During the 1990s, wage setting increasingly became coordinated in many Member States of the European Union (EU), often through new arrangements involving broad encompassing social pacts between employers, trade unions, and governments striking deals across policy areas from wages to social and employment policies. We argue that the different forms of institutional innovation in wage setting found in the EU depended on the combination of the character of external pressures and preexisting protoinstitutional structures in the labor market. The shifts in the institutions of wage-setting and macro-level labor market governance were directly related to shifts in macro-economic policy regimes, especially political-economic pressures associated with the advent of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Because these pressures were not symmetrically distributed across the different EMU candidates, both the urgency of the problems and responses they produced differed. Micro institutions conditioned the ability of countries to "embed'these new arrangements in stable rule-based governance structures.


The pulsed corona offers real promise for degradation of pollutants in gas and water streams. This paper presents a study of NOx removal from diesel exhaust. Special emphasis is laid on the investigation of the dependence of the NO removal rate and efficiency on the pulse repetition rate (PRR). A nanosecond solid state power supply (45 kV, 60 ns, up to 1 kHz) was used for driving the corona reactor. A Mitsubishi 10 kW 3-cylinder diesel-generator engine with a total volume of 1300 cm3 was used as a source of exhaust gas. At an NO removal rate of 35% the NO removal efficiency was 53 g kW−1h−1 for PRR = 500 Hz and the initial NO concentration was 375 ppm. A semi-empirical expression for the corona reactor removal efficiency related both to PRR and to the residence time is presented. The removal efficiency decreases with increasing PRR at constant flow rate or constant residence time. This expression demonstrates reasonable agreement between the calculation results and the experimental data.


The aim of this paper is to tackle the demographic and spatial changes which took place in Palestine since the middle of 19 th century to present. Throughout the last 160 years Palestine witnessed several waves of foreign immigrants whose settlements were diffused starting from coast toward interior parts of Palestine. Other foreign settlers were interested in residing in holy cities such as Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem. For the first time and after 1948 war in Palestine foreign immigrants outnumbered Palestinian people in which almost one million of its residents were forced to leave their homes. After the 1948 war Israel was established over 78% of Palestinian lands. West Bank and Gaza strip which comprised only 22% of Palestine became under Jordanian and Egyptian rules respectively. All the area of Palestine became under Israeli occupation in 1967. Due to Palestinians high growth rate, Israelis are heading toward losing their majority. At present Palestine is sliced into several concentration areas between Palestinians and Israelis. Because of such a mix up between both sides, a visible and just solution to this conflict is becoming more difficult. If the situation persists, an apartheid system will force itself on the land of Palestine. The author believes that that a new approach should be carried out in order to solve Arab- Israeli conflict including refugees' right of return.


The study has stressed the importance of philosophy of ancient Constitutions. The Raja Dharma, Buddhist dhamma have been depicted to know how these works became sources of Indian Constitution. The effort of British govt. to bring the systematic constitutional govt. has been discussed thoroughly in this study. After the dawn of independence, how India has been governed by successive Prime Ministers to create congenial atmosphere for the development. The economic crisis of 1990 which has brought cynical change among the politicians led to the growth of coalition era. All these aspects made India to knock at the doors of western countries under whose influence the Globalization has been ushered in India. During the Globalization,the scenario of Fundamental Right though not changed on the paper but it has failed to change the fortunes of people of India. The Judiciary became a silent spectator, watching all these aspects. The agenda of political parties during the election has been picturised and shown how the people are misguided through the agenda.Thus, study is an invaluable contribution to people who are subjected to untold miseries rather than benefits in the era of Globalization.


Surface waters contribute substantially to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to the atmosphere. However, global estimates remain uncertain due to methodological difficulties, such as in precisely estimating gas transfer in steep upland streams. Here, we addressed the question of what drives CO2 evasion from steep mountainous stream network of the European Alps by assessing the spatial and temporal variation of partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) for 148 streams and the gas transfer coefficient for CO2 (kCO2) for 88 locations within this 254 km2 watershed. Results show that log kCO2 can be predicted reasonably well (r2 = 0.71, p<0.001, n = 88) using a statistical model based on slope, average width, flow velocity and stream discharge. Also, most sites were supersaturated in CO2 with significant variation in pCO2 due to season (September vs. December) and time of day (day vs. night), but not stream order. Resulting median CO2 evasion rates were 145, 119, 46, 43, and 50 mg C m−2 h−1 at 1st to 5th order streams, respectively. CO2 evasion was dependent on season and time of day, with the highest evasion (184.0 kg C h−1) during growing season at nighttime, followed by 124.6 kg C h−1 during daytime. Dormant season nighttime evasion was 30.9 kg C h−1 and daytime evasion only 17.1 kg C h−1. Overall we conclude that CO2 evasion of steep mountainous streams depends on seasonal and diurnal variation in pCO2 and reach‐specific variability in kCO2. These controls strongly alter landscape‐scale CO2 evasion estimates, with implications for regional to global carbon budgets.


Abstract Automatic/Voluntary dissociation in apraxia has been called into play to account for the paucity of reports of apraxic deficits in everyday life. The consequences of this claim have been both practical and theoretical. Evidence gathered from the literature allowed us to question this assumption, which is widely accepted in the neuropsychological realm. In this critical review it is maintained that the time is ripe to abandon this Lipmanian dichotomy if we want to make some progress in the understanding of apraxia. Instead of theorizing about the possible cognitive (or anatomical) bases of automatic/voluntary dissociation, future studies should concentrate on the investigation of the specific functional deficits underlying apraxic phenomena.


Background: Loss of elbow range of motion (ROM) can significantly decrease patient quality of life. Posttraumatic arthrofibrosis is a common cause of decreased elbow ROM, and it has been reported that loss of 50% of elbow motion can compromise 80% of extremity function. The aim of this study was to examine the incidence and risk factors of posttraumatic elbow arthrofibrosis. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of all patients with intraarticular elbow fracture treated with operative fixation over a 10-year period. Pearson's Chi-squared, Student's t-test, and a logistic multivariate regression model was used to predict arthrofibrosis risk factors. Results: A total of 390 consecutive patients with intra-articular elbow fractures were identified. A total of 105 (27%) patients developed arthrofibrosis with 72 surgical interventions performed to improve ROM. At final follow-up 88 (23%) patients had persistent arthrofibrosis. Using multivariate regression analysis, high-energy mechanism (odds ratio (OR) 3.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.16-6.3, P<0.001), deep post operative infection (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.26-4.37, P=0.038), elbow fracture-dislocations (OR 3.44, 95% CI 1.32-7.41, P=0.005), and distal humeral fractures (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1-3.19, P=0.027) were significantly associated with the development of arthrofibrosis. The effect of duration of immobilization was significant, with each extra day of immobilization increasing the odds of arthrofibrosis by 9% (OR 1.09, P=0.001). Conclusions: Duration of immobilization, fracture pattern, presence of deep postoperative infection, and energy of injury were all predictive factors for the development of elbow arthrofibrosis after operative treatment of intraarticular elbow fractures.


In many real-world applications, the modeling environment is usually dynamic and evolutionary, especially in a data stream where emerging new class often happens. Great efforts have been devoted to learning with novel concepts recently, which are typically in a supervised setting with completely supervised initialization. However, the data collected in the stream are often in a semi-supervised manner actually, which means only a few of them are labeled while the great majority miss ground-truth labels. Besides, new classes hidden in unlabeled instances bring more challenges for the learning task. In this paper, we tackle these issues by a new approach called SEEN which consists of three major components: an effective novel class detector based on clustering random trees, a robust classifier for predictions on the known classes, and an efficient updating process that ensures the whole framework adapts to the changing environment automatically. The classifier produces known labels via label propagation that utilizes all labeled and part unlabeled data in the past which naturally describe the entire stream seen so far. Empirical studies on several datasets validate that the algorithm can accurately classify points on a dynamic stream with a small number of labeled examples and emerging new classes.


In the wake of Flinders University's radical organisational restructure, we reflect on what guided the decisions and process, namely a neoliberal understanding and framing of higher education and corporal, top-down managerial systems. We explore this current climate of the neoliberal university and argue that student power is once again needed to shift the conception of university 'success' back into a democratic form of governance. However, rather than student power constituting of a traditional 1970s form of picketing protests, we argue that a model of working within current structures is prudent. Partnership with students initiatives provide unexpected hope for student participation in rebuilding the conception of the democratic university as a public good, but also highlight the relevance of student 'activism' in 2019.


The dc power system, due to its convenience of conversion, integration, and use, is getting immense attention in the field of power transmission and distribution. It is superior to the traditional ac systems in terms of efficiency, reliability, and control simplicity as well. A dc circuit breaker is one of the important elements of any dc power system. It is a sophisticated technology designed to break dc current only. The breaking of a dc current is always challenging compared with the breaking of an ac current, as dc current does not have natural zero crossing points like ac current has. Moreover, dc current breaking becomes more critical when the current is inductive as energy stored in the network inductance opposes instantaneous current breaking. Hence, this energy needs to be absorbed and dissipated as heat during the current breaking operation, which is exactly what is done in the traditional dc circuit breaker topologies. This article introduces a new topology for dc circuit breakers with a mechanism to reuse this stored energy instead of dissipating it. The mechanism is analogous to regenerative braking in electric drive systems and can enhance the overall system efficiency. The proposed scheme was analyzed through rigorous computer simulation and was experimentally validated.


