The recent expansion of wireless sensor networks and the rapid development of low-power consumption devices and MEMS devices have been driving research on harvester converting ambient energy into electricity to replace batteries that require costly mainte- nance. Harvesting energy from ambient environment vibration becomes an ideal power supply mode. The power supply module can be integrated with the MEMS sensor. There are many ways to convert ambient energy into electrical energy, such as photocells, thermo-couples, vibration, and wind and so on. Among these energy-converting ways, the ambient vibration energy harvesting is more attractive because the vibration is everywhere in our daily environment. Based on the analysis of the basic theory of the electret electrostatic harvester, the basic equations and equivalent analysis model of electret electrostatic harvester are established. The experimental tests for the output performance of electret electro- static harvester are completed. For the electret material, the material itself can also provide a constant voltage to avoid the use of additional power, which provides an effective way for electrostatic harvesting. Therefore, the electret electrostatic harvesting structure is a kind of ideal energy harvesting method using ambient vibration and can be easily integrated with the MEMS system.


Frying oils (both vegetable oils and animal fats) degrade with use, and beyond the limits, the excessive free fatty acids (FFA), peroxide value (PV) and polar components preclude their further use in food applications, unless they can be purified by very effective adsorbent systems. In this study, four adsorbents: silica gel, activated carbon, aluminium oxide and acid-activated spent bleaching earth were used to reduce some of the poor quality parameters of the oils. Although pre-treatment of used frying oils with these adsorbents could improve the oil quality to a certain extent, the oils could only be used for non-food applications. The FFA and PV of the treated oils subjected to the above adsorbent treatment, were reduced as follows: 33.3% and 65.1%, 6.5% and 7.8%, 30.2% and 20.8%, and 11.8% and 46.9% respectively, and silica gel was found to be the most effective adsorbent. The treated used frying oil was converted into methyl esters as biodiesel. The methyl esters obtained had comparable fuel properties as petroleum diesel. Hence, it can be used as a diesel substitute.


Photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence spectroscopies are used to investigate the properties of the band edge emission of InGaN/(In)GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structures which do not show evidence of phase separation in high resolution electron microscopy. The data still show a clear low energy peak in the spectra, about 0.1 eV below the main exciton peak. Possible interpretations of this second peak are discussed.


This paper presents a threat to cyber resilience in the form of a conceptual model of a malware rebirthing botnet which can be used in a variety of scenarios. It can be used to collect existing malware and rebirth it with new functionality and signatures that will avoid detection by AV software and hinder analysis. The botnet can then use the customized malware to target an organization with an orchestrated attack from the member machines in the botnet for a variety of malicious purposes, including information warfare applications. Alternatively, it can also be used to inject known malware signatures into otherwise non malicious code and traffic to overloading the sensors and processing systems employed by intrusion detection and prevention systems to create a denial of confidence of the sensors and detection systems. This could be used as a force multiplier in asymmetric warfare applications to create confusion and distraction whilst attacks are made on other defensive fronts.


By following the suggestions that Mr. Henson provides here, you can become a proficient practitioner of the craft of getting published. The more you hone your skills in this craft, the more success you will experience, and the more you will enjoy this part of your profession. WRITING for publication presents a number of paradoxes and contradictions. To minimize the jealousy that can arise among colleagues who are not publishing, professors who publish successfully sometimes find themselves hiding the fact that they have gone public with their work. Many others who try and are rejected feel compelled to hide their failure, and many who don't even try feel a need to conceal their negligence by criticizing colleagues who succeed. Once you've made a decision to write for publication, the contradictions and uncertainties continue. Should you write for research journals, theoretical journals, or practical journals? Indeed, should you write for journals at all? Why not book chapters, yearbook chapters, or monographs? How about papers to appear in the proceedings of professional meetings? Should you write alone or in collaboration with colleagues? If the latter, how should you select those collaborators? These uncertainties may be frustrating, but they shouldn't discourage you from writing for publication because, once the secrets are unlocked and the questions answered, writing for publication can be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding activities available to educators. Each year, I receive several requests to visit college campuses and help faculties unlock the mysteries of writing for publication. To prepare for this challenge, I send a biennial survey to about 50 prominent national education journals. The results of my latest survey, conducted in the winter of 2001, are shown in Table 1. Identify Some Goals I always advise participants in my workshops to begin by identifying some career goals. They can then use their writing as a way to help achieve these goals. Some participants have a single paramount goal, such as achieving tenure. Others are pursuing merit pay or promotion and know that getting published will be necessary for reaching those goals. Still others aim to increase their marketability. For example, an aspiring writer who attended a workshop in Bloomington, Indiana, had one purpose: to enable herself to move from her current position in a community college into a university-level position. Some who wish to publish professionally simply wish to share their ideas or the results of their research with others, including their own students. Some even write because they know that writing for publication is an effective way to clear the cobwebs and get a better understanding of a discipline. Whatever the reasons, I encourage everyone to write down one or two long-term goals and one or two immediate goals and set deadlines for reaching them. A Game of Chance? Writing for publication becomes easier when writers view it not as a program designed to satisfy an employer but as one designed to meet their own individual goals. No longer is their writing an occasional one-shot, hit-or-miss attempt to get an isolated manuscript into print. Instead, it becomes part of a carefully crafted, ongoing program in which everything is done with purpose. By designing their own programs and learning the expectations of editors, those who would be published gain greater control over the fate of their manuscripts and of their careers. Everything in my writing workshops and books is designed to increase the probability of acceptance of the manuscripts of those who attend. So is each of the following tips and promises. Select Two or Three Journals With your goals and personal deadlines in hand, you are ready to target two or three journals that will be valued by those who hold the keys to meeting your goals. These "key holders" may be colleagues in your own department, or they may be colleagues throughout your campus who make decisions regarding promotions, merit pay, and tenure. …


The facts surrounding the individual lives of most medieval anchoresses have been lost in obscurity over time. Archaeological remains of a forgotten anchorage or a brief reference to a particular recluse in surviving medieval ecclesiastical or legal records often serve as the only proof of their existence. Interest in anchoritic archaeological remains was sparked in nineteenthcentury England when there was "a huge outpouring of public expenditure on buildings [and] between 1840 and 1875 more than 7,000 medieval parish churches were restored, rebuilt or enlarged."1 The reconstruction in the nineteenth century was hotly debated even before its peak, and many architects fought against harsh restoration, claiming that it deviated from the original spirit of the edifice while lining the pockets of less scrupulous craftsmen. Leaders of the architectural profession were concerned that if the "practice of restoration were allowed to go unchecked, medieval remains stood very little chance of surviving the century without being so rebuilt, copied or enlarged as to be unrecognisable as ancient buildings."2 Seeking to revive Gothic architecture by reconstructing medieval buildings in accordance with the contemporary notion of what was thought to be medieval, many Victorian architects had overrestored churches. The result was said to be an "even and machine-like finish" with an "array of features which signal, like flashing lights, the medieval character of the structure at the expense of the literal antiquity of the stones."3 The number of Victorian-era restorations was dramatic. Nearly eighty percent of all parish churches were restored in England and Wales during this time, leading to a plethora of archaeological finds of anchoritic evidence such as walled-up doors and anchorage squints.4 The discoveries fed into the national interest in the Middle Ages, which had emerged in the mid-eighteenth century. Historians of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, writing on the issue of British religious orders, thus were encouraged to further investigate the anchoritic figure, whose way of life was greatly disrupted during the Reformation's dissolution of the monasteries.5 Much like the architects of their time, these authors attempted to piece together an understanding of the identity of these individuals and how they functioned within English society. Their constructed portraits of the anchoress figure relied upon limited information and equivocal sources. These overwhelmingly unfavorable illustrations were incorporated into subsequent scholarship, developing an intricate network of mutual citation, perpetuating an extremely distorted version of the medieval anchoress, which continued well into the twentieth century. For many reasons, it is relevant to reconsider these initial portrayals of anchoresses in order to reassess the accuracy of their depictions. The books and articles consulted in this article form in large part the basis for all successive scholarship concerning anchorites, and examining them can trace how these authors influenced later writers and also how recent studies on anchoritic existence deviate from these foundational works. One major change is that contemporary scholarship focusing on medieval anchoresses is primarily written by women, striking a sharp contrast with early writings that function as the basis for all subsequent anchoritic scholarship. Because the early works were written largely by male ecclesiasts, such a patriarchal line of scholarly descent, although supplying vital documentation, was inclined to view the life of medieval anchoresses in a negative light. While modern scholarship bends sharply in the opposite direction, as will be shown, aiming to deliver medieval anchoresses from the entrapments of medieval misogyny in order to empower and vindicate these historical figures, early assessments of the figure overwhelmingly concentrate on female anchoritic degeneracy. …


This report describes a short-term study undertaken to investigate the potential for using dense three-dimensional (3D) point clouds generated from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and photogrammetry to assess roadway roughness. Spatially continuous roughness maps have potential for the identification of localized roughness features, which would be a significant improvement over traditional profiling methods. This report specifically illustrates the use of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and photogrammetry using a process known as structure from motion (SFM) to acquire point clouds and illustrates the use of these point clouds in evaluating road roughness. Five roadway sections were chosen for scanning and testing: three gravel road sections, one portland cement concrete (PCC) section, and one asphalt concrete (AC) section. To compare clouds obtained from terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetry, the coordinates of the clouds for the same section on the same date were matched using open source computer code. The research indicates that the technologies described are very promising for evaluating road roughness. The major advantage of both technologies is the large amount of data collected, which allows the evaluation of the full surface. Additional research is needed to further develop the use of dense 3D point clouds for roadway assessment.


