The pharmacokinetics of isolated limb perfusion were studied to see what melphalan concentrations were achieved and how effective the isolation was. Twenty‐eight patients received 32 limb perfusions with heat and melphalan for locally recurrent or level V melanoma. Melphalan was given 0.75 mg/kg for axillary/popliteal or 1.2 mg/kg for femoral perfusions with heat (perfusate 42°C, limb 40°C) for 1 hour. Melphalan concentratives were measured by high‐performance liquid chromatography in seven patients. Peak perfusate melphalan concentrations were 6.1 to 115 mg/ml, which was one to two logs higher than peak systemic concentratives of melphalan. Isolation of the perfusate circuit from the systemic circulation was better for axillary and popliteal perfusions than for femoral perfusions (P < 0.05). Complete responses were seen in 81% of evaluable patients; long‐term local control was achieved in most patients, although many developed hematogenous metastases. Toxicity included erythema and edema in all, mild leukopenia in two, neuropathy in two, and amputation was required in one patient. Improvements in surgical technique include regional anesthesia to reduce vasospasms and transcutaneous measurement of fluorescein to measure leak. Perfusion with heat and melphalan remains the treatment of choice for in‐transit metastases from melanoma.


In flowering plants, the anther contains highly specialized reproductive and somatic cells that are required for male fertility. Genetic studies have uncovered several genes that are important for anther development. However, little information is available regarding most genes active during anther development, including possible relationships between these genes and genetically defined regulators. In Arabidopsis, two previously isolated male-sterile mutants display dramatically altered anther cell differentiation patterns. The sporocyteless (spl)/nozzle (nzz) mutant is defective in the differentiation of primary sporogenous cells into microsporocytes, and does not properly form the anther wall. The excess microsporocytes1 (ems1)/extrasporogenous cells (exs) mutants produce excess microsporocytes at the expense of the tapetum. To gain additional insights into microsporocyte and tapetum differentiation and to uncover potential genetic interactions, expression profiles were compared between wild-type anthers (stage 4-6) and those of the spl or ems1 mutants. A total of 1954 genes were found to be differentially expressed in the ems1 and/or spl anthers, and these were grouped into 14 co-expression clusters. The presence of genes with known and predicted functions in specific clusters suggests potential functions for other genes in the same cluster. To obtain clues about possible co-regulation within co-expression clusters, we searched for shared cis-regulatory motifs in putative promoter regions. Our analyses were combined with data from previous studies to develop a model of the anther gene regulatory network. This model includes hypotheses that can be tested experimentally to gain further understanding of the mechanisms controlling anther development.


The superconducting magnets were developed for all kinds of applications in China. With the growth of economy in China, some national projects of applied superconductivity are started in the basic sciences and engineering R&D in the recent years. The projects for the high magnetic field superconducting magnet applied in the scientific instruments, 40 T hybrid magnet system, high energy accelerator magnet, fusion engineering and special industrial system are supported by the central or local governments. For the high temperature superconductivity (HTSC) applications, some high temperature superconducting magnets were developed for fast charge and AC applications. The paper reviews the recent progress of superconducting magnet technology in China.


LixTixNi1-2xO (x =0, 10 and 20 at. %) thin films with 200 nm in thickness were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si (100) by a sol-gel spin-coating method. All samples have a uniform microstructure. The grain sizes grew from 100 nm to 300 nm by co-doping Li and Ti. The LiTiNiO thin films consist of NiO, NiTiO3 and Li2NiO2, while the Li-free thin films consist of NiO, NiTiO3 and NiTi0.99O3. The dielectric properties of the LiTiNiO thin films improved obviously by co-doping Li and Ti, but excess Li increases the amount of Li2NiO2 phase and decreases the dielectric properties. The dielectric constants at 100 Hz for the Li0.1Ti0.1Ni0.8O and Li0.2Ti0.2Ni0.6O thin films are 506 and 388 respectively. Appropriate co-doping contents of Li and Ti are important to obtain a high dielectric property.


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EMPLOYER AS A CATEGORY OF THE LEGAL SYSTEMThe subject matter of this study is an analysis of the diversity of meanings and normative contexts assigned to the concept of employer in the legal system. The role of the general, and at the same time model, legal act creating the systemic concept of employer is fulfi lled by the Labour Code. The technique of determining the meaning of this concept, used in the provisions of law, takes the form of regulations referring to the Labour Code or norms establishing their own statutory meaning of the term. There are also provisions that formulate inadequate defi nitions, which results in a classifi - cation of the concept of employer into a wrong category. A review of the relevant provisions of law indicates that the said regulations do not, in many situations, satisfy the principle of terminological consistency or the requirement of systemic coherence. This applies to norms in which, instead of the systemic category of employer, descriptive expressions are used that only indirectly indicate that the relationship regulated concerns the employment binding the employer and the employee, to regulations that introduce only an apparent, and not a real, statutory modifi cation of the code concept under consideration, and, fi nally, to norms that, due to their faulty treatment of linguistic issues relating to the rational creation of law, do not meet the requirement of the said adequacy.


In this paper, we prove the probability advantages of two linear expressions which are summarized from the ABC stream cipher submitted to ECRPYT Estream Project. Two linear expressions with probability advantages reflect the linear correlations among Modular Addition equations. Corresponding to each linear expression and its advantage, a large amount of weak keys are derived under which all the ABC main keys can be retrieved successively. The first linear expression is a generic bit linear correlation between two Modular Addition equations. The second is a linear correlation of bit carries derived from three Modular Addition equations and the linear equation of LFSR in ABC. It is remarked that the second is found by Wu and Preneel, and has been used to find 2 weak keys. In the cryptanalysis of ABC, Wu and Preneel only utilized its estimated probability advantage which is concluded by experimental data, and they did not give its strict proof. Modular Addition and XOR operations are widely used in designing symmetric ciphers. We believe that these types of linear expressions with probability advantages not only can be used to analyze some other symmetric ciphers, but also are important criteria in designing secure symmetric ciphers.


Waste tracking is becoming an important concern for developed countries as well as developing regions, where municipalities aim to assure proper waste management considering environmental and economic objectives. Waste tracking is important not only for a transparent reporting system compatible with environmental regulations but also for economically viable waste collection and recovery solutions. In this paper, a waste tracking system based on the blockchain technology is introduced where different entities involved in the system will be able to retrieve required data from the platform and decide on their level of contributions. The conventional technologies do not provide a sufficient level of transparency and coordination among different entities. With the introduction of blockchain as a tamper-proof technology, municipalities can enhance the efficiency of their waste management efforts. The proposed blockchain technology can connect proper stakeholders towards collaboration and sharing information. The concept of a smart contract for waste management is discussed and further, a decision-making framework is developed to guide users of the system select proper services available to them, depending on the level of data sharing, cost, reliability, and the security level that they expect from the system.


We estimate the causal effects of employee-friendly scheduling practices on store financial performance at the US retailer Gap, Inc. The randomized field experiment evaluated a multi-component intervention designed to improve dimensions of work schedules – inconsistency, unpredictability, inadequacy, and lack-of-employee control – shown to undermine employee well-being and productivity. The experiment was conducted in 28 stores in the San Francisco and Chicago metropolitan areas during a 9-month period between November 2015 and August 2016. Intent-to-treat (ITT) analyses indicate that implementing employee-friendly scheduling practices increased store productivity by 5.1%, a result of increasing sales (by 3.2%) while also decreasing labor (by 1.8%). Drawing on qualitative interviews with managers and quantitative analyses of employee shift-level data, we offer evidence that the intervention improved financial performance through two mechanisms: enhanced employee effort and store execution. Given the common assumption that employee-friendly scheduling practices are costly for business because they reduce labor flexibility for employers, we give particular attention to examining how the intervention reduced labor hours. Analyses indicate that a significant proportion of the reduction can be traced to improved employee schedule adherence and the subsequent decrease in downstream "paper cuts" to the labor budget that occurs as one employee's tardiness cascades throughout the day and to coworkers. Our findings thus provide compelling evidence that schedule adherence is not exogenous to managers' scheduling behavior or to scheduling algorithms. Employers place profits at risk when they underestimate the business benefits of employee-friendly scheduling practices.


Heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60) is a member of the chaperonin family of heat shock proteins (HSPs), primarily found in the mitochondrial matrix. As a molecular chaperone, Hsp60 plays an essential role in mediating protein folding and assembly, and together with the co-chaperon Hsp10, it is thought to maintain protein homeostasis. Recently, it has been found to localize in non-canonical, extra-mitochondrial sites such as cell membranes or extracellular fluids, particularly in pathological conditions. Starting from its biological function, this review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the potential involvement of Hsp60 in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Type II Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), which are known to share impaired key pathways and molecular dysfunctions. Fragmentary data reported in the literature reveal interesting links between the altered expression level or localization of this chaperonin and several disease conditions. The present work offers an overview of the past and more recent knowledge about Hsp60 and its role in the most important cellular processes to shed light on neuronal Hsp60 as a potential common target for both pathologies. The absence of any effective cure for AD patients makes the identification of a new molecular target a promising path by which to move forward in the development of new drugs and/or repositioning of therapies already used for T2DM.