We present a study of the small-scale structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) in the Milky Way. We used HST STIS data to measure N(H i) in a pencil beam toward 59 active galactic nuclei and compared the results with the values seen at 9′–36′ resolution in the same directions using radio telescopes (Green Bank Telescope, Green Bank 140-ft, and LAB survey). The distribution of ratios N(Lyα)/N(H i) has an average of 1 and a dispersion of about 10%. Our analysis also revealed that spectra from the Leiden–Argentina–Bonn (LAB) all-sky H i survey need to be corrected, taking out a broad Gaussian component (peak brightness temperature 0.048 K, FWHM 167 km s−1, and central velocity −22 km s−1). The column density ratios have a distribution showing similarities to simple descriptions of hierarchical structure in the neutral ISM as well as to a more sophisticated three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation. From the comparison with such models, we find that the sonic Mach number of the local ISM should lie between 0.6 and 0.9. However, none of the models yet matches the observed distribution in all details, but with many more sightlines (as will be provided by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph) our approach can be used to constrain the properties of interstellar turbulence.


Cancer is commonly thought to be the product of irregular cell division. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is the major cause of death globally. Nature offers an abundant supply of bioactive compounds with high therapeutic efficacy. Anticancer effects have been studied in a variety of phytochemicals found in nature. When Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved anticancer drugs are combined with natural compounds, the effectiveness improves. Several agents have already progressed to clinical trials based on these promising results of natural compounds against various cancer forms. Natural compounds prevent cancer cell proliferation, development, and metastasis by inducing cell cycle arrest, activating intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis pathways, generating reactive oxygen species (ROS), and down-regulating activated signaling pathways. These natural chemicals are known to affect numerous important cellular signaling pathways, such as NF-B, MAPK, Wnt, Notch, Akt, p53, AR, ER, and many others, to cause cell death signals and induce apoptosis in pre-cancerous or cancer cells without harming normal cells. As a result, non-toxic "natural drugs" taken from nature's bounty could be effective for the prevention of tumor progression and/or therapy of human malignancies, either alone or in combination with conventional treatments. Natural compounds have also been shown in preclinical studies to improve the sensitivity of resistant cancers to currently available chemotherapy agents. To summarize, preclinical and clinical findings against cancer indicate that natural-sourced compounds have promising anticancer efficacy. The vital purpose of these studies is to target cellular signaling pathways in cancer by natural compounds.


Objective - Investigation of the cost-effectiveness of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared to PCI guided by coronary angiography (CAG). Methods - One hundred and eight men referred for PCI, were randomized to IVUS or CAG guided PCI. After 6 months, the patients were subjected to a study related clinical and invasive follow-up investigation by CAG, IVUS and intracoronary Doppler flow measurements. Incremental costs of IVUS guided procedures and costs of reinterventions were estimated using the Activity Based Costing (ABC) method. Results - Patients randomized to IVUS guided PCI experienced an improved clinical outcome, with lower angina levels than patients in the CAG guided group. The initial cost of performing IVUS guidance was increased due to extra procedure time, IVUS catheters and slightly more balloons and stents, but fewer patients in the IVUS guided group needed re-intervention. Overall, these savings outweighed the initial cost increase. Conclusion - Our data suggest that when performing IVUS guided PCI, costs as well as benefits increase. The increased benefits measured as cost savings resulting from less restenosis outweigh the cost increase from performing the IVUS guided PCI as opposed to CAG guided PCI.


This paper had its origins in a study of Benvenuto Stracca's De mercatura. The purpose of the study was to determine whether there was anything in that work that supported the notion that there was a system of customary mercantile law in operation in Italy in Stracca's time. The answer to that question proved to be a rather resounding 'no', and the arguments that lead to that conclusion will be published elsewhere. In the process of examining Stracca's sources, much information appeared about how the jurists of the fourteenth, fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries did deal with mercantile matters and, in particular, the way in which they manipulated the concept of equity to achieve what they deemed to be just results in such cases. Limitations of space allowed consideration of only a couple of procedural examples intheprevious paper. The story, it seemed to me, deserved consideration in its own right. What follows, then, is a fuller consideration of the use of equity by the commentators in their handling of mercantile cases, beginning, as the previous paper did, with Stracca's general remarks on the topic.


The effective acquisition of a distorted wavefront is the foundation of studying how to suppress and correct aero-optical effects. The background-oriented schlieren (BOS) technique, as a commonly quantitative measurement method of flow field, has great application potential in aero-optical effect measurement. With consideration of the thickness change of the refractive index field, introduction of near-field correction and construction of the double telecentric configuration, wavefront measurement accuracy was improved. A standard plano-convex lens was utilized to quantitatively evaluate the improved results, and the effectiveness of the improvement was verified. Determination methods of spatial resolution, sensitivity, and dynamic measurement range of wavefront measurement based on BOS were studied. The influences of cross-correlation interrogation window size and step length on the wavefront reconstruction accuracy were investigated. The step length should be less than the size of the interrogation window to make the reconstructed results have a satisfactory accuracy. Wavefront results of supersonic film at different positions and cases were obtained. The fitting results show that there is a good linear relationship between the root mean square of the optical path difference (OPDrms) and ρ1/ρ∞ at different locations. Under different experimental cases, the aero-optical distortion tends to become stronger first and then weaker along the flow direction, and the aero-optical distortion around Position 3 is relatively strong. The large aperture approximation can be used to predict Strehl ratio values effectively in a considerable range by OPDrms.


In this paper we present a novel intrusion detection architecture based on idiotypic network theory (INIDS), that aims at dealing with large scale network attacks featuring variable properties, like denial of service (DoS). The proposed architecture performs dynamic and adaptive clustering of the network traffic for taking fast and effective counter-measures against such high-volume attacks. INIDS is evaluated on the MIT'99 dataset and outperforms previous approaches for DoS detection applied to this set.


There are generally two problems associated with cryogenic scanning electron microscopy (cryo‐SEM) observations of large wet powder compacts. First, because water cannot be vitrified in such samples, formation of artefacts is unavoidable. Second, large frozen samples are difficult to fracture but also to machine into regular pieces which fit in standard holders, especially if made of hard materials like ceramics. In this article, we first describe a simple method for planning hard cryo‐samples and a low‐cost technique for cryo‐fracture and transfer of large specimens. Subsequently, after applying the entire procedure to green pellets of iron ore produced by balling, we compare the influence of plunge‐ and unidirectional freezing on large entrapped bubbles throughout the samples as well as the degree of water filling at the outer surface of the pellets. By carefully investigating the presence of artefacts in large areas of the samples and by controlling the orientation of the sample during freezing and preparation, we demonstrate that unidirectional freezing enables the observation of large entrapped bubbles with minimum formation of artefacts, whereas plunge freezing is preferable for the characterization of the degree of water filling at the outer surface of wet powder compacts. The minimum formation of artefacts was due to the high packing density of the iron ore particles in the matrix.


The development of sophisticated information technology in retailing has outpaced the development of sophisticated information systems. Up to this point most instalhtions of EDP equipment have been justified on the basis of cost displacement or savings through increased productivity. Merchandising applications have emphasized elaborate unit control systems. Profitability problems in retailing are most susceptible to improved dollar-based inventory management systems simuar to NRMA9s classification merchandising concept. In this article research results of retailers using an advanced dollar system are analyzed and conclusions are drawn. In addition, the suitability of advanced dollar systems for meeting a variety of emerging retailing management problems is thoroughly discussed.


The purpose of this paper is to outline teaching integrated scope-cost methods in a course on fabrication and construction planning using model-based tools. Through project-based active discovery using project documents students create an integrated takeoff, schedule and cost estimate. The goal is to illustrate the processes and interrelation between professions required to effectively obtain the scope, schedule and cost of a proposed project. Students who are provided with a scope-time-cost technology tool in an inquiry-based environment are better able to grasp the core concepts of project planning and control and are less hindered by tedious calculations or look-up tables and manual compilation of project plans and analyses. The goal of teaching integrated scope-cost methods was achieved with the model-based tools. Students performed better on qualitative network analysis, scheduling techniques and planning. It was unexpected that students would not do as well on quantitative process model interpretation and creating a process model manually. The study is limited first by the constraints of course work limitations, second by hardware resources, third by software integratability and last a steep learning curve in integrated model-based systems. The use of model-based tools to complete a scope-time-cost project plan in a project-based learning environment is recommended. The level of effort to create a takeoff, schedule and cost estimate is reduced; the final product is better documented, of higher quality and most likely contains fewer errors.


This paper reports on a linear actuation mechanism in the form of a parallel-crank mechanism (i.e., double-crank mechanism) articulated with two dielectric elastomer actuators working in parallel that are fabricated as a minimum energy structure. This structure is established by stretching a dielectric elastomer (DE) film (VHB4910) over a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) frame so that the energy released from the stretched DE film is stored in the frame as bending energy. The mechanism can output a translational motion under a driving voltage applied between two electrodes of the DE film. We have proposed visco-elastic models for the DE film and the frame of the actuator so that the mechanical properties of the actuator can more accurately be incorporated into the mechanism model. The proposed model accurately predicts the experimental frequency response of the mechanism at different voltages. In addition, an inversion-based feedforward controller was successfully implemented in order to further validate the proposed model for sensorless position control of the actuators and the parallel-crank mechanism articulated with these actuators. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4027167]


This paper summarises some of the analysis and findings of a project commissioned to investigate the meanings and uses of the terms formal, informal and non-formal learning. Many texts use these terms without any clear definition, or employ conflicting definitions and boundaries. The paper therefore proposes an alternative way of analysing learning situations in terms of attributes of formality and informality. Applying this analysis to a range of learning contexts, one of which is described, suggests that there are significant elements of formal learning in informal situations, and elements of informality in formal situations; the two are inextricably inter-related. The nature of this inter-relationship, the ways it is written about and its impact on learners and others, are closely related to the organisational, social, cultural, economic, historical and political contexts in which the learning takes place. The paper briefly indicates some of the implications of our analysis for theorising learning, and for policy and practice.


