[abridged] Radiation pressure on dust grains may be an important mechanism in driving winds in a wide variety of astrophysical systems. However, the efficiency of the coupling between the radiation field and the dusty gas is poorly understood in environments characterized by high optical depths. We present a series of idealized numerical experiments, performed with the radiation-hydrodynamic code ORION, in which we study the dynamics of such winds and quantify their properties. We find that, after wind acceleration begins, radiation Rayleigh-Taylor instability forces the gas into a configuration that reduces the rate of momentum transfer from the radiation field to the gas by a factor ~ 10 - 100 compared to an estimate based on the optical depth at the base of the atmosphere; instead, the rate of momentum transfer from a driving radiation field of luminosity L to the gas is roughly L/c multiplied by one plus half the optical depth evaluated using the photospheric temperature, which is far smaller than the optical depth one would obtain using the interior temperature. When we apply our results to conditions appropriate to ULIRGs and star clusters, we find that the asymptotic wind momentum flux from such objects should not significantly exceed that carried by the direct radiation field, L/c. This result constrains the expected mass loss rates from systems that exceed the Eddington limit to be of order the so-called "single-scattering" limit, and not significantly higher. We present an approximate fitting formula for the rate of momentum transfer from radiation to dusty gas through which it passes, which is suitable for implementation in sub-grid models of galaxy formation. Finally, we provide a first map of the column density distribution of gas in a radiatively-driven wind as a function of velocity, and velocity dispersion.


With the advent of the theranostics era in biomedical research, gene therapy is poised to offer more, provided that more efficient delivery vehicles are discovered and developed. Chitosan is a biomatrix that is abundant, biocompatible, biodegradable, versatile, inexpensive and safe. These features have paved the way for its use in gene therapy, mainly for delivery of therapeutic plasmids and more recently for siRNA. Recent studies show that chitosan per se exhibits anticancer properties both in vitro and in animal models, most probably through the p21/Cip and p27/Kip pathways. This review looks at the in vivo studies using chitosan technology towards cancer gene therapy, drawing some support from non-cancer studies. The future of this promising technology lies in the evolution of new ideas for enhanced nucleic acid drug pharmacokinetics and, consequently, pharmacodynamics for cancer patients.


Standard Multi-Armed Bandit (MAB) problems assume that the arms are independent. However, in many application scenarios, the information obtained by playing an arm provides information about the remainder of the arms. Hence, in such applications, this informativeness can and should be exploited to enable faster convergence to the optimal solution. In this paper, we introduce and formalize the Global MAB (GMAB), in which arms are globally informative through a global parameter, i.e., choosing an arm reveals information about all the arms. We propose a greedy policy for the GMAB which always selects the arm with the highest estimated expected reward, and prove that it achieves bounded parameter-dependent regret. Hence, this policy selects suboptimal arms only finitely many times, and after a finite number of initial time steps, the optimal arm is selected in all of the remaining time steps with probability one. In addition, we also study how the informativeness of the arms about each other's rewards affects the speed of learning. Specifically, we prove that the parameter-free (worst-case) regret is sublinear in time, and decreases with the informativeness of the arms. We also prove a sublinear in time Bayesian risk bound for the GMAB which reduces to the well-known Bayesian risk bound for linearly parameterized bandits when the arms are fully informative. GMABs have applications ranging from drug and treatment discovery to dynamic pricing.


This MA thesis deals with animated songs and their use in early foreign language teaching. In the theoretical part I have described child development, first and second language acquisition, multimedia, foreign language teaching and the use of songs in the classroom. As the literature on animated songs has not yet been developed, I have turned to theory on multimedia, music and art to formulate a set of criteria for easier choice of animated songs for use in class. In the empirical part I have chosen some high quality, didactically apropriate animated songs. Content, sound, music, text, design, animation, multimedia learning theories, art theory and didactics were taken into account. The final part of the paper shows the results of a questionnaire that was forwarded to Slovenian teachers who teach children aged 3–11 to see to what extent they know and use animated songs. Nowadays acces to songs is no longer a problem so it is important for teachers to know how to evaluate multimedia materials. There are both favorable opinions and cautions regarding technology use in childhood, so good judgement is needed. The choice and use of animated songs in the young learner classroom should be didactically justified.


In FRTL-5 cells, we and others have shown that TSH and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) stimulate DNA synthesis synergistically. The present study was undertaken to determine whether interaction between TSH and IGF-I also affects protein synthesis in this cell line, and if so by what mechanism. Quiescent cells were treated with TSH and/or IGF-I and [3H]valine incorporation into the acid-insoluble fraction was measured as a parameter of protein synthesis. Similar to their effects on cell proliferation, TSH or IGF-I alone induced protein synthesis only slightly, but treatment with a combination of TSH and IGF-I (or insulin with about a 100-fold higher concentration than IGF-I) greatly increased protein synthesis. The presence of IGF-I potentiated a TSH-concentration-dependent increase in protein synthesis and in DNA synthesis. In addition, we observed this potentiation when the cells were treated with other cAMP-generating agents and cAMP analogues instead of TSH. We have shown that priming with TSH potentiated DNA synthesis induced by IGF-I, whereas pretreatment with IGF-I enhanced protein synthesis induced by TSH. This observation suggested that protein synthesis and DNA synthesis were potentiated through different mechanisms. From an analysis of CAMP production, it appears that the potentiation of protein synthesis may be explained by an IGF-I-dependent increase in cAMP production induced by TSH at least in part. On the other hand, IGF-I and TSH stimulated (aaminoisobutyric acid (AIB) uptake synergistically, but RNA synthesis induced by IGF-I was depressed by TSH. From these results, we concluded that in FRTL-5 cells, IGF-I potentiated protein synthesis induced by TSH by means of complex mechanisms and the interaction between IGF-I and cAMPdependent pathways may also have a physiological meaning in regulating protein anabolism.


Purpose: To determine whether endovascular embolization of pseudoaneurysms complicating pancreatitis with microcoils was associated with better therapeutic outcome. Materials and Method: The prospective clinical study was carried out in the Department of Interventional Radiology for a period of 2 years extending from May 2010 upto August 2012 on 16 male patients in the age group of about 30 - 55 years, with each one of them having vascular complications as a sequel to pancreatitis, after obtaining well informed written consent from each one of them. Results: The outcome of the procedure was judged by the following parameters—a) Restoration of the blood pressure of the patient; b) Cessation of the hemetemesis and malena; c) Reduction in abdominal pain and discomfort and d) Overall improvement in the general condition of the patient. Each of the patients had been on follow up for at least 6 months, except 2 of them, with no new complaints in any of them. The procedure related mortality was none. Conclusion: Vascular complications of pancreatitis need immediate and accurate diagnosis and prompt treatment. Micro coil embolisation, is a minimally invasive technique which helps to exclude the pseudoaneurysm from the circulation and thus reduces the scope for massive life threatening internal hemorrhage, and is a better alternative to surgery.


This paper attempts to resolve the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle represented by the contradiction between the casual observation that capital mobility has reached a high level and the empirical evidence indicating the contrary by showing high saving ¬investment correlations. Three lines of enquiry are followed, the first of which is to rethink the Feldstein-Horioka methodology from econometric and theoretical perspectives. The second line of enquiry is to evaluate the appropriateness of the saving-investment correlation as a measurement criterion, and it is argued that international parity conditions are better criteria. The third line of enquiry is to investigate the mobility of different kinds of capital. It is concluded that international parity conditions, viewed and estimated properly, provide strong evidence for capital mobility, and hence the puzzle is resolved.


The weather conditions of the agricultural years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 according to the rainwater regime were characterized as wet and very humid years. The administration of mineral fertilizers on the calcareous (carbonatic) chernozem showed the dependence of the dry substance accumulation on the winter wheat ontogenesis with the weather conditions. In the beginning of the straw stretch development phase of the winter wheat the most intense process of dry matter accumulation was determined. The dry matter accumulation was 3-4 times higher than in other plant development phases or 65% on average. The development phase of winter wheat with maximum organic mass accumulation was flowering, both for the control and fertilized variants. In the years with insufficient precipitation on the variant with dose rate N60-120P3.5K60 were occurred the delay of the maximum phase of organic substance synthesis until the milk-wax phase of wheat plants. The experimental data showed that the optimal variant with dry accumulation matter in the wheat plants was the dose N60P3.5K60. In the control variant, the dry matter content of the plant in the twinning phase consisted of 6.5 g on the 100 plants and increased by 73 times in the flowering phase with maximum nutrient consumption.


Delaware rose to preeminence in the incorporation market after a key point of inflection for corporate law. Around the turn of the 20th century, "laissez faire" statutes signaled a shift from state regulation of corporations to private ordering and markets at a time when the decline of ultra vires, quo waranto, and regulation of foreign corporations first made it possible for a state to attract substantial incorporation business from its neighbors. The regulatory impulse of the earlier corporations statutes, however, did not disappear. It simply moved to federal law — in antitrust, securities, or labor — setting up a strong federalism dimension for the "who makes corporate law" debate. In many ways this federalism discussion is still framed by the key question of corporate law from the 1960s and 1970s: Is Delaware's dominance explained by a "race to the bottom" skewing corporate law in favor of management interests who influence state lawmaking at the expense of shareholders (and suggesting a greater role for federal law) or by a "race to the top" with state law incorporating rules that reflect preferences made through markets? The key legal concepts of federalism appearing in this debate date from the New Deal and focus on whether the federal government will preempt state corporate law, usually by adding regulation to a space that state law has left to private ordering. Corporate law federalism is in need of an update. An "on-off" view of allocating law-making power between state or federal government has given way in other fields to a more nuanced view of interactive federalism. This chapter, part of a book, "Can Delaware Be Dethroned? Evaluating Delaware's Dominance of Corporate Law", presents the richer and more nuanced space of 21st century corporate law federalism that has some points in common with federalism discussion in other subject areas and some that reflect the particular history of the development of corporate law. The last section suggests how this federalism dimension influences the race between the states in a way that essentially has locked Delaware's dominance in place.