The good planning and management process involves many stages of decision-making and expertise from various fields comprise with information that can be analyst specifically in qualitative or quantitative form and support strategy and action for improving information and to facilitate the adaptability of the planning system. In increasing effectiveness of development control system, town planners are require with update planning data to conduct their decision making in approving planning application. Based on this situation, integrated computerized Development Control System has been developed to assist Planning Department staff which involve with planning application process. This study will discuss an evaluation on the effectiveness of the computerized development control system being developed for the Planning and Development Control Department, City Hall of Kuala Lumpur, with emphasize on the Planning Authorization Subsystem The evaluation involves the comparison between manual practice and system application in planning permission process using Triangulation method which is a combination of 3 analyses technique to achieve the validation in the process. Based on the comparison, computerized system have been identified contain an ability to decrease time and reduce a number of staff involvement in every stage of planning process. With absorption of good urban governance concept, the systems are able to give better services to department staff and public. Generally from the study, the computerized system provide additional assistance in processing planning application compare to the manual method that currently be practice by most local authority in Malaysia


Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) has been recognized as a key technology for operating IoT-based systems, by abstracting sensing and actuation capabilities of IoT resources via services or microservices. However, such systems being dynamic in nature, must be proactive in responding to changing circumstances, hence they need to be autonomic in nature. Therefore this requires the design and deployment of an autonomic serviceoriented middleware that can mediate interactions, and control sensing & actuation, within the IoT-based system. To that end, in this paper, we present our vision of an autonomic service-oriented middleware AUSOM (pronounced "awesome") for IoT based systems. The key features of AUSOM are: incorporation of the well-known MAPE-K loop (Monitor, Analyze, Plan, Act, using stored Knowledge) from autonomic computing for proactive adaptation, incorporation of a multilayered context model, and using contextual information to facilitate adaptation at the IoT device (sensor and actuator) layer. We present the architecture of AUSOM and also illustrate how it would function via a simple yet realistic example.


We analyze the dynamics of networks of spiking neural oscillators. First, we present an exact linear stability theory of the synchronous state for networks of arbitrary connectivity. For general neuron rise functions, stability is determined by multiple operators, for which standard analysis is not suitable. We describe a general nonstandard solution to the multioperator problem. Subsequently, we derive a class of neuronal rise functions for which all stability operators become degenerate and standard eigenvalue analysis becomes a suitable tool. Interestingly, this class is found to consist of networks of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons. For random networks of inhibitory integrate-and-fire neurons, we then develop an analytical approach, based on the theory of random matrices, to precisely determine the eigenvalue distributions of the stability operators. This yields the asymptotic relaxation time for perturbations to the synchronous state which provides the characteristic time scale on which neurons can coordinate their activity in such networks. For networks with finite in-degree, i.e., finite number of presynaptic inputs per neuron, we find a speed limit to coordinating spiking activity. Even with arbitrarily strong interaction strengths neurons cannot synchronize faster than at a certain maximal speed determined by the typical in-degree. © 2006 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2150775


ABSTRACT Since its introduction in 2000, the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsumura) has been a serious pest of soybean in North America. Currently, insecticide application is the only recommended control method. However, a number of natural enemies have the potential to regulate soybean aphid populations. In 2007, Aphelinus certus Yasnosh, a soybean aphid parasitoid native to Asia, was found in commercial soybean fields in Ontario. This is the first record of this species in North America. To evaluate the potential biological control services provided by A. certus for soybean aphid management, temperature-dependent developmental parameters and functional response to soybean aphid were determined. A. certus is capable of completing its development between temperatures of 15.3 and 30.2°C. The lower thresholds of development for the egg-mummy and mummy-adult life stages were determined to be 9.1 and 11.6°C, respectively. The lethal temperature of development for the egg-mummy and mummy-adult life stages were 29.5 and 31.0°C, respectively. In this temperature range, A. certus did not exhibit temperature-dependent mortality; however, parasitism rate increased with temperature. A. certus exhibited a type II functional response to the soybean aphid.


Various 3'-azido analogues of pyrimidine deoxyribonucleosides have been synthesized and tested against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1, HTLV-III/LAV) in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Among these compounds, the 3'-azido analogues of thymidine (2), 3-(3-oxo-1-propenyl)thymidine (21), 2'-deoxyuridine (1), 2'-deoxy-5-bromouridine(5), 2'-deoxy-5-fluorocytidine (19), 2'-deoxy-5-iodouridine (6), 2'-deoxycytidine (18), 2'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine (4), 2'-deoxy-5-thiocyoanatouridine (16), 2'-deoxy-5-methylcytidine (20), 2'-deoxy-5-aminouridine (7), and 2'-deoxy-5-hydroxyuridine (10) were found to have significant antiviral activity, with EC50 values of 0.002, 0.01, 0.2, 1.0, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 4.8, 5.1, 5.1, 6.2, and 10 microM, respectively. The structure-activity relationships are discussed.


Using new technologies to maintain, construct, and reuse naturally created products like asphalt, soils, and water can reserve the environment (Baqersad et. al 2017, 2016). The objective of this study was to specify and model the behavior of households regarding the installation of water conservation technology and evaluate strategies that could potentially increase water conservation technology adoption at the household level. In particular, this study created an agent-based modeling framework in order to understand various factors and dynamic behaviors affecting the adoption of water conservation technology by households. The model captures various demographic characteristics, household attributes, social network influence, and pricing policies; and then evaluates their influence simultaneously on household decisions in adoption of water conservation technology. The application of the proposed simulation model was demonstrated in a case study of the City of Miami Beach. The simulation results identified the intersectional effects of various factors in household water conservation technology adoption and also investigated the scenario landscape of the adoptions that can inform policy formulation and planning.


Abstract Learning from project experience is still lacking in the area of construction planning and control. A significant challenge is in deciding precisely 'what' engenders learning and 'how' knowledge can be reused. This study appraises critical learning situations (CLS) and the types of project knowledge to be reused to sustainably build capacity and improve the performance of construction projects. Given the underexplored area of study, an exploratory sequential mixed method research approach was adopted. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts and local practitioners to gain an in-depth insight into CLS and reusable project knowledge (RPK) pertinent to construction projects. Further, questionnaire survey responses from 338 construction practitioners in Malaysia were analysed. The findings reveal that construction time and cost control make a significant positive impact when past project experiences enhance expert judgements and stimulate knowledge reuse on future projects. Thus, the effective and efficient management of project knowledge should be optimised and considered of strategic value, giving rise to improved competency and sustainability within the construction industry.


A compliant XY nanopositioner is presented in this brief. The device is designed to have a very low cross-coupling between the X- and Y-axis. Despite this, during high-speed raster scans, the cross-coupling effect can not be ignored. In this brief, a H∞ controller is designed and implemented to minimize the X-to- <;i>Y<;/i> cross-coupling of the nanoscale positioning stage, particularly at its mechanical resonance frequencies. The controller is augmented with integral action to achieve accurate tracking, as well as sufficient damping. Raster scan results over an area of 10 μm × 10 μm with small positioning errors are demonstrated. High-speed accurate raster scans of up to 100 Hz, with nanoscale resolution are also illustrated.


Cosmetics are incredible in demand since historical time till day. Lipstick formulations are most widely used to enhance the beauty of lips and add glamour to touch to the makeup. With this aim and objectives, an attempt was made to formulate natural lipsticks by using colouring pigments of Bixa orellana seeds, and the lipsticks were evaluated for their organolaptic properties such as spreading, hardness, shine and gloss and found to be a satisfactory product to give attractive beauty. The preparation of these lipsticks with the natural ingredients like Bixa seeds, Olive oil, ripe fruit powder of Shikakai. Due to various adverse effects of available synthetic preparation ,the present work was conceived by us to formulate a herbal lipsticks having minimal or no side effects which will extensively used by the women of our communities with great surety and satisfaction.


Using Michel Foucault's genealogical method, this paper argues that human rights consciousness first appeared in Mexico as the result of an eclectic combination of two political tendencies: transition to democracy and liberation theology. In this way of thinking, civil and political rights were considered to have the same importance as economic, social, and cultural rights. However, human rights cause lost ground as it became subordinated to the transition-to- democracy cause, and human rights issues related to socio-economic inequality were put on the back burner. As the economic situation worsened, NGOs are finally addressing economic and social problems, but have not been able to revert the effects of years of neglect.


The present work presents the results on the design, production and preliminary experimental testing of the multi-channel magnetocardiography (MCG) device. Such a supersensitive device is intended for examination of the patients with cardiology diseases and investigation of the electrophysiological processes in a human heart and in Ukraine was developed for the first time. Device possesses 8 channels including 4 signal ones for measurements of the magnetic fields originated from the heart currents, 3 reference channels measuring the magnetic environmental noise, and 1 reference electrocardiography (ECG) channel. As a magnetic field sensor the supersensitive cryoelectronic magrietonieter developed at the Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics (Kyiv) and based on a Superconductive Quantum Interference Devices (SQUlDs) operating at ultra-low liquid helium temperature (4,2 K) was used. Data acquisition isfulfilled via ADC using the on-line adaptive noise compensatiori technique. Testing of the device has shown the better signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in comparison to single- channel MCG device. Installation of , thk developed advanced medical instrumentation is planned to be performed at the Strazhesko Institute of Cardiology (Kyiv) within the framework of the project supported by the Science and Technology Center in the Ukraine (STCU).


