OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to identify the central concepts of a model that would facilitate the return to work process of individuals with brain injury. However for the purpose of this paper there will be a focus only on the barriers and facilitators that influence the return to work process.

PARTICIPANTS
Ten individuals who were diagnosed with a mild to moderate brain injury participated in this study.

METHODS
Qualitative research methods were used in order to explore the research question. The participants were selected by means of purposive sampling and the data was collected by means of in depth interviews.

RESULTS
The results of the study revealed that the participants experienced a sense of loss of function after the brain injury, a fear of the future and loss of confidence in their worker roles. The participants also indicated that by means of adapting occupational routines an actively engaging in rehabilitation they developed confidence in their worker roles.

CONCLUSION
Occupational therapists have to use a client centred holistic work integrative approach in order to successfully rehabilitate as well as facilitate the return to work process with people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury.


A statistical sampling-based parametric analysis is presented for analyzing large power grids in a "localized" fashion. By combining random walks with the notion of "importance sampling," the proposed technique is capable of efficiently computing the impacts of multiple circuit parameters on selected network nodes. A "new localized" sensitivity analysis is first proposed to solve not only the nominal node response but also its sensitivities with respect to multiple parameters using a single run of the random walks algorithm. This sampling-based technique is further extended from the first-order sensitivity analysis to a more general second-order analysis. By exploiting the natural spatial locality inherent in the proposed algorithm formulation, the second-order analysis can be performed efficiently even for a large number of global and local variation sources. The theoretical convergence properties of three importance sampling estimators for power grid analysis are presented, and their effectiveness is compared experimentally on several examples. The superior performance of the proposed technique is demonstrated by analyzing several large power grids under process and current loading variations to which the application of the existing brute-force simulation techniques becomes completely infeasible


We consider a class of learning problems that involve a structured sparsity-inducing norm defined as the sum of l∞-norms over groups of variables. Whereas a lot of effort has been put in developing fast optimization methods when the groups are disjoint or embedded in a specific hierarchical structure, we address here the case of general overlapping groups. To this end, we show that the corresponding optimization problem is related to network flow optimization. More precisely, the proximal problem associated with the norm we consider is dual to a quadratic min-cost flow problem. We propose an efficient procedure which computes its solution exactly in polynomial time. Our algorithm scales up to millions of variables, and opens up a whole new range of applications for structured sparse models. We present several experiments on image and video data, demonstrating the applicability and scalability of our approach for various problems.


The one-shot sequence – the articulation of an entire scene through a
 single, unbroken long take – is one of the cinema's most important
 rhetorical devices and has therefore been much used and widely theorised over
 the years. This article provides a brief overview of these theories and of the
 multiple ways in which the one-shot sequence has been used both in world cinema
 (in general) and Italian cinema (in particular) in order to contextualise its
 use by one of Italian cinema's best-known and most significant
 practitioners, Paolo Sorrentino. Through close analyses of one-shot sequences in
 Sorrentino's films L'uomo in più/One Man
 Up, Le conseguenze dell'amore/The Consequences of
 Love, This Is the Place and Il divo –
 La vita spettacoloare di Giulio Andreotti – the article argues
 that Sorrentino's predilection for the device is best explained by the
 wide variety of functions that it serves (as a mark of directorial bravura and
 auteur status; as a self-reflexive device and meditation on the cinematic gaze;
 as a political tool; and as a means of generating emotion). While rooted in
 history, Sorrentino's use of the one-shot sequence thus transcends its
 position within Italian film history and discourse.


Ushered by recent developments in various areas of science and technology, modern energy systems are going to be an inevitable part of our societies. Smart grids are one of these modern systems that have attracted many research activities in recent years. Before utilizing the next generation of smart grids, we should have a comprehensive understanding of the interdependent energy networks and processes. Next-generation energy systems networks cannot be effectively designed, analyzed, and controlled in isolation from the social, economic, sensing, and control contexts in which they operate. In this article, we present a novel framework to support charging and storage infrastructure design for electric vehicles. We develop coordinated clustering techniques to work with network models of urban environments to aid in placement of charging stations for an electrical vehicle deployment scenario. Furthermore, we evaluate the network before and after the deployment of charging stations, to recommend the installation of appropriate storage units to overcome the extra load imposed on the network by the charging stations. We demonstrate the multiple factors that can be simultaneously leveraged in our framework to achieve practical urban deployment. Our ultimate goal is to help realize sustainable energy system management in urban electrical infrastructure by modeling and analyzing networks of interactions between electric systems and urban populations.


The squeeze in US dollar liquidity that emerged with the global financial crisis highlighted the risks associated with the current global financial system. Asia was adversely affected by the crisis not only because of its dependence on trade, but also because of its heavy reliance on the US dollar for regional and international transactions. As Asia's role in the global economy expands further, its dependence on the US dollar is bound to increase, raising even more its vulnerability to future liquidity shocks. The use of regional currencies for bilateral trade settlement could reduce such vulnerability. As demonstrated by the renminbi trade settlement scheme piloted between the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong, China, the existence of appropriate financial infrastructure could reduce the relatively larger costs of bilateral currency transactions compared with triangular transactions through the US dollar. As most central banks are securities depositories of government bonds, combining trade settlement with government bond securities settlement can also have large synergy effects without much extra costs. This proposal does not require full liberalization of the capital account or full deregulation of capital markets, and is more politically feasible in transition. As such, extending the trade settlement scheme to the rest of Asia and appending a government bond payment and securities settlement system could be a practical solution to international monetary system reform and the diversification of settlement currencies.


Scholars have increasingly theorized, and debated, the decision by states to create and delegate authority to international courts, as well as the subsequent autonomy and behavior of those courts, with principal–agent and trusteeship models disagreeing on the nature and extent of states' influence on international judges. This article formulates and tests a set of principal–agent hypotheses about the ways in which, and the conditions under which, member states are able use their powers of judicial nomination and appointment to influence the endogenous preferences of international judges. The empirical analysis surveys the record of all judicial appointments to the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) over a 15-year period. We present a view of an Appellate Body appointment process that, far from representing a pure search for expertise, is deeply politicized and offers member-state principals opportunities to influence Appellate Body members ex ante and possibly ex post. We further demonstrate that the Appellate Body nomination process has become progressively more politicized over time as member states, responding to earlier and controversial Appellate Body decisions, became far more concerned about judicial activism and more interested in the substantive opinions of Appellate Body candidates, systematically championing candidates whose views on key issues most closely approached their own, and opposing candidates perceived to be activist or biased against their substantive preferences. Although our empirical study is specific to the WTO, our theory and findings have implications for the judicial politics of a large variety of global and regional international courts and tribunals.


The parametric uncertainty is defined as the gap between the complete model of a dynamical process and its simplified nominal one which is normally used to investigate the properties of the system. It is because of this model mismatch that the role of sensitivity in designing control systems becomes very important. In robust control, the parametric uncertainty is taken into account in both the analysis and the synthesis phases of the closed-loop system. In this thesis, first, robustness to small parameter variation is studied using differential sensitivity functions. A combined diagram is used to generate relative sensitivity functions which can be used for improving existing controllers. Several control structures which are suitable for the design of zero-sensitivity control systems are presented. Then, as a framework for studying large parameter uncertainty, the RST controller has been chosen. Robustness criteria, based on parameter uncertainty, have been established. Two complementary ways to robustify a nominal RST controller are presented. First, the pole placement characteristic polynomial is augmented in the second approach, we try to compensate the supplementary signal due to the parametric uncertainty. This signal causes the nominal system misfunction. Instead of estimating this generalized perturbation, various block-diagrams are used to emulate it. As far as identification is concerned, a new method of robust identification which reinforces the tracking capability of RLS algorithm for a nonstationary system is presented. Normally, the gain matrix of RLS has to be adjusted when parameter variations are detected. In this work, an on-line estimation of the parameter covariance as an additional gain matrix is proposed for this adjustment on the basis of the prediction error. Then, the diagonal elements of this computed covariance matrix are used to calculate an on-line estimation of the parameter uncertainty.


Due to the construction of Naoetsu harbor, severe beach erosion has taken place on the Joetsu-Ogata coast facing the Japan Sea. To establish a principal methodology for beach stabilization, large scale coastal behavior first is investigated by constructing a long-term shoreline change model in which the representative monsoon wave is introduced. Comparison of hindcast and actual long-term shoreline change shows that the proposed model can predict long-term shoreline change. Shoreline change after the construction of Naoetsu harbor also was predicted under the condition that natural sandy beaches had been retained. Results show that shoreline retreat is severe near the harbor and extends to the central part of the coast. To determine the most suitable location for headlands to be used for stabilizing the coast, long-term shoreline changes were calculated under the condition that a headland is given at several locations. We conclude that in principle when the boundary condition for shoreline change by headland is given near the Shinbori River, a sandy beach tends to have stable large scale coastal behavior during longterm shoreline change. We propose a principal methodology for beach stabilization, part of which is being used in current construction.


The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigorindeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.


