ABSTRACT In recent years, the value of social learning approaches as part of the design and delivery of formalised coach development initiatives has gained credence in the literature. However, insight is currently lacking into the fundamental social dimensions that underpin coach learning. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore coaches' perceptions of their actual and preferred methods of acquiring new coaching knowledge, the types of knowledge they currently acquire and/or desire, and their application of new knowledge. Responses to an online survey, completed by practicing coaches (N = 320) in a range of sports and contexts, were analysed descriptively and inductively. Results revealed that coaches preferred, and mostly acquired, coaching knowledge from informal learning activities, especially when these permitted social interaction. Notably, however, formal coach education courses were also reported relatively frequently as a source of recent knowledge acquisition. Nevertheless, critical justification for and application of acquired knowledge was largely absent. Based on the findings, we suggest that, before social learning activities such as mentoring schemes and communities of practice are placed at the centre of formalised coach development provision, coach educators must put in place the support structures to better enable coaches to recognise and deal with the potentially mixed influences of the social milieu on coach learning, aiming to ensure that their informal development is sufficiently open-minded, reflective and critical.


Since the London bombings of July 2005, there has been growing concern at the deep-seated segregation and 'ghettoisation' that has become prevalent in several British towns and cities.

Hitherto, the approach taken by governments and local authorities parties in this regard can be summarised as benign non-intervention, justified under the rubric of 'multiculturalism'. Migrant communities have led their lives pretty much as in their 'home' countries. By so doing, large sections of these communities have in the process 'sleepwalked' into segregation. Mixing with those not from one's 'own' religious-ethnic community has become minimal - to the point where, for perhaps the majority living in religious-ethnic ghettos, it is virtually non-existent. This in turn leads to the ghettoised communities leading, in effect, parallel lives.

The overarching aim of Multiculturalism: Some Inconvenient Truths is to contribute towards a critical understanding of this troubling but profoundly important phenomenon, and provide an input into policy debates.

Multiculturalism: Some Inconvenient Truths argues that many of the beliefs and practices of religious-ethnic minorities are oppressive - especially concerning women and children - and that they are profoundly damaging the lives of many of those now trapped within 'mono-religious, mono-cultural' segregated communities. It aims to set a vision of society based on eroding the leading of 'parallel lives' and segregation, and hence rejecting oppressive and divisive cultural and religious practices.


This paper outlines the findings of an eploratory postal survey, investigating the adoption of Intranets within Irish organisations. We initially explore background literature covering the issues of definitions, applications, advantages, predicted impact on organisations ,information nature and new potential roles of infomation providers. It is clear from this literature that there is a lack of empirically backed evidence of Intranet adoption. This study therefore attempts to address this imbalance and is centred on selective findings of a postal survey, which investigated the use of Intranets in the top 1000 Irish organisations. The main questions addressed by this survey incluted "How prevalent are Intranets in Organisations ?" "What way are they being used ?" and "what is the profile of organisations that claimed to acquire most benefit ?".


The aim of this study was to qualitatively explore the barriers and enablers to implementing healthy workplace initiatives in a sample of workplaces based in Perth, Western Australia. In-depth interviews were conducted with representatives from 31 organizations representing small, medium and large businesses in the Perth metropolitan area which reported having healthy workplace initiatives. In total, 43 factors were mentioned as influencing the implementation of healthy workplace initiatives. Factors appearing to exert the most influence on the implementation of health promoting initiatives in this sample were culture; support from managers and staff; collaboration with industry providers; financial resources circumstances and the physical environment. These factors appeared to be mutually reinforcing and interconnected. Findings suggest there may be merit in applying an organizational development lens to the implementation of workplace health promotion initiatives as this could assist in leveraging enablers and minimizing barriers.


The large area of rice (Oryza sativa L.) production worldwide is critical to the well being of large numbers of the world's people. Yet for rice, the most important single plant species for human nutrition, there is not a widely used growth staging system. Despite good points of the published rice growth staging systems, none has been used widely for describing rice growth and development. Consequently, an objective growth staging system with enumeration adapted to cumulative leaf number (CLN) would improve communication among scientists, farmers, and educators. We propose a rice developmental staging system divided into three main phases of development: seedling, vegetative, and reproductive. Seedling development consists of four growth stages: unimbibed seed (S0), radicle and coleoptile emergence from the seed (S1,S2), and prophyll emergence from the coleoptile (S3). Vegetative development consists of stages V1, V2... VN; N being equal to the final number of leaves with collars on the main stem. Reproductive development consists of 10 growth stages based on discrete morphological criteria: panicle initiation (R0), panicle differentiation (R1), flag leaf collar formation (R2), panicle exertion (R3), anthesis (R4), grain length and width expansion (R5), grain depth expansion (R6), grain dry down (R7), single grain maturity (R8), and complete panicle maturity (R9). Assigning rice growth stages based on discrete morphological criteria will result in unambiguous growth-stage determination. For example, using this system, two people staging the same plant will arrive at the same growth stage. This is because the system exploits the presence or absence of distinct morphological criteria in a symbolic logic dichotomous framework that only permits yes or no answers.


The Society develops guidelines to aid its members and their patients in the decision-making process. SVS guideline writing groups draw upon systematic reviews of the available evidence to inform key recommendations. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are performed by the Mayo Clinic Evidence-based Practice Center, in Rochester, Minnesota. The methodology used for SVS clinical practice guidelines has been published in the Journal of Vas??cular Surgery.


Analysis of the use of ICT in the aerospace industry has prompted the detailed investigation of an inventory-planning problem. There is a special class of inventory, consisting of expensive repairable spares for use in support of aircraft operations. These items, called rotables, are not well served by conventional theory and systems for inventory management. The context of the problem, the aircraft maintenance industry sector, is described in order to convey some of its special characteristics in the context of operations management. A literature review is carried out to seek existing theory that can be applied to rotable inventory and to identify a potential gap into which newly developed theory could contribute. Current techniques for rotable planning are identified in industry and the literature: these methods are modelled and tested using inventory and operational data obtained in the field. In the expectation that current practice leaves much scope for improvement, several new models are proposed. These are developed and tested on the field data for comparison with current practice. The new models are revised following testing to give improved versions. The best model developed and tested here comprises a linear programming optimisation, which finds an optimal level of inventory for multiple test cases, reflecting changing operating conditions. The new model offers an inventory plan that is up to 40% less expensive than that determined by current practice, while maintaining required performance.


The presentation was an opportunity for the SU Law School Research Informed teaching team to update delegates at the Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference - the 50th anniversary conference entitled 50 Years of Law Teaching - about their research. This took the form of an interim report, given that Year 2 results are still not completed. The project is coming to the end of Year 2 of a three year project which is due to end in mid-2016.Further information about the project, the team, and work to date is on the team's blog at https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/euap/
About the Project

Introduction & Project Rationale

As in other academic disciplines, Law lecturers research, write and publish books and journal articles, and produce and present conference papers. As well as adding to the body of knowledge in the discipline, those works are also resources that support students' teaching and learning – whether in their original form, or when adapted and incorporated into other media including on-line data bases, e-books, and commentaries used to support 'current awareness' and provide a learning resource.

The conventional wisdom in Higher Education is that students benefit from being taught by lecturers who are research active in the subjects they teach and who produce publications which are then used as a teaching and learning resource. Such research-informed teaching approaches, and the Research-Teaching nexus, is long-standing, and underpins much of the focus of HEIs' strategies for developing Scholarship, Enterprise, and Research (SER).

In practice, much of the value of that work is now increasingly delivered or incorporated into more readily accessible on-line systems, apps, and other web-based media which students and practitioners are then able to utilise. However, this is predicated on the assumption, that the necessary skills to make use of IT-enabled sources are sufficiently developed. It also assumes that the lecturers who expect students to make use of such systems, and to develop work-ready skills, are themselves competent users of the systems. Furthermore, it assumes that the programmes they deliver incorporate the kinds of design features, and tasks and assessments, and opportunities in tasks and assessments.

The Project

The project started in 2013, and is due to finish in mid-2016.

Building on earlier project work, and outputs of earlier Enquiring Minds projects (see 'Enquiring Minds': http://www.staffs.ac.uk/research/iils/minds/ the team is evaluating the use of such systems and additional works as a teaching and learning resource. A central research question is whether, and to what extent, a more structured approach to incorporating the use of on-line systems into Law programmes, coupled with improved training, opportunities to deploy skills, and to be assessed effectively, will improve the quality of students' work, and enhance their research and other skills. Closely linked to the skills agenda, as it relates to the student experience while they are studying, is employability, work readiness, and the need for students to be self-organised learners.

Rather than simply being 'familiar' with on-line systems and technologies, the project team believes it is becoming increasingly necessary for students to be able to use systems effectively.

On-Line Systems & Providers

The project team is particularly interested in the systems and tools now available from leading providers like Lexis Nexis (including Lexis Library and Lexis PSL), Pearson (including teaching and learning packages for students such as 'MyLawChamber', 'Virtual Lawyer'), and Thomson-Reuter (which among other things offers Westlaw, Insight, and PLC On-Line, as well as a range of e-books), and Jordans Family On-Line.

