Background In multilevel studies, strong correlations of neighbourhood exposures with individual and neighbourhood confounders may generate problems with non-positivity (ie, inferences that are 'off-support'). The authors used propensity restriction and matching to (1) assess the utility of propensity restriction to ensure analyses are 'on-support' and (2) examine the relation between collective efficacy and violence in a previously unstudied city. Methods Associations between neighbourhood collective efficacy and violent victimisation were estimated in data from New York City in 2005 (n=4000) using marginal models and propensity matching. Results In marginal models adjusted for individual confounders and limited to observations 'on-support', under conditions of high collective efficacy, the estimated prevalence of violent victimisation was 3.5/100, while under conditions of low collective efficacy, it was 7.5/100, resulting in a difference of 4.0/100 (95% CI 2.6 to 5.8). In propensity-matched analysis, the comparable difference was 4.0/100 (95% CI 2.1 to 5.9). In analyses adjusted for individual and neighbourhood confounders and limited to observations 'on-support', the difference in violent victimisation associated with collective efficacy was 3.1/100 (95% CI 1.2 to 5.2) in marginal models and 2.4/100 (95% CI 0.2 to 4.5) in propensity-matched analysis. Analyses without support restrictions produced surprisingly similar results. Conclusions Under conditions of high collective efficacy, there was about half the prevalence of violence compared with low collective efficacy. The results contribute to a growing body of evidence that suggests collective efficacy may shape violence, and illustrate how careful techniques can be used to disentangle exposures from highly correlated confounders without relying on model extrapolation.


Effect of Social Support and HIV-Related Stigma on Depression in HIV/AIDS Patients by Chinedu Anthony Umeadi MPH, University of Liverpool, 2006 MBBS, Abia State University, 2000 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Public Health Walden University October 2015 Abstract HIV has remained a public health problem in Nigeria. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the effect of social support and HIV-related stigma on depression in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and to examine the moderating effect of sociodemographic factors, Quality of Life (QOL), and time since HIV diagnosis on this relationship. This study was based on the social cognitive theory. Data were collectedHIV has remained a public health problem in Nigeria. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the effect of social support and HIV-related stigma on depression in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and to examine the moderating effect of sociodemographic factors, Quality of Life (QOL), and time since HIV diagnosis on this relationship. This study was based on the social cognitive theory. Data were collected from 98 PLWHA attending the antiretroviral clinic of Federal Medical Center, Umuahia, Nigeria. Regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between the variables. Some 24.5% of the study participants were depressed. Significant relationships identified included negative relationships between depression and social support, positive relationships between depression and negative self-image, and a combination of poor social support and HIV-related stigma having synergic effects in predicting depression. Sociodemographic variables, quality of life, and time since HIV diagnosis did not have a moderating effect on the relationship between social support, HIV-related stigma, and depression in PLWHA. There is a need to improve social support and reduce HIV-related stigma in PLWHA in order to improve their mental health. These findings can help in bringing about positive social change by informing the development of public health initiatives aimed at improving the mental health of PLWHA. Effect of Social Support and HIV-Related Stigma on Depression in HIV/AIDS Patients by Chinedu Anthony Umeadi MPH, University of Liverpool, 2006 MBBS, Abia State University, 2000 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy


The prevarications invented by Beroul's Tristan and Iseut to disguise their love affair have elicited much critical attention over the years. However, one significant aspect of the lovers' lies bears further examination: that they are, in fact, true. While the lovers wilfully mislead their listeners, their "lies" can reasonably be understood to describe their situation accurately if they are submitted to a "legalistic interpretation of the form of the words," as Brian Blakeley has written. (1) Still, no one has adequately explained why the lovers insist upon telling technically true lies. At times, the reasons for their ambiguous discourse are straightforward. For instance, in the "equivocal oath" scene, Iseut has two contradictory imperatives to fulfill. She must speak the truth in order to satisfy the requirements of the ordeal and simultaneously conceal the reality of her actions from the crowd in order to save her own life. But why under other circumstances do the lovers consistently tell the truth when they lie? In other words, why do they not simply save their honor "par bel mentir" as the Hermit Ogrin suggests? (2) Part of the answer may be that sharing a joke with the audience by telling a lie that they all know to be true is a good story-telling device. But beyond this, I will argue that in structuring love as a secret, that is, as a type of knowledge to be diffused among a group of elite listeners, Beroul is working consciously to reshape conceptions of love and marriage in twelfth-century Christian feudal society. The lovers' "truthful" lies interact dialectically with authorized conceptions of marriage to suggest that this fundamental social institution can and should be structured differently. Beroul, like his contemporaries, perceives love as an ambivalent and potentially harmful compulsion. Still, he maintains that properly harnessed and distributed through marriage, it could be a powerful force for the good. Furthermore, Beroul explores the links between the ability to inspire passion on a personal level to a corresponding ability to arouse love in followers, suggesting that this force, too, should be cultivated and pressed into service for society. His story, then, can be read as a plea for recognizing the potential usefulness of passionate love along with what I will argue to be the emotion's more public manifestation, a quality we might call "charisma," in the feudal world. Brian Stock has described early medieval society as possessing on the one hand "an immense range of relatively uncharted events, sensations, and emotions, and on the other, a limited number of inherited models of interpreting them." (3) Beroul's story, like other late twelfth-century works of fiction, represents a growing awareness of his age's need for more varied and nuanced paradigms of emotion. THEOLOGICAL AND FEUDAL NOTIONS OF Low AND MARRIAGE Neither theologians nor feudal lords would have recognized Tristan and Iseut's passionate love as a legitimate basis for marriage. True, the late twelfth-century Church might have acknowledged that the lovers' consummation of their relationship and their obvious desire to live together invalidated the marriage between Marc and Iseut. (4) Jean Subrenat has observed, "Ainsi il faut bien considerer l'union de Marc et Yseut comme nulle sous plus d'un rapport: consentement vicie de la reine, peut-etre mariage prealable de Tristan et Yseut (ce qui suffirait)." (5) However, the Church would have condemned the lovers' intense passion for one another, even had it acknowledged the right of the two to marry. Love or amor, as it is called in Old French and Latin, did not form the proper basis of a marriage in the eyes of the Church. Amor was a large concept, yoking together two impulses modern readers tend to imagine as distinct: disinterested, spiritual love, and intense--even violent--sexual desire. (6) In the Liber de Speculo Caritatis, the Cistercian theorist on love Aelred of Rievaulx (1109-1166) describes these two impulses as caritas, a force that elevates the soul towards God, and cupiditas, which includes sexual desire, an unruly disposition that drags the soul back down to earth. …


Hitherto unobserved long-lived massive particles with electric and/or colour charge are predicted by a range of theories which extend the Standard Model. In this paper a search is performed at the ATLAS experiment for slow-moving charged particles produced in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV centre-ofmass energy at the LHC, using a data-set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb−1. No deviations from Standard Model expectations are found. This result is interpreted in a framework of supersymmetry models in which coloured sparticles can hadronise into long-lived bound hadronic states, termed R-hadrons, and 95% CL limits are set on the production cross-sections of squarks and gluinos. The influence of R-hadron interactions in matter was studied using a number of different models, and lower mass limits for stable sbottoms and stops are found to be 294 and 309 GeV respectively. The lower mass limit for a stable gluino lies in the range from 562 to 586 GeV depending on the model assumed. Each of these constraints is the most stringent to date.


ABSTRACT Open data are currently a hot topic and are associated with realising ambitions such as a more transparent and efficient government, solving societal problems, and increasing economic value. To describe and monitor the state of open data in countries and organisations, several open data assessment frameworks were developed. Despite high scores in these assessment frameworks, the actual (re)use of open government data (OGD) fails to live up to its expectations. Our review of existing open data assessment frameworks reveals that these only cover parts of the open data ecosystem. We have developed a framework, which assesses open data supply, open data governance, and open data user characteristics holistically. This holistic open data framework assesses the maturity of the open data ecosystem and proves to be a useful tool to indicate which aspects of the open data ecosystem are successful and which aspects require attention. Our initial assessment in the Netherlands indicates that the traditional geographical data perform significantly better than non-geographical data, such as healthcare data. Therefore, open geographical data policies in the Netherlands may provide useful cues for other OGD strategies.


