Aim: The objective of this study was to develop and validate a brief tool, the Dual Diagnosis Screening Instrument (DDSI), to screen psychiatric disorders in substance users in treatment and nontreatment-seeking samples. Methods: A total of 827 substance users (66.5% male, mean age 28.6 ± 9.9 years) recruited in treatment (in- and outpatient) and nontreatment (substance user volunteers in university research studies) settings were assessed by trained interviewers using the DDSI and the Psychiatric Research Interview for Substance and Mental Disorders (PRISM) as the criterion standard. Both instruments were administered blind to the results of the other. Disorders obtained with the DDSI were compared to lifetime diagnoses obtained with the PRISM. Sensitivity, specificity, negative, and positive predictive values were estimated. Also test-retest reliability of the DDSI was assessed. Results: The DDSI showed a high sensitivity (=80%) for identifying lifetime depression, mania, psychosis, panic, social phobia, and specific phobia disorders. Specificity was =82% for those diagnoses. Test-retest κ showed excellent agreement (range 81-95%). The mean duration of the DDSI administration was 16.8 ± 2.5 min. Conclusion: The DDSI is a valid and easy-to-administer screening tool to detect possible psychiatric comorbidity among substance users.


Copyright laws traditionally attempt to incentivize expression and minimize free rider problems through legal restrictions, at the expense of closing off access to cultural history. However, entrepreneurial changes to institutions and the creation of alternative governance structures can allow for spaces that facilitate expression without resorting to the copyright approach. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, stands as a highly visible example of such institutional entrepreneurship, leveraging copyright law against its intended purpose. This paper uses the Bloomington School's IAD framework to explain the success of Wikipedia's alternative model of managing a common resource of free encyclopedia articles, and suggests a roadmap for understanding the role of institutional entrepreneurship in crafting alternative governance structures to foster expression.


Biological-based (BbCAM) methods from complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) may interact with cancer treatments, reduce efficacy, or enhance adverse effects. Although CAM usage has been evaluated well in other cancer entities, data on melanoma patients are still missing. The aim of this study was to determine CAM usage of melanoma patients using a standardized questionnaire to identify potential interactions with established and new systemic melanoma therapies. This multicenter study was carried out in seven German skin cancer centers. During routine care contact, CAM usage of former and current melanoma treatment was assessed in melanoma patients. The probability of interaction was classified into four categories ranging from 'interaction unlikely' (I), 'possible' (II), 'likely' (III), or 'no data' (IV). The questionnaire was filled out by 1157 patients, of whom 1089 were eligible for evaluation. CAM usage was reported by 41% of melanoma patients, of whom 63.1% took BbCAM such as vitamins, trace elements, supplements, or phytotherapeuticals. Of 335 patients with former or current therapy, 28.1% used BbCAM. The melanoma treatment included interferon, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, BRAF-inhibitor, or other tyrosine kinase inhibitors and ipilimumab. On the basis of our model of likelihood of interaction, we found that 23.9% of those on cancer therapy and 85.1% of those also using BbCAM were at some risk of interactions. The main limitation of our study is that no reliable and comprehensive database on clinical relevant interactions with CAM in oncology exists. Most patients receiving a melanoma-specific treatment and using BbCAM methods are at risk for interactions, which raises concerns on the safety and treatment efficacy of these patients. To protect melanoma patients from potential harm by the combination of their cancer treatment and CAM usage, patients should systematically be encouraged to report their CAM use, while oncologists should be trained on evidence of CAM, and patient guidance for saver CAM use.


A series of experiments designed to study the separation of flow components from two large undisturbed cores under steady-state rainfall (downward) and return (upward) flows under near-saturated conditions is summarized. The experiments were conducted on soil columns collected from Lancaster University and the Slapton Wood catchment, Devon. The use of the relatively conservative tracers, potassium bromide, o-(trifluoromethy1)benzoic acid and 2,6difluorobenzoic acid and a combination of application rates made it possible to quantify the different sources of water contributing to the discharge hydrographs. There is significant retention of tracer within the cores, despite the application of several pore volumes of water. The use of steady flow conditions allowed the determination of dispersion coefficients, dispersivity and proportion of 'mobile' water content parameters of the advection-dispersion equation. It was found that there were significant differences between the dispersivities at different flow-rates under upward and downward flux conditions and that in the undisturbed cores studied here the apparent proportions of mobile pore water ranged between 0.33 and 1.0, with an apparently complex relationship to flux rate. Prediction of transport in undisturbed soil remains problematic and tracer experiments will continue to be needed to provide a fundamental understanding of the complex flow processes involved.


A wide range of techniques are available for deterring birds from coastal oil spills, including (but not limited to) pyrotechnics, aircraft, boats, flags, reflecting devices, and artificial sounds. Many of these deterrent devices have had little field testing to determine optimal deterrent strategies. The Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) developed a research and development (R&D) plan which has identified critical research which would need to be conducted to determine these optimal strategies. This program was initiated through the generation of a report which described the state-of-the-art of deterring birds from marine oil spills. Following this report, MSRC hosted a workshop consisting of deterrent experts and practitioners from the private and public sectors. This panel determined priority areas of marine oil spill bird deterrent R&D. A group consisting of research personnel from government and industry are currently involved in implementing a high-priority R&D project as identified by the deterrent workshop panel. The present paper describes these research efforts.


Devoted to the domestic Italian space, this book pays homage to 50 of the most beautiful houses in Italy, created by the best and most well-known Italian architects and designers. Far from the beautified and often cliched Tuscan and Umbrian country Italian homes, this books takes a look at real contemporary Italian style and desires since the early 1990s. Plans, blueprints, sketches and many photographs illustrate each of the 50 projects. The book is organised by architectural practice and by project and includes a full biography with contact details and web addresses.


This correspondence studies the problem of separating a signal of interest from co-channel interference for the situation when the number of co-channel users and their channels are unknown. We devise a novel approach to this problem based on a trained statistical mixture model. Numerical results illustrate that the new method can outperform conventional training-based multiuser detection.


The coupling efficiencies of beta-1 and beta-2-adrenergic receptors (ARs) in rat C6 glioma cells and the effect of changes in subtype density and ratio caused by dexamethasone (DEX) treatment were studied. Radioligand binding studies in membranes suggested that beta-2-ARs showed slightly larger GTP-induced decreases in agonist affinity than beta-1-ARs, which suggests more ternary complex formation with Gs. Treatment with DEX increased the proportion of beta-2-ARs from 20% to 60% without affecting GTP-induced decreases in agonist affinity. Coupling efficiency was determined directly by progressive inactivation of beta-ARs with the irreversible alkylating agent pindobind, which caused similar reductions in beta-1 and beta-2-AR binding sites. Studies on cyclic AMP accumulation showed that DEX-induced decreases in beta-1/beta-2 ratio reduced the receptor reserve for the beta-1-selective agonist norepinephrine but increased the maximal response to the beta-2-selective agonist zinterol without creating a receptor reserve. DEX treatment did not alter occupancy-response curves or maximal responses to the nonselective agonists isoproterenol and epinephrine. It was concluded that changing beta-2-AR density alters the maximal response to beta-2-AR activation; changing beta-1-AR density alters the apparent beta-1-AR reserve. Both subtypes contribute to the responses to nonselective agonists in a nonadditive manner. Beta-1- and beta-2-ARs appear to couple with different efficiencies (beta-1 > beta-2) to cyclic AMP accumulation in C6 glioma cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Most of the metal-catalyzed C–H activation/annulation reactions were carried out in organic solvents using expensive oxidants such as Cu(II) and Ag(I) salts. Here, we reported a new approach for a highly regioselective synthesis of isoquinolones from N-alkyl benzamides and alkynes using an Rh(III) catalyst and inexpensive oxygen as the sole oxidant in an aqueous medium. In the reaction, water gave the highest product yield among the solvents used. In addition, at the end of the reaction, the isoquinolone product directly precipitated out from the aqueous solution. The methodology can be applied to a gram scale synthesis. This Rh(III)-catalyzed reaction shows interesting meta selectivity with the meta substituted benzamide and shows various regioselectivities with different substituted alkynes. Moreover, the methodology can be applied to the preparation of biologically active compounds having the isoquinolone core.


While the literature on the technology acceptance model and its extensions have contributed significantly to our understanding of how individuals accept a technology, little is known about how groups accept technology. Since organizations are moving to collective structures such as groups that are provided with technologies for performing tasks, it is critical to understand how they accept and use technology so as to better guide organizations' investments and implementation decisions. Drawing on theories of group influence, and prior research on group communication media and conflict, the paper proposes an input-process-output (I-P-O) model for conceptualizing group technology acceptance. We also present some preliminary empirical results that appear to support key aspects of the model.


Several chaos encoding schemes codify the message in such a way that the mean value of the transmitted signal (carrier with the message) is different for bits ¿0¿ and ¿1¿. We present a nonlinear filtering method that is able to detect very small changes in the mean value of a signal and therefore recover this kind of messages if its amplitude is larger than the chaotic fluctuations in the mean over the length of a bit. We also introduce a new codification method in which the mean value of the transmitted signal, over the length of each bit, is preserved and we show how it is able to beat the decryption scheme.


