Problem/Condition Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has short- and long-term adverse clinical outcomes, including death and disability. TBI can be caused by a number of principal mechanisms, including motor-vehicle crashes, falls, and assaults. This report describes the estimated incidence of TBI-related emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and deaths during 2013 and makes comparisons to similar estimates from 2007. Reporting Period 2007 and 2013. Description of System State-based administrative health care data were used to calculate estimates of TBI-related ED visits and hospitalizations by principal mechanism of injury, age group, sex, and injury intent. Categories of injury intent included unintentional (motor-vehicle crashes, falls, being struck by or against an object, mechanism unspecified), intentional (self-harm and assault/homicide), and undetermined intent. These health records come from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's National Emergency Department Sample and National Inpatient Sample. TBI-related death analyses used CDC multiple-cause-of-death public-use data files, which contain death certificate data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Results In 2013, a total of approximately 2.8 million TBI-related ED visits, hospitalizations, and deaths (TBI-EDHDs) occurred in the United States. This consisted of approximately 2.5 million TBI-related ED visits, approximately 282,000 TBI-related hospitalizations, and approximately 56,000 TBI-related deaths. TBIs were diagnosed in nearly 2.8 million (1.9%) of the approximately 149 million total injury- and noninjury-related EDHDs that occurred in the United States during 2013. Rates of TBI-EDHDs varied by age, with the highest rates observed among persons aged ≥75 years (2,232.2 per 100,000 population), 0–4 years (1,591.5), and 15–24 years (1,080.7). Overall, males had higher age-adjusted rates of TBI-EDHDs (959.0) compared with females (810.8) and the most common principal mechanisms of injury for all age groups included falls (413.2, age-adjusted), being struck by or against an object (142.1, age-adjusted), and motor-vehicle crashes (121.7, age-adjusted). The age-adjusted rate of ED visits was higher in 2013 (787.1) versus 2007 (534.4), with fall-related TBIs among persons aged ≥75 years accounting for 17.9% of the increase in the number of TBI-related ED visits. The number and rate of TBI-related hospitalizations also increased among persons aged ≥75 years (from 356.9 in 2007 to 454.4 in 2013), primarily because of falls. Whereas motor-vehicle crashes were the leading cause of TBI-related deaths in 2007 in both number and rate, in 2013, intentional self-harm was the leading cause in number and rate. The overall age-adjusted rate of TBI-related deaths for all ages decreased from 17.9 in 2007 to 17.0 in 2013; however, age-adjusted TBI-related death rates attributable to falls increased from 3.8 in 2007 to 4.5 in 2013, primarily among older adults. Although the age-adjusted rate of TBI-related deaths attributable to motor-vehicle crashes decreased from 5.0 in 2007 to 3.4 in 2013, the age-adjusted rate of TBI-related ED visits attributable to motor-vehicle crashes increased from 83.8 in 2007 to 99.5 in 2013. The age-adjusted rate of TBI-related hospitalizations attributable to motor-vehicle crashes decreased from 23.5 in 2007 to 18.8 in 2013. Interpretation Progress has been made to prevent motor-vehicle crashes, resulting in a decrease in the number of TBI-related hospitalizations and deaths from 2007 to 2013. However, during the same time, the number and rate of older adult fall-related TBIs have increased substantially. Although considerable public interest has focused on sports-related concussion in youth, the findings in this report suggest that TBIs attributable to older adult falls, many of which result in hospitalization and death, should receive public health attention. Public Health Actions The increase in the number of fall-related TBIs in older adults suggests an urgent need to enhance fall-prevention efforts in that population. Multiple effective interventions have been identified, and CDC has developed the STEADI initiative (Stopping Elderly Accidents Deaths and Injuries) as a comprehensive strategy that incorporates empirically supported clinical guidelines and scientifically tested interventions to help primary care providers address their patients' fall risk through the identification of modifiable risk factors and implementation of effective interventions (e.g., exercise, medication management, and Vitamin D supplementation).


Zero Magic is a trick for the financial markets, which has the capacity to undermine the perceived value of a publicly traded company and profit from this. Short selling is a way of profiting from loss: Making money if and when a target company loses in value. It is a fundamental market activity that goes as far back as the first stock, yet to this day little is publicly known about the strategies employed by short sellers. On the US exchanges there is no requirement for hedge funds to disclose short positions, and in other jurisdictions such requirements are very limited. Zero Magic was developed by covertly infiltrating a secretive hedge fund specializing in short selling, and reverse engineering its methods. In brief, the hedge fund's trading strategy is based on identifying suitable short selling targets through analyzing networks of corruption, and then framing critical newsworthy stories about these target companies that can be anonymously distributed among journalists. Profit is gained when a target company loses in value. Rigorous measures are taken by the fund never to be identified as the source of a negative campaign. Access to the hedge fund was gained through the art world. The founder and co-director routinely supports artists and art institutions and is said to have gotten the idea for his fund when looking at a Mark Lombardi drawing (an artist known for mapping networks of power and corruption). It is hard to tell whether the founder's engagement with art merely entertains personal vanity, or if it functions more strategically as a means of "secret publicity" for the fund; giving access to investors, while staying under the radar of more mainstream public relations. Covert techniques such as hidden recordings and proxy researchers were used to uncover the fund's methods. With the assistance of Theo Bourgeron, sociologist of finance, Zero Magic not only reconstructs the workings of the trading strategy, but offers a fully operational magic gimmick. The magic gimmick is a computer program providing non-expert users the means to identify relevant short selling targets (companies with weak "valuation conventions"), and a step-by-step guide to undermining their perceived value. With this gimmick one can execute a successful short sale without any previous contacts in the investor community or access to insider information. A US patent application for the trick was filed in January 2016. The artistic PhD "Zero Magic: Shifting the Valuation Convention" concludes with a stage performance and a magic box: The stage performance, "On a Long Enough Timeline the Survival Rate for Everyone Drops to Zero" with magician Malin Nilsson, performed on May 11 and 12, 2016, at Cirkus Cirkor, Stockholm. Through the ticket sales, audience members are drawn into the Zero Magic trick, buying into the predicted future loss of a target company. The magic box, prepared for public archives, contains the Zero Magic computer software, a US patent application for a "Computer Assisted Magic Trick Executed in the Financial Markets" and four historical examples of magic tricks played out beyond the stage, in the world at large. (Less)


Modern Phytomedicine-Iqbal Ahmad 2006-12-13 This timely and original handbook paves the way to success in plant-based drug development, systematically addressing the issues facing a pharmaceutical scientist who wants to turn a plant compound into a safe and effective drug. Plant pharmacologists from around the world demonstrate the potentials and pitfalls involved, with many of the studies and experiments reported here published for the first time. The result is a valuable source of information unavailable elsewhere.


In his new book, Akhil Amar describes the "unwritten Constitution" as a set of values, customs, and beliefs that are crafted and revealed over time, and which inform the interpretation and application of the Constitution. Amar's account centers on four key moments in United States history: the founding, Reconstruction, the New Deal, and the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, leaving relatively unexplored an essential period of existential, adolescent crisis: the early nineteenth century. Using a 1830 exchange between James Madison and Martin Van Buren as a case study, this Article discusses the significance of the period between 1815 and 1850 as an era of constitutional change.


The wide spread application of boron in various industries such as glass and fiberglass, ceramics, abrasives, detergents and soaps, fertilizer, enamels, insecticides, semiconductors, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals has left many surface and waste water streams polluted. Thus, there is a growing global demand for new chelating materials and efficient separation systems for removal of boron from different water streams. This is because the existing boron removal technologies are challenged by slow performance coupled with high treatment cost caused by strict low boron concentration required in water bodies and discharged wastewater to meet the newly imposed regulation [1]. Selective adsorbents obtained by modification of polymeric fibres with radiation induced grafting of functionalized monomers are potential materials for improving the performance of current ion exchange systems operated based on granular chelating resins for boron removal to desired low levels [2]. In this work, a new adsorbent having microfibrous structure was prepared by radiation induced grafting of 4-chloromethylstyrene (CMS) onto nylon-6 fibres waste followed by functionalisation with N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMDG) and testing for boron removal from solutions in batch and continuous column modes as schematised in Fig. 1. The degree of grafting (DOG) in the adsorbent precursor was tuned by variation of reaction parameters and and optimum DOG of 130% was achieved at a CMS concentration of 20 vol% in methanol, a total dose of 300 kGy, a temperature of 30 °C and a reaction time of 3 h. A maximum glucamine density of 1.7 mmol/g was loaded in the adsorbent at 121% DG, 10.60% NMDG concentration, 81 °C reaction temperature and 47 min reaction time. The chemical composition, morphology and structural changes in nylon-6 fibres caused by grafting of CMS and subsequent glucamine treatment were monitored by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The thermal properties were determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the thermal stability was evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The mechanical properties were investigated with a universal mechanical tester. The obtained fibrous adsorbent displayed an increase in the average fibre diameter compared to original and grafted fibres (Fig. 2). The adsorbent showed 100% removal efficiency for boron removal from solutions at an initial concentration of 100 mg/L, temperature 30 °C, reaction time 2 h and pH of 7. The new adsorbent can also achieve a maximum adsorption capacity of 13.8 mg/g at pH 7, which is 20% higher than that of commercial granular resins. The adsorption isotherm of boron on the fibrous adsorbent was best fitted to Redlich-Peterson isotherm model whereas the adsorption kinetic behaviour is well fitted by the pseudo-second-order model. The new fibrous adsorbent also showed rapid kinetics compared to commercial resin as indicated by the reduction in the adsorption equilibrium time from 60 min for commercial resins to 30 min. The breakthrough curves obtained from column studies conducted under dynamic conditions (initial concentration 10 mg/L and pH 7) shown in Fig. 3 suggest that the fibrous adsorbent is about 2.2 times faster than granular resin. The adsorption capacity of boron remained almost constant after five cycles of adsorption/desorption cycles suggesting a good chemical stability. Considering the essential properties such as high external surface area, rapid kinetics, high adsorption capacity, mechanical strength and chemical stability, it can be suggested that the new fibrous adsorbent obtained from nylon-6 fibres waste is highly promising for boron removal from solutions. The technology developed in this work can be harnessed for preparation of various types of adsorbents for chemical decontamination of industrial waste water, surface water and underground water using a variety of waste polymer materials of different morphologies (fibres, fabric and films). References: [1] Nasef, M.M., Nallapan, M., Ujang Z. Polymer-based chelating adsorbents for the selective removal of boron from water and wastewater: A Review. Reactive and Functional Polymers 2014. 85, 54–68. [2] Nasef, M.M., Guven, O. Radiation-grafted copolymers for separation and purification purposes: status, challenges and future directions, Progress in Polymer Science 2012, 37 (12) 1597–1656.


