Organizations are always interested in engaging in any activity that will improve a customer's experience and increase their intentions to return for repeat business. Frontline employee authenticity may be one way to improve customer experiences. Research has found authenticity to be the highest sought after attribute in a frontline employee by customers (Gruber, 2011). Perceived authenticity has also been related to customer satisfaction and perceived friendliness of employees (Grandey, 2005). What isn't clear is whether customers are able to accurately tell when an employee is being authentic or is acting. Some argue that individuals are very capable of detecting inauthenticity, however, most of this research has taken place in laboratory settings (Frank, Ekman, & Friesen, 1993; Surakka & Hietanen, 1998) or used student role play situations wherein individuals' full attention was directed at their targets (Bono & Vey, 2007).
This study seeks to find out if there are personal factors that frontline employees have that allow them to be perceived as being more authentic than their actual authenticity. In addition, it will seek to improve the measurement of authenticity by separating it from emotional display strategies and by taking more frequent and accurate measurements. The study failed to link actual authenticity to perceived authenticity and hence failed to find personal factors that moderate this relationship. It did, however, offer insight into potential methodological changes in the area of study and it reinforced the importance of perceived authenticity to researchers, customers and businesses.


The context for this book is the increasingly complex relationship between economic theory and competition law which gives rise to lively political and academic debate on the direction competition law should take in a more global and innovation-oriented market place.


Aim: This study aimed to determine the dentofacial transverse dimensions according to the hand-wrist and cervical vertebrae skeletal maturation stages in order to evaluate the differences between the sexes, to identify the correlations between transverse measurements, and to compare the transverse measurements of individuals of different origins with those of Turkish individuals. Methodology: Transverse measurements were performed using the posteroanterior radiographs of 265 Turkish individuals (150 females, 115 males) at 7–17 years of age. Skeletal maturation was evaluated using handwrist radiographs and lateral cephalometric radiographs, and the results were used to categorize the patients into 3 stages of hand-wrist skeletal maturity (prepubertal/pubertal/postpubertal) and 2 stages of cervical vertebrae maturity (prespurt/postspurt). Seven measurements were evaluated. A multivariate linear regression model was used to evaluate the correlations between transverse measurements and the variables of skeletal age and sex. Results: Sex was a significant explanatory factor for all transverse variables. In the postpubertal and postspurt stages, all transverse measurement values were found to be higher in males. Postpubertal term was a significant explanatory factor for maxillary, mandibular, mandibular intermolar, and maxillary intermolar widths, whereas pubertal term was only a significant explanatory factor for maxillary intermolar width. Conclusion: Skeletal age and sex should be taken into account when determining transverse dentofacial measurements.


Several kinds of electrocardiogram monitoring systems are now available in the clinical practice. The aim of this European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) survey was to assess the use of different monitoring techniques in the evaluation of patients with unexplained syncope, palpitations, and in those with established diagnosis of atrial fibrillation. Forty-five centres in Europe answered the questionnaire and the majority (78%) were university hospitals. The answers showed a discrepancy between the recommended use of implantable loop recorders (ILRs) in patients with unexplained syncope and the use of this device in clinical practice. In most of the cases only a minority of patients (<20%) seemed to actually receive an ILR as a part of the diagnostic process in accordance to the current guidelines. Holter monitoring systems and external loop recorders seemed to be the preferred monitoring techniques both in patients with recurrent palpitations and in those with established diagnosis of atrial fibrillation.


The aim of his thesis is to examine and propose modifications in electoral and Parliamentary machinery so as to enable Parliaments to be both effective in their functioning and closely representative of' the voters in their composition. A method of providing such representation has been used in Tasmania since 1909 to elect its House of Assembly. Known locally as the Hare-Clark system, it is a form of the Single, Transferable Vote method of proportional representation. But this Hare-Clark application, though resulting in Parliaments closely representative of the voters, did not prevent the occurrence of Parliamentary deadlocks and instability at various times.
Could an electoral system provide the representativeness and the wide choice of candidates possible under the S.T.V. method and still avoid deadlocks and undue instability? The aim of the thesis is to explore both questions and, if possible and without impairing the justice of election results, to make recommendations of ways to avert deadlocks, to ensure majority rule, and to facilitate the likelihood of Parliamentary majorities of workable size. How these objectives were sought is set out in the four Parts of the thesis.
Part I, the Introduction, provides the historical background of the Parliamentary deadlock problem in Tasmania; notes the premises on which the work of the thesis is based; proposes criteria for judging the desirability and fairness of electoral systems; and explains the steps followed, and some of' the problems involved, in seeking the objectives of the thesis.
Part II shows how an even number of vacancies (then six) in an electorate can - and often did - result in the two major parties obtaining an equal number of seats per electorate, though receiving markedly unequal vote totals in the electorates. This occurrence frequently produced or threatened to produce either deadlocks or extremely narrow majorities in the Assembly. The case for the proposed remedy for this cause of deadlocks, which involved altering the number of vacancies from six to seven, is given in Part II. This recommendation was adopted by the Tasmanian Parliament.
As altering the number of vacancies could, however, only lessen, not eliminate, the likelihood of deadlocks, the research for Part III of the thesis was undertaken in order to extend the range of possibilities for avoiding deadlocks and unjust election outcomes. The resulting proposals recommend changing certain procedures in Parliament so as to enable a party to govern, without dependence on another party, provided it has won a State-wide majority of the votes and has received no less than one seat fewer than a majority in the House. Part III considers various questions of importance in political science, such as the value of fixing 'the governing responsibility.
Part IV of the thesis completes the analysis of the causes of deadlocks and the possibilities of minority rule by examining in detail the consequences of the unused remainder of votes which inevitably results from using the Droop formula to determine the electoral quota. In Part IV proposals are made for ways of representing or eliminating this unused remainder, thereby ensuring majority rule under the S.T.V. system of proportional representation. If so modified, the S.T.V. method could guarantee infallibly that a party with a majority of the overall vote of the community (State, nation, or other) must win a majority in Parliament, with favourable prospects of the majority being of workable size.


The mechanical parameters and failure characteristics were obtained based on the results of triaxial unloading tests of limestone. Results show that: The evolution of volumetric strain is determined by lateral strain under unloading condition. Failure modes of rock can be classified into three types. Deformation modulus decreases and Poisson ratio increases in the process of unloading. Mohr-Coulomb criterion can not describe rock unloading failure strength property. Rock burst occur during tunnel excavation are closely related to the rock unloading failure characteristic.


It is concluded that C3H8O+˙ formed by dissociation of ionized 2-ethoxyethanol (8) is a mixture of CH3CH2OCH3+˙ (7) and ˙CH2+OHCH2CH3 (2). Formation of 7 and CH3CH2+OHCH3 (12) is attributed to dissociations of species formed by the hydrogen transfers [CH3CH2OCH2+˙CH2OH] → [CH3CH2OCH2OCH3+˙ CH2O] → [CH3CH2+OHCH3HCO˙]. Production of 7 competes weakly with dissociation to CH3CH2+OCH2 (13) and to 12. The low abundance of 7 is attributed to the simple dissociation 8 → 13 being both energetically and entropically favored, and a second H-transfer to give 12 being energetically favored. The threshold for forming 7 is 45 kJ mol−1 above that for dissociation directly to 13, so formation of 7 is the first ion-neutral complex-mediated elimination found to have a threshold above that for the competing simple dissociation. The low abundance of 7 also demonstrates that ion–neutral complexes can be intermediates without obviously revealing their presence by direct dissociation. Experimental results suggest that 2 isomerizes to CH3CH2CH2OH+˙ (5) and then dissociates by eliminating water. Ab initio results support the feasibility of 2 → CH3+OHCH2CH2˙ (1) and 2 → 5. However, experimental observations suggest that 2 → 1 does not occur. This is attributed to strong competition from dissociation and isomerization to 5. The transition state for 2 → 5 resembles [CH3CH2CH2OH]+˙, and a cyclic transition state for 2 → 5 is ruled out. When the ethyl-oxygen bond in 2 is simply lengthened, the charge is initially concentrated on ethyl, but it switches to CH2OH in a curve crossing at an apparent transition state for CO bond breaking.


CONTEXT
Calcium intake during growth is essential for future bone health but varies widely between individuals and populations. The impact on bone of increasing calcium intake is unknown in a population where low calcium intake, stunting, and delayed puberty are common.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of prepubertal calcium supplementation on mean age at peak velocity for bone growth and mineral accrual.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Prospective follow-up of boys in rural Gambia, West Africa, who had participated in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of calcium supplementation.

PARTICIPANTS
Eighty boys, initially aged 8.0-11.9 years, were followed up for 12 years.

INTERVENTIONS
Subjects received 1 year of calcium carbonate supplementation (1000 mg daily, 5 d/wk).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry measurements were carried out for whole body (WB), lumbar spine, and total hip bone mineral content, bone area (BA), and WB lean mass. Super imposition by translation and rotation models was made to assess bone growth.

RESULTS
Age at peak velocity was consistently earlier in the calcium group compared to the placebo group, for WB bone mineral content (mean, -6.2 [SE, 3.1]; P = .05), WB BA (mean, -7.0 [SE, 3.2] mo; P = .03), lumbar spine and total hip BA. By young adulthood, supplementation did not change the amount of bone accrued (mineral or size) or the rate of bone growth.

CONCLUSIONS
Twelve months of prepubertal calcium carbonate supplementation in boys with a low calcium diet advanced the adolescent growth spurt but had no lasting effect on bone mineral or bone size. There is a need for caution when applying international recommendations to different populations.


