Abstract. High accuracy reconstruction of historical ice flow velocity fields is crucial in mass balance research of the Antarctic Ice Sheet by utilizing the input-output approach. A historical flow velocity of the Western Pacific Ocean sector region of East Antarctica from 1963 to 1989 was mapped and then corrected for its velocity overestimation. In this study, we analyzed the spatial distribution of the corrected values, and further assessed the relationship between the corrected values and related factors including timespan of image pairs, ice flow velocity, the spatial acceleration of ice flow velocity, and surface slope. The results indicate that the corrected ice flow velocity points are mostly dispersed between a buffer 25 km upstream and a buffer 25 km downstream the grounding line, with the largest mean value emerging in the region between the grounding line and its 25 km downstream. The corrected values exhibit linear correlation with three conditions: 1) when the ice flow velocity range is 0 – 1586 m/y, 2) spatial acceleration is 0 – 69 (m/y)/km, and 3) the slope is 0 – 1.95 degrees and the R2 is higher than 0.7. However, the correlation between timespan and corrected values is not obvious. The corrected values for the floating region have a greater linear correlation with all three factors than the inland region. Ice flow velocity, spatial acceleration, and surface slope all have an influence on the distribution of the corrected values of the reconstructed historical ice flow velocity maps, and may further affect the assessment of the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.


Gender discourse has occupied an important position in African scholarship. The question is no longer whether women are being marginalized and abused, the question is how and why women are abused and relegated. Men in various cultures and societies have taken the responsibility for the construction of female identity based on some gender stereotype through cultural vehicles such as proverb. Proverbs in Igbo African culture have perpetuated the mainstream oppression and subjugation of women in Igbo society of Nigeria. Like in many other African cultures, proverbs help in defining moral consciousness, thought and belief. They are at the core of African oral literature and are believed to be a reflection of wisdom and truth preserved and passed from one generation to the other. Nonetheless, the beauty presented by this integral aspect of African folklore has been partial and paints a derogatory image about women. This stereotypical depiction of women in Igbo African proverbs has continued to limit and deny the notable contributions of women in the enhancement of humanity in the society. This study, therefore seeks to interrogate the overt sexism in Igbo African proverbs. Through the use of in-depth interview and qualitative content analysis, this study highlights evidence of marginalization of women in Igbo African proverbs. The study equally makes use of social construct and liberal feminist theory to give a thick descriptive approach to the issue at hand. The study makes use of 5 in-depth interviews and 16


The dynamics and fusion of multiple media into one space has been thoroughly studied by Frederick J. Kiesler. His investigations into a multi-dimensional, space are in fact the beginnings of what would become a radically new concept of form and content appropriately called 'Endless Space'. In the 1930s entitled the 'Correalist Theory' believes that the essence of reality is not in the 'thing' itself, but in the way it correlates and orders itself to its environment, to its spatial dynamics and to its atmosphere. Kiesler also deemed that it was essential to disregard the boundaries that separate the different arts and media. These boundaries needed to be dissolved and proclaimed that painters, sculptors and designers, driven away by functionalism, would return from exile to be welcomed by architecture. Since his death in 1965, his notion of Endless Space and his studies 'On correalism and biotechnique' in particular, have resurfaced in recent art discourse. New technologies have emerged that are now provoking different questions regarding the techno-ethics of integrated biotech and post-digital tectonic potentials that withhold the concept of an ubiquitous and synaesthetic space.


My dissertation explores social capital and coordinated investment using experimental methods. Chapter 1 is motivated by the observed relationship between trust attitudes and economic growth (Knack and Keefer, 1997; La Porta et al., 1997; Algan and Cahuc, 2010). I hypothesize that trust as measured in standard survey questions may be capturing the ability of people to coordinate in situations where they both stand to gain if they overcome the risk that the other will not follow suit. This result may help explain (by providing a potential mechanism) the relationship between these survey measures of trust and macroeconomic performance. Chapter 2 examines the importance that expectations of behavior are commonly understood in a coordinated investment setting. That is, how does knowing what others think about what I will do affect what I think about them, and how should I respond to these second order beliefs? Chapter 3 is a field study in collaboration with Professor Randall Walsh. We explore the causal impact of trust on investment. We study how quasi-experimental shifts in trust attitudes caused by proximity to crime affect survey respondents' trust attitudes and investment behavior in incentivized tasks.


Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is the principal risk factor for developing Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), which is the most frequent non cardiac arteriopaty according to the American Heart Association (AHA). The Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) is the main diagnostic test for PAD with a 90%-95% sensibility and 96%-100% specificity. Objective: Establish the prevalence and associated factors for PAD in patients with T2DM according to their ABI, in primary care. Material and Methods: Descriptive and cross-sectional study, in "Sur Valdivia" medical center between August 2015-March 2016, with T2DM patients older than 50 years to whom the ABI test was performed according to the AHA guidelines. A multiple logistic regression analysis was made between independent variables and the presence of an ABI≤0,90. Results: ABI test was performed on 196 people, 14 were excluded because they weren't evaluable for having an ABI> 1.40. The final sample was conformed of 182 patients, with an average age of 64.1 years old, consisting of 95 (52.20%) women and 87 (47.8%) men; from which 27 (14.84%) obtained an ABI≤0.90. The multivariate analysis showed a significant relationship with age ≥70 years (p = 0.0001, OR 1.14), having more than 10 years with T2DM (p = 0.036, OR 2.91), and the presence of intermittent claudication (p = 0.025; OR 2.67). An unilateral negative correlation was determined between age and ABI results (rs = -0.279, p = 0.001); In addition, an adjusted model of binary regression was performed in those with less than 10 years with T2DM and intermittent claudication, showing a statistically significant relationship with the presence of an ABI ≤0.90 (p = 0.01, OR 11.46). Conclusions: The prevalence of an ABI ≤0.90 was higher than the world prevalence. The ABI test should be a common practice in primary care, especially on patients with several years with diabetes, advanced age and/or intermittent claudication. Disclosure F.A. Marmol: None. L.E. Bueno: None. D.A. Vasquez: None.


Summary Our study compared point-of-care (POC) device monitoring with traditional clinical laboratory methods device of patients on oral anticoagulant therapy. The POC devices used in the study were Coumatrak, CoaguChek, CoaguChek Plus, Thrombolytic Assessment System (TAS) PT-One, TAS PTNC, TAS PT, Hemachron Jr. Signature, Protime Microcoagulation System, and Medtronics ACT II. The clinical laboratory method used thromboplastins with different ISI values: Innovin and Thromboplastin C Plus (TPC). All POC INRs showed strong correlation with both laboratory methods, with correlation coefficients of >0.900. All POC methods demonstrated a significant (p <0.05) difference in INR values, except the TAS PTNC and ACT II INRs (p: 0.12 and 0.71 respectively) when compared with Innovin INRs. All POC INRs were significantly different from TPC generated INRs (p <0.05). Comparisons of the POC INRs to the group mean of the POC methods, show higher correlation (R>0.93), but there were still significant (p<0.05) differences noted between the POC group INR mean and CoaguChek Plus, ACT II, TAS PT-One, TAS PTNC, and Hemachron Jr Signature INRs. These data indicate that POC INR biases exist between laboratory methods and POC devices. Until a suitable whole blood INR standardization method is available, we conclude that clinicians using point-of-care anticoagulation monitoring should be aware of differences between POC and parent laboratory values.


In French Guyana, the dynamics of young prawn migrations from marine to estuarine waters remains equivocal, raising the question of habitat utilization in the adjacent mangrove systems. The temporal distribution of juvenile penaeid species was thus investigated in the main drainage channel of a Guianese coastal mangrove. A total of 2275 juvenile prawns belonging to five species, including two penaeid species (Penaeus subtilis, Xiphopenaeus kroyeri) were collected by stake net on four occasions during the wet season. Catches were dominated by large-sized, highly-valued P. subtilis and exclusively occurred (a) at the end of flood tide and (b) at the beginning of ebb tide, when water velocity was maximum. Size structures were very similar between flood- and ebb tides, suggesting that the same assemblages entered then withdrawed from the mangrove on a given tidal cycle. Residence times of prawns in the mangrove were short (3-4 hours per tidal cycle), as juveniles gained access to the coastal mangrove only a few hours per day during high tide. These results will need further confirmation at larger (Guianese) scale, but provide evidence for original, tidal-dominated mangrove utilization patterns by juvenile prawns. Given the economic importance of P. subtilis in French Guyana, there is an urgent need to assess the contribution of coastal mangrove habitats to sustaining near shore fisheries.


Supercapacitors have attracted much attention for energy storage applications, owing to their long cycle life and high power densities. We report on the growth of silicon carbide (SiC) nanowires (NW) and the evaluation of their performance as electrode material for micro-supercapacitors. Their specific capacitance has been studied as a function of their morphology (size, diameter) and the optimal growth conditions have lead to a capacitance comparable to the state of the art. They exhibit an exceptional stability, with a lifetime exceeding 106 charge/discharge cycles. An excellent thermal stability is expected for SiC NWs, opening the way to the fabrication of high temperature micro-supercapacitors.