Mental health problems generate vast pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs for the individual, for relatives, and for society. Living in deprived neighborhoods has been shown to influence, among other things, labor market outcomes and crime. Therefore, we explore how living in a deprived neighborhood with different characteristics influences the mental health of the residents. We utilize a quasi-random allocation of applicants into different neighborhoods through the public social housing (PSH) office to estimate the effect on mental health of living in a deprived neighborhood. The applicants entitled to PSH are lower-income residents with both an urgent housing problem and social problems. Our results suggest that being exposed to a deprived neighborhood as an adult has a significant negative impact on mental health among vulnerable men. We find that besides the usual characteristics of a deprived neighborhood—i.e., high shares of people without employment and with low income—the share of people with mental health problems is an important characteristic of the neighborhood that has a negative impact on mental health among men.


The results of studies presented in this article are an example of the research activity of the authors related to lead-free alloys. The studies covered binary SnZn90 and SnZn95 lead-free alloys, including their microstructure and complex mechanical characteristics. The microstructure was examined by both light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The identification of alloy chemical composition in micro-areas was performed by SEM/EDS method. As regards light microscopy, the assessment was of both qualitative and quantitative character. The determination of the geometrical parameters of microstructure was based on an original combinatorial method using phase quantum theory. Comprehensive characterization of mechanical behavior with a focus on fatigue life of alloys was performed by means of the original modified low cycle fatigue method (MLCF) adapted to the actually available test machine. The article discusses the fatigue life of binary SnZn90 and SnZn95 alloys in terms of their microstructure. Additionally, the benefits resulting from the use of the combinatorial method in microstructure examinations and MLCF test in the quick estimation of several mechanical parameters have been underlined.


This paper deals with estimation of dense optical flow and ego-motion in a generalized imaging system by exploiting probabilistic linear subspace constraints on the flow. We deal with the extended motion of the imaging system through an environment that we assume to have some degree of statistical regularity. For example, in autonomous ground vehicles the structure of the environment around the vehicle is far from arbitrary, and the depth at each pixel is often approximately constant. The subspace constraints hold not only for perspective cameras, but in fact for a very general class of imaging systems, including catadioptric and multiple-view systems. Using minimal assumptions about the imaging system, we learn a probabilistic subspace constraint that captures the statistical regularity of the scene geometry relative to an imaging system. We propose an extension to probabilistic PCA (Tipping and Bishop, 1999) as a way to robustly learn this subspace from recorded imagery, and demonstrate its use in conjunction with a sparse optical flow algorithm. To deal with the sparseness of the input flow, we use a generative model to estimate the subspace using only the observed flow measurements. Additionally, to identify and cope with image regions that violate subspace constraints, such as moving objects, objects that violate the depth regularity, or gross flow estimation errors, we employ a per-pixel Gaussian mixture outlier process. We demonstrate results of finding the optical flow subspaces and employing them to estimate dense flow and to recover camera motion for a variety of imaging systems in several different environments.


This article extends the line of research that has recently applied the savings paradigm from cognitive psychology to vocabulary relearning. Second language (L2) data from 304 returnees from Japan and Korea provide evidence of the strongest savings effect yet reported in studies of lexical reactivation. The extent of the savings advantage appears to decline over time (with age a confounding factor) and relates significantly to current vocabulary size. No significant gender effects in savings are evident, but unexpected differences between the L2 Japanese and L2 Korean subgroups are reported in both lexical maintenance and savings accessibility. Substantial Matthew effects in both data sets help elucidate sources of individual differences in vocabulary learning and relearning.


Income mobility is often thought to equalize permanent incomes and thereby to improve social welfare. The welfare analysis of mobility often fails, however, to account for the cost of the variability of periodic incomes around permanent incomes. This paper assesses the net welfare benefit of mobility by assuming both an aversion to inequality in permanent incomes and an aversion to variability in periodic incomes. The paper further investigates the combined (and comparative) impact of mobility and the tax system (another presumed income equalizer) on the dynamics of income across time and on the inequality of income across individuals. Using panel data, we find that Canada's tax system limits significantly the redistributive impact of mobility while also lowering considerably the cost of income variability. The permanent income equalizing effect of taxes can reach up to 23 % of mean income at the higher values of inequality aversion that we use. Globally, the net social welfare effect of both mobility and taxation is (almost always) positive and substantial, often amounting to around 30 % of mean income. For all choices of parameter values, the tax effect exceeds substantially the net effect of mobility on inequality and social welfare.


The enhancement of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) of weak-gain Raman modes in pendant drops is accomplished by overlapping Stokes wavelengths of the Raman modes with the Rhodamine 640 dye-lasing gain region (called the gain-overlap method). The dye concentration and the pumping intensity of frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers determine the efficiency of the enhancement. We apply the gain-overlap technique at optimal dye concentration and pump intensity to probe minority species in pendant drops formed by binary mixtures. The limits of detectable concentrations of the minority species, methanol in methanol–ethanol and ethanol in ethanol–water (dye-doped) mixtures, are much less than those in undoped mixtures. The smooth fluorescence-lasing spectral curves emitted from dye-doped pendant drops reduce complications in distinguishing SRS signals from quasi-periodic fluorescence-lasing spectra in microdroplets.


Rationale The lifecycle perspective reminds us that the roots of adult ill-health may start in-utero or in early childhood. Nutritional and infectious disease insults in early life, the critical first 1000 days, are associated with stunting in childhood, and subsequent short adult stature. There is limited or no opportunity for stunted children above 2 years of age to experience catch-up growth. Some previous research has shown short maternal height to lead to adverse birth outcomes. In this paper, we document the association between maternal height and caesarean section, and between maternal height and neonatal mortality in 34 sub-Saharan African countries. We also explore the appropriate height cut-offs to use. Our paper contributes arguments to support a focus on preventing non-communicable risk factors, namely early childhood under-nutrition, as part of the fight to reduce caesarean section rates and other adverse maternal and newborn health outcomes, particularly neonatal mortality. We focus on the Sub-Saharan Africa region because it carries the highest burden of maternal and neonatal ill-health. Methods We used the most recent Demographic and Health Survey for 34 sub-Saharan African countries. The distribution of heights of women who had given birth in the 5 years before the survey was explored. We adopted the following cut-offs: Very Short (<145.0cm), Short (145.0–149.9cm), Short-average (150.0–154.9cm), Average (155.0–159.9cm), Average-tall (160.0–169.9cm) and Tall (≥170.0cm). Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the contribution of maternal stature to the odds ratio of caesarean section delivery, adjusting for other exposures, such as age at index birth, residence, maternal BMI, maternal education, wealth index quintile, previous caesarean section, multiple birth, birth order and country of survey. We also look at its contribution to neonatal mortality adjusting for age at index birth, residence, maternal BMI, maternal education, wealth index quintile, multiple birth, birth order and country of survey. Results There was a gradual increase in the rate of caesarean section with decreasing maternal height. Compared to women of Average height (155.0–159.9cm), taller women were protected. The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for Tall women was 0.67 (95% CI:0.52–0.87) and for Average-tall women was 0.78 (95% CI:0.69–0.89). Compared to women of Average height, shorter women were at increased risk. The aOR for Short-average women was 1.19 (95% CI:1.03–1.37), for Short women was 2.06 (95% CI:1.71–2.48), and for Very Short women was 2.50 (95% CI:1.85–3.38). There was evidence that compared to Average height women, Very Short and Short women had increased odds of experiencing a neonatal death aOR = 1.95 (95% CI 1.17–3.25) and aOR = 1.66 (95% CI 1.20–2.28) respectively. When we focused on the period of highest risk, the day of delivery and first postnatal day, these aORs increased to 2.36 (95% CI 1.57–3.55) and 2.34 (95% CI 1.19–4.60) respectively. The aORs for the first week of life (early neonatal mortality) were 1.90 (95% CI 1.07–3.36) and 1.83 (95% CI 1.30–2.59) respectively. Conclusions Short stature is associated with an increased prevalence of caesarean section and neonatal mortality, particularly on the newborn's first days. These results are even more striking because we know that caesarean section rates tend to be higher among wealthier and more educated women, who are often taller and that the same patterns may hold for neonatal survival; in such cases, adjusting for wealth, education and urban residence would attenuate these associations. Caesarean sections can be lifesaving operations; however, they cost the health system and families more, and are associated with worse health outcomes. We suggest that our findings be used to argue for policies targeting stunting in infant girls and potential catch-up growth in adolescence and early adulthood, aiming to increase their adult height and thus decrease their subsequent risk of experiencing caesarean section and adverse birth outcomes.


Since the passage of federal welfare reform in 1996, the federal cash assistance caseloads have dropped by over 50 percent. To address concerns about the well-being of families leaving welfare and to facilitate cross-state comparisons, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the United States the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) awarded competitive grants to select states and large counties in September, 1998, to conduct studies of families that have left the welfare rolls. This report reviews and synthesizes key findings from fifteen of the ASPE-funded leavers studies and includes information on leavers' employment, earnings, program participation, income and poverty status, material hardships, and child well-being.