ABSTRACT. Rocha J.M., Carvalho F.S., Oliveira H.C., Carlos R.S.A., Carneiro P.L.S., Albuquerque G.R. & Wenceslau A.A. [Molecular diagnosis of Ehrlichia canis in dogs with clinical signs, hematological and biochemical changes in the Municipality of Ilheus, Bahia.] Diagnostico molecular de Ehrlichia canis em caes com alteracoes clinicas, hematologicas e bioquimicas no municipio de Ilheus, Bahia. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Veterinaria, 38(4):345-352, 2016. Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Ciencia Animal, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Jorge Amado, Km 16, Salobrinho, Ilheus, BA 45662-900, Brasil. E-mail: email@example.com
The objective was to identify DNA of Ehrlichia canis in dogs with clinical and hematological or consistent with infection, and to identify possible risk factors for infection in the Municipality of Ilheus, BA, an endemic area to infection. 558 were collected blood samples from dogs. These samples were divided into vials with and without anticoagulant made to research of blood smears for direct research on the blade. While the animals were submitted thorough assessment to clinical test, ticks were collected from dogs. The blood with anticoagulant was used to perform complete blood count and molecular tests for the detection of E. canis and without anticoagulant for biochemical examinations of Urea, Creatinine and ALT. Screening was held before molecular analysis and research of blood smears in blade, where the animals selected with hematological, biochemical and clinical signs suggestive of infection were selected. After the screening, 297 dogs were selected for the detection by molecular analysis and research of blood smears in blade Ehrlichia spp. and E. canis. Of animals evaluated by molecular methodology 85.52% (254/297) were positive to the genre and 80.13% (238/297) were positive to the species E. canis by Nested-PCR. In 28.16% (84/297) of animals was found infection in peripheral blood smear and all were positives by the Nested-PCR. Animals positive for E. canis, showed cachexia in 25.39%, pallor in mucous membranes in 17.46%, petechiae in 15.87% and had epistaxis in 1.58%, and other 38.09% (24/63) presented more than one of the concomitant changes. The animals with clinical changes were statistically significant (p = 0.02) relative to the negative for E. canis. With regards to Hematologic changes in 80.13% of the dogs were infected by E. canis, these being statistically significant (p = 0.001). Animals with anemia showed statistical significance (p = 0.001), however, there was no significance in thrombocytopenic dogs (p = 0.28). When evaluating animals with anemia associated with platelet count less, the results were significant statistically (p 0.05), but 48.82% (145/297) animals insecticide control before the collection, and that was significant (p = 0.003). With respect to biochemical evaluation results were not statistically significant (p > 0.05) for the infection. They detected by molecular analysis at 19.04% ticks were infected with E. canis, the total of 42 samples of infected dogs. The region has high rates of infection by E. canis and animals of this study possibly are in the chronic phase of the infection in the Municpality of Ilheus, BA.


The concept of resource based focus on modifying organizational capabilities into company's competitive advantage, which is the achievements of the unique, rare, cannot be duplicated and cannot be replaced combination between company's resources and assets. The purpose of this research is to identify the resources, capabilities, and core competencies owned by the SMEs of fish and shrimp crackers in the Indramayu processing center, and their development strategies. The competitive advantage of the SMEs of fish and shrimp crackers in the Indramayu processing center was analyzed using network analysis, while its dynamic capabilities was analyzed using Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). After the core competencies were identified, the next step was formulating the strategic routing for the SMEs of fish and shrimp crackers in Indramayu processing center. The research shows the time required to produce 3.550 kgs of fish crackers with 100 labour are 2.070 minutes, so the level of efficiency was 33.5 kgs/20,7 minutes/person. Some alternative development strategies required for the SMEs of fish and shrimp crackers in the Indramayu processing center to realize the strategic routing are (1) organizational restructuring, (2) business reengineering, and (3) business revitalizing. Key words: competitive advantage; SMEs processing center; fish and shrimp crackers; resource based


Methods: We reviewed all deliveries at Duke University from 2002–2011 to identify parturients receiving treatment for malignancy. All pregnant women exposed to doxorubicin were selected for analysis. Maternal cardiac function of the cohort was compared to historic controls based on doxorubicin exposure level (5% incidence at 400 mg/m2). Cardiac dysfunction was defined as an abnormal left ventricular fractional shortening (FS%) or ejection fraction (EF). The Fischer's exact test was used for analysis. Results: Twenty-four parturients underwent treatment for malignancy; fourteen of these utilized doxorubicin-based regimens. Malignancies were divided between solid tumors (62%) and hematologic (38%). Eight women had maternal echocardiograms performed in the peripartum period after exposure to doxorubicin. Cumulative dose exposure varied from 25 mg/m2 to 375 mg/m2. Four patients demonstrated evidence of mild (FS%) or pronounced (EF) cardiac dysfunction (OR 19, P = 0.001, 2-tailed Fisher Exact) when compared to historic controls. No maternal deaths occurred, however, one patient remains on a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) due to severe postpartum cardiomyopathy. Conclusions: Pregnancy should be considered a high risk factor for doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. Maternal echocardiography should be considered for all parturients, exposed to doxorubicin, regardless of the exposure dosage.


We propose the use of angular intensity signals obtained with low-cost infrared (IR) sensors and present an algorithm to simultaneously extract the geometry and surface properties of commonly encountered features or targets in indoor environments. The method is verified experimentally with planes, 90° corners, and 90° edges covered with aluminum, white cloth, and Styrofoam packaging material. An average correct classification rate of 80% of both geometry and surface over all target types is achieved and targets are localized within absolute range and azimuth errors of 1.5 cm and 1.1°, respectively. Taken separately, the geometry and surface type of targets can be correctly classified with rates of 99% and 81%, respectively, which shows that the geometrical properties of the targets are more distinctive than their surface properties, and surface determination is the limiting factor. The method demonstrated shows that simple IR sensors, when coupled with appropriate signal processing, can be used to extract substantially more information than such devices are commonly employed for.


This paper uses a laboratory experiment to analyze the influence of non-IT-related coping, IT-related emotionaland problem-focused coping on exhaustion and end-user performance. We provide insights how technostress is related to skin conductance response (SCR) and capture data by drawing up on that neurobiological objective measurement. Thereby, we measure exhaustion by SCR and end-user performance objectively in terms of task fulfillment in different treatment groups. Results of several ANOVAs reveal that the skin conductance level significantly increases while working with stressful technologies. Furthermore, users with non-coping are more exhausted and perform lower than those who use coping mechanisms. In detail, users with problem-focused coping are less exhausted and performed better than users who apply non-coping, whereupon emotional-focused coping indicates the same exhaustion and performance level as non-coping. Moreover, within a post hoc analysis we compare the effect of emotionaland problem-focused coping and analyze their moderation effects on the relationship between stressor and exhaustion as well as stressor and end-user performance.


Structural health monitoring is a broad field that encompasses a number of synergetic technologies brought together to provide a system that can potentially identify and characterize the performance and/or possible damage in a structural system. Such a system would include a data acquisition subsystem capable of recording a structure's response to ambient and external loads and computational hardware embedded with numerical procedures to rapidly process the recorded response data to predict possible damage. This paper describes the design of a low-cost wireless sensing unit for installation in structural monitoring systems. The prototype wireless sensing unit is intended to 1) collect measurement data from the sensors installed on a structure, 2) store, manage and locally process the measurement data collected, and 3) communicate the data and results to a wireless sensing network comprised of other wireless sensing/actuation agents upon demand. The wireless sensing unit is designed not only for reliable communication of response measurements but also for power efficiency. The performance of the sensing unit is validated in the field using the Alamosa Canyon Bridge in southern New Mexico. With wireless radios consuming large amounts of power, energy preservation can be achieved by limiting the use of the wireless channel. This study explores two approaches to reduce the power demands of the wireless sensing unit. First, embedded engineering analyses are embedded and carried out by the sensing unit's computational core to avoid transmission of long time-history records. Second, lossless data compression is employed to reduce the size of data packets wirelessly transmitted.


The ascorbic acid content of guinea pig leukocytes is reduced by a factor of 16:1 between normal and scorbutic guinea pigs. Ascorbic acid deficiencies do not appear to affect phagocytic activity but do change leukocyte morphology. A deficiency of this vitamin appears to significantly interfere with the in vitro bactericidal effectiveness of circulating leukocytes against ingested, cell-associated, and extracellular bacterial cells of the oral pathogen, Actinomyces viscosus. Leukocytes from scorbutic guinea pigs killed 13% of ingested and cell-associated Actinomyces viscosus compared to 83% killed by normal leukocytes by both acridine orange staining and viable count. Degranulation resulted in extracellular killing in normal but not scorbutic leukocytes. This decreased bactericidal activity can be reversed by adding supplements of the vitamin to the diet of scorbutic animals. Chemotactic responses were much lower in vivo and absent in vitro in scorbutic leukocytes. The acridine orange staining technique is an excellent indicator of leukocyte health. This study supports the important role for ascorbic acid in leukocyte function and also discusses its probable protective and bactericidal activities related to oral pathogens.


"What's faith got to do with it?" In this paper we explore the multilayered role of faith in two food banks in Toronto. We are drawing on a larger study of five partnerships between faithbased organizations and others for the common good, a study that unpacks the interesting dynamics of collaborations involving at least one faith partner. In the selection we have made for our present paper, the reader can expect to find a description and analysis of those dynamics as they pertain to individuals, groups, religious and secular organizations, new immigrants and long time residents, a rich variety of faith groups—all around the issues of having enough to eat, human dignity and the formation of community.
When we use the word "faith" we are aware of the multiplicity of meanings carried by the term. There is a basic distinction, famously formulated by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, between the faith that animates and is held by an individual and 'a faith' in the sense of a world religion, which has a history, traditions, sacred texts, liturgy, normative practices, teachings, creeds, buildings, authorized leaders— in short all the characteristics of a religion established over many centuries. Of course, there is a symbiotic relationship between the personal and the institutional. Each enlarges and enriches the other; neither can exist without the other.

Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management

Citation:


The total adenine nucleotide content in the livers from 24-month-old rats was shown to be by 30% lower than that of 3--4-month-old rat livers. A 24-hr fasting resulted in a decrease of the hepatic ATP levels, ATP/ADP ratios, phosphorylation potentials, adenylate energy charges and action mass ratios of adenylate kinase, crude at the same extents in adult and aged rats as well as in the equal increase of ADP, AMp and Pi levels. Injections of 0.9% NaCl or ammonium succinate to the aged rats (daily for 6 days prior to the experiment) did not affect the hepatic energy metabolism. The effects of potassium succinate was essentially the same as that of the fasting. Any treatment of the aged rats did not increase the total content of adenine nucleotides in the livers. Possible mechanisms of disturbances in adenine nucleotide metabolism upon ageing are discussed.


As an effective technology for navigating a large number of images, image summarization is becoming a promising task with the rapid development of image sharing sites and social networks. Most existing summarization approaches use the visual-based features for image representation without considering tag information.In this paper, we propose a novel framework, named JOINT, which employs both image content and tag information to summarize images. Our model generates the summary images which can best reconstruct the original collection. Based on the assumption that an image with representative content should also have typical tags, we introduce a similarity-inducing regularizer to our model. Furthermore, we impose the lasso penalty on the objective function to yield a concise summary set. Extensive experiments demonstrate our model outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches.


Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) can detect and identify many different molecules without the need for labeling. In addition, it can provide their spatial distributions as 'molecular maps'. These features make MSI well suited for studying the molecular makeup of tumor tissue. Currently, there is an interest in using MSI to predict cancer progression and treatment response, which often remains a challenge in today's clinical practice. Experimental evidence shows that tumor heterogeneity plays an important role in tumor biology and therefore in response to treatment. The molecular profiles generated by MSI reveal part of this heterogeneity. We describe the combination of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) MSI, histological tissue staining and multivariate data analysis to investigate inter- and intratumor heterogeneity. The first part of this thesis focuses on the generation and use of MALDI-MSI data to predict treatment response and disease progression. Small pieces of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue were used, typically referred to as tissue microarrays (TMAs). We present an approach that combines MALDI-MSI on tissue microarrays with Principal Component Analysis and Linear Discriminant Analysis (PCA-LDA) to predict treatment response. The feasibility of this approach is evaluated on a set of 22 patient-derived xenograft models of triple-negative breast cancer. PCA-LDA is used to predict response to the chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin based on the proteomic information obtained with MALDI-MSI. A small predictive power is observed. In addition, the feasibility to predict lymph node metastasis and disease-specific survival from a sample set of 240 head and neck cancers is tested. We discuss how MALDI-MSI data from these samples is processed so that it could be used in five different classifiers: Linear and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis, a Naive Bayes classifier, Decision Tree classifier and Support Vector Machine. Only for some of the classifiers a small predictive power for disease-specific survival is shown. The second part of this thesis focuses on intratumor heterogeneity. It presents a new method to detect and visualize hypoxic tumor regions and hypoxia-associated molecules in a breast tumor xenograft model. In hypoxic cells, the 2-nitroimidazole pimonidazole is reduced and forms reactive products that bind to cellular nucleophiles. We demonstrate that a reductively activated pimonidazole metabolite can be detected by MALDI-MSI. This pimonidazole metabolite is used to image hypoxic tissue regions and hypoxia-associated lipids and metabolites. Pimonidazole is a widely used hypoxia marker. We expect that the presented MALDI-MSI approach might be also applicable to other tissues from pimonidazole-injected animals or humans. Perspectives for future research include further optimization of the sample preparation for FFPE tissue and the use of a modified chemical marker for the detection of hypoxia. As the focus shifts from MSI technology to application, research projects become increasingly multidisciplinary. This development calls for close collaboration of researchers with expertise in MSI, histo(patho)logy and data analysis.


The Indian financial sector has undergone a significant structural transformation since the initiation of financial liberalization during 1990's. It brought significant changes in the financial sector in general and banking in particular. While there have been significant changes in the financial structure, India remains a bank dominated financial system. One of the major objectives of financial liberalization was to make the financial institutions more efficient and competent. Against this backdrop, the present paper intends to analyze the cost efficiency of the Indian banking sector applying the stochastic frontier approach. Using the Fourier Flexible functional form and stochastic cost frontier methodologies, the study finds, the public sector banks are the most efficient banks followed by the domestic private sector and foreign banks. The finding of the study is quite contrary to the international evidence. There could be several potential expiations to this unconventional finding. First, the natural monopoly argument - the public sector banks got the advantage of the first mover and also the economies of scale. Second, the time period of the study is the period of consolidation for the foreign banks and the new private banks. It is because, several banking specific reforms as a part of financial sector reform went on till late 1990's.Key words: Financial Liberalization; Banking Sector; Cost Efficiency & Stochastic Frontier Approach


Abstract. Quite often in the verification of cadastral borders, owners of the parcels involved are not able to make their attendance at the appointed moment in time. New appointments have to be made in order to complete the verification process, and as a result often costs and throughput times grow beyond what is considered to be acceptable. To improve the efficiency of the verification process an experiment was set up that refrains from the conventional terrestrial methods for border verification. The central research question was formulated as "How useful are Unmanned Aerial Systems in the juridical verification process of cadastral borders of ownership at het Kadaster in the Netherlands?". For the experiment, operational evaluations were executed at two different locations. The first operational evaluation took place at the Pyramid of Austerlitz, a flat area with a 30 m high pyramid built by troops of Napoleon, with low civilian attendance. Two subsequent evaluations were situated in a small neighbourhood in the city of Nunspeet, where the cadastral situation recently changed, resulting from twenty new houses that were build. Initially a mini-UAS of the KLPD was used to collect photo datasets with less than 1 cm spatial resolution. In a later stage the commercial service provider Orbit Gis was hired. During the experiment four different software packages were used for processing the photo datasets into accurate geo-referenced ortho-mosaics. In this article more details will be described on the experiments carried out. Attention will be paid to the mini-UAS platforms (AscTec Falcon 8, Microdrone MD-4), the cameras used, the photo collection plan, the usage of ground control markers and the calibration of the camera's. Furthermore the results and experiences of the different used SFM software packages (Visual SFM/Bundler, PhotoScan, PhotoModeler and the Orbit software) will be shared.


This publication studies methods for creating flexible looks for public and cultural institutions. The conventional logos traditionally used by companies are the result of a unique process of compression and abstraction. By contrast, flexible looks do not conceal their diverse components in their logo but instead from a complex family of symbols from them. In the combination of a basic logo and a family of symbols, the look is in a position to represent the general (the philosophy of the institution, the program) and the specific (e.g., changing exhibitions and events). The author describes the effect and potential of looks and offers general criteria that distinguish fully developed, dynamic looks. The subject is also presented in the form of artistic projects and with reference examples from the natural sciences and the humanities. Case studies of famous designers such as Karl Gerstner and Ruedi Baur enhance the analysis


Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common problem in new mothers. Untreated PPD is associated with behavioral and developmental problems in children. We examined the effects of an educational session about PPD and modification of the electronic medical record (EMR) on providers' screening for PPD. An education session was given to the physicians and pre and post surveys compared comfort and self-reported screening. Following the EMR change, a retrospective chart review was conducted from three time periods: group 1—before the conference, group 2—after the conference but before EMR change, and group 3—after screening in the EMR. Documented screening increased from 0% in group 1, to 2% in group 2, to 74% in group 3 (P < .001). Ten percent screened positive, but only 14% had documented referrals to a provider for treatment. The combination of provider education and screening questions integrated into the EMR enhanced PPD screening rates among physicians in a busy practice.


This paper treats important questions at the interface of mathematics and the engineering sciences. It starts off with a quick quotation tour through 2300 years of mathematical history. At the beginning of the 21 st century, technology has developed beyond every expectation. But do we also learn and practice an adequately modern form of mathematics? The paper argues that this role is very likely to be played by universal geometric calculus. The fundamental geometric product of vectors is introduced. This gives a quick-and-easy description of rotations as well as the ultimate geometric interpretation of the famous quaternions of Sir W.R. Hamilton. Then follows a one page review of the historical roots of geometric calculus. In order to exemplify the role of geometric calculus for the engineering sciences three representative examples are looked at in some detail: elasticity, image geometry and pose estimation. Next a current snapshot survey of geometric calculus software is provided. Finally the value of geometric calculus for teaching, research and development is commented.