An 1830s African-American slave narrative written in Arabic. Dafydd Morgan, the only American immigrant novel published in Welsh. The Native American epic, Walum Olum, in the Lenape language. Theodor Adorno's dream transcripts, in German. A short story about the politics of abortion in working-class Chinatown. "Lesbian Love," a surprisingly explicit chapter from an 1853 New Orleans novel. A haunting 1904 ballad, "The Revenge of the Forests," that is one of the first expressions of radical environmentalism in the United States. Largely ignored in the debates over canon and multiculturalism in America, indigenous American works written in languages other than English have over time disappeared from view. The first anthology of its kind, The Multilingual Anthology of American Literature brings together American writings in diverse languages from Arabic and Spanish to Swedish and Yiddish, among others. Presenting each work in its original language with facing page translation, the book provides an important complement to all other anthologies of American writing, and will serve to complicate our understanding of what exactly American literature is. American literature appears here as more than an offshoot of a single mother country, or of many mother countries, but rather as the interaction among diverse linguistic and cultural trajectories. Consider that Cotton Mather spoke half a dozen languages and wrote in both Spanish and Latin. Or that the first short story known to have been written by an African American (and reproduced here) was written in French. Not only a literature of immigration and assimilation, American multilingual literature participates in the larger literary tradition which too often marginalizes authors who complicate the fit of authorship, citizenship, and language.


Neural Cellular Automata (NCA) models have shown remarkable capacity for pattern formation and complex global behaviors stemming from local coordination. However, in the original implementation of NCA, cells are incapable of adjusting their own orientation, and it is the responsibility of the model designer to orient them externally. A recent isotropic variant of NCA (Growing Isotropic Neural Cellular Automata) makes the model orientation-independent - cells can no longer tell up from down, nor left from right - by removing its dependency on perceiving the gradient of spatial states in its neighborhood. In this work, we revisit NCA with a different approach: we make each cell responsible for its own orientation by allowing it to"turn"as determined by an adjustable internal state. The resulting Steerable NCA contains cells of varying orientation embedded in the same pattern. We observe how, while Isotropic NCA are orientation-agnostic, Steerable NCA have chirality: they have a predetermined left-right symmetry. We therefore show that we can train Steerable NCA in similar but simpler ways than their Isotropic variant by: (1) breaking symmetries using only two seeds, or (2) introducing a rotation-invariant training objective and relying on asynchronous cell updates to break the up-down symmetry of the system.


Early life determinants of age at menarche were investigated for female participants in the longitudinal Thousand Families Study based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Age at menarche was collected retrospectively from 276 participants at the age 50 follow-up in 1997. Birth weight, length of gestation, height, weight, duration of breast feeding, social class, periods of infection, and quality of housing conditions in childhood were collected prospectively. Ordinal logistic regression was used to test univariate and multivariable associations of fetal and childhood data with menarcheal age group membership. Separation into 3 menarcheal age groups was made with respect to distance in standard deviations from the sample mean: early (μ->1 SD), middle (μ± 1SD). Regression models were also used to test univariate and multivariable associations between fetal and childhood data and age at menarche as a continuous variable. Two main independent associations were observed: girls who experienced a shorter gestation and girls who were heavier at age 9 had earlier menarche. Birth weight adjusted for gestational age was found to have different relationships with age at menarche depending upon how heavy or light a girl was at age 9. The results of this study support the hypothesis that fetal conditions are associated with the timing of menarche and the hypothesis that greater childhood tissue growth is associated with earlier menarche. It is suggested that future work should focus on illuminating the mechanisms underlying these statistical relationships.


We present a new approach to reflectance estimation for dynamic scenes. Non-parametric image statistics are used to transfer reflectance properties from a static example set to a dynamic image sequence. The approach allows reflectance estimation for surface materials with inhomogeneous appearance, such as those which commonly occur with patterned or textured clothing. Material reflectance properties are initially estimated from static images of the subject under multiple directional illuminations using photometric stereo. The estimated reflectance together with the corresponding image under uniform ambient illumination form a prior set of reference material observations. Material reflectance properties are then estimated for video sequences of a moving person captured under uniform ambient illumination by matching the observed local image statistics to the reference observations. Results demonstrate that the transfer of reflectance properties enables estimation of the dynamic surface normals and subsequent relighting. This approach overcomes limitations of previous work on material transfer and relighting of dynamic scenes which was limited to surfaces with regions of homogeneous reflectance. We evaluate for relighting 3D model sequences reconstructed from multiple view video. Comparison to previous model relighting demonstrates improved reproduction of detailed texture and shape dynamics.


In designing planar mechanisms, individual moving links have to be arranged separately on parallel planes, which are called layers in the present paper, to avoid mutual interference during a cycle of motion, and, in addition, the mechanisms have to be constructed in the smallest space possible. In this paper about planar multilink mechanisms which are constructed with revolute pairs, a systematic synthesis of layer arrangement is discussed with consideration of the mutual interference of moving links. to determine the minimum number of layers required to construct crank mechanisms and profiles of links, relative loci of pairing points and positions of links in the mechanisms are analyzed. Moreover, conditions to avoid mutual interferences of moving links on the same layers are formulated, and a layer-arrangement system is obtained which determines the profiles and layer arrangements of links of planar multilink mechanisms.


However, methane emission inventories from the Amazon floodplain , the largest natural geographic source of CH 4 in the tropics, consistently underestimate the atmospheric burden of CH 4 41 determined via remote sensing and inversion modelling 4,5 pointing to a major gap in our 42 understanding of the contribution of these ecosystems to CH 4 emissions. Here we report CH 4 43 fluxes from the stems of 2357 individual Amazonian floodplain trees from 13 locations across the 44 central Amazon basin. We find that egress of soil gas through wetland trees is the dominant 45 source of regional CH 4 emissions. Amazon tree stem fluxes were up to 150-200 times larger than 46 emissions reported for temperate wet forests 6 and tropical peat swamp forests 7 representing the 47 largest non-ebullitive wetland fluxes observed. Tree emissions had an average  13 C-CH 4 value of area of the corresponding CH 4 emitting surface area and SD are estimated using bootstrapping methods; b Ecosystem contributions from young and mature tree stems were estimated using the measured stem CH 4 fluxes between 15-20 and 135-140 cm stem height above the soil/water surface at 30 cm stem height intervals and multiplied by the corresponding stem surface area. Contributions between 0-20 cm stem height were assumed to be the same as the 20-50 cm stem CH 4 flux and was included in the ecosystem contributions; c young tree leaf CH 4 fluxes are the average of four different branches per tree ( n = 260). No CH 4 emissions were detected from mature tree leaves ( n = 180).


Objective: Huntington's Disease is a progressive degenerative disorder having an expanded triplicate repeat in the gene IT-15 on chromosome 4. The interrelation between the trinucleotide repeat length and disease progression was studied. Methods: Five patients included in the study were evaluated by "Quantified staging of functional capacity for Huntington's Disease patients" and age of disease onsets were determined. Progression rate was calculated and interrelationship between age of disease onset and repeat length; progression rate and repeat length were studied. Results: We found a statistically significant negative correlation between age of disease onset and trinucleotide repeat length (pearson r=-0.9514 p<0.05). There was a statistically significant positive correlation between CAG repeat length and progression rate (pearson r=0.8809, p<0.05). Conclusion: Our study, conducted with a very limited number of patients, revealed the correlation between trinucleotide repeat length and disease progression. It like few similar studies in the literature, gave an impression of the important pathophysiological role of expanded CAG repeat during the entire course of the disease. Key Words: Huntington's Disease, progression rate, trinucleotide repeat, prognosis.


Test trenches excavated into muskeg near Fairbanks in 1969 exposed a polygonal network of active ice wedges. The wedges occur in peat that has accumulated since about 3500 yr BP and have grown episodically as the permafrost table fluctuated in response to fires, other local site conditions and perhaps regional climatic changes. Radiocarbon dates suggest one or two episodes of ice-wedge growth between about 3500 and 2000 yr BP as woody peat accumulated at the site. Subsequent wedge truncation evidently followed a fire that charred the peat. Younger peat exhibits facies changes between sedge-rich components that filled troughs over the ice wedges and woody bryophytic deposits that formed beyond the troughs. A final episode of wedge development took place within the past few hundred years. Pollen data from the site indicate that boreal forest was present throughout the past 6000 yr, but that it underwent a gradual transition from a predominantly deciduous to a spruce-dominated assemblage. This change may reflect either local site conditions or a more general climatic shift to cooler, moister summers in late Holocene time. The history of ice-wedge growth shows that wedges can form and grow to more than 1 m apparent width under mean annual temperatures that probably are close to those of the Fairbanks area today (-3.5?C) and under vegetation cover similar to that of the interior Alaskan boreal forest. The commonly held belief that ice wedges develop only below mean annual air temperatures of -6 to -80C in the zone of continuous permafrost is invalid.


We approach the complicated phenomena of gas–dust interactions in a cometary ionosphere, focusing in particular on the possibility of significant depletion in electron number density due to grain charging. Our one-dimensional ionospheric model, accounting for grain charging processes, is applied to the subsolar direction and the diamagnetic cavity of 67P/Churyuomov-Gerasimenko, the target comet for the ESA Rosetta mission, at perihelion (∼1.25–1.30 AU). We argue on the one hand that grains with radii >100 nm are unlikely to significantly affect the overall ionospheric particle balance within this environment, at least for cometocentric distances >10 km. On the other hand, if nanograins with radii in the 1–3 nm range are ejected to the coma at a level of ∼1% with respect to the mass of the sublimated gas, a significant electron depletion is expected up to cometocentric distances of several tens of kilometers. We relate these results to the recent Cassini discoveries of very pronounced electron depletion compared with the positive ion population in the plume of Enceladus, which has been attributed to nanograin charging.


