as well as the impact of gender-specific advertisements on gender engagement. Results The 14 Facebook advertisement campaigns reached a total of 675,199 people, yielding 25,993 link clicks and resulting in 9603 individuals initiating the survey (7487 completions) at an overall cost of Aus $2.81 (US $2.01) per participant. There was an overrepresentation of younger (P=.003), female (P=.003), highly educated (P<.001) participants and mental health conditions (P<.001) compared with the total NSW population. The use of male-specific advertisements resulted in a significantly higher proportion of men completing the survey relative to gender-neutral advertisements (38.2% vs 24.6%; P<.001). Conclusions This study demonstrates the potential of Facebook to be an effective, low-cost strategy for recruiting a large sample of general community participants for suicide prevention research. Strategies to improve sample representativeness warrant further investigation in future research.


Previous work had indicated that the harvest index within cultivars of soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] might be fairly stable. Such stability of harvest index would greatly simplify the conceptualization of the influence of seed growth processes on yield. In the studies reported here harvest index of field-grown soybean plants was measured in response to four types of environmental influence: interplant competition, extended photoperiod, timing of drought stress, and degrees of drought stress (line source irrigation). The experiments included both indeterminate and determinate cultivars, and included both a northern (Ithaca, N.Y.) and southern location (Gainesville, Fla). These experimental conditions resulted in considerable variability in plant sizes within a cultivar but the harvest index (ratio of seed mass to mass of mature plant without fallen leaves and petioles) was stable. Total masses of individual mature 'Chippewa 64' and 'Bragg' plants varied substantially in response to interplant competition, but harvest index was essentially constant (0.54 and 0.50 for Chippewa 64 and Bragg, respectively) across most of the range of plant sizes. Harvest index of smaller plants was less than for larger plants, but these smaller plants have little influence on total crop yield and harvest index. Extending the photoperiod to 14.5 h throughout the life cycle of six cultivars increasingly delayed ontogenic events as the distance from the photoperiod lamps decreased. However, no influence on harvest index was observed except at the position nearest the lamps where the standard errors of the harvest indices were increased. Harvest index did not respond to differences in the timing of severe drought stress. When rain was withheld from 'Wilkin' plants during vegetative growth, flowering, or seed setting, harvest index of individual plants was essentially 0.60. Only those plants stressed late in pod filling had lower harvest index and increased variability in harvest index. Seed yields (Chippewa 64, Wilkin, and 'Evans' for three planting dates) decreased substantially as degree of drought stress, induced by increasing distance from a line source irrigation system, increased yet, harvest index changed negligibly with distance from the line source. Thus, we conclude that harvest index is a conservative characteristic within each soybean cultivar.


In this work we focus on the dynamics of the conflict that often arises in a police interview between suspects and police officers. Police interviews are a special type of social encounter, primarily because of the authority role of the police interviewer and the often uncooperative stance that the suspect takes: a conflict situation. The skill to resolve or reduce the conflict, to make an uncooperative suspect more cooperative, requires training of the police officer. Leary's interactional circumplex [2] is used in police interview training as a theoretical framework to understand how suspects take stance during an interview and how this is related to the stance that the interviewer takes. The circumplex consists of two axes, power (dominance-submission) and affiliation (opposed-together) and is divided in stances. Leary predicts the dynamics between the stances of interactants which he calls "interpersonal reflexes". Acts on the power dimension are complementary (dominant invokes submissive and vice versa) and acts on the affiliation dimension are symmetric (together invokes together, and opposed invokes opposed). Currently, officers practice applying this theory with expensive actors that are sparsely available. Artificial conversational characters that play the role of a suspect in a police interrogation game, a game where policemen can practice applying Leary's theory, would allow for cheaper training and fewer restriction in time and location of the training. Building artificial suspects requires explicit models of strategies and tactics that policemen apply and explicit models of the relevant internal psycho-social mechanisms that underlie the behaviors of a suspect in a police interview. Therefore, we annotated (practice) police interviews on the stance the suspect (professional actors) and police officer take towards each other. Depending on the part, up to nine independent annotators labeled the stance of the speech contributions in three police interviews (using audio and video). In the interviews, one or two officers interviewed one suspect. The result was a small corpus of 50 minutes and 1300 contributions annotated on stance. First, we investigated whether different observers (annotators) agree on the type of stance that suspects and policemen take by having all annotators annotate a small part of the corpus. Labeling stance on the level of speech segments is difficult. Even when the annotators were allowed to discuss, they were often unable to come to an unanimous agreement of the stance displayed. We found that although inter-annotator agreement on stance labeling is low (Krippendorf's a = 0:24), a majority voting "meta-annotator" was able to reveal the important dynamics and trends in stance taking in a police interview with relative high "inter-meta-annotator" accuracy (Cohen's = 0:55) [3]. The results of the meta-annotator showed that police officers generally take a dominant-together stance. This is part of their taught strategy. According to Leary's theory this stance would make the suspect move to a submissive-together stance, resulting in a cooperative dialogue. Indeed, our meta-annotator showed that a suspect goes from a typical opposed stance at the start of the interview to a more cooperative stance later. This shows the correctness of Leary's theory in the special type of conversations, police interviews, where conflict is abundant and interactants are engaged in uncooperative dialogue. It also shows the applicability of the theory in modeling an artificial suspect. Annotations showed that the trend towards cooperation in suspects is not always visible and sometimes destroyed. This occurs when suspects felt disrespected or threatened by the interviewer, showing that Leary's theory alone is insufficient to model a police interview or a convincing artificial suspect. Other psycho-social theories (e.g. face threats [1]) should be taken into account in future models for artificial suspects and perhaps be made explicit in the police training.


BACKGROUND
We carried out a meta-analysis to determine the effectiveness of breast conservation therapy (BCT) or mastectomy (MT) for stage I or stage II breast cancer.

METHODS
A fully recursive literature search was conducted in the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register Databases, Medline, EMBASE and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database in any language. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were considered for inclusion. Analyses were carried out using RevMan software.

RESULTS
In all, 18 RCTs including a total of 9388 patients were included. The meta-analysis showed that the overall survival in 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 years and the locoregional recurrence rate in 3, 5, 15 and 20 years were not statistically significantly different between group BCT and group MT, but 10-year locoregional recurrence rate increased in group BCT. The sensitivity analysis indicated that both overall survival and locoregional recurrence rate were not statistically significant difference between group BCT and group MT. In the subgroup analysis, there was no significant difference in OS and locoregional recurrence rate between group BCT and group MT, but 20-year locoregional recurrence rate was statistically significantly higher in group BCT than group MT for women with tumors 2 cm or smaller.

CONCLUSION
BCT was better choice than MT for women with stage I or stage II breast cancer.


Interleukin-15 is a novel proinflammatory cytokine. It is produced by activated blood monocytes, macrophages, and glial cells. The objective of our study was to assess the role of interleukin-15 as a marker of increased proinflammatory activity in patients with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. We measured cerebrospinal fluid interleukin-15 levels in 17 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 7 patients with frontotemporal dementia in comparison with 17 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and 15 patients with Parkinson's disease. Patients with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia had significantly higher cerebrospinal fluid interleukin-15 levels compared with patients with noninflammatory neurological diseases (P < .05 and P < .01, respectively). In Alzheimer's disease, a significant positive correlation was noted between interleukin-15 levels and age of onset (R = .48, P = .05). Our findings suggest that interleukin-15 may be implicated in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia.


For several years the county of Stockholm has seen the emergence of increased tension between demographic and residential development and water and wastewater service provision. On one hand, the population of the county has increased by an average of 1% per year in the last ten years, lifestyles have changed, and secondary homes are being occupied on a permanent basis. On the other hand, water needs are increasing overall; policies promote connection to municipal networks; the costs and financing associated with infrastructure extensions are becoming more complex, and national and European regulations of autonomous water and wastewater systems are becoming stricter along environmental and health lines. Through the example of Norrtalje, a municipality in the Stockholm archipelago where water and wastewater services are, in various forms, at the heart of planning policy, the article analyses the articulation between a liberal urban development policy and the management of water and wastewater services in highly contrasting local areas. This analysis reflects on existing and future socio-spatial implications of these trends in urban change and in the forms of service provision.


