The external electrical characteristics of helicon wave plasmas have been studied over a wide range of magnetic fields, radio frequency (RF) power, frequencies, and Ar gas pressures. External parameters, such as antenna voltage, current, and phase shifts, and internal parameters, such as electron density, are measured. The equivalent discharge resistance, reactance, and power transfer efficiency are calculated through these measurements. The characteristics of helicon mode is compared with inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and low mode. The power efficiency of the helicon mode is better than that of other modes. Consequently, electron density of helicon mode is much higher than that of other modes. This means the existence of a mechanism where electrons are very efficiently accelerated by the electric field of the antenna in the helicon mode. The power efficiency of helicon mode is higher at lower RF frequency and at optimum gas pressure than that of other modes.


This thesis addresses, as its primary topic, the behaviour of the heavy ion 111In in the diamond lattice. More specifically the lattice sites occupied after implantation and annealing have been investigated using the technique of 2-dimensional Conversion Electron Emission Channeling (CEEC). The study of a suite of carefully chosen, defectrich diamonds has allowed the investigation of In-defect interactions and any resultant complex formation. The experimental work has been supported by density functional theory calculations of the energetically most stable site for m Tn in pure diamond. We propose, following from the results in this thesis, that vacancies are the most impor tant defect constituents in the final configurations of implanted and annealed indium in diamond. This is found to be the case independent of the other defects in the crystal, be they boron, hydrogen or nitrogen in different forms. The possibility of hydrogen complexation is however not excluded. The origin of the random fraction measured in previous studies is proposed to be partially due to In in different multi-vacancy com plexes. Theoretically the most stable site for the In was found to be bond-centred in a di-vacancy. Secondarily, the behaviour of hydrogen in diamond has been investigated through Elas tic Recoil Detection analysis (ERDA). Diamond has a natural abundance v; hydrogen. In order to fully interpret any In-H interactions that occur it is necessary to better understand the mobility of hydrogen in the diamond lattice. To this end Che d'hu.-ion of both implanted and plasma loaded hydrogen has been studied. The naturally occur ring hydrogen distributions in natural as well as in synthetic diamonds have also been studied with the same aim in mind. The ERDA measurements have necessitated the development of a sophisticated 3-dimensional ERDA system utilising a 2-dimensional position sensitive detector. The evolution of ERDA at this laboratory into a routine analytical tool has been a necessary part of this work. The mobility of hydrogen or lack thereof has been found to be dependent on various factors. These include the starting configuration of the hydrogen species and whether pre-damage through ion implantation has been made to the crystal. The work of this thesis is important in two contexts. Indium is a heavy ion and the results stress the importance of vacancies, both singly and multiply, in heavy ion implantation. This has ramifications for those wishing to use heavy ions in the fabrication of diamond electronic devices. Hydrogen is a common impurity in diamond and the findings here on its mobility (and lack thereof) are of relevance to the diamond physics community.


Numerous studies have been published on the adverse health effects associated with both short- and long-term exposure to air pollution. Air pollution is a heterogeneous, complex mixture of gases, liquids, and particulate matter (PM). Up to now, PM mass concentration has been the metric of choice to quantify (particulate) air pollution exposure and has proven useful in demonstrating associations with cardiorespiratory morbidity and mortality outcomes. In recent years, it has become evident that PM mass per se may not be the causal factor that explains air pollution-induced effects, and therefore research has increasingly focused on identifying the influences of specific air pollution characteristics or sources. The research presented in this thesis was designed to establish which individual characteristics of the air pollution mixture (e.g. particle size fractions, chemical composition, oxidant properties etc.) are most closely related with adverse health effects seen after short-term air pollution exposure. It was hypothesized that air pollution-induced effects would be most strongly associated with particles oxidative potential (OP), since OP may be a more biologically meaningful metric for predicting human health effects than particle mass alone. Eight sampling sites across the Netherlands, representing different air pollution emission sources, were chosen to create high contrast and low correlations among different air pollutants. Measurement sites included an underground train station, three different road traffic sites, an animal farm, a sea harbor, a site located in the vicinity of steelworks, and an urban background site. Size-segregated PM was collected at each location for a detailed chemical characterization and subsequent in vitro and in vivo animal experiments. Furthermore, healthy volunteers were repeatedly exposed to air pollution at five of the eight sites. The research presented in this thesis focused on markers of pro-inflammatory (respiratory) effects (e.g. cytokines in the airways, differential cell counts in blood). Associations with markers related to lung function and cardiovascular effects were also investigated, but these results have been described elsewhere (thesis of M. Strak, 2012, Utrecht University). Despite differences in methodological design there was considerable coherence between the results of the different studies. PM exposure induced pro-inflammatory effects both in vitro and in vivo in animals and humans in a similar time response profile. In the human study, there were no consistent associations for either PM mass or particles' OP with any of the physiological markers measured. Instead, there were significant associations with nitrogen dioxide, organic carbon, endotoxin, particle number concentration, nitrate and sulfate. These associations were robust and insensitive to adjustment for other pollutants. In summary, contrary to the hypothesis, particles' OP did not predict acute effects due to short-term exposures better than PM mass or other air pollution characteristics. The results showed that there is no single exposure metric that is related to all physiological markers measured in this study, and thereby confirms that air quality legislations would benefit from a multi-component approach that combines gaseous pollutants and several PM characteristics instead of relying on individual gaseous pollutants and PM mass concentration only.


Abstract In the literature, there is no consensus as to which Value-at-Risk forecasting model is the best for measuring market risk in banks. In the study an analysis of Value-at-Risk forecasting model quality over varying economic stability periods for main indices from stock exchanges was conducted. The VaR forecasts from GARCH(1,1), GARCH-t(1,1), GARCH-st(1,1), QML-GARCH(1,1), CAViaR and historical simulation models in periods with contrasting volatility trends (increasing, constantly high and decreasing) for countries economically developed (the USA – S&P 500, Germany - DAX and Japan – Nikkei 225) and economically developing (China – SSE COMP, Poland – WIG20 and Turkey – XU100) were compared. The data samples used in the analysis were selected from the period 01.01.1999 – 24.03.2017. To assess the VaR forecast quality: excess ratio, Basel traffic light test, coverage tests (Kupiec test, Christoffersen test), Dynamic Quantile test, cost functions and Diebold-Marino test were used. Obtained results show that the quality of Value-at-Risk forecasts for the models varies depending on a volatility trend. However, GARCH-st (1,1) and QML-GARCH(1,1) were found to be the most robust models in the different volatility periods. The results show as well that the CAViaR model forecasts were less appropriate in the increasing volatility period. Moreover, no significant differences for the VaR forecast quality were found for the developed and developing countries.


The Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot holds a remarkable number of species at risk of extinction due to anthropogenic habitat loss, hunting, and climate change. One of these species, the critically endangered yellow‐tailed woolly monkey (Lagothrix flavicauda), was recently observed in the region Junín, 206 km south of its previously known distribution. This range extension, combined with continued habitat loss, calls for a reevaluation of the species distribution, and available suitable habitat. Here, we present novel data from surveys at 53 sites in the regions of Junín, Cerro de Pasco, Ayacucho, and Cusco. We encountered L. flavicauda at 9 sites, all in Junín, and the congeneric Lagothrix lagotricha tschudii at 20 sites, but never in sympatry. Using these new localities along with all previous geographic localities for the species, we made predictive species distribution models based on ecological niche modeling using a generalized linear model and maximum entropy. Each model incorporated bioclimatic variables, forest cover, vegetation measurements, and elevation as predictor variables. The model evaluation showed >80% accuracy for all measures. Precipitation was the strongest predictor of species presence. Habitat suitability maps illustrate potential corridors for gene flow between the southern and northern populations, although much of this area is inhabited by L. l. tschudii whereas L. flavicauda has yet to be officially confirmed in these areas, by these or any other scientific surveys. An analysis of the current protected area (PA) network showed that ~75% of remaining suitable habitat is unprotected. With this, we suggest priority areas for new PAs or expansions to existing reserves that would conserve potential corridors between L. flavicauda populations. Further surveys and characterization of the distribution in intermediate areas, combined with studies on gene flow through these areas, are still needed to protect this species.


The design of general-purpose dynamic load-balancing tools for parallel applications is more challenging than the design of static partitioning tools. Both algorithmic and software engineering issues arise. We have addressed many of these issues in the design of the Zoltan dynamic load-balancing library. Zoltan has an object-oriented interface that makes it easy to use and provides separation between the application and the load-balancing algorithms. It contains a suite of dynamic load-balancing algorithms, including both geometric and graph-based algorithms. Its design makes it valuable both as a partitioning tool for a variety of applications and as a research test-bed for new algorithmic development. In this paper, we describe Zoltan's design and demonstrate its use in an unstructured-mesh finite element application.


Achieving reliable water distribution from reservoirs to points of consumption is an important problem in many countries. Water distribution systems are often highly complex networks that may have evolved through a series of different design decisions. We apply graph theoretical analyses to some synthetic and real water distribution networks and study the robustness and fragmentation properties through simulated component failure. We use the betweenness centrality metric and rank network components, then remove or cull the most important component. We report on the progression of various measured properties when this procedure is applied to eight different water networks and discuss the implications for improving reliability and sustained end-user water access in real distribution systems.


