Abstract Background: Adolescence spans nearly a decade in which young people may initiate health risk behaviours such as unsafe sexual practices and the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD use). Most adolescent mortality and morbidity, attributable to such health risk behaviours, are preventable. Managing the consequences of health risk behaviours is costly and does not reduce the number of young people making these unhealthy lifestyle choices. The emphasis needs to shift towards the provision of adolescent primary and secondary preventive services. Overseas efforts involve national health risk behaviour screening, the application of national guidelines for primary health care workers in all contexts and continuing evaluation so that appropriate region-specific policies can be instituted. In spite of the completion of the second South African National Health Risk Behaviour Survey and the implementation and evaluation of the National Adolescent-Friendly Clinic Initiative (NAFCI) in government clinics, South Africa still lacks national guidelines for the primary health care worker to administer adolescent preventive services. Furthermore, the NAFCI initiative does not involve the general practitioner (GP) in the private sector. The aim of the research is to provide a profile of adolescent health risk behaviours and describe their GPs' provision of preventive services to address these health risk behaviours. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among senior high school learners (grades 10, 11 and 12) from 18 randomly selected secondary public, coeducational schools with an ordinary curriculum in the Johannesburg educational districts, during the first three school terms of 2002. A self-administered research questionnaire was used to ascertain learners' self-reported involvement in health risk behaviours and their interaction with their GP in dealing with these health risk behaviours. Results: The research questionnaires were completed by 1 139 learners. 1. Learners reported a high prevalence of health risk behaviours: 65% for alcohol use, 57% for sexual activity, 39% for tobacco use and 15% for drug use. 2. The predominant pattern of substance use was the experimental pattern of having tried these substances: 40% for cigarette use, 53% for alcohol use, 54% for injected drug use and 57% for other drug use. The majority of sexually active adolescents were practising unsafe sex: 55% with multiple partners, 52% without condoms and 28% without family planning. 3. Learners reported a high prevalence of coexisting health risk behaviours: 44% for alcohol use and sexual activity, 36% for tobacco and alcohol use and 26% for tobacco use and sexual activity. 4. Risk perception was lower for sexual activity (25% felt in danger and 5% felt affected) than for substance use (an average of 82% felt in danger and 40% felt affected). Of the 1 139 learners, only 271 learners (24%) had a GP in private practice. 1. The adolescent-GP interaction was favourable for preventive service delivery: 70% of learners had medical aid cover, 41% had been seeing their GP for more than five years, 92% had a 'family' doctor, 80% had visited their GP in the past six months and 60% had consulted their GP on their own at least once. 2. Primary preventive service delivery to those not involved in health risk behaviours was poor: 28% for sexual activity, 24% for drug use, 23% for alcohol use and 19% for tobacco use. 3. Uncovering of health risk behaviours occurred to varying degrees: 40% for sexual activity, 18% for alcohol use, 18% for tobacco use and 11% for drug use. 4. Secondary preventive service delivery to those involved in health risk behaviours was better: averages of 89% for sexual activity, 84% for drug use, 54% for tobacco use and 38% for alcohol use. Statistically significant learner and GP demographics highlighted the complex dynamics involved in this interaction. Conclusions: The study showed that adolescents from economically disadvantaged backgrounds have a high prevalence of health risk behaviours but utilise the GP resource to a limited degree. Despite the interaction between adolescent and GP being conducive to the receipt of primary and secondary preventive services, this is not optimal.


The quality and impact of academic Web sites is ofinterest to many audiences, including the scholars who use them and Web educators who need to identify best practice. Several large-scale European Union research projects have been funded to build new indicators for online scientific activity, reflecting recognition of the importance of the Web for scholarly communication. In this paper we address the key question of whether higher rated scholars produce higher impact Web sites, using the United Kingdom as a case study and measuring scholars' quality in terms of university-wide average research ratings. Methodological issues concerning the measurement of the online impact are discussed, leading to the adoption of counts of links to a university's constituent single domain Web sites from an aggregated counting metric. The findings suggest that universities with higher rated scholars produce significantly more Web content but with a similar average online impact. Higher rated scholars therefore attract more total links from their peers, but only by being more prolific, refuting earlier suggestions. It can be surmised that general Web publications are very different from scholarly journal articles and conference papers, for which scholarly quality does associate with citation impact. This has important implications for the construction of new Web indicators, for example that online impact should not be used to assess the quality of small groups of scholars, even within a single discipline.


Individuals high in alexithymia use high-risk sport to regulate their anxiety. Given the conceptual similarities between arduous high-risk sports and extreme endurance running, we investigated the relationship between alexithymia and the anxiolytic effects of endurance running. We measured marathon and ultramarathon runners (n = 35) on alexithymia, and pre- and postrace anxiety. Bootstrapped regression analyses using MEMORE revealed that alexithymia moderated the relationship between pre- and postrace anxiety such that there was a significant anxiety reduction for individuals high in alexithymia only. In conclusion, extreme endurance running provides an emotion regulation function for individuals high in alexithymia. The modest sample size points to the need for replication and further exploration.


Houston A. Baker Jr. condemns those black intellectuals who, he believes, have turned their backs on the tradition of racial activism in America. These individuals choose personal gain over the interests of the black majority, whether they are espousing neoconservative positions that distort the contours of contemporary social and political dynamics or abandoning race as an important issue in the study of American literature and culture. Most important, they do a disservice to the legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., and others who have fought for black rights. In the literature, speeches, and academic and public behavior of some black intellectuals in the past quarter century, Baker identifies a "hungry generation" eager for power, respect, and money. Baker critiques his own impoverished childhood in the "Little Africa" section of Louisville, Kentucky, to understand the shaping of this new public figure. He also revisits classical sites of African American literary and historical criticism and critique. Baker devotes chapters to the writing and thought of such black academic superstars as Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, and Henry Louis Gates Jr.; Hoover Institution senior fellow Shelby Steele; Yale law professor Stephen Carter; and Manhattan Institute fellow John McWhorter. His provocative investigation into their disingenuous posturing exposes what Baker deems a tragic betrayal of King's legacy. Baker concludes with a discussion of American myth and the role of the U.S. prison-industrial complex in the "disappearing" of blacks. Baker claims King would have criticized these black intellectuals for not persistently raising their voices against a private prison system that incarcerates so many men and women of color. To remedy this situation, Baker urges black intellectuals to forge both sacred and secular connections with local communities and rededicate themselves to social responsibility. As he sees it, the mission of the black intellectual today is not to do great things but to do specific, racially based work that is in the interest of the black majority.


Phenology event responses, based on vegetation types, are strong indicators of climate variability and the ability of the vegetation to adapt to future climate changes. However, the sensitivity of phenology events to climate change along either environmental or vegetation type gradients is rarely examined. Phenological curves of major vegetation types along the North−South Transect of Eastern China (NSTEC) have been developed using wavelet and smooth-spline methods based on the normalized difference vegetation index from 1982 to 2006. Spatial−temporal patterns, trends of greenup-onset dates, dormancy dates, and growing season lengths (GSLs) during the period of 1982−2006 are presented. The greenup-onset dates were most significantly and negatively related to the temperature in cold and humid areas, but insignificantly and positively in semi-arid regions. However, dormancy date showed a positive correlation with temperature. In populations of the same vegetation type, distributed along thermal gradients of NSTEC, the phenology sensitivities to warming were different. Greenup sensitivities of cold temperate coniferous forest (CTCF) and temperate meadow steppe (TMS) increased significantly from −6.0 to 0 days °C−1 (p < 0.001) and from about −2.0 to 2.0 days °C−1 (p < 0.001), respectively. In contrast, temperate grass steppe (TGS) and temperate deciduous shrubland (TDS) showed a decreased trend of greenup sensitivity from 2.0 to −4.0 days °C−1 (p < 0.001) and from 2.0 to −6.0 days °C−1 (p < 0.001), respectively. For the dormancy date sensitivity, CTCF showed a decreasing trend from about 6.0 to 0 days °C−1 (p < 0.001), and subtropical evergreen-broadleaved forest (SEBF) decreased from 5.0 to −5.0 days °C−1 (p < 0.05).


Creating the European monetary union between diverse and unequal nation states is arguably one of the biggest social experiments in history. This book offers an explanation of how the euro experiment came about and was sustained despite a severe crisis, and provides a comparison with the monetary-financial history of the US. The euro experiment can be understood as risk-sharing through a currency that is issued by a supranational central bank. A single currency shares liquidity risks by creating larger markets for all financial assets. A single monetary policy responds to business cycles in the currency area as a whole rather than managing the path of one dominant economy. Mechanisms of risk-sharing become institutions of monetary solidarity if they are consciously maintained, but they will periodically face opposition in member states. This book argues that diversity of membership is not an economic obstacle to the success of the euro, as diversity increases the potential gains from risk sharing. But political cooperation is needed to realize this potential, and such cooperation is up against collective action problems which become more intractable as the parties become more diverse. Hence, risk-sharing usually comes about as a collective by-product of national incentives. This political-economic tension can explain why the gains from risk-sharing are not more fully exploited, both in the euro area and in the US dollar area. This approach to monetary integration is based on the theory of collective action when hierarchy is not available as a solution to inter-state cooperation. The theory originates with Keohane and Ostrom (1995) and it is applied in this book, taking into account the latest research on the inherent instability of financial market integration.


Why will there never be another Bradman? How do you win 33 games in a row? Why did Zidane lose his rag on the world's stage? Foraying deep into sport's leftfield, Ed smith asks the questions we rarely ask of our teams and players. When is cheating really cheating? Is the free market good for sport? Can talent be a curse? Does luck matter? His answers, often controversial and always thought provoking, will delight anyone who has ever wondered why sport matters.


Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life-Deborah M. Figart 2013-01-01 The excellent list of themes and chapters in this volume reflects the maturity reached by feminist economics in its different dimensions. Based on the notion of social provisioning for all as the basic objective of economics, they represent a challenge to conventional economic thought and they show the importance of understanding theory, institutions, empirical work, and policy from a gender perspective. The global perspective provided through themes and authors is a very useful contribution to the literature. Lourdes Bener'a, Cornell University, US Standard economics has a narrow and distorted vision of what the economy is, and how it works. Gender scholars are on the forefront of developing better, more encompassing models of human provisioning for wellbeing. This volume presents a wonderful sampling of these new theoretical and empirical developments. Paula England, New York University, US This is an impressive collection that delves deeply and broadly into the myriad ways that gender shapes and alters economic lives and illuminates complex facets of the economic and social provisioning process across the globe. The chapters, by an exciting variety of researchers, policy analysts, and practitioners from numerous fields, present a consistent and persuasive vision of economic well-being as critical to the flourishing of all people. Myra H. Strober, Stanford University, US In the aftermath of global economic downturn, it has never been more important to understand how gender relates to economic life and well-being. This interdisciplinary collection of original research details key areas of intersection, provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of research and proposes avenues for further investigation. The Handbook illuminates complex facets of the economic and social provisioning process across the globe. The contributors academics, policy analysts and practitioners from wide-ranging areas of expertise discuss the methodological approaches to, and analytical tools for, conducting research on the gender dimension of economic life. They also provide analyses of major issues facing both developed and developing countries. Topics explored include civil society, discrimination, informal work, working time, central bank policy, health, education, food security, poverty, migration, environmental activism and the financial crisis. Economists, sociologists and political scientists will find this book to be an invaluable research tool, as will academics, researchers and students with an interest in economics particularly feminist economics gender studies and global studies.


Data-intensive applications seek to obtain trill insights in real-time by analyzing a combination of historical data sets alongside recently collected data. This means that to support such hybrid workloads, database management systems (DBMSs) need to handle both fast ACID transactions and complex analytical queries on the same database. But the current trend is to use specialized systems that are optimized for only one of these workloads, and thus require an organization to maintain separate copies of the database. This adds additional cost to deploying a database application in terms of both storage and administration overhead. To overcome this barrier, we present a hybrid DBMS architecture that efficiently supports varied workloads on the same database. Our approach differs from previous methods in that we use a single execution engine that is oblivious to the storage layout of data without sacrificing the performance benefits of the specialized systems. This obviates the need to maintain separate copies of the database in multiple independent systems. We also present a technique to continuously evolve the database's physical storage layout by analyzing the queries' access patterns and choosing the optimal layout for different segments of data within the same table. To evaluate this work, we implemented our architecture in an in-memory DBMS. Our results show that our approach delivers up to 3x higher throughput compared to static storage layouts across different workloads. We also demonstrate that our continuous adaptation mechanism allows the DBMS to achieve a near-optimal layout for an arbitrary workload without requiring any manual tuning.


We describe a new educational tool that relies on Semantic Web technologies to enhance lessons content. We conducted an experiment with 32 students whose results demonstrate better performance when exposed to our tool in comparison with a plain native tool. Consequently, this prototype opens new possibilities in lessons content enhancement.


Recent advances in reinforcement learning (RL) have led to a growing interest in applying RL to classical planning domains or applying classical planning methods to some complex RL domains. However, the long-horizon goal-based problems found in classical planning lead to sparse rewards for RL, making direct application inefficient. In this paper, we propose to leverage domain-independent heuristic functions commonly used in the classical planning literature to improve the sample efficiency of RL. These classical heuristics act as dense reward generators to alleviate the sparse-rewards issue and enable our RL agent to learn domain-specific value functions as residuals on these heuristics, making learning easier. Correct application of this technique requires consolidating the discounted metric used in RL and the non-discounted metric used in heuristics. We implement the value functions using Neural Logic Machines, a neural network architecture designed for grounded first-order logic inputs. We demonstrate on several classical planning domains that using classical heuristics for RL allows for good sample efficiency compared to sparse-reward RL. We further show that our learned value functions generalize to novel problem instances in the same domain. The source code and the appendix are available at github.com/ibm/pddlrl and arxiv.org/abs/2109.14830.


The transcriptional activation of the genes encoding type I interferons (IFNs) in infected cells is critical to the antiviral response. Like some other cytokine genes, IFN-β expression is stochastic (not all infected cells express the gene) and mostly monoallelic. Secretion of type I IFNs and activation of their receptors on infected and uninfected cells triggers the activation of other antiviral genes. Transcriptional activation of IFN-β requires the temporally coordinated assembly of transcription factors to an enhancer element upstream of its promoter. Nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) binds first, followed by interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1), activating transcription factor 2 (ATF-2), and c-Jun. Last to join this complex (the enhanceosome) is IRF-7, which binds just before transcription begins. Apostolou and Thanos speculated that the inherent complexity of enhanceosome formation might itself be responsible for the stochastic pattern of IFN-β expression. By comparing viral-induced IFN-β expression in control HeLa cells with that in cells overexpressing the individual transcription factors, the authors found that cellular concentrations of all components of the enhanceosome were limiting. Circular chromosome conformation capture (4C) assays, chromatin immunoprecipitations, and DNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) experiments demonstrated the viral-induced interaction of the IFN-β enhancer with three gene loci (only one of which was on the same chromosome as IFN-β), which was dependent on NF-κB binding to these loci. This led to the transfer of NF-κB to the IFN-β enhancer, enhanceosome formation, and monoallelic IFN-β expression. In a second phase, IFN-β signaling induced IRF-7 expression in infected and uninfected cells, which promoted enhanceosome formation and IFN-β expression independently of interchromosomal interactions. As Schoenfelder and Fraser discuss, this study underlines the need to think of gene regulation in three-dimensional space. E. Apostolou, D. Thanos, Virus infection induces NF-κB-dependent interchromosomal associations mediating monoallelic IFN-β gene expression. Cell 134, 85-96 (2008). [PubMed] S. Schoenfelder, P. Fraser, Interchromosomal huddle kickstarts antiviral defense. Cell 134, 14-16 (2008). [PubMed]


Birth interval has received special attention in public health and demographic researches because of its implication in fertility, maternal and child health. Study of preferred birth interval also is a very important issue since it demonstrates people's fertility attitude. In a cross sectional study, a structured questioner was used to collect 5260, Iranian pre-married youths in 2014, by multi-stage stratified sampling. In this study, influential factors on youths' preferred birth interval investigated by non-parametric and parametric survival analysis and outcomes compared among Iranian provinces with low and high fertility levels. Results showed that factors affect on youths' preferred birth interval were different between two province categories; youths' Gender, place of residence, educational level, job status, ideal number of children, family income, sex preference, and age had significant effects on youths' preferred birth interval in low fertility level provinces. However in high fertility level provinces, only youths' place of residence, job status, family income, and age had significant effects on their preferred birth interval (p-value<0.05). Youths lived in urban area, with higher income and in older ages had longer preferred birth interval compared to those lived in rural area, with lower income and in younger ages in both province categories. Key-words: Preferred birth intervals, Pre-married youth, Kaplan-Meier, Log-Rank test, Parametric survival analysis, Iran.


ABSTRACT
The comparative effect of tuna oil (TO) and salmon oil (SO) on the plasma and liver lipid and fatty acid compositions in Sprague Dawley rats was investigated. The total triacylglycerol (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) concentrations in liver was significantly decreased in the TO group; TG level in liver was also significantly decreased in the SO group. The mRNA expression of HMG-CoA reductase in liver was significantly down-regulated in the TO and SO groups relative to the control group. The plasma TG and TC were decreased in TO, but not in SO; plasma low-density lipoprotein and very low-density lipoprotein levels in TO and SO were decreased compared with the control group. The total n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) in plasma and liver phospholipids was significantly elevated in the TO and SO. Docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3) and eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) in tissues were significantly increased in the TO and SO, respectively. In this study, TO had a more beneficial effect on liver TC and plasma TG, TC, high-density lipoprotein in rats than SO. The likely mechanism for lowering liver and plasma cholesterol by n-3 PUFA is to suppress the mRNA expression of gene encoding HMG-CoA reductase responsible for cholesterol biosynthesis.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
The beneficial effects of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) from fish and fish oil on human health is derived from their role in modulating membrane lipid composition and affecting metabolic and signal-transduction pathways. In the present study, we demonstrated that n-3 PUFA, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) from tuna and salmon oils can be effectively incorporated into tissue membranes. Tuna oil rich in DHA has more beneficial effect on liver total cholesterol (TC) and plasma triglyceride, TC and HDL in rats than salmon oil, which is rich in EPA. The present data could provide information for the potential application of fish oils as components of functional food, and selected for fortification with different fish oils.


The neurotrophin receptor p75 interacts with multiple partners, leading to diverse cellular responses (see Ceni and Barker). One of these receptor complexes mediates myelin inhibition through myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), a Nogo-A fragment (Nogo-66), and oligodendrocyte-myelin glycoprotein (OMgp). Domeniconi et al. show that treatment of primary cerebellar neurons with a soluble MAG triggered proteolytic processing of p75. Regulated intramembrane and juxtamembrane proteolysis by α-secretase and then by γ-secretase appeared to be responsible for the induced cleavage of p75. Addition of specific inhibitors of the proteasome along with inhibitors of γ-secretase or protein kinase C (PKC) led to accumulation of the juxtamembrane cleavage fragment (30 kD), suggesting that γ-secretase cleavage may be dependent on PKC. Addition of the γ-secretase inhibitor or the PKC inhibitor to the cultured cells blocked the ability of MAG to inhibit neurite outgrowth. Expression of the intracellular domain (ICD) of p75 inhibited neurite outgrowth of NG108 cells even in the absence of MAG, and expression of uncleavable forms of p75 resulted in the inability of the cells to be inhibited by MAG. MAG-induced activation of Rho was also blocked by inhibitors of α-secretase, γ-secretase, or PKC, thus confirming that signaling to this regulator of the actin cytoskeleton involves regulated intramembrane proteolysis. C. Ceni, P. A. Barker, Getting RIP'd stunts your growth. Neuron 46, 839-844 (2005). [PubMed] M. Domeniconi, N. Zampieri, T. Spencer, M. Hilaire, W. Mellado, M. V. Chao, M. T. Filbin, MAG induces regulated intramembrane proteolysis of the p75 neurotrophin receptor to inhibit neurite outgrowth. Neuron 46, 849-855 (2005). [PubMed]


The mother's voice is underrepresented in literature. The mother has been a silent figure, always present, often near, featuring in the story of another, but rarely the focus of the story. She has been spoken for, about and around, but rarely empowered to speak for herself.