We wished to determine whether the elevated glucose cycling (GC) between glucose and glucose-6-phosphate (G⇆G6P) in diabetes can be reversed with acute insulin treatment. In six insulin-deprived, anesthetized, depancreatized dogs, insulin was infused for 6–9 h at a starting dose of 45–150 pmol-kg−1-min−1 to normalize plasma glucose from 23.9 ± 1.4 to 5.0 ± 0.4 mmol/1 and gradually decreased to and maintained at a basal rate (1.7 ± 1.0 pmol · kg−1 · min−1) during the last 3 h. GC, measured with [2-3H]- and [6-3H]glucose, fell markedly from 15.3 ± 2.7 and normalized at 1.3 ± 0.6 μmol · kg−1 · min−1 (P < 0.001). This occurred because total hepatic glucose output fell much more (from 41.2 ± 3.1 to 11.6 ± 1.2) than did glucose production (from 25.9 ± 1.9 to 10.3 ± 1.0 μmol · kg−1 · min−1) (both P < 0.01). Freeze-clamped liver biopsies were taken at timed intervals for measurements of hepatic enzymes and substrates. The elevated hepatic hexose-6-phosphate levels decreased with insulin infusion (151 ± 24 vs. 71 ± 13 nmol/g, P < 0.01). Maximal activities of glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) (from 17.6 ± 0.8 to 19.6 ± 2.6 U/g) and glucokinase (from 1.1 ± 0.2 to 1.0 ± 0.2 U/g) did not change. Insulin infusion resulted in a threefold increase (P < 0.05) in the activity of glycogen synthase (active form), but had no effect on hepatic glycogen content. We therefore conclude that in the depancreatized dog, 1) acute insulin infusion with a concurrent correction of hyperglycemia can markedly reduce and normalize GC, and 2) the acute reduction in GC is primarily mediated by reduced substrate fluxes through glucokinase and G6Pase and does not require stable changes in maximal activities of the two enzymes. However, in vivo allosteric changes in enzyme activities (particularly G6Pase), immeasurable in vitro, cannot be excluded. In addition to enzyme measurements, the importance of tracer methods that allow for in vivo measurements of fluxes through glucokinase and G6Pase is emphasized.


As massively multi-player gaming environments become more detailed, developing agents to populate these virtual worlds as capable non-player characters poses an increasingly complex problem. Human players in many games must achieve their objectives through financial skills such as trading and supply chain management as well as through combat and diplomacy. In this paper, we examine the problem of creating intelligent trading agents for virtual markets. Using historical data from EVE Online, a science-fiction based MMORPG, we evaluate several strategies for buying, selling, and supply chain management. We demonstrate that using reinforcement learning to determine policies based on the market microstructure gives trading agents a competitive advantage in amassing wealth. Imbuing agents with the ability to adapt their trading policies can make them more resistant to exploitation by other traders and capable of participating in virtual economies on an equal footing with humans.


This paper examines schools' decisions to sort students into different classes and how those sorting processes impact student achievement. There are two potential effects that result from schools creating homogeneous classes--a "tracking effect," which allows teachers to direct their focus to a more narrow range of students, and a peer effect, which causes a particular student's achievement to be influenced by the quality of peers in his classroom. In schools with homogeneous sorting, both the tracking effect and the peer effect should benefit high performing students. However, the effects would work in opposite directions for a low achieving student; he would benefit from the tracking effect, but the peer effect should decrease his score. This paper seeks to determine the net effect for low performing students in order to understand the full implications of sorting on all students. We use a unique student-level data set from Dallas Independent School District that links students to their actual classes and reveals the entire distribution of students within a classroom. We find significant variation in sorting practices across schools and use this variation to identify the effect of sorting on student achievement. Implementing a unique instrumental variables approach, we find that sorting homogeneously by previous performance significantly improves students' math and reading scores. This effect is present for students across the score distribution, suggesting that the net effect of sorting is beneficial for both high and low performing students. We also explore the effects of sorting along other dimensions, such as gifted and talented status, special education status, and limited English proficiency.


A Survey of Arab-Israeli Relations (3rd edition). London, UK and New York: Routledge, 2006. ix + 538 pages. Select bibl. to p. 55 1 . $230. A he unsteady course of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations up to 2000, the acceleration of Israeli colonization in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the fitful, contingent progress of Palestinian Authority (PA) capacity-building all reinforced doubts among Palestinian and external observers alike as to the outcome of the political process initiated in Oslo in 1993. Received wisdom had suggested that negotiations between me Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government, however fraught, would lead to the emergence of an independent and viable Palestinian state. But the experience of Palestinian semi-autonomy raised questions that challenged this assumption. In light of accelerated colonization, cantonization, and closure in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), what exactly would the territorial basis of the prospective Palestinian state be? Given the pronounced external constraints on Palestinian institutional autonomy, what would the Palestinian state actually be able to do? Considering the PA's lack of control over ingress, egress, and residency, to whom would Palestinian citizenship finally extend? At the time of writing there is little semblance of a process whereby these questions might be answered constructively. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak first asserted that Israel had no partner with whom to negotiate. His successor, Ariel Sharon, cheerfully upheld this axiom, notwithstanding the Roadmap for Peace developed by the United States in cooperation with Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations (the Quartet) in 2003. Ehud Olmert was elected Prime Minister in May 2006 on the platform of realizing "convergence" through unilateral disengagement. The PLO leadership has had little input into public proceedings since early 2001. Meanwhile, on the ground in the OPT, the al-Aqsa intifada brought about military reoccupation and a sharp deterioration in living conditions. In the West Bank, Israeli colonial assets are consolidated behind the separation barrier. In the Gaza Strip, unilateral withdrawal has not signalled an end to occupation. The Hamas-led government in place since early 2006, under pressure of an Israeli and international boycott, has overseen a descent into anarchy and the rise of vicious intra-Palestinian violence. Small wonder, then, that at a juncture such as this, scholarship should reappraise the outcome of a process once taken for granted. The works considered here address the issue from multiple perspectives, among them history, economics, sociology, political economy, and discourse analysis. Contributions include archival research, findings from a range of fieldwork, personal reminiscences, policy recommendations, and a counter-hegemonic narrative. Almost all of them share, in one form or another, a common emancipatory impulse, a concern for the outcome of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. The PLO, Israel, and the Quartet all officially subscribe to statehood as the desired outcome of that struggle. The scholarship under review reflects a range of positions, from an assumption of statehood through qualified expectation to real doubt. The matter of whether or not independent statehood remains an ideal or even a viable means of realizing Palestinian national aspirations is up for debate. The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood by Rashid Khalidi opens with a reflective essay that poses one principal question: how to account for the enduring failure to establish a Palestinian state? By way of addressing this, a series of secondary questions emerge. Can the failures of Oslo be usefully compared to those of the mandate era? What is the utility of examining the role of Palestinian agency given the immensity of the structural constraints acting upon them? Perhaps most importantly of all, is statehood now the inevitable, or even appropriate, end-point of the process that it once have appeared to be? …


The agility, sense of smell, hearing and speed of dogs is put to good use by dedicated canine teams involved in search and rescue operations. Perhaps the weakest link in the human-dog team is the human. In comparison to dogs, humans hear less, cannot effectively follow a scent and actually slow the dog down when involved in area searches. To mitigate this problem the Network-Centric Applied Research Team has been working with the Ontario Provincial Police to augment SAR dogs with a suite of supporting technologies to extend the dog's potential area of operation and allow a greater distance between dog and handler. Through canine augmentation technology we hope to allow canine handlers to see what the dog sees, hear what the dog hears, know where the dog is and be able to communicate with the dog at extended distances


Modification of the sawtooth period through ion cyclotron resonance frequency (ICRF) heating and current drive has been demonstrated in a number of experiments. The effect has been seen to depend critically on the location of the ICRF absorption region with respect to the q = 1 flux surface. Consequently, for ICRF to be a viable tool for sawtooth control, one must be able to control the ICRF absorption location in real time so as to follow variations in the location of the q = 1 surface. To achieve this, the JET ICRF system has been modified to allow the JET real time central controller to control the frequency of the ICRF generators. An algorithm for real time determination of the sawtooth period has been developed and a closed loop controller, which modifies the frequency of the ICRF generators to bring the measured sawtooth period to the desired reference value, has been implemented. This paper shows the first experimental demonstration of closed loop sawtooth period control by real time variation of the ICRF wave frequency.


Until now, observations regarding the central morphology and organization of Ia, group II and Ib Golgi tendon organ afferents have been confined to the cat model. As the use of rodents in the study of the development and organization of segmental spinal cord circuitry increases, a complete account of the peripheral encoding and central connectivity of rodent muscle proprioceptors is necessary. The data presented in this study establish the central morphology and spatial distribution of 12 (4 of each class) functionally phenotyped muscle proprioceptor afferents in the rat by intracellular labeling with Neurobiotin. Each afferent type showed a characteristic central morphology and trajectory that was consistent with observations in the cat. However, variability between the two mammalian models was observed in the average distribution of synaptic contacts within each target lamina. Overall, our data suggests that the findings previously established in the cat are generalizable to other mammalian species.


Written by the inventors of the technology, The Java Virtual Machine Specification, Java SE 7 Edition, is the definitive technical reference for the Java Virtual Machine. The book provides complete, accurate, and detailed coverage of the Java Virtual Machine. It fully describes the invokedynamic instruction and method handle mechanism added in Java SE 7, and gives the formal Prolog specification of the type-checking verifier introduced in Java SE 6. The book also includes the class file extensions for generics and annotations defined in Java SE 5.0, and aligns the instruction set and initialization rules with the Java Memory Model.