Mullite powder was prepared through reaction of aluminum sulfate and silica in molten sodium sulfate media. The phase composition and microstructure of mullite powder were investigated. The results showed that high purity mullite is prepared by this method. The mullite powder exhibits needle-like whisker crystal with 50~100 nm in diameter and 3~8 #m in length. It is found that by this method mullite starts to form at 900oC, the quartz phase is disappeared about 1000oC, and mullite begin to decompose when the temperature is over 1100oC. Thus, the reasonable synthesizing temperature is about 1000oC. This synthetic method is characterized by process simplicity, the temperature of mullite formation is lower than 200-400oC compared with other conventional methods.


To use nanobiosensors as diagnostic devices, they should be evaluated and approved as medical devices before marketing. This study was performed to establish appropriate evaluation guidelines that provide how to verify the safety and effectiveness of a novel nanobiosensor as a medical device. We prepared an enzymeless glucose sensor with nanoporous platinum electrode to evaluate performance and stability by comparing it with a commercial enzyme-based glucose sensor. Through these evaluation studies, we developed guidelines, and the guidelines consist of five parts: evaluation of analytical performance, clinical performance, safety, stability, and design and quality control systems. Analytical and clinical performance of nanobiosensors should be evaluated by accuracy, sensitivity, reproducibility, cut-off value, and other specific performance characteristics. Also, electric, mechanical, and biological safety should be evaluated. With the performance and safety, validation of storing conditions and shelf life should be established with evaluation and characterization of nano-structured parts for stability evaluation. Then, design and quality control systems should be evaluated in the aspect of quality requirements, material, manufacturing process, and final product. These guidelines will be helpful for facilitating the commercialization of the safe, effective, and novel diagnostic nanobiosensors into market place.


The Right Chemistry is a project under development for the Internet delivery of Digital Courseware and Learning Objects that cover the objectives of grades 11 and 12 Canadian Chemistry curriculum. It is made up of interactive multimedia, 2D and 3D high-end animation and Discovery Applets. The goal is to offer a complete curriculum in chemistry in the form of a fully interactive, user-friendly, visually appealing and learner-centered courseware that allows students to work at their own pace and level. The product which include student logon and progresstracking options, offers over 1200 Learning Objects, making up to 15 000 pages of multimedia activities developed in XML and ChemML.


The stories of the shadowy networks and wealthy people who bankrolled and sustained Las Vegas's continuous reinvention are well documented in works of scholarship, journalism, and popular culture. Yet no one has studied closely and over a long period of time the dynamics of the workforce-the casino and hotel workers and their relations with the companies they work for and occasionally strike against. James P. Kraft here explores the rise and changing fortunes of organized and unorganized labor as Las Vegas evolved from a small, somewhat seedy desert oasis into the glitzy tourist destination that it is today. Drawing on scores of interviews, personal and published accounts, and public records, Kraft brings to life the largely behind-the-scenes battles over control of Sin City workplaces between 1960 and 1985. He examines successful and failed organizing drives, struggles over pay and equal rights, and worker grievances and arbitration to show how the resort industry's evolution affected hotel and casino workers. From changes in the political and economic climate to large-scale strikes, backroom negotiations, and individual worker-supervisor confrontations, Kraft explains how Vegas's overwhelmingly service-oriented economy works-and doesn't work-for the people and companies who cater to the city's pleasure-seeking visitors. American historians and anyone interested in the history of labor or Las Vegas will find this account highly original, insightful, and even-handed.


Abstract. The Waiwera aquifer hosts a structurally complex
geothermal groundwater system, where a localized thermal anomaly feeds the
thermal reservoir. The temperature anomaly is formed by the mixing of waters
from three different sources: fresh cold groundwater, cold seawater and warm
geothermal water. The stratified reservoir rock has been tilted, folded,
faulted, and fractured by tectonic movement, providing the pathways for the
groundwater. Characterization of such systems is challenging, due to the
resulting complex hydraulic and thermal conditions which cannot be
represented by a continuous porous matrix. By using discrete fracture network models (DFNs) the discrete aquifer
features can be modelled, and the main geological structures can be
identified. A major limitation of this modelling approach is that the
results are strongly dependent on the parametrization of the chosen initial
solution. Classic inversion techniques require to define the number of
fractures before any interpretation is done. In this research we apply the transdimensional DFN inversion methodology
that overcome this limitation by keeping fracture numbers flexible and gives
a good estimation on fracture locations. This stochastic inversion method
uses the reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm and was
originally developed for tomographic experiments. In contrast to such
applications, this study is limited to the use of steady-state borehole
temperature profiles – with significantly less data. This is mitigated by
using a strongly simplified DFN model of the reservoir, constructed
according to available geological information. We present a synthetic example to prove the viability of the concept, then
use the algorithm on field observations for the first time. The fit of the
reconstructed temperature fields cannot compete yet with complex
three-dimensional continuum models, but indicate areas of the aquifer where
fracturing plays a big role. This could not be resolved before with
continuum modelling. It is for the first time that the transdimensional DFN
inversion was used on field data and on borehole temperature logs as input.


Land degradation is a natural and socioeconomic cause–effect phenomenon that is widespread all over the world. This study investigated the socioeconomic factors and causes of land degradation (e.g. population growth and urbanization, poverty, overgrazing, pollution, biodiversity, erosion) in the eastern part of the Mediterranean region. The study revealed a significant land use change from agricultural and natural vegetation to urbanized areas due to the high population increase during the last ca. 80 years (51‐times the magnitude of the total built‐up area). The high poverty rate that exists in the area (57 per cent of the population can be classed as 'poor') has resulted in damaging environmental practices (overgrazing and intensive usage of natural plants); we found 83 per cent of the farmers admitted to the adoption of these practices. Poverty has also resulted in an inverse and significant correlation (at the 95 per cent confidence level) between holding size and the sale of land for urban uses. We also noted that 75 per cent of the smallholder farmers surveyed had sold their lands for immediate benefits to cope with poverty. This relation was affected by the education level of the farmers; we found a direct and significant (95 per cent confidence level) correlation existed between these factors. Overgrazing was practised by 70 per cent of the farmers and was found to be one of the most important environmental consequences of land use change (1600 ha have been transformed from natural grazing to built‐up (urban) in the study area).


Computer simulation of casting becomes a valuable tool for developing advanced materials and casting components. Recent investigations and validation work on simulated cast components reveal the necessity of reliable analyses methods to determine solidification behaviour and to extract parameters for kinetic models to use at simulation of complex cast iron materials. The paper will present an inverse modelling method for determination of eutectic growth. The method include an experimental part proper to investigate simultaneously the solidification at three different cooling rates while the cast material has the same metallurgical origin, and a computational part for calculation of grow kinetics. Validation of the inverse method is made together with simulation. The inverse modelling of eutectic growth in grey iron indicates that chemical composition, type and amount of inoculants and cooling condition are strongly influencing the eutectic growth condition and gives different eutectic growth coefficients. By invoking a generalized KJMA* equation, the shape of the growing eutectic interface can be predicted. Deviation from perfectly spherical growth in real solidification cases is the source of variation of eutectic growth coefficients. The results of the inverse model are valuable to simulate differences in solidification behaviour in differently treated grey iron melts. * KJMA is the abbreviation of the name of the famous scientists Kolmogorow, Johnson, Mehl and Avrami who developed and applied the equation.


This paper presents a dual Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) topology that utilizes energy exchange between adjacent arm Sub-Modules (SM), operating with out-of-phase modulation. The proposed configuration is applicable to medium-voltage, high-power variable-speed drives incorporating open-end stator winding machines. A novel concept of power redistribution between adjacent SMs in the dual MMC topology is realized through high-frequency transformer-based dc-dc converter modules. This concept offers a significant reduction in the sizing requirement of the SM capacitance and the stored energy in the MMC system, while avoiding the problem of wide voltage fluctuations of SM capacitors, especially at low operating frequencies. The proposed configuration can produce dc voltage, therefore, a machine speed-range from zero speed to the rated speed is possible under the rated torque operating condition. The operating principles of the proposed dual MMC configuration are elaborated and necessary mathematical analysis is derived. Simulation and experimental results verify the concept of the proposed drive configuration.


This research was performed at the Natural Resources Department Research Farm of Isfahan University of Technology to investigate the effect of slag mulch on the amount of wind erosion and its threshold velocity using a wind tunnel. Soil samples from the study area "segzy plan" in the East area of Isfahan were placed in 100 by 30 cm trays to a depth of 3 cm. Four levels of coverage of slag: 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent and three aggregation sizes of 15-30, 30-45, and 4560 mm and two thicknesses of one layer and two layers with four repetitions were used. Wind velocities were measured at a height of 20 cm from the soil surface. Each treatment was conducted for a duration of 5 min. The data were analyzed by SPSS and Excel in the form of complete random plan and statistical factorial design. The results showed no significant difference in the 5% level between the numbers of layers. Wind erosion decreased exponentially with increased coverage level and aggregation size. The best treatment was the use of slag at 75% coverage levels and 3045 mm aggregate size in one layer, which included economic and performance feasibility.


