Some properties of conditioning a Gaussian random field on point value data and derivative data is investigated. Linear predictors with or without a linear trend are considered. Derivative data are seen to improve predictions and the corresponding prediction errors are reduced. The predictors are extensions to the well known simple and universal kriging predictors. The covariance functions between different components of the derivative fields are the key component entering the predictors. They are given by partial derivatives of the covariance function of the Gaussian random field. Spatial symmetries such as stationarity and isotropy are used to restrict the number of covariance functions. In particular isotropy reduces complexity and a general framework for utilising this spatial symmetry is established. Properties of the predictors and the associated prediction error are studied in detail for some particular isotropic covariance functions. The importance of the smoothness of the random field on the predictor and the prediction error is illustrated. This text was first published as part of Abrahamsen (1997).


We consider possible non-signaling composites of probabilistic models based on euclidean Jordan algebras. Subject to some reasonable constraints, we show that no such composite exists having the exceptional Jordan algebra as a direct summand. We then construct several dagger compact categories of such Jordan-algebraic models. One of these neatly unifies real, complex and quaternionic mixed-state quantum mechanics, with the exception of the quaternionic "bit". Another is similar, except in that (i) it excludes the quaternionic bit, and (ii) the composite of two complex quantum systems comes with an extra classical bit. In both of these categories, states are morphisms from systems to the tensor unit, which helps give the categorical structure a clear operational interpretation. A no-go result shows that the first of these categories, at least, cannot be extended to include spin factors other than the (real, complex, and quaternionic) quantum bits, while preserving the representation of states as morphisms. The same is true for attempts to extend the second category to even-dimensional spin-factors. Interesting phenomena exhibited by some composites in these categories include failure of local tomography, supermultiplicativity of the maximal number of mutually distinguishable states, and mixed states whose marginals are pure.


Survival from colorectal cancer is positively associated with vitamin D status. However, whether this association is causal remains unclear. Inflammatory processes may link vitamin D to colorectal cancer survival, and therefore investigating inflammatory markers as potential mediators may be a valuable next step. This review starts with an overview of inflammatory processes suggested to be involved in colorectal cancer progression and regulated by vitamin D. Next, we provide recommendations on how to study inflammatory markers in future epidemiologic studies on vitamin D and colorectal cancer survival. Mechanistic studies have shown that calcitriol—active form of vitamin D—influences inflammatory processes involved in cancer progression, including the enzyme cyclooxygenase 2, the NF-κB pathway, and the expression of the cytokines TNFα, IL1β, IL6, IL8, IL17, and TGFβ1. Based on this and taking into account methodologic issues, we recommend to include analysis of specific soluble peptides and proteins, such as cytokines, in future epidemiologic studies on this issue. Vitamin D and the markers should preferably be measured at multiple time points during disease progression or recovery and analyzed using mediation analysis. Including these markers in epidemiologic studies may help answer whether inflammation mediates a causal relationship between vitamin D and colorectal cancer survival. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 24(12); 1820–8. ©2015 AACR.


In offshore production systems for oil and gas, the wells are usually controlled manually, while the topside process is controlled using a decentralized control system. It is clear that this control structure may not be economically optimal. In the work of this thesis, one decentralized and two MPC based control systems were designed, integrating the control of the production wells and the topside process of an offshore production system. The performance of the controllers was tested in a simulation study with three different disturbance scenarios, defined in collaboration with Hydro. The simulations were also carried out using a manual control scheme, enabling a performance comparison between the designed controllers and the control conventions of today. The automatic controllers showed a significant increase in oil throughput over the manual control scheme, while performing quite similarly when compared to each other. It is however expected that the MPCs will outperform the decentralized control system in a case with a larger number of wells than was used in the simulations of this thesis. The potential of achieving additionally smoothened topside outflow rates by applying a supervisory MPC for topside setpoint manipulation was also demonstrated.


On the 15th of July 2008, EDF announced its decision to build the first tidal turbine demonstration farm in France to produce electricity from the energy of tidal currents. Between 2011 and 2012, a few turbines representing several MW will be installed and connected to the grid off Paimpol-Bréhat (Brittany). EDF R&D has been developing the Telemac-2D software. Over the past twenty years, that allows to model and simulate river and coastal hydrodynamic phenomena. At the Paimpol-Bréhat site, it is used to calculate tidal current characteristics and to assess the tidal energ y yield potential produced by turbines exploiting such currents. The zone where the farm is to be built is characterised with respect to tidal current potential. Data comes from a numerical Telemac-2D model of the Paimpol-Bréhat zone and current measurements from ADCP deployed at sea in 2005 and 2008. The use of realistic data taken from a site appears to be among the crucial technical parameters for site selection and the optimal positioning of the devices within the array. Different methodologies for tidal resource assessment are described and compared. In particular, the respective strengths and weaknesses of some farm methods used in the Paimpol-Bréhat site study are discussed on the basis of a theoretical nine-turbine farm.


Bangladeshi Bengali migration to Canada is a response to globalization processes, and a strategy to face the post-independent social, political and economic insecurities in the homeland. Canadian immigration policy and the Multicultural Act that were adjusted to meet labour demands in local job markets encouraged the building of a new and growing Bangladeshi Bengali immigrant community in Canada. The general objective of this research is to explore how Bangladeshi immigrants' national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, and class identities that were shaped within historical and political contexts in Bangladesh are negotiated in new immigrant and multicultural contexts in Toronto. By looking at various identity negotiation processes, this research aims to critically examine globalization theories in social science, and multicultural policies in Canada. More specifically, the objective is to determine whether transnational migration to Canada as a global process creates homogeneity, disjuncture, hybridity, or inequality in Bangladeshi immigrants' lives in Toronto, and how Bangladeshi Bengalis as an ethnic and cultural group relocate their identity within Canadian multiculturalism.
In order to address these objectives and issues, one year of in-depth anthropological research was conducted among the Bangladeshi immigrants in Toronto between 2007 and 2008. The core research location was the Danforth and Victoria Park area, but in order to address class diversity, respondents from Dufferin and Bloor Streets, Regent Park, and Mississauga areas were incorporated. Applying snowball and purposive sampling techniques, and identifying key informants, 75 Bangladeshi immigrant families were selected from three religious groups – Muslim, Hindu, and Christian. In-depth personal interviews, case studies and focus group discussions were conducted among these Bangladeshi immigrants.
This research underscores that, on one hand, Bangladeshi Bengali immigrants negotiate and re-define their "proper" ethnic, cultural, nationalist, and religious identities by imagining, memorizing, simulating, and celebrating local traditions. On the other hand, immigrants define "authentic" identity by creating "separations" and "differences" based on colonial and nationalist histories. Religious differences, the ideology of "majority and minority", and social classes play major roles in shaping identity. This study finds that multicultural diasporic immigrant space is neither a disjointed, nor an in-between space, nor a place where ethnic cultures are only "consumed", but it is a battleground to resist and challenge religious and gender inequalities in a globalized location. Bangladeshi Bengali identity is both fixed and contextually variable; identity is shaped in response to political contexts of both global and local.


The collapse of late Permian (Lopingian) Gondwanan floras, characterized by the extinction of glossopterid gymnosperms, heralded the end of one of the most enduring and extensive biomes in Earth's history. The Sydney Basin, Australia, hosts a near-continuous, age-constrained succession of high southern paleolatitude (∼65–75°S) terrestrial strata spanning the end-Permian extinction (EPE) interval. Sedimentological, stable carbon isotopic, palynological, and macrofloral data were collected from two cored coal-exploration wells and correlated. Six palynostratigraphic zones, supported by ordination analyses, were identified within the uppermost Permian to Lower Triassic succession, corresponding to discrete vegetation stages before, during, and after the EPE interval. Collapse of the glossopterid biome marked the onset of the terrestrial EPE and may have significantly predated the marine mass extinctions and conodont-defined Permian–Triassic Boundary. Apart from extinction of the dominant Permian plant taxa, the EPE was characterized by a reduction in primary productivity, and the immediate aftermath was marked by high abundances of opportunistic fungi, algae, and ferns. This transition is coeval with the onset of a gradual global decrease in δ13Corg and the primary extrusive phase of Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province magmatism. The dominant gymnosperm groups of the Gondwanan Mesozoic (peltasperms, conifers, and corystosperms) all appeared soon after the collapse but remained rare throughout the immediate post-EPE succession. Faltering recovery was due to a succession of rapid and severe climatic stressors until at least the late Early Triassic. Immediately prior to the Smithian–Spathian boundary (ca. 249 Ma), indices of increased weathering, thick redbeds, and abundant pleuromeian lycophytes likely signify marked climate change and intensification of the Gondwanan monsoon climate system. This is the first record of the Smithian–Spathian floral overturn event in high southern latitudes.


