Piezoresistive nanocomposites have been extensively studied because of their broad applicability for various sensing applications (e.g., monitoring structural integrity and human performance). The piezoresistivity of many polymer nanocomposites stems from conductive/semi-conductive nanofillers' intrinsic piezoresistivity, tunneling effect, and contact resistance changes of the nanofiller networks as they are strained. Although various nanocomposite strain sensors have been developed using different material systems and manufacturing techniques, their empirically guided fabrication approach can be laborious, inefficient, and, most importantly, unpredictable. Therefore, this study proposes a topological design-based methodology to strategically manipulate the strain sensing performance of these nanocomposites to achieve a wide range of optimized strain sensitivities using the same material system. To demonstrate this, carbon nanotube-latex nanocomposite thin films were spray-fabricated onto patterned polyethylene terephthalate substrates pre-designed with stress-concentrating and stressreleasing topologies. The strain sensing performance of nanocomposites of different topologies was characterized and compared. Furthermore, the mechanical and electromechanical properties of the thin films were also characterized using numerical models. Both the experimental and computational results indicated that the stressconcentrating topologies could enhance strain sensitivity, whereas the stress-releasing topologies significantly suppressed bulk film piezoresistivity.


A number of studies have highlighted the problems and challenges that have been encountered with the analysis of best value tenders carried out in the UK public sector. This research has developed a methodology which enables project stakeholders to streamline the tender analysis procedure allowing tenders to be dealt with effectively and efficiently whilst also creating a transparent and auditable decision making process. A robust support tool has been developed which aids the multi objective decision making process by provoking rational discussion with respect to; the construction industry's key performance indicators (KPI's), the client's attitude to risk and provides a transparent audit trail of the decisions taken. The underlying rationale for the support tool is based on a combination of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), multi utility attribute theory (MAUT) and whole life costing (WLC). The methodology has been developed into user friendly software and the paper demonstrates the practical utility of the tool in operation.


What connects these individuals Frank Bruno, Dame Kelly Holmes, Marcus Trescothick and Clarke Carlisle? If you said are all are winners you would be correct, if you said all are elite sports individuals you would also be correct, but there is something else that connects these elitelevel athletes. They have all reported having mental health concerns either whilst performing or shortly after retiring. Boxer Frank Bruno has bipolar disorder and depression and has been admitted to psychiatric wards 3 times in the last 12 years. Dame Kelly Holmes was battling depression in the lead up to the 2004 Olympics. Marcus Trescothick was playing cricket for England when depression forced his retirement. In 2014, Clarke Carlisle attempted to take his own life by jumping in front of an oncoming lorry and was later admitted to a psychiatric unit for depression. These elite sportspeople are not alone, the list could have included Gary Speed, footballer and Manager who took his own life in November 2012 after battling with depression or Terry Newton, Rugby league player, who also sadly took his own life in 2010, after being sacked and being found to have used performance-enhancing drugs.


The increasing competition in the book market provides the basis for the relevance of research in the field of book advertising: advertising affects the customer's perception and attitude, provokes interest in an advertised book or induces to buy it; on the other hand, employment of advertising in smaller sectors of business is related to a greater risk. The object of the study was the influence of advertising on customer in the book market. The scientific-practical problem was the ways of systematising and evaluating the influence of advertising on book business. The polysemantic, wide and unspecified environment of influence, interdisciplinary character, and abundance of evaluation criteria complicate the solution of this problem. The modes of influence of advertising on the book market are distinguished and the factors determining this influence are discussed to analyse the way an individual is influenced by advertising and what differences are crucial among several ways of experiencing the same phenomenon. Analysis of different modes of advertising and experiencing advertising incapacitates a better understanding of the potential of the influence of book advertising. Several phenomenographic techniques were employed to analyse data collected via unstructured interview. The unstructured interview method was used to identify the ways advertising affects the customer; the method was employed to analyse the experience, views, attitudes of customers, related to the choice of books, estimation and reading, the role advertising plays in choosing a book, the factors that shape the attitude of a reader towards a book and incite buying it. The differences in and the circumstances of the influence of advertising, as well as the factors differentiating the influence were clarified in the course of study. The research could be useful for book publishing and saling enterprises as well as for marketing specialists of the mentioned area in planning and implementing book advertising campaigns and in seeking to manage more efficiently the flows of information and communication. The research gives an insight into the potential of book advertising in the market framework, helps in making a right choice and controlling the mode of influence.


This book provides a synthetic overview of all evidence concerning the evolution of the morphology of the human pelvis, including comparative anatomy, clinical and experimental studies and quantitative evolutionary models. By integrating these lines of research, this is the first book to bring all sources of evidence together to develop a coherent statement about the current state of the art in understanding pelvic evolution. Second, and related to this, the volume is the first detailed assessment of existing paradigms about the evolution of the pelvis, especially the obstetric dilemma. The authors argue that there are many 'dilemmas', but these must be approached using a testable methodology, rather than on the proviso of a single paradigm. The volume clearly contributes to greater scientific knowledge about human variation and evolution, and has implications for clinicians working within reproductive health. A thought-provoking read for students, researchers and professionals in the fields of biological anthropology, human evolutionary anthropology, paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, biology, developmental biology and obstetrics.


A low-rank transformation learning framework for subspace clustering and classification is here proposed. Many high-dimensional data, such as face images and motion sequences, approximately lie in a union of low-dimensional subspaces. The corresponding subspace clustering problem has been extensively studied in the literature to partition such high-dimensional data into clusters corresponding to their underlying low-dimensional subspaces. However, low-dimensional intrinsic structures are often violated for real-world observations, as they can be corrupted by errors or deviate from ideal models. We propose to address this by learning a linear transformation on subspaces using matrix rank, via its convex surrogate nuclear norm, as the optimization criteria. The learned linear transformation restores a low-rank structure for data from the same subspace, and, at the same time, forces a a maximally separated structure for data from different subspaces. In this way, we reduce variations within subspaces, and increase separation between subspaces for a more robust subspace clustering. This proposed learned robust subspace clustering framework significantly enhances the performance of existing subspace clustering methods. Basic theoretical results here presented help to further support the underlying framework. To exploit the low-rank structures of the transformed subspaces, we further introduce a fast subspace clustering technique, which efficiently combines robust PCA with sparse modeling. When class labels are present at the training stage, we show this low-rank transformation framework also significantly enhances classification performance. Extensive experiments using public datasets are presented, showing that the proposed approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods for subspace clustering and classification.


The study evaluates "Procedural participation" in the Philippine Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system and how it affects the attitude of the people affected by the implementation of a controversial project. The "San Roque Multipurpose Project" is used as the case study for collecting data about the people's perception and to verify a hypothetical model. The results show that: 1) The unsuitable implementation of the Procedural Participation has a negative impact on the attitude of the population; 2) The unsuitable implementation of Procedural participation has made the media more influential in shaping the attitude of the population; 3) Public interest on the project is a crucial factor in altering the population's attitude to the project.


Gestational or pregnancy-associated breast cancer is defined as breast cancer that is diagnosed during pregnancy, in the first post-partum year or any time during lactation. We report a rare imaging finding of breast cancer seen on fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) study in a 32-year-old lactating woman. The FDG PET/CT study demonstrated uptake in the soft tissue lesion noted in the right breast corresponding to the primary lesion and multiple nodes in the bilateral axilla, right supraclavicular and mediastinum. In addition, there was FDG tracer uptake in both the breast parenchyma related to breast feeding. This case illustrates the first case of breast cancer in a lactating woman described in FDG PET/CT.


The objectives of this study were to evaluate the mechanical and physical properties of resin composites. The materials evaluated were the Clearfil Majesty Posterior, Filtek Z550 and G-aenial Posterior composites. A total of 189 specimens were fabricated for microhardness, roughness, gloss and color tests. The specimens were divided into three finishing and polishing systems: Enhance, OneGloss and Sof-Lex Spiral. Microhardness, roughness, gloss and color were measured after 24 h and after 10,000 thermocycles. Two samples from each group were evaluated using SEM and AFM. G-aenial Posterior exhibited the lowest microhardness values. The mean roughness ranged from 0.37 to 0.61 µm. The smoothest surfaces were obtained with Sof-Lex Spiral for each material. G-aenial Posterior with Enhance was determined to be the glossiest surfaces. All of the materials exhibited similar ΔE values ranging between 1.69 and 2.75. Sof-Lex Spiral discs could be used successfully to polish composites.


In contrast to metallic parts the final geometry and superior structural properties of composite structures evolve during the manufacturing process itself. Thus, the process parameters and process boundary conditions have a significant influence on the final component properties. To ensure a high component quality narrow tolerances during the entire component development process are currently defined. Yet, due to manufacturing-induced deformations as well as material uncertainties and varying process conditions the required geometric tolerances cannot be met in all cases. In case of unauthorized process or part deviations additional time-consuming and costly assessment processes are initiated in present industrial environment.
In order to develop new manufacturing processes more efficiently an enhanced simulation strategy for a priori and in-situ prediction of manufacturing-induced deformations and residual stresses of composite structures is developed. Within a sequential temperature-displacement finite element analysis strategy an anisotropic viscoelastic material model is applied to consider temperature and time dependent relaxation effects. In order to take into account fluctuations in process and material parameters the deterministic process simulation is extended by a probabilistic process simulation. For this, fast and efficient surrogate models are derived in order to perform probabilistic simulations in acceptable time. This enables to evaluate the robustness of different curing processes. Furthermore, the derived surrogate models allow for predicting the in-situ properties of components as full 3D field information. For instance, structural properties, such as residual stresses, deformations or stiffness as well as thermal hot-spots and thermo-chemical properties such as degree of cure and glass transition temperature are calculated in real time. In context of Industry 4.0, this enables to evaluate the process and component quality during manufacturing and, therewith, results in an improved process control and enhanced quality management. The method is demonstrated for an automotive car suspension blade.


