The recent shootings at a Montreal school have reignited the controversy over the firearm registry and has prompted the Conservative government to review its earlier pledge to scrap the registry. This paper is a timely effort to evaluate the effectiveness of the 1995 firearm legislation that created the firearm registry. In 1995, the government assumed that, by controlling the availability of firearms, the registry would reduce total criminal violence, not just gun violence, suicide and domestic abuse. This legislation is fundamentally flawed because it relies upon public health research to justify its moralistic approach to firearms. Public health advocates have exaggerated the danger of citizens owning firearms through pseudoscientific research methods. The firearm registry involves licensing firearm owners as well as registering firearms. Even though the registry was created by the 1995 legislation, it was not implemented until 1998. Since the registry, with its dual function of licensing owners and registering long arms, was first implemented, the total homicide rate has actually increased by 9%. Perhaps the most striking change is that gang-related homicides have increased substantially - almost doubling between 1998 and 2005. Despite the drop in firearm-related suicides since the registry began, an increase in suicides involving hanging has nearly cancelled out the drop in firearm suicides. No persuasive link has been found between the firearm registry and any of these changes. In conclusion, no convincing empirical evidence can be found that the firearm program has improved public safety. Violent crime and suicide rates remain virtually unchanged despite the nearly unlimited annual budgets during the first seven years of the firearms registry. Notwithstanding an estimated C$ 2 billion cost to date, the firearms registry remains notably incomplete and has an error rate that remains embarrassingly high.


At the end of 2021 a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, Omicron, emerged and quickly spread across the world. It has been demonstrated that Omicron's high number of Spike mutations lead to partial immune evasion from even polyclonal antibody responses, allowing frequent re-infection and vaccine breakthroughs. However, it seems unlikely these antigenic differences alone explain its rapid growth; here we show Omicron replicates rapidly in human primary airway cultures, more so even than the previously dominant variant of concern, Delta. Omicron Spike continues to use human ACE2 as its primary receptor, to which it binds more strongly than other variants. Omicron Spike mediates enhanced entry into cells expressing several different animal ACE2s, including various domestic avian species, horseshoe bats and mice suggesting it has an increased propensity for reverse zoonosis and is more likely than previous variants to establish an animal reservoir of SARS-CoV-2. Unlike other SARS-CoV-2 variants, however, Omicron Spike has a diminished ability to induce syncytia formation. Furthermore, Omicron is capable of efficiently entering cells in a TMPRSS2-independent manner, via the endosomal route. We posit this enables Omicron to infect a greater number of cells in the respiratory epithelium, allowing it to be more infectious at lower exposure doses, and resulting in enhanced intrinsic transmissibility.


Most mosses, including peat mosses of the genus Sphagnum (about 285 species), disperse their spores by turbulent wind ( 1 ). In still air, spores (22 to 45 µm in size) sink at only 0.5 to 2 cm/s, ideal for wind dispersal ( 2 ). However, spore capsules, positioned on a short stalk, grow to heights of about 1 cm and do not extend into the atmospheric turbulent boundary layer (more than 10 cm above ground). Peat mosses solve this problem with an "air gun" mechanism that explosively discharges spores from a pressurized cylindrical capsule µ2 mm in length (see the figure), projecting spores over 10 to 20 cm ( 1 – 3 ). On page 406 of this issue, Whitaker and Edwards ( 4 ) report that an upward-traveling turbulent vortex ring of spores and air is formed by this explosion within less than 0.2 ms, carrying sufficient momentum to reach the turbulent boundary layer.


The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy of the Microlife BP A100 blood pressure measuring device tested according to the requirements of the International Protocol of the European Society of Hypertension. The BP A100 model is designed to provide accurate blood pressure measurements over a wide range of arm circumferences using a single cuff with standard-size bladder. Device evaluation was performed on 33 patients with a mean ± SD age of 59±19 years (range 30–89 years). Their systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 143±23 mmHg (range 108–180 mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 87±16 mmHg (range 60–108 mmHg), and arm circumference was 31±4 cm (range 22–42 cm). In nine patients, the arm circumference was at least 33 cm. Blood pressure measurements were performed in the sitting position. The BP A100 passed all three phases of the European Society of Hypertension protocol for SBP and DBP. Mean blood pressure differences between device and observer were −2.9±4.9 mmHg for SBP and −2.6±4.6 mmHg for DBP. Similar device–observer differences were observed in the patients divided into two subgroups according to whether their arm circumference was above or below the median in the group. In conclusion, the present results indicate that the Microlife BP A100 monitor coupled with a single cuff with standard size bladder provides accurate blood pressure readings over a wide range of arm circumferences.


Reflective and experiential learning is put forth as essential for understanding caring (Johns, 2009), and could also be understood as a way to recognize multiple ways of knowing and create genuine teaching-learning experiences. In this project a group consisting of eight nursing teachers met for ten one and a half hour long sessions, aiming to enhance participant's ability to deal with stress in daily life by exploring personal thoughts and feelings and how they contribute to every-day-stress, as well as developing a more mindful and authentic way of living in line with personal values. Between each session participants assign themselves to "homework" focusing different kinds of self-care. After each session and a break for personal reflection and refreshment participants joined again in order to reflect upon their experiences in relation to Watson's (2008) ten caritas processes. Basic learning principle adopted from Kolb (1984), i.e. to have an experience and make observations during that experience, to reflect on the experience, make theoretical links and finally plan how to implement the new understanding aimed as a didactic framework in order to enhance learning and understanding. The poster presents the structure and content of these sessions, and findings from an evaluation of the project, focusing on what aspects that contributed to learning and understanding Caring Theory.


The last decade has seen the development of online databases becoming an established norm throughout the world for the preservation of indigenous knowledge. However, in the absence of desktop computers and ubiquitous Internet access, Africa is limping behind in this quest for global information, with the digital divide ever widening and the wealth of indigenous knowledge fast disappearing for the people of this continent. In a bid to address these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Africa is recognizing the potential of the mobile phone to enable the continent to catch up with the global information society. Since 2000 some 316 million new mobile phone subscriptions have emerged on the African continent. For them the cell phone has become an information hub, the primary interface through which to connect to Africa and to the rest of the world. A recent, promising development has been the introduction of browsers on mobile phones. This, combined with the 3G network all cellular providers have migrated to, means that ordinary Africans are accessing the Internet from their phones in ever-increasing numbers. The success of a number of Internet-based mobile applications means that the average cell phone user now associates his phone with more than just the calls he makes or text messages he sends. He can also play music, show video, find out where he is via GPS and access local and global information. This paper describes a concept for the development of user-generated content compiled in an online indigenous knowledge database, making use of current mobile and web technologies. Informed by empirical practice based on a South African case-study, the different tools are discussed, highlighting the interaction between the library, the community and the technologies. The participating role of local communities leading to enrichment of the database is juxtaposed against the library's anchor role as custodian of the knowledge resource. The preservation of context-related local knowledge creates a digital library of relevance to local communities. Technical functionality enables the social interaction that results from knowledge sharing. Short and long-term benefits that the community stands to gain are discussed and the limitations of the model pointed out.


Recent genome annotation revealed that Populus trichocarpa contains 81 glutathione S-transferase (GST) genes. GST genes play important and varying roles in plants, including conferring tolerance to various abiotic stresses. Little information is available on the relationship . if any . between drought/salt stresses and GSTs in woody plants. In this study, we screened the PatgGST genes in hybrid poplar (Populus alba × Populus tremula var. glandulosa) that were predicted to confer drought tolerance based on our expression analysis of all members of the poplar GST superfamily following exposure to salt (NaCl) and drought (PEG) stresses, respectively. Exposure to the salt stress resulted in the induction of eight PatgGST genes and down-regulation of one PatgGST gene, and the level of induction/repression was different in leaf and stem tissues. In contrast, 16 PatgGST genes were induced following exposure to the drought (PEG) stress, and two were down-regulated. Taken together, we identified seven PatgGSTs (PatgGSTU15, PatgGSTU18, PatgGSTU22, PatgGSTU27, PatgGSTU46, PatgGSTU51 and PatgGSTU52) as putative drought tolerance genes based on their induction by both salt and drought stresses.


