Achieving better health outcomes is every health organization's dream.Several health management strategies have been developed;a key one being production of quality information for purposes of informed decision making.Most public health facilities in Kenya are by large extent using manual health information systems,which are cumbersome and fragmented leading to delayed or uninformed decision making. Five key drivers are viewed to influence Integration of Health Management Information System(IHMIS): i) organizational factor, ii) technical factor, iii) behavioral factor, iv) adopted leadership style and v) operationalization of the functions of management.The purpose of the study was to prescribe an ideal design of an IHMIS.A mixed method research design was adopted to determine the significance of the drivers identified in influencing the IHMIS.Both semi-structured questionnaire and a key informant guide were used to collect data that was analyzed and reported using mean scores,correlation and regression analysis.Integration of HMIS was found to positively and significantly correlate with organizational factor,technical factor,behavioral factor,leadership style adopted and operationalization of the functions of management.The study also showed that all variables accounted for total variation in the integration of HMIS.In a multiple regression analysis,the study found the model valid.However only 4 out of 5 of the predictor variables(operationalization of management functions,behavioral factor,technical factor,leadership style adopted) were good in explaining total variations in the integrated HMIS in Kenya. This implies that the more these variables are improved the better it gets in achieving integration of HMIS which is achievable if all the study variables are taken into account.The study suggests that the ideal design of an integrated HMIS would be in the form of an automated web based system in each health organization as opposed to the current manual system.IHMIS will be more successful,if integration within a single health organization is successful.The study recommends a central database for each level of care.


INTRODUCTION
The role of soluble OX40 ligand (sOX40L) in adult bronchial asthma is unclear. This study aims to determine the serum concentrations of sOX40L in adult patients with bronchial asthma, and discussed its relationship with pulmonary function.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We measured the pulmonary function using the spirometer and detected the serum concentrations of sOX40L by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 19 healthy persons in the control group, 58 acute asthmatic adult patients who were grouped according to their disease severity: 18 mild grade, 24 moderate grade, 16 severe grade, and 24 persons in a stable asthmatic group.

RESULTS
The serum concentrations of sOX40L in asthmatic adult patients (6.80 ± 4.95 ng/L) were distinctly higher than those in the control group (3.98 ± 2.83 ng/L, P <0.05), and they were negatively correlated with pulmonary function indexes (FEV1%, FVC%, FEV1/FVC) (r = -0.754, P <0.01, r = -0.557, P <0.01, r = -0.457, P <0.01, respectively). Moreover, the serum concentrations of sOX40L showed obvious differences among control, mild, moderate, and severe groups (3.98 ± 2.83, 4.87 ± 1.89, 6.97 ± 5.91, 8.71 ± 5.18 ng/L, respectively; P <0.01). The concentrations of sOX40L decreased to the same extent as the control group after therapeutic treatments were provided to the asthmatic adult patients.

CONCLUSION
The concentrations of sOX40L were found to be high in adult asthmatic patients and were associated with the severity of the disease. Therefore, sOX40L could be a potential inflammatory mediator in the pathogenesis of asthma.


A long-term goal of reinforcement learning is to design agents that can autonomously interact and learn in the world. A critical challenge to such autonomy is the presence of irreversible states which require external assistance to recover from, such as when a robot arm has pushed an object off of a table. While standard agents require constant monitoring to decide when to intervene, we aim to design proactive agents that can request human intervention only when needed. To this end, we propose an algorithm that efficiently learns to detect and avoid states that are irreversible, and proactively asks for help in case the agent does enter them. On a suite of continuous control environments with unknown irreversible states, we find that our algorithm exhibits better sample- and intervention-efficiency compared to existing methods. Our code is publicly available at https://sites.google.com/view/proactive-interventions


Optically pumped polymer photonic crystal band-edge dye lasers are presented. The photonic crystal is a rectangular lattice providing laser feedback as well as an optical resonance for the pump light. The lasers are defined in a thin film of photodefinable Ormocore hybrid polymer, doped with the laser dye Pyrromethene 597. A compact frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser (352 nm, 5 ns pulses) is used to pump the lasers from above the chip. The laser devices are 450 nm thick slab waveguides with a rectangular lattice of 100 nm deep air holes imprinted into the surface. The 2-dimensional rectangular lattice is described by two orthogonal unit vectors of length a and b, defining the ΓP and ΓX directions. The frequency of the laser can be tuned via the lattice constant a (187 nm - 215 nm) while pump light is resonantly coupled into the laser from an angle (θ) depending on the lattice constant b (355 nm). The lasers are fabricated in parallel on a 10 cm diameter wafer by combined nanoimprint and photolithography (CNP). CNP relies on a UV transparent quartz nanoimprint stamp with an integrated metal shadow mask. In the CNP process the photonic crystal is formed by mechanical deformation (imprinting) while the larger features are defined by UV exposure through the combined mask/mold.


Do politicians tend to adopt unpopular policies when the media and the public are distracted by other events? We examine this question by analyzing the timing of the signing of executive orders (EOs) by U.S. presidents over the past four decades. We find robust evidence that EOs are more likely to be signed on the eve of days when the news are dominated by other important stories that can crowd out coverage of EOs. Crucially, this relationship only holds in periods of divided government when unilateral presidential actions are more likely to be criticized by a hostile Congress. The effect is driven by EOs that are more likely to make the news and to attract negative publicity, particularly those on topics on which president and Congress disagree. Finally, the timing of EOs appears to be related to predictable news but not to unpredictable ones, which suggests it results from a deliberate and forward-looking PR strategy.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is a recent advanced technology of computer networks and electronics. The WSN increasingly becoming more practicable solution to many challenging applications. The sensor networks depend upon the sensed data, which may depend upon the application. One of the major applications of the sensor networks is in military. So security is the greatest concern to deploy sensor network such hostile unattended environments, monitoring real world applications. But the limitations and inherent constraints of the sensor nodes does not support the existing traditional security mechanisms in WSN. Now the present research is mainly concentrated on providing security mechanism in sensor networks. In this context, security aspects of the sensor networks like requirements, classifications, and type of attacks etc., is analyzed in this survey paper.


We develop a construction of Engel structures on 4-manifolds based on decompositions of manifolds into round handles. This allows us to show that all parallelizable 4-manifolds admit an Engel structure. We also show that, given two Engel manifolds M1,M2 satisfying a certain condition on the characteristic foliations, there is an Engel structure on M1#M2#(S2 ×S2) which is closely related to the original Engel structures.


Campi Flegrei (Phlegrean Fields) is an active volcanic center near Naples, Italy. Numerous eruptions have occurred here during the Quaternary, and repeated episodes of slow vertical ground movement (bradyseism) have been documented since Roman times. Here, we present a quantitative model that relates deformation episodes to magma degassing and fracturing at the brittle-ductile transition in a magmatic-hydrothermal environment. The model is consistent with fi eld and laboratory observations and predicts that uplift between 1982 and 1984 was associated with crystallization of ~0.83 km 3 of H 2 O-saturated magma at 6 km depth. During crystallization, ~6.2 ◊ 10 10 kg of H 2 O and 7.5 ◊ 10 8 kg of CO 2 exsolved from the magma and generated ~7 ◊ 10 15 J of mechanical (PΔV) energy to drive the observed uplift. For comparison, ~10 17 J of thermal energy was released during the 18 May 1980 lateral blast at Mount St. Helens.


Energy consumption and detection delay are two major concerns in the application of intruder detection in sensor networks, where a low delay and a low energy consumption are hard to achieve at the same time. To address the problem, this paper proposes a novel duty-cycle scheduling scheme that minimizes the detection delay and energy consumption. To guarantee the detection, sensors are divided into shifts which monitor and scan the intruders in a distributed fashion. The scanning is performed by waking up the shifts in each group in turn under planned sequence. Extensive simulations show that the proposed scheme outperforms existing mechanism in terms of detection delay and energy consumption. It also achieves fault-tolerance when sensors fail.


This paper addresses the effect of English proficiency on economic
growth empirically with Barro-type cross-sectional growth regression.
The empirical results provide evidence of positive correlation between
initial English proficiency and economic growth only for the countries
in the Asia and Europe. Therefore, countries with higher levels of
English proficiency among the fraction of its population are likely to
grow faster. This paper suggests that the ability to absorb knowledge is
positively related to the level of English proficiency. It implies that the
level of English proficiency can be viewed as a component of human
capital.


This paper deals with the hydrodynamics and internal dynamics of fish swimming. Our analysis starts from kinematic data obtained for fast swimming saithe, and treats the fish as a flexible elongated body. The distribution along the body of the lateral bending moment and the bending power generated inside the fish are computed as well as the power spent on the water. The computed thrust implies a drag coefficient (based on wetted surface area) of about 0.007, which is probably an over-estimate. Our major result is that the bending moment does not travel as a running wave from head to tail like the lateral body curvature does, but behaves as a standing wave. The left and right sides produce alternate contractions simultaneously over the whole body length. This finding is in agreement with myographic data from the literature.


In organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) the electrical characteristics of polymeric semiconducting materials suffer from the presence of structural/morphological defects and grain boundaries as well as amorphous domains within the film, hindering an efficient transport of charges. To improve the percolation of charges we blend a regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with newly designed N = 18 armchair graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). The latter, prepared by a bottom-up solution synthesis, are expected to form solid aggregates which cannot be easily interfaced with metallic electrodes, limiting charge injection at metal-semiconductor interfaces, and are characterized by a finite size, thus by grain boundaries, which negatively affect the charge transport within the film. Both P3HT and GNRs are soluble/dispersible in organic solvents, enabling the use of a single step co-deposition process. The resulting OFETs show a three-fold increase in the charge carrier mobilities in blend films, when compared to pure P3HT devices. This behavior can be ascribed to GNRs, and aggregates thereof, facilitating the transport of the charges within the conduction channel by connecting the domains of the semiconductor film. The electronic characteristics of the devices such as the Ion/Ioff ratio are not affected by the addition of GNRs at different loads. Studies of the electrical characteristics under illumination for potential use of our blend films as organic phototransistors (OPTs) reveal a tunable photoresponse. Therefore, our strategy offers a new method towards the enhancement of the performance of OFETs, and holds potential for technological applications in (opto)electronics.


Abstract This paper describes wave-turbulence closure and its consequences for rapidly rotating (i.e. small Rossby number) turbulence confined by two infinite, parallel walls perpendicular to the rotation axis. Expressing the flow as a combination of inertial waveguide modes leads to a spectral matrix, whose diagonal elements express the distribution of energy over modes and whose off-diagonal elements represent correlations between modes of different orders. In preparation for wave-turbulence closure, the flow is decomposed into two-dimensional and wave components. The former is found to evolve as if it were a classical, two-dimensional, non-rotating flow, but with wall friction due to Ekman pumping by the boundary layers. Evolution equations for the wave-component elements of the spectral matrix are derived using a wave-turbulence approach. Detailed analysis of these equations shows that, surprisingly, the two-dimensional component has no effect on wave-component energetics. As expected for wave turbulence, energy transfer between wave modes is via resonant triads and takes place at times $O(\varepsilon ^{-2})$ multiples of the rotational period, where $\varepsilon $ is the Rossby number. Despite playing no role in wave-mode energetics, the two-dimensional component produces decay of the off-diagonal elements of the spectral matrix on a time scale that is small compared with $O(\varepsilon ^{-2})$ rotation periods. There are thus three asymptotically distinct stages in the evolution of the turbulence in the limit of small Rossby number: the two-dimensional flow begins to evolve at the usual large-eddy turnover time scale ($O(\varepsilon ^{-1})$ multiples of the rotation period) and continues to develop thereafter. This is followed by decorrelation of different wave orders and finally evolution of the wave energy spectra due to resonant interactions.


It has been observed experimentally that magnetically confined plasmas, characterised by the safety factor q with a small or slightly inverted magnetic shear, have good confinement properties. Such plasmas typically have no internal transport barrier, operate with q95 around 4 and are good candidates for long pulse operation at high fusion yield in the reactor ITER. These hybrid scenarios are an intermediate step between the reference standard H-mode (high confinement) scenario with monotonic q and inductive current, and advanced scenarios with strongly reversed magnetic shear in which the entire plasma current is ideally generated non-inductively. This thesis focuses on the study of the dynamics of hybrid plasmas, with weak or almost zero magnetic shear, in tokamak and Reversed Field Pinch (RFP) configurations, when q in the central region assumes values close to one (tokamaks) or to a rational number (tokamaks, RFPs), though the exact resonance is avoided. The first part of this thesis is focused on the study of tokamak and RFP equilibria with slightly reversed shear when an extremum in the safety factor is close to a low order rational. These equilibria are characterised by the possible presence of internal helical cores, although the plasma edge is symmetric in the toroidal direction. Such 3D structures can be understood as the result of the nonlinear saturation of ideal MHD modes. The amplitude of large scale m=1 helical displacements in tokamak and RFP plasmas is investigated using contrasting approaches, namely 3D equilibrium and non-linear stability codes. The non-linear amplitude of such saturated modes obtained with the stability code is compared both with the helical core structure resulting from equilibrium numerical calculations, and with analytic predictions which extend the nonlinear treatment of reversed q plasmas to arbitrary toroidal mode numbers. A preliminary study of the impact of a n=1 RMP on the equilibrium helical distorsion is also presented. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the analytical and numerical study of the stability of an initially axisymetric tokamak configuration when the safety factor is almost flat and very close to a rational value over a macroscopically extended region in the plasma centre. Such conditions typically occur either in hybrid scenarios or following reconnection of a global instability such as a sawtooth. This configuration is characterised by non-negligible coupling between a fundamental mode and its Fourier adjacent modes. A dispersion relation has been derived both for ideal and resistive modes, with additional non-MHD effects such as plasma diamagnetism, viscosity and equilibrium velocity flows. The analytical results show that the resistive sidebands coupled to a core kink-like mode exhibit extremely fast growth, though additional non-MHD effects tend to moderately reduce the extreme growth rate of the resistive modes. The existence of such modes has been confirmed numerically, where the sensitivity of the growth rate to changes in resistivity and two-fluid effects has been demonstrated, and thus in turn provides generally good agreement with the analytical theory developed. A family of modes are obtained, including modes with novel scaling against plasma resistivity, some of which rotate in the electron diamagnetic direction, and others in the ion diamagnetic direction, consistent with experimental observations in e.g. TCV during hybrid-like operation.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Islamic bank margin (BM) and its determinants. It also compares the BM behavior of Islamic and conventional banks in the Indonesian dual banking system. Design/methodology/approach - The paper employs a time series approach under the dealership framework of Ho and Saunders. The autoregressive distributed lag model is used to inspect cointegration between BM and its determinants for the period of January 1996 to February 2006 of five sample banks (two Islamic banks and three conventional banks). Findings - The result confirms that there exists a long-running relationship between the Islamic BM and its determinants. In particular, as interest rate volatility increases, Islamic BM responds negatively while that of conventional banks responds positively. The findings differ from most of the other studies as they found a positive relationship between BM and interest rate volatility. This paper also shows that the margin behavior changes as the basis of bank operations changes from conventional to Islamic principles. Research limitations/implications - The paper uses a relatively small sample of three (out of 150) conventional banks as a comparison to two sample Islamic banks. However, as they come from the same peer with the Islamic banks, it is believed that the finding is valid. Islamic banks in Indonesia are not remote from the interest rate volatility in their presence under a dual banking system. It is the displaced commercial risk that threatens Islamic banking profitability in a changing market interest rate situation. Practical implications - Under a dual banking system, the stability of interest rates and the financial system is of great importance for the policy maker in developing the Islamic banking industry in Indonesia. As long as the BM is still a major source of income to the Islamic banks, it is necessary for Islamic banks to have prudent risk management to mitigate the negative effect of displaced commercial risk and maintain its profitability. Implementation of profit equalization reserves concept is a possible measure for Islamic banks to shield their operation. Originality/value - This paper is believed to be the first study on Islamic BM behavior in Indonesia. It is expected to provide useful information for policy makers and Islamic bank management to develop a sound and profitable Islamic banking industry in Indonesia.


network will be in place. And, on top of all this, vital bee population will be encouraged to come back to where they belong. More information about the project here. Challenge-driven cooperation is a crucial shot to provide coherent and continuous cross-border dialogue and process including sustained awareness-raising of public authorities and policy-makers at regional/national level, capacity building, easy access to information and a friendly use of tools for mutual learning. This approach can contribute to mitigating local water crisis, a common challenge in the Mediterranean, through facilitating general access and promotion of best practices including the improvement of treated wastewater reuse as a non-conventional water resource (NCWR). Moreover, indication shows weakness in the multi-level governance and law enforcement, in planning, managerial and operational capacities, further than low-level involvement of the stakeholders in the decision-making process. MEDWAYCAP project will face these issues and address the final beneficiaries, to be equipped with state-of-the-art knowledge on NCWR techniques, management, planning and skills to reuse at territorial level for domestic and agricultural purpose thanks to the well organised capitalization platforms for networking and knowledge transfer and capacity building tool box. The project has been structured to: transfer and "upgrade" knowledge; reinforce new\existing networks & alliances; raise awareness among public authorities, policy- makers and "challenge owners" about NCWR measures and related opportunities for planning policies and related funding measures. More information about the project here. facilitate access and protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to MSMEs will be reinforced. More information about the project here . sustainable hub and the development of win-win business partnerships in the Euro-Mediterranean region. More information about the project here.


Duloxetine is a dual inhibitor of norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake. Duloxetine (3.13-50 mg/kg p.o.) significantly prevented tetrabenazine (1 and 50 mg/kg s.c.)-induced ptosis in mice and rats. Moreover, duloxetine (1.56-12.5 mg/kg p.o.) also inhibited reserpine (1 mg/kg s.c.)-induced hypothermia in mice. When duloxetine (12.5-100 mg/kg p.o.) and 5-hydroxytryptophan (80 and 100 mg/kg i.p.), a precursor of serotonin, were administered simultaneously to mice and rats, head movement behavior and tremor were observed. In addition, duloxetine (25-100 mg/kg p.o.) significantly attenuated immobility in forced swimming in mice, as equally effective as commonly used antidepressant drugs. Duloxetine (12.5-25 mg/kg p.o.) significantly decreased rapid eye movement sleep and slow-wave deep sleep and increased the awake period, as shown in the rat EEG. However, duloxetine (25-200 mg/kg p.o.) did not affect salivation and lacrimation induced by oxotremorine (1 mg/kg s.c.), a cholinergic agonist, whereas it (25-50 mg/kg) reduced the oxotremorine-induced tremor in part. These results indicated that duloxetine produced behavioral and electroencephalographic responses resulting from the inhibition of norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake in vivo, and that it had a weak anticholinergic action. Therefore, duloxetine may be clinically useful as an antidepressant.


