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Economic and public health impact of 2007-2010 tobacco tax increases in Ukraine. Conclusions The higher real tobacco excise taxes of 2009 and 2010 have significantly reduced tobacco consumption in Ukraine, resulting in encouraging public health and fiscal gains. It will be important for cigarette prices/taxes to keep pace with inflation and income growth for this impact to be sustained.Results The point price elasticity estimate is data sensitive and ranges from -0.11 to -0.62, centring around -0.32. The regression model estimates a long-run price elasticity of -0.28. Cigarette consumption fell by 13% in 2009 and 15% in 2010 while the tax revenue increased by US$700 million and by US$500 million in 2009 and 2010, respectively, compared to the previous year. Tax increases have changed the tobacco industry's price strategy from one of shielding consumers from the impact of smaller tax hikes in 2007-2008, to one of increasing industry net-of-tax prices, after recent, larger tax increases.Methods Using data on cigarette sales, cigarette prices, income and tobacco control policies, price elasticities of cigarette demand in Ukraine were estimated using two methods. Annual data were used to generate point price elasticity estimates, while monthly data were used in a two-step Engle-Granger procedure.Objective To evaluate the impact of the dynamic 2007-2010 tobacco tax policy in Ukraine on cigarette prices, cigarette consumption, tobacco tax revenue and the tobacco industry's price strategy.
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The Apparent Layered Structure of the Heliospheric Current Sheet: Multi-Spacecraft Observations. Multiple current sheet crossings are ubiquitous features of the solar wind associated with high-beta plasma sheets, notably during the passage of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS). As the HCS is being convected past near-Earth, we attempt to resolve spatial scales and temporal variations of the apparent layered structure of the HCS, including adjacent large scale field reversals. We use several spacecraft for good spatial and cross-scale coverage, spanning 550 R(E) across and 900 R(E) along the Sun -aEuro parts per thousand Earth line: STEREO, ACE and Cluster. The multi-spacecraft magnetic and plasma observations within the leading edge of the sector boundary are consistent with i) a broad multi-layered structure; ii) occasional non-planar structures and Alfv,nic fluctuations; iii) various stages of transient outflowing loops formed by interchange reconnection. By comparison of the observations at each spacecraft, we obtain a synthesis of the evolution between the patterns of loops, and hence of the transient outflow evolution along the sector boundary. In particular, we present circumstantial evidence that a heat flux dropout, traditionally signalling disconnection, can arise from interchange reconnection and scattering. Moreover, the inter-spacecraft comparison eliminates ambiguities between interpretations of electron counterstreaming. Overall, the sector boundary layer remains, locally, a steady structure as it is convected in the solar wind across a radial heliospheric distance of 560 -aEuro parts per thousand 580 R(E). However, non-planar structures on the Cluster spatial scale, as well as the variations in angular changes and transition durations on the broader scale, indicate that we are not following the evolution of single loops but more likely a bunch of loops with variable properties.
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Vertical and Horizontal Transmission of Pospiviroids. Viroids are highly structured, single-stranded, non-protein-coding circular RNA pathogens. Some viroids are vertically transmitted through both viroid-infected ovule and pollen. For example, potato spindle tuber viroid, a species that belongs to Pospiviroidae family, is delivered to the embryo through the ovule or pollen during the development of reproductive tissues before embryogenesis. In addition, some of Pospiviroidae are also horizontally transmitted by pollen. Tomato planta macho viroid in pollen infects to the ovary from pollen tube during pollen tube elongation and eventually causes systemic infection, resulting in the establishment of horizontal transmission. Furthermore, fertilization is not required to accomplish the horizontal transmission. In this review, we will overview the recent research progress in vertical and horizontal transmission of viroids, mainly by focusing on histopathological studies, and also discuss the impact of seed transmission on viroid dissemination and seed health.
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A review of thermal history and timescales of tectonometamorphic processes in Sikkim Himalaya (NE India) and implications for rates of metamorphic processes. The lesser and greater Himalayan sequences (LH and GH) in Sikkim have been studied in detail recently. The LH consists mainly of pelitic lithologies with detrital zircon ages >1800 Ma and epsilon(Nd)(0) of -27.7 to -23.4 (with intercalated calcsilicates, metabasites and a sheared granite gneiss - the Lingtse gneiss). The metamorphic sequence is characterized by (i) a remarkably continuous and systematic metamorphic field gradient (similar to 60-70 degrees C kbar(-1)), (ii) peak pressures as well as temperatures of metamorphism increasing at higher metamorphic grades (similar to 5 kbar, 500 degrees C at the garnet zone to similar to 8 kbar, 700 degrees C at the sillimanite-muscovite-zone), (iii) clockwise P-T paths of a tight 'hairpin' shape with a prograde slope of 20-30 degrees C kbar(-1), (iv) initiation of garnet growth (Lu-Hf chronometry) at systematically older ages at higher grades (11-10.5 Ma at garnet zone to 16.8 Ma at sillimanite-K-feldspar zone), (v) peak of metamorphism simultaneously at all grades (13-11 Ma), (vi) deformed and folded metapelitic rocks but with little evidence of pervasive shearing and (vii) duration of melt formation and segregation on the order of a few 100,000 years. The degree of melting was low, as indicated by the presence of muscovite all through the sequence. This evidence indicates that the LH behaved as a coherent block, and thermomechanical models quantitatively reproduce many of these features as well as explain the formation of inverted metamorphic sequence in such a coherent block. The greater Himalayan sequence (GH), also largely metapelitic, has different protoliths (with components as young as 800 Ma) and a different metamorphic history (extensive migmatization at higher grades similar to 8-12 kbar, 750-850 degrees C at an older age of largely >20 Ma along a different clockwise P-T path characterized by sharp, isothermal decompression followed by near isobaric cooling). Geochronological data (monazite, zircon, garnet) as well as cooling rate calculations (geospeedometry) reveal that the GH is made up of at least two blocks with distinct, complex and multistage P-T-t histories. Different stages of the high-T cooling were rapid (100's degrees C Ma(-1) to 10's degrees C Ma(-1) at different stages) and at least some of it was unrelated to exhumation; synthesis of these results with low-T thermochronometry allows the detailed multistage cooling and exhumation history of this block to be reconstructed. The reconstructed cooling and exhumation histories show that a number of interlinked processes operating on a hierarchy of timescales leads to the overall evolution. The P-T history with rapid cooling can be reproduced by thermomechanical models that consider conductive as well as advective heat transport and there is no need to invoke additional processes (such as the role of fluids). Metabasic inclusions within both the LH and the GH appear to record a different (? older in part) history. The role of these in the overall evolution, as well as the difference in metamorphic ages of the LH and GH remain open questions that need to be addressed in future research.
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Interfacial and emulsifying properties of diacylglycerol. The interfacial properties and emulsifying properties of diacylglycerol (DAG) were examined for comparison with those of triacylglycerol (TAG). The fatty acid composition and other properties of DAG were adjusted to approximately the same levels as those of TAG. The interfacial tension of DAG was about half that of TAG. When DAG was mixed with TAG, the interfacial tension of the mixture decreased in proportion to the increasing concentration of DAG and showed no breaking point. Mixtures of DAG and water were homogenized with varying oil-water proportions, with and without salt, and with and without an emulsifier. DAG was more easily emulsified than TAG and tended to become a water/oil (w/o) emulsion. The addition of salt markedly increased the stability of the DAG emulsion. DAG mixtures containing 0.25% of an emulsifier having an HLB value of between 4.5 and 13 formed w/o emulsions, while o/w emulsions were formed with TAG under the same conditions.
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Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Downregulation Induced by Equine Herpesvirus Type 1 pUL56 Is through Dynamin-Dependent Endocytosis. IMPORTANCEWe show that alphaherpesvirus induces MHC-I downregulation through endocytosis, which is mediated by pUL56. The dynamin-dependent endocytic pathway is responsible for MHC-I internalization in infected cells. Furthermore, we discovered that this endocytic process can be disrupted by the inhibiting ubiquitin-activating E1 enzyme, which is indispensable for ubiquitination. Finally, pUL56 action extends to a number of cell surface molecules that are significant for host immunity. Therefore, the protein may exert a more general immunomodulatory effect.Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) downregulates cell surface expression of major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) in infected cells. We have previously shown that pUL56 encoded by the EHV-1 ORF1 gene regulates the process (G. Ma, S. Feineis, N. Osterrieder, and G. R. Van de Walle, J. Virol.86:3554-3563, 2012, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JVI.06994-11). Here, we report that cell surface MHC-I in EHV-1-infected cells is internalized and degraded in the lysosomal compartment in a pUL56-dependent fashion. pUL56-induced MHC-I endocytosis required dynamin and tyrosine kinase but was independent of clathrin and caveolin-1, the main constituents of the clathrin-and raft/caveola-mediated endocytosis pathways, respectively. Downregulation of cell surface MHC-I was significantly inhibited by the ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1 inhibitor PYR41, indicating that ubiquitination is essential for the process. Finally, we show that downregulation is not specific for MHC-I and that other molecules, including CD46 and CD63, are also removed from the cell surface in a pUL56-dependent fashion.
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Environmental scanning literature - past, present and future research propositions. 2 the identification of research gaps in the environmental scanning literature3 the establishment of propositions through which future research can further the knowledge of environmental scanning.The purpose of this paper is to establish research propositions that can potentially fill research gaps in the literature of environmental scanning. Major databases such as ABI/INFORM, and Emerald have been searched to gather literature. The literature on environmental scanning is reviewed with an aim to identify patterns in scanning practices as well as research gaps in the extant literature. Three major phases of the development and three main characteristics of the literature have been identified. Four propositions are suggested to fill the research gaps in the literature of the environmental scanning practices; namely, firm characteristics, market orientation, and top management cognition perspective. Further empirical research is needed to test the four propositions in order to provide a full picture for the environmental scanning literature. The contributions of this paper are:1 the revelation of the evolution of the environmental scanning literature
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Numerical study of the summer temperature decrease induced by the enhancement of estuarine circulation in Fukuoka Bay. The Princeton Ocean Model with realistic bottom topography has been used to investigate the summer temperature decrease in the past 25 years in Fukuoka Bay. The vertical mixing of the model is expressed by a scheme that effectively includes the influences of interannual variations of tidal currents and wind. The results show that the historical temperature decrease in summer has been caused by tidal currents and wind weakening in the past 25 years in Fukuoka Bay. The weakening of tidal currents and wind gives rise to weakening of the vertical mixing, and to enhancement of the estuarine circulation in the bay. The enhancement of the estuarine circulation activates the inflow of open-ocean water toward Fukuoka Bay. Coastal water in summer has therefore tended to be colder and more saline in the past 25 years. This interannual variation in coastal waters is called \\'open-oceanization\\' in this study. On the basis of the numerical model, it is anticipated that the temperature will decrease by 0.2 degrees C in the next 25 years in Fukuoka Bay if the tide and wind weaken persistently as in the present bay.
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Feminist Fancy in the National Tale: Edgeworth, Owenson, and Sarah Isdell's The Irish Recluse (1809). This article presents a new method for characterizing the Irish national tale genre based on female union rather than the typical marriage allegory. It introduces a little-known feminist text, Sarah Isdell's The Irish Recluse (1809), then uses this text to re-examine the novels of Sydney Owenson and Maria Edgeworth, the history of absenteeism, and the Act of Union. Through its radical imagination, or fancy, The Irish Recluse idealizes feminocentric societies in order to reconceive Irish nationalism, exposing the patriarchal social order as antithetical to good governance in Ireland. Unlike other political narratives at the time, Isdell's novel argues that the problem with Ireland is its paternal, imperial structures and that women's influence would foster the best relationship between Ireland and Great Britain amidst debates on if and how they should be unified. Isdell's fictive, microcosmic Ireland envisions the perfect union through female social support rather than heterosexual marriage, resulting in a definition of Irish national identity that thrives on a matriarchal structure a concept reiterated in Edgeworth's and Owenson's later novels. Criticism might better classify the national tale as a feminist dialectic, which emerged much earlier in history than is typically imagined.
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What Do We Know about Geshur?. However, historical sources for Geshur are shaky. These Biblical traditions may contain an early core that may even preserve an ancient memory of Geshur, but their historical value is much smaller than what scholarly discussion would implicate. They do not justify many of the views found in scholarly discussion. Scholarship has also sought to corroborate the Biblical traditions with two external sources but the evidence is very problematic, and, in the worst case, its use is reminiscent of Biblicism, where the main function of external sources is to corroborate Biblical texts.The Hebrew Bible may give the impression that there was a clearly definable area called Geshur. The Biblical view is often adopted in scholarly literature. The kingdom of Geshur plays a role in the reconstruction of the political situation during the early monarchic period, especially during the reign of King David.
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Potential Synergies for the Short-Break Holiday and Rural Tourism Markets: Evidence from a National Australian Survey. Short-break holidays are a growing feature of tourism, but little research has examined their relevance to rural tourism. Based on a recent national study of short-break holidays in Australia, this paper explores the competitive situation of this form of holiday for existing and potential rural destinations. It examines the relevance of short-break holiday-makers travel habits, their priorities and preferences and how likely these are to mesh with rural economies and aspirations. It concludes that this form of tourism is a good mix with many rural situations and that its size and growth characteristics make it an attractive development prospect for many country areas.