3-Methylindole (skatole) is a metabolite of L-tryptophan formed in the rumen of cattle. There is considerable evidence that 3-methylindole is the cause of fog fever (acute bovine pulmonary emphysema) in cattle. Experimentally, administration of 3-methyl-indole causes acute pulmonary oedema and emphysema in cattle, goat and sheep. The aim of this study was to investigate the pharmaco-kinetics and mechanism of action of 3-rethylindole with special reference to fog fever, the most important respiratory disease problem of grazing adult cattle in Britain. Samples of ruminal fluid taken from different animals and from the same animal on different days showed considerable variations in their ability to metabolize L-tryptophan to 3-rethylindole, (8-78% conversion of L-tryptophan to 3-methylindole, during 24 hours incubation). These variations provided an explanation for the considerable individual variations in the severity of respiratory distress seen in cattle after oral administration of L-tryptophan and observed after sudden change to better grazing. It was suggested that the increased rate of conversion of L-tryptophan to 3-methylindole, rather than the excessive intake of the amino acid may be responsible for the production of the disease. Certain carbohydrates (fructose, glucose, lactose, galactose, sucrose, mannitol, starch and inulin) substances related to carbohydrates (citrate, lactate, acetate and glycerin) and antibacterial agents (ampicillin, penicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline, chlorar-phenicol, sulfaguanidine and sulfamethoxypyridazine) inhibited, to different degrees, the conversion of L-tryptophan to 3-methylindole. An oral dose of L-tryotophan (0.5 g/kg body weight) did not produce respiratory distress in any of four treated adult cattle. Failure of L-tryptophan to produce the disease was attributed to failure of conversion of the amino acid to 3-rrothylindole which was not detected, in plasma of the treated cattle. The absorption of 3-methylindole, after oral administration in cattle, is rapid. 3-Methyloxindole is a metabolite of 3-methylindole in cattle. Mean plasma half lives of 3-methyloxindole, 3-methylindole and 3-methylindole metabolites were estimated to be 11, 16 and 48 minutes respectively. It was concluded that measurement of the concentration of 3-methyl-indole or 3-methylindole metabolites in single plasma samples would not reflect the magnitude of production of 3-rethylindole in the rumen of cattle. 3-Methylindole (40 mug/ml) and 3-methyloxindole (50 mug/ml) did not cause the release of mediators of anaphylaxis from chopped bovine lung preparations (in vitro). 3-Methylindole and 3-methylindole analogues (3-methyloxindole, 3-phenylindole, 5-methylindole and 7-methylindole) (5-640 mug/ml) did not cause contraction of the isolated pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, trachea bronchus of calves. It was concluded that the initial step in the pathogenesis of the 3-methylindole-induced pulmonary damage does not involve an action on the pulmonary vein or the release of mediators of anaphylaxis in cattle. Radioactivity from tritiated 3-methylindole became covalently bound to tissues of several organs when tritiated 3-methylindole was administered, intravenously, to calves. Lung tissue showed the highest concentration of covalently bound metabolites. In vitro studies showed that this covalent binding is catalyzed by a microsomal enzyme system with the classical characteristics of a cytochrome P-450 dependent mixed function oxidase. This enzyme system activates 3-methylindole to a chemically reactive highly electrophilic metabolite which becomes covalently bound to nucleophilic sites on cellular macromolecules. The 3-methylindole-reactive metabolite can be detoxified by spontaneous and glutathione-S-transferase-catalyzed conjugation with glutathione. Pretreatment of sheep with diethylmaleate (depletes glutathione) and L-cysteine (increases glutathione) was shown to increase and decrease, respectively, the severity of pneumotoxic effect of 3-methylindole. 3-Methyloxindole did not become covalently bound to microsomal proteins, in vitro, and did not cause acute pulmonary toxic effects similar to those produced by 3-methylindole, in vivo, suggesting that the 3-methylindole-reactive metabolite is intermediate between 3-methylindole and 3-methyloxindole. The liver possess an enzyme system capable of catalyzing the covalent binding of 3-methylindole metabolites to microsomal proteins, in vitro. This enzyme system was qualitatively identical to that of the lung. The Michaelis constants of the lung and liver systems were 0.37 and 0.44 mnol 3-methylindole and maximal velocities of microsomal alkylation were 100 and 556 pmol covalently bound 3-methylindole/mg microsomal protein/minute, respectively. These findings suggest that the specificity of 3-methylindole towards the lung is not due to higher rate of reactive metabolite formation in the lung, but is probably due to deficiency of the lung in defence mechanisms against this reactive metabolite.


Creating Our Future – Transforming a Traditional Non-Profit into a High Performing Organization The purpose of the project was to transform the Boys & Girls Club of Cleveland County Board of Directors (the Club) from an executive-directed organization to an organization that encouraged Board member involvement. Our goal was to serve more kids every day, expand facilities, take functional responsibility of the operation of the Club while finding more funding sources to meet the budget. The organization needed to change or it would not be in existence. Using Kotter's Eight Step Change Model, the leadership team worked to create a sense of urgency for the change process. Strategic planning sessions established goals and objectives to be achieved to transform the organization from an autocratic leadership style to a participative style of leadership. The emphasis of the project was to achieve the major goal of serving more kids every day. Over the 30-month period, the Club grew from serving an average of 70 children a day to serving over 140 children a day at three separate locations. The Teen Center and an extension unit at Graham Elementary School are open and operational. The organizational budget has grown by 52% with funding sources from grants and foundations increasing by over 200%. The functional committees of the Board have taken ownership of a wide variety of tasks formerly part of the executive director's role. The creation of the Emeritus Board has enabled the Club to involve more diversified, younger Board members. In Boys & Girls Club of America National Youth Outcome Initiative survey of Club performance, the Cleveland County Club performed higher than the national average in seven of eight areas. Today, the Club is a highperforming organization serving twice as many children.


There are estimated to be around 900 million older adults (aged 60 years and above), around 13 per cent of the world population. The COVID-19 pandemic helped shed light on the specific needs of older people as a group more susceptible to severe disease/infection, and revealed the lack of capacity within water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) NGOs to respond to these specific needs. This SLH Learning Paper explores the WASH needs of older people in both development and humanitarian contexts, as well as the fundamental role older people play in facilitating other people's WASH access, health, and wellbeing. The paper refers to the data WASH actors collect on older people in order to understand their differing WASH needs, the barriers to accessing WASH, and the need to ensure older people's participation, including their active role in helping find the solutions. Recommendations are made for planning with communities and programme design; WASH programme implementation and to reduce environmental barriers.


The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial is an intergroup effort in the USA managed by the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) in collaboration with the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB). This 10-year study began approximately 5 years ago and will achieve its primary endpoint in October 2004. At the start of the study, 18,882 men, aged over 55 years, and with normal digital rectal examination (DRE) and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels of ≤3.0 ng/ml were randomized to take finasteride (5 mg/day) or placebo (1 tablet/day). DRE and PSA have been determined yearly (PSA in a central laboratory). When DRE is abnormal or PSA rises to >4.0 ng/ml, a biopsy is recommended. Because of the effect finasteride has on PSA, the PSA value has been indexed to equalize the number of biopsies in both arms. At 7 years all survivors will undergo a sextant biopsy to determine the period prevalence of prostate cancer. The critical assumptions are: (1) finasteride-induced PSA changes result in a simple downward shift; (2) the assessment of adherence is sensitive enough to detect nonadherence affecting PSA level interpretation: (3) factors affecting biopsy loss will be equal in both arms; (4) finasteride does not affect the sensitivity or specificity of DRE on transrectal ultrasound nor the sensitivity of biopsy; (5) bias resulting from transurethral resection of the prostate in benign prostate hyperplasia cases will be negligible.


Biodiesel (Fatty acid methyl ester) which is derived from triglyceride by Transesterification has attracted considerable attention during the past decade as a renewable, biodegradable and nontoxic fuel. Several processes for biodiesel fuel production have been developed, among which Transesterification using alkali as catalyst gives high level of conversion of triglycerides to their corresponding methyl ester in a short duration. This process has therefore been widely utilized for biodiesel fuel production in a number of countries. In India, non – edible oils like karanja oil and jatropha oil are available in abundance, which can be converted to biodiesel. In the present studies, biodiesel has been prepared from karanja oil. As the acid values of this oil were more than 3, hence it can be converted to biodiesel by Transesterification process. The methyl ester produced by these methods was analyzed to a certain their suitability as diesel fuels. Then the comparison of physiochemical properties was done karanja oil, karanja oil methyl ester and biodiesel. The various properties of methyl esters are found to be comparable with that of diesel fuel. However it requires further studies for considering the product as a suitable biodiesel.


Computing with failures is a typical programming technique in functional logic programs. However, there are also situations where a program should not fail (e.g., in a deterministic top-level computation) but the evaluation fails accidentally, e.g., due to missing pattern combinations in an operation defined by pattern matching. In this case, the program developer is interested in the context of the failed program point in order to analyze the reason of the failure. Therefore, this paper discusses techniques for reporting failures and proposes a new one that has been integrated in a Prolog-based compiler for the declarative multi-paradigm language Curry. Our new technique supports separate compilation of modules, i.e., the compilation of modules has not taken into account whether failures should be reported or not. The failure reporting is only considered in some linking code for modules. In contrast to previous approaches, the execution of programs in the failure reporting mode causes only a small overhead so that it can be also used in larger applications.


Nanoporous gold (NPG) promises efficient light-to-heat transformation, yet suffers limited photothermal conversion efficiency owing to the difficulty in controlling its morphology for the direct modulation of thermo-plasmonic properties. Herein, we showcase a series of shape-controlled NPG nanoparticles with distinct bowl- (NPG-B), tube- (NPG-T) and plate-like (NPG-P) structures for quantitative temperature regulation up to 140 °C in <1 s using laser irradiation. Notably, NPG-B exhibits the highest photothermal efficiency of 68%, which is >12 and 39 percentage points better than those of other NPG shapes (NPG-T, 56%; NPG-P, 49%) and Au nanoparticles (29%), respectively. We attribute NPG-B's superior photothermal performance to its >13% enhanced light absorption cross-section compared to other Au nanostructures. We further realize an ultrasensitive heat-mediated light-to-mechanical "kill switch" by integrating NPG-B with a heat-responsive shape-memory polymer (SMP/NPG-B). This SMP/NPG-B hybrid is analogous to a photo-triggered mechanical arm, and can be activated swiftly in <4 s simply by remote laser irradiation. Achieving remotely-activated "kill switch" is critical in case of emergencies such as gas leaks, where physical access is usually prohibited or dangerous. Our work offers valuable insights into the structural design of NPG for optimal light-to-heat conversion, and creates opportunities to formulate next-generation smart materials for on-demand and multi-directional responsiveness.