In this thesis I argue that the mother's story, in narrative fiction and memoir, should be available, and culturally valued. Since the diversity of women's experiences of mothering cannot be explained by any single theory or ideology, narrative may articulate the complexities and ambiguities experienced in motherhood in ways that scholarly discourses do not always allow.

This thesis includes a creative component—a collection of related fictional stories narrated by one mother, and entitled "The Cave". Adopting the concept of the cave, as a metaphor for the transformative potential of mothering, the fiction draws on the mundane, everyday experiences of a life that is centred on caring for children. The exegesis that follows is based on three approaches to mothering narratives: their research, reading and writing. It explores the emergence of the mother's story within theoretical discourses around motherhood, and its more recent appearances in fiction and non-fiction narratives. It suggests reasons for the absence of the mother's subjective voice, argues that women have been disadvantaged by this silence, and seeks new possibilities for representing the complexity of mothering experiences.


Objectives: To measure rates and predictors of virologic failure and switch to second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) in South Africa. Design: Observational cohort study. Methods: We included ART-naive adult patients initiated on public sector ART (January 2000 to July 2008) at 5 sites in South Africa who completed ≥6 months of follow-up. We estimated cumulative risk of virologic failure (viral load ≥400 copies/mL with confirmation above varying thresholds) and switching to second-line ART. Results: Nineteen thousand six hundred forty-five patients (29,935 person-years) had a median of 1.3 years of study follow-up (1.8 years on ART) and a median CD4 count of 93 (IQR: 39–155) cells per microliter at ART initiation. About 9.9% (4.5 per 100 person-years) failed ART in median 16 (IQR: 12–23) months since ART initiation, with median 2.7 months (IQR: 1.6–4.7) months between first elevated and confirmatory viral loads. By survival analysis, using a confirmatory threshold of 400 copies per milliliter, 16.9% [95% confidence interval (CI): 15.4% to 18.6%] failed by 5 years on ART, but only 7.8% (95% CI: 6.6% to 9.3%) using a threshold of 10,000. CD4 <25 versus 100–199 (adjusted HR: 1.60; 95% CI: 1.37 to 1.87), ART initiation viral load ≥1,000,000 versus <10,000, (1.32; 0.91 to 1.93), and 2+ gaps in care versus 0 (95% CI: 7.25; 4.95 to 10.6) were predictive of failure. Overall, 10.1% (95% CI: 9.0% to 11.4%) switched to second-line by 5 years on ART. Lower CD4 at failure and higher rate of CD4 decline were predictive of switch (decline 100% to 51% versus 25% to –25%, adjusted HR: 1.96; 95% CI: 1.35 to 2.85). Conclusions: In resource-limited settings with viral load monitoring, virologic failure rates are highly sensitive to thresholds for confirmation. Despite clear guidelines there is considerable variability in switching failing patients, partially in response to immunologic status and postfailure evolution.


For the purpose of identifying the relatively specific brain regions related to word and face recognition memory on the one hand and the regions common to both on the other, regional cerebral blood flow associated with different cognitive tasks for recognition memory was examined using [H215O]PET in healthy volunteers. The tasks consisted of recognizing two types of stimuli (faces and words) in two conditions (novel and familiar), and two baseline tasks (reading words and gender classification). The statistical analyses used to identify the specific regions consisted of three subtractions: novel words minus novel faces, familiar words minus familiar faces, and reading words minus gender classification. These analyses revealed relative differences in the brain circuitry used for recognizing words and for recognizing faces within a defined level of familiarity. In order to find the regions common to both face and word recognition, overlapping areas in four subtractions (novel words minus reading words, novel faces minus gender classification, familiar words minus reading words, and familiar faces minus gender classification) were identified. The results showed that the activation sites in word recognition tended to be lateralized to the left hemisphere and distributed as numerous small loci, and particularly included the posterior portion of the left middle and inferior temporal gyri. These regions may be related to lexical retrieval during written word recognition. In contrast, the activated regions for face recognition tended to be lateralized to the right hemisphere and located in a large aggregated area, including the right lingual and fusiform gyri. These findings suggest that strikingly different neural pathways are engaged during recognition memory for words and for faces, in which a critical role in discrimination is played by semantic cueing and perceptual loading, respectively. In addition, the investigation of the regions common to word and face recognition indicates that the anterior and posterior cingulate have dissociable functions in recognition memory that vary with familiarity, and that the cerebellum may serve as the co-ordinator of all four types of recognition memory processes.


Background: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with biventricular (BV) pacing is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients (P) with sinus rhythm, reduced left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) and electrical ventricular desynchronization. The aim of the study was to evaluate electrical interventricular delay (IVD) and left ventricular delay (LVD) in right ventricular (RV) pacemaker pacing before upgrading to CRT BV pacing.

Methods: HF P (n=11, age 69.0 ± 7.9 years, 1 female, 10 males) with DDD pacemaker (n=10), DDD defibrillator (n=1), RV pacing, New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 3.0 ± 0.2 and 24.5 ± 4.9 % LVEF were measured by surface ECG and transesophageal bipolar LV ECG before upgrading to CRT defibrillator (n=8) and CRT pacemaker (n=3). IVD was measured between onset of QRS in the surface ECG and onset of LV signal in the transesophageal ECG. LVD was measured between onset and offset of LV signal in the transesophageal ECG. CRT atrioventricular (AV) and BV pacing delay were optimized by impedance cardiography.

Results: Interventricular and intraventricular desynchronization in RV pacemaker pacing were 228.2 ± 44.8 ms QRS duration, 86.5 ± 32.8ms IVD, 94.4 ± 23.8ms LVD, 2.6 ± 0.8 QRS-IVD-ratio with correlation between IVD and QRS-IVD-ratio (r=-0.668 P=0.0248) and 2.3 ± 0.7 QRS-LVD-ratio. The LVEF-IVD-ratio was 0.3 ± 0.1 with correlation between IVD and LVEF-IVD-ratio (r=-0.8063 P=0.00272) and with correlation between QRS duration and LVEF-IVD-ratio (r=-0.7251 P=0.01157). Optimal sensing and pacing AV delay were 128.3 ± 24.8 ms AV delay after atrial sensing (n=6) and 173.3 ± 40.4 ms AV delay after atrial pacing (n=3). Optimal BV pacing delay was -4.3 ± 11.3 ms between LV and RV pacing (n=7). During 30.4 ± 29.6 month CRT follow-up, the NYHA class improved from 3.1 ± 0.2 to 2.2 ± 0.3.

Conclusions: Transesophageal electrical IVD and LVD in RV pacemaker pacing may be additional useful ventricular desynchronization parameters to improve P selection for upgrading RV pacemaker pacing to CRT BV pacing.


Background/Context The disparity between the race and ethnicity of teachers and students is expected to increase as our nation and classrooms continue to become more racially, ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse. It is extremely important to think about not only the educational needs of such a diverse student population within schools but also who will teach these students. However, when looking at subject-matter specificity for the retention of Teachers of Color, such as science teachers, the picture becomes extremely serious when we understand teachers' paths into and out of science and teaching. Purpose The purpose of the study is to analyze the experiences of preservice Teachers of Color (PTOC) enrolled in an elementary science methods course as they gain access to science as White property. Our analysis provides evidence that PTOC can break the perpetual cycle of alienation, exclusion, and inequity in science when they are given opportunities to engage in science as learners and teachers. In addition, we also offer insights regarding the role science teacher educators may play in preparing teachers and especially TOC for urban schools. Setting/Research Design The context of this study was a graduate-level preservice elementary science methods course at a large urban university in New York City. Multiple data sources included pre-post surveys, semester observation journals, final course papers, and a post-course questionnaire. Utilizing constructivist grounded during the initial phase of analysis and themes from critical race theory (CRT), our unique voices of color and positionalities allowed us to interpret the data from a CRT perspective and arrive at findings relevant to making science inclusive to PTOC. Conclusions/Recommendations In order to push the field of science teacher education toward social justice issues of access, opportunity, and enjoyment, efforts must focus on increasing representation of Teachers of Color in science education. The transformation of science teacher education to grant equitable learning experiences for Teachers of Color is needed. Further research on the experiences of science Teachers of Color, as well as Faculty of Color and their relationship with students, is highly encouraged. Both teacher preparation and science education must be open to interrogate and reveal structural forms of race, racism, and power that manifest through curriculum, structure, and pedagogy that cause alienation and exclusion for Teachers of Color. Therefore, we encourage science teacher educators to examine their own course curriculum, structure, and pedagogy through self-study and refection. Overall practices in teacher preparation must empower rather than impede progress toward important goals of CRT, and this may be achieved through building stronger relationships with PTOC and Faculty of Color across teacher preparation courses in support of these goals.


We have studied the structual damage in low-energy argon-ion-bombarded (ion-etched) GaAs using Raman scattering and ultraviolet reflectivity. When combined with post-bombardment sequential chemical etching, the Raman results reveal a graded depth profile of the damage layer, with a nearly linear damage dropoff with depth. The total damage-layer thickness is about 600 A for high-fluence bombardment with 3.89-keV Ar{sup +} ions. The spectral effects produced by argon etching are very different from those produced by high-energy ion implantation. The longitudinal-optic Raman line seen for argon-etched GaAs is not shifted and broadened as in ion-implanted GaAs. More striking are the results of the reflectivity measurements. For argon-etched GaAs, the electronic interband peaks are both broadened and strongly red shifted relative to the crystal peaks; for ion-implanted GaAs, only the broadening occurs. Distinct nanocrystals, which account for the effects seen in ion-implanted GaAs, are evidently absent in argon-etched GaAs. Instead, the damage layer caused by argon etching appears to be characterized by a very high density of point defects, which previous work suggests may be arsenic vacancies.


