A key problem in medical research and practice is that of accurately identifying endpoints or times-to-event in stages of disease progression or treatment outcomes. In chronic or long-term conditions such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, the reaching of the endpoint is determined by comparing an individual's biomarker measurements over a period of time to a pre-determined threshold. The small number and irregular spacing of such measurements often make it difficult to determine when a patient has truly reached the endpoint, and current methods do not take this uncertainty into account. In this thesis, we consider the impact of endpoint uncertainty on statistical inferences in Cox regression for time-to-event data, review the current use of weights on individuals in Cox modelling, and propose a novel approach of weighting an individual's biomarker measurement times, based on schemes which determine the probability of that biomarker measurement being indicative of a true endpoint. Two weighting schemes are developed and illustrated — the first-of-two weighting (FOTW) scheme, based on the practice of taking the first of two consecutive above-threshold measurements as the endpoint measurement (termed the first-of-two unweighted, or FOT U/W scheme); and the longitudinal conditional probability weighting (LCPW) scheme, which applies weights to all measurements based on a longitudinal mixed-effects model (LMEM) of the data. We show through simulations that both the FOTW and LCPW schemes have good power in detecting significant differences between study groups using Cox analysis but are sensitive to differences in observational frequency between the groups, and we explore the robustness of the LCPW scheme to misspecifications of the LMEM. Finally, we illustrate the use of these schemes on a dataset from the Western Australian HIV study and discuss areas for future investigation, including ways to improve the reliability and robustness of the schemes.


The price of rare earth metals such as neodymium is very unstable and has in recent years increased more than 1000%. This leaves the wind power business that uses permanent magnet generators with large insecurity. In this paper, a generator design with an interchangeable rotor is presented, which gives the option of having a rotor with different material depending on the current neodymium price. Thereby, the wind turbine has the same properties with only the generator rotor changing. The suggested alternative, a ferrite rotor, is much heavier than a neodymium rotor. The heavy ferrite rotor indicates an advantage for the vertical axis wind turbine technology with the generator placed on ground level, where the weight is not as important as in the hub. Two similar generator designs are presented, magnet material differences are discussed and the neodymium price limit for when the ferrite rotor is to be preferred is calculated.


In this paper, a hybrid dynamic mesh generation method for multi-block structured grid is presented based on inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation and transfinite interpolation (TFI). The major advantage of the algorithm is that it maintains the effectiveness of TFI, while possessing the ability to deal with multi-block structured grid from the IDW method. In this approach, dynamic mesh generation is made in two steps. At first, all domain vertexes with known deformation are selected as sample points and IDW interpolation is applied to get the grid deformation on domain edges. Then, an arc-length-based TFI is employed to efficiently calculate the grid deformation on block faces and inside each block. The present approach can be well applied to both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) problems. The proposed method has been well-validated by several test cases. Numerical results show that dynamic meshes with high quality can be generated in an accurate and efficient manner. AMS subject classifications: 65Z05


The permafrost component of the cryosphere is changing dramatically, but the permafrost region is not well monitored and the consequences of change are not well understood. Changing permafrost interacts with ecosystems and climate on various spatial and temporal scales. The feedbacks resulting from these interactions range from local impacts on topography, hydrology, and biology to complex influences on global scale biogeochemical cycling. This review contributes to this focus issue by synthesizing its 28 multidisciplinary studies which provide field evidence, remote sensing observations, and modeling results on various scales. We synthesize study results from a diverse range of permafrost landscapes and ecosystems by reporting key observations and modeling outcomes for permafrost thaw dynamics, identifying feedbacks between permafrost and ecosystem processes, and highlighting biogeochemical feedbacks from permafrost thaw. We complete our synthesis by discussing the progress made, stressing remaining challenges and knowledge gaps, and providing an outlook on future needs and research opportunities in the study of permafrost–ecosystem–climate interactions.


Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is a light-weight protocol
designed to be used in machine-to-machine applications. This memo
describes challenges associated with securing CoAP and proposes a new
security model that the authors believe is suitable for these
environments. The model requires minimal amount of configuration, but
still provides strong security and is a natural fit with the typical
communication practices smart object networking environments. This
memo also proposes JSON payload format extensions to support the
architecture.


The concept of values as persistent universal beliefs has been developed extensively in the disciplines of philosophy, sociology, anthropology and psychology. 1 According to Kerlinger, the interest in the under-standing and measurement of beliefs is predicated on the assumption that value differences constitute the essence of major human choices and conflicts. 2 In curriculum, the question, 'What knowledge is of most worth?', 3 is critical to the selection of curriculum content, The rationale for content selection is embedded in the belief systems of individuals involved in the curriculum development process. These belief systems, frequently termed 'educational value orientations', have been described in the curriculum literature, 4 While there is logical and anecdotal evidence to support value orientations, empirical efforts to document specific teacher beliefs have been limited to categorizations within major philosophical schools of thought. 5


A must-have collection of Office 2010 application Bibles, written by the world?s leading expertsTalk about a bargain! Office 2010 Library offers enormous savings on four invaluable resources that boast nearly 5,000 pages and cover the core Office programs: Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Word. The world?s leading experts of these applications provide you with an arsenal of information on the latest version of each program. Three CDs are also included that feature bonus material, including helpful templates, worksheets, examples, and more to enhance your Microsoft Office 2010 experiences. Features four essential books on the most popular applications included in the Office 2010 suite: Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and WordExcel 2010 Bible?serves as an indispensable reference for Excel users, no matter your level of expertise, and updates you on the latest Excel tips, tricks, and techniques Access 2010 Bible?offers a thorough introduction to database fundamentals and terminologyPowerPoint 2010 Bible?shows you how to use the new features of PowerPoint 2010 and make successful presentationsWord 2010 Bible?begins with a detailed look at all the new features in Word 2010 and then expends to cover more advanced, intricate topicsOffice 2010 Library presents you with all-encompassing coverage that you won?t find anywhere else!


Food science and technology concerns the chemistry and engineering necessary to deliver safe, convenient food products from the farm gate to the food marketer. The academic program integrates principles and concepts in the physical, biological, and engineering sciences, and applies them to the scientific and technological aspects of food and beverage processing. The role of the food scientist is to successfully integrate these disciplines to assure an abundant, high quality, and nutritious food supply.


ABSTRACT The primary aim of this article is to assess the impact of a high stress shift work occupation (i.e., police work) on psychological (i.e., cognitive and somatic anxiety) and physiological (i.e., chronic fatigue, digestive and cardiovascular symptoms) wellbeing. Specifically, this study seeks to assess the impact of age on psychological and physiological wellbeing as well as to assess the mediating impact of adverse (disengagement) and beneficial (engagement) coping strategies on psychological and physiological wellbeing. One hundred and twenty-nine subjects from two Police Local Area Commands in Eastern Australia completed a modified version of the Standard Shiftwork Index (SSI). It was hypothesized that age and disengagement coping would be adversely related to psychological and physiological symptoms and that, conversely, engagement coping would be beneficially related to psychological and physiological wellbeing. Although analysis of the data supported the hypothesis that age and disengagement coping were adversely related to a variety of psychological and physiological symptoms, the results did not support the hypothesis that engagement coping was beneficially related to either psychological or physiological wellbeing. These findings are discussed within the context their implications for police officer psychological and physiological wellbeing To date, one of the most comprehensive questionnaire-based research tools used to assess the wellbeing of shift workers, and the many mediating factors impinging on shift worker wellbeing, is the Standard Shiftwork Index (SSI) designed by Barton, Spelten, Totterdell, Smith, Folkard & Costa (1995). Barton, Folkard, Smith, Spelten & Totterdell (1992) suggest that the SSI may be viewed as a set of previously standardized questionnaires that can be classified as fitting into one of two categories: (1) those examining variables that may mediate a response to shift work (e.g., age, marital status, shift system, personality variables and coping strategies) and, (2) those examining variables that measure the impact of shift work (e.g., sleep, psychological symptoms, and physical symptoms). Previous research using the SSI indicates that age is positively correlated with a greater risk of developing a variety of psychological and physiological symptoms (Barton, et al., 1995a; Barton, et al., 1995; Costa, et al., 1995; Kaliterna & Prizmic, 1998; Ognianova & Dalbokova, 1998; Smith, et al., 2000; Tucker, et al., 1996) and increased sleep disturbance (Costa, et al., 1995; Ognianova & Dalbokova, 1998; Smith, et al., 2000). In contrast to this age-based research, several SSI studies provide mixed results regarding the influence of coping strategies on wellbeing. Coping is defined as any effort to prevent, eliminate, or reduce stressors, or to tolerate the effect of stress with minimum harm. It has been argued that, in the short term, our responses to stressors help mobilize energy resources, inhibit inflammation, and increase our resistance to infection. In the longer term chronic stress may be maladaptive to our wellbeing by eventually contributing to the development of a host of physical disorders as well as impeding our ability to mount an effective immune response (Bull, 1994). The use of negative or positive coping skills, therefore, can significantly affect our ability to moderate harmful influences to our wellbeing. The SSI assesses the impact of two primarily cognitively based coping strategies (i.e., engagement and disengagement) with regard to four problem areas (i.e., social and domestic life, sleep and job). Engagement coping assesses the extent to which subjects utilize the following positive coping strategies: talking to someone about problems, letting emotions out, working on solving problems and reorganizing problems so that they do not look so bad. …


