Solid waste management (SWM) in developing countries has traditionally focused on organisational and technical concerns. However, this approach neglects the many activities and actors that waste management comprises. We propose a new paradigm of SWM which extends the technical model to tackle a range of problems associated with waste management in order to achieve socially and environmentally responsible waste management. This includes a range of activities, issues and processes such as the types of waste generated, the number of stakeholders and economic activities involved, and the various economic, social and environmental effects of SWM and may include legitimisation of the informal system, public participation and possibly partial privatisation. Such an approach must therefore adopt a more comprehensive and broader perspective, and, because of this complexity, it is necessary to incorporate insights from several disciplines to develop effective management of solid waste. This paper attempts to offer such an approach by incorporating these issues in an economic framework. To evaluate the effectiveness of different SWM alternatives, a linear programming model has been developed. The main objective of the model is to minimise overall system costs and to identify low cost alternatives to manage household, institutional and industrial waste. Although it has been developed as a classic single objective model, ie to minimise costs, it does incorporate social and environmental objectives associated with SWM; thus, it may be regarded as one which aims to find sustainable solutions. The set up of the model is comparable with input-output modelling with additional objectives embedded as side constraints. To demonstrate its relevance, the model is applied to the Indian city Bangalore. Various scenario runs are presented. This empirical exercise does not only reveal the model's strengths such as revealing important interdependencies in the waste management sector, but also highlights its weaknesses such as the demand for high quality data. Nevertheless, this model may be considered a valuable first step in evaluating integrated SWM in developing countries.


We report the direct observation of periodic intensity modulation of a laser pulse propagating in a hollow-core waveguide. A series of equally spaced plasma sparks along the gas-filled capillary is produced. This effect can be explained by the beating of different fiber modes, which are excited by controlling the size of the focal spot at the capillary entrance. As compared with an artificial modulated waveguide structure, our presented approach represents an easier and more flexible quasi-phase-matching scheme for nonlinear-optical frequency conversion.


Think setting up your new PC is going to be a challenge that you don't have time for? Think again. Absolute Beginner's Guide to Computer Basics, Third Edition can make setting up and learning about your new computer fun and easy. Step-by-step instructions and helpful illustrations will show you how to set up your computer, begin using Microsoft Windows XP and personalize your Windows XP experience. You'll also learn how to: Work with files and folders Add new hardware and devices to your system Perform maintenance and diagnose common problems Install new software Use the Internet Protect your PC from viruses, spam and other nuisancesThis latest edition has been updated to include coverage of Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Media Player 10 and 802.11g wireless networks. You'll also get the chance to explore how to use portable media players, safely shop online, buy and sell things on eBay, and how to use your digital camera and software to create digital scrapbooks. Absolute Beginner's Guide to Computer Basics, Third Edition is the most up-to-date guide for beginning computer users on the market and will be the only book you need to get up and running with your computer.


Retention of fetal membrane (RFM) in dairy cows is a common complication after parturition due to failure of the separation of villi of fetal cotyledon from crypts of maternal caruncles and affects on reproductive cycle. The present study was conducted in 594 cows of 15 different dairy farms of Sylhet district. The data was collected by direct interviewing of the farmers in a prescribed questionnaires data sheet and data record from the register of the contracted farms. The overall incidence of retained placenta was 17.51 %.The cross bred dairy cows had higher incidence (14.14%) of RFM compared to local one (3.04%) and differ significantly ( p <0 .05). The parity and age of the animals had substantial effect on retention of fetal membrane in dairy cows. The incidence of RFM had notably increased from 1 st parity (10.04 %) to 7 th parity (57.14 %) and the highest observation was found at more than 7 years and lowest at the age below 3 years of age. The season, sex of calves, body condition of the animals and level of vitamin AD3E before parturition had significant effect on incidence of RFM in dairy cows. The RFM affected cows were treated either with intra muscular injection of oxytocin or herbal drug Eutoklin and manually removing the retained membrane. RFM affected post partum first estrus, service per conception, day's open and calving interval significantly on parturated cows compared to normal delivered cows. Younger healthy cows, supply of balanced diet, sufficient daily exercise; comfortable calving areas should be maintained to reduce the incidence of RFM. International Journal of Natural Sciences (2015), 5(2) 93-97


Chester Arthur may not be the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of major figures in the rise of campaign finance law. But despite his obscurity, he deserves to be ranked among the leading reformers in American history. As president, he signed into law a reform that cleared the way for the modern system of campaign finance to take root.

This article puts the current debate over money in politics in historical context by examining the first major campaign finance reform in American history. The 1883 Pendleton Act is remembered today for establishing a professional, non-partisan civil service. But equally important, it banned the use of political assessments (i.e. mandatory dues imposed on federal and state officeholders by the political parties) to fund federal election campaigns.

President Arthur played an important role in the Pendleton Act's success. After signing the bill into law, he supported efforts to enforce the new rules and reform the major parties' campaign finance practices. In the long run, Arthur and the reformers achieved their goal of ending the parties' use of political assessments to fund campaigns. At the same time, however, the Pendleton Act shifted election financing from the political parties to corporate America and wealthy donors. Thus, instead of reducing the influence of money in politics, the Pendleton Act ushered in a new and even more controversial era in campaign finance law, one that continues to haunt our politics today.

The story of the Pendleton Act is thus of much more than just historical interest. It demonstrates how deeply rooted the problem of money in politics is in American history. Long before the Supreme Court heard cases like Buckley v. Valeo and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, money played a highly controversial role in American elections. As the story of the Pendleton Act demonstrates, campaign finance reforms have had unintended—and sometimes quite unwelcome—consequences from the very beginning.


I want to begin with an expression of gratitude to those who conceived, organized, and led us through this consultation. Hopefully, this event marks the beginning of a process that will continue. This conversation about the renewal of the church is urgently needed at all levels of the church in contemporary culture, and is one that should take place in a thousand places as rapidly as possible. These reflections are organized around four points. Each one deserves much greater elaboration than I can give here. My purpose is to identify themes and issues that this process has stimulated, and which are of continuing relevance. 1. Naming our reality The first task of leadership is to name the place where we are. The various papers, case studies and interventions throughout the past several days have served us well. They have helped define where we are by pointing up critical issues and themes. And yet, as we all recognize, this is only a beginning. To "name our reality" and relate this reality to the position and role of the church in contemporary culture, means we must develop a more comprehensive and thorough description and analysis from a missiological viewpoint. Consider these five dimensions -- of course, by no means the only ones -- that are essential to understanding our reality: historical perspective, social theory, older church members, youth, and the population group that has never affiliated itself with the church. (a) Historical perspective The church in contemporary Western society is an aging institution if for no other reason than that it has been present in the West for some 1500 years. Although there have been repeated renewal movements, basic ecclesiastical patterns and structures, together with an accompanying theological framework, have proved to be durable. Much of the energy of the ecclesiastical hierarchy throughout this long history has been devoted to reinforcing and guarding the institutional forms of the church. In the modern period, when innovation rather than stability has been valued and society has experienced continual and far-reaching change, the church has frequently come off looking like a defender of a disappearing past as it reacted to the dynamically changing. cultural norms and forms it confronted. The temptation has been to reify structures and systems that are subject to the law of entropy. The 1960s' study, "Missionary Structures of the Congregation" focused especially on the ecclesial situation in Europe and North America. In a contribution to that study, J. C. Hoekendijk defined "morphological fundamentalism" as indicating "a rigid and inflexible attitude toward the morphe (structure, 'Gestalt') of the congregation similar to the attitude prevalent in 'biblical fundamentalism'." (1) This approach regards forms as fixed for all time, and thus confuses "organizational" arrangements with ecclesiastical "order". This is not the whole story. Historians characterize the 20th century as the "Pentecostal century" because of the emergence and rapid development of the Pentecostal movement. Other churches kept Pentecostal Christians at arms length for several generations. Nevertheless, by the end of the 20th century the polymorphous Pentecostal movement had spread worldwide. After 1960 the charismatic variety of Pentecostalism mutated, with a wide range of the historical churches, from Roman Catholic to conservative Protestants, stimulating innovations in worship, piety and theology. We cannot predict the form renewal of the church will take in the future, but the history of the church gives us warrant to believe that the Holy Spirit can renew the church in the 21st century to be God's missionary people. (b) Social theory Discussion of contemporary culture is framed today in terms of the transition from the modern to the postmodern, or from modernity to postmodernity. Social theorists have put forward a range of theories to explain modernity. …


We present a new algorithm for generating merger trees and halo catalogs which explicitly ensures consistency of halo properties (mass, position, and velocity) across timesteps. Our algorithm has demonstrated the ability to improve both the completeness (through detecting and inserting otherwise missing halos) and purity (through detecting and removing spurious objects) of both merger trees and halo catalogs. In addition, our method is able to robustly measure the self-consistency of halo finders; it is the first to directly measure the uncertainties in halo positions, halo velocities, and the halo mass function for a given halo finder based on consistency between snapshots in cosmological simulations. We use this algorithm to generate merger trees for two large simulations (Bolshoi and Consuelo) and evaluate two halo finders (ROCKSTAR and BDM). We find that both the ROCKSTAR and BDM halo finders track halos extremely well; in both, the number of halos which do not have physically consistent progenitors is at the 1-2% level across all halo masses. Our code is publicly available at http://code.google.com/p/consistent-trees. Our trees and catalogs are publicly available at http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/Bolshoi/ . Subject headings: dark matter — galaxies: abundances — galaxies: evolution — methods: N-body simulations


The threat of terrorism is not new to Egypt. This paper will attempt to shed light into the historical development of this phenomenon: since the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 till the latest bombings in Dabah in April 2006. In addition to a reflection on the three cycles of terrorism, the paper will also focus on the primary role-players, the reasons and an evaluation of government's reaction to the threat. In addition of Egypt being a target of terrorism it is equally important is to recognize the influence of Egyptian nationals in the development of transnational terrorism.