The amassing of health information on the Internet and World Wide Web continues unabated. Patients anxious to participate in decisions about their own treatment have turned to the Internet to confirm diagnoses, validate physician-recommended treatment, or seek alternative therapies. While increased information for patients has been linked to improved outcomes, there are inherent dangers associated with the kind of unauthenticated information available on the Web. The authors discuss the nature of these dangers as well as review the advantages for patients of "information therapy" (improved access to health information). They also examine how the Internet has begun to affect the physician-patient relationship, and describe how the Internet and information technology can be effectively used by physicians in patient care. They recommend that the academic health sciences community seize the opportunity to take the lead in ensuring that patients have access to reliable health information, and suggest that "patient informatics" be integrated by academic physicians and educators into the teaching of clinical skills.


The malfunction of safety-critical systems may cause damage to people and the environment. Software within those systems is rigorously designed and verified according to domain specific guidance, such as ISO26262 for automotive safety. This paper describes academic and industrial co-operation in tool development to support one of the most stringent of the requirements — achieving full code coverage in requirements-driven testing. We present a verification workflow supported by a tool that integrates the coverage measurement tool RapiCover with the test-vector generator FShell. The tool assists closing the coverage gap by providing the engineer with test vectors that help in debugging coverage-related code quality issues and creating new test cases, as well as justifying the presence of unreachable parts of the code in order to finally achieve full effective coverage according to the required criteria. To illustrate the practical utility of the tool, we report about an application of the tool to a case study from automotive industry.


Prevalence of obesity among infants and children below 5 years of age is rising dramatically, and early childhood obesity is a forerunner of obesity and obesity-associated diseases in adulthood. Childhood obesity is hence one of the most serious public health challenges today. Here, we have identified a mother-to-child lipid signaling that protects from obesity. We have found that breast milk-specific lipid species, so-called alkylglycerol-type (AKG-type) ether lipids, which are absent from infant formula and adult-type diets, maintain beige adipose tissue (BeAT) in the infant and impede the transformation of BeAT into lipid-storing white adipose tissue (WAT). Breast milk AKGs are metabolized by adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) to platelet-activating factor (PAF), which ultimately activates IL-6/STAT3 signaling in adipocytes and triggers BeAT development in the infant. Accordingly, lack of AKG intake in infancy leads to a premature loss of BeAT and increases fat accumulation. AKG signaling is specific for infants and is inactivated in adulthood. However, in obese adipose tissue, ATMs regain their ability to metabolize AKGs, which reduces obesity. In summary, AKGs are specific lipid signals of breast milk that are essential for healthy adipose tissue development.


Recent developments in digital pen and paper solutions enable, not only the digital capture of handwriting, but also paper to be used as an interactive medium that links to digital information and services. We present a tool that builds on technologies for interactive paper to enable PowerPoint presentations to be controlled from printed slide handouts. Furthermore, slides can be easily annotated during presentations by simply drawing on the printed version of the slide. As well as discussing the advantages of such a paper-based interface and initial findings on its use, we describe how we were also able to exploit it to provide a general prototyping tool for interactive paper applications.


Importance
Observational data linking physical activity and exercise exposure with reduced risk of either development or progression of cancer have fueled interest in the initiation of large-scale definitive trials to test the association of exercise therapy with disease outcomes. However, several major knowledge gaps impede the rational and optimal design of such trials.

Observations
Critical requirements underpinning the success of several recent contemporary anticancer agents have included adequate demonstration of antitumor activity (in phase 1/2 trials) as well as identification of essential prerequisites (eg, biologically effective dose and predictors of response) permitting optimal design of definitive trials. The existing evidence base investigating exercise as a candidate anticancer preventive or treatment strategy is predominantly confined to observational data, which have several inherent limitations. Consequently, the antitumor activity of exercise remains unclear and, perhaps more important, such data are not sufficient to accurately derive the exercise dose, prescription regimen, or patients most likely to benefit from exercise. In adherence with translational frameworks for lifestyle therapy development, the need for early phase 1/2-equivalent trials to fill current knowledge gaps to optimize the development and potential efficacy of exercise therapy is highlighted.

Conclusions and Relevance
Exercise therapy has significant promise to be an efficacious and cost-effective therapy to improve cancer outcomes, with few toxic effects. Although most nontraditional therapies in cancer prevention and prognosis fail in definitive trials, these failures provide critical lessons for the continued development of exercise as a candidate anticancer therapy.


A patient suffering from lateral medullary infarction (Wallenberg's syndrome) is presented, exhibiting a striking bias of all saccadic eye movements toward the side of the lesion. Oculographic tracings demonstrate this oculomotor disorder. Other disturbances of ocular motility which resemble this one superficially are discussed. Interruption of fixation leads to a gliding movement veeringly to the side of the infarction. Since all saccades generated under different circumstances are affected, it is contemplated where the pathological signal is intruded into the prenuclear level, to adulterate all saccades causing lateropulsion of saccadic eye movements.


The design of a practical ATM network continues to be challenging, owing to the difficulty in the accurate estimation of user traffic and the wide range of user's quality of service requirements. There is little consensus on the characterization of network performance, users' satisfaction, and the efficiency of network usage. This paper develops a single metric for network performance that captures the efficiency of resources usage, from the network point of view, and the users' satisfaction, from the user point of view. The metric is evaluated for a 19-node ATM network, organized through a three-tiered hierarchy, and subject to asymmetric traffic.


Purpose – Market‐based theories assume that firms' different strategic commitments to businesses lead to different strategic positions within the industry. While the institutional perspective from organization theory emphasizes the institutional pressures which lead to legitimacy and firm isomorphism, it is not clear yet how intra‐industry organizations behave during institutional transitions. The purpose of this paper is to combine the insights of these theories by examining the role of market and institutional forces in affecting industry strategic variety and its impact on average industry performance in transitional China, based on the strategic view of neoinstitutional theory. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical tests are carried out using industrial enterprise data of China from 2000 to 2006. Findings – Empirical results using industrial enterprise data of China from 2000 to 2006 suggest that: industry competitiveness has a strong positive influence on strategic variety; the weakening relationship between government and market leads to increased strategic variety; and indicators of strategic variety have complicated effects on industry performance. Originality/value – The strategic view of neoinstitutional theory was used to gain a better understanding of intra‐industry strategic variety during the institutional transition of China. Thus this paper combines seemingly contradictory theories in our understanding of how intra‐industry organizations behave in response to institutional change.


As component integration pursuing "More-than-Moore" functionality creates densely populated wireless and high-speed electronics, simulating the interaction between device and environment becomes increasingly critical in capturing real-world performance. This paper examines the evolution of physics-based modeling and design using electromagnetic simulation from the component level toward larger and more complex models of fully integrated electrical systems, from multi-chip modules to aircraft with multiple mounted antennas and supporting electronics. Advances in computational techniques and the growing capacity of high-performance compute clusters now readily support simulation of these larger problems. Case studies using ANSYS HFSS will be shown to solve problems that are significantly larger in less time compared to the capabilities of just a few years ago. Along with a "Moore's law" advance in computation speed and capacity, new techniques in design automation are shown to allow users a means to integrate individual 3D EM models into larger hierarchical networks and systems, thereby supporting high-fidelity system modeling and design optimization.


