The authors propose a new apparatus with functions of propulsion and non-contact power collection for a future vehicle which can run like an electric vehicle supplied from the onboard battery source in most of the root except near stations. The batteries or power-capacitors are non-contact charged from the winding connected with commercial power on ground in the stations etc. The apparatus has both functions of linear motor and transformer, and the basic configuration is a wound-secondary type linear induction motor (LIM). In the paper, the wound type LIM with the concentrated single-phase winding for the primary member on the ground is dealt from the viewpoint of low cost arrangement. The secondary winding is changed to the single-phase connection for zero thrust in the transformer operation, and the two-phase connection for the linear motor respectively. The change of connection is done by the special converter for charge and linear drive on board. The characteristics are studied analytically.


Quantifying the effects of mountain pine beetle (MPB)-caused tree mortality on potential crown fire hazard has been challenging partly because of limitations in current operational fire behavior models. Such models are not capable of accounting for fuel heterogeneity resulting from an outbreak. Further, the coupled interactions between fuel, fire, and atmosphere are not modeled. To overcome these limitations, we used the Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS) to investigate the influences of tree spatial arrangement and magnitude of MPB-caused tree mortality on simulated fire hazard. Field-collected, tree-level data from 11 sites were used to populate WFDS simulation domains representing a range of lodgepole pine forest structures for the postoutbreak period of time when dead needles are still present in the tree crowns. We found increases in the amount of crown fuel consumption and the intensity of crown fires as the percentage of MPB-caused tree mortality increased. In addition, we found complex interactions between the level of mortality, stand structure, and spatial arrangement of trees. These results suggest that preoutbreak forest structure and percent tree mortality influence crown fire behavior while dead needles are in the crown, and that the effect varies with spatial heterogeneity among trees. FOR .S CI. 58(2):178-188.


The aim of this study was to investigate acute toxicity (96-hr LC50 and lethal concentrations) of waterborne metal mixture (Pb+Mn) for the fish, Catla catla, Labeo rohita, Cirrhina mrigala, Ctenopharyngodon idella and Hypophthalmichthys molitrix. The extent of metals bioaccumulation in fish body organs viz. gills, liver, kidney, fins, bones, muscle and skin at both 96-hr LC50 and lethal concentrations were also determined. The criteria of toxicity used during these experiments were mortality upon the 90-day old fish species. The tests were performed, separately, at constant pH (7), temperature (30°C) and hardness (200 mg L -1 ) of water with three replications for each test dose. The overall sensitivity of five fish species, determined in terms of LC50 and lethal concentrations, against metals mixture (Pb+Mn) varied significantly. Among five fish species, H. molitrix were significantly more sensitive to metals mixture with mean 96 hr-LC50 and lethal concentrations of 69.36±0.03 and 114.51±0.02, respectively. Regarding overall responses of five fish species for their ability to accumulate metals, kidney appeared as an organ to amass significantly higher amounts of metals, followed by that of liver while it was significantly least in fish muscles. Accumulation of the metals in fish body followed the general order: kidney>liver>fins>gills >skin>bones>muscle.


The 2011 America Invents Act sought to drastically improve the American patent system by creating new review processes for already issued patents. These processes were meant to reduce patent litigation costs and clear the field of "dubious patents," all the while increasing certainty in the existence and scope of patent rights. Though this was not the first attempt to achieve these goals, Congress failed to heed the lessons of past reforms or fully take into account the costs associated with these new post-issuance review mechanisms. The result was a set of dubious reforms. This Article marshals empirical data and case-study based evidence to show that the newly created system is open to abuse, that such abuse occurs, and that the costs that Congress ignored are substantial.


This article examines the mechanisms of conflict resolution by public deliberation in Chinese urban residential communities. The analysis focuses on the interactions between three key actors of community life: Residents' Committees (as the agent of the state), residents, and their representative organizations. Based on empirical data from three types of urban communities, the article finds that deliberation is more effective in communities where the power of Residents' Committees over residents is weak, and deliberation also works better in communities with strong resident representatives who are able to mobilize information flows and to shape public reasoning. The findings suggest that, on the one hand, the governance structure of Chinese urban residential communities provides space for informal, unstructured public deliberation; on the other hand, deliberation also meets obstacles and dilemmas associated with representation, coordination and fostering understanding across social and economic divisions.


After its foundation in Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus developed into an exemplary and internationally known teaching model. Despite its brief existence and a changeable profile, it acquired worldwide influence. It is still possible to discern the basic approaches of the Bauhaus model in fine and applied art practice and teaching today. As an interdisciplinary but also contentious model of training, the Bauhaus prompts a discussion of its current relevance from various perspectives. Includes essays by Gerd de Bruyn, Jeannine Fiedler, Sokratis Georgiadis, Kai-Uwe Hemken, Hans Dieter Huber, Nils Emde/niko.31, Philip Ursprung, Karin Wilhelm and Annett Zinsmeister.


This paper presents the view that artificial intelligence (AI) is primarily concerned with propositional languages for representing knowledge and with techniques for manipulating these representations. In this respect, AI is analogous to applied in a variety of other subject areas. Typically, AI research (or should be) more concerned with the general form and properties of representational languages and methods than it is with the context being described by these languages. Notable exceptions involve "commonsense" knowledge about the everyday would ( no other specialty claims this subject area as its own ), and metaknowledge (or knowledge about the properties itself). In these areas AI is concerned with content as well as form. We also observe that the technology that seems to underly peripheral sensory and motor activities (analogous to low-level animal or human vision and muscle control) seems to be quite different from the technology that seems to underly cognitive reasoning and problem solving. Some definitions of AI would include peripheral as well as cognitive processes; here we argue against including the peripheral processes.


Large-scale agricultural investments (LSAIs) typically depend on strong formal institutions and market-oriented intensive farming, whereas informal institutions tend to characterize the traditional villages located around them. We investigate changes to social capital in such villages when LSAIs materialize in their vicinity. Specifically, we employ a lab-in-the-field and a natural field experiment to elicit cooperation levels in villages that lie in the direct proximity of two LSAIs and compare them to villages further away. Our results reveal more cooperative outcomes for villages around the LSAIs. Smallholders who have worked on large-scale farms also show greater levels of cooperation than those who have no such work experience. Moreover, villages closer to the LSAIs demonstrate a higher propensity to share the public good provided in the natural field experiment. Taken together, these results suggest that beyond direct effects on employment, LSAIs yield positive externalities on cooperation, which are likely to be driven by increased exposure to more market-oriented forms of agriculture.


Genetic monitoring is an important, but frequently lacking, component of management actions to support long-term persistence in reintroduced populations. Populations that remain small, due to demographic processes and genetic diversity, are more likely to experience a second extinction event. The natterjack toad (Epidelea calamita) is legally protected in Britain and was the subject of a reintroduction programme in the 1990s. However, subsequent genetic assessment has been mostly lacking. The aim of this study was to assess the genetic diversity of two reintroduced populations of natterjack toads in order to inform conservation management. Adults were sampled and nine microsatellites amplified to assess neutral genetic variation within each site and for comparison with the source population. Inbreeding was observed at the reintroduction sites, as evidenced by high FIS values (0.43 and 0.72), low observed compared to expected heterozygosities, and significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Observed heterozygosity is currently lower in the reintroduction sites than it was in the source population at the time of the reintroductions (Red Rocks: 0.15±0.20; Talacre: 0.12±0.20; Ainsdale (source): 0.29). Evidence for a bottleneck was not found, although this is likely a result of sampling overlapping generations. No withinsite population structuring was observed. Such low genetic diversity has not previously been recorded in any natterjack population. Genetic rescue, combined with pool creation, is the most viable option for safeguarding the species at these sites into the future. Our work highlights the importance of ongoing genetic monitoring, in collaboration with conservation organisations, to support conservation management.


AIMS
Multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have regenerative properties and are recognized as putative players in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. The underlying molecular mechanisms remain, however, sparsely explored. Our study was designed to elucidate a probable role for the multifunctional urokinase (uPA)/urokinase receptor (uPAR) system in MSC regulation. Though uPAR has been implicated in a broad spectrum of pathophysiological processes, nothing is known about uPAR in MSCs.

METHODS AND RESULTS
uPAR was required to mobilize MSCs from the bone marrow (BM) of mice stimulated with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in vivo. An insignificant amount of MSCs was mobilized in uPAR(-/-) C57BL/6J mice, whereas in wild-type animals G-CSF induced an eight-fold increase of mobilized MSCs. uPAR(-/-) mice revealed up-regulated expression of G-CSF and stromal cell-derived factor 1 (CXCR4) receptors in BM. uPAR down-regulation leads to inhibition of human MSC migration, as shown in different migration assays. uPAR down- or up-regulation resulted in inhibition or stimulation of MSC differentiation into vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) correspondingly, as monitored by changes in cell morphology and expression of specific marker proteins. Injection of fluorescently labelled MSCs in non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) mice after femoral artery wire injury demonstrated impaired engraftment of uPAR-deficient MSCs at the place of injury.

CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest a multifaceted function of uPAR in MSC biology contributing to vascular repair. uPAR might guide and control the trafficking of MSCs to the vascular wall in response to injury or ischaemia and their differentiation towards functional VSMCs at the site of arterial injury.