In anticipation of the availability of next‐generation sequencing data, there has been increasing interest in association analysis of rare variants (RVs). Owing to the extremely low frequency of a RV, single variant‐based analysis and many existing tests developed for common variants may not be suitable. Hence, it is of interest to develop powerful statistical tests to assess association between complex traits and RVs with sequence data. Recently, a pooled association test based on variable thresholds (VT) was proposed and shown to be more powerful than some existing tests (Price et al. [2010] Am J Hum Genet 86:832–838). In this study, we generalize the VT test of Price et al. in several aspects. We propose a general class of adaptive tests that covers the VT test of Price et al. as a special case. In particular, we show that some of our proposed adaptive tests may substantially improve the power over the pooled association tests, including the VT test of Price et al., especially so in the presence of many neutral RVs and/or of causal RVs with opposite association directions, in which cases most of the existing pooled association tests suffer from significant loss of power. Our proposed tests are also general and flexible with the ability to incorporate weights on RVs and to adjust for covariates. Genet. Epidemiol. 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. 35:381‐388, 2011


The EU is a new form of political organisation which can be defined as an "experimental polity". Its distinctiveness lies in a novel assemblage of the constituent elements of polity (boundaries, binding authority, and bonding ties), and in the constant testing of new combinations of such elelements when facing functional and political challenges. Experimentalism is not always successful and can occasionally trigger off dynamics of polity disruption. The paper illustrates two instances of 'bad experiments' along the bounding and binding dimensions, i.e. Brexit and the euro crisis. It then focuses on the Covid 19 crisis and shows that in this case EU leaders were able not only to launch an ambitious plan of response based on joint action, but also to re-establish an "ethos of togetherness" among the Member States, on which to build for securing both social solidarity and political stability.


A series of molecularly engineered and novel dyes WS1, WS2, WS3, and WS4, based on the D35 donor, 1-(4-hexylphenyl)-2,5-di(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-pyrrole and 4-(4-hexylphenyl)-4H-dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole as π-conjugating linkers, were synthesized and compared to the well-known LEG4 dye. The performance of the dyes was investigated in combination with an electrolyte based on Co(II/III) complexes as redox shuttles. The electron recombination between the redox mediators in the electrolyte and the TiO2 interface decreases upon the introduction of 4-hexylybenzene entities on the 2,5-di(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-pyrrole and 4H-dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole linker units, probably because of steric hindrance. The open circuit photovoltage of WS1-, WS2-, WS3-, and WS4-based devices in combination with the Co(II/III)-based electrolyte are consistently higher than those based on a I–/I3– electrolyte by 105, 147, 167, and 75 mV, respectively. The WS3-based devices show the highest power conversion efficiency of 7.4% at AM 1.5 G 100 mW/cm2 illumination mainly attributable to the high open-circuit voltage (VOC).


In this paper we introduce a wireless temporal synchronization scheme based on wideband signals of opportunity (SOO) such as DVB-T or LTE signals. Since these signals may not be decodable we show that it is necessary that one (reference) node broadcasts an excerpt of the SOO to all other nodes to provide a reference. However, the transmission of this reference signals requires a high bandwidth. Therefore, we propose to replace this transmission with a lower-bandwidth "compressed" version of this reference signal, using ideas from the field of compressed sensing (CS). We show that the high time resolution of the original wideband SOO can be maintained so that accurate temporal synchronization is possible. On the other hand, the compression leads to higher sidelobes in the correlation function which reduces the effective SNR. Therefore, the compression rate allows to control the trade-off between the required bandwidth and the SNR.


This article surveys recent thinking on the topic of currency unions, separating out and presenting the lessons that apply to the New Zealand context. A decision on joining a currency union is predominantly political, and would probably be accompanied by other complementary measures that also further economic integration. Nevertheless, such a decision has implications for financial markets, the economy in general and the institutional role of the Reserve Bank. For all of these reasons, the Reserve Bank will continue to monitor the literature on the subject, and occasionally contribute to it, in order to facilitate informed debate in New Zealand.


The Test Laboratory Scheduling Problem (TLSP) is an extension of the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP). Besides several additional constraints, it includes a grouping phase where the jobs to be scheduled have to be assembled from smaller tasks and derive their properties from this grouping. Previous solution approaches for TLSP have focused primarily on the scheduling subproblem (TLSP-S), for which it is assumed that a suitable grouping is already given as part of the input. In this paper, we provide for the first time a solution approach that encompasses the full problem including grouping. We propose both a Constraint Programming model for TLSP and a Very Large Neighborhood Search algorithm based on that model. Furthermore, we apply our algorithms to real-world instances as well as randomly generated ones and compare our results to the best existing solutions. Experimental results show that our solution methods consistently outperform those for TLSP-S when both are initialised with a good grouping and in many cases even when this grouping is provided only to the latter.


Abstract:Feminism, feminist theory, feminist literary theory were already highly contentious in what they represented to Euro-American critics and theorists in the 1980s, when scholars in Chinese literary studies began sustained research on women writers in late imperial China (ca. 1600–1911). Their research drew on developments in Western feminist theories while problematizing certain applications. In this article, I review major debates in 1980s and 1990s Western feminist literary theory, divided by the different approaches of Anglo-American and French feminist critics and gender studies, examining why specific arguments on women and language, genres studied, and theoretical underpinnings did not hold significant relevance to the study of similar issues when applied to women's writing in pre-twentieth-century China. Yet certain concepts were highly fruitful in critical analysis. Feminist theory was never monolithic, even when it was Eurocentric; theories were drawn from a plurality of different disciplines and schools. Concepts that came into currency—gender, gaze, voice, agency, subjectivity, authorship, and so on—from poststructuralist, postcolonial, cultural, and film studies proved to be useful tools in feminist literary studies. Some came to be deployed in scholarship on women's literature in historical China. In this context, I reflect on theoretical approaches in significant studies of women's writing of late imperial China and consider the impact or critique this subfield of Chinese literary studies posed to Western feminist theories and broader questions of the applicability of modern/postmodern feminist theories to literature of earlier periods and other cultures before the globalization of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.


Unlike most mammals, male orang-utans exhibit bimaturism, in that mature individuals express one of two distinct morphological forms. Socially subordinate, 'unflanged' males are comparable to females in their size and facial morphology, while socially dominant 'flanged' males exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism and secondary sexual characteristics, primarily in the form of cheek pads ('flanges'). Although male ornaments in other species are often phenotypically plastic, such characteristics in orang-utans are irreversible—and, given that both morphs are sexually mature and can father offspring—their adaptive significance remains unclear. We determined paternity of orang-utans at Camp Leakey in Tanjung Puting National Park, within the home range of one long-term dominant male, Kusasi, before, during and after his period of dominance, in comparison with subordinate male conspecifics. We found that Kusasi fathered substantially more offspring conceived during his dominant period than any other male and that socially subordinate, unflanged males only fathered offspring during periods of rank instability. We conclude that orang-utan male bimaturism is consistent with an evolutionarily stable reproductive strategy and that reproduction within the range of a dominant, flanged male is highly skewed in his favour, while unflanged males may largely wait for reproductive opportunities.


It is known that there are many other organ involvements in the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) apart from respiratory tract involvement, and the disease may occur in different clinical spectrums in different patients. One of the most important structures affected by the virus is the vascular structure. It creates a tendency to thrombosis, especially by causing damage to the vascular endothelium and activating the coagulation system and may lead to important complications. It is known that the virus, which especially affects venous and small-sized arterial vessels, also affects medium-sized vessels. However, large-sized arterial vascular involvement is very rare. In this case report, it was aimed to present the left common carotid artery vasculitis, together with radiological appearence and clinical features, in a patient who presented with the complaint of left anterior neck pain in 4 weeks after COVID-19 infection. © Copyright 2023 by Anatolian Journal of Family Medicine.


Patients with Chiari type I malformation may also present with sleep disordered breathing mainly central sleep apnea. Here, we report a patient with Chiari I malformation referred to our clinic because of snoring and sleep disordered breathing. He was a 28-year-old man referred to us for evaluation of snoring. An overnight polysomnography revealed central sleep apnea. On further evaluation of central sleep apnea, the patient found to have Chiari malformation type I on brain MRI. The patient developed obstructive sleep apnea after surgery for Chiari malformation. Accordingly, pap titration was performed for the patient's obstructive sleep apnea. In patients with central sleep apnea comprehensive evaluation of predisposing causes is required. Lesions of central nervous system including Chiari malformation should not be overlooked. Furthermore, after treatment of central sleep apnea follow up PSG is warranted to confirm newly emerged sleep breathing disorder such as obstructive sleep apnea.


