Since the liability of a partner in a limited liability company is limited to his shares in the capital, and since the manager, in such a company, is not liable to be questioned, unless he acts ultra vires, the Jordanian legislator has adopted effective measures, in the Companies Law No. 22 of 1997 and its amendments. These measures protect the interests of third parties by enabling them to file a claim of nullity whenever a breach occurs in one the subjective conditions and/or in the formal basis, i.e., initiation contract and registration in the commercial register, and to file a claim of responsibility, after establishing a basis for its existence, against the company founders and the board members or against the company itself as a legal entity. Actually, these procedures, in addition to protecting the interests of others dealing with this type of company, would make the company a trusted enterprise, which would encourage investors and the businesspeople, especially foreign ones, to enter into business with it. This paper examines these actions in light of the Jordanian Companies Law.


In the present work we report the results of ab initio studies of electronic and dynamic properties of nickel based Heusler alloy Ni2MnAl. The total magnetic moment and elastic constants were also evaluated and compared to experimental results where possible. We found that the phonon dispersion relations calculated in this work within the linear response method did not reveal any softening of the transversal acoustic mode TA2 along [ξ, ξ, 0] direction in accordance with the experiment and in controversy to previous theoretical studies.


In recent years there have been many studies about the discourse of lectures
(Perez-Llantada & Ferguson, 2006; Csomay, 2007; Deroey & Taverniers, 2011).
Lecturing is the most common speech event in most university classrooms in the
world. Bamford (2005) defines lectures' styles as conversational, stressing the
interactive nature of the lecture, the main goal of which is to establish contact with
the students, and the co-option of the students into a discourse community.
However, most of the studies published up to this moment have focused
exclusively on the language used by the lecturer and little attention has been paid
to the role of multimodality in this particular genre. In our research, we try to
identify the non-verbal behaviour that can be of special relevance for the
comprehensive communication in the classroom, focusing on questions in two
guest lectures in English delivered for a group of Spanish students. Results indicate
that both lecturers use different verbal and non-verbal strategies to foster
interaction, adapting to the characteristics of their audience. The final objective of
this study is twofold: i) to use the results in our courses for training Spanish
lecturers on teaching in English; and ii) to use these results for EAP undergraduate
courses, as it has been observed that body language needs awareness raising in
order to facilitate transfer from mother tongue to another language


The overall aim of this study is, as suggested by Bialystok (2009), to investigate whether bilingual learners have an advantage in executive functions and a disadvantage in language compared to monolingual learners. In addition, the thesis examines whether the theory holds true for different groups of bilingual learners and different aspects of language and cognitive domains. The study has a multi-method approach. It consists of a meta-analysis investigating the bilingual advantage theory in executive functions (EF) and two studies based on data from the longitudinal study The Stavanger Project—The Learning Child (The Stavanger Project). Study 2 uses data from the first wave of The Stavanger Project. The study investigates Norwegian language comprehension in a monolingual control group and three different groups of bilingual children at 2 years and 9 months. The three bilingual groups had different amounts of exposure to Norwegian. The third article is based on data from the fourth wave of The Stavanger Project and investigates different aspects of Norwegian language and reading skills across bilingual learners and a monolingual control group of 5th graders. The sample in Study 3 is a subsample of the participants in Study 2; thus, the bilingual learners had been systematically exposed to Norwegian by early childhood education and care (ECEC) attendance and schools from at least the age of 2. The thesis contributes three main findings. The first article provides little support for a bilingual advantage in overall EF. Moderator analysis targeting sample characteristics of bilingual subgroups that are theorized to have the largest bilingual advantage in EF shows no relation to the overall outcome of the analysis of differences in executive functions between bilingual and monolingual learners. Furthermore, there is limited evidence for a bilingual advantage in any EF domain. There is an advantage in switching, but not for all populations of bilingual learners. he second article shows that bilingual toddlers have weaker second language comprehension skills than monolingual toddlers, but the differences in second language skills between different groups of bilingual learners are not fully explained by the time on task hypothesis. Bilingual children with mostly first language (L1) input at home had poorer Norwegian language comprehension than the two other bilingual groups. Bilingual toddlers with both first and second language input at home and bilingual toddlers with mostly second language input at home had equivalent second language skills. It therefore seems likely that a threshold value exists for the amount of second language input necessary to develop good second language skills rather than a direct relationship between the amount of input and language skills. The third article shows that even after long and massive exposure to the second language, early bilingual 5th graders have lower vocabulary depth, listening comprehension and reading comprehension in their second language than their monolingual peers. The difference cannot be explained by differences in socioeconomic status (SES). Their decoding and text cohesion vocabulary skills are equal to those of monolingual learners. In contrast to some other studies, the strength of the predictive path between different aspects of language skills and reading comprehension was found to be equal across language groups. In total, these findings contribute to the knowledge base of what is typical development of language, reading skills and executive functions for different groups of bilingual learners. Without information of what is typical development for different bilingual groups, it is difficult to identify atypical development. Hence, the knowledge this thesis provides can support educators in identifying bilingual learners with learning disabilities earlier and with greater certainty, thereby reducing the risk of both over- and under-identifying bilingual learners in need of special needs education.


Ultrasonic backscattered echoes represent not only the impulse response of the transducer, but they also contain information pertaining to the inhomogeneity of the propogation path, the effect of frequency dependent absorption and scattering, the dispersion effect, and the geometric shape, size and orientation of reflectors. Therefore, a well-defined modeling of the backscattered echo leading to a high resolution parameter estimation of the echo amplitude, arrival time. Echo skewness, center frequency and bandwidth is highly desirable for nondestructive evaluation of materials, target detection, object classification, velocity measurement and/or the ranging system. In this paper, a maximum likelihood (ML) model of the backscattered echoes is developed, assuming that all parameters describing the shape of the echo are unknown. The unknown parameters can be estimated by minimizing the mean square error using iterative techniques. Iterative parameter estimation has suffered has suffered from the problem of convergence and/or inaccurate results due to the local minima of the error function. In this investigation, a two-stage iterative estimation process known as the "Expectation/Maximization algorithm" is developed for the optimal parameter estimation of the echoes with low signal-to-noise ratio. In the first stage of the algorithm, we estimate the expected signal, and in the second stage the maximum likelihood criterion is used to estimate parameters. It has been observed that the EM algorithm is less dependent on the initial guess, is computationally efficient and performs well in resolving interfering multiple echoes.


Lately, the classical schools of Islamic theology are generally associated with various modern movements such as Neo-Kharijites and Neo-Mu'tazilites especially in terms of their negative influence. This paper aims at critically analyzing the way in which modern Muslim scholars claim the legacy of the classical Mu'tazilite school. It specifically offers a critical overview of the spirit and contents of both early Islamic movements. It is attempted to draw a more objective picture of the classical Mu'tazilite school, based on their primary sources. The Indonesian Harun Nasution is taken as an example of a Neo-Mu'tazilite scholar.  This paper argues that the original Mu'tazilite spirit is not accurately represented by Harun Nasution. The Mu'tazilite was the first theological school who tried to defend and preserve the original teachings of Islam in the face of the many challenges of their time. Today, the Mu'tazilite school is often misrepresented by portraying it as a purely rationalistic school and liberal thought. It is the view of the author that the misrepresentation of the Mu'tazilite school as being a radical school of thought that propagated liberal society solely guided by reason, will bring bad consequence to the understanding and development of Muslim society in general. It can be either giving opportunity to the rise of liberal society with the claim of past root of the history of Muslims as occurred in Nasution's case or rejecting reason from being important source of knowledge acknowledged by Islam.

Keywords: Harun Nasution, Indonesia, Mu'tazilite, Neo-Mu'tazilite, rationalism.

Cite as: Abd Rahman, A. A. (2020). Between the classical Mu'tazilites and Neo-Mu'tazilites: An analysis of Harun Nasution's modern Islamic thought in Indonesia.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(1), 336-355. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss1pp336-355


Whether it is the accumulation of capital or capabilities that accounts for rapid development of Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) has been a focus of debate. The former, which informs approaches to development often adopted by international agencies, reflects neoclassical perspectives. The later, by contrast, reflects evolutionary approaches with deliberate learning and innovation as dominant factors. The purpose of this thesis is to understand development by exploring how it is influenced by learning and innovation focusing on the factors, mechanisms and institutional conditions that foster learning and innovation in Malawi. This thesis has adopted quantitative and qualitative methods informed extensively by theoretical perspectives on the knowledge, learning, innovation and development nexus. Using primary survey and secondary data, a conceptual framework that emerged from contrasting perspectives on theories of the firm has situated a quantitative understanding of how firms in Malawi learn and innovate and the impact of institutional conditions. A qualitative approach, however, has enabled identification of underlying mechanisms that foster learning and innovation thus, providing bases for articulating how evolutionary perspectives can enhance Malawi?s development prospects. The thesis finds that successful development is conditioned on understanding it as an interactive process of learning and innovation hinged on addressing systemic failure regarding acquisition and utilization of knowledge by producers, firms especially. We find that failures related to institutional conditions on market and social capabilities, governance and communication and knowledge infrastructure have created a business environment in Malawi that does not foster firm learning and innovation. Thus, firms are more inclined to exploiting existing capabilities leading to static rather than dynamic efficiency. This behaviour reflects dominance of neoclassical perspective of development by stakeholders. We find, therefore, that Malawi?s development prospects are predicated on innovation in the delivery of knowledge-related services to producers thus, innovation in public goods. At firm-level, action that: promotes firms? investment in on-the-job training, engenders dialogue, fosters collaboration; and builds knowledge stock positively influences learning and innovation capability. We find that high learning firms, under entrepreneurial leadership, exemplify an evolutionary understanding of the role of knowledge in production. They deliberately foster these behavioural and cognitive factors for which they are rewarded with superior performance. At national level, we find that contrary to neoclassical perspectives, Malawi?s development is conditioned on purposive action by all stakeholders, government in particular, to mitigate constraints on learning and innovation arising from idiosyncratic aspects of the business environment. This evolutionary perspective entails entrepreneurial leadership in government and adoption of a national learning and innovation system approach to development. We argue that building coalitions focused on fostering knowledge flows to firms, especially those in the manufacturing sector which we find to be the basis for structural change of the economy, is a necessary though not sufficient pre-condition for Malawi?s development.


