In most of the people, bone loss and deterioration of bone structure results in bone disorders such as osteoporosis, arthritis, decreased bone mass, rickets, and deformed bones. Insufficient level of vitamin D3 and calcium in the body are the major causes of bone disorders. The present study aimed to explore the potential of Consciousness Energy Healing based vitamin D3 and DMEM medium on various bone health parameters such as alkaline phosphatase enzyme (ALP) activity, collagen levels and bone mineralization. Both the test items (TI) i.e. vitamin D3 and DMEM medium were divided into two parts. The test items received the Consciousness Energy Healing Treatment by Patricia Margaret Rowe and those samples were labeled as the Biofield Energy Treated (BT) samples, while the other parts of both the sample were denoted as the untreated test items (UT). Cell viability using MTT assay showed that cell viability in tested samples was more than 70% with safe and nontoxic profile on MG-63 cell line. The level of ALP was significantly increased by 230.8% (at 50 µg/mL), 231.3% (at 50 µg/mL), and 253% (at 100 µg/mL) in UT-DMEM+BT-TI, BT-DMEM+UT-TI, and BT-DMEM+BT-TI groups, respectively as compared with the untreated test item and DMEM group. Collagen level was significantly increased by 497.7%, 346.2%, 323%, and 331.4% at 0.1, 1, 10, and 50 µg/mL, respectively in the UT-DMEM+BT-TI group, while 116.3% and 112.8% at 0.1 and 50 µg/mL, respectively in the BT-DMEM+UT-TI group. In addition, 70.5% and 143.6% increased collagen was reported at 10 and 50 µg/mL, respectively in BT-DMEM+BT-TI group as compared with the untreated group. Bone mineralization percentage was significantly increased by 241.3% at 1 µg/mL in UT-DMEM+BT-TI group, while 187.9% and 113.7% at 0.1 and 1 µg/mL, respectively in BT-DMEM+UT-TI group as compared with the untreated group. In addition, BT-DMEM+BT-TI group showed a significant increased bone mineralization by 129.8% at 1 µg/mL as compared with the untreated group. Overall, the experimental data suggested that the Biofield Energy Treated vitamin D3 and DMEM would play an important role in the promotion and maintenance of strong and healthy bones, which improve quality of life. Biofield Energy Treatment might also regulates the osteoblast function, improves bone mineralization, and calcium absorption in wide range of bone disorders along with wide range of adverse health conditions, comprising cancer and certain autoimmune diseases.


How can you make your iPhone or iPad app stand out in the highly competitive App Store? While many books simply explore the technical aspects of iPhone and iPad app design and development, App Savvy focuses on the business, product, and marketing elements critical to pursuing, completing, and selling your app -- the ingredients for turning a great idea into a genuinely successful product. Whether you're a marketer, designer, developer, entrepreneur, product manager, or just someone with a unique idea, App Savvy explains every step in the process, with guidelines for planning a solid concept, engaging customers early and often, developing your app, and launching it with a bang. Author Ken Yarmosh details a proven process for developing successful apps, and presents numerous interviews with the App Store's most prominent publishers. Learn about the App Store and how Apple's mobile devices function Follow guidelines for vetting and researching app ideas Validate your ideas with customers -- and create an app they'll be passionate about Assemble your development team, understand costs, and establish a workable process Build your marketing plan while you develop your application Test your working app extensively before submitting it to the App Store Assess your app's performance and keep potential buyers engaged and enthusiastic Three Myths About Building iPad/iPhone Apps1. Being Artistically or Technically Challenged Makes You UselessRoughly 30-40% of your app is about thinking including researching, a disciplined approach to talking to potential customers about your idea, and "mocking" your app in easy to use software tools. Even if you don't know how to design or develop an app, there's much to do before formally building it.2. It's Impossible to Find People to Build an AppToday, there are mobile-specific resources available, which will make finding those that can help build your app much easier. And knowing the right questions to ask will allow you to be clear about how much your app will cost and how long it will take to build.3. Marketing Occurs Once the App is AvailableStarting your marketing earlier will help development and vice versa. Following the right steps to start developing and marketing your app at the same time will make your app considerably more successful once it launches.


Human flourishing is a principal goal of therapeutic recreation (TR) services so therapeutic recreation specialists (TRSs) must be well versed in all aspects of flourishing. Two critical aspects are leisure and work. Leisure's contributions to flourishing have been studied and reported but the same cannot be said for work. Therefore, this article explores two conceptualizations of work. One conceptualization is based on Marx's philosophical anthropology and one is based on MacIntyre's notion of practices. In addition, the relationships of these views to leisure and human flourishing are highlighted. The article concludes by discussing potential consequences emanating from accepting the premise that work and leisure are interdependent facets of human flourishing. Possible consequences for TR include incorporating different work perspectives into the preparation, credentialing and continuing education of professionals; addressing work related issues with TR services; and broadening professionals' purview to encompass work aspirations of service recipients. Subscribe to TRJ


Measurements were made of the change of threshold during and after exposure to scotopically and photopically equivalent spectral lights using a constant small b wave in the frog's electroretinogram as criterion.After exposure to spectral lights of equal photopic luminance, the rod branch of the dark-adaptation curve occurs earlier after orange than after blue adaptation while the cone branches are the same. After exposure to lights of equal scotopic luminance, during the cone branch of the dark adaptation curve the threshold is higher after orange than after blue adaptation while the rod branches are the same.Incremental thresholds have been determined for test lights of various wavelengths at stepwise increased levels of adaptive illumination with orange and blue lights of equal scotopic efficiency. With blue adaptation the loss of blue sensitivity is as large as the loss of orange sensitivity with orange adaptation whereas the effect of blue adaptation on orange sensitivity is much smaller than the loss of blue sensitivity with orange adaptation. It is concluded that blue light mainly depressed the rods while orange light depresses rods and cones in more nearly equal proportions. No test light was found which would change the increment threshold equally with orange and blue adaptation.The use of blue glasses is recommended to preserve a high cone sensitivity during and after exposure to bright lights of equal scotopic efficiency.


Heme oxygenase (HO)-1 is a stress-inducible rate-limiting enzyme in heme degradation that confers cytoprotection against oxidative injury and provides a vital function in maintaining tissue homeostasis. Increasing reports have indicated that lipoteichoic acid (LTA) exerts as LPS as an immune system-stimulating agent and plays a role in the pathogenesis of severe inflammatory responses induced by Gram-positive bacterial infection. We report that LTA is an inducer of HO-1 expression mediated through the signaling pathways in human tracheal smooth muscle cells (HTSMCs). LTA-induced HO-1 protein levels, mRNA expression, and promoter activity were attenuated by transfection with dominant negative mutants of TLR2 and MyD88, by pretreatment with the inhibitors of c-Src (PP1), NADPH oxidase (diphenylene iodonium chloride (DPI) and apocynin (APO)), and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger ( N -acetyl- L -cysteine) or by transfection with small interfering RNAs of Src and NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). LTA-stimulated translocation of p47 phox and Nrf2 or ROS production was attenuated by transfection with dominant negative mutants of TLR2, MyD88, and c-Src and by pretreatment with DPI or APO. Furthermore, LTA-induced TLR2, MyD88, TNFR-associated factor (TRAF)6, c-Src, and p47 phox complex formation was revealed by immunoprecipitation using an anti-TLR2 or anti-c-Src Ab followed by Western blot analysis against an anti-TLR2, anti-MyD88, anti-TRAF6, anti-c-Src, or anti-p47 phox Ab. These results demonstrated that LTA-induced ROS generation was mediated through the TLR2/MyD88/ TRAF6/c-Src/NADPH oxidase pathway, in turn initiates the activation of Nrf2, and ultimately induces HO-1 expression in HTSMCs. The Journal of Immunology, 2008, 181: 5098–5110.


Handel's association with the English Chapel Royal began soon after he settled in London, and continued intermittently for the remainder of his life. ' The thesis traces this association until'the death of King George I in 1727. Handel's Chapel Royal music is examined with dual reference to the Chapel's musical traditions and the development of the composer's style. Political events influenced the extent of Handel's involvement with the Chapel at different periods: the relationship between the composers, the Chapel Royal and the British Court is described within the historical contexts drawing on many unpublished sources.

After an introductory survey of the repertoire of Handel's Chapel Royal music, the musical history of the Chapel during the period preceding Handel's arrival in London is described, paying special attention to performances of instrumentally-accompanied services and anthems, and the ceremonial Thanksgiving Services of Queen Anne's reign. Handel's experience of church music In Italy and Germany previous to his arrival in England is described, and the contemporary English anthems of William Croft are examined by way of an introduction to Handel's first English Verse Anthem. Two chapters are devoted, to Handel's Chapel Royal compositions from the period 1710-1714, including his music celebrating the Peace of Utrecht.

Chapters 6 and 7 investigate the circumstances surrounding Handel's disassociation from the Chapel in 1715-1722 and his subsequent re-establishment there during the last years of George I's reign. The significance, of Handel's appointment as Composer to the Chapel is considered, and a chronology for his Chapel Royal music from the 1720p suggested. The music is examined in detail, and described with reference to related antecedent Chandos Anthems., The later history of Handel's Chapel Royal music is surveyed briefly in the final chapter.

Factual background material is collected in an extended supplement and fifteen appendices.


