Estimating groundwater recharge rates in the Stampriet Basin is important for assessing the sustainability of the groundwater resource both within south-east Namibia, and across the borders of this transboundary resource into Botswana and South Africa. The 65 000 km2 basin contains a multi-layered aquifer system, of up to 9 superimposed aquifers, with a major upper unconfined and 2 major artesian levels. The majority of water abstraction (66%) is from the unconfined Kalahari Aquifer. This research investigates the direct recharge pathway through the dune-sand cover of the southern Kalahari dunefield which overlies ~80% of the basin. This is undertaken using established chloride mass balance methods within 4 unsaturated zone profiles (9 m to 11.5 m depth) from 2 regions of the basin. The results indicate that recent recharge rates are between 7 mm�y-1 to 46 mm�y-1, with profiles representing between 10 years and 30 years of rainfall infiltration. This is the first time that substantial direct (diffuse) recharge has been quantified for the Stampriet Basin, and this part of the southern Kalahari. These 4 profiles indicate potentially similar levels of spatial variability as seen in many other semi-arid, msand-rich unsaturated zones across the world. Further studies using the unsaturated zone should be employed in this region, to better inform our understanding of recharge mechanisms across the basin. The chloride mass balance technique provides information about the unsaturated zone, and important insights about recharge in various sand-covered regions of the basin for which very little is known, or is possible to determine using conventional water balance approaches. Direct recharge rates estimated in this way constitute a vital part of constraining the water balance of the basin, and particularly of the Kalahari Aquifer from which the majority of groundwater abstraction occurs.


Students enrolled in Roanoke County Schools in 2003 became voluntary participants in the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTCYS), which had been administered to a group (N = 3022) of 6 through 12 graders. The students answered multiple choice questions to determine their attitudes concerning many important topics within their home, school, and community domains. The carefully documented evaluation was conducted to determine the significance of two protective factors, which were employed to explain associations between students who stated that their parents had clear alcohol, tobacco, and drug use rules in the home as well as those who stated they frequently attended religious services and activities, termed parent efficacity and religiosity, respectively. Because risk factors are common among adolescents and few well-designed studies are addressing the benefits of parent efficacity or religiosity as protective factors, this study analyzed the CTCYS data utilizing meta-analyses to assess the efficacy of these two environmental factors in relation to students' expressed perceptions of smoking cigarettes as a popular adolescent risk activity. Variables are unique to each individual and sample, therefore, multiple factors demonstrating risk and protective qualities were measured using a 0 to 8 point Likert summated rating scale. The various areas were examined according to frequency of risk behavior (i.e., smoking status current, past, or never). Findings yielded statistically conclusive relationships within the participant responses using Chi-square analysis at the 0.05 level (2-sided), indicating a significant level of interaction between the select protective factors and tobacco use study variables.


For the past few decades, Islamic reformists have attempted to reverse patriarchal set-ups in Islamic practices. In light of these efforts, the time is ripe to consider what role women's agency will play in the implementation of such reforms. The way we account for agency in advocating for women's rights is an issue with which feminist legal scholars struggle. It has been explored particularly when analyzing women's rights in the area of pornography and prostitution. As the reform movements in Islamic law become concrete, similar explorations will have to take place. Agency driven explorations in the area of Islamic law will have to be tailored to issues of particular relevance to Islamic women. In addition, Feminist legal scholars will have to take care not to project western-based analysis into unique Islamic settings. Borrowing from transformative arguments advocated by feminist legal scholars like Martha A. Fineman, the author attempts to explore the implications of recognizing the possibility for agency in Islamic polygamous structures. The central idea is to analyze the possibility for a feminist based form of polygamy for women who decide to live in a polygamous structure. This exploration in no way assumes that Muslim women are solely defined by their religion. On the contrary, it recognizes that women's identities are so diverse that, even when given options, a number of them might opt for polygamy rather than monogamy. In this context, an assessment of the value of monogamy compared to polygamy is irrelevant. What comes to matter, instead, is the fact that women who choose polygamy, like those who make any other legitimate choice, must be protected.The rising number of pro-polygamous movements indicates that it is imperative that we investigate the possibilities for a women centric polygamy. Islamic women have diverse views regarding polygamy and do not all seem to view it as detrimental. There exist some Muslim women who are unequivocally against Polygamy, but want to remain faithful to their Islamic faith, while there are others who are not against polygamy but would like to reform the practice to fit their needs. The common denominator in these two camps, however, is that women in both camps yearn for more choice and control over the decisions that affect their family life. The desire to enter or remain in a polygamous union does not necessarily equate in their eyes with a diminishment of their rights and privileges. This article intends to show that equal rights for women and Islamic faith are not necessarily mutually exclusive if the allocation of rights is based on the spirit of Islam. Furthermore, the article will demonstrate that Islam's inherent concern with justice and equality for women necessitates that women's desires and wishes serve as foundation for any system of polygamy.


This report examines various issues pertaining to foreign students in the United States. Since the Immigration Act of 1924, the United States has expressly permitted foreign students to study in U.S. institutions. Most foreign students are at least 18 years old and are enrolled in higher education programs. Foreign students are generally considered to enrich cultural diversity of the educational experience for U.S. residents as well as enhance the reputation of U.S. universities as world-class institutions. Concerns have arisen in recent years that have caused Congress to take a new look at the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provisions that govern their admission.


Almost a third of the UK population live alone. In addition to those people, many others cook alone on a regular basis: students, young professionals - and the occasional parent who's drawn the long straw and is alone with just an empty kitchen for company. What should they cook for themselves? With just a little time and some basic skills, it's easy to knock up knock-out meals to enjoy on one's own. There is, however, a clever little twist to this book. By cooking the main recipe you are halfway to preparing a second dish which you can enjoy the next day. This not only saves you loads of time and effort but also makes economic sense. How many times have you been left with a solitary chicken breast in the pack that you don't know what to do with? Problem solved - follow Sam's recipe and cook both pieces one night, using one piece for Beer and orange baked chicken, then the following day, transform the leftover, ready-cooked piece into Asian chicken salad for dinner or even for lunch to take to work. In the same way, you can make a Quick steak and ale pie which becomes Beef bubble and squeak cakes the next day. At other times, you just want 2 easy recipes to make use of a whole pack of something over the course of a week, so for example Sam shows how to use a pack of tofu for a zingy Tofu and cucumber salad one day, and Salt 'n' pepper tofu another day. And sometimes it's much easier and economical to buy a whole joint, and turn that value for money into four separate dishes that will last you over half the week. Eating for one shouldn't be sad - it should be a real pleasure!


The UK Smart X-Ray Optics programme is developing the techniques required to both enhance the performance of existing X-ray systems, such as X-ray telescopes, while also extending the utility of X-ray optics to a broader class of scientific investigation. The approach requires the control of the inherent aberrations of X-ray systems using an active/adaptive method. One of the technologies proposed to achieve this is micro-structured optical arrays, which use grazing incidence reflection through consecutive aligned arrays of channels. Although such arrays are similar in concept to polycapillary and microchannel plate optics, they are more flexible. Bending the arrays allows variable focal length, while flexing parts of them provides adaptive or active systems. Custom configurations can be designed, using ray tracing and finite element analysis, for applications from sub-keV to several-keV X-rays. The channels may be made using deep silicon etching, which can provide appropriate aspect ratios, and flexed using piezo actuators. An exemplar application will be in the micro-probing of biological cells and tissue samples using Ti Kα radiation (4.5 keV) in studies related to radiation induced cancers.


Novelist and essayist Hilary Masters recreates a moment in 1940s Pittsburgh when circumstances, ideology, and a passion for the arts collided to produce a masterpiece in another part of the world. E. J. Kaufmann, the so-called "merchant prince" who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, was a man whose hunger for beauty included women as well as architecture. He had transformed his family's department store into an art deco showcase with murals by Boardman Robinson and now sought to beautify the walls of the YM&WHA of which he was the president. Through his son E. J. Kaufmann, jr (the son preferred the lowercase usage), he met Juan O'Gorman, a rising star in the Mexican pantheon of muralists dominated by Diego Rivera, O'Gorman's friend and mentor. O'Gorman and his American wife spent nearly six months in Pittsburgh at Kaufmann's invitation while the artist researched the city's history and made elaborate cartoons for the dozen panels of the proposed mural. Like Rivera, O'Gorman was an ardent Marxist whose views of society were radically different from those of his host, not to mention the giants of Pittsburgh's industrial empire-Carnegie, Frick, and Mellon. The murals were never painted, but why did Kaufmann commission O'Gorman in the first place? Was it only a misunderstanding? In the discursive manner for which his fiction and essays are noted, Masters pulls together the skeins of world events, the politics of art patronage, and the eccentric personalities and cruel histories of the period into a pattern that also includes the figures of O'Gorman and his wife Helen, and Kaufmann, his wife Liliane, and their son. Masters traces the story through its many twists and turns to its surprising ending: E. J. Kaufmann's failure to put beautiful pictures on the walls of the Y in Pittsburgh resulted in Juan O'Gorman's creation of a twentieth-century masterpiece on a wall in the town of Patzcuaro, Mexico.