Abstract Major demographic processes (fertility, mortality and migration) are both causes and consequences of future and previous processes. Demographers in border locations have special methodological challenges and usually face more rapidly changing dynamics than other locations. Migration is a process most difficult to both measure and understand; unlike birth and death, it does not happen to everyone, but is selective. Age, education, health, wealth, occupation, gender and family composition all contribute to making a person more or less likely to move from one place to another or remain where they are, as are a host of other factors. This study attempts to sort out some of these factors, using primarily Census data from 1990 and 2000. We began with the local concern that El Paso's persistently low indices of education and income result from an outflow of the more educated segments of the community. However, our findings suggest that the relationship between migration and education is not linear. Moreover, other variables such a language, birthplace, gender and ethnicity appear to be as or more important in predicting whether a person will stay or leave than educational attainment. The characteristics of new arrivals also affect the composition of a population at the aggregate level. As the population of Hispanics disperse throughout the country, a process rapidly underway as evidenced by the 2000 Census, our findings may have implications for many other communities. A more complete understanding of the causes and consequences of migration will require a combination of both qualitative and quantitative analysis.


Reproductive and vegetative tissues of the seeded Pineapple cultivars of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L.) contained the following C-13 hydroxylated gibberellins (GAs): GA53, GA17, GA19, GA20, GA1, GA29, and GA8, as well as GA97, 3-epi-GA1, and several uncharacterized GAs. The inclusion of 3-epi-GA1 as an endogenous substance was based on measurements of the isomerization rates of previously added [2H2]GA1. Pollination enhanced amounts of GA19, GA20, GA29, and GA8 in developing ovaries. Levels of GA1 increased from 5.0 to 9.5 ng/g dry weight during anthesis and were reduced thereafter. The amount of GA in mature pollen was very low. Emasculation reduced GA levels and caused a rapid 100% ovary abscission. This effect was partially counteracted by either pollination or application of GA3. In pollinated ovaries, repeated paclobutrazol applications decreased the amount of GA and increased ovary abscission, although the pattern of continuous decline was different from the sudden abscission induced by emasculation. The above results indicate that, in citrus, pollination increases GA levels and reduces ovary abscission and that the presence of exogenous GA3 in unpollinated ovaries also suppresses abscission. Evidence is also presented that pollination and GAs do not, as is generally assumed, suppress ovary abscission through the reactivation of cell division.


This study investigated the differences in usage of different social media platforms within the South African context, broken down by user characteristics, specifically gender and age, in addition to investigating the correlation between usage of differing social media platforms. This was carried out to determine which social media needs do the different population groups aim to fulfill when using different social media platforms. Based on the results, the study confirmed the existence of preferences between types of social media platforms and groups of social media platforms in South Africa, based on frequency of use by age group and gender. Social media can thus be seen as a useful tool for collaboration and sharing knowledge to users in a South African context but must be tailored for specific audience needs.


The deployment of new 5G wireless interfaces based on massive multiantenna transmission and beamforming is expected to have a significant impact on the complexity and power consumption of the transport network. This paper analyzes the energy performance of four radio access network (RAN) architectures, each one utilizing a different option for splitting the baseband processing functions. The radio segment is based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and 5G radio access technologies. The transport segment is based on optical wavelength division multiplexing, where coherent and direct detection transmissions are considered. The energy consumption of each RAN architecture is weighted against i) the benefits for the radio segment as a function of the level of centralization of the baseband processing functions and ii) the power consumption levels needed to accommodate the capacity generated at each base station. Results show that, with LTE radio interfaces, the energy consumption of the transport network amounts to only a few percent of the overall network power consumption. As a result, fully centralized LTE radio architectures are a viable option, with energy savings of at least 27% compared with conventional distributed architectures. On the other hand, with advanced 5G radio interfaces, centralized architectures, if not carefully designed, might become impractical due to the excessive energy consumption of the transport network (i.e., as a result of the huge capacity to be accommodated). This aspect can be mitigated via a careful joint design of the radio and the transport network (i.e., leveraging on appropriate optical transmission techniques and compromising where needed on the radio network performance).


Developing an appropriate fix for a software bug often requires a detailed examination of the code as well as generation of appropriate test cases. However, certain categories of bugs are usually easy to fix. In this paper we focus on bugs that can be corrected with aone-line code change . As it turns out, one-line source code changes very often represent bug fixes. Moreover, a significant fraction of previously known bug categories can be addressed with one-line fixes. Careless use of file manipulation routines, failing to callfree to deallocate a data structure, failing to usestrncpy instead ofstrcpy for safer string manipulation, and using tainted character arrays as the format argument of fprintf calls are all well-known types of bugs that can typically be corrected with a one-line change of the program source. This paper proposes an analysis of software revision histories to find highly correlated pairs of method calls that naturally form application-specific useful coding patterns. Potential patterns discovered through revision history mining are passed to a runtime analysis tool that looks for pattern violations. We focus our pattern discovery efforts on matching method pairs . Matching pairs such as〈fopen, fclose〉, 〈malloc, free〉, as well as〈lock, unlock〉-function calls require exact matching: failing to call the second function in the pair or calling one of the two functions twice in a row is an error. We use common bug fixesas a heuristic that allows us to focus on patterns that caused bugs in the past. The user is presented with a choice of patterns to validate at runtime. Dynamically obtained information about which patterns were violated and which ones held at runtime is presented to the user. This combination of revision history mining and dynamic analysis techniques proves effective for both discovering new application-specific patterns and for finding errors when applied to very large programs with many man-years of development and debugging effort behind them. To validate our approach, we analyzed Eclipse, a widelyused, mature Java application consisting of more than 2,900,000 lines of code. By mining revision histories, we have discovered a total of 32 previously unknown highly application-specific matching method pairs. Out of these, 10 were dynamically confirmed as valid patterns and a total of 107 previously unknown bugs were found as a result of pattern violations. The first author was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0326227. The second author was supported by the Graduiertenkolleg "Leistungsgarantien f ür Rechnersysteme".


The presence of MNCs in Malaysia is expected to give benefits to the nation's human capital developments such as through training and knowledge transfer program. The training that affects almost all levels of local employees in
MNCs from production operator level to upper-level officers through on-site or off-site training is expected to increase the local employees' competencies through the presence of effective individual knowledge acquisition at the workplace. Prior to effective individual knowledge acquisition, the individual absorptive capacity of HCN workers is something crucial to be examined.
Through this, it will portray the capability of individuals to acquire knowledge in MNCs. Acquiring knowledge in MNCs is one of the important elements for further skill enrichment process that becomes promising factor for HCN
workers to increase their skills to a higher level. This behavior is also identified as a turning point for local workers to improve their skills until they become expert or specialist in the related area. The existence of MNCs in
Malaysia is assumed to be the best medium for knowledge acquisition activities among locals who serve to that organization. At overall, the study
investigates the relationship between two main variables, which is referring to individual absorptive capacity and individual knowledge acquisition.


We construct a search model where sellers post prices and produce goods of unknown quality. A match reveals the quality of the seller. Buyers rate sellers based on quality. We show that unrated sellers charge a low price to attract buyers and that highly rated sellers post a high price and sell with a higher probability than unrated sellers. We fi nd that welfare is higher with a ratings system. Using data on Airbnb rentals, we show that Superhosts and hosts with high ratings: 1) charge higher prices, 2) have a higher occupancy rate and 3) higher revenue than average hosts.


