Over the past four decades the police service strength in England and Wales grew by nearly a third. This was at a time when the population grew by just 10 per cent. This sustained period of growth came to an end with the 2010 spending review which called for a 20 per cent cut in government funding of the police. In this paper the expansion of the state police is examined, expansion that is all the more remarkable coming at a time of increased competition and – from the mid-1990s onwards – falling levels of recorded crime. But not only did the number of police officers increase, so too their roles and responsibilities, reflective of Simon's (2007) governing through crime meta-narrative and symptomatic of the criminalization of social policy – or more specifically the 'policification' (cf. Kemshall and Maguire, 2001). In this context it is argued that enforced contraction could be a positive opportunity to reappraise what the state police ought to be doing. The policing task is conceptualized as being either wide policing or narrow policing. Examples are given where narrowing may be both possible and beneficial. It is acknowledged that other agencies are facing similar cuts and may not be able pick up tasks left by the police. However, it is argued there are tangible benefits of having a state police that is more focused.


This paper investigates the role of message source and (social) media channels in determining consumer response to nonprofit advertising. After reviewing relevant literature, a summary model that focuses on attitude change, message acceptance and persuasion effect is presented. The study predicts an interaction effect between the message source (celebrity endorsement versus friend recommendation) and social media channel (Facebook versus Twitter). In order to test the hypothesis, the two variables are manipulated through a controlled online experiment and the analysis of the variance of data provides the general support. Other results and the implications for nonprofit advertising research and practice are discussed.


Lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLC) are a kind of LCs far less known and more difficult to control than conventional thermotropic nematics. Nevertheless, LCLCs are a preferred option -often the only one- for applications where hydrophilic materials must be employed. Being water-soluble, LCLC can be used in numerous biology related devices, for example in target detection in lab-on-chip devices. However, their properties and procedures to align them are still less explored, with only a very limited number of options available, especially for homeotropic alignment. In this work, novel organic alignment layers and alignment properties have been explored for selected LCLCs. Non-conventional organic alignment layers were tested and new suitable procedures and materials for both homogeneous and homeotropic alignments have been found. Full Text: PDF References S.L. Hefinstine, O.D. Lavrentovich, C.J. Woolverton, "Lyotropic liquid crystal as a real-time detector of microbial immune complexes", Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 43, 27 (2006). CrossRef M.A. Geday, M. Ca-o-Garcia, J.M. Escolano, E. Oton, J.M. Oton, X. Quintana, Conference on Liquid Crystals CLC'16, Poland (2016). M.A. Geday, E. Oton, J.M. Escolano, J.M. Oton, X. Quintana, Patent WO 2015193525 (2015). DirectLink Yu.A. Nastishin et al., "Optical characterization of the nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals: Light absorption, birefringence, and scalar order parameter", Phys. Rev. E, 72 (4) 41711 (2005). CrossRef A. Mcguire, et al., "Orthogonal Orientation of Chromonic Liquid Crystals by Rubbed Polyamide Films", Chem. Phys. Chem. 15 (7) (2014). CrossRef J. Jeong, et al., "Homeotropic Alignment of Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystals Using Noncovalent Interactions", Langmuir 30(10) 2914 (2014). CrossRef J.Y. Kim, H.-Tae Jung, "Macroscopic alignment of chromonic liquid crystals using patterned substrates", Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 18, 10362 (2016). CrossRef E. Oton, J.M. Escolano, X. Quintana, J.M. Oton, M.A. Geday, "Aligning lyotropic liquid crystals with silicon oxides", Liq. Cryst. 42 (8) 1069 (2015). CrossRef H.S. Park, et al., "Condensation of Self-Assembled Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystal Sunset Yellow in Aqueous Solutions Crowded with Polyethylene Glycol and Doped with Salt", Langmuir 27, 4164 (2011). CrossRef H.S. Park, et al., "Self-Assembly of Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystal Sunset Yellow and Effects of Ionic Additives", J. Phys. Chem. B 112, 16307 (2008). CrossRef R Caputo et al., "POLICRYPS: a liquid crystal composed nano/microstructure with a wide range of optical and electro-optical applications", J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 11, 024017 (2009). CrossRef


This study explores the impact of core employee characteristics on organizational capabilities and firm performance. The resource based view asserts that organizations with valuable and inimitable resources w ill attain competitive advantage and organizational performance. The effects of valuable and unique core employees on organizational capabilities namely managerial, technical capabilities and output based capabilities and overall firm performance are analyzed in this study. We used a statist ical methodology to test the relationships hypothesized in the research model. The results indicated a higher organizational capability and organizational performance for firms using the most valuable core employees.


This cross age study was designed to investigate students' predictions in novel situations and the role that self-generated analogies play in non-scientific reasoning. The study used a mixed method ap-proach. Data was collected through the conduction of group interviews which were audio-tape rec-orded and additional data was collected through the use of written responses in the questionnaire. There were 37, 31, 29, 35 and 34 students recruited from Year 4, Year 6, Year 7, Year 9 and Year 11 (aged 9-10, 11-12, 12-13. 14-15 and 16-17 years) respectively from ten different schools in Greece. Students' responses were analysed to ascertain whether their predictions drew on the use of analogies, and if so, the nature of the analogies that they used and whether the ideas used in the explanations of their predictions could be understood from a p-prims or a misconception perspective.
The study found that students regularly make use of analogies, rather than scientific thinking in order to make their predictions. It also emerged that there were many similarities among students' predic-tions as well as the analogies they used to explain the latter. In many cases this students' non-scientific reasoning was based on their experiential knowledge which led them to make a prediction which is not compatible with the scientific view. However, according to the findings, there were cases in which analogical reasoning led some of them, more frequently the older (secondary education) ones, to make correct predictions.
The study suggests that teachers need to be more aware of the nature of the analogies used and how, and why, these analogies can, in many cases, lead students to make scientifically incorrect or correct predictions.


Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are among the most frequent implicated drugs in acute tubulointerstitial nephritis (ATIN), nevertheless it is important to report cases with atypical profiles. A 80-year-old female, exposed during 34 months to omeprazole, presented with polyclonal hypergammaglobulinaemia and renal failure. After stopping omeprazole there was a partial improvement in serum creatinine and IgG. Renal biopsy revealed ATIN; immunohistochemistry for IgG4 was negative. Treatment with steroids and mycophenolate sodium improved renal function and normalized immunoglobulins. The lack of data of other entities and the patient's evolution strongly point omeprazole as the culprit. After 27 months of follow-up, she remains clinical and analytically stable. ATIN caused by PPIs may appear after a long period of exposure and may be accompanied by analytical anomalies that simulate a systemic disease.


Balanced graph partitioning in the streaming setting is a key problem to enable scalable and efficient computations on massive graph data such as web graphs, knowledge graphs, and graphs arising in the context of online social networks. Two families of heuristics for graph partitioning in the streaming setting are in wide use: place the newly arrived vertex in the cluster with the largest number of neighbors or in the cluster with the least number of non-neighbors. In this work, we introduce a framework which unifies the two seemingly orthogonal heuristics and allows us to quantify the interpolation between them. More generally, the framework enables a well principled design of scalable, streaming graph partitioning algorithms that are amenable to distributed implementations. We derive a novel one-pass, streaming graph partitioning algorithm and show that it yields significant performance improvements over previous approaches using an extensive set of real-world and synthetic graphs. Surprisingly, despite the fact that our algorithm is a one-pass streaming algorithm, we found its performance to be in many cases comparable to the de-facto standard offline software METIS and in some cases even superiror. For instance, for the Twitter graph with more than 1.4 billion of edges, our method partitions the graph in about 40 minutes achieving a balanced partition that cuts as few as 6.8% of edges, whereas it took more than 81/2 hours by METIS to produce a balanced partition that cuts 11.98% of edges. We also demonstrate the performance gains by using our graph partitioner while solving standard PageRank computation in a graph processing platform with respect to the communication cost and runtime.


Aim: The Striped Hamster (Cricetulus barabensis) is characterized by high reproductive ability, seasonal breeding feature, and fluctuation on population abundance in different years and seasons. Fluctuation on population abundance is assumed to affect genetic diversity. However, the relationship between the genetic diversity and the abundance of Striped Hamster population is less understood.
Methods: In this study, the Striped Hamsters were captured from Wu village of Shandong province in the autumn and spring from 2004-2008, and that both seasonal populations and yearly populations were studied. Genetic structure of the Striped Hamsters was studied by using DNA microsatellite markers. The relative density of the Striped Hamster was estimated by the rate of trap success. Temporal variation of the genetic structure and the trap success were analysed to determine the correlation between the genetic structure and the trap success.
Result: The results showed that the genetic structure and the population density were significantly fluctuated with the time. The genetic diversity of the Striped Hamster population was positively correlated with the population density and the increase of the genetic diversity was correlated with the decrease in population density between spring and autumn population.
Conclusion: The specific reasons for these results may be caused by density- and seasonal-dependent dispersal of the Striped Hamster, which is in accordance with Elton hypothesis.