Summary

Turning vehicle volumes at signalized intersections are critical inputs for various transportation studies such as level of service, signal timing, and traffic safety analysis. There are various types of detectors installed at signalized intersections for control and operation. These detectors have the potential of producing volume estimates. However, it is quite a challenge to use such detectors for conducting turning movement counts in shared lanes. The purpose of this paper was to provide three methods to estimate turning movement proportions in shared lanes. These methods are characterized as flow characteristics (FC), volume and queue (VQ) length, and network equilibrium (NE). FC and VQ methods are based on the geometry of an intersection and behavior of drivers. The NE method does not depend on these factors and is purely based on detector counts from the study intersection and the downstream intersection. These methods were tested using regression and genetic programming (GP). It was found that the hourly average error ranged between 4 and 27% using linear regression and 1 to 15% using GP. A general conclusion was that the proposed methods have the potential of being applied to locations where appropriate detectors are installed for obtaining the required data. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The aim of this paper is to assess the non-monetary effects of the euro accession of Poland. The literature identifies two channels that potentially may affect the economy: (i) diminishing of investment risk premia through lower interest rates and cost of capital services and (ii) trade creation effects due to elimination of currency transaction spreads, better price comparability and elimination of currency risk. We employ a dynamic general equilibrium model with perfect foresight multiple households, adjustment cost of capital, disaggregated labor market. We directly model trade-driven productivity spillovers. Our simulations show a long run GDP gain from the euro accession at the level of 7.5% of benchmark GDP of which 90% is realized in first 10 years. The main factor behind growth is investment that leads to an extra 12.6 percent of extra capital accumulated in the long run. The welfare gains amount to roughly 2% of the value of GDP each year. The sensitivity analysis proves that the model behavior is reasonably resistant to parameter changes.


In a scenario where a cognitive radio unit wishes to transmit, it needs to know over which frequency bands it can operate. It can obtain this knowledge by estimating the power spectral density from a Nyquist-rate sampled signal. For wide-band signals sampling at the Nyquist rate is a major challenge and may be unfeasible. In this paper we accurately detect spectrum holes in sub-Nyquist frequencies without assuming wide sense stationarity in the compressed sampled signal. A novel extension to further reduce the sub-Nyquist samples is then presented by introducing a memory based compressed sensing that relies on the spectrum to be slowly varying.


Ever since its first appearance in Russian literature in the 11th century, Nusantara, then a legendary country somewhere in the isles 'beyond India', next to Paradise, has continually stirred the imagination of Russian men of letters. Early Russian writers saw it as a fabulous land allegedly visited by Alexander the Great and saintly pilgrims, and the home of pious Rahmans, monsters and allegorical animals-a land that knew no injustice and which thus provided an ideal setting for social utopias. Russian classics like Pushkin, Goncharov, and Turgenev, and especially the writers of the Silver Age (Bryusov, Balmont, and Bunin), created a different image of Nusantara: Nusantara the exotic, a land of refined aromas and deadly poisons, of tropical flowers and ancient temples, which comprised a constellation of irresistibly attractive far-off islands offering an imaginary refuge from the humdrum of the real world. In the works of the Soviet poets (Gorodetsky, Tikhonov, and Simonov), finally, Nusantara the exotic was supplanted by Nusantara the ideological arena-the region of working masses suffering under the yoke of colonialism and of communists fighting for a brighter future. The first section of this book-intended for both Southeast Asianists and Slavic scholars-offers a survey of Russian images of Nusantara from their genesis and sources (old Byzantine and modern Western) through their nine-century evolution. The second section contains a comprehensive selection of excerpts from literary works (in both English translation and the Russian original) in which these images are elaborated. The third section supplements the other two with a variety of rare materials relating to the topic of the book as well as with traditional Malay writings about Russia.


Variation for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain yield and agronomic traits was used to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) in a 'Cheyenne' (CNN) × [CNN ('Wichita' 3A)] recombinant inbred chromosome line (RICL) population consisting of 223 CNN(RICLs3A) and 7 check cultivars that were evaluated in six environments in Nebraska during 2005–2007. A chromosome 3A linkage map spanning 106 cM was constructed using 32 microsatellite markers. Composite interval mapping detected 19 QTL for seven agronomic traits that individually accounted for 4.6 to 16.8% of the phenotypic variation. Three small genomic segments, spanning 3.4, 5.3, and 5.3 cM, contained most of the QTL. Two yield QTL were detected in two environments and in data pooled over environments. For grain volume weight, a QTL was detected in fi ve of the six environments while a plant height QTL was detected in all environments. Wichita (WI) alleles contributed to the increased trait values for yield, spikes per square meter, and grain volume weight, while CNN contributed alleles to the increased 1000-kernel weight, plant height, and anthesis date. Both CNN and WI contained alleles for increased number of kernels per spike. The 223 CNN(RICLs3A) set had greater power to detect QTL than the two smaller subsets—128 CNN(RICLs3A) developed using doubled haploids and 95 CNN(RICLs3A) developed using recombinant monosomic lines. Neither of the subsets performed consistently better than the other in detecting QTL.


A number of lines of evidence suggest that seed oils exhibit a protective effect against atherogenesis. Most of the protective compounds are still unidentified. In this study, polar lipids of seed oil samples from sesame, corn and sunflower were successively fractionated by high-performance liquid chromatography. Each isolated lipid compound was tested in vitro for its ability to inhibit platelet-activating factor (PAF) and thrombin-induced washed rabbit platelet aggregation or to cause platelet aggregation. A significant number of lipids that exerted the above biological activities were detected. The most biologically active compounds were subjected to biological, chemical and spectroscopic analyses, and their structural data are presented. These results give a different explanation for the antiatherogenic action that seed oils exert. Given that PAF plays a pivotal role in atherogenesis, the fact that these oils contain PAF antagonists suggests their high nutritional value. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry


Brucellosis has been reported in livestock and humans in the country of Georgia with Brucella melitensis as the most common species causing disease. Georgia lacked sufficient data to assess effectiveness of the various potential control measures utilizing a reliable population‐based simulation model of animal‐to‐human transmission of this infection. Therefore, an agent‐based model was built using data from previous studies to evaluate the effect of an animal‐level infection control programme on human incidence and sheep flock and cattle herd prevalence of brucellosis in the Kakheti region of Georgia. This model simulated the patterns of interaction of human–animal workers, sheep flocks and cattle herds with various infection control measures and returned population‐based data. The model simulates the use of control measures needed for herd and flock prevalence to fall below 2%. As per the model output, shepherds had the greatest disease reduction as a result of the infection control programme. Cattle had the greatest influence on the incidence of human disease. Control strategies should include all susceptible animal species, sheep and cattle, identify the species of brucellosis present in the cattle population and should be conducted at the municipality level. This approach can be considered as a model to other countries and regions when assessment of control strategies is needed but data are scattered.


The three-level dialog act annotation scheme of the DIHANA corpus poses a multi-level classification problem in which the bottom levels allow multiple or no labels for a single segment. We approach automatic dialog act recognition on the three levels using an end-to-end approach, in order to implicitly capture relations between them. Our deep neural network classifier uses a combination of word- and character-based segment representation approaches, together with a summary of the dialog history and information concerning speaker changes. We show that it is important to specialize the generic segment representation in order to capture the most relevant information for each level. On the other hand, the summary of the dialog history should combine information from the three levels to capture de-pendencies between them. Furthermore, the labels generated for each level help in the prediction of those of the lower levels. Overall, we achieve results which surpass those of our previous approach using the hierarchical combination of three independent per-level classifiers. Furthermore, the results even surpass the results achieved on the simplified version of the problem approached by previous studies, which neglected the multi-label nature of the bottom levels and only considered the label combinations present in the corpus.


ABSTRACT Autophagy and apoptosis play critical roles in cellular homeostasis and survival. Subtilase cytotoxin (SubAB), produced by non-O157 type Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC), is an important virulence factor in disease. SubAB, a protease, cleaves a specific site on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone protein BiP/GRP78, leading to ER stress, and induces apoptosis. Here we report that in HeLa cells, activation of a PERK (RNA-dependent protein kinase [PKR]-like ER kinase)-eIF2α (α subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor 2)-dependent pathway by SubAB-mediated BiP cleavage negatively regulates autophagy and induces apoptosis through death-associated protein 1 (DAP1). We found that SubAB treatment decreased the amounts of autophagy markers LC3-II and p62 as well as those of mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signaling proteins ULK1 and S6K. These proteins showed increased expression levels in PERK knockdown or DAP1 knockdown cells. In addition, depletion of DAP1 in HeLa cells dramatically inhibited the SubAB-stimulated apoptotic pathway: SubAB-induced Bax/Bak conformational changes, Bax/Bak oligomerization, cytochrome c release, activation of caspases, and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage. These results show that DAP1 is a key regulator, through PERK-eIF2α-dependent pathways, of the induction of apoptosis and reduction of autophagy by SubAB.


