Pregnancy duration is crucial regarding dental problems. So the aim of this
study was to determine the association between pregnancy period and PH, S. Mutans, and buffering
capacity of saliva.
Materials & Methods: This cross sectional study was done among 120 women who referred to the
Gynecology hospital in Baku with an average of 24.1± 2.91 years. 30 non pregnant women were
selected as controls and 90 pregnant women as the study group. S. Mutans culture test was
accomplished in both groups. PH and buffering capacity of saliva was measured using a PH meter and
titration method. Two groups were compared using statistical analysis of variance ANOVA.
Results: There was no significant difference in the mean age of study and control group (P<0.05).
There was significant difference between study and control groups regarding colony numbers of S.
mutans in the saliva (P<0.001). The difference of mean saliva PH was significant between the control
group and pregnant women in the first, second, and third trimester of pregnancy (P<0.001). The
buffering capacity of saliva in second and third trimester of pregnancy was significantly lower than the
control group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: According to this study, the decrease in PH and buffering capacity of saliva and increase
in S. mutans in the saliva during pregnancy can contribute to increased risk for dental caries. So the
assessment of oral health during pregnancy should not be ignored


m In Three Popes: Lessons in Leadership participants use selected leadership theories as a basis to comment on the leadership style and effectiveness of two former Bishops of Rome— Ĵohn Paul II and Benedict XVI. The purpose is to hypothetically assist the incumbent pontiff, Francis, whose legacy—^while looking promising—still is in its infancy. In the exercise, participants investigate the personal traits and life stories of three recent popes in an attempt to understand their professional style and effectiveness as leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. Using Pope Francis' immediate predecessors as examples of good/bad leadership, teams recommend to Pope Francis ways to maintain and increase his own legacy and the vitality of the Church. In so doing, the exercise should suggest ways participants might enhance their own leadership skills and effectiveness within the professional organization to which they belong.


This paper traces the evolution of the concept of the cyclically adjusted budget from the 1930s to the present. The idea of balancing the budget over the cycle was first conceived in Sweden in the 1930s by the economists of the Stockholm School and was soon reinterpreted and incorporated into the fiscal program of the American political coalition supporting the New Deal, especially by the Committee for Economic Development during and after World War II. In the 1960s, Keynesian economists associated with the Kennedy and Johnson administrations reformulated the notion. Despite their claims at the time, their version differed only in degree from the earlier CED approach, the transformation being largely conditioned by changing political circumstances. In the 1980s, however, the concept changed substantially. Methods for calculating it transformed dramatically, as the notion became a device to limit and direct governments' fiscal policies in a wide sense, that is, including institutional (or "structural†) reforms. The final section of the paper considers the shifting uses of the notion in the European Growth and Stability Pact.


Presenting new approaches and results previously inaccessible in English, the Routledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics provides an insight into the language and society of contemporary Japan from a fresh perspective. While it was once believed that Japan was a linguistically homogenous country, research over the past two decades has shown Japan to be a multilingual and sociolinguistically diversifying country. Building on this approach, the contributors to this handbook take this further, combining Japanese and western approaches alike and producing research which is relevant to twentyfi rst century societies. Organised into fi ve parts, the sections covered include:


Fundraising for a charity sport event (CSE) is a critical and challenging aspect of the event experience. CSE participants (i.e., CSE fundraisers) must engage with their network of friends, family, and colleagues (i.e., CSE donors) to solicit donations. A better understanding of CSE donor motives can translate to more effective fundraising among participants, which could be applicable to other peer-to-peer and sport-based fundraising initiatives. The researchers explored the factors driving CSE donors to contribute on behalf of CSE participants. Eight mechanisms driving charitable giving provided the theoretical framework. Semistructured interviews (N=24) were conducted with individuals who had donated to a CSE participant within the previous 12 months. Four themes emerged: feel good factor, perceived efficacy of donations, inspired by youth, and affinity for the participant. With these themes in mind, CSE managers may implement school outreach programs and testimonials from donors to achieve positive fundraising outcomes.


Article history: Received January 2, 2017 Received in revised form March 1, 2017 Accepted April 21, 2017 Available online April 22, 2017 Synthesis of pyrano-chromenes and pyrano-pyrans was developed by three-component reactions of kojic acid and aromatic aldehydes with dimethone and malononitrile, catalyzed with nano-Bi2O3-ZnO and nano-ZnO, respectively. Reactions proceeded smoothly and the corresponding heterocyclic products were obtained in good to high yields. Nano ZnO and nano Bi2O3-ZnO were prepared by sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. Supporting Bi3+ on ZnO nanoparticles as Bi2O3, is the main novelty of this work. The simple reaction procedure, easy separation of products, low catalyst loading, reusability of the catalyst are some advantageous of this protocol. © 2017 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Objective The objective of this study was to provide an update of the evidence on the efficacy of gross motor development interventions in young children (0–5 years) from 2007 to 2015. Methods Searches were conducted of six electronic databases: PUBMED, Medline (Ovid), ERIC (Ebsco), Embase, SCOPUS and Psychinfo. Studies included any childcare-based, preschool-based, home-based, or community-based intervention targeting the development of gross motor skills including statistical analysis of gross motor skill competence. Data were extracted on design, participants, intervention components, methodological quality and efficacy. Results Seven articles were included and all were delivered in early childhood settings. Four studies had high methodological quality. Most studies used trained staff members/educators to deliver the intervention (86%) and five studies lasted 18 weeks or more. Six studies reported statistically significant intervention effects. Conclusions Despite the proven importance of gross motor skill development in young children and the recommendations made in the previous review, this review highlights the limited studies evaluated to improve such key life skills in young children over the past 8 years. Trial registration number CRD42015015826.


Management of production from gas reservoirs can be a challenging process. The challenge gets bigger when the reservoir is characterized by having a small pore size, such as the tight carbonate reservoirs which are prominent in this part of the world. In such conditions, condensate blockage becomes a real threat to productivity. Carbon dioxide can be injected into the reservoir to combat this threat. We built a reservoir model to conduct a simulation study with the goal of finding the most feasible method for overcoming the negative impact of condensate formation. We have attempted to simulate huff-n-puff enhanced gas recovery in the same reservoir model, but this method did not achieve much success in alleviating the damage caused by condensate blockage. As a result, according to the model and data we collected, using huff-n-puff is not efficient since it failed to maintain the average reservoir pressure as well as CO2 did, therefore peripheral CO2 injection have been tested. The minimum requirement again is to achieve gas plateau production, while also maximizing the condensate recovery and minimizing the CO2 breakthrough into the wells. It was decided that seven CO2 injector wells were to be placed at strategic locations (injectors have been planned to be drilled away from the reservoir and producing wells) across the field in order to enhance the sweeping of condensate as well as minimize CO2 breakthrough. In other words, the injectors had to be at a distance where it can achieve all our simulation objectives. We ended up understanding the effect of the CO2 injection on condensate formation. As a result, it could be notice how the saturation of oil is high near the producing end of the core, this kind of saturation can completely nullify the relative permeability of gas, whereas after using CO2 flooding, the saturation is decreased significantly and the amount of condensate throughout the core is also much less.


Genetics is responsible for approximately half the observed changes in animal performance in well structured breeding programs. Key characteristics of the dairy cow of the future include (1) production of a large quantity of high-value output (i.e. milk and meat), (2) good reproductive performance, (3) good health status, (4) good longevity, (5) no requirement for a large quantity of feed, yet being able to eat sufficient feed to meet its requirements, (6) easy to manage (i.e. easy calving, docile), (7) good conformation (over and above reflective of health, reproductive performance and longevity), (8) low environmental footprint, and (9) resilience to external perturbations. Pertinent and balanced breeding goals must be developed and implemented to achieve this type of animal; excluding any characteristic from the breeding goal could be detrimental for genetic gain in this characteristic. Attributes currently not explicitly considered in most dairy-cow breeding objectives include product quality, feed intake and efficiency, and environmental footprint; animal health is poorly represented in most breeding objectives. Lessons from the past deterioration in reproductive performance in the global Holstein population remind us of the consequences of ignoring or failing to monitor certain animal characteristics. More importantly, however, current knowledge clearly demonstrates that once unfavourable trends have been identified and the appropriate breeding strategy implemented, the reversal of genetic trends is achievable, even for low-heritability traits such as reproductive performance. Genetic variation exists in all the characteristics described. In the genomics era, the relevance of heritability statistics for most traits is less; the exception is traits not amenable to routine measurement in large populations. Phenotyping strategies (e.g. more detailed phenotypes, larger population) will remain a key component of an animal breeding strategy to achieve the cow of the future as well as providing the necessary tools and information to monitor performance. The inclusion of genomic information in genetic evaluations is, and will continue, to improve the accuracy of genetic evaluations, which, in turn, will augment genetic gain; genomics, however, can also contribute to gains in performance over and above support of increased genetic gain. Nonetheless, the faster genetic gain and thus reduced ability to purge out unfavourable alleles necessitates the appropriate breeding goal and breeding scheme and very close monitoring of performance, in particular for traits not included in the breeding goals. Developments in other disciplines (e.g. reproductive technologies), coupled with commercial struggle for increased market share of the breeding industry, imply a possible change in the landscape of dairy-cow breeding in the future.