It is widely known that some fields related to graphic applications require realistic and full detailed three-dimensional models. Technologies for this kind of applications exist. However, in some cases, laser scanner get complex models composed of million of points, making its computationally difficult. In these cases, it is desirable to obtain a reduced set of these samples to reconstruct the function's surface. An appropriate reduction approach with a non-significant loss of accuracy in the reconstructed function with a good balance of computational load is usually a non-trivial problem. In this article, a hierarchical clustering based method by the selection of center using the geometric distribution and curvature estimation of the samples in the 3D space is described.


The single-source shortest paths problem (SSSP) is one of the classic problems in algorithmic graph theory: given a positively weighted graph G with a source vertex s, find the shortest path from s to all other vertices in the graph.
Since 1959, all theoretical developments in SSSP for general directed and undirected graphs have been based on Dijkstra's algorithm, visiting the vertices in order of increasing distance from s. Thus, any implementation of Dijkstra's algorithm sorts the vertices according to their distances from s. However, we do not know how to sort in linear time.
 Here, a deterministic linear time and linear space algorithm is presented for the undirected single source shortest paths problem with positive integer weights. The algorithm avoids the sorting bottleneck by building a hierarchical bucketing structure, identifying vertex pairs that may be visited in any order.


Purpose

– Many projects involve an organisational change component. Project management (PM) and change management (CM) have the potential to jointly contribute to the delivery of organisational changes. However, there is a lack of clarity in the literature about the boundary and relationship between these disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution these disciplines make to a set of project critical success factors, to understand the ways that these disciplines can most effectively work together.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper analyses data collected through an online survey, examining project managers' and change managers' perception of each disciplines' contribution to critical success factors. The survey received 455 responses.

Findings

– This paper identifies the success factors that are most clearly influenced by PM and CM, and areas where practitioners of these disciplines hold significantly different perceptions of their contributions. The results have been used to rank and categorise success factors based on the influence of each discipline. This has been used to develop a risk-based questionnaire to guide the contribution of PM and CM to the mitigation of specific project risks.

Originality/value

– These findings will be of use to practitioners managing organisational change projects, or projects with a significant change component. The findings will be of assistance in determining the ways in which these disciplines should work together to mitigate risks associated with specific critical success factors.


Upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) terrestrial clastic rocks from North America and Europe contain compression-impression plant-fossil assemblages that represent the remains of plant communities that grew on floodplains, levees, and other clastic facies of fluvial and deltaic lowlands. Quantitative analysis of 66 plant-fossil assemblages spanning the entire late Carboniferous demonstrates that before the middle of the Westphalian D Stage the majority of plant-fossil assemblages are dominated by pteridosperms and sphenopsids. Lycopods and cordaites dominate only a few assemblages counted. Ferns do not dominate any assemblages. These findings contrast sharply with the dominance of lycopods reported by others from coal swamps of the same time interval. Above the middle of the Westphalian D, however, one-third of the compression-impression assemblages counted are dominated by ferns. The change in dominance pattern in compression-impression plant-fossil assemblages occurs half a stage earlier than the previously reported change from lycopod-dominated to fern-dominated assemblages at the Westphalian-Stephanian boundary in coal swamps. A trend toward dryer climate during Westphalian D apparently influenced plants growing on better-drained alluvial soils earlier than those growing on water-logged soils of contemporaneous coal swamps.


In this dissertation, I study the economics of the nonprofit sector. In particular, I focus on individuals' motives to contribute to the nonprofit sector either through charitable giving or employment within the sector.

In the first chapter, I ask: how do state lotteries designed to fund education impact overall funding available for education? I find that -- while state government net expenditures on education do not significantly increase -- charitable donations to education fall. This results in a decrease in funding available for education. The large degree of charitable crowd-out observed here (relative to other papers in the literature) seems to be driven by how aware donors are of the purported beneficiary of the lottery.

Evidence on whether nonprofit workers earn less than for-profit workers is mixed. In the second chapter, I attempt to reconcile mixed results by considering whether we should always expect to see wage gaps even when there are workers who are willing to work for less because they are motivated by the mission of the nonprofit. I argue that we should only expect wage gaps when labor demand of the nonprofit sector of an industry is low. When labor demand is high, there are not enough "motivated" workers to fulfill demand and so nonprofits must raise wages. I find empirical evidence consistent with these predictions. Penalties for working in a nonprofit are largest in areas where nonprofits require a small share of the labor force. In these same locations, the quality of work being done and worker job satisfaction are substantially higher than for-profits.

In the third chapter, Sera Linardi and I ask: how does visibility impact prosocial behavior? We propose that some individuals have "wallflower" preferences and prefer to avoid standing out in a negative way (giving much less than average) or a positive way (giving much more than average). Wallflowers, therefore, move towards what they expect the average individual would choose. As a result visibility may only increase giving when donors expect others' giving to be high. We conduct a laboratory experiment that supports this prediction. "Wallflower" behavior is particularly prominent amongst women.


The cities of Troy and Knossos are the stuff of legend. One, the city of Homer's "Iliad", of Paris, Hector and Helen; the other home to a king who built a labyrinth in which to hide his monstrous son. This is the story of two of the most heroic, and controversial, figures in archaeology: Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the remains of Troy, and Arthur Evans who unearthed the great city of King Minos. Ranking alongside Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, the discoveries at Troy and Knossos enabled a new understanding of Prehistoric Greece, the very dawn of civilisation.They also proved that what until then had only been myths and daydreams were actually real. The Cretans did indeed worship the cult of the bull. Achilles and Agamemnon really did live. Replete with drama and adventure, "The Bull of Minos" tells of the 3,000-year old civilisations that were brought back to life, of the extraordinary men who toiled in their dusty ruins and of the magic and mystery of life in a world of gods and warriors.


Contemporary Business 2006, is updated and even better than before! Containing the most important introductory business topics, this paperback text also includes the most current information available in any business text, and the best supplementary package in the business. You'll find this new paperback updated edition of Contemporary Business creates excitement about the world of business for your students as well as helping them improve their critical thinking skills. Opening new doors of possibility can be difficult - Contemporary Business, gives students the business language they need to feel confident in taking the first steps toward becoming successful business majors and successful business people. The Best Just Got Better!


This paper focuses on certain types of FACTS (Flexibile AC Transmission System) controllers, which can be used for improving the power quality at the point of connection with the power network. It focuses on types of controllers that are suitable for use in large buildings, rather than in transmission networks. The goal is to compare the features of the controllers in specific tasks, and to clarify which solution is best for a specific purpose. It is in some cases better and cheaper to use a combination of controllers than a single controller. The paper also presents the features of a shunt active harmonic compensator, which is a very modern power quality controller that can be used in many cases, or in combination with other controllers. The comparison was made using a matrix diagram that, resulted from mind mapsand other analysis tools. The paper should help engineers to choose the best solution for improving the power quality in a specific power network at distribution level.


Two Lobula Giant Movement Detectors (LGMDs) have been identified in the lobula region of the locust visual system: LGMD1 and LGMD2. LGMD1 had been successfully used in robot navigation to avoid impending collision. LGMD2 also responds to looming stimuli in depth, and shares most the same properties with LGMD1; however, LGMD2 has its specific collision selective responds when dealing with different visual stimulus. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel way to model LGMD2, in order to emulate its predicted bio-functions, moreover, to solve some defects of previous LGMD1 computational models. The mechanism of ON and OFF cells, as well as bio-inspired nonlinear functions, are introduced in our model, to achieve LGMD2's collision selectivity. Our model has been tested by a miniature mobile robot in real time. The results suggested this model has an ideal performance in both software and hardware for collision recognition.