Transportation accounted for 28% of the total U.S. energy demand in 2011, with 93% of U.S. transportation energy coming from petroleum. The large impact of the transportation sector on global climate change necessitates more-efficient, cleaner-burning internal combustion engine operating strategies. One such strategy that has received substantial research attention in the last decade is Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI). Although the efficiency and emissions benefits of HCCI are well established, practical limits on the operating range of HCCI engines have inhibited their application in consumer vehicles. One such limit is at high load, where the pressure rise rate in the combustion chamber becomes excessively large.Fuel stratification is a potential strategy for reducing the maximum pressure rise rate in HCCI engines. The aim is to introduce reactivity gradients through fuel stratification to promote sequential auto-ignition rather than a bulk-ignition, as in the homogeneous case. A gasoline-fueled compression ignition engine with fuel stratification is termed a Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI) engine. Although a reasonable amount of experimental research has been performed for fuel stratification in GCI engines, a clear understanding of how the fundamental in-cylinder processes of fuel spray evaporation, mixing, and heat release contribute to the observed phenomena is lacking. Of particular interest is gasoline's pressure sensitive low-temperature chemistry and how it impacts the sequential auto-ignition of the stratified charge. In order to computationally study GCI with fuel stratification using three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and chemical kinetics, two reduced mechanisms have been developed. The reduced mechanisms were developed from a large, detailed mechanism with about 1400 species for a 4-component gasoline surrogate. The two versions of the reduced mechanism developed in this work are: (1) a 96-species version and (2) a 98-species version including nitric oxide formation reactions. Development of reduced mechanisms is necessary because the detailed mechanism is computationally prohibitive in three-dimensional CFD and chemical kinetics simulations.Simulations of Partial Fuel Stratification (PFS), a GCI strategy, have been performed using CONVERGE with the 96-species reduced mechanism developed in this work for a 4-component gasoline surrogate. Comparison is made to experimental data from the Sandia HCCI/GCI engine at a compression ratio 14:1 at intake pressures of 1 bar and 2 bar. Analysis of the heat release and temperature in the different equivalence ratio regions reveals that sequential auto-ignition of the stratified charge occurs in order of increasing equivalence ratio for 1 bar intake pressure and in order of decreasing equivalence ratio for 2 bar intake pressure. Increased low- and intermediate-temperature heat release with increasing equivalence ratio at 2 bar intake pressure compensates for decreased temperatures in higher-equivalence ratio regions due to evaporative cooling from the liquid fuel spray and decreased compression heating from lower values of the ratio of specific heats. The presence of low- and intermediate-temperature heat release at 2 bar intake pressure alters the temperature distribution of the mixture stratification before hot-ignition, promoting the desired sequential auto-ignition. At 1 bar intake pressure, the sequential auto-ignition occurs in the reverse order compared to 2 bar intake pressure and too fast for useful reduction of the maximum pressure rise rate compared to HCCI. Additionally, the premixed portion of the charge auto-ignites before the highest-equivalence ratio regions. Conversely, at 2 bar intake pressure, the premixed portion of the charge auto-ignites last, after the higher-equivalence ratio regions. More importantly, the sequential auto-ignition occurs over a longer time period for 2 bar intake pressure than at 1 bar intake pressure such that a sizable reduction in the maximum pressure rise rate compared to HCCI can be achieved.


Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal-dominant inherited neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by expansion of a CAG-repeat tract in the huntingtin gene and characterized by motor impairment, cognitive decline, and neuropsychiatric disturbances. Neuropathological studies show that disease progression follows a characteristic pattern of brain atrophy, beginning in the basal ganglia structures. The HD Regulatory Science Consortium (HD-RSC) brings together diverse stakeholders in the HD community—biopharmaceutical industry, academia, nonprofit, and patient advocacy organizations—to define and address regulatory needs to accelerate HD therapeutic development. Here, the Biomarker Working Group of the HD-RSC summarizes the cross-sectional evidence indicating that regional brain volumes, as measured by volumetric magnetic resonance imaging, are reduced in HD and are correlated with disease characteristics. We also evaluate the relationship between imaging measures and clinical change, their longitudinal change characteristics, and within-individual longitudinal associations of imaging with disease progression. This analysis will be valuable in assessing pharmacodynamics in clinical trials and supporting clinical outcome assessments to evaluate treatment effects on neurodegeneration.


Despite the clinical effectiveness ofjoint replacement arthroplasty, a number of complications, most of which present clinically with signs and symptoms related to implant loosening, are associated with this procedure. Histological changes that occur in soft tissue and bone around an implant provide diagnostic information on the causes of implant loosening and give clues as to the nature of the pathological processes that lead to this and other complications of implant-related joint disease. These pathological processes include the biologically nonspecific body macrophage response to wear particles (aseptic loosening), a specific hypersensitivity immune reaction to implant-derived wear particles, infection (septic loosening), primary joint-related pathology in revision arthroplasty tissues, and tumor formation in peri-implant tissues. This review outlines pathological changes that reflect pathogenetic mechanisms contributing to implant loosening and other complications in peri-implant tissues.


Abstract : President George W. Bush created the Office of Homeland Security (OHS) within the Executive Office of the President after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a federal focal point for coordinating domestic efforts against terrorism. Former Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, a close friend and political ally of the President, was appointed to head the OHS. Such a high-level unit, it was hoped, could bring direction and coherence to federal homeland security-related activities that were spread among more than 40 different departments and agencies. Yet OHS has been controversial almost since its inception. Despite some high-profile results, such as highlighting priorities in the President's FY2003 budget and negotiating a border security accord with Canada, OHS remains very much an organizational work in progress -- one seeking to carve out a unique identity and mission. Critics have focused on the Office's informal structure and special relationship with the White House, its lack of statutory authority, the essentially domestic focus of its activities, its alleged duplication of coordination mechanisms already in place, and its inability to exert direct control over federal programs and budgets. Proposals have been introduced in Congress, in the Administration, and in various think tanks for reorganizing OHS, reshaping its mandate, or replacing it with an entirely new federal agency. Whether the Office will continue to exist in its present form is by no means assured; ultimately, its future character may well be influenced less by its ability to coordinate the federal terrorism response than by its ability to create a new dialogue on anti-terrorism coordination between federal authorities and their state and local counterparts.


Quantitative characteristics of the parenchyma and stroma of the pancreas has been determined at the age of 3 days up to 92 years. The data obtained concretize the character and dynamics of involutive changes. To take them into consideration is necessary at estimation of various pathological processes, revealed in the pancreas.


In a redundant array of disks, the disks are divided into areas of different sizes, so that small amounts of data can be stored in an area of an appropriate size on a single disk, instead of being spread over multiple disks. A usage status table indicates which areas are in use. Check information is generated and stored only for areas indicated to be in use. When new check information is generated, it is therefore possible to omit the reading of unnecessary old data and old check information. When a disk fails and is replaced with a standby disk, only the data in areas indicated to be in use are reconstructed. Check information can be stored on a solid-state disk.


The temperature (T ) dependence of the single and the collective particle dynamics of a melt containing 80 at% Rb and 20 at% RbBr was investigated using neutron inelastic scattering. Compared to pure liquid Rb, the dispersions obtained from the maxima of the longitudinal current correlation function clearly reect the change of the atomic interaction from a metallic to a dominantly ionic regime. The T dependence of the atomic dynamics in Rb80(RbBr)20 is characterized by a broadening of the spectra resulting in a shift to higher energies in the dispersion and in the spectrum of the velocity auto-correlation function, which was determined here for a mixture of a liquid metal with a molten salt for the rst time.


The relation between salt intake and hypertension has long been controversial. Available evidence provides conflicting results. However, biological and evolutionary insights into the structure and principle function of the kidney and the blood pressure sustaining machinery, with the extracellular fluid volume and the renin-angiotensin system acting as a central player, clearly indicate that salt has been a precious commodity in the terrestrial animal kingdom and that essential hypertension may be a consequence of the kidney's maladaptation to excess salt intake, which is specific to recent human civilization. This review provides a hypothesis to explain how and why hypertension develops and attempts to define the roles of genetic, non-genetic, and environmental factors in its pathogenesis. (Hypertens Res 1998; 21: 67-71)


Before 1979, unemployment insurance (UI) benefits were not treated as taxable income in the United States. Several economists criticized this policy on the ground that not taxing UI benefits while taxing earned income allegedly encourages unemployed persons to conduct longer than socially optimal job searches. Since 1979, however, UI benefits received by persons in higher-income families have been subject to income tax. This paper investigates whether the introduction of benefit taxation has had the predicted effect of reducing unemployment duration.The study uses data on a sample of persons that filed for UI in 1978 or 1979 to examine whether high-income claimants collected benefits fo rshorter periods after the tax change than they did before benefits became taxable. As part of the empirical analysis, the paper develops a generalization of the Weibull distribution and applies a limited-dependent-variable technique for this distribution similar to the Tobit technique for the normal distribution. Despite some variation in the results from different model specifications, the analysis presents persuasive evidence of a tax effect on unemployment duration. The 1979 policy change is estimated to have reduced average compensated unemployment duration among the sampled high-income claimants by about one week.


