The PDE 11 family of dual specificity phosphodiesterases was first identified in 2000, and has not been well characterised, although mutations in the gene have been linked to multiple disorders, including major depressive disorder, and cancer. DmPDE11 is a dual specificity phosphodiesterase, which shows 96% similarity with the catalytic domain of HsPDE11A, and around 40% similarity along the length of the protein. The focus of this project was to characterise this important enzyme using the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. The resources available to Drosophila researchers are unrivalled, and include a sequenced genome, unparalleled transgenic technology, of which stocks are freely available, and Homophila, a database of human disease genes and their Drosophila orthologues. Drosophila is genetically tractable to an extent not seen in any other multicellular organisms. The genetic dissection of gene function in Drosophila has allowed the identification and characterisation of numerous cell signalling genes. For example, mutations to Dunce were shown to affect olfactory learning. This allowed the identification and cloning of the mammalian dnc homologue PDE4. cAMP (and cGMP) were subsequently shown to modulate learning and memory in mammals.
The 5.8 kb expressed sequence tag (EST) SD13096 had previously been shown to contain sequence present in the incomplete PDE11 RA ESTs previously released by Flybase, but also incorporating a 5' UTR, and an in-frame start codon within two novel 5' exons. A Northern blot of DmPDE11 RA produced one band of approximately 5.8kb; as this matches the size of the DmPDE11 RA ORF, was accepted that SD13096 encodes the entire PDE11 RA ORF (Day, unpublished). Expression of this EST in S2 cells revealed that the construct produced a protein of the accepted size, and the protein localised to the cytoplasm. However, PDE assays of S2 cell lysate revealed that the enzyme did not appear to encode an enzyme with either cA- or cG-PDE activity.
DmPDE11 RA was replaced on Flybase by the new isoforms DmPDE11 RB and DmPDE11 RC, which had two key changes to the RA isoform. Both new isoforms had different N termini, sharing a second exon, with distinct first exons. Furthermore, exon 11 of the RA exon is not present in the newly predicted isoforms. These new isoforms were verified by reverse transcriptase- polymerase chain reaction analysis. In the course of this verification, two further novel isoforms were identified, which shared the novel N termini with the RB and RC isoforms, but include a novel exon/exon boundary within the original exon 19, which results in a truncated isoform. As such the four isoforms were named DmPDE11 RB long, DmPDE11 RB short, DmPDE11 RC long, and DmPDE11 RC short. The open reading frames of these isoforms were cloned from Drosophila cDNA using high-fidelity DNA polymerase and sequenced for fidelity. The open reading frames were tagged with YFP, and this tag was used to verify expression of these isoforms. Each isoform expressed a protein of the predicted size when expressed in Drosophila. DmPDE11 B and C proteins show distinct localisation in the Malpighian tubule, where the long and short isoforms of each isoform display indistinguishable localisations. DmPDE11 B localises to the apical and basolateral membranes, and DmPDE11 C localises to an unknown organelle, or to vesicles. All 4 isoforms were verified as dual specificity cA- and cG- PDEs.
The previous finding (Day, unpublished) that DmPDE11 co-immunoprecipitates with cGMP dependent protein kinase activity, and that cGMP dependent protein kinases co-immunoprecipitate with cG-PDE activity, and thus that cG-PDE(s) interact with at least one cGMP dependent protein kinase, directly or indirectly, was investigated. DmPDE11 C long and short were co-transfected in Schneider 2 cells with the cGKs DG1, DG2P1 and DG2P2. Co-immunoprecipitation of these showed that both the long and short isoforms of DmPDE11 C interact with every cGK screened. Time did not permit the application of this protocol to screen DmPDE11 B interaction with the cGKs. Whether this interaction is direct or indirect was screened by peptide array. Peptide arrays were generated representing the sequence of DmPDE11, DG1, and DG2, and proteins were generated fusing fragments of these proteins with HIS6 and Glutathione-S-Transferase tags. These were expressed in E. coli, and verified by western blotting. HIS6 tagged protein expression was shown to be of higher quality, and was thus affinity purified, and used to overlay and probe the peptide arrays for putative direct interactions. When the PDE11 array was overlaid with tagged protein representing the C terminal half of DG1, and the N and C terminal halves of DG2, a putative direct interaction was identified between DG1 and PDE11 on two separate regions of the PDE11 array, which both fell within the sequence of PDE11 represented by the Middle-HIS6 fragment. As such, this was used to probe the PDE11 array. A reciprocal putative interaction was identified on three regions of the DG1 array, representing sequence in both DG1N-HIS6 and DG1C-HIS6 fragments. Unfortunately, although DG1-HIS6 was verified by western blotting at the analytical stage, attempts to affinity purify the protein failed. Time did not permit the probing of the array with DG1N-GST fusion protein, and so further putative interaction sites on PDE11 may remain. The generation of alanine substitution arrays, and subsequent mutagenesis analysis with yeast two hybrid or co-immunoprecipitation would be necessary to confirm this direct protein-protein interaction as bona-fide. The investigation into a putative direct interaction between PDE11 and DG2 did not yield conclusive data, and so further investigation is required.
The role of DmPDE11 in immunity was investigated by the use of DmPDE11 RNAi and deletion lines. The DmPDE11 deletion line showed a qualitative reduction in survival in individual survival assays, but when these data were merged a significant decrease in survival compared to controls was seen. However, fly numbers did not permit the inclusion of all of the necessary controls, and so these assays should be repeated with these. However, upon immune challenge, progeny from a DmPDE11 RNAi (line 9) x Act5c (a ubiquitous GAL4 driver line) cross did not show a decrease in survival compared to parental lines.
Transgenic Drosophila expressing H. sapiens PDE11A3 were generated. The protein localised to the nucleus at low levels of protein; increased expression led to nuclear exclusion, and localisation to the basolateral and especially apical membranes, with cytosolic localisation also.
The work has provided the tools needed to further research PDE11. The implication of this gene as a tumour suppressor gene, and its role in other processes, means that it is of the utmost importance that this enzyme is further characterised.


Igneous rocks of the Devonian Kola Alkaline Carbonatite Province (KACP) in NW Russia and eastern Finland can be classified into four groups: (a) primitive mantle-derived silica-undersaturated silicate magmas; (b) evolved alkaline and nepheline syenites; (c) cumulate rocks; (d) carbonatites and phoscorites, some of which may also be cumulates. There is no obvious age difference between these various groups, so all of the magma-types were formed at the same time in a relatively restricted area and must therefore be petrogenetically related. Both sodic and potassic varieties of primitive silicate magmas are present. On major element variation diagrams, the cumulate rocks plot as simple mixtures of their constituent minerals (olivine, clinopyroxene, calcite etc). There are complete compositional trends between carbonatites, phoscorites and silicate cumulates, which suggests that many carbonatites and phoscorites are also cumulates. CaO/Al 2 O 3 ratios for ultramafic and mafic silicate rocks in dykes and pipes range up to 5, indicating a very small degree of melting of a carbonated mantle at depth. Damkjernites appear to be transitional to carbonatites. Trace element modelling indicates that all the mafic silicate magmas are related to small degrees of melting of a metasomatised garnet peridotite source. Similarities of the REE patterns and initial Sr and Nd isotope compositions for ultramafic alkaline silicate rocks and carbonatites indicate that there is a strong relationship between the two magma-types. There is also a strong petrogenetic link between carbonatites, kimberlites and alkaline ultramafic lamprophyres. Fractional crystallisation of olivine, diopside, melilite and nepheline gave rise to the evolved nepheline syenites, and formed the ultramafic cumulates. All magmas in the KACP appear to have originated in a single event, possibly triggered by the arrival of hot material (mantle plume?) beneath the Archaean/Proterozoic lithosphere of the northern Baltic Shield that had been recently metasomatised. Melting of the carbonated garnet peridotite mantle formed a spectrum of magmas including carbonatite, damkjernite, melilitite, melanephelinite and ultramafic lamprophyre. Pockets of phlogopite metasomatised lithospheric mantle also melted to form potassic magmas including kimberlite. Depth of melting, degree of melting and presence of metasomatic phases are probably the major factors controlling the precise composition of the primary melts formed. nepheline calcite carbonatites found within the with


Purpose Regorafenib is an oral multikinase inhibitor approved for the therapy of previously treated metastatic colorectal carcinoma (mCRC). The aim of the present study was to analyze the outcomes of treatment with regorafenib in real-world clinical practice based on data from a national registry. Methods The CORECT registry, the Czech non-interventional database of patients with mCRC treated with targeted agents, searched for patients with metastatic CRC treated with regorafenib. In total, 555 evaluable patients were identified. Results The median age at diagnosis was 61.7 years. All patients had disease progression on or after previous systemic treatment. Most patients were treated with an initial dose of 160 mg daily (n = 463; 83.6%). The median duration of treatment was 2.7 months (range 0.0–23.4 months). By the data cut-off date, 472 patients (85%) had completed treatment with regorafenib and were evaluable for treatment response evaluation. Partial response was reported in 13 patients (2.8%) and disease stabilization in 130 patients (27.5%). Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 3.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.2–3.7 months) and 9.3 months (95% CI 8.3–10.3 months), respectively. The 6-month OS rate was 67.7% (95% CI 63.4–72.1%). Multivariable analysis showed that female gender, longer interval from diagnosis of metastatic disease, M0 stage at diagnosis, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) 0 were associated with longer PFS, while higher body-mass index (BMI), longer interval from diagnosis of metastatic disease, and ECOG PS of 0 were associated with longer OS. Conclusion OS of patients treated with regorafenib in the real-world clinical practice in this cohort exceeded that reported in randomized trials. Regorafenib is a safe and active treatment option for a subgroup of patients with mCRC who are progressing after other systemic therapies and maintain good performance status.