Kigelia africana is an evergreen deciduous tree used in Zimbabwe folklore medicine for wound and diabetes ulcers healing. This paper reports the isolation and quantification of flavonoids from stem barks and fruits of K. africana as well as their antibacterial and antiradical activities. Flavonoids in ethanol and ethyl-acetate extracts were quantified using UV-Vis spectrophotometry and were found to be 213.490 ± 0.001 mg/L and 36.614 ± 0.001 mg/L, respectively per quercetin equivalent. The preparative and analytical thin layer chromatography was used to profile the flavonoids from fruits and barks using ethyl-acetate and petroleum ether (3:7 v/v) mobile solvent systems. Ethanol extract yielded three flavonoids with Rf values of 0.05; 0.79 and 0.93, while the ethyl-acetate extract yielded two flavonoids with Rf values of 0.21 and 0.73. The antiradical activities of the extracts were determined using DPPH radical scavenging method using quercetin as reference, and the activities were found to be over 80% at 150 mg/L. The disc diffusion method was used for antibacterial activity determination, and flavonoids from both ethanol and ethylacetate extracts showed zones of inhibition ranging from 0 to 22 mm against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Although the present study revealed that flavonoids from K. africana possess significant antibacterial and antioxidant activities, more studies are necessary for them to be incorporated in polyherbal formulations for wound and diabetic ulcer topical


Introduction: Virtual colonoscopy has proven to be a reliable, sensitive technique and is now widely adopted in routine clinical practice. We present a novel extension to virtual colonoscopy by incorporating the immersive Oculus Rift virtual reality technology. We describe our initial experience to explore its potential diagnostic benefit. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Oculus Rift related publication in the radiology field. Method: A procedure for generating an Oculus Rift virtual colonoscopy (ORVC) has been created. It is derived from a CT image of an air/CO 2 inflated colon with contrast labelled faecal matter. The mucosal surface is segmented from its surroundings and subsequently meshed and rendered to produce a 3D surface. The mucosal surface is then imported into the Unity game engine along with the calculated coordinates of its centreline. Within Unity, a virtual reality camera is assigned to travel both outside and inside the colon, aided by controls allocated to an Xbox controller. Two ORVCs were created from differing quality CT data and trialled by two experienced radiologists and a gastroenterologist. Results: The ORVCs prompted an enthusiastic response from the clinicians. It was considered to offer potential for improved diagnostic power but further development is required if its full capability is to be realised. Conclusions: A mechanism for examining virtual colonoscopies within the immersive environment of the Oculus Rift has been developed. The resulting ORVCs were trialled by three clinicians with largely positive feedback providing encouragement for pursuing this work further.


The black rhino in Africa is slowly recovering from poaching. This has been achieved in part by maintaining ongoing monitoring as part of intensive protection and biological management. However, the efficacy of population monitoring methods has not been assessed. Rhino surveillance records and rainfall data were used to determine which ecological and operational factors affected monthly rhino sightings by vehicle patrols in Masai Mara, Kenya. Comparisons of sightings capture rates using different ground-based and aerial methods were also conducted. Stepwise multiple regression revealed a model (adjusted R-2 = 0.66) predicting monthly rhino sightings with four significant factors; number of patrols, rhino population size, rainfall over the previous 2 months and a dummy variable for the month of August. The latter two variables represent the negative effects of long grass growth and the annual wildebeest migration on rhino sightings, and result in seasonal deficiencies in monitoring. During vehicle patrols, 51% of sightings were made whilst moving, and 49% were made whilst stationary and scanning with binoculars, although sightings capture rate was an order of magnitude higher when stationary. Equally, sightings capture rate from hot air balloons was twice that during vehicle-based patrols, although with less accuracy of identification. The introduction of foot patrols would increase patrol cost-effectiveness and fill seasonal troughs, thereby providing better all-round surveillance.


Abstract Objectives: To assess the relationship between anatomical landmarks used to locate the first rib during surface palpation. One currently cited technique suggests locating the width of the transverse processes (TPs) of the first cervical vertebrae (C1) to determine the estimated width of the first thoracic vertebrae (T1) TP, allowing for subsequent palpation of the first rib laterally to the transverse process of T1. Based on anatomical structural relationships, the authors propose an additional method of locating the first rib, lateral to T1 TP, by palpating through the trapezius muscle at the width of the mastoid process (MP). Methods: Overlying tissue of the bilateral MP, C1 TPs, and T1 TPs of 28 cadavers were removed. Measurements of the left to right spans at the following structures were collected using a digital caliper: mastoid process, C1 TP, and T1 TP. Measurements were used to determine the agreement between each anatomical structural span. Results: The mean absolute difference (standard deviation, SD) between C1 TP span versus T1 TP span was 3·9 (±2·58) mm with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0·88 (95% CI = 2·9–4·9). The mean absolute difference between MP span and T1 TP span was 35·4 (±6·46) mm with an ICC of 0·71 (95% CI = 33·0–37·8). Discussion: This study confirms the anatomical accuracy and feasibility of using the C1 TP span to determine the general width of the T1 TP span while palpating for the first rib just lateral to the T1 TP. Additionally, this study demonstrates that the more easily palpated mastoid process serves as an effective landmark to identify a width sufficiently lateral to the T1 TP, appropriate for first rib palpation through the trapezius muscle.


This paper is a review of leading research in the field of bacterial corrosion monitoring with specific emphasis on systems that transport liquids rather than gases. However, the principles of bacterial corrosion presented below are universal and independent of whatever media is transported through the pipeline. It has now been established that the primary mechanism of bacterial corrosion of metal surfaces involves the creation, within an adherent biofilm, of local physiochemical ''corrosion cells''. The practical consequence of this perception is that we now know that bacteria must be in sustained contact with a metal surface, in well-organized microbial communities before the corrosion process is initiated. Decades of research in Aquatic Microbiology have shown that numbers and types of planktonic (floating) bacteria bear little relationship to the numbers and types of sessile (adherent) bacteria in biofilms in the same system, and that planktonic bacteria are much more susceptible to antibacterial agents than are their sessile counterparts.


&NA; Olfactory processing is thought to be mediated via the frontal and temporolimbic brain regions, both of which, as well as olfactory dysfunction, are implicated in schizophrenia. Likewise, several empirical studies of olfactory dysfunction—in particular, olfactory deficits in identification, odor detection threshold sensitivity, and odor memory, along with associated brain structural changes—have been conducted to illuminate the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. These anomalies have been investigated, more recently, as possible biological markers of that disabling illness. This article summarizes recent research on neuroimaging changes associated with olfactory impairments in schizophrenia patients and on related functional changes in psychophysiological measurements (e.g., odor identification, odor discrimination, odor detection threshold, and odor memory). The possible role of these changes as biological markers of the disorder will be discussed, as will potentially productive directions for future research.


HISTORY AND ADMISSION FINDINGS: A 62-year-old man was admitted because of recurrent abdominal pain 18 months after small cell lung cancer (SCLC) had been diagnosed and remission achieved with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The abdomen was soft on palpation, but pressure on the epigastric region was painful. Symptomatic treatment brought improvement, but 16 hours after admission the patient complained of severe diffuse abdominal pain. Abdominal findings were unchanged. He was pale and in a cold sweat. Heart sounds were decreased, while auscultation and percussion of the lung were unremarkable. INVESTIGATION: Lactate dehydrogenase and aspartate-aminotransferase concentrations were markedly raised and the serum creatinine was increased, while the Quick value was decreased. The electrocardiogram (ECG) showed low voltage and alternating electrical heart axis. Chest radiogram demonstrated a double-contour cardiac silhouette suggesting a large pericardial effusion, confirmed on echocardiography, which also showed a pendulum-like cardiac motion. The needle aspirate of the pericardial fluid contained malignant cells. DIAGNOSIS: These findings indicated malignant, hemodynamically significant pericardial effusion due to a recurrence of SCLC, with pronounced abdominal symptoms and advanced right heart failure. TREATMENT AND COURSE: Pericardiocentesis brought about marked improvement. 30 mg cisplatin was injected into the pericardial sac and chemotherapy resumed. The ECG became normal. There was no tumor progression over the following 4 months when the pericardial effusion recurred, chemotherapy (4 cycles of carboplatin and etoposide) was restarted and another infusion of cisplatin undertaken. CONCLUSION: This case report illustrates a not uncommon manifestation of lung cancer, malignant pericardial effusion, first becoming symptomatic as severe abdominal pain. Characteristic changes in the chest radiogram and the ECG provided the diagnosis, confirmed histologically.


Abstract. This study analyses press articles published between 1982 and 2005 in an attempt to describe the social perception of natural hazards in Catalonia. The articles included in the database have been classified according to different types of risk. In addition, the study examines the evolution of each type of risk in the press coverage during the study period. Finally, the results have been compared to data provided by insurance companies with respect to compensations paid out for damages. Conclusions show that floods are the most important natural hazard in the region, but that the number of headlines for each event is greater in the case of snowfalls and forest fires. Factors such as the season of the year, the proximity of the affected region to the capital, the topical issues at the time, and the presence of other important news must be considered when the impact in the press is analysed.


Abstract. Urban transports are essential for the mobility of citizens, therefore, functional spaces allocated to them should be correctly defined. This research defines the functional spaces for bus stops based on Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) point clouds. Specifically, three functional spaces are defined; functional space allocated for the marquee (pedestrian space), functional space allocated for the road markings (bus space), and functional space allocated for the bus stop (pedestrians and bus). The method presented is divided into four stages; 1) Bus stop location in the point cloud from given geographical coordinates, 2) Selection of the region of interest (ROI), 3) Classification of the elements in the ROI, 4) Functional space definition. Several algorithms are used to reduce the computational time (point density reduction) and to classify the different elements contained in the bus stop (DBSCAN, height, width, and intensity filter). In addition, bounding boxes are defined to delimit the functional spaces, being compared with the ground truth box. Seven bus stops sited in Palencia (Spain) were analysed. Results show an F1-score value of 0.98 regarding the classification of the elements. Functional spaces allocated for marquees were perfectly defined. Although most of the estimated functional spaces allocated for the bus and the bus stop have high accuracy, in some cases this accuracy decreases due to the functional space allocated for the bus was overestimated.