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A comparison of life events in patients with unipolar disorder or bipolar disorder and controls. Method: Thirty patients with unipolar disorder and 30 patients with bipolar disorder were compared to 60 matched healthy controls in regard to the rate of stressful LEs. Assessment measures included the Beck Depression Inventory, the Adult Life Events Questionnaire, and the Childhood Life Events List.Results: The entire sample of affective patients had more LEs in general, more negative LEs, and more loss-related LEs in the year preceding their first depressive episode as compared with normal controls. Subjects with unipolar disorder had more positive LEs and more achievement LEs, whereas subjects with bipolar disorder had more uncontrollable LEs in the year preceding the first depressive episode. The relationship between LEs and manic episodes was prominent in the year preceding the first manic episode, with subjects with bipolar disorder reporting more LEs in general and more ambiguous events in that year. Almost no significant differences on LE frequency were observed in the year before the last depressive and manic episodes in the patient groups with unipolar and bipolar disorder. A significant relationship was found between childhood LEs and the development of affective disorders in adulthood, with patients with unipolar disorder exhibiting less positive and achievement LEs.Objective: The present study aimed to explore the association between stressful life events (LEs) and the development of affective psychopathology.Conclusions: In both the unipolar and the bipolar groups, the major impact of LEs on the onset of affective disorders was found in the year before the first depressive or manic episodes. This suggests that the accumulation of stressful LEs at this crucial period contributes to the precipitation of a pathological response mechanism. Once established, this mechanism would be reactivated in the future by even less numerous and less severe stressors, compatible with the kindling hypothesis. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Spatial representation, magnitude and the two stems of cognition. The aim of this paper is to show that attention to Kant's philosophy of mathematics sheds light on the doctrine that there are two stems of the cognitive capacity, which are distinct, but equally necessary for cognition. Specifically, I argue for the following four claims: (i) The distinctive structure of outer sensible intuitions must be understood in terms of the concept of magnitude. (ii) The act of sensibly representing a magnitude involves a special act of spontaneity Kant ascribes to a capacity he calls the productive imagination. (iii) Contrary to what is assumed by many commentators, it is not the case that the Two Stems Doctrine implies that a representation is either sensible or spontaneity-dependent, but not both. (iv) Outer sensible intuitions are both sensible and spontaneity-dependent - they are sensible because they exhibit the kind of structure Kant takes to be distinctive of outer sensible intuitions, and they depend on spontaneity because they are cases of sensibly representing a magnitude.
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Association Between Housing Affordability and Mental Health: A Longitudinal Analysis of a Nationally Representative Household Survey in Australia REPLY. Evidence about the mental health consequences of unaffordable housing is limited. The authors investigated whether people whose housing costs were more than 30% of their household income experienced a deterioration in their mental health (using the Short Form 36 Mental Component Summary), over and above other forms of financial stress. They hypothesized that associations would be limited to lower income households as high housing costs would reduce their capacity to purchase other essential nonhousing needs (e.g., food). Using fixed-effects longitudinal regression, the authors analyzed 38,610 responses of 10,047 individuals aged 25-64 years who participated in the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey (2001-2007). Respondents included those who remained in affordable housing over 2 consecutive waves (reference group) or had moved from affordable to unaffordable housing over 2 waves (comparison group). For individuals living in low-to-moderate income households, entering unaffordable housing was associated with a small decrease in their mental health score independent of changes in equivalized household income or having moved house (mean change = -1.19, 95% confidence interval: -1.97, -0.41). The authors did not find evidence to support an association for higher income households. They found that entering unaffordable housing is detrimental to the mental health of individuals residing in low-to-moderate income households.
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Investigation of target property effects on crater populations in long lava flows: A study in the Cerberus region, Mars, with implications for magma source identification. Young volcanism on Mars is exemplified within the Cerberus region, which enables examination of relatively pristine lava flow surfaces. In this investigation, we derived model ages within the circum-Cerberus channelized lavas for sites proximal, medial, and distal to the lava flow sources, finding that these ages decrease with increasing distance from the inferred source. Investigating multiple possible explanations for this downstream decrease in model ages, we conclude that the most likely cause is changes in the rheological properties of the lava during emplacement. Analogous terrestrial lava flows exhibit rheological changes along their length during emplacement, supporting the hypothesis that target properties affect crater size frequency distributions (CSFDs) on extraterrestrial bodies. Using scaling methods, we investigated how possible material property changes in the Cerberus channelized lavas affected CSFDs. To derive a single model age for each channel, we arithmetically size-scaled the distal and proximal crater sizes. We also used pi-group scaling to estimate the effect of material strength and porosity on the final CSFDs. We infer that the Athabasca, Grjota, and Marte Valles lavas underwent minor, moderate, and major rheological changes, respectively, to account for the progressively larger age discrepancies along their respective flow lengths. The arithmetic size-scaling yields relative lava emplacement ages, from oldest to youngest, respectively, as Grjota, Marte, and Athabasca. This lack of a consistent progressive directional emplacement (east-to-west or west-to-east) of lava model ages implies that the magma source was spatially distributed beneath the Cerberus region, although magma contributions from the two bordering volcanic provinces cannot be ruled out. The results of this study support the findings of previous lunar and martian studies that inferred target property changes affected CSFDs, which may have some bearing on age dating of young lava surfaces across the inner Solar System.
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A Meeting of Nations: Trans-Indigenous and Intercultural Interventions in Contemporary Indigenous Dance. This essay discusses a series of Intercultural and trans-Indigenous Choreographic Laboratories that took place in remote and urban Australian and New Zealand locations between 2009 and 2011. The labs introduced the practice of a range of leading choreographers from Australia, New Zealand, West Africa, and Indonesian Papua to a group of participant dance artists from Australia and the Pacific. Indigenous choreographers working with experimental processes and forms navigate complex and sometimes conflicting expectations from local communities and national agendas and movements within the international contemporary dance market, itself a global conversation. The structure of the labs and the work of the guest choreographers discussed in the essay together present the emergence of a global trans-Indigenous choreographic experimentation, developed within distinct cultural locations. Trans-Indigenous and intercultural exchange among Indigenous dance artists and other dance artists working in postcolonial contexts can equip choreographers with a broader set of strategies and references to help them expand understanding of contemporary Indigenous dance and how it functions within the multiple frameworks it is required to navigate.
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A LARGE NEOSUCHIAN CROCODYLIFORM FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS (CENOMANIAN) WOODBINE FORMATION OF NORTH TEXAS. A new taxon of neosuchian crocodyliform, Deltasuchus motherali, gen. et sp. nov., is described on the basis of a partial skull recovered from the Arlington Archosaur Site within the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Woodbine Formation of north-central Texas. This productive locality represents a delta plain ecosystem preserving a diverse coastal fauna, including lungfish, turtles, dinosaurs (ornithopods and theropods), and crocodyliforms. Prior to this discovery, the only identified crocodyliforms from the Woodbine Formation had been the longirostrine taxa Terminonaris and Woodbinesuchus. This new taxon is differentiated from other known crocodyliforms by the presence of dual pseudocanines on both the dentary and maxilla; anterior and posterior rami of jugal comparable in depth; anterolaterally facing margin on the dorsal portion of the postorbital; contact between the descending process of the postorbital and the ectopterygoid; and a large, deep fossa on the ventral surface of the quadrate. Phylogenetic analysis recovers D. motherali as the sister taxon to Paluxysuchus newmani from the Lower Cretaceous Twin Mountains Formation of Texas. This clade lies within Neosuchia basal to Goniopholididae + Eusuchia. The associated cranial elements of this new crocodyliform represent a large, broad-snouted individual, an ecomorphotype often associated with the semiaquatic ambush predator niche in this clade, and one not previously reported from the formation.
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Association between individual-level and community-level socio-economic status and blood pressure among Inuit in Greenland. Objectives. To examine the influence of individual-level and community-level SES on systolic and diastolic blood pressure among Greenlandic Inuit.Conclusions. The association observed between blood pressure and community-level socio-economic conditions suggests that public health and social policies, programmes and interventions aiming to improve living conditions might improve cardiovascular health in Greenland. Studies are required to further examine social gradients in cardiovascular risk factors and morbidity among indigenous populations using different measures of SES.Results. Education was not significantly associated with blood pressure. There was an inverse U-shape association between community socio-economic conditions and blood pressure with significantly lower SBP and DBP among participants living in remote traditional villages characterized by lower average disposable household income and in affluent more urbanized towns. Sex-stratified analyses demonstrate the salience of community conditions for men.Methods. Multilevel analysis of cross-sectional data from the Inuit Health in Transition - Greenland Survey, to which 3,108 Greenlandic Inuit aged 18 years and older participated. Blood pressure is measured using an automatic device, according to standardized protocol. Individual SES is measured by education. Community socio-economic conditions are measured using combined information on average disposable household income and settlement type.Background. Despite abundant evidence that socio-economic status (SES) is a fundamental determinant of health, there is a dearth of research examining association between SES, measured at the individual and community levels, and cardiovascular risk factors and morbidity among indigenous populations.
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The Supreme Court of Japan: Its adjudication on electoral systems and economic freedoms. Though provided with the authority to strike down any official act, the Supreme Court of Japan has been widely regarded as reluctant to use that very substantial power. The author describes some institutional and doctrinal factors that might explain the Court's seemingly passivist stance, concluding that the Court has understood its main task to be the preservation of \\'pluralist democracy, \\' and that its decisions have been reasonably effective in realizing this goal.
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What does it mean?': Uncertainties in understanding results of chromosomal microarray testing. Conclusion: Differentiating domains of understanding allows for the identification of uncertainties that can be reduced or managed in order to improve understanding of CMA results. Using this framework, we suggest interventions to promote clarity and address the informational needs of families undergoing CMA testing. Genet Med 2012:14(2):250-258Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with parents of 25 pediatric outpatients with CMA test results indicating either a pathogenic alteration or a variant of unknown significance (VUS). Interviews were analyzed qualitatively.Purpose: The increased sensitivity of chromosomal microarray (CMA) technology as compared with traditional cytogenetic analysis allows for improved detection of genomic alterations. However, there is potential for uncertainty in the interpretation of test results in some cases. This paper explores how families understand and make meaning of CMA test results, and identifies the needs of families undergoing CMA testing.Results: Three domains of understanding were identified: comprehension of results, interpretations of scientific uncertainty, and personal meaning for the child and family. Incomplete comprehension of test results and scientific uncertainty were prominent themes for families receiving results in both the VUS and pathogenic categories. Receiving results from non-geneticists and by telephone, long waits to see a geneticist, and misleading Internet searches all contributed to misunderstandings.
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Virtual differential GPS based on SBAS signal. In order to access the satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) service, the end user needs access to the corresponding geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites that broadcast the augmentation information for the region. This is normally not a problem for aviation and maritime applications, because an open sky is typically available for such applications. However, it is difficult to access the GEO satellites directly at high latitudes for land applications because of the low elevation angles to the GEO satellites (e.g., 4-22 degrees in Finland to the European geostationary navigation overlay services [EGNOS] GEO satellites). Results from a driving test of 6,100 km in Finland show that the EGNOS GEO satellites can be accessed in only 51.8% of the driving routes. Furthermore, it is also difficult to access the GEO satellites from city canyons, because the high buildings block the GEO signals. This article presents a solution to solve this problem by creating virtual differential GPS (DGPS) reference stations using the SBAS signal in space (SIS). The basic concept is to convert the SBAS signal to Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM) signals, and broadcast the converted RTCM signals over the wireless Internet using the Internet radio technology. Therefore, access to the SBAS service will not be limited by low elevation angles to the GEO satellites because the converted RTCM data streams are disseminated over the wireless Internet. Furthermore, the SBAS service can then be accessed via a legacy DGPS receiver. Two test cases have been carried out with the prototype system developed by the Finnish Geodetic Institute. The test results showed that the positioning accuracy of the virtual DGPS solution was about 1-2 m at 95%, which was similar to that of the standard WAAS/EGNOS solution. The positioning accuracy was not degraded, compared to that of the standard wide area augmentation system - European geostationary navigation overlay services (WAAS/EGNOS) solution, as long as the distance between the rover receiver and the virtual DGPS reference station was less than 150 km. A preliminary driving test of 400 km carried out in southern Finland showed that the availability of the virtual DGPS solutions was 98.6% along the driving route.
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Superstitious beliefs in consumer evaluation of brand logos Implications for corporate branding strategy. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore the role of various superstitious beliefs in consumers' information processing and evaluation of brand logos.Originality/value - The study offers a non-traditional approach to explaining consumer-based brand image and brand equity.Findings - The results indicate that consumers' belief in fate has a negative effect on brand logo sensitivity, and consumers' belief in fortune-tellers, belief in magic and fictional figures, belief in lucky charms, and belief in superstitious rituals have positive effects on brand logo sensitivity, respectively.Design/methodology/approach - When consumers encounter a brand logo without actually experiencing the company's offerings, superstition may be deployed to fill the void of the unknown to evaluate the brand logo and judge the benefits from the offerings represented by the brand. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between consumers' brand logo sensitivity and a number of antecedental superstition beliefs.Practical implications - Marketers should study and understand consumer superstition when attempting to build consumer-friendly, culturally-robust, and trouble-free brands in the marketplace. Managerial implications and corporate branding strategies are suggested to avoid branding pitfalls and maximize brand equity in the consumer market.Research limitations/implications - From a consumer perspective, the authors' findings reveal that the more positive attitude consumers have towards a company's visual identity system, the more favorable brand image consumers have toward the company and its offerings.