Spectrum sharing in radar bands with interference forecasting for enhanced radar protection can help design proactive resource allocation solutions which can achieve high data rates for wireless communication networks on one hand and help protect the incumbent radar systems. We consider radar spectrum sharing in 5.6GHz where a weather radar operates as a primary system and the dominant secondary system is an enterprise network consisting of access points (APs) in a university campus. Our work models transmit the power of the APs as a time series with multinomial distribution based on real collected data. The aggregated interference due to the transmissions from the APs at the radar is forecasted using a long short-term memory (LSTM) based neural network. Monte Carlo dropout is utilized to generate prediction intervals that capture the uncertainties in the interference from the APs. Finally, by using both average and upper limits of predicted interference time series a cloud-assisted efficient sharing and radar protection algorithm is proposed. Tracking the rotating radar is not required in the proposed system. The results show that the proposed efficient sharing and radar protection system ensures better radar protection and increased throughput for wireless communication users.


This paper describes a general architecture for an interactive model-based vision system. A human speciies a limited amount of information which establishes a context for autonomous interpretation of images. Object models are described by constraints specifying necessary geometrical properties and relationships between objects. The use of constraints allows for exible object in-stantiation. A user can indicate an object in a scene and this directs perceptual processing routines as well as constraining future object instantiations. This interactive model-based concept has been applied to the domain of vehicle tracking, and this paper concludes with several processing examples from this domain.


Summary Correlation of the δ13C spike with the well dated occurrences of strata rich in organic carbon detailed in Schlanger et al. (this volume), indicates that a global episode of intense organic carbon (orgC) burial took place during the latest Cenomanian-earliest Turonian 'Oceanic Anoxic Event' (OAE) (A. plenus through I. labiatus macrofossil zones and upper R. cushmani TRZ through W. archecretacea PRZ foraminiferal zones) over a period of no more than 1 million years (m.y.). The shape of the δ13C curve indicates that rates of orgC burial gradually increased in the early part of the late Cenomanian, increased more rapidly in the later Cenomanian, and levelled off at peak values in latest Cenomanian-early Turonian time during the maximum rate of orgC burial. The δ13C values decreased nearly to pre-late Cenomanian levels in the early to middle Turonian. The decrease in δ13C reflects decreasing rates of orgC burial following the Cenomanian-Turonian 'oceanic anoxic event' as well as the probable oxidation and return of significant amounts of orgC to the oceans following regression and re-oxygenation of much of the deeper water masses in contact with the seafloor. The Cenomanian-Turonian OAE coincided with a maximum sea level highstand. We suggest that sea level, which may be responding to some volcano-tectonic event, is the common link and ultimately the driving force for orgC deposition in globally distributed basins under different climatic and ocean circulation regimes. The rate of production of warm, saline deep water may have been proportional to the area of shelf flooding such that the maximum occurred near the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary. As rates of deep-water formation increased, rates of upwelling of deeper oceanic water masses must also have increased thereby increasing sea-surface fertility and productivity. In somewhat restricted higher latitude basins, such as the Cretaceous Interior Seaway of North America, periodic high rates of freshwater runoff coupled with deepening seas during the transgression created periodic salinity stratification, oxygen depletion in bottom waters, and resultant enhanced orgC preservation. The disappearance of some types of keeled planktonic formainifers and ammonites at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary is probably due to the rather sudden but short-term disappearance of suitable shallow midwater habitats because of widespread severe oxygen depletion in these levels. This interpretation is strengthened by the occurrence of benthic-free zones or depauperate benthic faunas near the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary in many localities.


Abstract. Many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that are used for aerial mapping are equipped with consumer-grade digital cameras, which use CMOS (Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) image sensors. Majority of these sensors capture images using an electronic rolling shutter, which can cause distortions on the image if either the camera or the captured objects are moving. This phenomenon is usually ignored in aerial mapping with UAVs in practice. However, there is a lack of published research papers that would prove the effect can be neglected. In this paper, we present the design of the system for monitoring UAV camera orientation. Furthermore, the calibration process to get correct and reliable readings is described. The initial analysis of the data is focused on assessing the accuracy that can be achieved using the proposed system. The main component of our system is a MEMS (Microelectromechanical system) gyroscope. It was selected for its low weight and size, low price and high sampling rates which are all very beneficial characteristics for a system, mounted on a UAV. In a paper, a working prototype is presented that uses the selected MEMS gyroscope connected to a single-board computer. The presented initial analysis of collected data shows, that the system would be capable to indirectly detect the image distortions, caused by camera orientation changes during exposure, in the range of typical ground sample distance (GSD).


In thirteenth-century Gwynedd, advice and counsel were sought through a variety of means. Whilst some of them, such as consultation of leading magnates and prelates, were common to much of Europe, the princes of Gwynedd still relied on traditional methods of counsel, most notably the advice given by court poets through their works. This article demonstrates how this very public method of advice was employed, the reaction of the princes to it, and its role as part of the machinery of the court. It then considers how the advice of the poets contributed to, and reflected, the move away from confederate consultation with the other princes of Wales to the use of a body of 'counsellors' drawn from Gwynedd as the thirteenth century progressed, a style of leadership which brought Gwynedd into line with wider European methods of governance.


This paper examines dividend policy issues in Hungary. The results reported in this study suggest that dividend signalling is not of any relevance. However, there are clear signs for dividend smoothing. Thus, managers in Hungary seem to fear the need to cut or omit dividends and therefore try to avoid the dividend reductions in the nearer future by only gradually increasing dividend payouts as a reaction to rising corporate profits. Moreover, the empirical evidence reported in this study does give support to the assumption that the negligence of inflation can distort tests for dividend smoothing and dividend signalling.(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionIn spite of many research efforts there still at best is an imperfect understanding of the fact that managers seem to assign some importance to the formulation of the dividend policies of their firms. Different approaches have been suggested to explain why firms do pay dividends. However, examining the numerous empirical studies that do exist gives no clear picture. Recently, it has been argued that the negligence of inflation could be one explanation for the observation that there is no indubitable empirical evidence supporting specific theories of dividend determination (see Basse (2009) and Basse et al. (2011)). Meanwhile, this point of view has become quite popular. However, Basse and Reddemann (2011) have argued that additional empirical research examining data from emerging economies could be of interest because inflation rates in these countries tend to be more volatile. Therefore, this study analyses dividend policy issues using data from Hungary - one of the leading emerging markets in Eastern Europe.Literature ReviewIn a widely cited paper Miller and Modigliani (1961) have argued that the dividend policy of a firm is irrelevant. They assume that the investment policy of the firm is given, that capital markets are perfect and that taxes do not exist. Under these circumstances higher dividends simply result in lower capital gains and the dividend policy of a firm is therefore without any economic relevance - at least when investors do not prefer dividends to capital gains or vice versa. This dividend irrelevancy hypothesis creates some problems for financial economists trying to explain why dividends do exist. In fact, there seems to be a dividend puzzle because it can be observed that numerous firms in many countries regularly decide to pay dividends (e.g., Black (1976) and Mann (1989)). Accepting the dividend irrelevancy hypothesis it should be a major surprise that managers generally seem to believe that it is of some importance for their firm to follow an appropriate dividend policy. Brav et al. (2005), for example, have used survey and field interviews documenting the special importance U.S. managers assign to the payout policy of their firms.Corporate finance theory has made some suggestions for the relevance of dividends. These approaches to explain why managers decided to pay dividends usually are based on agency theory. The management of a firm is not necessarily acting in the best interest of the owners (see, for example, Stulz (1990) and Gugler (2003)). In fact, it is quite common to argue that dividend payments lead to a reduction of free cash flow and thereby force the management of a firm to obtain capital from external sources more frequently when new investment projects have to be financed. Trying to raise new capital forces a firm to give information to investment bankers, prospective investors and other economic agents reducing agency costs.Moreover, dividend changes can help to overcome information asymmetries. According to the so-called dividend signalling theory managers do adjust dividends to signal changes to expected future earnings to financial markets (e.g., Asquith and Mullins (1986) and Denis et al. (1994)). This approach seems to be the most popular explanation for the existence of dividend payments. …


Background
it is still equivocal whether there is a potential role of late-life physical activity in ameliorating the challenges of increasing healthcare expenditure due to the consequence of global population ageing.

Objective
this study aimed to examine the prospective association between physical activity and subsequent hospital care utilisation in older adults and to explore the optimal dose of physical activity required to reduce hospital care utilisation.

Design
this was a prospective cohort study based on the data from the Taiwan 2005 National Health Interview Survey, which were linked to the 2005-12 claims data from the National Health Insurance system.

Participants
1,760 older adults aged 65 or more.

Methods
the frequency, duration and intensity for physical activity were assessed, and total physical activity energy expenditure was estimated. The average annualised hospital care utilisation for the period 2006 through 2012, including number of hospitalisations, number of days in hospital and the costs of hospitalisation, were calculated.

Results
older adults engaging in at least moderate volume of physical activity (≥1,000 kcal/week) experienced fewer subsequent hospital admissions and fewer days in hospital than did sedentary individuals, after adjusting for covariates. Trends for reduced hospitalisation costs were also found. These associations persisted in sensitivity analyses, including tests of reverse causation.

Conclusion
this study has provided evidence that older adults who are at least moderately active may minimise utilisation of hospital care services. The findings highlight the importance of maintaining a physically active lifestyle in later life.