Chapter 1 explored the forces and pace of change facing organisations and the implications for
those responsible for managing their buildings. This chapter looks in more detail at the
relationship between buildings and change, and examines how this relationship can be
managed. In doing so, it provides a foundation for Chapter 3, which looks at how we can
prepare for possible scenarios based on change readiness.
This chapter begins by looking at a way in which buildings can be a catalyst or constraint to
change, both physically and symbolically. It then goes on to look at the impact of changing
demands on building performance and how this is manifested in terms of obsolescence – the
operational costs and constraints borne by occupiers – and depreciation – the reduction in rental
income and capital values experienced by building owners.
The third and fourth parts of this chapter discuss two inter-related approaches for coping with
changing user demands: designing buildings for adaptability and adaptive re-use. This chapter
concludes by discussing the implications of obsolescence, depreciation and adaptability for
facilities managers and the importance of maintaining a feedback-loop between facilities
management and design.


In the current article, we consider different growth conditions for studying the well known Szasz–Mirakyan operators, which were introduced in the mid-twentieth century. Here, we obtain a new approach to find the moments using the concept of moment generating functions. Further, we discuss a uniform estimate and compare convergence behavior with the recently studied one.


Pediatric critical events have become an infrequent occurrence in many pediatric centers due to improved child health practices. The ability to successfully care for a critically ill child depends on knowledge and skill but most importantly on a well-functioning team. It has been recognized that communication and collaboration between team members is an important competency for all health professions to obtain. Developing a well?functioning team may depend on the ability to learn in an interprofessional environment. This project aimed to develop, implement and evaluate an In Situ Simulation Based Interprofessional Pediatric Critical Care Curriculum. A review of the steps in the curriculum design and scenario creation is discussed. Canadian Pediatric Royal College Objectives, Crisis Resource Management Principles, the 2010 Heart & Stroke/PALS guidelines were used to create 18 Core Scenarios & 2 Trauma Scenarios. Factors taken into account in the development of the program were: Environment, Logistics, Participants, Realism, and Evaluations. Factors are discussed regarding engaging the participants. Results of the evaluations on debriefing and knowledge translation reveal that: 93% of participants reported an overall positive experience with non-resident members being significantly more likely (p=0.024) to have perceived the debriefing as a positive, 95% felt the feedback was useful for their learning, 81% felt they actively contributed to the scenario, 87% were able to integrate previous feedback in subsequent sessions. The benefit of an In-Situ program is that it is possible to highlight System failures. System Changes implemented secondary to the program were the following: Awareness raised regarding hospital airway protocol, Medication delivery issues highlighted: Providing infusion protocols in the ED, knowledge of location of infrequently used medications (prostaglandin), better understanding of scope of practice limits for IV PUSH meds, Recognition that residents require more training in intra-osseous placement and defibrillator use, Residents and ED nurses given in?service for gaps in skill. The challenges of an interdisciplinary In-situ simulation program were found to be: ensuring protected time for nurses and RTs, building a critical mass of instructors/debriefers, providing appropriate, timely orientation to all users and developing a bank of scenarios. Overall, it was found that it is possible to develop and implement an interprofessional, in-situ simulation program that is useful for all learners and can contribute to knowledge gain and skill development.


Dynamic models of forward looking agents, whose goal is to maximize expected in-tertemporal payoffs, are useful modelling frameworks in economics. With an exception of a small class of dynamic decision processes, the estimation of the primitives in these models is computationally burdensome due to the presence of the value functions that has no closed form. We follow a popular two-step approach which estimates the functions of interest rather than use direct numerical approximation. The first chapter, joint with Oliver Linton, considers a class of dynamic discrete choice models that contain observable continuously distributed state variables. Most papers on the estimation of dynamic discrete choice models assume that the observable state variables can only take finitely many values. We show that the extension to the infinite dimensional case leads to a well-posed inverse problem. We derive the distribution theory for the finite and the infinite dimensional parameters. Dynamic models with continuous choice can sometimes avoid the numerical issues related to the value function through the use of Euler's equation. The second chapter considers models with continuous choice that do not necessarily belong to the Euler class but frequently arise in applied problems. In this chapter, a class of minimum distance estimators is proposed, their distribution theory along with the infinite dimensional parameters of the decision models are derived. The third chapter demonstrates how the methodology developed for the discrete and continuous choice problems can be adapted to estimate a variety of other dynamic models. The final chapter discusses an important problem, and provides an example, where some well-known estimation procedures in the literature may fail to consistently estimate an identified model. The estimation methodologies I propose in the preceding chapters may not suffer from the problems of this kind.


The classical conception of law, articulated by seventeenth century common law jurists like Sir Edward Coke and Sir Matthew Hale, drew inspiration from earlier natural law sources, but also reflected dominant features of native common law practice and the special political pressures to which it was subjected in that turbulent period of English history. Common law jurisprudence, even in its heyday, had not matured into a full-fledged philosophical theory of law, but a number of important notions to which common law jurist gave complex and conflicting expression influenced orthodox understanding of English (and later American) legal practice for centuries thereafter. This essay offers a partial philosophical reconstruction of the classical common law conception. It is meant not as a contribution to legal history, but rather as a systematic articulation of the conception worthy of careful attention of latter-day legal theorists. The essay is in two parts. Part I opens with a sketch of the historical roots of the common law, and then isolates in broad strokes the main themes or issues debated by common law jurists. Common law jurists agreed that law was to be understood as "reasonable usage." For many common lawyers this involved both common custom and common reason, but these notions were as contested as they were central to the common law mind. They were also thought to be interdependent: custom was always subject to the test of reason, but reason was embodied in the common practices of law. The relations and conflicts between these two notions are explored as well as the connection between the common law notion of common "artificial" reason or and traditional notions of natural law and natural reason.


The use of income distribution indicators in the economics literature has increased considerably in recent years. This work relies on household surveys from 18 LAC countries to take a step back from the use of these indicators, and explore what's behind the numbers, and what information they convey. We find: a) that the way countries rank according to inequality measured in a conventional way is to a large extent an illusion created by differences in characteristics of the data and on the particular ways in which the data is treated; b) Our ideas about the effect of inequality on economic growth are also driven by quality and coverage differences in household surveys and by the way in which the data is treated; c) Standard household surveys in LAC are unable to capture the incomes of the richest sectors of society; so, the inequality we are able to measure is most likely a gross underestimation. Our main conclusion is that there is an important story behind each number. This story influences our judgement about how unequal countries are and about the relation between inequality and other development indicators, but it is seldom told or known. Perhaps other statistics commonly used in economics also have their own interesting story, and it might be worth trying to find out what it is.


In this paper, we consider the problem of jointly learning hierarchies over a set of sources and entities based on their containment relationship. We model the concept of hierarchy using a set of latent binary features and propose a generative model that assigns those latent features to sources and entities in order to maximize the probability of the observed containment. To avoid fixing the number of features beforehand, we consider a non-parametric approach based on the Indian Buffet Process. The hierarchies produced by our algorithm can be used for completing missing associations and discovering structural bindings in the data. Using simulated and real datasets we provide empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed approach in comparison to the existing hierarchy agnostic approaches.


Abstract After the formation of the ~ 260 Ma Emeishan large igneous province, there were two volumetrically minor magmatic pulses at ~ 252 Ma and ~ 242 Ma, respectively. Alkaline mafic dykes intruding both 260 Ma and 252 Ma felsic plutons in the Panxi region, southwestern China, have compositions similar to the Emeishan flood basalts. One dyke is dated using the SHRIMP zircon U–Pb technique at 242 ± 2 Ma, ~ 18 Ma younger than the start of Emeishan magmatism. The dykes have enriched light rare earth element patterns (La/YbN = 4.4–18.8) and trace element patterns similar to the Emeishan flood basalts and average ocean-island basalts. Some trace element ratios of the dykes (Zr/Nb = 3.8–8.2, La/Nb = 0.4–1.7, Ba/La = 7.5–25.6) are somewhat similar to EM1 source material, however, there are differences. Their εNd values (εNd = +2.6 and +2.7) and ISr (ISr = 0.704542 and 0.704554) ratios are indicative of a mantle source. Thus Emeishan magmatism may have lasted for almost 20 Ma after the initial eruption. However, geological evidence precludes the possibility that the post-260 Ma magmatic events were directly related to Emeishan magmatism, which began at and ended shortly after 260 Ma. The 252 Ma plutons and 242 Ma dykes represent volumetrically minor melting of the fossil Emeishan plume-head beneath the Yangtze crust. The 252 Ma magmatic event was likely caused by post-flood basalt extension of the Yangtze crust, whereas the 242 Ma event was caused by decompressional melting associated with the collision between the South China and North China blocks during the Middle Triassic.