In this paper, a high sensitivity ammonia gas sensor is proposed based on a silica gel coated microfiber coupler (MFC). The MFC structure is formed by the two tapered fibers with 3 μm waist diameter each, which were fabricated by using a customized microheater brushing technique. Silica gel coating was prepared by a sol-gel technique and applied on the surface of the MFC as a thin layer. The spectral characteristics of the proposed sensor were studied under various ammonia gas concentrations. The experimental results show that the coating thickness strongly affected the sensitivity of the MFC-based sensor to ammonia gas concentration. For the sensor with a 90 nm silica gel coating thickness, the highest measurement sensitivity is 2.23 nm/ppm for ammonia gas concentration, and the resolution is as good as 5 ppb, while the measured response and recovery times are about 50 and 35 seconds, respectively. Finally, it is demonstrated that the proposed sensor offers good repeatability and selectivity to ammonia.


This paper will examine the social factors that mediate technology adoption among the emerging middle class in order to show how messaging, positioning, and targeting communications to potential consumers, if based on flawed representations, such as the First Time Buyer, can lead to missed market opportunities, or worse. We advocate an alternative approach based on ethnographic frameworks that can help to gauge the social viability of products, deconstructing these assumptions and notions to help smooth the path of technology adoption in emerging markets. To represent our findings, we created a "tool," the "Social Viability Measure (SVM)," to help private industry and others approach new markets by bringing an understanding of social forces into the strategic planning, messaging and positioning of products.


Acromyrmex subterraneus molestans (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is a leaf‐cutting ant species found in the Brazilian Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest and causes serious damages to cultivated plants. Knowledge about its foraging activity could help to improve the integrated pest management of this species and to better understand its ecology. The relationship between ambient temperature and the biomass collected by individuals of one Ac. subterraneus molestans colony was studied in the laboratory. The colony remained in an experimental room at 24°C and its foragers had access to an arena in an incubator set at six different temperatures (10, 16, 22, 28, 34 or 40°C). Fresh leaves of Hibiscus sp. were put in the arena and the flow of ants leaving and returning to the nest, the proportion of ants returning to the nest with a leaf fragment, as well as the dry mass of these fragments, were evaluated during 1 h for each temperature. The head width of foraging ants (laden and unladen) and their running speed were also measured. The rate of biomass collected was almost null at 10°C, increased from 16 to 34°C, and decreased abruptly at 40°C. The size of the workers did not vary across temperatures, and the running speed increased with increasing temperatures but more rapidly for unloaded ants than for loaded ones. The lower flow intensity at 28 and 40°C was somewhat compensated at the individual level by the selection of larger leaf fragments or by an increase in the probability to return loaded to the nest, respectively. The results obtained in this study could improve the management of these ants, allowing to target the most favourable meteorological conditions to apply toxic baits, increase the probability for the baits to be carried to the nest, in addition to reducing their availability to nontarget organisms. Furthermore, they could be used to make predictions on the effects of global warming on the foraging activity of this species.


Order management ranks among the key operational processes. Inefficiencies within this process have direct impacts on customer service, order cycle times as well as order execution costs. The massive investments in implementing systems for enterprise resource planning (ERP) have already led to significant improvements in managing orders across organisational units within enterprises. However, ERP systems have not been designed for exchanging order information with business partners. Established interorganisational solutions such as electronic data interchange (EDI) are not widespread and existing solutions are largely proprietary. This article discusses the emerging standard solutions and services for interorganisational or collaborative order management (COM). Starting from a generic definition of the COM process, an explorative study aims to provide an overview on the status, developments and perspectives of COM. Order management solutions and electronic services are discussed as the two main emerging areas in COM and various providers are analysed using content analysis and case research. The current picture shows fragmented solutions and a substantial need for integration. Possible scenarios and open research questions are provided in the concluding section of this paper.


The lumpiness of investment activity at the plant level is a well‐established fact. Previous research has suggested that such discrete and occasional adjustments have significant aggregate implications. In particular, it has been argued that changes in plants' willingness to invest in response to aggregate shocks can at times generate large movements in total investment demand. In this study, I reassess these predictions in a general equilibrium environment. Specifically, assuming nonconvex costs of capital adjustment, I derive generalized (S, s) adjustment rules yielding lumpy plant‐level investment within an otherwise standard equilibrium business cycle model. In contrast to previous partial equilibrium analyses, model results reveal that the aggregate effects of lumpy investment are negligible. In general equilibrium, households' preference for relatively smooth consumption profiles offsets changes in aggregate investment demand implied by the introduction of lumpy plant‐level investment. As a result, adjustments in wages and interest rates yield quantity dynamics that are virtually indistinguishable from the standard model, and lumpy investment appears largely irrelevant for equilibrium business cycle analysis.


ObjectivesGeneration of synthetic data could improve the efficiency of administrative data analysis. We describe barriers and facilitators to synthetic administrative data in the UK based on our experience of generating, assessing, and evaluating the performance of different approaches. We aim to provide guidance on the appropriate uses of synthetic administrative data.
ApproachWe generated synthetic versions of one large-population survey (Natsal-3) and two administrative datasets (Hospital Episode Statistics [HES] and National Pupil Database [NPD]). A range of methods were used based on the statistical techniques of sampling and prediction. We implemented non-parametric (e.g., Classification and Regression Tree) and parametric (e.g., generalised linear models) methods, and multiple imputation and Bayesian networks in R software. We attempted to generate low- and high-fidelity datasets and assessed utility by visualising marginal distributions of key variables, estimating the standardised propensity mean square error, and deriving standardised coefficient differences of model estimates and overlap of confidence intervals.
ResultsResults from our analysis highlighted some facilitators related to low-fidelity synthetic data that are quicker to generate, can retain the data types, format, and privacy and could be used to support training and code development. Conversely, some of the barriers included computational issues when generating high-fidelity synthetic data from complex data structures. High-fidelity data are achievable but only in the context of a specific research question and a limited number of variables. Results from the Natsal-3 data showed that parametric methods produced slightly better data utility compared to non-parametric methods. Results for HES and NPD will also be presented.
ConclusionsLow-fidelity synthetic data can provide a useful resource to support users of administrative data, whilst minimising data access timelines and while retaining privacy and confidentiality of personal data. High-utility datasets can be generated but take considerable resources, and current approaches cannot fully handle the complexity of longitudinal administrative data.


In recent decades, chronic diseases have reached epidemic proportions in the industrialised world. A physically inactive lifestyle has been identified as a major factor
causing maladaptations leading to coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, breast cancer, and colon cancer. Regular physical activity
prevents the development of obesity and induces a multitude of favourable adaptations within skeletal muscle and the cardio-respiratory system, which have positive
outcomes for both the prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases. Specifically, high aerobic function is related to physical activity whereas low aerobic function is
related to physical inactivity and various metabolic diseases. In order to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying aerobic function and skeletal muscle
plasticity it is fundamental to identify which specific exercise stimuli leads to what molecular response, and how this molecular response relates to the structural, contractile, and metabolic adaptation. Thus, the present thesis was aimed at providing new insights into the mechanisms underlying aerobic function and skeletal muscle
plasticity by using an integrative approach including cell culture, rodent, and human models.
In a first study, in order to shed light upon the relationship of aerobic function and type 1 diabetes, we investigated factors that may limit oxidative capacity and aerobic exercise performance in young untrained women with type 1 diabetes. Calf muscle oxidative capacity was not different between untrained women with type 1 diabetes
and healthy women of similar age and activity levels. Notably, HbA1c was negatively correlated with mitochondrial capacity in women with type 1 diabetes. Although
HbA1c was negatively correlated with cardiac output in women with type 1 diabetes, maximal oxygen consumption, cardiac output, endurance capacity, skeletal muscle
oxidative enzyme activity, and capillary-to-fibre ratio were not reduced in women with type 1 diabetes compared to healthy women. These results indicate that oxidative
capacity depends on HbA1c in untrained women with type 1 diabetes but aerobic function is not reduced relative to untrained healthy women. Thus, it is important to
accurately control glycaemic status in future studies investigating the aerobic function in patients with type 1 diabetes.
In a second study, we aimed at establishing a cell culture model to closely recapitulate the plastic changes in gene expression as observed in aerobically trained skeletal
muscles of mice. In electrically stimulated C2C12 mouse muscle cells the transcriptional adaptations were almost identical to those in endurance trained skeletal muscles
of mice, but differed from the acute effects of exercise on muscle gene expression.
In addition, significant alterations in the expression of myofibrillar proteins indicated that this in vitro exercise model could be used to modulate the fibre-type
of muscle cells in culture. Our data thus describe an experimental cell culture model for the study of at least some of the transcriptional aspects of skeletal muscle adaptation to physical activity.
Typically, aerobic function can be improved by repeated endurance exercise but not by resistance exercise. To overcome the specificity of this adaptive response we
aimed in a third study at designing a new resistance exercise model with superimposed stimuli to induce endurance type adaptations and to test its effectiveness in
humans. Indeed, 5 weeks of whole-body vibration training with superimposed heavy resistance exercise and sustained vascular occlusion (VRO) increased capillary-tofibre
ratio, skeletal muscle oxidative enzyme activity, myosin heavy chain type 1 fibre proportion, and endurance capacity. In a fourth study, we analysed the molecular
bases underlying these adaptations. A single bout of VRO increased the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA through reactive oxygen species
(ROS)-activated peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) probably in a hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) independent manner. In conclusion,
modified high-intensity resistance exercise activates gene programmes typically linked to endurance exercise.