This guide will help ground you in resources available on campus while also offering research strategies developed to save you time but cover your bases.


Abstract. Bootstrap resamples can be used to investigate the tail of empirical distributions as well as return value estimates from the extremal behaviour of the sample. Specifically, the confidence intervals on return value estimates or bounds on in-sample tail statistics can be obtained using bootstrap techniques. However, non-parametric bootstrapping from the entire sample is expensive. It is shown here that it suffices to bootstrap from a small subset consisting of the highest entries in the sequence to make estimates that are essentially identical to bootstraps from the entire sample. Similarly, bootstrap estimates of confidence intervals of threshold return estimates are found to be well approximated by using a subset consisting of the highest entries. This has practical consequences in fields such as meteorology, oceanography and hydrology where return values are calculated from very large gridded model integrations spanning decades at high temporal resolution or from large ensembles of independent and identically distributed model fields. In such cases the computational savings are substantial.


Following intravenous administration to male rats, the uptake and retention by reproductive tissues of chromium-51, cobalt-57, iron-59, zinc-65 and tritium has been studied for up to 28 days. Chromium-51, 57Co, 59Fe and 3H were not or only transiently accumulated in gonads or accessory sex glands at concentrations greater than whole body concentrations. However, 65Zn was concentrated in the dorsolateral region of the prostate gland and autoradiography showed preferential uptake by epithelial cells and lumen of glands. When combined with other information available from the literature, this data would suggest that current models adequately describe the biokinetics of chromium, cobalt, iron and tritium in the prostate and testes and zinc in the testes. Uptake of zinc by the prostate would appear to be best described by an average value of 0.1% and a conservative value of 0.5%. Allowing for greater uptake of zinc (0.5%) by the prostate, after inhalation of 65Zn in a soluble form increases prostate dose by about 3 fold compared to current models. The pessimistic assumptions of a higher relative biological effectiveness (20) for all Auger emissions from 65Zn in cell nuclei and a heterogeneous distribution of 65Zn to sensitive cells in the prostate increases prostate dose by a further factor of 9. Even on the basis of these cautions estimates, occupational exposures to radioisotopes of these elements do not explain the excess of prostate cancer reported amongst some nuclear workers.


Cyclists' attention is often compromised when interacting with notifications in traffic, hence increasing the likelihood of road accidents. To address this issue, we evaluate three notification interaction modalities and investigate their impact on the interaction performance while cycling: gaze-based Dwell Time, Gestures, and Manual And Gaze Input Cascaded (MAGIC) Pointing. In a user study (N=18), participants confirmed notifications in Augmented Reality (AR) using the three interaction modalities in a simulated biking scenario. We assessed the efficiency regarding reaction times, error rates, and perceived task load. Our results show significantly faster response times for MAGIC Pointing compared to Dwell Time and Gestures, while Dwell Time led to a significantly lower error rate compared to Gestures. Participants favored the MAGIC Pointing approach, supporting cyclists in AR selection tasks. Our research sets the boundaries for more comfortable and easier interaction with notifications and discusses implications for target selections in AR while cycling.


This paper presented 6 cases of thymomas, surgically treated at the Newcastle Regional Cardiothoracic Surgical Service-England during the period 1970-1971. Excision of the tumour alone was carried-out in two patients. In the remaining four, a thymectomy and removal of the tumour was performed. In one case histological appearance suggested malignancy. The author insists upon an early excision, because the because the benign thymomas are potentially malignant tumours and the possibility of recurrence can be more effectively prevented by thymectomy at the same time. The coincidence of thyretoxicosis and thymoma, respectively aplastic anaemia and thymoma, were presented in 2 patients. To date, all patients have been well.


We use a power resources approach to examine the effects of the 2008–2009 financial and economic crisis on public sector trade union power in Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK, comparing structural, organizational, institutional, societal and political power resources before and after the crisis. Unions' power resources have (at least temporarily) weakened in Spain, with a similar but less pronounced trend in the UK; whereas in Sweden and Germany, one can detect ambiguous but slightly positive signals, which reflect neither the crisis nor opposition to austerity. As well as structural, organizational and institutional power resources, societal and political resources are decisive for public sector trade unions.


Globally, physical inactivity is the fourth leading modifiable risk factor for premature mortality. Adolescence is a critical time where physical activity (PA) habits developed may persist into adulthood. However, evidence demonstrates that PA levels decline with increasing age in adolescence. The purpose of this thesis is: (1) to validate a PA instrument for use in youth aged 10 – 18 years; (2) to appraise tracking of PA and sports participation over a 5-year period in youth; and (3) to assess behavioural and psychosocial factors that influence PA over time among Irish children and youth.
As part of the Children's Sport Participation and Physical Activity study, data were collected on a sample of 5,397 youth aged 10 – 18 years (46.6% male) in the Republic of Ireland. Five years later, participants (n = 873; 30.4% male) completed multi-section selfreport surveys developed using Social Cognitive Theory and Ecological Theory as part of a longitudinal study. All elements included in the surveys were psychometrically valid and developmentally appropriate measures that have been validated for use in adolescents.
Four papers were undertaken as part of this thesis. In paper 1, levels of subjectively reported PA from the survey were validated with objective measurement of activity (via accelerometry), in a sub-sample of participants. In paper 2, changes in PA levels and sports participation were evaluated between time point one (2009) and two (2014). Results suggest that PA can, to an extent, track into later life and advocate for a greater frequency of sports participation and competitive sports engagement in youth. Paper 3 assessed PA domains (club and extra-curricular sports participation, active commuting to school and physical education) as predictors of 5-year PA. Of the PA domains examined, sport plays the most valuable role in sustaining PA involvement. A description of the uptake, dropout and participation levels in different sports and reasons for a change in participation are included in paper 3. In paper 4, the psychosocial determinants of youth PA were appraised using the framework of the Youth Physical Activity Promotion Model. Findings indicate that friend social support and PA self-efficacy play instrumental roles in influencing 5-year PA in youth.
PA promotion strategies should include frequent, high-quality opportunities for sports participation, consider what sports are attractive to young people, and address the reasons for uptake and dropout identified in this thesis. Efforts to promote longevity in PA behaviour should direct attention to improving self-efficacy for PA and encouraging peer social support.


Following incidents and accidents, it appears that, when reading investigations reports, changes always play an important part in the genesis of these events. Yet the problem of change is quite complicated because it includes a wide range of issues, better identified in favour of hindsight. It is indeed much more difficult to predict beforehand those changes that will combine together to lead to a specific unexpected scenario. In order to approach this problem in a way that is manageable and not too ambitious given the complexity of the topic, a short study has been designed to start with, in an industry where installations are simple and number of employees exploiting them limited. Silos were in that respect a good industrial setting for a case study. Silos are exploited by a small amount of people, are relatively simple technologically speaking and decentralised entities within bigger organisational structures, comprising traditional functional departments (maintenance, safety, quality, production). The study consisted in visiting and interviewing within a three days period one site (3 persons) and key people of the organisation (6 persons from various core departments: human resources, safety, maintenance...). The methodology followed for this study was to question all the interviewees about the changes that they could think of in the past, present and in the future in relation with their work, without imposing a specific typology of changes to them. One idea was to represent subsequently a graphic representation (a kind of map) of all changes (past, present and future) according to several categories that would emerge from the interviews. This map would serve as a basis for identifying different potential connections between identified changes, and trying to enhance the ability to locate what might be in the future, based on current trends, consecutive safety problems. This exercise triggers a lot of interesting questions about for instance the frames, schemas or models underlying selections of changes that are seen relevant regarding their impact on safety. Past experience and theorising do play a key role in this process as much as imagination. In this paper, the process and outcomes of this study (including the results of a feedback session to the company planned for the end of February 2010) will be introduced and discussed.


Are human and physical capital stocks allocated efficiently across countries? To answer this question, we need to differentiate misallocation from factor intensity differences. We use newly available estimates on factor shares from Monge-Naranjo, Santaeullia-Llopis, and Snchez (2019) to correctly measure the factor shares of physical and human capital for a large number of countries and periods. We find that the global efficiency losses of the misallocation of human capital are much more substantial than those of physical capital, amounting to 40 percent of the world?s output. Moreover, contrary to the findings of Monge-Naranjo, Santaeullia-Llopis, and Snchez (2019) for physical capital, the global misallocation of human capital does not seem to be subsiding. We argue that the proper measure of global misallocation requires considering the potential gains of reallocating both physical and human capital. In this case, the implied efficiency loses from misallocation are up to 60 percent of global output. Attaining those gains, contrary to the prominent Lucas paradox (Lucas, 1990), would often require physical capital to flow from poor to rich countries.


