Pa per hist ory: Received 30 October 2014 Received in revised form 21 October 2015 Accepted 27 October 2015 In this paper, Eringen's nonlocal elasticity and Timoshenko beam theories are implemented to analyze the bending vibration for non-uniform nano-beams. The governing equations and the boundary conditions are derived using Hamilton's principle. A Generalized Differential Quadrature Method (GDQM) is utilized for solving the governing equations of non-uniform Timoshenko nano-beam for pinned-pinned, clamped–clamped, clamped–pinned, clamped–free, clamped–slide, and pinned-slide boundary conditions. The non-dimensional natural frequencies and the normalized mode shapes are obtained for short and stubby nano-beams where influences varying cross-section area, small scale, shear deformation, rotational moment of inertia, acceleration gravity and the self-weight of the nonuniform Timoshenko nano-beam are discussed. The present study illustrates that the small scale effects are more significant for smaller size of nano-beam, larger nonlocal parameter and higher vibration modes. Further, the compression forces due to gravity and the self-weight of the nanobeam also like the small scale effect are reduced the magnitude of the frequencies of the nano-beam. Keyw ord s: Nonlocal elasticity Gravity Timoshenko Non-uniform nano-beam Generalized differential quadrature method © 2015 Published by Semnan University Press. All rights reserved.


In this study, the authors analyzed the benefits and costs experienced by amateur runners. The aims of this study were: (1) to inform specialized shops that sell products or services for athletes; (2) to inform and help key sports managers to make decisions; and (3) to inform all athletes on the perks and reimbursements they may benefit from in their practice. The study incorporates three categories of costs (equipment, registration, and travel) and four categories of benefits (sponsoring, reimbursement for travel expenses, invitations to competitions, and performance rewards). A questionnaire was administrated to 1132 athletes in France, from the 33 track and field specialties. The authors excluded from this sample all the jumping and throwing specialties in order to focus only on the 584 runners: 145 sprinters (24,83%), 168 middle-distance runners (28,77%), and 271 long-distance runners (46,40%). Results show that some socio-demographic and cultural variables influence the benefits and costs experienced by amateur runners. More scholarly research is needed to better understand the effects of these variables on sports consumption.


In picosecond transient absorption spectroscopy using superbroadened continuum passed through an echelon to produce an optical interrogating probe beam, an accurate knowledge of the relative timing between the excitation and probe pulses is required. For instance, when changes in the transient absorption spectrum are studied as a function of time, particularly when the rate of transient formation is comparable to the excitation pulse duration, both the time spread of the continuum pulse and the time origin of the probe pulse must be accurately known. The time spread or "chirp" of the polychromatic continuum pulse is only occasionally estimated even though the variation due to group delay dispersion may be quite large especially for long pathlength continuum cells which are frequently used.


Frederick Klaeber's Beowulf has long been the standard edition for study by students and advanced scholars alike. Its wide-ranging coverage of scholarship, its comprehensive philological aids, and its exceptionally thorough notes and glossary have ensured its continued use in spite of the fact that the book has remained largely unaltered since 1936. The fourth edition has been prepared with the aim of updating the scholarship while preserving the aspects of Klaeber's work that have made it useful to students of literature, linguists, historians, folklorists, manuscript specialists, archaeologists, and theorists of culture. A revised Introduction and Commentary incorporates the vast store of scholarship on Beowulf that has appeared since 1950. It brings readers up to date on areas of scholarship that have been controversial since the last edition, including the construction of the unique manuscript and views on the poem's date and unity of composition. The lightly revised text incorporates the best textual criticism of the intervening years, and the expanded Commentary furnishes detailed bibliographic guidance to discussion of textual cruces, as well as to modern and contemporary critical concerns. Aids to pronunciation have been added to the text, and advances in the study of the poem's language are addressed throughout. Readers will find that the book remains recognizably Klaeber's work, but with altered and added features designed to render it as useful today as it has ever been.


In this paper, we present, for the first time, the absorption and reduced scattering spectra of commercially available milk and yoghurt products, obtained using photon-time-of-flight spectroscopy. The ability of this technique to separate the contributions from absorption and scattering in the sample provides important information on the chemical composition and micro-structural properties, which are not available with the traditional techniques used in dairy production. The instrument operates in the spectral range from 500 nm to 1030 nm. The reduced scattering coefficient varies from 5 cm−1 for milk with 0.1% fat in the near infrared range, to 60 cm−1 for yoghurt with 3.0% fat in the green wavelength regime. The absorption is within the range of 0.05–0.5cm−1, with only small variation in the absolute value between products. Our results show that the reduced scattering clearly distinguishes milk and yoghurt with the same fat content and can offer a reliable way of monitoring structural formation during milk fermentation.


Polymer-drug conjugates have demonstrated clinical potential in the context of anticancer therapy. However, such promising results have, to date, failed to translate into a marketed product. Polymer-drug conjugates rely on two factors for activity: (i) the presence of a defective vasculature, for passive accumulation of this technology into the tumour tissue (enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect) and (ii) the presence of a specific trigger at the tumour site, for selective drug release (e.g., the enzyme cathepsin B). Here, we retrospectively analyse literature data to investigate which tumour types have proved more responsive to polymer-drug conjugates and to determine correlations between the magnitude of the EPR effect and/or expression of cathepsin B. Lung, breast and ovarian cancers showed the highest response rate (30%, 47% and 41%, respectively for cathepsin-activated conjugates and 31%, 43%, 40%, across all conjugates). An analysis of literature data on cathepsin content in various tumour types showed that these tumour types had high cathepsin content (up to 3835 ng/mg for lung cancer), although marked heterogeneity was observed across different studies. In addition, these tumour types were also reported as having a high EPR effect. Our results suggest that a pre-screening of patient population could bring a more marked clinical benefit.


Curious about Google Sites and how team collaboration Web sites can help you share documents online from various locations? Curious about Googles new Chrome browser? Google Sites & Chrome For Dummies has what you want to know! Today, Google is so much more than another word for search. Google Sites & Chrome For Dummies shows you how to create great collaborative Web sites with Google Sites and surf the Web with the super-fast Google Chrome browser. Find out how they work with other Google Apps, too. Youll learn to: Take advantage of free hosting, free tools, and a simple, straightforward interface with Google Sites Set up a Google account or Google Apps account Create wiki sites that let coworkers collaborate on projects or keep family members up to date Use Google gadgets to keep track of projects, manage calendars and documents, or display photos Integrate documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other Google Apps into your site Work with Contact List, Google Talk, and Google Chat, and handle e-mail with Gmail Download and install the speedy Google Chrome browser Install browser plug-ins, enable offline access to Google Docs, and manage misbehaving tabs Youll even find instructions and examples to help you plan sites for personal and business use, plus a sample college course site. With advice from Google Sites & Chrome For Dummies, you can make collaboration easy and have the high-speed Web at your fingertips.


The optical properties of Mg-doped InN thin films grown on YSZ substrates have been investigated by photoluminescence (PL). A series of InN:Mg samples with various Mg cell temperatures (TMg) were produced by molecular beam epitaxy. The effect of Mg concentration on PL emission properties have been explored by various excitation power and temperature dependent measurements. The PL spectra as a function of excitation power exhibited a pronounce blueshift, indicating prominent band filling caused by the BursteinMoss effect. Meanwhile, a typical redshift was observed as temperature increased due to bandgap shrinkage. The samples with TMg below 210 C have a dominant peak at energy of 0.68 eV. In contrast, the PL peak emissions for films with a high TMg between 210~230 C were centred near 0.6 eV. No PL emission was observed from the films with TMg above 230 C. By fitting with an empirical Arrhenius equation, the activation energies yield approximately 20 meV and 15 meV for the lower and higher energy transitions, respectively. The fundamental optical properties of Zn doped InN were also examined. InN:Zn films were grown under In-rich conditions. The samples showed well defined PL emission spectra implying that the quality of the film has been improved over the Mg-doped series. The PL spectra of InN:Zn exhibited prominent features containing various emission peaks. The combination of excitation power and temperature dependent measurements supports a precise determination for the origins of the observed transitions. The comparison between the optical properties of Mg and Zn doped InN provide the motivation for more precise quantitative interpretation of p-type InN.


This article looks at the figure of Medusa cross-culturally, through texts and iconography, in order to examine her origins as well as her multifaceted functions. Dexter shows that Medusa is a compilation of Neolithic European, Semitic, and Indo-European mythology and iconography. Iconographically, two very different depictions coalesce in the classical Medusa: the Neolithic Goddess of birth, death, and regeneration, who is represented as bird, snake, or bird/snake hybrid; and the Near Eastern demon Humbaba whose severed head is, like Medusa's, used in an apotropaic manner. Medusa is ferocious but, as this article shows, she is a healer as well as a destroyer. Because she is often viewed as frightening in Indo-European cultures, this other side of her is often overlooked.


