We present a multidomain pseudospectral method for the accurate and efficient time-domain computation of scattering by body-of-revolution (BOR) perfectly electrically conducting objects. In the BOR formulation of the Maxwell equations, the azimuthal dependence of the fields is accounted for analytically through a Fourier series. The numerical scheme in the (r,z) plane is developed in general curvilinear coordinates and the method of characteristics is applied for patching field values in the individual subdomains to obtain the global solution. A modified matched-layer method is used for terminating the computational domain and special attention is given to proper treatment of the coordinate singularity in the scattered field formulation and correct time-domain boundary conditions along edges. Numerical results for monochromatic plane wave scattering by smooth and nonsmooth axis-symmetric objects, including spheres, cone-spheres, and finite cylinders, is compared with results from the literature, illustrating the accuracy and computational efficiency associated with the use of properly constructed spectral methods. To emphasize the versatility of the presented framework, we compute plane wave scattering by a missile and find satisfactory agreement with method-of-moment (MoM) computations.


Local Authorities are in the lowest level administration structure in Sri Lanka. As enormous amount of literature suggest, service quality and beneficiaries satisfaction are very important concepts that local authorities must understand in order to remain efficient and effective. Accordingly, SERVQUAL is one of best models used in measuring level of service quality of local authorities. This paper aims to measure the satisfaction level of beneficiaries' in selected Urban Local Authorities in Colombo district using SERVQUAL model and describe how beneficiaries perceive service quality and whether they are satisfied with services offered by local authorities. Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), Dehivala Mount Lavinia MC, Mahagaragama UC and Boralesgamuwa UC limits were selected as sampling framework. Unit of analysis is beneficiaries and 50 beneficiaries were interviewed in each authority using seven point Likert scaled, self-administered questionnaire. Data was analyzed as per the SERVQUAL model with help of SPSS 20.0 package. Considering all aspects by which public are satisfied related to the services provided by the local authorities in selected sample, Maharagama UC is providing expected services as it is; with a small gap -0.02. Also CMC's gap -0.11 indicates a better sign of their services without having a large deviation from the expected level. However, Boralesgamuwa UC is the most inefficient services providing local authority which scores a 3.00 gap. As per the gap shows, Dehiwal Mt. Levenia is also slightly weak service providing local authority. However, further research on this area is required to verify the findings and find out the reasons/causes to the dissatisfaction (gap) of the people who look for services from Local Authorities in Sri Lanka.


Two 4D seismic data sets are compared which were acquired simultaneously in a deepwater field but with differently sized acoustic sources with 2450 in3 and 360 in3 volumes. The data sets were processed using similar runstreams, enabling side-by-side comparison of the 4D features. Compared with the large-source data, the small-source data showed similar 4D signals, albeit with higher but acceptable levels of 4D noise. An overprint of the acquisition methodology was found to detrimentally impact the small-source data, but this was mitigated in processing. Opportunities for improvement of the small-source data in future dedicated surveys are proposed. A cost–benefit analysis is presented to show the relative value increase by using smaller, lower-cost surveys for frequent reservoir monitoring.


While the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), as a Laspeyres-type index, attempts to measure the average change in the prices paid by urban consumers for a fixed market basket of goods and services, new samples for most item categories are routinely introduced over time to keep the CPI sample representative of consumer spending patterns. This paper will describe methodological changes being implemented in January 1995 to the food at home, shelter, and prescription drug components of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI). These changes reflect improvements designed to make the CPI more representative of price changes experienced by consumers. Food at Home. The U.S. Bureau of the Census conducts a Point-of-Purchase Survey (POPS) to provide the sampling frame of outlets for most non-shelter components of the U.S. CPI. To keep the outlet and item samples representative of consumer expenditures, the POPS is conducted annually in approximately 20 percent of the Primary Sampling Units (urban areas) in the CPI and new outlets are selected to replace the old samples. The procedures currently used by the U.S. CPI cause it to give high weight to sample items that are on sale during the month that a replacement sample is introduced, and low weight to sample items that are not on sale. These procedures can cause an overstatement of price change in an urban area immediately after its sample is replaced. We discuss a sample aging procedure that will be used to alleviate this problem for food-at-home items. Shelter . Further investigation of the functional form bias noted for non-shelter items (Reinsdorf, 1994) has uncovered an analogous problem with the estimator used for imputation of implicit rent changes for owner occupied housing. In addition, rent data are collected less frequently than other prices, at 6-month intervals. The current rent indexes are estimated using a composite of 6-month rents and renters' reports of 1-month rent changes. We discuss both improvements in our strategy for imputing changes for owners' implicit rents, as well as changes in our treatment of estimating changes for rent. Prescription Drugs. Another potential source of bias in the U.S. CPI is the treatment of brand name prescription drugs after their patent expires. Griliches and Cockburn (1993) present evidence that there is substantial substitution of generic drugs for brand drugs when patents expire. The U.S. CPI does not pick up such substitution in a timely manner. To address this situation, BLS will institute new substitution procedures for the prescription drug component of the CPI. Improvements to the Food at Home, Shelter and Prescription Drug Indexes in the U.S. Consumer Price Index Paul A. Armknecht, Brent R. Moulton and Kenneth J. Stewart


What is the history of bioethics? What are the shortcomings of the bioethical approach? And what could the history of medicine do for a better understanding of bioethics as discipline and of bioethical problems themselves? These are the central questions which are stressed in this article. The main conclusion is that bioethics has to be seen as a cultural product which can only be understood if the social context in which this new discipline has emerged is taken into consideration. History of medicine has furthermore the chance to contextualize bioethical problems and in this function history of medicine could be a helpful discipline for a better understanding of current problems in medicine.


Objective To examine gender differences in the characteristics of suicidal behavior in South Korea. Methods Between August 2003 and December 2006, 344 suicide attempters (116 men, 228 women) participated in this study. The attempters were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I), and the lethality of the attempt was measured using the Lethality Suicide Attempt Rating Scale-II (LSARS-II) and Risk-Rescue Rating Scale (RRRS). Results Significantly more women than men were admitted to emergency rooms due to attempted suicide during the study period. The male attempters were older and had a higher rate of employment than the females. Depression was the most common psychiatric disorder in both genders. The lesion/toxicity scores of the RRRS indicated that the male suicide attempters used higher doses or more toxic agents than the female attempters. The most common methods of suicide were ingestion and cutting in both sexes. Although there were significant gender differences in the RRRS risk score and RRRS total scores, there was no gender difference in the LSARS-II scores, which suggests that patients of both sexes share a similar ambivalence regarding suicide completion or death. Conclusion Our study should be understood within the context of the specific cultural background of South Korea. We found that males and females use similar methods when attempting suicide and share a similar ambivalence regarding the outcome of the attempt; however, there was a difference in severity of the attempt between the two groups. Our findings may aid in the identification of more effective methods of intervention to prevent suicide.


The failure rates of drugs once they reach clinical trials are high, with estimates up to nearly 90%. One reason is the lack of biologically relevant models in which potential drug candidates are screened, evaluated and selected during discovery and development phases. Leishmaniasis is a disease that suffers from this problem. Current therapies are weak, toxic and there is a growing problem of drug resistance.
The aim of this thesis is to investigate different ways in which the current in vitro model systems could be made more predictive. Three methods of potentially improving reliability and predictability of in vitro models are investigated.
Firstly, the differences between the media perfusion and static cell culture systems were studied. Using macrophages and L. major parasites, infections within the media perfusion system were optimised. The activities of standard drugs used for the treatment of leishmaniasis, were determined. A decrease in infection rates and in the activity of standard drugs was seen when using the media perfusion.
Secondly, a 3D in vitro infection model was developed and used to determine the activity of standard drugs, compared with 2D cell culture. The model shows that 3D and 2D provide similar results for the activity of the standard drugs tested. Thirdly, a variety of macrophage cell types have been used as Leishmania host cells for intracellular amastigote assays. The use of macrophages differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells was investigated as a viable and more predictive alternative. The option to use a cell type that is more biologically similar to the human in vivo situation, but can be maintained like cell lines, is a clear benefit to in in vitro assays. It was concluded that macrophages differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells would be a suitable alternative to currently used cell types.


During the Cold War, deterrence theory was the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, however, popular wisdom dictated that terrorist organizations and radical fanatics could not be deterred-and governments shifted their attention to combating terrorism rather than deterring it. This book challenges that prevailing assumption and offers insight as to when and where terrorism can be deterred. It first identifies how and where theories of deterrence apply to counterterrorism, highlighting how traditional and less-traditional notions of deterrence can be applied to evolving terrorist threats. It then applies these theoretical propositions to real-world threats to establish the role deterrence has within a dynamic counterterrorism strategy-and to identify how metrics can be created for measuring the success of terrorism deterrence strategies. In sum, it provides a foundation for developing effective counterterrorism policies to help states contain or curtail the terrorism challenges they face.


Orthorhombic (O) RbClO4 transforms to a new tetragonal (T) form at pressures above 20 kbar. Thermal decomposition proceeds through the reversible equilibrium reaction T RbClO4 = B2 RbCl + 2O2 at modestly increasing temperatures centered ∼550°C over the pressure range investigated from 20 to 90 kbar. Cell volumes for T RbClO4 and B2 RbCl were determined by high‐pressure, high‐temperature, in situ X‐ray diffraction on station 16.4 of the Daresbury Synchrotron Radiation Source, from which the partial molar volume of O2 along the decomposition curve was determined. This volume (∼10 cm3/mol) is in close agreement with volumes determined from studies of the thermal decomposition of KClO3 and KClO4 but is difficult to reconcile with fluid O2 volumes determined using shock wave techniques. If these new O2 partial molar volumes are relevant to molten iron solutions, then storage of substantial amounts of O2 in the core becomes feasible.