The boundary between mindfulness and forest bathing, two conceptually related therapies, is unclear. Accordingly, this study reports the strengths and challenges, similarities and differences, and barriers and facilitators for both. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven trained and experienced practitioners of both mindfulness and forest bathing. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed four main themes: (i) differences between the approaches; (ii) the benefits of forest bathing; (iii) biophilia through forest bathing; and (iv) inward versus outward attentional focus as a distinction between the approaches. Both practices were found to benefit well-being, but practitioners revealed key barriers to mindfulness. For vulnerable groups experiencing mental health challenges or difficulties achieving a meditative state, mindfulness may introduce well-being risks. By offering a gentler, more intuitive approach that encourages outward attentional focus, forest bathing was found to overcome this barrier. Forest bathing is suitable for all groups, but adaptations are recommended for those expressing fear or discomfort in forested environments. The findings inform how to position both approaches in practice, as a first step towards social prescribing recommendations. Wider implications concern forest bathing's potential to impact environmental well-being. Future research must garner comparative data, involve young people, and explore the feasibility of a forest bathing social prescription.


In rapidly urbanising Sub-Saharan African contexts, not much is known about the economic vulnerability of elderly people and its consequences. Dominant international institutions have indicated that the economic situation of elderly people in developing countries is precarious, especially where high levels of poverty and minimal social safety nets are the norm. As a consequence, the impact of economic vulnerability can be quite punishing on disadvantaged households with an ageing elderly person. Yet, the case of urban elderly Nigerians has thus far remained largely unresearched. This thesis represents a quantitative investigation of economic vulnerability amongst urban elderly Nigerians and its health-related consequences, examined through a consumption allocation welfare measure. It draws on economic, gerontological, and sociological perspectives to undertake this task.
The key drivers of economic vulnerability and resulting consequences are likely to be complex and varied. Urban Elderly Nigerians may be economically vulnerable because they possess certain pre-disposing characteristics. This study is concerned with investigating these associated determinants of economic vulnerability amongst urban elderly Nigerians using a recent nationally representative household survey—the Nigerian General Household Panel Survey (NGHPS), which was collected by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2010. The first part of the study examines the determinants of economic vulnerability, through the use of a consumption allocation model.
The findings of this study reveal that the age of the household head, household size, household structure, and regional location, are key determinants of economic vulnerability amongst urban elderly households in Nigeria. As a consequence, does economic vulnerability (represented by consumption allocation) influence health status and spending amongst elderly Nigerian households? I extracted useful data from the NGHPS to address this pertinent question. This is the second part of the study. The findings suggest that economic vulnerability is strongly related to health status and health spending. This thesis highlights key methodological challenges in using a secondary data source to study economic vulnerability amongst elderly people in a developing country context. The study also offers some policy options to tackle economic vulnerability among elderly households in urban Nigeria, and its health-related consequences.


Of special relevance in what follows are three of [anthropologist Robin] Horton's more general and interrelated points - ideas and assumptions which have influenced much of our discussion of Kartabhaja conversion. Firstly, Horton joins with many other scholars in calling for a return to 'the intellectualist approach', an approach 'which takes systems of belief at their face value, i. e. as theoretical systems intended for the explanation, prediction and control of space-time events'. Secondly … he underlines the role of reason and endorses Weber's concept of 'rationalization'. … Thirdly, when discussing ways in which 'rationalization' or change takes place, Horton stresses the importance of continuities and links between old and new systems of belief.  However, apart from the latter somewhat restricted investigation, there has been no serious study of the role of pre-conversion ideas in the rise and growth of Christian group or mass movements which originated within the framework of Hindu caste society. How important were religious ideas or assumptions in these movements? How far did pre-existing beliefs and attitudes either inhibit or facilitate the conversion process? What parallels were there in Hindu and Christian thought and how important were these parallels in conversion? This paper is an attempt to explore these issues with reference to Kartabhaja conversion in the first half of the nineteenth century.


To the Editor: Neurologic complications of schistosomiasis may occur early as well as late in the course of infection; they result when a pair of worms becomes lodged in the vasculature, and their eggs become trapped in the microcirculation of the brain or spinal cord. There, they elicit a strong inflammatory response, which causes the clinical manifestations (1–3). Magnetic resonance and computed tomographic images of the brain show nonspecific, contrast-enhancing infiltrates, which suggests brain tumors (4). Definitive diagnosis requires finding Schistosoma eggs in feces, urine, rectal biopsy specimen, or biopsy specimen of central nervous system lesions (5), while a positive antibody test result provides a probable diagnosis only. To prevent irreversible damage, early treatment with corticosteroids is essential, after which the adult worms can be eliminated with praziquantel (3,4). A high degree of suspicion is therefore needed to avoid treatment delay.

Neuroschistosomiasis has been reported in persons living near Lake Malawi, in Malawi (6). Four members of a Belgian expatriate family (both parents and 2 children, a 12-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl) went swimming in Lake Malawi in September 1998. On the advice of a physician, they took praziquantel 2 weeks afterward as postexposure prophylaxis. Nevertheless, fever, hypereosinophilia, cough, and abdominal discomfort developed in the mother and both children 6–8 weeks after they had been swimming; these symptoms were indicative of Katayama syndrome. The father remained asymptomatic but had a moderately raised eosinophil count (760 cells/mm3) and tested positive for Schistosoma antibodies. Schistosoma hematobium eggs were found in feces and urine of the mother and girl. All family members tested negative for schistosomiasis on a screening visit the previous year. The boy was admitted to a Zambian hospital because of high fever, cough, and a pulmonary infiltrate. He did not improve on antimicrobial drugs given for suspected pneumonia, and a gradually worsening neurologic syndrome developed, with left-sided hemiparesis, slurred speech, and slow movements.

The boy's condition prompted repatriation ≈10 weeks after the exposure. On admission at the University Hospital of Antwerp, his symptoms included fever, left-sided paresis with left-sided Babinski sign, and high eosinophil count (3,080 cells/mm3). An ELISA for Schistosoma antibodies was weakly positive. Examination of spinal fluid showed normal cell and protein content and a slightly lowered glycorrachia. A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) image of the brain showed multiple, small, contrast-enhanced white matter lesions around the semiovale center (cranially from the lateral ventricles) bilaterally and in the right parietal cortex. A tentative diagnosis of acute neuroschistosomiasis was made, and the patient was given corticosteroids with praziquantel, 750 mg twice a day for 14 days. At the end of this treatment, his condition had markedly improved; discrete hemiparesis was the only residual symptom. One month later, the patient had returned to normal, apart from left leg hyperreflexia. An NMR of the brain still showed residual lesions around the semiovale centers. Ten months later, results of clinical and neurologic examinations were normal, but NMR of the brain still showed minor residual lesions around the semiovale center on the right side. During follow-up, a serologic shift (indirect hemagglutination schistosomal antibody test) was seen, and eosinophil count decreased gradually to normal (Table). Although the boy never excreted eggs, S. hematobium infection was presumptively diagnosed on the basis of active infection in his relatives and the response to treatment.

Table

Evolution of acute neuroschistosomiasis in 12-year-old boy after treatment

When neurologic symptoms appear soon after primary infection with Schistosoma flukes, confirming the diagnosis may prove difficult, and schistosomiasis should be suspected when the patient has bathed in potentially infected water. Furthermore, hypereosinophilia is an early warning sign, as seroconversion and egg excretion may be slower to evolve. Both elements provide sufficient circumstantial evidence to strongly suspect the diagnosis (2). In this case, the full-blown Katayama syndrome contributed to the evidence.

Praziquantel only kills adult worms and does not inactivate schistosomules, nor the miracidium inside the eggs, which will continue to elicit a damaging immunologic response for some time. Early antischistosomal treatment might, in fact, worsen symptoms (7). Because schistosomules may require up to 8 weeks to mature, early postexposure treatment with praziquantel cannot be used to forestall disease after primary infection. Furthermore, Katayama syndrome may occur as early as 3 weeks after exposure. On the other hand, withholding praziquantel until larvae have matured (8 weeks after exposure) would not prevent Katayama syndrome in many cases (7). Acute symptoms, including early neuroschistosomiasis, may therefore still develop during this 5-week window after exposure, despite early praziquantel administration.

Artemether has shown promising activity against schistosomules (8). Repeated administration throughout the transmission season has prevented Katayama syndrome in S. japonicum infection (9). Its use, singly or in combination with praziquantel, should be investigated as true postexposure prophylaxis for primary schistosomal infection in nonimmune travelers (10).