We utilize the PAdova and TRieste Stellar Evolution Code (PARSEC) combined with photometric observations to determine a guaranteed mass of AL Cas and re-examine its related physical parameters. Multicolor-photometric observations of AL Cas have been performed in 2016 and 2017. We use the Wilson-Devinney (W-D) code to analyze the light curves and find that AL Cas is probably an A-subtype contact binary (f = 35.7±0.9%) with a mass ratio q = 0.6399±0.0230 and an effective temperature difference ΔT = 78 K. The mass-radius relation of a higher luminosity component for AL Cas is obtained by two methods: depending on calculation of the Roche lobe (DCRL method) and depending on calculation of the W-D code (DCWD method). Using this relationship with the PARSEC model, we investigate the component masses of AL Cas as M1 = 1.19±0.23 M⊙ with M2 = 0.76±0.18 M⊙ by the DCRL method and M1 = 1.22±0.26 M⊙ with M2 = 0.78±0.20 M⊙ by the DCWD method. By means of the photometric studies, we examine the related physical properties of AL Cas with the latest findings. We update the orbital period (Porb = 0.50055593 d) of AL Cas according to six new times of light minimum together with those collected from the literature. Meanwhile, the (O – C)2 curve analysis suggests that the orbital period of AL Cas has a cyclic variation with a period of 81.25 yr and an amplitude of 0.01415 d. This cyclic change would be caused by the light-travel time effect from a third body. A similar mass of the third body (M3 sin i′ = 0.279 M⊙) is derived from our two methods.


This article explores a key claim underpinning Russian official memory politics, namely, the notion that Russia's past (and especially the role it played in the Second World War) is the object of a campaign of "historical falsification" aimed at, among other things, undermining Russian sovereignty, especially by distorting young people's historical consciousness. Although "historical falsification" is an important keyword in the Kremlin's discourse, it has received little scholarly attention. Via an analysis of official rhetoric and methodological literature aimed at history teachers, I investigate the ideological functions performed by the concept of "historical falsification." I show how it serves to reinforce a conspiratorial vision of Russia as a nation under siege, while simultaneously justifying the drive toward greater state control over history education.


In The Birth of Energy Cara New Daggett traces the genealogy of contemporary notions of energy back to the nineteenth-century science of thermodynamics to challenge the underlying logic that informs today's uses of energy. These early resource-based concepts of power first emerged during the Industrial Revolution and were tightly bound to Western capitalist domination and the politics of industrialized work. As Daggett shows, thermodynamics was deployed as an imperial science to govern fossil fuel use, labor, and colonial expansion, in part through a hierarchical ordering of humans and nonhumans. By systematically excavating the historical connection between energy and work, Daggett argues that only by transforming the politics of work—most notably, the veneration of waged work—will we be able to confront the Anthropocene's energy problem. Substituting one source of energy for another will not ensure a habitable planet; rather, the concepts of energy and work themselves must be decoupled.


We examine the drivers of inequality change in Honduras between 1991-2007, trying to understand why inequality increased in Honduras until 2005, while it was falling in most other Latin American countries. Using annual household surveys, we document first rising inequality between 1991-2005, which is followed by falling inequality thereafter. Using an inequality decomposition technique, we show that the rising inequality between 1991 and 2005 was, for the most part, driven by the dispersion of labour incomes in rural areas. We also show that the extraordinary labour earnings disequalization is mainly the result of a widening wage gap between the tradable and non-tradable sectors and occupations, combined with highly segmented labor markets and poor overall educational progress. The underlying determinants of the divergence between tradable and non-tradable sectors were highly overvalued currencies and poor commodity process for Honduras' agricultural exports. Between 2005 and 2007, however, the inequality reduction was a result of equalizing trends in labour and non-labour incomes. The commodity boom promoting the tradable sector and remittances (in this order) played a significant role here, with government transfers playing a small supporting role. Since the decline in inequality is largely driven by international factors, we cannot be sure whether the decline in inequality will continue.


This study was carried out to estimate total catches extracted from the offshore areas of northeastern Brazil by recreational fishers from offshore operations, daily activities, and fishing competitions. It also aimed at providing a first estimate of expenditure by anglers in the region. The basis for this analysis was the data supplied by the only offshore fishing operator established in Paraíba State. The available logbooks allowed for the first estimate of total catches by anglers in Paraíba State, which was extrapolated to the entire region using information provided in a database of recreational fishers' licenses. By combining these data with catch data from fishing competitions, we were able to estimate that a peak of about 90 t was extracted in 2011. This catch is low when compared with commercial catches, but the associated economic impacts, assessed via the expenditure by recreational fishers at US$1.5 million in 2014, is high. Moreover, catches are concentrated mainly on a small number of species, mostly Thunnus spp. and Seriola spp. in waters off Paraíba State. No information is available on the current status of these amberjacks (Seriola spp.). However, some of the snappers (Fam. Lutjanidae) included in the top species caught by recreational fishers are considered overexploited in the region.


During the recent last years, transport of multimedia sessions, such as audio streams and video conferences, over IP has acquired a lot of attention since most of communication technologies are migrating to work over IP. However, sending media streams over IP networks has encountered some problems related to signaling issues. The ongoing research in this area has produced some solutions to this subject. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has introduced Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which has proved to be an efficient protocol for controlling sessions over IP. While a great deal of research performed in evaluating the performance of SIP and comparing it with its competent protocols such as H.323, studying the delay caused by initiating the session has acquired less attention. In this document, we have addressed the SIP session setup delay problem. In the lab, we have built up a test bed for running several SIP session scenarios. Using different models for those scenarios, we have measured session setup delays for all used models. The analysis performed for each model showed that we could propose some models to be applied for SIP session setup delay components.


We present a derivation of the equations describing wave propagation in porous media based upon an averaging technique which accommodates the transition from the microscopic to the macroscopic scale. We demonstrate that the governing macroscopic equations determined by Biot remain valid for media with gradients in porosity. In such media, the well-known expression for the change in porosity, or the change in the fluid content of the pores, acquires two extra terms involving the porosity gradient. One fundamental result of Biot's theory is the prediction of a second compressional wave, often referred to as 'type II' or 'Biot's slow compressional wave', in addition to the classical fast compressional and shear waves. We present a numerical implementation of the Biot equations for 2-D problems based upon the spectral-element method (SEM) that clearly illustrates the existence of these three types of waves as well as their interactions at discontinuities. As in the elastic and acoustic cases, poroelastic wave propagation based upon the SEM involves a diagonal mass matrix, which leads to explicit time integration schemes that are well suited to simulations on parallel computers. Effects associated with physical dispersion and attenuation and frequency-dependent viscous resistance are accommodated based upon a memory variable approach. We perform various benchmarks involving poroelastic wave propagation and acoustic–poroelastic and poroelastic–poroelastic discontinuities, and we discuss the boundary conditions used to deal with these discontinuities based upon domain decomposition. We show potential applications of the method related to wave propagation in compacted sediments, as one encounters in the petroleum industry, and to detect the seismic signature of buried landmines and unexploded ordnance.


Collector's seals provide important clues about the ownership of a book. They contain much information pertaining to the essential elements of ancient materials and also show the details of possession, its relation to the book, the identity of the collectors and their social status and wealth, amongst others. Asian collectors have typically used artistic ancient characters rather than modern ones to make their seals. In addition to the owner's name, several other words are used to express more profound meanings. A system that automatically recognizes these characters can help enthusiasts and professionals better understand the background information of these seals. However, there is a lack of training data and labelled images, as samples of some seals are scarce and most of them are degraded images. It is necessary to find new ways to make full use of such scarce data. While these data are available online, they do not contain information on the characters' position. The goal of this research is to assist in obtaining more labelled data through user interaction and provide retrieval tools that use only standard character typefaces extracted from font files. In this paper, a character segmentation method is proposed to predict the candidate characters' area without any labelled training data that contain character coordinate information. A retrieval-based recognition system that focuses on a single character is also proposed to support seal retrieval and matching. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed character segmentation method performs well on Asian collector's seals, with 85% of the test data being correctly segmented.


A highly efficient blue polymer light-emitting diode based on poly(9,9-di(2-(2-(2-methoxy-ethoxy)ethoxy)ethyl)fluorenyl-2,7-diyl) (PFOEO3) by solvent vapour annealing the polymer emitting layer is fabricated in a bilayer device with Al cathode. High electroluminescent efficiency is achieved by balancing charge injection. Better contact interface between the polymer and the cathode was formed by making chain conformation reoriented with solvent vapour exposure. The effect of solvent vapour exposure on the potential barrier height of the interface is estimated using the Richardson–Schottky model. The maximum efficiency that was achieved was 2.3 cd A−1 for the vapour exposed device compared with 0.9 cd A−1 for the untreated pristine device.


This book is a concerted attempt by economists to investigate and offer remedies for some of the difficulties associated with an ageing labor market.