Students' ability to regulate their learning is considered important for the quality of collaborative inquiry learning. However, there is still limited understanding about how students engage in social forms of regulation processes and what roles these regulatory processes may play during collaborative learning. The purpose of this study was to identify when and how co- and shared regulation of metacognitive, emotional and motivational processes emerge and function during collaborative inquiry learning in science. Two groups of three students (aged 12) from a private primary school in Turkey were videotaped during collaborative inquiry activities in a naturalistic classroom setting over a seven-week period, and the transcripts were analysed in order to identify their use of regulation processes. Moreover, this was combined with the analysis of stimulated-recall interviews with the student groups. Results indicated that co- and shared regulation processes were often initiated by particular events and played a crucial role in the success of students' collaborative inquiry learning. Co-regulation of metacognitive processes had the function of stimulating students to reflect upon and clarify their thinking, as well as facilitating the construction of new scientific understanding. Shared regulation of metacognitive processes helped students to build a shared understanding of the task, clarify and justify their shared perspective, and sustain the ongoing knowledge co-construction. Moreover, the use of shared emotional and motivational regulation was identified as important for sustaining reciprocal interactions and creating a positive socio-emotional atmosphere within the groups. In addition, the findings revealed links between the positive quality of group interactions and the emergence of co- and shared regulation of metacognitive processes. This study highlights the importance of fostering students' acquisition and use of regulation processes during collaborative inquiry learning.


SUMMARY: Qualitative and quantitative differences in species composition of meiobenthic communities illustrate the differences among various taxonomic assemblages in the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean) analysed by means of multivariate analysis. Average densities ranged between 1000 and 4000 ind·10cm -2 , and are in the same range as previously reported from other shallow Mediterranean areas. The dominant meiofaunal taxa were Nematoda (range 40 to 75%), Turbellaria (5-47%) and Copepoda (2-14%), while other meiofaunal groups (Tardigrada and Rotifera) were only represented by approximately 5% of the total abundance. The dominant nematode families were Desmodoridae, Chromadoridae and Xyalidae. The meiofaunal communities showed little variation among locations. Moreover, small-scale heterogeneity does not seem to affect nematode distribution as shown by the high similarity between replicates in the multivariate analysis.


Introduction: The rural population is consistently less well off than the urban population with respect to health. Rural residents often experience barriers to health care that limit their ability to obtain the care they need. Therefore, sufficient healthcare access, necessary and appropriate services must be available in timely manner. This study helps us in knowing how people in rural and urban areas are dealing with their health, their attitude towards the elderly people and importance of girl child education, nutrition and health care. Objectives: 1. To know the attitude of the people towards the geriatric age group and also towards the girl child education, nutrition and health care. 2. To study the opinion of the people regarding the different systems of medicine and their preferences between the public and private healthcare and also their views on the satisfaction of treatment which they received. Methodology: It is a cross – sectional, descriptive, questionnaire-based study. A Community based study was conducted in the rural field practice areas of Department of Community Medicine, Father Muller Medical College, Mangalore, Karnataka, India between 25.09.2017 to 5.10.2017. The sample size was calculated using the purposive sampling technique. About 227 questionnaires were used to interview the subjects. Results: 191(84.1%) of people told that the elderly were not a burden financially or physically and 190(83.07%) told they were not a burden mentally. 215(94.7%) agreed about the girl child education and health care and 217(97.7%) told that same food was served to men and women in their families. 210(92.5%) believed in modern medicine, 151(66.5%) preferred private doctors and 214(94.3%) of people were satisfied with the treatment they received. Conclusion: Majority of the elderly are looked after well and not considered as a burden. Equal importance is given to the girl child education, nutrition and health care. Most of the people believed in the modern system of medicine, preferred the private doctors for treatment and also were satisfied with the treatment they received. Key words: Attitude, Elderly, Girl child education, Nutrition, Health care.


achieves this aim and would be equally as valuable to candidates for the Australasian Fellowship. The great majority of the authors either work in the United Kingdom or have had extensive experience there. The work therefore reflects many aspects of that school of thought, well leavened with wisdom gained from overseas experience. The whole approach is well suited to the Australasian scene. The two volumes are divided into five sections; the application of scientific principles to clinical practice, general anaesthesia, local anaesthesia, acute and chronic pain and intensive care. The last mentioned would be inadequate in scope for intensive care trainees but provides a good overview of that discipline for trainees in anaesthesia. These books would grace any personal or departmental library. J. G. ROBERTS Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Flinders Medical Centre, SA


In a monozygous twin pregnancy, one twin was still-born while the other presented with a severe encephalopathy with seizures, diffuse hypotonia and microcephaly. CT-scan showed cystic lesion in the brain. This type of lesion should be investigated in each "surviving twin".


Selecting Si3N4 as binding agent and Al2O3–Al–Y2O3 as sintering additives, the sintered compact of polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PcBN) was studied . By modifying the ratio of each component and the parameters of the sintering process, the compact sintered at 4.5 GPa and 1650 °C showed good mechanical properties.The phase constitution, microstructure of the sintered compact were characterized by XRD and SEM respectively. The degree of phase transformation of Si3N4 , the chemical reaction during the sintering process, and the sintering mechanism of the additives were discussed . The best relative density is more than 97 % , the flexural strength is more than 650 MPa, the Vickers hardness Hv is more than 8.7 GPa.


One of the key objectives of the community care reforms of 1990 in the United Kingdom was the development of a flourishing independent sector alongside good quality public services. The aims of the reforms were to increase the available range of options, widen consumer choice and promote independence. The purpose of the study reported here was to examine – from the perspective of older service users, their carers and care managers – experiences at the operational level of arranging, delivering and receiving care services. The findings are based on data gathered in seven local authorities including reviews of case files, policy documents and face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 55 users, 37 carers and 28 care managers. There is evidence of a pronounced emphasis on procedure-based systems of care management. Potentially this has two significant consequences. First, the fostering of personal relationships may be subordinated to the organisation of short-term tasks and thereby may threaten patterns of trust and accountability. Second, the associated fragmentation of the assessment and care management process which in turn can lead to discontinuities of care for users and their carers. The paper concludes that there is still some way to go before care managers as micro-commissioners have sufficient and reliable information or available service capacity to match providers' capabilities with users' and carers' needs.


The manB gene, coding for a unique β-mannosidase (MANB) of Aspergillus aculeatus, was cloned from genomic and cDNA libraries, and sequenced. The gene consists of 2,811 bp encoding a polypeptide of 937 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of 104,214 Da. The A. aculeatus MANB shared amino acid sequence identity with MANB of human (24%), goat (24%), bovine (24%), and Caenorhabditis elegans (22%). When the A. aculeatus MANB was compared with other related enzymes, a Glu residue corresponding to the active site identified by the Escherichia coli β-galactosidase and the human β-gluclonidase was conserved. This is the first fungal gene that encodes MANB.


Malaria is a major and constant public health problem in the world. It kills more than one million people per year especially in developing countries where opportunities for treatment are minimal. Since plants have been previously used as a source of antimalarial drugs, they can provide alternatives in the development of drugs against multidrug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum malaria causing parasite. This study aimed to investigate in vivo antimalarial activity and acute toxicity of selected plants used in traditional medicine for treatment of malaria. Results show that organic root extracts of Securidaca longepedunculata Fres. (Polygalaceae) exhibited the highest chemosuppression of parasitaemia (91.03%) among all the crude extracts tested. All the extracts of Commiphora schimperi (Berg.) Engl. (Burseraceae), Ricinus communis L. (Euphorbiaceae) and Grewia hexaminta Burret had chemosuppression levels below 25%. All extracts of C. schimperi, R. communis and G. hexaminta were safe to mice at 2000 mg/kg, while S. longepedunculata was considered non toxic at 300 mg/kg. These results showed that crude extracts of S. longepedunculata demonstrated promising antimalarial activity and there is a potential of isolation of active lead compounds from its extracts.


In the course of professional practice, errors will occur and patients may be harmed because of them. The ethical obligation to respect patients' autonomy requires that dentists reveal mistakes to patients if the mistake significantly affects the patient's health and well-being. Answering the question, "would most people think they have a right to know of this type of mistake if it happened to them?" may be helpful in determining the significance of an error. An open disclosure and examination of professional mistakes will be beneficial to patients, doctors, and the practice. Fear of legal reprisals or thoughts that the mistake could be effectively concealed from the patient cannot justify failing to inform the patient of an error and may put the dentist in greater legal peril. Dentists who attempt to hide errors from patients violate the patient's autonomy and risk implicating the profession as one which cannot be trusted.


Objective
To compare and analyze the visual outcome and safety of phacoemulsification with small incision non-phacoemulsification for cataract and provide a reference for the selection of surgery methods in Tibet.

Methods
A prospective cohort study was performed.Eighty eyes of 80 consecutive patients with age-related cataract were included in Titet Autonomous Region Tibetan Tradition Medicine Hospital from July to August 2016.The eyes were assigned to non-phacoemulsification extracapsular cataract extraction with small incision combined with intraocular lens (IOL) implantation group (small incision group) and phacoemulsification extracapsular cataract extraction combined with IOL implantation group (phacoemulsification group), with 40 eyes for each group.The uncorrected visual outcome and complications were compared between the two groups after surgery.