The goal of this project is to design, build, and evaluate new hardware mechanisms to debug post-silicon bugs in Systems-on-Chip (SoCs). Specically, we aim to accelerate the diagnosis of complex bugs such as deadlocks that are notoriously hard to identify using existing debugging mechanisms such as ARM CoreSight and hardware performance counters. We will design and evaluate programmable introspection mechanisms that will analyze streams of program and hardware-level trace data at test- and run-time, check correctness invariants, and generate event summaries that point to root causes of bugs. This thesis describes an on-chip hardware introspection engine (HIE) that detects anomalous transactions and alerts the user of potential bugs that could lead to deadlock. The HIE is a device that attaches to a bus and snoops on request and response transactions and collects response latency metadata for the transactions it receives. From this metadata, HIE is able to evaluate the normal behavior of transactions and alert engineers when anomalous behavior is detected at run-time. The HIE also separates the metadata it collects for different address ranges, creating a local version of the memory map that allows easy integration into existing systems. Synthesis on a FPGA and simulation of the HIE show that minimal area overhead is required for implementation and 100% detection accuracy is achievable for deadlock scenarios. The concept of learning address ranges and collecting and analyzing metadata for these ranges can have many applications in different fields that leverage anomaly detection, i.e. security, debug, etc.


Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether the MRI and biomarkers human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) and CA125 correlate with depth of myometrial invasion, histologic grade, cervical involvement and nodal metastases in patients with endometrioid adenocarcinoma of the uterus. Materials and methods: This was a prospective, observational study in women with biopsy-proven endometrial adenocarcinoma of the uterus. Preoperative pelvic MRI was performed and concentration of HE4 and CA125 were assessed before surgery. All surgical specimens were reviewed by a single expert pathologist. The results were compared with the final histopathology report of surgical staging. Results: Included were a total of 68 women with endometrioid adenocarcinoma of the uterus, most (76%) with stage I disease. Levels of serum HE4 greater than 140PM and CA125 greater than 35 ku/L were observed in 12 (17%) and 26 (38.2%) of patients respectively whose greater proportion were cases with deep myometrial invasion and high grade tumor. In the evaluation of deep tumoral invasion (> 50%) of the myometrium sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of MRI were 68.9%, 94.8% and 83.8% respectively. For lymph node involvement these values were 50%, 95.1% and 91.1% respectively and for cervical stromal involvement were 64.3%, 98.1% and 91.1% respectively. Conclusion: Higher stage, deep myometrial invasion, and lymph node or cervical stromal involvement increase diagnostic accuracy of MRI. Higher levels of HE4 and CA125 were observed in patients with deep myometrial invasion and higher grade of tumor.


This contribution is concerned with the archaeometric study of seven redand black-figured potteries, kindly provided by the Carabinieri Corps for Protection of Cultural Heritage, Cosenza Unit (Calabria, Italy). The study was aimed to establish the authenticity of the archaeological artifacts and for this purpose an analytical approach, based on mineropetrographic and geochemical investigations, was applied. Petrographic analysis (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with EDS microanalysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies were carried out with the aim of identifying technological features, microstructure and to obtain information on the technological features of each sample. Finally, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to detect possible surface


This article presents a control strategy of a multi-source system dedicated to automotive applications, aiming to maximize the global system efficiency. A parallel-architecture of the multi-source system is considered, composed of a fuel cell as a primary power source, a supercapacitor as a secondary storage element, which provides peak power in fast transients, and power converters for the power sources interconnection to the DC bus. The power management is realized as a two-level control structure. The first level contains inner control loops for fuel cell/supercapacitor currents and a DC bus voltage control loop, designed using PI controllers. The higher level consists of an energy management supervision system based on the equivalent consumption minimization strategy. The fuel cell power demand is computed by minimizing the hydrogen mass consumption with respect to system physical constraints. The performances of the proposed control structure are evaluated in simulation, in terms of fuel economy, using an urban driving cycle.


In the present work, the ductile fracture process of hydropiercing is simulated using Rice and Tracey ductile fracture criterion by means of the user subroutine VUMAT of ABAQUS. The simulations at different loading pressures coincide well with the experiments. Based on this criterion, the processes of hydropiercing at different technical conditions are simulated with orthogonal design and the sensitivity analysis of parameters is conducted. The sensitivity analysis shows that internal pressure plays the most important role in controlling quality of the hydropierced products, namely the sheared zone length, roll-over depth and whole coefficient Y. High pressure and better lubricant are better for all the three indexes. Large punch corner radius is better for sheared zone length and Y but worse for roll-over depth. Additionally, it is found that internal pressure and punch corner radius could be intensified each other at conditions of both larger values.


Hypervisor (e.g. KVM) based virtualization has been used as a fundamental technology in cloud computing. However, it has the inherent performance overhead in the virtualized environments, more specifically, the virtualized I/O devices. To alleviate such overhead, PCI passthrough can be utilized to have exclusive access to I/O device. However, this way prevents the I/O device from sharing with multiple VMs. Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) technology has been introduced for high-performance interconnects such as InfiniBand to address such sharing issue while having ideal performance. On the other hand, with the advances in container-based virtualization (e.g. Docker), it is also possible to reduce the virtualization overhead by deploying containers instead of VMs so that the near-native performance can be obtained. In order to build high-performance HPC cloud, it is important to fully understand the performance characteristics of different virtualization solutions and virtualized I/O technologies on InfiniBand clusters. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive evaluation using IB verbs, MPI benchmarks and applications. We characterize the performance of hypervisor-and container-based virtualization with PCI passthrough and SR-IOV for HPC on InfiniBand clusters. Our evaluation results indicate that VM with PCI passthrough (VM-PT) outperforms VM with SR-IOV (VM-SR-IOV), while SR-IOV enables efficient resource sharing. Overall, the container-based solution can deliver better performance than the hypervisor-based solution. Compared with the native performance, container with PCI passthrough (Container-PT) only incurs up to 9% overhead on HPC applications.


Abstract Termites and ectoparasitic fungi have been at odds for millions of years. Surprisingly, fungi rarely kill their host and termites are continuously parasitized, albeit at low rates. 'Termitophilous' fungi have succeeded in the difficult task of infiltrating the ecological fortress of social immunity that is the termite colony. Here we review 34 definitive ectoparasitic fungal species from nine genera specialized to infest the cuticle of 50 + termite species. In general, reports of fungal ectoparasites on termites are underestimated and the actual prevalence of infestation is likely much greater in nature. In this review, we synthesize >120 yr of reports and studies on ectoparasitic fungi and their termite hosts to present an update to where our knowledge rests and where the proceeding steps should be focused. In reviewing this material, we aim to unite knowledge from two disciplines, entomology and mycology, creating a literary source useful for entomologists and mycologists alike. We provide a comprehensive summary of all fungal genera, illustrations showing morphological distinctions and development on the termite host, a glossary of mycological terminology, and an updated chart of the biogeography of these groups. Additionally, we provide a phylogenetic summary of parasite lineages and their known hosts as well as the first review of molecular evidence obtained from these fungal species.


This paper reports on an effort to develop and demonstrate structural health monitoring—specifically, fault detection and localization—algorithms for composite sandwich panels. The test artifact was a small panel consisting of an aluminum honeycomb core sandwiched between two carbon-fiber face sheets, and featuring a controlled impact damage on one side. Data were collected on the damaged side of the panel using a network of piezo-electric sensors mounted on the face sheet. Two (potentially complementary) algorithms were implemented for detecting and localizing the fault from ultrasound data collected before and after damage. The algorithms use variants of the standard least-squares approach for estimating damage location, and are distinguished mainly by their reliance on qualitative versus quantitative physics models of acoustic wave propagation in the panel. Successful detection and localization of a sub-inch fault is demonstrated.


We are in the middle of a second enclosure movement. It sounds grandiloquent to call it "the enclosure of the intangible commons of the mind," but in a very real sense that is just what it is. True, the new state-created property rights may be "intellectual" rather than "real," but once again things that were formerly thought of as either common property or uncommodifiable are being covered with new, or newly extended, property rights. In this article, I try to develop the vocabulary and the analytic tools necessary to turn the tide of enclosure. I offer an historical sketch of various types of skepticism about intellectual property, from the antimonopolist criticisms of the Framers of the U.S. Constitution, through the emergence of affirmative arguments for the public domain, to the use of the language of the commons to defend the possibility of distributed methods of non-proprietary production. In many ways, it turns out, concepts of the public domain show the same variation in assumptions, and the same analytic differences, as the concept of property itself. I conclude by arguing that, for a number of reasons, the appropriate model for the change in thinking which I argue for comes from the history of the environmental movement. The invention of the concept of "the environment" pulls together a string of otherwise disconnected issues, offers analytical insight into the blindness implicit in prior ways of thinking, and leads to perception of common interest where none was seen before. Like the environment, the public domain must be "invented" before it is saved. Like the environment, like "nature," the public domain turns out to be a concept that is considerably more slippery than many of us realize. And, like the environment, the public domain nevertheless turns out to be useful, perhaps even necessary.


It is challenging to support the timeliness of real-time data service requests in data-intensive real-time applications such as online auction or stock trading, while maintaining the freshness of temporal data that capture the current real-world status. Although deadline-aware real-time scheduling would significantly enhance the timeliness of data services, it is not clear how to assign explicit feasible deadlines to data service requests in an open environment. To address the problem, we design a new deadline assignment scheme to derive feasible deadlines for real-time data service requests considering their individual data needs. Further, we develop a systematic closed-loop approach to supporting the desired tardiness−the actual service delay to deadline ratio−of real-time data services even in the presence of dynamic workloads. We choose the tardiness metric due to its expressiveness compared to the deadline miss ratio and utilization that saturate at 0 and 1 when the system is underutilized or overloaded, respectively. The performance evaluation results acquired in our real-time stock trading testbed show that the desired average/transient tardiness is closely supported. Consequently, the deadline miss ratio is significantly reduced compared to a state-of-art database system with a real-time scheduling extension.