Abstract We present a novel hybrid computational method to simulate accurately dendritic solidification in the low undercooling limit where the dendrite tip radius is one or more orders of magnitude smaller than the characteristic spatial scale of variation of the surrounding thermal or solutal diffusion field. The first key feature of this method is an efficient multiscale diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) algorithm which allows off-lattice random walkers to take longer and concomitantly rarer steps with increasing distance away from the solid–liquid interface. As a result, the computational cost of evolving the large-scale diffusion field becomes insignificant when compared to that of calculating the interface evolution. The second key feature is that random walks are only permitted outside of a thin liquid layer surrounding the interface. Inside this layer and in the solid, the diffusion equation is solved using a standard finite difference algorithm that is interfaced with the DMC algorithm using the local conservation law for the diffusing quantity. Here we combine this algorithm with a previously developed phase-field formulation of the interface dynamics and demonstrate that it can accurately simulate three-dimensional dendritic growth in a previously unreachable range of low undercoolings that is of direct experimental relevance.


Translation Block MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNA genes that are found in the genomes of most eukaryotes, where they play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. Although whether gene activity is repressed by blocking translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) targets, or by promoting their deadenylation and then degradation, has been open to debate. Bazzini et al. (p. 233, published online 15 March) and Djuranovic et al. (p. 237) looked at early points in the repression reaction in the zebrafish embryo or in Drosophila tissue culture cells, respectively, and found that translation was blocked before target mRNAs were significantly deadenylated and degraded. Thus, miRNAs appear to interfere with the initiation step of translation. MicroRNAs act to repress their messenger RNA targets first by blocking translation initiation and then through degradation. MicroRNAs regulate gene expression through deadenylation, repression, and messenger RNA (mRNA) decay. However, the contribution of each mechanism in non-steady-state situations remains unclear. We monitored the impact of miR-430 on ribosome occupancy of endogenous mRNAs in wild-type and dicer mutant zebrafish embryos and found that miR-430 reduces the number of ribosomes on target mRNAs before causing mRNA decay. Translational repression occurs before complete deadenylation, and disrupting deadenylation with use of an internal polyadenylate tail did not block target repression. Lastly, we observed that ribosome density along the length of the message remains constant, suggesting that translational repression occurs by reducing the rate of initiation rather than affecting elongation or causing ribosomal drop-off. These results show that miR-430 regulates translation initiation before inducing mRNA decay during zebrafish development.


The study has focused on student entry into low-level vocational further education/training. The aims were: 1) to identify patterns of participation in three types of vocational training within inner London; 2) to compare the characteristics of students undertaking different courses; and 3) to establish the relative importance of a variety of factors (socio-structural, attitudinal and 'area' influences) in accounting for participation in different kinds of training. A number of hypotheses about the contribution of these potentially influential factors have been tested. Attention has been paid to vocational preferences and job ambitions, due to their close links with training choices. The study adopted an inter-disciplinary approach.

Analyses of the spatial patterns of entry into the three types of training (from maps of students' home addresses) revealed significant differences. These spatial patterns of student over- and under-representation were found to be related to socio-economic characteristics of neighbourhoods, and provided evidence of possible 'area' influences. Socio-structural factors, particularly social class, were strongly related to participation in all three types of training. Other factors (sex, parents'/siblings' employment fields, and vocational subjects studied at school), however, were important in accounting for students' particular choices of course. Job ambitions and attitudes towards employment were also closely related to entry. Marked differences in attitudes and ambitions were identified between male and female students, and there was evidence of sex-stereotyping in perceptions of particular kinds of employment. Attitudes, however, were not associated with area differences in student over- or under-representation.

Explanatory analyses indicated that parents'/siblings' employment fields, and the subjects students had studied at school, were of major importance in accounting for particular training choices. Influences related to residential area were significant only for construction training. These results support the view that socio-structural factors are major determinants of low-level vocational training choices.


Three different companies have completed Phase II clinical studies of their anti-nicotine vaccines and are rushing to obtain regulatory approval and to bring their vaccine candidates to the market. The vaccines are composed of the nicotine molecule linked to a carrier protein and an adjuvant. The results in all three clinical studies are encouraging. Preliminary results seem to indicate that subjects with high anti-nicotine antibody levels demonstrate high quit rates and that the vaccines appear to be compatible with and complementary to approved forms of smoking cessation therapies. The data available do not yet allow us to give definitive results for long-term quit rates. We expect the vaccines to appear on the market during a time window between 2009 and 2011.


Professor Skutsch has convicted me of one error—the inclusion of Eun. 465 in my list on p. 208. I do not feel, however, that he has proved that Phaedria (nom. or voc.) is a dactyl in Terence. The essence of his argument, as I see it, depends on the figures in the last two rows of the first two columns on p. 90, and may be stated as follows: 'Forms undeniably dactylic, such as Pamphile, are always followed by a disyllabic thesis. The thesis after all critical examples of Phaedria is disyllabic. Therefore "Phaedria is proved to be a dactyl".' My objection to this argument is not that it is not a logical syllogism, but that it seeks to establish the prosody of Phaedria (3 examples only) without considering the prosody of the other Phaedria-typt1 names in Terence. These are listed on p. 208 of my article (but omitting Eun. 465). The following cases, I suggest, merit consideration:


A simple chip-to-chip interconnect technique with adhesive bonded ribbons is presented. It solves the insertion loss problem of wire bond interconnects in micro- and millimeterwave assemblies. The following paper discusses design and fabrication of such interconnects. A quasistatic model is developed to ease the quality assessment of their electrical behavior. It is validated by measurements on microstrip resonators with and without interconnects. The chip-to-chip interconnect technique with adhesive bonded ribbons exhibit low loss and is useable up to 50 GHz or more.


Gas phase etching of 4H SiC n+ substrates was performed utilizing chlorine containing etch chemistries in a hot wall CVD system. Carbon and silicon vapor were added to explore selective etching reactions on the wafer surface. The impact of the etch on the bare wafer surface as a function of temperature and etch chemistry is investigated. Selection of the etch chemistry and temperature are critical to ensure a smooth etched surface on which to begin epitaxial deposition. Etching also influences defect propagation from the substrate into the epitaxial layer. The results show etch chemistry reactions will influence the conversion of micropipes in the epi buffer layer.


Regime change is a critical social process that has occurred throughout human history and yet much is still unknown about how political developments shape local communities. This dissertation examines the impacts of the Late Postclassic (1350-1530 CE) Purepecha Empire on residents at Angamuco, an ancient city within the Lake Patzcuaro Basin imperial heartland in Michoacan, Mexico. Imperial narratives in ethnohistoric texts emphasize that authorities controlled craft production, tribute, and social practices. Archaeologists have investigated these narratives within a social evolutionary framework that underscores an expanding and highly centralized Purepecha state and empire. Drawing upon material from five field seasons of excavation and survey of domestic and public ritual contexts, I evaluate whether the dominant top-down model of political economic consolidation has more explanatory power than alternative bottom-up models. Changes in the production and use of the ceramic artifacts, as well as differences in stone architecture, suggest that the Purepecha exploited existing resource systems, and that imperial changes are most visible in elite areas of Angamuco. In addition to investigating models of political development, this dissertation provides a foundation for understanding the chronologies of occupation at Angamuco derived from architectural patterning, artifact use and variation, and radiocarbon determinations. By critically analyzing the prevailing Purepecha social evolutionary model, this project adds to our knowledge of complexity and urban forms in western Mexico and contributes to studies that investigate how local communities are transformed or impacted by processes of political growth.


In the early 14 th century, the translation of three chivalric romances into Old Swedish (customarily known as Eufemiavisor ) marked the beginning of literary production in the vernacular in medieval Sweden. Flores och Blanzeflor is held to be the youngest of the three translations. It has been established on textual evidence that the text was in all likelihood translated from the Old Norwegian Flores saga ok Blankiflur . Except for a short fragment dating from the mid-14 th century, the text is preserved in a number of 15 th - century compilation manuscripts. The aim of this essay is twofold: to illustrate and briefly discuss the most relevant peculiarities of the translated text – using the Descriptive Translation Studies approach as a methodological frame – and to make some observations on how the text might have been used and interpreted in the 15 th -century manuscripts as part of an intertextual dialogue involving a number of texts that showed thematic affinities.


Currently, facing the fierce competition in the global marketplace, China has made remarkable economic achievements and become an important role in the international economy. However, economic discrepancy between rural and urban China is widening and it also leads to educational inequality. Rural eudcation in China is still confronted with the problems of funding shortage, teacher shortage, inferior teacher quality, unbalanced teacher allocation etc. To resolve these issues, the Chinese government has organized a large-scale college students' volunteer teaching program to support rural education. Nevertheless, as more and more college students get involved with the volunteer teaching program, the results are haphazard. This study was designed to investigate the short-term volunteer teaching program of rural China in Henan Province and to review the volunteer teaching in the international context. It indicates that more attention should be paid to the role and effectiveness of short-term volunteer teaching.it is hoped that this study could bring some implications to the further study on this topic.


A new technique for conducting site-directed mutagenesis was developed. This method allows the color selection of mutants through the simultaneous activation or deactivation of the α-peptide of s-galactosidase. The method can efficiently create mutations at multiple sites simultaneously and can be used to perform multiple rounds of mutation on the same construct. In this paper, in order to develop an efficient site-directed mutagenesis method in vivo, the tests were tested by the following methods. The methods that the fragment knock-out ompR gene was constructed through overlapping PCR, digested by Not and Sal I I, ligated to plasmid pKOV were applied. The recombination plasmid was transformed into Escherichia coli WMC-001 strain, integrated into the genomic DNA through two step homologous recombination. The Escherichia coli WMC-001/ompRmutant was obtained due to gene replacement. The fragment of the mutant ompR gene was amplified through overlapping PCR, cloned into pKOV vector. The recombinant plasmid was introduced into Escherichia coli WMC-001/ompRmutant. The Escherichia coli WMC-001/ompR mutant was also obtained due to gene replacement. Results: The site-directed mutagenesis has been successfully constructed in the ompR gene by sequencing. Conclusion: The method is effective for construction of gene site-directed mutagenesis in vivo.