Throughout the twentieth century, the worlds of logic and mathematics were well aware of Hilbert's twenty-three problems and the challenge they ofiered. Although not known until very recently, there existed yet one more challenge ofiered by Hilbert, his twenty-fourth problem. This problem focuses on flnding simpler proofs, on the criteria for measuring simplicity, and on the \development of a theory of the method of proof in mathematics in general". Of the three themes of Hilbert's twenty-fourth problem, the flrst two are central to this article. We visit various areas of logic, showing that some of the studies of the masters are indeed strongly connected to this newly discovered problem. We also demonstrate that the use of an automated reasoning program (speciflcally, W. McCune's OTTER) enables one to address this challenging problem. We ofier questions that remain unanswered.


The thesis outlines the research project undertaken to examine the effect of microcomputers in the field of project planning on construction projects. The hypothesis to be tested was that project planning had a poor reputation within the construction industry and that this poor reputation was due to two primary factors. One was that the work of project planning was carried out by personnel inappropriately positioned within the construction management structure and the second was that there were inherent problems with the use of the technique of network analysis that make it unattractive to site management personnel. A series of structured interviews was conducted which appeared to confirm the general hypotheses and, based on this, an experiment was established to re-locate the role of project planning to an on-site role in a number of longitudinal case studies. To achieve this a microcomputer was necessary and, at that time, a software program had to be created as no suitable programs were available that would enable the experiment to proceed within a realistic budget.In general site management welcomed the changes brought about in the experiment and reacted favourably to the ability to plan projects on site. As a result some of the inherent problems associated with the technique were overcome.Project planning was, by those involved with the test program, better regarded and generally rapid on site project planning was seen as being of increased value. The benefits gained by the use of a microcomputer which were speed, ease of use and availability on site seemed to remove many of the objections raised by project planners and managers when discussing project planning by manual or main frame methods.There were suggestions that the use of a computer could be taken further and that the computer could adopt more of the network planning role, particularly the creation of the network model.


It is shown that, when all macroscopic currents associated with the electric and magnetic polarizability are properly accounted for, the standard expression for the Poynting vector and the average work exerted by the electric field on the electric charges provide exactly the same value for the heating rate. Therefore, there is no contradiction between negative refraction and thermodynamics.


Abstract. Routine observations of the aurora are conducted in Apatity by a set of five cameras: (i) all-sky TV camera Watec WAT-902K (1/2"CCD) with Fujinon lens YV2.2 × 1.4A-SA2; (ii) two monochromatic cameras Guppy F-044B NIR (1/2"CCD) with Fujinon HF25HA-1B (1:1.4/25 mm) lens for 18° field of view and glass filter 558 nm; (iii) two color cameras Guppy F-044C NIR (1/2"CCD) with Fujinon DF6HA-1B (1:1.2/6 mm) lens for 67° field of view. The observational complex is aimed at investigating spatial structure of the aurora, its scaling properties, and vertical distribution in the rayed forms. The cameras were installed on the main building of the Apatity division of the Polar Geophysical Institute and at the Apatity stratospheric range. The distance between these sites is nearly 4 km, so the identical monochromatic cameras can be used as a stereoscopic system. All cameras are accessible and operated remotely via Internet. For 2010–2011 winter season the equipment was upgraded by special blocks of GPS-time triggering, temperature control and motorized pan-tilt rotation mounts. This paper presents the equipment, samples of observed events and the web-site with access to available data previews.


Significant neutropenia, as well as thrombocytopenia and a mild anemia, occurs in patients infected with Colorado tick fever virus. In this study, human bone marrow CD34+ cells and KG-1a cells, a human hematopoietic progenitor cell line, were infected in vitro with Colorado tick fever virus. The time course and morphological appearance of viral replication in human progenitor cells were similar to those seen in erythroblasts and in HEL cells and suggest one possible mechanism for the clinical hematologic findings.


It's Friday night and you're on a red-eye to the city of sin. Strapped to your chest is half a million dollars; in your overnight bag is another twenty-five thousand in blackjack chips; and your wallet holds ten fake IDs. As soon as you land in Las Vegas, you are positive you are being investigated and followed. To top it all off, the IRS is auditing you, someone has been going through your mail -- and you have a multivariable calculus exam on Monday morning. Welcome to the world of an exclusive group of audacious MIT math geniuses who legally took the casinos for over three million dollars -- while still finding time for college keg parties, football games, and final exams.In the midst of the go-go eighties and nineties, a group of overachieving, anarchistic MIT students joined a decades-old underground blackjack club dedicated to counting cards and beating the system at major casinos around the world. While their classmates were working long hours in labs and libraries, the blackjack team traveled weekly to Las Vegas and other glamorous gambling locales, with hundreds of thousands of dollars duct-taped to their bodies. Underwritten by shady investors they would never meet, these kids bet fifty thousand dollars a hand, enjoyed VIP suites and other upscale treats, and partied with showgirls and celebrities.Handpicked by an eccentric mastermind -- a former MIT professor and an obsessive player who had developed a unique system of verbal cues, body signals, and role-playing -- this one ring of card savants earned more than three million dollars from corporate Vegas, making them the object of the casinos' wrath and eventually targets of revenge. Here is their inside story, revealing their secrets for the first time.Master storyteller Ben Mezrich takes you from the ivory towers of academia to the Technicolor world of Las Vegas, where anything can happen -- and often does. "Bringing Down the House" launches you into the seedy underworld of corporate Vegas -- deep into the realm of back rooms, ever-present video cameras, private investigators, and the threats and tactics of pit bosses and violent heavies. Equipped with twenty different aliases and disguises, the group of young card counters struggles around these roadblocks to live the high life -- until one fateful day when Vegas violently follows them home to Boston. Suddenly, there can be no more hiding behind false identities; the high life folds like a bad hand of cards.Filled with tense action and incredibly close calls, "Bringing Down the House" is a real-life mix of "Liar's Poker" and "Ocean's Eleven "-- and it's a story Vegas doesn't want you to read.


In this paper we present a method to perform run-time monitoring of distributed applications built on top of a distributed object oriented processing environment. For this, we instrument the code at the compilation time in order to send notiications to an Observer when relevant events occur in the system; the instrumentation is done in an automated manner, requiring a minimum of programmer interactions. One advantage of our run-time monitoring approach is that it does not hinder the development process already adopted. In our proposal, the choice of the information to select for observation is made simple by the deenition of events which are generic and useful for all distributed applications; the user does not need to specify them. We apply our run-time monitoring method to a telecommunication service implemented on top of the distributed processing environment CORBA Orbix TM from IONA.


This book offers an original hypothesis capable of unifying evolution in the physical universe with evolution in biology; herewith it lays the conceptual foundations of "transdisciplinary unified theory". The rationale for the hypothesis is presented first; then the theoretical framework is outlined, and thereafter it is explored in regard to quantum physics, physical cosmology, micro- and macro-biology, and the cognitive sciences (neurophysiology, psychology, with attention to anomalous phenomena as well). The book closes with a variety of studies, both by the author and his collaborators, sketching out the implications of the hypothesis in regard to brain dynamics, cosmology, the concept of space, phenomena of creativity, and the prospects for the elaboration of a mature transdisciplinary unified theory. The Foreword is written by philosopher of science Arne Naess, and the Afterword is contributed by neuroscientist Karl Pribram.


Pevtsov et al. recently showed that the luminosity of solar and stellar X-rays from closed magnetic structures scales nearly linearly with magnetic flux over 12 decades. We show here that the total power available to accelerate the solar wind also scales linearly with magnetic flux, provided that its sources inject a roughly constant energy per particle prior to losses from heat conducted by electrons into radiation. Using a recently developed model of the solar wind energy source and particle source, we calculate the available solar wind power and convert it into an equivalent X-ray luminosity to explore whether the same process that drives solar wind may also power coronal heating. The quantitative results agree remarkably well with the Pevtsov et al. X-ray observations and with GOES X-ray observations over almost two solar cycles from 1985 to 2004. The model for the solar wind energy and particle source relies on the continual reconfiguration of the supergranular network through the emergence of small bipolar or more complex closed magnetic fields. This naturally leads to an energy flux proportional to field strength on large-scale field structures with field strengths larger than the emerging flux. We conclude that the sources of energy for the solar wind and coronal heating are linked, likely through the emergence of new magnetic flux that continually reconfigures large-scale solar magnetic fields and powers and heats the corona.


This licentiate thesis presents and discusses experimental explorations in search for new methods of form-thinking within the knitwear design process. The position of textile knitting techniques is somewhat ambiguous. This is because they are not only concerned with creating the textile material, but also with the form of the garment as these two are created in the same process. Consequently, the common perception of form and material as two separate design parameters can be questioned when it comes to knitting. Instead, we may view it as a design process that has a single design parameter; a design process in which the notion of form provides the conceptual foundation. Through conducting a series of design experiments using knitting and crochet techniques, the notion of form was explored from the perspective of the way in which we make a garment. The outcome of the experiments showed that there are possibilities for development of alternative working methods in knitwear design by viewing form in terms of topological invariants rather than as abstract geometrical silhouettes. If such a notion, i.e. a notion of a more concrete geometry, were to be implemented in the design process for knitwear, it would provide another link between action and expression that could deepen our understanding of the design potential of knitting techniques and provide the field with new expressions and gestalts.


Prior to 1900, the colony of Senegal had suffered from periodic epidemics of yellow fever. In an attempt to combat the disease, the government of Senegal began to enact new legislation to prevent the spread of epidemics. The government hoped that these new laws would allow them to control yellow fever epidemics without hurting the economic viability of the colony, but they found that the new laws created new challenges. Within the first decade of the passage of the new legislation a series of formal complaints and court cases would challenge sanitation laws and test the limits of government authority.


This is a guide to scholarly research and primary source collections related to United States history. Subpages include Boston history, Indigenous people's histories, Caribbean history, as well as African American History.