It is assumed that total and visceral adiposity increase cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among breast cancer survivors; yet, these associations have not been studied, and could differ from non-cancer populations due to the modifying effects of cancer treatment. METHODS: We studied 2,630 Stage I–III breast cancer patients without pre-existing CVD diagnosed at Kaiser Permanente (2006–2013). We quantified body composition from computed tomography scans taken at breast cancer diagnosis. The main exposures were total and visceral adiposity indices (cm2/m2), examined in tertiles. From ICD codes, we identified non-fatal stroke, coronary artery disease (CAD), and heart failure, and a composite outcome including CVD death (CVD). We estimated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusting for age, smoking, tumor (stage, grade, and ER/PR and HER2 status) and treatment (chemotherapy and/or radiation) factors, skeletal muscle index (SMI), and body mass index (BMI) residuals. We assessed effect modification via product terms of adiposity with age (>=/<55 years), sarcopenia (SMI>=/<40 cm2/m2) and chemotherapy (yes/no). RESULTS: At diagnosis, mean (SD) age was 55 (11) years and BMI was 28 (6) kg/m2. Over a maximum follow-up of 11 years, 669 CVD events occurred. Independent of BMI and other covariates, women in the highest (v. lowest) tertile of total adiposity had a higher risk of CVD, heart failure, stroke and CAD; HRs (95%CI) were 1.45 (1.15–1.81), 1.78 (1.24–2.57), 1.89 (1.25–2.87), and 1.52 (0.83–2.79), respectively. Results were similar for visceral adiposity, and by age and sarcopenia, but were stronger for women receiving chemotherapy: e.g., the HR (95%CI) for the highest (v. lowest) tertile of total adiposity with CVD risk was 1.76 (1.33–2.33) for women who received chemotherapy versus 0.93 (0.63–1.38) for women who did not, p- interaction = 0.04. CONCLUSIONS: Women who enter a breast cancer diagnosis with greater total and visceral adiposity are at higher risk of subsequent CVD, particularly if they receive chemotherapy. Our results suggest that body composition - independent of BMI and other factors - can identify patients with high CVD risk for additional monitoring, tailored treatment plans and targeting of preventive interventions.


Gallic acid has been reported to have various biological activities including an anticancer effect. Numerous studies have indicated that alkyl esters derivative of gallic acid are more effective as an anticancer against tumor cell lines than gallic acid. Proteins in Bcl-2 family are central regulators of programmed cell death that can inhibit apoptosis, such as Bcl-xl and Bcl-2 which are overexpressed in many tumors. Bcl-Xl permeabilizes the outer mitochondrial membrane of cells and inhibits apoptosis. Most human breast cancers originate from epithelial cells express Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL. Clinical studies have demonstrated that increasing levels of Bcl-xL in breast carcinoma are associated with a poor outcome. In this work, we carried out an in-sukuci study of twenty alkyl ester derivatives of gallic acid (ligands)as an inhibitor of Bcl-xL protein (PDB ID 1YSG) using Autodock 4.2 software. The Gibbs energy (ΔG) showed the stability interaction between ligand and Bcl-xL residues, whereas inhibition concentration (Ki) was used to determine the binding energies of different docking conformation. In silico study showed that among the twenty alkyl esters derivative of gallic acid, five derivative compounds, namely 3,4-dimethoxy-cis-2-hexenylgallate; 3,4,5trimethoxy-cis-2-hexenylgallate; 3,4-dimethoxy-trans-2-hexenylgallate; 3,4,5-trimethoxytrans-2-hexenylgallate; 3,4,5-trimethoxyhexylgallate have higher stability and stronger inhibitory activity against Bcl-xl than the gallic acid. Moreover, based on in silico results, derivative 3,4,5-trimethoxy-cis-2-hexenylgallate with ΔG value of -6.34 kcal/mol and Ki value of 22.47 μM, has the highest potential as an inhibitor of Bcl-xL. This in silicodoking study suggesting that 3,4,5-trimethoxy-cis-2-hexenylgallate is a promising candidate to develop as anti-breast cancer agents.


Background: Jenkins sleep evaluation questionnaire (JSEQ) is an easy, self-reported instrument to assess sleeping disturbances. This cross-sectional, cross-cultural adaptation and validation study was aimed to translate and validate JSEQ into Urdu (national language of Pakistan). Methods: JSEQ-Urdu was developed by a 2 step forward/back translation by Urdu and English language experts, respectively. Content validity was determined by content validity index (CVI). The final Urdu version was administered to 75 pharmacy students at Punjab University College of Pharmacy, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. The reliability of final Urdu version was assessed by Cronbach's alpha and interclass correlation (ICC) coefficients. Furthermore, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to assess the dimensionality of the instrument. Results: The CVI for all four items of JSEQ-Urdu reached 1. All corrected item-total correlation values were positive and above 0.30 (range: 0.443-0.550). Cronbach's alpha value of the questionnaire was satisfactory (0.69). Two weeks test-retest reliability was determined in 43 respondents and the ICC was found to be excellent (0.89). Similar to the original version, the results of our EFA revealed a single factor model in JSEQ-Urdu. Conclusion: JSEQ-Urdu is an easy, less time consuming, valid and reliable tool to assess sleeping problems among Urdu-speakers. Key words: Patient Reported Outcome Measures, Psychometric, Sleep disturbances, Urdu.


The AN/BRN-5 is a part of the Poseidon upgrading of the Ballistic Missile submarine fleet as a replacement for the aging and obsolescent AN/WPN-3. In this application, it is required to have better performance and higher reliability than any existing Loran receiver.

The BRN-5 is actually only a sensor, in that the data processing, filtering and logic functions are performed in the CP-890/UYK Central Navigation Computer. The hardware and software requirements are set by the performance required, which specifies search and settle times, track accuracy in noise and both synchronous and non–synchronous interferences, skywave rejection and a variety of other requirements. In addition, it is required to have an automatic overall self test capability, automatic fault isolation and a manual diagnostic mode.

The system performance specification emphasizes reliability above all, not just hardware, but in the sense of accurate position information under the most severe signal environment conditions. Because of the particularly stringent signal processing requirements, some techniques not generally employed in Loran receivers were utilized. This paper describes some of these techniques, along with parameter tradeoffs and unexpected phenomena uncovered in the course of system debug.


As a prevalent and growing form of customer behaviour, deshopping is on the rise. Retailers' focus on good customer service and the offering of lenient returns polices has led to the growth in this fraudulent behaviour of customers in returning goods. This paper considers retailer myopia in the context of dishonest customer returns, applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) using a quantitative questionnaire with 535 female consumers. The findings highlight the extent of the behaviour with 50% admitting to partaking in deshopping. The TPB variables can be utilised to manage and prevent deshopping. The results indicate that currently these customers perceive it to be easy to deshop as there are no consequences with the result that such behaviour continues to grow. If retailers were less myopic they would monitor returns more thoroughly and make it less easy for such customers to get away with undesirable deshopping behaviour. The paper makes recommendations for retailers to manage or alter perceived behavioural characteristics for customers, which in turn, would reduce tendencies for dishonesty in customers returning goods for refunds. Retail myopia is evident with deshopping behaviour with consequences for retailers in time, effort and costs.


BACKGROUND
National pipe-smoking prevalence data have rarely been reported, and mortality associated with pipe smoking has not been estimated.

METHODS
We analyzed National Health Interview Survey data from 1965, 1966, 1970, 1987, and 1991 to estimate adult pipe-smoking prevalence in the United States. For each of these years, we estimated pipe smoking-attributable mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, esophagus, and lung.

RESULTS
From 1965 to 1991, the prevalence of current pipe smoking for men declined 12.1 percentage points (from 14.1% to 2.0%) while pipe smoking remained very uncommon among women. By 1991, pipe smoking was a behavior found primarily among men age 45 years or older. Most men who smoked pipes also used other tobacco products, especially cigarettes. About 830 deaths (range 720-2,495) in 1965 and 1,095 deaths (range 655-2,820) in 1991 were attributable to pipe smoking.

CONCLUSIONS
If current trends continue, pipe smoking will become extremely rare in the United States by the year 2000. Reasons for the decline in pipe smoking may include the lack of appeal of pipe smoking to women and adolescents or the increasingly unfavorable image of smoking behavior in general. Prevention and cessation efforts need to be directed against all forms of tobacco, including smokeless tobacco use, cigar smoking, and pipe smoking.


Military commanders like Alexander the Great or Richard the Lionheart did not have to take public opinion greatly into account when they planned their campaigns in their day. Today it is a very different situation. In the light of the above this article starts with two somewhat startling quotes by the futurologists Alvin and Heidi Toffler: "The people thinking hardest about warfare in the future know that some of the most important combat of tomorrow will take place on the media battlefield." They also state: "[T]he media, including channels and technologies unimagined today, will be a prime weapon for Third Wave combatants in both the wars and anti-wars of the future, a key component of knowledge strategy." In recent years, much has been made of the adversarial relations between journalists and the military. The media have, for instance, been blamed for the US defeat in Vietnam, for unthinkingly blabbing about tactical decisions in advance in the Falklands, etc. From their side, journalists have been blaming the military for not trying to understand the nature of their job, of covering up a number of bad things, etc.