Biometrics is the process of identifying an individual among others by biological means. Concerning security, biometric system is one of the best options available in this technology driven era. Places such as nuclear facilities, airports, banks etc. are on the frontline of security threats. Therefore, biometrics such as Iris, face and fingerprint recognition is frequently used to avoid any security breach. However, the possibility of imitating, replicating or even the stealing of original data has made these tools unreliable. As a result, there has been a growing interest in finding a better biometric system and brain activity-based biometrics such as Electroencephalography (EEG) and Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) come with the advantage of being quite impossible to mimic. This paper presents a thorough and in depth review of the state of the art studies and research on brain activity-based biometrics. These studies and selected research projects are reviewed based on their feature extraction, methods, classification and most importantly, performance. Reviewing the most recent studies and research, we have found that time and frequency based features are better to be considered together for a brain activity-based biometric system. Together they are effective and efficient and give us a higher performance rate. Furthermore, we have found that Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is the best classification option with 100% accuracy and it can be used for a higher number of users for a biometric system. Our review lays a foundation for future investigation into the use of a combination of EEG and fNIRS for a biometric based authentication system.


This study examines performance management systems (PMS) within a global subsidiary company. Global organisations (GOs) are substantially different from regional organisations owing to their complexity and heterogeneity. Although the management accounting literature has reviewed many characteristics of PMS in organisations generally, very few studies explore the characteristics of PMS in integrating GOs. The case study method used for this study investigates the interaction between organisational context and organisational actions. The findings of the study suggest that the PMSs used in integrating GOs are different from those used in organisations generally, and are characterised by certain features. The study reveals that the case study organisation chose to adopt specific PMS to manage the tensions typically involved in integrating GOs. It also identifies that although the GO studied co-ordinates and integrates for global competitiveness it does not ignore the importance of local adaption.


Alzheimer's Disease (AD) tau pathology originates in the brainstem and subsequently spreads to the entorhinal cortex, hippocampus and finally to temporal, parietal and prefrontal association cortices in a relatively stereotyped progression. Current evidence attributes this orderly progression to trans-neuronal spread of misfolded tau protein along the projection pathways of affected neurons. The aggregation of tau is being increasingly recognized as a trustworthy biomarker preceding the appearance of Alzheimer's disease (AD) symptoms. One major goals of disease modifying therapies has been to stop or slow down the tau aggregation process. In order to evaluate drug efficacy, it would be desirable to have an accurate model predictive of a patient's future tau burden, against which the tau measurements from drug-receiving cohorts could be compared. Here we report the development of such a model, evaluated in a cohort of 88 subjects clinically diagnosed as Mild Cognitively Impaired (MCI = 60) or Alzheimer's disease (AD = 28) and tracked over a period of 18 months. Our approach combined data-driven and model-based methodologies, with the goal of predicting changes in tau within suitably specified target regions. We show that traditional statistical methods, allied to a network diffusion model for tau propagation in the brain, provide a remarkable prediction of the magnitude of incremental tau deposited in particular cortical areas of the brain over this period (MCI: R2 = 0.65±0.16; AD: R2 = 0.71±0.11) from baseline data. Our work has the potential to greatly strengthen the repertoire of analysis tools used in AD clinical trials, opening the door to future interventional trials with far fewer sample sizes than currently required.


Monte Carlo simulations in the Gibbs ensemble are presented for the two‐dimensional Lennard‐Jones fluids. We have considered the full Lennard‐Jones potential and the truncated (at 2.5σ) and shifted potential. It is shown that the critical temperature depends largely on the details of the truncation of the potential. These differences are by no means small.


Sweden is an area potentially endemic for spotted fever rickettsioses. Rickettsia helvetica has been isolated from its tick vector Ixodes ricinus, and in a handful of cases linked to human disease. This study demonstrates for the first time in Sweden the transmission of rickettsial infection after a tick bite and the attack rate in an endemic area. We present three cases of documented rickettsial infection and a prospective serological study of Swedish recruits who were trained in the area where the patients lived and showed seroconversion to spotted fever rickettsiae. All patients showed a four‐fold increase in antibody titer to the spotted fever rickettsia, R. helvetica, and immunohistochemical examination revealed rickettsia‐like organisms in the walls of skin capillaries and veins. Electron microscopy showed organisms resembling R. helvetica and immunogold labeling with two anti‐rickettsial antibodies demonstrated specific labeling of the rickettsial organisms in the skin biopsy specimens. Eight of the thirty‐five recruits showed a four‐fold increase in IgG titer reflecting a high rate of exposure. The results of this study demonstrate that spotted fever rickettsioses should be taken into consideration in the diagnosis of tick‐transmitted infections in Sweden.


Spatially explicit mapping of forest productivity is important to assess many forest management alternatives. We assessed the relationship between mapped variables and site index of forests ranging from southern pine plantations to natural hardwoods on a 74,000-ha landscape in South Carolina, USA. Mapped features used in the analysis were soil association, land use condition in 1951, depth to groundwater, slope and aspect. Basal area, species composition, age and height were the tree variables measured. Linear modelling identified that plot basal area, depth to groundwater, soils association and the interactions between depth to groundwater and forest group, and between land use in 1951 and forest group were related to site index (SI) (R = 0.37), but this model had regression attenuation. We then used structural equation modeling to incorporate error-in-measurement corrections for basal area and groundwater to remove bias in the model. We validated this model using 89 independent observations and found the 95% confidence intervals for the slope and intercept of an observed vs. predicted site index error-corrected regression included zero and one, respectively, indicating a good fit. With error in measurement incorporated, only basal area, soil association, and the interaction between forest groups and land use were important predictors (R = 0.57). Thus, we were able to develop an unbiased model of SI that could be applied to create a spatially explicit map based primarily on soils as modified by past (land use and forest type) and recent forest management (basal area).


A PATIENT with a large solid object impacted in the lower part of his esophagus is in great danger of death. Extraction through the mouth with forceps and esophagoscope is perilous and often impossible. This is because manipulation of the object through a tube of great length and with a diameter of only 1 cm. is extremely difficult. Forceful, blind traction on it is likely to rupture the esophagus. The danger of this accident is great when the object has sharp points or has caused pressure necrosis of the esophagus. Transpleural removal has been done and also digital removal through the stomach, but there are serious objections to both operations. These considerations made us think it worth while to report the following method which we have used with success in 1 case. We can find but one report of the use of a similar method. This is by Boone and


Abstract We provide one of the first systematic assessments of the development and determinants of economic anxiety at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Using a global data set on internet searches and two representative surveys from the United States, we document a substantial increase in economic anxiety during and after the arrival of the coronavirus. We also document a large dispersion in beliefs about the pandemic risk factors of the coronavirus and demonstrate that these beliefs causally affect individuals' economic anxieties. Finally, we show that individuals' mental models of infectious disease spread understate nonlinear growth and shape the extent of economic anxiety.


The authors show phytoplankton growth and grazing mortality by microzooplankton based on the result from dilution experiments. In my knowledge, dilution techniques are somewhat difficult for researchers and thus large numbers of data sets have been unavailable. Even under these difficulties, the authors demonstrate excellent data sets not only from the dilution experiments but also detail measurements on environmental variables. I believe that this study provides a good example for phytoplankton dynamics in the fluctuated environments. On the other hand, some disadvantages are found in the present study as follows.


Populations of passively dispersed organisms in continental aquatic habitats typically show high levels of neutral genetic differentiation despite their high dispersal capabilities. Several evolutionary factors, including founder events, local adaptation, and life cycle features such as high population growth rates and the presence of propagule banks, have been proposed to be responsible for this paradox. Here, we have modeled the colonization process to assess the impact of migration rate, population growth rate, population size, local adaptation and life-cycle features on the population genetic structure in these organisms. Our simulations show that the strongest effect on population structure are persistent founder effects, resulting from the interaction of a few population founders, high population growth rates, large population sizes and the presence of diapausing egg banks. In contrast, the role of local adaptation, genetic hitchhiking and migration is limited to small populations in these organisms. Our results indicate that local adaptation could have different impact on genetic structure in different groups of zooplankters.


Some classical examples of the habitual physico-chemical processes are studied and a unifying conclusion is reached. In the red-ox processes, the atoms or groups of atoms which gain electrons according to their respective oxidation numbers are oxidizing, i.c. if the bindings are considered pure ionic, and in the acid-base processes the atoms or groups of atoms which only gain electrons according to their formal charge are acids, i.e. if the bindings are considered pure covalent.


The European Community Directive (ECD) referring to bathing water quality establishes its admissibility as a function of the results obtained in control samples. This procedure is convenient to establish a monitoring and control program but presents serious difficulties in designing elements of combined sewer systems with overflow discharges in the coastal zones. These difficulties appear when it is necessary to design according to unknown future random control results which are obtained with also unknown sampling frequency. This uncertainty is usually solved by identifying the percentage of samples that do not comply with water quality criteria with the percentage of time that water quality does not satisfy the regulation which, strictly speaking, is not correct from the point of view of ECD. In this paper, a methodology is presented to analyze, in probabilistic terms, the influence of overflow from sewer systems on the quality of bathing water and on the design of the capacity of sewer system elements. This methodology includes some concepts as the return period of no compliance time and shows the possibility of using regression equations between overflow parameters and no compliance time, this being useful to handle the large amount of data for the probabilistic study. All this being in strict accordance with 76/160/EEC. Finally, the design procedure for the coastal interceptor of Gijon (Spain) is presented as an example of the application of this methodology.


