Adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represents the first time that oral communication has been included in the curriculum requirements for K–12 education in many states. If done well, this change will provide important benefits to students. However, effective implementation will require collaboration among policymakers, educators, and experts in oral communication. As educators work to strengthen primary and secondary education in the United States, many agree that schools need educational standards that are grounded in today's needs and shared across states. The CCSS have emerged as a potential solution, and the majority of states have adopted these standards. The addition of oral communication to the primary and secondary curriculum is significant, as bountiful evidence points to oral communication as one of the most important domains of knowledge and skill students can master. Surveys of employers by organizations such as the National Association of College and Employers, surveys of corporate leaders by academic researchers, research on technical and engineering jobs funded by the National Science Foundation, prevalent advice by employment experts, and vast amounts of other evidence consistently place strength in oral communication among the most sought-after attributes in new hires. The CCSS focus on two major areas of communication knowledge and skill: * Comprehension and collaboration * Presentation of knowledge and ideas. The former helps students learn how to work with others in discussion and team settings. Comprehension and collaboration includes being prepared for discussion, interacting with civility, setting goals and deadlines in conversation, asking good questions and answering effectively, integrating and responding thoughtfully to diverse ideas, evaluating oral arguments, and developing other related skills. The latter content area focuses on quality of oral presentations. Presentation of knowledge and ideas includes structuring information for best comprehension, having effective delivery style, making strategic use of presentational aids, adapting to different audiences and contexts, and more. Disciplines Communication | Curriculum and Instruction | Educational Administration and Supervision | Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration | Interpersonal and Small Group Communication | Other Communication | Other Education | Speech and Rhetorical Studies Comments Essay was based on a forum discussion about the Common Core, featuring commentary from Bob Taft, Susan Bodary, Steven Beebe, and Joseph Valenzano. The forum appeared in Communication Education, 64, 241-260. Permission documentation is on file. This article is available at eCommons: http://ecommons.udayton.edu/cmm_fac_pub/6 Volume 10 , Issue 2  April 2015 Print | Email Making Oral Communication a Successful Part of the Common Core Adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represents the first time that oral communication has been included in the curriculum requirements for K–12 education in many states. If done well, this change will provide important benefits to our students. However, effective implementation will require collaboration among policymakers, educators, and experts in oral communication. As educators work to strengthen primary and secondary education in the United States, many agree that schools need educational standards that are grounded in today's needs and shared across states. The CCSS have emerged as a potential solution, and the majority of states have adopted these standards. The addition of oral communication to the primary and secondary curriculum is significant, as bountiful evidence points to oral communication as one of the most important domains of knowledge and skill students can master. Surveys of employers by organizations such as the National Association of College and Employers, surveys of corporate leaders by academic researchers, research on technical and engineering jobs funded by the National Science Foundation, prevalent advice by employment experts, and vast amounts of other evidence consistently place strength in oral communication among the most soughtafter attributes in new hires. The CCSS focus on two major areas of communication knowledge and skill: 1) comprehension and collaboration, and 2) presentation of knowledge and ideas. The former helps students learn how to work with others in discussion and team settings. Comprehension and collaboration includes being prepared for discussion, interacting with civility, setting goals and deadlines in conversation, asking good questions and answering effectively, integrating and responding thoughtfully to diverse ideas, evaluating oral arguments, and developing other related skills. The latter content area focuses on quality of oral presentations. Presentation of knowledge and ideas includes structuring information for best comprehension, having effective delivery style, making strategic use of presentational aids, adapting to different audiences and contexts, and more. While the inclusion of oral communication has the promise to be a great leap forward in students' education, the challenge is to do it well. Several hurdles must be overcome to capitalize on the potential of this new addition. First, new curriculum must be developed. Because oral communication has never been part of the K–12 curriculum, educators do not have a model for best practices or widespread experience upon which to draw. One thing we know is that oral communication is not just "spoken writing." It requires instructional methods and content that are different from written composition. Because oral communication is situated in the CCSS's English Language Arts component, its instruction most likely will fall to those who teach English literature and composition. These faculty will need additional training for their new responsibilities. A common myth is that because everyone communicates daily, anyone can teach oral communication. Unfortunately, it takes only a cursory observation to see that not everyone communicates effectively, and few are highly accomplished. If everyone did it well, we would not need to add it to the curriculum. Many instructors have not had the opportunity to gain expertise in the communication concepts and theories Return to Issue Homepage >> needed to teach oral communication. Popular media are not much help. Some of the communication knowledge offered by the media is incomplete, inaccurate, or completely misleading. For example, the oftenrepeated statistic that communication is 55 percent facial expression, 38 percent vocal cues, and 7 percent verbal is a misreporting of actual research. (In truth, the source of meaning varies dramatically, depending upon what type of information is being communicated.) And, when it comes to civil dialogue, the media are notoriously thin on good examples to model. Much of the interaction we see on reality TV, talk shows, and elsewhere models failure of dialogue. The Communication discipline offers a wide array of research and teaching expertise to support rich and meaningful pedagogy for all levels of the CCSS. Communication scholars have produced extensive bodies of research on many topics encompassed in the CCSS: engaging in civil dialogue, effective listening and questioning, role behavior in groups, analysis of and adaptation to different audiences and contexts, developing a persuasive case, doing critical analysis of arguments and claims, effective structural elements in presentations, use of presentational aids, and more. To most effectively implement oral communication into the K–12 curriculum, policymakers and practitioners need to work with experts in oral communication. Unfortunately, these communication scholars typically have not been well connected with primary and secondary education. Some experts, like Dr. Sara Weintraub at Regis College and Dr. Sherry Morreale at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, have been working with the National Communication Association and educational organizations to develop materials to assist educators in implementing CCSS requirements. However, many more connections need to be made. State education departments and local school systems can consult with oral communication experts at local colleges and universities to collaborate in developing curriculum and assessment of student learning. Such collaboration needs to include new research looking specifically at the CCSS curriculum. While the Communication discipline offers a wealth of expertise on teaching oral communication, most research has been done on college students. Careful investigation is necessary to discern what content and teaching methods will work best for students across different levels of cognitive and emotional development. Educators charged with implementing the CCSS have some challenges to make the oral communication component a valuable addition to students' learning. If policymakers and teachers connect their needs with Communication scholars' expertise, and if these parties develop and test curriculum together, this new element has great potential to have a significant and positive impact. Appropriately, what is needed right now to make that happen is...communication.


Supervised Dimensionality Reduction for Different Learning Architectures Nathan H. Parrish Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Maya R. Gupta Electrical Engineering As datasets become larger and larger, there is a need for algorithms that can efficiently extract the relevant information for a given task and represent it in a concise manner. Supervised dimensionality reduction is one approach to doing this, as it reduces the input space of the data while retaining the characteristics of the data that are useful for classification. This dissertation motivates and analyzes a new supervised dimensionality reduction technique called local discriminative Gaussian (LDG) dimensionality reduction. Experiments show that LDG is fast and effective when compared to other state-of-the-art supervised linear dimensionality reduction methods. LDG is shown to also be effective in the small sample size problem, where few training examples are provided in relation to the input dimensionality of the data. LDG is then extended to the transfer learning problem, where the goal is to classify test examples drawn from a target domain distribution using training examples drawn from a source domain distribution that differs from the target domain. Another contribution of this dissertation is an algorithm that reliably classifies incomplete test data. Incomplete test data classification is useful if one wishes to classify a test sample before all of the test data is gathered, for example, if one wishes to make an early decision on time-series data. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm can classify incomplete time-series data while maintaining accuracy that is comparable to that achieved using the complete test data. Furthermore, LDG dimensionality reduction is shown to greatly reduce the computational complexity of the incomplete test data classifier.


Advances in wireless and sensing technology and the proliferation of context-aware systems have highlighted the requirement to reduce the complexity of system development by establishing a middleware framework of context management. The middleware aims to manage different aspects of context and location management as well as situation reasoning and other related tasks. In this paper, a middleware framework of context management and situation reasoning in MANET environment is proposed. It includes components to model and reason about contexts and situations, to construct location models and estimate the relevance of contexts used for situation reasoning. We also incorporate On-Demand Multicast Routing Protocol (ODMRP) as the underlying messaging protocol among the collaborative hosts to deal with MANET communication issues. We discuss implementation and experimentation issues of the framework in personal digital assistance (PDA) devices which form the ad hoc network as proof-of-concept of the framework. Our preliminary implementation and experimentation shows the capability of the framework to work in such limited devices and to perform the designed capabilities of the middleware


This paper shows that the response time of a Stark echo can be controlled by varying the relative orientation of inhomogeneous electromagnetic fields. It is found that, if nonresonance laser pulses that are spatially inhomogeneous act on the system, a shift in the appearance time of a Stark echo is observed in the nanosecond range.