Abstract:
For the first time, ionic liquids were applied for the size-selective synthesis of thermoelectric antimony telluride (Sb2Te3) nanoplates by thermal decomposition of the single-source precursor bis(diethylstibino)telluride (Et2Sb)2Te. Herein, we report on the synthesis of Sb2Te3 nanoparticles with record-high thermoelectric figure of merit values of up to 1.5. For synthesis, Sb2Te3 nanoplates with a good thermoelectric figure of merit are prepared by using ionic liquids and the microwave technique. The three substantially important thermoelectric parameters, namely electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient, were independently addressed to improve the overall performance of the material by making use of a tailor-made metal organic precursor and a specific ionic liquid as the reaction medium and particle stabilizer. The critical influence of porosity for the fabrication of highly efficient thermoelectric materials was demonstrated for the first time. Unequivocal trends could be observed for synthesis of optimal thermoelectric materials in ionic liquids is required. This knowledge simplifies the work in this area for other projects in the near future.


The authors examine several problems arising from the need to assess the psychotherapeutic processes and their effects, and the difficulties for finding valuable criteria to carry out the assessments. They propose a method centered on evaluation the changes that undergoes the central conflict: [Edipus complex, by means of several psychological tests to be taken at regular intervals during the course of psychotherapy. The tests are: a) House-Tree-Person; b) Wechsler; c) Bender; d) Rohrshach; e) Phillipson. The central thesis is that focal oedipical conflicts envolve necessarily together with defensive systems, objectal inner world, identifications, global structures of the ego, etecetera. That means the focal conflict can be used as an indicator to assess the state, evolution and functionning for the whole psychic apparatus. In support of those theses, several clinical cases are presented, together with some fragments of Phillipson test for each of them. The general conclusions stress the validity of the proposed method.


In this masters thesis we explore past work trying to classify algorithmic problems. These classications are used to select problems for evaluating dierent programming languages and frameworks. We use a subset of the 13 Dwarfs of Berkeley, more specically: dense and sparse linear algebra, spectral methods, graph traversal and MapReduce. We evaluate the performance and ease of use of two programming frameworks and two languages of interest to Etteplan, a large consultant company; C++ using either OpenMP or MPI and Erlang.We show that MPI can be used to speed up programs in a shared memory system, it handles structured problems well but struggles with more dynamic work loads such as the graph traversal algorithm BFS that we use as a benchmark. Additionally we show that OpenMP is an easy way to gain performance by utilizing thread level parallelism in most situations. Erlang, the concurrency focused programming language from Ericsson is explored as an alternative to C++. However its immutable tree data structures do not compete with ecient in-place updates of memory arrays with constant access time.


Ganglioside stimulated neurite outgrowth may be due to ganglioside binding to membrane proteins or to intercalation into the membrane. To test that ganglioside binding proteins could be found on neuronal surfaces, anti-idiotypic ganglioside monoclonal antibodies (AIG mAbs) were generated to mimic the biological properties of the GM1 ganglioside. The AIG mAbs were identified by their ability to bind to a known GM1 binding protein, the beta-subunit of cholera toxin. For the two AIG mAbs studied, AIG5 and AIG20, binding to beta-CT was blocked most strongly by GM1. This data also suggests that AIG5 and AIG20 mimic different but overlapping epitopes of the ganglioside GM1. Western blotting and immunoprecipitation of mammalian tissues reveals four potential ganglioside binding proteins of molecular weight 93, 66, 57, and 45 kDa. Immunocytochemistry demonstrates neuronal surface label with the AIG mAbs, which suggests that gangliosides, enriched on the neuronal surface membrane, are co-localized with putative ganglioside binding proteins. In bioassays, the AIG mAbs promote neuronal sprouting. This shows that these antibodies can be used to study the biological effects of ganglioside binding to neuronal surface proteins, and the role of gangliosides in the activation of neurite outgrowth.


This paper seeks to analyse the forms of organisation of scientific communities, based on
their management of both presential and virtual modes. There is a preliminary comparison
of various networks of researchers, with details from the case of the RII as an international
and interdiscipinary
space for research, based on the activities of research, edition, diffusion and teaching and
the use of presential and virtual modes. It is proposed that scientific communities constitute
one of the principal social forms of the knowledge society; that these communities
depend increasingly on the use of information and communication technology; but that
there is a wide variety in their ways of organising networks and using information and
communiction technology, according to the style of each network.


Large pretrained generative models like GPT-3 often suffer from hallucinating non-existent or incorrect content, which undermines their potential merits in real applications. Existing work usually attempts to detect these hallucinations based on a corresponding oracle reference at a sentence or document level. However ground-truth references may not be readily available for many free-form text generation applications, and sentence- or document-level detection may fail to provide the fine-grained signals that would prevent fallacious content in real time. As a first step to addressing these issues, we propose a novel token-level, reference-free hallucination detection task and an associated annotated dataset named HaDeS (HAllucination DEtection dataSet). To create this dataset, we first perturb a large number of text segments extracted from English language Wikipedia, and then verify these with crowd-sourced annotations. To mitigate label imbalance during annotation, we utilize an iterative model-in-loop strategy. We conduct comprehensive data analyses and create multiple baseline models.


It is generally recognized that aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can cause varying degrees of gastroduodenal mucosal damage. These agents are most frequently used by physicians for rheumatic diseases because of their high effectiveness in reducing joint pain and swelling. Four classes of drugs, namely histamine (H2) blockers, antacids, sucralfate and prostaglandins are available for treatment of gastric mucosal damage caused by NSAIDs. All these drugs are very effective in healing gastric and duodenal injury if nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are discontinued. However, current data suggest that if nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are continued while gastrointestinal damage is present there may be significant differences among these drugs in healing of gastric mucosal damage. Synthetic prostaglandins are therapeutically superior over other forms of treatment when nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are continued in the presence of gastric mucosal injury. This article is a review of such data from the literature for a) the treatment and b) the prevention of gastrointestinal damage due to aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.


Background: Risk assessment is a routine part of mental health services, with professionals being required to complete a risk assessment proforma (RAP) for every patient under their care. Aims: This study was designed to investigate staff attitudes to, and beliefs about, the completion of risk assessment paperwork. Method: We surveyed 300 professionals across one county to examine: (i) the amount of time taken to complete RAPs; (ii) attitudes towards completing such paperwork; and (iii) beliefs about the quality and usefulness of the information recorded. Results: We found considerable variation in the amount of time taken to complete RAPs. The median time was 18 minutes with doctors spending significantly less time than nurses. More favourable attitudes towards RAPs were seen in nurses than in doctors, in spite of the increased time spent completing them. Moreover, nurses also held more positive views about the value and benefit of the information recorded in RAPs. Conclusions: The findings suggest that RAP completion may account for a significant proportion of staff time. Inter-professional differences in belief and attitude were prominent and this should be an important consideration in the evolution of risk assessment procedures.


This study introduces a new method for assessing the outdoor ventilation environment in Taiwan, with a view to reducing the heat island phenomenon. The ventilation environment is important in cooling the outdoor environment, but its evaluation is very difficult and complex. Therefore, this study develops a simple method for assessing the outdoor ventilation environment, it is used in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation software, only to generate numerical models using empirical building types include rectangular shape and courtyard building, then calculate their wind shadow areas (WSa). Then, many factors, such as the site plan, the size of building and local wind data are used to draw these areas to the scope of WSa. The results of the simple assessment method are verified by performing CFD simulations to corroborate the correlation between simplified assessment method and CFD simulation result, an R2 value of 0.87 is obtained. The method is helpful in improving design decisions in the planning and design stage of site plan.


This article describes an investigation into the learning outcomes that transferred from a university content-based English for academic purposes (EAP) course to other courses and the factors that influenced that transfer. The study was a longitudinal qualitative case study in one faculty at a large North American university. Data were collected over one academic year through multipronged assessment measures from five first-year students who were participating in a content-based EAP course concurrently with other first-year university courses, as well as from two instructors of the content-based EAP course, 16 instructors of other courses, and one administrator. Data included interview transcripts, participant journals, class observation notes, and samples of course work. Evidence emerged to indicate that learning transfer did occur from the content-based EAP course to the students' other courses. The learning transfer fell into six broad categories that reflected a range of academic language skills (e.g., listening comprehension skills, writing skills) and other learning outcomes (e.g., study skills). The transfer of these learning outcomes was influenced by eight factors (e.g., requirements for learning transfer in activities in other courses, similarity between the content-based EAP course and other courses). Implications of these findings for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.