"A Rough Introduction to This Sunny Land": The Civil War Diary of Private Henry A. Strong, Co. K, Twelfth Kansas Infantry. Edited by Tom Wing. (Little Rock: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, 2006. Pp. xxi, 96. Foreword by Edwin C. Bearss, acknowledgments, introduction, map, illustrations, notes, bibliography, biographical notes. $11.95, paper.) One of the most commonly repeated assertions about American Civil War scholarship is that the conflict in the Trans-Mississippi has been "largely ignored" by historians. This was probably true through much of the late twentieth century, when monographs and articles dealing with the conflict centered on events transpiring east of the Mississippi. But recent years have seen the publication of numerous works specifically describing the war in the West. The University of Arkansas Press has taken the lead in documenting this theater in its series The Civil War in the West, and a glance at other publishers' lists shows a continuing effort to bring to light research on the topic. One naturally wonders when such output will reach the critical mass that allows us to abandon our lament that those who suffered and died far from the fields of Gettysburg have been "largely ignored." Historian Tom Wing has certainly done his part to contribute to that critical mass in "A Rough Introduction to This Sunny Land": The Civil War Diary of Private Henry A. Strong, Co. K, Twelfth Kansas Infantry. A former employee of the National Park Service, Wing has taken a rare and valuable primary source on the Trans-Mississippi and made it available to an audience far beyond the few who may have had the opportunity in past years to examine a typewritten transcription of the original diary now held by the Fort Scott National Historic Site. The result is an entertaining read that makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the war in the West. Henry Strong enlisted in the Union Army on August 16, 1862, in response to President Eincoln's call for 300,000 troops to help suppress the rebellion. Strong's regiment, the 12th Kansas Volunteer Infantry, served exclusively in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory. The regiment spent much of its time in the later months of the war in garrison at Fort Smith and participated in the Camden Expedition in the spring of 1864. Strong did not start his diary until October 1, 1863, but his first entries summarized his first fifteen months in uniform before he began making regular notations of his experiences. Those notations range from brief descriptions of miles marched and weather conditions endured, to more detailed entries such as a valuable first-person description of the battle of Jenkins' Ferry and the capture of the steamboat J. …


The main objective of this paper is to investigate the thermal properties of the kenaf cellulose (0 - 50 %wt) and the low-density polyethylene (LDPE) composites. In addition,
the effect of two different weights of compatibilizing agent, polyethylene glycol (PEG),was examined. Each sample of biocomposites was subjected to the heating of the cycle
between 35-600 °C to obtain their thermal behavior by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).The differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) also was determined in the cycle heating of 25- 600 °C. By increasing cellulose content, the thermal stability was slightly improved. The thermal stability of LDPE-cellulose composites was affected by cellulose and PEG.
The onset degradation temperature and the decomposition temperature of the composites were increased when the cellulose is added to the LDPE matrix. Also, the melting
temperature (Tm) and the enthalpy (ΔH) of these biocomposites were slightly soared by increasing cellulose and PEG content. This enhancement of thermal stability and properties can be attributed to an improvement in the interfacial adhesion and compatibility between the cellulose and matrix, due to the treatment of compatibilizing agent.


One of the goals of health for everybody in 21st century is the improvement of quality of life. Thus, to find the best treatment
for medical problems, it is not only enough to evaluate the results of
interventions on morbidity and mortality in clinical studies, but also that the
outcome of interventions in terms of socio-cultural aspect should be
evaluated. Uterine Prolapse strikes at the heart of a woman's sense of her
own women nature and therefore her security along with her marital relationship
should be guaranteed after the surgery process. After the removal of uterus
women can't find herself fulfilled though it is sick one as changes
appear in women's life both in understanding
of her health as well as socio-cultural position that they gained
after being as women. Many of the women who underwent surgery process are still
suffering from both physical and psychological impairments. Some of them are
experiencing psychological problem as they feel no longer a whole or real woman
because of the removal of their reproductive organs, while others still had an
orgasm from intercourse not just feeling dead. The changes to their sex life have created problem to them as they still struggle to cope with the loss they feel in their life as husbands always fed
up as they argue with him. Such types of suffering and pain happen due to the socio-cultural circumstances
in which a woman is brought up. They are seen as productive machine which had never been stopped though they are
passing from pain and suffering. Thus, the overall issue of surgery process is
to assure the quality of life of women to be them as a good
wife and mother as well as good employer
outside the home but before all this feeling of a whole womanhood in their life.


The role of the subject advisors as instructional leaders in South Africa has not been a field which has been given much focus. Few studies have been conducted on the role of the subject advisors even though the international literature shows that in developed countries much research has been done on the role of subject advisors. This study aimed at understanding the role of subject advisors in the South African context using one Education District in KwaZulu-Natal. In 2011 the Department of Basic Education introduced the Guidelines on The Roles and Responsibilities of Education Districts with the aim of addressing the functioning of the education districts. So it is also important to know how the subject advisors understand their roles.
This research utilised a qualitative, case study approach. Data was generated through semi-structured interviews. Three subject advisors were the participants of this study. Data was analysed utilising Hallinger and Murphy's model of an instructional leader. The findings suggest that the subject advisors understand their roles of enhancing instructional leadership in schools. Through the findings it emerged that subject advisors understand their roles to be supporting educators through the implementation of the curriculum which includes conducting workshops, providing educators with the educator support materials and class visits. Class visits enable the subject advisor to understand what is actually happening in class so that he/she would be able to understand the nature of support that might be needed. There were challenges that the subject advisors experienced as they performed their duties. It emerged through the findings that the subject advisors involved other people in supporting teaching and learning in schools because of different reasons, which included the shortage of subject advisors in certain discipline and also the subjects which were introduced in schools when these subject advisors were already employed. Other challenges which emerged from the findings included the shortage of computers for the subject advisors which forced them to use one computer and also educator support materials like duplicating papers which were used for workshops and the materials that were to be used in the classroom. Recommendations to address these challenges include organising more workshops for subject advisors so that they would have the necessary skills, employing more subject advisors, partnerships with local private sector to address the shortage of educator support materials.


Awareness: Everyone has experienced moments of awakening when time seems to stop and you are suddenly aware of every movement, every sound, every thought. Awareness, says Osho, is the key to being self-directed, centred and free in every aspect of our lives. In this book, Osho teaches how to live life more attentively, mindfully and meditatively, with love, caring and consciousness.


We take a new look at parameter estimation for Gaussian Mixture Model (GMMs). Specifically, we advance Riemannian manifold optimization (on the manifold of positive definite matrices) as a potential replacement for Expectation Maximization (EM), which has been the de facto standard for decades. An out-of-the-box invocation of Riemannian optimization, however, fails spectacularly: it obtains the same solution as EM, but vastly slower. Building on intuition from geometric convexity, we propose a simple reformulation that has remarkable consequences: it makes Riemannian optimization not only match EM (a nontrivial result on its own, given the poor record nonlinear programming has had against EM), but also outperforms it in many settings. To bring our ideas to fruition, we develop a well-tuned Riemannian LBFGS method that proves superior to known competing methods (e.g., Riemannian conjugate gradient). We hope that our results encourage a wider consideration of manifold optimization in machine learning and statistics.


The aim of the study was to detect and compare the haemostatic variables and bleeding after 7‑days administration of carprofen or meloxicam in clinically healthy miniature pigs. Twenty‑one clinically healthy Gottingen miniature pigs were divided into 3 groups. Selected haemostatic variables such as platelet count, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, thrombin time, fibrinogen, serum biochemical variables such as total protein, bilirubin, urea, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase and gamma‑glutamyltransferase and haemoglobin, haematocrit, red blood cells, white blood cells and buccal mucosal bleeding time were assessed before and 7 days after daily intramuscular administration of saline (1.5 ml per animal, control group), carprofen (2 mg·kg ‑1 ) or meloxicam (0.1 mg·kg ‑1 ). In pigs receiving carprofen or meloxicam, the thrombin time was significantly increased (p < 0.01) compared to the control group. In animals receiving carprofen, serum urea and creatinine were significantly decreased, compared to the control (p < 0.01) or meloxicam (p < 0.05) groups. In pigs receiving meloxicam, serum urea was significantly decreased (p < 0.05) compared to the control group. Significant differences were not detected in other haemostatic, biochemical variables or bleeding time compared to other groups or to the pretreatment values. Intramuscular administration of carprofen or meloxicam in healthy miniature pigs for 7 days causes sporadic, but not clinically important changes of selected haemostatic variables. Therefore, we can recommend them for perioperative use, e.g. for their analgesic effects, in orthopaedic or other surgical procedures without increased bleeding.


This paper presents a novel mono-vision virtual keyboard design for consumers of mobile and portable computing devices such as PDA's, mobile phones etc. Fuzzy approaches to gesture recognition are developed to reveal the key pressed over the printed sheet keyboard by analyzing the hand and finger gesture captured in the video sequence. Real time system is developed by integrating SDIO camera with PDA in the application environment. Reliable results are experienced by the implementation of the proposed real time mono vision gestured virtual keyboard system


The forkbeard, Phycis phycis (Linnaeus, 1766), is a species widely distributed throughout the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea and although it is of great importance for fishing industry, little is known about its reproductive characteristics. This study provides first data on reproductive characteristics of this species in the Mediterranean, important for management and stock assessment. For this purpose a total of 550 individuals ranging from 19.9 to 45.8 cm in total length were collected monthly in a period of one year using trammel nets. Sex ratio of males to females was 0.62:1. The estimated length where 50% of analysed individuals were sexually mature was 30.98 cm for females and 32.98 cm males. The peak value of gonadosomatic index was recorded in November and continued throughout the December, indicating the highest spawning activity. This period is characterized by presence of oocytes with migrated nucleus and yolk coalesces in ovary and spermatozoa in testes.


