This thesis demonstrates that compliance is problematic in the elderly population studied and requires intervention if treatment failure is to be avoided. Non-compliance risk level was measured by use of a questionnaire and was found to be different for each of the subjects interviewed. Four different risk factors were identified as problems for over 50% of the subjects interviewed. Lack of understanding of regime, general dissatisfaction with prescribed treatment, poor provision of information from health professionals, and polypharmacy. However, no two subjects had identical combinations of problems and therefore generalisation into categories was not possible. Correlation between the categories was low. The most commonly required interventions were provision of individually tailored verbal information or standardised written information on discharge, attempting to simplify the medication regime and finding solutions to various physical problems. All elderly hospital inpatients should be offered these interventions as routine services. In particular, it is essential that hospital pharmacists provide medication information to patients and attempt to achieve concordance as the study suggests that this is not a priority to hospital doctors. Polypharmacy should be avoided by regular prescription review, however, polypharmacy cannot always be avoided for patients with multiple disease states. Hospital pharmacists have a vital role in solving compliance. However, primary care must therefore be involved in any decision to implement interventions. General practitioners and community pharmacists have the greatest opportunity amongst health professionals of being able to effect change in compliance behaviour. Many changes to the boundary divides between primary and secondary care must be bridged by means of cross-sectoral posts in order to ensure that compliance and concordance are achieved.


During the last decade, microfabrication of photonic devices by means of intense femtosecond (fs) laser pulses has emerged as a novel technology. A common requirement for the production of these devices is that the refractive index modification pitch size should be smaller than the inscribing wavelength. This can be achieved by making use of the nonlinear propagation of intense fs laser pulses. Nonlinear propagation of intense fs laser pulses is an extremely complicated phenomenon featuring complex multiscale spatiotemporal dynamics of the laser pulses. We have utilized a principal approach based on finite difference time domain (FDTD) modeling of the full set of Maxwell's equations coupled to the conventional Drude model for generated plasma. Nonlinear effects are included, such as self-phase modulation and multiphoton absorption. Such an approach resolves most problems related to the inscription of subwavelength structures, when the paraxial approximation is not applicable to correctly describe the creation of and scattering on the structures. In a representative simulation of the inscription process, the signature of degenerate four wave mixing has been found. © 2012 Optical Society of America.


A new era has begun in antitrust regulation ofpatent pools. With the issuance of the 1995 Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property and the 1997 Department of Justice approval of the MPEG LA patent pool, federal antitrust authorities have espoused a more permissive attitude toward patent pools and cross-licensing arrangements than in recent decades. Procompetitive benefits undoubtedly justify the formation of patent pools in certain contexts, but serious anticompetitive risks are also present, particularly in standard-dependent industries. This Note argues that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission should not adopt a per se rule of legality for the pooling of blocking patents, and that these agencies must carefully delineate the permissible scope of broader pools.


In this paper, iron (III) oxide thin films are deposited on glass substrate via sol-gel dip coating by increasing withdrawal speeds in the range 100-250 mms-1. Prepared thin films were characterized by UV-VIS spectrophotometer, spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. UV-VIS spectrum and SE show decrease in bandgap energy from 2.8 to 1.6 eV with increased withdrawal speed. FTIR results indicate formation of α-Fe2O3 (hematite) phase of iron oxide with preferred orientation along (104) plane. From SEM studies, it is observed that the developed α-Fe2O3 films are nanocrystalline with small grain size. The surface of α-Fe2O3 films is smooth and homogenous, which also supports the XRD results. VSM results show that α-Fe2O3 thin films have ferromagnetic behavior.


ABSTRACT Debates about trade-offs among values are central to the field of public administration and to graduate education in public affairs. Accreditation guidelines from the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) direct graduate programs to articulate the public service values that guide their curricula. Moreover, student ability to articulate a public service perspective is one of the universal competencies for NASPAA accredited programs. Scholars have defined and cataloged myriad values that guide work in professional public service. Still, many programs lack insight into how new students perceive and prioritize public service values. This essay advocates measuring student public service value priorities to aid programs in their discussions of public service values in curriculum design. An example using Q-methodology and data from a new MPA student cohort is reported to illustrate the value of investigating public service value priorities. This essay concludes by describing how an understanding of student public service values priorities can help faculty maintain a curriculum responsive to students.


As the precondition of dynamic spectrum access, spectrum sensing (SS) plays an important role in the spectrum utilization in cognitive wireless mesh networks (WMNs). However, the accuracy and efficiency of SS is always significantly compromised by the accompanying interchannel interference (ICI). Aiming to address this problem, this paper proposes a non-coherent ICI cancellation method in the cooperative SS. The proposed SS consists of three parts: the determination of optimal threshold, the ICI cancellation, and the algorithm of control channel allocation (ACCA). The derived optimal threshold is able to minimize the sum of the probabilities of false alarms and missed detection. The ICI cancellation is implemented indirectly by solving a nonhomogeneous linear equation set with a coefficient matrix depending only on the distances between the primary transmitters and the cognitive secondary users. The ACCA is able to utilize multiple in-band control channels rather than a single common control channel; thus, it can decrease the sensing delay. Simulations show that the proposed SS can efficiently cope with the ICI and achieve much better performance than the conventional methods in the low signal to interference-plus-noise ratio range.


The aim of the present investigation is to produce rapidly disintegrating laminar extrudates for delivering ibuprofen in the mouth of paediatric patients. This laminar shape is particularly convenient for drug delivering in the mouth and can be easily cut in cut in different sizes allowing for a convenient adjustment of the drug dose depending on the age of the patient. Due to the fact that in paediatric formulations, the selection of the excipients is always a challenging issue and the reduction of their amount is always highly desirable, in this study to select the most appropriate composition to achieve a rapid disintegration and simultaneously permit a high amount of ibuprofen in the system, an experimental design for mixtures was employed and the disintegration time in simulated saliva was used as experimental response. In addition, after solid state analyses to check possible insurgence of drug-excipients interactions, laminar extrudates were characterised in terms of mechanical properties and in vitro dissolution performances. Extrudates with the desired uniform laminar shape, constant thickness (2 mm) and a very high content of drug (82% wt) were produced. These products exhibited a short disintegration time. The dose for a patient of 6-12 years corresponded to a length of extrudate between 1-1.5 cm, perfectly compatible with a formulation orodispersible thin laminar extrudate intended for a paediatric patient (Figure 1).


Preface Chapter 1: Can We Talk? The Rise of Rude, Nasty, Stubborn Politics by Daniel M. Shea and Morris P. Fiorina Chapter 2: The Powerful-if Elusive-Nature of Civility by Susan Herbst Chapter 3: What Is Civil Engaged Argument and Why Does Aspiring to It Matter? by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Bruce W. Hardy Chapter 4: Calls for Civility: An Invitation to Deliberate or a Means of Political Control? by J. Cherie Strachan and Michael R. Wolf Chapter 5: The Uncivil and the Incendiary by Todd Gitlin Chapter 6: Television and Uncivil Political Discourse by Diana C. Mutz Chapter 7: Our Tribal Nature and the Rise of Nasty Politics by Daniel M. Shea Chapter 8: Presidents, Partisans, and Polarized Politics by Gary C. Jacobson Chapter 9: Partisan Polarization and Satisfaction with Democracy by John H. Aldrich Chapter 10: Party Homogeneity and Contentious Politics by Morris P. Fiorina Chapter 11: Polarized by Design: The Modern-Day Congress by Juliet Eilperin Chapter 12: The News Media and The Rise of Negativity in Presidential Campaigns: A New Hypothesis by John Geer Chapter 13: Incivility in American Politics: Where it Comes From and What we Can Do About It by William A. Galston Chapter 14: The Consequences of Uncivil Discourse for the Political Process by L. Sandy Maisel


High temperature power converter becomes possible due to the development of SiC power technology. The inherent properties of wide bandwidth, high breakdown electrical field and high thermal conductivity give commercially available SiC power devices up to 150℃ operational junction temperature. However, due to immature of the SiC technology, the laboratory verification tests have to be done for SiC technology based power converter design. In this thesis work, a bridge leg gate driver has been designed with 700 ns dead time and reliable 20 V and -5 V gate driver voltages for on and off state separately. Digital overcurrent protection has been implemented to protect SiC power module during DPT (Dual Pulse Test). The PCB (Power Circuit Board) was provided by SmartMotor AS. The initial laboratory tests contained significantly voltage and current oscillations and ringing. The reasons were diagnosed as the parasitic elements. An improved waveform has been achieved by adding damping gate resistor, which resulted in slow switching speed. Furthermore, the stray capacitance which was due to the parallel configuration of SiC MOSFETs slowed down the turn-off speed. The more significant slow-down influences were observed at smaller drain current conditions. To finalize clean switching voltage and current waveforms, a minimized parasitic elements configuration has to be first realized. But there was not enough time to arrange a new improved design. All the measurement results had been done on the un-optimized power converter configuration, but with improved measurement instruments. The thesis work had also implemented DPTs with different drain current levels under voltage 300 V and 500 V separately.


This paper presents an undelayed solution to the bearing-only simultaneous localization and mapping problem (SLAM). We employ a square-root iterated Kalman filter for nonlinear state estimation. The proposed technique incorporates a modified Kalman update that is equivalent to a variable-step iterative Gauss-Newton method, and is numerically stable because it maintains a square-root decomposition of the covariance matrix. Although many existing bearingonly algorithms focus on proper initialization of landmark locations, our method allows for arbitrary initialization along the initial measurement ray without sacrificing map accuracy. This is desirable because we require only one filter and the state dimension of that filter need not include numerous temporary hypotheses. For this reason, the proposed algorithm is more computationally efficient than other methods. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach in simulation and with experiments on mobile robots.