Improving the walking functions of hemiplegia patients after a stroke or brain injury is an important rehabilitation challenge. Recently, walking assist robots have been introduced in advanced rehabilitation facilities as a way to improve the efficiency of patient rehabilitation and restore their walking functions. Expert therapists can apply this device on different patients; however, such application mainly depends on the therapist's tacit knowledge. Thus, it is often harder for novice therapists to apply such devices on different types of patients. Consequently, effective use of a walking assist robot has become a new patient rehabilitation skill. Taking rehabilitation as a service provided by medical doctors or therapists to their patients, this study aims to improve the quality of the rehabilitation service. In particular, the objective of this study is to abstract the rehabilitation skill of expert therapists in using a walking assist robot by applying a service science methodology known as skill education. Skill abstraction was performed by interviewing an expert therapist. From this interview, it was found that the expert therapist classified hemiplegia patients into four different classes. Using videos of patients walking, further analysis revealed the expert's tacit knowledge, which was indicated by differences observed among these four groups in particular phases of the patients' walking patterns. This study shows that by successfully obtaining explicit knowledge of part of a rehabilitation skill by using a walking assist robot (which until now was a tacit knowledge of experts), and then organizing the acquired explicit knowledge, even non-experts can easily reproduce the skill of experts in new patient rehabilitation.


"The Other Movement: Indian Rights and Civil Rights in the Deep South" examines the most visible outcome of the Southern Indian Rights Movement: state Indian affairs commissions. In recalling political activism in the post-World War II South, rarely does one consider the political activities of American Indians as they responded to desegregation, the passing of the Civil Rights Acts, and the restructuring of the American political party system. Native leaders and activists across the South created a social and political movement all their own, which drew public attention to the problems of discrimination, poverty, unemployment, low educational attainment, and poor living conditions in tribal communities. While tribal-state relationships have historically been characterized as tense, most southern tribes particularly non-federally recognized ones found that Indian affairs commissions offered them a unique position in which to negotiate power. Although individual tribal leaders experienced isolated victories and generated some support through the 1950s and 1960s, the creation of the intertribal state commissions in the 1970s and 1980s elevated the movement to a more prominent political level. Through the formalization of tribal-state relationships, Indian communities forged strong networks with local, state, and national agencies while advocating for cultural preservation and revitalization, economic development, and the implementation of community services. This book looks specifically at Alabama and Louisiana, places of intensive political activity during the civil rights era and increasing Indian visibility and tribal reorganization in the decades that followed. Between 1960 and 1990, U.S. census records show that Alabama s Indian population swelled by a factor of twelve and Louisiana s by a factor of five. Thus, in addition to serving as excellent examples of the national trend of a rising Indian population, the two states make interesting case studies because their Indian commissions brought formerly disconnected groups, each with different goals and needs, together for the first time, creating an assortment of alliances and divisions."


We previously found that the Ca(2+)-sensing receptor (CaR) interacts with and inactivates the inwardly rectifying K(+) channel Kir4.2 that is expressed in the kidney cortex and that has a COOH-terminal PDZ domain. To identify potential scaffolding proteins that could organize a macromolecular signaling complex involving the CaR and Kir4.2, we used yeast two-hybrid cloning with the COOH-terminal 125 amino acids (AA) of Kir4.2 as bait to screen a human kidney cDNA library. We identified two independent partial cDNAs corresponding to the COOH-terminal 900 AA of MUPP1, a protein containing 13 PDZ binding domains that is expressed in the kidney in tight junctions and lateral borders of epithelial cells. When expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK)-293 cells, Kir4.2 coimmunoprecipitates reciprocally with MUPP1 but not with a Kir4.2 construct lacking the four COOH-terminal amino acids, Kir5.1, or the CaR. MUPP1 and Kir4.2 coimmunoprecipitate reciprocally from rat kidney cortex extracts. Coexpression of MUPP1 with Kir4.2 in HEK-293 cells leads to reduced cell surface expression of Kir4.2 as assessed by cell surface biotinylation. Coexpression of MUPP1 and Kir4.2 in Xenopus oocytes results in reduced whole cell currents compared with expression of Kir4.2 alone, whereas expression of Kir4.2DeltaPDZ results in minimal currents and is not affected by coexpression with MUPP1. Immunofluorescence studies of oocytes demonstrate that MUPP1 reduces Kir4.2 membrane localization. These results indicate that Kir4.2 interacts selectively with MUPP1 to affect its cell surface expression. Thus MUPP1 and Kir4.2 may participate in a protein complex in the nephron that could regulate transport of K(+) as well as other ions.


A soil aggregate is made of closely packed sand, silt, clay, and organic particles building upsoil structure. Soil aggregation is a soil quality index integrating the chemical, physical, andbiological processes involved in the genesis of soil structure and tilth. Aggregate sizedistribution is determined by sieving a fixed amount of soil mass under mechanical stress andis commonly synthesized by the mean weight diameter (MWD) and fractal dimensions such asthe fragmentation fractal dimensions ( ). A fractal is a rough object that can be broken downinto a number of reduced-size copies of the original object. Equations have been developed tocompute bounded and unbounded scaling factors as measures of fractal dimensions based onassumptions about average diameter, bulk density, shape and probability of failure of sievedparticles. The log-log relationship between particle diameter and cumulative number or massof aggregates or soil particles above a given diameter often shows more or less uniform fractalpatterns. Multi-fractal (slopes showing several values ≤ 3) and non fractal patterns orincomplete fragmentation ( ) have been reported. Scaling factors are curvefittingparameters that are very sensitive to the choice of the fractal domain about breakpoints.Compositional data analysis using sequential binary partitions for isometric log ratio (ilr)coordinates with orthonormal basis provides a novel approach that avoids the assumptionsand dimensional constraints of fractal analysis. Our objective was to compare MWD, fractalscaling factors and ilr coordinates using published data. In the first dataset, MWD was foundto be biased by excessively high weight being given to the largest aggregate-size. Eight ilrcoordinates contrasting micro- vs. macro-aggregates were related to fragmentation fractaldimensions, most of which were below 2 or above 3, a theoretical impossibility for geometricfractals. The critical ilr value separating scaling factors 3 and > 3 was close to zero. In asecond dataset, the Aitchison distance computed across ilr coordinates proved to be a usefulmeasure of the degree of soil aggregation, agradation or degradation against a referencecomposition such as that of primary particles, bare fallow or permanent grass. The individualcontributions of ilr coordinates to the Aitchison distance can be interpreted in terms of signand amplitude and be related to soil properties and processes mediated by soil aggregation


Many studies have shown that rule-based classifiers perform well in classifying categorical and sparse high-dimensional databases. However, a fundamental limitation with many rule-based classifiers is that they find the rules by employing various heuristic methods to prune the search space and select the rules based on the sequential database covering paradigm. As a result, the final set of rules that they use may not be the globally best rules for some instances in the training database. To make matters worse, these algorithms fail to fully exploit some more effective search space pruning methods in order to scale to large databases. In this paper, we present a new classifier, HARMONY, which directly mines the final set of classification rules. HARMONY uses an instance-centric rule-generation approach and it can assure that, for each training instance, one of the highest-confidence rules covering this instance is included in the final rule set, which helps in improving the overall accuracy of the classifier. By introducing several novel search strategies and pruning methods into the rule discovery process, HARMONY also has high efficiency and good scalability. Our thorough performance study with some large text and categorical databases has shown that HARMONY outperforms many well-known classifiers in terms of both accuracy and computational efficiency and scales well with regard to the database size


I report significant improvements to the differential method of Chandezon et al. [J. Opt. Soc. Am. 72, 839-846 (1982)]. The R-matrix propagation algorithm is used to remove completely the previously existing limitations on the total coating thickness and on the total number of coated layers. I analyze the symmetry properties of the eigenvalue problem that arises in the differential formalism and use them to speed up the numerical computation. The time needed for computing the eigensolutions of coated gratings in a conical mount is reduced to little more than what is needed for gratings in a classical mount. For gratings with dielectric coatings or gratings with symmetrical profiles the need to invert certain matrices appearing in the formalism is eliminated. Numerical results show that it is possible to make nearly 100% efficient surface-relief reflection gratings in a Littrow mount by the use of dielectric materials only.


This research aims to examine the effect of teaching by using strategies that stimulate neural branching in creative and critical thinking of study groups. The sample of this study consisted of two experimental groups and a control group. In terms of the treatment, one experimental group was taught using strategies that stimulate the neural branching in human brain mentally. The other experimental group was taught using the same strategies supported by technology. The control group was taught using the traditional instruction. The sample included (95) male student and (102) female students from two schools of the governorate of Muscat. To answer the research questions, Torrance test of creative thinking (TTCT) and Watson & Glaser critical thinking test (WGCTT) were used. The results show that the experimental groups significantly outperformed the control group with respect to the creative thinking test. However there were no statistically significant differences between the study's groups in the critical thinking test. This study recommends investment of mental capacities of the learners to encourage creative thinking and train teachers on using methods that stimulate neural branching.


Sulphur dioxide (SO2), a known industrial pollutant and pulmonary irritant, is emitted to the atmosphere in excess of 120 Mt per annum. Great strides have been taken to reduce SO2 emissions, but with the growth of specifically China, and to a lesser extent India, it is on the rise again. The electrolysis of aqueous solutions of dissolved SO2 holds huge environmental potential in that SO2 is converted to sulphuric acid (H2SO4) and at the same time hydrogen gas is produced. A further benefit or incentive is that a sulphur depolarised electrolyser (SDE) operates at an applied potential that is about one volt lower than that of a regular water electrolyser. In taking this technology forward the greatest improvement to be made is in developing a suitable electrocatalyst, which is also the 'lowest hanging fruit' in that very limited research and development has been conducted on the electrocatalyst for this process. In this work, density functional theory is employed to model the electro-oxidation of SO2 on single crystal planes of the 4d and 5d transition metals. Two reaction mechanisms are considered, a HSO3 intermediate pathway and a SO3 intermediate pathway. The binding energies of all intermediates are found to scale with the surface reactivity (measured as the adsorption of OH). Irrespective of the pathway water needs to be activated and reduction of SO2 to elemental sulphur must be avoided. This requirement alone calls for an electrode potential of at least 0.7-0.8 V for all the investigated transition metals and thus challenges the proclaimed goal to operate the SDE at 0.6 V. A high chemical barrier is further found to severely limit the oxidation reaction on reactive metals. A much higher catalytic activity can be obtained on precious metals but at the cost of running the reaction at high overpotentials.