Purpose
Foreign residents in Japan are classified as one vulnerable group at risk of disasters. Therefore, various measures are in place to engage, educate and offer first-hand experiences of disaster countermeasures required to overcome systematic disaster preparedness problems. However, the need for Japan to prevent the spread and infection of COVID-19 has necessitated measures that prohibit public gatherings and other social activities. This study aims to look at how these arrangements have impacted public engagement approaches to disaster preparedness for foreign residents within the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

Design/methodology/approach
This study identifies local organizations and examines their methods of engagement that enhance the disaster preparedness of foreign residents in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The activities are examined in the context of when there was no COVID-19 pandemic and the current state of the pandemic. A change in activities attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic is then extracted and explained through field surveys and interviews with the relevant organization.

Findings
This study reveals that most disaster preparedness activities were best accomplished through in-person engagements. Nevertheless, online engagements have become the alternative option because of COVID-19 infection prevention. This change has widen the coverage of some activities but major setbacks include events cancelations and technical and technological challenges attributed to using online platforms.

Research limitations/implications
This study did not examine the effectiveness of pre-COVID-19 pandemic engagement approaches and current changes attributed to the pandemic; many public engagement literatures acknowledge success to include the number of participants, the abilities of organizations to find ways to effectively and positively engage their stakeholders for meaningful partnerships, the number of clicks, access to a website and comments made online. Therefore, as organizations in this study have shown a glimpse of the above characteristics, there are indications of some level of effectiveness in their engagement approaches even amid a pandemic.

Practical implications
To avoid such situations in the future, there is the need for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, local governments and associated organizations to develop public engagement approaches that are flexible to resist or cope with in-person, remote encounters, or sudden circumstances that could potentially derail planned activities.

Social implications
The most effects attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic are the cancelation of many disaster drill exercises, community disaster walks, training of volunteers for foreign residents' assistance and many hours of "Yasashii Nihongo" lesson. The cancelation of activities is a setback to the efforts of self-help and mutual aid campaigns by authorities to reduce the impacts of disasters.

Originality/value
The spirit of inclusion has been an embodiment of disaster management approaches in Japan for years for which policy recognitions have been tagged along the dimensions of public aid, self-help and mutual aid. These are aimed at engaging the populace, especially foreign residents in disaster training and exercises, language study and other communal activities for disaster preparedness. However, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, there have been a series of restrictions on gathering and inter-personal public engagement activities in Japan. As foreigners are classified as the most vulnerable to disaster in Japan, it is important to understand how these restrictions will/are affecting the efforts of integration and disaster preparedness, which are a crucial part of the Government's effort to reduce casualties and damage in the anticipated Nankai megathrust earthquake. Besides the results being useful for government interventions, it also adds to the knowledge of the repercussion of COVID-19 and how to plan for emergencies.


A full-spectrum (300–750 nm) responsive hybrid PDI/BiOCl photocatalyst was successfully constructed. The hybrid structure of the PDI/BiOCl photocatalyst was first examined by surface photovoltage measurements and DFT theoretical calculations. Due to the O atoms bonding to Bi atom, PDI was successfully anchored on the surface of rod-like BiOCl. Owing to the strongly coupled heterojunction interface and conjugated structure of PDI, a rapid interfacial charge transfer was allowed from PDI to BiOCl across the interface. The hybrid PDI/BiOCl photocatalyst presented the best full-spectrum photocatalytic degradation activity for organic pollutants, which was 2.2 and 1.6 times higher than that of BiOCl and PDI, respectively, for the photocatalytic degradation of phenol. The enhanced photocatalytic ability was not only due to the formation of the hybrid PDI/BiOCl composites, which could produce more active species, but also since PDI/BiOCl possessed remarkable full spectrum light-harvesting and excellent interfacial charge separation. The results of the free radical measurements showed that the main active radicals were ˙O2− and ˙OH in the full-wavelength photocatalytic oxidation degradation.


Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) family of ligands (GDFLs) as well as other trophic factors have, in animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD), demonstrated the potential for excellent ameliorative properties. Clinical trials that have mechanically injected GDNF intracerebrally, while demonstrating relative safety, have been clinically disappointing to date. Likewise, recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) delivered neurturin (cere-120) has also been demonstrated to be safe in humans, however clinical results have been negative. The failure of the major clinical trials has cast some doubt in the field about trophic factor delivery for the treatment of PD. In this review, we make the case that GDFLs are likely to function only when there are remaining dopamine neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway as opposed to other candidate modes of action. Thus, it is our view that utilizing earlier stage PD patients who have significant nigrostriatal dopamine innervation remaining would be more ideal to demonstrate the efficacy of GDFLs. This is particularly true when considering a novel delivery method such as gene transfer. However, if earlier stage patients are to be enrolled in GDFL gene transfer trials, then a much better safety profile must be demonstrated by preclinical experiments. One important safety advance might be the use of an external regulation system to control the expression level of the transgene. However, gene regulation systems pose unique safety issues and we will discuss these in detail. It is our view that GDFLs still remain as a promising therapeutic approach for PD.


To derive maximum optimization benefits from partial redundancy elimination (PRE),it is necessary to go beyond its safety constraint. Algorithms for optimal speculative code motion have been developed based on the application of minimum cut to flow networks formed out of the control flow graph. These previous techniques did not take advantage of the SSA form, which is a popular program representation widely used in modern-day compilers. We have developed the MC-SSAPRE algorithm that enables an SSA-based compiler to take full advantage of SSA to perform optimal speculative code motion efficiently when an execution profile is available. Our work shows that it is possible to form flow networks out of SSA graphs, and the min-cut technique can be applied equally well on these flow networks to find the optimal code placement. We provide proofs of the correctness and computational and lifetime optimality of MC-SSAPRE. We analyze its time complexity to show its efficiency advantage. We have implemented MC-SSAPRE in the open-sourced Path64 compiler. Our experimental data based on the full SPEC CPU2006 Benchmark Suite show that MC-SSAPRE can further improve program performance over traditional SSAPRE, and that our sparse approach to the problem does result in smaller problem sizes.


Purpose Resistance to radiotherapy results in a high treatment failure rate for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Ubiquitin-like with plant homeodomain and ring-finger domains 1 (UHRF1), is associated with poor prognosis in ESCC. The present study aims to characterize the effect of UHRF1 silencing on the radiosensitivity of ESCC and its potential mechanism. Methods Both in vitro and in vivo experiments were conducted to observe the effects of UHRF1 silencing on the radiosensitivity of ESCC. The effects of UHRF1 silencing on the apoptosis of ESCC cells were assessed by flow cytometry. The expression of apoptosis-related factors (caspase-3 and Bcl-2), PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway-related factors (PTEN, p-Akt and Akt, p-mTOR and mTOR), and DNMT1 were measured via Western blot, and the status of PTEN methylation was detected by methylation-specific PCR. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expressions of PTEN, p-AKT, and p-mTOR in xenograft tumor tissues. Results In vitro and in vivo experiments showed that UHRF1 knock-down inhibited ESCC cell growth and enhanced their radiosensitivity. shUHRF1 combined with radiation significantly increased ESCC cell apoptosis. Meanwhile, it activated the expression of caspase-3 and inhibited the expression of Bcl-2. shUHRF1 inhibited the expression of DNMT1 and reduced the methylation of PTEN, and then upregulated the expression of PTEN to inhibit the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. On the contrary, the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway can be activated by upregulation of UHRF1. Conclusion Our findings provide a theoretical basis for UHRF1 as a target to improve the radiosensitivity of ESCC.


This paper defines and studies permutation representations on the equivariant cohomology of Schubert varieties, as representations both over ${\Bbb C}$ and over ${\Bbb C}[t_1, t_2,\ldots,t_n]$. We show these group actions are the same as an action of simple transpositions studied geometrically by M. Brion, and give topological meaning to the divided difference operators of Berstein-Gelfand-Gelfand, Demazure, Kostant-Kumar, and others. We analyze these representations using the combinatorial approach to equivariant cohomology introduced by Goresky-Kottwitz-MacPherson. We find that each permutation representation on equivariant cohomology produces a representation on ordinary cohomology that is trivial, though the equivariant representation is not.


Transthyretin is primarily synthesized in the liver and transports thyroxine and vitamin A in the body. The transthyretin when dissociated into monomers can misfold and ultimately form amyloid fibrils. There are two types of ATTR amyloidosis: hereditary (caused by mutations in the TTR gene) and wild-type (also referred to as senile systemic amyloidosis). Amyloid cardiomyopathy can develop in patients with both types of ATTR amyloidosis, has a later onset and is characterized by progressive heart failure leading to death within a few years after diagnosis. Tafamidis is an oral-administered small molecule that binds to transthyretin and inhibits transthyretin tetramer dissociation, the rate-limiting step in the amyloidosis. Long-term efficacy and safety of tafamidis were shown in patients with transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy. The objective of the phase 3 international, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized ATTR-ACT study was to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of tafamidis (20 or 80 mg orally QD) in comparison with placebo in 441 patients with hereditary and nonhereditary transthyretin cardiomyopathy (median age 75 years, 90% of males). At month 30, treatment with tafamidis was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality (by 30%) and a lower rate of cardiovascular related hospitalizations (by 32%) than placebo and resulted in a lower rate of decline in distance for the 6-minute walk test and a lower rate of decline in KCCQ-OS score. The data from extension study supports tafamidis 80 mg as the optimal dose (bioequivalent to tafamidis free acid 61 mg).