Abstract Background: The results of several international studies indicate a high prevalence of language and communication impairments among children who are referred to child psychiatric services. However, these impairments are likely to remain undetected unless language and communication impairments are evaluated during the psychiatric assessment. Aims: The aim of the present study is to investigate the specific association between general and specific mental health problems, as expressed by the problem scales of Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Teachers Report Form (TRF), and pragmatic skills and pragmatic language impairments (PLI) as defined the Pragmatic Composite of the Child Communication Checklist (CCC-PC). Methods: Children aged from 8 to 13 years (n = 73) were recruited in sequence following referral to a child and adolescent psychiatry (CAMHS) outpatient clinic within 12 months. Children with possible or established autism or intellectual disability were excluded. Standardized instruments measuring language, communication and mental health symptoms were distributed to parents and teachers, an intelligence test administered for clinical purposes, and demographic information was included. Results: The parent reports showed PLI among 38% of the children and revealed strong associations with the CBCL scales for emotional problems, thought problems and, especially, social and withdrawal symptoms, which mean more associations to internalized and non-externalized problems. PC-scores were at similar levels and PLI was reported by teachers at similar rates (compared to parent reports) with moderate agreement. Teacher PC-scores showed associations to only one TRF-scale, social problems. The CCC-PC subscale with the strongest associations to mental health symptoms was «Use of Context» («Social Relationships» do not contribute to the CCC-PC scores). Conclusion: There was a general increase in PC-scores and increased prevalence of PLI in this clinical sample. PC-scores correlated with symptom scores for internalizing and non-externalizing problems scales. The strongest common factors appear to be related to the social aspects of mental health. Pragmatic skills should be considered as a protective factor for mental health rather than investigating pragmatic impairment as a risk or vulnerability factor.


Measurements on 8 intrusive igneous bodies belonging to the central intrusive complex of Mull show that the earlier parts of the complex are reversely magnetized, whereas the later parts are normally magnetized. Interpretation of these results and of published polarities of other parts of the Tertiary igneous succession is ambiguous because of the possibility of overprinting due to the heat of the central complex. Model 1 assumes that all polarities are primary and requires a polarity sequence R-N-R-N-R; Model 2, which assumes overprinting, requires only R-N-R. A combination of radiometric dating and reference to the polarity time-scale limits the duration of activity to c. 3.5 Ma, at about 58 Ma.


In portfolio selection, it often might be preferable to focus on a few top performing industries/sectors to beat the market. These top performing sectors however might change over time. In this paper, we propose an online portfolio selection algorithm that can take advantage of sector information through the use of a group sparsity inducing regularizer while making lazy updates to the portfolio. The lazy updates prevent changing ones portfolio too often which otherwise might incur huge transaction costs. The proposed formulation leads to a non-smooth constrained optimization problem at every step, with the constraint that the solution has to lie in a probability simplex. We propose an efficient primal-dual based alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm and demonstrate its effectiveness for the problem of online portfolio selection with sector information. We show that our algorithm OLU-GS has sub-linear regret w.r.t. the best fixed and best shifting solution in hindsight. We successfully establish the robustness and scalability of OLU-GS by performing extensive experiments on two real-world datasets.


The extrusion of a space frame must be followed by forming operations of some kind to obtain the desired shape/curvature, for example a stretch bending process. Therefore, one has to face with problems as production tolerances and cross-sectional distortions of the curved product. In house experience combined with trial–and–error procedures have been traditionally used to cope with the said problems. Aircraft frames show significant residual stresses as a consequence of plastic forming processes. A great number of variables, such as initial frame length and/or final additional stretch, can influence the stress state of frames determining their life and efficiency under operating loading conditions. In the present paper, we refer about the experimental evaluations of the residual stress state of aircraft frames which have carried out taking into account different process parameters. The experimental results obtained and discussed show some interesting trends: they demonstrate that the residual stresses of the formed component can be controlled and reduced.


A number of schemes have been used in distributed database systems to coordinate the execution of the subtransactions of a global transaction. We study the performance of a simple modification to the basic two phase commit protocol called Prudent Two Phase Commit protocol. The protocol gives the transaction a second chance before it decides to abort it. This prudent approach prevents a transaction from aborting in case of transient communication failures and hence improves system performance and reliability. To measure the performance of this protocol, we simulate a distributed database system. The performance of this simulated distributed system is measured while using the Prudent, Basic, and Optimistic Two Phase Commit protocols. The results of this simulation study are presented with a discussion and interpretation of the graphs generated by the simulation. The results confirm the improvement in system performance with the Prudent Two Phase Commit Protocol.


Weakly-supervised Temporal Action Localization (W-TAL) aims at simultaneously classifying and locating all action instances with only video-level supervision. However, current W-TAL methods have two limitations. First, they ignore the difference in video representations between an action instance and its surrounding background when generating and scoring action proposals. Second, the unique characteristics of the RGB frames and optical flow are largely ignored when fusing these two modalities. To address these problems, an Action Coherence Network (ACN) is proposed in this paper. Its core is a new coherence loss which exploits both classification predictions and video content representations to supervise action boundary regression and thus leads to more accurate action localization results. Besides, the proposed ACN explicitly takes into account the specific characteristics of RGB frames and optical flow by training two separate sub-networks, each of which is able to generate modality-specific action proposals independently. Finally, to take advantage of the complementary action proposals generated by two streams, a novel fusion module is introduced to reconcile them and obtain the final action localization results. Experiments on the THUMOS14 and ActivityNet datasets show that our ACN outperforms the state-of-the-art W-TAL methods, and is even comparable to some recent fully-supervised methods. Particularly, ACN achieves a mean average precision of 26.4% on the THUMOS14 dataset under the IoU threshold 0.5.


INTRODUCTION: WHAT WAS THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD? The Underground Railroad was part of a larger effort to undo an unconscionable, immoral act perpetrated against humanity, in the form of chattel slavery. It was a crucial driving force in the abolitionist movement, drawing the country more and more into the abyss of civil war and the eventual collapse of of the institution of slavery. As part of that larger effort the Underground Railroad can be seen as having been: 1. Flight from bondage 2. The theft of self in face of unjust laws 3. Black and white in defiance of the law to rescue the enslaved 4. Humanity joined together against inhumanity 5. Challenge to American doctrines: a) freedom b) equality c) justice 6. Abolitionism, abolitionist, and the law 7. Slavery, enslaved, and the slave owner 8. Ongoing struggle for total freedom in USA 9. The fight against depersonalization & dehumanization 10. A moral challenge to an immoral mindset 11. An added thread to an unfinished journey of human freedom: Quilting of the American Dream--Freedom! 12 An ongoing lesson in the evolution of American freedom, and the role of African Americans and their friends of freedom in that evolutionary process In that larger picture, the Underground Railroad was in response to an American paradox at the beginning of the country's history, when the founding fathers moved to enslave the African while extending the fruits of freedom to white indentured servants. One response from those totally denied freedom was the elaborate network of clandestine cells across the northern tier of the country that assisted scores of fugitive slaves to freedom. This monumental effort was in direct defiance of the Constitution into which slavery had been written, and federal edits such as the initial Fugitive Slave law of 1793. Defiance intensified with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The story to be told of the Underground Railroad is that it was a moral challenge posed to a nation that had lost its moral compass; and around which rallied morally committed individuals whose own freedom was not worth much so long as others were enslaved. In the words of one writer, "the Underground Railroad was not a route, but a network; not an organization, but a conspiracy of thousands of people banded together for the deliberate purpose of depriving their southern neighbors of their property (in defiance of the law). It was like a ferment beneath the surface of southern society, and was at the core of the country's moral dilemma." (1) The underground movement was such a formidable force "it called forth [that] ignominious fugitive slave law" and eventually "brought on the Civil War" and the destruction of slavery. (2) NEW YORK CITY'S HISTORICAL PRECEDENT New York City's involvement in the Underground Railroad was quite extensive, and took its precedent from flight and rebellion of the enslaved prior to the antebellum period. In their own way, pre-ante-bellum enslaved Africans fashioned a clandestine system of flight and refuge from their bondage, first under the Dutch and the British, then under the Americans after the Revolutionary War. This was part of a tradition of resistance to enslavement by Africans, beginning as captives in Africa and on the high seas, and as human chattel in the City of New York. Both the Slave Rebellion of 1712 and the "Negro Plot" of 1741 exemplify the strength of that tradition, and the extent and risks the enslaved were willing to take to regain a lost freedom. Early evidence for the kind of support afforded fugitives on the Underground Railroad during the antebellum period, can be seen with the establishment of the New York Manumission Society in 1785. From its inception, the Society worked in tandem with the black community in the city. Between 1785 and 1849 it was "the primary local institution responsible for prosecuting kidnappers, disseminating information on the legal rights of blacks, and protecting the city's black children, who were a frequent target of kidnapping. …


Investor sentiment refers to investors' confidence in the market based on their subjective beliefs. Investor sentiment has become a topic of substantial interest among academicians as investor sentiment induces uninformed demand shocks, which can potentially drive away stock prices from their fundamental value. This study expands the literature on the effect of investor sentiment on stock market returns by constructing an Investor sentiment index for the Indian market. We use Nifty-Fifty returns and the sample period ranges from April 2012 to March 2022. The Principal Component Technique is employed to construct an investor sentiment index using seven market and firm implicit proxies: advances to decline ratio, buy-sell imbalance ratio, equity issues to total issues, volatility premium, share turnover, price-earnings ratio, and turnover volatility ratio. The regression analysis shows that the investor sentiment index has the predictive power to forecast Nifty-Fifty returns.


We consider an infectious disease spreading along the edges of a network which may have signicant clustering. The individuals in the population have heterogeneous infectiousness and/or susceptibility. We dene the outtransmissibility of a node to be the marginal probability that it would infect a randomly chosen neighbor given its infectiousness and the distribution of susceptibilities. We dene the in-transmissibility symmetrically to be the probability of being infected. For a given distribution of out-transmissibility, we nd the conditions which give the upper [or lower] bounds on size and probability of an epidemic, under weak assumptions on the transmission properties, but very general assumptions on the network. We nd similar bounds for a given distribution of in-transmissibility (the marginal probability of being infected by a neighbor). We also nd conditions giving global upper bounds on size and probability. In the special case of networks with high girth (locally tree-like), we are able to prove stronger results. In general the probability and size of epidemics are maximal when the population is homogeneous and minimal when the variance of in- or out-transmissibility is maximal.


