Electrical power systems utilise several voltage levels using power transformers to transfer voltages and connect parts of the power system with different voltage levels. One of these voltage transformations is being performed in the key component of the electrical power system: the distribution power transformer. It connects the Medium Voltage (MV) 11 kV - 33 kV networks and the Low Voltage (LV) 415 V networks, enabling connection of a large number of LV customers as well as (though to a much smaller extent) access of embedded generators to the electrical distribution network. Although the Australian distribution power transformers are considered to be very efficient devices (Minimum Energy Performance Standards - MEPS Fact Sheet, 2004), still roughly 3.2% of distribution transformers' throughput electricity is lost due to their inefficiencies. The magnitude of these significant losses attributed to distribution transformers is a consequence of: • inefficiencies due to the design, materials and technologies used in distribution transformers; • inadequate type and rating of transformers selected for a particular application. The commitments of various Australian stakeholders (the public, the government agencies, distribution utilities, regulators, electricity industry trade associations, etc.) to limit emissions of greenhouse gases and to actively contribute to the global efforts to protect our environment are closely related to the energy market reform. The recent partial deregulation of the Australian electrical supply industry has introduced competition in retail and generation sectors and also significantly changed the operational environment for the electrical distribution companies. The era of increased competition for capital has commenced. The state based regulators have reduced incentives for over-investments, however, they still request enhancement of quality of supply and improvements of customer services. These, sometimes conflicting requirements have forced the electrical distribution utilities to move focus from improving economic efficiency of electricity supply and abandon long established practices for evaluation of distribution system performances applying multi-level economic analyses and systematic assessment of performances of key system components. It seems that "low initial cost" method (without proper assessment of total life cycle costs) is becoming much more attractive solution for selection of distribution equipment. The expected steady increases in energy demands and the need to undertake effective measures to protect the environment could be partially solved by improving energy efficiency of electrical equipment. The recent focus of the Australian government on the environmental costs associated with use of electrical energy has brought the efficiency of electrical equipment (including distribution transformers) under the spotlight. Highly efficient, yet cost-effective distribution power transformers, which are fully optimised for the expected service conditions (the likely load and the operating environment), are obviously the right solution for reduction of electrical losses. Introduction and use of such equipment would present significant challenge for electrical distribution utilities and private users of distribution transformers as this would have a considerable impact on their competitive position under the new industry structure. This research explores potential design improvements and increase in efficiencies for distribution transformers trough analysis of existing design and manufacturing technologies, relevant international regulatory developments, technological advancements and general trends in the context of the Australian market. It analyses the recently introduced mandatory Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for distribution transformer and suggests courses of action for industry, regulatory bodies and the end users, which could help to ensure that those actions are part of the global solution for complex environmental issues. In addition, this research investigates a new two-stage approach for evaluation, assessment and utilisation of distribution power transformers and as such, to some extent, is directed towards a rational risk management and technical methodology to allow Australian electrical utilities and other interested parties to deal cost-effectively with present conventional technologies for distribution transformer used by major Australian manufacturers. The new assessment method for distribution transformers is based on: • development of cost efficiency schedules for selected designs and representative kVA ratings; • thorough financial analysis of distribution transformer losses. This refined methodology highlights importance of design and costing stages in the assessment process. Further, it recommends moving from simple capitalisation of transformer losses by extending evaluation of the total operating costs through introduction of new evaluation factors based on life cycle cost concepts and on expected service and loading conditions. This research is a contribution towards development of new procedures and methodologies, which will provide guidelines and recommendations for improvement of distribution transformer performances and increase compatibility of needs and capabilities of various stakeholders: end users, standards' setting bodies, regulators, research organisations, equipment manufacturers, designers and consultants.


In V.C. v. Slovakia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) should have held that Slovakia's intentional, systematic policy of coerced sterilization of Roma women violated the discrimination provision of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The ECtHR, however, is reluctant to find Article 14 discrimination violations unless the government fails to effectively investigate concrete evidence suggesting racial animus, thereby amounting to a procedural violation. In V.C., a discrimination violation was nonetheless appropriate in light of the importance of the Convention rights violated, disproportionate accounts of hospitals sterilizing Roma women, and other objective evidence implicating discriminatory intent. Thus, the ECtHR should have shifted the burden to Slovakia to disprove discrimination. Rather, by avoiding a fact-specific assessment of the discrimination complaint, the ECtHR framed the government's coerced sterilization of Roma women as mere hospital error.


A key aspect of the European STRATFEED project on developing and validating analytical methods to detect animal meal in feed was the creation of a samples bank. To manage the 2,500 samples that were stored in the samples bank, another important objective was to build a database and develop an Internet-based data explorer - the STRATFEED explorer - to enable all laboratories and manufacturers working in the feed sector to make use of the database. The concept developed for the STRATFEED project could be used for samples management in other projects and it is easily adapted to meet a variety of requirements. The STRATFEED explorer can now be run from the public website http://stratfeed.cra.wallonie.be. Each webpage of this application is described in a documentation file aimed at helping the user to explore the database.


INTRODUCTION. Parenting sense of competence is a central construct to understand the dynamics and processes that occur within the family system. It is a major determinant of competent parenting behaviors, and it is closely linked to a healthy child development and their overall well-being. The aim of the present study is to obtain a better understanding of parenting sense of competence in Portuguese at-risk families and, more specifically, to analyze the relations between sociodemographic variables, perceived parenting efficacy, satisfaction with the parenting role and the child well-being. METHOD. The participants were 207 families (168 mothers and 39 fathers) receiving family preservation interventions in the Algarve (South of Portugal). The Parenting Sense of Competence Scale and a sociodemographic questionnaire were applied by trained interviewers, through an individual interview. Furthermore, the Child Well-Being Scales were filled by 21 case managers. RESULTS. Results showed that the majority of participants lived under a precarious economic and occupational situation, and had a low educational level. On average, families consisted of four people and of two children with 58,5% living below the national poverty line. Participants presented, on average, medium-high levels of perceived parenting efficacy and satisfaction, although they scored significantly higher on efficacy. We observed significant and positive correlations between parenting efficacy and satisfaction with all the child well-being dimensions (child well-being score, parental disposition and child performance) with the exception of household adequacy. DISCUSSION. These findings highlight the need to include the boosting of parental satisfaction and the readjustment of parental sense of efficacy as the primary aim of psycho-educational interventions in at-risk families. The implications for social policies for this vulnerable group are discussed.


Searching for code is a common task among programmers, with the ultimate goal of finding and reusing code or getting ideas for implementation. While the process of searching for code – issuing a query and selecting a relevant match – is straightforward, several costs must be balanced, including the costs of specifying the query, examining the results to find desired code, and not finding a relevant result. For the popular syntactic searches the query cost is quite low, but the results are often vague or irrelevant, so the examination cost is high and matches may not be found. Semantic searches may return more relevant results, but current techniques that involve writing complex specifications or executing code against test cases are costly to the developer, and close matches cannot be easily identified. In this work, we address these limitations and propose an approach for semantic search in which developers specify lightweight, incomplete specifications and an SMT solver automatically identifies programs from a repository that match the specifications. The program repository is automatically encoded as constraints offline so the search for programs is efficient. The program encodings cover various levels of abstraction to enable partial matches when no, or few, exact matches exists. We present empirical evidence showing the lightweight specifications can be accurately defined by developers, instantiate this approach on a subset of the Yahoo! Pipes mashup language, and outline extensions to other programming languages.


The Becchi-Rouet-Stora and Tyutin (BRST) transformation plays a crucial role in the quantization of gauge theories. The BRST transformation is also very important tool in characterizing the various renormalizable field theoretic models. The generalization of the usual BRST transformation, by making the infinitesimal global parameter finite and field dependent, is commonly known as the finite field dependent BRST (FFBRST) transformation. In this thesis, we have extended the FFBRST transformation in an auxiliary field formulation and have developed both on-shell and off-shell FF-anti-BRST transformations. The different aspects of such transformation are studied in Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formulation. FFBRST transformation has further been used to study the celebrated Gribov problem and to analyze the constrained dynamics in gauge theories. A new finite field dependent symmetry (combination of FFBRST and FF-anti-BRST) transformation has been invented. The FFBRST transformation is shown useful in connection of first-class constrained theory to that of second-class also. Further, we have applied the Batalin-Fradkin-Vilkovisky (BFV) technique to quantize a field theoretic model in the Hamiltonian framework. The Hodge de Rham theorem for differential geometry has also been studied in such context.


AIM
This study aims to analyze the stress patterns and displacement in the cantilever resin bonded fixed partial denture (RBFPD) and compare it with the conventional cantilever fixed partial denture using 3-D finite element analysis. Also, the effect of cement on the displacement and stress patterns in conventional cantilever fixed partial denture was to be analyzed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Three-dimensional models were prepared layer wise to depict the conventional cantilever and the cantilever RBFPD. Once the models were made, the material properties were assigned and divided into three groups. (2-conventional cantilever with resin cement, 1--conventional cantilever with GIC cement and 3-resin bonded cantilever with resin cement). Load was applied in vertical as well as lateral directions and the stress patterns along with displacement were analyzed.