The spiral of higher oil prices that is occurring currently is mostly caused not by the lack of reserves, but by increasing demand on the existing supply. However, increase of supply would only temporarily attenuate the issue, as demand is expected to continue to soar and eventually outstrip the reserves of fossil fuels, which combined account of almost all our present energy sources. It is not that fossil fuels will disappear, but rather the certainty that they will become progressively scarcer and definitely more expensive as time goes by, has become an irreversible and well established trend. The cost increase of a critical resource - energy - will force unforeseen changes in production and in distribution of goods, affecting the whole productive matrix - including employment. Not only new products and distribution systems based on higher energy costs will need to be conceived and implemented but especially the current reliance on fossil fuels - oil, gas and coal - will need to be replaced almost entirely by sustainable sources - an extraordinarily complex enterprise that should consume our efforts in the next 40 years. Energy consumption will be further aggravated by the expected 2.3 billion population increase from now to 2050, which is expected to be almost entirely concentrated in the urban centres of Asia, Latin America and Africa. Since these additional urban spaces are still to be developed, urban development strategies that consider higher energy costs could effectively alleviate the transition period from fossil fuels to sustainable sources. Rather than providing a recipe for urban planning, this paper stresses the need for further research to incorporate the energy cost component with the urban development context and the dissemination of information on this matter.


An interview with Italian director Alice Rohrwacher about her film Corpo celeste , about a girl's encounter with religion and the world around her, in which Rohrwacher discusses her influences, aesthetic, and the predicament of young women in contemporary Italy.


An intensive and still growing body of research focuses on estimating a portfolio's Value-at-Risk.Depending on both the degree of non-linearity of the instruments comprised in the portfolio and thewillingness to make restrictive assumptions on the underlying statistical distributions, a variety of analyticalmethods and simulation-based methods are available. Aside from the total portfolio's VaR, there is agrowing need for information about (i) the marginal contribution of the individual portfolio components tothe diversified portfolio VaR, (ii) the proportion of the diversified portfolio VaR that can be attributed toeach of the individual components consituting the portfolio, and (iii) the incremental effect on VaR ofadding a new instrument to the existing portfolio. Expressions for these marginal, component and incremental VaR metricshave been derived by Garman [1996a, 1997a] under the assumption that returns are drawnfrom a multivariate normal distribution. For many portfolios, however, the assumption of normally distributedreturns is too stringent. Whenever these deviations from normality are expected to cause seriousdistortions in VaR calculations, one has to resort to either alternative distribution specifications orhistorical and Monte Carlo simulation methods. Although these approaches to overall VaR estimation have receivedsubstantial interest in the literature, there exist to the best of our knowledge no procedures for estimatingmarginal VaR, component VaR and incremental VaR in either a non-normal analytical setting or a MonteCarlo / historical simulation context.This paper tries to fill this gap by investigating these VaR concepts in a general distribution-freesetting. We derive a general expression for the marginal contribution of an instrument to the diversifiedportfolio VaR ? whether this instrument is already included in the portfolio or not. We show how in a mostgeneral way, the total portfolio VaR can be decomposed in partial VaRs that can be attributed to theindividual instruments comprised in the portfolio. These component VaRs have the appealing property thatthey aggregate linearly into the diversified portfolio VaR. We not only show how the standard results undernormality can be generalized to non-normal analytical VaR approaches but also present an explicitprocedure for estimating marginal VaRs in a simulation framework. Given the marginal VaR estimate,component VaR and incremental VaR readily follow. The proposed estimation approach pairs intuitiveappeal with computational efficiency. We evaluate various alternative estimation methods in an applicationexample and conclude that the proposed approach displays an astounding accuracy and a promisingoutperformance.


The prospect of unconventional shale-gas development in the Karoo Basin (South Africa) has created the need to obtain baseline data on natural radioactivity in Karoo groundwaters. The Karoo Basin groundwater radiological baseline developed through this study could serve as a reference to research potential future radiological contamination effects due to hydraulic fracturing. The major naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) studied was radon (Rn), in particular in-water activity concentrations; however, supplementary radium (Ra and Ra) in-water activity concentrations and uranium (U) in-water concentrations measurements were also made. A total of 53 aquifers across three provinces were sampled for groundwater and measured, with three measurement series from 2014 to 2016. The aquifers were categorized as shallow, mixed, or deep source. The radon-in-water baseline of the Karoo Basin can be characterised by a minimum of 0.6 ± 0.9 Bq/L, a maximum of 183 ± 18 Bq/L and mean of 41 ± 5 Bq/L. The radon-in-water levels from shallow sources (with water temperature < 20 °C) were systematically higher (40 Bq/L) than for deep sources (with water temperature > 20 °C). The natural fluctuations in radon-in-water levels were predominantly associated with shallow aquifers compared to almost none observed in the deep sources. The uranium in-water baseline can be characterised by a minimum of below detection level, a maximum of 41 μg/L, and the mean of 5.10 ± 0.80 μg/L. Similar to radon-in-water levels, uranium in-water levels for shallow sources were systematically higher than for deep sources. The limited (six aquifers) radium (Ra and Ra) in-water activity-concentration measurement results were very low, with a maximum of 0.008 Bq/L (Ra) and 0.015 Bq/L (Ra). The Ra/Ra ratio baseline were characterised by a minimum of 0.93, a mean of 3.3 ± 1.3, and a maximum of 6.5. The radium isotopes' activity concentration ratio is an isotopic tracer for hydraulic fracturing wastewater. Pollution and contamination (radiological), due to unconventional shale gas development, in water resources has been noticed in the Marcellus Basin (United States). Consequently, developing and improving continuous baseline monitoring are of importance to study the environmental radiological effect of hydraulic fracturing.


Eating Disorders Among Female College Athletes Eating disorders (e.g., bulimia, anorexia nervosa) are a significant public health problem and increasingly common among young women in today's westernized countries (Griffin & Berry, 2003; Levenkron, 2000; Hsu, 1990). According to the National Eating Disorder Association (2003), 5-10% of all women have some form of eating disorder. Moreover, research suggests that 19-30% of female college students could be diagnosed with an eating disorder (Fisher, Golden, Katzman, & Kreipe, 1995). A growing body of research indicates that there is a link between exposure to media images representing sociocultural ideals of attractiveness and dissatisfaction with one's body along with eating disorders (Levine & Smolak, 1996; Striegel-Moore, Silberstein, & Rodin, 1986). The media's portrayal of thinness as a measure of ideal female beauty promotes body dissatisfaction and thus contributes to the development of eating disorders in many women (Levine & Smolak, 1996). Cultural and societal pressure on women to be thin in order to be attractive (Worsnop, 1992; Irving, 1990) can lead to obsession with thinness, body-image distortion, and unhealthy eating behaviors. Like other women, women athletes experience this pressure to be thin. In addition, they often experience added pressure from within their sport to attain and maintain a certain body weight or shape. Indeed, some studies have reported that the prevalence of eating disorders is much higher in female athletes than in females in general (Berry & Howe, 2000; Johnson, Powers, & Dick; 1999; McNulty, Adams, Anderson, & Affenito, 2001; Sundgot-Borgen & Torstveit, 2004; Picard, 1999). Furthermore, the prevalence of eating disorders among female athletes competing in aesthetic sports such as dance, gymnastics, cheerleading, swimming, and figure skating is significantly higher than among female athletes in non-aesthetic or non-weight-dependent sports (Berry & Howe, 2000; O'Connor & Lewis, 1997; Perriello, 2001; Sundgot-Borgen, 1994; Sundgot-Borgen & Torstveit, 2004). For instance, Sundgot-Borgen and Torstveit found that female athletes competing in aesthetic sports show higher rates of eating disorder symptoms (42%) than are observed in endurance sports (24%), technical sports (17%), or ball game sports (16%). Female athletes and those who coach them usually think that the thinner the athletes are, the better they will perform--and the better they will look in uniform (Hawes, 1999; Thompson & Sherman, 1999). In sports in which the uniforms are relatively revealing, the human body is often highlighted. For example, track athletes usually wear a uniform consisting of form-fitting shorts and a midriff-baring tank top. Dance and gymnastics uniforms are usually a one-piece bodysuit sometimes worn with tights. Athletes who must wear the body-hugging uniforms and compete before large crowds of people are likely very self-conscious about their physiques. However, as is the case in most areas of study, not all research agrees. Some recent studies show that athletes are no more at risk for the development of eating disorders than non-athletes (Carter, 2002; Davis & Strachen, 2001; Guthrie, 1985; Junaid, 1998; Rhea, 1995; Reinking & Alexander, 2005). In addition, the majority of prior studies of eating disorders have restricted their samples to female athletes (and non-athletes) at National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I universities. This study's purpose differed in that it involved an NCAA Division II university, where attitudes about eating were studied in relation to eating disorders in undergraduate female student-athletes and non-athletes. Relationships between eating disorders and a number of variables thought to contribute to eating disorders--self-esteem, body image, social pressures, and body mass index--were furthermore examined. …


Seagrasses of the genus Posidonia can form an irregular seascape due to erosional processes exposing thick walls of organic matter-rich soils. However, little is known about the location and characteristics of these particular formations. Here we provide comprehensive estimates of organic carbon (Corg) storage in P. oceanica and P. australis meadows, while providing insight into their location and mechanisms of formation, and highlighting future research directions. Erosional reef escarpments are restricted to shallow highly productive P. oceanica meadows from the Mediterranean Sea and P. australis meadows from the Indian Ocean, and sustain the existence of Corg-rich deposits in surrounding meadows. The thickness of the mat escarpments can reach up to 3 m and their length can vary from few to hundreds meters. Mechanisms of formation appear to differ among sites, from naturally-induced escarpments by wave action and/or tidal flow to human-induced escarpments by dredging activities. The inter-twined remains of seagrass shoots within the sediment matrix consolidate the sandy substrate and hold the exposed Posidonia mat escarpments together, maintaining a semi-rigid structure. This phenomenon is unusual but of exceptional importance in marine biogeochemical cycles, revealing the largest Corg sinks among seagrasses worldwide (ranging from 15-176 kg Corg m-2 in 2 m-thick mats accumulated at 2-249 g Corg m-2 yr-1 over 300 to 3000 yr).