Diffusion coefficients for the intercellular movement of fluorescent tracers have been measured in the epidermis of a larval beetle. Fluorescent tracer was injected into a cell and the spread of tracer from cell to cell in this monolayer was recorded by a TV camera. Fluorescence intensities were digitized from the TV images at successive times after the start of injection at various distances from the source by a microcomputer interfaced with a video analyzer. From the relationship between concentration (measured as light intensity), time and distance, an effective diffusion coefficient (De) is calculated for the tracer in the tissue. In newly ecdysed epidermis, De for carboxyfluorescein (CF) is 2.7 X 10(-7) cm2/s, and De for lissamine rhodamine B (LRB) is 1.2 X 10(-7) cm2/s, whereas in intermolt epidermis the De's for CF and LRB are 3.7 X 10(-7) and 1.2 X 10(-7) cm2/s, respectively. These diffusion coefficients are only an order of magnitude lower than their values in water. The ratio of De for the two tracers at these two stages of development differs from the ratio predicted in cytoplasm alone, with the movement of the slightly larger molecule (LRB) being impeded relative to that of the smaller molecule (CF). This suggests that the properties of the membrane channels amplify differences in the rates of movement of molecules of similar size. This may be important during cell patterning in development. De for CF was also monitored as junctional resistance was increased in the epidermis. During 30 min of exposure to 0.25 mM chlorpromazine, De dropped to 20% of its initial value of 5 X 10(-7) cm2/s, implying that the junctional membrane, rather than cytoplasm, is the major barrier to molecular diffusion among the cells.


On May 20, 2012 (02:03:53 UTC), an Mw 5.86 (Ml 5.9) earthquake struck the Pianura Padana Emiliana region (northern Italy), causing five deaths and damage to several villages and to the towns of Ferrara and Modena. The mainshock was preceded, three hours earlier, by a Mw 3.98 (Ml 4.1) foreshock, which almost co-located with the main event. After the main event, the seismic sequence included six earthquakes with magnitudes >5.0. The biggest aftershock was located about 12 km west of the first mainshock, and was a Mw 5.66 (Ml 5.8) earthquake that occurred on May 29, 2012 (07:00:03 UTC); this can be considered as a second mainshock. After this event, the official death toll of the seismic sequence was 17 people. Moreover, there had been severe damage to the economy of the region and there were 13,000 homeless. [...]


In 1997, 1-year-old, unbranched, ≈1-m-long shoots of the apple (Malus ×domestica Borkh.) rootstock 'Merton-Immune 793' (MI.793) were selected at random from two commercial stoolbeds in the Western Cape, South Africa, during the dormant period. One site has mild winters (307 Utah Chill Units (CU) in 1997, 34 °S, 300 m) while the other is moderately cold (1497 CU in 1997, 33°S, 950 m). In 1998, 'Granny Smith' shoots were collected from a mature orchard in another warm area (574 CU in 1998, 34°S, 116 m). Shoots were prepared and forced at 25 °C with continuous illumination. During dormancy the developmental rate was determined of the terminal bud, and of both distally and proximally situated lateral buds, with or without the inhibitory influence of a distal disbudded shoot piece (10 cm long). In the moderately cold area, the growth rate of the terminal bud increased shortly before spring budburst such that a weak acrotonic tendency was established. The shorter dormant period, as experienced with the mild winters common to the apple-growing regions of the Western Cape, impeded the full development of acrotony and subsequent apical control. With less chilling (mild areas) a basitonic tendency remained. Budburst was slower and more erratic, and inhibition by the distal shoot parts was accentuated. Delayed foliation may be due more to correlative inhibition than to endodormancy. When lateral buds are released from paradormancy they exhibit a growth potential similar to, or, with less chilling, even greater than, that of the terminal bud. This permits a greater expression of autonomy between shoots.


Objective: The objective of this study was to review and summarize published studies on human health effects of oil spill exposure. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted for articles published on health effects of oil spill exposure. More than 250 articles were examined, and only those articles that dealt with health effects on human populations were included. The methodology, results, discussion, and conclusions for each study were reviewed and summarized. Results: Published studies are helpful in identifying acute and, to some extent, chronic health effects related to major oil spills. Nevertheless, many of these reports were focused on the behavioral health effects of the oil spill exposures in the affected population. Conclusions: These published studies clearly support the need for further assessment of the potential short- and long-term repercussions in human populations exposed to oil spills.


SUMMARY Five species of Phoronida2 have been recorded in Australianwaters, from the vicinities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne: Phoronis pa/lida, P. psammophila, P. australis, Phoronopsis albomaculata and Phoronopsis harmeri. A diagnosis for each species is given, together with notes on their taxonomy and ecology. The descriptions of three species, Phoronis pallida, P. psammophila and Phoronopsis albomaculata, have been expanded or modified. Phoronopsis albomaculata possesses nephridia with a single funnel, nottwo, and sometimes has a spiral lophophore. A new key to the species of Phoronida is provided, modifying the key established by Emig (1971).


Using a paracrine assay to screen for signaling proteins that could respecify ectodermal tissue, we isolated a Xenopus gene related to the mouse gene nodal, a member of the TGFbeta superfamily. The gene is expressed in three regions in the early Xenopus embryo: first in the gastrula organizer, then in two stripes of cells flanking the posterior notochord in late neurulae, and finally in lateral plate mesoderm restricted to the left side of tailbud-stage embryos. Ectopic expression of the gene induces muscle formation in ectodermal explants and partial secondary axes in whole embryos. Together with noggin, another secreted protein also present in the organizer, it induces notochord formation in ectodermal explants and complete secondary axes in whole embryos. These results suggest that the nodal-related gene may act together with noggin to induce axial pattern during gastrulation and also may play a role in left-right asymmetry generation in the post-gastrula embryo.


Test-driven development (TDD) has gained recent attention with the popularity of the Extreme Programming agile software development methodology. Advocates of TDD rely primarily on anecdotal evidence with relatively little empirical evidence of the benefits of the practice. This research is the first comprehensive evaluation of how TDD affects software architecture and internal design quality.
Formal controlled experiments were conducted in undergraduate and graduate academic courses, in a professional training course, and with in-house professional development projects in a Fortune 500 company. The experiments involved over 230 student and professional programmers working on almost five hundred software projects ranging in size from one hundred to over 30,000 lines of code. The research also included a case study of fifteen software projects developed over five years in a Fortune 500 corporation.
This research demonstrates that software developers applying a test-first (TDD) approach are likely to improve some software quality aspects at minimal cost over a comparable test-last approach. In particular this research has shown statistically significant differences in the areas of code complexity, size, and testing. These internal quality differences can substantially improve external software quality (defects), software maintainability, software understandability, and software reusability. Further this research has shown that mature programmers who have used both the test-first and test-last development approaches prefer the test-first approach.
In addition, this research contributes a pedagogical approach called test-driven learning (TDL) that integrates TDD instruction at all levels. TDL was partially applied at all academic levels from early programming instruction through professional continuing education. Results indicate some differences between beginning and mature developers including reluctance by early programmers to adopt the TDD approach.
By providing the first substantial empirical evidence on TDD and internal software quality, this research establishes a benchmark and framework for future empirical studies. By focusing on both software design and software testing, this research is already raising awareness of TDD as both a design and testing approach through publications and international awards.


The Commission of the European Community has proposed a restructuring of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that is independent of the ongoing General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations. This study analyzes the proposal in terms of the flexibility it would grant EC negotiators at the GATT. The results indicate that adopting the proposal would sharply reduce the volume of EC cereal, meat, and dairy product exports. EC negotiators at the GATT would be able to offer significant reductions in export subsidies, a primary concern of the United States and other exporting countries. By reducing production, the proposal would also significantly reduce internal supports. An Aggregate Measure of Support (AMS) calculation estimates reductions from a base period of 1986-8 to 1997 that range from 17 percent for beef to 60 percent for pork and poultry. The proposal would provide increased market access, but would still insulate internal prices from world price fluctuations. Long-term world price increases attributable to EC export reductions are estimated to range from 5 percent to 10 percent for meat, corn, barley, and soybeans to 15 percent to 20 percent for wheat and dairy products.


Abstract This paper examines the competitive effects of reorganizing a network industry's vertical structure. In this industry, an upstream monopolist operates a network used as an input to produce horizontally differentiated final products that are imperfect substitutes. Three potential pitfalls of restructuring integrated network industries are analyzed: (i) double marginalization, (ii) underinvestment and (iii) vertical foreclosure. The paper studies the net effect of restructuring on retail prices and cost-reducing investment and discusses policy implications.


Increasing demands for high-performance handling of fluids in oil and gas as well as other applications require improvements of efficiency and reliability of screw pumps. Rotor profile plays the key role in the performance of such machines. This paper analyses difference in performance of 2–3 lobe combination of twin-screw pumps with different rotor profiles. A-type profile formed of involute–cycloid curves and D-type formed of cycloid curves are typical representatives for 2–3 type screw pumps. The investigation is performed by use of a full 3-D computational fluid dynamics analysis based on a single-domain structured moving mesh obtained by novel grid generation procedure. The real-time mass flow rate, rotor torque, pressure distribution and velocity field were obtained from 3D computational fluid dynamics calculations. The performance curves were produced for variable rotation speeds and variable discharge pressures. The computational fluid dynamics model was validated by comparing the simulation results of the A-type pump with the experimental data. In order to get the performance characteristics of D-type profile, two rotors with D-type profile were designed. The first has the same displacement volume as A-type while the second has the same lead and rotor length as A-type but different displacement volume. The comparison of results obtained with two rotor profiles gave an insight on the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.