Cognitive impairments impose important limitations in the performance of activities of daily living. Although there is important evidence on cognitive rehabilitation benefits, its implementation is limited due to time and human resources demands. Moreover, many cognitive rehabilitation interventions lack a solid theoretical framework in the selection of paper-and-pencil tasks by the clinicians. In this endeavor, it would be useful to have a tool that could generate standardized paper-and-pencil tasks, parameterized according to patients' needs. In this paper, we combine the advantages of information and communication technologies with a participatory design approach with 20 health professionals to develop a novel cognitive rehabilitation web-tool: the NeuroRehabLab Task Generator (NTG). The NTG is a free and online available tool that systematically addresses multiple cognitive domains, and easily generates highly personalized paper-and-pencil training tasks. A field evaluation of the NTG with ten stroke patients showed moderate and strong correlations of patients' task performance with their cognitive assessment in multiple cognitive domains. That is, corroborating its usefulness both as an assessment and as rehabilitation tool.


ABSTRACT We investigate multi-market price discovery using two year intraday data for Egyptian and Argentinean depository receipts and their underlying stock. The contribution of the local versus international exchange to price discovery is assessed using the Gonzalo and Granger's permanent-transitory common factor model. Whereas price discovery in the local market for Egyptian equities accounted for 75,8% of the price discovery in the DR, the result was mixed for the Argentinean equities, with an average of only 41,67% of DR prices determined in the local market. We find that size of the company, liquidity and trading volume explain the contribution of each market.


Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen of hosts with impaired immune function or concurrent disease, most notably patients with Cystic Fibrosis and those who have been severely burned. It has an extensive array of virulence factors (VFs) which enable it to colonise and penetrate host tissue. It is responsible for a high percentage of nosocomial infections and is becoming increasingly antibiotic resistant, so there is an immediate need for novel treatments of severe P. aeruginosa infections. Following severe traumatic injury to the skin, the dermis and epidermis may be destroyed, leaving the fascia and endothelium of the vasculature as the final structural barriers protecting the circulation and preventing bacteraemia. Little has been reported on the mechanisms used by P. aeruginosa to penetrate the fascia and enter the circulation, because conventional animal models of dermal injury do not allow for quantitative study of bacterial pathogenesis and host responses. To address this, a novel transdermal chamber was designed, manufactured and implanted into mice allowing for repeated sampling and quantitative analysis of bacterial replication, VFs, and host responses. Despite the bacterial load in the chamber exudate being similar to normal control mice, mice immunosuppressed using cyclophosphamide (CP) had significantly higher levels of Exotoxin A (ETA), P. aeruginosa elastase (PAE) and Phospholipase C (PLC), and developed fatal bacteraemia when compared to immunocompetent mice.

 It was hypothesised that raised levels of ETA and PAE contributed to the pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa in CP treated mice by increasing the permeability of the fascia and endothelium allowing bacteria to enter the circulation. To test this, purified ETA and PAE were added to the chambers of immunocompetent mice, followed by fluorescently labelled dextran to assess efflux measured as a change in dextran concentration in the chamber exudate over time. ETA caused sustained local depletion of leukocytes and fibroblasts, reduction in exudate volume and weight loss, but did not change the dextran concentration in the chamber exudate compared to control mice. PAE was proinflammatory, increased exudate volume, damaged fascial tissue, induced local haemorrhage, and resulted in a decrease in dextran concentration in the chamber compared to controls. Combining ETA and PAE in the chamber resulted in increased weight loss, haemoglobinaemia and increased accumulation of dextran in the local draining lymph nodes.

Preliminary trials using ovine anti-sera to P. aeruginosa antigens in infected chambers of CP-treated mice increased their survival. Collectively, these results show that the increased concentration of VFs, not bacterial load, facilitated bacterial translocation across the fascia and endothelium, and uncovers the underlying significance of the superficial fascia as a defensive barrier against infectious agents. Furthermore, this study suggests that neutrophils are crucial to reducing VF concentration, and that topically applied heterologous anti-P. aeruginosa antibodies may be useful in preventing fatal bacteraemia in severe dermal infections of susceptible patients.


Integrins and chemokines are critical for immune cell recruitment to tissue under homeostatic and pathological conditions.1 The heterodimeric integrin α4β7, expressed on T cells, specifies the recruitment of T cells to the intestinal mucosa upon its interaction with its ligand MAdCAM-1.1 Intestinal specificity is imprinted in T cells via upregulation of α4β7 integrin upon their interaction with CD103 dendritic cells (DCs) in the mesenteric lymph node when their cognate antigen is being presented by the major histocompatibility complex.2 The vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid (RA), produced by CD103 DCs via the enzyme retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (encoded by Aldh1a2 gene), acting on T cells plays a critical role in this intestinal imprinting,3 and DCs with this capacity can be identified by an assay that detects this enzymatic activity (ALDE+).4

Pharmacological intervention in tissue-specific recruitment of T cells has the potential advantage of very precise therapeutic intervention at the site of inflammation.5 This theoretical promise that stemmed from fundamental work and preclinical model systems was indeed upheld. Blockade of the brain-specific localisation signal α4β1 via the anti-α4 antibody Natalizumab is among the most potent therapeutics currently available for multiple sclerosis, while the same antibody that similarly blocks the intestinal-specific α4β7 integrin also demonstrated efficacy in active Crohn's disease.6 However, due to its uncommon, but detrimental adverse effect of reactivating infection with JC virus which may lead to progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML),7 Natalizumab received only limited marketing approval for Crohn's disease in specific jurisdictions. However, more precise approaches, which are indeed specific for the intestinal tract but should leave leucocyte recruitment to the brain and other organs intact, have been developed and are at different stages of clinical development …


Background & objectives: Fluoroquinolone resistance in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria has increased with the widespread use of fluoroquinolones. Fluoroquinolone resistance in Gram-negative bacilli has been widely studied, though staphylococci and enterococci are also notably resistant. Enterococci being the second most common cause of healthcare-associated urinary tract infections (UTIs) fluoroquinolones are often the drug of choice. This study was undertaken to assess the risk factors associated with fluoroquinolone-resistant enterococcal UTI in a tertiary level health facility in north India. Methods: A total of 365 patients with UTI caused by enterococci were studied over a period of two years. Patients with ciprofloxacin-resistant and susceptible UTI were considered as cases and controls, respectively. Resistance profile of the isolates against common antibiotics was studied by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination. Mechanisms for fluoroquinolone resistance was studied by efflux pump inhibitor activity and multiplex PCR targeting the qnr genes. Results: A total of 204 (55.89%) cases and 161 (44.1%) controls were identified. The fluoroquinolone-resistant isolates were significantly resistant to ampicillin, high strength aminoglycosides and vancomycin. The majority (78%) of the resistant isolates showed efflux pump activity. Treatment in indoor locations, presence of urinary catheters and pregnancy along with recent exposure to antibiotics especially fluoroquinolones, third generation cephalosporins and piperacillin-tazobactam were identified as independent risk factors. Interpretation & conclusions: Our results showed that fluoroquinolone resistance in enterococcal UTI was largely associated with indoor usage of antibiotics and use of indwelling devices. Knowledge of risk factors is important to curb this emergence of resistance.


As public administration programs extend their online education offerings to reach more time- and place-bound students, and as accredited institutions become interested in documenting teaching and learning effectiveness, the degree to which online students are successful as compared to their classroom counterparts is of interest to teaching faculty and others charged with assessment. By comparing student performance measures and assessments of learning experience from both online and traditional sections of a required graduate public administration research methods course taught by the same instructor, this paper provides evidence that student performance as measured by grade is independent of the mode of instruction. Persistence in an online environment may be more challenging in research methods classes than in other public administration classes. Furthermore, participation may be less intimidating, and the quality and quantity of interaction may be increased in online classes.


A novel, accurate and precise RP-UFLC method for determination of xanthinol nicotinate has been developed and validated. Separation was achieved on an Enable C18G column (250 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm) using acetonitrile: 10 mM TBAHS (40:60, v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min and PDA detection at 274 nm. Linearity was observed in the concentration range of 1.0-60 μg/mL (r 2 =0.999). The method was validated for accuracy, precision, stability, specificity, robustness and system suitability. Forced degradation was performed by using HCl, NaOH, H2O2, thermal and UV radiation. The method was used successfully for the determination of xanthinol nicotinate in tablet dosage form.


Background and Aims: Mucosal healing is an important therapeutic goal for ulcerative colitis. Once-daily administration of budesonide 2-mg foam is widely used for inducing clinical remission. No study has assessed the usefulness of twice-daily budesonide 2mg foam on mucosal healing in ulcerative colitis patients. We explored the efficacy for mucosal healing of once- or twice-daily budesonide foam in distal ulcerative colitis patients. Methods: This study was a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. In all, 165 patients with active, mild to moderate distal ulcerative colitis were randomised to three groups: once- or twice-daily budesonide 2mg/25ml foam, or placebo foam, for 6 weeks. Complete mucosal healing [endoscopic subscore = 0] and the safety profile were assessed at Week 6. Prespecified and post hoc analyses were used. Results: The percentages of complete mucosal healing in the twice-daily budesonide foam group were 46.4% compared with 23.6% in the once-daily group [p = 0.0097], or 5.6% in the placebo group [p < 0.0001]. The percentages of clinical remission and the percentages of endoscopic subscore ≤ 1 in the twice-daily budesonide foam group were 48.2% and 76.8%, compared with 50.9% and 69.1% in the once-daily group [no difference], or 20.4% and 46.3% in the placebo group [p = 0.0029 and p = 0.0007], respectively. In the subgroup of patients with previous use of a 5-aminosalicylic acid suppository or enema, there was a greater percentage of complete mucosal healing in the twice-daily budesonide foam group [32.0%] compared with that in the once-daily [8.7%, p = 0.0774] or placebo groups [4.8%, p = 0.0763], though there was no significant difference. No serious adverse event occurred. Conclusions: A significantly greater percentage of patients receiving twice-daily administration of budesonide foam compared with once-daily administration/placebo achieved complete mucosal healing. This is the first study to evaluate the endoscopic efficacy of twice-daily administration of 6-week budesonide foam treatment for ulcerative colitis.