When a Coulombic fluid is confined between two parallel charged plates, an exact relation links the difference of ionic densities at contact with the plates to the surface charges of these boundaries. It no longer applies when the boundaries are curved, and we work out how it generalises when the fluid is confined between two concentric spheres (or cylinders), in two and in three space dimensions. The analysis is thus performed within the cell model picture. The generalised contact relation opens the possibility to derive new exact expressions, of particular interest in the regime of strong Coulombic couplings. Some emphasis is put on cylindrical geometry, for which we discuss in depth the phenomenon of counterion evaporation/condensation, and obtain novel results. Good agreement is found with Monte Carlo simulation data.


Page 1 of 8 Sickle-Cell Disease Contributes to Cognitive Impairment in Children – Artifacts Journal -... 9/21/2015 http://artifactsjournal.missouri.edu/2015/08/sickle-cell-disease-contributes-to-cognitive-im... An examination of how sickle-cell disease contributes to cognitive impairment in children. The definition, classification, and pathophysiology of sickle-cell disease is discussed to support the cognitive impairment seen within children with sickle-cell disease. The quality of life that children with sickle cell experience is also discussed as it plays a role in how children with sickle cell experience the disease. Therapeutic measures are also examined to discuss the possible interventions that can be taken to aide children with sickle cell manage the disease. After careful research, it is concluded that four factors directly cause compromised neurological function in children with sickle-cell disease; (1) recurrent micro infarction of the central nervous system; (2) chronic hypoxic damage to the brain or diminished pulmonary function; (3) sub-acute brain damage that occurred during bouts of hypoxia associated with events such as aplastic crisis, acute chest syndrome, and obstructive sleep apnea; and (4) chronic nutritional deficiency associated with increased metabolic demands. The therapeutic interventions that are discussed to aid in the management of sickle-cell disease are inhibition of hemoglobin S polymerization and reduction of the intracellular hemoglobin concentration.


This study was conducted on flood sensitive areas in parts of Obio-Akpor Local Government Area, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, in order to determine the impact of flood on the residents of the area. The method of study involved field work and laboratory analysis. Field studies involved flood height measurements. Flood heights monitored and measured over a period of one week was used to determine the flood daily encroachment rates and the flood daily receding rates. Flood encroachment rates ranged from 9.47 to 19.67 cm/day in Rumuigbo, and 6.47 to 9.00 cm/day in Ozuoba. Flood recede rates ranged from 0.87 to 3.93 cm/day and 5.00 to 8.00 cm/day in Rumuigbo and Ozuoba. These results were confirmed by the high annual rainfall (2198.73 mm/hr on average) that occurs on average round the year in Rivers State. The buildings in these flood prone areas were constructed with concrete and blocks which are susceptible to cracking and failure when constantly immersed in water for prolonged time. It is therefore recommended that large sloping gutters be constructed within strategic places in the area in order to properly transport water to the nearby rivers and ensure that dumpsites around flood prone areas are evacuated to prevent contaminated water from recharging the aquifer.


Background: Stilbene compounds occur in some type of plant species, they preventing many disorder and illness. Recently focus a number of researches in medicine and plant physiology similarly to have emerged as promising molecules that probably have an effect on human health.
Methods: In these review, the aim of present study evaluated the stilbene compound from the methanolic extract of plant, Crotolaria medicaginea. The compound was isolated and evaluated for their molecular docking studies using BIO-VIA Discovery studio and cytotoxicity activity towards human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) by using MTT colorimetric assay techniques.
Results: The IC50 (half maximal inhibitory concentration) value of the controlled compound was determined. It confirmed a percentage of cell viability of 97% at 35.64 μg/ml. The docking studies reveal that the isolated compound inside 4j96 protein showed a minimum CDOCKER score. The structure had been elucidated on the basis of FT-IR, 1H and 13C NMR spectral studies, the results of these studies have been confirmed the isolated compound.
Conclusion: the present investigation concluded that the extracted compound has shown to be a potent invitro anticancer activity against the human cervical cancer Hela cell line and docking studies.


A novel dielectric resonator (DR) antenna is reported. The lowest order mode of the proposed antenna radiates like an electric monopole. The dimensions of the antenna are much smaller than a previously reported structure radiating in a similar mode, e.g. for an antenna fabricated out of /spl epsi//sub r/=20 material, the diameter and height of the DR are /spl sim/0.08 /spl lambda//sub 0/ each.


ABSTRACT Objective: In clinical samples, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is associated with substantial suffering and reduced quality of life. Limited surveys report widely varying prevalence estimates. To better establish the prevalence of BDD, we conducted a United States nationwide prevalence survey. Method: We conducted a random sample national household telephone survey in the spring and summer of 2004 and interviewed 2,513 adults, of whom 2,048 qualified for the BDD-module administration. The computer-assisted, structured interviews, conducted by trained lay interviewers, addressed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria for BDD, along with information regarding several impulse-control disorders and the respondents' financial and demographic data. Results: The rate of response was 56.3%, which compared favorably with rates in federal national health surveys. The cooperation rate was 97.6%. Respondents included a higher percentage of women and people >55 years of age than in the US adult population, and a lower percentage of Hispanics. The estimated point prevalence of DSM-IV BDD among respondents was 2.4% (49/2,048) (by gender: 2.5% for women, 2.2% for men), exceeding the prevalence of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder type I and about that of generalized anxiety disorder. BDD prevalence decreased after 44 years of age, and a larger proportion of BDD respondents were never married. Of those meeting DSM-IV criteria for BDD, 90% (45/49) met the DSM-IV distress criterion, and 51% (25/49) met the interference-with-functioning criterion. Conclusion: A study using clinically valid interviews is needed to evaluate these results. Such studies could inform treatment by documenting rates of seeking treatment from various sources, suicide attempt rates, and the prevalence of comorbid conditions.


The paper gives an interpretation of the recent diffusion of the processes of productive outsourcing that increasingly characterizes industrial activities. This empirical fact has two main features. The first is that it replaces a hierarchical paradigm of information diffusion, in which all the prominent information must flow to a central processing unit, with a decentralized paradigm in which independent firms collect and process autonomously part or all the prominent information. The second is constituted by the specific pattern of production innovation, that is the result of autonomously developed inputs, that are made complementary by the work of the network through an encapsulation process of the information. Such a process is made possible by the fact that after an initial phase, in which a new input is jointly projected by the contractor and the subcontractor and in which the information comes shared, a second phase follows in which the prominent information for the specification of the characteristics of the product and for the solution of the local and the unforeseen problems is collected and processed sequentially and then encapsulated in the input by autonomous production units. In comparison with the vertical integration (make) or the market (buy), this form of governance (subcontract) allows for the organization in more efficient manner of the processing of information, for the reduction of the informative costs, and for the minimization of the risk of spillover. The processing of the information becomes more efficient because of the simplification of the internal organization of the firms, through the practice of skipping level, and of the network structure, through the disappearance of the market maker. This evolution makes resources available for the productive units and attenuates the distortions in the transmission of the decisions. Besides it is helped by the fact that the information is processed in the decentralized paradigm by the same subject that collects it and this allows for the exploitation of the learning economies. The information cost reduction is the consequence of the existence in the network of a competitive process, that makes the cost much more visible the more the subcontractors interact within a stable population with limited flows of entry and exit. The dimension of such flows depends on the transferability of the production process, which is related to the technological level of production and the degree of specialization.


Models play a vital role in supporting a range of activities in numerous domains. We rely on models to support the design, visualisation, analysis and representation of parts of the world around us, and as such significant research effort has been invested into numerous areas of modelling; including support for model semantics, dynamic states and behaviour, temporal data storage and visualisation. Whilst these efforts have increased our capabilities and allowed us to create increasingly powerful software-based models, the process of developing models, supporting tools and /or data structures remains difficult, expensive and error-prone. In this paper we define from literature the key factors in assessing a model's quality and usefulness: semantic richness, support for dynamic states and object behaviour, temporal data storage and visualisation. We also identify a number of shortcomings in both existing modelling standards and model development processes and propose a unified generic process to guide users through the development of semantically rich, dynamic and temporal models.


Background Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are anthropometric indicators strongly associated with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and mortality. Focusing on secular changes in the mean values of BMI and WC can mask differences at the lower- and upper-tails of the distribution. Our network of health examination survey researchers from the Americas and the UK quantified secular changes in the BMI and WC distributions in England, Scotland, and the United States (US). Methods Nationally-representative surveys of adults aged 25–64 y from similar time periods: Health Survey for England (1999–2012; n = 75,813); Scottish Health Survey (1998–2011; n = 33,010) and US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999–2012; n = 22,340). Comparisons across time for mean values of measured height, weight, BMI, and WC and prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) and abdominal obesity (WC ≥ 88 cm) were performed by age-standardising descriptive estimates by the direct-method to the 2000 US population. Quantile regression was used to evaluate whether BMI and WC values increased across survey years at pre-specified centiles of the distribution (5th, 50th, 95th). Models were adjusted for age, age-squared and survey year. Results Mean BMI values for men (women) at baseline were 27.1 kg/m2 (26.6 kg/m2) in England; 27.1 kg/m2 (26.8 kg/m2) in Scotland; and 27.8 kg/m2 (28.6 kg/m2) in the US. Obesity and abdominal obesity increased for both sexes in England and in Scotland. In the US, obesity increased only for men; abdominal obesity increased only for women. Mean BMI increased by 0.4 kg/m2 (0.7 kg/m2) for men (women) in England; 0.8 kg/m2 for both sexes in Scotland; and 1.0 kg/m2 for men in the US. BMI at the 5th centile was unchanged in England, but increased in Scotland and the US. Increases at the median and upper-tail occurred in each country: the increase at the 95th BMI percentile was 2.1 kg/m2 (1.3 kg/m2) for men (women) in England; 1.9 kg/m2 for both sexes in Scotland; and 2.0 kg/m2 (1.9 kg/m2) in the US (each P < 0.001). Mean WC increased by 2.1 cm (4.7 cm) for men (women) in England; 3.4 cm (6.5 cm) in Scotland; and 2.4 cm (3.8 cm) in the US. The increase at the 95th WC percentile was 6.3 cm (5.4 cm) for men (women) in England; 3.6 cm (8.4 cm) in Scotland; and 4.5 cm (18.3 cm) in the US (each P < 0.001). Ongoing analyses will incorporate data from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. Conclusion Secular increases in BMI and WC were fairly consistent by country for both sexes, with clear evidence of increases across the whole distribution in Scotland and the US.


