Objective: Identifying high-risk groups with an increased genetic liability for bipolar disorder (BD) will provide insights into the etiology of BD and contribute to early detection of BD. We used the BD polygenic risk score (PRS) derived from BD genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to explore how such genetic risk manifests in young, high-risk adults. We postulated that BD-PRS would be associated with risk factors for BD. Methods: A final sample of 185 young, high-risk German adults (aged 18–35 years) were grouped into three risk groups and compared to a healthy control group (n = 1,100). The risk groups comprised 117 cases with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 45 with major depressive disorder (MDD), and 23 help-seeking adults with early recognition symptoms [ER: positive family history for BD, (sub)threshold affective symptomatology and/or mood swings, sleeping disorder]. BD-PRS was computed for each participant. Logistic regression models (controlling for sex, age, and the first five ancestry principal components) were used to assess associations of BD-PRS and the high-risk phenotypes. Results: We observed an association between BD-PRS and combined risk group status (OR = 1.48, p < 0.001), ADHD diagnosis (OR = 1.32, p = 0.009), MDD diagnosis (OR = 1.96, p < 0.001), and ER group status (OR = 1.7, p = 0.025; not significant after correction for multiple testing) compared to healthy controls. Conclusions: In the present study, increased genetic risk for BD was a significant predictor for MDD and ADHD status, but not for ER. These findings support an underlying shared risk for both MDD and BD as well as ADHD and BD. Improving our understanding of the underlying genetic architecture of these phenotypes may aid in early identification and risk stratification.


A fine-grained iron oxide (hematite, (α-Fe2O3), containing 1.2% hydrochloric acid by mass, is the main by-product of an acid recovery plant at Saldanha Bay. The alkalinity of calcareous soils in this semi-arid region causes plant deficiencies in many trace elements, including iron. The use of the acidic waste to decrease the pH of two sandy soils (one non-calcareous and the other containing 1.9% CaCO3) was evaluated in a pot trial. No significant differences were observed in the yield of young wheat in either soil treated with 0, 5 or 25 g iron oxide per kg soil. An application rate of 50 g/kg, however, suppressed wheat growth in both soils by about 40%. This was interpreted as being due to soil salinity in both soils (electrical conductivity, ECe, increased to about 10 dS m−1) and to acidification of the non-calcareous soil to pHKCI 4.04 (the calcareous soil remained buffered at pH 7).


Background. A near-peer tutorial system was introduced and implemented as part of a second-year module to assist physiotherapy students with the practising of manual techniques. Although not the primary drive for initiating this system, there are potential added benefits for the tutor reported in the literature.  Objective. To determine the effect of near-peer teaching on the perceptions undergraduate physiotherapy students have of their own learning.  Methods. A descriptive study utilising mixed methods was used. A pre-tutorial focus group discussion (FGD) format explored the expectations and perceptions of tutors' own abilities and the proposed tutorial system. The researchers conducted a post-tutorial FGD to explore the experiences and perceptions of the tutors' learning experiences. The responses were transcribed and analysed using deductive thematic analysis. A questionnaire was used to quantify which competencies or skills student tutors thought they had obtained through the facilitation of the tutorial sessions. The results were explored using a competency framework. Results. All ten tutors in the 2012 programme participated in the study. Students moved from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence , and seemed to have reached the phase of conscious competence by the end of the programme. Unconscious competence was not observed. More than half of the tutors agreed that the programme had a positive impact on their communication, ability to transfer skills and their own understanding of techniques and underlying theory, while two tutors felt that the programme did not improve their own theoretical basis of techniques. Conclusion. Participating and functioning as near-peer tutors had a positive influence on physiotherapy students' perceptions of their own learning both in terms of own clinical technique competency, but also as teachers and facilitators of learning. It is hypothesised that these students will transition effectively between clinician and health advocator/teacher.


The historic use of asbestos-containing materials during the manufacturing of automobiles has resulted in a perception of an increased risk of asbestos-related pulmonary diseases within mechanics. This study was conducted to assess the potential asbestos exposures mechanics encounter while servicing vehicles assembled with parts containing asbestos, in addition to compare the cumulative lifetime asbestos exposures for different maintenance activities against theorical threshold exposures for asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. Exposure data were assembled from four independent exposure assessments performed to elucidate the airborne asbestos levels generated during the removal and replacement of brakes, gaskets, clutches and seam sealants containing asbestos. The phase contrast microscopy (PCM) and phase contrast microscopy equivalent (PCME) fiber concentrations for personal samples and air sampled identified to contain asbestos fibers through Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis were applied to calculate the cumulative lifetime asbestos exposures. This index of exposure was compared to no-effect exposure thresholds identified through an extensive literature review for the selected pulmonary diseases. The results of this study indicate that mechanics encounter PCM fiber concentrations approximately 10 to xii 100 times lower than the current Occupational Safety Health Administration (OSHA) Permissible Limit Exposure (PEL) of 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter (f/cc). Additionally, the cumulative lifetime asbestos exposures ranged from <1 fiber-year/cubic centimeter of air (f-yr/cc) to 2.0 f-yr/cc, and did not exceed the no-effect exposure thresholds for asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma The findings of this study provide additional support to previously published epidemiologic investigations and exposure assessments against an increased risk of asbestos-related disease within mechanics historically employed to service vehicles containing asbestos fibers. .


Due to the recent price spike of the international oil and the concern of global warming, the development and deployment of renewable energy become one of the most important energy policies around the globe. Currently, there are different capacities and hub heights for commercial wind turbine generators (WTGs). To fully capture wind energy, different wind farms (WFs) should select adequate capacity of WTGs to effectively harvest wind energy and maximize their economic benefit. To establish selection criterion, this paper first derives the equations for capacity factor (CF) and pairing performance (PP) of WTGs using Weibull and Rayleigh distribution functions. Five commercial WFs in Taiwan are used as sample systems for comparative analyses. This paper combines Weibull function, cubic mean wind speed, and four existing economic-analysis methods to study different values of capacity and hub height for WTGs that have been installed in Taiwan. Important outcomes affecting wind cost of energy in comparison with economic results using the proposed economic-analysis methods for different WFs are also presented.


Abstract. Modeling studies have shown that the continental-scale ice sheets in North America and Eurasia in the last glacial cycle had a large influence on the atmospheric circulation and thus yielded a climate distinctly different from the present. However, to what extent the two ice sheets influenced each others' growth trajectories remains largely unexplored. In this study we investigate how an ice sheet in North America influences the downstream evolution of the Eurasian ice sheet, using a thermomechanical ice-sheet model forced by climate data from atmospheric snapshot experiments of three distinctly different phases of the last glacial cycle: the Marine Isotope Stages 5b, 4, and 2 (Last Glacial Maximum – LGM). Owing to the large uncertainty associated with glacial changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, each atmospheric snapshot experiment was conducted using two distinctly different ocean heat transport representations. Our results suggest that changes in the North American paleo-topography may have largely controlled the zonal distribution of the Eurasian ice sheet. In the MIS4 and LGM experiments, the Eurasian ice sheet migrates westward towards the Atlantic sector – largely consistent with geological data and contemporary ice-sheet reconstructions – due to a low wave number stationary wave response, which yields a cooling in Europe and a warming in northeastern Siberia. The expansion of the North American ice sheet between MIS4 and the LGM amplifies the Siberian warm anomaly, which limits the glaciation there and may therefore help explain the progressive westward migration of the Eurasian ice sheet in this time period. The ocean heat transport only has a small influence on the stationary wave response to the North American glacial topography; however, because temperature anomalies have a smaller influence on an ice sheet's ablation in a colder climate than in a warmer one, the impact of the North American glacial topography on the Eurasian ice-sheet evolution is reduced for colder surface conditions in the North Atlantic. While the Eurasian ice sheet in the MIS4 and the LGM experiments appears to be in equilibrium with the simulated climate conditions, the MIS5b climate forcing is too warm to grow an ice sheet in Eurasia. First-order sensitivity experiments suggest that the MIS5b ice sheet was established during preceding colder stages.


We investigated both the acute effects of maximal exercise and the chronic effects of training on nonspecific immunity in 15 winter-sports athletes during different periods of training : (a) before the athletic season, in summer, when the athletes were undertaking extensive endurance training to enhance aerobic capacity, (b) during the winter sports season, in early winter, when endurance and athletic training were being undertaken, and (c) after the winter sports season, in spring, when the athletes were resting (detraining for a month). The mean value of the maximal oxygen uptake in each training period was (a) 65.4 (SD 4.6) mL¥kg-1¥min-1, (b) 63.1 (SD 5.5) mL¥ kg-1¥min-1, and (c) 58.3 (SD 5.8) mL¥kg-1¥min-1, respectively. Following maximal exercise, acute peripheral leukocytosis due to lymphocytosis and neutrophila was observed in every period. The capacity of isolated neutrophils to produce reactive oxygen species upon stimulation with opsonized zymosan measure by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence (LDCL) was significantly enhanced after maximal exercise before and during the athletic season. However, the degree of enhancement was smaller during after-season detraining, suggesting that the conditioning state affected the exercise-induced changes in neutophil functional status. Serum opsonic activity also showed a similar pattern. As for the chronic effects of training, the resting values of the neutrophil count, especially the segmented neutrophil count, the neutrophil LDCL response and the serum IgG level, declined significantly in the pre-season training period. Since the subjects were engaged in exhaustive endurance training under heat exposure at that time, the nonspecific immune status might have been partially compromised due to chronic overload. (Jpn. J. Phys. Fitness Sports Med. 1999, 48 : 147•`160) key words : exercise, training, neutrophils, free radicals, humoral immunity


A major cost in statistical analysis occurs in repeated system simulation as system parameters are varied. To reduce this cost, the system performances are approximated by regression models in terms of critical system parameters. These models are then used to predict the performance variations and parametric yield. This paper presents a systematic and computationally efficient method for deriving regression models of MOS VLSI circuit performances that can be used to estimate the parametric yield. This method consists of four fundamental steps: simulation point selection, model fitting and validation, model improvement, and parametric yield estimation. An average mean-squared error criterion is used to select an optimal set of points in the design space for circuit simulations, and the adequacy of the fitted regression model is checked rigorously. It will be shown through examples that accurate statistical performance models and parametric yield estimate for MOS VLSI can be derived by using four or five critical device parameters and a small number of circuit simulations.


From measured data are determined permeability parameters of thick perforated foam samples, used as car seats cushions. Parameters are used for numerical flow simulations in foam samples. Model of detailed geometry gives good view about detailed flow field (pressure and velocity) in foam volume, influenced by perforations and grooves. However, simulated flow is several times different from measured one. The main flow is through perforations (99%) and flow through foam is of two orders lower. Using homogenous geometry with "averaged" permeability parameters, evaluated from measured values, the coincidence of measured and simulated flow is very good, difference of 1-5%. However, it is not possible to get any details of flow in foam volume. Using inlet layer, the flow is decreasing, first in perforations and the ratio between perforation and foam flows is more balanced.


Can mathematical competence be measured by analyzing the patterns of pauses between written elements in the freehand copying of mathematical equations? Twenty participants of varying levels of mathematical competence copied sets of equations and sequences of numbers on a graphics tablet. The third quartile of pauses is an effective measure, because it re- flects the greater number of chunks and the longer time spent per chunk by novices as they processed the equations. To compensate for individual differences in speeds of elementary operations and skill in writing basic mathematical symbols, variants on the measure were devised and tested.


We present the software-defined radio (SDR) implementation of a Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) Listener, a passive receive-only device that decodes the signals exchanged between the RFID Reader and the interrogated Tag following the Electronic Product Code Class-1 Generation-2 standard. Our RFID Listener is based on the open-source project GNU Radio. It provides complete flexibility and full control over the entire protocol stack down to the physical layer. As such, it can be used as a powerful but inexpensive tool for testing and measuring the performance of RFID systems in real operating conditions. In this paper, we leverage the SDR Listener for a number of experiments that, taken collectively, are illustrative of the potential of such tool for RFID research. First, we use it to test comparatively different timing recovery schemes for the reception of the Tag signal in uplink, through the analysis of bit-error statistics measured experimentally. We find that the scheme proposed by Harris and Rice based on polyphase filter bank displays excellent performance in this context, very close to the theoretical bound and with a gain of 5 dB over the more common Mueller and Muller scheme. Second, we use the Listener to evaluate the impact of frequency nulls in the uplink RFID channel for different indoor scenarios. We find that frequency nulls are pronounced particularly in the presence of metal objects and obstructions of the Fresnel zone, but frequency hopping is effective in counteracting the problem. Our experiments show that the signal backscattered by a passive Tag can be correctly received up to a distance of 35 m, with low-cost equipment and without highly directional antennas.


This thesis aims to further our understanding of social attention, and its manifestation in adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their typically-developed (TD) peers. Atypicalities in social attention have been proposed to play a crucial role in the development of autism. If social attention difficulties persist across the life-span, we would also expect them to impair ongoing social interactions in adolescents and adults with ASD. However, social attention in adulthood has been little examined. Instead, research tends to focus on more complex social cognitive difficulties, or to investigate attention to social stimuli presented in isolation. Our understanding of the role of social attention in autism is further inhibited by conflicting evidence on the influence of high-level input and low-level stimulus properties on selecting the focus of attention in TD individuals. The studies presented here tackle these issues by assessing social attention in adults using stimuli which: present social information in a realistic context; measure spontaneous attentional processes; and provide control over the low-level properties of stimuli. Three studies each employed a method newly applied to the study of social attention. These were: a free- description task that coded verbal accounts of social scenes; a social change detection task that recorded change detection speed and accuracy for alterations to social and non-social aspects of a person; and a preferential-looking task that presented social and non-social scenes side-by-side, while recording eye-movements. It was predicted that findings from each study would indicate a social attention bias in TD adults, while people with ASD would have either a weaker social attention bias or no bias at all. In contrast to predictions, these results showed that people with ASD spontaneously attend to social stimuli, as revealed by the social content of their verbal descriptions and their rapid and accurate detection of changes to eye-gaze direction. However, eye-tracking data in the preferential-looking task indicate that the social attention bias is subtly different in people with ASD, who show a reduced attentional priority for social information, and less persistence in looking at social stimuli over time, compared to TD participants. A series of cross-task analyses examining relationships between tasks indicated that a single social attention construct which operates across tasks and scenarios may not exist. These studies also emphasise the need to make distinctions between different types of social information and the idea of a hierarchy of social stimuli available in the real world is proposed. Taken together, the studies reported in this thesis provide new data indicating that social attentional difficulties found in children with autism do not continue in adulthood. Strong attentional preferences for social information, which override the influence of low-levelstimulus properties, are found in both TO and ASD groups. The findings also contribute a new way of thinking about the construct of social attention, in particular indicating that different types of social information may interact with individual attentional preferences. These data are interpreted in the context of recent findings of perceptual atypicalities in people with ASD, which may interact with their social difficulties. The motion and multisensory properties of real-life social interaction may present specific processing difficulties for people with ASD. If so, the mild group differences found in our studies could translate into profound problems for people with ASD in the real world, and this is an area ripe for futureresearch.


This book examines the development of an Afro-American subculture in eighteenth-century New England. Piersen concerns himself not with the machinery of slave control or the political and social disabilities of bondage, but with the processes of cultural change and creation from the black bondsman's point of view. What was it like to be an African immigrant in colonial New England? What attitudes and assumptions underlay the Afro-American response to Yankee culture? What does the development within the confines of a predominantly white and ethnocentric New England of an Afro-American folk culture in religion, public rituals, folk arts and crafts, social mores, and daily behavior say about the creation of American culture?On the face of it, the master class called the tunes and slaves danced the beat. Blacks who were taken into New England's bondage were clearly engulfed in a pervasive, narrow-minded Euro-American society that had no interest in fostering Afro-American autonomy. The New England experience was often cruel, and the numbers alone suggest it was among the most unequal of black/white cultural contacts in the New World. Nonetheless, despite the strictures of bondage, the black Yankees of eighteenth-century New England created a sustaining folk culture of their own.


Android is most commonly comes installed on a variety of smart phones and tablets from a host of manufacturers offering users access to Google's own services like Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and more. Increasing health insurance cost adds to the increased challenge of improved patient care at lower cost. The plethora of technologies already used in existing healthcare IT infrastructure is often poorly integrated. One of the biggest problems for elderly patients is forgetting to take their prescription drugs. It is estimated that only 50 percent of patients take their medication as prescribed. Either they forget to take the drug or they do not take it at the time or dosage set by their physician. This means that we lose half of the benefit of prescription drugs through human error. This costs the systems billions in negative health outcomes. In this paper surveyed, it will save their valuable time, satisfy their desire for personal control over their own health, and lower the cost of long term medical care. so this process can use for easily claim insurance from specific Organization.


The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) and the national secondary school qualification, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), afford teachers an enormous degree of autonomy over what they teach in their classrooms. This is in line with international trends in curriculum design which shape curricula around generic, open-ended learning outcomes rather than specific content. However, as of yet there is very little research either in New Zealand or internationally into the ways teachers make decisions about what to teach within an environment of great curricular freedom. Accordingly, this thesis investigates how high school English teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand make decisions about which written texts to teach within the context of current curriculum and assessment frameworks. It conducts this investigation from what will be called a modified social realist perspective. This theoretical perspective adapts the classic social realism promoted in the work of Michael Young and others, in order to develop a version of social realism which has explanatory power for humanities subjects, and subject English in particular.  The thesis moves through three main sections: context, theory and findings. The first section details the context in which this study is located, with a focus on how the New Zealand Curriculum and NCEA are clear examples of what will be called the New Curriculum: a movement in curricular reform which advocates for the removal prescribed content and positions the teacher as a curriculum maker, rather than a curriculum implementer. This section also includes a literature review. The second section outlines the theoretical position of this thesis. It shows how classic social realism struggles to account for both the non-abstract and subjective nature of literary experience, and moves from this to advance a 'modified social realism' which incorporates these features of literary experience into its model. The methodology of the study is also included here. Finally, the third section outlines the study's findings. It is shown that given the freedom to choose their own texts, teachers make decisions based on, in order of importance, students' interests, the likelihood of a text succeeding in NCEA assessments, and whether the text will expose students to important perspectives and ideas. This thesis argues that such priorities are problematic, as, from a modified social realist perspective, focusing on student interests and assessment success can limit opportunities for students to be exposed to truly transformative literature. This thesis therefore ends by suggesting three potential reforms which would allow students to encounter such literature more frequently, including enhanced professional development, and a curriculum document with clearer guidelines around the types of texts that students should encounter.


In this paper water-balance studies of a soil column at an observation site at Ulvsunda, Stockholm, are reported. The change of the water storage in the soil was obtained from soil moisture measurements, which were carried out by the neutron scattering method. The precipitation was also measured. The percolation from the soil column was estimated from the change in ground water storage beneath the column. It has not been possible to measure the evapotranspiration directly but it has been calculated from the water-balance equation for every month during 1964-66.


High-quality image synthesis, indistinguishable from reality, has been one of the most important problems in computer graphics from its beginning. Image synthesis in augmented reality (AR) poses an even more challenging problem, because coherence of virtual and real objects is required. Especially, visual coherence plays an important role in AR. Visual coherence can be achieved by calculating global illumination which introduces the light interaction between virtual and real objects. Correct light interaction provides precise information about spatial location, radiometric properties, and geometric details of inserted virtual objects. In order to calculate light interaction accurately, high-quality global illumination is required. However, high-quality global illumination algorithms have not been suitable for real-time AR due to their high computational cost. Global illumination in AR can be beneficial in many areas including automotive or architectural design, medical therapy, rehabilitation, surgery, education, movie production, and others. This thesis approaches the problem of visual coherence in augmented reality by adopting the physically based rendering algorithms and presenting a novel GPU implementation of these algorithms. The developed rendering algorithms calculate the two solutions of global illumination, required for rendering in AR, in one pass by using a novel one-pass differential rendering algorithm. The rendering algorithms, presented in this thesis, are based on GPU ray tracing which provides high quality results. The developed rendering system computes various visual features in high quality. These features include depth of field, shadows, specular and diffuse global illumination, reflections, and refractions. Moreover, numerous improvements of the physically based rendering algorithms are presented which allow fast and accurate light transport calculation in AR. Additionally, this thesis presents the differential progressive path tracing algorithm which can calculate the unbiased AR solution in a progressive fashion. Finally, the presented methods are compared to the state of the art in real-time global illumination for AR. The results show that our high-quality global illumination outperforms other methods in terms of accuracy of the rendered images. Additionally, the human perception of developed global illumination methods for AR is evaluated. The impact of the presented rendering algorithms to visual realism and to the sense of presence is studied in this thesis. The results suggest that high-quality global illumination has a positive impact on the realism and presence perceived by users in AR. Thus, future AR applications can benefit from the algorithms developed in this thesis.


Defining the Web as an Organization Let us first make a list of the agents and components constituting the web. * Equipment, such as satellites, computers, servers, switches, and other ancillary hardware and software used to create the web. * Web Sites, of which to date there are millions. * Information, in the form of data, messages, e-mail, records, files, reports that either circulate through the web or are stored in the storage devices of web members. * Individuals, who, at any one time or another, are logged-in and interact in cyberspace. All individuals are "created equal," in the sense that nothing distinguishes "good guys" from "bad guys," hackers from non-hackers. Individuals represents anyone who has any connection to the web, either as a customer, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) operator, a member of a firm, or just a single participant without any formal affiliation. * Providers, such as the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who have gone through the legal formality to obtain a corporate identity. America-On-Line (AOL) is an example of a company that charges a fee for connecting individuals to the web and provides others with access to web resources. * Companies that carry out activities on it and whose employees use the Internet to transact their company's business. Each company has a network of servers that are connected to the web through many portals. The web is said to be a "virtual organization" as distinguished from the so-called "traditional organization." This leads to the question that needs to be answered at the outset. Has the advent of cyberspace changed what is meant by the concept of organization? The Traditional Organization Until recently, organizations could be defined as congregations of individuals committed to the achievement of a common mission or goal. A traditional organization was defined in terms of a hierarchy of jobs and its incumbents who reported to each other. The top of the hierarchy was occupied by the individual with the most responsibility. Lower levels reported to higher levels and so on. Other conceptualizations of the organization exist. However, they mostly revolve around the way that its members are physically related to accomplish a definite goal. Physical Space and Cyberspace. The concept of Cyberspace is still evolving, but several configurations can already be perceived. Cyberspace can be viewed as: a) a community of individuals (connected through a network of electronic connections), b) a network of computers and other machines that communicate with each other, and c) a virtual organization, a connotation discussed below. The differentiation between physical space and cyberspace is subtle. Physical space refers to that aspect of reality visible to the naked eye. Cyberspace refers to an ethereal reality in which information in the form of communicated messages are transmitted and coexist. Cyberspace is "real"--it is not imaginary--but it does not exhibit physical reality. One cannot touch cyberspace, although the servers, switches and messages that make cyberspace possible do themselves exhibit a physical reality. The Meaning of Virtual One definition of "virtual" given by the Oxford dictionary (1976) is "for practical purposes." Labeling cyberspace as a virtual organization means that for practical purposes we can view it as an organization, but in actual fact, it is not. "Virtual" can also be used in the sense of "fictitious" i.e. the "virtual organization" does not exist in "the real sense," but exists "in lieu of the real thing." "Virtual" has also been used to denote an object or event that has the properties that are similar to the object or event it purports to replace. To state that cyberspace is a virtual organization denotes that the entity in question differs from the traditional embodiment of the organization. …


A GPU becomes an affordable solution for accelerating a slow process on a commercial system. The most of achievements using it for non-rendering problems are the exact re-implementation of existing algorithms designed for a serial CPU. We study about conditions of a good parallel algorithm, and show that it is possible to design an algorithm targeted to a parallel hardware, though it may be useless on a CPU. The optical flow estimation problem is investigated to show the possibility. In some time-critical applications, it is more important to get results in a limited time than to improve the results. We focus on designing optical flow approximation algorithms tailored for a GPU to get a reasonable result as fast as possible by reformulating the problem as change detection with hypothesis generation using features tracked in advance. Two parallel algorithms are proposed: direct interpolation and testing multiple hypotheses. We discuss implementation issues in the CUDA framework. Both methods are running on a GPU in a near video rate providing reasonable results for the time-critical applications. These GPU-tailored algorithms become useful by running about 240 times faster than the equivalent serial implementations which are too slow to be useful in practice.


All forms of hydrological prediction involve many different sources of uncertainty. Many of these sources of uncertainty involve knowledge (epistemic) uncertainties that are not necessarily easy to represent statistically. This can create problems for communication and interpretation between modeller and users when uncertain predictions are presented. One way of dealing with this problem is to define Guidelines for Good Practice in the form of a set of decisions that must be agreed and recorded for later evaluation and review. The Catchment Change Network (CCN) is a knowledge transfer project, funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, that aims to bring academic research and practitioners together to produce guidelines for good practice for uncertainty estimation in predicting the future in the areas of flood risk, water quality and water scarcity all of which involve important epistemic uncertainties.


The development of information literacy is central to the academic success of undergraduates, yet few universities require formal, credit-bearing courses taught by librarians to ensure that students develop these lifelong learning skills and abilities. Where such courses do exist, they are often isolated in the curriculum and rarely linked to the General Education experience. This article describes a General Education program begun in 1998-1999 at California State University, Hayward (CSUH), in which a cohort of students and faculty spend the year exploring a common theme in a series of linked courses, which include an information literacy class. Librarians teach a credit-bearing information literacy course to most incoming first-year students as part of this campus learning community. This article will share experiences related to curricular planning and development, course implementation, and assessment and evaluation of the course, in order to offer librarians suggestions and strategies for mounting a similar experience on their campuses.


Three hundred and thirty four medical students were questioned regarding their views on anatomy as an emerging science and further career option. A questionnaire with 16 statements was given to these students and their answers were compiled. The results of this study were encouraging. 99% of students consider anatomy as an essential pillar of medical science. A vast majority (94%) felt that a sound knowledge of anatomy helped them in their clinical term. However, more than 50% termed anatomy was difficult to understand and more than two-third agreed to the question that the duration of teaching anatomy should not be limited to one and a half year. Though 73% placed anatomy apart with clinical subjects. More than 80% compared teaching anatomy as favorable as treating a patient. In Bangladesh, lack of satisfactory job opportunities and adequate research facilities limits the uptake of anatomy as a career option. Even with a modified curriculum two third were willing to become an anatomist. A formal course in teaching was welcomed by most in case they sought to become anatomist. Key words: Anatomy; an emerging science; career option; students view. DOI: 10.3329/bja.v8i1.6106 Bangladesh Journal of Anatomy January 2010, Vol. 8 No. 1 pp. 28-33


We examined how homocysteine increases oxidative stress in the crayfish neuromuscular junction, and if hydrogen sulfide is able to reverse these changes. We hypothesized that hydrogen sulfide would reduce the negative effect of homocysteine on the crayfish neuromuscular junction by decreasing the overall oxidative stress. This experiment was conducted by using intracellular recording and paired-pulse stimulation in order to test the synaptic response of the crayfish after incubating the crayfish tail in the Ringer's solution, homocysteine, or hydrogen sulfide with homocysteine for two hours. We found that hydrogen sulfide reduced the negative effects of homocysteine, causing the presynaptic response to be similar to that of the control experiment.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to summarise corporate social responsibility (CSR) development issues by organising critical CSR promoting and hindering factors, and to evaluate CSR development problems in Lithuania according to organised factors, legal context and previously implemented empirical investigations in new EU member states and Lithuania. Design/methodology/approach - Analysis and generalisation of various literature sources were applied to organise critical CSR promoting and hindering factors. In order to evaluate the CSR development problems in Lithuania, legal documents and collateral analysis of empirical CSR research in new EU member states and Lithuania methods were applied. Findings - The antithesis between economic and social firms' objectives has existed for a long time, but the current modern world's construct refuted this concept in economic terms and has highlighted social, ethical and environmental values, taking into account definite quality options for everyone – the public sector, NGOs and society – with great expectations to act in a socially responsible way. The priorities of CSR, as emphasised by the European Union (EU), are relevant not only to old EU member states, but also to new ones. The research results show that despite the Lithuanian CSR development vision and goals, the main problems relate to the lack of understanding of CSR and a systematic CSR implementation approach. Research limitations/implications - The study is based on previously implemented empirical investigations in new EU member states with particular attention to CSR promoting and hindering factors and deeper insight into Lithuanian CSR development issues, which provide a starting point for further CSR research in the area of transitional economies. Practical implications - The paper summarises empirical investigations implemented in new EU member states during the last few years and brings a broader understanding of CSR development problems in transitional economies. Originality/value - The paper attempts to stimulate discussion about CSR promoting and hindering factors in new EU member states with particular insight into Lithuanian problems.


This paper addresses the estimation of adjacency effect of CBERS-2 image. The adjacency effect influences the digital number (DN) value of a pixel by adding surrounding scattering signals and path scattering signals. Based on the theory of radiation transfer model, a procedure is designed to measure the reflectance from the surface target materials and the materials in a box, which is 1.5 m above the surface to avoid upwelling reflectance. The results show that the adjacency effect varies from visible, near infrared and becomes steady within short infrared wavelength region; the adjacency effect weakens with the increase of distance between testing sites. The adjacency effect of CBERS-2 image is corrected and the quality of the resulting image is improved.


Background: In urban area link workers are playing key role in implementing anti-larval measures and behaviour change communication at community level to prevent and control mosquito borne diseases. Objectives: To check baseline knowledge of link workers regarding mosquito borne diseases and control measures and assess their knowledge 14 days after single educational interventional training. Methodology: All 274 link workers of 17 selected UHCs out of total 57 UHCs were taken as study population and their baseline knowledge regarding mosquito borne diseases and mosquito control measures was assessed by questionnaire. Single educational training for 45 minutes was given to groups of link workers and their post– intervention knowledge for same was assessed after 14 days. Mean, Wilcoxon sign-rank test were applied. Results: Mean age of link workers was 31.3 + 4.8 years. The knowledge regarding Chikungunya, Dengue and Malaria was mosquito borne diseases was respectively 55.5%, 87.9% and 95.5% which was increase after intervention to 100%. But 14.4% did not know filariasis is mosquito borne disease even after training. All link workers know about the chemical (Temephos) used for mosquito control (100%) but knowledge of proper temephos dose for different volume of water containers was significantly improved after intervention. The overall knowledge regarding mosquito & mosquito control measures was significantly improved after intervention (p value <0.05). Conclusion: Even though link workers were involved in anti-larval activities since from many years, many link workers had poor knowledge regarding the mosquito borne diseases and control measures.


ABSTRACT Despite its wide geographic distribution and important role in boreal forest fire regimes, little is known about the climate-growth relationships of black spruce (Picea mariana [Mill.] B.S.P.). We used site- and tree-level analyses to evaluate the radial growth responses to climate of black spruce growing on a north-facing toposequence in interior Alaska for the period A.D. 1949–2010. At the site level, correlations between growth and climate were negative for temperature and positive for precipitation. The signs and strengths of these correlations varied seasonally and over time. These site-level differences probably arise from tree interactions with non-climatic factors that vary with topography and include active layer thickness, soil temperature, solar radiation, microsite, and tree architecture. We infer that black spruce suffers from drought stress during warm, dry summers and that the causes of this moisture stress relate to topography and the seasonality of drought. Tree-level analyses reveal that divergent inter-tree growth responses among individual trees at the same site also occur, with the lower slope positions having the greatest frequency of mixed responses. The overall complexity of black spruce's climate-growth relationships reflects the plastic growth strategy that enables this species to tolerate harsh, high-latitude conditions across a transcontinental range.


"Today there is massive interest in how digital tools and popular culture are transforming learning out of school and lots of dismay at how digitally lost our schools are. Jabari Mahiri works his usual magic and here shows us how to cross this divide in a solidly grounded and beautifully written book."---James Paul Gee, Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Arizona State University ""Digital Tools in Urban Schools" is a profoundly sobering yet inspiring depiction of the potential for committed educators to change the lives of urban youth, with the assistance of a new set of technical capabilities."---Mimi Ito, Professor in Residence and MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning, Departments of Informatics and Anthropology, University of California, Irvine "An uplifting book that addresses a critical gap in existing literature by providing rich and important insights into ways teachers, administrators, and members of the wider community can work together with students previously alienated---even excluded---from formal education to enhance classroom learning with appropriate digital tools and achieve inspiring results under challenging circumstances."---Colin Lankshear, James Cook University, and Michele Knobel, Montclair State University "Digital Tools in Urban Schools" demonstrates significant ways in which high school teachers in the complex educational setting of an urban public high school in northern California extended their own professional learning to revitalize learning in their classrooms. Through a novel research collaboration between a university and this public school, these teachers were supported and guided in developing the skills necessary to take greater advantage of new media and new information sources to increase student learning while making connections to their relevant experiences and interests. Jabari Mahiri draws on extensive qualitative data---including blogs, podcasts, and other digital media---to document, describe, and analyze how the learning of both students and teachers was dramatically transformed as they utilized digital media in their classrooms." Digital Tools in Urban Schools" will interest instructional leaders and participants in teacher preparation and professional development programs, education and social science researchers and scholars, graduate and undergraduate programs and classes emphasizing literacy and learning, and those focused on urban education issues and conditions.


During 1979, CERN began to evaluate how interactive computer graphics displays could aid the analysis of high-energy physics experiments at the new Super Proton Synchrotron collider. This work led to PIONS, a 3D graphics system, which features the ability to store and view hierarchical graphics structures in a directed-acyclic-graph database. It is possible to change the attributes of these structures by making selections on nongraphical information also stored in the database. PIONS is implemented as an object-oriented message-passing system based on Small Talk design principles. It supports multiple viewing transformations, logical input devices, and 2D and 3D primitives. The design allows full use to be made of display hardware that provides dynamic 3D picture transformation.


Human kind has been subject to infection by microorganism since before the dawn of recorded history. Survey of Literature reveals that no sufficient work regarding synthesis of imidazolinone derivatives of 2-aminobenzothiazole has been reported. They have been found effective in the treatment of cancer, tuberculosis etc. Therefore the present research was designed to synthesize the new imidazolinone derivatives of benzothiazole and to evaluate its antimicrobial effect. The benzothiazole derivative was synthesized and its pharmacological potential was evaluated by disc diffusion method against Gram positive and Gram bacteria. Two strains were used in test including Gram +ve- Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Gram -ve E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In result, they significantly exhibited antimicrobial and anti-fungal potential when tested against all species. The effect was found in the dose dependent manner. In conclusion, it suggests evaluating its effect on some other types of bacteria and spores for better prevention of bacterial and fungal infections. It might be used in the treatment of microbial infections.


1.The circadian clock that controls CAP frequency was stopped at or near its lowest phase point by long duration cold pulses of 6 °C. On return to normal recording temperature (15 °C), the rhythm was always reinitiated from this phase point. 2.Following long cold pulses, there was often a transient peak of CAP activity lasting 2-6 h. It is thought that this was an effect of rise in temperature after prolonged cooling and not an effect on the clock itself. 3.Twelve h cold pulses, spanning the rhythm peak, caused phase delays. 9 °C pulses caused small delays (e.g. 1.7 h) while large phase delays (e.g. 6.7 h) followed pulses of 5 °C. Some pulses at an intermediate temperature (8.5 °C) caused abnormal post-pulse cycles lasting several days, and resulting in very large phase delays (10–14 n). 4.The abnormal CAP frequency curves following 12 h cold pulses of 8.5 °C spanning the rhythm peak are interpreted as rhythm splits. It is postulated that part of the population of coupled oscillators comprising the circadian clock was slightly delayed by the cold pulse, while the other part was driven further towards the "stopped" state, thus producing a large phase angle difference between the two subpopulations. These drew one another back into phase during several cycles to reform a normal circadian rhythm. 5.It is hypothesized that the circadian oscillations of the two subpopulations did not sum to produce the observed CAP frequency curve; rather the level of CAP output was controlled by whichever subpopulation was discharging at the higher frequency. Note: Laboratory of Sensory Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1993 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, U.S.A.


High school sports are popular in the United States and the associated state championships are often pub licized, well-attended special events providing an economic impact on host communities. Understanding attendees, particularly those variables affecting market demand for high-profile interscholastic sporting events, would help athletic directors and state associations improve marketing efforts. Through an abridged adoption of the Theory of Reason Action, this study was conducted to develop a consumer profile of high school tournament spectators by understanding their sociodemographic characteristics and market demand variables. Based on a review of literature, we identified four market demand factors to influence attendance (Event Attractiveness, Economic Consideration, Local Attractiveness, and Venue Accessibility) and studied high school regional basketball tournament attendees (N = 647). The factors were tested in a confirmatory factor analysis and t-tests and general linear model found three of the factors influenced attendance, while one influenced economic spending.


Modern healthcare systems are undergoing a paradigm shift from in-hospital care to in-home monitoring, leveraging the emerging technologies in the area of bio-sensing, wireless communication, mobile computing, and artificial intelligence. In-home monitoring promises to significantly reduce healthcare spending by preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and visits to healthcare professionals. Most of the in-home monitoring systems, proposed in the literature, focus on monitoring a set of specific vital signs. However, from the perspective of caregivers it is infeasible to maintain a collection of specialized monitoring systems. In this paper, we view the problem of in-home monitoring from the perspective of caregivers and present a framework that supports various monitoring capabilities while making the complexity transparent to the end users. The essential idea of the framework is to define a 'general purpose architecture' where the system specifies a particular protocol for communication and makes it public. Then any bio-sensing system can communicate with the system as long as it conforms to the protocol. We then argue that as the system grows in terms of number of patients and bio-sensing systems, artificial intelligence technologies need to be employed for patients' risk assessment, prioritization, and recommendation. Finally, we present an initial prototype of the system designed according to the proposed framework.


Objective Many patients with irritable bowel syndrome IBS not only have abdominal pain but also may suffer from visceral hypersensitivity and heighted visceral nociception. Moreover, IBS has few effective therapeutic agents and mechanisms of disease are unclear. Our goals were to (i) identify microRNA (miRNA) expression, signalling and targets in human colon (controls; patients with IBS); (ii) verify in vitro, IBS-associated changes in miRNAs, especially miR-199, which is complementary to the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) gene; and (iii) determine whether modulating the expression of miRNAs in vivo, especially miR-199, reverses associated changes and pathological hallmarks of visceral hypersensitivity via TRPV1 signalling. Design We evaluated 45 patients with diarrhoea-predominant IBS (IBS-D) and 40 controls with (1) visceral pain severity score and (2) colonoscopy with biopsies. miRNA expression was evaluated in human colon following miRNA array analysis. Luciferase assays were done to confirm relationships between miR-199 and TRPV1 expression. A rat model of visceral hypersensitivity was used to study miR-199 and its target gene (TRPV1) expression in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and colon in vivo. Results Gut miR-199a/b expression in IBS-D was significantly decreased, which correlated directly with both increased visceral pain scores and TRPV1 expression. In vivo upregulation of miR-199a by intraperitoneal injection of lenti-miR-199a precursors decreased visceral hypersensitivity via diminished TRPV1 signalling. Conclusions Decreased colonic miR-199a/b correlates with visceral pain in patients with IBS-D. Similarly, reduced miR-199a expression in rat DRG and colon tissue is associated with heightened visceral hypersensitivity. In vivo upregulation of miR-199a decreases visceral pain via inhibition of TRPV1 signalling. Thus, miR-199 precursors may be promising therapeutic candidates for the treatment in patients with visceral pain.


This paper explores the effect of party system institutionalization on the relevance of the personal income tax in the tax composition. Based on a fiscal contractualism approach, it is argued that institutionalized political party systems increase the capacity of political actors to credibly commit to fiscal contracts agreed with wealthy taxpayers. Consequently, in countries characterized by institutionalized political party systems wealthy taxpayers accept paying a bigger share of the tax burden, as reflected in a greater relevance of progressive tax types. The analysis of panel data for more than 90 countries from 1990 to 2010 supports this hypothesis, showing that party system institutionalization has an especially significant and strong positive effect on the relevance of the personal income tax where bureaucratic capacity is low. At high levels of bureaucratic capacity the effect disappears. The findings strongly support the claim that, particularly in developing countries, where bureaucratic capacity tends to be limited, taxation is best understood as a problem of credible commitment.


Vanessa Finch reviews U.K. corporate insolvency laws and processes, with two key questions posed throughout. Are current U.K. laws and procedures efficient, expert, accountable and fair? Are fundamentally different conceptions needed for the law to develop in a way that serves corporate and broader social ends? Topics considered in this volume include different ways of financing companies, causes of corporate failure and prospects for designing rescue-friendly processes. The book appeals to academics, students at advanced undergraduate and graduate levels and legal practitioners.


The accuracy of determination of tensor parameters measured using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance is investigated. In particular, the reliability of the determination of the anisotropy and the asymmetry parameter of the chemical shift is calculated using the Cramer-Rao lower bounds. Minimizing this measure of the error as a function of an experimental parameter (in this case the spinning speed of the sample) enables the optimization of any given experiment. Hence, an optimum number of sidebands is found for which the determination of the anisotropy is most reliable. Comparision to the static limit shows that the reliability of the determination of the anisotropy is always greater in spinning experiments than in static experiments. An analogous analysis for the asymmetry parameter shows it to be consistently more reliably determined from a static spectrum. The sensitivity of the fitting to the simulation algorithm is found to become pronounced with slower speeds and static spectra, and a discussion of such systematic errors is provided. The reliability of the determination of dipolar or first-order quadrupolar tensors is also calculated, and we find that this presents a surprisingly different situation to that of the chemical shift. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.


OBJECTIVE
Marijuana is the most frequently reported illicit substance used on college campuses. Despite the prevalence, few published intervention studies have focused specifically on addressing high-risk marijuana use on college campuses. The present study evaluated the efficacy of an in-person brief motivational enhancement intervention for reducing marijuana use and related consequences among frequently using college students.

METHOD
Participants included 212 college students from 2 campuses who reported frequent marijuana use (i.e., using marijuana at least 5 times in the past month). Participants completed Web-based screening and baseline assessments and upon completion of the baseline survey were randomized to either an in-person brief intervention or an assessment control group. Follow-up assessments were completed approximately 3 and 6 months post-baseline. Marijuana use was measured by number of days used in the past 30 days, typical number of joints used in a typical week in the last 60 days, and marijuana-related consequences.

RESULTS
Results indicated significant intervention effects on number of joints smoked in a typical week and a trend toward fewer marijuana-related consequences compared with the control group at 3-month follow-up.

CONCLUSION
This study provides preliminary data on short-term effects of a focused marijuana intervention for college students at reducing marijuana use during the academic quarter.


The aim of this study was to explore the potential and challenges for e-learning in dental education using a case-study approach. The University of Birmingham, School of dentistry, e-learning platform "e-course", was assessed at four stages. The attitudes of third year dental students towards an online orthodontic e-course were assessed to explore students' learning needs using a five Likert-scale questionnaire. The different tools and components on the e-course were explored to assess its technical and instructional efficiency using descriptive analysis. The Prosthetic discussion archive was analysed for its efficiency to support a higher-level of teaching and learning using content analysis. Dental students and academic teachers were interviewed using one-to-one interviews and focus groups. Their attitudes towards e-learning in dentistry were analysed for emerging themes in three main categories; technological, pedagogical, and curriculum design. E-learning has shown great potential in supporting change to dental education. There are differences between students and teachers. Students are enthusiastic in its use, whilst teachers have many concerns on its implementation related to work load and use of information. E-learning has a great potential in supporting curriculum reform in dental education, but is not fully utilised. Institutional strategies and support together with strong leaderships is needed when implementing e-learning into a dental school.


In decadal predictability studies, the subpolar Atlantic stands out as a region of high potential and real predictability. Since local temperature and salinity variations in the region are for a large part controlled by ocean dynamics, skillful predictability of the local ocean dynamics is a prerequisite to obtain multiyear predictability of other variables such as sea surface temperature. In this study, we discuss the predictability of the main ocean current system in the region, the subpolar gyre. From perfect model hindcasts exploiting initial condition information only from realistic ocean observation locations, we find that predictability is increased when Argo subsurface data are included. In our real‐world experiments with initialized hindcasts, the observed decline in subpolar gyre strength of the mid‐1990s is reproduced well and we find predictability of the subpolar gyre up to 2 years ahead, comparable to the skill of a damped persistence model.


THIS EDITION OF Australian Journal of General Practice (AJPG) addresses issues of fertility and pregnancy care. In Australia, the maternal mortality ratio has decreased 100-fold since the early 1900s, through improvements in the general health and wellbeing of the population and advances in medical care.1 A reduction in perinatal mortality of more than sevenfold has also occurred over the same period. Increasingly, it is understood that further improvements in perinatal outcomes and intergenerational health can be achieved by optimising the maternal environment before conception, during pregnancy and in the first two years of a child's life.2 The term 'first 1000 days' was coined in 2010, at the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC, at a gathering of developmental experts who were looking at how best to address the issue of undernutrition in low-resource settings.3 The developing fetus and infant are at their most adaptable and most vulnerable during the first 1000 days. From the time of conception, the fetus reacts to environmental changes and is able to adapt in response to signals provided by the mother's physical and mental state.2 This powerful capacity is both a blessing and a curse, as adapting to adverse events may be beneficial in the short term but have negative implications in the long term. There is limited community and professional understanding of the significance of the first 1000 days; our health system in Australia is often focused on acute rather than preventive care, and pregnancy planning is not widely adopted. Studies on antenatal patients in Australia have found that only 50% plan their pregnancies.4 The Centre for Community Child Health in Melbourne was recently part of an alliance that summarised the evidence for the importance of the first 1000 days in a paper.5 The key messages incorporate notions of the developmental origins of health and disease, as well as the broader social determinants of health and the inherent drawbacks of modern urban living. Preconception lifestyle modification, pregnancy planning and weight loss are excellent ideas but may not always be feasible or logistically possible. The most promising approaches to improve the lived environment for all are multilevel and focus on policy change, with participation from actors in multiple sectors.6 Articles in this edition of AJGP discuss preconception care,7 recurrent miscarriage,8 gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)9 and pelvic pain.10 Recurrent miscarriage is on the rise; one Swedish study showed an increase in recurrent miscarriages from 42 per 100,000 women aged 18–42 in 2003 to 73 per 100,000 women in 2012. The authors postulated that environmental and immunological changes in people's lives have had a significant impact on this increase.11 GDM is also on the rise in Australia, affecting 12–15% of women in the second trimester of pregnancy.12 Risk factors for GDM are similar to those of recurrent miscarriage and include older age, obesity and polycystic ovarian syndrome.13 Good management is crucial for the prevention of long-term health issues for the mother and the child. Pelvic pain in pregnancy can be suboptimally managed by health professionals and can affect the mobility and quality of life for women during pregnancy and beyond. In many respects, we have world-class care in Australia for pregnant women. However, the challenge ahead is to recognise the broader context of women's lives and integrate public policies on health and the environment, to enable communities to make choices that will improve the short-term and long-term outcomes for women and their children. We are taking the first step in Australia by recognising the significance of the first 1000 days, but this is yet to be promoted in national strategies. Small investments in this field have the potential for great gains, and we should be supporting the concept of the continuum of care that is promoted in low-resource settings.


INTRODUCTION City of Pleasant Grove v. Summum is, by its own reckoning, a case about government speech under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. Even so, most commentary has justifiably focused on the decision's implications for another part of the First Amendment: the Establishment Clause. This brief Article addresses yet another feature of Summum—what it draws from, and says about, the relationship between speech rights and property ownership. This relationship is not only the driving force behind the majority's opinion, but is also an important tool for understanding government speech in other cases involving government intrusion into speech markets, which often involve speech that is less physical than the monuments at issue in Summum. Part I of this Article discusses the intersection of property rights and government speech in Summum. Part II explores how that intersection illuminates three often-hidden characteristics of all speech: ownership, rivalry, and excludability. Focusing on these concepts may help explain the property-like characteristics of speech (even when it takes forms less physical than the monuments in Summum), and whether property ownership is itself a communicative act.


OBJECTIVES To document the relation between sibling number and atopic disease, and to assess the contribution of possible confounding factors to the protective effect of siblings in relation to asthma and hay fever. DESIGN AND SUBJECTS Cross sectional survey by parental questionnaire in Tasmania, Australia, on 6378 children (92% of those eligible) who reached 7 years of age during 1995. METHODS Exercise challenge lung function testing was conducted on 428 children. Analyses reported were conducted on singleton births only (n = 6158). RESULTS The prevalences of a history of asthma ever, hay fever, and eczema were 27%, 19%, and 22%, respectively. Asthma and hay fever, but not eczema, were inversely related to sibling number, with evidence of a dose–response trend. The mean age at onset for asthma or wheezy breathing decreased as the number of siblings increased. The inverse association between sibling number and asthma or hay fever persisted after adjustment for several confounders, such as parental smoking or breast feeding, but did not persist after adjustment for household size in 1995. CONCLUSIONS The protective effect of high sibling number could not be separated from household size at age 7, and it appears to be operating after birth and influences the age at onset of asthma symptoms. Further work to increase knowledge of how the protective effect of the presence of siblings works might have important implications for the understanding of the pathogenesis of asthma.


The authors present a model of student development that illuminates the process students undergo as they deal with gender issues in counselor training. The model is based on the foundational concepts of the Relational-Cultural Model. Methods of teaching are discussed to provide counselor educators with strategies for facilitating mutual growth with patience and compassion. ********** The incorporation of gender issues in counselor preparatory programs has been the subject of much discussion. In June of 1995, Patricia Stevens-Smith edited a special section on "Gender Issues in Counselor Education," in the journal of Counselor Education and Supervision. This special section addressed the need for gender inclusion in counselor preparatory programs and the multifaceted challenges this presents to students and educators; however, it lacked a description of student development in response to gender issues, which is crucial to facilitating learning in this area. Daniluk, Stein, and Bockus (1995) emphasized that counseling programs have an ethical responsibility to facilitate gender sensitivity, or gender awareness because it is an important component of the development of cultural competence. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) requires that counseling programs provide an understanding of the cultural context of relationships. Such contexts include issues and trends related to "racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage, nationality, socioeconomic status, family structure, age, gender, sexual orientation, religious and spiritual beliefs, occupation, and physical and mental status" (CACREP, 2001, p. 26). According to these CACREP standards, counselor education programs are required to infuse issues of diversity, including gender, into their curricula (Hartung, 1996; Hoffman, 1996; McRae & Johnson, 1991; Midgette & Meggert, 1991). Counselors-in-training are urged to examine gender in relation to a patriarchal system and to examine how such a system affects the lives of men and women (Hoffman, 1996; Levant, 1997; Stevens-Smith, 1995). In doing so, counselor educators decrease the likelihood that students will commit clinical errors that could possibly be a source of trauma, oppression, and shame (Daniluk et al., 1995; Hoffman, 1996; Vasquez & Eldridge, 1994). Daniluk et al. emphasized the importance of exploring gender issues by warning, To provide a curriculum that excludes gender as a critical component of analysis, that disregards the professional literature related to the gendered experiences of our male and female clients, and that does not encourage a personal, in-depth exploration of gender bias in terms of student values, beliefs, and perceptions, is to graduate counseling professionals who are ill prepared to work effectively with a full range of male and female clients. (p. 297) To date, there is limited information regarding student development that addresses the process men and women undergo as they deal with gender issues in counselor preparatory programs. James (as cited in Daniluk et al., 1995) said that in response to gender issues, students go "from resistance to ambivalent acceptance to transformation to resistance, and so forth" (p. 301). Given the call for competency in this area, a more descriptive gender-based developmental model is needed to understand the process of self-awareness and enhanced relational development that is possible through studying gender issues. Hartung (1996) noted that this process poses a difficult and complex task for both students and faculty. In our experience as counselor educators, we have found this to be the case. In this article, we address challenges both counselor educators and students face as they explore gender-related consciousness-raising course material as a facet of understanding diversity. A model for understanding female and male students' development, in response to gender awareness, is also presented. …


Poor directional selectivity, a major disadvantage of the separable 2D discrete wavelet transform (DWT), has previously been circumvented either by using highly redundant, nonseparable wavelet transforms or by using restrictive designs to obtain a pair of wavelet trees. In this paper, we demonstrate that superior directional selectivity may be obtained with no redundancy in any separable wavelet transform. We achieve this by projecting the wavelet coefficients to separate approximately the positive and negative frequencies. Subsequent decimation maintains non-redundancy. A novel reconstruction step guarantees perfect reconstruction within this critically- sampled framework. Although our transform generates complex- valued coefficients, it may be implemented with a fast algorithm that uses only real arithmetic. We also explain how redundancy may be judiciously introduced into our transform to benefit certain applications. To demonstrate the efficacy of our projection technique, we show that it achieves state-of-the-art performance in a seismic image- processing application.


Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is crucial pathogen caused severe invasive infection disease. This study was conducted to find out the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility pat- tern of invasive Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates at general hospital in the cen- tral region of Japan from July 2014 to June 2015. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was identified by standard laboratory procedure. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by micro dilution assay according to CLSI recommendation. Invasive Methicillin-resistant Staphy- lococcus aureus disease was defined as isolation of bacteria from a normally sterile body site. One hundred seventy-one methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were isolated among which 95 (55.6%) were from inpatient and 76 (44.4%) were from outpatient. The age incidence of (0 - 1) years, (1 - 10) years, (11 - 40) years, (41 - 60) years and >60 years age groups were 18 (10.5%), 41 (24.0%), 15 (8.8%), 5 (2.9%), and 92 (53.8%) respectively. There was significant difference of age distribution between invasive and noninvasive disease in 0 - 1 years group and 11 - 40 years age group. Positive samples were received mostly from the pediatrics (56/32.7%), respiratory medi- cine (25/14.6%) and general medicine (25/14.6%). We also found the significant differences of department between invasive and noninvasive disease in pediatrics, dermatology, and surgery. Arbekacin, teicoplanin, and vancomycin were the most active antibiotics with 100% susceptible rates in our study. Our study revealed that erythromycin and gentamicin were more antimicrobial effective in invasive disease than in noninvasive disease significantly. Methicillin-resistant Sta- phylococcus aureus infection spreads worldwide easily and inadequate use of antibiotics contri- butes to uptake of their new antimicrobial resistance. Continuous antimicrobial surveys are need for guiding policy on the adequate use of antibiotics to reduce the morbidity and mortality. * Corresponding author.


Background: Systemic immunosuppression is a significant risk factor for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). p53 is mutated and overexpressed in up to 90% of cutaneous SCC lesions. Despite considerable evidence that the immune response is important in the control of cutaneous SCC, there are no studies documenting potential tumour- associated antigens. Objectives: We tested the hypothesis that individualswith cutaneous SCC have functional circulating CD8+ T cells specific for p53. Methods: Interferon- γ immunosorbent assays were used to screen peripheral blood mononuclear cells for reactivity to six p53- derived HLA- A 0201- restricted epitopes from HLA- A 0201- positive patients and controls. Results: We observed significantly elevated frequencies of p53- specific CD8+ T cells in seven of 26 individuals with cutaneous SCC and in one of 10 controls. The degree of lymphocytic infiltrate significantly correlated with the frequency of CD8+ T cells specific for p53 epitopes, but not with control epitopes. Conclusions: Overall, these data suggest that p53 may represent a target for CD8+ T cells in a proportion of individuals with cutaneous SCC.


The successful global diffusion of formal democracy has gone hand in hand with the hollowing out of its substance. Ever more realms of domestic public policy are removed from the purview of national legislative deliberation and insulated from popular scrutiny. Rhetoric of accountability has accompanied the increasing unaccountability of international financial and trade organizations, transnational corporations as well as of states and NGOs. The new architecture of global governance characterized by legal plurality and overlapping sovereignties has facilitated a game of 'passing the blame' among these four actors. There is a curious ambivalence in current debates on globalization about the role of the state, which is conceived of as both central and marginal. Globalization is seen to be marked by the decline of both the external and the internal sovereignty of the state. Contrary to such a view, it will be argued here that the state is both an agent and an object of globalization. Although inadequate, the state remains indispensable as its laws and policies play a key role in transposing neo-liberal agendas to the national and local levels. If in the age of globalization and of economic Empire, political violence has been replaced by legal violence, resistance to it is also articulated in the language of law. This paper focuses on the dynamic of legal politics against impoverishment and dispossession caused by the new global designs of intellectual property protection, biodiversity conservation and privatization of the commons in India. The case studies in this paper point to the emergence of intertwined structures of rule, overlapping sovereignties and complex processes of legal transnationalization that have reconfigured the relations between law, state, and territoriality. If welfare states were concerned with the redistribution of risk and resources, cunning states seek to redistribute responsibility. Sensitivity to the history of colonialism would be an important corrective to the presentism and Westerncentrism of analyses of (legal) globalization.


This paper provides evidence for the causal effect of the highway and railway infrastructure on the suburbanization of population in European cities. We adopt different measures of transportation infrastructure and estimate their joint effects on suburbanization using a two-step panel approach. Our main results suggest that an additional highway ray displaced approximately 4% of the central city population in European cities over a 10-year period, whereas we find no significant effect for the railways on average. However, railways did cause suburbanization those located in Central-North Europe. When employing the full time span covered by our data and accounting for the diversity of European cities, we find a smaller effect of highways on suburbanization during more recent decades and for "cities with history". Factors such as historical urban amenities, traffic congestion, urban policies etc. appear to provide reasonable explanations for these differences. The findings of this paper are novel and provide valuable insights for European regional and transport policies.


This study in moral, political, and legal philosophy contends that it is morally impermissible to circumcise male minors without a medical indication (nontherapeutic circumcision). Male minors have a moral anticipatory autonomy right-in-trust not to be circumcised. This right depends on norms of autonomy and bodily integrity. These norms generate three direct non-consequentialist arguments against nontherapeutic circumcision: (1) the loss of nonrenewable functional tissue, (2) genital salience, and (3) limits on a parental right to permanently modify their sons' bodies. An indirect argument holds (4) that if it is morally impermissible to remove the female prepuce (clitoral hood), then it is also morally impermissible to remove the male prepuce (foreskin). Although there is debate across medical cultures, a reasonable understanding supports the claim that nontherapeutic circumcision causes some harms and imposes unwarranted risks on male minors. The overall moral case applies to secular circumcisions and, with some qualifications, to religious circumcisions in Judaism and Islam. Arguments of political philosophy that invoke the freedom of religion, toleration, multiculturalism, and social meaning qualify somewhat, but do not eliminate, the case against circumcising male minors without a medical indication. Nevertheless, the arguments deployed in this study do not warrant legal interference at this time with secular and religious practices of nontherapeutic circumcision.


Many applications such as the Chrome and Firefox browsers are largely implemented in C++ for its performance and modularity. Type casting, which converts one type of an object to another, plays an essential role in enabling polymorphism in C++ because it allows a program to utilize certain general or specific implementations in the class hierarchies. However, if not correctly used, it may return unsafe and incorrectly casted values, leading to so-called bad-casting or type-confusion vulnerabilities. Since a bad-casted pointer violates a programmer's intended pointer semantics and enables an attacker to corrupt memory, bad-casting has critical security implications similar to those of other memory corruption vulnerabilities. Despite the increasing number of bad-casting vulnerabilities, the bad-casting detection problem has not been addressed by the security community.

In this paper, we present CAVER, a runtime bad-casting detection tool. It performs program instrumentation at compile time and uses a new runtime type tracing mechanism--the type hierarchy table--to overcome the limitation of existing approaches and efficiently verify type casting dynamically. In particular, CAVER can be easily and automatically adopted to target applications, achieves broader detection coverage, and incurs reasonable runtime overhead. We have applied CAVER to large-scale software including Chrome and Firefox browsers, and discovered 11 previously unknown security vulnerabilities: nine in GNU libstdc++ and two in Firefox, all of which have been confirmed and subsequently fixed by vendors. Our evaluation showed that CAVER imposes up to 7.6% and 64.6% overhead for performance-intensive benchmarks on the Chromium and Firefox browsers, respectively.


Forest and land fires are among the major catastrophic events that occur in Indonesia. They are a major cause of deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. Their multiple sources are most diverse and root in nature and society. The immediate fire effects directly and the long-term landscape ecosystem degradations indirectly cause major and persisting and serious problems of public health and ecosystem service. Smoke haze from the forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan in 2015 caused significant environmental and economic losses in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. We describe the different types of land uses and land cover where fires and smoke haze took place, and how local politics have affected fire use from 2001 to 2017. We calculated hot spots from satellite imageries as proxies for fire occurrences and applied regression analysis to understand the link between fire and local politics in Sumatra and Kalimantan. The results show that the greatest frequency of hot spots occurred in wood and oil palm plantations and logging concessions (47%), followed by conservation areas (31%) and community land (22%). Local elections involve land transactions, and fires were used as a cheap way to increase the land value. The use of fire as means of land clearing was strongly influenced by local politics. Their frequency and abundance obviously increased about a year prior to local elections. The reasons behind the correlation need to be understood so that appropriate incentives and sanctions can be put in place and deter political leaders from using fire as an incentive to their advantage.


OBJECTIVE
This study is the first phase of a two-phase study aimed at exploring the perspectives of consumers with schizophrenia regarding quality of life and developing a quality-of-life assessment that addresses factors experienced as important by consumers.

METHOD
Focus groups were used to explore the perspectives of 35 persons with schizophrenia regarding the meaning of quality of life and factors important to quality of life.

RESULTS
Seven major factors that had an impact on quality of life resulted from inductive analysis, including activity, social interaction, time, disclosure, "being normal," finances, and management of illness. These factors relate to three overall themes: managing time, connecting and belonging, and making choices and maintaining control.

CONCLUSIONS
Although the findings confirm the importance of factors included in existing quality-of-life assessments, they also highlight the need to look at new dimensions of commonly included factors and to include other factors. The findings support beliefs regarding occupation that are central to occupational therapy and the use of occupation as means and ends of therapy.


One of the fundamental assumptions of conventional potassium-argon dating is that the rock or mineral being dated was initially devoid of argon, i.e. that the argon sample prepared for analysis consists of radiogenic argon-40 accumulated during the life of the rock or mineral and a variable amount of modern atmospheric contamination alone. As the isotopic abundance ratio of argon in the atmosphere is known, it follows from this assumption that a measurement of the respective volumes of the isotopes argon-36 and argon-40 in the gas sample will enable the degree of atmospheric contamination to be established. Knowing this, the radiogenic component of the measured argon-40 volume can then be calculated. In young and/or low potassium-content samples atmospheric contamination becomes the major part of the gas sample and precise dating of such materials requires extremely accurate and precise measurements of the necessary atmospheric correction. Only mass spectrometers with very high stability and freedom from mass discrimination (such as the omegatron) are suitable for such work. Additionally, the assumption that initial argon is absent is probably never strictly true. The presence of even quite small quantities of initial argon invalidates the conventional atmospheric correction and can make the apparent ages obtained from young and especially from low potassium-content rocks drastically discrepant. Initial argon may be present in young volcanic rocks and minerals in either or both of two ways:— (i) inherited: e.g. from only partially outgassed (i.e. partially overprinted) xenoliths, xenocrysts or other non-juvenile components, or (ii) incorporated: i.e. occluded or otherwise


A study of the collection, allocation, and use of federal and state taxes on motor fuels- the "gas tax"-in recent decades finds that: (1) More than one-third of the $133 billion in total U.S. revenue available for highway spending in 2001 came from federal and state gas taxes. State gas taxes alone made up 21.6 percent of all highway revenues that year. The state gas tax is also the largest single source of highway funding for the states. (2) After years of steady growth, federal and state gas tax receipts have plateaued in the late 1990s. When accounting for inflation, federal and state gas tax revenues are actually declining. (3) Twenty-eight states have raised their gas tax rates since 1992, but only three raised it enough to keep pace with inflation. Although the average state gas tax rate increased by 8.7 percent, in real terms, the average gas tax rate declined by about 14 percent. In other words, many states do not have the same buying power they did in 1991. (4) Thirty states restrict the use of their gas tax revenues to highway purposes only. Such restrictions limit states' ability to finance mass transit, congestion and air quality improvement projects, and other options not related to highways. (5) The distribution of the gas tax within some states appears to penalize cities and urban areas. In several states, urban areas act as "donor regions." These areas contribute significantly more in tax receipts than they receive in allocations from their state's highway fund or through direct local transfers.


Bacterial distributions among biofilms and the water column may be altered by a variety of abiotic and biotic factors including feeding and physical activities of macroinvertebrates. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of macroinvertebrates on abundances and distributions of three species of bacteria that differ in their surface properties and niches. Eight invertebrate genera were examined; functional feeding groups included predators, shredders, filter feeders, and collectorgatherers. The three bacterial species responded to the presence of the macroinvertebrates in generally similar ways, although the species with the most developed ability to attach to surfaces (Burkholderia cepacia) apparently resisted dislodgment by macroinvertebrates. Bacillus thuringiensis, a relatively species-specific insecticidal bacterium, achieved higher abundances on invertebrate exteriors than did B. cepacia and Pseudomonas fluorescens. Orconectes reduced abundances of introduced bacteria on leaves and shifted distributions; a greater percentage of the bacterial populations was found in the sediments of the Orconectes microcosms than in microcosms lacking macroinvertebrates. These alterations were probably the result of consumption of bacteria from epiphytic biofilms and subsequent deposition in feces. Corbicula shifted distributions of two of the bacterial species so that a greater percentage of the populations was in the water column, perhaps as the result of burrowing activity. Both of these invertebrate species are common stream residents and may affect the distribution and persistence of natural and introduced bacteria.


Developmental Understanding of Drug Misuse and Dependence DUNDRUM-D This instrument has grown out of the series of prison psychiatric morbidity studies carried out by the National Forensic Mental Health Service in the population of the Irish Prison Service. The DUNDRUM-D is distinguished from other screening and diagnostic instruments by the developmental perspective it takes on life time careers of substance use, misuse and dependence.

We recognise that those with substance misuse problems commonly begin using intoxicants such as solvents very early, typically before the age of 12 and progress through other substances as they get older and are able to access more expensive intoxicants. Some will have patterns of binge use, others are continuously intoxicated. Some will use only one or two substances of choice; others will use many different types of drug almost indiscriminately. It is not uncommon for a person to make the transition from dependence on one drug to substitution for another, followed some time later by further changes in type of intoxicant or pattern of use. All such patterns shift and change over time, and recovery is always possible. Indeed spontaneous recovery is the most common outcome for most substance misuse problems. The purpose of this form of instrument is to record these patterns as an exercise in contemplation for those who are not yet at the contemplative stage or recovery.

While questions are asked about harmful use and abuse, these are deliberately reserved until towards the end of the interview. We believe the regular use of this instrument is also a way of learning from one's patients/clients. The substances used, the language, patterns and practices of use all change constantly and rapidly from month to month and from city to city. We have found that this instrument can be used in its short form as a screening tool e.g. with the SADS-L or with the CAARMS. In forensic mental health practice, it is 'substance abuse' as defined in the DSM system that is the best guide to harmful use. The form of the instrument lends itself to the assessment of other problem behaviours such as gambling, binging and purging food, and repetitive self-harm to relieve tension (e.g. cutting). The DUNDRUM-D can be used by any professionally qualified clinician.


There is a growing interest in the role played by attention and cognitive processing in the control of posture and gait, investigated by means of dual task methodology. The rationale for dual task testing is to assess whether the simultaneous performance of two (or more) attention- demanding tasks exceed the central information-processing capacity. Recently, we proposed a new ambulatory system for gait analysis (Physilog®) and validated its performances in studying normal and abnormal walking [1]. This system measures temporal and spatial parameters of gait during long period of walking and therefore provides stride-to- stride variability of these parameters. In this pilot study, we used the Physilog® system to assess, under both single and dual task conditions, gait changes in 6 elderly subjects after a ten- weeks balance training program. Our objective was to determine whether dual task testing would be more sensitive than single task testing in detecting gait improvement in these elderly persons


MalT, the transcriptional activator of theEscherichia coli maltose regulon, binds the MalT-dependent promoters and activates transcription initiation only in the presence of maltotriose and ATP (or adenylyl imidodiphosphate (AMP-PNP)). Cooperative binding of MalT to the array of cognate sites present in the MalT-dependent promoters suggests that promoter binding involves MalT oligomerization. Gel filtration and sedimentation experiments were used to analyze the quaternary structure of MalT in solution in the absence or presence of maltotriose and/or AMP-PNP, ATP, or ADP. The protein is monomeric in the absence of ligands and in the presence of ADP. In the presence of maltotriose, AMP-PNP, or ATP only, the protein self-associates, but a large fraction of the protein remains monomeric. In the presence of both maltotriose and AMP-PNP (ATP or ADP), the protein is essentially oligomeric, with the difference being that the oligomerization is less favored in the presence of ADP + maltotriose than in the presence of AMP-PNP + maltotriose. We present evidence that the association pathway comprises the following steps: monomers → dimers → (MalT) n → aggregates, where 3 ≤ n ≤ 6. From these data, we conclude that the role of maltotriose and ATP as positive effectors is to induce the multimerization of MalT, and hence its cooperative binding to the mal promoters.


This research examines the importance of proximity and the role of distance within the life science sector of the economy for the interacting metropolitan regions of Denver and Boulder, Colorado and Triad and Triangle, North Carolina. This sector is characterized by high technology employment, research and development, and knowledge spillovers. The thesis of this research is that synergies among sectors within the life science industry exist between proximate places to build a regional economic growth engine. Denver/Boulder, CO and Triad/Triangle, NC are complementary regions which share benefits of interactions within the growing life science sector of the economy because of proximity, strong commuting ties, a solid university system, and adequate research funding. Statistics and data regarding labor sources and employment, commuting patterns, and funding come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, ReferenceUSA Employment database, Census Transportation Planning Package, and the National Institute of Health. Employment figures are classified by selected life science sectors within the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Analysis of these statistics will demonstrate the clustering of life science employment, ease of mobility within the regions, and strength of research and development within the study areas. Conclusions demonstrate that proximate places in Colorado and North Carolina possess the attributes necessary to maintain a successful economic environment for the life science industry to develop.


The relation between answer set programming (ASP) and propositional satisfiability (SAT) is at the center of many research papers, partly because of the tremendous performance boost of SAT solvers during last years. Various translations from ASP to SAT are known but the resulting SAT formula either includes many new variables or may have an unpractical size. There are also well known results showing a one-to-one correspondence between the answer sets of a logic program and the models of its completion. Unfortunately, these results only work for specific classes of problems. In this paper we present a SAT-Based decision procedure for answer set programming that (i) deals with any (non disjunctive) logic program, (ii) works on a SAT formula without additional variables, and (iii) is guaranteed to work in polynomial space. Further, our procedure can be extended to compute all the answer sets still working in polynomial space. The experimental results of a prototypical implementation show that the approach can pay off sometimes by orders of magnitude when computing one solution, and it is competitive when computing all solutions.


A new technique for building stochastic clustered-dot screens is being proposed. A large dither matrix comprising thousands of stochastically laid out screen dots is constructed by first laying out the screen dot centers. Screen dot centers ar obtained by placing discrete disks of a chosen radius at free cell locations when traversing the dither array cells according to either a discretely rotated Halberd space-filling curve or a random space-filling curve. After Delauney triangulation of the screen dot centers, the maximal surface of each screen dot is computed and iso- intensity regions are created. This iso-intensity map is converted to an anti-aliased grayscale image, i.e. to an array of preliminary threshold values. These threshold values are renumbered to obtain the threshold values of the final dither threshold array. By changing the disk radius, the screen dot size can be adapted to the characteristics of particular printing devices. Larger screen dots may improve the tone reproduction of printers having important dot gain.


I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable, Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier; Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce; Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges. The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten By the dwellers in cities—ever, however, implacable. Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder Of what men choose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.