Research emphasizing effects of migration on sub-Saharan African families has focused on implications of absent fathers, particularly in areas with historic male migration. Yet, the number of women migrating throughout Africa is likely to have more profound effects on family stability and child well-being. When women move, they face difficult decisions of migrating with children, potentially exposing them to risky environments, or leaving them with others. Little is known about how women make these choices or of implications for children's well-being whether they co-migrate or are 'mothered from a distance.' This research will shed light on decision-making processes of migrant mothers, and the implications of mother's migration on children's residence using longitudinal quantitative data and interviews with migrants in Nairobi's informal settlements. As African women continue to migrate to cities, this research points to important implications with regard to how women manage family life when migrating to impoverished urban communities.


ABSTRACT Pancreatic β-cell-type-specific and glucose-inducible transcription of the insulin gene is mediated by the basic helix-loop-helix factors that bind to and activate expression from an E-box element within its enhancer. The E-box activator is a heteromeric complex composed of a β-cell-enriched factor, BETA2/NeuroD, and ubiquitously distributed proteins encoded by the E2A and HEB genes. Previously, we demonstrated that the adenovirus type 5 E1A proteins repressed stimulation by the E-box activator in β cells. In this study, our objective was to determine how E1A repressed activator function. The results indicate that E1A reduces activation by binding to and sequestering the p300 cellular coactivator protein. Thus, we show that expression of p300 in β cells can relieve inhibition by E1A, as well as potentiate activation by the endogenous insulin E-box transcription factors. p300 stimulated activation from GAL4 (amino acids 1 to 147) fusion constructs of either BETA2/NeuroD or the E2A-encoded E47 protein. The sequences spanning the activation domains of BETA2/NeuroD (amino acids 156 to 355) and E47 (amino acids 1 to 99 and 325 to 432) were required for this response. The same region of BETA2/NeuroD was shown to be important for binding to p300 in vitro. The sequences of p300 involved in E47 and BETA2/NeuroD association resided between amino acids 1 and 1257 and 1945 and 2377, respectively. A mutation in p300 that abolished binding to BETA2/NeuroD also destroyed the ability of p300 to activate insulin E-box-directed transcription in β cells. Our results indicate that physical and functional interactions between p300 and the E-box activator factors play an important role in insulin gene transcription.


Published to coincide with the 30th anniversary of The Selfish Gene, this sparkling collection explores the impact of Richard Dawkins as scientist, rationalist, and one of the most important thinkers alive today. Specially commissioned pieces by leading figures in science, philosophy, literature, and the media, such as Daniel C. Dennett, Matt Ridley, Steven Pinker, Philip Pullman, and the Bishop of Oxford, highlight the breadth and range of Dawkins' influence on modern science and culture, from the gene's eye view of evolution to his energetic engagement in public debates on science, rationalism, and religion. This volume, which includes personal reminiscences and critical debate, as well as accessible discussions of science, is a stimulating tribute to a remarkable intellectual, written by some of the finest writers and scientists working today.


Background A paediatric global ratings scale for endoscopy(PGRS) is currently being piloted nationally, and this will provide a quality and safety framework for service improvement in Paediatric endoscopy units. An annual endoscopy audit plan is essential to help units identify that they are meeting the required measures and identifying areas of improvement. Aim To develop an annual endoscopy audit plan to facilitate quality improvement in the endoscopy service in a tertiary centre. Subjects and Methods A retrospective audit of all procedures done by the Paediatric gastroenterology team during 1/10/16–15/ 10/16 was done. We used measures from the P-GRS to develop standards for the audit plan. Letters of correspondence, consent, operation notes, anaesthetic charts, nursing documentation and biopsy reports were reviewed. Patient feedback questionnaires were also included. Results 46 patients(age range 8 months to 17 years) had endoscopies during the study period. 78%(36) of these had elective procedures. Out of the 22%(10) who had non-elective procedures, 18%(8) were urgent and 4%(2) were emergency procedures. 100% of procedures had a clearly documented indication, and had completed consent forms, all of which were 2-stage. The procedure completion rate was 100%, and bowel preparation was adequate in 98%. One patient developed post-operative oxygen requirement; otherwise there were no other post-procedure complications. There were no deaths within 30 days of the procedure. Patient feedback questionnaires showed 78% of respondents rated their overall endoscopy experience as 'excellent' or 'good'. One patient had an endoscopic assessment for Upper GI bleeding during the audit period. This patient was risk assessed and had an endoscopic assessment appropriately. Summary and conclusion The audit showed that our Unit is performing well against a number of the quality and safety measures in the P-GRS. Areas that require improvement include developing procedure-specific after care patient information leaflets, better documentation on patients' anaesthetic needs, and procuring an endoscopy reporting system(ERS). This also highlighted the need for close collaboration with other stakeholders such as anaesthetics and theatre admissions staff to share findings and implement change.


Fluorine in polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) changes its states and transfers to titania by comilling and annealing of a titania-PTFE mixture. XPS, F-19 MAS NMR, FT-IR. Raman spectra, TEM and EDX analyses consistently indicated the oxidative decomposition of PTFE, inducing partial fluorination of titania. Incorporation of fluorine into titania was unambiguously confirmed by the appearance of a new XPS F1s peak at similar to 685 eV, similar to those observed from TiOF2. The intensity of the new F1s peak increased with comilling time and became a sole peak after milling for 3 h. At the same time, F-19 MAS NMR lines specific to PTFE disappeared. From these observations, we concluded that extensive decomposition of PTFE with simultaneous change in the chemical states of fluorine took place with the aid of titania. Upon annealing the comilled mixture in air, the amount of fluorine in the mixture decreased with increasing temperature, while the remaining fluorine migrated into the titania lattice, as confirmed by the decrease in the chemical shift of the F-19 MAS NMR lines and the decrease in the rutile (211) and (220) interplanar distances. These findings allow us to devise how to control the amount, states, and spatial distribution of the fluorine incorporated into titania.


Esophageal atresia is a congenital malformation incompatible with life. The incidence is quite variable in Chile and all over the world.  Objective:  To estimate the prevalence at birth of esophageal atresia, comparing with previously published data.  Patients and Methods:  All children with congenital anomalies born at the UniversityofChile Clinical Hospital from 1999 to 2009 were included.  Results:  19.312 births during the study period were registered, 1710 of them had a congenital anomaly (8,9 %). Fifteen of the malformed newborns had esophageal atresia (7.8 x 10.000): one stillbirth and 14 alive newborns. 78,6% of cases were discharge alive from the hospital, 3 (21,4 %) died during the hospitalization. Only 1/15 was an isolated esophageal atresia, 6 cases were syndromic and 9 were classified as VACTERL association. Prenatal diagnosis was made in 73,3 % of the cases. Newborns with esophageal atresia had significantly less birth weight, less gestational age and more malformed relatives, than control newborns. Metrorrhagia during pregnancy in mothers was more frequent in cases than controls. No difference in maternal age between groups was founded.  Conclusion:  The esophageal atresia prevalence at birth was higher than previously reported local data, and lower than the rest of ECLAMC data; this could be explained because the University of Chile Clinical Hospital is a reference Hospital for prenatal diagnosed cases.


Nowadays it's more and more important for food consumers, to consume food of high quality. At the same time the economic pressure on the food industry increases. A quality defect of produce can mean losses in processing. A substandard qualitiy of produce can negatively affect the economic situation of the producing farmers. To produce high quality milk, it's necessary that the production and surveillance form part of a quality assurance system. This system works as an early warning system. Deficiencies in udder health and milk production can be detected early by regulary controlled so called Critical Control Points and Control Points and can so be remedied and prevented.
The aim of this study was to find Control Points and Critical Control Points as parts of a quality assurance system (QAS) for the control areas of milk quality and udder health in Dairy herds. This quality assurance system was finally implemented in the Veterinary Herd Controlling System (VHC-System) as a part of the Integrated Veterinary Herd – Health Advisory System (IVAS).
Based on the research of national and international literature, a quantity of direct and indirect Control Points and Critical Control Points was collected.
To be put in the VHC-system the Control Points have to meet certain demands. If they don't meet these demands, further investigation or some action of improvement has to occur.
Critical Control Points are examinations, which are indispensable for the maintenance of udder health. They are placed on level of the Status quo-assessment. Their controlling has to be cost-effective and practical for monitoring routine. Control Points are continuative examinations or actions, which are performed if Critical Control Points oder superior Control Points exceed their thresholds. So called "Direct" Control Points are referring directly to animal health or performance. "Indirect" Control Points serve the controlling of animal environment.
For each Control Area an intensity pyramide was constructed. So the activities can be fit in the VHC-System following Status quo assessment, aimes and situation of each dairy farm. The found Control Points and their indicators were implemented in a flow chart to be used by the veterinarian as a tool for the Status quo assessment and the herd health advisory in the control areas milk quality and udder health. Due to the dynamic it is possible to adapt the system to the needs and possibilities of each dairy farm.
The implementation of the QAS in the VHC-System of the Integrated Veterinary Herd – Health Advisory System enables to control, discuss and if necessary to improve the control areas udder health and milk quality. This effects an improvement of udder health and guarantees the fulfillment of the requirements to milk quality on the part of the consumers, the law and dairy industry.