This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of accelerated ageing and natural storage on seed germination and seedling heterotrophic growth of chickpea in Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in 2014. The experiment was carried out, adopting a completely randomized design with four replications. Treatments were 8 ageing levels (i.e., 2 years, and 4 years natural storage; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 days of accelerated ageing and a control). The r esults showed that the effect of ageing treatment on all the traits was significant. Reduction of germination percentage, germination rate, root and shoot length seed vigor index and seedling dry weight of 4 and 5 accelerated ageing days was higher than 2 and 4 natural storage years. Electrical conductivity of seed lots increased by an increase in accelerated ageing to 4 and 5 days, which was higher than 2 and 4 natural storage years. This is due to incapability of a membrane to keep its permeability, which is the result of higher sensitivity of seeds to accelerated ageing. Reduction of the rate and efficiency of reserves used and also dynamic reserves in natural storage was lower than 4 and 5 accelerated ageing days. However, maximum rate and efficiency of reserves used and also dynamic reserves were obtained at 2 accelerated ageing days. This could be due to increase in repair reaction rates under these conditions and activation of hydrolytic enzymes in seeds. Finally, the results of the present study revealed that damages to chickpea seed at 4 and 5 accelerated ageing days are more than 2 and 4 natural storage years, which leads to the reduction of germination percentage and rate.


Author(s): Yang, Xinjie | Advisor(s): Swindlehurst, Arnold Lee | Abstract: With the rapid development of wireless communications, security becomes extremely important. In many applications, each transmitter desires to send independent and confidential message to its intended receiver while ensuring mutual information-theoretic secrecy. In this dissertation, I study strategies for enhanced secrecy in wireless communication systems with limited rate feedback and transmitter cooperation. The two-user Gaussian channel model is considered under different scenarios. The transmitters both require channel state information (CSI), which is quantized at the receiver and fed back through the sum-rate-limited feedback channels. The quantization errors reduce the beamforming gain from the direct transmitter, and cause interference leakage from the cross transmitter. In the first scenario, I introduce the wiretap channel model where one receiver is a known eavesdropper, and a second transmitter is used to send a cooperative jamming signal to degrade the eavesdropper's channel. I consider two cases, one where no information about the eavesdroppers is available, and one where statistical CSI is available. With no information about the eavesdroppers, I show how to choose the allocation of feedback bits to the transmitters in order to maximize the amount of jamming power available to interfere with the eavesdroppers, subject to maintaining the lower bound on the rate at a minimum quality-of-service level. For the case of statistical CSI, I derive an approximate lower bound on the average secrecy rate, and optimize the bound to find a suitable bit allocation and the transmit power allocated to the transmitters. In the second scenario, I consider the interference channel model where the two transmitters are amenable to cooperation for improving the overall secrecy performance of the system. I derive an approximation for the average secrecy rate of each link, and optimize the sum secrecy rate over the transmit power and feedback bits allocated to the transmitters. Interestingly, increasing the transmit power beyond a certain point decreases the secrecy performance. When the transmitters have the same number of antennas, I derive the results in closed form. Simulations validate the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the significant performance gains that result from the use of optimal transmit power control and intelligent feedback bit allocation.


Summary

1. There is increasing evidence to link major declines in skylark populations in Britain to agricultural intensification. However, whether causal mechanisms identified through localized studies can be generalized to the national scale remains unknown. The abundance of breeding skylarks was determined by surveying singing males in over 600 randomly selected 1-km squares throughout Britain, in which skylarks recorded were assigned to homogeneous habitat patches. A more intensive survey of skylarks was carried out on lowland farmland sites in England. Singing males were assigned to specific crop types, and data on crop height and field boundary features were recorded.

2. Skylark occupancy (presence/absence) and density where birds were present (i.e. omitting zero counts) were analysed in relation to habitat type, habitat diversity and time of year, using generalized linear modelling.

3. Set-aside, moorland and winter cereals had high rates of skylark occupancy at the national scale. Set-aside had consistently high rates of occupancy and high densities across the breeding season at different spatial scales. Apart from set-aside, there was little difference in density between habitats in the early half (March to mid-May) of the breeding season. In the later half of the breeding season (mid-May to July), density declined significantly on winter cereals, which showed significantly lower density than a number of habitats at this time, including spring cereals, legumes and moorland.

4. Within lowland farmland, there were significant effects of crop height on skylark occupancy, with crops of greater than 30 cm in height being occupied at relatively low rates. Winter cereals reached this height significantly earlier in the breeding season than a number of other crops, including spring cereals and legumes.

5. Skylark density increased with increasing habitat diversity across the whole sample of 1-km squares and in lowland 1-km squares in England. However, within the lowland farmland plots in England, skylark density showed a significant decrease with increasing habitat diversity. These conflicting results suggest that crop type rather than habitat diversity per se is important.

6. The effects of vegetation height on skylark abundance support the hypothesis that increases in winter cereal, and simultaneous loss of spring cereal, have had an adverse effect on skylark populations by reducing the number of breeding attempts made per year. These results support findings from smaller scale studies showing the generality of these habitat effects at different spatial scales. The extent of the British skylark population associated with agricultural land suggests that sympathetic changes in farming practice are likely to provide the best mechanism for improving the status of this species. The inclusion of options, such as spring cereal or fallow land (an equivalent to set-aside), in agri-environment schemes is likely to benefit skylarks breeding on farmland by providing suitable nesting habitat throughout the breeding season. In addition, reductions in the intensity with which cereals are managed, such as reduced pesticide and fertilizer input under approaches such as precision farming, and the creation of sparser patches of cereal sward, are also likely to increase the suitability of winter cereals for nesting skylarks.


A variety of applications of amphiphilic block copolymers result from the control of their self-assembled structures. Herein, the synthesis and structure formation of block copolymers (BCPs) consisting of poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) as one segment and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) or a statistical copolymer (PDMAEMA-co-PMMA) as a second segment, is described. The BCPs provide molar masses between 8.9 kg mol−1 and 35.6 kg mol−1 with low polydispersity index values, Đ = 1.05–1.13. BCPs are synthesized via sequential anionic polymerization strategies while structure formation in water is investigated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The PDMAEMA-containing micelles in water are loaded with a Ru(II) polypyridyl complex, i.e. [Ru(bipy)2-dppz-7-hydroxymethyl][PF6]2 (bipy = 2,2′-bipyridine; dppz = dipyridophenazine), which was previously shown to act as a potential photosensitizer in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Successful loading of the BCP micelles is evidenced by TEM measurements after dialysis in water. Stimulus-responsive release of the Ru(II) complex from the BCP micelles is shown using ultrasound, change of pH or temperature as external triggers. The quantification and release profiles for the Ru(II) complex are obtained by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). As a result, PDMAEMA-b-PMMA is not capable of releasing the Ru(II) complex in a controlled manner after application of, for instance, ultrasound or temperature change as external triggers due to the shielding (stealth effect) of the BCP. On the contrary, micelles made of BCPs featuring PDMAEMA and PDMAEMA-co-PMMA segments reveal excellent Ru(II) complex release profiles due to the tailored molecular composition of the underlying block segments as evidenced by temperature-dependent DLS and AAS measurements. Thus, these smart PDMAEMA-containing BCPs pave the way to a variety of applications for selective triggered release of small molecules.


Laser-based dynamic analysis has become a very important tool for analyzing advanced process technology and complex circuit design. Thus, many good reference papers discuss high resolution, high sensitivity, and useful applications. However, proper interpretation of the measurement is important as well to understand the failure behavior and find the root cause. This paper demonstrates this importance by describing two insightful case studies with unique observations from laser voltage imaging/laser voltage probing (LVP), optical beam induced resistance change, and soft defect localization (SDL) analysis, which required an in-depth interpretation of the failure analysis (FA) results. The first case is a sawtooth LVP signal induced by a metal short. The second case, a mismatched result between an LVP and SDL analysis, is a good case of unusual LVP data induced by a very sensitive response to laser light. The two cases provide a good reference on how to properly explain FA results.