A method is presented for obtaining the attenuation of a shock wave in a shock tube due to the unsteady boundary layer along the shock-tube walls. It is assumed that the boundary layer is thin relative to the tube diameter and induces one-dimensional longitudinal pressure waves whose strength is proportional to the vertical velocity at the edge of the boundary layer. The contributions of the various regions in a shock tube to shock attenuation are indicated. The method is shown to be in reasonably good agreement with existing experimental data.


The X-ray structure of the adduct formed between oxaliplatin and the model protein hen egg white lysozyme is reported here. The structure is compared with those of cisplatin and carboplatin derivatives, previously solved. Relevant changes are highlighted among these crystal structures that are suggestive of significant differences in the reactivity of platinum drugs with this protein; possible biological implications are discussed.


This study presents a comprehensive site-scale analysis conducted within the global wetland inventory and mapping (GWIM) project. GWIM was developed and promoted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) through global partnerships to investigate wetland analyses at multiple scales. The present study investigates the complexity of an inland freshwater wetland system, presenting a conceptual framework for mapping and monitoring the dynamics of Lake Kolleru (a wetland of international importance, as defined by the Ramsar Convention), utilizing a geospatial platform. Illustrating the pace of land use changes leading to the progressive elimination of the wetland ecosystem of freshwater Lake Kolleru, this study also highlights the impacts of such changes on the socio-economic system. A comprehensive temporal analysis (1977‐2007) provided a structural base to schematically analyse the dynamics of biophysical and ecological changes to the wetland by effectively using a spectrum of remote sensing data. The present status and changing trends in ecological dimensions of Lake Kolleru were illustrated, utilizing information from spatial analyses, complimented with socio-economic assessment. Attention is drawn to the potential of utilizing earth resources systems in exploring space‐time interactions in freshwater ecosystems heavily modified through aquaculture interventions. Further, the spatial derivatives are meant as reference material for local authorities and decision-makers to rehabilitate the economic livelihood activities to the social community dependent on the lake ecosystem. The disseminated message emphasizes the applicability of geospatial tools to enhance the efficacy of the decision-making process by facilitating regular monitoring of ecosystem dynamics and providing updated information on wetland patterns and uses.


This study proposed a new method using freely available sunlight and granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption for enhanced removal of humic substances (HS). Experiments were carried out under natural sunlight conditions in winter and summer. A parabolic solar collector (PC) was applied to concentrate solar energy. HS were characterized by UV 254 absorbance, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration and molecular weight (MW). As a result of solar irradiation, decreases of DOC up to 14% in winter and 58% in summer were observed. A comparison of adsorption isotherms and chromatograms of the irradiated and non-irradiated HS confirmed that smaller molecules formed during solar irradiation were preferentially adsorbed by GAC. A dramatic MW change upon solar irradiation was observed in HS irradiation in PC in summer experiment and almost no UV 254 detected components were remaining in solution after adsorption (GAC dose 400 mg/L), as measured with high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC). The combined solar irradiation-GAC adsorption method proved to be effective in enhancing HS removal by GAC with no additional energy and chemicals consumption. © IWA Publishing 2010.


Word embeddings are commonly compared either with human-annotated word similarities or through improvements in natural language processing tasks. We propose a novel principle which compares the information from word embeddings with reality. We implement this principle by comparing the information in the word embeddings with geographical positions of cities. Our evaluation linearly transforms the semantic space to optimally fit the real positions of cities and measures the deviation between the position given by word embeddings and the real position. A set of well-known word embeddings with state-of-the-art results were evaluated. We also introduce a visualization that helps with error analysis.


Extraction of electricity from the salinity gradient of sea water-river water interface has drawn the key interest of sustainable energy researchers. Different technologies are in the spot light − such as pressure retarded osmosis, reverse electrodialysis, ionic diode membrane, mixing entropy battery, microbial fuel cell, etc. In the present work, electrochemical cell equipment is used for this purpose. Two different techniques are described − galvanic cell equipment (GCEQ) and concentration cell equipment (CCEQ). It is observed that, the extracted energy density is very high (up to 95 Wm−2) compared with the other methods of the same kind reported so far. Implementation of these methods is trivial. Thus, we may conclude that present method will fulfill our requirement of sustainable energy resource.


Although there have been 'ecological' ideas and investigations over many centuries, the history of ecology as a self-conscious science started only in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Originating from different roots, especially natural history and physiology, it soon developed into different specialities, such as animal and plant ecology, which at first developed at least partly independently from each other. Nevertheless, already from the first half of the twentieth century on, there have been attempts to arrive at unifying theories, an important culmination of which can be seen in the rise of ecosystems ecology. In the wake of an emerging awareness for environmental problems in the 1960s, ecology also became perceived by a broader public. This led to increasing demands on the science and also changed the work and subjects of ecologists to include much more application-driven and interdisciplinary research.

Key Concepts:

Ecology has always been a hybrid science, building both on natural history and on physiology.

The different traditions of ecology have developed partly independently during the first decades of ecology as a 'self-conscious ecology'.

Only since the 1960s and 1970s ecology became a field also known and valued outside smaller academic circles.

Ecology is basically a biological science, must not be confused with 'environmental thinking'.

Keywords:

ecology;
natural history;
ecological subdisciplines;
ecological theory;
conservation


In the development discourse, migration is seen a contested concept because it can produce both desirable and undesirable outcomes. This paper focuses on analysing migration as a livelihood option for extreme poor households drawing upon Stimulating Household Improvements Resulting in Economic Empowerment (SHIREE 2 ) programme data. In the qualitative longitudinal household tracking tool of SHIREE programme, we found different kinds of migration contexts, notably: rural to urban migration, seasonal migration, border crossing migration, and natural disaster related migrations. Our study found that low incomes, loss of earning opportunities, evictions, health shocks, lack of specialized skills, bonded labour and fraud were factors underpinning unsuccessful migration. On the other hand, migrations that developed social networks, had support from NGOs, resulted in reduced dependency ratios, and chose the right destination tended to be positive experiences that helped improve migrants' wellbeing.


"The Analects" (Lunyu) is one of the most influential texts in human history. As a putative record of Confucius' (551-479 bce) teachings and a foundational text in scriptural Confucianism, this classic was instrumental in shaping intellectual traditions in China and East Asia until the early twentieth century. But no premodern reader read only the text of "The Analects" itself. Rather, "The Analects" was embedded in a web of interpretation that mediated its meaning. Modern interpreters of "The Analects" only rarely acknowledge this legacy of two thousand years of commentaries. How well do we understand prominent or key commentaries from this tradition? How often do we read such commentaries as we might read the text on which they comment? Many commentaries do more than simply comment on a text. Not only do they shape the reading of the text, but passages of text serve as pretexts for the commentator to develop and expound his own body of thought. This book attempts to redress our neglect of commentaries by analyzing four key works dating from the late second century to the mid-nineteenth century (a period substantially contemporaneous with the rise and decline of scriptual Confucianism): the commentaries of He Yan (ca. 190-249); Huang Kan (488 to 545); Zhu Xi (1130-1200); and Liu Baonan (1791-1855) and Liu Gongmian (1821-1880).


"This history is . . . the first fully-fleshed story of African Nairobi in all of its complexity which foregrounds African experiences. Given the overwhelming white dominance in the written sources, it is a remarkable achievement."-Claire Robertson, "International Journal of African Historical Studies" "White's book . . . takes a unique approach to a largely unexplored aspect of African History. It enhances our understanding of African social history, political economy, and gender studies. It is a book that deserves to be widely read."-Elizabeth Schmidt, "American Historical Review"


Privacy emerges as a critical issue in an e-commerce environment because of a fundamental tension among corporate, consumer, and government interests. By reviewing prior Internet-privacy research in the fields of information systems, business, and marketing published between 1995 and 2006, we consider the following research questions: (1) how an individual's privacy behaviour is affected by privacy policy disclosures and by the level of the individual's involvement regarding the sensitivity of personal information; (2) how companies' privacy policies vary with respect to regulatory approaches and cultural values; and (3) whether there is a gap between the privacy practices valued by individuals and those emphasized by companies. A three-stage study is conducted to answer these questions.
The first two stages, consisting of a Web-based survey and an online ordering experiment with 210 participants, found that individuals are more likely to read the privacy policy statements posted on Web sites and less likely to provide personal information, when they are under a high privacy involved situation as compared to being in a low privacy involved situation. However, the existence of a privacy seal did not affect individuals' behaviour, regardless of involvement conditions. This study also found a gap between self-reported privacy behaviour and actual privacy behaviour. When individuals were requested to provide personal information, their privacy policy statement reading behaviour was close to their self-report behaviour. However, their personal information providing behaviour was different from their self-reported behaviour.
The third stage, which entailed the study of 420 privacy policies spanning six countries and two industries, showed that privacy policies vary across countries, as well as with varying governmental involvement and cultural values in those countries. Finally, the analysis of all the three stages revealed a gap between individuals' importance ratings of companies' privacy practices and policies that companies emphasize in their privacy disclosures.


Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus satellite images presents an important data source for many applications related to remote sensing. However, a component called Scan Line Corrector failure has seriously limited the scientific applications of ETM+ data since SLC failed permanently on May 31,2003 resulting in about 22% of the image data missing. An effective image restoration method is proposed to fill the missing information in the satellite images. The method is preprocessed by image resize, image enhancement and Gaussian filtering. The segmentation of satellite images are performed using Simple Linear Iterative Clustering to find the SLIC Super pixels and a dynamic clustering algorithm namely Regionalization with Dynamically Constrained Agglomerative Clustering and Partitioning algorithm to find the image Segments. The Boundary Reconstruction is performed using Edge Matching to find the area of the missing region and the matrix completion is used to fill the gaps of the satellite images using the Accelerated Proximal Gradient Line algorithm. The Landsat 8 Real images are compared with Landsat 7 Satellite images using the performance metrics namely Peak Signal to Noise Ratio and Root Mean Square Error to evaluate the quality and the error rate of the satellite images. The Results show the capability to predict the missing value accurately in terms of quality, time without need of external information. KeywordsGap filling, Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus, Matrix Completion, Scan Line Corrector, segmentation, remote sensing.


As part of the introductory level management information systems (MIS) course, faculty are asked to introduce the students to MIS concepts as well as to help them develop technology-related skills benefitting them in their course work and beyond. However, with a vast array of MIS topics that could be covered and class time at a premium, it is difficult to determine which MIS topics to address and which ones to forego. Ensuring that the appropriate topics are addressed and adequately covered is tremendously important to the learning process as well as abiding by the learning standards of accrediting institutions. In this study, the author describes a project and survey that was administered to undergraduate junior and graduate MBA students in the core MIS classes in the College of Business undergraduate and graduate level curriculum. The purpose of the study was threefold: to introduce the students to collaborative technologies, determine whether or not students were already familiar with the technology assigned, and evaluate the perceived value of the projects in relation to learning objectives and the projects' use of class time.


abstract: this paper is the final report of the first project year to the austrian science foundation who has supported this project by grant no. 4012. according to the draft from march 18, 1981 the main topics of this year were the solution of problems in connection with the production of a portable software for econometrics and corporate planning, i.e. the os-file handling and character set representation, syntax analysis, data management and data handling. concerning the portability problemsit can be stated that recent efforts resulted in an implementation of the basis system on a siemens computer at gmd (gesellschaft fuer mathematik und datenverarbeitung) in bonn and on a cdc computer at tu (technical university) in wien. the modifiedsyntax analysis for the ias-system level 3 will be presented independently in a forthcoming paper. this final report reviews the data base module as it has been designed and implemented during the last year. special emphasis has been devoted to the logical and physical realization of the data base together with implementation details. in the appendix the logical structure of the programs concerning the retrieval and printing of time series is given as an example, to document the programming style and programming conventions as described in the interim report. additionally the semiportable routines and the conversion routines are listed documenting the efforts and the solutions to various portability problems which resulted in a program package which is portable to 99 percent. as this paper demonstrates the concrete solution to a given problem within the context of software engineering it should be of special interest for programmers and implementers of similar large software systems. together with the syntax analysis, the utility functions and some twelve commands the currently available software forms the basis of the ias-system level 3 which is currently being tested thoroughly by the project team. the directions of the next year go mainly to the implementation of application routines for estimation, testing, simulation, forecasting and report generation. at the end of this second project year a portable and flexible ias-system which is improved considerably with respect to level 2 should be at hand.;


Ontology is essential in the formalization of domain knowledge for effective human-computer interactions (i.e., expert-finding). Many researchers have proposed approaches to measure the similarity between concepts by accessing fuzzy domain ontology. However, engineering of the construction of domain ontologies turns out to be labor intensive and tedious. In this paper, we propose an approach to mine domain concepts from Wikipedia Category Network, and to generate the fuzzy relation based on a concept vector extraction method to measure the relatedness between a single term and a concept. Our methodology can conceptualize domain knowledge by mining Wikipedia Category Network. An empirical experiment is conducted to evaluate the robustness by using TREC dataset. Experiment results show the constructed fuzzy domain ontology derived by proposed approach can discover robust fuzzy domain ontology with satisfactory accuracy in information retrieval tasks.


Modern engineering and technology has allowed us to connect with each other and even to take us to the moon. But technology has also polluted vast areas of the planet and it has empowered surveillance and authoritarian governments with dangerous tools. There are numerous cases where engineers and other stakeholders routinely ask what they are capable of inventing, and what they actually should invent. Nuclear weapons and biotechnology are two examples. But when analyzing the transformations arising from less controversial modern socio-technological tools—like the internet, smartphones, and connected devices which augment and define our work and social practices—two very distinct areas of responsibility become apparent. On the one hand, there are questions around the values and practices of the engineers who create the technologies. What values should guide their endeavours and how can society promote good conduct? And on the other hand, there are questions regarding the effects when people use these technologies. While engineering and design choices can either promote or hinder commendable social behavior and appropriate use, this chapter will focus on the first question.


There is some debate about whether financial investors have caused excessive increases in the level and volatility of commodity prices. These investors are viewed by some as being less concerned with fundamentals than traditional market participants and hence impeding the price discovery process – that is, they are destabilising speculators or 'noise traders'. This article discusses the relationship between the futures markets for commodities (where financial investors are most active), and the spot markets. It then argues that the evidence does not support the hypothesis that financialisation has been the main driver of commodity price developments in the 2000s.


OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE
We present the case of a patient who experienced bilateral middle cerebral artery infarctions after Hunterian ligation and trapping of a ruptured right cavernous aneurysm, despite a high-flow extracranial-intracranial bypass. This is a rare complication, and it highlights the need for further refinements in our understanding of the hemodynamic insufficiency created by major vessel sacrifice.

CLINICAL PRESENTATION
The patient was a 59-year-old woman who experienced multiple episodes of massive epistaxis before undergoing angiography, which revealed left internal carotid artery occlusion and an irregular right cavernous aneurysm. The patient was then transferred to our center for treatment. The patient was neurologically intact at presentation, and her epistaxis was controlled by nasal packing.

INTERVENTION
The patient underwent an extracranial-intracranial bypass from the external carotid artery to the M2 segment of the right middle cerebral artery, followed by trapping of the aneurysm. Despite evidence of graft patency, the patient experienced bilateral middle cerebral artery distribution infarctions after surgery.

CONCLUSION
Although extracranial-intracranial bypasses protect the majority of patients who undergo carotid artery ligation from ischemic complications, this case demonstrates that hemodynamic insufficiency can occur even with a high-flow saphenous vein graft. Better ways to quantitate the hemodynamic needs of the brain after major vessel sacrifice may facilitate matching of the revascularization strategy to the specific needs of each patient, thus further reducing the likelihood of ischemic complications.


Abstract Background Discordant genotypic/phenotypic rifampicin susceptibility testing in Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a significant challenge, yet there are limited data on its prevalence and how best to manage such patients. Whether to treat isolates with rpoB mutations not conferring phenotypic resistance as susceptible or multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is unknown. We describe phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of discordant isolates and clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of affected patients in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods We analyzed clinical isolates showing rifampicin resistance on GenoType MTBDRplus while susceptible on 1% agar proportion method. We measured rifampicin minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) using Middlebrook 7H10 agar dilution and BACTEC MGIT 960. Sensititre MYCOTB plates were used for drug-susceptibility testing, and rpoB gene sequencing was performed on all isolates. Local MDR-TB program data were reviewed for clinical information and patient outcomes. Results Discordant isolates constituted 4.6% (60) of 1302 rifampicin-resistant cases over the study period. Of these, 62% remained susceptible to isoniazid and 98% remained susceptible to rifabutin. Rifampicin MICs were close to the critical concentration of 1 µg/mL (0.5–2 µg/mL) for 83% of isolates. The most frequent rpoB mutations were Q513P (25.3%), D516V (19.2%), and D516Y (13.3%). Whereas 70% were human immunodeficiency virus infected, the mean CD4 count was 289 cells/mm3 and 87% were receiving antiretroviral therapy. Standard therapy for MDR-TB was used and 53% achieved successful treatment outcomes. Conclusions Rifampicin-discordant TB is not uncommon and sequencing is required to confirm results. The high susceptibility to rifabutin and isoniazid and poor treatment outcomes with the current regimen suggest a potential utility for rifabutin-based therapy.


Excerpt] When William Bowen, the President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (formerly the President of Princeton University), and Neil Rudenstine, the President of Harvard University (formerly Executive Vice President of Mellon), combine to write a book on doctoral study in the arts and sciences, the academic profession must take notice. And well it should. Building on Bowen and Julie Ann Sosa's (1989) predictions of forthcoming shortages of Ph.D.'s in the arts and sciences, In Pursuit of the Ph.D. provides a detailed analysis of the propensity of American college graduates to enter doctoral programs in the arts and sciences and of doctoral students' completion rates and times-to-degree. Bowen and Rudenstine also carefully analyze the role that labor market characteristics, financial support patterns, institutional characteristics, and graduate program policies play in influencing these outcomes. Finally, they both implicitly and explicitly lay out an agenda for future research. In Pursuit is thus a "must read" for faculty and administrators involved in graduate education and for economists interested in higher education and academic labor supply issues.