We consider the problem of domain generalization, namely, how to learn representations given data from a set of domains that generalize to data from a previously unseen domain. We propose the domain invariant VAE (DIVA), a generative model that tackles this problem by learning three independent latent subspaces, one for the class, one for the domain and one for the object itself. In addition, we highlight that due to the generative nature of our model we can also incorporate unlabeled data from known or previously unseen domains. This property is highly desirable in fields like medical imaging where labeled data is scarce. We experimentally evaluate our model on the rotated MNIST benchmark where we show that (i) the learned subspaces are indeed complementary to each other, (ii) we improve upon recent works on this task and (iii) incorporating unlabelled data can boost the performance even further. © Deep Generative Models for Highly Structured Data, DGS@ICLR 2019 Workshop.All right reserved.


We present here an overview of recent work in the subject of astrophysical manifestations of super-massive black hole (SMBH) mergers. This is a field that has been traditionally driven by theoretical work, but in recent years has also generated a great deal of interest and excitement in the observational astronomy community. In particular, the electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to SMBH mergers provide the means to detect and characterize these highly energetic events at cosmological distances, even in the absence of a space-based gravitational-wave observatory. In addition to providing a mechanism for observing SMBH mergers, EM counterparts also give important information about the environments in which these remarkable events take place, thus teaching us about the mechanisms through which galaxies form and evolve symbiotically with their central black holes.


Sets of lexical items sharing a significant aspect of their meaning (concepts) are fundamental for linguistics and NLP. Unsupervised concept acquisition algorithms have been shown to produce good results, and are preferable over manual preparation of concept resources, which is labor intensive, error prone and somewhat arbitrary. Some existing concept mining methods utilize supervised language-specific modules such as POS taggers and computationally intensive parsers.

In this paper we present an efficient fully unsupervised concept acquisition algorithm that uses syntactic information obtained from a fully unsupervised parser. Our algorithm incorporates the bracketings induced by the parser into the meta-patterns used by a symmetric patterns and graph-based concept discovery algorithm. We evaluate our algorithm on very large corpora in English and Russian, using both human judgments and WordNet-based evaluation. Using similar settings as the leading fully unsupervised previous work, we show a significant improvement in concept quality and in the extraction of multiword expressions. Our method is the first to use fully unsupervised parsing for unsupervised concept discovery, and requires no language-specific tools or pattern/word seeds.


The Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) is defined in RFC 3748.
This document defines a mechanism that allows an access network to
provide identity selection hints to an EAP peer -- the end of the link
that responds to the authenticator. The purpose is to assist the EAP
peer in selecting an appropriate Network Access Identifier (NAI). This
is useful in situations where the peer does not receive a lower-layer
indication of what network it is connecting to, or when there is no
direct roaming relationship between the access network and the
peer's home network. In the latter case, authentication is
typically accomplished via a mediating network such as a roaming
consortium or broker. The mechanism defined in this document is
limited in its scalability. It is intended for access networks that
have a small to moderate number of direct roaming partners. This memo
provides information for the Internet community.


Tourism, like most social phenomena has tended to be studied and measured in terms of the
intentions, meanings and actions of people. 'Humanist tourism theory' (Franklin 2003) is the norm
and not until recently has there been any inclination to question this. This research begins by asking
what tourism is when it is not assumed to be 'a purely human accomplishment' (after Haldrup and
Larsen 2006) but when emphasis is given instead to the hybrid nature of social phenomena that is
'teeming with things' (Franklin 2003: 98). Using a 'symmetrical' (Serres 1991/1997) approach, it is
claimed that tourism is a performance that includes humans and non-humans and this means some of
the actors, according to human design, intention or understanding, are variously 'indifferent' to what
they are supposed or meant to be (after Latour 1997a). This indifference retains a potential to
'misbehave' and then profoundly challenge humanist tourism theory so that when they intervene there
is no longer 'reliable tourism theory'. Instead with a more inclusive list of actors 'tourism as an
ordering' (Franklin 2004) begins to emerge and this research presents an ethnographic study of how
this happens in a well-visited place called Sullivans Cove in Hobart, Australia.
The Urban Design Framework is one of the most intentional statements about the rebuilding and
design of Sullivans Cove and in consolidating things like people, buildings, mountains and law it acts
as an 'urban design laboratory'. A series of 'object-laden' lessons are taken from this laboratory by
following two successive developments or 'experiments'. First, hotel accommodation Zero Davey
carried tourism through the design laboratory where it was enrolled with various orderings only some
of which 'care' about tourism. Here the laboratory acted as a largely indifferent 'means' to a tourismrelated
'end'. However, in next staging an International Design Competition these 'means' and 'ends'
became transferable when to achieve a 'winning design entry' and 'designer label' for Sullivans Cove
the laboratory adopted many of established 'means' of the tourism industry. These experiments show
Sullivans Cove is 'accidentally tourism' and that as an ordering tourism behaves in complex and
sometimes opposing ways. When tourism research includes 'things' as conspirators, assumptions like
'tourism places are planned that way' are found inadequate for recognising or explaining the more
transformative abilities of tourism because these are a virtue of heterogeneous compositions and the
multiple competencies they allow. By viewing tourism as an ordering it is possible to see how
developments such as those in Sullivans Cove result not from within a separable and coherent realm
of tourism on the social margin, but from more distributed and post humanist agency.


"An Unquiet Pedagogy" argues for a new approach to teaching English in the high school and college classroom, one that reconceives the relationship of literacy and the learner. The title is taken from an essay by Paulo Freire in his book with Donaldo Macedo entitled "Literacy: Reading the Word and the World." Like Freire, the authors believe that pedagogy must be critical -- that it must examine the assumptions that teachers and students bring to any educational enterprise, that it must take into account the contexts of learners' lives, and that it must question, rather than quietly accept, existing practices. Voices of beginning and experienced teachers are heard often in the book, exploring how such an unquiet pedagogy might come to be. The authors examine the experiences of these teachers, as well as their own, showing how the classroom can become a place of inquiry for both teachers and students and how theory and research that provide an integrated perspective on language, literacy, and culture must inform teaching practice. Their aim is to transform the English classroom into a place where the imagination becomes central and where learners construct knowledge in the development of real literacy.


Resistance to chloroquine (CQ) and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) led the World Health Organization (WHO) to recommend changes in national drug policies. The time between policy changes and their implementation profoundly affects program impact. We developed a model based on data on antimalarial treatments, extracted from household surveys and national antimalarial policy information from the literature. Drug use in each country during the time period 1999–2011 and the trend in reduction of CQ use after policy change were estimated. The SP use estimates were correlated with the prevalence of a molecular marker associated with SP resistance. There was no spatial pattern in the country-level rate of reduction of CQ use, after policy change. In East Africa SP drug use was strongly correlated to resistance. If artemisinin resistance spreads to, or emerges in, Africa this methodology will be a valuable tool to estimate actual drug use and its impact on changes in drug efficacy.


Density functional theory (DFT) calculations followed by molecular dynamics study has been performed to analyze the structure and stability of β-dipeptide structures in aqueous medium. From DFT study, three local minima with folded conformations and one local minimum with unfolded conformation have been identified. In gas phase, the most stable β-dipeptide has a folded conformation with a weak hydrogen bonding. The interaction of water molecules, approximated from the first solvation shell, also confirms the folded conformation to be the most stable structure. The DFT optimized β-dipeptide conformers have been simulated in explicit water to evaluate the tendency of folded and unfolded state formation. Simulations confirmed the transition of the structure from folded to unfolded and vice versa and further indicated the former to happen rapidly within a few pico second time scale.


Recent debate on the adequacy of regulatory standards for central counterparties (CCPs) has often drawn on the experience of bank regulation. This article draws out the essential differences between CCPs and banks, considering the implications of these differences for the regulatory approach. It argues that banks and CCPs affect systemic stability in different ways, with a CCP's systemic importance largely derived from its central role and a bank's systemic importance typically derived from the size and breadth of its activities. Any refinements to regulatory standards for CCPs that are drawn from bank regulation should not overlook these differences.


Soil Water Assessment Tool (ArcSWAT2009) model is applied on the Greater-Zab River catchment at north of Iraq. The model was calibrated from 1993-2002 and validated from 2003-2013.The calibrated model for hydrological conditions was used to assess the water quantity (monthly stream flows).The study identified optimum parameters and with widest ranges of variation for better rates simulation. The water balance components were correctly estimated. The results showed that the average simulated stream flow for the study period (1993-2013) was 363 m 3 /sec which is less than the average value of stream flow (417 m 3 /sec) for the period (1930-1992) .The water shortage problem effects on the management of water resources. Based on statistical indicators, the evaluation indicates that the model had a good performance for both calibration and validation periods in Greater-Zab River watershed. The model can be used efficiently in semi-arid regions to support water management policies in Iraq. The model performance evaluation showed a good correlation between the observed and simulated monthly average stream flow for calibration and validation periods with R 2 (0.99, 0.87),E N.S (0.99,0.86) and D ( 2.76,1.22) respectively. A sensitivity analysis was carried out on the major input parameters and the results showed that there are ( 11 ) out of (41) parameters sensitive. The most sensitive is the (CN2). Results of hydrologic budget show that the ratios of the annual base flow and the flow of the hydrograph shape to the total flow are 20 % (base flow index) and 42 % respectively. The lateral flow, computed as a percentage of average annual rainfall varies greatly from 4.8% to 38% and the actual evapotranspiration is much lower than potential evapotranspiration. The ratio between the average yearly precipitation and potential evapotranspiration was 45 %. In a future study, it is recommended to use land cover and climate change scenarios, their projected impacts and adaptation. The study results are helpful for the management and planner of water resources in Iraq which relate to the sustainability and water quantity.