I. INTRODUCTION II. UNITED STATES' DUAL METHODS OF PROOF IN DRINKING AND DRIVING PROSECUTIONS A. The Highly Subjective, Misplaced Field Sobriety Testing System 1. General Problems with the Field Sobriety Testing System 2. Specific Problems with Standardized Field Sobriety Tests 3. Specific Problems with Nonstandardized Field Sobriety Tests B. The Fledgling, Yet Promising .08 Per Se Statutory System 1. Tolerable Problems with Breathalyzer Machines 2. Lenient Punishment for Refusing a Breath Test. III. INTERNATIONAL, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DRUNK-DRIVING LAWS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES A. The Limited Involvement of International Organizations B. Why the United States' System is Impaired: Field Sobriety Tests and Ineffective Enforcement of Per Se Laws C. Scandinavia: The Very Strict Founding Father D. Great Britain: The Current Leader in Strict Enforcement E. Australia: Enforcement and Federalism Can Coexist F. Canada: Putting Field Sobriety Tests Where They Belong IV. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION Throughout the world, alcohol is regarded as both the bringer of elation and discontent, as "[n]o other substance has been so lauded in verse and song or criticized so frequently as has alcohol." (1) Countries have developed a kind of ambivalence towards alcohol because of the dualistic nature of its exaltation and regulation. (2) While alcohol historically posed no great threat to communities, (3) its devastating effects have become increasingly apparent as an international catastrophe. (4) Impaired driving is a grave and serious international dilemma that results in countless casualties all over the world. (5) Despite these tragic consequences, "[t]he incidence of driving while under the influence of alcohol is one of the most frequently committed crimes throughout the world." (6) In Great Britain, sixteen percent of total road deaths are caused by drunk drivers, (7) while in Ontario, Canada, over 12,000 drunk-driving accidents occur in a single year. (8) The European Commission contends that in its member countries, up to twenty percent of road accident deaths and serious injuries are attributable to alcohol and amount to an estimated loss of life of ten billion euros per year. (9) In the United States, of the 42,815 total traffic fatalities that occurred in 2002, forty-one percent were alcohol related. (10) In 2002, 258,000 people were injured in alcohol-related crashes. (11) Motor vehicle accidents where the driver is impaired by alcohol cost employers over nine billion dollars a year. (12) Statistics like these, along with the lobbying of public interest groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) (13) and Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD), have resulted in "the almost schizophrenic development of drinking-and-driving law" in the United States that is aimed at achieving fast and arguably haphazard prosecutions and convictions of those charged with drunk-driving offenses. (14) According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), resolving this problem requires the cooperation of law enforcement, courts, and medical professionals to assist prosecutors in convicting alleged offenders. (15) The effect is that most states have two entirely different methods of prosecution to prove the offense of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). (16) This system is not only confusing for the jury and unfair to the criminal defendant, but it is also untenable. (17) One method of proof, consisting primarily of evidence from field sobriety tests, is subjective. (18) and inaccurate, (19) while the other method of proof--breath, blood, or urine tests--cannot be properly implemented. (20) Drunk drivers create a very serious social (21) and international (22) problem that needs to be corrected. …


Spatial distribution of various age- and sex groups of ringed seals (N = 94; 19 adult males, 33 adult females and 42 subadults) was studied in their fast-ice breeding habitat in Kongsfjor- den, Svalbard, during May 2004. Adult females occupied the inner, most stable ice area, while subadults were found predominantly in the outer parts of the fast-ice, where the ice conditions are more unstable. Adult males were scattered across these 2 areas; some were intermingled with breed- ing females while others were found further out towards the ice edge in areas mainly dominated by subadults. This pattern suggests territorial behaviour with competitive exclusion of the subadults and adult males that cannot compete for territories in the prime breeding areas. The size of adult males was correlated with their testosterone levels, but it was not necessarily the largest males that had the most adult female neighbors. The adult males that had the most adult female neighbors were how- ever significantly older than the adult males with fewer female neighbors (18 ± 1 vs. 12 ± 1 yr). This suggests that experience (age) likely plays a strong role in achieving reproductive success for male ringed seals. A male:female sex ratio of 1:2.4 was found in the prime breeding area, which suggests a slightly polygynous mating system.


Despite the brain being highly susceptible to the action of alcohol and, therefore, potentially susceptible to its carcinogenic effects, it is not clear whether alcohol consumption is associated with risk of glioblastoma. We analyzed data from 39,766 participants of the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study recruited in 1990–1994 and followed to the end of 2008 for an average of 15 years. Incidence of glioblastoma of the brain was ascertained via linkage to the Victorian and other State cancer registries in Australia. During a structured face‐to‐face interview at baseline we elicited each participant's history of alcoholic beverage consumption during the current decade at baseline. We used Cox regression models with age as the time metric, adjusted for country of birth, sex, total energy intake, educational attainment and coffee consumption to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). A total of 67 glioblastomas was diagnosed in the cohort during follow‐up. The HRs associated with each additional 10 grams per day of alcohol intake was 1.16 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.29; p for linear trend = 0.007). Compared to lifetime abstainer, the HR for glioblastoma associated with alcohol consumption were 1.07 (0.55 to 2.10) for 1 to 19 g/day, 1.79 (0.81 to 3.95) for 20 to 39 g/day, 3.07 (1.26 to 7.47) for 40 to 59 g/day and 2.54 (0.92 to 7.00) for 60 or more g/day. Alcohol consumption at baseline was associated with the risk of glioblastoma in a dose‐response relationship.


This project deals with the ongoing importance of nations, cultures, and politics in the modern world, and with the complex and layered relationships between them. Despite the expanding phenomenon of globalization, which promises to open up borders and tear down the boundaries between peoples, nations remain the most important actors in international politics and nationalism continues to be a potent force throughout the world. This project explores the significance of nations and cultures for politics, with special emphasis on the importance of nationalism and nationalist theory in the twenty-first century. I argue that there are significant gaps in the literature on republican political theory and on nationalism, and I address these gaps by turning to the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau's philosophy uniquely combines nationalism with republican citizenship and participatory democracy, and his perspective shares many commonalities with David Miller, a contemporary nationalist thinker who combines the principle of nationality with republican citizenship. I argue that the theories of Rousseau and Miller form the foundations of republican nationalism; a unique strand of nationalist theory that is distinct from other perspectives―and from liberal nationalism in particular―and should be treated as separate in the literature. I seek to develop republican nationalism as a theoretical framework that looks at the major questions in the literature from a novel perspective and provides new solutions to some of the discipline's most persistent problems. By identifying republican nationalism as an approach that is firmly rooted in the wider traditions of republicanism and nationalism, and by demonstrating that this approach is distinct from liberal nationalism and other alternative perspectives, I hope to make valuable contributions to the literature and help move the debate within nationalist theory forward. I conclude by emphasizing the continuing relevance of nations, cultures, and politics in the modern world, and by stressing that nationalism is likely to remain a potent force in world affairs. For this reason, it is still as crucial as ever to treat nations and nationalism as serious subjects of academic study, and to keep the debates currently taking place within nationalist theory moving forward.


Deficiency of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) is the most common enzyme deficiency in humans and is due to many different local variants with point mutations in the X-linked G6PD gene. In populations that have a history of malaria infection G6PD alleles causing deficiency can reach frequencies of 10% or more. Though often asymptomatic, the enzyme deficiency can lead to acute haemolytic anaemia caused by failure to maintain sufficiently high levels of nicotinamide–adenine dinucleotide phosphate reduced form (NADPH) to prevent oxidative damage in red cells. Rare sporadic variants that can occur in all human populations can cause more severe chronic haemolytic anaemia. G6PD deficiency is also one of the major causes of neonatal jaundice. The prevalence of G6PD-deficient alleles is likely due to the fact that they confer a selective advantage against malaria infection.

Key Concepts:

G6PD deficiency is widespread because deficient individuals have a selective advantage against malaria infection.

G6PD in red cells maintains the levels of NADPH, essential for reducing oxidising agents.

Deficient variants cannot maintain high NADPH levels and reactive oxygen species cause haemolysis.

Deficient variants can reach polymorphic levels and different populations have different variants.

This pattern of variation arose recently, coincident with the spread of malaria in human populations.

Most deficient variants are unstable in vivo and therefore cause very low levels in red cells, where the enzyme is not turned over.

Knowledge of the G6PD variants in a population can be useful in limiting illness caused by G6PD deficiency.

Keywords:

polymorphic;
chronic nonspherocytic haemolytic anaemia;
malaria;
evolution;
population genetics;
red cell


A Framework for Managing Quality in the Tourist Experience. Alan R. Graefe and Jerry J. Vaske. Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 14, no. 3, 1987, pp. 390404. Pergamon Press, Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, New York 10523. DM 114. This article examines the impacts of tourism on the quality of the tourist's experience. The suggested management framework focuses on the identification of undesirable impacts on the tourist experience, the determination of causal factors related to these impacts, and the selection of potential management strategies for ameliorating the undesirable impacts.