This work uses the stocks of the 197 largest companies in the world, in terms of market capitalization, in the financial area in the study of causal relationships between them using Transfer Entropy, which is calculated using the stocks of those companies and their counterparts lagged by one day. With this, we can assess which companies influence others according to sub-areas of the financial sector, which are banks, diversified financial services, savings and loans, insurance, private equity funds, real estate investment companies, and real estate trust funds. We also analyzed the causality relations between those stocks and the network formed by them based on this measure, verifying that they cluster mainly according to countries of origin, and then by industry and sub-industry. Then we collected data on the stocks of companies in the financial sector of some countries that are suffering the most with the current credit crisis: Greece, Cyprus, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, and assess, also using transfer entropy, which companies from the largest 197 are most affected by the stocks of these countries in crisis. The intention is to map a network of influences that may be used in the study of possible contagions originating in those countries in financial crisis.


Competition between the firms in each of the five modes of transportation does not only exist, but is of major importance particularly to the express bus operators. The existance of competition in transport industry, is felt and made aware by the operators. The express bus industry in Malaysia is undergoing a major transition where 1423 new licenses is being released by Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) on the 26th March 1992, The action of CVLB allowed competition between bus services after about 20 years of protection of established services through road services licensing. The Johor Bahru - Kuala Lumpur route was very much sought after by transport operators. This is due to the fact that it is one of the most profitable route in Peninsular Malaysia. This sudden overflow of services competing for the JB - KL route had caused highly competitive market situation among express bus companies. The intense competitive environment has affected both users and the bus operators. Generally, the impact on the operators is the intense competition which has brought forth the problems of surplus in services and smaller market share; and this is the subject of the study for which the Express Bus Costing Survey (EBCS) was conducted with detailed records of service and financial performance of four express bus companies operating the service on the JB-KL route. In the current transport environment, the express bus operators have to be competitive in order to survive and prosper. The express bus companies which are operating in the highly competitive market often have to deal with the problems to achieve profitability. Too many permits of the JB-KL route have produced a wasteful competition for local express bus services, thus leading to a stage where it becomes harmful to the industry. Due to the intense competition, recommendations of changing the structure of the bus industry are given in this study. The franchising bus system and public transport co-ordination have been suggested to be the best solutions to the problems.


Global society and technology have changed the relationships of the market. Quality and cost are not the main aspects of any industrial product. On the other hand, design, innovation and sustainability became significant requirements to company's competitiveness. In this context, the design approach has shown evolutions, integrating social and environmental aspects beside traditional aspects such as technical and economic. Still, design has been becoming a strategic opportunity for companies, improving their competitiveness and increasing their market share. Thus, this research has analyzed the integration of both the Sustainable Design and Strategic Design Coaching (SDC) method in the making decision activities of companies. A cement company (BQMIL) was assigned as case study, in which the previous results have pointed out the significant hole of those concepts to generate Eco-innovation and Eco-Brand to increase its market share, corroborating the expectative of the design team.


It is often supposed that those who remain unmoved by their moral judgements cast doubt on the authority of moral requirements. In this dissertation, I consider the related, but neglected question, of how such people might be motivated to be moral. I consider four arguments. The first and the second investigate whether it is possible to justify morality to those who remain resistant to moral claims if we show that moral actions advance their self-interest, or if we expand their sympathies. I claim, that the former argument fails, since self-interested actions inspire moral motivation only accidentally.The latter argument by contrast might guarantee some motivation, but it is notsuccessful because it depends on the feeling of sympathy and the arbitrary degree of motivation it produces. The third argument holds that there is no need to offer any justification for morality, since moral considerations are merely practical considerations and therefore if one understands the latter one will be able to understand the former. Nonetheless, this argument does not provide a standpoint according to which one would be able to judge whether one acts well and it therefore dismisses too hastily the skeptical threat. The fourth argument rests on the view that there is no difference between moral and practical considerations and conceives the entry point to ethical reflection in terms of a virtue ethical account of moral training.


This paper presents an algorithm to cluster the entities and relationships identified by database designers into a set of internally cohesive subsystems. Our algorithm is based on the calculation of a distance score that is inversely related to the similarity of interactions of a pair of entities with the relationships in a binary entity-relationship matrix. Our algorithm avoids manual manipulation of rows and columns required by some of the available approaches (Feldman et al., 1986; Teorey, et al., 1989). It has been implemented on a PC, and does not require a super computer as the Wei and Gaither (1990) method does. Using a part-machine clustering problem presented by King (1980). We also show that our algorithm is superior to King's "rank order cluster" algorithm which requires manual intervention to suppress exceptional entries before one can arrive at the final solution. Directions for further research are identified.


In this most recent of his seminal studies on Descartes, Jean-Luc Marion brings together essays on the topics of the ego and of God, most of them previously unavailable in English. More than any other of Marion's works, the book illustrates the profound connection between his phenomenological concerns and his writings on Descartes. Liberating God and the self from the constrictions of metaphysics are fundamental tenets of Marion's theological and phenomenological work. This book highlights the same topics in the philosophy of Descartes.In Part I (On the Ego), Marion explores the alterity of the Cartesian ego, arguing that it is not as solitary as has often been assumed, and shows how Descartes' writings themselves are framed by dialogue. He explicates the status of the rule of truthin the Meditations, on the one hand highlighting how Descartes' argument is not circular, on the other hand showing how Pascal responds to and alters Descartes. He also elucidates the ambivalent status of the concept of substance in Descartes by returning to its roots in the philosophy of Suarez. In Part II (On God), Marion returns to the important Cartesian thesis of the creation of the eternal truths, setting it in the context of the claims of earlier thinkers and showing its demise in philosophies following Descartes. The study closes with a careful delineation of the concept of causa sui and a detailed survey of the idea of God in seventeenth-century thought.


Abstract Background Compared to children, Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer patients, diagnosed with cancer between 18-39 years old, more often suffer from delay in diagnosis and lack of centralization of care, age-specific expertise and structured follow-up. This group presents with a unique spectrum of cancers with distinctive tumor biology, cancer risk factors, and psychosocial developmental challenges. The potential burden of medical and psychosocial problems could result in compromised quality of life and reduced life expectancy. Given the differences, findings derived from childhood cancer patients cannot be extrapolated to AYA cancer patients. It is imperative for advances in the field of AYA oncology to pool data sources (patient-reported outcomes, clinical, genetic and biological data) across institutions and create large cohorts that include the full range of AYA ages and diagnoses to be able to address the many pressing questions that remain unanswered in this vulnerable population. Therefore, we will create a unique nationwide infrastructure (COMPRAYA) for research into the prevalence, predictive and prognostic markers and underlying mechanisms of early and late medical and psychosocial outcomes, and to facilitate the development and testing of (early) intervention strategies to improve these outcomes for patients (at risk). Trial design An observational cohort of 1-year AYA cancer survivors (N = 4000), recruited over 4 years, followed prospectively, will be established. Patients are asked to (1) complete validated patient-reported outcome measures; (2) donate a blood, hair, urine and stool sample; (3) consent for biobanking of tumor tissue and serial clinical data extraction from medical records and Netherlands Cancer Registry; (4) visit an outpatient clinic (vital and phenotypic parameters); (5) be approached for ancillary studies. The established Dutch AYA cancer care network forms an optimal collaborating environment. Next to the COMPRAYA research infrastructure, an online AYA platform will be created together with and for AYA cancer patients where age-specific information, support and interventions will become available. Legal entity responsible for the study Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital. Funding KWF Kanker Bestrijding. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


Picosecond Ultrasonics (PULSE™) is a rapid, non-contact, non-destructive first principles acoustic metrology technique for in-line metal film thickness measurements. We demonstrate measurement capability for transparent and semi-transparent films, by analyzing the oscillatory component of the signal described as Brillouin oscillations. Longitudinal sound velocity, thus calculated, is used in determining film thickness. In this paper, we discuss the application of the technology in 3D NAND and advanced RF filters. The additional parameter not only helps characterize the material and improve the accuracy of the reported thickness but is also correlated to critical process parameters; etch rate in 3D NAND and resonant frequencies in RF filter.


Now completely revised and updated, B. Allan This classic is still considered the best book ever written on making a full sized log home. This enlarged eighth edition, revised in 1997, is filled with numerous major construction improvements, and clearly shows the novice and experienced log builder how to select logs, plan both the site and financing, and then build a handsome log structure from the foundation to the ridge cap. The concept of modern log building was born 25 years ago with the first edition of Building with Logs. All who loved log homes could, for the first time, learn how to build one. With over 100,000 copies sold, this book inspired thousands of owner-built homes. Building with Logs covers: financing, the site, planning a good home, acquisition of logs, how to fall a tree and trim it, storage of logs, safety, foundations and basements, first logs and floor joists, hewing and the broad axe, cutting a round notch, sealing between the logs, setting allowance, gable ends, electrical wiring, finishing touches and much more. The author has continued to teach, design and build. His schools have trained thousands of good craftsmen, some of whom formed companies to build internationally, with the result that the world-wide standard for excellence in log building is now a "Mackie" log house.