The Takings Exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) abrogates the defense of sovereign immunity when a foreign government takes property in violation of international law. But the exception does not specify whether plaintiffs must first exhaust local remedies in the relevant foreign country before filing suit in the United States. In the absence of clear statutory guidance, the circuit courts have reached divergent conclusions: the Seventh Circuit has held that the exhaustion rule is required under customary international law, the Ninth Circuit has suggested that courts could impose it at their discretion for reasons of comity, and the DC Circuit has determined that courts cannot impose the exhaustion rule under any circumstance. This Comment argues that international law does not obligate US courts to impose the exhaustion rule and that they should not impose it at their discretion because doing so would conflict with congressional intent in a sensitive area of foreign policy. Courts should, however, require international takings plaintiffs to exhaust local remedies when the president advises them that the requirement would advance the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. Granting a limited amount of deference to the executive branch resolves the circuit split in a manner that respects the intent of the FSIA while also minimizing undue judicial interference in the nation's relationship with foreign countries.


The drying characteristics and drying quality of fresh white waxy corn were investigated under three different drying methods (sun drying, hot-air drying and far-infrared drying) and different drying temperatures (55 °C, 60 °C, 65 °C, 70 °C, 75 °C, 80 °C). The optimal drying method and drying condition were obtained by comparing the drying time and drying quality including damage rate, rehydration capacity and the contents of protein, fatty acid and starch. The results showed that the drying time of sun drying was the longest, while the drying quality was the best, i.e., the damage rate was the lowest and the nutrient retention was the highest. The far-infrared drying time was shorter and the quality was better than that of hot air drying. The higher the temperature, the faster the drying rate. The optimal drying temperature was 60 °C under far-infrared drying, which can effectively remove the water and keep the food quality. Besides, the drying rate was faster than hot air, and the color of the dried products was brighter. When hot air drying was used, the value of fatty acids did not change much below 65 °C, but it rose sharply above 65 °C. The optimal drying temperature was 65 °C, under which the drying rate was moderate and the quality was relatively good. If the production cost was considered, sun drying was the best, following the 60 °C far-infrared drying. This conclusion can provide a reference for the drying conditions of corn after harvest in agricultural production, and to a certain extent provide suggestions for the later drying treatment methods and treatment temperatures of fresh white waxy corn.


The current set of concerns for research on the impacts of information technology (IT) on organizational work is unduly restricted. The intent behind the use of new IT is to alter work practices of an organization, but how this happens and in what form has received limited attention; in particular, how specific types of use relate to specific impacts. Theoretical explanations have moved us already beyond simplistic determinism where IT impact is direct without due analysis of the context and the use. Such explanations include socio-technical theory, social construction of technology, structuration theory, and social representations. These studies have expanded considerably our understanding how IT use will lead to changes in work practices and thereby to organizational transformation. The way in which IT impact is currently conceptualized falls short in the current business environment where IT use is embedded, pervasive and diverse. Based on calls to theorize rigorously about the IT artifact we explore in more detail how specific IT capabilities and how they impact work practices. To this end we suggest several analytical dimensions to analyze work practices to understand in more detail how changes in IT use and work practices interact in dynamic, interorganizational settings. We illustrate the breadth and diversity of potential IT impact by illustrating how the use of novel capabilities associated with 3D technologies in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry impacted multiple dimensions of work practice and ultimately played a significant role in changing work practices of builders, architects and engineers. We conclude by identifying implications to research and potential future research directions.


There have been many calls for more information about the natural resistome and these have also highlighted the importance of understanding the environmental resistome in the preservation of antibiotics for the treatment of infections. However, to date there have been few studies which have investigated the roles of antibiotics and resistances outside of the clinical environment. This lack of data also highlights the difficulties faced by microbiologists in designing these experiments to produce meaningful data. Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance have most commonly been viewed in the context of human use and effects. However, both have co-existed in nature for millennia. Recently the roles of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes have started to be discussed in terms of functions other than bacterial inhibition and protection. This special topic has focused on both the traditional role of antibiotics as warfare mechanisms and their alternative roles and uses within nature.

The research topic starts with an introduction into antimicrobial resistance in medicine, its linkage to the global environmental microbiota and the many different roles of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in nature, providing the background to the topic (Cantas et al., 2013). The following chapter discusses the idea that the understanding of antibiotic resistance implies expanding our knowledge on multi-level population biology of bacteria (Baquero et al., 2013). This brings with it inherent problems of designing experimental procedures and standards that can be used in many different microbiomes from human to soil and is discussed further by Walsh (Walsh, 2013). A number of models are proposed to study and understand the biological impact of selection and diversification of antibiotic resistance mechanisms, in particular using the β-lactamases as models (Galan et al., 2013; Patel and Bonomo, 2013; Popowska and Krawczyk-Balska, 2013). The β-lactamases constitute the most widespread mechanism of resistance, at least among pathogenic bacteria, with more than 1000 enzymes identified in the literature. We present some examples of the alternative functions for the multi-drug resistance mechanisms of efflux, that range from bacterial interactions with plant or animal hosts, to the detoxification of metabolic intermediates or the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and also the potential role of extracellular DNA in antibiotic resistance and virulence (Alvarez-Ortega et al., 2013). Bacterial responses to antibiotics may be concentration dependent and so we discuss the different types of interactions mediated by antibiotics and non-antibiotic metabolites as a function of their concentrations and speculate on how these may amplify the overall antibiotic resistance/tolerance and the spread of antibiotic resistance determinants in a context of poly-microbial community (Bernier and Surette, 2013; Lewenza, 2013; Sengupta et al., 2013). The use of antibiotics may also be regarded as pollution. Thus, the widespread use and abuse of antibiotic therapy has evolutionary and ecological consequences, some of which are only just beginning to be examined (Gillings, 2013).

These papers thoroughly review the many different aspects of antibiotic resistance and the roles of antibiotics in nature and link these to the emerging antibiotic resistances of particular importance to the treatment of infectious diseases.


We study whether the combined significant reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio and increase in parental education observed in Italy between the end of World War II and the end of the 1980s have had a significant impact on the educational attainment and the labor market returns of a representative sample of Italians born between 1941 and 1970. We find that the lower pupil-teacher ratio is positively correlated with higher educational attainment, but that the overall improvement of parental education has had an even stronger impact on attainment. We also find that the positive impact of better school quality on educational attainment and returns to education has been particularly significant for the individuals born in regions and cohorts with poorer family background. Parental education has had asymmetric effects, positive on attainment and negative on school returns. Better school quality has also had asymmetric effects on the returns to education, positive for individuals with poor family background and negative for individuals born in regions and cohorts with relatively high parental education. Our evidence suggests that better school quality, measured by a lower pupil-teacher ratio, is a technical substitute to parental education in the production of individual human capital. When school quality and family background are substitutes, an increase of public resources invested in education can be used to reduce the differences induced by parental education.


Behavioral models have been used in the entertainment industry to increase the realism in the simulation of large groups of individuals. Unfortunately, the classical models can be very compute-intensive when very large groups are considered, reducing its applicability in games and other interactive systems. In this article we explore both search space reduction and parallelism to improve the performance of Reynold's Boids model. We propose a methodology that considers self-occlusion (visibility culling) to reduce the number of neighbors and we take advantage the parallelism present in common graphics processor units (GPUs) to allow the simulation of very large groups. We performed different GPU implementations (GPGPU and CUDA); the results show that visibility culling allows significant gains in performance without affecting the model's overall behavior.


Two experiments were conducted consecutively in triplicates to evaluate and compare the impact of different feeds on survival rate and growth performances of Oreochromis niloticus larvae during both the heat treatment for thermal masculinization and the subsequent juvenile stage. A commercial feed containing fishmeal with 32.38% crude protein (CFA) and an experimental feed with 25.48% crude protein (EFB) where fish-meal was entirely replaced by soybean meal were tested. In the first experiment, larvae of about 4 days post-hatch were reared for 21 days at a temperature of 36°C and the second has consisted in testing at ambient temperature the performances of these feeds on the previous fry for 70-72 days. Fish were fed four times a day ad libitum. Results showed that there were no significant differences between growth performances (survival rate, final body weight, daily weight gain and specific growth rate) of larvae bred in hot water and nourished with feed containing fishmeal (CFA) or feed containing soybean (EFB) as protein source. However, better results were obtained with control batches bred at ambient temperature and fed with feed CFA or EFB. Post-larval rearing of previously heated fry showed that feed containing fishmeal has similar growth performances as feed containing soybean. Then, soybean meal can replace successfully fish-meal in diet of larvae during heating treatment for masculinization and also for the post-larval rearing of fry.  Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 5(1): 30-36


Abstract. Pattern recognition and time-series analyses will enable one to evaluate and generate predictions of specific phenomena. The albedo pattern and time-series analyses are very much useful especially in relation to climate condition monitoring. This study is conducted to seek for Malaysia albedo pattern changes. The pattern recognition and changes will be useful for variety of environmental and climate monitoring researches such as carbon budgeting and aerosol mapping. The 10 years (2000–2009) MODIS satellite images were used for the analyses and interpretation. These images were being processed using ERDAS Imagine remote sensing software, ArcGIS 9.3, the 6S code for atmospherical calibration and several MODIS tools (MRT, HDF2GIS, Albedo tools). There are several methods for time-series analyses were explored, this paper demonstrates trends and seasonal time-series analyses using converted HDF format MODIS MCD43A3 albedo land product. The results revealed significance changes of albedo percentages over the past 10 years and the pattern with regards to Malaysia's nebulosity index (NI) and aerosol optical depth (AOD). There is noticeable trend can be identified with regards to its maximum and minimum value of the albedo. The rise and fall of the line graph show a similar trend with regards to its daily observation. The different can be identified in term of the value or percentage of rises and falls of albedo. Thus, it can be concludes that the temporal behavior of land surface albedo in Malaysia have a uniform behaviours and effects with regards to the local monsoons. However, although the average albedo shows linear trend with nebulosity index, the pattern changes of albedo with respects to the nebulosity index indicates that there are external factors that implicates the albedo values, as the sky conditions and its diffusion plotted does not have uniform trend over the years, especially when the trend of 5 years interval is examined, 2000 shows high negative linear trend relationship (R2 = 0.8017), while in 2005 the R2 is 0.4428 of positive linear trend relationship and in 2009 its negative relationship has remarkably change when the R2 is 0.9663 according to the second order polynomial trend line.