This paper discusses future directions in global trade analysis from the perspective of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) network. The first section offers a projection of where the GTAP network might be in the year 2010. This is followed by an analysis of the basic drivers of change in global trade analysis. These include: network externalities and the push for greater openness in both modeling and database work. The second half of the paper revisits John Whalley's "Hidden Challenges" for applied general equilibrium analysis, discussing how well we have fared with respect to these challenges, first posed in 1986. The paper closes with some additional challenges for global trade analysis in the coming decade.


Dante's Divine Comedy played a dual role in its relation to Italian Renaissance culture, actively shaping the fabric of that culture and, at the same time, being shaped by it. This productive relationship is examined in Commentary and Ideology, Deborah Parker's thorough compendium on the reception of Dante's chief work. By studying the social and historical circumstances under which commentaries on Dante were produced, the author clarifies the critical tradition of commentary and explains the ways in which this important body of material can be used in interpreting Dante's poem. Parker begins by tracing the criticism of Dante commentaries from the nineteenth century to the present and then examines the tradition of commentary from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. She shows how the civic, institutional, and social commitments of commentators shaped their response to the Comedy, and how commentators tried to use the poem as an authoritative source for various kinds of social legitimation. Parker discusses how different commentators dealt with a deeply political section of the poem: the damnation of Brutus and Cassius. The scope and importance of Commentary and Ideology will command the attention of a broad group of scholars, including Italian specialists on Dante, late medievalists, students and professionals in early modern European literature, bibliographers, critical theorists, historians of literary criticism and theory, and cultural and intellectual historians.


Background/Context When inequality of opportunity is discussed in higher education, it typically pertains to access to college. Ample research has examined sociodemographic inequalities in transition to higher education and enrollment in particular types of institutions. Although providing valuable insights, social stratification research does not dedicate the same attention to students' experiences during college and, more specifically, to inequalities in instructional quality. Research Questions Conceptualizing opportunity in terms of instructional quality, I address two specific questions: First, do students from all sociodemographic groups report similar levels of instructional quality ? And second, do students report changes in instructional quality during their time in college ? Research Design This study relies on data from three cohorts of students who entered college in the fall of 2006, 2007, and 2008 and were followed through the end of their senior year in the Wabash National Study (WNS) of Liberal Arts Education. In addition to students' background characteristics, WNS includes detailed information regarding students' college experiences, including instruction. Results The results reveal a substantial amount of variability in students' reports of instructional quality. Notably, this variation is not systematically related to students' sociodemographic characteristics, net of controls. However, the results also reveal a considerable amount of path dependency, with approximately half of the students reporting the same level of instructional quality at the beginning and end of college. Academic achievement is related to students' reports of instructional quality in the first year, after which academic inertia carries students toward the end. Academic motivation, on the other hand, facilitates mobility to higher levels of instructional quality over time and is particularly beneficial for students who begin college reporting a low level of instructional quality. Conclusion Reported patterns offer insights into social stratification and path dependence of students' experiences during college. Moreover, patterns of stability and change in students' reports of instructional quality have implications for studies of college impact. The article concludes with reflections on different conceptualizations of instructional quality and recommendations for future research.


The San Francisco Estuary is critical habitat for delta smelt Hypomesus transpacificus, a fish whose abundance has declined greatly since 1983 and is now listed as threatened. In addition, the estuary receives drainage from the Central Valley, an urban and agricultural region with intense and diverse pesticide usage. One possible factor of the delta smelt population decline is pesticide toxicity during vulnerable larval and juvenile stages, but pesticide concentrations are not well characterized in delta smelt spawning and nursery habitat. The objective of this study was to estimate the potential exposure of delta smelt during their early life stages to dissolved pesticides. For 3 years (1998-2000), water samples from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta were collected during April-June in coordination with the California Department of Fish and Game's delta smelt early life stage monitoring program. Samples were analyzed for pesticides using solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Water samples contained multiple pesticides, ranging from 2 to 14 pesticides in each sample. In both 1999 and 2000, elevated concentrations of pesticides overlapped in time and space with peak densities of larval and juvenile delta smelt. In contrast, high spring outflows in 1998 transported delta smelt away from the pesticide sampling sites so that exposure could not be estimated. During 2 years, larval and juvenile delta smelt were potentially exposed to a complex mixture of pesticides for a minimum of 2-3 weeks. Although the measured concentrations were well below short-term (96-h) LC50 values for individual pesticides, the combination of multiple pesticides and lengthy exposure duration could potentially have lethal or sublethal effects on delta smelt, especially during early larval development.


"The Rouge of the North" is the story of Yindi, a beautiful young bride who marries the blind, bedridden son of a rich and noble family. Captive to household ritual, to the strategies and contempt of her sisters-in-law, and to the exacting dictates of her husband's mother, Yindi is pressed beneath the weight of an existence that offers no hope of change. Dramatic events in the outside world fail to make their way into this insular society. Chang's brilliant portrayal of the slow suffocation of passion, moral strength, and physical vitalitytogether with her masterful evocation of the sights, smells, and sounds of daily existencemake "The Rouge of the North" a remarkable chronicle of a vanished way of life."


SUMMARY 1. Determinations were made of several physical properties of the viscid and frame silks of the orb-webs built by the spider Araneus sericatus (Cl.). 2. Both types of silk show a breaking stress of approximately 1 GN/m 2 and an initial resilience of approximately 0-35. 3. The breaking extension ratio of viscid silk (A = 3*00) is much greater than that of frame silk (A = i # 2s), and the viscid silk relaxes to a relatively greater extent. 4. These properties are correlated with the degree of crystallization of the protein from which the silk is made, this factor being controlled by the sequence of amino acids in the protein. 5. The physical properties of the viscid and frame silks allow them to function effectively as shock absorbers and structural elements, respectively; and allow the orb-web to function as an aerial filter with a minimum expenditure of material and energy.


Light propagation in liquid crystal devices is described by means of rigorous electromagnetic theory. With the numerical finite-difference time-domain method, the field distribution in inhomogeneous molecule arrangements caused by the finite size of the pixel electrodes can be calculated by a full solution of the Maxwell equations. As an example, a two-dimensional calculation of an inversion layer in a twisted nematic display is presented, and the significance of the new method is shown by comparison of the results with those of a one-dimensional Jones calculation.


Marijuana is nearing the end of its prohibition in the United States. Arguably the country's largest cash crop, marijuana is already legal for recreational use in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington DC. Between now and election day 2016, an additional 14 states may place marijuana legalization initiatives on their ballots. In addition, 23 states and Washington DC have legalized medical marijuana, with up to seven states pending legislation. The era of marijuana prohibition is rapidly coming to a close.At the same time, traditional doctrines of water law are struggling to cope with the modern realities of water scarcity. Administrative agencies lack capacities to monitor and enforce water rights in real-time amid rapidly changing conditions. As marijuana cultivation leaves the black market and enters state regulatory frameworks, legal doctrines and administrative agencies will need to adapt in order to balance existing water rights with the demands of marijuana production. Failure to do so will encourage producers to remain clandestine while perpetuating existing conflicts between legal and illegal water users. At present there is a gap in understanding the relationship between water rights and marijuana legalization, despite their rapid convergence.This Article is the first to systematically address that gap. The study begins by describing status quo marijuana production taking place outside the context of state water law doctrines, and the unsustainable conditions that often result. Sections III and IV envision a legal marijuana market governed by the predominant doctrines of US water law: prior appropriation and riparianism. In Section V the theoretical becomes reality, as California's complex water laws are put to the test by the largest marijuana cultivation community in the United States. Section VI concludes with recommendations for states in the process of legalization. Broadly speaking, this Article finds that both common law and regulatory approaches to water allocation are capable of accommodating legal marijuana cultivation, but to minimize disruptions to existing water rights and the marijuana industry, state agencies will need to proactively adapt to the new realities of the legal marijuana economy.


Educational transitions take place when children move from home to start early childhood education and from primary school to secondary school then to universities and other tertiary institutions. Internationally, women are transitioning into tertiary education, achieving higher qualifications and securing jobs in areas that were once male dominated. Women in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are also entering tertiary education within PNG and abroad despite facing the barriers imposed by a male-dominated society, socio-cultural and socio-economic constraints and other setbacks which challenge their sense of self as women from PNG. The National Gender Equity Policy (2003) clearly advocates for fair and equal educational opportunities to be given to the female gender in PNG. However, the challenges and experiences of educational transition to university for female students from both urban and rural areas in PNG have not been researched to date.

The main aim of the study was to explore and document educational transition experiences for female students from secondary to tertiary education in PNG. The study examined the students' choices, challenges and sources of support. It also considered factors they perceived as possibly contributing to success and failure with university courses.

A qualitative approach was used to gather data from twelve young women, six from urban settings and six from rural settings, in a university in PNG. Semi-structured and focus group interviews were used, with a thematic approach for data analysis to provide a comprehensive knowledge of their experiences of educational transition.

