Fixed transaction costs and delivery lags are important costs of international trade. These costs lead firms to import infrequently and hold substantially larger inventories of imported goods than domestic goods. Using multiple sources of data, the authors document these facts. They then show that a parsimoniously parameterized model economy with importers facing an (S, s)-type inventory management problem successfully accounts for these features of the data. Moreover, the model can account for import and import price dynamics in the aftermath of large devaluations. In particular, desired inventory adjustment in response to a sudden, large increase in the relative price of imported goods creates a short-term trade implosion, an immediate, temporary drop in the value and number of distinct varieties imported, as well as a slow increase in the retail price of imported goods. The authors' study of 6 current account reversals following large devaluation episodes in the last decade provides strong support for the model's predictions


Interpersonal theories of psychotherapy hypothesize that the success of therapy depends on the therapist's and patient's dominant and affiliative behaviors as well as their interplay (complementarity). This study sought to investigate (a) how in-session interpersonal microprocesses predict postsession evaluations of the therapeutic alliance as well as cognitive-emotional processing and (b) how complementarity develops over the course of a therapy session. Twenty depressed patients were treated at a university-based outpatient clinic with a variant of cognitive therapy. One session was analyzed from each therapy's middle phase using a novel real-time rating procedure (joystick method) to assess the patients' and therapists' affiliative and dominant behaviors as well as their resulting complementarity over the course of the session. The therapeutic alliance and cognitive-emotional processing were assessed by self-reports directly after the respective session. As predicted, more emotional arousal was associated with deviations from complementarity, whereas a positive alliance was related to affiliative patient behavior. Moreover, marginally significant trends suggest that refraining from answering to the pull of patient hostility might benefit both the alliance as well as cognitive-emotional processing. Overall, multilevel growth modeling revealed a significant cubic trend of complementarity over the course of the session. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.


Background/Context There is an extensive body of research on school and student characteristics associated with teacher career decisions that has contributed greatly to our knowledge of teacher preferences. Yet this research also has a number of limitations, including a lack of attention to the sociocultural influences on teacher careers and the processes teachers use to find a job. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article focused on the processes that teachers use to find a job and how they came to work in particular schools. In doing so, this article developed a new theoretical conception of teacher career decisions that incorporates Bourdieu's cultural reproduction theory and theories of action. Together, these frameworks highlight how teachers navigate through the hiring process using their practical understanding of how they could make the best match, rather than focusing on explicit preferences. Setting Teacher applicants were recruited from six colleges that provide teachers to one Midwestern metropolitan area. This area was experiencing an oversupply of teachers. Population/Participants/Subjects Participants included individuals currently completing teacher education programs and looking for their first teaching job. Research Design Data for this article came from a mixed-methods study of teacher applicants' career decisions. The study design included a survey of 289 prospective elementary teachers and in-depth interviews with a subsample of 27 prospective elementary teachers at two points in the hiring season. Findings/Results Teacher applicants' espoused preferences for schools were consistent with previous research, yet the data indicate that teacher applicants often contradicted these espoused preferences by the actual behavior on the job search. They did so by focusing on the district rather than the school when identifying open positions and focusing on feelings of comfort and familiarity when deciding where to apply. Further, teacher applicants had few sources of information about schools and districts, which forced them to make assumptions about schools and thus reinforced perceptions of familiarity, fit, and comfort. Conclusions/Recommendations Teacher applicants' practical understanding of the job search was informed by their social and cultural background and emphasized characteristics such as familiarity when making career decisions. Policy makers who want to improve the quality of teaching should focus on developing teachers who want to teach in hard-to-staff schools and on providing teacher applicants with access to more information about schools. Teacher educators should also consider ways to increase teacher applicants' familiarity and sense of comfort with schools serving high proportions of racial minority or low-income students.


Book description: Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism is a classic critique of France's policies in Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s and inspired much subsequent writing on colonialism, post-colonialism, politics, and literature. It includes Sartre's celebrated preface to Fanon's classic Wretched of the Earth. Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism had a profound impact on French intellectual life, inspiring many other influential French thinkers and critics of colonialism such as Jean-Francois Lyotard, Frantz Fanon, Pierre Bourdieu and Jacques Derrida.


Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and are composed of a series of noncoding hexamer repeats. Telomeres protect the integrity of DNA coding sequences and are integral to the maintenance of genomic stability. Previous studies have shown an association between shortened lymphocyte telomeres and increased risk for specific cancers. However, the association between telomere length and breast cancer risk is less clear. We examined the relative telomere length (RTL) in blood from women with no personal or family history of cancer (controls) compared with different populations of women with breast cancer and women at high genetic risk for developing breast cancer. RTL was determined as the telomere to single gene copy number ratio assessed by quantitative PCR. Breast cancer cases (low risk, n = 40; high risk, n = 62) had significantly longer RTL compared with unaffected controls (n = 50; mean RTL = 1.11 versus 0.84; P < 0.0001). The assessment of risk by RTL quartile showed an increased risk for breast cancer with each longer quartile, with the most significant risk observed in the longest quartile (odds ratio, 23.3; confidence interval, 4.4-122.3; P < 0.0003). Women without breast cancer but at high risk due to family history (n = 30) also showed longer telomeres than controls (mean RTL = 1.09 versus 0.84; P < 0.0001). Our analysis supports previous findings of longer RTL in breast cancer cases compared with controls, and is the first to observe longer RTL in women without breast cancer identified as high risk based on family history. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(2); 605–13


Case series Patients: Male, 78 • Male, 69 Final Diagnosis: Severe carotid artery stenosis Symptoms: Asymptomatic Medication: — Clinical Procedure: Carotid artery stenting Specialty: Cardiology Objective: Unusual or unexpected effect of treatment Background: The use of a carotid artery stent (CAS) is a management option for high-risk patients with carotid artery stenosis. An access site for CAS that involves the transcervical approach may be performed percutaneously or may require a cutdown, and usually includes a flow-reversal system to reduce the risk of embolization. Two cases are presented where the transcervical approach to CAS incorporated a distal filter for embolic protection, with a successful outcome. Case Report: 1. A 78-year-old man with a history of prior irradiation for head and neck cancer presented for CAS after clinical evaluation showed that he was a poor candidate for carotid endarterectomy (CEA). A femoral approach for carotid artery access was not successful due to a tortuous type III aortic arch. A surgical cutdown of the carotid artery was performed with the use of a distal filter, and the CAS was inserted with no embolic events. 2. A 69-year-old man with an anatomically high bifurcation of his carotid artery was not a candidate for CEA due to limited carotid artery access. Diagnostic carotid angiography was also difficult to perform. The CAS was successfully sited with the use of a distal filter and with no post-procedural complications. Conclusions: CAS is an option for carotid artery stenosis in patients with high surgical risk for CEA. Although a flow-reversal system is usually used to reduce embolic events, these two cases demonstrate that one can also avoid embolism with a distal filter instead.


Large freshwater floods on Earth in recent times and in the Quaternary have often been associated with catastrophic out-bursts of water from lakes impounded by glacial-ice or debris (such as moraine). In either case, large-scale depositional sedimentary landforms are found along the courses of the floodwaters. On Mars, similar floods are believed to have resulted from catastrophic efflux of water from within the Martian surface. Within the Martian flood tracts, landforms have been imaged that appear similar to those identified on Earth. These are primarily suites of giant bars – "streamlined forms" – of varying morphology that occur primarily as longitudinal features within the floodways and along the margins as well as in areas of the floodways that were sheltered from the main flow. In addition, flow-transverse bedforms within the floodways have been identified as giant sedimentary dunes or antidunes. Information concerning the flood hydraulics that created these forms may be deduced from their location and plan view morphology. Some other fluvial landforms which have been associated with megafloods on Earth have yet to be identified on Mars. The examples from Earth are described, so as to spur the search for further water-lain landforms on Mars


BACKGROUND
Clinical trials have shown tamoxifen to be effective only in women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive tumors. In a previous model, trends in the utilization of adjuvant therapy were modeled only as a function of age and stage of the disease and not ER status. In this paper, we integrate this previous estimate on the use of adjuvant systemic therapy for breast cancer in the United States with information on ER status from the Patterns of Care (POC) data to estimate the dissemination of adjuvant therapy for women with different ER-status tumors. We also summarize efficacy of adjuvant systemic therapy reported in the overviews of early breast cancer clinical trials. These two inputs, dissemination and efficacy, are key pieces for models that investigate the effect of breast cancer adjuvant therapy on the decline of U.S. breast cancer mortality.

METHODS
The adjustments to the previous models are calculated using the POC data on 7116 women with breast cancer diagnosed from 1987 to 1991 and in 1995 who were randomly selected from the Surveillance, and Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program registries. The POC data provide more accurate information on treatment and clinical variables (e.g., ER status) than the SEER data because medical records are reabstracted and further verified with treating physicians.

RESULTS
Use of multiagent chemotherapy is higher for younger women (<50 years) and for women whose tumors were shown to be ER negative or borderline. The use of tamoxifen is higher among older women and women with ER-positive tumors. After 1980 the combined use of multiagent chemotherapy and tamoxifen for women diagnosed with breast cancer at ages 69 or younger increased more for women whose tumors were ER status positive or unknown than ER status negative. Older women (>69 years) seem to receive almost exclusively tamoxifen irrespective of ER status, except for a small percentage of those with more advanced stages (II- and II+/IIIA) who also receive multiagent chemotherapy.

DISCUSSION
The estimated dissemination trends by ER status, based on modeling the POC data, reveal that treatment strategies with demonstrated efficacy in clinical trials have been adopted into practice. The dissemination and efficacy are the two factors necessary to input into models to determine the population impact of these therapies on U.S. breast cancer mortality. The largest decline in mortality would be expected for younger women (<60 years) with ER-positive tumors or whose tumors are of unknown status because of the largest efficacy and dissemination of adjuvant therapy in this group.


This paper will describe the changes needed to the Linux memory management system to cope with adding or removing RAM from a running system. In addition to support for physically adding or removing DIMMs, there is an everincreasing number of virtualized environments such as UML or the IBM pSeriesTM Hypervisor which can transition RAM between virtual system images, based on need. This paper will describe techniques common to all supported platforms, as well as challenges for specific architectures.


Background/aims: Low socio-economic status is increasingly being identified as a risk marker for chronic diseases, but few studies have investigated the link between socio-economic factors and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The present study aimed to assess the association between socio-economic status and the prevalence of AMD. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study of 3280 (78.7% response rate) Malay adults aged 40–80 years residing in 15 south-western districts of Singapore. AMD was graded from retinal photographs at a central reading centre using the modified Wisconsin AMD scale. Early and late AMD signs were graded from retinal photographs following the Wisconsin grading system. Socio-economic status including education, housing type and income were determined from a detailed interview. Results: Of the participants, 3265 had photographs of sufficient quality for grading of AMD. Early AMD was present in 168 (5.1%) and late AMD in 21 (0.6%). After adjusting for age, gender, smoking, hypertension, diabetes and body mass index, participants with lower educational levels were significantly more likely to have early AMD (multivariate OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.0). This association was stronger in persons who had never smoked (multivariate OR 3.6, 95% confidence CI 1.4 to 9.4). However, no association with housing type or income was seen. Conclusions: Low educational level is associated with a higher prevalence of early AMD signs in our Asian population, independent of age, cardiovascular risk factors and cigarette smoking.


The paper focuses on two individuals who have each made a seminal contribution to the debates between theology and the sciences in Oxford - Charles Darwin (in the mid–19th century), and Richard Dawkins (from the 1990s to the present day). It introduces Darwin by way of a more personal and visual view from Worcester College Chapel. The restoration of the chapel took place at about the same time as the debates between Huxley and Wilberforce in the Oxford University Museum over Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species. The first part of the paper then traces these debates back: first to an earlier period of disputation represented by Galileo Galilei (c. 1564–1642), and then to a period of greater accommodation represented by Isaac Newton (1643–1727). Darwin represents a third, more controversial, stage. The paper then looks at a fourth period, from the mid–20th century onwards, which is marked by more eirenical attempts to demarcate science and theology by seeing the former again as asking the 'how' questions and the latter, the 'why' questions. It then focuses on a fifth, more disputatious stage, which was initiated by Richard Dawkins, professor in the Public Understanding of Science until 2008. Professor Dawkins challenges the idea that theology cannot be studied, because its focus is a non-existent object, 'God'. The second part of the paper looks at various Oxford projects and Oxford theologians who have risen to this contemporary challenge. They include the work of the Ian Ramsey Centre; Justin Barret's and John Trigg's joint £ 2 million project, supported by the John Templeton foundation, which examines scientific ideas about religion and the mind; Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006, who has conducted a number of media interviews with Richard Dawkins; Keith Ward, who has written several books engaging not only with Dawkins but is also the Cambridge Professor of Mathematics, Stephen Hawking; and Alistair McGrath, who has a doctorate in both science and theology, and who has similarly written and entered into public debates challenging Dawkin's ideas. The paper ends by referring to John Barton, Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford, who argues that provided that theology is a subject which is properly critical, open to alien truth and combines both intellectual and emotional modes of perception, it can set an example for almost any academic discipline, both in the humanities and the sciences. The conclusion is therefore that, far from theology having to become more like another science, the sciences might be challenged to become more like theology.


ABSTRACT Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and other volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) appear mainly in the oral air of patients with halitosis. It seems that VSCs are directly involved in the pathogenesis of gingival diseases. In previous studies, short-term (7 hours–4 days), high concentrations (5–400 ppm) of H2S applications on periodontal tissues have been evaluated in a culture medium. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential effects of lower (equivalent to halitosis) concentrations of H2S on rat gingival tissue for longer-term inhalation. The threshold level of pathologic halitosis perceived by humans at 250 ppb of H2S was converted to rat equivalent concentration (4.15 ppm). Rats in the experimental (H2S) group (n=8) were exposed to H2S continuously but not the control rats (n=8). After 50 days, the gingival sulcular tissue samples of each rat were taken and examined using transmission electron microscope. Ultrastructural changes in the sulcular epithelia of the rat gingiva showed deformation of celullar shape, vacuolization, and disintegrity of intercelullar connection by loss of desmosomes and collagen fibrils. No basal membrane damage was observed. Inhalation of low levels of H2S (equivalent of halitosis) in the oral environment causes ultrastructural celullar damages in rat sulcular mucosa. These results suggest that halitosis may be the potential reason for periodontal destruction in humans.


A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a master of science in population and reproductive health of Makerere University


In the works of many nineteenthcentury European writers and artists there is an increased awareness of the form and medium of the artistic expression which is seen not simply as a convention or as the outer shell of the artwork, but as its guiding tenet. This article focuses on the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk as conceived in Wagner's theoretical writings and in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, and it aims to discuss the term in the context of nineteenth-century theories of media and aesthetic thinking. Richard Wagner revisited and re-envisioned the theories of theatre and musical drama of his Romantic precursors and invested the notion of Gesamtkunstwerk with a new meaning. He extended its range of function and relevance far beyond aesthetics, claiming along the lines of the Schillerian tradition that an ideal artwork is the product of an ideal community, and likewise, an ideal community can be shaped by its participation in the production of the ideal artwork. According to Wagner the musical theatre was the perfect medium for producing the total and ideal work of art, hence also for shaping the ideal community.


Product recalls have become increasingly common across product categories and countries. Although recalls pose adverse consequences for businesses, regulatory agencies, and society, they also test these stakeholders' resilience in the face of adversity. Perhaps because scholars from multiple disciplines have studied recalls for nearly four decades now, a large number of terms, most of which stay undefined, has been used to describe recalls and several closely related yet distinct phenomena. We also lack a framework that can help synthesize our knowledge and guide us toward questions that are both interesting and relevant. Finally, there has been no attention to the fundamental question of what firm actions drive the effectiveness of recalls. My thesis seeks to address these two areas of improvement. Specifically, Essay 1 defines product recall, and delineates it from related phenomena. It also offers a framework of the various strategies firms can undertake in the aftermath of defective products, factors that drive choice of these strategies, and the performance implications of the chosen strategies. Essay 2 empirically examines how recall-announcing firms' marketing communications and marketing channels drive product recall effectiveness. The two essays thus seek to improve academics' and practitioners' understanding and management of product recall respectively.


Abstract : Because of the rapid advance of airborne and satellite sensor technology in providing higher spectral resolution over progressively broader wavelength regions, there is a need for more (and more accurate) field measurements to complement overhead data. The purpose of this field guide is to facilitate such ground-based measurements, first through a review of the environmental factors affecting such measurements, second through an evaluation of the instrumentation involved, and third through a suggested approach to the measurement process. In evaluating environmental factors affecting spectral measurements in the field, the sources of radiance from a target are discussed in both the reflectance and emittance regions of the spectrum, as well as how those sources are modified by atmospheric attenuation and scattering, and the presence of clouds and wind. Another factor affecting all spectral measurements in the field is the computer typically used for instrument control and data storage. Computers tend to be the universal weak link in field spectrometers, because of their typical low tolerance for bright sunlight, temperature extremes, windblown dust, and rain. Various solutions to the computer problem are discussed, including the acquisition of hardened computers. The most commonly used field spectrometers are described, with advice on how to get the most out of each instrument. Then the pros and cons of each instrument are discussed with regard to different applications. Finally, how to approach field measurements is described, beginning with a thorough testing of a field instrument (and the field instrument user) in the laboratory. Approaches to data collection, record keeping, data reduction, and data analysis are discussed. A major conclusion is that much greater support for data analysis is necessary to reach the full potential of spectroscopic remote sensing for target identification.


Qualitative interviews were conducted with both members of 12 married couples who had made a commitment to environmentalism in their everyday lives. Women in the sample generally performed more eco-friendly domestic labor than did their husbands. The article focuses on husbands' and wives' accounts for the unintended gender injustice that came with efforts at environmental justice. These accounts stressed that men intended to do their share of the labor, though they did not, while women did more of the labor because they were better at or more interested in it. Men and women offered similar accounts for the asymmetrical division of labor. The logic of the accounts can be used as part of new discourses that promote gender equity while doing environmental justice.


While great strides have been made in using deep learning algorithms to solve supervised learning tasks, the problem of unsupervised learning — leveraging unlabeled examples to learn about the structure of a domain — remains a difficult unsolved challenge. Here, we explore prediction of future frames in a video sequence as an unsupervised learning rule for learning about the structure of the visual world. We describe a predictive neural network ("PredNet") architecture that is inspired by the concept of "predictive coding" from the neuroscience literature. These networks learn to predict future frames in a video sequence, with each layer in the network making local predictions and only forwarding deviations from those predictions to subsequent network layers. We show that these networks are able to robustly learn to predict the movement of synthetic (rendered) objects, and that in doing so, the networks learn internal representations that are useful for decoding latent object parameters (e.g. pose) that support object recognition with fewer training views. We also show that these networks can scale to complex natural image streams (car-mounted camera videos), capturing key aspects of both egocentric movement and the movement of objects in the visual scene, and the representation learned in this setting is useful for estimating the steering angle. Altogether, these results suggest that prediction represents a powerful framework for unsupervised learning, allowing for implicit learning of object and scene structure.


A combined K-Ar and 40Ar/39Ar geochronological study of the Ruby Mountains-East Humboldt Range, Nevada, a Cordilleran metamorphic core complex, has revealed a complex tectonothermal history. The three structural subdivisions of the core complex (migmatitic core, mylonitic zone, and cover) share magmatic and deformational histories in part, but also display important contrasts in structural style, metamorphic paragenesis, and thermal history. During the Late Jurassic (ca 160 Ma), miogeoclinal rocks were polyphase-deformed, metamorphosed under amphibolite facies conditions, and pervasively intruded by peraluminous granitic magmas, thereby forming an igneous and metamorphic complex. Late Jurassic muscovite granite porphyry plugs also intruded unmetamorphosed cover rocks. Late Cretaceous cooling of the igneous and metamorphic complex is locally suggested by poorly resolved Cretaceous incremental-release 40Ar/39Ar hornblende spectra and by U-Pb monazite ages from pelitic schist exposed in the northern Ruby Mountains. Between ca 45 Ma and 20 Ma, the igneous and metamorphic rocks experienced an episode of complex extensional tectonism which involved the development of low-angle, normal-sense, simple shear zones. As a result, rocks metamorphosed at depth in the Mesozoic were translated to higher crustal levels which resulted in cooling through temperatures required for the intracrystalline retention of argon within minerals. Near concordance of hornblende and biotite plateau ages from the migmatitic core of the complex suggest relatively rapid exhumation. However, it is not certain if this cooling followed a prolonged maintenance at elevated temperatures after the ca 160 Ma metamorphism or if distinct, locally superposed late Mesozoic and/or middle Tertiary thermal overprints had affected the cooling history. A major extensional simple shear zone is marked by an approximately 1-kilometer-thick mylonite zone that experienced late kinematic, superposed brittle deformation. A geometric consequence of the development of low-angle extensional fault zones is the eventual translation of colder rocks over hotter rocks. Such a history is supported by the 40Ar/39Ar data. For example, mylonitic mafic orthogneisses from a major allochthon record 40Ar/39Ar hornblende plateau ages between 44 and 48 Ma and biotite plateau ages between 32 and 33 Ma, and are structurally positioned above mylonitic rocks of the northern Ruby Mountains which record biotite cooling ages of ca 22–24 Ma. Such relations suggest either multiple episodes of Tertiary mylonitization or a protracted, multiphase history of mylonitization. However, after ca 20 Ma, all of the presently exposed mylonitic rocks were maintained below 100°C and have only experienced upper crustal brittle deformation. This article contains supplementary material.


This study explores growth dimensions, instability, sources of growth and variability of mango and mango pulp exports to major importing countries. The secondary data on volume and value of mango and mango pulp exports from India collected for 30 years from the year 1987-2016 were analyzed using Markov Chain and accordingly the future exports were forecasted. UAE and Kuwait for fresh mango and Saudi Arabia, UAE and Netherland for mango pulp were the most stable markets. It was predicted that quantum of mango export to countries Viz; Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UK are expected to increase while quantity exported to UAE, Bangladesh and other countries are expected to decline from the year 2016-17. On the other hand, for mango pulp, forecasting revealed that in terms of quantity its export to UK, UAE, Netherland and USA would rise and quantity exported to Saudi Arabia, YAR and other countries would decline. A need for more concentration on export promotion to tap the potential and strengthening of existing processing units by providing access to information on modern technology, packaging, markets, food laws and hygiene requirements of different market are suggestions emerged from the study.


In the interwar period, increasingly mobile Australians began to contemplate travel across the Pacific, both toward Asia as well as to America. Contemporary writing reflected this highly mobile culture and Pacific gaze, yet literary histories have overlooked this aspect of cultural history. Instead of looking to Australian novels as indexes of culture, as literary studies often do, this article explores the range of writing and print culture in magazines, concentrating on notions of mobility through the Pacific. Its focus is on the quality magazines MAN and Th e Home, which addressed two distinct, gendered readerships, but operated within similar cultural segments. Th is article suggests that the distinct geographical imaginaries of these magazines, which linked travel and geographical mobility with aspiration and social mobility, played a role in consolidating and nourishing the class standing of their readers, and revealed some of their attitudes toward gender and race.


Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a soilborne fungus and causes white mold, sclerotinia cottony rot in lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and other crops. The control of this disease is very difficult, since that fungus produces resistance structures, the sclerodia. In the search of new methods for disease control, the plant extracts with therapeutical properties arise as a new option. The effect of aqueous crude extract (ACE) of ginger (Zingiber officinalis) was evaluated in vitro at concentrations of 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% on S. sclerotiorum mycelial growth and sclerodia production. The efficiency of ginger on the production of lettuce plants was also verified in plants and inoculated with the pathogen. Disease incidence, crop yield and peroxidase activity were analyzed in plant tissue. Water and the resistance inducer agent acibenzolar-S-methyl were used as control. Additionally, the ability of ACE in inducing accumulation of phytoalexins 3-deoxyanthocyanidin and glyceollin was evaluated in sorghum and soybean bioassays, respectively. The results showed the antimicrobial activity of ginger on the inhibition of mycelial growth and sclerodia production. In the lettuce crop, it was observed that the application of ginger mass on the soil close to plants basis increased of peroxidase activity and reduced disease incidence. The presence of elicitor compounds in the ACE was detected by the production of phytoalexins in sorghum and soybean, with dose-dependent responses. These results showed the potential of Z. officinalis on the control of S. sclerotiorum in lettuce that can occur by antimicrobial activity and defense mechanisms induction.


This paper devises an e-competitiveness index attempting to measure the ability of a nation to exploit information and communication technology (ICT) to the fullest. Results of the analysis show that Finland is highly specialized in ICT provision, it has good premises to exploit ICT to the fullest, but that it is not amongst the leading users of ICT.


Despite two decades of visionary policies, problems within South Africa's freight logistics system remain. Logistics costs are high, the current road and rail solutions will be unable to meet long-term demand for freight transport sustainably, and rural economies still do not have efficient access to the corridor transport network. This article postulates that one of the core reasons for the state of affairs is the inability of government to enable an optimally functioning freight logistics system. The main challenges faced by government are identified and an intervention is proposed to develop an overarching framework and implementation plan to address South Africa's long-term freight logistics needs.


A Danish action research approach to the development of strategic consultancy to farmm anagers is presented. The development principles adopted include separate investigations of the content and process of strategic consultancy resulting in the formulation of a development matrix and a procedure for knowledge transformations. The project activities were carried out by a self-organised team group with participants from both consultancy and research organisations. The produced knowledge and strategic tools have been tested in a number of farm cases by local consultants and the implemented evaluation programme indicates that the needs of farmers have been fulfilled and the local consultants have increased their strategic competences.


Computer-mediated collaboration is an important feature of modern organizational and educational settings but it is still compared unfavourably with traditional collaboration because non-verbal and paralinguistic cues are minimal. This book analyzes how virtual collaborative groups develop and how leaders emerge in asynchronous and synchronous computer-mediated environments using cognitive and affective dimensions of communication activity. A multi-level methodology (Complementary Explorative Data Analysis) is developed to enable quantitative and qualitative analyses of communication data sets from two different case studies. The results indicate that virtual collaborative groups in organizations and education institutions are highly adaptive to the task to be completed, and the medium in which they collaborate. The analyses have practical implications for managers of virtual teams and educators in e-learning.


The paper indicates advantages (and disadvantages) of layer of protection analysis (LOPA) over other methods to support its paramount position among different process safety analysis (PSA) methods in use today. Its simplicity (using order-of-magnitude estimates for all elements that constitute an accident scenario), universality (easy adaptation to particular needs), directness to indicate the effect of risk reduction measures as well as to assess the total level of risk to be compared with the company risk tolerance criteria are strong arguments for wider application of LOPA.

However, the method may have some limitations (disadvantages) in comparison to other methods and therefore different extended approaches of LOPA have been developed to overcome the problem. Those approaches include an inclusion of an expert system into accident scenario identification (ExSysLOPA), new approach to deal with uncertainty connected with input data (fuzzy LOPA) as well as for explosion at workplace risk assessment (ExLOPA). Some of these combined techniques will be presented here and they support and extend the applications of layer of protection analysis, especially for safety assurance assessment of risk-based determination that is used in oil and gas process industries.


The contribution of tourism to the development of local regions is prolific, as it creates jobs and stimulates the economy (Lopez-Bonilla & Sanz-Altmira 2010; O'Sullivan & Jackson 2010; Saayman & Rossow 2011; Visser 2005). Events are an important motivation for tourists to travel. In this sense, there are three types of events: business events, sport events and festivals (Getz 2007). Festivals and festival tourism is a booming form of event tourism and the importance of festivals are recognized in both national and international spheres (Yang, Gu & Cen 2011). With this in mind, it is imperative that festival organisers have adequate information pertaining to the demographics and service delivery expectations of festival goers. The data for this investigation was collected during the 2013 Bloemfontein Vryfees and the findings report on the demographic composition of the festival goers and their service delivery expectations.


In his classic bestseller Venture Capital Handbook, leading venture capitalist David Gladstone showed thousands of companies how to get funding and work with early stage investors. Now, in his revision of the classic, Venture Capital Investing, he looks at venture capital through the eyes of the investor. Gladstone shows all of you VC investors and angels exactly how to weed through scores of business proposals and find the gem that will deliver outstanding returns, especially in these soft economic times. You will learn what to look for in a business proposition; how to assess entrepreneurs and their management teams; how to evaluate financial statements, market niches, competitive environments, and product innovations; how to investigate a business that's already operating; and how to build effective partnerships with existing portfolio companies.


The initial Support Technology Optimization Program (STOP), Version 1.0, was released at the 19th Ground Control Conference. This original program has since been updated to Version 2.3 which was released in May, 2001. This paper describes the additional features of Version 2.3, focusing primarily on the following three aspects: (1) including uncontrolled convergence into the design requirements for standing roof supports, (2) the addition of design procedures for cable bolts as an alternative secondary roof support, and (3) the addition of new standing roof support technologies. Another new feature which should facilitate the development of design criteria for standing roof support is the capability to define ground reaction curves through convergence measurements alone without having to make support loading measurements. There are several other new features provided in Version 2.3 which are only briefly addressed in the paper. These include: (1) additional graphics capabilities to facilitate rapid assessment of support comparisons, (2) an East-West designation for support selection to more accurately provide cost and support availability data, (3) additional safety measures including a safety factor to identify support design near the peak support capacity, checks to see if the support dimensions comply with aspect ratio requirements, and a measure of roof coverage for the design layout of the support system. These new features of STOP provide more capabilities to design and analyze secondary roof support systems for conditions which could not be fully analyzed in the original version of the program.


Resveratrol acts as a competitive phosphodiesterase inhibitor to initiate pathways that mediate its beneficial effects on metabolic disorders. The polyphenol resveratrol, which is found in red wine, appears to mimic the beneficial effects of calorie restriction on aging and age-associated metabolic disorders. These effects of resveratrol are thought to involve activation of the NAD+ (the oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide)–dependent deacetylase Sirt1 downstream of the energy-sensing enzyme AMPK [adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP)–activated protein kinase]; however, the direct target of resveratrol—and the pathway whereby it activates AMPK—have been unclear (see Tennen et al.). Park et al. found that oral administration of resveratrol to mice increased cyclic AMP (cAMP) abundance in skeletal muscle and white adipose tissue and that direct exposure to resveratrol increased cAMP in cultured C2C12 myotubes. Pharmacological and knockdown analyses indicated that resveratrol activated AMPK by way of the cAMP effector Epac1; resveratrol increased Epac activity in C2C12 myotubes, and assays of Epac1 activity in the presence or absence of resveratrol confirmed that its ability to do so was indirect. AMPK increases NAD+ abundance, and the ability of resveratrol to do so was blocked by siRNA directed against Epac1, as was its ability to promote deacetylation of the Sirt1 target PGC-1α (a transcriptional coactivator that promotes mitochondrial biogenesis and respiration). Conversely, an Epac agonist increased myotube mitochondrial content and oxygen consumption and, like resveratrol, decreased the abundance of reactive oxygen species. AMPK activation depends on its phosphorylation by either LKB1 (liver kinase B1) or CamKKβ (calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase kinase β). The authors used a combination of calcium chelation, knockdown, and pharmacological analysis to determine how resveratrol's activation of Epac led to activation of AMPK and found that this occurred by way of phospholipase C, ryanodine receptor 2, and CamKKβ. Returning to the question of how resveratrol increases cAMP, the authors determined that, whereas it had no effect on the activities of the enzymes that synthesize cAMP, it acted as a competitive inhibitor of several phosphodiesterases (PDEs, enzymes that hydrolyze cyclic nucleotides). Remarkably, the PDE4 inhibitor rolipram not only mimicked resveratrol's activity in vitro (stimulating AMPK phosphorylation and activity by way of Epac1, increasing NAD+ abundance and PGC-1α deacetylation, and increasing mitochondrial biogenesis), it also reproduced its beneficial effects in vivo. Mice treated with rolipram showed increased exercise tolerance, increased metabolic activity, increased glucose tolerance, and resistance to diet-induced obesity. Thus, the authors conclude that resveratrol acts as a competitive phosphodiesterase inhibitor to initiate the pathways mediating its beneficial effects on aging-related metabolic disorders. S.-J. Park, F. Ahmad, A. Philp, K. Baar, T. Williams, H. Luo, H. Ke, H. Rehmann, R. Taussig, A. L. Brown, M. K. Kim, M. A. Beaven, A. B. Burgin, V. Manganiello, J. H. Chung, Resveratrol ameliorates aging-related metabolic phenotypes by inhibiting cAMP phosphodiesterases. Cell 148, 421–433 (2012). [Online Journal] R. I. Tennen, E. Michishita-Kioi, K. F. Chua, Finding a target for resveratrol. Cell 148, 387–389 (2012). [Online Journal]


Although technical literature concerning the planning, design and construction of irrigation and drainage projects is extensive, this manual aims to fill the gap concerning the operation and maintenance of these systems. The manual is divided into three sections: (1) organization for operation and maintenance, (2) operation, and (3) maintenance. The several types of organizations include mutual companies, commercial companies, and districts; the three types of districts covered are irrigation districts, drainage districts and conservation districts. The management structure, legal aspects and staff development are explored. The operation section covers: good water management; the necessary staff and its responsibilities; practices and procedures for the handling, movement, disposal or reuse of water; and records and communication. The objectives of maintenance are: to keep the system in top operating condition, to obtain the longest life and greatest use of the system, and to achieve the first two objectives as economically as possible. The manual was prepared by the committee on operation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage systems of the ASCE Irrigation and Drainage System, and the manual is No. 57 the ASCE's Manuals and Reports on Engineering Practice series.


A new communication and control concept using tongue movements is introduced to generate, detect, and classify signals that can be used in novel hands-free human-machine interface applications such as communicating with a computer and controlling devices. The signals that are caused by tongue movements are the changes in the airflow pressure that occur in the ear canal. The goal is to demonstrate that the ear pressure signals that are acquired using a microphone that is inserted into the ear canal, due to specific tongue movements, are distinct and that the signals can be detected and classified very accurately. The strategy that is developed for demonstrating the concept includes energy-based signal detection and segmentation to extract ear pressure signals due to tongue movements, signal normalization to decrease the trial-to-trial variations in the signals, and pairwise cross-correlation signal averaging to obtain accurate estimates from ensembles of pressure signals. A new decision fusion classification algorithm is formulated to assign the pressure signals to their respective tongue-movement classes. The complete strategy of signal detection and segmentation, estimation, and classification is tested on four tongue movements of eight subjects. Through extensive experiments, it is demonstrated that the ear pressure signals due to the tongue movements are distinct and that the four pressure signals can be classified with an accuracy of more than 97% averaged across the eight subjects using the decision fusion classification algorithm. Thus, it is concluded that, through the unique concept that is introduced in this paper, human-computer interfaces that use tongue movements can be designed for hands-free communication and control applications.


In pre-digital times, before photocopying and carbon paper, communications sent elsewhere did not always leave behind a true copy, or any copy. this particularly a pity when it comes to the "reports" sent to Rome, throuh the centuries, by successive holders of the office of Custos of the Holy Land. Those provide much detail about the Franciscan missionaries of the Holy Land and much else besides. The Archivist of the Custody shares here some of what is known about those "reports", and gives indications as to where some of them may be found.


Project selection is a crucial decision-making process in many organizations. By adopting a project-based learning perspective, this study sets out to develop a framework to integrate organizational knowledge development with project selection. We utilize various knowledge management models to create a structured evaluation metric to measure project contribution to organizational knowledge. A project selection model, which involves project knowledge contribution as one of the evaluation perspectives, is proposed. Results of a focus group study effectively validate the proposed evaluation metric. The article concludes with an empirical implementation of the model in an electronic component manufacturing company.


The Deadliest Catch is the hit TV series featuring the harrowing struggles of fishermen on the wild and freezing Bering Sea - it's the perfect storm but for real. This is the only book on the series backed by the Discovery Channel, and it features exclusive photography alongside vivid personal accounts of the fishermen's terrifying real life adventures, with additional stories and background information on the highly dangerous crab fishing industry. The Deadliest Catch was Discovery Channel's highest-rated series in 2006. The third season finale had 3.85 million viewers, it received four Emmy nominations in 2007, and the DVD is the top seller on DiscoveryStore.com. Footage from the series is a popular download on YouTube and the series has featured in London's Friday Sport paper. The Deadliest Catch will appeal to anyone who has followed the series, or who enjoys exciting action and adrenaline sports. It has significant general trade sales potential.


YILDIZ, E., N. TODOROV and K. NEDELKOV, 2015. Comparison of different dietary protein sources for dairy cows. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 21: 199-208 The aim of the experiment is to compare sunflower meal (SFM), as a protein source in rations of lactating dairy cows to rape seed meal, canola type (RSM), dry distillers grain with solubles (DDGS) from maize, and soybean meal (SBM). Twenty four multiparous Holstein cows averaging 51±19 days in milk at the start of the experiment and 603±48 kg body weight were randomly assigned in 4x4 Latin square design trials. Each period lasted 21 days. Weeks 1 and 2 were used for adjustment and week 3 for data collection. Diets for each period and treatment group consisted of 4.3 kg alfalfa hay and 22 kg maize silage (31% DM), and 12.2 kg compound feed. All ingredients were mixed and provided to the cows as total mixed rations (TMR). TMR contained 17.1% crude protein in dry matter, with 47 to 58% coming from 4 tested supplementary protein sources. During each period, the cows were offered 1 of 4 compound feeds containing: 1) 39% SFM, 2) 46.6% RSM, 3) 62% DDGS, and 4) 32% SBM. By adding sunflower hulls to diets with SBM, RSM and DDGS, and maize germ as source of fat to those with SFM, RSM and SBM all rations were equalized by net energy concentration, crude fiber and fat in dry matter. Therefore, the different protein source was the only main difference between the 4 diets. Dry matter intake tended to increase for diets with DDGS and SBM as protein supplement. Milk production was significantly lower for cows receiving SFM with diet (30.1 kg/day), compared to diets with SBM (33.2 kg/day) (P 0.05) between SBM, RSM and DDGS as a protein sources. Milk protein yield per day was 1.08, 1.05, 1.04 and 0.96 for cows receiving diets with SBM, RSM, DDGS and SFM respectively, and respective percentages of milk protein were 3.24, 3.22, 3.19 and 3.18 (P>0.05). Fractions of true protein, casein and whey protein from total protein did not differ significantly. There was a tendency for lower true protein and casein content in milk of cows receiving diet with SFM. Non-protein nitrogen in milk from SFM diet was significantly higher, than in other diets. There were no significant differences in yield of fat, and milk fat percentage in cows receiving diets with 4 different protein feeds. Production of energy corrected milk from intake of one kilogram dry matter was the lowest in cows fed SFM diet (1.54 kg) (P<0.05), followed by DDGS (1.63 kg), RSM diets (1.67 kg), and SBM (1.69 kg). Less true protein in milk (P<0.05) was produced from 1 kg crude protein in ration with SFM compared to other rations. However, utilization of protein digestible in intestine for milk true protein production did not differ significantly between the four rations. Milk produced from cows fed ration with SBM had a farm gate price which was by 15 to 23% higher than those of milk produced by the other three rations. The cheapest milk was from the DDGS diet, followed by RSM and SFM


Using a dialogic lens, this study investigated identity constructions of birth mothers articulated in their online adoption stories. Birth mother stories were characterized by two identity constructions, both of which resisted the dominant discourse of intensive mothering, which positions them as bad mothers. Stories depicted birth mothers either as good mothers or as agentic and self-fulfi lling non-mothers. These respective identity constructions counter the dominant discourse either by working within it to reappropriate the components of good mothering or by undermining its legitimacy by shedding the identity of "mother" altogether.


The merchandise of biotechnology within the variety of peptides and proteins square measure difficult compounds that square measure troublesome to deliver. Novel ways of delivery embrace chemical compound microspheres and microcapsules. Polymers will be wont to deliver antigens so as to get improved responses once injection. Nanoparticles supported chemical compound materials will be used to deliver medication to specific target sites, particularly via the blood or vascular system.
Nano carriers are employed in various animal and human investigations and have utilised alternate routes of administration for analgesic and anaesthetic, victimization delivery through the skin, buckle, and nasal mucosa membranes. In work to enhance these delivery ways, alternative compounds have because associate abundance of recent devices, ideas and techniques that have conjointly been termed controlled-release technology (CRT). Some samples of cathode-ray tube embrace percutaneous controlled unleash delivery systems, ml6 nasal and buckle aerosol sprays, drug-impregnated lozenges, encapsulated cells, oral soft gels, medication administered through the skin and numerous programmable, and planted drug-delivery devices.


Brazil's home region has two peculiarities: first, it is essentially fuzzy as its extension and membership have changed overtime; second, regardless of its limits, its inner core has been characterized by a long period of interstate peace. These factors have led to two outcomes: first, high politics has been conducted through diplomatic rather than military means; second, region-building has remained under the strictest control of the governments rather than becoming self-sustaining. Regional public goods have been mostly defined on the negative, especially as the avoidance of negative externalities, and only recently has Brazil started to invest in the creation of a governance framework that keep extra-regional powers away. Yet, structural limitations and instrumental constraints have limited Brazilian efforts and turned South America into a still peaceful but increasingly divergent sub-region. Through an analysis of institutional overlap and policy networks, especially regarding nuclear energy and the environment, this paper shows that Brazil's low, late and soft investment in regional security governance is explained by a combination of low regional risks, scarce domestic resources, a legalistic culture of dispute settlement, and transgovernmental networks that substitute for intense interstate cooperation and deep regional institutions.


Three consistency problems are identified that arise when partitioning a product system with joint production according to an allocation key, such as revenue or mass of the joint products, namely: lacking consistency of rationales and procedures; lacking consistency of monetary, mass, and energy balances in the partitioned product systems; and lacking consistency of results across model resolution and classification of the intermediate flows. Different solutions to these consistency problems are described, including the attempt of ecoinvent to solve the third consistency problem with a system model that uses revenue allocation at the point of substitution. The problems with the different practical implementations are described. For each of the three consistency problems, a solution is proposed and combined into a single consistent solution. The consistency of rationales and procedures is ensured by asking only one question at a time and performing a separate allocation and calculation for each question. The problem of maintaining monetary, mass, and energy balances is solved by a generalized allocation correction. The identified problem with consistency of results across model resolution and classification is solved by redefining the point of substitution. It is described what consequences the solutions will have if their results are misused for decision making that will shift demand between products.


We address the question of the measurement of pure health inequalities and achievement in the context of welfare decreasing variables. We adopt a general framework whereby the health variable is reported on an interval, from an optimum level to a critical survival threshold. There are two problems that require some departures from the usual framework used to measure inequality and social welfare. Firstly, we show that for welfare decreasing variables, the equally distributed equivalent value is decreasing in progressive transfers (instead of being increasing). Accordingly, appropriate achievement and inequality indices for welfare decreasing variables are introduced. Secondly, because the Lorenz curve and the associated inequality indices are not robust to alternative values of the survival threshold, we argue that the family of translation invariant social welfare functions and related absolute Lorenz curve allow us to undertake inequality comparisons between distributions that are robust to the chosen level of the survival threshold. An illustrative application of the methodology is provided.


INTRODUCTION It has been established that primary stability of femoral stems is a determinant of the clinical success of cementless total hip arthroplasty[1]. Excessive interface micromotions may lead to a peri-implant fibrous tissue formation resulting in aseptic loosening of the implant [2]. The effect of micromotion on the tissue outcome remains still unclear. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that interstitial fluid flow is the primary mechanism by which bone cells perceive changes in their mechanical environment [3]. Therefore, to estimate the interstitial peri-implant fluid flow, a detailed measurement of simultaneously normal and tangential micromotion, is required. The objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of the micromotion measurement on human cadaveric femur with micro computed tomography.


Sequential injection analysis (SIA) technique and chemometric optimization were employed, for the first time, to develop a new method for the assay of diltiazem in pharmaceutical formulations. The method was based on the spectrophotometric detection of permanganate reduction by diltiazem in acidic media at 526 nm. The 2^3 full factorial design and response surface plot were adopted to optimize permanganate concentration, acid concentration and flow rate. The method was validated as per the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) guidelines. Relatively, wide Beer's law limit (10-180 mg/L) with satisfactory linearity (correlation coefficient=0.9996) and recovery (95.4-98.1%) were obtained. The method also recorded good repeatability (RSD=1.19-1.64%, n=10) and intermediate-precision (2.84%, n=5, once per a day). The method is sensitive enough for determining diltiazem in pharmaceutical formulations with limits of detection (1.30 mg/L) and quantification (3.94 mg/L). The method is rapid with sample frequency of 32 sample/h. The method was applied to real pharmaceutical samples and the results obtained were realized by parallel analysis by another validated method. The method enjoys the potentials of SIA and chemometric optimization with respect to good accuracy, precision, sensitivity and rapidity. The method is also inexpensive in terms of instrumentation as well as the consumption of reagents and samples. Besides good safety for handling solutions, the SIA technique offers significant waste minimization and manpower reduction to the proposed method. Therefore, the SIA method is suitable in pharmaceutical laboratory for quality control purpose.


Among the reasons behind construction of the light rail system in the 1990s and 2000s and currently the FasTracks lines, in Denver metro region, has been reduction of traffic congestion and consolidation of land use. This research analyzes the success of the rail transit system in achieving the above-mentioned goals. A temporal and spatial analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) data from 1992 to 2008 on the highways in Denver has been conducted to determine if traffic congestion has reduced after the initial light rail service began in 1994. Temporal analysis provides an insight into the changes in the level of highway traffic before and after the opening of three segments (Central, Southwest, and Southeast Corridors) of the light rail system. This part of the analysis also compares the traffic levels of highways affected by light rail with those not affected by light rail. Spatial analysis examines whether the changes have taken place uniformly throughout all the highways, or whether they have been concentrated on particular highways. Results indicate that light rail has reduced level of traffic along some of the adjacent highways for a short period of time. Overall, the three light rail corridors in operation have succeeded in lowering the rate of increase in the level of traffic on highways near the rail transit as compared to highways not near the rail transit. Change in the amount of different types of land use namely commercial, mixed, industrial, multi-family residential, and single-family residential has been examined from iii 1990 to 2010 for Denver and surrounding counties to determine whether greater developments have taken place within the rail transit corridors than outside. The change has been analyzed in terms of total square footage of the building areas as well as land use density. Besides descriptive statistics, inferential statistics have been used for Denver County only, to determine if the changes are significantly different within and outside the rail transit corridors. The growth of commercial land use has been higher within the rail transit corridors in all the counties. The growth has been statistically significant for Denver County. Single-family residential land use has noticeable increased outside the rail transit corridors in all the counties. However, the growth has not been statistically significant throughout the study time period in Denver County. The other types of land use have not shown any consistent pattern in their growth. Overall, the present and proposed rail transit lines in Denver metro region have been very successful in consolidating commercial land use around them.


Central to the debate on the demarcation of morphology and syntax is the position staked out by the Lexicalist Hypothesis, which holds that morphology and syntax are distinct systems which interface with each other in a particular way. Proponents of the Lexicalist Hypothesis point to a suite of diagnostics collectively known as lexical integrity tests (Bresnan and Mchombo 1995) as evidence pointing to the fundamental difference between morphology and syntax. The tests revolve around the apparent failure of principles of phrasal syntax at the threshold of words. If morphology and syntax constitute a unified rule system, as assumed in current approaches such as Distributed Morphology, such failure is not predicted. It is surprising therefore that lexical integrity has not played a significant role in arguments for Distributed Morphology (Lieber and Scalise 2007). The purpose of this paper is to introduce two types of denominal predicates in Korean, which are distinguished by the fact that lexical integrity is observed in one but not the other type. I explore how the behaviors of the two classes of denominal predicates can be modeled using the theoretical and empirical machinery of current DM, in particular, the distinction between roots and words. While this is a welcome result, it turns out that DM predicts that more languages should behave like Korean in allowing massive violations of lexical integrity. I provide an analysis of the differences between languages like Korean that allow selective access of word-internal structure by syntactic principles and languages like English where such access is prohibited by focusing on the mechanics of Vocabulary Insertion and complex head formation. The paper concludes with the implications of the analysis of the two types of predicates in Korean for both lexicalist and DM architectures of morphology and syntax interaction. This article is part of the special collection: Suspended Affixation


Definitions of modernism have been debated throughout the twentieth century. But both during the height of the modernist era and since, little to no consideration has been given to the work of minority writers as part of this movement. Considering works by writers ranging from B.A. Botkin, T.S. Eliot, Waldo Frank, and Jean Toomer to Pedro Pietri and Allen Ginsberg, these essays examine the disputed relationship between modernity, modernism, and American cultural diversity. In so doing, the collection as a whole adds an important new dimension to our understanding of twentieth-century literature.


Top-down attentional control is required when subjects must attend to one of multiple conflicting stimulus features, such as in the Stroop task. Performance may be improved when such control is implemented in advance of stimulus presentation, yet few studies have examined this issue. Our investigation employed a spatial Stroop task with a manual response, allowing us to focus on the effects of preparatory attention on verbal processing when it is the less automatic attribute. A letter cue (P or W) presented for 2200 msec instructed subjects to respond on the basis of the position or meaning of a word (up, down, left, right) placed in an incongruent position relative to center. Event-related potentials recorded during pre- and poststimulus periods were analyzed as a function of reaction time to the target stimulus (fast vs. slow) in order to differentiate neural activity associated with more or less successful implementation of control. During the prestimulus period, fast responses to subsequent targets were associated with enhanced slow-wave activity over right frontal and bilateral central-parietal regions. During the poststimulus period, fast word trials were uniquely associated with an enhanced inferior temporal negativity (ITN) from 200 to 600 msec. More importantly, a correlation between frontal prestimulus activity and the poststimulus ITN suggested that frontal preparatory activity played a role in facilitating conceptual processing of the verbal stimulus when it arrived, providing an important link between preparatory attention and mechanisms that improve performance in the face of conflict.


The purpose of this study was to explore resilience processes in Palestinian refugee families living under Israeli occupation for multiple generations. Qualitative methods, critical postcolonial theories, and community-based research approaches were used to examine intergenerational protective practices and to contribute to reconceptualizations of resilience from indigenous perspectives. First, the researcher developed a collaborative partnership with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in a UN refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Then, with the support of this NGO, semistructured group and individual interviews were completed with a total of 30 participants (N = 30) ranging in age from 18 to 90 years old coming from 5 distinct extended family networks. Using grounded theory situational analysis, the findings were organized in a representation entitled Palestinian Refugee Family Trees of Resilience (PRFTR). These findings explain resilience in terms of three interrelated themes: (a) Muqawama/resistance to military siege and occupation; (b) Awda/return to cultural roots despite historical and ongoing settler colonialism; and (c) Sumoud/perseverance through daily adversities and accumulation of trauma. The study findings shed light on how Palestinian families cultivate positive adaptation across generations and highlight how incorporating community-based perspectives on the historical trauma and violent social conditions of everyday life under occupation may be critical for promoting resilience. Results may be relevant to understanding the transgenerational transmission of trauma and resilience within other displaced communities internationally.


Aims To evaluate the efficacy of measuring subfoveal choroidal thickness in monitoring uveitis activity before and after treatment with infliximab in patients with Behçet's disease (BD)-associated uveitis. Methods Thirteen patients with BD (23 eyes) were selected for this retrospective observational case study. Subfoveal choroidal thickness was measured during active and remission phases of uveitis by enhanced depth imaging–spectral domain optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT). In five patients (10 eyes), choroidal thickness was assessed at weeks 0, 2, 6 and 14 after the initiation of infliximab treatment. Results Accompanied by excessive dye leakage from choroidal vessels on indocyanine green angiography, dilation of choroidal vessels was observed in the active phase of uveitis by EDI-OCT and the choroidal thickness was significantly greater than that in the remission phase. Treatment with infliximab significantly reduced the choroidal thickness from week 2 after the first infusion, and the reduced choroidal thickness was maintained thereafter. No correlation was found between choroidal thickness and best corrected visual acuity converted to logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution, but choroidal thickness correlated significantly with anterior and posterior ocular inflammation scores. Conclusions This study indicates that measurement of subfoveal choroidal thickness by EDI-OCT is useful for evaluating the activity of uveitis and the therapeutic efficacy in patients with BD.


Image captioning systems are expected to have the ability to combine individual concepts when describing scenes with concept combinations that are not observed during training. In spite of significant progress in image captioning with the help of the autoregressive generation framework, current approaches fail to generalize well to novel concept combinations. We propose a new framework that re-volves around probing several similar image caption training instances (retrieval), perform-ing analogical reasoning over relevant entities in retrieved prototypes (analogy), and en-hancing the generation process with reasoning outcomes (composition). Our method aug-ments the generation model by referring to the neighboring instances in the training set to produce novel concept combinations in generated captions. We perform experiments on the widely used image captioning benchmarks. The proposed models achieve substantial improvement over the compared baselines on both composition related evaluation metrics and conventional image captioning metrics.


Abstract. The 11-yr solar cycle in solar spectral irradiance (SSI) inferred from measurements by the SOlar Radiation & Climate Experiment (SORCE) suggests a much larger variation in the ultraviolet than previously accepted. We present middle atmosphere ozone and temperature responses to the solar cycles in SORCE SSI and the ubiquitous Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) SSI reconstruction using the Goddard Earth Observing System chemistry-climate model (GEOSCCM). The results are largely consistent with other recent modeling studies. The modeled ozone response is positive throughout the stratosphere and lower mesosphere using the NRL SSI, while the SORCE SSI produces a response that is larger in the lower stratosphere but out of phase with respect to total solar irradiance above 45 km. The modeled responses in total ozone are similar to those derived from satellite and ground-based measurements, 3–6 Dobson Units per 100 units of 10.7-cm radio flux ( F 10.7 ) in the tropics. The peak zonal mean tropical temperature response using the SORCE SSI is nearly 2 K per 100 units F 10.7 – 3 times larger than the simulation using the NRL SSI. The GEOSCCM and the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) 2-D coupled model are used to examine how the SSI solar cycle affects the atmosphere through direct solar heating and photolysis processes individually. Middle atmosphere ozone is affected almost entirely through photolysis, whereas the solar cycle in temperature is caused both through direct heating and photolysis feedbacks, processes that are mostly linearly separable. This is important in that it means that chemistry-transport models should simulate the solar cycle in ozone well, while general circulation models without coupled chemistry will underestimate the temperature response to the solar cycle significantly in the middle atmosphere. Further, the net ozone response results from the balance of ozone production at wavelengths less than 242 nm and destruction at longer wavelengths, coincidentally corresponding to the wavelength regimes of the SOLar STellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) and Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM) on SORCE, respectively. A higher wavelength-resolution analysis of the spectral response could allow for a better prediction of the atmospheric response to arbitrary SSI variations.


Pituitary apoplexy is a rare clinical emergency due to acute ischemic infarction or hemorrhage of the pituitary gland. As this disorder most often involves a pituitary adenoma, especially nonfunctioning tumors, the syndrome should be referred to as pituitary tumor apoplexy. The precise physiopathology is not completely clear. Although in most cases it occurs spontaneously, pituitary apoplexy can be precipi- tated by many risk factors. The main symptom is headache of sudden onset associated with visual disturbances, signs of meningeal irritation, and/or endocrine dysfunction. Corticotropic deficiency is a potentially life-threatening disorder. Magnetic resonance imaging is the most sensitive to confirm the diagnosis by revealing a pituitary tumor with hemorrhagic and/or necrotic components. Earlier studies used to consider urgent decompression of the lesion surgically, but nowadays, more recent studies favor conser- vative management in selected patients (those without important visual acuity or field defects and with normal consciousness). This wait-and-see approach gives evidence of excellent outcomes in terms of oculomotor palsy, pituitary function, and subsequent tumor growth. Surgical decompression may be necessary in some cases. Once the acute phase is over, the patient should be reevaluated for hormonal deficiencies. Moreover, spontaneous remission of syndromes, such as acromegaly, may be caused by pituitary adenoma apoplexy.


[Abstract]: During the last 27 years, the banking industry in Sri Lanka has undergone a series of changes through financial reforms, advancement of communication and information technologies, globalisation of financial services, and economic development. Those changes should have had a considerable effect on efficiency, productivity change, market structure and performance in the banking industry. The motivation of this study is to investigate empirically the impact of those changes on the banking industry. Thus, this study aims to address three main research issues related to the banking industry in Sri Lanka, namely:

1. Whether deregulation of the financial services sector has led to improvement in efficiency and productivity gains.
2. Whether banks' inefficiency in the banking industry in Sri Lanka is determined by a set of microeconomic and macroeconomic variables.
3. Whether the changes in efficiency or changes in market structure have influenced the overall operational performance of banks in Sri Lanka.

This study adopts a non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) to measure efficiency and productivity gains of banks in Sri Lanka using financial and other information representing all local banks over a sixteen year period from 1989 to 2004. Input and output variables are refined to represent the intermediation and assets transformation roles of banks. Window analysis of mean estimated efficiency scores in both aspects indicates a negative trend in estimated efficiency during the study period. However, the analysis of efficiency scores (intermediation) of different forms of banks shows a negative trend during the first half of the study period and a slight positive trend during the end of the second half. These results imply that deregulation may have failed to improve the efficiency of the Sri Lankan banking industry in the short-term. However, the expected benefits of deregulation can be achieved in the long-term. Interestingly, the two state-owned banks have responded poorly to the initial phase of Sri Lankan financial reforms. However, the improved autonomy given to boards of management under the commercialisation process has led not only to improved efficiency, but also to the reduction of the efficiency gap between the state-owned banks and privately-owned banks. The analysis of efficiency scores (asset transformation) of different forms of banks records a stable trend in estimated efficiency. On the other
hand, estimated MPIs show that Sri Lankan banks have focused on improving productivity in the asset transformation process rather than the intermediation
process.

Analysis of determinants of technical efficiency shows that technical efficiency in intermediation has positive relationships with variables such as profitability,
operational risk, purchased funds, liquidity and stock market capitalization; and negative relationships with variables such as product quality and line of business
(commercial bank). Further, results show that efficiency in the asset transformation process has positive relationships with capital strength, operational risk, and market capitalisation; and negative relationships with line of business ownership (privately owned banks) and old banks. The investigation of influence of market structure and efficiency on operational performance finds that banks' relative market power and technical efficiency have a significant influence on their return on assets (ROA). No
evidence supports any relationship of net interest margin with variables such as market power, concentration and efficiency.


It is unclear to which extent the higher mortality associated with hypertension in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is due to its increased prevalence among older patients or to specific mechanisms. Cross-sectional, observational, retrospective multicenter study, analyzing 12226 patients who required hospital admission in 150 Spanish centers included in the nationwide SEMI-COVID-19 Network. We compared the clinical characteristics of survivors versus non-survivors. The mean age of the study population was 67.5 ± 16.1 years, 42.6% were women. Overall, 2630 (21.5%) subjects died. The most common comorbidity was hypertension (50.9%) followed by diabetes (19.1%), and atrial fibrillation (11.2%). Multivariate analysis showed that after adjusting for gender (males, OR: 1.5, p = 0.0001), age tertiles (second and third tertiles, OR: 2.0 and 4.7, p = 0.0001), and Charlson Comorbidity Index scores (second and third tertiles, OR: 4.7 and 8.1, p = 0.0001), hypertension was significantly predictive of all-cause mortality when this comorbidity was treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) (OR: 1.6, p = 0.002) or other than renin-angiotensin-aldosterone blockers (OR: 1.3, p = 0.001) or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) (OR: 1.2, p = 0.035). The preexisting condition of hypertension had an independent prognostic value for all-cause mortality in patients with COVID-19 who required hospitalization. ARBs showed a lower risk of lethality in hypertensive patients than other antihypertensive drugs.


Sponges (phylum Porifera) are early-diverging metazoa renowned for establishing complex microbial symbioses. Here we present a global Porifera microbiome survey, set out to establish the ecological and evolutionary drivers of these host–microbe interactions. We show that sponges are a reservoir of exceptional microbial diversity and major contributors to the total microbial diversity of the world's oceans. Little commonality in species composition or structure is evident across the phylum, although symbiont communities are characterized by specialists and generalists rather than opportunists. Core sponge microbiomes are stable and characterized by generalist symbionts exhibiting amensal and/or commensal interactions. Symbionts that are phylogenetically unique to sponges do not disproportionally contribute to the core microbiome, and host phylogeny impacts complexity rather than composition of the symbiont community. Our findings support a model of independent assembly and evolution in symbiont communities across the entire host phylum, with convergent forces resulting in analogous community organization and interactions.


Time-domain interferometry (TDI) is a method to probe space-time correlations among particles in condensed matter systems. Applying TDI to quantum systems raises the general question, whether two-time correlations can be reliably measured without adverse impact of the measurement backaction onto the dynamics of the system. Here, we show that a recently developed quantum version of TDI (QTDI) indeed can access the full quantum-mechanical two-time correlations without backaction. We further generalize QTDI to weak classical continuous-mode coherent input states, alleviating the need for single-photon input fields. Finally, we interpret our results by splitting the space-time correlations into two parts. While the first one is associated to projective measurements and thus insensitive to backaction, we identify the second contribution as arising from the coherence properties of the state of the probed target system, such that it is perturbed or even destroyed by measurements on the system.


Due to growing consumer demands regarding product quality and the social and environmental aspects of the production process, there is a need to redefine the agricultural productive structure so as to make it sustainable. The Integrated Production System in Coffee (CIP) aims to meet these new requirement standards. The system, however, is still very recent and requires more detailed studies to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the objective of this work is to carry out a comparative analysis of the economic viability and the risk associated to the conventional and integrated systems of coffee production in the farm property of Sao Joao, in the Coimbra district in Minas Gerais state. The method used was the calculation of the viability and returns dispersion pointers (internal return tax, net present value, payback and coefficient of variation period). Risk analysis was done through the Monte Carlo simulation. According to the values found for the pointers calculated, it was concluded that the integrated production system is more viable in the property analyzed and also less subject to risks.


The constantly evolving mixed martial arts and Ultimate Fighting Championship terminology is demystified in this comprehensive reference. Perfect for fans new to the arena or any devotee looking to gain a deeper understanding of the styles, positions and techniques, this exhaustive resource helps make sense of the flurry of action in the rings. Each entry includes written descriptions and detailed photo sequences that help readers comprehend everything from guards and locks to kicks and bars. Full-colour shots of dynamic moves accompany background and historical information on the evolution of the sport, offering fans the information they need to have a more enjoyable experience when watching the matches.


Because of the multiscaled character of fracture networks and their high degree of heterogeneity, characterization and modelling of fractured reservoirs requires different techniques to the well-established geostatistical methods derived for modelling rock heterogeneity. We have developed a method to improve the geological model used as an input of fractured reservoir fluid flow simulators, either in single or dual permeability simulations, as well as new specific procedures. The method is based on three nested models. The first, the 'global geo-cellular fracture model', considers fracture average property distribution at the scale of the reservoir. Location of the major faults as well as properties, such as horizon curvature, are taken into account. 'The global discrete model' considers the fault system at the same scale and algorithms generate realistic synthetic fault patterns using an object-orientated approach. The third model, the 'local discrete model', creates realistic synthetic fracture patterns at the decametre scale with another object-orientated procedure. These models are all constrained by hard data acquired from seismic, well imaging and logs. They can be constrained by output from deterministic approaches like structural evolution analyses and geomechanical modelling. Interrelationships between these models enable account to be taken of the complex interrelationships between fractures at different scales and rock material heterogeneity. Finally, this modelling approach makes the geological model used as an input of fractured reservoir fluid flow simulators more satisfying than conventional approaches.


Recent experiments on optical damage by ultrashort laser pulses have demonstrated that the temporal pulse shape can dramatically influence plasma generation in fused silica. We use a modified 3+1D nonlinear Schrodinger equation for the pulse propagation coupled to a rate equation for the plasma density in the dielectric material to simulate pulse propagation and plasma formation in fused silica. We use these simulations to analyze the influence of pulse shape and beam geometry on the formation of the electron plasma and hence modification in the bulk material. In particular, we simulate the effect of pulses reconstructed from experimental data. It is expected that a better understanding of the dynamics of laser-induced plasma generation will enable the accurate simulation of optical damage in a variety of dielectrics, ultimately leading to an enhanced control of optical damage to real materials and optical devices.


Foreword Acknowledgment List of contributors PLUME AND HOTSPOTS Upper Triassic Karmutsen formation of Western Canada and Alaska: A plume-generated oceanic plateau formed along a mid-ocean ridge nucleated on a late Paleozoic active margin Jaroslav Dostal, J. Duncan Keppie, J. Brendan Murphy and Nicholas W.D. Massey Deccan Traps Flood Basalt Province: an Evaluation of the Thermochemical Plume Model Gautam Sen and D. Chandrasekharam A review of the radiometric data placing the Hawaiian-Emperor Bend at 50Ma placing constraints on hypotheses concerning the origin of the Hawaiian-Emperor Volcanic chain Ajoy K. Baksi Geology, petrology and geochemistry of the volcanic rocks of the Axum area, northern Ethiopia Miruts Hagos, Christian Koeberl, Kurkura Koberto and Friedrich Koller Geological and geochemical studies of Kolekole cinder cone, Southwest Rift Zone, East Maui, Hawaii Nilanjan Chatterjee and Somdev Bhattacharji SEISMIC EVIDENCES ON MAGMA GENESIS New seismic evidence for the origin of arc and back-arc magmas Dapeng Zhao, Sadato Ueki, Yukihisa Nishizono and Akira Yamada CONTINENTAL FLOOD BASALTS Mineral compositions in the Deccan igneous rocks of India an overview Leone Melluso and Sam F. Sethna Recycling of flow-top breccia crusts into molten interiors of flood basalt lava flows: Field and geochemical evidence from Deccan Traps Hetu C.Seth, Jyotiranjan S. Ray, P. Senthil Kumar, Raymond A. Duraiswami, Rudra Narayan Chatterjee and Trupti Gurav Giant plagioclase basalt from northern part of Jhabua District, Madhya Pradesh, Central India Biswajit Ghosh Petrogenesis of flood basalts of the Narsingpur-Harrai-Amarwara-Lakhnadon section of Eastern Deccan Province, India Piyali Sengupta and Jyotisankar Ray ARC VOLCANISM The intra-oceanic Barren Island and Narcondam arc volcanoes, Andaman Sea: Implications for subduction inputs and crustal overprint of a depleted mantle source Martin J. Streck, Frank Ramos, Aspen Gillam, Dhanapati Haldar and Robert A. Duncan EXTENSIONAL VOLCANICS Polybaric evolution of the volcanic rocks at Gabal Nuqara, northeastern desert, Egypt E.A. Khalaf, M. Khalaf and F. Oraby OPHIOLITES Textural fingerprints of magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks associated with the Naga Hills Ophiolite, Northeast India N.C. Ghose and Fareeduddin CHARNOCKITES AND ANORTHOSITES Age and origin of the Chilka anorthosites, Eastern Ghats, India: Implications for massif anorthosite petrogenesis and break-up of Rodinia Ramananda Chakrabarti, Asish R. Basu, Pradyot K. Bandyopadhyay and Haibo Zou Geochemical and geochronological data from charnockites and anorthosites from India's Kodaikanal-Palani Massif, Southern Granulite Terrain, India Elizabeth J. Catlos, Kaan Sayit, Poovalingam Sivasubramanian and Chandra S. Dubey MINERALOGY, MINERALIZATION AND EARTH DYNAMICS Kimberlites, supercontinents and deep Earth dynamics: Mid-Proterozoic India in Rodinia Stephen E. Haggerty Petrological evolution and emplacement of Siwana and Jalor Ring Complexes of Malani Igneous Suite, Northwestern Peninsular India G. Vallinayagam and N. Kochhar Occurrence and origin of scapolite in the Neoproterozoic Lufilian-Zambezi belt, Zambia: Evidence/role of brine-rich fluid infiltration during regional metamorphism Crispin Katango, Friedrich Koller, T. Ntaflos, Christian Koeberl and F. Tembo Index


In the present study, I examined the Dui-construction from a psycholinguistic perspective. Two experiments on the processing of Dui-constructions have been carried out to reexamine the findings of previous experiments on empty subjects in English and Japanese. There are two advantages of using the Chinese Dui-construction over English and Japanese. Firstly, Chinese is similar to English in that the verb is located before the empty subject of an infinitival clause. It is therefore possible to verify whether the verb control information is delayed or not in this case. Secondly, Chinese is similar to Japanese in that they both allow scrambling of arguments. As such, I can examine whether the recency hypothesis applies to Chinese or not. The results indicated that 1) The control information of the verb is accessed immediately; 2) The recency hypothesis is not supported in the processing of Duii-constructions. In other words, there exists a language-specific processing system independent of the general recency strategy.


Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi), has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for 5000 years or more. In China and Japan Ganoderma lucidum has been used in folk medicine, commonly in the treatment of neurasthenia, insomnia, hepatopathy, nephritis, gastric ulcers, asthma, and hypertension. In this study we have evaluated the effect of Ganoderma lucidum on hematological parameters in Wistar rats. The extract was given orally by gavage at the dose of 150 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg body weight. The result of our study shows extremely significant increase in the hemoglobin level, platelet count and leukocyte count more specifically at a dose of 150 mg/kg of Ganoderma lucidum extract when compare with normal control group. However, at a dose of 300 mg/kg of GLE, significant increase in hemoglobin level and extremely significant increase in leukocyte count were observed. Whereas, insignificant result was observed at both the doses of GLE in case of hematocrit level, MCV, MCHC, MCH and RBC count.


INTRODUCTION Recent testimony before a U.S. subcommittee presented alarming evidence regarding the link between alcohol consumption and abuse and birth defects, driving impairment, hypertension, liver disease, cancer, dangerous effects with other drugs, and addiction ("Alcohol Warning Labels" 1988). Enoch Gordis, Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, indicated that fetal alcohol syndrome is the leading cause of mental retardation, 51 percent of traffic fatalities are alcohol related, and alcohol abuse can be a contributing factor in the development of oral cancer, liver disease, and high blood pressure (Gordis 1988). In response to these and other potential hazards of alcohol consumption and abuse, the U.S. Congress enacted the Alcohol Beverage Labeling Act of 1988, requiring that two specific health warnings appear on the labels of all imported or domestic beverages bottled on or after November 18, 1989, for sale and distribution in the United States (Alcohol Beverage Labeling Act of 1988). These two federally mandated warnings are: GOVERNMENT WARNING: (1) According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. (2) Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems. There have been arguments from state lawmakers and citizen groups, however, that these two warnings should be strengthened. They suggest three additional alcohol warning labels alerting individuals to (a) alcohol's effects on hypertension, liver disease, and cancer; (b) its risks in combination with other drugs; and (c) its addictive qualities as a drug (Ferguson 1990; Lipman 1990; The New York Times 1989; Prial 1988). All five alcohol warning labels (i.e., the two federally mandated and three suggested) were originally proposed in the Alcohol Beverage Labeling Act. However, only the birth defects and driving impairment warnings were required by the federal government ("Alcohol Warning Labels" 1988). While extensive research has examined other product warning labels (e.g., cigarettes, toxic products, appliances, prescription drugs; cf., Beltramini 1988; Bettman, Payne, and Staelin 1986), research on the effectiveness of alcohol warning labels is virtually nonexistent. Two recent exceptions are studies of the effect of prior alcohol attitudes and beliefs on warning perceptions (Andrews, Netemeyer, and Durvasula 1990) and the manipulation of warning severity and transmission mode (Ducoffe 1990). However, research is needed to determine what other important moderating factors serve to influence acceptance of alcohol warning label information. For example, based on studies suggesting a differential impact of alcohol awareness campaigns depending on stages of alcohol use/addiction (Bozinoff, Roth, and May 1989; DePaulo, Rubin, and Milner 1987), alcohol consumption frequency is expected to serve as an important moderating variable in the acceptance of alcohol warning label information. In Bozinoff, Roth, and May (1989), alcohol awareness campaign recall, ad evaluation, and perceived ad effectiveness were all found to be higher for nonusers than heavy users of alcohol. This suggests that the impact of alcohol awareness information can be differentially affected by a person's degree of alcohol usage. Will similar results occur for the acceptance of alcohol warning label information under differing alcohol consumption rates? In particular, will the occasional/nonuser of alcohol exhibit greater belief in and more favorable attitudes toward alcohol warning labels than the regular/heavy user? Will the regular/heavy user of alcohol hold more confident (and negative) attitudes toward alcohol warning labels than the occasional/nonuser? This study seeks to provide answers to these questions. Another important issue pertains to the degree to which certain affected segments of the population will believe and react favorably to the warning labels. …


Problem addressed Influenza-like illness (ILI) is a global and national concern. The surveillance of ILI requires collaborative efforts from many diverse settings, including primary care clinics.

Objective of program To develop a sustainable reporting mechanism that enables primary care practices to provide ILI surveillance information to public health (PH) and addresses the needs of primary care practices and PH.

Program description An automated, electronic ILI reporting program that collects information on ILI activity directly from family physicians; the program is integrated with the practice's electronic medical record (EMR) system and therefore does not require physician initiation or disrupt physician workflow. Surveillance information is collected from a random sample of patient encounters using an automated pop-up screen that appears when exiting the patient's EMR. Weekly summary reports are transmitted electronically to PH.

Conclusion The EMR-integrated physician ILI reporting program is a simple and inexpensive way for family physicians to provide PH with important real-time, community-level disease surveillance information that is both complete and accurate. The program has been used in Hamilton, Ont, since 2004, which clearly demonstrates that it is a feasible and sustainable program in practice.


Galen is the most important medical writer in Graeco-Roman antiquity, and also extremely valuable for understanding Graeco-Roman thought and society in the second century AD. This volume of new essays locates him firmly in the intellectual life of his period, and thus aims to make better sense of the medical and philosophical 'world of knowledge' that he tries to create. How did Galen present himself as a reader and an author in comparison with other intellectuals of his day? Above all, how did he fashion himself as a medical practitioner, and how does that self-fashioning relate to the performance culture of second-century Rome? Did he see medicine as taking over some of the traditional roles of philosophy? These and other questions are freshly addressed by leading international experts on Galen and the intellectual life of the period in a stimulating collection that combines learning with accessibility.


We present angle- and energy-resolved measurements of photoelectrons produced in strong-field ionization of Xe and Ar using a tunable femtosecond laser in the wavelength range between 600 and 800 nm. Systematic analysis of the experimental data that are quantitatively reproduced by numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation with integration over the laser focal volume demonstrates the dominance of resonance-enhanced ionization. Continuous variation of the laser wavelength allows the identification of a number of consecutive channel-switching effects with a reliable assignment of the intermediate Rydberg states involved. The appearance of the resonant sub-structure in the electron energy spectra is influenced by the presence of a non-resonant contribution. At relatively low laser intensity, a coherent addition of resonant and non-resonant ionization processes is observed. Due to the absence of an intensity dependence in the resonance-enhanced ionization, we observe the persistence of Freeman resonances at the transition to the tunnelling regime.