Seventy-five adults, who had been unschooled for at least the years that would have been their last two years of high school, responded to a survey about their experiences. Their responses indicated that their parents generally played supportive, not directive roles in their education and played bigger supportive roles for those who started their unschooling early than for those who started later. The great majority of respondents reported that they were very happy with their unschooling. Nearly all of them valued the freedom it gave them to pursue their own interests in their own ways, and many reported that unschooling promoted their capacities for self-motivation, self-direction, personal responsibility and continued learning. A minority said they experienced a learning deficit as a result of unschooling, and most of those said they easily made up that deficit when they needed to. Most said they had satisfying social lives as unschoolers, and many commented on the special value of having friends of a wide range of ages. Only three respondents said they were unhappy with their unschooling, and those three all said that they were socially isolated, in dysfunctional families with mothers who were psychologically depressed and fathers who were uninvolved.


THE TATRAS AND ZAKOPANE AS EXPERIENCED BY JERZY ŻUŁAWSKIThe mountains, especially the Tatras, occupy a special place in Jerzy Żuławski's life. As a place where one can escape from the noise and chaos of the civilised world, they become important as one of the most influential spaces shaping the creative personality of the mountaineering writer. The article is an attempt to examine the author of Trylogia Księżycowa The Lunar Trilogy from the perspective of a mountain hiker's experiences. The present author analyses both memoirs and journals— which reveal to the readers a lesser known side of Żuławski, an experienced mountaineer, one of the co-founders of the Tatra Volunteer Search and Rescue and activist in Zakopane — and literary works, especially his lyrics, which reveal the writer's wandering predilections and record his authentic experiences of mountain spaces. What emerges from these writings is a symbolic image of the mountains as an area of freedom also political freedom, a place where God's creative power is revealed, finally — a place of physical and mental liberation, requiring as much courage and fortitude as humility in  confrontation with the primeval forces of nature. The author of the article, pointing to intertextual references and traces of literary and philosophical tradition influence of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Spinozian pantheism, Romantic images, seeks to demonstrate the individuality of the writer, for whom the ultimate reference in his Tatra oeuvre is always an authentic experience of wandering.


The European Union has been promoting linguistic diversity for many years as one of its main educational goals. This is an element that facilitates student mobility and student exchanges between different universities and countries and enriches the education of young undergraduates. In particular,a higher degree of competence in the English language is becoming essential for engineers, architects
and researchers in general, as English has become the
lingua franca that opens up horizons to internationalisation and the transfer of knowledge in today's world. Many experts point to the Integrated Approach to Contents and Foreign Languages System as being
an option that has certain benefits over the traditional method of teaching a second language that is exclusively based on specific subjects. This system advocates teaching the different subjects in the syllabus in a language other than one's mother tongue, without prioritising knowledge of the language over the subject. This was the idea that in the 2009/10 academic year gave rise to the Second Language Integration Programme (SLI Programme) at the Escuela Arquitectura Tecnica in the Universidad Politecnica Madrid (EUATM-UPM), just at the beginning of the tuition of the new Building Engineering Degree, which had been adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) model. This programme is an interdisciplinary initiative for the set of subjects taught during the semester and is coordinated through the Assistant Director Office for Educational Innovation. The SLI Programme has a dual goal; to familiarise students with the specific English terminology of the subject being taught, and at the same time improve their communication skills in English. A total of thirty lecturers are taking part in the teaching of eleven first year subjects and twelve in the second year, with around 120 students who have voluntarily enrolled in a special group in each semester. During the 2010/2011 academic year the degree of acceptance and the results of the SLI Programme are being monitored. Tools have been designed to aid interdisciplinary coordination and to analyse satisfaction, such as coordination records and surveys. The results currently available refer to the first semester of the year and are divided into specific aspects of the different subjects involved and into general aspects of the ongoing experience.


The 2011 e-Science All Hands Meeting (AHM) marked the tenth annual gathering of technologists and scientists first brought together by the UK e-Science Programme—the £250 million research venture funded by the UK Research Councils. In the decade since the founding of this programme in 2001, e-science research has evolved from fundamental research focused on computational grids into work involving research from a wide variety of domains, such as bioinformatics, computing, astronomy, physics and medicine. The AHM community is now multinational, interdisciplinary and dynamic, and has recently moved towards addressing the issues and challenges raised by the increasing emergence of cloud computing in daily life. This continuing popularity and success has been highlighted by AHM 2011, hosted at the University of York by the EPSRC White Rose Grid e-Science Centre and attended by over 200 delegates. This Theme Issue provides a snapshot of the community's vibrant diversity, featuring the best papers presented at the conference, peer-reviewed for this issue, written by researchers from many different countries and backgrounds.

The first paper in this issue, 'The application of cloud computing to scientific workflows: a study of cost and performance' by Berriman et al. [1], discusses a key factor in the use of cloud computing—is it economically beneficial for scientists to use a third-party cloud provider? Following this, Turilli et al. [2], writing in 'Flexible services for the support of research', focus on the adoption of the cloud by higher education institutions and address both flexible on-demand access to storage resources and scalability across a heterogeneous set of cloud infrastructures.

Turner et al. [3] write of their experiences in developing secure virtual research environments to integrate multidisciplinary research in 'Secure data sharing across portals: experiences from OneVRE'. Next, Tablan et al. [4] present 'GATECloud.net: a platform for large-scale, open-source text processing on the cloud', a paper discussing the authors' cloud-based platform's ability to perform large-scale data-intensive natural language processing experiments by harnessing the computing power of the Amazon Cloud. Additionally, the paper includes a cost–benefit analysis and usage evaluation.

Moving away from the cloud, Yang et al. [5] discuss philosophical issues concerning data quality, identify actual user needs on data quality, review current standards and specifications, and propose an integrated model for data quality in the field of Earth observation in 'An integrated view of data quality in Earth observation'. Service orientation is another interest of the AHM community, and Weeks et al. [6] present a developmental overview of the CARMEN virtual laboratory platform for integrating scientific code through a service-oriented infrastructure in 'The CARMEN software as a service infrastructure'.

In 'Enhancing research publications using Rich Interactive Narratives', Takeda et al. [7] describe a mechanism that provides an interactive framework for research publications in the fields of archaeology and chemistry. Following this, Colling et al. [8] discuss the highly important work of the UK's gridPP project in providing the grid infrastructure needed by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in the paper 'Processing LHC data in the UK'.

Returning to the cloud, the work undertaken within the RAPPORT project to investigate the running of a group of multi-domain scientific applications on cloud resources is presented by Cohen et al. [9] in 'RAPPORT: running scientific high-performance computing applications on the cloud'. Djemame et al. [10] then present their approach to risk management as applied to cloud computing, with a particular emphasis on legal issues, in the paper 'Legal issues in clouds: towards a risk inventory'.

In 'Developing cloud applications using e-Science Central', Hiden et al. [11] present an overview of the e-Science Central (e-SC) cloud processing system and its application to a number of e-science projects. Finally, Suresh et al. [12] discuss how cloud computing has the potential for enabling a new technique for using queuing theory to meet specified response-time targets against fluctuating event arrival rates in their paper 'Scalable and responsive event processing in the cloud'.

As can be seen from the above descriptions, the variety, scope and standard of submissions to AHM 2011 was very high; in order to help focus the conference, we are indebted to the Conference Programme Committee, featuring 36 international experts and leaders in their respective fields. Owing to space constraints, many high-quality pieces of research presented at the conference cannot be published in this Theme Issue, but we are confident that the whole body of work presented at the conference will help to continue to drive e-science and digital research both in the UK and abroad.


Although the market for organic products is constantly growing worldwide, underlining that, at least for some product categories, is no longer just a niche, in Romania there is a limited amount of research on this subject. This paper aims to provide concrete information on buying behavior and consumption of organic products in Romania. The conclusions are based on the results of two separate researches: a quantitative research among consumers, representative for urban areas at a national level and a qualitative research among consumers, conducted through focus group method. Compared to some existing research, we insisted rather on deepening and understanding of the responses received, than a mere quantification of information provided by respondents. This approach provides an overview and interesting information about the awareness of the respondents, their perception of organic products or the level of trust that respondents have in organic products. Also, we could identify the main factors influencing the buying / not purchasing of organic products, and the motivations behind buying behavior and consumption of organic products. The conclusions showed unequivocally that there are significant features among Romanian consumers of organic products compared with consumers in more developed markets with a longer tradition in organic farming, such as the Western Europe or USA. Among these, the most important seem to be self-consumption, consumption of uncertified products, but perceived as organic and low levels of trust in the authenticity of organic products.