Much is made of the concept best practice. It is repeatedly drawn upon by policy makers, academics and industry practitioners as a quasi-solution to construction industry ills. As an expression, it is often difficult to contest. Indeed, best practice implies identifying policy, process and procedure that offer the most optimum and efficient outcome. In short, best practice is all about improving performance. However, for the majority of commercial organizations, best strategy is also about improving performance. Despite the apparently congruent ambitions, best practice is not equal to best strategy. This misapprehension only serves to propagate the myth of best practice. This is a polemic paper, exploring the utility of best practice through the lens of construction supply chain management. Drawing inspiration from economic theory, construction management literature and previous supply chain management studies, the myth of best practice in construction supply chain management is exposed. Regardless of Government sponsorship and considerable academic investment, adoption of best practice in UK construction supply chain management remains slow and routinely symbolic. Yet, supply chain members do not behave irrationally. If best practice was truly in their best strategic interests it is highly probable that supply chain members would adjust their rules of economic engagement accordingly. It may be strongly argued that in contrast to the hype and repeated suggestion of supply chain win-win scenarios, UK Government endorsed best practice does not adequately serve the commercial interests of the majority. The very limited achievements of 'Rethinking Construction', serves as a case in point. Disappointingly, few lessons appear to have been learned. The myth of construction supply chain management and by extension best practice in UK construction continues unabated albeit under a shiny new banner, Construction 2025.


Higher corporate taxes are often argued to depress wages (a tax incidence effect), while higher wages may require compensation via lower corporate tax rates (a fiscal compensation effect). Yet, existing empirical evidence ignores that i) both effects are likely to occur simultaneously (necessitating a joint estimation approach), and ii) capital mobility might play a critical moderating role for the strength of both effects. Using a panel dataset comprising 24 OECD countries over the period 1982-2007, we address both these deficiencies. This clearly illustrates the simultaneous existence of tax incidence and fiscal compensation effects. Moreover, capital mobility (and the ensuing relative bargaining power of economic agents) has a significant influence on both the prevalence and strength of these effects.


Paleoecological data from the Quaternary Period (2.6 million years ago to present) provides an opportunity for educational outreach for the earth and biological sciences. Paleoecology data repositories serve as technical hubs and focal points within their disciplinary communities and so are uniquely situated to help produce teaching modules and engagement resources.
 The Neotoma Paleoecology Database provides support to educators from primary schools to graduate students. In collaboration with pedagogical experts, the Neotoma Paleoecology Database team has developed teaching modules and model workflows. Early education is centered on discovery; higher-level educational tools focus on illustrating best practices for technical tasks.
 Collaborations among pedagogic experts, technical experts and data stewards, centered around data resources such as Neotoma, provide an important role within research communities, and an important service to society, supporting best practices, translating current research advances to interested audiences, and communicating the importance of individual research disciplines.


Background Both vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency and depression are major global public health concerns. An estimated 1 billion people worldwide have low vitamin D levels and the WHO reports that depression is the third largest burden of disease worldwide. In the last 10 years animal, genetic and cross-sectional studies have shown an association between low vitamin D levels and increased depressive symptoms. Objectives (1) To examine the association between vitamin D status (using serum levels) and depressive symptoms. (2) To determine the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation for the primary and secondary prevention of depressive symptoms. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and Knowledge, PsychInfo, the Cochrane Library and trial registers were searched with no language restrictions from inception to October 2010. Studies were included if they fulfilled the following criteria: (1) prospective observational studies (cohort/nested case control studies), with participants free of depressive disorder at baseline, 25 hydroxy-vitamin D3 serum levels measured, and outcomes relevant to depressive symptoms (clinically diagnosed depressive disorder or a change in depressive symptoms measured by validated mood/depression scales. (2) Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), with participants free of depressive disorder at baseline for primary prevention trials, or a diagnosis of depressive disorder for secondary prevention trials, where the intervention was vitamin D supplementation (as a single micronutrient or multivitamin preparations), the comparison groups were no intervention or placebo, and outcomes were: clinical diagnosis of depression or change in validated mood/depression scale score for primary prevention, and for secondary prevention a change in disease progression measured by validated mood/depression scales or clinically using the Mental State Examination. Results Following initial screening of the titles and abstracts 47 potentially relevant studies were assessed for inclusion by 2 reviewers independently. 12 separate studies met the inclusion criteria, 2 addressing objective 1 and 10 addressing objective 2. Studies reported a wide range of different populations, interventions and outcomes which preclude an overall synthetic meta-analysis. Preliminary data from prospective studies show an association between low vitamin D levels and subsequent depressive symptoms. Data from trials are mixed, with the largest RCT showing no beneficial effect of supplementation on depressive symptoms, while most smaller studies (6/9) show a positive effect of vitamin D supplementation on depressive symptoms, indicating likely publication bias. Conclusions There is limited research on the role of vitamin D to reduce depressive symptoms and it currently provides a mixed picture – it is likely that more research will be needed.


In Scotland we aim to increase life expectancy by 5 years in the next 10 years and decrease health inequalities.

These ambitions are bold. If life expectancy trends continue, Scotland will fall further behind the rest of Western Europe. Although premature mortality continues to fall, the trajectory of our improvement is currently more modest than that being achieved by other countries. And despite all efforts, health inequalities continue to grow. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening, with the richest 20% now living 10 years longer than the poorest 20% in Scotland.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as 'doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.'

The excess mortality in Scotland requires something new to be done. It may partly stem from the social breakdown and loss of jobs when heavy industry (dominated by shipbuilding, coal mining and steel) declined, particularly in West Central Scotland in the latter half of the 20th century. Those affected were given housing and benefit, and remained predominantly in the region. Although the collapse of heavy industry happened in other countries in Europe, for example, Katowice in Poland, alternative suitable work was found and the sense of control, and community that goes with purpose and employment was preserved. The net result is that Scotland's excess mortality when compared with the rest of Europe can be partly attributed to causes such as violence, drug misuse, alcohol excess and suicide. Interestingly, similar patterns of excess mortality have been noticed in other population groups …


Despite an overcrowded agenda and the lack of progress on matters crucial to development, rich countries, especially members of the European Union, are pushing for the launch of investment negotiations at the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Cancun in September 2003. When properly regulated, foreign investment can contribute to sustainable development. However, the proposed WTO agreement on investment will establish rules that developing countries do not need and cannot afford, enhancing investors' 'rights' while undermining governments' capacity to pursue pro-development policies. This is why Oxfam calls on WTO members to reject the launch of investment negotiations in Cancun.


In combinatorics, a Stirling number of the second kind S (n,k) is the number of ways to partition a set of n objects into k nonempty subsets. The empty subsets are also added in the models presented in the article in order to describe properly the absence of the corresponding type i of state in the system, i.e. when its "share" Pi =0 . Accordingly, a new equation for partitions P (N, m) in a set of entities into both empty and nonempty subsets was derived. The indistinguishableness of particles (N identical atoms or molecules) makes only sense within a cluster (subset) with the size 0≤ni ≥N. The first-order phase transition is indeed the case of transitions, for example in the simplest interpretation, from completely liquid state typeL = {n1 =N, n2 = 0} to the completely crystalline state typeC= {n1 =0, n2 = N }. These partitions are well distinguished from the physical point of view, so they are 'typed' differently in the model. Finally, the present developments in the physics of complex systems, in particular the structural relaxation of super-cooled liquids and glasses, are discussed by using such stochastic cluster-based models.


The landscape of Manila has cursorily changed in recent years and the streetscape is a visible text of these changes. One factor is the growing number of advertisements along major thoroughfares which have raised concerns of proliferation and the danger that comes with them. These outdoor advertisements or commonly called billboards are becoming an inherent part of our urban living and have evolved into a big industry that is difficult to disband. This initial stage of an on-going study looks at the aspect of this type of roadside visual pollution, its existing condition and situation in EDSA, Metro Manila. It will attempt to classify billboards and clarify the structure of the process and organization behind the business. Identification of deficiencies, problems, and possibilities in the existing laws, guidelines, and policies that govern its installation is also hoped to be done. The final stage of a future paper intends to formulate and advance a methodology of determining appropriateness of billboards.


A mixed-methods research study was conducted in a small, rural western Maine school department. The intent of this research was to reveal what kind of programming is available to students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and how the availability of programming is influenced by the perceptions of educators and leaders in a public school department. In addition, the research addressed how the background and professional development of the employees impacted the availability of programming for students with ASD. Forced survey questions included quality indicators for programming for students with ASD and pre-selected follow-up focus groups questions were used. Data analysis included a basic univariate frequency for mean and frequency; and a correlation analysis for the forced-survey questions was run. Both the quantitative and qualitative portions of the research were coded for analytic consideration. Conceptual categories that were implicit or explicit in the data were used in the building of theory. The data from the survey responses and focus group sessions uncovered key findings. Across all subgroup participants indicated that the greatest strength in the current public education programming was in the individualized programming. Individualized programming had a high rate of availability and perception of importance. The data revealed that there was value associated iv with programming for the communication needs of student as well as focusing on the maintenance and generalization of learned skills in more complex environments. The focus group data showed that across respondents a student's present levels of performance and needs had the greatest influence on how programming for students with ASD was determined. It also uncovered that the majority of opportunities for training of special education personnel happened outside of the school department. This training centered on related topics and general interventions. It was noted that professional development and training was valued across the board.