The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected largest population of world in several aspects. The consequences of this pandemic are multidimensional. Developing countries like India, where health care system is already struggling with many problems, and sudden outburst of COVID-19 created major challenges in terms of public health management. During management of COVID-19 patients, in second most populous country of world, Indian health care system is overburdened. This has left impact on overall health care management of COVID-19 and non COVID-19 patients. Objective: To review the public health crisis created during COVID-19 in India. Method: Various articles and studies performed during COVID-19 related to health care management are referred to have critical review of COVID-19 situation, its management and public health care challenges. Result: In the process of containing COVID-19 spread and treatment various measures and guidelines has been adopted regarding health care like restrictions on hospitalization of other than COVID-19 patients, curtailing surgeries etc. Diversion of health care system to COVID-19 patients has affected essential health services like Immunization, ANC services, treatment for Non-communicable diseases. Conclusion: Preparation of health care system for future pandemic like conditions by instituting a regular audit at health care centres and hospitals has become necessary. Need of investing in infrastructure, effective planning and overall strengthening of primary health care services has been identified. It is foremost step to ensure their functioning during emergencies without affecting regular basic health services, which majorly contributes in population health.


This master thesis describes the first steps in the development of a new approach for effective collaborative product development and delivery. The approach is based on Active Knowledge Modeling (AKM) and the Collaborative Product and Process Design (CPPD)Methodology© from the advisory consulting firm Commitment AS. Active Knowledge Modeling is a holistic modeling approach and will together with the CPPD Methodology eventually provide support for entire product life-cycles, all the way fromcustomer need analysis to design, manufacturing and servicing. There are two main aims for this report. The first is to provide an understanding of what AKM is, and why it should be applied to develop emergent, active architectures. The second aimis to demonstrate and explain one of the CPPD modules called Configurable Visual Workplace orCWV. CVW is a workplace that is particularly useful in the early stages of product design and development, but has its advantages in all project phases. The user will be able to capture, manage, adapt and reuse all relevant information and knowledge created during the planning and execution of projects. CVW should also be able to effectively share this information with other users and enterprises, and provide the user with customizable ways of viewing the data. Access to core customer and product competence is key for the creation of value in an enterprise. A pilot Configurable Visual Workplace has already been developed at Commitment AS, and through the demonstration of this CVW, an early understanding of the advantages of working in an Active Knowledge Architecture (AKA) will surface. Some of the challenges associated with the further development of CVW and the other CPPD components will also be discussed. The chosen industrial pilot case for building such a workplace is the Shell Eco-Marathon team from NTNU with their car, the DNV Fuel Fighter. Three workplaces have been created, one for the project leader, one for the person responsible for the suspension system and one for the person responsible for the motor controller. The modeling of these workplaces, as well as themeans for the users to model information and tasks related to the project are also described inthis report. The Configurable Visual Workplace is only one of at least six CPPD components that need to be realized in order for AKM to provide a holistic approach and solution to project design and product development. The results in this report will therefore form the basis for several master theses to come, in order for the AKM approach and the CPPD methodology to be fully operational and provide maximum customer value.


In recent years, research on grief complications has focused on the development and validation of Complicated Grief diagnostic criteria for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Even though research has shown that complicated grief is a disorder distinct from other psychiatric disorders such as PTSD and MDD, there are still concerns about the validation and conceptualisation of the proposed criteria. In this article, we review findings and different concepts with regard to complicated grief. Key issues are the currently proposed diagnostic criteria, differentiation between traumatic and non-traumatic bereavement, and relational aspects of the grief process.


The significance of respiratory droplet transmission in spreading respiratory diseases such as COVID-19 has been identified by researchers. Although one cough or sneeze generates a large number of respiratory droplets, they are usually infrequent. In comparison, speaking and singing generate fewer droplets, but occur much more often, highlighting their potential as a vector for airborne transmission. However, the flow dynamics of speech and the transmission of speech droplets have not been fully investigated. To shed light on this topic, two-dimensional geometries of a vocal tract for a labiodental fricative [f] were generated based on real-time MRI of a subject during pronouncing [f]. In these models, two different curvatures were considered for the tip tongue shape and the lower lip to highlight the effects of the articulator geometries on transmission dynamics. The commercial ANSYS-Fluent CFD software was used to solve the complex expiratory speech airflow trajectories. Simultaneously, the discrete phase model of the software was used to track submicron and large size respiratory droplets exhaled during [f] utterance. The simulations were performed for high, normal, and low lung pressures to explore the influence of loud, normal, and soft utterances, respectively, on the airflow dynamics. The presented results demonstrate the variability of the airflow and droplet propagation as a function of the vocal tract geometrical characteristics and loudness.


The presence of water in room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) can have a strong effect on their properties. In particular, water adsorption at electrodes can reduce the electrochemical potential window of the system. It is thus important to understand where water will be present depending on the electrode potential, the type of ionic liquid and the electrode material. We investigate the influence of water on RTILs by measuring the potential dependent double layer capacitance of various water-RTIL mixtures. The resulting capacitance versus potential curves are reproduced employing mean-field theory calculations. From the parameters used to obtain the best agreement between experimental and theoretical curves some properties of the RTILs can be deducted, such as a stronger interaction of water with RTIL anions than cations and an agglomeration of water at potentials positive or negative of the potential of zero charge.


Long-term serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) infusion produces a sustained reduction in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and elicits a decrease in total peripheral resistance (TPR) through a mechanism dependent on nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in rats. We sought to determine if the reduction in TPR induced by 5-HT is caused by NOS-dependent relaxation of vessels to all major organs of the body or selective action on a single vascular bed. Alzet mini-pumps containing vehicle (saline) or 5-HT (25 μg/kg/min) were implanted in male Sprague Dawley rats. One-week prior to pump implantation, rats were either: (1) switched to drinking water containing the NOS inhibitor N-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA; 0.5 g/L), or (2) maintained on tap water. 5-HT reduced MAP after 24 hours (veh = 87±3, 5-HT = 75±2 mm Hg; p<0.05), which was prevented by L-NNA (L-NNA/5-HT= 115 ±10 mm Hg; p<0.05). After 24 hours of 5-HT infusion, yellow-green fluorescent microspheres, used to determine blood flow (300, 000 spheres; size 15μm), were introduced into the left ventricle of the heart. Microspheres were recovered in arterial reference blood sample and organs using sedimentation through centrifugation. The fluorescence intensity of the dye extracted from the microspheres was measured by spectrophotometery. 5-HT significantly decreased resistance to the spleen (48%), small intestine (35%), and adrenal (70%) compared to vehicle-treated animals, and this decrease was abolished by L-NNA. By contrast, resistance to the ear (175%) was increased by 5-HT. Resistance to other organs (brain, liver, lungs, kidneys and muscle) did not show a statistically significant reduction by 5-HT. Collectively, these findings underscore the importance of the splanchnic circulation and NOS in 5-HT-induced reduction in blood pressure.


A set of 12 cotton genotypes were evaluated during the main growing seasons, from 1985 to 1990 at Abobo , which is characterised by low elevation (530 meters above sea level) and a sub-humid climate. The same genotypes were tested in all years. Combined analysis of yield data indicated significant differences among genotypes and environments. Genotype-environment interaction was highly significant, indicating differential performance of the cultivars in an array of environments. For each cultivar a linear regression of yield on the mean yield of all cultivars for each year was computed to measure cultivar adaptation. The cultivars with the highest mean yield exhibited a similar degree of adaptation to different environments with regression coefficient close to 1.0. For example, the breeding lines, Acala 1517Br x AMS1 (74)#11, A-333-57, showed average stability with regression coefficient (b) approximating 1.0, and all produced above average yield in all years indicating general adaptability. On the other hand, Albar 637 and Reba B-50 also had regression coefficient (b) approximating 1.0, but they consistently produced below average yields in different environments which indicated that they were poorly adapted to different environments. The check cultivar ( L-299-10), typical of cultivars specifically adapted to high yielding environments, was characterised by the highest regression coefficient (b=1.2), while Lafrego bract 2, with regression coefficient (b=0.85), typified cultivars specifically adapted to low yield.
(African Crop Science Journal: 2000, 8(2): 153-158)


This paper describes the concept of the integral music controller (IMC), a controller that combines gestural interface with direct emotional control of a digital musical instrument. This new controller enables the performer to move smoothly between direct physical interaction with an acoustical musical instrument, and gestural/emotional control of the instrument's physical model. The use of physiological signals to determine gesture and emotion is an important component of the IMC. The design of a wireless IMC using physiological signals is described and possible mappings to sound synthesis parameters are explored. Controlling higher level musical systems such as conducting and style modelling is also proposed.


Recently more focus has been put to the development of innovative drug-delivery systems that includes liposomes and solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs). An in vitro study was conducted to determine the effect of solid lipid nanoparticle on the human breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB231). The SLNs based on palm oil were prepared using the high pressure homogenization method and were characterized by the particle size and polydispersity index (particle sizer), zeta potential (zetasizer), ultrastructure [transmission electron microscopy (TEM)] and MTT assay and natural red assay. Homogenization of solid lipid nanoparticles at 1000 bar for 20 cycles produced particles with 145.00±3.39 nm in size and zeta potential of -19.50±1.80 mv. The SLNs were generally round and uniform in shape. The cytotoxicity of the components of the SLN formulation was low: SLN with 1% oleyl alcohol displayed no significant cytotoxicity effect on breast cancer cells. In the light of these findings, SLN stabilized with 30% lecithin and 1% oleyl alcohol as nonionic co-surfactant in aqueous phase was found to be safe for cells and the acceptable for the incorporation lipophilic drugs.