During a period of 20 years, 216 patients between the ages of 19 and 76 years underwent renal artery reconstruction for correction of renovascular hypertension. Reconstruction was bilateral in 18% of the patients. A transperitoneal approach was used in all cases. The most commonly used reconstructions were aortoneal bypass in 43% of the patients, thromboendarterectomy with primary closure or patch in 26%, and nephrectomy in 11%. There were 13 late nephrectomies. There was no operative mortality. Postoperatively, blood pressure was normal in 85% of the patients, improved in 11% and unchanged in 2%. Follow-up was one to 20 years. Actuarial survival at five years was 93%, at ten years 80%, and at 20 years 70%. Normal blood pressure was present at five years in 81% of the survivors, at ten years in 77%, and at 15 years in 74%. The results indicate the excellent long-term results of renovascular reconstruction for renovascular hypertension in appropriate patients.


Alcohol has been heavily regulated around the world for many centuries. Today there are at least as many approaches to alcohol control policies as there are nation states. Despite this policy variation, little research has focused on the forces that have shaped alcohol regulation. Australia and New Zealand had divergent approaches to alcohol regulation despite geographic, cultural, and demographic similarities. Through their histories, alcohol regulations were also heavily debated issues of public importance. Despite this, there has been little or no comparative research which seeks to systematically describe and explain alcohol control policies in the antipodes. This thesis seeks to address this gap in the scholarly literature by providing a detailed historical account of the trajectory of alcohol control policies in Australia and New Zealand and, using the tools of historical institutionalism, proceeds to present an explanation of policy divergence between the cases.
This research focused on the influence of institutions in shaping policy paths and divergence in alcohol controls. The institutions assessed included mid-level political institutions (division of powers, parliamentary structure and practice, constitutional arrangements, and the judiciary) and, consistent with the work of some historical institutionalists and political scientists (such as Lowi), the influence of policy legacies. The approach incorporated a comparative, historical assessment of alcohol control policies (dependent variable) and ideas, actors and institutions (independent variables) over a long time period (1900-2010) to identify divergence and its causes. The research found that in 2010 the alcohol control policies in Australia and New Zealand were less similar than in 1900. This divergence became pronounced after World War One when Australian controls followed a path of incremental change, while New Zealand followed a different path with two brief periods of significant change (World War One and the late 1980s) and rigid stability in between. The divergence was evident in availability controls and other policy tools, including: taxation, drink-driving countermeasures, treatment, advertising controls, and national alcohol policies. Australian alcohol policies were consistent with the incremental change path identified by March and Olsen (1989), whereas New Zealand's diverged after World War One when they followed a different path of rapid and dramatic change at critical junctures followed by "locked-in" rigid stability; consistent with the path identified by Collier and Collier (1991).
The cause of alcohol control policy divergence could be largely explained by institutional variables. Australia and New Zealand had similar cultures, policy actors and exposure to ideas throughout the period. These factors were less significant in shaping the policy divergence. The influential institutions were twofold. The first was divergent political institutions that concentrated power in New Zealand and dispersed it in Australia (especially the federal division of powers), allowing New Zealand governments a greater capacity to intervene in the economy and society and to make significant policy changes. The second was divergent legacies from policy decisions at points in time. For much of the period, policy legacies were more powerful than political institutions in driving divergence. This was demonstrated after New Zealand introduced the General Licensing Poll from 1918, which shaped rigid stability compared to Australia. This was despite political institutions that provided greater opportunity for New Zealand Governments to implement policy changes, a demonstration of the influence of policy legacies. The industry and temperance movement were effective in influencing alcohol control policies when they worked together through a "Presbyterian and Publican" coalition. They were less effective when they worked alone or were divided. The key determinant of whether actors would work in coalition or competition was the feedback from policy legacies. This research confirmed many findings of historical institutionalists and those of Theodore Lowi regarding the important role of policy legacies. The interplay between political institutions and policy legacies were the major drivers of alcohol control policy divergence from 1900 to 2010.


This thesis was motivated by Robert Chard's puzzlement over the translational
phenomenon of martial arts fiction in the West. It proposes to address how the
translational migration of martial arts fiction took place, first to other Asian countries in the
1920's, but to the West only after a lapse of a few decades beginning in the early 1990's.
Adopting a descriptive approach as described by Gideon Toury, the thesis is intended to
add further to the limited inventory of case studies in urgent demand to test the polysystem
theory propounded by Even-Zohar.
The thesis is made up of two parts. Part I is a macro-level study of martial arts fiction,
intended to contribute to testing the limits of the polysystem theory. After examining
Chinese fiction as a low form in the Chinese literary polysystem and its weak function as
translated literature in the Western literary polysystem, the study explores the translational
phenomenon of martial arts fiction in the West as well as the concurrent phenomenon as to
why so little of martial arts fiction has been translated into Western languages, compared to
the copious amount into other Asian languages, to the extent of stimulating a new literary
genre or (re)writing martial arts fiction in indigenous languages in Indonesia, Vietnam and
Korea, sinicized countries or countries boasting large overseas Chinese communities.
Issues and problems related to these translational activities and cultural phenomena are
presented as tools to test the limits of the polysystem theory.
Part II is a micro-level study focussing on the specifics of rendering Fox Volant of the
Snowy Mountain by Jin Yong into English. I will argue, in the main, that many difficulties,
inherent in both the translating and reading processes, can be constructed within the
theoretical framework of Andre Lefevere's concept of "constraint", particularly that of the
universe of discourse. Lefevere's connotation of the universe of discourse will be expanded
to embrace different cultural presuppositions and literary assumptions underlying two
divergent world cultures, hence different reader expectations in the reading process.
It is hoped that the findings and results of this descriptive case history of martial arts fiction
as a literary genre in translational migrations will contribute to the accumulation of
knowledge.


RNA interference (RNAi), in which short, double-stranded RNAs of 21 to 25 nucleotides result in the destruction of messenger (and other) RNAs bearing homologous sequences, has become a powerful tool in the experimental manipulation of gene expression. Results have already demonstrated the efficacy of transiently knocking down or knocking out gene expression in mammalian cells using RNAi. Brummelkamp et al. have now developed a vector system that can direct the persistent synthesis of small, interfering RNAs in mammalian cells and can efficiently suppress gene expression for months. T. R. Brummelkamp, R. Bernards, R. Agami, A system for stable expression of short interfering RNAs in mammalian cells. Science 296, 550-553 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The article functions as a contribution to the current discussion about assessment that takes place in several educational settings, at several levels. In those contexts the idea of how different qualities of musical knowledge are expressed, is constituted and re-created through the sharing of experience. Still concepts and descriptions of the qualities, which should be possible to use as a base for discussion and reflection upon musical knowledge, are most often missing. The contribution in the discussion is based on a view of knowledge and learning takes a life-world- phenomenological way of thinking as a point of departure, based on Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger and Dufrenne. The philosophy offers a base for a further discussion of the possibilities of, and challenges to how musical knowledge can be assessed, and how assessment can become a part of musical learning. This article will take into account the multi-dimensional phenomenon of music, and how it influences the concepts of musical knowledge and learning. It will address the conceptualisation of such knowledge, the weight of style and earlier experiences, the aspect of response in connection to language, and how musical knowledge can be expressed and assessed in the spirit of inter-subjectivity.


This paper investigates a technique for predicting ensemble uncertainty originally proposed in the weather forecasting domain. The overall purpose is to find out if the technique can be modified to operate on a wider range of regression problems. The main difference, when moving outside the weather forecasting domain, is the lack of extensive statistical knowledge readily available for weather forecasting. In this study, three different modifications are suggested to the original technique. In the experiments, the modifications are compared to each other and to two straightforward technniques, using ten publicly available regression problems. Three of the techniques show promising result, especially one modification based on genetic algorithms. The suggested modification can accurately determine whether the confidence in ensemble predictions should be high or low.


Within the horticultural industry, clonal propagation is desirable allowing for the maintenance of true lines, with more uniform cropping and flowering characteristics. Clonal propagation through tissue culture can be expensive, requiring equipment and facilities not always available to the breeder, whilst more traditional methods of clonal propagation may be slow, producing limited numbers.

Many Alliums produce bulbils or have the ability to produce bulbils if appropriate conditions prevail. Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii always produces both sterile florets and bulbils in the inflorescence as well as daughter bulbs and bulblets. The ability to manipulate the inflorescence towards the production of bulbils may lead to improved methods of clonal propagation. Literature suggests that bulbil production may involve reversion or partial reversion of floral primordia at critical stages in inflorescence development.

Wax embedding, sectioning and staining techniques have been used to examine bulb physiology, and allowed the construction of a developmental timetable. A protocol was developed for the maintenance of apices in tissue culture to monitor floral determination of the apex. The sampled population of Allium ampeloprasum L. var. babingtonii (Borrer) Syme was found to have both a vernalization requirement and a maturity requirement for floral competence. Vernalization for six weeks at 7° C produced 100 % flowering in plants with a minimum size of 3 cm diameter or approximately 13 g mass at the beginning of the growth season, producing ten or eleven leaves prior to expression of the floral state. Determination occurred during February; the meristem widened followed by elongation of the scape and development of the spathe. Cymes develop in a regular pattern over the inflorescence, florets forming initially with bulbils developing at the base of the pedicels. Gene expression in Allium species has been not recorded in detail, but comparisons with Arabidopsis and other monocotyledons such as rice (Oryza sativa) have provided a working model. Degenerate primers were constructed based on the rice RLF (Rice LEAFY homologue) gene. This was used to establish the presence of a putative homologue in Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii (ABLFY), this being expressed in floral meristems but not vegetative meristems.