Even before moving to Pennsylvania almost three decades ago, I had admired Benjamin Franklin. Not only was he an author, publisher, diplomat, postmaster, political theorist, and one of the founding fathers of USA, but he was also a first-rate technoscientific researcher. Anyone who has seen the numerous fierce storms that sweep the Atlantic seaboard would be glad to learn that Franklin invented the lightning rod. He also invented bifocal glasses, a stove that heats better than an open fireplace yet spews out much less smoke, and a flexible urinary catheter for immobile patients—all devices in common use more than two centuries later. He was the first to map the Gulf Stream to produce navigation charts that trimmed the transatlantic sailing time by two weeks. Spreading snatches of cloth of different colors on snow, he determined the scientific reason for wearing dark clothes in winter to keep warm and light clothes in summer to keep cool. With his most famous experiment that gave him a frightening jolt, he ascertained that lightning is electricity. Franklin was not alone among his technoscientific contemporaries for the diversity of his research activities. Perhaps the most prolific mathematician ever, Leonhard Euler originated graph theory which underlies transmission networks, and also developed the equations of inviscid flow. Simeon Poisson was not only an astronomer and a geometer, but he also conjured up the basic differential equation of potential theory and a distribution of probabilities, along with developing the rational use of momentum in mechanical analysis. And how can the great Carl-Friedrich Gauss be forgotten for his seminal contributions to practically every branch of mathematics and physical sciences? That which today is called multidisciplinarity remained in vogue until perhaps the 1910s. My own hero, James Clerk Maxwell, fathered the fundamental set of electromagnetic equations, a probability density distribution in thermodynamics, color photographs, and even a centrifugal governor for steam engines. Jagadis Chunder Bose carried out pioneering investigations on microwave materials at frequencies as high as 60 GHz; invented artificial chiral composite materials; designed, fabricated, and tested structurally chiral materials; devised semiconductor heterojunctions to detect radio signals; and invented the crescograph to identify the similarities of plant and animal tissue. The rise of the specialist probably occurred in the early 20th century, quite possibly because of the spectacular growth in scientific activity worldwide. Ever more departments and academic majors, each associated with a narrow discipline, were created at universities. Perhaps this trend was led by the Nordic and central European countries, as the names of university departments there would confirm. Perhaps universities in USA were the bellwethers instead. International agencies quickly caught up with the trend, as did also newly independent nations and communist countries. To be sure, there were also those who despised compartmentalization, the medical humorist Richard Gordon among them: "None of [the Yanks] would think of blowing their noses or changing the baby's nappies without first consulting the appropriate specialist—all American doctors of course being specialists. I tell them I'm a general specialist, and that seems to do the trick." Necessity being a parent of innovation, narrow compartmentalization is at odds with the broad requirements of need-driven technoscientific research. No wonder, as early as during the 1980s, universities began supplementing the hierarchy of colleges and departments with research centers that cut across disciplinary boundaries. Nowadays, national and international


Seed germination of many Australian native plant species has consistently proven to be fractious. With the discovery of smoke-mediated germination, it is now possible to better understand the heterogeneity in germination patterns for a wide range of species both in situ and ex situ. In the present study, over 180 species were examined as to viability and smoke responsiveness of freshly collected seed. Soil storage and a number of commonly used seed pre-treatments were employed in combination with smoke to examine both longevity in artificially constructed seed banks, and the role of seed ageing in improved germination. Methods of smoke application for commercial use were also investigated. Viability decline over 1 year varied between 10% and 80%. Reductions of as little as 15% were found to compromise the ability of a number of species to successfully recruit in consecutive seasons. When fresh seed was used,almost 70% of species tested responded positively to smoke whether applied prior to or after sowing. Variation in success between the two methods confirmed earlier conclusions that substances contained in plant-derived smoke may be inhibitory at high concentrations for particularly sensitive species. Only 10% of species under investigation recorded optimum germination with seed ageing alone but when smoke was applied as a treatment after soil storage, 60% of species responded positively. Implications for horticulture, rehabilitation, seed bank research and habitat management are discussed.


Background: While few comparative studies exist, it has been suggested that open distal clavicle excisions (DCEs) provide inferior results when compared with the all-arthroscopic technique. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the intermediate-term (5-year follow-up) results of patients undergoing arthroscopic versus open DCE for the treatment of recalcitrant acromioclavicular joint pain. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: All patients who underwent an arthroscopic or open DCE between January 1999 and September 2006 were reviewed. Forty-eight patients (49 shoulders; 32 arthroscopic, 17 open) following DCE without significant glenohumeral pathologic changes were included. The mean follow-up for group I (open) and group II (arthroscopic) was 5.3 years and 4.2 years, respectively. The American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score, visual analog scale (VAS) pain score, surgical time, and minimum radiographic acromioclavicular joint distance were calculated. Each patient completed a questionnaire assessing their scar satisfaction, percentage of normal shoulder function, and willingness to have the surgery again. Risk factors for poor outcomes were analyzed. Results: Arthroscopic patients had significantly less pain (P = .035) by VAS (0.61 ± 1.02) compared with open (1.59 ± 2.15) at final follow-up. There was no significant difference between group I and group II with regard to ASES (87.5 ± 17.6 vs 94.6 ± 8.6), percentage of normal shoulder function (89.7% ± 12.5 vs 92.9% ± 8.6), average operative time (53.1 minutes vs 48 minutes), or radiographic resection distance (12.8 ± 2.1 mm vs 9.5 ± 2.9 mm). In the open group, patients with 16 of 17 shoulders were satisfied with their scar and 100% would do it again. In the arthroscopic group, patients with 31 of 32 shoulders (97%) were both satisfied and would have the surgery again. Conclusion: Open and arthroscopic DCE are both effective surgeries to treat recalcitrant acromioclavicular joint pain. At intermediate-term follow-up, they provide similarly good to excellent results with regard to patient satisfaction and shoulder function. Although both are effective treatments, less residual pain was found using the arthroscopic technique.


In this article the need for employer-based disability management (DM) in a modern welfare state is discussed. The article is not a traditional research article, but rather a conceptual article with a purpose to discuss and reflect over existing perspectives, and argue for a stronger focus on welfare state issues in DM research. Focus is set on Sweden and it is concluded that much of the thought behind DM is indeed built into the comprehensive welfare system. In addition to the employer's responsibilities regarding ill-health prevention, the Acts and regulations of the governmental social insurance agency's responsibilities regarding return to work are comprehensive. As can be seen, however, this is no guarantee that the established process will work in practice. In too many cases, the system in Sweden is suffering from organisational and case-level related problems. Against this background, it is suggested that current responsibilities put on the social insurance agency can be removed and instead be put on the employer. The answer to the main question stated in this article (i.e., 'Is employer-based DM necessary in a social-democratic welfare state like Sweden?') is obviously yes.


AIM
This paper reports an audit of the effect on admission temperatures of using occlusive polyethylene wrap applied immediately after the birth of extremely premature infants.

BACKGROUND
Use of occlusive polyethylene wrap during the early postnatal management of the premature infant reduces evaporative and convective heat loss.

METHOD
Retrospective pre-intervention audit was carried out, followed by the introduction of occlusive polyethylene wrap for thermal management during resuscitation and early stabilization. Prospective post-intervention audit was then performed. The pre-intervention (control) group infants were immediately dried with prewarmed towels and resuscitated under radiant heat. Infants in the intervention group were managed under radiant heat, were not dried but were immediately enclosed in an occlusive polyethylene wrap.

RESULTS
The demographic characteristics of the two groups were comparable. Use of occlusive polyethylene wrap resulted in higher admission temperatures for infants less than 27 weeks gestation (z=108.50, P<0.01). There was no statistically significant improvement in admission temperatures for 27-29 week infants. The rate of hypothermia on admission (<35.6 degrees C per axilla) was lower in the intervention group (chi(2)=5.12, d.f.=1, P=0.02), but more infants recorded temperatures exceeding 37.2 degrees C during the first 12 hours (chi(2)=23.45, d.f.=1, P<0.01). There were no other adverse effects noted.

CONCLUSION
Use of occlusive polyethylene wrap improved admission temperatures for infants less than 27 weeks gestation. This intervention is easy to implement and does not interfere with resuscitation. However, removal of the wrap should be considered following admission to a closed care system in the neonatal intensive care unit because, in the intervention group, hyperthermia in the first 12 hours was a potential side effect.


The objective of this research is to describe the implementation of project-based learning (PJBL) in improving computer programming competency in a higher education setting. The method applied in this study is action research with a one-cycle framework with four phases of development: a) planning, b) action, c) observing, and d) reflection phases. This research tries to answer two questions: how to implement PJBL in a programming course to improve programming competency and how to ensure students' satisfaction in the learning process. The PJBL applied in this research consists of seven steps, including a) a challenging problem or question; b) sustained inquiry; c) authenticity; d) student voice & choice; e) reflection; f) critique and revision; and g) public product. We found that the PJBL implementation for the course, Introduction to Programming, supports the attainment of programming competence. We found that PJBL helps students retain programming knowledge and transfer the programming skills into real-life projects. The research also found that with the implementation of PJBL in Introduction to Programming, students' satisfaction with the learning experience increases. The result shows that PJBL is not only effective in improving computer programming competency, but also in increasing the student's engagement and passion for lifelong learning.