Cellular senescence implies loss of proliferative and tissue regenerative capability. Also hypoxia, producing Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), can damage cellular components through the oxidation of DNA, proteins and lipids, thus influencing the shortening of telomeres. Since ribonucleoprotein Telomerase (TERT), catalyzing the replication of the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, promotes cardiac muscle cell proliferation, hypertrophy and survival, here we investigated its role in the events regulating apoptosis occurrence and life span in hearts deriving from young and old rats exposed to hypoxia. TUNEL (terminal-deoxinucleotidyl -transferase- mediated dUTP nick end-labeling) analysis reveals an increased apoptotic cell number in both samples after hypoxia exposure, mainly in the young with respect to the old. TERT expression lowers either in the hypoxic young, either in the old in both experimental conditions, with respect to the normoxic young. These events are paralleled by p53 and HIF-1 α expression dramatic increase and by p53/ HIF-1 α co-immunoprecipitation in the hypoxic young, evidencing the young subject as the most stressed by such challenge. These effects could be explained by induction of damage to genomic DNA by ROS that accelerates cell senescence through p53 activation. Moreover, by preventing TERT enzyme down-regulation, cell cycle exit and apoptosis occurrence could be delayed and new possibilities for intervention against cell ageing and hypoxia could be opened.


As the result from a discussion by the Grupo de Estudos sobre Saúde da Mulher--GEM (Group of Studies on Women's Health), psychodrama has been used as a pedagogical strategy to develop the topic Female's Conditions and Women's Health. Written and oral individual accounts as well as stories constructed in "group meetings" were treated by the gender perspective. The dynamics has facilitated relationships and self-knowledge, making it possible for day-by-day situations to emerge. The reflection between what is lived and what is theoretical has allowed the visibility of women's insertion in the public and private sectors as well as created situations for the construction of concepts.


The objective of this study was to compare the effect of source (corn DDGS, rice bran, or soybean) or form of oil (extracted or intact) on apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and true total tract digestibility (TTTD) of acid-hydrolyzed ether extract (AEE) and fatty acids. The study determined and compared the ATTD or TTTD of AEE and fatty acids in extracted corn oil, rice oil, and soybean oil with intact oil in corn DDGS, full-fat rice bran, and full-fat soybean. Seventy-eight barrows (initial BW = 47.2 ± 3.9 kg; Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) were allotted to 1 of 13 dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design with 6 barrows in each dietary treatment. The 13 experimental diets included 1 cornstarch-soybean meal basal diet (AEE, 0.56%) and 3 diets containing 6% extracted oils (corn oil, rice oil, and soybean oil) and 9 diets supplemented with 3 levels of corn DDGS (17%, 34%, and 51%), full-fat rice bran (14%, 28%, and 42%), and full-fat soybean (12%, 24%, and 36%). These diets provided about 2%, 4%, and 6% intact oil, respectively. The barrows were housed in individual metabolism crates and were fed the assigned test diets at 4% of initial BW per day. A 5-d total collection of feces followed a 7-d diet adaptation period. The ATTD of AEE were calculated for each diet. The endogenous flow of AEE associated with each ingredient and values for TTTD were calculated using regression methods. The ATTD of AEE were greater ( < 0.05) for extracted oil than for intact oil. Compared to extracted oil, intact oil had lower ( < 0.01) ATTD of palmitic acid (C16:0), stearic acid (C18:0), oleic acid (C18:1), linoleic acid (C18:2), and linolenic acid (C18:3). However, a source by form interaction ( < 0.01) was observed for ATTD of C18:0, C18:2, and C18:3. The ATTD of C18:0, C18:2, and C18:3 in extracted corn and rice oil were greater compared with intact corn DDGS and rice oil ( < 0.05), while there was no significant difference for the ATTD of C18:0, C18:2, and C18:3 between extracted soybean oil and intact oil in full-fat soybean. In conclusion, lipids that are extracted have a greater digestibility compared with intact lipids, and this is especially true regarding saturated fatty acids. The ATTD of AEE in 2 forms of rice oil (intact oil and extracted oil) was less than the values in corn oil and soybean oil. The TTTD of AEE in corn DDGS and full-fat soybeans were greater than in full-fat rice bran.


A study of the utilization of I 131 by the lamellibranchs Anodonta cygnea, Sphaeriumcorneum , and Mytilus edulis has been made with particular reference to the secretion of the valves and ligament. While autoradiographs show that I 131 is localized in the alimentary canal and digestive gland, the main distribution of the isotope is on the surfaces of the shell and body exposed to the radioactive medium. The iodine associated with the shell occurs principally on the periostracum. There is, however, no positive evidence to show that I 131 is actively incorporated into the shell by the secretory activity of the mantle. The results are discussed in relation to the ability of other invertebrates to accumulate protein-bound iodine.


Forest ecosystem studies have expanded spatially in recent years to address large scale environmental issues. We are using a geographic information system (GIS) to understand and integrate forest processes at landscape to regional spatial scales. This paper presents three diverse research studies using a GIS. First, we used a GIS to develop a landscape scale model to predict forest soil erosion rates given alternative forest management practices and weather conditions. Second, a GIS was used to evaluate the cumulative impacts of land use practices on water quality for a 4350 ha basin. Third, we used a GIS to store and manipulate complex data bases for modeling the influence of climate change on forest hydrology and productivity across the southern U.S. We anticipate the demand for GIS techniques will greatly increase because of the need to address increasingly complex ecosystem questions.


The major issue of indoor localization system is the trade-off between implementation cost and accuracy. A low-cost system which demands only few hardware devices could save the cost but often it turns out to be less reliable. Aiming at improving classical triangulation method that requires several reference points, this paper proposes a new method, called Two-Step Movement (2SM), which requires only one reference point (RP) by exploiting useful information given by the position change of a mobile terminal (MT), or the user movement. This method can minimize the number of reference points required in a localization system or navigation service and reduce system implementation cost. Analytical result shows that the user position can be thus derived and given in simple closed-form expression. Finally, simulation is conducted to demonstrate its effectiveness under noisy environment.


The health status of elders and elders' perception regarding old age in a community is an important issue in a society. The present study aims to assess the health status and perception of old age of elderly population of Nijgadh Municipality. A descriptive crosssectional study has been carried out among 204 elders taken from the community through simple random sampling method. The data were collected through face to face structured interview schedule in 2021. The descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of the collected data showed that the about 20 percent elders had got good status of health but remaining (about 80%) of them were suffering from some kinds of health complications. Similarly, more than 73 percent of elders felt their life more problematic. This study measured significant variation (p<0.05) of level of health status with only three socio-demographic variables (age, caste, and feeling of helplessness among the variables (gender, age groups, caste, living with or without spouse, literacy status, and feeling helplessness. Furthermore, this study measured significant variation (p<0.05) of perception about old age of elderly population with only three socio-demographic variable (age, caste, and feeling of helpless) among the variables (gender, age groups, caste, living with or without spouse, literacy status, and feeling helplessness). Based on the study, it can be said that age, caste, and feeling of helplessness status of elderly population were the major factors for creating variations in health status and perceptions of elderly life. The policies, programs, and community effort are needed for managing regular health service practice. Similarly, all the community members must be serious for keeping elders happy by managing their requirement with love which may require collective action from social, health and justice sectors.


The digital disruption of the media and society has changed how citizens participate in public debate and democracy. Today, internet platforms play a significant role in the public sphere. However, their role in the spread of disorders in the public sphere has increased fears about the future of democracy. The main hypothesis of this article is that the regulation of freedom of speech in Europe is fragmented. Therefore, the European Union and individual states are asking social media platforms to monitor their content. A lack of competence in regulating platforms has led to the introduction of various forms of regulation, such as loose co-regulation and the private censorship of content. These new regulations challenge the underlying rationale and justification of the freedom of speech doctrine and principle of the rule of law.


Abstract The antibody titres in hamsters that were experimentally infected and in humans that were naturally infected with S. mansoni or S. haematobium were determined with the IFAT. The infection intensity was measured directly in the hamsters by counting the worms collected after perfusion and indirectly in humans by counting the eggs in faeces or in urine. In general antibody titre reflected infection intensity.