Finding new academic methods for research problems is the key task in a researcher's research career. In order to help new researchers carry out their researches in a more convenient way, we describe a novel recommendation system called AMRec to recommend new academic methods for research problems in this paper. Our proposed system first extracts academic concepts (Tasks and Methods) and their relations from academic literatures, and then leverages the regularized matrix factorization model for academic method recommendation. Preliminary evaluation results are also reported and discussed.


Estimating the distribution, extent and change of coastal ecosystems is essential for monitoring global change. However, spatial models developed to estimate the distribution of land cover types require accurate and up-to-date reference data to support model development, model training and data validations. Owing to the labor-intensive tasks required to develop reference datasets, often requiring intensive campaigns of image interpretation and/or field work, the availability of sufficiently large quality and well distributed reference datasets has emerged as a major bottleneck hindering advances in the field of continental to global-scale ecosystem mapping. To enhance our ability to model coastal ecosystem distributions globally, we developed a global reference dataset of 193,105 occurrence records of seven coastal ecosystem types—muddy shorelines, mangroves, coral reefs, coastal saltmarshes, seagrass meadows, rocky shoreline, and kelp forests—suitable for supporting current and next-generation remote sensing classification models. coastTrain version 1.0 contains curated occurrence records collected by several global mapping initiatives, including the Allen Coral Atlas, Global Tidal Flats, Global Mangrove Watch and Global Tidal Wetlands Change. To facilitate use and support consistency across studies, coastTrain has been harmonized to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Global Ecosystem Typology. coastTrain is an ongoing collaborative initiative designed to support sharing of reference data for coastal ecosystems, and is expected to support novel global mapping initiatives, promote validations of independently developed data products and to enable improved monitoring of rapidly changing coastal environments worldwide.


This paper considers a policy environment in which policy is not set by a single policymaker, but by a sequence of policymaking administrations. Administration turnover is determined by a simple random process. The consequences of administration turnover are traced through for two versions of a linear rational expectations model, and numerical simulations of various policy environments are presented.


Theopetra Cave is a unique prehistoric site for Greece, as the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods are present here, bridging the Pleistocene with the Holocene. During the more than 20 yr of excavation campaigns, charcoal samples from hearths suitable for 14C dating were collected from all anthropogenic layers, including the Paleolithic ones. Most of the samples were initially dated using the ABA chemical pretreatment protocol in the Laboratory of Archaeometry of NCSR Demokritos, Greece, and the Radiocarbon Dating and Cosmogenic Isotopes Laboratory of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. The 14C results, which were not always consistent versus depth, showed that the earliest limit of human presence is ∼50,000 yr BP, thus reaching the age limits of the 14C dating method. However, 10 TL-dated burnt flint specimens unearthed from the lower part of the Middle Paleolithic sequence of the cave gave ages ranging between ∼110 and 135 kyr ago. These results are in disagreement with the 14C dates, as they support a much later date for these layers. In order to clarify the situation further, charcoal samples originating from hearths were conventionally dated in the Laboratory of Archaeometry of NCSR Demokritos using the ABA pretreatment. Additionally, hand-picked charcoal fragments also underwent 14C dating by AMS in the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit using the acid-base wet oxidation (ABOX-SC) pretreatment protocol. The 14C dates from the cave's Paleolithic layers obtained by both pretreatment protocols suggest a probable charcoal diagenesis affecting the 14C results of these very old samples. However, the dates obtained with ABOX-SC pretreatment are considered more reliable and in the younger stratigraphic part produced consistent results with the TL dating.


In structured prediction, target objects have rich internal structure which does not factorize into independent components and violates common i.i.d. assumptions. This challenge becomes apparent through the exponentially large output space in applications such as image segmentation or scene graph generation. We present a novel PAC-Bayesian risk bound for structured prediction wherein the rate of generalization scales not only with the number of structured examples but also with their size. The underlying assumption, conforming to ongoing research on generative models, is that data are generated by the Knothe-Rosenblatt rearrangement of a factorizing reference measure. This allows to explicitly distill the structure between random output variables into a Wasserstein dependency matrix. Our work makes a preliminary step towards leveraging powerful generative models to establish generalization bounds for discriminative downstream tasks in the challenging setting of structured prediction.


The Future Internet concept has received a great deal of attention in recent years. The topic has been approached by a variety of perspectives, and certainly standardization is still to be agreed upon regarding some of the new terms and concepts that have gained currency in this period. One widely discussed direction involves the expansion of the Internet's model to include different forms of communications that may support connection to "things", i.e. all sorts of resources with some form of connectivity, that can connect to the Internet. These are not necessarily the resources that have traditionally been associated with computing, such as hosts, servers, routers, and so on. Rather, these can be any type of appliance with some minimal computational capability. This scenario proposes a much more richly connected world, in which connectivity to all sorts of things has suggested the expression "Internet of Things". Given the variety of functionality permitted to the networked resources, many mechanisms need to be investigated to suit different resource functionalities. As video data now accounts for over 50% of the Internet traffic, what are the considerations for video transmission, in real time, when the Internet of Things are incorporated? In this paper, we discuss some salient aspects, and consider specific recommendations for encoding based on the widely adopted ITU-T H264 standard. More specifically, we indicate how the high error rate associated with wireless communications channels, combined with the low computational capability of some of the networked resources, dictates different requirements and solutions for achieving acceptable quality of experience by the users.


The current PTO procedures provide a few choices for a third party to influence the prosecution of a competitors patent application prior to issuance. In the case of protests and public use hearings, the third party may submit documents and explain their relevancy, but must know of the application's existence prior to publication in order to meet the timeliness requirement. In the case of third-party submissions, the third party has a short two-month window post-publication, but cannot explain the relevancy of the documents submitted. In each case, the time frame within which a third party can act is extremely limited. The third party may also attempt to force disclosure of prior art at any time prior to issuance by sending prior art to the attorney of record and/or the applicant. However, it is uncertain if and how the prior art will be presented to the PTO. Current legislation seeks to offer more flexibility for pre-issuance submissions. If S. 23 is passed, Section 7, in its present form, will in most cases allow an interested third party to submit prior art directly to the PTO for consideration after an application has been published with an explanation of the prior art's relevance. The legislation in its current form has been passed in the Senate and is now moving to the House for consideration.


This study examined the Ifa therapeutic system with a view to describing the method, use of herbs and sacrifice employed in treatment process. Although several studies highlighted the importance of traditional healing methods among Yoruba people, none has fully described the systematic process involved in the Ifa practice. Ethnomethodological theory provided the framework. Moniya and Iseyin were purposively selected as study areas. A survey study of 134 respondents was employed through snowballing technique. Twelve In-depth Interviews and two Focus Group Discussions were conducted among Ifa priests in study areas. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data were content analyzed. Ifa, being a word of God containing therapy, was performed through divination. Its systematic method relied on procedures and measures domiciled in the 256 corpuses interpreted by Ifa priests. The system is applied to combating illness linked to both physical and spiritual causal agents. The steps involved in the process of providing cure included consultation (68.7%), making herbal mixtures in combination of many organic and inorganic elements (71.6%) and use of sacrifice (67.9%). Ifa therapeutic system is procedural and mainly includes use of herb and sacrifice. In conclusion, Ifa therapy should be formalized to complement western medical care.


The present study aims to analyze the results of the studies conducted on determining the effect of gender on the environmental attitudes of individuals through the meta-analysis method. To this end, literature consisting of studies conducted between the years 2009–2019 was reviewed. A total of 257 publications related to the subject were collected in a pool. In line with the inclusion criteria determined, 53 of these studies suitable for the coding protocol were included in the study. The sample of the study consisted of 22,103 individuals (12,188 females and 9,915 males). Calculation of the effect size of the studies and analyses for heterogeneity and publication bias were performed using the Comprehensive Meta Analysis statistical program. A high level of heterogeneous distribution was determined in the studies included in the meta-analysis. Therefore, the general effect size value of the gender variable on the environmental attitudes of the individuals was obtained as d = .28  using the random effects model. The results showed that gender variable affected environmental attitude in favor of females at a low level. In addition, the moderator analyses indicated that this difference was based on the participants' educational level and the highest difference occurred at the primary education level. Considering the results, it is recommended to start environmental education at an early age.


Search and rescue (SAR) operations can take significant advantage from supporting autonomous or teleoperated robots and multi-robot systems. These can aid in mapping and situational assessment, monitoring and surveillance, establishing communication networks, or searching for victims. This paper provides a review of multi-robot systems supporting SAR operations, with system-level considerations and focusing on the algorithmic perspectives for multi-robot coordination and perception. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first survey paper to cover (i) heterogeneous SAR robots in different environments, (ii) active perception in multi-robot systems, while (iii) giving two complementary points of view from the multi-agent perception and control perspectives. We also discuss the most significant open research questions: shared autonomy, sim-to-real transferability of existing methods, awareness of victims' conditions, coordination and interoperability in heterogeneous multi-robot systems, and active perception. The different topics in the survey are put in the context of the different challenges and constraints that various types of robots (ground, aerial, surface, or underwater) encounter in different SAR environments (maritime, urban, wilderness, or other post-disaster scenarios). The objective of this survey is to serve as an entry point to the various aspects of multi-robot SAR systems to researchers in both the machine learning and control fields by giving a global overview of the main approaches being taken in the SAR robotics area.