Fluorescence spectroscopy has been used to measure gross water quality parameters and organic contaminants in a variety of water samples (surface, drinking and wastewater). Water samples exhibit characteristic fluorescence signatures and excitation and emission spectral data can be used to provide intensity data and "optical fluorescence fingerprints". Sewage wastes exhibit broad band fluorescence centred at 350 nm and two relatively less intense bands at about 390 and 430 nm. Samples that have been treated in an aerobic digester show a substantial reduction in fluorescence around 350 nm. Normalised intensities in this region demonstrate good correlation with BOD, COD and TOC values ( R 2 values between 0.85 and 0.91). Drinking and surface waters also demonstrate unique fluorescence characteristics, which provide individual characteristic fingerprints. Results are presented that demonstrate the usefulness of fluorescence spectroscopy for the qualitative and quantitative detection of certain organic species present in different water types. Tryptophan is quantified in drinking and surface waters at levels around 8 × 10 -9 mol l -1 . Optical fluorescence fingerprints are unique for particular water types and are readily altered in the presence of organic contaminants including phenol and pyrene. The possibility of using fluorescence techniques for the continuous noninvasive monitoring of water quality is discussed.


In Speaking of Love: The Love Dialogue in Italian and French Renaissance Literature, Reinier Leushuis examines a corpus of sixteenth-century love dialogues that exemplifies the dialogue's mimetic qualities and validates its place in the literary landscape of the Italian and French Renaissance.


Organic soil causes major problems in infrastructure development. It has high compressibility and low shear strength, and requires chemical stabilization if it is to be a sustainable geomaterial. This research investigated the strength and microstructural properties of organic soil stabilized with magnesium chloride (MgCl2). Unconfined compressive strength tests were undertaken to assess shear strength properties, and microstructural changes were monitored via field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDAX). The results confirm that MgCl2 improves the compressive strength of organic soil. The strength of MgCl2-stabilized organic soil is increased to around 3 – 5 times that of untreated soil during the first 7 days of curing. FESEM results show that the porosity of organic soil is filled by a new cementitious compound, identified as magnesium silicate hydrate (M-S-H).


Background

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a resistant variant of S. aureus and can cause pneumonia, septicaemia and, in some cases, death. Caring for patients with antibiotic resistant bacteria is a challenge for healthcare personnel. There is a risk of spreading the bacteria among patients and of healthcare personnel being infected themselves.

Aim

To describe nursing staffs' experiences of caring for patients with methicillin-resistant S. aureus in Sweden.

Method

A descriptive qualitative approach was used and 15 nurses from different hospitals and care units, including emergency and geriatric wards and nursing homes in Stockholm, were interviewed. All nurses had been involved in the care of patients with methicillin-resistant S. aureus, but not on a regular basis. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Findings

Three themes emerged from the data: feeling ignorant, afraid and insecure, feeling competent and secure and feeling stressed and overworked. The more knowledge the nurses acquired about methicillin-resistant S. aureus, the more positive was their attitude to caring for these patients.

Discussion and conclusion

Caring for patients with methicillin-resistant S. aureus without adequate knowledge of how to protect oneself and other patients against transmission may provoke anxiety among personnel. Guidelines, memos and adequate information at the right time are of central importance. Healthcare personnel must feel safe in their role as caregivers. All patients have the right to have the same quality of care regardless of the diagnosis and a lack of knowledge influences the level of care given.

Implications for nursing and health policy

This study demonstrates the importance of education when caring for patients with infectious diseases. Hopefully, knowledge gained from our study can provide guidance for future health care when new diseases and infections occur.


Advances in DNA technology have led to the extremely sensitive and rapid analysis methods used in forensic science. It can often be crucial to a criminal case to unequivocally identify the body fluid source of DNA. This is of particular importance in rape cases where the defence may argue that the source of a female DNA profile might be from a casual touch or from saliva. In this study, proteomics has been employed in an attempt to identify potential biomarkers that are specific to a range of body fluids. Many publications cite the use of proteomics to identify biomarkers of disease such as cancer. In these reports, diseased and healthy tissues or tissues that have been treated or not treated with a drug are compared and the expressed proteins are compared by 2D electrophoresis. Human body fluids differ in function, composition and protein expression. Proteomics therefore seemed an ideal application to isolate the proteins that are characteristic of and specific to, different fluid types. Both saliva and vaginal fluid proteomic methodologies were optimised for sample preparation, IPG strip pH range and protein load, and post-electrophoretic staining. Seventeen isolated protein spots from saliva and vaginal fluid samples were submitted for LC-MS/MS analysis. Nine saliva spots and eleven vaginal spots were identified as known proteins on the MASCOT database. Of those thought to be specific to saliva or vaginal fluid six candidate biomarkers were tested further against a panel of body fluids for specificity using ELISA or Dot Blot. Zinc-I±-2 glycoprotein (ZA2G) was detected and present in all body fluid samples thus could be used as a human body fluid positive control in a future assay. SCC (Squamous cell carcinoma) ELISA was capable of distinguishing samples of vaginal origin by detection of SCCA (Squamous cell carcinoma antigen). This antigen could be used in conjunction with a menstrual blood marker to distinguish between vaginal fluid and menstrual blood. Antibody specificity was a limiting factor in the success of the dot blots performed and hence the analysis of Cystatin SA, Cystatin SN and SERPIN B1 was inconclusive.


New communication technologies can enable Web users to access personalised information "anytime, anywhereö. However, the network environments allowing this "anytime, anywhereö access may have widely varying performance characteristics such as bandwidth, level of congestion, mobility support, and cost of transmission. It is unrealistic to expect that the quality of delivery of the same content can be maintained in this variable environment, but rather an effort must be made to fit the content served to the current delivery conditions, thus ensuring high Quality of Experience (QoE) to the users. This paper introduces an end-user QoE-aware adaptive hypermedia framework that extends the adaptation functionality of adaptive hypermedia systems with a fine-grained content-based adaptation mechanism. The proposed mechanism attempts to take into account multiple factors affecting QoE in relation to the delivery of Web content. Various simulation tests investigate the performance improvements provided by this mechanism, in a home-like, low bit rate operational environment, in terms of access time per page, aggregate access time per browsing session and quantity of transmitted information.


This paper is concerned with evaluating different multiagent learning (MAL) algorithms in problems where individual agents may be heterogenous, in the sense of utilizing different learning strategies, without the opportunity for prior agreements or information regarding coordination. Such a situation arises in ad hoc team problems, a model of many practical multiagent systems applications. Prior work in multiagent learning has often been focussed on homogeneous groups of agents, meaning that all agents were identical and a priori aware of this fact. Also, those algorithms that are specifically designed for ad hoc team problems are typically evaluated in teams of agents with fixed behaviours, as opposed to agents which are adapting their behaviours. In this work, we empirically evaluate five MAL algorithms, representing major approaches to multiagent learning but originally developed with the homogeneous setting in mind, to understand their behaviour in a set of ad hoc team problems. All teams consist of agents which are continuously adapting their behaviours. The algorithms are evaluated with respect to a comprehensive characterisation of repeated matrix games, using performance criteria that include considerations such as attainment of equilibrium, social welfare and fairness. Our main conclusion is that there is no clear winner. However, the comparative evaluation also highlights the relative strengths of different algorithms with respect to the type of performance criteria, e.g., social welfare vs. attainment of equilibrium.


Earth observation data and approaches are increasingly being utilized to improve our insights into the ecological processes that influence biological diversity. Physically based indices such as the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR) intercepted by vegetation are particularly useful in describing variations in productivity and seasonality that can, in turn, be related to species abundances and distributions. The increasing availability of time series of fAPAR data from 2000 from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors, as well from other satellites, such as ENVISAT, has resulted in a motivation to extend techniques, originally developed for MODIS biophysical data, to other sensors. In this letter we investigate and demonstrate the application of the dynamic habitat index (DHI) methodology to the MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) Global Vegetation Index (MGVI) across the over 1 million km2 province of Ontario, Canada. Results indicate the three DHI components varied significantly in their magnitude, principally because of MODIS fAPAR estimates being larger than those observed by MERIS fAPAR. However the relationship was, in general, temporally stable across the years and the residuals tended to be spatially consistent. We conclude that following inter-calibration the production of consistent indicators of habitat and biodiversity from different data sources is possible, thus supporting global terrestrial ecological research, policy support and management.


Between 2010-12 Landscape Interface Studio (LIS), Kingston University supported Canal & River Trust to deliver the communication and dissemination work package of the 'Waterways Forward' project, funded by the European Union Interreg IVC programme. The project brought together 17 partners from 11 EU countries plus Norway and Serbia and was led by SRN (Dutch Recreational Waterways Foundation, Netherlands).