What do environmental emissions have in common with knowledge? This chapter sees both as privately produced public goods 1 and gives conditions for efficient allocation of resources in economies with such goods. These conditions are independent of the units of measurement and extend those of Lindahl, Bowen, and Samuelson for standard public goods. The motivation is to understand efficiency in markets in which new types of items such as knowledge and environmental assets are traded along with standard private goods. Both are public goods in that they are not rival in consumption. However, they are privately produced and thus differ from classical public goods that are produced by governments. Following Chichilnisky, Heal, and Starrett [1], we consider competitive markets, in which every trader faces the same price for each good. The institutional structure for trading public goods contemplated here is similar to that of the emissions markets for sulfur dioxide (SO2) that are traded in the Chicago Board of Trade since 1993. The example of global emissions markets is especially interesting. These were created recently by Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol, where 166 nations explicitly agreed on the creation of such tradable rights among Annex B countries, which are mostly industrial nations (see chapters 11, 12, and 14 of this volume, and the Appendix). These markets were


This book offers a practical guide on how to use and apply channel models for system evaluationIn this book, the authors focus on modeling and simulation of multiple antennas channels, including multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication channels, and the impact of such models on channel estimation and system performance. Both narrowband and wideband models are addressed. Furthermore, the book covers topics related to modeling of MIMO channel, their numerical simulation, estimation and prediction, as well as applications to receive diversity, capacity and space-time coding techniques.Key Features:Contains significant background material, as well as novel research coverage, which make the book suitable for both graduate students and researchersAddresses issues such as key-hole, correlated and non i.i.d. channels in the frame of the Generalized Gaussian approachProvides a unique treatment of generalized Gaussian channels and orthogonal channel representationReviews different interpretations of scattering environment, including geometrical modelsFocuses on the analytical techniques which give a good insight into the design of systems on higher levelsDescribes a number of numerical simulators demonstrating the practical use of this material.Includes an accompanying website containing additional materials and practical examples for self-studyThis book will be of interest to researchers, engineers, lecturers, and graduate students.


For the last few decades, media theorists have been faced with the understanding that the networked digital computer is the meta-medium to end all mediums. This places researchers in the curious position where online platforms, such as YouTube, cannot legitimately and directly be contrasted with traditional analogue mediums, such as cinema and television. To address this inconsistency, I developed the theory of foundation technologies and their respective proto-affordances, which demonstrates the existence of past periods of 'new media'. These were brought about by the introduction of key technologies that each offered, at the time, a new and unique underlying affordance to a society. Each new 'proto-affordance' inspired social disruption, as new specific mediums were spawned – each remediating existing mediums of similar mode. This framework shows digitality as another evolutionary step in a line of foundation technologies, which includes the artefact, the machine and electricity. The theory of foundation technologies permits software-based online platforms, such as YouTube, SoundCloud and Twitter, to be called digital mediums, and thus aids in understanding their technological substrate and unique affordances. Justifying this relation between old mediums and new, digital, ones equips us to more effectively comprehend and analyse these platforms as to their social adoption and uses, cultural practices, implications and effects. This allows us to better understand and control our present, and even guide our potential future.


In the welter of opinions issued in connection with the Schiavo case, one opinion attracted enormous attention: the opinion by Judge Birch finding unconstitutional the Act of Congress providing for federal jurisdiction. That opinion was quite wrong in many ways, ranging from its failure to support Judge Birch's vote on the question before the Court to its treatment of statutory and common law principles as if they were constitutional requirements. Moreover, its interpretation of Klein v. United States, 80 U.S. 128 (1871) - a case involving the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, sovereign immunity, and a Presidential pardon in the wake of the Civil War - demonstrates the enduring wisdom of Professor Young's observation that Klein has given rise to a devotion among judges and scholars resembling a cult. This article defends that Act of Congress against Judge Birch's criticism. It also places Klein in the context of the general constitutional law principle of vested rights. This context not only reveals that the pardon is relevant in Klein both as an independent ground of decision and as one means of creating vested rights, it also provides insight into the sovereign immunity problem. Judge Birch's opinion nevertheless serves to bring into focus significant concerns about officials in Washington determining that a particular state court case was important, singling it out from the thousands of decided cases, providing for its adjudication in a federal court unburdened by the preclusive effect of the state court judgment, and insisting that their decision to single out this case not be understood as establishing a precedent. However, those who find themselves appalled by the Act should ask themselves why they are so unconcerned when the Supreme Court does the same thing. Perhaps Congress was simply trying to do something about a particular tragedy that stuck in its craw, or perhaps it was sending a message to federal courts. But perhaps Congress was beginning to find its voice to assert control over the jurisdiction of federal courts.


The genus Thioalkalivibrio comprises sulfur-oxidizing bacteria thriving in soda lakes at high pH and salinity. Depending on the geographical location and the season, these lakes can strongly vary in temperature. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of the molecular and physiological adaptations to low temperature, we compared the responses of two Thioalkalivibrio strains to low (10°C) and high (30°C) temperatures. For this, the strains were grown under controlled conditions in chemostats and analyzed for their gene expression (RNA sequencing [RNA-Seq]), membrane lipid composition, and glycine betaine content. The strain Thioalkalivibrio versutus AL2T originated from a soda lake in southeast Siberia that is exposed to strong seasonal temperature differences, including freezing winters, whereas Thioalkalivibrio nitratis ALJ2 was isolated from an East African Rift Valley soda lake with a constant warm temperature the year round. The strain AL2T grew faster than ALJ2 at 10°C, likely due to its 3-fold-higher concentration of the osmolyte glycine betaine. Moreover, significant changes in the membrane lipid composition were observed for both strains, leading to an increase in their unsaturated fatty acid content via the Fab pathway to avoid membrane stiffness. Genes for the transcriptional and translational machinery, as well as for counteracting cold-induced hampering of nucleotides and proteins, were upregulated. Oxidative stress was reduced by induction of vitamin B12 biosynthesis genes, and growth at 10°C provoked downregulation of genes involved in the second half of the sulfur oxidation pathway. Genes for intracellular signal transduction were differentially expressed, and interestingly, AL2T upregulated flagellin expression, whereas ALJ2 downregulated it. IMPORTANCE In addition to their haloalkaline conditions, soda lakes can also harbor a variety of other extreme parameters, to which their microbial communities need to adapt. However, for most of these supplementary stressors, it is not well known yet how haloalkaliphiles adapt and resist. Here, we studied the strategy for adaptation to low temperature in the haloalkaliphilic genus Thioalkalivibrio by using two strains isolated from soda lakes with different temperature regimes. Even though the strains showed a strong difference in growth rate at 10°C, they exhibited similar molecular and physiological adaptation responses. We hypothesize that they take advantage of resistance mechanisms against other stressors commonly found in soda lakes, which are therefore maintained in the bacteria living in the absence of low-temperature Citation Ahn A-C, Jongepier E, Schuurmans JM, Rijpstra WIC, Sinninghe Damsté JS, Galinski EA, Roman P, Sorokin D, Muyzer G. 2021. Molecular and physiological adaptations to low temperature in Thioalkalivibrio strains isolated from soda lakes with different temperature regimes. mSystems 6:e01202-20. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.01202-20. Editor Rachel Mackelprang, California State University, Northridge Copyright © 2021 Ahn et al. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Address correspondence to Gerard Muyzer, email@example.com. Low-temperature adaptation in Thioalkalivibrio Received 16 November 2020 Accepted 30 March 2021 Published 27 April 2021 March/April 2021 Volume 6 Issue 2 e01202-20 msystems.asm.org 1 RESEARCH ARTICLE D ow nl oa de d fr om h ttp s: //j ou rn al s. as m .o rg /jo ur na l/m sy st em s on 0 3 Ju ne 2 02 1 by 1 54 .5 9. 12 4. 11 3. pressure. A major difference, however, was detected for their glycine betaine content at 10°C, highlighting the power of this osmolyte to also act as a key compound in cryoprotection.


Young people represent a powerful force for social change, and they have an important role to play in climate change responses. However, empowering young people to be "systems changers" is not straightforward. It is particularly challenging within educational systems that prioritize instrumental learning over critical thinking and creative actions. History has shown that by creating novel spaces for reflexivity and experimentation, the arts have played a role in shifting mindsets and opening up new political horizons. In this paper, we explore the role of art as a driver for societal transformation in a changing climate and consider how an experiment with change can facilitate reflection on relationships between individual change and systems change. Following a review of the literature on transformations, transformative learning and the role of art, we describe an experiment with change carried out with students at an Art High School in Lisbon, Portugal, which involved choosing one sustainable behavior and adopting it for 30 days. A transformative program encouraged regular reflection and group discussions. During the experiment, students started developing an art project about his or her experience with change. The results show that a transformative learning approach that engages students with art can support critical thinking and climate change awareness, new perspectives and a sense of empowerment. Experiential, arts-based approaches also have the potential to create direct and indirect effects beyond the involved participants. We conclude that climate-related art projects can serve as more than a form of science communication. They represent a process of opening up imaginative spaces where audiences can move more freely and reconsider the role of humans as responsible beings with agency and a stake in sustainability transformations.


The alcohol dehydrogenase reaction on active charcoals has been studied. It is shown that the reaction rate on active charcoals decreases in comparison with usual conditions but the reaction being carried out for a longer period of time, the equilibrium shifts towards the NADH formation, which makes the NADH yield several times higher. A conclusion is made on the possibility of charcoals to influence the enzymic reactions in a living organism.