The widespread diffusion of powerful mobile devices with diverse networking and multimedia capabilities, and the associated blossoming of content-centric multimedia services is contributing to the exponential increase of data traffic in cellular networks. Mobile data offloading is a promising technique to cope with these problems, which allows to deliver data originally targeted for cellular networks to complementary networking technologies. Among the various forms of mobile data offloading in this study we focus on offloading through opportunistic networks. Differently from previous studies in this field we evaluate the efficiency of opportunistic offloading schemes by using a real cellular traffic dataset collected in a large metropolitan area over a period of one month. We focus our analysis on video requests for popular video providers, and we evaluate the potential benefits of using an opportunistic data dissemination scheme to request this videos from local users instead of using the cellular network. As a benchmark, we compare the performance of such system with a simple caching mechanism. We show that a simple opportunistic offloading scheme can improve the performance of the caching system even if only 10% of the users participate in the opportunistic dissemination. This means that operators could offload their network efficiently without needing to deploy additional caching infrastructure.


Introduction: Sexual dimorphisms in biological structures such as brain and behaviour have been widely recognized in animals and humans. The purpose of this study was to examine whether there are sex differences in the size of the cerebellum with other body traits, such as the head, tail and brain. Methods: Twelve grasscutters comprising of 6 males and 6 females were used in this study. Each brain was extracted from the skull by standard procedures and the mean values of the weights, dimensions and volumes of the brain, cerebellum, head and tail were compared in male and female using quantitative analytical statistical method. Results: The results showed that the absolute mean brain weight and volume obtained in the male was slightly higher than that of the female, while the cerebellar mean weight was slightly higher in the female; although these values were not statistically significant (P> 0.05). The mean cerebellar lengths and widths did not differ between the two sexes (> 0.05), but the mean cerebellar circumference in the male was statistically higher than in the female (P< 0.05). The female cerebellar length was positively correlated with the length of the brain, head, body and tail. Discussion: In conclusion, the brain weight was slightly higher in the male than female, while the cerebellar weight was higher in the female than male. The significantly higher value of the cerebellar circumference in the male may partly be responsible for the big round head seen in the live male grasscutter.


This Handbook chapter seeks to introduce students and researchers of industrial organization (IO) to the field of market design. We emphasize two important points of connection between the IO and market design fields: a focus on market failures — both understanding sources of market failure and analyzing how to fix them — and an appreciation of institutional detail. Section 2 reviews theory, focusing on introducing the theory of matching and assignment mechanisms to a broad audience. It introduces a novel "taxonomy" of market design problems, covers the key mechanisms and their properties, and emphasizes several points of connection to traditional economic theory involving prices and competitive equilibrium. Section 3 reviews structural empirical methods that build on this theory. We describe how to estimate a workhorse random utility model under various data environments, ranging from data on reported preference data such as rank-order lists to data only on observed matches. These methods enable a quantification of trade-offs in designing markets and the effects of new market designs. Section 4 discusses a wide variety of applications. We organize this discussion into three broad aims of market design research: (i) diagnosing market failures; (ii) evaluating and comparing various market designs; (iii) proposing new, improved designs. A point of emphasis is that theoretical and empirical analysis have been highly complementary in this research.


Many urban farmers in Accra collect irrigation water from streams and open drains, which they store in small, on-farm ponds before use. Given that this water can be highly contaminated with wastewater, another potential role of the ponds is to disinfect irrigation water prior to use. To better understand the factors influencing bacteria and virus removal in these small ponds, we investigated the removal of culturable fecal indicator bacteria ( Escherichia coli and enterococci) and coliphage (F+ and somatic coliphage) in a single batch of water stored for 3 days. Sunlight exposure was found to be important for removal. Bacteria and coliphage removal rates were faster in shallow sun-exposed water than in deeper water, due to sunlight attenuation with depth. Bacteria removal rates varied depending on solar irradiation, and correlations between total daily UVB fluence and bacteria removal rates were observed. Coliphage removal was observed in sun-exposed water but not in dark controls that allowed for sedimentation, further highlighting the importance of sunlight-mediated processes. These small ponds appear to have similar disinfection processes to larger-scale waste stabilization ponds, but can have more efficient inactivation due to their shallow depth and operation as batch reactors. Design and management recommendations for on-farm ponds are discussed.


OBJECTIVES
P2X3 receptors are expressed in trigeminal ganglia (TG) and participate in the transduction of facial pain. However, the mechanisms underlying P2X receptor-mediated nociception at different estrogen levels has not been examined.

METHODS
In this study, female rats were randomly divided into sham-operated (sham), ovariectomized (OVX), and estrogen-treated groups. In each group, the facial mechanical pain threshold was tested and the TG were harvested for a real-time PCR analysis of P2X3 receptor mRNA and western blot analysis of protein level.

RESULTS
In OVX rats we found that the mechanical pain threshold was significantly decreased compared with that in sham rats. Estrogen replacement reversed the decrease. The expression of P2X3 mRNA level in TG from OVX rats was significantly increased, consistent with the enhanced P2X3 receptor in protein level. Estrogen replacement could decrease the expression of P2X3 receptor in both mRNA and protein level.

CONCLUSION
These results indicate that estrogen might modulate the transduction of facial pain by inhibiting P2X3 receptor in TG.


Catalonia is one of the richest regions in Spain. Until the outbreak of the international financial and economic crisis in 2008, it enjoyed a phenomenal economic boom – which then turned into a very severe depression, from which the region began to exit only in 2014. Consolidating the recovery and making the economy more competitive and resilient, and less volatile, are some of the key challenges of economic policy in Catalonia. Also, to improve the region's social cohesion, policymakers should make sure that economic prosperity is more widely shared, and transform it into an effective tool for social progress.


Control and eradication of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a challenge owing to the complex interactions between the pathogen, hosts and local environments. Modelling various bTB situations may lead to improved understanding of the ways in which different factor combinations and interactions influence occurrence, surveillance outcomes and control efforts. A conceptual framework would help to outline, from an epidemiological perspective, which factors influence bTB infection, detection and control, and how they might interact in various European situations. The conceptual framework on bTB described in this statement is built around an anchor model describing the interactions between the most important biological and non-biological parameters involved in bTB infection, detection and control. The interactions are examined at three levels, corresponding to three 'units of interest', in the case of bTB the animal, the herd and the area levels. The conceptual framework is intended to help understand the inputs that should be considered when developing a specific component of the episystem (i.e. the ecological context of the epidemiological problem). It should be able to help both in the generation and interpretation of predictive and analytical models (dealing with a specific component of the framework) designed to answer specific questions regarding bTB. The relationship between the conceptual framework and particular examples related to the force of infection, the non-biological context and testing of bTB are explained and discussed in the document. © European Food Safety Authority, 2014


The construction industry in the United Kingdom is a multi-billion pound business
that contributes, on average 10% of the UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
However, it is seen by many to be underachieving in terms of service delivery and
investment opportunities. Projects are frequently late and over budget much to the
disappointment of those involved in the industry and especially clients. Many
investigations have been commissioned and resulting reports have suggested
improvements in the way the industry is organised.
Procurement of construction projects in the main are undertaken using methods
that support fragmentation and adversarial relationships. However, with the
introduction of partnering and prime contracting some improvements have been
made. Procurement of a construction project begins with the strategies developed
during briefing and is only complete when the facility is handed over to the client,
some contract strategies allow for the facility to be completed once it is in
operation, has been maintained and eventually is demolished. Costings and
programmes are then related to life-cycle issues and aspects such as maintenance
have to be taken into account during the facility development stages.
The adoption of Concurrent Engineering (CE) is seen to offer the construction
industry a way forward. Having been adopted extensively by manufacturing in its
product development stages a similar adoption by the construction industry would
go some way to achieving the 30% improvement in real terms suggested by
Latham [1994] and Egan [1998].
The research described in the thesis aims to develop a new procurement method
for the delivery of construction projects. The approach adopted was to identify
current methods of procurement and the problems associated with each method.
Then using Concurrent Engineering as a basis, a new procurement model was developed that offered potential improvements in the construction process
between the stages of Clients Briefing and Detailed Design. The resulting model
was evaluated through the application of CE principles into the process and by the
presentation and discussion of the method with a number of industry participants,
followed by the completion and assessment of a questionnaire.
The model was shown to fulfil the principles of CE and could be adopted into
construction. It offers a new approach to procurement which in turn would save
costs and time and potentially improve the quality of the final construction
product.


For remote Hg2+ detection, an array of nanotips was covalently functionalised using a versatile photochemical approach. After chemical etching of an optical fiber bundle to generate the nanotip array, a protected n-propyl amine was grafted onto the tip surface by silanisation and thereafter photodeprotected by irradiation at 365 nm. The new rhodamine-based probe 9 developed for detection of Hg2+ was linked to the liberated amino group using the HOBt/DCC protocol. The optical fiber bundles functionalised with 9 exhibited a high selectivity toward Hg2+in situ, in full analogy to its precursor 4 in solution. Titration of the functionalised optical fiber bundles using a remote detection mode showed a detection range from 10−5 to 5 × 10−3 M for mercury ions in aqueous medium.