The impacts of climate change on crop yields, as projected by a slew of impact assessments carried out since the 1980s, have brought the issue of future food insecurity to the fore. A meta-analysis of ∼27 000 data points from studies published over the last four decades reveals that at country level, average impacts of climate change on crop yields up to the 2050s are generally small (but negative) for rice and wheat, and modest for maize, provided farmers adopt practices and technologies such as improved varieties, planting at optimal times, and improved water and fertilizer management. These technologies also have the potential to reduce differences across political, economic and climatic regions. Once these are adopted, climate change may not add significantly to the challenge of food production for the majority of countries except for some potential hotspots distributed around the world. Massive investment, policy, and institutional support will be needed, however, to facilitate adoption and scaling-out of such practices, and to address climatic variability.


Atlantic redfish (Sebastes spp.) are a commercially exploited groundfish in the NW Atlantic, yet little is known about the early life history of these species. Their ovoviviparous reproductive strategy and restriction to deep benthic environments during spawning makes studying embryogenic and larval stages difficult. Proper management of exploited fish species, however, depends upon a comprehensive understanding of early development as it is during the egg and larval stages that recruitment variability is considered to be largely determined. I conducted two separate investigations describing the use of endogenous and exogenous resources in larval red fish in an attempt to both provide insight into recruitment processes as well as understand the evolutionary success of these species. -- The first study examined changes in lipid and fatty acid profiles in developing pre-extruded larvae. During development within the female there was nearly a 50% reduction in total lipid, suggesting that lipids are an important source of energy and that metabolism of these resources occurs prior to parturition. Triacylglycerol was preferentially catabolised over polar lipids unlike other Atlantic groundfish during embryogenesis such as cod (Gadus morhua) and halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus). High variability in these lipid reserves suggests that sensitivity to mismatches in prey after parturition likely varies between broods, assuming increased endogenous resources reduces risk of starvation. -- The second study investigated behaviour, growth and survival of larval redfish reared under prey densities of 0. 500. 1500 and 4500 prey L⁻¹ in laboratory conditions. Some larvae lived to day 18 in the 0 prey L⁻¹ treatment despite possible handling stress from collection and transporting. Growth, survival and condition of larvae varied with prey concentration but were highest in the 1500 prey L⁻¹ treatment. The significantly lower prey bite:orient ratios in the 4500 prey L⁻¹ treatment suggest that larvae may have become confused at higher prey densities. A possible confusion effect may have explained the significant reduction in growth and survival of larvae reared in the highest prey treatment. Although the prey densities used in this experiment are higher than those reported in the field, comparisons with other rearing experiments suggest that prey availability may not be as limiting to redfish as for other commercially important species such as Atlantic cod.


Judicial interpretation of regulatory standards generally relies on the presumption that agencies are politically accountable and democratically "appointed" actors. As a result, courts defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutory language. This presumption, however, is severely outdated. The regulatory arena is replete with the privatization of regulatory decision making, which puts the current approach to agency deference in question. This Note seeks to address the changing nature of the regulatory framework by suggesting a modification of agency deference doctrine that accounts for the increasingly active role played by private parties in public governance. In proposing a new framework for agency deference in cases of private delegation, the Note explores parallels between agency deference and the non-delegation doctrine, addresses the relationship of agency deference to the separation of powers and the fragmentation of the political branches, and seeks to reinstate the judiciary as a primary expositor of statutory meaning in the private delegation context.NOTE: published version now uploaded


Objective: Although much tissue damage may occur within the first few hours of ischemic stroke, the duration of tissue injury is not well defined. We assessed the temporal pattern of neuronal loss and ischemia after ischemic stroke using magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Methods: We measured N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and lactate in 51 patients with acute ischemic stroke at five time points, from admission to 3 months, in voxels classified as normal, possibly or definitely abnormal (ischemic) according to the appearance of the stroke lesion on the admission DWI. We compared changes in NAA and lactate in different voxel classes using linear mixed models. Results: NAA was significantly reduced from admission in definitely and possibly abnormal (p < 0.01) compared to contralateral normal voxels, reaching a nadir by 2 weeks and remaining reduced at 3 months. Lactate was significantly increased in definitely and possibly abnormal voxels (p < 0.01) during the first 5 days, falling to normal at 2 weeks, rising again later in these voxels. Conclusion: The progressive fall in N-acetylaspartate suggests that some additional neuronal death may continue beyond the first few hours for up to 2 weeks or longer. The mechanism is unclear but, if correct, then it is possible that interventions to limit this ongoing subacute tissue damage might add to the benefit of hyperacute treatment, making further improvements in outcome possible. DT-MRI = diffusion tensor MRI; DWI = diffusion-weighted imaging; [DWI] = directionally averaged DWI; FOV = field of view; MRSI = magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging; MS = multiple sclerosis; NAA = N-acetylaspartate; NIHSS = NIH Stroke Scale; PRESS = point resolved spectroscopy; TE = echo time; VOI = volume of interest.


This work is focused on the generation and utilization of a reliable ground truth (GT) segmentation for a large medical repository of digital cervicographic images (cervigrams) collected by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI invited twenty experts to manually segment a set of 939 cervigrams into regions of medical and anatomical interest. Based on this unique data, the objectives of the current work are to: (1) Automatically generate a multi-expert GT segmentation map; (2) Use the GT map to automatically assess the complexity of a given segmentation task; (3) Use the GT map to evaluate the performance of an automated segmentation algorithm. The multi-expert GT map is generated via the STAPLE (Simultaneous Truth and Performance Level Estimation) algorithm, which is a well-known method to generate a GT segmentation from multiple observations. A new measure of segmentation complexity, which relies on the inter-observer variability within the GT map, is defined. This measure is used to identify images that were found difficult to segment by the experts and to compare the complexity of different segmentation tasks. An accuracy measure, which evaluates the performance of automated segmentation algorithms is presented. Two algorithms for cervix boundary detection are compared using the proposed accuracy measure. The measure is shown to reflect the actual segmentation quality achieved by the algorithms. The methods and conclusions presented in this work are general and can be applied to different images Here and segmentation tasks. of the available data.


Catalysis is at the forefront of many developments to make our society more sustainable and less dependent on fossil resources, such as coal, gas and crude oil. To make this possible, it is important to obtain detailed insights into the working principles of solid catalysts. In the past decades, several powerful analytical techniques have been developed to investigate the working mechanisms of various catalytic materials. Raman spectroscopy is one of these methods, however, it suffers from the limitations of a relatively low sensitivity and poor spatial resolution. A way to counter this is to use tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), which dramatically improves the sensitivity of Raman spectroscopy and pushes its spatial resolution far beyond the optical diffraction limit. This PhD research has focussed on the further development of TERS as a robust and versatile analytical tool for heterogeneous catalysis research. Metallic probes are the very heart of a TERS experiment. Therefore, first, a better understanding into the degradation mechanism of silver-coated TERS probes was gained by conducting a time-series study under different environmental conditions. A significant improvement in the plasmonic lifetime of TERS probes, from a few hours to greater than five months, was obtained under < 1 ppm oxygen and moisture environment. This study allowed practical strategies to be developed for long term preservation of TERS probes. For in situ monitoring of catalytic reactions, TERS has to work in both air and liquid environments. However, current metal coated TERS probes are unsuitable for operation in liquids due to the lack of structural stability. This issue was addressed by developing TERS probes with a unique multi-layer metal coating, which allowed sub-30 nm resolution chemical imaging in a liquid environment using TERS for the first time. To monitor catalytic reactions effectively, TERS probes also need to be chemically inert. For this, we developed a unique method of protecting TERS probes with an ultrathin (1 - 5 nm) zirconia coating, thereby drastically improving their chemical inertness as well as structural stability within a liquid environment. Using these probes, we demonstrated spatially-resolved mapping of a photocatalytic reaction over a heterogeneous catalyst substrate within a liquid environment for the first time. Finally, we introduced tip-enhanced fluorescence (TEFL) microscopy as a new tool for heterogeneous catalysis research. Using selective staining of Bronsted acidity in single fluid cracking catalyst (FCC) particles we performed high‑resolution TEFL mapping of different regions, which revealed a hierarchical distribution of Bronsted acidity within individual zeolite domains. Comparison of TEFL measurements from different FCC particles showed significant intra- and inter-particle heterogeneities in zeolite domain size and activity. With a dramatic improvement in the lifetime and structural and chemical stability of Ag coated probes, this research has brought TERS a step closer to becoming a routine non-destructive and label‑free analytical tool for nanoscale molecular characterisation of almost any catalyst surface and within any environment. Furthermore, TEFL microscopy has been demonstrated to be a powerful and sensitive tool for nanoscale characterisation of real-life catalyst particles with direct industrial relevance.


Abstract The early Miocene Durudawiri inusitatus new genus and species (Marsupialia: Phalangeroidea) is described from the Riversleigh World Heritage Property in northwestern Queensland. It appears to represent the plesiomorphic sister group of the late Oligocene species of Miralina from South Australia. Its molar morphology is not as complex as that of species of Miralina or ektopodontids, but it is more complex than that of phalangerids. The degree of morphological difference between species of Durudawiri and Miralina suggests subfamilial distinction for the two groups. Strange cusps on the upper molars could be interpreted as either large neometaconules and paraconules, or lingually-displaced metacones and paracones with very large stylar cusps on the buccal shelf.