RESULTS
The results revealed that the von Mises stresses in all the three groups were found to be almost equal under vertical loading. Under lateral loading, the stress was more in cantilever RBFPD. Displacement in all the three axes was significantly less in the cantilever RBFPD.

CONCLUSION
Stress concentration in the lateral direction in cantilever RBFPD was found to be higher than the cantilever conventional group. Displacement in X, Y and Z axes was less in cantilever RBFPD.


This book investigates the process of management
knowledge transfer into the business schools
situated in Belarus - one of the former Soviet Union
republics which gained its independence in 1992. The
collapse of Communism in the latter part of the 20th
century and the emergence of a more free market
economy has created both remarkable opportunities
and complex problems, as generations brought up
under a strict disciplinarian regime struggle to
come to terms with newfound freedoms. This book is
based on in-depth research into the current
situation in Belarus particularly in the area of
management education investigating whether the
international transfer of management knowledge has
been effective in changing perceptions and what the
key barriers and enablers are to this process. Using
a mixed method approach, the writer creates a deeper
understanding of the issue of effective management
knowledge transfer with particular emphasis on the
role of educators, necessary to illustrate the
massive impact these changes caused, and the part
that modern management knowledge has started to play
in the post Soviet environment.


The research in this thesis is associated with different aspects of experimental analyses of structural dynamic systems and the correction of the corresponding mathematical models using the results of experimental investigations as a reference. A comprehensive finite-element model updating software technology is assembled and various novel features are implemented. The software technology is integrated into an experimental test facility for structural dynamic identification and used in a number of real life aerospace applications which illustrate the advantages of the new features.

To improve the quality of the experimental reference data a novel non-iterative method for the computation of optimised multi-point excitation force vectors for Phase Resonance Testing is introduced. The method is unique in that it is based entirely on experimental data, allows to determine both the locations and force components resulting in the highest phase purity, and enable to predict the corresponding mode indicator. A minimisation criterion for the real-part response of the test structure with respect to the total response is utilised and, unlike with the application of other methods, no further information such as a mass matrix from a finite-element model or assumptions on the structure's damping characteristics is required. Performance in comparison to existing methods is assessed in a numerical study using an analytical eleven-degrees-of-freedom model. Successful applications to a simple laboratory satellite structure and under realistic test conditions during the Ground Vibration Test on the European Space Agency's Polar Platform are described. Considerable improvements are achieved with respect to the phase purity of the identified mode shapes as compared to other methods or manual tuning strategies as well as the time and effort involved in the application during Ground Vibration Testing.

Various aspects regarding the application of iterative model updating methods to aerospace-related test structures and live experimental data are discussed. A new iterative correction parameter selection technique enabling to create a physically correct updated analytical model and a novel approach for the correction of structural components with viscous material properties are proposed. A finite-element model of the GARTEUR SM-AG19 laboratory test structure is updated using experimental modal data from a Ground Vibration Test. In order to assess the accuracy and physical consistency of the updated model a novel approach is applied where only a fraction of the mode shapes and natural frequencies from the experimental data base is used in the model correction process and analytical and experimental modal data beyond the range utilised for updating are correlated.

To evaluate the influence of experimental errors on the accuracy of finite-element model corrections a numerical simulation procedure is developed. The effects of measurement uncertainties on the substructure correction factors, natural frequency deviations, and mode shape correlation are investigated using simulated experimental modal data. Various numerical models are generated to study the effects of modelling error magnitudes and locations. As a result, the correction parameter uncertainty increases with the magnitude of the experimental errors and decreases with the number of modes involved in the updating process. Frequency errors, however, since they are not averaged during updating, must be measured with an adequately high precision.

Next, the updating procedure is applied to an authentic industrial aerospace structure. The finite-element model of the EC 135 helicopter is utilised and a novel technique for the parameterisation of substructures with non-isotropic material properties is suggested. Experimental modal parameters are extracted from frequency responses recorded during a Shake Test on the EC 135-S01 prototype. In this test case, the correction process involves the handling of a high degree of modal and spatial incompleteness in the experimental reference data. Accordingly, new effective strategies for the selection of updating parameters are developed which are both physically significant and likewise have a sufficient sensitivity with respect to the analytical modal parameters.

Finally, possible advantages of model updating in association with a model-based method for the identification and localisation of structural damage are investigated. A new technique for identifying and locating delamination damages in carbon fibre reinforced polymers is introduced. The method is based on a correlation of damage-induced modal damping variations from an elasto-mechanic structure to the corresponding data from a numerical model in order to derive information on the damage location. Using a numerical model enables the location of damages in a three-dimensional structure from experimental data obtained with only a single response sensor. To acquire sufficiently accurate experimental data a novel criterion for the determination of most appropriate actuator and sensor positions and a polynomial curve fitting technique are suggested. It will be shown that in order to achieve a good location precision the numerical model must retain a high degree of accuracy and physical consistency.


We present results for the first three years of OzDES, a six year programme to obtain redshifts for objects in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) supernova fields using the 2dF fibre positioner and AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. OzDES is a multi-object spectroscopic survey targeting multiple types of targets at multiple epochs over a multiyear baseline and is one of the first multi-object spectroscopic surveys to dynamically include transients into the target list soon after their discovery. At the end of three years, OzDES has spectroscopically confirmed almost 100 supernovae, and has measured redshifts for 17 000 objects, including the redshifts of 2566 supernova hosts. We examine how our ability to measure redshifts for targets of various types depends on signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), magnitude and exposure time, finding that our redshift success rate increases significantly at a S/N of 2-3 per 1-angstrom bin. We also find that the change in S/N with exposure time closely matches the Poisson limit for stacked exposures as long as 10 h. We use these results to predict the redshift yield of the full OzDES survey, as well as the potential yields of future surveys on other facilities such as (i.e. the 4-m Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope, the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph and the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer). This work marks the first OzDES data release, comprising 14 693 redshifts. OzDES is on target to obtain over 30 000 redshifts over the 6-yr duration of the survey, including a yield of approximately 5700 supernova host-galaxy redshifts.


We present a discriminative learning method for pattern discovery of binding sites in nucleic acid sequences based on hidden Markov models. Sets of positive and negative example sequences are mined for sequence motifs whose occurrence frequency varies between the sets. The method offers several objective functions, but we concentrate on mutual information of condition and motif occurrence. We perform a systematic comparison of our method and numerous published motif-finding tools. Our method achieves the highest motif discovery performance, while being faster than most published methods. We present case studies of data from various technologies, including ChIP-Seq, RIP-Chip and PAR-CLIP, of embryonic stem cell transcription factors and of RNA-binding proteins, demonstrating practicality and utility of the method. For the alternative splicing factor RBM10, our analysis finds motifs known to be splicing-relevant. The motif discovery method is implemented in the free software package Discrover. It is applicable to genome- and transcriptome-scale data, makes use of available repeat experiments and aside from binary contrasts also more complex data configurations can be utilized.


A protocol for in vitro propagation of Muscari mirum Speta, an endangered geophyte of the family Hyacinthaceae, was developed. Bulb scale, scape, leaf, and immature embryo explants were cultured on different nutrient media compositions supplemented with various concentrations of plant growth regulators (BAP, NAA, TDZ, Picloram, 2,4-D). Scape explants produced callus only. Higher numbers of bulblets were obtained from bulb scale explants than embryo explants. The highest percentage of the bulb formation (23.50 per explant) were obtained from bulb scale explants consisting of 4 scale segments cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 4 mg L-1 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 0.25 mg L-1 a- naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) after 5 months of culture initiation. Rooted bulblets which were more than 5 mm in diameter were transplanted into potting mixture of soil, vermiculite and perlite (1:1:1). The chromosome number of the root cells of in vitro induced bulblets was diploid 2n = 18.


This chapter examines Article 9 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which articulates rights to accessibility. The chapter is divided into three main sections in addition to the introduction. The first of these focuses on the Ad Hoc Committee debates that shaped Article 9. This will be organized thematically under four distinct headings so as to facilitate analysis of key recurring issues. The second and third sections deal with the current text of Article 9 (paragraphs 9(1) and 9(2) respectively), its implications, and the way in which it has been understood and applied, particularly by the CRPD Committee. Cross-cutting themes will be highlighted throughout as will any relevant domestic case law.


Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge was opened to the public in 1932. It is one of the largest steel span bridges in the world. In recent years the bridge owner required a way to remotely monitor structural supports under the road deck. The initial objective was to provide early warning of problems so that preventative maintenance can be carried out without disrupting road users. The business goal was to extend the life of the asset without a significant increase in maintenance expenditure. NICTA1 developed and implemented a large scale structural health monitoring system that uses over 2,400 sensors to monitor approximately 800 structural components. There is ongoing research into condition assessment and predictive analysis. In this paper we discuss the monitoring system, analytical techniques used, the research, development and implementation process and also future directions for the work. This paper is intended to be an update and overview only –other papers from us describe the work in more technical detail. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/199


The 13th International Workshops on Opportunistic Protists (IWOP‐13) was held November 13–15, 2014 in Seville, Spain. The objectives of the IWOP meetings are to: (1) serve as a forum for exchange of new information among active researchers concerning the basic biology, molecular genetics, immunology, biochemistry, pathogenesis, drug development, therapy, and epidemiology of these immunodeficiency‐associated pathogenic eukaryotic microorganisms that are seen in patients with AIDS and; (2) to foster the entry of new and young investigators into these underserved research areas. The IWOP meeting focuses on opportunistic protists; e.g. the free‐living amoebae, Pneumocystis, Cryptosporidium, Toxoplasma, the Microsporidia, and kinetoplastid flagellates. This conference represents the major conference which brings together research groups working on these opportunistic pathogens. Progress has been achieved on understanding the biology of these pathogenic organisms, their involvement in disease causation in both immune deficient and immune competent hosts and is providing important insights into these emerging and reemerging pathogens. A continuing concern of the participants is the ongoing loss of scientific expertise and diversity in this research community. This decline is due to the small size of these research communities and an ongoing lack of understanding by the broader scientific community of the challenges and limitations faced by researchers working on these organisms, which makes these research communities very sensitive to declines in research funding.