Abstract In this study, we describe the previously unknown male of the spider Clitaetra thisbe Simon, 1903, from Sri Lanka and provide some data on its natural history. In light of this new information, we present results from the first cladistic analyses of Clitaetra species that include male morphological characters of C. thisbe and DNA sequence data for representatives of all nephilid genera and a broad sample of outgroups. The monophyly of Clitaetra and the basal position of C. thisbe within the genus are corroborated. Our results also support the hypothesis that Nephila is a sister group to the clade Herennia + Nephilengys, which challenges the current hypothesis for nephilid relationships that has been used extensively for the study of genitalic and web evolution in Nephilidae. We also discuss some of the previously proposed interpretations and primary homology statements for several male genitalic characters in nephilids.


weight kininogen on its multiprotein receptor allows for prekallikrein activation. On endothelial cells, factor XII activation is secondary to prekallikrein activation and amplifies it. The immediate consequence of plasma prekallikrein activation is the cleavage of high molecular weight kininogen (HK) with liberation of bradykinin. Cleaved high molecular weight kininogen is antiangiogenic. Bradykinin stimulates tPA liberation and nitric oxide formation. In addition, formed plasma kallikrein promotes single-chain urokinase activation and subsequent plasminogen activation. Kininogens and their breakdown products also are antithrombins. The angiotensin converting enzyme breakdown product of bradykinin prevents canine coronary thrombosis. The author presents a new hypothesis for physiologic assembly and activation of the plasma kallikrein/kinin system and discusses its influence on vascular biology. Curr Opin Hematol 2000, 7:261–265 © 2000 Lippincott Williams &


Values can be instrumentalized individually, but they are social in origin. They derive from the fact that individuals enter into social relationships and need the community in order to ensure that such relationships are consolidated and respected. Values exist provided that they are produced, and the process of producing them is social in nature. It is people who generate values, values are not given to them. Value creation is a social process in which certain values generate others and simultaneously multiply (reinforce) the initial, existential ones that underlie the entire process. (original abstract)


This paper opens a window on the local state in eastern India. It studies the ways in which government officers in five districts of Bihar and West Bengal re-shaped one of India's major poverty alleviation programmes, the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS). District and Block-level officials in Bihar converted a participatory programme of employment generation into a scheme for the construction of durable assets. Many poorer men and women obtained no work under the EAS. Outside Midnapore District, West Bengal, members of the rural poor were unaware of their right to demand work from the state. The acts of translation that we document were largely inspired by a fear of corruption on the part of junior officials. District and Block-level officials in Bihar worried that labour-intensive schemes would increase opportunities for rent-seeking and simple looting. That principals sought to constrain the actions of agents in this way suggests a weakness in the model of rent-seeking behaviour favoured by some economists. That the EAS was re-worked by well-educated, English-speaking government officials--and not by their subordinates--also suggests the need for refinement of a body of work on the 'vernacular' nature of the local state. No sharp distinction between elite and vernacular lifeworlds is evident in the field area.


The Coronavirus, also known as the COVID-19 virus, has emerged in Wuhan China since late November 2019. Since that time, it has been spreading at large-scale until today all around the world. It is currently recognized as the world's most viral and severe epidemic spread in the last twenty years, as compared to Ebola 2014, MERS 2012, and SARS 2003. Despite being still in the middle of the outbreak, there is an urgent need to understand the impact of COVID-19. The objective is to clarify how it was spread so fast in a short time worldwide in unprecedented fashion. This paper represents a first initiative to achieve this goal, and it provides a comprehensive analytical study about the Coronavirus. The contribution of this paper consists in providing descriptive and predictive models that give insights into COVID-19 impact through the analysis of extensive data updated daily for the outbreak in all countries. We aim at answering several open questions: How does COVID-19 spread around the world? What is its impact in terms of confirmed and death cases at the continent, region, and country levels? How does its severity compare with other epidemic outbreaks, including Ebola 2014, MERS 2012, and SARS 2003? Is there a correlation between the number of confirmed cases and death cases? We present a comprehensive analytics visualization to address the questions mentioned above. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic analytical papers that pave the way towards a better understanding of COVID-19. The analytical dashboards and collected data of this study are available online [1].


Abstract Balla K., Rakszegi M., Li Z., Bekes F., Bencze S., Veisz O. (2011): Quality of winter wheat in relation to heat and drought shock after anthesis . Czech J. Food Sci., 29 : 117–128. Raw material quality, which is influenced not only by the protein content, insoluble protein polymers, and glutenin-to-gliadin ratio but also by the starch granule size, is very important for the quality of bakery products. This study in-vestigated the effect of high temperature and drought (during grain-filling) on the quality and components yield of five winter wheat varieties. Drought and drought + heat were found to have a much greater influence on the yield and quality than heat stress alone. Averaged over the varieties, the yield losses were 57% after drought, 76% after drought + heat, and only 31% after heat stresses. The reductions in the unextractable polymeric protein fraction and glutenin-to-gliadin ratio indicated a poorer grain yield quality, despite the higher protein content. Quality deterioration was observed after drought or drought + heat, while high temperatures alone resulted in no change or in a better ratio of protein components. A significant negative correlation was observed between starch granule size and relative protein content after drought, demonstrating that this parameter contributes, together with protein, to the baking quality of the flour.


As one component of its mission to reduce trade barriers and encourage the liberalization of international commerce, the World Trade Organization provides states with a forum in which they can raise and resolve complaints about partners' unfair trading practices. This mechanism streamlines the process of identifying non-compliant behavior, and provides real incentives for the removal of such policies. By furnishing a form of dispute resolution, the institution should be both trade-inducing and peace-enhancing for member states. However, this very mechanism also has the potential to aggravate existing dispute for two reasons. First, it removes the opportunity for states to use economic policies as instruments of structural linkage in resolving disputes. Second, it deprives its members of powerful economic tools that could be used in lieu of militarized responses. Using the implementation of the WTO Dispute Settlement mechanism, as well as the subsequent expiration of Article 13 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (the so-called 'peace clause'), we examine whether the opportunity to resolve trade disputes through the organization affects the likelihood that member states engage in militarized conflict with one another. We find that membership in a trade institution facilitates peaceful interaction, but that judicialization erases these benefits. We conclude that institution building requires caution and attention to the possibility of unintended consequences.


This paper investigates the effects of investment subsidies on the accumulation decisions of a sample of Italian manufacturing firms. We use survey information on the subjective evaluation of the investment activity that the recipient firm would have undertaken, had it not been financed. We find that the effectiveness of subsidies to stimulate investment is limited. Without subsidies, three quarters of the financed firms would have carried out the same amount of investment at the same date; the remaining share of firms would have mostly carried out the same amount of investment in a future date.


The results of empirical studies on the 1980 Turkish economic reform programme frequently suggest that openness has a positive impact on growth in Turkey. However, the results of empirical literature on the relationship between openness and growth have always been under criticism for using openness variables, which are not objective measures of openness, involve measurement errors and do not capture all dimensions of openness. To overcome these criticisms, in this article, we introduce a composite openness proxy obtained using the principle component methodology that captures all dimensions of openness and provide an objective and more reliable measure of openness for Turkey.


Many IT outsourcing arrangements include the purchase of the client's IT assets by the vendor. Asset transfer benefits the client who can recapture some value through the sale and may even negotiate a lower price because the vendor may be more efficient in using these assets. On the other hand, asset transfer creates lock-in for the client and limits future contractual options. To study these tradeoffs, we develop a game-theoretic framework wherein asset transfer creates a one-sided switching cost to the client, and vendors have private information both on their intrinsic capabilities, either high or low, and on the level of quality-improving effort they exert. The quality of IT services depends on the vendor's capability and quality-improving effort. In a two-period model, we show that when quality is verifiable, the client uses asset transfer as a device to design efficient screening contracts, so that a high capability vendor is selected. On the other hand, when quality is non-verifiable, the client mitigates contractual inefficiency by voluntarily locking into a long-term relationship with the vendor and may transfer assets at a lower than efficient level, even to a high-capability vendor. Our results show that asset transfer can play a strategic role in outsourcing relationships, not just an operational one.


Modern temperate alley-cropping systems combine rows of trees with rows of crops (agroforestry), which allows for diverse interspecific interactions such as the complementary and competitive use of resources. The complementary use of resources between trees and crops is considered the main advantage of these multifunctional land use systems over cropland monocultures. Moreover, several studies demonstrated that agroforestry systems are environmentally more sustainable than cropland monocultures. Over two decades of research on soil microorganisms in temperate alley-cropping systems are characterized by a variety of different methodological approaches and study designs to investigate the impact of agroforestry on the soil microbiome. Here, we review the available literature on the abundance, diversity, and functionality of soil microorganisms in temperate alley-cropping systems. Further, we identify current knowledge gaps as well as important experimental factors to consider in future studies. Overall, we found that temperate alley-cropping systems increase soil microbial abundance, diversity, and functions as compared to cropland monocultures, which is expected to contribute to enhanced biological soil fertility in these systems.


My title is deliberately provocative, since I want to challenge both the chronology and the philosophical interpretation generally accepted for the dialogues called Socratic. I am not primarily interested in questions of chronology, or even in Plato's intellectual 'development'. But the chronological issues are clear-cut, and it will be convenient to deal with them first. My aim in doing so will be to get at more interesting questions concerning philosophical content and literary design. Interpreters should perhaps think more often about such questions as: Why did Plato write dialogues after all? Why does a little dialogue like the Laches have such a stellar cast, with so many major figures from Athenian history? Why does Plato re-create the schoolboy atmosphere of the Charmides and Lysis? Why does he compose such a large and vivid fencing-match between Socrates and the long-dead Protagoras, in a conversation supposed to have taken place before Plato himself was born? The view which I wish to challenge tends to assume that Plato's motivation in such dialogues was primarily historical: to preserve and defend the memory of Socrates by representing him as faithfully as possible. From this it would seem to follow that the philosophic content of these dialogues must be Socrates' own philosophy, which Plato has piously preserved somewhat in the way that Arrian has preserved the teachings of Epictetus. The counterpart assumption tends to be that when Plato ceases to write as an historian he writes like any other philosopher: using Socrates as a mouthpiece to express whatever philosophical doctrines Plato himself holds at the time of writing.