Inclusion in education is a process of enabling all children to learn and participate effectively within mainstream school systems, without segregation. It is about shifting the focus from altering disabled people to fit into society to transforming society, and the world, by changing attitudes, removing barriers and providing the right support.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires the development of an inclusive education system for all. This revised and expanded second edition of Implementing Inclusive Education examines the adoption of the Convention and provides examples, both through illustrated case studies and on the accompanying DVDs, of how inclusive education systems for all children have been established in pockets throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.
The message is clear: it can be done. The task is now to implement inclusive education worldwide.


Key pre-distribution algorithms have recently emerged as efficient alternatives of key management in today's secure communications landscape. Secure routing techniques using key pre-distribution algorithms require special algorithms capable of finding optimal secure overlay paths. To the best of our knowledge, the literature of key pre-distribution systems is still facing a major void in proposing optimal overlay routing algorithms. In the literature work, traditional routing algorithms are typically used twice to find a NETWORK layer path from the source node to the destination and then to find required cryptographic paths. In this paper, we model the problem of secure routing using weighted directed graphs and propose a Boolean linear programming (LP) problem to find the optimal path. Albeit the fact that the solutions to Boolean LP problems are of much higher complexities, we propose a method for solving our problem in polynomial time. In order to evaluate its performance and security measures,we apply our proposed algorithm to a number of recently proposed symmetric and asymmetric key pre-distribution methods. The results show that our proposed algorithm offers great network performance improvements as well as security enhancements when augmenting baseline techniques.


The stepwise transition in forest taxation from site productivity tax to taxation of profits from timber sales was one of the major institutional changes to impact Finnish nonindustrial private forest owners in the 1990s. In this study the effect of the forest taxation reform on the aggregate supply of sawlogs was investigated using time series analysis and quarterly data. In particular, we estimated two simultaneous equations systems for the pine and the spruce sawlog markets. According to the results, the forest taxation reform strengthened the supply of spruce and pine sawlogs in the anticipatory stage of the taxation reform in 1992. Also during the fiscal transition period, which started in 1993, the supply effect of the taxation reform has clearly been positive. The strong own-price elasticity of sawlog supply found in this study indicates high sensitivity to actual and expected wood price changes in the determination of sawlog supply in Finland. Furthermore, the results indicate that the theoretical assumption of a competitive market is suitable for the Finnish sawlog market, but that separate analysis of pine and spruce sawlogs provides additional insights into market behaviour.


We report on the observations of gamma-ray burst (GRB) 190114C by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The prompt gamma-ray emission was detected by the Fermi GRB Monitor (GBM), the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), and the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and the long-lived afterglow emission was subsequently observed by the GBM, LAT, Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT), and Swift UV Optical Telescope. The early-time observations reveal multiple emission components that evolve independently, with a delayed power-law component that exhibits significant spectral attenuation above 40 MeV in the first few seconds of the burst. This power-law component transitions to a harder spectrum that is consistent with the afterglow emission observed by the XRT at later times. This afterglow component is clearly identifiable in the GBM and BAT light curves as a slowly fading emission component on which the rest of the prompt emission is superimposed. As a result, we are able to observe the transition from internal-shock- to external-shock-dominated emission. We find that the temporal and spectral evolution of the broadband afterglow emission can be well modeled as synchrotron emission from a forward shock propagating into a wind-like circumstellar environment. We estimate the initial bulk Lorentz factor using the observed high-energy spectral cutoff. Considering the onset of the afterglow component, we constrain the deceleration radius at which this forward shock begins to radiate in order to estimate the maximum synchrotron energy as a function of time. We find that even in the LAT energy range, there exist high-energy photons that are in tension with the theoretical maximum energy that can be achieved through synchrotron emission from a shock. These violations of the maximum synchrotron energy are further compounded by the detection of very high-energy (VHE) emission above 300 GeV by MAGIC concurrent with our observations. We conclude that the observations of VHE photons from GRB 190114C necessitates either an additional emission mechanism at very high energies that is hidden in the synchrotron component in the LAT energy range, an acceleration mechanism that imparts energy to the particles at a rate that is faster than the electron synchrotron energy-loss rate, or revisions of the fundamental assumptions used in estimating the maximum photon energy attainable through the synchrotron process.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the long-term effect of adding real or sham dry needling with conventional physiotherapy in cervicogenic headache.

DESIGN
A randomized controlled trial.

SETTING
Physiotherapy Clinic, Rouhani Hospital of Babol University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

SUBJECTS
Sixty-nine patients with cervicogenic headache.

METHODS
Patients were randomly assigned into a control group (n = 23) receiving conventional physical therapy; a dry needling group (n = 23) receiving conventional physical therapy and dry needling on the cervical muscles; placebo needling group (n = 23) receiving conventional physical therapy and superficial dry needling at a point away from the trigger point. The primary outcome was the headache intensity and frequency. Neck disability, deep cervical flexor performance and range of motion were secondary outcomes. Outcomes were assessed immediately after treatment and one, three and six months later.

RESULTS
Sixty-five patients were finally included in the analysis. Headache intensity and neck disability decreased significantly more in the dry needling compared to sham and control groups after treatment and during all follow-ups. The frequency of headaches also reduced more in the dry needling than in control and sham groups, but it did not reach statistical significance. Higher cervical range of motion and enhancement of deep cervical flexors performance was also observed in the dry needling compared to sham and control groups.

CONCLUSION
Dry needling has a positive effect on pain and disability reduction, cervical range of motion and deep cervical flexor muscles performance in patients with cervicogenic headache and active trigger points, although the clinical relevance of the results was small.


In this study, the authors explore sequential and parallel processing architectures, utilising a custom ultra-low-power (ULP) processing core, to extend the lifetime of health monitoring systems, where slow biosignal events and highly parallel computations exist. To this end, a single- and a multi-core architecture are proposed and compared. The single-core architecture is composed of one ULP processing core, an instruction memory (IM) and a data memory (DM), while the multi-core architecture consists of several ULP processing cores, individual IMs for each core, a shared DM and an interconnection crossbar between the cores and the DM. These architectures are compared with respect to power/performance trade-offs for different target workloads of online biomedical signal analysis, while exploiting near threshold computing. The results show that with respect to the single-core architecture, the multi-core solution consumes 62% less power for high computation requirements (167 MOps/s), while consuming 46% more power for extremely low computation needs when the power consumption is dominated by leakage. Additionally, the authors show that the proposed ULP processing core, using a simplified instruction set architecture (ISA), achieves energy savings of 54% compared to a reference microcontroller ISA (PIC24).


In this study assessed the share of harvested yield and share of root stem bases and stolon biomass in biological yield of 6 grass species grown in pure sowing. The biological yield included harvested yield from 3 regrowth and biomass of RSS (roots, sward and stubble), which was taken after 3th cut. The highest biological yield was observed in Festuca rubra, next in Arrhenatherum elatius and Poa pratensis, and the smallest in Holcus lanatus and Agropyron repens. In F. rubra harvested yield held 13.8% of biological yield, and RSS biomass held 86.2%. In contrast, in H. lanatus harvested yield was 44.7% and RSS biomass was 55.3% of biological yield.


Critical management scholars have noted how contemporary management practices encourage and sometimes require workers to adopt multiple identities, and that cynicism, irony and resistance are often manifested in those identities. In this paper, we explore some attributes of modern selfhood that make these positions possible. We concentrate on two related aspects: (1) the capacity of people to reflect on, and manipulate, the selves that they present to the world, and (2) different forms of agency that actors can effect. We argue that closer attention to these attributes can sharpen our analyses of organisational control and its impacts on the self.


In this paper, we propose a new anti-windup method with an initialization procedure that avoids overshoot in spite of saturation of control input. This method is based on a two-degree-of-freedom model matching (MM) control system. Instead of the control input and reference output, which are not affected by input saturation, the saturated control input and an output are used respectively for updating the reference output and feedforward input. Thereby, when the input becomes unsaturated, MM works well because the memorized values of the reference output that are used for updating the reference output correspond with the past output values. Furthermore, a procedure to initialize the reference model making the overshoots small is presented, even if the given control input is saturated. This method is adequate for systems in which overshoots are prohibited, such as temperature controls and machine tools. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified using numerical simulations and experiments.


In this paper, we discuss the self-assembling capabilities of the swarm-bot, a distributed robotics concept that lies at the intersection between collective and self-reconfigurable robotics. A swarm-bot is comprised of autonomous mobile robots called s-bots. S-bots can either act independently or self-assemble into a swarm-bot by using their grippers. We report on experiments in which we study the process that leads a group of s-bots to self-assemble. In particular, we present results of experiments in which we vary the number of s-bots (up to 16 physical robots), their starting configurations, and the properties of the terrain on which self-assembly takes place. In view of the very successful experimental results, swarm-bot qualifies as the current state of the art in autonomous self-assembly


BACKGROUND
Using data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project 2004 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, we estimated inpatient resource utilization among patients with hematologic malignancies, with and without concomitant acute renal failure.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We analyzed patients with hematologic malignancies (excluding Hodgkin disease), acute renal failure, and renal dialysis. Subgroup analyses were performed on specific types of hematologic malignancies, with and without acute renal failure and with and without renal dialysis.