Results
There were no significant differences in gender, age, preoperative visual acuity, and lens nuclear hardness between the two groups (all at P>0.05). The eyes in various post-operative uncorrected visual acuity outcome was not significantly different 1 day and 5 days after surgery between the two groups (both at P>0.05). In the fifth day after surgery, the eye number in various post-operative uncorrected visual acuity outcome was not significantly different in the eyes with grade Ⅱ and Ⅲ nuclei between the two groups (Z=0.503, P=0.478; Z=0.952, P=0.329). The eye number of acuity ≥0.5 in the small incision group was significantly more than that in the phacoemulsification group in the eyes with grade Ⅳ nuclei (Z=4.501, P=0.034). The eye number with post-operative transiently ocular hypertension was increased in small incision group compared with phacoemulsification group.

Conclusions
Non-phacoemulsification surgery with small incision has comparable visual outcome with phacoemulsification surgery, and small incision non-phacoemulsification surgery combined with IOL implantation can serve as the preferred surgical method in basic level medical institutions of Tibet.

Key words:
Cataract/surgery; Small incision extracapsular cataract extraction; Phacoemulsification; Tibet; Comparative study


The distinguished historian C. R. Boxer devoted years of research and reflection on European expansion overseas into the Americas and Asia. In The Church Militant and Iberian Expansion, 1440-1770, his analytical survey of the role of the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church in the overseas expansion of the Iberian powers, he finds that the lasting results vary enormously. "They range,"he writes, "from enduring mass conversions in some regions, of which sixteenth-century New Spain is the prime example, to the total failure in other countries, such as Cambodia, where the number of indigenous converts could be counted on two hands." Considering the church as "a human as well as a divine institution,"the author focuses on four types of organizational problems: relations between the regular and the secular clergy; the mission as a frontier institution in many climes and many cultures; the close and inseparable connection between Cross and Crown; and the role of the Inquisition overseas. Boxer finds that "the mere survival of these Christian minorities through the vicissitudes of over three centuries is a tribute to the work of the dedicated missionaries of the Church Militant in times past."


Primary appendiceal carcinoma is extremely rare and is found in approximately 1% of appendectomy specimens. When cancer is present, the most frequent histology is mucinous adenocarcinoma. Neoplasms of the appendix that secrete mucin such as adenocarcinoma may rupture, leading to intraperitoneal seeding of the peritoneum and producing the clinical picture of pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP). PMP is characterized by mucin-producing neoplastic cells that have seeded the peritoneum from the ruptured viscous and continue to secrete copious amounts of gelatinous material that accumulates in the abdomen producing the characteristic ''jelly belly.'' A review of the medical literature revealed no cases of PMP diagnosed at time of cesarean section. A previously healthy gravida 5, para 3 underwent cesarean section. Upon opening of the peritoneum, copious amounts of gelatinous, yellow-tinged mucoid material was noted. A general surgeon was consulted, and grossly necrotic-appearing appendix was noted. The patient underwent appendectomy with right hemicolectomy. Pathology showed well-differentiated mucinous adenocarcinoma of the appendix. PMP is associated with gastrointestinal and ovarian carcinomas. Although somewhat rare, these cancers may occur in pregnancy. Because nonspecific abdominal pain and increasing abdominal girth are common in pregnancy, patients' complaints may go ignored. Early diagnosis of a potentially life-threatening disease requires that clinicians expand the differential diagnosis and consider the possibility of a malignant neoplasm presenting in the pregnant female.


Among the over 21 million children with life-limiting conditions worldwide that would benefit annually from a pediatric palliative care (PPC) approach, more than eight million would need specialized PPC services. In the United States alone, more than 42,000 children die every year, half of them infants younger than one year. Advanced interdisciplinary pediatric palliative care for children with serious illnesses is now an expected standard of pediatric medicine. Unfortunately, in many institutions there remain significant barriers to achieving optimal care related to lack of formal education, reimbursement issues, the emotional impact of caring for a dying child, and most importantly, the lack of interdisciplinary PPC teams with sufficient staffing and funding. Data reveals the majority of distressing symptoms in children with serious illness (such as pain, dyspnea and nausea/vomiting) were not addressed during their end-of-life period, and when treated, therapy was commonly ineffective. Whenever possible, treatment should focus on continued efforts to control the underlying illness. At the same time, children and their families should have access to interdisciplinary care aimed at promoting optimal physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing. Persistent myths and misconceptions have led to inadequate symptom control in children with life-limiting diseases. Pediatric Palliative Care advocates the provision of comfort care, pain, and symptom management concurrently with disease-directed treatments. Families no longer have to opt for one over the other. They can pursue both, and include integrative care to maximize the child's quality of life. Since most of the sickest children with serious illness are being taken care of in a hospital, every children's hospital is now expected to offer an interdisciplinary palliative care service as the standard of care. This article addresses common myths and misconceptions which may pose clinical obstacles to effective PPC delivery and discusses the four typical stages of pediatric palliative care program implementation.


The profile of intestinal brush-border membrane enzyme activity is described in several mice and rat species. Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (CD26/DPP IV) is as well an intestinal brush-border membrane hydrolase. In order to examine the consequences of CD26/DPP IV deficiency on the activity of other enzymes, CD26 deficient mice were investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of age on intestinal brush-border disaccharidases (lactase, sucrase, and maltase), and alkaline phosphatase activity in CD26 deficient mice. The relationship between ageing and brush-border membrane enzymes activities was characterized in different small intestinal segments (duodenum, jejunum, ileum) in mice aged 2 weeks, 1, 2, 3, 6 and 12 months. The results of this study revealed that intestinal enzyme activities change statistically significantly with ageing in CD26 deficient mice. Interestingly, the horizontal patterns (duodenum to ileum) of their activities remain not affected by age.


Previous studies have shown a disproportionate rise in cancer incidence in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) due to rapid population ageing. This study aims to describe the cancer incidence in adults aged 60 years and older in LMICs to inform cancer control planning. Using the latest GLOBOCAN estimates for 2020, we describe the cancer incidence and the top five cancer sites among adults aged 60 years and older living in LMICs. We also project the incidence in 2040 by applying population projections, assuming no changes in incidence rates and risk profiles over time. In 2020, 6.3 million new cancer cases were diagnosed in older adults in LMICs, constituting over half of the global incidence burden (55%). In females aged 60 years and older living in LMICs, breast, lung, colon, stomach, and cervix uteri were the most frequent cancer types representing 51% of the total number of new cancer cases in older females. In males aged 60 years and older living in LMICs, lung, prostate, stomach, liver and colon were the most frequent cancer types representing 58% of the total number of new cancer cases in this subgroup. Variations were observed between income categories. The number of new cancer diagnoses in adults aged 60 years and older living in LMICs will almost double by 2040, reaching 11.5 million new cancer cases. The greatest increase is expected to happen in lower-income countries (+158% in lower-middle-income countries (excluding India) and +99% in low-income countries versus +38% in upper-middle-income countries). In conclusion, our findings call for an urgent adaptation of healthcare systems in LMICs by developing geriatric oncology and by including older adults in research, clinical guidelines, insurance schemes and cancer prevention policies.


This thesis is an examination of the complex relationship between a broadly defined art market and the British State. it is an examination of the visual arts economy within a British market economy. It demonstrates the state's failure to support and improve this economy even as it declares such a commitment. For the sake of the visual arts and the national economy, an alternative to the Orthodoxy of the State is argued and mechanism for its achievement proposed. This has required me to to reveal and question some firmly held attitudes and beliefs about art, artists, connoisseurs and public good. Although they constitute a comfortable notion of patronage for a minority, these contemporary notions of art, artist and connoisseur contribute to a decidedly uncomfortable economy for the majority.


Main aim of this paper is to measure the feasibility of Turkey's integration with the EU from an economic point of view. For this purpose, we decompose the effect of economic integration into trade creation (TC) and trade diversion (TD) by using the well-known revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index. The RCA index has also been used to analyze the impacts of Turkeys' accession into the European markets with Customs Union Agreement on Mediterranean countries' (namely Greece, Portugal and Spain) trade. Diversity in the RCA indices among member countries and Turkey should be closely related to the magnitude of TC. On the other hand, TD occurs in the case of a union in goods in which the outside region as a whole has a comparative advantage. The results show that the export structures differ significantly between Turkey and the EU. Based on the RCA index, we would expect an intra-regional trade creation effect in the case of commodity groups' agriculture, food, beverages and tobacco, textiles, paper products, chemicals, non-metals, basic metals and metal manufacture. The results also suggest that the Mediterranean countries trade with the EU might be jeopardized as a result of Turkey's accession into the European markets without trade barriers.


We study numerically the behavior of a single quantized vortex in a rotating semi-infinite cylinder. We study in particular the spiraling motion of a vortex in a cylinder that is parallel to the rotation axis. We determine the asymptotic form of the vortex and its axial and azimuthal propagation velocities under a wide range of parameters. We also study the stability of the vortex line and the effect of tilting the cylinder from the rotation axis.