In the Reformed tradition sola Scriptura remains a central tenet in the search for truth.Scripture bears witness to the variety of ways in which God has acted in history. It attests to God's presence in the world and how God transcends the boundaries of human creations. The article focuses on how the Bible is interpreted differently by Christians from various traditions and even amongst Christians of the same tradition. Different hermeneutical approaches, confessional traditions and cultural contexts lead to different conclusions. Especially with regard to controversial ethical issues, different approaches to biblical reasoning lead to greatly differing results. The article reflects on whether sola Scriptura could provide a key to addressing both diversity and ethics more adequately.


This paper addresses the topic of 'urban strategies'. The context is the development on Langkawi, an island destination in Malaysia. The Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) has established a framework for how the island will be developed in the LADA Tourism Blueprint 2011-2015. Eco-tourism is a targeted core business. Much of Langkawi will be conserved as the natural rainforest, limiting the built-up areas to approximately 30% of the island. Despite the strong implication upon the island's urbanisation, there have not been any specific ecologically conscious urban development strategies within the existing Blueprint. This paper proposes that such strategies need to fullfil both the demand of the expanding tourism industry as well as the need to safeguard the natural ecology of the island. Promoting bicycles as a primary transportation option will serve both. Unlike the normal bicycle, this project looks at integrating the 'Copenhagen Wheel' version. The 'Copenhagen Wheel' turns ordinary bicycles into electric ones via a sensor-type hub that will collect environmental quality data, road conditions and congestion as the bicycle traverses an area. The case study is set for a land parcel in the vicinity of the ferry terminal and the LADA Headquarters. The architectural focus will transform this site into a cyclists' haven and environmental monitoring centre by integrating the 'Copenhagen Wheel' technology into the development model. This is interconnected with the greater framework of enlarging the tourism package for Langkawi whilst sustaining the island's natural environment. This integrated cycling-based project will offer the insights towards eco-conscious urban strategies in island development.


The Superfamily Strophomenoidea is a very diverse group of brachiopods in the Early Palaeozoic. In the Silurian succession on Gotland, they are among the most easily identifiable, and commonly found fossils. However, there are few detailed studies of this group from Gotland, and no new strophomenide taxa have been described from this area since 1869. The life habits of strophomenides are also poorly understood, partly because their morphology differs greatly from that of living brachiopods. The succession on Gotland yielded 27 species belonging to the Strophomenoidea, of which two species and two subspecies are new. The remaining species have been described earlier from Gotland or Great Britain. The most important group is the Leptaeninae, which occurs commonly throughout the entire succession on Gotland. Five species (one new), two new subspecies and two taxa treated under open nomenclature were found. Leptaena rhomboidalis and Lepidoleptaena poulseni were specialized for life in shallow water environments, retaining a large apical pedicle; the remaining leptaenines were ambitopic. The Furcitellininae is represented by three genera comprising six species, of which only one persisted into the Ludlow. All were ambitopic, except Pentlandina loveni, which was specialized for high-energy environments. Six species of "strophodontids" from Gotland, belonging to the Leptostrophidae, the Strophodontidae and the Shaleriidae, share a shallow-bodied, variably concavo-convex shell with costellate ornament. Mesoleptostrophia and Brachyprion (Brachyprion) were long-ranged and ecologically tolerant, while B. (Erinostrophia), Strophodonta and Shaleria had short ranges and were ecologically specialized. The two earliest known cementing strophomenides occur on Gotland, and their hitherto unknown dorsal valves have been identified: Liljevallia was found to belong to the Douvillinidae. The cementing Leptaenoidea silurica was found to be conspecific with the ambitopic Scamnomena rugata; it was able to live ambitopically if removed from the substrate. The thickened dorsal valves allow reconstruction of its lophophore.


This case study utilized qualitative and quantitative methods to examine how gender, power and HIV/AIDS merge to create situations of risk and vulnerability for young people in the Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania. Questionnaires were collected from 160 secondary school students, while qualitative data came from 3 focus group discussions (one mixed and two single sex), interviews with one male and one female parent, one male and one female teacher, and an educational representative, in addition to observation. By looking at the socially constructed and multifaceted nature of gender and its inherent connection to power, this study highlights the contradictory and confusing state young people find themselves in nowadays. Particularly in regards to gender norms, roles and expectations, this study found that the school appears to be a modernizing influence, more overtly oriented towards gender equality in comparison to other facets of society such as the home and the work place, where inequality is still pervasive. Yet even there, it becomes obvious that changing long held beliefs concerning the roles, abilities, and characteristics of girls and boys takes considerable amounts of time. Gender inequality and entrenched power structures creep insidiously even into schools, which are supposed to be the levelers of difference. The push and pull factors at work in Kilimanjaro are also evident considering the plethora of sources of information concerning sexuality, gender, condoms and HIV/AIDS that shape young people's attitudes, beliefs and behavior. Competing "moral regimes" and the subsequent incongruence and ambiguity of messages emanating from the mass media, religious institutions, parents, peers and teachers undermine any prevention program and have clear implications for HIV/AIDS program planners attempting to design and implement contextually sensitive schoolbased programs based on a coherent, unified stance. Thus, the importance of context and change were recurring themes in the study as having relevance for HIV/AIDS programming. Most strikingly, the need for a forum where young people can openly articulate their concerns, fears, questions and desires as well as address the ambiguities and contradictions in their lives emerged as having importance for programming.


This thesis begins with my own bicultural experiences in the context of adult education and language teaching and examines current issues in comparative adult education in light of the challenges imposed by increasing globalisation and lifelong learning. The first chapter ends with research questions about the validity of comparative adult education given that hitherto theoretical approaches have, it seems, ceased to be part of scholarly debates in adult continuing education. The following chapter proceeds to explore research methods appropriate to this study, which are based on approaches in phenomenology and constructivism, and which are explored further in chapter 8 in the context of comparative adult education. The study then seeks to challenge the appropriacy of comparing systems of adult education within the positivist paradigm which, it is argued, has stifled debates and not enabled alternative approaches to develop. Furthermore, it is argued that bounded concepts of nation states and national characteristics are no longer relevant in the context of a multicultural and multilingual Europe. Adult educators are increasingly engaged in intercultural activities by taking part in professional networks and EU-sponsored programmes, computer-mediated or not (discussed in chapter 5). These activities demand skills in cross- and intercultural communication and, in comparative terms, an understanding of different cultural communities. Chapter 6, therefore, looks at the role of language and interculturality which, it is argued, are fundamental to comparative adult education. Issues in relation to lifelong learning are explored further in the subsequent chapter with regard to Germany and Britain and the respective historical, structural and cultural contexts. Chapter 8 argues that comparative adult education can only be meaningful if new meaning and knowledge are constructed on the basis of intercultural communication and shared comparative reflection. This chapter also outlines a new theoretical framework, which, it is proposed, is appropriate to comparative adult education in its contemporary post- or late modem context. The questions raised in opening chapter are answered in the final chapter with the conclusion that there is, after all, validity in undertaking research in comparative adult education and that it is an exciting and stimulating field of study.


Abstract. Nutrient contamination of surface waters and groundwaters is an issue of growing importance as the risks associated with agricultural run-off escalate due to increasing demands on global food production. In this study, the influence of surface water–groundwater interaction on the nutrient flux in a lowland karst catchment was investigated with the aid of alkalinity sampling and a hydrological model. The objective of the study was to determine the impact of ephemeral karst lakes (turloughs) on the surface water–groundwater nutrient flux, and whether these lakes act as sources or sinks of nutrients within the groundwater flow system. Water samples were tested from a variety of rivers, turloughs, boreholes and springs at monthly intervals over 3 years. Alkalinity sampling was used to elucidate the contrasting hydrological functioning between different turloughs. Such disparate hydrological functioning was further investigated with the aid of a hydrological model which allowed for an estimate of allogenically and autogenically derived nutrient loading into the karst system. The model also allowed for an investigation of mixing within the turloughs, comparing observed behaviours with the hypothetical conservative behaviour allowed for by the model. Within the turloughs, recorded nutrient concentrations were found to reduce over the flooded period, even though the turloughs hydrological functioning (and the hydrological model) suggested this would not occur under conservative conditions. As such, it was determined that nutrient loss processes were occurring within the system. Denitrification during stable flooded periods (typically 3–4 months per year) was deemed to be the main process reducing nitrogen concentrations within the turloughs, whereas phosphorus loss is thought to occur mostly via sedimentation and subsequent soil deposition. The results from this study suggest that, in stable conditions, ephemeral lakes can impart considerable nutrient losses on a karst groundwater system.