Real Estate Investment Trust, which originated in 1960, gained popularity since 1991, when a large number of real estate companies went public. Paired Share structure, has been underscored throughout this thesis, as the whole research was limited to few companies named Starwood, Patriot American, Meditrust, and First Union who used this structure aggressively to acquire corporations. Paired Share REIT Structure refers to the REIT and a C-corporation being traded together under one symbol in the stock market. So, the investors get the combined profits from both the companies, which makes this structure extremely popular among the shareholders. Paired Share REIT Structure was abolished in 1984 because of the abuse of tax system. But the government allowed 5 existing Paired Share REITs to continue. This grandfathered status gave this five companies an advantage over all other REITs as well as non-REITs. Therefore, the only way to become a Paired Share REIT was to acquire one of these five existing Paired Share corporations. This study is strictly a Finance Topic, which discusses cognitive dissonance between REITs with Paired Share structure and REITs with no Paired Share structure as well as non-REITs. As this topic needs a highly specialized knowledge, therefore the size of the survey population was selected to be small. The questionnaire was designed with the assistance ofMr. Todd Dunda, Director of Finance forMarriott International. The survey was conducted in August 1999, administrated to Real Estate Analysts, Finance Officials working with REITs and non-REITs and the data was finally analyzed one question at a time in a very streamlined fashion by projecting coherent grouping of the answers by all the candidates. Marriott International and Hilton Hotels raised their voices when they saw Starwood Hotels winning the bid on ITT Sheraton Inc. Starwood raised $13.3 billion through their paired share structure. Hilton, who could only raise $8.3 billion lost the battle. This study took more than one year, as I was waiting for the results for the appeal in front of Congress to abolish the Paired Share Structure completely. REIT Modernization Act was introduced in August 1999, which strictly ruled out any more acquisitions under a Paired Share Structure. The companies could maintain their Paired Share formats, but they were not allowed to acquire companies. The Share Prices for these Paired Share Companies fell down by more than 50%. Patriot American was close to Bankruptcy. Starwood managed to survive by converting into a C-corporation. The moral of this story is that Maintaining a Balance Sheet is equally important as expanding your company limits.


The total sedimentation rate was measured fortnightly for a year in a large shallow lake (Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland, surface area 383 km2, mean depth 8.9 m) at five sites using 10 sediment traps. The total sedimentation rate included both primary and secondary sedimentation. As the annual average total sedimentation rate, 53.2 ± 44.1 g m−2 d−1, is more than 25 times the primary value, secondary sedimentation due to wind‐induced resuspension is very important. The average of the largest 30% of wave mixed layer (WML) values, a function of wind speed and effective fetch, strongly correlates with the total sedimentation rate (r2 values of 0.69 and 0.98 at two westerly sites) at most of the sites. As the WML value approaches the water depth, then the orbital motion of the waves and the associated turbulence cause sediment disturbance and resuspension. Changing WML values, then, provide a basis to describe the "random redistribution" (RR) of sediment in lakes and these resuspension events can occur as frequently as 2–3 times every two weeks. This study provides, for the first time, clear results and a description of the process of RR of sediment in a lake, particularly the link between wind and sediment resuspension.


Theories of tort liability generally fall within two broad camps: the instrumentalists claim that tort liability promotes efficient investments in safety by cutting into the revenues of those who under-invest in safety; and the advocates of corrective justice claim that tort liability embodies a moral obligation of culpable parties to bear losses for which they are fairly considered responsible. Neither theory offers much support for government tort liability. Unlike private tortfeasors, the government's objective is not profit maximization; it responds to political and not market discipline. Thus, the instrumental justification for tort liability is wanting in the public sector. As for corrective justice, the government passes its legal costs along to the taxpayers, who bear little if any culpability for the underlying tortious conduct. Thus, corrective justice also supplies little support for public-sector tort liability. Indeed, there is an emerging consensus among legal scholars that government tort liability lacks a coherent justification. In this article, I endeavor to show that the emerging consensus is wrong. To do so, I anchor the justification for government tort liability in a theory of political behavior. I look to politics because the government responds primarily to political costs and benefits, whereas private tortfeasors respond primarily to economic rewards or punishment. In my view, government tort liability exacts a political price by diverting the funds used to pay judgments and other litigation costs from what elected officials regard as the politically optimal use of those funds. Therefore, government liability creates a political incentive to invest in loss prevention in order to maximize political control over public resources. This theory, however, does not argue for unlimited government liability; to the contrary, it also provides a justification for many of the immunities that limit government liability.


Tonal bilinguals of two closely related Chinese dialects handle two tonal systems in their mind; their two vocabularies are from closely related dialects; and they write translation equivalents with common Chinese characters. Their unique language situation makes their mind special. This thesis investigates these tonal bilinguals' lexical processing mechanism, studying how they produce and understand words. Their situation provides a valuable test case for a few important theories on bilingual lexical access. Bilingual lexical processing is flexible, influenced by the task and language mode. Moreover, compared with tonal monolinguals, these tonal bilinguals not only showed classical advantages in executive control, but sometimes even perform faster with lexical tasks. The structure of the bilingual lexicon can cause important differences in bilingual lexical processing and the corresponding functions of executive control.


Background: Many HIV-infected patients are accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Zambia. This has enabled them to live longer. However, it is necessary to determine whether such improvements are accompanied with parallel improvements in quality of life. The purpose of this research was to determine whether ART was associated with lower levels of depression and higher levels of health-related quality of life (HRQOL).
Objectives: The primary objective was to compare the association of ART with depression and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in treatment naïve and treatment experienced patients. The specific objectives were to screen for levels of depression and HRQOL in HIV infected patients, and to compare these levels between ART-experienced and ART-na¿ve patients.
Methods: This was a cross sectional study in which 140 HIV-infected adults (70 ART-experienced and 70 ARTnaïve) in Kasempa district were enrolled by convenient sampling. Independent variables of sex, age, marital status, education and employment status were matched across the two groups to avoid their confounding effect and bias. Depression and HRQOL were screened using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression (CES-D) and Medical Outcomes Survey – HIV (MOSHIV) tools respectively in both groups. The average scores for depression in both groups were compared using the t-test. Mental Health Summary scores (MHS) and Physical Health Summary scores (PHS) derived from the MOS-HIV tool were obtained by factor analysis and linearly transformed into a 0-100 scale. These scores were also compared between the two groups using the t-test. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the factors that were significantly associated with depression and HRQOL in both groups.
Results: The mean depression scores were found to be lower among ART-experienced clients compared with their ART-naïve counterparts with a mean difference of 7.40 (95% C.I 3.77-11.03; P < 0.0001). Overall, ARTexperienced participants had higher HRQOL scores compared with their ART- naïve counterparts with differences of 23.0 (95% C.I 16.0-30.1; P < 0.0001) and 11.2 (95% C.I 6.0-16.4; P < 0.0001) in MHS and PHS scores respectively.
Conclusion: Being ART-experienced was associated with lower depression scores and higher HRQOL scores when compared with being ART-naïve. Lower depression scores and higher HRQOL scores were associated with being male, married, single, asymptomatic and having higher CD4 counts.


Benefits have been demonstrated when patients and family members have been meaningfully engaged in all stages of research beginning with topic generation. When this engagement is done well, research becomes more relevant to those receiving health services, and there is an increased sense of accountability and transparency provided. However, health informatics researchers have not consistently used patient and family member engagement methods despite their many potential benefits. This panel will outline various methods that can be used to engage patients and family members in all stages of the research process in a health informatics context. In addition to these strategies, this panel will provide real–life examples of how patients and family members have been engaged in health informatics research in both Canada and the United States.


Abstract This paper scrutinises the way in which ethics is taught in the modern marketing syllabus. Our intention is to open up a space within which to promote timely debate on contemporary marketing education. Specifically, we wish to ask whether the tutor's role as a conduit of apparent ethical knowledge to students has somehow failed to map with sufficient sensitivity the terrain of the moral impulse in business practice. Drawing on literature from educational philosophy and the work of Emmanuel Levinas, we argue that the conceptualisation of ethics in marketing cannot be divorced from the question of pedagogy and the responsibilities of the tutor. This reading of ethics in marketing leads us to suggest that the largely conventional model adopted for the teaching of marketing may be unsatisfactory. Whilst current approaches may provide students with a prescribed set of knowledge and skills, it may by the same token refuse us the moral education that seems to be necessary. The significance for the teaching of ethics in an atmosphere punctuated with the discourses of economic crisis is acknowledged. We call for a reappraisal of the tutor/student relationship such that we may facilitate a greater understanding of how marketing students can make sense of themselves and of 'the Other'. To begin the process of articulation, we offer an example drawn from nursing education. Through this, we consider the requirements of the capable moral educator and offer initial practical suggestions on how this could be incorporated within teaching.


In the past decade macro synthetic fibre reinforcement has become widely used for concrete track slabs including tramlines. By using macro synthetic fibres as a reinforcement in concrete slabs both the casting time and manual work will decrease, while the concrete's ductility will increase. In most cases the steel reinforcement can be omitted entirely from the structures using macro synthetic fibres. The uniformly distributed fibres in the concrete can increase the residual flexural strength of the concrete independently from the location. This makes it possible to use the fibres in both cast in situ and precast elements used for tramlines. The calculation process for these structures always has to comprise of both the static load, the dynamic load and the effect of cyclic loading, i.e. fatigue. These load calculations can be handled using advanced finite element analysis software, which is specialized for concrete and fibre reinforced concrete structures. The paper will present the opportunities for using macro synthetic fibres together with the process of designing fibre reinforced concrete tramlines.