A total of 206 ducks were subjected to routine postmortem examinations from July 2007 to June 2008. Of the ducks examined, 167 (81.1 %) were infected by one/more species of gastro-intestinal helminths. A total of ten species of helminth parasites were recovered from gastrointestinal tract, of which four species were trematodes namely: Echinostoma revolutum, Notocotylus attenuatus , Hypoderaeum conoideum and Echinoparyphium recurvatum ; two were nematodes, namely, Amidostomum anseris, Capillaria contorta ; two were cestodes, viz, Hymenolepis coronula and Fimbriaria fasciolaris and two species belonged to acanthocephala such as, Arythmorhynchus anser and Filicollis anatis. Single double and mixed infections were found in 78 (46.7%), 46 (27.5%) and 43 (25.8%) ducks, respectively. Prevalence of gastrointestinal helminth was significantly (P 1 year of age (31.1%). Helminth infection was significantly (P<0.05) lower in rainy season (64.9%) in contrast to summer (75.7 %) and winter season (91.1 %). In heavy infections of E. revolutum haemorrhagic enteritis were noticed and parasites were firmly attached with the mucosa. E. recurvatum caused thickening of the serosal surface of intestinal wall. N. attenuatus produced catarrhal tryplitis characterized by thickening of the villi and formation of oeosinophilic granulomas. Massive infections with H. coronula produced inflammatory changes in the small intestine. Grossly petechial haemorrhages to ulcerative lesions were produced by A. anseris . In proventriculus circular ulcerative and necrotic areas with degeneration of the glandular tissues were seen. A. anser was also found in between the horney and muscular layer of the gizzard where they produced pin pointed haemorrhagic lesions and in severe case parasites were embedded into the mucosal layers of gizzard. For the control of helminths infections mass deworming is necessary. Keywords: Gastro-intestinal helminths; Ducks; Epidemiology; Pathology DOI: 10.3329/jbau.v7i1.4969 J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 7(1): 91-97, 2009


The settlements situated on broad flat floodplains of rivers are threatened by floods during increased water flows in the rivers. The floodplain of the Dyje river situated in the area between the Nove Mlýny water reservoir and Břeclav has been protected from former annual floods since the 70s of the last century due to the water-management measures. The realised measures including the construction of the new floodway protect the town of Břeclav as well. A long-term research into the soil water regime of the floodplain forest is underway in the region. The results obtained document its historical evolution and current status. Only in the early April of 2006 (i.e. after 34 years), an unexpected "flash flood" occurred again due to a specific climatic situation. The combination of the high snow cover in higher parts of the basin and a rapid warming up caused an intensive runoff. The so-called dry polder (floodplain forests, meadows and fields) above Břeclav protected the town and its infrastructure from potential catastrophic consequences.


This paper examines the evidence for seasonal effects and cointegration between fisheries prices of main species landed into Cornwall. This is the first comprehensive study of fisheries seasonality. The results show significant monthly effects in April and negative monthly effects in February. We also find cointegration between prices, and show that in the long run prices are converged. The results also reveal that Granger causality is unidirectional in fourteen cases and bi-directional in six cases. Examining the form and magnitude of seasonal fluctuations and fish price linkages can be beneficial to fisheries managers in their decisions regarding policy, development and management.


In Reply. —Dr James and colleagues are correct to point out that regionalization of tertiary care services must be considered in the context of an overall system for meeting the health care needs of a population. The Dawson report, the classic British treatise on regionalization published in 1920, advised that "The general availability of medical services can only be effected by new and extended organization, distributed according to the needs of the community." 1 The model of organization described in the Dawson report, and subsequently implemented in many national health care systems, called for a broad base of accessible primary care services located in the community and a coordinated process for referring and transporting patients to more centralized secondary and tertiary care facilities. 2 We agree that the centralization of cardiac surgery services that was the focus of our study is only one element of a system of regionalized care.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Occupational therapy can be essentially described as enabling social inclusion through occupational participation. How does this best happen? The answer is through working in deeply collaborative, power and knowledge sharing partnerships with individuals, families, communities and populations of people across contextual boundaries.

METHODS
In this lecture, critical consideration is given to first, ways of working with communities of interest in service co-design, knowledge co-production and as co-researchers and how the philosophical underpinnings of the profession are consistent with such approaches. The second part of the lecture examines epistemic and hegemonic 'blind-spots' of the profession which can act as barriers to such person centred interactions, further reproducing dynamics of exclusion and marginalisation of already vulnerable persons and communities. Finally, the lecture considers the 'next era' in occupational therapy in which, in response to entrenched situations of occupational injustice globally, we may work with people in what has been termed 'radical solidarity' using de-colonising and occupation-centred approaches such as the Participatory Occupational Justice Framework and the Capabilities, Opportunities, Resources and Environments approach.

RESULTS
Using approaches that represent authentic partnerships between occupational therapists and the people they serve can result in powerful and potentially transformative outcomes. This is because working with people as co-designers of services and as co-researchers in evaluating service effectiveness, means that knowledge is co-produced within specific contexts. This in turn means the traditional evidence/practice gap is closed.

CONCLUSIONS
Working in authentic, power sharing partnerships with diverse people in diverse settings using diverse approaches, will be the way in which occupational therapy can make its strongest societal contribution. Aligning occupational justice with epistemic and hermeneutic justice is fundamental to this vision, providing a platform in which members of the profession can work collaboratively with people and go further together towards societal change.


Agroforestry systems (AGF) design should benefi t all components of the consortium. The objective of this study was to evaluate the eff ect of the distance between plants within the row on growth and yield of trees and agricultural crop and on the economic viability of the consortium. The eucalypt was planted in 9.5 x 1.5 m, 9.5 x 2.0 m, 9.5 x 3.0 m and 9.5 x 40 m arrangements, in consortium with soybean. The tree diameter (dbh) and total height (Ht), and the leaf area index (LAI) were measured at 14, 38 and 51 months. Soybean yield was evaluated 24 months after planting eucalypt. An economic evaluation of the consortium was carried out for a planning horizon of seven years. The distance between trees within the row did not aff ect the tree height, however, larger distances promoted a higher dbh and individual volume. Higher values of basal area and yield were achieved in the 9.5 x 1.5 m arrangement. The LAI was smaller (1.43) in the 9.5 x 4.0 m arrangement, at 38 months, compared to the other arrangements (mean LAI = 1.66). Soybean had it's highest yield (2,317 kg ha) in the 9.5 x 4.0 m arrangement. In the economic evaluation, the wood produced in the two denser arrangements was destined for energy, with low market value, making these two arrangements unfeasible economically, although the tree component yield was the highest in the arrangement 9.5 x 1.5 m. The 9.5 x 4.0 m spatial arrangement was the most economically viable, considering the allocation of 40% of the wood for sawing, and the prices and costs assumed in this study. In this arrangement, the soybean yield was the highest, and the planting costs were the lowest when compared to the other arrangements.


This paper investigates the robustness of disturbance-observer-based control (DOBC) for a class of nonlinear systems with disturbances. The disturbances are supposed to include two parts. One part is the structural parameter uncertains. The other part is the unknown external disturbances supposed to be generated by an exogenous system. The unknown external disturbances also have perturbations supposed to have the bounded H2-norm. The DOBC robust controller is combined of two parts:one is a linear feedback controller designed using LMIS and the other is a compensatory controller designed with the output of the disturbance observer. By choosing an appropriate Lyapunov function candidate, the stability of the closed-loop systems is proved.


Metazoans establish mutually beneficial interactions with their resident microorganisms. However, our understanding of the microbial cues contributing to host physiology remains elusive. Previously, we identified a bacterial machinery encoded by the dlt operon involved in Drosophila melanogaster's juvenile growth promotion by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum. Here, using crystallography combined with biochemical and cellular approaches, we investigate the physiological role of an uncharacterized protein (DltE) encoded by this operon. We show that LTAs but not WTAs are D-alanylated in Lactiplantibacillus plantarumNC8 cell envelope and demonstrate that DltE is a D-Ala carboxyesterase removing D-Ala from LTA. Using the mutualistic association of L. plantarumNC8 and Drosophila melanogaster as a symbiosis model, we establish that D-Ala-LTAs are direct symbiotic cues supporting intestinal peptidase expression and juvenile growth in Drosophila. Our results pave the way to probing the contribution of D-Ala-LTA to host physiology in other symbiotic models.


Currently, tissue-plasminogen activator (t-PA) is the most potent and nevertheless safe fibrinolytic in clinical use. Its indications are fibrinolysis in acute myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary thromboembolism, as well as different kinds of peripheral arterial embolism. However, controlled studies on the effect of t-PA in microsurgery and free tissue transplantation are lacking. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of tissue-plasminogen activator on skeletal muscle flap perfusion after a thrombogenic stimulus. 24 male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four experimental groups of six animals each. In group 1, the cremaster was isolated as an end organ flap, in group 2 after cremaster isolation a semicircular inverted suture as a thrombogenic insult was performed at the ipsilateral common iliac artery. In group 3, local t-PA infusion followed the inverted suture and in group 4, vehicle was infused. After 24 hours, we measured cremaster muscle flap hemodynamics using intravital microscopy. Capillary perfusion significantly decreased after the inverted suture from 6.23 (group 1) to 1.50 (group 2) functional capillaries per visual field (medians). t-PA significantly increased capillary perfusion after the thrombogenic insult from 1.50 (group 2) and 2.50 (group 4) to 6.00 (group 3) (medians). Restoring capillary perfusion after a thrombogenic insult t-PA may increase flap survival rates.


We report the fabrication and characterization of YBa2Cu3O7−δ nanowires with various kinds of junctions, including Dayem bridges, crossed junctions and S–I–S junction arrays. Ideal flux pinning centres were introduced into these nanowires and the ceramic nanowires were found to have potential plasticities favourable for nanoscale processing. Prospective physical properties and superconducting nanoelectronic applications of these nanowires are expected.