BACKGROUND
Targeting of multiple sites is a pharmacologically, pharmacokinetic and dynamically more acceptable approach for complex diseases such as BC. It is recommended that the women who are at high risk of developing BC might be given foods enhanced by indole alkaloids from vegetables like cabbage and broccoli. Administration of indole-3-carbinol is associated with decreased incidence of hormone-responsive BC (HRBC) which is implicated due to the induction of cytochrome P450 and glutathione-S-transferase which metabolizes chemical mutagens and by altering estrogen metabolism.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the molecular mechanism behind the anticancer activity of natural indole alkaloids present in various food and nutraceuticals products by utilizing Induced-fit docking (IFD) approach.

METHODS
Indole alkaloids were obtained from the database maintained by ChEBI (The database and ontology of Chemical Entities of Biological Interest) with ChEBI id 38958. The 3-dimentional and X-ray structure coordinates of Estrogen receptor- α (ER-α), Estrogen receptor- β (ER-β), and aromatase were obtained from protein data bank with PDB id codes 3ERT, 3OLS, and 3S7S (www.rcsb.org). The Induced fit molecular docking and ADME properties were calculated using Maestro 9.6.

RESULTS
IFD analysis showed that bromocriptine exhibits maximum binding affinity towards ER-α and fellutanine B towards ER-β and aromatase.

CONCLUSION
Present research provided in-depth analysis of molecular mechanism and helped in the future design of new pharmacophores based on natural indole alkaloids targeting BC.


Stochastic rainfall models are concerned with the time of occurrence and
depth of rainfall. Various rainfall models have been using different time scales.
Daily rainfall models have gained wide applicability as being appropriate for
use in detailed water balance and agricultural and environmental models. In
this study a stochastic daily rainfall generation model was adapted for the Besut
Irrigation Scheme located in Terengganu, Malaysia. The model simulates the
sequence of rainfall occurrence using the method of transitional probability
matrices, while daily rainfall amount was generated using a skewed normal
distribution. Rainfall data from six meteorological stations located at the Besut
Irrigation Scheme were used for this model. The model parameters were
estimated from historical rainfall records. The model validation was then
performed with a separate set of data. Results obtained showed that the model
could be used to generate rainfall data satisfactorily.


Exploring the creativity of mind through children's language: how the tiniest utterances can illustrate the simple but abstract principles behind modern grammar-and reveal the innate structures of the mind. Every sentence we hear is instantly analyzed by an inner grammar; just as a prism refracts a beam of light, grammar divides a stream of sound, linking diverse strings of information to different domains of mind-memory, vision, emotions, intentions. In The Prism of Grammar, Tom Roeper brings the abstract principles behind modern grammar to life by exploring the astonishing intricacies of child language. Adult expressions provide endless puzzles for the child to solve. The individual child's solutions ("Don't uncomfortable the cat" is one example) may amuse adults but they also reveal the complexity of language and the challenges of mastering it. The tiniest utterances, says Roeper, reflect the whole mind and engage the child's free will and sense of dignity. He offers numerous and novel "explorations"-many at the cutting edge of current work-that anyone can try, even in conversation around the dinner table. They elicit how the child confronts "recursion"-the heartbeat of grammar-through endless possessives ("John's mother's friend's car"), mysterious plurals, contradictory adjectives, the marvels of ellipsis, and the deep obscurity of reference ("there it is, right here"). They are not tests of skill; they are tools for discovery and delight, not diagnosis. Each chapter on acquisition begins with a commonsense look at how structures work-moving from the simple to the complex-and then turns to the literary and human dimensions of grammar. One important human dimension is the role of dialect in society and in the lives of children. Roeper devotes three chapters to the structure of African-American English and the challenge of responding to linguistic prejudice. Written in a lively style, accessible and gently provocative, The Prism of Grammar is for parents and teachers as well as students-for everyone who wants to understand how children gain and use language-and anyone interested in the social, philosophical, and ethical implications of how we see the growing mind emerge.


We study the problem of global maximization of a function f given a finite number of evaluations perturbed by noise. We consider a very weak assumption on the function, namely that it is locally smooth (in some precise sense) with respect to some semi-metric, around one of its global maxima. Compared to previous works on bandits in general spaces (Kleinberg et al., 2008; Bubeck et al., 2011a) our algorithm does not require the knowledge of this semi-metric. Our algorithm, StoSOO, follows an optimistic strategy to iteratively construct upper confidence bounds over the hierarchical partitions of the function domain to decide which point to sample next. A finite-time analysis of StoSOO shows that it performs almost as well as the best specifically-tuned algorithms even though the local smoothness of the function is not known.


This manuscript will look at the nature of sports chaplaincy, including its education, training, and practise. An argument will be made for making clear distinctions for a sports chaplain and developing a strong understanding of pastoral care as the primary ministry framework. An examination of the historic functions of pastoral care will support a call to maintain the integrity of the chaplain position and its pastoral nature within a professional sports context. Many 'chaplains' working with sports organizations in the United States, and elsewhere, might better be classified as evangelists or sports ministers. Often their purpose and aim is to fundamentally appropriate sport as a tool or vehicle for evangelism or discipleship, or for some other agenda. However, the spirit and essence of what it means to be a chaplain can be lost with such a focus. By utilizing the four historic and foundational pastoral care functions (Clebsch, W. and C. Jaekle. 1964. Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall) of guiding, healing, reconciling, and sustaining — chaplains working within a professional sports context and other, similar environments can recover the important and sacred work of the chaplain.


Zoe Coralnik Kaplan has her Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, and she teaches literature at Mary-mount Manhattan College. She has often lectured as a breakout session speaker and panelist on various aspects of Jane Austen's novels at local and regional JASNA meetings and at AGMs. ********** AT A TIME WHEN EVERY WELL-CURLED HAIR on Jane Austen's head has been thoroughly combed through and analyzed and her characters dissected from all angles under microscopes, new interpretations from the religious to the Freudian keep arriving in print and on film. Perhaps a look at Austen's influence on a few English and American literary heroines in terms of self-deception and inner growth may be of interest. We all struggle with ourselves, make mistakes, think we are in the right, find out we are often wrong (and have done harm or injustice by being wrong), reflect and learn not to repeat such patterns, and, thereby, change outcomes or--at least--our courses of action. In literature, we find characters who act and think as we do, and it is from their misconceptions, misunderstandings, and strained relationships that plots are woven. We take this so for granted that we may forget how recent a development such an approach is, especially in regard to literary heroines. In English and, by extension, American literature, it only goes back to the early 19th century; in fact, it only goes back to Jane Austen. Austen's heroines are legendary--if varying--models of charm, independence of spirit (if not mistresses of their own lives in the modern sense of the term), degrees of moral consciousness, self-involvement, and self-dramatization. Emma personifies an elegance (the term is used inclusively) that other Austen heroines lack. This stems partly from her own excessive self-esteem, bordering on narcissism, which is not a function of Austen's other heroines. Emma is the paradigm for (or at least a seminal influence on) the ways future literary heroines would be created, especially in terms of growth in self-knowledge--and some changes in attitudes brought about by inner growth and understanding. I submit that Jane Austen was the first author writing in English to apply--in James Wood's term--"inwardness" to her heroines, to see their psychological workings which influenced their lesser or greater self-knowledge and, therefore, their inner growth. Sometimes this growth was, in small measure, an epiphany that just seem ed a hiccup in the direction of change; sometimes it was a real turn in the psyche, showing the truth of her inner self and thereby paving the way for real change. For example, when Emma (after a few jolts along the way) has her final epiphany in realizing the true nature of her love for Mr. Knightley, and understands that, because of her own actions, she may have spoiled any chance of a future with him, good fortune smiles (as it always does) on Emma: he appears with his declaration of a parallel realization of being in love with her as well. Now the change is signaled in Emma's comprehension of her own flaws and motivations, and her smug self-satisfaction melts in her desire to be different, something that will be made appreciably easier in the warmth of Mr. Knightley's love. Austen is, of course, too great a writer, and her famed sense of irony is too much in play to make us think that the "perfect happiness of the union" (484), will be perfect, that Emma's characteristic sense of self-importance will be totally reformed. Austen knew very well that life is not like that; as a pioneer in the realistic novel she knew very well that people do not completely change. This understanding is one of the major reasons that her "happy ending" novels are great literature and not pure romance. As Rachel Brownstein says in Becoming a Heroine, "self-awareness [is what] distinguishes the literary heroine from the heroine of romance" (255). Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind also looks into herself and her motives, but she never looks deeply enough to make a real difference, and, consequently, she remains a superficial heroine. …


Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a progressive disease and once the symptoms are jointly evident enough to allow diagnosis, MND is a rapidly terminal disease. A plausible mechanism is the enhanced Apoptosis of the Motor Neurones leading to the loss of skeletal muscular control and strength. This has led to the development of a hypothesis that attempts to explain the overall evidence pattern, including the seasonal MND related birth peak in Spring, the familial and occupational MND associations. The hypothesis proposes that the development of MND is based on a variable initial volume of Motor Neurons and the development of the disease through the enhanced cumulative Apoptosis rates over people's lifetime , leading to premature loss of the Motor Neuron muscular control and premature death primarily through lung failure. The cumulative lifetime damage from exposure to environmental neurotoxins, stressful activity that reduces sleep quality and melatonin, heavy work load periods, antioxidant levels in diets, are a complex set of factors that can enhance the Motor Neurone Apoptosis rate. This is connected to the lack of CNS neuron regeneration. The associated environmental neurotoxin effects include those from heavy metals, smoking, agricultural chemicals, water and air pollution toxic chemicals and genotoxic electromagnetic fields. The ubiquitous nature of any associated substance, especially dioxin and electromagnetic fields, suggests that they are the largest general population risk factor. Electromagnetic fields and some toxic chemicals have been found to pass cancer on to children from mother and/or father's exposures. This supports a genotoxic mechanism that is supported by many studies showing chromosome damage and DNA strand breakage. These disease agents are likely to reduce the initial Motor Neuron Volume and/or advance the rate of development of Motor Neuron Disease through enhanced Apoptosis rates. Reducing the general population's exposure to environmental and residential genotoxic and neurotoxic substances is likely to be associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of MND in future generations.


Since wind has an intrinsically complex and stochastic nature, accurate wind power forecasts are necessary for the safety and economics of wind energy utilization. In this paper, we investigate a combination of numeric and probabilistic models: one-day-ahead wind power forecasts were made with Gaussian Processes (GPs) applied to the outputs of a Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model. Firstly the wind speed data from NWP was corrected by a GP. Then, as there is always a defined limit on power generated in a wind turbine due the turbine controlling strategy, a Censored GP was used to model the relationship between the corrected wind speed and power output. To validate the proposed approach, two real world datasets were used for model construction and testing. The simulation results were compared with the persistence method and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs); the proposed model achieves about 11% improvement in forecasting accuracy (Mean Absolute Error) compared to the ANN model on one dataset, and nearly 5% improvement on another.


PURPOSE
Examine physicians' attitudes toward the incorporation of psychosocial factors in diagnosis and treatment and identify barriers to the integration of evidence-based mind-body methods.

METHOD
Random sample of primary care physicians and physicians from selected non-primary specialties was drawn. A total of 1058 physicians completed a 12-page survey.

RESULTS
The response rate was 27%. Although a majority of physicians seem to recognize the importance of addressing psychosocial issues, approximately one third believe that addressing such factors would lead to minimal or no improvements in outcomes. A minority reports their training regarding the role of psychosocial factors was effective, and relatively few indicate interest in receiving further training in these areas. Males were less likely to believe in the importance of addressing psychosocial factors. Additional factors included perceptions that training was poor in these areas; feelings of low self-efficacy to address psychosocial issues and the perception that such factors are difficult to control; lack of knowledge of the evidence-base supporting the role of psychosocial factors; and lack of time and inadequate reimbursement to address the psychosocial domain.

CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest the need for more comprehensive training in the role of psychosocial factors in health. In addition, the finding that physicians identify lack of time and inadequate reimbursement as significant barriers suggests that the current health care delivery system may, in many respects, be antithetical to the biopsychosocial model.


In the event of a widespread health catastrophe in which either or both human and material resources were in critically short supply, rationing must take place, especially if the scarcity will last for some time. There are several tested allocation methods that are routinely used during emergencies. These include triage procedures employed by emergency departments and the military on the battlefield. The goal is to save the lives of as many as possible. When it is not possible to save all, or even most, who come for care, what should be done, if anything, with those whose fate is death? The central tenet and goal of medicine is the relief of suffering. If we take this seriously as an axiom of practice, then healthcare providers and the institutions in which they work are duty-bound to provide comfort and relief to all, especially the dying. There are several ways this can be done. One is to prepare by training sufficient individuals to provide what might be called emergency palliative care. These people do not all have to be doctors but could (and should) include people from a range of backgrounds including nursing, allied health, pastoral care, and social work. For them to be able to do their jobs effectively, some basic supplies should be stockpiled so the pain and suffering associated with untreated illness and injury can be relieved. However, what happens when there is a shortage of, say, opiates, so that relief of air hunger and pain cannot be eased? Then critical decisions must be made. Alternative sources of symptom relief not considered under ordinary circumstances might be used. However, it is possible to imagine a situation when all resources are in critically short supply. Those remaining resources, logically and morally, should be allocated to persons who can survive. In this scenario, what can be offered to the suffering dying? This might depend on the attitude of personnel caring for patients. In desperate circumstances, it is possible the proscription against active euthanasia could be justifiably overridden by concern for ongoing, relentless, and unmitigated suffering. Any justification that could be made for such action would be undermined by arbitrary or capricious administration. Thus, preparation for a catastrophic healthcare emergency should take into account all conceivable outcomes.


Abstract : In this thesis we study the problem of modeling and control of vibrations of a flexible structure. Different approaches have been considered for fitting a finite dimensional model to the infinite dimensional system. In particular we used a discretization method to model the cantilever beam and using this model and taking into account the saturation of input signal, we have designed and analyzed a nonlinear controller. An observer based version of the controller has also been implemented and shown to be stable. A simulation program is written for solving the governing partial differential equation for a cantilever beam and the effect of passive damping due to viscous and internal damping has been considered to get a more realistic simulation. Finally a general algorithm for nonparametric system identification is developed and implemented and is used to obtain an approximation to the transfer function matrix of a smart structure. The results are compared with conventional methods.


Scanning Laser Registration and Structural Energy Density Based Active Structural Acoustic Control Daniel Manwill Department of Mechanical Engineering Master of Science To simplify the measurement of energy-based structural metrics, a general registration process for the scanning laser doppler vibrometer (SLDV) has been developed. Existing registration techniques, also known as pose estimation or position registration, suffer from mathematical complexity, instrument specificity, and the need for correct optimization initialization. These difficulties have been addressed through development of a general linear laser model and hybrid registration algorithm. These are applicable to any SLDV and allow the registration problem to be solved using straightforward mathematics. Additionally, the hybrid registration algorithm eliminates the need for correct optimization initialization by separating the optimization process from solution selection. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated through simulated application and by validation measurements performed on a specially prepared pipe. To increase understanding of the relationships between structural energy metrics and the acoustic response, the use of structural energy density (SED) in active structural acoustic control (ASAC) has also been studied. A genetic algorithm and other simulations were used to determine achievable reduction in acoustic radiation, characterize control system design, and compare SED-based control with the simpler velocity-based control. Using optimized sensor and actuator placements at optimally excited modal frequencies, attenuation of net acoustic intensity was proportional to attenuation of SED. At modal and nonmodal frequencies, optimal SED-based ASAC system design is guided by establishing general symmetry between the structural disturbing force and the SED sensor and control actuator. Using fixed sensor and actuator placement, SED-based control has been found to provide superior performance to single point velocity control and very comparable performance to twopoint velocity control. Its greatest strength is that it rarely causes unwanted amplifications of large amplitude when properly designed. Genetic algorithm simulations of SED-based ASAC indicated that optimal control effectiveness is obtained when sensors and actuators function in more than one role. For example, an actuator can be placed to simultaneously reduce structural vibration amplitude and reshape the response such that it radiates less efficiently. These principles can be applied to the design of any type of ASAC system.


Big data is becoming a significant part of the operations of modern organizations. Performing analysis of large amounts of data requires computer clusters to run the calculations and analysis. YARN is an internal framework that is responsible for coordinating big data jobs for some popular distributed storage and processing frameworks like Hadoop and Spark. Running YARN with the correct configuration parameters is critical for the good performance of a cluster. KERMIT is an online tuner of YARN configuration parameters that aims to improve cluster performance. The first KERMIT implementation proved the feasibility of the concept. In this study we modified the tuning algorithms inside the KERMIT components; by doing so, we achieved a reduction in the execution time as compared to industry benchmarks for a shallow tuning technique. We also verified that KERMIT can tune Spark; this suggests that Kermit could be used in other YARN-based frameworks.