Abstract With data from the South African gold mining industry, we find evidence consistent with theories that mergers and acquisitions allow for the shedding of excess labor. Mergers are arguably exogenous in our sample, while an industry in decline can provide a good setting for testing the theories. The data clearly portray rises in real wages and falling employment after the end of apartheid. We find evidence of a significant negative effect of mergers/acquisitions on employment. The magnitude is similar to the effect in Continental Europe and larger than the effect in the United States. This supports the view that negative employment impacts are more likely in rigid labor markets.


As part of the study on the Mantaro river basin's (central Andes of Per ú) current vulnerability to climate change, the temporal and spatial characteristics of frosts were analysed. These characteristics included intensity, frequency, duration, frost-free periods, area distribution and historical trends. Maps of frost risk were determined for the entire river basin, by means of mathematical algorithms and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) tools, using minimum temperature – 1960 to 2002 period, geomorphology, slope, landuse, types of soils, vegetation and life zones, emphasizing the rainy season (September to April), when the impacts of frost on agriculture are most severe. We recognized four categories of frost risks: low, moderate, high and critical. The critical risks (with a very high probability of occurrence) were related to high altitudes on the basin (altitudes higher than 3800 m a.s.l.), while the low (or null) probability of occurring risks were found in the lower zones (less than 2500 m a.s.l.). Because of the very intense agricultural activity and the high sensitivity of the main crops (Maize, potato, artichoke) in the Mantaro valley (altitudes between 3100 and 3300 m a.s.l.), moderate to high frost risks can be expected, with a low to moderate probability of occurrence. Another significant result was a positive trend of 8 days per decade in the number of frost days during the rainy season.


Adaptive radiations have served as model systems for quantifying the build-up of species richness. Few studies have quantified the tempo of diversification in species-rich clades that contain negligible adaptive disparity, making the macroevolutionary consequences of different modes of evolutionary radiation difficult to assess. We use mitochondrial-DNA sequence data and recently developed phylogenetic methodologies to explore the tempo of diversification of eastern North American Plethodon, a species-rich clade of woodland salamanders exhibiting only limited phenotypic disparity. Lineage-through-time analysis reveals a high rate of lineage accumulation, 0.8 species per million years, occurring 11–8 million years ago in the P. glutinosus species group, followed by decreasing rates. This high rate of lineage accumulation is exceptional, comparable to the most rapid of adaptive radiations. In contrast to classic models of adaptive radiation where ecological niche divergence is linked to the origin of species, we propose that phylogenetic niche conservatism contributes to the rapid accumulation of P. glutinosus-group lineages by promoting vicariant isolation and multiplication of species across a spatially and temporally fluctuating environment. These closely related and ecologically similar lineages persist through long-periods of evolutionary time and form strong barriers to the geographic spread of their neighbours, producing a subsequent decline in lineage accumulation. Rapid diversification among lineages exhibiting long-term maintenance of their bioclimatic niche requirements is an under-appreciated phenomenon driving the build-up of species richness.


In this digital volume, three historians of China, Jeffrey Snyder-Reinke, Christian Henriot, and Thomas S. Mullaney, chart out the history of China's rapidly shifting deathscape. Each essay grapples with a different dimension of grave relocation and burial reform in China over the past three centuries: from the phenomenon of "baby towers" in the Lower Yangzi region of late imperial China, to the histories of death in the city of Shanghai, and finally into the history of grave relocation during the contemporary period, examined by Mullaney, when both its scale and tempo increased dramatically. Rounding off these historical analyses, a colophon by platform developers David McClure and Glen Worthey speak to new reading methodologies emerging from a format in which text and map move in concert to advance historical argumentation.


Abstract. The properties of the subduction interplate domain are likely to affect not only the seismogenic potential of the subduction area but also the overall subduction process, as it influences its viability. Numerical simulations are performed to model the long-term equilibrium state of the subduction interplate when the diving lithosphere interacts with both the overriding plate and the surrounding convective mantle. The thermomechanical model combines a non-Newtonian viscous rheology and a pseudo-brittle rheology. Rock strength here depends on depth, temperature and stress, for both oceanic crust and mantle rocks. I study the evolution through time of, on one hand, the brittle-ductile transition (BDT) depth, zBDT, and, on the other hand, of the kinematic decoupling depth, zdec, simulated along the subduction interplate. The results show that both a high friction and a low ductile strength at the asthenospheric wedge tip shallow zBDT. The influence of the weak material activation energy is of second order but not negligible. zBDT becomes dependent on the ductile strength increase with depth (activation volume) if the BDT occurs at the interplate decoupling depth. Regarding the interplate decoupling depth, it is shallowed (1) significantly if mantle viscosity at asthenospheric wedge tip is low, (2) if the difference in mantle and interplate activation energy is weak, and (3) if the activation volume is increased. Very low friction coefficients and/or low asthenospheric viscosities promote zBDT = zdec. I then present how the subducting lithosphere age affects the brittle-ductile transition depth and the kinematic decoupling depth in this model. Simulations show that a rheological model in which the respective activation energies of mantle and interplate material are too close hinders the mechanical decoupling at the down-dip extent of the interplate, and eventually jams the subduction process during incipient subduction of a young (20-Myr-old) and soft lithosphere under a thick upper plate. Finally, both the BDT depth and the decoupling depth are a function of the subducting plate age, but are not influenced in the same fashion: cool and old subducting plates deepen the BDT but shallow the interplate decoupling depth. Even if BDT and kinematic decoupling are intrinsically related to different mechanisms of deformation, this work shows that they are able to interact closely. Comparison between modelling results and observations suggests a minimum friction coefficient of 0.045 for the interplate plane, even 0.069 in some cases, to model realistic BDT depths. The modelled zdec is a bit deeper than suggested by geophysical observations. Eventually, the better way to improve the adjustment to observations may rely on a moderate to strong asthenosphere viscosity reduction in the metasomatised mantle wedge.


OBJECT
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of 2-level total disc replacement (TDR) using a Mobi-C cervical artificial disc at 48 months' follow-up.

METHODS
A prospective randomized, US FDA investigational device exemption pivotal trial of the Mobi-C cervical artificial disc was conducted at 24 centers in the U.S. Three hundred thirty patients with degenerative disc disease were randomized and treated with cervical total disc replacement (225 patients) or the control treatment, anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) (105 patients). Patients were followed up at regular intervals for 4 years after surgery.

RESULTS
At 48 months, both groups demonstrated improvement in clinical outcome measures and a comparable safety profile. Data were available for 202 TDR patients and 89 ACDF patients in calculation of the primary endpoint. TDR patients had statistically significantly greater improvement than ACDF patients for the following outcome measures compared with baseline: Neck Disability Index scores, 12-Item Short Form Health Survey Physical Component Summary scores, patient satisfaction, and overall success. ACDF patients experienced higher subsequent surgery rates and displayed a higher rate of adjacent-segment degeneration as seen on radiographs. Overall, TDR patients maintained segmental range of motion through 48 months with no device failure.

CONCLUSIONS
Four-year results from this study continue to support TDR as a safe, effective, and statistically superior alternative to ACDF for the treatment of degenerative disc disease at 2 contiguous cervical levels. Clinical trial registration no.: NCT00389597 ( clinicaltrials.gov ).


In its 17 year history, Operation RAID (Remove All Impaired Drivers) has evolved from a locally based enforcement program to a unique example of national best practice in inter-jurisdiction enforcement. RAID, held in the lead up to the festive season, serves to focus public awareness on drink and drug impaired driving at a time of the year where the abuse of these substances contribute to road trauma and anti-social behaviour. RAID is a first for Australian road policing as it is designed and coordinated entirely at the practitioner level. Managed by a National Planning Committee comprising sworn and unsworn personnel, RAID has developed a holistic enforcement strategy which can be utilised by specialist road policing officers as well as general duties members. The flexibility of the RAID enforcement matrix has allowed the progressive introduction of random drug testing across the jurisdictions to be incorporated into the national RAID operation orders. Media and marketing strategies have been developed and reviewed by the National Planning Committee to ensure consistency and relevancy across all jurisdictions. This has included the development of a specific RAID logo to portray cross-jurisdictional unity and best practice.


With the number of people living with long term conditions set to increase, ensuring nurses are equipped with the knowledge and skills required to care for this group of people is essential. This book assists adult nursing students in understanding and applying the principles and practice of managing care for those with a long term condition. It covers essential knowledge and skills, including the impact of long term conditions across the lifespan, the therapeutic relationship, health promotion and empowerment, self-management, symptom management, case management and advance care planning.


Improving the quality of patient care, generally referred to as Quality Improvement (QI), is a constant mission of healthcare. Although QI initiatives take many forms, these typically involve collecting data to measure whether changes to procedures have been made as planned, and whether those changes have achieved the expected outcomes. In principle, such data are used to measure the success of a QI initiative and make further changes if needed. In practice, however, many QI data reports provide only limited insight into changes that could improve patient care. Redesigning standard approaches to QI data can help close the gap between current norms and the potential of QI data to improve patient care. This paper describes our study of QI data needs among healthcare providers and managers at Vancouver Coastal Health, a regional health system in Canada. We present an overview of challenges faced by healthcare providers around QI data collection and visualization, and illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of different visualizations. At present, user– centred and evidence–based design is practically unknown in healthcare QI, and thus offers an important new contribution.