Background Aortic arterial stiffening is an independent predictor for future cardiovascular events. Calculation of Carotid-Femoral Pulse Wave Velocity (cfPWV) is currently the clinical gold standard for measuring arteriosclerosis, with cfPWV now recommended by the European Society of Cardiology for the guidance of initiating preventative treatments. Despite this, no consensus exists on how best to obtain the pathlength component of the calculation with large intercentre variation in how this is performed. The aim of the current study was to generate a calculation to produce a standardised pathlength that can be generated from easily obtainable clinical measures. Methods 1183 participants free from cardiovascular disease (CVD) underwent whole body MRI as part of the TASCFORCE study. The distance between the carotid and femoral vessels was obtained by tracing the arterial centreline between the two. Backward linear regression was then used to generate a formula for calculating pathlengths based on easily obtainable clinical metrics. This calculation was then validated in an external cohort of 128 individuals with and without CVD who had also undergone MRI. Results Various allometric and cardiovascular values were included in the analysis. Carotid-femoral pathlength could be calculated as follows: Distance=100.36+(0.70×Age[years]) + (137.89×Height[m]) + (0.52×Weight[kg]) – (0.17×Pulse) + (46.16[female], 54.32[male]). When compared with the actual measured distance in the original cohort this differed by −0.05 mm SD +28.5 mm, p=0.962 for difference. When this formula was then applied in the external validation cohort there was a small overestimation of the pathlength by 10.07±25 mm (p>0.001). This is comparable to clinically accepted techniques: measuring the direct distance from the carotid-femoral arteries and subtracting the measured to distance to the carotid-sternal notch, by tape measure or calliper on the body surface, results in mean overestimation of pathlength by −23.5±38 mm: a value greater than that of the generated formula technique. Conclusion Using simple allometric measures, carotid-femoral pathlength can be calculated with good accuracy. This holds promise for improving interstudy and intercentre reproducibility, thus expanding the utility and applicability of PWV calculation in clinical practice. In future, the predictive ability of the formula can be tested in disease discrimination cohorts to further assess its clinical applicability


Neural mass models have been used for many years to study the dynamics of neural groups, or of entire cortical areas, in a simple and computationally inexpensive way. In this paper, we modified a model proposed by Wendling et al. [6] to analyze EEG power density in some cortical areas during a simple task (finger movement). The work consists of three subsequent stages: 1) in the first we performed a sensitivity analysis of the main model parameters (i.e., strength of inhibitory and excitatory synapses and their time constants) and evaluated their role in affecting power spectral density (PSD). This analysis confirmed the possibility to simulate various EEG rhythms by modifying just the strength and time constants of a few synapses. However, a single neural mass model produces a narrow frequency band, which cannot mimic the overall complexity of EEG in an entire cortical area. 2) Hence, in the second stage we built a model of a region of interest (ROI) by combining three neural mass models arranged in parallel. With this model, and using an automatic fitting procedure to establish parameter values, we carefully reproduced the PSD of cortical EEG in six ROIs during finger movement. Cortical EEGs were computed with an inverse propagation model, starting from measurement performed with 128 electrodes on the scalp. 3) In the third stage, we simulated how PSD in some ROIs can be modified, as a consequence of some hypothetical functional connectivity among the regions. Results show that the proposed model is able to mimic PSD of cortical activity acting on a few parameters only. The pattern of power spectra, however, is significantly modified by a functional connectivity among the ROIs. Knowledge obtained from the model may be exploited to derive information on functional connectivity, starting from non-invasive EEG measurements.


Rapid advances in wireless communications and networking technologies, linked with advances in computing and medical technologies, facilitate the development and offering of emerging mobile systems and services in the healthcare sector. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the current status and challenges of mobile health systems (in-health) in emergency healthcare systems and services (e-emergency). The paper covers a review of recent e-emergency systems, including the wireless technologies used, as well as the data transmitted (electronic patient record, bio-signals, medical images and video, subject video, and other). Furthermore, emerging wireless video systems for reliable communications in these applications are presented. We anticipate that in-health e-emergency systems will significantly affect the delivery of healthcare; however, their exploitation in daily practice still remains to be achieved.


This paper aims to give a new perspective on the issue of sovereignty in the European context. In this context, we argue that the EU can contribute to increase Member States sovereignty. Many academic circles have advocated that the EU limits State's sovereignty. This is why we intend to present a new approach to sovereignty in the European context. In order to present our argument we will discuss and debate the concept of sovereignty, both in the internal and external dimensions, which are associated with the concept of power. Then we will check if European states have the necessary means that enables them to project their power. We'll also argue that there are real limitations, in current capabilities, and in resources availability needed to develop them in the future. We'll also present the concept of politics of scale, arguing that we can apply this concept to develop state's capabilities, which allow the necessary power projection, which enhances state's sovereignty. This found that pooling and sharing will increase EU member states sovereignty, since it will allow a greater ability to project power, which is essential to support the external dimension of sovereignty. Thus, through a process of sharing and pooling member states will have the ability to defend their interests on a global scale, a level of intervention that will be denied if they choose to pursue individually. We also conclude that the current economic crisis may be used has a catalyst to deepen these mechanisms.


This paper describes the main features and present results of MPRO-Spanish, a parser for morphological and syntactic analysis of unrestricted Spanish text developed at the IAI1. This parser makes direct use of X-phrase structure rules to handle
a variety of patterns from derivational morphology and syntactic structure. Both
analyses, morphological and syntactic, are realised by two subsequent modules. One
module analyses and disambiguates the source words at morphological level while the
other consists of a series of programs and a deterministic, procedural and explicit
grammar. The article explains the main features of MPRO and resumes some of the
experiments on some of its applications, some of which still being implemented like the monolingual and bilingual term extraction while others need further work like indexing. The results and applications obtained so far with simple and relatively
complex sentences give us grounds to believe in its reliability.


The authors address the problem of estimating the phase sequence of a phase modulated signal in additive Guassian white noise by using hidden Markov model methods. Either digital (i.e., PSK) or analog modulated signals may be considered within this framework. Unknown and varying channel gains may be incorporated. Good estimation and adaptation performance for each method is demonstrated.<<ETX>>


This study analyses the effects of Big Data visualisations on jurors' decisions in audit litigation cases. Specifically, the study investigates the effects of different types of Big Data visualisations (word clouds or bar graphs) and different sources of Big Data (emails or social media posts) on jurors' perceptions of auditors' work and the size of the negligence awards that jurors recommend. The study theorises that the emotions elicited and the reliability of the data used to create visualisations such as word clouds will have dramatic effects on jury verdicts in audit negligence trials. There is considerable literature to support this assertion. However, after data collection, it was discovered that jurors are not influenced by the emotions elicited by visualisations. Rather, participants were very sceptical of more novel types of visualisations, such as word clouds, but could be persuaded by the inherent emotions elicited and the reliability of the data if they found the visualisation useful.


Examining curriculum among universities revealed that no significant difference in math class or related subjects can be seen. However, amount and depth of those studies, in general, differed depending on content of curriculum and the level of achievement at entrance to individual university. Universalization of higher education shows that students have many problems in learning higher level of traditional math and that the memory of math they learned quickly fades away after passing in exam. It means that further development of higher math knowledgebased engineer after graduation from universities. Under these circumstances, the present author, as one of fun of math, propose how to maintain way of thinking generated by math knowledge. What necessary for engineer is to pay attention to common books, dealing with elementary mathematics or arithmetic- related matters. This surely leads engineer to nourish math/arithmetic knowledge-based way of thinking.


A model of the smart grid system with two different energy sources
- the main grid and the energy storage units - is considered. The
arriving power demands can be activated by either type of energy
sources, with differing rates and costs. Finding an optimal policy
that minimizes the expected long-run operational cost of the system is
the main interest of this work.
The problem is considered in a so called heavy traffic regime, and
is solved using fluid approximation techniques. The formal scaling
limit of the problem leads to a simple deterministic optimization
problem, whose
solution is shown to be an achievable lower bound on
the limiting cost of the stochastic problem. Three different
scenarios are considered according to whether the batteries are
disposable or rechargeable and whether the arrival rates are
homogeneous or nonhomogeneous. The solution method provides a good
alternative to numerical methods such as Markov Decision Processes.


Antibiosis and resource competition are major drivers shaping the assembly, diversity and functioning of microbial communities. While it is recognized that competition is sensitive to environmental conditions, it is unclear to what extent this mediated by the availability of different carbon resources. Here, we used a model laboratory system to directly test this by exploring how carbon resource richness and identity shape resource competition and antibiosis between plant probiotic Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and phytopathogenic Ralstonia solanacearum bacteria. We found that while sugars typically promoted B. amyloliquefaciens growth, organic and amino acids increased the production of both bacillaene and macrolactin antibiotics and the direct inhibition of R. solanacearum. In contrast, when multiple different carbon resources were available, B. amyloliquefaciens could efficiently grow and produce antibiotics at the same time. Together, these results suggest that high carbon resource richness allows concurrent expression of growth- and antibiosis-related traits, potentially altering bacterial competitive dynamics and plant growth promotion in microbial communities. A plain language summary is available for this article.


