This study aims to review the literature on evaluating websites in order to identify, determine and suggest quality evaluation criteria directed to support teaching. The increasing use of the communication media in transmitting knowledge through the development of virtual learning consists of reading purpose aimed at authors, who wrote about criteria, evaluation quality, measure quality and evaluate educational websites, with the principal aims to choose the criteria of evaluation and draw a checklist for others futures studies. Firstly, the methodology used was analytical-descriptive and informative over the literature review and the study proposes criteria quality for evaluation educational websites. The result of this communication was to propose two general aspects, one functional and the other technical-aesthetic with ten criteria evaluation of quality, they are: authority, update, usability, accessibility and communication, all included in the functional aspects; and for technical and aesthetic we propose quality multimedia/graphic design, content, navigation, speed of access and interaction.


The college literary society was one of the first extracurricular activities of the early American colleges. It was a student-created space where members gathered to explore intellectual concerns, refine oratory skills, and enjoy social companionship. This article investigates these societies in order to broaden our understanding of student life both historically and today. The article focuses specifically on the Athenian Society of Indiana University as an illustrative case.


Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative syndromes characterized by a progressive decline in the spatial memory. There are convincing evidences on the neuroprotective effects of flavonoids against AD.

Aims and Objective: To determine the effect of quercetin on the acquisition and retention of spatial memory in a rat model of AD.

Materials and Methods: Twenty-four male Wistar rats were divided into four groups (six in each): group I: control rats receiving intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of normal saline, group II: rats induced AD by ICV injection of streptozotocin (STZ; 3 mg/kg bilaterally; twice, on days 1 and 3), and groups III and IV: ICV-STZ AD rats treated intraperitoneally (IP) with 40 and 80 mg/kg/day quercetin, respectively, over a period of 12 days. Then, the rats were trained with four trials per day for five consecutive days in the Morris water maze (MWM). On the sixth day, the memory retention was evaluated.

Result: The ICV-STZ AD groups showed a significant impairment in the acquisition and retrieval of spatial memory when compared with the control group (P < 0.001). In the AD groups, the escape latency during the training trials showed a significant decrease (P < 0.001). Meanwhile, during the MWM task, these rats spent more time in the target quadrant in probe trials when compared with the controls.

Conclusion: Quercetin acted as a spatial memory enhancer in ICV-STZ–induced AD rats. Hence, this flavonoid can be considered potentially as a promising agent for developing prophylactic and therapeutic neuroprotection. This neuroprotective effect of quercetin may be attributed to its antioxidant and scavenging properties.


RUAG Aerospace Austria (RAA) has the privilege to develop the Wheel Support Mechanisms for the Filter Wheel and the Grating Wheel of the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) Instrument of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
One of the key components of the wheel support mechanisms is the bearing which shall
1. have highest accuracy,
2. withstand cryogenic operating temperatures of 30K
3. have low friction torque during low temperature operation while
4. withstanding considerable launch loads at ambient temperature

The chosen bearing is a custom-made hard preloaded flanged duplex ball bearing lubricated with sputtered MoS2 in back to back configuration with a patented thermal off-load device in order to realize the diametrically opposed requirements 3 and 4 above.
Two batches of bearings were procured, and component level testing of the first bearing models was performed. This paper describes the lessons learnt during component level testing, failure recovery, and correlation of the test results with the predictions.


The revised edition of the classic Core Java™, Volume II-Advanced Features, covers advanced user-interface programming and the enterprise features of the Java SE 6 platform. Like Volume I (which covers the core language and library features), this volume has been updated for Java SE 6 and new coverage is highlighted throughout. All sample programs have been carefully crafted to illustrate the latest programming techniques, displaying best-practices solutions to the types of real-world problems professional developers encounter.Volume II includes new sections on the StAX API, JDBC 4, compiler API, scripting framework, splash screen and tray APIs, and many other Java SE 6 enhancements. In this book, the authors focus on the more advanced features of the Java language, including complete coverage ofi¾ Streams and Files Networking Database programming XML JNDI and LDAP Internationalization Advanced GUI components Java 2D and advanced AWT JavaBeans Security RMI and Web services Collections Annotations Native methods For thorough coverage of Java fundamentals-including interfaces and inner classes, GUI programming with Swing, exception handling, generics, collections, and concurrency-look for the eighth edition of Core Java™, Volume I-Fundamentals (ISBN: 978-0-13-235476-9).


The Clearinghouse on Educational Management is one of 16 units in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) network funded by the National Institute of Education. Specializing in administration and facilities at the elementary and secondary levels, the Clearinghouse has two major functions. It processes research reports and journal articles for announcements in the monthly ERIC catalogs Resources in Education and Current Index to Journals in Education. In addition, it prepares a variety of publications that analyze and interpret the latest research findings in educational management.


This study explored women's subjective experience of Zumba, a new, popular form of group fitness. We interviewed 41 racially/ethnically diverse adult women from the Los Angeles/Inland Empire (California) area who had taken Zumba in the previous year. The women reported taking Zumba for the purpose of exercise and did not challenge the notion that exercise is imperative. However, they reported positive experiences of Zumba, contrasting it with other fitness forms, which they characterized as boring, stressful, painful, lonely, and/or atomistic, and with other dancing, which they characterized as more restrictive. They perceived Zumba to prioritize fun over work and process over outcomes; value individual autonomy and personalization rather than strict conformity; and engage the participant as more than just a body to be shaped. They felt freer to engage in behavior that is considered to violate structural gender norms, but their experience did not translate to an explicit challenge to the gender structure.


Abstract The aim of the presented study was to do a pilot research on the comparison of the incidence of stress in a group of students of music management and art of music. We examined whether artists and music managers differ in the perception of the intensity of stress when playing (working) solo from the intensity when playing (working) in group. Furthermore, we focused on the most common stressors and main stress symptoms among music managers and artists. Total 63 students of music, cultural or art management (average age 28.6 years; 69.8 % were women) and 75 students of art of music (average age 26.7 years; 64 % were women) filled out an online questionnaire in the spring of 2016. The results show that while artists reported higher stress levels when playing solo, music managers reported higher stress levels when working in a group. A closer look showed that while only a few music managers (4,8 %) are intensely stressed when working in a team, a considerable group of artists (26 %) stated that they were most stressed out when playing solo. As their main work stressors artists mentioned blackouts, unpreparedness, and audience, music managers listed flaws in the human factor, time pressure and financial problems. Stress symptoms among artists are mainly physiological and short-term but at the same time intensive, while stress symptoms among music managers are rather long-term and related to psyche, and relationships with others.


The authors identify the increasing diversity of policing provisions and the new "policing family," which includes diverse public (state-sponsored) policing providers as well as a number of private and civil-society providers. Collectively, these providers have posed major challenges for effective and coherent regimes of management and public accountability. The authors analyze these developments at the international level, explore the challenges for effective management and accountability, and consider some of the options for addressing these challenges. The analysis focuses on the "peace and stability operations" sector which encompasses many of the problems that arise in transnational commercial security (TCS) as a whole. Accountability is particularly elusive when it involves interactions and cooperation among TCS organizations, states, and non-state bodies. Drawing on this analysis, the chapter considers the "tangled web" of management and accountability sources regarding TCS operations. Challenges include the widespread lack of transparency in financial relations among contractors and companies, the obscure transnational subcontracting arrangements, and the ambiguous legal status of those working in TCS companies. In addressing these issues of management and accountability, the authors find promise in Cockayne's (2008) writings regarding the private military sector. Cockayne suggests that the focus should be on the creation of hybrid or multiplex forms of regulation that combine state, market, and normative regulatory power. Such mechanisms for accountability will involve state-based legislation and judicial action, as well as transnational political mobilization for norm-setting and interaction with the security industry in fostering changes in values, policies, and practices. Under such multiplex regimes, the governance role would include state bodies, processional associations, industry associations, accreditation bodies, labor unions, and businesses and financial institutions that fund and serve the needs of transnational security enterprises.


______________________ Abstract: Bi-level programming, a tool for modeling decentralized decisions, consists of the objective(s) of the leader at its first level and that is of the follower at the second level. Three level programming results when second level is itself a bi-level programming. By extending this idea it is possible to define multi-level programs with any number of levels. Supply chain planning problems are concerned with synchronizing and optimizing multiple activities involved in the enterprise, from the start of the process, such as procurement of the raw materials, through a series of process operations, to the end, such as distribution of the final product to customers. Enterprise-wide supply chain planning problems naturally exhibit a multi-level decision network structure, where for example, one level may correspond to a local plant control/scheduling/planning problem and another level to a corresponding plant-wide planning/network problem. Such a multi-level decision network structure can be mathematically represented by using "multi-level programming" principles. This paper studies a "bi-level linear multi-objective decision making" model in with "interval" parameters and presents a solution method for solving it; this method uses the concepts of tolerance membership function and multiobjective multi-level optimization when all parameters are imprecise and interval .