Many experts argue that the future of artificial intelligence is limited by the field's ability to integrate symbolic logical reasoning into deep learning architectures. The recently proposed differentiable MAXSAT solver, SATNet, was a breakthrough in its capacity to integrate with a traditional neural network and solve visual reasoning problems. For instance, it can learn the rules of Sudoku purely from image examples. Despite its success, SATNet was shown to succumb to a key challenge in neurosymbolic systems known as the Symbol Grounding Problem: the inability to map visual inputs to symbolic variables without explicit supervision ("label leakage"). In this work, we present a self-supervised pre-training pipeline that enables SATNet to overcome this limitation, thus broadening the class of problems that SATNet architectures can solve to include datasets where no intermediary labels are available at all. We demonstrate that our method allows SATNet to attain full accuracy even with a harder problem setup that prevents any label leakage. We additionally introduce a proofreading method that further improves the performance of SATNet architectures, beating the state-of-the-art on Visual Sudoku.


Editors' Synopsis: This Article examines the Uniform Principal and Income Act's acceptance of the modern portfolio theory of investment, which focuses on the total return of a trust. The Uniform Principal and Income Act introduces the power to adjust, which allows a trustee to allocate between income and principal based on principles of fairness rather than the type of asset return. The Article analyzes the factors that determine when a trustee has the power to adjust and what limitations on the power might apply. The Article also discusses the hierarchy of judicial remedies available under the Act to guide a trustee uncertain about the power to adjust in a given trust situation.


When an individual finds himself/herself in a survival, evasion, resistance, or escape (SERE) scenario, the ability to treat injuries/illnesses can be the difference between life and death. SERE schools are responsible for preparing military members for these situations, but the concept of SERE medicine is not particularly well defined. To provide a comprehensive working description of SERE medicine, operational and training components were examined. Evidence suggests that SERE medicine is diverse, injury/illness patterns are situationally dependent, and treatment options often differ from conventional clinical medicine. Ideally, medical lessons taught in SERE training are based on actual documented events. Unfortunately, the existing body of literature is dated and does not appear to be expanding. In this article, four distinct facets of SERE medicine are presented to establish a basis for future discussion and research. Recommendations to improve SERE medical curricula and data-gathering processes are also provided.


The subject of this thesis is the study of rural women and their participation in agricultural production. It intends to analyse the impact of differential capitalist development on the patterns of involvement of women in production in three regional situations in Chile and Peru, trying to show the relevance of women's work and its contribution to the regional and national economy. The three regions selected (the fruit growing and mixed cropping areas of Chile, and the mining central region of Peru) permit us to grasp the heterogeneity of capitalist development in Latin American countries, showing striking variations in the economic role of rural women. In one area I found heavy participation of women in wage labour, whilst in the other areas there was a substantial commitment to agricultural production, or, as in the case of Peru these predominated a combination of commerce and agriculture. The aim of the study of rural women in these three regions was to place women's work in the historical development of the regions, and in relation to the household unit, attempting to detect the contribution of women to the household common income fund. This approach allowed me to observe the connections existing between different forms of organization of production, the strategies adopted by the members of the household for survival in situations of insufficient production and income, and to discover the different forms of participation of women in production in the three regions under study. The study was carried out in various stages, first in Peru in 3979, and later in Chile during 1962 and 1984. The general methodology consisted of combining both general data for establishing the regional framework and a survey for collecting quantitative data on women's involvement in the economy, together with case studies on the position of women within the households. The hypotheses that guided the study were that women participate fully in the economy and contribute significantly to the provision of income and the economic maintenance of households, and secondly, that this contribution is important for the economy as a whole, both in terms of production and reproduction functions; also, that the specific forms of women's involvement in production activities depend upon the specific characteristics of the regional process. The conclusion of the study suggests that women's work, for a great part, make up the production of the internal demand of foodstuffs for these countries, as well as, in some cases, of export crops. Also, although women's work may not be recognized as part of the formal economy, it can help maintain peasant forms of production, perhaps even limiting the emergence of forms of peasant differentiation The thesis is divided into two main parts: the first providing a general framework for methodological problems concerned with the analysis of women's work in rural contexts and a comparative approach to understanding agrarian development and situations in Chile and Peru. The second part consists of three main chapters dedicated to the analysis of women in the regions selected for the study, each of which includes a detailed regional analysis, together with specific field data and testimonies on women's activities and perceptions.


SUMMARY
Crisponi syndrome (CS) is a rare, autosomal recessive disorder, characterized by hyperthermia, extensive muscular contractions in the face after even minimal stimuli or crying, hypertonia, opisthotonus, camptodactyly, and typical facial features. Recently, it has been demonstrated that CRLF1 (cytokine receptor-like factor 1) gene mutation is associated with CS. Here we report a case of CS with a new mutation in the CRLF1 gene associated with moderate clinical phenotype.


Microfiltration/ultrafiltration (MF/UF) membranes and ultraviolet (UV) light disinfection serve as attractive alternative technologies to aid utilities in complying with both the LT2ESWTR and Stage 2 D/DBP. However, both technologies are limited in their ability to remove viruses and at the same time there is a lack of methods to accurately demonstrate virus removal in full-scale settings. In evaluating the efficacy of MF/UF membranes and UV disinfection systems for virus removal, appropriate surrogates are therefore required. In most cases, various surrogates are used to evaluate the removal performances of individual treatment technologies. This henceforth limits its application when multiple treatment systems are evaluated in series. In view of this, fluorescent-conjugated MS2 and F8781 microspheres were evaluated as possible surrogates for virus removal by integrated coagulation-MF/UF filtration-UV disinfection. At 5 mg Al 3+ /L, the highest removal of MS2-Sypro was observed, followed by MS2-AMCA, and F8781 during the coagulation-flocculation stage. During MF and UF filtration, dye surrogates provided an underestimate of virus removal except for F8781, which had a considerably smaller particle size than other surrogates. Nevertheless, MS2-SR could accurately represent AD5 during low pressure (LP) UV irradiation but MS2-AMCA existed as a more accurate representation of AD5 as compared to F8781 microspheres during medium pressure (MP) UV irradiation. MS2-SR and MS2-AMCA are therefore preferred surrogates for an integrated filtration-UV disinfection system for LP and MP UV, respectively.


This paper addresses the emergence and development of the Chinese cleft construction, with particular attention to the period from Early Archaic Chinese through Late Medieval Chinese. Prototype copulas are typically of the form [NP SHI NP], are predicational or specificational, and cue information focus. We trace the gradual development over time of copula clefts in addition to prototype copula constructions. A key factor in their development is the use in Medieval Chinese of nominalizations in post-copula position. Copula clefts typically have the form [NP SHI XP DE] and cue both specificational and contrastive meaning. The study is a contribution to the developing field of constructionalization by making more explicit the way in which individual constructional changes contribute sequentially to constructionalization. It also demonstrates one way in which a complex contrastive cleft construction may come into being.


This paper seeks to clarify and spells out the responsibilities of policy makers to create the conditions for an effective accountability system that produces substantial improvements in student learning, strengthens the teaching profession, and provides transparency of results to the public. The authors point out that U.S. policy makers will need to make a major shift from a heavy reliance on external accountability and superficial structural solutions (e.g., professional standards of practice) to investing in and building the professional capital of all teachers and leaders throughout the system. The article draws key lessons from highly effective school systems in the United States and internationally to argue that the priority for policy makers should be to lead with creating the conditions for internal accountability, that is, the collective responsibility within the teaching profession for the continuous improvement and success of all students. This approach is based on the development and circulation of professional capital that consists of three components: individual  human capital, social capital (where teachers learn from each other), and decisional capital (developing judgment and expertise over time). In this new professional accountability model, the external accountability that reassures the public that the system is performing in line with societal expectations continues to be an important role of educational systems, but it is nurtured and sustained by the development of strong internal accountability.


Doped Li7La3Zr2O12 garnets, oxide-based solids with good Li+ conductivity and compatibility, show great potential as leading electrolyte material candidates for all-solid-state lithium ion batteries. However, the conductive bulk usually suffers from the presence of secondary phases and the transition towards a low-conductivity tetragonal phase during synthesis. Dopants are designed to stabilize the high-conductive cubic phase and suppress the formation of the low-conductivity phases. In situ neutron diffraction enables a direct observation of the doping effects by monitoring the phase evolutions during garnet synthesis. It reveals the reaction mechanism involving the temporary presence of intermediate phases. The off-stoichiometry due to the liquid Li2CO3 evaporation leads to the residual of the low-conductivity intermediate phase in the as-synthesized bulk. Appropriate doping of an active element may alter the component of the intermediate phases and promote the completion of the reaction. While the dopants aid to stabilize most of the cubic phase, a small amount of tetragonal phase tends to form under a diffusion process. The in situ observations provide the guideline of process optimization to suppress the formation of unwanted low-conductivity phases.