UNLABELLED
Betahistine dihydrochloride is a histamine-like drug widely used in relieving the symptoms associated with Ménière's syndrome. Pharmacokinetic studies of betahistine have demonstrated that it has a short plasma half-life of 3-4 hours. In such cases frequent administration of the drug is required in order to keep plasma concentration within the therapeutic range. However, this may lead to noncompliance and aggravate patients' comfort. An advanced approach for achieving sustained release of drugs is their incorporation in microparticulate carriers.

AIM
To design a sustained release microsphere formulation of betahistine providing reduced dose frequency and lower risk of side effects occurrence.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Betahistine-loaded chitosan microspheres were obtained via W/O emulsion solvent evaporation technique and were characterized for particle size, drug loading and entrapment efficiency. Drug release into phosphate buffer saline pH 7.4 was performed and dissolution profiles of the formulations were obtained. To study the mechanism of drug release from the microspheres the dissolution data was fitted to various mathematic models.

RESULTS
Betahistine-loaded microspheres were produced with a high drug loading and entrapment efficiency. The microcarriers were spherical in shape with mean particle size of 3.82 μm to 7.69 μm. Betahistine release studies from the microspheres showed similar and slightly increasing dissolution profiles. The drug release proceeded in a controlled manner following Fickian diffusion.

CONCLUSION
The obtained results suggest that betahistine-loaded chitosan microspheres prepared by solvent evaporation method are capable of sustained release of drugs and therefore can be used as drug delivery systems in the treatment of Ménière's syndrome.


Congenital infections are a well-known cause of intrauterine fetal death and also of peri- and postnatal morbidity. Also, the malformative potential is well documented. Trans-placental infection of viruses, even in a subclinical phase of the maternal infection, can determine sever congenital syndroms. Even non-specific echographic anomalies may indicate a congenital infection. However, some echographic anomalies are specific for congenital syndromes. This is why establishig a fast and correct diagnosis of congenital infection is a dezideratum of the modern obstetrician. Ultrasound assessment is a key element in establishing the diagnosis and in follow-up of patients with congenital infections.


There has been increasing scrutiny of government policy decisions and advice in recent years. The supremacy of the national interest has been questioned and self interest theories explored. Administrative systems have been reformed, and the role of the Westminster model of government decision-making endlessly reviewed. Increased interest by economists in the policy process has created a new subject area in economics, namely, public choice theory. It places greater emphasis on individual choice and hence on the way political institutions meet society's needs. It provides a suitable framework for explaining political decision making and administrative processes. In this Address, New Zealand agricultural policies and processes in the last two decades are explored from this viewpoint and the applicability of the theory assessed.


Received 25 October 2017; Accepted 9 November 2017 2016 and 2017 have been a time of overturned expectations, full of uncertainty, as evidenced by the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union, the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election and the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. From the perspective of achieving the goal of universal health coverage, border control in a health care setting is a new challenge to the principle of "access to health care is a human right". In this issue, FMCH addresses health issues from "prevalence of and risk factors for eclampsia in pregnant women in India" [1] to the "effects of biscuit-type feeding supplementation on the neurocognitive outcomes of HIVaffected school-age children: a randomized, double-blind, controlled intervention trial in Kenya" [2] and "assessment of family physicians' knowledge of childhood autism" [3] to the topic "counseling strategies for nutritional anemia by family physicians in Saudi Arabia, 2016: Implication for training" [4]. In addition, Koshy et al. [5] present their study on "Seguin Form Board as an intelligence tool for young children in an Indian urban slum". In terms of translational and applied sciences in community setting, Liu et al. [6] review the current progress of "additive manufacturing techniques and their biomedical applications". Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, is gaining increasing attention in medical fields, especially in dental health and implant medicine, a novel topic for family medicine doctors and community health workers. As FMCH is a China focused health journal, two articles in this issue present Chinese insight into the "survey and analysis of patient safety culture in a county hospital" [7] and "an automated management system for the community health service in China" [8] aiming to provide evidence for strategy plan to improve patient safety culture, and to explore a concrete way for health administrative departments to manage the community health service (CHS) with a China focus. Lastly, Hussein [9] presents a case of probable sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to a primary care clinic whereby neuropsychiatric symptoms were the patient's initial presentation which later manifested with declining cognitive impairment, myoclonus and extrapyramidal symptoms. By covering these topics, this issue of FMCH invites your participation in a debate of the relevant questions in the routine clinical practices of Family Medicine and Community Health: FMCH addresses borderless topics from health, suboptimal health and illness, and from community health management to hospital treatment in terms of preventive, predictive and personalized medicine [10].


Computer vision techniques have been widely applied to immersive and perceptual human-computer interaction for applications like computer gaming, education, and entertainment. In this paper, relevant techniques are surveyed in terms of image capturing, normalization, motion detection, tracking, feature representation and recognition. In addition, applications of vision techniques in HCI in computer gaming are also summarized in several categories including vision enabled pointing and positioning, vision for manipulating objects, training and education, and miscellaneous applications. The characteristics of existing work are analyzed and discussed, along with corresponding challenges and future research directions proposed.


All aphids are thought to have an association with primary endosymbionts, which are located within specialized cells known as mycetocytes. The primary endosymbionts are gram-negative, spherical or slightly oval cells which have not been cultivated outside aphid hosts. Recently, it has been shown that the 16S rRNA sequences of the primary endosymbionts of 11 host species belonging to four aphid families are similar and thus that these organisms are related. Comparisons with the 16S rRNAs of other procaryotes indicated that the primary endosymbionts form a distinct lineage within the gamma-3 subgroup of the Proteobacteria. On the basis of these results we propose that the primary endosymbionts should be placed in Buchnera gen. nov. and Buchnera aphidicola sp. nov. The primary endosymbiont found in the mycetocytes of Schizaphis graminum (green bug) is designated the type strain of this species.


: Results of complex inspection of 163 girls and 192 boys of 8-17 years with the diffusion not toxic craw (DNG) are presented. At 59.4% of patients revealed disharmonious physical development. Most often defined deficiency of weight of a body (37.5%) and/or low growth (28.0%). The delay of sexual development which practically at all adolescents (83.8%) was accompanied by deficiency of weight of a body and low growth is diagnosed for 32.8% of adolescents boys and 8.3% of girls. The necessity of a differentiated approach to the treatment of adolescents with a poor prognosis of DOP. The use of the. proposed technology improves the efficiency of treatment to 77.4% after 6 months and 86.3% at 12 months, as well as improve overall health outcomes and somatopolovogo development.


The recent interest in and increasing demand for healthy, social and environmentally sustainable products, particularly in developed countries, have fostered the presence of organic coffee supermarket shelves of such countries. Proposes two models of B2B relationships for the Brazilian supply of organic coffee to international markets, more specifically, The Netherlands. For this proposition, compares two possible organizations of the supply chain wherein B2B relationships are based not only on contracts but more importantly on the informal safeguards of mutual trust, long‐term orientation and joint actions. For the two proposed chains, a cross‐border integrator is included to support the coordination of the business relationship. Emphasis is placed on coordination to increase overall efficiency of the supply chain through reduction of internal and transaction costs.


Saccharin reacts quantitatively with phenothiazine (thiodiphenylamine) and copper(II) acetate dissolved in 50%V/V ethanol at 70 °C. The reaction product can be dissolved in an organic solvent and has a characteristic colour. The colour reaction is sensitive and the absorbance, at 510 nm, of the extract in 5 ml of xylene obeys Beer's law at saccharin concentrations between 20 and 400 µg ml–1. Cyclamates, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid and dehydroacetic acid do not interfere. Recoveries of saccharin from soft drinks were satisfactory. A procedure suitable for routine use is proposed.


Data mining is the process of discovering useful and previously unknown patterns in large datasets. Discovering association rules between items in large datasets is one such data mining task. A discovered rule is considered interesting if it brings new and useful information about the data. In this paper we show that if a dataset can be divided into subclasses and analyzed as if it was a generalization/specialization hierarchy, the class/subclass relationship can lead to the discovery of class-dependent rules showing interesting differences between the behavior of the whole dataset and the behavior of each of its subclasses. These differences are extracted from the association rules mined from the whole dataset and from each subclass separately. Using the concept of generalization/specialization hierarchies, comparisons and tests of statistical hypotheses, we present methods that are able to efficiently discover class-dependent rules and which classes have a higher influence on each rule. They also show when a given stimulus can provoke on one class a response that was not expected if only the undivided dataset was analyzed.


Dr. Ph. H. Kuenen kindly entrusted me with a suite of corals collected by him on the island Flores during his cruise with the Expedition on board of H.M. "Willebrord Snellius". The exact locality is North coast near Papang where the road Papang-Rioeng-Rawoe forkes, 550 m above sea level. Nine different species were collected. Among these is one new species, Fungophyllia millepunctata. Of one coral, a Porites, the species could not be identified with certainty, though it strongly resembles a Porites species from the Miocene Progo-beds of Java. From the other 7 corals the following data on their stratigraphical distribution are known.


Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is highly promising for ultra-sensitive detection in a series of applications. Although extensive advances have been achieved in SERS technologies, the preparation of highly efficient SERS substrates still suffers from several limitations, including complex preparation procedures, high cost, and instability for long time storage. To address these problems, we report a novel, to the best of our knowledge, SERS platform that combines graphene oxide (GO) and cellulose composite paper with colloidal silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) ink. As an efficient substrate, the GO and cellulose composite paper that features hierarchical micro-nanostructures and improved interaction with target molecules can be fabricated on a large scale, and the Ag NP ink can be well stored, avoiding being oxidized in ambient conditions. In this way, our SERS platform not only reduces the cost, but also improved the stability. The sensitivity, reproducibility, and tunable SERS detection performance were evaluated using rhodamine 6G as probing molecules. To demonstrate the capability of our SERS platform in practical analysis, the SERS spectra of two monosodium salt solutions of different concentrations have been collected. The SERS platform has revealed great potential for practical application of SERS technologies.


Efficient management and exploration of high-volume scientific file repositories have become pivotal for advancement in science. We propose to demonstrate the Data Vault, an extension of the database system architecture that transparently opens scientific file repositories for efficient in-database processing and exploration. The Data Vault facilitates science data analysis using high-level declarative languages, such as the traditional SQL and the novel array-oriented SciQL. Data of interest are loaded from the attached repository in a just-in-time manner without need for up-front data ingestion. The demo is built around concrete implementations of the Data Vault for two scientific use cases: seismic time series and Earth observation images. The seismic Data Vault uses the queries submitted by the audience to illustrate the internals of Data Vault functioning by revealing the mechanisms of dynamic query plan generation and on-demand external data ingestion. The image Data Vault shows an application view from the perspective of data mining researchers.


More than five million Americans with a history of cancer are alive today, creating a large population with specific healthcare needs. The nurse's role in cancer prevention and education should be extended to meet the needs of cancer survivors. The care and rehabilitation of patients with cancer should include strategies to promote new behaviors for enhancing the early detection of recurrent disease and reducing risk factors for second malignancies, as well as for other preventable diseases related to diet, exercise, and smoking. As cancer survivors incorporate new health-oriented behaviors into their lives, they may achieve a better sense of control over their health.


Australian general practice is currently the subject of intense governmental review. Community Health Centres (CHCs) in Victoria have general practice established as part of their primary health care services, whereas this i s not generally the case in New South Wales CHCs. This paper examines Australian and international literature describing the evaluation of general practice conducted within CHCs, and it uses the evaluation criteria suggested by the original 1973 National Hospitals and Health Services Commission which established CHCs. This review found that there is little objective evaluation findings upon which to base the decision to employ general practitioners as full time salaried employees of CHCs. Of the original evaluation parameters suggested, CHC general practice unit costs, patient and professional satisfaction and service utilisation have been addressed by some research and discussion papers. The collection and impact of epidemiological data, professional audit, community participation, co-ordination and continuity of services and accessibility of services have been ignored by reporters of CHC general practice. An evaluation of CHC general practice would be of benefit to determining the impact of the future of general practitioners within CHCs. The Evaluation of General Practice in Community health Centres: a critical review


The Laramide orogeny is a classic yet controversial mountain-building event that resulted, in the southwest United States, in uplifts, sedimentation, and magmatism that can be used to constrain the onset of this event in the region and expand our knowledge of Late Cretaceous to Paleogene tectonism. The McRae Formation marks the onset of deposition in the Laramide Love Ranch Basin, which was located to the northeast of the west-northwest-trending coeval Rio Grande uplift in south-central New Mexico, but its age is not well constrained. A previously published late Maastrichtian age for the McRae Formation was based on the presence of dinosaur bones in the upper of two members of the formation. We obtained new U-Pb dates from one dacite clast and three ash-fall tuffs from the lower Jose Creek Member and from one ash-fall tuff from the lower part of the overlying Hall Lake Member of the McRae Formation. The clast yielded a date of 75.0 ± 1.1 Ma, whereas the ages of the tuffs, in ascending stratigraphic order, are 74.9 ± 0.7 Ma, 74.7 ± 0.6 Ma, 75.2 ± 1.3 Ma, and 73.2 ± 0.7 Ma. These dates indicate that the onset of Laramide deposition in the Love Ranch Basin must have occurred earlier, in late Campanian time, similar to deposition in the Laramide Ringbone Basin in southwestern New Mexico. In addition, U-Pb zircon dates of 75.7 ± 1.3 Ma and 75.0 ± 2.8 Ma were obtained on the Twin Peaks stock and on a dacite sill, respectively, in the Burro Mountains of southwestern New Mexico. These dates are similar to those of other Laramide arc magmatic centers in southern New Mexico, which have a limited range of ages from 75 to 70 Ma, including the Hidalgo Formation in the Little Hatchet Mountains, the Silver City-Pinos Altos region, and the Copper Flat porphyry system. These new and previously published dates indicate that during the onset of Laramide deformation in southwestern and south-central New Mexico, the angle of subduction of the Farallon plate may have been steep enough to allow partial melting of an asthenospheric wedge, resulting in arc magmatism far inboard of the trench.


The mechanical properties of the nucleus determine its response to mechanical forces generated in cells. Because the nucleus is molecularly continuous with the cytoskeleton, methods are needed to probe its mechanical behavior in adherent cells. Here, we discuss the direct force probe (DFP) as a tool to apply force directly to the nucleus in a living adherent cell. We attach a narrow micropipette to the nuclear surface with suction. The micropipette is translated away from the nucleus, which causes the nucleus to deform and translate. When the restoring force is equal to the suction force, the nucleus detaches and elastically relaxes. Because the suction pressure is precisely known, the force on the nuclear surface is known. This method has revealed that nano-scale forces are sufficient to deform and translate the nucleus in adherent cells, and identified cytoskeletal elements that enable the nucleus to resist forces. The DFP can be used to dissect the contributions of cellular and nuclear components to nuclear mechanical properties in living cells.


In this essay we build on the work of the Massachusetts Governor's Council's on Capital Punishment and the ideas developed at a conference at Indiana University, using both as a spring-board for the formulation of an appropriate set of procedures for death-qualification in capital trials. In particular, we recommend the following approach to death-qualification and bifurcation in a capital trial: A capital defendant should be given the option of electing to have a separate jury impaneled for the sentencing phase of the trial, in the event that the guilt-phase jury convicts him of capital murder. The defendant should be allowed to exercise this option either prior to the guilt phase of the trial, or after conviction of capital murder. If the defendant makes a pretrial election to have a separate jury impaneled for sentencing, then the guilt-phase jury will not be death-qualified. If the defendant decides to defer the election until after conviction of capital murder, then the guilt-phase jury will be death-qualified. We argue in this essay that this approach meets both a state's interest in impaneling a jury willing to comply with its charge and the defendant's interest in having a jury as impartial as both practical and possible. While the procedures that we propose might require a greater expenditure of time and resources than currently-conducted capital trials, we believe such incremental increase is more than justified by the significant enhancement to fairness that such a system would provide. In fact, we argue that any state that takes seriously the goals of creating as fair a death penalty system as possible ought to include such a plan for true bifurcation and limited death-qualification.


The revised new iterative method for solving the ground state of Schrodinger equation is deduced. Based on Green functions defined by quadratures along a single trajectory this iterative method is applied to solve the ground state of the double-well potential. The result is compared to the one based on the original iterative method. The limitation of the asymptotic expansion is also discussed.


Facilitation (the positive effects of one species on another), in theory, can lead to positive spatial associations between species. Competition (the negative effects of one species on another) can lead to negative spatial associations. Therefore the magnitude and the direction of the spatial association between Quercus fusiformis and Juniperus ashei were measured in multiple savanna sites on the Edwards Plateau in central Texas. Stratified random sampling was used to determine the number of Juniperus ashei individuals in each of three size classes found in each of three types of habitat (under Quercus fusiformis canopy, under Juniperus ashei canopy, and in open grassy areas). This observed spatial distribution was compared with the distribution generated by a null model that assumed no interaction between J. ashei individuals and habitat type. J. ashei individuals were found in significantly higher than expected frequencies under woody canopies and in significantly lower than expected frequencies in the open grassland. The positive association with Quercus fusiformis and Juniperus ashei canopies was significant for all size classes of target J. ashei individuals, but the strength of the pattern decreased with size. Mechanisms other than facilitation could explain the spatial distribution of J. ashei on the Edwards Plateau (e.g. seed dispersal). This study suggests that if facilitation exists in this system, it probably occurs between woody canopy and J. ashei during the early stages of its life history.


Freezing of gait (FoG) is a disabling symptom characterized as a brief inability to step or by short steps, which occurs when initiating gait or while turning, affecting over half the population with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). Several non-competing hypotheses have been proposed to explain the pathophysiology and mechanism behind FoG. Yet, due to the complexity of FoG and the lack of a complete understanding of its mechanism, no clear consensus has been reached on the best treatment options. Moreover, most studies that aim to explore neural biomarkers of FoG have been limited to semi-static or imagined paradigms. One of the biggest unmet needs in the field is the identification of reliable biomarkers that can be construed from real walking scenarios to guide better treatments and validate medical and therapeutic interventions. Advances in neural electrophysiology exploration, including EEG and DBS, will allow for pathophysiology research on more real-to-life scenarios for better FoG biomarker identification and validation. The major aim of this review is to highlight the most up-to-date studies that explain the mechanisms underlying FoG through electrophysiology explorations. The latest methodological approaches used in the neurophysiological study of FoG are summarized, and potential future research directions are discussed.