This paper proposes a new problem formulation to simplify the mathematical representation for a hybrid AC/DC domestic energy system. Instead of building the formulation from a component level, the new formulation is built at the whole system level such that all power transfers between AC/DC or DC/AC are reflected in the AC power drawn from the main grid. This is achieved by assigning the AC power drawn from the grid as a piecewise function of local DC power, each slope in the function represents the conversion efficiency, making it flexible to consider a wide range of conversion efficiencies for different system components. The new formulation substantially reduces the number of variables/constraints, improves efficiency modelling accuracy and increases the search efficacy. The piecewise functions are directly solved by a mixed integer linear programming (MILP). The performance of the proposed formulation is illustrated by the hybrid AC/DC energy systems at a primary school in the UK. The results show that the proposed problem formulation and the MILP solution method provide an effective optimal control strategy for a mixed AC/DC domestic energy system in the presence of variable tariffs and differing conversion efficiency, achieved a cost saving of 24% increase in energy bills compared with the traditional approach.


Prologue - Asian sport - from the recent past, J.A. Mangan imperial origins -Christian manliness, moral imperatives and pre-Sri Lankan playing fields -beginnings, J.A. Mangan imperial origins - Christian manliness, moral imperatives and pre-Sri Lankan playing fields - consolidation, J.A. Mangan celestials in touch -sport and the Chinese in colonial Singapore, N.G. Aplin and Quek Jon Jong "sportsmanship" - English inspiration and Japanese response - F.W. Strange and Chiyosaburo Takeda, Ikuo Abe and J.A. Mangan "healthy bodies, healthy minds -sport and society in colonial Malaya, Janice N. Brownfoot cricket in colonial India -the Bombay pentangular, 1892-1946, Boria Majumdar sport in China - conflict between tradition and modernity, 1840s to 1930s, Fan Hong and Tan Hua ideology, politics, power - Korean sport - transformation, 1945-92, Ha Nam-Gil and J.A. Mangan shackling the lion - sport and modern Singapore, Peter A. Horton the juggernaut of globalization - sport and modernization in Iran, H.E. Chehabi "Pancasila" - sport and the building of Indonesia - ambitions and obstacles, Iain Adams communist China - sport, politics and diplomacy, Fan Hong and Xiong Xiaozheng the road to modernization - sport in Taiwan, Trevor Slack et al sport in India - policies, practices and problems, Packianathan Chelladurai et al from Iran to all of Asia - the origin and diffusion of polo, H.E. Chehabi and Allen Guttman epilogue - into the future - Asian sport and globalization, Fan Hong.


The first half of the 1990s was a pivotal period in the development and growth of urban history in Europe. In Britain the Urban History Group began to convene again after a decade in abeyance, work commenced on the three-volume Cambridge Urban History of Britain, the Urban History Yearbook became Urban History whilst the European Association of Urban Historians organized their first conference. It was in this climate that Ashgate Publishing commissioned a new monograph series, Historical Urban Studies, under the editorship of Richard Rodger, editor of Urban History, and Jean-Luc Pinol, the leading French urban historian and a key figure in the European Association of Urban Historians (EAUH). The aim of the series was and is to be comparative over both time and space, drawing on multiple locations to explore what is common and what distinctive about the urban experience of diverse towns and nations. The broad agenda for the series was shaped by an overarching concern with the administration and governance of the city which underpinned attempts to manage the social, economic and political challenges wrought by 300 years of urban change. In particular, the editors stress the importance of the comparative element which should allow historians to distinguish 'which were systematic factors and which were of a purely local nature'. The editors set themselves an ambitious agenda and this essay aims to explore how the series has developed over the ten or so years since it commenced publication; the degree to which it has provided a platform for advancing the sub-discipline of urban history; and to consider some future directions which urban history might take.


This article discusses the challenge of returning home after years abroad
from the perspective of Ghanaian labor migrants in northern Italy. It seeks to explore how Ghanaian migrants aft er years of hard work still find themselves fundamentally estranged from Italy and constantly must navigate day-to-day experiences of bigotry and discrimination in the workplace. Yet the migrants realize that returning home to Ghana is not as straightforward as they might have imagined when they set out, and how to protect advances upon returning to a home country that has changed rapidly during their years in Italy is a recurring subject of concern. Based on ethnographic vignettes, the article will explore West African migrants' everyday struggles in Italy's segregated and crisis-hit labor market.


We show that high harmonic generation driven by an intense near-infrared (IR) laser can be temporally controlled when an attosecond pulse train (APT) is used to ionize the generation medium, thereby replacing tunnel ionization as the first step in the well-known three-step model. New harmonics are formed when the ionization occurs at a well-defined time within the optical cycle of the IR field. The use of APT-created electron wave packets affords new avenues for the study and application of harmonic generation. In the present experiment, this makes it possible to study harmonic generation at IR intensities where tunnel ionization does not give a measurable signal.


Recent experiences in confronting the Ebola epidemic suggest principles for vaccine efficacy trials in challenging environments Many epidemic-prone infectious diseases present challenges that the current West African Ebola outbreak brings into sharp relief. Specifically, the urgency to evaluate vaccines, initially limited vaccine supplies, and large and unpredictable spatial and temporal fluctuations in incidence have presented huge logistical, ethical, and statistical challenges to trial design.


Septic encephalopathy is a devastating symptom of severe sepsis. Many studies have been performed to uncover the pathophysiological mechanisms of septic encephalopathy; however, novel technical approaches are still required to overcome this complex symptom. Because patients are suffering from severe cognitive impairment, coma, or delirium, which burden not only patients but also caregivers, overcoming septic encephalopathy is still a major social problem worldwide, especially in the intensive care. Septic encepha‐ lopathy seems to be caused by cytokine invasion and/or oxidative stress into the brain, and this pathological state leads to imbalance of neurotransmitters. In addition to this pathophysiology, septic encephalopathy causes complicated symptoms (e.g., ischemic stroke, edema, and aberrant sensory function). For these pathophysiological mecha‐ nisms, electrophysiology using animal models, positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging for septic patients has provided important clues. However, the research for septic encephalopathy is currently confronted with the difficulty of complex symptoms. To overcome this situation, in this chapter, we introduce our novel methods for in vivo imaging of septic encephalopathy using near infrared (NIR) nanoparticles, quantum dots. In addition to our recent progress, we propose a strategy for the future approach to in vivo imaging of septic encephalopathy.


In 1985, the Florida Legislature mandated the development of a computer assisted academic advisement program for the State University System. This study of the Student Academic Support System (SASS) explored the administrator and advisor viewpoints, rather than traditional student perception assessments, in order to add to the understanding of computer assisted advising as it now stands in the State of Florida.
The goal of this research was to determine the best practices of computer assisted advising throughout the State University System. Individuals who use or have responsibility for the advising system were identified in each institution in the State University System. An instrument was developed to identify the use of key components of the Student Academic Support System and interviews were scheduled.
A review of the literature and results of this study found that there were many factors that influenced the success or failure of a computer assisted advising system. Factors such as funding, administrative sponsorship from the highest levels of the institution, institutional culture, advisor computer proficiency, and the existence of alternate computer advising technologies played significant roles in the development and implementation of the mandated state computer advising system. The qualitative interviews utilized in this case study highlighted the complexities of computer assisted advising. This research studied the perceptions and practices of administrators and advisors in the 1 I State Universities in Florida.
This research study documents the history of the development and implementation of computer assisted advising within the Florida State University System. As such, this research provides insight for administrators, technology professionals, and policy makers in the field of student advisement.
Implications of this study, for the Florida State University System, show that strong administrative support and acceptance of the value of the system by advisors are necessary for successful implementation of a computer assisted advising system. Continued assessment, modification, and funding must be a priority for any institution that utilizes computer assisted advising systems. A properly implemented advising tool, such as the Student Academic Support System, results in a better informed student and a more effective sharing of information between students, advisors, and the university. Properly advised students will reach their educational goals in a timely and efficient fashion. The use of computer assisted advising was found to result in a satisfying academic experience for the advisor and to increase a student's level of satisfaction with the advising encounter.


Torrent-Guasp's model of the helical heart is presented, which includes the cardiac muscular structures that produce 2 simple loops and that start at the pulmonary artery and end in the aorta. These components include a horizontal basal loop that surrounds the right and left ventricles, changes direction through a spiral fold in the ventricular band to cause a ventricular helix produced by now obliquely oriented fibers, forming a descending and ascending segment of the apical loop with an apical vortex. These anatomic concepts are successively activated to produce a sequence of narrowing by the basal loop, shortening by the descending segment, lengthening by the ascending segment, and widening in the cardiac cycle that causes ventricular ejection to empty and suction to fill. The factors responsible for internal torsional movements for cardiac output and suction are defined, together with mechanisms responsible for electromechanical activity produced during sequential changes in contraction and relaxation properties. These interactions of mechanical structure and function are defined in relation to pressure-related cardiac events observed from aortic, left ventricular, and left atrial recordings.