In this paper we propose a novel approach for representing facial expressions based on a quadratic deformation model applied to muscle regions. The non-linear nature of muscle deformations can be captured for each expression, by subdividing the face into 16 facial regions and using the most general rubber-sheet transformation of second degree. The deformation parameters are derived using a least-square minimization technique, and used to construct a Facial Deformation Table (FDT) to mathematically represent each expression. The generalized nature of the transformations allows us to easily map expressions from one model to another, and employ the FDTs in facial expression applications such as facial recognition and animations. The paper presents experimental results using the smile expression.


We study the spatiotemporal evolution of the electromagnetic field inside a microresonator showing an anomalous dispersion at the pump wavelength by using the normalized Lugiato–Lefever equation. Unlike the traditional single continuous wave (CW) pumping, an additional pump source consisting of periodical pulse train with variable repetition rate is adopted. The influences of the microresonator properties and the pump parameters on the field evolution and the electromagnetic field profile are analyzed. The simulation results indicate that, in the anomalous dispersion regime, both increases of the input pulse amplitude and the repetition frequency can result in the field profiles consisting of multiple peaks. A series of equidistant pulses can also be obtained by increasing the CW pump power. In addition, we find that a large physical detuning between the pump laser carrier and the cavity resonance frequency also causes the splitting of the inside field.


This study was Conducted To Evaluate The Anthelmintic Effect Of Neem (azadirachta Indica) On Nematode Parasites Of Sheep. Twelve Santa Ines Cross Bred Sheep From A Government Farm were randomly selected and equally divided into control (n = 6) and treated groups (n =6). Faecal egg counts (FEC) using the modified McMaster technique and the FAMACHA score for assessing clinical anaemia were carried out daily and recorded for 6 weeks. At the end of the study all the animals were slaughtered and the total worm count (TWC) was done. The results of FEC showed that there was no significant difference between the control and treated group (p = 0.081). However, worm burden estimations showed that the number of parasites was significantly higher in the control group compared to the treated group (p < 0.05). This result indicated that feeding Neem had an effect on worm numbers in sheep, but was not reflected in their faecal egg counts. Further work is needed to reconfirm the effect of Neem on helminth infections of sheep.


A set of recombinant plasmids with a gene encoding surface antigen of hepatitis B virus (HBsAg) is constructed. The plasmids were transfected by DEAE-dextran method into different lines of cultured cells and transient expression of the HBsAg gene was studied. The results indicate that: transcriptional enhancer of hepatitis B virus situated downstream from HBsAg gene is active in green monkey kidney cells (CVI), promoter of 5 LTR of bovine leukemia virus is trans-activated in the goat or calf cells infected with BLV. The results are discussed in the light of hypothesis on the role of transcriptional enhancers in determination of tissue-specificity of hepatitis B virus.


Dictionary code compression is a technique which has been studied as a method to reduce the energy consumed in the instruction fetch path of processors. Instructions or instruction sequences in the code are replaced with short code words. These code words are later used to index a dictionary which contains the original uncompressed instruction or an entire sequence. In this paper, we present a new method which improves on code density compared to previously published dictionary methods. It uses a two-level dictionary design and is capable of handling compression of both individual instructions and code sequences of 2-16 instructions. The two dictionaries are in separate pipeline stages and work together to decompress sequences and instructions. The impact on storage size for the dictionaries is rather small as the sequences in the dictionary are stored as individually compressed instructions, instead of normal instructions. Compared to previous dictionary code compression methods we achieve improved dynamic compression rate, potential for better performance with reasonable static compression rate and with still small dictionary size suitable for context switching.


India is striving for universal enrollment up to secondary level in schools. The planning documents reveal that Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) is 88.1 for primary, 70.02 for upper primary, and Gross Enrollment Ration (GER) is 66.4 for secondary and 39.3 for Sr. secondary classes in India. The paper analyses the data on disability in schools as reported under Unified District Information System of Education (UDISE), which is collected since 2010 on ten types of disabilities. The data reveals the pattern of enrollment and dropout of CWSN as a whole and SLD specifically as it is hidden disability and misses the focused attention of educational planners. The findings reveal that dropout of CWSN starts from class V onwards. The education system is retaining 12.02% CWSN and 5.3% SLD only in class XII who were enrolled in class I. The findings point out that CWSN are getting enrolled but not being retained in the schools. Thus these findings are significant to examine existing policies for access and retention in schools, to modify teaching learning strategies, evaluation provisions and incentives schemes to retain the enrolled CWSN. The drop out of SLD from the education system is a very big loss to the country as these children are geniuses and could prove to be big assets. Besides enrolled children there is a large number of out of school CWSN who need to be enrolled. The paper would help educational planners to build inclusive education in India and also to achieve target of universal learning along with universal enrollment.


Clostridium septicum bacteremia is frequently associated with hematologic and colonic malignancies and neutropenia. It frequently produces 'metastatic' gangrene with excessive mortality. Standard therapy usually includes surgical debridement and antibiotics. We present a patient with metastatic breast cancer treated with high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. She was treated successfully with antibiotics alone despite developing Cl. septicum bacteremia and gas in hepatic metastases. The pathophysiology of this infection is reviewed.


The role accorded to victims in the ICC proceedings is considered as one of the most significant features of the Rome Statute. It is acknowledged that the interests of victims often differ from the interests of the Prosecution, which is primarily responsible for ensuring that the interests of the society are protected. However, during the negotiation of the Rome Statue the idea that victims should be conferred upon procedural rights gained increasing support as reflecting an international human rights' tendency. The Statute contains only a few prescriptions defining the notion of "victim" and establishing the rights they are empowered to exercise. Nonetheless, extensive ICC jurisprudence has already ruled on several controversial issues which are of utmost relevance for shaping such a role. This article analyzes and systematizes this jurisprudence and it examines the meaning of victims' participation before a Court created to surrogate inactive States.


Tock is an embedded operating system that can run multiple concurrent, mutually distrustful processes, concurrently. Tock is written in Rust, a novel system programming language enforcing type safety at compile-time, and takes advantage of Rust's strong safety features. However, since Tock allows user-level applications to be written in any language, Rust is not sufficient in guaranteeing memory safety for user-level Tock. To obtain memory isolation, Tock takes advantage of MPUs provided by recent microcontrollers. Although Tock is supposed to be fully architecture agnostic, it is at present only able to support the MPU of the Cortex-M architecture. The lack of an architecture-agnostic MPU interface, process manager and the corresponding MPU implementations is the biggest remaining hurdle in making Tock architecture independent. In order to create such an interface, this work performs an analysis of state-of-the-art MPUs, comparing their key features and constraints. A feasibility study for the design of an MPU interface in Tock is carried out, resulting in a number of general changes to the current implementation of Tock, and leading up to the design, implementation and evaluation of two MPU interfaces. The first is a region-based interface, aiming to have an abstraction that is straightforward and completely agnostic of what the MPU is used for. The second interface is a process-based interface, that utilizes knowledge of what it is applied for in order to provide a solution that is more efficient given the constraints and optimizations of an arbitrary MPU. Implementations for the Cortex-M, Kinetis K and nRF51 MPUs are created that match these interfaces, and in addition fundamental adaptations to process management in the Tock kernel are made. On the Hail development board, these changes reduce context switching time by 25.34%, but lead to a cost of 848 bytes or 1.0% in flash memory overhead. Most importantly, with the introduction of these interfaces, the biggest hurdle for Tock in becoming a multi-architecture operating system is overwon.


ROUTLEDGE RESEARCH IN PLANNING AND URBAN DESIGN Making Prestigious Places investigates the spatial dimension of luxury, both as a sector involving activities, operators and investments, and as a system of values acting as a catalyst for recent urban transformations. Luxury shares a well-established connection to the city, as a place of production, consumption and self-representation, and continues to grow despite economic difficulties. This edited collection includes case studies from Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East to create a dialogue around these developments and the challenges presented, such as the tension between the idea of prestige and current values in urban planning, the discussion between academic reflections and operational practices, and how these interact with the long term economic and social dynamic of the city. With rich analysis and a preface written by Patsy Healey, this book will be an important addition to the discourse on luxury for urban planners and researchers.


In vitro influence of 14 individual spices (curcumin, capsaicin, piperine, garlic, onion, ginger, mint, coriander, cumin, ajowan, fennel, fenugreek, mustard, and asafoetida) on the activities of digestive enzymes of rat pancreas and small intestine was examined by including them in the reaction mixture at two different concentrations. A majority of spices enhanced the activity of pancreatic lipase and amylase when they are directly in contact with the enzyme. It is inferred that this positive influence on the activity of enzymes may have a supplementary role in the overall digestive stimulant action of spices, besides causing an enhancement of the titres of digestive enzymes in pancreatic tissue.


Background— The clinical efficacy of clopidogrel is hampered by a large interindividual variability in platelet inhibition. Polymorphisms in the P2RY12 receptor gene have been suggested to contribute to this variability, but previous studies included a relatively small number of patients and incompletely covered the common variation in the P2RY12 gene. The aim of this study was to comprehensively investigate the possible association between common variation in the entire P2RY12 locus and the magnitude of residual on-clopidogrel platelet reactivity measured by 2 commonly used platelet function assays in a large cohort of patients. Methods and Results— A total of 1031 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease who were scheduled for elective percutaneous coronary interventions were enrolled. Platelet function was assessed by means of ADP-induced light-transmittance aggregometry and the VerifyNow P2Y12 assay. Six haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms were carefully selected to comprehensively cover the total common variation in the P2RY12 gene and its flanking regulatory regions. Six common haplotypes were inferred from these haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (denoted A to F). Haplotype F was associated with significantly lower residual on-clopidogrel platelet reactivity compared with the reference haplotype A. The size of this effect per haplotype allele was approximately 5% aggregation in the ADP-induced light-transmittance aggregometry (P<0.05) and 11 P2Y12 reaction units in the VerifyNow P2Y12 assay (P<0.05). Conclusions— Common variation in the P2RY12 gene is a significant determinant of the interindividual variability in residual on-clopidogrel platelet reactivity in patients with coronary artery disease.