Adaptive Hypermedia offers a technological solution for individualized and optimized online learning. However, effectively adapting web-based educational systems to individual learning traits remains an open issue. Inconclusive results and several criticisms to the popular approach of pre-screening individuals and adapting accordingly can be found in the literature.
This work investigated an alternative to pre-screening for adaptivity based on a learning style cycle. A learning cycle approach allows for the observation of learner interaction behavior over instructional events designed to attend to all different learning styles. The ADaPtor system was developed with the goal of optimizing learning efficiency and effectiveness by gradually and iteratively adapting the learning cycle based on learner behavior and performance. ADaPtor's adaptivity scheme personalizes presentation, content and navigation to satisfy individual learning needs.
Three learning cycles were developed for evaluating ADaPtor. Learners were split in two learning groups (control and adaptive) and adaptivity was gradually introduced for the adaptive group. Despite a reduction in the adaptive group effectiveness in the second cycle, when presentation was adapted, effectiveness was comparable in the third and fully adaptive learning cycle. Differences in effectiveness disappeared when more data was available for predictions and learners started following adaptive recommendations more often. Overall, learning efficiency was optimized.
This research provides the adaptive hypermedia community with a tool for using a learning style cycle in adapting to individual learning traits, namely ADaPtor. It emphasizes the need for a collaborative approach to better understand of how people learn online and how adaptive hypermedia can be employed for optimizing individual learning experiences.


In this work we use analogue modelling to analyse the effect of sudden ice shelf breakup on the flow of ice draining an ice sheet grounded below sea level. Experimental results confirm that the removal of the buttressing effect exerted by the ice shelf results in significant acceleration of inland glaciers: the models show indeed a pronounced increase in ice velocity close to the grounding line. However, this effect does not significantly propagate upstream towards the internal portions of the ice sheet and rapidly decays with time. Therefore, the ice sheet is almost unaffected by flow perturbations induced by the disintegration of the ice shelf.


"The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle are the complete adventures of the original and best detective, containing four novels and fifty-six short stories about the most engaging detective of all time, with a foreword by crime writer Ruth Rendell. The detective Sherlock Holmes - who continues to enthral millions in film and TV adaptations starring actors like Robert Downey Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch - was the creation of Arthur Conan Doyle, whose crime stories have thrilled readers for well over a century. Sherlock Holmes is not only the most famous character in crime fiction, but arguably the most famous character in all fiction. In sixty adventures that pit his extraordinary wits and courage against foreign spies, blackmailers, cultists, petty thieves, murderers, swindlers, policemen (both stupid and clever), and his arch-nemesis Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes, together with his faithful sidekick Doctor John H. Watson, proves himself to be not only the quintessential detective but also the most engaging and entertaining company any reader could ask for. "The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes" allows readers to experience the entire case-history of Holmes and Dr. Watson from start to finish - the stories that have spawned such infamous characters as the devilish Moriarty, the devious Irene Adler and, of course, the legendary hound of the Baskervilles...This edition includes a foreword written by crime writer Ruth Rendell. "Penguin" also publishes, in individual volumes, "A Study in Scarlet", "The Sign of Four", "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "The Valley of Fear", "His Last Bow" and "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes". "The immense talent, passion and literary brilliance that Conan Doyle brought to his work give him a unique place in English letters. Personally, I'd walk a million miles in tight boots just to read his letters to the milkman". (Stephen Fry). "Holmes has a timeless intelligence that puts him head, shoulders and deer-stalker above all other detectives". (Alexander McCall Smith). "Now, as in his lifetime, cab drivers, statesmen, academics, and raggedy-assed children sit spellbound at his feet. No wonder, then, if the pairing of Holmes and Watson has triggered more imitators than any other duo in literature". (John Le Carre). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where he became the clerk to a surgeon whose diagnostic methods provided the model for the science of deduction perfected by Sherlock Holmes. He set up as a doctor and it was while waiting for patients that he began to write. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in "A Study in Scarlet" (1887). The Holmes stories soon attracted such a following that Conan Doyle felt the character overshadowed his other work. In "The Final Problem" (1893) Conan Doyle killed him off, but was obliged by public demand to restore the detective to life.


Loss of a dominant competitor can open ecological opportunities. Ecological opportunities are considered prerequisites for adaptive radiations. Nonetheless, initiation of diversification in response to ecological opportunity is seldom observed, so we know little about the stages by which behavioural variation either increases or coalesces into distinct phenotypes. Here, a natural experiment showed that in a tropical island's guild of army ant-following birds, a new behavioural phenotype emerged in subordinate spotted antbirds (Hylophylax naevioides) after the socially dominant ocellated antbird (Phaenostictus mcleannani) died out. Individuals with this behavioural phenotype are less territorial; instead, they roam in search of ant swarms where they feed in locations from which dominant competitors formerly excluded them. Roaming individuals fledge more young than territorial individuals. We conclude that ecological opportunity arising from species loss may enhance the success of alternative behavioural phenotypes and can favour further intraspecific diversification in life-history traits in surviving species.


Fusarium is a large and complex genus, comprises important pathogens most of which are able to produce mycotoxins. Maize is a host of several Fusarium species that cause ear rot, kernel rot, stalk rot and also seedling blight. Fusarium contamination of kernels and maize products had always been a serious concern. Owing to the positive correlation between fungal biomass and mycotoxin content, quantification of fungal DNA in plant materials would be considered as an initial fast and cost-effective mean to evaluate the risk of grain contamination. Several quantification methods are well-known of which real-time PCR (qPCR) has been used as an effective tool for species-specific quantification of fungal biomass in plant tissues. The method mostly relies on standard thermocyclers (96-well or 384-well blocks) with a separate run for each template and usually set in total reaction volume of 15 to 25 µl. In this investigation, we developed a multi-species qPCR assay for simultaneous quantification of genomic DNA of the nine Fusarium species with 384-well microplates in a total volume of 4 µl. The sensitivity of the method ranged from 0.05 - 1.52 pg DNA per reaction, and the repeatability ranged from 0.81% to 1.71% RSD.
Developed low volume qPCR assay was successfully employed for the analysis of weed plants to the infection of nine Fusarium spp. The main objectives were determination the role of weeds in the survival of maize fusarium pathogens and assessment of their ability for producing of the main mycotoxins. The Real-time PCR detected eight Fusarium species in 201 weed samples representing 36 weed species, collected from maize fields. The highest frequency was observed for F. equiseti (49%) and F. avenaceum (34.7%). Similar diversity of Fusarium spp. was observed in both conventional and organic farming systems. Isolation of Fusarium strains from 12 common weed species were carried out, the strains were identified based on the morphological characters and then identification was confirmed by using the translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF-1α) gene sequence. The recovery rate was high for F. equiseti (32.7%) and F. avenaceum (21%). None of the field samples as well as weed plants tested in inoculation studies show obvious symptoms of Fusarium infection. Re-isolation of the strains from artificially inoculated plants confirmed the endophytic infection of weeds by Fusarium spp. The present study reports five new alternative hosts for Fusarium species in maize fields. High incidence rate of beauvericin and enniatins contamination was obtained in weed samples while trichothecenes, fumonisins and zearalenone were not detected in any of the weeds studied.
Although toxicity of fumonisins to plants and field animals has been clearly demonstrated, the function of this toxin, however, in virulence of F. verticillioides toward maize plants is still unknown. In present study, virulence of two non-fumonisins producing strains
(fum 1-3 and fum 1-4) and their progenitors (FUM 1-1) was assessed on different plants including maize, sorghum, rice and beetroot seedlings grown under greenhouse conditions. The quantity of fungal biomass in plant tissues was considered as an indicator of fungal aggressiveness and it was measured by the developed low volume qPCR protocol. There was no significant (P = 0.05) differences between each wild type and the relevant mutant for colonization of plant tissues. In inoculated maize, rice and beetroot seedlings, systemic fungal infection was observed from roots to the aboveground parts; but rate of systemic transmission was low in sorghum plants. Although our results are not enough to make a final conclusion of fumonisin function in virulence of F. verticillioides on rice and sorghum seedlings, however, the results show diseases incidence was independent of fumonisins production in maize seedlings. In our system, therefore, fumonisins had no role as a pathogenicity factor.