This book brings together updated papers presented at a conference to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The collection consists of nine articles by scholars with a strong interest in the areas of state responsibility and treaty law. As the interplay between state responsibility and treaty law becomes more and more important, a book dealing with this topic cannot fail to be of interest. Contents include: Does the Difference Make a Difference? A Comparison between the Mechanisms of the Law of Treaties and of State Responsibility as Means to Derogate from Treaty Obligations in Cases of Subsequent Changes of Circumstances * 'Article 98' Agreements, the Law of Treaties, and the Law of State Responsibility * State Responsibility and Private Military Companies * The Duty Not to Recognize as Lawful a Situation Created by the Illegal Use of Force: From Kosovo to Abkhazia and South Ossetia * Jus Cogens: A Puzzle * Applying the Law of State Responsibility to Military Counter-Terrorist Actions * Genuine Test of Genuine Prosecutions? A Human Rights Model for Complementarity * Treaty Interpretation and Tottering Treaty Regimes: The Case of International Investment Law * International Legal Responsibility of the European Union According to the Draft Articles of the International Law Commission


Abstract Unit-cell parameters of a series of synthetic garnets with the pyrope, grossular, and four intermediate compositions were measured up to about 900 K and to 10 GPa using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. Coefficients of thermal expansion of pyrope-grossular garnets are in the range 2.10-2.74 × 10-5 K-1 and uniformly increase with temperature. Values for the two end-members pyrope and grossular are identical within experimental error 2.74 ± 0.05 × 10-5 K-1 and 2.73 ± 0.01 × 10-5 K-1, respectively. Coefficients of thermal expansion for intermediate compositions are smaller than those of end-members and are not linearly dependent on composition. Bulk modulus of grossular is Κ0 = 164.3(1) GPa (with Κ0′ the pressure derivative of the bulk modulus fixed to 5.92) and bulk modulus of pyrope is Κ0 = 169.2(2) GPa (with Κ0′ fixed to 4.4) using a third-order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state, which are consistent with previously reported values. The bulk moduli of garnets of intermediate composition are between ~155 and ~160 GPa, smaller than those of the end-members no matter which Κ0′ is chosen. The compositional dependence of bulk modulus resembles the compositional dependence of thermal expansion. Intermediate garnets on this binary have large positive excess volume, which makes them more compressible. We find that excess volumes in the pyrope-grossular series remain relatively large even at high pressure (~6 GPa) and temperature (~800 K), supporting the observation of crystal exsolution on this garnet join. The curiously "W"-shaped compositional variation of thermal expansion and bulk modulus is anti-correlated with the compositional dependence of microstrain documented in our companion paper (Du et al. in preparation) on the excess volumes in this series of garnets. Minimum thermal expansions and bulk moduli go with maximum microstrains.


The hospital industry has undergone fundamental change in the past ten years and currently faces an increasingly turbulent environment (Ginn, 1990; Zinn et al., 1994; Johnson, 1995; Sumner and Moreland, 1995). In 1983, hospital reimbursement for medicare patients shifted from a "cost-plus" or retrospective basis to prospective reimbursement (Ginn, 1990). Under the prospective payment system (PPS system), hospitals receive a fixed amount to treat a patient with a given diagnosis regardless of actual costs. This shift along with other changes has resulted in an increasingly competitive hospital market. In prior years, hospitals were often seen as noncompetitive, cooperating organizations. However, in the current environment hospitals have taken on much the same characteristics as normal business organizations. In spite of this increasingly competitive market, increases in health care costs have not slowed. The explosion of new "high-tech" medical technology in hospitals has received much of the blame for this escalation in costs (Hamm, 1989; Lamm, 1990; Kirchner, 1991; Johnson, 1995). While the exact amount of escalation in health care costs due to the adoption of medical technological innovations is subject to some debate (Hamm, 1989), there is basic agreement that high-tech medicine is a prime contributor to the rise in costs (Johnson, 1995). Since 1950, health care spending costs have risen from 5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to 14 percent of GDP. It is projected that by the year 2000 total health care expenditures will equal 17 percent of GDP (Johnson, 1995). Because of medical technology's potential role as a major cause of rising costs the investigation of the factors related to hospital adoption of technological innovations is of particular interest. This article examines the effect of hospital form (not-for-profit versus for-profit) on the adoption of medical technological innovations. To explore this issue, the article is organized as follows. First, the literature on the adoption of technological innovations is reviewed. This is followed by a discussion of how hospital form affects technological adoption. Methodology used in the study is presented, and then the findings are reported and discussed. DETERMINANTS OF THE ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS A considerable amount of past research has dealt with the question of influences on the adoption of innovations in organizations. Before this is discussed, exactly what is meant by a technological innovation should be clarified. An innovation can be defined as an internally generated or purchased device, system, policy, program, process, product or service that is new to the adopting organization (Daft, 1982; Damanpour, 1991). A technological innovation refers specifically to products, services, and production technology (Damanpour, 1991). This article focuses on technological innovations dealing with the products and services offered by an organization. Research on the adoption of innovations by organizations has tended to focus primarily on the role of three groups of variables: individual, organizational and environmental (Damanpour, 1991). Several studies have considered the effect of environmental and individual variables (e.g., Kimberly and Evanisko, 1981; Meyer and Goes, 1988; Gatignon and Robertson, 1989). However, clear consensus has not emerged from these studies as to the effects of these variables. One major study that examined the effect of organizational variables on the adoption of innovations by organizations was a meta-analysis conducted by Damanpour (1991). Based on 23 published studies, Damanpour's meta-analysis of these studies showed that specialization, professionalism, functional differentiation, and environmental scanning are positively related to innovation while formalization, centralization and vertical differentiation are negatively related to innovation. One other organizational variable, size, has consistently been found by researchers to be positively related to innovativeness (Rogers, 1983). …


BACKGROUND
Preliminary work by our center has reported behavior and functional benefits in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) following targeted micronutritional supplementation.

OBJECTIVE
To build on the existing exploratory research and investigate the impact of these micronutrients on the natural progression of AD in a randomized controlled trial.

METHODS
Patients with mild-moderate AD consumed daily 1 g fish oil (of which 500 mg DHA, 150 mg EPA), 22 mg carotenoids (10 mg lutein, 10 mg meso-zeaxanthin, 2 mg zeaxanthin), and 15 mg vitamin E or placebo for 12 months in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial. Carotenoids, ω-3FAs, and vitamin E were quantified in blood. Carotenoids were also measured in skin. AD severity was measured using the mini-mental state examination and dementia severity rating scale tools. Behavior, mood, and memory were measured using an informant-based questionnaire.

RESULTS
Following 12 months of supplementation, the active group (n = 50) compared to the placebo group (n = 27), demonstrated statistically significant improvements in skin carotenoid measurements, blood carotenoids, ω-3FAs, and vitamin E concentrations (p <  0.05, for all). The active group also performed better in objective measures of AD severity (i.e., memory and mood), with a statistically significant difference reported in the clinical collateral for memory (p <  0.001).

CONCLUSION
Exponential increases in the prevalence of AD and its relentless progressive nature is driving the need for interventions that help to ameliorate symptoms and improve quality of life in AD patients. Given the positive outcomes demonstrated in this trial, this combined micronutrient dietary supplement should be considered in the overall management of AD.


Purpose : Fully integrating its e-reserves service into the university's course management system has become the primary design goal of the innovative e-reserves service system at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) Library. Design/methodology/approach : Through blending library and information service into the teaching and learning process, SJTU Library has effectively combined its reserves service into the user learning environment. The main metadata model and the design of various interfaces of the e-reserves service system are introduced. Findings: E-reserves has been integrated into the course management system. Users can directly access relevant resources when they browse the customized course page. It is more convenient for teachers to add reserves items, and the added items can be made available simultaneously on SJTU Library's resource discovery platform automatically. Research limitations : At present, e-reserves items are mainly books, and more other types of reserves materials are needed to be provided. Some relevant copyright issues should be addressed. Practical implications : Using a series of interface interactions, the e-reserves service has been integrated into the university's course management system. It is convenient for students to access customized e-reserves service during their learning process. Originality/value: We achieved interconnection between the e-reserves and the university's course management system. Information on the e-reserves Web page is automatically updated. SJTU Library provides customized e-reserves service in the course management system.


In this work, a nickel electroplating was performed on the copper substrate using nonionic surfactant in supercritical carbon dioxide to improve the dispersion characteristics of nickel nano-particles. The electric resistance of emulsion decreased rapidly from 46 to 25 Ω with an increasing pressure from 8 MPa to 16 MPa and was nearly constant at 25 Ω over 14 MPa. The conductivity of emulsion solution was highest at nonionic surfactant concentration of 0.1 vol% and the dispersion of nickel nano-particles was better than at any other concentration. CO2 concentration was controlled under 0.5 vol% to reduce electric resistance in emulsion solution. Roughness (Ra) of copper substrate without plating was 0.084 ㎛, however, that of nickel film plated for 10 min was smoothed to 0.020 ㎛ and the surface of nickel film plated was smoothed with an increasing plating time. The plating properties of nickel in CO2 supercritical fluid showed better properties than in conventional method.


The differentiated service architecture is proposed as a scalable approach to QoS for IP networks. Therefore it is based on the aggregate (per class) scheduling of packets, but it aims at providing QoS to single flows. In particular the expedited forwarding (EF) per hop behavior (PHB) and the related premium service have been defined in order to provide determinist QoS guarantees to IP flows: zero loss and very low delay and jitter. Hence a possible approach to characterize and to dimension a network using the EF PHB is the worst case analysis. In this work we propose a worst case calculus that, permits to model any kind of network that doesn't perform per flow scheduling, taking into account both the network topology and the characterization of input flows. Particularly, the calculus provides the output arrival curve and the maximum delay at each network node. Our calculus improves the accuracy on the delay and arrival curve evaluation with respect to the previous approaches. The guidelines for the application of the calculus are given and some numerical results are carried out and compared to those obtained by previous models.