BRAGG, R.R., COETZEE, L. & VERSCHOOR, J.A. 1996. Changes in the incidences of the different serovars of Haemophilus paragallinarum in South Africa: a possible explanation for vaccination failures. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, 63:217-226 Infectious coryza remains an important disease in the poultry industry despite the long-term and widespread use of vaccines against its causative agent, Haemophilus paragallinarum, in South Africa. In order to detect antigenic changes between populations of H. paragallinarum isolated before the use of vaccines against infectious coryza in this country, and field isolates obtained after the introduction of infectious coryza vaccines, 106 different NAD-dependent isolates (of which 93 were identified as H. paragallinarum) from 63 different farms, and dating from 1972 to March 1995, were identified by means of rabbit antisera against serogroups A, Band C. Serogroup C isolates show weaker cross-protection, requiring the further subdivision of this serogroup into its four different serovars. The percentages of the different serovars obtained in the 1970s, confirmed previously published data on South African isolates. A tendency towards a decrease in the number of serogroup A and serovar C-2 isolates, and an increase in the percentage of serovar C-3 isolates, was noted among isolates of the 1980s. These changes were markedly enhanced in the isolates obtained from 1990 to March 1995. The percentage of serogroup A isolates decreased significantly from 34% in the 1970s to only 5% in the 1990s, and that of serovar C-2 isolates, from 31-18%, while the abundance of serovar C-3 isolates increased significantly from 31% in the 1970s to 73% in the 1990s. Serogroup B remained more or less constant and never reached more than 1 0% of the population. These results indicate the need for the incorporation of serovar C-3 in a vaccine for use in South Africa, particularly in those areas of the country from which isolates were collected during this study. Some of the NAD-dependent isolates obtained from poultry in South Africa between 1970 and 1995, were biochemically identified as Pasteurella avium and P. volantium. As H. avium has been subdivided and reclassified into the genus Pasteurella, this represents the first report of the identification of P. avium and P. volantium in South Africa.


SummaryEmerging Internet Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms are expected to enable wide spread use of real time services such as VoIP and videoconferencing. The "best effort" Internet delivery cannot be used for the new multimedia applications. New technologies and new standards are necessary to offer Quality of Service (QoS) for these multimedia applications. Therefore new communication architectures integrate mechanisms allowing guaranteed QoS services as well as high rate communications. The service level agreement with a mobile Internet user is hard to satisfy, since there may not be enough resources available in some parts of the network the mobile user is moving into. The emerging Internet QoS architectures, differentiated services and integrated services, do not consider user mobility. QoS mechanisms enforce a differentiated sharing of bandwidth among services and users. Thus, there must be mechanisms available to identify traffic flows with different QoS parameters, and to make it possible to charge the users based on requested quality. The integration of fixed and mobile wireless access into IP networks presents a cost effective and efficient way to provide seamless end-to-end connectivity and ubiquitous access in a market where the demand for mobile Internet services has grown rapidly and predicted to generate billions of dollars in revenue. This keynote covers to the issues of QoS provisioning in heterogeneous networks and Internet access over future 5G wireless networks. It discusses the characteristics of the Internet, mobility and QoS provisioning in wireless, IoT and mobile IP networks. This tutorial also covers routing, security, baseline architecture of the inter-networking protocols and end to end traffic management issues.


A Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2016
 Satire has been used in ceramic production for centuries. Historically, it occurred as a slogan or proverb written into the ceramic surface; as pictorial surface imagery; or as a satirical figurine. The use of satire in contemporary ceramics is a rapidly evolving trend, with many artists subverting or otherwise rethinking familiar historic forms to make a political point.
 Claudia Clare examines the relationship between ceramics, social politics, and political movements and the way both organisations and individual artists have used pots - predominantly domestic objects - to agitate among the masses or simply express their ideas. Ninety colour illustrations of various subversive, satirical and campaigning works illustrate her arguments and enliven debate.
 Claudia Clare explores work by artists from twenty-one different countries, from 500 BC to the present day. These range range from the French artist Honore Daumier and the enslaved African-American potter David Drake to contemporary artists including Lubaina Himid, Virgil Ortiz and Shlomit Bauman, whose work and the means of its production has addressed or commented upon issues such as disputed homelands, identify, race, gender and colonialism.


Relationship banking based on Okun's 'customer credit markets' has important implications for monetary policy via the credit transmission channel. Studies of less-developed country (LDC) credit markets from this point of view seem to be scanty and this article attempts to address this lacuna. Relationship banking implies short-term dis-equilibrium in credit markets, suggesting the vector error-correction model (VECM) as an appropriate framework for analysis. We develop VECM models in the Indian context (for the period April 1992–December 2008 using monthly data) to analyse salient features of the credit market. An analysis of the error-correction mechanisms (ECMs ) reveals that disequilibrium in the Indian credit market is adjusted via demand responses rather than supply responses, which are in accordance with the customer view of credit markets. Further light on the working of the model is obtained through 'generalised' impulse responses and 'generalised' error decompositions (both of which are independent of the variable ordering). Our conclusions point towards firms using short-term credit as a liquidity buffer. This fact, together with the gradual adjustment exhibited by the 'persistence profiles' provides substantive evidence in favour of 'customer credit markets'.


In 1974 P. Lax introduced an algebro-analytic mechanism similar to the Lax L-A pair. Using it we prove global existence and uniqueness for solutions of the initial value problem for mKdV in classes of smooth functions which can be unbounded at infinity, and may even include functions which tend to infinity with respect to the space variable. Moreover, we establish the invariance of the spectrum and the unitary type of the Schrödinger operator under the KdV flow and the invariance of the spectrum and the unitary type of the impedance operator under the mKdV flow for potentials in these classes.


For guiding production effectively and revealing rolling mechanisms, the analysis of rolling-pressure distribution regulation is very important. Because rolling strip belongs to multi-object contact engineering problem which involves coupling deformation, obviously the accuracy of disaggregate mathematical method is low. Therefore, in this paper,it is developed that multi-object, elasto-plastic and frictional contact multipole Boundary Element Method (BEM) by Fortran program. It can simulate five object synchronous contact accurately without artificial assumption.The three dimensional rolling-pressure distribution regulation of rolling strip has been obtained through this program. Through testing and calculating the load properties of bearing, the result shows that it is accordant for test and calculation. Therefore, multi-pole BEM is one of the effective numerical analytic tools of rolling contact problem, and the obtained result of rolling-pressure distribution can provide for reference value for analyzing rolling strip.


According to Moore9s law, the number of transistors on a chip should double in each technology generation. For more than 30 years, compliance with this law has been driven by the shrinking of transistor dimensions. But as
 Lundstrom
 explains in his Perspective, device physics and the limitations of existing materials pose restrictions on how far transistor dimensions can be reduced. Moore9s law may nevertheless survive as device engineers build layers of devices on chips or use new approaches such as molecular electronics.


The Faculty Student Teacher Professional Development course, which the author of this article teaches, decided to introduce a "reflective practitioner model" in 2014. Consequently, the faculty has developed several workshops of reflection to help student teachers to reflect their teaching practice as reflective practitioners so far. However, the student teachers' reflection tended to pertain to their underlying values and assumptions. Therefore, a development of workshop to facilitate the student teachers' reflection beyond their espoused theory and theory-in-use was required in this study. Argyris (1976) proposed "double loop learning theory" which was relevant to learning to change underlying values and assumptions. The focal point of the theory is how to solve problems that are complex and ill-structured like teaching practice. Double loop theory is based upon a "theory of action" perspective outlined by Argyris & Schon (1974). The distinction between an individual's espoused theory and their "theory-in-use" (what they actually do) is an important aspect of the theory. It is necessary to interact with others in order to identify the conflict. There are four basic steps in double loop theory learning process. Therefore, the workshop was developed adapting the four steps. 78 students who experienced teaching practice in kindergarten were divided into groups and implemented the workshop in 2019. Their assumptions underlying current views were questioned and hypotheses about behavior tested in the workshop. As a result, it was clarified that the workshop using double loop learning had enhanced the student teachers' reflection beyond their espoused theory and theory-in-use.


Swiss family foundations remain subject to controversial debate. At the core of a decade-old discussion lies, essentially, the question whether they continue to remain a 'wallflower' or if they could, instead, blossom by revitalizing them as an eligible estate planning tool. On top of a restrictive judicial approach, a new registration requirement in Switzerland might be regarded as a further impediment for Swiss family foundations since their confidentiality privilege has now been removed. However, this move towards an enhanced governance regime could, in fact, allow for a new and holistic approach ultimately resulting in a liberalization of Swiss family foundations.


This book provides a radical reassessment of Spenserian allegory, in particular of "The Faerie Queene", in the light of contemporary historical and theoretical interests in space and material culture. It explores the ambiguous and fluctuating attention to materiality, objects, and substance in the poetics of "The Faerie Queene", and discusses the way that Spenser's creation of allegorical meaning makes use of this materiality, and transforms it. It suggests further that a critical engagement with materiality (which has been so important to the recent study of early modern drama) must come, in the case of allegorical narrative, through a study of narrative and physical space, and in this context it goes on to provide a reading of the spatial dimensions of the poem - quests and battles, forests, castles and hovels - and the spatial characteristics of Spenser's other writings. The book reaffirms the need to place Spenser in his historical contexts - philosophical and scientific, military and architectural - in early modern England, Ireland and Europe, but also provides a critical reassessment of this literary historicism. Dr Christopher Burlson is a Research Fellow in English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.


A pseudospectral method for the analysis of diffractive optical elements is presented. This method is a full-vectorial direct solution of the time-domain Maxwell equations based on a spectral approximation of the spatial derivatives employed within a multidomain framework. The method exhibits little numerical dispersion, and only a few points per wavelength are needed to accurately resolve the propagation of the optical field over long distances. A comparison with the analytic solution for a thin-film waveguide is performed, and examples of analyses of grating couplers are given to demonstrate the feasibility of the method.