An efficient high-power diode-pumped femtosecond Yb:KGW laser is repored. Through optimization of energy density by semiconductor saturable absorber mirror, output power achieved 2.4 W with pulse duration of 350 fs and repetition rate of 53 MHz at a pump power of 12.5 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 19.2%. We believe that it is the highest optical-to-optical efficiency for single-diode-pumped bulk Yb:KGW femtosecond lasers to date.


This panel session will explore strategies for industry/university collaboration in software engineering education. Specific discussion topics will include new strategies for successful industry/university collaboration, exploration of reasons why some of the old strategies no longer work, and regional/geographical differences noted by the international set of panelists. The panel hopes to identify new promising strategies for such collaborations. Specific industry representatives will be invited to attend and participate in the discussion.


The effects of arsenic (As) and gallium (Ga) incorporation in InP layers in GaInAs/InP heterostructures grown by low-pressure metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (LP-MOVPE) on lattice parameter and band-gap energy of InP layers were studied. It was found that As and Ga incorporation is prolonged during InP growth after arsine (AsH3) and triethylgallium (TEG) flows are turned off, resulting in a lowering of the band gap energy and change in the lattice parameter of the InP layers. This incorporation is considered to originate from both desorption and diffusion of their outgassing sources produced during the growth of a thick GaInAs layer.


The concept of 'hidden observer' is one of the most controversial issues in hypnosis research. Green, Page, Handley and Rasekhy (this issue) approach it by using an ideomotor task which has not previously been used in association with the hidden observer. We regard their experiment as interesting; however, there are conceptual and methodological problems that hamper the impact of their study. In our commentary, we take the opportunity to point out some problems in their paper as well as to stress the importance to integrate concepts used in hypnosis research to mainstream cognitive neuroscience and consciousness research. Copyright © 2005 British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Estimating the sizes of query results and intermediate results is a crucial part of any effective query optimisation process. Due to several reasons, the selectivity estimation problem in the XML domain is more complicated than that in the relational domain. Several research efforts have proposed different selectivity estimation approaches in the XML domain. This paper is a first step towards a comprehensive assessment of the available selectivity estimation approaches of XML queries along with their strengths and weaknesses. We provide a survey of the state-of-the-art of selectivity estimation approaches of XML queries and propose a selectivity estimation benchmark for XML queries, XSelMark. The proposed benchmark consists of a set of 25 queries organised into seven groups and covers the main aspects of selectivity estimation of XML queries. In addition, we suggest some criteria of assessing the capability and quality of the selectivity estimation approaches for XML queries. Finally, we use the proposed benchmark to assess the capabilities of the state-of-the-art of the selectivity estimation approaches.


During drilling of Leg 160 in the Eastern Mediterranean (April -May, 1995), Messinian (i.e., uppermost Miocene) facies were identified at a site at the base of the Cyprus slope (Site 968) and at two sites on the Eratosthenes Seamount (Sites 965 a nd 967). The new results can be compared with the recovery of Messinian evaporites from the Florence Rise west of Cyprus (Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 375 and 376), with onshore southern Cyprus, and with other Mediterranean basins. The Messinian at Site 968 is dominated by dark, anoxic muds and minor turbiditic silts and sands that contain grains of pelagic limestone, chert , and ophiolitic rocks, all derived from onshore southern Cyprus. Minor intercalations of fine- to rarely coarse-grained gypsum show evidence of gravity reworking. At Site 967, on the lower southern slopes of the Eratosthenes Seamount, the existence of a thin (<5 m) interval of gypsum was inferred from both geophysical logging and pore-water geochemical studies. Postcruise studies have led to the recognition of an important Messinian/Pliocene boundary interval in Hole 967A, with accumulation of brackish water, Lago Mare‐type sediments containing ostracods. A thin unit (approximately 6 m) of Messinian paleosols and caliche was recovered at Site 955 on the upper slopes of the seamount. On the crestal area of the seamount at Site 966, Messinian is absent, and lower Pliocene sediment rests unconformably on diagenetically altered Miocene shallow-water limestone. A terrigenous-dominated succession at Site 968 at the base of the Cyprus slope resembles the upper Messinian interval cored on the Florence Rise west of Cyprus (Sites 375 and 376). Both areas lie on the trend of the Cyprus active margin that accommodates convergence of the Eurasian and African Plates. The Eratosthenes Seamount was already a raised feature in the Miocene, above the level of Messinian evaporite precipitation. The northern upper slope area (Site 965) and the seamount plateau area then formed part of a laterally extensive carbonate platform, followed by breakup and subsidence in Pliocene‐Pleistocene time. However, the northern lower slope area (Site 967) lay beyond the area of shallow-water carbonate deposition in the Miocene and continued to accumulate pelagic carbonates, as recorded by Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene planktonic biota that were reworked within chalky debris flows before the Messinian. Thin Messinian gypsum (<5 m) then accumulated, possibly under fault control, followed by marine transgression, with accumulation of laminated ooze containing ferruginous oxide. Overall, the late Miocene‐early Pliocene paleoenvironments document the subduction and initial states of breakup of the Eratosthenes Seamount as it began to collide with Cyprus active margin to the north.


Paroxysmal atrioventricular block (PAVB) is a rare cause of syncope, mostly reported in adults. In the present study, a child with recurrent syncope due to PAVB is reported. A 12-year old boy was admitted due to syncope. Some syncopal episodes were consistent with vasovagal syncope, while others had atypical features. Electrocardiography, echocardiography and 24-hour electrocardiography monitoring were normal. Head-up tilt table test revealed mixed type vasovagal syncope. With beta-blocker treatment, the frequency of syncopal episodes decreased; however, the episodes with atypical features continued. Intracardiac electrophysiological study was normal, but repeated external loop recorder monitoring revealed transient AVB during a syncopal episode. In children with syncope with atypical features, PAVB should be kept in mind. Repeated external loop recorder monitoring may be useful in the diagnosis of such seldom seen arrhythmic causes.


This paper contests prevalent assumptions about recent change in gay neighborhoods. Rising acceptance of LGBTQ people in US society may have led to widespread assimilation, while simultaneously opening up gay neighborhoods to increased gentrification. Alternatively, some gay neighborhoods may have been coincidentally undermined by local urban processes. Either way, known cultural and institutional changes should be linked to observable material changes in gay neighborhoods. I directly examine neighborhood-level demographic and economic change across a profile of seven general characteristics, in 28 gay neighborhoods across 23 cities. I contextualize the nature and extent of this change by comparing gay neighborhoods to other similar neighborhoods, and to their cities overall. This study identifies gay neighborhoods using a novel digital listing of gay bars, and it uses 2006-2015 American Community Survey estimates for data on change over time. I find that gay neighborhoods share a common profile: they are relatively more educated, more male, whiter, and wealthier than average, while having fewer different-sex married-couple households. Instead of evidence for assimilation, I find that gay neighborhoods continue to be distinct in terms of gender and household type. I find only limited evidence in favor of increasing economic status, in the form of increased education levels. I conclude that observed gay neighborhood change is more local than widespread, and that LGBTQ acceptance has not brought about the integration or erosion of gay neighborhoods. This case contributes to the more general study of urban minority enclaves, providing an example for marginalized and minority groups seeking to understand change in their communities in light of historical shifts.


Design for steel vehicle structures is a well-researched topic and has many research publications covering important aspects and factors that affects the design of a vehicle structure including manufacturing techniques and limitations. However published literature for developing carbon fibre composite vehicle structure are very limited, many focus only in subcomponents carbon composite implementation without considering overall structural requirements and application. Many considerations used in steel vehicle structures are not valid with the use of carbon fibre composite due to the differences in material mechanical property especially in the area of crashworthiness. New design considerations have to be devised for developing carbon composite vehicle structures. The EVA electric taxi project provided the foundation to achieve that. The EVA project aims to develop an efficient, fully functional, prototype electric vehicle for tropical megacities and will feature a full carbon fibre composite structure to reduce overall weight and prototyping cost. Listed below was the responsibility of the author in EVA project. • In-charge of vehicle crashworthiness development • Providing crash load requirements to all sub-system design • Carbon composite material property testing • Conduct FEA analysis of the vehicle structure • Define layup for the whole vehicle structure consisting of 68 composites panels • Develop design solutions for weakness in vehicle structure • Design of aluminium crash structure • Experimental verification of aluminium crash structure • Oversees the body in white structure overall assembly and tolerance. • Assembly of EVA A comprehensive literature review of vehicle crash standards and crashworthiness design along with vehicle structure performance requirements was carried out to understand the design criteria of vehicle structures. These are further complimented by review of material mechanical properties, property degradation under failure and how to simulate these failures in Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The advantages, limitations and complexity to perform such simulations will be evaluated to formulate a realistic achievable vehicle structure development targets and steps in this report. Methods to simplify complex dynamic load problems into equivalent quasi-static load will also be explored to speed up development process. The multidisciplinary nature of the vehicle project would requires multiple systems integration resulting in strict design space restrictions within the vehicle package in which key factors that affect efficient vehicle structure performance for crashworthiness will be identified. Furthermore a brief design methodology to work around these restrictions will be explored. Results of the development along side with findings and observations will be documented in the later section of the thesis showing how goals and objectives of a lightweight crashworthy prototype vehicle Khoo Rui Xiang Raymond P a g e | xxiii


Abstract. DEM super resolution is proposed in our previous publication to improve the resolution for a DEM on basis of some learning examples. Meanwhile, the nonlocal algorithm is introduced to deal with it and lots of experiments show that the strategy is feasible. In our publication, the learning examples are defined as the partial original DEM and their related high measurements due to this way can avoid the incompatibility between the data to be processed and the learning examples. To further extent the applications of this new strategy, the learning examples should be diverse and easy to obtain. Yet, it may cause the problem of incompatibility and unrobustness. To overcome it, we intend to investigate a convolutional neural network based method. The input of the convolutional neural network is a low resolution DEM and the output is expected to be its high resolution one. A three layers model will be adopted. The first layer is used to detect some features from the input, the second integrates the detected features to some compressed ones and the final step transforms the compressed features as a new DEM. According to this designed structure, some learning DEMs will be taken to train it. Specifically, the designed network will be optimized by minimizing the error of the output and its expected high resolution DEM. In practical applications, a testing DEM will be input to the convolutional neural network and a super resolution will be obtained. Many experiments show that the CNN based method can obtain better reconstructions than many classic interpolation methods.