Bone is a dynamic tissue that is constantly renewed. The cell populations that participate in this process--the osteoblasts and osteoclasts--are derived from different progenitor pools that are under distinct molecular control mechanisms. Together, these cells form temporary anatomical structures, called basic multicellular units, that execute bone remodeling. A number of stimuli affect bone turnover, including hormones, cytokines, and mechanical stimuli. All of these factors affect the amount and quality of the tissue produced. Mechanical loading is a particularly potent stimulus for bone cells, which improves bone strength and inhibits bone loss with age. Like other materials, bone accumulates damage from loading, but, unlike engineering materials, bone is capable of self-repair. The molecular mechanisms by which bone adapts to loading and repairs damage are starting to become clear. Many of these processes have implications for bone health, disease, and the feasibility of living in weightless environments (e.g., spaceflight).


Prior research has examined consumer behavior toward partitioned pricing in various capacities, including types and number of surcharges and the use of dollars versus percentages. Given the fact partitioned pricing is not employed in every country, this investigation focused on consumer behavior toward this pricing strategy based on familiarity with partitioned pricing and cultural differences. An experimental design was implemented to examine South Korean and US sport consumers' attitudes and behaviors related to ticket prices for a mega-sporting event. The findings showed all-inclusive pricing, in general, is preferred and culture does not significantly impact consumer behavior in this context. Additionally, familiarity moderated the relationship between cultural differences and consumer behavior. Consumers who were familiar with partitioned pricing were more attracted to partitioned pricing ticket offers and had higher purchase intentions compared to consumers who were less familiar with the practice. Implications of these findings are discussed along with directions for future research.


Scarabaeoidea superfamily (Insecta: Coleoptera) as a bioindicator element of anthropogenic disturbance in an amazon national park. Insects have been recognized to be important indicators of the quality elements of ecosystems, among others, because of their rapid response to environmental variability and ease cost-effective capture. In this work we evaluated whether beetles of the Scarabaeoidea superfamily may be used as bioindicators of anthropogenic disturbance of Amazonian terra firme rain forests, in order to provide guidelines for monitoring strategies of the Amacayacu National Park. We considered three different levels of anthropogenic disturbance (i.e. low, medium, high) in 12 transects (four in each intervention level), and caught all beetle species of this superfamily. Three interception traps, two light traps, three pitfalls and four bottle fruit traps were used per transect, as well as manual catch. In total, 593 individuals belonging to 92 species, 44 genera and seven families were collected. Scarabaeidae (n=232, 27 spp.) and Dynastidae (n=161, 26 spp.) were the families with the highest number of individuals and species, while Aphodiidae, Cetoniidae and Geotrupidae exhibited the lowest. The most abundant species per family were Ateuchus sp. (33.2%) from Scarabaeidae, Cyclocephala verticalis (55.9%) from Dynastidae, Astaena sp. (75.8%) from Melolonthidae, Ceratocanthus amazonicus (66.7%) from Ceratocanthidae y Chaetodus asuai (96.8%) from Hybosoridae. Results showed that the number of species and individuals increased with the anthropogenic disturbance. The Margalef and Shannon indexes also revealed that the highest richness and equity occurred in the high-disturbed site, respectively. Dynastidae exhibited the highest number of exclusive species per gradient, while Scarabaeidae shared most of its species. Ten species were recorded in the three disturbance levels, 26 species in two and 56 species were exclu- sive to one level. The most abundant species Chaetodus asuai (Hybosoridae) presented a significant decrease in the number of individuals as disturbance increased, while an inverse relationship occurred for C. verticalis (Dynastidae). For Astaena sp. (Melolonthidae) and Ligyrus gyas (Dynastidae) a high number of individuals was recorded and were exclusive for one forest site (low and high disturbed forest, respectively). The complete superfamily cannot be used like a single bioindicator element because it displays, in a specific level, very dif- ferent behaviors in each disturbance condition. We discuss the use of richness and diversity as indicators of disturbance, while we highlight abundance of particular taxa as a better metric for disturbance. Rev. Biol. Trop. 61 (2): 735-752. Epub 2013 June 01.


Three methods to fabricate continuous FePt films with graded magnetic anisotropy for bit patterned media (BPM) were evaluated. Continuous FePt films with surface roughness of less than 0.3 nm were achieved in continuous FePt hard magnetic films, FePt/Fe exchange coupled composite (ECC) films and FePt/Fe based graded films. Depositing an Fe-rich film on FePt at high temperature was found to form large grains and cause the film surface very rough for BPM fabrication. Depositing Fe on FePt at room temperature and then annealing it to create graded anisotropy through the layer interdiffusion process was demonstrated to fabricate FePt/Fe based graded BPM. The continuous FePt films with hard layer only, ECC structure and graded magnetic anisotropy were patterned using a di-block copolymer self-assemble hard mask method with 25 nm dot size over 2-inch substrate. The switching field distribution (SFD) broadening and degradation of FePt BPM was studied. The reduction of SFD was achieved using a postannealing process. It was confirmed that the patterned graded BPM sample has smaller switching field and larger thermal energy barrier than the ECC sample.


This paper presents a novel approach to design a four and eight parallel pipelined fast Fourier transform (FFT) architecture based on canonic signed digit multiplier. This approach is based on use of decimation in time algorithm which reduces the number of delay elements up to some extent compared to decimation in frequency based design. The number of delay elements required for an N point FFT architecture is N4 which is comparable to that of delay feedback schemes. The number of complex adders required is approximately 50% less than the other feedback designs. The proposed architecture can be extended to any radix 2n based FFT algorithm. This proposed architecture is based on feed forward designs and can be pipelined up to more stages to increase the throughput.


J Bone Joint Surg [Br] 2007;89-B:323-6. Received 17 July 2006; Accepted after revision 6 December 2006 The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the accuracy of two different methods of navigated retrograde drilling of talar lesions. Artificial osteochondral talar lesions were created in 14 cadaver lower limbs. Two methods of navigated drilling were evaluated by one examiner. Navigated Iso-C3D was used in seven cadavers and 2D fluoroscopy-based navigation in the remaining seven. Of 14 talar lesions, 12 were successfully targeted by navigated drilling. In both cases of inaccurate targeting the 2D fluoroscopy-based navigation was used, missing lesions by 3 mm and 5 mm, respectively. The mean radiation time was increased using Iso-C3D navigation (23 s; 22 to 24) compared with 2D fluoroscopybased navigation (14 s, 11 to 17).


In the attempt to find bio-based alternatives for PMMA as host matrix for luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs),
two types of renewable polyesters were synthesized. A series of random homopolymers from diethyl 2,3:4,5-di-
O-methylene galactarate (GxMe) + isosorbide (IGPn) and polymers from 1,3-propanediol + terephthalate + GxMe
(GTPn) were prepared in varying molar ratios via a two-step melt-polycondensation reaction with dibutyl tin
oxide as catalyst. IGP05, for which the ratio GxMe:Isosorbide was 1:1 (Mw=3000 g mole-1) and GTP03, for which the ratio GxMe:terephthalate was 1:1 (Mw=20000 g mole-1), showed optimal thermal properties and optimal
compatibility with Lumogen Red 305 (LR). Thin film LSC systems were prepared from four polymers and spectroscopic characterization showed results similar or superior to PMMA-based thin film LSCs. The maximum
optical efficiency for the IGP05/LR films was 8.50% at 1.4 wt.% and for the GTP03/LR films it was 7.73% at 1.4
wt.%, which is higher than the 7.41% found for the PMMA/LR 1.4 wt.% film. Both polymers are therefore
considered excellent bio-based replacements for the state-of-the-art PMMA as host matrix for thin film LSCs. In addition, it was decided to also prepare films with new fluorophores. Three other organic fluorophores than the state-of-the-art LR were used and based respectively on the benzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bisthiazole unit (BBT), the
dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]silole heterocyclic unit (DTS) and eventually one aggregation induced emission fluorophore
(TTF). TTF/GTP03 films showed similar behavior as LR/PMMA films in terms of absorption and emission intensity,
as well as quantum yield. With a maximum optical efficiency of 7.01% for the 1.4 wt.% TTF/PMMA film, TTF
performed almost as well as LR. BBT/PMMA films showed an interesting red-shift at high dye concentrations,
probably linked to the formation of red-emitting aggregates in the polymer matrix. The highest optical efficiency of 5.78% was obtained for the 1.4 wt.% BBT/PMMA film. DTS/PMMA films showed poor optical efficiency (3.56%), due to low quantum yields for all dye concentrations, probably linked to the formation of non-emissive aggregates in the polymer matrix. Due to its high optical efficiency, the TTF fluorophore has the most potential to replace LR in large scale LSC production.


Book synopsis: Addresses the altered states of political parties and politics in the post-Cold War era.