Phasor analysis has become a powerful tool for examining signals in fluorescence life-time microscopy (FLIM), where the analysis provides a fast, robust and intuitive means of separating different fluorescent species and mixtures thereof. In this work we adapt this analysis for pump-probe microscopy, a method that provides molecular contrast of pigmented samples by probing their excited state dynamic properties. The bipolar nature of the pump-probe signals presents important differences in the resulting phasors compared to FLIM—here, we discuss these differences and describe the behavior of bipolar signals in phasor analysis. Results show that this method is indeed able to separate multiple molecular species of interests and allows facile assessment of pigment chemistry and its distribution in samples.


In considering the mechanism of transformation of epithelium to mesenchyme in the embryo, it is generally assumed that the ability to give rise to fibroblast-like cells is lost as epithelia mature. We reported previously that a definitive embryonic epithelium, that of the anterior lens, gives rise to freely migrating mesenchyme-like cells when suspended in type I collagen matrices. Here, we show that a highly differentiated epithelium that expresses cytokeratin changes to a vimentin cytoskeleton and loses thyroglobulin during epithelial-mesenchymal transformation induced by suspension in collagen gel. Using dispase and collagenase, we isolated adult thyroid follicles devoid of basal lamina and mesenchyme, and we suspended the follicles in 3D collagen gels. Cells bordering the follicle lumen retain epithelial polarity and thyroid phenotype, but basal cell surface organization is soon modified as a result of tissue multilayering and elongation of basal cells into the collagenous matrix. Cytodifferentiation, determined by thyroglobulin immunoreactivity, is lost as the basal epithelial cells move into the matrix after 3-4 days in collagen. By TEM, it can be seen that the elongating cells acquire pseudopodia, filopodia and mesenchyme-like nuclei and RER. Immunofluorescence examination of intermediate filaments showed that freshly isolated follicles and follicles cultured on planar substrata react only with anticytokeratin. However, all of the mesenchyme-like cells express vimentin and they gradually lose cytokeratin. These results suggest that vimentin may be necessary for cell functions associated with migration within a 3D matrix. The mesenchymal cells do not revert to epithelium when grown on planar substrata and the transformation of epithelium to mesenchyme-like cells does not occur within basement membrane gels. The results are relevant to our understanding of the initiation of epithelial-mesenchymal transformation in the embryo and the genetic mechanisms controlling cell shape, polarity and cytoskeletal phenotype.


Environmental regulations on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from corn (Zea mays L.)-ethanol production require accurate assessment methods to determine emissions savings from coproducts that are fed to livestock. We investigated current use of coproducts in livestock diets and estimated the magnitude and variability in the GHG emissions credit for coproducts in the corn-ethanol life cycle. The coproduct GHG emissions credit varied by more than twofold, from 11.5 to 28.3 g CO(2)e per MJ of ethanol produced, depending on the fraction of coproducts used without drying, the proportion of coproduct used to feed beef cattle (Bos taurus) vs. dairy or swine (Sus scrofa), and the location of corn production. Regional variability in the GHG intensity of crop production and future livestock feeding trends will determine the magnitude of the coproduct GHG offset against GHG emissions elsewhere in the corn-ethanol life cycle. Expansion of annual U.S. corn-ethanol production to 57 billion liters by 2015, as mandated in current federal law, will require feeding of coproduct at inclusion levels near the biological limit to the entire U.S. feedlot cattle, dairy, and swine herds. Under this future scenario, the coproduct GHG offset will decrease by 8% from current levels due to expanded use by dairy and swine, which are less efficient in use of coproduct than beef feedlot cattle. Because the coproduct GHG credit represents 19 to 38% of total life cycle GHG emissions, accurate estimation of the coproduct credit is important for determining the net impact of corn-ethanol production on atmospheric warming and whether corn-ethanol producers meet state- and national-level GHG emissions regulations.


Abstract The origin of Neotropical species diversity is strongly associated with the geological history of South America. Since the Miocene, a number of species radiations across different Neotropical lineages coincided with the rise of the Andes and the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. The species-rich genus Philodendron Schott (Araceae) is widely distributed across Neotropical rainforests, originating in the Late Oligocene and diversifying more intensely from the Miocene onward. It is likely that its diversification process and distribution patterns are associated with recent geological changes in the Americas. To test this hypothesis, we sampled the species diversity of Philodendron across its entire geographic range and used a combination of three non-coding plastid regions (petD, rpl16, and trnK/matK) to obtain a comprehensive time-calibrated phylogeny. We then inferred geographic range evolution and explored the impact of the Andean orogeny on speciation, extinction, and dispersal. The genus Philodendron originated ∼29 million years ago (mya) and experienced the earliest diversification events ∼25 mya in the Pan-Amazonian rainforests. From the Middle Miocene onward, multiple geographic range expansion events occurred from Amazonia to southeast Brazil and to the area which would become the Chocó and the northern Andes. From the Pliocene onward, Philodendron reached Central America and the Caribbean islands, and Andean lineages recolonized and diversified in Amazonia. In Philodendron, higher diversification rates are found in the adjacent lowland rainforests of the northern Andes compared with other regions in the Neotropics, demonstrating a potential indirect impact of the Andean uplift on species radiations in lowland regions.


The effects of the global financial crisis make the headlines everyday in the UK and most of the developed world. Yet at the core of the financial and intellectual institutions that created the crisis, the meltdown of 2008 is already a distant memory. Professor John Quiggin examines the 'zombie' economic ideas that led us into the crisis and argues that we need to abandon theories based on absolute individual rationality and better understand the 'animal spirits' that can lead to boom and bust


Experimental data suggest that cell‐based therapies may be useful for cardiac regeneration following ischaemic heart disease. Bone marrow (BM) cells have been reported to contribute to tissue repair after myocardial infarction (MI) by a variety of humoural and cellular mechanisms. However, there is no direct evidence, so far, that BM cells can generate cardiac stem cells (CSCs). To investigate whether BM cells contribute to repopulate the Kit+ CSCs pool, we transplanted BM cells from transgenic mice, expressing green fluorescent protein under the control of Kit regulatory elements, into wild‐type irradiated recipients. Following haematological reconstitution and MI, CSCs were cultured from cardiac explants to generate 'cardiospheres', a microtissue normally originating in vitro from CSCs. These were all green fluorescent (i.e. BM derived) and contained cells capable of initiating differentiation into cells expressing the cardiac marker Nkx2.5. These findings indicate that, at least in conditions of local acute cardiac damage, BM cells can home into the heart and give rise to cells that share properties of resident Kit+ CSCs.


Purpose: Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is a relatively rare tumor that is treated with targeted therapies in advanced stages. Randomized clinical trials (RCT)often require long followup and large sample sizes to evaluate overall survival (OS), the gold-standardmeasure of treatment efficacy. However, changes in therapy following disease progression may complicate survival assessments. Establishing surrogate endpoints may facilitate the drug approval and availability of new efficacious treatments; however, no published studies have investigated this topic in unresectable and/or metastatic GIST. Experimental Design: A systematic literature review identified 14 RCTs and five observational studies of sufficient methodologic quality published between January 1995 and December 2013 (29 treatment arms; 2,189 patients). Weighted linear regression was used to evaluate the relation between median OS and median progression-free survival (PFS) for all arms combined and stratified by treatment line, treatment type, and quality score. Results: Median OS and PFS were positively related with a correlation of 0.91. The association was still moderate (correlation 0.72) after eliminating four influential data points. In stratified analyses, correlation of OS and PFS was greater in later lines of therapy (first line 1⁄4 0.52; second line 1⁄4 0.80; thirdand laterline 1⁄4 0.70) and imatinib showed a stronger association (0.91) than other evaluated treatments ( 0.26 to 0.69). Conclusion: This analysis identified a strong relationship between median OS and PFS, especially in later lines of therapy. Findings suggest that PFS could serve as a surrogatemarker forOS; however, analyses of patient-level data are needed to establish its validity in GIST. Clin Cancer Res; 21(2); 1–8. 2014 AACR.


Abstract. One of the major features of the coastal zone is that part of its sea floor receives a significant amount of sunlight and can therefore sustain benthic primary production by seagrasses, macroalgae, microphytobenthos and corals. However, the contribution of benthic communities to the primary production of the global coastal ocean is not known, partly because the surface area where benthic primary production can proceed is poorly quantified. Here, we use a new analysis of satellite (SeaWiFS) data collected between 1998 and 2003 to estimate, for the first time at a nearly global scale, the irradiance reaching the bottom of the coastal ocean. The following cumulative functions provide the percentage of the surface (S) of the coastal zone receiving an irradiance greater than Ez (in mol photons m−2 d−1): SNon-polar = 29.61 − 17.92 log10(Ez) + 0.72 log102(Ez) + 0.90 log103(Ez) SArctic = 15.99 − 13.56 log10(Ez) + 1.49 log102(Ez) + 0.70 log103(Ez) Data on the constraint of light availability on the major benthic primary producers and net community production are reviewed. Some photosynthetic organisms can grow deeper than the nominal bottom limit of the coastal ocean (200 m). The minimum irradiance required varies from 0.4 to 5.1 mol photons m−2 d−1 depending on the group considered. The daily compensation irradiance of benthic communities ranges from 0.24 to 4.4 mol photons m−2 d−1. Data on benthic irradiance and light requirements are combined to estimate the surface area of the coastal ocean where (1) light does not limit the distribution of primary producers and (2) net community production (NCP, the balance between gross primary production and community respiration) is positive. Positive benthic NCP can occur over 33% of the global shelf area. The limitations of this approach, related to the spatial resolution of the satellite data, the parameterization used to convert reflectance data to irradiance, the lack of global information on the benthic nepheloid layer, and the relatively limited biological information available, are discussed.


Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) treatment includes a multidisciplinary approach, with physiotherapy a prominent role that promotes a positive impact on the quality of life (QOL) of these patients. Objective: To analyze the effects of physiotherapeutic interventions on QOL, lung volumes and capacities, and respiratory muscle strength in COPD patients. Methods: 17 subjects participated in the study, randomly divided into 2 groups: 1) Maneuvers: 62.7 ± 15.4 years, 1.65 ± 0.12 m, 81.4 ± 18.2 kg, body Mass Index (BMI) 29.9± 5.0 kg/m2 ; 2) Threshold: 64.4 ± 11.2 years, 1.58 ± 0.08 m, 70.7 ± 9.4 kg, BMI 28.6 ± 3.7 kg/m2 , with COPD, without neurological, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular or cognitive impairment, which made it impossible to participate in the physiotherapeutic intervention programs. QOL was analyzed using the Saint George Hospital questionnaire on Respiratory Disease (SGRQ); spirometry and respiratory muscle strength were analyzed by manovacuometry using a pneumotachograph. Data were analyzed in SPSS (20.0), Student's t-test (paired) and Wilcoxon test were used for pre and post-intervention comparison of the SGRQ domains and total score, Vital Capacity (VC), Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume (FEV1 ), Maximal Inspiratory Pressure (MIP) and Maximal Expiratory Pressure (MEP); and Student's t-tests (independent) and Mann-Whitney were used in the intergroup comparison, all with a significance level of 5%. Results: There was a significant difference in both groups (P<0.05) in the pre- and post-intervention comparison of the three domains (Symptoms, Activities and Psychosocial Impact) and total SGRQ score, but this did not occur with spirometric variables. In the manovacuometry, the Wilcoxon test showed a significant difference in the pre and post-intervention values of MIP and MEP. Conclusion: Improved QOL and MIP and MEP muscle strength of all COPD patients was observed, regardless of the groups Maneuvers or Threshold.


A common assumption behind most of the recent research on network utility maximization is that traffic flows are elastic, which implies that their utility functions are concave and there are no hard limits on the rate allocated to each flow. These critical assumptions lead to tractability of the analytic models of utility maximization, but also limits applicability of the resulting rate allocation protocols. This paper focuses on inelastic flows and removes these restrictive and often invalid assumptions. We present several optimization frameworks, optimality conditions, and optimal algorithms. First, we consider nonconcave utility functions, which turn utility maximization into nonconvex, constrained optimization problems that are well-known to be difficult. We present conditions under which the current standard price-based distributed algorithm can still converge to the globally optimal rate allocation despite nonconcavity of utility functions. In particular, continuity of price-based rate allocation at all the optimal prices is a sufficient condition for global convergence of rate allocation by the standard algorithm, and continuity at at least one optimal price is a necessary condition. In the second part of the paper, we provide a general problem formulation of rate allocation among time-sensitive flows from real-time and streaming applications, as well as a decomposition into subproblems coordinated by pricing. After simplifying the subproblems by leveraging the optimization structures, we highlight the difficult issues of causality and time-scale, and propose an effective price-based heuristics for admission control and an optimal algorithm for a special case formulation.


Saturation current-bandwidth product (SCBP), the key of figure of merit in high-speed and high-power photodiodes (PDs), is mainly limited by the tradeoff between carrier drift time in depletion layer and RC-limited bandwidth of conventional PDs. Here, we present a revolutionary photodiode structure: linear-cascade photodiodes (LCPDs), designed to further improve the SCBP performance. Our demonstrated LCPD structure can greatly increase the SCBP without using a complex distributed structure of the traveling-wave PD or reducing the load resistance (output RF power). Two flip-chip bonding packaged near-ballistic unitraveling-carrier photodiode (NBUTC-PD) units are employed in our LCPD structure. It exhibits a great improvement in SCBP compared to that of the control device with a single NBUTC-PD. A two-port equivalent-circuit model is established for the LCPDs and the modeling results clearly indicate that the increase in SCBP can be attributed to the significant reduction in its total capacitance due to the serial connection. Furthermore, we find that only when each PD unit in the LCPD structure has the same amount of injected optical power and modulated frequency of optical signal, the whole structure exhibits a carrier transit time as short as that of a single PD. Under the proper optical excitation, we can achieve a record high SCBP (7500 mA·GHz and 100 GHz) for two-element LCPDs under a 50 Ω load.


The surface bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) can be used to distinguish different materials. The BRDFs of many real materials are near isotropic and can be approximated well by a 2D function. When the camera principal axis is coincident with the surface normal of the material sample, the captured BRDF slice is nearly 1D, which suffers from significant information loss. Thus, improvement in classification performance can be achieved by simply setting the camera at a slanted view to capture a larger portion of the BRDF domain. We further use a handheld flashlight camera to capture a 1D BRDF slice for material classification. This 1D slice captures important reflectance properties such as specular reflection and retro-reflectance. We apply these results on ink classification, which can be used in forensics and analyzing historical manuscripts. For the first time, we show that most of the inks on the market can be well distinguished by their reflectance properties.


Due to the limitations of dimension and experiment cost, the reliability analysis of PSSS (Periodic Symmetric Struts Support ) mainly depend on reliability simulation. Inlet temperature, inlet velocity and inlet pressure of the thermal channel are the major random variables impacting PASS. In this paper, it generates 120 groups random variables by using stochastic finite element method ,which combined finite element software and Monte Carlo method. Temperature distribution is obtained based on fluid-structure interaction analysis with each group of variables as boundary condition, then thermal stress distribution is obtained by using steady state thermal analysis. After that, the maximum stress value of each group are extracted out, and the curve fitting for the probabilistic distribution curve of the stress was carried on. Then the function of the probabilistic distribution of maximum stress was got. According to the stress - strength interference model, the reliability calculation of PSSS was carried out, which can provides some reference data for the reliability analysis of the heavy--duty gas turbine.. This shows that by using finite element method and the monte carlo method to carry out structure strength reliability analysis of maximum stress area is feasible.


What does it mean to explain data patterns? Cognitive psychologists and other scientists face this question when observable phenomena have to be explained in theoretical terms. Frequentist null-hypothesis testing – one prominent approach in psychology – controls error rates. Machine learning – an alternative prominent outside of, but not yet inside psychology – focuses on precise predictions. However, both alternatives often provide little insight into the data. We propose a combination of formal modeling and Bayesian statistical inference to ground explanations in data analysis. We support this approach by reference to philosophy of science and discussions of the current methods crisis in several empirical sciences and illustrate it with an example from visual attention research.


Previously it was found that a conformationally rigid analogue (2) of the epilepsy drug vigabatrin (1) did not inactivate gamma-aminobutyric acid aminotransferase (GABA-AT). A cyclic compound with an exocyclic double bond (6) was synthesized and was found to inactivate GABA-AT, but only in the absence of 2-mercaptoethanol. The corresponding difluoro-substituted analogue (14) was synthesized and was shown to be a very potent time-dependent inhibitor, even in the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol.


Power scaling of ytterbium-doped fiber superfluorescent sources based on single-stage and two-stage cladding-pumped fiber configurations is reported. For the single-stage configuration, a novel fiber-end termination scheme was employed to suppress laser oscillation in combination with a simple all-fiber scheme for achieving a predominantly single-ended output. The fiber was cladding-pumped by a diode stack at 976 nm and yielded ~62 W of single-ended amplified spontaneous emission output for 119 W of launched pump power, limited by the onset of parasitic lasing. At pump powers in excess of 40 W, the slope efficiency with respect to the launched pump power was 67%. The emission spectrum spanned the wavelength range from 1030 to 1100 nm and the bandwidth (FWHM) was 12 nm. Scaling to higher power levels was demonstrated using a two-stage cladding-pumped fiber configuration comprising of a low-power fiber superfluorescent seed source and a high-power amplifier. The two-stage source yielded 122 W of amplified spontaneous emission output (limited by available pump power) in a beam with M2 ap 2.1. The slope efficiency for the amplifier with respect to the launched pump power was 77%. The prospects for further improvement in performance and output power are considered.


Fringes of equal chromatic order were formed by the film between a silvered cleavage face and a partially silvered optical flat. Crystal cleavage steps were determined from measurements of fringe steps. The b dimension of the unit cell was determined by a method of successive approximations to be 8.81±0.07A which agrees with the x-ray value within the experimental error.


: The mechanism of increase in the protein concentration of ascitic fluid during diuresis was investigated in 27 patients with chronic liver disease. The albumin concentration increased in ascites from .58 +/- .49 gm.% in the initial paracentesis to 1.48 +/- .69 gm.% in the final paracentesis (P less than .001) as the serum albumin concentration increased from 2.40 +/- .44 gm.% 2.94 +/- .56 gm.% (P less than .001). The serum to ascites albumin concentration gradient decreased significantly from 1.82 +/- .39 gm.%-1.46 +/- .45 gm.% (P less than .001). Despite this decrease, the serum to ascites albumin concentration gradient was relatively constant (decrease of .36 gm.% or 20% of initial value) compared to either the absolute or percentage change in ascites total protein concentration (increase of 1.48 gm.% or 107% of initial value). In four patients studied prospectively, the plasma volume did not change (3.53 +/- .80 1.-3.73 +/- .59 1.) during diuresis, despite increase in total intravascular albumin (85.7 +/- 25.6 gm.-99.9 +/- 22.3 gm.; P less than .05) and decrease in total albumin in combined intravascular and peritoneal compartments (156.0 +/- 30.1 gm.-143.4 +/- 35.3 gm.; P less than .05). Since neither concentration without decrease in plasma volume or synthesis of protein without increase in total compartmental protein appear to be the major mechanism of serum protein concentration increase, the increase in serum protein concentration was attributed to redistribution of protein from ascites to the intravascular compartment. The increase in ascitic fluid protein concentration during diuresis can be attributed to an increase in serum protein concentration in the presence of the relatively stable serum to ascites albumin concentration gradient.