To understand the events underlying the clinical efficacy of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), electrophysiological recordings and microdialysis evaluations were carried out in the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), one of the two basal ganglia (BG) nuclei targeted by STN output, in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Clinically effective STN‐DBS caused a significant increase of the SNr firing rate. The poststimulus histogram (PSTH) showed an excitation peak at 1.92–3.85 ms after the STN stimulus. The spontaneous discharge of SNr neurons was driven at the frequency of the stimulation (130 Hz), as shown in the autocorrelograms (AutoCrl). The fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis showed a peak at 130 Hz, and a less pronounced second one at 260 Hz. Accordingly, in the distribution of the interspike intervals (ISIs), the mode was earlier, and skewness more asymmetric. Biochemically, the increased excitatory driving from the STN was reflected by a clear‐cut increase in cyclic guanosine 3',5'‐monophosphate (cGMP) levels in the SNr. These results indicate that the beneficial effect of DBS in PD patients is paralleled with a stimulus‐synchronized activation of the STN target, SNr. Our findings suggest that, during STN‐DBS, a critical change towards a high‐frequency oscillatory discharge occurs.


Designs and simulation results are given for two small, special-purpose nanoelectronic circuits. The area of special-purpose nanoelectronics has not been given much consideration previously, though much effort has been devoted to the development of general-purpose nanoelectronic systems, i.e., nanocomputers. This paper demonstrates via simulation that the nanodevices and nanofabrication techniques developed recently for general-purpose nanocomputers also might be applied with substantial benefit to implement less complex nanocircuits targeted at specific applications. Nanocircuits considered here are a digital controller for the leg motion on an autonomous millimeter-scale robot and an analog nanocircuit for amplification of signals in a tiny optoelectronic sensor or receiver. Simulations of both nanocircuit designs show significant improvement over microelectronic designs in metrics such as footprint area and power consumption. These improvements are obtained from designs employing nanodevices and nanofabrication techniques that already have been demonstrated experimentally. Thus, the results presented here suggest that such improvements might be realized in the near term for important, special-purpose applications.


UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series No. 17. With the total value of the marine ornamental trade amounting to as much as US$330 million a year and an estimated 2 million people worldwide keeping marine aquaria, the industry plays a significant role in both source and destination countries. Tropical coral reefs are the most important source of specimens for the aquarium trade - mainly fish, including seahorses, the corals themselves, and others such as anemones, starfish and giant clams. Almost all marine aquarium species are taken from the wild, with few examples of captive breeding. From Ocean to Aquarium presents a brief overview of how the trade functions and the impacts it has on coral reefs, as well as on the human communities that derive an income from trading in marine ornamental species. From Ocean to Aquarium is the product of a collaboration between UNEP-WCMC, the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) and the industry itself. It is the first of its kind, examining issues surrounding the trade of live coral, fish and invertebrates for the marine aquarium trade, and presenting a comprehensive and independent synthesis of related information.


A 12 yr old dachshund, a 7 yr old English springer spaniel, and a 1.5 yr old French bulldog presented following envenomation by a coral snake. Each patient displayed evidence of varying degrees of lower motor neuron dysfunction, but all three developed transient megaesophagus. Two patients developed secondary aspiration pneumonia, with one requiring mechanical ventilation, which the owners declined, resulting in euthanasia. The third developed hypoventilation without aspiration pneumonia, was mechanically ventilated, and was successfully weaned. In the two surviving patients, the megaesophagus resolved by time of discharge. Coral snake envenomation is an uncommon occurrence, and these are the first documented cases of transient megaesophagus secondary to a North American species.


The oceanic inorganic carbon content is increasing due to partial equilibration with the anthropogenic increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Due to the slow turnover of the ocean, the greatest changes to marine carbonate chemistry are presently seen in the productive surface ocean. The high latitudes are regions with the greatest connectivity between the surface and intermediate to deep oceans and are thus sites where anthropogenic carbon is removed most effectively from the surface. They are also areas which are predicted to undergo the earliest and greatest changes to the carbonate system with the potential to modify ecological systems with associated climate feedbacks. Under the IPY BIAC project we have studied the processes conditioning the carbon biogeochemistry of the surface and intermediate waters of the Weddell and Barents Seas prior to deep water formation. We will show the rates and regionality of anthropogenic carbon increases and ocean acidification determined from direct observations and data based methods. We will also discuss future changes in high latitude acidification derived from both simple ocean and complex coupled physical-biological ecosystem models providing tipping points predictions. These will be related to recent results from deliberate carbon dioxide manipulation experiments on marine pelagic ecosystems.


This study contributes to the analysis of cross border banking behavior in CESEE (Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe). It detects potential transmission channels from parent to subsidiary banks based on a newly constructed database (323 banks operating in the region and 84 parent banks over the period 2000-2014), which allows for the identification of ultimate ownership over time. On the whole, we find that subsidiary banks provide an extra boost to credit growth at the domestic level. However we detect that domestic and subsidiary banks contracted credit similarly after the financial crisis. Moreover, subsidiaries' ability to extend credit is dependent on home country macroeconomic and financial conditions as well as parent banks' characteristics such as asset quality. Finally, an excessive credit expansions coupled with reductions of capital ratios at the parent bank level jeopardizes subsidiaries' lending capacity. Our findings call for home and host actors to continue to foster cross-border coordination and dialogue.


Although several inquiries highlight the importance of feedback in language teaching and learning, there is a need for knowledge concerning a holistic perspective on feedback in the empirical context of written feedback for L2 adult beginners. The study reported here provides additional evidence about teachers' actual feedback and student attitudes to feedback. The unit of analysis addresses a new context, namely Swedish as a second language, in an online course for adult beginners. The study included ten male and female university-level students with different cultural backgrounds. The purpose was to analyze several previously scientifically tested feedback categories for writing, which were conceptually replicated in the present study, as well as to additionally explore a new category for feedback on pronunciation in the same context. To establish causality, this study used attribution theory. The findings revealed top rankings for language accuracy and pronunciation in students' evaluation. The teacher gave the most feedback on language accuracy. These results provide support for the importance of feedback on language accuracy which supports the empirical results of other inquiries. Furthermore, the study's explorative findings support the need for further investigations on feedback on pronunciation. A proposition for future research is that more holistic type studies be conducted, including different categories and proficiency levels.


Image denoising has become a crucial task in medical Ultrasound (US) imaging due to the presence of speckle or multiplicative noise and additive Gaussian noise. Recently, there are several denoising techniques such as AWT+JB Filter, AFSWM Filter, MPBLOW Filter have been proposed to remove the speckle noise. However, these denoising techniques were found to remove noise along with essential parts of the actual image data which is referred as over-filtering. Thereby, it reduces the accuracy of the recognition process. In this paper, a new hybrid filter technique is proposed by combining Anisotropic Diffusion (AD) with Butterworth band pass filter to overcome the over-filtering of the image. In addition, the performance of the proposed hybrid filter and its design parameters are enhanced by using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The simulation results show that the proposed filtering technique achieves a better denoising performance on comparisons with other filtering techniques in terms of PSNR, SNR, SSIM, and EPI. Moreover, the results validate that the proposed filtering technique using PSO achieves effective performance than using Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA) and other filtering techniques.


Gathering perspectives of musical talent from the psychological, musical, and educational fields, Kindling the Spark is the only single sourcebook that defines musical talent and provides practical strategies for identifying and nurturing it. Joanne Haroutounian uses her experience as teacher, researcher, and parent to clarify central issues concerning talent recognition and development in a way that will easily appeal to a wide audience. The book describes the different stages of development in musical training, including guidelines for finding a suitable teacher at different levels, social and psychological aspects that impact musical training, and research on talent development by ages and stages from infancy and preschool years through the teen years. An important feature of the book are "sparkler exercises" designed to provoke observable talent behavior in home, school, and studio settings. The book also includes an Appendix of Resources which lists books, media, organizations, and specialized schools that offer additional information on musical talent, identification, and development. For music educators in both public school and private studio settings-as well as for parents and their musically inclined children-Kindling the Spark provides an invaluable summary of the research on talent and a wealth of resources for developing it.