In most habitats, the vast majority of microbial populations form biofilms on solid surfaces, whether natural or artificial. These biofilms provide either increased physical support and/or a source of nutrients. Further modifications and development of biofilms are regulated by signal molecules secreted by the cells. Because synthetic polymers are not soluble in aqueous solutions, biofilm-producing bacteria may biodegrade such materials more efficiently than planktonic strains. Bacterial biofilms comprise bacterial cells embedded in self-secreted extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Revealing the roles of each component of the EPS will enable further insight into biofilm development and the EPS structure-function relationship. A strain of Rhodococcus ruber (C208) displayed high hydrophobicity and formed a dense biofilm on the surface of polyethylene films while utilizing the polyolefin as carbon and energy sources. This study investigated the effects of several proteases on C208 biofilm formation and stability. The proteolysis of C208 biofilm gave conflicting results. Trypsin significantly reduced biofilm formation, and the resultant biofilm appeared monolayered. In contrast, proteinase K enhanced biofilm formation, which was robust and multilayered. Presumably, proteinase K degraded self-secreted proteases or quorum-sensing peptides, which may be involved in biofilm detachment processes, leading to a multilayered, nondispersed biofilm.


As a treatment modality that is fundamentally different from other therapies against cancer, radiopharmaceutical therapy with alpha-particle emitters has drawn the attention of the therapy community and also the biopharmaceutical industry. Alpha-particles cause a preponderance of complex DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). This provides an opportunity to either enhance cell kill by using DNA DSB repair inhibitors or identify patients who are likely to be high responders to alpha-emitter RPT. The short-range and high potency of alpha-particles requires special dosimetry considerations. These are reviewed in light of recent updates to the phantoms and associated dosimetric quantities used for dosimetry calculations. A formalism for obtaining the necessary microscale pharmacokinetic information from patient nuclear medicine imaging is presented. Alpha-emitter based radiopharmaceutical therapy is an exciting cancer therapy modality that is being revisited. Further development of imaging and dosimetric methods specific to alpha-particle emitters, coupled with standardization of the methods and rigorous evidence that dosimetry applied to alphaRPT improves patient care are needed moving forward.


Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), such as c-kit, Flt-3 and Tie2, regulate hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) proliferation, differentiation and maintenance. Substantially less is known regarding the function of receptor protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) in regulating HSC fate. We recently discovered that receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma (PTPσ) is highly expressed by murine and human HSCs. Interestingly, constitutive deletion of PTPσ caused a marked increase in HSC repopulating capacity as measured in primary and secondary competitive repopulation assays (J Clin Invest 2015;125:177-182). Further, negative selection of human cord blood (CB) HSCs for PTPσ surface expression (PTPσ - negative CB HSCs) conferred more than 10-fold increased human CB hematopoietic engraftment through 20 weeks in transplanted NSG mice. Additionally, PTPσ-deficient mice displayed significantly augmented recovery of phenotypic bone marrow (BM) HSCs and colony forming cells at day +10 following 550 cGy total body irradiation. Based on these observations, we hypothesized that PTPσ may function as a negative regulator of HSC self-renewal and regeneration. We sought to develop pharmacologic strategies to inhibit PTPσ function as a means to augment HSC functional capacity. Based on structure-activity-relationship analysis of PTPσ, we screened candidate small molecules for ability to modulate PTPσ function on BM HSCs. We identified a small molecule, 5483071 (Chembridge), as a candidate PTPσ inhibitor. In silico simulation indicated that 5483071 rigidly docked into the binding site of PTPσ intracellular domain through hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions. In a model of HSC injury and regeneration, we irradiated C57Bl6 mice with 700 cGy TBI and treated mice systemically with either 10 μcg of 5483071 or water subcutaneously every other day from day +1 to day +14. Irradiated mice treated with 5483071 displayed significantly increased 60 day survival compared to controls (P=0.0007). Irradiated mice treated with 5483071 showed accelerated recovery of BM SLAM+kit+sca-1+lin- HSCs (P=0.02), BM KSL cells (P=0.01), and colony forming cells (CFCs) (P=0.0003). In vitro culture of BM KSL cells with 5483071 significantly increased the levels of activated Rac1 (P=0.0004), which recapitulated the effects of PTPσ deletion on Rac1 activation in HSCs. Importantly, treatment of BM KSL cells from PTPσ -/- mice with 5483071 caused no change in Rac1 activation, suggesting that 5483071 acted specifically on PTPσ and was not mediating effects via inhibition of other phosphatases. Systemic administration of 5483071 to irradiated mice caused an increase in BM KSL cell cycling at 72 hours compared to irradiated control mice (p=0.02), while also decreasing BM KSL cell apoptosis at 24 hours after TBI (p=0.02). Subsequent to these findings, we have generated several new small molecule inhibitors of PTPσ with novel composition of matter and have taken a lead compound into pre-clinical studies for investigational new drug (IND) development. PTPσ represents a novel receptor tyrosine phosphatase that regulates HSC self-renewal and regeneration. Targeted inhibition of PTPσ has high therapeutic potential to promote hematopoietic regeneration in patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy or undergoing myeloablative hematopoietic cell transplantation. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Nanosized mullite powders were prepared by hydrothermal method with bauxite as precursor. The effects of mineralizer, hydrothermal temperature, hydrothermal time, dispersant on the phase, crystal size and secondary granularity of the powders were discussed. The properties of the prepared powders were characterized by XRD, SEM, and ZETASIZER. The results show that the spherical nanosized mullite powders with crystal size of 28nm are prepared under the conditions of 0.92 mol·L-1 concentration of NaOH, less than 85% filling ratio, 110°C for 6 h with bauxite calcined at 1040°C as starting material.


Fifteen
expressed sequence tag (EST)-derived simple sequence repeats (EST-SSRs) were
used to investigate genetic diversity in 139 plants obtained from seeds of 35
watermelon accessions collected from all the geographical provinces of Zimbabwe.
In addition, 15 plants representing three commercial varieties developed in the
United States (USA) were analyzed for comparison. A total of 65 alleles were
detected among all the watermelon accessions. For the 13 polymorphic EST-SSR
loci, number of alleles per locus varied from 2 to 13, with an average of 5
alleles per locus. Values for the polymorphic information content increased as
the number of alleles increased, and varied from 0.15 to 0.77 with an average
of 0.54 suggesting sufficient discriminatory power. Both cluster analysis and
principal coordinate analysis (PCA) produced two major clusters; one with the
22 cow-melon accessions and the other with the 16 sweet watermelon accessions.
Within the sweet watermelon group, two distinct sub-clusters formed, one of
which contained only two of the commercial varieties from USA. Partitioning of genetic
variation in the Zimbabwean material using analysis of molecular variation
(AMOVA) revealed that 64% of the total variation resides between the two major
forms, i.e. sweet watermelons and
cow-melons, 28% between accessions within forms and 8% within accessions. The
EST-SSR markers revealed a somewhat higher diversity in sweet watermelon
accessions compared to that of cow-melons. This finding is contrary to previous
reports using other markers (genomic SSR loci or RAPD) and/or a plant material
that is likely to have experienced more stringent selection procedures compared
to the landraces analyzed in our study.


Lowland tropical forests of Southeast Asia are characterized by general fl owering, i.e. irregular and supra-annual fl uctuations in fland fruit production at the community level. We examined the relationship between general fl owering and the population dynamics of arboreal and terrestrial small mammals using live-trapping data obtained over 9 years in a lowland tropical forest, Sarawak, Malaysia. The abundance of arboreal and terrestrial small mammals, immature Maxomys rajah (the most commonly caught terrestrial rat) and adult Callosciurus prevostii (a relatively large species and the most commonly caught arboreal squirrel) were signifi cantly negatively correlated with the percentage of fruiting trees with and/or without a one- to two-month lag. The abundance of terrestrial small mammals and immature M. rajah were signifi cantly positively correlated with the percentage of fruiting trees six and fi ve months earlier, respectively. These results indicate that a time lag occurred between fruit production and increases in small mammal populations. Differences in the age classes between the two most commonly caught species during population growth suggest that population increases associated with general fl owering were caused by both the recruitment of young individuals of small mammals with relatively low dispersal ability (M. rajah) and the immigration of adult individuals with high dispersal ability (C. prevostii).


textabstractHealth technology assessment (HTA) originated from the spread of costly medical equipment and growing concerns over the ability and willingness of taxpayers and health insurers to pay for them. The main aim of HTA is to provide a range of stakeholders, typically those involved in funding, planning, purchasing, and investing in healthcare, with accessible, useable, and evidence-based information that will guide decisions about technology and the efficient allocation of resources. The present thesis addresses some of the methodological challenges of the health technology assessment and evaluates the impact of economic evaluations in healthcare decision-making process.
Systematic reviews have a central role in evidence based-medicine. The quantitative systematic review, also known as meta-analysis provides a logical structure for quantifying the existing evidence. Meta-analysis offers the opportunity to critically evaluate and statistically combine results of comparable studies or trials. The aim is to get a consistent estimation of the global effect of a procedure on a specified outcome by increasing the number of observations and statistical power. This thesis presents the results of a systematic literature review with meta-analysis on the effectiveness of lifestyle intervention in the prevention and treatment of obesity. The systematic review provides new information on the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions by assessing the mid- to long-term effects on weight and cardiovascular risk profile in overweight and obese people.
Patient reported outcomes provide the patient perspective on the effectiveness of treatment. This thesis presents the data collected from a study that establishes the validity of the electronic versions of three quality of life measures in comparison to the existing paper versions. For health technology manufacturers it is important to provide evidence of the validity of the quality of life instruments in the electronic format as compared to paper version.
Mathematical modeling is used widely in economic evaluations of medical interventions. Health economics models represent an important analytic framework to generate estimates of cost-effectiveness. We addressed the modeling challenges in two decision analytic models developed to inform decision-making process. One model presents the development and results of a cost-effectiveness model of zoledronic acid versus risedronate in Paget's disease of bone. The second model presents the development and results of an economic analysis that evaluates the lifetime effects of three-year lifestyle intervention in the prevention and treatment of obesity. The model estimates the cost-effectiveness of lifestyle intervention versus standard treatment in overweight and obese people in Switzerland.
The importance of health economics research utilization in policy-making and of understanding the mechanisms involved is increasingly recognized. The existence of relevant research, though necessary, is not sufficient. Evidence-based policy is difficult to achieve and it is widely agreed that health policies do not reflect research evidence to the extent that in theory they could. In this thesis we assessed the use of research evidence relating to economic analyses in healthcare decision-making. We conducted a literature review to summarize and synthesize published literature on self-reported attitudes of healthcare decision-makers towards economic evaluations of medical technologies. The aims of this literature review was to determine the extent to which economic evaluations are used in health policy decision-making, and to consider factors associated with the utilization of such research findings. Examination of the policy-making process confirms it to be complex, with man!
y genuine obstacles to evidence-based policy-making at the same time as there are factors that could increase research utilization.