This technical note analyzes the evolution of Latin American and Caribbean systems in three stages: early development of basic services (Stage One) and advancing coverage, efficiency and services (Stage Two). It proposes a direction for the future (a hypothetical Stage Three), demonstrating how some advanced Stage Two countries (Brazil, Mexico, and Chile, for example) are beginning to take steps in this direction. A set of operational priorities and monitoring and evaluation indicators is developed for each stage.


As the study of literature has extended to cultural contexts, critics have developed a language all their own. Yet, argues Mark Bauerlein, scholars of literature today are so unskilled in pertinent sociohistorical methods that they compensate by adopting cliches and catchphrases that serve as substitutes for information and logic. Thus by labeling a set of ideas an "ideology" they avoid specifying those ideas, or by saying that someone "essentializes" a concept they convey the air of decisive refutation. As long as a paper is generously sprinkled with the right words, clarification is deemed superfluous. Bauerlein contends that such usages only serve to signal political commitments, prove membership in subgroups, or appeal to editors and tenure committees, and that current textual practices are inadequate to the study of culture and politics they presume to undertake. His book discusses 23 commonly encountered terms-from "deconstruction" and "gender" to "problematize" and "rethink"-and offers a diagnosis of contemporary criticism through their analysis. He examines the motives behind their usage and the circumstances under which they arose and tells why they continue to flourish. A self-styled "handbook of counterdisciplinary usage," Literary Criticism: An Autopsy shows how the use of illogical, unsound, or inconsistent terms has brought about a breakdown in disciplinary focus. It is an insightful and entertaining work that challenges scholars to reconsider their choice of words-and to eliminate many from critical inquiry altogether.


This article examines quantitative panel analysis techniques appropriate for situations in which the researcher models determinants of change in continuous outcomes. One set of techniques, based on the analysis of pooled time-series data sets, has received little attention in the family literature, although there are a number of situations where these techniques would be appropriate, such as the analysis of multiple-wave panel data. The article explores the fixed effect (change-scare) and random effects models based on pooled time-series data and discusses their advantages and disadvantages for the analysis of survey panel data compared with other available approaches. An empirical example of these methods is presented in which the effect of marital duration and number of children on spousal interaction in intact marriages was examined in a four-wave panel sample. A significant development in the field of family research has been the increased availability of large panel survey data sets containing variables of interest to family researchers (e.g., National Survey of Families and Households Panel, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Marital Instability Over the Life Course Panel). The potential posed by these panel studies is often unrealized because of the greater complexity of panel analyses and the shortage of clear and accessible guidelines for selecting the appropriate analysis models and statistical software. Several guides to panel methods are available (e.g., Campbell, Mutran, & Parker, 1986; Collins & Horn, 1991; Finkel, 1995; Johnson, 1988; Kessler & Greenberg, 1981; Markus, 1979; Menard, 1991). While these guides can be of value, they have the following drawbacks: Some recent developments are not covered, the focus has been largely on methods for two-wave panels, and situations commonly encountered by family researchers in the analysis of survey data, such as missing waves for some respondents, have been neglected. One type of model commonly found in family research involves the analysis of change over time in a continuous dependent variable. For example, a researcher interested in explaining change in marital interaction over the course of a marriage may model the effects of increased duration of the marriage, changes in the number and ages of the children, spells of employment of both spouses, and changes in family income. This situation involves a continuous dependent variable (degree of spousal interaction) with continuous variables (marital duration, income) and events (addition and subtraction of children, spells of employment and unemployment) as explanatory variables. Panel studies of changes in psychological distress brought about by marital dissolution, changes in frequency of sexual intercourse over the duration of the marriage, and the effect of retirement on marital happiness are research problems with similar analytic needs. With two or more waves of panel data and a continuous dependent variable, the researcher has a choice among five basic panel analysis models. These are (a) regression with lagged dependent variables, (b) structural equation models with reciprocal and lagged effects (e.g., LISREL), (c) repeated measures analysis of variance, (d) growth curve and hierarchical effects models, and (e) fixed (change-score) and random effects regression estimators for pooled time-series data sets. Event history, or hazard, models (Teachman, 1982) and panel models for qualitative variables (Clogg, Eliason, & Grego, 1990) are excluded from this list because they are not designed for use with continuous dependent variables. The first three techniques have been widely used with panel data in the family literature, and are generally accessible to the researcher. Many of the regression techniques have been superseded by the structural equation approaches, which are capable of estimating reciprocal effects and control for biases introduced by measurement errors and autocorrelated errors. …


In the context of sustainable development, building insulation represents a major concern as a means of increasing energy efficiency. In order to comply with new norms such as the Passive House standard, locations where load-bearing components must penetrate the building's insulating envelope, such as when cantilevered slabs (e.g. balconies) are anchored to building walls, constitute a particular challenge. With conventional steel reinforcement, thermal bridges are inevitable and insulation is weakened. To overcome this deficiency, a multifunctional joint has been developed in which GFRP (glass-fiber reinforced polymer) elements performthe necessary structural functions without compromising the continuity of the building's insulating envelope. This is due to GFRP materials' low thermal conductivity, which is magnitudes smaller than that of concrete and steel, making them particularly suitable. The anchorage of balconies requires linkages that can resist shear as well as tensile and compression forces in the upper and lower parts of the slab. In a first step, a hybrid joint was created in which the lower compression steel reinforcement was replaced by a compression-shear (CS-)element made of GFRP. This consisted of a short pultruded profile with cap plates bonded to its cut ends. In addition to compression forces, the element was intended to bear parts of the shear load. The joint was investigated in various full-scale beam specimens each representing a section of the slab. Based on the results, the joint's structural behavior was modeled analytically and structural requirements for the CS-element were determined. It was seen that shear transfer through the element increased with increasing shear-to-moment ratios. In a second step, an all-GFRP joint was created in which, in addition to the element in the compression zone, a tension-shear (TS-)element replaced the remaining steel reinforcement. This element consisted of the same pultruded profile cut to longer sections and penetrating the concrete. To anchor the tensile forces in the concrete, ribs were bonded to its surface. This joint type was also investigated through full-scale beam experiments similar to the hybrid-joint beams. The load transfer through the joint and into the concrete was studied and modeled analytically. The behavior of the all-GFRP joint was as ductile as that of the hybrid joints. The TS-element bore the main portion of the shear load independently of the shear-to-moment ratio however. The CS-element used in both joint types was of special interest with regard to remaining strength and stiffness after long-term service life. Exposure to alkaline concrete-pore solution represents a particular threat to the polyester matrix and glass fibers inside the GFRP material. Therefore, CS-elements were immersed in alkaline liquids at different temperatures and their compression strength and stiffness were studied during a period of eighteen months. Material degradation was investigated by SEM-microscopic images and EDX-analysis. The observed loss of compressive strength was ascribed to moisture diffusion and chemical degradation of the fibers, matrix, and fiber-matrix interface. It was shown that the strength degradation rate at different temperatures followed the Arrhenius rate law and that remaining strength after long time spans could therefore be projected by extrapolating the measurements. Remaining strength after 70 years of service life was found to be sufficient for the element never to become the critical failure location and classic concrete theory can be applied to verify the joint. Since stiffness at high temperatures was observed to already remain constant after short exposure times, this value could directly be extrapolated to apply to a 70-year service lifespan.


Purpose of review Most of small tumours in gastrointestinal tract are easily removed by endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR). However, EMR are sometimes not reliable to ensure the complete resection for large tumours. Although endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) was developed, it had a higher risk for complications such as perforation and bleeding. The techniques and clinical outcomes of EMR and ESD are reviewed. Recent findings ESD is more effective for early gastric and oesophageal cancer with higher en-bloc resection rate and lower local recurrence in comparison to EMR. Several studies report favourable long-term outcomes of ESD. ESD has become a standard technique in Japan and other East Asian countries. Piecemeal resection using EMR technique is widely accepted for colorectal large adenomas and results in good clinical outcomes in most patients. However, apparent cancerous lesions need endoscopic en-bloc resection by ESD. Summary Further development of the technique, devices and training systems will promote worldwide standardization of ESD.


Data caching is a technique that can be used by web servers to speed up the response time of client requests. Dynamic websites are becoming more popular, but they pose a problem it is difficult to cache dynamic content, as each user may receive a different version of a webpage. Caching fragments of content in a distributed way solves this problem, but poses a maintainability challenge: cached fragments may depend on other cached fragments, or on underlying information in a database. When the underlying information is updated, care must be taken to ensure cached information is also invalidated. If new code is added that updates the database, the cache can very easily become inconsistent with the underlying data. The deploy-time dependency analysis method solves this maintainability problem by analyzing web application source code at deploy-time, and statically writing cache dependency information into the deployed application. This allows for the significant performance gains distributed object caching can allow, without any of the maintainability problems that such caching creates.