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COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among PLWH in South India: Implications for Vaccination Campaigns. Background: The global effort to end the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - Coronavirus 2 pandemic will depend on our ability to achieve a high uptake of the highly efficacious vaccines in all countries. India recently experienced an unprecedented transmission surge, likely fueled by a premature reopening, the highly transmissible delta variant, and low vaccination rates. Indian media have reported high degrees of vaccine hesitancy, which could interfere with efforts to prevent future surges, making it crucial to better understand the reasons for such reluctance in vulnerable populations, such as people living with HIV. Methods: We conducted telephone interviews with 438 people living with HIV who were participants in a longitudinal cohort, designed to examine and validate novel antiretroviral therapy ART adherence measures. Interviews were conducted in January and February 2021 and covered COVID-19-related questions on confidence in vaccine safety and efficacy, worries of vaccine side effects, trust in COVID-19 information from specific sources, and intent to get vaccinated. Results: Over one-third of participants (38.4%, n = 168) met our definition of \\'vaccine hesitant\\' by reporting being either unlikely to get vaccinated at all or wanting to wait. Vaccine hesitancy was associated with lack of confidence in vaccine safety, concerns about side effects and efficacy, and distrust in common sources of vaccine-related information. Discussion: These results highlight several challenges for vaccination efforts. Campaigns may benefit from using trusted sources, including antiretroviral therapy center staff, providing clear information about safety and efficacy and emphasizing the role of vaccines in preventing severe disease, hospitalizations and death, and the reduction of forward transmission to unvaccinated household members.
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Instrumental causes and the natural origin of souls in Antonio Ponce Santacruz's theory of animal generation. This article studies the theory of animal seeds as purely material entities in the early seventeenth-century medical writings of Antonio Ponce Santacruz, royal physician to the Spanish king Philipp IV. Santacruz adopts the theory of the eduction of substantial forms from the potentiality of matter, according to which new kinds of causal powers can arise out of material composites of a certain complexity. Santacruz stands out among the late Aristotelian defenders of eduction theory because he applies the concept of an instrument of direction developed by the medieval Avicenna commentator Gentile da Foligno and gives a novel turn to this concept by interpreting animal seeds as separate instruments. The article situates Santacruz's theory in the context of early modern debates about the concept of the eduction of forms, as well as in the context of early modern debates about the concept of separate instruments. Particular attention is paid to Santacruz's responses to the biological views of Julius Caesar Scaliger and Thomas Feyens. Santacruz's response to Scaliger turns out to be central for his explication of the eduction relation, and Santacruz's response to Feyens turns out to be central for his explication of the nature of instrumental causation.
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The diagnosis of equine insulin dysregulation. Insulin dysregulation is the hallmark of equine metabolic syndrome and has received attention because of its direct association with laminitis. In the absence of an adequate treatment for laminitis, a focus on prophylaxis is needed, making early detection of individuals at risk of developing laminitis one of the main challenges in equine endocrinology. Recent studies have shown that insulin dysregulation goes beyond tissue insulin resistance and it is now demonstrated that the equine enteroinsular axis plays a major role in insulin secretion and equine hyperinsulinaemia. In this review, we discuss the different tests currently available to diagnose insulin dysregulation in horses: the ones investigating tissue insulin resistance and those investigating the enteroinsular axis, detailing their goals, practicalities and limitations. This review supports the contention that the diagnosis of equine insulin dysregulation should now be based on the investigation of both tissue insulin resistance and the equine enteroinsular axis. Regardless of the tests used many factors of variation, such as breed, diet, fasting state or season, have been identified and could potentially confound the results of a specific test. Therefore, careful interpretation of the results of a given test in each individual situation is required to optimise the detection of horses at risk of laminitis.
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Paleoecology of mangroves along the Sibun River, Belize. This study examines a sediment core (SR-63) from a mangrove ecosystem along the Sibun River in Belize, which is subject to both changes in sea-level and in the characteristics of the river's drainage basin. Radiocarbon dates from the core show a decreased sedimentation rate from similar to 6 ka to 1 cal ka BP and a marked change in lithology from primarily mangrove peat to fluvial-derived material at similar to 2.5 cal ka BP. Changes in the sedimentation rates observed in mangrove ecosystems offshore have previously been attributed to changes in relative sea-level and the rate of sea-level rise. Pollen analyses show a decreased abundance of Rhizophora (red mangrove) pollen and an increased abundance of Avicennia (black mangrove) pollen and non-mangrove pollen coeval with the decreased sedimentation rates. Elemental ratios ([N:C](a)) and stable isotope analyses (delta N-15 and delta C-13) show that changes in the composition of the organic material are also coeval with the change in lithology. The decrease in sedimentation rate at the site of core SR-63 and at offshore sites supports the idea that regional changes in hydrology occurred during the Holocene in Belize, influencing both mainland and offshore mangrove ecosystems. (C) 2011 University of Washington. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Social Conflict in Russian Media Studies: An Empirical Analysis of the Discourse of Academic Journals (2014-2021). However, the interdisciplinarity of the research field determines its potential to become an independent field of studies that integrate conflictology and journalism theory, as well as media linguistics, sociology of audience, and social psychology. Such an integrated paradigm makes it possible to analyze the representation of social conflict in the contemporary media taking into account their influence on the dynamics of this conflict at every stage of its \\'life cycle\\'.Social conflict is one of the key concepts for social studies, which, however, does not have generally accepted definitions. The purpose of the article is to clarify the main topics of conflict research in Russian media studies and determine their place within the context of the conflictology. We attempted to categorize and theoretically define these objects within the context of the Russian academic tradition, based on the content analysis of articles by Russian authors published in 2014-2021. As a result, eight types of conflict were described, as well as four thematic blocks were found, which together form the structure of the discourse of media and conflict studies. Thus, it is possible to identify several main vectors of scientific research in this field: strategies of conflict representation in the media, assessment of the impact of media on conflict, technologies of media influence and theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of conflict and media interaction. The study found that the field is currently not a unified system.
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Trisyllabic hypocoristics in Spanish and layered feet. Spanish hypocoristics are usually bisyllabic and sometimes bimoraic. In this paper we study a process of truncation in Spanish that results in trisyllabic hypocoristics (Encarna Encarnacion, Mariajo Maria Jose). Trisyllabic hypocoristics usually surface with amphibrach (weak-strong-weak) rhythm (Encarna Encarnacion), although some forms show anapest (weak-weak-strong) rhythm (Marijo Maria Jose). This article develops an analysis of this process by means of internally layered ternary feet. Internally layered feet are binary feet to which a weak syllable adjoins to create a minimally recursive foot. The theoretical claim of this paper is twofold: (i) that Spanish trisyllabic truncated forms correspond to an internally layered foot, which reconciles the general assumption that truncated forms maximally correspond to the size of a metrical foot, and (ii) that morphological operations such as truncation can directly refer to internally layered feet, expanding the body of work on layered feet by Martinez-Paricio and Kager (2015). Overall, the analysis presented in this article explores a less studied theoretical and descriptive advantage of this ternary metrical configuration (i.e. its templatic use) and provides new evidence in support of layered feet as a possible metrical representation which emerges in some languages from independently needed constraints.
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High density optical recording on dye material discs: An approach for achieving 4.7 GB density. High density optical media is proposed together with a recording method for achieving a density of 4.7 GB per single 12 cm diameter disc at a recording speed of 3.5 m/s.
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A probabilistic method to estimate the burden of maternal morbidity in resource-poor settings: preliminary development and evaluation. Results: Using training datasets, it was possible to create a probabilistic tool that handled uncertainty of women's self reports of pregnancy and delivery experiences in a unique way to estimate population-level burdens of maternal morbidity and specific causes that compared well with clinical classifications of the same data. When applied to test datasets, the method overestimated the burden of morbidity compared with clinical review, although possible conceptual and methodological reasons for this were identified.Conclusion: The probabilistic method shows promise and may offer opportunities for standardised measurement of maternal morbidity that allows for the uncertainty of women's self-reported symptoms in retrospective interviews. However, important discrepancies with clinical classifications were observed and the method requires further development, refinement and evaluation in a range of settings.Background: Maternal morbidity is more common than maternal death, and population-based estimates of the burden of maternal morbidity could provide important indicators for monitoring trends, priority setting and evaluating the health impact of interventions. Methods based on lay reporting of obstetric events have been shown to lack specificity and there is a need for new approaches to measure the population burden of maternal morbidity. A computer-based probabilistic tool was developed to estimate the likelihood of maternal morbidity and its causes based on self-reported symptoms and pregnancy/delivery experiences. Development involved the use of training datasets of signs, symptoms and causes of morbidity from 1734 facility-based deliveries in Benin and Burkina Faso, as well as expert review. Preliminary evaluation of the method compared the burden of maternal morbidity and specific causes from the probabilistic tool with clinical classifications of 489 recently-delivered women from Benin, Bangladesh and India.
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An ae gyptian darknesse': pagan chronologies, historia sacra, and the hieroglyph in England, 1646-1690. In this article I consider the depiction of the Egyptian hieroglyph in several seventeenth-century English religio-historiographical works that engage with the problems posed by the Egyptian dynastic records - records that challenged the validity of biblical chronology. Critical tradition has been keen to view the hieroglyph in the context of esoteric European scholarship, while scholarship on the English Enlightenment has tended to overlook the importance of religious motivations in \\'secular\\' intellectual projects. I show here, however, that some of the first apparently \\'secular\\' approaches to the hieroglyphs in England were not in works that espoused proto-Enlightenment linguistics or other intellectual ideals, but in religiously-motivated projects that, seeking to buttress sacred history and the primacy of the Judaic tradition against the threat of pagan chronologies, aimed to discredit the hieroglyph as an icon of pagan learning.
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The laminin beta 1-competing peptide YIGSR induces a hypercontractile, hypoproliferative airway smooth muscle phenotype in an animal model of allergic asthma. Background: Fibroproliferative airway remodelling, including increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass and contractility, contributes to airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma. In vitro studies have shown that maturation of ASM cells to a (hyper)contractile phenotype is dependent on laminin, which can be inhibited by the laminin-competing peptide Tyr-Ile-Gly-Ser-Arg (YIGSR). The role of laminins in ASM remodelling in chronic asthma in vivo, however, has not yet been established.Methods: Using an established guinea pig model of allergic asthma, we investigated the effects of topical treatment of the airways with YIGSR on features of airway remodelling induced by repeated allergen challenge, including ASM hyperplasia and hypercontractility, inflammation and fibrosis. Human ASM cells were used to investigate the direct effects of YIGSR on ASM proliferation in vitro.Results: Topical administration of YIGSR attenuated allergen-induced ASM hyperplasia and pulmonary expression of the proliferative marker proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Treatment with YIGSR also increased both the expression of sm-MHC and ASM contractility in saline-and allergen-challenged animals; this suggests that treatment with the laminin-competing peptide YIGSR mimics rather than inhibits laminin function in vivo. In addition, treatment with YIGSR increased allergen-induced fibrosis and submucosal eosinophilia. Immobilized YIGSR concentration-dependently reduced PDGF-induced proliferation of cultured ASM to a similar extent as laminin-coated culture plates. Notably, the effects of both immobilized YIGSR and laminin were antagonized by soluble YIGSR.Conclusion: These results indicate that the laminin-competing peptide YIGSR promotes a contractile, hypoproliferative ASM phenotype in vivo, an effect that appears to be linked to the microenvironment in which the cells are exposed to the peptide.
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ERICH PRZYWARA ON NATURE-GRACE EXTRINSICISM: A PARALLAX VIEW. This article argues that Erich Przywara's analogical understanding of the nature-grace relationship, though sometimes thought to align with the anti-extrinsicist positions of Blondel, de Lubac, and Balthasar, differs from these by virtue of its \\'parallax\\' view. The standard bearers of the nouvelle theologie hold that Aquinas teaches a natural desire for the beatific vision and deny, more generally, the utility of the concept of pure nature for safeguarding the gratuity of the supernatural. Przywara, by contrast, holds that Aquinas, like the Christian tradition more broadly, alternates between theoretical lines of sight, with the result that the capacity for the beatific vision appears to lie, by turns, both in and beyond human nature. This apparent difference of position is what this article calls the \\'parallax\\' effect. According to Przywara, one attains the least inadequate view of nature and grace by entering the \\'rhythm\\' of mutual correction between various perspectives. Though he refines his articulation of this rhythm across the course of his career, Przywara consistently upholds the concept of pure nature as a legitimate theological Konstruktionsprinzip and salutary corrective to \\'intrinsicist\\' accents. The complete picture of nature and grace thus lies in the interplay of the various ecclesially approved theological traditions.
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Auditory verbal hallucinations in first-episode psychosis: a phenomenological investigation. ConclusionsDeclaration of interestAimsResults(C) The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016.BackgroundAVH are characterised by: (a) entity, as though from a living being with complex social interchange; and (b) control, exerting authority with ability to influence. AVH are also received with passivity, often accompanied by sensation in other modalities.Copyright and usageTo conduct primary research into the nature of subjective experience of AVH in first-episode psychosis.None.MethodIn dimensional understanding of psychosis, auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are unitary phenomena present on a continuum from non-clinical voice hearing to severe mental illness. There is mixed evidence for this approach and a relative absence of research into subjective experience of AVH in early psychosis.A phenomenological study using diary and photo-elicitation qualitative techniques investigating the subjective experience of AVH in 25 young people with first-episode psychosis.A modern detailed phenomenological investigation, without presupposition, gives results that echo known descriptive psychopathology. However, novel findings also emerge that may be features of AVH in psychosis not currently captured with standardised measures.