RESULTS
Among those with hematologic malignancies, acute renal failure, with and without concomitant renal dialysis, increases inpatient length of stay and costs. Mean length of stay and costs for all patients with acute renal failure and renal dialysis (n = 5148), acute renal failure without renal dialysis (n = 27,654), and no acute renal failure or renal dialysis (n = 350,601) were 17.6, 12.2, and 7.4 days, and $44,619, $25,638, and $13,947, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Treatment of hematologic malignancies and concomitant acute renal failure and renal dialysis places an economic burden on the health care system. Reducing the incidence of acute renal failure and concomitant renal dialysis with supportive care in patients with hematologic malignancies can reduce inpatient resource use.


This research was designed to investigate the effects of reward as motivation upon selective perception and selective recall. The specific hypotheses were: (1) Three letter nonsense syllables associated with high positive motivational support will be recognized at shorter exposure times than will three letter nonsense syllables associated with low positive or negative motivational support. (2) Three letter nonsense syllables associated with high positive motivational support will be recalled more readily in an immediate and delayed recall series than will those syllables associated with low positive or negative motivational support. (3) There will be a high co-relationship between syllables associated with high motivational support perceived at rapid recognition times and those syllables associated with high motivational support which are recalled. The subjects for this experiment were selected from the 5th and 6th grades at Washington Grade School in Hays, Kansas. The materials consisted of 15 nonsense syllables as stimulus items. Three levels of motivational support, termed, high positive, low positive, and negative were employed. Five syllables were assigned to each Motivational level and values were \built into the subject\. This was done by having subjects play a game for which they earned points toward four possible rewards. Recognition times of the nonsense syllables were tested tachistoscopically in order to determine the effects of the three levels of motivation upon recognition thresholds. The effects of the three levels of motivation upon recall were tested by written recall of syllables in immediate and delayed recall series. No significant differences were found for recognition times of nonsense syllables at the three levels of motivation. The recall data revealed significant differences between the positive and negative motivational stimuli. Wide individual differences among subjects account for most of the variance in both recall of syllables and in the recognition times of syllables. A Significant correlation between speed of recognition and recall of syllables associated with high positive motivational support was not found. The results of the present study allow the following conclusions: (1) Speed of recognition does not vary under conditions of differential motivation; (2) Recall is enhanced by negative motivational conditions; ()) There is no consistent relationship between the motivational determiners of recall and those of speed of recognition. Reasons posited for these conclusions are discussed.


This thesis, entitled "High Performance Computing for solving large sparse systems. Optical Diffraction Tomography as a case of study" investigates the computational issues related to the resolution of linear systems of equations which come from the discretization of physical models described by means of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). These physical models are conceived for the description of the space-temporary behavior of some physical phenomena f(x, y, z, t) in terms of their variations (partial derivative) with respect to the dependent variables of the phenomena. There is a wide variety of discretization methods for PDEs. Two of the most well-known methods are the Finite Difference Method (FDM) and the Finite Element Method (FEM). Both methods result in an algebraic description of the model that can be translated into the approach of a linear system of equations of type (Ax = b), where A is a sparse matrix (a high percentage of zero elements) whose size depends on the required accuracy of the modeled phenomena. This thesis begins with the algebraic description of the model associated with the physical phenomena, and the work herein has been focused on the design of techniques and computational models that allow the resolution of these linear systems of equations. The main interest of this study is specially focused on models which require a high level of discretization and usually generate sparse matrices, A, which have a highly sparse structure and large size. Literature characterizes these types of problems as having highly demanding computational requirements (because of their fine degree of discretization) and also as being irregular (because of the sparse characteristics of matrix A), suggesting that these kinds of problems can only be solved using High Performance techniques and architectures. Nowadays, the High Performance Computing architectures that are most widely used are the heterogeneous platforms based on distributed memory systems, where every node has a multi-core architecture with a different number of cores. Moreover, these architectures can also provide several accelerators, such as vector units, FPGAs, GPUs, Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors and a heterogeneous interconnection network composed of links with different bandwidth and latency. One of the major contributions of this thesis is the research of the possible alternatives which allow the implementation of routines to solve large and sparse linear systems of equations using High Performance Computing (HPC). The use of massively parallel platforms (GPUs) allows the acceleration of these routines, because they have several advantages for vectorial computation schemes. On the other hand, the use of distributed memory platforms allows the resolution of problems defined by matrices of enormous size. Finally, the combination of both techniques, distributed computation and multi-GPUs, will allow faster resolution of interesting problems in which large and sparse matrices are involved. In this line, one of the goals of this thesis is to supply the scientific community with implementations based on multi-GPU clusters to solve sparse linear systems of equations, which are the key in many scientific computations. The second part of this thesis is focused on a real physical problem of Optical Diffractional Tomography (ODT) based on holographic information. ODT is a non-damaging technique which allows the extraction of the shapes of objects with high accuracy. Therefore, this technique is very suitable to the in vivo study of real specimens, microorganisms, etc., and it also makes the study of their dynamics possible. A preliminary physical model based on a bidimensional reconstruction of the seeding particle distribution in fluids was proposed by J. Lobera and J.M. Coupland. However, its high computational cost (in both memory requirements and runtime) made compulsory the use of HPC techniques to extend the implementation to a three dimensional model. In the second part of this thesis, the implementation and validation of this physical model for the case of three dimensional reconstructions is carried out. In such implementation, the resolution of large and sparse linear systems of equations is required. Thus, some of the algebraic routines developed in the first part of the thesis have been used to implement computational strategies capable of solving the problem of 3D reconstruction based on ODT. This thesis is organized into six chapters. The first is an introduction to the main research areas involved in this thesis and it also presents the materials and methods that were used. Firstly, several parallel architectures and parallel programming models are briefly described. This is followed by the discussion of the issues related to the methods for solving linear systems of equations, one of the keys of Linear Algebra. Finally, the platforms used to evaluate the experiments are described. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the computational aspects of sparse matrices on GPU platforms. First of all, a description of the most widely used compressed storage formats is made. Next, details of an implementation of the Sparse Matrix vector product (SpMV) based on ELLR-T format is shown. Finally, a routine based on the Sparse Matrix Matrix product (SpMM) is proposed and evaluated. The implementation of the Sparse Matrix Matrix product in this study has shown to outperform other existing approaches. Chapter 3 deals with the development of a method to solve large and sparse linear systems of equations on GPUs, namely, the BiConjugate Gradient Method (BCG). This chapter discusses this study?s implementation of the BCG method on GPUs using two different approaches to compute the SpMV operation. These routines are: a routine included in the CUSPARSE library and an implementation of the SpMV based on ELLR-T format. At the end of the chapter the experimental results are provided from an extensive evaluation carried out using a set of test matrices. Experiments have shown that the implementation of the BCG based on ELLR-T outperforms the other approach. In Chapter 4 the Helmholtz Equation is explored. It is a particular case of Partial Differential Equation whose discretization results in a large and sparse linear system of equations. This linear system of equations is characterized by the regularities of the large and sparse matrix involved in the resolution. The features of the Helmholtz Equation are described at the beginning of the chapter. Later, several multi-GPU implementations proposed to accelerate the resolution of the 3D Helmholtz Equation are discussed. In Chapter 5 the development and implementation of a new tomographic reconstruction technique based on holography and HPC techniques and architectures is described. This new method requires the resolution of the 3D Helmholtz Equation, whose discretization results in a complex, regular, large and sparse linear system of equations. BCG is the proposed solver to obtain the solution of the Helmholtz Equation. As a result, the development of the model is based on the implementation of BCG on GPUs exploiting the regularities of the sparse matrix as described in Chapter 4. The thesis concludes with a summary where the main results are outlined and future lines of research are presented.


The valuable old textures in Rasht, including the old Sagharisazan Neighborhood, are considered as the ground for the occurrence of events and reminder of the individual and collective memories of the citizens that play an important role in kinship and rendering the urban environment`s meaningfulness. The playing of the intended role entails the existence of identifiable codes in the old textures that have undergone depreciations in the course of time. The current research paper investigated the collective memories of the residents in the revitalization of the valuable and old Sagharisazan's houses and buildings. After dealing with the existent theories in the area of the collective memory and performing a case study with an analytical approach, the hypothesis was tested. The present study's question pivoted about the idea that is it possible to benefit from the citizens' collective memories for the revitalization of the architecturally valuable old houses and textures or not? Moreover, the present study's focal point has been drawn on the assumption that the continuation and preservation of the overall identity of Sagharisazan's texture seems to be dependent on the citizens' collective memory and sense of attachment in the intended texture. The goal of the present study was finding practical suggestions for increasing quality in the valuable old textures and, since the qualitative elaboration of the environmental factors and axes aimed at the achievement of executive suggestions, the present study's research method was consequentially descriptive-analytical and the information has been gathered through searches in the library resources. To investigate the study sample volume's vernacular houses and buildings, a questionnaire was prepared and arranged for assessing the indices that was administered to 47 residents in this old texture and the acquired information was analyzed using SPSS1. The results indicated that the old texture has been abandoned and many of the memories of this neighborhood have lost their color due to the urban management's paying attention to new constructions. The role of collective memory in the revitalization of the valuable old textures can be actualized through citizens' participation and acquiring of their cognitive amps in respect to place, preservation of the rites and rituals and holding of memorable ritual exhibitions in religious places and conservation of the valuable and old vernacular elements and applying them in the new constructions demanded by the modern statuses of the citizens.


