bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
VALOR DE MERCADO E FUNDAMENTOS CONTÁBEIS: uma avaliação a partir de modelos uni e multivariados de previsão.
Authors: Campos Octávio Valente , Lamounier Wagner Moura , Bressan Aureliano Angel
Published: September 2015

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi comparar a rentabilidade de carteiras formadas a partir dos melhores modelos de previsão univariados e multivariados, identificando a relevância da informação contábil. Tal comparação foi feita por meio do uso de previsões com os modelos ARIMA (univariados) e os modelos VAR (multivariados). Os indicadores contábeis e os retornos das ações foram utilizados como dados de entrada para a geração das previsões e consequente formação de carteiras de investimentos – a série temporal de análise inicia-se em 30/03/1994, findando-se em 30/09/2011, com dados trimestrais. Dentro de uma amostra de 20 empresas, as carteiras de investimento foram composta pelas 5 empresas com maior rentabilidade prevista, comparando-se posteriormente as rentabilidades das carteiras formadas pelos modelos univariados contra as carteiras formadas pelos modelos multivariados. Os resultados apontaram que, de forma geral, que as previsões baseadas em modelos multivariados tendem a fornecer aos investidores retornos superiores em investimentos de longo prazo (1 ano). Já os modelos univariados tendem a fornecer aos investidores retornos superiores em investimentos de custo prazo (1 trimestre). Assim, pode-se concluir que as informações contábeis em modelos de previsão apresentam maior relevância em estratégias de longo prazo. 
Susceptibility Loci for Clinical Coronary Artery Disease and Subclinical Coronary Atherosclerosis Throughout the Life-Course
Authors: Salfati Elias , Nandkeolyar Shuktika , Fortmann Stephen P. , Sidney Stephen , Hlatky Mark A. , Quertermous Thomas , Go Alan S. , Iribarren Carlos , Herrington David M. , Goldstein Benjamin A. , Assimes Themistocles L.
Published: September 2015

Background—

Recent genome-wide association studies have identified 49 single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with clinical coronary artery disease. The mechanism by which these loci influence risk remains largely unclear.

Methods and Results—

We examined the association between a genetic risk score composed of high-risk alleles at the 49 single nucleotide polymorphisms and the degree of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis in 7798 participants from 6 studies stratified into 4 age groups at the time of assessment (15–34, 35–54, 55–74, and >75 years). Atherosclerosis was quantified by staining and direct visual inspection of the right coronary artery in the youngest group and by scanning for coronary artery calcification in the remaining groups. We defined cases as subjects within the top quartile of degree of atherosclerosis in 3 groups and as subjects with a coronary artery calcium score >0 in the fourth (35–54 years) where less than one quarter had any coronary artery calcium. In our meta-analysis of all strata, we found 1-SD increase in the genetic risk score increased the risk of advanced subclinical coronary atherosclerosis by 36% (
P
=8.3×10
−25
). This increase in risk was significant in all 4 age groups including the youngest group where atherosclerosis consisted primarily of raised lesions without macroscopic evidence of plaque rupture or thrombosis. Results were similar when we restricted the genetic risk score to 32 single nucleotide polymorphisms not associated with traditional risk factors or when we adjusted for traditional risk factors.

Conclusions—

A genetic risk score for clinical coronary artery disease is associated with advanced subclinical coronary atherosclerosis throughout the life-course. This association is apparent even at the earliest, uncomplicated stages of atherosclerosis.
Fixed and Modifiable Correlates of Drug-Eluting Stent Thrombosis From a Large All-Comers Registry
Authors: Brodie Bruce R. , Garg Ankit , Stuckey Thomas D. , Kirtane Ajay J. , Witzenbichler Bernhard , Maehara Akiko , Weisz Giora , Rinaldi Michael J. , Neumann Franz-Josef , Metzger D. Christopher , Mehran Roxana , Parvataneni Rupa , Stone Gregg W.
Published: September 2015

Background—

Previous studies evaluating correlates of stent thrombosis (ST) have included mostly patients with bare metal stents and early-generation drug-eluting stents (DES) and have not systematically evaluated the role of intravascular ultrasound–guided stenting and high platelet reactivity on clopidogrel. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency and correlates of ST in patients receiving DES, specifically examining the impact of risk factors modifiable by physician and patient behavior.

Methods and Results—

Assessment of Dual Anti-platelet Therapy With Drug-Eluting Stents (ADAPT-DES) was a multicenter, prospective study in patients undergoing successful coronary intervention with DES in whom routine platelet reactivity testing was performed. Definite or probable ST occurred in 92 (1.1%) of 8582 patients within 2 years. Independent baseline correlates of ST included presentation with an acute coronary syndrome (hazard ratio [HR]=1.81,
P
=0.01), insulin-treated diabetes mellitus (HR=1.91,
P
=0.02), previous myocardial infarction (HR=1.75,
P
=0.02), and peripheral arterial disease (HR=2.01,
P
=0.01). Independent treatment-related correlates included use of early generation DES (HR=1.75,
P
=0.02), no procedural intravascular ultrasound guidance (HR=1.75,
P
=0.04), and premature discontinuation of dual antiplatelet therapy (HR=2.67,
P
=0.003); high platelet reactivity on clopidogrel trended as a correlate of ST (HR=1.49,
P
=0.08). The 2-year risk of ST ranged from 0.3% to 10.0% when 0 to 3 modifiable risk factors were present.