ABSTRACT Human noroviruses are the primary cause of severe childhood diarrhea in the United States, and they are of particular clinical importance in pediatric populations in the developing world. A major contributing factor to the general increased severity of infectious diseases in these regions is malnutrition—nutritional status shapes host immune responses and the composition of the host intestinal microbiota, both of which can influence the outcome of pathogenic infections. In terms of enteric norovirus infections, mucosal immunity and intestinal microbes are likely to contribute to the infection outcome in substantial ways. We probed these interactions using a murine model of malnutrition and murine norovirus infection. Our results reveal that malnutrition is associated with more severe norovirus infections as defined by weight loss, impaired control of norovirus infections, reduced antiviral antibody responses, loss of protective immunity, and enhanced viral evolution. Moreover, the microbiota is dramatically altered by malnutrition. Interestingly, murine norovirus infection also causes changes in the host microbial composition within the intestine but only in healthy mice. In fact, the infection-associated microbiota resembles the malnutrition-associated microbiota. Collectively, these findings represent an extensive characterization of a new malnutrition model of norovirus infection that will ultimately facilitate elucidation of the nutritionally regulated host parameters that predispose to more severe infections and impaired memory immune responses. In a broad sense, this model may provide insight into the reduced efficacy of oral vaccines in malnourished hosts and the potential for malnourished individuals to act as reservoirs of emergent virus strains. IMPORTANCE Malnourished children in developing countries are susceptible to more severe infections than their healthy counterparts, in particular enteric infections that cause diarrhea. In order to probe the effects of malnutrition on an enteric infection in a well-controlled system devoid of other environmental and genetic variability, we studied norovirus infection in a mouse model. We have revealed that malnourished mice develop more severe norovirus infections and they fail to mount effective memory immunity to a secondary challenge. This is of particular importance because malnourished children generally mount less effective immune responses to oral vaccines, and we can now use our new model system to probe the immunological basis of this impairment. We have also determined that noroviruses evolve more readily in the face of malnutrition. Finally, both norovirus infection and malnutrition independently alter the composition of the intestinal microbiota in substantial and overlapping ways. Malnourished children in developing countries are susceptible to more severe infections than their healthy counterparts, in particular enteric infections that cause diarrhea. In order to probe the effects of malnutrition on an enteric infection in a well-controlled system devoid of other environmental and genetic variability, we studied norovirus infection in a mouse model. We have revealed that malnourished mice develop more severe norovirus infections and they fail to mount effective memory immunity to a secondary challenge. This is of particular importance because malnourished children generally mount less effective immune responses to oral vaccines, and we can now use our new model system to probe the immunological basis of this impairment. We have also determined that noroviruses evolve more readily in the face of malnutrition. Finally, both norovirus infection and malnutrition independently alter the composition of the intestinal microbiota in substantial and overlapping ways.


Silicon nanostructures have recently been a subject of interest demonstrating optimistic optical properties like luminescence. The scientific community predicts quantum effects to be the predominant cause for such optical properties of silicon nanostructures, hence it becomes prudent to pursue the roots of such reduced dimensional devices. With this view as a motive, a simulation model for a 2D thin film quantum confined 2D pn junction in silicon is developed in this work. A thin film silicon layer is considered in the regime of strong confinement. A pn junction in such a film is considered so that the carriers are confined in thickness dimension while they are quantum mechanically transported along the device length. The transverse dimension in considered infinitely wide for plane wave approximation. For device simulation, after a careful study of various schemes to incorporate quantum effects (Van Dort model, Density Gradient Method, etc.) it was decided to use the more rigorous self-consistent Schrodinger-Poisson method. Keeping in mind the computational resource constraints, for problem formulation, decoupled 1D set of equations for carrier transport is deployed. For electrons, the well known single-band effective mass Hamiltonian is used while for holes, multi-band effective mass Hamiltonian with light and heavy holes is applied (though a full 6 band k.p Hamiltonian and spin orbit interaction is required to account for a full featured valence band, no effective work has been done to use such a formulation for a reduced dimensional device). Overall discretization is done using the finite element method with matrix representation of equations. The ohmic contacts in longitudinal direction are simulated with semi infinite open boundary contacts through self energy matrix, and broadening of energy states is incorporated. The simulation is done in Matlab as it gives the highest flexibility (in comparison to Silvaco, Femlab and C++ with the latter being unrealistically involved in numerical solution algorithm). For solution, instead of Wigner function or Green's function, a more direct wave-function perspective is taken. First the equilibrium condition was simulated, and then extension under externally applied voltage was carried out. As the results show, confinement of carrier in lateral dimension results in energy quantization, and consequently subbands. As the material is degenerately doped, the number of carrier is comparable to existing states and carriers exist in excited states also. The occupancy of only three subbands upholds the earlier assumption that only a few subband are occupied. And along with the retention of subband shapes along device length, validates decoupling of the dimensions. The depletion region width is found to be more than that predicted by 3D junction equations. This may be due to the fact that the thin film cannot fully screen the electric field. Current voltage characteristics also do not show any significant tunneling current


Railcar condition directly affects the safety, the efficiency, and the reliability of freight railroad operations. Current railcar inspection practices are intended to identify defects before failure, but these practices generally do not enable preventive maintenance because manual, visual inspection is inherently limited. As a result, automated wayside condition-monitoring technologies have been developed to monitor rolling stock condition and facilitate predictive maintenance strategies. Improving the effectiveness of monitoring of railcar conditions could substantially reduce in-service failures and derailments, operational waste, and variability in rail operations and could enhance network productivity, capacity, and reliability. An analysis of the effect of lean production methods on main-line railway operations was conducted to determine the potential impact of improved railcar inspection and maintenance practices made possible by new, automated wayside technologies. Dispatch simulation software was used to quantify the magnitude and the variability of train delay as a function of both traffic level and severity of service outage. The results indicated that the annual cost caused by main-line delay was substantial compared with the annual cost of track and equipment damages from main-line derailments caused by mechanical causes. This work provided an analytical framework to assess the potential cost savings available through improved preventive maintenance strategies.


Some warriors are drawn to the thrill of combat and find it the defining moment of their lives. Others fall victim to fear, exhaustion, impaired reasoning, and despair. This was certainly true for twentieth-century American ground troops. Whether embracing or being demoralized by war, these men risked their lives for causes larger than themselves with no promise of safe return. This book is the first to synthesize the wartime experiences of American combat soldiers, from the doughboys of World War I to the grunts of Vietnam. Focusing on both soldiers and marines, it draws on histories and memoirs, oral histories, psychological and sociological studies, and even fiction to show that their experiences remain fundamentally the same regardless of the enemy, terrain, training, or weaponry. Peter Kindsvatter gets inside the minds of American soldiers to reveal what motivated them to serve and how they were turned into soldiers. He recreates the physical and emotional aspects of war to tell how fighting men dealt with danger and hardship, and he explores the roles of comradeship, leadership, and the sustaining beliefs in cause and country. He also illuminates soldiers' attitudes toward the enemy, toward the rear echelon, and toward the home front. And he tells why some broke down under fire while others excelled. Here are the first tastes of battle, as when a green recruit reported that "for the first time I realized that the people over the ridge wanted to kill me," while another was befuddled by the unfamiliar sound of bullets whizzing overhead. Here are soldiers struggling to cope with war's stress by seeking solace from local women or simply smoking cigarettes. And here are tales of combat avoidance and fraggings not unique to Vietnam, of soldiers in Korea disgruntled over home-front indifference, and of the unique experiences of African American soldiers in the Jim Crow army. By capturing the core "band of brothers" experience across several generations of warfare, Kindsvatter celebrates the American soldier while helping us to better understand war's lethal reality and why soldiers persevere in the face of its horrors."


Abstract There is no organization without conflict situations. It is known that 80% of conflict situations occur independently of human will. Its causes are people's individual characteristics, as well as structure of the organization, conditioned by the culture established in the organization. How correctly organizational management analyzes the causes of conflicts, managing stress, diagnostic of the conflict and its management are reflected on the psychological climate of the organization. The psychological climate is directly related to the labor productivity of each member of the organization and the whole organization itself. On the background of strenuous labor relations, the potential of the organization members is spent on the settlement of the conflict environment and it takes a large part of their time budget. Proper use of time resources affects labor productivity. The Human Resources Management Laboratory which is functioning at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University has already conducted a research in this regard. Due to the actuality of the issue, the laboratory aimed to conduct a further research about conflict situations in the organization. The research was focused on the Faculty of Economics and Business of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. 458 respondents were interviewed including Bachelor's and Master's Degree Students, Professors and Administration Representatives. The questionnaire included 36 questions and 133 options of response. As a result of the research,frequency of conflict situations in the organization was established, the active link of conflict situations. The reasons for the involvement of the collective team members into the conflict have been identified. The attitude of respondents of different categories was interesting in terms of resolving conflict situations. Conflict situations combined with the rest of the stages include the analysis of the causes. Different categories of respondents differently understand the importance of analyzing the causes of conflicts. The study finally made many interesting problems clear. The results obtained were processed by the SPSS program. We have formulated the hypothesis, studied the influence of the status and the gender of a respondent (bachelor, master, professor, and representative of the administration) on up to 15 variables. Trends were revealed through the tables developed on dispersion analysis. The conclusions made on the basis of the analysis of the survey results gave us the opportunity to make recommendations for the recovering and systemic improvement of the established values in the organization. The planned events will help the collective to undergo 3 stages of self-organization, meet the needs of the members, which will improve the psychological situation in the collective. It will facilitate each member's involvement in order to protect the organization's prestige and traditions. It is interesting to note that the majority of respondents are loyal to the university, which confirms the true fact that Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University is number one university in the country as well as in the region, is being developed and is constantly maintaining the championship and is trying to improve the conditions of the collective members.