The Galactic centre (GC) provides a unique laboratory for a detailed examination of the interplay between massive star formation and the nuclear environment of our Galaxy. Here, we present a 100-ks Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) observation of the Arches and Quintuplet star clusters. We also report on a complementary mapping of the dense molecular gas near the Arches cluster made with the Owens Valley Millimeter Array. We present a catalogue of 244 point-like X-ray sources detected in the observation. Their number-flux relation indicates an overpopulation of relatively bright X-ray sources, which are apparently associated with the clusters. The sources in the core of the Arches and Quintuplet clusters are most likely extreme colliding wind massive star binaries. The diffuse X-ray emission from the core of the Arches cluster has a spectrum showing a 6.7-keV emission line and a surface intensity profile declining steeply with radius, indicating an origin in a cluster wind. In the outer regions near the Arches cluster, the overall diffuse X-ray enhancement demonstrates a bow shock morphology and is prominent in the Fe Kα 6.4-keV line emission with an equivalent width of ∼ 1.4 keV. Much of this enhancement may result from an ongoing collision between the cluster and the adjacent molecular cloud, which have a relative velocity? 120 km -1 . The older and less-compact Quintuplet cluster contains much weaker X-ray sources and diffuse emission, probably originating from low-mass stellar objects as well as a cluster wind. However, the overall population of these objects, constrained by the observed total diffuse X-ray luminosities, is substantially smaller than expected for both clusters, if they have normal Miller & Scalo initial mass functions. This deficiency of low-mass objects may be a manifestation of the unique star formation environment of the GC, where high-velocity cloud-cloud and cloud-cluster collisions are frequent.


In the classic cartel, supposed competitors meet in the proverbial smoke-filled hotel room and agree to fix prices at supra-competitive levels. Even though the "agreement�? is unlikely to be legally binding on the parties (i.e., the agreement could not be enforced against one of the cartelists that began to "cheat�? by offering lower prices), virtually all modern economies would treat such a cartel as unlawful under their national antitrust laws. Despite the effectiveness of leniency programs in encouraging confessions from cartel members, there are still cartels (both domestic and international) that operate under a cloak of secrecy, and therefore governments must continue to use more conventional tools to seek them out and prosecute them. Sometimes these traditional investigatory tools will yield the confession or the hot documents that will make prosecution easy, but not always. So the question arises: in the absence of a video-taped cartel meeting, a cooperating participant, or incriminating documents, can a cartel be successfully prosecuted based primarily on "circumstantial�? evidence? However, it is not just a question of what kind of circumstantial evidence can be used to establish the existence of a hard-core cartel – that question might best be described in these circumstances as akin to an economic detective story. A more complicated substantive question underlies the effort to describe the type and quantity of the circumstantial evidence necessary to obtain a successful prosecution, namely, what precisely do we mean to include under the category of an illegal "agreement�? or "conspiracy�? or "concerted practice?�? The plan of this chapter is to begin by describing how the U.S. treats classic cartel behavior when proof of the existence of a cartel agreement is not an issue. Then we turn to the task of establishing the existence of an illegal agreement primarily or entirely through circumstantial evidence. This will quickly get us into the question of what constitutes an unlawful agreement under U.S. law and in particular, the recently renewed debate about whether classic oligopoly behavior can be prosecuted as an unlawful agreement. In the process, we will refer to how similar issues are dealt with in other jurisdictions, most notably the European Union.


Preliminary heat exchanger design relies heavily on correlations for overall heat transfer and pressure drop performance, particularly for heat transfer augmentation features such as fins. Extensive work has been performed by the research community to develop these correlations for the numerous designs. However, with the new technology of metal additive manufacturing and the resultant surface roughness, the traditional correlations and design considerations related to performance need to be adjusted. As a result, two metal additively manufactured offset-strip fin heat exchanger geometries with different fin spacing are studied for heat transfer and pressure drop performance and compared with traditional correlations. Deviations between the additively manufactured geometries and previous correlations for smooth fins are found, and are further amplified as the surface roughness to hydraulic diameter ratio is increased. Furthermore, the surface roughness from the additive process results in a constant friction factor behavior at high Reynolds numbers which is unlike behavior observed for conventionally manufactured fins. Considerations for both the laminar and turbulent flow regimes are needed for correct performance prediction. A final offset strip fin geometry with a change in the fin spacing every third of the way through the flow path is tested. This study found that the orientation of fin spacing, wider spaced to tightly spaced or tightly spaced to wider spaced, did not have a significant effect on pressure drop or heat transfer. However, the study found a method for predicting the performance which will become important as additive manufacturing increases complexity of heat exchanger designs.


Not the Marrying Kind is a new and comprehensive exploration of the contemporary same-sex marriage debates in several jurisdictions including Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. It departs from much of the existing scholarship on same-sex marriage, which argues either for or against marriage for same-sex couples. Instead, this book begins from a critical analysis of the institution of marriage itself (as well as separate forms of relationship recognition, such as civil partnership, PaCS, domestic partnership) and asks whether and how feminist critiques of marriage might be applied specifically to same-sex marriage. In doing this, the author combines the theories of second wave feminism with insights from contemporary queer theory.


This paper presents a new open-source structural analysis plugin for Grasshopper – RhinoRstab. The plugin bridges data between the worldwide established software: Rhinoceros3d and Dlubal RSTAB. The basic idea behind the approach is to create an interactive workflow between the architectural design on the one hand and a structural analysis tool on the other hand. In contrast to RhinoRstab, other analysis tools for Grasshopper predict the structural behaviour independent of its structural capacity. Thus, additional standalone software is necessary to verify the analysis of these plugins subsequently. To test the validity of this new tool, it is compared to a similar application, namely Karamba (a widely used structural analysis plugin for Rhinoceros/Grasshopper). Both tools are tested in different scenarios. The study shows that for some elements in a structural system and some calculation methods RhinoRstab and Karamba results differ strongly. However, regarding the runtime, Karamba operates faster than RhinoRstab.


Information literacy was the investigated subject of this PhD research which aimed to study the variations and changes in Syrian school librarians conceptions of information literacy. The main target group was a twenty Syrian school librarians working in high schools in Damascus and its Suburb, ten of them graduated librarians and the rest are classroom teachers who were transferred to the library to perform the duties of the school librarian. The targeted group was purposely selected with intention as broadest as possible samples from different educational, social and ethical backgrounds.
The researcher adopted a phenomenographic approach to discover how the Syrian school librarians conceive the phenomenon of information literacy and how their conceptions changed after attending an information literacy programme designed by the researcher.
The research was in three phases: the first phase aimed to discover and study the school librarians� conceptions of information literacy by conducting a pure phenomenographic approach. Six different conceptions of information literacy were emerged as a result to first phase analysis. The second phase aimed to provide the school librarians with a wide range of perspectives, conceptions and thoughts of information literacy discussed worldwide via an information training programme designed especially to serve that purpose. The training programme was designed by the researcher who consulted a broad literature and methods in attempts to integrate different ideas from different territories. For example, she employed business methods such as Eat the Elephant strategy and SWOT analysis, training methods such as icebreaking and team working, Soft System method such as rich picture and mind map, educational methods such as integrating different teaching styles to meet different learning needs style and communication method such as body language and presentations. The third phase aimed to discover the variations and changes in school librarians� conceptions of information literacy by conducting a new phenomenographic approach. The third phase was conducted six months after the second phase to give the participants chance to discover the concept of information literacy in real world practice. Seven different conceptions were emerged as a result to analysing second phase interviews.
The findings of the research indicate that the school librarians� conceptions of information literacy at the first phase were influenced by their context (school library) and experiences as school librarians, though, further studies are vital. In the third phase the school librarians evidenced more complex and boarder conceptions. Further they were able to combine and create different conceptions to meet their schools� needs. It is interesting to mention that school librarians were not only able to create new conceptions of information literacy that meet their needs, but they were also able to in the Arabic literature.