A BSTRACT . Volatile compounds have a tremendous impact on fruit quality. We evaluated the volatile compound profiles of ripening wild apple fruit (10 Malus baccata accessions and three Malus prunifolia accessions) in the National Field Genebank for Hardy Fruits at Gongzhuling, China. Alcohols, esters, aldehydes, terpenes, hydrocarbons, ethers, heterocycles, carboxylic acids, and ketones were detected in the M. baccata and M. prunifolia fruit, with the first four being the main volatile compounds present. Of the 92 volatiles detected, esters were the most diverse (49 compounds). This wide range of abundant volatile compounds suggests that M. prunifolia is a good resource for breeding apple cultivars with novel and interesting flavors. The M. baccata accession 'Zhaai Shandingzi' and the M. prunifolia accession 'Bai Haitang' had the widest range of volatile compounds and the highest volatile compound contents of the accessions examined, and will therefore be good breeding materials for developing commercial lines with enhanced flavor and for widening the genetic diversity. The number of different ester compounds present was significantly positively correlated ( r = 0.877) with the cube root of the weight of an individual ripe fruit. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the contents of ester compounds could be used to distinguish between M. baccata and


A novel variable stiffness actuator composed of a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) and a low-melting-point-alloy (LMPA) embedded silicone substrate is demonstrated. The device which we call variable stiffness dielectric elastomer actuator (VSDEA) enables functional soft robots with a simplified structure, where the DEA generates a bending actuation and the LMPA provides controllable stiffness between soft and rigid states by Joule heating. The entire structure of VSDEA is made of soft silicones with an elastic modulus of less than 1 MPa providing a high compliance when the LMPA is active. The device has the dimension of 40 mm length × 10 mm width × 1 mm thickness, with mass of ~1 g. We characterize VSDEA in terms of the actuation stroke angle, the blocked force, and the reaction force against a forced displacement. The results show the controllable actuation angle and the blocked force up to 23.7 ° and 2.4 mN in the soft state, and 0.6 ° and 2.1 mN in the rigid state. Compared to an actuator without the LMPA, VSDEA exhibits ~90× higher rigidity. We develop a VSDEA gripper where the mass of active parts is ~2 g, which is able to successfully hold an object mass of 11 g, exhibiting the high performance of the actuator.


Gravitation-T. Padmanabhan 2010-01-28 Covering all aspects of gravitation in a contemporary style, this advanced textbook is ideal for graduate students and researchers in all areas of theoretical physics. The 'Foundation' section develops the formalism in six chapters, and uses it in the next four chapters to discuss four key applications spherical spacetimes, black holes, gravitational waves and cosmology. The six chapters in the 'Frontier' section describe cosmological perturbation theory, quantum fields in curved spacetime, and the Hamiltonian structure of general relativity, among several other advanced topics, some of which are covered in-depth for the first time in a textbook. The modular structure of the book allows different sections to be combined to suit a variety of courses. Over 200 exercises are included to test and develop the reader's understanding. There are also over 30 projects, which help readers make the transition from the book to their own original research.


Rainfall–runoff process identification, due to uncertainties and complexities, requires advanced modeling strategies. For this end, this study presented different strategies to explore spatio-temporal variation of rainfall–runoff process for the Ajichay watershed located in northwest Iran. Extreme learning machine (ELM) was used to predict the runoff in conceptual models. First, a geomorphology integrated ELM (G-ELM) was used to predict watershed runoff in multiple-stations form for the watershed. The spatial and temporal features of sub-basins were selected as input data wherein temporal features were pre-processed by wavelet transform (WT). Results confirmed the capability of G-ELM in successive prediction of watershed runoff. Afterwards, an integrated ELM (I-ELM) was developed based on conceptual reservoir modeling to predict monthly river runoff where the model had the semi-distributed specifications of ELM. This model was capable of exploring spatial variation of rainfall–runoff process without requiring physical characteristics of sub-basins. To meter sufficiency of the modeling strategies, cross-validation technique was performed for station 3 in which G-ELM performed better in comparison to I-ELMs. Furthermore, classic and wavelet-based modeling (W-ELM) of rainfall–runoff was performed for one-step-ahead predictions. Statistical evaluations confirmed the W-ELM, I-ELM, and G-ELM performance, respectively.


The influence of surface profile on load transfer mechanisms of bolts has been studied under both the constant normal stiffness (CNS) and constant normal load (CNL) conditions. Testing under CNS condition was conducted in a specially constructed constant normal stiffness shearing apparatus, whereby the flattened surface of a bolt section was pulled against the image of cast resin sample under constant stiffness conditions. Testing under CNL conditions included the conventional pull testing of an encapsulated section of bolt anchored in a borehole, and the short encapsulation push test. The conventional pull testing involved pull testing of three different profiled bolts in three different diameter holes. The pull tests were carried out both insitu and in the laboratory. Parameters examined, in addition to bolt surface profile, were the resin annulus thickness and the effectiveness of resin mixing in the hole. The credibility of push testing, in short steel cylinder sleeves, was examined by pulling the bolt out of the cylindrical sleeve instead of pushing. Also tested in short sleeve, was the possibility of changing the load transfer capability of a bolt by changing its surface profile. A numerical simulation study has recently been incorporated to enhance the current programme of research carried out at the School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering, The University of Wollongong. The numerical study included the modeling of both the short encapsulation push/ pull test as well as shear stress simulation across joints. The conclusions drawn were that the bolt surface profile is an important parameter affecting the load transfer capacity of the bolt/rock interface, that the anchorage strength of resin encapsulation is influenced by the effectiveness of resin mixing, and the annulus thickness, and the short encapsulation push test underestimates the peak shear load and peak load displacement.


Author(s): Connolly, Guy E.; Burns, Richard J.; Simmons, Gary D. | Abstract: The M-44 sodium cyanide (NaCN) ejector is an important tool for coyote damage control. For greatest effectiveness, the ejected NaCN mixture must be a dry powder. NaCN readily absorbs and reacts with moisture to cause solidification or "caking" in M-44 capsules. Because it is difficult to seal the capsules water tight, caking has been a chronic problem ever since NaCN ejectors were introduced over 40 years ago. The toxicity and caking properties of three alternate compounds are reported in this paper. Comparative toxicity tests were made with M-44 ejectors containing NaCN, potassium cyanide (KCN), calcium cyanide (CaCN), and methomyl. Five to eight pen tests on coyotes or dogs were conducted with each compound. NaCN was tested on both coyotes and dogs. Except for one coyote that survived a dose of CaCN, each test animal died after pulling an M-44 and receiving a full charge of ejected toxicant. Average lapsed times from pull to first observed symptoms were 31 seconds for NaCN, 34 seconds for KCN, 63 seconds for CaCN, and 2 minutes for methomyl. Both NaCN and methomyl were lethal in all pen tests, yet coyote recovery rates (carcasses found/coyote pulls) in the field were 80% for NaCN and only 24% for methomyl. This difference was attributed to the faster action of NaCN. KCN and CaCN were not field-tested, but results from captive coyotes indicate that KCN would be about as effective as NaCN and CaCN would be less effective. None of the three alternate compounds offers enough advantage over NaCN to warrant the expense of registration, since NaCN is already registered.


Abstract The unique situation of Portsmouth with regards to the historical development of large areas of filled and contaminated land is described together with the methodologies which have been developed over the past decade for identifying, investigating and remediating such lands. This happened under the impetus of both Portsmouth City Council's specific strategy for contaminated land and the increasing volume of environmental guidance which has recently been released prior to the introduction of copious new government legislation. Three typical case histories are presented which show how different approaches to risk evaluation have evolved during the 1990s and demonstrate how Portsmouth has applied these evolving methodologies in a pragmatic way in an attempt to optimize environmental improvements and financial returns whilst minimizing both public and political risks.


PURPOSE
RAF inhibitors are effective against melanomas with BRAF V600E mutations but may induce keratoacanthomas (KAs) and cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (cSCCs). The potential of these agents to promote secondary malignancies is concerning. We analyzed cSCC and KA lesions for genetic mutations in an attempt to identify an underlying mechanism for their formation.

METHODS
Four international centers contributed 237 KA or cSCC tumor samples from patients receiving an RAF inhibitor (either vemurafenib or sorafenib; n = 19) or immunosuppression therapy (n = 53) or tumors that developed spontaneously (n = 165). Each sample was profiled for 396 known somatic mutations across 33 cancer-related genes by using a mass spectrometric-based genotyping platform.

RESULTS
Mutations were detected in 16% of tumors (38 of 237), with five tumors harboring two mutations. Mutations in TP53, CDKN2A, HRAS, KRAS, and PIK3CA were previously described in squamous cell tumors. Mutations in MYC, FGFR3, and VHL were identified for the first time. A higher frequency of activating RAS mutations was found in tumors from patients treated with an RAF inhibitor versus populations treated with a non-RAF inhibitor (21.1% v 3.2%; P < .01), although overall mutation rates between treatment groups were similar (RAF inhibitor, 21.1%; immunosuppression, 18.9%; and spontaneous, 17.6%; P = not significant). Tumor histology (KA v cSCC), tumor site (head and neck v other), patient age (≤ 70 v > 70 years), and sex had no significant impact on mutation rate or type.

CONCLUSION
Squamous cell tumors from patients treated with an RAF inhibitor have a distinct mutational profile that supports a mechanism of therapy-induced tumorigenesis in RAS-primed cells. Conceivably, cotargeting of MEK together with RAF may reduce or prevent formation of these tumors.


One way accounting firms can identify potential sources of referrals and new business is to look to past employees, or alumni, Although major firms recognize the importance of maintaining relationships with their alumni, no prior research has directly examined alumni systems in CPA firms or other business organizations. Therefore, an exploratory study was conducted to identify characteristics of employee and alumni programs that appear to influence the marketing value of alumni. Results indicate that several variables affect an alumnus' identification with and predisposition to benefit the firm. Suggestions are offered on ways the firm can positively influence these variables. Many implications also apply to other types of professional services firms.