This article attempts to historically contextualise and interpret a selection of photographs from the collection of South African ambulant photographer Ronald Ngilima and his son Torrance. Ngilima pioneered indoor portraiture in the Benoni townships of the early 1950s, thanks to his early acquisition of artificial lighting. As a consequence, his black, Coloured and Indian clients increasingly chose to be photographed at home, in particular within the space of their lounge (sitting room), or in Ngilima's lounge-studio. In these portraits, the subject poses amidst a lavish display of objects (tea cups, ashtray, gramophone...), furniture and homemade decorations (doilies, curtains, newspaper clippings...). Though the lounge portraits represent only a fraction of the entire Ngilima collection, I approach this subset of about 170 images as evidence as to how the residents of Wattville township appropriated the uniform sub-economic houses through long-term improvement schemes, contrasting with the apartheid State's deliberate efforts to frame them as temporary tenants. More broadly, these images invite us to think of photography's role in the construction of space and of self-representations in relation to space. What is the idea of a lounge? Why did it become such a popular photographic background? How did vernacular photography help to articulate abstract notions of selfhood (such as respectability or modernity) within historically specific circumstances?1


Earthquake engineers have traditionally investigated the behavior of structures with either computational simulations or physical experiments. Recently, a new hybrid approach has been proposed that allows tests to be decomposed into independent substructures that can be located at different test facilities, tested separately, and integrated via a computational simulation. We describe a grid-based architecture for performing such novel distributed hybrid computational/physical experiments. We discuss the requirements that underlie this extremely challenging application of grid technologies, describe our architecture and implementation, and discuss our experiences with the application of this architecture within an unprecedented earthquake engineering test that coupled large-scale physical experiments in Illinois and Colorado with a computational simulation. Our results point to the remarkable impacts that grid technologies can have on the practice of engineering, and also contribute to our understanding of how to build and deploy effective grid applications.


This paper discusses the scope of the Constitution's Disqualification Clause (Article I, Section 3, Clause 7) and the original public meaning of its "office...under the United States" language. In a recent paper in this journal, Benjamin Cassady argued that this clause bars disqualified former presidents, vice presidents, and officers of the United States from subsequent election or reelection to the presidency and vice presidency. Here, I take the contrary position: disqualified former presidents, vice presidents, and officers of the United States are not barred from any elected positions, state or federal. Rather, such disqualified former presidents, vice presidents, and officers of the United States are only barred from holding statutory or appointed federal offices. Finally, I address some issues relating to best methodological practices and the use of structural and other intuitionist modalities of interpretation when constitutional text is reasonably clear. I primarily rely on evidence contemporaneous with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, including: the drafting traditions of the Committee of Detail and the Committee of Style, statutory drafting traditions going back to the First Congress, official Executive Branch communications from Secretary Alexander Hamilton to the Senate, and President Washington's gifts from foreign government officials. These are all Founding-era precedents involving the Constitution's "Office...under the United States" language, i.e., the operative language in the Disqualification Clause.


A phosphorus diffusion gettering model is used to examine the efficacy of a standard gettering process on interstitial and precipitated iron in multicrystalline silicon. The model predicts a large concentration of precipitated iron remaining after standard gettering for most as-grown iron distributions. Although changes in the precipitated iron distribution are predicted to be small, the simulated post-processing interstitial iron concentration is predicted to depend strongly on the as-grown distribution of precipitates, indicating that precipitates must be considered as internal sources of contamination during processing. To inform and validate the model, the iron distributions before and after a standard phosphorus diffusion step are studied in samples from the bottom, middle, and top of an intentionally Fe-contaminated laboratory ingot. A census of iron-silicide precipitates taken by synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy confirms the presence of a high density of iron-silicide precipitates both before and after phosphorus diffusion. A comparable precipitated iron distribution was measured in a sister wafer after hydrogenation during a firing step. The similar distributions of precipitated iron seen after each step in the solar cell process confirm that the effect of standard gettering on precipitated iron is strongly limited as predicted by simulation. Good agreement between the experimental and simulated data supports the hypothesis that gettering kinetics is governed by not only the total iron concentration but also by the distribution of precipitated iron. Finally, future directions based on the modeling are suggested for the improvement of effective minority carrier lifetime in multicrystalline silicon solar cells.


As a member of Artificial Neural Networks, Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) have been well researched since 1980s, and have been implemented in C, Fortran, R [1] and Python [2]. Python is an efficient high-level language widely used in the machine learning field for years, but most of the SOM-related packages which are written in Python only perform model construction and visualization. However, the POPSOM package, written in R, is capable of performing functionality beyond model construction and visualization, such as evaluating the model's quality with statistical methods and plotting marginal probability distributions of the neurons. In order to give the Python user the POPSOM package's advantages, it is important to migrate the POPSOM package to be Python-based. This study shows the details of this implementation. There are three major tasks for the implementation: 1) Migrate the POPSOM package from R to Python; 2) Refactor the source code from procedural programming paradigm to object-oriented programming paradigm; 3) Improve the package by adding normalization options to the model construction function. In addition to constructing the model in Python, Fortran is also embedded to accelerate the speed of model construction significantly in this project. The final program has been completed, and it is necessary to guarantee the correctness of the program. The best way to achieve this goal is to compare the output of the Python-based program to the output generated by the R-based program. For the model construction function, the SOM algorithm initializes the weight vector of the neurons randomly at the very beginning, and then selects the input vectors randomly during the training. Due to these two random factors, one cannot expect the same input (data set) will result in exactly the same output (neurons). Instead, to give evidence that the Python program is working properly, there are two solutions that have been proposed and applied in this project: 1) measuring the average difference of vectors between two neurons which have been generated by the R and Python functions respectively; 2) measuring the ratio of the variances and the difference of features' mean for the two neurons. Besides the model construction, model visualization and other functions which take neurons as their input should return the same results by feeding the same input (neurons). The detail of above verification will be represented in the following chapters.


SUMMARY Many endogenous factors influence thermal tolerance of insects. Among these, age contributes an important source of variation. Heat tolerance is typically high in newly eclosed insects, before declining dramatically. It is not known whether this phenomenon relates to cold tolerance also. In addition, the underlying mechanisms of this variation are unresolved. In this study, we tested whether cold tolerance declines in Drosophila melanogaster females aged from 0 to 5 days. We also assessed whether expression (basal and induced) of eight stress genes (hsp22, hsp23, hsp40, hsp68, hsp70Aa, hsp83, Starvin and Frost) varied post-eclosion in correspondence with changes found in cold tolerance. We report that cold tolerance was very high at eclosion and then it rapidly declined in young flies. hsp23 and hsp68 showed a dramatic age-related variation of basal expression that was associated with cold tolerance proxies. Significant age-related plasticity of cold-induced expression was also found for hsp22, hsp23, hsp68, hsp70Aa, Frost and Starvin. Induced expression of hsp22 and hsp70Aa was high in newly enclosed phenotypes before declining dramatically, whilst opposite age-related patterns were found for hsp23, hsp68, Starvin and Frost. This study shows a marked within-stage variation in cold tolerance. The involvement of the stress genes in setting basal thermal tolerance is discussed.


We study the impact of uncertainty on financial stability and the business cycle. We extend the work of Boz and Mendoza (2014) by endogenizing credit production, modifying learning mechanism into an adaptive set-up, as well as including financial and monetary policies. In our model households are (intrinsically) rational but take economic decisions under incomplete information. The incompleteness is not caused by their cognitive limitations, as in rational inattention theory (Sims, 2003). Households `learn by doing' and once a sufficient number of realizations of the state variable have materialized, and the incomplete information set is completed. This learning set-up is incorporated into a New Keynesian model with credit market frictions, extended to include uncertainty, where a share of households needs external financing to consume. Because of limited enforceability of financial contracts, households are required to provide collateral for their loans, and so the relationship between the bank and household is tightened for many periods ahead. We find in our framework the build up of risk, leverage, increase in consumption and price of collateral takes longer than in other DSGEs with standard financial friction models. We also find that both the frequency and the amplitude of expansions and contractions are asymmetric - recessions are less frequent and deeper than expansions. Moreover, we find that boom-bust cycles occur as rare events. Using the Cogley and Sargant's (2008) definition of a severe(or systemic) crisis, we find on average two such events per century. We also find that, different from standard boom-bust cycles, a systemic crisis can be followed by a sequence of subsequent contractions, as it makes the economy more unstable. The result is asymmetric distributions of key macroeconomic and financial variables, with high skewness and fat tails. Lastly, we also find that, by reducing the amount of borrowing and leverage in upturns, the LTV-ratio regulation is effective in smoothing the cycles and reducing the effects of a deep contraction on the real-financial variables. We also discuss the role of macroprudential policy in reducing information incompleteness by generating information that helps the agent learn faster the new environment, or provide a smoother transition to the new economic environment.


Somatic mutations of the PIK3CA gene, which encodes the p110α catalytic subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K), are frequent in various cancer types. The majority of mutations cluster at hotspots within exons 9 and 20, which encode the helical and kinase domains of p110α. PIK3CA mutations in bile duct and gallbladder carcinomas have not been reported yet. In this study, we analysed 118 carcinomas of the biliary tract and the liver (45 intra‐ and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (CCA), 23 gallbladder carcinomas, 50 hepatocellular carcinomas) for PIK3CA hotspot mutations using polymerase chain reaction and direct DNA sequencing. PIK3CA missense mutations were found in one of 11 intrahepatic CCA (E545K, 9%), one of 23 gallbladder carcinomas (E542K, 4%), and one of 50 hepatocellular carcinomas (H1047R, 2%). All three mutations represent hotspot mutations, which also occur in other cancer types. PI3K pathway activation in hepato‐biliary carcinomas was analyzed using immunohistochemistry for the downstream targets eIF4‐E and phosphorylated 4E‐BP1 on tissue microarrays. eIF4‐E expression was found in 3/13 intrahepatic CCA (23%), 9/38 extrahepatic CCA (24%), 12/34 gallbladder carcinomas (35%), and 9/61 hepatocellular carcinomas (15%). 4E‐BP1 phosphorylation was observed in 1/13 intrahepatic CCA (8%), 8/38 extrahepatic CCA (21%), 15/34 gallbladder carcinomas (44%), and 16/61 hepatocellular carcinomas (26%). These results indicate that somatic PIK3CA mutations contribute to the frequent activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway in carcinomas of the biliary tract and liver. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Airports and surrounding airspaces are limited in terms of capacity and represent the major bottleneck in the air traffic management system. This paper proposes a two level model to tackle the integrated optimization problem of arrival, departure, and surface operations. The macroscopic level considers the terminal airspace management for arrivals and departures and airport capacity management, while the microscopic level optimizes surface operations and departure runway scheduling. An adapted simulated annealing heuristic combined with a time decomposition approach is proposed to solve the corresponding problem. Computational experiments performed on real-world case studies of Paris Charles De-Gaulle airport, show the benefits of this integrated approach.