By the time they are five years old, nearly 70% of children in the United States have moved home, with a substantial minority moving more than once.  These early years are important for children's later learning and development. Yet, there are a limited number of studies of residential mobility's impact on young children.  The literature indicates the importance of stressful family events, unstable housing, economic hardship, and neighbourhood conditions for residential mobility and child wellbeing. But research seldom examines the impact of these dimensions simultaneously.  We used data from the first four waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to analyse precursors of residential mobility and the association of residential mobility with child behavior (N=2,511) and cognitive capabilities (N=2,033) at age five.  Using Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE), we find that the frequency of moving is explained by a range of stressful circumstances, including lack of parental employment, partnership transitions, paternal incarceration, unstable housing tenure, and financial hardship.  These circumstances are associated with increased likelihood of moving home even when other family and neighbourhood conditions are controlled, suggesting that moving is part of a constellation of events and changes experienced by young children.  Using OLS regression models we find that, for young children, the circumstances associated with moving residence appear to be more consequential for child wellbeing than does moving itself, even when children experience multiple moves.


The purpose of this paper is to outline recent changes to higher education in Australia and assess the implications of those changes for teaching and learning in universities. Three main changes have been identified:

1. The meta-policy context that has transformed a binary system of higher education into a unified national system of universities. This has given rise to the concept of the comprehensive university accompanied by an economic rationalist approach to the funding of higher education. Issues identified are the relativities to be accorded to teaching and research in the new universities and the push for more efficient modes of teaching.

2. Institutional changes that have influenced the traditional character of universities. These changes include the politicisation of Vice-Chancellors whose peak body is now recognised by the government as the single voice of the university sector, the changing student composition of universities as a result of government policies relating to overseas students and students who have been traditionally underpresented in universities and the introduction of academic staff appraisal. An assessment is made of this broad range of changes on teaching and learning.

3. Changing conceptions of teaching are discussed with a particular emphasis on the work of Shulman and its implications for teaching in the university.


The Physics Education Group at the University of Washington offers special physics courses for preservice teachers. The three‐quarter sequence helps prospective teachers develop an in‐depth understanding of some of the important basic concepts they will teach. The guided‐inquiry pedagogical approach provides them with an opportunity to learn as they will be expected to teach. As a result of the course, preservice teachers also come to recognize some conceptual and reasoning difficulties commonly encountered by students. A culmination of their experience is a teaching practicum in which the preservice teachers apply what they have learned to instruction in middle or high school classrooms. Observations of the preservice teachers as they design, teach, and assess their lessons contribute to our understanding of the type of preparation needed for them to be able to teach physics and physical science by inquiry.


In 2007, the authors conducted a case study of 13 teachers across seven elementary schools. We learned that, due to pressures of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002) and state mandated testing, these schools were akin to reading academies—focused chiefly on the teaching of reading skills. They promised to share their results with local administrators and teachers, initiating the reconsideration of elementary social studies. To this end, they revisited school sites, revealed their findings, and offered to "fit into" ongoing discussions of curricular change. They attempted to engage teachers in courageous conversations, or honest, frank appraisal of current conditions. Eventually, they talked with approximately 100 K-6 teachers, principals, and district administrators. Framing their inquiry in Giddens (1984) theory of structuration, they present their efforts to build collaborative relationships in three cases of narrative inquiry. They follow it with dilemmas and insights for the field organized into five considerations: courageous conversation, curricular control, integration, social studies advocacy, and courting schools.


This work investigates the ecophysiology of marine amphipods. Amphipods are an important part of the zooplankton community in the pelagic environment. Amphipods are a food source for a variety of fishes and also have a role in carbon cycling. Little is known about their physiology and how they have adapted to environmental variation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that global warming is causing temperatures to rise throughout the world's oceans, a trend that will continue with rising human carbon emissions. As temperature and CO2 levels increase, oceanic oxygen levels are predicted to decrease, and as a result, oxygen minimum zones will expand. Ocean general circulation models have shown that the detectable decrease in dissolved oxygen concentrations is driven by increasing ocean surface temperatures and enhanced stratification. Low oxygen concentrations and high temperatures affect physiological performance and, consequently, vertical distribution and ecology of marine organisms. Vertically migrating amphipods living in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific currently experience temperature changes of 15 degrees Celsius or more and changes in oxygen concentration from saturation to near anoxia. Metabolic depression is the reduction in total metabolic rate, including aerobic and anaerobic ATP consumption, to below the basal metabolic rate. This happens in response to environmental stress such as extreme temperatures, desiccation, anoxia and food deprivation. The tolerance of an organism to low oxygen is inversely related to the extent of their metabolic. Organisms subjected to physiological stress, such as stresses that cause proteins to denature, will respond by producing heat shock proteins (hsps). Hsps act as molecular chaperones and are able to prevent/reduce denaturing of proteins and target proteins that are irreversibly denatured for removal from the cell via the ubiquitin-proteosome pathway. No previous studies have been done on midwater amphipods to see if the temperature gradient they experience during diel vertical migration induces a stress response. Chapter 1 examines how temperature and oxygen gradients affect the physiology of the amphipod Phronima sedentaria by quantifying the aerobic and anaerobic metabolic rates at oxygen levels consistent with those experienced across Phronima's vertical range in tropical regions. Total ATP production (metabolic rate) was compared in specimens subjected to night time surface conditions (oxygenated) and day time conditions (hypoxia). In Chapter 2 protein concentrations of hsp 70 were measured in specimens subjected to a range of temperatures within and above what they typically experience. Understanding the adaptations of pelagic amphipods to their current environment will help predict the physiological impacts of global warming for amphipods and their predators. One adaptation for living in hypoxia is metabolic depression. Metabolic rates of organisms are affected by a number of variables, particularly by temperature, body mass and ecology. Metabolic rate typically doubles or triples for every 10°C change in body temperature. Routine oxygen consumption rates of most vertically migrating, visually oriented, midwater crustaceans decline with depth primarily due to temperature, but also due to the low light and consequential lack of visual cues which reduces locomotion needs. Transparent organisms in epipelagic regions would be relieved of this selective pressure because they are hidden from their visual predators. Hyperiid amphipods are the only group of crustaceans that are truly dominated by transparency. The influence of transparency on metabolic rate has not been examined in amphipods. Chapter 3 sought to determine what environmental and ecological factors influence the rate of metabolism in marine amphipods by examining a broad data set from polar to tropical environments, and including transparent specimens. The data set for this study was obtained from the literature and original data. Recent molecular work allowed us to look at hyperiid metabolism in a phylogenetic context. Understanding patterns of pelagic and deep sea metabolism is important for further understanding of global carbon flux and the consequences of climate change on migration strategies.


A novel method for the reduction of the peak-to-average power ratio of multicarrier modulation systems is proposed. The reduction problem is rewritten to a combinatorial optimisation and is solved using the Hopfield neural network (HNN), which has a simple structure and is suitable for real-time optimisation. Simulation results show that the HNN is more effective than the selected mapping method.


Endothelial cystathionine γ-lyase (CSEγ) contributes to cardiovascular homeostasis, mainly through production of H2S. However, the molecular mechanisms that control CSEγ gene expression in the endothelium during cardiovascular diseases are unclear. The aim of the current study is to determine the role of specific histone deacetylases (HDACs) in the regulation of endothelial CSEγ. Reduced CSEγ mRNA expression and protein abundance were observed in human aortic endothelial cells (HAEC) exposed to oxidized LDL (OxLDL) and in aortas from atherogenic apolipoprotein E knockout (ApoE-/-) mice fed a high-fat diet compared with controls. Intact murine aortic rings exposed to OxLDL (50 μg/ml) for 24 h exhibited impaired endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation that was blocked by CSEγ overexpression or the H2S donor NaHS. CSEγ expression was upregulated by pan-HDAC inhibitors and by class II-specific HDAC inhibitors, but not by other class-specific inhibitors. The HDAC6 selective inhibitor tubacin and HDAC6-specific siRNA increased CSEγ expression and blocked OxLDL-mediated reductions in endothelial CSEγ expression and CSEγ promoter activity, indicating that HDAC6 is a specific regulator of CSEγ expression. Consistent with this finding, HDAC6 mRNA, protein expression, and activity were upregulated in OxLDL-exposed HAEC, but not in human aortic smooth muscle cells. HDAC6 protein levels in aortas from high-fat diet-fed ApoE-/- mice were comparable to those in controls, whereas HDAC6 activity was robustly upregulated. Together, our findings indicate that HDAC6 is upregulated by atherogenic stimuli via posttranslational modifications and is a critical regulator of CSEγ expression in vascular endothelium. Inhibition of HDAC6 activity may improve endothelial function and prevent or reverse the development of atherosclerosis.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Oxidative injury to endothelial cells by oxidized LDL reduced cystathionine γ-lyase (CSEγ) expression and H2S production, leading to endothelial dysfunction, which was prevented by histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) inhibition. Our data suggest HDAC6 as a novel therapeutic target to prevent the development of atherosclerosis.