PURPOSE
To investigate the influence of warming the periocular region for 10 minutes after visual display terminal (VDT) work on the near reflex, and the differences in influence between lid closure, dry and wet warming, and the amounts of water vapor.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Subjects in the first trial were 10 healthy volunteers (10 eyes). Following VDT, subjects wore either a warming eye steamer (water vapor: 200 mg/10 min) or an eye mask with their eyelids closed for 10 minutes. Subjects in the second trial were 5 healthy volunteers (5 eyes). Following VDT, subjects applied either a dry-warming sheet (water vapor: 0 mg/10 min) or a wet-warming sheet (water vapor: 20, 35, 160 and 200 mg/10 min) to there eyelids and the periocular region for 10 minutes. In both experiments, subjective amplitude of accommodation, pupillary reaction, convergence reaction, near vision, and breakup time were measured before and immediately after VDT work and after 2 experimental settings.

RESULTS
The warming eye steamer significantly improved amplitude of accommodation (p<0.05), and near vision (p<0.05). Warming the periocular region with water vapor improved subjective amplitude of accommodation, and near vision, the effect of which depended on the amount of water vapor (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Warming the periocular region with water vapor improved subjective amplitude of accommodation, near vision and the effect depended on the amount of water vapor.


Abstract Using a sample of student-athletes' (N=64) first year (seventh grade) enrolled at a school with a sport profile, the aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate (a) levels and changes as regards to worry about sport performance, perception of peer climate, and perceived competence; and (b) the relationship in levels and changes between these studied variables. The primary results from latent growth models (LGMs) and parallel process LGMs revealed that, during their first year, the student-athletes' level of worry and perceived ego-oriented peer climate increased, whereas perceived competence decreased. Further, the results showed that perceived competence was negatively associated with worry at the beginning of the students' first year. The slope of perceived ego-oriented peer climate was positively associated with the slope of worry. Future research in relation to the findings is discussed, and recommendations for future actions are given.


JANE AUSTEN'S MOVE to Chawton Cottage two hundred years ago clearly prompted her to review her substantial collection of unpublished writing, both her juvenilia and her early novels, in order, finally, to achieve publication. That review seems to have led to her change of direction as a writer, for the novels that she later revised or composed at Chawton have very different narrative voices and heroines than does Northanger Abbey, the only pre-Chawton novel that remains essentially in its pre-Chawton form--that is, the version sold to Crosby in 1803. I propose to re-read Northanger Abbey, and particularly the character of Catherine Morland, in relation to the later novels in order to measure how Chawton changed Jane Austen and how Austen changed the English novel. Like nearly all of Austen's writing, Northanger Abbey is about reading, rereading, and misreading, (1) but it marks a departure in how Austen approached that theme--a change that had begun even before Austen wrote Susan (her original title for Northanger Abbey) in 1798. Most of the juvenilia preceding Catharine [or Kitty], or the Bower, the final entry in Volume the Third (1795), are burlesques that implicitly criticize popular genres through parodic exaggeration and amplification. Catharine, however, is a work of realistic, domestic fiction with a third-person Johnsonian narrator who slips effortlessly into free indirect discourse. (2) Instead of burlesquing the excesses of popular literature, Catharine dramatizes characters through their realistic dialogue about popular fiction. For example, Camilla Stanley's fatuous comments about Charlotte Smith's novels mark her as hopelessly shallow. The narrator informs us: "She professed a love of Books without Reading, was Lively without Wit, and generally Good humoured without Merit" (248). The heroine of Catharine, however, is not Camilla Stanley but, rather, the intelligent, informed, principled, perceptive, dry-witted Catharine Percival, the first recognizably Austenian heroine, whose rational judgment is contrasted to the frivolous Miss Stanley's: Kitty was herself a great reader, tho' perhaps not a very deep one, and felt therefore highly delighted to find that Miss Stanley was equally fond of it. Eager to know that their sentiments as to Books were similar, she very soon began questioning her new Acquaintance on the subject.... "You have read Mrs Smith's Novels, I suppose?" said she to her Companion--. "Oh! Yes, replied the other, and I am quite delighted with them--They are the sweetest things in the world--" "And which do you prefer of them?" "Oh! dear, I think there is no comparison between them--Emmeline is so much better than any of the others--" "Many people think so, I know; but there does not appear so great a disproportion in their Merits to me; do you think it is better written?" "Oh! I do not know anything about that--but it is better in everything--Besides, Ethelinde is so long--" (249) In this passage, rather than burlesquing silly novels by exaggerating their elements, as Austen did in her earlier juvenilia, she uses dialogue about novels to reveal the characters who read them--a technique she would develop in her more mature works. Catharine Percival learns all she needs to know about Camilla Stanley during their brief discourse about Mrs. Smith's novels, but Camilla's brother, the handsome, clever, and rich Edward Stanley, manages to leave a small hole in Catharine's heart after a one-day courtship. The piece ends with Catharine both regretting her foolishness in succumbing to Edward's charm, and taking heart from Camilla's assurance that Edward really is in love with her. Clearly, this Catharine, although clear-eyed, sharp-tongued, and self-aware, has her judgment impaired not by reading but by love. When, about five years later, Austen began to write Susan, she recycled elements from the earlier Catharine so that self-dramatizing, slang-spouting Camilla Stanley became Catherine Morland's false friend Isabella Thorpe while the dialogue in which Catharine Percival and Camilla Stanley discuss novels was reworked and expanded in Northanger Abbey. …


In Hungary small farms have played very important role since collectivization (1959-61). Up to radical changes small households have received strong support from coops in the field of providing inputs on one side and, marketing their products on the other. The latter was disrupted by radical reforms and small farms started struggling with survival under market conditions. Government took measures to provide a development path for those having a chance to become competitive after five years development. Three calls (2004, 205 and 2006) were released. In Hungary SSF from three regions were more interested in getting the grant as North Great Plain, South Transdanubia and South Great Plain. All three regions are agriculture dominated ones. The policy with the call has reached a very moderate number of SSFs and, on the other side small farms, either because not meeting the criteria of the call or not wanted to take the additional costs of being registered and monitored for such a small amount of support decided not to apply. The paper ends with policy lessons.


Multidimensional scaling techniques (MDS) are a vibrant area of research with much development and advancement in last few decades. In this paper we focus on an interactive 2-dimensional interface for creating a similarity space for audio. Classical MDS techniques can place great demands upon participants overwhelming their sensory and cognitive abilities to make choices across such datasets using only pairwise comparison. We outline the results of an investigation to obtain multidimensional similarity ratings for a mixed sound collection containing both recorded sounds and synthesised sounds, and we describe briefly a computer application for collecting such data that reduces task demands by use of a 2-dimensional visual display with multistream audio for organising sound similarity and returns the results in the context of the whole stimuli set.


The spatial distribution of the site enhancement for the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) on the regular nanoparticle arrays has been investigated by the confocal Raman microscopy. It was found that the spatial distribution of the Raman signals on the well-ordered nanoparticle arrays was very inhomogeneous and concentrated on the defects of the nanoparticle arrays. The SERS signals were also observed to depend on the thickness of silver film and the defect density. It has been demonstrated that the number of SERS active sites can be increased ten folds by trimming the size of nanoparticles using oxygen plasma.


We have carried out first-principles spin polarized calculations to obtain comprehensive information regarding the structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of the Mn-doped GaSb compound with dopant concentrations: x = 0.062, 0.083, 0.125, 0.25, and 0.50. The plane-wave pseudopotential method was used in order to calculate total energies and electronic structures. It was found that the MnGa substitution is the most stable configuration with a formation energy of ∼1.60 eV/Mn-atom. The calculated density of states shows that the half-metallic ferromagnetism is energetically stable for all dopant concentrations with a total magnetization of about 4.0 μB/Mn-atom. The results indicate that the magnetic ground state originates from the strong hybridization between Mn-d and Sb-p states, which agree with previous studies on Mn-doped wide gap semiconductors. This study gives new clues to the fabrication of diluted magnetic semiconductors.


Sound management of sewer networks and minimization of the pollution discharged into receiving waters through combined sewer overflows need in-depth knowledge of the flow rates and pollutant loads conveyed in sewers. This knowledge relies on a good assessment of the spatial distribution of the velocities in a cross section, as they are involved both in flowrate, and distribution of concentration. The possibility of assessing this distribution by using computational fluid dynamics is explored and compared with experimental results collected from real sewers.