Faculty, staff, and administrators at a small independent college determined that planning with a Concept Mapping process efficiently produced strategic thinking and action plans for the accomplishment of a strategic goal to expand experiential learning within the curriculum. One year into a new strategic plan, the college enjoyed enrollment growth as one indicator of the success of the Strategic Plan. However, no progress on the strategic goal to expand experiential learning was evident. Planning literature cautioned planners to adapt planning techniques to fit the particular traditions and expectations of the individual campus. Should a planner advise administrative intervention as a hierarchical approach to planning might indicate, or would an alternate planning model, such as a Concept Mapping process better engage key leaders to devise strategy? The college opted to invite local experiential learning experts and practitioners to work together in a four meeting structured planning process. The participatory and democratic aspects of the Concept Mapping process (Trochim, 1989) fit the traditions of the campus, as did the group component. Qualitative data (the key leaders' brainstormed ideas) and quantitative data (key leaders' sorting and rating of those ideas) provided input for multivariate analyses (multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis). The analyses produced visual displays or maps to show the collective result of the groups' input. The visual displays aided group discussion and decision-making to prioritize actions related to the strategic issue of expanding experiential learning. This process produced a Concept Map of strategic action areas supplemented by specific action plans to address the goal of the expansion of experiential learning for students.


Copper (II) phthalocyanines (CuPcs) have attracted growing interest as promising hole‐transporting materials (HTMs) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) due to their low‐cost and excellent stability. However, the most efficient PSCs using CuPc‐based HTMs reported thus far still rely on hygroscopic p‐type dopants, which notoriously deteriorate device stability. Herein, two new CuPc derivatives are designed, namely CuPc‐Bu and CuPc‐OBu, by molecular engineering of the non‐peripheral substituents of the Pc rings, and applied as dopant‐free HTMs in PSCs. Remarkably, a small structural change from butyl groups to butoxy groups in the substituents of the Pc rings significantly influences the molecular ordering and effectively improves the hole mobility and solar cell performance. As a consequence, PSCs based on dopant‐free CuPc‐OBu as HTMs deliver an impressive power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 17.6% under one sun illumination, which is considerably higher than that of devices with CuPc‐Bu (14.3%). Moreover, PSCs containing dopant‐free CuPc‐OBu HTMs show a markedly improved ambient stability when stored without encapsulation under ambient conditions with a relative humidity of 85% compared to devices containing doped Spiro‐OMeTAD. This work thus provides a fundamental strategy for the future design of cost‐effective and stable HTMs for PSCs and other optoelectronic devices.


In this research, we examine the advocacy and community building of transgender women on Twitter through methods of network and discourse analysis and the theory of networked counterpublics. By highlighting the network structure and discursive meaning making of the #GirlsLikeUs network, we argue that the digital labor of trans women, especially trans women of color, represents the vanguard of struggles over self-definition. We find that trans women on Twitter, led by Janet Mock and Laverne Cox, and in response to histories of misrepresentation and ongoing marginalization and violence, deliberately curate an intersectional networked counterpublic that works to legitimize and support trans identities and advocate for trans autonomy in larger publics and counterpublics.


This study involved a qualitative investigation of Black middle school students' experiences of teacher characteristics that they saw as influential in their learning and achievement. The sample consisted of 8 students selected from a public middle school in central Virginia. Data collection involved both in-depth individual interviews and classroom observations. Interviews focused on the participants' early educational experiences, middle school experiences with teachers, and experiences of the role that teachers play in learning and achievement. Classroom observations provided additional insight into the classroom setting, participants' actions, and participants' interactions with teachers and other students and were conducted to minimize their influence on classroom activities. A whole-text analysis of the interview transcripts and field notes generated 5 major categories: elementary school experiences, instructional environment, student motivation, student trust, and racism. For each category, subcategories were also developed. Participants were motivated by teacher trust, encouragement, and expectations. They emphasized the need for equity in the classroom as a prerequisite to academic achievement. They were also motivated to learn by teachers who shared instructional and personal time, spoke positively to them about their future, shared their own educational experiences, and demonstrated a caring attitude toward them. Participants described how they were not motivated to learn by teachers who were viewed as racist, yelled at them, refused to spend time assisting them, or displayed an attitude of apathy. They also expressed how they were sometimes denied bathroom privileges, were separated from White students during class, were treated as if they were "invisible," or were treated like secondclass citizens. They also experienced racism as prevalent in teachers' grading practices. Significant findings include the following: (a) the Black middle school student participants' educational experiences influenced their learning and the classroom environment, (b) duration of


t. Recent studies have shown that the timing of death is often under the control of the physicians who treat the patient in intensive care unit (ICU), where death is commonly preceded by decisions either not to start an aggressive therapy or to discontinue life-sustaining therapy. The objective was to study end-of-life decisions and attitudes of Argentinian cardiologists when treating terminal patients in the ICU. During 2007, a survey by e-mail was carried out among 967 cardiologists across Argentina. The questionnaire consisted of the case scenario of a vegetative patient with no family and no advance directives, so the responsibility for decision making would depend exclusively on the physician or health care team. 72.7% answered the survey; 72.0% of physicians preferred to share decisions with other doctors or with an ethical committee, nevertheless they rarely involved nurses in decisions. Besides, 85.4% of cardiologists would apply the do-not-resuscitate order and 8% would choise the terminal weaning or extubation. Comparatively, these results were similar to those previously reported in Southern Europe. In conclusion, most physicians would decide with other doctors or would ask for an ethical consultant; in the same way, most of respondents would apply the do-not-resuscitate order, though a few times they would choise the terminal weaning or extubation. Since regional and international survey opinions on these issues remain highly variable, it seems difficult to reach a global consensus regarding end-of-life care in the ICU.


We perform a retrospective investigation of multi-decade trends in price and life-cycle cost (LCC) for home appliances in periods with and without energy efficiency (EE) standards and labeling polices. In contrast to the classical picture of the impact of efficiency standards, the introduction and updating of appliance standards is not associated with a long-term increase in purchase price; rather, quality-adjusted prices undergo a continued or accelerated long-term decline. In addition, long term trends in appliance LCCs—which include operating costs—consistently show an accelerated long term decline with EE policies. We also show that the incremental price of efficiency improvements has declined faster than the baseline product price for selected products. These observations are inconsistent with a view of EE standards that supposes a perfectly competitive market with static supply costs. These results suggest that EE policies may be associated with other forces at play, such as innovation and learning-by-doing in appliance production and design, that can affect long term trends in quality-adjusted prices and LCCs.


All chapters begin with "Chapter Overview" and conclude with "Conclusions" and "Key Terms." Preface. I. DEFINING THE FAMILY. 1. The Family as a System. The Family as a System. The Difficulty of Defining the Family. The Characteristics of Family Systems. Structural Properties of Families. Strategies and Rules. The Tasks That Families Must Execute. The Politics of the Family. 2. Family Strategies. Family Strategies. Identity Strategies. Boundary Strategies. Maintenance Strategies. Strategies for Managing the Family's Emotional Environment. Strategies for Managing Stress: Adaptability as a Second-Order Task. II. MODELS OF FAMILY FUNCTIONING. 3. Structural Models. Structural Models of Family Functioning. The Structural Model. Mapping the Family Structure. 4. Intergenerational Models. Intergenerational Models of Family Functioning. Core Concepts Within the Bowen Model. Managing Unresolved Issues with the Family of Origin. The Genogram: Insight into Intergenerational Processes. 5. Contextual Models: Family Diversity. Ethnicity. A Metaperspective on Cultural Diversity. The Broader Racial and Ethnic Context. Class, Socioeconomic Status, and Family Diversity. Poverty, Racism, and Family Life. Acculturation and Family Diversity. Ethnicity, Race, and Family Strategies. III. FAMILY DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES. Section I: Early Adulthood and Marriage. 6. The Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood. The Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood. The Individuation Process. The Individuation Process and Subsequent Development and Adjustment. Individuation Difficulties and the Problems of Youth. Problems of Forced Individuation. 7. Mate Selection and Family Development. Mate Selection and Family Development. Selecting a Lifetime Companion. Comparison Levels: The Uniqueness of Our Filters. The Impact of Family of Origin Experiences on Mate Selection. Mate Selection and Relationship Dynamics. 8. The Transition to Marriage: The New Marital System. The Transition to Marriage: The New Marital System. The Tasks of the Newly Married Couple. 9. Communication and Intimacy. Communication and Intimacy. Defining Communication. Conversational Styles. Communication and Intimacy Within Marriage. 10. Conflict in Marriage. Conflict in Marriage. Areas of Conflict. The Underlying Sources of Conflict in Marriage. The Dynamics of Managing Conflict. Marital Violence. Section II: The Parenting Years. 11. Families with Young Children: The Transition to Parenthood. Parenthood as Just One Developmental Pathway. The Changing Context of Parenthood. The Structural Diversity Found Within Families with Children. The Challenges Confronted by the Family with Young Children. 12. The Parent-Child Relationship System. The Parent-Child Relationship System. Dimensions of Parenting Style. Determinants of Parenting Style. Gender and Parenting Styles. Ethnic and Minority Parenting. The Effectiveness of Parenting Styles: Child Abuse and Neglect. Section III: The Middle and Later Years of Family Development. 13. Family Tasks During Middle Adulthood. Family Tasks During Middle Adulthood. The Marriage Relationship During the Middle-Adult Years. Parent-Child Dynamics During Middle Adulthood. The Demands of Being in the Middle. 14. The Family in Later Life. The Family in Later Life. Marriage During the Later-Adult Years. Intergenerational Dynamics During the Later Years. Family System Dynamics and the Caregiving/Care-Receiving Relationship. IV. ALTERNATIVE FAMILY DEVELOPMENTAL PATHWAYS. 15. Death, Loss, and Bereavement. Death, Loss, and Bereavement. Death Within the Family System. Factors Mediating the Family System's Response to Death. A Multigenerational, Developmental Perspective on Death. Unresolved Grief and Family Strategies. 16. Divorce. Divorce. Divorce as a Family Process. Adaptation Following Divorce. 17. The Single-Parent Household. The Single-Parent Household. Diversity Within Single-Parent Systems. Single-Parent Family Systems: Prevalence and Challenges. Challenges in Meeting Basic Tasks Within Single-Parent Systems. Adaptation to Single-Parenthood: Sources of Social Support. 18. Remarriage and Step-Parenting. Remarriage and Step-Parenting. A Developmental Model for Remarried Family Systems. Problematic Family System Dynamics in Remarried Step-Families. References. Name Index. Subject Index.