Introduction The availability of rural healthcare is a growing concern in the United States as fewer healthcare providers choose to work in rural areas. Accessing quality continuing education (CE) for rural healthcare practitioners (HCPs) remains a challenge and may pose a barrier to quality care. Methods To maximize attendance at a live, in-person, free CE program focusing on geriatric medication and issues specifically targeted to HCPs in rural areas, two methods were implemented sequentially. The first method used formal advertising implemented by a professional marketing service to promote CE events. The second method enlisted local healthcare organizations and physician groups to promote the CE event to their employees. Cost per attendee was calculated for comparison. Results Professional marketing services recruited 31 HCPs (March 2011) and resulted in a per-participant recruitment cost of US$428.62. Local healthcare organizations and physician groups' marketing recruited 48 HCPs (July–August 2011) and resulted in a per-participant recruitment cost of US$55.19. Discussion Providing free CE coordinated through local healthcare organizations and physician groups was the most cost-effective method of recruiting rural HCPs for CE. Formal advertising added cost without increasing the number of participants per event. Although this is the first study of the cost-effectiveness of recruitment methods targeting HCPs in rural areas, results are consistent with research on cost-effectiveness of outreach to rural lay community members.


Background Knee valgus is associated with non-contact anterior cruciate ligament rupture and this injury commonly occurs at the end of competition and/or training sessions. Probably, muscle fatigue is associated to this injury occurrence. Clinically, knee valgus is easily identified by the quantification of frontal plane knee projection angle (FPKPA). Objective The purpose of this study was to compare FPKPA before and after a maximal, incremental shuttle-run testing protocol used to induce fatigue in elite male volleyball athletes. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Sports Sciences Laboratory at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Patients (or Participants) Thirteen elite male volleyball athletes with a mean age of 27.69 (+7.85) years, body mass of 92.00 (+8.97) kilograms and height of 1.94 (0.06) meters participated in a preseason assessment. Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) Fatigue was induced by performing a maximal-incremental shuttle-run test for the estimation of maximal aerobic power according to the protocol proposed by Ramsbotton et al. (1988). Main Outcome Measurements FPKPA was measured during single-leg squat and involved a line connecting antero-superior iliac spine, a middle point between knee condyles and a middle point between the malleolus. The athletes performed 3 single-leg squats and a mean of the 3 FPKPA on the dominant lower limb was analyzed. Results The dominant lower limb had a mean FPKPA of 3,18 o (±4.23) prior to and a mean FPKPA of 3.73 o (±4.03) after the fatigue protocol. A Studen's t-test analysis showed a statistical significant difference (p=0.019; mean difference=3.18; IC 95% of 0.62–5.74). Conclusions Elite male volleyball athletes had higher values of FPKPA on the dominant lower limb after a maximal, progressive exercise leading to fatigue. Probably, elite volleyball players may be under a higher risk of muscle-skeletal injuries under muscle fatigue conditions.


Abstract Endometriosis is a disease that has a profound impact on the quality of life of women, due to the associated chronic pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia and infertility. However, even getting long-awaited pregnancy (often after assisted reproductive technologies), patients with endometriosis have a high risk of obstetric complications, such as miscarriage, preterm birth, preeclampsia, placental abnormalities, hemorrhage in labor, birth of small for gestational age infants, stillbirth and higher cesarean section rate. In addition, during pregnancy acute complications of endometriosis may occur, such as spontaneous hemoperitoneum, which is rare but life-threatening conditions that in most cases require surgical intervention. The mechanisms of the observed complications in pregnant women with endometriosis are not fully understood. This review presents literature data and personal considerations on the effect of endometriosis on pregnancy outcome and the occurrence of complications, as well as their possible underlined mechanisms. Based on this, we proposed ways to reduce the risk of obstetric complications in pregnant women with a history of endometriosis.


Analyzing data for the 100 largest districts in the South and Border states, we ask whether there is evidence of "resegregation" of school districts and whether levels of segregation can be linked to judicial decisions. We distinguish segregation measures based on racial isolation from those based on racial imbalance. Only one measure of racial isolation suggests that districts in these regions experienced resegregation between 1994 and 2004, and changes in this measure appear to be driven largely by the rising nonwhite percentage in the student population rather than by district policies. Although we find no time trend in racial imbalance over this period, we find that variations in racial imbalance across districts are nonetheless associated with judicial declarations of unitary status, suggesting that segregation in schools might have declined had it not been for the actions of federal courts. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.


Background: Exposure to environmental pollutants such as heavy metals has been introduced as a possible contributor to increasing the risk of colon cancer. We aim to explore the associations between heavy metals and the age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) colon cancer in Northeastern Iran.Methods: Cancer data were drawn from the population-based cancer registry of Golestan province, Northeastern Iran. The heavy metals' samples were collected from 69 rice milling plants in the study area. Then, the concentration level of seven heavy metals, including Cadmium, Nickel, Cobalt, Copper, Selenium, Lead, and Zink was measured. The Kriging algorithm was used to interpolate the heavy metals' concentration on the surface of the study area. The exploratory regression analysis was conducted to build the ordinary least squares (OLS) models on every possible combination of the candidate explanatory variables. Finally, the best OLS models were chosen to show the effect of heavy metals on colon cancer.Results: Generally, heavy metals were higher in the central part of the province. The analyses showed that the high concentration of Cobalt was associated with the high ASR of colon cancer in men. In contrast, the Selenium concentration was higher in areas with lower ASR of colon cancer in men. A significant regression equation for men colon cancer was found (F(4,137)=38.304, P<.000) with an adjusted R2 of 0.77. The predicted ASR of men colon cancer was -58.3581 with the coefficients for Cobalt= 120.329780; Cadmium= 80.603505; Selenium= -6.069037; Nickel= -3.086802; and Zink= -0.405843. The effect of Copper and Lead on men colon cancer was not significant. We did not find a significant model for women colon cancer.Conclusion: There may be a possible negative correlation between selenium concentration and a lower risk of colon cancer in men. Furthermore, the higher cobalt concentration may be related to an increased risk of men colon cancer.


In the aftermath of the global food crisis, great debates have arisen on the future of African agriculture. The crisis has once again raised the question of food security on the continent. Previous approaches aimed at increasing the agricultural productivity of farmers have failed. This has necessitated a call for a change of approach in which smallholders, who are the bulk of Africa's food producers, will play a pivotal role. The main challenge facing the continent is how to balance the quest for food self-sufficiency and the demands of sustainability. This thesis is a concrete contribution in the quest for productive yet sustainable food systems in Africa. It surveys and analyses the sustainability of fadama (floodplains) farming systems of Northern Nigeria. Strong emphasis is placed on the socio-economic, institutional and demographic drivers affecting productivity and sustainability of fadama agriculture. Findings reveal a delicate interaction and negotiation across the formal and informal boundaries where traditional agricultural practices, based on an understanding of the particular physical reality and exploitation of natural synergies, are combined with inputs typical of conventional agriculture. African agriculture thus stands poised at crossroads; whether to abandon tradition in favour of entirely 'modern' methods and export markets as often advocated for in certain circles or depend on time tested indigenous knowledge systems and grassroots-defined development vision which combines popular livelihoods with respect for nature's systems. Drawing on Bruno Latour, the metaphor of 'hybridisation' is used to justify a negotiated compromise between official discourses, which promote the use of chemicals and grassroots reality which relies on nature's systems. Agroecology is offered as a model to overcome this agricultural dualism (inputs vs. tradition) through combining compatible elements of the two systems for greater productivity and sustainability. However, the key question of how agricultural hybridization should take place remains unresolved in this thesis for whereas it appears feasible in certain areas such as knowledge and institution sharing, in others such as the use of external inputs, the two systems appear irreconcilable.


Gifted and talented children are known as those with a valuable
potential that may be stimulated to the benefit of humankind. However, in many
countries they are known as those that don't need any specialized educational
assistance or stimulation or even worse that they do not exist. In Brazil, the
educational Laws recognize this group, but the Brazilian educational system
still struggles to properly attend them. Unfortunately, most teachers and
professors that are supposed to help this group to get the best of their
giftedness and high skills for the good of these kids and humankind, currently
ignore them. In 2012 there was the 1st Meeting of Gifted Children and
Adolescents sponsored by the Brazilian Council of Giftedness. During this
meeting 21 gifted and talented children and adolescents have prepared a
document called Declaration of the Gifted
Brazilian Child to inform about their expectations and how the society may
help them. This gifted group created 8 statements that now we have analyzed and
discussed, considering their ideas, the logistics of attending their needs and
the limit of these requirements considering Brazilian laws and World rights.
According to our results these kids know what they need, what is missing and
what they lose when getting no proper educational attention. The maturity of
their requests revealed the lack of a proper formation of our professionals
involved in their education that ignore and/or suffocate them and their
potential knowledge, which may affect not only their future but also the Brazilian
development and innovation capacity.


Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have been established as a viable tool for Oceanographic Sciences. Being untethered and independent, AUVs fill the gap in Ocean Exploration left by the existing manned submersible and remotely operated vehicles (ROV) technology. AUVs are attractive as cheaper and efficient alternatives to the older technologies and are breaking new ground in many applications. Designing an autonomous vehicle to work in the harsh environment of the deep ocean comes with its set of challenges. This paper discusses how the current engineering technologies can be adapted to the design of AUVs. Recently, as the AUV technology has matured, we see AUVs being used in a variety of applications ranging from sub-surface sensing to sea-floor mapping. The design of the AUV, with its tight constraints, is very sensitive to the target application. Keeping this in mind, the goal of this thesis is to understand how some of the major issues affect the design of the AUV. This paper also addresses the mechanical and materials issues, power system design, computer architecture, navigation and communication systems, sensor considerations and long term docking aspects that affect AUV design. With time, as the engineering sciences progress, the AUV design will have to change in order to optimize its performance. Thus, the fundamental issues discussed in this paper can assist in meeting the challenge of maintaining AUV design on par with modern technology. Thesis Supervisor: Hanumant Singh Title: Associate Scientist, WHOI


This essay is a reflective and exploratory account of an experience-based learning exercise in 2017/2018 within the course unit of 'Sustainability of products and services' in the Master in Product Design course at the Lisbon School of Architecture, University of Lisbon (FA.ULisboa).For a semester, design students and a local community explored alternative futures together. However, questions emerged on the pertinence of the educational approach whenthe design students argued they were not learning about sustainability. Arguing were indeed learning sustainability, the reflection is mainly grounded on the events and how I've experienced them, as an educator. Beyond the failures to guide such a complex process, it captures some of the limitations and potentials of the experience through the lenses of Critical and Speculative Design (CSD). By adopting the perspectives of rehearsing futures, foresight and (im)possible things, this essay is a speculative exploration of ways to approach sustainability learning in the product design classroom.


Variations in the academic performance among students at all levels of education are one issue for years now that has attracted the attention of many researchers across the globe. This has prompted researchers and educationists to find out what factors or reasons can be attributed to these variations. Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the various reasons to explain this cause. The purpose of this study therefore, was to compare the academic performance of students in the Bachelor's degree of Information Technology (BIT) having Arts and Science backgrounds in universities of Uganda. In order to achieve the objective of this study, a sample of 202 final year BIT students were purposively selected from two universities in Uganda. These students were categorized on the basis of their A' level backgrounds (130 Arts and 72 Sciences). A descriptive approach employing the Welch's t-test was used to determine the difference between the performance of the two groups and a simple linear regression analysis was used to examine the correlation among students' performance between semesters. The results indicated that there's a significant difference in the academic performance of the two groups, with the science group outperforming arts. However, it was found that there is a more linear increase in the performance of Arts students from semester one through semester five. Furthermore, Arts students performed slightly better than Science counterparts in some course units. Thus the study concludes that Science students perform better than Arts students in the overall semester final examination with Arts students having room for improvement in their performance.


Mechanical retinal fixation is a useful tool in the armamentarium of vitreoretinal surgeons. Unfortunately, the use of metallic retinal tacks on a permanent basic mandates a retained intraocular foreign body that poses some potential for long-range toxic effects. Herein, we report the results of our initial experience with a temporary, biodegradable mechanical retinal fixation device ("biopin") in rabbits. When compared with metallic tacks, the biopins appeared to be well tolerated intraocularly, with minimal damage detectable at the light microscopic level. Disinsertion of the biopins occurred in 46% of the eyes within two weeks and in all eyes by four weeks. Initial signs of degradation of the biopins were observed at six weeks (median) in the ensectomized/vitrectomized eyes and at 12 weeks (median) in the nonvitrectomized eyes. Differences were found in the occurrence of retinal detachment between animals that underwent lensectomy/vitrectomy with insertion of two metallic tacks and animals that underwent insertion of one biopin without vitrectomy. The biopin has a potential as a vehicle for sustained release of pharmacologic agents to inhibit directly the development of vitreoretinal proliferation, thereby retarding or preventing subsequent retinal traction and detachment.


Containing focused, comprehensive coverage, Practical Guide to Interpretive Near-Infrared Spectroscopy gives you the tools necessary to interpret NIR spectra. The authors present extensive tables, charts, and figures with NIR absorption band assignments and structural information for a broad range of functional groups, organic compounds, and polymers. They include visual spectral representation of all major compound functional groupings and NIR frequency ranges. Organized by functional group type and chemical structure, based on standard compound classification, the chapters are easy to follow and understand. The use of Molecular Formula and CAS Number indexing prevents the confusion that can occur when using only common chemical names to identify compounds. Interpretive spectroscopy provides a basis for the establishment of cause-and-effect relationships between spectrometer response and the chemical properties of the samples. While many books available on NIR cover a range of applications and topics from a broad perspective, most of them barely touch on structure correlation and interpretation of spectra. The first, and arguably the only, book to tackle this intriguing and challenging area, Practical Guide to Interpretive Near-Infrared Spectroscopy presents the most detailed discussion of the subject to date.


The spring 2022 issue of GATESOL Journal provides language teachers, administrators, community developers, curriculum designers, and advocates of the emergent multilingual population in Georgia, the U.S., and around the world with insights on developing inclusive practices. Inclusion is "the act of creating environments in which any individual or group can feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate. An inclusive and welcoming climate embraces differences and offers respect in words and actions for all people'' (YW Boston Blog, 2019, para. 8). This issue will showcase how inclusive practices can be supported in language, culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices, and peace-oriented education.


Buried Kansan drift and Yarmouth soil beneath Illinoian drift are described from three locations south of the Wisconsin drift border in southeastern Indiana. The occurrence in Kansan drift of bright red, clayey, non-calcareous, limestone-derived soil inclusions, and abundant residual chert cobbles from the local Silurian Laurel Limestone suggest that the Kansan ice may have been the first to reach this area. The scattered upland erratics in northern Kentucky, therefore, seem more certainly to be Kansan in age, as suggested originally by Leverett. The Townsend Farm section provides a basis for geologic-climate subdivisions of the Kansan Stage in southeastern Indiana, named as follows: Kansan Stage Columbia Stade Garrison Creek Interstade Alpine Stade The slightly greater depth of leaching of the Yarmouth soil in the Townsend Farm section as compared to depths in similar buried Sangamon soils in southeastern Indiana suggests that the Yarmouth interglacial interval was slightly longer than the Sangamon interglacial interval in this area.


This paper examines the way in which NGOs in the UK have framed rights for migrant domestic workers. It contends that migrant domestic workers entering the UK on the tied Overseas Domestic Worker's Visa have been framed as victims of modern slavery and human trafficking by these groups. This paper critically analyses this approach, arguing that this framework has not served to increase rights for domestic workers, but conversely has enabled the State to present these women as victims who must be excluded for their own protection. Furthermore this approach has shifted responsibility away from the State and onto foreign employers, who are presented as importing human rights violations into Britain. This paper therefore argues for the need to reframe rights for migrant domestic workers, and seeks to formulate a new, human rights-based approach. This approach focuses on highlighting the agency of these women, as well as refocusing responsibility back onto the State to protect human rights. A successful employment of this frame would serve to expand migratory opportunities for domestic workers and reduce the precariousness of domestic labour through the extension of employment protections into the private sphere of the home.


Based on the platform of laser-triggered surface flashover in pulsed voltage, experiment of laser-triggered surface flashover switch is carried out in vacuum condition with pulsed voltage. The switch consists of flat electrodes and columned insulator. A single/double harmonic, with wavelength λ of 1064/532 nm, Q-switched Nd: YAG laser is applied to trigger the switch. The results of experiment show that switch delay time and jitter time decrease with increase of pulsed voltage and laser energy density. Based on the waveforms of switch voltage and switch current, the circuit model of laser-trigger flashover switch is set up by circuit method in the paper. The parameters of the circuit model are calculated through the waveforms of the experiment, and the waveforms of switch voltage and switch current are obtain through circuit simulation. The simulation waveforms of the switch model are consistent with the waveforms of the experiment.


Mass spectrometry (MS) enables specific and accurate quantification of proteins with ever increasing throughput and sensitivity. Maximizing this potential of MS requires optimizing data acquisition parameters and performing efficient quality control for large datasets. To facilitate these objectives for data independent acquisition (DIA), we developed a second version of our framework for data-driven optimization of mass spectrometry methods (DO-MS). The DO-MS app v2.0 (do-ms.slavovlab.net) allows to optimize and evaluate results from both label free and multiplexed DIA (plexDIA) and supports optimizations particularly relevant for single-cell proteomics. We demonstrate multiple use cases, including optimization of duty cycle methods, peptide separation, number of survey scans per duty cycle, and quality control of single-cell plexDIA data. DO-MS allows for interactive data display and generation of extensive reports, including publication quality figures, that can be easily shared. The source code is available at: github.com/SlavovLab/DO-MS.


To the Editor. —I would like to commend your editorial on neuro-ophthalmology by Drs Cogan and Lessell ( Arch Dermatol 94:393, 1976), which has raised important issues at an opportune moment. Neuro-ophthalmology consists essentially of the assiduous study of the visual sensory system, the pupil, the ocular movements, and the optic disc, supported by a comprehensive knowledge of the underlying anatomical and physiological substrate. In most parts of the world these subjects are shared by interested neurologists and ophthalmologists, and the recent upsurge in interest in the subspecialty of neuro-ophthalmology has been largely stimulated by the contributions and enthusiasm of a number of distinguished American ophthalmologists. The impact of computerized axial scanning on neuro-ophthalmology awaits assessment, but this revolutionary diagnostic technique will certainly aid the neurologist and the internist in neuroophthalmic diagnosis. Likewise, the visual evoked response will aid the diagnosis of optic nerve lesions. Further development of these and other


Uganda is one of the poorest nations in the world. It is important to obtain accurate, timely data on socio-economic characteristics sub-nationally, so as to target poverty reduction strategies to those most in need. Many studies have demonstrated that nighttime lights (NTL) can be used to measure human activities. Nevertheless, the methods developed from these studies (1) suffer from coarse resolutions, (2) fail to capture the nonlinearity and multi-scale variability of geospatial data, and (3) perform poorly for agriculture-dependent regions. This study proposes a new enhanced light intensity model (ELIM) to estimate the gross domestic product (GDP) for sub-national units within Uganda. This model is developed by combining the NTL data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS), the population data from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL), and information on agricultural production and market prices across several commodity types. This resulted in a gridded dataset for Uganda's GDP at sub-national levels, to capture the spatial heterogeneity in the economic activity.