Those who are familiar with psychiatric inpatient settings will be aware of the expressions 'doing the obs', 'being on checks' and 'special observations'. That is because the task of observing patients is seen as being pivotal to the mental health nursing role. This paper describes an ethnographic research project that offers a rethinking of psychiatric observation. The author uses data from an ethnographic research project to provide an examination of the structure, process and outcome of this seemingly straightforward nursing task and explores how 'doing the obs' has additional symbolic and cultural meaning similar to what Barthes terms myth. The symbolic connotations are numerous and wide-ranging and expose a practice that could be said to punctuate daily activities and an ordering of relationships between nurses and services users. The classic sociological issues of status, power and containment are all relevant, yet rethought. The use of ethnographic research allowed the author to focus on the more symbolic cultural dynamics and develop five initial ethnographic themes concerning the constituting experience of watching and being watched.


Abstract This paper provides a polemic interpretation of recent Hungarian public-administration reforms compared to the opinions that can be found in international scientific literature. The divergence of the various interpretations stems from the different perspectives on the historic context of the development path of the Hungarian municipal administration during the pre- and post-regime change period. The differences in the interpretation of the achievements of the regime change determine whether one would suggest a minor correction or a total replacement - if given the possibility. After briefly describing the public-administration legacy of the communist past and of the post-communist decades, the article delves into the analysis of the financial unsustainability of the highly decentralized local-government system. The analysis builds on the findings of international financiers that operate as policy- transfer powerhouses, as well. Bursting financial tensions led to Hungary's loan agreement with the IMF in 1996. Although the loan was paid back by 1998, internal systemic inefficiencies stemming from the uneasy compromises of the regime change still had their corroding effect, although vulnerable finances were veiled by occasional conjunctures in the domestic and international economy. In the year 2008, the country became virtually insolvent and again applied for an IMF loan. The IMF itself formulated certain measures to increase the efficiency of the overdecentralized local-government system. Unlike its predecessor, the government that stepped into power in 2010 had the political power to launch systemic corrections in the local-government system. The reforms contained a trade-off : the majority of local competences in exchange for fiscally consolidating local governments. This is labeled as a trade-off between efficiency and democracy by certain authors. It is a fact that the overdecentralized form of local public administration was inefficient and unsustainable. Now there is an opportunity to test whether an overcentralized public administration would be efficient.


Imagine a world where machines can see and understand the world the way humans do. Rapid progress in artificial intelligence has led to smartphones that recognize faces, cars that detect pedestrians, and algorithms that suggest diagnoses from clinical images, among many other applications. The success of computer vision is founded on a deep understanding of the neural circuits in the brain responsible for visual processing. This book introduces the neuroscientific study of neuronal computations in the visual cortex alongside of the psychological understanding of visual cognition and the burgeoning field of biologically inspired artificial intelligence. Topics include the neurophysiological investigation of the visual cortex, visual illusions, visual disorders, deep convolutional neural networks, machine learning, and generative adversarial networks, among others. It is an ideal resource for students and researchers looking to build bridges across different approaches to studying and developing visual systems.


Most conventional statistical methods aiming at defining geochemical concentration thresholds for separating anomalies from background have limited effectiveness in areas with complex geological settings and variable lithology. In this paper, median+2MAD as a method of exploratory data analysis (EDA) and concentration-area (C-A) fractal model as two effective approaches in separation geochemical anomalies, are used to identify geochemical anomalies in the Takab 1:25000 geochemical data sheet by using stream sediment geochemical data and lithogeochemical samples. We compared the anomalous area created using thresholds from various methods on the same data against known deposits and lithogeochemical samples. Results indicated that EDA methods are more impressible by lithology and could not well identify the geochemical anomalies in the areas with variable lithology. On the other hand, the C-A model based on the distinct anisotropic scaling properties, was better in revealing local geochemical anomalies, because it considered the spatial characteristics of geochemical variables.


The welfare state remains the subject of intense debate over its effects and effectiveness. How has it responded to changes in community values, political priorities and global economic forces? Statistics on the size of the welfare state must be treated with care, particularly those which compare developments across different countries. The Australian data confirm that spending by government on welfare programs continued to rise over the 1990s, as had employment in those industries that provided welfare services. The same general trend is apparent for most other OECD countries, although Australia continues to spend one of the lowest proportions of GDP on its welfare programs. In 1992, the ratio of social expenditure to GDP in Australia was lower than that prevailing in all but five OECD countries in 1980. Whether the past trajectory of welfare expenditure continues on an upward path, will depend on how the welfare state responds to some of its current challenges. Three of the specific 'crises' alleged to be confronting the welfare state are discussed in this paper: the demographic crisis; the crisis of affordability; and the crisis of legitimacy. All three phenomena remain relatively poorly understood and each would benefit from an increased research effort. Those who describe the underlying forces as constituting a 'crisis' are generally trying to generate community support for the need for change. While it is clear that contextual changes often require a change in policy, the crucial issue facing the Australian welfare state is whether it can embrace internal change without undermining its role as the buffer against external change for those who are experiencing it.


This paper compares two approaches to computational semantics, namely semantic unification in Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammars (LTAG) and Lexical Resource Semantics (LRS) in HPSG. There are striking similarities between the frameworks that make them comparable in many respects. We will exemplify the differences and similarities by looking at several phenomena. We will show, first of all, that many intuitions about the mechanisms of semantic computations can be implemented in similar ways in both frameworks. Secondly, we will identify some aspects in which the frameworks intrinsically differ due to more general differences between the approaches to formal grammar adopted by LTAG and HPSG.


New measures are needed to rapidly assess emerging treatments for cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. Using an imaging approach, we evaluated the absorptive clearance of the radiolabeled small molecule probe diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid (DTPA) as an in vivo indicator of changes in airway liquid absorption. DTPA absorption and mucociliary clearance rates were measured in 21 patients with CF (12 adults and nine children) and nine adult controls using nuclear imaging. The effect of hypertonic saline on DTPA absorption was also studied. In addition, in vitro studies were conducted to identify the determinants of transepithelial DTPA absorption. CF patients had significantly increased rates of DTPA absorption compared with control subjects but had similar mucociliary clearance rates. Treatment with hypertonic saline resulted in a decrease in DTPA absorption and an increase in mucociliary clearance in 11 out of 11 adult CF patients compared with treatment with isotonic saline. In vitro studies revealed that ∼50% of DTPA absorption can be attributed to transepithelial fluid transport. Apically applied mucus impedes liquid and DTPA absorption. However, mucus effects become negligible in the presence of an osmotic stimulus. Functional imaging of DTPA absorption provides a quantifiable marker of immediate response to treatments that promote airway surface liquid hydration. Functional imaging detects liquid absorption and mucociliary clearance in cystic fibrosis airways http://ow.ly/uPuX2


In 1994 Congress passed the National Space Transportation Policy (NTSP) that called on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to pursue the development of government and private sector partnerships, and to create private commercial spaceport and launch facilities capable of supporting affordable and sustainable space exploration. Since the passage of the NTSP, NASA has sought to develop collaborative public/private partnerships and foster new intergovernmental relationships for the development of technologically advanced space vehicles and the creation of a commercially based space transportation system. The loss of the Columbia and the lack of viable replacement in the near-term for the shuttle have emphasized the lack of a realistic long-term policy vision for America to create a viable and cost effective space transportation system. Given the current competition for space program funding with national security concerns, it is important that future space program policy possess a clear understanding of how sustainable transportation systems have traditionally evolved in America. This paper examines public/private relationships and how past intergovernmental interdependencies have impacted the development of canal, railroad and aviation transportation systems within the United States. The goal of this paper is to identify transportation models that NASA may use in the development of a national space transportation system. Growth of transportation systems can be best viewed as an incremental process fueled by economic demand and support of national security and shaped by both the geography of the United States and the advancement of transportation technology. The role of government and its relationship with private enterprise in development of American transportation systems has been varied and often complex. Study of canal, railroad and aviation systems reveals that development of individual transportation systems was most often undertaken by private enterprise and local and state governments. Sustainability of these systems has become increasingly dependent on federal government sponsorship, funding and regulation. Financing methods for transportation systems has also been extremely varied. These strategies included public improvement bonds, loans, and issuance of stocks, barter arrangements, earmarked state revenues, debt, and tolls. States and federal government have also levied taxes on tickets, cargo, fuel, and on transportation companies. In times of emergency, transportation systems have also benefited from extensive federal financial assistance and protective legislative to safeguard national commerce and security. Private ownership and operation of transportation modes, canals, railroads and airline companies, and/or operation of key transportation nodes, such as airports, by local governments are clearly preferred by both citizens and legislators. Each major system has relied on extensive involvement of both the public and private sectors. These respective roles have differed by system and have changed to some extent over time. Transportation systems typically developed in a fragmented, incremental manner. Thus, we have historically not had consistent national policies related to transportation. The federal government, however, almost exclusively developed space transportation. Because of this, widespread involvement by commercial actors,