This is an investigation into alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) from Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius. Eighteen ADHs have been studied, with seven taken for closer inspection. Characterisation was carried out to determine the industrial significance of these enzymes, starting with the substrate scope of the ADHs. The key results obtained are as follows: ADH A is the alcohol dehydrogenase domain of the bifunctional ADHE enzyme (Extance, 2012; Extance et al., 2013). It has been determined that the substrate scope, whilst restricted to linear aliphatic aldehydes, extends at least to dodecanal. Also, with a specificity constant of 167 mM-1 min-1 it appears that ADH A could prefer butanal to shorter-chain aldehydes such as ethanal and propanal with specificity constants of 38 mM-1 min-1 and 35 mM-1 min-1, respectively. Thus ADH A may have a preference for longer aldehydes than previously believed due to its native role in the production of ethanol from acetyl-coA. ADH B was previously investigated for its potential role in the production of butanol. Here it was confirmed as an NADH-dependent ADH, with a substrate scope limited to five carbon length substrates and smaller, with residual activity with C6 substrates. ADH B demonstrated activity with ethyl 4-chloroacetoacetate, an intermediate in the production of statins. Further, an estimated half-life whilst stored at 4°C of 770 days; retention of 86% activity with 10vol% ethyl acetate and 92% activity with 10vol% acetonitrile; and a specific activity of 27 U mg-1 with 3M 2-butanone are all indications that ADH B is a potentially useful enzyme for industry. The last enzyme to be previously investigated was ADH C, which in this work was confirmed to be an acetoin reductase with a very small substrate scope exclusively based around the acetoin motif, and therefore no further work was conducted. ADH D and ADH F both have broad substrate scopes including the industrially-relevant substrates, 5-norbornene-2-carboxaldehyde, 1-phenyl-1,2-propanedione, ethyl 4-chloroacetoacetate and ethyl-2-oxo-4-phenylbutyrate. ADH D is an NADPH-dependent enzyme whereas ADH F can utilise both NADH and NADPH. Both enzymes are annotated as aldo-keto reductases, which is further indicated by multiple sequence alignment with the most similar available protein sequences and crystal structures. Thus, these two enzymes are the first aldo-keto reductases to be examined from moderate thermophiles, and are tentatively assigned in the AKR family as AKR6D1 and AKR5G4 respectively. ADH D has a very low KM (≤0.1 μM) with NADPH, giving a specificity constant of 2,800,000 mM-1 min-1, substantially higher than any other noted. ADH D showed >80% activity from pH 5.0 - 8.0. The enzyme was resistant to solvents DMSO (at 5 vol%) and ethyl acetate, acetonitrile and cyclopentyl methyl ether (at 20vol%). ADH F had the broadest substrate scope of any ADH tested, with 1-phenyl-1,2-propanedione the most preferred substrate with a KM of 0.010 mM and a specificity constant of 54,000 mM-1 min-1. It greatly preferred sodium phosphate at pH 7.0, as almost any deviation resulted in a substantial loss of activity. Activity of ≥70% was recorded in 5vol% DMSO, ethyl acetate, acetonitrile, cyclopentyl methyl ether and 50vol% hexane . Both ADH D and F have optimal activities at 70 °C and both may have application in the biotechnology industry for the production of pharmaceutical intermediates and other high value chemicals. ADH E acts solely as an aldehyde reductase, with Vmax using NADH of 74, 331, 320 and 281 U mg-1 for methanal, ethanal, propanal and butanal, respectively. Activity with NADPH was limited (< 1% compared with NADH). Activity was also noted with higher aldehydes such as octanal and furfural. ADH G is an NADPH-dependent ADH utilizing aldehydes only. It has an optimal temperature of 60°C with a half-life of under two hours at that temperature. In conclusion, this thesis reports a feasibility study into the potential industrial use of specific enzymes for a variety of purposes ranging from the production of pharmaceutical intermediates to bioremediation. ADHs D and F are most likely to have use in the biotechnology industry, and ADHs B and E may be suitable for cofactor regeneration. ADH E may additionally be useful in the bioremediation industry. In addition, the anticipated biological significance of these enzymes is described.


In this research I am concerned with the nature of the evolution of industrial relations in Brazil between 1978 and 1991. I test whether the state corporatist system established in the thirties was dead by the early nineties and was replaced by a model that was pluralist by nature, whether it was in transition toward pluralism, or whether it was not dead. I am based on the assumption that key features of a system are expressed in the role played by collective bargaining in the regulation of industrial relations The specific question I address is whether or not, and to what extent, collective bargaining developed in Rio Grande do Sul during the 1978-1991 period and what its significance is. I also assess the impact of the changes in the political and economic environments on the evolution of bargaining. I draw my conclusions from the analysis of the records collected in the files of the Ministry of Labour, of the Labour Courts, as well as of collective agreements established in the engineering industry of the Greater Porto Alegre region. I also use statements collected in interviews held with representatives of trade unions, of employer associations, of the Ministry of Labour, of the Labour Courts, and of a union consultancy agency. The outcome of my research is that, in the early nineties, Brazilian industrial relations could no longer be characterised as state corporatist, and neither could it be defined as a pluralist system. Moreover, I have also concluded that neither was it in transition towards pluralism. I rather decided that it should be called statutory-bargained system. Another outcome of this study is that although political liberalisation favoured the progress of negotiations, the economic downturn of the eighties hindered its further development.


Gottlieb, David (University of Illinois, Urbana), and James L. Van Etten. Changes in fungi with age. I. Chemical composition of Rhizoctonia solani and Sclerotium bataticola. J. Bacteriol. 91:161–168. 1966.—The chemical composition of the mycelium of Rhizoctonia solani and Sclerotium bataticola was determined in cells of various ages. The percentage, per unit of dry weight, of soluble amino nitrogen, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), ergosterol, and protein decreased with age in both fungi. Total lipids and fatty acids increased with age in S. bataticola but remained constant in R. solani. Total carbohydrate increased with age in R. solani and decreased in S. bataticola. Fewer changes with age were observed when the results were calculated in ratio to DNA. There was no change in the ratios of protein, RNA, and soluble amino nitrogen to DNA with age in either fungus, but the ergosterol-DNA ratio decreased. The total lipid-DNA ratio and the total fatty acid-DNA ratio increased with age in both fungi, whereas the total carbohydrate-DNA ratio increased in R. solani but remained constant in S. bataticola. Both fungi contained myristic, palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic, and linoleic acids. In addition, R. solani contained pentadecanoic acid, and S. bataticola had myristoleic, linolenic, and arachidic acids. No marked change in the fatty acid pattern of S. bataticola was observed with age, whereas in R. solani the percentage of linoleic acid per total fatty acids decreased slightly when oleic acid increased.


There is a wide-spread belief amongst theorists of mind and language. This is that in order to understand the relation between language, thought, and reality we need a theory of meaning and content, that is, a normative, formal science of meaning, which is an extension and theoretical deepening of folk ideas about meaning. This book argues that this is false, offering an alternative idea: The form of a theory that illuminates the relation of language, thought, and reality is a theory of language agency. In a nutshell, the theory of language agency is a theory of competence, without being a theory of understanding or grasping rules. It is a theory of cognitive structure and language production. This theory distils all there is to say about language, thought, and reality. It does not supplement a theory of truth-conditions or semantic norms. It is not the explanation of how a speaker, qua cognitive system causally embedded in a larger reality, is able to use a language with some pre-existing semantic characterization. There is no pre-existing semantic characterization. Nevertheless, there are facts of meaning, as good as any other facts. The dissolution of the theory of meaning is accompanied by another disappearance. That is the disappearance of metaphysical questions in a number of domains. Once we complete the theory of language agency, then just as theoretical questions about meaning disappear, certain theoretical questions about existence disappear. Having provided a theory of the language agency for talk of meaning, fact, property, relation, and proposition, there is no question left over about what meanings, facts, properties, relations, and propositions are. There is no theory to be given of their natures. This is not because they have primitive irreducible natures. Rather it is because, in a sense to be clarified in this work, they lack natures. I call this approach to language agency Global Expressivism. That is because it generalizes some of the insights brought to the study of value-language by expressivists. However, it removes these insights from the clouding affects of attempting to make expressivism a semantic theory. Expressivism about value fails as a semantic theory of value talk. However, global expressivism can succeed as a theory of all talk because it is not a semantic theory but a theory of language agency, wherein the theory of meaning is replaced by a theory of talk about meaning.


The loading problem in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) consider several different manufacturing settings and objective functions but some crucial aspects of FMS environments, such as flexible process plans (FPP), have not yet received adequate attention. FPPs are vital in coping with bottlenecks and breakdowns, and decreasing the flow time. Modelling FPPs within a loading model, however, increases the problem complexity. In this study, we work on the integrated version of FMS part type selection and loading problems, and propose two models that consider operation allocation at different levels of detail for an FMS with FPP. Operation allocation is modelled explicitly along with tool loading in our first model, while the second one considers it implicitly to obtain a more compact and efficient formulation. Both models show remarkable reduction in run time compared to an existing loading model proposed for a similar FMS environment. [Received 19 August 2012; Revised 15 November 2013; Accepted 21 November 2013]


In this paper, the authors present a new approach for image processing based on reverse emergence and quantum computing. The key idea is to use cellular automata as a complex system and quantum inspired algorithms as a search strategy. Cellular automata system is a collection of many simple units that operate in parallel and interact locally with each other using simple rules so as to produce emergent properties and structures. A system exhibits emergence when there are emergent at the macro level that dynamically arise from the local interactions between the parts at the micro level. The complexity of these novel properties or behaviours observed at the macro level is greater than the sum of the parts. Reverse emergence refers to the problem of finding simple rules which give rise to the desired complex behaviour. To cope with this hard problem, the authors propose the use of quantum evolutionary algorithms for training cellular automata to perform image processing tasks. The resulting software is simpler and flexible compared to conventional software development techniques and the obtained results are very promising.


