David Kirby, a contributing writer to the New York Times on science and health issues, has chosen an important topic for this book. Unfortunately, this book is an extended editorial rather than a thorough and impartial exploration of the thimerosal story. Mr. Kirby does make some important points in this book. Kirby centers his story on several families. His illustration of parents' difficulties in advocating for their children with autism is poignant and highlights how much yet remains to be done in adequately supporting families who have children with special needs. I also appreciated Kirby's discussion of the way pharmaceutical lobbyists exploited Americans', and, more to the point, American legislators' fears after 9/11 to promote legislation that weakens vaccine oversight and injury compensation, in the name of ensuring the antibioterrorism vaccine program. Finally, Kirby points out that the centers for disease control (CDC) erred in setting exposure limits to total thimerosal administered throughout the childhood immunization schedule, rather than calculating the exposure as several boluses of organic mercury. Kirby correctly states that current science strongly supports that bolus doses are more biologically relevant than total exposure over childhood.1 In the introduction, Kirby insists that the book is not antivaccine but merely antithimerosal. The cover depicts a child screaming as he is being vaccinated by a disembodied, gloved hand. This cover accurately reflects its contents, as Kirby is very sympathetic to the antivaccine movement throughout the book. He also portrays as credulous some of the most outrageous conspiracy theories advanced by the antivaccine movement. Much of the book is devoted to substantiating allegations that the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, and the "powerful public health lobby" conspired with Eli Lilly to cover up data showing that thimerosal causes autism and other developmental disabilities. To his credit, Kirby rejects as "wild speculation" the idea that Eli Lilly knowingly induced an epidemic of developmental disabilities with thimerosal to create a market for its new product, Strattera (p. 246). However, he portrays some of these "conspiracy theorists" sympathetically. In contrast, Kirby subjects all scientists and officials who dispute the thimerosal hypothesis to categorical and personal criticism. Kirby fails to explore the various hypotheses that have been advanced to explain the increased incidence of autism with any depth or balance. Kirby curtly dismisses the idea that the autism "epidemic" could possibly be attributed to improved ascertainment, though he does this without any justification or rationale. He cites and then scoffs at evidence that regional rates of autism correlate tightly with the addition of services for the disorder. He bases his case on the fallacy that autism did not exist before Leo Kanner's description of it in 1943, shortly after the introduction of thimerosal, despite evidence to the contrary.2 Also, he never bothers to explain how two new mild autism spectrum disorders (Asperger's Disorder and pervasive developmental disorder—not otherwise specified) could be added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV without causing a predictable and exponential rise in the identified cases of autism, given that mild disorders are more prevalent than severe3 ones. Finally, as autism rates continue to climb, years out from the purging of thimerosal from childhood immunizations, Kirby's claim in the book that autism rates are plummeting (4 years out from the banning of thimerosal) is patently absurd. Kirby acknowledges that "several potential culprits beside thimerosal have been mentioned," but justifies his focus by writing "thimerosal exposure has received the most studies" (p. xiii). Kirby neglects truly compelling data correlating, for example, prenatal low-level exposure to pesticides and methyl mercury with subtle developmental effects,4 while distracting the reader with thimerosal. (Throughout the book, Kirby downplays the differences between ethyl and methyl mercury, even suggesting that thimerosal may be more neurotoxic than methyl mercury, a claim that is not well supported by the literature.5) The irony here is that the antithimerosal advocates have largely succeeded in the United States and elsewhere, whereas other aspects of environmental health advocacy lag behind. The best evidence regarding developmental neurotoxins is that they exert their most potent effects on embryos and fetuses.6 So, it is counter-productive to focus our anger on governmental agencies that have eliminated thimerosal from vaccines, doing so quite efficiently and on little evidence, while simultaneously ignoring the fact that other government agencies tolerate, and even subsidize, mercurypolluting coal-fired power-plants and the widespread use of organophosphates on our food. Kirby even sympathetically quotes Rep. Dave Weldon, who rants, in 2004 "why are all these guys going berserk over emissions from smoke-stacks but go mum over injecting mercury into babies," (p. 398). In 2004, 3 years after thimerosal had been banned and smokestack mercury output was on the rise, this comment reveals blatant bias. Thimerosal sensibly has been purged from Rhogam and the childhood immunization schedule, and parents can opt for thimerosal-free flu shots, thus, exposing their children to no thimerosal. Certainly, it is biologically plausible that there could be subtle developmental effects of ethyl mercury exposure, particularly in sensitive subpopulations. But, this book is not a careful investigation of such subtle effects. Without addressing data to the contrary, Kirby insists that there is an epidemic of autism and that thimerosal is the cause. I imagine that Kirby would object strenuously to the idea that this book would in any way jeopardize advocacy regarding developmental toxicology. After all, this book is supposedly an expose of how careless or even malicious collaborations of government and industry have caused a developmental epidemic. I suppose Kirby might argue that increased toxicological awareness "lifts all boats," but I don not believe that is true. On the contrary, by calling wolf on thimerosal, Kirby risks public skepticism about developmental toxins that continue to threaten healthy prenatal development. True advocacy for children with disabilities and their parents would sponsor a comprehensive approach to improving services and supports, not a narrow focus on a single issue. Kirby's restricted focus on thimerosal is antagonistic to such true advocacy. Kirby literally condemns doctors and scientists who do not embrace his party line (p. xvi). He does the same with politicians, and a large portion of the book is devoted to the political angle on this story. The political heroes of the book are Reps. Dan Burton and Dave Weldon (both Republicans and staunch supporters of the thimerosal hypothesis), whereas the central villain is Rep. Henry Waxman (a Democrat and thimerosal-heretic). Kirby states that he has no partisan biases and is only interested in the truth and its supporters. Consistent with this claim, Kirby also criticizes Republican Sen. Bill Frist and President Bush for protecting potential bioterrorism vaccine manufacturers


Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are effectively expanded in fetal liver (FL), while they are maintained in a dormant state in adult bone marrow (BM). However, developmental mechanisms allowing this have not been fully explained. BM-HSCs have the lowest protein synthesis rate within the blood hierarchy, even under forced self-renewal divisions. In addition, HSCs are vulnerable to and quickly activate endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress responses fueled by accumulation of unfolded / misfolded proteins (Miharada et al., Cell Rep . 2014). Of note, we have seen that FL-HSCs have low levels of ER stress related genes despite their high proliferation status without an increase in heat shock protein levels, strongly indicating that other factor(s) block ER stress elevation. This raises the question how HSCs deal with the higher protein-folding requirement during expansion in the FL. Here we demonstrate that bile acids (BAs) are required to eliminate ER stress in the FL and are essential for proper expansion of FL-HSCs.

Measurement of protein synthesis rate using OP-puro incorporation revealed that protein synthesis was enhanced in FL-HSCs, whereas BM-HSCs have half the rate of other populations in BM. Mass spectrometry analyses showed that BAs in the FL were all taurine conjugated while 30% of BA in the adult liver was taurine-conjugated, and the main proportion was taurocholic acid (TCA) that is known for its low toxicity. In the FL we also detected secondary BAs (e.g. TDCA), requiring intestinal bacteria in the production process, suggesting that FL BAs are a mixture of fetal and maternal BAs.

Reduction of BA levels using GW4064, a chemical inhibitor of BA synthesis, significantly decreased the number of HSCs (6.6 fold decrease compared to vehicle treatment). This decrease was due to increased apoptosis caused by elevated ER stress levels. Similarly, dual deletion of Cyp27a1, a key BA synthetic enzyme, in both mother and fetus severely decreased total cellularity (2.0 fold decrease compared to littermate heterozygotes) and number of HSCs (6.8 fold decrease) in FL due to increased ER stress and subsequent apoptosis. Interestingly, FL of homozygotes grown in heterozygous mothers did not show any significant differences compared to littermate heterozygotes, suggesting that the contribution of maternal BA in FL is critical for HSCs. In both models, ER stress-oriented apoptosis and reduction in cellularity were most pronounced within the HSC population, indicating that stem cells are particularly sensitive to BA levels during development in FL. Importantly, injection of TCA or Salubrinal, an ER stress inhibitor, rescued the effects of BA reduction in both models. These data strongly suggest that BAs are required to block ER stress elevation in expanding FL-HSCs.

ER stress and protein aggregation are closely linked together in number of pathological diseases like AlzheimerOs- and HuntingtonOs disease. Quantification of aggregated proteins (aggresomes) revealed that Cyp27a1 KO FL-HSCs from homozygote mothers contained significantly higher amount of aggresomes (2.0 fold), while KO FL-HSCs from heterozygote mothers showed no increase. Higher levels of aggregated proteins were most pronounced within the HSC population and BA suppressed formation of aggresomes during in vitro culture. This leads to reduction of ER stress and the maintenance of functional HSCs. Finally, transplantation assay showed that TCA can support functional HSCs ex vivo for up to 14 days.

These findings propose a novel role for BA as a critical part of fetal hematopoiesis supporting expansion of HSC. Maternal and fetal BA coordinately contribute to this natural chaperone regulation.

![Figure 1.][1]

Figure 1.

Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: pending:yes


C  abbreviations of signed languages has apparently become a regular habit among linguists and other researchers in the United States and a few other countries. Such abbreviations may have been used as easy references or for comparative purposes in research and general discussion. But some of their abbreviations have been quickly adopted without regard or respect for the sign language terms that deaf people use. Furthermore, discussions with several deaf leaders and others, including a few deaf linguists, in many countries have often raised questions on the legitimacy of making abbreviations or acronyms of the names of certain signed languages. Some of the abbreviations or acronyms have apparently caused serious problems in the international creation of linguistic abbreviations. Others have, unnecessarily, become political slogans. Deaf leaders have frequently asked whether deaf people are expected to adopt the abbreviations or acronyms that other researchers have created. They have also wondered why the old terms that deaf people used could not be adopted in research. Linguists rarely, if ever, use abbreviations or acronyms for the names of spoken languages. For example, I have never seen an abbreviation or acronym for English and German, either spoken or written. As a result of the international emphasis on equality, we have to


Alzheimer's disease is a hereditary neuro-degenerative disorder whose typical form causes amnestic cognitive impairment and less common variants cause non-amnestic cognitive impairment. The aim of the paper is to classify and localize magnetic resonance images of patients with Alzheimer's disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Cognitively Normal. We propose a method for the automatic detection and localization of Alzheimer's disease, by proposing a neural network designed by authors i.e., TriAD. One of the distinctive features of the proposed network is its ability to process three simultaneous input MRI images of the brain corresponding to the three reference planes (axial, coronal, and sagittal). The assembly of these three classifications has led to excellent quantitative results (95% in accuracy, precision, and recall) and punctual heatmaps for the localization of the region of interest in the images. Moreover, we show how visual explainability can increase the trustworthiness and reliability in the adoption of deep learning by the medical staff. The main novelty, the TriaAD network, guarantees good performances from a quantitative and qualitative point of view, providing a very precise classification and localization of Alzheimer's disease images.


. Diversity in religion raises interfaith marriage as a debated issue in Indonesia and Islam in particular. There are several different interpretations in which the fuqaha' or Islamic scholars on this subject. They are influenced by some of the explanations given in the Qur'an. This research article focuses on the interpretation of Islamic scholars regarding the ahkam verse, which alludes to interfaith marriages. To understand the phenomenon, we employed interpretive qualitative approach. This study collected secondari data and conducted content analysis on the document. Then, we made interpretations of the verse on Ahkam in interfaith marriages. The findings show that the opinion of the Ulama that prohibits marriage between Muslim men and polytheistic women. Some scholars categorize polytheists, which only include Arab mushrik, and some classify polytheists globally. During the interpretation of marrying the people of the book, the scholars agree that it is permissible according to the criteria of each scholar. Their interpretation is also based on approaches following fiqh rules. Contemporary scholars argue that interfaith marriages should be banned as a preventive measure to prevent more significant harm. Future studies should focus on how traditional and contemporary scholars have different perception on the issue.


This paper takes the fuzzy control approach to dealing with stability analysis and control design for a class of time delay-dependent nonlinear systems with input saturation. First, T-S fuzzy model with time delay is transformed into a linear nominal plant with a lumped system disturbance in order to give a way to relax the conservative LMI condition in the general T-S fuzzy model control system. Then, in order to deal with the lumped system disturbance, the concept of matching condition is used. Finally, theoretical analysis for the controller design shows that the sate of the closed-loop system under the linear feedback controller with input saturation is quadratically stable.


In a special issue on the role of artifacts in mathematics learning, it is interesting to call to mind the original meaning of the word artifact. The word is derived from the Latin words ars (meaning "art" or also "craftsmanship") and factum (from facere = "to make"). So literally an artifact is "something made by craftsmanship." In this sense it has been used for a long time in literature as an opposite to natural or naturally given (as one can still see in the use of the word artificial), but with the progress of social research there is a growing awareness of the fact that almost anything that we know of now in our culture is somehow artificial, that is, constructed by human beings. According to Vygotsky (1982/1930), such artificial constructions serve as instruments for the mastery of processes in our surrounding nature and ourselves. In fact, Vygotsky often used the terms instrumental and artificial (iskusstvennyj) as synonyms. He furthermore emphasized that these artifacts often are related in complex ways; they are parts of cultural systems of activity, and as such they influence the course and structure of concrete human actions. During the accomplishment of instrumental actions, the structure of the instruments can be modified THE JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES, 11(2&3), 359–363 Copyright © 2002, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.


It is well known that the capacity of a cellular CDMA system is limited by the interuser interference. This effect is often computed using a Gaussian approximation or a lognormal approximation. In this paper, we study the effect of surrounding layers of cells on the reverse link by adding one layer at a time. This approach shows us the relationship among the bit error rate, the path loss exponent and the number of layers that need to be considered. A large number of integrals are incurred in the computation process and we demonstrate two efficient approaches, namely, the mean method and Monte Carlo integration, to obtain the bit error rate. For a typical valve of the path loss exponent r=2.5, at least 3 or 4 layers are required to capture most of the interuser-interference effect.


Abstract Background: Different methods were attempted by many researchers to reduce postoperative inflammatory response following surgical extraction of impacted lower wisdom teeth because this is a very common procedure and is usually associated with pain, difficulty in mouth opening and swelling. Aim: To assess the effect of submucosal injection of 4mg/1ml dexamethasone on reduction of postoperative pain, facial swelling and trismus following the surgical extraction of impacted lower wisdom teeth. Materials and methods: Forty patients were selected to be included in this randomized clinical study with a total number of 42 impacted mandibular third molars , they divided randomly into two groups, control and study group of twenty patients for each, 5 minutes after local anesthesia injection patients in the study group had received 4mg/1 ml submucosal injection of dexamethasone, while patients in the control group received 1ml placebo (normal saline) five minutes after local anesthesia administration, then surgical removal of impacted teeth was done after further five minutes. evaluation of mouth opening and swelling was done preoperatively as a baseline and on the second and seventh post-operative days after surgery, while pain was scored daily until the 7 th postoperative day by the patient according to the numerical rating scale. Every one of these factors in addition to the time of surgery were compared between the two groups. Results: study group showed less limitation in mouth opening than control group but there was no statistically significant difference between them. however, study group showed a significant reduction in pain scores on the first and the second postoperative days and a significant decrease of swelling compared with the control group at the 48 hours follow up. Conclusion: submucosal injection of dexamethasone was effective in minimizing facial swelling and pain after surgical extraction of impacted mandibular third molar. Furthermore, it had reduced the severity of trismus but not to a significant level.


resembling fracture of the clavicle, and requiring the same treatment. Now, in practice, I believe, it will alrnost always be found, as in this case, lhopeless to expect to retain the displaced end of the bone in its proper position; but, notwithstanding, the result will inot materially impair the usefulness of the limb. A surgeon meeting with this form of injury for the first timie (and it is by no means common) anid relying upon the practice laid down by our surgical writers, would, very probably, subject his patient to much unnecessary and useless discomfort and suffering, and hiimself to needless trouble and anxiety, in endeavouring to retain the dislocated end of the clavicle in its normal position. I ought, perhaps, to mention that, in the course of the treatment, my friend's patient, as is usual in Liverpool, sought the advice of a notorious bonesetter, who had wit enough to see the difficulty, and told the man that although if he had treated the case at first, lhe could have made a perfect culre, he couild now only partially replace the bone. This he undertook to do for half a sovereign; and the patient submitted to his mnanipulations and fiirmly believed that he had received fully ten shillings' worth of benefit from the overhauling. I need scarcely say that no discernible difference was effected in the condition of the parts.


SUMMARY Schwannoma originating from the cervical vagus nerve is an extremely rare neoplasm. Vagal nerve schwannoma usually occurs betwe en the third and fi fth decades of life, it does not show sex predilection both sexes being equally affected and it most often presents as a painless, slow-growing, lateral neck mass. The treatment of choice is complete surgical excision with preservation of the neural pa thway, when it is possible. These tumours, in fact, are almost always benign and a conservative surgical approach is emphasized by most of the Authors. A case of a cervical vagal schwannoma, in a 33-year old male with a previous medical history of malignant lymphoma, is describe d. The clinical features, diagnosis, management and pathological fi ndings of cervical vagal schwannoma are discussed.


Alginate is a well-known naturally-derived biomaterial that has been widely used in preparing microparticles for drug delivery and in preparing scaffolds for tissue engineering. Despite desirable properties, alginate has been shown to activate inflammatory cells in vivo. The mechanisms are still unclear. In this thesis, the mechanism by which alginate caused innate immune responses was investigated in vitro by using RA W264.7 cells, a macrophage-like cell line. The NF KB pathway, an important signaling pathway in macrophages, has been tracked to identify cellular responses. The secretion of cytokines IL-l p, IL-6, IL-12(p40) and TNF a was quantified to determine the activation outcomes. Also the interaction between alginate and serum was studied. Experimental results indicated that alginate induced the activation of RA W264. 7 cells with a time and dose dependent behavior. Like lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial product and known activator of innate immunity, alginate induced macrophage activation through the NF-KB pathway and eventually led to detectable IL-lp, IL-6 and TNF-a cytokine secretion. Serum influenced alginate recognition by macrophages in an unknown mechanism. Also, alginate promoted cell survival in a nutrition starvation condition. These results revealed in vitro alginate stimulation, and provided much information for further research.


Familial systemic lupus erythematosus offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the role of genetic immunologic and viral factors in its patho-genesis. In the 25 years since the report of the disease...


Acrylamide (ACR) is a typically contaminate during environmental industry and poses potential health hazards that have been attracting increasing attention. Its neurotoxicity is known to cause significant damage to health. However, the mechanisms of ACR-induced neurotoxicity require further clarification. This study explores how ACR-induced oxidative stress, neuronal lesions, neurotransmission impairment, and neuroinflammation mutually contribute to neurotoxicity using a mouse model. According to the results, oxidative stress was indicated by the presence of a distinct increase in cellular reactive oxygen species levels, malondialdehyde, and 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine content, as well as a significant decrease in the glutathione content after ACR exposure. Moreover, ACR caused neurological defects associated with gait abnormality and neuronal loss while suppressing the levels of acetylcholine and dopamine and increasing the protein expression of α-syn, further inhibiting cholinergic and dopaminergic neuronal function. Additionally, ACR treatment caused an inflammation response via NF-κB activation and increased the protein expression of NLRP3. Consequently, ACR activated the NLRP3 inflammasome constituents, including Caspase-1, ASC, N-GSDMD, IL-1β, and IL-18. The results revealed the underlying molecular mechanism of ACR-induced neurotoxicity via oxidative stress, neurotransmission impairment, and neuroinflammation-related signal cascade. This information will further improve the development of an alternative outcome pathway strategy for investigating the risk posed by ACR.


Over the past 15 years, light-matter strong coupling involving organic materials has been of increasing interest due to the very large energy splitting such systems exhibit between the two hybrid light-matter states, also known as the polaritonic states typically denoted P+ and P-. The large energy splitting, so-called Rabi splitting, is the result of the high transition dipole moments of the molecules and the small mode volumes of micro-metallic Fabry-Perot (FP) cavities or surface plasmons used in these studies. Rabi-splittings -1 eV have been observed, often representing a significant fraction of the electronic transition energy in which case the system is said to be in the ultra-strong coupling regime. ln this regime the physical chemistry of molecules or the properties of materials of the coupied system should be modified. lndeed, it has already been shown to affect the relaxation pathways in the coupled system, the rates of photochemical reactions, thework-function and conductivity of organic-semiconductors in the dark, among other things. A recent thermodynamic study demonstrated that the ground state energy can also be shifted in theultra-strong coupling regime. Moreover, the strong coupling is not limited to electronic transitions, but also can be used to perturb the ground-state vibrations of molecules in the infrared region. Ali these results suggest that light-molecule strong coupling has much potential for material and molecular science and therefore merits further study.


This paper studies the dynamic properties of a circular Couette system. Its mathematical model is a complex eigenvalue problem for the Navier Stokes equations with parameters. The problem can be transformed to a complex eigenvalue problem of complex ODEs (ordinary differential equations). Numerical methods were used to solve the parametric complex eigenvalue for the stiff ODEs. The initial condition was selected for the initial value problem of the ODE in the numerical solution. Some bi critical points were successfully computed for the low speed outer cylinder (-60 Re 2-41) in a stiff system. Some new phenomena which appeared in experiments with radii ratio 0.691 were verified and analyzed. The local stiffness of the circular Couette system was found to occur when the outer cylinder rotates at lower speeds (-60 Re 2-4) or higher speeds ( Re 2≈-300).


In this work, we establish the existence of nonzero solutions for a class of quasilinear elliptic equations involving indefinite nonlinearities with exponential critical growth of Trudinger–Moser type. Our proofs rely on variational arguments in a Orlicz–Sobolev space with a version of the Trudinger–Moser inequality


This paper proposed a framework to fuse multimodal features to detect soccer highlights.First the audio stream was extracted from video and classified based on CHMM.Then according to time corresponding relationship,shoot event was detected based on the combination of goal and replay in the shots near to those including excited speech of commenter and cheer from audience,where replay was detected based on logos.For shoots scoring could be judged according to the length of excited speech and cheer and the one of replay and the caption appearance.In the shots close to those including whistles fouls could be detected based on the combination of replay appearance and the length of replay.Experiments prove the high efficiency of the proposed system.


With combination of relevant knowledge of the product design, this article summarizes and analyzes the expression form of the emotion of the product. Through detailed analysis and summary of the product design case, it extracts four expression forms of the emotional semantics of product: shape, color, material, interactions. The design idea of "people oriented" is throughout the whole design process, makes the emotional semantic expression form of the emotion semantic become the medium of communication between people and


"Killers are made, not born. . . . As long as things like this happen there's no such animal as an innocent bystander. And that includes you—and me." Wade Miller Modern society has been increasingly concerned with the discharge of hostile feelings through resort to violence, especially when such acting-out culminates in murder. Of particular interest has been the "sudden murderer," the person who, without having been involved in any previous serious aggressive antisocial acts, suddenly, unlawfully, and intentionally kills (or makes a serious attempt to kill) another human being. The meaning of the murderous act has been interpreted differently by various investigators. Menninger and Mayman, 8 for example, suggested that murderous behavior might be a kind of "episodic dyscontrol" which functions as a regulatory device to forestall more extensive personality disintegration; Reichard and Tillman 9 suggested that such violence might be a defense against impending psychotic ego


The integration and management of distributed energy resources (DERs), including residential photovoltaic (PV) production, coupled with the widespread use of enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence, have led to the emergence of new tools, market models, and business opportunities. The accurate forecasting of these resources has become crucial to decision making, despite data availability and reliability issues in some parts of the world. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a deep and machine learning-based methodology for PV power forecasting, which includes XGBoost, random forest, support vector regressor, multi-layer perceptron, and LSTM-based tuned models, and introduces the ConvLSTM1D approach for this task. These models were evaluated on the univariate time-series prediction of low-volume residential PV production data across various forecast horizons. The proposed benchmarking and analysis approach considers technical and economic impacts, which can provide valuable insights for decision-making tools with these resources. The results indicate that the random forest and ConvLSTM1D model approaches yielded the most accurate forecasting performance, as demonstrated by the lowest RMSE, MAPE, and MAE across the different scenarios proposed.


Objective To explore the morphologic and biomechanical changes of the major wrist interosseous ligaments after radiofrequency electrothermal shrinkage. Methods Wrist specimens ex-ploited for the research were taken from 6 frozen fresh male adult cadavers. Radiofrequency electrothermal shrinkage was performed on the scapholunate volar and dorsal ligaments (SL-v, SL-d), lunotriquetral dorsal ligament (LT), trapezioeapitate dorsal ligament (TC), capitohamate dorsal ligament (CH) and the 2nd car-pometaearpal ligaments (CMC-2). The interosseous ligaments were observed and measured before and after the shrinkage. The bone-ligament-bone samples of the above ligaments were prepared for biomechanical mea-surements. Ligament extension testing was performed for each bone-ligament-bone sample on a material testing system. The load and length of breakage were measured and statistically analyzed. Results After shrinkage, the lengths of the ligaments were generally shortened, but significant difference only occurred in CH. The thicknesses of SL-v, SL-d, LT, CH and CMC-2 increased significantly. The breakage loads of the ligaments increased, but significant difference only occurred in SL-d. The breakage lengths of all the ligaments increased significantly. Conclusion After radiofrequency electrothermal treatment, the wrist interosseous ligaments can still maintain their anatomical morphology, but their thickness and viscoelasticity are enhanced.

Key words:
Wrist; Ligaments; Radiofrequeney; Biomechanics


The objective of the present research is to study the effectiveness of steady and pulsed vortex generator jets in reducing inlet flow distortion and in improving pressure recovery by effective secondary flow control in uniform inflow Serpentine duct diffuser. The measurements were carried out in at a test Reynolds number of 6.5×105 based on the diffuser inlet width. Serpentine duct diffuser consisted of two main portions namely square to circular constant area followed by a circular diffusing duct. Investigations show that the flow in the serpentine diffusing duct suffers from stall on the inner wall and the outflow at AIP has considerable flow distortion due the combined effect of secondary flow and the inner wall stall. It is observed that the use of vortex generator jets both in steady and pulsed modes improve the performance substantially. The number of jets, location of jets, velocity ratios and the pulse frequency are some of the variables that are studied. The results obtained so far suggest that use of pulsed jet not only gives better performance but also reduces the amount of air that need to be injected through the jets in comparison to steady jets for similar velocity ratios.© 2008 ASME


The HTTP protocol supports requests for downloading partial segments of a remote file. Commercial download managers take advantage of this feature by downloading large files on a remote server in chunks with the help of multiple parallel connections, resulting in an enhanced download speed. However, there has been little work on finding the optimal allocation of segments to threads or the optimal number of parallel connections. Our contributions are two-fold. We observed that existing download managers tend to perform poorly near the end of a download. Our first contribution, dynamic segmentation, is a way to fix this problem by reassigning threads to help other threads upon task completion. is dynamic segmentation, which fixes this problem. Furthermore, we note that each parallel connection takes processing power to run in a separate thread, and the marginal gain from adding new a connection is low when many other connections have already been established. Our second contribution, smart segmentation, is the application of online learning to finding the optimal number of connections. We implement dynamic segmentation along with two different learning algorithms and evaluate them by comparing their performance to the approach used in existing download managers, e.g. the ones built into common web browsers as well as extensions and stand-alone apps. When downloading large files, our implementation outperforms common browsers by at least 45%, and several commercial download managers by at least 50%. 1 1An interesting observation is that Firefox, which was the best browser in terms of download speed of large files, seems to outperform the standalone download managers we tested, despite the fact that these third party apps are dedicated to download acceleration.


An introduction to one of the fastest-growing equestrian sports, which provides a step-by-step guide to safe harnessing, putting-to and basic driving techniques. The text and accompanying illustrations cover correct rein handling, bitting, moving forward, turning, driving on the road and more.


The invention relates to a semiconductor package stacking device for avoiding the occurrence of broken micro-contact welding points during the semiconductor stacking. The semiconductor package stacking device mainly comprises a plurality of semiconductor package parts with the micro-contact welding points and solders for welding the micro-contact welding points. Each semiconductor package part comprises a substrate and a wafer on the substrate. The micro-contact welding points of the lower semiconductor package parts are a plurality of upper layer of convex blocks which are positioned at the upper surfaces of the substrates thereof; and the micro-contact welding points of the upper semiconductor package parts are a plurality of lower layer of convex blocks which are positioned at the lower surfaces of the substrates thereof, wherein, the lower layer of convex blocks can be aligned to the upper layer of convex blocks, thus allowing the solders to bond the upper layer of convex blocks and the lower layer of convex blocks. Thereby, the same solder bonding shape and the area of the upper layer of convex blocks and the lower layer of convex blocks are provided, thus being conductive to even welding and avoiding the occurrence of broken micro-contact welding points during the semiconductor stacking.


By the droplet-pinned crystallization method organic field-effect transistors with good device performance were fabricated based on ribbon-like TIPS-pentacene crystals. The electrical property of OFETs with ribbon-like TIPS-pentacene crystals developed by different concentration solutions is investigated. It is revealed that large and highly textured crystals tended to result in high mobility and small electrical hysteresis window.


Water pumps of all descriptions have been the subject of intense scrutiny by projects spearheaded by the World Bank, the Overseas Development Administration and others. John Reynolds reports on the Consumers' Association programme.


A survey of the ethnic consciousness of 246 Milwaukee Polish Americans found that the respondents could be divided into three general categories. The largest of these was composed of persons who, for all practical purposes, are assimilated. Among the others, two variations in Polish American ethnicity were identified. One was based on involvement in fraternal organizations while the other was founded in the maintenance of close contacts with Poland. Ethnically defined attitudes and behavior were strongest among members of this last group, who are familiar with the Polish language, usually born in Poland, and retain personal ties with that country. Ethnicity is strongly associated with older age, higher education and residence in heavily Polish neighborhoods in Milwaukee.


The physical environment in which transmission and distribution systems reside has a major effect on the resulting reliability of the network. The physical stress placed on system components can be much higher in bad weather than that encountered under normal weather conditions. This paper briefly illustrates the conventional approach to predictive reliability assessment using a two-state weather model. In order to incorporate failures occurring in major adverse weather, a three state weather model is developed. The numerical analysis presented in this paper clearly shows that the conventional two state weather model does not reflect the increasing importance of major adverse weather and underestimates the potential error in predicting the reliability of transmission and distribution systems. In the analysis done, it is assumed that the repair of the failed components is carried out only in normal weather conditions.


Freehand three-dimensional ultrasound produces a set of irregularly spaced and orientated B-scans. These are usually reconstructed on a regularly spaced three-dimensional grid using an appropriate interpolation technique. This paper presents a novel method to interpolate intensity values between a set of non-intersecting B-scans. The method uses an intensity based non-rigid registration algorithm based on B-splines to establish spatial correspondence between neighbouring B-scans. Linear interpolation of the image intensities is carried out along the directions calculated by the registration algorithm. The method is compared to voxel nearest neighbour interpolation in 4 datasets. Results show our method to have on average a 16% improved performance over voxel nearest neighbour interpolation using mean square difference as an error measure.


The actual word 'stakeholder' first appeared in the manage ment literature in an internal memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute ... in 1963. The term was meant to generalize the notion of stockholder as the only group to whom management need be responsive. Thus, the stake holder concept was originally defined as 'those groups without whose support the organisation would cease to exist.' The list of stakeholders originally included shareowners, employees, customers, suppliers, lenders and society.3


A method to calculate the spectral density of any state vectors with respect to a set of eigenstates of a Hamiltonian is proposed. An expectation value of a spectral density operator, δ(H-E), gives the spectral density of the state vector. The operator is evaluated by using the Chebyshev expansion method without the diagonalization procedure for the Hamiltonian. Two expansion schemes are examined. The one is the direct expansion, where the delta function is expanded in the Chebyshev polynomials. This scheme is simple and efficient, though it is difficult to guarantee the convergence of the expansion, especially for a bound system. The other is the indirect expansion, where the expansion is performed in the Fourier space. Here, the convergence is guaranteed, independently of the energy spectrum of the Hamiltonian. This scheme is identical in the spirit to Heller's autocorrelation function method, though the explicit time propagation of the wavepacket is avoided. Because of this, a spectral transformation function is naturally introduced to improve resolution at the low energy region.


A small amount of peptidase activity could be detected using an amine derivatizing reagent, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), which has been used to produce a fluorogenic peptide. The substrate produced, FITC-peptide, gave a clear spot on a silica gel sheet upon exposure to UV light. The peptidase activity of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), trypsin, chymotrypsin, cucumisin, and that of some plant tissues were detected by using a fluorogenic angiotensin I. This showed that the substrate specificity of proteolytic enzymes can be distinguished from the others by this procedure.


journal [1] on the use of tricyclic antidepressants in the intensive care unit (ICU) addresses two distinct and important groups of patients. The first group is composed of patients who attempt suicide by overdose with tricyclics. Most overdose patients who reach an ICU survive [2]. Most are quite stable within 24 to 48 hours and often do not require transfer to a general medical ward. This situation puts critical care specialists in the position of dealing with the suicidal patient, usually in an emotion-


To examine the behavior of the sunrise and sunset terminators, characteristics of the solar activities in the polar region and the possible seismic correlation with ionospheric anomalies a Stanford AWESOME VLF receiving system was installed at the Indian permanent Antarctic station Maitri during the 27th Indian scientific expedition to Antarctica. Almost five weeks of data was recorded successfully from several transmitters around the globe. The narrow-band signals show variation of the solar radiation and the signature of the prolonged day and night. We compare the signal of frequency 18.2 kHz with the same signal received at Kolkata and we present simultaneous observation of the variation of the sunrise and sunset terminators. We compare the diurnal signal amplitude variation with the LWPC model. We also present the broadband signal, contains the signature of sferics. The signals do not have a strong signature of whistlers because at the conjugate points, the lightning effects are minimum.


This paper explores the role the researcher's identity as a heterosexual plays in exploring the identity struggles of gay and bisexual college men. The author discusses issues of positionality and representation from the perspective of critical postmodernism and feminism. With cultural diversity as a driving force, a number of social theorists have explored issues of representation and the role of the qualitative researcher in studying diverse others. Although efforts have been made to better understand the relationship between the researcher and the researched in terms of important identity categories, such as race and gender, little to no attention has been devoted to the complexities of heterosexuals exploring the lives and identity struggles of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. This article seeks to fill some of this void by advocating greater collaboration between the researcher and research participants.


The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of L. monocytogenes physiology and the stage of contamination on its behaviour during production and ripening of Kefalograviera and Feta cheese. L. monocytogenes inocula of different physiological states were evaluated for their survival in Kefalograviera and Feta cheese stored at 4 o C. Specifically, planktonically grown and detached L. monocytogenes cells were prepared as inocula, when a multi-strains composite of L. monocytogenes isolates was left to grow in TSBYE with 1% glucose (acid adapted) or without glucose (nonadapted), MRD, milk, Feta and Graviera cheese in the presence of stainless steel coupons (2x5cm 2 ) for 4 d at 20°C and then detached by bead vortexing. In Graviera cheese, L. monocytogenes cells survived throughout storage (82 days) at low concentration (<2 log CFU/ml). At Feta cheese the total of inocula were below the detection limit by the 18th day of storage. In both cheeses TSBYE biofilms and milk planktonic cells survived longer than other inocula. The inocula that demonstrated the higher resistance were used for the inoculation of milk after pasteurization, as well as the curd during its section. In both cases, full cheese production and ripening took place. L. monocytogenes cells inoculated in pasteurized milk managed to grow during the first days of production of both cheeses, at a final level of (10 6-7 cfu/g). The cells that had been originated from TSBYE and milk, reached higher concentration than those originated from the Graviera and Feta cheese. Conversely, inoculation during curd section, lead to prolonged survival of the pathogen, around initial inoculation level (10 3 cfu/g). The results may address safety implications relevant to the diversity of Listeria monocytogenes cells in a dairy processing environment and their ability to survive and proliferate in dairy products, which might pose risks to public health.


The invention discloses a screen-locking method and an electronic reader, which relate to the technical field of information display, wherein the screen-locking method provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps of: receiving a triggering signal for triggering an interface to be selected; obtaining the interface to be selected according to the triggering signal; displaying the interface to be selected onto a screen; receiving a triggering signal for triggering option information in the interface to be selected; judging whether the received triggering signal is used for screen locking or not; and if the triggering signal is used for screen locking, then calling a screen-locking command for screen locking. By adopting the embodiment of the invention, the purposes of lowering the operating complexity of a user and lowering the design difficulty and the cost of the electronic reader can be realized.


ABSTRACT The proposed thermodynamic parameters were extended to the liquid ternary alloy system, and a prediction model of the viscosity for liquid alloy was proposed. The viscosity of the ternary liquid lead-free solder alloy was calculated using the thermodynamic parameters and the prediction model for viscosity of ternary liquid alloy. The results show that the calculated viscosity of the ternary liquid lead-free solder alloy is consistent with the reported experimental values, and the prediction model has good rationality. At the same time, compared with the complex Seetharaman model, Moelwyn-Hughes model and Kaptay model, the prediction model for viscosity of ternary liquid alloy depends only on the element's basic physical parameter (density, melting temperature, absolute atomic mass, electro-negativity, electron density, molar volume, and Pauling radius). The entire calculation process is relatively simple. Additionally, the proposed prediction model of viscosity can be applied to system calculations having similar physical and thermodynamic properties as ternary liquid Tin-based lead-free alloys.


The determination of absolute configurations of carboxylic acids by vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy is often complicated by self-aggregation and the subsequent need to compute the spectra of the aggregates. We show that 7-azaindole effectively breaks up these aggregates by stronger complemental hydrogen bonding to the COOH moiety, enabling drastic simplification and acceleration of VCD spectra calculations.


AbstractThe Society embarked in 1962 on a venture which deserves special mention both on account of its novelty and its success—a week-end conference at which teachers of Italian in Great Britain, especially in the universities, might meet and read short papers on their current research. The venue for the first conference of this kind under the above title was Magdalen College, Oxford, where some eighty members of the Society and other colleagues gathered from Friday, 28 to Sunday, 30 September. By a miracle of self-restraint on the part of the speakers we were able in that brief period to hear no fewer than twenty-four papers and one major lecture, as well as the addresses of welcome at the inauguration and the summing-up at the close of the conference. It was also possible not only to hold short discussions after most of the papers, but to meet and talk outside the conference room without loss of essential sleep and nourishment.


A new genus, Thaicypris gen. nov., in the tribe Herpetocypridini Kaufmann, 1900 of the subfamily Herpetocypridinae Kaufmann, 1900 is established to accommodate a new species from Thailand. The present contribution deals with the description of a new genus and species, Thaicypris panhai gen. et sp. nov., which is mainly characterized by the distinctive and raised, inwardly displaced selvage at the postero-ventral part of the right valve (RV) that is not parallel to the valve margin, the absence of an anterior inner list on the RV, the prominent and elevated double inner list on the posterior part of the left valve, the small and three-segmented Rome organ on the first antenna (A1), the spatulated terminal segment of the maxillular (Mx1) palp, the slender caudal ramus (CR) with long and thin Sp seta, the presence of basal triangle on the CR attachment, and the pointed projection at the terminal segment base of the prehensile palps. The hemipenis of the new genus and species is outstanding, especially the medial lateral shield which has a long, beak-shaped protrusion on the distal part. The discovery of this Thai taxon is the first record of the tribe Herpetocypridini in Thailand and the second species of the tribe in Southeast Asia.


Technological advances in an ever-increasing age of communication enable the dissemination of information and opinions by individuals and groups, including the government. The ease of modern communication assists the government in reaching people, which is important because for a republican democracy to function, the government must be allowed to communicate its position. The government relies on words to "explain, persuade, coerce, deplore, congratulate, implore, teach, inspire, and defend." United States courts have formalized and protected the federal government's right to speak through the government speech doctrine. This protection allows the government to freely communicate with the public, while also posing potential problems of undue government interference in the political process. The government speech doctrine allows the government to promote government policies, or advance particular ideas, without subjecting the


The changing context the changing social scene the changing context for providers is it worthwhile? three case studies perceptions towards coherence.


We study the long-time behavior of the Schrodinger flow in a heterogeneous potential λV with small intensity 0 0. More precisely, the approximate normal form decomposition leads to long-time effective equations obtained by adding suitable unitary corrections to the free flow. The approach is robust and generically applies to linear waves. For classical waves, for instance , this allows to revisit diffractive geometric optics in quasiperiodically perturbed media. The application to the random setting is postponed to a companion article.


According to the concentration changes of the organic matter in adsorption-biodegradation anaerobic sequencing batch reactor(AB-ASBR),the adsorption kinetics and regeneration kinetics were investigated and the semi-saturation constants were calculated.The result showed that the adsorption process of the granular sludge in the reactor could be described with pseudo-second-order model and the member transfer mass was the limit speed step.The semi-saturation constant(KS,1.83mmol) in adsorption reactor during the regeneration phase was much larger than that of biodegradation reactor(KS=0.05mmol).That was to say the optimal biomass was much different in the two reactors,which coincided with the conclusion that in adsorption reactor,methanosarcina was the predominated bacteria,while,in the biodegradation reactor,methanothix was the predominated ones.The optimization of biomass populations would be propitious to enhance OLR and the drainage quality.


thought behind it.1 When he did experience in clinical practice a void in the interpretation, the failure of certain dream-elements to produce associations, he assumed at first that there was some inadequacy in the analysis. But as he pursued the issue, he came to discover that there is in that mute space of dream not a lapse of analytic technique but another image-making propensity. In addition to the other visual linkages between manifest content and latent thought part for whole, allusion, and plastic portrayal there is also the possibility of a constant relation between a dream-element and its translation which, if the censorship were absent, could only be described as symbolic. While this tends to suggest that in the economy of the unconscious there might be no taxation with representation that is, representation without repression that would be the subtle fulfillment of what is merely another wish. For, as Benjamin remarks in


A probabilistic analysis is performed where the pressure change inside a concrete tube is probabilistically estimated considering the uncertainties inherent in the material, system discontinuity and outside pressure. A set of uncertain variables that are related to the equivalent system air permeability and the atmospheric pressure are defined as random variables with specific distributions. The pressure change inside a concrete tube is then probabilistically described using both analytical and simulation approaches. The analysis confirms the need of probabilistic approach for evaluation of the airtightness performance of vacuum tube structures.


In the process of co-producing 3-hydroxypropionic(3-HP) and 1,3-propandediol(1,3-PDO) by Klebsiella pneumoniae, competition for carbon flow of by-products is a main factor limiting synthesis. This study aimed at increasing the total production of 3-HP and 1,3-PDO. In this research, the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene from Escherichia coli was expressed in the budC deficient K. pneumoniae. The effect of budC deficiency to co-production of 3-HP and 1,3-PDO was analyzed. The recombinant K. pneumoniae harboring aldehyde dehydrogenase gene resulted in accumulation of 3-HP. Compared with the K. pneumoniae ZG27/pUC19-aldH, the titer of 3-HP and 1,3-PDO of budC deficient strain K. pneumoniae ZG27/pUC19-aldH reached 134 mmol/L and 64 mmol/L, respectively. The conversion rate of 3-HP increased by 22%, and all the by-products decreased except 2,3-butanediol(2,3-BD). Co-production of 3-HP and 1,3-PDO was achieved. During fermentation in later period, 1,3-PDO gradually transformed into 3-HP with the lack of budC gene further promoting this transformation process.


Hyperspectral imagery (HSI) integrates many continuous and narrow bands that cover different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, the main challenge is the high dimensionality of HSI data due to the 'Hughes' phenomenon. Thus, dimensionality reduction is necessary before applying classification algorithms to obtain accurate thematic maps. We focus the study on the following feature-extraction algorithms: Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF), and Independent Component Analysis (ICA). After a literature survey, we have observed a lack of a comparative study on these techniques as well as accurate strategies to determine the number of components. Hence, the first objective was to compare traditional dimensionality reduction techniques (PCA, MNF, and ICA) in HSI of the Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) sensor and to evaluate different strategies for selecting the most suitable number of components in the transformed space. The second objective was to determine a new dimensionality reduction approach by dividing the CASI HSI regarding the spectral regions covering the electromagnetic spectrum. The components selected from the transformed space of the different spectral regions were stacked. This stacked transformed space was evaluated to see if the proposed approach improves the final classification.


The colonization and succession of the macrozoobenthos in a polyhumic, winter-regulated reservoir, Lake Kyrkosjarvi in Western Finland (62° 45′N, 22°48′E, A = 6.4 km2 at summer HW, zmean = 2.5 m and zmax = 7 m) was studied from its filling in 1981 until 1989 (in 1981–83, 1986 and 1989). The zoobenthos was sampled over the whole reservoir bottom using qualitative and quantitative methods during three open-water seasons and winter samples were taken in the regulated and submerged areas during the maximum draw down (2 m) in March-April.

Colonization during the first summer revealed two phases. The first phase featured dominance of actively swimming and adult-dispersing taxa. The second phase was characterized by a mass occurence (high abundance and biomass) of chironomids (Chironomus, Glyptotendipes) and the isopod Asellus aquaticus. Asellus originated in a small bog pond in the northern outlet basin, and it was the dominant zoobenthic species during the study period. The species of Chironomus, most of them pool inhabitants of natural waters, succeeded each other.

In the later study years, when the zoobenthos at the sites was determined more by habitat (spatially) than by the succession (temporally), the reservoir bottom could be divided into three areas: a) deep areas, ≧3 m, with an increasing occurrence of lacustrine species (eutrophic or dystrophic), b) shallower organic bottoms, ≦ 2 m, with many pool-inhabiting and eurytopic species, and c) some eroded areas in the shallow littoral, ≦ 0.5 m, where lacustrine species became common.

Water-level regulation in winter killed only a small proportion of the fauna in the organic-rich peatland and forest bottom areas representing the majority of the regulated zone. Hence, the regulated areas had almost everywhere high abundance and biomass values throughout the year, deviating from the results found by other authors in strongly regulated lakes, which have maximum values just below the draw down limit.


A three-dimensional accurate foot model including bones, cartilages, ligaments and tendons was developed from 3D reconstruction of CT images. The model was used to analyze stress-strain of the joint between the first metatarsal and the medial cuneiform and to study the relationship of the range of motion of the first ray and hallux valgus


This article describes the change in partial discharge (PD) pattern of high voltage rotating machines and the change in the tan /spl delta/ as a function of the applied test voltage during the aging processes as caused by the application of different stresses on stator bars. It also compares the PD patterns associated with internal, slot, and end-winding discharges, which were produced in well-controlled laboratory conditions. In addition, the influence of different temperature conditions on the partial discharge activities are shown. The investigations in this work were performed on model stator bars under laboratory conditions, and the results might be different from those obtained for complete machines, as rotating machines are complex PD test objects, and for example, the detected PD signals in a complete machine significantly depend on the transmission path from the PD source to the measurement device.


The question of periodic solutions of a set of differential equations with application to the problem of three bodies has been treated by POINCARP,t and the idea of analytic continuation which he developed will be employed in this paper to prove the existence of the solutions under consideration. Suppose that n finite bodies move in one plane and that their coordinates with reference to one of the bodies, M, as origin are known functions of the time. At any epoch to the bodies form a certain geometrical figure and have certain relative components of velocity. Suppose that at the epoch to + T, the bodies form again the same geometrical figuire and have the same relative components of velocity; it is said that the motion is periodic with the period Tj. A particle P is supposed to move in the plane of the motion of the finite bodies, subject to their newtonian attraction. In the differential equations of motion of the particle it is convenient to divide the terms into two classes: (1) those which are due to the attraction of 1 alone, and, (2) those which are due to the attraction of the other bodies. A parameter ,u is introduced as a factor of all the terms of the second class, so that when ,ut = 0 the differential equations represent the motion of P when subject to the attraction of only olne body, M. In this case the solution is known and the conic in which the particle moves is called the undisturbed orbit. If there exists a periodic solution of the differential equations when , = 0,4 the period T of the solution must be a multiple of T,, T = q T,. Suppose the period is assigned in advance. When , = 0 a periodic solution is knowln. The iniitial conditions may be determined so that the period T., of this solution is a submultiple of the assiglned period, that is, p12 = qT1 = 7, where p and q alre * Presented to the Society April 14, 1906. Received for publication June 15, 1906. tBulletin Astronomique, vol. 1 (1884), p. 65; Acta Mathematica, vol. 13 (1890), p. 5; Les methodes nouvelles de la necanique celeste, vol. 1, chap. 3 (1892). t The analysis employed in this paper is valid for sufficiently snmall values of the parameters involved. All statemnents concerning the properties of the solutions for j * 0 refer only to values of Xl so small that the solutions are known to be valid.


This research paper aims to investigate the representation of the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, and others) community in Hindi cinema and analyze its impact on both the older generation and young adults. By examining a selection of notable Hindi films released from the late 20th century to the present day, the study explores the evolving portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters, storylines, and themes in Bollywood. The paper employs a comparative analysis approach to highlight the shifts in representation over time and to assess how these portrayals have influenced societal perceptions and attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community. It delves into the specific tropes, stereotypes, and narrative devices employed by filmmakers, exploring their potential impact on different age groups within the audience. The findings of this research highlight the significance of representation and its influence on societal perceptions. By exploring the impact of LGBTQ+ representation on the older generation, the paper uncovers the potential for attitude change and a shift in long-held beliefs. Furthermore, the study addresses the impact on young adults, who are more likely to be influenced by media and popular culture, providing insights into how their perspectives may be shaped or challenged by cinematic portrayals of LGBTQ+ individuals.


The photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides contains a light-harvesting antenna complex (LH2) with a ring of interacting bacteriochlorophyll molecules (B850). Excitation of membrane-bound LH2 complexes with low-intensity, femtosecond pulses causes changes in absorption and stimulated emission that initially depend on the excitation wavelength but relax to a quasiequilibrium with a time constant of 100 ± 20 fs. Excitation on the blue side of the B850 absorption band is followed by a shift of the signals to longer wavelengths and a decrease in amplitude, whereas the relaxations following excitation on the red side consist mainly of a decrease in amplitude. The signals have an apparent initial anisotropy of approximately 0.5 when the complex is excited with broadband pulses, and 0.35−0.4 with narrower pulses. The anisotropy decays to 0.1 with a time constant of about 30 fs. The anisotropies are similar at wavelengths on either side of the absorption band and are relatively insensitive to the excitat...


The ASEAN ICT Masterplan 2015 (AIM 2015) has come a long way and completed by the end of 2015. Since its launch in 2011, the AIM 2015 has provided a framework and roadmap for the development of information and communication technology (ICT) at the regional level and, as a result, has enabled greater ICT development in ASEAN. Over the past five years, ICT in ASEAN has improved in many respects. At the macro level, exports of ICT services have become a larger component of total service exports, suggesting that ICT is today an important engine of economic growth in the region. At the individual level, costs of internet access and mobile subscription have fallen sharply in ASEAN Member States (AMS), allowing greater connectivity for millions of ASEAN citizens. The advancement of ICT in ASEAN is also evident in other aspects; these include the rise in employment in the ICT sector, the transformation of government services into digital ones, and the increased awareness of cyber security, to name a few. Although many factors also played a contributing role in such developments, the AIM 2015 has been a vital instrument in bringing about efforts and endeavours of the AMS. The AIM 2015 supported the vision of AMS by bringing about many of the actions that account significantly for the region's advancement. Without a doubt, the progress in the fields of ICT would not have come this far without the AIM 2015. Course, to achieve the success of ASEAN ICT MASTERPLAN 2015 through the various opportunities and challenges that are passable.


This workbook alongside your lectures and seminars over 3 years follows and meets guidance from Health Education England who require all newly qualified nurses and other NHS staff to achieve foundation level dementia training. It is designed to give you that level and so enable you to identify the early symptoms of dementia, know how to interact with those with dementia and other confusional states, understand the needs of clients and carers, and deliver safe, dignified, compassionate care.

Caring for people with dementia and their families is central to nursing and this dementia care resource is designed to assist you to care for people with dementia skilfully, compassionately and knowledgeably, in a variety of settings. Worldwide there are growing numbers of people with dementia and these figures are predicted to rise considerably, due to an increase in the number of people living longer (Alzheimer's Disease International 2010). In the United Kingdom, over 800,000 people live with dementia and the number is expected to double in the next 30 years (Department of Health [DH] 2010). One in four people in acute hospital settings have dementia (Alzheimer's Society 2009); they may be in hospital for a range of clinical reasons, e.g. infections, falls or strokes. In addition, at least two-thirds of people in care homes have dementia (DH 2009) and many other people with dementia live at home, supported by community health and social care teams.

This resource complements your university-based teaching by supporting you in learning about dementia care during practice learning, using reflective activities. It can be regarded as a sort of workbook directing you to a range of online and other learning resources to support your learning. We are grateful to our colleagues from the University of Bedfordshire who initially designed this workbook to ensure that you meet Skills for Health and Skills for Care (2011) Common core principles for supporting people with dementia.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/215562/dh_127587.pdf

• We recognise that website addresses can change over time. If you find that any website address does not work, try searching the keywords or locate an alternative source to access the information you need. Dementia care is a developing field and you will find additional resources which you can use to support you in your learning.
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A CURIOUS abnormality of the deep tendon reflexes is commonly found in the presence of myxedema. It has been termed the myxedema reflex or Woltman's sign. It is thought to occur only in myxedema. A patient has recently been observed who had myxedema reflexes but clearly did not have myxedema. The abnormal reflexes appear to have been due to sarcoidosis involving skeletal muscle. questioning considered herself moder-ately sensitive cold hair dry. deep tendon jerks showed normal contraction phase slow tendon reflex of No other physical health.


This is a small book with a relatively large presence. The author has 25 years of experience as a probation officer, a social worker and a psychotherapist. After publishing extensively on child protection issues, psychodrama, dramatherapy and play therapy she now reflects on how her "Regenerative Model" of assessing and treating traumatized children came into being. She was building a new team with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the U.K., specifically to increase knowledge of child sexual abuse and treatment of affected families. She wanted to know exactly what a therapist was doing in a creative therapy session with a sexually abused child, how was this affecting the child, how it was altering behaviour if at all and finally where there was a lasting effect on the child why this was happening.

She describes the origins of the model being influenced theoretically by the work of several giants in the child development field including Ainsworth, Winnicott and Moreno. She acknowledges the work of Herman and Van der Kolk in terms of understanding trauma and treatment and she presents an excellent review of current knowledge in the field of sexual abuse.

The team developed a child centered interactive approach to assessment and treatment and called it the regenerative model. Working with large numbers of children and families provided answers to the questions through the children's narratives as well as through the changed behaviour that was witnessed.

In phase 1. ASSESSMENT the children's level of development was first estimated using embodiment play, projective play and role- play. Attachment aspects looked at sociograms and observed the children's interactions. Coping Strategies included information about locus of control and dissociative processes and finally assessment of the child's Safety involved examination of the home situation and the children's own methods of self-protection.

In phase 2. ACTION included helping the child build attachments through acceptance, appropriate boundary definition and confirmations. It also involved all kinds of creativity using the ideas and metaphors put forward by the children.

In phase 3. RESOLUTION self redevelopment was achieved and was indicated by the child's ability to express and understand feelings, his or her awareness of self identity and ability to make, maintain and terminate relationships appropriately.

Although the author is not describing hard-core outcome studies the narratives are powerful and convincing. In fact a highlight of the book for me was the richness and clarity of the clinical examples including the cautionary tales about what happens if one starts treatment when a child is in an unsafe situation.

The author's attention to team processes led her to an understanding that these reflect and parallel treatment issues especially when supervision is carried out in a group format. I agree with her respect for and nurturance of the vulnerability of therapists and the necessity of providing safe supervisory groups for all who attempt the difficult and affecting work of treating abused children.

Although like many British books this is expensive for its' size and scope, it provides an intriguing introduction to the field for a beginner and is a rewarding and stimulating review for a seasoned therapist.


PURPOSE: To provide a sprinkler nozzle for a flexible hose which is easily housed and whose sprinkling position is freely set and also whose body is easy to fit and which excels in sealability. CONSTITUTION: To the back surface of a sprinkler nozzle body 40 having the shape of about a column, a base part having an outer diameter larger than the inner one of a sprinkler nozzle fitting hole is integrally joined so as to be inserted into the sprinkler nozzle fitting hole made in the wall of a flexible hose 30. Further, a fixing cap 60 for holding the surrounding part of the sprinkler nozzle fitting hole from the inside and the outside to seal the fitting part of the sprinkler nozzle body 40 to the flexible hose 30, under combination with the base part by fitting it in the sprinkler nozzle body 40, rotating and tightening it with the base part being inserted into the sprinkler nozzle fitting hole is provided. COPYRIGHT: (C)1996,JPO


Background : Helicobacter pylori eradication fails in about 10% of patients, particularly because of the occurrence of resistance to antibiotics and side‐effects. During anti‐H. pylori therapy, probiotics have been successfully used to reduce the incidence of side‐effects.


—Recommender System is a useful software tool that is integrated with the e-Commerce business applications for effective information access. It provides suggestions by filtering the information from this availability of information, such that the users are provided with only those recommendations that best suits and meets the user's needs and interest. Till now different approaches and techniques have been proposed and implemented to provide accurate recommendations to user. But still there exists some gaps to provide effective recommendations to users. In this paper we describe the different approaches used for recommendations and also the challenges and drawbacks of the existing recommendations systems.


Abstract. Generalized forms of meningococcal infection (GFMI) are usually accompanied with apparent symptoms of systemic inflammatory response (SIRS). Systemic production of inflammatory cytokines, their accumulation in circulating blood and action on various organs and tissues represent a crucial constituent of SIRS. Current study explored the levels of soluble receptor of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) p55, TNF, neutrophil-derived alpha-defensins (HNP) and both isoforms of Interleukin-8 (IL-872 and IL-877) in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from children with GFMI. The levels of cytokines were estimated using "sandwich" enzyme-linked immunoassays emploing monoclonal antibodies to corresponding cytokines that were previously developed in our laboratory. It was shown that the levels of p55 in the blood correlated with severity of SIRS and GFMI, while the levels of HNP (human neut rophil peptides) in CSF may serve as more sensitive marker of inflammation since HNP levels decreased more rapidly during a recovery of disease comparing to p55. Elevated levels of IL-877 during GFMI correlated with the levels of p55 (correlation coefficient 0,142, р = 0,489), whereas no correlation between the levels of p55 and IL-872 was revealed.


A viscoelastic split Hopkinson pressure bar intended for testing soft materials with low acoustic impedance is studied. Using one-dimensional linear viscoelastic wave propagation theory, the basic equations have been established for the determination of the stress‐strain‐strain rate relationship for the tested material. A method, based on the spectral analysis of wave motion and using measured wave signals along the split Hopkinson pressure bar, is developed for the correction of the dispersion and attenuation of viscoelastic waves. Computational simulations are performed to show the feasibility of the method.


Coal-fired power plants are widely recognized as major water consumers whose operability has started to be affected by drought conditions across some regions of the country. Water availability also restricts the construction of new plants to satisfy the increasing power demand since these new facilities must include water-expensive carbon sequestration technologies. Therefore, national efforts to reduce water withdrawal and consumption have been intensified. Water consumption in thermoelectric generation is strongly associated to losses on cooling systems and to gas purification operations. These processes are affected by uncertain variables like atmospheric conditions. Thus, minimization of water consumption requires optimal operating conditions and parameters, while fulfilling the environmental constraints. Particulate Carbon (PC) power plants are studied in this work. Optimization under uncertainty for these large-scale complex processes with black-box models cannot be solved with conventional stochastic programming algorithms because of the computational expenses involved. Employment of the novel better optimization of nonlinear uncertain systems (BONUS) algorithm dramatically decreased the computational requirements of the stochastic optimization. Operation condition including boiler temperature and reactant ratios were calculated to obtain the minimum water consumption under the above mentioned uncertainties.


Introduction Musculoskeletal disorders are the leading cause of limited duty days in the US military, with the lower extremity being most commonly affected. Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is the singlemost common musculoskeletal complaint of the lower extremity in this same population, with a point prevalence as high as 13.5%. Recently, psychological factors such as depression, anxiety, catastrophizing, and fear of movement have been reported at high proportion in patients with PFP, and these psychological factors have been associated with high levels of disability and worse levels of function. This is relevant because service members also suffer from higher rates of mental health disorders comparedwith civilian populations, especially in those with deployment history, which could also hinder recovery from highly prevalent conditions such as PFP-related disorders. This article was externally peer reviewed. Submitted 30 June 2020; revised 19 December 2020; accepted 21 December 2020. From the Primary Care Musculoskeletal Research Center, Brooke Army Medical Center, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, TX (DIR, JLY); Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD (DIR); U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, MA (DIR, TCR): Department of Family Medicine, Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA (RCO): Doctor of Science in Physical Therapy Program, Bellin College, Green Bay, WI (DIR, JLY). Funding: No funding was received for this project. Conflict of interest: None declared. Disclaimer: The view(s) expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of Brooke Army Medical Center, the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, the U.S. Army Office of the Surgeon General, the Department of the Army, the Defense Health Agency, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government. Corresponding author: Daniel I. Rhon, DSc, Primary Care Musculoskeletal Research, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Brooke Army Medical Center, 3551 Roger Brooke Drive, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234 (E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com).


The development and implementation of a real-time flood forecasting system with a hydro-meteorological operational alert procedure during the MAP-D-PHASE Project is described in this paper. This chain includes both probabilistic and deterministic forecasts. The hydrological model used to generate the runoff simulations is the rainfall-runoff distributed FEST-WB model, developed at Politecnico di Milano. The observed data to run the control simulations were supplied by ARPA-Piemonte. The analysis is focused on Maggiore Lake basin, an Alpine basin between North-West of Italy and Southern Switzerland. Two hindcasts during the D-PHASE period are discussed in order to evaluate certain effects regarding discharge forecasts due to hydro-meteorological sources of uncertainties. In particular, in the June convective event it is analysed how the effect of meteorological model spatial resolution can influence the discharge forecasts over mountain basins, while in the November stratiform event how the effect of the initial conditions of soil moisture can modify meteorological warnings. The study shows how the introduction of alert codes appears to be useful for decision makers to give them a spread of forecasted QDFs with the probability of event occurrence, but also how alert warnings issued on the basis of forecasted precipitation only are not always reliable.


SS-AGR-335, a 7-page illustrated fact sheet by J. Mabry McCray and Rao Mylavarapu, provides growers with sufficiency categories of leaf nutrient concentrations and nutrient management suggestions for each category. Includes references. Published by the UF Department of Agronomy, July 2010.
SS-AGR-335/AG345: Sugarcane Nutrient Management Using Leaf Analysis (ufl.edu)


How do companies respond to their critics? Are there significant differences in responsiveness between industrial sectors, between the countries in which companies are based, and between the companies themselves? Do responses reflect the belief that companies have a responsibility to respect human rights? Do companies that participate in the UN Global Compact react more responsibly than those that do not? This article attempts to answer these questions by examining company responses to civil society reports contained in the company response database of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. The analysis covers responses to 1877 requests made by the Resource Centre from 2005–2014.


This afterword reflects on the afterlife of neo-idealism and clarifies the author's stance on questions of social justice, utilitarian ethics, and the nearly universal repudiation of statism. The author's argument has been focused on the degree to which the collective consciousness that formed a staple of the New Social Movements — perhaps its key catalyst — gives way in seventies culture to a profound displacement onto subjectivity. But it would be a mistake to see this as a perversion of sixties thinking. The appeal to subjectivity was always the latent grounding of social change among important movements of that earlier decade; hence the coming to dominance of identity politics in the generation after the sixties. It is no surprise that the effort to reclaim consciousness's underappreciated power in sixties discourses should give rise to celebrations of unfettered power in seventies thinking. The afterword examines how the market became the megastructure for a wide array of antistatist impulses.


To characterize the factors contributing to changes in baseline abdominal pressure (Pabd) and the correlation between ΔVLPP, VLPPtot, and other clinical and urodynamic variables.


PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify how the design of a performance appraisal system (PAS) affects the perceived justice of academic employees (AE) about their performance appraisal (PA) and how this is associated with organizational effectiveness in terms of organizational leadership (OL).Design/methodology/approachThe study subjects are two economic faculties of two Estonian public universities. The data for the study were collected using the PA Survey with a total of 82 AEs, OL Capability Questionnaire with a total of 72 AEs and the organizations' documents to analyze PAS. Assessment and analysis of the data included: the measurement of PAS design; the measurement of perceived justice from PA; the measurement of organizational leadership capability; analysis of the results gained from studying perceived justice from different PAS designs and organizational effectiveness in terms of OL.FindingsUltimately, the study reveals that PAS design affects academic employees' perception of distributive justice and organizational external effectiveness in terms of OL but does not affect academic employees' perception of procedural justice and organizational internal effectiveness in terms of OL.Research limitations/implicationsThis study suggests that organizational effectiveness depends on perceived justice of employees from the design of PAS. However, the results of this study are valid in the arrangements of academic jobs in universities and in similar or close context of Estonian culture.Originality/valueThis paper demonstrates the role of PAS design in conditions of intellectual job arrangement in universities with its influence on organizational effectiveness in the context of OL.


2,3,4 Micromechanical analysis of trabecular bone may also provide further insight into the reported isotropy of its apparent yield strains, 5 which is an intriguing but poorly understood phenomenon. The goal of this study was to improve understanding of the micromechanical failure mechanisms in trabecular bone. Specifically, we sought to 1) quantify the sensitivity of apparent level failure properties to changes in hard tissue yield properties; 2) determine the sensitivity of the micromechanical failure mechanisms to these variations; and 3) compare the micromechanical failure behavior during on-axis vs. transverse loading. Methods Five on-axis bovine tibial trabecular bone specimens were mechanically tested to 0.2% strain without end artifacts. Following testing, high resolution (60 µm) finite element models with 107,594 to 156,984 elements were created from a 5 mm cubic region of the bone. 6 Linear analyses were used to determine the initial effective hard tissue modulus for each specimen from the experimental apparent modulus measurements. 6 The mean (± S.D.) hard tissue modulus for the five specimens was 18.7 ± 3.4 GPa. A finite element code which incorporated material nonlinearity was used to simulate yielding of the specimens. The trabecular hard tissue was modeled as a bilinear elastic solid with a principal strain yield criterion, with a higher yield strain in compression than in tension. The post-yield modulus was set to 5% of the initial modulus, based qualitatively on cortical bone. Two sets of analyses were performed. First, one specimen was used to study the sensitivity of the failure behavior to the assumed hard tissue yield strains. Apparent level on-axis tensile and compressive loading models were solved for each of nine combinations of hard tissue yield strains. These data were also used to determine optimal hard tissue yield strains for on-axis loading based on results from a previous study. 4


The purposes of this study were to examine urban household's monthly expenses for public pension and to analyze the contributing factors. Data for this study were from the 2002 Urban Household Survey and consisted of a sample of 21,093 urban households. Statistics used for the analysis were frequencies, means, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. The major findings were as follows ; First, the average urban household monthly payment for the public pension was 104,036 won, consisting of 102,757 won for single earner households and 106,014 won for dual earner households. Second, the highest expenses for monthly public pension was urban households, followed by male household head(HH), HH's age from 41-50 years, HH's educational level was college, HH's job was public servant, family didn't live in Seoul, family w3s an extended family and family owned the house. Third, the significant factors affecting the urban household's monthly public pension were HH's gender, age, educational level, type of job, region, type of family, number of children, type of earner, monthly total income, increase of asset in a month and house ownership.


Future Directions in High Resolution Astronomy: The 10th Anniversary of the VLBA
ASP Conference Series, Vol. 340, 2005
J. D. Romney and M. J. Reid (eds.)


Trellis source coders consist of a trellis search algorithm as the encoder and a finite state machine as the decoder. The search algorithm finds the best sequence of codewords in the trellis representing the source sequence. The optimum trellis search is the Viterbi algorithm (VA). However for source coding applications, it becomes prohibitively complex. Hence, suboptimum search algorithms must be considered. The M algorithm is a suboptimum search whose performance is close to the optimum system. This algorithm retains the best M paths at every instant. Conventional architectures of this algorithm are impractical when the number of retained paths is large. In this paper new hardware architectures based on VA implementations are presented. Dividing the M algorithm into path metric updating and trace-back based survivor memory management procedures, efficient architectures can be achieved contributing to a significant reduction in the hardware complexity, which allows quantization systems with larger reproduction codebooks.


Elementary and special education teachers and school counsellors currently provide support to children presenting learning disabilities and behavioural problems symptomatic of the more hidden diagnosis of complex trauma resulting from abuse or severe attachment disruption. Specific disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) may be diagnosed in such children, but not the aetiology of complex trauma, resulting in missing information in the development of remedial and behavioural interventions. The evolving field of trauma counselling provides important information to special education teachers and school counsellors who work with children who have experienced trauma. In this review article authors Linda O'Neill of the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), Francis Guenette who is a doctoral student at the University of Victoria and Andrew Kitchenham of the University of Northern British Columbia summarise attachment, neurobiological, and complex trauma research that can be used in school settings to understand better the needs of these children. They conclude by suggesting that teachers and school counsellors would benefit from training on the consequences of childhood trauma and attachment disruption to develop interventions that will be effective and to identify what types of behaviours children can control and those they cannot.


In recent years, many micromachined polymerase chain reaction (PCR) chips have been reported. These miniaturized PCR chips have great advantages such as the significant reduction in reagent costs and vastly reduced reaction times over the conventional PCR reactions. In this paper a micro analysis system that will allow nano-liter scale, continuous-flow PCR to be conducted in a glass chip has been presented. This glass chip is fabricated through thermally bonding two Pyrex 7740 glass wafers. One Pyrex wafer is etched to form the 20-cycle microchannel with 80 microns wide and 30 microns deep. Another Pyrex wafer is thermally bonded to the etched wafer to produce a closed continuous microchannel for PCR. The total length of the microchannel is 0.5 m and the size of the chip is 56 mm × 24 mm × 1 mm. This PCR chip has a significant reagent reduction with a volume of less than 1 micro-liter. With 1 micro-liter reagent we obtain a total reaction time of 0.5 min to 3 min depending on various flow rates. This analytical chip is fabricated using standard micromachining techniques.


case production cycles lead to poor labor conditions. What is clear is that there must be space— economic or political— at the local level for the ethical commitments expressed through industry standards to be realized, be they environmental, social justice, or otherwise. This might mean commitment by local or national governments to the ends that standards are meant to achieve (such as forest conservation); it might mean a chain of production that allows small producers to have a market for their products (such as smallhold sugar farmers in Paraguay); or it might mean sufficient political rights for workers or indigenous populations to effectively assert their interests. Global circumstances also clearly condition the possibility for success, but again in very different ways across industries: in just one example, if the only way to compete in the personal electronics industry is through rapid obsolescence and innovation, then the production cycles that lead to labor abuses are unlikely to change. The four commodity cases suggest that labor rights and the political rights of indigenous people are consistently compromised across the industries examined in the book, and yet these rights also seem key to addressing both environmental and social justice concerns. Allowing workers to define acceptable working conditions through genuine collective representation (in China, for example, or anywhere else the apparel industry might be tempted to ''flee'' to) would appear to be the only effective way to bring an ''unruly'' apparel industry to heel, or to communicate the (human) costs of electronics product cycles to consumers. Similarly, true empowerment of indigenous people would potentially enable them to withstand industrial development pressures from forestry and agriculture. In fact, I see this regularly in my home province of British Columbia, Canada, where the land claims of First Nations people, increasingly recognized in the courts, have very real implications for the pace and form of resource development. But given, as the authors observe, that most existing efforts to promote fair and sustainable production are grafted onto preexisting production systems structured in unequal and exploitative ways, it is hard to see how standards imposed from the outside could possibly open such political spaces for labor and indigenous populations. As the authors note, true alternatives to existing systems of product require years of work to establish the institutional structures to support them. It is somewhat surprising, then, that the authors do not jettison the idea of conscientious consumption entirely, instead arguing that these consumer practices, as part of a larger repertoire of action, have small positive effects (though far smaller than most consumers might think and that product labels seem to promise). There is even a hint at one point that the growth of consumer markets in places like India and China might mean that the practices of North American and European consumers simply do not matter enough to shape global industry dynamics. In fact, my only real dissatisfaction with this book is that it offers very few suggestions for what kinds of action might serve as an alternative to, or step beyond, conscientious consumption. This is not necessarily a problem with the analysis: it is a very real, practical problem with the undemocratic nature of global markets and governance structures. This is a fine, if sobering, contribution to our knowledge about consumption, market governance, and the realities of global production. Do I get to write ''I loved this book'' in a scholarly book review? Well there, I wrote it.


EDITOR'S SUMMARY

Since the 1990s massive open online courses (MOOCs) have offered web-based learning on a large scale and with open access. The leading MOOC providers in 2014 – Udemy, Coursera and edX – vary in detail but share the goal of facilitating learning for unlimited audiences at no cost or minimal charge, overcoming socioeconomic hurdles and opening education to all. The potential is strong, and data shows promising registration figures from India and economically developing countries. Yet MOOCs fall short of their goal of widespread and readily accessed education, impeded by technology challenges, lack of basic education and predominance of English as the language of instruction. Maintaining a high standard of educational quality is challenging, and attrition rates are very high. Those in library and information science can facilitate learning through MOOCs and also benefit by using the platform to build awareness of the professional field.