Carp which have received an intraperitoneal injection of k-carrageenan show a high survival rate after being challenged with pathogenic bacteria. In order to elucidate the mechanism underlying the im munoenhancement, we investigated its effects on the non-specific defense system of carp. k-Carragee nan had little influence on the activity of the alternative complement pathway or on the phagocytic and respiratory burst activities of head kidney phagocytes (HKP), yet it greatly elevated the migration of HKP to the peritoneal cavity. Since the migrated HKP (especially macrophages) showed a high phago cytic activity, it is highly probable that the early elimination of challenge bacteria by such mobilized and activated phagocytes was responsible for the high survival rate of the K-carrageenan-injected fish. It was also found that the phagocytic activity of the migrated head kidney macrophages was elevated not by resident peritoneal cells, but by leukocytes which had migrated to the peritoneal cavity. This indicates that the migrated leukocytes produced and secreted a factor(s) with macrophage activation potency.


Abstract An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development research priority, innovative learning environments (ILEs) have been translated into policy and practice in 25 countries around the world. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, learning spaces are being reconceptualised in relation to this policy work by school leaders who are confronted by an impetus to lead pedagogic change. The article contributes a conjunctural analysis of the milieu around the redesign of these education facilities. Recognising that bodies and objects entwine in pedagogic spaces, we contribute a new materialism reading of ILEs as these are instantiated in New Zealand. New materialism recognises the agential nature of matter and questions the anthropocentric narrative that frames the post-enlightenment conception of what it means to be human. The decentring of human subjects through a materialist ontology facilitates a consideration of the power of objects to affect the spatial politics of learning environments. The article traces a relationship between the New Zealand strategic plan for Education 2015–2021 and principal conceptions of ILE as the lived spaces of this policy actualisation and the disciplinary/control society conjuncture. Informed by theories of spatial practice, we argue that principals' understandings of 'space' are integral to pedagogic approaches within open-plan spaces. A conjunctural analysis can expand the capacity to act politically. By examining the complex conditions of a political intervention, in this case ILEs, we trace the displacements and condensations of different sorts of contradictions, and thus open up possibilities for action.


ABSTRACT This article considers how some individuals and families who are low income think and dream about their futures and compares their thoughts with classic notions of the American Dream. Drawing on intensive interviews with individuals and families, the authors analyzed interviewees' observations about their hopes and thoughts for the future. Five main themes emerge: stability, agency, and control; ideal home life; values about the home; aspirations for children; and obstacles to achieving dreams. In brief, the authors find that the low-income participants in our research have dreams that individuals and families who are more affluent might take for granted and that they appear to adopt neoliberal assumptions about achieving those dreams. These are dreams of getting by and have important implications for the expanding category of individuals and families who find themselves in similar economic situations.


Potato is the important food crop after wheat and rice, and its nutritious tubers are becoming increasingly popular in the developing world. Keeping up with the demand means adapting the potato to thrive in various soils and climates. It must also resist new threats from pests, disease, heat, and drought. Creating a new potato variety is slow and difficult, but there are new approaches, including genetic engineering. Potato breeders are particularly excited about hybrid diploid breeding, a method that could cut the time required to create new varieties by more than half, make it easier for breeders to combine traits in one variety, and allow farmers to plant seeds instead of bulky chunks of tuber. In addition, breeders will soon have more genetic diversity available to improve cultivated potatoes. Plant collectors are finishing a big effort to find and conserve the hardy wild relatives of potato, which have traits that could make the crop more robust and resilient.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to investigate how accurately the task-transfer function (TTF) models the signal transfer properties of low-contrast features in a non-linear commercial CT system.

METHODS
A cylindrical phantom containing 24 anthropomorphic "physical" lesions was 3D printed. Lesions had two sizes (523, 2145 mm3 ), and two nominal radio-densities (80 and 100 HU at 120 kV). CT images were acquired on a commercial CT system (Siemens Flash scanner) at four dose levels (CTDIvol , 32 cm phantom:1.5, 3.0, 6.0, 22.0 mGy) and reconstructed using FBP and IR kernels (B31f, B45f, I31f\2, I44f\2). Low-contrast rod inserts (in-plane) and a slanted edge (z-direction) were used to estimate 3D-TTFs. CAD versions of lesions were blurred by the 3D-TTFs, virtually superimposed into corresponding phantom images, and compared to the physical lesions in terms of (a) a 4AFC visual assessment, (b) edge gradient, (c) size, and (d) shape similarity. Assessments 2 and 3 were based on an equivalence criterion D ¯ ≥ COV ¯ to determine if the natural variability COV ¯ in the physical lesions was greater or equal to the difference D ¯ between physical and simulated. Shape similarity was quantified via Sorensen-Dice coefficient (SDC). Comparisons were done for each lesion and for all imaging conditions.

RESULTS
The readers detected simulated lesions at a rate of 37.9 ± 3.1% (25% implies random guessing). Lesion edge blur and volume differences D ¯ were on average less than physical lesions' natural variability COV ¯ . The SDC (average ± SD) was 0.80 ± 0.13 (max of 1 possible).

CONCLUSIONS
The visual appearance, edge blur, size, and shape of simulated lesions were similar to the physical lesions, which suggests 3D-TTF models the low-contrast signal transfer properties of this non-linear CT system reasonably well.


Civil rights and income taxation may seem as far apart as any two legal subjects could be, but actually intersect in a surprising number of significant ways. Whenever money damages are sought in civil rights litigation, the tax treatment of damages will affect the amount that actually benefits the plaintiff after taxes. Even when litigation seeks non-money damages, as in predatory lending cases, civil rights lawyers need to attempt to structure the relief so that it does not cause undesirable tax consequences, such as income arising from forgiveness of debt. Civil rights lawyers may also need to analyze the financial consequences of tax benefits, such as tax-exempt status, in order to ascertain whether such benefits raise issues under the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. This essay discusses the intersection of civil rights law and income taxation in the three areas mentioned above: damages for unlawful discrimination, the forgiveness of debt by a predatory lender, and tax-exempt status for private educational and religious institutions. We conclude that civil rights lawyers need to be aware of potential tax implications of civil rights litigation to a surprising degree.


In this work, a predictive machining theory, based on an analytical thermomechanical approach of oblique cutting [17,18], has been applied to the peripheral milling process. That leads to a three dimensional cutting force model for end milling operations which is an alternative approach in comparison with the mechanistic one. In this model, the material characteristics such as strain rate sensitivity, strain hardening and thermal softening are considered and thermomechanical coupling and inertia effects are accounted for. Calculated and experimental results are compared for up-milling.


The films of Alfred Hitchcock deal heavily with psychological and philosophical themes, and one needn't look very far into the canon to find them. In "Psycho", for example, the personality metamorphosis in Marion Crane that leads her into grand larceny is a pale double of the murderous Oedipal divide in Norman Bates. In "The Birds", overbearing natural mutations turn what might have been a "creature feature" into a film about fear of the unknowable. This book looks at 12 Hitchcock films and the positions they put forth on three problem areas of epistemology: deception, knowledge of mind, and problematic knowledge of the external world. These philosophical concepts are explained and woven into the author's thorough and thought-provoking discussion of each film. Descartes and Wittgenstein star; Plato, Locke, Hume, Kant and Kierkegaard also make appearances in this new "philosopher's cut" of the master's works.