Despite comprising almost 50% of the total U.S. labor force, and 51.3% of employees in the U.S. casino industry (Price, Waterhouse, & Coopers, 2003), women are still underrepresented in high levels of business management. (According to Price, Waterhouse, & Coopers, 2003, this 51.3% figure includes Indian/Alaskan Native American employees.) It appears that the glass ceiling said to hinder women's advancement to senior-level management positions is still intact in the gaming industry. "Political scientists and Nevada observers say women in Nevada may face a thicker glass ceiling because of the state's small, male-dominated political environment and a history of frontier sexism, wrote Coolican (2006)." Former Nevada Lieutenant Governor Lorraine Hunt, in the same article, noted that: "men make up the majority of senior executives in the state's dominant gaming industry" (Coolican, 2006). Clearly, the glass ceiling that hinders women's advancement to senior-level casino management is still intact. Because little research on the glass-ceiling effect has focused specifically on the gaming industry, this researcher will explore to what extent women have the opportunity to demonstrate the skills and abilities considered necessary for promotion into senior-level leadership positions in the Nevada casinos. The findings could have significant implications for a segment of the entire United States' hospitality industry, which includes gaming industry. Definition of Terms The key management terms for the purposes of this paper are: Senior-level Leaders--On the questionnaire that was sent to prospective participants, this researcher defined senior-level leaders as Owner, CEO and/or president, chief operating officer, general manager, assistant general manager, senior or executive vice president, vice president, CFO or controller, executive director, director, and senior-level manager. These people are ultimately responsible for the success/failure of the operations of the organization. In addition, these senior-level leaders have important strategy-making roles (Thompson, Gamble, & Strickland, 2006). Gender and Career Success Research The "glass ceiling" is a term coined in the 1970s in the United States to describe invisible and artificial barriers, created by attitudinal prejudices that block women from attaining senior-level leadership positions (Wirth, 2001). Are there still biased perceptions toward women today? Applebaum (2006) reported that women still face resistance in conservative business cultures, and the number of boardroom tables at which they hold seats varies widely by industry. In 1995, the Glass Ceiling Commission, a panel sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor found that the glass ceiling was continuing to deny untold numbers of qualified people the opportunity to compete for and hold executive-level positions in the private sector (U. S. Department of Labor, 1995). Further, Weber (1998) found that women executives in the gaming industry, a segment of the hospitality industry, mentioned the old boys' network as one of the key constraints to their career progression. According to research performed by Catalyst, an organization devoted to advancing women in the workplace, a mere 57 of 13,000 corporate officers were women, only 96 women ran business units, and only 1.9% of the highest-earning corporate officers were women (Knutson & Schmidgall, 1999). In a subsequent study of Fortune 500 companies, Catalyst found that there still was a shortage of women in the top ranks and that there had been few changes in senior-level women's attitudes and experiences within the past seven years (Catalyst, 2003). As recently as 2004, even though some women were close enough to the top positions in firms to be considered in the recruitment pool for senior-level leadership positions, they rarely achieved such positions (Maume, Jr. …


Corrosion begins as moisture penetrates the protective barrier of a surface, starting an electrochemical process which over time leads to surface pitting. The combined action of mechanical stresses and corrosion induced pitting reduces structural integrity as the pits enlarge to form nucleation sites for surface cracks, which propagate into through-thickness cracks. In most cases, the total mass loss due to corrosion within the structure is small; however, significant reductions in mechanical strength and fatigue life can occur in the corroded material leading to advanced crack growth rates or fast fracture. Since the structural damage due to localized corrosion pitting is small and the crack growth rates may be large, traditional inspections methods and "find it and fix it" maintenance approaches may lead to catastrophic mechanical failures.

 Therefore, precise structural health monitoring of pre-crack surface corrosion is paramount to understanding and predicting the effect corrosion has on the fatigue life and integrity of a structure. In this first third of this study, the impedance method was experimentally tested to detect and the onset and growth of the earliest stages of pre-crack surface corrosion in beam and plate like structures. Experimental results indicate the impedance method is an effective detection tool for corrosion induced structural damage in plates and beams. For corrosion surface coverages less than 1.5% and pit depths of less than 25 microns (light corrosion), the impedance method could successfully detect corrosion on plates and beams at distances up to 150 cm from the sensor location.

 Since the impedance method is a proven tool for corrosion detection, it makes sense to determine how well the method can quantify and track key corrosion variables like location, pit depth, and surface coverage. In order to make fatigue life adjustments for corroded structures it is necessary to quantify those variables. Thus, the second portion of this study uses the impedance method to quantify corrosion location, pit depth, and location. Three separate tests are conducted on beam-like structures to determine how well the damage metrics from the impedance method correlate to the key corrosion variables. From the three tests, it is found that the impedance method correlates best with the changes in corrosion pit depth, so if combined with data from routine maintenance it would be possible to use the impedance method data in a predictive or tracking manner. The impedance method can be correlated to location and surface coverage changes, but the relationship is not as strong. Other NDE techniques like Lamb Waves could use the same sensors to quantify corrosion location, and perhaps surface coverage.

 The impedance method can detect and quantify pre-crack surface corrosion which leads to shortened fatigue life in structures; however, the sensors must be robust enough to withstand corrosive environments. The last portion of this study tests the following: corrosive effect on Lead Zirconate Titnate (PZT) and Macro Fiber Composites (MFC) sensors, Kapton protected MFC actuators for corrosion detection, and determines if corrosion damage can be sensed on the side of the structure opposite the damage. Sensor recommendations regarding the use of piezoelectric sensors in corrosive environments are made.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To provide evidence on the effectiveness of simulation activities on the clinical decision-making abilities of undergraduate nursing students. Based on previous research, it was hypothesised that the higher the cognitive score, the greater the ability a nursing student would have to make informed valid decisions in their clinical practice.

BACKGROUND
Globally, simulation is being espoused as an education method that increases the competence of health professionals. At present, there is very little evidence to support current investment in time and resources.

METHODS
Following ethical approval, fifty-eight third-year undergraduate nursing students were randomised in a pretest-post-test group-parallel controlled trial. The learning environment preferences (LEP) inventory was used to test cognitive abilities in order to refute the null hypothesis that activities in computer-based simulated learning environments have a negative effect on cognitive abilities when compared with activities in skills laboratory simulated learning environments.

RESULTS
There was no significant difference in cognitive development following two cycles of simulation activities. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that two simulation tasks, either computer-based or laboratory-based, have no effect on an undergraduate student's ability to make clinical decisions in practice. However, there was a significant finding for non-English first-language students, which requires further investigation.

CONCLUSIONS
More longitudinal studies that quantify the education effects of simulation on the cognitive, affective and psychomotor attributes of health science students and professionals from both English-speaking and non-English-speaking backgrounds are urgently required. It is also recommended that to achieve increased participant numbers and prevent non-participation owing to absenteeism, further studies need to be imbedded directly into curricula.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
This investigation confirms the effect of simulation activities on real-life clinical practice, and the comparative learning benefits with traditional clinical practice and university education remain unknown.


Boron has been shown to be a useful trace element in clay-mineralization reactions, raising the possibility that B studies may provide a means to investigate environmental controls on palagonitization. The objective of the present study was to address calibration, matrix effects, and B exchangeability issues such that meaningful secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) microanalysis of B in thin sections of palagonite will be feasible. Silver Hill illite (IMt-1) was found to be a suitable calibration reference material, based on compositional similarity, relatively high B content, and ease of mounting on thin-section samples for SIMS microanalysis. Matrix effects of borated sideromelane and illite were compared and found to be similar, confirming previous studies which showed no matrix effects for B among minerals. Boron substitutes for Si in tetrahedral sites and also can be adsorbed in exchangeable sites of 2:1 clay minerals. Similarly, B can be found in tetrahedral and exchangeable sites within palagonite, which consists of both layered and amorphous volumes. In order to measure tetrahedral B content and isotopic ratio in the palagonite, exchangeable B was removed by soaking sample thin sections in a 1 M NH4Cl solution until exchangeable cation concentrations were constant. Treated samples showed decreases in B content and isotopic ratio with exchange. Extraction of exchangeable B permits the direct measurement of tetrahedral B content and isotopic ratio. The exchange technique devised and tested here should have broad applicability to thin-section microanalysis of B in clay and clay-like materials where cation exchange can be used for surface-analytical techniques. The present study represents an initial attempt to address samplepreparation, calibration, and potential matrix-effects problems for analyses by SIMS. Further refinements may improve the accuracy of the measurements, but the results presented here indicate that meaningful measurements are possible.


There have been a number of previous estimates of human inbreeding for Britons of British descent in Britain, each generally for different social classes, geographical regions, and/or time periods. In this study I attempted to collect all relevant published studies and combine these disparate results into an integrated whole for all of Britain. This was achieved by combining weighted means of the percentage of consanguineous marriages (f%) reported in these earlier studies: weighted according to the number of records each author examined, the proportion of social classes or geographic regions covered by the records, and the "merit" of their individual research methodologies. The percentage occurrences of the various consanguineous marriages, from first to third cousins, were partitioned into a number of time periods, which allowed the weighted mean percentage inbreeding coefficients (F%) to be obtained as a function of time over the period from 1820 to 1960. The resulting temporal scatter distribution of the weighted F% values closely followed a sigmoidal curve, with a nonlinear correlation coefficient of η = 0.974, which fitted well to a generalized logistic function. After about 1900 the value of the weighted F% was essentially constant at about 0.038 ± 0.004, whereas it decreased rapidly from about 0.256 ± 0.011 between 1820 and 1900. The upper-bound value of weighted F% before 1820 from the fitted logistic function is 0.276. This corresponds to a value of the conventional mean inbreeding coefficient F = 0.00276. As the first known attempt to integrate the earlier disparate values of unweighted F% for Britons of British descent for all of Britain, the results of this analysis are promising and should be useful as reference values in other related studies.