For millennia, metallurgists have been meticulously tweaking the ingredients of steel to enhance its properties. As a result, several variants of steel exist today; but one type, called martensitic steel, stands out from its steel cousins as stronger and more cost-effective to produce. Hence, martensitic steels naturally lend themselves to applications in the aerospace, automotive and defense industries, among others, where high-strength, lightweight parts need to be manufactured without boosting the cost.


. The paper presents the last studies of the underground coal gasification process intensification by determining the concentration of combustible producer gases (CO, H 2 , CH 4 ), depending on the temperature of reducing zone in the reaction channel and the gas flow velocity along its length. It was established that the volume of coal that is gasified in-situ varies directly in proportion to the amount of burnt coal and blast velocity. The intensification of the synergy of gasification is enhanced provided that the concentrations of oxygen and carbon are equal in the reaction channel of the underground gasifier. The rate of gasification is due to the intensity of chemical reactions and directly depends on the intensity of the sup-ply to the coal mass of oxygen and gasification products extraction. Established values make it possible to determine the output of underground gasifier on stable operation regime. Obtained results of experimental studies with sufficient precision for application can be used to determine working parameters of underground gasifier and provide to expand the field of application of an underground coal gasification technology


We systematically investigate and compare general methods of designing single mode photonic crystal waveguides in a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice of air holes in a dielectric material. We apply the rather general methods to dielectric-core hexagonal lattice photonic crystals since they have not been widely explored before. We show that it is possible to obtain single mode guiding in a limited portion of the photonic bandgap of hexagonal lattice structures. We also compare the potentials of different photonic crystal lattices for designing single-mode waveguides and conclude that triangular lattice structures are the best choice.


Although highly regarded during his short life -- and honored by artists and architects today -- the American artist Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-78) has been largely ignored within the history of art. Matta-Clark is best remembered for site-specific projects known as "building cuts." Sculptural transformations of architecture produced through direct cuts into buildings scheduled for demolition, these works now exist only as sculptural fragments, photographs, and film and video documentations. Matta-Clark is also remembered as a catalytic force in the creation of SoHo in the early 1970s. Through loft activities, site projects at the exhibition space 112 Greene Street, and his work at the restaurant Food, he participated in the production of a new social and artistic space. Have art historians written so little about Matta-Clark's work because of its ephemerality, or, as Pamela M. Lee argues, because of its historiographic, political, and social dimensions? What did the activity of carving up a building-in anticipation of its destruction -- suggest about the conditions of art making, architecture, and urbanism in the 1970s? What was one to make of the paradox attendant on its making -- that the production of the object was contingent upon its ruination? How do these projects address the very writing of history, a history that imagines itself building toward an ideal work in the service of progress? In this first critical account of Matta-Clark's work, Lee considers it in the context of the art of the 1970s -- particularly site-specific, conceptual, and minimalist practices -- and its confrontation with issues of community, property, the alienation of urban space, the "right to the city," and the ideologies of progress that have defined modern building programs.


Geological and paleoclimatic events are two main forces driving evolutionary processes in nature. These are poorly studied phenomena in North Africa, despite its great diversity of habitats, heterogeneous landscapes, and complex climatic and geological histories. Modern biodiversity patterns of the Sahara and the adjacent arid Sahel likely resulted from strong oscillations in climate and land-cover. Acanthodactylus scutellatus species group comprises important elements of the herpetofauna of arid ecosystems in North Africa, and well adapted to xeric conditions. Despite their remarkable diversity, the taxonomy within the complex is controversial, and with the exception of morphological data, little is known about these organisms. Observations of morphologically intermediate individuals in sympatry areas suggested hybridization between taxa. The present study aims to infer: 1) phylogenetic relationships within this group and identify major lineages; and 2) contemporary gene flow in a contact zone in Mauritania. Phylogenetic analyses were based on 466 specimens that were sequenced for both 12S and Cyt-b mitochondrial genes (756 total bp), and for the Cmos nuclear gene (513 total bp). A total of 208 individuals of the contact zone were genotyped for 15 microsatellites. Our results show that recovered major lineages do not match with current systematics, suggesting that taxonomy and systematics need revision. Genotyping analyses confirmed the historical lineages found in the studied contact zone and show absence of gene flow between them, with no hybrids detected despite the large sampling and broad geographic coverage. Lack of observed gene flow raises questions about the putative role of reproductive barriers and habitat selection in preventing admixture. Finally, the molecular tools applied allowed for insights on the species boundaries, relationships, history and diversity of this group, in addition to contributing to the knowledge about gene flow in the Sahara-Sahel.


Recently, Transformer-like deep architectures have shown strong performance on tabular data problems. Unlike traditional models, e.g., MLP, these architectures map scalar values of numerical features to high-dimensional embeddings before mixing them in the main backbone. In this work, we argue that embeddings for numerical features are an underexplored degree of freedom in tabular DL, which allows constructing more powerful DL models and competing with GBDT on some traditionally GBDT-friendly benchmarks. We start by describing two conceptually different approaches to building embedding modules: the first one is based on a piecewise linear encoding of scalar values, and the second one utilizes periodic activations. Then, we empirically demonstrate that these two approaches can lead to significant performance boosts compared to the embeddings based on conventional blocks such as linear layers and ReLU activations. Importantly, we also show that embedding numerical features is beneficial for many backbones, not only for Transformers. Specifically, after proper embeddings, simple MLP-like models can perform on par with the attention-based architectures. Overall, we highlight embeddings for numerical features as an important design aspect with good potential for further improvements in tabular DL.


ABSTRACT Vilumaa, K.; Tõnisson, H.; Sugita, S.; Buynevich, I.V.; Kont, A.; Muru, M.; Preusser, F.; Bjursäter, S.; Vaasma, T.; Vandel, E.; Molodkov, A., and Järvelill, J.I., 2016. Past extreme events recorded in the internal architecture of coastal formations in the Baltic Sea region. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 775–779. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The postglacial uplift and transgressive-regressive phases of the Baltic Sea have affected the formation and displacement of sandy accumulation forms in the region. The dune-ridge complexes preserve a geological record of past sea-level fluctuations, coastal evolution, and extreme events, and offer insights into major driving mechanisms. This study aims to improve methodologies for identifying different storm signatures in coastal deposits using examples from Estonia and Latvia. The paleo-beach ridges are typically covered by aeolian sand, and the inter-ridge swales are mostly filled with organic sediments. Ground-penetrating radar surveys corroborate distinct textural patterns in sand layers underneath the ridges and swales. In the ridges, sharp seaward-dipping reflections represent storm scarps. The ridge sequences without dipping reflections suggest either aeolian origin or longshore transport; smaller sandy ridges, which are buried under peat layers, reflect prolonged, calmer phases. Compound dunes with ridges in their cores indicate major coastal events or shifts in atmospheric conditions that would have exposed wide sand areas to wind and facilitated dune development. This study demonstrates that the aeolian processes and changes in storminess have played an important role in the genesis of ridge-swale complexes in the Baltic Sea Region.


The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is widely and vigorously promoted as the basis for primary care reform that will support a high-performing, cost-effective health care system.1 The PCMH involves a deceptively simple set of key structural practice features that have been proposed to result in enhanced access for routine primary care, improved delivery of preventive services, high-quality chronic disease management, and reduced emergency department and hospital utilization.1,2 The most definitive assessments of its success in improving quality and reducing utilization have been based in highly integrated health care systems and single-payer community-based practices,3 but this model of care is often promoted as the foundation for all primary care delivery, including the solo and small group practices that dominate the primary care delivery system.4 Advocates for the PCMH may be disappointed by the results of the study by Friedberg et al5 reported in this issue of JAMA. They need not be disappointed, but they should pay close attention to the study's lessons.


Listen to Movie Musicals! includes an overview of musical theatre and movie musicals in the United States. The 50 movies chosen for critical analysis include many of the best-known film musicals of the past and present; however, the list also includes several important movie musicals that were popular successes that are not necessarily on the "best-of" lists in other books. This volume also includes a greater focus on the actual music of movie musicals than do most other books, making it a stand-out title on the topic for high school and college readers.
 Like the other books in this series, this volume includes a background chapter followed by a chapter that contains 50 important essays on must-hear movie musicals of approximately 1,500 words each. Chapters on the impact of movie musicals on popular culture and the legacy of movie musicals further explain the impact of both the movies and their songs.


 This paper is an investigation of the use of recycled pavement in Puerto Rico. RAP or Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement is the pavement material extracted from existing roads and recycled by introducing it as part of new asphalt mixes' materials. The introduction of RAP on asphalt mixes is a practice used by the United States of America (USA) several years ago. Nowadays the USA is implementing the use of high percent of RAP in their asphalt mixes allowing the 30 and 40 percent or more, of RAP in some states. At the meantime, Puerto Rico has a maximum percent of RAP allowed of 20% on certain asphalt mixes. But the production of asphalt mixes on the island still falls under this percent for state projects, making the implementation of RAP in Puerto Rico too low in comparison with other states. This investigation pretends to find out the reasons why the asphalt industry on the island is not moving forward on the use of RAP, and bring some recommendations which could help to impulse the production of high RAP mixes. Key Terms  RAP, Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement, Recycle Asphalt, Puerto Rico.


End-stage renal disease (ESRD) has emerged as a major health issue for Australian Aborigines. This phenomenon is paralleled in other populations that have adopted a Westernised lifestyle, including African Americans. It has been suggested that abnormal glomerular hypertrophy (glomerulomegaly) is an important predisposing factor for ESRD. The pathogenesis of glomerulomegaly remains unknown. It may represent a compensatory hypertrophic response to decreased nephron endowment during fetal development. Alternatively, glomerulomegaly may represent an abnormal haemodynamic/metabolic response to repeated infections, including renal infections during postnatal life. Since glomerular number and size are important issues associated with ESRD, an optimum quantitative method is required for estimating these parameters in human kidneys. The total number of glomeruli in the normal human kidney appears to vary by a factor of three or more, ranging from approximately 300,000 to more than 1 million. Recently, unbiased stereological methods for estimating total glomerular number in kidneys have been developed. The general aim of the present study was to evaluate (in terms of precision and efficiency) a stereological method for estimating total glomerular number in human kidneys; the physical disector/fractionator combination. This method provided consistent estimates of total glomerular number. Estimates of total glomerular number obtained for four human kidneys ranged from 364,161 to 586,094 (coefficients of variation 9.2% to 20.0%). Mean glomerular volume for the four kidneys ranged from 6.04 to 10.32 µm 3 x 10 6 . These results indicate that this method is a precise and consistent method for estimating total glomerular number in human kidneys. The simple sampling technique developed in this study will be employed in future studies to determine if there is a difference in total glomerular, and hence nephron, number between Australian Aborigines and Caucasians, and between African and Caucasian Americans.


In this paper we aim at integrating the selection of a nesting structure to the maximum likelihood framework of the parameter estimation. Given a finite set of nesting structures, the traditional approach is to estimate the models corresponding to each of them and select a posteriori the most appropriate one based on some fit statistics and informal testing procedures. However, the number of possible nesting structures grows as a function of the number of alternatives. Our approach simultaneously solves the problem of selecting the optimal nesting structure and estimating its corresponding parameters with maximum likelihood. We call this discrete-continuous maximum likelihood (DCML). We are able to linearize the logarithm in the objective function so that it results in a mixed integer linear problem.


Background: The objective was to study the cases of HELLP syndrome and its management and outcome in a tertiary health care system. Methods: Three Hundred Twenty patients with gestational age >20 weeks were selected whose BP recorded more than 140/90 mm Hg. This study was done from July 2014 to July 2016. Required laboratory investigations were carried out and the outcome was studied with respect to maternal and fetal outcome. Results: The association with HELLP/ Partial HELLP was not significantly associated with the parity and the family history. There was a strong association of HELLP/ Partial HELLP with Pre eclampsia and all the three tests (hemolysis, liver enzymes, platelet count) that was considered to be the gold standard tests to identify the pathology. Conclusions: The association points towards only one point, that is to identify and treat the patients immediately in order to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality.


Understanding modern particle accelerators requires simulating charged particle transport through the machine elements. These simulations can be very time consuming due to the large number of particles and the need to consider many turns of a circular machine. Stream computing offers an attractive way to dramatically improve the performance of such simulations by calculating the simultaneous transport of many particles using dedicated hardware. Modern Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are powerful and affordable stream computing devices. The results of simulations of particle transport through the booster-to-storage-ring transfer line of the DIAMOND synchrotron light source using an NVidia GeForce 7900 GPU are compared to the standard transport code MAD. It is found that particle transport calculations are suitable for stream processing and large performance increases are possible. The accuracy and potential speed gains are compared and the prospects for future work in the area are discussed.


The Gulf States' torts litigation in the aftermath of the BP oil spill is the most recent stage in the evolution of crimtorts – environmental litigation by government lawyers that redresses conduct on the borderline between crime and torts. In our earlier work, we coined the term "crimtort" as a heuristic device to describe the myriad ways that criminal law principles were exported into tort law. Crimtort litigation not only served as a means of civil recourse but also had broader societal purposes such as constraining corporate wrongdoers. In "crimtort" cases, private attorneys general uncovered smoking gun evidence of a company's practices or procedures that threatened the consuming public's health, safety, and well-being. In this article, we expand our theory of crimtort to explain the U.S. and Mexican Gulf State governmental actions against the BP oil defendants. These civil actions by government lawyers, often working in cooperation with trial lawyers, raise many of the same challenging issues for tort law, constitutional law, and public policy as in the public health torts filed by government lawyers in the 1990s to constrain the tobacco, lead paint, and hand gun industries. We reconceptualize the environmental parens patriae lawsuits as crimtorts that bridge the gap left by inadequate regulation of big oil companies and other corporate wrongdoers. Briefly, our thesis is that the environmental crimtort merges features of criminal law, tort law, and regulation to punish and deter oil companies whose reckless practices create environmental devastation. This Article compares and contrasts the environmental crimtort to other law, policy and society alternatives. Part I examines four options for resolving the aftermath of the BP oil spill and environmental mass disasters: (1) Micro level one-on-one torts; (2) Meso level Class Actions; (3) The Macro level Gulf Coast Claims Facility; and (4) Macro level governmental parens patriae environmental actions. Part II traces the path of parens patriae litigation from its origins in England and the United States to protect children, the mentally ill, and other legal incompetents to redressing larger social problems such as public health and environmental threats. This part also addresses arguments against expanding parens patriae to public health and environmental torts and concludes that, despite its potential drawbacks, this approach is the best public policy because parens patriae actions offer collective solutions without sacrificing political accountability and openness. Part III examines the parens patriae action as emblematic of an "environmental crimtort." The recent public nuisance lawsuits by the Gulf Coast States are necessary to prevent the cascading impact of hundreds of thousands of individual and class actions from overwhelming the federal and state courts. The Gulf Coast Claims Facility is able to adjudicate hundreds of thousands of claims efficiently but lacks legitimacy because of its overdependence on the arbitrary power of a single claims administrator and its lack of public accountability. These environmental crimtort actions by U.S. and foreign states provide a collective solution without becoming a de facto Fourth Branch of government without bypassing the civil justice system.


Full facepiece respirators (FFRs) with charcoal cartridges are very common wearable devices for industrial or military purposes preventing respiratory tract, face, eyes, and mouth from hazards exposure. However, related research for performance evaluation was rare. We aimed to use a self-developed testing system investigating (1) filtration efficiency (FE) of aerosols in charcoal cartridges; (2) breakthrough time of cyclohexane in charcoal cartridges; (3) fit factors (FFs) and (4) protection factors (PFs) of FRRs. The results showed that FE of charcoal cartridges against 0.3 μm of sodium chloride (NaCl) and dioctyl phthalate (DOP) particles under 85 L min^(-1) were 99.93% and 99.89%, respectively, which did not meet the standard 99.97% regulated for filters such as P100 and HEPA. As for 42.5 L min^(-1) condition (dual canisters), the FE against NaCl (99.97%) did meet the requirement set for HEPA (99.97%); however, that against DOP (99.95%) failed to meet the standard. In addition, the breakthrough time of 3000ppm cyclohexane was 31 min under 32 L min^(-1), which was longer than the 30 min standard described in CNS6636 Z2023 and JIS8152. As to the results of fit test among 21 subjects, only 1 failed to meet the requirement (fit factor = 500) and the average of fit factors was 8342 ± 5892. The mean value of protection factors was 112.3 ± 54.6 while 3 users had lower PFs than the assigned protection factor (APF = 50) regulated by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). APFs obtained for particles less than 100 nm were smaller than the APF standard regulated by OSHA, indicating APF standards may be overestimated for such particle size. Therefore, users should be aware of potential risks caused by such substances in nano-sized scale (e.g., nanoparticles or viruses) when wearing FFRs.


Isolating small objects, such as particles, cells, and molecules, in individual aqueous droplets is useful for chemical and biological assays. We have developed a simple microfluidic platform to immobilize (park) microparticles at defined locations, and isolate particles in monodisperse droplets surrounded by immiscible oil. While conventional methods can only achieve stochastic encapsulation of objects within larger droplets, our in situ method ensures that a single particle is entrapped in a similar-sized droplet, with ∼95% yield for parking and isolation. This enables time-lapse studies of reactions in confined volumes and can be used to perform enzymatic amplification of a desired signal to improve the sensitivity of diagnostic assays. To demonstrate the utility of our technique, we perform highly sensitive, multiplexed microRNA detection by isolating encoded, functional hydrogel microparticles in small aqueous droplets. Non-fouling hydrogel microparticles are attractive for microRNA detection due to favorable capture kinetics. By encapsulating these particles in droplets and employing a generalizable enzyme amplification scheme, we demonstrate an order of magnitude improvement in detection sensitivity compared to a non-amplified assay.


ABSTRACT Evil strikes directly at what we care most deeply about, and attempts to control, predict and even eliminate it often generate new and unforeseen evils. Hence, it is no surprise that philosophers and theologians keep returning to the topic. The following special issue springs from the 21st conference of the European Society for Philosophy of Religion held in Uppsala, Sweden, August 2016.


The ZaP Flow Z-pinch plasma device at the University of Washington produces a small diameter (20-30 mm) dense Z-pinch plasma with typical electron density 1022-1023 m-3 and ion plus electron temperature 100-200 eV. The plasma is stable, with relatively low magnetic mode activity, for tens of microseconds. This is orders of magnitude longer than predicted by a simple ideal magnetohydrodynamic calculation. The probable stabilizing mechanism is radial shear in the axial plasma flow. The axially flowing Z-pinch is generated with a coaxial accelerator coupled to a pinch assembly chamber. After the pinch assembles a quiescent period occurs, during which the mode activity is significantly reduced. Multichord Doppler shift measurements of impurity lines show a large, sheared flow during the quiescent period and low, uniform flow profiles during periods of high mode activity. The plasma has a sheared axial flow that exceeds the theoretical threshold for stability during the quiescent period and is lower than the threshold during periods of high mode activity. The Z-pinch plasmas are globally stable for 700-2000 times the theoretically predicted kink growth time of a static Z-pinch. The end of the quiescent period corresponds to a decrease in acceleration of plasma and possibly suggests a means to extend the experiment to quasi-steady-state operation.


Segmentation, the task of splitting a long sequence of symbols into chunks, can provide important information about the nature of the sequence that is understandable to humans. We focus on unsupervised segmentation, where the algorithm never sees examples of successful segmentation, but still needs to discover meaningful segments. In this paper we present an unsupervised learning algorithm for segmenting sequences of symbols or categorical events. Our algorithm hierarchically builds a lexicon of segments and computes a maximum likelihood segmentation given the current lexicon. Thus, our algorithm is most appropriate to hierarchical sequences, where smaller segments are grouped into larger segments. Our probabilistic approach also allows us to suggest conditional entropy as a measure of the quality of a segmentation in the absence of labeled data. We compare our algorithm to two previous approaches from the unsupervised segmentation literature, showing it to provide superior segmentation over a number of benchmarks. Our specific motivation for developing this general algorithm is to understand the behavior of software programs after deployment by analyzing their traces. We explain and motivate the importance of this problem, and present segmentation results from the interactions of a web service and its clients.


Rekindle the heroic memory of rhe Greeks and Brutus. - Francois-Joseph Gossec, Le Triomphe de In Republique1 Tyrants conduct monologues above a million solitudes. - Albert Camus, The Rebel Now that I am old and there cannot be much time reserved for me, I find that such energy and strength that is left to me must be directed exclusively to Beethoven. OFaIl the composers of the past, he alone remains unfathomable to me. - Romain Rolland - I. Introduction Beethoven, like Freud a century later, was an avid collector.3 Freud accumulated thousands of artifacts, but Beethoven in the end had only a few because, unlike Freud, he changed residences conscantlyl. Whereas Freud retained his collection until his death, most of what Beethoven collected disappeared over the years."1 Some or the survivors - a candleholder, bronze paperweights, a clock, a small bell - we might consider among the normal accoucerments for daily living. But two of them are of a different order. One is a statuette ot Brutus. As Freud cherished his ancient figurines and arranged them carefully before him in his office, in London as in Vienna, so Beethoven kept his Brutus before him on his work desk. The other survivor of interest on that desk is a sheet of paper on which he copied out three sayings taken from an essay by Friedrich Schiller that discusses the Egyptian mysteries, "Die Sendung Moses" (''The Mission of Moses"). Like the Brutus statuette, the saying must have been seen daily and their implications pondered by Beethoven. The remarkable longevity of the tiny statuette and the three Egyptian sayings in the chaos of the volatile Beethoven household, indeed their sheer survival, suggests that the composer treasured them dearly. But why, we may ask, ot all possible objects, did he place on his desk a statuette of Brutus and three mysterious sayings out of ancient Egypt? Do these two artifacts relate to each other? And what, singly or together, can they tell us about Beethoven and his art? II. The Historical Brutus I begin with Brutus. If you visit the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, you will find the small figurine of Brutus in a display case on rhe top floor. Most visitors, if they notice it at all, pass by quickly.1 But this tiny statue, only six-and-a-half inches tall, deserves more attention than it usually receives. But who was this Brutus? There are two candidates. Most people today, when they hear the name Brutus, think of Marcus Tullius Brutus, the first century B.C.E. Roman who, along with Cassius, plotted the assassination of Caesar and subsequendy achieved immortality in the T,t tu. Brute" of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar!3 This Brutus believed that by eliminating Caesar he could keep the Roman Republic alive. He is the same Brutus who lies encased Ui ice in die bottommost circle of Dante's Inferno. Today he is the better-known Brutus, the Brutus whom. most Beethoven scholars, if they mention the statuette at all - and most do not - assume it represents.' Beethoven knew about Marcus Tullius, but he is neither the Brutus of the statuette nor the Brutus who captured his imagination.^ The statuette is of Lucius Junius Brutus. Some tive hundred years before Caesar's Brutus, this Brutus led a successful overthrow of theTarquinian dynasty of Rome. A composite picture of his deeds and bei ng emerges chiefly from Livy and Plutarch, as well as from other classical sources, many of which Beethoven., a student of history no less than of humanity, would likely have known well.9 During the early years of die French Revolution, Lucius |unius Brutus was far and away the better-known Brutus, his name on everyone's lips. The story of Lucius Junius Brutus had riveted artists and writers since the Renaissance. It must have also riveted Beethoven. Btucuss uncle, uSe tyrannical king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus (the Proud), had murdered the previous king (his new wife's father), a number of senators, and most of Brutussown family, including his father and brother. …


Purpose of Report: To determine the usefulness of SPECT imaging over planar imaging for the detection of parathyroid adenomas using dual-phase Tc-99m sestamibi. Materials and Methods: The records of patients referred for dual-phase sestamibi scintigraphy for detection of parathyroid adenomas were reviewed retrospectively. The images were reviewed blindly and planar images were compared with SPECT. The imaging results were compared with the operative results to determine the sensitivity, accuracy of localization, and confidence of the reporting radiologist. Results: The records of 37 patients were reviewed. Sensitivity was 62% for planar imaging and 73% for SPECT. There was one false positive. The side of the adenoma was correctly identified in all other patients. Confidence of detection was higher for SPECT than for planar imaging. Conclusion: SPECT imaging increased the sensitivity and confidence of the detection of parathyroid adenomas. The results indicate that SPECT should be used for all preoperative parathyroid localization.


This article considers an unstudied episode in the life of Andrei Denisovich Vinius, a Dutch entrepreneur and founder of the first metallurgical plant in Russia. Previously, researchers had no information about Vinius' business activities connected with the establishment and management of the metallurgical plant. The sources available to researchers did not prove the hypothesis that the Dutch merchant continued his trading activity. Such data can be found among Prikaz records reflecting results of trials. Andrei Vinius was a defendant in these cases. Documents found by the authors in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts help conclude that Vinius did not stop his trading activity even when his major efforts were aimed at founding a metallurgical plant near Tula. However, the period between 1630 and 1640 was a hard time for the Dutch entrepreneur. It was characterised by a tense situation in the international arena, where his plant had to compete with firearms imported from Europe. In the late 1630s and early 1640s, Muscovy was facing a possible conflict with the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. As a result, the country had to quickly fortify its borders, build new protective walls, and increase the garrisons in the towns of the steppe zones, which required the mass production of small arms. Due to the peculiarities of the Russian domestic resource market, Vinius' arms were nearly a third more expensive compared to small arms imported from Sweden and Germany. Vinius' trading activity led to losses and conflicts with the Russian law. Trying to make up for the losses incurred, he started dealing in tobacco, which was prohibited in Russia. All these factors gradually made Vinius stop his commercial activity and join the Russian civil service. His legal conflict with Nazary Chisty, a clerk of the State Prikaz, and their later reconciliation also allowed Vinius to establish useful connections in government circles.


Syntactic foam is a solid insulation material, featuring a foam-like structure. It's a composition of hollow microspheres and a polymeric matrix material. In this study it consists of glass microspheres and an epoxy resin matrix. The present paper deals with the influence of modified inner interfaces (achieved by silane-coated glass microspheres in order to improve the adhesion quality between the glass microspheres and the epoxy resin matrix) on the electrical properties of the material. The experiments show that the silane-coating (also known as silanization) has a positive influence on the breakdown field strength under electrical ac and dc short term stress. The experiments are conducted for different degrees of filling of the glass microspheres (10 vol.% ... 50 vol.%). It is shown, that the influence of the silanization becomes more significant with higher degree of filling. The life time of the material under electrical ac as well as dc stress can also be improved by a silanization. The dielectric properties (loss factor and relative permittivity) are not influenced by a silanization. Measurements of the viscosity of syntactic foam verify that a silanization reduces the viscosity of the uncured, liquid material during the manufacturing process. Hereby, an improvement of the material's production quality can be achieved at high microspheres' filling degrees.


Summary
Sera from 205 apparently healthy residents in the region of Fondi (central Italy) were tested by hemagglutination-inhibition against 10 different arboviruses: two from group A, five from group B, Bunyamwera, and the Sicilian and Neapolitan strains of Phlebotomus fever.
About 29% of the sera reacted with one or more antigens: 1.9% to TBE, 8.3% to WN, 20.5% to Sicilian Phlebotomus fever and 9.7% to Neapolitan Phlebotomus fever.
Sera from 153 domestic and wild animals of various species (cattle, goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, pigs, rats, and wild mice), collected in the same area, were examined by the HI test against the same 10 antigens.
Twenty-four percent of bovine sera, 32% of goat sera, and one sheep serum reacted with WEE antigen. Seven percent of bovine sera and 44% of goat sera showed antibody for TBE antigen; WN antibodies were found in bovine, goat, rabbit, rat and wild-mice sera.
Some of the human and animal HI-positive sera were further tested with the corresponding viruses by mouse-neutralization test. The presence of TBE neutralizing antibodies was confirmed in human and goat sera; WN and WEE neutralizing antibodies were not encountered, indicating perhaps the presence of viruses closely related; NT antibodies to Sicilian Phlebotomus fever were not detected.


The use of gold nanorods for photoacoustic molecular imaging with simultaneous multiple targeting is reported. Multiple targeting is done by utilizing the tunable optical absorption property of gold nanorods. This technique allows multiple molecular signatures to be obtained by simply switching laser wavelength. HER2 and EGFR were chosen as the primary target molecules for examining two cancer cells, OECM1 and Cal27. Both in vitro and in vivo mouse model imaging experiments were performed, with contrast enhancement of up to 10 dB and 3.5 dB, respectively. The potential in improving cancer diagnosis is demonstrated.


Ensemble Clustering (EC) has gained a great deal of attention throughout the fields of data mining and machine learning, since it emerged as an effective and robust clustering framework. Typically, EC methods try to fuse multiple basic partitions (BPs) into a consensus one, of which each BP is obtained by performing traditional clustering method on the same dataset. One promising direction for ensemble clustering is to derive pairwise similarity from BPs, and then transform it as a graph partition problem. However, these graph based methods may suffer from an information loss when computing the similarity between data points, because they only utilize the categorical data provided by multiple BPs, yet neglect rich information from raw features. This problem can badly undermine the underlying cluster structure in the original feature space, and thus degrade the clustering performance. In light of this, we propose a novel Simultaneous Clustering and Ensemble (SCE) framework to alleviate such detrimental effect, which employs the similarity matrix from raw features to enhance the co-association matrix summarized by multiple BPs. Two neat closed-form solutions given by eigenvalue decomposition are provided for SCE. Experiments conducted on 16 real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SCE over the traditional clustering and state-of-the-art ensemble clustering methods. Moreover, several impact factors that may affect our method are also explored extensively.


The twentieth century will be remembered for great innovation in two particular areas: art and culture, and technological advancement. Much of its prodigious technical inventiveness, however, was pressed into service in the conduct of warfare. Why, asks Margot Norris, did violence and suffering on such an immense scale fail to arouse artistic and cultural expressions powerful enough to prevent the recurrence of these horrors? Why was art not more successful through its use of dramatic, emotionally charged material, its ability to stir imagination and arouse empathy and outrage in producing an alternative to the military logic that legitimates war?Military argument in the twentieth century has been fortified by the authority of the rationalism that we attribute to science, Norris argues. Warfare is therefore legitimized by powerful discourses that art's own arsenal of styles and genres has limited power to counter. Art's difficulty in representing the violent death of entire generations or populations has been particularly acute.Choosing works that have become representative of their historically violent moment, Norris explores not only their aesthetic strategies and perspectives but also the nature of the power they wield and the ethical engagements they enable or impede. She begins by mapping the altered ethical terrain of modern technological warfare, with its increasing targeting of civilian populations for destruction. She then proceeds historically with chapters on the trench poetry and modernist poetry of World War I, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, both the book and the film of Schindler's List, the conflicting historical stories of the Manhattan Project, a comparison of American and Japanese accounts of Hiroshima, Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now, and the effects of press censorship in the Persian Gulf War.By looking at the whole span of the century's writing on war, Norris provides a fascinating critique of art's ethical power and limitations, along with its participation in as well as protest against the suffering that human beings have brought upon themselves."


Game feel design is the intentional design of the affective impact of moment-to-moment interaction with games. In this article, we survey academic research and publications by practitioners to give a complete overview of the state of research concerning this aspect of game design. We analyzed over 200 sources and categorized their content according to design purposes. This resulted in three different domains of intended player experiences: 1) physicality; 2) amplification; and 3) support. In these domains, the act of polishing, which determines game feel, takes the shape of tuning, juicing, and streamlining, respectively. Tuning the physicality of game objects creates cohesion and predictability, and the resulting movement informs level design. Juicing is the act of polishing amplification and it results in empowerment and provides clarity of feedback. Streamlining allows a game to act on the intention of the player, supporting the execution of actions in the game. These three design intents are the main means through which designers control minute details of interactivity and inform the player's reaction. The presented framework and its nuanced vocabulary can lead to an understanding of game feel that is shared between practitioners and researchers as highlighted in the concluding future research section.


This chapter focuses on path tracking of a wheeled mobile manipulator designed for manufacturing processes such as drilling, riveting, or line drawing, which demand high accuracy. This problem can be solved by combining two approaches: improved localiza- tion and improved calibration. In the first approach, a full-scale kinematic equation is derived for calibration of each individual wheel ' s geometrical parameters, as opposed to traditionally treating them identical for all wheels. To avoid the singularity problem in computation, a predefined square path is used to quantify the errors used for calibration considering the movement in different directions. Both statistical method and interval analysis method are adopted and compared for estimation of the calibration parameters. In the second approach, a vision-based deviation rectification solution is presented to localize the system in the global frame through a number of artificial reflectors that are identified by an onboard laser scanner. An improved tracking and localization algorithm is developed to meet the high positional accuracy requirement, improve the system ' s repeatability in the traditional trilateral algorithm, and solve the problem of pose loss in path following. The developed methods have been verified and implemented on the mobile manipulators developed by Shanghai University.


A bilayer WO3 photoelectrode was obtained by radio frequency (RF) plasma sputtering in a reactive 40%O2/Ar atmosphere by depositing two successive WO3 coatings on a tungsten foil at two different total gas pressures (3 Pa and 1.7 Pa, respectively), followed by calcination at 600 °C. Two monolayer samples deposited at each of the two pressures and a bilayer sample deposited at inverted pressures were also prepared. Their photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) activity was evaluated by both Incident Photon-to-Current Efficiency (IPCE) measurements and separate evolution of H2 and O2 by water splitting in a two-compartment PEC cell. SEM analysis revealed that the photoanodes have a nanostructured porous double layer surmounting a columnar basement (Staffa-like morphology, after the name of the Scottish island). Mott–Schottky analysis showed that the single layer deposited at 3 Pa has a conduction flat band potential 0.1 V more positive than that deposited at 1.7 Pa. The equivalent n–n heterojunction at the interface of the double-layer creates a built-in electric field that facilitates the photopromoted electron transfer toward the lower lying conduction band material, while the columnar innermost layer introduces percolation paths for efficient electron transport toward the conductive tungsten foil. Both phenomena contribute to decrease the interfacial charge transfer resistance (Rct) and lead up to a ca. 30% increase in the PEC performance compared to the monolayer and the inverted bilayer coatings and to a 93% faradaic efficiency, which is among the highest reported so far for WO3 photoanodes. Upon methanol addition an outstanding 4-fold photocurrent density increase up to 6.3 mA cm−2 was attained over the bilayer WO3 photoanode, much larger than the usually observed current doubling effect.


In this work, we address the performance problems that arise when unicast security protocols IPSEC and SSL are applied for securing the end-to-end communication in hybrid satellite networks. Satellite networks use TCP and HTTP performance-enhancing proxy servers to overcome the adverse effect of the large delay-bandwidth product of the satellite channel. However, the proxy servers cannot function when IPSEC and SSL are used for secure unicast communication in hybrid satellite networks. We therefore propose the use of the Layered IPSEC (LES) protocol as an alternative to IPSEC for network-layer security. We describe a modification to the Internet Key Exchange protocol if dynamic key establishment is needed for Layered IPSEC. For application-level security of web browsing with acceptable end-to-end delay, we propose the Dual-mode SSL protocol (DSSL) to be used instead of SSL. We describe how LES and DSSL protocols achieve the desired end-to-end communication security while allowing the TCP and HTTP proxy servers to function correctly. Through simulation studies, we quantify the improvement in performance that is achieved using our proposed protocols, compared to traditional IPSEC and SSL.


Introduction: There is paucity of information about the dentistry related articles published in pubmed indexed Ayurveda journals in India. Aim: This study aimed to audit the dentistry related articles published in three pubmed indexed Ayurveda Journals from India.The journals considered for this study were AYU, Ancient Science of Life(ASL) and Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine(JAIM). Materials and methods: A retrospective bibliometric analysis of issues of AYU, ASL and JAIM from 2010 to 2015 was performed using web-based search from Pubmed Central. The articles published were analyzed for type of article and individual topic of dentistry. The articles published were also evaluated to identify whether the study was a funded research project or not. The following parameters were also studied: a. Author mapping, b. International collaborations, c. Number of authors, d. Study types, e. Number of articles published in each year, f. Author's parent speciality (ayurveda/dental/medical) and collaborations. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 21, 10 and 7 articles were retrieved from AYU, ASL and JAIM respectively. For the type of the articles, originals articles form a major share in AYU and ASL where as review articles form a major share in JAIM. Among the dentistry related articles, oral cancer and gingivitis form the major attraction of the contributors of AYU whereas taste sensation and oral health form the major attraction of the contributors of ASL and JAIM respectively. The highest number of dentistry related articles was published in 2014 with 6 in AYU, 4 in ASL and 3 in JAIM. Funded research project articles of dentistry were published only in AYU in 2015 with 2 and 2014 with 1 article. Statewise, majority of the dentistry related articles in AYU were received from Gujarat and ASL and JAIM published majority of articles from Karnataka. Majority of the published articles related to dentistry in AYU, ASL and JAIM were authored by 3 authors, 2 authors and 5 authors respectively. Major study types in AYU, ASL and JAIM were clinical research. Facultywise, majority of articles in AYU, ASL were contributed by ayurveda and JAIM published majority of articles from dental and medical collaboration. Conclusion: A total of 38 articles pertaining to dentistry was retrieved from the 3 pubmed indexed ayurveda journals from India. This paper may be considered as a baseline study for the bibliometric information regarding the dentistry related articles published in pubmed indexed Ayurveda journals in India.


The twentieth century witnessed the greatest changes in technology and science that humans have ever witnessed. These occurred rapidly and affected such a broad range of people. Scientists, inventors, and engineers built upon the great inventions of the 19th century to expand the reach of modern technology - for a citizen in 1900, communication, transportation, and agricultural was still primarily local activities; by 2000, an American citizen was part of an interconnected global community. These developments in science and technology were also important in the social and cultural changes of the period. The Great Depression, the World Wars and Cold War, the civil rights and women's rights movements - all were greatly impacted by the rapid scientific and technological advancements in the universities and industry.


International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 359 is designed to address sea level, currents, and monsoon evolution in the Indian Ocean. Seven proposed drill sites are located in the Maldives and one site is located in the Kerala-Konkan Basin on the western Indian continental margin. The Maldives carbonate edifice bears a unique and mostly unread Indian Ocean archive of the evolving Cenozoic icehouse world. It has great potential to serve as a key area for better understanding the effects of this global evolution in the Indo-Pacific realm. Based mainly on seismic stratigraphic data, a model for the evolution of this carbonate bank has been developed, showing how changing sea level and ocean current patterns shaped the bank geometries. A dramatic shift in development of the carbonate edifice from a sea level–controlled to a predominantly current-controlled system is thought to be directly linked to the evolving Indian monsoon. Fluctuations in relative sea level control the stacking pattern of depositional sequences during the lower to middle Miocene. This phase was followed by a two-fold configuration of bank development: bank growth continued in some parts of the edifice, whereas in other places, banks drowned. Drowning steps seem to coincide with onset and intensification of the monsoon-related current system and the deposition of giant sediment drifts. The shapes of drowned banks attest to the occurrence of these strong currents. The drift sediments, characterized by off-lapping geometries, formed large-scale prograding complexes, filling the Maldives Inner Sea basin. Because the strong current swept most of the sediment around the atolls away, relict banks did not prograde, and steady subsidence was balanced by aggradation of the atolls, which are still active today. One important outcome of Expedition 359 is ground-truthing the hypothesis that the dramatic, pronounced change in the style of the sedimentary carbonate sequence stacking was caused by a combination of relative sea level fluctuations and ocean current system changes. Answering this question will directly improve our knowledge on processes shaping carbonate platforms and their stratigraphic records. Our findings would be clearly applicable to other Tertiary carbonate platforms in the Indo-Pacific region and to numerous others throughout the geological record. In addition, the targeted successions will allow calibration of the Neogene oceanic 13C record with data from a carbonate platform to platform-margin series. This is becoming important, as such records are the only type that exist in deep time. Drilling will provide the cores required for reconstructing changing current systems through time that are directly related to the evolution of the Indian monsoon. As such, the drift deposits will provide a continuous record of Indian monsoon development in the region of the Mal-


Measuring public opinion on abortion is an ongoing concern for political scientists, mainly because the public does not always exhibit fixed attitudes on such topics. Most citizens express a centrist viewpoint between the pro choice and pro life extremes. These include a small group whose answers to abortion questions are so inconsistent that they give public officials an inaccurate measure of public opinion on this important issue. Inconsistent responses may result from context effects, such as the order in which the questions are asked or the way they are asked. Usually, researchers ask a battery of questions in which respondents say whether they approve of abortion generally and under a variety of circumstances, citing the reasons for which a woman might seek an abortion. This project includes an independent national survey using questions adopted from the General Social Survey. The sample is divided into four experimental groups with different question orders. Based on these findings, the recommended question order would be the one with the general question last and the remaining specific questions in a somewhat random pattern alternating between the so-called " hard " and " easy " individual abortion situations. One of the more surprising findings is that people didn't recognize themselves as subtracting the specific situations from the general question when it was asked first; hardly any said that was what they were doing when they gave inconsistent answers. Otherwise, about an equal number of respondents admitted answering the questions off the top of their heads as those who showed ambivalence by claiming they were deeply committed to their inconsistent responses. The study found most people who inconsistent on abortion are moderates leaning towards pro choice. Also, politically conservative regular church-goers can be just as inconsistent on abortion as the non-religious, non-political, low-educated non-church goers, especially if they are basically pro choice. Without a full understanding of who is generating inconsistent answers on abortion, some researchers may be tempted to eliminate these respondents from their sample. This research should allow them to understand these respondents better and develop better question wording and question orders to reduce their numbers. Caption Page 3.1 Agreement on legality of abortions under various circumstances 21 3.2: Disagreement on pro-choice abortion questions 21 3.3: Abortion should be allowed no matter what the reason by abortion should be legal for unmarried woman who doesn't want the baby 22 3.4: Ideology by logic of position …


Hosts providing important network services such as HTTP and FTP incur a per-connection memory load from TCP that can adversely affect their connection rate and throughput. The memory requirement is directly tied to the number of connections; caching and other sharing methods will not alleviate it. We hav e observed HTTP throughput reductions of as much as 50% under SunOS 4.1.3 due to this loading. This paper advocates off-loading the memory requirements to the growing number of clients. This reduces server memory requirements as connection rate at that server gro ws due to increases in the number of clients and the bandwidth available on the network. Our approaches control server memory load better with growing client load than per-transaction techniques such as persistent HTTP connections. Our approaches also interoperate with persistent connections to take advantage of their other benefits. This paper describes the causes of the memory loading, called TIME-WAIT loading, and defines three methods of alleviating it that scale with increasing number of clients. We present measurements of the systems and a comparison of their properties.


In recent years, foreign exchange intervention studying has become a hot spot in finance field. To extract rules between central bank intervention and its trigger factors based on history data will be very useful for decision-making of central banks and market participants. At present, the chief research methods are all based on Econometrics to estimate the statistic characters, which are usually restricted to statistical hypothesis, and can't extract the latent rules fully. This paper starts from the viewpoint of data mining and introduces rough set theory to solve this problem. We collect the related data of Japanese intervention, construct decision table, use rough set method to extract decision rules, and execute forecast experiment of intervention based on them. Experimental result demonstrates that, this method can obtain satisfying forecast accuracy, and at the same time, it proves that the rules extracted from decision table are valid.


Referring to the work of Steinberg (1988), two hypotheses were tested: Does menarche intensify the individuation process of the mother-daughter relationship? ("distancing hypothesis") and do conflicts between mothers and daughters speed up the onset of menarche? ("acceleration hypothesis"). Additionally, the significance of different family-structures to these processes is considered. Data was collected in a three wave panel. Sixty-eigth girls aged ten at the first wave were observed in a playing situation with their mothers and questioned about their menarche. The hypotheses were partly confirmed by logistic and hierarchical regression analyses: Menarche led to more controlling and less egalitarian behavior of the mothers. Girls' separating behavior preceded menarche immediately and therefore wasn't interpreted as an acceleration effect. Comparing nuclear and stepfamilies to single mother families, in the former families mothers were more controlling and less egalitarian and the girls were less separating. The interplay of puberty and individuation is discussed


In this study a procedure to design multiple model switching predictive controllers (MMSPC) is proposed for the nonlinear dynamic processes with large operation regions. To facilitate the MMSPC design, a general mixed logic dynamic system (MLDS) model is proposed for approximating the nonlinear processes. A major contribution of this study is to integrate a number of techniques to form a novel procedure, and therefore to make multistep state and output predictions effectively realizable within the frame of multiple model switching control. A case for support is presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the design procedure.


The high-speed dental air-turbine handpiece is widely used in cutting and polishing denture structure in dentistry. The handpiece has the air-turbine which rotates a cutting bur. The air-turbine impeller is rotated by the compressed-air. There are different blade types for the impeller such as flat, concave and gull. The gull and concave type impeller blades were selected for the air-turbine. The objective of the study was to investigate the flowfield of the air-turbine with the gull and concave types impeller blade and to compare the results. The computational domain of the air-turbine was computed usingANSYS CFX Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. The air-turbine with the concave and gull type impeller blade was analyzed and the results were evaluated by the velocity, pressure and the torque. The air-turbine with the concave type impeller blade had higher torque value than the air-turbine with the gull type impeller blade. Keywords— CFD, concave type blade, gull type blade, impeller, ANSYS CFX, immersed solid.


[1] Characterizing net ecosystem exchanges (NEE) of CO2 and sensible and latent heat fluxes in heterogeneous landscapes is difficult, yet critical given expected changes in climate and land use. We report here a measurement and modeling study designed to improve our understanding of surface to atmosphere gas exchanges under very heterogeneous land cover in the mostly agricultural U.S. Southern Great Plains (SGP). We combined three years of site-level, eddy covariance measurements in several of the dominant land cover types with regional-scale climate data from the distributed Mesonet stations and Next Generation Weather Radar precipitation measurements to calibrate a land surface model of trace gas and energy exchanges (isotope-enabled land surface model (ISOLSM)). Yearly variations in vegetation cover distributions were estimated from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer normalized difference vegetation index and compared to regional and subregional vegetation cover type estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture census. We first applied ISOLSM at a 250 m spatial scale to account for vegetation cover type and leaf area variations that occur on hundred meter scales. Because of computational constraints, we developed a subsampling scheme within 10 km ''macrocells'' to perform these high-resolution simulations. We estimate that the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility SGP region net CO2 exchange with the local atmosphere was � 240, � 340, and � 270 gC m �2 yr �1 (positive toward the atmosphere) in 2003, 2004, and 2005, respectively, with large seasonal variations. We also performed simulations using two scaling approaches at resolutions of 10, 30, 60, and 90 km. The scaling approach applied in current land surface models led to regional NEE biases of up to 50 and 20% in weekly and annual estimates, respectively. An important factor in causing these biases was the complex leaf area index (LAI) distribution within cover types. Biases in predicted weekly average regional latent heat fluxes were smaller than for NEE, but larger than for either ecosystem respiration or assimilation alone. However, spatial and diurnal variations of hundreds of W m �2 in latent heat fluxes were common. We conclude that, in this heterogeneous system, characterizing vegetation cover type and LAI at the scale of spatial variation are necessary for accurate estimates of bottom-up, regional NEE and surface energy fluxes.


Chloroplasts play an important role in the cellular sensing of abiotic and biotic stress. Signals originating from photosynthetic light reactions, in the form of redox and pH changes, accumulation of reactive oxygen and electrophile species or stromal metabolites are of key importance in chloroplast retrograde signaling. These signals initiate plant acclimation responses to both abiotic and biotic stresses. To reveal the molecular responses activated by rapid fluctuations in growth light intensity, gene expression analysis was performed with Arabidopsis thaliana wild type and the tlp18.3 mutant plants, the latter showing a stunted growth phenotype under fluctuating light conditions (Biochem. J, 406, 415–425). Expression pattern of genes encoding components of the photosynthetic electron transfer chain did not differ between fluctuating and constant light conditions, neither in wild type nor in tlp18.3 plants, and the composition of the thylakoid membrane protein complexes likewise remained unchanged. Nevertheless, the fluctuating light conditions repressed in wild-type plants a broad spectrum of genes involved in immune responses, which likely resulted from shade-avoidance responses and their intermixing with hormonal signaling. On the contrary, in the tlp18.3 mutant plants there was an imperfect repression of defense-related transcripts upon growth under fluctuating light, possibly by signals originating from minor malfunction of the photosystem II (PSII) repair cycle, which directly or indirectly modulated the transcript abundances of genes related to light perception via phytochromes. Consequently, a strong allocation of resources to defense reactions in the tlp18.3 mutant plants presumably results in the stunted growth phenotype under fluctuating light.


A headline in The Rocky Mountain News on 2 January 2006 read "Avalanche kills 2 snowmobilers." A full-page color photo accompanied the article which, unfortunately, was not describing an uncommon event. Snow slides or avalanches kill between 150 and 200 people every year around the world, and many more are injured. Combine an average of 2300 snow avalanches in the Colorado mountains every winter with increasingly popular winter tourism, and it is no surprise that Colorado has more avalanche fatalities than the next two states (Alaska and Washington) combined. Avalanches not only bury people, but they close roads (sometimes with snow more than 50 ft deep for 1000 ft along the road) for days at a time, and they damage facilities (such as the 2003 avalanche that destroyed a water treatment plant and closed a major interstate highway for several days). During the 2004–2005 winter in Colorado, 2985 avalanches buried nearly six miles of highway; 76 people were reportedly caught in the snow slides, resulting in ...


Magneto-ferrofluid mixed convection flow inside a lid-driven square cavity with partial slip is investigated numerically using the finite volume method. The vertical walls of the enclosure are heated partially by a constant temperature, while the horizontal moving walls are kept adiabatic. The square enclosure is filled with a mixture of kerosene–cobalt ferrofluids. The numerical computations are obtained for various parameters of the heat source length, position of the heat source, Hartmann number, Richardson number, fraction ferromagnetic particles, and constant movement parameter. It is shown that the transfer rate is clearly affected by the augmentation of the ferromagnetic particles volume fraction under the influence of a relative magnetic field and by the opposite-direction horizontal walls movement.


Introduction: Clinical teaching is an important element of nursing education. This study aims to compare teaching behaviors of clinical nursing instructors from perspective of nursing students in public and private universities. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Participants were 160 nursing students from public and private universities located in Seman, 80 students each. The nursing clinical teaching effectiveness inventory (NCTEI) is used to collect data. The questionnaire was a seven point Likert scale that measured students perspectives to nursing instructors in the range of never (score 1) to always (score 7). Finally the data analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics methods by SPSS version 18. Results: Data analysis showed that mean of the behaviors of clinical instructors from of students perspective were higher than average limit (5.52±1.31). Also, that mean of scores to clinical instructors behaviors was significantly higher in the private university compare to the public university (P<0.001). Conclusion: According to the result, nursing instructors in private universities acquired higher score than public universities to prove their proficiency. More studies are needed to explore factors influencing the structure and context of these universities.


In the wake of the California energy crisis of 2000-2001, the California Energy Commission and California Public Utilities Commission are aggressively pursuing "demand response" energy programs aimed at reducing peak energy demand. Demand response systems convey information about market conditions through pricing or reliability signals to customers, who in turn, hopefully, alter their electricity consumption choices. One complication with such systems is that they radically increase the amount of information about activities inside the home that the electricity company can see. In some parts of California, smart meters are being installed that will send information in intervals ranging from 15 minutes to one hour. This is 750-3000 times more information than the monthly meter read that has been the norm for many years. The case law generally considers information held by utilities to be "business records," subject to far less privacy protections than information kept inside the home. In this Article, Deirdre Mulligan and Jack Lerner argue that courts and policymakers should take "the long view" of technology that reveals information about activities inside the home, and give greater protection to such information - whether it is held by utilities or by an individual.


Alternative high schools serve approximately 280,000 students nationwide who are at high risk for failing or dropping out of regular high school or who have been expelled from regular high school because of illegal activity or behavioral problems. Such settings provide important opportunities for delivering health promotion education and services to these youth and young adults. However, before this survey, the prevalence of health-risk behaviors among students attending alternative high schools nationwide was unknown. The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) monitors the following six categories of priority health-risk behaviors among youth and young adults: behaviors that contribute to unintentional and intentional injuries; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) (including human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] infection); unhealthy dietary behaviors; and physical inactivity. The national Alternative High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey (ALT-YRBS) is one component of the YRBSS; it was conducted in 1998 to measure priority health-risk behaviors among students at alternative high schools. The 1998 ALT-YRBS used a three-stage cluster sample design to produce a nationally representative sample of students in grades 9-12 in the United States who attend alternative high schools. The school response rate was 81.0%, and the student response rate was 81.9%, resulting in an overall response rate of 66.3%. This report summarizes results from the 1998 ALT-YRBS. The reporting period is February-May 1998. In the United States, 73.6% of all deaths among youth and young adults aged 10-24 years results from only four causes--motor vehicle crashes, other unintentional injuries, homicide, and suicide. Results from the 1998 ALT-YRBS demonstrate that many students at alternative high schools engage in behaviors that increase their likelihood of death from these four causes. During the 30 days preceding the survey, 51.9% had ridden with a driver who had been drinking alcohol, 25.1% had driven a vehicle after drinking alcohol, 32.9% had carried a weapon, 64.5% had drunk alcohol, and 53.0% had used marijuana. During the 12 months preceding the survey, 15.7% had attempted suicide, and 29.0% had rarely or never worn a seat belt. Substantial morbidity among school-aged youth and young adults also results from unintended pregnancies and STDs, including HIV infection. ALT-YRBS results indicate that in 1998, a total of 87.8% of students at alternative high schools had had sexual intercourse, 54.1% of sexually active students had not used a condom at last sexual intercourse, and 5.7% had ever injected an illegal drug. Among adults aged > or = 25 years, 66.5% of all deaths result from two causes--cardiovascular disease and cancer. Most risk behaviors associated with these causes of death are initiated during adolescence. In 1998, a total of 64.1% of students at alternative high schools had smoked cigarettes during the 30 days preceding the survey, 38.3% had smoked a cigar during the 30 days preceding the survey, 71.2% had not eaten > or = 5 servings of fruits and vegetables during the day preceding the survey, and 81.0% had not attended physical education (PE) class daily. Comparing ALT-YRBS results with 1997 national YRBS results demonstrates that the prevalence of most risk behaviors is higher among students attending alternative high schools compared with students at regular high schools. Some risk behaviors are more common among certain sex and racial/ethnic subgroups of students. ALT-YRBS data can be used nationwide by health and education officials to improve policies and programs designed to reduce risk behaviors associated with the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among students attending alternative high schools.


The study was developed after research with older women suffering urinary symptoms showed that many had tolerated social, psychological and hygiene effects on their lives for some time. There is evidence that some symptoms in later life may originate from pregnancy and childbirth. However, whist there is evidence that pelvic floor muscle exercises can be effective in the short term, there is a paucity of research on the reasons why women tolerate symptoms in the postnatal period rather than seek help. It was also unclear what significance the interactions with health professionals had in aiding or suppressing help-seeking. The aim of this qualitative study was to use grounded theory methodology to describe women's experiences and knowledge of urinary symptoms in the postnatal period and the perceptions of health professionals. Fifteen women were interviewed in the postnatal period, and one woman was interviewed twice. From the interviews and observations of antenatal clinics and postnatal groups three categories emerged; messages women receive, seeking and understanding information and responding to the messages. Views and knowledge of health professionals were obtained through two focus groups of five. From the analysis of the findings the following five categories emerged; clarifying pathways of care, clarifying education, improving communication, understanding actions and serious issues. The core category arising from this; overcoming barriers to facilitate empowerment, revealed barriers that women and health professionals must overcome in order to approach the issue of urinary incontinence collaboratively. This study identified that there can be problems with communication at all levels between women and health professionals, resulting in poor communication regarding urinary symptoms and accessing treatment. Furthermore, superficial education regarding pelvic floor muscle exercises and dysfunction, both in the antenatal and postnatal periods, coupled with difficulties with disclosure on a sensitive subject could be disempowering for women and health professionals. In particular, women found the possibility of an examination so soon after delivery worrying. Normalisation was a negative but powerful influence on women, encouraged by friends and family. It is suggested that, by developing interventions that enable women and health professionals to overcome the barriers of communication and knowledge exchange, women could be empowered in relation to their physical health after childbirth to manage their urinary symptoms. Empowerment for women, therefore, with regard to postnatal urinary symptoms means being able to believe that looking after the pelvic floor is normal rather than accepting urinary symptoms after childbirth as inevitable.