Mexican Americans in south Texas have among highest rates of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the US. Non-invasive measures of liver fibrosis are needed to identify those at high risk of HCC. The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with liver fibrosis using acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography, an accurate and non-invasive modality, in the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort (CCHC). Methods. The CCHC is a well characterized population-based cohort in south Texas. Liver stiffness was measured by ARFI in 404 participants in the CCHC by two separate operators. Median liver stiffness > 1.34 m/s was considered significant (F2-F4) fibrosis. Ultrasound was used to determine presence of steatosis. Absence of HCV and HBsAg antigen, and absence of heavy drinking, was considered non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We calculated design-based prevalence of fibrosis and determined clinical associations with (1) significant fibrosis and (2) simple steatosis using multinomial logistic regression. Results. Mean age was 51.1 years, 44.6% were male, and 29.1% had diabetes. The prevalence of significant fibrosis was 16.5%. In the fibrosis group, most (47/57, 84%) had NAFLD. We excluded participants with etiologies other than NAFLD for further analyses. After adjustment for age and sex, hypertension [Odds Ratio (OR) 3.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1–8.1), platelet count (OR 0.6, 95% CI, 0.5–1.0), and potassium level (OR 1.5, 95% CI, 1.1–2.0) were significantly associated with fibrosis, but not steatosis. HDL cholesterol (OR 0.5, 95% CI, 0.4–0.7), obesity (OR 2.2, 95% CI, 1.2–4.0) and insulin level (OR 2.1, 95% CI, 1.2–3.7) were significantly associated with steatosis, but not fibrosis. Elevated fasting glucose, diabetes, and elevated ALT levels were significantly associated with both steatosis and fibrosis. Conclusion. This is the first population-based application of liver elastography in the US. We find a high prevalence of fibrosis in Mexican Americans, dominated by NAFLD. Our results indicate a higher burden of fibrosis than population-based studies of liver fibrosis conducted elsewhere. We urge community intervention for the early detection of liver disease and prevention of NAFLD-related HCC.


"William D. Coolidge, Inventor of the Modern X-ray Tube" David J. Allard, M.S., CHP - Director, PA DEP Bureau of Radiation Protection William David Coolidge 1873-1975 was a research scientist and inventor of the modern X-ray tube. Besides Roentgen, with his 1895 discovery and subsequent studies of X-rays, perhaps no other individual contributed more to the advancement of X-ray technology than did Coolidge. He was born in Hudson, MA and received his Bachelor of Science degree from MIT in 1896. That same year he went to Europe to study under renowned physicists of the time. Coolidge received his Ph.D. summa cum laude from the University of Leipzig in 1899 and soon after joined the staff of MIT. While studying at Leipzig, he met Roentgen. In 1905 he was asked to join the newly established General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, NY. He promptly began fundamental work on the production of ductile tungsten filaments as a replacement for fragile carbon filaments used in incandescent light bulbs. This improved light bulb was brought to market by GE in 1911. It was subsequent application of his tungsten work that led Coolidge to his studies in X ray production. Circa 1910, the state-of-the-art X-ray tube was a "gas tube" or "cold cathode" type tube. These crude X-ray tubes relied on residual gas molecules as a source of electrons for bombardment of low to medium atomic number metal targets. In 1912 Coolidge described the use of tungsten as an improved anode target material for X-ray tubes. Shortly after in 1913 he published a paper in Physical Review describing "A Powerful Roentgen Ray Tube With a Pure Electron Discharge." This tube used a tungsten filament as a thermionic source of electrons under high vacuum to bombard a tungsten anode target. Great improvements in X-ray tube stability, output and performance were obtained with the "hot cathode" or "Coolidge tube." With some variation in filament and target geometry, this 100 year old invention is the same basic X-ray tube used today in medicine, research and industry. In 1932 Coolidge became Director of the GE Laboratory, then in 1940 Vice-President and Director of Research. In 1941 he was a member of a small committee, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to evaluate the military importance of research on uranium. This committee's report led to the establishment of the Manhattan Engineering District for nuclear weapons development during WWII. Coolidge lived to be over 100 years old, he had 83 patents to his credit, numerous awards and honorary degrees, and in 1975 was elected to the National Inventor's Hall of Fame. At the time he was the only inventor to receive this honor in his lifetime. Dr. Coolidge was also the first recipient of the AAPM's highest science award - named in his honor. From notes of a day-long interview with Coolidge's son Lawrence in the mid-1990s, previous biographies, publications, books, GE literature, historic photographs, e.g., a wonderful 1874 photo stereoview card with 1 year old baby "Willie Coolidge", and other artifacts in the author's collection, this presentation will review Dr. Coolidge's amazing life, work, accomplishments and awards. "History and Archives Resources at AIP for AAPM and its Members" Gregory A. Good, Ph.D. - Director, AIP Center for History of Physics Melanie J. Mueller, MLIS - Acting Director, AIP Niels Bohr Library & Archives The American Institute of Physics established the Center for History of Physics and the Niels Bohr Library & Archives in the 1960s. Our shared mission is: To preserve and make known the history of the physical sciences. This talk will explore the many ways that AIP's two history programs support the historical and archival activities of AAPM. Topics will include our ongoing oral history program, web outreach through exhibits and teaching guides, and archiving for AAPM and other Member Societies. We will focus in particular on materials in our collections related to the history of medical physics and to the history of AAPM. We will unveil and demonstrate a new "Archives Portal" that we are designing specifically to be useful to AAPM and its members.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Study the background of the medical physicist - William David Coolidge 2. Examine the time-line for his success 3. Review the publications conceptualizing his works and progressions 4. Realize what he invented 5. Evaluate the importance of the invention 6. Relate the success to national prominence 7. Uncover how he influenced medical physicists today 8. Find out how he was celebrated by the AAPM 9. View the AIP established Center for History of Physics 10. Consider the significant efforts and vision to preserve the history of medical physics 11. Learn about the Niels Bohr Library & Archives 12. Look back in time at medical physics in the 1960s 13. Unveil and demonstrate a new "Archives Portal" that will be useful to AAPM.


Using selected secondary schools in Kampala Archdiocese, the study was intended to establish the appraisal practices used to assess teachers' per-formance in secondary schools in Kampala Archdiocese, Census and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the 196 respondents from a study sample population of 401 persons. Information was solicited through the use of face-to-face interviews with the head teachers and self-administered questionnaires which were distributed to teachers in the study area. Survey and questionnaire were used to collect data and after collecting data, descriptive statistics and percentages were computed with the help of SPSS computer package to analyze and facilitate discussion of findings. The study also found out that teachers are appraised; more than one performance appraisal method is used. It was concluded that among others, teachers' negative attitude towards the performance appraisal process is one of the difficulties which beset its conduct. The study recommended that among others, management ought to ensure that there is effective communication and information dissemination to teachers immediately after the performance appraisal is conducted, the appraisers ought to adopt a more cooperative approach during the appraisal exercise, get the full participation of teachers and change their attitude towards the performance appraisal process, and sensitization should also be intensified on the relevance and purposes of performance appraisal on improving teachers' performance.


Context. Two important stellar-population parameters (age and metallicity) of the dominant stellar populations (DSPs) of galaxies are usually estimated by comparing the observed absorption line indices or colors to predictions of some simple stellar population models. However, some studies show that there is actually recent star formation in galaxies, including early type ones. This suggests that we may not be obtaining accurate the two stellar-population parameters for the DSPs of galaxies. This is obvious when we estimate the two parameters by colors, because the youngest populations dominate the light and make the fitted stellar populations younger and richer in metal. Aims. We plan to study how young populations (YSPs) in composite stellar populations (CSPs) affect the colors of star systems and to analyze how the stellar ages and metallicities derived from colors possibly deviate from those of the DSPs. Methods. The techniques of stellar population synthesis and Monte Carlo process are used in this analysis. Results. It is found that the age and mass fraction of a YSP affect colors of a mixed star system significantly, but the former is stronger. In addition, our results show that the stellar ages and metallicities derived directly from a pair of colors are about 2.14 Gyr younger, while 0.0027 more metal rich on average than those of the DSPs of composite stellar systems. Some possible distributions of the differences between stellar-population parameters determined by colors and those of DSPs of CSPs are presented. The possible distributions of the differences between colors of CSPs and those of their DSPs are also shown. Stellar ages and metallicities measured by colors and line-strength indices are compared in the work, with a sample of 18 galaxies. Furthermore, the YSPs may affect the fundamental plane and Kormendy relation of early type galaxies.


In his challenging book on road safety research methods, Anders af Wahlberg makes a strong case that there are significant, unaddressed problems in the use of self-report measures in road safety research. These include the effects of social desirability and response patterns that contribute to the common method variance largely ignored by road safety researchers. His argument, perhaps overstated, is that the problems associated with self-report measures such as survey questionnaires and the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) are so great that they should not be used in individual-differences research in road safety. This paper reports on an investigation of common method variance in relation to the DBQ, with a particular focus on social desirability effects. Survey data collected from three survey waves of a young driver cohort were analysed to investigate the relationships between measures such as self-reported behaviour, self-reported crash involvement, the DBQ, and a measure of social desirability. The results of these analyses were then used to draw some conclusions about the validity of af Wahlberg's concerns and the prognosis for self-report methods.