This paper explores the contributions made by the church in the
 past towards welfare provision in South Africa, and current challenges faced by the
 church in acting as a welfare provider after 15 years of democracy. The church is
 wellplaced to affect societal transformation and has played a significant historical
 role as a welfare agent in South Africa, as evidenced by the establishment of soft
 infrastructure during colonialism and in the advocacy and the formation of social
 capital that took place during the apartheid era. In a post-apartheid era, many
 churches continue to wrestle with issues such as: reconciliation and redistribution
 in an unequal society; bringing holism to social welfare; redefining their prophetic
 role; lack of capacity in delivery; and relief mode delivery. This paper, therefore,
 also proposes paths of renewal for the future, and draws from the WGRIP case study
 of the town of Paarl, Western Cape, in particular.


: A 95-year-old woman presented with a progressive purple blue asymptomatic tumorous plaque on her forehead, extending as a macula to the upper face, possibly arisen after a fall. Histology showed atypical epitheloid cells with vascular-lumen formation. The patient was diagnosed with cutaneous angiosarcoma. She was treated palliatively with radiotherapy.


An outbreak in Wuhan, China in late 2019 of a highly infectious new coronary pneumonia (COVID-19) led to the imposition of countrywide confinement measures from January to March 2020. This is a longitudinal study on changes in the mental health status of a college population before and after their COVID-19 confinement for the first two weeks, focusing on states of psychological distress, depression, anxiety and affectivity. The influence of possible stressors on their mental health were investigated, including inadequate supplies and fears of infection. Five hundred and fifty-five undergraduate students were recruited from Hebei Agricultural University in Baoding, China. The participants completed two online surveys—on anxiety and depression, and on positive and negative affect. One survey was conducted before the confinement and the other was conducted 15–17 days after the start of the confinement. Increases in negative affect and symptoms of anxiety and depression (p-values < 0.001) were observed after 2 weeks of confinement. Inadequate supplies of hand sanitizers, a higher year of study, and higher scores on anxiety and depression were common predictors of increased negative affect, anxiety, and depression across the confinement period. The results suggest that healthcare policymakers should carefully consider the appropriate confinement duration, and ensure adequate supplies of basic infection-control materials.


The anterior loop is defined as where the mental neurovascular bundle crosses anterior to the mental foramen then doubles back to exit the mental foramen. It cannot be seen clinically but can be detected in 11-60% of panoramic radiographs. As this anatomical structure is important in determining the placement position of endosseous implants in the mandibular premolar region, a pilot study was undertaken to determine its visibility on dental panoramic radiographs in dentate subjects of various age groups. One or more anterior loops were visible in 39 (40.2%) radiographs encompassing 66 sites (34.4%). Interestingly, anterior loops were most commonly observed bilaterally, followed by on the right side of the mandible only. An anterior loop on the left side only was observed in just 1 radiograph. Visibility of anterior loops reduced as the age of subjects increased. More than half (58.1%) of subjects aged 20-29 years exhibited at least one anterior loop; this gradually reduced to only 15 percent of subjects aged 50 and older. There was no association between visualization of the anterior loop and subject gender.


Literary texts complicate our understanding of medieval emotions; they not only represent characters experiencing emotion and reaction emotionally to the behaviour of others within the text, but also evoke and play upon emotion in the audiences which heard these texts performed or read. The presentation and depiction of emotion in the single most prominent and influential story matter of the Middle Ages, the Arthurian legend, is the subject of this volume. Covering texts written in English, French, Dutch, German, Latin and Norwegian, the essays presented here explore notions of embodiment, the affective quality of the construction of mind, and the intermediary role of the voice as both an embodied and consciously articulating emotion.

Frank Brandsma teaches Comparative Literature (Middle Ages) at Utrecht University; Carolyne Larrington is a Fellow in medieval English at St John's College, Oxford; Corinne Saunders is Professor of Medieval Literature in the Department of English Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at the University of Durham.

Contributors: Anne Baden-Daintree, Frank Brandsma, Helen Cooper, Anatole Pierre Fuksas, Jane Gilbert, Carolyne Larrington, Andrew Lynch, Raluca Radulescu, Sif Rikhardsdottir, Corinne Saunders.


The financial crisis has had a devastating impact on financial markets in the US and other western countries. Particularly hard hit were investors who purchased mortgaged backed securities, since as the value of the asset declined below the amount of debt, investors took large losses. Countries that follow Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF) have largely been spared this loss due to the types of bonds that are allowed. This research summarises the problem in the Western World and then compares it to a similar problem faced by Dubai World who had a (standstill) when they were unable to make a required payment. It appears that holders of Dubai World sukuk will be spared losses because of Islamic banking laws. We examine both the short term and long term effects.


Perpetual conservation easements (CEs) are popular for restricting development and land use, but their fixed terms create challenges for adaptation to climate change. The increasing pace of environmental and social change demands adaptive conservation instruments. To examine the adaptive potential of CEs, we surveyed 269 CEs and interviewed 73 conservation organization employees. Although only 2% of CEs mentioned climate change, the majority of employees were concerned about climate change impacts. CEs share the fixed‐boundary limits typical of protected areas with additional adaptation constraints due to permanent terms on private lands. CEs often have multiple, potentially conflicting purposes that protect against termination but complicate decisions about principled, conservation‐oriented adaptation. Monitoring is critical for shaping adaptive responses, but only 35% of CEs allowed organizations to conduct ecological monitoring. In addition, CEs provided few requirements or incentives for active stewardship of private lands. We found four primary options for changing land use restrictions, each with advantages and risks: CE amendment, management plan revisions, approval of changes through discretionary consent, and updating laws or policies codified in the CE. Conservation organizations, funders, and the Internal Revenue Service should promote processes for principled adaptation in CE terms, provide more active stewardship of CE lands, and consider alternatives to the CE tool.


Centrifugal elutriation was used to separate 9L rat brain tumour cells into fractions enriched in the G1, S, or G2/M phases of the cell cycle. Cells enriched in early G1, phase were recultured, grown in synchrony, and harvested periodically for analysis of their DNA distribution and polyamine content. Mathematical analysis of the DNA distributions indicated that excellent synchrony was obtained with low dissersion throughout the cell cycle. Polyamine accumulation began at the time of seeding, and intracellular levels of putrescine, spermidine, and spermine increased continuously during the cell cycle. In cells in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle, putrescine and spermidine levels were twice as high as in cells in the G1, phase. DNA distribution and polyamine levels were also analysed in cells taken directly from the various elutriation fractions enriched in G1, S, or G2/M. Because we did not obtain pure S or G2/M populations by elutriation or by harvesting synchronized cells, a mathematical procedure—which assumed that the measured polyamine levels for any population were linearly related to the fraction of cells in the G1, S, and G2/M phases times the polyamine levels in these phases and that polyamine levels did not vary within these phases—was used to estimate 'true' phase‐specific polyamine levels (levels to be expected if perfect synchrony were achieved). Estimated 'true' phase‐specific polyamine levels calculated from the data obtained from cells either sorted by elutriation or obtained from synchronously growing cultures were very similar.


Background: Vasectomy is a widespread contraceptive method in men. In recent years, the number of men who perform vasectomy reversal is increasing. Vasectomy has complications, probably leading to vasectomy reversal failure. It is assumed that oxidative stress is the main cause of these complications. The aim of this study was to investigate the indices of oxidative stress serum after vasectomy. Methods: In this experimental study, 42 male rats were divided in 6 groups of seven each: bilateral vasectomy (15, 45 and 90 days) and sham (15, 45 and 90 days) groups. Serum PAB (Prooxidant-Antioxidant Balance) and MDA (Malondialdehyde) as a product of lipid peroxidation were measured 15, 45 and 90 days after intervention. Comparisons between groups were made by Repeated Measure test. Results: Our result showed that serum MDA increase after 15 days was not significant (2.95 ± 0.12) in comparison to related sham group, but after 45 (3.6 ± 0.12) and 90 (3.9 ± 0.31) days the increase, compared to related sham groups 45 (2.28 ± 0.28) and 90 (2.29 ± 0.25)days, and also 15 days vasectomy group (2.95 ± 0.12) were significant (p< 0.001), and there was no significant increase in serum PAB at any times (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Bilateral vasectomy increased serum levels of MDA. It is supposed that increase in MDA causes adverse effects and unsuccessful reversal vasectomy. By prescribing antioxidants, these effects can be decreased.


The class of shuffle ideals is a fundamental sub-family of regular languages. The shuffle ideal generated by a string set U is the collection of all strings containing some string u ∈ U as a (not necessarily contiguous) subsequence. In spite of its apparent simplicity, the problem of learning a shuffle ideal from given data is known to be computationally intractable. In this paper, we study the PAC learn-ability of shuffle ideals and present positive results on this learning problem under element-wise independent and identical distributions and Markovian distributions in the statistical query model. A constrained generalization to learning shuffle ideals under product distributions is also provided. In the empirical direction, we propose a heuristic algorithm for learning shuffle ideals from given labeled strings under general unrestricted distributions. Experiments demonstrate the advantage for both efficiency and accuracy of our algorithm.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed hypertension and their relationship to cognitive function in older adults in India.

DESIGN
Longitudinal Aging Study in India-Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia (LASI-DAD), an in-depth national study of late-life cognition and dementia.

SETTING
Geriatric hospitals and respondents' homes across 14 states in India.

PARTICIPANTS
N = 2,874 individuals aged 60 years and older from LASI-DAD.