: Obstetric brachial plexus palsy (OBPP) refers to upper limb paralysis secondary to a sustained traction or compression injury to the brachial plexus during birth. The reported incidence in developed countries is 2 per 1000 live births. The assessment and planning of appropriate treatment is important in the early stages of OBPP. The aim of our study was to examine the relationship between the range of motion and upper extremity function of the shoulder in patients with OBPP who were treated by tendon transfer. This study included 48 patients who had shoulder tendon transfer at least 6 months ago in Istanbul Medical Faculty, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery of the Hand. Range of motion measurements were performed using a universal goniometer and the modified mallet classification was used to categorize global shoulder function. Pediatric evaluation of disability inventory (PEDI) and Canadian occupational performance measure (COPM) were used to evaluate functional ability, activity and participation. When examining relationships between range of motion and functional scores, there was a statistically significant relationship between COPMP score and external rotation, and no relationship was found between other motion functional scores. The study demonstrated that, the use of the pattern of development and motivation of patients to participate is also important among range of motion and muscle strength for upper extremity function.


We show that the Wilsonian renormalization group (RG) provides a
natural regularisation of the Quantum Master Equation such that to first
order the BRST algebra closes on local functionals spanned by the
eigenoperators with constant couplings. We then apply this to quantum
gravity. Around the Gaussian fixed point, RG properties of the conformal
factor of the metric allow the construction of a Hilbert space
\Ll of
renormalizable interactions, non-perturbative in
\hbarℏ,
and involving arbitrarily high powers of the gravitational fluctuations.
We show that diffeomorphism invariance is violated for interactions that
lie inside
\Ll,
in the sense that only a trivial quantum BRST cohomology exists for
interactions at first order in the couplings. However by taking a limit
to the boundary of
\Ll,
the couplings can be constrained to recover Newton's constant, and
standard realisations of diffeomorphism invariance, whilst retaining
renormalizability. The limits are sufficiently flexible to allow this
also at higher orders. This leaves open a number of questions that
should find their answer at second order. We develop much of the
framework that will allow these calculations to be performed.


Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments address ecosystem‐level consequences of species loss by comparing communities of high species richness with communities from which species have been gradually eliminated. BEF experiments originally started with microcosms in the laboratory and with grassland ecosystems. A new frontier in experimental BEF research is manipulating tree diversity in forest ecosystems, compelling researchers to think big and comprehensively. We present and discuss some of the major issues to be considered in the design of BEF experiments with trees and illustrate these with a new forest biodiversity experiment established in subtropical China (Xingangshan, Jiangxi Province) in 2009/2010. Using a pool of 40 tree species, extinction scenarios were simulated with tree richness levels of 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 species on a total of 566 plots of 25·8 × 25·8 m each. The goal of this experiment is to estimate effects of tree and shrub species richness on carbon storage and soil erosion; therefore, the experiment was established on sloped terrain. The following important design choices were made: (i) establishing many small rather than fewer larger plots, (ii) using high planting density and random mixing of species rather than lower planting density and patchwise mixing of species, (iii) establishing a map of the initial 'ecoscape' to characterize site heterogeneity before the onset of biodiversity effects and (iv) manipulating tree species richness not only in random but also in trait‐oriented extinction scenarios. Data management and analysis are particularly challenging in BEF experiments with their hierarchical designs nesting individuals within‐species populations within plots within‐species compositions. Statistical analysis best proceeds by partitioning these random terms into fixed‐term contrasts, for example, species composition into contrasts for species richness and the presence of particular functional groups, which can then be tested against the remaining random variation among compositions. We conclude that forest BEF experiments provide exciting and timely research options. They especially require careful thinking to allow multiple disciplines to measure and analyse data jointly and effectively. Achieving specific research goals and synergy with previous experiments involves trade‐offs between different designs and requires manifold design decisions.


The wicking properties of porous polyester, Coolmax and conventional polyester rotor yarns were tested with the capillary flow of a colored liquid and the height was recorded against the time. The relations of material structure, temperature, and yarn count factors to wicking properties were discussed. Results showed that: the moisture conduction of porous structure yarns were best of all yarns; Higher temperature results the faster of wicking speed, and is especially for porous polyester; The finer Coolmax and conventional polyester rotor yarns are of faster wicking speed, but this rule is not distinct for porous structure polyester.


In the UK, 20% of the building stock is subject to solardriven vapour diffusion due to the un-rendered external surface of solid walls. Energy efficient interventions such as the installation of internal wall insulation can help to reduce greenhouse gases emissions and improve the thermal performance of those buildings. However, if the interventions are incorrectly designed, moisture accumulation may occur, which could be detrimental to the building and the health of its occupants. The moisturerelated risk of such interventions is usually evaluated using hygrothermal simulations, however some of the input data required for the evaluation are not always suitable for the purpose; in particular, this is the case for external climate data. The aim of this study is to identify a suitable climate file for the risk assessment of internally insulated walls affected by solar-driven vapour diffusion. This paper presents an evaluation of the commonly used typical and near-extreme reference climate files for moisture risk assessment. Hygrothermal simulations were carried out for both types of climate files and 19 years of measured data. Results indicate that the near-extreme files underrepresent the worst-case scenario and that the penetration of rainwater does not significantly affect the output of the hygrothermal simulations. A distribution of climate files was found to be more accurate and representative for the moisture risk assessment when considering solar-driven vapour diffusion.


The effects of local anesthetics were examined on a family of transiently expressed neuronal calcium channels. Fomocaine, a local anesthetic containing a morpholine ring, preferentially blocked alpha1E channels (Ki = 100 microM), and had a lower affinity (3- to 15-fold) for alpha1A, alpha1B, and alpha1C channels. Block was incompletely reversible, followed 1:1 kinetics, and did not affect steady-state inactivation properties. Fomocaine block was sensitive to the concentration of permeant ion and enhanced in the presence of external pore blockers, suggesting a site of action in the conducting pathway. Flecainide, which carries a piperidine ring, and the diphenylbutylpiperidine antipsychotic, penfluridol, caused qualitatively similar block, suggesting that morpholine rings are compatible with the piperidine receptor site. In contrast, procaine, which contains an alkyl chain, caused reversible low affinity block of the different calcium channels (Kd values between 2 and 5 mM) and was least effective on alpha1E and did not compete with fomocaine, suggesting that local anesthetics interact with at least two distinct receptor sites. Compared to coexpression with the Ca channel beta1b subunit, block at the piperidine receptor site was significantly weakened with the beta2a subunit suggesting that the nature of the beta subunit contributes to drug binding. Amino acid changes in the cytoplasmic linker between domains I and II resulted in decreased fomocaine and penfluridol blocking affinity. Furthermore, the blocking affinity observed with alpha1B, was conferred on alpha1A by substitution of the domain I-II linker of alpha1B into alpha1A. Taken together, the data suggest that beta subunit binding and the domain I- II linker contribute to the piperidine receptor site on neuronal calcium channels.


Rural water services are still not working for poor people. The rising mobile phone penetration in Africa raised hopes in the development community that mobile phone–based ICT platforms could digitally transform rural water supply services. Our approach to platform development is "working with the grain" of the information flow between citizens and district officials, in view of emerging funding opportunities for water point repair in Tanzania (Payment-by-Results). We distinguish between discretionary tasks and transaction-intensive tasks in the information flow. An ICT platform for monitoring and repairing rural water points should start by digitally transforming tasks with high transaction intensiveness and low discretion that occur outside village and district institutions. Actors in rural water supply should collaboratively simplify formal rules and procedures that govern information flows within local institutions before considering further digitization.


[1] We present a statistical analysis of the time evolution of ground magnetic fluctuations in three (12–48 s, 24–96 s and 48–192 s) period bands during nightside auroral activations. We use an independently derived auroral activation list composed of both substorms and pseudo-breakups to provide an estimate of the activation times of nightside aurora during periods with comprehensive ground magnetometer coverage. One hundred eighty-one events in total are studied to demonstrate the statistical nature of the time evolution of magnetic wave power during the ∼30 min surrounding auroral activations. We find that the magnetic wave power is approximately constant before an auroral activation, starts to grow up to 90 s prior to the optical onset time, maximizes a few minutes after the auroral activation, then decays slightly to a new, and higher, constant level. Importantly, magnetic ULF wave power always remains elevated after an auroral activation, whether it is a substorm or a pseudo-breakup. We subsequently divide the auroral activation list into events that formed part of ongoing auroral activity and events that had little preceding geomagnetic activity. We find that the evolution of wave power in the ∼10–200 s period band essentially behaves in the same manner through auroral onset, regardless of event type. The absolute power across ULF wave bands, however, displays a power law-like dependency throughout a 30 min period centered on auroral onset time. We also find evidence of a secondary maximum in wave power at high latitudes ∼10 min following isolated substorm activations. Most significantly, we demonstrate that magnetic wave power levels persist after auroral activations for ∼10 min, which is consistent with recent findings of wave-driven auroral precipitation during substorms. This suggests that magnetic wave power and auroral particle precipitation are intimately linked and key components of the substorm onset process.