Conclusions—

After successful DES implantation, ST occurred within 2 years in 1.1% of patients and was strongly associated with fixed and modifiable risk factors. The frequency of ST may be reduced with intravascular ultrasound –guided stenting, assiduous adherence to dual antiplatelet therapy, and adequate P2Y12 platelet receptor inhibition.

Clinical Trial Registration—

URL:
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov
. Unique identifier: NCT00638794.
Generation of Hypertension-Associated
STK39
Polymorphism Knockin Cell Lines With the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Cas9 System
Authors: Mandai Shintaro , Mori Takayasu , Sohara Eisei , Rai Tatemitsu , Uchida Shinichi
Published: September 2015

Previous genome-wide association studies identified serine threonine kinase 39 (
STK39
), encoding STE20/SPS1-related proline/alanine-rich kinase, as one of a limited number of hypertension susceptibility genes. A recent meta-analysis confirmed the association of
STK39
intronic polymorphism rs3754777 with essential hypertension, among previously reported hypertension-associated
STK39
polymorphisms. However, the biochemical function of this polymorphism in the mechanism responsible for hypertension is yet to be clarified. We generated rs3754777G>A knockin human cell lines with clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-mediated genome engineering. Homozygous (A/A) and heterozygous (G/A) knockin human embryonic kidney cell lines were generated using a double nickase, single-guide RNAs targeting
STK39
intron 5 around single-nucleotide polymorphism, and a 100-bp donor single-stranded DNA oligonucleotide. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction with sequencing analyses revealed the identical
STK39
transcripts among the wild-type and both knockin cell lines. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction showed increased
STK39
mRNA expression, and immunoblot analysis revealed increases in total and phosphorylated STE20/SPS1-related proline/alanine-rich kinase with increased phosphorylated Na–K–Cl cotransporter isoform 1 in both knockin cell lines. The largest increases in these molecules were observed in the homozygous cell line. These findings indicated that this intronic polymorphism increases
STK39
transcription, leading to activation of the STE20/SPS1-related proline/alanine-rich kinase–solute carrier family 12A signaling cascade. Increased interactions between STE20/SPS1-related proline/alanine-rich kinase and the target cation–chloride cotransporters may be responsible for hypertension susceptibility in individuals with this polymorphism.
Boys, Girls, and Kodaks
Authors: Ryzova Lucie
Published: September 2015

This essay looks at a little studied genre of photographic albums—‘peer albums’—created by young Egyptian men and women through the middle decades of the twentieth century. These strongly gendered albums are characterized by the visual exclusion of social seniors, and were typically kept hidden from them. As photographic objects embedded in particular social relationships and contexts, these albums speak of how a classed and gendered self emerged in early- to mid-twentieth-century Egypt through a range of practices, of which photography-making (and album-making) was part. But photography also had its own agency in engendering new practices. The social efficacy of vernacular photographs was predicated on a combination of photographic indexicality and performativity. Through the making of such albums, young modernity-claiming Egyptians were asserting, performing and negotiating the parameters of their middle-class urbanity, their emerging positions as modern gendered subjects and as adolescents. Together with the range of peer activities in which they were embedded, these albums represented zones of autonomy free from patriarchal control, but still nested within larger patriarchal structures. Ultimately these albums show how particular historical subjects come to be through engagements with objects; and how patriarchy and individualism construct each other.
Beirut by Night
Authors: Buchakjian Gregory
Published: September 2015

Over the past century, Beirut has acquired a reputation as the nightlife destination of choice in the region. Photography was and remains a privileged witness of the proverbial ‘Beirut nights’. In this essay I trace the history of the genre of nightlife photography in Beirut over the past century, from the grand ball era of the Mandate period to informal underground nightlife during the civil war and its aftermath; to the rise of the nightlife image-making industry in the 1990s and 2000s. I pay particular attention to the ways in which technological developments interplayed with historical and social contingencies in Lebanon—such as the Lebanese civil war and the disintegration of barriers between private and public spheres in the age of social media. Recast as art, digital nightlife photography is responsible for the erosion of ‘vulgarity’ as a social category under the twin pressures of neoliberalism and technological development; it also plays a major role in the contemporary branding of Beirut on a global scale.
From Palestine to the Canadian Diaspora
Authors: Musleh-Motut Nawal
Published: September 2015