The purpose of the research is  to analize the effect of diabetic foot exercises with plastic ball on the level of foot sensitivity in diabetic patients. The research used quasy experiment design with non-equivalent control group which divided into experimental group and control group. Sample of this research is 30 people divided into 15 people as the experimental group and 15 people as a control group. Sample in this research was taken by purposive sampling of techniques sampling which selected based on inclusion criteria. Instruments of this research was using monofilament in both groups to measuring respondent foot sensitivity. The experimental group were given interventions with diabetic foot exercises with plastic ball three times in 1 week. Data then analyzed into univariate and bivariate using dependent sample t test and independent sample t test. The result of the reearch showed that mean level of foot sensitivity before diabetic foot exercises with plastic ball was 8.467 points and mean level of foot sensitivity after diabetic foot exercises with plastic ball was 9.007 point mean an increase in the foot sensitivity after given intervention with p value  0,00 2 (<0,05). In conclusion diabetic foot exercises with plastic ball are effective against increasing the foot sensitivity in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2. The result is expected to be one of the nursing intervention to improve the foot sensitivity for patients with diabetes mellitus type 2. Keywords: diabetes mellitus, diabetic foot exercises, foot sensitivity


We perform a comprehensive study on the implementation of active harmonic and rational harmonic mode-locking of a fiber optical parametric oscillator (FOPO). In particular, the effect of pump parameters and cavity designs on the characteristics of the generated pulses are analyzed. Two methods of frequency multiplication in FOPOs are discussed and compared and we show that we can generate optical pulses with very high-repetition-rate (up to 240 GHz) using rational harmonic mode-locking. We find that optical pulses with short duration can be obtained using pump pulses with small duty cycle, large pump power, and an intra-cavity optical filter with proper bandwidth. In addition, optical pulses with low root-mean-square timing jitter are achievable when no pump phase modulation is applied and hybrid gain of erbium-doped fiber amplifier and parametric amplifier is used. High supermode noise suppression ratio is achieved by taking advantage of the fast parametric gain and the combined effect of self-phase modulation and spectral filtering. We conclude that synchronous-pumping of an actively mode-locked FOPO offers many advantages in terms of reducing the cavity loss, increasing the modulation frequency, enabling rational harmonic mode-locking, and applications to all-optical clock recovery.


With advances in automatic position sensing and wireless connectivity, location-based services (LBS) are rapidly developing, particularly in fields of geographic, tourism and logistic information systems. Currently, Web service has been viewed as one of most significant innovations in business industry, and designed on demand to provide spatial related information for LBS consumption. However, the traditional Web Service Description Language (WSDL) cannot meet those requirements, as WSDL is not able to support semantic content and information. In recent years, Ontology came up with an effective approach to enhance service description, automated discovery, dynamic composition, enactment, and other tasks such as managing and using service-based systems. In this paper, we propose geographic ontology based on Geography Markup Language (GML) and extend OWL-S profile to form geographic profile. Web service, which is advertised on the basis of our GeoProfile, contains geographic information inherently.


Retired professional footballers are at a significantly increased risk of several health problems including osteoarthritis,1 mental health conditions2 and difficulties pertaining to suboptimal lifestyle choices.3 The aim of this editorial is to highlight the health issues faced by players in retirement, to advance the concept of the 'exit health examination' (EHE) and to promote the duty of care that clinicians, clubs and governing bodies have to ensure that the risk of poor long-term health outcomes is minimised.

Professional footballers are prone to recurrent and severe musculoskeletal injuries, which can occasionally be career-ending.4 Although these can in themselves increase the likelihood of developing osteoarthritis, they may also require surgical intervention, which heightens the risk.

Several studies have highlighted the increased prevalence of hip, knee and ankle osteoarthritis among ex-footballers compared with the general population, with much earlier onset of disease and increased likelihood of joint replacement reported.1 The presence of osteoarthritis in ex-footballers is associated with a poorer health-related quality of life and an increased risk of mental health …


We present ShadowGuides, a system for in-situ learning of multi-touch and whole-hand gestures on interactive surfaces. ShadowGuides provides on-demand assistance to the user by combining visualizations of the user's current hand posture as interpreted by the system (feedback) and available postures and completion paths necessary to finish the gesture (feedforward). Our experiment compared participants learning gestures with ShadowGuides to those learning with video-based instruction. We found that participants learning with ShadowGuides remembered more gestures and expressed significantly higher preference for the help system.


BACKGROUND: Empyema thoracis is a disease that, despite centuries of study, still causes significant morbidity and mortality. AIM: The present study was undertaken to study the age-sex profile, symptomatology, microbiologic findings, etiology and the management and treatment outcome in a tertiary care hospital. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A prospective study of empyema thoracis was conducted on 40 consecutive patients with empyema thoracis admitted to the tuberculosis and chest diseases ward of a teaching hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The demographic data, clinical presentation, microbiological findings, etiology, the clinical course and management were recorded as per a planned pro forma and analyzed. RESULTS: The peak age was in the range of 21-40 years, the male-to-female ratio was 3.4:1.0 and the left pleura was more commonly affected than the right pleura. Risk factors include pulmonary tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, smoking, diabetes mellitus and pneumonia. Etiology of empyema was tubercular in 65% cases and nontubercular in 35% cases. Gram-negative organisms were cultured in 11 cases (27.5%). Two patients received antibiotics with repeated thoracentesis only, intercostal chest tube drainage was required in 38 cases (95%) and more aggressive surgery was performed on 2 patients. The average duration for which the chest tube was kept in the complete expansion cases was 22.3 days. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that all cases of simple empyema with thin pus and only those cases of simple empyema with thick pus where size of empyema is small should be managed by aspiration/s. Cases failed by the above method, all cases of simple empyema with thick pus and with moderate to large size of empyema and all cases of empyema with bronchopleural fistula should be managed by intercostal drainage tube connected to water seal. It was also observed that all cases of empyema complicated by bronchopleural fistula were difficult to manage and needed major surgery.


Introduction: Radiation negatively influences the results of breast reconstruction using implants. However, the effects of radiation on breast reconstruction with autologous tissue is still unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the postoperative complications in patients who underwent immediate and late breast reconstruction with a transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous (TRAM) flap and statistically correlate these complications with the use of radiotherapy (RT). Methods: A retrospective survey of the medical records of patients who underwent breast reconstruction was conducted. Of the patients, 126 underwent breast reconstruction with a TRAM flap between 2004 and 2011. The presence or absence of RT and postoperative complications in the immediate and late reconstructions was assessed. The patients were divided into 3 groups as follows: 1) without RT (TRAM alone group), 2) TRAM→RT group, and 3) RT→TRAM group. The patients in each group were evaluated for the presence and absence of minor and major complications, and results were statistically analyzed. Results: The groups were considered homogenous for age and body mass index. The incidence of major complications was higher in the groups with RT after TRAM (29.6%) than in the other groups, namely the groups without RT (23.4%) and with RT before TRAM flap reconstruction (5.6%). However, the differences among the groups were not statistically significant. No evidence of statistically significant differences in minor complications were found among the groups. Conclusion: In this study, adjuvant RT was not a potentiating factor of complications in the patients who underwent immediate reconstruction with a TRAM flap after mastectomy. ■ ABSTRACT


When we take a step back from the imposing figure of physical violence, it becomes possible to examine other structurally violent forces that constantly shape our cultural and political landscapes. One of the driving interests in the "turn to Paul" in recent continental philosophy stems from wrestling with questions about the real nature of contemporary violence. Paul is positioned as a thinker whose messianic experience began to cut through the violent masquerade of the existing order. The crucifixion and resurrection of the Messiah (a slave and a God co-existing in one body) exposed the empty grounding upon which power resided. The Christ-event signifies a moment of violent interruption in the existing order which Paul enjoins the Gentiles to participate in through a dedication of love for the neighbour. This divine violence aims to reveal and subvert the "powers," epitomised in the Roman Empire, in order to fulfil the labour of the Messianic now-time which had arrived.
The impetus behind this research comes from a typically enigmatic and provocative section of text by the Slovene philosopher, cultural critic, and Christian atheist Slavoj Žižek. He claims that 'the notion of love should be given here all its Paulinian weight: the domain of pure violence… is the domain of love' (2008a, 173). In this move he links Paul's idea of love to that of Walter Benjamin's divine violence; the sublime and the cataclysmic come together in this seemingly perverse notion. At stake here is the way in which uncovering violent forces in the "zero-level" of our narrative worldviews aids the diagnosis of contemporary political and ethical issues.
It is not enough to imagine Paul's encounter with the Christ-event as non-violent. This Jewish apocalyptic movement was engaged in a violent struggle within an existing order that God's wrath will soon dismantle. Paul's weak violence, inspired by his fidelity to the Christ-event, places all responsibility over creation in the role of the individual within the collective body. The centre piece of this re-imagined construction of the Pauline narrative comes in Romans 13: the violent dedication to love understood in the radical nature of the now-time.
3
This research examines the role that narratives play in the creation and diagnosis of these violent forces. In order to construct a new genealogy of violence in Christianity it is crucial to understand the role of the slave of Christ (the revolutionary messianic subject). This turn in the Symbolic is examined through creating a literary structure in which we can approach a radical Nietzschean shift in Pauline thought. The claim here, a claim which is also central to Paul's letters, is that when the symbolic violence which manipulates our worldviews is undone by a divine violence, if even for a moment, new possibilities are created in the opening for a transvaluation of values.
Through this we uncover the nature of original sin: the consequences of the interconnected reality of our actions. The role of literature is vital in the construction of this narrative; starting with Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, and continuing through works such as Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, this thesis draws upon the power of literature in the shaping of our narrative worlds. Typical of the continental philosophy at the heart of this work, a diverse range of illustrations and inspirations from fiction is pulled into its narrative to reflect the symbolic universe that this work was forged through.
What this work attempts to do is give this theory a greater grounding in Paul's letters by demonstrating this radical kenotic power at the heart of the Christ-event. Romans 13 reveals, in a way that has not yet been picked up by Critchley, Žižek, and others, that Paul opposed the biopolitical power of the Roman Empire through the weak violence of love that is the labour of the slaves of Christ on the "now-time" that had arrived.