This Latino/a Archival Resources guide is divided into eight sections which include: (1) Latino or Ethnic Archives, (2) Latino and Ethnic Sound Archives, (3) Latino Film and Video Resources, (4) Filmmaking Resources, (5) Latino Museums and Art Galleries, (6) Genealogical Resources, (7) Latino Commercial Media Sites, and (8) Archival and Research Resources. Internet searches were conducted to identify the resources and where a description was found about a resource and a website was available, such information has been included. In some cases ethnic resources were provided because they include Latino/a content or would be of assistance/relevance to Latino/a archival practice, research and/or education.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the homoeopathic indications of the bark of the Strychnos henningsii tree, through a homoeopathic proving, and to subsequently compare these results to the documented traditional use of the crude substance. Methodology The study design took the form of a triple-blind placebo-controlled trial consisting of 32 participants who met defined inclusion criterion. These participants were randomly divided into four groups, each consisting of eight provers and supervised by one of four M. Tech Homoeopathy students. Fifty percent received placebo and fifty percent received verum. Neither the researcher nor the provers were aware of the nature of the proving substance as well as who received the placebo and who received the verum until the study was completed. The proving substance was administered in the 30CH potency, according to an ECH (European Committee of Homoeopathy) methodology. All provers were subjected to pre – and post -proving consultations in which case histories and physical examinations were performed. A pre-proving workshop was held for all provers and supervisors. Symptom collection was done by using information obtained from prover journals which was then collated, edited and translated into repertory language. By identifying broad areas of traditional use of Strychnos henningsii and relating these to rubrics derived from the proving of Strychnos henningsii 30 CH, a comparison was performed in order to evaluate the overlap between the homoeopathic indications and traditional use of the proving substance. Results After critical evaluation, it was found that whilst overlaps exist in the treatment of liver disease, nausea, dysmenorrhea, rheumatism, chest pain, malaria and dizziness, no overlap was found in the use of the homoeopathic remedy in snakebites. In addition the proving revealed symptoms that were not indicated in traditional use such as headaches, asthma, influenza, sinusitis and hayfever, as well as infections of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Conclusion Thus, upon comparison of the traditional uses of Strychnos henningsii to the symptoms produced in the proving of Strychnos henningsii 30CH, revealed that similarities pertaining mainly to the gastro-intestinal system, female gynaecological tract and rheumatic complaints exist. However, the proving elicited many new symptoms that are purely homoeopathic, these included head, mind, sleep, dream, nose, ear, chest and respiratory symptoms. Furthermore, it is hoped that further provings of this substance at different potencies would contribute further to the materia medica of the substance.


This paper presents a model of Downsian political competition in which voters are imperfectly informed about economic fundamentals. In this setting, parties' choices of platforms influence voters' behavior not only through voters' preferences over policies, but also through formation of their expectation on the unknown fundamentals. We show that there exist pure-strategy equilibria in this political game with asymmetric information at which the two parties' policies diverge with positive probability. This result is in contrast with the well-known median voter theorem in the classical model of Downsian competition. We also study refinement of equilibria, and identify the perfect equilibria (Selten, 1975) and the strictly perfect equilibria (Okada, 1981). The Nash equilibria with the strongest asymmetry in the parties' strategies are proved to be strictly perfect.


Automated Identification of Relative Clauses in Child Language Samples Erika E. Ehlert Department of Communication Disorders Master of Science Relative clauses are grammatical constructions that are of relevance in both typical and impaired language development. Thus, the accurate identification of these structures in child language samples is clinically important. In recent years, computer software has been used to assist in the automated analysis of clinical language samples. However, this software has had only limited success when attempting to identify relative clauses. The present study explores the development and clinical importance of relative clauses and investigates the accuracy of the software used for automated identification of these structures. Two separate collections of language samples were used. The first collection included 10 children with language impairment, ranging in age from 7;6 to 11;1 (years;months), 10 agematched peers, and 10 language-matched peers. A second collection contained 30 children considered to have typical speech and language skills and who ranged in age from 2;6 to 7;11. Language samples were manually coded for the presence of relative clauses (including those containing a relative pronoun, those without a relative pronoun and reduced relative clauses). These samples were then tagged using computer software and finally tabulated and compared for accuracy. ANACOVA revealed a significant difference in the frequency of relative clauses containing a relative pronoun but not for those without a relative pronoun nor for reduce relative clauses. None of the structures were significantly correlated with age; however, frequencies of both relative clauses with and without relative pronouns were correlated with mean length of utterance. Kappa levels revealed that agreement between manual and automated coding was relatively high for each relative clause type and highest for relative clauses containing relative pronouns.


Diced Nopal cladodes (pads) have been used for the treatment of turbid natural spring waters in Latin America. To investigate this phenomenon, the mucilage derived from the species Opuntia ficusindica was investigated. Comparison against the commonly used synthetic flocculant, aluminium sulfate (Al2(SO4)3) demonstrated the high efficiency of the cactus to eliminate turbidity. The mucilage extract increased particulate settling rates 330% compared with aluminium sulfate, at dosage concentrations of 3 mg L ! 1 , while its performance was equivalent at doses 0.3% of the required Al2(SO4)3 concentration. The cactus mucilage, which consists of complex carbohydrates and sugars, has unique surface activity characteristics that make it an ideal candidate for enhancing dispersion properties, creating emulsifications, and for reducing the surface tension of high polarity liquids. These results indicated that the Nopal cactus mucilage has the potential to be the basis for a new 'green' technology, which is environmentally benign and cost-effective.


The aim of the study was to investigate the cooling performance of two cooling package positions for distribution vehicles by using Computational Fluid Dynamics. The first cooling package was positioned in the front of the vehicle, behind the grill and the second position was at the rear of the vehicle. Each case was evaluated by its cooling performance for a critical driving situation and its aerodynamic drag at 90 km/h, where the largest challenge of an alternative position is the cooling air availability. The geometry used was a semi-generic commercial vehicle, based on a medium size distribution truck with a heat rejection value set to a fixed typical level at maximum power for a 13 litre Euro 6 diesel engine. The heat exchangers included in the study were the air conditioning condenser, the charge air cooler and the radiator. It was found that the main problem with the rear mounted cooling installation was the combination of the fan and the geometry after the fan. The combination of these parameters for the rear mounted cooling module resulted in a high system restriction and low cooling performance values. To obtain the same cooling performance as the front mounted installation the fan had to rotate 23 % faster, corresponding to 86 % more power for the fan, for a maximum power driving situation. For the rearward installation it was seen that the drag was reduced and no recirculation was present at low velocities as it was for the frontal positioned cooling module. Thereafter the duct after the fan for the rear mounted position was removed and the cooling performance became better than the front positioned cooling module. The conclusions made from the study were that the rearward positioned cooling module was an advantage at lower vehicle velocities, at higher speeds the air inlet has to be redesigned to obtain a more uniform airflow over the heat exchangers as well as obtaining higher cooling performance, and that the combination of the fan and its environment must be carefully matched. Though, this study was based on distribution vehicles mainly operating at lower velocities.


Recently, there has been a significant increase in the market for fair trade products. However, there is a discrepancy between the stated purchase intention of consumers and their actual purchase behaviour with respect to fair trade. This article takes an operational and strategic view of this issue and argues that one significant reason for this lies in the limited range of fair trade products currently available. Next, a strategic framework for fair trade new product development is presented and explored. Finally, key operational criteria for fair trade product selection are discussed using a case study example to support the conclusions.


Learning meaningful topic models with massive document collections which contain millions of documents and billions of tokens is challenging because of two reasons. First, one needs to deal with a large number of topics (typically on the order of thousands). Second, one needs a scalable and efficient way of distributing the computation across multiple machines. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm F+Nomad LDA which simultaneously tackles both these problems. In order to handle large number of topics we use an appropriately modified Fenwick tree. This data structure allows us to sample from a multinomial distribution over T items in O(log T) time. Moreover, when topic counts change the data structure can be updated in O(log T) time. In order to distribute the computation across multiple processors, we present a novel asynchronous framework inspired by the Nomad algorithm of Yun et al, 2014. We show that F+Nomad LDA significantly outperforms recent state-of-the-art topic modeling approaches on massive problems which involve millions of documents, billions of words, and thousands of topics.


This study was designed to investigate long term stability of K-Gin capsules, a herbal medication that contains korean ginseng. Stability studies ensuring the maintenance of product quality, safety and efficacy throughout the shelf life are considered as pre-requisite for the acceptance and approval of any pharmaceutical product. Conducting long term stability studies following the guidelines issued by ICH, WHO and USP. The drug was stored under different climatic conditions: (25±1°C, humidity: 75%) Chamber 1(CH1); (30±1°C, humidity: 75%) Chamber 2(CH2) and (40±1°C, humidity 75%) Chamber 3(CH3) for 24 months,evaluation of capsulestchemicaly (ginsenosides Rg1 and Rb1), physicaly and microbiologicaly, besides determination of certain elements including heavy metals, detection of pesticides residues and mycotoxins. The activation energies were found to be 10.99 and 10.2 (k.cal.mol-1) for Rg1 and Rb1 respectively. The calculated t1/2 values for Rg1 were found to be 94 months in (CH1), 68.4 months in (CH2) and 51 months in (CH3). For Rb1 were found to be 100.3 months in (CH1), 73.39 months in (CH2) and 56.7 months in (CH3). Capsules assay results for Rg1 after 24 months period of study were found to be 98.93% in (CH1), 97.13% in (CH2) and 96.43% in (CH3). For Rb1 96.93% in (CH1), 96.83% in (CH2) and 96.13% in (CH3). Studies on the elemental composition confirmed absence of toxic heavy metals. Microbiological studies revealed no significant changes in total viable aerobic count of bacteria and fungi. The capsules were found to be free from any pesticides residues and the mycotoxins content was 723 ng kg-1. The methods involved in this study covered, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and ELISA. The results were found to be within the allowable limits stated in the guidelines. From this study K-Gin capsules were proved to be stable chemicaly and physicaly under studied storage conditions for 24 months.


Abstract. Wintertime Saharan dust plumes in the vicinity of Barbados are investigated by means of airborne lidar measurements.
The measurements were conducted in the framework of the EUREC4A (Elucidating the Role of Cloud-Circulation Coupling in Climate) field experiment upstream the Caribbean island in January–February 2020.
The combination of the water vapor differential absorption and high spectral resolution lidar techniques together with dropsonde measurements aboard the German HALO (High Altitude and Long-Range) research aircraft enable a detailed vertical and horizontal characterization of the measured dust plumes.
In contrast to summertime dust transport, mineral dust aerosols were transported at lower altitudes and were always located below 3.5 km.
Calculated backward trajectories affirm that the dust-laden layers have been transported in nearly constant low-level altitude over the North Atlantic Ocean.
Only mixtures of dust particles with other aerosol species, i.e., biomass-burning aerosol from fires in West Africa and marine aerosol, were detected by the lidar.
No pure mineral dust regimes were observed.
Additionally, all the dust-laden air masses that were observed during EUREC4A came along with enhanced water vapor concentrations compared with the free atmosphere above.
Such enhancements have already been observed during summertime and were found to have a great impact on radiative transfer and atmospheric stability.