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Altered chemokine profile in Refractory Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia infected children. Background: Mycoplasma pneumoniae is one of the major pathogens causing community-acquired pneumonia in children. Although usually self-limited, Mycoplasma pneumonia e pneumonia (MPP) may lead to complicated morbidity that can even be life threatening. Upon MPP infection, alveolar macrophage becomes attracted and activated and will induce subsequent cytokine and chemokine reaction. Refractory Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (RMPP) is manifested by clinical or radiological deterioration despite proper antibiotic therapy. RMPP is characterized with excessive inflammation and may need subsequent glucocorticoid treatment. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the change of plasma chemokines in non-refractory Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (NRMPP) and RMPP before and after antibiotic or methylprednisolone treatment. Method: A total of 42 children with MPP were enrolled in this study. Plasma specimens were collected at admission and one to two weeks after antibiotic or methylprednisolone treatment with declined fever. Plasma specimens were then indicated to chemokines detection. Results: Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia altered the chemokine profile through the observation of decreased plasma M1 related chemokines (CCL2, CCL8 and CXCL10) and increased M2 related chemokines (CCL17 and CCL22) after treatment.When the patients were divided into RMPP and NRMPP groups and the chemokines before treatment were compared, the RMPP group showed higher CXCL10 but lower CCL3 and CCL11 than the NRMPP group. Conclusion: Unique changes in macrophage related chemokines is observed in the course of MPP infection. NRMPP and RMPP infection in children showed distinct manifestation in chemokine profiles. Copyright (c) 2020, Taiwan Society of Microbiology. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/).
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The benefits and challenges of academic writing retreats: an integrative review. The immediate drivers to increase publication outputs in higher education are government and research funding, organisational status, performance expectations and personal career aspirations. Writing retreats are one of a range of strategies used by universities to boost publication output. The aims of this integrative review were to synthesise the available evidence, identify the attributes, benefits and challenges of academic writing retreats and examine the components that facilitate publication output. The review was based on a systematic search of six electronic databases. Of the 296 articles identified, 11 primary research papers met the inclusion criteria. Thematic analysis of the data highlighted a raft of personal, professional and organisational benefits of writing retreats. The five key elements of writing retreats conducive to increasing publication output were protected time and space; community of practice; development of academic writing competence; intra-personal benefits and organisational investment. Participants involved achieved greater publication outputs, particularly when provided ongoing support. Further research is required to examine more substantively the feasibility of writing retreats, their cost-effectiveness and the features that increase publication outcomes.
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The complex interplay among factors that influence allelic association. Small effect sizes, common-disease/common-variant versus rare variant influences, biased single nucleotide polymorphism ascertainment and low linkage disequilibrium have recently been discussed as impediments to association studies. Such a focus on the individual factors that highlight their maximum potential effect ( whether positive or deleterious) is often optimistic as, in practice, they do not operate in isolation. Instead, they work jointly to generate the disease gene architecture and to determine the ability of a study to discover it. Here, we consider how the effect size of the susceptibility locus, the frequency of the disease allele(s), the frequency of the marker allele( s) that are correlated with the disease allele( s) and the extent of linkage disequilibrium together influence genetic association studies.
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The influence of organizational size and change in financial performance on the extent of organizational change. Based on these findings, managers of smaller firms should focus more on increasing performance and obtaining resources rather than identifying how to motivate their organization to change, since motivation to improve is generally sufficient. Managers in larger firms may need to focus more on change motivation within their organizations rather than obtaining resources, since resources are generally more plentiful than in smaller organizations. Copyright (C) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.It is argued that organizational size and prior organizational performance affect the rate of future organizational change. Relatively smaller organizations have the incentive to change but do not always have sufficient access to resources. Larger organizations have the resources to change but do not always have the motivation.A study using a random sample of 129 of the 2000 largest public firms in the United States found that relatively smaller organizations can increase their rate of change the most when their performance increases significantly. Larger organizations, on the other hand, tend to increase their rate of change the most when there is a significant reduction in financial performance.
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Image watermarking using soft computing techniques: A comprehensive survey. Image watermarking techniques are used to provide copyright protection and verify ownership of media/entities. This technique refers to the concept of embedding of secret data/information of an owner in a given media/entity for determining any ownership conflicts that can arise. Many watermarking approaches have been offered by various authors in the last few years. However, there are not enough studies and comparisons of watermarking techniques in soft computing environments. Nowadays, soft computing techniques are used to improve the performance of watermarking algorithms. This paper surveys soft computing-based image watermarking for several applications. We first elaborate on novel applications, watermark characteristics and different kinds of watermarking systems. Then, soft computing based watermarking approaches providing robustness, imperceptibility and good embedding capacity are compared systematically. Furthermore, major issues and potential solutions for soft computing-based watermarking are also discussed to encourage further research in this area. Thus, this survey paper will be helpful for researchers to implement an optimized watermarking scheme for several applications.
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Using species distribution models only may underestimate climate change impacts on future marine biodiversity. In face of global changes, projecting and mapping biodiversity changes are of critical importance to support management and conservation measures of marine ecosystems. Despite the development of a wide variety of ecosystem models capable of integrating an increasing number of ecological processes, most projections of climate-induced changes in marine biodiversity are based on species distribution models (SDMs). These correlative models present a significant advantage when the lack of knowledge on the species physiology is counterbalanced by the availability of relevant environmental variables over the species geographical range. However, correlative SDMs neglect intra- and inter-specific interactions and thereby can lead to biased projections of changes in biodiversity distribution. To evaluate the influence of trophic interactions on projections of species richness and assemblage composition under climate change scenarios, we compared biodiversity projections derived from an ensemble of different SDMs to projections derived from a hybrid model coupling SDMs and a multispecies trophic model in the Mediterranean Sea. Our results show that accounting for trophic interactions modifies projections of future biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea. Under the RCP8.5 scenario, SDMs tended to overestimate the gains and underestimate the losses of species richness by the end of the 21st century, with marked local differences in projections, both in terms of magnitude and trend, in some biodiversity hotspots. In both SDMs and hybrid approaches, nestedness with gains in species richness was the main pattern driving dissimilarity between present and future fish and macro-invertebrate species assemblages at the Mediterranean basin scale. However, at local scale, we highlighted some differences in the relative contribution of nestedness vs replacement in driving dissimilarity. Our results call for the development of integrated modelling tools that can mechanistically consider multiple biotic and abiotic drivers to improve projections of future marine biodiversity.
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Shadow times: The temporal and spatial frameworks and experiences of caring and working. In this article we explore temporal and spatial frameworks for analysing the experience of combining caring for children with participation in paid work. We highlight the pressure to undertake paid employment routinely, which places particular strains upon people who are most likely to have to combine caring and working. The authors assert that mothers continue to have the main responsibility for the organization, if not the conduct of caring work (Sevenhuijsen, 1998). Traditional assumptions about the seeming relationship between femininity and caring remain relatively intact, despite major shifts in family formation, women's participation in the labour market and debates about the changing role of men. (Cancian and Oliker, 1999; Lister, 1997). Drawing upon the work of Adam (2000) on timescapes we develop the notion of caringscapes as a means by which the processes of combining caring and working may be theorized and also incorporated into UK government policy related to caring (whether directly or indirectly). We draw attention to the inadequacy of public policy that does not incorporate an awareness of the demands of the everyday across the lifecourse of which a spatial-temporal component should be fundamental. The authors propose a caringscape perspective as a basis for both future research and policy developments and conclude that an enhanced recognition of the fluidity and praxis of caring and gender is necessary to support the evolving roles of parents, especially mothers who combine caring and working.
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PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES: LEGAL APPROACHES TO THE DEFINITION OF RELIGION. Deconstructing the definitional boundaries between religion and non-religion is recognised as a fruitful area of investigation for scholars of religion. Taking a critical perspective in understanding the gatekeeping practices of legal institutions, norms and practices in shaping the boundary between religion and non-religion is an important aspect of this methodological approach. Investigating legal gatekeeping practices can prompt critical exploration of how they impact on category formation and facilitate analysis of whose interests are served by legally mandated acts of inclusion or exclusion. This discussion will identify recent instances, where the courts have been active in shaping the boundary between religion and non-religion. Firstly, it will consider recent developments in the definitional approach of domestic UK law. Secondly, it will discuss legal responses to the registration of religious groups in Europe and, thirdly, it will explore attempts to extend freedom of religion protections to commercial corporations. Finally, it will offer some concluding remarks on how this survey of recent developments highlights the contemporary configuration of the legal boundaries between religion and non-religion.
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Broken needle during spinal anesthesia: an avoidable complication. The occurrence of a needle breaking is a very rare complication of spinal anesthesia (SA). We report a case of a broken spinal needle occurring in a morbid obese pregnant woman liming SA indicated for an emergent cesarean section. Multiple puncture attempts due to difficult identification of lumbar spine, associated with an inadequate use of the introducer, contributed to this complication. The recognition of predictive factors for difficult neuraxial anesthesia, the use of ultrasound in obese patients, and a properly executed technique may have allowed avoiding this complication.
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A first checklist and diversity of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the saline dry lake Chott El Hodna in Algeria, a Ramsar Conservation Wetland. In the first study of its kind, ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) were sampled near a unique natural environment, a large saline lake, Chott El Hodna, a Ramsar Conservation Wetland in eastern Algeria. The species of ants were determined at two sites, Medbah and Birkraa in spring (March April) 2011 using pitfall trapping and hand collecting. We provide a checklist and some observations on 24 species belonging to 14 genera and four subfamilies (Dolichoderinae, Dorylinae, Formicinae and Myrmicinae). To evaluate the ant diversity, we used data from pitfall traps for calculating ecological indexes.
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Incrementalism and strategic change: a university's experience. Design/methodology/approach - The longitudinal case study was carried out analyzing different subunits within this institution, investigating the way in which top managers have tried to re-position the organisation, taking advantage of the increased autonomy given by a series of reforms of the academic system.Purpose - The processual interpretation of strategic change has been often applied to private companies searching for a logic behind their apparent chaotic transformation. The purpose of this paper is to report on an experience in a public organisation, an Italian university, where this perspective is exceptionally reflected, entailing a refining process towards a new strategy.Findings - The results show an incremental process towards autonomy and accountability, through which top managers have transformed the organisational structure, identified responsibilities, and introduced a new set of managerial techniques.Originality/value - This study shows how the combination of three elements - logic, incrementalism and accounting - has guided the institution in the trajectory of its transformation.
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Omnidirectional microscopy by ultrasonic sample control. Omnidirectional microscopy (OM) is an emerging technology capable of enhancing the three-dimensional (3D) microscopy widely applied in life sciences. In OM, the precise position and orientation control of the sample are required. However, current OM technology relies on destructive mechanical methods to hold the samples, such as embedding samples in gel or attaching them to a needle to permit orientation control. A non-contacting alternative is to levitate the sample. Until now, levitation methods have lacked orientation control. We enable omnidirectional access to the sample by introducing a method to control acoustic levitation that provides precise orientation control. Such control around three axes of rotation permits rapid imaging of the sample from any direction using a fixed camera and subsequent 3D shape reconstruction. The control of non-spherical particles is achieved using an asymmetric acoustic field created with a phase-controlled transducer array. Our technology allows robust 3D imaging of delicate samples and their study in a time-lapse manner. We foresee that the described method is not limited to microscopy and optical imaging, but is also compatible with automated sample handling, light-sheet microscopy, wall-less chemistry, and non-contacting tomography. Published under license by AIP Publishing.
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FRACTAL ATOMIC SURFACES OF SELF-SIMILAR QUASI-PERIODIC TILINGS OF THE PLANE. We consider in parallel three self-similar quasiperiodic tilings of the plane with eight-fold symmetry, made of two prototiles, the square and the 45-degree rhomb. They possess the same inflation rules up to a reordering of the tiles. We study the consequences of this reordering on the nature of the atomic surfaces, or acceptance domains, and on the Fourier spectra of the tilings. For two of the tilings the atomic surface has a fractal boundary. For one of them it is not a connected set. We argue that the situation described in this paper is generic.
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3D 3-C full-wavefield elastic inversion for estimating anisotropic parameters: A feasibility study with synthetic data. Traveltime-based inversions cannot solve for all of the anisotropy parameters for orthorhombic media. Vertical velocities cannot be recovered simultaneously with the dimension less anisotropy parameters. Also, the density cannot be solved because it does not affect the normal moveout of P and S reflections. These limitations can be overcome using full-wavefield inversion for anisotropy parameters for orthorhombic media and for transversely isotropic media with vertical and horizontal symmetry axes. Tsvankin's parameters and the orientation of the local (anisotropic) coordinates are inverted from three-component, wide-azimuth data sets containing P reflected and PS converted waves. The inversions are performed in two steps. The first step uses only reflections from the top of an anisotropic layer, which does not constrain the trade-offs between the vertical velocities, the anisotropies, and density, as shown by parameter correlation analysis. The results from the first step are refined by using them as the starting model for the second step, which fits reflections from the top and bottom of the layer. The properties of the target layer influence the amplitudes of top and bottom reflections as well as the traveltime of the bottom reflections; when all these data are used, the inversion is highly overdetermined and all model parameters are estimated accurately. When Gaussian noise is added, the inversion results are very similar to those for the noise-free data because only the coherent signal is fitted. The residual at convergence for the noisy data corresponds to the noise level. Concurrent inversion of data from multiple sources increases the azimuthal illumination of a target.