MEASUREMENTS
Hypertension was identified by self-report of physician diagnosis or measured blood pressure (BP) of 140/90 mmHg or higher. Undiagnosed hypertension was defined as hypertensive BP measurements, but no physician diagnosis. Controlled hypertension was defined as BP lower than 140/90 mmHg among those with a physician diagnosis. Total hypertension included both diagnosed and undiagnosed hypertension. A summary cognition score, derived from the sum of 18 cognitive tests administered in the LASI-DAD (range = 0-360) was used to assess cognitive function.

RESULTS
Total hypertension prevalence was 63.2% (41.5% diagnosed and 21.6% undiagnosed). Among those with hypertension, 34.5% were undiagnosed, 34.2% were diagnosed but uncontrolled, and 31.3% were diagnosed and controlled. Neither diagnosed nor undiagnosed hypertension was related to cognitive function in fully adjusted models. Older age, female sex, less education, being widowed, rural residence, residing in the north or central regions, being in a scheduled caste or tribe, low consumption, being underweight, and history of stroke were all independently associated with worse cognitive test performance.

CONCLUSION
Two-thirds of older Indian adults had hypertension, with the majority being undiagnosed or diagnosed but not adequately controlled. Hypertension was not independently associated with cognitive function, whereas sociodemographic factors were independently related to cognitive function. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:S29-S35, 2020.


Abstract Standards and guidelines as defined by various international agencies are employed by the researchers to evaluate an acceptable quality of air in indoor as well as outdoor environments. The main objective of this paper is to establish a comprehensive review of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) guidelines and other standard values that are implemented currently. For this purpose, the present study summarizes the main standards and guidelines related to key indoor air pollutants and levels of thermal comfort developed by different agencies around the world. These agencies and organizations include the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air– Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department (HKEPD), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia. Common indoor air pollutants that are found to frequently affect indoor populations are, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), formaldehyde (HCHO), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), and particulate matter in sizes 2.5 and PM 10 , respectively). Other factors that affect IAQ are the moisture content of the air (i.e., relative humidity), the temperature of the indoor air, and the air speed or movement. Sick building syndrome (SBS) describes the various interactions between these major pollutants and factors of IAQ that cause adverse health effects on humans. In addition, this paper reviews various stipulated guidelines that are implemented by the relevant regulatory institutions and agencies to prevent SBS.


The diagnosis of liver disease depends primarily on an adequate history and a physical examination. These should indicate the correct diagnosis in two thirds of the cases; the addition of liverfunction tests assists in the differentiation of hepatic disease. However, there remains a group of patients in whom a precise diagnosis is not made by means of history, physical examination, or so-called liver-function tests. In these, morphologic examination of hepatic tissue may confirm a clinical diagnosis or change a clinical impression, although liver biopsy can also be disappointing as a diagnostic test. Percutaneous hepatic biopsy has gained wide acceptance since its reintroduction by Iverson and Roholm in 1939. 1 With the careful selection of patients and the critical use of the procedure, it is simple, safe, and reasonably accurate. When liver biopsy is indicated and no contraindications exist, the nature of the procedure should be carefully explained to the patient,


This study uses probit model to identify determinants of food insecurity among rural households in developing countries. The model used in this study, that allowed us to estimate coefficient and marginal effect for each independent variable vis-a-vis dependent variable, guarantees large applications among food security actors and policymakers to find out factors that significantly explain food insecurity and the level of their predictability. The ability of the model used to correctly classify food insecure and food secure households is good for the overall model and for households headed by males while it is fair for households headed by females. The empirical results show that rural households are more exposed to food insecurity than urban households. Gender disaggregation by the head of households shows that among food insecure rural households, the majority of them are headed by females. It also shows that the mean and median of predicted probability of becoming food insecure among rural households headed by males and females is 0.21 and 0.28 for mean and 0.15 and 0.24 for median respectively. This indicates that households headed by females are more likely exposed to food insecurity than those headed by males. However, as the majority of rural households in developing countries depend on agriculture, this study found that it is worthwhile for developing countries to adopt new agricultural technologies to urgently increase productivity and to implement and facilitate programs supporting rural households pathways to increase households' livelihood capacities.


This study attempts to answer two key questions: what will be the likely impact of the EU's Everything But Arms (EBA) proposal, and, what would be the impact if the United States also were to implement a similar proposal? Using the GTAP model, the preliminary results in this paper show if only the EU's EBA proposal were implemented, then welfare in the least developed countries (LDCs) would increase by $2.5 billion (0.53 percent of their GDP), exports would grow by 3 percent, and GDP would grow by 2.3 percent. If the United States and the EU both implemented similar programs, then LDC welfare would increase by $3.1 billion (0.66 percent of GDP), exports would increase by 3.7 percent and total GDP growth by 2.9 percent. Another version of this scenario assumes that LDCs lack the supply capacity to exploit the new trade opportunities. In this case, LDC welfare increases by $0.9 billion (0.2 percent of GDP), exports grow by 4.1 percent, and GDP grows at 2.3 percent. The impact of this last scenario still may be overstated, given that trade preferences are not fully accounted for in the GTAP tariff database. Overall, the results suggest that improving market access for the LDCs could help raise per capita incomes above trend projections, but the gains are modest.


Symptoms of ethanol withdrawal include heightened responses to sensory stimuli, as well as tremors and convulsions. We tested the hypothesis that repeated episodes of ethanol intake and withdrawal exacerbate the symptoms of alcohol‐induced peripheral neuropathy. In contrast to the hyperalgesia produced when an alcohol (6.5%)‐containing diet was fed continuously to male rats which took 4 weeks to develop ( Dina et al., 2000 ), feeding alcohol (6.5%) in repeated cycles of 4 days of alcohol followed by 3 days without alcohol resulted in a withdrawal‐induced hyperalgesia that began at the end of one weekly cycle and reached a maximum during the fourth cycle. For ethanol withdrawal to produce hyperalgesia, ethanol consumption needed to be terminated for a period of 2 days. Paradoxically, as the amount of alcohol consumed decreased, the hyperalgesia induced by withdrawal developed more rapidly, being maximal between 1.4 and 1.6% ethanol. These results suggest that continued exposure to ethanol also has a neuroprotective effect. Withdrawal‐induced hyperalgesia, similar to the hyperalgesia induced by continuous, chronic alcohol intake, was inhibited reversibly by intrathecal administration of an antisense oligodeoxynucleotide to protein kinase C (PKC)ε.


In a Dutch project the double façade became an integral part of the ventilation concepts aa well as the heating system by trying to optimize the heat gain within the cavity during spring and autumn. The study shows how variable facade parameters influence the energy flows coming through the facade, in order to optimize the indoor environment for the comfort of the individual occupant. How can the facade make optimal use of the free incoming energy flows to maximize the comfort level of the individual building occupant at minimal energy use? The type of façade described as a second skin façade is characterised by a single glass layer on the outside and an isolated façade layer on the inside. The application of the single glass layer as a second skin around the insulated layer results in an air cavity between these two layers of around 0.9 m. The property that distinguishes a second skin façade from other DSF is that it relies on natural ventilation of the cavity, in comparison to other facades which use mechanical systems to induce the airflow. The advantage of merely using natural ventilation in the façade cavity is the lower energy consumption. However, it also results in some unresolved issues which require further attention. The researched was focussed the behaviour of the highly complex shaped second skin facade of a Dutch office building, and its thermal comfort impact on the building user. During 3 weeks different measurements were done to determine the main characteristics of the glass and the cavity of the facade. A key difference between a second skin facade, as well as other climate facades, and more traditional opaque facades is its dynamic behaviour. DSF have several adjustable properties, such as the shading device and ventilation mode, and because various physical processes take place in the air cavity, these facades can show very dynamic behaviour. In case of a second skin facade this dynamic behaviour is especially of interest since its cavity airflow merely relies on temperature differences and wind effects to induce the ventilation in the cavity, resulting in very limited control and highly erratic behaviour. The complex form of the facade in combination with the large atrium and exhaust only ventilation of the offices in the case study led to a problematic thermal indoor environment. Please provide a maximum of five keywords which reflect the content of the paper


Data mining is gaining societal momentum due to the ever increasing availability of large amounts of human data, easily collected by a variety of sensing technologies. Data mining comes with unprecedented opportunities and risks: a deeper understanding of human behavior and how our society works is darkened by a greater chance of privacy intrusion and unfair discrimination based on the extracted patterns and profiles. Although methods independently addressing privacy or discrimination in data mining have been proposed in the literature, in this context we argue that privacy and discrimination risks should be tackled together, and we present a methodology for doing so while publishing frequent pattern mining results. We describe a combined pattern sanitization framework that yields both privacy and discrimination-protected patterns, while introducing reasonable (controlled) pattern distortion.


This paper introduces the principle and characteristic of extrusion tapping of internal thread, presents the simplified mechanical model of extrusion tapping firstly. Then generalizes the key technology of extrusion tapping and their influencing law on tapping torque and thread forming quality, such as extrusion tap type, lead hole diameter, tapping speed and friction. Finally, numerical analysis on the key technology of extrusion tapping are conducted based on DEFORM-3D, the results show that the effect of lead hole diameter and friction on tapping torque are obvious, the effect of extrusion tap type and tapping speed on tapping torque are next and this effect degree is related to the stress-strain relation of workpiece material under different strain-rate closely. These researches will contribute to the right selection of workpiece material, extrusion tap type, lead hole diameter, tapping speed and lubrication of extrusion tapping of internal thread in practical manufacture.