This chapter examines the legal and ethical aspects of medical confidentiality. The discussion include the legal basis of confidentiality; defences to claims of breach of confidentiality; the Data Protection Act 1998; legal remedies in confidentiality cases; patient access to their own health information; and ethical arguments for and against confidentiality. Underpinning this chapter is the tension between requiring that a patient's confidences are kept and the fact that sometimes there is an overwhelming reason why confidentiality needs to be breached. A further difficulty for this topic is that once confidentiality has been breached it can be very difficult to formulate an effective legal remedy.


We propose a methodology, called defender–attacker decision tree analysis, to evaluate defensive actions against terrorist attacks in a dynamic and hostile environment. Like most game‐theoretic formulations of this problem, we assume that the defenders act rationally by maximizing their expected utility or minimizing their expected costs. However, we do not assume that attackers maximize their expected utilities. Instead, we encode the defender's limited knowledge about the attacker's motivations and capabilities as a conditional probability distribution over the attacker's decisions. We apply this methodology to the problem of defending against possible terrorist attacks on commercial airplanes, using one of three weapons: infrared‐guided MANPADS (man‐portable air defense systems), laser‐guided MANPADS, or visually targeted RPGs (rocket propelled grenades). We also evaluate three countermeasures against these weapons: DIRCMs (directional infrared countermeasures), perimeter control around the airport, and hardening airplanes. The model includes deterrence effects, the effectiveness of the countermeasures, and the substitution of weapons and targets once a specific countermeasure is selected. It also includes a second stage of defensive decisions after an attack occurs. Key findings are: (1) due to the high cost of the countermeasures, not implementing countermeasures is the preferred defensive alternative for a large range of parameters; (2) if the probability of an attack and the associated consequences are large, a combination of DIRCMs and ground perimeter control are preferred over any single countermeasure.


Abstract. We report a case study from the Po River plain region (northern Italy), where significant liquefaction-related land and property damage occurred during the 2012 Emilia seismic sequence. We took advantage of a 1 m pixel lidar digital terrain model (DTM) and of the 2012 Emilia coseismic liquefaction data set to (a) perform a detailed geomorphological study of the Po River plain area and (b) quantitatively define the liquefaction susceptibility of the geomorphologic features that experienced different abundance of liquefaction. One main finding is that linear topographic highs of fluvial origin – together with crevasse splays, abandoned riverbeds and very young land reclamation areas – acted as a preferential location for the occurrence of liquefaction phenomena. Moreover, we quantitatively defined a hierarchy in terms of liquefaction susceptibility for an ideal fluvial environment. We observed that a very high liquefaction susceptibility is found in coincidence with fluvial landforms, a high-to-moderate liquefaction susceptibility within a buffer distance of 100 and 200 m from mapped fluvial landforms and a low liquefaction susceptibility outside fluvial landforms and relative buffer areas. Lidar data allowed a significant improvement in mapping with respect to conventionally available topographic data and/or aerial imagery. These results have significant implications for accurate hazard and risk assessment as well as for land-use planning. We propose a simple geomorphological approach for liquefaction susceptibility estimation. Our findings can be applied to areas beyond Emilia that are characterized by similar fluvial-dominated environments and prone to significant seismic hazard.


The agro-industrial complex of Ukraine with its basic component – agrarian sector is a system-forming element of the national economy. The Ukrainian agrarian sector has a production potential, which far exceeds the needs of the internal market. It is a link that can become the engine of development of the national economy and its effective integration into the world economic space. The purpose of this research is to determine the approaches to ensure sustainable development of the agrarian sector of Ukraine in the context of globalization and integration processes strengthening. The main task is to determine the problems of ensuring the sustainable development of the agrarian sector of Ukraine in the process of its integration into the world economic space. The category of "sustainability of agrarian sector development" has been considered and improved. It has been suggested to include in the classification of "sustainability of the agrarian sector" an element of the description of global integration processes. It has been proved that the sustainability of the agrarian sector development lies in the balanced combination of industrial, economic, social, environmental, intellectual and globalization processes.


Demonstration of procedural skills is needed for students to learn software applications. Screencasts with their emphasis on recording and playback of such procedures on a computer screen are proposed as a useful means of teaching undergraduate students how to use Microsoft Access to create databases. The paper details screencasting with two successive cohorts in a higher education program and reports on how these two diverse groups, with their own specific features and approaches to their learning, reacted differently to the screencasts.
For the first cohort a set of relevant screencasts were sourced from www.youtube.com and used as a classroom support teaching tool. A post-event focus group with the class revealed that students considered the screencasts useful and helpful, but also that they did not cover all required content features and there were too many different presentation styles across the different screencasts.
For the second cohort the researcher rectified the reported problems of the first cohort by creating a set of screencasts addressing all the required content with a consistent voice and presentation style across all screencasts. Disappointingly, learning outcomes (measured via grades) were poorer than for the first cohort, and most students who achieved a passing grade exhibited little more than surface knowledge of the required software procedures. External (non-academic) factors may account for at least some of this poor result.
While screencasts appear to be a useful and valuable means for teaching software applications to students, they are not a guarantee of success. Increasing student diversity means more challenging student learning environments and student approaches to learning. It seems that varying formats of learning content is not enough to remove obstacles impeding the learning of all students.


A revelatory look at a momentous undertaking-from the workers' point of view The Panama Canal has long been celebrated as a triumph of American engineering and ingenuity. In The Canal Builders, Julie Greene reveals that this emphasis has obscured a far more remarkable element of the historic enterprise: the tens of thousands of workingmen and workingwomen who traveled from all around the world to build it. Greene looks past the mythology surrounding the canal to expose the difficult working conditions and discriminatory policies involved in its construction. Drawing extensively on letters, memoirs, and government documents, the book chronicles both the struggles and the triumphs of the workers and their famiВlies. Prodigiously researched and vividly told, The Canal Builders explores the human dimensions of one of the world's greatest labor mobilizations, and reveals how it launched America's twentieth-century empire.


A new high order Lagrangian method uses moving basis functions to represent the moisture content in an unsaturated porous material. The basis functions are localized elliptical Gaussians that can move, spread, elongate and rotate under the action of the local velocity, velocity deviations, and diffusivity with corrections for local material properties. The velocity and its deviations are calculated from the local moisture potential and its derivatives which can be obtained from published experiments. This numerical technique is naturally adaptive in the sense that computational effort is expended only where there is moisture and nowhere else, and this method is capable of capturing infiltration instabilities in the wetting front observed by experimentalists and predicted by linear stability analysis. This method borrows many ideas from high Reynolds number vortex methods and other applications of Lagrangian schemes to nonlinear partial differential equations.


The starting point of the present article lies in a question posed by Raymond Federman in a well-known essay on Texts for Nothing: "What form can fiction take when it encounters everywhere nothing but verbal dust?" (Federman 2001: 161). Any critical description of this collection of Beckett's short pieces points to the worn-out quality of the language, as if the process of negation had deeply affected style with the result of having a text in its final stages of decomposition, of being the remnants of a conscience in the process of dissolution. Apropos of a new translation into Spanish of Texts for Nothing / Textos para nada (2015), the author of the new version wants to reflect on the impossibility of translating words that seem to be so fragile and exhausted that the act of moving them to another language would necessarily entail the definitive shattering into pieces of an already thin fabric of words. The questions that will be addressed are related to the theoretical framework needed to handle this frail material: How can the translator negotiate the conflicting meaning of words without reinforcing its inconsistency even further? By which mechanisms can a translator of Texts for Nothing support his/her work considering, in the words of Hannelore Fahrenback and John Fletcher, "the ghostly dimension of space/time inhabited by this disembodied voice"? (Fahrenback and Fletcher 1976)


Disruption of telomere maintenance pathways leads to accelerated entry into cellular senescence, a stable proliferative arrest that promotes aging‐associated disorders in some mammals. The budding yeast CST complex, comprising Cdc13, Stn1, and Ctc1, is critical for telomere replication, length regulation, and end protection. Although mammalian homologues of CST have been identified recently, their role and function for telomere maintenance in normal somatic human cells are still incompletely understood. Here, we characterize the function of human Stn1 in cultured human fibroblasts and demonstrate its critical role in telomere replication, length regulation, and function. In the absence of high telomerase activity, shRNA‐mediated knockdown of hStn1 resulted in aberrant and fragile telomeric structures, stochastic telomere attrition, increased telomere erosion rates, telomere dysfunction, and consequently accelerated entry into cellular senescence. Oxidative stress augmented the defects caused by Stn1 knockdown leading to almost immediate cessation of cell proliferation. In contrast, overexpression of hTERT suppressed some of the defects caused by hStn1 knockdown suggesting that telomerase can partially compensate for hStn1 loss. Our findings reveal a critical role for human Stn1 in telomere length maintenance and function, supporting the model that efficient replication of telomeric repeats is critical for long‐term viability of normal somatic mammalian cells.