With the passage of the Cold War, political parties in nearly every corner of the globe have undergone a vast upheaval. Old ideas have become obsolete, electoral maps have been redrawn, party structures have been rebuilt, and new leaders have emerged. Political Parties and the Collapse of the Old Orders describes these changes using several countries as laboratories: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Israel, South Africa, and Russia. While the nature and extent of the political upheavals vary from place to place, the transformations in each nation's party system have been extraordinary. In this "new world order," the old political arrangements and old ways of doing things have disappeared. The altered states of political parties in the post-Cold War world pose a central question: what does change look like? The answers given here illuminate our understanding of why the world has changed and how political parties are attempting to cope with it.

"There are several dimensions to this work which I especially like. First and foremost, the work is the only body of scholarship which explores on a global scale the place of political parties within the context of the post-Cold War era. It is therefore timely, comprehensive, and unique. The scope of the material is impressive. Second, the work will take students into political systems where relatively little is known regarding partisan and electoral politics. It will be an excellent educational tool. Third, the work is deep, probing, and rich in data. It is not an impressionistic volume, but instead empirically based. For these three reasons, I find much value in this work." -- Gary L. Rose, author of 'The American Presidency Under Siege'


The Bio-Crystallography beamline (BL41XU) dedicated for X-ray crystallography of biological macromolecules is a public beamline opened from October, 1997. The X-ray source is an in-vacuum type standard undulator at SPring-8, and a rotated inclined double-crystal monochromator includes a pin-post water cooling silicon crystal on which a tremendous heat load from the undulator deposits. The focal spot in an experimental station has a size of 200 micron and 300 micron in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. The flux is 5×1012 photons/sec for 12.4 keV X-rays at a storage ring current of 100 mA. In order to align optical elements and a diffractometer after every changes of X-ray energy and sample-detector distance, an automated procedure has been developed within the energy range from 6.5 keV to 37.5 keV. The diffractometer specially designed for macromoleculer crystallography at BL41XU is working with a CCD detector and imaging plate detectors. BL41XU has been constructed for two scientific targets: (1) routine structure analyses of biological macromolecules on the MIR-OAS technique and (2) X-ray crystallography on biologically significant supra-complexes and macromolecules crystallized only into a small size less than 50 micron. Almost of beamline commissioning required for the first target have been completed and many crystal structures have already been reported. For the second target of beamline construction, the commissioning will be continued to open the frontier of structural biology.


Seed quality is an important factor in rice production. Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) is a seedborne disease of rice that cause serious yield losses in Indonesia. Experiments were conducted at the Laboratory of Rice Research Babakan, IPB, Bogor; Laboratory of Seed Science and Technology at IPB, Bogor; and the Laboratory of Seed PT. EWSI, Purwakarta, from April to August 2011. The objective of this research was to determine the effectiveness of coating Xoo contaminated rice seeds with biological agents on plant growth and crop yield. The experiments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with one factor (seed coating treatment),i.e. T0 = negative control, healthy seed; T1 = positive control, the seeds contaminated with Xoo; T2 = P. diminuta A6 and B. subtilis 5/B; T3 = alginate 3% + 1% peat + P. diminuta A6 and B. subtilis % 5/B; T4 = arabic gum 3% + 1% gypsum + P. diminuta A6 and B. subtilis 5/B; T5 = CMC 1.5% + 1% talc + P. diminuta A6 and B. subtilis 5/B, and T6 = bactericide streptomycin sulfat 4%. The results showed that seed coating treatment with with 3% alginate + 1% peat + P. diminuta A6 + B. subtilis 5/B was the best treatment based on the percentage of full and empty grain weight per panicle, and the percentage of number of full and empty grains per panicle.


The paper summarises the lessons and conclusions of a large study of over 100 recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's Passions, Brandenburg Concertos and Goldberg Variations issued between around 1945–1976. In the first part it gives an overview of the state of performance practice scholarship in the first three quarters of the 20th century. In the second part it deals with the role of instruments, vocal practices, tempo, ornamentation, rhythm and articulation in creating the style of a performance. It argues that articulation stemming from early instrumental technique and based on the metric organisation of rhythm is the key element of a historically oriented style. This, however, has not been fully recognised during the period. Among scholars only Sol Babitz discussed it at length prior to the mid-1980s while on record it appeared sporadically from late 1960s onwards, but almost exclusively in the performances of Leonhardt and Harnoncourt. 7 figures, musical examples, summary list of recordings referred t...


There is a big gap in the level of maturity of implementation technologies and design strategies for aspect-oriented systems. Implementation-wise aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) has made remarkable progress and a number of efficient technologies have been developed but there is no de-facto design solution for AOSD available yet. Existing design strategies either provide strategies for designing aspects neglecting non-aspectual constructs or they provide complicated and hard-to-adopt strategies which are not easy to work with for traditional UML designers. This paper proposes a new design language for aspects which works with Unified Modelling Language in a single design environment. Some new design notations have been introduced for representing aspects and their key elements, and new models have been proposed to design structural and behavioural characte-ristics of aspects.


Abstract A series of 4-amino-2-(substituted)-5-(substituted)aryl-6-[(substituted)aryl)-amino]pyrimidines was designed based on the triangular pharmacophoric requirements for histamine Hi-receptor antagonists. The designed molecules were synthesized by condensation of arylacetonitriles with respective arylisothiocyanates to form corresponding acrylonitriles followed by cyclocondensation with carboxamidines to afford substituted pyrimidines. All compounds were screened for their histamine H1-receptor antagonistic activity using the model "Inhibition of the isotonic contraction induced by histamine on isolated guinea pig ileum". Target compounds were also evaluated for their sedative potential as well as their anticholinergic activities as these two are known to be the common adverse effects of histamine H1-receptor antagonists. Compounds 2 h, 2 i, 2 j and 2 k exhibited potent histamine H1-receptor antagonistic activity, which was found to be comparable with the standard drug, cetirizine (CAS 83881-51-0) and more potent than the conventional drug mepyramine (CAS 91-84-9). Some of the compounds have displayed very low sedative potential compared to diphenhydramine (CAS 58-73-1), but was found higher than cetirizine. None of them showed anticholinergic activity indicating potentialities of this series to be developed as second-generation histamine H1-receptor antagonists.


The Phenomenal increase in the number and variety of small and micro businesses represents one of the most significant developments in Kenyan economy since the conspicuously present in the urban centers and the countryside and all sectors of the economy. Some are registered with either the Central government or the local authorities or both and, thus, operate formally while others are not. It is estimated that there were about 90,000 such businesses operating in the country in 1995 (Gemini, 1995). In the literature on the Kenyan businesses, a distinction is often made between four categories or enterprises, namely micro, small, medium and large. Micro enterprises are those that have less than ten employees, small enterprises employ from ten to fifty people, and medium and large firms have more than fifty employees. This paper focuses on small enterprises. However, the word "small" is used to refer to all businesses employing fifty or less people. In other words, no distinction is made between "micro" and "small" enterprises. This is necessitated by the fact that the prevalence of various forms of flexible or loose employment contracts in many micro and small businesses in the country makes such classification less useful since, among other things, the total number of man-hours and the total wage ill are not necessarily a function of the total number of employees. For convenience, the tern "small business sector" is used to refer to the entire population of the micro and small businesses operating in the country.


Rugby union, alongside other collision and contact sports, faces ever mounting pressure from increased recognition of concussive injuries and the risks they present to athletes, both in the short-term and long-term. Here, the media is a central component of increasing pressure for cultural change. This research analysed data from 524 self-selected survey respondents to examine rugby union fans' and stakeholders' perceptions of media portrayal of concussion and how it might influence their own perceptions. We found evidence of a complex and heterogenous relationship between perceptions of masculinity, views and attitudes toward mass media, and degree of involvement in rugby union. Specifically, partisans of the sport generally saw mass media as hostile, with coverage biased against rugby, allowing them to manufacture doubt regarding risk information, as well as maintaining involvement in the sport. We conclude that critical commentaries from the media have the ability to challenge masculinities around concussion.


This paper discusses how n components, which may be programs or circuits, in a computer system can be controlled so that (1) at most one component may perform a designated "critical" operation at any instant and (2) if one component wants to perform its critical operation, it is eventually allowed to do so. This control problem is known as the mutual exclusion or interlock problem. A summary of the flow table model [Stanford University Department of Computer Science report STAN-CS-70-160] for computer systems is given. In this model, a control algorithm is represented by a flow table. The number of internal states in the control flow table is used as a measure of the complexity of control algorithms. A lower bound of n + 1 internal states is shown to be necessary if the mutual exclusion problem is to be solved. Procedures to generate control flow tables for the mutual exclusion problem which require the minimum number of internal states are described and it is proved that these procedures given correct control solutions. Other so-called "unbiased" algorithms are described which require 2.n! internal states but break ties in the case of multiple requests in favor of the component that least recently executed its critical operation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the tradeoffs between central and distributed control algorithms.


The era of edge computing has arrived. Although the Internet is the backbone of edge computing, its true value lies at the intersection of gathering data from sensors and extracting meaningful information from the sensor data. We envision that in the near future, majority of edge devices will be equipped with machine intelligence powered by deep learning. However, deep learning-based approaches require a large volume of high-quality data to train and are very expensive in terms of computation, memory, and power consumption. In this chapter, we describe eight research challenges and promising opportunities at the intersection of computer systems, networking, and machine learning. Solving those challenges will enable resource-limited edge devices to leverage the amazing capability of deep learning. We hope this chapter could inspire new research that will eventually lead to the realization of the vision of intelligent edge.