The most prominent feedback models for the best expert problem are the full information and bandit models. In this work we consider a simple feedback model that generalizes both, where on every round, in addition to a bandit feedback, the adversary provides a lower bound on the loss of each expert. Such lower bounds may be obtained in various scenarios, for instance, in stock trading or in assessing errors of certain measurement devices. For this model we prove optimal regret bounds (up to logarithmic factors) for modified versions of Exp3, generalizing algorithms and bounds both for the bandit and the full-information settings. Our second-order unified regret analysis simulates a two-step loss update and highlights three Hessian or Hessian-like expressions, which map to the full-information regret, bandit regret, and a hybrid of both. Our results intersect with those for bandits with graph-structured feedback, in that both settings can accommodate feedback from an arbitrary subset of experts on each round. However, our model also accommodates partial feedback at the single-expert level, by allowing non-trivial lower bounds on each loss.


Investors who have the same information and interpret it differently are said to have divergent (as distinct from homogeneous) expectations. Financial economists generally frown on the divergent expectations assumption, even though it is critically important in describing reality. The idea of divergent expectations paves the way to understanding price and quantity discovery as major functions of a marketplace, and goes to the heart of important questions: What drives trading, and why does market structure matter? Many issues concerning market structure and market structure regulation should be analyzed in a divergent or heterogeneous expectations context, which has implications for market participants and public policy. We benefit from paying more attention to how asset managers behave as well as the exchange FIFO protocol for trading. We identify trading costs for several categories of market participants. The trading costs on the BAX are much less than the minimum contract tick value and are similar to the costs estimated for Eurodollar futures on the CME; however, transaction costs on SXF are much higher than the contract's minimum tick value and exceed those estimated for the CME S&P 500 index futures contracts. Transaction costs and measures of trading activity do not appear to be correlated.


Sexual intercourse between a person and certain close relatives will, in some circumstances, constitute the crime of incest in Scots law (The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 1976, s 2A, as inserted by the Incest and Related Offences (Scotland) Act 1986); a purported marriage between a person and certain other close relatives will have no effect and will be void (The Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977, s 2, Sched 1, as amended by the Marriage (Prohibited Degrees of Relationship) Act 1986). This article aims to examine the rules of law contained in these two provisions and, in particular, to analyse the justification for these rules. It is not to be questioned that all rules of law demand justification, and it is submitted that if a statutory rule has no justification it demands repeal. This article will argue that there is no justification for criminalising incest, and no justification for prohibiting marriage between parties within certain degrees of relationship.


In elastic plastic solids, approaching the sub micron scale, critical experiments indicated significant differences in the mechanical response. Thus, mainly in small volume behavior a length scale issue is introduced with implications on the basic understanding of deformation and fracture processes. The current study is centered on the mechanical response of silicon particles in the range of 20-50 nm on sapphire substrate. Monotonic and cyclic mechanical tests have been performed by contact mechanics methodology at ambient temperature. Mechanical information and visualization assisted by scanning probe microscope-based nano indentation alluded to a model founded on dislocation dynamic effects. This facilitated developments regarding the length scale subject in the light of fatigue concepts and structural integrity aspects.


Loudspeaker-based sound systems, capable of a convincing reproduction of different audio streams to listeners in the same acoustic enclosure, are a convenient alternative to headphones. Such systems aim to generate "sound zones" in which target sound programmes are to be reproduced with minimum interference from any alternative programmes. This can be achieved with appropriate filtering of the source (loudspeaker) signals, so that the target sound's energy is directed to the chosen zone while being attenuated elsewhere. The existing methods are unable to produce the required sound energy ratio (acoustic contrast) between the zones with a small number of sources when strong room reflections are present. Optimization of parameters is therefore required for systems with practical limitations to improve their performance in reflective acoustic environments. One important parameter is positioning of sources with respect to the zones and room boundaries.

The first contribution of this thesis is a comparison of the key sound zoning methods implemented on compact and distributed geometrical source arrangements. The study presents previously unpublished detailed evaluation and ranking of such arrangements for systems with a limited number of sources in a reflective acoustic environment similar to a domestic room.

Motivated by the requirement to investigate the relationship between source positioning and performance in detail, the central contribution of this thesis is a study on optimizing source arrangements when strong individual room reflections occur. Small sound zone systems are studied analytically and numerically to reveal relationships between the geometry of source arrays and performance in terms of acoustic contrast and array effort (related to system efficiency). Three novel source position optimization techniques are proposed to increase the contrast, and geometrical means of reducing the effort are determined. Contrary to previously published case studies, this work presents a systematic examination of the key problem of first order reflections and proposes general optimization techniques, thus forming an important contribution.

The remaining contribution considers evaluation and comparison of the proposed techniques with two alternative approaches to sound zone generation under reflective conditions: acoustic contrast control (ACC) combined with anechoic source optimization and sound power minimization (SPM). The study provides a ranking of the examined approaches which could serve as a guideline for method selection for rooms with strong individual reflections.


Construction and operation of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) has significantly altered the downstream hydrological regime along the Yangtze River, which has in turn affected the environment, biodiversity and morphological configuration, and human development. The ecological and environmental systems of the middle and lower Yangtze River have been affected adversely, with the ecosystems of Poyang Lake and its deltas being among the most damaged. Besides posing a potential threat to the survival of migrant birds and aquatic species, operation of the TGD has also affected the human population, particularly with respect to water and food security. Though the above mentioned effects have been studied in previous papers, a comprehensive discussion has never been conducted. This paper provides the first ever summary of the impacts of the TGD on the downstream reaches of the Yangtze River. The costs and benefits identified provide a constructive reference that can be used in decision-making for sustainable development of water resources in other nations, especially those in the developing world.


Summary: Photographs can serve as valuable memory aids but can also contribute to memory inaccuracies. The present studies examine whether photographs can make people claim they performed an action that they did not in fact perform. Participants performed and imagined performing various actions (e.g. break the pencil, open the envelope) and later viewed photographs of actions in their completed states or read the names of the actions without an accompanying photograph. Results showed that participants were more likely to falsely claim to have performed actions that they did not actually perform after having seen a photograph of the completed action. When items were not imagined at all, such photograph-induced memory errors increased with the number of presentations of the photographs. Actions falsely claimed as performed were rated with high confidence. These findings suggest that photographs can mislead people as to what they did or did not do. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract Since the traditional computer vision ranging algorithm is imperfect in pertinence and precision, night time monocular vision pedestrian ranging method is proposed for vehicular infrared night vision goggles. Firstly, the method calibrated the internal and external parameters of infrared night-vision goggles, then, it corrected distortion of collected Vehicular Infrared Night Vision Image, and finally it ranged objective pedestrians by using night time monocular vision pedestrian ranging algorithm. The experimental results show that this method has the characteristics of pertinence, high precision and good real-time, and has good practicability.


MapReduce is a widely used parallel programming model and computing platform. With MapReduce, it is very easy to develop scalable parallel programs to process data-intensive applications on clusters of commodity machines. However, it does not directly support heterogeneous related data sets processing, which is common in operations like spatial joins. This paper presents SJMR (Spatial Join with MapReduce), a novel parallel algorithm to relieve the problem. The strategies include strip-based plane sweeping algorithm, tile-based spatial partitioning function and duplication avoidance technology. We evalauted the performance of SJMR algorithm in various situations with the real world data sets. It demonstrates the applicability of computing-intensive spatial applications with MapReduce on small scale clusters.


Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disorder of flexible joints with unknown etiology, which affects 1% of the world's population. The aim of this 2010 study was to investigate the association between the level of education, tonsillectomy and appendectomy in the patients' history with RA. The study was carried out in Hamedan City, in the West of Iran. Patients and Methods: As a patient-control study, information from 128 patients and 130 controls, matched for age and gender, was collected by questionnaires and physical exams with the consent of both patients and controls, followed by an SPSS statistical analysis (Pearson's Chi-Square test). Results: In patient and control groups, there were 116 and 117 females, respectively, and the rest were males. Statistical analysis showed that there is no significant association between level of education or tonsillectomy with RA (p>0.05), whereas appendectomy was significantly associated inversely with the risk of RA (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Considering previous global investigations on this topic with different results and the results of our study, it seems that more studies are needed to determine the definitive association between level of education, tonsillectomy and appendectomy with the risk of RA


We developed a video-assisted gliding test to evaluate the gliding force and the flexion angle with unrestricted joint motion. Tendon adhesion was induced in a chicken model of flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) injury at the annular pulley region of the long toe. The chicken feet were harvested immediately after injury, and 2 weeks and 6 weeks after injury. During the gliding test, the injured FDP was pulled for 15 mm then returned to its initial position. The test was recorded using a video camera and registered to the gliding test mechanical data. The maximum flexion angle and gliding resistance were calculated. The maximum flexion angle was significantly decreased from 78 (SD 10) in controls to 42 (SD 22) in tendons with injury, while gliding resistance was significantly increased in week 2 (0.06, SD 0.05) and week 6 (0.07, SD 0.01) after injury.