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Wittgenstein and the shift from noncognitivism to cognitivism in ethics. In the first half of the twentieth century noncognitivism was the predominant metaethical point of view in analytical philosophy. This perspective came under critical scrutiny as early as the late 1950s, and by the 1970s its authority began to be undermined. For various reasons cognitivist theories began to be put forward with confidence. Different philosophers tried ways to restore the role of reason in ethics. This shift in the philosophical climate was influenced by-or was at least in accordance with-the thought of the later Wittgenstein. In particular, this article will consider the relevance of Wittgenstein for cognitivist views, such as that of S. Toulmin, relativists like G. Harman, and British moral realists like S. Lovibond and J. McDowell. In fact, Wittgenstein is one of the founding fathers of antifoundationalism. He gives us the hopeful insight that the end of foundationalism does not necessarily imply the end of moral philosophy but must be considered a new start of it.
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DOES THE ATTITUDINAL MODEL EXPLAIN UNANIMOUS REVERSALS?. There is little doubt that the political attitudes of the justices on the Supreme Court have a significant impact on many outcomes adopted by the Court. But a third or more of Supreme Court decisions are unanimous, and in more than a fifth of their cases every year the Supreme Court unanimously reverses the decision below. The Attitudinal Model suggests that the reason for unanimity is that the political policy made by the court below is \\'extreme\\' when compared to the ideological range of the entire Supreme Court. We test the basic claim of the most prominent proponents of the Attitudinal Model that the political preferences of the justices provide a complete explanation for all of their decisions, including those decided unanimously. We find that none of the predictions of the Attitudinal Model are supported. Thus, while the ideology of the justices may drive many of their decisions, the Attitudinal Model does not provide an adequate explanation for unanimous decisions.
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In search of quality: measuring Higher Education Service Quality (HiEduQual). The aim of the study is to develop and validate the construct HiEduQual (Higher Education Service Quality) to measure the level of service quality in higher education (HE) institutions. Scale development was undertaken through focus group discussions with four different stakeholders of HE that included students, parents, teachers, and employers. The scale was validated through data collection from seven different HE institutions. Based upon exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis the study found six determinants of service quality in HE. They were named as teacher quality, administrative services, knowledge services, activities, continuous improvement, and leadership quality. The final scale consisted of 37 items. The study covers three significant limitations that emerged from existing studies. Firstly, existing studies focused only on the students for generation of questionnaire items. The study takes into consideration other stakeholders to develop a measure for HE service quality provided to students. Secondly, existing studies neglect the fact that how level of service in education has changed over time, and thirdly, the current study found leadership as a significant dimension of quality in HE. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.
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Hydrocarbon Fuels Production from Hydrocracking of Soybean Oil Using Transition Metal Carbides and Nitrides Supported on ZSM-5. The effects of process parameters and Ni/Mo atomic ratio on catalytic hydrocracking of soybean oil were investigated using the carbide or nitride forms of Ni/Mo supported on ZSM-5 catalysts. Essentially, a complete conversion of the triglycerides was observed at 650 psi and 360-450 degrees C. A low reaction temperature (360 degrees C) resulted in a significant change in selectivity toward hydrocarbon fuels. After a 4 day reaction, only 3-5% of hydrocarbon fuels were produced together with considerable amount of carboxyl acids (very high acid number up to 140 mg KOH/g). The gaseous phase products at 450 degrees C indicated that the nitride catalyst favors a methanation reaction more than the carbide catalyst by producing a larger amount of methane in the gaseous product. At a lower liquid hourly space velocity (1 h(-1)), about 70 wt % of gasoline to diesel range hydrocarbons were obtained in the organic liquid products compared to 25 wt % at 2 and 3 h(-1). Increasing the Ni content in the catalyst improves the hydrogenation ability of the catalyst, since Ni is known to activate hydrogen and transfer protons and electrons to molybdenum. A larger fraction of gasoline was produced in the organic liquid product while similar jet and diesel range hydrocarbons were obtained by increasing the Ni/Mo atomic ratio from 0 to 1.5. However, a decreased fraction of the organic product was generated with an increasing amount of Ni content in the catalyst. Overall, the highest yield of hydrocarbon fuels (about 50 wt %) was obtained when the Ni/Mo molar ratio was 0.5.
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Interpretation by national courts: two types of training, in response to the emergency. The aim of this article is to take stock of the situation concerning training of court interpreters, particularly in what is known as the \\'civil law\\' countries in Europe as opposed to those with the \\'common law\\' system. It reviews existing organisational formats and proposes the two types of teaching that seem best-suited to meet the urgent requirements of the courts. One is in the framework of continuing education; the other a university course leading to a bachelor degree. The author recommends a principle of pedagogical progression taking into consideration the difficulties linked to less spoken languages and stresses the importance of teaching all the traditional interpreting techniques, including specific cognitive content, but at the same time focusing especially on ethical and human rights aspects in the interpreting strategies taught.
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Seeing I to I: A pathway to interpersonal connectedness. The authors introduce the construct of I-sharing-the belief that one shares an identical subjective 14 experience with another person-and the role it plays in liking. In Studies 1-3, participants indicated their liking for an objectively similar and an objectively dissimilar person, one of whom I-shared with them and the other of whom did not. Participants preferred the objectively similar person but only when that person I-shared with them. Studies 4 and 5 highlight the role that feelings of existential isolation and the need for closeness play in people's attraction to I-sharers. In Study 4, people with high needs for interpersonal closeness responded to I-sharers and non-I-sharers with great intensity. In Study 5, priming participants with feelings of existential isolation increased their liking for I-sharers over objectively similar others. The results highlight the importance of shared subjective experience and have implications for interpersonal and intergroup processes.
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Synergism of a DNA and an RNA virus: Enhanced tissue infiltration of the begomovirus Abutilon mosaic virus (AbMV) mediated by Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). Replication of the begomovirus Abutilon mosaic virus (AbMV) is restricted to phloem nuclei, generating moderate levels of virus DNA. Coinfection with Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) evidently increased AbMV titers in Nicotiana benthamiana, tobacco, and tomato, resulting in synergistic symptom enhancement. In situ hybridization revealed that in double-infected leaves an increased number of nuclei contained elevated amounts of AbMV. Additionally, the begomoviral phloem-limitation was broken. Whereas CMV 3a movement protein-expressing tobacco plants did not exert any similar influence, the presence of CMV 2b silencing suppressor protein lead to enhanced AbMV titers and numbers of infected vascular cells. The findings prove that AbMV can replicate in nonvascular cells and represent the first report on a true synergism of an RNA/ssDNA virus combination in plants, in which CMV 2b protein plays a role. They indicate considerable consequences of mixed infections between begomo- and cucumoviruses on virus epidemiology and agriculture. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Taxonomic Revision of Dolichandra (Bignonieae,Bignoniaceae). Dolichandra Cham. emend. L.G. Lohmann is a genus of Neotropical lianas in tribe Bignonieae (Bignoniaceae) that comprises nine species. It is centered in Paraguay, southern Brazil and northeastern Argentina, where six species occur and three are endemic. Species of Dolichandra are generally climbers of dry and wet lowland forests, also growing in swamps and gallery forest formations. The genus is characterized by four main synapomorphies: (i) stems with multiple dissected phloem wedges in cross-section, (ii) trifid and uncate tendrils, (iii) psilate and 3-colpate pollen, and (iv) capsules with four lines of dehiscense. Other features of the genus are the large and membranaceous calyces, dimorphic growth with the juvenile form attaching by its uncinate tendrils, lanceolate prophylls of the axillary buds, congestedcymose inflorescences, and a lobed nectary disk. In this taxonomic revision, we present detailed descriptions for all species recognized, taxonomic and nomenclatural comments, distribution maps and information on the habitat and distribution of each species, as well as information on their conservation status (i.e., IUCN categories), and illustrations of diagnostic characters. Thirty-five names are treated as synonyms, six of which are newly proposed. More specifically, Tecoma maximiliani Mart. ex DC. is synonymized under Dolichandra unguiculata (Vell.) L.G. Lohmann, Bignonia pseudounguis Desf., Bignonia unguis-cati var. radicans DC., and Macfadyena hassleri Sprague are synonymized under Dolichandra uncata (Andrews) L.G. Lohmann, while Bignonia tweediana Lindley and Dolichandra kohautiana Presl are synonymized under Dolichandra ungui-cati (L.) L.G. Lohmann. Lectotypes are proposed for 13 species names, namely Bignonia californica Brandegee, Bignonia gracilis G. Lodd., Bignonia inflata Griseb. Bignonia tweediana Lindley, Bignonia unguis-cati var. guatemalensis K. Schum. & Loes., Bignonia unguis-cati var. serrata Bureau & K. schum., Dolichandra cynanchoides Cham., Dolichandra fenzliana Miq. Macfadyena hassleri Sprague, Parabignonia steyermarkii Sandwith, Paradolichandra chodatii var. brachycalyx, Spathodea mollis and Tecoma maximiliani Mart. ex DC.
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Logically proper definite descriptions. This essay notes a striking parallel between the original Hilbert-Bernays treatment of definite descriptions and Russell's theory of logically proper names. The formal language for the original theory is laid out and the implications of a theory of cis a cis the statements that qualify as predications in a logically proper definite descriptions sense of the word 'predication' different from the espoused by Frege, Russell and Meinong.
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PHAT STELLAR CLUSTER SURVEY. I. YEAR 1 CATALOG AND INTEGRATED PHOTOMETRY. The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) survey is an ongoing Hubble Space Telescope (HST) multi-cycle program to obtain high spatial resolution imaging of one-third of the M31 disk at ultraviolet through near-infrared wavelengths. In this paper, we present the first installment of the PHAT stellar cluster catalog. When completed, the PHAT cluster catalog will be among the largest and most comprehensive surveys of resolved star clusters in any galaxy. The exquisite spatial resolution achieved with HST has allowed us to identify hundreds of new clusters that were previously inaccessible with existing ground-based surveys. We identify 601 clusters in the Year 1 sample, representing more than a factor of four increase over previous catalogs within the current survey area (390 arcmin(2)). This work presents results derived from the first similar to 25% of the survey data; we estimate that the final sample will include similar to 2500 clusters. For the Year 1 objects, we present a catalog with positions, radii, and six-band integrated photometry. Along with a general characterization of the cluster luminosities and colors, we discuss the cluster luminosity function, the cluster size distributions, and highlight a number of individually interesting clusters found in the Year 1 search.
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Cognitive capacity and cognitive hierarchy: a study based on beauty contest experiments. Recent developments in behavioral experiments, in particular game experiments, have placed human cognition in a pivotal place. Two related ideas are proposed and are popularly used in the literature, namely, cognitive hierarchy and cognitive capacity. While these two often meet in the same set of experiments and observations, few studies have formally addressed their relationship. In this study, based on six series of 15- to 20-person beauty contest experiments and the associated working memory tests, we examine the effect of cognitive capacity on the observed cognitive hierarchy. It is found that cognitive capacity has a positive effect on the observed cognitive hierarchy. This effect is strong in the initial rounds, and may become weaker, but without disappearing, in subsequent rounds, which suggests the possibility that cognitive capacity may further impact learning. We examine this possibility using the Markov transition dynamics of cognitive hierarchy. There is evidence to show that subjects with different cognitive capacities may learn differently, which may cause strong convergence to be difficult to observe.
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Incomplete contract, bargaining and optimal divisional structure. When complete contracting is not possible, allocating control structure becomes the second-best arrangement. This paper analyzes the design of optimal divisional structure within an organization where ex post bargaining between the potential divisional managers is possible. In much the same light as Aghion and Tirole (J Political Econ 105(1):1-29, 1997), we study the control problem in the context of search for projects. Our model shows that when the managers cannot bargain with one another, internal integration is preferred to internal separation. Where bargaining is possible, formal divisional structure defines both the ex post bargaining position of the two managers and their incentive to search ex ante. When the managers tend to arrive at a more favorable project to the principal via bargaining, the general leader of a firm may want to choose separation instead to increase the probability of bargaining, as the symmetrical incentive requires both managers to search and get informed.
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A spectroscopic survey of thick disc stars outside the solar neighbourhood. Methods. We performed a spectroscopic survey of nearly 700 stars probing the Galactic thick disc far from the solar neighbourhood towards the Galactic coordinates (l similar to 277 degrees, b similar to 47 degrees). The derived effective temperatures, surface gravities and overall metallicities were then combined with stellar evolution isochrones, radial velocities and proper motions to derive the distances, kinematics and orbital parameters of the sample stars. The targets belonging to each Galactic component (thin disc, thick disc, halo) were selected either on their kinematics or according to their position above the Galactic plane, and the vertical gradients were also estimated.Results. We present here atmospheric parameters, distances and kinematics for this sample and a comparison of our kinematic and metallicity distributions with the Besan on model of the Milky Way. The thick disc far from the solar neighbourhood is found to differ only slightly from the thick disc properties as derived in the solar vicinity. For regions where the thick disc dominates (1 less than or similar to Z less than or similar to 4 kpc), we measured vertical velocity and metallicity trends of partial derivative V-phi/partial derivative Z = 19 +/- 8 km s(-1) kpc(-1) and partial derivative[M/H]/partial derivative Z = -0.14 +/- 0.05 dex kpc(-1), respectively. These trends can be explained as a smooth transition between the different Galactic components, although intrinsic gradients could not be excluded. In addition, a correlation partial derivative V-phi/partial derivative[M/H] = -45 +/- 12 km s(-1) dex(-1) between the orbital velocity and the metallicity of the thick disc is detected. This gradient is inconsistent with the SDSS photometric survey analysis, which did not detect any such trend, and challenges radial migration models of thick disc formation. Estimations of the scale heights and scale lengths for different metallicity bins of the thick disc result in consistent values, with h(R) similar to 3.4 +/- 0.7 kpc, and h(Z) similar to 694 +/- 45 pc, showing no evidence of relics of destroyed massive satellites.Aims. Our aim is to detect and characterise the Galactic thick disc chemically and dynamically by analysing F, G, and K stars, whose atmospheres reflect their initial chemical composition.Context. In the era of large spectroscopic surveys, Galactic archaeology aims to understand the formation and evolution of the Milky Way by means of large datasets. In particular, the kinematic and chemical study of the thick disc can give valuable information on the merging history of the Milky Way.