Over the past decades cooking-banana (Matooke) has become increasingly important as food and especially as cash crop for farm households in Isingiro district in the western region of Uganda. High urban and regional demand for Matooke and dwindling Matooke productivity in other areas, drove expanded banana production and more intensive management. We hypothesised that the increased focus on Matooke by households in Isingiro, affected women and men both as individuals and as household members and affected gender norms on what constitutes a good wife or husband. Qualitative data from one community in Isingiro district was generated based on six in-depth Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), eight structured individual interviews and one community profile using the GENNOVATE method. Survey data with Matooke producers in Ishingiro (N = 51), FGDs with producers (3) and key-informant interviews (5) from a Matooke value-chain development project (ENDURE) was used to compliment and triangulate findings. Results show that the rapid expansion of Matooke cultivation has brought economic progress to many households and has markedly changed the physical landscape in the area. Ownership of a Matooke plantation is now among the most important criteria for determining male status and Matooke plantations are largely controlled by men. The focus of men on Matooke has made it easier for women to grow annual crops which increases their options of earning cash income. Women's access to land however is decreasing. Land is firmly in hands of men and with increasing land scarcity, they allocate less land, less often to their wives for cultivation. Women frequently rent land to cultivate but this is also becoming more expensive and less available. Although women spend a lot of time working in banana plantations, sales is exclusively controlled by men. Only women in female-headed households control sales from Matooke plantations, also because permanent cultures such as banana are not accepted on rented land. We conclude among others that the division of labour in Matooke production is highly gendered. Women in male-headed households benefit from increased revenue at household level but are limited in their options to engage in individual income-generating activities.


Glia form a central component of the nervous system whose varied activities sustain an environment that is optimised for healthy development and neuronal function. Alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole (AMPA)-type glutamate receptors (AMPAR) are a central mediator of glutamatergic excitatory synaptic transmission, yet they are also expressed in a wide range of glial cells where they influence a variety of important cellular functions. AMPAR enable glial cells to sense the activity of neighbouring axons and synapses, and as such many aspects of glial cell development and function are influenced by the activity of neural circuits. However, these AMPAR also render glia sensitive to elevations of the extracellular concentration of glutamate, which are associated with a broad range of pathological conditions. Excessive activation of AMPAR under these conditions may induce excitotoxic injury in glial cells, and trigger pathophysiological responses threatening other neural cells and amplifying ongoing disease processes. The aim of this review is to gather information on AMPAR function from across the broad diversity of glial cells, identify their contribution to pathophysiological processes, and highlight new areas of research whose progress may increase our understanding of nervous system dysfunction and disease.


The April 2016 surveys of expectations conducted by Central Banks with inflation targeting regimes indicate that simple average growth expectations for 2016 for the eight countries covered by REVELA have decreased by 0.1% from 1.8% to 1.7% compared to previous month. Similarly, the GDP weighted average growth expectations have decreased by 0.1% from -0.6% to -0.7%. Meanwhile, inflation expectations for 2016 have remained stable at 5.3% on a simple average basis, and have fallen by 0.2% on a GDP weighted average basis from 5.7% to 5.5% compared to the previous month. There were differences across countries both for growth and inflation expectations. Growth expectations increased in Guatemala and Peru by 0.1%, while they decreased in Uruguay by 0.7%, in Brazil by 0.2% and in Colombia by 0.1% - and they remained stable in Paraguay at 3.0%, in Mexico at 2. 4% and in Chile at 1.7%. Inflation expectations increased in Colombia by 0.3%, Uruguay by 0.2% and Guatemala by 0.1%, and they decreased in Brazil by 0.4% and in Chile, Mexico and Paraguay by 0.1% in all three cases, and remained constant in Peru at 3. 5%. Expected growth for the region is as low as -3.8% for Brazil and as high as 3.7% in Guatemala, while expected inflation ranges from 3.2% in Mexico to 10.1% in Uruguay.


Abstract We present a novel general resource analysis for logic programs based on sized types. Sized types are representations that incorporate structural (shape) information and allow expressing both lower and upper bounds on the size of a set of terms and their subterms at any position and depth. They also allow relating the sizes of terms and subterms occurring at different argument positions in logic predicates. Using these sized types, the resource analysis can infer both lower and upper bounds on the resources used by all the procedures in a program as functions on input term (and subterm) sizes, overcoming limitations of existing resource analyses and enhancing their precision. Our new resource analysis has been developed within the abstract interpretation framework, as an extension of the sized types abstract domain, and has been integrated into the Ciao preprocessor, CiaoPP. The abstract domain operations are integrated with the setting up and solving of recurrence equations for inferring both size and resource usage functions. We show that the analysis is an improvement over the previous resource analysis present in CiaoPP and compares well in power to state of the art systems.


Diabetes mellitus (type 2) is the most frequent cause of non-traumatic lower-limb amputations. It is
indicated that footwear significantly affects the course of the diabetic foot syndrome. This usually works
by using an orthotic insole designed to distribute pressure evenly over the plantar surface. As it stands,
the prescription of diabetic footwear is intuitive in nature and is mainly provided through subjective
measurements [1]. In this context the present study aims at developing a computational tool to facilitate
the patient-specific, evidence-based choice of insole material for people with diabetes.
For this purpose a novel in-vivo measurement based procedure was designed for insole material
optimization. During the first step of this procedure the
morphology and the macroscopic mechanical behaviour
of the plantar soft tissues is analysed using a specialized
device for ultrasound indentation[2]. This device
combines ultrasound and dynamometry to measure the
tissue's force/deformation curve. The indentation tests
are simulated using a 2D finite element (FE) model
(Fig.1b). The foot is considered to consist of rigid bone
and a bulk soft tissue. The geometry of this tissue is
reconstructed from the ultrasound images (Fig.1a) and
its mechanical behaviour is defined using the Ogden
hyperelastic model. The material coefficients are
inverse engineered using the data from in-vivo tests to
create a model that imitates the plantar tissue's
macroscopic response to loading. This model is
finally used to simulate the contact between foot and
insole and to calculate their contact pressure (Fig.1c).
The mechanical behaviour of the insole is defined
using the Ogden HyperFoam material model. An optimization
algorithm is employed to calculate the material
coefficients that minimize the plantar pressure.
As a first step this procedure was employed to analyse the mechanical behaviour of the heel pad of
a single subject and to find the optimum material properties for insoles that have different
thicknesses. The results showed that the optimum insole material can reduce plantar pressure up to
21% compared to a rigid insole. Moreover the values of the optimum material coefficients are
strongly influenced by the insole's thickness indicating that a combination of different insole
thickness and material properties could be more effective in minimising plantar pressure.


ABSTRACT-In recent years, the media have consistently documented the stories of teens who committed suicide or otherwise suffered severe physical and psychological harm following periods of vitriolic cyberbullying. While legislators and scholars have proposed several solutions to combat cyberbullying, none have drawn on the work of social psychologists to address the role that witnesses play in escalating bullying. This Note proposes that the witnesses of cyberbullying be held liable under a "Bad Samaritan" law for failing to report the most severe forms of bullying where the witness reasonably believes the victim will suffer physical harm. Drawing on the justifications for classic Samaritan laws in both civil and common law jurisdictions, the Note suggests that a well-publicized duty to report cyberbullying would undermine teens' general reluctance to report such abuse and provide the means for adults to intervene to assist victims. Cyberbullying harms countless children, both physically and emotionally; a complete response to the problem must hold responsible not only the bully, but also the bystanders who, through their silence, contribute to the bully's power and the victim's isolation.INTRODUCTIONDanny Alexander,1 a fifteen-year-old student at a private school in Los Angeles, created and maintained a website to promote his budding acting and singing career.2 A fellow student used the site's comment function to post the following message:I want to rip out your fucking heart and feed it to you. . . . I've . . . wanted to kill you. If I ever see you I'm . . . going to pound your head in with an ice pick. Fuck you, you dick-riding penis lover. I hope you burn in hell.3At least five other students posted similar threatening and derogatory messages on his website, including "Faggot, I'm going to kill you" and "[You need] a quick and painless death."4 The death threats and abuse only came to the attention of authorities when Alexander's father read the comments and contacted the school and law enforcement.5In Benson, North Carolina, Justin Ray Jackson and Joshua Aaron Temple created a Facebook page specifically to threaten a fifteen-year-old classmate.6 Jackson threatened to run over the student with his pickup truck, while Temple wrote "that he was bringing a gun to school to hunt [the student]."7 Investigators only found the Facebook page after the victim's father reported the bullying.8For these two teens and countless others across the nation, the Internet is a threatening place where tormenters attack with impunity and friends stand by in silence. Both of these students were fortunate to have parents discover the threats and report them to the proper authorities, but how much sooner might the bullying have ended if witnesses-often the classmates and friends of these victims-had reported the threats and abuse?The bully has been a figure in adolescent life for centuries, but recent research has drawn attention to a previously ignored participant in the bullying relationship: the witness-bystander. Scholars now recognize that bullying is not a dyadic, or two-person, relationship between the bully and the victim, but rather a communal problem in which the witnesses and bystanders to bullying behavior play a role in escalating the abuse. Even while researchers redevelop how they understand bullying relationships, the nature of bullying has changed as it moves from the playground to cyberspace.Although cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon, the legal community has rushed to address the problem.9 After tragic stories of teen suicide following online taunts, threats, and abuse, communities demanded a response. Legislators and policymakers heeded the call by passing civil and criminal sanctions aimed at a variety of bullying behaviors and imposing liability on bullies and educators alike. Although critiquing the various solutions that have been proposed is beyond the scope of this Note, each has failed to specifically consider the role witnesses and bystanders play in the bullying relationship. …


It is natural to present subtyping for recursive types coinductively. However, Gapeyev, Levin and Pierce have noted that there is a problem with coinductive definitions of non-trivial transitive inference systems: they cannot be "declarative" -- as opposed to "algorithmic" or syntax-directed -- because coinductive inference systems with an explicit rule of transitivity are trivial.