Summary Aprotinin (CAS 9087-70-1) is known as a potent inhibitor of serine proteases such as trypsin, plasmin, tissue and plasma kallikrein. In this study, an aprotinin variant was designed by means of rationale mutagenesis that differs from aprotinin by two amino acids in the active site and by seven amino acids in the backbone. The recombinant protein is expressed in a secretory yeast system enabling large scale production. A purification procedure was developed to yield high amounts of pure and correctly processed aprotinin variant. The changes in the active site of the aprotinin variant increase the potency towards inhibition of plasma kallikrein whereas the inhibition of plasmin is only marginally reduced. The net charge of the molecule is reduced from the basic (IP 10.5) to the neutral range (IP 5.6). The recombinant aprotinin variant shows a decrease of immunogenicity in several models. No cross-reactivity with human and rabbit antibodies directed against aprotinin was observed both in in vivo and in ex vivo studies. In addition, the variant is more potent in a rat brain edema model of acute subdural hematoma compared to aprotinin.


This paper reviews the incidence of precedent-based practices in the Court of Justice of the European Union's (CJEU) case law on family reunification immigration. Particular attention is paid to the use of fundamental rights considerations, and the extent to which they guide the Court's judicial deliberations in this sovereignty-sensitive area of law. Our review of de facto 'precedents', and the extent to which they interact with fundamental rights-related concerns enables us to take stock of the long-term development of the Court's judicial authority. This longitudinal exercise also enables us to transcend the traditional dichotomy of 'the CJEU vis-A -vis the member states' that typically characterizes academic discussions on the role of the Court in processes of EU integration. The paper first considers the relevance of reviewing precedent in the context of the EU legal order. Next, we provide a novel dataset of the CJEU's jurisprudence in the area of family reunification immigration, as it evolved from 1974 up until today. We deal with the methodological implications of studying 'precedent' by presenting a model which numerically structures the incidence of precedent-based patterns. This numerical information allows us to organize our data for a subsequent qualitative in-depth analysis of those precedent-based patterns with the strongest discursive influence on the overall evolution of the case law. Our analysis demonstrates that fundamental rights-based arguments exerted a strong influence on the ideational course of the Court's jurisprudence in this area, albeit in a non-linear manner.


We derive bounds on the causal effect of belief-dependent preferences (reciprocity and guilt aversion) on choices in sequential two-player games without exploiting information or data on the (higher-order) beliefs of players. We show how informative bounds can be derived by exploiting a specific invariance property common to those preferences. We illustrate our approach by analyzing data from an experiment conducted in Denmark. Our approach produces tight bounds on the causal effect of reciprocity in the games we consider. These bounds suggest there exists significant reciprocity in our population – a result also substantiated by the participants' answers to a post-experimental questionnaire. On the other hand, our approach yields high implausible estimates of guilt aversion. We contrast our estimated bounds with point estimates obtained using data on self-declared higher-order beliefs, keeping all other aspects of the model unchanged. We find that point estimates fall within our estimated bounds suggesting that elicited higher-order belief data in our experiment is weakly (if at all) affected by a potential endogeneity problem due to e.g. false consensus effects.


The present paper addresses the issues namely (i) the present food supply and the trend for future, (ii) shift in food consumption pattern over years and (iii) food demand projection for the next three decades in the context of food security. The analysis reveals that increase in cereal production (mainly rice and wheat) but decline in the percentage share of coarse grains and pulses in total foodgrains production is witnessed since 1960s. India's total foodgrain production has increased at an annual growth rate of 2.68 per cent since 1960-61. The increase in foodgrain production is mainly due to increase in yield (growth rate being 2.44 per cent as against growth rate of area being 0.17 per cent per annum during 1960-61 to 1998-99). To project the future foodgrains supply, past growth trend has been extrapolated. Based on this assumption, the foodgrain supply is expected to be about 245, 291 and 342 million tonnes by 2010, 2020 and 2030 AD, respectively. Shift in consumption pattern and future demand for food is analyzed for both rural and urban India. Per capita cereal consumption exhibited a declining trend over years in both rural and urban India. This decline is larger in rural India (12.19 %) than in urban India (5.43%) during the period under study. Increase in per capita income and urbanization has led to changes in the composition of the food basket, with consumers moving from coarse cereals to superior cereals (rice and wheat). The allocation of monthly per capita expenditure on food items showed structural shift in dietary pattern in favour of non-cereal food items such as fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, eggs and fish in both the areas. Future food demand is also projected which is based on factors such as growth in population, growth in per capita income, urbanization and consumption behaviour. For projecting population, it is assumed that the growth in population will decline by 0.05 per cent per year in future and urbanization will increase by 0.3 per cent per annum. However, production at the assumed growth rate may not increase in future because the past production growth factors in future may not work well in future also. Hence, in the absence of favorable past growth factors, the food supply to match the demand in future may be a matter of great concern for food security. To meet the demand, the increased production will have to be brought about mainly through increases in productivity as the possibility of area expansion is very minimal.


A new wideband sinusoidally-slotted graphene-based cross-polarization converter (CPC) is proposed in this paper. The proposed polarization converter can realize a broadband terahertz polarization conversion from 1.28 to 2.13-THz with a polarization conversion ratio (PCR) of more than 0.85. Taking advantage of the gradient width modulation of the graphene-based unit structure, the continuous plasmon resonances are excited at the edges of the sinusoidal slot. Therefore, the proposed converter can achieve a broadband polarization conversion in a simplified structure. Furthermore, the polarization conversion characteristics of the CPC are insensitive to the incident angle. The PCR remains more than 0.85 with little bandwidth degradation even as the incident angle increases to as high as 50°. More importantly, the operating bandwidth and the magnitude of the PCR can be tuned easily by adjusting the chemical potential and the electron scattering times of the graphene. In a way, we believe this kind of graphene-based polarization converter can enrich the polarization conversion community for realizing broadband and tunable polarization conversion.


The Indonesian economy has recorded strong growth over the past few decades, and in recent years the firm pace of economic expansion has been accompanied by reduced output volatility and relatively stable inflation. Indonesia's economic performance has been shaped by government policy, the country's endowment of natural resources and its young and growing labour force. Alongside the industrialisation of its economy, Indonesia's trade openness has increased over the past half century. As a near neighbour, Australia has long had significant trade ties with Indonesia.


A near-optimal base-station antenna array synthesis suitable for broadcasting applications is presented. The array is required to provide a high-gain radiation pattern with a main lobe slightly tilted from the horizontal plane and null filling inside an angular sector under the main lobe. To satisfy the above requirements, a novel invasive weed optimization (IWO) variant called Taguchi initialized IWO (TI-IWO) is proposed in this paper. In TI-IWO, the Taguchi's optimization method is employed to initialize effectively the positions of the weeds used by the IWO method. In this way, the fitness function starts from lower values and, thus, the TI-IWO method finds better near-optimal solutions than the conventional IWO method. The proposed method has been applied to linear arrays. Due to its easy implementation in practice, a uniform-amplitude excitation distribution is considered to be applied on the array elements. Two cases of isotropic source arrays are studied under specific requirements for maximum possible gain, main lobe tilting, and null filling. Also, the TI-IWO method is applied to optimize realistic cases of collinear wire dipole arrays in front of a mast under the same requirements and an additional one concerning the impedance matching of all the dipoles.