This paper provides an assessment of the seismic performance of a code-designed buckling restrained braced frame building using the performance-based analysis procedures prescribed in ASCE 41-06. The building was designed based on the standards of the ASCE 7-05 for a typical office building located in San Francisco, CA. Nonlinear modeling parameters and acceptance criteria for buckling restrained brace components were developed to match ASCE 41-06 design standards for structural steel components, since buckling restrained braces are not currently included in ASCE 41-06. The building was evaluated using linear static, linear dynamic, nonlinear static and nonlinear dynamic analysis procedures. This study showed that the linear procedures produced more conservative results, with the building performing within the intended Life Safety limit, while the nonlinear procedures predicted that the building performed closer to the Immediate Occupancy limit for the 2/3 maximum considered earthquake hazard. These results apply to the full maximum considered earthquake hazard as well, under which the building performed within the Collapse Prevention limit in the linear analysis results and within the Life Safety limit in the nonlinear analysis results. The results of this paper will provide data for the engineering profession on the behavior of buckling restrained braced frames as well as performance based engineering as it continues to evolve. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


This thesis focuses on the experience of time by three nineteenth-centui-y German travellers in Africa, Heinrich Earth, Gerhard Rohlfs and Gustav Nachtigal; on their use of time to structure their travel narratives; and their use of temporal concepts to distinguish themselves from the 'primitive' Africans. The thesis argues that the role of the temporal mind-set during encounters between Germans and Africans is dialectic and subversive. Far from blindly imposing their conceptions on what they encountered, the Germans found their familiar concepts in varying degrees unsettled and even undermined by their encounter with alterity. The opening chapter outlines the temporal mind-set with which the explorers presupposed: an experience of time as both linear and homogeneous chiefly constituted by scientific progress, industrialisation and the expansion of the railway; and a conception of linear-progressive historical time influenced by Hegelian historicism. The second chapter looks at time in its narrating function, investigating macro and micro narrative patterns in the travel narratives. An analysis of the relationship between Erzdhlzeit and erzdhlte Zeit demonstrates the notation of time and date as an expression of control over the experience of alterity. The discussion then moves from time to space in the third chapter, demonstrating the slow erosion of the explorers' mind-sets by their experience of African climate and terrain. The fourth chapter discusses the role of the occidental temporal mind-set during cultural encounters and how, if at all, it is employed as a means of asserting cultural superiority. The thesis concludes that the explorers Earth and Rohlfs employ the time-set as a means of understanding new experiences. Nachtigal in contrast, willingly collapses western notions of time and history to create a totality of experience. He alone welcomes the dissolution of the occidental subject as a discovery of primal authenticity. However, all three explorers find that they cannot but inscribe the experience of non-Western time-sets in their narratives. Thus the imposition of historicist, linear time is unsuccessful. It is argued that this is the result of a particularly German interest in alternative regions of human experience other than the aggressively imperialist reduction of otherness. For the explorers remained open, in varying degrees, to dialectical exchange.


Primary teeth have one very distinct feature which sets them apart from the permanent dentition: they undergo physiological resorption leading to shedding. In certain conditions like agenesis of permanent tooth bud, the underlying force for resorption is missing resulting in retained tooth. When such a retained tooth presents with carious pulp exposure, endodontic treatment helps to maintain the space and prevents arch length discrepancy. This article presents a case report of root canal treatment of retained mandibular primary molar with congenitally missing second premolar obturated with guttapercha.


A multimethod, multitrait approach was used to examine the relations of aggression and hyperactivity to mastery motivation in preschool children. Parallel measures of multiple facets of mastery motivation were devised from findings in two studies: (study 1) a maternal report questionnaire for 332 twins, ages 3-5, recruited from the twin registry in a Western state; and (study 2) behavioral observations and ratings by trained preschool personnel from the Bethesda Longitudinal Study for 152 normally developing, middle to upper income children during their first 3 years. The findings from both studies indicated that high involvement in and/or vigor at gross motor tasks was associated With high activity, impulsivity, and aggression in preschoolers. Persistence at challenging object-oriented tasks contributed negatively to predicting hyperactivity (Study 1) and impulsivity (Study 2), but did not predict activity level (Study 2), suggesting that the impulsivity aspect of hyperactivity is what is negatively associated with low task persistence. It is argued that, given the high incidence of attention deficit disorders with hyperactivity (ADHD) and aggression in school settings, it is important to study their precursors in preschoolers. Data from the two studies imply that it is important to distinguish between high activity level and hyperactivity, which includes elements of impulsivity and difficulty in maintaining attentiOn to tasks. Teachers may misinterpret social or gross motor mastery attempts, accompanied by high activity level, as ADHD so should be cautioned not to overinterpret what they see. (Contains 11 references.) (KB) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************


Ultimately, I argue that one important response to the demise of race-based affirmative action should be to incorporate the experience of segregation into diversity strategies. A college applicant who has thrived despite exposure to poverty in his school or neighborhood deserves special consideration. Those blessed to come of age in poverty-free havens do not. I conclude that use of place, rather than race, in diversity programming will better approximate the structural disadvantages many children of color actually endure, while enhancing the possibility that we might one day move past the racial resentment that affirmative action engenders. While I propose substituting place for race in university admissions, I am not suggesting that American society has become post-racial. In fact, much social science research supports the continued salience of race, especially in the subconscious of most Americans. My proposal accounts for the racial architecture of opportunity in this country through the race-neutral means of place. Ultimately, I conclude that the social costs of racial preferences outweigh any marginal benefits when race-neutral alternatives are available that will create racial diversity by expanding opportunity to those most disadvantaged by structural barriers. The truly disadvantaged— black and brown children trapped in high-poverty environs—are not getting the quality of schooling they need, partially because backlash wedge politics undermine any possibility for common sense public policies.6 Affirmative action as currently practiced in admissions at most elite institutions does little to help this group and may make matters worse by contributing to political gridlock borne of racial cleavage. I would not make place the only dimension for consideration of affirmative action, but I do think that, given how large it looms in structuring educational opportunity and outcomes, it should be given much greater weight and attention than it currently receives in diversity programs. I would also give considerable weight to another factor that disproportionately affects blacks and Latinos: low family wealth. Finally, I call on universities to radically reform admissions processes and jettison concepts of "merit" that are unrelated to their professed missions.


Given only the URL of a web page, can we identify its language? This is the question that we examine in this paper.

Such a language classifier is, for example, useful for crawlers of web search engines, which frequently try to satisfy certain language quotas. To determine the language of uncrawled web pages, they have to download the page, which might be wasteful, if the page is not in the desired language. With URL-based language classifiers these redundant downloads can be avoided.

We apply a variety of machine learning algorithms to the language identification task and evaluate their performance in extensive experiments for five languages: English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Our best methods achieve an F-measure, averaged over all languages, of around .90 for both a random sample of 1,260 web page from a large web crawl and for 25k pages from the ODP directory. For 5k pages of web search engine results we even achieve an F-measure of .96. The achieved recall for these collections is .93, .88 and .95 respectively. Two independent human evaluators performed considerably worse on the task, with an F-measure of .75 and a typical recall of a mere .67. Using only country-code top-level domains, such as .de or .fr yields a good precision, but a typical recall of below .60 and an F-measure of around .68.


Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant, multisystem disorder caused by mutations in either the TSC1 or TSC2 genes and characterized by developmental brain abnormalities. In the present study we discuss the neuropathological findings of a 32‐year‐old patient with a germ‐line mutation in the TSC2 gene. Post mortem MRI combined with histology and immunocytochemical analysis was applied to demonstrate widespread anatomical abnormalities of gray and white matter structure. TSC brain lesions were analyzed for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on chromosome 16p13. The neuropathological supratentorial abnormalities were represented by multiple subependymal nodules (SENs) and cortical tubers. In addition to cerebral cortical lesions, cerebellar lesions and hippocampal sclerosis were also observed. LOH was not found in the cortical tubers and SENs of this patient. Immunocytochemical analysis of the TSC brain lesions confirmed the cell‐specific activation of the mTOR pathway in cortical tubers, SENs and cerebellum, as well as differential cellular localization of hamartin and tuberin, the TSC1 and TSC2 gene products. Examination of the pathological brain regions revealed activated microglial cells and disruption of blood‐brain barrier permeability. Predominant intralesional cell‐specific distribution was also detected for the multidrug transporter protein P‐gp, possibly explaining the mechanisms underlying the pharmacoresistance to antiepileptic drugs. Autopsy findings confirm the complexity of the brain abnormalities encountered in TSC patients and proved useful in clarifying certain aspects of the pathogenesis, epileptogenesis and pharmacoresistance of TSC lesions.