Objectives: The aim of this study is to gain a rich understanding of early experiences with emerging non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) and non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) testing technologies. The study aims to identify issues of common interest and concern to both patients and professionals located in a wide variety of settings. Methods: This qualitative PhD study is based on data gathered through a total of forty-three in-depth (narrative) interviews with patients and professionals in the UK. Twenty-three experts with direct professional experience of NIPD or NIPT (including scientists, fetal medicine consultants, policy makers and genetic counsellors) were interviewed, along with ten patients with direct experience of NIPD or NIPT, and ten parents with more general experience of prenatal screening or diagnosis. Clinicians involved in both the NHS-based provision of NIPD and the private provision of NIPT participated in the study. The interviews yielded a rich and diverse dataset, and were analysed for crosscutting themes. Results: A number of core themes were identified as being of significance across the data set. These included: test accuracy; the boundary between NIPD and NIPT; the boundary between 'high risk' and 'low risk' populations; hopes around NIPT as a possible replacement technology; anxieties around the possible routinisation of selective termination; tensions between the aims of public health screening programmes and individualised care. Conclusions: The rapid development of NIPD and NIPT has very quickly given rise to a diverse and rich set of patient and professional experiences. The issues of interest and concern identified within patient and professional accounts of this new testing technology present a complex ethical, legal, political and social landscape. Knowledge of these early experiences with NIPD and NIPT may enable a better understanding of the advantages these tests may offer, as well as practical and ethical problems that are likely to arise in future, as both NIPD and NIPT become further embedded in specialist clinical practice and routine prenatal care.


A key advantage of object-based coding schemes is that the quality of each video object may be varied. In this paper we describe the problem associated with varying the temporal quality of multiple video objects, also referred to as the composition problem. We propose a solution to this problem that is based on changes in the shape boundaries over time. Finally, we discuss how this shape feature, or shape hint, can be used to vary the temporal resolution of multiple video objects. The use of the proposed shape hint may be considered within an encoding or transcoding application. This hint has also been adopted into the emerging MPEG-7 standard.


The aim of this paper is to show Alcmaeon of Croton's medical views as groundbreaking and exceptionally innovative; some of them, at the general level, are still upto- date. Particular attention was paid to issues related to the human nervous system. Alcmaeon was the first ancient scholar who recognized the human brain as the most important organ in the human body – connected with sensory organs; it was possible because he recognized primarily the construction of the optic nerve. Thus this philosopher initiated the approach to medicine called encephalocentrism. Alcmaeon regarded the brain as a place of intelligent mind, what in antiquity was not a frequent view. He lived in the 6th century BC, so the information about him is remnant. Therefore, reconstruction of his views and activities is extremely difficult. Certainly, this is one of the main reasons why he is not widely known today in the scientific world. But in spite of this, for the sake of his accomplishments, we can call Alcmaeon "the father of neuroscience".


In this paper we introduce an algorithm for 3D motion estimation in point clouds that is based on Chasles' kinematic theorem. The proposed algorithm estimates 3D motion parameters directly from the data by exploiting the geometry of rigid transformation using an evidence gathering technique in a Hough-voting-like approach. The algorithm provides an alternative to the feature description and matching pipelines commonly used by numerous 3D object recognition and registration algorithms, as it does not involve keypoint detection and feature descriptor computation and matching. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research to use kinematics theorems in an evidence gathering framework for motion estimation and surface matching without the use of any given correspondences. Moreover, we propose a method for voting for 3D motion parameters using a one-dimensional accumulator space, which enables voting for motion parameters more efficiently than other methods that use up to 7-dimensional accumulator spaces.


The cancer center of Naresuan University Hospital (NUH) had given the "Knowing the Chemotherapy" handbook to cancer patients. This prospective descriptive study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and satisfaction of the cancer patients and their relatives about chemotherapy after reading this handbook. The data, collected from the cancer patients and their relatives at Cancer Center of NUH from October 2015 to January 2016, were included general information, the 18 test questions and the satisfaction of the handbook. Statistical analysis using percentage and Fisher's exact test. Of the total 40 participants, 25 were women (62.5%). The median of age was 54.5 year-old. Thirty one participants (77.5%) had the test score ≥ 70%. The age, sex, education, occupation and mean monthly income had no effect on receiving the knowledge from the chemotherapy handbook (p = 1.00, 0.44, 0.46, 0.72 and 0.27 respectively). The most common misunderstanding test question was "Eating meat cause the growth of cancer cells" (65.0%). The most useful media about the information of chemotherapy was this handbook (80.0%). The overall satisfaction of the handbook was moderate level. In conclusion, the chemotherapy handbook is the appropriate media to give the useful information of chemotherapy and fulfill the patient requirement. The patients and their relatives can read this handbook to gain knowledge about cancer treatment by chemotherapy and performed self-care management properly.


Casino gaming has emerged in the United States in a variety of new locations as a source of economic development.  In 2010 commercial casino gambling expanded into a major United States city, when a casino opened in Philadelphia.  The city currently has one open casino and a second proposed casino, this, along with three other casinos in the metropolitan area, makes Philadelphia an important case study to examine the impacts of casino gaming in a major urban area in the United States.  Through interviews and media/policy analysis, the casinos interaction with the local community during the planning process, and since the one casino has opened are analyzed.  It is revealed that a variety of stakeholders were involved in the casino location process, and the community has been impacted by the casino in a variety of areas including economic effects, a community benefits agreement, crime, potential gambling addiction and gentrification.


In the present study the functional role of the mutR regulatory protein gene of Streptococcus pyogenes (emm12) was studied. The mutR gene was inactivated in the strains no. 97 and no. 152 by insertional mutagenesis. Inactivation of the mutR gene was found to affect the dynamic and characteristics of bacterial growth in liquid medium. Expression of secreted nucleases was significantly lower in the mutant strains compared to the wild-type strains. Two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass-spectrometry revealed differences in expression of number of the proteins in mutant strains compared to the wild-type strains. Inactivation of the mutR gene negatively affected capacity of S. pyogenes to adhere to human epithelial cells. Finally, the virulence properties of the no. 152[mutR] mutant strains were found to be 4,7-fold less compared to the strain no. 152, while the no. 97[mutR] mutant strain became avirulent compared to the strain no. 97 due to insertional inactivation of the mutR gene.


Rapid escalation of fuel prices, depletion of fossil fuel reserves and environmental concerns have compelled power system operators to incorporate the Renewable Energy (RE) resources for example solar in the energy mix to meet the demand. Although the renewable energy resources are valuable and cost effective, they are unpredictable in nature and are dependent on weather conditions. The market for solar energy has been expanding rapidly worldwide. Solar-Photovoltaic (PV) systems generally have considerable power variations, which include voltage fluctuations and frequency variations. The intermittent power generation of a solar farm can perturb the supply and demand balance of the whole power system. Therefore, mitigating the adverse effects on the grid from an intermittent PV source has become essential for increasing the penetration level of PV systems. In the power system operations planning, the economic load dispatch of thermal generating system is one of the most important problems. Recent global inclination towards the utilization of more and more renewable energy makes this problem important than ever. Efficient and reliable planning of power system with significant penetration of these resources brings challenges due to their fluctuating and uncertain characteristics. Energy storages are emerging as a predominant sector for renewable energy applications. Recently, Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) has become a promising solution to help PV integration, due to the flexible real power control of the batteries. This research aims at conducting the economic dispatch of thermal and PV system with battery storage. The sizing methodology is optimized using Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm to minimize the cost of investment and losses incurred by the system in form of peak load shaving. The proposed methodology is tested and validated on a standard IEEE 30 bus test system. Keywords —Battery energy storage system, Economic Dispatch, Photovoltaic, Particle swarm optimization, Renewable energy.


On a daily basis the communicative presence of the human body in contemporary Indian visual culture is understood and utilised without the support of textual commentary or explanation. For example, the movements and gestures of Kathakali and Bharatanatyam dance have embodied semiotic significance for their audiences whether the viewing context is classical theatre, where meanings are historically codified, or a Bollywood film, in which traditional content is emptied out to generate greater immediacy and appeal.
In this paper a British artist versed in Peircian semiotics (Dorsett) collaborates with a traditional Kathakali dancer from Kerala (Nair) to examine the role of attraction and appeal within the non-verbal repertoires of Indian dance movement, an undertaking that follows well-established thinking in performance theory (e.g. Turner 1986). However, the aim is not to add to this specific theoretical canon but to reappraise the 1960s/70s museological and exhibitionary frame in which Indian notions of sexualised divination and ritual became a 'culture of seduction' for arts audiences in the UK. This was achieved through the very opposite of embodied meaning, through the consumption of academic textual commentary enhanced by state-of-the-art exhibition and book design practices. In particular, this paper uses Hugh Shaw's catalogue (itself a highly desirable artefact) for Philip Rawson's Hayward Gallery exhibition Tantra (1971) to consider, firstly, the 'seductiveness' of Indian sculptures and paintings for the British arts and museum establishment at the time, and secondly, the present day cross-cultural status of Rawson's legacy as an early theorist of sensual culture, a field of research more familiar to us now through influential publications such as David Howes' Empire of the Senses (2005).