Summary There is an increasing move in the UK to transform even-aged, single-species conifer plantations to continuous cover forest, i.e. more diverse and irregular stand structures. However, experience of doing this is limited and research to date has not addressed the consequences of this change on timber quality. This paper reviews the impact of transformation on timber quality and wood properties and uses coupled growth and timber property model simulations to examine the effects of different transformation scenarios on Sitka spruce ( Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.). The results of the modelling broadly confi rmed the conclusions from the literature review. Five key aspects of transformation are considered. Retaining trees to older ages can produce higher quality timber with improved mechanical properties. Regular selective thinning and increased use of crown thinning will improve timber quality, but timing is critical to avoid producing highly tapered trees with heavy branches. Creating gaps in a uniform canopy will generally have a negative impact on the timber quality of the trees around the gap edges. Increased variation in tree age, size, spacing and species will result in greater variation in log quality and wood properties. Using natural regeneration reduces the opportunities for improved growth and timber quality offered by selectively bred planting stock but can deliver good-quality timber if the characteristics of the original stand are suitable and adequate stocking is achieved. The main conclusion of this review is that transformation to continuous cover forestry will not lead to a signifi cant reduction or improvement in the quality of timber being produced in forests in the UK. The main effect will probably be to increase the variation of log sizes and wood properties that are available in the market.


Christine A. Fanelli, MS, NP-BC, CWS, WCC It is estimated that the incidence of pressure ulcers range from 0.4 to 38% in a hospital setting. Overall prevalence in the U.S. was 12.3% in 2009. A CMS analysis reported that pressure ulcers were responsible for over $2.41 billion dollars (Niederhauser et al., 2012). A large body of literature related to pressure ulcer incidence and prevalence reflects that education is not always the principal influencing factor for prevention; social and organizational barriers are just as critical when adapting clinical practice guidelines. To address these barriers, an evidence-based practice (EBP) project was implemented at a large, tertiary hospital in the east. Web of causation, an epidemiological theoretical framework, and Roger's diffusion of innovation model were utilized to develop the EBP project. Interventions included specific educational programs that created wound care champions who were a first line of defense. Multi-disciplinary training and varied hospital resources were used to compliment the champions. Thirteen wound care champions participated on the intervention unit. Of the 2,114 medical-surgical patients, N=98 with stage III, IV, and unstageable pressure ulcers satisfied the inclusionary criteria (n=42 champion unit, n=56 control unit). Mean age of patients from the champion unit was 74.2; the control unit was 71.6 years. Following implementation, the mean overall ulcer prevalence was significantly lower in 2012 than 2011 in the treatment group (t(8) = -2.51; p = .03). Scores from the Pieper pressure ulcer knowledge test were consistent with the reviewed literature. There were no significant differences in overall performances as a function of the of clinical staff's professional status; F(3,9) = 2.25; p = 0.15. The wound care champion model resulted in a decreased delay in care and reduction of hospitalacquired pressure ulcer prevalence. This model can lead to reduced patient suffering, increased staff morale, decreased use of resources, increased corresponding financial reimbursement, and cultural change.


Preservice elementary teachers face many challenges in learning how to teach science effectively, such as engaging students in science, organizing instruction, and developing a productive learning community. This paper reports on several iterative cycles of design-based research aimed at fostering preservice teachers' principled reasoning around these problems of practice through modeling-centered scientific inquiry. The first design cycle introduced preservice teachers to modeling and simulation software tools in an effort to advance their understanding of science and technology; the second used an instructional framework embodying modeling-centered inquiry to advance their views of effective science teaching and their lesson-planning practices; the third engaged preservice teachers in analyzing and modifying curriculum materials using reform-based criteria to foster effective curriculum materials use. Outcomes from these iterations indicate that the preservice teachers were most likely to advance their knowledge and practices within a coherent approach that focused on a core scientific practice such as modeling-centered inquiry, provided opportunities to unpack and apply robust tools such as reform-based instructional frameworks, and addressed their perceived problems of practice. The findings from this set of approaches are compared to others in an effort to point toward promising future directions for effective science teacher education. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed93:720–744, 2009


Context: Periodic systematic profiling of suicidal risk factors in developing countries is an established need. Aims: It was intended to study the risk factors associated with suicide attempts in Orissa, one of the most economically compromised states of India. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional study in a general hospital. Materials and Methods: Consecutive 149 suicide attempters were evaluated for psychosocial, situational, and clinical risk factors using the Risk Rescue Rating scale, Suicide Prevention Center scale, Lethality of Suicide Rating scale, and Presumptive Stressful Life Event scale. They were compared with healthy and psychiatric controls who had never attempted suicide. Statistical analysis: Chi-square for comparison of categorical variables, t-tests for comparison of means. Results: The male-to-female ratio was closer to one in adults and around 1:3 in adolescents. Younger age, lower-middle economic group, rural background, unemployed, school educated were more represented in this study. Compared to the controls, significantly more number of attempters had a family history of psychiatric illness and suicide, childhood trauma, medical consultation within one month, had experienced stressful life events and had expressed suicidal ideas. In a considerable proportion of attempts, risk was high and rescuability least; 59.1% had more than 50% chance of death. Suicide potential was high in almost half the cases. More than 80% of all attempters had psychiatric disorder; however, only 31.5% had had treatment. Factors like middle age, family history of psychiatric disorders, past psychiatric history, current psychiatric illness, communication of suicidal ideas, the use of physical methods, and high potential attempts, differentiated repeaters significantly from the first-timers. Major physical illness, family and marital conflicts, financial problems, and failure in examinations were more frequent life events. Childhood trauma, noted in around 40% of the attempters, was considerably associated with adolescent suicide attempts. Conclusions: Modifiable risk factors identified in this study have preventive implications.


ENERGY STAR(R) is a voluntary labeling program designed to identify and promote energy-efficient products, buildings and practices. Operated jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), ENERGY STAR labels exist for more than thirty products, spanning office equipment, residential heating and cooling equipment, commercial and residential lighting, home electronics, and major appliances. This report presents savings estimates for a subset of ENERGY STAR program activities, focused primarily on labeled products. We present estimates of the energy, dollar and carbon savings achieved by the program in the year 2002, what we expect in 2003, and provide savings forecasts for two market penetration scenarios for the period 2003 to 2020. The target market penetration forecast represents our best estimate of future ENERGY STAR savings. It is based on realistic market penetration goals for each of the products. We also provide a forecast under the assumption of 100 percent market penetration; that is, we assume that all purchasers buy ENERGY STAR-compliant products instead of standard efficiency products throughout the analysis period.


What is the essence of a life? Which elements merit selection by a biographer? Which should be discreetly left out? To what extent can an intellectual's thoughts and actions be captured in schemes and structures, without distorting or reducing the richness of a multifarious personality? These are the questions which underlie the contributions to the volume The Quintessence of Lives: Intellectual Biographies in the Low Countries presented to Jan Roegiers. More than twenty-five historians have written intellectual biographies of figures who created a 'second life' for themselves on paper. All persons discussed are firmly rooted in the intellectual life of the Low Countries and were active there between the sixteenth and the twentieth century. The volume is offered on the occasion of the retirement of Prof. Dr. Jan Roegiers as full professor at the K.U. Leuven. As head librarian and archivist, also in charge of the university's art collections, Jan Roegiers played a pivotal role in collecting, preserving and making available the documentary and artistic inheritance of the University of Leuven. His main interest is in the intellectual and ecclesiastical history of the Low Countries in the Modern period, but his curiosity also made him venture far beyond the boundaries of the research group in which he was active as professor ordinarius. Whatever the topic, all his texts show how much he valued the craftmanship of historiography, his great consideration for the wider context which codetermines the acts and writings of committed intellectuals, and his relish for erudition. These same features are variously reflected in the biographical contributions in this volume. They illustrate how social and cultural trends in the surrounding environment affect the actual course of action chosen by individuals who helped shape the intellectual life of our region. Academically trained lay people and clerics, as well as academics from many disciplines are to be encountered here. The authors look at how they react to the Zeitgeist, how they often go against the current and leave their mark on a whole era, or how individuals who enjoyed the same education eventually go opposite ways and proclaim conflicting views. The book is published in the series Bibliotheque de la Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique, in recognition of the important part Jan Roegiers has played these many years as director of this international academic journal, which has recently started a formal cooperation with Brepols Publishers. The contributions, mainly in English and French, but also in German and Dutch are written by Erik Aerts, Bruno Boute, Rob Brusten and friends, Luc Courtois, Pierre Delsaerdt, Jean-Pierre Delville, Wim Francois, Willem Frijhoff, Lieve Gevers, Craig Harline, Guido Hendrix, Marion Huibrechts, Staf Janssens, Eddy Louchez, Jeroen Nilis, Ernest Persoons, Eddy Put, Toon Quaghebeur, Ludo Simons, Violet Soen, Gilbert Tournoy, Michel van Meerbeeck, Dries Vanysacker, Johan Verberckmoes, Tom Verschaffel, Dries Welkenhuyzen, and Kaat Wils.


This book is about preferences, principally as they figure in economics. It also explores their uses in everyday language and action, how they are understood in psychology and how they figure in philosophical reflection on action and morality. The book clarifies and for the most part defends the way in which economists invoke preferences to explain, predict and assess behavior and outcomes. Hausman argues, however, that the predictions and explanations economists offer rely on theories of preference formation that are in need of further development, and he criticizes attempts to define welfare in terms of preferences and to define preferences in terms of choices or self-interest. The analysis clarifies the relations between rational choice theory and philosophical accounts of human action. The book also assembles the materials out of which models of preference formation and modification can be constructed, and it comments on how reason and emotion shape preferences.