Abstract. During magnetic observatory data acquisition, the data time stamp is kept synchronized with a precise source of time. This is usually done using a GPS-controlled pulse per second (PPS) signal. For some observatories located in remote areas or where internet restrictions are enforced, only the magnetometer data are transmitted, limiting the capabilities of monitoring the acquisition operations. The magnetic observatory in Lanzhou (LZH), China, experienced an unnoticed interruption of the GPS PPS starting 7 March 2013. The data logger clock drifted slowly in time: in 6 months a lag of 27 s was accumulated. After a reboot on 2 April 2014 the drift became faster, −2 s per day, before the GPS PPS could be restored on 8 July 2014. To estimate the time lags that LZH time series had accumulated, we compared it with data from other observatories located in East Asia. A synchronization algorithm was developed. Natural sources providing synchronous events could be used as markers to obtain the time lag between the observatories. The analysis of slices of 1 h of 1 s data at arbitrary UTC allowed estimating time lags with an uncertainty of ∼ 11 s, revealing the correct trends of LZH time drift. A precise estimation of the time lag was obtained by comparing data from co-located instruments controlled by an independent PPS. In this case, it was possible to take advantage of spikes and local noise that constituted precise time markers. It was therefore possible to determine a correction to apply to LZH time stamps to correct the data files and produce reliable 1 min averaged definitive magnetic data.


Predicting multiple trajectories for road users is important for automated driving systems: ego-vehicle motion planning indeed requires a clear view of the possible motions of the surrounding agents. However, the generative models used for multiple-trajectory forecasting suffer from a lack of diversity in their proposals. To avoid this form of collapse, we propose a novel method for structured prediction of diverse trajectories. To this end, we complement an underlying pretrained generative model with a diversity component, based on a determinantal point process (DPP). We balance and structure this diversity with the inclusion of knowledge-based quality constraints, independent from the underlying generative model. We combine these two novel components with a gating operation, ensuring that the predictions are both diverse and within the drivable area. We demonstrate on the nuScenes driving dataset the relevance of our compound approach, which yields significant improvements in the diversity and the quality of the generated trajectories.


A reconsideration of the crucial historical role of slavery in the consolidation of the global regime of capital accumulation provides a vital source of Marxian critique for our postcolonial present. The Atlantic slave trade literally transformed African men and women into human commodities. The reduction of human beings into human commodities, or 'human capital' – indeed, into labour and nothing but labour – which was the very essence of modern slavery, served as a necessary prerequisite for the consolidation and perfecting of what Marx called 'labour in the abstract', and requires us to re-situate enslaved labour as the defining and constitutive limit for how we comprehend labour as such under capitalism. The production of labour in the abstract, or labour 'in general', depended nonetheless upon concrete productions of sociopolitical difference, particularly the branding of race. The term 'Black', which was devised to literally and figuratively brand the flesh of enslaved people, was also contrived to signify their particular sociopolitical condition of brutal degradation as the ultimate limit for the subjugation of labour. Blackness names that limit. Thus, Blackness is in fact necessary for apprehending labour as such under capitalism. Marx's scathing critique of wage labour is always haunted by the long shadow of slavery as its limit figure. If we comprehend labour to be the antithesis of capital, then to the extent that Blackness names the ultimate condition of labour's subordination and subjection to capital, we need to recognise the tendency for all labour under capital to be pressed toward a sociopolitical condition of Blackness (or approximating Blackness), where Blackness does not name any kind of essential identity but the racialised sociopolitical condition of that subordination/subjection. Consequently, the labour theory of value – which has always been in fact, more accurately, a value theory of labour – must be complemented with what we might posit to be a racial theory of labour. Such an ostensibly historical perspective on the foundational role of slavery in the genesis of capitalism is no mere scholastic exercise in the historiography of 'primitive accumulation', however, but rather must be re-purposed toward the ends of elaborating what has remained an as-yet underdeveloped Marxian theory of migrant labour. Extrapolating key insights from Marx's corpus for the formulation of a racial theory of labour, this essay is ultimately concerned with the ways that slavery supplies capitalism with a defining horizon for all labour, and thus how this insight might instructively serve to comprehend the racialised subordination of migrant labour within our global/postcolonial sociopolitical order.


We consider an overlapping generations model with environment, where we introduce an elastic labor supply. In this framework, consumers have to choose between consumption, environmental quality and leisure. We establish that several steady states can coexist, even under a Cobb-Douglas technology, and we put in evidence a non monotonic relationship between pollution and per capita income, as suggested by the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Moreover studying local dynamics, we show the existence of deterministic cycles and endogenous fluctuations due to self-fulfilling expectations. In contrast to previous results, the occurrence of such fluctuations does not require a high emission rate of pollution. Finally, we discuss some welfare and policy implications of our results. Especially, we show that a government which would reduce pollution emissions can face a trade-off between an increase of steady state welfare and an intergenerational welfare inequality due to indeterminacy.


We study the design of interactive video servers that store videos on disk arrays. In order to avoid the hot-spot problem in video servers it is conventional wisdom to stripe the videos over the disk array using Fine Grained Striping or Coarse Grained Striping techniques. Striping, however, increases the seek and rotational overhead, thereby reducing the throughput of the disk array. Our results indicate that the decrease in throughput is substantial when interactive delays are constrained to be less than 1 second. We show that both a high degree of interactivity and high throughput are achieved by using a narrow striping width and replicating the videos according to the users' request pattern. Specifically, we find that striping over two disks gives the highest throughput when a tight 1 second constraint on interactive delays is imposed. We also demonstrate that localized placement (i.e., no striping at all) performs nearly as well when a good estimate of the user request pattern is available.


In this article, we explore the processes in which four young readers make meanings through dialogic encounters with an interviewer utilizing the think-aloud as a mediator. We believe that these mediated think-alouds act as both a mediating tool to help effect change in cognition through what Swain (2006b) and others have called "languaging" (the process of verbalizing one's thoughts aloud either by oneself or with others), and a research elicitation tool which in its nominal function analyzing how students talk about texts serves to implicate the interviewer/researcher in the process of co-constructing new texts with the reader as the source of meaning in the reading passages. In soliciting information about these four readers' problem-solving strategies on reading comprehension questions, the interviewer employed a dialogical and sociocultural model (Bakhtin, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978, 1986) that framed the interactions as a co-constructed reading event (Maybin & Moss, 1993). Using a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective, we analyze selected extracts of verbal accounts of these elementary school students who were assigned a reading task in the attempt to answer the question: What particular meanings emerged and how were they constructed by the students and the interviewer in their generating of next texts in the process of reading?


The presentation will focus on the challenge of unifying the librarians' skills, knowledge, and eagerness to communicate these, with the students' need for information literacy (IL). We propose that this is done best by departing from the view of IL as a normative concept where the meeting between librarian and the students focusses on teaching the students tools and techniques for future use. We perceive it as far more beneficial to view IL from a Limberg perspective, where focus is on the students' learning and needs in his/her current situation and context. Based on teaching experiences at Aalborg University Library, we will explore the shift in approach to IL through two cases. The teaching activities at Aalborg University are founded on problem-based learning (PBL). PBL entails among other things that students are responsible for their own learning and work with real problems in groups. PBL is therefore a highly significant element in our perception of IL and a corner stone in the teaching activities at Aalborg University Library. Our new approach to IL specifically means that we more gradually than before instill the students with the knowledge and skills needed. In our teaching activities, we focus on showing the complexity of the academic world of information, and at the same time provide the students with basic navigation skills. Hopefully, this enables them to discover what it is they need to know in order to become information literate in the given situation, and if necessary ask us for assistance to achieve this. Based on their motivation to learn, we can support our teaching with a guidance session where we unfold the tools and knowledge required for them to become information literate in their given situation.


Why did it take the Conservative Party so long to recover power? After the landslide defeat in 1997, why was it so slow to adapt, reposition itself and rebuild its support? How did the party leadership seek to reconstruct Conservatism and modernise its electoral appeal? Of vital interest to anyone interested in British politics, this highly readable book addresses these questions through a contextualised assessment of Conservative Party politics between 1997 and 2010. It traces debates over strategy amongst the party elite and scrutinises the actions of the leadership. It also considers four particular dilemmas for contemporary Conservatism: European integration; national identity and the 'English Question'; social liberalism versus social authoritarianism; and the problems posed by a neo-liberal political economy. The book argues that the ideological legacy of Thatcherism played a central role in framing and shaping these intraparty debates, and that an appreciation of this is vital for explaining the nature and limits of the Conservatives' renewal under Cameron.