For decades the IS community has been struggling with the delivery of low quality systems. Software process improvement (SPI) programs are accepted as one of the remedies to overcome this problem, with process maturity being a key element. A major contributor of process maturity is the capability maturity model integration (CMMI). However, most studies regarding process maturity and the determinants of IS quality have been conducted in large firms in developed countries. But it is imperative for software development firms both large and small to understand what is needed to deploy high quality systems. This study seeks to assess the determinants of process maturity in firms in the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC), using the established practices in the CMMI as a baseline for discussion and analysis. Applying PLS as the analytical tool, it was found that project monitoring and control, and verification and validation are major determinants of process maturity in the ESC. These findings can assist practitioners in their pursuit to produce higher quality software products, as well as provide a platform for further refinement of the research model by IS researchers.


This paper reports the results of examination and treatment of children presenting with deviation of the nasal septum. All of them underwent septoplasty simultaneous with rhinoplasty, vasotomy of inferior nasal concha, and correction of bullous middle nasal concha (if indicated). It is recommended that the data obtained be taken into consideration during rhinoseptoplastic surgey in children.


Selection of an appropriate set of Information System (IS) projects is a critical business activity which is very helpful to all organizations. In this paper, after describing real IS project selection problem of Iran Ministry of Commerce (MOC), we introduce two Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models. Then, we show applicability of introduced models for identifying most efficient IS project from 8 competing projects. Then, in order to provide further insight, results of two introduced models are compared. It is notable that using basic DEA models -CCR and BCCdecision maker is not able to find most efficient Decision Making Unit (DMU) since these models identify some of DMUs as efficient which their efficiency scores equal to 1. As an advantage, the applied models can identify most efficient IS (in constant and variable return to scale situations) by solving only one linear programming (LP). So these models are computationally efficient. It is while using the basic DEA models requires decision maker to solve a LP for each IS.


In a 10-year period, 407 of 350,000 pregnancies showed maternal anti-Kell allo-immunization, i.e., an incidence of 1.16 per 1000 pregnancies. About 88% of Kell immunized women gave a history of previous transfusion. There were 51 pregnancies with Kell positive partners (all Kk) resulting in 10 Kell positive babies, of whom six had a positive direct antiglobulin test (DAGT). There were two stillbirths due to haemolytic disease of the newborn, when the maternal anti-Kell titres were 1/256. One baby was severely anaemic and given a top-up transfusion, and two babies were jaundiced and given phototherapy. A policy for management of Kell sensitized pregnancies is outlined, based upon maternal anti-Kell titre and where appropriate fetal blood sampling.


This chapter examines the main types of non-interrogatory evidence gathered through criminal justice processes. First we look at witness and identification evidence; like the interviewing of suspects, this is not as straightforward as it might appear. We then move onto entry of premises (eg suspects' homes, places of work, etc), search of those places and seizure of 'suspicious' goods discovered by searches. Whereas most entry and search is known to the suspects and/or owners of the premises concerned, 'covert' policing is, by definition, not made known to the subjects of the policing. Covert policing takes many forms: eg, surveillance, 'undercover' policing, use of informers, interception of communications. Finally we examine scientific evidence which, like witness evidence, is far from straightforward. There are many problems common to all these types of information-gathering. These include the fragility and ambiguity of what often appears solid and objective; the way they erode human rights; the effect of 'police culture' on what is gathered and how it is interpreted; and the lack of accountability for what is done and how it is done.


Ceramic foam is a class of materials with high porosity and three-dimensional network of struts. In this study, ceramic foams were fabricated by polymeric sponge method using commercial PVA foam as a replica template. The study focused on the effect of alumina content on the physical and mechanical properties of such ceramic foams sintered at 1500°C for different sintering times. It was found that ceramic composition with higher amount of alumina required higher sintering temperature than that used in the present study. Physical properties and mechanical strengths depended upon ceramic composition as well as sintering time. Microstructural analysis revealed the evolution of primary cuboidal mullite and needle-like nano-sized mullite phase in the sintered sample. This fine needle-like phase added to mechanical strengths of ceramics.


Purpose
Knowledge growth is currently experiencing a very exponential increase, through a digital transformation of knowledge in the organization and the emergence of various platforms through management system content such as blogs and social media that have encouraged such growth. An employee no longer only interacts in knowledge management (KM) in his organization but can communicate and collaborate to share knowledge through these platforms widely. Much of the spread of knowledge is a challenge for organizations to manage and use their knowledge and spread knowledge and become part of the expertise possessed by employees in their organizations. For this reason, an intelligent knowledge mapping approach is needed to facilitate finding, managing and identifying knowledge owned by an organization. This paper aims to see the use of smart knowledge mapping in organizations empirically.

Design/methodology/approach
This research was conducted empirically by conducting a literature study method to compile a questionnaire and conduct a survey through purposive sampling, sampling taken from the KM and Society Indonesia community. This survey limits only to respondents who have experience in conducting knowledge mapping in an organization.

Findings
The use of data sources that have been owned by the organization and also the consideration of the use of digital footprint employees spread across the internet can be a potential to explore the knowledge resources possessed by the organization. Of course, with the support of technology through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), it is expected to be able to present a comprehensive, adaptive and objective knowledge mapping for the organization.

Practical implications
The paper provides practical implications for knowledge mapping implementation in an organization by adopting AI with considerable digital footprint employees spread across the internet.

Originality/value
This paper provides empirical information about knowledge mapping implementation in Indonesian organization.


Building on scholarship from folklore and literature, everyday autobiography, women's traditional culture, and women's garden history, this thesis examines how Marion Cran documented home and garden experiences in Surrey and Kent through a series of gardening books she wrote between 1913 and 1941. -- While providing useful information on plants and gardening practices, Cran's writing was fragmented and tangential: her books were filled with planting references suffused with culinary tips and recipes and traditional lore that evoked meaning and "encoded memories" (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1989). Although Cran was fascinated by garden styles indicative of the period, such as the English cottage garden, she also valued individuality in garden making, and implored her readers to create gardens that fulfilled their own expectations. -- In her everyday autobiographies, Cran revealed her innermost thoughts based on her own experiences and what she learned through her observations of and interactions with fellow gardeners and homemakers. Cran inspired a predominantly female audience to create and maintain homes and gardens that benefited their own lives as well as those of their families and members of their communities. In direct correlation, women corresponded with Cran, confiding to her their own home and garden experiences whether they lived in England or South Africa. While exploring Cran's appeal to women readers, this thesis focuses on several themes: community and fellowship in gardening practices, implicit coding, female performativity, and women's sense of empowerment through creating a home and garden. -- This thesis examines not only how Cran and her books inspired gardeners and homemakers' lives during the interwar period, but also, it recognizes her relevance to contemporary readers and present-day gardeners. Not unlike many gardeners today, Cran was committed to natural gardening practices and growing her own produce. Cran can be found not only between the pages of her books, but through the existence of her former home and garden, "Coggers," in Kent. By preserving Coggers and welcoming visitors, the current residents have fostered a growing community of readers and gardeners whose enthusiasm in Cran and her writings will continue her legacy for future generations. Marion Cran and her garden literature offer folklorists an alternative resource through which to understand and appreciate how women expressed themselves creatively through common, everyday tasks in homes and gardens of the early twentieth century.


I introduce a formalization of probability in intensional Martin-Löf type theory (MLTT) and homotopy type theory (HoTT) which takes the concept of 'evidence' as primitive in judgments about probability. In parallel to the intuitionistic conception of truth, in which 'proof' is primitive and an assertion A is judged to be true just in case there is a proof witnessing it, here 'evidence' is primitive and A is judged to be probable just in case there is evidence supporting it. To formalize this approach, we regard propositions as types in MLTT and define for any proposition A a corresponding probability type Prob(A) whose inhabitants represent pieces of evidence in favor of A. Among several practical motivations for this approach, I focus here on its potential for extending meta-mathematics to include conjecture, in addition to rigorous proof, by regarding a 'conjecture in A' as a judgment that 'A is probable' on the basis of evidence. I show that the Giry monad provides a formal semantics for this system.


: The authors found that after either surgical or conservative treatment ankle dorsiflexion played a significant role in patients with reruptures and also in those who did not rerupture. They believe that patients who are either casted or treated by surgical repair with their foot in equinus may have a greater chance of rerupture.