Application of fungicides have advantages and also some direct or indirect disadvantages, such as imbalance and/or fungicide resistance in microbe population. To avoid these problems the development of alternative, eco-friendly methods like mostly spraying with oils are in the focus nowadays. The investigations of the effects of fungicides on microbiota in some cultivations can give a more complex view to this topic and developmental possibilities. In the present study, our aim was testing of the effects of paraffine oil (as alternative fungicide) on microbial properties (CFU and rate of filamentous fungi and yeasts) of Chardonnay and Kekfrankos leaves and berries.
Our results from 2014 showed that the application of paraffine oil as sole spray agent can decrease the presence of saprophytic filamentous fungi on the berries of Chardonnay (susceptible for fungal infections). In the case of Kekfrankos berries opposite properties were observed, which may be the result of the absorption of oil by the thick wax layer of this variety. The oil treatment did not affect the yeast population of Chardonnay and Kekfrankos berries contrary to negative effect of the regular pesticide treatment. The selective fungicide effect of paraffine oil against filamentous fungal population caused the accumulation of yeast cells in the mycobiota of grape berries. The careful use of this yeasts in spontaneous fermentation can improve the aroma profile of wines. The year of 2015 did no prefer the growth of fungi, therefore no interesting properties were detected in the mycobiota of grape varieties. The occurence of the harmful saprophytic filamentous fungi predicted to be increased in mild climate agricultures as the result of the climate change.
In summary, the paraffine oils are seem to be promising tools for the eco-friendly control of harmful fungi of grapes.


This study investigated relationships between self-efficacy, self-esteem, previous performance accomplishments, and academic performance among a sample of 205 postgraduate students. Participants completed measures of past performance accomplishments, self-esteem, and self-efficacy at the start of a 15-week course. Each student's average grade from modules studied was used as the performance measure. Correlation results indicated significant relationships between self-efficacy and self-esteem. Multiple regression results indicated that self-efficacy mediated the relationship between performance accomplishments and academic performance. Findings lend support to the predictive effectiveness of self-efficacy measures in academic settings.


Aims To highlight a rare respiratory condition, its investigation and management. Methods A 12 year old girl referred by GP to her local DGH with a history of worsening exertional and nocturnal dyspnoea, and weight loss subsequent to a flu like illness one year previously. Past medical history was unremarkable. Her exercise tolerance was severely restricted due to cough and shortness of breath. She had shown no response to either bronchodilators or inhaled steroids. She had been treated with 3 courses of oral antibiotics for presumed chest infections without improvement. Results She was dyspnoeic at rest, hypoxic in room air (85%), which improved to 93% in 1 litre of oxygen. She was thin but not clubbed. She had marked pectus excavatum. She had markedly reduced air entry and coarse crackles bilaterally. Her chest X-ray showed widespread interstitial shadowing. She had normal routine bloods, blood gas, and ECG. Her FEV1 was 30% predicted with a restrictive flow-volume loop. Her differential diagnoses included pneumocystis pneumonia, drug reaction, interstitial lung disease, and alveolar proteinosis. She was referred to her regional respiratory centre. Further investigations of note were: ▶ Pneumocyctis PCR: Negative ▶ Bronchoscopy: Normal airway anatomy. Creamy BAL fluid. ▶ Immune function: Normal ▶ CT Chest: widespread alveolar and interstitial change, with 'crazy paving' ▶ Echo: Normal ▶ Quantiferon & AFB staining: Negative ▶ BAL showed abnormal cytology, with amorphous proteinaceous debris. Strongly PAS stain positive, diagnostic for Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (PAP). She also grew haemophilus resistant to amoxicillin, commenced on co-amoxiclav. Conclusion PAP can present in the neonatal period, due to surfactant protein B deficiency, and is usually fatal. Later onset disease can be related to disturbance of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and is diagnosed on BAL without the need for lung biopsy. CT appearances are suggestive. She was referred to the Royal Brompton for bilateral whole lung lavage. Ongoing care issues include correction of hypoxaemia, improving nutritional status, repeat lavage treatment and consideration of inhaled GMCSF. This condition has a variable course. Some patients will have spontaneous remission, some will have their disease controlled with multiple lavage treatments and some have disease with progression to respiratory failure.


The following work was carried out in order to determine whether one strain or a group of strains of streptococci exist which could be classed as rheumatic on the basis of the skin reactions in rheumatic subjects, and further to find if any immunologic characters were common to the varied types of streptococci which may be isolated in cases of rheumatic fever and chorea. Attempts made to isolate streptococci from the blood stream were largely unsuccessful. Thirty-three blood cultures were made from twenty-nine subjects, and the technic advocated by Clawson 1 was employed. All of the subjects were acutely sick with rheumatic manifestations, and the fever at the time of culture varied between 38.6 and 40 C. (101.5 to 104 F.). All except four had cardiac involvement. Eleven had pericarditis and ten had subcutaneous nodules. The cultures were kept from four to six weeks and examined semiweekly. Contamination with air organisms


Active balancers are attractive to be used in applications where rotational imbalance is frequently varied. For example, in media level servo track writers used in hard disk drive industry, a set of blank disks is loaded on spindle motor for purpose of servo writing. Since servo writing is performed at high speeds, imbalance introduced by disks and spacers results in significant vibrations that can affect the quality of servo writing process. This paper proposes a new configuration of active balancer that enables to compensate for rotational imbalance each time a new set of blank disk is loaded into servo track writing machine. The active balancer is in a shape of ring with a number of grooves displaced around axis of rotation. Steel balls are placed inside the grooves and held by permanent magnets. Imbalance compensation is achieved by electromagnetically activated release of the steel balls. Main advantage of the proposed configuration is in large compensation range. Presented 3-D finite element analysis results and experimental results demonstrate and prove effectiveness of this novel configuration.


In 2005-08, over a dozen put warrants traded in China went so deep out of the money that they were certain to expire worthless. Nonetheless, each warrant was traded nearly three times each day at substantially inflated prices. This bubble is unique, because the underlying stock prices make the zero warrant fundamentals publicly observable. We find evidence supporting the resale option theory of bubbles: investors overpay for a warrant hoping to resell it at an even higher price to a greater fool. Our study confirms key findings of the experimental bubble literature and provides useful implications for market development.


BACKGROUND
The purpose of our study was to assess the effect of hypolipidemiant drugs on serum markers of vascular inflammation (E-Selectin, VCAM-1 and MCP-1) in dyslipidemic men without cardiovascular disease.

MATERIAL/METHODS
84 dyslipidemic men were consecutively recruited from the Lipid Unit of a tertiary hospital. The patients were placed on statins (n=44) or fibrates (n=22), depending on the lipid profile, for 4 months. In the control group (n=18), a hypolipidemiant diet alone was indicated.

RESULTS
Baseline levels of VCAM-1 and MCP-1 were not correlated with the lipid profile. By contrast, baseline E-Selectin levels correlated directly with glucose and triglyceride levels, and negatively with HDL-C. In multiple regression analysis, HDL-C and glucose concentrations independently influenced E-selectin levels. After treatment, we observed a significant decrease of E-Selectin levels in patients treated with statins, and the changes in E-Selectin levels were inversely associated with HDL-C variations. We did not observe any changes in VCAM-1 levels after the treatment regime we used. Regarding MCP-1, a significant increase was detected in the patients receiving fibrates. In addition, the percentage increment of MCP-1 was higher in patients treated with gemfibrozil than in patients who received bezafibrate.

CONCLUSIONS
We observed a reduction in E-Selectin levels after statin therapy. This finding was associated with increased HDL-C. Fibrates, especially gemfibrozil, increased MCP-1 concentrations. This deleterious effect was unrelated to changes in lipid profile, and may help explain why fibrates have less impact than statins in reducing cardiovascular disease.


The effect of oa-adrenergic agonists on Ca2+ fluxes was examined in the perfused rat liver by using a combination of Ca2+ -electrode and 45Ca2+ -uptake techniques. We showed that net Ca2+ fluxes can be described by the activities of separate Ca2+-uptake and Ca2+ -efflux components, and that a-adrenergic agonists modulate the activity of both components in a time-dependent manner. Under resting conditions, Ca2+-uptake and -efflux activities are balanced, resulting in Ca2+ cycling across the plasma membrane. The a-adrenergic agonists vasopressin and angiotensin, but not glucagon, stimulate the rate of both Ca2+ efflux and Ca2+ uptake. During the first 2-3 min of a-agonist administration the effect on the efflux component is the greater, the net effect being efflux of Ca2+ from the cell. After 3-4 min of phenylephrine treatment, net Ca2+ movements are essentially complete, however, the rate of Ca2+ cycling is significantly increased. After removal of the a-agonist a large stimulation of the rate of Ca2+ uptake leads to the net accumulation of Ca2+ by the cell. The potential role of these Ca2+ flux changes in the expression of a-adrenergic-agonist-mediated effects is discussed.


There is an Indigenous resurgence in education occurring globally. For more than a century Euro-western approaches have controlled the provision and quality of education to, and for Indigenous peoples.  The World Indigenous Research Alliance (WIRA) established in 2012, is a grass-roots movement of Indigenous scholars passionate about making a difference for Indigenous peoples and their education. WIRA is a service-oriented endeavor designed by Indigenous scholars working in mainstream institutions to support each other and to provide culturally safe spaces to share ideas. This paper highlights how WIRA came to be, and outlines the nature and scope of these shared endeavours. Strategically, WIRA operates under the mandate of the World Indigenous Nations Higher Educational Consortium (WINHEC) who regularly report to the General Assembly of the United Nations Indigenous Peoples Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) pertaining to Indigenous Peoples and their education (United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 2007). Indeed, this collaboration provides the opportunity to share best practices across respective countries, and to co-design interdisciplinary, dynamic and innovative educational research.  Since the inception of WIRA, a number of research priorities have emerged alongside potential funding models we believe can assist our shared work moving forward.  The launching of WIRA is timely, and sure to accelerate the goals envisaged by WINHEC, and Indigenous peoples aspirations in education more generally.