In order to determine the effect of air pollution on protein content of pollen, two species of Cassia viz. C. siamia L. and C. fistula L were studie from industrial area of Nagpur (MIDC, Hingna). Civil lines area was considered as control area. Pollen proteins were extracted, and analyzed by SDS PAGE method. Total protein content of pollen extracts was measured by method of Lowry et. al. (1951). Our investigations revealed noticeable differences in protein contents. According to observations more bands for protein were obtained for samples from control area as compared to samples from polluted area. Variations in protein contents were correlated with industrial pollution.


The purpose of this study is to numerically investigate the turbulence modulation of polydisperse particles in a square particle-laden jet. Turbulence modulation describes the effects of fluctuating velocity and intensity when the particles and continuous fluid interact in a turbulent flow field. The rate at which turbulence modulation is altered is dependent upon parameters such as particle size, mass loading, Stokes number, coupling, volume fraction and mechanisms of turbulence modulation. This study modifies the analytical model developed by Yarin and Hetsroni (1993) to account for the transitional drag regime for coarse polydisperse particles. The particles under study are dilute, inert and spherical, with relatively high Stokes numbers, and classified as having two-way coupling with the fluid. The new analytical model is compared to numerical results using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software FLUENT (ANSYS, Inc.). The turbulence model employed is the standard k-ε model. This study will analyze the effects of varying mass content and particle ratios to investigate how turbulence modulation is influenced. The new model and the CFD results show good agreement in the cases where the mass contents of each particle size are equal. This study will also look into the effects of polydispersion, and the concentration distribution, for indoor air applications. It was found that, in certain cases, the monodisperse assumption slightly over-predicts the concentration distribution in the enclosed region.


This paper derives a three stage Cournot-oligopoly game for product innovation, expenditure on introducing the product and competition on the product market. Product innovation is assumed to increase consumer utility but is effective only if the innovating firm invests in marketing, so that consumers become aware of the newly developed product. Firms first decide whether or not to conduct product innovation and then determine their expenditure for bringing the new product to the market. In the final stage of the game, they are involved in competition on the product market. Key findings of the theoretical model are that both the marketing of a product innovation and a firm's propensity to introduce an innovation decrease with an increase in the number of competitors and the degree of product substitutability. An increase in market demand has a positive effect on product innovation and marketing effort. These findings are tested empirically using survey data from 519 German service sector firms which mainly produce consumer goods. A simultaneous sequential Tobit model is applied in the empirical part of this paper. It turns out that the predictions of the theoretical model are supported by the empirical findings.


To most of us, Rose O'Neill is best known as the creator of the Kewpie doll, perhaps the most widely known character in American culture until Mickey Mouse. Prior to O'Neill's success as a doll designer, however, she already had earned a reputation as one of the best-known female commercial illustrators. Her numerous illustrations appeared in America's leading periodicals, including Life, Harper's Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan. While highly successful in the commercial world, Rose O'Neill was also known among intellectuals and artists for her contributions to the fine arts and humanities. In the early 1920s, her more serious works of art were exhibited in galleries in Paris and New York City. In addition, she published a book of poetry and four novels. Yet who was Rose Cecil O'Neill? Over the course of the twentieth century, Rose O'Neill has captured the attention of journalists, collectors, fans, and scholars who have disagreed over whether she was a sentimentalist or a cultural critic. In these memoirs, O'Neill reveals herself as a woman who preferred art, activism, and adventure to motherhood and marriage. Featuring photographs from the O'Neill family collection, The Story of Rose O'Neill fully reveals the ways in which she pushed at the boundaries of her generation's definitions of gender in an effort to create new liberating forms.


Narrative game designer, or simply narrative designer, is a role in contemporary computer game development. The narrative designer is responsible for designing the player's experience of a game's fictional world. This study delves into the practice of narrative design from the perspective of embodied presence. In comparison with books, movies and other media, the medium of computer games excels in offering the media user the feeling of being a physically present participant in the fictional world. When exploiting the merits of embodied presence, narrative designers are challenged to express fictional worlds without disrupting this feeling of "being-there". Close-ups, flashbacks, ellipses and other narrative devices–common to other audio-visual media–cannot be employed to the same extent. This study reconceptualises and apposes the notions of presence and narrative by critically expanding on Presence Theory, phenomenological media theory and narratology. Drawing from insights and practices in game, film, performance, architecture and literature studies, the study subsequently proposes alternative narrative devices, more compatible with the interactive and spatial nature of computer games, enabling designers to express fictional worlds while maintaining the player's feeling of embodied presence.


Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women in the United States as well as in Arab countries. Yet, Arab women have lower mammography rates than women of other ethnicities. This is due to an array of barriers, including but not limited to lack of knowledge, cultural and linguistic barriers, and fear of discrimination. Moreover, Arab immigrants have been underserved by research and outreach efforts primarily because many Arabs are considered of the White (Caucasian) race. Given that there is a large Arab population in our catchment area (Philadelphia, PA) we customized a breast cancer education program specifically for Arab Muslim women. In the first phase of the project, 10 Arab Muslim women (ages 35 and older) living in Philadelphia were recruited to provide formative feedback regarding the appropriateness and clarity of the presentation. Participants were encouraged to communicate their thoughts, preferences, concerns, and questions surrounding breast health. Even though most participants indicated that they are insured, can find health information easily, and can understand what health professionals say, their discussion conveyed a strong need for breast health education in this community. After analyzing their input, we refined the presentation and evaluated its effectiveness in a second group of Arab Muslim women (n = 21). Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs surrounding BC were captured at the beginning of the workshop and at the end using a pre/post-test. A paired t-test showed a significant increase in BC knowledge scores after the presentation (93.5%, SD = 8.46) than before the presentation (79.22%, SD = 17.37); t (20) = -4.088, p = 0.001. In addition, there was an improvement in attitudes and intent regarding self-awareness of breast health and mammography screening. To further augment the educational program, an Arab plain-language brochure was developed and reviewed with the participants. Results from Phase I and II will be reviewed during the session, including additional questions asked by participants during the formative evaluation process. The findings from this effort further indicate the need to expand education (and screening) services to this community. Citation Format: Evelyn T. Gonzalez, Alia Salam. Adapting a breast cancer education program to reach Arab Muslim women [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr C06.


AJAX-based Web 2.0 applications rely on stateful asynchronous client/server communication, and client-side runtime manipulation of the DOM tree. This not only makes them fundamentally different from traditional web applications, but also more error-prone and harder to test. We propose a method for testing AJAX applications automatically, based on a crawler to infer a flow graph for all (client-side) user interface states. We identify AJAX-specific faults that can occur in such states (related to DOM validity, error messages, discoverability, back-button compatibility, etc.) as well as DOM-tree invariants that can serve as oracle to detect such faults. We implemented our approach in ATUSA, a tool offering generic invariant checking components, a plugin-mechanism to add application-specific state validators, and generation of a test suite covering the paths obtained during crawling. We describe two case studies evaluating the fault revealing capabilities, scalability, required manual effort and level of automation of our approach.


Graphics processing units function well as high performance computing devices for scientific computing. The non-standard processor architecture and high memory bandwidth allow graphics processing units (GPUs) to provide some of the best performance in terms of FLOPS per dollar. Recently these capabilities became accessible for general purpose computations with the CUDA programming environment on NVIDIA GPUs and ATI Stream Computing environment on ATI GPUs. Many applications in computational science are constrained by memory access speeds and can be accelerated significantly by using GPUs as the compute engine. Using graphics processing units as a compute engine gives the personal desktop computer a processing capacity that competes with supercomputers. Graphics Processing Units represent an energy efficient architecture for high performance computing in flow simulations and many other fields. This document reviews the graphic processing unit and its features and limitations.


The high rates of indigenous peoples exposed to traumatic experiences are exacerbated by the affects of historical trauma passed from generation to generation. Research exploring the individual and collective impact of this phenomenon is growing internationally. Yet little is known about Mäori practices that facilitate healing from historical trauma. This article aims to analyse the affects of this trauma on Mäori by exploring them in the context of the growing body of international historical trauma research. It then discusses how Mäori defi ned wellbeing traditionally, and outlines the methods used to promote healing from trauma. To summarise, it demonstrates how these methods are being widely used to facilitate healing and discusses how their application across health services will enhance Mäori wellbeing.