To study viability and activity of isolated common carp, Cyprinus carpio, ovarian follicular cells (granulosa and theca cells), 17-�-Hydroxy progesterone (17�-OHP) and 17�-Estradiol (E 2 ) levels were estimated in the culture media of cultivated carp ovarian follicular cells, using radioimmunoassay (RIA). Oocytes were isolated from the ovaries of female carp. Interstitial tissue was manually removed in order to obtain single oocytes surrounded only by the follicular envelope. Such a preparation was trypsinized at room temperature. Follicular cell suspension contained both cells and cell clumps. It was the mixture of theca (T) and granulosa (G) cells. The cells were grown as plemented with FBS. Culture media were analyzed for estrogen and progesterone content by appropriate radioimmunoassay. Trypsinization of ovarian follicles resulted in the formation of the cell suspension which contained a mixture of G and T cells. The follicular cells attached to glass and grew well during culture period. E 2 was the main steroid hormone secreted by cultivated cells. Estrogen secretion increased by 415.52 ± 25 pg/mL at the first 3 days up to 530.25 ± 55.8 pg/ml on day 5 and it didn't change significantly until the end of the experiment. 17�-OHP secretion, however, gradually increased from 23.84 ± 8.2 pg/ml at the beginning of culture up to 35.76 ± 5.4 pg/ml at the end of cultivating. As the result of the present study the fish follicular cells grown in tissue culture were steroidogenically active cells as expressed by the secretion of E 2 and P 4 and The E 2 was a dominant hormone secreted by isolated follicular cells, which it correlated closely with vitellogenes stage


Most overwintering insects do not survive internal freezing and must avoid low temperatures or enhance the capacity of their body fluids to supercool to survive low temperature exposure. Recent reports have demonstrated that the application of ice-nucleating active microorganisms markedly diminishes supercooling. Topical application of as little as 20 ppm of a suspension of a freeze-dried preparation of the ice-nucleating active bacterium Pseudomonas syringae van Hall was sufficient to elevate the mean supercooling point of the overwintering adults of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say), from −8.7 to −4.7°C. Previous reports have demonstrated that topical application of these biological ice nucleators to insects whose mouths have been sealed still reduces supercooling capacity; however, the anatomical route by which these agents make contact with body water is unclear. Application of the P. syringae suspension to the ventral abdomen did not significantly increase the supercooling point (−5.5°C) compared with beetles treated with the non-ice-nucleating active (control) bacterium Escherichia coli (Migula). However, application of the ice-nucleating agent to the thoracic spiracle, ventral cervix, or abdominal spiracle elevated supercooling point values above those of beetles treated on the ventral abdomen. These data are instructive in the development of methods for the use of ice-nucleating active microorganisms for the biological control of overwintering pests.


Capillary flow layer-by-layer (CF-LbL) is a microfluidic platform for high throughput preparation and screening of nanolayered polymer films. Using a simple benchtop version of CF-LbL, we systematically studied the effects of various flow conditions and channel geometries on the thickness and surface roughness of the resulting films. We also investigated the biocompatibility and degradation behaviors of a series of enzymatically-degradable films made from naturally derived polymers, i.e. either alginate or hyaluronic acid as the anionic species and poly-l-arginine as the positive species. Furthermore, using one optimized film formulation for coating on the inside walls of a microfluidic chip, we successfully demonstrated the ability of this film to capture and rapidly release cancer cells from whole blood. This simple platform is expected to be a powerful tool to increase the accessibility of the LbL film assembly to a broader scientific community.


Compressed wood, which is formed by a process that increases the wood's density, aims to improve its strength and dimensional stability. Compressed wood can be used in building and construction, especially for construction of walls and flooring. Currently, supplies of wood are becoming limited, and the oil palm tree has become one of the largest plantation species in Malaysia. Oil palm trunk could be an appropriate choice for an alternative source for compressed wood. This paper aims to review the current status of oil palm biomass, including the availability of this tree, in order to illustrate the potential of oil palm biomass as an alternative source for compressed wood. Up to the present there has been insufficient information regarding the manufacturing conditions and properties of compressed wood from oil palm trunk. This paper will cover the background of compressed wood and the possibilities of producing compressed wood using oil palm trunk as a raw material.


A fundamental understanding of the quench phenomenon is particularly important in the design and operation of magnets using High Temperature Superconductors because the quench propagation velocity is low due to high specific heat at high temperature. We have performed the simulations of a high-current forced-flow conductor model to assess the key quench parameters, e.g. the temperature increase of the normal zone and its propagation velocity, using the CryoSoft code THEA. The sensitivity of these results on conductor design and operation parameters was assessed with a variational analysis. Results show that the helium flow has a beneficial impact on the longitudinal propagation of the normal zone and the resulting reduction of the peak quench temperature.


Fluid therapy is important for many medical conditions in veterinary patients. The assessment of patient history, chief complaint, physical exam findings, and indicated additional testing will determine the need for fluid therapy. Fluid selection is dictated by the patient's needs, including volume, rate, fluid composition required, and location the fluid is needed (e.g., interstitial versus intravascular). Therapy must be individualized, tailored to each patient, and constantly re-evaluated and reformulated according to changes in status. Needs may vary according to the existence of either acute or chronic conditions, patient pathology (e.g., acid-base, oncotic, electrolyte abnormalities), and comorbid conditions. All patients should be assessed for three types of fluid disturbances: changes in volume, changes in content, and/or changes in distribution. The goals of these guidelines are to assist the clinician in prioritizing goals, selecting appropriate fluids and rates of administration, and assessing patient response to therapy. These guidelines provide recommendations for fluid administration for anesthetized patients and patients with fluid disturbances.


This chapter focuses on the amount of pragmatics practice needed for promoting accurate and speedy recognition and production of request-making forms in L2 Chinese. Over four consecutive days, an input group (n = 17) and an output group (n = 17) practiced using target request-making forms via computerized input-based and output-based practice activities, respectively. Meanwhile, a control group (n = 15) did Chinese reading comprehension exercises that did not contain the target pragmatic features. Two computerized instruments (a pragmatic listening judgment task and an oral discourse completion task) were administered to assess pragmatic development over time. The results showed that, regardless of practice modality (input-based and output-based), four instances of processing target pragmatic features were sufficient to enhance pragmatic performance accuracy, yet more than eight instances were needed for the development of performance speed.


This thesis describes the work of providing separate morphological processing and part-of-speech tagging modules in the SVENSK system by integrating the Uppsala Chart Processor (UCP) and a Brill tagger into the system. SVENSK employs GATE (General Architecture for Text Engineering) as the platform in which the components are to be integrated. Two pre-processing modules, a tokeniser and a sentence splitter for Swedish, were developed in order to facilitate the preparation of the texts to be analysed by UCP and the Brill tagger. These four components were then integrated in GATE together with a newly developed viewer for displaying the results produced by UCP. The thesis introduces the reader to the SVENSK project, the GATE system and its underlying parts, especially the database architecture which is based on the TIPSTER annotation model. Further, the issues in connection with the development and design of the tokeniser and the sentence splitter for Swedish are elaborated on. The mechanisms behind transformation-based error-driven learning methods as employed by the Brill tagger are introduced as well as the principles of chart processing in general and UCP in particular. The greater part of the thesis is devoted to the process of integrating the natural language (NL) modules in GATE using the Tcl/Tk application programmers interface (API) and a so-called loose coupling. The results of the integration of the NL modules are very encouraging: it is possible to mix modules written in programming languages from completely different paradigms (in this case the languages are Common LISP, Perl and C) and to have them interact with each other, thus maintaining a high degree of reuse of algorithmical resources. However, the use of Tcl/Tk and the associated API for processing structurally relatively complex data, i.e. the output from UCP, is time consuming and considerably slows the processing in GATE.


The two studies described here address the question of how District Nurses determine patients' nursing problems and plan care. The theoretical framework for the investigation is derived from Information Processing Theory. A process tracing methodology was used to capture the content of District Nurses' thinking during an assessment visit to a newly referred patient. Data was collected in the natural setting to ensure ecological validity. The assessment visits were tape recorded and immediately following the visit a stimulated recall session was conducted in which the nurse was asked to describe her thinking during the assessment, prompted by the tape recording. This session was itself tape-recorded. Thus two verbal protocols were elicited for each assessment: a visit protocol and a recall protocol. Data were analysed by content analysis. The verbal protocols were assessed to ensure that they met the criteria for validity and reliability of the coding schedules was established using two measures or interrater reliability. The first study sought evidence of hypothetico-deductive reasoning by nurses and describes the type of decisions made by nurses. Although evidence of hypothesis generation and testing was found, nurses' knowledge was found to determine how they interpreted data initially and what data they sought. It was therefore concluded that a model of diagnostic reasoning that focused on cognitive processes alone was insufficient to explain the dynamics of clinical problem solving. The second study, therefore, sought to establish the structure and content of District Nurses knowledge and the cognitive processes they used during an assessment. The results suggest that nurses attend to both clinical and personal phenomena in order to make a judgement about the state of the patient and that their knowledge is organised internally as schema. This provides an explanation of how nurses recognise salient information and determine what further data is required. Four key cognitive activities were identified: search, inference, action and plan. The study concludes by drawing a line of reasoning to show how nurses integrate knowledge and reasoning processes to accomplish clinical problem solving.


Activity Based Costing (ABC) which has become an important aspect of manufacturing organizations can be defined as a methodology that measures the cost and performance of activities, resources and cost drivers. The objective of this paper is to illustrate an application of ABC method and to compare the results of ABC with traditional costing methods, for the calendaring and coating processes in plastic industry. It can be considered as a Product Life Cycle (PLC) to ABC systems. PLC was studied in two phases, the Acquisition and the Production Phases. Three products (product C, product F, and product L) were used in the study. In the Acquisition Phase, the highest mixed cost of 80.93% for newly designed product was mainly from product and process validation activity. This included the 22.64% counted from the sub-activity for evaluating the measurement systems. In the Operation Phase, the cost of production activity was higher than that of the original product by 57%. The highest mix of activity cost was 10.90% from the production activity center, where the 5.90% was calculated from the sub-activity for embossing. The monthly total cost of PLC is 454 baht per meter. The first one is product L (660 baht per meter). The second one is product C (438 baht per meter).The last one is F (265 baht per meter). When comparing the total cost of all the products over the product life cycle and their selling price, the total cost was 6% greater than the selling price. The highest mix of activity costs was 13.30% from the raw material preparing activity center. The product C, the proportion of total cost of PLC was over selling price of 57.91%.