Abstract Guan, J., Wan, X. S., Zhou, Z., Ware, J., Donahue, J. J., Biaglow, J. E. and Kennedy, A. R. Effects of Dietary Supplements on Space Radiation-Induced Oxidative Stress in Sprague-Dawley Rats. Radiat. Res. 162, 572–579 (2004). Of particular concern for the health of astronauts during space travel is radiation from protons and high-mass, high-atomic-number (Z), and high-energy particles (HZE particles). Space radiation is known to induce oxidative stress in astronauts after extended space flight. In the present study, the total antioxidant status was used as a biomarker to evaluate oxidative stress induced by γ rays, protons and HZE-particle radiation. The results demonstrate that the plasma level of total antioxidants in Sprague-Dawley rats was significantly decreased (P < 0.01) in a dose-dependent manner within 4 h after exposure to γ rays. Exposure to protons and HZE-particle radiation also significantly decreased the serum or plasma level of total antioxidants in the irradiated animals. Diet supplementation with l-selenomethionine alone or a combination of selected antioxidant agents was shown to partially or completely prevent the decrease in the serum or plasma levels of total antioxidants in animals exposed to γ rays, protons or HZE particles. These findings suggest that exposure to space radiation may compromise the capacity of the host antioxidant defense and that this adverse biological effect can be prevented at least partially by dietary supplementation with l-selenomethionine and antioxidants.


Recent methods based on interest points and local fingerprints have been proposed to perform robust CBCD (content-based copy detection) of images and video. They include two steps: the search for similar local fingerprints in the database (DB) and a voting strategy that merges all the local results in order to perform a global decision. In most image or video retrieval systems, the search for similar features in the DB is performed by a geometrical query in a multidimensional index structure. Recently, the paradigm of approximate k-nearest neighbors query has shown that trading quality for time can be widely profitable in that context. In this paper, we evaluate a new approximate search paradigm, called statistical similarity search (S/sup 3/) in a complete CBCD scheme based on video local fingerprints. Experimental results show that these statistical queries allow high performance gains compared to classical e-range queries and that trading quality for time during the search does not degrade seriously the global robustness of the system, even with very large DBs including more than 20,000 hours of video.


. Critical examination of the orbital parameters of particles ejected from comet Halley rejects the low age hypotheses for meteor showers associ- ated with the comet. The diffusion of the orbits of large particles is too slow for explaining the observed structural features of the stream. The mass-loss process as derived from space observations compared with the mass of the stream of particles deduced from flux data lead to comet lifetimes of the order of 10 years.


Objective To understand healthcare worker and patient experience with peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) insertion in patients with difficult intravenous access (DIVA) including the use of ultrasound (US). Methods Descriptive study using 1-on-1 semi-structured interviews conducted between August 2020 and January 2021. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit healthcare practitioners (HCPs) and patients with DIVA who had PIVC experience. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Interview data were than mapped to the implementation theory Behaviour Change Wheel to inform implementation strategies. Results In total 78 interviews (13 patients; 65 HCPs) were completed with respondents from metropolitan (60%), regional (25%) and rural/remote (15%) settings across Australia. Thematic analysis revealed 4 major themes: i) Harmful patient experiences persist, with patient insights not leveraged to effect change; ii) 'Escalation' is just a word on the front lines; iii) Heightened risk of insertion failure without resources and training; and iv) Paving the way forward–'measures need to be in place to prevent failed insertion attempts. Themes were mapped to the behaviour change wheel and implementation strategies developed, these included: staff education, e-health record for DIVA identification, DIVA standard of care and DIVA guidelines to support escalation and ultrasound use. Conclusion(s) DIVA patients continue to have poor healthcare experiences with PIVC insertion. There is poor standardisation of DIVA assessment, escalation, US use and clinician education across hospitals. Quality, safety, and education improvement opportunities exist to improve the patient with DIVA experience and prevent traumatic insertions. We identified a number of implementation strategies to support future ultrasound and DIVA pathway implementation.


ABSTRACT The Trans‐Mexican volcanic belt is an active continental volcanic arc related to subduction along the Middle America trench and characterized by several major arc‐parallel middle Miocene—Holocene lake basins formed by normal faults and related crustal seismicity. The Chapala graben, the largest of these basins in the western part of the Trans‐Mexican volcanic belt, is 115 km long and up to 30 km wide. Here, I document a 2 October 1847 earthquake with intensity magnitude M I of 5.7±0.4 that was locally devastating on the northern graben shoulder. It razed the villages of Poncitlan and Ocotlan in the state of Jalisco, where at least 58 persons perished. The macroseismic observations for this historical event and the elevated background seismicity indicate that the Chapala graben is active and poses a major ground‐shaking hazard to the nearby metropolitan areas of Ocotlan and Guadalajara. No historical earthquake had been previously documented from the Chapala graben, which was believed to be tectonically inactive. Furthermore, the 2 October 1847 event was not recognized as a crustal earthquake. In earthquake catalogs, the devastation at Ocotlan is aggregated with the damage caused on the same day, only two hours earlier, in the Colima region by a subduction‐zone earthquake that was devastating in Tecoman and Colima and caused minor damage in Mexico City, and which likely triggered dynamically the Chapala graben earthquake.


We present a model of a series HEV including resistive losses in the energy storage and varying efficiency of the combustion engine and generator. An optimal control problem minimizing fuel consumption is solved using the model and deterministic dynamic programming. It is evaluated on several standard city bus driving cycles and the solutions are analyzed to extract rules useful for real-time controlling. The resulting real-time strategy is compared to the optimal control using simulations. The strategy has a threshold value determining when to switch off the generator. This threshold value has a driving cycle dependent optimum giving the minimum increase in fuel consumption compared to the optimal control, and the optimal value can thus be chosen based on driving cycle characteristics. We see that the optimal value is related to the mean power demand of the driving cycle. The proposed real-time strategy performs well, and a minimum increase of 5 % can be achieved even on a driving cycle not used for rule extraction.


Live vaccines have a number of advantages over inactivated ones--above all in respect of the stimulation of cell-mediated immune reactions. Various live vaccines, based on viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites, have been approved for use in Germany in animals used as a source of food. Safety requirements obviously play a more important role for live vaccines, both in vaccine development and in batch testing, than with inactivated vaccines. Vaccine strains isolated from tissue samples must be clearly distinguishable from field strains. The safety of overdoses and the spread of the vaccine strain in the immunized animals have to be investigated, as well as shedding of the vaccine strain and its safety in non-target species. Any impact of a live vaccine strain on humans and the environment must be assessed. Live vaccines will remain an important research field in the long term, with efforts focused on developing deletion mutants and vector vaccines.


Diamond like carbon layers play a key role in industrial applications. However the layers quality deteriorates often due to insufficient interfacial adhesion. In this research work a prior plasma treatment of steel substrates was employed aimed to improve the interfacial adhesion of DLC-layers to steel substrates. Three different kinds of steels were employed and their microstructures as well as their compositions before and after plasma treatment were analyzed. The interfacial adhesion of DLC layers on the non-nitrided and nitrided steels was observed and the influence of the steel microstructure on the interfacial adhesion was studied.


Even in heavily engineered river systems, climate still governs flood variability and thus still drives many levee breaks and geomorphic changes. We assemble a 155‐year record of levee breaks for a major California river system to find that breaks occurred in 25% of years during the 20th Century. A relation between levee breaks and river discharge is present that sets a discharge threshold above which most levee breaks occurred. That threshold corresponds to small floods with recurrence intervals of ∼2–3 years. Statistical analysis illustrates that levee breaks and peak discharges cycle (broadly) on a 12–15 year time scale, in time with warm‐wet storm patterns in California, but more slowly or more quickly than ENSO and PDO climate phenomena, respectively. Notably, these variations and thresholds persist through the 20th Century, suggesting that historical flood‐control effects have not reduced the occurrence or frequency of levee breaks.