BackgroundIn December 2017 the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) issued a request for proposals to develop a pan-Canadian health data platform. This platform will enable cross-jurisdictional research by facilitating the use of rich provincial and national data and ensure engagement with patients and specific populations including Indigenous partners. Academics and policy makers from across Canada operating under the banner of the Pan-Canadian Real-World Health Data Network (PRHDN) have joined forces to address this call.
ObjectivesCreate national infrastructure that is built once then made available for research, benchmarking, performance monitoring, multi-jurisdictional evaluations and inter-jurisdictional comparisons to address pressing health and social policy problems in Canada.
MethodsOur approach will address several issues including creating significant efficiencies in data access, streamlining cross provincial/ territorial ethics and access approvals, establishing standards for data and methods harmonization and providing innovative and privacy-conscious solutions to data access and use. The presentation will focus on the plan to create harmonized common data, algorithms and analytic protocols, and link administrative data to electronic medical records and clinical trials to create an integrated and documented infrastructure for pan-Canadian studies. Comparisons to PopMedNet and the Sentinel Initiative in the US will be made.
ConclusionProvincial centres across Canada hold rich sources of health and social data that are linkable at the person-level. With the exception of standardized data managed by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), these data are often not comparable from one province to another, thereby limiting use to single-province studies. There is growing interest in Canada in creating an environment that would enable cross-jurisdictional data sharing and analysis' and in sharing experiences to make effective use of linkable administrative data.


This research discusses the relevance of a holistic approach to sensory stimuli based on endogenous resources as a contribution to responsible management in community-based tourism. The first stage of a case study based on Yim Tin Tsai (Hong Kong) was used as an exploratory approach to assessing the sensory potential of this offshore island. The village has been the subject of growing interest from visitors in experiencing the cultural, religious, and nature-based assets of the area following community involvement in the village development. This process was initiated after the island became abandoned due to residents' migration, resulting in the revitalization of the area. Findings from the first stage of the empirical research focusing on visitors' multisensory-informed experiences in the village are discussed, managerial implications of the proposed approach are depicted, and the second stage of the case study is outlined.


Release of the principal excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate depends on its transport into synaptic vesicles by a family of proteins responsible for vesicular glutamate transport. Vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUT) 1 and 2 have a mutually exclusive distribution in the adult brain. Fremeau et al. now show that earlier in development their distributions overlap and that they mediate glutamate release from distinct synaptic sites made by the same neuron (see the Perspective by Schuske and Jorgensen). Release mediated by the two isoforms also differs in the response to repetitive stimulation, which suggests that there are functional differences between the two release sites. The loss of VGLUT1 selectively reduces the reserve pool of synaptic vesicles and may play a role in membrane trafficking at the nerve terminal. R. T. Fremeau Jr., K. Kam, T. Qureshi, J. Johnson, D. R. Copenhagen, J. Storm-Mathisen, F. A. Chaudhry, R. A. Nicoll, R. H. Edwards, Vesicular glutamate transporters 1 and 2 target to functionally distinct synaptic release sites. Science 304, 1815-1819 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text] K. Schuske, E. M. Jorgensen, Vesicular glutamate transporter--shooting blanks. Science 304, 1750-1752 (2004). [Summary] [Full Text]


Background. Patient care is significantly affected by doctors and pharmacists, who have specialised knowledge and skills. In establishing an interprofessional undergraduate learning environment, medical and pharmacy students have the opportunity to start working in a collaborative manner early on in their careers. Objectives. To implement combined clinical visits, where medical and pharmacy students jointly encounter patients, and to establish the students' perceptions of working in an interprofessional team. Methods. Final-year pharmacy students together with third-year medical students at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa were invited to participate in weekly joint patient encounters at a central academic hospital from May to July 2012. Students assessed patient records and participated in the patient consultation, guided by the supervising doctor. Participants from each discipline were invited to attend a disciplinespecific focus group discussion, where they shared their perceptions and experiences. The discussions were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Content analysis was used to analyse the transcriptions. Ethics approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University. Results. Four themes were identified: the meeting of professions; shared teaching and learning; reciprocity in teaching and learning; and valuing the experience. It is evident that there was a change in students' attitudes, and they developed mutual respect and a better understanding of their professional role and that of their peers. They also reported positive experiences in learning from and with one another. Conclusion. This study focused on eliciting students' perceptions and attitudes towards interprofessional teaching and learning. The positive responses to the experiences suggest that further learning opportunities should be created with students from another discipline.


In near-field scanning optical microscopy, a light source or detector with dimensions less than the wavelength (λ) is placed in close proximity (λ/50) to a sample to generate images with resolution better than the diffraction limit. A near-field probe has been developed that yields a resolution of ∼12 nm (∼λ/43) and signals ∼104- to 106-fold larger than those reported previously. In addition, image contrast is demonstrated to be highly polarization dependent. With these probes, near-field microscopy appears poised to fulfill its promise by combining the power of optical characterization methods with nanometric spatial resolution.


Background. A firm aetiology of lipothymia or syncope can be difficult to establish prehospitally. The aim of the study was to investigate patients initially assigned the diagnosis of lipothymia or syncope prehospitally and establish the aetiology of their condition either based on prehospital or in-hospital medical records. Methods. From May 1, 2006 to April 30, 2010, all patients receiving the diagnosis of lipothymia or syncope by the MECU were investigated. If admitted to hospital, the patients' medical records were investigated to confirm the prehospital diagnosis. Results. Within 17980 MECU runs registered, 678 were assignments in which the patients were diagnosed with lipothymia or syncope (3.8%). 578 patients (85%) were admitted to hospital. 278 of the patients were discharged directly from the emergency department, while 271 were admitted to a ward. 112 patients refused treatment offered by the MECU or at the emergency department, died, or were left at the scene following treatment. 17 were lost to followup. Of all patients investigated, 299 were discharged with the diagnosis of lipothymia or syncope. 250 patients were discharged with other diagnoses. Conclusions. In 44% of the patients presenting with lipothymia or syncope, no other diagnosis was established at the hospital, and no explanatory aetiology was found.


The ultrafiltration failure during peritoneal dialysis (PD) is related to inflammatory responses induced by bio-incompatible PD fluids, which may lead to deterioration of peritoneal membrane (PM) function. Mesothelial cells, lymphocytes, macrophages and other cell types present in the peritoneal cavity are stimulated to produce cytokines and growth factors that promote pathological processes. Due to these factors, blood and lym- phatic vessels proliferate and could be responsible for hyperfiltration and PM failure type III and IV. Vessels proliferation may be related to fibrosis, being the cause and/or effect of the mesenchymal conversion of different cell types such as mesothelial (MMT), bone marrow-derived (fibrocytes) or endothelial (vascular- and lymph-endo-MT) cells. Lymphangiogenesis in PD is a poorly analysed process; however, its contribution to peritoneal function disorders has been recently recognized. VEGF production is associ- ated with blood and lymphatic vessels proliferation, while specifically lymphangiogenesis is mainly regulated by VEGF-C and VEGF-D. Excessive lymphatic fluid drainage from the abdominal cavity may be related with macromolecule and isosmotic solutions reuptake and convective reabsorption of solutes that were cleared from plasma by diffu- sion. Some drugs have been shown to modulate tissue fibrosis, MMT, EndoMT, angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis and could represent interesting therapeutic strategies to protect the PM.


1. Twenty-five patients with mild essential hypertension, identified during a survey of a population born in 1936, were investigated. 2. Basal and post-frusemide values for plasma renin concentration and plasma angiotensin II concentration did not differ markedly from reference values in 25 40-year-old control subjects. In the untreated, sodium replete state saralasin infusion (5·4 nmol min −1 kg −1 ) produced an increase in mean arterial pressure in the patient group as a whole. 3. Twenty-one patients were treated with hydrochlorothiazide, mean dose 75 mg/day for 3 months. Pre-treatment, frusemide-stimulated plasma renin concentration and plasma angiotensin II, and values during thiazide treatment were higher in 'non-responders' ( n = 10) to hydrochlorothiazide treatment than in 'thiazide-responders' ( n = 11). During thiazide therapy, angiotensin II blockade induced a clear-cut decrease in mean arterial pressure in all 'thiazide-nonresponders' whereas only four out of 11 'thiazide-responders' showed a borderline decline in mean arterial pressure. 4. The functional significance of the renin—angiotensin system in mild essential hypertension emerges only after thiazide treatment. Thiazide-induced stimulation of the renin—angiotensin system counter-balanced the hypotensive effect of thiazide in some 40% of the treated patients. Thus the responsiveness of the renin—angiotensin system determined the blood pressure response to thiazide treatment.


Charles Nicholas ('Nick') Hales was for 40 years a leading figure in UK biomedical research, and for 25 years Head of the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Cambridge University. During a distinguished career he made major contributions to diabetes research in three quite different fields: development and application of immunoassay methods for polypeptide hormones such as insulin; elucidation of mechanisms regulating insulin secretion; and demonstration of the role of early life nutrition in the development of metabolic disease in adulthood. He had a boundless enthusiasm for science, and especially for exploring new ideas, that infected all who had the privilege of working with him.