Most of the increased protein degradation in muscle atrophy caused by starvation and denervation is due to activation of a non-lysosomal ATP-dependent proteolytic process. To determine whether expression of the ubiquitin-proteasome-dependent pathway is activated in atrophying muscles, we measured the levels of mRNA for ubiquitin (Ub) and proteasome subunits, and Ub content. After rats had been deprived of food for 1 or 2 days, the concentration of the two polyubiquitin (polyUb) transcripts increased 2-4-fold in the pale extensor digitorum longus muscle and 1-2.5-fold in the red soleus, whereas total muscle RNA and total mRNA content fell by 50%. After denervation of the soleus, there was a progressive 2-3-fold increase in polyUb mRNA for 1-3 days, whereas total RNA content fell. On starvation or denervation, Ub concentration in the muscles also rose by 60-90%. During starvation, polyUb mRNA levels also increased in heart, but not in liver, kidney, spleen, fat, brain or testes. Although the polyUb gene is a heat-shock gene that is induced in muscles under certain stressful conditions, the muscles of starving rats or after denervation did not express other heat-shock genes. On starvation or denervation, mRNA for several proteasome subunits (C-1, C-3, C-5, C-8 and C-9) also increased 2-4-fold in the atrophying muscles. When the food-deprived animals were re-fed, levels of Ub and proteasome mRNA in their muscles returned to control values within 1 day. In contrast, no change occurred in the levels of muscle mRNAs encoding cathepsin L, cathepsin D and calpain 1 on denervation or food deprivation. Thus polyUb and proteasome mRNAs increased in atrophying muscles in co-ordination with activation of the ATP-dependent proteolytic process.


Abstract:  In the USA, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. Earlier studies of CXR and sputum cytology screening conducted in the 1970s showed no mortality benefit. Accordingly, mass screening for lung cancer was abandoned and is not currently recommended. Recently, interest in lung cancer screening has been revived due to various reports showing an advantage of low‐dose CT over CXR in detecting smaller size tumours and at an earlier stage. Although these reports generated much enthusiasm for screening among clinicians and the general public, the effectiveness of low‐dose CT in reducing lung cancer‐specific mortality rates has not been demonstrated. Large‐scale randomized controlled trials are currently in progress to determine the efficacy of CXR and low‐dose CT screening. This review highlights the advantages and limitations of current modalities for lung cancer screening. The cases for and against screening with currently available modalities are examined. Additional new screening modalities are also discussed.


Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 36 percent of all people in poverty. Among children, 42 percent live in low-income families and nearly one in every five live in poor families. Young children under age 6 appear to be particularly vulnerable with 46 percent living in low-income and 24 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children's experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents' education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic characteristics of young children and their parents – highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.


LIL, the Lisp Interface Library, is a data structure library based on Interface-Passing Style. This programming style was designed to allow for parametric polymorphism (abstracting over types, classes, functions, data) as well as ad hoc polymorphism (incremental development with inheritance and mixins). It consists in isolating algorithmic information into first-class interfaces, explicitly passed around as arguments dispatched upon by generic functions. As compared to traditional objects, these interfaces typically lack identity and state, while they manipulate data structures without intrinsic behavior. This style makes it just as easy to use pure functional persistent data structures without identity or state as to use stateful imperative ephemeral data structures. Judicious Lisp macros allow developers to avoid boilerplate and to abstract away interface objects to expose classic-looking Lisp APIs. Using only a very simple linear type system to model the side-effects of methods, it is even possible to transform pure interfaces into stateful interfaces or the other way around, or to transform a stateful interface into a traditional object-oriented API.


Abstract
This study aims to model the dynamic relationships between the number of COVID-19 infected cases and deaths in all the districts of Kerala state, India, from January 2021 to December 2021 based on the panel vector auto-regressive model. The random effect panel vector auto-regressive model of order two was found suitable to model dynamic relationships. This model explains 62 % variations in the endogenous variable, deaths (number of deaths). The exogenous variable deaths (-1) are highly significant, whereas the exogenous variable cases (-1) are significant at a 5% level. Both of these exogenous variables positively influence the endogenous variable. The other exogenous variables, viz., deaths (-2) and cases (-2), are non-significant. The Durbin-Watson test statistic value confirms the independence of the residuals, and the Wald test confirms the validity of the significance of the estimated regression coefficients.

JEL classification numbers: E18, HO, I1, J64, J88.
Keywords: Fixed and Random Effect Models, Panel VAR model, Cointegration test, Levin-Lin-Chu unit root test, Granger causality test, Hausan test, Wald test.


Recently, we isolated 3 protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes from rat brain (Huang et al., 1986a). Using isozyme-specific antibodies for immunoblot, we have determined the relative levels of each isozyme in various regions of the rat brain (Huang et al., 1987b). The present paper describes the cellular distributions of PKC isozymes in rat brain as determined by light microscopic immunocytochemistry. Staining with PKC antibodies revealed strong immunoreactivities in neuronal somata and their dendrites and weak to no reaction in axon and the astroglial structures. In the cerebellum, the type I PKC antibodies stained the Purkinje cell bodies and dendrites; the type II PKC antibodies stained the granule cells; and the type III PKC antibody stained both Purkinje and granule cells. In the cerebral cortex, all antibodies stained neurons resembling pyramidal cells and their apical dendrites in layers II to VI, while layer I was nearly devoid of staining. However, the various isozyme-specific antibodies revealed distinct laminar distribution patterns of the positively stained neurons, and the type III PKC-positive neurons exhibited a higher density than those of type I or II PKC-positive ones, especially in layer II of cingulate (retrosplenial) and piriform cortices. In the hippocampal formation, both pyramidal cells of the hippocampus and granule cells of the dentate gyrus were stained by all PKC antibodies. Subcellularly, type III PKC appeared mostly in the cytoplasm of these neurons, whereas type I and II PKC seemed to associate with the nucleus as well. In the olfactory bulb, both type II and III PKC antibodies stained the periglomerular and granular cells, and the latter also stained the mitral cells. The distinct cellular and subcellular distribution of PKC isozymes suggests that each isozyme plays a unique role in the various neural functions.


7507 Background: This randomized phase III trial assessed whether intensification of rituximab (R) during the first 4 cycles of R-CHOP can improve outcome of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients compared with standard R-CHOP. Patients in complete remission (CR) after induction treatment were randomized between rituximab maintenance and observation. Intensification of rituximab was not more effective than standard R-CHOP, showing same CR-rates and progression free survival after induction (ASCO 2016 # 7504). Here, we report the results of the second randomization for rituximab maintenance therapy. Methods: Patients in CR after R-CHOP were randomized between 24 months of rituximab maintenance 375 mg/m2 intravenous every 8 weeks (n = 199 ) or observation (n = 199). CT scans were performed at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months in both arms. The primary endpoint was disease free survival (DFS) from maintenance randomization. Secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and adverse events (AEs). ( www.trialregister.nl NTR1014). Results: Median age was 65 years (range 31-80), 48% were 66 years or older and 49% were male. The majority of patients (54%) had a high-intermediate or high aa-IPI score. After a median follow-up of 79.9 months (maximum 125.7 months), the 5-year DFS rate was 79% for rituximab maintenance versus 74% for observation. This difference was not statistically significant, with a hazard ratio of 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.57-1.19, p= 0.31, adjusted for age and aa-IPI). The secondary endpoint OS was also not significantly different (85% versus 83% at 5 years). No clinical subgroup benefited from rituximab maintenance. Toxicity was mild. Among patients who received rituximab maintenance CTCAE grade 3 and 4 AEs were reported in 17% and 6% of patients, respectively. Infection was the most frequent AE, a grade 3 infection occurred in 6% of patients. Neutropenia was seen in 1% (grade 3) and 3% (grade 4) of patients. Conclusions: Rituximab maintenance therapy provides no additional benefit for DLBCL patients in first CR after R-CHOP. Clinical trial information: www.trialregister.nl NTR1014.


Recently, the combination of topic models and random fields has been frequently and successfully applied to image classification due to their complementary effect. However, the number of classes is usually needed to be assigned manually. This letter presents an efficient unsupervised semantic classification method for high-resolution satellite images. We add label cost, which can penalize a solution based on a set of labels that appear in it by optimization of energy, to the random fields of latent topics, and an iterative algorithm is thereby proposed to make the number of classes finally be converged to an appropriate level. Compared with other mentioned classification algorithms, our method not only can obtain accurate semantic segmentation results by larger scale structures but also can automatically assign the number of segments. The experimental results on several scenes have demonstrated its effectiveness and robustness.