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Smoking in pregnancy: a cross-sectional study in China. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted in this study. Data from pregnant women were collected in this study from June to August 2015 from 5 provinces of mainland China. A total of 2345 pregnant women were included in this study, the mean age of the participants was 28.12 years (SD 4.13).Results: About 82.9% of smoking women quit smoking after they were pregnant. The prevalence of smoking among pregnant women was 3.8%. Among the participants, 40.0, 30.7, 1.8, 29.9, 0.8, 31.4, 31.2, and 26.7% had husbands, fathers-in-law, mothers-in-law, fathers, mothers, colleagues, friends, and relatives, respectively, who were smokers. Compared with pregnant women of basic education level (junior middle school or below), those of the higher education level (undergraduate or above) were at higher risk of smoking (OR, 5.17; 95% CI, 2.00-13.39). Compared with pregnant women from rural areas, urban pregnant women were less likely to be current smokers (OR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.32-0.94). Compared with pregnant women whose mothers-in-law did not smoke, those whose mothers-in-law smoked were at higher risk of smoking (OR, 4. 67; 95% CI, 1.87-11.70). However, compared with pregnant women whose husband did not smoke, those whose husband smoked were not significantly at higher risk of smoking (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 0.73-1.73).Conclusions: Most of smoking women quit smoking after they became pregnant. Tailored intervention programs to reduce smoking in pregnant women should focus on those with higher education level, from rural areas, and pregnant women whose mothers-in-law smoke.Background: Findings on smoking among pregnant women were mostly from high income countries and were rarely from China. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of smoking and its influencing factors among pregnant women living in China.
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PROBABILISTIC MODELS OF MELODIC INTERVAL. Two PROBABILISTIC MODELS OF MELODIC INTERVAL are compared. In the Markov model, the \\'interval probability\\' of a note is defined by the corpus frequency of its melodic interval (the interval to the previous note), conditioned on the previous one or two intervals; in the Gaussian model, the interval probability is a simple mathematical function of the size of the note's melodic interval and its position in relation to the range of the melody. In both models, this interval probability is then multiplied by the probability of the note's scale degree to yield its actual probability. The two models were tested on four corpora of tonal melodies using cross-entropy. The Markov model yielded a somewhat lower (better) cross-entropy than the Gaussian model, but is also much more complex, requiring far more parameters. The models were also tested on melodic expectation data, and on their ability to predict the distribution of intervals in a corpus. Possible ways of improving the models are discussed, as well as their broader implications for music cognition.
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SEDIMENT DEFORMATION AND HYDROGEOLOGY OF THE NANKAI TROUGH ACCRETIONARY PRISM - SYNTHESIS OF SHIPBOARD RESULTS OF ODP LEG 131. The main objective of Leg 131 was to provide data on the deformational processes and associated hydrogeology of the Nankai prism toe. Drilling succeeded, for the first time in the history of ocean drilling, in penetrating the complete sedimentary sequence to basaltic basement, reaching 1327 mbsf (metres below seafloor) with good core recovery (55%). Excellent correlation of the lithology and structure, including the frontal thrust and the decollement, with seismic reflection images was also determined.Evidence of channelized fluid flows is inconclusive. No sharp geochemical signatures or unequivocal geochemical anomalies indicative of channelized fluid flow were found. Thermal measurements are not significantly different from those predicted by a purely conductive heat flow model. A signature of low chloride pore water near the decollement may partly be related to smectite diagenesis but may also be due to episodic fluid flow events. We conclude that dewatering probably occurred dominantly through diffuse flow throughout the accreted sediments at this site.Physical properties data show major discontinuities at the decollement, notably an increase in porosity below the latter. This may indicate excess pore pressure in the subducted section and decollement zone. A less marked increase in porosity below the frontal thrust may reflect the youthfulness of this feature. Attempts to make downhole measurements were severely hampered by unstable hole conditions, but useful constraints have been placed on the thermal regime, and some calibration of laboratory physical properties to in-situ conditions has been provided, and in-situ stress and pore pressure were measured in the uppermost sediments.Bedding dips, faults and shear bands analyzed in the cores confirm the pattern of deformation to be mainly due to NW-SE shortening, as expected from the plate tectonic convergence vector. Below the decollement, no significant deformation features were observed, indicating that the decollement is a sharp discontinuity in stress transmission.
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Wireless structural health monitoring of bridges: present and future. Internationally the load carrying capacity of bridges is decreasing due to material deterioration while at the same time increasing live loads mean that they are often exposed to stresses for which they were not designed. However there are limited resources available to ensure that these bridges are lit for purpose, meaning that new approaches to bridge maintenance are required that optimize both their service lives as well as maintenance costs. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide a tool that could support such an optimized maintenance program. In many situations WSNs have advantages over conventional wired monitoring systems in terms of installation time and cost. In order to evaluate the potential of these systems two WSNs were installed starting in July 2007 on the I-lumber Bridge and on a nearby approach bridge. As part of a corrosion prevention strategy, a relative humidity and temperature monitoring system was installed in the north anchorage chambers of the main suspension bridge where the main cables of the bridge are anchored into the foundation. This system allows the Bridgemaster to check whether the maximum relative humidity threshold, above which corrosion of the steel wires might occur, is not crossed. A second WSN which monitors aspects of deterioration on a reinforced concrete bridge located on the approach to the main suspension bridge was also installed. Though both systems have provided useful data to the owners, there are still challenges that must be overcome in terms of monitoring corrosion of steel, measuring live loading and data management before WSNs can become an effective tool for bridge managers.
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Application of a panel performance reliability versus product effect size (PR-ES) framework: A protein powder case study. Performance reliability of sensory descriptive panels is critical to sensory analysis. Treatment effect size (ES) of products is a main objective of sensory analysis. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach's coefficient alpha can be used to measure performance reliability, while Thurstonian d-prime and R-index can be used to measure ES. In this paper, an industry case study with a full historical database spanning 10 years of protein studies is shared. This case study uses the analysis framework of Performance Reliability versus Effect Size (PR-ES). R codes for the analysis are developed, used, and provided in the paper.
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8
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Can you hear me Major Tom? News, narratives and contemporary military operations: the case of the Italian mission in Afghanistan. This research explores the relationship between public narratives and the Italian military contribution to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan (2001-2014). Despite attracting little attention in the literature, Italy has been one of the most crucial contributors of multilateral military missions around the world in the post-bipolar era. Italy has remained consistently engaged militarily in Afghanistan over the entire period of the ISAF mission. However, the country's involvement has been characterised by differing and controversial views and perspectives among Italian political actors and the media. This study aims to reconstruct the core features of the strategic narratives and the media frames around the military intervention and it does so through a Qualitative Content Analysis on a collection of almost 200 articles published by four main Italian national newspapers. The goal of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, we systematically retrace the main discursive patterns and frames employed by the newspapers on the ISAF. On the other, we evaluate whether in the case of military interventions, the Italian media unveil critical inconsistencies and competitive arguments or whether they function as a repeater of the dominant political discourse. Thanks to the case study, we find that the Italian media supported the mainstream narratives.
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Modelling socioeconomic attributes of public transit passengers. The lack of personal and economic attributes in emerging public transit big data (such as smart card data) is a general issue that needs to be addressed. Passengers in the public transit network are from different socioeconomic classes, and their trip attributes usually depend on their personal and economic attributes. For instance, age as a demographic attribute plays an important role in trip attributes; adolescent passengers travel to school, young professionals travel to work, and old passengers travel to medical facilities more often. Relations between the socioeconomic and trip attributes of the passengers can be examined by developing a Bayesian network that represents the relations between the attributes by directed acyclic graphs, and calculating the joint and conditional probability values in the graph. This study infers the socioeconomic attributes of the public transit passengers from the trip attributes through developing a Bayesian network. Considered socioeconomic attributes are age, gender, and income; considered trip attributes are start time and duration of the trip, stay duration, and available origin and destination land use types. First, potential structures of the Bayesian network are examined by comparing network scores and arc strength test. After learning the network's parameters, the reasoning is done through both prediction and diagnosis in the network. Also, the most likely combinations of the socioeconomic and trip attributes are discovered. The case study for developing the Bayesian network is a Household Travel Survey dataset from Queensland, Australia, that contains both socioeconomic and trip attributes. Results clearly show how the socioeconomic attributes can be inferred from the trip attributes. Discovered probability distributions can be used to enrich the smart card datasets with the socioeconomic attributes. Moreover, the Bayesian classifier is applied to the dataset to validate the capability of the model in predicting the socioeconomic attributes. In the end, the developed network is implemented on a set of smart card records to discuss the potential applications.
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Number, Age Composition and School Achievements of Siblings in Two African Capital Cities. This paper uses biographical data from Dakar and Yaounde', two large African cities, to study the link between number of siblings and school attainment. The data describe all fertility events experienced by parents and the number of siblings of each child over time. The average family size effect is estimated first. The family size effect at different ages is then estimated. The results show that, in Dakar, both the overall and age-specific effect of family size on education are negative and statistically significant. In Yaounde', the overall effect is not significant, but negative effects at some schooling ages (between 14 and 17) are observed in this study. Finally, the negative impact of family size on school achievement seems to be driven more by elder siblings than by younger ones.
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Reconstruction of Soil Particle Composition During Freeze-Thaw Cycling: A Review. Studies conducted over several decades have shown that the freeze-thaw cycles are a process of energy-input and output in soil, which help drive the formation of soil structure, through water expansion by crystallization and the movement of water and salts by thermal gradients. However, most of these studies are published in Russian or Chinese and are less accessible to international researchers. This review brought together a wide range of studies on the effects of freezing and thawing on soil structure. The following findings are summarized: i) soil structure after freeze-thaw cycles changes considerably and the changes are due to the mechanical fragmentation of soil coarse mineral particles and the aggregation of soil fine particles; ii) the particle size of soil becomes homogeneous and the variation in soil structure weakens as the number of freeze-thaw cycles increases; iii) in the freezing process of soil, an important principle in the variation of soil particle bonding is presented as: condensation -> aggregation -> crystallization; iv) the freeze-thaw cycling process has a strong effect on soil structure by changing the granulometric composition of mineral particles and structures within the soil. The freeze-thaw cycling process strengthens particle bonding, which causes an overall increase in aggregate stability of soil, showing a process from destruction to reconstruction.
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6
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The Unmusical Ear: Georg Simon Ohm and the Mathematical Analysis of Sound. This essay presents a detailed analysis of Georg Simon Ohm's acoustical research between 1839 and 1844. Because of its importance in Hermann von Helmholtz's subsequent study of sound and hearing, this work is rarely considered on its own terms. A thorough assessment of Ohm's articles, however, can greatly enrich our understanding of later developments. Based on study of Ohm's published writings, as well as a lengthy unpublished manuscript, the essay argues that his acoustical research foreshadows an important paradigmatic shift at a time of discursive instability prior to Helmholtz's influential contributions. Using Ohm's own dismissal of his supposedly \\'unmusical ears\\' as a conceptual frame, the essay describes this shift as a move away from understanding sound primarily in a musical context and toward an increasingly mathematical approach to sound and hearing. As such, Ohm's work also anticipates a more general change in the role of the senses in nineteenth-century scientific research.
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Phytotoxicity and Benzoxazinone Concentration in Field Grown Cereal Rye (Secale cereale L.). Winter rye (Secale cereale L.) is used as a cover crop because of the weed suppression potential of its mulch. To gain insight into the more effective use of rye as a cover crop we assessed changes in benzoxazinone (BX) levels in rye shoot tissue over the growing season. Four rye varieties were planted in the fall and samples harvested at intervals the following spring. Two different measures of phytotoxic compound content were taken. Seed germination bioassays were used as an estimate of total phytotoxic potential. Dilutions of shoot extracts were tested using two indicator species to compare the relative toxicity of tissue. In addition, BX (DIBOA, DIBOA-glycoside, and BOA) levels were directly determined using gas chromatography. Results showed that rye tissue harvested in March was the most toxic to indicator species, with toxicity decreasing thereafter. Likewise the BX concentration in rye shoot tissue increased early in the season and then decreased over time. Thus, phytotoxicity measured by bioassay and BX levels measured by GC have a similar but not identical temporal profile. The observed decrease in phytotoxic potential and plant BX levels in rye later in the season appears to correlate with the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth.
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7
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Evaluation of medication adherence in chronic disease at a federally qualified health center. Background: While medication adherence in chronic disease has been evaluated in the general population, limited data are available among Medicaid recipients, especially within federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). This study determined baseline medication adherence for Medicaid recipients receiving care in an FQHC for first-line medications used in hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. Secondary outcomes included baseline adherence for individual patient factors.Conclusions: Although overall medication adherence rates within our FQHC patients were comparable with those in previous literature, differences seen among medication groups and patient individual factors suggest that there is still much to be learned in improving adherence. Future efforts will require a multifaceted approach, tailored to patient-specific needs.Results: From 1034 individual patients, 1788 medications were evaluated. Using MPRs, adherence rates were highest among medications for hypertension (67.2% adherent), followed by hyperlipidemia (67.0%), and lastly diabetes (58.0%); p < 0.001. Likewise, using PDC, adherence rates were highest for medications for hypertension (56.6%), followed by hyperlipidemia (52.2%), and lastly diabetes (45.0%); p = 0.010. Lower rates of adherence were seen among men, patients age 18-29 years old, African Americans, and patients with English documented as their preferred language.Methods: Patients from the Salud Family Health Centers, an FQHC with a large percentage of both Spanish-speaking patients and providers, were included in this study. Using retrospective prescription claims reports from 1 January 2015 to 1 October 2015, medication possession ratios (MPRs) and proportion of days covered (PDC) were calculated for each medication group. Patients with adherence 0.80 were considered adherent.