The glycine-alanine repeat domain (GAr) of Epstein-Barr virus–encoded nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) prevents major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I–restricted presentation of EBNA1 epitopes to cytotoxic T cells. This effect has previously been attributed to the ability of GAr to inhibit its own proteasomal degradation. Here we show, both in vitro and in vivo, that GAr also inhibits messenger RNA translation of EBNA1 in cis and that this effect can be distinguished from its effect on proteasomal degradation. Hence, inhibition of messenger RNA translation, but not protein degradation, is essential to prevent antigen presentation on MHC class I molecules. Thus, by minimizing translation of the EBNA1 transcript, cells expressing EBNA1 avoid cytotoxic T cell recognition. At the same time, blocking degradation maintains the EBNA1 expression level.


We present a draft assembly of the genome of European pear (Pyrus communis) 'Bartlett'. Our assembly was developed employing second generation sequencing technology (Roche 454), from single-end, 2 kb, and 7 kb insert paired-end reads using Newbler (version 2.7). It contains 142,083 scaffolds greater than 499 bases (maximum scaffold length of 1.2 Mb) and covers a total of 577.3 Mb, representing most of the expected 600 Mb Pyrus genome. A total of 829,823 putative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected using re-sequencing of 'Louise Bonne de Jersey' and 'Old Home'. A total of 2,279 genetically mapped SNP markers anchor 171 Mb of the assembled genome. Ab initio gene prediction combined with prediction based on homology searching detected 43,419 putative gene models. Of these, 1219 proteins (556 clusters) are unique to European pear compared to 12 other sequenced plant genomes. Analysis of the expansin gene family provided an example of the quality of the gene prediction and an insight into the relationships among one class of cell wall related genes that control fruit softening in both European pear and apple (Malus×domestica). The 'Bartlett' genome assembly v1.0 (http://www.rosaceae.org/species/pyrus/pyrus_communis/genome_v1.0) is an invaluable tool for identifying the genetic control of key horticultural traits in pear and will enable the wide application of marker-assisted and genomic selection that will enhance the speed and efficiency of pear cultivar development.


Considering that tires play a vital role not only in the performance but also in the safety of a vehicle, studying the tire-road interaction has always been a matter of interest, specifically when the tire is travelling on icy roads. However, most of the existing studies focused on tire performance on ice for traction or braking conditions [1,2] and not many studies have been devoted to the free rolling of a tire. Considering the tire in its free rolling condition is a necessary step in assessing the friction force at the tire-ice interface, which can be used next to predict the torque to be applied on the tire in order to create a zero slip condition in the tire-ice contact patch. The zero slip condition is always difficult to obtain, as it needs a very accurate assessment of the effective rolling radius of the tire.
 This study is a part of a more comprehensive study to investigate the effects of different tire parameters, such as rubber compounds properties on tire performance on ice.
 For the work presented in this paper the main objective is benchmarking the results from existing methods for obtaining the effective rolling radius of the tire and the equivalent dynamic friction coefficient of the tire on ice. The investigation approach was to experimentally study a tire under free rolling on ice. A set of experiments were thus designed and conducted for the Standard Reference Test Tire (SRTT) on a layer of ice in the Terramechanics Rig in the Terramechanics, Multibody and Vehicle Systems laboratory (TMVS) Laboratory at Virginia Tech under different applied normal load and various inflation pressure conditions. The data collected from the tests performed was used to obtain and compare the result for effective rolling radius of the tire and equivalent friction coefficient. The data collected on the Terramechanics Rig by the 6-axis wheel load measurement system P650 by Kistler was processed to eliminate the noise of the raw data using zero-phase filtering techniques in MATLAB.
 Other parameters measured during the tests conducted were the tire loaded radius, the width of contact patch, and the temperature distribution in the tire-ice contact patch.


At the opening of a meeting to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique, by W.M.S. Russell and R.L. Burch, and the 40th anniversary of the establishment of FRAME, some comments on the early days of the Charity are made, with particular reference to the special contributions made by its founder-Chairman, Dorothy Hegarty, and the author's own appointment as a Trustee, and later as Chairman. Reference is made to some key events and successes, and especially to the importance of FRAME's move from London to Nottingham, and the establishment of an ongoing collaboration with the University of Nottingham, including the setting-up of the FRAME Alternatives Laboratory.


Abstract. This paper describes the new developments of the Ship
Traffic Emission Assessment Model (STEAM) which enable the modelling of
pollutant discharges to water from ships. These include nutrients from
black/grey water discharges as well as from food waste. Further, the
modelling of contaminants in ballast, black, grey and scrubber water, bilge
discharges, and stern tube oil leaks are also described as well as releases of
contaminants from antifouling paints. Each of the discharges is regulated
by different sections of the IMO MARPOL convention, and emission patterns of
different pollution releases vary significantly. The discharge patterns and
total amounts for the year 2012 in the Baltic Sea area are reported and open-loop SO x scrubbing effluent was found to be the second-largest pollutant
stream by volume. The scrubber discharges have increased significantly in
recent years, and their environmental impacts need to be investigated in
detail.


Bochdalek hernia is a congenital defect of the diaphragm that usually presents in the neonatal period with life-threatening cardiorespiratory distress. It is rare for Bochdalek hernias to remain silent until adulthood. A 57-year-old woman presented with history of difficulty in swallowing, as well as retching. There was no history of abdominal or thoracic trauma. A chest x-ray showed the herniated stomach clearly. Computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen showed a herniated volvulus of the stomach, along with left posterolateral diaphragmatic hernia. The defect was repaired by a single incision laparoscopic technique. We present the first case of a posterolateral diaphragmatic hernia repaired by a reduced port laparoscopic technique in an adult, after an extensive literature search yielded no precedents. This report validates the feasibility of reduced port laparoscopic repair of Bochdalek hernia in an adult, and should be within the remit of the advanced laparoscopic surgeon.


Foreign Language Education Policy (FLEP) needs to be understood as part of broader educational policies and as situated within overarching social macro plans. In this paper, based on a conception of policy as distinct from goals and objectives, and with a view of the relevant literature, we will present some theoretical guidelines of setting and/or evaluating foreign language education policies in the context of broader social and educational policies. Considering theses guidelines a point of departure, several national plan-based documents and in some cases non-finalized documents that reflect some aspects of language education policies of Iran were examined to find the directions and orientations of these plans and the (in)consistencies among them: The 20-year National Vision; The Comprehensive Science Roadmap; The National Curriculum; Policies of the 5th 5-year Development Plan; The National Document of Education; Philosophy of Education in the Islamic Republic of Iran; Fundamental Principles in Islamic Education; and Roadmap of the Official and General Educational System. Referring to the strengths along with some shortcomings and inconsistencies among these documents as well as the statues of English in the so called global village, we call for a separate unitary FLEP document for Iran and present the requirements and procedure for its actualization.


In this study, In order to improve size selectivity of red mullet (Mullus barbatus) and annular seabream (Diplodus annularis), 44 mm knotless hexagonal mesh codend (AGT 44), 40 mm knotless poliamid codend (PA 40) and 44 mm knotless polyethylene codend (PE 44) were in-vestigated in bottom trawls net. Experiments were carried out by R/V 'EGESUF' between 03.02.2009 and 27.08.2009 with 900 meshes modified trawl net in around of Gulbahce Bay and Hekim Island. A hooped covered codend technique was used for estimating selectivity pa-rameters. Individual and pooled data selectivity parameters were determined with CC2000, mean selectivity parameters were calculated with EC Modeller programmer. Twelve with AGT 44, 10 with PA 40, 3 with PE 44 valid trials were carried out. For red mullet L50 values were estimated 15.2 ± 0.0 cm, 14.2 ± 0.0 cm and 13.5 ± 0.1 cm in AGT 44, PA 40 and PE 44, re-spectively. For annular sea bream L50 values were determined 10.6 ± 0.0 cm, 9.8 ± 0.0 cm and 9.3 ± 0.1 cm in AGT 44, PA 40 and PE 44, respectively. As a result, a lot of fish which have different morphological characters can be caught in Aegean Sea trawl fishery. A mesh size and type appropriate for one species will be unsuitable for many others. Therefore, in addition to size selectivity, species selectivity and fish behavior studies need to be investigated.


Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone is required for maintenance of early pregnancy and is a potential marker in the diagnosis and prognosis of both pregnancy and trophoblastic diseases. Murine hybridomas were generated against purified hCG. Seven hybrid clones secreting antibodies against hCG molecule with IgG1/kappa subclass were established. The indirect ELISA result demonstrated that six MAbs (BEL-1 to BEL-6) recognized hCG in both holo and free beta subunit form with negligible cross-reactivity against a closely related hormone, human luteinizing hormone (hLH). In this fusion, only one MAb (ALC-1) showed a cross-reaction with hLH, which designated an alpha subunit specific. The outcome of Western blot ascertained that ALC-1 recognized the conformational epitope on alpha subunit of hCG at Mr 23 kDa band in nonreducing condition (NR). In contrast, epitopes belonging to all MAbs recognized beta subunit of hCG were in linear peptide structure at Mr 34 kDa band (NR) and Mr 26 kDa band (R). These six MAbs were further characterized by using two beta subunit carboxy-terminal synthetic peptides (beta109-119 and beta109-145). Three of them (BEL-1, BEL-3, and BEL-4) recognized only epitope harboring in beta109-145 fragment, the others recognized both types of the synthetic peptide. In order to select the most suitable MAbs specific to beta subunit of hCG for exploiting with ALC-1 in the sandwich-type immunometric assay, competitive ELISA was employed. Six individual MAbs specific to beta subunit of hCG were used to compete with biotinylated ALC-1 to evaluate the proximity of their epitopes on the holo form of hCG molecule. Of all six MAbs, BEL-5 depicted the lowest percent inhibition result, which indicated the bottom-most steric hindrance effect. Consequently, MAb BEL-5 will be the most appropriate antibody to utilize in concert with ALC-1 in place of devising a sandwich-type immunometric assay for measuring holo-hCG level.