Scientists have advocated for local interventions, such as creating marine protected areas and implementing fishery restrictions, as ways to mitigate local stressors to limit the effects of climate change on reef-building corals. However, in a literature review, we find little empirical support for the notion of managed resilience. We outline some reasons for why marine protected areas and the protection of herbivorous fish (especially parrotfish) have had little effect on coral resilience. One key explanation is that the impacts of local stressors (e.g., pollution and fishing) are often swamped by the much greater effect of ocean warming on corals. Another is the sheer complexity (including numerous context dependencies) of the five cascading links assumed by the managed-resilience hypothesis. If reefs cannot be saved by local actions alone, then it is time to face reef degradation head-on, by directly addressing anthropogenic climate change-the root cause of global coral decline.


Drawing on newly discovered sources and writing with brilliance, drama, and profound historical insight, Hugh Thomas presents an engrossing narrative of one of the most significant events of Western history.Ringing with the fury of two great empires locked in an epic battle, "Conquest" captures in extraordinary detail the Mexican and Spanish civilizations and offers unprecedented in-depth portraits of the legendary opponents, Montezuma and Cortes. "Conquest" is an essential work of history from one of our most gifted historians.


Background: The prevalence of smoking has reduced over a period of time in the developed countries. However, the consumption of tobacco is rapidly increasing in the developing nations which further raises burden of various diseases. The prevalence of consumption of tobacco among the adolescent population is vigorously growing across the world. There are several studies in Saudi Arabia that report the smoking rate and pattern among the secondary school students, but very limited data is available about the prevalence of smoking among the college students. Therefore, the objectives of the current study are to assess the prevalence of smoking among the male college students and to evaluate the relationship between the smoking habit and socio-demographic variables. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study done in selected colleges in King Khalid University, Abha during August 2016 to December 2016. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the socio-demographic information and about smoking habit among the college students. Results: The study showed 18.7% of prevalence of smoking among the male college students with a positive association between employment and smoking habit. However, no positive association between other socio-demographic variables and smoking. Conclusion: Though the prevalence rate of smoking among the male college students is less but still there is a need to create awareness among the college students and their parents for decreasing the burden of tobacco related diseases.


Inflammatory responses are a major component of secondary injury and play a central role in mediating the pathogenesis of acute and chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). The nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) family of transcription factors is required for the transcriptional activation of a variety of genes regulating inflammatory, proliferative, and cell death responses of cells. In this study we examined the temporal and cellular expression of activated NF-κB after traumatic SCI. We used a contusion model (N.Y.U. Impactor) to initiate the early biochemical and molecular changes that occur after traumatic injury to reproduce the pathological events associated with acute inflammation after SCI. The activation and cellular distribution of activated NF-κB was evaluated by using a monoclonal antibody that selectively recognizes activated p65 in a NF-κB dimer. Immunohistochemical and Western blot analyses demonstrated that NF-κB activation occurred as early as 0.5 hr postinjury and persisted for at least 72 hr. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA), we demonstrate that NF-κB is activated after SCI. In our immunohistochemical, Western, and EMSA experiments there are detectable levels of activated NF-κB in our control animals. Using double-staining protocols, we detected activated NF-κB in macrophages/microglia, endothelial cells, and neurons within the injured spinal cord. Colocalization of activated NF-κB with the NF-κB-dependent gene product, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), suggests functional implications for this transcription factor in the pathogenesis of acute spinal cord injury. Although there is considerable evidence for the involvement of an inflammatory reaction after traumatic SCI, this is the first evidence for the activation of NF-κB after trauma. Strategies directed at blocking the initiation of this cascade may prove beneficial as a therapeutic approach for the treatment of acute SCI.


Abstract 1 Truth commissions have become so fashionable in times of transition that one can readily recognize what might be called a 'truth cascade.' The commissions, and the reports they produce, are reputed to promote many of the goals at the heart of the transitional justice project: helping victims to heal, promoting accountability, drawing a bright line between the past and the present, promoting reconciliation and so forth. And yet, a closer look at the truth-seeking enterprise suggests that it may not be able to deliver on these promises. This article explores both the intrinsic and instrumental reasons why truth commissions may not be effective in promoting the goals attributed to them. The article does not argue that transitional governments should not pursue the truth, but it does urge governments to use caution and careful planning when they do so.


An international round robin study of the viscosity measurements and aging of fast pyrolysis bio-oil has been undertaken recently, and this work is an outgrowth from that effort. Two bio-oil samples were distributed to two laboratories for accelerated aging tests and to three laboratories of long-term aging studies. The accelerated aging test was defined as the change in viscosity of a sealed sample of bio-oil held for 24 h at 80 °C. The test was repeated 10 times over consecutive days to determine the intra-laboratory repeatability of the method. Other bio-oil samples were placed in storage at three temperatures, 21, 5, and -17 °C, for a period of up to 1 year to evaluate the change in viscosity. The variation in the results of the accelerated aging test was shown to be low within a given laboratory. The long-term aging studies showed that storage of a filtered bio-oil under refrigeration can minimize the amount of change in viscosity. The accelerated aging test gave a measure of change similar to that of 6-12 months of storage at room temperature for a filtered bio-oil. Filtration of solids was identified as a key contributor to improving the stability of the bio-oil as expressed by the viscosity based on results of the accelerated aging tests as well as long-term aging studies. Only the filtered bio-oil consistently gave useful results in the accelerated aging and long-term aging studies. The inconsistency suggests that better protocols need to be developed for sampling bio-oils. These results can be helpful in setting standards for use of bio-oil, which is just coming into the marketplace.


The experience of singularity of the conscious self may break down in heautoscopy. In heautoscopy patients see a double or doppelganger of themselves. Moreover, the self may be experienced as reduplicated—existing at two or even more locations simultaneously (Blanke et al, 2004 Brain 127 243-258). Using head-mounted video display, self-location (where participants experience their self to be localized) and self-identification (identifying with a fake body) can be manipulated by applying conflicting visuotactile information (Lenggenhager et al, 2007 Science 317 1096). Yet the experienced singularity of the self was not affected, ie participants did not experience having multiple bodies. Here we investigated self-location and self-identification while participants (N=19) saw two fake bodies that were stroked either synchronously or asynchronously with their own body. We report that self-identification with two fake bodies was stronger during synchronous stroking and that self-location—measured by anterior posterior drift—was significantly shifted towards the two bodies in the synchronous condition only. Furthermore, synchronous stroking led to the feeling of having multiple bodies. We conclude that participants self-identify even with more than one fake body during congruent visuotactile stimulation and experience having more than one body, as seen in heautoscopy of neurological origin


The phenomenon of regionalism is today present throughout the international system, and regional organisations are widely considered to play an important role in relation to international security. With the United Nations system increasingly overburdened since the 1990s, such organisations have emerged as one possible solution to problems associated with state fragility and violence perpetrated by non-state actors. Relative to other regional organisations, the OAS has received little attention in the literature and it is not generally considered to have much impact on international relations in the Americas. This paper, however, argues that the OAS does matter and that rules and norms do make a difference in international relations more generally. The OAS, despite its problems, has played an important role in terms of preventive diplomacy, generating channels for communication and building institutions that have helped avert violent conflict in a number of cases.


Caribbean immigration remains central to New York City's history, as more than a million migrants from various Caribbean territories have settled the city's neighborhoods from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. Furthermore, Caribbean migrants have made invaluable contributions to this city's economy, political landscape, and cultural production. Especially after changing immigration laws in 1965 widened the possibility for entry to the US, the city's cadre of Caribbean migrants increased exponentially. This paper focuses in particular on migrants to the Bronx from the Anglophone Caribbean (conventionally known due to Columbus's blunders as the West Indies), and seeks to place the historical experiences of said migrants in this borough within the larger literature on West Indians in New York City. The previous two decades of scholarly research on West Indians in New York has established the significance of studying black immigrants to introduce race as a key factor in identity formation debates that underpin the broader literature of American immigration. (2) This scholarship has also shown that the creation of multiple kinds of community institutions has been extremely valuable to West Indian settlement in New York City. Such institutions greatly aided their transition to city life. Furthermore, as the paper will argue, these institutions have supported their maintenance of a tripartite identity in the process, simultaneously nationalized to their various home countries, West Indianized (as in a broader "pan-Caribbean" identity built from encounters with West Indian migrants from different islands), and to a considerable degree African Americanized as well, especially in successive generations, but even in some ways among the first generation. These layers of identity exist both in tandem and in tension with one another at given moments within the narrative of West Indian immigrants' progress in New York City. Recent scholars of West Indian immigration have encapsulated their identity formation process as evidence of transnationalism, essentially defying the boundaries of the nation-state and the traditional concept of a "homeland" as a singular place. (3) Ethnographer Karen Fog Olwig, in her revealing study of West Indians in the US, Canada and Britain, Caribbean Journeys, investigates immigrants' transnational social networks and concludes that the contours of their identities are multilayered, being neither fully embedded within the places from which they left, nor within the places in which they settled. Her findings show that migration extends the local social relations immigrants built in their countries of origin over long distances and creates similar social relationships in their new destinations. Therefore among West Indian migrants and their descendants not only family and kinship, but also affiliation with their "home" island is socially constructed, being defined by everyday practice within social networks, rather than the fact of location or birthplace. (4) Ultimately, the BAAHP interviews demonstrate how multiple locations and extended networks of family and friends in the islands, in the Bronx, and beyond, all inform West Indian migrants' transnational identities, their evolving practices of community, and their hybrid socialization over time in New York City. West Indian immigrant institutions in New York City have historically been both informal and formal in nature. Specifically, this migrant community frequently depended upon "migration machines" to use Charles Tilly's apt term, as a way to aid their transition into city life. Tilly defines "migration machines" as "sending networks that articulated with particular receiving networks in which new migrants could find jobs, housing, and sociability." (5) Also West Indians quickly moved to join or establish formal institutions as well, including small businesses, churches, benevolent societies, sporting clubs, cultural societies, and political organizations. …