The key findings showed that the participants made their own choices about choosing university study. Parents, teachers and other people inspired and acted as role models for the young women and initiated their interests in further education. It was evident that the socio-cultural context of PNG had a considerate impact on the choice of the young women. Both positive and negative stories were presented to the young women; however, they resisted the negative comments and pursued their education. Some men acted as role models and used their power within a patriarchal society to disrupt existing patterns to support women in education. Wider family involvement is a feature of PNG life and should be considered as having an important role in supporting transition. Upon entering the new micro-system of the university the young women encountered academic, social and welfare challenges which had an impact on their sense of self. They displayed different characteristics, including unconfidence, nervousness and despondency. However, the university provided a positive learning environment with its resources that encouraged and motivated learning to take place over time. The young women sought help and assistance from their families, lecturers, friends and others around them to sustain their transition to university. Having access to friends' resources is an important determinant when negotiating transitions. Overall, the…


Since the advent of the Human Genome Project in 1989, the ethical, legal, and social implications inherent in future genetic science and its applications have worried researchers and scholars in law and ethics. Concern that the results of genetic testing might be used to discriminate against particular individuals and groups of individuals has been paramount, prompting calls for specific legislation to protect against genetic discrimination. Against this backdrop we sought to investigate instances of genetic discrimination in Canadian legal decisions. We searched Canadian court and administrative tribunal decisions, using the key words "genetic predisposition" and its cognates, and found none that took up the issue of genetic discrimination. However, in 468 decisions, "genetic predisposition" was used by courts and tribunals when describing the causal origins of health related conditions. Genetic predisposition was cited with respect to numerous health conditions, and in various areas of law, in particular criminal, family, workers' compensation, and tort. In several criminal law decisions, genetic predisposition served to explain the origin of a mental health condition in addressing the issue of criminal responsibility. The predominant use in family law was in describing a child's health condition in crown wardship and youth protection proceedings. In workers' compensation and tort, genetic predisposition was used to argue whether the claimant's condition was inherited rather than related to the workplace or the negligence of the defendant. Genetic predisposition, when used to argue the issue of disease causation on a balance of probabilities, reflects "geneticization": the tendency to describe the underlying basis of health and disease as genetic. Geneticization, like genetic discrimination, can be problematic. Specifically, both may exaggerate the extent to which genetic information is exceptional and determinative of health and disease outcomes. Also, geneticization, like genetic discrimination, may marginalize people on a perceived genetic basis.


BACKGROUND
Radiofrequency radiation (RFR) has been in use for some time but is now proliferative with the burgeoning radiocommunications industry.

OBJECTIVE
To inform the profession of the possible health effects from overexposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) and the clinical approach to cases. An introduction to the health effects of overexposure to RFR is given. A clinical approach to integrating the patient's symptoms and the circumstances of the exposure is given. Emergency treatment and ongoing care is outlined, and sources of expert advice given.

CONCLUSION
Overexposure to RFR is a complex injury. Advice is given in this article for emergency care and planning ongoing care.


We demonstrate the close-spaced sublimation growth of polycrystalline cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films on a flexible graphene electrode/thin glass substrate structure. Prior to the growth of CdTe films, chemical-vapor-deposited graphene was transferred onto a flexible glass substrate and subjected to electron-beam irradiation at an energy of 0.2 MeV in order to intentionally introduce the defects into it in a controlled manner. Micro-Raman spectroscopy and sheet resistance measurements were employed to monitor the damage and disorder in the electron-beam irradiated graphene layers. The morphology and optical properties of the CdTe thin films deposited on a graphene/flexible glass substrate were systematically characterized. The integration of the defective graphene layers with a flexible glass substrate can be a useful platform to grow various thin-film structures for flexible electronic and optoelectronic devices.


The trends in the design of image sensors are to build sensors with low noise, high sensitivity, high dynamic range, and small pixel size. How can we benefit from pixels with small size and high sensitivity? In this dissertation, we study a new image sensor that is reminiscent of traditional photographic film. Each pixel in the sensor has a binary response, giving only a one-bit quantized measurement of the local light intensity. The response function of the image sensor is non-linear and similar to a logarithmic function, which makes the sensor suitable for high dynamic range imaging. We first formulate the oversampled binary sensing scheme as a parameter estimation problem based on quantized Poisson statistics. We show that, with a single-photon quantization threshold and large oversampling factors, the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of the estimation variance approaches that of an ideal unquantized sensor, that is, as if there were no quantization in the sensor measurements. Furthermore, the CRLB is shown to be asymptotically achievable by the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). By showing that the log-likelihood function is concave, we guarantee the global optimality of iterative algorithms in finding the MLE. We study the performance of the oversampled binary sensing scheme in presence of dark current noise. The noise model is an additive Bernoulli noise with a known parameter, and the noise only flips the binary output from "0" to "1". We show that the binary sensor is quite robust with respect to noise and its dynamic range is only slightly reduced. The binary sensor first benefits from the increasing of the oversampling factor and then suffers in term of dynamic range. We again use the MLE to estimate the light intensity. When the threshold is a single photon, we show that the log-likelihood function is still concave. Thus, the global optimality can be achieved. But for thresholds larger than "1", this property does not hold true. By proving that when the light intensity is piecewise-constant, the likelihood function is a strictly pseudoconcave function, we guarantee to find the optimal solution of the MLE using iterative algorithms for arbitrary thresholds. For the general linear light field model, the log-likelihood function is not even quasiconcave when thresholds are larger than "1". In this circumstance, we find an initial solution by approximating the light intensity field with a piecewise-constant model, and then we use Newton's method to refine the estimation using the exact model. We then examine one of the most important parameters in the binary sensor, i.e., the threshold used to generate binary values. We prove the intuitive result that large thresholds achieve better estimation performance for strong light intensities, while small thresholds work better for low light intensities. To make a binary sensor that works in a larger range of light intensities, we propose to design a threshold array containing multiple thresholds instead of a single threshold for the binary sensing. The criterion is to minimize the average CRLB which is a good approximation of the mean squared error (MSE). The performance analysis on the new binary sensor verifies the effectiveness of our design. Again, the MLE is used for reconstructing the light intensity field from the binary measurements. By showing that the log-likelihood function is concave for arbitrary threshold arrays, we ensure that the iterative algorithms can find the optimal solution of the MLE. Finally, we study the reconstruction problem for the binary image sensor under a generalized piecewise-constant light intensity field model, which is quite useful when parameters like oversampling factors are unknown. We directly estimate light exposure values, i.e., the number of photons hitting on each pixel. We assume that the light exposure values are piecewise-constant and we use the MLE for the reconstruction. This optimization problem is solved by iteratively working out two subproblems. The first one is to find the optimal light exposure value for each segment, given the optimal segmentation of the binary measurements. The second one is to find the optimal segmentation of the binary measurements given the optimal light exposure values for each segment. Several algorithms are provided for solving this optimization problem. Dynamic programming can obtain the optimal solution for 1-D signals, but the computation is quite heavy. To reduce the burden of computation, we propose a greedy algorithm and a method based on pruning of binary trees or quadtrees.


A Japanese-style diet consists of meals that include grain (shushoku), fish and meat (shusai), and vegetable dishes (fukusai). Little is known about the association of such meals (designated well-balanced meals hereafter) with nutrient intake. We therefore examined the frequency of well-balanced meals required to prevent nutrient deficiency. Participants were Japanese people, ages 40 to 59 y, from Toyama, recruited for INTERMAP, in an international population-based study. Each person provided 4 in-depth 24-h dietary recalls (149 men, 150 women). The prevalence of risk ratios of not meeting the Dietary Reference Intakes for Japanese (2015) was calculated. Well-balanced diets were assessed by the Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top. We counted the frequencies of meals in which participants consumed 1.0 or more servings of all 3 dishes categories. We divided the frequency of consumption of well-balanced meals into the following 4 groups: <1.00 time/d, 1.00-1.49 times/d, 1.50-1.74 times/d, and ≥1.75 times/d. Compared with participants in the highest frequency group for well-balanced meals, those who consumed well-balanced meals less than once a day had a higher risk of not meeting the adequate intake for potassium and the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin A. Those who consumed well-balanced meals on average less than 1.50 times per day had a higher risk of not meeting the recommended dietary allowance for calcium and vitamin C. Our results suggest that individuals should on average consume well-balanced meals more than 1.5 times per day to prevent calcium and vitamin C deficiencies.


It has recently been shown that the MapReduce framework for distributed computation can be used effectively for large-scale RDF Schema reasoning, computing the deductive closure of over a billion RDF triples within a reasonable time [23]. Later work has carried this approach over to OWL Horst [22]. In this paper, we provide a MapReduce algorithm for classifying knowledge bases in the description logic EL, which is essentially the OWL 2 profile OWL 2 EL. The traditional EL classification algorithm is recast into a form compatible with MapReduce, and it is shown how the revised algorithm can be realized within the MapReduce framework. An analysis of the circumstances under which the algorithm can be effectively used is also provided.


The star topology sensor networks compliant  802.15.4k standard in which sensors could fail to report sensing information to the access point (AP) due to temporary obstructions that clutter the link with the AP.The contribution of this work is twofold. First, we study general connectivity requirements in relay networks. Second, to restore connectivity and to recover from information loss, we propose the neighbor-assisted connectivity recovery protocol (NACRP), which automatically selects a subset of sensor nodes to act as relays for those which lack connectivity with the AP.We rely on the tool of stochastic geometry and in particular, on Poisson point processes to seek the tradeoff, which arises from the selection of a subset of relay nodes and the necessary transmitted power that relays need to use to restore network connectivity.