The rejection of the simple risk-neutral efficient market hypothesis in the foreign exchange (FX) market opens the possibility of the profitable use of a carry model taking full advantage of interest rate differentials to trade currencies. A first motivation for this paper is to study whether a simple passive carry model can outperform a typical currency fund manager replicated by dynamic technical moving average convergence and divergence (MACD) models as in Lequeux and Acar (1998). Secondly, we study whether the addition of volatility filters can further improve the carry model performance. We consider the period starting from the introduction of the Euro (EUR) on 4 January 1999 to 31 March 2005 (1620 datapoints). To assess the consistency of the carry model performance on a portfolio of the nine most heavily traded exchange rates, the whole review period is further split into two sub-periods. Our results show that in the three periods considered and after inclusion of transaction costs, the simple carry model performs much better than the benchmark MACD model in terms of annualized return, risk-adjusted return and maximum potential loss, while a combined carry/MACD model has the lowest trading volatility. Moreover, the addition of two volatility filters adds significant value to the performance of the three models studied.


As its core contribution this thesis provides first insights into the role of CEO award winners as outside directors. We use CEO awards to identify a subset of high-profile CEOs and study their roles on external boards. Exploiting this new approach, we first show that investors recognize and value director reputation. Using a large sample of outside director appointments, we find evidence of a reputation premium. Further, the event study results suggest a significant bias in the selection and composition of boards. We show that highly reputable directors join the boards of firms that have produced significant abnormal returns in the three years prior to the appointment. Next, this thesis provides evidence that the dynamics and consequences of director reputation are observable at the firm level. We find a statistically and economically important contemporaneous association between director reputation and firm value. However, while director reputation is reflected in firm valuation, we show that it is in no way related to a firm's day-to-day operations. Further, we find evidence suggestive of a link between director reputation and corporate governance. Finally, the thesis evaluates whether and how firms can benefit from individual outside directors. Our results clearly show that the appointment of highly skilled (and/or highly reputable) outside directors does not guarantee the future success of a firm. Rather the results indicate that after years of strong performance, firm performance reverts to the mean. Similar results emerge from a study on M&A outcomes. Looking at short- and long-term M&A performance, we find no evidence suggesting that firms with high-profile outside directors make better acquisitions. Rather, the results further support the conclusion that the role of outside directors is less important than often assumed.


This paper provides an overview of the analysis of the term structure of interest rates with a special emphasis on recent developments at the intersection of macroeconomics and finance. The topic is important to investors and also to policymakers, who wish to extract macroeconomic expectations from longer-term interest rates, and take actions to influence those rates. The simplest model of the term structure is the expectations hypothesis, which posits that long-term interest rates are expectations of future average short-term rates. In this paper, we show that many features of the configuration of interest rates are puzzling from the perspective of the expectations hypothesis. We review models that explain these anomalies using time-varying risk premia. Although the quest for the fundamental macroeconomic explanations of these risk premia is ongoing, inflation uncertainty seems to play a large role. Finally, while modern finance theory prices bonds and other assets in a single unified framework, we also consider an earlier approach based on segmented markets. Market segmentation seems important to understand the term structure of interest rates during the recent financial crisis.


ABSTRACT The mechanisms by which probiotic bacteria exert their effects on the immune system are not completely understood, but the epithelium may be a crucial player in the orchestration of the effects induced. In a previous work, we observed that some orally administered strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) increased the number of immunoglobulin A (IgA)-producing cells in the small intestine without a concomitant increase in the CD4+ T-cell population, indicating that some LAB strains induce clonal expansion only of B cells triggered to produce IgA. The present work aimed to study the cytokines induced by the interaction of probiotic LAB with murine intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) in healthy animals. We focused our investigation mainly on the secretion of interleukin 6 (IL-6) necessary for the clonal expansion of B cells previously observed with probiotic bacteria. The role of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in such interaction was also addressed. The cytokines released by primary cultures of IEC in animals fed with Lactobacillus casei CRL 431 or Lactobacillus helveticus R389 were determined. Cytokines were also determined in the supernatants of primary cultures of IEC of unfed animals challenged with different concentrations of viable or nonviable lactobacilli and Escherichia coli, previously blocked or not with anti-TLR2 and anti-TLR4. We concluded that the small intestine is the place where a major distinction would occur between probiotic LAB and pathogens. This distinction comprises the type of cytokines released and the magnitude of the response, cutting across the line that separates IL-6 necessary for B-cell differentiation, which was the case with probiotic lactobacilli, from inflammatory levels of IL-6 for pathogens.


Multiple reflections as observed in seismic reflection measurements often hide arrivals from the deeper target reflectors and need to be removed. The inverse data space provides a natural separation of primaries and surface-related multiples, as the surface multiples map onto the area around the origin while the primaries map elsewhere. However, the calculation of the inverse data is far from trivial as theory requires infinite time and offset recording. Furthermore regularization issues arise during inversion. We perform the inversion by minimizing the least-squares norm of the misfit function and by constraining the ℓ1 norm of the solution, being the inverse data space. In this way a sparse inversion approach is obtained. We show results on field data with an application to surface multiple removal.


Natural levees can be observed worldwide in nearly all river systems characterized by frequent flooding in combination with the transport of suspended bed material. Several parameters and processes have been suggested to explain the formation and the highly variable geometry of natural levees. However, the effect of bedforms migrating in the main-channel has not been amongst the studied parameters and processes. To fill this gap, this study investigates the relationship between bedforms and natural levee formation by flume experiments. Experiments were conducted in a 2 m wide and 30 m long sediment recirculating flume, monitoring the bed level elevation in the main channel by ultrasonic sensors as well as recording the levee development on the floodplain by a camera. The effect of different bed configurations on the developed levees is compared, and discussed, showing that bedforms could enhance levee formation.


Based on the electro-magneto-rheological (EMR) effect, the Fe3O4-based EMR fluid dispersed with micron-sized finishing abrasives is used as a polishing fluid to form a dynamical tiny-grinding wheel under an electro-magnetically coupled field. Using this EMR-effect-based tiny-grinding wheel, experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of the grain size, content and material of abrasive on material removal effect of normal glass. Results indicate that the abrasive can change the chain-like structure of the EMR-effect-based tiny-grinding wheel and influence the material removal ability of the tiny-grinding wheel remarkably. The material removal amount increases with the increase of the content of diamond abrasive in the EMR fluid, and grows slowly when the proportion of diamond abrasive exceeds to 6%. While the grain size of abrasive increases, the material removal amount increases at the beginning and decreases afterwards. The effect of abrasive on material removal depends on the hardness of abrasive, the greater the abrasive hardness, the higher the material removal efficiency. The machined area has a close relationship with both the density and grain size of abrasive.


We have formed a team consisting of plastic surgeons, dental specialists, Ear, Nose and Throat surgeons and speech therapists. Thus all the clinical needs of the patient can be provided for in the one hospital. The team meets regularly to examine the patients, assess what further treatment is required and to evaluate and criticise the work done on each case up to date. One of the most significant features of the team approach is that it makes possible the keeping of good records. Using this as a foundation a team drawn from various disciplines can assess the progress of the patient as he grows and develops. Changes in treatment can be monitored over the years and the results of new techniques thoroughly assessed.


We suggest and analyze a predictor-corrector method for solving nonsmooth convex equilibrium problems based on the auxiliary problem principle. In the main algorithm each stage of computation requires two proximal steps. One step serves to predict the next point; the other helps to correct the new prediction. At the same time, we present convergence analysis under perfect foresight and imperfect one. In particular, we introduce a stopping criterion which gives rise to -stationary points. Moreover, we apply this algorithm for solving the particular case: variational inequalities.


A microfluidic pore structure etched into a silicon wafer was used as a two-dimensional model subsurface sedimentary system (i.e., micromodel) to study mineral precipitation and permeability reduction relevant to groundwater remediation and geological carbon sequestration. Solutions containing CaCl(2) and Na(2)CO(3) at four different saturation states (Ω = [Ca(2+)][CO(3)(2-)]/K(spCaCO(3))) were introduced through two separate inlets, and they mixed by diffusion transverse to the main flow direction along the center of the micromodel resulting in CaCO(3) precipitation. Precipitation rates increased and the total amount of precipitates decreased with increasing saturation state, and only vaterite and calcite crystals were formed (no aragonite). The relative amount of vaterite increased from 80% at the lowest saturation state (Ω(v) = 2.8 for vaterite) to 95% at the highest saturation state (Ω(v) = 4.5). Fluorescent tracer tests conducted before and after CaCO(3) precipitation indicate that pore spaces were occluded by CaCO(3) precipitates along the transverse mixing zone, thus substantially reducing porosity and permeability, and potentially limiting transformation from vaterite to the more stable calcite. The results suggest that mineral precipitation along plume margins can decrease both reactant mixing during groundwater remediation, and injection and storage efficiency during CO(2) sequestration.


This work addresses the outlier detection problem for feature-evolving streams, which has not been studied before. In this setting both (1) data points may evolve, with feature values changing, as well as (2) feature space may evolve, with newly-emerging features over time. This is notably different from row-streams, where points with fixed features arrive one at a time. We propose a density-based ensemble outlier detector, called xStream, for this more extreme streaming setting which has the following key properties: (1) it is a constant-space and constant-time (per incoming update) algorithm, (2) it measures outlierness at multiple scales or granularities, it can handle (3 i ) high-dimensionality through distance-preserving projections, and (3$ii$) non-stationarity via $O(1)$-time model updates as the stream progresses. In addition, xStream can address the outlier detection problem for the (less general) disk-resident static as well as row-streaming settings. We evaluate xStream rigorously on numerous real-life datasets in all three settings: static, row-stream, and feature-evolving stream. Experiments under static and row-streaming scenarios show that xStream is as competitive as state-of-the-art detectors and particularly effective in high-dimensions with noise. We also demonstrate that our solution is fast and accurate with modest space overhead for evolving streams, on which there exists no competition.