The discounted logit is widely used to estimate time preferences using data from field and laboratory experiments. Despite its popularity, it exhibits the "problem of the scale": choice probabilities depend on the scale of the value function. When applied to intertemporal choice, the problem the scale implies that logit probabilities are sensitive to the temporal distance between the choice and the outcomes. This is a failure of an intuitive requirement of stationarity although future values are discounted geometrically. As a consequence, patterns of choice following from the structure of the logit may be attributed to non-stationary discounting. We solve this problem introducing the discounted Luce rule. It retains the flexibility and simplicity of the logit while it satisfies stationarity. We characterize the model in two settings: dated outcomes and consumption streams. Relaxations of stationarity give observable restrictions characterizing hyperbolic and quasi-hyperbolic discounting. Lastly, we discuss an extension of the model to recursive stochastic choices with the present bias.


Most new Year's resolutions have a self-oriented, narcissistic flavor: "I will--(lose weight to look better; exercise to become healthier; stop smoking to live longer; travel to an exotic location; make more money than last year so I can buy that sports car I've always wanted; etc.)." As psychiatrists, we are particularly attuned to the human condition around us, so perhaps we can transcend our personal desires and resolve to do something to help seriously mentally ill patients. Our stressful lives as toiling psychiatrists pale when compared with the lifelong anguish, stigma, disability, loneliness, and poverty faced by many of our chronically ill patients. Beyond providing them with good evidence-based care, I can think of several meaningful resolutions to improve mentally ill persons' quality of life. Imagine the impact we could have if we collectively adopted these resolutions for 2010: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * The 40,000 readers of CURRENT PSYCHIATRY can resolve to send e-mails to leaders of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives as well as President Obama, urging them to make sure mental illness is covered as well as cancer or heart disease in any health reform act. * Lobby our states to stop closing long-term psychiatric hospitals and to build some new ones. A subset of seriously mentally ill patients simply cannot take care of themselves in the community and need to be permanently housed and managed in institutions staffed by mental health professionals. Such institutions are "psychological wheelchairs," analogous to the assistance required by persons unable to walk because of neurologic diseases. * Raise our collective voice to protest the criminalization of mentally ill persons that has transformed them from hospitalized patients to imprisoned felons. Consider this eye-popping statistic: one-half of prison and jail inmates have symptoms that meet criteria for mania, major depression, or a psychotic disorder (705,600 in state prisons, 70,200 in federal prisons, and 479,900 in local jails in 2006 (1)). So much for the notions of de-institutionalization and "the least-restrictive environment." * Let's all e-mail the Health and Human Services Secretary (email@example.com) and National Institutes of Health Director (email@example.com) to advocate for increased funding of research to discover the pathophysiology of mental disorders. Our patients need more effective biologic treatments to replace current agents that control symptoms but do not restore health. The enormous cost of mental disorders and addictions in the United States--hundreds of billions of dollars--justifies substantially increasing the National Institute of Mental Health budget. …


To clarify the anatomical organization of human memory remains a major challenge in clinical neuroscience. Experimental data suggest dentate gyrus granule cells play a major role in memory acquisition, i.e. pattern separation and rapid pattern completion, whereas hippocampal CA1 neurons are implicated in place memory and autobiographical memory retrieval. Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy present with a broad spectrum of memory impairment, which can be assessed during clinical examination. Although long seizure histories may contribute to a pathophysiological reorganization of functional connectivity, surgical resection of the epileptic hippocampus offers a unique possibility to anatomically study the differential contribution of hippocampal subfields to compromised learning and memory in humans. Herein, we tested the hypothesis of hippocampal subfield specialization in a series of 100 consecutive patients with temporal lobe epilepsy submitted to epilepsy surgery. Memory profiles were obtained from intracarotid amobarbital testing and non-invasive verbal memory assessment before surgery, and correlated with histopathologically quantified cell loss pattern in hippocampal subfields obtained from the same patients using the new international consensus classification for hippocampal sclerosis proposed by the International League against Epilepsy (HS ILAE). Interestingly, patients with CA1 predominant cell loss (HS ILAE Type 2; n = 13) did not show declarative memory impairment and were indistinguishable from patients without any hippocampal cell loss (n = 19). In contrast, 63 patients with neuronal loss affecting all hippocampal subfields including CA1, CA4 and dentate gyrus (HS ILAE Type 1), or predominant cell loss in CA4 and partially affecting also CA3 and dentate gyrus (HS ILAE Type 3, n = 5) showed significantly reduced declarative memory capacities (intracarotid amobarbital testing: P < 0.001; verbal memory: P < 0.05). Our results suggested an alternative model of how memory processing can be organized amongst hippocampal subfields, and that CA1 pyramidal cells are less critically involved in declarative human memory acquisition compared to dentate gyrus granule cells or CA4/CA3 pyramidal cells.


This paper deals with the dynamic reliability of a computer-controlled system by means of deriving critical scenarios from its Petri net model. These scenarios characterize how the system leaves the normal operating to go to the feared state by determining the sequences of actions (events) and state changes leading to dangerous situation. We present a method (algorithm) that takes into account the continuous dynamic of the system by a temporal abstraction, which makes it possible to determine more precisely the exact conditions of the occurrence of the feared event. The originality is that the order of occurrence of the events is taken into account, and impossible scenarios with respect to the continuous dynamic of the system are eliminated. The automation of all the steps of this method has led to the development of ESA_PetriNet tool (Extraction Scenarios & Analyzer by Petri Net model) and was applied on real industrial systems.


Objective: To study the effect of supplementation with omega‐3 fatty acids on disease variables and drug consumption in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods: Twenty‐four patients were randomized to either a low‐dose (1.95 g omega‐3/day) or a high‐dose (4.55 g omega‐3/day) supplement. Disease activity, functional impairment, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and drug consumption were assessed during visits at baseline and at weeks 7, 14, and 21. Results: Eighteen patients completed the study, nine patients from each group. The patients in the high‐dose group exhibited a significant decrease in disease activity according to the Bath Ankylosing Disease Activity Index (BASDAI; p = 0.038), which was not seen in the low‐dose group. Significant differences were not found on drug consumption or in functional capacity in either of the groups. No significant differences were found when comparing the results between the high‐ and low‐dose groups. Conclusion: Omega‐3 fatty acids in adequate doses may have the capacity to decrease the disease activity of AS. However, larger and better controlled studies are needed before any further conclusions can be made on the extent of this capacity.


INTRODUCTION The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effects of the interpersonal communication concepts of willingness to communicate, self-monitoring, and loneliness on the group outcome of communication satisfaction. Although a significant body of research exists in the communication literature on communication satisfaction, comparatively little attention has been given to the effects of communication behavior on this group outcome. It is intuitively obvious that communication behavior would have a major impact on satisfaction. Researchers frequently assume that effective communication skills facilitate the development and maintenance of successful, satisfying relationships (McCroskey, Daly, Richmond & Cox, 1975). People engaging in interactions look for cues/feedback from others to let them know what kind of impression they are making (Bandura, 1977; Carver, 1979). For instance, if a conversational partner looks involved and attentive, a person is likely to infer the partner finds the conversation interesting, which would increase the satisfaction with the interaction. On the other hand, if the partner seems uninvolved and inattentive, a person is likely to infer the partner finds the conversation uninteresting, which may promote a lack of satisfaction. The group outcome in this study--communication satisfaction-- is grounded theoretically. It has been associated with mental health (Rogers, 1961), feelings of competence and efficiency (Bochner & Kelly, 1974), and successful interaction (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959). Satisfaction is an emotion people experience when they are successful in their pursuits, and it plays a central role in humanistic (Rogers, 1961), social exchange (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959), and physiological (Clynes, 1978) approaches to communication. These theorists are united in their belief that effective communicators experience greater satisfaction. WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE In American culture, interpersonal communication is highly valued. Individuals are evaluated in large part on the basis of their communication behavior. Although talk is a vital component in interpersonal communication and the development of interpersonal relationships, people differ greatly in the degree to which they communicate. Some individuals tend to speak only when they are spoken to; others speak constantly. The concept of an individual's tendency and frequency of communication has been reported in the research in the social sciences for over half a century (Borgatta & Bales, 1953; Goldman-Eisler, 1951). More recently, this variability in talking behavior has been linked to a personality-based predisposition termed "Willingness to Communicate" (McCroskey & Richmond, 1987; Richmond & McCroskey, 1989). Underlying the willingness to communicate construct is the assumption that it is relatively consistent across a variety of communication contexts and types of receivers (McCroskey & Richmond, 1990). Thus, it is presumed that the level of a person's willingness to communicate in one communication context (like talking in a small group) is correlated with the person's willingness to communicate in other communication contexts (such as giving a speech, talking in meetings, and talking in dyads). It is also presumed that the level of a person's willingness to communicate with one type of receiver (like friends) is correlated with the person's willingness to communicate with other types of receivers (such as acquaintances and strangers) (McCroskey & Richmond, 1990). Empirical data indicates that willingness to communicate is a personality-type characteristic that often has a major impact on interpersonal communication in a wide variety of environments (Richmond & Roach, 1992). High willingness to communicate is associated with increased frequency and amount of communication, which are, in turn, associated with a wide variety of positive communication outcomes. …


In this working paper we present the findings from an expert workshop on integrated drought risk management (DRM) for the Austrian agricultural sector, with a focus on crop farming. We argue that the nature of most DRM measures, which serve several purposes besides addressing drought risk such as soil management, requires an integrated approach, considering risk management efforts from actors beyond the farm level. Thus, the main objective was to identify synergies and trade-offs between decision areas from plant production to trade, across the spectrum of public, private and third sector actors.
We describe the expert elicitation process including the workshop design and pre- and post-workshop procedure. We had limited success encouraging systems thinking in this process and highlight the potential for developing such methods further. Most importantly, however, our findings intend to inform deliberations on holistic and integrated DRM, with the aim of achieving greater policy coherence in relevant decision areas, and ultimately, enabling greater societal drought resilience. While on-farm production-based DRM is well advanced, the links (synergies and trade-offs) to related areas of decision making such as trade, spatial planning, and transport need to be better understood.