This paper investigates the analysis of delay integro-differential equations to explain the increased stability behavior commonly observed at low cutting speeds in machining processes. In the past, this improved stability has been attributed to the energy dissipation from the interference between the workpiece and the tool relief face. In this study, an alternative physical explanation is described. In contrast to the conventional approach, which uses a point force acting at the tool tip, the cutting forces are distributed over the tool-chip interface. This approximation results in a second order delayed integro-differential equation for the system that involves a short and a discrete delay. A method for determining the stability of the system for an exponential shape function is described, and temporal finite element analysis is used to chart the stability regions. Comparisons are then made between the stability charts that use the conventional point force and those that use the distributed force model for continuous and interrupted turning.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


In the past decade and a half, scientific discoveries brought to light the prospect that tackle football causes serious brain trauma. This raised questions about the sport's ethical permissibility. By employing scientific, philosophical, sociological, and historical findings, I consider whether it is ethically defensible to permit adults to play the game. My approach works within the bounds of both the ethical theory of liberalism and incorporates several sociological theories focused on gender. I propose that external cultural influences deserve some credit for shaping decisions to participate in America's most popular spectator sport and contend that societies must establish genuinely pluralistic and inclusive gender ideologies and structures to ensure football's permissibility. In particular, I suggest that to ensure that tackle football is ethical for adults, the presence and prominence of gender pluralism and inclusivity in youth settings are necessary.


Males of most amphibian species possess specialized cutaneous glands, known as sexually dimorphic skin glands (SDSGs). SDSGs are usually clustered in specific body regions and are externally visible, but in some cases, external differences between males and females can be slight or absent, and the occurrence of SDSGs can only be disclosed by histological studies. Chemical signals produced by SDSGs markedly affect amphibian behaviour and reproduction, and therefore their occurrence, features, and location in the body could provide information on potential mechanisms of intraspecific communication in a particular species. In the present study, we perform light microscope (both histological and histochemical), and scanning electron microscope studies of skin samples from male and female adult specimens of the invasive bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus, covering several body regions that could hold SDSGs. Most skin areas analysed showed only ordinary granular and mucous glands despite remarkable sexual dimorphism that could be externally observed. By contrast, the male nuptial pads contained exclusively SDSGs that were hypertrophied specialized mucous glands (SMGs), closely resembling breeding glands described in other anurans. Our histochemical study revealed that these SMGs contain heterogeneous populations of secretory cells, possibly involved in pheromone production. We discuss these characteristics of the SDSGs found in L. catesbeianus, as well as the surface specialization of the nuptial pads (achieved by scanning electron microscopy) in the light of their potential role in the chemical communication in this invasive species.


Due to the advent and utility of high-throughput sequencing, modern biomedical research abounds with multivariate count data. Yet such sequence count data is often extremely sparse; that is, much of the data is zero values. Such zero values are well known to cause problems for statistical analyses. In this work we provide a systematic description of different processes that can give rise to zero values as well as the types of methods for addressing zeros in sequence count studies. Importantly, we systematically review how various models perform on each type of zero generating process. Our results demonstrate that zero-inflated models can have substantial biases in both simulated and real data settings. Additionally, we find that zeros due to biological absences can, for many applications, be approximated as originating from under sampling. Beyond these results, this work provides a paired categorization scheme for models and zero generating processes to facilitate discussions and future research into the analysis of sequence count data.


Objective The aim of our study was to identify barriers and enablers to implementation of the Xpert MTB/RIF test within Mongolia's National Tuberculosis Program. Methods Twenty-foursemi-structured interviews were conducted between June and September 2015 with laboratory staff and tuberculosis physicians in Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar and regional towns where Xpert MTB/RIF testing had been implemented. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated and analysed thematically using NVIVO qualitative analysis software. Results Eight laboratory staff (five from the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory in Ulaanbaatar and three from provincial laboratories) and sixteen tuberculosis physicians (five from the Mongolian National Center for Communicable Diseases in Ulaanbaatar, four from district tuberculosis clinics in Ulaanbaatar and seven from provincial tuberculosis clinics) were interviewed. Major barriers to Xpert MTB/RIF implementation identified were: lack of awareness of program guidelines; inadequate staffing arrangements; problems with cartridge supply management; lack of local repair options for the Xpert machines; lack of regular formal training; paper based system; delayed treatment initiation due to consensus meeting and poor sample quality. Enablers to Xpert MTB/RIF implementation included availability of guidelines in the local language; provision of extra laboratory staff, shift working arrangements and additional modules; capacity for troubleshooting internally; access to experts; opportunities for peer learning; common understanding of diagnostic algorithms and decentralised testing. Conclusion Our study identified a number of barriers and enablers to implementation of Xpert MTB/RIF in the Mongolian National Tuberculosis Program. Lessons learned from this study can help to facilitate implementation of Xpert MTB/RIF in other Mongolian locations as well as other low-and middle-income countries.


The nudge – a form of behaviorally-informed regulation that attempts to account for people's scarce cognitive resources – has been explosively successful at colonizing the regulatory state. This Essay argues that the remarkable success of nudges as a species creates new challenges and opportunities for individual nudges that did not exist ten years ago, when nudges were new. These changes follow from the new fact that nudges must now interact with other nudges. This creates opportunities for nudge versus nudge battles, where nudges compete with other nudges for the scarce resource of public cognition; and for nudge & nudge symbiosis, where nudges work complementarily with other nudges to achieve greater good with fewer resources. Because of the potential for positive and negative interactions with other nudges, modern nudges should be expected to operate differently from ancestral nudges in important ways, and future nudges should be expected to operate more differently still. Policymakers should prepare to manage future positive and negative nudge-nudge interactions.


Disagreement has been traditionally viewed as a dispreferred response, which speakers tend to avoid or mitigate
 due to its presumed face threatening effects. However, more recent studies argue that disagreement is not inherently dispreferred
 or marked, but needs to be contextualized. This article examines the interactions of Vietnamese EFL students in the context of a
 collaborative task in English. Somewhat surprisingly, given the common portrayal of the Vietnamese as favoring indirect
 communication, it finds a high incidence of direct disagreement, characterized by the use of 'no'. The study explores how direct
 'no' is used in disagreement and the impact it has on the sequence of the interaction as well as the harmony of the group. In the
 majority of cases, and in contrast with the stated beliefs of the participants regarding disagreement, almost none of the direct
 uses of 'no' have negative consequences on the interaction. The analysis of instances of 'no' that impact negatively on the
 interaction suggests contextually interactional rules underlying its appropriate use. Group work in EFL among Vietnamese students,
 therefore, is another context in which disagreement is expected and does not necessarily detract from the harmony of the
 group.


We initiate the study of a new measure of approximation. This measure compares the performance of an approximation algorithm to the random assignment algorithm. This is a useful measure for optimization problems where the random assignment algorithm is known to give essentially the best possible polynomial time approximation. In this paper, we focus on this measure for the optimization problems Max‐Lin‐2 in which we need to maximize the number of satisfied linear equations in a system of linear equations modulo 2, and Max‐k‐Lin‐2, a special case of the above problem in which each equation has at most k variables. The main techniques we use, in our approximation algorithms and inapproximability results for this measure, are from Fourier analysis and derandomization. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2004


A key goal of AI is to create lifelong learning agents that can leverage prior experience to improve performance on later tasks. In reinforcement-learning problems, one way to summarize prior experience for future use is through options, which are temporally extended actions (subpolicies) for how to behave. Options can then be used to potentially accelerate learning in new reinforcement learning tasks. In this work, we provide the first formal analysis of the sample complexity, a measure of learning speed, of reinforcement learning with options. This analysis helps shed light on some interesting prior empirical results on when and how options may accelerate learning. We then quantify the benefit of options in reducing sample complexity of a lifelong learning agent. Finally, the new theoretical insights inspire a novel option-discovery algorithm that aims at minimizing overall sample complexity in lifelong reinforcement learning.


Among the challenges facing the European Union agricultural sector in the coming years, the impacts of climate change could lead to much greater variability in farmers? incomes. In this context, the insurance industry will have to develop new instruments to cover farmers? incomes against losses due to meteorological factors. Some protective technologies that farmers can use for climate risk management have associated costs that vary as a function of the losses involved. These sorts of instruments compete with other less flexible instruments such as crop insurance. We here analyse an issue of decision-making, where the farmer can decide how much to invest in protection, as in situations where the farmer chooses which portion of a loss to protect in the case of adverse weather conditions, and we propose optimal management to mitigate the increasing negative effects of climate uncertainty. By analysing the optimal policy in a continuous choice situation, we consider whether farmers, as part of their crop management duties, should opt to protect some portion of their harvest value with available technologies, or whether they should protect the entire crop. To analyse this decision-making problem, we employ the cost-loss ratio model and take risk aversion into account.


Abstract The Texas border region with Mexico enjoys a unique geographical position at the center of the NAFTA market. In its first year, 1994, NAFTA gave a boost to already expanding U.S.‐Mexican trade and regional cross‐border commerce, begun in 1986 with Mexico's accession to GATT. The December 1994 peso devaluation slowed substantially the pace of trade and investment between the two countries, having a negative impact on the economy of the Texas border region. While many businessmen and women and public officials remain optimistic about the region's future under NAFTA and expanding U.S.‐Mexican trade ties, others are not so sure. Some officials and academicians caution that NAFTA will change the way U.S., Mexican, and Canadian investors and entrepreneurs conduct business. This is particularly true in areas of transportation and warehousing services as well as retailing, putting in jeopardy the very industries that traditionally have been the mainstay of much of the Texas border economy.