The dispersion state of individual MWCNT in the polymer matrix influences the mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of the resulting composite. One method of obtaining a good dispersion state of MWCNT in a polymer matrix is to functionalize the surface of MWCNT using various treatments to enhance the surface energy and increase the dispersibility of MWCNT. In this study, wettability and surface energy of UV/O3 and acid-treated multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and its polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) polymer nanocomposites were measured using contact angle analysis in various solvent media. Contact angle analysis was based on ethylene glycol-water-glycerol probe liquid set and data was further fitted into geometric mean (Fowkes), van Oss-Chaudhury-Good (GvOC), and Chang-Qing-Chen (CQC) models to determine both nonpolar and acid base surface energy components. Analysis was conducted on MWCNT thin films subjected to different levels of UV/O3 and acid treatments as well as their resulting MWCNT/PMMA nanocomposites. Contact angle analysis of thin films and nanocomposites revealed that the total surface energy of all samples was well fitted with each other. In addition, CQC model was able to determine the surface nature and polarity of MWCNT and its nanocomposites. Results indicated that the wettability changes in the thin filmand its nanocomposites are due to the change in surface chemistry. Finally, electrical properties of nanocomposites were measured to investigate the effect of surface functionality (acid or basic) on the MWCNT surfaces.


Abstract An exact solution is developed for a plane source of thermal neutrons embedded in an infinite array of absorbing plates. Using methods based on generating functions and the theory of complex variables, we can obtain explicit values for the flux at the plate surfaces and hence at any position within the lattice. The effect on the flux distribution of allowing the plate absorption parameter (Galanin's constant) to be a random variable, uniformly distributed between an upper and lower limit, is calculated. It is found that randomness leads to a reduced rate of decay with distance from the source, in agreement with other theories concerning this problem.


BACKGROUND
The Mifflin Street Block Party is a yearly Wisconsin event known for high levels of alcohol consumption and previous negative outcomes. This study investigated displayed Mifflin references on Facebook and their association with alcohol consumption at the block party.

METHODS
Participants included first-year college students who were enrolled in a longitudinal study involving Facebook profile assessments and interviews. We identified a subset of participants who were interviewed within 28 days following the Mifflin St Block Party. Participants were categorized as "Mifflin Displayers" or "Non-displayers" based on Facebook profile content. Interviews included the timeline follow-back method to assess alcohol use in the past 28 days. Analysis included logistic and linear regression.

RESULTS
Among the 66 participants included in this study, 45 (68.2%) were female and 38 (50%) were Mifflin Displayers on Facebook. Among the Mifflin Displayer participants, 18 (27.2%) displayed prior to Mifflin, 11 displayed the day of Mifflin (16.7%) and 19 (28.8%) displayed after. Some participants displayed in more than 1 time frame. A total of 40 (60.6%) reported alcohol use on the day of the Mifflin Street Block Party. The mean number of drinks reported on the day of Mifflin was 8.8 (SD = 6.1), with a range of 1 to 35. Displayed references to Mifflin on Facebook were positively associated with reporting alcohol use at Mifflin (OR = 20.9, 95% CI 5.6-78.8).

CONCLUSION
Displaying Facebook references to Mifflin was associated with alcohol consumption on the day of the event. Future prevention efforts could consider creating Facebook advertisements with safety messages triggered by Mifflin displays.


Single tank aeration systems operated in batch mode or sequential batch reactors based on intermittent aeration are generally applied for swine manure treatment in order to reduce nutrient content and odor. This study evaluated the feasibility of aerobic biological treatment conducted in a serial arrangement of continuously fed aerated tank reactors configuration with swine slurry on a pilot-scale. Compared to municipal wastewater treatment swine slurry rich in nutrients and solids requires different treatment standards for the applied methods to be economically and ecologically relevant. This study presents a sequential process scheme, in which biological treatment serves as a means of achieving a pH raise. This makes it possible to separate part of the nitrogen by stripping and enhances slurry precipitating/coagulation characteristics without substantial carbon or nitrogen loss in gaseous form (which is the opposite to that in a conventional active sludge process). The system was run with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of three to four days (whole system), and a feedback of 0.8±0.2. During treatment, total organic carbon (TOC) reduction varied between 2.4% and 14.6% and the total nitrogen concentration change was less than 3%. Nearly 50% of the total phosphorus was reduced. The results indicated that the odor of liquid manure had decreased efficiently at best to a level at which there was no odor or only very faint odor. Concurrently, manure pH rose to 8.7.


BACKGROUND
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a medical treatment in which a combination of a photosensitising drug and visible light causes destruction of selected cells. Due to the lack of true selectivity of preformed photosensitisers for neoplastic tissue and their high molecular weights, PDT of superficial skin lesions has traditionally been mediated by topical application of the porphyrin precursor 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA).

OBJECTIVE
This article aims to review the traditional formulation-based approaches taken to topical delivery of ALA and discusses the more innovative strategies investigated for enhancement of PDT mediated by topical application of ALA and preformed photosensitisers.

METHODS
All of the available published print and online literature in this area was reviewed. As drug delivery of agents used in PDT is still something of an emerging field, it was not necessary to go beyond literature from the last 30 years.

RESULTS/CONCLUSION
PDT of neoplastic skin lesions is currently based almost exclusively on topical application of simple semisolid dosage forms containing ALA or its methyl ester. Until expiry of patents on the current market-leading products, there is unlikely to be a great incentive to engage in design and evaluation of innovative formulations for topical PDT, especially those containing the more difficult-to-deliver preformed photosensitisers.


This article describes the meta-theoretical and theoretical foundations of one approach to critique that moves through up to eight analytically distinct steps. This critique begins with the identification of specific discourses and discursive practices and moves progressively toward a critique of ideology and domination and then to a critique of the factors and actors that, through diverse mechanisms of variation, selection and retention, reproduce these ideological effects and patterns of domination as a basis for proposing and acting upon emancipatory projects that involve a variable mix of reform and revolution. An important part of these procedures is to deconstruct and demystify sedimented, naturalized discourses and social practices and to propose alternatives based on explicitly stated principles of justice and fairness.


We have investigated the residual processing of chromatic signals in a subject with unilateral damage to the primary visual cortex using psychophysical, pupillometric and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods. Of particular interest was to establish the correlation between the subject's ability to make use of chromatic signals in the blind hemifield to discriminate between different coloured targets, the corresponding residual pupil colour responses and the level and location of cortical activation generated by the same stimuli as revealed by fMRI. The results obtained using the three different experimental approaches are consistent and suggest that retrograde degeneration of thalamic and retinal chromatic processing mechanisms caused by damage to the primary visual cortex in man does not abolish completely the ability to process chromatic signals particularly when large, long-wavelength stimuli are employed.


Nowadays, cognitive radio (CR) is a promising concept to improve the radio spectrum exploitation. CR has tremendous ability to enhance spectrum efficiency by allowing secondary users (SUs) to access licensed radio spectrum resource which is currently not being used by primary users (PUs). One basic challenge of that paradigm is securing the quality of service (QoS) of the primary link transmission while increasing the rate of the secondary links transmission. Cooperative relaying is an encouraging technology which offers the opportunity to maximize the transmission diversity gain significantly in the rapid development growth of wireless communication which contains cognitive radio networks. On the other hand, effective capacity (EC) which is designed to provide a maximum constant arrival rate that a statistical wireless channels can support while satisfying statistical QoS requirements. In this thesis, the performance enhancement analysis of cognitive radio relay network (CRRN) by exploiting the direct communication link has been investigated in Rayleigh fading channel where peak interference power constraint is taken into consider. A spectrum sharing technique is considered in this thesis where a restriction of spectrum sharing is applied by the PUs. Here, an SU can coexist simultaneously with the PU for transmitting data as long as a certain threshold on the peak interference power applied on the primary receiver is not overstepped by the SUs transmission. In addition, it is supposed that there are multiple intermediate relay nodes available to transmit their signal to the destination along with a direct communication link for secondary transmission. Moreover, the SU transmission has to meet a random delay QoS constraint. By providing this QoS constraint, the maximum arrival data rate of SUs can be achieved with small error of probability. Specifically, this thesis also acquires closed-form expressions of EC for CRRN. It is evident that if the channel quality and the interference threshold set by the PU are changed, then the capacity of the channel is also to be changed. In addition, it is also verified that the direct communication link together with multiple relay nodes has significantly higher capacity gains compare to non-direct communication link for CRRN. Matlab simulations are presented to find out theoretical results and Monte-Carlo simulations are carried out to support these numerical results. Both the simulation results and the analytical results match very well.


About the book:
Feminist research is informed by a history of breaking silences, of demanding that women's voices be heard, recorded and included in wider intellectual genealogies and histories. This has led to an emphasis on voice and speaking out in the research endeavour. Moments of secrecy and silence are less often addressed. This gives rise to a number of questions. What are the silences, secrets, omissions and and political consequences of such moments? What particular dilemmas and constraints do they represent or entail? What are their implications for research praxis? Are such moments always indicative of voicelessness or powerlessness? Or may they also constitute a productive moment in the research encounter? Contributors to this volume were invited to reflect on these questions. The resulting chapters are a fascinating collection of insights into the research process, making an important contribution to theoretical and empirical debates about epistemology, subjectivity and identity in research. Researchers often face difficult dilemmas about who to represent and how, what to omit and what to include. This book explores such questions in a fascinating collection of essays from international scholars


Efficiently transferring knowledge has proven to be a difficult challenge as well as to get people to use the knowledge (Seidman and McCauley, 2005). And as a part of ensuring that the knowledge transfer process is effectively conducted, there is a strong needs to measure its effectiveness. Although research in this area has been conducted in many settings, unfortunately less attention has been paid to examine the process in the virtual environment (Sarker, 2003), including the E-Learning. This may be due to the fact that lack of research has been found so far, which addressed a formal or specific guideline (or framework) for measuring the effectiveness of knowledge transfer process in E-Learning. As stated by Tillquist and Rodgers (2002), the existing measures often appear confusing and may not provide a satisfactory description of the process's effectiveness. Looking at the huge influence that E-Learning brought to Knowledge Transfer Process has motivates the attempt for developing the effectiveness measurement framework for knowledge transfer process in E-Learning environment. This framework is inspired from the E-Faculty, chosen as the case of this research. It is an E-Learning system developed by FSKTM, UPM as complement to the traditional classroom.

This attempt however, sets its main concentration on proposing the appropriate measurement attributes for three key factors towards effective knowledge transfer process, which are knowledge to be transferred, knowledge receiver and knowledge transfer medium. This research applied the survey method in order to validate the proposed framework. The data was later analyzed using statistical analysis. Five out of eight developed hypotheses were evidently supported while three others were not supported. Consisting of three key factors to effective knowledge transfer process, this framework also provides the recommended measurement attributes for each key factor.


A language supporting polymorphism is a boon to programmers: they can express complex ideas once and reuse functions in a variety of situations. However, polymorphism is pain for compilers tasked with producing efficient code that manipulates concrete values. This paper presents a new intermediate language that allows for efficient static compilation, while still supporting flexible polymorphism. Specifically, it permits polymorphism over not only the types of values, but also the representation of values, the arity of primitive machine functions, and the evaluation order of arguments---all three of which are useful in practice. The key insight is to encode information about a value's calling convention in the kind of its type, rather than in the type itself.


A country's biggest asset is its workforce, given the fact that a healthy workforce can contribute to rapid growth of the economy. Chronic illnesses reduce productivity, are responsible for rising healthcare costs, and should be managed by the employer to reduce healthcare expenditures. This can be done through employee health and wellness programs, and well-designed health management initiatives. In addition, new information and communication technologies make it possible to monitor employee health with wearable devices and tele-health assisted surveillance techniques. This paper introduces a unique new approach to workplace healthcare monitoring, using the office workstation PC itself to monitor worker health. The main benefits are: reduction in the number of visits to the doctor during office hours; reduced dependency on institutionalized health setting such as hospitals for check-ups; and prior knowledge of worsening symptoms, thereby leading to timely cure rather than last minute hospital visits, nursing home admissions, all of which result in lesser sick leaves, and more productivity per employee.


Children with autism were examined to determine amounts of mercury (Hg) in their baby hair and the factors that might affect Hg body burden. US children with autism (n = 78) and matched controls (n = 31) born between 1988 and 1999 were studied. Hg in first-cut baby hair was determined using cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVAFS). Twenty samples were split and also measured with Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). Logistic regression analysis showed that compared to children with higher levels of mercury (above 0.55 mcg g−1), children with lower levels of mercury in their hair (below 0.55 mcg g−1) were 2.5-fold more likely to manifest with autism. Children with autism had similar mercury exposure as controls from maternal seafood and maternal dental amalgams. Children with autism also had 2.5-fold higher incidence of oral antibiotic use during their first 18 months of life. Their mothers were possibly more likely to use oral antibiotics during pregnancy or nursing. The amount of Hg in the baby hair of children with autism showed a significant correlation with the number of maternal dental amalgams. The lower level of Hg in the baby hair of children with autism indicates an altered metabolism of Hg, and may be due to a decreased ability to excrete Hg. This is consistent with usage of higher amounts of oral antibiotics, which are known to inhibit Hg excretion in rats due to alteration of gut flora, and may exert a similar effect in humans. Higher usage of oral antibiotics in infancy may also partially explain the high incidence of chronic gastrointestinal problems seen in individuals with autism.


The convergent close-coupling (CCC) method is applied to the calculation of electron–helium ionization doubly differential cross sections (DDCSs) at low to intermediate incident energies. We re-examine the CCC calculations and measurements of Roder et al (1997 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 30 1309–22) by making allowance for the step-function behaviour of the underlying CCC-calculated amplitudes. As done previously, the experimental DDCS were normalized at energies below 100 eV using the 100 eV CCC calculation to determine analyser properties at several secondary energies. In addition, substantially larger calculations are presented, to check the convergence. The agreement between the experiment and the calculations as a whole is much improved on the situation reported earlier.


Lifelong learning is seen as a self-directed pursuit of knowledge or skills that occur throughout one's life. While this concept is not new, the importance of lifelong learning skills, in addition to academic and subject knowledge, has been increasingly emphasised in the workplace and public policy over the last decade. Higher education institutions, universities in particular, recognise the importance of lifelong learning and define their own strategies to promote it. Such strategies include the development of institutional graduate profiles which represent the core learning outcomes, skills and qualities, that students should acquire during their university education. The problem identified and addressed in the current research is the lack of comprehensive technical support solutions for lifelong learning in universities. Currently, only basic level support is available in form of ePortfolio systems or incorporation of Web 2.0 tools into university settings. However, the shortcomings of these systems and tools, are hindering their full adoption, and as such the necessary support for lifelong learning is not available. Through a literature review process followed by stakeholder interviews, this thesis analyses the needs for supporting lifelong learning in universities. According to this analysis, better support is required for reflection, communication and collaboration, development and showcasing of lifelong learning skills, and tracking of learning progress. These identified needs are then translated into requirements that are used to create a prototype system that extends a current ePortfolio system, Mahara, with new features, to provide institutional support for lifelong learning. A number of studies, involving both lecturers and students, are conducted to evaluate whether the prototype will bring strong improvements towards providing comprehensive support for lifelong learning in universities. The results indicate that the new features can be successfully adopted by students to help development and understanding of lifelong learning skills, address institutional graduate attributes, track learning progress, as well as manage and share this knowledge with others. In addition to these studentfocused results, lecturers responded positively to incorporating the prototype into their teaching. Lecturers see the opportunities for employing the new features to provide students with the guidance through their lifelong learning journey at the university. Additional research in various fields needs to be conducted towards full support of lifelong learning in universities. This research provides a foundation for comprehensive technical support. It draws attention to the influence that technology has on teaching and learning, encourages cooperation between stakeholders, and shows the importance of listening to the learner's voice.


During 1989, of the 8,524 children admitted to the paediatric wards of Tygerberg Hospital, 165 (1.96%) had bacteraemia. The incidence of community-acquired bacteraemias was 1.6% and that of nosocomial bacteraemias 0.5%. The most important community-acquired isolates were Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and Neisseria meningitidis. The most important nosocomial isolates were Klebsiella and Salmonella spp. Both bacteraemia (relative risk (RR) = 2.08) and severe malnutrition (RR = 3.01) were more common in black patients. Overall, severe malnutrition was more common than mild malnutrition or a normal nutritional status in bacteraemic patients (odds radio (OR) = 3.17). Nineteen patients with bacteraemia died, there was a significantly higher case-fatality rate in patients with extreme malnutrition (P = 0.03; OR = 3.7). Gram-negative bacilli were found more commonly in patients with extreme malnutrition (OR = 5.4) and patients with nosocomial bacteraemia (OR = 4.6). Three of 39 patients (7.6%) with nosocomial bacteraemia had suppurative thrombophlebitis.


Given the scarcity of psychological research examining female participation in boxing, the present study sought to provide a bottom-up perspective of female amateur boxers' experiences of, first, the challenges of competing as a female amateur boxer, and second, the strategies employed to overcome these challenges. Additionally, this study aimed to provide specific policy recommendations to facilitate developmental opportunities for female boxers. In order to achieve these aims, phenomenological interviews were conducted with eight elite British female amateur boxers examining the early, middle and later years of their boxing careers. Following an inductive content analysis, the findings revealed that the boxers experienced similar challenges and employed various strategies to deal with these barriers. Furthermore, explicit policy recommendations have been provided, such as the provision of a women's boxing programme at the elite level and an increase in media promotion of women's boxing, which may help governing bodies to support their female amateur boxers. Future research examining the perceptions of those who support the boxers (i.e., coaches, parents and sport science/medicine support practitioners) would provide a more holistic evaluation of female boxers' lived experiences and thus better help in articulating how best to support female athletes throughout their boxing careers.


Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is a heat shock protein 90 (hsp90) deacetylase. Treatment with pan-HDAC inhibitors or depletion of HDAC6 by siRNA induces hyperacetylation and inhibits ATP binding and chaperone function of hsp90. Treatment with 17-allylamino-demothoxy geldanamycin (17-AAG) also inhibits ATP binding and chaperone function of hsp90, resulting in polyubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation of hsp90 client proteins. In this study, we determined the effect of hsp90 hyperacetylation on the anti-hsp90 and antileukemia activity of 17-AAG. Hyperacetylation of hsp90 increased its binding to 17-AAG, as well as enhanced 17-AAG-mediated attenuation of ATP and the cochaperone p23 binding to hsp90. Notably, treatment with 17-AAG alone also reduced HDAC6 binding to hsp90 and induced hyperacetylation of hsp90. This promoted the proteasomal degradation of HDAC6. Cotreatment with 17-AAG and siRNA to HDAC6 induced more inhibition of hsp90 chaperone function and depletion of BCR-ABL and c-Raf than treatment with either agent alone. In addition, cotreatment with 17-AAG and tubacin augmented the loss of survival of K562 cells and viability of primary acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) samples. These findings demonstrate that HDAC6 is an hsp90 client protein and hyperacetylation of hsp90 augments the anti-hsp90 and antileukemia effects of 17-AAG.