This paper describes the physical implementation of an all-optical implementation security architecture for optical code division multiple access networks based on lattice cryptography. Our design is mainly based on the use of loop-based optical delay lines and fiber brag grating. The encryption process is achieved by delaying a pulse in the optical delay line according to the structure of the codewords. The number of loops is defined by the position of the pulse in codeword. We demonstrate that our implementation is less complex and more flexible than classical approachs such as fixed length optical delay lines. In addition, a performance evaluation using eye diagrams shows that our architecture is more robust against eavesdropping security attacks.


In this paper, we present two high-frequency modeling methods of induction motors for frequency- and time-domain simulation. The first, called ldquoasymptotical method,rdquo consists of deriving the motor model parameters from observation of the variations of the motor impedance with the frequency. The second, called ldquoanalytical method,rdquo consists of deriving the motor model parameters from mathematical resolution of the electrical circuit equations. All parameters of the proposed models are obtained by differential and common-mode impedance measurements. The high-frequency model parameters are measured by using an impedance bridge. We validated the models in both the frequency and time domains. The methods can be used to obtain a high-frequency equivalent circuit of an ac motor.


Titmuss's Social Division of Welfare (SDW) thesis is a vitally important but much neglected element of social policy analysis. This article seeks to explore the SDW, with a particular focus on fiscal welfare. Fiscal welfare has been described as forming a hidden welfare state, and while taxation is one of the main ways in which governments affect the lives of citizens, studies of welfare pay remarkably little attention to its impact. Fiscal welfare is examined by using, as an exemplar, local taxation in England, a subject that itself is neglected within social policy. Local taxation in England is of interest because it illustrates the impact of a system of taxation on different groups of citizens, and how this can operate to the benefit of rich over poor citizens. This is because the current system is highly regressive, meaning that those on low and middle incomes spend proportionately more of their income paying the tax than do those on high incomes. What is of further interest is how within the debate about reform of local taxation, concern with regressivity becomes obscured and ceases to be the focus of attention. We are thus provided with an example of how fiscal welfare remains a hidden issue. The article concludes by arguing that social policy analysis needs to move beyond the narrow confines of social welfare and develop a broader understanding of welfare, based on the SDW.


Objective: to evaluate the renal function of patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy. Methods: documentary, analytical and cross-sectional study with 150 Human Immunodeficiency Virus positive patients, using antiretroviral therapy, who had under gone exams of serum creatinine and abnormal urine elements and sediments, the glomerular filtration rate was calculated by the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation and renal dysfunction was stratified. Results: 11.3% of the participants presented a glomerular filtration rate of less than 90 ml/min/1.73 m². Of these, 8.0% had renal dysfunction stage 2, and 3.3%, in stage 3. The variables, older age and prolonged exposure to antiretroviral therapy were statistically significant for altering renal function. Conclusion: estimates of glomerular filtration rate by means of the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation proved to be an effective measure of early detection of renal function impairment in people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in the use of antiretroviral therapy.


Abstract In this paper, we use N -body integrations to study the effect that planetary embryos spread between ∼0.5 and 4 AU would have on primordial asteroids. The most promising model for the formation of the terrestrial planets assumes the presence of such embryos at the time of formation of Jupiter. At the end of their runaway growth phase, the embryos are on quasi-circular orbits, with masses comparable to that of the Moon or Mars. Due to gravitational interactions among them, and with the growing Jupiter, their orbits begin to cross each other, and they collide, forming bigger bodies. A general outcome of this model is that a few planets form in a stable configuration in the terrestrial planet region, while the asteroid belt is cleared of embryos. Due to combined gravitational perturbations from Jupiter and the embryos, the primordial asteroids are dynamically excited. Most of the asteroids are ejected from the system in a very short time, the dynamical lifetime being on the order of 1 My. A few asteroids (less than 1%) survive, mostly in the region 2.8–3.3 AU, and their eccentricity and inclination distribution qualitatively resembles the observed one. The surviving asteroids have undergone changes in semimajor axis of several tenths of an AU, which could explain the observed radial mixing of asteroid taxonomic types. When the distribution of massive embryos is truncated at 3 AU, we obtain too many asteroids in the outer part of the belt, especially too many Hildas. This suggests that the formation of Jupiter did not prohibit the formation of large embryos in the outer belt and Jupiter did not accrete them while it was still growing.


Aerial images of neighborhoods in South Africa show the clear legacy of apartheid, a former policy of political and economic discrimination against non-European groups, with completely segregated neighborhoods of townships next to gated wealthy areas. This paper introduces the first publicly available dataset to study the evolution of spatial apartheid, using 6, 768 high resolution satellite images of 9 provinces in South Africa, 550 of which are labeled. Our dataset was created using polygons demarcating land use, geographically labelled coordinates of buildings in South Africa, and high resolution satellite imagery covering the country from 2006-2017. We describe our iterative process to create this dataset over two years, which includes pixel-wise labels for 4 classes of neighborhoods: wealthy areas, non wealthy areas, nonresidential neighborhoods and background (land without buildings). While datasets 7 times smaller than ours have cost over $1M to annotate, our dataset was created with highly constrained resources. We finally show examples of applications examining the evolution of neighborhoods in South Africa using our dataset.


The thermoacoustic prime mover in an annular resonator is analyzed as a linear feedback control system. Using the techniques of control system analysis, a closed‐form solution for the acoustic gain of a constriction with linear temperature gradient in an annular resonator is developed. For a large enough gradient in the constriction, the acoustic gain of the system could become infinite, at which time the system goes into unstable positive feedback creating a thermoacoustic prime mover. An analysis of an existing annular resonator system is made and a comparison to more standard thermoacoustic numerical analysis is presented. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research and the American Society for Engineering Education.]


During the past decade the view of Parkinson's disease (PD) as a motor disorder has changed significantly and currently it is recognized as a multisystem process with diverse non-motor signs (NMS). In addition to been extremely common, these NMS play a major role in undermining functionality and quality of life. On the other hand, NMS are under recognized by physicians and neglected by patients. Here, we review the most common NMS in PD, including cognitive, psychiatric, sleep, metabolic, and sensory disturbances, discuss the current knowledge from biological, epidemiological, clinical, and prognostic standpoints, highlighting the need for early recognition and management.


Since Haiti's occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1821, Dominican-Haitian relations have been characterized by tension and, often times, hatred. Because the first Black republic ruled over its neighbor, with which it shares an island, Blackness has been associated with negativity. In addition, the Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, who ruled for nearly 20 years, furthered negative relations by ordering the onslaught of nearly 30,000 Haitians at the Dominican Republic-Haiti border and by promoting racist attitudes towards Haitians. Today, as in the past, Dominican society places a large emphasis on skin color. Those of lighter skin complexions are perceived as a symbol of beauty and capability, while darker individuals are perceived as less attractive and incapable. The majority of Black individuals who visit and live in the Dominican Republic are associated with being Haitian, thereby treated poorly. Skin complexion is a determinant of how people are received socially as well as their economic and career opportunities. Many darker people face various degrees of social rejection and fewer opportunities. From a young age, Dominican norms of colorism are introduced and the cycle of prejudices continues. Employing the Social Learning Theory, this paper analyzes the historical roots as well as the perpetual negative attitudes and behavior towards Black individuals in the Dominican Republic. Expert interviews and data from books, articles and Internet sources collected through document analysis are used to explore the theory and hypothesis. This paper hypothesizes that if social agents such as family, religion and the media continue to influence Dominicans from a young age, particularly regarding racism and colorism, then the cycle of prejudices will continue. Utilizing qualitative methodology to analyze this social situation, this paper strongly highlights the idea that socialization has much to do with the continuation of colorism in Dominican society.


Abstract Analysis of first arrivals of P waves from 113 earthquakes in the Dead Sea region and the calculation of a tomographic model indicates anomalous distribution of seismic velocities in the crust and the upper mantle. The seismic tomography model was applied to the lower and intermediate crust and the uppermost mantle there, at depths greater than the detection limits of seismic reflection surveys. At these depths the inversion shows two deep layers, at depths of 10–22 km and 22–32 km. The deeper layer shows average seismic velocity of 7.7 km s−1, and the shallower one 6.5 km s−1. The model suggests therefore that the Moho under the central Dead Sea is found at depth of 22 km, and the seismic velocity in the upper lithospheric mantle is anomalously low. The velocity of the layer overlying the Moho suggests a modelled layer of composite mineralogy, but high velocity anomalies were encountered in the 10–22 km layer under the boundary faults of the Dead Sea Rift, and a low velocity anomaly under the central Dead Sea is plausible. The probable interpretation of these anomalies is that the mantle under the central Dead Sea is shallow and anomalously hot, and that the lower and intermediate crust under the axial zone of the central and northern Dead Sea is also anomalously hot. Furthermore, it seems probable that magmatic diapirs ascend along the boundary faults of the rift into the intermediate crust. Structural similarity of the upper mantle and the lower crust between the Dead Sea and the northern Red Sea suggests an analogous tectonic regime for these two regions.


Recent two-photon photo-luminescence experiments give accurate data for the ground and first excited excitonic energies at different nanotube radii. In this paper we compare the analytic approximations proved in [CDR], with a standard variational approach. We show an excellent agreement at sufficiently small radii.