Forest land area in Tennessee amounted to 13.78 million acres. About 125 different species, mostly hardwood, account for an estimated 22.6 billion cubic feet of all growing-stock volume on timberland in the State. Hardwood forest types occupy the vast majority of the State's forest land, and oak-hickory is the dominant forest-type group, accounting for about 10.1 million acres. The majority of forest land in Tennessee is owned by nonindustrial private forest landowners, about 85 percent. About 15 percent of the forest land in the State is publicly administered by local, State, or Federal agencies. In 2004, more than 31,700 individuals were directly employed at wood processing mills, with a total annual payroll of 1 billion dollars. There is an enormous selection of nontimber forest products harvested from Tennessee forest land.


The Lyon Mountain granite (LMG) is exposed in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State and is the host to numerous magnetite-apatite (Kiruna type) deposits. The results in this study suggest that the LMG was emplaced in the middle to late Ottawan orogeny between 1065 and 1045 Ma, along extensional shear zones during the onset of orogenic collapse. The original protolith, perthitic granite, has been extensively altered by subsequent Na- and K-rich fluids. Early-formed, zircon-poor clinopyroxene-magnetite-apatite deposits related to granite emplacement were remobilized and chemically modified by Na- and F-bearing fluids to form new deposits that crystallized hydrothermal zircon. Age determinations using U-Th-Pb geochronology of these hydrothermal zircon indicate that Na alteration and second generation mineralization occurred between 1040 Ma and 1000 Ma, 20 to 60 million years after crystallization of the host granite. Hafnium isotopes in zircon suggest that Lu-rich apatite and clinopyroxene associated with early-formed ore deposits broke down during Na and F alteration releasing radiogenic Hf from apatite and Zr from clinopyroxene. Granitic dikes and pegmatites which crosscut the fabric of the LMG, are dated between 1040 Ma and 1015 Ma and are contemporaneous with zircon growth in the iron ore deposits. This implies that Na alteration and Fe-mineralization were the result of externally derived fluids that penetrated the Lyon Mountain granite along extensional shear zones during orogenic collapse or by fluids related to granitic dike and pegmatite emplacement. -- The presence of U-Th-Pb zircon ages that are 20 to 60 m.y. younger than the host granites of the magnetite ores, and the highly variable mineralogy of the ore deposits, suggests that multiple fluid and mineralization processes were responsible for ore formation and periodic modification of preexisting ores. However, the presence of magnetite-apatite ore deposits almost exclusively within the LMG implies a "fertility" requirement of the host granite and hence that mineralization was in part related to magmatism.


This objective of this study is to update last year's analysis of the effectiveness of the lamb advertising and promotion program of the American Lamb Board (ALB). The main conclusion is that the lamb checkoff program is still working effectively to increase lamb consumption and sales in the United States. The analysis shows that ALB lamb promotion programs have generated roughly 8 additional pounds of total lamb consumption per dollar spent on advertising and promotion and $44.45 in additional lamb sales per dollar spent on advertising and promotion.


We study the incentives to merge in a Bertrand competition model where firms sell differentiated products and consumers search sequentially for satisfactory deals. In the pre-merger symmetric equilibrium, consumers visit firmsrandomly. However, after a merger, because insiders raise their prices more than the outsiders, consumers start searching for good deals at the non-merging stores, and only when they do not find a satisfactory product there they visit the merging firms. As search costs go up, consumer traffic from the non-merging firms to the merged ones decreases and eventually mergers become unprofitable. This new merger paradox can be overcome if the merged entity chooses to stock each of its stores with all the products of the constituent firms, which generates sizable search economies. We show that such demand-side economies can confer the merging firms a prominent position in the marketplace, in which case their price may even be lower than the price of the non-merging firms. In that situation, consumers start searching for a satisfactory good at the merged entity and the firms outside the merger lose out. When search economies are sufficiently large, a merger is beneficial for consumers too, and overall welfare increases.


The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of Interactive Computer-Based Simulations (ICBSs) on student's ability to give "scientifically accepted" explanations regarding physical phenomena in Mechanics, Waves/Optics, and Thermal Physics. Four subtopics were presented within each of the three main topics. There was one Interactive Computer-Based Simulation (ICBS) with relevant physics content for each subtopic. Theoretically, each of the ICBSs should serve as a cognitive framework to enhance students' explanations regarding physical phenomena in Mechanics, Waves/Optics, and Thermal Physics. To test this theoretical prediction a self-controlled design was used, where each of the subjects served as his/her own control. A random block design was used where each of the subjects was assigned alternatingly to the experimental and control conditions. The control condition was an assignment to do additional problems in the same content area as the ICBS and required approximately the same amount of time. The ICBSs were integrated into a sixteen-week semester physics content class for prospective physics teachers who served as students in the study. The course used a conceptually oriented approach. After using the ICBS, or for the control condition after doing the additional problem sets, semi structured interviews were obtained. These interview data were used to assess the students' ability to give scientifically acceptable explanations of discrepancies between their predictions and observations following the use of the ICBS. Results indicated that the use of ICBSs in comparison to the control conditions improved students' ability to give "scientifically acceptable" explanations regarding physical phenomena in Mechanics, Waves/Optics, and Thermal Physics.


Competitiveness and sustainability top the agenda in the midst of education communities in Malaysia's education sector. Many higher education institutions (HEIs) are faced with the pressure to improve the quality of university education. The basis of these pressures might come from competition on the market of higher education services, national ingenuities for quality assurance and accreditation, and the ever-changing requisites of employers and businesses. The higher education (HE) sector in Malaysia is getting more competitive with 47 private universities, 37 private university colleges, 20 public universities, 10 foreign university branch campuses as well as numerous other private institutions of higher learning competing for the same pool of the local, regional as well as international students, along with Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Sustainability is, therefore, critical to all the higher educational institutions (HEIs) at the present juncture as well as in the near future. In view of that, student engagement becomes a crucial indicator of the quality of student experience in these institutions. The centrality of student engagement is thus critical to the success of HEIs as issues relating to student retention remain high on the agendas of HEIs all over. The purpose of this paper is to assess and outline major factors influencing student engagement in the context of HEIs.


Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's documentary and fiction films have received international recognition, and aroused considerable controversy, for their extreme subject matter (xenophobia, deprivation, physical and sexual violence) and for their inimitable style (obsessive symmetry and static tableaux). As a 'Berufs-Oppositionskunstler' who refuses to offer straightforward political solutions he has been compared to German directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Christoph Schlingensief and his compatriot Michael Haneke. This article examines three films by Seidl, spanning his career to date, which have the theme of migration as their subject: Good News (1990), a study of migrant newspaper vendors in Vienna, Mit Verlust ist zu rechnen (1992), a post-Wende documentary on a failed courtship across the Austrian-Czech border, and the feature film Import Export (2007), which tells the story of bi-directional migration between Austria and the Ukraine. Seidl's 'anthropology of migration' is examined in the context of Jean Rouch's cinema-verite, and his hyper-stylization is demonstrated to offer a unique way of looking both at contemporary migration and at migrants themselves. Shifts in the portrayal of borders since unification are examined, and Seidl's unflinching camera is shown not only to 'voyeurise the voyeurs', but also to gaze severely yet democratically on transnational movements in the 'new Europe'.


The urban drainage networks optimal design objective function must represent accurately the real construction costs of these systems. This design problem involves two sub problems which require a specific cost function. For the layout selection problem, a cost function in terms of the flow rate and direction is needed, since there is no information about the diameter, depth, and slope of the pipes. A good estimation of the layout cost function is needed to find the minimum - cost urban drainage network design. The optimal hydraulic design of the network requires the best layout selection. In this paper some cost functions are tested using the urban drainage network optimal design methodology proposed by Duque N. et al. (2015) [1], on part of a real network located in Bogota, Colombia. Afterwards, a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the effect of each cost function over the layout selection and hydraulic design of the network. Moreover, this analysis aims to evaluate the cost functions proficiency and robustness, when changing parameters such as the filling ratio and the pipes material.