This chapter explores the developmental trajectory of a Hong Kong Chinese university student who participated in a year-long exchange program in Canada. After Kingston (a pseudonym) returned home, he enrolled in Intercultural Transitions, an elective course designed to enhance and extend sojourn learning through guided, critical reflection. Kingston's oral and written narratives provided a window into his second language learning, intercultural communication, cross-cultural adjustment, and evolving sense of self. Multiple sociocultural factors (e.g. host receptivity), personality attributes (e.g. ability to overcome psychological barriers, degree of ethnocentricism/reflexivity, willingness to try new things), and depth of investment in language and (inter)cultural enhancement impacted on his "whole person" development. The findings underscore the complexity of learning on stays abroad.


state Highway Travelers. David W. Cravens and James C. Cotham III. Journal of Retailing, Winter 1970-71, pp. 56-68. New York University Institute of Retail Management, 432 Commerce Building, New York University, Washington Square, New York, New York 10003. $2. This article reports research on &dquo;profiles&dquo; of interstate travelers in Tennessee and Georgia, plus their opinions on fast-food/gasoline facilities. Interviews were conducted with 749 patrons of four restaurants located at interchanges. Typical findings were that 60 percent were in a 24-45 age group;


This dissertation is about how organizational politics – or what some scholars call micro-politics – shapes the implementation of comprehensive human resource (HR) reform in school district central offices. Over the last decade, education reformers and advocates have promoted comprehensive HR reform as a way to improve teaching and learning in K-12 schools, especially in urban districts. These reforms call on school districts to orient and coordinate all of their HR activities around a common vision of effective teaching and use the way they hire, develop, and retain teachers to systematically build and leverage talent across all schools. For most school districts, this ambitious vision of HR is a profound departure from present practice. Emerging accounts of comprehensive HR reform suggest that implementation is often marked by organizational conflict, but they do not elaborate why this is the case or what it implies for implementation. In investigating the micro-political dynamics of implementing comprehensive HR reform, this study reveals both the sources of conflict that emerge during these ambitious reforms, how actors within central offices negotiate and resolve them, and how micro-political dynamics can -for better or worse -shape the implementation of ambitious bureaucratic reform. THE MICRO-POLITICS OF IMPLEMENTING HR REFORM iv


Across the EU, significant challenges remain in dealing with poor quality, unaffordable and low energy efficiency housing. Such problems tend to be deep-seated and complex, and differ between Member States. Housing problems in Western European cities tend to focus on high-rise building blocks, stemming from poor materials and design; wider urban issues such as traffic problems and social problems linked to poverty and unemployment, and inadequate management of housing estates. Housing problems in Central and Eastern Europe are similar, but have developed through different processes. A range of factors, including state-led allocation mechanisms and a state-controlled economy were followed by a transition period during which an aversion against collective forms of ownership emerged. The resulting problems are centered on the large scale deterioration of urban peripheral housing estates or traditionally built inner city areas. This report also notes that problems of segregation are present not only in big cities but also in middlesized and smaller cities.


Food industry wastewater (FIWW) streams with high organic content are among the most suitable and inexpensive candidates for polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymer production. Due to its high organic acid content, pickle industry wastewater (PIWW), can be considered as one of the prospective alternatives to petroleum-based polymers for PHA production. In this context, this study aimed to investigate the production of PHA with enriched microbial culture using PIWW. Two laboratory scale sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were operated under aerobic dynamic feeding conditions at a sludge retention time of 8 days, with a total cycle duration of 24 hours. SBRs were fed with peptone mixture and PIWW. In-cycle analysis and batch respirometric tests were performed to evaluate PHA storage together with biodegradation kinetics. In-cycle analysis showed that maximum PHA content was 1,820 mgCOD/L, corresponding to 44% in the biomass (ratio of chemical oxygen demand (COD) to volatile suspended solids) for PIWW. Experimental results were also confirmed with activated sludge model simulations. As for the PHA composition, hydroxybutyrate was the major fraction. Model simulations proposed a unique conversion-degradation-storage pathway for the organic acid mixture. This paper presents a novel insight for better understanding of PHA biopolymer production using high saline FIWW.


This paper examines the issue of bringing improved structure with integrated milestones into the project and production management process to handle progress and strategic coordination in complex AEC-projects. We address the phases between front-end planning and project execution. In terms of theory, we base our project on a concept of strategic milestone planning and we find inspiration in ideas from the practical world. The design research approach is applied, and our artefact is a proposed method by which to develop a network of pull-based integrated milestones. The proposal is verified by documentation of the application in a construction project. In this paper, we argue that the described method can be applied as an improvement of milestone planning both in Last Planner and in more traditional project management. The present study fills a gap in project management literature, which appears to address milestones in a superficial manner; this is partly the case for Last Planner System for production control. Our study contributes to theory and practice regarding development of milestones.


This study used college dormitory room and social group assignment data to investigate the peer effect on the probability of college students switching their major fields of study. The results revealed strong evidence of peer effects on students' decisions to switch majors. In particular, the number of a student's peers who have the same major significantly reduces the student's likelihood of switching majors; however, when a same-major peer switches majors, it significantly increases a student's probability of switching majors. This study also found that peers' majors affected students' choice of destination majors. Students in the same peer group are more likely to choose the same destination majors, compared to non-peers. Finally, we found that in general peer effects at the dormitory room level, both in choice and persistence of major, were stronger than were peer effects at the social group level.


Diabetic retinopathy has been an important cause of blindness in young and middle age adults in the United States. Epidemiologic studies have quantitated the risk and have described potentially causal factors associated with many ocular complications of diabetes and other facets of this disease. A review of recent advances in diagnosis, treatment, temporal trends, and health care for diabetic retinopathy was conducted. Since the early 1980's, there have been studies of the variability of diabetic retinopathy in populations around the world and subpopulations in the United States which have demonstrated the high prevalences and incidences of this condition. Observational studies and clinical trials have documented the importance of glycemic and blood pressure control in the development and progression of this disease. There are some differences in the importance of confounders in different populations. Epidemiologic data have helped understand the importance of health care and health education in prevention and treatment of this condition. Observational studies have documented the importance of this disease on quality of life. Although there have been advances in understanding the distribution, causes, and severity of diabetic retinopathy, this is ever changing and requires continued monitoring. This is important because the increasing burden of diabetes will place a greater burden on the population and the medical care systems that will be caring for them.


We describe a new and unique method for simultaneous determination of the groove depth and duty cycle of binary diffraction gratings. For a near-normal angle of incidence, the +1 and -1 diffracted orders will behave nearly the same as the duty cycle is varied for a fixed grating depth. The difference in their behavior, quantified as the ratio of their respective diffraction efficiencies, is compared to a look-up table generated by rigorous coupled-wave theory, and the duty cycle of the grating is thus obtained as a function of grating depth. Performing the same analysis for the orthogonal probe-light polarization results in a different functional dependence of the duty cycle on the grating depth. By use of both TE and TM polarizations, the depth and duty cycle for the grating are obtained by the intersection of the functions generated by the individual polarizations. These measurements can also be used to assess qualitatively both the uniformity of the grating and the symmetry of the grating profile. Comparison with scanning electron microscope images shows excellent agreement. This method is advantageous since it can be carried out rapidly, is accurate and repeatable, does not damage the sample, and uses low-cost, commonly available equipment. Since this method consists of only four fixed simple measurements, it is highly suitable for quality control in a manufacturing environment.


In part 1 of this paper (Ramanathan et al., 2010b) we presented a methodology and a code for modeling the hierarchical sedimentary architecture in braided channel belt deposits. Here in part 2, the code was used to create a digital model of this architecture and the corresponding spatial distribution of permeability. The simulated architecture was compared to the real stratal architecture observed in an abandoned channel belt. The comparisons included assessments of similarity which were both qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative comparisons show that the geometries of unit types within the synthetic deposits are generally consistent with field observations. The unit types in the synthetic deposits would generally be recognized as representing their counterparts in nature, including cross stratasets, lobate and scroll bar deposits, and channel fills. Furthermore, the synthetic deposits have a hierarchical spatial relationship among these units consistent with observations from field exposures and geophysical images. In quantitative comparisons the proportions and the length, width, and height of unit types at different scales, across all levels of the stratal hierarchy, compare well between the synthetic and the natural deposits. A number of important attributes of the synthetic channel belt deposits are shown to be influenced by more than one level within the hierarchy of stratal architecture. First, the high‐permeability open‐framework gravels connected across all levels and thus formed preferential flow pathways; open‐framework gravels are known to form preferential flow pathways in natural channel belt deposits. The nature of a connected cluster changed across different levels of the stratal hierarchy, and as a result of the geologic structure, the connectivity occurs at proportions of open‐framework gravels below the theoretical percolation threshold for random infinite media. Second, when the channel belt model was populated with permeability distributions by lowest‐level unit type, the composite permeability semivariogram contained structures that were identifiable at more than one scale, and each of these structures could be directly linked to unit types of different scales existing at different levels within the hierarchy of strata. These collective results are encouraging with respect to our goal that this model be relevant for testing ideas in future research on flow and transport in aquifers and reservoirs with multiscale heterogeneity.


The link between environmental degradation and international security has attracted new attention due to the publication of the United Nations report A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility, authored by the High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, a group of experts assembled by Kofi Annan and tasked with advising the Security Council about new global threats. The panel specifically focuses on desertification, deforestation, and climate change as urgent global environmental threats possibly requiring Security Council action because of their potential to cause massive loss of life and undermine state functions. The report provokes important questions: If, for example, a nation embarked upon a massive deforestation campaign which upset the ocean currents and threatened to send an entire continent into a deep freeze, would the Security Council be able to take measures against the offending nation to counteract this massive environmental threat? In this Note, Alexandra Knight argues that it is legally justified and legitimate for the Security Council, acting under the provisions of Chapter VII, Article 41 of the United Nations Charter, to impose measures to counter regional or global threats to the environment which pose a grave threat to human life and living conditions. While Chapter VII measures also include the use of force, Knight argues that only Article 41 measures-non-military measures like sanctions or interruption of communications-are appropriate to counter environmental threats.