Taking Jiangsu and Xinjiang Provinces in China as examples, this paper analyzes the differences of income level, income structure and consumption level between eastern and western China. Since the reform and opening up, income of rural residents in eastern China has been much higher than that in western China. Income gap between eastern and western rural residents is increasing over time. Rural per capita net income in eastern area is mainly the net income from household management and the wage income. However, rural per capita net income in western area is relatively single, mainly the net income from household management. Living consumption of eastern rural residents is higher than the western rural residents and the gap is gradually widening. Four factors affecting the consumption level of rural residents in both eastern and western areas are discussed, which are natural environment, social culture, economic and technical level and policy system. According to the relevant data in the years 1993-2007, Regression Analysis Method is adopted to study on the effect of income structure on consumption level of rural residents in eastern and western China. Result shows that according to the structure of income sources, difference of consumption level between eastern and western areas is mainly caused by the difference of wage income; while differences of net income from household management and property transferred income have little effect on the difference of living consumption level. Based on this, relevant suggestions are put forward. On the one hand, western region should accelerate the promotion of urban-rural integration, make great efforts to develop secondary and tertiary industries in order to optimize the income structure of rural residents, and effectively improve the level of wage income of rural residents. On the other hand, eastern area should promote the coordinated development of three industries, and maintain the advantages in urbanization and industrialization levels.


Energy and environmental regulations often result in the generation of unforeseen marketable by-products that can reduce costs of compliance. This research evaluates a unique case in which the marketability of by-products produces positive external benefits. Specifically, this paper focuses on flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum by-product produced by coal-fired electric plants using sulfur dioxide (SO2) scrubbing technology to comply with the emission standards set by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA). Intuitively, the ability to market FGD gypsum provides incentives for electricity generating plants to operate their scrubbers more efficiently by providing gypsum revenues, and lowering gypsum disposal costs. Increased operating efficiency creates external benefits attributed to reduced SO2 emissions that would otherwise not have occurred. In order to estimate the impact of FGD gypsum marketability on SO2 emissions, a unique longitudinal database is constructed that merges electricity plants' boiler-level SO2 emissions data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with data on scrubber operations and coal quality available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Boiler fixed-effect estimations suggest annual SO2 emissions decline by 3,494 tons as a result of gypsum marketing. This corresponds with a 39% average reduction in SO2 emissions at boilers marketing FGD gypsum. The total benefits associated with the reduced SO2 emissions are estimated between $147.1 billion and $350.6 billion (2011$), or between 0.9% and 2.1% of the total benefits of the U.S. CAA from 1990 to 2010.


What happens when anthropologists lose themselves during fieldwork while attempting to understand divergent cultures? When they stray from rigorous agendas and are forced to confront radically unexpected or unexplained experiences? In Extraordinary Anthropology leading ethnographers from across the globe discuss the importance of the deeply personal and emotionally volatile "ecstatic" side of fieldwork. Anthropologists who have worked in communities in Central America, North America, Australia, Africa, and Asia share their intimate experiences of tranformations in the field through details of significant dreams, haunting visions, and their own conflicting emotional tensions. Their experiences demonstrate the necessary fluidity of research agendas, the value of going beyond an accepted (and safe) cultural and academic vantage point, and the inevitability of wrestling with tension and unhappiness when faced with irreconcilable cultural and psychological dichotomies. The contributors explore ways in which conventional research methods can be adapted to creatively engage the intellectual, ethical, and practical dimensions of these dislocations and capitalize on them. Unsettling and revealing, Extraordinary Anthropology will spark debate and reflection among anthropologists for years to come.


This study examined the relationship between corporate taxation and foreign direct investment in Nigeria from 1970-1980. The annual reports were sourced from the CBN statistical bulletin, NBS and World Bank which were analyzed using Descriptive Statistic, correlation and regression. The independent variable corporate taxation was measured using corporate tax rate (CTR) whilst dependent variable foreign direct investment was measured using FDI net inflow (% of GDP). GDP, exchange rate and inflation rate were used as control variables. The result showed negative significant relationship between CTR and FDI whilst exchange rate and FDI indicated negative insignificant relationship. However, GDP was positively insignificantly related with FDI whilst inflation had positive significant relationship with FDI. Based on the findings, the study recommended that there is need for the government to lo reduce corporate tax rate in order to attract FDI into the country.


Inequalities in voter participation between groups of the population pose a problem for democratic representation. We use administrative data on 6.7 million registered voters to show that a previously-ignored characteristic of voters—access to a personal automobile—creates large disparities in in-person voting rates. Lack of access to a car depresses election day voter turnout by substantively large amounts across a variety of fixed-effects models that account for other environmental and voter characteristics. Car access creates the largest hindrance to voting for those people who live farther from the polls. These effects do not appear for absentee voting, suggesting a simple policy solution to solve large disparities in political participation. This study contributes to the theoretic understanding of political participation as well as the impact of potential policy reforms to solve participatory gaps.


In order to improve the aquaculture monitoring system in China, this paper designs a system adopting the SIMATIC S7-200 CPU226 and PID control algorithm to make real-time monitoring and controlling for the water level and temperature of closed circulating aquaculture system, thus it can realize constant control of water level and temperature in the culture pond. The overall control scheme and principle of the system are introduced in detail, followed by the structure design of the system software and hardware. The designed system can efficiently achieve system logic control, safety control, fault display and fault treatment.


A basic protein with a molecular weight near 17,000, related serologically to the normal serum γ2-globulins, has been isolated in crystalline form from the urine of a patient with multiple myeloma. Proteins of this size along with the Bence-Jones molecules whose inolecular weight is about 35,000 can provide subunits for studies of the structure of the serum γ-globulins.


This paper deals with a basic question: How central is rice to the Filipino, what are its implications for understanding the way we approach and regard rice, and what do they indicate about Filipino culture? To answer this question, the paper focuses on the structural position of most Filipinos vis-a-vis rice. The paper argues that, at present, most Filipinos relate to rice as consumers rather than as producers of rice. From that perspective, the paper explores certain cultural practices that may shed light on the role of rice in Filipino culture. In particular, the paper traces the transformation of rice from a prestige and mainly elite food to the staple food by the end of the nineteenth century. This was accompanied by a change in perception of the rice plant that removed the magical elements. Rice today is primarily a consumer product the consumption of which reflects the stratification of Filipino society, as supported by quantitative data on contemporary trends in rice consumption. The paper concludes with reflections on the diminished centrality of rice in Philippine culture as a consumer commodity. The commoditization of rice is linked to urbanization, industrialization, and the Green Revolution.


Accurately reconstructing the paleogeography of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; ca. 57,000 to ca. 29,000 yr B.P.) is critical for understanding glacial growth toward the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), refining sea-level histories, and studying the Earth system response to rapid climate change events. Here, we present a geochronological data set useful for testing hypotheses of global sea level and refining ice sheet configuration through this interval. Data (n = 735) span the entire MIS 3 interval and consist of 14C determinations (n = 651), cosmogenic exposure ages (n = 52), and optically stimulated luminescence dates (n = 32). On that basis, we hypothesize that the central region of the LIS underwent a dramatic reduction in ice from ca. 52 to 40 ka. Key to this hypothesis are geological records at sites in the Hudson Bay Lowlands (east central Canada) that suggest a marine incursion and development of terrestrial landscapes. We show that these landscapes are consistent with recently published glacial isostatic adjustment predictions that include widespread deglaciation of the eastern (Labrador) sector of the LIS with ice buildup over the western (Keewatin) sector at 42 ka. Ice growth from this minimum toward the LGM is likely to have been rapid. The agreement between this data set and modeling predictions prompts the reassessment of key Late Pleistocene records, including Heinrich events, loess deposition in the continental United States, and sedimentological records from the Gulf of Mexico.


The precise orientation of the ommatidia in the Drosophila eye is achieved through a specialized process of cell migration taking place in the third‐instar eye imaginal disc when ommatidial clusters rotate by 90 degrees. This process is strictly coordinated with the establishment of planar cell polarity (PCP), but it relies on a specific set of genes that control its mechanism independently from PCP signaling. Recently, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway has been implicated in determining ommatidial rotation. We have isolated a new allele of echinus, a gene known to control the patterning and number of interommatidial cells. We show that echinus displays defects in the rotation of ommatidia that are not evident until mid‐pupal stages, and we propose that echinus action is that of opposing EGFR by an unknown mechanism and that this can explain both its influence in ommatidial rotation and lattice programmed cell death (PCD). Developmental Dynamics 236:2936–2942, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a systematic approach to predict service quality dimension's influence on service quality using a novel analysis based on data envelopment and SERVQUAL. Design/methodology/approach To assess hospital service quality in Tehran, expectation and perception of those who received the services were evaluated using SERVQUAL. The hospital service quality dimensions were found by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). To compare customer expectation and perception, perceived service quality index (PSQI) was measured using a new method based on common weights. A novel sensitivity approach was used to test the service quality factor's impact on the PSQI. Findings A new service quality dimension named "trust in services" was found using EFA, which is not an original SERVQUAL factor. The approach was applied to assess the hospital's service quality. Since the PSQI value was 0.76 it showed that improvements are needed to meet customer expectations. The results showed the factor order that affect PSQI. "Trust in services" has the strongest influence on PSQI followed by "tangibles," "assurance," "empathy," and "responsiveness," respectively. Practical implications This work gives managers insight into service quality by following a systematic method; i.e., measuring perceived service quality from the customer viewpoint and service factors' impact on customer perception. Originality/value The procedure helps managers to select the required service quality dimensions which need improvement and predict their effects on customer perception.