This study examines people's displacement in Kesennuma and Rikuzentakata cities in Japan during the last 6 years from the earthquake in 2011 in order to inquire the factors of the sense of dwelling in disaster relocation. By examining how the relocations of houses impact on people's identity, what kind of social issues arose in the process, and how designing houses integrated with their community planning is essential to create a sense of belongings, it aims to explain how the idea of disaster relocation and social housing system should be reframed to adjust to the contemporary social issues. By comparing cases, I will explain how people keep striving to maintain their normal lifestyle, and how it is essential to create smooth integration between private and public space, and to help their own subjective engagement in the reconstruction of community in each stage of their relocations. In the era of displacement due to disasters, we need to reconsider the idea of house as the locus for people's identity and to reframe the idea of social housing and urban planning comprehensively and in process-oriented manner.


Studies of memory tasks with normal learners, involving letters and word-like patterns, indicate that recall is easier when stimuli present familiar patterns, either as pronounceable syllables (Gibson, 1965) or as contextual dependencies (Miller & Selfridge, 1950). Blumberg (1968), studying associative learning tasks, found brain injured children to have the least difficulty in making associations between visual non-word like stimuli and spoken words, while having greatest difficulty with visual word-like associations. Bakker (1967) reports that severely disabled readers were significantly poorer than better readers in the recall of meaningful, but not meaningless, sequences. HOW DISABLED READERS TRY TO REMEMBER WORDS


This study explores and compares attitudes and feelings of middle-aged British and Swedish Internet non-users as well as their reasons for being offline. The rich qualitative data are conceptualized and presented according to various reasons for non-use, positive and negative feelings regarding non-use, and the positive as well as negative influence of and dependence on social networks. The comparison shows both unique and common perceptions of the British and Swedish respondents, some of which can be attributed to social, economic, or socio-economic factors. However, it also displays vast differences between middle-aged non-users in both countries. The analysis paints a complex picture of decisions for and against the use of the Internet and the need for more research to understand these highly complex phenomena, which cannot simply be attributed to socio-economic backgrounds as has been done in most previous research. The analysis shows that more complex reasons, such as lack of interest or discomfort with technologies, as well as the somewhat surprising finding that social networks can prevent non-users from learning how to use the Internet, as it is more convenient to stay a proxy-user, should be considered in future research and policies regarding digital inequalities.


Modeling Three Dimensional Ground Reaction Force Using Nanocomposite Piezoresponsive Foam Sensors Parker Gary Rosquist Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Master of Science Three dimensional (3D) ground reaction force (GRF) are an essential component for gait analysis. Current methods for measuring 3D GRF involve using a stationary force plate embedded in the ground, which captures the forces as subjects walk across the platform. This approach has several limitations, a few being: it can only capture a few steps at a time, it is expensive to purchase and maintain, it can't reflect forces caused by natural uneven surfaces, etc. Previous research has attempted to develop wearable force sensors to overcome these problems; however, these endeavors have resulted in devices that are expensive, bulky, and fail to accurately measure forces when compared to static force plates. This thesis presents the implementation and validation of novel nanocomposite piezoresponsive foam (NCPF) sensors for measuring 3D GRF. Four NCPF sensors were embedded in a shoe sole at four locations: heel, arch, ball, and toe. The signals from each sensor were used in a functional data analysis (FDA) to develop a statistical model for estimating 3D GRF. The process of calibrating the sensors to model GRF was validated through a study where 9 subjects (4 females, 5 males) walked on a force-sensing treadmill for two minutes. Two approaches were used to model the GRF response. The first approach was based on functional decomposition of the data. Using a tenfold cross validation process a statistical model was developed for each subject with the ability to predict walking 3D GRF with less than 7% error. The second approach used machine learning to model 3D GRF. Using the same walking data for the statistical models, an artificial neural network (ANN) was used to create subjectspecific models that could predict walking 3D GRF with less than 11% error. The predictive capabilities of ANN were tested using a pilot study where a single subject performed a calibration procedure by running at seven different speeds for thirty seconds each on the forcesensing treadmill. This calibration data was used to train a model, which was then used to estimate vertical GRF (VGRF) for three additional running trials at randomly selected speeds from within the calibration range. The ANN model was able to predict VGRF for three running speeds after calibration with less than 4% error. The use of NCPF sensors to estimate 3D GRF was shown to be a viable alternative to static force plates. It is recommended, in future work, that 3D GRF and subsequent sensor data be collected from a large sample of subjects to create a baseline of 3D GRF characteristics for a population that will enable a robust cross-subject model capable of performing real-time ground reaction force analysis across the general population, which will greatly benefit our understanding of human gait.


Introduction: Yoga was originally founded in South Asia and it was practiced by various South Asian individuals. It is a spiritual practice about the mind and body, as well as the meaning of life and the nature of the universe. The intended belief was yoga assist with self-development believed to reduce stress, increase beauty, strength, and muscle flexibility. Aim and Objective: The main objective of this article is to highlight how yoga has transformed into controversial, elite, counter cultural and pop culture varieties with undertones of cultural appropriation. Argument: The case of yoga and its appropriation by the Western culture creates a paradoxical situation. In this situation, approval and adoption of yoga in the West has made the practice more trendy and popular among middle-class urban Indian consumers and helped re-brand the practice. Such re-marketing has allowed to make yoga more appealing to the modern consumer and more concerned with the aspects related to physical performance, health and scientific explanation. Conclusion: Although the notion of cultural appropriation can be discussed in the negative light, the article explores how yoga has transformed from a sacred practice to cultural appropriation by Western culture.


Individual approaches to the diagnosis and management of penicillin allergy are practiced by clinicians. This cross-sectional survey of physicians was aimed at exploring their ways of dealing with diagnosis and management of penicillin G allergy. Of the 235 respondents, 63% believed patients' self-reported history of penicillin allergy and avoided using penicillin G; 97% do so for patients whose allergic status was confirmed with positive skin test results. Researchers insist on skin testing for patients claiming penicillin allergy and for those whose allergic status was confirmed with positive skin test results, before considering antibiotic substitution, in an attempt to minimize the development of multi drug resistant pathogens. Undue concern about penicillin allergy may negatively influence the therapeutic outcome of rheumatic fever and syphilis. Repeated skin testing is recommended before each subsequent course of penicillin G, even in patients who have tolerated it before which was practiced by an appreciable number (89%) of our respondents. Epi cutaneous followed by intra dermal routes with major and minor determinants have been recommended for penicillin G skin testing. 100% of our respondents skin tested by intra dermal route alone, using penicillin G and its repository preparations before injecting the respective full dose preparations. Legal problems arising from serious clinical outcomes of penicillin allergy may pose a threat to the physician of losing self esteem in the society forcing him to be overcautious with its use. Educating both the public and health care providers is necessary in this regard.


[EN] The aim of this paper is to determine to what extent globalization pressures are changing interlocking directorate networks modeled on continental capitalism into Anglo-Saxon models. For this purpose we analyse the Spanish network of interlocks, comparing the present structure (2012) with that of 1993 and 2006. We show how, although Spanish corporative structure continues to display characteristics of the continental economies, some major banks are significantly reducing industrial activity. Nevertheless, the financial organizations continue to maintain a close relationship with sectors such as construction and services. The analysis of the network of directorates shows a retreat in activity of industrial banking in Spain. Two large Spanish financial institutions, BSCH and La Caixa, continue to undertake activities of industrial banking in 2006, but this activity is significantly reduced in 2012. According to the theories on the role of the interlocking directorates, the companies in these sectors assure their access to banking credit by incorporating advisors from financial organizations to their board of directors. We cannot conclude that the structure of the Spanish corporate network has become a new case of Anglo-Saxon structure, but we got indications that are becoming less hierarchic as banks seem to slowly abandon centrality positions. This is especially salient if we compare the networks of 2006 and 2012, which show a continuing decrease of the role of banks and insurance companies in the network.


We embed a structural model of credit risk inside a dynamic continuous-time consumption-based asset pricing model, which allows us to price equity and corporate debt in a unified framework. Our key economic assumptions are that the first and second moments of earnings and consumption growth depend on the state of the economy which switches randomly, creating intertemporal risk, which agents prefer to resolve sooner rather than later, because they have Epstein-Zin-Weil preferences. Agents optimally choose dynamic capital structure and default times. For a dynamic cross-section of firms, our model endogenously generates a realistic average term structure and time series of actual default probabilities and credit spreads, together with a reasonable levered equity risk premium, which varies with macroeconomic conditions.


The yard sale is a perfect platform for bizarre conjunctions of objects, perhaps the only stage upon which the Compte de Lautreamont's famous "chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing machine and an umbrella" might occur of its own will. In turning his lens to the random constellations formed by rummaging and perusing, Adam Bartos has struck gold, with an idea so simple it seems odd nobody had thought of it before. His still lifes of "chance meetings" find compositional fodder in vacuum cleaners, flippers and board games, portrayed to suggest only the tiniest hint of formal properties. A pair of weathered skateboards is silhouetted against black asphalt littered with grass clippings, a close-up of the shimmering coral-colored interior of a mid-century suitcase is contrasted against a blue rhinestone and white linens; each image points to a lifestyle, a narrative of outgrown toys and discarded hobbies. The clean rendering and saturated pigmentation of Bartos' prints prevents these cast-off objects from accruing nostalgia, however, and they are closer in feel to an anthropological project than a rumination on bygone playthings. Photographing at close range from an elevated vantage point, Bartos allows the viewer to connect the dots, supplying only the raw combinations of materials for our story-making. The book is introduced with a story by Raymond Carver.