ABSTRACT Goulart,E.S., Calliari, L.J.,2013. Medium-term morphodynamic behavior of a multiple sand bar beach. Cassino beach, located in southern Brazil, is a very fine sand beach with morphodynamic stages ranging from dissipative to intermediate. This beach can display up to three sand bars which are active during high energy events. Since the beach is located in a microtidal area, flood events are mainly caused by storm surges which can reach 1.8 m. During such events the highest rates of beach erosion are observed. A series of six years (from March 2005 to February 2011) of data from video images have been used to study the nearshore morphodynamic behavior. Daily data of sandbars and waterline position were obtained from these images. The generated data was analyzed in order to recognize flood events patterns as well as patterns of beach morphodynamic both during flood events and during normal conditions. Forty seven flood events were identified, 53% during winter, 24% during autumn, 17% during spring, and 6% in the summer. The average duration of events is 1.5 days. During this period, the whole system is migrating offshore in a rate of 9 m/year. Wavelet analysis showed a gradation of frequencies that govern the variability of the surf zone features. Closer to the beach high frequencies processes (associated with tides and meteorological forcing) have larger influence than further offshore, where longer processes gain importance.


There are various methods at our disposal to determine the direct expenses of the factors, which influence the state of health – such as inactive lifestyle –, but research studies aimed at comprehensively determining all direct and indirect expenses have not been conducted in Hungary, yet. We desired to remedy this deficiency with our research, which was prepared at the commissioned order and with the support of the Hungarian Society of Sport Science and the Department for Sport of the Ministry of Human Resources of the Hungarian Government. Using the factual data of OEP (National Health Insurance Fund) we determined the annual cost of illnesses, along with the extent of the cost of physical inactivity, (HUF billion), and we prepared an estimate of the possible amount of savings in Hungary (sick-pay, medication costs etc.), the methodology of which we adapted from international research projects, thus the resulting data in the case of Hungary will later be comparable to international data. International examples reveal the savings achievable by increasing physical exercise in a broad range, even though having conducted the research in different ways and time periods. All research projects concur about one thing, namely that the reduction of physical inactivity can result in significant savings. Our results have verified this statement statistically as well.


In the statistical analysis of a health research study, it is quite common to have some missing data after data collection. Typically in a clinical trial, the treatment variable is completely recorded most of the time, but the associated covariates may not be. The multi-variable analysis is often conducted by including all the important medically relevant covariates with the expectation that a valid estimate of the treatment effect could be obtained by properly adjusting for these covariates . In this scenario, if the data of the covariates are Missing Not at Random (MNAR) , the situation becomes complicated. The estimate of the treatment effect obtained will be invalid . The situation when the data are Missing Completely at Random (MCAR) is interesting since a dilemma exists: if you include the covariates with a high missing proportion, the analysis loses power although the validity might be good. If the covariates with a high missing proportion are excluded, the validity might be of question but the precision is good. Although the literature suggests that the validity is more important , there might be cases where the precision would improve substantially with a little sacrifice on validity by omitting the covariate from the analysis. In this t hesis , this dilemma will be evalua ted in the context of multivariable logistic regression with the hope that some of the results from this work would shed light on the understanding of the situation. This work is significant in that it could potentially change the data collection process. For example , in the research design stage, if we expect that a covariate would have a high rate of missingness,


Subglacial discharges have been observed to generate buoyant plumes along the ice face of Greenland tidewater glaciers. These plumes have been traditionally modeled using classical plume theory, and their characteristic parameters (e.g., velocity) are employed in the widely used three-equation melt parameterization. However, the applicability of plume theory for three-dimensional turbulent wall plumes is questionable because of the complex near-wall plume dynamics. In this study, corrections to the classical plume theory are introduced to account for the presence of a wall. In particular, the drag and entrainment coefficients are quantified for a three-dimensional turbulent wall plume using data from direct numerical simulations. The drag coefficient is found to be an order of magnitude larger than that for a boundary layer flow over a flat plate at a similar Reynolds number. This result suggests a significant increase in the melting estimates by the current parameterization. However, the volume flux in a wall plume is found to be one-half that of a conical plume that has 2 times the buoyancy flux. This finding suggests that the total entrainment (per unit area) of ambient water is the same and that the plume scalar characteristics (i.e., temperature and salinity) can be predicted reasonably well using classical plume theory.


A smooth opaque object produces an image in which brightness varies spatially even if the object is illuminated evenly and is covered by a surface material with uniform optical properties. Photometric methods relate image irradiance to object shape and surface material using physical models of the way surfaces reflect light. A reflectance map allows image irradiance to be written as a function of surface orientation, for a given surface material and light source distribution. Shape from shading algorithms use a reflectance map to analyze what is seen. The development of photometric methods for determining shape from shading is discussed, beginning with examples from lunar astronomy. The results presented delineate shape information that can be determined from geometric measurements at object boundaries from shape information that can be determined from intensity measurements over sections of smooth surface. Recent work of Ikeuchi and Horn is presented which relaxes the requirement that the image irradiance equation be satisfied exactly. Instead, the image irradiance equation specifies one constraint that is combined with another constraint derived from general surface smoothness criteria. Shape from shading is expressed as a constrained minimization problem. Another method uses multiple images in a technique called photometric stereo. In photometric stereo, the illumination is varied between successive images while the viewing direction remains constant. Multiple images obtained in this way provide enough information to determine surface orientation at each image point, without smoothness assumptions.


THE HOLY BIBLE - THE WORD OF WORDS. A POINT OF REFERENCE IN THE ROMANIAN OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY Review of Ioan Chirila, The Holy Bible - The Word of Words (Sfânta Scriptura - Cuvântul Cuvintelor), (Cluj-Napoca: Editura Renasterea, 2010), 415 p. Key Words: exegesis, Old Testament, translation, hermeneutics, eschaton, testimony, contemporary, canonicity, theology, types, Ioan Chirila A recent editorial appearance, The Holy Bible - The Word of Words, offers the possibility of meeting again with an unmistakable style in the field of the Romanian Old Testament theology, that of Ioan Chirila1. The volume integrates a series of theological studies presented at various conferences, colloquies and work sessions both in the country and abroad, or published in specialist magazines during the last few years. As everyone got used to in Ioan Chirila's previous writings, we rediscover in this volume the touch of a master in what regards the polyphony of nuances of theological depth flowing as if from an interior river with countless meanders. The volume has four thematic components. The first of them, The Bible, Reading and Christian Confession, aims at the relation between the Bible, the Holy Tradition and the Holy Liturgy, the spiritual reading of the Holy Bible according to the patristic tradition, and the act of translating in the light of the testifying faith. In the second structure, The Holy Bible in Romania, the author examines the Romanian translation of the Bible, the partial and integral editions of the Bible in Romania, as well as the way in which the Romanian theologians and especially the Transylvanian ones have developed certain research directions in their biblical studies, works which have been compiled into "a concrete theology of irenicism and dialogue".2 The principles of translating and interpreting the Bible that are stated in the first two structures are illustrated in the Old Testament's Exegetic Fragmentarium, a component which comprises precise exegetic studies inserted here to show the way in which the principles of patristic interpretation can be applied today, and this without developing an anachronistic speech, but by applying the interpretative paradigms of the Holy Fathers with a view to clarifying a modern message that can be addressed to the contemporaneity. This type of theological vision is faithful to an idea constantly worded in the East, that of returning to the Fathers (G. Florovsky), an idea that is becoming increasingly popular in Western theology. "The hermeneutic set of instruments" is addressed especially to those students whose preparation includes a biblical component. This part comprises fragments from the Bible and quotations from different sources that have different aspects of biblical hermeneutics in view, all in a punctilious thematic classification. The way in which the Scripture is understood in the biblical canon is prioritized, after which the essential points of reference for a lectura christiana of the Holy Scripture are established, as well as hermeneutic elements, rabbinic and modern interpretation principles, patristic arguments in favour of a spiritual reading of the Bible and, finally, a large bibliographical part divided into Romanian and international theological references. The element of novelty that the volume brings about in Romanian theology results not only from the style of the discourse, with symbolic or methaphorical touches that sometimes resemble the liturgical way of expression (that of the prayer-text) in form and rhetoric, but also from the way in which the tackled topics find their resolution in glades of salvation messages, beginning with the Old Testament, usualy regarded only from a historical point of view or in the type-antitype binomial. The author aims at a unitary perspective of the message. In this process of extracting the redeeming meaning, ciphered in the Old Testament, which he makes accessible, in the gnoseological paradigm the contemporary man, he makes reference to sources from various periods and fields of activity, but which he harmonizes in an exemplary way. …


The objective of the study is to review the evidence on the consequences associated with the introduction of national performance measurement systems in the National Health Service (NHS), with the aim of informing the development of similar national performance measurement programmes proposed for Australia. Narrative review of the published evidence on the unintended and adverse consequences of performance measurement systems in the NHS is the data source. We identified 20 different dysfunctional consequences of national performance measurement systems in the NHS in four headings. These are poor measurement (measurement fixation, tunnel vision, myopia, ossification, anachronism and quantification privileging), misplaced incentives and sanctions (complacency, silo‐creation, overcompensation, undercompensation, insensitivity and increased inequality), breach of trust (misrepresentation, gaming, misinterpretation, bullying, erosion of trust and reduced staff morale), and politicisation of performance systems (political grandstanding and creating a diversion). Performance measurement programmes can contribute to systems improvement, delivering benefits to health services and patients, as evidenced by the dramatic reduction in waiting times in the NHS following the incorporation of targets and indicators for waiting times. Nevertheless, experience from the NHS shows that in addition to generating desired improvements, performance measures can induce a range of unintended and dysfunctional consequences. We recommend Australia to heed the lessons of the NHS, and strive to balance effective performance measurement and management against the potential drawbacks and adverse consequences. Any national performance measures need to be piloted and carefully evaluated to assess potential benefits and pitfalls.