Quiescent infections play key roles in Botrytis cinerea pathogenesis and in the management of Botrytis bunch rot on Vitis spp. An improved understanding of the biology of quiescence and identification of resistant germplasm could result in improved disease management. In 2004 and 2005, two methods were applied to monitor quiescence and activation of natural B. cinerea infections on 32 genotypes of Vitis spp. and interspecific hybrids. In addition to the standard assay for early detection of B. cinerea, based on tissue freezing and incubation, a real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay was developed and tested. Based on Taqman chemistry, this qPCR assay quantified as little as 3.2 pg of B. cinerea DNA accurately, with a detection limit of 100 fg, and did not amplify grape DNA. The qPCR and freezing assays detected infection levels of B. cinerea in both 2004 and 2005 appropriate to the actual disease severity (22.5% and 1.0% bunch rot, respectively). Grape genotypes varied in their resistance to infection, degree of colonization, and severity of disease. qPCR was not as effective as the freezing assay for detecting infection at early stages of development but was able to quantify fungal colonization, resulting in a new capability for monitoring B. cinerea pathogenesis over time. The combined ability of the two assays to detect B. cinerea early in berry development and monitor colonization provides a resource for informing disease management decisions and for identifying mechanisms of disease resistance.


This thesis presents multi-frequency data, galaxy identifications, estimated redshifts, and derived physical properties for the sub-millimetre source sample produced by the SCUBA HAlf Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES). SHADES is the largest, complete, sub-millimetre survey undertaken to date, and the aim of this work is to exploit this survey to study the evolution of sub-mm selected galaxies at high redshift, explore their possible connection with local massive ellipticals, and to test current models of galaxy formation. The SHADES sample was selected from 850μm images made with the submillimetre camera SCUBA at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. These submillimetre maps cover a total area of 720 arcmin2 split between two well-studied extra-galactic survey fields, the Lockman Hole East and the Subaru/XMMNewton Deep Field (SXDF). The resulting sample of 120 sub-millimetre sources is the focus of this thesis. Here the wealth of information provided by deep radio, optical, near-infrared and mid-infrared imaging of the two SHADES fields is exploited to complete the identification of the SHADES sample, and then to derive a robust redshift estimate for every sub-millimetre source. Where possible this is achieved from the optical+infrared photometry using a new two-component redshift estimation code developed specifically to deal with starbursting galaxies with potentially highly stochastic star-formation histories. The effectiveness of this code is demonstrated via comparison with the small subset of SHADES source which possess robust spectroscopic redshifts. For those galaxies which are too faint for effective redshift constraints to be provided by the existing optical+infrared photometry, the information on the long-wavelength spectral energy distribution provided by the radio+submm photometry is utilised to provide cruder constraints or limits on redshift. The result is the first complete and unbiased estimate of the redshift distribution of the bright extragalactic sub-millimetre galaxy population. It is found that the brightest sub-mm sources are confined to the redshift range 2 < z < 4, while more moderate luminosity sources span the full range of redshift out to z ∼ 5. The fits to the multi-frequency photometry provided by the redshift estimation technique are also used to derive estimates of the stellar mass, and star-formation history of each SHADES galaxy. The average derived stellar mass is ∼ 3 × 1011 M⊙ and it is found that the violent starburst powering the sub-millimetre emission typically contributes less than 10% of the stellar mass of the galaxy which has been assembled prior to the "current" starburst event. The distributions of redshift, stellar mass, and star-burst ages are compared with the predictions of a range of galaxy models, including the suite of models originally used to motivate the SHADES survey in van Kampen et al. (2005), and the most recent incarnation of the Durham semi-analytic galaxy formation models described by Swinbank et al. (2008). It is found that the redshift distribution and sub-mm flux versus redshift for bright sub-mm galaxies can be reproduced best by one of the van Kampen models, which is based on semi-analytic modelling with a Chabrier IMF. We can rule out the non-semi-analytic prediction models and the Durham semi-analytic model with a top-heavy IMF. However the stellar masses are systematically underpredicted by all of the models. Either the stellar masses derived from the SHADES data have been systematically over-estimated, or the models need to be modified (perhaps by the inclusion of AGN feedback) to allow larger galaxy masses to assembled prior to z ∼ 2. Finally, it is demonstrated that the mass in place prior to the observed starburst cannot have been produced by an analogous super-burst at higher redshift, but rather requires to have been assembled more gradually over a timescale of ∼ 1− 2 Gyr. It is thus concluded that massive galaxies undergo their most violent phase of star formation at redshifts 2 < z < 4, but that the enormous starbursts which lead to detection in current sub-millimetre surveys can only take place in the potential well provided by an already massive galaxy. This supports a scenario in which bright sub-millimetre galaxies are indeed the progenitors of the massive elliptical galaxies found in the local Universe.


Abstract. This paper deals with the Mapa mondi drawn and written in about 1375. It is my starting study about this important map of the medieval period in the Catalan language and the finest work to come from the Majorcan cartographic school of the fourteenth century. The aim of this paper is to give a general overview of the publication with some details on descriptions of the portion of Asia, and in more details as regards China. This map is known also as the Catalan Atlas, because it is composed of several tables sketching out the world known at that time, from the Atlantic Coast of Europe to the Pacific Coast of East Asia. The main sources for the eastern parts of the world were travelogues of Marco Polo, John Mandeville, and Odoric of Pordenone. The presumable author of the Catalan Atlas, Cresques Abra-ham (1325–1387), a Jewish cartographer from Palma, was "master of mappae mundi and compasses" to Peter IV (III), the King of Aragon. He worked on the atlas with his son Jehuda, who after the Aragonese persecutions of 1391, converted to Christianity. The atlas contained the latest information on Africa, Asia, and China and was considered to be the most complete picture of geographical knowledge as it stood in the later Middle Ages. The translations of original texts and interpretations, based on facsimiles of original source and on secondary sources until 2016, will be a part of this paper.


In this work we investigated sensemaking activities on different immersive platforms. We observed user s during a classification task on a very large wall-display system (experiment I) and in a modern Virtual Reality headset (experiment II). In experiment II, we also evaluated a condition with a VR headset with an extended field of view, through a sparse peripheral display. We evaluated the results across the two studies by analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, such as task completion time, number of classifications, followed strategies, and shape of clusters. The results showed differences in user behaviors between the different immersive platforms, i.e., the very large display wall and the VR headset. Even though quantitative data showed no significant differences, qualitatively, users used additional strategies on the wall-display, which hints at a deeper level of sensemaking compared to a VR Headset. The qualitative and quantitative results of the comparison between VR Headsets do not indicate that users perform differently with a VR Headset with an extended field of view.


PURPOSE
Non-Caucasian patients exhibit different characteristics of oral pigmentation and may request that the acrylic resin parts of their dentures look natural, simulating the original mucosal color. Tooth loss, bone resorption, and lack of attached gingiva may, however, make it difficult to determine what the original pigmentation was like. The purpose of this investigation was to study the distribution in oral pigmentation around the natural dentition in non-Caucasians, in a preliminary effort to classify these variations into a chart of oral pigmentation, and to analyze its reproducibility.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
For the study, 106 dentate non-Caucasians were selected from two universities: ACTA (patient group) and UCLA (nonpatient group). A pigmentation scheme was devised on the basis of half of the participants, and the others were divided into categories by four observers independently. Cohen's kappa was then calculated.

RESULTS
On the basis of information obtained from the ACTA participants, six categories of mucosal pigmentation were defined. The kappa statistics for the four observers varied from .58 to .79 for intraobserver agreement and from .15 to .55 for interobserver agreement.

CONCLUSION
The Oral Pigmentation Chart is a simple device that makes it possible to simulate oral pigmentation in the acrylic resin parts of removable dentures. The reproducibility appeared to be acceptable when clinician and dental technician were calibrated. Patients can be offered a choice of the kind of pigmentation geography they want in their removable prostheses.


The Second International Conference on the Roles of Humanities and Social Science in Engineering (ICoHSE 2010) organized by Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), 12th - 14th November 2010 at Bayview Beach Resort, Penang, Malaysia.


Traditional exploration and prospecting for hydrocarbons (HC) has traditionally been carried out using seismic techniques. At the same time, it is well known that seismic techniques are inefficient in the presence of high-velocity layers (which reduce resolution at great depth), igneous rocks, thrusts within the crystalline basement, and tight limestone. Being sensitive to geological structure, seismic techniques are characterized by low resolution at the level of micro-parameters such as fluid type, porosity/ fracture, and degree of pores HC-saturation. Moreover, technical complications, e.g., highly rugged topography, dense vegetation and object remoteness may make seismic surveys difficult, expensive, or even impossible.
Therefore, non-seismic methods are increasingly used in HC exploration and prospecting. In particular, electrical and electromagnetic (EM) methods (magnetotelluric sounding, direct current, time-domain EM (TDEM), induced polarization (IP), controlled source EM, etc.) complement seismic techniques and increasingly replace them (Johansen, 2008; Key, 2012; Zhang et al., 2014; Barsukov and Fainberg, 2015; Berdichevsky et al., 2015, among others).
In parallel with EM, the efficient technologies for 3D modelling and inversion (see, for instance, a review paper by Siripunvaraporn (2012) and references therein) and integrated analysis of EM and other geophysical data (see, for instance, a review paper by Bedrosian (2007) has been created. Application of these methods in solving problems of exploration geophysics enabled progression in exploration, prospecting, and devel¬opment of HC deposits (see, for instance, a review paper by Strack (2014) and references therein). Meanwhile, very recent advances in indirect estimating of rock geophysical properties of lithologic reservoirs from electromagnetic sounding data (Spichak and Goidina, 2016; Spichak and Zakharova, 2015, 2016; Spichak, 2017) open up new possibilities related to development of more sophisticated approaches to estimation of the reservoir properties and its potential assessment. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the advanced capabilities of electromagnetic techniques in solving a wide range of prob-lems, especially those which seismic surveys are not effective in solving.