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Evaluating Restoration Success of Frequently Implemented Compensation Measures: Results and Demands for Control Procedures. This article summarizes the results of a comprehensive evaluation of frequently implemented compensation measures used to counteract environmental impacts in the course of road construction. Examination of planning documents and compensation areas revealed that 26 of 57 compensation areas had to be excluded from further evaluations either because of insufficient goal setting with regard to habitat functions and/or poor descriptions of the measures, unrecognizable implementation, or because the measures were simply not carried out. In the remaining 31 compensation areas, we examined 119 compensation sites and analyzed their success in relation to 326 defined compensation goals. Only 33% of the goals set were fully or mostly achieved, whereas 67% were reached only partly, mostly not, or not at all. Deficiency inquiries and analyses revealed that (1) in addition to unsuitable site conditions, improper implementation methods as well as deficient follow-up management proved to be of significant influence for goal achievement and (2) a considerable portion of the pitfalls could be avoided by faster integration of state-of-the-art ecological restoration practices. Therefore, we recommend a standardized control procedure, which includes planning, implementation, as well as monitoring of goal achievement and follow-up management for maintenance of target conditions to improve compensation success. This should help to avoid planning and implementation errors, detect flawed development, and correct it in time.
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A systematic assessment of empirical research on foreign entry mode. Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to systematically assess the empirical support for central relationships in the empirical literature on foreign market entry mode. The reviewing method overcomes methodological limitations in past reviews.Findings - Findings question the frequent use of commonly used measures (e.g. advertising intensity) and control variables (e.g. firm size) and suggest that statements about the importance of mode choice for subsidiary performance may be premature. Methodologically, this study identifies critical issues with regard to interpretation of interactions and the entry mode choice set.Research limitations/implications - This study limits itself to study the direction of relationships and does not analyze effect sizes. Further, future research may benefit from broadening the entry mode choice by extending the use of multiple outcome models as well as implementing the correct interpretational tools when investigating interactions.Design/methodology/approach - This review provides a systematic assessment of empirical support through a simple quantitative procedure using transparent criteria for article selection. In total, 1,217 statistical tests from 119 studies published in 44 different scientific journals in the period 1997-2013 are examined across a range of dimensions.Originality/value - The review is relevant to researchers seeking an overview over the research literature or practitioners interested in the link between mode choice and subsidiary performance.
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Hospital self-management policy in Chile: perceptions of decision-makers. Conclusions. Conceptually, the hospital self-management policy is based on financial autonomy, and implementation is affected by persistent capacity gaps in policy design.Objective. To learn the perceptions of decision-makers concerning the implementation stage of a hospital self-management policy in two highly complex hospitals in southern Chile.Methods. A descriptive, exploratory, qualitative study based on semi-structured in-depth interviews of decision-makers at the Regional Hospital of Valdivia and the Hospital San Jose de Osorno from August 2010 to December 2011. A convenience sample of 26 decision-makers was selected. The 26 interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The information was analyzed using inductive content analysis.Results. The interviewees consider the concept of self-management to be determined by autonomy in decision-making about resource allocation and the financing of health service delivery in the hospitals. They also stated that human resources and financing policies should be included to improve the implementation stage. They related weaknesses with the lack of organizational capabilities and managerial skills in the health teams implementing the changes.
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Structure, magnetic and microwave properties of indium-doped barium ferrite thick films prepared by tape casting. In this paper, pure and indium-doped barium ferrite (BaInxFe12-xO19, x = 0, 1) thick films were fabricated by tape casting. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy results show that these BaM thick films have highly c-axis oriented crystallographic texture. Magnetic measurements indicated that pure samples exhibit excellent properties with a saturate magnetization (4 pi Ms) of 3806G, a high squareness ratio (Mr/Ms) of 0.85. Ferromagnetic resonance measurements showed that the smallest ferromagnetic resonance line width is 383 Oe at 45 GHz. When indium was introduced, the hexagonal grains disappear, and the 4 pi Ms is decreased to 3201G. The anisotropy field decreased from 15.9 to 12.2 kOe, and the smallest ferromagnetic resonance line width became 387 Oe at 30 GHz. These data meant that these thick films have high self-biased property and low microwave loss, which makes sure that these samples can be applied in self-biased microwave/millimeter wave devices such as filters, circulators and isolators.
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Hyunsoonleella jejuensis gen. nov., sp nov., a novel member of the family Flavobacteriaceae isolated from seawater. A novel marine, Gram-staining-negative, yellow-pigmented, rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated CNU004(T), was isolated from a seawater sample collected on the coastline of Jeju Island, South Korea. The strain was strictly aerobic, non-flagellated, non-gliding and oxidase- and catalase-positive. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain CNU004(T) belongs to a distinct lineage in the family Flavobacteriaceae. Strain CNU004(T) exhibited levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 93.8-93.9% to its nearest phylogenetic neighbours, members of the genera Gaetbulibacter, Yeosuana and Algibacter. The new isolate required sea salts or artificial seawater for growth. The optimum ranges of temperature and pH for growth were 30-35 degrees C and pH 7.0-8.0. The DNA G+C content of strain CNU004(T) was 37.7 mol%. The major fatty acids were iso-C-15:0, iso-C-15:1 G, iso-C-17:0 3-OH and iso-C-15:0 3-OH. Menaquinone-6 was the major respiratory quinone. Zeaxanthin was the major carotenoid pigment produced, and flexirubin-type pigments were not produced. Strain CNU004(T) was able to degrade starch and agar. Based on its phenotypic and genotypic characteristics and on the phylogenetic evidence presented, strain CNU004(T) is considered to represent a novel species of a new genus in the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Hyunsoonleella jejuensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Hyunsoonleella jejuensis sp. nov. is CNU004(T) (=KCTC 22242(T) =DSM 21035(T)).
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The Scaling of Genome Size and Cell Size Limits Maximum Rates of Photosynthesis with Implications for Ecological Strategies. A central challenge in plant ecology is to define the major axes of plant functional variation with direct consequences for fitness. Central to the three main components of plant fitness (growth, survival, and reproduction) is the rate of metabolic conversion of CO2 into carbon that can be allocated to various structures and functions. Here we (1) argue that a primary constraint on the maximum rate of photosynthesis per unit leaf area is the size and packing density of cells and (2) show that variation in genome size is a strong predictor of cell sizes, packing densities, and the maximum rate of photosynthesis across terrestrial vascular plants. Regardless of the genic content associated with variation in genome size, the simple biophysical constraints of encapsulating the genome define the lower limit of cell size and the upper limit of cell packing densities, as well as the range of possible cell sizes and densities. Genome size, therefore, acts as a first-order constraint on carbon gain and is predicted to define the upper limits of allocation to growth, reproduction, and defense. The strong effects of genome size on metabolism, therefore, have broad implications for plant biogeography and for other theories of plant ecology and suggest that selection on metabolism may have a role in genome size evolution.
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Microhabitat characteristics and reproductive status of male Euchordodes nigromaculatus (Nematomorpha). Ln a sample of 61 free-living, postparasitic male Euchordodes nigromaculatus collected from a mountain stream in New Zealand, we found that only large males are found in areas of high current velocity. Thirty-five of the 61 males still contained gametes; these worms were found in wider, deeper, and slower-flowing parts of the stream relative to worms that had released their gametes. These results suggest that the physical characteristics of the immediate microhabitat of male worms can determine their probability of mating.
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43
] |
Gender, gendered personality traits and radical right populist voting. Most previous research on radical right populist voting has revealed that men are substantially more likely to favour radical right parties than women. This article explores the interplay between gender, gendered personality traits - as measured by Bem's Sex Role Inventory - and radical right populist voting. To do so, it makes use of the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) Household Panel (2012 and 2013; N = 4328). The Logit regression analyses reveal no noticeable effect of feminine personality traits, but a significant and positive effect of masculine personality traits on supporting the Dutch radical right party, PVV. Women are significantly less likely to support the PVV, even once gendered personality traits are controlled for, and the effects of gendered personality traits are similar among women and men.
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[
5,
47,
49
] |
Distant Non-Obvious Mutations Influence the Activity of a Hyperthermophilic Pyrococcus furiosus Phosphoglucose Isomerase. The cupin-type phosphoglucose isomerase (PfPGI) from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus catalyzes the reversible isomerization of glucose-6-phosphate to fructose-6-phosphate. We investigated PfPGI using protein-engineering bioinformatics tools to select functionally-important residues based on correlated mutation analyses. A pair of amino acids in the periphery of PfPGI was found to be the dominant co-evolving mutation. The position of these selected residues was found to be non-obvious to conventional protein engineering methods. We designed a small smart library of variants by substituting the co-evolved pair and screened their biochemical activity, which revealed their functional relevance. Four mutants were further selected from the library for purification, measurement of their specific activity, crystal structure determination, and metal cofactor coordination analysis. Though the mutant structures and metal cofactor coordination were strikingly similar, variations in their activity correlated with their fine-tuned dynamics and solvent access regulation. Alternative, small smart libraries for enzyme optimization are suggested by our approach, which is able to identify non-obvious yet beneficial mutations.
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[
4,
39
] |
Non-Newtonian nanoliquids thin-film flow through a porous medium with magnetotactic microorganisms. Gravity-driven non-Newtonian nanoliquids (Casson and Williamson) thin-film flow through a porous medium containing both nanoparticles and magnetotactic microorganisms is analyzed using passively controlled nanofluid model boundary conditions. Buongiorn's nanofluid model is used. The thin bio-nanoliquid films contain the copper nanoparticles and magnetotactic microorganisms simulating the forced/free bioconvection in buoyancy-driven flow. The comparison between the role of both the thin nanoliquid films has carefully noticed and discussed the differences in behaviors in detail. The governing equations accompanying the boundary conditions of the problem are reduced to non-linear differential equations by applying particular transformations. These equations along with the boundary conditions are solved analytically by employing homotopy analysis method. The solution consists of the expressions of four different profiles, and with the help of different curves, these profiles are shown graphically and discussed for the impacts of each parameter.
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[
1,
15
] |
Effect of transmucosal corn syrup application on postoperative blood glucose concentrations in kittens. Methods This study was designed as a randomized controlled trial. Seventy-five kittens between the age of 8 and 16 weeks scheduled for surgical sterilization by gonadectomy at an animal shelter were enrolled. Kittens were randomly assigned to either a routine treatment group that received the shelter's typical postoperative application of corn syrup immediately following gonadectomy or to a control group that did not receive typical treatment. Three blood glucose measurements were obtained per kitten: baseline reading prior to preoperative examination, immediately postoperatively and 20 mins postoperatively. The median values of the 20 min postoperative blood glucose reading for the control and treatment groups were compared using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.Conclusions and relevance TM application of corn syrup did not affect postoperative blood glucose concentrations in kittens. Protocols that use routine TM administration of corn syrup in kittens should be re-evaluated.Results Postoperative application of corn syrup to the oral mucosa of kittens did not result in significant elevations in blood glucose compared with controls. No kitten was hypoglycemic (60 mg/dl) at any point during the study.Objectives The aim of the study was to determine the effect of a common clinical practice, the transmucosal (TM) application of corn syrup, on postoperative blood glucose concentrations in kittens.
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[
0,
10
] |
Charting unknown waters-On the role of surprise in flood risk assessment and management. Unexpected incidents, failures, and disasters are abundant in the history of flooding events. In this paper, we introduce the metaphors of terra incognita and terra maligna to illustrate unknown and wicked flood situations, respectively. We argue that surprise is a neglected element in flood risk assessment and management. Two sources of surprise are identified: (1) the complexity of flood risk systems, represented by nonlinearities, interdependencies, and nonstationarities and (2) cognitive biases in human perception and decision making. Flood risk assessment and management are particularly prone to cognitive biases due to the rarity and uniqueness of extremes, and the nature of human risk perception. We reflect on possible approaches to better understanding and reducing the potential for surprise and its adverse consequences which may be supported by conceptually charting maps that separate terra incognita from terra cognita, and terra maligna from terra benigna. We conclude that flood risk assessment and management should account for the potential for surprise and devastating consequences which will require a shift in thinking.