With iPhoto '09, Apple's popular photo organizer and editing program is better than ever. But, intuitive as it may be, iPhoto still has the power to confuse anyone who uses it. That's why more people rely on our Missing Manual than any other iPhoto resource. Author and "New York Times" tech columnist David Pogue gives you clear and objective guidance on every iPhoto feature, including new tools such as face recognition, place recognition based on GPS data, themed slideshows, online sharing, enhanced editing, and travel maps. You'll find step-by-step instructions, along with many undocumented tips and tricks. With "iPhoto '09: The Missing Manual", you will: get a course in picture-taking and digital cameras - how to buy and use a digital camera, how to compose brilliant photos in various situations; import, organize, and file your photos - and learn how to search and edit them; create slideshows, photo books, calendars, and greeting cards, and either make or order prints; share photos on websites or by email, and turn photos into screensavers or desktop pictures; and learn to manage your Photo Libraries, use plug-ins, and get photos to and from camera phones. There's much more in this comprehensive guide. Discover today why "iPhoto '09: The Missing Manual" is the top-selling iPhoto book.


Pensiun Fund in Indonesia comprised of two types, namely Employer≫s Pensiun Fund (EPF) and Financial Institution Pensiun Fund (FIPF). EPF is a pensiun fund established by an individual or entity having employees, as the founder, to provide a defined benefit pensiun program or a defined contribution pensiun program, for the benefits of all or partial employees as participants, and inflicting obligation toward the employer. FIPF is a pensiun fund established by a bank or life insurance company to provide a defined contribution pensiun program for individual, either for employee or the employer itself. Meanwhile, there were 2 (two) types of pensiun program in such pensiun fund, namely Defined Benefit Pensiun Program (DBPP) and Defined Contribution Pensiun Program (DCPP). Defined Benefit Pensiun Program is a pensiun program, benefits of which are specified in Pensiun Program regulation. Defined Contribution Pensiun Program is a pensiun program, contribution of which is specified in Pensiun Program regulation, and all Contributions As Well As Its Investment Development Are Recorded In Respective Participant ≫ S account as the pensiun benefit. Up until the end of 2009, total active pensiun fund in Indonesia was 276 pensiun funds, comprising of 251 EPFs and 25 FIPFs. From such total number of pensiun funds, the total assets value of pensiun fund were up to Rp 112.36 trillion or about 2.0%  coverage of Indonesia Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in 2009 (at 2000 constant market price). From such total amount of assets, 96.01% of pensiun fund assets were absorbed in the form of investment. Keywords : saving, assurance, pensiun


The racetrack memory device is a new concept of Magnetic RAM (MRAM) based on controlling domain wall (DW) motion in ferromagnetic nanowires. It promises ultra-high storage density thanks to the possibility to store multiple narrow DWS per memory cell. By using read and write heads based on magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) fast data access speed can also be achieved. Thereby the racetrack memory can be used as universal storage to address both embedded and standalone applications. In this paper, we present the device physics, integration circuit and architecture designs of a racetrack memory based on MTJs with PMA. Mixed SPICE simulations at 65 nm node demonstrate the capabilities of this device to perform high performances. Finally, we compare the potential specifications of the racetrack memory with other advanced non-volatile memory technologies.


Traditional methods for investigating stream solute biogeochemistry measure longitudinal rates of uptake by increasing either the concentration or isotopic composition of solutes. These methods cannot be applied to dissolved organic matter (DOM) because we cannot replicate the heterogeneous native DOM pool. We explored an alternative approach, attempting to displace or enhance benthic uptake of native DOM by supplying an exogenous source of labile carbon or by enriching the stream with inorganic nitrogen. This approach allows us to measure uptake rates of enriched solutes, as well as changes in the concentration and composition of native DOM resulting from the experimental manipulations. We examined DOM composition using fluorescence characterization. We were able to elicit changes in the chemical composition of native DOM by differentially altering the dynamics of autotrophic production and heterotrophic uptake within the second‐order reach of Walker Branch, a well‐studied stream in eastern Tennessee. Supplying heterotrophs with labile carbon resulted in an increase in fluorescence associated with terrestrially derived DOM. Stimulating algae by adding inorganic nitrogen increased autochthonous production and indirectly displaced heterotrophic demand for terrestrial DOM due to increased in‐stream production of bioavailable DOM. While we were able to alter the composition of the native DOM pool, we observed little change in DOM concentrations. The ability to differentiate between DOM subcomponents provides insight into processes controlling DOM production and consumption that cannot be gained by treating DOM as a single bulk pool.


PROBLEM/CONDITION
Malaria in humans is caused by intraerythrocytic protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. These parasites are transmitted by the bite of an infective female Anopheles mosquito. The majority of malaria infections in the United States occur among persons who have traveled to regions with ongoing malaria transmission. However, malaria is also occasionally acquired by persons who have not traveled out of the country, through exposure to infected blood products, congenital transmission, laboratory exposure, or local mosquitoborne transmission. Malaria surveillance in the United States is conducted to identify episodes of local transmission and to guide prevention recommendations for travelers.

PERIOD COVERED
This report summarizes cases in persons with onset of illness in 2011 and summarizes trends during previous years.

DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM
Malaria cases diagnosed by blood film, polymerase chain reaction, or rapid diagnostic tests are mandated to be reported to local and state health departments by health-care providers or laboratory staff. Case investigations are conducted by local and state health departments, and reports are transmitted to CDC through the National Malaria Surveillance System, National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, or direct CDC consults. Data from these reporting systems serve as the basis for this report.

RESULTS
CDC received 1,925 reported cases of malaria with an onset of symptoms in 2011 among persons in the United States, including 1,920 cases classified as imported, one laboratory-acquired case, one transfusion-related case, two congenital cases, and one cryptic case. The total number of cases represents an increase of 14% from the 1,691 cases reported for 2010 and the largest number of reported cases since 1971. Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae, and P. ovale were identified in 49%, 22%, 3%, and 3% of cases, respectively. Twenty-one (1%) patients were infected by two species. The infecting species was unreported or undetermined in 23% of cases, an increase of 5 percentage points from 2010. Of the 871 patients who reported purpose of travel, 607 (70%) were visiting friends or relatives (VFR). Among the 929 cases in U.S. civilians for whom information on chemoprophylaxis use and travel region was known, 57 (6%) patients reported that they had followed and adhered to a chemoprophylactic drug regimen recommended by CDC for the regions to which they had traveled. Thirty-seven cases were reported in pregnant women, among whom only one adhered to chemoprophylaxis. Among all reported cases, significantly more cases (n=275 [14%]) were classified as severe infections in 2011 compared with 2010 (n=183 [11%]; p=0.0018; chi square). Five persons with malaria died in 2011. After 2 years of improvement in completion of data elements on the malaria case form, higher percentages of incomplete data in 2011 for residential status (from 11% in 2010 to 19% in 2011) and species (from 18% in 2010 to 22% in 2011) were noted.

INTERPRETATION
The number of cases reported in 2011 marked the largest number of cases since 1971 (N = 3,180). Despite progress in reducing the global burden of malaria, the disease remains endemic in many regions, and the use of appropriate prevention measures by travelers is still inadequate.

PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIONS
Completion of data elements on the malaria case report form decreased in 2011 compared with 2010. This incomplete reporting compromises efforts to examine trends in malaria cases and prevent infections. VFR travelers continue to be a difficult population to reach with effective malaria prevention strategies. Evidence-based prevention strategies that effectively target VFR travelers need to be developed and implemented to have a substantial impact on the numbers of imported malaria cases in the United States. Although more persons with cases reported taking chemoprophylaxis to prevent malaria, the majority reported not taking it, and adherence was poor among those who did take chemoprophylaxis. Proper use of malaria chemoprophylaxis will prevent the majority of malaria illness and reduce the risk for severe disease (http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/drugs.html). Malaria infections can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated promptly with antimalarial medications appropriate for the patient's age and medical history, the likely country of malaria acquisition, and previous use of antimalarial chemoprophylaxis. Clinicians should consult the CDC Guidelines for Treatment of Malaria and contact the CDC's Malaria Hotline for case management advice, when needed. Malaria treatment recommendations can be obtained online (http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/diagnosis_treatment) or by calling the Malaria Hotline (770-488-7788 or toll-free at 855-856-4713).


Health care organizations must continuously improve their productivity to sustain long-term growth and profitability. Sustainable productivity performance is mostly assumed to be a natural outcome of successful health care management. Data envelopment analysis DEA is a popular mathematical programming method for comparing the inputs and outputs of a set of homogenous decision making units DMUs by evaluating their relative efficiency. The Malmquist productivity index MPI is widely used for productivity analysis by relying on constructing a best practice frontier and calculating the relative performance of a DMU for different time periods. The conventional DEA requires accurate and crisp data to calculate the MPI. However, the real-world data are often imprecise and vague. In this study, the authors propose a novel productivity measurement approach in fuzzy environments with MPI. An application of the proposed approach in health care is presented to demonstrate the simplicity and efficacy of the procedures and algorithms in a hospital efficiency study conducted for a State Office of Inspector General in the United States.