Recent computer science research on the reidentification of individuals from anonymized data has given some observers in the legal community the impression that the utilization of data is incompatible with strong privacy guarantees, leaving few options for balancing privacy and utility in various data-intensive settings. This bleak assessment is incomplete and somewhat misleading, however, because it fails to recognize the promise of technologies that support anonymity under a standard that computer scientists call differential privacy. This standard is met by a database system that behaves similarly whether or not any particular individual is represented in the database, effectively producing anonymity. Although a number of computer scientists agree that these technologies can offer privacy-protecting advantages over traditional approaches such as redaction of personally identifiable information from shared data, the legal community's critique has focused on the burden that these technologies place on the utility of the data. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that at least one highly successful business, Facebook, has implemented such privacy-preserving technologies in support of anonymity promises while also meeting commercial demands for utility of certain shared data. This Article uses a reverse-engineering approach to infer that Facebook appears to be using differential privacy-supporting technologies in its interactive query system to report audience reach data to prospective users of its targeted advertising system, without apparent loss of utility. This case study provides an opportunity to consider criteria for identifying contexts where privacy laws might draw benefits from the adoption of a differential privacy standard similar to that apparently met by Facebook's advertising audience reach database. United States privacy law is a collection of many different sectoral statutes and regulations, torts, and constitutional law, and some areas are more amenable to incorporation of the differential privacy standard than others. This Article highlights some opportunities for recognition of the differential privacy standard as a best practice or a presumption of compliance for privacy, while acknowledging certain limitations on the transferability of the Facebook example.


In this thesis, I propose that consistency between a business unit's generic organizational configuration (GOC) and a firm's functional capability (FC) provides a better explanation of corresponding performance dimension across business units than either factor on its own. I investigate five types of GOC based on a combination of Miles and Snow's (1978) and Porter's (1980) typologies, which I map onto four different FCs (DeSarbo et al., 2005) and four different intermediate outcomes. Traditionally, quantitative analysis better matches GOC and qualitative analysis is more suitable for FC (Hoskisson et al., 1999). Instead, I employ fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) (Ragin, 1987, 2000), a formal analysis of qualitative evidence and small to medium-N situations using Boolean algebra to study causal complexity focusing on necessary and/or sufficient conditions for a desired outcome. This allows me 1) to explore exactly which combinations of GOC and FC provide sufficient conditions to achieve high levels of related performance dimensions; and 2) to examine equifinality (Fiss, 2007; Ragin, 2008). Based on causal asymmetry, this set theoretic approach is more appropriate to describe social science relationships than correlational tests that assume causal symmetry, the only causal assumption of methodologies available for previous researches (Ragin, 1987, 2000; Fiss, 2011). Therefore, the adoption of this new technique could also solve the methodological gap in this literature that partly leads to equivocal results in prior researches, which in turn mistakenly support falisification attempts for both GOC and FC theories, because these perceived inconsistency in former researches could actually be a normal situation of asymmetrical relationship (equifinality), a true nature of social science relationships. Moreover, fsQCA fits well with small to medium-sized sample that limits the use of traditional quantitative analysis. The context for this study is the Thai non-life insurance industry in 2011, focusing on a single industry in order to avoid the performance variation caused by differing industry conditions in multi-industry research (Conant, Mokwa and Varadarajan, 1990) which might affect the impact of GOC and FC, and to accord with the timing of the hypothesized cause-effect relationship, as well as to represent a novel setting – a service industry in an emerging market.
The findings suggest that scholars should consider organizational configuration and capabilities in a more nuanced manner and should assume compatibility between GOC and FC. This shifts the focus from negating and replacing the former with the latter to searching for an appropriate combination of the two, because finding a compatible combination may be more important for generating high performance than either factor individually. This research contributes to academic and practical knowledge of the configuration-performance relationship, enhances explanations of performance and mitigates the equivocal results of
previous research studies, as well as supporting the equifinality notion. The results also suggest that these two well-established and parallel research streams are compatible, thereby bridging the gap between them. Furthermore, it suggests that future research should take a more holistic view regarding the creation of competitive advantage through both external (market power of GOC) and internal (efficiency of FC) causal factors. Finally, it will help managers to select a GOC compatible with their FC and to match this combination with an appropriate performance goal.


Physical and chemical degradation of individual grains of titanomagnetite and ilmenite during rock weathering and fluvial transport processes in the River Eden catchment, Eastern Scotland, have been traced using backscattered electron images and electron probe microanalysis. Magnetic characteristics have been used to detect differences in magnetic mineralogy concentration, paragenesis and grain size between rock samples showing different stages of weathering, and between different sources and sediment samples. Results have shown higher physical and chemical durability of ilmenite during this segment of the geological cycle than titanomagnetite, which is rapidly altered. During progressive subaerial weathering of a dolerite, the increasingly intensive and extensive oxidation and development of internal fractures in titanomagnetite are observed. However, under subaqueous conditions, titanomagnetite was found to be progressively replaced by titanite and Ti‐impoverished magnetite due to hydrocirculation. Neither the total physical nor the total compositional degradation of titanomagnetite is achieved under rock weathering and fluvial transport processes. Thus, the importance of titanomagnetite as a provenance indicator remains despite its degradation during the geological processes studied in the River Eden catchment.


The paper is based upon discussion and information provided by 22 senior managers at multinational corporations in China and published work related to doing business in China. The five different cultural dimensions of Hofstede and Hofstede and Bond schema and their implications particularly on the decisionmaking process by international managers are discussed. In addition the paper reviews and reinforces scholarly research on Chinese culture and business practices in China and in other countries. The findings of this paper together with those of previous studies could provide relevant information to managers who plan to do business in China.


Background: The primary goal of ambulatory anesthesia is a rapid recovery with minimal side effects. Ropivacaine, due to its property of sensory-motor dissociation, maybe a useful agent when equivalent spinal anesthesia and quicker recovery of motor function is desirable. Aim: The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of intrathecal isobaric ropivacaine with bupivacaine and to assess their postoperative recovery profile in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. Setting and Design: This randomized controlled study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: A total of 90 adult American Society of Anaesthesiologist physical status Classes 1 and 2 patients were randomized into two groups to receive 2 ml plain solution of either 0.5% bupivacaine (Group B) or 0.75% ropivacaine (Group R). In the intraoperative period, onset, efficacy, duration, and regression of sensory and motor block were noted in both the groups at regular intervals. Postoperatively, the groups were compared for pain score, recovery profile, analgesic requirement, and complications. Statistical Analysis: Data analysis was performed using Chi-square test and Student's t-test. Results: The mean onset time of sensory block at L1 was significantly less (P = 0.025) and duration of sensory and motor block was significantly more (P = 0.001) with bupivacaine as compared to ropivacaine. The analgesic requirement on the 1st postoperative day (P = 0.011) and incidence of delayed voiding of urine (P = 0.022) were significantly more with ropivacaine. The postoperative recovery profile and discharge times were similar between the groups. Conclusion: Isobaric ropivacaine was associated with a longer onset and shorter duration of sensory and motor block, increased postoperative analgesic requirement, higher complication rate, and similar discharge times as compared with bupivacaine. Therefore, isobaric bupivacaine may be preferred over isobaric ropivacaine for day care knee arthroscopy, especially in cases with an anticipated longer duration of surgery.


Cancer progression is accompanied with alterations in the cell biomechanical phenotype, including changes in cell structure, morphology, and responses to microenvironmental stress. These alterations result in an increased deformability of transformed cells and reduced resistance to mechanical stimuli, enabling motility and invasion. Therefore, single cell biomechanical properties could be served as a powerful label-free biomarker for effective characterization and early detection of single cancer cells. Advances and innovations in microsystems and nanotechnology have facilitated interrogation of the biomechanical properties of single cells to predict their tumorigenicity, metastatic potential, and health state. This dissertation utilized Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) for the cell biomechanical phenotyping for cancer diagnosis and early detection, efficacy screening of potential chemotherapeutic agents, and also cancer stem-like/tumor initiating cells (CSC/TICs) characterization as the critical topics received intensive attention in the search for effective cancer treatment. Our findings demonstrated the capability of exogenous sphingosine to revert the aberrant biomechanics of aggressive cells and showed a unique, mechanically homogeneous, and extremely soft characteristic of CSC/TICs, suitable for their targeted isolation. To make full use of cell biomechanical cues, this dissertation also considered the application of nonlinear viscoelastic models such as Fractional Zener and Generalized Maxwell models for the naturally complex, heterogeneous, and nonlinear structure of living cells. The emerging need for a high-throughput clinically relevant alternative for evaluating biomechanics of individual cells led us to the development of a microfluidic system. Therefore, a high-throughput, label-free, automated microfluidic chip was developed to investigate the biophysical (biomechanical-bioelectrical) markers of normal and malignant cells. Most importantly, this dissertation also explored the biomechanical response of cells upon a dynamic loading instead of a typical transient stress. Notably, metastatic and non-metastatic cells subjected to a pulsed stress regimen exerted by AFM exhibited distinct biomechanical responses. While non-metastatic cells showed an increase in their resistance against deformation and resulted in strain-stiffening behavior, metastatic cells responded by losing their resistance and yielded slight strain-softening. Ultimately, a second generation microfluidic chip called an iterative mechanical characteristics (iMECH) analyzer consisting of a series of constriction channels for simulating the dynamic stress paradigm was developed which could reproduce the same stiffening/softening trends of non-metastatic and metastatic cells, respectively. Therefore, for the first time, the use of dynamic loading paradigm to evaluate cell biomechanical responses was used as a new signature to predict malignancy or normalcy at a single-cell level with a high (~95%) confidence level.


Geoffrey Hill's later work is increasingly concerned with the authenticity of the poet's civic voice, and with the extent to which persuasive lyricism is at odds with the apprehension of moral truth. This concern provokes in his poetry a fierce, at times anguished obsession with the possibilities and limitations of language. Hill's determination to forge an authentic and autonomous idiom, even as he acknowledges the essential "otherness" and intractability of language, underlies the strenuous difficulty that has characterised his work from the publication of Speech! Speech! in 2000. But, whereas many of Hill's peers, from John Ashbery to J.H. Prynne, revel in linguistic indeterminacy, the poet-figure in Hill's recent work emerges as one who strives to resurrect language, to preserve its capacity for "eloquence and apprehension" against the destructive tendencies of the age (CCW 349). These semantic preoccupations inform a broader anxiety about the public role of a poet in the modern world. Can he still aspire to the status of Shelley's "unacknowledged legislators", or has this aspiration since been undermined by Yeats' dictum that "[w]e have no gift to set a statesman right" (Shelley 233, Yeats, MW 72)? Hill's own acknowledgement of his diminished influence is coterminous with his refusal to accommodate popular whim, so that the authenticity of his verse as public utterance derives precisely from its difficulty, its anti-materialism and its resilient heterodoxy.


Assessing credibility is a legitimate and significant step in determining refugee status, but the term 'credibility' is employed with a range of descriptive intentions and legal consequences. It may be used loosely to express the strength of the case, or it may be given a very specific role in relation to the admissibility of the applicant's unsupported statements as evidence. By introducing some basic concepts from the law of evidence, the threshold of 'credible' can be set much lower than 'proven'. It is shown that credible but unproven statements may play an important role in satisfying the standard of proof in asylum cases. This article takes as its starting point the UK's 'Asylum Policy Instruction' (API) on credibility. APIs are statements of the government's asylum policy, and are followed by asylum 'case owners' and other decision makers. Although well-intentioned, the API runs the risk of confusing credibility and proof. In order to explore the issues of credibility and proof, this article analyses the API itself, the UK's primary legislation, Immigration Rules, and case law, EU law, and guidance provided by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR).


In the past six months, Australia has seen one of the more startling and significant episodes of rapid political change in its recent history. In short order, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted first a degree of lassitude and disbelief, and then a rapid mobilisation that saw the development of a new entity-the National Cabinet, combining federal and state leaders. The need to respond to an emergency, and the desire to avoid the mass death and chaos that had gripped the United Kingdom and the United States, briefly concentrated the minds of leaders of both the Coalition and Labor. A degree of intergovernmental collegiality ruled, and disaster was avoided. It's a measure of how successful this was that the flare-up in Victoria, resulting in a few hundred extra deaths in a population of six million - a drop in the dark ocean for the United Kingdom and United States - has been treated as a tragedy and a disaster.


Democracy in Mexico offers an important contribution to one of the more complex and multifaceted political processes of recent decades in Latin America: Mexico's democratization at the national and subnational levels. Topics include the quality of democracy, political participation, and insecurity. The book is based on two surveys carried out throughout Mexico in 2009 and 2011. The result of this collaboration is one of the few existing studies on democratic processes in the Mexican states.


Background and aims The effects of physician specialty on the outcome of heart disease remains incompletely understood because of inconsistent findings from some previous studies. Our purpose is to compare the admission outcomes of heart disease in patients receiving care by cardiologists and noncardiologist (NC) physicians. Methods Using reimbursement claims data of Taiwan's National Health Insurance from 2008–2013, we conducted a matched study of 6264 patients aged ≥20 years who received a cardiologist's care during admission for heart disease. Using a propensity score matching procedure adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, medical condition, and type of heart disease, 6264 controls who received an NC physician's care were selected. Logistic regressions were used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for complications and mortality during admission for heart disease associated with a cardiologist's care. Results Patients who received a cardiologist's care had a lower risk of pneumonia (OR = 0.61; 95% CI, 0.53–0.70), septicemia (OR = 0.49; 95% CI, 0.39–0.61), urinary tract infection (OR = 0.76; 95% CI, 0.66–0.88), and in-hospital mortality (OR = 0.37; 95% CI, 0.29–0.47) than did patients who received an NC physician's care. The association between a cardiologist's care and reduced adverse events following admission was significant in both sexes and in patients aged ≥40 years. Conclusion We raised the possibility that cardiologist care was associated with reduced infectious complications and mortality among patients who were admitted due to heart disease.


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The objective of this study was to develop an approach for incorporating techniques to interpret and evaluate deflection data for network-level pavement management system (PMS) applications. The first part of this research focused on identifying and evaluating existing techniques, seeking out those that were simple, reliable, and easy to incorporate into current PMS practices, as well as those that produced consistent results. The second part of the research detailed the development of guidelines for the application of recommended techniques and procedures for determining optimum falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test spacing and data collection frequency. While there are many viable techniques available for evaluating the structural capacity of pavements that use FWD for project-level analysis, many of these techniques are time consuming and require an experienced analyst. As a result, using pavement deflection testing for network-level analysis has been limited to date. This guide provides information for the assessment of pavement structural performance for PMS applications. It reflects the general findings presented in the accompanying final report, Simplified Techniques for Evaluation and Interpretation of Pavement Deflections for Network-Level Analysis (FHWA-HRT-12-023).


Interesting analogies between shallow water dynamics and astrophysical phenomena have offered valuable insight from both the theoretical and experimental point of view. To help organize these efforts, here we analyze systematically the hydrodynamic properties of backwater profiles of the shallow water equations with 2D radial symmetry. In contrast to the more familiar 1D case typical of hydraulics, even in isentropic conditions, a solution with minimum-radius horizon for the flow emerges, similar to the black hole and white hole horizons, where the critical conditions of unitary Froude number provide a unidirectional barrier for surface waves. Beyond these time-reversible solutions, a greater variety of cases arises, when allowing for dissipation by turbulent friction and shock waves (i.e., hydraulic jumps) for both convergent and divergent flows. The resulting taxonomy of the base-flow cases may serve as a starting point for a more systematic analysis of higher-order effects linked, e.g., to wave propagation and instabilities, capillarity, variable bed slope, and rotation. "(l'Idraulica),


Kenzo Tange (1913 - 2005) is a peerless figure among twentieth-century Japanese architects, unmatched in his talent, influence, and versatility. This collection of essays represents a new generation of original research that reframes Tange in the context of Japan's unique embrace of modern architecture as well as global discourses of cultural identity, technology, and the synthesis of the arts. Case studies on celebrated works clarify Tange's wide-ranging interests and design methodology through collaboration with allied fields such as art, engineering, furniture design, and photography. The book will appeal to both specialists and general readers with an interest in the visual culture and built environment of modern Japan.


We report on the design of silicon three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystal (PC) waveguides with a combination of acceptor-type and donor-type line defects. Tuning the width of the acceptor-type line defect allows the waveguide to support two guided modes, which enable single-mode propagation over 98.7% of the complete photonic bandgap (cPBG). In addition, we demonstrate that the frequency ranges for single-mode propagation can be extended to the entire range of the cPBG by further tuning the thickness of the layers in which the donor-type line defects are located. The wide ranges of available frequencies for single mode propagation enable flexible design of 3D PC components and will provide a route towards future 3D photonic circuits.