In recent years, the research community introduced various methods for processing skyline queries in multidimensional databases. The skyline operator retrieves all objects being optimal w.r.t. an arbitrary linear weighting of the underlying criteria. The most prominent example query is to find a reasonable set of hotels which are cheap but close to the beach. In this paper, we propose an new approach for computing skylines on routes (paths) in a road network considering multiple preferences like distance, driving time, the number of traffic lights, gas consumption, etc. Since the consideration of different preferences usually involves different routes, a skyline-fashioned answer with relevant route candidates is highly useful. In our work, we employ graph embedding techniques to enable a best-first based graph exploration considering route preferences based on arbitrary road attributes. The core of our skyline query processor is a route iterator which iteratively computes the top routes according to (at least one) preference in an efficient way avoiding that route computations need to be issued from scratch in each iteration. Furthermore, we propose pruning techniques in order to reduce the search space. Our pruning strategies aim at pruning as many route candidates as possible during the graph exploration. Therefore, we are able to prune candidates which are only partially explored. Finally, we show that our approach is able to reduce the search space significantly and that the skyline can be computed in efficient time in our experimental evaluation.


/ Résumé This study seeks to extend the research on the emotional labour of public library workers. Because emotional labour is a relatively new concept in library and information science research, researchers and practitioners need to better understand the emotional labour experiences of front-line workers in public libraries. A qualitative survey was distributed electronically to library workers in one Canadian province. Participants described meaningful experiences connecting with customers, but they also identified major challenges in performing customer service work. Results showed that the public-facing display of regulated emotions that is ingrained in library customer service training often conflicts with inner emotions. The inability to reconcile opposing emotions and perceived limited administrative support affect individuals' enjoyment of work and their personal well-being. Participants reported exhaustion and burnout as outcomes of emotional labour. Library organizations must acknowledge the emotional labour aspect of library customer service work and provide more extensive formalized support for staff who are in customer service roles. Equipping staff with stronger emotional labour strategies could also help to build resilience and increase job satisfaction.


PURPOSE
Ureteroileal anastomotic stricture is a late complication of Bricker ileal conduits. We report our utilization of a "shield shaped" rather than a standard slit ileotomy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed a single surgeon's experience performing Bricker ileal conduits, initially using a slit incision, then a shield shaped ileotomy. Patient demographics, type of ileotomy, indication, history of prior radiation or chemotherapy, development of postoperative ureteroileal anastomotic stricture, date of stricture diagnosis, imaging modality, stricture treatment, outcome, and length of follow up were recorded.

RESULTS
A total of 50 ileal conduit patients were identified between 2001-2009. A traditional slit incision ileotomy was performed in 25 patients (Group 1) and a shield shaped ileotomy was performed in the following 25 (Group 2). After excluding 1 patient in each group that died within 90 days postoperatively, a total of 95 renal units were anastomosed, (Group 1: 24 patients, 48 renal units, 2001-2005; and Group 2: 24 patients, 47 renal units, 2006-2009). A total of 8 (8.3%) ureteroileal anastomotic strictures were identified: 6 (12.5%) in Group 1, including 1 with bilateral strictures, and 2 (4.3%) in Group 2. Stricture diagnosis occurred at 1, 4, 4, 5, 14 and 42 months in Group 1, and at 6 and 10 months in Group 2. Mean follow up was 24.2 (2-85) months and 12.3 (2-26) months for each cohort, respectively. No increase in postoperative anastomotic leakage was identified.

CONCLUSIONS
Modifying the standard ileotomy slit to a shield shaped incision does not eliminate postoperative anastomotic strictures. This technique provides greater visualization of the suture line, making it technically easier to perform.


We argue exogenous random treatment is insufficient for valid inference regarding the sign and magnitude of causal effects in dynamic environments. In such settings, treatment responses must be understood as contingent upon the typically unmodeled policy generating process. With binary assignment, this results in quantitatively significant attenuation bias. With more than two policy states, treatment responses can be biased downward, upward, or have the wrong sign. Further, it is not only generally invalid to extrapolate elasticities across policy processes, as argued by Lucas (1976), but also to extrapolate within the same policy process. We derive auxiliary assumptions beyond exogeneity for valid inference in dynamic settings. If all possible policy transitions are rare events, treatment responses approximate causal effects. However, reliance on rare events is overly-restrictive as the necessary and sufficient conditions for equality of treatment responses and causal effects is that policy variable changes have mean zero. If these conditions are not met, we show how treatment responses can nevertheless be corrected and mapped back to causal effects or extrapolated to forecast responses to future policy changes. Christopher A. Hennessy London Business School Regents Park London NW14SA UK firstname.lastname@example.com Ilya A. Strebulaev Graduate School of Business Stanford University 655 Knight Way Stanford, CA 94305 and NBER email@example.com


Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Northern Thailand is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Tempt your tastebuds with pho noodle soup in Vietnam, sail past the emerald peaks of Halong Bay, or experience the transcendent tranquility of temples like Angkor Wat; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of the Mekong Region and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Northern Thailand Travel Guide: *Colour maps and images throughout *Highlights and itineraries show you the simplest way to tailor your trip to your own personal needs and interests *Insider tips save you time and money and help you get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots *Essential info at your fingertips - including hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, and prices *Honest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss *Cultural insights give you a richer and more rewarding travel experience - including customs, history, art, music, dance, landscapes, environment, cuisine, and more *Over 50 local maps *Useful features - including Trekking Tours, Travel with Children, and Month-by-Month (annual festival calendar) *Coverage of Hanoi, Halong Bay, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Golden Triangle, and more The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Northern Thailand , our most comprehensive guide to the Mekong Region, is perfect for those planning to both explore the top sights and take the road less travelled. * Looking for a guide focused on the individual countries included in this destination? Check out Lonely Planet's Thailand guide, Vietnam guide, Laos guide, or Cambodia guide for a comprehensive look at all each of these countries have to offer. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet, Nick Ray, Greg Bloom, Austin Bush, Iain Stewart, and Richard Waters. About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)


Abstract Objective We recently transitioned from in-person delivery of a brief behavioral parent intervention to telepsychology delivery to meet families' needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this topical review, we describe how we used treatment fidelity as a guiding principle to orient adaptations for telepsychology, as well as preliminary findings and early lessons learned in this implementation. Methods: Using rapid-cycle quality improvement methods, we adapted a brief parent training group (Bootcamp for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; BC-ADHD) to three groups of caregivers (i.e., 5–7 families) of school-aged children with ADHD (n = 20; 85% males). Families were from the following ethnic backgrounds: 75% White non-Hispanic, 15% White Hispanic, and 10% Black. Clinicians completed measures on their implementation experience. Observers completed measures on content/process fidelity and attendance. Caregivers completed measures on demographics, treatment satisfaction, and telepsychology experience. Results Telepsychology BC-ADHD can be implemented with comparably high levels of content and process fidelity and treatment satisfaction to in-person groups; and it appears to be feasible and acceptable to caregivers. Caregiver and clinician qualitative feedback revealed themes of appreciating the convenience of telepsychology, while experiencing some challenges in relating to others and sharing over video. Conclusions When treatment fidelity is used as a guiding tool, telepsychology parent training groups can be delivered with high fidelity and appear to be acceptable and feasible to caregivers and clinicians. Future research using larger and more diverse samples, multimethod and multi-informant measurement approaches, and controlled designs is needed to further assess the generalizability and efficacy of telepsychology parent training groups.


This study aimed at investigating the effect of Augmented Reality (AR) on college-level EFL students' reading comprehension, self-efficacy, autonomy and attitudes. It also examined the relationships between self-efficacy, autonomy and attitudes. The sample consisted of (59) male students: an experimental group (n=30) and a control group (n=29), studying English for Academic Purposes at Taif University, Saudi Arabia. The study employed the quasi-experimental approach using a pre-post, nonequivalent control group design. A reading comprehension test, a self-efficacy scale, an autonomy scale and a questionnaire for attitudes were designed to gather the data. The findings indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups in the reading comprehension post-test in favor of the experimental group. Also, there was a statistically significant difference between the mean score of the pre and post administration of the self-efficacy scale in favor of the post administration. Besides, there was a statistically significant difference between the mean score of the pre and post administration of the autonomy scale in favor of the post administration. The results of one-sample T Test showed that all attitudes items were statistically significant and the grand mean score was statistically significant which indicated that students had positive attitudes towards using Augmented Reality in language learning. Finally, positive significant relationships between students' self-efficacy, autonomy and attitudes were found.