Abstract. In this study, we assess the geomorphic role of a rare, large-magnitude landslide-triggering event and consider its effect on mountain forest ecosystems and the erosion of organic carbon in an Andean river catchment. Proximal triggers such as large rain storms are known to cause large numbers of landslides, but the relative effects of such low-frequency, high-magnitude events are not well known in the context of more regular, smaller events. We develop a 25-year duration, annual-resolution landslide inventory by mapping landslide occurrence in the Kosnipata Valley, Peru, from 1988 to 2012 using Landsat, QuickBird, and WorldView satellite images. Catchment-wide landslide rates were high, averaging 0.076 % yr−1 by area. As a result, landslides on average completely turn over hillslopes every  ∼  1320 years, although our data suggest that landslide occurrence varies spatially and temporally, such that turnover times are likely to be non-uniform. In total, landslides stripped 26 ± 4 tC km−2 yr−1 of organic carbon from soil (80 %) and vegetation (20 %) during the study period. A single rain storm in March 2010 accounted for 27 % of all landslide area observed during the 25-year study and accounted for 26 % of the landslide-associated organic carbon flux. An approximately linear magnitude–frequency relationship for annual landslide areas suggests that large storms contribute an equivalent landslide failure area to the sum of lower-frequency landslide events occurring over the same period. However, the spatial distribution of landslides associated with the 2010 storm is distinct. On the basis of precipitation statistics and landscape morphology, we hypothesise that focusing of storm-triggered landslide erosion at lower elevations in the Kosnipata catchment may be characteristic of longer-term patterns. These patterns may have implications for the source and composition of sediments and organic material supplied to river systems of the Amazon Basin, and, through focusing of regular ecological disturbance, for the species composition of forested ecosystems in the region.


This study evaluated the impact of participating in child-centered play therapy for qualifying diverse second-grade students, implemented through the Primary Mental Health Project treatment protocol. This preventative approach focuses on the behavioral, emotional, and social skills of children through child-centered play therapy. Second-grade students at 1 elementary school were assessed by their teachers for 4 types of behaviors: task orientation, behavior control, assertiveness, and peer/social skills. Results demonstrated significant improvement in all 4 areas assessed for students who qualified for and received services over the course of 1 academic year. Findings suggest that child-centered play therapy is an effective preventative approach for students who are at risk for developing adverse behaviors that could negatively impact their academic success. Implications and the importance of providing preventative intervention for at-risk children are discussed.


OBJECTIVE
To review the literature regarding the most sustainable and culturally appropriate ways in which to implement eye health care programs within remote Aboriginal communities in Australia from a primary health care perspective.

DATA SOURCES
The search included letters, editorials and papers (published and unpublished) from January 1955 to April 2006.

STUDY SELECTION
The search revealed 1,106,758 papers, books and other related material. The relevancy of this material was determined by abstract and 378 relevant articles were reviewed in their entirety. After reading the relevant articles and the interview transcripts the themes that emerged from each source were extracted.

CONCLUSIONS
The ten areas to consider include: clinical practice and access, sustainability, regional-based programs, information technology systems, health worker training, self-determination, cultural and language barriers, funding body responsibilities, embedding specialist programs in primary care services, and other considerations. Further research needs to be undertaken within Aboriginal communities in the area of primary eye health care and barriers to the acceptance of treatment. This may be undertaken using more interactive research methods such as cooperative and narrative inquiry.


Closing the loop for nutrients in wastewaters (municipal sewage, animal wastes, food industry, commercial and other liquid waste streams) is a necessary, sustainable development objective, to reduce resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Chemistry, engineering and process integration understanding are all developing quickly, as new processes are now coming online. A new "paradigm" is emerging, globally. Commercial marketing of recovered nutrients as "green fertilizers" or recycling of nutrients through biomass production to new outlets, such as bioenergy, is becoming more widespread.

This exciting conference brings together various waste stream industries, regulators, researchers, process engineers and commercial managers, to develop a broad-based, intersectional understanding and joint projects for phosphorus and nitrogen recovery from wastewater streams, as well as reuse. Over 90 papers from over 30 different countries presented in this volume.

ISBN: 9781843392323 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780401805 (eBook)


There is a need to develop approaches and methods for accessing necessary information early into the process of developing innovative (functional) products. Such information is normally located outside the focal company, and thus requires communication and tools/methods that enable decoding weak signals from different sources, not least from end users, i.e., human beings. Information based on human criterions, e.g., perceptions, experiences, activities and goals, is recognised as vital to communicate into the development process of innovative products. In this context, concepts such as Business Intelligence, Bench Learning, Lead-User Innovation, and Needfinding have been developed. In general, the logic behind such approaches is to avoid tunnel-vision and the Not-Invented-Here syndrome by widening the space for input into the product development process, and thereby identify more (and more potential) routes for further product and service development.


Hlinka, Michael. Follow Your Money: Who Gets it, Who Spends It, Where Does it Go?  Illus. Kevin Sylvester. Annick Press, New York, 2013. Print. Follow Your Money is a fairly basic yet informative examination of the economy and its complexities, aimed at older kids and teens. The book starts off with a quick synopsis of the "spider web" of the economy and a brief rundown of the history of money and the concept of profit.  The author then breaks down the costs of various activities (a bus ride for example) and objects (baseball caps, sneakers), from raw materials to manufacturing costs, labour, transport, store markups, profits, etc. The author (a CBC commentator on business) is clever in what he has chosen, selecting objects and activities that are of interest to older kids and teens (computers, designer jeans, chocolate, cell phones, music, etc.).  There are also a couple of pages on fuel and its importance to the economy. The book then takes a brief look at banking and the pros and cons of credit and debit cards, and then finishes with resource suggestions for additional information and an index. The cost breakdowns may be too numerous and a little dry for some readers (depending on their interest and attention level), but they are a very effective method of getting the reader to think about where things come from, how various economic factors affect prices, and who gets the profits. The author includes interesting sidebars of historical facts and trivia about particular subjects- tea, for example, or disposable bags-adding a bit of humour in the process.  The illustrations are colourful and quirky and help clarify the points the author is making. Ideal for upper elementary and teen readers. Highly recommended:  4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Patti Sherbaniuk Patti is a Liaison Librarian at the Winspear School of Business at the University of Alberta. She holds a BA in English and an MLIS, both from the University of Alberta. She is passionate about food, travel, the arts and reading books of all shapes and sizes.


This thesis suggests that new tools and technology can be used for production of relevant data and insights from the study of human performance in simulator and field experiments. It examines some of the theoretical perspectives behind data collection and human performance assessment, and argues for a high resemblance of the real world and use of subject matter expertise in simulator studies. A model is proposed, suggesting that human performance measurement should be tightly coupled to the topic of study and have a close connection to the time line. This coupling requires new techniques for continuous data collection, and eye movement tracking has been identified as a promising basis for this type of measures.One way of improving realism is to create virtual environments allowing for controlling more of the environment surrounding the test subjects. New application areas for virtual environments are discussed for use in control room and field studies.The combination of wearable computing, virtual and augmented (the use of computers to overlay virtual information onto the real world) reality provides many new possibilities to present information to operators. In two experiments, virtual and augmented reality techniques were used to visualise radiation fields for operators in a contaminated nuclear environment. This way the operators could train for and execute their tasks in a way that minimised radiation exposure to the individual operator. Both experiments were successful in proving the concept of radiation visualisation.Virtual environments allow for early end-user feedback in the design and refurbishment of control room man-machine interfaces. The practical usability of VR in the control room setting was tested in two control room design experiments. The results show that with the right tools for solving the tasks under test, even desktop presentations of the virtual environment can provide sufficient resemblance of the real world.Computerised data collection was identified as a key factor for efficient data handling in simulator and field experiments. An Internet based questionnaire system was specified and implemented in parallel with the experimental work, and functionality was developed to fulfil the special needs of each new experimental setting. The result is a computer platform independent system capable of handling most types of data and test situations for data collection by Internet or local computer networks.


Abstract: Fifteen nations offer fathers the right to reduce work hours to care for children. Incorporating a gender perspective, this study uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the implementation of this policy in the first nation to offer it, Sweden. It investigates whether the institutional and cultural environment exerts pressure on companies to facilitate fathers' hours reduction, companies' levels of support for fathers' use of this entitlement and correlates of company support. The persistence of the "male model of work" appears to be an important barrier to implementation of a policy that offers promise in offering fathers time to care.


The practice of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the British context has evolved to a point where varied and complex patterns of classroom interaction have become the norm, and where teacher independent activities have become an important vehicle for language learning. In this climate, there is a need for novice English Language Teachers to adopt a major role as managers of learning. Whilst there has been much emphasis in recent Second Language Acquisition Research on the relationship between activity type and output from language learners, there have been fewer studies on the relationship between activity based pedagogy and teacher- generated language output. Using transcribed audio recordings from twenty-two entire lessons conducted by novice teachers, together with data from interviews and stimulated recall-based assignments, the author investigates aspects of lesson staging, classroom interaction and teacher role, as they are manifested through the language that the teachers use in their classes. Three types of teacher-generated language are identified. From these, it is suggested that the functions of structuring and rapport-enhancing have significance in lesson stages involving the setting up of teacher-independent activities. The complexity of the relationship between these two functions, seen in the context of entire lessons, reveals individual differences amongst the novice teacher subjects. implications of this research for Teacher Education are discussed, and the thesis ends with practical suggestions relevant to the content of Language Teacher Education Courses.