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[
4,
5,
36,
47
] |
Mechanical properties of nylon 6 fibers gel-spun from benzyl alcohol solution. The drawing behavior and mechanical properties of gel-spun nylon 6 fibers were investigated in relation to the growth rate and morphology of gels. The sol-gel transition temperature of a nylon G/benzyl alcohol solution increased with polymer concentration and, at higher concentration, appeared with gel melting. From the measurements of gelation time, the growth rate of gels was estimated assuming an Arrhenius type of gelation rate. It was found that gel growth of nylon 6 in benzyl alcohol was nearly three-dimensional, evidenced by the presence of spherical gels observed in the scanning electron microscope. A draw of as-spun fibers was performed at one-stage or two-stage hot drawing. Modulus and tenacity increased with increase of the draw ratio and were nearly independent of the draw temperature. A two-stage draw was more effective to obtain a higher modulus than that of the one-stage draw and it was ascribed to the difference in the molecular orientation mechanism. However, it was difficult to obtain a higher modulus than 6.2 GPa by the gel-spinning of nylon 6 in this study and it was regarded as a result of the presence of spherical gels which hindered the sample to elongate to a higher draw ratio. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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[
4,
33
] |
Impact of music on the dynamic perception of coffee and evoked emotions evaluated by temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) and emotions (TDE). The aim of the present work was to study the temporal effect of music on sensory perception and on the emotional changes while drinking coffee. Two different commercial filter coffees were evaluated by a group of 48 consumers using the Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) method. The description was performed in silence and also while listening to two different musical fragments: one with a \\'sweet\\' connotation and the other with a \\'bitter\\' one. Under the same conditions (drinking coffee with and without musical stimuli), a different group of 72 consumers evaluated their perceived emotions (joy, fear, neutral, rejection, disgust, surprise, sadness and anger) by Temporal Dominance of Emotions (TDE). Data was analyzed by dominance curves and by ANOVA and MANOVA of the durations of dominance (for emotions and sensations). Coffee perception, in both cases, was modified by the musical stimuli. The duration of dominance of bitter was increased in the presence of \\'bitter\\' music, while it decreased with the \\'sweet\\' music. Moreover, the sweet attribute was practically not chosen for describing the coffee on its own, but its choice and duration as dominant increased while listening to the \\'sweet\\' musical fragment. Music had a larger impact on the perceived emotions. The \\'sweet\\' music was related to the emotion of joy, which was accompanied by surprise and also some sadness when drinking coffee (regardless of the type of coffee being drunk). The \\'bitter\\' music was linked to the emotions anger and fear. The effect of \\'sonic seasoning\\' and translation of emotions with a familiar product was observed.
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[
0,
8
] |
Role of influenza and other respiratory viruses in admissions of adults to Canadian hospitals. Methods Admissions from Canada's national hospitalization database (Canadian Institute of Health Information), from 1994 /95 to 1999 /2000, were modeled as a function of proxy variables for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other viral activity, seasonality and trend using a Poisson regression model and stratified by age group.Conclusions Influenza, RSV, PIV and other respiratory viruses were all associated with morbidity requiring hospitalization, while influenza was responsible for peak respiratory admissions. The burden of health care utilization associated with respiratory viruses is appreciable beginning in the sixth decade and increases significantly with age.Objective We sought to estimate age-specific hospitalization rates attributed to influenza and other virus for adults.Results The average annual influenza-attributed hospitalization rate for all adults, 20 years of age or older, over the study period, which included three severe seasons, was an estimated 65 /100 000 population (95% CI 63-67). Among persons aged 65 and over, 270-340 admissions per 100 000 population per year were attributed to influenza, while 30-110, 60-90 and 130-350 per 100 000 were attributed to RSV, parainfluenza (PIV) and other respiratory viruses, respectively. Although marked season-to-season variation in age-specific hospitalization rates attributable to influenza was observed in persons 50 years of age and older, increasing risk with age was preserved at all time periods.
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[
2,
24,
20
] |
Characterizing the influence of matrix ductility on damage phenomenology in continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic laminates undergoing quasi-static indentation. The use of thermoplastic matrix was known to improve the impact properties of laminated composites. However, different ductility levels can exist in a single family of thermoplastic matrix, and this may consequently modify the damage phenomenology of thermoplastic composites. This paper focuses on the effect of matrix ductility on the out-of-plane properties of thermoplastic composites, which was studied through quasi-static indentation (QSI) test that may represent impact problem albeit the speed difference. We evaluated continuous glass-fiber reinforced polypropylene thermoplastic composites (GFPP), and selected homopolymer PP and copolymer PP that represent ductile and less ductile matrices, respectively. Several cross-ply laminates were selected to study the influence of ply thicknesses and relative orientation of interfaces on QSI properties of GFPP. It is expected that GFPP with ductile matrix improves energy absorption of GFPP. However, the damage mechanism is completely different between GFPP with ductile and GFPP with less ductile matrices. GFPP with ductile matrix exhibits smaller damage zone in comparison to the one with less ductile matrix. Higher matrix ductility inhibits the growth of ply cracking along the fiber, and this causes the limited size of delamination. The stacking sequence poses more influence on less ductile composites rather than the ductile one.
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[
1,
11,
12
] |
(Gas)-Liquid-Solid Circulating Fluidized Bed Reactors: Characteristics and Applications. Accepting considerable advantages of circulating fluidized beds (CFBs) over the conventional fluidized beds, there has been numerous studies on CFBs concentrating primarily on the development of gas-solid circulating fluidized beds (GSCFBs). However a Substantial amount of research has also been devoted to other two types of CFBs, namely liquid-solid and gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized beds (LS and GLSCFBs). In this effort, an attempt has been mde to summarize and review the research and progresses made on the last two types of CFBs since the highlighting of their hydrodynamics and potential applications in various industries by Zhu et al. [Can. J. Chem. Eng. 2000, 78, 82-94]. The issues associated with its hydrodynamics, scale-up, and design have been discussed with a re-emphasis on its potential application for various cost-effective processes.
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[
1,
16
] |
The Women of Ciudad Juarez: Murder, Disapearance, Silence and Translation in the Works of Roberto Bolano and Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez. Where does fiction start and the document end? Roberto Bolano's 2666 and Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez' Huesos en el desierto deal with the same topic: the real murder of three hundred women around the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez. Both works treat these events by pushing the limits of the genre either is supposed to belong to. Bolano's work is supposed to be a work of fiction, Rodriguez' is generally considered to be a work of documentary prose. Comparing the two texts, both of which muddy the limits between fiction and non-fiction, testifies to the porosity of generic frontiers in contemporary writing, and puts into question their pertinence.
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[
3,
25
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RELATIONSHIPS OF THE SPECIES OF ARMIGATUS (CLUPEOMORPHA, ELLIMMICHTHYIFORMES) AND THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES FROM THE CRETACEOUS OF DALMATIA, CROATIA. The extinct clupeomorph genus Armigatus has been included in a number of phylogenetic analyses, with disagreement about its placement and relationships among the fishes of the extinct clupeomorph order Ellimmichthyiformes. There are currently four species known, all from the Late Cretaceous Tethys Sea. Here we describe a fifth species of Armigatus from Campanian deposits of Dalmatia and present a phylogenetic analysis of the genus. The new species is found to be sister group to A. oligodentatus from Morocco, and the two together form the sister group to the species from Lebanon, A. namourensis plus A. brevissimus (A. alticorpus was excluded because of lack of data). The genus Armigatus is found to be monophyletic, as are the included members of its sister group, Diplomystus, and the analysis supports the grouping of these two genera in the family Armigatidae. The relationships among the species of Armigatus indicate that these fishes arose in the eastern part of the central Tethys, then from there reached more northern (Dalmatian) and western (Morocco) areas.
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[
4,
36
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The German question in Jakarta Indonesia in West Germany's foreign policy, 1955-65. This article explores a hitherto unexamined chapter of German Cold War politics: West Germany's relations with Indonesia between 1955 and 1965. Indonesia was a peculiar case, as in the late 1950s and early 1960s, President Sukarno turned his country into a radical champion of 'anti-imperialism'. This included actions directed against the Netherlands, Britain, Malaysia, and the United States. As part of a comprehensive strategy to isolate East Germany in the 'Third World', West German diplomacy nevertheless tried to maintain solid relations with Sukarno's increasingly unpredictable Indonesia, even if that meant undermining the position of Western allies.
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[
3,
28
] |
Plessy as 'passing': Judicial responses to ambiguously raced bodies in Plessy v. Ferguson. The Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) is infamous for its doctrine of \\'separate but equal,\\' which gave constitutional legitimacy to Jim Crow segregation laws. What is less-known about the case is that the appellant Homer Plessy was, by all appearances, a white man. In the language of the Court, his \\'one-eighth African blood\\' was \\'not discernible in him.\\' This article analyzes Plessy as a story of racial \\'passing.\\' The existence of growing interracial populations in the nineteenth century created difficulties for legislation designed to enforce the separation of the races. Courts were increasingly called upon to determine the racial identity of particular individuals. Seen as a judicial response to racial ambiguity, Plessy demonstrates the law's role not only in the treatment of racial groups, but also in the construction and maintenance of racial categories.
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[
3,
5,
26,
51
] |
Soil microbial activity and biomass in the primary succession of a dry heath forest. Changes in vegetation, soil organic matter content, soil nutrient concentration, microbial activity and microbial biomass were studied in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forests on the post-glacial land uplift island of Hailuoto in Finland, along altitudinal transects representing about 1000 years of primary succession. The characteristics of microbial communities in the humus layer were compared both within altitude classes and within TWINSPAN (two-way indicator species analysis) clusters of field layer vegetation. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was employed to reveal gradients in the data. During succession, the vegetation changed from dominance by bryophytes and deciduous dwarf shrubs to evergreen dwarf shrubs and lichens. The thickness of the humus layer and the amount of organic matter in the soil decreased along the succession, which in turn reduced microbial biomass, microbial activity and soil nutrients when calculated on an areal basis. The nutrient concentration of the soil OM (organic matter) showed no successional trend on a concentration basis but the C-to-N ratio of organic matter increased with increasing soil age and lichen coverage. Thus, the nutrient availability decreased during succession but this could not be demonstrated by calculating results against unit weight of organic matter. Soil basal respiration and microbial biomass increased during the succession when calculated per unit weight of organic matter. The successional decrease in site productivity appeared to be due to leaching of nutrients from the sandy mineral soil and thinning of the humus layer. Plants and soil microbes became increasingly N limited during the course of the succession, suggesting the increased importance of mycorrhizal symbiosis for plant performance and increased energy costs among soil microbes in nutrient uptake. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
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[
0,
6
] |
Investigation of debonding growth between composite skins and corrugated foam-composite core in sandwich panels under bending loading. This study investigates experimentally and numerically the resistance to separation between composite skins and different complex geometries of the corrugated core filled with PVC foam. To this purpose, three different geometries including simple foam core without any corrugated composite, longitudinal trapezoid, and square cores are considered and manufactured as waved (corrugated) composite core. In each specimen, an artificial pre-crack is located between the skin and core and then the effect of the skin's thickness and the core shaped on the debonding growth are examined for the first time. Three-point bending tests are carried out using ENS (End Notch Shear) fixture. Furthermore, the nonlinear response due to separation initiation and propagation between the skins and the core is investigated by employing the cohesive zone model (CZM) using ABAQUS finite element software. In fact a finite element model has developed to simulate debonding in sandwiched structures, and experimentally validated the model with the aim to improve the performance of sandwiched structures. A good agreement is found between the experimental and numerical results. According to the results, between the longitudinal trapezoid, and square cores, for the same increased in the weight percentage of sandwich panel, the square core is suggested as an optimal design having the highest bonding strength.
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[
1,
12
] |
On Testing the Extent of Noncircularity. In this correspondence, we provide a multiple hypothesis test to detect the number of latent noncircular signals in a complex Gaussian random vector. Our method sequentially tests the results of individual generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) statistics with known asymptotic distributions to form the multiple hypothesis detector. Specifically, we are able to set a threshold yielding a precise probability of error. This test can be used to statistically determine if a given complex observation is circular Gaussian, and if not, how many latent signals in the observation are noncircular. Simulations are used to quantify the performance of the detector as compared to a detector based on the minimum description length (MDL) criterion. The utility of the detector is shown by applying it to a beamforming application using independent component analysis (ICA).
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[
1,
14
] |
Self-injurious behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder enrolled in the Study to Explore Early Development. We assessed potential factors associated with current or ever self-injurious behaviors, reported in the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, among children with autism spectrum disorder (n=692) from the Study to Explore Early Development. Data on factors examined were obtained from questionnaires, standardized clinical instruments, and birth certificates. We employed a log-binomial regression to assess these associations. Although most associations were quite similar for currently and ever exhibiting self-injurious behaviors, a few differences were noted. We documented previously unreported associations of current self-injurious behaviors with maternal age and cesarean delivery, and ever self-injurious behaviors with maternal age, child sex, gestational age, and maternal race. We also confirmed previously reported associations with adaptive skills, somatic conditions (sleep, gastrointestinal, and sensory abnormalities), and other behavioral problems. These findings are informative for clinical practice and future research.
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[
5,
50
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Liberalism and the Criminal Trial. This article offers a sketch of two aspects of a liberal theory of the criminal trial. It does so by examining the criminal court first as an institution of the liberal state and second as a liberal institution of the state. Part II proposes a conception of the adversarial trial primarily as a process of holding the executive to account on its request for conviction and punishment. In some jurisdictions, the perceived need for a strong system of checks and balances has led to an expansion of the judicial role to include oversight of the executive in its exercise of investigatory powers. This expansion is resisted in other jurisdictions where a more restrictive view is taken of the court's political responsibility. Part III considers how liberal principles are reflected in the common law form of criminal proceedings; it examines the importance of a 'fair trial' or 'due process'; and, it proposes an understanding of the trial not merely as a means of bringing criminals to justice but, more importantly, as a matter of doing justice to the accused.
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[
3,
26
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Diggings by feral pigs within the wet tropics world heritage area of north Queensland. The association of ground-digging activity of feral pigs with a range of environmental variables was examined in the wet tropics World Heritage Area of north Queensland. Approximately 4% of the surveyed ground was disturbed by digging activity of feral pigs. Significant differences in diggings were detected between highland and lowland areas and between habitat types. Diggings were more prevalent in lowland areas and coastal swamp habitats. Diggings were positively associated with roads, tracks and moist drainage lines.
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[
4,
34,
43
] |
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