In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled from Palestine to Canada and depict my parents’ lives in pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank and Jordan, and cover multiple generations from the 1930s to the present day. In this work I answer previously unattended questions; for instance, how and to what extend did the social and cultural meaning of these photographs change as they were removed from the photographic traditions of the Middle East where they were produced and relocated to Canada with my parents? What social and cultural value did these photographs hold for me and my siblings as members of the postmemory generation growing up in Canada and has this significance shifted now that we are adults? Finally, what importance might this photographic archive come to have for my siblings’ children? Utilizing the photographic album that houses the bulk of the family’s photographs produced in Palestine and Jordan as an instrument of social and oral performance, I analyze how the members of my family narrate the multiple and fluid memories, investments and realities that these photographs facilitate.
The Afterlives of Violent Images
Authors: Yaqub Nadia
Published: September 2015

This article examines the posting of photographs on two Facebook groups created by survivors of the 1976 fall of the Tal al-Zaʾtar refugee camp and their descendants. What happens to photographs as they circulate through these particular social media groups, and what relations do people (including photographed subjects who appear in images of atrocity and trauma) create with such images as they circulate in new ways? How are they mobilized through social media to create and sustain collective memory? I argue that by addressing the yearning to discover, document and sustain networks of affiliation and association on one hand and a shared geography, lost in 1976 and virtually reconstructed through members’ activities on the sites on the other, group members appeal in complex ways to both indexical and iconic qualities of photographs, thereby allowing for the creative engagement with a collective past for the needs of community members in the present.
Re-Envisioning Iran Online
Authors: Walton Shireen
Published: September 2015

Digital photography and the Internet play important roles in contemporary cultures. They can create semiotic spaces in which ‘local’ imaginaries are projected in ‘global’ frames and cultural representations can be collectively challenged. This article discusses the genre of popular photography and its convergence with the Iranian social web in the form of photoblogs (photography-oriented blogs). It describes how everyday images posted on photoblogs playfully move beyond representative tropes that constitute a visual legacy in contemporary Iran. The findings provide insights into contemporary Iranian online visual-cultural production and develop wider theoretical understandings of the social uses of digital photography, including notions of ‘everyday aesthetics’. The ways in which Iranian photobloggers select, curate, exhibit and manipulate personal digital photographs on their photoblogs are shown to be exemplary of a contemporary ethnographic ‘digital-visual moment’ of popular cultural storytelling, existing at the interface of local and global, as well as actual and virtual publics.
The Otto C. Berg types at the Natural History Museum, Vienna
Authors: Escobar García Pedro , Hille Astrid , Lucas Eve , Rainer Heimo
Published: September 2015

Over six years and before his premature death in 1866, the German botanist Otto C. Berg described more than 2100 taxa of Myrtaceae, one of the ten richest plant families on Earth. He made the most fruitful contribution to the taxonomy of this family by describing the largest part of its known biodiversity in the Neotropics. The Herbarium of the Natural History Museum of Vienna (W) holds a significant part of the Herbarium brasiliense, a seminal collection for Berg’s work, currently including the types of 25% of his names. In this contribution, we present a complete, annotated catalogue of O. Berg’s Myrtaceae names and nomenclatural types held at W with the purpose of supporting taxonomic work on the group.
Five new species in the idiocerine genus Busonia Distant (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Idiocerinae) from Thailand and Malaysia, with one new record from China
Authors: XUE QINGQUAN , ZHANG YALIN
Published: September 2015

Six species in the genus Busonia Distant are described and illustrated, including five new species from Thailand and Malaysia: Busonia curvata, B. fusca, B. lactata, B. micrata, B. serrata, spp. nov., and one newly recorded species from China: Busonia albilateralis Maldonado-Capriles. A redescription of this genus is provided together with a key to species for separation of males.
Global Distribution of the Skill of Tropical Cyclone Activity Forecasts on Short- to Medium-Range Time Scales
Authors: Yamaguchi Munehiko , Vitart Frédéric , Lang Simon T. K. , Magnusson Linus , Elsberry Russell L. , Elliott Grant , Kyouda Masayuki , Nakazawa Tetsuo
Published: September 2015

Operational global medium-range ensemble forecasts of tropical cyclone (TC) activity (genesis plus the subsequent track) are systematically evaluated to understand the skill of the state-of-the-art ensembles in forecasting TC activity as well as the relative benefits of a multicenter grand ensemble with respect to a single-model ensemble. The global ECMWF, JMA, NCEP, and UKMO ensembles are evaluated from 2010 to 2013 in seven TC basins around the world. The verification metric is the Brier skill score (BSS), which is calculated within a 3-day time window over a forecast length of 2 weeks to examine the skill from short- to medium-range time scales (0–14 days). These operational global medium-range ensembles are capable of providing guidance on TC activity forecasts that extends into week 2. Multicenter grand ensembles (MCGEs) tend to have better forecast skill (larger BSSs) than does the best single-model ensemble, which is the ECMWF ensemble in most verification time windows and most TC basins. The relative benefit of the MCGEs is relatively large in the north Indian Ocean and TC basins in the Southern Hemisphere where the BSS of the single-model ensemble is relatively small. The BSS metric and the reliability are found to be sensitive to the choice of threshold wind values that are used to define the model TCs.
Liver Function is Associated With Response to Clopidogrel Therapy in Patients Undergoing Angioplasty and Stenting
Authors: Gremmel Thomas , Mueller Markus , Koppensteiner Renate , Panzer Simon
Published: September 2015

The relationship between liver function and clopidogrel response has not been studied so far. We therefore sought to investigate the associations between 3 parameters of liver synthesis and on-treatment platelet reactivity to adenosine diphosphate in patients on dual antiplatelet therapy. On-treatment platelet reactivity was determined by the VerifyNow P2Y12 assay in 316 patients undergoing angioplasty with stent implantation for cardiovascular disease. Cholinesterase, serum albumin, and total cholesterol levels were measured by internationally standardized assays in the hospital’s central laboratory. On-treatment platelet reactivity by the VerifyNow P2Y12 assay correlated inversely with cholinesterase, serum albumin, and total cholesterol levels (all P ≤ .02). The inverse associations of cholinesterase and serum albumin levels with platelet reactivity remained significant after adjustment for cytochrome P450 loss-of-function polymorphisms and other factors that were previously associated with high on-treatment residual platelet reactivity (HRPR; both P < .05). Patients without HRPR by the VerifyNow P2Y12 assay had significantly higher levels of serum albumin and total cholesterol than patients with HRPR (both P = .008). In conclusion, liver function is associated with response to clopidogrel therapy in patients undergoing angioplasty and stenting for cardiovascular disease.
GREMLIN 2 Mutations and Dental Anomalies
Authors: Kantaputra P.N. , Kaewgahya M. , Hatsadaloi A. , Vogel P. , Kawasaki K. , Ohazama A. , Ketudat Cairns J.R.
Published: September 2015

Isolated or nonsyndromic tooth agenesis or hypodontia is the most common human malformation. It has been associated with mutations in MSX1, PAX9, EDA, AXIN2, EDAR, EDARADD, and WNT10A. GREMLIN 2 (GREM2) is a strong bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) antagonist that is known to regulate BMPs in embryogenesis and tissue development. Bmp4 has been shown to have a role in tooth development. Grem2–/– mice have small, malformed maxillary and mandibular incisors, indicating that Grem2 has important roles in normal tooth development. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that GREM2 mutations are associated with human malformations, which include isolated tooth agenesis, microdontia, short tooth roots, taurodontism, sparse and slow-growing hair, and dry and itchy skin. We sequenced WNT10A, WNT10B, MSX1, EDA, EDAR, EDARADD, AXIN2, and PAX9 in all 7 patients to rule out the effects of other ectodermal dysplasias and other tooth-related genes and did not find mutations in any of them. GREM2 mutations exhibit variable expressivity even within the same families. The inheritance is autosomal dominant with incomplete penetrance. The expression of Grem2 during the early development of mouse teeth and hair follicles and the evaluation of the likely effects of the mutations on the protein structure substantiate these new findings.
Resource rents, balance of power, and political stability
Authors: Bjorvatn Kjetil , Farzanegan Mohammad Reza
Published: September 2015

We study the association between natural resource rents and internal political stability, highlighting the importance of the distribution of political power as a mediating factor. We present a simple theoretical model demonstrating that increased rents are likely to be positively associated with the internal stability of a powerful incumbent while destabilizing a less powerful incumbent. Our empirical analysis confirms this prediction. Employing panel data for more than 120 countries from the period 1984–2009, our estimation results demonstrate that resource rents can promote political stability but only when political power is sufficiently concentrated. Indeed, if the incumbent is sufficiently weak, rents fuel instability. Our main results hold when we control for the effects of income, quality of institutions (rule of law, democratic accountability and corruption), persistence of political stability, time-varying common shocks, country fixed effects, possible endogeneity of rents and power balance to political stability, and various additional covariates. Our analysis departs from the existing literature by emphasizing not (only) the type of government, but rather the strength of government, as a key determinant of the impact of resource rents on political stability. This analysis sheds light on current political transformations and reconfigurations in the resource rich Middle East and North Africa.
Spiral of Political Learning: The Reciprocal Relationship of News Media Use and Political Knowledge Among Adolescents
Authors: Moeller Judith , de Vreese Claes
Published: September 2015

This study investigates the dynamics of the reciprocal influence of political knowledge and attentive news use. News media are an important source for political information and contribute to political learning. Yet, this process is optimized with increasing levels of pre-existing knowledge about the political world. In extant literature, mutual interdependence is often suggested, but empirical proof is scarce. We propose to conceptualize the relationship of knowledge and news use as an upward spiral. The model is tested on data from a three-wave panel survey among 888 adolescents using growth curve modeling. The results support the model of a spiral of political learning. Interestingly, the influence of political knowledge on news use is estimated to be higher than the other way round.
For the unruly subject the covenant, for the Christian sovereign the grace of God
Authors: Phillips James
Published: September 2015

This article proposes that Hobbes runs two different arguments for sovereignty in Leviathan. The one is polemical and takes up the notion of a covenant from early-modern resistance theory in order to redeploy it in the cause of absolutism. The other is biblical and constructs an image of the sovereign whose authority is a Mosaic legacy. The one argument is addressed to the unruly subject and teaches obedience, whereas the other is addressed to the sovereign and sets out the positive vocation of a Christian ruler. The conjunction of secular materialism and divine right in Leviathan becomes less puzzling when the book’s addressees are differentiated. By depriving the subject of any right of appeal to God in protest against the sovereign, Hobbes dismantles one of the bulwarks of early-modern resistance. This motive for secularism has understandably no role to play in Hobbes’ conception of the sovereign. Indeed, as far as facilitating the sovereign’s biblically framed vocation is concerned, the secularism of Leviathan is arguably simply a means to an end.
Religious Memetics
Authors: Burroughs Benjamin , Feller Gavin
Published: September 2015

Recently leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) faith have called upon members to “sweep the earth” with positive religious messages through social media. This digital moment in Mormonism exemplifies the interrelation and concomitant tension between everyday lived religion, technology, and religious institutions. While studies on digital religion have emphasized the push of participatory culture into everyday lived religion, this research on religious memes contributes to an emergent vein of digital religion scholarship focused on institutional authority. In our analysis of the “doubt your doubts” meme and antimemes we theorize religious memetics as a space for the reconnection of the everydayness of religious practice, which boils down meaningful moments of faith into facile, nonthreatening avenues for sharing religion. While this is beneficial for institutions, the reflexive and metonymic function of religious memes ruptures routine, offering participants momentary pauses from the demands of orthodox religious life.
Power, Gender, and Ethnic Spaces
Authors: Schneeweis Adina
Published: September 2015

This study examines the inextricable (and understudied) link between ethnicity, gender, power, and space, to assess how gender and power relations operate in, and mark, the ethnic spaces of one community of Roma in Romania. Drawing from ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with Romani women who work as health mediators, this article identifies and theorizes the negotiated meanings that arise among the mediators’ roles and spaces. I argue that perceptions of the mediators’ power roles change between institutional landscapes (spaces of hegemonic directives), Romani communities (conceived space where the women have symbolic control), and the lived space of resistance and internalized discrimination; the latter is both an active constituent of, and a challenge to, racism against the Roma.
Discovering the hidden benefits of cognitive interviewing in two languages: The first phase of a validation study of the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale
Authors: Schildmann Eva K , Groeneveld E Iris , Denzel Johannes , Brown Alice , Bernhardt Florian , Bailey Katharine , Guo Ping , Ramsenthaler Christina , Lovell Natasha , Higginson Irene J , Bausewein Claudia , Murtagh Fliss EM
Published: September 2015

Background:

The Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale is a newly developed advancement of the Palliative care Outcome Scale. It assesses patient-reported symptoms and other concerns. Cognitive interviewing is recommended for questionnaire refinement but not adopted widely in palliative care research.

Aim:

To explore German- and English-speaking patients’ views on the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale with a focus on comprehensibility and acceptability, and subsequently refine the questionnaire.

Methods:

Bi-national (United Kingdom/Germany) cognitive interview study using ‘think aloud’ and verbal probing techniques. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis and pre-defined categories. Results from both countries were collated and discussed. The Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale was then refined by consensus.

Setting/participants:

Purposely sampled patients from four palliative care teams in palliative care units, general hospital wards and in the community.

Results:

A total of 15 German and 10 UK interviews were conducted. Overall, comprehension and acceptability of the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale were good. Identified difficulties comprised the following: (1) comprehension problems with specific terms (e.g. ‘mouth problems’) and length of answer options; (2) judgement difficulties, for example, due to the 3-day recall for questions; and (3) layout problems. Combining the results from both countries (e.g. regarding ‘felt good about yourself’) and discussing them from both languages’ perspectives resulted in wider consideration of the items’ meaning, enabling more detailed refinement.

Conclusion:

Cognitive interviewing proved valuable to increase face and content validity of the questionnaire. The concurrent approach in two languages – to our knowledge the first such approach in palliative care – benefited the refinement. Psychometric validation of the refined Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale is now underway.
The politics of care in technoscience
Authors: Martin Aryn , Myers Natasha , Viseu Ana
Published: September 2015

Care is a slippery word. Any attempt to define it will be exceeded by its multivocality in everyday and scholarly use. In its enactment, care is both necessary to the fabric of biological and social existence and notorious for the problems that it raises when it is defined, legislated, measured, and evaluated. What care looks and feels like is both context-specific and perspective-dependent. Yet, this elusiveness does not mean that it lacks importance. In our engagements with the worlds that we study, construct, and inhabit, we cannot but care: care is an essential part of being a researcher and a citizen. To properly invite you into this Special Issue, then, we need to say something about what we mean when we write about care.
The Universal Procedure for Library Assessment
Authors: Capiau Sam , de Valk Marijn , Wuyts Eva
Published: September 2015

To project the needs for conserving and preserving special collections in libraries, the Flanders Heritage Library foundation developed the Universal Procedure for Library Assessment (UPLA), a model for damage assessment. This tool allows libraries to independently survey the physical condition of their collections. It also provides Flanders Heritage Library with the opportunity to collect much-needed statistics for policy making. UPLA describes the condition of the collection as a whole, based on a random sample of 300 items. Each of these items is assessed on 22 types of damage. Because of the systematic approach of the method, the results can be used for benchmarking: both over time and between libraries.
Digitization of Indian manuscripts heritage
Authors: Sahoo Jyotshna , Mohanty Basudev
Published: September 2015

India has the distinction of having one of the most ancient, richest and largest collections of manuscripts in the world. These manuscripts which are available in different forms, languages, scripts and cover a wide range of subjects are a powerful medium for the preservation of Indian cultural heritage. But the preservation of these manuscripts is a serious problem for the custodians of manuscripts because of the hot and humid climate of the country. In this context the present paper gives an account of the commendable efforts rendered by the National Mission for Manuscripts since its inception in 2003 by establishing and strengthening 57 manuscript resource centres, 50 manuscript conservation centres and developing a National Database of Manuscripts. It also presents the current status of digitization of Indian cultural heritage in the form of manuscripts starting from its collection to the development of a Digital Manuscript Library for global access.
Cultural heritage digitization projects in Algeria
Authors: Ghamouh Nadjia , Boulahlib Meriem
Published: September 2015

Currently, the Algerian National Library is striving to digitize Algerian cultural heritage. This exercise became imperative due to physical damage to manuscripts when they were handled during reading. This case study aims to shed light on the challenges of manuscripts and rare books digitization in the Algerian context. In addition, this paper clarifies the Algerian National Library’s aspirations and plans to make manuscripts and rare books digitization a thriving endeavor.
Comparison of alternative remediation technologies for recycled gravel contaminated with heavy metals
Authors: Gao Xiaofeng , Gu Yilu , Huang Sheng , Zhen Guangyin , Deng Guannan , Xie Tian , Zhao Youcai
Published: September 2015

To evaluate the effects of different remediation methods on heavy metals contaminated recycled gravel, three immobilization agents (monopotassium phosphate, lime, nano-iron) and two mobilization agents (glyphosate, humic acid (HA)) were studied and compared. Results indicated that nano-iron powder was found to be more effective to immobilize Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd. Meanwhile, glyphosate presents a higher mobilization effect than HA with removal rates of about 66.7% for Cd, more than 80% for Cr, Cu and Zn, and the highest removal percentage of 85.9% for Cr. After the mobilization by glyphosate, the leaching rates of Zn, Cu and Cr were about 0.8%, and below 0.2% for Pb and Cd. The leaching rates after nano-iron powder treatment were 1.18% for Zn, 0.96% for Cr, 0.61% for Cu, 0.45% for Pb and Cd not detected. The formation and disappearance of metal (Zn/Cu/Cr/Pb/Cd) compounds were firmly confirmed through X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses on crystalline phases and morphological surface structures.
Local Health Integration Networks
Authors: MacLeod Hugh
Published: September 2015

This article provides a high-level overview on the creation of Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) and illustrates the complexities involved in their implementation. To understand regional structures such as LHINs, one must understand the context in which design and execution takes place. The article ends with a commentary on how Ontario is performing post-LHINs and discusses next steps.
Improving Caregivers’ Perceptions Regarding Patient Goals of Care/End-of-Life Issues for the Multidisciplinary Critical Care Team
Authors: Wessman Brian T. , Sona Carrie , Schallom Marilyn
Published: September 2015

Objective:

With population aging and growth, use of critical care medicine at the end of life continues to rise, while many critical care providers are not adequately trained regarding goals of care/end-of-life (GOC/EOL) issues. A multidisciplinary intensive care unit (ICU) team intervention regarding GOC/EOL communication will enhance the clinical abilities of all critical care providers when discussing GOC/EOL issues and increase ICU staff comfort level while improving transitions for patients to a comfort care approach.

Design:

This study was a preintervention/postintervention survey evaluation.

Setting:

This study was conducted at an academic tertiary surgical burn trauma ICU.

Population:

The intervention was provided to nursing, ancillary staff, house staff, and attending physicians.

Intervention:

An initial survey was circulated among the critical care staff for baseline expectations, satisfaction, and understanding of GOC/EOL care. A robust intervention was begun including the creation of a multidisciplinary GOC/EOL team, communication tools for providers, patient–family pamphlets, standardized EOL order sets, and formalized didactic sessions. Subsequently, the same survey was circulated and compared to baseline data.

Measurements:

Preintervention/postintervention survey data were reviewed and statistically analyzed.

Main Results:

Our survey response rate for preintervention/postintervention was 50.4% and 36.1%, respectively. The intervention generated heightened interest in improving family communication and provided focal direction to foster this growth. Based on the serial surveys regarding our intervention, statistically significant staff improvements were seen in “work stress” ( P = .04), “EOL information” ( P = .006), and “space allotment” ( P = .001). Improved congruence of families and health care providers regarding decision over intensity of care was also noted.

Conclusion:

We created a novel unit-based multidisciplinary program for improved EOL/GOC approaches in the critical care setting. A similarly formatted program could be adapted by other ICUs. Benefits of such a program include improving caregivers’ perceptions regarding EOL/GOC issues and fostering critical care team growth.
Enforcing the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes for Better Promotion of Exclusive Breastfeeding
Authors: Barennes Hubert , Slesak Guenther , Goyet Sophie , Aaron Percy , Srour Leila M.
Published: September 2015

Exclusive breastfeeding, one of the best natural resources, needs protection and promotion. The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (the Code), which aims to prevent the undermining of breastfeeding by formula advertising, faces implementation challenges. We reviewed frequently overlooked challenges and obstacles that the Code is facing worldwide, but particularly in Southeast Asia. Drawing lessons from various countries where we work, and following the example of successful public health interventions, we discussed legislation, enforcement, and experiences that are needed to successfully implement the Code. Successful holistic approaches that have strengthened the Code need to be scaled up. Community-based actions and peer-to-peer promotions have proved successful. Legislation without stringent enforcement and sufficient penalties is ineffective. The public needs education about the benefits and ways and means to support breastfeeding. It is crucial to combine strong political commitment and leadership with strict national regulations, definitions, and enforcement. National breastfeeding committees, with the authority to improve regulations, investigate violations, and enforce the laws, must be established. Systematic monitoring and reporting are needed to identify companies, individuals, intermediaries, and practices that infringe on the Code. Penalizing violators is crucial. Managers of multinational companies must be held accountable for international violations, and international legislative enforcement needs to be established. Further measures should include improved regulations to protect the breastfeeding mother: large-scale education campaigns; strong penalties for Code violators; exclusion of the formula industry from nutrition, education, and policy roles; supportive legal networks; and independent research of interventions supporting breastfeeding.
Rethinking Migration in the Context of Precarity: The Case of Turkey
Authors: Şenses Nazlı
Published: September 2015

Migrants with undocumented/irregular statuses constitute one of the most vulnerable groups in terms of living and working conditions. This paper critically engages with the discussions on precarity in relation to irregular migrant labour in Turkey. It addresses the living and working conditions of migrant workers as a particular form of work and life, who can be seen as representing the new precariat of Turkey. The number of immigrants has grown in Turkey since the late 1980s, and with the mass influx of Syrian migrants since 2011 the public visibility of migration and associated precarity has increased as well. Deriving from such a context, the article adopts a theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship between precarity and migration in the Turkish context by critically evaluating migrant workers’ work and life experiences (including migrants’ contestations of their everyday life).
What Rights Get Wrong about Justice for Orphans: An Old Testament Challenge to a Modern Ideology
Authors: Van De Wiele Tarah
Published: September 2015

This article challenges Nicholas Wolterstorff’s rights-based reading of Old Testament orphans by arguing that the prophetic demand for their cause not only assumes a right-order ethos championed in the Torah, but in doing so exposes the shortcomings in how justice is defined for orphaned children within current rights ideology, whether theistic or not. I present the orphan’s historical trajectory towards becoming socially vulnerable as the final stage in the transition from the kinship-redeemer justice of Israelite village clans to the chesed justice of the patronage economy in emerging urban conditions. In light of these conditions, I show how the orphan laws in Deuteronomy are, counter to Wolterstorff’s claims of corruption, attempting to re-create in legal terms the kinship bond and chesed benevolence that defines the orphan’s justice as the return to a family. I argue that the prophet does not blame inherently corrupt laws, but rather blames patrons and elders who have ignored good laws and ignored right-order by forgetting their brothers’ and sons’ children.
Copolymerization of self-catalyzed phthalonitrile with bismaleimide toward high-temperature-resistant polymers with improved processability
Authors: Jiang Mingli , Xu Mingzhen , Jia Kun , Liu Xiaobo
Published: September 2015

