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Purpose Using the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical base, this study aims to examine the effect of the personality attributes, risk-taking, creativity and locus of control on the entrepreneurial intentions of US business college students. The authors replicated previous studies from around the world but performed the research during the Covid-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The authors surveyed 353 students, comparing those with entrepreneurial intentions (n = 213) versus those without entrepreneurial intentions (n = 140). Findings The authors found that risk-taking and creativity both significantly and positively predicted entrepreneurial intentions, but locus of control did not have a significant impact. Practical implications Contextually, the authors performed this study during the widespread complications of the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors advise business educators to initiate programs that encourage student entrepreneurship by nurturing creativity and offering educational resources that assist students in reducing the perceived risk of entrepreneurship. Originality/value The authors seek to increase awareness among business educators of the significance of entrepreneurship as a desirable career. The authors believe that one impact from the Covid-19 pandemic has been an expanded interest among students to start their own businesses. The authors propose that creative measures introduced into the business school curriculum by business educators will enhance students’ desire to take risks to create their own businesses.

To design a simple and reproducible classifier predicting the overall survival (OS) of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) ≥60 years of age treated with 7 + 3, we sequenced 37 genes in 471 patients from the ALFA1200 (Acute Leukemia French Association) study (median age, 68 years). Mutation patterns and OS differed between the 84 patients with poor-risk cytogenetics and the 387 patients with good (n = 13), intermediate (n = 339), or unmeasured (n = 35) cytogenetic risk. TP53 (hazards ratio [HR], 2.49; P = .0003) and KRAS (HR, 3.60; P = .001) mutations independently worsened the OS of patients with poor-risk cytogenetics. In those without poor-risk cytogenetics, NPM1 (HR, 0.57; P = .0004), FLT3 internal tandem duplications with low (HR, 1.85; P = .0005) or high (HR, 3.51; P < 10−4) allelic ratio, DNMT3A (HR, 1.86; P < 10−4), NRAS (HR, 1.54; P = .019), and ASXL1 (HR, 1.89; P = .0003) mutations independently predicted OS. Combining cytogenetic risk and mutations in these 7 genes, 39.1% of patients could be assigned to a “go-go” tier with a 2-year OS of 66.1%, 7.6% to the “no-go” group (2-year OS 2.8%), and 3.3% of to the “slow-go” group (2-year OS of 39.1%; P < 10−5). Across 3 independent validation cohorts, 31.2% to 37.7% and 11.2% to 13.5% of patients were assigned to the go-go and the no-go tiers, respectively, with significant differences in OS between tiers in all 3 trial cohorts (HDF [Hauts-de-France], n = 141, P = .003; and SAL [Study Alliance Leukemia], n = 46; AMLSG [AML Study Group], n = 223, both P < 10−5). The ALFA decision tool is a simple, robust, and discriminant prognostic model for AML patients ≥60 years of age treated with intensive chemotherapy. This model can instruct the design of trials comparing the 7 + 3 standard of care with less intensive regimens.

Investigation and uptake of filtered tailings continues to grow throughout the globe. This is driven by a wide range of site-specific considerations, which include such factors as tailings characteristics (e.g., amenability to filtration), production rates, climate, water availability, cost drivers, environmental requirements, and social factors. Despite the aforementioned technological growth, the currently available filtration technology is not able to meet the needs of many operations and projects that would otherwise adopt the technology. Experience with large-scale industrial filtration shows that vacuum belt filter systems meet the needs of many modern users, exceptions being the inability to effectively dewater tailings at altitude and/or with a fine particle size distribution: a potential fatal flaw. This paper presents a case study on the utilization of the patented Viper Filtration technology on gold tailings to overcome this challenge and shares the resultant full-scale plant design, highlighting the features designed to overcome cost and scalability deterrents. This technology is a novel mechanical process which complements the vacuum pressure in dewatering the filter cake as it travels along the belt filter. This project commenced with a pilot testing program, which successfully met the objective to rigorously test, measure and record any performance improvements achieved when engaging the Viper technology. Of the two tailings products tested, gross improvements of 4.2%w/w and 5.7%w/w were achieved when compared to the conventional vacuum belt filter operation. This pilot testing facilitated measurement of operating and design data, which forms the basis of the full-scale system design and resultant equipment supply of three vibration roller assemblies for retro-fitting on the existing vacuum belt filter.

Mie-resonant dielectric metasurfaces are excellent candidates for both fundamental studies related to light-matter interactions and for numerous applications ranging from holography to sensing to nonlinear optics. To date, however, most applications using Mie metasurfaces utilize only weak light-matter interaction. Here, we go beyond the weak coupling regime and demonstrate for the first time strong polaritonic coupling between Mie photonic modes and intersubband (ISB) transitions in semiconductor heterostructures. Furthermore, along with demonstrating ISB polaritons with Rabi splitting as large as 10%, we also demonstrate the ability to tailor the strength of strong coupling by engineering either the semiconductor heterostructure or the photonic mode of the resonators. Unlike previous plasmonic-based works, our new all-dielectric metasurface approach to generate ISB polaritons is free from ohmic losses and has high optical damage thresholds, thereby making it ideal for creating novel and compact mid-infrared light sources based on nonlinear optics.

The penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) on the electric power system is changing traditional power flow and analysis studies. DERs may cause the systems' protection and control equipment to operate outside their intended parameters, due to DERs' variability and dispatchability. As this penetration grows, hosting capacity studies as well as protection and control impact mitigation become critical components to advance this penetration. In order to conduct such studies accurately, the electric power system's distribution components should be modeled correctly, and will require realistic time series loads at varying temporal and spatial conditions. The load component consists of the built environment and its load profiles. However, large-scale building load profiles are scarce, expensive, and hard to obtain. This article proposes a framework to fill this gap by developing detailed and scalable synthesized building load profile data sets. Specifically, a framework to extract load variability characteristics from a subset of buildings' empirical load profiles is presented. Thirty-four discrete wavelet transform functions with three levels of decomposition are used to extract a taxonomy of load variability profiles. The profiles are then applied to modeled building load profiles, developed using the energy simulation program EnergyPlus®, to generate synthetic load profiles. The synthesized load profiles are variations of realistic representations of measured load profiles, containing load variabilities observed in actual buildings served by the electric power system. The paper focuses on the framework development with emphasis on variability extraction and application to develop 750 synthesized load profiles at a 15-minute time resolution.

Objective The objective of this article was to correlate hypotension and cerebral saturation from near-infrared spectroscopy (cNIRS) in neonates on dopamine. Study Design Retrospective review of neonates receiving dopamine between August 2018 and 2019 was performed. Hypotension thresholds included mean arterial pressure (MAP) of postmenstrual age (PMA) ± 5 and 30 mm Hg and gestational age (GA) ± 5 mm Hg. Time below threshold MAP was compared with time with cerebral hypoxia (cNIRS Results Hypotension occurred 6 to 33% of the time on dopamine in 59 cases. Hypotension did not correlate with abnormal cNIRS overall, within PMA subgroups or by outcomes. Hypotensive periods with MAP Conclusion cNIRS may be a more clinically relevant measure than MAP for the assessment of neonatal hypotension. Key Points

While the increase in EV use is a positive step towards embracing green technology, the heightened energy demands resulting from this rapid growth present major challenges to local energy grid load management. For context, the new EVs being deployed store approximately 100 kWh, about four times the daily electricity use of the average household in the U.S. Current local distribution grids do not have the capacity to accommodate these massively increased loads. For this reason, it is important that local utilities have a full understanding of the charging demand within a given grid. The main objective of this research is to deepen the understanding of charging behavior at the household level using real data. Specifically, data from existing 417 residential Level-2 charging stations, located in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, are collected and analyzed. The results show a clear pattern in user behavior for the starting time of sessions, as well as the connection duration, charging duration, and subsequent energy demand.

Purpose Effective use of human resources is important for the profitability and governance of family firms. In a study of the human resource management (HRM) practices of US Hispanic family firms, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the implications of agency and stewardship governance. Design/methodology/approach To better understand HRM practices in US Hispanic family firms, the authors present findings from 169 US firms to hypothesize the extent of HRM development in Hispanic family firms (n=70) vs non-Hispanic family firms (n=99). Findings Results indicated that HRM practices in Hispanic family firms are less structured than those of non-Hispanic family firms; however, when Hispanic family firms effectively use HRM practices, they will have greater financial success. Originality/value Therefore, the results suggest that Hispanic family firm leaders display relatively low agency governance and high stewardship governance.

Instances of employees being ‘dooced’ because of a social media post are becoming commonplace. Three research questions are presented to better understand workplace firings due to social media posts using justice theory and social convergence to fit within the nomological net. The first question examines employees' awareness of their employer's social media policy. The second question examines the role of offensiveness in the perceived fairness of the termination. The third question asks whether work-related posts (social convergence) and the presence of a social media policy (social media governance) influence the perception of termination fairness. Two data collection efforts are presented to test the research questions. The research findings extend the social media marketing governance literature by incorporating role theory and script theory. Managerial implications include the importance of developing and communicating to employees the organization's social media policies.

The paper examines the financial connectedness via return and volatility spillovers between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and three global bond market indices represented by the United States of America (USA), European Monetary Union (EMU) and Japan for the period 01 January 1997 to 27 July 2016 (weekly data). We find that Russia followed by South Africa is the net transmitter of shocks within BRICS, implying that the risk arising from these markets may have an adverse impact on others in BRICS. However, China and India exhibit weak connectedness, suggesting that these markets may be useful for hedging and diversification opportunities in BRICS. The networks of pairwise spillover results further confirm this. Among global indices, China appears as highly interconnected with the USA. USA is the strongest transmitter of shocks to BRICS bond indices. The panel data results further confirm the significant determinants of net directional spillover. Thus, we can conclude that BRICS is a heterogeneous asset class even in the case of the bond market. India and China are the markets to look for better risk management strategies.

Our paper investigates Indonesia’s systemically important banks (SIBs) using theoretical approaches—CoVaR, marginal expected shortfall (MES), and SRISK—to compare with the Basel guidelines as benchmark. We use Indonesian banks’ market and supervisory data over the 2008–2019 period. The research aims to seek intertheoretical model interaction and SIB ranking in concordance with the Basel guidelines as applied by a bank supervisor. The findings show that SRISK produced a more consistent ranking compared with CoVaR and MES. CoVaR and MES had higher intermodel correlation converted to 59% similarity in rankings. Further, all theoretical models are in line with the Basel guidelines, where the closest approximation is at 47%. The results indicate that policy makers could use scholarly models as validation tools and help improve supervision decision to identify systemically important institutions.

We show that by using a perturbed photonic Dirac-cone, one can realize ultra-narrow and finite Q-factor peak in the wavevector space, with both the peak value and the width separately tunable. We also discuss a lower bound in the minimal viable width given a peak Q-value while maintaining sufficient Q differentiation among modes. The strong angular and frequency Q-selection finds applications in optical devices where strong angle- and frequency-selection is needed., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Epitaxial regrowth is investigated as a method of PCSEL fabrication and is compared to non-regrowth methods. The influence of regrowth to photonic crystal morphology is explored and optically pumped and electrically injected devices are demonstrated.

BACKGROUND: Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) is commonly utilized in lumbar degenerative pathologies. Standalone ALIF (ST-ALIF) systems were developed to avoid added morbidity, surgical time, and cost of anterior and posterior fusion (APF). Controversy exists in the literature about which of these two techniques yields superior clinical and radiographic outcomes, and few studies have directly compared them. This study seeks to compare ST-ALIF and APF in terms of sagittal correction and surgical complications. METHODS: Ninty-two consecutive ALIF cases performed from 2013–2018 were retrospectively reviewed and separated into 2 groups. Radiographic measurements were performed on pre- and post-operative radiographs, including segmental lordosis (SL), lumbar lordosis (LL), and pelvic incidence-lumbar lordosis mismatch (PI-LL). Surgical complications were determined. Statistical analysis was performed using chi-square test of homogeneity, Fisher’s exact test, and independent sample t-test. Comparisons between groups were deemed statistically significant at the P

Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV) user charging behavior has a significant influence on a distribution network and its reliability. Generally, monitoring energy consumption has become one of the most important factors in green and micro grids; therefore, predicting the charging demand of PEVs (the energy consumed during the charging session) could help to efficiently manage the electric grid. Consequently, three machine learning methods are applied in this research to predict the charging demand for the PEV user after a charging session starts. This approach is validated using a dataset consisting of seven years of charging events collected from public charging stations in the state of Nebraska, USA. The results show that the regression method, XGBoost, slightly outperforms the other methods in predicting the charging demand, with an RMSE equal to 6.68 kWh and R2 equal to 51.9%. The relative importance of input variables is also discussed, showing that the user’s historical average demand has the most predictive value. Accurate prediction of session charging demand, as opposed to the daily or hourly demand of multiple users, has many possible applications for utility companies and charging networks, including scheduling, grid stability, and smart grid integration.

We experimentally demonstrate a metasurface that supports tailorable polaritons arising from strong coupling between Mie modes of dielectric nanoresonators and intersubband transitions of semiconductor quantum wells that are embedded inside the resonator.

This study examines the dynamic dependence structure via return and volatility spillovers between BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and global markets (USA, Europe, and World) at sectoral level. Using directional spillover and dynamic conditional correlation models, we find that there is substantial evidence of heterogeneity across sample sectors within BRIC and between BRIC and global indices. The sectors that exhibit high inter-country spillovers are industrial metal & mining, banking, industrial transportation and oil & gas. The regional and global indices represented by Europe and World show better spillover mechanism than any other indices, implying that these global sectoral indices impact the sectoral indices returns of BRIC markets. The dynamic hedge ratios and portfolio weights suggest that among BRIC, the sectoral indices of China and India provide better opportunities for risk management than Brazil and Russia. We thus conclude that the heterogeneous dependence structure makes BRIC as a diverse asset class from strategic asset allocation perspective.

An 81-year-old woman presented to our institution with a contained ruptured mycotic aortic aneurysm involving the takeoff of the celiac artery that required ligation of the celiac trunk, resulting in foregut ischemia and the need for revascularization. The technique of aortic reconstruction with delayed hepatic artery revascularization by a common iliac artery to hepatic artery bypass is described. Keywords: Mycotic aneurysm, Celiac artery aneurysm

The NSX R&D team and VMware Research team are using Corfu to build breakthrough, auto-configurable, auto-managed clustering management tools.

We report optically pumped 1 μm low threshold GaAs photonic crystal surface emitting lasers. The GaAs photonic crystal is etched on 3-period InGaAs/AlGaAs MQW heterostructure. A laser peak is achieved at 1,006 nm with a linewidth of 0.6 nm at 5 kW/cm2 threshold power density.

Objectives Antibiotics for febrile neutropenia (FN) in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy are usually maintained until neutropenia resolution, because of the risk of uncontrolled sepsis in this vulnerable population. This leads to unnecessarily prolonged antimicrobial therapy. Methods Based on ECIL-4 recommendations, we modified our management strategy and discontinued antibiotics after a pre-established duration in patients treated for a first episode of FN between August 2014 and October 2017. Results Antibiotics were stopped during 62 FN episodes, and maintained in the control group (n = 13). Median age of patients was 54 years. A total of 39 (63%) patients received induction and 23 (37%) consolidation chemotherapy; 36 (58%) patients had fever of unknown origin. Median neutropenia length was 26 days (IQR 24–30). Antibiotics were started at day 9 (IQR 5–13). Most patients received piperacillin-tazobactam (56%) or cefepime (32%). Antimicrobial therapy was longer in the control group than in the policy compliant group, 10 (IQR 7–16) vs. 19 days (IQR 15–23), P = 0.0001. After antibiotics discontinuation, 20% patients experienced fever recurrence, within 5.5 days (IQR 3–7.5). None of these febrile episodes were severe and 80% patients remained afebrile, with neutrophil recovery occurring within 5 days (IQR 2–8.5). Overall, 287 antibiotics days were spared; this represents 49% of all days with antibiotics. No patient had died at day 30 from intervention; six died during late follow-up, two from graft-versus-host disease and four from relapsed or refractory leukaemia. Conclusions Discontinuing antibiotics in neutropenic AML patients treated for a first episode of FN is safe, and results in significant antibiotic sparing.

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) play significant role in the development of green cities, since they have less impact on the environment compared to conventional vehicles. To promote PEV adoption, charging infrastructure should be deployed at strategic locations that are readily accessible to the public to mitigate range anxiety of PEV users. In this paper, 17,675 charging events were collected from charging stations located in the state of Nebraska to accurately quantify the factors that have an influential role in determining user connection periods at public charging stations. This analysis aims to aid policy-makers in understanding the charging behaviors of PEV users, in order to optimize the characteristics, size and locations of public charging stations.

A mean-variance framework is applied to Australian household financial portfolios in order to provide estimates of relative risk aversion in the economy. Controlling for various socio-economic characteristics, we explore whether risk aversion heterogeneity is a function of wealth heterogeneity. In contrast to most studies, we find evidence of very high risk aversion amongst the majority of households of poor households but vastly lower risk aversion amongst the high percentiles in the wealth distribution. Applying a first differences model across three survey waves spanning 2002 to 2010, we find that risk tolerance increases significantly with wealth. Risk tolerance is positively associated with mortgage payments, but rental payments have no relationship. In addition, we found no evidence that holding a university education has any discernible impact on risk aversion. Lastly, we present some preliminary findings as to the impact of financial advice on observed risk aversion. Financial advice is found to accentuating risk aversion, particularly amongst the wealthiest households. The findings have potential implications for the distribution of wealth in Australia that has received renewed interest recently.

SUMMARY: This article examines the evidence for engagement with the rural post-medieval landscape using two national case studies: Wales and Scotland. The issues reflected in these case studies are indicative of the wider challenges for archaeologists and professional practitioners alike. The article recognizes that landscape is not just about geographical place, but an archaeological theoretical framework. It proposes that Post-Medieval Archaeology monographs and conference sessions specific to landscape could help to tease out themes that address the big questions of the post-medieval world — capitalism, modernity and improvement — but also take account of agency, identity and meaning.

Background Local anesthetics are commonly used in the emergency department (ED). Overdoses can lead to disastrous complications including cardiac toxicity and arrest. Recognition of local anesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST) is important; however, prevention is even more critical. Knowledge of proper lidocaine dosage can prevent LAST. LAST may be effectively treated with lipid emulsion therapy. Although the mechanism is not well understood, its use may have a profound impact on morbidity and mortality. Case Report Fifty milliliters of 2% lidocaine was infiltrated for local anesthesia in a 35-year-old woman during the incision and drainage of a labial abscess. Following the procedure, the patient complained of vomiting, with rapid progression to an altered mental state and seizure requiring endotracheal intubation for airway protection. Suspecting lidocaine toxicity, intralipids were ordered. While waiting for the intralipids, the patient decompensated and suffered pulseless electrical activity (PEA) cardiac arrest. A 100-mL bolus of 20% intralipids was administered 3 minutes into the resuscitation, after which return of spontaneous circulation occurred. The intralipid bolus was then followed by a continuous infusion of 0.25 mL/kg/minute, for an infusion dose of 930 mL. Despite a complicated hospital course, the patient was discharged home neurologically intact. Why Should an Emergency Physician Be Aware of This? We believe this patient's cardiovascular collapse was secondary to an iatrogenic overdose of lidocaine. This is one of the first cases to support the efficacy of intravenous lipids in the treatment of LAST in humans in the ED.

This paper is an attempt to empirically examine the impact of Basel Accord regulatory guidelines on the risk-based capital adequacy regulation and bank risk management of Vietnamese commercial banks. Our research aims to assess how Vietnamese commercial banks manage their capital ratio and bank risk under the latest Basel Accord capital adequacy ratio requirements. Building on previous studies, this research uses a simultaneous equation modeling (SiEM) with three-stage least squares regression (3SLS) to analyze the endogenous relationship between risk-based capital adequacy standards and bank risk management. A year dummy variable (dy2013) is included in the model to take account of changes in the regulation of the Vietnamese banking system. Furthermore, we add a value-at-risk variable developed by as an independent variable into equations of the empirical models. The results reveal a significant impact of Basel capital adequacy regulatory pressure on the risk-based capital adequacy standards and bank risk management of Vietnamese commercial banks. Moreover, banks under the latest Basel capital adequacy regulations are induced to reduce risks and increase banks&rsquo, financial performance.

In the present research, epitaxial regrowth by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is investigated as a fabrication process for void-semiconductor photonic crystal (PhC) surface emitting lasers (PCSELs). The PhC is patterned by electron beam lithography (EBL) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etch and is subsequently regrown by molecular beam epitaxy to embed a series of voids in bulk semiconductor. Experiments are conducted to investigate the effects of regrowth on air-hole morphology. The resulting voids have a distinct teardrop shape with the radius and depth of the etched hole playing a very critical role in the final regrown void’s dimensions. We demonstrate that specific hole diameters can encourage deposition to the bottom of the voids or to their sidewalls, allowing us to engineer the shape of the void more precisely as is required by the PCSEL design. A 980 nm InGaAs quantum well laser structure is optimized for low threshold lasing at the design wavelength and full device structures are patterned and regrown. An optically pumped PCSEL is demonstrated from this process.

The widespread use of Arabic in the “crusader” county of Tripoli was an obstacle between the Latin Christian Franks and their indigenous subjects. The concept of diglossia – the co-existence of divergent high and low registers within a single language – is an important but under-appreciated consideration. Arabic's marked diglossia militates against simplistic generalisations that the Franks either did or did not learn Arabic. The Romance-speaking, Latin-writing conquerors of the county of Tripoli failed to learn formal written Arabic to any appreciable degree. They did, however, learn informal spoken Arabic with more success. The Franks recognised the importance and utility of Arabic, so felt obliged to employ intermediaries – usually local Christians – to speak and write on their behalf. Some Arabic vocabulary entered the Frankish lexicon, but the consciously Latinising style of clerical authors often obscured this. Most surviving written sources from the Latin East are misleading at best, and so...

This paper summarizes a commercial Asteroid Mining Architecture synthesized by the Senior Space Design Class at the University of Washington in Winter/Spring Quarters of 2013. The main author was the instructor for that class. These results use design-to-cost development methods and focused infrastructure advancements to identify and characterize a workable space industrialization architecture including space transportation elements, asteroid exploration and mining equipment, and the earth orbit infrastructure needed to make it all work. Cost analysis predicts that for an initial investment in time and money equivalent to that for the US North Slope Oil Field, the yearly world supply of Platinum Group Metals could be increased by 50%, roughly 1500 t of LOX/LH2 propellant/year would be available in LEO, and very low cost solar panels could be assembled at GEO using asteroidal materials. The investment also would have a discounted net present value return on investment of 22% over twenty years.

Using household panel data for Australia sourced from HILDA, we explore how household risk preferences in relation to portfolio holdings differ across wealth ranges and in relation to various household sociodemographic characteristics across the nation. Our measure of risk is based on the proportion of variance of the optimal household portfolio rather than the proportion of risky assets in the portfolio. Based on this measure, we estimate the coefficients of relative risk aversion for investors in various wealth ranges. In contrast to most studies, we find evidence of very high risk aversion amongst the majority of households. However, this is heavily concentrated amongst less wealthy households. We apply a first differences model across three survey waves spanning 2002 to 2010, and focus on the aggregate national level. We find that risk tolerance increases significantly with household wealth, the relationship is both statistically and economically significant. Liquidity contraints in the form of rental payments were found to diminish household appetite for risk. However, risk tolerance is positively associated with mortgage payments.

Variety appears to be one of the only constants within Community Archaeology. Activities range from test-pitting to cake-making, and involve participants of all ages and walks of life. It may be this endless variety that makes our theoretical models often seem inadequate to the task of aiding our understanding of what Community Archaeology is — and how we should be doing it. In this paper I will reflect on my varied experiences starting out in Community Archaeology, particularly during my CBA-Funded Community Archaeology Training placement at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in 2012/13. Drawing on this experience, I will share some of the challenges I have experienced and the many questions these have thrown up about the practice of Community Archaeology in the future. Although offering few answers to these questions, I hope to consider the opportunities which may arise in future in addressing some of these complex challenges.

A growth model that endogenizes skill formation and the skill requirements of invention and innovation is used to analyze developed countries that must invent and innovate vs those that may specialize in innovation. Invention (innovation, respectively) is defined as the creation of (use of) new technologies with the potential to increase (that actually increases) total factor productivity. It is shown that a small innovation specialist will have a larger share of knowledge that is skill saving resulting in lower wage inequality, but with an equal economic growth rate as the invention leader. Specialization in innovation is preferred for all agents in the small country because growth rates of wages for high- and low-skilled workers are higher at the steady state. The large country cannot specialize in innovation, as it cannot rely on significant amounts of invention from abroad. The novel effect helps explain higher returns to skills and the larger increase in wage inequality in the arguably more inventive United States than in other advanced countries in recent decades. The results do not depend on international spillovers from the large to small country (yet still hold in their presence), thereby explaining the skill differential during the information technology revolution, which has been not been characterized by significant, costless spillovers.

Acupuncture is one of the most common veterinary integrative medicine modalities. Acupuncture can greatly contribute to a rehabilitation protocol by promoting analgesia, tissue healing, and muscle strength. Acupuncture is safe, has minimal detrimental side effects, and is well tolerated by most horses.

Raising employment and improving the quality of education, are the two most critical and interrelated challenges, for eliminating poverty and reducing inequality in South Africa. To improve the quality of education, role-players need seamless access to critical information to guide planning and determine progress in different parts of the education system. Shortcomings in the current information infrastructure, especially at the nexus of the basic education and higher education systems, result in an information gap that needs to be eliminated, before a comprehensive picture of the education system and the factors underpinning its performance, can emerge. Local and international experts were consulted to understand best practice, describe information requirements and uncover the shortcomings in the existing infrastructure. Participants from the majority of the country’s higher education institutions took part in a survey to verify and refine the shape and consequences of the information gap. This article provides a foundation for creating an improved infrastructure that would provide the missing, critical information, highlighted in this study.

This article examines the determinants of a firm's proportion of collateralized loans within the context of Chinese firms. In particular, focus is placed on the effect of a new bank regulatory system on the firm's proportion of collateralized loans. The study found that a firm's proportion of collateralized loans is positively related to its level of credit risk and asymmetric information, and that this in turn is increasingly and significantly a consequence of the new banking regulatory law and guidelines of 2004. The results suggest that the new banking regulatory system has changed the way in which banks structure loan contracts in China.

Globalisation has led to a rapid increase in the growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) globally. Over the last decade China has become the largest recipient of FDI whilst simultaneously increasing its outward FDI dramatically. The growth in China's outward FDI has attracted little attention from scholars in mainstream research publications. The motivation behind this paper is to investigate the factors driving this growth from both economic and strategic backgrounds. The paper employs panel data analysis covering the period 2003–2009 where we quantify the main drivers of China's outward FDI across a range of variables including bi lateral and multi lateral trade, market size, GDP growth, openness and resource endowment.

In this paper we attempt to distinguish the direct effect of financial development on poverty reduction from its indirect effect through economic growth. Using an efficient estimator called fixed effect vector decomposition (FEVD) we employ a set of panel data from 54 developing countries for the period 1993–2004. Our results indicate that on average financial development is conducive for poverty reduction but the instability accompanying financial development is detrimental to the poor. The major policy recommendations suggested by the paper indicate that financial sector reforms should be directed at easing credit restrictions while taking into consideration the effects of financial instability on the poor.

The testing of accessory motion has become a very important part of manual therapy practice. Its value is in assessing whether joint mobility is ideal or impaired. Despite its use, there is little evidence in the literature to support the reliability of such testing. Most of the research carried out on accessory motion testing has focused on the spine. In view of this we decided to evaluate the intra- and interrater reliability of accessory motion testing of carpal joints. Two skilled therapists tested the available motion and the end-feel response of carpal joints in 30 students and 15 patients on two separate occasions. Pain scores were also obtained. In students a moderate to good percentage of agreement [67-97%] was obtained for motion testing. In patients the percentage of agreement ranged from 60% to 100% and weighted kappa values were between 0.33 and 1.0. Intrarater reliability was better than interrater reliability in both groups. Intra- and interrater agreement on end-feel was very good. Overall, the reliability of accessory motion testing of carpal joints was acceptable. The results suggest that this form of testing can be valuable in the training of manual therapists and in clinical practice.

OBJECT The object of this study was to determine the mortality and neurological outcome of patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) who require neurosurgical intervention (NSI), identify clinical predictors of a poor outcome, and investigate the effect of failed nonoperative management and delayed NSI on outcome. METHODS A cross-sectional study of 10 years was performed, capturing all adults with mTBI and NSI. Primary outcome variables were mortality and Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) score. Patients were divided into an immediate intervention group, which received an NSI after the initial cranial CT scan, and a delayed intervention group, which had failed nonoperative management and received an NSI after 2 or more cranial CT scans. RESULTS The mortality rate in mTBI patients requiring NSI was 13%, and the mean GOS score was 3.6 ± 1.2. An age > 60 years was independently predictive of a worse outcome, and epidural hematoma was independently predictive of a good outcome. Logistic regression analysis using independent variables was calculated to create a model for predicting poor neurological outcomes in patients with mTBI undergoing NSI and had 74.1% accuracy. Patients in the delayed intervention group had worse mortality (25% vs 9%) and worse mean GOS scores (2.9 ± 1.3 vs 3.7 ± 1.2) than those in the immediate intervention group. CONCLUSIONS Data in this study demonstrate that patients with mTBI requiring NSI have higher mortality rates and worse neurological outcomes and should therefore be classified separately from mTBI patients not requiring NSI. Additionally, mTBI patients requiring NSI after the failure of nonoperative management have worse outcomes than those receiving immediate intervention and should be considered separately.

A novel area detector has been designed for material science SR studies, capable of simultaneously collecting the diffraction data in two angular regimes. The detector for collecting wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) data consists of four taper-coupled CCDs arranged as a 2 x 2 mosaic with a central aperture about 40 mm in diameter, so permitting the inclusion of a distant on-axis CCD detector for small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The distance of the SAXS detector from the sample can be varied over the range of 0.27m to about 2m. The overall aperture of WAXS detector is approximately 200 x 200mm2 allowing the measurement of the diffraction patterns from 5o to 45o with an average angular resolution of 0.05o. The parallax error for large angles is substantially reduced as the individual WAXS CCDs are tilted towards the specimen location. both WAXS and SAXS diffraction data are simultaneously collected at 30 MB/s data rate, which is equivalent to 6 complete frames per second. Each pixel value is digitised using low- and high gain Analogue-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) which effectively increase the detector's overall dynamic range. The detector will be used in the study of a whole range of time-dependent phenomena, most importantly reaction kinetics, materials processing and real-time deformation studies. This paper discusses the unusual geometry fo the system, how it relates to design optimisation and the techniques for recovering combined SAXS/WAXS patters.

An X-ray detector system for macromolecular crystallography based on a large area charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor has been developed as part of a large research and development programme for advanced X-ray sensor technology, funded by industry and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) in the UK. The prototype detector consists of two large area three-sides buttable charge-coupled devices (CCD 46-62 EEV), where the single CCD area is 55.3mm41.5 mm. Overall detector imaging area is easily extendable to 85mm110 mm. The detector consists of an optically coupled X-ray sensitive phosphor, skewed fibre-optic studs and CCDs. The crystallographic measurement requirements at synchrotron sources are met through a high spatial resolution (20481536 pixel array), high dynamic range (B105), a fast readout (B1 s), low noise (o10e) and much reduced parallax error. Additionally, the prototype detector system has been optimised by increasingits efficiency at low X-ray energies for use at conventional lab sources. The system design of the prototype detector is discussed and the proposed method for crystallographic data processing is briefly outlined.

Vigorous and prolonged effort is required to gain true mastery of the healing arts. Conventional and complementary medicine have complementary strengths and weaknesses. Like the yin and yang of traditional Chinese medicine, they naturally flow into one another by a process of induction, creating balance. Integrative medicine is the frontier; it is the future. If we are to progress beyond our current understanding and ability to heal, we must work with theoretic models that allow us and our perception to operate "outside the box." For some, this understanding is intuitive. It is through cooperative and collaborative efforts of intuitively adept and technologically adept minds that we can integrate and advance our understanding; increase our ability to predict, prevent, and diagnose disease; and expand our therapeutic options.

Several characteristics of the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) protocol are making it increasingly popular with designers of networked multimedia systems. However, the main drawback to ATM-based switching is the possibility of information loss with congestion. In this paper, we address this issue; we demonstrate that with intelligent, fovea-driven priority assignment of image data, we can reduce the negative impact of information loss over ATM networks. ATM standards allow a single bit to indicate high or low packet priority. To reduce the effect of this restriction we introduce the concept of priority dithering. Network multimedia multicast scenarios over heterogeneous link capacities where foveal prioritization would be of benefit are described. Network simulation results of this method are included which demonstrate the advantages of priority dithered foveal prioritization over traditional methods.

One of the perceived benefits of a flexible exchange rate system is the insulation of the domestic economy from foreign shocks, and the potential for independent policy actions. In view of the considerable uncertainty, which pervades appropriate specification of the relevant theoretical models, the empirical analysis of this paper adopts the vector autoregressive approach. Using quarterly data over the period 1975(2)‐1995(2), models are estimated which test the effect on exchange rates of fiscal variables for seven countries (Australia, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the USA). In testing the exchange rate response to a bond financed fiscal expansion, a tax financed fiscal expansion and to a swap of taxes for debt with no change in the level of government expenditure, the results for the seven countries over the recent float are mixed because the impulse response functions to the shocks do not have the same pattern in every country.

Computer vision is a broad area in artificial intelligence (AI) usually utilizing digital images. Digital image compression techniques are required to overcome significant storage and transmission problems in this area. A strong understanding of image characteristics enhances the effectiveness of these and many other image processing operations. Traditional methods typically maintain constant resolution throughout an image. However, a survey of the various visual systems present in the animal kingdom demonstrates the potential of variable resolution (VR) compression methods. The authors model several animate visual systems and outline novel image compression techniques based on foveated vision. Interesting variations on the simple fovea are presented, motivated by similar variations present in animate visual systems; specifically multiple, moving and weighted foveae as well as visual streaks. Techniques for the efficient modelling of fovea movement are also described.

An X-ray sensitive CCD camera has been evaluated at the Daresbury Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) for use in X-ray topographic (XRT) studies of epitaxially grown, strain-layered semiconductors (InGaAs/GaAs). Current topographic images obtained with photographic emulsion plates require considerable exposure and processing times of up to an hour so that real-time XRT cannot be realised. However, results from the X-ray sensitive CCD camera have shown that misfit dislocation features in the sample wafer topograph can be revealed in exposure times of less than 15 min. Results obtained from the CCD are presented. Finally, a number of further improvements to the camera system are possible using recent developments in CCD technology which will improve the resolution and sensitivity and allow higher resolution topographs to be obtained in around 30 s, close to the goal for real-time imaging of layer growth by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). These further developments and the implications on the performance of a new camera system for X-ray topography are discussed.