The research is being is being informed by the experiences, feedback, and contributions of key stakeholders, including:-
* Level 6 students in a number of pilot modules, including Commercial and Consumer Protection Law, Employment and Equality, and Social Welfare Law and Practice
* LLM and CIPD Employment Law students
* Author lecturers
* Law publishers, including staff and tutor/trainers who have experience of supporting the skills development of staff and students in HEIs like Staffordshire University
* Law practitioners and employers, especially those who make use of on-line systems
◾External examiners, moderators, and those in the Law professional bodies (Bar Standards Board and Solicitors Regulation Authority) who have key responsibilities for the delivery of programmes, quality assurance, and programme approvals
* Quality Assurance Agency
* Higher Education Authority

The project's findings will, it is expected, help to inform the forthcoming revised Quality Assurance Law Benchmark Statement (currently in draft), and forthcoming reviews of the requirements of Law professional bodies.


Some lactic acid bacteria (LAB), in particular proteolytic strains, in raw milk have useful technological properties and play important role in developing desired characteristics in the final products. However, they are mostly lost during heating and technological processes. Therefore, it would be important to be isolated and maintained for further applications as pure adjunct cultures. In this study, after selective isolation of LAB from raw cow's, ewe's and goat's milks on MRS agar and M17 agar, gram-positive catalase-negative were selected and maintained as pure cultures. Then, the isolates were screened according to their proteolytic activities on skim milk agar (well-diffusion method). The potent gram-positive, catalase-negative proteolytic strains were identified via 16S rDNA gene sequencing and antibiotic resistance (10 antibiotic agents, disc-diffusion method) and hemolytic activities (on blood agar containing 5% sheep blood) were evaluated. BLAST analysis resulted in identification of Lactobacillus delbruekii (five isolates) , L. delbruekii subsp . bulgaricus , L. fermentum , L. reuteri , L. curvatus , Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis , and Streptococcus lutetiensis. L. lactis subsp . lactis obtained from cow milk showed the highest proteolytic activity as a 23-mm halo zone was observed on skim milk agar plate after 48 h incubation at 37 °C. In case of hemolysin production, only Lactobacillus fermentum showed α-hemolytic activity and the others showed no activities. All the identified isolates were sensitive to tetracycline, ampicillin, erythromycin, vancomycin and gentamycin with the exception of L. reuteri and lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis that found to be resistant to vancomycin and gentamycin, respectively. About penicillin, chloramphenicol, clindamycin, kanamycin and streptomycin, the results were varied. Our results verified diversity of wild proteolytic LAB strains in raw milk, as reported before. Although LAB mainly belong to the GRAS list, strains isolated from raw milk should be re-checked for their safety-related properties.


Cell behaviors, such as motility and differentiation, which are highly regulated by the complex 3D in vivo microenvironment, have been extensively studied in the past decades to better understand the mechanisms of development, disease, and healing. Due to the highly complex nature of the in vivo environment and limited resources and access to study cell behaviors in vivo, great efforts have been made to develop in vitro systems to mimic the in vivo microenvironment for a better understanding of cell-microenvironment interactions. However, most of the commonly used in vitro systems are static, which cannot mimic the dynamics of the microenvironment in vivo. In this dissertation, our goal was to create a 3D complex in vitro microenvironment that can dynamically change its internal architecture and to employ such in vitro dynamic complex microenvironment to study cell motility and differentiation behaviors for the application of tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and cancer metastasis. In this work, 3D dynamic shape memory scaffolds were developed and employed to investigate cell motility and differentiation behaviors when the cellular microenvironment dynamically changes in vitro. The scaffolds have fibrous structure, which can potentially mimic the collagen matrix fibrous structure in vivo. And, more importantly, the scaffolds can dynamically change internal architecture on command, which can potentially mimic the dynamic ECM architectural change in vivo during tissue development and cancer metastasis. To achieve this goal, the first part of this dissertation (Chapter 2 – 3) developed a programmable 3D shape memory electrospun scaffold that can dynamically change fiber alignment upon triggering under cytocompatible conditions. In these chapters, the programmable dynamic 3D scaffold was employed to study stem cell motility, cancer cell polarization, and cancer cell motility, for ultimate application in stem cell homing and cancer metastasis studies. Stem cell motility, cancer cell motility, and cancer cell morphology were found to be directed by shapememory-actuated changes in scaffold internal architecture. In Chapter 4, the objective was to investigate stem cell differentiation when cells undergo dynamic scaffold internal architectural change for the application of bone tissue engineering and critical-sized bone defect treatment. The shape memory electrospun scaffold investigated in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, as well as a shape memory foam scaffold, were employed to examine the human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells osteogenic differentiation capacity. We found that the dynamic change of the scaffold internal architecture would not hinder the stem cell osteogenic differentiation. In Chapter 5, we utilized a scaffold-free 3D culture system and investigated the effect of a non-scaffold-related factor—low oxygen tension—on mature chondrocytes dedifferentiation behavior for the application of cartilage tissue engineering. Low oxygen has been frequently implicated as a limitation associated with synthetic 3D scaffolds when the scaffolds have small pore size or poor interconnectivity, or both, due to the fact that low oxygen and limited nutrient diffusion can cause cell death. However, low oxygen tension during culture could be beneficial for cartilage tissue engineering, as cartilage is an avascular tissue and low oxygen is present in vivo during chondrogenesis and in adult articular cartilage. Finally, in Chapter 6, conclusions and future directions are discussed and summarized. STUDIES OF CELL MOTILITY AND DIFFERENTIATION IN COMPLEX 3D IN VITRO MICROENVIRONMENT


Hyperparatiroidism plays a central role in renal osteodystrophy (ROD) in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF). The first plasmatic paratohormone (PTH) determinations back in 1960 were based in radioinmunoanalysis (RIA), using one antibody against the carboxiterminal or middle region of the hormone. In 1987, an inmunometric method (IMA) based on two antibodies, denominated "intact PTH" or "sandwich assay" was introduced, and it is used until today in clinical treatment, guideliness, and investigation of ROD. In the late 1990s, authors detected two inmunoreactive peaks using the traditional method; one of them moved with intact PTH 1-84 and the second peak migrated with the fraction 7-84, which suggested that an important inactive segment was included in the IMA quantifications, increasing the real value of PTH, therefore, exposing the patient to high doses of active vitamin D. This method allowed the separation of a biologically active fraction (CAP-PTH) from a bone-metabolism suppressor fraction (CIP-PTH), maybe associated to the lack of correlation between bone histomorphometry and intact PTH 1-84. The increase of the adynamic form of ROD and the presence of vascular calcifications in uremic adults have been related to high dosis of vitamin D, along with calcium and phosphorus therapies, that were orientated by plasmatic PTH levels until nowadays. The current treatment of ROD must be re-evaluated according to new knowledge, and future laboratory research will allow a better control of this CRF complication.


The serpentine barrens are unique ecological niches in North America, many of which are located on the Maryland/Pennsylvania border along the Mason Dixon Line. These areas contain grasslands and savanna ecosystems with rare and endangered flora and fauna that have interested botanists, biogeographers, geologists, plant physiologists, and nature enthusiasts since John Bartram, Benjamin Franklin, and John Fothergill, M.D. (Alexander 2009; Dann 1988; Pennell 1930). Since the European settlement of the North American continent in the 1750's, the barrens have remained relatively stable. However in the past 50 years natural fires have been suppressed, grazing and logging have ceased, and the advent of developments such as shopping centers, golf courses and suburban housing further threaten these sensitive sites (Latham 1993, Tyndall 1992a). Trees and invasive woody plants have subsequently encroached upon the grasslands and savannas; the reduction in open serpentine areas is evident through comparisons of historical aerial photographs to current ones (Latham 2008, Tyndall 1992a). The current methodology was to compare the sizes of local Pennsylvania serpentine barrens grasslands from historic and current photographs and maps and compare historic and current lists of endemic and known serpentine flora data. I hypothesized that the number of flora endemic and known to serpentine areas decreases with the reduction in size of open grasslands and savannas. My review of the current and historic plant lists and literature indicate that northeastern temperate grasslands and savannas are decreasing in size or disappearing, and the result is a reduction in serpentine barrens biodiversity.


Flapper valve design is critical for the reliability of a compressor and the performance of a compressor further the valve has to perform well under several operating conditions. However the movement of a valve is difficult to measure in a compressor running with refrigerant. For that reason numerical models of valve motion are inevitable when designing a new flapper valve. Probably the most promising and accurate way for simulating valve motion is 3D-Fluid-Structure-Interaction (FSI), however due to the large computational effort it is so far impossible to cover the whole operating range of a compressor. For this purpose so called 1D lumped-models are often used. In this study we compare a full 3D-FSI model and a valve dynamics simulation program, which is based on a 1D lumped model, with laser trigonometric measurements of the movement of a suction valve. Further we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different simulation approaches.


Despite recent advances in understanding of the pathobiology and targeted treatments of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), epidemiologic data from large populations have been limited to western countries. The aim of the Korean Registry of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (KORPAH) was to examine the epidemiology and prognosis of Korean patients with PAH. KORPAH was designed as a nationwide, multicenter, prospective data collection using an internet webserver from September 2008 to December 2011. A total of 625 patients were enrolled. The patients' mean age was 47.6 ± 15.7 yr, and 503 (80.5%) were women. The diagnostic methods included right heart catheterization (n = 249, 39.8%) and Doppler echocardiography (n = 376, 60.2%). The etiologies, in order of frequency, were connective tissue disease (CTD), congenital heart disease, and idiopathic PAH (IPAH) (49.8%, 25.4%, and 23.2%, respectively). Patients with WHO functional class III or IV at diagnosis were 43.4%. In total, 380 (60.8%) patients received a single PAH-specific treatment at the time of enrollment, but only 72 (18.9%) patients received combination therapy. Incident cases during the registry represented 297 patients; therefore, the incidence rate of PAH was 1.9 patients/yr/million people. The 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-yr estimated survival rates were 90.8%, 87.8%, and 84.4%, respectively. Although Korean PAH patients exhibited similar age, gender, and survival rate compared with western registries, they showed relatively more CTD-PAH in the etiology and also systemic lupus erythematosus among CTD-PAH. The data suggest that earlier diagnosis and more specialized therapies should be needed to improve the survival of PAH patients. Graphical Abstract


The commedia dell'arte began in Italy as irreverent, improvised street theatre and is best known for its exuberant characters, specifically Harlequin, Pantalone, Pulcinella, Scaramouche, and Colombine, among others. Since the sixteenth century, these personalities have inspired paintings, engravings, and porcelain sculptures. Encompassing theatre, court culture, masquerades, and the decorative arts, this splendidly illustrated and engaging book offers original perspectives on porcelain commedia figures while also making an important contribution to the study of the commedia dell'arte. The volume focuses on nearly 150 porcelain sculptures as it tells the story of the commedia dell'arte's transformation into sculpture. Why were the figures made? Why do they appear as they do? What inspired their gestures and costumes? How did street-theatre themes become integrated into court life and entertainment? Examining these delightful porcelain figures in greater breadth and detail than ever before, this book is essential for those interested in theatre, painting, costume, and the decorative arts. This catalogue accompanies an exhibition at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, from 21st September 2001 to 20th January 2002.


The Sixth International Workshop on the Genetics of Host-Parasite Interactions in Forestry: Tree Resistance: Putting Promise into Practice was held the first week of August 2018 at Deer Creek State Park in Mt. Sterling, Ohio. The workshop provided a continuing conduit for bringing together researchers, tree breeders, and forest managers to focus on perhaps the most salient action society can take to restore tree species imperiled by invasive pests and pathogens—developing and deploying resistant tree populations. The 95 presentations (oral and poster) covered a wide range of tree species and associated pathogens and pests from throughout the world. Ash species (genus Fraxinus) throughout Europe and North America face relatively new perils (ash dieback disease and emerald ash borer) and a special session was devoted to this genus. Screening for resistance is a fundamental component of resistance development and the topic of another full session. Additional presentations detailed efforts to develop genomics and biotechnology tools and resources that have the potential to increase the efficiencies of applied resistance programs. Other presentations provided inputs on collaborative breeding approaches, citizen science in forest health, the potential role of endophytes in managed forests, threats to agroforestry species, prioritization of species in need of resistance programs, considerations necessary for the use of new biotechnologies, and concepts for integrating genetic, phenotypic and environmental data across the host-parasite system. Several presentations provided updates on "the ultimate goal"—progress of applied resistance programs and actual restoration efforts—leading into discussions on key topics such as the durability, stability, and usability of resistance in forest tree species. Taken together the presentations and discussions provided ample evidence that developing resistant populations is a viable (and in some cases necessary) approach for society to use to ensure healthy forests for future generations. These proceedings document the presentations given as lightly reviewed full papers, extended abstracts, and standard abstracts. In concluding the workshop, the attendees approved Spain by acclamation as the host of the Seventh Tree Resistance Workshop to be held in 2020.


One of the main goals of the multiple linear regression model, Y = Xβ + u, is to assess the importance of independent variables in determining their predictive ability. However, in practical applications, inference about the coefficients of regression can be difficult because the independent variables are correlated and multicollinearity causes instability in the coefficients. A new estimator of ridge regression parameter is proposed and evaluated by simulation techniques in terms of mean squares error (MSE). Results of the simulation study indicate that the suggested estimator dominates ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator and other ridge estimators with respect to MSE.


In the traditional workflow for delivering electronic resources to patrons, acquisitions have been the bridge between collection development and cataloging. However, new Patron Driven Acquisitions (PDA) purchasing models have reordered workflows and reemphasized communications. The sequence of activities differs since e-book discovery precedes purchasing activities. Workflow complexities are further exacerbated in a consortia environment. The University of Colorado (CU) system collaborated to implement a consortium PDA pilot with Ingram Academic on the MyiLibrary platform in December 2011. This presentation provides an overview of the pilot program and describes the workflow used for shared selection, cataloging, purchasing, and assessment of e-books among five separate libraries. The presenters provide details on the most salient issues encountered at each phase of the process, such as: selecting pilot subject areas; developing a consortium profile; establishing best-practices for MARC record editing and loading; troubleshooting duplicated e-book titles at individual libraries; resolving invoicing logistics; and designing assessment criteria. It also covers strategies for implementing a PDA program and describes some of the issues that may arise in a consortial PDA program.


The life histories and population dynamics of chameleons remain poorly known, most likely due to practical challenges related to their cryptic nature. However, several studies have indicated that some of these reptiles have unusually brief life histories. Specifically, one Madagascan chameleon (Furcifer labordi) was found to have an annual life cycle characterized by population-wide survival of the austral winter in the egg stage; a unique life history among tetrapods. In this study, we compare the life history of F. labordi with two locally sympatric congeners (F. cf. nicosiai and F. oustaleti) in Kirindy forest, western Madagascar, to determine how these species adjust their life histories to a highly seasonal and unpredictable climate. We found differences in lifespan, timing of hatching, growth rates, survival, reproductive rates, adult body size, and roosting heights among all three species. Moreover, two species exhibited relatively short lifespans: 6-9 months in F. labordi and 16-18 months in F. cf. nicosiai. In contrast, F. oustaleti is perennial and large-sized juveniles and adults aestivate during the dry season, but survival rates of adults seemed relatively low. Strikingly, the annual cohort of F. labordi was already adult when hatchlings of F. oustaleti and subsequently F. cf. nicosiai emerged. Our study suggests the co-existence of three different life histories with seasonal adjustment that might be related to the partitioning of overall food availability and contributes valuable life history data on enigmatic chameleon species.


PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Assistive technologies help people with disabilities compensate for their impairments. This study assessed which of 5 categories of assistive technologies-indoor/outdoor mobility, bed transfer, bathing, toileting, and telephone assistance-were substitutes or complements for human personal assistance by differentiating between total and formal personal assistance service (PAS) hours.

DESIGN AND METHODS
The study analyzed 2004 National Long-Term Care Survey community-dwelling respondents receiving assistance with activities of daily living. Ordinary least squares (OLS) on total PAS hours was estimated on the entire sample, and logit and OLS models were estimated on the likelihood and hours of formal PAS, respectively.

RESULTS
Assistive technology for indoor/outdoor mobility, bed transfer, and bathing was found to be substitutes for total PAS, whereas assistive technology for bed transfer and toileting was found to be complements for the use of formal PAS. Telephone assistance was not significant for either total or formal PAS hours.

IMPLICATIONS
The use of some assistive technologies by older people with disabilities appears to reduce the amount of informal care provided, but not the amount of paid PAS. Thus, this study does not provide support for the hypothesis that the use of assistive technologies will reduce use of paid care and, therefore, spending for long-term care.


A group at the University of Oxford has recently launched a dataset, updated on a daily basis, on the stringency of the measures countries are taking in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The dataset is known as the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, or OxCGRT. It provides countries with an opportunity to examine how typical or atypical their responses are. Interpreting these types of cross-country comparisons must of course be done carefully. Yet they can be invaluable in guiding the debates around next steps. Decisions by countries point roughly to a hierarchy of actions used when 'the screws are tightened' in response to the pandemic. International travel restrictions are the first to be imposed, then schools are closed and public events cancelled, then internal movement is restricted, then workplaces are closed, and lastly public transport is shut down. South Africa has more or less followed this pattern, but with an above average degree of stringency. If one examines each country's most recent level of overall stringency, just 30 (of 139) countries had reached the maximum stringency level. One of these countries is South Africa. If one brings in additional World Bank indicators into the analysis, a multivariate analysis is possible of what characteristics of countries are associated with greater or less stringency in their Covid-19 responses. It is clear that developing countries have responded more stringently, when one takes into account where each country lies in the evolution of the pandemic. Having fewer hospital beds relative to the population is associated with a more stringent response, for instance. Thus, it appears that stricter restrictions on movement are imposed where the risk of overwhelming the health system seems greater. South Africa's response has been stringent, even in comparison to economically similar countries. For instance, restrictions with respect to accessing the workplace have been over twice as stringent as one might expect, at South Africa's current point in the pandemic's trajectory. Yet South Africa is not unique. The level of workplace restrictions in the Latin America and Caribbean region, the highest in the world, is at South Africa's level. If one examines the lag between a country's first Covid-19 case and workplace restrictions of maximum stringency, South Africa was about average. Absolute numbers of deaths, or Covid-19 deaths relative to how many deaths a country could have expected anyway in 2020, provide what is probably the best basis for comparing, across multiple countries, the speed with which Covid-19 multiplies. There is clearly a large variety of trajectories for Covid-19 deaths across countries. South Africa's trajectory is not that unusual. Predicting how sensitive these pathways are to restrictions imposed by governments is hugely important, and will preoccupy analysts in the coming months and years. Datasets such as OxCGRT will be important for this work. Some very preliminary analysis done for the current paper points to the difficulty of detecting meaningful correlations, let alone cause and effect.


The problem of automatic feature selection/weighting in kernel methods is examined. We work on a formulation that optimizes both the weights of features and the parameters of the kernel model simultaneously, using L1 regularization for feature selection. Under quite general choices of kernels, we prove that there exists a unique regularization path for this problem, that runs from 0 to a stationary point of the non-regularized problem. We propose an ODE-based homotopy method to follow this trajectory. By following the path, our algorithm is able to automatically discard irrelevant features and to automatically go back and forth to avoid local optima. Experiments on synthetic and real datasets show that the method achieves low prediction error and is efficient in separating relevant from irrelevant features.


The aim of the present work is to investigate innovative processes within a geographical cluster, and thus contribute to the debate on the effects of industrial clusters on innovation capacity. In particular, we would like to ascertain whether the advantages of industrial districts in promoting innovation, as already revealed by literature (diffusion of knowledge, social capital and trust, efficient networking), are also keys to success in the Tuscan shipbuilding industry of pleasure and sporting boats. First, we verify the existence of clusters of shipbuilding in Tuscany, using a specific methodology. Next, in the identified clusters, we analyse three innovative networks financed in a policy to support innovation, and examine whether the typical features of a cluster for promoting innovation are at work, using a questionnaire administered to 71 actors. Finally, we develop a performance analysis of the cluster firms and ascertain whether their different behaviours also lead to different performances. The analysis results show that our case records effects of industrial clustering on innovation capacity, such as the important role given to trust and social capital, the significant worth put in interfirm relations and in each partner's specific competencies, or even the distinctive performance of firms belonging to a cluster.


Abstract. In this paper we present evidence that the observed increase in tropical upwelling after the year 2000 may be attributed to a change in the Brewer-Dobson circulation pattern. For this purpose, we use the concept of transit times derived from residual circulation trajectories and different in-situ measurements of ozone and nitrous dioxide. Observations from the Canadian midlatitude ozone profile record, probability density functions of in-situ N 2 O observations and a shift of the N 2 O-O 3 correlation slopes, taken together, indicate that the increased upwelling in the tropics after the year 2000 appears to have triggered an intensification of tracer transport from the tropics into the extratropics in the lower stratosphere below about 500 K. This finding is corroborated by the fact that transit times along the shallow branch of the residual circulation into the LMS have decreased for the same time period (1993–2003). On a longer time scale (1979–2009), the transit time of the shallow residual circulation branch show a steady decrease of about −1 month/decade over the last 30 yr, while the transit times of the deep branch remain unchanged. This highlights that changes in the upwelling across the tropical tropopause are not sufficient as an indicator for changes in the entire Brewer-Dobson circulation.


We propose a stochastic phoneme space transformation technique that allows the conversion of conditional source phoneme posterior probabilities (conditioned on the acoustics) into target phoneme posterior probabilities. The source and target phonemes can be in any language and phoneme format such as the International Phonetic Alphabet. The novel technique makes use of a Kullback-Leibler divergence based hidden Markov model and can be applied to non-native and accented speech recognition or used to adapt systems to under-resourced languages. In this paper, and in the context of hybrid HMM/MLP recognizers, we successfully apply the proposed approach to non-native English speech recognition on the HIWIRE dataset.


For introductory computer courses on Microsoft Office 2010 or courses in computer conceptswhich include coverage of Web 2.0. The goal of the Exploring series has been to move students beyond the point and click, helping them understand the why and how behind each skill. ** This is a one-chapter supplement that will be available through Pearson's Custom PHIT Library **


Numerous secreted and cell-associated virulence factors have been proposed to account for the fulminating and destructive nature of Vibrio vulnificus infections. Among the putative virulence factors are an elastase, elastolytic protease, and a cytolytic hemolysin. Effects of the elastase on the hemolysin were assessed by evaluating changes of hemolytic activities either in the presence or absence of the protease. Although hemolytic activity in the culture supernatant was lowered by the purified elastase added in vitro, the cellular level of hemolytic activity was unaffected by the mutation of vvpE encoding the elastase. Growth kinetic studies revealed that hemolysin reached its maximum level in the exponential phase of growth, and the elastase appeared at the onset of the stationary phase. These results have provided insight into the regulation of virulence factors: temporally coordinate regulation of virulence factors is essential for the overall success of the pathogen during pathogenesis.


Abstract The reliability of any survey of biodiversity through geologic time depends on the rigor and consistency by which taxa are recognized and samples are identified. The main goal of the Neogene Marine Biota of Tropical America ('NMITA') project is to create an online biotic database (http://nmita.geology.uiowa.edu) containing images and synoptic taxonomic information that are essential to collecting and disseminating high-quality taxic data. The database consists of an inventory of taxa collected as part of several large multi-taxa fossil sampling programs designed to assess marine biodiversity in tropical America over the past 25 m.y. In the first phase of the project, data for ∼1,300 taxa and ∼3,800 images are currently being entered into a relational database management system on an IBM RS6000 at the University of Iowa. Eleven taxonomic groups are represented: bivalves, gastropods (muricids, marginellids, strombinids), bryozoans (cheilostome, cyclostome), corals (azooxanthellate, zooxanthellate), benthic foraminifers, ostracodes, fish. The lowest taxonomic rank is species (genera/subgenera in mollusks) and the highest is family. Data that are collected and displayed on taxon pages include: (1) taxonomic authorship, synonyms, type specimens, and diagnostic morphologic characters; (2) images of representative specimens and associated museum catalog and measurement data; (3) distributional information including geologic ages, stratigraphic units, and spatial locations; and (4) higher level classification (genera and families) and bibliographic information. Illustrated glossaries of morphologic terms, character matrices, and identification tools are being developed for corals and mollusks. Interactive geographic maps and stratigraphic columns have been designed to provide information about taxa collected at different locations.


Proprioception is assessed more often through joint position sense and kinesthesia than force sense. The purpose of this study is to investigate force sense at the shoulder. A total of 12 subjects were recruited. An ipsilateral force reproduction protocol at the shoulder at 50°, 70°, and 90° and 120%, 140%, and 160% baseline torque. Dependent variables were constant error (CE) and root mean square error. An effect was found for load on absolute (p = .001) and normalized CE (p < .001). CE decreased with increased load. An effect for angle was found for absolute root mean square error (p = .002), more accurate at 50° (p = .01), but no effect when normalized (p = .19). With increased loads, subjects undershot the target and CE approached zero. Because of the differing behavior in CE and root mean square error, and absolute and normalized data, force sense studies should examine error from these perspectives.


The birefringence in nanometer-scale dielectrics with the largest dimensions ranging from about 3 nm to 20 nm has been quantified by evaluating directly the summation of induced-dipole-electric-field contributions from all individual atoms within the entire dielectric volume. Various configurations in representative cubic and tetragonal systems are investigated by varying the ratio of lattice constants and the number of atoms in various directions to illustrate the chain-like and plane-like behavior regimes. The dielectric properties of the finite cubic crystal lattices change from isotropic to birefringent (uniaxial or biaxial) when the entire dielectric volume is changed from a cube to a rectangular parallelepiped in shape. In finite tetragonal crystals the birefringence increases with the increasing lattice constant ratios. The largest uniaxial birefringence occurs for non-cube dielectric volume with tetragonal lattices.


This thesis is the result of fieldwork, research, and time spent with Ted Hicks and
other members of the Hicks family who reside on Beech Mountain in Watauga County in
western North Carolina. Ted, who was born in 1954 in Avery County, has spent his entire
life living with his mother, Rosa Harmon Hicks, and his father, Ray. He learned the
Appalachian mountain traditions from his parents. Modernity has not substantially
influenced the Hicks family. They have continued to live, work, and play in the "old ways."
Ted has been a subsistence farmer, woodsman, craftsman, carpenter, and herb gatherer. Only
recently has he become an active bearer of the oral tradition of the Jack and Grandfather
Tales.
Ted grew up in the house on Beech Mountain where his father was born and where
Ray heard his grandfather, Benjamin Hicks, telling the tales that his relatives had passed
down to him. In 1995, Ray received the National Storytelling Association's first Lifetime
Achievement Award, and he received numerous storytelling awards. He was also the only
teller who was featured every year at the National Storytelling Festival that is held in
Jonesborough, Tennessee. Ted has been a passive participant in the oral traditions of the
family. He was shy and spent more time alone in the woods and farming the family land
than in public gatherings. It wasn't until after his father's death in 2003 that Ted became an
active bearer of the tradition of the Jack and Grandfather Tales. Due to health challenges, he
could no longer farm and gather herbs, and therefore he turned to the oral traditions he grew
up hearing in his home. Ted continues private performances in the context of his and his
mother's home, and he has transitioned to public performances in the past few years. His
performance in October 2009 was his first delivery of a tale on the main stage in
Jonesborough. He sat in the same center spot where his father had performed the tales year
after year. The delivery of "Jack and the Doctor's Girl" transcribed in Appendix B was
Ted's fourth public performance.
My research includes Ted Hicks's private performances and one public performance
of the Jack Tales, a genre that has been recorded as a two hundred-year old tradition brought
to western North Carolina by the Hicks, Harmon, and Ward families, who came from
England and Germany and settled near Valle Crucis, North Carolina in the 1700s. Because
of the Hicks family's long history of involvement with the Jack Tale tradition, there is a need
for further documentation of this family, which has taken responsibility for keeping the
cultural traditions alive in the Appalachian region. My thesis documents Ted Hicks's role in
maintaining family traditions and his transition to being an active bearer of the Jack Tale
tradition as he struggles with health issues and a changing community. A video recording
and transcriptions of Ted's private and public performances accompany my thesis and are
central to this project.


Subgoal graphs can be constructed on top of graphs during a preprocessing phase to speed-up shortest path queries. They have an undominated query-time/memory trade-off in the Grid-Based Path Planning Competitions. While grids are useful for path planning, other kinds of graphs, such as state lattices, have to be used for motion planning. While state lattices are regular graphs like grids, subgoal graphs improve query times by a much smaller factor on state lattices than on grids. In this paper, we present a new version of subgoal graphs that forfeits its optimality guarantee for smaller query times. It guarantees completeness, and our experimental results on state lattices suggest that it can find paths that are close to optimal.


Government initiatives called for electronic health records for each individual healthcare consumer by 2014. the purpose of the initiatives is to provide for the common exchange of clinical information between healthcare consumers, healthcare providers, third-party payers and public healthcare officials.This exchange of healthcare information will impact the healthcare industry and enable more effective and efficient application of healthcare so that there may be a decrease in medical errors, increase in access to quality of care tools, and enhancement of decision making abilities by healthcare consumers, healthcare providers and government health agencies. an electronic personal health record (ePHR) created, managed and accessed by healthcare consumers may be the answer to fulfilling the national initiative. However, since healthcare consumers potentially are in control of their own ePHR, the healthcare consumer's concern for privacy may be a barrier for the effective implementation of a nationwide network of ePHR. a technology acceptance model, an information boundary theory model and a trust model were integrated to analyze usage intentions of healthcare consumers of ePHR. Results indicate that healthcare consumers feel there is a perceived usefulness of ePHR; however they may not see ePHR as easy to use. Results also indicate that the perceived usefulness of utilizing ePHR does not overcome the low perceived ease of use to the extent that healthcare consumers intend to utilize ePHR. in addition, healthcare consumers may not understand the different components of usage: access, management, sharing and facilitating third-party ePHR. Also, demographics, computer self-efficacy, personal innovativeness, healthcare need and healthcare literacy impact a healthcare consumer's privacy concerns and trusting intentions in the context of ePHR and intent to utilize ePHR. Finally, this research indicates that healthcare consumers may need a better understanding of the Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) regulations of ePHR as well as a better understanding of the impact HIPAA has on websites that may facilitate ePHR.


The disastrous stormflood of 1953 has caused in the Netherlands an intensive research on the mechanism of damages of sea-walls and on the problem of safety. It was rather quickly understood that the damages of the sea-walls must have been caused by overflowing water only. The overtopping water, flowing down along the inner slope, penetrated into this slope. The resulting groundwater flow in the section of-the bank-body just beneath*"this slope must have reduced the friction resistance of the soil, m consequence of which slides occurred in the inner slopes, in many cases resulting m a total destruction of the bank-body. Obviously there was something wrong with our sea-walls, but at first it was not very clear in which way they had to be improved, rfe could distinguish two different ways, two different principles. Either vie should design our sea-walls so high, that overtopping would never occur, or we should construct a bank-body, that would be wholly proof against the action of overflowing water.


Heat is the leading cause of weather-related mortality in the United States. Over the past 30 years, extreme heat has claimed, on average, more lives per year than floods and hurricanes combined. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that extreme heat kills approximately 618 people per year, though, because heat exposure often exacerbates underlying medical conditions, it is likely that many heat-related deaths go misdiagnosed or unrecognized.Despite its significant hazards, the "invisible" threat of extreme heat has gained little traction in the national conversation on climate change, with superstorms and increasingly regular 100-year floods, instead, dominating the media. Recently, however, the dangers of extreme heat—and our lack of preparedness for its impacts—have become far more visible. In September 2017, 14 residents of a Florida nursing home died when Hurricane Irma knocked out power to the building's air-conditioning system, and indoor temperatures swelled to 99°F. Extreme heat in the summer of 2017 forced airlines to cancel dozens of flights scheduled to depart from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, because, at 118°F, it is too hot for planes to take off safely. In late-October 2017, large swaths of Southern California experienced temperatures near 110°F, the hottest weather ever recorded in the United States so late in the calendar year. The extreme heat in California amplified a devastating season of wildfires—in 2017 alone, 9,000 wildfires ravaged the state, burning 1.2 million acres of land, destroying over 10,800 structures, and killing upwards of 46 people. In November 2018, California experienced its most deadly and destructive wildfire in modern history, when the Camp Fire in Butte County killed at least 84 people and virtually destroyed the town of Paradise, then home to 27,000 people. In Southern California, the Woolsey Fire burned close to 100,000 acres of land in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties.As anthropogenic climate change yields higher temperatures and humidity across the globe, the United States will likely experience a long-term upward trend in heat-related mortality and morbidity. Indeed, in 2016, the Obama administration released a scientific assessment of the impact of climate change on public health, predicting that more than 11,000 additional heat-related deaths may occur during the summer of 2030, with that number increasing to 27,000 additional deaths during the summer of 2100. Moreover, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ("IPCC") reports, with virtual certainty, that there will be more frequent daily and seasonal extreme heat events as the 21st century progresses. Climatologists predict that by mid-century, there will be 20 to 30 more days per year with temperatures over 90°F in most areas of the contiguous United States, with the Southeast experiencing increases of 40 to 50 days. By 2100, some areas of Texas may experience more than 100 days over 100°F per year. According to Michael E. Mann, a leading climatologist and professor of meteorology at Pennylvania State University, what we now deem "extreme heat" may soon be called "mid-summer."
As demonstrated by both climate science and recent events, extreme heat is a relevant and significant threat to human health and safety. Currently, however, there is no standardized approach to protecting the populace from extreme heat, let alone a legal standard of tolerable heat applicable to the workplace, housing, or other affected environments. This Note investigates existing laws, regulations, and guidelines on extreme heat in a variety of contexts, and considers the possibility of a quantifiable and uniform standard of acceptable heat. It will analyze proven best practices for tolerating heat and present the most viable small- and large-scale resiliency strategies to prepare for a warming climate.  This Note will conclude by acknowledging the limitations of a uniform legal standard of tolerable heat but advocating for adaptive policies based on context and population, with a particular focus on local mitigation techniques.


From the Publisher:
The complete smart card guidebook for decision-makers, product managers, developers, and integrators.

Smart card application development from start to finish: design, development, and deployment
Covers every component of a complete system: cards, readers, host software, management systems, and more
Focuses on advanced "post issuance programmable" multi-application smart cards
Presents detailed case studies and product coverage
Offers up-to-the-minute insights into the evolving smart card marketplace and smart card technology

Smart cards represent a breakthrough solution for maximizing security in a wide range of applications. Now, two leading smart card consultants present a thorough, up-to-date, accessible introduction to smart card technology that will be invaluable to developers and decision-makers alike. Smart Cards: A Developer's Toolkit covers all you need to know to plan, design, develop, and deploy advanced multi-application smart card environments, including:

Smart card physical structure, construction, tamper resistance, and tamper-evident features
International standards, inter-industry command sets, and industry specifications
"Post issuance programmable" smart cards: the cutting edge of smart card deployment
An in-depth review of two "high-performance" smart cards, including one multi-application card
PC and workstation host software for supporting smart cards
Applications with the SIM smart cards in GSM and 3G mobile phones
Card management systems and readers for large-scale applications in real-world environments
marketplace for smart cards in the U.S. and worldwide

The authors present case studies from today's most advanced smart card deployments, covering both the logistics of initial deployment and best practices for supporting ongoing operations and card populations. Whether you're an IT manager, corporate security officer, product manager, developer, or integrator, Smart Cards: A Developer's Toolkit gives you a powerful new weapon for protecting your digital assets.


The progressive transition in the nature of both scientific and industrial datasets has been the driving force behind the development and research interests in the NoSQL model. Loosely structured data poses a challenge to traditional data store systems, and when working with the NoSQL model, these systems are often considered impractical and costly. As the quantity and quality of unstructured data grows, so does the demand for a processing pipeline that is capable of seamlessly combining the NoSQL storage model and a " Big Data " processing platform such as MapReduce. Although MapReduce is the paradigm of choice for data-intensive computing, Java-based frameworks such as Hadoop require users to write MapReduce code in Java while Hadoop Streaming module allows users to define non-Java executables as map and reduce operations. When confronted with legacy C/C++ applications and other non-Java executables, there arises a further need to allow NoSQL data stores access to the features of Hadoop Streaming. We present approaches in solving the challenge of integrating NoSQL data stores with MapReduce under non-Java application scenarios, along with advantages and disadvantages of each approach. We compare Hadoop Streaming alongside our own streaming framework, MARISSA, to show performance implications of coupling NoSQL data stores like Cassandra with MapReduce frameworks that normally rely on file-system based data stores. Our experiments also include Hadoop-C*, which is a setup where a Hadoop cluster is co-located with a Cassandra cluster in order to process data using Hadoop with non-java executables.


This paper seeks to explore Critical Narrative Analysis (CNA) and Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) as valuable methodologies in research for their potential to challenge the inherent absoluteness of master narratives through the personal and counter-narratives of research participants, while also providing participants an action-oriented emancipatory opportunity to lead the change needed in their organizations, communities and society at large. Citing a previous study which explored how patriarchal, colonially-structured master narratives have played a significant role in reproducing the limited views which dominate American understanding of working mothers, the author will demonstrate how CNA and CPAR combined can expose how these master narratives have been particularly damaging to working, mothers of color. Additionally, the CNA and CPAR approach allowed for the participating women of color to analyze their own personal experiences as well as provide a societal analysis that advocates for broader social change through the transformational action of the women themselves. Finally, the author makes the case for the potential of a combined CNA and CPAR approach across other content areas beyond mothering and work. Thus, by creating research that is centered on the specific lived experiences of our participants, we can support the development of critical consciousness, the self-reflection of others while also creating meaningful change that can inform our communities, organizations and society. This approach also has the capacity to create space for diverse perspectives to be included in knowledge and meaning making, which has invaluable implications in scholarship, research, practice and policy.


Four intervals of late Holocene glacier advance are recognized from study of nine valley glaciers in the Wrangell and westernmost St. Elias Mountains of Alaska. The oldest glacial advance is recognized at the Nabesna and Barnard Glaciers where five radiocarbon ages suggest advance as early as 2700 cal. (calibrated) yr B.P. Two additional radiocarbon-dated advances are centered on cal. yr A.D. 300 and the beginning of the Little Ice Age about A.D. 1200. The best-documented Little Ice Age advances occurred during the mid-1600s through the 1800s and are recognized at all nine glaciers. These latter advances are dated by tree rings of trees overrun by glaciers in five glacier valley, by 17 radiocarbon dates, and by tree-ring and lichen ages from 20 moraines that were deposited during the culmination of these advances. The glacial chronology is broadly similar to chronologies from adjoining Alaskan mountain ranges, at both coastal and interior sites for the past 3000 yr. There are, however, differences in timing of advances during the first millennium A.D. The glacial history for the past 2000 yr is also consistent with temperature-sensitive proxy records from interior Alaska and Yukon Territory.


The transcriptional regulatory networks that specify and maintain human tissue diversity are largely uncharted. To gain insight into this circuitry, we used chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with promoter microarrays to identify systematically the genes occupied by the transcriptional regulators HNF1α, HNF4α, and HNF6, together with RNA polymerase II, in human liver and pancreatic islets. We identified tissue-specific regulatory circuits formed by HNF1α, HNF4α, and HNF6 with other transcription factors, revealing how these factors function as master regulators of hepatocyte and islet transcription. Our results suggest how misregulation of HNF4α can contribute to type 2 diabetes.


Despite dramatic growth between 1990 and 2010, development assistance for health from high-income countries and development agencies to low- and middle-income countries has stagnated, and proposed cuts make future funding uncertain. To further understand international financial flows for health, we examined international contributions from major donor countries. Our findings showed that the United States provided more development assistance for health than any other country, but it provided less than others relative to national population, government spending, and income. Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom stand out when the provision of health assistance is considered relative to these other factors. Seventeen of twenty-three countries did not reach a target that corresponds to an international goal. If all twenty-three countries had reached this goal, an additional $13.3 billion would have been available for global health in 2016. Systematic efforts are needed to encourage countries to meet these targets. Sustained health improvement in low- and middle-income countries will benefit greatly from ongoing international support.


What would constitute a definitively "green" state? In this important new book, Robyn Eckersley explores what it might take to create a green democratic state as an alternative to the classical liberal democratic state, the indiscriminate growth-dependent welfare state, and the neoliberal market-focused state -- seeking, she writes, "to navigate between undisciplined political imagination and pessimistic resignation to the status quo." In recent years, most environmental scholars and environmentalists have characterized the sovereign state as ineffectual and have criticized nations for perpetuating ecological destruction. Going consciously against the grain of much current thinking, this book argues that the state is still the preeminent political institution for addressing environmental problems. States remain the gatekeepers of the global order, and greening the state is a necessary step, Eckersley argues, toward greening domestic and international policy and law. The Green State seeks to connect the moral and practical concerns of the environmental movement with contemporary theories about the state, democracy, and justice. Eckersley's proposed "critical political ecology" expands the boundaries of the moral community to include the natural environment in which the human community is embedded. This is the first book to make the vision of a "good" green state explicit, to explore the obstacles to its achievement, and to suggest practical constitutional and multilateral arrangements that could help transform the liberal democratic state into a postliberal green democratic state. Rethinking the state in light of the principles of ecological democracy ultimately casts it in a new role: that of an ecological steward and facilitator of transboundary democracy rather than a selfish actor jealously protecting its territory.


Objective: Taurine, the most abundant, semiessential, sulfur-containing amino acid, is well known to improve metabolic status in animal models. However, no rigorous clinical trial has validated whether this beneficial effect of taurine occurs in human, especially in prehypertensive participants. Design and Method: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, we assessed the effects of taurine intervention on metabolic parameters, such as blood pressure (BP) levels, carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), ankle brachial index (ABI)/toe brachial index (TBI), BMI and biochemical parameters in prehypertensive participants. We randomly assigned 120 eligible prehypertensive individuals to receive either taurine supplementation (1.6 g per day) or a placebo for 12 weeks. Then we further validated the results in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), which were were intervented with 2% taurine water for 12 weeks. Results: Totally 97 participants completed the trial and no significant difference observed between the taurine and placebo groups. Taurine supplementation significantly decreased the clinic and 24-hour ambulatory BPs, especially in those with high-normal BP. In addition, taurine supplementation significantly improved endothelium-dependent and -independent vasodilation and reduced IMTs of these prehypertensive participants. Meanwhile taurine intervention increased plasma H2S and taurine concentrations. Other parameters did not change significantly upon taurine treatment compared with pre-treatment or placebo group. To further elucidate the mechanism, experimental studies were performed both in vivo and in vitro. The results showed that taurine treatment exerts hypotensive effects by upregulating the expressions of H2S-synthesizing enzymes and reducing agonist-induced vascular reactivity through the inhibition of TRPC3-mediated calcium influx in human and mouse mesenteric arteries. Also, taurine reduced ROS levels and improved mitochondrial respiratory fucntions in VSMCs from SHR compared with control group, thus inhibiting vascular remodeling pathways. Conclusions: Taurine supplementation improved vascular function of prehypertensive participants and SHRs by lowering BP levels and reducing IMT values. Taurine may become a new dietary factor improving the metabolic status in prehypertension.


Evaluating Nurses' Self-Efficacy in Caring for Patients With Dementia by Wendy Hopkins MS, Seton Hall University, 2006 BS, Mississippi College, 1990 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University February 2017 Abstract In 2011, 5 million Americans had dementia and this number is predicted to increase. As the number of people with dementia increases, the need for quality nursing care, education, and treatment for patients with dementia increases. To address the need, nurses not only must be prepared with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to care for patients with dementia, but they must also have the self-efficacy to provide quality care. The practice focused question guiding the project was to determine the level of selfefficacy for caring for dementia patients among long-term care nursing staff. Using Bandura's social cognitive theory, the purpose of this project was to gain information about the self-efficacy of nurses caring for dementia patients at one long-term care facility. Forty nurse participants completed a 25-item, 5-point Likert scale Self-Efficacy in Dementia Care Survey. The quantitative data were descriptively analyzed to identify nursing training needed for tasks related to dementia patient care. Administrating medications, providing early management information, educating patient families, maneuvering the environment, and influencing the emotional response of patients were areas of knowledge and skill deficit for nurse participants. Findings from the project will be used to guide education and training to improve nurse self-efficacy in working with dementia patients. When nurses in long-term care facilities enhance their skills and knowledge, they may be able to provide better care to dementia patients therefore promoting social change.In 2011, 5 million Americans had dementia and this number is predicted to increase. As the number of people with dementia increases, the need for quality nursing care, education, and treatment for patients with dementia increases. To address the need, nurses not only must be prepared with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to care for patients with dementia, but they must also have the self-efficacy to provide quality care. The practice focused question guiding the project was to determine the level of selfefficacy for caring for dementia patients among long-term care nursing staff. Using Bandura's social cognitive theory, the purpose of this project was to gain information about the self-efficacy of nurses caring for dementia patients at one long-term care facility. Forty nurse participants completed a 25-item, 5-point Likert scale Self-Efficacy in Dementia Care Survey. The quantitative data were descriptively analyzed to identify nursing training needed for tasks related to dementia patient care. Administrating medications, providing early management information, educating patient families, maneuvering the environment, and influencing the emotional response of patients were areas of knowledge and skill deficit for nurse participants. Findings from the project will be used to guide education and training to improve nurse self-efficacy in working with dementia patients. When nurses in long-term care facilities enhance their skills and knowledge, they may be able to provide better care to dementia patients therefore promoting social change. Evaluating Nurses' Self-Efficacy in Caring for Patients With Dementia by Wendy Hopkins MS, Seton Hall University, 2006 BS, Mississippi College, 1990 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University February 2017


On February 28, 1947, an uprising began and was followed by the massacre of thousands of ethnic Taiwanese. Although the memory of this massacre was suppressed by forty years of martial law, it has recently become an important socio-political symbol in modern Taiwan. The construction of the symbolic mythology of the 228 Incident has remade the massacre as an important historical event and a divisive tool in the political and ethnic turmoil of Taiwan. This paper examines the event of the 228 Incident and determines how the incident has been mythologized in modern political discourses due to its recently acquired symbolic status in Taiwan's history. The paper pays particular attention to interpretations and reactions of Taiwan's two major political parties.


Introduction: Obesity is designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the major pandemic of this century. Bariatric surgery is one of the most effective treatments of morbid obesity, since most patients are submitted to reconstructive plastic surgery after major weight loss. Among the surgeries carried out in the formerly obese, dermolipectomy is the procedure that is mostly associated with complications after surgery. The aim of this study was to report the experience of the author in performing anchor dermolipectomy after major weight loss, focusing on complications and patient satisfaction rate. Methods: The medical records of 40 patients operated between September 2011 and April 2013 were reviewed in the study. Five patients were excluded from the study, since they could not be found. The patients were asked to score their satisfaction from 1 to 4, where 1 means dissatisfied, 2 poorly satisfied, 3 satisfied, and 4 very satisfied. Trans and post-operative complications, surgical time, hospital stay, drainage time, age, and gender were considered in the study. The data obtained were submitted to a statistical analysis and descriptive statistics. Results: Among the 35 patients evaluated in our study, only one was male (2.85%). The age varied between 27 and 68 years (average age of 41.25 years). The preoperative weight varied from 58 to 108 kg (average of 73.6 kg); 94.28% of the patients declared themselves as satisfied (score 3 and 4). The main complication was the occurrence of seroma (28.5%), followed by hypertrophic scar (17.14%). No major complication was observed. The average surgical time was 103 minutes (75-140 minutes). The patient was discharged 24 hours after hospital admission. Conclusion: Anchor dermolipectomy is a safe and effective body contouring procedure to be carried out in the formerly obese.


This paper discusses the notion of language in relation to the notion of a language. We argue that the concept of languages as neatly separated, countable units is an ideological construction. This ideological construction served the European nation states well during the Romantic period and later, for instance during Colonialism (e.g. Heller 2007, Makoni and Penny cook 2006). With growing internationalization, however, this concept of languages has become increasingly at odds with the linguistic experience of speakers throughout Europe. In fact the notion of languages, for instance as separable from dialects, has never been accepted by sociolinguistics. Any specifi c notion of a language, say Dutch, is a sociocultural construction, and it is only real at the level of norms. At the level of language use we can not maintain these concepts of languages. As an alternative idea of language we propose that descriptions and analyses of language use must be based, not on "languages", but on features, and the focus must be in the individual (Hudson 1996).


After the second world war, success in elite sport slowly became increasingly important for both the individual athlete and his/her country. Since success in most sports depends on physical strength, men usually outperform women to a significant degree due to their higher levels of the male sex hormone testosterone which is a powerful androgenic-anabolic substance. Consequently, it also became increasingly important to protect female competitions from male imposters. Procedures for this purpose were introduced as from the 1960s and named 'Gender verification'. As science developed, however, the procedures were found to be either unscientific or unethical, or both. After a lengthy struggle, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was the first international sports organisation to abandon so-called gender verification in 1991.1 Eight years later, the IOC did the same, and the remaining international sports federations followed suit. At that time, the issue of participation of transgender athletes was not specifically addressed in sport.

In 2003, a National Olympic Committee asked the …


Sahrawi women are active agents in the social dynamics of the refugee camps, in which they have developeda number of coping strategies to overcome the hardships of a deteriorating humanitarian situation. Since the outbreak of the con#ict and the forced settlement in Tindouf, Algeria, women have been responsible for the entire management of refugee camps, assuming leadership roles in many sectors of society.This paper highlights the Sahrawi women's contribution to the process of local human development in a context of protracted refuge such as the one in the Western Sahara. In addition to the enlargement of the refugee population's capacities in relation to material and physical assets, social and organizational abilities, and motivational strengths, one of the major achievements of Sahrawi women has been their own individual and collective process of empowerment within the camp life.


ABSTRACT Myanmar is in a tectonically complex region between the eastern edge of the Himalayan collision zone and the northern end of the Sunda megathrust. Until recently, earthquake monitoring and research efforts have been hampered by a lack of modern instrumentation and communication infrastructure. In January 2016, a major upgrade of the Myanmar National Seismic Network (MNSN; network code MM) was undertaken to improve earthquake monitoring capability. We installed five permanent broadband and strong‐motion seismic stations and real‐time data telemetry using newly improved cellular networks. Data are telemetered to the MNSN hub in Nay Pyi Taw and archived at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Data Management Center. We analyzed station noise characteristics and site response using noise and events recorded over the first six months of station operation. Background noise characteristics vary across the array, but indicate that the new stations are performing well. MM stations recorded more than 20 earthquakes of M ≥4.5 within Myanmar and its immediate surroundings, including an M  6.8 earthquake located northwest of Mandalay on 13 April 2016 and the M w  6.8 Chauk event on 24 August 2016. We use this new dataset to calculate horizontal‐to‐vertical spectral ratios, which provide a preliminary characterization of site response of the upgraded MM stations.


Predictions are made based on an analysis of a new nonlinear theory of martensitic transformations introduced by the authors. The crystal is modelled as a nonlinear elastic material, with a free-energy function that is invariant with respect to both rigid-body rotations and the appropriate crystallographic symmetries. The predictions concern primarily the two-well problem, that of determining all possible energy-minimizing deformations that can be obtained with two coherent and macroscopically unstressed variants of martensite. The set of possible macroscopic deformations obtained is completely determined by the lattice parameters of the material. For certain boundary conditions the total free energy does not attain a minimum , and the finer and finer oscillations of minimizing sequences are interpreted as corresponding to microstructure. The predictions are am enable to experimental tests. The proposed tests involve the comparison of the theoretical predictions with the mechanical response of properly oriented plates subject to simple shear.


First, the government restrictions found in the Protective Order and the new regulations severely limit the amount of contact the attorney can have with the client and the type of information that can be shared with the client. Second, the stay of the court proceedings since December 2004 has prevented any opportunity to present issues in the courts. Third, cultural barriers between attorneys and clients, including but not limited to the clients' inability to understand the rule of law and the role of lawyers in the Common Law adversary model in general, and in the U.S. legal system in particular, further inhibit their decision-making capacity. This Essay considers the role of the defense attorney in Guantanamo Bay. Part I looks at models of cause lawyering, compares the tactics used by radical attorneys to those used by Guantanamo defense attorneys, and considers the rule of law as a "cause." Part II looks to the restrictions put on the attorney-client relationship by the U.S. government and the client's diminished decision-making capacity, and argues that paternalism is allowed in the relationship by the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Part III considers the cultural gap that inhibits attorney client relationship in addition to the other barriers that were presented.


Research shows that students who study abroad (SA) gain in communicative and discourse skills more than their at-home (AH) counterparts (Freed, 1995). However, such advantages are not automatic. For example, evidence of SA phonological advantages over AH is clear at times (e.g. Diaz Campos, 2006) while not in others (e.g. Geeslin & Gudmestad, 2011). This study adds to the conversation about phonological acquisition during SA and posits that learner social networks (Milroy, 1987) are key in such acquisition. It examines the realizations of [θ] in four English native speakers who spent one year in Madrid. Two used [θ] consistently while the other two did not. The participants' social networks can be used, in part, to explain the discrepancy.


The article explored outcomes of optimizing a network of dissertation councils in Russia in the period between 2013 and 2015 years.The subject structure of world science was compared with anticipated after optimization disciplinary structure of highly qualified Russian scientific personnel body. To make the comparison complete, there was evaluated the gravity of publication flow volume per certain subjects in data bases like Web of Science and the contribution of certain related areas in forming research frontlines according to data of Essential Science Indicators. It was factually proven that project's realization contributes to the process of balancing out the structure of reproduced body of highly qualified personnel in Russia and of the world's science subject structure. In addition to that, it was noted that by the end of 2015 year Russia will witness a groundlessly low share of dissertation councils in medicine and similarly groundlessly in the context of global science development trends a high share of councils in economics sciences


In this two‐part paper, a description is provided of a version of the AM4.0/LM4.0 atmosphere/land model that will serve as a base for a new set of climate and Earth system models (CM4 and ESM4) under development at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). This version, with roughly 100 km horizontal resolution and 33 levels in the vertical, contains an aerosol model that generates aerosol fields from emissions and a "light" chemistry mechanism designed to support the aerosol model but with prescribed ozone. In Part 1, the quality of the simulation in AMIP (Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project) mode—with prescribed sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and sea‐ice distribution—is described and compared with previous GFDL models and with the CMIP5 archive of AMIP simulations. The model's Cess sensitivity (response in the top‐of‐atmosphere radiative flux to uniform warming of SSTs) and effective radiative forcing are also presented. In Part 2, the model formulation is described more fully and key sensitivities to aspects of the model formulation are discussed, along with the approach to model tuning.


A thin-film monocrystalline CMOS display technology has been realized by implementing a conventional NMOS inversion device and a PMOS accumulation device or PACC. In this paper, a charge-based model is introduced which provides the dc current-voltage characteristics of PACC devices. Derived directly from the Pao-Sah equation by applying the 1D Gauss' law, the model provides a C-∞ expression for drain current valid from cutoff through accumulation. The model correctly predicts the influence of fixed charge at the silicon-glass interface on the I-V characteristics and shows excellent agreement for both transfer and output characteristics with results from 2D device simulation. The core model coupled with previously developed equations describing channel length modulation, subthreshold slope degradation, drain induced barrier lowering, and mobility degradation form a complete PACC model which is compared to measured results.


PABST AUTOANTIGENS, AUTOANTIBODIES, AUTOIMMUNITY Volume 5 2007 Disease-associated autoantibodies become more and more important for routine diagnostics as well as basic and applied research. As many of these autoantibodies are detectable long time before clinical manifestations, they may be used to predict the development of the appropriate disease. However their potential role in the very early diagnosis or risk assessment of disease development remains to be further studied. The current knowledge, the facts and perspectives regarding the prediction of organ specific and systemic autoimmune diseases are discussed in Chapter 1. For disease prediction and early intervention it is necessary to understand the pathologic processes leading to autoimmune diseases. For instance, components of the innate immune system (e.g. Toll-like receptors) can have a dramatic impact on autoantibody response and disease pathogenesis, either by promoting or by regulating disease (Chapter 2). The different effects of autoantibodies in immune homeostasis and autoimmune manifestations are discussed in Chapters 3 to 6.1 (natural autoantibodies as catalytic or protective immunoglobulins, autoantibodies against protective molecules, macromolecular complexes, receptor structures and ion channels). Reviews and news regarding autoantibodies in organ specific (Chapter 6) and systemic autoimmune diseases (Chapter 7) follow. The main focus of Chapter 7 is the pathologic, diagnostic and prognostic relevance of autoantibodies against citrullinated proteins or peptides. Chapter 9 deals with methodical aspects and diagnostic stategies starting with general comments on early diagnosis of autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Technologies for the identification of novel autoantibodies as well as for the determination of autoantibodies and autoantibody profiles were presented. Improvement of autoantibody analyses by autoantigen designing and technological innovations were discussed. Optimized, standardized and cost-effective multiparametric assays are the prerequisite for a probable future use of autoantibodies for the more accurate prediction of diseases.


The sites of major media organizations -- CNN, USA Today, the Guardian, and others -- provide the public with much of the online news they consume. But although a large proportion of the top stories these sites disseminate cover politics, international relations, and economics, users of these sites show a preference (as evidenced by the most viewed stories) for news about sports, crime, entertainment, and weather. In this book, Pablo Boczkowski and Eugenia Mitchelstein examine this gap and consider the implications for the media industry and democratic life in the digital age. Drawing on analyses of more than 50,000 stories posted on twenty news sites in seven countries in North and South America and Western Europe, Boczkowski and Mitchelstein find that the gap in news preferences exists regardless of ideological orientation or national media culture. They show that it narrows in times of heightened political activity (including presidential elections or government crises) as readers feel compelled to inform themselves about public affairs but remains wide during times of normal political activity. Boczkowski and Mitchelstein also find that the gap is not affected by innovations in Web-native forms of storytelling such as blogs and user-generated content on mainstream news sites. Keeping the account of the news gap up to date, in the book's coda they extend the analysis through the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Drawing upon these findings, the authors explore the news gap's troubling consequences for the matrix that connects communication, technology, and politics in the digital age.


This thesis presents a newly developed Quasi Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian Finite Element Method (QALE-FEM) for numerically simulating wave-body interaction problems based on the fully nonlinear potential theory. The boundary value problem in this model is solved by a finite element method (FEM). The main difference between this method and the conventional FEM is that the complex mesh is generated only once at the beginning of the calculation and is moved at all other time steps in order to conform to the motion of the free surface and structures. This feature allows one to use an unstructured mesh with any degree of complexity without the need of regenerating it every time step, which is generally inevitable and very costly. Due to this feature, the QALE-FEM has high computational efficiency when applied to problems associated with the complex interaction between large steep waves and structures since the use of an unstructured mesh in such a case is likely to be necessary. In order to achieve overall high efficiency, some numerical techniques, including the method to move interior nodes, the technique to redistribute the nodes on the free surface, the scheme to calculate velocities, are developed. To overcome the difficulty associated with the force and acceleration of freeresponse floating bodies, an ISITIMFB (Iterative Semi-Implicit Time Integration Method for Floating Bodies) iterative procedure is developed. The developed QALE-FEM method is applied to simulate the waves generated by a wavemaker and their interaction with sandbars on the seabed, waves generated by a floating body in forced motion, the response of a 2D or 3D freely floating body to a steep wave. Some of the results have been validated by analytical solutions, experimental data and numerical results from other methods. Satisfactory agreements are achieved. The convergence properties of this model in cases with or without floating bodies are all investigated. The nonlinearities associated with different cases are investigated. The mesh quality is also investigated using either qualitative or quantitative methods. The results show the mesh quality during long-period simulation is retained. The efficiency of the QALE-FEM method is finally discussed and compared with other methods. It is concluded that the QALE-FEM method is 10 times faster than the conventional FEM method in case with unstructured mesh and at least 7 times faster than the fast BEM methods for the fully nonlinear waves.


Hematopoiesis is an essential process that evolved in multicellular animals. At the heart of this process are hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which are multipotent, self-renewing and generate the entire repertoire of blood and immune cells throughout life. Here we studied the hematopoietic system of Botryllus schlosseri, a colonial tunicate that has vasculature, circulating blood cells, and interesting characteristics of stem cell biology and immunity. Self-recognition between genetically compatible B. schlosseri colonies leads to the formation of natural parabionts with shared circulation, whereas incompatible colonies reject each other. Using flow-cytometry, whole-transcriptome sequencing of defined cell populations, and diverse functional assays, we identified HSCs, progenitors, immune-effector cells, the HSC niche, and demonstrated that self-recognition inhibits cytotoxic reaction. Our study implies that the HSC and myeloid lineages emerged in a common ancestor of tunicates and vertebrates and suggests that hematopoietic bone marrow and the B. schlosseri endostyle niche evolved from the same origin.


Objective: To provide evidence-based recommendations for treatment of adults with an unprovoked first seizure. Methods: We defined relevant questions and systematically reviewed published studies according to the American Academy of Neurology's classification of evidence criteria; we based recommendations on evidence level. Results and recommendations: Adults with an unprovoked first seizure should be informed that their seizure recurrence risk is greatest early within the first 2 years (21%–45%) (Level A), and clinical variables associated with increased risk may include a prior brain insult (Level A), an EEG with epileptiform abnormalities (Level A), a significant brain-imaging abnormality (Level B), and a nocturnal seizure (Level B). Immediate antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy, as compared with delay of treatment pending a second seizure, is likely to reduce recurrence risk within the first 2 years (Level B) but may not improve quality of life (Level C). Over a longer term (>3 years), immediate AED treatment is unlikely to improve prognosis as measured by sustained seizure remission (Level B). Patients should be advised that risk of AED adverse events (AEs) may range from 7% to 31% (Level B) and that these AEs are likely predominantly mild and reversible. Clinicians' recommendations whether to initiate immediate AED treatment after a first seizure should be based on individualized assessments that weigh the risk of recurrence against the AEs of AED therapy, consider educated patient preferences, and advise that immediate treatment will not improve the long-term prognosis for seizure remission but will reduce seizure risk over the subsequent 2 years.


Objective:Many HIV patients on combined antiretroviral therapy exhibit HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders because the brain becomes a viral reservoir. There is a need for therapeutics that can enter the central nervous system (CNS) and eradicate the virus. Design:Radiolabeled human mAb 2556 to HIV gp41 selectively kills HIV-infected cells in vivo and in vitro. Here we tested the ability of 213Bi-2556 to cross a tissue culture model of the human blood brain barrier and kill HIV-infected peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and monocytes on the CNS side of the barrier. Methods:2556 mAb isoelectric point was determined with isoelectric focusing. The ability of radiolabeled 2556 to penetrate through the barrier was studied by adding it to the upper chamber of the barriers and its penetration into the CNS side was followed for 5 h. To assess the ability of 213Bi-2556 to kill the HIV-infected cells on the CNS side of barrier, the HIV-infected and uninfected PBMCs and monocytes were allowed to transmigrate across the barriers overnight followed by application of 213Bi-2556 or control mAb 213Bi-1418 to the top of the barrier. Killing of cells was measured by TUNEL and Trypan blue assays. The barriers were examined by confocal microscopy for overt damage. Results:The isoelectric point of 213Bi-2556 was 9.6 enabling its penetration through the barrier by transcytosis. 213Bi-2556 killed significantly more transmigrated HIV-infected cells in comparison to 213Bi-1418 and uninfected cells. No overt damage to barriers was observed. Conclusion:We demonstrated that 213Bi-2556 mAb crossed an in-vitro human blood brain barrier and specifically killed transmigrated HIV-infected PBMCs and monocytes without overt damage to the barrier.