Panning for Atomic Gold explores artistic quests for sensory perceptions of deep time through atomic materials and nuclear culture. The symposium will make connections between Arts Catalyst's Atomic exhibition (1998), current artistic practices and future nuclear archives. In our twentieth anniversary year the event draws on Arts Catalyst's archive of unique documents and artefacts – revisiting work by James Acord, Mark Aerial Waller and Carey Young – and makes public these archives for the first time. Curated by Ele Carpenter, speakers include radiological protection advisor Shelly Mobbs; scholar of Cold War literature Dan Grausam; artists Thomson & Craighead, Karen Kramer, Mark Aerial Waller and Carey Young; curator Ele Carpenter; and Arts Catalyst's archivist Z Richter-Welch and research engineer Lisa Haskel.


The biodiversity of coral reefs is dominated by invertebrates. Many of these invertebrates live in close association with scleractinian corals, relying on corals for food, habitat or settlement cues. Given their strong dependence on corals, it is of great concern that our knowledge of coral- associated invertebrates is so limited, especially in light of severe and ongoing degradation of coral reef habitats and the potential for species extinctions. This review examines the taxonomic extent of coral-associated invertebrates, the levels of dependence on coral hosts, the nature of associations between invertebrates and corals, and the factors that threaten coral-associated invertebrates now and in the future. There are at least 860 invertebrate species that have been described as coral asso - ciated, of which 310 are decapod crustaceans. o ver half of coral-associated invertebrates appear to have an obligate dependence on live corals. Many exhibit a high degree of preference for one or two coral species, with species in the genera Pocillopora, Acropora and Stylophora commonly pre - ferred. This level of habitat specialization may place coral-associated invertebrates at a great risk of extinction, particularly because preferred coral genera are those most susceptible to coral bleaching and mortality. In turn, many corals are also reliant on the services of particular invertebrates, lead- ing to strong feedbacks between abundance of corals and their associated invertebrates. The loss of even a few preferred coral taxa could lead to a substantial decline in invertebrate biodiversity and have far-reaching effects on coral reef ecosystem function. A full appreciation of the consequences of further coral reef degradation for invertebrate biodiversity awaits a more complete description of the diversity of coral-associated invertebrates, the roles they play in coral reef ecosystems, their contribution to reef resilience and their conservation needs.


Abnormal vitamin D level and glucose homeostasis are two most chronic medical conditions leading to cardiovascular disease following menopause transition in females. Low levels of vitamin D could be associated with elevated risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The aim of the present study was to evaluate and compare vitamin D status in relation to glycemic indices, metabolic parameters between pre and postmenopausal women with T2DM. Levels of fasting blood glucose, HbA1C, lipid profile and vitamin D were measured in pre and postmenopausal T2DM women and analysed by SPSS software. Levels of HbA1C, FBG, TC, Tg, LDL-C and obesity parameters like BMI and visceral fat increased significantly (p<0.001) whereas serum levels of HDL-C and vitamin D decreased significantly in postmenopausal T2DM women compared to premenopausal group. Vitamin D was negatively correlated with age, HbA1C, LDL-C at p<0.05. Decreased levels of vitamin D exhibited strong negative correlation with metabolic or obesity factors like BMI and waist circumference. The present investigation unravels the relationship between vitamin D and cholesterol and it was found that HDL-C although decreased with menopause, there was no significant association between HDL-C and decreased vitamin D in postmenopausal T2DM females. Results from this study suggests that hypovitaminosis D accompanied with dyslipidimia, increased BMI and obesity increases the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in postmenopausal women with T2DM.


This thesis explores the representation of the sixth-century Merovingian Queen Brunhild. By examining seven of the divergent sources which present the queen, the construction of Brunhild, or multiple Brunhilds, is analysed through gendered, literary and political lenses.

Rather than attempting to reconcile the extremities of depictions of this queen, during her life and after her death, I demonstrate that Brunhild is a series of historical and textual problems at different political moments. I also show that the themes damnatio memoriae, feud and queenship, commonly used to analyse her career, are inadequate to understand the queen herself, the authors who wrote about her, and the age in which they lived.
Three main themes within Brunhild's extensive career allow the exploration of the tensions inherent within the seven main sources which present her.

The 'construction of queenship' is an examination into Brunhild's move from Visigothic princess to Frankish queen, a transition often dismissed, but one which proves pivotal to understanding the queen's later Visigothic dealings. The ways in which authors recognised her at the point of marriage is nuanced by their political context, looking back on the queen upon her husband's death. The 'politics of survival' goes on to study Brunhild's relationship with the church: first, the positive associations between a queen and piety, and then, the results when that relationship goes awry. It is Brunhild's tension with the church which labels her 'the second Jezebel'. Finally, 'dynasty and destruction' explores Brunhild's relationship with her offspring. During three regencies, spanning three generations, the queen's connection to her family was critiqued in different ways. Her involvement in Visigothic succession politics to the end of her career is examined, alongside Brunhild's maternal image, and finally the accounts of her death. How Brunhild's physical and political body is neutralised is crucial to understanding each author's motives.

There is no other early medieval queen with the textual afterlife of Brunhild and this thesis is the first full examination of the extremities of her representation. Subjected, it has been said, to damnatio memoriae, the vilification, or more literally, destruction of memory, Brunhild and her textual manifestation is read in an entirely new way. The contemporary recognition of this queen, together with her textual representation, betray a tension which illustrates that Brunhild was, in fact, more alive after she was dead.


Background: Burden, satisfaction, depression, anxiety, social support, coping strategies and the disease state of dementia patients all influence carers' quality of life (QoL) and well-being. Qualitative research looking at carers' lived experiences and the effect that this has on their well-being is limited.

Aim/Objectives: To explore carers' lived experiences in relation to their daily management care and adjustment of having to care for a person with dementia, and to examine the differences or similarities of carers' lived experiences in relation to the care provided to the recipients and the effect that this has on carers' QoL and well-being.

Design: Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen carers (seven males and seven females) and the audio-taped raw data was transcribed. Key constructs and initial meanings in relation to the everyday lived experiences were identified.

Results: Carers' accounts clustered around five master themes: 'just normal', providing best and safe care, managing to cope, sharing and supporting others, and cherished moments.

Conclusions: Health professionals and governmental agencies need to consider carers in clinical interventions, psychological and educational programmes. Local communities should adopt a positive image of carers, dementia patients, and health professionals, and have a greater understanding of carers' criteria for the standard of care and factors affecting carers' life circumstances in relation to QoL and well-being.

Keywords: Carers, Caregivers, Dementia, Well-being, Lived, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and Qualitative.


To trace anthropogenic N from sewage outfalls in coral reefs of Nanwan Bay, southern Taiwan, we analyzed tissue N, C/N ratio, and δ15N values of macroalgae along horizontal lines parallel to the shoreline in the intertidal zone, and vertical transects perpendicular to the shoreline from the intertidal to the subtidal zone. Dominant macroalgal species in the intertidal and subtidal zones from 2 pristine islands, which were assumed to be little affected by human activities, were also collected for comparison. In total, 34 macroalgal species were collected for analysis in the wet and dry seasons to determine whether there was a seasonal effect. Low N contents and high C/N ratios were observed in macroalgae with calcareous and leathery morphologies. However, the δ15N values of macroalgae appeared to be little affected by the thallus forms. The N contents, C/N ratios, and δ15N values of macroalgae growing on the reference transects or in the subtidal zone were similar to values of the same species or genera growing around the 2 pristine islands. On the horizontal lines or along the vertical transects, the N contents and C/N ratios of macroalgae growing around the sewage-affected transects were not remarkably different (higher or lower) than the values of the same species growing around the reference transects. However, tissue δ15N values of macroalgae showed a clear spatial pattern, with higher values around the sewage-affected transects and lower values around the reference transects in the intertidal zone, though the pattern was less distinct in the lower intertidal zone. Furthermore, δ15N values in both seasons showed a clear curvilinear gradient along the sewage-affected transects, decreasing from the sewage outfalls to the subtidal zone, indicating that anthropogenic N loading was rapidly dispersed, with little evidence that the coral reefs in the subtidal zone were impacted by this nutrient source. Thus, δ15N values of macroalgae can be sensitive biological indicators for anthropogenic N loading. Our results do not support the hypothesis that anthropogenic N enrichment is the major cause of the prolific growth of macroalgae on the coral reefs of Nanwan Bay.


This study is based on the results of the exploratory research concerning mothers who reported domestic sexual abuse of their children, whose speech was analyzed using the David Liberman ((DLA) algorithm method. It focuses on the analyses of the findings of the study of the narrations, on a particular type of lies and displays their purpose -to shape thoughts and control the minds of others- as well as on the salient features of the subjectivity of mothers, in terms of drives and defenses. The study consists of three parts. In the first part, the author describes the theoretical framework and method -Freudian theory of sexuality as category network and the DLA regarding its operationalization. In the second part, the case is presented along with its meticulous analysis with the method. Finally the conclusions are offered. The latter provide an answer to how inter-subjectivity is displayed and the impact it has on the other, and come to a decision as to what points of fixation subtend this type of lies.