Recently, there has been an increase in apartments with a large number of inhabitants, i.e., high residential density. This is partly due to a housing shortage in general but also increased migration, particularly in suburbs of major cities. This paper specifies issues that might be caused by high residential density by investigating the technical parameters influenced in Swedish apartments that are likely to have high residential density. Interviews with 11 employees at housing companies were conducted to identify issues that might be caused by high residential density. Furthermore, simulations were conducted based on extreme conditions described in the interviews to determine the impact on the energy use, indoor environmental quality, and moisture loads. In addition, the impact of measures to mitigate the identified issues was determined. Measures such as demand-controlled ventilation, increase of a constant ventilation rate, and moisture buffering are shown to reduce the risk for thermal discomfort, mold growth, and diminished indoor air quality; while still achieving a lower energy use than in a normally occupied apartment. The results of this study can be used by authorities to formulate incentives and/or recommendations for housing owners to implement measures to ensure good indoor environmental quality for all, irrespective of residential density conditions.


LONG-TERM RECONSTRUCTION AND ANALYSIS OF WHITE RIVER STREAMFLOW A 281-year reconstruction of White River annual runoff at Claren don, Arkansas, was developed from a regional average of nine Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas tree-ring chronologies (six post oak, Quercus stellata, and three baldcypress, Taxodium distichum). Inhomogeneity of the gaged series was detected with both double mass analysis (using state average total annual Arkansas precipitation) and regression (using the regional tree-ring average). Simple regression calibrated the homogeneous runoff data with the average ring width data from 1930 to 1980. Comparing the reconstruction with independent data verified the regression model. Variance of the reconstruction increases signif icantly during the 20th century, a change that may be caused by climatic shifts or by anthropogenic disturbances in the watershed. Years of sur plus and deficit runoff are non-randomly distributed in both gaged and reconstructed series. This non-randomness appears to be caused by a significant tendency for inter-annual persistence of runoff extremes, which may provide a basis for improvement of probabilistic forecasts of White River runoff. Malcolm K. Cleaveland, David W. Stahle and John G. Hehr Completion Report to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, Reston, VA, June, 1988.


We argue that the minimal biological requirements for consciousness include a living body, not just neuronal processes in the skull. Our argument proceeds by reconsidering the brain-in-a-vat thought experiment. Careful examination of this thought experiment indicates that the null hypothesis is that any adequately functional "vat" would be a surrogate body, that is, that the so-called vat would be no vat at all, but rather an embodied agent in the world. Thus, what the thought experiment actually shows is that the brain and body are so deeply entangled, structurally and dynamically, that they are explanatorily inseparable. Such entanglement implies that we cannot understand consciousness by considering only the activity of neurons apart from the body, and hence we have good explanatory grounds for supposing that the minimal realizing system for consciousness includes the body and not just the brain. In this way, we put the brain-in-a-vat thought experiment to a new use, one that supports the "enactive" view that consciousness is a life-regulation process of the whole organism interacting with its environment.


Welcome to CityPlace. Thirty-five hectares of formerly unoccupied rail-lands in downtown Toronto are currently undergoing a transformation into an instant neighbourhood. Eventually, CityPlace will be the home to over 15,000 people within 23 buildings, sequestered by the Gardiner Expressway on its southern border and by the still functioning rail-lines on its northern border, it is truly an island of suburban stacked living which is at once surrounded and yet at a distance from downtown Toronto. In CityPlace we are witnessing what the Belgian philosopher Lieven De Cauter describes as the rise of the capsular civilization. Impossible to ignore, condominiums have become the dominant form of new housing in the city of Toronto; a process that has been driven by demographics, political imperative and most of all by the pursuit of profits in the high-stakes game of real-estate development. But lost in this torrent of development is a genuine dialogue about the city we are building. This thesis explores the current state of condo development in downtown Toronto; from the myriad of political, economic and physical factors that have led to Toronto's vernacular condo typology to the marketing onslaught that targets the base consumerist hyper-individual within all of us and aims to hide the fact that these buildings are more similar than distinct. From the optimistic aims of a city council which seeks to achieve civic benefits from increased density, to the cynical de-urbanizing and social polarization that the type typically brings into the downtown. The thesis explores the promise of downtown condominium living and the hybridisation of programme that accompanies the rising real estate values of the downtown core. Programmatic promiscuity and complexity are exploited to bring different user-types from the outside city into the tower. With its unique vertical properties and inherent density, the residential high-rise tower presents new opportunities for urban collective spaces. From introvert to extrovert, the new condo becomes a catalyst for urbanity in the instant neighbourhood of CityPlace.


In this paper, we present a system for dynamic network resource configuration in environments with bandwidth reservation and path restoration mechanisms. The objective is to avoid conflicts between the mechanisms that make changes over the same resources (i.e. bandwidth, restoration, and spare capacity planning) enabling its integration. The system is able to dynamically manage a logical network such as a Virtual Path network in ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) or a Label Switch Path network in MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching). This system has been designed to be modular in the sense that in can be activated or deactivated, and it can be applied only in a sub-network. The system design and implementation is based on a Multi-Agent System (MAS). This is an hybrid MAS where reactive agents take charge of monitoring and time-constrained decisions, and a more deliberative layer take care of situations that the reactive one cannot solve. We also include details of its architecture and implementation.


In 2006, Florida's Medicaid reform required some Medicaid consumers to enroll in health plans that differed in terms of cost-sharing requirements and benefit limitations. In focus groups we found enthusiasm among Medicaid consumers for having choices among health plans; however, enthusiasm did not translate into comparison shopping for health plans. Survey findings suggested that Medicaid consumers had difficulty comprehending Medicaid healthplan comparison information, particularly if they were lower in numeracy or literacy skills. Given the number of plans offered and the numerous ways they differed, our efforts to simplify the comparison chart resulted in slightly higher comprehension, but only among those with higher skill levels. Our study suggests that policymakers should seek to simplify Medicaid Program information and design to encourage informed decisionmaking.


On the grounds of experimental investigations and study of immunity in patients with atherosclerosis data evident of existence of two types of the disease were obtained. The first type, caused exceptionally by disorders of lipid metabolism, develops in young people. The second, related mainly to lesions of vascular wall due to immune disorders, occurs in the elderly.


Molecular imaging plays a key role in personalized medicine, which is the goal and future of patient management. Among the various molecular imaging modalities, optical imaging may be the fastest growing area for bioanalysis, and the major reason is the research on fluorescence semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) and dyes have evolved over the past two decades. The great efforts on the synthesis of QDs with fluorescence emission from UV to near-infrared (NIR) regions speed up the studies of QDs as optical probes for in vitro and in vivo molecular imaging. For in vivo applications, the fluorescent emission wavelength ideally should be in a region of the spectrum where blood and tissue absorb minimally and tissue penetration reach maximally, which is NIR region (typically 700-1000 nm). The goal of this review is to provide readers the basics of NIR-emitting QDs, the bioconjugate chemistry of QDs, and their applications for diagnostic tumor imaging. We will also discuss the benefits, challenges, limitations, perspective, and the future scope of NIR-emitting QDs for tumor imaging applications.


The U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), funds meals for children in low-income areas when school is not in session. The first comprehensive study of the SFSP since 1986 found that, in fiscal year 2001, more than 4,000 local sponsors provided about 130 million meals at more than 35,000 feeding sites. The number of children served in July 2001 (2.1 million per day) was about 14 percent of the number who received free or reduced-price school meals each day during the previous school year. On average, SFSP meals provided the levels of key nutrients recommended for school meals. However, breakfasts were slightly lower in food energy than recommended, and lunches were higher in fat. Half the SFSP sponsors were school districts, which operated about half the sites and served about half the meals. Other sponsors included government agencies, private nonprofit organizations, and residential camps. The nationally representative study, which was sponsored by USDA's Economic Research Service, surveyed State administrators, sponsor staff, and site staff on program operations and on factors that affect participation. This report summarizes the study results. For more details and study methodology, see Feeding Low-Income Children When School Is Out-The Summer Food Service Program: Final Report, E-FAN-03-001 (electronic only), available at: http: //www.ers.usda.gov/publications/efan03001.


Soon after the collapse of Soviet-type communism in Central and Eastern Europe, a new geopolitical division began to reshape the continent. Our study demonstrates that this newly emerging geopolitical divide has been underpinned by a corresponding cultural divergence, of which "emancipative values" are the most powerful marker. Using the European Values Study/World Values Survey 1990 to 2014, we find that the former Iron Curtain no longer constitutes a cultural boundary because the ex-communist states that joined the European Union have been converging with the West's strong emphasis on emancipative values. Instead, a new and steeply growing cultural gap has emerged between the European Union and its Eastern neighbors. The two competing geopolitical formations in the West and East—the European and Eurasian Unions, respectively—have diverged culturally in recent decades. The divergence goes back to contrasting supranational identities that originate in different religious traditions, which rulers have increasingly accentuated to strengthen their nations' endorsement or dismissal of emancipative values. Through this sorting-out process, emancipative values became an increasingly significant marker of a Western-vs-Eastern cultural identity. Our study is the first to link this groundbreaking cultural transformation to civilizational identities and geopolitical rivalry.