This article provides updated estimates of prosperity in regions of the United Kingdom using two measures - GDP per head and Gross Disposable Household Income per head in 2017. Official nominal data on these two measures is deflated by two approximate regional price indices to yield "real" estimates, allowing for differences in price levels between the regions. In "real" terms, on both measures, London is the most prosperous region by a considerable margin, while Wales and the North East of England are the poorest regions. These "real" estimates give a clear picture of the challenge facing the Government in "levelling up" the performance of the UK regions and the locations where government assistance is most needed.


The Internet of Things provides applications with data streams frombillions of sensor devices in real-time. Usually, sensor devices servemultiple queries simultaneously despite having limited computational capabilities. This paper presents a solution for reducing the number of data reads and transmissions by increasing the potential for sharing reads among concurrent streaming queries. Existing read-scheduling techniques on sensor nodes dynamically adjust the data-acquisition rate depending on the data's variability. However, they leave the definition of read-time tolerances to the user. Such read-time tolerances are crucial for sharing reads among queries. We extend previous work by presenting a generally-applicable algorithm that defines read-time tolerances and adapts them on-the-fly depending on observed data characteristics. We evaluate our solution on real-world data and show that it reduces the sensing error by up to 60% compared to existing approaches with the same number of data reads. Respectively, our technique reduces the number of data reads to achieve the same sensing error as existing techniques. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to automatically set and tune read-time tolerances to reduce sensor readings and data transmissions on sensor nodes.


NFS-60 cells were previously obtained from leukemia cells that were infected with the Cas-Br-M murine leukemia virus in vivo. We examined the proliferation and differentiation capacity of NFS-60 cells in the presence of native and recombinant (r) interleukin 3 (IL-3), recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rG-CSF), recombinant granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rGM-CSF), and r-erythropoietin (Ep) using methylcellulose culture methods. This cell line was able to form colonies in response to each hemopoietic factor, but colony formation was rarely seen in their absence. Some populations of NFS-60 cells could differentiate into neutrophils and macrophages in the presence of IL-3 and GM-CSF. Moreover, in the presence of Ep, this cell line formed well-hemoglobinized colonies as well as nonerythroid colonies. In the presence of G-CSF, NFS-60 cells remained in the promyelocytic state. Electron microscopic studies confirmed these morphologies. A single-cell transfer experiment demonstrated that neutrophils, macrophages, and erythroblasts were derived from a single cell. It is concluded that the NFS-60 cell line is a factor-dependent, bipotential hemopoietic cell line.


This Article puts forward a normative approach to the responsibility of Internet intermediaries for third-party content they host. It argues that, in thinking about intermediary liability, the focus should be on intermediaries' responsibility towards the reasoning processes in reaching decisions, rather than on the outcomes of intermediaries' decisions. What is necessary is a framework that, while attaching responsibilities to such decisions, creates a cushioning system for their making, mitigating the hardship of honest mistakes. Within this framework, intermediaries must be seen not as mere keepers of gates, but as designers of artifacts whose use plans settle normative questions and play a vital role in the construction of our normative reality. Accordingly, an interpretive commitment must be required toward the integrity of such a reality. Every time intermediaries make a decision, as they always will and should — in all of this hidden jurisprudence — the integrity of our normative order and the values it reflects are at stake. This commitment to integrity must be seen as part of a broader concern with justice (both corrective and normative) in the internal life of the information environment. For the same reason, however, we should expect responsible efforts, not perfection, from intermediaries. Like journalists who are entitled to make mistakes, if only they seek responsibly to avoid the same (which is the idea of responsible communication in defamation), so it should be with Internet intermediaries. Understanding the above enables us to move away from outcomes-based approaches towards a more granular and fair system of intermediary liability.


We present a multilevel extension of the popular ldquothresholded Landweberrdquo algorithm for wavelet-regularized image restoration that yields an order of magnitude speed improvement over the standard fixed-scale implementation. The method is generic and targeted towards large-scale linear inverse problems, such as 3-D deconvolution microscopy. The algorithm is derived within the framework of bound optimization. The key idea is to successively update the coefficients in the various wavelet channels using fixed, subband-adapted iteration parameters (step sizes and threshold levels). The optimization problem is solved efficiently via a proper chaining of basic iteration modules. The higher level description of the algorithm is similar to that of a multigrid solver for PDEs, but there is one fundamental difference: the latter iterates though a sequence of multiresolution versions of the original problem, while, in our case, we cycle through the wavelet subspaces corresponding to the difference between successive approximations. This strategy is motivated by the special structure of the problem and the preconditioning properties of the wavelet representation. We establish that the solution of the restoration problem corresponds to a fixed point of our multilevel optimizer. We also provide experimental evidence that the improvement in convergence rate is essentially determined by the (unconstrained) linear part of the algorithm, irrespective of the type of wavelet. Finally, we illustrate the technique with some image deconvolution examples, including some real 3-D fluorescence microscopy data.


The author examines the role of religion in Kurdish national aspirations, with particular reference to the manner in which it affects the relationship between Kurds living in Iraq and attempts to integrate Iraqi Kurds into the Iraqi state.Key Words: Iraq; Kurds; Kurdish Islam; Sunni; Shiite; Alavi; Sufi; Kurdish Jews; Indigenous Kurdish religious sects.(ProQuest: Foreign text omitted.)"Thou, God, must not allow the Kurds to unify; their unification would cause the destruction of the world"(Prophet Mohammad's saying reported by the medieval Turkish historian Khuja Sadaddin.)The Kurds are an ancient people, and the Kurdish language, which is of Indo-European origin, is the fourth largest language of the Middle East after Arabic, Iranian and Turkish. With an estimated population of around 30 million, the Kurds are possibly the world's largest nation without statehood, their homeland, Kurdistan, being today divided between Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. Approximately 80-90% of Kurds are Muslim, of which 70-75% are Sunnis, belonging to a plethora of different Sufi orders, and 30-25% Shiite or Alavi. The remaining 10-20% of Kurds adhere to different religions and sects, including Judaism, Christianity, and a number of indigenous Kurdish religions such as Yazidis, Yarsani, Sarlis and Shabaks. Thus, Kurds exhibit a unique religious cultural pluralism and Kurdish Islam has national characteristics which distinctively it from mainstream Islam and are another cultural factor that prompts Kurds to seek independence, or at least a reasonable measure of self-determination if forced to remain within the Arab-dominated state of Iraq.This article investigates the role that Islam can play in the process of Kurdish integration into the Iraqi state. First, it highlights arguments for considering Sunni Islam as an overarching identity that reshaped Kurdish concepts of self-identity. The article then reports on how Kurdistan was annexed to Iraq, the role of religious leaders in Kurdistan, and the Iraqi attempt to use Islam as a method of integrating Kurds into Iraq. However, in contradistinction to the theory that the Kurds and the Iraqi Arabs are part of a common religious community, this paper argues that Islam is itself a reason for the failure of, rather than a factor promoting, Kurdish integration into Iraq. This is due to the unique nature of Kurdish Islam, which is different from, if not contradictory to, the mainstream form of Islam in Iraq.Little attention has been given to Kurdish Islam by scholars, and this article focuses on the characteristics of Kurdish Islam' and how it has affected the question of Kurdish integration into Iraq. First, I will highlight how Kurdish Islam has served as a basis for the Kurdish demand for nationhood. Then, the nature of the divide between Kurdish Islam and mainstream Islam will be examined, and the differences between the two forms of Islam will be highlighted. The question of how Kurdish Islam influenced the self-concept Kurdish community, and its boundaries of exclusion and inclusion, will also be studied. I will further examine the role of Kurdish Islam in turning Kurdistan into an Achilles' heel of political Islam in the Middle East. Finally and most importantly, this article will highlight the role of Kurdish Islamic Schools (Hujra)1 as pioneers of Kurdish nationalism (Kurdayeti) 2, secularism, and leftist ideologies in Kurdistan.The final section will concentrate on Iraqi policies towards Kurdish Islam. First, it will examine the attempt to assimilate Kurdish Islam into mainstream Islam in Iraq through replacing Hujra with state-run Islamic schools (SRIS). Then it will investigate how political Islam and Islamic groups emerged from SRIS. Secondly, it will highlight how the Islamic groups were supported by Iraq and surrounding countries in order to weaken Kurdayeti. Thirdly, it will describe how Kurdish Islam is perceived by surrounding nations and how it contributed to the alienation of the Kurds and prepared the grounds for the al-Anfal operation. …


It is shown that parametric bootstrap can be used for computing P-values of goodness-of-fit tests of multivariate time series parametric models. These models include Markovian models, GARCH models with non-Gaussian innovations, regime-switching models, as well as semi parametric models involving copulas of multivariate time series. The methodology is intuitive, easy to implement, and provides an interesting alternative to Khmaladze's transform or other projection methods.


Sequence analysis is being more and more widely used for the analysis of social sequences and other multivariate categorical time series data. However, it is often complex to describe, visualize, and compare large sequence data, especially when there are multiple parallel sequences per subject. Hidden (latent) Markov models (HMMs) are able to detect underlying latent structures and they can be used in various longitudinal settings: to account for measurement error, to detect unobservable states, or to compress information across several types of observations. Extending to mixture hidden Markov models (MHMMs) allows clustering data into homogeneous subsets, with or without external covariates. The seqHMM package in R is designed for the efficient modeling of sequences and other categorical time series data containing one or multiple subjects with one or multiple interdependent sequences using HMMs and MHMMs. Also other restricted variants of the MHMM can be fitted, e.g., latent class models, Markov models, mixture Markov models, or even ordinary multinomial regression models with suitable parameterization of the HMM. Good graphical presentations of data and models are useful during the whole analysis process from the first glimpse at the data to model fitting and presentation of results. The package provides easy options for plotting parallel sequence data, and proposes visualizing HMMs as directed graphs.