There is growing consumer interest in locally produced food and farmers and retailers play an important part in this growing niche market. Up-to-date and reliable data are necessary to create efficient distribution lines, but there is currently a dearth of aggregate data available to assess the distribution channels of local foods. The research questions for this thesis are motivated by the potential for growth in the local food market, and a need to investigate the role of consumer co-ops in achieving that potential. In Article 1, results from 67 surveys by consumer co-op managers and memberworkers from the American Northeast are reported. A conservative estimate for the Northeast co-ops' contribution to the local food market is $21,253,750 annually, an average of 17.2% of co-ops' expenditure being spent on local food. Article 1 identifies the consistency with which various food categories are sourced locally by co-op, and identifies the reasons for and barriers to sourcing locally. An ordinary least squares model reveals that the average percent locally sourced by co-ops whose mission includes sourcing locally is 12.7-percent higher than those whose mission does not include sourcing locally. No difference in percent locally sourced is found between co-ops from different settings (urban, suburban, rural), or Cooperative Grocer ranking (large, medium, small). Article 2 reports on the follow-up unstructured interviews with 58 co-op managers and member-workers. The five principal barriers to sourcing locally – locating local producers, co-op cooperation, organic certification, competition, and distribution – are discussed and various solutions that co-op managers have implemented are described. It is argued that co-ops act as local food hubs in the local food market, providing local producers with a year-round outlet for their products. Alleviating the specific barriers to sourcing locally will allow co-ops to achieve their potential in that role. Overall, improved communication among co-ops and between co-ops and farmers can begin to address some barriers to sourcing locally. Further, other groups such as NOFA, regional localvore groups, state agricultural extension agencies, and others can continue to facilitate communication and share pertinent information. It further suggests that filling some of the gaps can contribute to alleviating barriers identified by co-op managers and member workers. If co-ops are interested in sourcing more of what they sell from local producers, using percent of expenditure locally sourced as a marker can be useful for setting specific goals, while addressing the barriers to sourcing locally can help co-ops and producers meet these goals.


The Pacific plate is usually considered to host 14 hotspots, but most of this volcanism does not seem to originate from deep-mantle plumes. To reach this conclusion, we tried to establish how many of the seamount alignments on the Pacific plate correspond to classic hotspots, i.e., long-lived hotspots linked to oceanic basaltic plateaus. We retraced the tracks of the 14 Pacific hotspots by using (1) the absolute stage poles representing the Pacific plate absolute motion since 145 Ma, (2) an updated compilation of radiometric ages of seamounts and oceanic plateaus totaling 266 seamounts or islands, (3) the detailed bathymetry of the Pacific Ocean, and (4) the present locations of the hotspots. This analysis allowed us to correlate only three hotspots with the beginning of their tracks possibly corresponding in space and time to an oceanic plateau: Easter to the eastern Mid-Pacific Mountains, Louisville to the Ontong Java plateau, and, with less confidence, Marquesas to Hess Rise and Shatsky Ridge. In addition, the Hawaii hotspot has produced long-lived volcanism. These four are the only classic hotspots on the Pacific plate. However, seven hotspots present short tracks (,35 m.y.) that cannot be traced to an oceanic plateau and thus are not related to any deep-mantle phenomena: Foundation, Macdonald, Pitcairn, Rarotonga, Rurutu, Samoa, and Society. The two northeast Pacific hotspots, Kodiak-Bowie and Cobb, and the Caroline hotspot are unclassifiable because of close proximity to a subduction zone where the prior history of volcanism has been lost.


The theme of our paper is student research. How do we help students become good researchers? Are we giving them sufficient opportunities to deploy research skills, pursue their interests in their final year and assist them in becoming research competent, autonomous learners? And what are the best kinds of research task that can deliver what is needed in this important area of the skills agenda?

We argue the case for a more ambitious agenda for student research. In doing so, we generally support most of the arguments for treating undergraduates as part of the 'community of researchers' (Chang, 2005), and which favour the 'research scholar' model (Hodge, Pasquesi, et al, 2007).

For the purposes of Enquring Minds a 'project' is taken to mean a formally assessed activity that is initiated and managed through to completion by a student (or group of students), typically across the whole period or substantial period of a module or award year/level. While sharing some of the characteristics of the coursework assignment, dissertation or extended essay, greater emphasis is usually placed on rewarding independent enquiry, and on fieldwork, statistical enquiry, interviews etc.

We contend that the key requirement of a formally assessed research activity is that it should be effective in facilitating:

*continuing development of research and research related skills into level 3, building on developmental work in years 1 and 2 (levels 1, 2) – ie its value as a developmental tool
* deployment of those skills, and in ways that promote genuine autonomy and meet the full range of expectations of students who are about to graduate, including the need for graduates to be 'information literate'
* effective assessment (formative and formal) of research skills, and across the range of outcomes and skill sets expected by current standards

On these criteria we believe that a project that meets certain criteria, as outlined in more detail in the paper and examples in the presentation) offers a valuable model (perhaps even the optimum model) for assessing final year/level 6 student research. The case for such project work is reinforced when the core design characteristics we have referred to are accompanied by rewarded elements such as presentations of research results, face to face or online dialogue around work in progress (and linked curriculum themes), or creative elements such as the production of DVDs, Facebook work or publication in journals are introduced.

We see that the incorporation of interdisciplinary aspects such as engagement in projects and fieldwork with students from other disciplines can be valuable. However, we accept it is still a contentious area, particularly in the face of concerns from those who argue for a more vocationalist, 'law' focused approach to setting the parameters of undergraduate skills development and assessment (Edwards, 1992).

Project work can also confer important benefits on other stakeholders besides the student researcher, including students and staff – for example through the creation of a developing 'knowledge pool' to which the institution's academic community (and wider academic community)gain access. To date our evaluations have focused on the value of the knowledge pool for limited purposes such as in-course dialogic work, but other approaches highlight exciting and wider ranging applications, including Hasok Chang's 'mechanism of inheritance'. For law schools that support project options as an integral part of their research culture there are considerable gains to be had. They are a good way of showcasing students' work, and contribute to, and strengthen, an institutional culture of research and scholarly activity, bringing the student and staff research functions closer.

Above all project work is effective as a means of promoting 'autonomy', putting research where we think it belongs – at the centre of the student learning experience.

Caroline Maughan (University of the West of England) reported:
The team put forward their case for a more ambitious agenda to encourage undergraduate students to become good researchers and outlined their work in progress on the development of research and related skills on law programmes. The Enquiring Minds project, a project in its first year, is evaluating current practice and developments in the design, use and assessment of research tasks undertaken by level 3 students.


Abstract The aim of this paper is to present the form of celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Czechoslovak Republic. The physical culture association Sokol played an important role in the foundation of the republic and became part of the Slovak civil associations scene in 1918. The XVIth All-Sokol Ralley (Všesokolský zlet) in 2018 was one of the official events dedicated to the celebration of Czechoslovakia's anniversary. For this occasion, the Slovak-Czech piece of motion music "Spolu" ("Together") was composed. Based on participatory observation of the rehearsals in the role of a trainee, as well as interviews with the author of the music and observations at the All-Sokol Ralley, I have explored the symbolism of the celebration and reflected on the participation of Slovak women in this event.


Teacher educators face many challenges such as preparing high quality teachers, maintaining up-to-date research based information for programs, and recruiting high quality individuals. In an attempt to meet the challenge of preparing a significant number of teaching candidates, many alternative routes to teacher certification have appeared across the country. The Thirteenth Annual Yearbook of the Association of Teacher Educators provides a collection of well-researched chapters on alternative and non-traditional approaches to teacher preparation. Editors Julie Dangel and Edith Guyton provide three sections to frame the dialogue: successes and challenges, effects of models, and non-traditional models of professional development. This yearbook provides: * A cross-case description and analysis of a five site program ranging from small town to highly urban * A description of four distinctly different routes to certification that were developed to recruit diverse and non-traditional individuals into teaching * A summary of findings of an alternative certification program that career changers either performed well below or exceeded expectations * A comparison study of regularly certified first-year teachers with Teach for America first-year and second-year teachers * Information on a longitudinal study of 1,702 novice teachers * A summary of a unique approach to offering professional development opportunities to meet the academic and personal needs of teachers of English language learners * Several barriers to coaching practice, lack of time, teacher resistance to change, lack of trust, and inconsistencies in definition of the coaching role. * Details on how online events can be useful and usable by a broad population of teachers. For teachers and teacher educators.


Wilfred Thesiger is the last of the great British eccentric explorers, renowned for his travels through some of the most inaccessible places on earth. As a child in Abyssinia he watched the glorious armies of Ras Tafari returning from hand-to-hand battle, their prisoners in chains; at the age of 23 he made his first expedition into the country of the Danakil, a murderous race among whom a man's status in the tribe depended on the number of men he had killed and castrated. His books, "Arabian Sands" and "The Marsh Arabs", tell of his two sojourns in the Empty Quarter and the Marshes of Southern Iraq. In this autobiography, Wilfred Thesiger highlights the people who most profoundly influenced him and the events which enabled him to lead the life of his choice.