Alignment between an entity's strategic business objectives and its information systems (ISs) has recently received research attention. Currently, small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) still face the challenge of successfully aligning their strategic business objectives with their ISs. Various small generic accounting software packages are available for purchase by SMEs. These accounting packages all have functionalities that enable SMEs to keep proper accounting records. However, due to their generic nature, these accounting packages do not always have sufficient functionalities to drive the SMEs' strategic business objectives, resulting in IS misalignment.  Not selecting the correct accounting software package will result in the accounting software not addressing the strategic business needs of the SME.  The purpose of this study is to review and discuss the challenges faced by SMEs when selecting generic accounting packages and to develop a mapping between strategic business objectives commonly found within SMEs and software package functionalities that SMEs can refer to during the selection and implementation of new accounting software packages. This is accomplished on a non-empirical basis through a review of pertinent literature. In order for a SME to select the correct accounting software package, it is important that it invest time and effort in considering the software functionalities provided by the software package and map it against its strategic business imperatives to prevent failure of the package.


Normal functioning of the brain depends on the homeostasis (∼ steady state) of its various physiological sub-systems, one of which is the intracranial pressure (ICP) dynamic system. The ICP dynamic system of an injured brain is susceptible to various acute changes that should ideally be detected by ICP monitoring even for comatose patients. However, the status quo of ICP monitoring solely targets mean ICP. We aimed to demonstrate a novel approach to detect acute deviation from steady state of an ICP dynamic system in an absence of significant mean ICP changes. We hypothesized that steady state of ICP dynamic systems is reflected as ICP pulses of similar mean ICP levels resembling each other for a given subject. A general framework was used to derive such a steady-state indicator that can accommodate different metrics of inter-pulse distance and different statistics of the distance histograms. In addition to conventional Euclidean distance and Pearson correlation, geodesic distance between pulses was introduced as a novel metric. These different ways of calculating steady-state indicators under the proposed framework were evaluated on three types of continuous ICP recordings: (1) those between two consecutive brain imaging studies that demonstrated acute ventricular enlargement for slit ventricle syndrome (SVS) patients undergoing a trial of shunt externalization and clamping (SVS+); (2) those between consecutive brain imaging studies from the SVS patients under the same trial but without ventricular enlargement (SVS−); (3) overnight recordings from normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) patients. It was observed that only the standard deviation of geodesic distance correctly differentiated between SVS+ and SVS− and between SVS+ and NPH while avoiding discriminating between SVS− and NPH. It was also found that 45% SVS+ cases had a multimodal geodesic distance histogram while none of SVS− and 3.8% of NPH cases had such a multimodal histogram. Pulses with a large number of distant pulses for the five multimodal-histogram SVS+ cases fell in short time windows indicating that acute ventricular changes may have occurred in these confined time windows during which no significant changes of mean ICP were observed. In contrast, the pulses with a large number of distant pulses for the two multimodal-histogram NPH cases did not cluster temporally. In conclusion, the geodesic inter-pulse distance is a promising metric to quantify distance intrinsic to the underneath geometric structure of ICP signals and hence is a more suitable way to derive a steady-state indicator of an ICP dynamic system.


The interaction between the electromagnetic field inside a cavity and natural or artificial atoms has played a crucial role in developing our understanding of light-matter interaction, and is central to various quantum technologies. Recently, new regimes beyond the weak and strong light-matter coupling have been explored in several settings. These regimes, where the interaction strength is comparable (ultrastrong) or even higher (deep-strong) than the transition frequencies in the system, can give rise to new physical effects and applications. At the same time, they challenge our understanding of cavity QED. When the interaction strength is so high, fundamental issues like the proper definition of subsystems and of their quantum measurements, the structure of light-matter ground states, or the analysis of time-dependent interactions are subject to ambiguities leading to even qualitatively distinct predictions. The resolution of these ambiguities is also important for understanding and designing next-generation quantum devices that will exploit the ultrastrong coupling regime. Here we discuss and provide solutions to these issues.


There is an imbalance of constitutional power across the branches of the US government. Congress has failed to preserve its constitutional privileges, specifically its sole authority to declare war. (1) Over the past 60 years, through a combination of executive initiative and congressional abdication, the United States has engaged in large scale offensive wars absent congressional war declarations, despite Congress's constitutional authority and requirement to formally declare the nation's wars. (2) For the 162 notable military deployments after World War II, Congress never declared war, opting instead to pass resolutions that effectively circumvented the constitutional war declaration process. Arguably, in its major military actions since 1950, the nation has failed to articulate political objectives commensurate with its sacrifice of blood and resources. (3) This dubious record stands in stark contrast to the ends obtained from wars that Congress actually declared. Congressional resolutions are an insufficient substitute for war declarations for a number of reasons. The resolution process undercuts the framers' well-conceived declaration process designed to assure popular support for the nation's wars. Thorough congressional deliberation is imperative for arguably the most important decision the Congress has the authority to make--committing the nation to war. The executive branch's recent practice of engaging in war without exercising the process of declaring war has left the nation's military repeatedly engaged in open-ended conflict. The ensuing uncertainty exacerbates an already complicated strategy formulation process and often leads to truncated, incoherent, or episodic military strategies. As the keeper of the nation's treasury, Congress determines the sustainability of any military effort. Ultimately, all war strategy depends on the nation's ways and means, along with the national will to sustain the effort to meet desired ends. Whether a result of executive ambition, congressional abdication, or a combination of the two, committing US military forces to "war" without the benefit of the constitutional declaration process has not served the long-term interests of the nation. In addition to its questionable constitutionality, the resolution process has led to insufficiently defined national objectives. It constantly exposes strategy to political machinations. Finally, it fails over time to provide sufficient resources to achieve the uncertain objectives of the military actions that began extraconstitutionally. War Power and the Constitution First, consider the constitutional issue of power imbalance. Central to the Constitution is the foundational principle of power distribution and provisions to check and balance exercises of that power. This clearly intended separation of powers across the three branches of government ensures that no single federal officeholder can wield an inordinate amount of power or influence. The founders carefully crafted constitutional war-making authority with the branch most representative of the people--Congress. (4) The Federalist Papers No. 51, "The Structure of Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments," serves as the wellspring for this principle. Madison insisted on the necessity to prevent any particular interest or group to trump another interest or group. (5) This principle applies in practice to all decisions of considerable national importance. Specific to war powers authority, the Constitution empowers the legislative branch with the authority to declare war but endows the Executive with the authority to act as Commander-in-Chief. (6) This construct designates Congress, not the president, as the primary decisionmaking body to commit the nation to war--a decision that ultimately requires the consent and will of the people in order to succeed. By vesting the decision to declare war with Congress, the founders underscored their intention to engage the people--those who would ultimately sacrifice their blood and treasure in the effort. …


: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most frequent cause of motor handicap. The present door-to-door survey was conducted in Al-Quseir City, Egypt, to investigate the epidemiology of CP. All inhabitants were screened by three neurologists. Medical and neurological examina-tions were performed for all residents and suspected cases of CP were confirmed by meticulous neurological assessment, brain magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, and testing with the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Forty-six of 12,788 children aged  18 years were found to have CP, yielding a childhood prevalence of 3.6 (95% confidence interval 1.48–2.59) per 1,000 live births. Five adults (aged 19–40 years) among 13,056 inhabitants had CP, giving an adult prevalence of 0.4 (95% confidence interval 0.04–0.72) per 1,000. The risk factors for CP identified in this study were premature birth, low birth weight, neonatal jaundice, neonatal seizures, and recurrent abortion in mothers of children with


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are formed as a result of natural cellular processes, intracellular signaling, or as adverse responses associated with diseases or exposure to oxidizing chemical and non-chemical stressors. The action of ROS and RNS, collectively referred to as reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), has recently become highly relevant in a number of adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) that capture, organize, evaluate and portray causal relationships pertinent to adversity or disease progression. RONS can potentially act as a key event (KE) in the cascade of responses leading to an adverse outcome (AO) within such AOPs, but are also known to modulate responses of events along the AOP continuum without being an AOP event itself. A substantial discussion has therefore been undertaken in a series of workshops named "Mystery or ROS" to elucidate the role of RONS in disease and adverse effects associated with exposure to stressors such as nanoparticles, chemical, and ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. This review introduces the background for RONS production, reflects on the direct and indirect effects of RONS, addresses the diversity of terminology used in different fields of research, and provides guidance for developing a harmonized approach for defining a common event terminology within the AOP developer community.


Much of the data underlying global poverty and inequality estimates is not in the public domain, but can be accessed in small pieces using the World Bank's PovcalNet online tool. To overcome these limitations and reproduce this database in a format more useful to researchers, we ran approximately 23 million queries of the World Bank's web site, accessing only information that was already in the public domain. This web scraping exercise produced 10,000 points on the cumulative distribution of income or consumption from each of 942 surveys spanning 127 countries over the period 1977 to 2012. This short note describes our methodology, briefly discusses some of the relevant intellectual property issues, and illustrates the kind of calculations that are facilitated by this data set, including growth incidence curves and poverty rates using alternative PPP indices.