Ritchiea longipedicellata Gilg had been reported in traditional medicine, to exhibit antimicrobial properties. Therefore, this study is aimed at determining the antibacterial and antifungal activities of Ritchiea longipedicellata Gilg leaves against pathogenic microorganisms by determining the minimal inhibitory concentration and to serve as criteria to recommend the ethno pharmacological uses of the plant. Plant leaves were dried, powdered and extracted by cold maceration with methanol for 24hours. Phytochemical screening was done for alkaloids, saponin, essential oil, phenolic group, steroidal nucleus, simple sugar, starch, cyanogenic glycoside, proteins and flavonoids using standard procedures. Antimicrobial and minimal inhibitory concentration screenings were done using agar diffusion technique. Antibacterial activity test was conducted by screening against seven pathogens comprising both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria obtained from Pharmaceutical Microbiology laboratory stock. The extracts were screened against 24hour broth culture of bacteria seeded in the nutrient agar at concentrations 200, 100, 50, 25, 12.5 and 6.25 mg/ml in DMSO and incubated at 37 0 C, for 24 hours and measuring the inhibition zone diameter IZD. The same was done for antifungal screening, however, fungi were seeded into a sabouraud dextrose agar and incubated for 72 hours at 25 0 C (.Aspergillus niger and Candida albican were used). The positive controls were ampicillin 20μg/ml and clotrimazole cream 1mg/ml for bacteria and fungi respectively. DMSO was used as negative control. The results of phytochemical screening showed moderate availability of alkaloid, simple sugar and abundance of flavonoids, steroidal nucleus, essential oil, phenolic group, cyanogenic glycoside; absence of starch and protein and doubtful quantity of saponin. Methanolic extract inhibited with minimal inhibitory concentration of 200, 6.25, 200, 12.5, and 12.5 mg/ml against S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, S. typhi, E. coli, B. subtilis, and Sarcinae lutea respectively. The extract demonstrated activities against certain bacteria confirming the use of the plant in ethno pharmacology and since the root extract are more often used, it is yet to be confirmed if it has more activity than the leaves against the test organisms. Taking the least IZD of the standard (Ampicillin) as the breaking point, most of the extracts passed the breaking point.


This paper analyzes the demand for older workers, their substitutability with younger workers, and how well the demand for older workers tracks changes in the age composition of the labor force. The main data source for the analysis is the Quarterly Workforce Indicators from 2000 to 2018, which provides earnings and employment by sector and metropolitan statistical area. The analysis also uses KLEMS national data to estimate the sector-specific price and quantity of capital and the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey to estimate educational attainment and annual hours worked by age group and sector. The paper posits a translog production function using capital and three types of labor as inputs – young workers (ages 16 to 34), mature workers (ages 35 to 54), and older workers (55 and older) – to estimate partial cross-elasticities of factor demand and factor price as measures of the substitutability between labor categories. The paper found that: • There is some evidence that the substitutability between older and younger workers increased over the past two decades, but the finding is not robust. One specification shows an increasing trend in the substitutability, but two alternative specifications do not. • There is a substantial amount of sector-level heterogeneity of the trends in the substitutability between older and younger workers. The policy implications of the findings are: • Understanding the demand side of the labor market is a key to understanding and projecting trends in employment. • Although our findings do not offer robust results that can be directly applied in policy making, they point to the need for future research into employer demand for older


This paper presents a new burst-scheduling algorithm for variable size burst in optical burst switching (OBS) networks, which will improve the quality of service (QoS). This is done for burst control to avoid burst overlapping in the egress router of OBS network. The impact of the burst size ,fiber delay lines (FDL), inter-arrival time, burst loss rate (BLR), and minimum time gap required between two successive bursts (d) on throughput are studied.


This paper draws on previous work by the authors that aimed to use functional prototypes, produced using additive manufacturing (AM), as a means to draw customer input and preferences into the development of new products. This technique is referred to as Customer Interaction through Functional Prototypes (CIFP). The CIFP philosophy has been proven in both consumer and medical products. In recent years, the authors have developed further concepts of AM-enabled enhanced consumer involvement within their respective research teams. This paper discusses the extended use of CIFP to develop innovative new product concepts in the Vaal University of Technology, to support grant- holders of the Industrial Development's Corporation (IDC) Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII) and the Technology and Innovation Agency (TIA). The paper goes on to discuss a novel method of consumer interaction developed at Loughborough University, referred to as a Computer-aided Consumer Design (CaCODE). This technique allows non- designers to take an existing product design (e.g., a pen) and modify its shape in real time, in order to create a customised version of the product that meets their needs. The modification is limited within pre-defined parameters to make sure that any final design is functional and can be produced using AM.


The aim of the study is to examine the perceptions of rural people towards the demarcation issue in KwaZulu-Natal. The debate on land and land ownership and control has existed since Africa's invasion by colonists. A rhetorical question posed by Richard A. Lobban, Jr, author of "Africa Divide", "if European colonialism has not altered the African continent, how would modern political geography differ?" Questions of this nature have been through many a geographer's mind. The "Scramble for Africa", resulted in Africa being cut up into portions. Colonial boundaries fissured natural territorial boundaries and split clannish groups of similar languages. The twentieth century was rife with civil wars resulting from clan divisions that arose among African nations. South Africa, especially KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is no exception to conflicts. Tensions between local government and tribal authorities have soared since the question of regionalism in South Africa emerged from the 1994 democratic elections. South Africa was demarcated during apartheid into four provinces and as part of the democratic transformation further divided into nine provinces. With the new re-demarcation national government felt a need to incorporate rural areas into local government structures, for financial support. The study attempts to link demarcation and socio-cultural factors of rural communities towards the concept of demarcation. However, particular attention is given to socio-economic elements of the community under study, what is demarcation, objectives of demarcation, the role of tribal authority and local government and more especially how these issues playa role in the lives of the rural community. Furthermore, in order to ascertain the extent to which the Demarcation Board had addressed the issue of demarcation in rural areas.


As the world's fifth most populous nation and by far the largest Portuguese-speaking country, Brazil possesses a massive media market. Despite factors boosting demand for homegrown audiovisual content, the fortunes of the country's film industry—prized as a means of expressing national identity and as a testament to technological modernity—have fluctuated over time. Historically, the sector has struggled in the face of competition from imported cinema, especially Hollywood product, which has dominated Brazilian screens since the mid-1910s. Nevertheless, Brazilian cinema has attracted mass audiences at home and won critical acclaim abroad, though not always with the same films. The humorous chanchadas (musical comedies) that characterized the industry from the 1930s through the 1950s were tailor-made for domestic audiences, but gained little traction internationally. By contrast, the politically charged and stylistically inventive films of the Cinema Novo movement attracted the attention of European and US critics, but held limited appeal for most Brazilian spectators. After Cinema Novo, few works of Brazilian cinema circulated in international markets until a series of gritty crime-themed films like City of God (2002) and Elite Squad (2007) reached global screens at the turn of the 21st century, bolstered by state incentives for private investment in film production. While this fare was also popular domestically, present-day Brazilian audiences often prefer romantic comedies, biopics, and religiously-themed films. These trends in Brazilian cinema have responded dynamically to the tastes and expectations of both national and international audiences. Onscreen representations create enduring images of the nation that circulate at home and abroad, while everyday practices of moviegoing forge an evolving realm of shared experience.


Managing customers based on customer equity (CE) has emerged as the most effective way of doing business because of its ability to foster profitable customer relationship management (CRM) through appropriate marketing activities. Most research studies provide conceptual and empirical evidence of the positive link between CE and firm performance. However, regarding this possibility, it has been suggested by some researchers that this link may not hold true for other firms with different firmographic factors, such as firm growth rate, size, and resources. As previous research emphasizes that marketing managers should implement a strategy based on their unique business environment, our study addresses this issue by extending the framework to a different industry setting to investigate the impact of CE on firm performance. We develop a model for examining the relationship between the firm`s estimated CE and firm performance by each time period using a distributed lagged model. Then, we investigate the effect of CE on the firm`s profitability using a regression analysis. Finally, even though CRM is in increasing demand and firms are focusing on the customer as an asset, we conclude that there is a limited condition for this positive effect of CE. When the life cycle was divided by growth rate, CE was shown to have a distinctive effect on profit. In the case of a highgrowth stage, the effect of CE on profit is positive because of its potential customer base, whereas the effect is not significant in a low-growth stage. That is, when the business environment is saturated and the firms are no longer competing in the market, CRM may not be effective. In other words, a long-term performance orientation may not be as effective as previously believed. This research contributes to the previous literature, providing a counterintuitive suggestion that firm managers should be cautious about implementing a CRM strategy and should allocate resources properly in terms of their resource capabilities and ability depending on their situation.