This paper describes a probabilistic method for verifying the equivalence of two multiple-valued functions. Each function is hashed to an integer code by transforming it to a integer-valued polynomial and evaluating it for values of variables taken independently and uniformly at random from a finite field. Since the polynomial is unique for a given function, if two hash codes are different, then the functions are not equivalent. However, if two hash codes are the same, the functions may or may not be equivalent, because different polynomials may happen to hash to the same code. Thus, the method presented in this paper determines the equivalence of two functions with a known (small) probability of error, arising from collisions between inequivalent functions. Such a method seems to be an attractive alternative for verifying functions that are too large to be handled by deterministic equivalence checking methods.


The case-based computerized laboratory (CCL) is a chemistry learning environment that integrates computerized experiments with emphasis on scientific inquiry and comprehension of case studies. The research objective was to investigate chemical understanding and graphing skills of high school honors students via bidirectional visual and textual representations in the CCL learning environment. The research population of our 3-year study consisted of 857 chemistry 12th grade honors students from a variety of high schools in Israel. Pre- and postcase-based questionnaires were used to assess students' graphing and chemical understanding–retention skills. We found that students in the CCL learning environment significantly improved their graphing skills and chemical understanding–retention in the post- with respect to the prequestionnaires. Comparing the experimental students to their non-CCL control peers has shown that CCL students had an advantage in graphing skills. The CCL contribution was most noticeable for experimental students of relatively low academic level who benefit the most from the combination of visual and textual representations. Our findings emphasize the educational value of combining the case-based method with computerized laboratories for enhancing students' chemistry understanding and graphing skills, and for developing their ability to bidirectionally transfer between textual and visual representations. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 219–250, 2008.


This paper engages with the evolving debate on the nature of professionalism in English Further Education (FE) by considering three longitudinal cases studies based on interviews with teachers in an FE college who gained teaching qualifications in 2006 and 2007. It considers the influences on these teachers, one in construction, one in literacy, the other in sports studies, and the context within which they work. The period of these teachers' careers has coincided with a rhetorical emphasis on learning over teaching, made concrete in the recent architecture of colleges with large communal areas for students alongside cramped staffrooms. More significantly, their careers have coincided with a period of constant flux in the sector. The rate of policy change affecting English FE under the previous New Labour government was frenetic and this has continued with the new Coalition government's response to the financial crisis. In a process similar to what Klein (2007) termed Shock Doctrine, this crisis has justified and enabled significant attacks on the conditions of FE teachers. Through exploring these factors and how these three particular teachers have experienced them, this paper argues that the space for professionals to defend traditional educational values through 'strategic compliance' with organisational change (Gleeson and Shain 1999) has become highly restricted.


The multi-interactive teaching mode of college English takes students as the center and the task as the link, realizing the combination of classroom teaching and network-based autonomous learning in information technology environment. This teaching model is characterized by integrated teaching methods, open teaching environment and hierarchical teaching management compared with the traditional classroom teaching methods. This paper took the interactive teaching model of college English based on computer information technology as the research object and the "construction", "interaction" and "cooperation" as the core guiding ideology based on the learning theory of constructivism and communicative theory, guiding the design of listening, speaking and reading experiments in college English teaching under the multi-interactive teaching model. This paper first described the application and concept of multivariate interactive teaching mode, and then introduced the related learning theories. By selecting non-English major college students of 2015 from Hunan Normal University as the application object of multi-interactive teaching model, this paper validated the effectiveness of multi-interactive teaching model for college English teaching through detailed teaching experimental design and comparative analysis of teaching achievements. Under the background of the rapid development of information technology, the new multi-interactive teaching mode opens up the multi-dimensional and multi-form language learning process, which is of innovative and practical significance for the teaching of college English.


In its 2002-3 Strategic Review, the Royal Anthropological Institute reasserted the importance of the public communication of anthropology for the future of the discipline. Two signifi cant venues for public engagement activity were identifi ed: museums and pre-university education contexts. We present an account of the devel- opment and piloting of an anthropology teaching and learning resource that bridges these two arenas. Complementing eff orts to introduce an anthropology A-Level, the Culture, Identity, Diff erence resource uses museum collections as a way of introducing anthropological perspectives on topics such as belief, ethnicity, gender and power to enhance students' studies across a range of diff erent A-Level subjects. We refl ect on some of the lessons learnt during the process, including the value of developing re- sources that can be used fl exibly and creatively by teachers and students, and the need to approach the museum as a space of encounter, exploration and experimentation rather than as a didactic educational venue.


Microscopy is one of the most important analysis tools of modern science. One defining attribute of a microscope is its resolution as it specifies the minimum distance at which one can distinguish two alike objects within an image. Therefore, if the resolution is not sufficient to resolve structures within the sample, important information will be lost and prevents the gaining of new insights. Today, the best microscopes can resolve single atoms like, for example, the transmission electron microscope (TEM) [1] or the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) [2]. In the life sciences, far-field light microscopy remained the most popular microscopy mode with fluorescence being its most important readout. The reason for this is that far field light microscopy is non-invasive, applicable to living cells, and the fluorescence labeling is specific and very sensitive. However, one drawback of far-field light microscopy is that the resolution is limited by diffraction. The discovery of the diffraction barrier of resolution by Abbe in 1873 [3] has lead to the widely accepted notion that the resolution of a far-field light microscope is limited to about half of the wavelength of light, l/2. Therefore, the scanning nearfield optical microscope (SNOM) [4] was invented which images the sample through a small subwavelength aperture placed in close proximity to the sample so that the resolution is not limited by diffraction but the size of the aperture. But due to the fact that all scanning probe techniques like SNOM, STM, atomic force microscopy (AFM) [5] as well as high resolution techniques like scanning or transmission electron microscopy1 are bound to the surface, their use in life sciences is limited to special applications. Also, the samples usually have to be fixed for these techiques or even have to be embedded in epoxy or frozen or imaged under vacuum conditions. Therefore it is desireable to have a far-field microscope whose resolution is much below the diffraction limit so that one can obtain high resolution non-invasive three dimensional images of living cells. Fortunately, the fluorescence contrast mode is favorable to overcome Abbes barrier, since changing the parameters of fluorescence emission allows one to surmount the limiting role of diffraction. The first general idea to fundamentally break the diffraction barrier and promise unlimited resolution in far-field light microscopy was the RESOLFT (Reversible Saturable OpticaL (Fluorescence) Transitions) concept [7, 8, 9], which uses reversible saturable optical transitions to bypass the restrictions of diffraction. For example, stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy breaks the diffraction barrier by inhibiting fluorescence emission of the fluorescent marker [10, 11, 12]. By depleting the fluorescence, for example, with a donut shaped beam with an intensity zero in the center, the fluorescence spot can be effectively reduced in size below the diffraction limit. The advantage of STED microscopy is that stimulated emission is possible with almost every dye molecule but there is also a disadvantage - high resolution in STED microscopy necessitates depletion intensities as high as GW/cm2. RESOLFT and other new sub-diffraction methods such as photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) [13] also make use of the possibility that dye molecules [14, 15] or fluorescent proteins [16, 17, 13] can be switched between a bright and a dark state. Here, the big advantage is that one needs only very low intensities which can be in the range of W/cm2 for switching the molecules to their dark state. However, the available switchable fluorescent proteins and dyes are limited. In this thesis the concept of ground state depletion (GSD) [18] is pursued, which aims to shelve the fluorophores in a metastable dark state (for example the triplet state), thereby effectively depleting the fluorophores ground state S0. Since the lifetime of these dark states is usually very long compared to the fluorescence lifetime, the necessary intensities are much smaller than those for STED microscopy. Further, nearly every dye molecule has a metastable dark state and therefore GSD microscopy promises to break the diffraction barrier by combining the advantage of generality and low intensities. For this reason GSD microscopy has a good chance to become a powerful tool for biological research for new scientific insights.


Evidence for the status of Black South African English (BlSAfE) as a variety of English is ambiguous. This paper examines 67 linguistic features of a corpus of BlSAfE student writing, the Tswana Learner English Corpus (TLE), in comparison to a Standard English reference corpus, the Louvain Corpus of Native English Speaking Students (LOCNESS), within the framework of Biber's (1988) multidimensional model, to determine if evidence for indigenisation and systematicity exists. Linguistic features that occur more frequently in LOCNESS than the TLE suggest that LOCNESS is characterised by greater elaboration of information and information density, more syntactically complex subordination, more reference cohesion and more specialised meanings. The TLE shows evidence of greater involvement of reader and writer of the text, although some features of informality also occur in LOCNESS. Based on comparison of the coefficients of variation in the two corpora, it is concluded that they exhibit similar ranges of variation and that variety status cannot be denied to BlSAfE on the grounds of variability. The application of the multidimensional model shows that the reference corpus, LOCNESS, is similar to academic writing in four of the six dimensions, but differs in being more involved in style and more overtly persuasive. Superficially, the TLE appears to be quite similar to LOCNESS in terms of the various dimensions, but closer examination reveals a number of differences, which largely confirm the findings that were made on the basis of individual feature comparisons: The TLE carries a lower informational density, and information is more often presented in hypothetical ways. It shows a number of similarities with the style and the information processing strategies attributed to spoken registers, but it still remains very clearly distinguishable from spoken language. Many similarities between the corpora are observed, which should be attributed to the register features of student writing. The paper concludes that there is sufficient evidence to acknowledge BlSAfE as a variety of English, on the ground of the stylistic differences between the TLE and LOCNESS, particularly its greater interpersonal as opposed to informational focus, as well as discourse-functional differences in the use of linguistic forms.