Security Monitoring with Cisco Security MARSThreat mitigation system deploymentGary HalleenGreg KelloggNetworks and hosts are probed hundreds or thousands of times a day in an attempt to discover vulnerabilities. An even greater number of automated attacks from worms and viruses stress the same devices. The sheer volume of log messages or events generated by these attacks and probes, combined with the complexity of an analyst needing to use multiple monitoring tools, often makes it impossible to adequately investigate what is happening.Cisco® Security Monitoring, Analysis, and Response System (MARS) is a next-generation Security Threat Mitigation system (STM). Cisco Security MARS receives raw network and security data and performs correlation and investigation of host and network information to provide you with actionable intelligence. This easy-to-use family of threat mitigation appliances enables you to centralize, detect, mitigate, and report on priority threats by leveraging the network and security devices already deployed in a network, even if the devices are from multiple vendors.Security Monitoring with Cisco Security MARS helps you plan a MARS deployment and learn the installation and administration tasks you can expect to face. Additionally, this book teaches you how to use the advanced features of the product, such as the custom parser, Network Admission Control (NAC), and global controller operations. Through the use of real-world deployment examples, this book leads you through all the steps necessary for proper design and sizing, installation and troubleshooting, forensic analysis of security events, report creation and archiving, and integration of the appliance with Cisco and third-party vulnerability assessment tools."In many modern enterprise networks, Security Information Management tools are crucial in helping to manage, analyze, and correlate a mountain of event data. Greg Kellogg and Gary Halleen have distilled an immense amount of extremely valuable knowledge in these pages. By relying on the wisdom of Kellogg and Halleen embedded in this book, you will vastly improve your MARS deployment."-Ed Skoudis, Vice President of Security Strategy, Predictive SystemsGary Halleen is a security consulting systems engineer with Cisco. He has in-depth knowledge of security systems as well as remote-access and routing/switching technology. Gary is a CISSP and ISSAP. His diligence was responsible for the first successful computer crimes conviction in the state of Oregon. Gary is a regular speaker at security events and presents at Cisco Networkers conferences.Greg Kellogg is the vice president of security solutions for Calence, LLC. He is responsible for managing the company's overall security strategy. Greg has more than 15 years of networking industry experience, including serving as a senior security business consultant for the Cisco Enterprise Channel organization. Additionally, Greg worked for Protego Networks, Inc. (where MARS was originally developed). There he was responsible for developing channel partner programs and helped solution providers increase their security revenue.Learn the differences between various log aggregation and correlation systems Examine regulatory and industry requirements Evaluate various deployment scenarios Properly size your deployment Protect the Cisco Security MARS appliance from attack Generate reports, archive data, and implement disaster recovery plans Investigate incidents when Cisco Security MARS detects an attack Troubleshoot Cisco Security MARS operation Integrate Cisco Security MARS with Cisco Security Manager, NAC, and third-party devices Manage groups of MARS controllers with global controller operationsThis security book is part of the Cisco Press® Networking Technology Series. Security titles from Cisco Press help networking professionals secure critical data and resources, prevent and mitigate network attacks, and build end-to-end self-defending networks.Category: Cisco Press-SecurityCovers: Security Threat Mitigation


Background: The fast-changing Industry 4.0 employment conditions require employees to be highly adaptable and resilient in their career self-management. More insight is needed regarding the manner in which facets of career agility (as indicators of adaptive readiness) explain the activation of career adaptability (as an indicator of self-regulated career management resources that help employees proactively respond to the demands of the modern-day technological-driven work context). Objectives: The study explored the career agility facets of technological adaptivity, agile learning, and career navigation as potential explanatory mechanisms of individuals' career adaptability. Method: The study utilised a cross-sectional research design which involved a convenience sample ( N = 177) of employees (mean age = 34 years; SD = 10.14) from various industries on managerial (39%), staff (38%), and professional consultant (23%) level positions across the globe. The sample was mostly represented by individuals employed in the South African organisational context (72%). Results: Multiple regression analyses revealed that technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation function as facets of adaptive readiness that explain higher levels of the career adaptability resources embedded in individuals' career concern, career control, career curiosity, and career confidence. Conclusion: The findings contribute new insights into the construct of career agility and extends research on antecedents of career adaptability. Modern-day career counselling practice may find the results useful in helping clients be nimble in their adaptation to the changing career and job conditions of the digital era.


Dengue is currently the most important vector-borne viral disease affecting people, in terms of both morbidity and mortality. Repeated epidemics of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever afflicting millions of individuals occur annually in tropical and subtropical areas of the world, including The Caribbean and Central America, inhabited by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study was to identify and address the dominating factors influencing the resurgence of dengue fever following a natural disaster such as a hurricane. This study also depicted an arguable approach to dengue surveillance as well as described existing efforts to prevent, control and eradicate dengue (Aedes aegypti) with the aim of detailing potential problems that must be addressed to prevent further dengue fever outbreaks. Virologic surveillance should be consider the most important element in any such early warning system Dengue virus transmission should be monitored to determine which serotypes are present, their distribution, and the type of illnesses associated with each. Effective dengue surveillance can provide an early warning capability permitting emergency mosquito control measures to be implemented and major epidemics to be averted. Dengue prevention and control programs must be in line with more effective surveillance as an early warning system that can predict epidemic dengue, and combining this with mosquito control measures including community-based measures to reduce Aedes aegypti densities. An effective dengue surveillance system must address the disease from both a clinical and an entomological perspective as well as consider the virologic, epidemiologic, and serologic aspects. Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this presentation, the learner should be able to: (1) Examine and explain the growing significance of disaster mitigation and strengthening regional surveillance networks for dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever following a natural disaster (e.g., hurricane). (2) Define how to strengthen the regional capacity for effective implementation of prevention and control strategies for disaster mitigation. (3) Emphasizes the practical application of field research in the management and control of the dengue vector, Aedes aegypti, following a natural disaster as well as promoting the further development of applied research in the areas of rapid diagnosis, epidemiology, and prevention. (4) Describe an interdisciplinary team approach to achieving success with prevention and control programs. Emphasizing national and regional infrastructures for early warning of and rapid response to infectious disease threats, following natural disasters, through laboratory enhancement.


This article presents the design of the course Gear Up, an ESP course addressed to Mechanical Engineering students at the University of Costa Rica. To gather the necessary data, a needs analysis and a diagnostic test were conducted to determine the contents, macro-skills, and evaluated activities to be included in the course. This article presents the findings of these two major initial activities and the subsequent course design proposal to satisfy the needs, wants, and lacks of both the students and stakeholders that participated in the process. Consequently, Gear Up was created as a 16-week course in which the Task-Based Language Teaching approach would guide both the content and performance-based, assessed activities throughout the course.


Vacuum insulation panel is regarded as one of the most promising high performance thermal insulation materials for green building. It has extremely low thermal conductivity and its insulation performance is a factor of four to eight times better than that of conventional insulation such as mineral wool or polymer foams. The high thermal resistivity of VIP provides new solutions for slim but still energy efficient building envelopes. Although VIP has widely been used in refrigerators and freezers for a long time, it has only recently been discovered by the building sector. There is not yet any alternative for conventional thermal insulation materials in many countries, especially in China. This paper attempts to investigate the components, features and advantages of VIP for building, it will be helpful to the development of green building.


The article notes that the change in the isotopic composition of living beings during aging and in the evolution was predicted on the basis of the "principle of stability of matter". This principle was formulated by the author in the late 70's of the last century. New quantitative estimates were made, confirming the above prediction. To date, there are many studies that confirm those previously formulated approval by the author. These facts are a new confirmation of the thermodynamic theory of the origin of life, its evolution and aging of living beings.


Student athletes vary in how much they view their academic and athletic role identities as separate from and interfering with each other. The authors investigated the relation of these perceptions to psychological well-being in 200 intercollegiate athletes. Measures included role separation, interference, identity, and well-being. Correlations indicated that interference related negatively to well-being, whereas viewing the roles as distinct related positively to well-being. Regression analyses of demographic and role identity variables also showed a positive association between role separation and well-being, and a significant Separation x Interference interaction. Specifically, role interference was negatively related to well-being for those who viewed the two roles as distinct but unrelated for those who did not. The buffering effects of role separation are discussed.


Spectrum sensing for cognitive radio has focused on detection and estimation of aggregate spectra, without regard for latent component identification. Unraveling the constituent power spectra and the locations of ambient transmitters can be viewed as the next step towards situational awareness, which can facilitate efficient opportunistic transmission and interference avoidance. This paper focuses on power spectra separation and multiple emitter localization using a network of multi-antenna receivers. A PARAllel FACtor analysis (PARAFAC)-based framework is proposed, which offers an array of attractive features, including identifiability guarantees, ability to work with asynchronous receivers, and low communication overhead. Dealing with corrupt receiver reports due to shadowing or jamming can be a practically important concern in this context, and addressing it requires new theory and algorithms. A robust PARAFAC formulation and a corresponding factorization algorithm are proposed for this purpose, and identifiability of the latent factors is theoretically established for this more challenging setup. In addition to pertinent simulations, real experiments with a software radio prototype are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Interconnection between the number of pathogenic staphylococci and the presence of enterotoxin in cooked macaroni products was studied. Precipitation in gel with antienterotoxic serum of the A type demonstrated the formation of the type A enterotoxin to be observed when 1 g of the product contained millions of the staphylococcal cells. The time period necessary for the formation of enterotoxin depended upon the initial dose of the staphylococcal contamination of the product and the incubation temperature.