Although cultivars of autogamous plants are homogeneous genotypes, they may show natural variability due to mechanical mixing, natural hybridization, and mutation. The aim of the present study was to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters and to identify and select superior genotypes that associate good performance in traits of interest from a heterogeneous population derived from the cultivar BRS Favorita RR. The evaluation experiments were carried out in two crop years and five cities of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in a lattice design, using progenies and the control 'BRS Favorita RR'. Plant height, first pod height, days to full maturity, lodging score, and grain yield were evaluated. For estimation of the variance components, analysis of deviance was performed by the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) method. The results show that there is difference among treatments and that it is possible to select progenies that outperform the control for all traits evaluated.


Background Anesthetics act in the spinal cord to suppress movement evoked by a noxious stimulus, although the exact site is unknown. Methods This study investigated sensorimotor processing in hind limb withdrawal reflexes, and effects of two general anesthetics, halothane and isoflurane, on simultaneously recorded responses of single dorsal horn neurons and hind limb withdrawal force, elicited by graded noxious thermal hind paw stimulation in rats. Minimum alveolar anesthetic concentration (MAC) needed to block gross movement to a supra-maximal mechanical stimulus was determined for each animal. Results Between 0.9 and 1.1 MAC, halothane and isoflurane greatly reduced or abolished withdrawal force (79 and 89% reduction, respectively). Halothane (0.75–1.4 MAC) depressed heat-evoked neuronal responses in a concentration-related manner (41% reduction between 0.9 and 1.1 MAC averaged across all stimulus temperatures, P < 0.05) and decreased stimulus-response function slopes, with corresponding reductions in withdrawal force. In contrast, isoflurane did not reduce neuronal responses in the 0.75–1.4 MAC range and slightly facilitated responses (by 16%) when concentration increased from 0.9 to 1.1 MAC, despite a concurrent withdrawal force reduction. Anesthetic depression of heat-evoked withdrawal force correlated well with MAC determination using a supra-maximal mechanical stimulus. At sub-MAC anesthetic concentrations, some units exhibited firing rate changes that preceded and paralleled moment-to-moment changes in force during a given withdrawal. Conclusions Halothane reduces noxious-evoked movement at least partly via depression of dorsal horn neurons, whereas isoflurane suppresses movement by an action at more ventral sites in the spinal cord.


: Purpose: The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship that exists among economic growth and FDI in Jordan empirically, and the role of financial development in shaping this relationship. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research used the process of deductive reasoning approach, associated with quantitative research, supported by empiricism and positivism as philosophical positions. Growth Indicators, FDI, financial development and other control variables data that covered the period between 1993-2018 were used. The analysis method of Johansen's co-integration will be applied to figure out if the relationship between economic growth, FDI and financial development exist. Findings: The Johansen's co-integration has found out that there is a long-term relationship between FDI, financial development and economic growth. Also, interaction between stock market financial development indicators and FDI was statistically evident. Practical Implications: Our research contributes to the literature by examining if FDI is growth inducing through networks of financial development, and other factors that could drive growth alongside with FDI. Research shows professionals that a well-developed financial market will improve FDI's spillover impact on economic growth. A well-developed stock market will speed up capital accumulation activities and output growth by providing sufficient liquidity services that improve linkages between domestic and foreign investors. Originality/Value: The novelty of the research is to determine the correlation between FDI and Economic growth in Jordan which should be accounted in the long-term development of all developing countries. At the same time, this study is a step forward towards analysing the relationship that exists among economic growth and FDI in Jordan.


Considerable changes have occurred in language learning with the introduction of gameful approaches in the classroom and the increase in the popularity of language applications like Duolingo. A review of existing studies on such approaches to language learning shows that gamification tends to be the most popular approach. However, this popularity has been achieved at the expense of other gameful approaches, such as the use of digital games. To gain a clearer picture of the developments and gaps in the digital game-based learning research, this paper examines and categorizes observations about game elements used in published papers (n = 114) where serious and digital games were tested in language education settings. Game element analysis reveals that (1) the most frequently occurring elements in digital game-based language learning (DGBLL) are feedback, theme, points, narrative, and levels; (2) even though there was significant variance in the number of elements observed in DGBLL, both the bespoke and off-the-shelf games show similar high-frequency elements; (3) DGBLL has been applied to vocabulary acquisition and retention in many cases, but lacks implementation and testing in input and output language skills; (4) although there is some consensus on the most frequent elements, the design patterns of common elements according to age group and target language skill show considerable variance; (5) more research is needed on less common design elements that have shown promise in encouraging language acquisition. The synthesis of information from the collected papers contributes to knowledge regarding DGBLL application design and will help formulate guidelines and detect efficacy patterns as the field continues to grow.


Author(s): Bran, Gabriela Alejandra | Advisor(s): Lavine, Adrienne S; Kavehpour, Pirouz H | Abstract: A counter-flow heat exchanger transient one-dimensional numerical model was developed and verified against other authors results. Heat exchangers have been extensively studied due to their vast number of industrial applications where steady state operation is usually assumed. However, heat exchangers are also used in systems that operate under transient conditions such as energy generation, energy conversion, or energy storage. After a detailed literature review, it was determined that there was a need for a more comprehensive study on the transient behavior of heat exchangers. Computational power was not readily available when most of the work on transient heat exchangers was done (1956 – 1986), so most of these solutions have restrictions, or very specific assumptions. More recently, authors have obtained numerical solutions for more general problems (2003 - 2013), but they have investigated very specific conditions, and cases. For a more complex heat exchanger (i.e. with heat generation), the transient solutions from literature are no longer valid. There was a need to develop a numerical model that relaxes the restrictions of current solutions to explore conditions that have not been explored. A one dimensional transient heat exchanger model was developed. There are no restrictions on the fluids and wall conditions. The model is able to obtain a numerical solution for a wide range of fluid properties and mass flow rates. Another innovative characteristic of the numerical model is that the boundary and initial conditions are not limited to constant values. The boundary conditions can be a function of time (i.e. sinusoidal signal), and the initial conditions can be a function of position. Four different cases were explored in this work. In the first case, the start-up of a system was investigated where the whole system is assumed to be at the same temperature. In the second case, the new steady state in case one gets disrupted by a smaller inlet temperature step change. In the third case, the new steady state in case one gets disrupted by a step change in one of the mass flow rates. The response of these three cases show that there are different transient behaviors, and they depend on the conditions imposed on the system. The fourth case is a system that has a sinusoidal time varying inlet temperature for one of the flows. The results show that the sinusoidal behavior at the inlet propagates along the channel. However, the sinusoidal behavior on one of the fluids does not fully translate to the other gets damped by the wall and the heat transfer coefficients that can be barely seen on the other flow. A scaling analysis and a parametric study were performed to determine the influence the different parameters on the system have on the time a heat exchanger takes to reach steady state. The results show the dependency of tst* (time a system takes to reach steady state) on the dimensionless parameters M, C, NTUh, NTUc, and Cw. tst* depends linearly on C and Cw, and it is a power function of M. It was also shown that tst* has a logarithmic dependency on NTUh and NTUc. A correlation was generated to approximate the time a system takes to reach steady state for systems where Cw ll 1. A more complex heat exchanger with the specific application of solar energy storage was also investigated. This application involves a counter-flow heat exchanger with a reacting flow in one of the channels, and it includes varying properties, heat generation, varying heat transfer coefficient, and axial conduction. The application for this reactor heat exchanger is on solar energy storage, and the goals is to heat up steam to 650 °C by using the ammonia synthesis heat of reaction. One of the concerns for this system is the start-up time and also how disturbances in reacting flow can affect the steam outlet temperature. The transient behavior during the system start-up was presented. In order to achieve the desired outlet steam temperature at a reasonable time, the system must operate at high gas mass flow rates. If the inlet temperature of the gas suffers a step change, it affects the reaction rate as well as the outlet steam temperature. A small perturbation on the gas mass flow rate has an effect on the profile shape. However, the maximum temperature reached by the gas due to reaction is not affected, and consequently, it has little effect on the steam temperature. Axial conduction in the reactor heat exchanger was also investigated, specifically in the gas section. Axial conduction cannot be assumed to be negligible in the reactor heat exchanger because of the iron-based catalytic bed. Results in this section show that axial conduction is detrimental for the system. It was found that for Peclet number greater than 100, axial conduction can be neglected. An alternative solution to address axial conduction was proposed, namely to include a well-insulated non-reacting section (without a catalytic bed) upstream of the reactor. The modified reactor heat exchanger was a novel solution to avoid the negative effect of axial conduction. Results show that by having a non-reacting section, axial conduction becomes unimportant.