Recently, researchers have made significant progress combining the advances in deep learning for learning feature representations with reinforcement learning. Some notable examples include training agents to play Atari games based on raw pixel data and to acquire advanced manipulation skills using raw sensory inputs. However, it has been difficult to quantify progress in the domain of continuous control due to the lack of a commonly adopted benchmark. In this work, we present a benchmark suite of continuous control tasks, including classic tasks like cart-pole swing-up, tasks with very high state and action dimensionality such as 3D humanoid locomotion, tasks with partial observations, and tasks with hierarchical structure. We report novel findings based on the systematic evaluation of a range of implemented reinforcement learning algorithms. Both the benchmark and reference implementations are released at this https URL in order to facilitate experimental reproducibility and to encourage adoption by other researchers.


This article analyses the complex relationship between impact assessments (IAs) of all types (such as comprehensive, regulatory, economic, social or environmental IAs) and their governance environment, using an analytical framework based on the concepts of governance styles and metagovernance. It is argued that each governance system builds on specific values, traditions and history and produces specific mixtures of hierarchical, network and market styles of governance (with or without an explicit metagovernance approach). Although governance can be considered as a non-normative perspective on polity and politics, the normative dimension of governance practice results in, for example, conflicting convictions about which type of knowledge or 'evidence' is valid for IA processes. This is particularly relevant because IAs have an important role in improving the knowledge base of governance. The concrete governance system in a specific country or other administrative entity influences the design and governance of IA systems positively or negatively, which leads to a variety of challenges. The conclusion is drawn that understanding the governance context and its dynamics can help improving IA governance.


Abstract In this paper, we examine the concept definitions a group of South African upper secondary school mathematics teachers (N = 47) express and how their understanding of the truth value, the role of variable and the syntax of expression appear in the participants' explanations for their assessment of examples and non-examples of equations. We use content analysis and standard quantitative methods. The data consists of the participants' answers to a questionnaire reflecting both Teachers' concept definitions of equation and their skills in classifying examples and non-examples of equation. Altogether 27 participants were able to give a correct definition of the equation concept. Ten participants' definition was slightly ambiguous yet meaningful and ten participants failed in this task. In general, the participants had very high confidence in the sufficiency of their skills in classifying examples and non-examples of equations. Nevertheless, on average, they only succeeded in correctly identifying an equation in 13 of 24 items, with most of the equations being quite simple and none beyond the upper secondary school level. The findings of this study also reveal a common and dominant conception that equations should always possess the truth value 'true' although truth value is discussed only in one participant's concept definition. Secondly, the participants are quite careless about the syntax and the involved binary relation in particular despite the fact that the correct form of equations and the equality relation were regularly mentioned in their concept definitions of equation. Finally, some participants seem to think that there is only one equation related to each algebraic problem.


Abstract. We report on preliminary steps in the homogenisation of HadISD, a sub-daily, station-based data set covering 1973–2013. Using temperature, dew point temperature, sea-level pressure and wind speeds, change points are detected using the Pairwise Homogenisation Algorithm from Menne and Williams Jr. (2009). Monthly-mean values and monthly-mean diurnal ranges (temperature and dew point temperature) or monthly-maximum values (wind speeds) are processed using the full network of 6103 stations in HadISD. Where multiple change points are detected within 1 year, they are combined and the average date is used. Under the assumption that the underlying true population of inhomogeneity magnitudes is Gaussian, inhomogeneity magnitudes as small as around 0.5 °C, 0.5 hPa or 0.5 m s−1 have been successfully detected. The change point dates and inhomogeneity magnitudes for each of the calculation methods will be provided alongside the data set to allow users to select stations which have different levels of homogeneity. We give an example application of this change point information in calculating global temperature values from HadISD and comparing these to CRUTEM4. Removing the most inhomogeneous stations results in a better match between HadISD and CRUTEM4 when matched to the same coverage. However, further removals of stations with smaller and fewer inhomogeneities worsen the match.


Poor households face many constraints in trying to save, invest, and protect their livelihoods. They take financial intermediation seriously and devote considerable effort to finding workable solutions. Most of the solutions are found in the informal sector, which, so far, offers low-income households convenience and flexibility unmatched by formal intermediaries. The microfinance movement is striving to match the convenience and flexibility of the informal sector, while adding reliability and the promise of continuity, and in some countries it is already doing this on a significant scale. Getting to this point – reaching poor people on a massive scale with popular products on a continuous basis – has involved rethinking basic assumptions along the way. One by one, the keywords of the 1980s and 1990s – women, groups, graduation, microbusinesses, and credit – are giving way to those of the new century – convenience, reliability, continuity, and a flexible range of services. We describe the elements that we feel have contributed most and that are most relevant for India.


The aim of this study was to assess the impact of meal composition on the plasmatic ratio between Tryptophan (Trp) and 5 other large neutral amino acids (5LNAAs: isoleucine, leucine, valine, tyrosine, phenylalanine). This study included 5 female Labrador Retrievers. Each dog received a meal of puffed rice, minced meat and olive oil (M1) for a single day and then they received a meal of puffed rice and olive oil (M2), with no meat, for another single day. A second meal was administered in the evening to balance the energy intake and both diets were isoenergetic. Blood was collected right before the meal (t0) and after 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 hours. Trp and phenylalanine concentrations showed no significant difference between M1 and M2 samples. Isoleucine, leucine, valine and tyrosine plasma concentrations were lower after M2. Due to the latter, Trp/5LNAAs ratio was higher after the meal with no meat (M2) at all sampling times (except t0) and such trend reached a statistically significant difference at 2 (median: 0,206 versus 0,311), 4 (median: 0,217 versus 0,345) and 10 (median: 0,242 versus 0,289) hours after the meal. These findings suggest that meal composition has a key role in the Trp bioavailability.


Plotinus and the Moving Image offers the first philosophical discussion on Plotinus' philosophy and film. It discusses Plotinian concepts like "the One" and "the intelligible" in a cinematic context, relates Plotinus' theory of time to the modern time-image, and finds Neoplatonic contemplation in Contemplative Cinema.


In this work, we are interested in building a software engineering discipline for planning system design. Our objective is to enable planning systems to become more configurable and modular, with the help of object libraries capturing well designed experiences and a common planner-design pattern catalog. It is hoped that the planning systems thus constructed will be more reusable and modifiable. It is also hoped that this effort will contribute to the movement towards industrially applicable planning systems, to supply this dynamic subfield of AI with a rigorous software engineering discipline than just smart algorithms for plan generation. To this end, we focus on an object oriented design methodology to planning. We focus on a collection of design patterns for modularizing different searchrelated parts of a typical planning system. We illustrate our concept using the C++ language, although our experience apply equally well to all object oriented languages. This work is represents our continuing research in knowledge acquisition and maintenance effort in planning systems design.


Objectives: To explore and gain insight into factors related to self-rated health (SRH) among very old people in two European countries. Methods: The study was based on Latvian (n = 301) and Swedish (n = 397) data from the baseline of the Enabling Autonomy, Participation, and Well-Being in Old Age: The Home Environment as a Determinant for Healthy Ageing Survey Study. Besides descriptive statistics, ordinal regression analysis was used to analyze demographic, physical and mental health-related, functional and environmental factors related to SRH in each sample. Results: In both samples, participants with worse perceived physical mobility and more symptoms were significantly more likely to have worse SRH. There were more diverse results regarding other factors in terms of opposite relations to SRH, comparing the two samples. Discussion: Preventive measures and health care should focus on improving and supporting mobility and physical health among older people. Especially in countries with low scores on indicators of health such as Latvia, to minimize health inequalities. More attention should be paid to factors to improve the general health status of the population.


Pay for Success (PFS) interventions are increasingly being implemented in the U.S. and worldwide to assess social programs under a risk-sharing financial agreement between the public and private sectors. They seek to mitigate risk for the public sector and promote wider experimentation of programs to improve social outcomes.  PFS contracts encourage coordination and alignment of goals, outcomes, and metrics across all agents involved - government, service providers, service recipients, funders and investors. Accordingly, these interventions rely heavily on access to high quality data and analysis, making integrated data systems (IDS) valuable assets to support the design, implementation, and evaluation phases of these projects.
 The ChildHood Integrated Longitudinal Data (CHILD) System, one of the most comprehensive county-level IDS in the nation, has been used to support and inform two Pay for Success projects in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland). Partnering for Family Success is a county-level intervention in the areas of child welfare and housing instability, now into its fourth year of operation. While the intervention was implemented under a randomized controlled trial, analysis with CHILD proved instrumental to inform the project design and address challenges in program implementation. CHILD has also been used to study the feasibility of PFS as a model to expand high quality preschool, under a grant awarded to eight communities nationally. A case study of both initiatives will be presented, highlighting the role of integrated data in supporting and facilitating PFS design and analysis of outcomes, challenges encountered and lessons learned.


The Anglican Communion in Crisis From the time of the Reformation, the question of "identity" has persistently presented itself to the Church of England and, latterly, to the Anglican Communion as a whole. In past decades, Anglicans have presented themselves as a "bridge church" that combines the best insights of the reformers and the best of the traditions of Catholicism. Anglo-Catholics, in order to distance themselves from the taint of "Protestantism," have shied away from the notion of depicting themselves as a "bridge" between Rome and Geneva and have espoused the "branch theory" whereby Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Anglicans (but not Protestants) comprise three equal but distinct "branches" of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. In America, Episcopalians in recent years, in an attempt to distinguish themselves from other denominations, have insisted that theirs is an "incarnational church" that affirms the goodness of creation and so seeks to be "inclusive" of the rich variety of people and styles of life to be found in God's world. Anglican attempts at self-definition are indeed numerous, but in recent years, in the context of ecumenical conversations, Anglicans have simply assumed the faithfulness of their doctrine, discipline and worship to the apostolic tradition, and have gone on to describe themselves as a body of self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating churches that conjointly enjoy "communion" (koinonia) with the Archbishop of Canterbury. For confirmation of this more recent selfdescription, one need look no further than the final report of ARCIC, the report of the Eames Commission, the Virginia Report of the InterAnglican Doctrinal Commission and the Lambeth Reports of 1988 and 1998.1 In each of these documents, the notion of koinonia dominates the account given of the church. The irony is that just as koinonia has become central to "Anglican identity," the identity of Anglicans as a communion has, at points, become more than a little problematic. There are many examples of what is often called "impaired communion" but two are of particular importance-the ordination of women and the blessing of unions between people of the same sex. The first of these has already produced parishes that are not directly related to the bishop of the diocese in which they are located. There are strong indications that the second, the blessing of homosexual unions, may well lead to divisions of an even more grave nature. Thus, for example, African and Asian bishops have indicated that they might declare themselves out of communion with churches that take such a step. These church-dividing threats and irregular Episcopal arrangements are in fact but surface manifestations of more severe problems. Behind these moral and ecclesiastical threats to the communion of Anglican churches lie cultural differences of enormous proportions. More important still are the theological disputes and divisions these cultural differences often do as much to cloak as to reveal. No better example can be found of the way in which cultural difference can cloak theological dispute than the exchange at Lambeth '98 over homosexuality. As reported in the press, the remarks of African and Asian bishops seemed on occasion to imply that their American and British colleagues were simply the advocates of a decaying society and a corrupt form of life. In their reported remarks, American and British bishops who support a change in the teaching and practice of the church in respect to sexual ethics seemed, on occasion, to imply that their Asian and African counterparts were simply trapped in a cultural time warp and so either uninformed about homosexuality or fundamentalist in their approach to scripture. The exchange, to say the least, was not edifying, but, more serious still, the "debate" failed to disclose the fact that behind these conflicting views about homosexuality lie very different ways of construing Christian belief and practice. …


The presidential bill signing statement is one of many devices that contemporary presidents have developed for use against a recalcitrant Congress, joining with the executive order, memoranda, proclamations, pocket vetoes, and primary unilateral policy devices, to name but a few (Barilleaux 1989; Cooper 2002; Mayer 2001; Spitzer 2006). In late 2005 and then in 2006, the signing statement moved from relative obscurity to cause celebre. The reason it became a public spectacle is multifaceted. First, in December 2005, President George W. Bush used the signing statement to renege on a deal he had made with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to keep torture off the list of interrogation techniques as part of the global war on terrorism. Throughout the fall of 2005, the administration applied enormous political pressure to persuade Senator McCain to back away from his "no torture" position. When it failed, President Bush invited Senator McCain, along with Senator John Warner (R-VA), to a White House photo op and a formal signing ceremony, at which President Bush proclaimed, "[T]he Administration is committed to treating all detainees held by the United States in a manner consistent with our Constitution, laws, and treaty obligations, which reflect the values we hold dear" (Bush 2005a). However, in President Bush's signing statement to the bill, (1) he set off a public firestorm after he wrote, The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act, relating to detainees, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of the Congress and the President, evidenced in Title X, of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks. (Bush 2005b) Also in December 2005, the Bush administration released numerous documents regarding Judge Samuel Alito's time in the Reagan administration's Justice Department. Alito, at the time preparing for his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, had worked in the Reagan Justice Department in the mid-1980s, in part to develop the signing statement as a useful device to protect the prerogatives of the presidency, as well as to advance policy preferences throughout the executive branch agencies (Alito 1986). And finally, in April 2006, Charlie Savage, a reporter for the Boston Globe, wrote an article claiming that President Bush had used the signing statement to challenge "more than 750 laws" since taking office, a number that exceeded all previous presidents combined (Savage 2006). What ensued were numerous editorials condemning the practice, along with congressional hearings, testimony, and legislation designed to blunt the effects of the signing statement and a chorus of critics who issued reports demanding that the practice stop. Yet despite all the recent attention, there has been little scholarly research tying the use of the signing statement to the larger picture of presidential power (Cooper 2002, 2005 are important exceptions). This essay investigates how the signing statement is used to influence the policy process when the normal methods break down, particularly in this modern period of divided government characterized by high levels of partisanship inside Congress and inside the electorate. The empirical analysis seeks to understand the factors that explain why the president uses signing statements on some laws and not others. In broader terms, the investigation of signing statements sheds light on how two distinct views of power--Neustadt's personal presidency and unilateralism--can be viewed as complementary, rather than competing approaches. The investigation utilizes a mixture of methods and evidence to assess the role of presidential signing statements in understanding presidential power. …


The distribution of power and influence within an organization, past product performance records, and product evaluations are not new for the literature and its effects to the performance and strategy of an organization have been extensively investigated. However, the impact of the changes and variability of the value of such factors across time and/or across different actors are largely overlooked. The main aim of this research is to explore and discuss how variability in consumer and expert evaluations and sales affects the performance of the organization in regard to sales and evaluations of future products, strategy in terms of the likelihood to explore new markets, and how the changes in marketing-R&D orientation strategy affect performance.


Article IName and Purpose American Society of Mechanical Engineers has been established for the purpose of uniting the mechanical engineering community, providing opportunities to establish connections to companies, utilizing skills learned through group led design projects, and networking with professors and classmates throughout campus. Article IIScope This organization is subject to the jurisdiction of the Student Government Association of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, as well as to the President of the University and his/her designee. Article IIIMembership A UMBC student can become a member of this organization by: Attending at least 1 meeting ●


Gender inequality is an acute and persistent problem, especially in developing countries. This paper argues that gender discrimination is an inefficient practice. We model gender discrimination as the complete exclusion of females from the labor market or as the exclusion of females from managerial positions. The distortions in the allocation of talent between managerial and unskilled positions, and in human capital investment, are analyzed. It is found that both types of discrimination lower economic growth; and that the former also implies a reduction in per capita GDP, while the latter distorts the allocation of talent. Both types of discrimination imply lower female-to-male schooling ratios. We discuss the sustainability of social norms or stigma that can generate discrimination in the form described in this paper. We present evidence based on panel-data regressions across Indian states over 1961-1991 that is consistent with the model?s predictions.


Abstract:Restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is the surgical treatment of choice for patients with ulcerative colitis and familial polyposis who require colectomy. This surgical intervention allows for resection of colon, while offering intestinal continuity with fecal continence, discontinuation of most medications related to ulcerative colitis and reduction in the risk of colitis-associated neoplasia. As a proportion of these patients are women of childbearing age, it is important to understand the impact on reproductive health and function. Although limited data exist, restorative proctocolectomy/IPAA does not seem to adversely affect menstrual function. In general, sexual function is reported to improve postsurgery with the ability to achieve orgasm unaltered. However, dyspareunia is commonly reported post restoratively. Of concern, there are data to suggest that fertility is decreased post-IPAA. The reasons stated are pelvic adhesions and obstruction of fallopian tubes. Laparoscopic approach may improve fertility outcomes by reducing postoperative adhesions as compared with the open approach. Once achieved, pregnancy in patients with IPAA is characterized by a transient increase in stool frequency that resolves postdelivery. Whether vaginal delivery or cesarean section is preferred route of delivery in these patients is still controversial. But commonly cesarean section is advocated for patients' post-IPAA to prevent anal sphincter injury and long-term effects on pouch function. All of these issues should be included in the discussion with women who are contemplating IPAA, so they are well aware of them before deciding on the best management plan.


Class actions and public interest actions are part of the world wide trend towards achieving the goal of access to justice. Although the terms 'class rights' and 'class' are not alien to South African company law,· these terms have generally not been part of the legal parlance and have so far not been used in the context of class actions as encountered in American law simply because they were unknown in South Africa until recently. However, the need for such an action was identified more than ten years ago. Meanwhile, the Constitution has formally introduced class actions into South African law. The type of class action envisaged in the Constitution is limited to the protection of the fundamental rights set out in chapter two. The protection is directed at the contents of all legislation and in respect of administrative decisions by the state. Because of this limitation the South African Law Commission recommended that' legislative intervention in the form of an act of Parliament is necessary to make provision for class actions and proposed draft legislation,


Objective Learning disabilities and/or ADHD are considered to be important risk factors or modifiers for concussion assessment and management. The purpose of this study was to examine cognition and symptom reporting in high school students with academic difficulties or ADHD and compare to those without at baseline. Design Retrospective analysis of three measures routinely given as part of a high school yearly concussion baseline protocol. Setting The library of a high school in Westchester County, NY. Participants A sample of 143 high school students who participate in collision/contact sports [Age M (SD)=15.4 (1.2); Boys=78, 54.5%] completed baseline testing. Main results Non-parametric tests were used because of violations of normality. High school students with academic difficulties or ADHD (n=21) were compared to controls (n=122) on King- Devick, SAC, ImPACT Cognitive Composite scores, and Total Symptom ratings. Students with LD or ADHD performed significantly more poorly on King-Devick (p=0.003; d=0.79), Visual Motor Speed Composite of ImPACT (p=0.007; d=0.79), and reported more symptoms at baseline on the Post-Concussion Scale (p=0.005; d=0.59). No significant differences found between groups on SAC (p=0.11; d=0.36) or ImPACT Verbal Memory (p=0.54; d=0.16), Visual Memory (p=0.20; d=0.26), or Reaction Time (p=0.14; d=0.55) Composites. Conclusions To our knowledge this is the first study to examine performance on three different baseline measures. High school students with academic difficulties or ADHD performed more poorly on King-Devick, the Visual Motor Speed Composite of ImPACT, and reported more symptoms at baseline. Findings suggest these students need to be monitored for specific post injury changes. This study was approved by the Committee for Human Rights Research, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, White Plains, NY, USA. Protocol # BRC-455. Competing interests None.


The authors designed new content for an online research skills course, to provide instruction and expert modeling of the process for determining bias when evaluating information sources. They also introduced a specific metacognitive strategy (selfquestioning) to enhance student self-awareness. Students were encouraged to complete a self-regulated learning survey to raise their awareness of metacognitive strategies. The instructional content, an Adobe Captivate movie, described a cognitive strategy for identifying bias, MAPit, and included activities and questions throughout for students to assess their understanding. Instruction was followed by an online quiz that provided practice in applying the MAPit strategy. Metacognitive prompts within the quiz encouraged students to reflect on and assess their learning. The final course assignment (Capstone) also included application questions, with a reminder about the MAPit strategy. A review of performance on both assignments showed improvement after this intervention. When compared to a later offering of the same course where a more efficient approach to encouraging student self-questioning was applied, the improvement was sustained. This approach can be effectively implemented in a large enrollment online course.


Increasingly in recent times, first year higher education (HE) students are under-prepared for academic study, with many lacking the necessary numeracy skills for success in mathematically based units of study. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of a numeracy skills assistance strategy for students enrolled in a mathematically based first year health sciences unit at university. Students enrolled in an introductory biomechanics unit were invited to participate via a survey. Participants (n=79), who also indicated their level of prior mathematics experience, were tracked to determine whether they attended supplementary numeracy assistance sessions and whether there was an effect of attendance at these sessions on academic performance in the unit. Results demonstrated no significant effect of attendance at these sessions on performance and no interaction effect of attendance and prior levels of learning. There was however, a significant effect of prior mathematics learning levels on academic performance. Despite a lack of effect of the academic skills intervention, these findings demonstrate that the level of numeracy competence that students bring to university is a clear determinant of performance. In reference to clear evidence in the literature, it was also acknowledged that the intervention investigated in this study may not have sufficiently targeted 'at-risk' students and that other factors, such as student beliefs, attitudes and motivations play a substantial role in determining the success of academic skills interventions. Simply advertising the availability of a supplemental assistance programme, whether formally embedded in an academic unit or not, may not be enough to elicit the desired effect of improving performance and retention in new undergraduate HE students who are under-prepared and lack necessary numeracy skills upon enrolment.


Perceptions of increasing water scarcity have caused many countries to reform their water legislation. South Africa, in the vanguard of reform efforts, passed the National Water Act in 1998. The Act was lauded as a progressive piece of policy as it posited the redress of past injustices as one of its overarching aims. But there has been little progress in terms of redistribution of water use rights. This paper argues that bringing water under the ambit of the state, in combination with the particular political conjunctures in post-apartheid South Africa, opened up space for the emergence of narratives around water use rights that framed the continued use of existing users as pivotal for sustainability and that redistribution is associated with a high degree of risk. Although water allocation reform is essentially a deeply political issue, the increasing technocratisation and bureaucratisation of the reform process served to mask contested understandings through, for example, the use of innocuous-sounding terms such as "existing lawful use". This, in combination with a highly under-resourced water management sector tasked with the responsibility of shouldering a heavy and complex system of licensing, resulted in reform efforts ending in a temporary impasse.


The study seeks to address the importance of urban stream ecosystems from the perspective of urban ecology, human health and social well-being in the context of urban planning. The case study area is Paveh stream in the City of Paveh. The data from the case study area were gathered from questionnaire, existing scientific and library studies and by conducting interviews with residents and authorities. Once the importance of the biodiversity of the stream had been studied based on the existing ecological data, the social importance of the stream and the linkages between human health, social well-being and the biodiversity of the stream ecosystem were addressed. Based on the results of the survey and other sources of information, it was discussed that urban stream ecosystems can be rich in biodiversity and function as ecological movement corridors for species .Urban stream corridors can thus be an important part of the urban green infrastructure .Also we can make the weather fine, extend green space, prepare peaceful environment for residents and bring the countryside effects of nature into cities through improvement of stream landscape. Finally, regarding the finding of this study some suggestions and implications are mentioned to improve the quality of the stream.


Simple synthetic methods for a strongly electron-accepting naphthalene bisimide (NBI) derivative functionalized with a new environmentally friendly chiral racemic semifluorinated alkyl group and with AB3 minidendrons containing the same semifluorinated group are reported. The semifluorinated dendron was attached to the imide groups of the NBI via one, two, and three (m = 1, 2, 3) methylenic units. The NBI-containing semifluorinated groups and the dendronized NBI with m = 1 and 2 self-organize into lamellar crystals. The dendronized NBI with m = 3 self-assembles into an unprecedentedly complex and ordered column that self-organizes in a columnar hexagonal periodic array. This array undergoes a continuous transition to a columnar hexagonal superlattice that does not display a first-order phase transition during analysis by differential scanning calorimetry at heating and cooling rates of 10 and 1 °C/min. These complex columnar hexagonal periodic arrays with intramolecular order could be elucidated only by a combination of powder and fiber X-ray diffraction studies and solid-state NMR experiments. The lamellar crystals self-organized from m = 1 and the two highly ordered columnar hexagonal periodic arrays of m = 3 are assembled via thermodynamically controlled processes. Since strongly electron-accepting derivatives are of great interest to replace fullerene acceptors in organic photovoltaics and for other supramolecular electronic materials, the multitechnique structural analysis methodology elaborated here must be taken into consideration in all related studies.


Safe and reliable autonomous navigation in unstructured environments remains a challenge for field robots. In particular, operating on vegetated terrain is problematic, because simple purely geometric traversability analysis methods typically classify dense foliage as nontraversable. As traversing through vegetated terrain is often possible and even preferable in some cases (e.g., to avoid executing longer paths), more complex multimodal traversability analysis methods are necessary. In this article, we propose a three‐dimensional (3D) traversability mapping algorithm for outdoor environments, able to classify sparsely vegetated areas as traversable, without compromising accuracy on other terrain types. The proposed normal distributions transform traversability mapping (NDT‐TM) representation exploits 3D LIDAR sensor data to incrementally expand normal distributions transform occupancy (NDT‐OM) maps. In addition to geometrical information, we propose to augment the NDT‐OM representation with statistical data of the permeability and reflectivity of each cell. Using these additional features, we train a support‐vector machine classifier to discriminate between traversable and nondrivable areas of the NDT‐TM maps. We evaluate classifier performance on a set of challenging outdoor environments and note improvements over previous purely geometrical traversability analysis approaches.


The impact of UV irradiation on disinfection byproduct (DBP) formation was investigated for low pressure, medium pressure and pulsed UV technologies using a broad range of UV doses. Four classes of DBPs (THMs, HAAS, aldehydes and carboxylic acids) were examined. This enabled the determination of effects resulting from the direct action of UV irradiation on natural organic matter (aldehydes, carboxylic acids) as well as effects on the ultimate formation of chlorinated DBPs (THMs and HAAs) from secondary chlorination. For doses of less than 1,000 mJ/cm 2 , UV irradiation did not affect THM and HAA formation in subsequent chlorination processes, however higher UV doses resulted in lower ultimate concentrations of THMs and HAAs. UV irradiation also resulted in the formation of aldehydes and carboxylic acids at UV doses above 500 mJ/cm 2 , compounds that are known to adversely effect drinking water biostability.


This study examines the different themes of communication that take place in video ad campaigns deriving from the French luxury fashion houses Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, Cartier and Hermès. By using semiology as a method we were able to recognize the themes of adventure, seduction, love and play in the videos. This study explores also how the myth becomes an important meaning-maker of the luxury commodity and fills it with sensations and pleasure. Unlike all other ads, we could see that the meaning of luxury in the Hermès' ones was not directly connected to the objects per se but to the experience of human senses in contact with nature. We could further conclude that the visual communication of the ads has no need to be logical as long as it can seduce with its positive signs. The object of luxury constitutes a strong communication tool helping the viewer to discover new places, to fall in love, to create magic and to experience the amusement of play. Embedded in recognizable social narratives, the objects in the moving image are provided with a seductive meaning able to support the eternal myth of luxury.