The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (1) guarantees that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment, which is often the general education classroom. There the social studies teacher must consider the needs of students with disabilities in planning and delivering instruction. At the same time, it is also becoming increasingly important that all students develop critical thinking skills and engage in reflective thought. (2) Critical thinking, the process of determining the authenticity, accuracy, or value of something and developing an opinion based on evidence, (3) can enhance academic achievement and is viewed as characteristic of a responsible, employable citizen who can make informed decisions. (4) The challenge for many teachers is how to accommodate the needs of students with disabilities while teaching higher order thinking. Political cartoons may provide a medium to accomplish this goal. Many political cartoonists aim to challenge the viewer to think critically about the issue being depicted in the drawing. The cartoonist employs exaggeration, symbolism, and humor to expand our thinking about the topic. Students can develop higher order thinking skills through direct instruction, modeling, and cooperative group work in which cartoons are the items of study. Students are guided to implement the Five W's of comprehension or interpretation (that is, who the cartoon is about, when, where, and what is depicted, which symbols are used, and why the message is important). By breaking down the elements of a drawing, and being familiar with the tools of the cartoonist, students can begin to see the relationships between seemingly diverse concepts. (5) Students also learn to analyze how cartoonists' use of words (arguments, stories, and slogans) and images often relies on distortions such as stereotypes, and logical argument, such as analogies. Students can see how symbols and words work together to compress information into one picture. Some students may not readily learn critical thinking inferentially from political cartoons. (6) Specifically, students with disabilities may need additional instruction, modeling, and accommodations to learn to think critically about current political events. For example, students with learning disabilities and cognitive impairments have been reported to have a developmental lag in the cognitive structures necessary for understanding humor. (7) But these students' ability to produce cartoons did not appear to differ from that of their nonhandicapped peers. (8) In fact, cartoons have been used to remediate learning disabilities (9) and are a preferred medium among students with emotional disorders. (10) The needs of students with diverse abilities can be accommodated in several ways. Keeping a lecture brief (15 to 20 minutes) will reduce the demand for passive attending and increase opportunities for active participation. The content of the drawing should be broken down and dearly explained. The use of guided questions to organize and analyze content helps students with mild disabilities focus their attention on relevant information and activates their prior knowledge. (11) We encourage students to work in mixed ability, cooperative groups, which allows each one to learn from multiple perspectives. Students are asked to explain material to each other; and in doing so, they often use language that differs from that used by the teacher. (12) These groups can also provide appropriate peer models for students with disabilities. (Students are more likely to imitate models who are similar, competent, and have prestige.) (13) Students should study a variety of cartoons before being asked to try their hands at drawing one. The teacher should model the skills of the lesson before asking students to perform them. When a teacher engages in cognitive modeling or "thinking aloud," he or she demonstrates how to organize and analyze the content, how to select strategies, and how to think reflectively. …


Whilst considerable research has been carried out on the process of moisture transmission through porous building materials under a concentration gradient with isothermal conditions, limited experimental data are available on the influence of temperature gradients on moisture transfer rates. Such thermodiffusion can be predicted from irreversible thermodynamics, however, its significance to concentration-driven transfer in materials has not been definitively established. Models for the prediction of moisture movement in building structures generally neglect such effects, and rely on moisture transport properties based on isothermal measurements. This paper describes an investigation to determine the significance of non-isothermal effects on the total moisture transfer through building materials. The investigation concluded that the vapour pressure gradient is the critical driving potential for moisture transfer, whilst thermodiffusion is not significant. Practical application: Building professionals can be confident that the use of vapour permeabilities of building materials measured under isothermal conditions are satisfactory for the prediction of moisture transport through building envelopes under temperature gradients: no correction for thermodiffusion effects is necessary.


The IUCN Red List categorizes species based on their geographical distribution and population size. However, attributes such as genetic information are not yet considered. We compiled information on genetic diversity (HE, HO) and inbreeding coefficient (f) along with their ecological attributes (IUCN category, migratory habit, forest dependence and habitat type) from a literature survey to assess whether bird species categorized as being of highest conservation concern display the lowest genetic diversity. We used generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) to test whether avian species with less inclusive characteristics (e.g., taxa with small geographical distributions or low dispersal capability) display lower genetic diversity than those classified as Least Concern (LC). We used hylogenetic generalized least squares (pGLS) to account for phylogenetic independence of predictor variables and to verify robustness of GLMMs (generalized linear mixed models). In general, GLMM revealed more significant relationships among ecological attributes and genetic diversity patterns. After accounting for phylogenetic independence, the highest average heterozygosity values were observed in species falling under the LC category; non–migratory birds showed lower HO and HE average values than migratory birds, while non–forest birds showed lower heterozygosity than forest birds. Hence, we corroborate our hypothesis that genetic diversity of birds is lower in species of high conservation concern. We hope our results promote further studies on genetic diversity of bird populations. Lastly, we propose the incorporation of genetic data as metrics in the assessment of bird conservation status.


Abstract. Traditionally, long-term predictions of river discharges and their extremes include constant relationships between landscape properties and model parameters. However, due to the co-evolution of many landscape properties more sophisticated methods are necessary to quantify future landscape–hydrological model relationships. As a first step towards such an approach we use the Brutsaert and Nieber (1977) analysis method to characterize streamflow recession behaviour of  ≈  200 Swedish catchments within the context of global change and landscape co-evolution. Results suggest that the Brutsaert–Nieber parameters are strongly linked to the climate, soil, land use, and their interdependencies. Many catchments show a trend towards more non-linear behaviour, meaning not only faster initial recession but also slower recession towards base flow. This trend has been found to be independent from climate change. Instead, we suggest that land cover change, both natural (restoration of natural soil profiles in forested areas) and anthropogenic (reforestation and optimized water management), is probably responsible. Both change types are characterised by system adaptation and change, towards more optimal ecohydrological conditions, suggesting landscape co-evolution is at play. Given the observed magnitudes of recession changes during the past 50 years, predictions of future river discharge critically need to include the effects of landscape co-evolution. The interconnections between the controls of land cover and climate on river recession behaviour, as we have quantified in this paper, provide first-order handles to do so.


THE SUCCESSFUL INTERNSHIP: PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL, AND CIVIC DEVELOPMENT, 3e, offers you more than just a resource for how to find a position or how to interview; it addresses the concerns, emotions, needs, and unique personal challenges that are the essence of an internship or field experience and focuses on the internship as a vehicle for your development as a civic professional. The authors describe in detail the path of change you'll find yourself embarking on and the challenges you'll face along the way. The book's five-stage model of the internship process--anticipation, disillusionment, confrontation, competence, and culmination--places the material in a meaningful framework that lends structure to your understanding of the work you'll be doing.


Much of the academic literature on alcohol-based leisure focuses on the pleasures of hedonism and youthful cultural exploration in environments free from the prescriptions, pressures and routines of everyday life. In this article – in which we present data from our ongoing ethnographic research exploring the experiences and attitudes of young British tourists in the Spanish resort of Magaluf on the island of Majorca – we argue that the standard liberal social-scientific image of youth leisure is naive and misrepresents its variegated reality. Our research indicates that many young British tourists gain little contentment from their holiday in the sun. Rather than embarking on a leisure experience composed of boundless freedom, choice, indulgence, excess and that is indicative of personal consumer sovereignty, many of our interviewees could identify the regimented and commodified nature of alcohol-based tourism. Rather than satisfaction, they felt an imprecise dissatisfaction. Drawing upon elements of psychoanalytic theory, we argue that underneath our interviewees' accounts of drunkenness and promiscuity lies an obdurate but imprecise sense of lack. Yet, it is precisely this absence which only recharges their motivation to do more of the same the year after in similar destinations, thus confirming the presence, power and domination of consumer sovereignty.


The purpose of this study was to investigate medfly longevity and reproduction across a broad spectrum of diet restriction using a protocol similar to those applied in most rodent studies. Age‐specific reproduction and age of death were monitored for 1200 adult males and 1200 females, each individually maintained on one of 12 diets from ad libitum to 30% of ad libitum. Diet was provided in a fixed volume of solution that was fully consumed each day, ensuring control of total nutrient consumption for every fly. Contrary to expectation and precedence, increased longevity was not observed at any level of diet restriction. Among females, reproduction continued across all diet levels despite the cost in terms of increased mortality. Among males, life expectancy exceeded that of females at most diet levels. However, in both sexes, mortality increased more sharply and the pattern of survival changed abruptly once the diet level fell to 50% of ad libitum or below, even though the energetic demands of egg production has no obvious counterpart in males. We believe that a more complete picture of the life table response to dietary restriction will emerge when studies are conducted on a wider range of species and include both sexes, more levels of diet, and the opportunity for mating and reproduction.


Magmatism in the southern Grenville Province records a collisional and postcollisional history during the period 1.20–1.15 Ga in the Adirondack Lowlands (New York State, USA) and the Frontenac terrane (Ontario, Canada). The 1.20 Ga bimodal Antwerp-Rossie suite of the Adirondack Lowlands was produced by subduction in the Trans-Adirondack backarc basin. This was followed by intrusion of the 1.18 Ga alkalic to calc-alkalic Hermon granite, which may have been generated by melting of metasomatized mantle during collision of the Adirondack Lowlands and Frontenac terrane during the Shawinigan orogeny. The Hyde School gneiss plutons intruded the Adirondack Lowlands at 1.17 Ga, and Rockport granite intruded into the Adirondack Lowlands and Frontenac terrane, stitching the Black Lake shear zone, which marks the boundary between these terranes. Subsequent extensional collapse and lithospheric delamination caused voluminous anorthosite-mangerite-charnockite-granite plutonism. In the Frontenac terrane, this event is represented by the 1.18–1.15 Ga Frontenac suite, which is composed predominately of ferroan granitoids produced from melting of the lower crust by underplating mafic magmas. The Edwardsville, Honey Hill, and Beaver Creek plutons are newly recognized members of this suite in the Adirondack Lowlands. High oxygen isotope ratios of this suite in the central Frontenac terrane and western Adirondack Lowlands point to the presence of underthrust altered oceanic rocks in the lower crust. Oxygen isotopes of the Frontenac suite in both terranes preclude its derivation from mantle melts alone.


Feedback is a vital element for improving student learning in a simulation-based training as it guides and refines learning through scaffolding. A number of studies in literature have shown that students' learning is enhanced when feedback is provided with personalized tutoring that offers specific guidance and adapts feedback to the learner in a one-to-one environment. Thus, emulating these adaptive aspects of human tutoring in simulation provides an effective methodology to train individuals. This paper presents the results of a study that investigated the effectiveness of automating different types of feedback techniques such as Knowledge-of-Correct-Response (KCR) and Answer-UntilCorrect (AUC) in software simulation for learning basic information technology concepts. For the purpose of comparison, techniques like simulation with zero or no-feedback (NFB) and traditional hands-on (HON) learning environments are also examined. The paper presents the summary of findings based on quantitative analyses which reveal that the simulation based instructional strategies are at least as effective as hands-on teaching methodologies for the purpose of learning of IT concepts. The paper also compares the results of the study with the earlier studies and recommends strategies for using feedback mechanism to improve students' learning in designing and simulation-based IT training. Keywords—Simulation, feedback, training, hands-on, labs.


The research effort aim characterized the mechanical behavior of high strength concrete at high temperature loading. Mechanical behaviors of two different type of concrete were measured after heated to 200 degree celcius, 400 degree celcius, 800 degree celcius and 1000 degree celcius. The average compressive strength of these two types of concrete before being too exposed to the high temperature is 30MPa and 60MPa. The following physical behaviors were measured for each concrete specimen prior to high temperature exposure: physical dimension, mass (initial mass, heated mass and total mass loss) and longitudinal resonance frequency (before and after heating). Before heating specimens until the selected temperature, a baseline data or control data set was generated for each type of concrete after exposure to a nominal room temperature (25 degree celcius). The selected temperatures were accomplished by placing the specimens into a low temperature electrical furnace for temperature below than 3000C and used high temperature electrical furnace for temperature greater than 300 degree celcius. Then the specimens will heat with rate of heating 200 degree celcius per hour or 50C per minute until reached steady state condition at one of selected temperature. Specimen will heat with a total heating period of 7 hours before cooled to room temperature for 24 hours. The specimens were weighed and resonance frequency was measured again (after heating). The compressive strength of each specimen was measured. Result from this research may be useful for assessing post fire behavior properties of high strength concrete.


One of the inevitable consequences of schooling is this: a substantial number of children will experience some failure during their educational careers. In general, students fail when they are unable to learn the skills their teachers think they should learn, at the time the teachers think they should. We believe that efforts to reduce school failure must turn away from trying to fix students. Instead teachers should concentrate on transforming their classrooms to make them places which are more congenial to the linguistic, cultural, social, and intellectual backgrounds students bring to school. In short, teachers need to create a community of learners.


Studies on moisture augmentation of cotton bales have shown that excessive amounts of water lead to a reduction in fiber quality. To identify an acceptable range of cotton bale moistures that could be used for moisture restoration without degrading fiber quality during long-term bale storage, cotton was treated with moderate amounts of supplementary moisture and examined after storage for 1 yr (6 mo under ambient warehouse conditions and then 6 mo under processing room conditions). The target moisture contents were 10, 8, and 6%, and a non-treated control bale. The actual initial moisture contents were 9.5, 8.0, 5.4, and 5.0%, respectively. When the bales were opened for sampling, the control and low-level moisture treatment bales gained moisture, while the two high-level moisture treatment bales lost moisture. The bale moisture content tended to equilibrate to between 6 and 7% during storage, so bales treated with higher moisture would most likely be delivered a lower weight bale to the end user. Except for a small color grade change and increase in the short fiber index at the highest moisture treatment, cotton dust potential and fiber quality, especially with regard to color grade, reflectance or yellowness, from the different treatments were not significantly different. Lower viable microbial populations were observed with increasing moisture content, but this did not appear to have any practical significance based on the lack of differences in fiber quality.


The processing and application properties of polymers in general and of Poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (PC) in particular strongly depend on their composition (molar mass distribution, architecture, chemical moiety). Thus, a comprehensive knowledge of the molecular parameters is required for a rational material development. However, the overall structure of polymer chains is a difficult-to-access function with regard to molar mass distribution (MMD) on the one hand and the complex chain architecture on the other hand. Unfortunately, there are no comprehensive characterization methods available that can extract information on the structure of branched PCs so far. Therefore, the aim of this work was the development of a liquid chromatographic method that allows a PC separation according to chain structure types and quantification with regard to molar masses as well as proportions of these species. In the first part of this thesis, the critical conditions of PC on a PGC stationary phase were established applying the eluent systems CHCl3/TCB and CHCl3/DCB. At these conditions a separation of PC according to the number of hydroxyl end-groups was observed, which was confirmed by MALDI-TOF-MS analysis of the eluting fractions. Analysis of a branched PC sample revealed that a separation of branched structures based on the hydroxyl end-groups could not be achieved with the developed method. Furthermore, a gradual change in the separation selectivity was observed over time, which was explained by the formation of polymer monolayers on the stationary phase and thus necessitated a continuous adjustment of the mobile phase composition. However, in contrast to methods already known in the literature, the presented method was suitable for the identification of linear PC structures with two hydroxyl end-groups. Thus, the developed method can be used to investigate PC degradation products, which might be formed upon hydrolysis or oxidation during the application period of the material. Furthermore, the method may be highly valuable to monitor the end-capping during the PC synthesis, which is used to control the molar masses on the one hand and on the other hand protects the polymer chains from degradation. Taking into account the drawbacks of porous graphitic carbon as stationary phase for the separation of PC, a normal-phase silica stationary phase was chosen as alternative. However, working at conditions for LCCC also did not lead to the desired PC separation according to branching. Thus, a novel chromatographic approach was developed where the mobile phase composition is varied around the critical point by a solvent gradient (solvent gradient at near-critical conditions, SG-NCC). To elucidate the underlying separation mechanism, a branched sample was subjected to SG-NCCC and the eluting fractions were collected. These were analyzed by MALDI-TOF-MS and TD-SEC, and the THPE contents in the individual fractions were quantified. Thus, it could be confirmed that the method indeed separated according to molar masses, hydroxyl end-groups as well as branching. In order to improve the separation performance the developed method was hyphenated with a separation according to molar mass to an on-line 2D-LC (SG-NCC × SEC). In the corresponding 2D contour plots individual linear and branched structures could be identified and their content could be determined by a quantitative detector. Based on theory of liquid adsorption chromatography an earlier elution of polymer chains with lower molar masses was expected, as the number of repeating units defines the interaction strength. However, a reversal of that elution order was observed in the SG-NCC chromatogram when moving from linear to branched chains. This phenomenon could be explained by end-group effects described in the literature, which may affect the strength of the interactions with the stationary phase depending on their arrangement along the chain. In order to further characterize the branched and linear structures that could be separated by the developed 2D-LC analysis the method was augmented by TD and additional insights into the polymer chain structure could be obtained. Moreover, for the first time, the degree of branching was investigated in a 2D-LC experiment, the corresponding 2D contour plot could be established and the individual structures were quantified. Furthermore, the absolute molar mass distribution of the specific spots was extracted. Therefore, 2D-LC with TD offered an experimental opportunity to determine the detailed polymer chain composition in a branched PC sample for the first time. This method could be exploited to investigate the predictive power of statistical Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation models. MC models have been developed aiming at a statistical determination of the chain structure of branched PC in order to predict the resulting material processing properties. However, MC simulations are based on empirical data evaluations and involve a number of model assumptions. The chain structures of branched PC predicted by MC simulations were compared with experimental data that are accessible by the newly developed 2D-LC with TD. For that purpose, the MMDs as well as proportions of linear and branched structures in a PC sample could be quantified by LC and the outcomes were compared with MC simulations. The results revealed fair agreement and deviations could be explained by assumptions in the MC models. In order to improve the predictive power of the MC simulations, additional branched PC samples differing in degree of branching and molar masses might be investigated in further studies. The determined proportions of branched and linear structures may be compared with the outcomes of MC models and the MC simulation should be further optimized, if required. Furthermore, the information on the degree of branching that could be determined in the 2D-LC with TD might be correlated with chain structures derived from MC simulations. In that way, the comprehension on the structure composition of branched PC might be deepened, the predictive power of rheological simulations could be improved and tailor-made synthesis of branched PC materials may be developed.


Poor understanding of the clinicopathological features of prostate cancer (CaP) in Black men (BM) is one of the major challenges implicated in the management and prevention of the disease. The development of CaP involves an accumulation of multiple oncogenic events with associated increase in prostate specific antigen (PSA) and stress related hormones such as Cortisol.  This data aim to examine the role of Cortisol and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in CaP development. Data was collected as part of a large CaPTC Familial CaP Cohort Study.  The HRQoL indicators were measured and salivary Cortisol levels evaluated by enzyme immunoassay. CaP tissue expression patterns of cortisol and Annexin V were also studied by immunohistochemistry. The HRQoL indicators showed a significant difference between participants with and without physical activity (P = 0.025), stress (P = 0.008) and self-care (P = 0.005). There was significant increase in salivary cortisol levels in the CaP patients compared to CaP-free participants (P = 0.003). The salivary cortisol level for the CaP patients ranged from 1.029 µg/dL to 0.037 µg/dL while the range for the CaP-free participants was from 0.139 µg/dL to 0.026 µg/dL. In addition, we found increased expression of the cortisol protein in CaP patients with Gleason score 8 compared to those with lower scores and the CaP tissues showed overexpression of Annexin V protein. Salivary and tissue cortisol levels with an accompanying Annexin V expression may serve as important biomarkers for prostate cancer diagnosis and prognosis in West African Black men.


Background Cell proliferation is associated with the pathogenesis of cancer because it provides opportunities for accumulating genetic mutations. However, biomarkers of cell proliferation in response to environmental stimuli have not been adequately explored for breast cancer risk. Methods In a case-control study of 200 breast cancer patients and 360 healthy controls, we investigated the association between phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-induced mitotic index in blood lymphocyte and breast cancer risk. Results Having high mitotic index (>3.19%) was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, with adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of 1.54 (1.03–2.30) and 2.03 (1.18–3.57) for all women and post-menopausal women, respectively. Mitotic index was correlated with some reproductive factors and body mass index in controls. Conclusions Our data suggest increased PHA-induced mitotic index in blood lymphocytes is associated with an increased breast cancer risk and that this association may be modulated by reproductive and other hormones.


Network monitoring and diagnosis capabilities are critical for the seamless operation of a network. ISPs use sophisticated systems to routinely monitor and diagnose their networks, but end users do not have such capabilities. To address this problem, we develop Emodis—a network monitoring and diagnosis system. In this paper, we describe the architecture and the software components of Emodis. Like other end-user oriented network monitoring systems, Emodis is deployed on a diverse set of Internet nodes, so it shares common requirements such as security and robustness with these systems. However, the focus of Emodis is on route-sensitive path metrics such as available bandwidth and packet loss rate, resulting in two unique characteristics: (1) it implements a variety of measurement techniques, including sophisticated bandwidth measurement techniques, but hides many technical details from end users; (2) it implements a scheduling algorithm to synchronize the measurements from different vantage points, which relieves end users from complicated network measurement management. Ningning Hu and Peter Steenkiste were in part supported by the NSF under award number CCR-0205266.


Problem statement: considering the extent of deteriorated urban areas and ignorance of energy/ climate problems in regeneration of this areas, make this subject, one of the main priorities of studies. Research objective: comparison between alternatives, it can be observed that considering the principles of climate-friendly design in a small block of urban scale, even with maximum adherence to mass and space principle and the features of approved plan, make it possible to save energy by providing design qualities such as central courtyards. Research Methodology: The methodological approach of this research is quantitative and its strategy is simulation and modeling using Builder Design software. Also, a comparative study method has been used to compare the energy consumption of three options (current situation, approved plan and proposed plan) for the urban block plan located in the deteriorated area of Hemmatabad. Conclusion: In a comparative study, it is observed that in an urban block, even with maximum adherence to the mass and space and the orientation of the approved design, it is possible to save more energy consumption by providing design qualities, including private areas (central courtyards). The central courtyard with the outer skin consisting of Heblex blocks has the lowest energy consumption.


The UK transport white paper 'A New Deal for Transport' and new Transport Acts for England, Wales and Scotland have indicated and defined the future direction and policy agenda of national governments. The need for integrated transport raises key policy issues, among which are: the importance of sustainability; and the integration of transport policy with other areas of public policy, such as social exclusion and health. The idea of this direction in policy has implications for the changing nature of work, traveller information, interchange and public transport, freight distribution and the use of new technology. This volume also examines key areas of policy and regulation, which are developing as a result of the White Paper and the new Transport Acts. This volume brings together leading UK academics in the field of Transport Studies to discuss and reflect on these issues, and the state of Transport Policy in the UK within this new and developing policy framework. In doing so, this timely collection provides the first comprehensive review of this vital policy area


Membrane traffic in activated macrophages is required for two critical events in innate immunity: proinflammatory cytokine secretion and phagocytosis of pathogens. We found a joint trafficking pathway linking both actions, which may economize membrane transport and augment the immune response. Tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) is trafficked from the Golgi to the recycling endosome (RE), where vesicle-associated membrane protein 3 mediates its delivery to the cell surface at the site of phagocytic cup formation. Fusion of the RE at the cup simultaneously allows rapid release of TNFα and expands the membrane for phagocytosis.


A feasibility study on the possible growth of rod-shaped nano size zinc oxide particles on the surface of polyester fabric was investigated. The nanoparticles were produced using a hydrolysis method, with a zinc compound being utilized as the starter material. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM/EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) have been used to characterize the composition of the nano particles, as well as their shape, size and crystallinity. The application of nano zinc oxide onto the polyester fabric was carried out in aqueous solutions at high temperatures, using the exhaustion method. The effective parameters such as time, temperature, the concentration of the dispersed nanogel and also the rate of heating, were selected to study the adsorption of the nanoparticles on the polyester fabric. The elemental analysis technique SEM/EDS was used to evaluate the amount of zinc on each sample. Finally, the possible growth of nanorod zinc oxide on a prepared sample using the sol gel technique was tested and desirable results were confirmed by means of SEM analysis.


While episodic and spatial memory both depend on the hippocampus, opposite gender differences in these functions suggest they are partly separate, with different neural underpinnings. The anterior and posterior hippocampus differ in structure and whole-brain connectivity, and studies point to the posterior hippocampus being more involved in spatial memory while the anterior hippocampus' role in episodic memory is less clear. This thesis aims to explore the role of the anterior and posterior hippocampus, and associated brain regions, in episodic and spatial memory. Paper I studied gender differences in hippocampal activation underlying differences in spatial memory performance. Better performance in men was accompanied by greater right-lateralization of hippocampal activation compared to women. Paper II investigated regions of gray matter that covaried in volume with the anterior and posterior hippocampus, and whether these covariance patterns depended on gender and were related to behavior. The anterior and posterior hippocampus showed different patterns of covariance, with the anterior hippocampus covariance pattern observed in women and the posterior hippocampus covariance pattern primarily in men. Paper III considered whether the location of hippocampal recruitment in episodic memory depends on memory content. Verbal stimuli were associated with more anterior, and left-lateralized, encoding activations than pictorial stimuli, which in turn were associated with more posterior and bilateral encoding activations. This was not observed during retrieval. Paper IV investigated whether resting-state connectivity associated with the anterior and posterior hippocampus predicts episodic and spatial memory performance, respectively. Resting-state connectivity associated with the anterior, not posterior, hippocampus predicted episodic memory performance, while resting-state connectivity associated with the posterior, not anterior, hippocampus predicted spatial memory performance. This thesis lends further support to differences in function and structure between the anterior and posterior hippocampus suggesting that these two sub–segments play different roles in episodic and spatial memory. Further, it suggests that gender differences in anterior and posterior hippocampus function underlies gender differences in episodic and spatial memory, respectively. Considering the anterior and posterior hippocampus, as well as men and women, separately, is hence important when studying the effect of age and pathology on the hippocampus and associated memory functions. List of Papers This thesis is based on the following papers, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. (2013) Remembering our origin: gender differences in spatial memory are reflected in gender differences in hippocampal lateralization. (2014) Sex differences in volume and structural covariance of the anterior and posterior hippocampus. NeuroImage, …


We consider the problem of bulk data transfers and bandwidth sharing in the context of grid infrastructures. Grid computing empowers high-performance computing in a large-scale distributed environment. Network bandwidth, which makes the expensive computational and storage resources work in concert, plays an active role on carrying grid applications traffic. Due to specific traffic patterns and application scenarios, grid network resource management encounters new challenges. From the bandwidth sharing perspective, this article looks at network bandwidth shared among computing and storage elements. Referred to as short-lived, grid data requests with transmission window and volume are scheduled in the network. By manipulating the transmission window, the request accept rate and network resource utilization are to be optimized. The formulated optimization problem is proven NP-complete. Associated with proposed heuristics, simulations are carried out to illustrate the pros and cons of each bandwidth sharing strategy and its application scenarios. A tuning factor, that allows for adapting performance objective, is introduced to adjust network infrastructure and workload


Abstract Accurate assessment of a child's health is critical for appropriate allocation of medical resources and timely delivery of healthcare in Emergency Departments. The accurate measurement of vital signs is a key step in the determination of the severity of illness and respiratory rate is currently the most difficult vital sign to measure accurately. Several previous studies have attempted to extract respiratory rate from photoplethysmogram (PPG) recordings. However, the majority have been conducted in controlled settings using PPG recordings from healthy subjects. In many studies, manual selection of clean sections of PPG recordings was undertaken before assessing the accuracy of the signal processing algorithms developed. Such selection procedures are not appropriate in clinical settings. A major limitation of AR modelling, previously applied to respiratory rate estimation, is an appropriate selection of model order. This study developed a novel algorithm that automatically estimates respiratory rate from a median spectrum constructed applying multiple AR models to processed PPG segments acquired with pulse oximetry using a finger probe. Good-quality sections were identified using a dynamic template-matching technique to assess PPG signal quality. The algorithm was validated on 205 children presenting to the Emergency Department at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK, with reference respiratory rates up to 50 breaths per minute estimated by paediatric nurses. At the time of writing, the authors are not aware of any other study that has validated respiratory rate estimation using data collected from over 200 children in hospitals during routine triage.


In agricultural research conducted in dry areas, crop‐yield water use efficiency (WUE) is a measure used to evaluate the impacts of various agronomic factors on crop productivity. Agronomic management factors include supplemental irrigation (SI) and crop‐rotation systems, which are used to increase the sustainability of crop production systems. A study of lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus) was conducted in split‐plot experiments in randomized complete blocks, where planning date (PD) were assigned to main‐plots and SI to sub‐plots. Lentil was grown in rotation with durum wheat (i.e., lentil was grown 1 year and durum wheat the next, on the same plot of land) over a period of 4 years (1996/1997–1999/2000) at the research station of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), at Tel Hadya, Syria. Spatial variability in the field trials and correlations between the plot errors arising over time were studied to examine their effects on the significance and precision of the estimates of the effects of PD and SI on yields (of both seed and total biomass) and WUE. The analyses revealed the presence of significant linear soil‐fertility trends within the fields and strongly auto‐correlated plot errors. When these trends were accounted for in the analysis of yield and WUE data, the estimates of the treatment effects had greater levels of significance and precision than when the trends were ignored. It is recommended that in agronomic field trials, such as lentil variety evaluation trials, one should identify the most appropriate spatial and temporal covariance structures and use these to draw statistical inferences about the effects of agronomic input factors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Until recently, clinicians and researchers have performed gait assessments and cognitive assessments separately when evaluating older adults, but increasing evidence from clinical practice, epidemiological studies, and clinical trials shows that gait and cognition are interrelated in older adults. Quantifiable alterations in gait in older adults are associated with falls, dementia, and disability. At the same time, emerging evidence indicates that early disturbances in cognitive processes such as attention, executive function, and working memory are associated with slower gait and gait instability during single‐ and dual‐task testing and that these cognitive disturbances assist in the prediction of future mobility loss, falls, and progression to dementia. This article reviews the importance of the interrelationship between gait and cognition in aging and presents evidence that gait assessments can provide a window into the understanding of cognitive function and dysfunction and fall risk in older people in clinical practice. To this end, the benefits of dual‐task gait assessments (e.g., walking while performing an attention‐demanding task) as a marker of fall risk are summarized. A potential complementary approach for reducing the risk of falls by improving certain aspects of cognition through nonpharmacological and pharmacological treatments is also presented. Untangling the relationship between early gait disturbances and early cognitive changes may be helpful in identifying older adults at risk of experiencing mobility decline, falls, and progression to dementia.


Much remains to be learned about the physiologic events that promote monocytes to become lymph-homing dendritic cells (DCs). In a model of transendothelial trafficking, some monocytes become DCs in response to endogenous signals. These DCs migrate across endothelium in the ablumenal-to-lumenal direction (reverse transmigration), reminiscent of the migration into lymphatic vessels. Here we show that the subpopulation of monocytes that expresses CD16 (Fcγ receptor III) is predisposed to become migratory DCs. The vast majority of cells derived from CD16+ monocytes reverse transmigrated, and their presence was associated with migratory cells expressing high levels of CD86 and human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR, and robust capacity to induce allogeneic T cell proliferation. A minority of CD16− monocytes reverse transmigrated, and these cells stimulated T cell proliferation less efficiently. CD16 was not functionally required for reverse transmigration, but promoted cell survival when yeast particles (zymosan) were present as a maturation stimulus in the subendothelial matrix. The cell surface phenotype and migratory characteristics of CD16+ monocytes were inducible in CD16− monocytes by preincubation with TGFβ1. We propose that CD16+ monocytes may contribute significantly to precursors for DCs that transiently survey tissues and migrate to lymph nodes via afferent lymphatic vessels.


There are many different understandings of the word 'christocentric', both among past and current scholars. In this article, the author aligns with those who regard the life, teaching, and person of the Lord Jesus Christ as the locus of doctrinal formulation and proclamation, but applies this approach specifically to the hermeneutic enterprise. The key contention is that scripture should be interpreted primarily from the perspective of either of Jesus' character, values, principles, and priorities as revealed directly or indirectly by the biblical revelation of what he said and did. This is called the 'christocentric principle'. The article proceeds from interacting with other scholars who hold a similar view, to identifying the biblical support for the argument, to a brief example of how the principle can be applied. Before concluding, the author deals briefly with some objections to the central idea espoused.


In this paper, a new energy model is developed based on the kinematic and dynamic behaviors of a chosen machine tool. One significant benefit of the developed energy model is their inherited relationship to the design variables involved in the manufacturing processes. Without radical changes of the machine tool's structure, the proposed model can be readily applied to optimize process parameters to reduce energy consumption. A new parallel kinematic machine Exechon is used as a case study to demonstrate the modeling procedure. The derived energy model is then used for simulation of drilling operations on aircraft components to verify its feasibility. Simulation results indicate that the developed energy model has led to an optimized machine setup which only consumes less than one-third of the energy of an average machine setup over the workspace. This approach can be extended and applied to other machines to establish their energy models for green and sustainable manufacturing.


Background: Dengue is the most prevalent arboviral disease world-wide and its primary vector is the mosquito Aedes aegypti. The current lack of commercially-available vaccines makes control of vector populations the only effective strategy to prevent dengue transmission. Aedes aegypti geographic populations exhibit great variability in insecticide resistance and susceptibility to dengue infection. The characterization of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as molecular markers to study quantitatively this variation is needed greatly because this species has a low abundance of microsatellite markers and limited known restriction fragments length polymorphisms (RFLPs) and single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) markers. Results: We used RNA-seq to characterize SNPs in three Ae. aegypti strains, including the Liverpool (LVP) strain, from which the current genome annotation is derived. We identified 131,764 unique genome locations with at least one alternative nucleotide to what is reported in the reference annotation. These comprised changes in both open-reading frames (ORFs) and untranslated regions (UTRs) of transcripts. An in depth-look at sequence variation in immunity genes revealed that those associated with autophagy, MD2-like receptors and Peptidoglycan Recognition Proteins had more sequence variation in their 3'UTRs than mutations associated with non-synonymous changes. This supports the conclusion that these genes had maintained their functional specificity while being adapted to different regulatory domains. In contrast, a number of peroxidases, serpins and Clip-domain serine proteases exhibited conservation of putative UTR regulatory sequences while displaying diversification of the ORFs. Transcriptome evidence also was found for ~2500 novel transcriptional units (NTUs) not annotated in the reference genome. Conclusions: The transcriptome-wide assessment of within and inter-strain polymorphisms in Ae. aegypti adds considerably to the number of molecular markers available for genetic studies in this mosquito. Additionally, data supporting NTU discovery emphasizes the need for continuous amendments of the reference genome annotation.


American universities are becoming increasingly committed to the necessity of broadening global perspectives, expanding student's world-views, and of modeling global citizenship. Since cultural competence is required for accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), the need for such efforts is growing exponentially. Exposure to global health experiences through study abroad has become an increasingly important means in providing such opportunities, as part of nursing curricula. These study abroad opportunities have been found to benefit nursing students in many ways by providing students with opportunities to acquire knowledge in a foreign country, thereby gaining diverse cultural perspectives, as well as global competence.


During machining, most of the thermal sources are resulting from the conversion of mechanical energy during the chip shearing mechanism and the intense frictions between the tool, the chip, and the machined surface. Thermal gradients are high and localized, especially for low thermal diffusivity material like titanium alloys. Moreover, heat rates come close to few million degrees per second in the shearing zones. Even though several authors performed thermography techniques to determine the temperature distribution into the machined material, their results remain underestimated due to experimental limitations. In this research, a new temperature measurement technique has been developed based on a single wire thermocouple to measure at one exact location both the temperature and the heating rate during orthogonal cutting test. The tests are performed with uncut chip thicknesses of 0.020 mm and 0.100 mm and with a cutting speed of 120 m/min with two different cutting angles. Results are discussed and compared to prior studies.