Background:Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic relapsing disease characterised by diffuse mucosal inflammation of the colon. Current maintenance treatments have multiple adverse events and an effective treatment with minimal adverse events is desired. Several studies have demonstrated the importance of intestinal flora in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis. It has been suggested that modifying the bacterial flora with probiotics may attenuate the inflammatory process and prevent relapses in ulcerative colitis. Five years ago, a Cochrane review found only 4 studies and no evidence regarding the efficacy of probiotics, but much work has been published in recent years. An up to date Cochrane systematic review was performed to determine the efficacy and safety of probiotics for the maintenance of remission in ulcerative colitis. Methods:The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and the Cochrane Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group Specialised Trial Register were searched (Inception—January 2015). Manufacturers of probiotics were contacted to identify any unpublished trials. References of trials were also searched for any additional trials. Abstracts were considered for inclusion if full details to judge inclusion and risk of bias were offered or available from the authors. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared probiotics against placebo or any other intervention for the maintenance of remission in ulcerative colitis were eligible for inclusion. Data extraction and assessment of methodological quality of included studies were independently performed by 2 authors. The main outcome measure was the occurrence of clinical or endoscopic relapse. Results:The search yielded 1006 results, with 34 papers screened in full. Seven studies (n = 887) met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Four trials compared probiotics to mesalazine and 3 trials compared probiotics with placebo. The studies ranged in length from 3 to 12 months. The risk of bias was low for randomisation and allocation concealment in one study and unclear in the others. One study was open label, the rest rated as low risk for blinding as double-blinded double dummy trials. The risk of bias was high in one study due to incomplete outcome data and 2 studies due to selective reporting, all the remaining studies low risk. There was no statistically significant difference between probiotics and placebo for maintenance of remission in UC, although there were just 2 small studies with 92 participants (Odds Ratio 0.56; 95% CI 0.22–1.40). Meta-analysis of 4 studies (n = 638) found no statistically significant difference between probiotics and mesalazine (OR 1.29; 95% CI 0.92–1.80). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse events (OR 1.16; 95% CI 0.79–1.71). Conclusions:There was no statistically significant difference between probiotics and placebo, although there were just 2 small studies in the pooled analysis at some risk of bias. There was no difference in efficacy found between probiotics and mesalazine on pooled analysis and no difference in adverse events. Further research is proposed to investigate the role of probiotics to maintain remission in UC.


Supplies of marine fish oils (FO) are limited and continued growth in aquaculture production dictates that substitutes must be found that do not compromise fish health and product quality. In this study the suitability of crude palm oil (PO) as a replacement for FO in diets of Atlantic salmon was investigated. Duplicate groups of Atlantic salmon postsmolts were fed four practical-type diets in which the added lipid was either 100% FO and 0% crude PO (0% PO); 75% FO and 25% PO (25% PO); 50% FO and 50% PO (50% PO); and 100% PO, for 30 wk. There were no effects of diet on growth rate or feed conversion ratio nor were any histopathological lesions found in liver, heart or muscle. Lipid deposition was greatest in fish fed 0% PO and was significantly greater than in fish fed 50% and 100% PO. Fatty acid compositions of muscle total lipid were correlated with dietary PO inclusion such that the concentrations of 16:0, 18:1(n-9), 18:2(n-6), total saturated fatty acids and total monoenoic fatty acids increased linearly with increasing dietary PO. The concentration of eicosapentaenoic acid [20:5(n-3)] was reduced significantly with increasing levels of dietary PO but the concentration of docosahexaenoic acid [22:6(n-3)] was significantly reduced only in fish fed 100% PO, compared with the other three treatments. Similar diet-induced changes were seen in liver total lipid fatty acid compositions. Hepatic fatty acid desaturation and elongation activities were 10-fold greater in fish fed 100% PO than in those fed 0% PO. This study suggests that PO can be used successfully as a substitute for FO in the culture of Atlantic salmon in sea water. However, at levels of PO inclusion above 50% of dietary lipid, significant reductions in muscle 20:5(n-3), 22:6(n-3) and the (n-3):(n-6) PUFA ratio occur, resulting in reduced availability of these essential (n-3) highly unsaturated fatty acids to the consumer. J. Nutr. 132: 222–230, 2002.


In this study the production performance of 26 multiparous Jersey cows in three production systems was compared over standard lactation periods in a year-round calving pattern. The production systems were: (1) pasture plus 3kg concentrate/cow/day (AG), (2) pasture plus 4 kg oat hay/cow/day and 6 kg concentrate/cow/day (LG) and (3) total mixed ration (TMR) fed ad libitum (ZG). Pasture intake of cows in systems 1 and 2 was estimated with a falling plate disc meter by using pre-and post-grazing regression equations of pasture dry matter (DM) regressed on disc meter height. Pasture intake of Jersey cows was 10.7 and 4.7 kg DM/d for the AG- and LG-systems respectively. The estimated total daily feed intake of cows in the AG-, LG- and ZG-system was 14.2, 14.7 and 15.1 kg DM respectively. Production parameters did not differ between production systems with the exception of protein percentage while protein and milk yield tended to differ. Cows in the ZG system tended to have a higher condition score at conception than cows in the other treatments. Cows in the AG and LG systems lost more live weight during the first two months of the lactation than cows in the ZG system, i.e. -21 and 16 kg vs. -3 kg/cow. Results indicate that the production performance of Jersey cows on pasture-based production systems with appropriate buffer feeding could be similar to cows being fed a TMR.


Abstract Current designs of pressurized water reactors (PWRs) employ a boric acid solution in the primary cooling water to control core reactivity during operation and shutdown. However, situations could theoretically occur in which diluted borated water is present in the primary circuit. Scale experiments have been performed for a single-pump start-up, with subsequent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, to examine the accuracy with which the concentration distribution of diluted borated water entering a reactor core can be predicted. It was concluded that higher-order advection schemes must be used to obtain sufficient resolution of the velocity field and capture the larger-scale effects of the flow but that each turbulence model produces a different core-inlet boron concentration development and distribution. Though it was not the most sophisticated available, the two-equation RNG k-ε turbulence model produced the closest agreement with experiment. However, mesh independence of the computational results was not achieved. As a sequel to this scaled CFD study, a simulation was carried out of a full-size three-loop Siemens-type PWR featuring a perforated cylindrical flow baffle in the lower plenum. Results again showed different characteristics in time and space, depending on the turbulence model used. Comparative assessment of the results obtained with the code CFX-5 showed that correct geometrical modeling of a perforated flow baffle in the lower plenum is essential, as a porous medium representation of the baffle can lead to serious underprediction of mixing. This occurred particularly with the RNG model but also using more sophisticated turbulence models. Further refinement of the mesh is now necessary to achieve mesh independence of the results. This requires access to a massively parallel computer system.


The bounds on the sensitivity and resolution of moire deflectometry caused by diffraction effects are derived from the wave equation. It is shown that Fresnel diffraction is a necessary and sufficient framework for treating these effects. Expressions are given for angular resolution, spatial resolution, and dynamic range. The proper selection of experimental parameters involves a trade-off between the angular resolution on the one hand and spatial resolution and dynamic range on the other.


We derive a natural definition of responsibility in a formal model where employees care for their career prospects: A superior holds a subordinate responsible for a task, when she announces her beliefs that this subordinate contributes most to this task. We show, that those announced beliefs lead to a self fulfilling prophecy as the reputation of the responsible subordinate then is affected by the outcome of the task and he therefore has strong incentives to contribute to its success. There are equilibria where either a single agent or no agent is responsible for a task but joint responsibility never arises. Several extensions are discussed.


A fundamental challenge in contextual bandits is to develop flexible, general-purpose algorithms with computational requirements no worse than classical supervised learning tasks such as classification and regression. Algorithms based on regression have shown promising empirical success, but theoretical guarantees have remained elusive except in special cases. We provide the first universal and optimal reduction from contextual bandits to online regression. We show how to transform any oracle for online regression with a given value function class into an algorithm for contextual bandits with the induced policy class, with no overhead in runtime or memory requirements. We characterize the minimax rates for contextual bandits with general, potentially nonparametric function classes, and show that our algorithm is minimax optimal whenever the oracle obtains the optimal rate for regression. Compared to previous results, our algorithm requires no distributional assumptions beyond realizability, and works even when contexts are chosen adversarially.


Abstract Pleistocene glacial-estuarine sediment deposited in an intertidal environment of northeastern Bristol Bay, southwestern Alaska, was dated using a variety of approaches, including infrared stimulated and thermoluminescence (IRSL and TL) techniques. Analysis of modern and 14C-dated Holocene tide-flat mud demonstrates that the bulk of sediment in this environment is reset by solar radiation, thereby lending confidence to ages obtained from similar Pleistocene deposits by luminescence techniques. IRSL seems to be especially well suited for dating, with resolution on time scales of <10,000 yr. The ages of tide-flat mud of the Nushagak Formation, derived from the Ahklun Mountains to the northwest of Bristol Bay, and of Halfmoon Bay drift, derived from the Alaska Peninsula to the southeast, suggest contemporaneous glacial-estuarine deposition related to independent glacial source areas about 75,000–80,000 yr ago. This age is consistent with other geochronological data that indicate a pre-late-Wisconsin and post-substage-5e age, including nonfinite 14C ages, a lack of interglacial indicators, and Old Crow tephra (∼140,000 yr) atop the drift, normal paleomagnetic inclinations, and amino acid (isoleucine) epimerization ratios (aIle/Ile). AIle/Ile ratios in Portlandia arctica(0.052 ± 0.003) from a marine-lag horizon at South Naknek beach, which separates Halfmoon Bay drift above from older glacial-estuarine drift below, are only slightly higher than in Mya truncata(0.041 ± 0.007) from last-interglacial Pelukian deposits at Nome. As laboratory heating experiments show that the two genera epimerize at similar rates, these data imply correlation of the marine lag at South Naknek beach with Pelukian deposits. Hence, glaciers on the Alaska Peninsula experienced major pre-late-Wisconsin advances both before and after the last interglaciation. Shells reworked into Halfmoon Bay drift yield aIle/Ile ratios of 0.028 ± 0.005 for Portlandiaat Second Point and 0.027 ± 0.001 for Hiatella arcticaat Etolin Point. Together with assumptions about the postdepositional temperature history, these ratios indicate that the shells are at least 55,000 yr, and probably closer to ∼90,000 yr, although the uncertainty in this age estimate is broad. The amino acid and luminescence data converge on an age between about 75,000, and 90,000 yr, late during oxygen-isotope stage 5, for a major ice advance far beyond late-Wisconsin limits.