Large-scale ecological restoration programs are beginning to supplement isolated projects implemented on rivers and tidal waterways. Nevertheless, the effects of estuary and river restoration often continue to be evaluated at local project scales or by integration in an additive manner. Today, we have sufficient scientific understanding to apply knowledge gained from measuring cumulative impacts of anthropogenic stressors on ecosystems to assessment of ecological restoration. Integration of this knowledge has potential to increase the efficacy of restoration projects that are conducted at several locations but comanaged within the confines of a larger integrative program. We introduce a framework based on a levels-of-evidence approach that facilitates assessment of the cumulative landscape effects of individual restoration actions taken at many different locations. It incorporates data collection at restoration and reference sites, hydrodynamic modeling, geographic information systems, and meta-analyses in a five-stage process: design, data development, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, and application. This framework evolved from the need to evaluate the efficacy of restoration projects that are being implemented in numerous wetlands on the 235 km tidal portion of the Columbia River, USA, which are intended to increase rearing habitat for out-migrating juvenile salmonid fishes.


In this paper, we investigate the multimodal nature of cell phone data in terms of discovering recurrent and rich patterns in people's lives. We present a method that can discover routines from multiple modalities (location and proximity) jointly modeled, and that uses these informative routines to predict unlabeled or missing data. Using a joint representation of location and proximity data over approximately 10 months of 97 individuals' lives, Latent Dirichlet Allocation is applied for the unsupervised learning of topics describing people's most common locations jointly with the most common types of interactions at these locations. We further successfully predict where and with how many other individuals users will be, for people with both highly and lowly varying lifestyles.


The traditional definition of tax progressivity is being rewritten and this change could have serious ramifications for democratic decision-making. Up to now, tax progressivity has meant that, as an individual or household earned more income, they not only paid more in taxes but also paid a proportionately higher share of their income in taxes. The concept of tax progressivity is being fundamentally altered by government's expansion of eligibility for tax credits that were initially targeted at low-income earners. The result is that rather than a progressively increasing tax burden, there is a fairly large and growing group of people who do not contribute to taxes in any meaningful way and another group of people, fairly small, that carry the overwhelming burden of taxes.The new tax progressivity is not yet as pronounced in Canada as it is in the United States, but it has gained an entrance and there is a possibility of its expanding rapidly. If the benefits of tax credits like Canada's Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) and the United States' Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), continue to increase and their application expands to an even wider group of citizens, this program, coupled with others like Canada's Child Tax Credit (CTC), may very well lead to a tax distribution similar to that observed in the United States today, where a growing number of households pay little or no income taxes.Such a change in the distribution of taxes, creating a large percentage of earners and tax-filers with no income-tax liability, will then bring consequences similar to those in the United States today where large and persistent deficits are common and decisions on the cost of government are deferred to the future. The only way to encourage Canadians to consider the economic costs and benefits of government programs is to ensure that most Canadians, not just a few, are responsible for paying the price of government.The key to avoiding such a situation is restraint in applying what should be narrowly targeted tax programs like the WITB so Canada can enjoy the benefits of these programs without incurring the political cost the United States has incurred by aggressively expanding them.


This insightful research collection examines the internal and external transformation of the Arab Gulf states and their repositioning within the global order. It explores the interlocking challenges of transition toward post-rentier structures of governance and assesses the domestic, regional and global implications. A multi-level approach begins with sections on domestic political and economic reform and the reformulation of domestic agendas to reflect new issues such as climate-change. Subsequent sections cover the evolution of regional security agendas, new trends in foreign policy and the Arab Gulf states' rapid emergence as global actors and provide a frank portrayal of this dynamic region.


We explore the nonprofit earnings penalty. To separate the influence of demand and supply, we leverage workers who change employers in administrative tax data. The average nonprofit worker earns 5.5 percent less than the average for-profit worker. Supply-side factors (worker selection) contribute 80 percent of the nonprofit differential. The remaining 20 percent is from demand (a nonprofit penalty). Within-worker nonprofit variation generates several insights about the influence of nonprofits on the labor market. Nonprofits compress the wage distribution and reduce inequality among earners. Nonprofit penalties are much more pronounced in classic charities than in "commercial�? nonprofits, which sometimes exhibit nonprofit premia.


In the years that preceded Luis Muñoz Marín's tenure as Puerto Rico's first elected and longest running governor, he used Puerto Rico's so-called alarming population growth as the explanation for the island's troubles and reform failures. In the early 1920s, the young neomalthusianist, carved a place for himself as a staunch supporter of policies advocating for state provided birth control in a climate where critics of the jíbaros (Puerto Rico's peasants) deemed them immoral and barbaric for having too many children. Less than twenty years later though, the same jíbaros who were causing Puerto Rico's problems in the twenties were portrayed by Muñoz and his party as national symbols; and in journals and publications, the finger-pointing for Puerto Rico's overpopulation began to zero in on Puerto Rico's women. This eventually would lead Muñoz to commit to reform efforts that increased industrial production and migration to the mainland and to also dismiss independence as a viable status option. This thesis traces the course of Overpopulation Ideology-by which I mean the comprehensive vision which dictated that there was a set carrying capacity for humans or an optimal number of people. I will examine what Muñoz Marín meant by overpopulation in the context of population movements around the globe over a period of more than twenty years, arguing that his Overpopulation Ideology was crucial to his vision for the 20 century's economic and social transformation of Puerto Rico; a vision that drove Puerto Rico's development on a particular path and would later stifle the independence cause.


In-Plane Cyclic Performance of Interlocking This thesis presents results from testing of interlocking compressed earth block (CEB) masonry shear walls. CEBs are low strength earth masonry units sometimes stabilized with cement or lime. The interlocking compressed earth blocks (ICEBs) used in this experiment are dry stacked interlocking hollow units, which can be reinforced and grouted after they are laid. Although significant research has been undertaken to optimize the material properties of CEBs, little has been done to investigate the performance of structural systems currently being built using this technology. Test results are reported for three 1800 mm x 1800 mm wall specimens constructed with cement stabilized ICEBs and subjected to cyclic in-plane lateral loading. Wall specifications were varied to identify the shear performance of partial and fully grouted walls, and to observe the performance of a flexure dominated wall panel. It was determined that the shear strength of fully grouted walls is significantly higher than that of partially grouted walls and calculation of capacity based on current ACI 530-08 masonry provisions significantly overestimates the shear strength of ICEB wall panels. Based on the observed performance, recommendations are made for limiting the calculated nominal shear strength in design. Results also indicate that calculations based on simple bending theory conservatively predict the flexural strength of a fully grouted ICEB wall. Discussion of ICEB material properties and recommendations for design and construction procedures are included.


The central challenge in predictive modeling for survival analysis in medical prognostics is the management of censored observations in the data. In such problems the true target times of a majority of instances are unknown; what is known is a censored target representing some indeterminate time before the true target time. Patients who have experienced the endpoint of interest (cancer recurrence, death, etc) during an often multi-year study are considered as non-censored or events. They may represent as little as 9% of the available samples. Most of the patients do not experience the endpoint or are lost to follow-up for various reasons (patient moved, died of other causes, etc.). These censored samples often represent most of the available instances. Modeling techniques which can correctly account for censored observations are crucial. Such censored samples can be considered as semi-supervised targets, however most efforts in semi-supervised regression do not take into account the partial nature of unsupervised information; with samples treated as either fully labelled or unlabeled. This work presents a novel transduction approach for semi-supervised survival analysis. The true target times are approximated from the censored times through transduction to improve predictive performance. The framework can be employed to transform traditional regression methods for survival analysis, or to enhance existing survival analysis algorithms for improved predictive performance. This proposed approach represents one of the first applications of semi-supervised regression to survival analysis and yields significant improvements in predictive performance for multiple applications in prostate and breast cancer prognostics. Defense Committee: Prof. Casimir Kulikowski (Chair), Prof. Konstantinos Michmizos, Prof. Kevin Chen, Prof. Georgios Mitsis (McGill University)