An algorithmic framework is presented for mapping CMOS circuit diagrams into area-efficient, high-performance layouts in the style of one-dimensional transistor arrays. Using efficient search techniques and accurate evaluation methods, the huge solution space that is typical to such problems is transversed extremely fast, yielding designs of hand-layout quality. In addition to generating circuits that meet prespecified layout constraints in the context of a fixed target image, on-the-fly optimizations are performed to meet secondary optimization criteria. A practical dynamic programming routing algorithm is utilized to accommodate the special conditions that arise in this context. This algorithm has been implemented and is currently used at IBM for cell-library generation. >


Calcium/calmodulin dependent kinase II (CaMKII), PDZ-domain scaffolding protein Discs-large (DLG), immunoglobin superfamily cell adhesion molecule Fasciclin 2 (FAS2) and the position specific (PS) integrin receptors, including betaPS and its alpha partners (alphaPS1, alphaPS2, alphaPS3/alphaVolado), are all known to regulate the postembryonic development of synaptic terminal arborization at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Recent work has shown that DLG and FAS2 function together to modulate activity-dependent synaptic development and that this role is regulated by activation of CaMKII. We show that PS integrins function upstream of CaMKII in the development of synaptic architecture at the NMJ. betaPS integrin physically associates with the synaptic complex anchored by the DLG scaffolding protein, which contains CaMKII and FAS2. We demonstrate an alteration of the FAS2 molecular cascade in integrin regulatory mutants, as a result of CaMKII/integrin interactions. Regulatory betaPS integrin mutations increase the expression and synaptic localization of FAS2. Synaptic structural defects in betaPS integrin mutants are rescued by transgenic overexpression of CaMKII (proximal in pathway) or genetic reduction of FAS2 (distal in pathway). These studies demonstrate that betaPS integrins act through CaMKII activation to control the localization of synaptic proteins involved in the development of NMJ synaptic morphology.


This paper examines financial trading from the aspect of security selection. In practice, it is unrealistic for a financial trader to participate in the full market of tradeable securities, and a selection mechanism must be employed to reduce the number of possible securities competing for investment capital. Essentially, there are two main methodologies used, namely, Fundamental Analysis, and Technical Analysis. This paper examines the practice of Fundamental Analysis, and demonstrates how neural networks can be practically employed to enhance the fundamentalist selection process.


ABSTRACT Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi strains resistant to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracyclines, streptomycin, and cotrimoxazole, isolated from sporadic cases and minor outbreaks in Vietnam between 1995 and 2002, were typed and compared. Plasmid fingerprinting, Vi bacteriophage typing, XbaI pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and PstI ribotyping showed that endemic, epidemic multidrug-resistant typhoid fever was due, for at least 74.1% of the isolates, to one or two clones of serovar Typhi harboring a single resistance plasmid. PstI ribotyping was used as a basic technique to ensure that a serovar Typhi expansion was clonal.


The exact hosts for F-P hybrid WOLEDs have been first demonstrated following a new design strategy for blue fluorophors with small singlet-triplet splitting. Two novel compounds DPMC and DAPSF exhibit efficient blue fluorescence, high triplet energies and good conductivities. These merits allow us to use new simplified device designs to achieve high efficiency, slow efficiency roll-off and stable emission color.


Sociologists have struggled to negotiate their relationship to human rights, yet human rights are now increasingly the focus of innovative sociological analysis. This opening contribution to 'Sociology and Human Rights: New Engagements' analyses how the relationship between sociology and human rights could be better conceptualised and taken forward in the future. The historical development of the sociology of human rights is first examined, with emphasis on the uneasy distancing of sociology from universal rights claims from its inception, and on radical repudiations influenced by Marx. We discuss how in the post-war period T.H. Marshall's work generated analysis of citizenship rights, but only in the past two decades has the sociology of human rights been developed by figures such as Bryan Turner, Lydia Morris and Anthony Woodiwiss. We then introduce the individual contributions to the volume, and explain how they are grouped. We suggest the need to deepen existing analyses of what sociology can offer to the broad field of human rights scholarship, but also, more unusually, that sociologists need to focus more on what human rights related research can bring to sociology, to renew it as a discipline. Subsequent sections take this forward by examining a series of themes including: the relationship between the individual and the social; the need to address inequality; the challenge of social engagement and activism; and the development of interdisciplinarity. We note how authors in the volume contribute to each of these. Finally we conclude by summarising our proposals for future directions in research.


The phase space formulation of quantum mechanics is equivalent to standard quantum mechanics where averages are calculated by way of phase space integration as in the case of classical statistical mechanics. We derive the quantum hierarchy equations, often called the contracted Schrödinger equation, in the phase space representation of quantum mechanics which involves quasi‐distributions of position and momentum. We use the Wigner distribution for the phase space function and the Moyal phase space eigenvalue formulation to derive the hierarchy. We show that the hierarchy equations in the position, momentum, and position‐momentum representations are very similar in structure. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This paper presents novel algorithms for finding the singular value decomposition (SVD) of a general covariance matrix by stochastic approximation. General in the sense that also non-square, between sets, covariance matrices are dealt with. For one of the algorithms, convergence is shown using results from stochastic approximation theory. Proofs of this sort, establishing both the point of equilibrium and its domain of attraction, have been reported very rarely for stochastic, iterative feature extraction algorithms.


The using of crystalline ion beams can increase of the luminosity in the collider and in experiments with targets for investigation of rare radioactive isotopes. The ordered state of circulating ion beams was observed experimentally at several storage rings. New criteria of the beam orderliness are derived and verified with BETACOOL code with using molecular dynamics (MD) technique. The sudden reduction of momentum spread observed on a few rings is described with this code. The simulation shows a good agreement with the experimental results. The code has then been used to calculate characteristics of the ordered state of ion beams for ion rings which will have experimental programs for the study of crystalline beams. A new strategy of the cooling process is proposed which permits to increase the linear density of the ordered ion beam.


Drug-induced liver injury is a significant and still unresolved clinical problem. Limitations to knowledge about the mechanisms of toxicity render incomplete the detection of hepatotoxic potential during preclinical development. Several xenobiotics are lipophilic substances and their transformation into hydrophilic compounds by the cytochrome P-450 system results in production of toxic metabolites. Aging, preexisting liver disease, enzyme induction or inhibition, genetic variances, local O(2) supply and, above all, the intrinsic molecular properties of the drug may affect this process. Necrotic death follows antioxidant consumption and oxidation of intracellular proteins, which determine increased permeability of mitochondrial membranes, loss of potential, decreased ATP synthesis, inhibition of Ca(2+)-dependent ATPase, reduced capability to sequester Ca(2+) within mitochondria, and membrane bleb formation. Conversely, activation of nucleases and energetic participation of mitochondria are the main intracellular mechanisms that lead to apoptosis. Non-parenchymal hepatic cells are inducers of hepatocellular injury and targets for damage. Activation of the immune system promotes idiosyncratic reactions that result in hepatic necrosis or cholestasis, in which different HLA genotypes might play a major role. This review focuses on current knowledge of the mechanisms of drug-induced liver injury and recent advances on newly discovered mechanisms of liver damage. Future perspectives including new frontiers for research are discussed.