Tillage alters the structure and composition of soil aggregates affecting infiltration rate (IR) and hydraulic conductivity (K) . This study investigated the long-term effects of conventional, minimum, and no-tillage with or without subsoiling on aggregate stability, soil organic carbon (SOC), bulk density, IR, and K of a stratified Vitric Andosol in Kenyan highlands. The experiment was laid out in a spilt-split plot design with three replicates. Stepwise profiles were dug in order to expose the soil layers at 0 to 30, 30 to 60, and 60 to 90 cm depths. Soil bulk density was 6% lower in the minimum tilled and 12% lower in the conventionally tilled plots that were subsoiled compared to treatments with no subsoiling and tillage. Subsoiled treatments also increased sequestration of SOC by 20% in the 30 to 60 cm layer. Conventional tillage, however, decreased aggregate stability by 32% compared to no-tillage treatments. Subsoiling in combination with minimum tillage decreased IR by 25% but increased IR about three-fold in conventionally tilled plots. Hydraulic conductivity in the 60 to 90 cm layer was lowest, which constrained water movement in this stratified soil.


A number of alternative environmental enforcement tools are available that may be used to enhance the environmental enforcement effort in South Africa.  Current debate focuses on which tools work effectively and the reasons for their success.  The debate is however dominated by issues concerning policy challenges, such as the adoption of alternative tools and necessary arrangements to ensure these tools contribute to overall environmental enforcement performance.  In order to contribute to the debate and stimulate further debate, this article offers a typology of alternative enforcement tool categories, lists the generally argued benefits and disadvantages of both command and control approaches and alternative enforcement tools, offers framework conditions for the successful adoption and use of some of the enforcement tools, and explores empirical and other evidence to determine whether environmental management systems are adequately able to drive sustained and consistent legal compliance.  A South African case study is also presented to illustrate the manner in which a combination of alternative enforcement tools may be integrated with command and control tools to ensure consistent and sustained legal compliance.


What did the U.S. Civil War death tolls mean to those who lived through the war? We are now told that wartime deaths were unprecedented, overwhelming, and constituted one of the fundamental experiences for the wartime generation. But is this really true? In recent years, statistical descriptions have been used by historians--including such renowned scholars as James McPherson, Eric Foner, and Drew Gilpin Faust but also celebrated filmmakers Ken and Rik Burns, among many--to drive home a characterization of the war based on the scale of death. They may be found across the range of media regarding the war, in films, museums, popular histories, scholarly treatises, and lectures. One such statistic is that the number of soldiers' deaths in the Civil War was greater than the total number suffered in all other American wars combined. A second point makes use of the first figure: if one calculates the proportion of the total population that died while in military service during the war and applies this percentage to present-day population figures, the equivalent number of deaths for Americans in the twenty-first century would reach above 7 million. This is a staggering figure that suggests that the Civil War generation made almost inconceivable sacrifices. We are shocked at these numbers, however, because we interpret them from a modern point of view. The present essay argues that while factually correct, the statistics work to exaggerate the war's impact. At its essence, the use of these statistics is designed to provide perspective, a laudatory goal. It is supposed to allow those of us looking back on the war to get a clear sense of the emotional texture of the time. The great problem in this instance, however, is that it violates one of the central codes of historical analysis--that of avoiding presentism. Instead of putting us in the minds of those who experienced the Civil War, it conjures up significance by facilely equating wildly disparate eras. In addition, implicit in the use of the overall casualty figure is the notion that size matters--that is, that in certain circumstances, the volume of death itself is enough to make an argument for the significance of an event, or to make a case that a social equilibrium has been disturbed. However, to be convincing, this mode of argument has to establish that the scale has indeed changed dramatically for those experiencing it; historians should not simply extrapolate meaning from the present back into the past. To question the "size matters" argument, one must at least temporarily accept the notion that comparative statistics of death are meaningful, but only in the context of appropriate comparisons. In the bigger picture, however, it is not enough simply to speak about numbers. To understand how deaths affect a culture, it is essential to examine the meaning ascribed to them beyond the statistics. In one way, this is obvious: compared with the tens of thousands of traffic deaths per year in the United States, for example, the relatively small number of people killed on September 11, 2001, had an enormous impact, influencing the nation's psyche, and, ultimately, domestic and international politics and culture. To be convincing when making a point about death, therefore, we must find evidence for the transformative power of the meaning of military mortality, and place any statistics in their contemporary context, before making claims about significance. In the case of the Civil War, historians have not adequately taken into account the context of death and dying. Solid scholarly work exists on the central importance of death in antebellum America and the ordinary experience of death during the war, but Civil War historians have tended to sidestep this in order to claim the war years as exceptional. They have also underplayed the significance of the demographic realities Americans faced before, during, and after the war. These reveal a society constantly coping with large-scale mortality. If we start to take more seriously the antebellum circumstances, we can reexamine the statistical realities of Civil War deaths and put them into a more reasonable perspective. Language: en


Written by experts from London's renowned Royal Free hospital, Textbook of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery offers a comprehensive overview of the vast topic of reconstructive plastic surgery and its various subspecialties for introductory plastic surgery and surgical science courses. The book comprises five sections covering the fundamental principles of plastic surgery, cancer, burns and trauma, paediatric plastic surgery and aesthetic surgery, and covers the breadth of knowledge that students need to further their career in this exciting field. Additional coverage of areas in which reconstructive surgery techniques are called upon includes abdominal wall reconstruction, ear reconstruction and genital reconstruction. A section on aesthetic surgery includes facial aesthetic surgery and blepharoplasty, aesthetic breast surgery, body contouring and the evolution of hair transplantation. The broad scope of this volume makes this a unique contribution to the field.Heavily illustrated throughout, Textbook of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is essential reading for anyone interested in furthering their knowledge of this exciting field.


Local adaptation and its underlying molecular basis has long been a key focus in evolutionary biology. There has recently been increased interest in the evolutionary role of plasticity and the molecular mechanisms underlying local adaptation. Using transcriptome analysis, we assessed differences in gene expression profiles for three brown trout (Salmo trutta) populations, one resident and two anadromous, experiencing different temperature regimes in the wild. The study was based on an F2 generation raised in a common garden setting. A previous study of the F1 generation revealed different reaction norms and significantly higher QST than FST among populations for two early life-history traits. In the present study we investigated if genomic reaction norm patterns were also present at the transcriptome level. Eggs from the three populations were incubated at two temperatures (5 and 8 degrees C) representing conditions encountered in the local environments. Global gene expression for fry at the stage of first feeding was analysed using a 32k cDNA microarray. The results revealed differences in gene expression between populations and temperatures and population × temperature interactions, the latter indicating locally adapted reaction norms. Moreover, the reaction norms paralleled those observed previously at early life-history traits. We identified 90 cDNA clones among the genes with an interaction effect that were differently expressed between the ecologically divergent populations. These included genes involved in immune- and stress response. We observed less plasticity in the resident as compared to the anadromous populations, possibly reflecting that the degree of environmental heterogeneity encountered by individuals throughout their life cycle will select for variable level of phenotypic plasticity at the transcriptome level. Our study demonstrates the usefulness of transcriptome approaches to identify genes with different temperature reaction norms. The responses observed suggest that populations may vary in their susceptibility to climate change.


The floristic survey of vascular epiphytes was done in the northern part of the Prata Mountain Range (48o 41' 59.39" W and 25o 36' 46.39" S), Morretes municipality, comprising 6.3 ha of a slope between 400 and 1,100 m a.s.l., covered by submontane and montane Atlantic Rainforest. The aims of this study were: 1) characterize the vascular epiphytic flora; 2) discuss the species distribution along the slope and in ecological categories; 3) evaluate the floristic similarity among the study area and other forests of South and Southeastern Brazil. The present survey was carried out between 2005 and 2010. One hundred twenty phorophytes were climbed and closely examined. Two hundred seventy-eight species, 109 genus and 30 families of vascular epiphytes were recorded. Pteridophytes comprised 74 species, 30 genus and 10 families. Angiosperms comprised 204 species, 79 genus and 20 families. The vascular epiphytic richness was the highest registered in studies of Atlantic Rainforest in South Brazil. Seven species were the first records for the Parana State and six are threatened considering the Parana state official list of endangered species. Orchidaceae was de richest family, with 103 (37.2%) species and 43 (39.1%) genus, followed by Bromeliaceae (38), Polypodiaceae (28), Hymenophyllaceae (15), Araceae (14) and Piperaceae (14). The holoepiphytes were the dominant group, comprising 83% of the total. Only 54 (19.5%) species were recorded in all altitudinal belts. Other 131 (47.3%) species were recorded only under the 700 m a.s.l. and 54 (19.5%) were found just above the 800 m a.s.l. The floristic similarity between the two extremities of the studied slope was low, showing the importance of the altitude for the species distribution. The epiphytic flora of the Prata Mountain Range presented low similarity with others Atlantic Rainforest communities of Parana and Sao Paulo states.


Abstract We present the first contribution of tracing the source area of ophiolitic detritus in the Alpine molasse deposits by Raman spectroscopy. The lower Oligocene molasse deposits preserved in the Barrême basin, in the SW foreland of the western Alpine arc, are known for the sudden arrival of the first 'exotic' detritus coming from the internal Alpine zones. Among them, the pebbles of serpentinized peridotites have so far not been studied. We show that they only consist of antigorite serpentinite, implying that they originate from erosion of high temperature blueschists. In contrast, the upper Oligocene/lower Miocene molasse shows mixed clasts of serpentine including antigorite and lizardite without any evidence of chrysotile. This suggests that they were derived from a less metamorphosed unit such as the low temperature blueschist unit. Taking into account the sediment transport direction in the basin and the varied metamorphic characteristics of the other ocean-derived detritus, we constrain the lithologic nature of the source zones and the location of the relief zones, identified as the internal Alps, SE of the Pelvoux external crystalline massif. Available structural data and in situ thermochronological data allow the reconstruction of the Oligocene to early Miocene collisional geometry of the Palaeogene subduction wedge. This phase corresponds to two major phases of uplift evolving from a single relief zone located above the Ivrea body during early Oligocene times and persisting up to early Miocene times; then during late Oligocene/early Miocene times a second relief zone developed above the Briançonnais zone. At that time, the internal western Alps acquired its double vergency.