LIS work included the development of 2 supporting project exhibitions, short films, animations, a project catalogue, good practice leaflets and posters plus partner interviews and social media marketing.


Hypertrophic scars are painful and unsightly scars frequently resulting from dermal trauma and characterised by excessive collagen. The application of silicone gel sheeting is an effective treatment for these scars. Proton Induced X-Ray Emission, Elastic (Non-Rutherford) Backscattering and Instrumental Neutron Activation were used to determine the compositional changes in the silicone gel sheeting and the skin resulting from contact of the gel with scarred and unscarred skin, and found that although in vitro tests on split skin and in vivo tests using unscarred tissue causes the skin to absorb Si (an essential constituent of collagen) from the silicone gel sheeting; in vivo tests on hypertrophic scar and control tissue show the reverse: silicone gel sheeting absorbs Si from hypertrophic scars against the concentration gradient. It is believed that this is an important factor in the success of the treatment of hypertrophic scars by silicone gel sheeting. The major, minor and trace element composition was determined for a total of 35 skin samples including breast, abdominal and hypertrophic scar tissue, comparing dermis and epidermis for these samples. Some split skin samples were also included. The hypertrophic scar tissue is characterised by enhanced Si content, with 3wt% compared with an average of 2wt% for the unscarred tissue. A pilot clinical trial was then conducted on 20 unscarred volunteers as controls over a week, and 9 volunteers with hypertrophic scars (clinical gel) over a three month period with silicone gel sheeting nominally used according to a strict protocol. Two subjects did not complete the trial, and there was evidence of non-compliance for at least three others. However, without excluding any data, we have observed a significant increase (10+/-1%) in Si content of the silicone gel sheeting in contact with hypertrophic scar over the controls. Significant composition differences between the dermis and the epidermis were observed as expected. Differences between the composition of scarred and unscarred tissue were not large. Significant increases in the average elemental composition were seen between the clinical gel compared to the unused gel for the elements: Cl, K, Ca, Fe and Ag providing further evidence that the gel absorbs elements from the scar tissue.


The Super-Kamiokande detector can be used to search for neutrinos in time coincidence with gravitational waves detected by the LIGO–Virgo Collaboration (LVC). Both low-energy (7–100 MeV) and high-energy (0.1–105 GeV) samples were analyzed in order to cover a very wide neutrino spectrum. Follow-ups of 36 (out of 39) gravitational waves reported in the GWTC-2 catalog were examined; no significant excess above the background was observed, with 10 (24) observed neutrinos compared with 4.8 (25.0) expected events in the high-energy (low-energy) samples. A statistical approach was used to compute the significance of potential coincidences. For each observation, p-values were estimated using neutrino direction and LVC sky map; the most significant event (GW190602_175927) is associated with a post-trial p-value of 7.8% (1.4σ). Additionally, flux limits were computed independently for each sample and by combining the samples. The energy emitted as neutrinos by the identified gravitational wave sources was constrained, both for given flavors and for all flavors assuming equipartition between the different flavors, independently for each trigger and by combining sources of the same nature.


The Kauman N-K, or random boolean network, model is an important tool for exploring the properties of large scale complex systems. There are computational challenges in simulating large networks with high connectivities. We describe some high-performance data structures and algorithms for implementing large-scale simulations of the random boolean network model using various storage types provided by the D programming language. We discuss the memory complexity of an optimised simulation code and present some measured properties of large networks.


SUMMARY A newly recognized sea anemone, Edwardsia meridionalis sp. nov., from McMurdo Sound, Antarctica is described and compared with other Edwardsia species. Its habitat and geographical distribution are described. The generic name Edwardsia de Quatrefages, 1841 and the familial name Edwardsiidae Andres, 1881 are invalid. A summary of a proposal made to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to conserve these names is given. The genus Edwardsia is defined and its known synonyms are given. A review of the published descriptions found of nominal Edwardsia species revealed many nomina nuda, nomina dubia, synonyms and homonyms. The remaining nomina clara comprize forty currently accepted nominal species, which are listed with their known synonyms and geographical distributions.


Accurate determination of the luminous and thermal performance of fenestration systems that incorporate optically complex components requires detailed knowledge of their radiant behavior. We describe a large scanning radiometer used to measure the bidirectional transmittance and reflectance of fenestration systems and components. We present examples of measured data obtained for simple non-specular samples. We describe a method of obtaining the overall properties of fenestration systems by calculation from scanning radiometer measurements of fenestration components. Finally, we describe the application of bidirectional solar-optical properties of. fenestration systems to determine their luminous and thermal performance with respect to building energy consumption and occupants' comfort. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of the method, which appears to be promising.


ABSTRACT In small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), technological advancements create opportunities and decision-making challenges. As a result, there is considerable difference in technology adoption decisions implemented by SMEs, and their rate of adoption remains low. Although past studies have identified various factors influencing technology adoption by SMEs, there is some consensus that the motivation for adoption decisions stems from a combination of internal and external factors. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, expanding on the internal versus external motivational forces paradigm, this paper delineates four distinct strategic postures (proactive, preemptive, reactive, and passive) that demonstrate how SMEs differ on technology adoption decisions. Second, using the strategic posture matrix, this paper offers a research agenda that identifies relevant areas for further investigation. Integration of the internal and external forces paradigm and the proposed matrix can aid decision makers in understanding how strategic postures influence technology adoption and other strategic decisions by SMEs. INTRODUCTION Technological advancements have the potential to remake entire industries as they create opportunities for new firms to emerge and for established firms to reinvent themselves (Day & Schoemaker, 2000; Loftus, 1997). The last decade or so has witnessed the proliferation of technologies such as e-commerce, advanced information technologies, Internet-enabled solutions, customer relationship management platforms, and communication interfaces, among others that have changed the dynamics of competition. From a strategic perspective, the adoption of and response to emerging technologies can reconfigure firms' relative positions in competitive landscapes (Bowman & Gatignon, 1995). That is, while some firms can potentially leverage leadership and leapfrogging advantages from appropriate technology adoption decisions, others become marginalized or lose competitive advantages due to poorly selected decisions pertaining to adoption or timing of adoption. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) technology adoption decisions represent opportunities as well as critical decision-making challenges due to their impact on survival, growth, competitiveness, and innovativeness (Bruque & Moyano, 2007; Nguyen, 2009). However, across industries, there are pronounced behavioral differences in how SMEs respond to emerging technologies (Grandon & Pearson, 2004; Julien & Raymond, 1994; Nguyen, 2009). Emerging technology product markets are typically characterized by rapid change and development, with high levels of risk and uncertainty surrounding technological development and market opportunities (Bruce, 1988). Consequently, within industries, firms differ on technologyrelated decisions across two broad domains: the intent to adopt emerging technology and the timing of adoption (e.g., Bowman & Gatignon, 1995; Porter, 1980; Robertson & Gatignon, 1986). In other words, while some firms eagerly embrace new technologies, others are more reticent. Further, even among firms that adopt new technology, there are marked differences in the diffusion of many new technologies, with some firms being innovators and early adopters and the rest being relatively restrained followers. In this context, the question of whether there are strategic reasons for behavioral differences in technology adoption among SMEs needs to be explored. For SMEs, technology adoption could serve as a strategic weapon that enables them to compete better with larger businesses, leverage operational and communication efficiencies, and overcome locational and temporal barriers (Grandon & Pearson, 2004). Nonetheless, in general, the rate of technology adoption by SMEs remains low compared to other businesses (Nguyen, 2009; Southern & Tilley, 2000). Espousing wide-ranging support for the potential benefits of management and information technology adoption by SMEs, past researchers have identified various factors that support or impede technology adoption decisions. …


Abstract. The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) carried on board the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Meteorological Operational Satellite (MetOp) polar orbiting satellites is the only instrument offering more than 25 years of satellite data to analyse aerosols on a daily basis. The present study assessed a modified AVHRR aerosol optical depth τa retrieval over land for Europe. The algorithm might also be applied to other parts of the world with similar surface characteristics like Europe, only the aerosol properties would have to be adapted to a new region. The initial approach used a relationship between Sun photometer measurements from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and the satellite data to post-process the retrieved τa. Herein a quasi-stand-alone procedure, which is more suitable for the pre-AERONET era, is presented. In addition, the estimation of surface reflectance, the aerosol model, and other processing steps have been adapted. The method's cross-platform applicability was tested by validating τa from NOAA-17 and NOAA-18 AVHRR at 15 AERONET sites in Central Europe (40.5° N–50° N, 0° E–17° E) from August 2005 to December 2007. Furthermore, the accuracy of the AVHRR retrieval was related to products from two newer instruments, the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) on board the Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board Aqua/Terra. Considering the linear correlation coefficient R, the AVHRR results were similar to those of MERIS with even lower root mean square error RMSE. Not surprisingly, MODIS, with its high spectral coverage, gave the highest R and lowest RMSE. Regarding monthly averaged τa, the results were ambiguous. Focusing on small-scale structures, R was reduced for all sensors, whereas the RMSE solely for MERIS substantially increased. Regarding larger areas like Central Europe, the error statistics were similar to the individual match-ups. This was mainly explained with sampling issues. With the successful validation of AVHRR we are now able to concentrate on our large data archive dating back to 1985. This is a unique opportunity for both climate and air pollution studies over land surfaces.


Cirsium arvense and Lepidium latifolium are species that can aggressively invade wetland margins and potentially reduce biodiversity and alter ecosystem function. Although expansion of these species primarily occurs via rhizomatous growth, seeds are thought to be important in initial establishment. We conducted this study to investigate differences in seed germination of C. arvense and L. latifolium in montane wetlands of Colorado and Wyoming, USA. We used germination chambers to simulate environmental conditions (photoperiod, day/night temperature) during three periods of the growing season at each site and evaluated seed germination in relation to three soil moisture levels and two soil depths. A combination of shallow (<1 cm) seed burial and wet conditions resulted in the greatest germination probability of C. arvense (x = 63.0%), 95% CI = 41.2–80.5%), whereas deep (2–3 cm) seed burial and saturated moisture conditions resulted in almost no germination (x = 0.3%, 95% CI = 0.1–1.3%). The maximum germination probability of 44.0% (CI = 28.1–61.4%) for L. latifolium also occurred in the shallow burial and wet treatment; however, only effects of seed burial were significant (P < 0.05). The estimated mean germination probability of deeply buried seeds was < 1.0% (CI = 0.3–1.4%) compared to 32% (CI = 19.7–47.9%) for shallowly buried seeds. Our results suggest that each species has the ability to germinate at similar rates throughout the growing season and across a large portion of the moisture gradient. This suggests that management actions, including water-level manipulations, at any time during the growing season may stimulate germination. Although burial of seed to depths of 2–3 cm reduced the germination potential of both species, the use of mechanical implements may be problematic in established stands because new plants of both species easily sprout from root buds. Further, disturbance resulting from such actions diminishes the density and vigor of other plants already present, which may ultimately decrease the competitive resistance of the disturbed environment to invasion by outside species. Detection of new invasions is a critical component of any integrated weed management program. Our results indicate that the incidence of C. arvense and L. latifolium germination is most likely in areas with seeds that are within 1 cm of the soil surface and soil moisture is 75–100% of field capacity for extended periods.


In DSM bidding programs, utilities and developers of DSM resources sign long-term contracts to provide a quantity of demand and energy savings at specified prices. Since 1987, about 30 utilities in 14 states have solicited bids from energy service companies (ESCOs) and customers to reduce demand in commercial and industrial facilities and residences. Total resource costs range between 5.48¢/kWh for 10 DSM bidding programs where complete information on program costs is available. Several of these initial bidding programs appear to be only marginally cost-effective from a societal perspective. In most bidding programs, payments to bidders account for between 70 90% of total program costs. Our analysis suggests that variation in winning bid prices is influenced primarily by DSM bid ceiling prices, differences in the mix of measures and markets targeted by developers, and the degree of performance risk borne by the DSM developer. Bids targeting residential customers averaged 6.2¢/kWh compared to about 5.¢/kWh for commercial/industrial bids. We also compared the costs of acquiring lighting savings in DSM bidding contracts with a sample of 20 utility-sponsored commercial/industrial lighting programs. We found that, on average, total resource costs were slightly higher in bidding programs (6.1 vs. 5.6¢/kWh).


In the last years a large number of weather driven extreme events has occurred worldwide with unprecedented socio-economic impacts and are expected to increase, in both frequency and intensity, under future global-warming conditions. In this context early identification and predictability of such events are paramount as they mostly affect several socio-economic activities. Despite the effort in monitoring and evaluation of these extreme events, a quantitative assessment of their interaction is still a challenge. We propose to analyze if the occurrence of extremely hot days/nights in the summer is preceded by drought events in spring and early summer throughout the Mediterranean area. This was investigated by correlating the number of hot days and nights in the regions hottest months with a drought indicator on the prior months. Drought characterization was performed using both the Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI) and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for the 3-, 6- and 9-months time scales, considering the period 1980–2014 with a spatial resolution of 0.5°. The number of hot days and nights per month (NHD and NHN, respectively) is determined for the same period and spatial resolution. Results show that the most frequent hottest months for the Mediterranean region occur in July and August. Most regions exhibit statistically significant negative correlations, i.e. high (low) NHD/NHN following negative (positive) SPEI/SPI values, and thus a potential for NHD/NHN early warning. This analysis allowed to identify the Iberian Peninsula, northern Italy, northern Africa and the Balkans as the main hotspots of predictability of extreme hot temperatures in the summer preceded by the occurrence of drought events in the spring or early summer.


'Spirit of Africa' was commissioned by the Cheltenham Festival and first performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Maureen Brathwaite and BackBeat Percussion, conductor Gavin Carr, at Cheltenham Town Hall on 12 July 2012. It is written for SATB choir, soprano soloist and piano with three optional percussion players and was originally composed as a companion piece for 'African Sanctus' by David Fanshawe, who received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West of England in 2009. A version with chamber orchestra will follow shortly. With words specially written by Jennifer Henderson, it is inspired by the colours and symbolic meanings of the flags of Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, the countries visited by David Fanshawe during his travels recording music for African Sanctus in 1969-1973. The words and music of the five movements trace a journey through the day, with the colour white for daybreak mist, green for morning freshness, red for midday heat, gold for sunset and black for night; each with its own mood and character, hopes and fears. Reviews of the music include the following: "Spirit of Africa is beautifully written for the chorus and soprano soloist, with lovely textures and atmospheric sonorities from the ensemble of piano and percussion. This work deserves to be widely performed by choral societies up and down the country." Richard Blackford, composer and conductor "Liz Lane's Spirit of Africa is a haunting and lovely work, full of simple but effective harmonic shifts and lively rhythms - ideal for the amateur chorus looking for something brand new and approachable to present as a 'pendant' to a bigger work." Gavin Carr, Chorus Master, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus


Between November 1963 and July 1967 I have been engaged in research on the comparative behaviour and ecology of storks (family Ciconiidae) in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. A number of previously unreported breeding localities were discovered during this study-some being found by me personally and others being reported to me by various correspondents. This paper is an attempt to compile the recent records, in the hope of giving a better understanding of the breeding distribution and breeding seasons of this family of birds. Storks frequently use the same nesting site for many years, if undisturbed and given the proper climatic conditions, and so perhaps these records will prove useful to future workers studying these birds. I have also included a few comments on the ecological factors involved in the timing of the breeding seasons, as a possible basis for further research along these lines.


PURPOSE
Two phase II studies assessed the efficacy of vismodegib, a sonic hedgehog (SHH) pathway inhibitor that binds smoothened (SMO), in pediatric and adult recurrent medulloblastoma (MB).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Adult patients enrolled onto PBTC-025B and pediatric patients enrolled onto PBTC-032 were treated with vismodegib (150 to 300 mg/d). Protocol-defined response, which had to be sustained for 8 weeks, was confirmed by central neuroimaging review. Molecular tests to identify patterns of response and insensitivity were performed when tissue was available.

RESULTS
A total of 31 patients were enrolled onto PBTC-025B, and 12 were enrolled onto PBTC-032. Three patients in PBTC-025B and one in PBTC-032, all with SHH-subgroup MB (SHH-MB), exhibited protocol-defined responses. Progression-free survival (PFS) was longer in those with SHH-MB than in those with non-SHH-MB, and prolonged disease stabilization occurred in 41% of patient cases of SHH-MB. Among those with SHH-MB, loss of heterozygosity of PTCH1 was associated with prolonged PFS, and diffuse staining of P53 was associated with reduced PFS. Whole-exome sequencing identified mutations in SHH genes downstream from SMO in four of four tissue samples from nonresponders and upstream of SMO in two of four patients with favorable responses.

CONCLUSION
Vismodegib exhibits activity against adult recurrent SHH-MB but not against recurrent non-SHH-MB. Inadequate accrual of pediatric patients precluded conclusions in this population. Molecular analyses support the hypothesis that SMO inhibitor activity depends on the genomic aberrations within the tumor. Such inhibitors should be advanced in SHH-MB studies; however, molecular and genomic work remains imperative to identify target populations that will truly benefit.


The purpose of this study was to identify if institutions of higher learning were able to address the psychosocial needs of veteran students upon reintegration. This quantitative study asked the University of St. Thomas's (UST) students to take part in an exploratory survey. Data was collected by sending out an anonymous survey via email where respondents (N=37) were requested to answer 11 questions in regards to their experience at UST and reintegrating into an institution of higher learning after military involvement. Findings showed veteran students attending UST feel their expectations have been met in an institution for higher learning. The findings also show that obstacles were experienced in adapting to life as a non-traditional college student making reintegrating a challenge. The results of this study report that institutions of higher learning, primarily UST, have the ability to assist their veteran students in beneficial ways. Also, this study identified that veteran students do need assistance in adjusting to civilian life, balancing subsystems (military, family, school subsystems), as well as succeeding in school. Veteran students at UST have identified skills the military has taught them to help them succeed even when an obstacle is present. This research highlights the needs veteran students at UST have but also highlights that they are still succeeding and moving forward while still struggling with reintegration obstacles.


A growing body of research suggests that people who are more humble tend to enjoy better physical and mental health than individuals who are less humble. The next step in moving this literature forward involves explaining and empirically demonstrating how the potentially beneficial effects of humility arise. The purpose of this study is to address this issue by seeing whether humility buffers the effects of stressful life events on four measures of well-being: happiness, life satisfaction, depressed affect, and generalized anxiety disorder. Data from a new nationwide survey (N = 3010) suggest that the magnitude of the negative relationship between stressful life events and all four measures of well-being is reduced among people who are more humble. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.