Modeling protein molecules as kinematic chains provides the foundation for developing powerful approaches to the design, manipulation and fabrication of peptide based molecules and devices. Nevertheless, these models possess a high number of degrees of freedom (DOF) with considerable computational implications. On the other hand, real protein molecules appear to exhibits a much lower mobility during the folding process than what is suggested by existing kinematic models. The key contributor to the lower mobility of real proteins is the formation of Hydrogen bonds during the folding process. In this paper we explore the pivotal role of Hydrogen bonds in determining the structure and function of the proteins from the point of view of mechanical mobility. The existing geometric criteria on the formation of Hydrogen bonds are reviewed and a new set of geometric criteria are proposed. We show that the new criteria better correlate the number of predicted Hydrogen bonds with those established by biological principles than other existing criteria. Furthermore, we employ established tools in kinematics mobility analysis to evaluate the internal mobility of protein molecules, and to identify the rigid and flexible segments of the proteins. Our results show that the developed procedure significantly reduces the DOF of the protein models, with an average reduction of 94%. Such a dramatic reduction in the number of DOF can have has enormous computational implications in protein folding simulations.© 2009 ASME


Satellite remote sensing is considered to be a good source of crop monitoring information. However, regions that experience significant cloud cover are often unable to acquire timely satellite imagery. FieldCopter addresses this problem and explores how unmanned aerial systems (UAS), suitably equipped with multispectral sensors, can provide an alternative, reliable and flexible information source on crop and soil status. Calculations from hourly meteorological data show that satellite-based remote sensing has a 20% probability of producing an adequate image. However, the probability of a usable image from a light-weight, weather sensitive UAS is 45% and over 70% for an all-weather UAS. FieldCopter demonstrates that, despite cloud cover and other adverse weather conditions, the UAS will complement and enhance the performance of any satellite remote sensing service to provide imagery essential for farmers engaged in precision agriculture.


Objectives Pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) and non-regenerative immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia (NRIMHA) are uncommon causes of non-regenerative anaemia affecting the bone marrow in the cat. This retrospective study aimed to describe the clinical features, treatment and outcome (remission and survival) of cats with these disorders. Methods Cases of PRCA and NRIMHA presenting between 2009 and 2013 were retrieved. Clinical features including signalment, history, clinical signs and diagnostic investigations were recorded, as well as treatment(s) used and outcome (remission and survival). Outcome was compared for PRCA and NRIMHA. Results Fifteen cats met inclusion criteria: seven with PRCA and eight with NRIMHA. The majority (12/15) were younger than 3 years of age. Volume overload was common (8/11). Treatment with whole blood transfusions with or without Oxyglobin was necessary in most cats (14/15) and resulted in congestive heart failure in one cat. Most cats (11/15) achieved remission 12–42 days after starting immunosuppressive treatment. Treatment protocols associated with remission were glucocorticoids alone (remission in 6/7 cats), glucocorticoids and chlorambucil (remission in 3/6 treated cats), glucocorticoids and ciclosporin (one cat only) and ciclosporin alone (one cat only). Relapse was observed in 3/11 cats, and 8/11 cats were still receiving treatment at the time of follow-up. Outcome (remission and survival) did not differ between PRCA and NRIMHA. Conclusions and relevance PRCA and NRIMHA are uncommon causes of anaemia in predominantly young cats. The prognosis is reasonable, with a mortality rate of 27%, and it can take at least 6 weeks before remission is observed. Following clinical remission, gradual withdrawal of immunosuppressive treatments should be attempted, with close monitoring for relapse; some cats may require long-term treatment. This study is the first to report the use of chlorambucil as an adjunctive immunosuppressant in these cases. Outcome did not differ for PRCA and NRIMHA.


Shifts between concepts of "graphic design" and "visual communication" offer numerous topical links and demonstrate their relevance for our research question: "How can communication designers design and steer rumor-based communication?" An interdisciplinary research team at the Bern University of the Arts (HKB) launched the project "Gerüchtekuchee" ("Rumour mill") and conducted an experiment by planting a real-life rumor in organizational context. Results together with evidence from a literature review informed a practice application—"The Rumor Fighter"—as part of a museum exhibition, Gerücht: Museum für Kommunikation [Rumor: Museum of Communication], in Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt.


A little over 30 years ago, Sir Godfrey Hounsfield and his colleagues revolutionized medical imaging by developing CT scanning. In recent years a combination of improved technology and a deeper understanding of tumour biology have led to the development of imaging based strategies aimed at interrogating tissue structure and function. The prospects of this new technology include the prediction of tumour response and the non-invasive study of conventionally inaccessible yet important pharmacological compartments. This article explores how functional nuclear MRI and spectroscopy have been used in predicting response to anticancer therapy in rectal cancers and to assess the biliary excretion of chemotherapeutics.


Based on the second gradient operator and corresponding integral theorems such as the second divergence theorem, the second gradient theorem, the second curl theorem, and the second circulation theorem on curved surfaces, a few new scalar differential operators are defined and a series of integral transformations are derived. Interesting transformations between the average curvature and the Gauss curvature are presented. Various conserved integrals related to the Gauss curvature and the second fundamental tensor are disclosed. The important applications of the results in disciplines such as the geometry, physics, mechanics, and biology are briefly discussed.


ABSTRACT The herpes simplex virus type 1 UL34 gene encodes a protein that is conserved in all human herpesviruses. The association of the UL34 protein with membranes in the infected cell and its expression as a gamma-1 gene suggest a role in maturation or egress of the virus particle from the cell. To determine the function of this gene product, we have constructed a recombinant virus that fails to express the UL34 protein. This recombinant virus, in which the UL34 protein coding sequence has been replaced by green fluorescent protein, forms minute plaques and replicates in single-step growth experiments to titers 3 to 5 log orders of magnitude lower than wild-type or repair viruses. On Vero cells, the deletion virus synthesizes proteins of all kinetic classes in normal amounts. Electron microscopic and biochemical analyses show that morphogenesis of the deletion virus proceeds normally to the point of formation of DNA-containing nuclear capsids, but electron micrographs show no enveloped virus particles in the cytoplasm or at the surface of infected cells, suggesting that the UL34 protein is essential for efficient envelopment of capsids.


I spent last Saturday morning leading a group of federal judges in a vigorous and largely successful roundtable discussion of Ariel Dorfman's play, Death and the Maiden. The deep underlying cause of this event was surely Michael Palencia-Roth--and not just because he wrote me a nice letter of recommendation to law school years ago. His responsibility runs deeper, to the very substance of my understanding of the relationship between law and literature, an interdisciplinary field of study that had barely started in the late seventies when Michael first became my teacher and mentor. He is why we read a play rather than an academic essay, and it's his influence that lets me proclaim the death of the Law and Literature movement with an optimistic bent. Although the Brothers Grimm had done work identifying the common etymology of various poetic and legal terms as early as 1816, the modern Law and Literature movement begins with the 1976 publication of James Boyd White's The Legal Imagination. White, an English professor (now a jointly-appointed law professor) at Michigan, took seriously the possibility that legal rhetoric had something to learn from the language of fiction. Literature is replete with examples of rhetoric that is community-building rather than divisive, and White has written frequently about humane rhetorical strategies taught by great works of literature. His work fits within a tradition that finds the commonality of law and literature in their various languages. This "law as literature as language" approach pioneered by White has developed several sub-divisions over the years. Scholars like Stanley Fish agree with White that law is a sort of language, but Fish does not conclude, as White seems to, that comparative study is necessarily humanizing (see Fish). After all, studying Spanish and Italian together might be mutually illuminating, but neither language will be made better through the comparison. Other scholars, moved by a complementary but more critical spirit, might be identified as "legal semioticians," dedicated to deconstructing legal texts in the same way as literary texts, determined to find evidence of class structure embedded in both. Yet another group, whom we might label "narrative scholars" also focus on similarities in form between stories told in fiction and those told in the course of legal proceedings. This group endorses narrative fiction as sometimes more valid, and often more persuasive, than obfuscating styles of traditional legal analysis. What all the foregoing strands have in common is a dedication to the study of form: the form of legal argument and the form of literary rhetoric. The comparative study of law and literature for "law as literature as language" scholars becomes a branch of post-modern aesthetics: What works with an audience and what does not? What moves the viewer or the reader and why? The critic attempts to analyze the communication while deemphasizing attempts to discern its meaning. Comparative literary scholars will recognize this approach in some of their own academic writing, and I do not mean to disparage it. I do want to explore why it is, however, that law in action, in courts, legislatures, and law schools seems so resistant to incorporating its insights. Although White and Fish are cited over 2500 times in academic legal articles, they have been cited in federal court opinions only four times. This disparity does not necessarily prove they have no influence--perhaps they affect the legal subconscious via student exposure to their work in law school--but nevertheless the form of legal language seems little changed in the last thirty years. Fish himself provides the answer in his perceptive essay, "The Law Wants a Formal Existence." Law only works if it appears to be objective. Litigants will only agree that a dispute has been fairly settled if the law appears to emerge from an objective black box uncontaminated by the personal preference of the judge. …


Shrinkage tends to generate when loose metal powder melted in each processing layer along the direction of layer growing during selective laser melting process, resulting in an increased real layer thickness. The shrinkage model for layer shrinkage in SLM process is established. The variation of real layer thickness and the relevant mathematical explanations are discussed in this paper. The results show that the total shrinkage of metal powder layer sharply increases in the initial layers, and then reaches to a plateau value with the increased processing layers. This value is defined by the ratio of sliced layer thickness (h) to relative density (k) during selective laser melting process.