who later required oxytocin to accelerate progress did not differ s,ignificantly from bilirubin levels in those infants whose mothers entered labour spontaneously and did not subsequently need oxytocin. The findings of Dr. Gould and colleagues only confirn theEe observations. What we did record, however, were raised serum bilirubin levels in the infants of mothers whose lalbours had been artificially induced by amniotomy and followed immediately by oxytocin infusion. Because these mothers received higher doses of oxytocin for more prolonged periods than mothers in whom oxytocin was used only to accelerate the progress of labour, it was felt that this possible effect of oxytocin on neonatal jaundice was dose-dependent. However, an alternative explanation was also suggestednamely, that this association between higher bilirubin levels and maternally administered oxytocin was a spurious one and that instead the infants of mothers who had not entered labour spontaneoufly were perhaps peculiarly susceptible in some other way to neonatal jaundice. The effects of other drugs administered to these mothers before and during labour and differences in the corticosteroid status of their infants2 were suggested as perhaps having a role. It would be interesting if Dr. Gould and his colleagues could provide data relating neonatal jaundice to oxytocin infusion when this has been used to induce rather than to expedite labour.-We are, etc., D. P. DAVIES Department of Child Health, Welsh National School of Medicine, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff R. GOMERSALL


The growth and use of social networking sites worldwide has by all accounts been a remarkable global social and cultural phenomenon. Social networking sites have brought both opportunities and challenges, and have certainly raised some legal issues and concerns especially in the area of privacy and safety. Schools have also had to deal with the ever increasing use of social networking sites by students, as well as by teachers and parents. Although social networking sites are popular with students and teachers, and may provide useful educational tools, they have raised concerns about students and others posting personal information, including photographs, of students on websites for the world at large to potentially view and access. Given the concerns about privacy and safety, some schools have moved to ban the taking and publication of school photographs, other than official school photographs, in the interest of student safety and privacy. However, this has caused some confusion about when photographs at school and away from school may be taken, by whom and for what purpose. The purpose of this article is to clarify the legal position regarding privacy rights, and the rights and limitations of taking photographs within the school context. The first part of the article provides a brief overview of privacy rights and protection of personal information in Australia. The second part of the article discusses the taking and use of images of students for school purposes and a school's rights to regulate the taking and use of students' images by others. The article concludes with a few practical policy guidelines.


We have developed a liquid material for embolization of arteriovenous malformations that is a mixture of ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer and metrizamide dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide. Upon contact with blood, dimethyl sulfoxide rapidly diffuses into the blood and forms an ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer elastic soft sponge that obstructs both the feeder and the nidus. The material, which is not adhesive, was used for embolization of three left cerebral arteriovenous malformations with satisfactory results.


Recent work by Carles Boix and Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson has focused on the role of inequality and distributive conflict in transitions to and from democratic rule. We assess these claims through causal process observation, using an original qualitative dataset on democratic transitions and reversions during the "third wave" from 1980 to 2000. We show that distributive conflict, a key causal mechanism in these theories, is present in just over half of all transition cases. Against theoretical expectations, a substantial number of these transitions occur in countries with high levels of inequality. Less than a third of all reversions are driven by distributive conflicts between elites and masses. We suggest a variety of alternative causal pathways to both transitions and reversions.


We present an approach for detecting and tracking independently moving objects from a mobile platform using uncalibrated stereo cameras. Firstly, scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) features are detected and a novel multiview matching method is proposed for simultaneous stereo matching and motion tracking of the detected features. A multiview geometric constraint, derived from the relative camera positions in pairs of consecutive stereo views, is then derived for independent motion detection. Finally, a dimensional variable particle filter is introduced for joint detection and tracking of multiple independently moving objects. Experimental results on real-world stereo sequences demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our method.


textabstractMega-regional trade agreements represent the latest attempt of states to shape and to impact economic globalisation through international cooperation. They pursue a threefold goal: Increasing economic benefits for the participating countries through the reduction of non-tariff barriers to trade and investments 'behind the borders'; consolidating regional cooperation for geopolitical purposes and strengthening the regulatory capacity of the participating countries through elevating the setting of regulatory standards at the international level. In realising this goal, mega-regionals have to be able to react to market developments at the global level and to regulatory developments within the participating states. In order to serve their purpose, these agreements have to be dynamic. Such dynamisation can be achieved by joint committees of the participating countries equipped with decision-making rights. The CETA committee system represents an embryo of how a well-functioning governance structure of mega-regionals could look like. Yet, the more decision-making rights are delegated from national lawmakers to transnational treaty bodies, the more there is a need to ensure the democratic legitimacy when making use of delegated powers. This requires, at the national level of the participating states, a better inclusion of national Parliaments in the ex post control of such decisions. But also at the level of the international cooperation the delegation of extensive powers calls for an own mechanism to ensure the democratic legitimacy of the treaty bodies' actions. The establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly would be recommendable. As regards CETA and its governance, an enhanced inclusion in the ex post control of CETA committee decisions of the Parliaments of the contracting parties appears to be sufficient to close the detected democratic deficit because of its comprehensive scope. The powers currently conferred upon CETA bodies are more extensive than in any previous EU trade agreement but not so extensive it would require democratic control at CETA level.


One of the most interesting topics in modern multimedia research, as well as one of the most important tasks in modern audiovisual content providing systems is the treatment of content and users at a semantic level. In this framework, mapping user profiles to multimedia content is a challenging and important problem, as the new generation of home television viewers is currently being confronted with a series of technological developments and improvements, targeted towards their expectations from TV broadcasts. This paper presents initial results from our ongoing work in the field of semantic multimedia analysis, retrieval and user profile extraction in the framework of an interactive video environment, within the MELISA project (E. Papaioannou et al., 2004); this project aims at the cross-media broadcasting of sports events featuring interactive advertising and sports-related games over digital television and provides services for personalized presentation of interactive time video content. Initially, it extends on previous work on low level multimedia content, like scene and shot detection, contour extraction and object tracking, descriptor extraction and matching, and semantic document analysis, in the direction of extraction of semantic user preferences. Such preferences can then be utilized towards the personalization of the overall retrieval process and the multimedia content offering to the end-users. To tackle the latter issue, we propose a methodology based mainly on the utilization of a novel mechanism of weights definition, which are combined with the automatically extracted profiling information.


Description: As regulations push the fossil fuel industry toward increasing standards of eco-friendliness and environmental sustainability, desulfurization (the removal of SO2 from industrial waste byproducts) presents a new and unique challenge that current technology is not equipped to address. Advances in nanotechnology offer exciting new opportunities poised to revolutionize desulfurization processes. Applying Nanotechnology to the Desulfurization Process in Petroleum Engineering explores recent developments in the field, including the use of nanomaterials for biodesulfurization and hydrodesulfurization. Readers: The timely research presented in this volume targets an audience of engineers, researchers, educators as well as students at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.


1. ABSTRACT: Techniques for landslide risk management in Australia have evolved considerably since the publication of the first formal process in 1985. The Australian Geomechanics Society recently published the next generation of updated landslide risk documents in 2007. The estimation of landslide likelihood is fundamental to the outcome of the landslide risk management process. However, experienced practitioners still re-gard this component as one of the most difficult and challenging aspects of the assessment as it requires information about the age of landslides, an understanding of landscape processes and the rate of slope evolution. Such information is difficult to obtain and is often not a core competency among practitioners undertaking landslide risk assessment. In order to provide insight into the methods of estimating and constraining landslide likelihood, a number of different geomorphological approaches are herewith reviewed through a series of selected Australian cases studies. Whilst the case studies highlight inherent limitations and uncertainties they also demonstrate how geomorphological studies can provide validation and constraints to a quan-tification of likelihood and ultimately risk.


The present paper shows the preliminary results of a project that looks for a high power, high efficiency bidirectional step-up converter which could be used as a battery discharge/charge regulator. High efficiency and low mass are the main goals, no galvanic isolation is required and MTBF should be as large as possible. Taking into account all these parameters our proposed solution has been a new topology based on a Boost converter with output filter and that couples input and output inductor. The use of a bidirectional converter reduces the mass of the overall charge/discharge subsystem and lowers cost and component count. Stability has been studied theoretically and verified experimentally.


Leadership games provide a powerful paradigm to model many real-world settings. Most literature focuses on games with a single follower who acts optimistically, breaking ties in favour of the leader. Unfortunately, for real-world applications, this is unlikely. In this paper, we look for efficiently solvable games with multiple followers who play either optimistically or pessimistically, i.e., breaking ties in favour or against the leader. We study the computational complexity of finding or approximating an optimistic or pessimistic leader-follower equilibrium in specific classes of succinct games—polymatrix like—which are equivalent to 2-player Bayesian games with uncertainty over the follower, with interdependent or independent types. Furthermore, we provide an exact algorithm to find a pessimistic equilibrium for those game classes. Finally, we show that in general polymatrix games the computation is harder even when players are forced to play pure strategies.


We present a demonstration of two error-correction coding schemes that can successfully operate on a free-space optical (FSO) communication channel subject to atmospheric turbulence. The codes (a puntured Low-density parity-check code and a Raptor code) operate by continuously adapting the information rate to accommodate the varying channel conditions. Because these coding schemes require the use of a feedback channel, we evaluate the bandwidth cost incurred. The evaluation of the codes is performed offline and uses experimental optical signals recorded from an FSO link. We analyze the temporal characteristics of the experimental channels and compare the performance of the codes for different bit rates to asses the effect of temporal correlation and imperfect channel state information.


This paper discusses creation of a support tool (SIMULINK model) for collaborative work process modelling and optimisation based on Simulation Driven Design (SDD). The purpose is to improve the studied company's ability to develop hardware-based services in an early concept stage, and to predict performance of a given service scenario before development. The approach is useful as a decision-support tool in evaluating and prioritising business offers and activities in the business offer process. The modelling and simulation approach minimises the cost of each concept and allows simulation of a number of different concepts before the actual work is carried out.


Author(s): KALE-LOSTUVALI, ELIF | Advisor(s): Lie, John | Abstract: This study uses the public controversy that erupted around the research partnership between the University of California, Berkeley and British Petroleum founding the Energy Biosciences Institute as an entry point into a three-part analysis in the sociology of knowledge, broadly defined. A systematic reconstruction of the controversy and review of existing scholarship on changes in the American science regime, transformation of public research universities and the politics of emerging technologies indicate that both lay and scholarly accounts on these related phenomena can be organized roughly under two headings. Under one heading, observers draw on an implicit or explicit attachment to the Enlightenment ideal of reason to wage critiques that are not adequately attentive to the conditions of production of science and technology. Under the other, observers offer detailed accounts of university-industry research relations, changes in universities and developments in technoscience, but without adequate critique. To move beyond this impasse, I propose to resuscitate Robert K. Merton's proposal to theorize science as an institution in relation to its societal context, but dispense with the idea of "relative autonomy" that informs both his and Pierre Bourdieu's theories of science. Taking the Energy Biosciences Institute as a signpost for key forces shaping science and technology today, I argue that the production of reliable knowledge is strongly interdependent with economic capital and technology, and that this interdependence renders the stipulation of autonomy obsolete. Combining this argument with insights from science and technology studies regarding (i) the variety of products of research, (ii) the dissolution of the boundary between science and technology; and (iii) how technoscience is inherently political, I argue that it is the nature of associations and engagements that shapes science's perils and promise for different constituencies. In this framework, the basis for critique is no longer the loss of autonomy, but the lack of democracy resulting from inequalities of various forms of capital. This proposed shift in the basis of critique helps advance the definition and defense of the public interest in debates on universities and on technoscience.


In recent years, many studies have highlighted significant differences between the mathematical performances of white middle-class boys and several other groups of children with other demographic characteristics. The ways teachers perceive marginalization influence how they make sense of diverse classrooms and how they can actively support pupils from marginalized backgrounds. Discussions about who is marginalized in school mathematics vary across different countries. In Scotland, not least at the level of policymaking, marginalization is typically associated with social class and children ' s socioeconomic backgrounds. The main aim of this paper is to explore Scottish teachers ' perceptions of the roots of marginalization in school mathematics. Participants were 29 teachers from different school levels (eight early-years, 11 primary, and 10 secondary teachers). Drawing on data from individual semi-structured interviews, our thematic analysis indicated that teachers ' responses mainly reflected the social-class/poverty discourse of policymakers, while very few recognized other marginalizing variables (for example, gender, English language competence). Yet, none of the teachers talked about how such variables may be interlinked. In conclusion, the intersectional character of marginalization (structural interplay of variables such as race, class gender, sexuality, disability etc.) needs to be promoted more explicitly in initial teacher education and continuous professional development programs.


Cloud computing is a state of the art technology that provides services to individuals and organizations on demand via the Internet. Implementation of cloud services in an organization will lead to improved performance and reduced cost related to computing services. A number of previous studies suggest that there is a need to further investigate the role of gender on the adoption of cloud computing, especially in developing countries. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of gender in the adoption of cloud computing services by university students in KSA. To meet the research objective an SEM study was conducted using responses from 451 Saudi higher education students to determine the role of gender on could computing acceptance in KSA context. The findings of this research show that there is a settle difference between female and male students where trust was found to be a significant determinant of behavioural intention for female students but not for their male counterparts. On the other hand, image was found to be a significant determinant of PU for male students but not for female students.


Measuring the Degree of Market Integration in the Processed Food Industry The increased level of market integration in the processed food industry through trade, foreign direct investment, and the expanded use of intellectual property rights are an observed phenomenon of the past three decades. Measurement of market integration is problematic, and the role of FDI in market integration has not been adequately taken into consideration. This study measures the growth in the market shares of multinationals in selected countries and industries to indicate the degree of market integration. We also employ a market share convergence type model to estimate whether the market shares of the multinationals and domestically owned firms in key markets have converged to some steady state during the years 1991 to 2003.


OBJECTIVES To compare the scientific methodology and quality of articles published in Anales Espanoles de Pediatria and Medicina Clinica. MATERIAL AND METHODS A stratified and randomized selection of 40 original articles published in 2001 in Anales Espanoles de Pediatria and Medicina Clinica was made. Methodological errors in the critical analysis of original articles (21 items), epidemiological design, sample size, statistical complexity and levels of scientific evidence in both journals were compared using the chi-squared and/or Student's t-test. RESULTS No differences were found between Anales Espanoles de Pediatria and Medicina Clinica in the critical evaluation of original articles (p > 0.2). In original articles published in Anales Espanoles de Pediatria, the designs were of lower scientific evidence (a lower proportion of clinical trials, cohort and case-control studies) (17.5 vs 42.5 %, p 0.05), sample sizes were smaller (p 0.003) and there was less statistical complexity in the results section (p 0.03). CONCLUSIONS To improve the scientific quality of Anales Espanoles de Pediatria, improved study designs, larger sample sizes and greater statistical complexity are required in its articles.


The issue of residential segregation has been on the Swedish political agenda since the early 1970s. This paper analyses the background for this interest, presents some basic features of socio-economic and ethnic residential segregation, and discusses some fundamental contextual properties regarding the Swedish welfare state, its institutional set-up and changes in housing and other policies that have affected the conditions for segregation processes. Three more specific anti-segregation policies are also identified and analysed: housing and social mix policy (first initiated in the 1970s); the refugee dispersal policy (initiated in the 1980s); and the area-based urban policy (initiated in the 1990s). Of these three, the last two have a clear ethnic focus while mix policies primarily aim for socio-economic and demographic mix. The analysis shows that none of the policies have managed to affect levels of segregation more than marginally, the reasons being ineffective implementation (the mix policy), failures in the design (the refugee dispersal policy) or conflicting aims inherent in the policy (area-based interventions).


A central assumption in classical optimization is that all the input data of a
problem are exact. However, in many real-world problems, the input data are subject
to uncertainty. In such situations, neglecting uncertainty may lead to nominally optimal
solutions that are actually suboptimal or even infeasible. Robust optimization
offers a remedy for optimization under uncertainty by considering only the subset of
solutions protected against the data deviations. In this paper, we provide an overview
of the main theoretical results of multiband robustness, a new robust optimization
model that extends and refines the classical theory introduced by Bertsimas and Sim.
After introducing some new results for the special case of pure binary programs, we
focus on the harvest scheduling problem and show how multiband robustness can
be adopted to tackle the uncertainty affecting the volume of produced timber and
grant a reduction in the price of robustness.


Objective To assess the feasibility of the future implementation of a recently published Belgian treat-to-target scoring in daily practice, we investigated to what extent Belgian dermatologists use metrics and take comorbidities into account in the follow-up of psoriasis patients. Methods Belgian dermatologists were addressed to fill out an online questionnaire in April 2020. Results A total of 149 dermatologists completed the survey. About 55% (n = 78) indicated to do a full-body examination during every visit. Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) was the most frequently used clinical score: 25% (n = 35) and 61% (n = 87) indicated to use it every visit or sometimes (>1/year), respectively. The most frequently used patient-reported outcome scoring system was the Dermatology Life Quality Index: 35% use it sometimes. Overall, there is awareness for the association with metabolic syndrome. Conclusion Among tools for follow-up on moderate-to-severe psoriasis patients, Belgian dermatologists most frequently apply full-body examination and PASI score. Patient-reported outcome scoring systems are used infrequently. Psoriasis is perceived as a disease with comorbidities beyond the skin, especially obesity and hypertension. These real-world data on the use of clinical scores and PROs indicate a discrepancy from the academic setting in which new drugs are developed and evaluated. Furthermore, these data are imperative to estimate the feasibility of implementing a treat-to-target strategy published earlier by a Belgian expert group.


This article analyzes the different public relations (PR) activities Esso (Standard Oil New Jersey's Italian affiliate) carried out in post-World War II Italy, and how they intersected with US forms of cultural diplomacy during the Cold War and with an effort to shape the country's economic reconstruction and oil politics. It argues that between the late 1940s and the mid-1960s, the company advanced new and original interpretations of the role firms should have in a consumer economy and society, and in a modern democracy. In a context characterized by low levels of consumption, by limited forms of advertising, and by a general unwillingness to open up corporations to new forms of communication with the public, Esso imported a series of PR techniques from the US and adapted them to the Italian context. Its influence was particularly clear in the various professional associations that emerged in Italy during the 1950s, which drew inspiration from Esso and its «PR men». The article contributes to existing studies about US forms of influence on Italy's economic and political reconstruction, and about the importance of cultural diplomacy during the Cold War.