This Masters thesis aims to determine the requirements of a semantics for imperatives in the domain of navigation instructions. Pragmatic and semantic theories and computational approaches to imperatives will be examined. The overall aim is to bridge the gap between natural language imperatives and their interpretation in a logic of action, and to determine what is required to represent a range of linguistic phenomena from a corpus of navigation instructions. A grammar providing an underspecified semantic representation of simple imperatives is presented and issues of what type of interpretation should be performed at which level in a hypothetical architecture for interpreting imperatives are discussed.


For Web designers and developers who want to add great-looking video to their Web site fast. The full-color projects in this book teach all the techniques needed to enhance Web sites with Silverlight video. This book takes the approach that Web designers don't need to know every feature in Silverlight; Creating a Web Video in Silverlight: Visual QuickProject Guide shows designers just what they need to get their project done fast.


The poor condition of a collection of colonial photographs currently housed in the National Archives of The Gambia is the subject of a variety of competing discourses and practices concerning the preservation of colonial visual culture. At issue is the question of who has the right to look after the artifacts of material culture as they inevitably expire. I suggest that the discourse surrounding decaying colonial photographs is a lover's discourse. The decay causes controversy because it reminds us of our feelings for, and intimacy with, colonial culture and asks that we imagine ways of finally letting go.


Abstract New echinoderm holdfast discoveries from Gondwana demonstrate that pelmatozoans have been cementers able to attach to carbonate firmgrounds since the basal middle Cambrian. Echinoderms were thus colonizing shallow, high-energy environments well before the appearance of the first true carbonate hardgrounds in the Furongian. Morphological innovations and adaptations to firmground media ( = substrates) were first developed in softground, clayey, offshore environments where echinoderms cemented to shell fragments. This preadaption allowed echinoderms to quickly and effectively exploit the newly emerging hardground habitats in the Furongian to Early Ordovician.


In today's public market Mobile phones has become a part of everyday life. The introduc-tion of Smart Phones has created a new market for services and applications for the Smart Phones. Many of these users would benefit of customizing their own services to fulfil their needs. This can be achieved with end-user service composition. End-user service composition enables the user to compose their own services from already existing components to provide val-ue added services. In this Master Thesis a service composition tool consisting of the two applica-tions Easy Composer and EasyDroid is presented. The idea of the tool is that ordinary people without technical background will be able to quickly compose their own services in a simple manner. The existing tool has been in development for a while, but still lack some sufficient quality in terms of usability and utility for ordinary people to make use of it. Utility means what the tool can be utilized to, and usability means the user-friendliness and usefulness. In this Mas-ter Thesis a new system has been made for the service composition tool. The Easy Composer application has been discarded and new web based GUI has replaced its functionality. In addi-tion, the EasyDroid application has been remade and a new server side has been developed. Fur-thermore, the communication between the different parts has been improved. The usability and utility of the previous system has been considerably improved in the new system. In other words the existing functionality has been made more user friendly and new functionality has been added to the tool. The goal is that the service composition tool would have the sufficient quality and novelty for ordinary users to embrace it.


The women in this study were part of a wave of immigrants who arrived in the United States during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. These times were rife with political and social turmoil including the "second wave" of the US feminist movement. The study demonstrates how differences in social and cultural backgrounds influenced these women's ideas of emancipation, liberation, and their perceptions of American women. By examining the women's experiences at home and in the workplace, this study argues that the American feminist movement and its outcomes were important contributing factors in these immigrant women's emancipation. An analysis of their social practices provides an understanding of this emancipation process. It shows how their lifestyles changed and how these immigrant women were able to pursue careers, raise children and enjoy greater equality with their spouses.


The aim of this study was to examine the level of depression and self-esteem among orphan and non-orphan children.
Participants of this study were 50 orphan children and 50 non-orphan children selected randomly. Totally, 100 orphan and
non-orphan children participated in the study. Data about participants were collected through questionnaire. Data were
analyzed using both descriptive (percentage, mean and SD) and inferential statistical methods such as independent t-test.
The results revealed that there is positive relationship (r = 0.69, P<0.01) between depression and self esteem between
orphan and non-orphan children. T-test revealed significant depression (t = 3.78, p<0.001), between orphan and nonorphan
children. Orphan children obtained higher score on depression scale than non- orphan children. On the other hand,
non-orphan children obtained high score on self-esteem (t = 4.85, p<0.001), than their counterparts of orphan children.
Finally practical implications of the findings are presented.


A no-holds-barred chronicle and inside story of the war on terror by the former CIA director. In the whirlwind of accusations and recriminations that emerged in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq war, one man's vital testimony has been conspicuously absent. Candid and gripping, 'At the Centre of the Storm' is George Tenet's time at the Central Intelligence Agency, a revelatory look at the inner workings of the most important intelligence organization in the world during the most challenging times in recent history. With unparalleled access to both the highest echelons of government and raw intelligence from the field, Tenet illuminates CIA's painstaking attempts to prepare the country against new and deadly threats, disentangling the interlocking events that led to 9/11, and offering explosive new information on the deliberations and strategies that culminated in the US invasion of Iraq. Beginning with his appointment as Director of Central Intelligence in 1997, Tenet unfolds the events that led to 9/11 as he experienced them including his declaration of war on al Qa'ida; the worldwide operational plan to fight terrorists; and the plan for a coordinated and devastating counterattack against al Qa'ida laid down just six days after the attacks. He then turns to the war in Iraq as he provides dramatic insight and background on the run-up to the invasion, including the CIA's critical role in an administration predisposed to take the country to war. In doing so, he sets the record straight about CIA operations and shows readers that the truth is more complex than suggested in other versions of recent history offered thus far. Through it all, Tenet paints an unflinching self-portrait of a man caught between the warring forces of the administration's decision-making process and his own conscience. Drawing on his experience within the wilderness of mirrors of intelligence collection and analysis and providing crucial information previously undisclosed, 'At the Centre of the Storm' is a moving and revelatory profile of both a man and a nation in times of crisis.


Abstract: The issue of DNA database legislation is one of the most delicate challenges of legislative harmonization at the European level. The balance between the right to privacy, and the right to security and to fair trial is hard to be achieved and it depends a lot from the cultural, historical, philosophical and even religious background each country is characterised by. At present solutions widely differ in Europe. The paper seeks to analyse the most important national legislations concerning the use of genetic profiling, underlining on the one hand the effective norms which characterise the most important and innovative national laws and regulations, and, on the other, the implications of those laws and regulations undermining the protection and enforcement of fundamental rights. We will then discuss the European milestones and the process that led to the adoption of the Treaty of Prum, from both a political and a legal perspective. Finally, the paper will try to assess the process of harmonization, its challenges, the necessary mediations, and above all its relevant ethical, social, economic as well as legal implications.


Glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth is considered the most troublesome weed in agronomic crops in the Midsouth. The reliance on multiple herbicide mechanisms of action (MOA) and soil-residual herbicides has increased over the past several years due to the ever growing issue of herbicide-resistant weeds. Field experiments were conducted at several locations in Arkansas to determine the efficacy of fluridone on Palmer amaranth in glyphosate-resistant and glufosinate-resistant cotton herbicide programs and to determine the length of residual fluridone activity when applied preemergence (PRE). Fluridone has a unique MOA and is currently not registered as a stand-alone herbicide for use in cotton. In the length of residual experiment, when rainfall was adequate, fluridone applied PRE at rates greater than 224 g a.i. ha-1 provided > 90% Palmer amaranth control for 6 wk after application; however, effective season-long Palmer amaranth control was not achieved with any rate of fluridone alone. Fluridone alone applied 14-d preplant or PRE did not provide greater Palmer amaranth control than a standard herbicide application. When fluridone was integrated into a glufosinate-based herbicide program, PRE-applied fluridone at 224, 336, and 448 g ha-1 did not provide greater Palmer amaranth control than the standard herbicide program that included fluometuron. Based on these experiments, fluridone should not be applied as a stand-alone herbicide in cotton, nor will it reduce the number of POST applications needed for effective Palmer amaranth control in glufosinate-resistant cotton.