This paper presents the results of the WMT11 shared tasks, which included a translation task, a system combination task, and a task for machine translation evaluation metrics. We conducted a large-scale manual evaluation of 148 machine translation systems and 41 system combination entries. We used the ranking of these systems to measure how strongly automatic metrics correlate with human judgments of translation quality for 21 evaluation metrics. This year featured a Haitian Creole to English task translating SMS messages sent to an emergency response service in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake. We also conducted a pilot 'tunable metrics' task to test whether optimizing a fixed system to different metrics would result in perceptibly different translation quality.


In an effort to make Wisconsin's child support cases more equitable and up-to-date, old child support orders were reviewed. Only 21% of the cases were revised. he amount of revised orders increased substantially, a mean of $116/month (77%). An alternative method of keeping orders current is to express them as a percentage of the noncustodial parent's income; these orders are kept up-to-date automatically without a revision process. One of the factors driving the current welfare reform debate is the idea that taxpayers are being asked to support children in poor singleparent families because parents who do not live with their children (generally fathers) are not providing them with adequate financial support. This linkage between the provision of private support for children (child support) and the public provision of this support (primarily Aid to Families with Dependent Children or AFDC) has had a long history, with the first legislation that attempted to increase child support among AFDC recipients occurring in 1950. Over the next four decades, the link has been strengthened and formalized, particularly with the creation of the federal Child Support Enforcement (IV-D) agency in 1974, a public agency designed to help all custodial parents receiving AFDC and any other custodial parent who requested child support services. The child support and welfare systems are again receiving attention as policymakers search for ways to shift responsibility for the economic support of single-parent families from the government to the noncustodial parent. As the child support system has been examined, most observers have concluded that it has significant problems (Garfinkel, 1992, for example). One problem is that noncustodial parents are not paying the amounts that they are ordered to pay: total child support payments in 1991 were $11.9 billion, compared to $17.7 billion due (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1995). However, a larger problem is that many custodial parents do not have child support orders, and the orders that exist are often low and are seldom updated and, thus, do not reflect the current ability of the noncustodial parent to pay. Sorensen (1995) estimates that about $50 billion of child support could be collected if orders reflected current circumstances and were fully paid, in contrast to the $17.7 billion of current child support orders. Some policies have been aimed at increasing the proportion of custodial parents who have child support orders. Other policies have been directed at ensuring that orders are kept up-to-date; the latter policies are the focus of this article. The 1988 Family Support Act (FSA; Public Law 100-485) contained the following provisions: At least every 3 years, states must review each AFDC case with a child support order to see if the order should be revised. The FSA also required that states contact any non-AFDC case in the child support system (IV-D cases) to obtain permission to review and potentially revise the order amount. State plans on how these provisions were to be accomplished were required by October, 1990, with full implementation required by October, 1993. At about the same time, the Wisconsin legislature authorized the Wisconsin Order Revision Project, a pilot project designed to systematically review and revise old child support orders to ensure their adequacy. The Wisconsin legislation, like the federal legislation, required child support staff to review AFDC cases and to offer reviews to non-AFDC cases. Child support staff in 13 of Wisconsin's 72 counties reviewed old orders to determine if they needed to be revised; if the orders were found to be out-of date, the staff attempted to secure revisions. The Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) collected data on all cases considered for revision by child support staff. This article reviews the results of these efforts. Prior to the FSA deadline for implementation, two other projects also tested the method of periodically reviewing child support orders. …


In electronics, adder is a digital circuit that performs addition of numbers. To perform fast arithmetic operations, carry select adder (CSLA) is one of the fastest adders used in many data- processing processors. The structure of CSLA is such that there is further scope of reducing the area, delay and power consumption. Simple and efficient gate - level modification is used in order to reduce the area, delay and power of CSLA. Based on the modifications, 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit architectures of CSLA are designed and compared. In this paper, conventional CSLA is compared with Modified Carry select adder (MCSLA), Regular Square Root CSLA (SQRT CSLA), Modified SQRT CSLA and Proposed SQRT CSLA in terms of area, delay and power consumption. The result analysis shows that the proposed structure is better than the conventional CSLA.


The paper presents the validation of the implementation made by the user of the standard wall function for the standard k-ε turbulence model against the built-in standard wall function for the standard k-ε turbulence mode, in numerical computation software (ANSYS Fluent). A comparison was made between the results of two flow simulations: the first case consisted in using the built-in standard wall function and in the second case the implemented standard wall function was considered. The numerical simulations were made for the water flow inside a 3D diffuser. The results showed that both the wall functions used had a similar influence on the simulated flow.


Agencies sometimes give away their legislatively delegated decisionmaking power of their own accord. More specifically, agencies make agreements in order to transfer their entire jurisdiction to adjudicate administrative decisions to other agencies. This Article is the first to explore these mostly informal, endogenous interagency arrangements.
One example of this dynamic involves the authority to adjudicate the legality of pharmaceutical imports and exports, initially delegated by Congress to the Department of Treasury. Treasury has since transferred this authority to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol via interagency agreement, which then retransferred this authority to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by means of another interagency agreement. The FDA does not have clear statutory authority to make these decisions. However, transferring this set of adjudications to the FDA allows it to bring its superior technocratic expertise to bear, which may lead to higher quality decision making.
On the one hand, these arrangements could be harbingers of a future in which agencies take advantage of opportunities to shirk, deteriorate rule of law values, and usurp the legislative branch's power to define agency jurisdiction and make the law. On the other hand, interagency transfers of adjudication authority represent agencies' potential to improve administrative decision making by sharing or even transferring power based on their on-the-ground knowledge of their own varying capacity to implement an efficient and effective regime of administrative adjudication.
This Article argues that that there is a way to ensure these interagency transfers of power and responsibilities are both beneficial to the quality of administrative decision making and also constitutional — in particular, by allowing those agreements that benefit the quality of administrative decision making to be deemed legitimate if grounded in statutory language authorizing interagency coordination. Finally, it proposes that courts play a primary role in shaping the development of high-quality interagency transfers of adjudication authority and ensuring that they remain within permissible constitutional bounds.


This article analyses how library, archive and museum professionals legitimize the use of scarce societal resources for maintaining their respective organizations, with a special emphasis on their role as public-sphere infrastructure. Drawing on data from a survey among professionals in libraries, archives and museums in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the authors investigate whether professionals across these institutions have similar expectations of their organizations to serve as public spheres. The analysis is contextualized with references to current library, archive and museum legislation across the three countries. The authors conclude that there are many similarities across the three countries, although national library, archive and museum legislation differs. This is interpreted in light of new public governance being a dominant regime of governance.


Summary Study aim: the purpose of the study was to compare foot shapes in early school-age boys and girls. Material and methods: the study included 90 boys and 98 girls aged seven to nine years old. The shape of the foot arch was examined using a podoscope. The longitudinal arch was assessed according to the Clarke angle value on the basis of Kasperczyk's classification. The transverse arch was assessed according to the Wejsflog index. An analysis of variance, a post-hoc LSD test and a chi-square test were performed. Results: normal transverse arches in both feet appeared in 84% of the examined children. An analysis of the average value of the Wejsflog index showed that it is similar and within limits in all of the test groups indiscriminately when it comes to gender and age. Normally, longitudinal arches in both feet occurr in 44% of children. The average value of Clarke's index in a test group of school-age girls was within normal range while a functionally flattened foot appeared in the case of seven and eight-year-old boys. Conclusions: the outcomes of the present study conducted on a randomly chosen group of developing boys and girls show that changes in foot structure are mostly symmetrical in nature (almost 90%), meaning that if the left foot is normal, the right one is normal, too. Gender had no effect on the foot build or arch type in either foot. The right and left feet showed symmetrical structure in the majority of the children.


Scanning polarimeters, which utilize multi-angle, multispectral polarimetric observations from aircraft and orbit, represent the next generation of instruments capable of determining aerosol and cloud properties remotely. Retrieval of these properties from observations, however, are not straightforward. Iterative minimization techniques are often used to match radiative transfer simulations to the observations, where the aerosol and cloud parameters of the optimal model match are considered the best estimate of what is physically present in the scene. If the radiative transfer model perturbation sensitivity, expressed as a Jacobian matrix, can be assessed at the solution, then the observation uncertainty can be projected into the domain of the retrieved parameters. These parameter uncertainties provide are an extremely useful means to assess retrieval success. Another aspect of our iterative minimization techniques is the need for a reasonable initial estimate of optical properties. This estimate is provided by matching observations to a Lookup Table (LUT) of pre-computed radiative transfer scenes. This LUT spans a wide range of aerosol and cloud optical properties, and also includes numerical estimates of the Jacobian matrix at each element in the LUT. Using the Jacobians, we can estimate the retrieval uncertainty for all elements of the LUT, and therefore build a table of expected uncertainty. This paper presents how this approach is used in a systematic manner, and how it can be used to test retrieval capability for various combinations of polarized, multi-angle and multispectral observations.


The needs of carers are still poorly understood in medical rehabilitation research. This article explores the lived experience of carers and the adverse effects of caring throughout the different phases of the rehabilitation care trajectory in the Netherlands, based on in-depth interviews with couples where one partner has acquired brain injury or spinal cord injury. The findings reveal that carers' needs vary during the rehabilitation trajectory, particularly because of varying availability or lack of 'personal time' and 'personal space'. Acknowledging this may improve the assistance of carers, attuned to their evolving needs, and thereby contribute to improved future rehabilitation treatment.