bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Black hole electrodynamics: How does unipolar induction work in Kerr black holes?
Authors: Okamoto Isao
Published: July 2015

It is argued that through magnetohydrodynamic couplings with the field-line angular velocity/the cross-field potential gradient ΩF, the frame-dragging angular velocity ω acquires a new role of the gravito-electric potential gradient, which produces the along-field gradient of the potential gradient. With use of the field-line angular velocity, ΩFω ≡ ΩF − ω, measured by fiducial observers living in “absolute space” circulating with ω, it is then shown that the hole's spin rate ΩH also has another side of the along-field difference of the potential gradient between the surface-at-infinity S∞ and the horizon surface SH, i.e., ΩH = ΔΩFω ≡ (ΩFω)∞ − (ΩFω)H, which gives rise to a voltage drop ΔV ∝ ΔΩFω = ΩH at the interface SN with (ΩFω)N = 0 between the outer and inner force-free domains, leading to formation of a magnetized gap under SN. The EMFs due to a pair of unipolar induction batteries, ${\cal E}_{\rm out}$ and ${\cal E}_{\rm in}$, drive currents to a pair of circuits in the two domains, and satisfy relation ${\cal E}_{\rm out}-{\cal E}_{\rm in}=\Delta V$. The eigenvalue ΩF is determined by the criticality-boundary condition in MHD wind theory in terms of ΩH, i.e., ≈ (1/2)ΩH. The present gap model with a pair of batteries and a strong voltage drop is fundamentally different from any existing pulsar gap models.
Public private partnership in Delhi Tourism – a case study of Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation (DTTDC)
Authors: Sharma Yukti , Nasreen Reshma
Published: July 2015

Subject area

Management Strategy.

Study level/applicability

Management Graduates and Post-Graduates.

Case overview

Today, tourism is one of the fastest growing industries throughout the world. The tourism industry plays a very crucial role in the country’s economy, as it not only contributes towards the national income but also brings beneficial spillover directly or indirectly on the other industries. Tourism is the most important source of income for many emerging countries. India, a newly emerging economy, also depends, to a great extent, on tourist income. However, this sector continues to not make optimal contribution in India. In today’s competitive arena, the state tourism corporations must use all possible means to maximise growth and profitability through pegging up the rate of tourist arrivals. There is a general agreement in the tourism industry at the theoretical level about the imperative of a public – private partnership (PPP) in serving this objective. PPP aims to synergise the efforts of the two components in the general development of society and increase in competitiveness. The public–private partnership in tourism industry is at an emerging stage and could be developed in various ways. This case study highlights the key learning from Delhi Tourism’s experience on how PPP can be implemented in the tourism sector. This case study discusses an opportunity for Delhi Tourism which can alter the landscape of the tourism industry of India and also the rejuvenation of Delhi Tourism, a public sector corporation, through PPP.

Expected learning outcomes

The case will give a clear understanding of the dynamics and environmental factors governing a mixed economy like India. The reasons for the PPP can be analysed through the case. Students can understand the strategic choice of taking a private partner by a public sector in a very dynamic industry, i.e. the tourism sector.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
The journey of Chumbak: from mail to mall – leveraging social media networks for on-going dialogue with customers
Authors: Kudeshia Chetna , Mittal Arun
Published: July 2015

Subject area

Marketing.

Study level/applicability

Undergraduate and postgraduate management students.

Case overview

Small scale business in India employ almost 30 million people contributing 50 per cent to industrial and 45 per cent to the total exports of the country. The rapid growth of internet has made it possible for the small scale start ups to reach its existing and potential customers without investing much. The case highlights this fact describing the journey of “Chumbak” a small scale business from an unknown brand to the foremost favourable funky product of India. Through this case the authors have tried to relinquish a synoptic view of how Chumbak has used varied social media platforms, to engage and connect with its customers. A survey of 147 customers of Chumbak customers shows that engagement through Facebook fan page of Chumbak positively impacts its purchase intention, brand image and leads to positive word of mouth.

Expected learning outcomes

The case highlights numerous dynamics of social media marketing and shows the recent social media promoting methods being used by the little scale businesses to ascertain on-going dialogues with their customers. The Case would facilitate the scholars in learning how these platforms may be used alone as a promotional tool not solely to reach the purchasers but additionally to type a higher complete awareness of the products with reference to Chumbak. The case explains that communication happening at varied social media platforms got to be tailored considering the sort of users.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Numbers, schnumbers
Authors: Meyrick Julian
Published: July 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to argue for the importance of separating out three key dimensions of culture’s value – definition, measurement and cultural reporting. This has implications for the balance between quantitative and qualitative methodologies in achieving a meaningful context for interpreting numbers-based cultural data, as well as for the management of reporting regimes – the process by which value is “conferred” – by individual cultural organisations and events. It concludes with a brief sketch of a new set of priorities for assessment processes based on a less unitized, more cooperative understanding of cultural value (a Total Cultural Value exercise)

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper is a keynote address from the Global Events Congress.