Objective The aim of this study was to determine the regenerative properties of intra-articular injections of autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in improving knee osteoarthritic patients and to determine the correlation of platelet count and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) with clinical improvement. Background Platelets have an important role in primary as well as secondary hemostasis; however, its regenerative capability is not widely studied. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a cartilage degenerative process. No treatment is available to improve this process. Patients and methods The study was conducted on 28 patients suffering from primary knee OA grades II and III injected with PRP preparation after failure of conservative treatment. Patients received two injections 3 weeks apart, and then were followed up for 6 months using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index and radiography. Platelet count and TGF-β1 were measured in PRP to ensure platelet activation and release and to evaluate their role in improvement of the condition. Results At the end of follow-up period, there were no adverse events reported and all Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index parameters were significantly improved. Better results were recorded in patients with a low degree of cartilage degeneration (P = 0.004). Platelets and TGF-β1 showed a highly significant increase in PRP compared with their basal level (P < 0.001). Patients achieving an excellent response had statistically higher platelet counts and TGF-β1 in PRP. To predict excellent response to PRP, platelet count in PRP had a cutoff of 1001.25 × 109/l, whereas TGF-β1 had at a cutoff concentration of 128.25 ng/ml. Conclusion Intra-articular injection with autologous PRP is a safe, minimally invasive, low-cost procedure to deliver growth factors for cartilage healing and regeneration. Hence, it is useful for the treatment of OA of the knee, aiming to reduce pain and improve knee function and quality of life. Platelet count and TGF-β levels in PRP are important predictors of improvement.


Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary to convert teaching to a distance method. The distance form of education had the advantage of student´s choice of place and time for study. However, students had to study using self-access. This could have a negative impact on study results. On the other hand, they could retain their academic results due to the extension of the time needed to grasp the subject matter. This article deals with the analysis of the performance of students regarding the study grades and the time required to complete a single assignment in the course of Mechanical Testing and Defectoscopy of Materials.


In numerous countries, lay (family) caregivers are the primary providers of care for community-dwelling patients with a tracheostomy.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine health care practices and the burden on family caregivers for patients with a tracheostomy living at home.

METHODS
The research population included 50 caregivers (average age 55.60 ± 1.39 years; 25 [50%] female) who provided care to 50 patients (average age 63.50 ± 1.72 years; 35 [70%] male) who were discharged from the otorhinolaryngology clinic of an education and research hospital in Turkey. Patient and caregiver characteristic data and tracheostomy care practices were collected via face-to-face interviews between caregivers and researchers using paper-and-pencil questionnaires. The 18-item Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview also was completed; responses to statements are rated on a scale of 0-4, where 0 = never, 1 = rarely, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often, and 4 = almost always. Total scale scores range from 0 to 88; higher scores indicate greater burden. Data were transferred into a statistical analysis program.

RESULTS
The mean score for the Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale was 42.44 ± 1.93, inferring caregivers were moderately burdened. Caregiver burden scores were significantly higher among female caregivers, caregivers without health insurance, caregivers requiring help, caregivers with chronic illness, more daily care time (hours), and duration of total care (months). Patient burden scores were significantly higher among persons requiring provision of daily nebulization and oxygen therapy, external cannula cleaning, and daily patient care.

CONCLUSION
This study illuminates the burdens faced by lay/family caregivers of patients with a tracheostomy and identifies for community health clinicians the challenges, care requirements at home, and burden of family caregivers that must be addressed.


A novel technique for monitoring the timing alignment between the pulse carver and the data modulator in return-to-zero differential phase-shift keying systems is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A simple off-center optical filter is employed to extract optical power for alignment monitoring. Compared with the previous degree of polarization-based monitoring scheme, in which the monitoring power dynamic range (MPDR) is /spl sim/0.2 dB, a larger MPDR of 3.35 dB is achieved within the same timing alignment range of half-bit period, thus achieving a higher monitoring sensitivity. In addition, this simple alignment monitoring scheme features high-speed operation, polarization independence, and easy integration with transmitter for synchronization feedback control.


Background: Studies have shown that there is a gap between theory and practice in the use of learning analytics in educational settings. Some researchers attribute this gap to not taking learning theories into consideration in the use of learning analytics in educational contexts. This study was conducted to address the role of learning theory in applying learning analytics in educational contexts. Methods: This is a qualitative study and the study design is content analysis. Thematic analysis was used as the research method. Data for this study was collected through an interview with 14 experts in the fields of learning analytics and learning theory who were selected purposefully. Theoretical saturation method was used to determine the sample size. Content analysis techniques were used to analyze data and content validity index (CVI) and Cohen's kappa coefficient were performed to measure the validity and reliability of the findings. Results: Data analysis was performed to identify three main roles for learning theory in learning analytics including underpinning role, guiding role, and sense-making role. Conclusion: The results suggest that first, learning theory should underlie learning analytics (where to begin). Second, application of learning analytics in educational settings should be guided by learning theory (what and how to do), and third, learning analytics' reports should be interpreted based on the learning theory implications for education (answer to question why).


In this study, the influence of habitat on Centaurea mucronifera and C. pyrrohoplephara, whose morphological variants show obvious differences, spreading on calcareous soils of Mediterranean, Central and East Anatolia were examined. C. mucronifera and C. pyrrohoplephara are both perennials and have the height between 4 and 50 cm. The influence of nutrition elements in plant and physical and chemical properties of soils on morphological variations of C. mucronifera and C. pyrrohoplephara were determined with the models that have the highest explanation portion without multiple linkage problems on the base of model and variant and their relationships were investigated by using Stepwise Regression Analysis. It was found that there was a univariate independent model, showing the positive contribution of phosphorus content of root on plant nutrition element content and root length and for sodium content of stem on length of basal leaf and outer whorl of pappus in C. mucronifera. In C. pyrrohoplephara, between morphological characteristics and plant nutrition elements, on the base of model and variant, models having highest explanation portion without multiple relation problems were defined for variants of root length, plant length, width of basal leaf, capitula and involucrum, achene length, pappus inner whorl length. There was not any defined model determining the relationships between physical and chemical properties of soils and length and width of terminal leaf (p < 0.05). According to these results, it was found that, for C. mucronifera and C. pyrrohoplephera, physical and chemical properties of soils have an important role on the morphological structure of these species and there could be relationships between morphological structures of these taxa and the ratios of the variants of these plant nutrition element contents and also the influence of plant nutrition elements on the morphological differentiations of these species is relatively low (p < 0.05)


Background: Staphylococci related illness is among serious public-health problems and the second most expensive diseases to treat in developing country. According to WHO estimation, staphylococcal related food borne disease are the second most common food borne disease next to salmonella. Although staphylococci related illness is affecting the majority of Ethiopian, much is not known about the extents of Staphylococcus species and their antimicrobial resistance pattern in cottage cheese (Ayib) and yoghurt (Ergo). Objectives: To investigate the occurrence of Staphylococcus, determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus and evaluate the antimicrobial resistance pattern of the isolates from cottage cheese (Ayib) and yoghurt (Ergo) collected from selected districts of Jimma Zone, Ethiopia. Methods: Identification of staphylococci was undertaken using Gram's staining, catalase, sugar fermentation and coagulase tests on cottage cheese (n=200) and yoghurt (n=200) samples collected randomly. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: The overall prevalence of Staphylococcus in this study was found to be 14.3% with a specific prevalence of 22% in cottage cheese and 6.5% in yoghurt. The difference on the prevalence of staphylococci between cottage cheese and yoghurt was found to be statistically significant (P<0.05). The prevalence of Staphylococcus species was confirmed to be 5%, 3.5%, 3.3% and 5.8% for S. aureus, S. intermedius, S. hyicus and coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) respectively. The specific prevalence in cheese and yoghurt for each species respectively were 7% and 3% (S. aureus), 5.5% and 1.5% (S. intermedius), 4% and 2.5% (S. hyicus), and 9.5% and 2% (CNS). The contamination of cottage cheese with staphylococcus was more likely to occur than yoghurt (OR=4.1, 95%, CI=2.1-7.8). The disc diffusion assay of 70 isolates against five biogram revealed the highest resistance to penicillin G (65.7%) followed by tetracycline (41.4%), streptomycin (37.1%), gentamycin (35.7%) and kanamycin (28.6%). Conclusion: The high prevalence of Staphylococcus and their high antimicrobial resistance pattern in cottage cheese and yoghurt in this study represent a poor keeping quality and indiscriminate use of drugs at the study area. This suggests the need to implement sanitary measures and awareness creations to improve the hygienic conditions of cheese and yoghurt from farm-to-table continuum as well as proper use of antimicrobials in order to guarantee the quality of these highly popular products and to safeguard the health of the consumers.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a severe and often deadly disease, originating from an increase in pulmonary vascular resistance. Its prevention and treatment are of vital importance to public health. A group of medical researchers proposed a calculator for estimating the risk of dying from PAH, available for a variety of computing platforms and widely used by health-care professionals. The PAH Risk Calculator is based on the Cox's Proportional Hazard (CPH) Model, a popular statistical technique used in risk estimation and survival analysis, based on data from a thoroughly collected and maintained Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-term Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Disease Management (REVEAL Registry). In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to calculating the risk of PAH that is based on a Bayesian network (BN) model. Our first step has been to create a BN model that mimics the CPH model at the foundation of the current PAH Risk Calculator. The BN-based calculator reproduces the results of the current PAH Risk Calculator exactly. Because Bayesian networks do not require the somewhat restrictive assumptions of the CPH model and can readily combine data with expert knowledge, we expect that our approach will lead to an improvement over the current calculator. We plan to (1) learn the parameters of the BN model from the data captured in the REVEAL Registry, and (2) enhance the resulting BN model with medical expert knowledge. We have been collaborating closely on both tasks with the authors of the original PAH Risk Calculator.