This chapter describes alternate approaches that take advantage of special properties of Legionella pneumophila strains that allowed the formulation of simple screens using toothpicks and petri dishes containing bacteriological medium. Developing readouts in the microorganism that allow screens on solid medium has allowed a number of translocated substrates to be identified. Interestingly, it was found that dotL mutants producing low levels of DotA were able to grow on agar plates. This important finding allowed considerable manipulation of phenotypes, because the behavior of mutants that would otherwise be inviable could now be evaluated during intracellular growth. The great majority of mutations, in fact, appeared to directly affect the assembly of the Dot/Icm system or disrupt function of DotL, and many of the impaired proteins are involved in either membrane biogenesis or membrane protein folding. In several T4SSs,Mob protein can be transferred into recipient cells in the absence of DNA mobilization, indicating that protein translocation into bacteria can occur in the same fashion that is observed when the pathogen contacts a mammalian cell. Furthermore, elimination of multiple paralogs of a single gene family does not solve the redundancy issue, suggesting that a similar amino acid sequence does not necessarily mean the proteins have similar functions. Development of functional and biochemical assays for these proteins will be necessary to sort out their roles in intracellular growth.


Background
Several promising human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment adherence interventions have been identified, but data about their cost-effectiveness are lacking. This study examines the trial-based cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of the proven-effective Adherence Improving Self-Management Strategy (AIMS), from a societal perspective, with a 15-month time horizon.

Methods
Treatment-naive and treatment-experienced patients at risk for viral rebound were randomized to treatment as usual (TAU) or AIMS in a multicenter randomized controlled trial in the Netherlands. AIMS is a nurse-led, 1-on-1 self-management intervention incorporating feedback from electronic medication monitors, delivered during routine clinical visits. Main outcomes were costs per reduction in log10 viral load, treatment failure (2 consecutive detectable viral loads), and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs).

Results
Two hundred twenty-three patients were randomized. From a societal perspective, AIMS was slightly more expensive than TAU but also more effective, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of €549 per reduction in log10 viral load and €1659 per percentage decrease in treatment failure. In terms of QALYs, AIMS resulted in higher costs but more QALYs compared to TAU, which resulted in an ICER of €27759 per QALY gained. From a healthcare perspective, AIMS dominated TAU. Additional sensitivity analyses addressing key limitations of the base case analyses also suggested that AIMS dominates TAU.

Conclusions
Base case analyses suggests that over a period of 15 months, AIMS may be costlier, but also more effective than TAU. All additional analyses suggest that AIMS is cheaper and more effective than TAU. This trial-based economic evaluation confirms and complements a model-based economic evaluation with a lifetime horizon showing that AIMS is cost-effective.

Clinical Trials Registration
NCT01429142.


This chapter focuses on maintaining employment in the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises, which is crucial for the functioning of the economy. However, in an economic crisis, the changes in the area of employment of workers often become the foremost way of adapting to declining financial resources, which are the result of reduction of interest in the offer of the organisation by the customers. These actions had proven to be particularly evident in the case of global financial and economic crisis, which also affected the Polish economy after 2008. The chapter suggests that the layoffs lead to rise in unemployment. Thus, there is a need to promote the outplacement, which is, a technique oriented on responsible dismissals in order to support a smooth transition of laid-off workers to new workplaces. In this way, both employees and companies increase their chances of maintaining competencies and better adapt to market competition requirements.This chapter explores the characteristics of the labour market policy in Poland, main features of the outplacement in the context of the crisis, examples of the outplacement implementation, plans for further development of the outplacement, and conclusions including directions for further research.


This article discusses methods for integrating parametric design methods with building performance analysis procedures, suitable for whole building design. In this research, an ideal framework was developed and tested using existing software applications, including Building Information Modeling (BIM), non-BIM, parametric design and building performance analysis applications. Current software programs that can integrate some form of building performance simulation with parametric modelling include Rhino 3D (non-BIM), Revit (BIM), and SketchUp (non-BIM). Revit and Rhino have visual programming plugins to aid in the creation of parametric forms. In this research, three different workflows were tested, which integrate building performance analysis applications. Specifically, Honeybee and Ladybug (for Rhino 3D), Insight 360 (for Revit) and Sefaira (for Revit) were evaluated. A case study building was used to test and evaluate the workflows, interoperability, modeling strategies and results. Three different performance aspects were analyzed: 1) energy analysis, 2) solar radiation, and 3) daylighting. Simulation results were recorded and analyzed. However, besides simulation results, this article provides an in-depth discussion of the modeling procedures, parametric capabilities, ease of integration and interoperability between different software applications. The results show a promising course for integrating parametric design with building performance simulations. Each evaluated workflow has certain benefits and drawbacks, which are discussed in the article.


The properties of plane waves are well known, and it is probably because they are that we often try to represent any unknown field as a combination of such waves. Is such a representation always efficient or even correct? We try to answer this question for a simple problem arising in the electromagnetic study of gratings. We first summarize in a didactic way some important theoretical results that are probably not well known to those working in optics. Thereafter we report on recently performed numerical experiments. Plane-wave field representations indeed permit us to obtain quickly reliable results for some particular profiles. Nevertheless, the methods leading to the solution of an integral equation are the most useful because they are applicable to a larger class of groove profiles.


The legal systems of Germany and the United States contain detailed rules that regulate the surveillance of telecommunications by domestic law enforcement agencies. An initial question about this surveillance concerns the relative levels of such activity in Germany and the United States. This Article demonstrates, however, that the available statistics do not permit the drawing of conclusions about the relative amount of surveillance in the two countries. Any comparison based on these data sets proves to be illusory - the official statistics in Germany and the U.S. measure different phenomenon. Despite an absence of a basis for an empirical exploration of relative levels of telecommunications surveillance in Germany and the U.S., it is possible to compare the applicable legal regulations in the two countries. This Article examines both constitutional and statutory regulations. It finds that the U.S. Supreme Court has developed a restrictive vision of the Fourth Amendment that extends its protections only to telecommunications content, but not telecommunications attributes. In contrast, the German Federal Constitutional Court has interpreted Article 10 of the Basic Law, the postwar German constitution, as protecting not only telecommunications content but also telecommunications attributes. This Article also examines the statutory law that governs telecommunications surveillance in Germany and the U.S. It evaluates six categories: (1) legal protection for telecommunications information; (2) legal protection for connection data; (3) legal protection for stored data; (4) legal requirements for data retention or data erasure; (5) legal protection for contents of telecommunications; and (6) the nature of available remedies. In a final section, this Article examines three possible "X factors," beyond the surveillance regulations expressed in legal regulations, that may affect law enforcement behavior in carrying out telecommunications surveillance in the two countries.


This paper, the second of four, is concerned with applying a methodology for analysing the spatial aggregation problem in gravity models outlined in the first paper. The methodology is based on a consistent framework for linking measures of pattern in interaction data to the derivation and estimation of related interaction models using spatial information theory. In this quest, a link is forged between information in data and the parameters of an associated model, and in part 1 it was suggested that if this link could be formalised then a means would be available for predicting changes in model parameters from different aggregations of the data, prior to the actual estimation of the models themselves. This relationship can be formalised for the case of the continuous one-dimensional interaction model such as the population density model, and this paper is concerned with demonstrating such an application to aggregations of zones in the Reading region. The framework is first described and two continuous models are presented. Then, the discrete model is estimated by means both of regression and of entropy techniques applied to various aggregations of the region, and the resulting parameters are related to the predicted and observed informations. Finally, the parameters approximated from observed information by use of the theoretical models are compared with the estimated parameters, and the approximation is deemed good, thus providing some confidence in the general concepts developed to handle these types of problem.


In recent years, prosecutors - sometimes with the blessing of courts - have argued that when proving the existence of a "conspiracy" to justify admission of evidence under the Coconspirator Exception to the Hearsay Rule, they need show only that the declarant and the defendant were "coventurers" with a common purpose, not coconspirators with an illegal purpose. Indeed, government briefs and court decisions specifically disclaim the need to show any wrongful goal whatsoever. This Article contends that such a reading of the Exception is mistaken and undesirable. Conducted for this Article, a survey of thousands of court decisions, including the earliest English and American cases concerning the Exception as well as approximately 2500 federal court opinions discussing the Exception since its federal codification in 1975, makes clear that a "conspiracy" under the Exception must involve wrongful acts. First, courts and commentators have for centuries described the Exception as concerning illegal or illicit conduct. Second, because the drafters of the Federal Rules of Evidence (and analogous state codes) intended to adopt the common law understanding of the Exception when codifying it in Rule 801(d)(2)(E), encroachment beyond the historical boundaries of the Exception violates existing rules of evidence. Third, such revisionism could also violate the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, which has been interpreted to prohibit admission of "testimonial" hearsay in criminal trials. To adhere to the historical definition of the Coconspirator Exception to the Hearsay Rule, prosecutors should stop arguing that the conspiracy joined by the declarant and defendant may include purely lawful conduct, and courts encountering such arguments should reject them, lest they find themselves conducting new trials after the rights of convicted defendants find vindication on appeal. Civil litigants should also resist the revisionist interpretation of the Exception, which threatens immense and unnecessary discovery burdens.


This dissertation is about decentralization and agrarian politics in post-war El Salvador (1992-1998). Decentralization of government has been prescribed widely in Latin America over the past two decades, justified on the premise that it encourages more accountable governance by empowering local actors. However, under conditions of high inequality and weak democracy, decentralization tends to reinforce already existing distributions of power is frequently captured instead by powerful elites as a top-down strategy for preserving their interests. Given this ambiguous mandate, a performance standard for empowered local actors is required. I propose a novel conceptualization of empowerment as my dependent variable that is multidimensional and is examined at three levels of analysis (individual, meso-organizational, macro-societal). I hypothesize that under conditions of high inequality and weak institutions, decentralization works (i.e. empowerment is achieved) when local actors acquire capital resources and through collective action they contest inequality to convert those resources into sustainable livelihood improvements and more favorable power relations. Effective decentralization can therefore be contentious and may disempower local actors when collective action problems are insurmountable. In El Salvador, two competing empowerment strategies may be distinguished. Empowerment by invitation is a top-down, elite brokered process of political negotiation, premised upon a positive sum distribution of the benefits and a prior acceptance of the rules of the game. Empowerment through conflict, on the other hand, implies a bottom-up, zero-sum contestation over political benefits, as well as very rules and privileges that assure elites a cut of any subsequent benefit distribution. To assess the performance of these competing empowerment strategies, I conduct a most similar case study comparison of three conflictive municipalities in the paracentral region of El Salvador that differ in one fundamental factor: their respective insurgent, hard-line counter-insurgent and moderate counter-insurgent political histories. Using survey analysis and process tracing, the evidence shows that where decentralization reinforced a process of diminishing inequality (Tecoluca) local actors were empowered to collect more local taxes, provide better services, achieve efficacious participation and attain more far reaching institutional coordination. The persistence of high inequality in both counter-insurgent cases weakened mechanisms for participation, accountability and transparency that in turn made decentralization highly susceptible to bureaucratic resistance, corruption and the prioritization of elite interests - in other words, political capture.


Kinetochore proteins associate with centromeric DNA and spindle microtubules and play essential roles in chromosome segregation during mitosis. In this study, we uncovered a zebrafish mutant, stagnant and curly (stac), that carries the Tol2 transposon element inserted at the kinetochore protein H (cenph) locus. Mutant embryos exhibit discernible cell death as early as 20 hours postfertilization, extensive apoptosis, and upward curly tail during the pharyngula period and deform around 5 days postfertilization. The stac mutant phenotype can be rescued by cenph mRNA overexpression and mimicked by cenph knockdown with antisense morpholinos, suggesting the responsibility of cenph deficiency for stac mutants. We demonstrate that the intrinsic apoptosis pathway is hyperactivated in stac mutants and that p53 knockdown partially blocks excess apoptosis in stac mutants. Mitotic cells in stac mutants show chromosome missegregation and are usually arrested in G2/M phase. Furthermore, compared with wild type siblings, heterozygous stac fish develop invasive tumors at a dramatically reduced rate, suggesting a reduced cancer risk. Taken together, our findings uncover an essential role of cenph in mitosis and embryonic development and its association with tumor development.


Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is a common overuse injury in cycling, but its etiology in cycling is not well understood. It is associated with poor patellar alignment during knee movement from flexion to extension. Biomechanical factors associated with patellar malalignment include poor quadriceps function, vastus medialis obliquus insufficiency, extensive subtalar-joint pronation, and poor muscle flexibility. Factors in the biomechanics of PFP in cyclists include abnormal lower-limb biomechanics, incorrect bicycle and equipment setting, and incorrect training methods. Abnormal forefoot and rear-foot alignment are associated with patellar maltracking. There is anecdotal evidence that leg-length discrepancies and varus or valgus knee malalignment are implicated in PFP in cyclists. Incorrect equipment settings include saddle height, incorrect cleat position, and the type of cleat and shoe. Training factors associated with PFP in cyclists are hill training, cycling with high gears at a low cadence, and a sudden increase in training volume. The article reviews the etiology, biomechanics, clinical diagnosis, and management of PFP in cyclists.


A problem of Banach asks whether every infinite-dimensional Banach space which is isomorphic to all its infinite-dimensional subspaces must be isomorphic to a separable Hilbert space. In this paper we prove a result of a Ramsey-theoretic nature which implies an interesting dichotomy for subspaces of Banach spaces. Combined with a result of Komorowski and TomczakJaegermann, this gives a positive answer to BanachXs problem. We then generalize the Ramsey-theoretic result and deduce a further dichotomy for Banach spaces with an unconditional basis.


We evaluated the effects of phosphate (Pi-deficiency: 0.1 mM; Pi-sufficiency: 0.5 mM), phosphite (low-Phi: 0.1 mM; medium-Phi: 0.5 mM; and high-Phi: 2.5 mM), and two mean daily photosynthetically active radiations (lower PAR: 22.2 mol ⋅ m-2 ⋅ d-1; higher PAR: 29.7 mol ⋅ m-2 ⋅ d-1), as well as their interactions, on flavonoid, nitrate and glucosinolate (GL) concentrations and growth characteristics in hydroponically grown Brassica campestris cv. Mibuna Early and Brassica juncea cv. Red Giant. As expected, higher PAR increased dry matter and contrariwise decreased number of leaves but only in B. campestris. Total flavonoid and individual flavonoid compounds increased with the higher PAR value in B. campestris. Pi-sufficiency resulted in a lower quercetin concentration in both species, the isorhamnetin and total flavonoid concentrations in B. campestris, and the cyanidin concentration in B. juncea, in comparison to Pi-deficiency. Similarly, Pi-sufficient plants exhibited lower GL concentration, especially alkyl-GLs in B. campestris and alkenyl-GLs and an aryl-GL in B. juncea. Pi did not affect the nitrate concentration in either species, and nor did Phi influence the flavonoid concentrations in either species. In B. campestris, medium Phi (0.5 mM) increased the 1-methoxyindol-3-ylmethyl GL concentration by 28.3%, as compared to that observed at low Phi. In B. juncea, high Phi level increased the but-3-enyl-GL concentration by 18.9%, in comparison to values recorded at medium Phi. B. campestris plants exposed to higher PAR increased total flavonoids concentration. In both Brassica species, higher PAR stimulated the alkyl-, alkenyl-, and indole-GLs. The interaction of lower PAR and increasing Phi significantly decreased flavonoid concentration in B. juncea, whereas increasing Phi at higher PAR increased such concentration in this species. The same combination reduced the concentration of 2-phenylethyl- and indol-3-ylmethyl-GL in B. juncea. The highest indol-3-ylmethyl-GL concentration was observed when Pi was deficient combined with medium Phi in B. juncea. Thus, PAR, Pi and Phi may modulate flavonoid, GL and nitrate concentrations in Brassica species, which may be a useful tool to improve the nutraceutical quality of these leafy vegetables if properly managed.


Objective: The frequency of allergic conjunctivitis in children is less clear. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of allergic conjunctivitis in children with asthma and/or allergic rhinitis. Materials and Methods: One hundred and twenty- seven consecutive children with asthma and/or allergic rhinitis in immunology and allergy clinic between January 2013-June 2013 were included. All patients were performed skin prick tests with same allergens. Symptom questionnaire and eye examination were applied for allergic conjunctivitis. Allergic conjunctivitis was diagnosed when both of the cases were positive. Results: The mean age was 8.2 ± 2.7 (5-16) years and 63.8% of the patients were male. Patients were followed with diagnosis of allergic rhinitis [50 (39.4%) patients (group I)], with asthma [30 (23.6%) (group II)], and with asthma and allergic rhinitis [47 (37%) patients (group III)]. 64 (50.4%) patients were diagnosed with allergic conjunctivitis. Frequency of allergic conjunctivitis in the groups were 25/50 (50%), 10/30 (33.3%), 29/47 (61.7%), respectively. Although there was not statistically significant difference in terms of frequency of allergic conjunctivitis between the groups (p= 0.052), group III was higher than the other groups. The most common symptom of allergic conjunctivitis was itching (57/64, 89.1%) and the most common clinical finding was papillary structures 54/64 (84.4%), respectively. Ocular findings were positive in 30% of patients with undiagnosed allergic conjunctivitis and papillary structures were seen in all of these patients. The most common of the allergen sensitivity was detected to house dust mite (59.8%). Conclusion: Frequency of allergic conjunctivitis is increasing when asthma and allergic rhinitis are together. Sensitivity to house dust mite is most frequently seen in patients with allergic conjunctivitis. Signs of allergic conjunctivitis can also be seen without complaints of allergic conjunctivitis. Allergic conjunctivitis should be investigated patients with allergic disease.


This article reflects on an experience of action research aimed at improving the understanding of the problem of chronic violence, raising awareness of its causes and implications, and promoting initiatives that seek to combat it through the assertion of rights. The research was developed as part of a university diploma taught in two Mexican states where chronic violence is an issue. The diploma aimed to build and support networks that promote cooperation between social actors. The action research was designed to offer a shared space in which diploma participants could develop joint initiatives aimed at raising awareness of the nature and dimensions of violence, and to confront the problem. Through building trust, the experience resulted in the creation of new approaches to the complex problem of violence, and new ways to understand it.


Participatory Action Research and Community Change. Participatory research, knowledge, and community-based change: experience, epistemology, and empowerment (L.L. Williams). Reunifying community and transforming society: community development education and the university (T.D. Dickinson). The community of circumstance - a tale of three cities: community participation in St. Kilda, Knox, and Lewisham (G. Marsh). Poverty, Victimization, and Social Justice. Poverty, gender, and social justice victimization and social problems in rural Pakistan (P.C. Jobes). Urban explosion and ethnic conflicts in India: does poverty matter? (R.S. Gandhi). Poverty amidst plenty: how do Canadian cities cope with rising poverty? (D.A. Chekki). New Patterns of Work and Community Quality of Life. Forward to the past? Home-based work and the meaning, use, and design of residential space (W. Michelson et al.). Working and living in the quality-of-life district (L. Nevarez). Residential Community of Senior Citizens. Identifying the elements of community character: a case study of community dimensionality in old age residential areas (I.J. Townshend, W.K.D. Davies). Urban Housing and Neighbourhood Improvement. Housing need, neighborhood improvement, and the contributions of experts in North Point Douglas, Winnipeg, 1971-1981: a gender and race sensitive analysis (F. Klodawsky). Spatial Dimensions of Urban Life. The hidden community: spatial dimensions of urban life (A.I. Sinikka Dixon). Index.


We present a survey of the fundamentals and the applications of sparse grids, with a focus on the solution of partial differential equations (PDEs). The sparse grid approach, introduced in Zenger (1991), is based on a higher-dimensional multiscale basis, which is derived from a one-dimensional multi-scale basis by a tensor product construction. Discretizations on sparse grids involve $O(N \cdot (\log N)^{d-1})$ degrees of freedom only, where $d$ denotes the underlying problem's dimensionality and where $N$ is the number of grid points in one coordinate direction at the boundary. The accuracy obtained with piecewise linear basis functions, for example, is $O(N^{-2} \cdot (\log N)^{d-1})$ with respect to the $L_{2^-}$ and $L_{\infty}$-norm, if the solution has bounded second mixed derivatives. This way, the curse of dimensionality, i.e., the exponential dependence $O(N^d)$ of conventional approaches, is overcome to some extent. For the energy norm, only $O(N)$ degrees of freedom are needed to give an accuracy of $O(N^{-1})$. That is why sparse grids are especially well-suited for problems of very high dimensionality. The sparse grid approach can be extended to nonsmooth solutions by adaptive refinement methods. Furthermore, it can be generalized from piecewise linear to higher-order polynomials. Also, more sophisticated basis functions like interpolets, prewavelets, or wavelets can be used in a straightforward way. We describe the basic features of sparse grids and report the results of various numerical experiments for the solution of elliptic PDEs as well as for other selected problems such as numerical quadrature and data mining.


The paper provides a review of the background, components, indicators and revealed effects of Hungary's trade competitiveness at the macroeconomic and sectoral levels, in particular in the manufacturing industry. These features are described and interpreted in two respects first, in terms of their evolution during the nineties; and secondly, on the basis of an international comparison. Hungary, after suffering from a deep recession in the early years of the political and economic transformation, experienced considerable improvements in both the 'real' and the 'nominal' components of international competitiveness. First of all, labour productivity, particularly in manufacturing, grew at an outstanding rate, mainly due to FDI-inflows. As for the 'nominal' side, labour costs expressed in foreign currency terms increased modestly in comparison with both other transition countries and gains in domestic productivity. As a consequence, the real exchange rate index based on unit labour costs improved markedly, especially in the period 1995-1999. Actual trade performance of the country reflected the positive changes in relative productivity and costs. In the second half of the 1990s, Hungary's trade share on EU markets (in manufacturing products) increased by 1 percentage point. As for the components of that market share increase, roughly 80% can be attributed to improved competitiveness. The pronounced increase in manufacturing output, productivity and exports was based on profound structural changes, which involved exceptionally rapid expansion in a limited number of branches/activities (viz. motor vehicles and office machinery) and slower growth or shrinkage in a number of others. In the last section of the paper an attempt is made to interpret the recent sharp changes in the factors underlying Hungary's international competitiveness (nominal appreciation of the forint combined with a sharp increase in nominal wages and a slow-down in productivity growth in the manufacturing sector).


SUMMARY: We present 5 cases of demyelination in patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis that are closely associated with a developmental venous anomaly. Although the presence of a central vein is a known phenomenon with multiple sclerosis plaques, demyelination occurring around developmental venous anomalies is an underreported phenomenon. Tumefactive demyelination can cause a diagnostic dilemma because of its overlapping imaging findings with central nervous system neoplasm. The relationship of a tumefactive plaque with a central vein can be diagnostically useful, and we suggest that if such a lesion is closely associated with a developmental venous anomaly, an inflammatory or demyelinating etiology should be a leading consideration.


—The ability to accurately estimate the execution time of computationally expensive e-science algorithms enables better scheduling of workflows that incorporate those algorithms as their building blocks, and may give users an insight into the expected cost of workflow execution on cloud resources. When a large history of past runs can be observed, crude estimates such as the average execution time can easily be provided. We make the hypothesis that, for some algorithms, better estimates can be obtained by using the histories to learn regression models that predict execution time based on selected features of their inputs. We refer to this property as input predictability of algorithms. We are motivated by e-science workflows that involve repetitive training of multiple learning models. Thus, we verify our hypothesis on the specific case of the C4.5 decision tree builder, a well-known learning method whose training execution time is indeed sensitive to the specific input dataset, but in non-obvious ways. We use the case study to demonstrate a method for assessing input predictability. While this yields promising results, we also find that its more general applicability involves a trade off between the black-box nature of the algorithms under analysis, and the need for expert insight into relevant features of their inputs.


In August of every year, a familiar scene unfolds in communities across the nation. The exodus from home communities to college campuses has begun! This is an exciting, but anxiety-producing time for many young adults. It is a time of letting go for their parents.

Visualize cars loaded down with the trappings for a college dorm, the student seeing their college housing complexes, parents carrying all those boxes in, and the newly minted freshmen surveying the landscape nervously but with happy anticipation. A student sees possibilities at every turn, but the parent is conflicted about the "launch." Sons and daughters convince moms and dads that it is time to leave. It is a benchmark event in most young adults' lives as record numbers of graduates continue their education after high school.


The proton is a bound state of quarks which are held together by the strong force, mediated by gluons. The understanding of the proton structure is presently one of the central issues in hadron physics. The present work reports on phenomenological and experimental studies related to the possibilities offered by the future antiproton beam at the FAIR facility at Darmstadt, in the momentum range between 1.5 and 15 GeV/c. After a classification of the reaction channels which are accessible in antiproton-proton annihilation, the main features of the PANDA detector are described. A chapter of this thesis is dedicated to the study of the optical coupling between crystals and photodiodes in the electromagnetic calorimeter, which will be operated at low temperature (-25° C). Mechanical, thermal, optical properties and radiation hardness of two commercial glues are quantified.Feasibility studies of the reaction barp → e+e− for the Time-Like proton form factor measurements at PANDA are presented. The electromagnetic structure of the proton is parametrized in terms of electric GE and magnetic GM form factors. The electromagnetic interaction is well described by the theory of quantum electrodynamics. The traditional tool to determine proton electromagnetic form factors is polarized and unpolarized electron-proton elastic scattering, assuming that the interaction occurs through the exchange of one virtual photon. The crossed symmetry channels pbarp ↔ e+e− allowto access the Time-Like region. The background reactions are also studied, in particular the pbarp → π+π− channel. The results obtained from a realistic Monte Carlo simulation using PANDARoot show that the proton form factor ratio can be measured at PANDA with unprecedented accuracy. The effects of radiative corrections due to real and virtual photon emission are considered.Based on a model independent formalism, the calculation of the experimental observables for the pbarp → e+e− reaction is extended to the annihilation into a heavy lepton pair which carries the same physical information on the proton structure as the electrons. In this case, the lepton mass can not be neglected. The same formalism is also applied in Space-Like region to the elastic scattering of protons from electrons at rest (pe-inverse kinematics). We suggest that the elastic pe scattering can be used to polarize and/or to measure the polarization of high energy proton (antiproton) beams, and allows a precise measurement of the proton charge radius.


In South Africa, increases in both the size and amount of medical malpractice claims have resulted in a move towards so-called defensive medicine, and have had devastating emotional effects on healthcare professionals. Among several recommendations for addressing these consequences, the first author's recent doctoral study critically analysed evidence-based patient choice as a partnership model in clinical decision making. This study indicated that none of the key skills of this approach are completely adequate in honouring the principle of respect for autonomy in clinical decision making. Instead, the study proposed the concept of medical information therapy – an expanded conception of the generic concept of information therapy – as an adequate approach to reconciling the opposing perspectives of patients and healthcare professionals in a therapeutic alliance. Recent case law, as well as relevant provisions of the National Health Act, emphasise patient autonomy, as well as the notion of shared decision making in the context of informed consent. The South African healthcare context is characterised by specific challenges affecting the process of obtaining informed consent. The article submits that the concept of medical information therapy will help address the significant increase in litigation against healthcare practitioners based on a lack of informed consent, in both the public and private healthcare sectors.


We study optimal disclosure via two competing communication channels; hard information whose value has been verified and soft disclosures such as forecasts, unaudited statements and press releases. We show that certain soft disclosures may contain as much information as hard disclosures, and we establish that: (a) exclusive reliance on soft disclosures tends to convey bad news, (b) credibility is greater when unfavorable information is reported and (c) misreporting is more likely when soft information is issued jointly with hard information. We also show that a soft report that is seemingly unbiased in expectation need not indicate truthful reporting. We demonstrate that mandatory disclosure of hard information reduces the transmission of soft information, and that the aggregation of hard with soft information will turn all information soft.


Huge computational complexity of multiview video plus depth (MVD) coding is an obstacle for putting MVD into applications. A fast macroblock mode selection algorithm is proposed to reduce the computational complexity of multiview depth video coding. The proposed algorithm, implementing on a joint coding scheme, combines an effective prediction mechanism and an object boundary discriminating method. The prediction mechanism which is designed based on the macroblock mode similarities reduces the number of macroblock mode candidates in depth video coding. The object boundary discriminating method extracts the regions, which are with discontinuous depth values and important for virtual view rendering, by using macroblock deviation factor. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly promote the coding speed of depth video by 2.00-3.40 times, while maintaining high rate distortion (RD) performance in comparison with the full search algorithm.


Background:Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is increasingly used for evaluating mediastinal and/or hilar lymphadenopathy in patients with malignancy. Granulomatous inflammation is occasionally identified in this setting and has unclear clinical implications. Therefore, we set out to describe a cohort of patients found to have evidence of granulomatous inflammation during EBUS-TBNA done for diagnosis and/or staging of concurrent cancer. Methods:A retrospective analysis of all EBUS-TBNA cases performed over 32 months at our institution was completed. Patients with evidence of granulomatous inflammation during EBUS-TBNA that was not attributable to an infectious etiology or prior sarcoidosis and a concurrent diagnosis of cancer were included. Results:Granulomatous inflammation was identified in 154/1275 patients (12.1%), of whom 12/154 (7.8%) had a concurrent diagnosis of cancer. Primary cancer diagnoses varied, but the primary site of malignancy was in or near the thorax in 10/12 cases (83.3%). When available, 7/8 cases (87.5%) of granulomatous lymphadenopathy were detectable by positron emission tomography. The most common histologic pattern consisted of well-formed non-necrotizing granulomas without fibrosis in 6/12 patients (50%). Conclusions:Granulomatous inflammation is occasionally identified in mediastinal and/or hilar lymphadenopathy in patients with concurrent malignancy. Although the clinical implications of this phenomenon remain to be clarified, these findings emphasize the importance of histologic confirmation of suspected lymph node involvement and suggest that the presence of granulomatous inflammation on EBUS-TBNA may occasionally be consistent with active malignancy and prompt further investigations.


cf. CA 50, 10030g. The stationary ligands on the P were varied in order to obtain an insight into the mechanism of the carbonyl-olefination with triphenylphosphylenes. The results demonstrated that the substitution of the Ph by p-MeC6H4, p-MeOC6H4, piperidino, and morpholino groups favored the betaine formation with carbonyl derivs., but rendered the decompn. reaction via the 4-ring markedly more difficult. (o-MeOC6H4)3P (I)(20 g.), m. 204-6 Deg, in 200 cc. Et2O and 20 g. MeBr kept 24 hrs. and the deposit boiled with C6H6 left 24 g. I.MeBr, m. 234-6 Deg (H2O). I.MeBr (10 millimoles) shaken 5 hrs. with 10 millimoles PhLi in 60 cc. Et2O, the mixt. treated with 10 millimoles BzPh in a small amt. of dry Et2O, shaken 15 hrs., heated 16 hrs. at 65 Deg, filtered, the residue extd. with C6H6, and treated with N HCl gave 81% I.MeBr; the C6H6 ext. concd. and dild. with petr. ether pptd. 10% (o-MeOC6H4)3PO (II), m. 215-17 Deg (subliming from 175 Deg). I (0.5 g.) in 20 cc. AcOH treated dropwise with excess 30% H2O2 and refluxed briefly gave II, m. 217-18 Deg (H2O). The original Et2O filtrate treated with dil. HCl, the mixt. evapd., and the residual oil chromatographed on Al2O3 yielded 11% Ph2C:CH2 (III), b16 150-60 Deg, and 58% unchanged BzPh. I.MeBr (5 millimoles) treated in the usual manner with 5 millimoles PhLi in Et2O, the ppt. suspended in dry Et2O, kept 14 days with 50 millimoles MeI, and the mixt. hydrolyzed with acid gave 69.5% I.EtI, m. 225-7 Deg (decompn.)(EtOH-Et2O). I (0.1 g.) and 1.5 g. EtI in 30 cc. Et2O kept 20 hrs. at 85 Deg yielded 86% I.EtI, m. 227-9 Deg (H2O). PCl3 (0.02 mole) in 50 cc. dry Et2O added dropwise with stirring during 0.5 hr. to 0.08 mole p-MeC6H4Li in 100 cc. Et2O and the mixt. decompd. after 24 hrs. with aq. NH4Cl gave 82% (p-MeC6H4)3P (IV), m. 145-6 Deg (EtOH). IV (18 g.) and 40 g. MeBr in 200 cc. C6H6 gave during 24 hrs. 96.5% IV.MeBr, m. 220.5-22 Deg (BuOH-Et2O). Powd. IV.MeBr (10 millimoles) and 10 millimoles PhLi in 60 cc. Et2O shaken 3 hrs., treated with 10 millimoles BzPh, the mixt. shaken 10 hrs., decompd. with 10 cc. N HCl, and filtered gave 81% (p-MeC6H4)3PO (V), m. 144-5 Deg (C6H6-petr. ether); the Et2O phase gave 69% III. (p-MeC5H43P:CH2 (VI) (5 millimoles) and 10 millimoles BzH heated 7 hrs. at 65 Deg gave 12% V, m. 143-4 Deg, and an oil which with Ph4BNa gave 61% [PhCH(OH)CH2(p-MeC6H4)3P]BPh4, m. 170-1 Deg; the original Et2O filtrate yielded 6% styrene. (p-MeOC6H4)2P (17 g.), m. 131-2 Deg, and 20 g. MeBr in 200 cc. Et2O gave during 24 hrs. 91% [(p-MeOC6H4)3PMe]Br (VII), m. 214-16 Deg (EtOH-Et2O). VII (10 millimoles) and 10 millimoles PhLi in 60 cc. Et2O shaken 20 hrs., treated with 10 millimoles BzPh in dry Et2O, the mixt. shaken 40 hrs., filtered, and the residue decompd. with HCl gave (p-MeOC6H4)3PO (VIII), m. 146-6.5 Deg (C6H6-petr. ether); the filtrate treated with N HCl and the Et2O phase worked up yielded addnl. VIII and 45% III; the aq. HCl phase neutralized and treated with KI yielded 15% iodide analog of VII, m. 218-20 Deg (H2O). VII treated in the usual manner with PhLi and then with BzPh gave 72% [(p-MeOC6H4)3PCH2CH(OH)Ph]BPh4, (IX), m. 211-13 Deg (decompn.) (BuOH). VII (10 millimoles) and 10 millimoles BzH heated 16 hrs. at 65 Deg and processed in the usual manner yielded 68% IX, m. 210-12 Deg (BuOH). (PhO)3P (X), b0.2 168-9 Deg, (10 millimoles) and 12 millimoles MeI in 5 cc. dry MeNO2 heated 3 hrs. in a sealed tube at 110-20 Deg, cooled, and dild. with dry Et2O pptd. X.MeI, m. 114-19 Deg (sealed capillary). X.MeI (6 millimoles) in 10 cc. dry Et2O treated dropwise with stirring with 6 millimoles Ph3Na in 58 cc. Et2O, the mixt. stirred 0.5 hr., treated with 6 millimoles BzPh, kept 2 days, heated 8 hrs. at 110 Deg, and worked up yielded 0.94 g. III. [Me3O]BF4 (28 millimoles) and 28 millimoles X stirred 5 hrs. at 65 Deg under N gave [MeP(OPh)3]BF4 (XI), m. 69 Deg (sealed capillary). XI, powd. PhOK, and BzPh (28 millimoles each) in 60 cc. dry tetrahydrofuran shaken 0.5 hr. under N, heated 18 hrs. at 140 Deg, filtered, and distd. gave 1.95 g. hOH, 1.0 g. III, and 2.5 g. unchanged BzPh; during the distn. 3.5 g. KBF4 sepd. from the mixt. Methyltripiperidinophosphonium iodide (XII), m. 254-5 Deg (decompn.), and PhLi (10 millimoles each) shaken 2 days in 32 cc. Et2O, decompd. with 150 cc. 0.1N HI, the aq. phase neutralized, and evapd. gave 3.1 g. unchanged XII; the Et2O phase treated with 10 millimoles BzPh in a little dry Et2O and the Et2O decanted gave a residue of the betaine, which treated with 0.3N HI yielded (2-hydroxy-2,2-diphenylethyl)tripiperidinophosphonium iodide (XIII). XIII heated at 70-80 Deg/0.05 mm. gave BzPh and XII. XIII (15 millimoles) in 50 abs. tetrahydrofuran shaken 12 hrs. with 15 millimoles PhLi in 16 cc. Et2O, treated with 15 millimoles BzPh, heated 36 hrs. at 110 Deg, and worked up gave 53% III and 3% BzPh. Trimorpholinophosphine (0.29 mole), m. 152-6 Deg, in 700 cc. 1:1 CH2Cl2-C6H6 treated dropwise at 0 Deg with 0.38 mole MeI, the mixt. kept 10 hrs. at room temp., and filtered gave 45% methyltrimorpholinophosphonium iodide (XIV), m. 328-30 Deg (decompn.) (aq. EtOH), which with NaBPh4 in hot MeOH gave the tetraphenylboronate, m. 239-40 Deg (Me2CO-EtOH). XIV and PhLi (12 millimoles each) in 50 cc. Et2O shaken 4 days and the ppt. treated with aq. HI gave 75% XIV. The trimorpholinophosphine-methylene from a similar run heated 41 hrs. at 70 Deg with an equiv. amt. of BzPh gave 88% unchanged BzPh, but no III. XIV and PhLi (36 millimoles each) in 90 cc. tetrahydrofuran stirred 10 min., treated with 36 millimoles BzPh, the mixt. heated 18 hrs. at 75 Deg, filtered, and the filtrate worked up gave 72% III, b14 132-6 Deg, and 12% BzPh. A similar run in dry (CH2OMe)2 heated 38 hrs. gave 80% III, 8% BzPh, and 33% trimorpholinophosphine oxide, m. 186-8 Deg (cyclohexane). A run with XIV and BzH in (CH2OMe)2 heated 20 hrs. at 65 Deg, filtered, and the residue treated with H2O yielded 49% 2-hydroxy-2-phenylethyl)trimorpholinophosphonium iodide, m. 268-70 Deg (MeOH-EtOH), stable on brief boiling with dil. HI; a soln. in hot MeOH gave with Ph4BNa the tetraphenylboronate, m. 272-4 Deg. [on SciFinder (R)]


Abstract. Understanding natural climate variability and its driving factors is crucial to assessing future climate change. Therefore, comparing proxy-based climate reconstructions with forcing factors as well as comparing these with paleoclimate model simulations is key to gaining insights into the relative roles of internal versus forced variability. A review of the state of modelling of the climate of the last millennium prior to the CMIP5–PMIP3 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5–Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase 3) coordinated effort is presented and compared to the available temperature reconstructions. Simulations and reconstructions broadly agree on reproducing the major temperature changes and suggest an overall linear response to external forcing on multidecadal or longer timescales. Internal variability is found to have an important influence at hemispheric and global scales. The spatial distribution of simulated temperature changes during the transition from the Medieval Climate Anomaly to the Little Ice Age disagrees with that found in the reconstructions. Thus, either internal variability is a possible major player in shaping temperature changes through the millennium or the model simulations have problems realistically representing the response pattern to external forcing. A last millennium transient climate response (LMTCR) is defined to provide a quantitative framework for analysing the consistency between simulated and reconstructed climate. Beyond an overall agreement between simulated and reconstructed LMTCR ranges, this analysis is able to single out specific discrepancies between some reconstructions and the ensemble of simulations. The disagreement is found in the cases where the reconstructions show reduced covariability with external forcings or when they present high rates of temperature change.


The so-called "electricity wholesale market" is, in fact, a sequence of several markets. The chain is closed with a provision for "balancing," in which energy from all wholesale markets is balanced under the authority of the Transmission Grid Manager (TSO in Europe, ISO in the United States). In selecting the market design, engineers in the European Union have traditionally preferred the technical role of balancing mechanisms as "security mechanisms." They favour using penalties to restrict the use of balancing energy by market actors. While our paper in no way disputes the importance of grid security, nor the competency of engineers to elaborate the technical rules, we wish to attract attention to the real economic consequences of alternative balancing designs. We propose a numerical simulation in the framework of a two-stage equilibrium model. This simulation allows us to compare the economic properties of designs currently existing within the European Union and to measure their fallout. It reveals that balancing designs, which are typically presented as simple variants on technical security, are in actuality alternative institutional frameworks having at least four potential economic consequences: a distortion of the forward price; an asymmetric shift in the participants' profits; an increase in the System Operator's revenues; and inefficiencies.


In my personal publication experience, it has not been uncommon for one reviewer to recommend a manuscript for publication, and another, to urge rejection. Because I am interested in the rhetorical criticism of critical objects that are unusual (e. g., Ouija boards), at least when compared to more common objects of criticism (e. g., political discourse), my advisor warned me many years ago that my publication career would be plagued by divided reviews. Twenty rejections later, I confess that he is right. In this essay, my primary goal is to share the larger story that I developed to explain contradictory reviews of my work. Barring poorly constructed or wildly incoherent arguments, the story I tell myself is that the frustrating phenomenon of divided reviews can be traced to competing or incongruent idioms that are expressions of what the French philosopher and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has termed a "habitus." A habitus refers to "dispositions," including the collective rituals, vocabularies, codes, and values of given fields of social being that each concrete individual subjectively embodies (Bourdieu, 1998, p. 6; for related ideas, see Berkenkotter & Huckin, 1995; and Polanyi, 1958). (1) Much more than a conceptual or disciplinary vocabulary ("fields" in Pierre Bourdieu's terms) or a "language game" (in Rorty's version of Wittgenstein's concept), the habitus is a somatic collection of norms, rules, economies of value, and codes of conduct that collectively, and largely unconsciously, structure material engagements with the social world. Further, because it is embodied, one's habitus is visceral, as the sometimes nauseating, stomach-churning event of reading and digesting a rejection letter is apt testament. In a qualified sense, the habitus is a kind of lived language game, a tacit normative, political, and intellectual performativity akin to what the ancient Greek rhetoricians termed doxa, but only insofar as it exists, literally, in bodily movements and practices (e. g., perserveration of any kind, such as riding a bike, holding a spoon, or writing an essay). As I hope the title and opening of this essay demonstrate (the wording of both is deliberately conspicuous), one's dominant critical idiom, inclusive of the use of a technical vocabulary (Bourdieu's), the tone of writing (autoethnographic, expositive), compositional habits (the double-negative in the first sentence) and so on, is tacitly recognized by readers as either congruent or incongruent with their embodied idioms of disposition. Below I argue that the recognition, misrecognition, or rejection of an idiom occurs at multiple levels of social being, however, and is not reducible to adjudication with a set of linguistic codes. Shot Down in Flames: The Politics of Rejection Before I detail the role of habitus in scholarly review, it is important to note that, unlike most of this volume's contributing authors, I have just begun my scholarly career as an assistant professor. Consequently, I have been asked to review only a handful of articles and cannot speak from that kind of experience. In preparation for this essay, I interviewed or held long-distance discussions with a number of colleagues and mentors who have had considerable experience reviewing for journals. (2) What follows is based on my discussions with these scholars and my six years of experience as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota; for these reasons and more to follow, I think I am best described as an scholarly adolescent. I can claim, however, to be wary of trends in scholarship and familiar with the pain of rejection. One of my recent attempts to publish a rhetorical essay highlights the centrality of the habitus, particularly as an embodied thing, and I think sharing this experience helps to better describe the relationship between embodied idiom, visceral reaction, and critical judgment, a subjective knot that is often hidden by the formalism of the publication process in communication journals. …


A growing number of consumers actively seek environmentally friendly products. A newly discovered "green" consumer, the latest environmentally friendly products only to discover that too many products advertised claims to be "clean" and "green" for the environment. While this clearly is not the case today, producers are claiming more and more that their products are environmentally friendly.
The study described here was undertaken to assess the degree to which magazine advertisements depicted environmental tools on products. Analyses were conducted on which environmental issues were emphasized and the extent to which producers" advertisements on the best sellers newspapers in June, July and August of 2009. Advertisements will choose on Hurriyet, Sabah and Posta newspapers. The reason of the choosing is the best sellers newspapers on the dates which had been mentioned.


Background "TBDx" is an innovative smear microscopy system that automatically loads slides onto a microscope, focuses and digitally captures images and then classifies smears as positive or negative using computerised algorithms. Objectives To determine the diagnostic accuracy of TBDx, using culture as the gold standard, and compare this to a microscopist's diagnostic performance. Methods This study is nested within a cross-sectional study of tuberculosis suspects from South African gold mines. All tuberculosis suspects had one sputum sample collected, which was decontaminated prior to smear microscopy, liquid culture and organism identification. All slides were auramine-stained and then read by both a research microscopist and by TBDx using fluorescence microscopes, classifying slides based on the WHO classification standard of 100 fields of view (FoV) at 400× magnification. Results Of 981 specimens, 269 were culture positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (27.4%). TBDx had higher sensitivity than the microscopist (75.8% versus 52.8%, respectively), but markedly lower specificity (43.5% versus 98.6%, respectively). TBDx classified 520/981 smears (53.0%) as scanty positive. Hence, a proposed hybrid software/human approach that combined TBDx examination of all smears with microscopist re-examination of TBDx scanty smears was explored by replacing the "positive" result of slides with 1–9 AFB detected on TBDx with the microscopist's original reading. Compared to using the microscopist's original results for all 981 slides, this hybrid approach resulted in equivalent specificity, a slight reduction in sensitivity from 52.8% to 49.4% (difference of 3.3%; 95% confidence interval: 0.2%, 6.5%), and a reduction in the number of slides to be read by the microscopist by 47.0%. Discussion Compared to a research microscopist, the hybrid software/human approach had similar specificity and positive predictive value, but sensitivity requires further improvement. Automated microscopy has the potential to substantially reduce the number of slides read by microscopists.


This paper presents an intelligent traffic control system to pass emergency vehicles smoothly. Each individual vehicle is equipped with special radio frequency identification (RFID) tag (placed at a strategic location), which makes it impossible to remove or destroy. We use RFID reader, NSK EDK-125–TTL, and PIC16F877A system-on-chip to read the RFID tags attached to the vehicle. It counts number of vehicles that passes on a particular path during a specified duration. It also determines the network congestion, and hence the green light duration for that path. If the RFID-tag-read belongs to the stolen vehicle, then a message is sent using GSM SIM300 to the police control room. In addition, when an ambulance is approaching the junction, it will communicate to the traffic controller in the junction to turn ON the green light. This module uses ZIGBEE modules on CC2500 and PIC16F877A system-on-chip for wireless communications between the ambulance and traffic controller. The prototype was tested under different combinations of inputs in our wireless communication laboratory and experimental results were found as expected. Here we implementing in existing way Wi-Fi based


In this research, fully environment-friendly, sustainable and biodegradable composites were fabricated, using wheat straw and rice husk as reinforcements for thermoplastics, as an alternative to wood fibers. Mechanical properties including tensile, flexural, and impact strength properties were examined as a function of the amount of fiber and coupling agent used. In the sample preparation, three levels of fiber loading (30, 40, and 50 wt %) and two levels of coupling agent content (0 and 2 wt %) were used. As the percentage of fiber loading increased, flexural and tensile properties increased significantly. Notched Izod results showed a decrease in strength as the percentage of fiber increases. With addition of 50% fiber, the impact strengths decreased to 16.3, 14.4, and 16.4 J/m respectively, for wheat straw-, rice husk-, and poplar-filled composites. In general, presence of coupling agent had a great effect on the mechanical strength properties. Wheat straw- and rice husk-filled composites showed an increase in the tensile and flexural properties with the incorporation of the coupling agent. From these results, we can conclude that wheat straw and rice husk fibers can be potentially suitable raw materials for manufacturing biocomposite products. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


The primary questions addressed in this dissertation are whether race-based admissions policies in charter schools are constitutionally permissible, and if not, how could an admissions policy be designed so that it would promote school diversity without violating the law? These questions are important because there are significant numbers of philosophers and scholars who hypothesize that student body diversity not only enhances educational outcomes but also is a necessary component of civic education in a liberal democracy. The researcher takes no particular stance on the benefits of educational diversity, focusing instead on the constitutional questions raised by the use of race-sensitive policies in the interest of diversity. The primary methodology used throughout is legal research, though the literature review includes references to political philosophers and social scientists as well as primary legal sources. Chapter I outlines the most frequent arguments made in favor of school diversity and suggests that the judicial philosophy expressed by the Supreme Court over the last twenty-five years has moved away from the philosophy expressed in Brown v. Board. In Chapter II, Supreme Court precedent on affirmative action policies is analyzed, focusing mainly on the decision of the divided Court in University of California Board of Regents v. Bakke. Chapter III provides a detailed analysis of how six different Federal Circuit Courts interpreted Bakke, highlighting numerous recurring judicial themes and concerns. In Chapter IV, existing charter school laws are examined state by state. Chapter V suggests several policy options for those interested in promoting a diverse charter school student body.


Library catalogs have represented stagnant technology
for close to twenty years. Moving toward a next-generation
catalog, North Carolina State University (NCSU)
Libraries purchased Endeca's Information Access Platform
to give its users relevance-ranked keyword search results
and to leverage the rich metadata trapped in the MARC
record to enhance collection browsing. This paper discusses
the new functionality that has been enabled, the implementation process and system architecture, assessment of the new catalog's performance, and future directions.


The robustness of phoneme recognition using support vector machines to additive noise is investigated for three kinds of speech representation. The representations considered are PLP, PLP with RASTA processing, and a high-dimensional principal component approximation of acoustic waveforms. While the classification in the PLP and PLP/RASTA domains attains superb accuracy on clean data, the classification in the high-dimensional space proves to be much more robust to additive noise.