Over the past decade, the Secret Lives of Cepheids (SLiC) program has been carried out at Villanova University to study aspects and behaviors of classical Cepheids that are still not well understood. In this, the first of several planned papers on program Cepheids, we report the current results for δ Cep, the Cepheid prototype. Ongoing photometry has been obtained to search for changes in the pulsation period, light-curve morphology, and amplitude. Combining our photometry with the times of maximum light compilation by Berdnikov et al. returns a small period change of dP/dt ≈−0.1006 ± 0.0002 s yr-1. There is also evidence for a gradual light amplitude increase of ∼0.011 mag (V band) and ∼0.012 mag (B band) per decade over the last ∼50 years. In addition, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) UV spectrophotometry and XMM-Newton X-ray data were carried out to investigate the high-temperature plasmas present above the Cepheid photospheres. In total, from the five visits (eight exposures) with XMM-Newton, δ Cep is found to be a soft X-ray source (LX (0.3–2 keV) ≈4.5–13 × 1028 erg s-1) with peak flux at kT = 0.6–0.9 keV. The X-ray activity is found to vary, possibly in phase with the stellar pulsations. From 2010–2013, nine observations of δ Cep were carried out with HST-COS. The UV emissions are also variable and well phased with the stellar pulsations. Maximum UV line emissions occur near, or slightly before, maximum optical light, varying by as much as 20 times. This variability shows that pulsation-induced shock heating plays a significant role in Cepheid atmospheres, possibly in addition to a quiescent, magnetic heating. The results of this study show Cepheid atmospheres to be rather complex and dynamic.


BACKGROUND
The objective of this article was to explore the information needs of consumers using statins.

METHODS
Calls made to a national medicines call centre in Australia were analysed. Where question narratives were available electronically (n = 1486), the main concerns were identified using a coding scheme. Subsequently, we evaluated whether these concerns were addressed in the medication leaflet.

RESULTS
The most common concerns were about side effects (36%) and interactions (28%). Concerns about side effects related to musculoskeletal (27%), gastrointestinal (12%) and skin problems (5%). Concerns about interactions included other medicines (49%), complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs; 39%) and grapefruit (6%). Additional questions related to differences between treatments (12%) and dosage (8%). Most topics were mentioned in the medication leaflet, but strategies to manage these concerns were lacking.

DISCUSSION
When prescribing statins, information about common side effects, when symptoms require action, and interactions with other medicines, especially CAMs, should be addressed and tailored to the patient.


Context: Pyrethroid insecticides and natural products individually or in mixture can protect stored products by retarded growth and delayed larval period. Objectives: To investigate the effects of cypermethrin, deltamethrin and azadirachtin either alone or in combinations on the larval development of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst). Materials and Methods: T. castaneum larvae were reared in flour medium treated with cypermethrin, deltamethrin and nimbicidine alone and in combinations. Ten newly hatched larvae were placed in a petri dish (4cm diam) containing 1g of either fresh or treated flour and kept in an incubator (30 ± 0.5°C).  The larvae were regularly observed for pupation and the larval period was noted. The weights of the fourth and sixth instar larvae were taken on an electric balance. Twenty larvae from each age were weighed for different treatments. Results: The larval period was 36.25 days in the treatment of combined cypermethrin, deltamethrin and nimbicidine. Both cypermethrin (20.55 days) and deltamethrin (20.38 days) failed to prolong the larval period significantly (P>0.05) in comparison with that control (19.68 days). In nimbicidine the average larval period was 30.38 days. Larval weight was significantly (P<0.05) reduced by nimbicidine alone and in combination with cypermethrin and deltamethrin in comparison with that of control. In control the average weight of 9 days old larvae was 188.60 mg. The lowest larval weight was 75.50 mg when nimbicidine was combined with cypermethrin and deltamethrin. In nimbicidine alone it was 84.25 mg. The average weight of 16 days old larvae in control was 2142.75 ± 62.67 mg with the lowest being 1955.05 mg in the treatment of combined cypermethrin, deltamethrin and nimbicidine. Conclusion: Azadirachtin either alone or in combination with pyrethroid insecticides viz., cypermethrin and delatmethrin may reduce T. castaneum larval development and thus shows excellent protection of stored products. Key words: Cypermethrin; Deltamethrin; Nimbicidine; Larvae; Growth; Development; Tribolium DOI: 10.3329/jbs.v17i0.7100 J. bio-sci. 17: 45-50, 2009


The numerous plastic approaches of form in the 20 th century are characterized by creativity and innovation. Form, as expression of an artistic language, is the cause and effect for the cultural evolution of a particular spatial-temporal area. The invention of forms depending on the factors which will impose them in a particular socio-cultural context and location environment is not everything. The challenges of the act of creation are far more complex. For the art of the 20 th century, the role of the type of expression in visual or gestural language proved much more convincing and meaningful as to the data or phenomena occurring in immediate reality. The personality of the artist, his cultural character, his media coverage and exterior influences of his inner world, his preceding experiences and receiver"s contacts in a specific area are the factors that influence the relation between the work of art and the audience against a particular spatial-temporal background. The psychological and sensory processes in works of plastic art are spatially configured in structures, which leads to self-confession. The artist filters the information and the elements of exterior reality through the vision of his imagination and power of expression specific to his inner self, and turns them into values through the involvement of his state of mind. Constantin Brâncuşi is the sculptor whose role was considered exponential as he revolutionized modern artistic vision by integrating and creating space-form relations through symbol. Throughout his complex work – the Group of Monumental Sculptures of Tg. Jiu, the artist renewed the language of the sculpture-specific means of expression, though archaic forms, by restoring traditional art. Archetypes often make reference to the initial and ideal form and they represent the primitive and native models composing it. Form attracts, polarizes and integrates the energy of the matter outside the human body, and art acquires a unifying function for the senses of our spirit. We identify the forms developed by the junction between fantastic forms, the figments of the imagination of artists who communicate deep human meanings. They invite us in a world of constructive forms and mysteries, truly innovative and elaborate creations, by underlying different directions in the compositional space with symbolic value.


Elucidating the origin of enzymatic catalysis stands as one the great challenges of contemporary biochemistry and biophysics. The recent emergence of computational enzymology has enhanced our atomistic-level description of biocatalysis as well the kinetic and thermodynamic properties of their mechanisms. There exists a diversity of computational methods allowing the investigation of specific enzymatic properties. Small or large density functional theory models allow the comparison of a plethora of mechanistic reactive species and divergent catalytic pathways. Molecular docking can model different substrate conformations embedded within enzyme active sites and determine those with optimal binding affinities. Molecular dynamics simulations provide insights into the dynamics and roles of active site components as well as the interactions between substrate and enzymes. Hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) can model reactions in active sites while considering steric and electrostatic contributions provided by the surrounding environment. Using previous studies done within our group, on OvoA, EgtB, ThrRS, LuxS and MsrA enzymatic systems, we will review how these methods can be used either independently or cooperatively to get insights into enzymatic catalysis.


Abstract Universities have both social and cultural contexts, and new students need to participate effectively in both in order to succeed in this environment. With ever increasing numbers of students and the diversity of the contemporary university population, institutions have to consider innovative ways to effectively engage individuals. In terms of supporting students, there is a need to be more proactive, initiating structures of support that reach out to students rather than an often implicit expectation that the learners themselves will take the initiative and seek out support individually. This article reflects on one approach to supporting diverse student populations that was offered in an Australian university. The approach is based on a "community of practice" model in which newcomers are offered a "safe" place to practice new skills and articulate new roles with little risk, providing access to more experienced members of the community and also to authentic settings. The article highlights the format of the program and the theoretical basis, and it also summarizes the successive evaluations.


Improvements in veterinary medicine have resulted in a significant benefit in the life of pets in the last 20 years, and increased pet life expectancy led to an increased prevalence of canine neoplasia. Cancer epidemiology and spatial analysis tools, although well developed for human oncology research, is just beginning to be explored in veterinary oncology. Sao Paulo city, capital of the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, is divided into five regions: North, South, East, West and downtown. The Veterinary Hospital of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo (HOVET-SVMAS-USP), is located in the West region of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and admits cases of small and large animals. Canine mammary tumors are so numerous that they are not routinely treated at the HOVET. The aim of this work was to perform a cartographic study to describe the spatial distribution of prevalent cases of neoplasms in dogs from the HOVET. Of the 3,620 cases seen in 2002 and 2003, 380 cases (10.5%) were of dogs affected with benign and malignant neoplasms. No statistical difference was found for the 380 addresses distributed among the five regions of the city. These results showed that the HOVET receives canine patients from all regions of Sao Paulo and there is a homogeneous spatial distribution of neoplasms. Authors encourage additional broader studies, involving several veterinary hospitals, clinics or laboratories in order to obtain more accurate data on distribution of canine neoplasms in Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil.