The presence of free charges and numerous discontinuities separating liquid, gas, and solid phases in partially saturated soils give rise to Maxwell‐Wagner polarization that may significantly affect bulk dielectric permittivity measurements. Evidence suggests a complex interplay shaping the response of low‐frequency (<100 MHz) dielectric permittivity to changes in ambient temperature and amount of ionic charges present in a wet soil. Model calculations based on the Maxwell‐Wagner‐Brugermann‐Hanai (MWBH) theory are supported by direct measurements using a network analyzer, showing an increase in soil bulk dielectric permittivity with increasing temperature and with higher bulk electrical conductivity at low frequency range (<100 MHz). Beyond a certain frequency the decrease in permittivity of free water becomes dominant and results in a decrease in soil bulk dielectric permittivity with increasing temperature. The value of this crossover frequency can be predicted as a function of solution electrical conductivity (EC) as confirmed in limited tests. The dielectric permittivity inferred from TDR waveform travel time analysis is not significantly influenced by the low frequency range of the dielectric spectrum. In contrast, dielectric permittivity sensors operating at frequencies lower than 100 MHz are likely to show significant sensitivity to factors affecting the Maxwell‐Wagner effect (temperature and electrical conductivity), hence requiring special care in measurement interpretation.


Silurian-Devonian orogenic gold deposits in Newfoundland are typically situated proximal to major regional scale structural lineaments. Such deposits are formed in accretionary settings, late in the orogenic process with nearby intrusions of similar age, by low-salinity, H₂O-CO₂ ± CH₄ fluids at temperatures ranging from 250-350°C. The White Bay area of western Newfoundland contains at least 3 styles of mineralization including structurally controlled orogenic gold- base-metal mineralization (Type 1), stratabound galena mineralization (Type 2), and minor fluorite and molybdenite occurrences (Type 3). These deposits are proximal to the Doucer's Valley fault system, an interpreted Taconic thrust surface which offsets Carboniferous strata. This fault system may have been episodically active for ca. 150 m.y. providing conduits for mineralizing hydrothermal fluids on a regional scale. -- The Viking gold property, located 10 kilometers south of the community of Pollards Point, contains Type 1 orogenic-style gold mineralization west of the Doucer's Valley fault system in the Humber Zone. High-grade mineralization consists of coarse (50 to > 140 micron) blebby gold and argentiferous electrum hosted both within quartz veinlets and as inclusions in the sulfide assemblage (pyrite, galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite) of these veinlets. Lithogeochemistry and previous U-Pb geochronology demonstrate that the hosts to this mineralization/alteration are ca. 1030 Ma, Grenvillian A-type anorogenic granitoids, ca. 615 Ma continental tholeiitic dykes and inclined sheets of the Long Range dyke swarm and calc-alkaline lamprophyric dykes of unknown affiliation. ⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar thermochronology on late-syn-kinematic biotite porphyroblasts constrains the age of the last peak (ca. 250° C) metamorphism to the latest Silurian at ca. 419 Ma. Hydrothermal sericite from the alteration assemblage yields plateau and pseudoplateau ages ranging from 409 ± 12 Ma to 377 ± 1.5 Ma. Fluid inclusion assemblages have homogenization temperatures that range from 240-320°C and are low salinity. Sulfur isotope results indicate that δ³⁴S values are heavier than sulfur from magmatic origins and Pb model ages suggest that Pb was scavenged from multiple sources. These observations collectively suggest that the Viking gold mineralization represents a unique silver-bearing, granite-hosted, orogenic gold deposit in the Humber Zone formed in the Lower Devonian after orogenic collapse, from auriferous fluids fluxed along the Doucer's Valley fault system.


Methods for measuring nanometer-scale distances between specific sites in proteins are essential for analysis of their structure and function. In this work we introduce Gd(3+) spin labeling for nanometer-range distance measurements in proteins by high-field pulse electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). To evaluate the performance of such measurements, we carried out four-pulse double-electron electron resonance (DEER) measurements on two proteins, p75ICD and tau(C)14, labeled at strategically selected sites with either two nitroxides or two Gd(3+) spin labels. In analogy to conventional site-directed spin labeling using nitroxides, Gd(3+) tags that are derivatives of dipicolinic acid were covalently attached to cysteine thiol groups. Measurements were carried out on X-band (approximately 9.5 GHz, 0.35 T) and W-band (95 GHz, 3.5 T) spectrometers for the nitroxide-labeled proteins and at W-band for the Gd(3+)-labeled proteins. In the protein p75ICD, the orientations of the two nitroxides were found to be practically uncorrelated, and therefore the distance distribution could as readily be obtained at W-band as at X-band. The measured Gd(3+)-Gd(3+) distance distribution had a maximum at 2.9 nm, as compared to 2.5 nm for the nitroxides. In the protein tau(C)14, however, the orientations of the nitroxides were correlated, and the W-band measurements exhibited strong orientation selection that prevented a straightforward extraction of the distance distribution. The X-band measurements gave a nitroxide-nitroxide distance distribution with a maximum at 2.5 nm, and the W-band measurements gave a Gd(3+)-Gd(3+) distance distribution with a maximum at 3.4 nm. The Gd(3+)-Gd(3+) distance distributions obtained are in good agreement with expectations from structural models that take into account the flexibility of the tags and their tethers to the cysteine residues. These results show that Gd(3+) labeling is a viable technique for distance measurements at high fields that features an order of magnitude sensitivity improvement, in terms of protein quantity, over X-band pulse EPR measurements using nitroxide spin labels. Its advantage over W-band distance measurements using nitroxides stems from an intrinsic absence of orientation selection.


Background Paracoccin (PCN) is an N-acetylglucosamine-binding lectin from the human pathogenic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. Recombinant PCN (rPCN) induces a T helper (Th) 1 immune response when prophylactically administered to BALB/c mice, protecting them against subsequent challenge with P. brasiliensis. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effect of rPCN in experimental paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) and the mechanism accounting for its beneficial action. Methodology/Principal Findings Four distinct regimens of rPCN administration were assayed to identify which was the most protective, relative to vehicle administration. In all rPCN-treated mice, pulmonary granulomas were less numerous and more compact. Moreover, fewer colony-forming units were recovered from the lungs of rPCN-treated mice. Although all therapeutic regimens of rPCN were protective, maximal efficacy was obtained with two subcutaneous injections of 0.5 µg rPCN at 3 and 10 days after infection. The rPCN treatment was also associated with higher pulmonary levels of IL-12, IFN-γ, TNF-α, nitric oxide (NO), and IL-10, without IL-4 augmentation. Encouraged by the pulmonary cytokine profile of treated mice and by the fact that in vitro rPCN-stimulated macrophages released high levels of IL-12, we investigated the interaction of rPCN with Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Using a reporter assay in transfected HEK293T cells, we verified that rPCN activated TLR2 and TLR4. The activation occurred independently of TLR2 heterodimerization with TLR1 or TLR6 and did not require the presence of the CD14 or CD36 co-receptors. The interaction between rPCN and TLR2 depended on carbohydrate recognition because it was affected by mutation of the receptor's N-glycosylation sites. The fourth TLR2 N-glycan was especially critical for the rPCN-TLR2 interaction. Conclusions/Significance Based on our results, we propose that PCN acts as a TLR agonist. PCN binds to N-glycans on TLRs, triggers regulated Th1 immunity, and exerts a therapeutic effect against P. brasiliensis infection.


Laser remanufacturing is an advanced repairing method to remanufacture damaged parts based on laser processing, such as laser cladding and laser welding. As a critical factor in determining the remanufacturing quality, residual stress of different laser- remanufactured parts was analysed by numerical methods based on deactivating and reactivating element theory, as well as experimental methods such as X-ray diffraction and hole drilling measurements. The distributions and evolution law of residual stress during multipass laser welding of 7A52 high-strength aluminium alloy, and the effects of forming strategy, heat input and solid-state phase transition on residual stress in the laser cladding forming layers of QT 500 cast iron and FV520B high strength steel, were emphatically studied. The simulation results of residual stress fit well with the experimental results, indicating that both residual stress and its accumulation phenomenon would occur during the laser welding and laser cladding forming, and were affected by factors such as welding pass, heat input and phase transition. It is feasible to control residual stress by using cross path forming strategy, less heat input and alloying power materials with low martensite transition point (Ms).


A novel glycine-based Schiff base derivative (abbreviated as C16GlySb) containing long alkyl chain was synthesized from glycine reacted with 4-cetyloxy-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde and sequentially coordinated with various metal ions to give the corresponding metal complexes (abbreviated as G-M). The products were characterized by UV-Vis spectra and FT-IR spectra. At the same time, the thermal stability was measured by TG-DTA instrument. FT-IR analysis indicated that the nitrogen atom in imino group, oxygen atom in phenolic hydroxyl group, and carboxylic ion participated in coordinating with transition metal ion in doubly-bridged mode. UV spectra showed that compared with ethanol solution, the cast film on quartz plate showed H-type or J-type aggregate structure. In addition, the thermal stability of G-M had been obviously superior to that of the ligand C16GlySb. The present results have showed potential application in fields of functional material and catalyst.


Strong growth in Asia, particularly in China, has had a profound impact on the Australian economy over the past decade. Most notable so far has been the boom in the resource sector, with commodity prices and hence Australia's terms of trade rising to historically high levels over a number of years. This has been accompanied by a sizeable appreciation of the exchange rate. While the terms of trade have passed their peak, the substantial investment in productive capacity of the resource sector in recent years is expected to provide a large boost to the production and exports of resources in coming years. In this paper we describe how the pattern of structural adjustment to the positive terms of trade shock has, to date, proceeded broadly in line with that suggested by a simple theoretical model that distinguishes between three broadly defined sectors: the resource sector, the 'other tradable' sector and the non-tradable sector. In particular, relative wages and prices adjusted in a way that facilitated the reallocation of factors of production towards the resource sector. While not all parts of the economy have benefited, the process of adjustment thus far has occurred relatively smoothly in a macroeconomic sense; inflation has remained within the target range, or not too far from it, unemployment has remained relatively low and output has grown at close to trend rates. This stands in stark contrast to some earlier episodes of terms of trade booms in Australia. We argue that macroeconomic adjustment to the current terms of trade shock has been facilitated by the appreciation of the exchange rate, the anchoring of inflation expectations and labour market dynamics whereby wage pressures in industries or regions experiencing strong conditions associated with the boom in resource investment have not spilled over to parts of the economy experiencing weaker conditions.


As the Greek summer comes to an end, the predatory austerity policies of the second bailout plan are in full swing, while the fiscal consolidation program continues to run its wayward course. Overall, what was once a modern democratic polity is beginning to resemble a feudal state. As the government seeks a broad agreement on its latest spending cuts, the Greek labor movement is set to embark on a new round of paralyzing strikes and demonstrations. This year, the truly hot season in Greece is only just beginning.


ABSTRACT Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools form an important component in the teaching-learning process. The research surveyed 100 A' Level students' views on the availability of ICT tools and resources and their preparedness in terms of computer literacy to successfully integrate ICT resources in learning organic chemistry concepts. A self-constructed questionnaire was used to collect data complemented by in-depth interviews and in-situ observations. Data collected was analysed using SPSS Version 15 to find frequencies of commonly held views. The study revealed students had no ready access to computers. Computer usage for learning purposes and other uses was relatively low. Schools had no Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) software. However, the students agreed to a larger extent that integrating ICT in teaching and learning of Chemistry enhances conceptual understanding of Organic Chemistry. The researchers recommend that it must not only be the role of the teacher to encourage for the increased use of ICT tools but all stakeholders (parents, government, industry) to realise fruits from this noble endeavour. Keywords: ICT Integration, ICT Tools, Organic Chemistry, Advanced Level INTRODUCTION Bell (1973), Reich (1991), and Toffler (1980) cited in Reigeluth (1995) have identified several massive changes that today's society has undergone, from the agrarian age to the industrial age, and now the information age. These drastic changes have certainly affect today's education systems at various levels (Goktas and Yildrim, 2003). The need to incorporate Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into education is now inescapable (Goktas and Yildrim, 2003). In this context, integration of ICT into education is a critical issue. ICT has had a critical role in enhancing the quality of education. The role of ICT is to serve education in particular, by helping students to learn and teachers to perform their teaching profession more effectively (Goktas and Yildrim, 2003). It is also important to note that despite the abundance of these technologies, effective use of them is a critical issue. In Zimbabwe, Advanced Level ('A' Level) is a two-year secondary education course (i.e. fifth and sixth years of secondary school education) equivalent to grades 11-12 in South Africa or AS Level in Britain. Chemistry is believed to be a challenging discipline at TV Level by many people. Erduran and Scerri (2003) noted that ?' Level Chemistry students experience difficulties with many Chemistry sub-disciplines which include among others inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry and physical chemistry. Erduran and Scerri (2003) provide an insight into how an understanding of the structure of chemical knowledge could improve teaching and learning in the subject. Some concepts need to be developed in a linear manner as in organic chemistry, but in inorganic chemistry there may be no clear relationship between the concepts under study. As a result organic chemistry has troubled many teachers and students. Green (2002) in her study analysed the content of chemistry sub-disciplines and revealed that there is a difficulty in methodology and approaches of teaching organic chemistry concepts. Consequently, 'A' Level examiners' reports, have also reported on poor performance in organic chemistry questions, (e.g. UCLES 1993; UCLES 1994; UCLES 1997; UCLES 1998; UCLES 1999a; UCLES 1999b; UCLES 2000a; UCLES 2000b; UCLES 2001a; UCLES 2001b; UCLES 2004a; UCLES 2004b; ZIMSEC 2005). This has pointed to a pedagogical issue that has prompted the need for and provides an opportunity to look at the art of teaching and learning of organic chemistry at ?' Level. It is an indisputable fact that the learning of chemistry is very dependent on the use of student-centred methods, participatory methods and problem solving approaches for both theoretical and practical lessons (Skemp, 1987; Jaji, 1994). Integrating computers into the teaching and learning of organic chemistry can go a long way in solving the above problem, since it is an alternative approach available to the teachers and students in the study of chemistry (Anderson 2002; Gyongyosi 2005). …


Northwell Health is a large integrated healthcare organization comprised of 66,000+ employees, 23 hospitals and over 650 medical practice locations located geographically across New York State. In an effort to align and structure interactions between patients, families and healthcare professionals, Northwell Health created a communication model, C.O.N.N.E.C.T. This unique, humanistic model is an acronym that stands for: Contact, Opening Greeting, Name/Title, Needs, Explanation, Closing and Thank. This prospective 3-part study explores the impact of the C.O.N.N.E.C.T. model on professional education, engagement and patient experience. A holistic approach was utilized including a pre and post e-learning module assessment, direct observation behavioral competency process and patient experience surveys. Study participants were Patient Access Services/Registrar professionals across three Northwell Health Emergency Departments. The educational intervention produced statistically significant outcomes in overall learned knowledge, applied knowledge utilizing direct behavioral competency and patient experience. There were variations per hospital for patient experience outcomes. Healthcare necessitates an interdisciplinary team-approach and thus, non-clinical professionals also require educational interventions focused on effective patient and family centered communication. Every role, every person and every moment matters.


Background Consultant pharmacist is a restricted title in the National Health Service (NHS). They were introduced in 2005 to provide best care for patients and to retain experienced pharmacists in clinical practice. The posts have four key functions: expert practice (max. 50%); research, evaluation and service development; education, mentoring and overview of practice; professional leadership. Purpose The aim of the survey was to quantify for the first time the quantity and range of activities being undertaken by the NHS consultant pharmacists in England. Materials and methods The survey built on a North West England survey of non-medical consultants in 2010 with additional information required added to the existing survey. All were e-mailed the link to the SurveyMonkey in March 2011. This software collected and assimilated the responses. Results There are 41 consultant pharmacists (23 female). Average age at appointment was 40. 17 were appointed under transition arrangements and 25 new posts. There are currently no posts in Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales. 68% work in acute teaching hospitals, 12% acute non-teaching, 5% in mental health, 7% in primary care and 5% in specialist trusts. The most common specialties are: 8 in critical care, 7 in antimicrobials / infectious disease / HIV, 5 in haemato-oncology, 4 paediatrics, 3 cardiology and 3 in medication safety. 73% work full time. On average 50% of time was in direct or indirect patient care, 15% leadership, 10% education, 10% research and 10% practice development. 36% run a clinic and 28% have their own caseload. 69% are prescribers. Two-thirds provide advice at a national level. Only 36% are formally linked to a university, but most are research active and published. 68% intended remaining in post. Conclusions Consultant Pharmacists deliver the four key functions required by the post, and retain experienced pharmacists in clinical practice.


Abstract Projection mapping is a group of techniques for projecting imagery onto physical three-dimensional objects in order to augment the object or space with digital content. Most projection mapping experiences and events are non-interactive, partly because of the many inherent design problems in designing for interaction is such situations. This article explores one approach to this tricky issue by analysing a group of four interactive mixed reality experiences that combine projection mapping with camera-based interaction techniques. The approaches used are described, and their deployment in a variety of situations is analysed using engagement and play theories. The works suggest that some projection mapping techniques can be used in the service of creating engaging interactive exhibits and installations, but that the effectiveness of the approach relies on it placing the experience and interactions clearly in our own physical world, rather than behind a screen or in an artificial image space.


Polyurethane (PUR) injection into underground coal mine strata has been practiced in Australia as early as 1985. The ACARP report C100019 discussed several case studies of which one included PUR injection into resin anchored, pre-tensioned hollow central tube cable bolts. In cases of rapid response to accelerating strata movement it is the preference of site geotechnical personnel to install immediate pre-tensioned cable support, followed by re-consolidation of the strata through injection of grout or PUR. Cementitious grouting of cable bolts has two operational time restrictions; 1) 24-48 h restrictions can be placed on roadway widening or longwall chock removal while waiting for the grout to achieve adequate strength and 2) a 24 h restriction being placed on PUR injection after grouting has taken place to avoid unwanted chemical reactions and heat generation. In the last few years, more mines, faced with time critical ground support, have been utilising hollow cable bolts as the support and the means of injecting PUR into the strata. The main reason is time, 24 h lost to cementitious grout curing could be used in stabilising the strata by PUR injection into distant fractures, and operationally 24 h gained on a longwall move represents a large financial advantage. It has been considered that foregoing cementitious grouting of cables and replacing it with PUR will reduce the load transfer of the cable bolt, but no readily available data exists on how much reduction in bond strength occurs. Underground short encapsulation cable pull tests were conducted at Springvale Colliery comparing cementitious grout against PUR at both 24 h and nine days cure time.


This paper discusses seven propositions: climate change and poverty are linked by the issue of vulnerability; the hardest equity issues arise because of qualitative differences in the nature of climate change and policy impacts on the poor and those who are better off; poverty cannot be understood in terms of lack of goods or income, or even basic needs, but must rather be understood in terms of people's ability to participate in the social discourse that shapes their lives; emerging multi-dimensional measures of poverty are much better than those based on income or needs, but may continue to underestimate sociocultural factors; eliminating poverty and developing societal resilience require building social diversity; climate change and policy impacts on the poor do not conform very well to analytic dichotomies of national and international, or intragenerational and intergenerational; in the final analysis climate protection and poverty elimination may be most effectively achieved through local-level actors and their global networks.


Abstract. The Arctic has experienced large climate changes over recent decades, the largest for any region on Earth. To understand the underlying reasons for this climate sensitivity, reanalysis is an invaluable tool. The Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR) is a regional reanalysis, forced by ERA-Interim at the lateral boundaries and incorporating model physics adapted to Arctic conditions, developed to serve as a state-of-the-art, high-resolution synthesis tool for assessing Arctic climate variability and monitoring Arctic climate change. We use data from Arctic Summer Cloud-Ocean Study (ASCOS) to evaluate the performance of ASR and ERA-Interim for the Arctic Ocean. The ASCOS field experiment was deployed on the Swedish icebreaker Oden north of 87° N in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic during August and early September 2008. Data were collected during the transits from and to Longyearbyen and the 3-week ice drift with Oden moored to a drifting multiyear ice floe. These data are independent and detailed enough to evaluate process descriptions. The reanalyses captures basic meteorological variations coupled to the synoptic-scale systems, but have difficulties in estimating clouds and atmospheric moisture. While ERA-Interim has a systematic warm bias in the lowest troposphere, ASR has a cold bias of about the same magnitude on average. The results also indicate that more sophisticated descriptions of cloud microphysics in ASR did not significantly improve the modeling of cloud properties compared to ERA-Interim. This has consequences for the radiation balance, and hence the surface temperature, and illustrate how a modeling problem in one aspect of the atmosphere, here the clouds, feeds back to other parameters, especially near the surface and in the boundary layer.


Aircraft noise has a negative impact on consumer welfare in the regions affected. One of the consequences is that property values decrease. This paper gives a survey of studies from various countries on the relationship between the volume of aircraft noise and the values of dwellings. A meta-analysis is carried out to arrive at a synthesis of these studies and to find factors that explain the variance in the outcomes found in the studies.


Geometric and kinematic attributes as well as the spatial distribution of fault-related fractures from carbonate rocks of the Southern Gargano have been sampled and analysed. The Gargano Promontory, the spur of the Italian Peninsula, is a structural high located in the southern sector of the Adriatic plate which has acted as the foreland of the Apenninic thrust-and-fold belt. The area contains a thick Meso-Cenozoic marine carbonate succession forming a wide WNW-ESE anticline. Here, three major, subvertical faults have been recognised and studied: the E-W Mattinata and Rignano faults and the WNW-ESE Candelaro Fault. The analysis allowed to recognise two main types of fault-related brittle deformations: solution cleavages and meso-scale faults. The use of a specifically developed methodology for the analysis of the fracture spatial distribution has allowed us to define a rather constant geometric relationship between the main faults and the associated cleavage surfaces. We propose an origin model for the fault-related cleavage as solution surfaces initiating in the region ahead of the fault propagating tip. This model is consistent with a left-lateral, strike-slip first-generation of the studied faults. Analyses of the geometry and kinematics of the meso-scale faults support this hypothesis and reveal reactivation processes which occurred along the Rignano and Candelaro faults as subvertical motions. New constraints on the post-Miocene succession of deformation events have been established within the framework of the regional transpression regime controlling: 1) the development of the Gargano anticline, 2) the formation of the left-lateral strike-slip faults, 3) the reactivation, by subvertical to extensional dip-slip motions of some of the early-formed faults.


We consider the power-efficient design of an Internet protocol (IP)-over-wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network, tackling the problem of installing optical and IP layer equipment to satisfy traffic requirements. We take into account routing constraints and consider a comprehensive set of realistic scenarios defined by network topology, traffic matrix, and power consumption values of network devices in both layers. Furthermore, besides defining and solving an optimal integer linear programming model, we propose an efficient heuristic to solve the problem up to medium-sized networks. The proposed heuristic requires at most 30% of additional power with respect to the optimal solution, but with a significantly reduced complexity. We show that the largest power consumption is due to line cards and routers rather than WDM equipment. Furthermore, we find that multipath routing reduces the network power consumption with respect to single-path routing, but not significantly. Finally, we show that a two-step design procedure, in which power is separately minimized in each layer (i.e., IP and WDM layers), can find results with a total power consumption comparable to the one achieved by a more complex joint multilayer design procedure.


IEC 61499 holds its distinct identity as a standard modeling language for distributed control applications in the realm of Industrial Process Measurement and Control Systems (IPMCSs). From the perspective of modeling distributed control applications it seems to be a fitting standard unless one tries to map the models into implementations on any of the diverse hardware platforms available for IPMCS. UML often seems to be a modeling counterpart of IEC 61499. Due to its wide-spread application in different domains UML is now enriched enough with artifacts like standard profiles and hence more expressive. Moreover, its familiarity inspired researchers to draw modeling similes with IEC 61499. In this context the presented work tries to present the aspects of UML artifacts to specify IEC 61499 models to avoid certain ambiguities that might widen the gap between model and implementation. Moreover, considering the fact that the model of IEC 61499 resources and its mapping to implementation determines how the constituent element should behave in the application, a modeling paradigm for resources - taking into account the execution semantics (profile) - in terms of UML is also proposed. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the ambiguity of textual representation is sufficiently avoided. Furthermore, the definition in terms of constraints (OCL) allows checking a model for consistency with a given profile.


Due to social, economic, and political changes, as well as changing institutional priorities, the permeation of managerialism has impelled universities to redefine the roles and functions of its faculty members. Therefore, researchers from various disciplines have focused on the career choices and paths of such members. In this context, the purpose of the present study is to identify the dominant career anchors of faculty members and examine these anchors in regard to their academic status, gender, marital status, and administrative position ) in their organization. The sample consisted of 306 faculty members of nine faculties at Mersin University. The data, obtained by the Career Anchors Scale, were first developed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses by the researchers, and then analyzed using descriptive statistics, a t-test, and a one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The analyses revealed that the dominant career anchors of the faculty members were job security, service and dedication, and autonomy independence. Furthermore, significant differences were ob- served in the career anchors of faculty members with respect to their academic status, gender, marital status, and administrative position in their organization. These results suggest that faculty members value a career that not only ensures economic security and stability but also allows maintenance of a healthy work-life balance.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Cardiac output (CO) measurement is essential for many therapeutic decisions in anesthesia and critical care. Most available non-invasive CO measuring methods have an invasive component. We investigate "pulse wave transit time" (estimated continuous cardiac output [esCCO]) a method of CO measurement that has no invasive component to its use.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
After institutional ethical committee approval, 14 adult (21-85 years) patients undergoing surgery and requiring pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) for measuring CO, were included. Postoperatively CO readings were taken simultaneously with thermodilution (TD) via PAC and esCCO, whenever a change in CO was expected due to therapeutic interventions. Both monitoring methods were continued until patients' discharge from the Intensive Care Unit and observer recording values using TD method was blinded to values measured by esCCO system.

RESULTS
Three hundred and one readings were obtained simultaneously from both methods. Correlation and concordance between the two methods was derived using Bland-Altman analysis. Measured values showed significant correlation between esCCO and TD ( r = 0.6, P < 0.001, 95% confidence limits of 0.51-0.68). Mean and (standard deviation) for bias and precision were 0.13 (2.27) L/min and 6.56 (2.19) L/min, respectively. The 95% confidence interval for bias was - 4.32 to 4.58 L/min and for precision 2.27 to10.85 L/min.

CONCLUSIONS
Although, esCCO is the only true non-invasive continuous CO monitor available and even though its values change proportionately to TD method (gold standard) with the present degree of error its utility for clinical/therapeutic decision-making is questionable.


One year after the Third National Congress of Silviculture significant moments of the event are presented, main results are analyzed together with horizons and perspectives for the future of Italian forestry. Congress outputs may synthesized in the following issues: i) participated and informed decisions; ii) innovative research; iii) new cultural approach. In relation to future perspectives, the Congress suggested innovative ideas and theories, as referred to in the final motion. A new forest strategy for the full implementation of sustainable forest management has been traced, on the basis of synergism between scientific and humanistic knowledge and of consciousness that future of silviculture implies the recognition of the growing importance of forests for the quality of life.


We have produced hollow copper-containing precipitate tubes using a flow-injection technique, and characterized their linear and volume growth. It is shown that the ratio of the volume increase rate to that of pumping is constant independent of the chemical composition. It is also found that osmosis significantly contributes to the tube growth, since the inward flux of chemical species dominates during the precipitate pattern formation. The asymmetric hydrodynamic field coupled with the inherent concentration and pH gradients results in different particle morphology on the two sides of the precipitate membrane. While the tubes have a smooth outer surface, the inner walls are covered with nanoflowers for copper phosphate and with nanoballs for copper silicate.


We analyzed and compared productivity and survival rates of populations of stream-type Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha from the upper and middle ranges of their distribution in the Columbia River basin. These two groups of populations undergo vastly different exposures during migration through the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS). Declines of the Snake River populations, listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, have been associated with the development and operation of the FCRPS. In contrast, John Day River streamtype Chinook Salmon populations, which were less affected by the FCRPS, have declined to a lesser extent and are not listed. Smolt-to-adult survival rates (SARs) accounted for a majority of the variation in life cycle survival rates of Snake River Chinook Salmon. Productivity declined to 13% and 44% of historical productivity levels for Snake River and John Day River populations, respectively. A synthesis of previous studies contrasting anthropogenic impacts between the two regions supports the conclusion that FCRPS impacts explain the large difference in population productivity. Our results suggest that SARs of 4% would result in an expected productivity of up to 70% of historical levels (a SAR level consistent with regional restoration objectives). The SARs have been shown to be highly influenced by conditions within the FCRPS (e.g., water velocity and passage through dam powerhouses). Marine conditions also influence SARs; however, meaningful management actions are only available to affect conditions within the FCRPS. Given the importance of SARs to overall life cycle productivity, recovery and restoration strategies need to prioritize actions that have potential to substantially increase SARs by addressing the significant impacts of main-stem dams. This study highlights the importance of considering river management options in the face of increasingly variable and warming ocean conditions. *Corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com Retired. Received April 19, 2019; accepted March 29, 2020 North American Journal of Fisheries Management © 2020 American Fisheries Society ISSN: 0275-5947 print / 1548-8675 online DOI: 10.1002/nafm.10449


For large publicly held corporations, "corporate governance," a common term in current law review articles, is an outdated term. It is outdated because it emphasizes the tensions and power struggles between corporate constituencies and implies an inevitable and immutable governance tug-of-war. It is also outdated because it masks the economic reality of the corporate enterprise: that the raison d'etre of large publicly held corporations is to maximize "longterm shareholder" and corporate value. Finally, it is outdated because today's globally competitive marketplace requires a corporate focus on long-term performance rather than on divisive factionalism. Accordingly, this Article suggests steps toward minimizing corporate law's preoccupation with "corporate governance" in favor of a new concept: "corporate cooperation." Corporate law and contemporary corporate law reform proposals proceed from a fundamentally flawed framework, which depicts management, shareholders, and stakeholders as inherently and inexorably antagonistic. As a result, the United States is in the midst of a corporate law revolution. For the most part, directors of publicly held corporations do not understand their roles and particularly their relationships with large institutional shareholders – despite the fact that institutional shareholders own over fifty percent of all equity securities. For several decades, directors have insulated themselves and management from shareholder accountability, eschewing any real effort to assimilate shareholders into the corporate activity fabric. This anachronistic anti-shareholder attitude will not survive in an era in which shareholders, armed with a revamped proxy system, are determined to be heard. Shareholder activism is changing. Longterm shareholders now realize the need to focus on long-term value maximization to ensure satisfactory corporate performance. Longterm shareholders invest in a corporation expecting their share ownership to engender more than a mere monetary stake. These shareholders expect to have a relationship with the corporation, its board, its management, and other longterm stakeholders. Just as marriage is more than a "transaction," a longterm shareholder's commitment to a corporation is more than a monetary "transaction"; both envision a long-term relationship. Corporate law reform must ultimately focus on how to redefine the role of directors to maximize long-term corporate value. Although several proposals purport to resolve this governance conundrum, none adequately addresses the role of the board in a world populated by the new species of shareholder, the longterm shareholder. This Article attempts to fill the void. As the centerpiece of corporate law, boards are fiduciaries for, and are accountable to, the shareholders – the corporation's primary constituency. Contemporary corporate law endows boards with two primary functions: monitoring and management. The law is oblivious, however, to a potentially far more significant board function, the "relationship management" function. This Article posits that an effective corporate cooperation regime requires that contemporary boards undertake this "relationship management" function. The essence of an effective relationship is communication. Consistent with the role of relationship management, the board of directors, longterm shareholders, and other stakeholders must engage in dialogue – or, more accurately, "trialogue" – to function effectively. This is the trialogical imperative that flows from the board's relationship management role. This Article sets forth a legal paradigm designed to facilitate a cooperative corporate law regime that will maximize long-term corporate value. This new paradigm comprises three key players: the board of directors, longterm shareholders, and long-term stakeholders, including senior management. In contrast to the old governance paradigm characterized by atomized ownership, pervasive investor apathy, and hostile control battles, this new legal paradigm emphasizes ongoing communication and cooperation among the key players. This Article argues that, of the three key players, the board is the appropriate organ for mediating between the other long-term players to set a course for maximizing the long-term welfare of the corporation, its shareholders, and its constituencies. To implement this proposal successfully, the board, or a committee of the board, will mediate among competing factions. As the master controller of the enterprise, the board will serve as the central information processor between longterm shareholders and stakeholders. Meanwhile, the longterm shareholders and longterm stakeholders, if given appropriate access, will ensure that the board possesses the requisite expertise, authority, and resources to make informed decisions that optimize the players' mutual long-term interests. In this sense, the board will become a significantly more important and powerful element in synthesizing and coalescing the goals of a corporation. Institutional investors promise to become an integral element of the proposed board-centered governance regime. To monitor and mediate fundamental finance and governance issues effectively, the board needs a great deal of information, much of which institutional investors can supply. Who better to provide information on longterm shareholders' interests than those shareholders themselves? As one commentator notes, "[i]nstitutional investors are perhaps the strongest force for reform ever to emerge in the history of boards." Part II of this Article sets forth the contemporary corporate governance landscape. It outlines the three key players in the corporate governance triad. It describes the central importance of the board of directors in corporate governance, explaining why the board continues to be the master controller of the corporate machine. This Part analyzes the promise and limits of independent outside directors and concludes that they are a necessary but insufficient element of effective corporate reform. It also describes the roles of shareholders and stakeholders, the remaining two elements of the corporate governance triad. Part III explores rays of hope on the current "corporate governance" horizon. It suggests that reforms giving shareholders greater voice, although aimed in the right direction, suffer from the same shortcomings as other reform proposals. That is, they continue to rely on the "corporate governance" framework of ages past and ignore the potent and inevitable forces of a "corporate cooperation" regime. Part IV proposes a "corporate cooperation" regime in which the board's function is "relationship management." This Part articulates the need for a trialogue between the board, longterm shareholders, and longterm stakeholders.


The publication in April 2016 of the Assessment of the Validation Status of Health-Economic Decision Models (AdViSHE) checklist for decision models raises a number of issues that the health technology assessment literature has yet to address. The principal issue being the role of decision models in generating claims that are evaluable and replicable. Unfortunately, this is not addressed in this new checklist which is intended to address the perceived need for a tradeoff between confidence in a decision model and the need to allocate resources by developers and payers to validating the model. Irrespective of the degree of confidence a developer or payers may have in the sufficiency of the model in representing 'reality' unless the model has generated evaluable claims and evidence for those claims in target treating populations, the model fails the standards of normal science. Apart from the absence of a commitment in the AdViSHE checklist to the modeling of claims that are evaluable and replicable, the validation check list makes no allowance for a product pricing strategy that may commits a manufacturer to regular and substantial annual or semi-annual product price increases. Indeed, product pricing assumptions are conspicuous by their absence. The commentary argues that failure to accommodate anticipated pricing behavior renders lifetime cost-per-QALY models and the application of willingness-to-pay thresholds meaningless.

Type: Commentary


There are over 400,000 people with RA in the UK[1] with the wrist and hand commonly affected in the early stages. A National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society[2] survey indicates that a patient stopping work due to RA, represents a huge cost to the UK economy and to individual patients and their families, impacting on quality of life. Effective management which results in retention in the work place is therefore enormously beneficial. Prefabricated WHOs are commonly prescribed to reduce pain and inflammation and increase the mechanical advantage of the flexor muscles thus improving hand function during activities of daily living. Methods Arthritis Research Campaign funded a six month survey in 2009 to seek the opinions of RA users on orthosis provision and their experience of using prefabricated 'Futuro®' style WHOs. Results Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data in conjunction with a systematic literature review provides a synthesis of the potential benefits of orthosis use, and highlights the negative aspects and factors affecting compliance. There is a clear need for further research into the use of 'functional' WHOs particularly over the longer term and to develop enhanced designs of WHO to achieve optimal improvements to functional deficit and to address users' concerns. References 1. The National Clincial Guidelines Centre for Acute and Chronic Conditions for the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), 'Rheumatoid Arthritis. National clinical guideline for management and treatment in adults. 2009, Royal College of Physicians: London.[cited 2009 Dec 16]. Available from: http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/CG79FullGuideline.pdf. 2. National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society. Employment and rheumatoid arthritis. A national picture, in National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society Survey 2007.


African dinosaurs make a significant contribution to palaeontology,
but they are often omitted from books in favour of better-known
species like T. Rex. But their fossils have been discovered across the
continent ? from the Sahara Desert and the dusty plains of Kenya
and Tanzania to the sandstone flats of the Karoo ? and they are no
less magnificent or fascinating than their 'celebrity' cousins.
Famous Dinosaurs of Africa is written for children, but has broad
appeal for anyone interested in learning more about dinosaurs. A
brief general introduction is followed by short chapters on dinosaur
species, among them those that were fish-eating, sociable, predatory,
etc, as well as those that were cannibals, and the biggest meat-eating
dinosaur of all time ? the thread being that they all come from
Africa. Details are given about where they were found, the meaning
of their scientific names, and their size and diet. Spectacular,
colourful illustrations bring the creatures vividly to life; photographs,
maps and line drawings further illustrate the subject, while
'Unsolved' and 'Up close' panels add to the intrigue.


The world's largest caisson (210,000 cy) forms the offshore cable anchorage for the 1,870 ft main span Tokyo Harbor Bridge. The bridge carries Metropolitan Expressway Route No. 12, four additional lanes of highway, two urban-transit tracks and sidewalks linking downtown Tokyo with the future offshore Sub-City Center. Workers dug out the first 10 ft of soil; afterwards, power shovels did nearly 90% of the remaining excavation. The shovels were suspended from rails attached to the ceiling slab of the working chamber and had telescoping booms. The shovels deposited excavated earth in quick soil loaders, which discharged into earth buckets when full. When working-chamber air pressure reached 38.4 psi the shovels were converted to unmanned operation; the operators worked the shovels from atmospheric capsules lowered into the working chamber. Six deep wells were used to pump out ground water and keep working-chamber air pressure at levels allowing their operators to work reasonable shift lengths. When excavation reached the stiff hardpan beneath the clayey soils, jib cutters (like giant chainsaws) and twin headers (wheel cutters attached to the front of a caisson shovel's telescopic boom) cut through it, the jib cutters along the cutting edges of the caisson and the twin headers toward the center. Work was completed in December 1989.


Energy poverty has become a rising issue in EU, especially in new Member States, but still there is no uniform methodology in defining energy poverty and policy measures. The aim of our paper is to assess and compare the number of energy poor households in three new EU Member States based on quantitative indicators like the number of energy poor households that use financial measures related to energy sector and the number of households that spend more than 10% of their income on energy. Our results show that the number of energy poor population increased in the period 2009-2014 in all three countries according to the level of monthly (Bulgaria and Romania) and guaranteed minimum allowances (Croatia), while the share of heating allowances decreased only in Romania, but is still very high. In all three countries the problem of energy poverty is present in 4 to 5 deciles. Additionally, the share of the population who consider that they cannot keep their homes warm is the biggest problem in Bulgaria (45%), then in Romania (14%) and Croatia (10%). Keywords: energy poverty, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania JEL Classifications: Q48, I32


The global financial crisis, followed by a global portfolio shift towards commercial real estate, has reinforced the demand for timely, consistent and transparent valuation metrics and transactions data. Current initiatives at global, country and market level are addressing shortcomings in this area; nevertheless commercial real estate markets pose unique data collection and presentation challenges. While users of these data should be aware of the difficulties and qualifications inherent in the collection and compilation process, enforcing uniformity of processes and definitions across markets and sub-sectors may come at a cost. Propositions that more data are always better than less and that market transparency is always better than opacity are fruitful topics for debate in the context of commercial real estate markets.


A comprehensive proteomic approach was applied to investigate molecular events occurring upon inoculation of Medicago truncatula cell-suspension cultures with the oomycete root pathogen Aphanomyces euteiches. Establishment of an inoculation assay in the cell cultures allowed a direct comparison between proteins induced by elicitation with a crude culture extract of the oomycete and by inoculation with A. euteiches zoospores representing the natural infection carrier. Oxidative burst assays revealed responsiveness of the cell cultures for perception of elicitation and inoculation signals. The plant "elicitation proteome" resembles the "inoculation proteome" in early incubation stages and includes proteins induced following initial oxidative burst and defense reactions, but also proteins involved in the antioxidative system. However, approximately 2 days after incubation, the inoculation proteome differs drastically from the proteome of elicited cultures, where a cessation of responses assignable to A. euteiches elicitation occurred. The specific protein induction patterns of zoospore-inoculated cells appeared consistent with the protein induction identified in recent studies for an A. euteiches infection in planta and consist of three functional groups: i) pathogenesis-related proteins, ii) proteins associated with secondary phenylpropanoid or phytoalexin metabolism, and, particularly, iii) proteins assigned to carbohydrate metabolism and energy-related cellular processes. Phosphoproteomic analyses revealed consistent and specific activation of these defense-related pathways already at very early timepoints of inoculation, providing evidence that the identified protein profiles are representative for an established A. euteiches infection of M. truncatula.


In teaching a foreign language (FL), some cultural specificities (defined under the rubric of 'little-c culture') may totally conflict with the cultural norms of the learners' first language (L1). To prevent such imminent problems, this paper recommended that the FL syllabus be designed in a way so as to equip learners with an intimate knowledge of the target language culture, and that language teachers should develop consciousness toward learners' cultural fragility and explicitly make full use of a culturally relevant FL pedagogy in a procedural, technical fashion which we shall refer to as Culturally-adaptive English Language Pedagogy (CELP). Such a syllabus would help learners not only to welcome the legitimacy of differences between the two cultures, but also to make their own cultural values and practices more explicit, enfranchising learners the decision on what aspects of cultural practices they want to embrace. We address three questions of what (the characterization of CELP), why (the significance of CELP) and how (the implementation of CELP) in the peculiar EFL context of Iran.


Previous work has demonstrated the use of random sampling in visualising large data sets and the practicality of a sampling lens in enabling focus+context viewing. Autosampling was proposed as a mechanism to maintain constant density within the lens without user intervention. However, this requires rapid calculation of density or clutter. This paper defines clutter in terms of the occlusion of plotted points and evaluates three possible occlusion metrics that can be used with parallel coordinate plots. An empirical study showed the relationship between these metrics was independent of location and could be explained with a surprisingly simple probabilistic model.


The objective of this study was to determine whether mature thymic-derived T-lymphocytes were required for streptozotocin (SZ)-induced insulitis. C57BL/KsJ male mice were immunocrippled by thymectomy at 3 wk of age followed 1 wk later by lethal irradiation (1000 R) and hematopoietic reconstitution with syngeneic bone marrow (pretreated with anti-Thy 1.2 antiserum and complement to eliminate mature T-lymphocytes). As a control for the systemic effects of lethal irradiation itself, thymus-intact males were also irradiated and reconstituted with anti-Thy-1.2-treated marrow cells. This latter treatment resulted in a reconstitution of functional T-lymphocytes. Independent of the presence or absence of functional T-lymphocytes, irradiation extensively damaged the testes and produced at least a 50% reduction in plasma testosterone levels. In such effeminized males, the hyperglycemic response following 6 daily injections of SZ (35 mg/kg) was reduced in comparison to unirradiated males. Pancreatic insulin content was reduced 50% in both thymus-intact and thymectomized groups receiving lethal irradiation and SZ treatment; this correlated with histologic findings of small, beta-cell-depleted islets. Focal leukocytic infiltrates of the exocrine pancreas were induced by the irradiation. Streptozotocin-induced Insulitis was also observed regardless of the presence (in thymus-intact mice) or absence (in thymectomized mice) of phytohemagglutinin-responsive T-lymphocytes. Both groups exhibited intact B-lymphocyte function as measured by proliferative responsiveness to lipopolysaccharide. Severe immunosuppression of both T- and B-lymphocyte function was produced by subcutaneous injection of hydrocortisone into thymectomized mice 48 h prior to initiation of SZ treatments. This treatment prevented SZ-induced beta-cell necrosis and eliminated lymphocytic infiltrates in the endocrine and exocrine pancreas. We conclude that functional (mature) T-lymphocytes are not required to mediate the beta cytotoxicity of multiple low doses of SZ in inbred strains in which insulitis accompanies islet destruction. The ability of hydrocortisone to protect beta-cells from the direct cytotoxic action of SZ as well as to eliminate leukocytic infiltration in the pancreas would support the hypothesis that insulitis is a consequence of beta-cell destruction, in this model, rather than its cause.


Throughout his career and through his films, John Marshall has embodied many representational debates in anthropology and ethnographic media production. With A Kalahari Family, Marshall has provided his most reflexive film to date as well as a comprehensive visual record of 50 years of transition among the Ju'hoansi, from lingering, hunter-gatherer subsistence to problematic and often tragic contemporary living conditions. A Kalahari Family bears witness to the negative effects a racist ideology and varied development agendas have had on an indigenous group of people, and the transformative effects they continue to have. In the film, the audience also witnesses the evolution of John Marshall himself, from naive, inexperienced teenager engaging an exotic other, with all the inherent cultural baggage of a Western perspective, to his eventual emergence as a filmmaker and a dedicated advocate for the people with whom he has become so involved.


The aggregate capital stock in a nation can be overaccumulated for many different reasons. This paper studies which policy or policy mix is more effective in achieving the socially optimal (modified golden rule) level of aggregate capital stock in an infinite-horizon heterogeneous-agents incomplete-markets economy where capital may be over-accumulated for two distinct reasons: (i) precautionary savings and (ii) production externalities. By solving the Ramsey problem analytically along the entire transitional path, we show that public debt and capital taxation play very distinct roles in dealing with the overaccumulation problem. The Ramsey planner opts neither to use a capital tax to correct the overaccumulation problem if it is caused solely by precautionary saving---regardless of the feasibility of public debt---nor use debt (financed by consumption tax) to correct the overaccumulation problem if it is caused solely by pollution---regardless of the feasibility of a capital tax. The key is that the modified golden rule has two margins: an intratemporal margin pertaining to the marginal product of capital (MPK) and an intertemporal margin pertaining to the time discount rate. To achieve the MGR, the Ramsey planner needs to equate not only the private MPK with the social MPK but also the interest rate with the time discount rate---neither of which is equalized in a competitive equilibrium. Yet public debt and a capital tax are each effective only in calibrating one of the two margins, respectively, but not both.


The main focus of this paper is to apply an ontologybased approach for semantic learning object recommendation towards personalized e-learning systems. Ontologies for learner model, learning objects and semantic mapping rules are proposed. The recommender can be able to provide individually learning object by taking the learner preferences and styles, which used to adjust or fine-tune in learning object recommending process. In the proposed framework, we demonstrated how the ontologies can be used to enable machines to interpret and process learning resources in recommendation system. The recommendation consists of four steps: semantic mapping between learner and learning objects, preference score calculation, learning object ranking and recommending the learning object. As a result, a personalized and most suitable learning object is recommended to the learner.


Following a disaster, the recovery of organizations is influenced by the flow of resources and information through organizational networks. The 2010–2011 earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand, had major direct and indirect impacts on local organizations and the regional economy. This paper utilizes 47 organizational case studies to assess the role of organizations' networks in their response and short-term recovery activities, and to explore the effects of networks on regional reconstruction and related sectors. The results are organized around four thematic analyses, focusing on organizations' support network characteristics, the types of support mobilized to aid recovery, network adaptations for new post-quake demands, and the economic impacts of organizational networks in reconstruction. The paper discusses how organizations managed and utilized networks to reduce the impacts of the earthquakes and to adapt to altered post-quake environments. These empirical observations of post-quake organizational behavior can also inform regional economic impact and resilience modeling.


Document Type Article Abstract This essay focuses on Fresh Off the Boat as an eminently teachable coming-of-age story, provides critical contexts and directions for teaching this ideologically suggestive text, and sets forth the interpretive argument that the structures and themes of the memoir are fundamentally shaped by the literacy narrative at its core. As such, the text enters into conversation with other literacy narratives that have become so foundational in the teaching of multiethnic literature in the U.S. Moreover, Huang's tropes of literacy draw from enduring, mythified Americanist discourses that are suggestive of a masculine individualism that, while not unique, is recognizable, instructive, and even problematic as an illustration of a powerful discourse of self-formation. In an effort to speak not only to specialists in U.S. multiethnic literature but also to nonspecialists/generalists, this discussion offers a tripartite approach to teaching this memoir: opening the unit with a sustained, critical, and creative discussion of genre(s), including traditional and popular forms; then inviting students to hone their critical thinking skills through careful rhetorical and ideological analyses of the text's representations of race, identity, assimilation, and resistance; and ultimately setting forth a focused, conceptual argument about Fresh Off the Boat as a "literacy narrative" while placing the text within a broader U.S. literary history and discourse about the American individual. Recommended Citation Chen, Wilson C. (2017) "Rotten Bananas, Hip Hop Heads, and the American Individual: Teaching Eddie Huang's Memoir Fresh Off the Boat and Its Tropes of Literacy," Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies: Vol. 8 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/aaldp/vol8/iss1/4  Download


The small business literature frequently refers to the concept of a "finance gap" in order to explain differences in the capital structures of small and large firms. However, little evidence, if any, exists to support this "finance gap" explanation. This paper, while canvassing the finance gap literature, offers an alternative explanation —Myers' Pecking Order Framework. This framework focuses on management funding preferences as a major factor in the capital structure of firms. In order to test the applicability of this view, a mail survey was conducted for small and large firms operating in the Metal Trades sub-sector of the Australian Manufacturing sector. The responses provided detailed information on the types of debt used by small and large firms. While recognizing the limitations of mail surveys and the restricted information permissible in such surveys, the results provide a unique opportunity to compare the capital structures of small and large firms. Overall, the results support the proposition that capital structure is influenced by Myers' Pecking Order Framework and that differences between small and large firms may be attributed to small firms operating under a "constrained" pecking order.


This thesis examines the phenomenon of self-translation in two different cultural contexts: the Italian context of self-translation within national borders and the Polish context of self-translation in displacement. It focuses on four case studies: Luigi Pirandello's self-translations of 'A birritta cu 'i ciancianeddi (1916) and Tutto per bene (1920), Maria Kuncewiczowa's self-translation of Thank you for the Rose (1950-1960) and Janusz Glowacki's assisted self-translation of Antygona w Nowym Jorku (1992). In discussing the case studies, the thesis draws attention to power relations and to the concepts of self-translation's hybridity and its invisibility in accounts of national literatures, dominated by monolingual and monocultural paradigms. The aim of this study is to identify what the comparison of different contexts reveals about self-translation, its invisibility and the power relations involved. The analysis begins with an outline of theoretical frameworks and debates in the field of self-translation. The themes examined in this part concern the definition of the practice, creativity in self-translation, the importance of paratext and self-translation genetics, ending with a focus on power relations, self-translation's invisibility and hybridity. The second chapter illustrates current scholarship, including scholarship on Italian and Polish self-translation, and clarifies the choice of case studies and terminology. Following this preliminary contextualisation, the core of the thesis is dedicated to the Italian and Polish areas of study. It is composed of mapping the phenomenon in 20th-century Italian and Polish literature, respectively, and of a thorough examination of the case studies. Each case study takes into account relevant elements of the historical, cultural and sociolinguistic contexts, and stresses the hybridity of the writers' personal and literary identities. Based on a genetic translation studies approach, the case studies include analysis of paratextual material and close comparative analysis of the linguistic variants involved. The case studies are concluded with observations on the (in)visibility of self-translations and of the related texts. The conclusion considers how the case studies highlight questions of power, self-translation's invisibility, both in terms of the phenomenon and texts involved, as well as the question of the hybridity of self-translation and self-translators. In examining self-translation in a perspective exceeding one national language and culture, this thesis argues that acknowledging self-translation in accounts of national literature might lead to a shift in the conceptualisation of national literatures and their writers, which accounts for their hybridity.


New U-Pb zircon ages from Precambrian exposures in the White River Uplift of western Colorado reveal at least two episodes of Proterozoic granitic magmatism and help to constrain the age of the 1-km-thick Grizzly Creek shear zone. Gneissic granite exposed along Mitchell Canyon northwest of Glenwood Springs, crystallized at 1765±9 Ma and is the oldest igneous unit recognized in the area. The gneissic foliation is defined by alternating layers of biotite and elongated pink K-feldspar up to 5 cm in size, and the fabric strikes west-northwest and dips moderately to steeply north. Cross-cutting relationships with gneissic country rocks and other igneous units exposed in adjacent drainages were not observed. However, deformation and metamorphism are inferred to be between the age of intrusion (ca. 1765 Ma) and the age of younger, unfoliated, coarse-grained to K-feldspar megacrystic granite exposed near the mouth of No Name Canyon, which crystallized at 1743±8 Ma. This younger granite is cut by the Grizzly Creek shear zone to the north and only contains a locally developed magmatic foliation south of the shear zone. Foliated to mylonitic, fine-grained biotite granite exposed in the hanging wall of the shear zone along No Name Canyon crystallized at 1745±10 Ma, suggesting that it might be related to coarse-grained granite exposed in the shear zone footwall. These new ages define two granitic magmatic events in this area at ca. 1765 and 1745 Ma and provide a maximum age of deformation in the Grizzly Creek shear zone of 1743 Ma. Similarities in the orientation, structural style, and kinematics between the Grizzly Creek shear zone and other well-documented structures in the region raise the possibility that the shear zone records multiple episodes of both Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic (ca. 1.4 Ga) deformation, in which case the younger events would have occurred in the absence of local magmatism. Thus, the Grizzly Creek shear zone might represent a kinematic link between major crustal shear zones to the north and south throughout crustal assembly and stabilization in southern Laurentia, but details of the timing and kinematic relationships between these structures remain uncertain.


Mobile computing is characterised by users carrying portable devices that allow communication between people and continuous access to networked services independent of their physical location. A mobile application must discover and interoperate with the required application services available to them in their present location. However, these services will be developed upon a range of middleware types (e.g. remote method invocation, publish-subscribe, message-oriented and tuple spaces) and advertised using different service discovery protocols (e.g. UPnP and SLP) unknown to the application developer. Wireless environments are also subject to changes in network QoS and connectivity, and mobile applications operate on devices with limited resources. Given these properties, existing middleware technologies are inappropriate to support mobile client-based applications; developing upon a single middleware platform restricts the possible mobile services that can be interacted with. Therefore, a middleware platform for mobile computing must adapt its behaviour to interoperate with any type of discovered service, provide the best level of service in an environment that is frequently changing and finally, be lightweight in resource use due to the constraints of mobile devices. This paper proposes reflection as a well-suited technology to implement the adaptive features of mobile middleware and identifies what the key requirements of a dynamic middleware platform are. In addition, we describe ReMMoC (Reflective Middleware for Mobile Computing), a middleware platform that dynamically adapts its structure to interoperate with a range of middleware types that may exist in the mobile environment. Finally, the use of ReMMoC in a typical mobile scenario is presented and the memory footprint cost of utilising reflection to create a mobile middleware platform is evaluated.


This paper presents a high resolution reconstruction of local growing season temperature (GST) anomalies at Dürres Maar, Germany, spanning the last two millennia. The GST anomalies were derived from a stable carbon isotope time series of cellulose chemically extracted from Sphagnum leaves ( δCcellulose) separated from a kettle-hole peat deposit of several metres thickness. The temperature reconstruction is based on the SphagnumδCcellulose/temperature dependency observed in calibration studies. Reconstructed GST anomalies show considerable centennial and decadal scale variability. A cold and presumably wet phase with below-average temperature is reconstructed between the 4th and 7th century AD which is in accordance with the so called European Migration Period, marking the transition from the Late Roman Period to the Early Middle Ages. At High Medieval Times, the amplitude in the reconstructed temperature variability is most likely overestimated; nevertheless, above-average temperatures are obvious during this time span, which are followed by a temperature decrease. On the contrary, a pronounced Late Roman Climate Optimum, often described as similarly warm or even warmer as medieval times, could not be detected. The temperature signal of the Little Ice Age (LIA) is not preserved in D̈ urres Maar due to considerable peat cutting that takes place in the first half of the 19th century. The local GST anomalies show Correspondence to: R. Moschen (email@example.com) a remarkable agreement to northern hemispheric temperaure reconstructions based on tree-ring datasets and are also in accordance with climate reconstructions on the basis of lake sediments, glacier advances and retreats, and historical datasets. Most notably, e.g., during the Early Middle Ages and at High Medieval Times, temperatures were neither low nor high in general. Rather high frequency temperature variability with multiple narrow intervals of belowand aboveaverage temperatures at maximum lasting a few decades are reconstructed. Especially the agreements between our estimated GST anomalies and temperature reconstructions derived from tree-ring chronologies indicate the great potential of SphagnumδCcellulose time series from peat deposits for palaeoclimate research. This is particularly the case, given that a quantitativeδCcellulose/temperature relationship has been found for several Sphagnumspecies. Although the time resolution ofSphagnumδCcellulose datasets certainly wouldn't reach the annual resolution of tree-ring data, reconstructions of past temperature variability on the basis of this proxy hold one particular advantage: often due to relatively high peat accumulation rates, especially in kettle-hole bogs accumulated on temperate latitudes over periods of up to several millennia, they allow extending temperature reconstructions based on tree-ring series into the past to enhance our knowledge of natural climate variability during the Holocene. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 1012 R. Moschen et al.: Temperature variability at D ürres Maar, Germany


In this paper, we propose a new approach for the generation of ultralow jitter optical pulses using optoelectronic microwave oscillators. The short pulses are obtained through time-lens soliton-assisted compression of sinusoidally modulated prepulses, which are self-started from a conventional single-loop optoelectronic oscillator. The inherent ultralow phase noise of optoelectronic oscillators is converted into ultralow timing jitter for the generated pulses. We provide a time-domain model for the slowly varying amplitudes of the microwave and optical oscillations, and our analytical study is confirmed by numerical simulations and experimental measurements. We demonstrate the generation of 4.1 ps pulses along with a microwave whose phase noise is -140 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz from the 10 GHz carrier, with 2.7 fs jitter in the 1-10 kHz frequency band.


We present a new approach to the handling and interrogating of large flow cytometry data where cell status and function can be described, at the population level, by global descriptors such as distribution mean or co-efficient of variation experimental data. Here we link the "real" data to initialise a computer simulation of the cell cycle that mimics the evolution of individual cells within a larger population and simulates the associated changes in fluorescence intensity of functional reporters. The model is based on stochastic formulations of cell cycle progression and cell division and uses evolutionary algorithms, allied to further experimental data sets, to optimise the system variables. At the population level, the in-silico cells provide the same statistical distributions of fluorescence as their real counterparts; in addition the model maintains information at the single cell level. The cell model is demonstrated in the analysis of cell cycle perturbation in human osteosarcoma tumour cells, using the topoisomerase II inhibitor, ICRF-193. The simulation gives a continuous temporal description of the pharmacodynamics between discrete experimental analysis points with a 24 hour interval; providing quantitative assessment of inter-mitotic time variation, drug interaction time constants and sub-population fractions within normal and polyploid cell cycles. Repeated simulations indicate a model accuracy of ±5%. The development of a simulated cell model, initialized and calibrated by reference to experimental data, provides an analysis tool in which biological knowledge can be obtained directly via interrogation of the in-silico cell population. It is envisaged that this approach to the study of cell biology by simulating a virtual cell population pertinent to the data available can be applied to "generic" cell-based outputs including experimental data from imaging platforms.


Background. Intellivent-adaptive support ventilation (ASV) is a closed-loop, fully automatic method of mechanical ventilation. This advanced mode of ventilation adjusts ventilation and oxygenation parameters according to patient weight, lung function (as assessed by the ventilator) and continuous input of end-tidal carbon dioxide and oxygen saturation. Our study compares the efficacy of this new mode with ASV and synchronised intermittent mandatory ventilation (SIMV) modes. Methods. We conducted a within-group comparison of three modes of ventilation, ASV, Intellivent-ASV and SIMV, using a Hamilton S1 ventilator (Hamilton Medical, Switzerland). Subjects were ventilated for 2 hours on each mode, and at the end of each 2-hour period, parameters of ventilation and haemodynamics were measured. Results. Twenty subjects participated in this study. Their mean age was 67.3 years (range 22 - 82 years). The most common diagnosis at presentation was pneumonia (55%), followed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (16%) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (11%). Mean (standard deviation) levels of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) were significantly higher in the Intellivent-ASV group (7.6 (5) v. 5.1 (2) and 5.2 (2) cm H2O in the ASV and SIMV groups, respectively (p<0.005). Fractional inspired concentration of oxygen (FiO2) was significantly lower in the Intellivent-ASV group (0.35 (0.7)) v. 0.41 (0.6) and 0.41 (0.6) for the ASV and SIMV groups, respectively (p<0.005). The mean spontaneous breathing rate in the Intellivent-ASV group was 8.6 (7.5) breaths per minute (b/min), significantly higher than in the ASV group (2.9 (5.7) b/min) and the SIMV group (2.4 (4.5) b/min) (p=0.002), while there was no difference in the total respiratory rate between the groups. There was no significant difference in haemodynamic parameters between the different ventilation modes. ASV tended to produce lower partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2) levels than SIMV and Intellivent-ASV (p<0.05). Conclusions. Intellivent-ASV provided a significant reduction in the FiO2 with higher PEEP levels, but without haemodynamic detriment. Intellivent-ASV encouraged significantly more spontaneous breathing, which may translate to faster weaning. Further studies to examine this effect are warranted.


The period prior to the U.S. civil War saw the introduction and rapid diffusion of the railroad. It was also the Free Banking Era (1838-1863) during which some states allowed relatively free entry into banking. Banks in all states issued distinct private monies, called bank notes, which circulated at discounts from face value in secondary markets at locations away from the issuing bank. This paper proposes a pricing model for bank notes, and then, using a newly discovered data set of monthly bank note prices for all banks in North America, studies the secondary market for privately issued bank notes during the American Free Banking Era, 1838-1859. To test the model, the durations and costs of trips from Philadelphia to other locations are constructed from pre-Civil War travelers' guides in order to measure improvements resulting from the diffusion of the railroad during this period. The results suggest that the note market accurately priced risk. Systematic wildcat banking was not possible. The transportation costs of note redemption explain only part of bank note discount variation. Bank default risk was differentially priced and such risk premia varied cyclically.


HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) affect up to 50% of HIV-infected adults despite potent viral suppression with antiretroviral therapy (ART) and are associated with persistent neuronal damage, monocyte/macrophage activation, chronic inflammation, and oxidative stress. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is a highly inducible, detoxifying enzyme critical for limiting oxidative stress, inflammation, and cellular injury within the central nervous system (CNS) and other tissues. Our analysis of HO-1 expression in the brain prefrontal cortex from HIV-infected individuals demonstrated a significant HO-1 protein deficiency, even in HIV-infected subjects treated with ART. This HO-1 deficiency associated with a diagnosis of HAND and HIV-encephalitis (HIVE) as well as with elevated CNS HIV replication, type I interferon responses, and macrophage activation. Within this cohort longer variants of a HO-1 promoter region (GT)n microsatellite polymorphism, which cause reduced HO-1 gene expression, associated with increased risk of HIVE and elevated CNS macrophage activation. HIV replication in macrophages, a primary CNS HIV reservoir, selectively reduced HO-1 protein and RNA expression and induced production of neurotoxic levels of glutamate. This HO-1 deficiency and associated neurotoxin production was a conserved feature of infection with macrophage-tropic HIV-1 and HIV-2 strains that correlated closely with the extent of replication. ART regimens applied to macrophages after HIV infection was established failed to prevent this HO-1 loss and associated neurotoxin production. HO-1 siRNA knockdown and enzymatic inhibition in HIV-infected macrophages increased supernatant glutamate and neurotoxicity. In contrast, increasing HO-1 expression through siRNA derepression or with pharmacologic inducers, including the CNS-penetrating drug dimethyl fumarate (DMF), decreased supernatant glutamate and neurotoxicity. These findings identify HO-1 as a host factor that is deficient in the brains of HIV-infected individuals and suggest that loss of HO-1 and its protective functions may contribute to HIV neuropathogenesis. Moreover, this work defines a predictable and conserved relationship between HIV replication, HO-1 loss, and neurotoxin production in macrophages that likely reflects processes in place in the HIV-infected brain of individuals receiving ART. Correcting this HO-1 deficiency could provide a novel approach for neuroprotection in individuals with or at risk for developing HAND above that provided by current ART. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Neuroscience First Advisor Dennis L. Kolson This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1736


Maternal obesity is linked with increased adverse pregnancy outcomes for both mother and child. The metabolic impact of excessive fat within the context of pregnancy is not fully understood. We used a mouse model of high fat (HF) feeding to induce maternal obesity to identify adipose tissue-mediated mechanisms driving metabolic dysfunction in pregnant and non-pregnant obese mice. As expected, chronic HF-feeding for 12 weeks preceding pregnancy increased peripheral (subcutaneous) and visceral (mesenteric) fat mass. However, unexpectedly at late gestation (E18.5) HF-fed mice exhibited a remarkable normalization of visceral but not peripheral adiposity, with a 53% reduction in non-pregnant visceral fat mass expressed as a proportion of body weight (P<0.001). In contrast, in control animals, pregnancy had no effect on visceral fat mass proportion. Obesity exaggerated glucose intolerance at mid-pregnancy (E14.5). However by E18.5, there were no differences, in glucose tolerance between obese and control mice. Transcriptomic analysis of visceral fat from HF-fed dams at E18.5 revealed reduced expression of genes involved in de novo lipogenesis (diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 2 - Dgat2) and inflammation (chemokine C-C motif ligand 2 - Ccl2) and upregulation of estrogen receptor α (ERα) compared to HF non pregnant. Attenuation of adipose inflammation was functionally confirmed by a 45% reduction of CD11b+CD11c+ adipose tissue macrophages (expressed as a proportion of all stromal vascular fraction cells) in HF pregnant compared to HF non pregnant animals (P<0.001). An ERα selective agonist suppressed both de novo lipogenesis and expression of lipogenic genes in adipocytes in vitro. These data show that, in a HF model of maternal obesity, late gestation is associated with amelioration of visceral fat hypertrophy, inflammation and glucose intolerance, and suggest that these effects are mediated in part by elevated visceral adipocyte ERα signaling.


The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) has created the Strategic Nuclear Research Collaboration. The SNRC brings together some of America's finest laboratory and university nuclear researchers in a carefully focused research program intended to produce ''breakthrough'' solutions to the difficult issues of nuclear economics, safety, non-proliferation, and nuclear waste. This integrated program aims to address obstacles that stand in the way of nuclear power development in the US These include fuel cycle concerns related to waste and proliferation, the need for more efficient regulatory practices, and the high cost of constructing and operating nuclear power plants. Funded at an FY99 level of $2.58M, the SNRC is focusing the efforts of scientists and engineers from the INEEL and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to solve complex nuclear energy challenges in a carefully chosen, integrated portfolio of research topics. The result of this collaboration will be research that serves as a catalyst for future direct-funded nuclear research and technology development and which preserves and enhances the INEEL's role as America's leading national laboratory for nuclear power research. In its first year, the SNRC has focused on four research projects each of which address one or more of the four issues facing further nuclear power development (economics, safety, waste disposition and proliferation-resistance). This Annual Report describes technical work and accomplishments during the first year of the SNRC's existence.


Back in print for the first time in nearly thirty years, here is Yoko Ono's whimsical, delightful, subversive, startling book of instructions for art and for life. "Burn this book after you've read it." " -- Yoko" "A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality." "This is the greatest book I've ever burned." -- John


BACKGROUND
Evidence-based practice is one of the most important underlying principles in modern health care. In the United Kingdom, successive governments have highlighted the fact that a quality health service is built upon the use of best evidence. Health professionals are becoming more accountable within clinical governance structures for the care they provide. The need to use robust research findings effectively is a critical component of their role. However, studies show that a number of barriers prevent the effective use of best available evidence.

AIM
This study aimed to identify barriers to evidence-based practice in primary care.

METHOD
A specially designed questionnaire was used to gather respondents' perceptions of the barriers to evidence-based practice. Data were collected in 2000/2001.

FINDINGS
Findings show that general practitioners (GPs) ranked barriers differently to community nurses. GPs believed that the most significant barriers to using evidence in practice were: the limited relevance of research to practice, keeping up with all the current changes in primary care, and the ability to search for evidence-based information. In contrast, the most significant barriers to the identified by community nurses were poor computer facilities, poor patient compliance and difficulties in influencing changes within primary care. This suggests that these two groups may require different strategies for barrier removal.

CONCLUSIONS
Identifying barriers is just the first step to addressing issues surrounding the use of evidence-based practice. Extra resources will be needed if these barriers are to be tackled. However, if the resultant change improves the health and wellbeing of people and communities, then the extra costs would be offset by more efficient use of services.


Background The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) calculated from physiological observations provides a simple away to identify and respond to the deteriorating patient. There is increasing interest in the application of NEWS to facilitate referrals from the community. Aim To establish whether elevated NEWS are associated with adverse outcomes at 5 and 30 days when obtained in a community setting at the time of transfer to an acute setting. Design & setting A retrospective service evaluation was undertaken using a database of emergency admissions to secondary care from two NHS district general hospitals within the South of England between January 2018 and April 2019. Method The performance of NEWS recorded in a community setting to predict death or critical care admission at 5 and 30 days was calculated using established thresholds. Results 2786 referrals from primary care were analysed. The 5 day and 30 day mortality was 2.2% (1.7 to 2.8) and 7.1% (6.2 to 8.1). The prevalence of the composite outcome was 3.4% (2.8 to 4.2) at 5 days and 8.5% (7.5 to 9.6) at 30 days. The risk of adverse outcomes increased incrementally with increasing NEWS. When calculated at the point of referral from primary care the positive predictive value of death at 5 and 30 days was 15% (95% confidence intervals [CI] = 12 to 19) and 23% (95% CI = 17 to 30) in the high-risk NEWS group. Conclusion Elevated NEWS obtained in the community during the process of emergency admission are associated with adverse outcomes. Communicating NEWS may allow downstream care to be better calibrated to risk.


Abstract Personnel in swimming pool facilities typically experience ocular, nasal, and respiratory symptoms due to water chlorination and consequent exposure to disinfection by-products in the air. The aim of the study was to investigate exposure to trichloramine and trihalomethanes (chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, and bromoform) from the perspective of adverse health effects on the personnel at Swedish habilitation and rehabilitation swimming pools. The study included 10 habilitation and rehabilitation swimming pool facilities in nine Swedish cities. The study population comprised 24 exposed swimming pool workers and 50 unexposed office workers. Personal and stationary measurements of trichloramine and trihalomethanes in air were performed at all the facilities. Questionnaires were distributed to exposed workers and referents. Spirometry, fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO), and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were measured. Personal and stationary measurements yielded trichloramine levels of 1–76 µg/m3 (average: 19 µg/m3) and 1–140 µg/m3 (average: 23 µg/m3), respectively. A slightly higher, but not significant, prevalence of reported eye- and throat-related symptoms occurred among the exposed workers than among the referents. A significantly increased risk of at least one ocular symptom was attributed to trichloramine exposure above the median (20 µg/m3). Lung function (FVC and FEV1) was in the normal range according to the Swedish reference materials, and no significant change in lung function before and after shift could be established between the groups. Average FENO values were in the normal range in both groups, but the difference in the values between the exposed workers and referents showed a significant increase after shift. Hourly registered PEF values during the day of the investigation did not show any unusual individual variability. In conclusion, the increased risk of developing at least one ocular symptom at personal trichloramine concentrations over 20 µg/m3 combined with an increase in the difference in FENO during the work shift of the exposed workers should not be neglected as an increased risk of respiratory inflammation in the habilitation and rehabilitation swimming pool environment.


Multiphase series-connected motor drives can be supplied from a two-level voltage source inverter (VSI), which has either a prime or a composite number of legs (phases). It has been shown recently that, in the case of a prime number of inverter/machine phases, limits of the linear PWM region get extended over those valid for a particular phase number due to the phase transposition applied in the series connection. A study of the dc bus voltage utilisation in the linear modulation region is reported in this paper for series-connected multiphase drives with a composite phase number. The limits are independent of the actual PWM technique used and are equally applicable to both carrier-based and space vector PWM techniques. A detailed simulation and experimental investigation is conducted using a symmetrical six-phase VSI, which supplies series connection of a symmetrical six-phase and a three-phase machine. The results thus obtained fully verify theoretical considerations.


Context
Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) or vascular dementia is widely considered to be the second-most-common cause of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, accounting for 20% of cases. Little is known about the effectiveness of breath qigong for seniors suffering from VCI or dementia.

Objectives
For seniors with VCI, the study aimed to compare the benefits of qigong practice, cognitive training, and qigong practice + cognitive training in improving cognitive function, memory, executive function, and daily problem-solving ability.

Design
The study was a randomized, controlled pilot study that used a prospective design with repeated measures.

Setting
The study took place at the Tianjin Medical University General Hospital (Tianjin, China).

Participants
Participants were 93 patients with VCI at a clinic at the hospital.

Intervention
The participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: (1) qigong practice, an intervention group; (2) cognitive training, a positive control group; or (3) a combination of qigong practice and cognitive training, an intervention group. Participants received the treatments for 3 mo.

Outcome Measures
All outcome measures were undertaken at baseline and postintervention. The measures included (1) the Montreal cognitive assessment, (2) the Loewenstein occupational therapy cognitive assessment, and (3) the Barthel activities of daily living index.

Results
All 3 groups showed significant improvements in general cognitive function, memory, executive function, and daily problem-solving ability (P < .05).

Conclusion
Qigong practice is an easy and convenient exercise performed at no cost and has the potential to improve the cognitive functions of older adults with mild VCI.


The present paper undertakes an analysis of language use in two so-called Summaries for policymakers (SPMs), published as part of the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Assessment Reports 4 (AR4, 2007) and 5 (AR5, 2013). Through a comparative analysis, we investigate how scientific claims are conveyed through expressions indicating various levels of (un)certainty, through scalar systems established by the IPCC to indicate levels of likelihood, confidence and evidence, as well as through non-predefined linguistic means. We also consider to what extent contrasted claims may indicate a difference in argumentative emphasis in the two summaries, without diverging from the overall purpose of the IPCC: to present a consensual view on current climate knowledge. Further, the analysis assumes a textual perspective, investigating to what extent the summaries have a narrative structure with a clear storyline. The results show that, generally, the two SPMs adhere to the expressed purpose of the IPCC. However, there are differences indicating a strengthened basis for scientific certainty in the AR5-SPM. The narrative analysis discusses the lack of explicit reactions to the stated complications. The findings also point towards the need for further analyses to assess the reception of text layout and language use by policymakers.