We propose a solution to this problem. By using mixed induction and coinduction we define an inference system for subtyping which combines the advantages of coinduction with the convenience of an explicit rule of transitivity. The definition uses coinduction for the structural rules, and induction for the rule of transitivity. We also discuss under what conditions this technique can be used when defining other inference systems

The developments presented in the paper have been mechanised using Agda, a dependently typed programming language and proof assistant.


Decisions regarding whether an item has been previously encountered are typically accompanied by one of two distinct forms of subjective awareness: either a general sense of familiarity, or conscious recollection of specific details from a prior study episode. To examine the neurophysiological concomitants of these different types of internal experience, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects engaged in a modified recognition memory procedure that required them to describe their subjective response during each testtrial. Stimuli that evoked recollection were accompanied by waveforms distinct from those that evoked only a sense of familiarity, and waveforms for both categories of correctly classified old items differed from correctly rejected distractor items and incorrectly classified (missed) studied items. These ERP responses are interpreted with respect to current knowledge concerning the neural structures and processes intimately involved in the capacity to engage in recollection.


Examining the obstacles of teaching beginning Shakespeare students, whether in middle school,
high school, or undergraduate levels, this study explores integrating dance as a teaching method
to improve students' engagement in lessons. Summarizing some of the shortfalls of current
approaches used to teach plays to populations that are inexperienced in Shakespearean studies,
by presenting scholarly and anecdotal insights, the research examines the potential of dance to
reach this audience. The exploratory study provides a structured program of research into these
issues, and proposes a methodology for such an investigation. By assessing beginning
engagement levels, and manipulating the level of students' participation through using dance to
encourage their direct interaction with the chosen literature, it should be possible to distinguish
the influence of these factors on the quality of students' attention outcomes. Applying this
theory involves an assessment instrument used to record the effects of these ideas as they are
practiced in an undergraduate Shakespeare class. The time in this class is used to observe
students' engagement prior to and following the teaching of Shakespeare's Othello through
movement. The students and instructor are surveyed before the movement lesson concerning
their experience in English classes, preferred methods of study, and suggestions for
improvement. All participants, class members and professor, are then surveyed and interviewed
after the lesson to collect their reactions to the experience—information that provides the basis
for measuring outcomes and analyzing results. After reviewing the trends and patterns of the
responses, conclusions of the study determine the effectiveness of this approach. Suggestions
are then made to assist educators in incorporating this method into their own teaching. An
appendix of movement terms and clues is provided to help teachers find resources that support
this endeavor.


"Since the 1979 publication of The Writings of Robert Smithson, Robert Smithson's significance as a spokesman for a generation of artists has been widely acknowledged and the importance of his thinking to contemporary artists and art critics continues to grow. In addition to a new introduction by Jack Flam, The Collected Writings includes previously unpublished essays by Smithson and gathers hard-to-find articles, interviews, and photographs. Together these provide a full picture of his wide-ranging views on art and culture." -- p. [4] of cover.


We demonstrate the existence of an eÆcient block cipher with the property that whenever it is composed with any non-perfect cipher, the resulting product is strictly more secure, against an ideal adversary, than the original cipher. We call this property universal security ampli cation, and note that it holds trivially for a one-time pad (a stream cipher). However, as far as we are aware, this is the rst eÆcient block cipher with this property. Several practical implications of this result are considered.


The Sunda stink-badger Mydaus javanensis is a small carnivore inhabiting the Southeast Asian islands of
Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and the Natuna Archipelago. Documented sightings are relatively common, yet the species'
behavioural ecology remains poorly understood. Whilst the species is reported to be broadly nocturnal, its detailed
activity pattern has never been quantified. This study analysed photographic events from a large scale, long-term
camera trapping study to assess times of activity for the Sunda stink-badger. The study took place within the
lowland riparian forest corridor of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS) in the Northeast Bornean
state of Sabah. Through 2010–2015, 24,506 potential trap nights collected 2,268 Sunda stink-badger images across
470 unique events. Sunda stink-badger activity pattern was modelled using kernel density estimation, and indicated
a highly nocturnal activity pattern with no detected activity during the diurnal hours, consistent with previous
records. All photographs were taken between 1839 hours and 0627 hours, and modelling indicated two clear peaks
in nocturnal activity, the first at 2100 hours and the second at 0500 hours. Overlap in activity patterns was found
to be high (≥ 80%) between wet and dry seasons, and also between moon phases, indicating a lack of seasonal or
lunar effects on Sunda stink-badger activity. An encounter rate of 1.92 unique Sunda stink-badger events per 100
potential trap nights was recorded for the LKWS. This encounter rate was lower than those found in other regional
studies with lower levels of anthropogenic disturbance, suggesting extensive anthropogenic disturbance may pose
a potential negative impact to the species. Whilst activity patterns derived from camera trapping are restricted
to movement through the environment, these results have established a baseline for Sunda stink-badger activity
patterns within a fragmented habitat subjected to high levels of anthropogenic disturbance, and have improved the
basic ecological understanding of the species.


Technological
advances and the enormous flood of papers have motivated many researchers and
companies to innovate new technologies. In particular, handwriting recognition
is a very useful technology to support applications like electronic books
(eBooks), post code readers (that sort mails in post offices), and some bank
applications. This paper proposes three systems to discriminate handwritten
graffiti digits (0 to 9) and some commands with different architectures and
abilities. It introduces three classifiers, namely single neural network (SNN)
classifier, parallel neural networks (PNN) classifier and tree-structured
neural network (TSNN) classifier. The three classifiers have been designed
through adopting feed forward neural networks. In order to optimize the network
parameters (connection weights), the back-propagation algorithm has been used.
Several architectures are applied and examined to present a comparative study
about these three systems from different perspectives. The research focuses on
examining their accuracy, flexibility and scalability. The paper presents an
analytical study about the impacts of three factors on the accuracy of the
systems and behavior of the neural networks in terms of the number of the
hidden neurons, the model of the activation functions and the learning rate.
Therefore, future directions have been considered significantly in this paper
through designing particularly flexible systems that allow adding many more
classes in the future without retraining the current neural networks.


This document specifies the Voucher Trading System Application
Programming Interface (VTS-API). The VTS-API allows a wallet or other
application to issue, transfer, and redeem vouchers in a uniform
manner independent of the VTS implementation. The VTS is a system for
securely transferring vouchers; e.g., coupons, tickets, loyalty
points, and gift certificates. This process is often necessary in the
course of payment and/or delivery transactions. This memo provides
information for the Internet community.


Late Cretaceous and Paleogene plant fossils collected at 149 localities in the Denver Basin, Colorado, are placed into a stratigraphic framework based on palynostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, vertebrate paleontology, geochronology, sequence stratigraphy, electric well logs, and two cored wells. Between 69 and 54 Ma, the Denver Basin accumulated sedimentary rocks that recorded the withdrawal of a seaway, the uplift of a mountain range, and evidence of the Cretaceous-Tertiary and Paleocene-Eocene boundary events. Fossil floras deposited in the Denver Basin record these events as variations of floral composition, species diversity, and leaf margin and size (used to estimate mean annual temperature and precipitation, respectively). Attention to these details and to the position of the floras relative to the basin margins and sedimentary facies allows for the recognition of six megafloral associations (K-L, K-D1, P-D1-West, P-D1-Central, P-D1-East, and E-D2). Preliminary comparison of these assemblages documents: floral change at the K-T boundary; a strong paleoenvironmental gradient probably associated with increased topographic relief along the basin margin in the early Paleocene; and a warmer, drier Eocene vegetation.


We present a first-principles approach for inelastic quantum transport calculations based on maximally localized Wannier functions. Electronic-structure properties are obtained from density-functional theory in a plane-wave basis, and electron-vibration coupling strengths and vibrational properties are determined with density-functional perturbation theory. Vibration-induced inelastic transport properties are calculated with nonequilibrium Green's function techniques; since these are based on a localized orbital representation we use maximally localized Wannier functions. Our formalism is applied first to investigate inelastic transport in a benzene molecular junction connected to monoatomic carbon chains. In this benchmark system the electron-vibration self-energy is calculated either in the self-consistent Born approximation or by lowest-order perturbation theory. It is observed that upward and downward conductance steps occur, which can be understood using multieigenchannel scattering theory and symmetry conditions. In a second example, where the monoatomic carbon chain electrode is replaced with a (3,3) carbon nanotube, we focus on the nonequilibrium vibration populations driven by the conducting electrons using a semiclassical rate equation and highlight and discuss in detail the appearance of vibrational cooling as a function of bias and the importance of matching the vibrational density of states of the conductor and the leads to minimize joule heating and breakdown.


Epilepsy develops in 70 to 90% of children with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and is often resistant to medication. Recently, the concept of preventive antiepileptic treatment to modify the natural history of epilepsy has been proposed. EPISTOP was a clinical trial designed to compare preventive versus conventional antiepileptic treatment in TSC infants.