The default of metrical organisation is that it is based on the prosodic organisation of a language. If a language has vowel quantity, the quantity contrast is very likely to be found in its metrical patterns. If a language does not show this contrast, a quantity-based metrical system is unlikely. Unlike Classical Latin and Old Greek, New High German neither distinguishes between long and short syllables nor between long and short vowels. The relationship between prosody and metrics left German poets with the question of how to incorporate foreign meters which contradict the native prosodic system. This paper is about the quest for a solution which took centuries: the integration of the hexameter into German.


The history of Lake Tahoe begins with the Washoe Indians who managed its resources for thousands of years, selectively utilising its bounty. The relatively brief Euro-American history at Lake Tahoe began in the mid-nineteenth century. Though awestruck by the lake's beauty, the new arrivals were also intent on harvesting its abundant resources. In a mere half century, the basin's forests and fisheries were destroyed, the lake's pristine clarity dramatically reduced. Left alone, nature healed itself, and by the 1960s mature forests once again surrounded the lake. Its water clarity improved, to a visibility more than one hundred feet deep. However, Tahoe's wonders brought a new kind of threat: millions of annual visitors and incessant development, including ski resorts and casinos. Saving Lake Tahoe looks at the interaction through the years between human activities and Tahoe's natural ecosystems. It is a dramatic story of ecological disasters and near misses, political successes and failures. Utilising primary sources and interviews with key figures, Makley provides a meticulously researched account of the battles surrounding the management of the Tahoe basin. Makley takes the story up to the present, describing the formation and evolution of a new type of governing body, the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and groundbreaking efforts to utilise science in establishing policy. He depicts the passionate fights between those who seek to preserve the environment and advocates of individual property rights. Although Tahoe remains unique in its splendor, readers will understand why, with continued pressure for development, reversing environmental deterioration and improving the lake water's clarity remain elusive goals.


This article examines whether the Catalan 2010 Civil Code affects trends in joint physical custody in Catalonia, and why joint physical custody more than doubled in Catalonia during 2007-2012, although not in other regions of Spain. It first summarizes the 2005 divorce reform in Spain and the 2010 Catalan Civil Code on joint physical custody. It then describes the patterns and characteristics of physical custody arrangements of minor children, as adjudicated by judges, based on micro data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute on "Decrees of separations, divorces and annulments" for the period 2007-2012 in both Catalonia and the rest of Spain. It concludes that the Catalan legislation partially explains these observed differences, not because it advocates joint physical custody per se, but because it encourages shared parenting through the use of two specific tools: clear criteria for determining the regime and form of child custody; and a parental plan. Both of these elements also have great potential for reducing gender inequality in the family sphere.


The past two decades have seen a polarized debate in both the courts and legal academic literature between those who regard themselves as textualists on the one hand, and those who advocate for courts using a broader range of evidence on the other. Gone largely unnoticed in the battles between these camps during the past quarter century is the fact that both sides in the debate agree upon almost everything when it comes to statutory interpretation. Most of whom textualists call intentionalists are really not that at all. Rather, they take a pragmatic, eclectic approach to the interpretation of statutes. By the same token, textualists do not eschew all context in the interpretation of statutes, as a cartoon-like description of the approach may suggest. To the contrary, proponents of both approaches find no difficulty looking at the earlier interpretive decisions of courts, background assumptions shared by the relevant community, constitutional considerations, questions of coherence with related statutes, and a host of other considerations. Only some context disturbs textualists, i.e., legislative history adduced as evidence of legislative intent, which they regard as an illegitimate. Recent writings from textualists explain how textualism can lead to results in disputed cases that are sensitive to a statute's purpose without resorting to extratextual materials that create both evidentiary and conceptual difficulties. By adopting an enriched approach to language as an initial matter, a view that considers context an important element of how we speak and understand language generally, textualist practice is able to internalize a great deal of contextual information while at the same time maintaining procedures less likely to lead courts into a decision-making process that conflicts with basic values such as separation of powers. The key intellectual decision is to focus on the ordinary meaning of statutory words, rather than on their plain meaning, as found in dictionary definitions. The shift from focusing on dictionaries to ordinary usage should be seen as an additional step toward reconciling textualist methodology with the goal of providing an interpretation that reflects a statute's purpose. If so, it is worth asking how well it achieves this goal. This Article argues that in many circumstances it does so very well. Nonetheless, there are several recurring situations in which the textualist effort falls short, even on its own terms.


Damage initiates a pleiotropic cellular response aimed at cellular survival when appropriate. To identify genes required for damage survival, we used a cell-based RNAi screen against the Drosophila genome and the alkylating agent methyl methanesulphonate (MMS). Similar studies performed in other model organisms report that damage response may involve pleiotropic cellular processes other than the central DNA repair components, yet an intuitive systems level view of the cellular components required for damage survival, their interrelationship, and contextual importance has been lacking. Further, by comparing data from different model organisms, identification of conserved and presumably core survival components should be forthcoming. We identified 307 genes, representing 13 signaling, metabolic, or enzymatic pathways, affecting cellular survival of MMS–induced damage. As expected, the majority of these pathways are involved in DNA repair; however, several pathways with more diverse biological functions were also identified, including the TOR pathway, transcription, translation, proteasome, glutathione synthesis, ATP synthesis, and Notch signaling, and these were equally important in damage survival. Comparison with genomic screen data from Saccharomyces cerevisiae revealed no overlap enrichment of individual genes between the species, but a conservation of the pathways. To demonstrate the functional conservation of pathways, five were tested in Drosophila and mouse cells, with each pathway responding to alkylation damage in both species. Using the protein interactome, a significant level of connectivity was observed between Drosophila MMS survival proteins, suggesting a higher order relationship. This connectivity was dramatically improved by incorporating the components of the 13 identified pathways within the network. Grouping proteins into "pathway nodes" qualitatively improved the interactome organization, revealing a highly organized "MMS survival network." We conclude that identification of pathways can facilitate comparative biology analysis when direct gene/orthologue comparisons fail. A biologically intuitive, highly interconnected MMS survival network was revealed after we incorporated pathway data in our interactome analysis.


'Poetics of Contemporary Dance' is a major reference work originally published in French. Its author, historian and critic Laurence Louppe, is renowned for her perception and insight. Drawing on the whole practical and theoretical heritage of modern dance and its pre-cursors and including discussion of works up to and including the 1980s, Louppe brilliantly and eruditely reviews the main "tools" of contemporary dance creation and thought: the body, weight, space, time, flow, breath, style and composition. She also weaves through her analysis a remarkable vision of the broader historical and philosophical concerns and challenges specific to this art and its defining values. Rather than taking an objective, cognitive approach to her role as observer and critic, Louppe writes from an intimate place of attention to all of the contemporary dancer's resources and practices: from the 'pre-movement' when stylistic values are born invisibly in bodies, to the moment and location of performance and the encounter with a public. Thus her writing aims at touching as much as informing the reader. Poetics of Contemporary Dance is both a call and a testament to contemporary dance literacy.


The numbers of people survlvmg traumatic brain injury are increasing, as medical technology and crisis management systems improve. The demand for rehabilitation and support services outstrips supply and typically it is the families of individuals with brain injury who step in to meet the shortfall in services. Yet families are rarely prepared for the changes traumatic brain injury brings. It was a premise of this study that well prepared families would be more likely to understand what was required to effectively facilitate their injured relative's recovery, and be more capable of doing so, than families that were not well prepared. Using an evolving methodology, this three-phase mixed method study set out to investigate family preparation for life with a brain injured relative, focusing on the period where the injured relative was an inpatient at a rehabilitation facility in the Manawatu, New Zealand. Semi structured interviews and a self-administered mail questionnaire were employed to examine the roles performed by family members following their relative's brain injury, and their perceptions of the preparation they received for these roles and for the effects of role performance on their own lives, while their relative was an inpatient at the Rehabilitation Centre. The study found that family members often played a critical part in their relative' s recovery from injury, assuming one or more of the roles of caregiver, case manager and therapist. Consistent with the literature, many family members considered they had not been adequately prepared for these roles during the period of inpatient treatment and suggested many changes were required to the way in which the process of family preparation was approached. From the experiences reported by family members, an evidence-based model of family preparation was developed to guide family preparation initiatives during the period of inpatient rehabilitation. The model is based on the premise that each family has unique preparation needs, reflecting the different capabilities of their brain injured relative, the family's social capital, and the range of professional and lay services available to the injured relative and the family at any given time. The changes to family preparation proposed in the study include enhanced collaboration between families, practitioners