Signal transduction pathways regulated by the EGFR/ERBB/HER proto-oncogene family and receptor tyrosine kinases encoded by these genes are known to become dysregulated during cellular transformation and carcinogenesis. Consequently, biologically targeted antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors directed toward EGFR/ErbB1/HER1 (eg, cetuximab, erlotinib and gefitinib) and ErbB2/HER2 (eg, trastuzumab), and more recently toward ErbB3/HER3 and ErbB4/HER4, are being investigated as therapeutic agents for treating patients with EGFR/ERBB/HER proto-oncogene-driven malignancies. The accurate selection of patients who will respond efficaciously to these agents a priori is a medical challenge. Understanding the clinical utility of soluble EGFR/ErbB/HER (ie, sEGFR/sErbB/sHER) isoforms, which are present in circulatory fluids, as theragnostic cancer biomarkers is an emerging area of contemporary biomedical investigation. This feature article reviews the literature regarding the clinical utility of serum sEGFR/sErbB1/sHER1 in breast, lung and ovarian cancer, and discusses the potential role of sEGFR in predicting and monitoring therapeutic responsiveness, as well as disease recurrence, and/or predicting disease outcome in patients treated with specific small-molecule, hormonal or biotherapeutic drug regimens. Well-designed translational research studies are needed to validate sEGFR as a theragnostic biomarker further and to achieve routine clinical implementation.


The thesis investigates the ocular response to silicone-hydrogel (SiH) contact lens wear, a relatively new contact lens material that has a higher modulus of rigidity and different surface coating than used in conventional hydrogel materials. The properties of SiH materials differ significantly from conventional hydrogels and, using subjective and objective means of assessment, the thesis examines how these properties affect reflection and biometry, ocular physiology, tear film characteristics, symptomatology, adverse events and complications. A range of standard and newly designed investigative techniques were employed, and latter involving novel imaging techniques, for the objective assessment of physiological changes which occur with contact lens wear. The study is the first to combine these techniques with biochemical analyses of the tear film composition. Forty-seven subjects were fitted with SiH lenses and randomly allocated to one of the two materials currently on the market (Lotrafilcon A or Balafilcon A) on an either daily or continuous wear basis. An additional control group of 14 age-matched non-contact lens wearers were monitored over the same period. Measurements were taken before and 1, 3, 6, 12 and 18 months after initial fitting. The findings reported in this thesis will enable contact lens practitioners and manufacturers to understand further the optical, physiological and biochemical nature of the ocular response to SiH contact lenses and hence facilitate the development of this important generation of contact lens material.


This survey reviews efforts by CESA member clean energy funds to promote the use of biomass as a renewable energy source. For each fund, details are provided regarding biomass eligibility for support, specific programs offering support to biomass projects, and examples of supported biomass projects (if available). For the purposes of this survey, biomass is defined to include bio-product gasification, combustion, co-firing, biofuel production, and the combustion of landfill gas, though not all of the programs reviewed here take so wide a definition. Programs offered by non-CESA member funds fall outside the scope of this survey. To date, three funds--the California Energy Commission, Wisconsin Focus on Energy, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority--have offered programs targeted specifically at the use of biomass as a renewable energy source. We begin by reviewing efforts in these three funds, and then proceed to cover programs in other funds that have provided support to biomass projects when the opportunity has arisen, but otherwise do not differentially target biomass relative to other renewable technologies.


Cookbooks have been long regarded as little more than instructional manuals. However, recent research has repositioned the cookbook genre as historical literature. This thesis is a comparison of two 19th century cookbooks: the American cookbook Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book written by Catherine Beecher and published in 1850 and the Norwegian cookbook Lærebog i de Forskjellige Grene af Huusholdningen (Textbook in the different Subjects of the Household) written by Hanna Winsnes and published in 1845. Both books are aimed at middle class housekeepers and contain a vast amount of general advice on how to manage large households. This includes recipes on cooking with advice on how to grow, buy, keep, cut, and preserve different foods. In addition, both books include information on the administrative aspects representative of large households in the mid 1800's. This comparative study of Winsnes' and Beecher's cookbooks addressed two main categories: 1) food preparation and, 2) administrative organization of households. The food preparation section contains a discussion of four groups of alimentation: meat, dairy products, brewing and drinking, and baking. The administrative section examines four areas relevant to the historical context: eating habits, technological advances, household organization and attitudes towards servants. The aim of the comparison was to discern similarities and differences in housekeeping in Norway and the United States in the mid 1800's. The following research questions were addressed: How can historical cookbooks be analyzed as historical literature? Further, can historical cookbooks be seen as women's literature, and if so, what kinds of literature is this? And finally, can a comparison of an American cookbook and a Norwegian cookbook published in the mid 1800's contribute to a better insight in housekeeping in the 19th century? This thesis argues that 19 century cookbooks can be analyzed as historical literature due to their content of much more information than recipes and cooking instructions. My claim is that the definitions of the word cookbook in today's dictionaries, such as Webster's definition: "a book containing recipes and instructions for cooking", are insufficient. Nineteenth century cookbooks functioned as much more than reference books on food preparation, as they encompassed many genres, such as autobiography and information on management training, moral behavior, baking, cleaning, repairing, nursing, as well as technical instructions on butchering. These cookbooks, termed "historical cookbooks," may be seen as cross-genre, not necessarily consistent with the accepted definitions of traditional cookbooks. 19th century cookbooks were written by and for women, and they served an educational purpose, as they functioned as textbooks aimed at women


In this article a dual output filter synthesis topology is proposed using a negative impedance converter (NIC) and the minimum number of passive components. Different from the preceding NIC based synthesis methods, the proposed circuits allow passive element matching to reduce the number of passive elements. The proposed dual output topology can simultaneously provide all-pass, notch/high-pass or notch/low-pass filter configurations. Also, the proposed filters have a pole frequency independent of the voltage and current gain deviations of the active element, so it is suitable for pole frequency sensitive applications. Simulations, including a post-layout simulation, Monte-Carlo analysis and Routh-Hurwitz stability tests are performed to verify the theoretical results.


We analyse the determinants of the household financial portfolio allocation using an estimator and a variance decomposition that take into account the constrained nature of household portfolio allocations. We apply these methods to a large data set of financial assets. Results show that the main factors underlying household financial portfolio choice in Spain are age and net wealth. Among others, there is also evidence of sizeable effects associated with risk aversion, education, liquidity constraints and income, but very modest effects are associated with family size and having accounts in stand-alone internet banks. Implications for policy are also derived.


This thesis investigates the social and racial dynamics of life in the West Kimberley between 1944 and 1969. It identifies three groups defined by their racial characteristics which co-existed on the land: full-descent, mixed-descent and Gudia. It argues that despite many people in these different groups being related to each other, their lives followed different trajectories as a result of government policies and laws which defined people by their degree of Aboriginality. These racial categories were reflected in the social and economic relations of full-descent, mixed descent and Gudia people. Coexistence of these groups is analysed by focusing on one extended mixed-descent 'Nygkina' family. During the 1940s, 50s. and 60s, the children of Fulgentius and Phillipena Fraser left their mission haven and entered the world of employment under Gudia management. In 1944, a young 21 year old Spaniard, Francisco Casanova-Rodriguez, ventured to the Kimberley to work as a station hand. Rodriguez cro�sed paths with the Frasers in 1946 and he married their eldest daughter, Katie, in December of that year. He was accepted into the mixed-descent family, where kindred relationships deepened by virtue of mutual religious belief systems, amidst a life of discrimination and financial hardships. Rodriguez and Katie were devout Catholics and that became the strength of their relationship. An insight into this family's coexistence with Gudia during the twentieth century is extracted from Rodriguez's diaries, oral histories collected from the Fraser family and associates, and from government archival files. With their mission training the Fraser children became subservient employees to Gudia pastoraHsts and town business people. Rodriguez taught himself his trade as a builder,-and he, too, worked for pastoralists in an industry that was expected to fl,E:rish. But the certainty ofa profitable sheep industry never eventuated, and by the early 1970s there were no sheep stations operating in the region. Neither were there many Aboriginal people living and working on the stations. Most had relocated to the towns. Full-descent people lived on reserves, while both mixed-descent and fiudia people lived either in their own homes, or in Housing Commission houses.


Since the recent introduction of new generic top-level domains (TLDs), a variety of new Internet domain names have become available for registration. These include new domain endings such as , or , which anyone can purchase. At the same time, an entire class of new TLD applications has arguably failed.  Several well-known corporations applied for 'closed generic TLDs'. The applicants wanted to reserve these generic words for internal use, thus disallowing third party registrations. Examples included (L'Oreal), (Heinz), (Google) and (Amazon). These applications have either been withdrawn or will be converted into open TLDs, largely as a consequence of changes or clarifications in rules for TLDs published by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This article advances two arguments. The first argument is that these applications for closed generic TLDS were fairly risky because they implied some level of legal risk for the applicants. The failures indicate that some risks have now materialized. The article also discusses what methods, if any, TLD applicants could have used to identify and manage such risks. The second argument put forth is that standard risk management techniques can and should be applied to the analysis of legal risk.


The process of devolution in Scotland has increased the demand for economic research focussing on Scottish-specific issues. The Scottish Economic Policy Network (http://www.scotecon.net), based at the Universities of Stirling and Strathclyde, has been established in order to generate evidence-based research aimed at informing the rich policy debate that has arisen post-devolution. Such research (which has sadly been lacking in the past) is crucially needed by the various departments of the Scottish Executive in order to effectively design and execute economic and social policy. However, 'evidence-based' research by it very nature implies that rich and detailed data sources, both at the micro- and macro-level, are needed. In fact it is the stated goal of both the UK and Scottish Governments to increase the quantity and quality of data available to researchers in order to facilitate the understanding of the likely impact of a whole array of public policy initiatives (see Cabinet Office, 2000; Scottish Executive, 2001). The purpose of this note is to review what can be termed large-scale, sample survey-based, micro-level data sources collected by the various governments of the UK or by their agents. The eleven specific 'surveys' considered are: British Household Panel Survey (BHPS); Family Expenditure Survey (FES); Family Resources Survey (FRS); Households Below Average Income (HBAI); Labour Force Survey (LFS); Scottish Household Survey (SHS); Survey of Personal Income (SPI); Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (SSAS); Scottish Crime Survey (SCS); Scottish Health Survey (HSS); and Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS). The nature of each of these surveys is described (i.e. why the data was collected in the first place), along with a discussion of sampling frames, sample sizes and other technicalities. Each of these surveys differ in a number of ways, such as their design methodologies, specific questions asked and geographic coverage. However, there is considerable overlap in certain respects and similarities between these surveys are noted.


In this paper we present ClInt (Clinical Interview), a bilingual Spanish-Catalan spoken corpus that contains 15 hours of clinical interviews. It consists of audio files aligned with multiple-level transcriptions comprising orthographic, phonetic and morphological information, as well as linguistic and extralinguistic encoding. This is a previously non-existent resource for these languages and it offers a wide-ranging exploitation potential in a broad variety of disciplines such as Linguistics, Natural Language Processing and related fields.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between self-efficacy, social support, sense of community and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), including the direct and indirect effects of the variables on HRQoL.

METHODS
A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 249 middle-aged and elderly residents living in a rural community in A-County, K Province. The structured questionnaire included 4 scales from the Euro Quality of life-5 Dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, anxiety/depression), and measures of General Self-Efficacy, Social Support, and Sense of Community. Data were analyzed using SPSS WIN 20.0 and AMOS 21.0 program.

RESULTS
The mean HRQoL score for the participants was 0.87±0.13. Self-efficacy (β=.13, p=.039) and age (β= -.38, p<.001) were significantly associated with HRQoL, explaining 21% of the variance. In the path analysis, self-efficacy showed a significant direct effect on HRQoL (β=.14, p=.040) and significantly mediating relationships between both social support (β=.05, p=.030) and sense of community (β=.02, p=.025) and HRQoL.

CONCLUSION
Although self-efficacy was found to be the main predictor for HRQoL, the findings imply that social environmental factors such as social support and sense of community need to be considered when developing interventions to increase HRQoL in middle-aged and elderly residents in rural communities.


The "case for property" in the mixed-asset portfolio is a topic of continuing interest to practitioners and academics. Such an analysis typically is performed over a fixed period of time and the optimum allocation to property inferred from the weight assigned to property through the use of mean-variance analysis. It is well known, however, that the parameters used in the portfolio analysis problem are unstable through time. Thus, the weight proposed for property in one period is unlikely to be that found in another. Consequently, in order to assess the case for property more thoroughly, the impact of property in the mixed-asset portfolio is evaluated on a rolling basis over a long period of time. In this way we test whether the inclusion of property significantly improves the performance of an existing equity/bond portfolio all of the time.
The main findings are that the inclusion of direct property into an existing equity/bond portfolio leads to increase or decreases in return, depending on the relative performance of property compared with the other asset classes. However, including property in the mixed-asset portfolio always leads to reductions in portfolio risk. Consequently, adding property into an equity/bond portfolio can lead to significant increases in risk-adjusted performance. Thus, if the decision to include direct property in the mixed-asset portfolio is based upon its diversification benefits the answer is yes, there is a "case for property" all the time!


ENGLISH IN AOTEAROA T of English, along with teachers from across the curriculum, have a moral and professional responsibility to nurture literate thinkers. In this article I argue that teachers who accept this responsibility stand to teachers who don't as imagination stands to memory, as co-construction in a discursive community of practice stands to transmission teaching, and as a sense of what strategic English teaching might be to what it sometimes is. Strategic teachers of English, like literate thinkers, deploy a range of literacy and thinking tools that help their students construct and deconstruct meaning. But what tools should we teach students? What criteria might we use to select those tools, and ultimately, to justify what we do? Nine selection criteria are proposed below, and then applied to evaluate the Effective Literacy Strategies in Years 9-13: A guide for teachers (MOE, 2004). Teachers who use these criteria to select literacy and thinking tools are more likely to nurture literate thinkers. But first, the description of these criteria is set in a wider context that informs the responsibilities of all teachers.


Introduction. Book I: Adobe Creative Suite 2 Basics. Chapter 1: Introducing Adobe Creative Suite 2. Chapter 2: Using Common Menus and Commands. Chapter 3: Using Common Palettes. Chapter 4: Using Common Plug-Ins. Chapter 5: Importing and Exporting. Chapter 6: Handling Graphics, Paths, Text, and Fonts. Chapter 7: Using Color. Chapter 8: Printing Documents. Book II: InDesign CS2. Chapter 1: Introducing InDesign CS2. Chapter 2: Drawing in InDesign. Chapter 3: Working with Text and Text Frames. Chapter 4: Understanding Page Layout. Chapter 5: Clipping Paths, Transforming Objects, and Alignment. Chapter 6: Understanding Color and Printing. Chapter 7: Exporting Your Work. Chapter 8: Integrating InDesign. Book III: Illustrator CS2. Chapter 1: Discovering Illustrator CS2. Chapter 2: Using the Selection Tools. Chapter 3: Creating Basic Shapes. Chapter 4: Using the Pen Tool and Placing Images. Chapter 5: Using Type in Illustrator. Chapter 6: Organizing Your Illustrations. Chapter 7: Using Layers. Chapter 8: Livening Up Illustrations with Color. Chapter 9: The Transform and Distortions Tools. Chapter 10: Transparency and Special Effects Tools. Chapter 11: Using Filters and Effects. Chapter 12: Using Your Illustrator Image. Book IV: Photoshop CS2. Chapter 1: Photoshop CS2 Basics. Chapter 2: Mode Matters. Chapter 3: Creating a Selection. Chapter 4: Using the Photoshop Pen Tool. Chapter 5: Resolution Basics. Chapter 6: Creating a Good Image. Chapter 7: Painting and Retouching Tools. Chapter 8: Using Layers. Chapter 9: Saving Photoshop Images for Print and the Web. Book V: Acrobat 7.0. Chapter 1: Discovering Essential Acrobat Information. Chapter 2: Creating PDF Files. Chapter 3: Adding Interactivity to PDF Files. Chapter 4: Editing and Extracting Text and Graphics. Chapter 5: Using Commenting and Annotation Tools. Chapter 6: Securing Your PDF Files. Book VI: GoLive CS2. Chapter 1: Introducing GoLive CS2. Chapter 2: Creating a Web Site. Chapter 3: Working with Images. Chapter 4: Text and CSS. Chapter 5: Layout Grids, Tables, and Frames. Chapter 6: Links. Chapter 7: Layers. Chapter 8: Forms. Chapter 9: Multimedia. Chapter 10: Publishing Your Web Site. Index.


This study is the first to contrast two similarity theory methods, the flux variance and the half‐order time derivative, over a wide range of atmospheric stability and surface roughness conditions. These two methods were selected because they require only single‐level temperature measurement to estimate sensible heat flux. The data used were collected over bare soil, a grass‐covered forest clearing, and an even‐aged pine forest. For all three sites the flux variance method estimated the sensible heat flux relatively well for unstable atmospheric conditions. The half‐order time derivative method was found to be sensitive to the parameterization of the eddy diffusivity, especially for the grass and bare soil field sites. Overall, the flux variance method was able to reproduce the measured sensible heat flux with greater accuracy than the half‐order time derivative methods for the three experiment sites.


The development of biodegradable polymers from renewable resources is vital in addressing the dependence of plastics on petroleum-based feedstocks and growing ocean and landfill waste. Herein, both CO2 and natural sugar diols are utilised as abundant, safe and renewable building blocks for the synthesis of degradable and biocompatible aliphatic polycarbonates. Despite a strong potential for advanced polymer properties, inspired by Nature's supramolecular base-pairing, polycarbonates from the sugar components of DNA, 2′-deoxyribonucleosides have been limited by the inability of phosgene derivatives to form the cyclic carbonate monomers that would allow for controlled ring-opening polymerisation. CO2 insertion at 1 atm pressure into methylated thymidine 2′-deoxyribonucleoside, facilitated by organic base 1,8-diazabicyclo-[5.4.0]-undec-7-ene, affected an intramolecular SN2-like displacement of a tosyl leaving group to yield the cyclic carbonate by stereochemical inversion. Organocatalytic ring-opening polymerisation proceeded rapidly in solution resulting in high monomer conversions of 93% and number-average molecular weights, substantially greater and more controlled than via polycondensation routes. The thermodynamic parameters of the polymerisation (ΔHp = −12.3 ± 0.4 kJ mol−1 and ΔSp = −29 ± 1.1 J mol−1 K−1) were determined from the equilibrium monomer conversions over a temperature range of 0 to 80 °C and pseudo-first order kinetics demonstrated. The amorphous thymidine-based polycarbonates exhibited high glass transition temperatures of 156 °C and were found to be highly degradable to the constituent diol under basic aqueous conditions. Static water contact angle measurements and cell studies with MG-63 cell line indicated slightly hydrophilic and biocompatible materials, promising for tissue-engineering applications. The novel, CO2-driven approach to cyclic carbonate synthesis represents a means of expanding the scope of sugar-based monomers for tailored material properties derived from natural products.


DOI: 10.30919/es8d805 Instead of using traditional external heating treatment methods, a facile heating equipment-free method is developed for one-pot synthesis of fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) via exothermic crosslinking reaction enabled"self-heating" and further induced high degree of carbonization. The obtained CDs exhibit strong blue fluorescence and are well characterized through a series of advanced analysis, including their optical properties, surface morphology, and chemical compositions. The corresponding synthesis mechanism is also disscussed and proposed. Moreover, the assynthesized carbon dots have been successfully applied for selective Fe detection as a simple demonstration. Fe can significantly quench the fluorescence signal of CDs, whereas other metal ions show insignificant effect on their fluorescence intensity. The quenching performance is ascribed to synergistic effect of electrostatic interaction between ferric ions and the fluorescent CDs as well as interaction induced electron transfer. This study expands the cutting edge of simple synthesis of fluorescent CDs, where CDs hold great promises in sensing applications.


Since the formal recognition of practice-led research in the 1990s, many higher research degree candidates in art, design and media have submitted creative works along with an accompanying written document or 'exegesis' for examination. Various models for the exegesis have been proposed in university guidelines and academic texts during the past decade, and students and supervisors have experimented with its contents and structure. With a substantial number of exegeses submitted and archived, it has now become possible to move beyond proposition to empirical analysis.

In this article we present the findings of a content analysis of a large, local sample of submitted exegeses. We identify the emergence of a persistent pattern in the types of content included as well as overall structure. Besides an introduction and conclusion, this pattern includes three main parts, which can be summarized as situating concepts (conceptual definitions and theories); precedents of practice (traditions and exemplars in the field); and researcher's creative practice (the creative process, the artifacts produced and their value as research).

We argue that this model combines earlier approaches to the exegesis, which oscillated between academic objectivity, by providing a contextual framework for the practice, and personal reflexivity, by providing commentary on the creative practice. But this model is more than simply a hybrid: it provides a dual orientation, which allows the researcher to both situate their creative practice within a trajectory of research and do justice to its personally invested poetics. By performing the important function of connecting the practice and creative work to a wider emergent field, the model helps to support claims for a research contribution to the field. We call it a connective model of exegesis.


ABSTRACT This paper revisits the violent annexation of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad by the Indian army in 1948 as an inaugural moment of dispossession to reconstruct Hyderabad's twentieth century past along the axes of Muslim belonging and memory. I argue that we must situate twentieth and twenty-first century Hyderabadi Muslim migration in relation to Partition-related displacements and attempts to overcome them through economic conditions provided by migration. The partition of India prompted waves of migration—such as the later migration of Hyderabadi Muslims to the Persian Gulf in the wake of 1970s oil boom—and their sense of displacement persisted long past the mid-twentieth century, reshaping Muslim notions of belonging. The use of the nation-state as the dominant framework to analyze these shifts is insufficient for understanding Hyderabadi Muslims' sense of belonging and citizenship, which must be also contextualized in terms of upward class mobility along the axes of global and local contexts.


Mapping human male meiotic recombination sites reveals their influence on genome evolution and genetic disease. Sperm and eggs form from diploid cells that contain two copies of our genomic DNA. The haploid germ cells must undergo a special cell division, meiosis, which halves their DNA content. Meiosis involves a DNA recombination step between parental chromosomes. Recombination is initiated by a DNA double-strand break, which can exchange DNA between the chromosomes, a process that drives human genetic variation. Pratto et al. mapped meiotic recombination sites in individual human males (see the Perspective by de Massy). Recombination hotspots were influenced by variants of the histone-lysine N-methyltransferase protein, PRDM9, as well as by other factors. The recombination sites also influence genome evolution and the incidence of genetic disease. F. Pratto, K. Brick, P. Khil, F. Smagulova, G. V. Petukhova, R. D. Camerini-Otero, Recombination initiation maps of individual human genomes. Science 346, 1256442 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text] B. de Massy, Hidden features of human hotspots. Science 346, 808–809 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Double-loop learning is an educational concept and process that involves teaching people to think more deeply about their own assumptions and beliefs. It was created by Chris Argyris, a leading organizational trainer, in the mid-1980's, and developed over the next decade into an effective tool. Double-loop learning is different than single-loop learning which involves changing methods and improving efficiency to obtain established objectives (i.e., "doing things right"). Double-loop learning concerns changing the objectives themselves (i.e., "doing the right things").


Abstract The genus Paramblynotus is the most species-rich genus of the so-called macrocynipoids, the large cynipoid parasitoids of wood-boring and cone-boring insect larvae. The species range in size from some of the largest to the smallest macrocynipoids, comparable in size to microcynipoids. Paramblynotus members occur on all continents except Europe and Australia, with most species being tropical or subtropical. The biology is poorly known but a few observations indicate that the species are parasitoids of beetle larvae. In this monographic revision of the genus, we present a species-level cladistic analysis based on qualitative and quantitative features of the external morphology. For analysis of quantitative features, we present for the first time a novel coding method, the method of Finite Mixture Coding (FMC) based on k-means clustering, or FMCK. The new method is similar to the FMC method proposed by previous authors in that they both generate codes (character states) for phylogenetic analysis as the direct output of a statistical procedure, thus avoiding the subdivision of quantitative data into discrete states on the basis of arbitrary criteria as with other coding methods. Through incorporating finite mixture analysis and likelihood estimation as used in FMC and k-mean cluster analysis for a priori statistical modeling of component distributions, FMCK is advantageous over FMC in that it can be implemented using readily available statistic programs with k-mean cluster analysis, such as STATISTICA, MINITAB or SYSTAT, available on both PC and Macintosh platforms. We were able to identify 8 quantitative characters among 23 as useful for cladistic analysis by using the new coding method. In total, our character matrix has 132 coded characters. The phylogenetic analysis indicates that species of the previously recognized genus Decellea form a monophyletic group deeply nested within Paramblynotus. Decellea is therefore synonymized with Paramblynotus, which is separated into seven monophyletic species groups: the virginianus, scaber, yangambicolus, nigricornis, apeosus, ruficollis, and punctulatus groups. Based on the phylogeny, we reconstruct the historical biogeography of the liopterid subfamily Mayrellinae, consisting of the genera Paramblynotus and Kiefferiella, using dispersal-vicariance analysis in combination with palaeoenvironmental data. The results suggest that the subfamily originated in the Northern Hemisphere and then expanded its distribution early by way of the Bering area. The divergence between Paramblynotus and Kiefferiella was apparently associated with the formation of the Rocky Mountains about 50 million years ago. An early Paramblynotus lineage dispersed to Africa from the eastern Palearctic by way of Arabia, and it subsequently diversified along with montane forests in Africa. The relatively high diversity of Paramblynotus in Southeast Asia is considered to be partly caused by the frequent sea level changes since late Oligocene (29 Ma), which drastically changed the land configuration of this area. We end this paper with a taxonomic revision of the genus Paramblynotus, with a total of 92 species treated, including 72 described as new and 20 previously known, of which 18 are redescribed. Keys to the species groups as defined in this paper and to all known species of each species group are provided. For all species, the available information on their biology and distribution are summarized.


The multiplicative Schwarz preconditioned inexact Newton (MSPIN) algorithm is presented as a complement to additive Schwarz preconditioned inexact Newton (ASPIN). At an algebraic level, ASPIN and MSPIN are variants of the same strategy to improve the convergence of systems with unbalanced nonlinearities; however, they have natural complementarity in practice. MSPIN is naturally based on partitioning of degrees of freedom in a nonlinear PDE system by field type rather than by subdomain, where a modest factor of concurrency can be sacrificed for physically motivated convergence robustness. ASPIN, originally introduced for decompositions into subdomains, is natural for high concurrency and reduction of global synchronization. We consider both types of inexact Newton algorithms in the field-split context, and we augment the classical convergence theory of ASPIN for the multiplicative case. Numerical experiments show that MSPIN can be significantly more robust than Newton methods based on global linearizations, and that MSPIN can be more robust than ASPIN and maintain fast convergence even for challenging problems, such as high Reynolds number Navier–Stokes equations.


This paper focuses on a Christian model of leprosy care overseen by Catholic nuns in Quy Hòa, a leprosarium in South Central Vietnam, from 1929—when the leper colony was established—until 1975, when the American-backed Southern regime collapsed and all of Quy Hòa's foreign nuns were forced to leave. Drawing on recollections of elderly residents of the former leprosy colony, it describes the close and loving attention that the nuns offered to inmates, an attentiveness that was informed by the nuns' ethic of Christian sacrifice. The nuns at Quy Hòa successfully built a quasi parent–child relationship with leprosy-afflicted inmates. Their striking devotion to the 'lepers' resembles substitute motherhood. However, these recollections of that era also shed critical light on an approach to leprosy care that was premised on hierarchy, strictly enforced segregation from the wider community and pronounced paternalism towards all those who came under the nuns' rule of care.


Background: The prognosis and management of hepatic fibrosis are closely related to the stage of the disease. The limitations of liver biopsy, which is the gold standard for treatment, include its invasiveness and sampling error. Ultrasound elasticity might be the most promising imaging technology for the noninvasive and accurate assessment of hepatic fibrosis. Real-time tissue elastography (RTE) measures the relative stiffness of the tissue in the region of interest caused by the heartbeat. Many studies have verified that RTE is useful for the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Purpose: To determine the formula of the liver fibrosis index for chronic hepatitis B (BLFI) and to validate the diagnostic accuracy of the BLFI for hepatic fibrosis compared with the liver fibrosis index (LFI). Materials and Methods: RTE was performed in 747 prospectively enrolled patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) or cirrhosis from 8 centers in China; 375 patients were analyzed as the training set, and 372 patients were evaluated as the validation set. The fibrosis stage was diagnosed from pathological specimens obtained by ultrasound-guided liver biopsy. Nine image features were measured from strain images, and the new formula for the BLFI was obtained by combining the nine imaging features of the RTE images using multiple regression analysis of the training set. The BLFI and LFI were compared with the pathological fibrosis stage at diagnosis, and the diagnostic performances of the indexes were compared. Results: The Spearman correlation coefficient between the BLFI and hepatic fibrosis stages was significantly positive (r = 0.711, p < 0.001), and significant differences were present between all disease stages. The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) curves of the BLFI and LFI for predicting significant fibrosis (S0-S1 vs. S2-S4) were 0.858 and 0.858, respectively. For cirrhosis (S0-S3 vs. S4), the AUROC curves of the BLFI and LFI were 0.868 and 0.862, respectively. Conclusion: The results of this large, multicenter study confirmed that RTE is valuable for the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis in patients with CHB. However, the diagnostic efficiencies of the new BLFI and the original LFI, which were based on CHC, for the assessment of CHB hepatic fibrosis were similar; thus, the LFI has the potential to be used to directly evaluate the extent of hepatic fibrosis in patients with CHB.


Introduction: The internet has become a practically indispensable tool of daily life. However, there are cases in which its inadequate use begins to generate some dependence on users, causing the disorder known as Internet addiction. Objective: To evaluate the association between internet addiction and sleep quality in medical students from a Peruvian university. Material and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analytical study in Basic Sciences medical students. We selected the participants using a random stratified sampling method. For the measurement of the main variables, two instruments were used: The Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Internet Addiction Test (AI). To evaluate the association between the study variables, we calculated the crude (cPR) and adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR), considering a p value <0.05 significant. Results: We surveyed a total of 297 medical students. The mean age was 18.7 ± 1.7 years and 55,6 % was female. The prevalence of poor sleep quality and Internet addiction was 72,4 % and 10,4 %, respectively. In the adjusted model we found that being in the third year of the medical studies was a protective factor for poor sleep quality (aPR: 0.59, 95 % CI: 0.36-0.97) and the factors associated with having this condition were being a problematic user (aPR: 1.51, 95 % CI: 1.01-2.23) or having Internet addiction (aPR: 1.71, 95 % CI: 1.01-2.90). Conclusions: We found an association between internet addiction and poor sleep quality in medical students. Higher Education Centers should conduct periodic psychometric evaluations and propose strategies and interventions for the mental health of their students.


Abstract This article tests whether a correlation exists between a stochastic synthetic volatility index (SVIX) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) volatility index (VIX) and assesses the success of the indicators' application by pairing an undeveloped trading strategy to gauge its forecasting accuracy. The SVIX aims to address the scaling limitations of the CBOE VIX. The SVIX allows traders to graph volatility as a 100% scale on securities that do not have an official CBOE VIX ticker symbol. The SVIX shows high correlation with the CBOE VIX. Backtesting indicators with an investment strategy using US stocks proved successful. The winning percentage of trades and net profit are positive only for long strategies and fail in short strategies.


Introduction: Mitochondria are considered to be the powerhouse of the cell being the primary generators of ATP, they also have numerous other important functions including; being the main generator of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a central role in apoptosis. As the main intracellular source of ROS, many people believe that mitochondria play a significant role in ageing. Senescence is associated with ageing and has been associated with atherosclerotic vascular disease. The concept of human cells lacking functional mitochondria (Rho 0 cells) is not new and was first described by Attardi et al in 1989. However, most of this work has been done on immortalised cell lines.
Aims: To see if it is possible to generate and characterise Rho 0 human endothelial cells. To use these cells as a tool to investigate the mechanisms by which they respond to stress and whether differences in ROS production and/or antioxidant defences account for any differences observed.
Methods: Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) were grown in media supplemented with glucose and uridine in the presence of low dose ethidium bromide. Rho 0 status of the cells was confirmed by auxotrophy for uridine, quantitative PCR for mitochondrial-encoded gene expression and western blots for mitochondrial-encoded proteins.
Results: The Rho 0 status of the cells was confirmed by; auxotrophy for uridine (Rho 0 cells die in medium lacking uridine), absence of mitochondrial-encoded genes (subunit-1 of complex IV and subunit-6 of subunit V) and lack of expression of the mitochondrial-encoded protein subunit-1 of complex IV. Rho 0 cells are resistant to both stress-induced senescence and apoptosis. They produce less ROS and have upregulated antioxidant defences.
Conclusions: It is possible to grow Rho 0 HUVEC. These cells are a useful tool for studying the role of mitochondria in senescence and apoptosis in the cardiovascular system.


I. INTRODUCTION Seventy-three seconds after its launch on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded, destroying the shuttle and killing the crew.1 Among the crew was Christa McAuliffe, a school teacher who had been selected for the shuttle mission. Millions of people watched the explosion either at Cape Canaveral or on television. As the explosion was played again and again, these images of Challenger became the visual manifestation of heart-rending disaster. Through the testimony of a whistleblower appearing before a specially appointed presidential commission, the public soon learned that the evening before the launch, engineers for a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contractor, Morton Thiokol, had pleaded with NASA officials not to launch the shuttle, predicting the failure that caused the explosion.2 These engineers were overruled by the management of Morton Thiokol, a decision accepted by NASA officials anxious to launch the shuttle.3 Subsequently, one of these engineers ensured that the presidential commission and Congress received an accurate account of the decision to launch. For this candor, the engineer faced retaliation from officials at Morton Thiokol.4 Images of the destruction of Challenger also came to represent preventable disaster and the importance of courageous whistleblowers to the discovery of the truth and to the avoidance of other calamities. The Challenger tragedy opened an important stage in whistleblower protection in the United States. Within the decade following that disaster, not only had Congress enacted the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989,5 significantly strengthening whistleblower protections for federal employees, but state legislatures also passed hundreds of whistleblower statutes protecting both public and private sector employees.6 The Challenger disaster provides a powerful icon for the following decade and a half in which many countries and international bodies adopted whistleblower laws. In examining a draft law to implement one of these international treaties, this article seeks to review and evaluate this post-Challenger legal revolution. On March 29, 1996, in a plenary session, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption.7 The Convention created a comprehensive anti-corruption treaty for the Western Hemisphere. Article III, section 8 of the Convention protects "public servants and private citizens who, in good faith, report acts of corruption."8 This important section foreshadowed similar provisions in the European Union's Civil and Criminal Conventions on Corruption.9 In 2000 the Office of Legal Cooperation of the Organization of American States (OAS) contracted with several organizations to draft model statutes implementing whistleblower protection as well as other provisions of the Convention for five Central American countries.10 The authors of this article faced the task of drafting the model whistleblower statute. In fall 2000 this group submitted a draft of a model whistleblower law to the Office of Legal Cooperation.11 On November 13-15, 2000, the Office of Legal Cooperation convened workshops in Antigua, Guatemala to perfect language and seek a consensus for the draft laws, including the whistleblower protection statute. Participants at the workshop on the whistleblower law included legal experts from Central America, government officials, and representatives of non-governmental organizations. Although the whistleblower proposal gained a consensus, participants questioned whether existing judicial and social systems could accommodate this major reform without the adoption of other reforms. In particular, these experts expressed concerns regarding the independence of the judiciary, the effectiveness of ombudsmen in the region, the broad authority of the executive in many Central American countries, and the risks of physical harm to whistleblowers. Participants also emphasized the connections among the model laws discussed at these workshops. …


The thesis is a historical study of the first twenty years of the British motor cycle industry in terms of the development of its product.
The main theoretical issue is standardization, not in its usual sense as a forma l activity aimed at the setting up of standards, but as a trend the effect of which is for products to become more and more alike across the industry as a whole. Standardization in this sense is to a large extent an unintended consequence of the wish on the part of producers to design products which operate more efficiently, which can be produced more cheaply, and which have the widest possible appeal in the marketplace; and of the preference, on the part of the majority of consumers, for products which are familiar and of known reputation and performance, as against those which are new and untried.
The trend to standardization is analysed into its main components , functional efficiency, production efficiency, and marketing efficiency, and these are used as the basis of a number of propositions which make it possible to consider in more depth the development of the product during the three phases of industry development : experimental, developmental, and standardization .
The more substantive chapters of the thesis are organized around three main themes, the development of the industry as a whole, and the development of the product from a technical point of view, and from a consumer point of view.
The main conclusion is that the development of its product into a standard form--one on which newcomers to the industry can base their own products and which consumers can recognise as reliable and worthy of purchase-is the most critical stage in the development and consolidation of a new industry.


Abstract This research explores learner-learner interactions (n = 18) in an authentic EFL classroom. First, we examined the nature of interactional feedback provided during two decision-making tasks. We then investigated whether the learners had made use of the feedback by looking at whether (and if so, how) they had modified their output immediately after receiving feedback. Quantitative results indicated a relatively low rate of interactional feedback while qualitative analysis of the interactions revealed interesting trends in the nature of the feedback that was provided. In discussing the findings we draw on learners' written reports elicited at the end of class as well as their verbal introspections elicited through individual stimulated recall sessions with each learner. The study sheds light on how patterns of interaction may be shaped by cultural, contextual, and interlocutor-related factors, thus helping to inform considerations for task-based instructional design.


Depolarization of muscle end plates by carbamylcholine was reduced by 35-64% in muscles that had been treated with batrachotoxin or veratridine. Tetrodotoxin was used to prevent or reverse the membrane depolarization elicited by batrachotoxin or veratridine in the surface fibers of muscles, prior to the addition of carbamylcholine. But even when tetrodotoxin was added initially to prevent any depolarization of the muscle membrane by batrachotoxin, the latter toxin retained its inhibitory effect on the carbamylcholine response. Treatment with tetrodotoxin alone or tityustoxin followed by tetrodotoxin had no effect on the end plate depolarization induced by carbamylcholine. The inhibitory effect of veratridine on the response to carbamylcholine, but not that of batrachotoxin, was reversible. Prior treatment with batrachotoxin reduced responses to a bath-applied combination of acetylcholine plus neostigmine as well, while having no effect on responses to microiontophoretically applied acetylcholine, on miniature end plate potentials, or on end plate currents. The muscle depolarization elicited by batrachotoxin was unaffected by α-bungarotoxin, an acetylcholine receptor antagonist, or by histrionicotoxin, an antagonist of the ion conductance modulator associated with the acetylcholine receptor. The ability of batrachotoxin to alter the end plate response to carbamylcholine was found to be noncompetitive. The results are consonant with activation of tetrodotoxin-insensitive sodium channels by batrachotoxin and veratridine and the subsequent lack of participation of these activated channels in the depolarization of end plates by carbamylcholine. The depolarization elicited by carbamylcholine in a batrachotoxin-treated preparation thus reflects only the activation of acetylcholine receptor-ion conductance modulator complexes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors express their appreciation to Miss Mabel Alice Zelle for excellent computer assistance and Mrs. Maria Luisa Diniz de Oliveira for secretarial assistance.


Renewable distributed generation (DG), primarily wind power, will represent the lion's share of the new generation capacity that will be connected to distribution systems. However, while both firm and variable generation present our traditionally passive distribution networks with well-established technical challenges, the requirements and practices related to the power factor operation of these generation plants might lead to undesirable effects at the transmission level with the reactive power support needed by high penetrations of DG capacity potentially impacting on weak areas of the transmission grid. In this work, this problem is formulated as the minimization of the reactive support for DG and is investigated using two different operational perspectives: adopting passive but enhanced power factor and substation settings, and implementing Smart Grid control schemes. These two approaches are modeled using a tailored multi-period AC optimal power flow technique that caters for the variability of demand and generation, and considers N-1 contingencies. The results demonstrate that the enhanced passive approach is able to achieve a performance almost as good as Smart Grid control without the need for any additional investment.


Multinational companies are increasingly promoted as peacebuilders. Major arguments in support of such a position emphasise both interest-based and norm/socialisation-based factors. This article uses research on large mining MNCs in eastern DRC – those that, arguably, should be most likely to build peace according to the above positions – to engage critically with the business for peace agenda. First it demonstrates the limited peacemaking, as well as active peacebuilding, activities in broader society that companies undertake. Second, it finds that even those companies deemed most likely to build peace continue relying on hybrid (in)security practice. Third, this article calls for more reflexivity concerning the implications of the business for peace research agenda. While the latter might contribute to socialising businesses into contributions to peacebuilding, it also produces companies as legitimate authorities, despite their limitations as peacebuilders. As a result, new conflict and insecurity are produced, especially for/with those displaced from land and artisanal mining pits and left with no alternative livelihood options.


Following 25 years of democratic transformation in Eastern Europe, we are still confronted with ambiguous results regarding gender relations. Democratisation was neither synonymous with gender democracy, nor did the transition to a "free" market economy produce economic gender equality. This introduction to our special issues surveys new research on gender relations in the Eastern member states of the European Union. We then evaluate the structural impact of EU mandates in these domains, i. e., on the architecture of Women's Policy Agencies and on the role of women's Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). We present a case study on gender developments in Ukraine as a non-member state to further illustrate the contradictory nature of evolving gender relations in the region as regards women's roles, social policies and female activism. The introduction closes with reflections on the types of research and political activities that could further the pursuit of gender equality.


BACKGROUND
Although heparin is used to anticoagulate the extracorporeal circuit for most patients on maintenance hemodialysis (HD), some patients undergo heparin-free HD. We describe the determinants of heparin-free HD and its association with adverse outcomes using data from a national dialysis provider merged with Medicare claims.

METHODS
We identified patients aged ≥67 years with no recent history of warfarin use who initiated maintenance HD from 2007 to 2008. We applied the Cox regression to a propensity score-matched cohort to estimate the hazards of all-cause mortality, bleeding (gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hemorrhagic stroke, other hemorrhage), atherothrombosis (ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction) and venous thromboembolism (VTE) (deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism).

RESULTS
Among 12 468 patients, 836 (6.7%) were dialyzed heparin-free. In multivariable-adjusted analyses, a history of gastrointestinal bleeding, hemorrhagic stroke and lower hemoglobin and platelet counts were associated with higher odds of heparin-free HD. Heparin-free HD use also varied as much as 4-fold by facility region. We found no significant association of heparin-free HD with all-cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1.08; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.94-1.26], bleeding (HR 1.15; 95% CI: 0.83-1.60), atherothrombosis (HR 1.09, 95% CI: 0.90-1.31) or VTE (HR 1.23, 95% CI: 0.93-1.64) compared with HD with heparin.

CONCLUSIONS
Patient markers of increased risk of bleeding and facility region associated with heparin-free HD use. Despite the potential benefits of avoiding heparin use, heparin-free HD was not significantly associated with decreased hazards of death, bleeding or thrombosis, suggesting that it may be no safer than HD with heparin.


There is an ongoing discussion regarding the impact of adjuvant chemotherapy in Stage II colon cancer. We therefore estimated adjuvant treatment effect in Stage II colon cancer using pooled disease‐free survival (DFS) data from randomized clinical trials (RCT approach) and compared this to real‐world data (RWD approach) estimates. First, we estimated the treatment effect in RCTs by (i) searching relevant trials reporting DFS data, (ii) generating patient‐level data from reported DFS data and (iii) estimating treatment effect in the patient‐level data. Second, the treatment effect was estimated in an observational cohort of 1,947 patients provided by the Netherlands Cancer Registry using three propensity score methods; matching, weighting and stratification. In the RCT approach, patient‐level data of 4,489 patients (events: 853) were generated from seven trials which compared two of the following treatment arms: control, 5FU/LV or FOLFOX. A Cox model was used to estimate a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.77 (0.43;1.10) for 5FU/LV vs. control and 0.93 (0.72;1.15) for FOLFOX vs. 5FU/LV. In the RWD approach, HRs for any adjuvant treatment vs. control were 0.95 (0.50;1.80), 0.88 (0.24;3.21) and 1.05 (0.04;2.06) using matching, weighting and stratification, respectively. There was no significant difference with the estimates from the RCT approach (interaction test, p > 0.10). The RCT data suggest a clinically relevant benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy in terms of DFS, but the estimate did not reach statistical significance. Stratified analyses are required to evaluate whether treatment effect differs in specific subgroups.


What is objectivity in SDG measurement? This commentary explores the complexity of objectivity in measurement when the problems are 'global' yet manifest themselves with local specificities. This special issue helps elicit gaps in knowledge, tools and contexts in SDG measurement. But in doing so through the lens of political economy, 'sets the cat among the pigeons'. The key question they raise is the sanitization of measurement and its sanctification to the status of objectivity without realizing that the process is fraught with contexts that make self‐ interest and conflict of interest an endemic risk.


Laparoscopic endosurgery is an important tool for small ruminant breeding especially due to its wide versatility, both in reproductive biotechnologies and therapeutic approach. The purpose of this review is to present the applicability and advantages of endosurgery for routine use in small ruminants. Several endosurgical techniques of the genitourinary tract of small ruminants, including artificial insemination, embryo transfer, and oocyte retrieval for IVF, ovariectomy, cystotomy and renal biopsy are approached. The endoscopic techniques can improve the development of potential zootechnical indexes on the short-term period in comparison to traditional approaches.


This article on the theories of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann starts with a discussion of the formal codes that give what he calls communication systems their boundaries and coherence. It continues with an account of how these differentiating, observing systems can be seen to operate independently of human intervention, leading to a split between active, conscious human action and impersonal communication systems operating under their own logic, and more specifically to a split between conscious critique and social change. Throughout it is argued that observing and observed, reference and self-reference, and seeing and blindness, are all inseparably linked, raising serious questions about the status and function of social critique as conventionally understood.


Imitation learning (IL) aims to learn an optimal policy from demonstrations. However, such demonstrations are often imperfect since collecting optimal ones is costly. To effectively learn from imperfect demonstrations, we propose a novel approach that utilizes confidence scores, which describe the quality of demonstrations. More specifically, we propose two confidence-based IL methods, namely two-step importance weighting IL (2IWIL) and generative adversarial IL with imperfect demonstration and confidence (IC-GAIL). We show that confidence scores given only to a small portion of sub-optimal demonstrations significantly improve the performance of IL both theoretically and empirically.


The prerogative of boards of directors to nominate the members of the board for election by the shareholders is now challenged by institutional investors determined to acquire the right, under certain conditions, to nominate their own candidates. This challenge to a board prerogative is called proxy access by shareholders to the director nomination process.As a result of amendments to the existing regulations in the United States, there has been a flood of proposals from shareholders to institute rules granting them access to the nominating process. In Canada, a form of access is already provided for by the Canadian Business Corporations Act (CBCA), but the conditions of this access are not perceived – by institutional investors, in particular – as sufficiently congenial because, among other factors, of the differential treatment for candidates put forward by shareholders.Several plausible arguments may be marshalled in support of access to the nominating process by shareholders, such as the enhanced legitimacy of the directors sitting on the board. However, this proposal also raises a host of issues related to the logistics of its application and the potential adverse effects on governance and board dynamics. After an in depth analysis of the arguments for and against proxy access, IGOPP concludes that any process that would grant shareholders the right to put forward candidates for election to the board, whether such a process arises from new regulations or spontaneous proposals from shareholders, is unwise and likely to create serious dysfunctions in corporate governance.We do recommend however that the nomination committee of the board implement a robust consultation process with the corporation's significant shareholders and report in the annual Management Information Circular on the process and criteria adopted for nominating any new director.Given the popularity of proxy access proposals among institutional shareholders, this policy position includes an appendix outlining the typical features, conditions and mechanics proposed for this shareholder access to the director nominating process. All these aspects of the proxy access initiative raise difficult questions to which we unfortunately find few satisfactory answers.


Although the global refugee population has dropped by a third since 1980, to 8.4 million, serious refugee problems continue to fester throughout the world. Most refugees live a marginal existence in sprawling camps in the developing world where they are subject to the threat of violent attacks from combatants, coercion, and banditry. Millions of internally displaced people are on the verge of becoming refugees if they cross international borders. And the civil strife, official brutality, persecution, and ethnic cleansing currently fueling refugee flows show no signs of abating. These realities raise important questions about the role of geostrategic interests and humanitarian goals in a world of competing nation-states, and particularly about the role of the United States in addressing global refugee problems. In response, this essay makes three points. First, despite its historic focus on asylum and resettlement, American refugee policy - which constitutes a major part of the global response to mass human displacement - should focus more than it currently does on the millions of refugees living in camps in the developing world. Only a tiny fraction of the refugee population ever makes it to an advanced industrialized country; the fate of those left behind can impact the spread of conflict, atrocity, and political instability around the world. Second, American officials could enhance refugee policy by adopting a number of strategies sensitive to institutional and political constraints. These include enhancing bureaucratic capacity to identify and resettle refugees through existing U.S. resettlement programs, focusing greater funding and attention on policing in refugee camps, and preparing for potential refugee influxes in this hemisphere by designing responses that honor international legal commitments but realistically provide for international cooperation in meeting refugee burdens. Third, arguments advocating the primacy of national interests over humanitarian goals do not settle - but instead simply raise - the question of how humanitarian policies relate to the interests of the domestic public. At least one principled answer to that question would focus on how a pragmatic, strategic approach to humanitarian problems supports substantial American engagement with refugee problems, whether these arise nearby in the Caribbean or across the world in Darfur. Idealism without limits is all but impossible. But a policy of limits without idealism in a world capable of engendering such capacious misery and expectations of American leadership poses its own dangers.


Since a couple of years ago, the development of shopping malls is booming in the Klang Valley-Kuala Lumpur area in Malaysia. Motivating consumers for frequent visits to shopping complexes is imperative in order to run a successful shopping mall in such a competitive retail environment like the Klang Valley-Kuala Lumpur with over 100 shopping plazas. Getting knowledge of the elements attracting consumers to visit a shopping mall and make purchases is of greatest importance in order to achieve high profit return and increase economic growth and development of a nation. The objective of this research paper is to study the factors influencing the consumers' buying behaviours in the shopping malls. The environmental related factors (building structure, atmosphere, sounds and music and fragrance and smell), services related factors (personal services, price, advertising and promotion), administrative related factors (tenant mix, anchor tenant, entertainments) as well as transportation and location related factors (parking, location, accessibility) were identified as independent variables and consumer's buying behaviour within the malls as a dependent variable. A research framework was developed based on a thorough literature review. There were 200 responses collected from consumers in four shopping malls in Klang Valley-Kuala Lumpur area. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were carried out using the SPSS software package to obtain the results.

The results of this research indicate that environmental, transportation and location related factors have significant impact on consumers' buying behaviours in the shopping malls. The results congruent with previous studies by Brengman et al. (2012) and Grimmer et al. (2016) that indicated that environmental related factors have positive effects on consumers' purchase behaviours. Additionally, this study also found that transportation and location related factors have significant relationship with consumers' purchase behaviours as mentioned by Saber et al. (2017) and Samiran et al. (2015). The findings can be adopted by the shopping malls' managers to improve overall shopping malls' performance as well as by mall developers to evaluate the mall site's location and construction designs. For academicians, this study could be used as a ground work for further exploration of the possibilities to influence consumers' purchase behaviours through different marketing strategies to increase sales and profits.


Abstract This paper offers a critique of the 'binary' nature of much biblical interpretation and ethical belief in the Church, rejecting simplistic 'either-or' approaches to both. Instead there is offered an interpretation of key biblical texts through the lenses of circumstances, needs and motivation. It is argued that, when these factors are taken into account, even for Evangelicals, there is no longer a substantive biblical case against the acceptance of faithful, loving same-sex partnerships and the development of a positive Christian ethic for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. At the very least, the complexity of the interpretive task must lead to greater openness to and acceptance of those from whom we differ.


Introduction On the Internet, thousands of medical Web sites aim to educate consumers in the field of health. The quality of the educational material for patients varies greatly and is rarely "evidence-based" - not only in terms of the scientific accuracy but also in terms of sometimes questionable appropriateness for the target group. Material boring the reader with facts already known to him/her and failing to address common questions or misunderstandings will most likely fail to reach its aims. Conventional studies to determine the information needs of patients and their relatives are expensive and difficult to conduct. At our dermatology portal site we conducted two separate studies using two different approaches to determine the "needs" of the consumers by using both most commonly used "feedback channels" the Internet has to offer: Emails and Web forms. Methods In the first study, we systematically reviewed 209 unsolicited emails we received from consumers in response to our dermatology Web site, analyzing their contents in respect to previous contacts with live physicians, disease duration, level of frustration expressed in the e-mails, and type of information sought. In another study, we developed a web-based questionnaire as a "pre-test" to determine the knowledge level of patients visiting a patient education site on atopic eczema. The "pre-test" is a form-based "quiz", users are asked to voluntarily complete this questionnaire before entering the information system. The quiz contains 24 statements about atopic eczema, which the user should mark as "true" or "untrue". Once completed, answers are stored in a database and the system generates a dynamic, customized page for the user with explanations and hyperlinks to the respective Web pages which contain further information about the respective items. Results Analysis of the 209 emails revealed that many dermatologic patients surfing the Internet and requesting tele-advice have a chronic disease (81%) and seek a second opinion. Seventeen percent express frustration about previous encounters with live physicians. 40% of all e-mails could have been answered by a librarian. In at least 5 instances patients attempt self-diagnosis. Analysis of 1010 responses to the quiz, entered within 5 months (27.2.-27.7.98), revealed some common misunderstandings among patients with atopic eczema, for example that it is a psychosomatic disease or "disease of the nerves", that a special diet is principally required and that AE is an allergy (which is an especially common misunderstanding among parents!). Discussion The studies demonstrate how easy, fast and cost-effectively the information needs of patients and consumers can be determined using interactive venues on the Internet and give some insights into the motivation of consumers to consult the Internet.


The Aboriginal Canada Portal is a single window to Canadian Aboriginal on-line resources, contacts, information, and government programs and services. The portal offers ease of access and navigation to listings of Aboriginal associations, businesses, organizations, bands, communities, groups, news and peoples.


OBJECTIVES AND METHODS
Neuropeptides, as the main neuroendocrine system effectors, regulate notably the response to different stressors via a secretory plasticity within their respective hypothalamic neuronal populations. The aim of the present study was to explore by immunocytochemistry the occurrence and the potential expression plasticity of the novel neuropeptide EM66 in the CRH neurones of stressed rats.

RESULTS
The secretogranin II (SgII)-derived peptide EM66 is strongly expressed within hypothalamic neuroendocrine areas such as the parvocellular aspect of the paraventricular nucleus (pPVN) as well as the median eminence, suggesting a probable hypophysiotropic effect of this peptide. As a first approach to investigate such a role, we evaluated by immunohistochemistry EM66 expression within the pPVN following acute immune stress induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or interleukin-1β (IL-1β) injection in rat. This study showed that EM66 is present in the pPVN but the number of EM66 immunolabeled cells did not fluctuate in this structure following LPS peripheral injection. In line with this observation, an intracerebroventricular injection of IL-1β did not provoke any significant variation of the number of intraparaventricular EM66 neurones.

CONCLUSION
The present data revealed for the first time that EM66 expression would be insensitive to the central and peripheral cytokines within the neurosecretory hypothalamic pPVN. This result indicates that EM66 does not participate to the phenotypic plasticity of hypothalamic parvicellular neurones in response to acute inflammatory stress.


David McAllester and David Rosenblitt's paper Systematic Nonlinear Planning (published in the Proceedings of the Ninth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-91) won the AAAI-10 classic paper award. This commentary by Daniel S. Weld describes the two major impacts the paper had on the field of automated planning.


Abstract In this technologically advanced environment, users have become highly visual, with television, videos, web sites and images dominating the learning environment. These new forms of searching and learning are changing the perspective of what it means to be literate. Literacy can no longer solely rely on text-based materials, but should also incorporate digital images and sounds. Higher education seems to be lagging behind with incorporating visual literacy into their academic programs. This paper explores visual literacy, the digital native, and the importance of integrating visual literacy into our learning curriculum, especially in instructional design programs.