By exploring the themes of settler colonialism and modernity in Australian commentary about Italy's invasion of Abyssinia in 1935, this paper sets out to consider Italy's war in north Africa as an international crisis with significance for Australian progressive narratives about Aboriginal conditions, status and rights important to Australia's international reputation. Thus, Australia's role as a member of the League and a mandatory power will be read in the context of international debate about Italy, modernity, race and violence.

My case study draws from the experiences of Bessie Rischbieth, alternate delegate for Australia to the League of Nations in 1935, who observed the Abyssinian protest being made before the Assembly. Rischbieth was seemingly persuaded by Italy's claims to the right to land and territory in the context of immigration restrictions into the United States (and we might add, in relation to Australia) and was provided evidence of slavery in Abyssinia mobilised by Italy and earlier by the Anti-Slavery Society in London in defence of the civilising influence of Europe upon a fellow (non-European) member of the League. However, Rischbieth was also an activist within liberal humanitarian networks critical of Aboriginal policy in Australia in this same era. Her responses to the crisis in African and League affairs offer some insight into the proximities between settler colonialism in Australia and the 'race' issues raised by the annexation of Abyssinia by Italy, and its implications for collective security and global governance.


Abstract Ecosystem water use efficiency (EWUE) is defined as the net carbon uptake per amount of water lost from the ecosystem and is a useful measure of the functionality in semiarid shrub and grassland communities. C4 grasses have higher water use efficiency (WUE) than do C3 shrubs, although it has been postulated that C4 plants have lost much of their advantage due to the rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The hypothesis was that C4-grass-dominated ecosystems have a higher EWUE than C3-shrub-dominated ecosystems under the present CO2 concentration and climatic variability. Evapotranspiration (ET) and CO2 fluxes were measured with Bowen ratio systems at a shrub and grass site for 6 years in southeastern Arizona. Two different methods were used to evaluate growing season EWUE using the ET and CO2 fluxes. The first method estimated a net daytime growing season EWUE for the grass site at 1.74 g CO2 · mm−1 ET and 1.28 g CO2 · mm−1 ET at the shrub site. The second method estimated maximum EWUE during part of the growing season at 7.35 g CO2 · mm−1 ET for the grass site and 4.68 g CO2 · mm−1 ET for the shrub site, which was considered a significant difference at P  =  0.056. Data variability of the first method precluded a statistical difference determination between sites, but the results indicated that the grass-dominated ecosystem was between 1.4 and 1.6 times more water use efficient than the shrub-dominated ecosystem. Mean annual growing season precipitation and ET were similar in the two ecosystems, but the higher EWUE of the grassland system enabled it to take up more carbon during the growing season than the shrub ecosystem. Ecosystem differences in CO2 and H2O flux have important management implications including primary productivity, C sequestration, and rangeland health.


Few issues within the church are as controversial as baptism. By which method should it be administered? At what age? What if one changes denominations? Laurence H. Stookey sifts through the confusion and rhetoric to offer this practical, biblically sound guide to baptism. He examines the sacrament from historical, theological, and pastoral perspectives, and looks at how it has been altered through the ages. Dr. Stookey also suggests possible reforms, practices that need restoring, and proper occasions for the service.


Title of Thesis: OCULAR BARRIERS TO TRANSSCLERAL DRUG DELIVERY AND PHARMACOKINETICS OF AN EPISCLERAL IMPLANT Susan Shu-Hsun Lee, Master of Science, 2006 Directed By: Professor Nam Sun Wang Department of Chemical Engineering Bioengineering Graduate Program The eye presents several anatomic and physiologic barriers that pose a major challenge for targeted drug delivery. The primary causes of vision impairment and blindness result from posterior segment diseases and corneal diseases[1]. To tackle these sight-threatening diseases, a number of therapeutic methods have been investigated, ranging from topical eye drops to injections and implants. Thus, the development of effective delivery systems depends upon the understanding of how the ocular barriers affect the pharmacokinetics of drugs. In Part 1, investigation of the barriers to transscleral drug delivery was performed in a rabbit model, and the model demonstrated that the conjunctival lymphatic and blood vessels may be a predominant barrier to the delivery of triamcinolone acetonide to the vitreous. In Part 2, the pharmacokinetics of a cyclosporine episcleral implant for high-risk penetrating keratoplasties was also studied, and the implant was safe and effective at delivering therapeutic levels to the cornea and surrounding tissues. OCULAR BARRIERS TO TRANSSCLERAL DRUG DELIVERY AND PHARMACOKINETICS OF AN EPISCLERAL IMPLANT


The middle of the twentieth century witnessed a serious border dispute between China and India. This article explores how these countries used multiple media (e.g., historical documents and film) to support their respective territorial claims. The two countries pursued similar authoritarian approaches by expanding their archival holdings, banning books, and selectively redrawing maps. They regarded dissenting views not only as incorrect but as national security threats. China and India policed domestic media to legitimize government policies and to present their cases to the international community. The British government, for its part, demonstrated its support for India. Because British leaders sympathized with their former colony and because the borders of India were a product of the British Empire, leaders in the United Kingdom endorsed Indian propaganda. Nevertheless, democracy in India and the United Kingdom rendered complete control of the media difficult. The Sino-Indian conflict therefore represented a war over information as well as territory.


Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that is rapidly spreading across the globe. The clinical spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia ranges from mild to critically ill cases and requires early detection and monitoring, within a clinical environment for critical cases and remotely for mild cases. The fear of contamination in clinical environments has led to a dramatic reduction in on-site referrals for routine care. There has also been a perceived need to continuously monitor non-severe COVID- 19 patients, either from their quarantine site at home, or dedicated quarantine locations (e.g., hotels). Thus, the pandemic has driven incentives to innovate and enhance or create new routes for providing healthcare services at distance. In particular, this has created a dramatic impetus to find innovative ways to remotely and effectively monitor patient health status. In this paper we present a short review of remote health monitoring initiatives taken in 19 states during the time of the pandemic. We emphasize in the discussion particular aspects that are common ground for the reviewed states, in particular the future impact of the pandemic on remote health monitoring and consideration on data privacy.


The anticancer drug imatinib dampens its own toxicity by inducing a feedback loop that promotes proliferative signaling by fibroblast growth factor. Receptor tyrosine kinases promote cell proliferation and survival. Imatinib (also known as Gleevec) is a drug that inhibits the activity of the receptor tyrosine kinase KIT in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). Unfortunately, tumors often develop resistance to imatinib within few years. Li et al. found that by blocking KIT-mediated signaling, imatinib inhibits a negative feedback mechanism that in turn enables the activity of another receptor tyrosine kinase in GIST cells. A screen using conditioned medium from cDNA-transfected HEK293T cells identified members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family that decreased the cytotoxicity of imatinib in GIST cell lines. FGF2 and the receptor FGFR1 were abundant at the mRNA and protein level in established and primary GIST cells. Adding an FGFR inhibitor (BGJ398) to the culture medium restored imatinib sensitivity in GIST cell lines cultured with FGF2. However, FGF2 alone did not increase the proliferation of GIST cells, and BGJ398 alone did not decrease proliferation of GIST cells, suggesting that the proliferative effect of FGF signaling occurred in response to imatinib. In both cultured cells and xenografts in mice, imatinib initially reduced the amount of phosphorylated extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK), but several days to a week of treatment with imatinib caused emergence of phosphorylated FGFR substrate 2 (FRS2) and a return in the amount of phosphorylated ERK. These long-term effects of imatinib were prevented in cultured cells by adding BGJ398 4 hours before cells were harvested or by knocking down FGFR1, suggesting that KIT inhibition causes feedback activation of FGFR signaling. RNA sequencing of imatinib-treated cells identified genes encoding members of the dual specificity phosphatase (DUSP) and Sprouty (SPRY) families, which inhibit growth factor-induced ERK signaling. SPRY4 expression was increased in GIST cell lines and primary GIST tissues. Knocking down SPRY2 or SPRY4 increased the amount of phosphorylated FRS2 and ERK in cells treated with imatinib in the presence of FGF2. Compared with imatinib alone, a combination therapy of imatinib and BGJ398 enhanced tumor regression in a xenograft from one KIT-mutant GIST cell line and delayed tumor regrowth after cessation of therapy in another. The findings suggest that FGFR inhibition may improve the long-term efficacy of imatinib in GIST patients. F. Li, H. Huynh, X. Li, D. A. Ruddy, Y. Wang, R. Ong, P. Chow, S. Qiu, A. Tam, D. P. Rakiec, R. Schlegel, J. E. Monahan, A. Huang, FGFR-mediated reactivation of MAPK signaling attenuates antitumor effects of imatinib in gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Cancer Discov. 5, 438–451 (2015). [Pubmed]


Abstract Background: The metrological traceability of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) assay calibration to WHO standards is desirable to potentially improve the comparability between PSA assays. A method comparison was performed between the traditionally standardized Beckman Coulter Hybritech Access PSA and free PSA (fPSA) assays and a new alternate calibration of assays aligned to the WHO standards 96/670 and 96/668, respectively. Methods: Sera from 641 men with and without prostate cancer, various control materials and mixtures of different proportions of the WHO standards were measured with both assay calibrations. Results: Excellent comparability between the corresponding assay calibrations was observed, with correlation coefficients of at least 0.996. The Passing-Bablok slopes were 0.747 for total PSA (tPSA), 0.776 for fPSA and 1.02 for the percentage ratio of fPSA to tPSA (%fPSA), while the corresponding percentages of the new WHO-aligned assay results related to the traditional assays were 76.2%, 77% and 102.2%. Receiver operating characteristics revealed no differences between the two PSA assay calibrations. Conclusions: The WHO calibration yields results approximately 25% lower for tPSA and fPSA values when compared with the conventional Hybritech calibration. Using the WHO-aligned PSA assay, a tPSA cut-off of 3 μg/L should be considered in clinical practice, while %fPSA cut-offs could be retained. Clin Chem Lab Med 2008;46:623–9.