Phthalonitrile and bismaleimide (BMI) have been considered as high-temperature-resistant materials in the fields of heterocyclic chemistry. In this work, a self-catalyzed phthalonitrile-containing benzoxazine group (BA-Ph) was copolymerized with BMI to prepare high-temperature-resistant polymers with enhanced processability. The underlined chemistry was proposed as the addition reactions between phenolic hydroxyl generated by the oxazine ring opening of BA-Ph and unsaturated imide of BMI. Moreover, differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and dynamic rheological analysis were used to explore the curing behaviors, structure transition, and processability of the blends. Results indicated that the electrophilic addition reaction between phenolic hydroxyl and BMI was triggered initially, followed by the ring-forming polymerization of nitrile groups catalyzed by the remaining hydroxyl group; the proposed reaction mechanism was verified by using a model compound. Furthermore, the polymerization rate of blends can be well controlled by the relative molar ratio of BA-Ph/BMI, temperature, and time according to the rheological results. Meanwhile, the thermogravimetric analysis showed that all BA-Ph/BMI polymers exhibited good thermal stability ( T5% > 400°C). What is more, mechanical and dielectric properties of BA-Ph/BMI/glass fiber composite laminates were studied indicating that the polymerization of nitrile groups may contribute to the increase in the degree of cross-linking.
Adaptive decoupling control of hypersonic vehicle using fuzzy-neural network observer
Authors: Bai Chen , Chen Jian , Ren Zhang , Li Qingdong , Xiong Zihao
Published: September 2015

An adaptive decoupling control approach using fuzzy-neural network (FNN) observer for a class of MIMO nonlinear systems with parameter uncertainties is presented in this article. First, a decoupling controller is constructed based on the decentralized control theory. Furthermore, the system coupling terms and uncertainties are estimated by the FNN observer and added into the control law for compensation. The FNN approximate-matrix update law and the control law guarantee that the tracking errors of the system states, the observer states and the approximate matrix are all uniformly ultimately bounded within a region that can be kept arbitrarily small. Secondly, a model for the hypersonic vehicle is given and an attitude controller is designed using the decoupling control approach. Finally, simulations are carried out on the hypersonic vehicle to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The effect of edge profile on delta wing flow
Authors: Mat Shabudin Bin , Green Richard , Galbraith Roderick , Coton Frank
Published: September 2015

This paper presents flow measurements on four delta wing configurations which are differentiated by their leading edge profiles; sharp-edged, small, medium, and large radius. The experiments were performed as a part of the European Vortex Flow Experiment-2 campaign. Tests were conducted at speeds of 20.63 m/s and 41.23 m/s representing Reynolds numbers of 1 × 106 and 2 × 106, respectively. In this paper, oil flow visualization data are presented for the four wings together with particle image velocimetry results for the large radius wing. The study has identified interesting features of the interrelationship between the conventional leading edge primary vortex and the occurrence and development of the inner vortex on the round-edged delta wings. The effects of Reynolds number, angle of attack, and leading-edge radii on both vortex systems are discussed in detail.
Nonlinear disturbance observer-based model predictive control for a generic hypersonic vehicle
Authors: Gao Haiyan , Cai Yuanli
Published: September 2015

This article investigates a nonlinear disturbance observer-based model predictive control algorithm for the longitudinal dynamics of a generic hypersonic vehicle under external disturbances and system parameter perturbations. The model predictive control is combined with the nonlinear disturbance observer technique for uncertainty compensation. The nonlinear dynamics are first transformed into the linear structure with state-dependent coefficient matrices. At each sampling instant, the internal state-space model for prediction is obtained through a normal discretization procedure. Based upon this model, the model predictive controller is designed in nominal condition. Finally, a nonlinear disturbance observer is presented to estimate the uncertainty and a disturbance compensation gain is designed to compensate the uncertainty. Particularly, the offset-free tracking feature of the output for the reference signal is proved. Simulations show that the controls and the states are all in their given constraint scopes, and velocity and altitude track the reference signals accurately in steady state even under mismatched disturbances. Compared with pure model predictive control, the proposed method provides stronger robustness against various perturbations.
What Data Do States Collect Related to School Nurses, School Health, and the Health Care Provided?
Authors: Selekman Janice , Wolfe Linda C. , Cole Marjorie
Published: September 2015

School nurses collect data to report to their school district and state agencies. However, there is no national requirement or standard to collect specific data, and each state determines its own set of questions. This study resulted from a joint resolution between the National Association of State School Nurse Consultants and the National Association of School Nurses. The study sought to determine whether similar data points were collected so that comparisons could be made among states and to develop a framework to incorporate the data. Thirty-two states provided their questionnaires or reports. There were 855 data points that could be divided into data related to staff and to students. No categories were measured by all states. The most common data points were the number of students, health screenings, and the number of students with particular conditions for whom the district provided services. A framework for data collection is proposed.