In modern economies, the corporate governance principles have been understood as drivers that mitigate the risk derived from the existing gap between managerial practices and ownership structure. This research contributes to the literature review, analyzing the relationship between the board characteristics, audit firms, and a set of indicators taken as proxies of performance. Based on a dataset of 124 non-financial companies, a linear model was regressed. We found that some characteristics of board of directors significantly influence the companies' performance. These new insights can also provide new guidelines for policy makers towards the establishment of new common rules and principles that accurately grant the efficiency of corporate governance mechanisms and ensure the desired international comparability.


A total of 258 patients aged 29 to 59 wearing cermet dentures for 3 to 10 years were examined. Complications, such as ceramic fracture, inflammatory changes in the gingiva, functional overexercise of the periodontium, failure of cement fixation of the crown, apical periodontitis, occurred in 32 (12.4%) patients. The causes of these complications were analyzed and measures to prevent them developed. 284 patients aged 28 to 60 were fitted with cermet dentures after therapeutic and orthodontic preparation, with all prophylactic measures being adhered to; the results were followed up for 3 to 10 years. The incidence of complications reduced almost four-fold: they were observed in but 3.5% of patients.


Simone Weil on Attention and Education: Can Love Be Taught? Kazuaki Yoda The concern of this study is the loss of the meaning or purpose of education and the instrumental view of education as its corollary. Today, education is largely conceived of as a means to gain social and economic privilege. The overemphasis on school children's test scores and the accountability of teachers and schools is evidence that education has lost its proper meaning. In such a climate, we observe general unhappiness among teachers, school children, and their parents. Society as a whole seems to have given up on education, not only school education but also the very idea of educated human beings. There is an urgent need to reconsider what education is and what its purpose is. However, these questions—once being the primary concerns of philosophers of education—are barely discussed today. I intend to energize the discourse of the aims of education by examining Simone Weil's thesis that the sole purpose of education is to nurture attention. It is very hard, however, to agree with Weil's thesis that the sole purpose of education is attention. Is there a single definite purpose to education? Weil suggests that the purpose is attention, but her notion of attention involves religious language and takes essentialist formulation. How can we take her thesis seriously? By addressing such difficulties and potential problems, I argue that her thesis is still compelling if we adequately emphasize her realistic approach to philosophy. Attention is the disposition of the subject that is open and available to the reality of other people, ourselves, objects (natural and artificial), customs and traditions, ideas, and words such as good, truth, beauty, and God. Attention is also synonymous with love. As the disposition takes various objects, love is also inclusively discussed. The purpose of education, then, is to learn to love. This study discusses two important aspects of love: the love of other people, which for Weil is nothing but justice, and the love of God. Justice for Weil is not about enforcement of rights as typically understood today. It is equivalent to love in that it involves the recognition of others for themselves, not as a means for our satisfaction. We tend to see other people from our self-centered perspective, but we must stop doing so to partake in justice and love. This detachment from the self-centered perspective is crucial not only in attending to other people, but in attending to everything. Weil proposes the imitation of the divine perspective—or quasi-perspective, to be precise—from which everything, including the most abhorrent human misery, is capable of being loved because it is the result of God's love. By changing our perspective, we learn to love God. Although it is perhaps inappropriate to include the love of God in the purpose of education (especially school education), the claim that we need to learn to change our perspective and read (in Weil's language) reality better is still compelling. To learn to love is to change how we read. Through proper apprenticeship, we learn to create a comprehensive reading and read reality better. This is achieved through the contemplation of contradictions. Thus, education is apprenticeship in reading and the learning of the method of contemplation. I conceive of Weil's thesis as a comprehensive response to the question in Plato's Meno: "Can Virtue be Taught?" Replacing the term "virtue" with "attention," Weil responds that it can be taught and it should be the sole purpose of education. Like Plato, Weil considers education to be the conversion of the soul to the Good, while attention is the orientation of the soul to the Good (or God). As we turn to see the contradictions between the transcendent Good and the reality in this world, we need to contemplate the without losing the love of the Good in life's bitterness and confusion. By learning to contemplate, reading better, and changing perspectives, one could learn to love better. Weil claims that this should be the sole purpose of education. This grand vision of education may re-kindle the meaning of education and suggests a compelling alternative to the now dominating instrumental view of education. It might then save the downcast situation of education observed in teachers, schoolchildren, their parents, college professors, and our society as a whole.


The folate status of pregnant women; the current position Date: December, 2017 ISBN: 978-1-905767-77-9, 978-1-905767-76-2 Downloads The folate status of pregnant women in the Republic of Ireland; the current position (PDF, 500KB) The folate status of pregnant women in Northern Ireland; the current positionâ?< (PDF, 600KB) Introduction Neural tube defects (NTDs) arise due to incomplete closure of the neural tube within a month of conception. The "neural tube" is the embryonic structure that eventually forms the brain and spinal column. The two most common NTDs are: Anencephaly, a condition in which most of the brain, or cerebrum, and skull do not develop, and is incompatible with life – babies are usually stillborn or die shortly after birth Spina bifida, a condition in which the foetal spinal column does not close properly, resulting in damage to the nerves and subsequent paralysis of the legs at minimum Other NTDs include: Encephalocoele, a condition in which part of the brain protrudes out through a defect in the skull Hydrocephalus (once known as "water on the brain"), a condition in which cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain Spina bifida and encephalocoele both have an increased perinatal and infant mortality, or death rate. ("Perinatal" means a number of weeks before and after birth.). Although 80% of infants with spina bifida survive, the condition is associated with varying degrees of physical disability. The United Kingdom and Ireland have had to date a higher rate of NTDs than other European countries. A recent (2015) study has also shown that the incidence rates of NTDs in the Republic of Ireland have increased from 0.92 per 1,000 births in 2009 to 1.17 per 1,000 births in 2011. The most recent incidence rates of NTDs in Northern Ireland are 0.2 and 0.3 per 1,000 total registered births for hydrocephalus and spina bifida, respectively. For those babies with spina bifida who are live-born, the burden of illness is heavy for the individuals and their families. In economic terms, the direct healthcare and indirect, or societal, costs are also high for the individual affected and for the health services Since the early 1990s it has been known that folic acid supplementation – adding synthetic folic acid to the diet in the form of a pill – 12 weeks before and during the early stages of pregnancy can reduce the risk of the fetus developing NTDs by 70%. Additional folic acid is needed to support the effective closure of the neural tube, which happens at approximately 21 to 28 days after conception. All women who may become pregnant are therefore advised to take a daily supplement of 400 micrograms (μg) of folic acid prior to conception and until the twelfth week of pregnancy. International data shows that not all women comply with the current guidelines for folic acid supplementation. One of the key barriers is that many pregnancies are unplanned. Previous studies in the Republic of Ireland have shown that between 19% and 44% of women start taking folic acid before pregnancy. The number of women who take folic acid at any time during their pregnancy is much higher, between 84% and 96%, but this is often after the critical period for neural tube closure. Data last collected in Northern Ireland among nearly 300 pregnant women between 2005 and 2006 showed that only 19% of women started taking folic acid supplements before pregnancy, and found lower red blood cell (RBC) folate in women who did not take folic acid supplements before conception. RBC folate is an objective marker, or "biomarker", of folate status. (A "biomarker" is a naturally occurring process or substance that can be identified.) The World Health Organization (WHO) recommend that RBC folate concentrations should be above 906 nanomoles per litre (nmol/L) in women of reproductive age to achieve the greatest reduction in NTDs. This research was commissioned by safefood to provide an up-to-date picture of folate status among women in early pregnancy and to relate this data to WHO recommendations. Share var switchTo5x = true; stLight.options({ publisher: "ur-774be15-97c6-96b8-393-ccd079f85779", doNotHash: false, doNotCopy: false, hashAddressBar: false }); Print


Summary of Findings This report explores the new contours of friendship in the digital age. It covers the results of a national survey of teens ages 13 to 17; throughout the report, the word "teens" refers to those in that age bracket, unless otherwise specified. The survey was conducted online from Sept. 25 through Oct. 9, 2014, and Feb. 10 through March 16, 2015, and 16 online and in-person focus groups with teens were conducted in April 2014 and November 2014. For today's teens, friendships can start digitally: 57% of teens have met a new friend online. Social media and online gameplay are the most common digital venues for meeting friends. For American teens, making friends isn't just confined to the school yard, playing field or neighborhood – many are making new friends online. Fully 57% of teens ages 13 to 17 have made a new friend online, with 29% of teens indicating that they have made more than five new friends in online venues. Most of these friendships stay in the digital space; only 20% of all teens have met an online friend in person. Boys are more likely than girls to make online friends: 61% of boys compared to 52% of girls have done so. Older teens are also more likely than younger teens to make online friends. Some 60% of teens ages 15 to 17 have met a friend online, compared with 51% of 13- to 14- year-olds.