An international project to create a comprehensive listing of life on Earth is about one-third complete. Last week, the latest update to the Catalogue of Life pushed the total number of species in this taxonomic trove to more than 535,000. The catalog is sponsored by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) and Species 2000,a consortium of database organizations based at the University of Reading, U.K. (Science, 14 July 2000, p. 227).The Species 2000 site serves as a portal to the catalog, allowing you to browse or search a taxonomic tree linked to a host of "federated" databases such as AlgaeBase, the Species Fungorum, the World Spider Catalog, and many more. For example, look up the gerenuk (above), an African antelope, to find information such as its accepted scientific and common names,distribution,and classification.You can link to the ITIS database for more details. Smithsonian Institution zoologist Michael Ruggiero, director of ITIS, says the project is on track to record all of the roughly 1.75 million named species by 2011. www.sp2000.org R E S O U R C E S


This book is intended as a textbook for students reading tax law or EC law. It offers a systematic survey of the tax implications of the EC Treaty and of European integration and of the EC tax harmonization policy, a discussion of the Community tax rules in force, and a discussion of the EC Court's case law in tax matters. Its contents may be divided into five main themes: 1. the far-reaching consequences of the EC Treaty provisions and principles for national tax law, as shown by the case law of the Court of Justice of the EC; 2. Community harmonization policy and coordination policy as regards indirect taxes and direct taxes; 3. Community law in force on indirect taxes (Value Added Tax, Community Customs Code, Excises and Energy Taxation); 4. Community law in force on direct taxes (Parent-Subsidiary Directive, Merger Directive, Interest and Royalties Directive, Transfer Pricing Arbitration Convention, Savings Interest Directive); 5. Administrative Assistance between the Member States in the assessment and the recovery of tax claims.


The present article proposes a logical account of delusions, which are regarded as conclusions resulting from fallacious arguments. This leads to distinguish between primary, secondary, ..., -ary types of delusional arguments. Examples of delusional arguments leading to delusion of reference, delusion of influence, thought-broadcasting delusion and delusion of grandeur are described and then analysed. This suggests finally a way susceptible of improving the efficiency of cognitive therapy for delusions.


Introduction The introduction of biosimilar infliximab with CT-P13 offers substantial potential cost savings. Data on switching from Remicade to CT-P13 is only just emerging and was not available in early 2016. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is increasingly recognised as an effective means to optimise patient outcomes on anti-TNF therapy, but is not widely adopted in the UK. Following discussions with hospital management, we took the opportunity to implement TDM whilst switching patients established on Remicade to biosimilar CT-P13. Method A switch pathway was agreed and implemented, with all data collected prospectively. Routine blood tests, disease activity scores (Partial Mayo/HBI), faecal calprotectin (FC) and serum for infliximab trough levels (ITL) and antibodies to infliximab (ATI) were obtained. Results were reviewed in a virtual biologics clinic and decision made on further management as per NICE DG-22 TDM algorithm. Clinical remission was defined as HBI <5 and Partial Mayo<2. Results 169/170 patients currently receiving Remicade agreed to our switch process. 95/169 (56%) patients were switched to CT-P13 with no dose change whilst 15/169 (9%) switched with dose escalation and 8/169 (5%) with dose de-escalation. 27/169 (16%) patients stopped biologic therapy altogether due to a combination of immunogenicity (ITL<3 µg/ml; ATI>8 µg/ml), clinical and biochemical remission. 24/169 (14%) patients had immunogenicity with infliximab but were not in remission and therefore switched to an alternative biologic (ADA n=18; VDZ n=6). Remission rates of patients switched with no dose change were 97% pre-switch, compared to 91%, 95%, and 96% at week 6–8, week 12–16 and week 18–24 respectively. In the patients with CD (n=91) median HBI remained unchanged pre-switch and at week 6–8 (HBI 0, p=0.5), week 12–16 (HBI 0, p=0.5) and week 18–24 post-switch (HBI 0, p=0.4). There was no significant difference between ITL and incidence of ATI pre-switch and at week 18–24 (4.2 µg/ml vs 3.7 µg/ml, p=0.4; 30% vs 26%, p=0.5). 100% of patients who switched with dose de-escalation (n=8) remained in remission at week 18–24. Data on patients who switched with dose escalation or who stopped treatment are presently being analysed. No infusion reactions were reported. Health-economic evaluation of the switch process/TDM implementation has projected a cost-saving of approximately £7 00 000 in year 1. Conclusion Our local experience further supports interchangeability between originator and biosimilar infliximab whilst also demonstrating the significant cost saving that can be achieved through the adoption of biosimilars and TDM. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Congenitally missing first permanent maxillary molars is a rare finding in any given population. The reported prevalence rate of maxillary first molar agenesis ranges from 0.2 to 1.5%. The exact aetiology of this dental anomaly is not clearly documented. Generally, it can occur in association with other dental disturbances. The purpose of this article is to describe the clinical and radiographic evaluation of a case with bilateral congenitally missing first permanent molars and its association with dental anomalies such as microdontia and hypodontia.


Nosocomial/hospital acquired herpes encephalitis is rare and is usually undiagnosed in its early phase because of the non-specific clinical picture and low level of clinical and neuroimaging suspicion. There is a paucity of data in radiology literature for this entity, specifically in the settings of surgery and trauma. We describe two cases of nosocomial herpes simplex encephalitis to demonstrate the imaging clues that might lead to an early diagnosis of this disease.


Submitted work deals with the analysis of reoxidation processes for aluminium alloys. Due to the aluminium high affinity to the oxygen, the oxidation and consequently reoxidation will occur. Paper focuses on the gating system design in order to suppress and minimize reoxidation processes. Design of the gating system is considered as one of the most important aspect, which can reduce the presence of reoxidation products - bifilms. The main reason for the reoxidation occurrence is turbulence during filling of the mold. By correctly designing the individual parts of gating system, it is possible to minimize turbulence and to ensure a smooth process of the mold filling. The aim of the work is an innovative approach in the construction of gating system by using unconventional elements, such as a naturally pressurized system or vortex elements. The aim is also to clarify the phenomenon during the gating system filling by visualization with the aid of ProCAST numerical simulation software. ProCAST can calculate different indicators which allow to better quantify the filling pattern.


Dislocations are attracting increasing attention for their potential to tune a whole range of functional properties in ceramics. As one-dimensional line defects, they influence their environment by both their elastic strain field as well as their charged core with compensating space charge. This can be a competing approach to point defect doping. Their geometric versatility and localized impact simultaneously allow new design dimensions and pose new layers of complexity. Dislocations also severely impact mechanical properties, which demands an interrelated understanding of both their mechanics and their impact on each functional property, severely complicating research efforts.
In particular, the detailed mechanisms by which dislocations impact functional properties, such as electrical and thermal conductivity, and the respective design parameters are not fully explored. Furthermore, ways to introduce dislocations into polycrystalline samples need to be developed. And lastly, the role of dislocations on the fracture toughness of ceramics needs to be revisited. Literature on all of these three questions is abundantly available. However, it is scattered over decades and a range of different materials, which impedes overview and quick identification of critical questions to be addressed.
In this work, key potential is identified by first presenting a simple perspective on dislocation mechanics in ceramics. This leads to a longer discussion on room temperature plasticity and fracture toughness: Dislocations are mobile at ambient temperature in a broad range of ceramics. While these single crystals are ductile, their respective polycrystals not ductile and both behave brittle despite their ductility. A coherent explanation for this seemingly contradicting mechanical behavior is attempted while suggesting that dislocations can unexpectedly enhance the fracture toughness of ceramics substantially. Furthermore, dislocation structures are introduced into polycrystals in compression tests at elevated temperatures. This allows the rationalization of the high-temperature deformability and designing dislocation structures in polycrystals. Lastly, a conceptual framework is developed to simplify pointed discussions on the impact of dislocations on functional properties such as conductivity.
In each of the three topics discussed, 1) room temperature plasticity and fracture toughness, 2) high temperature plasticity, and 3) conductivity, attempts will be made to fully embrace the mechanistic complexity. Simpler perspectives will be derived allowing easier and more accurate judgement of the potential in each of the three fields.


Last week the United Kingdom's new secretary of state for international development, Andrew Mitchell, announced "a fundamental change in direction" in aid spending, with a new emphasis on "transparency, accountability, responsibility, fairness, and empowerment."

The announcement has been welcomed by most development charities, and Mr Mitchell's subsequent decision to review Britain's existing commitments to all multilateral institutions—including the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria—has been greeted with cautious support.

However, charities have expressed concern for the fate of the newly established Centre for Progressive Health Financing, which aims to support poor countries to achieve universal access to health care and which is hosted by the UK Department for International Development (www.progressivehealthfinancing.org).

A group of charities, including Save the Children, Oxfam, and the maternal health charity Interact, has written to Mr Mitchell urging that his department continue to support the new centre, established in March by the previous government.

Mr Mitchell announced his review at the launch of Oxfam's new report, 21st Century Aid , on 3 June at the Royal Society. He said: "Development is good for our economy, our safety, …


The study aims to integrate magnetic and vertical electrical sounding (VES) resistivity methods to determine groundwater prospective in part of Aran-orin Sheet 224. A total of three traverses were established in the study area for the vertical electrical sounding using the Schlumberger electrode configuration. A total of 17 VES points was established using the ABEM Terrameter SAS 1000C model with maximum half-current electrode spacing (AB/2) of 120m. A total of eight traverses were established for the magnetics survey with station intervals of 10 m and inter-profile spacing of 100 m. The magnetic and VES data were qualitatively and quantitatively interpreted using IPI2WIN and OASIS MONTAJ package respectively. The geo-electric sections reveal a maximum of 3-4 layers beneath the sub-surface an overburden thickness ranges from 8.2 m to 64.9 m and the corresponding lithology inferred are topsoil, weathered Rock, fractured basement and fresh basement. The depth to basement using half-width method showed that the depth ranges from 8.4-56.04 m, which corresponds with the electrical survey.


Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has had negative consequences on the mental health of the population, which has been documented. Marginalised groups that are at risk of poor mental health overall have been particularly impacted. The purpose of this review is to describe the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marginalised group (i.e. persons who are socio-economically disadvantaged, migrants and members of ethno-racial minorities, experience homelessness) and identified interventions which could be well-suited to prevent and address mental health difficulties. We conducted a literature review of systematic reviews on mental health difficulties since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic and appropriate interventions among marginalised groups published from January 1, 2020 to May 2, 2022, using Google Scholar and PubMed (MEDLINE). Among 792 studies on mental health difficulties among members of marginalised groups identified by keywords, 17 studies met our eligibility criteria. Twelve systematic reviews examining mental health difficulties in one or several marginalised groups during the COVID-19 pandemic and five systematic reviews on interventions that can mitigate the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic were retained in our literature review. The mental health of marginalised groups was severely affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most frequently reported mental health difficulties included symptoms of anxiety and depression. Additionally, there are interventions that appear effective and well-suited for marginalised populations, which should be disseminated on a large scale to mitigate the psychiatric burden in these groups and at the population level.


• Kampala is a city that is growing rapidly at an estimated rate of 3.9% per year. It is estimated that the daily workforce comprises of 4.5 million people. • To date, much of this urbanisation has been unplanned. There have been various attempts at designing a planning framework. In 2012, the Kampala Physical Development Plan (KPDP) was finalised. • The KPDP has faced numerous implementation challenges. A particular reason is that its implementation was based on the assumption of resolving the complex land tenure situation in Kampala. However, due to various administrative and political reasons, this is unrealistic in the short term. • Therefore, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is now looking to develop detailed neighbourhood plans. These will need to develop a framework that can work within the complexity of the tenure system. The proposed methodology, tenure-responsive land use planning (TRLUP), is one way to do this and has various other benefits as a participatory planning tool. Furthermore, in the long run it may also help improve tenure security. • A holistic urban planning approach is necessary to coordinate the private and public investments that enable productive and liveable density within cities. Therefore, it needs to be prioritised in the case of Kampala. In brief


We compared the antitumor activities of the multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors imatinib, sorafenib, and sunitinib to determine which inhibitor is best suited to be used for the treatment of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). In nine human AML cell lines, sorafenib and sunitinib were more potent inhibitors of cellular proliferation than imatinib (IC50, 0.27 to >40, 0.002-9.1, and 0.007-13 μmol/L for imatinib, sorafenib, and sunitinib, respectively). Sorafenib and sunitinib were potent inhibitors of cells with fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 internal tandem duplication (IC50, 2 and 7 nmol/L) and c-KIT N822K mutations (IC50, 23 and 40 nmol/L). In four cell lines (MV4-11, Kasumi-1, KG-1, and U937) that spanned a range of drug sensitivities, sorafenib and sunitinib had similar activity in apoptosis and cell cycle assays, except that sunitinib did not promote apoptosis in U937 cells. Both drugs inhibited mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling but had no effect on AKT signaling in most of the cell lines tested. Sorafenib was substantially more bound than sunitinib in human plasma (unbound fraction, 0.59% versus 8.4%) and cell culture medium (unbound fraction, 1.3% versus 39%), indicating that sorafenib was more potent than sunitinib and that unbound sorafenib concentrations with activity against most AML cell lines are achievable in vivo. There was more intracellular accumulation of sorafenib than of sunitinib and imatinib in AML cells. Between 1 and 10 μmol/L, sorafenib inhibited the proliferation of six of nine primary AML blast samples by ≥50%. Our results highlight the pharmacologic features of sorafenib that may provide it an advantage in the treatment of AML. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(5):1110–20]


Sulfur isotopes have been widely used to trace the activity of sulfate reducing prokaryotes in modern and ancient geochemical settings and to estimate the role of this microbial metabolism in global sulfur cycling. Extensive pure culture data provide detailed insight into cellular mechanisms involved in microbial sulfate reduction. However, studies on natural communities of sulfate reducers are required for interpreting delta34S variations in sedimentary rocks, and these are much more limited. This thesis uses a flow-through reactor technique to fill this gap, and describes ranges in potential sulfate reduction rates (SRRs) and sulfur isotope fractionation effects (epsilon) for sediments sampled from four diverse modern geochemical settings including a brackish estuary (Schelde estuary, The Netherlands), a hypersaline soda lake (Mono Lake, California, USA), a shallow marine hydrothermal vent system (Vulcano, Italy) and a freshwater river (River Schelde, Belgium). Sediments were sampled as 2 cm thick slices using the flow-through reactor approach, designed to preserve the original physical, geochemical and microbial structure. The main experimental variables were incubation temperature (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 85 degree Celcius) and electron donor supply (natural substrate, lactate or acetate). Sulfate was supplied in excess. Data analysis was restricted to SSR and epsilon values obtained under steady state conditions. SRR varied from 5 to 179 nmol cm-3 h-1, with corresponding epsilon values of 5 to 43 per mil. The range in epsilon is similar to the total variability found in previous sediment incubation and pure culture experiments and is consistent with the standard isotope fractionation model of Rees (1973). Most experiments resulted in relatively small epsilon values (<20 per mil). Isotope fractionation was distinct at each sampling site and differences were most likely controlled by electron donor availability and microbial community size and structure, although salinity and cellular energetics may have also played a role. No overall clear SRR versus epsilon relationship was found for all sites, except within subsets of data. The range in epsilon was generally larger at low SRRs (<20 nmol cm-3 h-1), which could have resulted from the reduced reversibility of sulfate transport into the cell at low temperature, large energy investment in cellular adaptation strategies required for the more extreme environmental sites, or anomalous isotope effects induced by microorganisms thriving on the edges of their optimum growth conditions. Consistently small fractionation effects with an average of 12 per mil were achieved at SRR above 70 nmol cm-3h-1. This thesis shows that limited delta34S variations of 10 to 25 per mil in the earliest Archean rock record could result from microbial sulfate reduction at high SRR or under site specific environmental conditions at low SRR. This contrasts with previous studies that have cited only low ocean sulfate concentrations as an explanation for minor or absent isotope fractionation. However, interpretation is difficult as mixing between distinctive sulfur sources or abiotic fractionation processes may have overprinted the original biogenic signal in the rock record. The new data presented in this thesis should be further implemented in models studying sulfur cycling in modern and ancient geochemical settings.


Engineering innovations—including those in heat and mass transfer—are needed to provide food, water, and power to a growing population (i.e., projected to be 9.8 × 109 by 2050) with limited resources. The interweaving of these resources is embodied in the food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus. This review paper focuses on heat and mass transfer applications which involve at least two aspects of the FEW nexus. Energy and water topics include energy extraction of natural gas hydrates and shale gas; power production (e.g., nuclear and solar); power plant cooling (e.g., wet, dry, and hybrid cooling); water desalination and purification; and building energy/water use, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration technology. Subsequently, this review considers agricultural thermal fluids applications, such as the food and water nexus (e.g., evapotranspiration and evaporation) and the FEW nexus (e.g., greenhouses and food storage, including granaries and freezing/drying). As part of this review, over 100 review papers on thermal and fluid topics relevant to the FEW nexus were tabulated and over 350 research journal articles were discussed. Each section discusses previous research and highlights future opportunities regarding heat and mass transfer research. Several cross-cutting themes emerged from the literature and represent future directions for thermal fluids research: the need for fundamental, thermal fluids knowledge; scaling up from the laboratory to large-scale, integrated systems; increasing economic viability; and increasing efficiency when utilizing resources, especially using waste products.


Capsicum is one of the most important and diverse plant taxa, widely used as a spice and vegetable worldwide, including Turkey. Germplasm characterization is an essential step for crop breeding. In the present study, we characterized the genetic diversity and population structure of a collection of 94 pepper accessions using inter-primer binding site (iPBS) retrotransposon-based markers. A total of 20 iPBS primers were used that generated 172 bands (mean = 8.6 bands/primer), of which ~92% were polymorphic in the entire germplasm collection, whereas 83%, 69%, and 80% of the bands were polymorphic within the C. annuum, C. chinense, and C. frutescens subsets, respectively. All of the taxa analyzed were clearly differentiated by the iPBS markers. The polymorphism information content of the markers ranged between 0.15 and 0.99, with an average of 0.66. Cluster analyses by different methods (UPGMA, STRUCTURE, and principal coordinate analysis) revealed a clear separation of all of the C. annuum accessions from the other pepper species, with a few subclusters observed among the latter, including groups with accessions of both C. frutescens and C. chinense. At the interspecies level, the 3 clustering methods clearly discriminated C. annuum from C. frutescens and C. chinense. No clear association was found between the iPBS-based clustering and geographical origin or fruit characteristics of the accessions. This is the first report characterizing the genetic diversity and population structure in the Turkish pepper germplasm using iPBS markers. It is expected that these data will serve as a foundation for the development of new and improved pepper varieties.


Background & objectives: 1) To study the causes of adult (15 years and above) deaths using verbal autopsy (VA) and its socio-demographic characteristics. 2) To study the feasibility of use of the lay interviewer to ascertain causes of adult death using verbal autopsy and a simple algorithm. Methods: The present study was done in Wardha district, Maharashtra, India. Taking into account feasibility, out of 23 villages of Primary Health Centre, Anji, 15 villages were chosen having total population of 14,590. Out of 273 estimated adult deaths during the study period, 209 (77%) could be traced by house to house visit and a lay interviewer, interviewed the close caretakers of the deceased. Both lay interviewer and a physician individually derived their diagnosis using verbal autopsy report and a simplified algorithm. The data was entered and analyzed by using Epi_info 6.04. The inter-observer reliability between the lay interviewer and a physician for each possible diagnosis was assessed by using the Kappa statistics. Considering the diagnosis made by a physician as a gold standard, the diagnostic and predictive accuracy for each diagnosis made by the lay interviewer was calculated. Results: The communicable diseases accounted for 52 percent of the adult deaths while non-communicable for 32 percent and injuries for nine percent deaths. The overall agreement between the lay interviewer and a physician for communicable diseases was found to be good (k = 0.65 + 0.06) and for non-communicable diseases it was found to be excellent (k = 0.80 + 0.06). The lay interviewer using VA performed adequately for individual conditions of public health importance like acute febrile illness, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis and injuries. Interpretation & conclusions: The present study has been successful to demonstrate feasibility of use of the lay interviewer to provide useful information on population-level estimation of broad causes of adult deaths and its socio-demographic characteristics that are reasonably reliable. The study suggests the possible utility of the method for rural India, where the majority of deaths occur at home. Further research work on development of sensitive and specific yet simple algorithms for lay interviewers to ascertain causes of adult deaths is required.


The load on mobile networks increased over the past years and is predicted to further grow rapidly. Mobile network operators are facing new challenges to deliver mobile data in a user-satisfying way. This situation can be improved, e.g., by offloading traffic to WiFi networks or by shifting traffic to times where good network conditions can be leveraged, e.g. non-peak hours. One way to offload content is speculative prefetching. By knowing which contents will be requested in the future allows to prefetch it in advance. To this end, the users' content consumption has to be predicted. Furthermore, predicting properties of the smartphone's mobile connectivity, e.g., strong signal, allows a better user experience as well as an optimized network resource allocation. The reason for this is that the packet loss, retransmission and congestions can be avoided. To this end, the Mobile Social Prefetcher app aims at relieving the mobile network in a two-fold way. On the one hand, prefetching of promising videos from the users Online Social Networks is performed if WiFi is available. Videos posted on the user's OSN have been shown likely to be watched. On the other hand, if no prefetching opportunity can be used, a specific network optimized streaming is performed. This is provided by a video player which, both, reduces the load for the network operator
and decreases stalling events of video playbacks. The proposed approach prefetches videos from video posts on the user's Facebook feed. Furthermore, the app considers
current and previously observed cellular network information of the smartphone to optimize the mobile data throughput. This way, both, the operators' and the users' needs are reflected by the approach demonstrated.


Abstract Cycling-inclusive urban planning is attracting attention worldwide because of the environmental, health, economic, and transport benefits inherent to cycling from the individual and the societal perspectives. The Czech Republic is one of the emerging cycling countries that are trying to promote and support cycling, but cycling mode shares are low because of the poor quality of the scarce infrastructure and the psychological barrier of the perceived lack of safety when cycling in mixed traffic. This study takes a multimodal approach based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and focuses on the factors underlying the willingness to share the road from the perspective of cyclists and drivers: positive attitudes toward cycling, positive attitudes toward cyclists' behavior, social norms toward cycling and anxiety to share the road. A web-based questionnaire was tailor-designed and administered in the Czech Republic via social networks, web forums, and the Civinet network, and a hybrid bivariate-ordered model tested the behavioral framework. Results show that the willingness to share the road as a cyclist or as a driver relates positively to positive attitudes towards cycling and cyclists' behavior, and negatively to the anxiety of sharing the road. Moreover, mediator effects are observed and a clear relation emerges between the experience on the road as both a cyclist and a driver on the willingness to share the road as a cyclist. Lastly, results show that the factors underlying road sharing intentions are related significantly to gender, travel habits, and perceived personal and infrastructure-related barriers to cycling.


The study presents a new method for monitoring the voltage stability condition of a bus using measurements of the bus variables. For this purpose, bus real power, bus reactive power and bus voltage of a target/selected bus have to be measured (sampled) for two consecutive time frames. These measured values are used to monitor the voltage stability condition of a bus using the mathematical basis developed in this study. The validity and applicability of the proposed method has been established through simulation on IEEE 30 and IEEE 118 bus system.


In July 2009, five scholars and practitioners engaged in a two-hour conversation about current end-of-life health issues in New York state. Thaddeus Pope (Widener Law), Alicia Ouellette (Albany Law), Timothy Quill (Rochester Medicine), Robert Swidler (Northeast Health), and Nancy Dubler (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) discussed the Family Healthcare Decisions Act, medical futility, palliative care, and bioethics mediation. This article, part of a symposium issue of health law "conversations," is a substantially-edited transcript of the July 2009 conversation.


An increasing number of Floating Production, Storage and Offloading Platforms (FPSO) are currently entering a mature age, requiring costly maintenance operations. Maintenance cost of the shipping industry is partly linked to corrosion management of the structural parts (incl. hull) while "Crop & Renew" of super tankers is usually taken care of during dry dock operations: FPSO hulls shall be maintained "on the field" creating challenges in terms of safety and economics. Indeed, for safety concerns, hot works on FPSO may yield to high risk simultaneous operations (SIMOPS) and/or production disruption. FPSO operators have therefore been looking for "cold work" solutions that guarantee safe and economical hull repair. This paper presents an innovative cold repair solution called ColdShield for the permanent reinforcement of steel structures in such marine environment. The purpose of ColdShield is to strengthen - in a safe and controlled manner - corroded offshore structures by eradicating the use of hot works during the whole repair process, thus avoiding downtime. The technology is based on proven techniques of bonded composite reinforcement already used in other industries such as aerospace and civil engineering. This innovation was led by COLD PAD with the support of Total, the French Petroleum Institute, and involved four different private and public laboratories.
 The paper describes how this innovative technology has marinized composite reinforcement techniques throughout the three critical stages: design, installation and service life. Classical bonded composite reinforcements are usually limited by their high sensitivity to environmental marine conditions. As water is a severe degradation factor of bonded interfaces, it is well-known that bonding process in high humidity conditions, such as marine environmentswhere FPSO hulls typically are, leads to poor adhesion properties and a premature ageing of bonded reinforcements.
 This led to a series of tests and simulations to finally obtain the class approval for ColdShield for hull girder strength by Bureau Veritas as a certified alternative to crop & renew.
 The paper covers two field cases in West Africa comparing ColdShield with standard techniques in terms of safety, planning and savings. With an ageing fleet, the FPSO industry will face more and more corrosion challenges and COLDSHIELD proves to be a suitable tool to lower risks and costs while maximizing safety.


[Purpose] The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) for patients with chronic low back pain and their dynamic balance ability. [Subjects] Twenty-eight patients with chronic low back were divided into an extracorporeal shockwave therapy group (ESWTG: n=13) and a conservative physical therapy group (CPTG, n=15). [Methods] An exercise program that included Williams' exercises and McKenzie's exercises was performed by both groups. The program was implemented twice a week for six weeks. The visual analog scale (VAS) was used to measure the chronic low back pain of the patients. Their dynamic balance ability was measured with BioRescue. [Results] The within-group comparison of the VAS of the ESWTG and the CPTG showed significant improvements after the intervention. In the VAS comparison between the groups after the treatment, the ESWTG showed a significantly larger improvement. In the within-group comparison of dynamic balance ability, the ESWTG showed significant improvements after the intervention in SAPLS, SAPRS, SAPFS, SAPBS, and TSA, and the CPTG showed significant improvements in SAPLS and SAPBS. In the between-group comparison of the dynamic balance ability after the treatment, the ESWTG showed significantly larger improvements in their SAPLS, SAPRS, SAPFS, and TSA. [Conclusion] The exercise program combined with the ESWT relieved chronic back pain more than the exercise program combined with the CPT. The former was also more effective at improving the patients' dynamic balance ability in terms of SAPLS, SAPRS, SAPFS, and TSA.


In India, maize is next in importance only to rice and wheat and has acreage around 8.36 m.ha with a production of 16.72 mt during 2009-10. Haryana state grows maize in an area of 12,000 ha, with production of 27,000 tonnes. With reduction of groundwater in state, the farmers are shifting from unprofitable rice cultivation towards maize cultivation as it can be managed with 3–4 light irrigations. While cultivating the maize crop, the farmers come across various problems like less availability or non availability of the seed, improper irrigation facilities, adulteration in fertilizers, less availability of farm yard manure, etc. It is essential to understand the constraints in scientific maize cultivation practices to enhance the productivity. The study was conducted in two purposively selected progressive districts in Haryana during 2006-07. From each selected district two blocks, from each block two villages and from each village group of farmers were selected. The constraints in adoption of selected practices i.e., use of high yielding varieties ( HYV), application of farm yard manure (FYM), application of synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer and irrigation were ascertained by asking open-ended questions to a group of farmer respondents using PRA tools, viz., focused group interview. These constraints were ranked by one key informant from each selected village of the study area by using preference ranking technique. The practice wise most serious constraint faced by the farmers in cultivating maize crop were less availability of quality seed at right time in use of HYV, less availability of dung due to mechanization in application of FYM, less availability of soil testing facility in nearby areas in application of synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer and less availability of electricity for operating pump set in irrigation. The suggestions given by farmers to overcome the constraints include promoting seed production of suited hybrid in selected village, supplementing dung with green manure, vermicompost, microbial culture etc for preparing FYM, providing soil testing facility in the village and to make electricity available during peak period. These suggestions will be helpful in enhancing productivity of maize in the state if due considerations would be given to it.


The recently developed type transfer function (TTF) simulation approach was applied to generate a regional-scale nonpoint-source ground water vulnerability assessment for the San Joaquin Valley, California. The computationally comparatively inexpensive TTF approach produces quantitative estimates of contaminant concentrations for large regional scales through characteristic functions based on different soil textures and their leaching properties. The TTF simulations employed an extensive soil and recharge database to estimate atrazine (1-chloro-3-ethylamino-5-isopropylamino-2,4,6-triazine) concentrations at a compliance depth of 3 m resulting from a surface application. Two different sets of TTFs with two different levels of upscaling were used for spatially uniform and distributed recharge estimates. Results show that estimated atrazine concentrations can be related to soil survey information. Areas with high potential vulnerability to atrazine leaching were found for soils with low organic carbon content and sandy loam and loam textures. Travel times for atrazine peak concentrations to the compliance depth ranged from 350 to 730 d. The extent of areas with estimated atrazine concentrations above the maximum contaminant level was less extensive when uniform annual recharge values were used. Simulated TTF concentrations were highest for eastern Fresno County, a vulnerability pattern that is also supported by field observations. The TTF modeling approach is shown to be a useful tool for quantitative pesticide leaching estimates at regional scales significantly larger than those of previous studies.


The Co-operative Research Centre for Construction Innovation (CRC-CI) is funding a project known as Value Alignment Process for Project Delivery. The project consists of a study of best practice project delivery and the development of a suite of products, resources and services to guide project teams towards the best procurement approach for a specific project or group of projects. This paper describes the development of a Decision Support Tool (DST) to assist clients in making procurement decisions based on the alignment of values and objectives as the drivers of project success. The DST will guide clients and project teams towards more effective and efficient delivery methods. It is designed to become progressively more robust through a continuous feedback loop, building on existing knowledge of successful actions which represent best practice. The usefulness of the tool to clients and their advisors will be apparent both at the 'front end' pre-procurement phase, and throughout the procurement phases of construction projects. The project profiling approach taken in this tool looks at projects as patterns of a series of dimensions: project size, complexity, predictability and objectives.


Modeling of nanoscale electronic devices in water requires the evaluation of the transport properties averaged over the possible configurations of the solvent. They can be obtained from classical molecular dynamics for water confined in the device. A series of classical molecular dynamics simulations is performed to establish a methodology for estimating the average number of water molecules N confined between two static and semi-infinite gold electrodes. Variations in key parameters of the simulations, as well as simulations with non-static infinite gold surfaces of constant area and with anisotropically fluctuating cell dimensions lead to less than 1% discrepancies in the calculated N. Our approach is then applied to a carbon nanotube placed between the gold electrodes. The atomic density profile along the axis separating the slabs shows the typical pattern of confined liquids, irrespective of the presence of the nanotube, while parallel to the slabs the nanotube perturbs the obtained profile.


Two FeCrAlRE alloys, a commercial, 0C404, and a model alloy in the form of thin foils, with different Mn, Nb, Mo and Ti concentrations were subjected to cyclic oxidation in lab air at 1100°C. The oxidized samples were studied by gravimetry, Grazing-Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GI-XRD), Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The two FeCrAl alloys exhibit different oxidation kinetics; however, both alloys have the same weight gain after 500 hours exposure. During the early stages the scale consists mainly of α-Al2O3 together with some oxide particles containing Mn, Al, Fe and Cr formed on the alloys. After 500 hours the 0C404 scale locally also consists of larger polycrystalline regions of Mn-Cr-Al spinel. In addition, Si-rich oxide, chromia and Al-Cr oxide could be observed at the metal/oxide interface.


Author(s): Andersen, Nisana Marie | Advisor(s): Wang, Yinsheng | Abstract: Byproducts of normal cellular processes and environmental toxicants are capable of interacting with cellular DNA, producing a variety of chemical modifications. In addition, when duplex DNA becomes single-stranded, certain DNA sequences are capable of adopting non-B structures potentially causing genomic instability. To avoid activation of cellular checkpoints due to stalled replication forks, cells are equipped with translesion synthesis (TLS) polymerases capable of bypassing DNA lesions arising from these endogenous and exogenous sources. TLS polymerases are able to carry out lesion bypass because they lack the proofreading activity of replicative polymerases and possess larger active sites. In some cases lesion bypass carried out by these polymerases is accurate and efficient, while in other cases, TLS introduce mutations into the genome. Investigations into the cytotoxic and mutagenic effects DNA lesions and non-B structures have on DNA replication are needed to understand their role in cancer, aging and disease. In these studies, comprehensive experiments were conducted to examine the effect regioisomeric alkylated thymidine lesions have on DNA replication; specifically the role TLS polymerases play in processing these lesions. Produced as a result from exposure to tobacco smoke, alkylated thymidines were shown to be poorly repaired in cells and thus, likely to contribute the mutations detected in lung cancer patients. Using novel LC-MS/MS methods, alkylated thymidines were shown to be both blocking and highly mutagenic to most DNA polymerases in vitro, primarily introducing TararrC and TararrA mutations. On the other hand, endogenously produced N2-alkyl-2'-deoxyguanosine lesions were shown to be accurately and efficiently bypassed through the combination of two TLS polymerases; pol akappa or pol aiota inserts the correct dCMP opposite the lesion, and pol azeta extends past the lesion. In addition, cells deficient in pol akappa and pol aiota showed elevated levels of GararrA and GararrT mutations, which were attributed to TLS carried out by pol aeta. Taking advantage of the competitive replication and adduct bypass (CRAB) assay, we also investigated the effect non-B, G-quadruplex (G4) structures have on DNA replication. The experiments revealed that two G4 sequences located in the promoter regions of the oncogene c-Kit and the proto-oncogene c-Myb were capable of blocking DNA replication. Additionally, E. coli TLS pols II and IV, along with E. coli DNA helicase RecD, were shown to be involved in resolving the c-Kit-G4 sequence.


Fulminant hepatitis is a severe complication of hepatitis A virus infection. Its mechanism is unknown. Liver transplantation can be necessary, but spontaneous recovery is frequent. There are no data on the level of viral replication according to the clinical form of hepatitis A. We reviewed the files of 50 patients with acute hepatitis A. Nineteen patients had fulminant hepatitis (defined by encephalopathy and factor V <50%), and, from them, 10 patients underwent transplantation. Hepatitis A virus (HAV) RNA was quantified by real‐time PCR on sera obtained at admission. The genotype was determined by phylogenetic analysis of HAV RNA. HAV RNA was detected in serum by RT‐PCR in 39 out of 50 patients. Encephalopathy and low factor V level were significantly related to female gender, HAV PCR negativity (9/19 vs. 5/31, respectively; P = .03), a low serum HAV RNA level (log, 3.6 ± 0.6 vs. 4.4 ± 0.9, respectively; P = .02), genotypes other than IA, and acetaminophen intake. In multivariate analysis, low or undetectable HAV viral load and a high bilirubin level were independently associated with both low factor V levels and fulminant hepatitis and also with death or transplantation. In conclusion, HAV‐related liver failure is due to an excessive host response associated with a marked reduction in viral load. Serum HAV RNA assay could be of help in the management of severe hepatitis A.


The existence of reference price effects in consumer decision making is well documented in prior research, but few studies focus on its implications for firms' strategic behavior. Using a competitive model, we address this gap by examining how firms' product positioning and advertising strategies in a non-durable goods market (where consumers repeatedly purchase products from the category) are affected compared with a benchmark situation in which reference price effects are not pertinent. We find that as the salience of reference price effect increases, (a) initially prices are higher than, but eventually they fall below, the benchmark prices; (b) product differentiation first decreases and then increases compared with the benchmark; and (c) firm profits first decrease and then increase, but always remain less than, the benchmark profits. Using price advertising as a way to increase the reference price, this study shows that such an intervention potentially improves firms' profits above the benchmark profits. The underlying reason is that the reference price effect influences price competition, which incentivizes firms to change their product positions, which then again impacts firms' prices.


Abstract Refugee and poverty migration is one of the key challenges developed Western societies are facing. Due to the unstable political situation in many parts of the world and the lasting high differences in development between the economies, these migratory movements will continue to increase in the future. In order to channel immigrants, the authors suggest that migrants must pay an entry premium to obtain a permanent right of residence.We criticize this proposal from both an ethical and an economic perspective. We argue that a pricing system is neither ethically legitimate nor economically sensible. In order to meet the challenges of migration, a fundamental change in economic cooperation between developed and less developed economies is more appropriate.


CONTEXT
Tumors of uncertain or unknown origin are estimated to constitute 3% to 5% of all metastatic cancer cases. Patients with these types of tumors show worse outcomes when compared to patients in which a primary tumor is identified. New molecular tests that identify molecular signatures of a tissue of origin have become available.

OBJECTIVE
To review the literature on existing molecular approaches to the diagnosis of metastatic tumors of uncertain origin and discuss the current status and future developments in this area.

DATA SOURCES
Published peer-reviewed literature, available information from medical organizations (National Comprehensive Cancer Network), and other publicly available information from tissue-of-origin test providers and/or manufacturers.

CONCLUSIONS
Molecular tests for tissue-of-origin determination in metastatic tumors are available and have the potential to significantly impact patient management. However, available validation data indicate that not all tests have shown adequate performance characteristics for clinical use. Pathologists and oncologists should carefully evaluate claims for accuracy and clinical utility for tissue-of-origin tests before using test results in patient management. The personalized medicine revolution includes the use of molecular tools for identification/confirmation of the site of origin for metastatic tumors, and in the future, this strategy might also be used to determine specific therapeutic approaches.