Cite this article: Dumore NG, Umekar MJ, Taksande BG, Aglawe MM, Nandkishor RR. Withania somnifera Attenuates Nicotine Induced Conditioned Place Preference in Mice. Pharmacog J. 2019;11(1):43-7. ABSTRACT Background: Herbal medicines can be novel treatment strategies for management of nicotine addiction. Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) is an Indian medicinal plant of great medicinal value; used in many clinically proven conditions. Objective: In present study we aimed at investigating the effect of withania somnifera extract (WSE) on preventing nicotine mediated effects attributed for the development of addiction. Materials and Methods: Mice were treated with nicotine and/or WSE and subjected to nicotine induced conditioned place preference (CPP) in male albino mice was checked. Results: Application of two-way ANOVA showed that with preconditioning and post-conditioning values as a within-subjects (column) factor and treatment as an independent between subject (row) factor. Two-way ANOVA revealed significant effect of treatment [F(3,40)=4.119, p<0.05], time [F(1,40)=23.76, p<0.001] and interactiontreatment x time [F(3,40)=5.244, p<0.01] on Intra-peritoneal (ip) administration of nicotine (1 mg/kg). WSE did not produce any changes in the preference to drug-paired compartment. Factors like treatment [F(3,40) = 0.656, p>0.05], time [F(1,40) = 7.383, p<0.01] and interactiontreatment x time [F(3,40) = 0.5748, p>0.05] showed insignificant effects. Withania somnifera (50,100,200 mg/kg ip) coadministered with nicotine during the 6 days conditioning sessions completely abolished the acquisition of nicotine-induced CPP in mice. Conclusion: Above data indicate that Withania somnifera attenuate nicotine induced CPP. Hence it has potential as an anti-addictive therapy.


Fast ion chromatography has been applied to short (3 cm) silica based ODS columns with a view to achieving rapid determinations of selected inorganic anions. The use of smaller stationary phase particle sizes (3 |im) allowed higher flow rates (2.0 - 2.5 ml/min) to be used while maintaining chromatographic efficiency due to the favorable Van Deemter curves obtained as particle size decreases. Using ioninteraction chromatography and direct UV detection, eight anions were separated in under four minutes with the first five anions separated in < 50 seconds; this separation was subsequently applied to the rapid analysis of nitrite and nitrate in tap water. With the addition of a peristaltic pump and in-line filter, up to 60 analyses per hour could be carried out unattended using an on-line system, which matches the analysis rate possible with traditional FIA based methods. This mobile phase was further modified such that nitrate, nitrite and thiocyanate could be rapidly determined in urine samples as a means to quantitatively evaluate smoking behavior.

Subsequently, the same column was permanently coated using
didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) and anion exchange chromatography used for the isocratic separation of nine common anions in 160 seconds, with the first seven anions, including phosphate, chloride and sulphate, separated within only 65 seconds using a simple phthalate eluent. The high capacity, highly hydrophobic ion exchange coating demonstrated excellent stability over time, even at elevated temperatures (45 °C). The developed chromatography was successfully applied to the rapid analysis of river water, tap water and relatively high ionic strength seawater samples with minimal sample preparation required.

Multi-valent eluents were briefly applied to this column with a view to achieving faster separations, with further studies also involved the use of dipicolinic acid eluents, which allowed the simultaneous separation of chloride, sulphate, nitrate, carbonate, magnesium and calcium, in less than 180 seconds.

Short monolithic silica ODS columns were used with a tetrabutylammoniumphthalate eluent and direct conductivity detection for the rapid analysis of six common inorganic anions in < 60 seconds. Van deemter curves for this monolithic column showed that considerably higher flow rates could be used without adversely affecting efficiency relative to 3 p,m particulate columns due to the improved permeability of these phases. Finally, two short Cis monoliths were coated with DDAB and DOSS and individually used to separate eight anions in 100 seconds and five cations in 100 seconds using a common phthalate/ethylenediamine eluent. By subsequently coupling the columns in parallel, the with the eluent delivered using a flow splitter from a single isocratic pump, the simultaneous analysis of anions and cations was also possible, based on a single conductivity detector.


Introduction: Cancer is a devastating disease; however, several therapeutic advances have recently been made, wherein EGFR and its family members have emerged as useful biomarkers and therapeutic targets. EGFR, a transmembrane glycoprotein is a member of the ERBB receptor tyrosine kinase superfamily. EGFR binds to its cognate ligand EGF, which further induces tyrosine phosphorylation and receptor dimerization with other family members leading to enhanced uncontrolled proliferation. Several anti-EGFR therapies such as monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been developed, which has enabled clinicians to identify and treat specific patient cohorts. Areas covered: This review covers the basic mechanism of EGFR activation and the role of EGFR signaling in cancer progression. Furthermore, current developments made toward targeting the EGFR signaling pathway for the treatment of epithelial cancers and a summary of the various anti-EGFR therapeutic agents that are currently in use are also presented in this review. Expert opinion: EGFR signaling is a part of a complex network that has been the target of effective cancer therapies. However, a further understanding of the system is required to develop an effective anticancer regimen. A combination therapy that comprises an anti-EGFR and a chemotherapeutic/chemopreventive agent will exhibit a multi-pronged approach that can be developed into a highly attractive and specific molecular oriented remedy.


Data on window heat-transfer properties (U-value and shading coefficient (SC)) are usually presented only for a few window designs at specific environmental conditions. With the introduction of many new window glazing configurations (using low-emissivity coatings and gas fills) and the interest in their annual energy performance, it is important to understand the effects of window design parameters and environmental conditions on U and SC. This paper discusses the effects of outdoor temperature, wind speed, insolation, surface emittance, and gap width on the thermal performance of both conventional and highly insulating windows. Some of these data have been incorporated into the fenestration chapter of the ''ASHRAE Handbook - 1985 Fundamentals.'' The heat-transfer properties of multiglazed insulating window designs are also presented. These window systems include those having (1) one or more low-emittance coatings; (2) low-conductivity gas-fill or evacuated cavities; (3) a layer of transparent silica aerogel, a highly insulating microporous material; or (4) combinations of the above. Using the detailed building energy analysis program, DOE 2.1B, we show that these systems, which all maintain high solar transmittance, can add more useful thermal energy to a space than they lose, even in a northern climate. Thus, in terms of seasonal energy flows,more » these fenestration systems out-perform insulated walls or roofs.« less


Modern medicine began in the last half of the nineteenth century when doctors started practising the scientific method at the bedside. However, in his presidential address to the Association of American Physicians in 1979 James Wyngaarden postulated that the clinical scientist was an endangered species. Several reasons for this have been suggested, including "the seductive incomes that now derive from procedure-based specialty medicine". Others have suggested that it is simply because the things left to be discovered at bedside have become exhausted, and that all the big medical advances will now be made by high-powered institutions.


The paper examines the impact of international trade on tourism of the top ten GDP ranking countries of South and South East Asian Region for a period of 15 years, 1995 to 2009. The study includes two independent variables of trade: imports and exports, and one dependent variable of tourism – the number of tourist departures. Pooled Regression Model, Fixed Effect Model and Random Effect Model have been applied as a research tool. Results of the study reveals that the international trade and tourism industry help to promote economic development of countries of the South and South-East Asian Region.


Departing from the assumed origin in Asia Minor or the Middle East, Lasius neglectus VAN LOON, BOOMSMA & ANDRASFALVY, 1990 has spread both to the west and to the east during the last decades. From 1998 to 2004 we collected 41 samples of L. neglectus at 17 different sites in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan; of those, 15 are new. The ant appears to be widespread in the Fergana Valley and in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek. This paper lists the findings of L. neglectus and describes the habitats in which the ants were found. The presence of L. neglectus in bordering countries is discussed.


Abstract. The consequences and effects of the socialist experiment are still felt today, a quarter century after the system change in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The political, economic and social transformation processes which occurred in this period have only partially led to a convergence with the West. The former socialist societies show, to this day, striking differences and specific paths, which is why "postsocialism" as an explanatory category is still of relevance. Although political ecology was established decades ago, its research activities touching various fields and resulting in numerous studies conducted in rural and urban contexts around the world, there are hardly any political-ecological studies that deal with the post-socialist reality of Eurasia. A central field of political ecology stems from questions about the relationships between political and socio-economic transformation processes, on the one hand, and poverty, vulnerability and environmental change, on the other. Such problems occur in a particularly striking manner in the former "Second World" countries. Here, the spatial and temporal multiscalar approach of political ecology appears well suited to analyse the transformations of human-environment relationships. Political-ecological studies in the post-socialist sphere must take into account some special features, such as the legacy of socialist modernization, the disastrous environmental damages of the planned economy or the reconfiguration of institutions. This article discusses the conceptual particularities and challenges for a political ecology of post-socialism.


AIMS
To explore the information needs of long-term indwelling urinary catheter users, the consequences for patients of inadequate information and how these needs could be met.

BACKGROUND
Previous studies have drawn attention to the lack of information given to indwelling catheter users and how users would benefit from more. Little is known about the varied and detailed information needs of long-term indwelling catheter users.

DESIGN
A qualitative interpretative approach was used, combining thematic analysis with constant comparison. A diverse sample of people living in the community with a catheter for 3 months or longer was recruited.

METHODS
Interviews were conducted using a narrative approach. Thirty-six interviews were conducted in England, Wales and Scotland between 2011-2013.

RESULTS
Participants ranged in age from 22-96 years. After having a catheter fitted they wanted more technical information about it and information to help prevent catheter-related physical problems (infection, blockage, leaking), on sexual activity and the siting of catheters and about managing a social life with a catheter. In its absence, patients sometimes experimented with the catheter, learning to live with it through trial and error, used the Internet to find out more, or contacted other patients or organizations.

CONCLUSION
Research has consistently shown that indwelling catheter users need to be given more information but some patients still feel poorly informed. Nurses are in a good position to find out what people know, what they need, and to ensure that patients have contact phone numbers for further information and details of reliable websites and support organizations.