Over the past few decades, most societies have become more repressive, their laws more relentless, their magistrates more inflexible, independently of the evolution of crime. In this book, using an approach both genealogical and ethnographic, distinguished anthropologist Didier Fassin addresses the major issues raised by this punitive moment through an inquiry into the very foundations of punishment. What is punishment? Why punish? Who is punished? With these three questions he initiates a critical dialogue with moral philosophy and legal theory on the definition, justification, and distribution of punishment. Going against the triumphing penal populism, this investigation, based on ten years of empirical research on police, justice, and prison systems, proposes a salutary revision of the presuppositions that nourish the passion for punishing and invites readers to rethink the place of punishment in the contemporary world. The theses developed in the volume are discussed by the criminologist David Garland, the historian Rebecca McLennan, and the sociologist Bruce Western, to whom Fassin responds in a short essay, asking, What is a critique of punishment?


Date: 2008-06-05Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration EF0703, 15 ECTS Credits.Authors: Longinus Duru (Stockholm), Francis O.Oluduro (Vasteras) and Mofid Al Jaafar (Vasteras)Title: Capital Investment Procedures for FEMYSOProblem Area: Undertaking an investment by FEMYSO involves weighing up the riskagainst the returns but still capital investment decision are still one of the most undertakendecisions by organization managers because it involves commitment of huge amount ofmoney, which will affect the business over time. FEMYSO is embarking on a capital projectat the hearts of Brussels but there is still a problem associated with the profitability of suchventure.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide Capital Investment guidelines andprocedures for FEMYSO and to show how it can maximize profit through decision-making.Furthermore show the role of risk and interest rate in the investment.Methodology/Design/Approach: This paper used theoretical framework of existinginvestment theories to assess investment opportunity for FEMYSO and other organizations.The role of Mintzberg et al. Rational model of decision-making in investments was analyzed.This research paper went further to provide deeper insights into capital investment process byevaluating the net present value of an investment and determining the risk associated withinvestments.Research Limitation/Implications: This study is limited to FEMYSO and other nonprofitorganizations that want to assess Capital Investment Projects.Conclusion and Result: The more you wait to earn a dollar, the more heavily youdiscount for it because of the time value of money. Good management decision in FEMYSOand other related organizations will lead to profit maximization. The time value of moneyproblem can be solved by heavily discounting for the present value. Profitability of capitalprojects will depend on the future interest rate, which is uncertain and subject to risk.


Runoff generation and soil loss from slopes have been studied for decades, but the relationships among runoff, soil loss and rill development are still not well understood. In this paper, rainfall simulation experiments were conducted in two neighbouring plots (scale: 1 m by 5 m) with four varying slopes (17.6%, 26.8%, 36.4% and 46.6%) and two rainfall intensities (90 and 120 mm h−1) using two loess soils. Data on rill development were extracted from the digital elevation models by means of photogrammetry. The effects of rainfall intensity and slope gradient on runoff, soil loss and rill development were different for the two soils. The runoff and soil loss from the Anthrosol surface were generally higher than those from the Calcaric Cambisol surface. Higher rainfall intensity produced less runoff and more sediment for almost each treatment. With increasing slope gradient, the values of cumulative runoff and soil loss peaked, except for the treatments with 90 mm h−1 rainfall on the slopes with Anthrosol. With rainfall duration, runoff discharge decreased for Anthrosol and increased for Calcaric Cambisol for almost all the treatments. For both soils, sediment concentration was very high at the onset of rainfall and decreased quickly. Almost all the sediment concentrations increased on the 17.6% and 26.8% slopes and peaked on the 36.4% and 46.6% slopes. Sediment concentrations were higher on the Anthrosol slopes than on the Calcaric Cambisol slopes. At 90 mm h−1 rainfall intensity, increasingly denser rills appeared on the Anthrosol slope as the slope gradient increased, while only steep slopes (36.4% and 46.6%) developed rills for the Calcaric Cambisol soil. The contributions of rill erosion ranged from 36% to 62% of the cumulative soil losses for Anthrosol, while the maximum contribution of rill erosion to the cumulative soil loss was only 37.9% for Calcaric Cambisol. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


[First paragraph]:Steven Spielberg's AI – Artificial Intelligence (2001), and Alex Proyas's neo-noir, I, Robot (2004), may both be understood as attempts to answer the question: 'What conditions does artificial intelligence research have to satisfy before it can justly claim to have produced something (a 'robot') which truly simulates a human being?' I would like to show that, far from construing this question simply in terms of intelligence, the films in question demonstrate that far more than this is at stake, and each articulates the 'more' in different, but related, terms. Moreover, contrary to what viewers may suspect, neither film claims that the achievement of this goal is actualisable; rather, it posits a goal for artificial intelligence research by which it could measure its (lack of) progress.


As a consequence of environmental protection and legal restrictions, increasing efforts are made to avoid radioactivity. One alternative is the labelling of ligands with chemiluminescent acridinium esters such as 2,6-dimethyl-4-(N-succinimidyloxy-carbonyl)phenyl 10-methylacridinium-9-carboxylate methosulphate (DMAE-NHS). When exposed to hydrogen peroxide in a basic solution, the DMAE-moiety decays with emission of a short-lasting chemiluminescent flash. With the goal of replacing the radioactive label in protein ligands with a DMAE label, and of increasing the efficiency by using microtitre plate technology for DMAE detection, we compared the receptor binding properties of iodinated interleukin-1 alpha (125I-IL-1 alpha), interleukin-1 beta (125I-IL-1 beta) and interferon-gamma (125I-IFN-gamma) with the corresponding DMAE-labelled ligands. The luminescence signal was assessed in a single-tube luminometer and in the prototype of a chemiluminescent microtitre plate reader. Derivatization of the three proteins with DMAE-N-hydroxy-succinimide resulted in photon yields of up to 100,000 counts per femtomole. As shown by Scatchard analysis, no significant loss of receptor binding affinity was observed, which might have been expected as a consequence of the chemical modification of the proteins. The use of DMAE labelling of proteins has the following advantages as compared to iodination: (i) the coupling reaction and binding assay can be performed in a normal laboratory, (ii) since there is no radiolysis, the DMAE-labelled proteins remain stable, (iii) the detection sensitivity may be improved as a consequence of higher specific activity of the DMAE label.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The stilbenoids form a group of bioactive phenolic compounds found in various plant species whose original functions are to act as protective compounds against microbial infections and toxins. Among the stilbenoids, resveratrol is the most well-studied and has been shown to exert multiple benefits in disease prevention. The bioavailability of resveratrol is one of the major limitations in its role as a disease-prevention agent; however, it has exhibited biological activity in animals and clinical models. Gut microbiota may play a role in overcoming limited bioavailability via microbial transformations. On the other hand, the modulatory effects of stilbenoids on gut microbial dysbiosis induced by several diseases can be crucial in disease alleviation. In addition to gut microbial metabolites, such as SCFAs (short-chain fatty acids), stilbenoids can be used to inhibit microbial growth, making their use a potential strategy in preventing disease progression. In this review, the interactions of stilbenoids (with a major focus on resveratrol and pterostilbene) and gut microbiota will be discussed to clarify the importance of gut microbiota in the strategy of "disease prevention via phytochemicals."


Electromagnetic wave propagation in anisotropic media has been widely studied over the last decades since there are several applications where anisotropy plays an important role. This paper presents a procedure to carry out three-dimensional (3D) finite element method (FEM) full-wave simulations of the electromagnetic field in inhomogeneous magnetized plasma of an electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS). We used COMSOL Multiphysics software and MATLAB to model a cold anisotropic magnetized plasma, described by full-3D non-uniform dielectric tensor, enclosed by the metallic cylindrical cavity where the plasma is formed. A proper mesh generation, exploiting FEM-based COMSOL versatility, allowed us to optimally model ECRIS cavity and microwave waveguide launching structure, with a good computational efficiency and high resolution of the solution especially around the resonance regions. Numerical simulations have been performed in the frequency domain: in the resonance regions especially, the material properties exhibit a spatial variation that leads to a large sparse ill-conditioned matrix which is solved by MUltifrontal Massively Parallel Solver (MUMPS) direct method. We implement a method to perform full-wave simulations considering a cold plasma model for the constitutive relations; the obtained results show that the presence of ECR layer, along with the cavity walls, strongly influences the shape and strength of the electromagnetic field distribution, featuring a strong non-uniformity of the main electromagnetic parameters.


Different models based on variational analysis are compared with respect to the thermo-elastic properties of cross-ply laminates with transverse cracks in the 90°-layer. This approach, pioneered by Hashin, applies the principle of minimum complementary energy to describe the stress state in a cross-ply laminate with transverse cracks. Apart from material data, only laminate geometry data and stress distribution assumptions are required. The model developed in the present study contains stress distribution assumptions that are closer to reality than previous models. Non-uniform stress distributions are included through-the-thickness of both the 0°- and the 90°-layers. An importan result is the improved agreement with stiffness reduction data. As expected from the nature of the model, predictions generally provide lower bounds to the stifness of the cracked laminate. However, at high crack densities, this is not the case. This additional stiffness reduction at high crack densities indicates the presence of new damage types, such as branched cracks and local delamination.