Genomic selection can increase the rate of genetic gain in plant breeding programs by shortening the breeding cycle. Gain can also be increased through higher selection intensities, as the size of the population available for selection can be increased by predicting performance of nonphenotyped, but genotyped, lines. This paper demonstrates the application of genomic prediction in a sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] breeding program and compares different genomic prediction models incorporating relationship information derived from molecular markers and pedigree information. In cross-validation, the models using marker-based relationships had higher selection accuracy than the selection accuracy for models that used pedigree-based relationships. It was demonstrated that genotypes that have not been included in the trials could be predicted quite accurately using marker information alone. The accuracy of prediction declined as the genomic relationship of the predicted individual to the training population declined. We also demonstrate that the accuracy of genomic breeding values from the prediction error variance derived from the mixed model equations is a useful indicator of the accuracy of prediction. This will be useful to plant breeders, as the accuracy of the genomic predictions can be assessed with confidence before phenotypes are available. Four distinct environments were studied and shown to perform very differently with respect to the accuracy of predictions and the composition of estimated breeding values. This paper shows that there is considerable potential for sorghum breeding programs to benefit from the implementation of genomic selection.


Toposes and quasi-toposes have been shown to be useful in mathematics, logic and computer science. Because of this, it is important to understand the different ways in which they can be constructed. Realizability toposes and presheaf toposes are two important classes of toposes. All of the former and many of the latter arise by adding "good" quotients of equivalence relations to a simple category with finite limits. This construction is called the exact completion of the original category. Exact completions are not always toposes and it was not known, not even in the realizability and presheaf cases, when or why toposes arise in this way. Exact completions can be obtained as the composition of two related constructions. The first one assigns to a category with finite limits, the "best" regular category (called its regular completion) that embeds it. The second assigns to a regular category the "best" exact category (called its ex/reg completion) that embeds it. These two constructions are of independent interest. There are quasitoposes that arise as regular completions and toposes, such as those of sheaves on a locale, that arise as ex/reg completions but which are not exact completions. We give a characterization of the categories with finite limits whose exact completions are toposes. This provides a very simple way of presenting realizability toposes, it allows us to give a very simple characterization of the presheaf toposes whose exact completions are themselves toposes and also to find new examples of toposes arising as exact completions. We also characterize universal closure operators in exact completions in terms of topologies, in a way analogous to the case of presheaf toposes and Grothendieck topologies. We then identify two "extreme" topologies in our sense and give simple conditions which ensure that the regular completion of a category is the category of separated objects for one of these topologies. This connection allows us to derive good properties of regular completions such as local cartesian closure. This, in turn, is part of our study of when a regular completion is a quasi-topos. The second extreme topology gives rise, as its category of sheaves, to the category of what we call complete equivalence relations. We then characterize the locally cartesian closed regular categories whose associated category of complete equivalence relations is a topos. Moreover, we observe that in this case the topos is nothing but the ex/reg completion of the original category.


This paper discusses which characteristics are appropriate for a measure of period mortality and how are these characteristics met in conventional and tempo-adjusted life expectancy. According to our perspective, a period mortality measure should include exclusively the current mortality and should allow to compare period-specific mortality conditions of two populations or to analyse changes between two periods without depending on past or future mortality trends. By using a simple population model, we show that conventional period life expectancy does not meet these demands since it includes specific assumptions regarding future mortality, which differ between different populations and can ultimately lead to paradoxes which disturb its practical purpose. Tempo-adjusted life expectancy, however, is free of such distortions and thus allows the analysis and comparison of pure period-specific mortality conditions. From these considerations we also derive an interpretable definition for tempo-adjusted life expectancy. We suspect that this lack of definition could be a major reason for the general rejection of mortality tempo-adjustment. Finally, we present estimates for tempo-adjusted life expectancy for the period 2001-2005 for 41 countries showing that tempo effects and their adjustment are not only a technical issue but can have significant impacts on the interpretation of period mortality. Marc LUY , Senior Scientist, Vienna Institute of Demography Austrian Academy of Sciences, Wohllebengasse 12-14, 6 th floor, A-1040 Vienna, Austria. E-mail: email@example.com Christian WEGNER , Research Assistant, Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Wohllebengasse 12-14, 6 th floor, A-1040 Vienna, Austria.


The presentation of communication protocols in a traditional lecture format is problematic. Many of the systems and algorithms in common use are dynamic in operation and difficult to understand from static diagrams or verbal descriptions; and engineering students often have a visual learning style and would be expected to gain a more intuitive understanding of systems from seeing them working. This paper reports a study into the use of a series of animated simulation tools in lectures for a sophomore course in communications protocols. The approach has won widespread praise from students, as well as winning a national award for engineering education, and the models have been adopted by several universities worldwide.


% In this study we provide the first numerical demonstration of the effects of turbulence on the mean Lorentz force and the resulting formation of large-scale magnetic structures. Using three-dimensional direct numerical simulations (DNS) of forced turbulence we show that an imposed mean magnetic field leads to a decrease of the turbulent hydromagnetic pressure and tension. This phenomenon is quantified by determining the relevant functions that relate the sum of the turbulent Reynolds and Maxwell stresses with the Maxwell stress of the mean magnetic field. Using such a parameterization, we show by means of two-dimensional and three-dimensional mean-field numerical modelling that an isentropic density stratified layer becomes unstable in the presence of a uniform imposed magnetic field. This large-scale instability results in the formation of loop-like magnetic structures which are concentrated at the top of the stratified layer. In three dimensions these structures resemble the appearance of bipolar magnetic regions in the Sun. The results of DNS and mean-field numerical modelling are in good agreement with theoretical predictions. We discuss our model in the context of a distributed solar dynamo where active regions and sunspots might be rather shallow phenomena.} \begin{document


The central debate within domestic labor law today revolves around whether existing union certification procedures promote or inhibit autonomous employee choice. Within that debate, both judges and commentators tend to embrace a model of the self and of the optimal conditions for autonomous choice that draws from both liberal political theory and rational choice theory. Most judges and commentators assume that individual workers' preferences are exogenous and relatively static; that workers decide whether to support unionization by weighing its costs and benefits in light of their individual self-interest; that union organizing is basically a process of aggregating individual workers' expressed preferences; and that workers' autonomy is threatened not only by coercion, but also strong communal attachments to coworkers. This article criticizes that model on both empirical and normative grounds. Workers' preferences towards unionization are not wholly exogenous, it argues, but rather are pervasively shaped by the law and by workers' group identities. Similarly, organizing is not solely a process of aggregating preferences, so much as a process of building collective identity and solidarity - and therefore shaping workers' preferences - often through disruptive and emotionally - charged collective action. Finally, such identity-shaping does not inevitably threaten individual workers' autonomy. To the contrary, ideals of autonomy actually provide normative justification for such efforts insofar as they aim to equalize power between workers and management. This argument has implications both for ongoing debates over labor law reform, and for accounts of the relationship among law, identity, and social movements more generally.


An alarming number of women are in abusive relationships where violence and threats of violence pervade their lives. This article examines the offence of uttering threats in the Canadian Criminal Code, using the Manitoba Court of Appeal decision in R v O'Brien as a backdrop. We make two arguments. First, we argue that, in intimate relationships, threats of death and bodily harm are a form of domestic violence, often used by men in concert with physical violence and other forms of intimidation to control and dominate women. The Canadian criminal justice response to charges of uttering threats in intimate partner relationships must fully account for the cumulative, ongoing and dynamic nature of abuse, as well as abused women's complex and varied responses to abuse. Second, we examine the history of s.264.1 of the Criminal Code and the case law to argue that the courts have applied the elements of the offence improperly and in a manner that is inconsistent with the statutory language and legislative intent. In so doing, the judgments incorrectly burden abused women with testifying to their fear in response to threats by their abusers, despite the fact that such evidence is unnecessary to prove the offence. This error reflects the continued privatization of domestic abuse and violence against women more generally. Compelling abused women to testify to their fear risks exposing women to increased physical violence and threats and ignores the complex considerations which drive abused women's decision to co-operate in the prosecution of their partners or to support their defence.