Large industrial accidents attract attention due to their catastrophic effects on human lives, economic growth, and the environment. Early studies on accident causations have concluded that 98% of all industrial accidents are preventable, and 88% can be prevented through the enforcement of a proper control system. There have been relentless efforts to develop models of accidents to understand this phenomenon and minimise the catastrophic outcomes of mishap events. These efforts have led to the development of systematic models of accident causations; in which accidents causations are viewed as dynamic processes that interact in a non-linear fashion. One of these systematic models is Resilience Engineering (RE), which takes a holistic view of the organisation and its natural abilities to maintain the system in a dynamically stable state under either stresses or normal operations.

This research attempts to explore safety of industrial corporations by evaluating resilience in the Saudi Arabian process industry. The Saudi Arabia context is
substantially different from the Western cultures where resilience concepts were developed and studied. The rapid expansion of the petroleum industries has had a major impact on the development of the Saudi socio-economic dynamics. The unique national culture dimensions of the Saudi Arabian society (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism) will help in understanding cultural influences on resilience and safety in general. Therefore, this research is conducted to identify the main contributing factors to resilience in the Saudi Arabian context.

The outcomes of the research help engineers and administrators in industrial organisations to engineer resilient systems that minimize the risks of mishaps and recover quickly to a normal state of operations. The findings support the influence of the national culture in different countries on organisational safety culture, which is extended to individuals' behaviour towards safety. Evidence has shown that collectivism, on the contrary to the common belief, has a positive impact on both resilience potential and safety culture in the process industry. In addition, the process industry in Saudi Arabia is characterised by resilience of the second type, where there is good ability to respond and monitor but a low ability to learn or anticipate. The main contributing factors to this resilience are: effective communication, information availability, control over work tasks, and dealing with external pressure. Lastly, the findings suggest an association between management commitment to safety and both resilience optimisation and organisational safety culture.


Economic models of negligence ordinarily involve a single standard of care that all injurers must meet in order to avoid liability. When injurers differ in their costs of care, however, this leads to distortions in their care choices. This paper derives the characteristics of a generalized negligence rule that induces injurers to self-select their optimal care levels. The principal features of the rule are (1) the due standard of care is maximal, and (2) liability increases gradually as injurers depart further from this standard. The results are broadly consistent with the gradation in liability under certain causation rules and under comparative negligence.


OBJECTIVE Amylin, a secretory peptide of fi-cells, is the constituent peptide of islet amyloid, which is characteristic of NIDDM, and changes in amylin secretion in response to therapies may influence the rate of production of islet amyloid. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether therapy with sulfonylurea or basal insulin in NIDDM would alter amylin secretion in a way that might affect the formation of islet amyloid. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In a randomized crossover design, eight subjects with NIDDM underwent diree 8-week periods of therapy with diet alone, sulfonylurea, or exogenous basal insulin, with evaluation of amylin, amylin-like peptide (ALP), and glucose and C-peptide concentrations, both during fasting and after a standard breakfast. Changes in (β-cell function (%β) were assessed, in the basal state by homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) and in the stimulated state by hyperglycemic clamps. Seven nondiabetic control subjects each underwent a meal profile and hyperglycemic clamp. RESULTS Both sulfonylurea and insulin therapy reduced basal glucose concentrations compared with diet alone, but neither reduced the increased postprandial glucose increments. Both sulfonylurea and insulin therapy increased basal %β, assessed by HOMA, but only sulfonylurea increased the second-phase C-peptide responses to the hyperglycemic clamp. Sulfonylurea increased time-averaged mean postprandial amylin and ALP concentrations compared with diet alone (geometric mean [1-SD range] for amylin, 4.9 [2.0–11.8] vs. 3.0 [1.4–6.2] pmol/1, P = 0.003; for ALP, 16.4 [8.5–31.7] vs. 10.1 [4.9–20.8] pmol/1, P = 0.001). Insulin therapy reduced basal ALP concentrations compared with diet alone (2.9 [1.5–5.6] vs. 6.0 [2.6–13.6] pmol/1, P = 0.03), but had no effect on postprandial concentrations of amylin (3.0 [1.3–6.5] pmol/1) or ALP (10.0 [5.5–18.1] pmol/1). CONCLUSIONS By increasing postprandial concentrations of the constituent peptides of islet amyloid, sulfonylurea therapy might increase the rate of deposition of islet amyloid and thereby accelerate the decline of %β in NIDDM, compared with diet therapy alone.


The method for controlling the reconstruction wavelength is presented for Lippmann holograms recorded in dichromated gelatin. Two different kinds of gelatin are mixed to prepare the dichromated gelatin. One is of high bloom strength and the other is water soluble which is washed out during processing. The reconstruction wavelength can be shifted to short wavelengths and controlled freely to a certain extent by varying the ratio of the two kinds of gelatin. Experimental results are presented and the asymmetry observed in the selectivity curves is discussed.


Milling is a commonly used machining process where a rotating cutter removes material from the workpiece. In recent years, attention has been turned towards so called dynamic milling methods which differ from the conventional way of milling. Dynamic milling normally uses, as opposed to the conventional way, more of the axial cutting edge, smaller radial depth of cut, significantly higher cutting speed and feed per tooth. The method has demonstrated potential to save both time and money under specific circumstances, for manufacturing companies.This thesis was conducted at ISCAR Sverige AB in Uppsala, Sweden. ISCAR Metalworking is a full service supplier of carbide cutting tools. The objective is to establish if there are benefits with dynamic milling methods with regard to material removal rate and lifetime of the tool by experimentally investigating and comparing tool wear that occur with conventional- and dynamic milling methods in hardened steels. Tools used were ISCAR's MULTI-MASTER end mills, MM A and MM B, and the hardened steels were Hardox 600 and Dievar. Analysis was performed by using a USB-microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a Wyko-profilometer. The results of this study show that dynamic milling parameters can give several benefits regarding tool life and material removal rate. When machining in Hardox 600 and Dievar, both end mills were able to achieve a higher material removal rate and lifetime with dynamic parameters compared to more conventional ones. MM A outperformed MM B in Dievar, but the results were reversed in Hardox, MM B performed better. Results from the profilometry analysis showed that in Dievar, the dynamic parameters generated a smoother surface while the surface results from Hardox were more equivocal. The main conclusion was that milling with dynamic parameters is generally more advantageous and should be utilised, if possible.


Complex systems have become a particular area of interest in the past years and the study of such systems, seen as a whole, has yielded many and varied approaches. One of the difficulties frequently encountered is that such systems display emergence, i.e. their global effect or behavior is greater than the sum of the behaviors of their agents and depends strongly on the interactions between these agents. Simulation is a very interesting approach for this study, since it allows focusing on the dynamic study of the system, thus pointing out these behaviors and interactions. Moreover, it is particularly interesting for aerospace systems, which are nowadays clearly studied as complex systems, since these systems are generally poor candidates for real experimentation, due to many diverse reasons (e.g. cost for space systems, criticality in terms of human life for air transport systems, etc.). Hence, they must be studied quite thoroughly before their full design or realization is possible and simulation plays an important part in this. This paper presents methods that can be used to study complex systems by simulation, as well as some techniques that take into account their specific nature, in particular distributed simulation, a paradigm quite intensively used at Onera. It also deals with the difficulties that may be encountered in setting such large simulations up and also addresses the problem of data in such a large simulation, from the handling to the exploitation.


Abstract Negotiating perspectives and values is at the core of using PSMs to tackle complex and uncertain problem situations. Exploring how such negotiations evolve at the micro-level of real-time interactions can help grasp communicative behaviours and workshop structures that influence negotiation processes, and the achievement of outcomes. This study reports on an exploratory experiment with three MSc student groups engaged in (i) a Soft Systems Methodology, (ii) a Strategic Choice Approach, and (iii) a non-problem structuring method workshop to make progress with a case of urban renewals. Our micro-level content analysis suggests that (no)model use can lead to three different dynamics in which participants discuss different perspectives and values, negotiate their meanings, create knowledge and agree on solutions to tackle the problem situation that are added to model content. Our findings contribute to increasing our understanding of the nature of soft OR and its effects on group interactions during workshops.


If we are to understand better the tropes, typologies and images that inform the work of authors who have contributed to the creation of a literary Atlantic, then it is crucial to examine other cultural fora in which the Atlantic has been exhibited and staged, and accordingly imagined and constructed: chief amongst these are fairs, festivals and exhibitions, which have all played a substantial role since the nineteenth century in forging popular understandings of Africa and its diaspora, through their 'stagings' of various manifestations of the Black Atlantic. Over the past two decades, a wide body of work by historians such as Annie E. Coombes (1994), Herman Lebovics (1994) and Patricia Morton (2000) has begun to explore the exhibitionary practices that marked Europe's attempts to represent the colonial world to the populations of the metropolitan centre. Athough this research has had a global reach, reflecting the broad range of the colonial subjects, products and other phenomena subject to these forms of display, a central aspect of this work has been the attempt to uncover exactly how these colonial exhibitions and world's fairs sought to 'stage' the Atlantic world that had been forged by centuries of slavery, colonisation and other types of voluntary or forced cultural exchange – consequently creating, in their hemispheric diversity, the often unpredictable formations and connections generated by the displacements of peoples and goods between Europe, Sub‐Saharan Africa and the Americas.