This paper reassesses the crustal and upper mantle contribution to the axial gravity anomaly and isostatic topography observed at two segments (14°S and 17°S) of the southern East Pacific Rise (SEPR) in order to determine what constraints these data place on the amount of melt present in the underlying mantle. Gravity effects due to seafloor topography and relief on the Moho (assuming a constant crustal thickness and density) overpredict the amplitude of the gravity high at the EPR by 8–10 mGal. About 70% of this mantle Bouguer anomaly (MBA) low (6–7 mGal) can be explained by a region of partial melt and elevated temperatures in the mid-to-lower crust beneath the rise axis. Compositional density reductions in the mantle due to melt extraction are shown to make a negligible contribution to the amplitude of the observed MBA. Temperature-related mantle density variations predicted by a simple, plate-driven, passive flow model with no melt retention can adequately account for the mantle contribution to the observed MBA within the experimental uncertainty (±1 mGal). However, the retention of a small amount of melt (≤1–2% at 14°S; ≤4% at 17°S) in a broad region (tens of kilometers wide) of upwelling mantle is also consistent with the observed gravity data given the uncertainty in crustal thermal models. The anomalous height of the narrow, topographic high at the EPR provides the strongest evidence for the existence of significant melt fractions in the underlying mantle. It is consistent with the presence of a narrow (∼10 km wide) partial melt conduit that extends to depths of 50–70 km with melt concentrations up to 2% higher than the surrounding mantle. Along-axis variations in mantle melt fraction that might potentially indicate focused upwelling are only marginally resolvable in the gravity data due to uncertainties in crustal thermal models. The good correlation between along-axis variations in depth, and changes in axial volume and gravity, argue against the mantle melt conduit as being the major source of this along-axis variation. Instead, this variability can be adequately explained by a combination of along-axis changes in crustal thermal structure and/or along-axis crustal thickness changes of a few hundred meters.


Modern day labs are under constant pressure to reduce expenses, improvise lab efficiency and constantly enhance the quality of results. To begin with, it is important to understand what lab efficiency exactly means. In simple terms, lab efficiency is all about how a lab effectively manages time and available resources to improvise data quality, eliminate manual errors, improve laboratory results turnaround time, and streamline lab operations. Many labs are interested in improvising their lab efficiency; however, and are not keen investing in cost-intensive Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to manage their laboratory data. Labs continue to use paper based systems, spreadsheets, customized in-house developed data management tools, or a combination of these to manage their data. Such labs do not realize the adverse effects of using these outdated data management practices on their lab efficiency. This white paper underlines the challenges faced by biobanks, clinical research, and diagnostic labs and how switching to a cost-effective cloud based LIMS can help to improve lab efficiency by automating various lab processes.


OBJECTIVES
To present the varied approaches of 9 complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) institutions (all grantees of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine) used to develop faculty expertise in research literacy and evidence-based practice (EBP) in order to integrate these concepts into CAM curricula.

DESIGN
A survey to elicit information on the faculty development initiatives was administered via e-mail to the 9 program directors. All 9 completed the survey, and 8 grantees provided narrative summaries of faculty training outcomes.

RESULTS
The grantees found the following strategies for implementing their programs most useful: assess needs, develop and adopt research literacy and EBP competencies, target early adopters and change leaders, employ best practices in teaching and education, provide meaningful incentives, capitalize on resources provided by grant partners, provide external training opportunities, and garner support from institutional leadership. Instructional approaches varied considerably across grantees. The most common were workshops, online resources, in-person short courses, and in-depth seminar series developed by the grantees. Many also sent faculty to intensive multiday extramural training programs. Program evaluation included measuring participation rates and satisfaction and the integration of research literacy and EBP learning objectives throughout the academic curricula. Most grantees measured longitudinal changes in beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and competencies with repeated faculty surveys.

CONCLUSIONS
A common need across all 9 CAM grantee institutions was foundational training for faculty in research literacy and EBP. Therefore, each grantee institution developed and implemented a faculty development program. In developing the framework for their programs, grantees used strategies that were viewed critical for success, including making them multifaceted and unique to their specific institutional needs. These strategies, in conjunction with the grantees' instructional approaches, can be of practical use in other CAM and non-CAM academic environments considering the introduction of research literacy and EBP competencies into their curricula.


The timing of spring leaf development, trajectories of summer leaf area, and the timing of autumn senescence have profound impacts to the water, carbon, and energy balance of ecosystems, and are likely influenced by global climate change. Limited field‐based and remote‐sensing observations have suggested complex spatial patterns related to geographic features that influence climate. However, much of this variability occurs at spatial scales that inhibit a detailed understanding of even the dominant drivers. Recognizing these limitations, we used nonlinear inverse modeling of medium‐resolution remote sensing data, organized by day of year, to explore the influence of climate‐related landscape factors on the timing of spring and autumn leaf‐area trajectories in mid‐Atlantic, USA forests. We also examined the extent to which declining summer greenness (greendown) degrades the precision and accuracy of observations of autumn offset of greenness. Of the dominant drivers of landscape phenology, elevation was the strongest, explaining up to 70% of the spatial variation in the onset of greenness. Urban land cover was second in importance, influencing spring onset and autumn offset to a distance of 32 km from large cities. Distance to tidal water also influenced phenological timing, but only within ~5 km of shorelines. Additionally, we observed that (i) growing season length unexpectedly increases with increasing elevation at elevations below 275 m; (ii) along gradients in urban land cover, timing of autumn offset has a stronger effect on growing season length than does timing of spring onset; and (iii) summer greendown introduces bias and uncertainty into observations of the autumn offset of greenness. These results demonstrate the power of medium grain analyses of landscape‐scale phenology for understanding environmental controls on growing season length, and predicting how these might be affected by climate change.


The economic impact of three invasive, exotic weeds--diffuse, spotted, and Russian knapweed (Centaurea diffusa, C. maculosa, and Acroptilon repens)--on Montana's economy was estimated using a procedure developed for another invasive weed species. Published data and that from a survey of county weed boards were used to estimate direct negative impacts of over $14 million annually due to infestation of over 2 million acres of rangeland and wildland. This amounts to about $10.63 on each infested grazing land acre and $3.95 on each infested wildland acre. Direct plus secondary economic impacts, estimated using an input-output model, are about $42 million annually, which could support over 500 jobs in the state's economy. This first approximation suggests the knapweed infestation problem in Montana deserves attention, although more work could be done to refine these estimates and to allow estimation of the impacts at sub-state levels.


This article analyses the reduction of labour costs as a factor which helps to raise the competitiveness of industrial enterprises. It first reviews non-wage labour costs, both for workers with permanent contracts and those with only temporary contracts, or with no contracts at all, in order to show the differences that exist in non-wage labour costs according to the type of contract of the workers or their unregistered status, and the impact of these differences on the labour costs for each type of worker and the average labour costs. It then goes on to consider the evolution of labour costs in industry and the different levels they assume according to the deflator used, because of the changes in relative prices which accompanied the early years of the economic and trade openness process which has taken place in the region. It then analyses the evolution of labour costs in industry by type of contract and the changes in the average labour costs in the sector brought about by the dual strategy of reducing non-wage labour costs and changing the contract structure of industrial employment; describes the effect of exchange-rate lag on average labour costs and competitiveness, and calculates how the latter would have evolved if there had not been such a lag. Finally, some proposals are made for raising the competitiveness of labour in the countries of the region.


Scholars of planning have long grappled with the dilemma of how to explain variation among places' traditions, modes or styles of planning practice and the legal and institutional frameworks that govern spatial development and implement planning policies. In a related effort, historians have explored the international diffusion of planning ideas and practices, the study of which has gained contemporary relevance in the context of European integration and globalisation. At the core of these enterprises is an attempt to understand change - to specify how and why planning practices are changing and why distinct patterns of planning practice have evolved in different places and at different times. Recent work has embraced the concept of 'planning culture' as the basis for explanation, yet this work has lacked focus. This article argues that historical institutionalism as developed in the social sciences provides a more precise explanatory framework for comparative planning research.


Fighting against the "car only" nature of towns, the bicycle has been gaining constant ground in the urban space since the 1970s. Much more than just a sport or leisure accessory, it has become a simple and efficient means of transport that, today, is an integral part of mobility services. The bicycle is ideal for short daily journeys, lends itself well to intermodality and is at the heart of sustainable development policy. For its user, it is practical, cheap, green and good for one's health; for the countries that have adopted it, developing cycleable infrastructures, it has almost always been successful. The success can be measured by the many impacts on residents and activities and it is related to a correct design of the bike network and services. A conflicting example can be considered the bike lane inaugurated on the 10th November 2012 in the city of Napoli (Italy). It was introduced without simulating it with a proper decision support system (DSS) in order to evaluate the possible impacts on the users or on non-users (externalities), like congestion, parking problems, impacts on the local economy and without first involving the stakeholders for their feedback before its realization. To analyse the effects of the bike lane on activities, residents and mobility choices, two different revealed preference surveys have been carried out. A large part of respondents was sensitive to sustainable mobility and to the policy adopted by local authority. Both residents and retailers underlined the lack of parking spaces due to the bike lane and, as a consequence, a reduction of the turnover has been declared by retailers. Beneath bike mode is not considered nowadays as a valid alternative to car and public transport, a relevant increase in its use can be expected by surveys if right measures will be implemented.


Distributed temperature sensors (DTS) measure temperatures by means of optical fibers. Those optoelectronic devices provide a continuous profile of the temperature distribution along the cable. Initiated in the 1980s, DTS systems have undergone significant improvements in the technology and the application scenario over the last decades. The main measuring principles are based on detecting the back-scattering of light, e.g., detecting via Rayleigh, Raman, and Brillouin principles. The application domains span from traditional applications in the distributed temperature or strain sensing in the cables, to the latest "smart grid" initiative in the power systems, etc. In this paper, we present comparative reviews of the different DTS technologies, different applications, standard, and upcoming, different manufacturers.


Across the majority livestock species, routinely collected genomic and pedigree information has been incorporated into evaluations using single-step methods. As a result, strategies that reduce genotyping costs without reducing the response to selection are important as they could have substantial economic impacts on breeding programs. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to investigate the impact of selectively genotyping selection candidates on the selection response using simulation. Populations were simulated to mimic the genome and population structure of a swine and cattle population undergoing selection on an index comprised of the estimated breeding values (EBV) for 2 genetically correlated quantitative traits. Ten generations were generated and genotyping began generation 7. Two phenotyping scenarios were simulated that assumed the first trait was recorded early in life on all individuals and the second trait was recorded on all versus a random subset of the individuals. The EBV were generated from a bivariate animal model. Multiple genotyping scenarios were generated that ranged from not genotyping any selection candidates, a proportion of the selection candidates based on either their index value or chosen at random, and genotyping all selection candidates. An interim index value was utilized to decide who to genotype for the selective genotype strategy. The interim value assumed only the first trait was observed and the only genotypic information available was on animals in previous generations. Within each genotyping scenario 25 replicates were generated. Within each genotyping scenario the mean response per generation and the degree to which EBV were inflated/deflated was calculated. Across both species and phenotyping strategies, the plateau of diminishing returns was observed when 60% of the selection candidates with the largest index values were genotyped. When randomly genotyping selection candidates, either 80 or 100% of the selection candidates needed to be genotyped for there not to be a reduction in the index response. Across both populations, no differences in the degree that EBV were inflated/deflated for either trait 1 or 2 were observed between nongenotyped and genotyped animals. The current study has shown that animals can be selectively genotyped in order to optimize the response to selection as a function of the cost to conduct a breeding program using single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction.


Polyamines are essential for embryonic and fetal survival, growth, and development. Additionally, polyamines may induce autophagy in mammalian cells. However, little is known about the availability of polyamines or autophagy in the porcine conceptus with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). The present study was performed to evaluate the developmental changes of polyamine concentrations in IUGR and normal porcine fetuses as well as autophagic marker levels in the fetal intestinal mucosa during the second half of gestation when most fetal growth occurs. Allantoic fluid (ALF), amniotic fluid (AMF), umbilical vein, and the small-intestinal mucosa were obtained from both IUGR and normal fetal pigs at d 60, 90, and 110 of gestation. Concentrations of polyamines in fetal fluids as well as protein abundances of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B (LC3B), an autophagic marker, in the fetal small-intestinal mucosa were determined. Concentrations of polyamines varied greatly in different fetal compartments and changed substantially with advancing gestation. Concentrations of polyamines in IUGR fetal fluids and the small-intestinal mucosa were markedly different from those in their normal counterparts at d 60 and 90 of gestation, whereas most of the differences were not detected by late (d 110) gestation. Specifically, polyamine levels were lower in the umbilical vein plasma but higher in ALF and AMF from IUGR fetuses. Furthermore, enhanced levels of an autophagic marker were observed in the small-intestinal mucosa of IUGR fetuses throughout mid and late gestation in association with abnormal spermidine levels in fetal plasma. These findings support the notion that enhanced autophagy may be an important survival mechanism in IUGR fetuses. Collectively, our findings provide a new framework for future studies to define the roles for polyamines in the prevention and treatment of IUGR in both human medicine and animal production.


The Noisy Non-negative Matrix factorization (NMF) is: given a data matrix A (d × n), find non-negative matrices B, C (d × k, k × n respy.) so that A = BC + N, where N is a noise matrix. Existing polynomial time algorithms with proven error guarantees require each column N.,j to have l1 norm much smaller than ||(BC).,j||1, which could be very restrictive. In important applications of NMF such as Topic Modeling as well as theoretical noise models (eg. Gaussian with high σ), almost every column of N.j violates this condition. We introduce the heavy noise model which only requires the average noise over large subsets of columns to be small. We initiate a study of Noisy NMF under the heavy noise model. We show that our noise model subsumes noise models of theoretical and practical interest (for eg. Gaussian noise of maximum possible σ). We then devise an algorithm TSVDNMF which under certain assumptions on B,C, solves the problem under heavy noise. Our error guarantees match those of previous algorithms. Our running time of O((n + d)2k) is substantially better than the O(n3d) for the previous best. Our assumption on B is weaker than the "Separability" assumption made by all previous results. We provide empirical justification for our assumptions on C. We also provide the first proof of identifiability (uniqueness of B) for noisy NMF which is not based on separability and does not use hard to check geometric conditions. Our algorithm outperforms earlier polynomial time algorithms both in time and error, particularly in the presence of high noise.


Well 209/3-1, located close to the centre of the Tertiary Erlend complex, north of the Shetland Isles, contains an unusual volcanic sequence in which thick basalts of N- to T-type MORB affinity overlie highly peraluminous, cordierite-bearing dacites. The dacites from the Erlend complex are almost identical in terms of their petrography and major-element, trace-element and isotope geochemistry to those of dacites from two previously-described localities in the North Atlantic, and indicate the formation of the dacites by anatexis of aluminous upper crustal sediments, which were probably pelitic in character. The discovery of graphite in the Erlend dacites suggests that carbonaceous shales may be implicated as parent material. The geological settings of the Erlend volcanic sequence, and the other examples in the Rockall Trough and on the Vøring Plateau, correspond to intra-continental, pre-break-up rift systems underlain by thinned continental crust, occurring close to the continental margin. A possible petrogenesis for the dacites involves the partial melting of upper crustal sediments as a result of the extensive contemporaneous basic magmatism documented to have occurred within a wide area of the North Atlantic continental margins during the initial stages of continental break-up. This mechanism suggests that the observed volcanic sequence may be more common than is obvious from the present, very limited, drilling evidence.


Looking at prominent centers of software activity across the globe we observe that software developers tell narratives about themselves to explain their identity and their successes. For example, the USA thinks in terms of the cowboy programmer, Ireland the Celtic Tiger, and Israel the commando programmer. These narratives provide insights into the mental world of individuals and groups in the global software industry. This paper collects and documents the narratives of software professionals in six nations: Russia, Israel, Ireland, USA, India, and Brazil. The country choice reflects a cross-section of prominent software nations. Using a taxonomy adapted from the political identity literature, we classify these narratives. The most frequently occurring narrative is the interplay between redemption, national suffering and heroism. Brazil, Russia, India, and Israel offer distinct narratives of redemption and suffering. Israel and the USA use distinct narratives of valor. Among the six nations' narratives, we find that some narratives are collectively oriented while others are individualistically oriented. National narratives are important for reasons both academic and practical. The literature on comparative human capital focuses on readily measurable data. Therefore, there may be a gap in understanding global competition in software. Narratives influence important decisions, such as where to locate a new software R&D site or where to invest in start-ups. An understanding of narratives helps to shape them.


Stephen Hawking, the world famous physicist working from Cambridge University, apart from showing remarkable and inspiring resilience against personal adversity, has made an enormous contribution to science that engages the public from all nations in hope and common humanity. His research offers a better understanding of our collective cosmic histories, against which we must gauge our more immediate and personal biographies and destinies. This emphasis on the collective and the personal, and the humility with which people must appraise their lives, is a constant human endeavour. Some might argue it is the fundamental human dilemma: how can one make sense of immediate and seemingly powerful life events, and positive and negative emotions, when the backdrop is the history of the universe and time, at such a magnificent scale as to be almost unintelligible? Black holes, the subject of Hawking's pioneering work, are usually characterised as attracting and absorbing all matter, and condensing it through powerful gravitational forces so that even light cannot escape. There is some debate about what happens to all that knowledge absorbed by a black hole. Hawking famously announced in 2004 that we need not be trapped in black holes, and that it was possible for information to escape, but as a 2D representation of 3D knowledge, perceptible at the event horizon, so challenging the notion of a total loss of matter and knowledge. Yet this 2D representation does not mean that the information holds the same utility as before it entered; it may be in a lesser form or an undecipherable remnant of what entered. The comparison with new discovery and then understanding what happens to knowledge that enters the black hole of health systems is of great priority at a time when the world needs low-cost and high-impact interventions suited to multiple environmental, health and legal contexts (for example, see this month's edition of BJPsych International). How do we offer personalised care, while grappling with seemingly cosmic organisational, political and fiscal forces? Ensuring that evidence does not suffer the plight of entering a black hole must be a priority for clinicians, policy makers, researchers and commissioners. Mood disorders will become the greatest source of disability in our collective global future, yet we struggle to better understand the causes and then to develop targeted interventions. The February edition of BJPsych demonstrates what we know and broadcasts where the scientific gaze should be directed. Vast amounts of new knowledge and scientific evidence anticipate effective rewiring of health practice and systems to more significantly impact on population health. This knowledge seems to disappear into the cyber world and black holes of health systems, only rarely affecting the design and delivery of health systems. Indulging in the metaphor of the black hole hypothesis of Hawking, we might see a lesser version of evidence (1D, 2D rather than 3D) appear on the event horizon. The knowledge at the event horizon of health systems is important as it influences public perceptions and knowledge and awareness of what to expect, what services are available, and what is their role in recovery and promoting resilience. It also drives scientists' strategy driven by policy and political priority. These considerations frequently dominate and diminish more in-depth negotiations around the evidence on specific interventions at both the personal and global levels. BJPsych aims to provide the latest, best and publically accessible accounts of critical and impactful psychiatric research. The editorial board and the Royal College of Psychiatrists see the in-depth, authentic and more nuanced analysis of evidence as an absolute essential. Only detailed, albeit plain English, and elegant analysis can foster disciplined thinking and scientific advance. Our mission is in part to ensure that fragmented 1D and 2D forms of knowledge are not privileged. In this endeavour, we will publish more systematic reviews as the highest form of evidence to drive policy, practice, commissioning priorities, and research strategy. To do this we need highly skilled and well-trained clinical academics in mental health landscapes. At this time of great need, recruitment into psychiatry, healthcare, and social care in general seems to be struggling due to the collective impact of recession, service reorganisations, and modernisation. In such a universe, technology should ensure more efficient and cost-effective healthcare. Yet, technology cannot provide the personalised arts of communication, building relationships, understanding and negotiating divergent narratives, nor of understanding the existential dilemmas faced by patients, to whom failure of health systems are experienced as an immediate cosmic survival threat. Patients wish to see experienced, competent, safe doctors and mental health professionals, who need to be up to date with their knowledge of the latest evidence. Inspiring the next generation of scientists and practitioners is not easy at this time; indeed, the recent UK negotiations around doctor's contracts are troubling and not always well informed by the evidence. The overarching ambition of retaining the best and recruiting future experts, in science and clinical practice, should not be overlooked. In spite of advances in technology, a revolution of informatics, and more evidence than we have ever had, we still need human judgement to weigh up and apportion nuanced values or weights to the evidence on acceptability, willingness to use even the most powerful interventions, adaptations to diverse cultural and legal contexts, and to ensure evidence is understood in all its aspects, as 3D evidence. We must avoid a lesser version being promulgated in the name of simplicity and accessibility which seeks to transform effective interventions to large scale ideas or campaigns devoid of the magical – effective – ingredient. Expertise is highlighted in Parker's lament and celebration of the demise of the Prof (this issue, pp. 106–107) and Cohen's (pp. 104–105) appeal for professionals to embrace risk assessment in child protection as a personal process of applied judgement. We need new forms of knowledge expertise but we should not shun prodigies, as mediocrity in mental health research and practice will not do. Several studies published this month reveal what works and for whom and how. A review of ketamine in treatment-resistant depression illustrates the need for a careful balance between wanting results now in a simple form, versus well-seasoned experts, seeking the best outcomes for patients (see editorial by Mahli et al (pp. 101–103) and systematic review by Schoevers et al (pp. 108–113)). The therapeutic effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, it seems, is not mediated by the experience of adverse effects (Barth et al, pp. 114–119). Doerig et al (pp. 175–181) show that heightened right amygdala activity diminishes the benefits of psychotherapy for depression, and these effects are mediated by emotional processing, rather than shifts in cognitive bias. Lester et al's study (pp. 182–188), contrary to expectation, did not replicate the association between 5HTTLPR genotype and outcome of cognitive–behavioural therapy, with implications for future research and the potential for using genotypic markers to stratify interventions. Hung et al 's study (pp. 120–127) reminds us of the importance of intellectual disabilities, and how a low IQ is predictive of future depressive


BACKGROUND
Signs and symptoms of acute coronary syndromes differ between men and women, but whether men and women respond differently to these indications is not well understood. Such responses influence health outcomes because success of treatment depends on how quickly healthcare is sought.

OBJECTIVE
To explore differences between Lebanese men and women in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to signs and symptoms of acute coronary syndromes.

METHODS
A convenience sample of 149 men and 63 women with unstable angina or acute myocardial infarction were interviewed within 72 hours of admission to coronary care in a tertiary center by using the Response to Symptoms Questionnaire. Demographic and clinical data were obtained from medical records.

RESULTS
Women were older, less educated, and more often widowed than men. More women had hypertension but more men were current smokers. Women had shoulder pain, dyspnea, nausea and vomiting, and palpitations more often than men did. Women's signs and symptoms were rated more severe by the women than men's were by the men. Women were less likely to know signs and symptoms of myocardial infarction than were men and delayed coming to the hospital longer than men did. Delay correlated with the characteristics of the signs and symptoms and not realizing their importance in men and with dyspnea and taking the "wait and see" approach in women.

CONCLUSION
Factors related to promptness in seeking care for acute coronary syndromes differ between Lebanese men and women.


Monthly streamflow forecasting plays an important role in water resources management, especially for dam operation. In this paper, an approach of model fusion technique named selected model fusion (SMF) is applied and assessed under two strategies of model selection in order to improve the accuracy of streamflow forecasting. The two strategies of SMF are: fusion of the outputs of best individual forecasting models (IFMs) selected by dendrogram analysis (S1), and fusion of the best outputs of all IFMs resulting from an ordered selection algorithm (S2). In both strategies, five data-driven models including: artificial neural network, generalized regression neural network, least square-support vector regression, K-nearest neighbor regression, and multiple linear regression with optimized structure are performed as IFMs. The SMF strategies are applied for forecasting the monthly inflow to Karkheh reservoir, Iran, owning various patterns between predictor and predicted variables in different months. Results show that applying SMF approach based on both strategies results in more accurate forecasts in comparison with fusion of all IFMs outputs (S3), as the benchmark. However, comparison of the two SMF strategies reveals that the implementation of strategy (S2) considerably improves the accuracy of forecasts than strategy (S1) as well as the best IFM results (S4) in all months.


The American civil discovery regime is what is known as producer-pays: one side requests information and the other side has to pay whatever it costs to produce it. The 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have not changed this much and are not likely to in the future. But producer-pays leads to two big problems: requesters have an incentive to request too much, and, because defendants tend to have more to discover than plaintiffs, the parties' mutually-beneficial settlement range ends up skewed against defendants, leading cases to settle for more than they are worth. No one has proposed a realistic alternative to producer-pays that solves both of these problems. In this Article, I propose such an alternative: a discovery tax. If the government taxes requesters an amount equal to whatever producers have to pay to respond to their requests, both sides in litigation fully internalize the costs of discovery. Moreover, the mutually-beneficial settlement range stays symmetric, helping cases settle for the same price they would be resolved at trial. The government could use the tax revenue for any socially useful purpose, including offsetting the cost of the court system.


This article explores the experience of ethical responsivity from the perspective of the parent whose child requires medical care. The concern is with the lived meaning of ethics itself as it originates and wells up in the parent's experience of being touched by his or her child. Examples are taken from the practice of neonatal-perinatal medicine where newborns require hospitalization for issues such as prematurity, transitional problems, congenital abnormalities, and so forth. Here, the condition of the child and the techno-medical environment itself have the potential of complicating the touching contact of parent and child.


Once believed to empower a range of Chinese social actors, the Internet is increasingly linked to expressions of extreme incivility that violate the etiquette and norms of interpersonal and online communication. Moving beyond definitions of civility (or incivility) based on democratic norms of deliberation and reciprocity, this article argues that civility should be reconceptualized as respect for others' communicative rights, including the right to self-expression in pursuit of social justice. This theoretical modification affirms that civility differs from politeness and allows for contextualized and comparative studies of civility and incivility across regions and polities. In China's authoritarian online spaces, the state tacitly encourages incivility as a divide-and-rule strategy while masking its uncivil purposes with "civil" appeals for rationality and order in a society characterized by pluralism, fragmentation, and visceral conflict. The result, as contributions to this Special Section illustrate, is a toxic uncivil society in which the space for respectful civil debate is narrowed, the influence of social groups and regime critics is diminished, and state power becomes more concentrated and resilient.


Summary: In November 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Law entered into force in Federation BIH. The basic intention of the legislator was to achieve complete compliance with primary and secondary sources of EU law governing the issue of consumer protection, respectively users of financial services, and in particular with Directive of the European Union 93/13 / EEC from 5th April 1993, with Directive 2005/29 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council from 11th of May 2005 and Directive 2006/114 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council from 12th of December 2006. In the respective Act, special attention was paid to prohibiting unfair terms in consumer contracts, misleading commercial practices and the obligation of consistent implementation of good faith principle.

The author analyses the actual level of compliance in regard to the relevant regulations of the European Union, and on the basis of empirical experience in the implementation of this law through the entire banking business, analyses the existing regulations and makes proposals for future legislation that will improve the protection of both, consumers and providers of financial services. Special attention in the work is drawn to provisions that have a direct impact on the protection of contracting unfair contract terms.


Research is a vital and often daunting component of many counselling and psychotherapy courses. As well as completing their own research projects, trainees across modalities must understand the research in the field – what it tells them and how to do it.

Breaking down this seemingly mountainous task into easy to swallow pieces, this book will navigate your students through each stage of the research process, from choosing a research question, through the pros and cons of different methods, to data analysis and writing up their findings.

Written by leading contributors from the field including John McLeod, Mick Cooper and Tim Bond, each chapter features points for reflection, engaging activities and suggestions for further reading, helping students to engage with all aspects of research. An original graphic narrative runs throughout the book, bringing this complex topic to life in a unique way.

Whether embarking on research for the first time or already a little familiar with research and research methods, this unique guide is something counselling and psychotherapy students will turn to continually throughout their research projects.