A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.This presentation will describe a project where screen-captured video feedback was evaluated in the context of chemistry laboratory practical work undertaken by year one bioscience students (n=165). Student uptake and opinion of generic screen-captured video feedback was compared with MP3 audio feedback and verbal / written comments on laboratory reports.Opportunities to reinforce learning were incorporated into the feedback videos to better prepare students for subsequent laboratory work and engagement with the video was encouraged by providing an online pre-practical assessment to further drive engagement with the material. A short video documentary about the next practical in the series as produced by students from a previous year's cohort was also incorporated to provide a preview of the work to be undertaken. Text messaging and email were used to alert the class when a new instance of video feedback was available. In both cases trackable links to the online videos were provided in the body of the message to enhance access and a version of the feedback was made available via You Tube to facilitate consumption on smartphones and tablets.Students were surveyed throughout the duration of the project using an audience response system to ensure there were no barriers to access and to gauge the preferred mode of feedback delivery.The presentation will provide an evaluation of the project along with an overview of production and delivery methods for screen-captured video feedback.


Novel micromorphological characters in combination with molecular studies have led to an extensive revision of the taxonomy and systematics of scleractinian corals. In the present work, we investigate the macro- and micromorphology and the phylogenetic position of the genera Australomussa and Parascolymia, two monotypic genera ascribed to the family Lobophylliidae. The molecular phylogeny of both genera was addressed using three markers, the partial mitochondrial COI gene and the nuclear histone H3 and the ribosomal ITS region. Based on molecular data, Australomussa and Parascolymia belong to the Lobophylliidae and they cluster together with the genera Lobophyllia and Symphyllia within the same clade. While A. rowleyensis and P. vitiensis are closely related based on the three gene regions examined, their macro and micromorphology suggest that these species are distinct, differing in several characters, such as continuity and thickness of the costosepta, the number of septa, septal tooth height, spacing, and shape, and the distribution and shape of granules. Thus, we revise the taxonomic status of the genus Australomussa as a junior synonym of Parascolymia.


BACKGROUND
In response to inconsistent compliance with infection prevention measures, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services collaborated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the Surgical Infection Prevention (SIP) project, introduced in 2002.

METHODS
Quality improvement measures were developed to standardize processes to increase compliance. In 2006, the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) developed out of the SIP project and its process measures. These initiatives, published in the Specifications Manual for National Inpatient Quality Measures, outline process and outcome measures. This continually evolving manual is intended to provide standard quality measures to unify documentation and track standards of care.

RESULTS
Seven of the SCIP initiatives apply to the peri-operative period: Prophylactic antibiotics should be received within 1 h prior to surgical incision (1), be selected for activity against the most probable antimicrobial contaminants (2), and be discontinued within 24 h after the surgery end-time (3); (4) euglycemia should be maintained, with well-controlled morning blood glucose concentrations on the first two post-operative days, especially in cardiac surgery patients; (6) hair at the surgical site should be removed with clippers or by depilatory methods, not with a blade; (9) urinary catheters are to be removed within the first two post-operative days; and (10) normothermia should be maintained peri-operatively.

CONCLUSIONS
There is strong evidence that implementation of protocols that standardize practices reduce the risk of surgical infection. The SCIP initiative targets complications that account for a significant portion of preventable morbidity as well as cost. One of the goals of the SCIP guidelines was a 25% reduction in the incidence of surgical site infections from implementation through 2010. Process measures are becoming routine, and as we practice more evidence-based medicine, it falls to us, the surgeons and scientists, to be active, not only in the implementation and execution of these measures, but in the investigation of clinical questions and the writing of protocols. We are responsible for ensuring that out-of-date practices are removed from use and that new practices are appropriate, achievable, and effective.


Individuals within populations often show repeatable behavioural differences which reflect variation in personality. In contrast to human personality, which has been extensively studied by psychologists for several decades, animal personality has only recently drawn the attention of behavioural ecologists. Animal personality is now known as a widespread phenomenon in nature and has been increasingly studied over the last 15 years due to its important ecological and evolutionary implications. Importantly, the mere existence and maintenance of personality, when individuals are expected to be behaviourally flexible, remains a puzzle which needs to be solved. The bulk of animal personality studies aims at understanding the evolution and causation of animal personality, and has shown that personality is often related to individual performance such as survival and reproductive success. In this context, quantitative genetics provide a framework to study the evolution of animal personality. This is because personality traits vary continuously within populations and can be considered as quantitative traits comparable to size, determined by many genes which are inherited according to Mendelian rules. Unfortunately, the uptake of ideas and concepts of quantitative genetics to the study of animal personality has been slow and questions related to personality development, although essential to understand its evolution, have been understudied. The main aim of my thesis is to provide a quantitative genetics view of personality in a wild population of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus). The research presented in this thesis addresses a range of classical themes in evolutionary quantitative genetics in the context of animal personality evolution, that is, heritability, genetic correlations, (correlated) selection and plasticity. Indeed, quantitative genetic approaches were applied to two behavioural responses to handling measured in adults and nestlings and showed that that these two responses are heritable and reflect aspects of blue tits' personality. Although these personality traits are genetically correlated in nestlings, the genetic correlation between them disappears in adults because of developmental plasticity. In addition, the personality traits measured in adults are linked to their survival and reproductive success, and one of these traits shows an age-related decline which is consistent with predictions from evolutionary theories of senescence. Finally, a variance-partitioning description of assortative mating shows that the approach traditionally used for estimating assortative mating in fixed traits is largely inappropriate when applied to labile traits such as behaviour. Alternative approaches allowing for a better estimation of assortative mating and other sources of phenotypic resemblance between mated partners are then introduced. In addition to providing some methodologies and examples to facilitate the use of quantitative genetics in the study of personality, this thesis shows the merits of adopting this framework, which has the potential to move personality research further. This is because applying quantitative genetics to the study of animal personality not only enables answering questions that have been overlooked, such as age-related plasticity, but also gives insight into potential mechanisms maintaining variation in personality. Abstract


Background and aims. The process of decentralization which recently occurred within the Italian National Health Service has transferred substantial responsibility and authority for health care administration to the individual regions. The project is aimed at developing regional benchmarks that can be used as a part of an ongoing system for analysis of resource use and quality of care in the Abruzzo Region of Italy. Methods . All 286 924 hospital admissions for the year 2001 in the region were analysed. Three diseases were chosen for in-depth review: diabetes mellitus; cholecystitis/cholelithiasis; and bacterial pneumonia. There were a total of 9391 admissions for these diagnoses. Severity, length of hospital stay and hospital mortality were analysed using Disease Staging methodology. In addition, the timeliness of hospitalisation was assessed by grouping admissions in three categories: premature or medically unnecessary, timely and late. Results . The rate of medically unnecessary admissions for diabetes mellitus was 72% throughout the region, and the percentage of late hospitalisations for cholelithiasis/cholecystitis was 43%. For both diseases, there were significant variations across Local Health Units in the proportion of late and early admissions. The rate of timely hospitalisations for bacterial pneumonia was higher than 86%. Conclusion . The analysis of discharge abstract data using Disease Staging revealed that in the Abruzzo region there are problems of inappropriate hospital admission, both early and late, for all diseases examined excepted bacterial pneumonia. Data confirmed the validity of Disease Staging to compare the performance of diverse hospitals in terms of length of stay and in-hospital mortality.


In switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), maximum yields occur with late flowering genotypes that have an extended duration of vegetative growth. However, little is known about the developmental basis for a long vegetative growth phase in perennial grasses. Studies were carried out on the leaf development of five switchgrass cultivars with varying flowering times (Cave-in-Rock, Caddo, Kanlow, NC2, and Alamo) to provide inputs for crop simulation models and to determine if a long duration of vegetative growth was associated with a reduced rate of leaf appearance or a high final leaf number. The studies were carried out in the field at College Station, TX, (30°38'N, 96°20'W), during 1994 and 1995. Thirty tillers emerging in spring were tagged and visible leaves were recorded weekly until panicles emerged. Final leaf numbers were recorded on the flowering tillers which had emerged in spring and after a June defoliation. Tillers of all cultivars emerged in March and panicles emerged during a 2-mo period from May to July. Final leaf number of spring-emerging tillers of all cultivars ranged from nine to 11, whereas summer-emerging tillers flowered after seven leaves had appeared. The phyllochron [growing degree days (GDD) between the appearance of two successive leaves] for all cultivars increased with advancing leaf number. High average phyllochron values (GDD base 10°C) were associated with late panicle emergence and a long duration of vegetative growth. Cave-in-Rock, the earliest flowering cultivar, averaged 79 GDD per leaf and required 634 GDD to attain panicle emergence, while Alamo, the latest to flower, averaged 152 GDD per leaf and required 1777 GDD to attain panicle emergence. A slow rate of leaf appearance was identified as the primary developmental trait associated with a long duration of vegetative growth in switchgrass.