Findings

– Valuation processes are comparative processes. They involve benchmarking, standardisation, unitisation and ranking. Cultural activities have an incommensurable aspect that makes them resist this kind of assessment and not infrequently make a nonsense of it. This makes it difficult for policy makers to choose between them from a resource perspective. No new proof of worth is going to change this fundamental characteristic of culture. A Total Cultural Value exercise is “allocutionary” and helps cultural programmes “make a case” based on best use of the available data and a meta-cognitive appreciation of the biases different proofs of worth involve.

Originality/value

– Total Cultural Value is a new concept developed to bring quantitative and qualitative methods for valuing arts and culture together
-neighborhoods and comparison theorems
Authors: Achinger Piotr
Published: July 2015

A technical ingredient in Faltings’ original approach to$p$-adic comparison theorems involves the construction of$K({\it\pi},1)$-neighborhoods for a smooth scheme$X$over a mixed characteristic discrete valuation ring with a perfect residue field: every point$x\in X$has an open neighborhood$U$whose generic fiber is a$K({\it\pi},1)$scheme (a notion analogous to having a contractible universal cover). We show how to extend this result to the logarithmically smooth case, which might help to simplify some proofs in$p$-adic Hodge theory. The main ingredient of the proof is a variant of a trick of Nagata used in his proof of the Noether normalization lemma.
Purity for graded potentials and quantum cluster positivity
Authors: Davison Ben , Maulik Davesh , Schürmann Jörg , Szendrői Balázs
Published: July 2015

Consider a smooth quasi-projective variety$X$equipped with a$\mathbb{C}^{\ast }$-action, and a regular function$f:X\rightarrow \mathbb{C}$which is$\mathbb{C}^{\ast }$-equivariant with respect to a positive weight action on the base. We prove the purity of the mixed Hodge structure and the hard Lefschetz theorem on the cohomology of the vanishing cycle complex of$f$on proper components of the critical locus of$f$, generalizing a result of Steenbrink for isolated quasi-homogeneous singularities. Building on work by Kontsevich and Soibelman, Nagao, and Efimov, we use this result to prove the quantum positivity conjecture for cluster mutations for all quivers admitting a positively graded nondegenerate potential. We deduce quantum positivity for all quivers of rank at most 4; quivers with nondegenerate potential admitting a cut; and quivers with potential associated to triangulations of surfaces with marked points and nonempty boundary.
Growth of in towers for isogenous curves
Authors: Dokchitser Tim , Dokchitser Vladimir
Published: July 2015

We study the growth of$\unicode[STIX]{x0428}$and$p^{\infty }$-Selmer groups for isogenous abelian varieties in towers of number fields, with an emphasis on elliptic curves. The growth types are usually exponential, as in the ‘positive${\it\mu}$-invariant’ setting in the Iwasawa theory of elliptic curves. The towers we consider are$p$-adic and$l$-adic Lie extensions for$l\neq p$, in particular cyclotomic and other$\mathbb{Z}_{l}$-extensions.
Enhanced recovery programme in gynaecology: outcomes of a hysterectomy care pathway
Authors: Mukhopadhyay Debjani , Khalil Razvi
Published: July 2015

There was a wide variation in the perioperative management of women undergoing hysterectomy for both benign and malignant disease at Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust prior to 2010. The median length of stay following a hysterectomy and more radical gynaecological oncology surgery was five days and seven days respectively. The NHS East of England Strategic Health Authority commissioned the development of Enhanced Recovery Programme (ERP) in various surgical specialties including gynaecology and the pathway was implemented from 2012 onward.

Dedicated specialist nurses collected data prospectively. The median length of stay was shortened to three days. This difference was statistically significant with a P value = 0.0001. We describe the successful implementation of an ERP in Southend Hospital resulting with no difference in measurable morbidity and mortality, a shorter length of stay, and a high patient satisfaction scores and outcomes.
Application of topological analysis of the electron localization function to the complexes of molybdenum carbide nanoparticles with unsaturated hydrocarbons
Authors: Liu Xingchen , Salahub Dennis R.
Published: July 2015

The catalytic transformation of the heavy aromatics in bitumen into lighter components is the key to the upgrading and refining of the oil sands. To understand the chemical bonding in molybdenum carbide nanoparticle (MCNP) catalysts and the chemisorption bonds between the MCNPs and unsaturated hydrocarbons, the topological analysis of the electron localization function was applied to various MCNPs and their complexes with unsaturated hydrocarbons. For some of the smaller complexes, comparisons are made with the atoms in molecules approach, including the calculation of delocalization indices. The results are interpreted in the Lewis bonding scheme. It was found that the Mo–C bonding can be highly ionic in cases like Mo8C12 and MoC but shows significant covalent character in Mo2C, Mo3C, and Mo28C14. The chemisorption bonds between hydrocarbons and the MCNPs involve electron sharing of various types with strong covalent character. The strong three– or four–center interactions determine the adsorption configurations of the hydrocarbons on the MCNPs. Derivatives of benzene show some different bonding features, which depend strongly on the substituent or the heteroatom.
Revealing the parameters to design the habit modifiers for rock-salt crystals: empirical to rational approach
Authors: Sen Anik , Barik Sunirmal , Singh Ajeet , Ganguly Bishwajit
Published: July 2015

Morphology of rock-salt crystals can be influenced by internal and external factors like temperature, super saturations, solvent, and impurities. Many impurities and additives have been reported to date for the habit modification of common salt; however, the selection of such impurities is largely empirical. The partition coefficient or log P, which is a measure of hydrophobic hydrophilic property of a material, very aptly signifies the ability of additives to modulate the morphology of sodium chloride crystals. Application of the partition coefficient of additives led to the discovery of two new habit modifiers (cytosine and DMSO) for rock-salt crystals. The predicted results have been verified by experimental studies. Furthermore, the known habit modifiers and also the nonhabit modifiers for sodium chloride crystals corroborate the importance of this parameter to define the morphology of salt crystals. This study is of fundamental importance, which otherwise was rather empirical for the last two centuries.
Phylogeography of the longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae) species group in northwestern North America — the Nooksack dace problem
Authors: Taylor Eric B. , McPhail J.D. , Ruskey J.A.
Published: July 2015

The longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae (Valenciennes, 1842); Cyprinidae) is one of the most widespread freshwater fishes in North America, and across its range there have been several divergent forms described that are of uncertain taxonomic status. One of these forms, the Nooksack dace, is found in southwestern British Columbia and adjacent portions of western Washington, and is distinguished from longnose dace by a lower number of lateral-line scales. We sequenced a total of approximately 1400 base pairs (bp) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and noted that the longnose dace found west of the Continental Divide and Nooksack dace constituted reciprocally monophyletic clades that differed from each other by between 2% and 3% sequence divergence. Sequence analysis at two nuclear loci (the S7 ribosomal protein intron 1 (S7) and recombination activation gene 1 (RAG1)), however, showed no consistent difference between longnose dace and Nooksack dace and several alleles were shared between them. By contrast, consistent differences at both mtDNA and nuclear DNA loci were resolved between R. cataractae samples from east and west of the Continental Divide. The Nooksack dace does not appear to warrant separate taxonomic status from the longnose dace, but the mtDNA differences support its recognition as an important component of the evolutionary and biogeographic legacy of R. cataractae.
Clock comparison based on laser ranging technologies
Authors: Samain Etienne
Published: July 2015

Recent progress in the domain of time and frequency standards has required some important improvements of existing time transfer links. Several time transfer by laser link (T2L2) projects have been carried out since 1972 with numerous scientific or technological objectives. There are two projects currently under exploitation: T2L2 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The former is a dedicated two-way time transfer experiment embedded on the satellite Jason-2 allowing for the synchronization of remote clocks with an uncertainty of 100 ps and the latter is a one-way link devoted for ranging a spacecraft orbiting around the Moon. There is also the Laser Time Transfer (LTT) project, exploited until 2012 and designed in the frame of the Chinese navigation constellation. In the context of future space missions for fundamental physics, solar system science or navigation, laser links are of prime importance and many missions based on that technology have been proposed for these purposes.
Brief Introduction to the Special Issue on Behavior Understanding for Arts and Entertainment
Authors: Salah Albert Ali , Hung Hayley , Aran Oya , Gunes Hatice , Turk Matthew
Published: July 2015

This editorial introduction describes the aims and scope of the special issue of the
ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems
on Behavior Understanding for Arts and Entertainment, which is being published in issues 2 and 3 of volume 5 of the journal. Here we offer a brief introduction to the use of behavior analysis for interactive systems that involve creativity in either the creator or the consumer of a work of art. We then characterize each of the five articles included in this first part of the special issue, which span a wide range of applications.
The effect of an acute increase in central blood volume on the response of cerebral blood flow to acute hypotension
Authors: Ogoh Shigehiko , Hirasawa Ai , Sugawara Jun , Nakahara Hidehiro , Ueda Shinya , Shoemaker J. Kevin , Miyamoto Tadayoshi
Published: July 2015

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the response of cerebral blood flow to an acute change in perfusion pressure is modified by an acute increase in central blood volume. Nine young, healthy subjects voluntarily participated in this study. To measure dynamic cerebral autoregulation during normocapnic and hypercapnic (5%) conditions, the change in middle cerebral artery mean blood flow velocity was analyzed during acute hypotension caused by two methods: 1) thigh-cuff occlusion release (without change in central blood volume); and 2) during the recovery phase immediately following release of lower body negative pressure (LBNP; −50 mmHg) that initiated an acute increase in central blood volume. In the thigh-cuff occlusion release protocol, as expected, hypercapnia decreased the rate of regulation, as an index of dynamic cerebral autoregulation (0.236 ± 0.018 and 0.167 ± 0.025 s−1, P = 0.024). Compared with the cuff-occlusion release, the acute increase in central blood volume (relative to the LBNP condition) with LBNP release attenuated dynamic cerebral autoregulation ( P = 0.009). Therefore, the hypercapnia-induced attenuation of dynamic cerebral autoregulation was not observed in the LBNP release protocol ( P = 0.574). These findings suggest that an acute change in systemic blood distribution modifies dynamic cerebral autoregulation during acute hypotension.
RNF43 Inhibits Cancer Cell Proliferation and Could be a Potential Prognostic Factor for Human Gastric Carcinoma
Authors: Niu Lei , Qin Hong-Zhen , Xi Hong-Qing , Wei Bo , Xia Shao-You , Chen Lin
Published: July 2015

Background/Aims: RNF43 is a member of transmembrane E3 ubiquitin ligases and plays important roles in tumor formation progression. In current study, we aimed to explore RNF43 expression and analyze its role in gastric carcinoma. Methods and Results: The level of RNF43 was detected in 77 cases of gastric carcinoma and matched normal tissues by real-time PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry. We found that the expression of RNF43 was significantly down-regulated in the gastric carcinoma tissues compared to the normal mucosae (all P<0.001). In addition, RNF43 was significantly correlated with histological differentiation (P = 0.001), T-stage cancer (P<0.001), depth of invasion (P<0.001), metastasis of regional lymph nodes (P<0.001), pTNM stage (P<0.001) and survival (P = 0.021). We further explored the biological functions of RNF43 in gastric carcinoma cell lines. Both gain- and loss-function assays show that RNF43 could suppress cell proliferation while promotes cell apoptosis. Further, we found that RNF43 was positively correlated with p53 and cleaved-caspase3 and negatively correlated with Ki67 and Lgr5. Concolusion: In conclusion, RNF43 might act as a tumor suppressor in gastric carcinoma and might be a potential indicator for the clinical assessment of gastric cancer prognosis
Celecoxib and Ibuprofen Restore the ATP Content and the Gluconeogenesis Activity in the Liver of Walker-256 Tumor-Bearing Rats
Authors: de Souza Camila Oliveira , Kurauti Mirian Ayumi , de Fatima Silva Flaviane , de Morais Hely , Curi Rui , Hirabara Sandro Massao , Rosa Neto José Cesar , de Souza Helenir Medri
Published: July 2015

Background/Aims: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of celecoxib and ibuprofen, both non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), on the decreased gluconeogenesis observed in liver of Walker-256 tumor-bearing rats. Methods: Celecoxib and ibuprofen (both at 25 mg/Kg) were orally administered for 12 days, beginning on the same day when the rats were inoculated with Walker-256 tumor cells. Results: Celecoxib and ibuprofen treatment reversed the reduced production of glucose, pyruvate, lactate and urea from alanine as well as the reduced production of glucose from pyruvate and lactate in perfused liver from tumor-bearing rats. Besides, celecoxib and ibuprofen treatment restored the decreased ATP content, increased triacylglycerol levels and reduced mRNA expression of carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1 (CPT1), while ibuprofen treatment restored the reduced mRNA expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) in the liver of tumor-bearing rats. Both treatments tended to decrease TNFα, IL6 and IL10 in the liver of tumor-bearing rats. Finally, the treatment with celecoxib, but not with ibuprofen, reduced the growth of Walker-256 tumor. Conclusion: Celecoxib and ibuprofen restored the decreased gluconeogenesis in the liver of Walker-256 tumor-bearing rats. These effects did not involve changes in tumor growth and probably occurred by anti-inflammatory properties of these NSAIDs, which increased expression of genes associated with fatty acid oxidation (PPARα and CPT1) and consequently the ATP production, normalizing the energy status in the liver of tumor-bearing rats.
A National Evaluation of the Conservative Management of Uncomplicated Acute Appendicitis: How Common Is This and What Are the Issues?
Authors: Kelly Michael E. , Khan Asif , ur Rehman Jameel , Waldron Ronan M. , Khan Waqar , Barry Kevin , Khan Iqbal Z.
Published: July 2015

Introduction: The management approach for acute appendicitis has been challenged in recent years, with numerous randomized controlled trials demonstrating that antibiotics/conservative management is an efficacious treatment, with lower complication rates. Methods: A national survey of all consultant general surgeons evaluating their practices was performed. Reasons for changed practices, choice of antibiotics and follow-up investigations were evaluated. In addition, the role of interval appendicectomy and conservative management in the pediatric population was also assessed. Results: The response rate for this survey was 74.7% (n = 74/99). Over one-fifth (n = 17, 22.9%) routinely treat acute appendicitis conservatively, while another 14.8% (n = 11) consider this approach in selected cases. Main reasons for modified practices included the presence of inflammatory phlegmon (75%), delayed presentation (64%), and recent evidence-based medicine developments (46%). Co-amoxiclav/clavulanic acid was the most popular antibiotic for conservative management (53%). Alternatively, combinations of antibiotics were also utilized. One-third felt interval appendicectomy was warranted, while one-fifth supported conservative management in the paediatric setting. The overwhelming majority (>95%) advocate follow-up colonoscopy ± computed tomography in any patient aged >40 years managed conservatively. Conclusion: Considerable variation in management of uncomplicated appendicitis remains in Ireland despite growing evidence suggesting that the non-operative approach is safe. Reasons for adopting a conservative management practice have been identified and reflect the expanding literature on this subject.
Water, Climate, Energy, Food: Inseparable & Indispensable
Authors: Field Christopher B. , Michalak Anna M.
Published: July 2015

Water issues are rarely simple. At the global scale, water is at the focus of a powerful multifaceted challenge. Demands for both consumptive and nonconsumptive uses are growing, while climate change is at the same time decreasing availability in some places and increasing risks of heavy precipitation in many others. Through diverse mechanisms that interact with natural processes, human activities impact not only the quantity of water available but also its quality. Here we explore the multiway interactions among water, climate, energy, and food through a number of case studies illustrating the interconnected web of competing drivers, demands, and trade-offs that frame humanity's decisions about water use. The net result of this complex mix of drivers and processes is that water issues need to be addressed with a systems perspective. While a systems framing can be daunting, integrated approaches are fundamental to identifying and evaluating options for sustainable solutions.
Online Direct Density-Ratio Estimation Applied to Inlier-Based Outlier Detection
Authors: du Plessis Marthinus Christoffel , Shiino Hiroaki , Sugiyama Masashi
Published: July 2015

Many machine learning problems, such as nonstationarity adaptation, outlier detection, dimensionality reduction, and conditional density estimation, can be effectively solved by using the ratio of probability densities. Since the naive two-step procedure of first estimating the probability densities and then taking their ratio performs poorly, methods to directly estimate the density ratio from two sets of samples without density estimation have been extensively studied recently. However, these methods are batch algorithms that use the whole data set to estimate the density ratio, and they are inefficient in the online setup, where training samples are provided sequentially and solutions are updated incrementally without storing previous samples. In this letter, we propose two online density-ratio estimators based on the adaptive regularization of weight vectors. Through experiments on inlier-based outlier detection, we demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed methods.
Relations Among Some Low-Rank Subspace Recovery Models
Authors: Zhang Hongyang , Lin Zhouchen , Zhang Chao , Gao Junbin
Published: July 2015

Recovering intrinsic low-dimensional subspaces from data distributed on them is a key preprocessing step to many applications. In recent years, a lot of work has modeled subspace recovery as low-rank minimization problems. We find that some representative models, such as robust principal component analysis (R-PCA), robust low-rank representation (R-LRR), and robust latent low-rank representation (R-LatLRR), are actually deeply connected. More specifically, we discover that once a solution to one of the models is obtained, we can obtain the solutions to other models in closed-form formulations. Since R-PCA is the simplest, our discovery makes it the center of low-rank subspace recovery models. Our work has two important implications. First, R-PCA has a solid theoretical foundation. Under certain conditions, we could find globally optimal solutions to these low-rank models at an overwhelming probability, although these models are nonconvex. Second, we can obtain significantly faster algorithms for these models by solving R-PCA first. The computation cost can be further cut by applying low-complexity randomized algorithms, for example, our novel [Formula: see text] filtering algorithm, to R-PCA. Although for the moment the formal proof of our [Formula: see text] filtering algorithm is not yet available, experiments verify the advantages of our algorithm over other state-of-the-art methods based on the alternating direction method.
Islamic Law, Muslims and American Politics
Authors: Jackson Sherman A.
Published: July 2015

In this article I ask whether and how Islamic law constricts American Muslims in their ability to negotiate the applied socio-political order. Assuming sharī‘ah to be their point of departure, I ask if their efforts are religiously legitimate or purely pragmatic and necessarily oblivious to Islamic law. In this context, I explore how Islamic law is negotiated across space and time, the degree of recognition it accords to local (including non-Muslim) custom, and the distinction between jurisdiction of law and jurisdiction of fact. I also investigate the question of sharī‘ah’s overall scope and jurisdiction and how this impinges upon Islamic law’s relationship with the secular. Among the arguments I make is that numerous aspects of the American socio-political order fall outside the parameters of the strictly shar‘ī and, as such, Muslims may negotiate these without relying upon or giving offense to Islamic law.
Soviet Assessments of China after Mao
Authors: Miller Chris
Published: July 2015

This article examines Soviet analyses of the economic reforms that China implemented during the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping. Many historians have argued that Soviet economic reform efforts during the Perestroika era might have been more successful had the Kremlin more closely followed Chinese efforts. This article shows that Soviet economists and sinologists carefully studied China’s reforms to agriculture, industry, and foreign investment law. By the mid-1980s, the article suggests, a significant section of the Soviet intelligentsia believed that China’s market-based economic reforms were working and that the Soviet Union should learn from them.
Possible Impact of Yearly Childhood Vaccination With Trivalent Inactivated Influenza Vaccine (TIV) on the Immune Response to the Pandemic Strain H1N1
Authors: Amer Ahdi , Fischer Howard , Li Xiaoming , Asmar Basim
Published: July 2015

Background. Annual vaccination of children against seasonal influenza with trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) has shown to be beneficial. However, this yearly practice may have unintended effect. Studies have shown that infection with wild type influenza A viruses can stimulate protective heterotypic immunity against unrelated or new influenza subtypes. We hypothesized that a consequence of yearly TIV vaccination is lack of induction of heterotypic immunity against the recent H1N1 pandemic. Methods. This was a retrospective case-control study. We reviewed the medical records of polymerase chain reaction–confirmed cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza infection in children 6 months to 18 years and a matched control group seen during the pandemic. Results. We identified 353 polymerase chain reaction–confirmed H1N1 cases and 396 matching control subjects. Among the H1N1 group, 202/353 (57%) cases received a total of 477 doses of seasonal TIV compared with 218/396 (55%) in the control group who received a total of 435 doses. Seasonal TIV uptake was significantly higher in the H1N1 group 477/548 (87%) than in the control group, 435/532 (81%) ( P = .017). Conclusion. Seasonal TIV uptake was significantly higher in H1N1-infected group. The finding suggests that the practice of yearly vaccination with TIV might have negatively affected the immune response against the novel pandemic H1N1 strain. Given the rarity of pandemic novel influenza viruses, and the high predictability of seasonal influenza occurrence, the practice of yearly influenza vaccination should be continued. However, the use of live attenuated intranasal vaccine, as opposed to TIV, may allow for the desirable development of a vigorous heterotypic immune response against future pandemics.
Explaining the Decline in the Offer Rate of Employer Retirement Plans between 2003 and 2012
Authors: Ghilarducci Teresa , Saad-Lessler Joelle
Published: July 2015

Workplace retirement plans (deferred compensation plans [DCs] and deferred benefit plans [DBs]) help workers save for retirement conveniently, consistently, and automatically. But the percentage of firms offering retirement accounts is steadily declining. Between 2001 to 2003 and 2010 to 2012, the retirement plan offer rate of firms dropped from 63 to 55%. The drop is driven by a decline in both DCs and DBs. Using a probit model and an Oaxaca–Blinder threefold decomposition technique applied to data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) for 2001 to 2003 and 2010 to 2012, and using longitudinal analysis of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 2008 panel waves 3 and 11, the authors find that the labor-contracting environment dominates individual- and firm-level variables in explaining whether employers offer a retirement account to their workers. Therefore, attempts to raise retirement account offer rates must address the decline in workers’ bargaining power and the changes in norms relating to provision of benefits. This study contributes to the important discussion about trends in DC and DB coverage and the decline in retirement security.
Experience of psychotropic drug use among young people with mental health problems
Authors: Steffenak Anne Kjersti Myhrene , Wilde-Larsson Bodil , Hartz Ingeborg , Nordström Gun
Published: July 2015

The aim of the study is to describe the experience of psychotropic drug use among young people with mental health problems. Young people experience mental health problems, and some will need to take psychotropic drugs for either a short or a long time. Psychotropic drugs may be effective in reducing mental distress, but raise questions about increasing use, side effects, long-term treatment and off-label use. Qualitative interviews were accomplished with eight young people who had taken psychotropic drugs. Three categories were identified: ‘Effects of psychotropic drugs’, ‘Access of professional care and follow-up’ and ‘Social life and psychotropic drug use’. The young people experienced both beneficial and undesired effects from the psychotropic drugs. They experienced lack of access to professional support and follow-up. Life with family and friends was influenced negatively by psychotropic drug use and the young people were afraid of being lonely and stigmatized. The results may have implications for those who work with young people. Young people striving with mental health problems and psychotropic drug use have to have access to professional support and follow-up. Knowledge about effects of psychotropic drug use among young people is needed. The work about openness about mental health problems among young people has to continue.
Semantically enhanced pseudo relevance feedback for Arabic information retrieval
Authors: Atwan Jaffar , Mohd Masnizah , Rashaideh Hasan , Kanaan Ghassan
Published: July 2015

The conventional information retrieval (IR) framework consists of four primary phases, namely, pre-processing, indexing, querying and retrieving results. Some phases of the current Arabic IR (AIR) framework have several drawbacks. This research aims to enhance an AIR by improving the processes in a conventional IR framework. We introduce an enhanced stop-word list in the pre-processing level and investigate several Arabic stemmers. In addition, an Arabic WordNet was utilized in the corpus and query expansion levels. We also adopted semantic information for the Pseudo Relevance Feedback. The enhanced Arabic IR framework was built and evaluated using TREC 2001 data. The technique of using the Arabic WordNet to build a semantic relationship between query and corpus in two levels, that is, the corpus and query levels, is a new one. The enhanced AIR framework demonstrated an improvement by 49% in terms of mean average precision, with an increase of 7.3% in recall compared with the baseline framework.
Cultural, Media, and Peer Influences on Body Beauty Perceptions of Mexican American Adolescent Girls
Authors: Romo Laura F. , Mireles-Rios Rebeca , Hurtado Aida
Published: July 2015

Social and cultural values are believed to play a role in the types of bodies that adolescent girls consider beautiful and desirable. In this article, the authors analyzed qualitative interviews from 27 Latina mid-adolescent girls (ages 14 to 16) regarding their perceptions of what body shapes and sizes are valued in Latino culture and European American culture, the nature of their conversations with friends about appearance, and whether boys and the larger community consider large body sizes to be acceptable. There was an overwhelming consensus that a slender but curvy figure is the ideal body type in Latino culture and that European Americans value unnaturally thin physiques. Themes drawn from the adolescents’ responses point to their friends’ opinions, perceptions of boys’ dating preferences, norms in their communities, and body shapes of female celebrities in Latino media outlets as sources of beauty and desirability. These findings have implications for body image intervention programs that expose Latina girls to multiple possibilities of beauty when their physical body shapes exclude them from attaining the ideal that they perceive is appreciated in Latino culture.
“Why Are You Talking to Me Like I’m Stupid?”
Authors: Liegghio Maria , Caragata Lea
Published: July 2015

Based on the analysis of qualitative, semi-structured interviews conducted with 92 welfare-reliant lone mothers living across Canada, this article explores the “micro-aggressions” experienced by these women in their interactions with the social welfare system. Micro-aggressions refer to the verbal and nonverbal, relational exchanges that send denigrating messages to persons of marginalized and discriminated against social groups. From the analysis, we conclude that class and gender become sites, intersecting and interlocking, where micro-aggressions as a form of interpersonal violence and discrimination occur against women/lone mothers living in poverty that act to diminish the agency and sense of public worthiness of these women, in turn limiting their access to contesting these constructions.
Theoretical research of hydraulic turbine performance based on slip factor within centripetal impeller
Authors: Shi Guangtai , Liu Xiaobing , Yang Junhu , Miao Senchun , Li Jicheng
Published: July 2015

The impeller of hydraulic turbine is a kind of centripetal impeller. The slip phenomenon within centripetal impeller is different with centrifugal impeller. In this study, the velocity distribution and the flow form of fluid within centripetal impeller are analyzed, the slip factor within centripetal impeller is calculated, and the basic energy equation of hydraulic turbine is deduced when the slip within centripetal impeller is considered. The results of theoretical calculation, the results of experiment, and the results of computational fluid dynamics calculation are compared. The formula of slip factor within centripetal impeller is obtained, and the relative error between the results of theoretical calculation using the formula and experimental data is less than 5%. The effect factors of slip factor have entrance diameter of centripetal impeller, blade numbers, entrance and outlet blade angles, rotating speed of centripetal impeller, and flow rate.
Investigation of heat transfer enhancement inside developing gravity-driven films along a vertical permeable plate subject to nonuniform suction
Authors: Khaled Abdul-Rahim A.
Published: July 2015

Flow and heat transfer through the boundary layers of a falling liquid film on a vertical permeable plate subject to nonuniform suction flow are analyzed in this work. The continuity, momentum, and energy equations are transformed to nonsimilar equations and solved using a validated implicit and iterative finite difference method. Increases in the Froude number, Galilei number, and the dimensionless average suction velocity are found to increase the skin friction coefficient, the Nusselt number, and the heat transfer enhancement ratios. These enhancement ratios are noticed to increase at the plate exit as the suction velocity power-law index increases. The Froude number for uniform suction case required to attain the same enhancement ratios due to nonuniform distribution of this suction flow is found to increase as the Galilei number, average suction velocity, and power-law index increase. It is found that the upper most values of the enhancement factors in heat transfer and Froude number are [Formula: see text] folds when the suction power-law index is equal to [Formula: see text]. This work demonstrated that significant heat transfer enhancement inside developing gravity-driven liquid films is attainable when properly distributing the suction velocity along the plate.
The potential for financialization
Authors: Aalbers Manuel B
Published: July 2015

The financialization literature tries to make sense of how the world has been changing and continues to do so. There is real potential for financialization to conjoin real-world processes and practices that are conceptually treated as discrete entities. Financialization is an inherently spatial phenomenon that should be much more central to economic–geographic analysis, explaining how the financialization of the global economy is tied to financialization at other scales as well as to the financialization of the state, economic sectors, individual firms, and daily life.
The Effect of Pleural Drainage on Pulmonary Function Testing in Patients With Tuberculous Pleural Effusions
Authors: Fengels Hannah , Koegelenberg Coenraad F. N. , Irusen Elvis M. , Bruwer Johannes W. , Wilken Elisma , Batubara Enas M. , Swart Francois , Maree David , Gonnermann Andrea , Welte Tobias
Published: July 2015

Background:

Pleural fibrosis and restriction are well-known complications of tuberculous pleurisy, which is often accompanied by respiratory distress and limitation of daily life activities.

Objectives:

Current evidence suggests that pleural drainage offers little benefit over and above antituberculous treatment in improving pulmonary function. Our study aims to define the role of additional pleural drainage in the management of tuberculous pleural effusions.

Methods:

We enrolled 21 patients with tuberculous effusions and performed therapeutic drainage in 10 randomly selected cases. Pulmonary function testing, exercise capacity, chest radiography, and ultrasonography were performed at baseline, 7 to 10 days, and at 3 months.

Results:

Complete therapeutic drainage was achieved in 4 of 10 patients randomized to undergo drainage. Immediate benefit in total lung capacity (TLC) was achieved in the 10 patients assigned to intervention. Intervention group showed significant changes compared to the non-intervention group in several functional parameters at 3 months: change in forced vital capacity (ΔFVC 1.40 L, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08-1.71 vs Δ0.34 L, 95% CI 0.01-0.67, P < .000), change in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (ΔFEV1 1.08 L, 95% CI 0.79-1.37 vs Δ0.38 L, 95% CI 0.08-0.68, P = .001), change in TLC (ΔTLC 1.45 L, 95% CI 1.05-1.85 vs Δ0.56 L, 95% CI 0.00-1.12, P = .009), and change in diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (ΔDLCO 6.43 mL/min/mm Hg, 95% CI 3.73-9.12 vs Δ0.57 mL/min/mm Hg, 95% CI 2.31-3.34, P = .005). Significant improvement after 3 months was not observed in the 6-minute walking distance as well as oxygen saturation before and after walking.

Conclusion:

Therapeutic drainage may offer additional short-term functional benefits to patients with pleural tuberculosis.
Who Am I? Theorising Self(s) and Identity(s) in an Attempt to Self-explore
Authors: Guha Surangama
Published: July 2015

This article approaches the concepts of self and identity from the point of view of the author, contextualising them through the experiences of the author herself, while drawing from and substantiating these experiences in the light of prevailing discourses on self, identity, representation and diaspora. Through self-exploration, the author endeavours to find out whether or not it is possible to establish the existence of a true ‘core self' that emerges through experience and at the site of popular representation; or whether what is experienced is not the ‘true self' or identity but a broken and disjointed idea of the same. While fundamentally deriving from the theses of Hall and Bhabha, whose intellectual discourses originated from their own diasporic experiences, this article attempts to show, through self-exploration, how contemporary popular Hindi cinema pursues a nation-building project, as it constructs for its audience an image of ‘India' and ‘Indianness'.
The epidemiology of symptomatic midfoot osteoarthritis in community-dwelling older adults: cross-sectional findings from the Clinical Assessment Study of the Foot
Authors: Thomas Martin J. , Peat George , Rathod Trishna , Marshall Michelle , Moore Andrew , Menz Hylton B. , Roddy Edward
Published: July 2015

Introduction

The foot is largely overlooked in calls for better characterisation of clinical phenotypes in osteoarthritis (OA). Yet the midfoot complex in particular has the potential to provide important insights into OA pathogenesis given its central role in lower limb load transmission and alignment. Its recent inclusion in radiographic atlases has paved the way for international studies. In this UK study, we provide the first comprehensive account of the descriptive epidemiology of symptomatic midfoot OA.

Methods

Participants aged ≥50 years registered with four general practices were recruited via a mailed health survey (n = 5109 responders) and research clinic (n = 560 responders). Symptomatic midfoot OA was defined as midfoot pain in the last 4 weeks, combined with radiographic OA in one or more joints (1st and 2nd cuneometatarsal, navicular first cuneiform and talonavicular joints) graded from weight-bearing dorso-plantar and lateral radiographs using a validated atlas. Prevalence estimates, overall and stratified by age, gender, and socio-economic class, were derived using multiple imputation and weighted logistic regression. Associations between symptomatic midfoot OA and current body mass index, previous injury, history of high-heeled footwear, nodal interphalangeal joint OA and patterns of comorbidity were estimated using binary logistic regression. Healthcare use was summarised.

Results

Symptomatic midfoot OA was present in 12.0 % (95 % CI: 10.9, 13.2) of the population aged over 50 years. Higher occurrence was observed in females, adults aged over 75 years, and those in intermediate/routine occupational classes. Obesity, previous foot/ankle injury, and pain in other weight-loaded joints, but not high-heeled footwear or nodal interphalangeal joint OA, were associated with increased risk of symptomatic midfoot OA. Persons with symptomatic midfoot OA were also more likely to report multiple non-musculoskeletal comorbidities, including diabetes. In the previous 12 months, the proportions consulting a general practitioner, physiotherapist or podiatrist/chiropodist about foot pain were 46.2 %, 18.5 % and 47.9 % respectively. A total of 64.7 % had used oral analgesia in the past month for foot pain (36.1 % paracetamol, 31.9 % mild/moderate opioids, 27.7 % NSAIDs).

Conclusions

Our study confirms that symptomatic OA frequently affects the midfoot. The patterns of associations are interpreted as being largely consistent with the role of mechanical factors in its pathogenesis.