OBJECTIVE
Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with decreased risk for depression, but it remains unclear whether this is a causal relationship or a methodological artifact. To compare the effects of consistent abstinence and occasional, moderate, and above-guideline alcohol consumption throughout early to middle adulthood on depression at age 50, the authors conducted a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort and employed a marginal structural model (MSM) approach.

METHODS
Baseline was set at 1994, when individuals were ages 29-37. The MSM incorporated measurements of alcohol consumption in 1994, 2002, and 2006, baseline and time-varying covariates, and repeated measurements with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Short Form (CES-D-SF). A total of 5,667 eligible participants provided valid data at baseline, 3,593 of whom provided valid outcome data. The authors used all observed data to predict CES-D-SF means and rates of probable depression for hypothetical trajectories of consistent alcohol consumption.

RESULTS
The results approximated J-curve relationships. Specifically, both consistent occasional and consistent moderate drinkers were predicted to have reduced CES-D-SF scores and rates of probable depression at age 50 compared with consistent abstainers (CES-D-SF scores: b=-0.84, 95% CI=-1.47, -0.11; probable depression: odds ratio=0.58, 95% CI=0.36, 0.88 for consistent occasional drinkers vs. abstainers; CES-D-SF scores: b=-1.08, 95% CI=-1.88, -0.20; probable depression: odds ratio=0.59, 95% CI=0.26, 1.13 for consistent moderate drinkers vs. consistent abstainers). Consistent above-guideline drinkers were predicted to have slightly increased risk compared with consistent abstainers, but this was not significant. In sex-stratified analyses, results were similar for females and males.

CONCLUSIONS
This study contributes preliminary evidence that associations between moderate alcohol consumption and reduced risk for depression may reflect genuine causal effects. Further research using diverse methodologies that promote causal inference is required.


This essay examines modern Buddhist conceptions of translation, and how these replicate or modify discourses from the classical tradition. It focuses on the Buddhist Text Translation Society (BTTS), a California-based society established in 1970, whose mission is the translation of Chinese Buddhist sutras. The society's broader guidelines for translation as laid down by its founder, Hsuan Hua, contain a short list of eight translator attributes and behaviours which each translator must abide by. These Eight Guidelines show similarities with a classical discourse by the monk-translator Yan Cong (557–610), known as the Eight Prerequisites. The essay argues the modern guidelines may be read as a recontextualization of Yan Cong's work that replicates many of its discursive positions while at the same time showing changes that relate to the different geographical and temporal context of the BTTS. In addition to such "geotemporal recontextualization", the essay also considers "generic recontextualization", in which the Eight Guidelines are used in other genre contexts, in particular as prefatory paratexts to the society's published translations. The guidelines are seen to be not merely instructions for translation but to encapsulate a distinctively Buddhist approach that sees translation as both a form of collaborative religious learning and of spiritual cultivation, and that brings traditional East Asian modes of translation practice into a modern western context. The essay concludes with reflections on the balance between continuity and change in such discourse, and suggests this balance might be conceptualized in Buddhist terms.


In the present work, we theoretically study and elaborate the excited state proton transfer (ESPT) behavior of two novel polyimides (3H-MC and P2H-CH) reported in the previous work [K. Kanosue, T. Shimosaka, J. Wakita and S. Ando, Macromolecules, 2015, 48, 1777; K. Kanosue, R. Augulis, D. Peckus, R. Karpicz, T. Tamulevicius, S. Tamulevicius, V. Gubinas and S. Ando, Macromolecules, 2016, 49, 1848]. Using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) methods with electrostatic potential surfaces and the reduced density gradient (RDG), we affirm that an intramolecular hydrogen bond should be formed in the ground state for these two systems. Comparing bond lengths, bond angles and the corresponding infrared (IR) vibrations of intramolecular hydrogen bonds for 3H-MC and P2H-CH, we clarify that hydrogen bonds should be strengthened in the S1 state, which provides the possibility for the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) reaction. Analyses of frontier molecular orbitals (MOs) theory prove that the ESIPT process could be facilitated by charge transfer upon excitation. Based on constructing potential energy surfaces (PESs), we provide the excited state dynamical overall perspective about ESIPT reactions for both 3H-MC and P2H-CH. We not only clarify the ESPT mechanism of these two systems, but also make contributions for the applications of such kinds of systems in the future.


We considered how accurately students predicted their instructor's expectations regarding appropriate classroom behaviors.  Our intent was to demonstrate that expectations vary across instructors, and that students are often unaware of their instructor's personal standards for classroom behavior.  To this end, on a class-by-class basis, we evaluated how well students in 8 undergraduate Psychology classes estimated how irritated their instructor would be about several student behaviors within the classroom.  We demonstrated that students frequently failed to accurately predict their instructor's expectations and also that instructors differed in expectations regarding appropriate classroom behavior.  Findings support prior speculation that instructors hold no commonly agreed upon standards for classroom behaviors.  Since instructors differ in expectations, students cannot rely on an assumed universal set of rules that define appropriate classroom behavior.  Given the potential for misunderstanding we recommend that instructors clarify their classroom expectations in the syllabus. Keywords: college students, classroom behavior, classroom management, individual differences, classroom interactions; communication; syllabus


Almost overnight, EPUB has become the favored standard for displaying digital text on ereaders. The EPUB specification is a powerful method for creating gorgeous ebooks for EPUB-capable readers such as the iPad, Nook, and Kindle. Alas, it is far from perfect, with frustrating limitations, sketchy documentation, and incomplete creation tools. This extensively researched guide to creating EPUB files by best-selling author Elizabeth Castro shows you how to prepare EPUB files, make the files look great on the screen, work around EPUB weaknesses, and fix common errors. In this essential book, Liz shares her hard-earned experience for how to: Create EPUB files from existing Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign files, or from scratch.Tweak EPUB files to take full advantage of the power of EPUB in each respective ereader.Control spacing, indents, and margins.Insert images and sidebars and wrap text around them.Create links to external sources and cross-references to internal ones.Add video to ebooks for the iPad.


This extended abstract presents LFTHREADS, a thread library entirely based on lock-free methods, i.e. no spinlocks or similar synchronization mechanisms are employed in the implementation of the multithreading. Since lockfreedom is highly desirable in multiprocessors/multicores due to its advantages in parallelism, fault-tolerance, convoy-avoidance and more, there is an increased demand in lock-free methods in parallel applications, hence also in multiprocessor/multicore system services. LFTHREADS is the first thread library that provides a lock-free implementation of blocking synchronization primitives for application threads; although the latter may sound like a contradicting goal, such objects have several benefits: e.g. library operations that block and unblock threads on the same synchronization object can make progress in parallel while maintaining the desired thread-level semantics and without having to wait for any "low" operations among them. Besides, as no spin-locks or similar synchronization mechanisms are employed, memory contention can be reduced and processors/cores are able to do useful work. As a consequence, applications, too, can enjoy enhanced parallelism and fault-tolerance. For the synchronization in LFTHREADS we have introduced a new method, which we call responsibility hand-off (RHO), that does not need any special kernel support. The RHO method is also of independent interest, as it can also serve as a tool for lock-free token passing, management of contention and interaction between scheduling and synchronization. This paper gives an outline and the context of LFTHREADS. For more details the reader is refered to [7] and [8].


At the beginning of the nineties, a diversity of economic reforms were designed and implemented to reduce the size of the country's public sector with the objective of making it more efficient. Despite the reforms, ten years later, the Colombian public sector is 80% larger, and the financial sustainability of the Government presents serious problems. In 1999, Colombia's chief indicator of economic growth (GDP) was –4,3% and the unemployment rate reached 20%. Such an evident dwindling of the economic activity has been accompanied with imbalances in the macroeconomic accounts, particularly in the public sector. This paper provides a general description of Colombia's economic trends in the last few years, closely examining the factors which have undermined the country's public finances. Section II contains an overview of the fiscal imbalances registered as of the 1960s, and their relationship with both the real business cycle and the tax policy. Section III includes a synthesis of the main economic reforms introduced in the early nineties, and compares the size of the Colombian public sector with those of several neighboring countries. Section IV describes the key issues involved in the country's recent fiscal imbalance and, Section V, analyses the dynamics of the public debt and the question of its sustainability. The closing section outlines the policies for economic adjustment and reactivation currently debated in Colombia.


Individual, cultural, and Place-based positionality are important elements when thinking about partnership and the environment, particularly including erasures of Indigenous and other marginalized lenses. Language barriers and exclusion of culture that stem from the Western need for scientific validity, and predominance of this framing within environmental sciences, surface as a main limitation to building relationships, communicating across disciplines, and working beyond institutions. What does the Western scientific imagination lack that might lend a lens on different relationships to Place and on decision-making tools that inform our care of it? Biocultural stewardship of public spaces using an intermingling of ecological and cultural story-telling as a glue could drive a process of Place-making that offers alternative lenses to partnership and the environment. Sustainability, agency, and knowledge production could take on different forms if we leave space for cultural lenses and healing in our partnerships with the environment. Urban areas in particular mark spaces where many cultural traditions are coming together in unique but often underutilized contexts to offer potential knowledge to novel human-environment partnerships. This article draws on framing within the history of science and Indigenous philosophy, to see how broadly but intentionally including different cultural ways of knowing in particularized academic disciplines—especially in environmental sciences—might shed light on relationships of responsibility and stewardship to the land.


abstract:In the late 1930s, design studies in China underwent a paradigmatic shift when the cosmopolitan idioms fashioned within treaty-port cities were rejected in favor of populist ethnonationalism, developed along the border regions of wartime China. This essay examines design compendia by Pang Xunqin and Lei Guiyuan, founding figures in modern design studies, as proposals that advocate for a reevaluation of folk and ethnic-minority traditions. Shaped by a signal moment in wartime modernism, the design proposals are located at the conjunction of two fields of knowledge that were discursively reframed by the heightened cultural nationalism of the Sino-Japanese War: the expansion of modern archaeology, and ethnographic study of minority cultures. In reclaiming folk-minority craft as a generative source of decoration, Pang Xunqin and Lei Guiyuan were also critically engaged with delimiting the design profession as a specialized realm of knowledge production.


Although take-it-or-leave-it pricing is the main mode of operation for many retailers, a number of retailers discreetly allow price negotiation when some haggle-prone customers ask for a bargain. At these retailers, the posted price, which itself is subject to dynamic adjustments in response to the pace of sales during the selling season, serves two important roles: (i) it is the take-it-or-leave-it price to many customers who do not bargain, and (ii) it is the price from which haggle-prone customers negotiate down.

To effectively measure the benefit of dynamic pricing and negotiation in such a retail environment, one must take into account the interactions among inventory, dynamic pricing, and negotiation. The outcome of the negotiation (and the final price a customer pays) depends on the inventory level, the remaining selling season, the retailer's bargaining power, and the posted price.

We model the retailer's dynamic pricing problem as a dynamic program, where the revenues from both negotiation and posted pricing are embedded in each period. We characterize the optimal posted price and the resulting negotiation outcome as a function of inventory and time. We also show that negotiation is an effective tool to achieve price discrimination, particularly when the inventory level is high and/or the remaining selling season is short, even when implementing negotiation is costly.


Despite the extensive scholarly discussion about John Dewey's concepts about experiential education, little has been written for recreation leaders specifically about his ideas on recreation and leisure. This article summarizes John Dewey's philosophy of recreation and leisure. It begins by noting Dewey's distaste for the social constructs that unnecessarily create barriers between work and leisure. It then presents his argument that this work/leisure dichotomy contributes to meaningless leisure pursuits and is the result of class-based education. Finally, and most importantly, is Dewey's explanation that if education is a part of the problem, then it can be part of the solution.


An email digest is a message that results from the combination of other messages. Mailing list management systems implement digests to let subscribers reduce their email messages frequency. In this paper we address the issue of generalizing this digest technique for any message (i.e. not only issued from mailing lists). By generalizing we mean creating new message combinations while 1) keeping an email centric approach, and 2) generating a compact visualization to assist a user task. We implemented a preliminary prototype as a webmail and we will describe a series of digests providing users multiple visualizations in the context of a meeting planning by email.


Abstract. Even though dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is the most active carbon (C) cycling in soil organic carbon (SOC) pools, it receives little attention from the global C budget. DOC fluxes are critical to aquatic ecosystem inputs and contribute to the C balance of terrestrial ecosystems, but few ecosystem models have attempted to integrate DOC dynamics into terrestrial C cycling. This study introduces a new process-based model, TRIPLEX-DOC, that is capable of estimating DOC dynamics in forest soils by incorporating both ecological drivers and biogeochemical processes. TRIPLEX-DOC was developed from Forest-DNDC, a biogeochemical model simulating C and nitrogen (N) dynamics, coupled with a new DOC process module that predicts metabolic transformations, sorption/desorption, and DOC leaching in forest soils. The model was validated against field observations of DOC concentrations and fluxes at white pine forest stands located in southern Ontario, Canada. The model was able to simulate seasonal dynamics of DOC concentrations and the magnitudes observed within different soil layers, as well as DOC leaching in the age sequence of these forests. Additionally, TRIPLEX-DOC estimated the effect of forest harvesting on DOC leaching, with a significant increase following harvesting, illustrating that land use change is of critical importance in regulating DOC leaching in temperate forests as an important source of C input to aquatic ecosystems.


The objective of this study was to examine the chronobiology of visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients to test whether hallucinations are more severe during darker months (winter) than summer months. We extracted longitudinal data on the UPDRS Thought Disorder (TD) score, taken as part of regular patient management on sequential visits through a 1‐year cycle in hallucinating PD patients. To reduce the confounding effects of medication adjustments, analysis was restricted to patients with a baseline evaluation that did not involve a medication change. The primary outcome was the seasonal change in hallucination severity, defined as a change in TD score or neuroleptic use. Using Wilcoxon rank‐sum tests, we compared the exacerbation of hallucination by season, focusing on winter (December through February) versus summer (June through August). A total of 51 hallucinating patients met entry criteria, and their longitudinal data were analyzed. There was no difference in hallucination severity with changing season; the level of wintertime exacerbation was no greater than summertime exacerbation (P = 0.42). Although hallucinations frequently develop in dimmed environments and evening hours, the darkness of wintertime does not exacerbate hallucinations in PD subjects on stable medications. Because we found no evidence of seasonal variations, we cannot recommend phototherapy or other strategies affecting chronobiological systems as research priorities to treat PD hallucinations. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society


ZrO2: 3mol% Y2O3 powders were mixed in different proportions to ZrO2: 8 mol% MgO, pressed and sintered at 1500°C for producing composites with oxygen ion conductivity better than that of ZrO2: 8 mol% MgO and thermal shock resistance better than that of ZrO2: 3 mol% Y2O3. The electrical conductivity was evaluated by the impedance spectroscopy technique at 600°C as a function of the partial pressure of oxygen using zirconia-based oxygen pump and sensor. The thermal shock resistance was studied by room temperature- 1550°C dilatometry on sintered pellets. Moreover the composites were studied by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. All composites are partially stabilized in the monoclinic-tetragonal phase and the apparent density is higher than 90% of the theoretical density. The thermal shock behavior of the composites is similar to that of ZrO2:8 mol% MgO materials used in disposable high temperature oxygen sensors. The electrical response of the composites at high temperatures is better than the electrical response of ZrO2:8 mol% MgO.


Brisbane introduced catamaran river ferries (CityCats) in 1996 to help re-orient the city to its river, to encourage inner-city densification, and to spur changes in attitudes towards public transportation. The Brisbane ferry network has grown significantly over the past fourteen years and is now a key commuter and tourist transport mode that in 2008 carried 6.28 million passengers, servicing 23 locations throughout the city. Two new ferry terminals will be built over coming years with private land developers contributing partial funding for one terminal and total funding for the other. Whilst it would appear that the CityCats have been used successfully to achieve transit (or ferry) oriented development, a review of key transport and land use planning policy documents finds that the CityCats have not been used strategically to achieve TOD. This suggests that the relationship between the ferries and urban development has been more pragmatic and coincidental, whilst broader strategic planning has been focused more on general Smart Growth principles and transport planning and TOD policy has mainly centered on rail and buses. In the case of the two new ferry terminals, the developments that surround them will not be dependent on the ferries for their success - their riverfront location alone ensures this. As with previous nodes on the CityCat network, the primary motivation for developer funding of ferry terminals is as a marketing tool to increase sales.


We develop a quantitative theory of human capital with heterogeneous agents in order to assess the sources of cross-country income differences. The cross-sectional implications of the theory and U.S. data are used to restrict the parameters of human capital technology. We then assess the model's ability to explain the cross-country data. Our quantitative model generates a total-factor-productivity (TFP) elasticity of output per worker of 2.8. This implies that a factor of 3 difference in TFP is amplified through physical and human capital accumulation to generate a factor of 20 difference in output per worker --- as observed in the data between rich and poor countries. The implied difference in TFP is in the range of estimates from micro studies. The theory suggests that using Mincer returns to measure human capital understates human capital differences across countries by a factor of 2. The cross-country differences in human capital implied by the theory are consistent with evidence from earnings of immigrants in the United States. We also find that TFP has substantial effects on cross-sectional inequality and intergenerational mobility and that public education policies can have important aggregate and distributional implications.


This comment was prepared for the Harvard Law Review symposium on "The New Private Law," as a response to Benjamin Zipursky's principal paper on torts. I find Zipursky's reliance on Cardozo's Palsgraf opinion as a foundational source of tort theory troubling, for two reasons. First, Cardozo fails to offer a consistent theoretical framework for tort law in his opinions, many of which are difficult to reconcile with one another. Second, Palsgraf should be understood as an effort by Cardozo to provide greater predictability, within a special class of proximate cause cases, by reallocating decision-making power from juries to judges. It was almost surely not an effort to set out a nonconsequentialist theory of tort law. While I agree with some of the goals of the new private law movement, much work remains to be done, within the methodological approach championed by Zipursky, in constructing a rigorous theoretical framework.


Objectives The prevalence of obesity among populations in the Atlantic provinces is the highest in Canada. Some studies suggest that adequate fruit and vegetable consumption may help body weight management. We assessed the associations between fruit and vegetable intake with body adiposity among individuals who participated in the baseline survey of the Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow's Health (Atlantic PATH) cohort study. Methods We carried out a cross-sectional analysis among 26 340 individuals (7979 men and 18 361 women) aged 35–69 years who were recruited in the baseline survey of the Atlantic PATH study. Data on fruit and vegetable intake, sociodemographic and behavioural factors, chronic disease, anthropometric measurements and body composition were included in the analysis. Results In the multivariable regression analyses, 1 SD increment of total fruit and vegetable intake was inversely associated with body mass index (−0.12 kg/m2; 95% CI −0.19 to –0.05), waist circumference (−0.40 cm; 95% CI −0.58 to –0.23), percentage fat mass (−0.30%; 95% CI −0.44 to –0.17) and fat mass index (−0.14 kg/m2; 95% CI −0.19 to –0.08). Fruit intake, but not vegetable intake, was consistently inversely associated with anthropometric indices, fat mass, obesity and abdominal obesity. Conclusions Fruit and vegetable consumption was inversely associated with body adiposity among the participant population in Atlantic Canada. This association was primarily attributable to fruit intake. Longitudinal studies and randomised trials are warranted to confirm these observations and investigate the underlying mechanisms.


Perturbation methods provide one means for determining the imaging properties of a system that deviates slightly from a nominal system with known imaging properties. Perturbation methods are described for the case in which small changes are made to the profile of a physical surface in the system. The properties that must be known for the nominal system are discussed, and the low-order terms in the perturbation expansion are described. Examples illustrating these concepts are presented.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the reproductive performance of pure Holstein Friesian dairy cows exploring 28 years records (1987 to 2015) in Alage Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training (ATVET) College dairy farm. General linear model procedures of SAS version 9.2 was employed to determine the effects of period of birth, season of birth, period of calving, season of calving and parity on reproductive traits. The overall mean of age at first service (AFS), age at first calving (AFC), calving interval (CI), days open (DO) and number of services per conception (NSC) were 31.8±0.44 months, 42.5±0.46 months, 470.3±9.8 days, 228.2±10.2 days and 1.32±0.03, respectively. Period of birth (P<0.001) and season of birth (P<0.05) exerted significant effect on AFS, while AFC was not significantly influenced by season of birth. Days open and calving interval of Holstein Friesian (HF) cows affected by all fixed factors. Except period of calving (P<0.05), none of the factors influenced NSC. Except NSC, the results obtained for AFS, AFC, CI and DO were disappointing. The most probable factors accounted for the poor reproductive performances (AFS, AFC, CI and DO) in the study area were poor efficiency of estrus detection and expression, poor management practice and health problem and genotype × environmental interactions. Therefore, improving the level of management is required for optimal reproduction performance of HF breed in the area.

 Key words: Alage, Holstein Friesian, reproductive performance.


In this qualitative study, two teacher educators and course instructors in a Masters of Education (M.Ed.) program explored beginning teacher researchers' use of multimedia to support action research. Fifty-eight teachers (36 in spring 2010 and 22 in spring 2011) completed teacher research as the capstone in their M.Ed. program. Teachers utilized the MERLOT website (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) to develop and submit their research as an alternative to traditional paper submission. As teachers conducted their research, course instructors investigated how the teachers' use of multimedia strengthened or limited their teacher research work. Data from teacher researchers (questionnaires, observations and reviews of final projects) were analyzed for emergent themes. All teacher participants were able to use multimedia successfully in their teacher research projects. Technology difficulties were few, and findings suggest that multimedia options encouraged the use and development of technological skills, increased time teachers spend editing and revising work, and facilitated organization of the research process. The authors conclude that traditional paper submissions may be replaced by a multimedia format without detracting from the teacher research project and may serve to enhance the action research process.


Abstract. A year-long near-real-time characterization of non-refractory submicron aerosol (NR-PM1) was conducted at an urban (Atlanta, Georgia, in 2012) and rural (Look Rock, Tennessee, in 2013) site in the southeastern US using the Aerodyne Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACSM) collocated with established air-monitoring network measurements. Seasonal variations in organic aerosol (OA) and inorganic aerosol species are attributed to meteorological conditions as well as anthropogenic and biogenic emissions in this region. The highest concentrations of NR-PM1 were observed during winter and fall seasons at the urban site and during spring and summer at the rural site. Across all seasons and at both sites, NR-PM1 was composed largely of OA (up to 76 %) and sulfate (up to 31 %). Six distinct OA sources were resolved by positive matrix factorization applied to the ACSM organic mass spectral data collected from the two sites over the 1 year of near-continuous measurements at each site: hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA), biomass burning OA (BBOA), semi-volatile oxygenated OA (SV-OOA), low-volatility oxygenated OA (LV-OOA), isoprene-derived epoxydiols (IEPOX) OA (IEPOX-OA) and 91Fac (a factor dominated by a distinct ion at m∕z 91 fragment ion previously observed in biogenic influenced areas). LV-OOA was observed throughout the year at both sites and contributed up to 66 % of total OA mass. HOA was observed during the entire year only at the urban site (on average 21 % of OA mass). BBOA (15–33 % of OA mass) was observed during winter and fall, likely dominated by local residential wood burning emission. Although SV-OOA contributes quite significantly ( ∼  27 %), it was observed only at the urban site during colder seasons. IEPOX-OA was a major component (27–41 %) of OA at both sites, particularly in spring and summer. An ion fragment at m∕z 75 is well correlated with the m∕z 82 ion associated with the aerosol mass spectrum of IEPOX-derived secondary organic aerosol (SOA). The contribution of 91Fac to the total OA mass was significant (on average 22 % of OA mass) at the rural site only during warmer months. Comparison of 91Fac OA time series with SOA tracers measured from filter samples collected at Look Rock suggests that isoprene oxidation through a pathway other than IEPOX SOA chemistry may contribute to its formation. Other biogenic sources could also contribute to 91Fac, but there remains a need to resolve the exact source of this factor based on its significant contribution to rural OA mass.


Introduction: Many new chemical entities that are getting developed are poorly aqueous soluble and have low bioavailability. Out of many methods available for improving solubility, the solid dispersion by melt extrusion (ME) and spray drying (SP) is scalable and industrially applicable methods. Objective: The main objective of the present study was to explore the application of Kollicoat Smartseal 30D polymer for the solubility enhancement of poorly water-soluble drugs using solid dispersion approach. Materials and Methods: The Biopharmaceutical Classification System Class II drug simvastatin (SIM) was used as a model drug in this study. Solid dispersions of SIM and Kollicoat® Smartseal 30D were prepared using two different processes, i.e., ME and spray-drying techniques. Both the techniques ME and SP are scalable and industry applicable. Results: The solid dispersion has been characterized using transmission using Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, powder X-ray diffraction, saturation solubility, and in vitro drug release studies. Discussion and Conclusion: The improved dissolution profile portrayed the solubility enhancement of SIM in solid dispersions form compared to plain SIM. In nutshell, with the current research, a supportive argument was observed to suggest the suitability of Kollicoat® Smartseal 30D based solid dispersions for enhancing solubility of poorly soluble drugs.


This paper addresses the repeated acquisition of labels for data items when the labeling is imperfect. We examine the improvement (or lack thereof) in data quality via repeated labeling, and focus especially on the improvement of training labels for supervised induction. With the outsourcing of small tasks becoming easier, for example via Rent-A-Coder or Amazon's Mechanical Turk, it often is possible to obtain less-than-expert labeling at low cost. With low-cost labeling, preparing the unlabeled part of the data can become considerably more expensive than labeling. We present repeated-labeling strategies of increasing complexity, and show several main results. (i) Repeated-labeling can improve label quality and model quality, but not always. (ii) When labels are noisy, repeated labeling can be preferable to single labeling even in the traditional setting where labels are not particularly cheap. (iii) As soon as the cost of processing the unlabeled data is not free, even the simple strategy of labeling everything multiple times can give considerable advantage. (iv) Repeatedly labeling a carefully chosen set of points is generally preferable, and we present a robust technique that combines different notions of uncertainty to select data points for which quality should be improved. The bottom line: the results show clearly that when labeling is not perfect, selective acquisition of multiple labels is a strategy that data miners should have in their repertoire; for certain label-quality/cost regimes, the benefit is substantial.


The objectives of this review are to summarise the present position concerning the use of vertebrates in ecotoxicity testing, giving particular attention to tests that cause suffering, and to discuss in some detail, alternatives to them, and the prospects for change. The report has been written with the objectives of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) in mind, and some recommendations for action have been made at the end of the discussion section. The first section of the review describes the present requirements within the European Union for the ecotoxicity testing of industrial chemicals in general, and for pesticides in particular, and the very limited documentation of the tests that are actually carried out. The next four sections describe the many different assays and systems used to evaluate the harmful effects of chemicals on free-living organisms and natural populations, and the extent to which they might be suitable alternatives to vertebrate toxicity tests that cause suffering. Attention is drawn to certain assays and strategies that can already be used as satisfactory alternatives, and thus provide the basis for short-term change. Included here are nondestructive assays on vertebrates which are available for certain types of chemicals, and which provide a direct and relatively uncomplicated approach to the problem. Other approaches are described which still require development, but hold considerable promise in the longer term. The growth of knowledge in the broad field of biochemical toxicology and the development of related technologies should lead to the development of better and more-sophisticated alternatives in the future. In vitro assays employing vertebrate cell systems are of particular interest here. The last section of the review deals with conclusions and recommendations. The recommendations are made with a view to the activities and responsibilities of ECVAM.