Postoperative pain is still poorly managed among surgical patients despite
evidence-based approaches to its treatment being well established. Prompted
by the persistence of this problem, many researchers have studied factors
influencing postoperative pain management. Empirical clinical research has
dominated this area and has presented a set of factors which, albeit important, have
not taken into account the influence of contextual factors on the individual's
practices in pain management.
This study is designed to examine the role of context on the practices and
interactions of professionals and patients during postoperative pain
management. Informed by the insights of post-structuralism, it uses nonparticipant
observation, informal and semi-structured interviews with
participants of both genders (29 staff nurses, 13 surgeons, 38 patients, and
20 patients' family members), and a document review to construct a case
study of four surgical patients' wards in two Jordanian hospitals. Also
included is a descriptive analysis of pain and distress scores, and a thematic
analysis of the raw data
The findings reveal both a significant problem with pain among Jordanian
surgical patients, and limited engagement by nurses in postoperative pain
management. It is found that a series of socio-cultural and organizational
factors limit participants' practices in respect of pain management.
Influential socio-cultural factors include: sexual surveillance, an inferior
public view of nurses, patriarchal ideas, and use of personal influence
(wasta). Organisational factors include: hierarchical observations, fear of
punishment, the subordination of nursing staff, perceptions of low staffing
and high workload, and social hierarchies, such as rank. In combination
these contextual factors operate as a set of disciplinary and power
mechanisms that limit the ability of nurses to become involved in patients'
pain management; impede nursing professionalism by restricting autonomy
and self-regulation; reduce some of the patients' willingness to
communicate pain and lead to a reluctance to be cared for by professionals
of a different gender.
It is concluded that in this area organisational policies are subservient to
nurses' culturally constructed approaches to pain management. As such,
socio-cultural factors appeared to have a greater effect than organizational
factors.
Recommendations are made to address the situation and provide for
appropriate pain relief after surgery.


The cornerstone of life-saving therapy in immune mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP) has been plasma exchange (PEX) combined with immunomodulatory strategies. Caplacizumab, a novel anti-von Willebrand factor nanobody, trialled in two multicentre, randomised-placebo-controlled trials leading to EU and FDA approval, has been available in the UK through a patient-access scheme. Data was collected retrospectively from 2018-2020 for 85 patients receiving caplacizumab, including 4 children, from 22 UK hospitals. Patient characteristics and outcomes in the real-world clinical setting were compared with caplacizumab trial endpoints and historical outcomes in the pre-caplacizumab era. 84/85 patients received steroid and rituximab alongside PEX; 26% required intubation. Median time to platelet count normalisation (3 days), duration of PEX (7 days) and hospital stay (12 days) was comparable with RCT data. Median duration of PEX and time from PEX initiation to platelet count normalisation was favourable compared with historical outcomes (p<0.05). TTP recurrence occurred in 5/85 patients; all with persistent ADAMTS13 activity <5iu/dL. Of 31 adverse events in 26 patients, 17/31 (55%) were bleeding episodes and 5/31 (16%) were thrombotic events (two unrelated to caplacizumab); mortality was 6% (5/85), with no deaths attributed to caplacizumab. In 4/5 deaths caplacizumab was introduced >48 hours after PEX initiation (3-21 days). This real-world evidence represents the first and largest series of TTP patients receiving caplacizumab outside clinical trials, including paediatric patients. Representative of true clinical practice, the findings provide valuable information for clinicians treating TTP globally.


UNDERSTANDING CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECTBy the Panel on Research on Child Abuse and Neglect, National Research Council. National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20418. 1993, 408 pp., $44.95 (hardbound).This impressive and broad-reaching report, commissioned by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families and conducted by an expert panel coordinated by the National Research Council, is about knowledge gaps in regard to child abuse and neglect as well as shortcomings in policies and resources allocated to redress those gaps. The report should have been called A Research Agenda for Child Abuse and Neglect or A Science Policy for Child Abuse and Neglect, at least in that part of the title that follows a colon. As a reference for proposal writers who use the background material in their introductions, it is very valuable. Despite the hefty price, more than 2,000 copies have been sold. For the average practitioner, many will find the report rough going, as much of it requires a working background in the issues being presented.The report is divided into the following four sections on priorities in child maltreatment research.1. Clarify the nature and scope of child maltreatment, guided by well-developed research definitions and instrumentation. (p. 30)There are no standard, commonly accepted definitions of child abuse and neglect. There is no diagnostic manual for child maltreatment equivalent to DSM-IV in mental health. As a result, it is difficult to compare studies or aggregate their results. Even if researchers adhere to the commonly used categories of physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and emotional abuse, problems arise. In the state of Washington, prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs is considered a dangerous act and, therefore, physical abuse. In Illinois, it is prima facie evidence of neglect. In many municipalities, prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs is not reportable as child maltreatment. Relying solely on definitions derived from child protective service categories can obscure multiple incidents of child maltreatment and make comparisons of groups unreliable.2. Provide an understanding of the origins and consequences of child maltreatment in order to better inform theories regarding its etiology and to establish a foundation for improving the quality of future policy and program efforts to address this problem. (p. 30)The report advocates a child-oriented, ecological, an developmental perspective to examine both risk and protective factors that best contribute to or moderate the incidence and consequences of child maltreatment. …


Risky sexual behaviours are prevalent among low Socio Economic Status (SES) female teenagers, and earlier sexual initiation is associated with unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Large systematic reviews have found an extensive list of predictors of risky sexual behaviours, but it is not clear which of these are highly important to low SES female teenagers and if sexual health intervention programs are currently meeting teenagers' sexual health needs. This thesis sets out specifically to address this issue, by investigating the predictors and developing a brief online sexual health intervention program for low SES female teenagers.

Two research questions were explored using a mixed-methods approach across five studies. The research aimed to gain sexual health professionals and teenagers qualitative views on the predictors of risky sexual behaviours, and then confirm these predictors quantitatively with a large number of female teenagers. Teenagers views of existing online sexual health intervention programs were then explored leading to the development of a brief online self-affirmation and sexual health intervention program.

Self-esteem was found to be an important predictor of risky sexual behaviours both by sexual health professionals and low SES female teenagers. It was also clear that teenagers did not currently have access to reliable sexual health information. Therefore, a brief online self-affirmation intervention, aimed at increasing self-esteem, paired with reliable sexual health information was developed. It was found that the self-affirmation intervention significantly increased self-esteem for the self-affirmed group compared to the non-affirmed group. In addition, the self-affirmed group had significantly higher intentions to have safe sex post intervention and at a one week follow up, compared to the non-affirmed group. Therefore, low-cost brief online self-esteem and sexual health interventions can be effective in increasing intentions to have safe sex for low SES female teenagers.

The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed together with suggestions for future research.


Some chronic pain patients and healthy individuals experience pain when observing injury or others in pain. To further understand shared pain, we investigated perspective taking, bodily ownership and tooth pain sensitivity. First, participants who reported shared pain (responders) and those who did not (non-responders) viewed an avatar on a screen. Intermittently, 0–3 circles appeared. Sometimes the participant's and avatar's perspective were consistent, both directly viewed the same circles, and sometimes inconsistent, both directly viewed different circles. Responders were faster than non-responders to identify the number of circles when adopting a consistent perspective. Second, participants sat with their left hand hidden while viewing a rubber hand. All participants reported an illusory sensation of feeling stroking in the rubber hand and a sense of ownership of the rubber hand during synchronous stroking of the rubber and hidden hand. The responders also reported feeling the stroking and a sense of ownership of the rubber hand during asynchronous stroking. For experiment three, participants with either low, moderate, or high tooth sensitivity observed a series of images depicting someone eating an ice-popsicle. Low sensitivity participants never reported pain. In contrast, moderate and high sensitivity participants reported pain in response to an image depicting someone eating an ice popsicle (4 and 19% of the time, respectively) and depicting someone eating an ice-popsicle and expressing pain (23 and 40%, respectively). In summary, responders have reduced ability to distinguish their own and others' visual perspective and enhanced ability to integrate a foreign arm into their bodily representation. The tendency to share pain is also enhanced when an observed pain is commonly experienced by the observer. Shared pain may therefore involve reactivation of pain memories or pain schema that are readily integrated into a self perspective and bodily representation.


BACKGROUND
In patients with Alzheimer's disease, global assessment scales, such as the Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), the Clinician's Interview-Based Impression Plus Caregiver Input (CIBI plus), and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) are commonly used.

OBJECTIVE
To clinically understand and interpret the associations between these scales, we examined the linkages for the total and change scores of CDR-SB, CIBI plus, and CGI.

METHODS
Individual participant data (N = 2,198) from five pivotal randomized placebo-controlled trials of donepezil were included. Data were collected at baseline and scheduled visits for up to 6 months. Spearman's correlation coefficients ρ were examined between corresponding total and change scores of simultaneous CDR-SB, CIBI plus, and CGI ratings. To link between the simultaneous ratings, equipercentile linking was used.

RESULTS
We found strong evidence that the Spearman's correlation coefficients between the CDR-SB and CGI, and CDR-SB and CIBI plus total scores were at least adequately correlated (ρ= 0.50 to 0.71, with p <  0.01). The correlation coefficients between the change scores of CDR-SB and CGI were deemed adequate for weeks 6 to 24 (ρ= 0.44 to 0.65); the remaining correlations were smaller in magnitude (ρ= 0.09 to 0.35). Overall, the linkages were in-line with expectations, e.g., CDR-SB range score of 3-4 (= very mild dementia) was linked to a CGI score of 3 (= mildly ill), and an increase of CDR-SB of 1 was linked to a change of 5 (= minimal worsening) in both CGI and CIBI plus.

CONCLUSION
The study findings can be useful for clinicians wishing to compare scores of different scales across patients. They can also help researchers understand results of studies using different scales and can facilitate meta-analyses, to increase statistical power.


Drawing on the racial discourses of W.E.B. Du Bois in Souls of Black Folk (1903) and 'The Comet' (1920), this article examines the containment and commodification of the black protagonist in Hollywood sf cinema starting with The World, The Flesh, and the Devil (1959) and ending with I Am Legend (2007) to discredit the notion that the race 'problem' has been solved by the 'colour-blind', 'post-racial' society. While each section of the article emphasises a specific strategy to contain and commodify the protagonist, from introjected racism to masking, the splitting of the self, and the recontextualisation of slavery, the analyses of the films shows these strategies form an interrelated and continuous approach that requires black actors to labour under a perpetual disadvantage.


KIM, JOOYOUN. Investigation on charge deterioration of electrically charged filter media using Electric Force Microscopy. (Under the direction of Dr. Roger L. Barker and Dr. Juan Hinestroza) Electret filter media is widely used in filtration application as the presence of embedded electrostatic charges allows for better particle capture efficiency with lower pressure drop. The effect of exposure to organic solvents on filtration performance of electret filter media was investigated using several different organic solvents and electret filter media. The exposure of electret filter media to liquid organic solvents caused a decrease in filtration performance without significant changes in resistance. It is hypothesized that the lowered performance of the electret filter media is due to the changes in electric field caused by the liquid organic solvents or to morphological changes. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to examine any observable morphological changes in the fibers after exposure to liquid organic solvents. There were no observable changes in morphology of fibers, suggesting the performance deterioration by chemical exposure was not caused by morphological changes in fibers. Electric Force Microscopy (EFM) was used to analyze the electric field of electret filter media prior to and after exposure to organic liquid solvents. Changes in the electric field were detected and quantified. Electric field gradient imaging (EFGI) by phase and frequency detection was shown to be a feasible method for the analysis of charge deterioration in electret filtration media. Two mathematical models based on electrostatics fundamentals were used to explain the behavior of EFM experimental data. Model I accounted for both a coulombic force and induced polarization phenomena. Model II incorporates a capacitance term. Both models exhibited good quantitative agreement with the experimental data hence the performance deterioration of the electret filter media after chemical immersion was proven to be directly related to changes in the electric field of the sample. INVESTIGATION ON CHARGE DETERIORATION OF ELECTRICALLY CHARGED FILTER MEDIA USING ELECTRIC FORCE MICROSCOPY


Nitride fuels have always been considered a good candidate for GENIV reactors, as well as space reactors, due to their high fissile density, highthermal conductivity and high melting point. In these concepts, not beingcompatible with water is not a significant problem. However, in recent years,nitride fuels started to raise an interest for application in thermal reactors,as accident tolerant or high performance fuels. However, oxide fuels havebenefited from decades of intensive research, and thousands of reactor-years.As such, a large effort has to be made on qualifying the fuel and developingtools to help assess their performances.In this thesis, the modeling side of this task is chosen. The effort istwo-fold: determining fundamental properties using atomistic models andputting together all the properties to predict the performances under irradi-ation using a fuel performance code. The first part is done combining manyframeworks. The density functional theory is the basis to compute the elec-tronic structure of the materials, to which a Hubbard correction is added tohandle the strong correlation effects. Negative side effects of the Hubbardcorrection are tackled using the so-called occupation matrix control method.This combined framework is first tested, and then used to find electronic andmechanic properties of the bulk material as well as the thermomechanicalbehavior of foreign atoms. Then, another method, the self-consistent meanfield (SCMF) one, is used to reach the dynamics properties of these foreignatoms. In the SCMF theory, the data that were obtained performing the abinitio simulations are treated to provide diffusion and kinetic flux couplingproperties.In the second step of the work, the fuel performance code TRANSURA-NUS is used to model complete fuel pins. An athermal fission gas releasemodel based on the open porosity is developed and tested on oxide fuels.A model for nitride fuels is introduced, and some correlations are bench-marked. Major issues remaining are pointed out and recommendations asto how to solve them are made.


School bullying is an important concern for children, parents, schools and policy makers and it has received a huge amount of research and media interest. Whilst there is growing knowledge obtained from empirical work about the nature, extent and effects of bullying, there are areas of complexity and inconsistency in the findings. We propose that one of the issues with bullying research is a lack of emphasis on the theoretical underpinnings which might go some way to explain these complexities. In this paper we will develop our thinking on the phenomenon of bullying using a sociocultural theoretical framework. In order to explicate this, we will provide a review of existing literature on school bullying around five main themes: 1) The problem of definition and interpretation of bullying; 2) The relational aspects of bullying 3) Evolution of bullying with cultural shifts 4) Bullying as a normalised practice; and 5) Bullying as part of someone's life trajectory. For each theme we will review the empirical findings to highlight key issues, and then present arguments from relevant sociocultural theories which could add insight in each case. We will also show how varying strands of research into bullying can be integrated together through adopting a sociocultural approach and provide explanations for areas of complexity identified in research literature. In the course of our paper, we will draw on three theoretical frameworks in order to justify and support our premise that bullying needs to be viewed in relation to social, cultural and historical factors: (i) Bronfenbrenner's ecological model (1979); (ii) Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998); and (iii) the concept of heterochronicity (Beach, 1995). We will conclude by suggesting some implications for both research and practice which arise from taking a sociocultural view of bullying.


As point sources have achieved pollution compliance, the focus of pollution abatement has shifted to nonpoint sources. New Federal regulations require wet-weather monitoring of drainage areas composed of singular land-use activity. The regulations do not address characteristics of the suspended solid load carried by urban runoff. Two important suspended solid characteristics used in engineering are particle size and particle size distribution. Eighty-nine stormwater samples from residential, commercial and industrial land-use areas in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex were analyzed for particle sizes less than 75 microns. Results determined that no significant relationship exists between particle size distribution and land-use category. The research did indicate 90 percent of the particles analyzed are less than 10 microns. Seventy percent are between 1 and 4 microns, indicating clays and smaller sized silts. A trend was identified whereby industrial sample sites contributed higher particle counts per acre to urban runoff than residential or commercial sample sites.


Intellectual property rights have long dominated treatment access scholarship and debates, but are at present neither the cause nor the solution for the inaccessibility of treatments for the neglected diseases that afflict the world's poorest. Prizes and grants have helped stimulate research and product development for neglected diseases, but must be funded in order to realize and sustain costly R&D efforts. With global health budgets are tightening, innovative financing schemes are also unlikely to satisfy the substantial resource demands of neglected disease R&D under current cost assumptions. Much greater attention must be paid in global health to the strategies that can improve access to neglected disease treatments by making their development and introduction cheaper, faster, and less uncertain. This paper describes four practical strategies that would help achieve these goals and sustainably meet the treatment needs of the world's poorest people.


This paper presents the energy and exergy analyses of the drying process of apricots in a rotary column cylindrical drying (RCCD) cabinet. For these purposes, all stages of the drying process, considered as a steady-flow thermodynamic system, were analysed. Using the first law of thermodynamics, energy analysis was carried out to estimate the amounts of energy gained from solar air collectors and the ratios of energy utilisation. However, exergy analysis was accomplished to determine the type and magnitude of exergy losses during the solar drying process by applying the second law of thermodynamics. It was observed that the apricot samples sufficiently dried in the range 38-57.8°C drying air temperature and 20.5-49.7% relative humidity, at 2.3 ms-1 of drying air velocity and 2.25 rpm rotary speed of column in 76 h despite exergy losses of 0.1370-0.5612 kJkg-1.


In the context of economic growth and recovering socio-economic conditions, many Latin American countries have implemented deep educational reforms since the beginning of the century. This paper aims to analyse whether these changes have promoted equality of educational opportunities in the region. Both the access and knowledge and skills dimensions are evaluated for six important countries, deepening the analysis for Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, in order to better understand the trends observed. Results point to reasonable progress in access, but reflect an unsatisfactory evolution of the level and distribution of knowledge and skills –as reflected by PISA test scores–.


This paper deals with the quest for a pedagogical response to the challenge and opportunity of blended learning in further and higher education. It reports on the preliminary research findings arising from an on-going project involving the development of a blended learning version of an existing course on entry-level management competences in the workplace. This research investigates the characteristics of a development process for live on-line instruction and asks if there are any circumstances where this mode can outperform traditional in-class instruction in terms of student participation, engagement and intended learning outcomes? The approach involves a combination of interviews with faculty and students at different stages, live in-class observations and subsequent analysis of archive recordings. The early findings indicate a surprisingly high level of engagement and participation contrary to the initial expectations of faculty and students. Insights gleaned from the pedagogical development process are also discussed; these relate to the adoption of clear terminology and symbols to communicate different modes of instruction, the requirement for pedagogy to emerge from authentic practice with student collaboration and degree to which the technology becomes invisible as the course progresses. The authors conclude that there is much more research required on the affordances of blended learning for enhancing student engagement and performance.


Összefoglaló. A világjárvány a Föld minden országát fenyegeti. Az
 ellene folytatott küzdelem eredményeit és kudarcait akkor lehet felmérni, ha a
 veszély elmúlt. Addig csak a vírus támadásának a más társadalmi kockázatoktól
 eltérő egyedi tulajdonságai tárhatóak fel. Tanulmányozásra várnak az egyes
 országokban bevezetett rendkívüli intézkedések és az Egészségügyi Világszervezet
 (WHO) globális védekezésre tett kezdeményezései.
 Summary. The time has not yet come for a comprehensive assessment of
 the COVID-19 pandemic situation. At this stage, it is possible to collect
 information, formulate incomplete hypotheses, and define possible research
 directions and methodology. With this in mind, our paper will focus primarily on
 domestic practices. We will study the legislation, the constitutional basis of
 the special legal order, the functioning of public administration organisation,
 the reactions of criminal substantive and procedural law and, finally, the
 changed tasks and functions of law enforcement administration in the emergency
 situation.
 On the basis of the information available to us, we are seeking answers to three
 questions.
 Firstly, can the pandemic be considered a global threat to societies, one with
 specific characteristics that are different from all other threats?
 Secondly, what role do the state, government in general, and public
 administration authorities and law enforcement in particular, have to play in
 combating the pandemic?
 Thirdly, can international cooperation achieve such a level of global capacity
 for action that is needed to tackle the global threat?
 In response to the first question, the study describes the specificities that
 justify the uniqueness of the pandemic in nine points:

 the classification as the highest risk,

 the three hazards theory,

 the incomparable nature of the consequences of pandemics and natural
 disasters,

 the exclusion of any prior consideration of risk-taking,

 the application of the tolerable and intolerable distinction,

 the inconsistency of the typology of internal and external risks,

 a characteristic that cannot be predicted by legislation,

 the mathematical measurability of consequences, and

 the impact on the world economy.

 Our second aim was to present the domestic practice of combating the epidemic
 through the special legal order, drawing on the evaluations of legal scholars on
 the subject published since 2020. We have reviewed the constitutionality of the
 special legal order, its impact on central state and municipal administration,
 on substantive and procedural criminal law, and on law enforcement
 administration. Attention was paid to a specific institution dictated by the
 exceptional situation: the hospital command system. The police officers
 temporarily appointed to this post are responsible for supporting the
 organisational work in health institutions, which cannot include medical
 activities requiring medical training.
 The third theme focused on the World Health Organisation's response to the
 epidemic from a global perspective. We recalled that the idea of an
 international treaty was first raised by the President of the European Council,
 Charles Michel, at the Paris Peace Forum in November 2020 and subsequently
 endorsed by the G7 leaders on 19 February 2021. EU leaders then expressed their
 commitment to start work on the preparation of an international treaty on
 pandemics in the framework of the World Health Organisation.
 We are convinced that this threefold approach will be worth pursuing when the
 opportunity arises to assess good and bad practices in epidemic management.
 However, this will be a task for the post-COVID era.


In regard to eating disorders, most research to date has focused on adolescents and young women. In recent years, there has been an increase in individuals over 40 seeking treatment for eating disorders. A more comprehensive understanding of eating disorders is needed across all age ranges. This review is based on a comprehensive online search for published studies on eating disorders among middle age women. Forty-four studies, published between 1974 and 2012, were found. Predictors and risk factors, clinical features, psychological correlates, comorbid diagnoses, BMI, physical repercussions, and assessment and treatment concerns are considered in respect to eating disorders in middle-aged women. Research findings are mixed and indicate that severity of some related issues may improve or lessen with aging (e.g. body image dissatisfaction) while others may arise or worsen (e.g. aging anxiety, cognitive processing biases). However, it is evident that middle age is associated with different clinical features, risk factors, psychological correlates, comorbid diagnoses, BMI effects, physical repercussions, and assessment and treatment demands.


Rivers give many impacts in human activity since early civilizations. Nowadays rivers have been center activity of the engineers such as water supply, irrigation, water quality control, power generation, flood control, river regulation, navigation and recreation. The majority type of the rivers in the world is meandering river. And this research is discuss about the sediment transport in meander river with HEC-RAS
Sediment transport in Meander River with HEC-RAS just could measure the total sediment by reach, because this software is one-dimensional modeling system. HEC RAS could not make the differentiation of the velocity and the condition in the curved channel. Therefore that's need the better modeling system to knowing the distribution of sediment in each part of river. RMA.11 is better software which could model the sediment transport. Because it is three dimensional modeling systems which could seen the sediment capacity in all part of channels
There are margin errors until 40% between HEC-RAS and manual analytical result. Because different sediment transport functions were developed under different conditions, a wide range of results can be expected from one of sediment to be other. The sediment transport computations have many variables that must be analyze. Therefore it is important to verify the accuracy of sediment prediction to an appreciable amount of measured data from either the study stream or a stream with similar characteristics. It is very important to understand the processed used in the development of the functions in order to be confident of its applicability to a given stream.


Social Network Sites for Scientists: A Quantitative Survey explores the newest social network sites (for example, ResearchGate and Academia.edu) and web bibliographic platforms (Mendeley, Zotero) that have recently emerged for the scholarly community to use in the interchange of information and documents. Chapters describe their main characteristics, what their advantages and limitations are, and the researchers that populate these websites. The surveys included in the book have been conducted following a quantitative approach, and measure the strength of the services provided by the sites in terms of use and activity. In addition, they also discuss the implications of new products in the future of scientific communication and their impact on research activities and evaluation. Analyzes social network sites form scientists using a quantitative approachIntroduces the quantitative study of the main characteristic and functionalities of each platform, and the activity that they developOffers a scientific review of the most relevant and current studies on this issue, discussing their results and commenting on their implications for scientific communication and research evaluation


The complete sequence of P30, the major surface Ag of the protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, has been deduced through the cloning and analysis of its gene. Using polyclonal serum specific for P30, we have isolated a P30 cDNA clone from a lambda gt11 cDNA expression library derived from tachyzoites of T. gondii (RH strain). This clone produces a beta-galactosidase fusion protein which reacts with several anti-P30 mAb. In addition, polyclonal anti-serum raised to the fusion protein reacts with purified P30 protein and exclusively with P30 in a whole cell lysate of T. gondii. This cDNA clone was used to isolate near full-length cDNA molecules and a cosmid clone containing the P30 gene. Sequence analysis of the cDNA reveals a single open reading frame with coding capacity for 34.7 kDa of primary translation product (consistent with the apparent Mr of P30 on SDS-acrylamide gels) including a presumptive hydrophobic signal sequence. The P30 primary translation product also has a carboxy-terminal hydrophobic tail which is predictive of a posttranslational cleavage and modification with a glycolipid anchor. We have identified the apparent 5' and 3' ends of the P30 mRNA transcript which is extremely abundant, 1500 nucleotides in length, and polyadenylated. The P30 gene is single copy and contains no introns.


In this paper we argue that effective tariff protection associated with the 1879 National Policy and the 1887 Tupper tariffs triggered investment in new, technologically advanced blast furnaces that were capable of accommodating rapid output expansion. This conclusion is based on an appreciation of the timing of late nineteenthcentury investments in Canada and their connection to changes in government policy and other demand determinants. In our empirical investigation we use new information on westbound transatlantic freight rates, intracontinental transport costs, and furnacespecific microdata, and we acknowledge the endogenous relationships linking investment to domestic demand, labour costs, and tariffs.


My paper presents a diachronic study of the Left Periphery of Hungarian comparative subclauses, primarily focussing on the development of the complementisers and the operator. Adopting a cartographic approach, I will show that there were two main interrelated processes at work in the development of these subclauses, changing the initial configuration of hogy 'that' as a complementiser to a new one having mint 'than' as a C head, possibly followed by an overt operator. These two processes involve the reanalysis of mint from an operator to a complementiser by way of the relative cycle, and the appearance of new overt comparative operators due to a change in the deletion of the operator (Comparative Deletion).


This paper describes a novel topology for a non-isolated three-port DC/DC-converter. Target application is the connection of various sources and loads, e.g. photovoltaic, batteries and fuel cells, to a three-wire, two-phase +-380 VDC microgrid with center-tapped neutral. The DC/DC-converter provides a bidirectional power transfer between the DC microgrid, energy sources or storages. The proposed topology can additionally perform power balancing between the positive and negative phase and thus omitting a second DC/DC-converter for balancing. The extended functionality is achieved by using only one coupled inductor. A prototype DC/DC-converter with a nominal power of 6 kW is introduced which was realized to experimentally verify the proposed topology. Measurement results and performance of this prototype are presented.


The citation feature provides justification for arguments and demonstrates the novelty of one's position in research writing. It shows how a piece of research arises out of, and is grounded in the current state of disciplinary knowledge. As such, research supervisors encourage the candidates under their guidance to make citations especially when writing literature reviews and discussion sections of their dissertations. This requirement plunges many a student in confusion on how to go about this integral undertaking without written citation norms in their disciplines. The question that emerges is: On which benchmarks should dissertation writers base their citations when writing dissertations in their disciplines? Put in other words, on which benchmarks should research supervisors base their judgement on the quality of citations in their students' dissertations? The aim of this paper therefore is to uncover citation practices in selected Humanities and Science dissertations from Kenyan public universities. The paper analyses the citation types and reporting verbs of choice employed in Humanities dissertations and compares them with those in the Science dissertations. Consequently, the paper proposes a set of citation norms that can inform the writing of the Humanities and Sciences dissertation and suggests a genre-based approach for raising students' consciousness to the citation norms during the drafting stage of their dissertations.


Introduction: The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020;since then, protecting the elderly against infections through immunisation has become increasingly critical. This study aims to assess the knowledge level of individuals aged 65 years and above at a nursing home who are in the risk group for pneumococcal and influenza vaccines along with their attitudes and behaviours regarding immunisation. Materials and Methods: The questionnaire prepared by the researcher was administered to the elderly residents aged 65 years and above who could perform their own self-care in the blocks designated for healthy residents at the Narlidere Nursing Home Elderly Care and Rehabilitation Center after obtaining their oral consent. Results: The average age of the 708 elderly residents who participated in the research was 79.05 +/- 7.32 years (range 62-98), and 63% were female. Of the residents, 75.1% had heard about the pneumococcal vaccine, and 97.2% were aware of the influenza vaccine. Only 24.6% had been administered the pneumococcal vaccine, and 29.9% expressed that they did not receive it because their physician did not recommend it. A significant relation was found between having received the pneumococcal vaccine and age group (p = 0.046) and having received the pneumococcal vaccine and educational background (p = 0.025). Conclusion: Elderly people have more knowledge about influenza vaccine than pneumococcal vaccine. Their healthcare professionals mostly inform them about vaccinations. Therefore healthcare professionals should be trained about the pneumococcal vaccination procedures in elderly.


The health status of marine mammals such as harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) represents an indirect but powerful way for the assessment of environmental changes. The present work illustrates the first investigation and characterisation of Tf isolated from blood samples of North Sea harbour seals with a view to using changes in Tf isoform patterns as an additional parameter in extended studies of their health status. Therefore, an HPLC-ICP-MS approach has been developed which allows the highly resolved separation and fractionation of up to eight different Tf isoforms, as well as their sensitive and specific detection on the basis of their characteristic iron content. Molecule-specific detection techniques such as nanoLC-ESI-QTRAP-MS or MALDI-TOF-MS were used as complementary techniques to unambiguously identify the isolated proteins as Tf via cross species protein identification and to further characterise the molecular weight as well as the sialic acid content, which is responsible for the elution behaviour of the different isoforms during their ion exchange separation. A molecular mass above 80 kDa has been measured for the different seal Tf isoforms, which is in good agreement with the known molecular mass in other mammalian species, while the estimated pI of the different isoforms indicates some differences in comparison to other species. A number of homologies to known Tf sequences have been observed, which finally allows the cross species protein identification. The combined metallomics orientated analytical approach, which includes the complementary application of element and molecule-specific detection techniques, opens up interesting possibilities for the fast and targeted isolation and identification of a diagnostically relevant metal containing protein from an un-sequenced mammalian species prior to its utilisation in extended studies.


State-of-the-art transformer-based video instance segmentation (VIS) approaches typically utilize either single-scale spatio-temporal features or per-frame multi-scale features during the attention computations. We argue that such an attention computation ignores the multi-scale spatio-temporal feature relationships that are crucial to tackle target appearance deformations in videos. To address this issue, we propose a transformer-based VIS framework, named MS-STS VIS, that comprises a novel multi-scale spatio-temporal split (MS-STS) attention module in the encoder. The proposed MS-STS module effectively captures spatio-temporal feature relationships at multiple scales across frames in a video. We further introduce an attention block in the decoder to enhance the temporal consistency of the detected instances in different frames of a video. Moreover, an auxiliary discriminator is introduced during training to ensure better foreground-background separability within the multi-scale spatio-temporal feature space. We conduct extensive experiments on two benchmarks: Youtube-VIS (2019 and 2021). Our MS-STS VIS achieves state-of-the-art performance on both benchmarks. When using the ResNet50 backbone, our MS-STS achieves a mask AP of 50.1 %, outperforming the best reported results in literature by 2.7 % and by 4.8 % at higher overlap threshold of AP_75, while being comparable in model size and speed on Youtube-VIS 2019 val. set. When using the Swin Transformer backbone, MS-STS VIS achieves mask AP of 61.0 % on Youtube-VIS 2019 val. set. Our code and models are available at https://github.com/OmkarThawakar/MSSTS-VIS.


Acknowledgments. Introduction. Chapter 1: Welcome to Visual Basic 2008. Chapter 2: The Microsoft .NET Framework. Chapter 3: Writing Software. Chapter 4: Controlling the Flow. Chapter 5: Working with Data Structures. Chapter 6: Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML). Chapter 7: Building Windows Applications. Chapter 8: Displaying Dialog Boxes. Chapter 9: Creating Menus. Chapter 10: Debugging and Error Handling. Chapter 11: Building Objects. Chapter 12: Advanced Object-Oriented Techniques. Chapter 13: Building Class Libraries. Chapter 14: Creating Windows Forms User Controls. Chapter 15: Programming Custom Graphics. Chapter 16: Accessing Databases. Chapter 17: Database Programming with SQL Server and ADO.NET. Chapter 18: ASP.NET. Chapter 19: Web Projects. Chapter 20: Visual Basic 2008 and XML. Chapter 21: Distributed Computing with Windows Communication Foundation. Chapter 22: Building a Sequential Workflow Using the Windows Workflow Foundation. Chapter 23: Building Mobile Applications. Chapter 24: Deploying Your Application. Chapter 25: Where to Now? Appendix A: Exercise Solutions. Appendix B: Using the Microsoft Solutions Framework. Appendix C: An Introduction to Code Security and SSL. Appendix D: An Introduction to Windows CardSpace. Appendix E: .NET Framework Differences. Index.


Housing has been a major challenge for the rising population of countries during last decades and the provision of affordable standard house for low and middle-income households has always been at the forefront of sustainable development strategies and plans, especially in developing countries. Besides, the need to high-density housing systems due to rising population has become a central issue to most urban design or renewal programs in the late 20th century. Therefore, residential complex has rapidly developed into one of the most important prototype of modern housing in urban and metropolitan areas especially in developing countries leading to unprecedented challenges from the sustainability point of view. On the other hand, despite existence of many sustainable principles of residential architecture in ancient era, diverse housing problems and issues have originated in modern housing patterns of urban areas due to consequences of the process of uncontrolled urbanization and industrialization. It is obvious that in most cases, ancient principles of sustainability which have stood the test of time have been ignored in modern housing strategies and plans leading to obstacles in achievement of sustainability in residential buildings. In this paper, the intention is to introduce and analyze diverse obstacles of achieving sustainability in modern housing strategies, policies and regulations in Iran.


Abstract Genetic diversity is important for long‐term viability of a population. Low genetic diversity reduces persistence and survival of populations and increases susceptibility to diseases. Comparisons of the neutral markers with functional loci such as immune genes [Toll‐like receptors; TLR] can provide useful insights into evolutionary potential of a species and how the diversity of pathogens and selection pressures on their hosts are directly linked to their environment. In this study, we compare genetic diversity in neutral (eleven microsatellite loci) and adaptive (seven TLR loci) loci to determine genetic variation in a nonmigratory western Himalayan passerine, the black‐throated tit (Aegithalos concinnus), distributed across an elevation gradient with varying degree of pathogen‐mediated selection pressure. We further compare the diversity in TLR loci with a high‐elevation sister species, the white‐throated tit (Aegithalos niveogularis). Our results indicate a lack of population genetic structure in the black‐throated tit and signatures of a past bottleneck. In contrast, we found high diversity in TLR loci and locus‐specific (TLR7) signatures of pathogen‐mediated selection, which was comparable to diversity in the white‐throated tit. Levels of diversity at TLR5 locus corresponded very closely with neutral microsatellite variation. We found evidence of positive selection in TLR1LA, TLR5, and TLR7 loci highlighting the importance in pathogen recognition. Our finding demonstrates that reduction in neutral variation does not necessarily lead to reduction in functional genetic diversity and probably helps in revival of population in a widespread species.


Despite a near-continuous decline over the past 20 years, the teen birth rate in the United States continues to be higher than that of other developed countries. Given that over three- quarters of teen births are unintended at conception and that over a third of unplanned births are to women using contraception, many have advocated for promoting the use of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), which are more effective at preventing pregnancy than more commonly used contraceptives. In order to speak to the degree to which increasing access to LARCs can reduce teen birth rates, this paper analyzes the first large-scale policy intervention to promote and improve access to LARCs in the United States: Colorado's Family Planning Initiative. We estimate its effects using a difference-in-differences approach, comparing the changes in teen birth rates in Colorado counties with Title X clinics (which received funding) to the changes observed in other US counties with Title X clinics. The results of this analysis indicate that the $23 million program reduced the teen birth rate by approximately 5% in the four years following its implementation, providing support for the notion that increasing access to LARCs is a mechanism through which policy can reduce teenage childbearing.


During January 24--May 2, 2003, smallpox vaccine was administered to 35,903 civilian health-care and public health workers in 55 jurisdictions to prepare the United States for a possible terrorist attack using smallpox virus. This report updates information on vaccine-associated adverse events among civilians vaccinated since the beginning of the program and among contacts of vaccinees received by CDC from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as of May 2.


The asymmetry of the DNA duplex due to polynucleotide strand complementarity could be the molecular basis of cell polarity in spore-forming bacteria. To test this possibility, the relationship of DNA strand segregation to the spore location pattern in chains of sporangia was investigated in Bacillus megaterium. Spores containing one chromosomes labelled in one of the complementary strands were formed from cells that had been allowed to segregate pulse-labelled chromosomes in minimal medium at 30 degree C. A second crop of spores was then formed from cells originating from the labelled spore population. The second generation spores inherited labelled strands from the first sporepopulation by random segregation. In contrast, the patterns of spore positions in sporangial chains were non-random. Furthermore, the non-randomness of patterning was stable and was unaffected by growth temperature (15 to 37 degrees C) or by enrichment of the minimal medium used in the segregation experiments. Since the pattern of DNA strand segregation is random and the spore location pattern in chains of sporangia is non-random, the asymmetry of the DNA duplex cannot be the determinant of cell polarity.