Traumatic brain injury (TBI) may result in significant impairment in an individual's physical, cognitive and psychosocial functioning, and is acknowledged to be the leading cause of long-term disability in young adults (DSM III; 1999). An increasing body of high-quality evidence now exists for the effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions for TBI of all severities (Powell, Heslin, & Greenwood, 2002; Turner-Stokes, 2008; Wade, Crawford, Wenden, King, & Moss, 1997). However, there is a need for a more comprehensive description of the types of care allocated at the end of the acute phase of TBI, and the factors that influence variation in referral and access to services. Much of the literature focuses on people with severe TBI receiving specialist rehabilitation, and considers only hospitalised cases.
The aims of the present research were to investigate patterns of referral to outpatient rehabilitation services in a population-based sample, to describe factors related to progress in rehabilitation for those referred to public community rehabilitation, and to increase understanding of TBI and its management, by developing a model of rehabilitation pathways. Study 1 looked at some demographic, injury-related, and post-injury characteristics of the participants of the Tasmanian Neurotrauma Register (TNTR) research project (N = 1226), and examined differences in the groups referred to public and private rehabilitation. Studies 2, 3 and 4 looked at the sub-sample of individuals (n = 175) referred for public multidisciplinary rehabilitation at the Community Rehabilitation Unit (CRU). These three studies considered how a range of variables were related to referral to CRU's clinical disciplines, to the likelihood of being offered appointments, and to attendance or non-attendance at initial appointments, when offered them. Study 5 looked further at how rehabilitation services contribute to TBI patients' recovery by considering the amount and nature of therapy participants received at CRU.
This research provides clinicians and researchers with a clearer picture of some of the factors that affect the post-acute rehabilitation process, in a sample of TBI patients that is more representative of adult TBI than those found in the overwhelming majority of studies, which typically consider only moderate to severe TBI and/or hospitalised cases. The rehabilitation pathways and processes outlined will be valuable for rehabilitation clinicians who wish to identify people at risk of poor outcomes. The findings of this research provide a foundation upon which a number of avenues for further research can be based. These include looking at different measures of outcome in TBI samples referred for community rehabilitation, identifying effective interventions that are compatible with existing rehabilitation services, and comparing outcomes in matched samples referred and not-referred for rehabilitation.


OBJECTIVES
This study examined the effects of psychosocial job strain on the excretion of neuroendocrine stress hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol) on workdays and days off.

METHODS
Japanese female health care providers (N=16) filled out Karasek's job content questionnaire and had their neuroendocrine excretions (ie, urinary catecholamines and salivary cortisol) measured on a day off and on two workdays (one day shift and one night shift). After control for age and job experience as covariates, a repeated-measures analysis of variance was carried out.

RESULTS
Noradrenaline excretion was significantly greater over time in the high-strain group than in the low-strain group, and that of the high-demand group was significantly greater over time than that of the low-demand group. Adrenaline excretion did not significantly differ between the groups. The group with high supervisory support had significantly higher adrenaline excretion than the group with low supervisory support. The concentration of salivary cortisol on a dayshift was significantly lower, but marginally, in the high-strain group than in the low-strain group.

CONCLUSIONS
Psychosocial job strain is associated with greater noradrenaline excretion over time. This finding suggests unwinding sympathetic nervous activity. The low cortisol levels of the high-strain group may indicate circadian rhythm disturbance induced by job strain. Supervisory relationships may have a particular influence for the studied occupation because the participants had more administrative contact with supervisors than support at the worksite; therefore, supervisory support may increase adrenaline excretion.


The Last Planner System of Production Control has been used in many different countries since the mid Nineties. However, most research studies developed so far have emphasized the analysis of qualitative data, based on a small number of case studies. Very few quantitative analyses have been undertaken on the impact of its implementation and on the factors that affect its effectiveness. Based on the construction of a large project database, this article presents the main results of an investigation that aimed to assess the impact of LPS based production planning and control systems on the performance of construction projects in terms of cost and time. This investigation has also analyzed the impact of a set of production management practices on the effectiveness of those planning systems. The database contains the following indicators: PPC, cost deviation, time deviation, and site management best practices index. Several analyses were carried out using regression analysis techniques. As main conclusions, the study provided some evidences on the way production planning and control influences project performance, and the importance of site management best practices on the effectiveness of planning and control. Despite the fact that some of the analyses indicated a fairly low correlation index, due to some limitations on the data available, the regression models produced were very consistent.


The synthesis of alpha (immediate-early) polypeptides in Vero cells infected with pseudorabies virus was studied. Cycloheximide was added at the beginning of infection and removed several hours later. The accumulated alpha mRNA was translated either in vivo in the presence of actinomycin D to prevent further mRNA synthesis, or in vitro. In intact cells three electrophoretically distinct virus-specific proteins were synthesized, with apparent molecular weights of approximately 180 000 (A), 190 000 (B) and 200 000 (C). The accumulation of B and C was prevented by the proline analogue azetidine. Only protein A was detected in vitro. Proteins B and C were not detected in normally infected cells. All three were associated with the nuclear fraction of cell homogenates and A and B were phosphorylated. The radioactivity of B and C declined during a chase period while that of A increased. This change was prevented by adding cycloheximide during the chase. The pattern of chymotrypsin digestion products suggested that A and B at least were similar proteins. It is presumed that protein A is the single immediate-early protein previously described and analogous to ICP 4 of herpes simplex virus. The significance and function, if any, of proteins B and C is not known but it is possible that they represent stages in the formation or transport of A within the cell and that the progression depends on an unstable protein which is depleted in cells treated with cycloheximide.


BACKGROUND
There has been an increasing emphasis in many countries worldwide to capture the views of children on health services and research. A previous systematic review found that most oral health research from 2000 to 2005 was conducted on children and highlighted the need for greater research with children.

AIM
To describe the extent to which oral health research between 2006 and 2014 has been conducted with or on children.

DESIGN
Systematic review. Electronic databases were searched for the literature on child dental health. Each identified paper was examined by two researchers and categorised based on the extent to which children were involved in the research, the type of study (evaluative or otherwise), the country of origin, and the clinical discipline.

RESULTS
The search included 2950 papers after application of the exclusion criteria. Of these, 17.4% were with children, 18.3% involved the use of proxies (parents or clinician), and 64.2% were on children.

CONCLUSIONS
The proportion of studies from 2006 to 2014 involving research with children has increased from 7.3% in 2000-2005. This systematic review provides evidence for movement towards children's involvement in dental research over the last 10 years. Future dental research must focus on incorporating children's perspectives into the evaluation of dental treatments to improve outcomes for children.


Frogs of Australia is a comprehensive electronic field guide app to Australian frogs, available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch (with an Android version on the way). Species profiles include high-resolution photographs, distribution maps, description of key characters, similar species, conservation, calls, and more.

Written and produced by Conrad Hoskin, Gordon Grigg, David Stewart, and Stewart Macdonald, the guide is constantly evolving and will be updated as new species are described. The guide includes introductory sections on frequently asked questions about frogs and frog biology, plus diagrams of anatomical features used to identify frogs.

The advent of the smartphone has revolutionised the creation of field guides. Not only can you fit essentially unlimited photos, maps, and text in your pocket, but you can also take call recordings into the field with you and use them to help you identify the frogs you can hear. In addition, GPS hardware provides location-aware filtering, enabling you to restrict your search results to only those species you are within range of.

Feature overview:

-Profiles for all 238 Australian species, including detailed descriptions and distribution maps.

-Over 1200 high resolution images from some of Australia's best wildlife photographers.

-Over 700 frog call sound clips, with oscillograms and spectrograms to visualise call structure.

-Most species have multiple photos, showing subspecies, colour and pattern variation, habitat, and more.

-Can generate a species list for your current location using your device's GPS hardware (if present).

-Will highlight your current location on the distribution map.

-Universal app for iPhone, iPad, iPad mini and iPod touch.

-Fully self-contained – no network connection is needed.

-Android version is on the way – stay tuned!

A free lite version is also available so you can check it out before upgrading to the full version.