The toxicological effects of many stressors are mediated through unknown, or incompletely characterized, mechanisms of action. The application of reverse engineering complex interaction networks from high dimensional omics data (gene, protein, metabolic, signaling) can be used to overcome these limitations. This approach was used to characterize adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) for chemicals that disrupt the hypothalamus‐pituitary‐gonadal endocrine axis in fathead minnows (FHM, Pimephales promelas). Gene expression changes in FHM ovaries in response to seven different chemicals, over different times, doses, and in vivo versus in vitro conditions, were captured in a large data set of 868 arrays. Potential AOPs of the antiandrogen flutamide were examined using two mutual information‐based methods to infer gene regulatory networks and potential AOPs. Representative networks from these studies were used to predict network paths from stressor to adverse outcome as candidate AOPs. The relationship of individual chemicals to an adverse outcome can be determined by following perturbations through the network in response to chemical treatment, thus leading to the nodes associated with the adverse outcome. Identification of candidate pathways allows for formation of testable hypotheses about key biological processes, biomarkers, or alternative endpoints that can be used to monitor an AOP. Finally, the unique challenges facing the application of this approach in ecotoxicology were identified and a road map for the utilization of these tools presented. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2011;30:22–38. © 2010 SETAC


A few genera of angiosperms are known as 'resurrection plants' since their leaves withstand complete desiccation. In many organisms, including some resurrection plants, desiccation tolerance is associated with the accumulation of special carbohydrates. We examined whether this is also true for the two European angiosperm genera of resurrection plants, Ramonda and Haberlea in the Gesneriaceae. Using gas chromatography, non-structural carbohydrates were determined as a percentage of the dry weight in leaves of Ramonda nathaliae subjected to various desiccation regimes. Sucrose was the predominant soluble carbohydrate in all samples, and its level steadily increased from 2 to 10% during desiccation. Starch amounted to ca 2% in control leaves and disappeared completely within 8 days of desiccation. Considerable amounts (1–2.5%) of raffinose and smaller amounts of its precursor galactinol (1-a-galactosyl-myo-inositol) were present in control leaves; these carbohydrates showed only minor changes upon desiccation. Similar results were obtained when excised leaves of Ramonda nathaliae, Ramonda myconi and Haberlea rhodopensis were subjected to desiccation. These data indicate that sucrose accumulation is connected to desiccation tolerance in Gesneriaceae; the presence of raffinose may be a pre-adaptation since this sugar prevents crystallization of sucrose during drying.


Development of a Spatially Resolved Optical Technique to Measure Temperature using Two-Photon Absorption of Xenon Natalie J. Bednar Under the supervision of Assistant Professor Scott T. Sanders At the University of Wisconsin-Madison A new spatially resolved optical technique to measure temperature was developed using two-photon absorption of xenon. This experiment excited the 256 nm two-photon transition of xenon by focusing the excitation source into a test cell at room temperature. Two-photon absorption only occurs at the focus of a laser beam; therefore a point measurement technique was possible. The spatial resolution for this experiment was approximately 0.6 mm; however, this technique enables higher resolution depending on the focus of the laser beam. Two-photon absorbance versus xenon number density was determined experimentally and used to validate a theoretical model created in MATLAB. This technique was designed primarily for two non-reacting flows: the vortex tube and the pulse tube. A case study for measurement in a vortex tube was presented; however, applying this technique to a pulse tube will be similar.


Abstract. Spatial variation in hydraulic conditions in streams often results in distinct water surface patterns, or surface flow types. Visual assessments of the distribution of surface flow types have been used to provide rapid assessment of the habitat heterogeneity. The efficacy of this approach is predicated on the notion that surface flow types consistently represent a distinct suite of hydraulic conditions with biological relevance. This study tested this notion, asking three specific questions. First, do surface flow types provide a characterisation of physical habitat that is relevant to macroinvertebrates? Second, how well do near-bed hydraulic conditions explain macroinvertebrate distributions? Third, what components of near-bed hydraulic conditions exert the strongest influence on macroinvertebrate distributions? Results show that hydraulic conditions (incorporating direct measurements of near-bed velocity and turbulence in three dimensions) and substratum character (incorporating estimates of particle size distribution, and biofilm and macrophyte cover) within each surface flow type were largely distinct and that macroinvertebrate assemblages differed across flow types in taxon richness and assemblage composition, thus supporting the notion that rapid assessments of surface flow type distributions provide biologically relevant information. Macroinvertebrate assemblages were most strongly correlated with water depth, size of a flow type patch, near-bed velocity in the downstream direction, turbulence in the transverse direction, % pebble, % sand, % silt and clay and macrophyte cover. This study suggests that surface flow type mapping provides an assessment of physical habitat that is relevant to macroinvertebrates. The strong relationship detected between macroinvertebrate assemblages and transverse turbulence also highlights the value of directly measuring near-bed hydraulics. Further investigations are required to test the mechanisms underlying this relationship.


Abstract. A survey of the non-radial flows (NRFs) during nearly five years of interplanetary observations revealed the average non-radial speed of the solar wind flows to be ~30km/s, with approximately one-half of the large (>100km/s) NRFs associated with ICMEs. Conversely, the average non-radial flow speed upstream of all ICMEs is ~100km/s, with just over one-third preceded by large NRFs. These upstream flow deflections are analysed in the context of the large-scale structure of the driving ICME. We chose 5 magnetic clouds with relatively uncomplicated upstream flow deflections. Using variance analysis it was possible to infer the local axis orientation, and to qualitatively estimate the point of interception of the spacecraft with the ICME. For all 5 events the observed upstream flows were in agreement with the point of interception predicted by variance analysis. Thus we conclude that the upstream flow deflections in these events are in accord with the current concept of the large-scale structure of an ICME: a curved axial loop connected to the Sun, bounded by a curved (though not necessarily circular) cross section. Key words. Interplanetary physics (flare and stream dynamics; interplanetary magnetic fields; interplanetary shocks)


How do we know what happened in the past? We cannot go back, and no amount of historical data can enable us to understand with absolute certainty what life was like "then." It is easy to demolish the very idea of historical knowing, but it is impossible to demolish the importance of historical knowing. In an age of cable television pundits and anonymous bloggers dueling over history, the value of owning history increases at the same time as our confidence in history as a way of knowing crumbles. Historical knowledge thus presents a paradox — the more it is required, the less reliable it has become. To reconcile this paradox — that history is impossible but necessary — Peter Charles Hoffer proposes a practical, workable philosophy of history for our times, one that is robust and realistic, and that speaks to anyone who reads, writes and teaches history.


This article investigates whether or not mirror therapy alters the neural mechanisms in human motor cortex. Six healthy volunteers participated. The study investigated the effects of three main factors of mirror therapy (observation of hand movements in a mirror, motor imagery of an assumed affected hand, and assistance in exercising the assumed affected hand) on excitability changes in the human motor cortex to clarify the contribution of each factor. The increase in motor-evoked potential (MEP) amplitudes during motor imagery tended to be larger with a mirror than without one. Moreover, MEP amplitudes increased greatly when movements were assisted. Watching the movement of one hand in a mirror makes it easier to move the other hand in the same way. Moreover, the increase in MEP amplitudes is related to the synergic effects of afferent information and motor imagery.


Drawing on Arabic, English, and Hebrew language sources from the British and Israeli archives, this article seeks to bridge the catastrophic rupture of 1948 to the early 1950s and to trace the changing relationship between ordinary Palestinian olive cultivators in the Galilee and the newly established Israeli state. In contrast with studies that center on the continued expulsion of Palestinians and extension of control over land by the state and state-supported actors in the aftermath of the Nakba, this study examines those Palestinians who stayed on their land and how they responded to Israeli agricultural and food control policies that they saw as discriminatory to the point of being existential threats. Beyond analysis of Israeli state policy toward olive growers and olive oil producers, this article brings in rare Palestinian voices from the time, highlighting examples of Palestinian resistance to the Israeli state9s practices of confiscation and discrimination.


Objective: Osteotomy is an essential procedure in the operation of bone transport. In recent years, multiple drill holes and transverse osteotomy gradually becomes the foremost method for osteotomy, being favoured and recommended by many clinicians.
Methods: 60 femoral moulds which were covered with bubble were used to simulate human femurs, and were divided into 3 groups: non-guiding group, simple drill guiding group and drill-osteotome guiding group. After the osteotomy finished, the time cost, the match rate between drill holes and osteotome tracks, the maximum vertical distances between drill holes as well as of osteotome tracks of the incision sides and the contralateral sides were recorded.
Results: The data of three groups were analysed using One-Way ANOVA. With the use of the guidance, the time cost for osteotomy can be obviously shortened, the difficulty of osteotome cutting and the harm to surrounding tissues can be reduced.
Conclusion: The difficulty of osteotome cutting and the harm to surrounding tissues can be reduced with the use of the guidance, obviously shortening the time cost for osteotomy. The guidance deserved clinical promotion.


The large number of African orchids belonging to the group Monopodiales, the so-called "Angraecoid Orchids", constitute a puzzling assemblage of which the main lines of classification are still uncertain. Several well-defined minor groups can, however, be readily distinguished, the most striking of which are such genera as Cyrtorchis Schltr., Aerangis Schltr. (sensu stricto) and Tridactyle Schltr. Among the less welldefined but nevertheless reasonably natural groupings is the genus Rhipidoglossum. This genus was described by Schlechter in his comprehensive treatment and revision of the Angraecoid orchids in 1918. He separated four genera, including Rhipidoglossum, from the remainder on account of the presence of a foot to the column. This character, which appears to be of value in the delimitation of Asiatic genera belonging to the Monopodiales, is, however, of less use in classifying the African genera. Several pairs of closely allied species occur in which one species is with and the other without a foot to the column. On the whole those genera constantly possessing a column-foot can he easily characterised by other more obvious features. Rhipidoglossum, on the other hand, is clearly very closely allied to Diaphananthe in which the column foot is absent or very weakly developed. Indeed the theoretical delimitation of these two genera rests on the presence or absence of a callus in the mouth of the spur, the callus being absent in Rhipidoglossum. At the same time the two genera show different ranges of variation in habit and in floral structure, although the species at the various points of contact closely resemble some of those in the other genus. For instance, the stem is usually elongated in Rhipidoglossum whereas it is short with a rosette type of growth in Diaphananthe. D. bidens, however, which is typical in other respects, has much elongated stems. There is, on the other hand, a tendency towards shortening of the stem in some species of Rhipidoglossum. Secondly, in Diaphananthe the pollinia, although always provided with distinct stipites, usually share a common viscidium. There are also, however, a number of species in which two separate viscidia are found, this feature being general in Rhipidoglossum. The column in the two genera is very similar, and the rostellum is of the same general type.


At the end of the fifteenth century A.D. the lands surrounding the
Caribbean Sea were densely populated with people who were frequently
organized into rank societies or chiefdoms of varying degrees of
complexity. Among these polities two major spheres of political
interaction can be delineated. The centre of one was the northern half
of Colombia, with lower Central America (Panama and Costa Rica) and
northern Venezuela as regional extensions to west and east, respectively.
The centre of the other was the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico
in the Greater Antilles including Jamaica and Cuba. Geographically
intermediate between these areas of higher political development, and
in some ways linking them culturally, were the peoples of the Lesser
Antilles, north-eastern Venezuela and the Venezuelan llanos (plains)
north and west of the Orinoco river whose organization was less
complex. On the periphery of the circum-Caribbean territories, that is,
in eastern Nicaragua and Honduras, the Orinoco delta, and small
portions of Cuba and Hispaniola, a few societies continued to exist at
a still lower, tribal, level of cultural development.


The medieval period in Spanish history has alternately been cast as a Golden Age of interfaith harmony and an example of the ultimate incompatibility of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities.  In this essay, I suggest that a better way to understand interfaith relations in medieval Iberia is to think about these religious communities in less monolithic terms.   With regard to Jewish-Christian relations in particular, factors such as wealth, social standing, and intellectual interests were as important as religious identity in shaping the complex bonds between Christians and Jews.


A decade (2005-2014) of observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) were used to examine trends in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) over a large region of western Canada and the northern United States, with a focus on the Canadian oil sands. In the oil sands, primarily over an area of intensive surface mining, NO2 tropospheric vertical column densities (VCDs) are seen to be increasing by as much as 10%/year, with the location of the largest trends in a newly developing NO2 "lobe" well removed from surface monitoring stations. SO2 VCDs in the oil sands have remained approximately constant. The only other significant increase in the region was seen in NO2 over Bakken gas fields in North Dakota which showed increases of up to 5%/yr. By contrast, other locations in the region show substantial declines in both pollutants, providing strong evidence to the efficacy of environmental pollution control measures implemented by both nations. The OMI-derived trends were found to be consistent with those from the Canadian surface monitoring network, although in the case of SO2, it was necessary to apply a correction in order to remove the residual signal from volcanic eruptions present in the OMI data.


About 10 per cent of upper main-sequence stars are characterized by the presence of chemical peculiarities, often found together with a structured magnetic field. The atmospheres of most of those chemically peculiar stars present surface spots, leading to photometric variability caused by rotational modulation. The study of the light curves of those stars therefore permits a precise measurement of their rotational period, which is important to study stellar evolution and to plan further detailed observations. We analysed the light curves of 1028 chemically peculiar stars obtained with the STEREO spacecraft. We present here the results obtained for the 337 magnetic chemically peculiar stars in our sample. Thanks to the cadence and stability of the photometry, STEREO data are perfectly suitable to study variability signals with a periodicity typical of magnetic chemically peculiar stars. Using a matched filter algorithm and then two different period searching algorithms, we compiled a list of 82 magnetic chemically peculiar stars for which we measured a reliable rotational period; for 48 of them, this is the first measurement of their rotational period. The remaining 255 stars are likely to be constant, although we cannot exclude the presence of long-period variability. In some cases, the presence of blending or systematic effects prevented us from detecting any reliable variability and in those cases we classified the star as constant. For each star we classified as variable, we determined temperature, luminosity, mass and fractional age, but the limited statistics, biased towards the shorter periods, prevented us from finding any evolutionary trend of the rotational period. For a few stars, the comparison between their projected rotational velocity and equatorial velocity let us believe that their real rotational period might be longer than that found here and previously obtained. For the 82 stars identified as variable, we give all necessary information needed to plan further phase-dependent observations.


Stereo matching is used in many computer vision applications such as 3D reconstruction, robot navigation, robotic surgery, 3-D video surveillance, and tracking object in 3D space. Real time stereo matching is difficult due to the heavy computation required for matching algorithms. In this paper a CPU/GPU heterogeneous computing platform is used to accelerate the processing and run the system in real time. The availability of GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) with hundreds of parallel processing cores, increases the speed of matching algorithms. In this work a combination between feature based and area based matching techniques is used. Feature based matching is fast while area based is robust and the used technique takes the advantages of the both. The stereo matching algorithms run over GeForce GPU and a real time processing is achieved with speed up to 15 frames/sec.


Abstract
Background: Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is the most severe manifestation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis with a high mortality and morbidity rates. Exact prevalence of Central nervous system tuberculosis in India is not known, but it accounts for an estimated 1% of all cases of TB, which equates to around 17000 cases in India in 2014. The aims of the study are (1) to review the clinical, laboratory, disease staging and radiological findings of 39 TBM cases at a single center. (2) to present the local epidemiological data from our cases.

Methods: Thirty -nine patients admitted to our tertiary hospital with symptoms and signs of meningitis were selected and on the basis of adopted criteria labeled as tuberculous meningitis. Clinical profile, disease staging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) findings noted in each patient. adenosine deaminase (ADA) level in CSF estimated. Cut off value of ADA kept at or above 10 IU/L for tubercular meningitis. Comparative study done with 23 patients of pyogenic meningitis.

Results: The mean age of patients with tubercular meningitis was 39.07 ± 16.67 years. The symptom duration range from 7 to 98 days with a median of 28 days. Clinically fever was present in 37 (94.8 %), headache in 29 (74.3 %), and vomiting in 22 (56.4 %) patients. Six (15.38 %) patients had seizure. On CSF cytological and biochemical analysis the mean total white blood cell count was 256.74 ± 184.03 /cmm, mean protein 182.22 ± 113.12 mg/ dl and mean sugar 52.85 ± 19.3. The CSF / Blood glucose ratio in TBM case was 0.41. Out of 39 TBM patients, 33 patients were found to be having CSF ADA at or above the cutoff value of 10 IU/L while six had below cutoff value. On comparison between two groups, the CSF ADA level found to be highly significant (P < 0.001). On cranial CT or MRI 28.2 % patients had hydrocephalous, 7.6 % with tuberculoma and 5.1 % with spinal arachnoiditis. About one third patients had evidence of active tuberculosis on chest X-ray.

Conclusions: Any patient presenting either acutely or chronically with signs and symptoms of meningitis, urgent CSF examination should be done to diagnose tuberculous meningitis on the basis of CSF lymphocytic pleocytosis, decreased glucose, increased protein, and ADA more than 10 IU/L. Because of high mortality and morbidity early initiation of antitubercular drugs may prevent sequel.


Acute promyelocytic leukemia is a form of acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood-forming tissue (bone marrow). In normal bone marrow, hematopoietic stem cells produce red blood cells (erythrocytes) that carry oxygen, white blood cells (leukocytes) that protect the body from infection, and platelets (thrombocytes) that are involved in blood clotting. In acute promyelocytic leukemia, immature white blood cells called promyelocytes accumulate in the bone marrow. The overgrowth of promyelocytes leads to a shortage of normal white and red blood cells and platelets in the body, which causes many of the signs and symptoms of the condition.


The occurrence of large earthquakes and tsunamis along the Ryukyu Trench is a subject of continuing interest, the key to which is the long-term geological record. Here we describe the clast size and spatial distributions of ∼2900 boulders on the reefs of the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, as markers of paleotsunamis and causative tsunamigenic earthquakes. Boulders of tsunami origin were observed only at a specific island group at the southern end, suggesting the local occurrence of tsunamigenic earthquakes there. In contrast, in the central to northern Ryukyu Islands, no evidence exists of tsunamis larger than those at the southern end of the Ryukyu Islands during the past 2000–3000 yr. These islands have numerous boulders deposited by storm waves during the past 2300 yr or earlier. Their spatial distribution has not been disturbed by large tsunamis. This suggests that large tsunamis did not strike this area during that period; nevertheless, these regions are seismically active. Our study shows that coastal boulder deposits present great potential to not only ascertain the histories and effects of paleotsunamis but also to constrain fault models of the causative earthquakes.


Since its inception, the World Wide Web has revolutionised the way we share information, keep in touch with each other and consume content. In the latter case, it is now used by thousands of simultaneous users to consume video, surpassing physical media as the primary means of distribution. With the rise of on-demand services and more recently, high-definition media, this popularity has not waned. To support this consumption, the underlying infrastructure has been forced to evolve at a rapid pace. This includes the technology and mechanisms to facilitate the transmission of video, which are now offered at varying levels of quality and resolution. Content delivery networks are often deployed in order to scale the distribution provision. These vary in nature and design; from third-party providers running entirely as a service to others, to in-house solutions owned by the content service providers themselves. However, recent innovations in networking and virtualisation, namely Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualisation, have paved the way for new content delivery infrastructure designs. In this thesis, we discuss the motivation behind OpenCache, a next-generation content delivery platform. We examine how we can leverage these emerging technologies to provide a more flexible and scalable solution to content delivery. This includes analysing the feasibility of novel redirection techniques, and how these compare to existing means. We also investigate the creation of a unified interface from which a platform can be precisely controlled, allowing new applications to be created that operate in harmony with the infrastructure provision. Developments in distributed virtualisation platforms also enables functionality to be spread throughout a network, influencing the design of OpenCache. Through a prototype implementation, we evaluate each of these facets in a number of different scenarios, made possible through deployment on large-scale testbeds.


This book helps in understanding the influential West Indian scholar and politician. Born in Trinidad, Eric Williams (1911-81) founded the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago's first modern political party in 1956, led the country to independence from the British culminating in 1962, and became the nation's first prime minister. Before entering politics, he was a professor at Howard University and wrote several books, including the classic Capitalism and Slavery. In the first scholarly biography of Williams, Colin A. Palmer provides insights into Williams's personality that illuminate his life as a scholar and politician, and his tremendous influence on the historiography and politics of the Caribbean. Palmer focuses primarily on the fourteen-year period of struggles for independence in the Anglophone Caribbean. From 1956, when Williams became the chief minister of Trinidad and Tobago, to 1970, when the Black Power-inspired February Revolution brought his administration face to face with a younger generation intellectually indebted to his revolutionary thought, Williams was at the center of most of the conflicts and challenges that defined the region. He was most aggressive in advocating the creation of a West Indies federation to help the region assert itself in international political and economic arenas. Looking at the ideas of Williams as well as those of his Caribbean and African peers, Palmer demonstrates how the development of the modern Caribbean was inextricably intertwined with the evolution of a regional anticolonial consciousness.


Tristichopterids (Sarcopterygii, Tetrapodomorpha) form a monophyletic group of exclusively Devonian fishes. This thesis consists of descriptions of new material of tristichopterids and closely related taxa, as well as new interpretations and descriptions of previously figured material. Redescribed specimens were originally figured as far back as 1861, and publications as old as this are almost always of limited use as anatomical and systematical references, in addition to being difficult to acquire. The possibility of using new techniques and new theoretical frameworks also provides good justification for taking a second look at such specimens. In the case of this thesis, this includes the use of computed tomography scanning methods, and the cladistic approach to describing the interrelationships of taxa. The thesis includes a complete taxonomy of valid tristichopterid taxa, in addition to two new phylogenetic analyses incorporating the taxa that were described or redescribed. One of the analyses deals with the interrelationships of taxa along the entire tetrapod stem, and establishes the monophyly of the Tristichopteridae. The other analysis focuses on tristichopterid interrelationships. An account is given of evolutionary trends within Tristichopteridae, and instances of parallel evolution between tristichopterids and other tetrapodomorph groups are discussed. The biogeographical implications of tristichopterid occurences world-wide seem to corroborate the picture provided by other vertebrate groups, and give further support to one of two main hypotheses concerning the relative positions of Gondwana and Laurussia, the two major palaeocontinents during the Late Devonian. The supported hypothesis proposes a close proximity between southern Laurussia and northwestern Gondwana, as evidenced by the wide dispersal of derived tristichopterids by the Late Devonian. A Laurussian origin of tristichopterids is proposed.


Variation in segment number is an important but neglected feature of vertebrate evolution. Some vertebrates have as few as six trunk vertebrae, while others have hundreds. We examine this phenomenon in relation to recent models of evolution and development. Surprisingly, differences in vertebral number are foreshadowed by different somite counts at the tailbud stage, thought to be a highly conserved (phylotypic) stage. Somite number therefore violates the 'developmental hourglass' model. We argue that this is because somitogenesis shows uncoupling or dissociation from the conserved positional field encoded by genes of the zootype. Several other systems show this kind of dissociation, including limbs and feathers. Bmp-7 expression patterns demonstrate dissociation in the chick pharyngeal arches. This makes it difficult to recognise a common stage of pharyngeal development or 'pharyngula' in all species. Rhombomere number is more stable during evolution than somite number, possibly because segmentation and positional specification in the hindbrain are relatively interdependent. Although developmental mechanisms are strongly conserved, dissociation allows at least some major evolutionary changes to be generated in phylotypic stages.


Every year about 22 billion pounds is allocated to health authorities for hospital and community services in England. The distribution of most of these funds is based on a formula developed to reflect the population's needs, but the existing formula has been criticised on several grounds. This paper describes the development of a method to determine the health needs for small geographical areas. Data from the hospital episodes statistics and 1991 census together with information on vital statistics and supply of health care facilities were used in the model. Two stage least squares regression was used to identify true indicators of need, and these were entered into a multilevel model to take account of variations in practice in different health authorities. The resulting formula should be more statistically robust and more sensitive to needs than previous approaches.


Deep-sea mining is rapidly becoming a reality, yet there are considerable gaps in our knowledge of the seabed assemblages that could be affected by mining activities. Seafloor Massive Sulfide (SMS) mining is expected to remove nearly all organisms in the immediate area and alter the remaining habitat, so that mitigation strategies for SMS mining will most likely need to include the establishment of protected areas to preserve the biodiversity that is lost at mine sites. Prospecting licences have been issued previously for SMS deposits within the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), however little is known about the seabed assemblages potentially at risk from SMS mining, particularly with respect to their structure (at multiple spatial scales) and the connectivity of assemblages at different sites. Designing studies to provide this information can be aided by turning to terrestrial, freshwater and shallow marine systems, where the fields of ecological theory, environmental management and conservation theory are better developed (Chapter 1).  Prior to detailed investigations into the assemblage structure and population connectivity of New Zealand SMS deposits, it is essential to understand the global context of SMS mining. This was undertaken through an extensive literature review of SMS deposits, including their geology, seafloor communities, impacts from mining, international and national regulation, and environmental management (Chapter 2).  In order to investigate the large-scale spatial distribution and structure of seafloor assemblages at SMS deposits, three New Zealand seamounts previously licenced for the prospecting phase of SMS mining were surveyed. Video footage from a towed camera was analysed to identify and characterise assemblages, and their association with environmental variation was investigated. Analysis of 249 video samples (each 250 m in length) distributed amongst the three seamounts indicated that SMS deposits support unique assemblages and that there were strong links between assemblage structure and environmental variation at a range of spatial scales. There was also a complex distribution of assemblages amongst the seamounts, suggesting a network of protected areas would be the most effective method for spatial management. Such networks should include sites that support the unique assemblages found in association with SMS deposits (Chapter 3).  The fine-scale distribution and structure of assemblages at SMS deposits was investigated by using data from a single SMS deposit, Proteus 1, and comparing it to a Reference Site selected to have similar size and seabed characteristics to the deposit. Video footage from a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) was used to identify and characterise assemblages, and their association with environmental conditions. Analysis of 153 video samples (each 15 m in length) confirmed the existence of assemblages unique to SMS deposits, and indicated that environmental characteristics specific to the deposit are responsible for the observed patterns of faunal distribution. Although five assemblages were shared between Proteus 1 and the Reference Site, six assemblages were unique to Proteus 1. This suggested that the proposed Reference Site would be inadequate on its own in terms of protecting the biological diversity present at the mine site but could contribute to a network of protected areas (Chapter 4).  The issue of connectivity was addressed by examining the genetic connectivity of populations of the endemic hydrothermal vent mussel, Gigantidas gladius. Universal markers, archived material and off-the-shelf DNA extraction kits were used to investigate a cost effective approach. The assessment utilised variation in 586 base pairs of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I subunit (COI) from 150 individuals in seven populations of G. gladius. Small sample sizes limited the recommendations that could be made for environmental management; however interpretation of the available sequences indicated panmixia with limited genetic structure and high connectivity amongst populations. Central Kermadec Volcanic Arc populations had particularly high haplotypic diversity and migrant exchange, suggesting they could be important for maintaining regional genetic connectivity and would merit inclusion in seabed protection measures (Chapter 5).  Establishing protected areas for biodiversity needs to utilise all of the available information. The integrated findings of this thesis highlight the need for a network of protected seabed areas along the Kermadec Volcanic Arc to help mitigate the impacts of any future SMS mining activities. These networks should be highly connected (as determined by genetic connectivity) and include both active and inactive SMS areas to conserve 1) the endemic vent fauna in active areas and 2) the unique assemblages found in both environments (Chapter 6).


Objectives To determine whether postoperative delirium predicts first-time readmissions and mortality in octogenarian patients within 180 days after aortic valve therapy with surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), and to determine the most common diagnoses at readmission. Design Prospective cohort study of patients undergoing elective SAVR or TAVI. Setting Tertiary university hospital that performs all SAVRs and TAVIs in Western Norway. Participants Patients 80+ years scheduled for SAVR or TAVI and willing to participate in the study were eligible. Those unable to speak Norwegian were excluded. Overall, 143 patients were included, and data from 136 are presented. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome was a composite variable of time from discharge to first all-cause readmission or death. Secondary outcomes were all-cause first readmission alone and mortality within 180 days after discharge, and the primary diagnosis at discharge from first-time readmission. Delirium was assessed with the confusion assessment method. First-time readmissions, diagnoses and mortality were identified in hospital information registries. Results Delirium was identified in 56% of patients. The effect of delirium on readmissions and mortality was greatest during the first 2 months after discharge (adjusted HR 2.9 (95% CI 1.5 to 5.7)). Of 30 first-time readmissions occurring within 30 days, 24 (80%) were patients who experienced delirium. 1 patient (non-delirium group) died within 30 days after therapy. Delirious patients comprised 35 (64%) of 55 first-time readmissions occurring within 180 days. Circulatory system diseases and injuries were common causes of first-time readmissions within 180 days in delirious patients. 8 patients died 180 days after the procedure; 6 (75%) of them experienced delirium. Conclusions Delirium in octogenarians after aortic valve therapy might be a serious risk factor for postoperative morbidity and mortality. Cardiovascular disorders and injuries were associated with first-time readmissions in these patients.