"The author tells us that "Collective action occurs when more than one individual is required to contribute to an effort in order to achieve an outcome. People living in rural areas and using natural resources engage in collective action on a daily basis when they plant or harvest food together; use a common facility for marketing their products; maintain a local irrigation system or patrol a local forest to see that users are following rules; and meet to decide on rules related to all of the above. Frequently, however, it becomes difficult to exclude nonparticipants from benefiting from the collective action of others. This situation creates a collective action problem for the participants. When individuals seek out short-term benefits for themselves alone, they are better off when others contribute to the collective action and they do not. In this case, they benefit without paying the costs. Of course, if all individuals pursue short-term, self-centered benefits, no collective benefits are achieved." She then discusses how participants can overcome the collective action problems they face and the resource system attributes and the participant attributes that aid in overcoming these problems. from Text.


Democratization in historical science. In contemporary European historiography there has been a move away from the old Rankean concept of an 'elite' history from above to a new perspective of history from below, dealing with the lives or ordinary people at the base of the social pyramid. Whereas Ranke, the founder of historical science in 19th Century Germany, based his model on themes like the state, politics and great men to be studied by the hermeneutical individualizing method, Braudel, his French counterpart in the 20th Century, broadened the field of history by studying processes and structures (socio-economic, demographic and anthropological) in accordance with the analytical method of the systematic social sciences. However, in the fifties of the 20th Century, British Marxist historians like Hill, Hobsbawm and Thompson protested against the new kind of history from below and presented the history of peasants and workers from ""the bottom up"". It constituted an ideologized and politicized approach with a view to activating ordinary people to fight for a better deal. The British Marxist historians laid the foundations of the American Radical Historians Association which also used their History Workshop method in a process of democratization of history, activating the lower classes and using history as a political weapon against an affluent society. British, American and French influence can be detected in the ""new school"" of South African radical historiography which offers an ""alternative history from below"". It resonates with the lives of ordinary people instead of reflecting the deliberations of the ruling classes or the theoretical concerns of structuralist abstractionism. Thus historical study ""democratisized"" in History Workshops to produce a ""people's history"" dealing with the ""common man"" of the South African working class. Ordinary people partake in the Workshops bringing forth ""experienced"" history based on oral evidence, which amounts to ""pop"" history. Historical democratization also entered West German historiography in the form of History Workshops, and can be seen as a reaction to the dehumanizing aspect of abstract structural history. In the past 15 years there has been a call for a ""daily life"" history of ordinary people from below, also depicting life experience based on oral tradition. It is an attempt to bridge the gap between professional history and the common reader, using ""thick descriptionption"" in a narrative form. Because the new 'daily life' history as practised by laymen in History Workshops is sometimes devoid of theory and a rational scientific approach, it could end up in a cul de sac, leading to nowhere.


Foreword. Simon Denegri, INVOLVE, UK. Introduction. 1. The Theory and Philosophy Behind User Involvement. Peter Beresford, Brunel University, UK. 2. Participation, Resistance and Change: Examining Influences on the Impact of Service User Participation. Sarah Carr, Social Care Institute for Excellence, UK. 3. Service User Involvement -- What It Is and What It Could Be: Lessons from the Standards We Expect Project. Jennie Fleming, Centre for Social Action, De Montfort University, UK. 4. Reclaiming Community Work for Involvement in Social Care. Martin Hoban, WRVS Wellbeing Project, UK. 5. Rainbow Quality System: User Led Innovation in Quality Assurance. Arne Kristiansen, Lund University, Sweden. 6. Co-production in Evaluation and Outcomes: Lessons from Working with Older People in Designing and Undertaking Research Initiatives on Older People's Lives, Independence and Wellbeing. Helen Bowers and Anita Wilkins, National Development Team for Inclusion, UK. 7. Involving Ethnically Diverse Service Users In the Research Process: Alliances and Action. Karen Newbigging, University of Central Lancashire, UK, Alastair Roy, University of Central Lancashire, Zemikael Habte-Mariam, independent researcher, Mick McKeown, University of Central Lancashire and Beverley French, University of Central Lancashire. 8. Researching Continuity of Care in Mental Health: What Difference Does Holding a Survivor Research Identity Make? Angela Sweeney, University College London, UK. 9. Involving a Marginalized Group in Research and Analysis: People with Life Limiting Conditions -- Issues and Gains. Philip Cotterell, Southampton University, UK and Mandy Paine, service user and campaigner. 10. The Key Contribution of User-Led Services: What the Evidence Tells Us. Colin Barnes, University of Leeds, UK. 11. No Blame, No Shame: Towards a Social Model of Alcohol Dependency -- A Story from Emancipatory Research. Patsy Staddon, University of Plymouth, UK. 12. 'There's no point in doing research if no one wants to listen': Identifying LGBT Needs and Effecting 'Positive Social Change' for LGBT people in Brighton and Hove. Kath Browne, University of Brighton, UK, Leela Bakshi, activist researcher and Jason Lim, Queen Mary's, University of London, UK. 13. Involving Children and Young People in Research: Principles into Practice. Louca-Mai Brady, National Children's Bureau, UK, Ciara Davey, Which? Magazine, Catherine Shaw, National Children's Bureau and Rachel Blades, National Children's Bureau. 14. Involving People with Learning Difficulties and Self-Advocacy. Maggie Brennan, Victor Forrest and Jennifer Taylor, People First Lambeth Research Group. Conclusion. The Personal is Still Political. Peter Beresford and Sarah Carr. Index.


Li-Ion batteries (LIBs) are approaching their energy limits imposed by their intercalation chemistry nature. As alternatives, multivalent (MV) chemistries bring both promises and challenges, with the main obstacle being the sluggish diffusion of MV-cations due to their strong electrostatic interaction with host lattices. In this work, we demonstrated that polyanion based robust crystal architecture could enable ultrafast and reversible Zn2+-intercalation and de-intercalation at a high working voltage. The nominal bivalence of Zn2+ was successfully delocalized by multiple atoms through the p–d hybridization between the V-d and O-p orbitals; hence the inserted Zn2+ only bears an effective charge of 1.336, rendering its high mobility. The novel aqueous rechargeable 1.7 V Zn/LiV2(PO4)3 cell based on such a mechanism delivers a high power density (8000 W kg−1 at 60C) comparable to supercapacitors, and a high energy density (218 W h kg−1 at 1C) close to LIBs, with an extraordinarily long cycle life of 4000 cycles. All of these parameters far exceed those of Zn batteries reported so far. The cell-level volumetric and specific energy densities of the Zn/LiV2(PO4)3 cell are 320 W h L−1 and 150 W h kg−1, respectively, which are even better than those of first-generation LIBs. Combined with the intrinsic safety of its aqueous chemistry and its wide working temperature range, this cell makes a strong candidate for automotive applications.


Agricultural extension and technology transfer services play a vital role in disseminating research knowledge, skills and income generating strategies among the farming communities in Kenya. However, there exists a kind of disconnect between the amount of information and technologies developed in research centres and what is implemented by the farmers. The study evaluated the access and use of extension approaches in promoting uptake of improved sorghum technologies. The study systematically selected 129 farmers from four villages. Data on farmers' gender, age, household leadership, occupation and agricultural extension approaches were collected. The study revealed that 83% of the respondents were female out of which, 67% were engaged in improved sorghum production technologies. Besides, 56% young women (20 to 49 years) had embraced the growing of improved sorghum varieties Gadam and Sila 1. Further, mobile phones and radio services were the main means of access to the improved sorghum technologies. In addition, there was a strong positive correlation (r=0.122, P=0.01) between extension approaches and uptake of the sorghum technologies. Besides government agricultural extension agents, visits to progressive farmers and/or research sites and use of demonstration plots contributed to 68% and influenced uptake of improved sorghum technologies. It was concluded that gender, family position and age of the farmer contribute to the uptake of improved sorghum technologies. Moreover, mobile phones and radio technologies play an important role in access of sorghum technologies.


Preliminary investigation of contaminated soil in the surrounding area of a petroleum tank has been carried out based on fluorescence techniques: excitation emission matrix (EEM) and synchronous fluorescence scan (SFS). A fluorescence fingerprints library containing several EEM and SFS maps for various dilutions of Romanian crude oil in methanol, was used to confirm the identity of the soil contaminant. A calibration curve was created to estimate the contamination level of soil samples. High polyaromatic hydrocarbon concentration in the range of 23 %, v/v was obtained nearby the petroleum tank and a lower one in the range of 0.55 %, v/v at surrounding area.


Programming techniques necessary for high performance on the 3090 Vector Facilities are illustrated, showing that VS Fortran programs can achieve near-maximum execution rates. Relevant features of the 3090 architecture are reviewed, stressing the need to make efficient use of a hierarchical storage system and take advantage of the compound vector instructions. The key programming techniques for managing the storage hierarchy are loop sectioning, loop distribution, and data compaction. Vector register, cache reuse, and virtual memory, storage format, and page reuse are shown to lead to efficient use of the vector registers, the high speed cache, and the virtual memory system, respectively. The multiply-and-add compound instruction is discussed.<<ETX>>


The aim of this study was to investigate the chemistry of the PAGAT dosimeters when doped with saccharides and irradiated' using NMR spectroscopy. Three batches of PAGAT gel dosimeters were manufactured. Two of them were doped with 20 % glucose and sucrose' respectively. For each batch' one sample was left unirradiated while the remaining samples were irradiated to different doses. After irradiation' NMR spectra were obtained which clearly showed the composition of the dosimeter and the change in monomer concentration caused by irradiation. In addition' it revealed that the saccharides did not directly participate in the chemical process before and during irradiation but the addition of saccharides resulted in a higher consumption rate of the monomers.