The years leading up to the close of the century were an important time in the evolution of rhythm tap dancing, an indigenous American art form. The majority of African American men who helped to give birth to tap as a jazz based art form had long since retired and many had passed away. In their struggle to achieve artistic legitimating, the founding fathers and mothers of rhythm tap elevated the art form from its illegitimate past to a level of serious artistic recognition by turning dance into music--the syncopated rhythms of jazz. This once dying art form was now experiencing a re-emergence into the market place of mainstream entertainment. With the critical and financial success of Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk on Broadway, master tap innovator, Savion Glover, and a cadre of young, African American males ushered rhythm tap dancing into greater mainstream attention linking the art form to the youth culture of hip hop. "Dancing with the ghost of minstrelsy," examines the impediments confronted by an evolving art form to gain artistic acceptance. It further documents how the purposive actions of a community of cultural workers endeavor to gain artistic legitimacy for their once dying art form. It is a review of its once marginal status, a documented exploration of an important period in its history, and a summation of the now, then, and future of rhythm Tap. The young generation of developing artists, led by Savion Glover, placed their personal stamp on rhythm tap and made it their own. Maurice Merleau-Ponty points out that human beings experience "a haunting of the present structure of past experiences" (Merleau-Ponty, 1962: 32). In the bodily meeting place of the past, present, and future, the African American males bodily representation in tap has become a vessel of symbolic protest against past, present, and future oppression. Through the performance genre of the rhythm tap, the African American male symbolically freed himself from the chains of his oppression that was representative of the minstrel and obsequious history of the art form. During the period of the 1990s, rhythm tap resurfaced as part of the mainstream popular culture. At this epoch in its history, rhythm tap, the once theatrically enslaved body sold on the auction block of white dominated commercial entertainment became a new body in performance--a total antithesis to its former self. In contrast to the subservient tradition of minstrelsy, these young men now conveyed a power and bodily control. In fact, they danced fiercely as if they were excising the ghost of minstrelsy itself. Having experienced the pain of the past humiliations of the smiling, subservient, tap dancer, the new African American body in performance was aggressive, athletic, and totally expressive. The faces of these young men were without the larger than life personality and wide toothy smile of the minstrel tradition in entertainment. Most of the young men kept their personalities, feelings, and emotions in the music and not as exaggerated outward expression. The young men and women, who were in the minority, were performing not for audience approval but rather for their own personal feelings of accomplishment. They refused to project historic superficial performance expressions as part of their routines. These performers declined to compromise their artistic expression by trying to use their individuality to appeal to audiences rather than appearing to beg for acceptance. They danced with spontaneous raw feeling and emotion, with naked expression and honesty, representing the embodiment of freedom and masculinity. This emerging generation of talented performers in the bodily presentation of art purposely distanced themselves from popular images of minstrelsy that had poisoned the minds of the theatre going public for decades. Cultural Invisibility Important elements of African American oral tradition that are often rendered invisible by scholars and observers of American society, include folklore, humor, sacred music, blues, jazz, art, and dance. …


An investigation of the propagation of optical beams and the main properties of spatial solitons in three-dimensional media with a local saturable nonlinear refractive-index change is presented. The fundamental bright-soliton solution is calculated from a first integral that describes a two-value solution branch. Although both solution branches are stable in the framework of linear stability theory, the dynamic of beam propagation shows that slightly perturbed initial soliton beams do not evolve to a perfect solitary beam but lead to periodic oscillations of the amplitude. The dependence of the long-living oscillations and the possible azimuthal-symmetry breaking with formation of filaments on the saturation parameter γ and the initial-beam parameters are studied in detail. The results are compared with experimental observations of two-dimensional photorefractive solitons. The interaction and the collision of two spatial solitons are investigated. Beam fusion can appear for parallel propagation as well for small collision angles and small phase differences for solitary beams of both solution branches. Furthermore, solitary-beam dragging with initially overlapping beams of different directions is studied.


This thesis study examines the information content of non-current assets (NCA) during economic crisis period. Specifically this study asked two questions. First, whether NCA information content still exist during economic crisis period. Abandonment option hypothesis suggest firms' net book value of equity has more information content than earnings, conceptually during economic crisis period. However there is vague evidence in prior literature with regards to NCA information content during economic crisis period even though NCA is the major component of net book value of equity. Second, this study asked whether NCA information content during economic crisis period might be diluted due to NCA having two major components of opposite nature, tangible and intangible NCA. There is very little evidence on the information content of tangible together with intangible NCA during economic crisis period in prior literature. This thesis research empirically test information content of NCA based on multiple regressions of three decision making models. The models are the analysts' earnings forecasts accuracy model, the price model and the returns model. Sample data consist of all firms listed on the main board of Bursa Malaysia throughout years 1990 until 2001, inclusive. Sample data is partition into three main sub-samples of three different economic conditions, namely pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods. Focus of thesis study is on crisis period proxy by the Asian financial crisis being years 1997 and 1998. Pre-crisis period cover years before 1997 and post-crisis period cover years after 1998. Pre-crisis period results suggest NCA have less information content compared to post-crisis period results. Economic crisis period results suggest NCA have information content based on NCA association with dependent variables in all three main models. Results also suggest NCA information content is better for decision on firms' value than for predicting firms' performance. Price models consistently show higher explanatory power compared to accuracy and returns models. In further analysis on crisis period, results provide evidence NCA information content might be diluted when examined as one item compared to when examined as components of tangible and intangibles. Findings imply that abandonment option hypothesis could be refined by investigating NCA as components rather than as one item. Findings provide evidence to financial statement preparers and accounting regulators that NCA is important information for decision making by capital market participants during economic crisis period.


One of the criteria used to evaluate the AES candidate algorithms was their demonstrated suitability as random number generators. That is, the evaluation of their output utilizing statistical tests should not provide any means by which to computationally distinguish them from a truly random source. This internal report lists several characteristics which an encryption algorithm exhibiting random behavior should possess, describes how the output for each candidate algorithm was evaluated for randomness, discusses what has been learned utilizing the NIST statistical tests, and finally provides an interpretation of the results.


The prototype hypothesis suggests that attachment representations derived in infancy continue to influence subsequent relationships over the life span, including those formed with one's own children. In the current study, we test the prototype hypothesis by exploring (a) whether child-specific representations following actual experience in interaction with a specific child impacts caregiver-child attachment over and above the prenatal forecast of that representation and (b) whether maternal attachment representations exert their influence on infant attachment via the more child-specific representation of that relationship. In a longitudinal study of 84 mother-infant dyads, mothers' representations of their attachment history were obtained prenatally with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; M. Main, R. Goldwyn, & E. Hesse, 2002), representations of relationship with a specific child were assessed with the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI; C.H. Zeanah, D. Benoit, & L. Barton, 1986), collected both prenatally and again at infant age 11 months, and infant attachment was assessed in the Strange Situation Procedure (M.D.S. Ainsworth, M.C. Blehar, E. Walters, & S. Wall, 1978) when infants were 11 months of age. Consistent with the prototype hypothesis, considerable correspondence was found between mothers' AAI and WMCI classifications. A mediation analysis showed that WMCI fully accounted for the association between AAI and infant attachment. Postnatal WMCI measured at 11 months' postpartum did not add to the prediction of infant attachment, over and above that explained by the prenatal WMCI. Implications for these findings are discussed.


The energetic cost of immune responses has been proposed to be an important basis for trade-offs between life-history traits, such as between survival and reproduction. A critical assumption of this hypothesis is that the magnitude of the energetic cost increases with the strength of an immune response, so that energy can be saved by partly suppressing a response. Here, we test this assumption experimentally. The immune system of great tits Parus major was experimentally activated by injecting different doses of phytohemagglutinin (PHA) in the wing web. We found the resting metabolic rate of immune challenged birds to increase by 5%. However, although great tits injected with a high dose had a stronger immune response, this was not paralleled by a higher metabolic rate. Thus, we found the energetic cost of the immune response to be relatively low and not dose-dependent. This suggests to us that the energetic cost of immune responses cannot form the basis for trade-offs between life-history traits.


Background: Cytomegalovirus has been identified as the
 major cause of morbidity and mortality among neonates. It
 commonly occurs in immunocompromised and
 immunodepressed individuals.
Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the
 occurrence of CMV infection amongst HIV-positive women
 receiving antiretroviral treatment at Federal Teaching
 Hospital Abakaliki (FETHA). Socio-demographic factors
 associated with CMV and HIV were also examined. The
 population of volunteers present for the study was 124
 Persons.
Study Design: Blood samples were collected from the study
 subjects and recent infection of CMV was investigated using
 the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ELISA), which
 detects Immunoglobulin M (IgM).
Results: The result obtained indicated that 14 (11.3%) out of
 the 124 already confirmed HIV patients had recent/current
 CMV infection. Again, 18 of the patients were either
 pregnant or within two weeks of delivery, among which 3
 (16.7%) were CMV positive. The study also showed that
 CMV and HIV co-infection predominates among the age
 group 26-30 years (15.6%), singles (13.9%), and unemployed
 (15.8%) of the tested population. The level of education had
 no effect on the rate of co-infection of CMV and HIV.
Conclusion: This study shows the rate of infection and
 reactivation of CMV among HIV positive patients receiving
 antiretroviral treatment at Federal Teaching Hospital
 Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. CMV infection
 predominates among the Single HIV-positive individuals,
 within the age group 26-30 years, followed by Civil Servants
 and the unemployed. We therefore recommend that
 serious and aggressive campaign be carried out in this
 region and elsewhere where CMV and HIV co-infection is
 endemic or prevalent in order to curtail the transmission of the disease and thus reduce the possible menace posed by
 this virus.