Recently, novel ILP systems under the answer set semantics have been proposed, some of which are robust to noise and scalable over large hypothesis spaces. One such system is FastLAS, which is significantly faster than other state-of-the-art ASP-based ILP systems. FastLAS is, however, only capable of Observational Predicate Learning (OPL), where the learned hypothesis defines predicates that are directly observed in the examples. It cannot learn knowledge that is indirectly observable, such as learning causes of observed events. This class of problems, known as non-OPL, is known to be difficult to handle in the context of non-monotonic semantics. Solving non-OPL learning tasks whilst preserving scalability is a challenging open problem.

We address this problem with a new abductive method for translating examples of a non-OPL task to a set of examples, called possibilities, such that the original example is covered iff at least one of the possibilities is covered. This new method allows an ILP system capable of performing OPL tasks to be "upgraded" to solve non-OPL tasks. In particular, we present our new FastNonOPL system, which upgrades FastLAS with the new possibility generation. We compare it to other state-of-the-art ASP-based ILP systems capable of solving non-OPL tasks, showing that FastNonOPL is significantly faster, and in many cases more accurate, than these other systems.


A wiring diagram of neuronal circuits for mating behaviors in the male worm is anatomically reconstructed and analyzed. When a major computer chip manufacturer brings a new integrated circuit to the market, its competitors often rush to reverse-engineer the chip to understand how it works. They shave off thin layers of the semiconductor material while imaging each newly revealed surface under an electron microscope. By tracing the wires in the electron micrographs, computer engineers assemble the wiring diagram of the chip, which allows them to eventually deduce its function. Similarly, neuroscientists hope to gain insights into the way the nervous system generates behavior by reconstructing its wiring diagram. Like the solid-state wires in computer chips, biological "wires" that carry electrical signals are tens of nanometers in diameter, requiring electron microscopes and ultrathin sectioning to image them. On page 437 of this issue, Jarrell et al. (1) use this approach to reconstruct the nervous system in the tail of a male Caenorhabditis elegans roundworm.


This study explores the effects of monetary policy on firms' business fixed investment spending through the interest rate and broad credit channels of monetary policy transmission mechanism in Pakistan. Due to the problem of endogeneity, Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) two step estimation technique is applied on neo-classical investment model by using disaggregated firm level data of manufacturing sector of Pakistan over the period 1974-2010. The results suggest the relevance of both the interest rate and broad credit channels in Pakistan. Firms' investment found to be negatively affected by the monetary contraction while positively influenced by cash flow and the sales. Small firms explored to be more sensitive to the monetary tightening as compared to large firms indicating that monetary policy exerts heterogeneous effects. Results highlight the importance of considering the financial conditions of the firms in formulation of monetary policy.


Processing Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) causes serious environmental problems, especially when WEEE is processed in uncontrolled conditions. WEEE recycling under controlled conditions consists of the following major steps: disassembly, upgrading and refinement. Disassembly is usually done manually, and, at this stage, certain components (cases, external cables, cathode ray tubes [CRTs], printed circuit boards [PCBs], batteries etc.) are separated. This activity releases coarse and fine particles, which may also contain additional noxious substances, into the atmosphere. The current study determines the concentration of indoor PM10 in a Greek plant for the dismantling and temporary storage of WEEE, based on a short-term sampling campaign. Elemental concentrations in the PM10 have also been determined. Results show that the indoor PM10 concentration in the disassembly area did not exceed the time-weighted average (TWA) for total particles set by Greek legislation or the 8-h TWA for total particles set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Nevertheless, these concentrations were higher than those measured in the ambient air of Greek cities. Regarding the measured elements, Zn, As, Br, Pb and Cd were quite enriched in PM10, indicating significant indoor sources. Factor analysis of elements of possible anthropogenic origin showed a clear distinction between cathode ray tubes (CRT) and other possible sources. Finally, the risk assessment for metals of toxicological concern showed a non-negligible lifetime risk for 8-h workers. This is the first report of WEEE indoor air pollution in Greece and its associated origins and effects.


In the absence of discrimination, there should be no wage-productivity differentials as relative wages should be equal to the relative marginal productivity levels of workers. This paper investigates the role of globalization on the structure and evolution of gender differentials in China by simultaneously estimating demand-side wage and productivity outcomes using nonlinear least squares. The analyses are based on a comprehensive population-wide panel survey of manufacturing firms between the years of 2004 and 2007, covering 94 percent of total industry output and providing an accurate representation of labor demand. The results suggest that more exposure to globalization through increased exports is associated with lower gender wage-productivity differentials, and more exposure through increased foreign investment leads to differentials in favor of female workers. On the other hand, gender discrimination is found to be prevalent among domestically owned and non-exporting firms.


From this issue, Clinical Science will increase its page numbers from an average of 112 to 128 per monthly issue. This welcome change — equivalent to at least two manuscripts — has been 'forced' on us by the increasing pressure on space; this has led to an undesirable increase in the delay between acceptance and publication, and to a fall in the proportion of submitted manuscripts we have been able to accept. The change in page numbers will instead permit us now to return to our exceptionally short interval between acceptance and publication of 3–4 months; and at the same time we shall be able not only to accept (as now) those papers requiring little or no revision, but also to offer hope to some of those papers which have raised our interest but come to grief in review because of a major but remediable problem. Our view, doubtless unoriginal, has been that the review process, which is unusually thorough for Clinical Science , involving a specialist editor and two external referees, is most constructive when it helps the evolution of a good paper from an interesting piece of research. Traditionally, the papers in Clinical Science have represented some areas of research more than others. However, this has reflected entirely the pattern of papers submitted to us, rather than any selective interest of the Editorial Board, which numbers up to 35 scientists covering most areas of medical research. Arguably, after the explosion during the last decade of specialist journals, the general journal can look forward to a renaissance in the 1990s, as scientists in apparently different specialities discover that they are interested in the same substances, asking similar questions and developing techniques of mutual benefit to answer these questions. This situation arises from the trend, even among clinical scientists, to recognize the power of research based at the cellular and molecular level to achieve real progress, and at this level the concept of organ-based specialism breaks down. It is perhaps ironic that this journal, for a short while at the end of the 1970s, adopted — and then discarded — the name of Clinical Science and Molecular Medicine , since this title perfectly represents the direction in which clinical science, and therefore Clinical Science , is now progressing.


This paper has been written as a background review for the European Research Council-funded PASTRES project (Pastoralism, Uncertainty, Resilience: Global Lessons from the Margins, pastres.org). Lessons from pastoralists, we argue, may help others working in other domains to develop more effective responses to uncertain contexts. Following prof. Scoones' papers What is uncertainty and why does it matter?, this is one of two papers developed with a view to analyse and reflect on the interfaces and interrelationships between pastoral societies, the uncertainties that embed their livelihoods, and the related coping/adaptive principles, strategies, and practices.

Through a structured review and a meta-analysis of existing literature, the environmental, market, and governance dimensions characterizing uncertainty for pastoralists are explored in six different settings: a) Central and southern Asia, with specific references to the Tibetan plateau in China and to Indian pastoralists; b) the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, with a focus on Morocco in the Maghreb-Mashreq region and a wider perspective on pastoralism in Mediterranean Europe; c) the eastern and western flanks of Sub-Saharan Africa drylands, with a specific focus on the Fulani and Borana pastoral groups inhabiting these regions.

This paper provides an understanding of the constantly changing uncertainty frameworks characterising the livelihoods of pastoralists inhabiting different geographical areas of the globe.Very diverse and contrasting pastoral settings present relevant similarities and convergences when facing evolving uncertainty scenarios. The ecological uncertainties that inform pastoral strategies get reconfigured as connections and networks extend and the market and governance dimensions hold growing roles in determining the livelihoods of pastoral communities. The paper concludes by indicating potential ways we could learn from pastoralists, as part of a wider conversation about embracing uncertainties to meet the challenges of our turbulent world. This endeavour is complemented by another paper that explores the principles, strategies, and practices pastoral communities adopt with a view to cope and adapt to surrounding and embedding insecurities.


Literature is a work that gives much contribution to provide knowledge and pleasure. Short story,
poem, play, and novel are part of literature. Novel is a long fiction that tells a life-like story
about any kinds of life. Reading novel can gives the reader many advantages such as how to cope
with psycological conflict, physical conflict and social conflict. And literature is also a strategic
tool to educate the reader about all aspects of life, including the political education.
This study is conducted to analyze political education. Political education that the writer found in
this study are about ideology, political assasination and a method how to political education have
to be succesfully implemented.
In this study the writer uses the descriptive method, while the approach is objective approach.
Whereas the population of this study is the whole event that exist in this novel and the sample is
some paragraphs, dialogues, or any other event that is relevant to political education.
The result shows that subterranean movement led by the anarcist that make a conspiracy with
capitalist and the Jew-anarcist want to make a new world order. The first step was to make
German and Russia at war. The war between German and Russia would lead to European war
and then world war. They did it because they did not satisfied with todays' world order. They
would use any possible ways to make their plan succesful even assasinate those who disturb
them. Their target to be killed was Scudder, their former activist who knows their plan and
Constantine Karolide, the Greek Premier, who had special power to solve conflict between
nation in Eroupe.
Scudders give a good example how to give political education to Ricard Hannay, a secret agent.
He can make Hannay believe in him by using argumentative dialogue and high spirit method.


The purpose in this paper is to survey the course of immigration into Denmark and research and studies related to the problems encountered in this area. The first part of the paper describes the actual flows of migrants in the most recent decades. The directly job-related part of migration cannot be identified precisely. A survey of research results indicate net migration flows towards other OECD countries is sensitive to cyclical indicators and thus mainly labour market related. The paper goes on to survey immigration policy and available evidence regarding the labour market integration of both 1. and 2. generation immigrants. Immigrants and refugees are recorded on average with much higher unemployment and much lower labour market participation than Danish citizens. The status in the late 1990s points to the pressing need for policy initiatives to improve this situation. Finally, the paper summarizes available results regarding the impact on public finances from immigration.


Synopsis. The nucleus of the intervertebral disc in humans shows the most dramatic changes with age of any cartilaginous tissue. It originates from the notochord. In the foetus and infant, the nucleus contains actively dividing and biosynthetically active notochordal cells. The proteoglycans and other matrix components produced have a high osmotic pressure, imbibe water and maintain a hydrated structure which, though it has little mechanical strength, has a high swelling pressure which maintains disc turgor. In some species, the notochordal cells and the mucoid nucleus pulposus persist throughout adult life. However by about 4 yr of age in humans, the notochordal cells have disappeared to be replaced by those of chondrocytic appearance but of unknown origin. These cells continue to produce proteoglycans but also synthesize significant amounts of collagen. The nucleus becomes firmer and less hydrated and loses its transparent appearance. The cell density of the adult nucleus is very low with cells occupying less than 0.5% of tissue volume; each cell thus has to turn over and maintain a large domain of extracellular matrix. The density of living cells decreases with age, possibly because of problems with nutrient supply to this large avascular tissue. Proteoglycan concentration also falls, and nucleus hydration decreases markedly, the disc discolours and in many cases clefts and fissures form. In most adults, the disc nucleus degenerates eventually to a stage where it can no longer fulfil its mechanical role.


Abstract The study investigated constructivist practices through guided discovery approach and the effect on students' cognitive achievement in Nigerian senior secondary school Physics. The study adopted pretest-posttest control group design. A criterion sampling technique was used to select six schools out of nine schools that met the criteria. A total of 278 students took part in the study; this was made up of 141 male students and 137 female students in their respective intact classes. Physic Achievement Test (PAT) with the internal consistency of 0.77 using Kuder Richardson formula 21 was the instrument used in collecting data. The data were analysed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and t-test. The results showed that guided discovery approaches was the most effective in facilitating students' achievement in physics after being taught using a pictorial organizer. This was followed by demonstration while expository was found to be the least effective. Also, there exists no significant difference in the achievement of male and female physics students taught with guided discovery, demonstration and expository teaching approaches and corresponding exposure to a pictorial organizer. It is recommended that physics teachers should endeavour to use constructivist practices through guided discovery approach in order to engage students in problem solving activities, independent learning, critical thinking and understanding, and creative learning, rather than in rote learning and memorization.


The role of olfaction for predation risk assessment remains barely explored in birds, although predator chemical cues could be useful in predator detection under low visibility conditions for many bird species. We examine whether Great Tits Parus major are able to use the odour of mustelids to assess predation risk when selecting cavities for roosting. We analysed whether the response to predator chemical cues is innate and assessed whether the antipredatory response is associated with exploratory behaviour, a proxy for the personality of birds. In a choice experiment in aviaries, we offered naïve adult Great Tits of known personality two nest-boxes, one control and one experimental. The experimental nest-box had the odour of a mustelid predator or a strong new odour without biological significance, the control nest-box contained no odour. When one of the cavities contained the odour of a predator, birds avoided the use of either of the two offered nest-boxes, whereas there was no avoidance of boxes when one of the nest-boxes contained a control odour. There was no relationship with exploratory behaviour. We show that the ability to use the chemical cues of predators is innate in birds, but individual differences in the response to predator chemical cues cannot be explained by the personality of the bird.


We describe a novel pump–probe technique in which pump and probe pulses are collinear and have parallel polarizations but are still distinguishable. This new technique is especially useful for femtosecond time-domain studies of waveguides. We present experimental results for bulk (V-groove) semiconductor optical amplifiers at 1.5 μm and compare them with results for orthogonally polarized pump–probe measurements. The comparison demonstrates differences that are due to anisotropy of the group velocity as well as of the waveguide nonlinearity.


Conventional transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS) have been designed for drug delivery through the skin. These systems use the permeability property of stratum corneum, the outermost surface layer of the skin. Applying polymeric micro and nanofibers in drug delivery has recently attracted great attention and the electrospinning technique is the preferred method for polymeric micro-nanofibers fabrication with a great potential for drug delivery. More studies in the field of nanofibers containing drug are divided two categories: first, preparation and characterization of nanofibers containing drug and second, investigation of their therapeutic applications. Drugs used in electrospun nanofibers can be categorized into three main groups, including antibiotics and antimicrobial agents, anti-inflammatory agents and vitamins with therapeutic applications. In this paper, we review the application of electrospun polymeric scaffolds in TDDS and also introduce several pharmaceutical and therapeutic agents which have been used in polymer nanofibrous patches.


Popular Virtual Reality (VR) tools allow users to draw varying-width, ribbonlike 3D brush strokes by moving a hand-held controller in 3D space. Artists frequently use dense collections of such strokes to draw virtual 3D shapes. We propose SurfaceBrush, a surfacing method that converts such VR drawings into user-intended manifold free-form 3D surfaces, providing a novel approach for modeling 3D shapes. The inputs to our method consist of dense collections of artist-drawn stroke ribbons described by the positions and normals of their central polylines, and ribbon widths. These inputs are highly distinct from those handled by existing surfacing frameworks and exhibit different sparsity and error patterns, necessitating a novel surfacing approach. We surface the input stroke drawings by identifying and leveraging local coherence between nearby artist strokes. In particular, we observe that strokes intended to be adjacent on the artist imagined surface often have similar tangent directions along their respective polylines. We leverage this local stroke direction consistency by casting the computation of the user-intended manifold surface as a constrained matching problem on stroke polyline vertices and edges. We first detect and smoothly connect adjacent similarly-directed sequences of stroke edges producing one or more manifold partial surfaces. We then complete the surfacing process by identifying and connecting adjacent similarly directed edges along the borders of these partial surfaces. We confirm the usability of the SurfaceBrush interface and the validity of our drawing analysis via an observational study. We validate our stroke surfacing algorithm by demonstrating an array of manifold surfaces computed by our framework starting from a range of inputs of varying complexity, and by comparing our outputs to reconstructions computed using alternative means.


School achievement gaps and school failure are problematic issues in Latin America, and are mainly explained by the socio-economic status (SES) of the students. What schools can do to improve school achievement and reduce school failure is a critical issue, both for school management and teacher training. In this study, we present the association of individual and school-related socio-emotional variables with school achievement and performance, controlling for the effects of SES. A probabilistic sample of 4,964 students, drawn from 191 schools enrolled in year 10 in urban areas of Chile, answered questionnaires assessing subjective wellbeing, social wellbeing in school, school climate, school social wellbeing and students' perceptions of teachers' wellbeing. Using structural equation modeling, and controlling for SES, we modeled subjective wellbeing as a mediator of the relationship between school-related variables, such as school climate and perception of teacher's wellbeing, and (a) school achievement, and (b) school performance. School achievement was computed as a product of (a) the probability of passing the school year, and (b) the percentage of yearly attendance at school. Data on school achievement was drawn from administrative registries from the Chilean Ministry of Education. School performance was computed as the estimated grade point average (GPA) at the end of the school year, based on the students' previous 5-year GPAs, and was also obtained through administrative data of the last 5 years. Findings reveal the mediating role of subjective wellbeing in the relationship between school-related evaluations (students' social wellbeing at school, their perception of teachers' wellbeing and school climate) and school achievement. For school achievement, two variables were mediated (students' social wellbeing at school and school climate). However, for school performance, no significant mediations were found. We conclude that, on the one hand, after controlling for SES, students' individual subjective wellbeing is associated with their achievement and performance in school. We discuss the importance of improving school experiences that may protect and promote students' subjective experience and school achievement and performance, and reduce the probability of school failure and dropout.


OBJECTIVES--To compare the effectiveness of a mobile screening unit with a non-mydriatic polaroid camera in detecting diabetic retinopathy in rural and urban areas. To estimate the cost of the service. DESIGN--Prospective data collection over two years of screening for diabetic retinopathy throughout Tayside. SETTING--Tayside region, population 390,000, area 7770 km2. SUBJECTS--961 patients in rural areas and 1225 in urban areas who presented for screening. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Presence of diabetic retinopathy, need for laser photocoagulation, age, duration of diabetes, and diabetic treatment. RESULTS--Compared with diabetic patients in urban areas, those in rural areas were less likely to attend a hospital based diabetic clinic (46% (442) v 86% (1054), p < 0.001); less likely to be receiving insulin (260 (27%) v 416 (34%), p < 0.001 and also after correction for differences in age distribution); more likely to have advanced (maculopathy or proliferative retinopathy) diabetic retinopathy (13% (122) v 7% (89), p < 0.001); and more likely to require urgent laser photocoagulation for previously unrecognised retinopathy (1.4% (13) v 0.5% (6), p < 0.02). The screening programme cost 10 pounds per patient screened and 1000 pounds per patient requiring laser treatment. CONCLUSION--The mobile diabetic eye screening programme detected a greater prevalence of advanced retinopathy in diabetic patients living in rural areas. Patients in rural areas were also more likely to need urgent laser photocoagulation. Present screening procedures seem to be less effective in rural areas and rural patients may benefit more from mobile screening units than urban patients.