This study aims to summarize cost-effectiveness analyses assessing image-based surveillance for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhotic patients. Data was collected from main medical databases up to August 2016, to identify eligible studies assessing cost-effectiveness of HCC surveillance in cirrhotic patients. The included studies were reviewed to extract information on study design, surveillance strategies, model parameters, data sources of model variables, and results of base case analysis. Base case Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) per life year was adjusted to the 2015 currency value and presented as a ratio to the 2015 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita for comparisons across countries. Simple linear regression analyses were performed to assess the impact of model variables on adjusted ICER per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY). Twelve studies from 8 countries were identified. When compared to no surveillance, the ICERs per life year associated with image-based surveillance were ranked by semi-annual Ultrasound (US) (0.16 GDP per capita), semiannual contrast-enhanced US (0.17 GDP per capita), annual US plus Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) (0.54 GDP per capita), semi-annual computed tomography plus AFP (0.60 GDP per capita), and semi-annual US plus AFP (0.63 GDP per capital). Semi-annual surveillance (coefficient 1.919, P=0.002) and annual mortality of decompensated cirrhosis (coefficient 13.762, P<0.001) were significantly associated with increased ICERs per QALY for image-based surveillance. Semi-annual US was likely the most costeffective image-based surveillance for HCC in cirrhotic patients. The cost-effectiveness of HCC surveillance was highly sensitive to surveillance frequency and mortality of decompensated cirrhosis.


The issue related to professionals is an important one in the field of translation studies. Lefevere holds that professionals play an important part in the literary system and may ensure "the literary system does not fall too far out of step with the other subsystems society consists of". This article first explores Lefevere's use of the term "professionals" and then proposes to study professionals in a "literary translation system" instead of a literary system. The focus of this "literary translation system" is translators or translations, and it is a system in which various factors including translators, patrons, professionals, etc. interact with each other. Taking into consideration of the factors of economy and expertise, we can define a professional as someone who lives from certain special knowledge he/she has acquired. In the "literary translation system", a professional can be a university teacher, an editor, a critic, a reviewer, etc., who has acquired special knowledge of literary translation. The interaction between professionals and translators is also investigated through a case study of the debate over different Chinese versions of the French novel The Red and the Black.


Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) systems on modern aircraft or autonomous unmanned vehicles should provide diagnostic and prognostic capabilities with lower support costs and amount of data traffic. When mission objectives cannot be reached for the control system since unanticipated operating conditions exists, namely a failure, the mission plan must be revised or altered according to the health monitoring system assessment. Representation of the system health knowledge must facilitate interaction with the control system to compensate for subsystem degradation. Several generic architectures have been described for the implementation of health monitoring systems and their integration with the control system. In particular, the Open System Architecture - Condition-Based Maintenance (OSA-CBM) approach is considered in this work as initial point, and it is evolved in the sense of self-health awareness, by defining an appropriated multi-agent smart health management architecture based on smart device models, communication agents and a distributed control system. A case study about its application on fuel-cells as auxiliary power generator will demonstrate the integration.


The Taranaki Basin, situated offshore western New Zealand, is one of several large sedimentary basins formed during the Late Cretaceous in response to break-up of the palaeo-Pacific margin of Gondwana. A review of published structural, stratigraphic and geochronological data indicates that NE to NNE striking basement faults, generated during Palaeozoic to Mesozoic terrane accretion along the Gondwana margin, have strongly influenced the development of the basin. The main basin-bounding faults, the Cape Egmont Fault Zone and the Taranaki Fault, correspond to the boundaries of a narrow belt of plutonic rocks known as the Median Tectonic Zone. Geological data from onshore South Island suggests that right-lateral movement occurred along the boundaries of the Median Tectonic Zone during the Early Cretaceous. From the Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary, NE to NNE striking normal faults within the Taranaki Basin controlled deposition in a series of en-echelon half-grabens and sub-basins. Many of the normal faults were later reactivated during a phase of compressional deformation associated with the development of the Australian-Pacific plate boundary through New Zealand. Reverse movement on the Taranaki Fault began in the early Miocene and deformation propagated westward reaching the Cape Egmont Fault Zone in the late Miocene to early Pliocene.


This work addresses the issues on determining the optimal regions for using propulsion system for spacecraft at low near-Earth orbits. An analysis of spacecraft launches over the past 5 years has been performed. The result of analyzing the launches is the type of spacecraft, selected for subsequent calculations, specifically a remote sensing satellite at low near-Earth orbit. We have solved the problem on determining parameters for the trajectory of a spacecraft motion, exposed to external non-permanent forces. Based on an analysis of the external influence, the scope of possible future application of spacecraft propulsion systems has been defined. A comparative analysis has been performed for the mass criterion of efficiency of using propulsion systems based on the chemical mono-component and electro-jet engines in order to solve tasks on maintaining the circular orbit parameters over a long time. For orbit altitudes below 300 km, as was established based on the calculation results, the application of a propulsion system proved to be inefficient due to the need for a large reserve of fuel aboard and a large required engine thrust. For satellites at circular orbits from 350 to 450 km, a propulsion system that includes the Hall-effectbased engine ST25, manufactured by SETS, proved to be more effective than the chemical propulsion unit. Application of chemical engines to maintain the orbit parameters at altitude above 500 km would be preferable to electro-jet ones due to a relatively small mass of the chemical propulsion system and a sufficient resource of engines operation in order to maintain the orbit. We have obtained parameters for the propulsion system that uses the Hall-effect-based engine ST25 in order to maintain orbital parameters within different ranges of altitudes, solar activity, and geometrical parameters for a satellite. The result of calculation is the determined necessary resource of operation and the fuel stock to maintain parameters of the orbit. The calculation results obtained could be used to design new satellites and to modify satellite platforms.


A tunable fiber polarizing filter based on selectively filling a single hole of a solid-core polarization maintaining photonic crystal fiber with high index liquid are proposed and demonstrated. Two groups of polarization-dependent resonance dips in the transmission spectrum of the single-hole-infiltrated photonic crystal fiber are observed. Theoretical and experimental investigations reveal that these resonant dips result from the couplings between the silica core fundamental mode at x or y polarization and high order modes (TM(01), TE(01) and HE(11)) in the liquid core. Especially, a distinctive characteristic near the strongest resonant point (SRP) is demonstrated and revealed. The transmission loss and spectral shape at the SRP wavelength are extremely sensitive to the filling length and temperature (or Refractive Index, RI), which permits a fiber bandpass or bandstop polarizing filter with a good performance on tunability and controllability. Furthermore, the narrowband dips on both sides of the SRP wavelength have wavelength-dependent tuning velocities, providing a method to achieve flexible and controllable filters as well as two- or multi-parameter sensors with a compact structure.


Abstract : Background : Health promotion and primary prevention are key points for fighting the increase in non- communicable diseases. Aim: To test the effectiveness of a nutritional counselling programme in improving nutritional behaviours, knowledge and status, physical activity and health-related quality of life in a general population. Methods : In the period between January–December 2007, we studied the application of the nutritional counselling programme (NCP) developed by Local Health Agency 10 (Florence-Italy). We compared , diet, nutritional knowledge, physical activity, health related quality of life (measured by SF36 questionnaire), body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference before and after a two months intensive nutritional counselling programme using the paired t test and McNemar test. Diet, nutritional knowledge, physical activity, socio-demographic and morbidity information were collected through questionnaires. BMI and waist circumference were assessed by a medical doctor. Results : We enrolled 74 persons, 59 of whom completed the educational programme. Of these, 34 had a nutritional status assessment after the programme. Mean age was 49 years, 80% were females. BMI, waist circumference and diet, except for water intake, did not change. The percentage of people who had "never exercised in a week" decreased from 46% to 17% (p<0.001). Mean percentage of right answers to nutritional knowledge indicators increased from 64% to 78% (p<0.001). Health related quality of life (HRQL) improved especially with regard to "Physical" and "Emotional Role". Conclusions : The NCP showed important results in promoting physical activity and improving HRQL and nutritional knowledge, moderate/none results in improving diet and nutritional status.


The central research question of the thesis concerns the bargaining and negotiating strategy, as well as the negotiating process, at the GATT and the WTO in relation to developing countries. The key questions this study set out to answer were: considering the vast power disparity developing countries face in multilateral trade negotiations in the GATT/WTO institution and among a number of available strategies, what is, then, the most effective bargaining strategy, under what conditions?
The thesis has sought to make a principal argument corresponding to the research question of this study, based on the findings of the case of Thailand's participation at the Uruguay Round negotiations. Firstly, the thesis shows that Thailand, along with other developing countries with the same level of economic development and a similar level of experience in multilateral trade negotiations, has not been able to rely on merely one negotiating strategy in order to attain the sought after outcomes. The thesis then illustrates that bargaining strategies have to be exercised in all channels. To further systemise, bargaining strategies could possibly be grouped into three levels: (1) international, where coalition building and mixed strategy of distributive and integrative tactics can be utilised; (2) regional, where regional agreements/regional-based coalitions can be utilised as a springboard for bargaining; and (3) domestic, where the role of individual officials and ministers can feed into the effectiveness of the bargaining strategies being conducted. Therefore, the thesis argues that the limited bargaining power of developing countries makes coalition-building an especially crucial and most appealing tool for their effective diplomacy. The thesis also argues that the most effective bargaining tactics are those of a mixture of distributive and integrative tactics, as stipulated by Odell.
The thesis contends that Thailand's experience seems to throw light on the inadequacies of the conventional accounts of domestic-driven negotiation analysis that assume the great role of domestic institutional inputs in the trade policy formulation process. They assume that trade negotiators and officials arrive at the negotiating position after having calculated and balanced inputs from diverse interests within the state. It is believed that negotiation alternatives for any country are direct outcomes of the particular alignment of domestic actors and interests. However, the finding suggests that a very different dynamic is at work in Thailand. Finally, the thesis has maintained that the driving force in trade policy and negotiating strategy in Thailand remains in the hands of the state, mainly via bureaucratic officials. Therefore, new development in negotiation analysis is needed that is of relevance to developing countries' experiences, since many developing countries with very different political structures and societies have reacted in very similar ways at the international level.


We have constructed a composite indicator of anthropometric failure (CIAF) that refines the Waterlow-3 tier classification, using a recent nation-wide household survey. The CIAF and its disaggregation into subcategories of undernourished 5 years old children reveal a grimmer story of child undernutrition than conventional anthropometric indicators do. Besides, simultaneous occurrence of anthropometric failures (e.g. stunting and underweight, and stunting, wasting and underweight) is pervasive. Our analysis of determinants of CIAF yields some new insights-specifically, the important role of food prices. Investigation of the links between different anthropometric failures and prevalence of infectious diseases (viz. Diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection), however, offers some justification for the disaggregated classification of undernourished children used here. Specifically, those with more than one failure were worse-off in this respect than children with no failure. There is a strong case for income growth together with food price stabilisation in curbing child undernutrition. Education has the desired effect but it is less strong than expected. Improvement in the quality of home environment makes a difference too but it is not conditional on income or wealth alone.


Presenting Mayan history from the perspective of Mayan women--whose voices until now have not been documented--David Carey allows these women to present their worldviews in their native language, adding a rich layer to recent Latin American historiography, and increasing our comprehension of indigenous perspectives of the past. Drawing on years of research among the Maya that specifically documents women's oral histories, Carey gives Mayan women a platform to discuss their views on education, migrant labor, work in the home, female leadership, and globalization. These oral histories present an ideal opportunity to understand indigenous women's approach to history, the apparent contradictions in gender roles in Mayan communities, and provide a distinct conceptual framework for analyzing Guatamalan, Mayan, and Latin American history.


In this report we review memory-based meta-learning as a tool for building sample-efficient strategies that learn from past experience to adapt to any task within a target class. Our goal is to equip the reader with the conceptual foundations of this tool for building new, scalable agents that operate on broad domains. To do so, we present basic algorithmic templates for building near-optimal predictors and reinforcement learners which behave as if they had a probabilistic model that allowed them to efficiently exploit task structure. Furthermore, we recast memory-based meta-learning within a Bayesian framework, showing that the meta-learned strategies are near-optimal because they amortize Bayes-filtered data, where the adaptation is implemented in the memory dynamics as a state-machine of sufficient statistics. Essentially, memory-based meta-learning translates the hard problem of probabilistic sequential inference into a regression problem.


Abstract: Starting from the four theses that globalization is unavoidable, ambivalent, incalculable, and can be controlled rationally, ethics has an indispensable and important role to play in the process of globalization. Indeed, a number of international documents published in the 1990s not only acknowledge human rights but also speak explicitly of human responsibilities. The author pleads for the primacy of ethics over politics and economics and, in reviewing both the Interfaith Declaration for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and the Caux Roundtable Principles for Business Conduct, he raises the question about the foundation for the unconditional validity of particular basic ethical values and attitudes. In Küng's view, no universal ethic, but only religion, expressed by the three prophetic religions, the mystical religions of Indian origin, and the wisdom religions of Chinese origin, can provide this foundation. Yet, religion as a spiritual resource intends to influence concrete behavior and decision making. Therefore, the author stresses the importance of a personality culture for business executives and an "ethic of responsibility" to shape business culture and institutions. He then proposes the Declaration of the Parliament of the World's Religions Toward a Global Ethic as a basis to develop a business ethics that can be supported by believers and non- believers alike.


Intercultural remote team collaboration has become a key component of multinational corporation's strategic planning. By studying two engineering teams located in Canada and China, we examine the factors that affect between-team communication practice in intercultural contexts. Data, including questionnaires, interviews, team emails, and team meetings, were collected through various channels. Besides the characteristics of tasks shared by the two teams, these data also helped us to understand within-team and between-team communication practices, the factors of their communication behavior, and factors. Specifically, we administered online anonymous questionnaires for teams' personality characteristics and intercultural sensitivity. We conducted three semi-structured interviews with each team member (total of 30 interviews were conducted): one at the beginning of the project; the second at the middle of the project and the last close to the end of the project. During the five-month project period, we collected108 between-team emails and attend three between-team meetings. Content of the emails and meeting transcripts were analyzed to examine the interactions between the two teams using Bales' [1950. A set of categories for the analysis of small group interaction. American Sociological Review, 50(2), 257–263] interaction processing analysis. In addition to this, we also conducted an email timeline analysis to examine the immediacy of this asynchronous communication tool and identify potential breakdowns. Our results demonstrate that personality traits and intercultural sensitivity affect between-team intercultural communications. Other factors that affect the teams' communication behavior include the communication media, the national cultural differences, distance, one team members' awareness of the other team's workflow and workload. Based on these findings, we propose the design implications for supporting between-team communication.


Gathering the core topics of forensic science into one comprehensive volume and providing an overview of each, "Encyclopedia of Forensic Science, Revised Edition" is a revised and expanded version of the award-winning original with approximately 650 entries, more than 80 new to this edition. More than 12 essays are interspersed throughout this reliable A-to-Z reference, describing how forensic science relates to areas such as drug testing in sports, privacy concerns, misconceptions about forensic science, and the interface of forensic engineering and forensic science. The encyclopedia is richly illustrated with more than 200 black-and-white photographs and illustrations, plus a full-color insert containing photographs with depictions of firearms, tool marks, and DNA analysis. Most of the photographs were supplied by working forensic scientists in many different organizations.With updated appendixes aiding further research, this essential revised edition will remain the ultimate primer in the subject of forensic science for high school and college students alike. New and revised entries include: Accidental characteristics; Airplane crashes; Alchemy; Anthropology, forensic; Birch Method; Bloodstain patterns; Robert Boyle; Color and colorants; Crime labs (forensic labs); CSI and CSI effect; DNA wars; Dust analysis; Environmental forensics; Explosive power; Glove prints; Jack the Ripper; Lindbergh kidnapping; Madrid bombings; Albertus Magnus; Oaths and ordeals; Sir William Brooke O'Shaughnessy; Paracelsus; Rigor mortis; Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP); Skeletal identification; Sir Bernard Spilsbury; Vinland Map; and, Zwikker test.


This study deals with large spatial scale differences in the ratios between bacterial leucine incorporation (TLi: protein synthesis) and thymidine incorporation (TTi: DNA synthesis) in oligotrophic offshore and comparatively more mesotrophic inshore (sub)tropical regions of the Atlantic Ocean. Observations were derived from 2 RV 'Polarstern' cruises, one of which traversed a meridional mid-ocean transect while the other followed the African coast line. Average values (from 42°N to 35°S) of TLi, TTi and chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration were 40.3 pmol leucine l–1 h–1, 1.32 pmol thymidine l–1 h–1 and 0.18 µg chl a l–1 along the offshore transect, compared to 51.8 pmol leucine l–1 h–1, 2.72 pmol thymidine l–1 h–1 and 0.29 µg chl a l–1 along the inshore transect. Mean values of the TLi:TTi ratio (which defines bacterial growth characteristics) were 32.4 in offshore waters and 20.5 in inshore waters. Offshore ratios of TLi:chl a or TTi:chl a (proxy for bacterial substrate) were 274.1 and 8.5, compared to inshore ratios of 198.7 and 10.0, respectively. This means that, per unit of chl a, considerably higher bacterial protein synthesis was supported in water farther from the coast than near the coast, whereas bacterial DNA synthesis per unit chl a was slightly higher in the latter. Because temperature variability along the cruise tracts was rather similar (except in the Benguela upwelling region), we assume that substrate supply was mainly responsible for the observed significant differences in bacterial growth characteristics. In addition, the potential different contributions of picocyanobacteria to leucine uptake (TLi) must be considered. We conclude that the different TLi:TTi ratios in (sub)tropical offshore and inshore waters reflect reactions of the relevant bacterial communities to prevailing environmental conditions. Therefore, we did not interpret our results in the context of the currently used terms 'balanced' or 'unbalanced' growth. Bacterial community growth may be balanced in both regions of study, but at different levels of the TLi:TTi ratio.


Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a now an accepted and routine analysis for the elucidation and quantitation of biomolecules in life science research. In this technique a co-precipitate of a UV-light absorbing matrix and a biomolecule are irradiated by a nanosecond laser pulse. The technique involves spotting small concentrated aliquots of material on to a matrix-coated "target". The target is then positioned inside the Mass Spectrometer and the biomolecule of interest is desorped from the matrix surface and ionised by the laser. Most of the laser energy is absorbed by the matrix, which prevents unwanted fragmentation of the biomolecule, whilst some of the energy causes ionisation of the biomolecule. These ionized biomolecules are accelerated in an electric field and enter the flight tube of a timeof-flight mass spectrometer. During the flight in this tube, different molecules are separated according to their mass-to-charge ratio and reach the detector at different times. In this way each molecule yields a distinct signal. The method is used for detection and characterization of biomolecules, such as proteins, peptides, oligosaccharides and oligonucleotides, with molecular masses between 400 and 350,000 Da. It is a very sensitive method, which allows the detection of low (10 to 10 mole) quantities of sample with an accuracy of 0.1 0.01 %. Although the technique can be very sensitive, concentrated samples achieve the best results.


The 2011 AGM workshop took place at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC) in Oeiras, Portugal, from 23-25 May. The goal of the workshop was to build on the demonstrable progress made during the previous year, in particular by helping to deliver on some of the plans outlined during the 2010 AGM. It was also an opportunity to build on our commitment to take EMBnet forward by embracing new partners and new activities. The following pages summarise the workshop content, discussions and conclusions.


Sustainability is a concept that is becoming more significant within the roads and transportation industry and recently, the need to achieve more sustainable roads is becoming highly desired. The Roads and Maritime Services of New South Wales (RMS) is a state government agency, responsible for managing the road network, by providing sufficient capacity and maintenance solutions to improve efficiencies.

The aim of the first section of the research was to conduct an assessment on the RMS, in order to identify strengths and weaknesses with respect to working towards improving sustainability within road construction. Findings from this critical review were that the RMS has a long history of innovative processes, which includes specific sustainability strategies, as well as integration of sustainable concepts directly into work procedures, standards and specifications. One negative from the assessment was that there are no systems that allow benchmarking of how sustainable processes are within projects. This results in an inability to consistently measure progress and achievements as well as propose improvements. Sustainability Rating Tools (SRT) were investigated as a method that allows for quantified measurement of sustainability in projects, hence identified as a potential solution to these issues.

The aims of the second section of the research were to firstly develop a new SRT that would be self assessable and tailored for use within RMS, and then to assess the functionality of the system through implementation on a current case study. The Sustainability Monitoring and Reporting Tool or 'SMaRT' was developed and implemented on a $4.7 million roundabout construction project. The SMaRT system was based off important features identified through the assessment on the RMS, as well as through evaluation of existing SRTs. As a result, the system resulted in the consolidation of 'best practice' features and accounted for current values of the RMS. Implementation of the system showed that it functioned as envisaged, and was able to provide results that could be utilised positively for future projects in order to improve sustainability within construction. Overall, final recommendations are that SRTs provide great benefit and should be investigated further, however the use of SMaRT within RMS is likely unfeasible due to several deterring factors.


Abstract. With the development of digital city, digital applications are more and more widespread, while the urban buildings are more complex. Therefore, establishing an effective data model is the key to express urban building models accurately. In addition, the combination of 3D building model and remote sensing data become a trend to build digital city there are a large amount of data resulting in data redundancy. In order to solve the limitation of single modelling of constructive solid geometry (CSG), this paper presents a mixed modelling method based on SCSG-BR for urban buildings representation. On one hand, the improved CSG method, which is called as "Spatial CSG (SCSG)" representation method, is used to represent the exterior shape of urban buildings. On the other hand, the boundary representation (BR) method represents the topological relationship between geometric elements of urban building, in which the textures is considered as the attribute data of the wall and the roof of urban building. What's more, the method combined file database and relational database is used to manage the data of three-dimensional building model, which can decrease the complex processes in texture mapping. During the data processing, the least-squares algorithm with constraints is used to orthogonalize the building polygons and adjust the polygons topology to ensure the accuracy of the modelling data. Finally, this paper matches the urban building model with the corresponding orthophoto. This paper selects data of Denver, Colorado, USA to establish urban building realistic model. The results show that the SCSG-BR method can represent the topological relations of building more precisely. The organization and management of urban building model data reduce the redundancy of data and improve modelling speed. The combination of orthophoto and urban building model further strengthens the application in view analysis and spatial query, which enhance the scope of digital city applications.


Abstract. The objective of this paper is to deliver the most accurate ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) climatology for the pure troposphere only, i.e. exclusively from the ground to the dynamical tropopause on an individual profile basis. The results (profiles and columns) are derived solely from the Measurements of OZone and water vapour by in-service Alrbus airCraft programme (MOZAIC) over 15 years (1994–2009). The study, focused on the northern mid-latitudes [24–50° N] and [119° W–140° E], includes more than 40 000 profiles over 11 sites to give a quasi-global zonal picture. Considering all the sites, the pure tropospheric column peak-to-peak seasonal cycle ranges are 23.7–43.2 DU for O3 and 1.7–6.9 × 10 18 molecules cm−2 for CO. The maxima of the seasonal cycles are not in phase, occurring in February–April for CO and May–July for O3. The phase shift is related to the photochemistry and OH removal efficiencies. The purely tropospheric seasonal profiles are characterized by a typical autumn–winter/spring–summer O3 dichotomy (except in Los Angeles, Eastmed – a cluster of Cairo and Tel Aviv – and the regions impacted by the summer monsoon) and a summer–autumn/winter–spring CO dichotomy. We revisit the boundary-layer, mid-tropospheric (MT) and upper-tropospheric (UT) partial columns using a~new monthly varying MT ceiling. Interestingly, the seasonal cycle maximum of the UT partial columns is shifted from summer to spring for O3 and to very early spring for CO. Conversely, the MT maximum is shifted from spring to summer and is associated with a summer (winter) MT thickening (thinning). Lastly, the pure tropospheric seasonal cycles derived from our analysis are consistent with the cycles derived from spaceborne measurements, the correlation coefficients being r=0.6–0.9 for O3 and r>0.9 for CO. The cycles observed from space are nevertheless greater than MOZAIC for O3 (by 9–18 DU) and smaller for CO (up to 1 × 10 18 molecules cm−2). The larger winter O3 difference between the two data sets suggests probable stratospheric contamination in satellite data due to the tropopause position. The study underlines the importance of rigorously discriminating between the stratospheric and tropospheric reservoirs and avoiding use of a~monthly averaged tropopause position without this strict discrimination in order to assess the pure O3 and CO tropospheric trends.


The way youth speak about the past can offer important clues to how they conceptualise and emotionally negotiate the present, specifically their sense of place in a changing world and the security of their future within it. This article considers the case of youth admitted to a university through a 'bridging' programme to reflect on dilemmas of identity and class mobility facing South African youth. Based on participant-observation, working with a world history curriculum designed for educationally disadvantaged students, the researcher illustrates how widelycirculating public discourses about race and history have infused the moral and generational pressures black students report to be a constant source of tension in their lives. Their social positioning on the cusp of upward social mobility in a nation characterised by persistent, racialised economic inequalities is experienced both as a privilege and a burden. Tensions between, on the one hand, a proclaimed loyalty to communitarian interests and identities and, on the other, a desire to showcase full participation in new cultures of consumer materialism are resolved through dichotomous ways of speaking about the past. In these narratives, "History" is the term utilised for speaking of a past of traumatic events, black victimisation and social legacies which must be overcome; "tradition" is a word invoked to empower a positive sense of continuity and to fix a seemingly more secure and generous location in the present. Both languages of the past offer narrative resources for students who are negotiating a rapidly changing national and global context.


One of the biggest challenges hindering progress in low-resource and multilingual machine translation is the lack of good evaluation benchmarks. Current evaluation benchmarks either lack good coverage of low-resource languages, consider only restricted domains, or are low quality because they are constructed using semi-automatic procedures. In this work, we introduce the Flores-101 evaluation benchmark, consisting of 3001 sentences extracted from English Wikipedia and covering a variety of different topics and domains. These sentences have been translated in 101 languages by professional translators through a carefully controlled process. The resulting dataset enables better assessment of model quality on the long tail of low-resource languages, including the evaluation of many-to-many multilingual translation systems, as all translations are fully aligned. By publicly releasing such a high-quality and high-coverage dataset, we hope to foster progress in the machine translation community and beyond.


The civil rights movement required money. In the early 1960s, after years of grassroots organizing, civil rights activists convinced non-profit foundations to donate in support of voter education and registration efforts. One result was the Voter Education Project (VEP), which, starting in 1962, showed far-reaching results almost immediately and organized the groundwork that eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In African American communities across the South, the VEP catalyzed existing campaigns; it paid for fuel, booked rallies, bought food for volunteers, and paid people to canvass neighborhoods. Despite this progress, powerful conservatives in Congress weaponized the federal tax code to undercut the important work of the VEP.
Though local power had long existed in the hundreds of southern towns and cities that saw organized civil rights action, the VEP was vital to converting that power into political motion. Evan Faulkenbury offers a much-needed explanation of how philanthropic foundations, outside funding, and tax policy shaped the southern black freedom movement.


Background: The processing of cassava into Gari comes with a lot of environmental as well as occupational hazards to the processors, and even the consumers. This study aimed at describing the occupational hazards, health problems and peak expiratory flow rate [PEFR] of local gari processors in a rural community in Nigeria. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in Oghara, Delta State and data were collected using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires. Utilizing the multi-stage sampling technique, 400 questionnaires were administered to the gari processors who consented. The Peak Flow Meter was used to determine the respiratory status of respondents. Data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 16. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 27.6 ± 13.2 years and they were mostly females (237, 59.2%). Majority (265, 66.2%) of respondents were aware of hazards in Gari processing and the factors significantly associated with awareness among the respondents were age (p=0.021), sex (p=0.010) and educational level (p=0.017). Majority (241, 60.2%) was not aware of protective measures against the hazards they face at work and also more than two-thirds of the respondents had never used personal protective devices. Cuts (338, 84.5%) and puncture wounds (294, 73.5%) were the most common injuries sustained by respondents. Also (273, 68.2%) has ever sustained injuries while frying/roasting gari. The Mean Peak Expiratory Flow for respondents was 304.4 ± 72.5L/min. Bivariate analysis showed no significant association between PEFR and age, sex and duration of involvement in Gari processing. Conclusion: The study revealed high level of awareness about occupational hazards but poor occupational safety practices among the respondents. There was a high prevalence of injuries among the respondents and their mean Peak Expiratory Flow rate was below normal. Health


Reef-building corals are considered as meta-organisms where the coral animal lives in symbiosis with a wide array of microorganisms. While mutualistic association between corals and Symbiodinium is crucial for the functioning and success of the coral reef ecosystems, surprisingly little is currently known about its molecular basis and this is especially true of the events leading to establishment of the relationship. A morphologically similar alga to Symbiodinium was discovered in Australian corals and has been identified as Chromera. The discovery of Chromera is very significant as it holds a unique position in evolution, between the photosynthetic dinoflagellates and the parasitic apicomplexans. The nature of the association between Chromera and corals is currently unclear. In this thesis, I used high throughput next generation sequencing technology (Illumina RNA-Seq) to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying establishment of coral-algal symbiosis between coral larvae and a competent strain of Symbiodinium. I examined also the nature of the poorly understood relationship between corals and the newly described photosynthetic apicomplexan alga Chromera using RNA-Seq. Finally, I present a functional genomic resource (transcriptome) for a Chromera strain isolated from a Great Barrier Reef coral, and use a comparative transcriptomic approach to examine sharing of functions and pathways among Chromera, Symbiodinium kawagutii and Plasmodium falciparum.

To better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the initial coral- Symbiodinium interactions, Acropora digitifera larvae were inoculated with a competent Symbiodinium strain and the responses of the coral whole transcriptome were investigated 4, 12 and 48 h post-Symbiodinium infection using RNA-Seq. Although previous studies (based on use of cDNA microarrays) did not detect host signals during establishment of coral-Symbiodinium symbiosis, using the RNA-Seq approach, transient changes in gene expression, involving 1073 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), were observed early in the Symbiodinium uptake (infection) process. This is the first report of differential expression of a significant number of genes during Symbiodinium uptake by corals. The list of DEGs allowed the construction of a model for the molecular mechanisms that operate during onset and establishment of coral- Symbiodinium symbiosis, including suppression of host immunity, protein synthesis and oxidative metabolism. More importantly, the data provided support for the formation of the symbiosome as an arrested early phagosome, a mechanism thought also to apply to the process by which Symbiodinium colonises some sea anemones.

To determine the nature of the relationship between corals and Chromera "the closest relative to apicomplexan parasites", A. digitifera larvae were inoculated with Chromera CCMP2878 strain and the coral whole transcriptome responses were investigated at 4, 12 and 48 h post-Chromera infection using RNA-Seq. Stress, disease and immune challenge (in corals) have distinct transcriptomic signatures as does the process of infection by a competent Symbiodinium strain. Analysis of the transcriptomic impact of Chromera infection shed some light on the nature of the coral-Chromera association and provided novel insights into host-parasite/pathogen interactions. Based on the transcriptomic data, I suggest that the coral-Chromera relationship may be parasitic, thus the assumption that Chromera is a coral symbiont requires re-evaluation.

In order to provide a functional genomic resource for a chromerid alga and explore its gene catalogue, a de novo transcriptome assembly was generated for a Chromera strain isolated from Montipora digitata on the GBR and the obtained contigs were annotated. This novel dataset was compared with coding sequence data for another Chromera strain (isolated from different host and geographic location) and 664 orthologous gene pairs were identified. The overwhelming majority of these orthologs were under purifying selection, only one pair being under positive selection; this gene encoded a homolog of the human tetratricopeptide TTC21B. Overall KEGG pathway distributions were very similar between Chromera and Symbiodinium the largest proportion of genes in both cases being assigned to metabolism. Comparing KEGG pathways involved in glycan biosynthesis and transcription machinery, revealed the genetic uniqueness of the symbiotic dinoflagellate Symbiodinium.

In conclusion, coral-algal symbioses are the basis for coral reef ecosystems thus understanding these relationships at a molecular level is very important especially for reef management and fighting against coral bleaching. The work presented in this thesis provides novel insights into the molecular events occurring during onset of coral- Symbiodinium symbiosis that enabled better mechanistic understanding of algal symbioses in corals. Knowledge derived from the thesis contributes to better understanding of the symbiont infection process and that will help in coral reef management especially when engineering coral symbioses towards increased coral thermotolerance/resilience and better understanding how symbiosis breakdown (coral bleaching) occurs, thus understanding the mechanisms of coral symbiosis is a step forward in order to combat coral bleaching. In addition, the thesis showed that coral responses to Chromera have similarities to the responses of vertebrates to parasites and provided insights into host-pathogen/parasite interactions that will enhance our understanding how host cells defend them selves against infectious organisms. Moreover, the thesis provided a genomic resource for a Chromera strain that can be used as a reference for large-scale gene expression and comparative analyses to better understand the biology of these newly discovered algae and suggested the potential use of Chromera as a model organism in developing anti-malarial drugs.


Intangible cultural heritage archives face a dilemma when it comes to repatriation. Claims and counterclaims from source communities must be balanced within legal frames and ethical obligations of museums to give back, restitute, or redress past perceived injustices, while maintaining the essential preservation functions of a heritage archive. This paper examines this dilemma through the illustrative case study of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, a unique collection that is at once an archival collection of traditional music and recorded sound from all over the world, and a nonprofit record label housed in the U.S. national museum since 1987.With a duty to keep its catalogue available in perpetuity, a mandate to pay its own way, and a mission of cultural documentation, collaborative curation, and broad appeal to global audiences, Smithsonian Folkways practices digital repatriation (of audio recordings) and circulation of indigenous knowledge (through publication, payment of royalties and license fees). The paper describes four cases of returns from Folkways' evolving repatriation practice, offering useful ways of thinking about museum obligations with intangible heritage returns, and several ways of redistributing individual artists' rights and their communities' rights to control use of their music even when legal rights of ownership remain with the institution.


BACKGROUND
During an outbreak of vancomycin-resistant enterococcal (VRE) infection and colonization at a community hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, we performed a case-control study of patients on the hospital's renal unit to determine risk factors for acquisition of VRE among this potentially high-risk patient population.

METHODS
Twenty-four renal patients with VRE colonization/infection (ie, case-patients) were compared by univariate and multivariate analyses with 29 renal patients with nosocomially acquired vancomycin-susceptible enterococcal infection and colonization (ie, controls).

RESULTS
Age and length of hospitalization were similar between the VRE case-patients and the vancomycin-susceptible enterococcal control-patients, but case-patients had higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores and received significantly greater numbers of antimicrobials and significantly more days of antimicrobials during the 60 days preceding the first positive enterococcal culture. In an assessment of the appropriateness of vancomycin use, one third of vancomycin orders were found to be inappropriate in both patient groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data show that among renal patients, those who are severely ill and receive multiple and prolonged courses of antimicrobials are at greatest risk for acquiring VRE infection or colonization. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that hospitals develop a comprehensive plan to prevent and control infection and colonization of patients with VRE. This plan should include prompt identification of affected patients, initiation of isolation precautions to prevent patient-to-patient transmission of VRE, and prudent use of antimicrobials, including vancomycin.


The ebb and flow of coping with Australia's identity dilemma as a European settler society located on the geographical edge of Asia leads to bouts of agonising, excitement and temporising. This has been given particular cogency with the power shift underway from the trans-Atlantic to the Asia-Pacific. The 2012 White Paper set 25 national objectives to be met by 2025, with targets ranging from improving trade links and increasing scholarships to teaching priority Asian languages. But in this transactional embrace of Asia that highlights economic and trade links, gaps might open up between ambition and delivery, especially amidst continuing evidence of insensitivity to how Asians forge lasting relationships. Ties with China are dominated by trade but security concerns remain. Relations with India should improve with the removal of the nuclear issue as an irritant and growing trade and tourist numbers. Japan remains an important trade and diplomatic partner. And geography and demography ensure that Indonesia is no less important to Australia than Asia's big three.


Surveys form the basis of many data collection exercises run by Oxfam and other organizations, ranging from assessments to ongoing monitoring and evaluation processes. Traditional methods of conducting surveys (often paper-based) can be time-consuming and there are limitations to the type and accuracy of information they collect. Digitalizing these data collection processes ' using mobile phones or tablets instead of pen and paper ' provides an opportunity to improve both the process and outputs of data collection. Oxfam has developed this toolkit to support programme staff to conduct a mobile data collection exercise.


We consider immersed hypersurfaces in euclidean $R^{n+1}$ which are stable with respect to an elliptic parametric functional with integrand $F=F(N)$ depending on normal directions only. We prove an integral curvature estimate provided that $F$ is sufficiently close to the area integrand, extending the classical curvature estimate of Schoen, Simon and Yau for stable minimal hypersurfaces in $R^{n+1}$. As a crucial point of our analysis we derive a generalized Simons inequality for the laplacian of the length of a weighted second fundamental form with respect to an abstract metric associated with $F$. Using Moser's iteration technique we finally prove a pointwise curvature estimate for $n leq 5$. As an application we obtain a new Bernstein result for complete stable hypersurfaces of dimension $n leq 5$.