The opioid growth factor (OGF)–OGF receptor (OGFr) axis is present in normal and abnormal cells and tissues, and functions to maintain homeostatic cell replication. OGF is an inhibitory growth factor that upregulates p16 and/or p21 cyclin-dependent inhibitory kinases to slow cell replication. Blockade of this regulatory pathway can be intermittent or complete with the end result being depressed or accelerated, respectively, cell proliferation and growth. Intermittent blockade of the OGF–OGFr pathway with lose doses of naltrexone (LDN), a general opioid receptor antagonist, has been studied clinically in a number of autoimmune diseases, including fibromyalgia, Crohn's, and multiple sclerosis (MS). Serum enkephalin levels were decreased in patients with MS relative to subjects with other neurological disorders. The intermittent blockade of OGFr by LDN results in a biofeedback mechanism that upregulates serum enkephalin levels. Clinical studies have reported that LDN is beneficial in enhancing quality of life, reducing fatigue, and increasing motor activity in humans with fibromyalgia, Crohn's, or MS. LDN treatment is well tolerated even after several years of therapy. Preclinical investigations using experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS mediated by T and B lymphocyte activation, demonstrate that immunization alone resulted in reduced enkephalin (i.e. OGF) levels. Therapy with LDN restored serum enkephalin levels in EAE mice resulting in improved EAE behavioral scores and diminished CNS pathology. This mini-review summarizes both preclinical and clinical data and focuses on the role of serum enkephalins resulting from intermittent blockade of OGFr by LDN in autoimmune disorders. Impact statement This mini-review presents information on the intermittent blockade of the opioid growth factor (OGF)–OGF receptor (OGFr) axis by low-dose naltrexone (LDN), and the role of enkephalin (i.e. OGF) in autoimmune disorders, specifically multiple sclerosis, Crohn's, and fibromyalgia. Clinical reports on subjects taking LDN have documented reduced fatigue, few side-effects, and improved overall health. Preclinical studies on mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the animal model of multiple sclerosis, revealed that immunization for EAE reduces serum OGF. Intermittent OGFr blockade with LDN restores serum enkephalin levels that correlate with reduced behavioral and pathological signs of EAE; LDN also increases enkephalin levels in naïve mice. The interplay between LDN, and the onset and treatment of autoimmune diseases, chronic pain, and other addictive behaviors requires further investigation, but highlights a central role for enkephalins and intermittent blockade of the OGF–OGFr pathway in pathogenesis and treatment of these disorders.


Abstract The available potential energy–kinetic energy budget of the Canadian Climate Centre general circulation model for the months of January. April, July and October is presented in terms of the two-dimensional wave-number. Five years of model results are compared to calculations based on observations taken during the First GARP Global Experiment (FGGE). Qualitatively, the simulated budget is realistic but a few of the magnitudes of the energies and conversions between them are not well simulated, arising in part from an excess of zonal available potential energy and zonal kinetic energy caused by the model's polar regions being too cold.


Abstract:This article explores a midrash in the Babylonian Talmud that features the trope of the hind, an animal referred to multiple times in rabbinic literature as being noteworthy for its vaginal narrowness. The author argues that the midrash reveals significant awareness of Christian tropes about Mary the mother of Jesus—and in particular, tropes with especial currency in Christian circles in eastern Syria and the western reaches of the Sasanian Empire—and subtly subverts them. The effect of this deployment and subversion is a sustained polemic against the notion of Mary's virginity, not only prior to, but even subsequent to the birth of Jesus. This case is then contextualized as part of a broader phenomenon of mariological critique in the Babylonian Talmud, a phenomenon that is in turn considered in light of the even broader historical trend in which Jewish communities develop awareness of and respond to increased Marian devotion among local Christian populations. This final point of comparison suggests that, in addition to polemic, we are likely to find examples of rabbinic appropriation of Marian themes in the Babylonian Talmud. One possible example is considered, but this remains a likely rich avenue for further research.


A nonlinear theory of the Gunn effect in GaAs-type semiconductors with negative differential conductivity has been devoleped. The amplitude and the frequency of current oscillations in the second approximation have been found by the method of Bogoliubov-Mitropolski. The dependence of the amplitude of current oscillations on electric field strength has been investigated. The amplitude and frequency of current oscillations on the in here and elsewhere have been calculated in a typical experiment. Subject Index: 341, 356


Luminescent metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have garnered considerable attention in various fields. Herein, we proposed a hierarchical confinement strategy based on MOF-on-MOF to tune luminescence emission ranging from blue to red including white light in a flexible way. The easily available ZIF-8 MOF was used as a host for the confinement of two kinds of size-matching dyes (perylene and rhodamine B) to obtain a layered ZIF-8@dye@ZIF-8@dye via in situ encapsulation and seed-mediated synthesis. ZIF-8@dye@ZIF-8@dye materials with different fluorescence emission in dispersed and solid states were both obtained by tuning the initial encapsulation concentration of dye and changing the structure of the inner and outer ZIF-8@dye layers. To our delight, firstname.lastname@example.com@ZIF-8@25RhB with white light emission in the dispersed state was obtained; meanwhile, firstname.lastname@example.com + 25RhB and mechanically mixed email@example.com + ZIF-8@25RhB could not realize white light emission under the same conditions, indicating that the proposed hierarchical confinement strategy facilitated white light regulation. Similarly, the emission of ZIF-8@dye@ZIF-8@dye in the solid state has also been investigated; ZIF-8@perylene@ZIF-8@3RhB with white light emission was obtained, while white light emission could not be achieved in ZIF-8@perylene + 3RhB and ZIF-8@perylene + ZIF-8@3RhB, which further indicated the importance of the hierarchical confinement strategy based on MOF-on-MOF. The proposed hierarchical confinement strategy may also inspire the development of other functional optical MOF materials.


My aim is to develop a theory of cooperation within the organization and empirically test it. Drawing upon social exchange theory, social identity theory, the idea of collective intentions, and social constructivism, the main assumption of my work implies that both cooperation and the organization itself are continually shaped and restructured by actions, judgments, and symbolic interpretations of the parties involved.
Therefore, I propose that the decision to cooperate, expressed say as an intention to cooperate, reflects and depends on a three step social process shaped by the interpretations of the actors involved. The first step entails an instrumental evaluation of cooperation in terms of social exchange. In the second step, this "social calculus" is translated into cognitive, emotional and evaluative reactions directed toward the organization. Finally, once the identification process is completed and membership awareness is established, I propose that individuals will start to think largely in terms of "We" instead of "I". Self-goals are redefined at the collective level, and the outcomes for self, others, and the organization become practically interchangeable.
I decided to apply my theory to an important cooperative problem in management research: knowledge exchange within organizations. Hence, I conducted a quantitative survey among the members of the virtual community, "www.borse.it" (n=108). Within this community, members freely decide to exchange their knowledge about the stock market among themselves. Because of the confirmatory requirements and the structural complexity of the theory proposed (i.e., the proposal that instrumental evaluations will induce social identity and this in turn will causes collective intentions), I use Structural Equation Modeling to test all hypotheses in this dissertation. The empirical survey-based study found support for the theory of cooperation proposed in this dissertation.
The findings suggest that an appropriate conceptualization of the decision to exchange knowledge is one where collective intentions depend proximally on social identity (i.e., cognitive identification, affective commitment, and evaluative engagement) with the organization, and this identity depends on instrumental evaluations of cooperators (i.e., perceived value of the knowledge received, assessment of past reciprocity, expected reciprocity, and expected social outcomes of the exchange). Furthermore, I find that social identity fully mediates the effects of instrumental motives on collective intentions.


High-voltage spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) is a promising cathode for the next-generation high-performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high energy density (650 W h kg−1), high operating voltage (∼4.7 V vs. Li), low fabrication cost, and low environmental impact. However, the short cycle life of LNMO caused by rapid capacity decay during cycling limits its wide application and commercialization. Intense research effort to improve the electrochemical performance of LNMO has been moderately successful. Accordingly, it is absolutely necessary to revisit and summarize the up-to-date findings and deeper understanding of how to modify LNMO. In this review, the crystallographic structure and electrochemical properties of LNMO spinel, as well as its existing issues and corresponding solutions, are discussed in detail. In addition, the current accomplishments relating to LNMO application in full-cell configurations are also discussed. Finally, some insight into the future prospects for LNMO cathode developments is provided.


analyzes cross-sectional data collected from 1,585 employed caregivers of parents and parents-in-law. Hierarchical regression models were used to examine the additive and multiplicative effects of relationship status (parent or parent-in-law) and gender on caregiving activities, resources, and costs. Findings indicate that both the caregiver's gender and the elder's gender are associated with care provided to and from parents and parents-in-law. Results also show that daughters-in-law are especially vulnerable because they receive few resources from elders. Practice implications and directions for future research are discussed.


Nostra Aetate initiated a revolutionary shift in Catholic theology, opposing supersessionism and affirming that Jews remain in a salvific covenantal relationship with God. However, this shift raises for Catholics a deep tension regarding the value of this "Old Covenant" vis-à-vis the "New Covenant," as this article illustrates using the statements of Walter Kasper and The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable. While speaking positively about the Old Covenant, both deem it essential to maintain the superiority of the New Covenant as universalistic, fulfilling the promises in the Old Covenant and transcending its limitations. The author demonstrates how they seek to reduce this tension by characterizing the two covenants as good and better covenants, rather than as bad and good covenants, thereby avoiding a lapse into supersessionism.