In this paper I present empirical findings from an ongoing project, "Spectator Engagement in film and utopian self-reflexivity. Moving images and moved minds" (The Swedish Research Council, 2011 – 2013). During 2011, 30910 questionnaires is were sampled 2011, among from students in of education, nursing, social care as well asand media. In open ended questions these young adults in their twenties give gave examples of contemporary film of personal importance dealing with life issues. and sSome movies, such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Shawshank Redemption (1994), Avatar (2009), Gladiator (2000) and Amelie from Montmartre (2001), attract a collective interest. such as Donnie Darko, Amelie from Montmartre and Pulp Fiction. Examples of therespondentsrespondent's statements about the kind of struggles in life these and other films evoke are dealt with from different theoretical perspectives. The reported impact of specific movies is analyzed throughanalyzed through theories about cognitive psychology (Plantinga 2011) as well as visual rethoricsrhetoric's and the responding chord (Elmelund Kjeldsen 2008) where cognition and emotion are important aspects of the spectator's' relation to a film. Theseese analyszees of audiences responses of reading a film are put into the context of 'the subjective turn' in the sociology of religion as well as the changing conditions for the reflexive self in late modernity (Giddens 1991, McAdams 1993, Lynch 2007). Also how film viewing is able to elicit self-reflexive transformation processes (Bruun Vaage 2009, Plantinga 2009).


Chemically engineered polyamide 6 (PA6)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites were produced via the functionalization of GO with an amide (CONH2) functional group, in order to produce amide-GO with improved interfacial bonding and dispersion in the host polymer matrix. In situ polymerization of ε-caprolactam was carried out in the presence of amide-GO to create PA6/amide-GO nanocomposites. The nanomaterial (pre- and post-polymerization) and the composites were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and tensile testing. The single-layer nature of GO was attested by TEM. FTIR, XPS, XRD and thermal analysis techniques confirmed the successful amide modification of GO. The expected attachment of PA6 to the surface of GO is demonstrated, along with the reduction of GO during polymerization. Some reduction of GO during the chemical functionalization process was also observed. The thermal stability of the nanocomposites was confirmed, while promotion of α-phase crystallite formation and a molecular weight change of attached PA6 are observed. A linear improvement in stiffness and yield strength was observed as functionalized GO content increased from 0.1 wt% to 0.75 wt%. A levelling off of mechanical properties ensued once the GO content reached 1 wt%, and a decrease was seen at 2 wt%.


Folklore. Washington Irving and Mark Twain used it in their fiction; Sigmund Freud and William James incorporated it into their work; Henry Ford and Franklin Roosevelt promoted it. Their efforts were set against the background of folklorists who brought collections of traditional tales, songs, and crafts to the attention of a modernizing society. The ideas of these folklorists influenced how Americans thought about the character of their society and the directions it was taking. Here for the first time is a history of American folkloristic ideas and the figures who shaped them. Simon Bronner puts these ideas in cultural context, showing the interconnection of folklore studies with historical events, social changes, and intellectual movements. He follows the beginnings of American folklore studies in the antiquarian literature of the 1830s through the rise of folklore societies in the 1880s to the emergence of an independent discipline in the 1950s. In this progression, Bronner identifies several major themes tying folklore studies to intellectual history: first, the unearthing of a hidden, usable past; second, the charting of time and space; and third, the structuring of communication. More than a chronological or biographical history, this book is an interpretation of folkloristic ideas and their relationship to American society.


We calculated the magnetic dipole and the electric quadrupole hyperfine interaction constants of 3s3p $^{3,1}P^o_1$ states and the isotope shift, including mass and field shift, factors for transitions from these two states to the ground state 3s$^2~^1S_0$ in Al$^+$ ions using the multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock method. The effects of the electron correlations and the Breit interaction on these physical quantities were investigated in detail based on the active space approach. It is found that the CC and the higher-order correlations are considerable for evaluating the uncertainties of the atomic parameters concerned. The uncertainties of the hyperfine interaction constants in this work are less than 1.5\%. Although the isotope shift factors are highly sensitive to the electron correlations, reasonable uncertainties were obtained by exploring the effects of the electron correlations. Moreover, we found that the relativistic nuclear recoil corrections to the mass shift factors are very small and insensitive to the electron correlations for Al$^{+}$. These atomic parameters present in this work are valuable for extracting the nuclear electric quadrupole moments and the mean-square charge radii of Al isotopes.


Coinciding with a major refit of the medieval galleries at the British Museum, this book presents some of the highlights, concentrating on the period 1050-1500. The pieces are photographed superbly in full colour, each with a description on the facing page. The book is arranged into three sections - devotional art, society and international influences - and the succesion of artefacts follows a logical thread, but this will mainly be a book to dip into, and a feast for the eyes.


The Williams Act of 1968 amended the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 in order to provide the public with greater notice of those acquiring ownership of a corporation's equity securities which could signal a change in corporate control. Prior to the amendment, shareholders owning less than 10 percent of a corporation's equity securities did not have to publicly disclose their interests. This resulted in shareholders colluding with each other to effect changes in corporate governance unbeknownst to potential investors and the public. The Williams Act amended section 13(d) of the 1934 Securities Act so that those entering into a group, in order to pool their shares, would be deemed to become the beneficial owner, directly or indirectly, of every other member of the group's shares at the time they agreed to form the group and act in concert. The group then would be required to file a Schedule 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission thereby providing greater transparency. The Third Circuit held in Rosenberg v. XM Ventures that beneficial ownership at the time the group is formed is an essential element of constituting a group under section 13(d). The Court stated that it was "Congress' intent that an individual must be a beneficial owner of an issuer's securities prior to becoming a member of a section 13(d) group." In other words, in order to constitute a section 13(d) group, the shares must be beneficially owned by the members of the group at the time they enter into an agreement to act in concert (beneficial ownership is defined as who has the actual ability to vote the shares, or the power to dispose of a block of securities, not who is the owner of record). This article argues that one of the implications of the holding in Rosenberg is that there is now a potential loophole in the law in which shareholders may again collude with one another to effect stealth changes in corporate control. At the time the group enters into an agreement to further a common objective, so long as the members are not beneficial owners of more than 5 percent of the corporation's equity securities, they do not have to publicly file with the SEC. Subsequently, the group could then acquire beneficial ownership in the corporation's equity securities, still not be required to file under 13(d) and act to effect a corporate takeover.


"Right to know", in the context of United States workplace and community environmental law, is the legal principle that the individual has the right to know the chemicals to which they may be exposed in their daily living. It is embodied in federal law in the United States as well as in local laws in several states. "Right to Know" laws take two forms: Community Right to Know and Workplace Right to Know. Each grants certain rights to those groups. The "right to know" was a movement made popular by Rachel Carson with her book Silent Spring.[1]


The examination of cell lineages is an important step towards understanding the developmental events that specify the various cell types in the organism. The mechanisms that control which cell types are formed, their locations, and their numbers remain unknown. Analyses of cell lineage in the frog neural retina have revealed that individual precursors are multipotent and are capable of producing almost any combination of cell types. In addition to giving rise to a wide range of phenotypes, the precursors can give rise to a wide range of clone sizes. Cell lineage studies in other systems indicate that some precursors are multipotent, like those in the retina, while others appear to produce a more restricted range of descendants, perhaps even a single phenotype. These differences in the developmental potential of precursor cells suggest that the nervous system uses several strategies for producing its many cell types. Investigation of these strategies, at the cellular and molecular level, requires more than a description of the normal cell lineages. We are now exploiting the frog neural retina to perform the experimental manipulations needed to elucidate these strategies.


China's economy is four times the size of Taiwan's and apparently growing at a faster rate; that economic disparity between China and Taiwan could eventually lead to a military disparity as well. Nonetheless, even an informal U.S. security guarantee for Taiwan against nuclear-armed China is illadvised. Taiwan is not strategically essential to America's national security. Moreover, China has significant incentives to avoid attacking Taiwan. Perhaps the most crucial is that hostile behavior toward Taiwan would jeopardize China's increasing economic linkage with the United States and other key countries. Taiwan has several military advantages that it could exploit. First, Taiwan could use a "porcupine" strategy to deter China— Taiwan does not need to be able to win a conflict with a more powerful China; it needs only to inflict unacceptable damage on Chinese forces. Second, Taiwan would have the advantage of defending an island against an amphibious attack—an attack that is extremely hard to execute successfully. Prospects for a successful defense are enhanced because China would be unlikely to have strategic surprise; air or naval supremacy; or sufficient landing forces, fleet air defense, or naval gunfire support. Third, because of current Taiwanese naval superiority (including anti-submarine warfare capabilities) and deficiencies in Chinese fleet air defense and command and control, even a partial Chinese naval blockade would be difficult to carry out. Fourth, Chinese missile strikes on Taiwan could be countered with enhanced passive defenses and retaliatory strikes on the Chinese homeland by the superior Taiwanese air force. Rather than provide an informal security guarantee to Taiwan, the United States should sell that nation more arms to defend itself. President Bush has authorized the sale of more weapons, but Taiwan needs to spend more on its own defenses and actually buy the needed weapons. February 5, 2003


Ionic species in aqueous solutions alter protein solubility and aggregation behavior through a variety of complex interactions. Employing second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging in a backscattering configuration in situ we discovered that added phosphate modulates the aggregated collagen fibers' lengths within 3D hydrogels. For example, the about 1 μm in length collagen fibers formed in 30 mM phosphate-only buffer, 37 °C, 2 g l−1 collagen solid content extended to about 45 μm and increased in width in high (>/ = 60 mM) phosphate. Adding sodium sulfate in a 30 mM phosphate buffer to polymerize collagen into a hydrogel at 37 °C had similar effects. On the other hand, adding sodium chloride did not lengthen collagen fibers. The fiber lengths and widths decreased in very high concentrations of all salts. To establish the timescales of the involved polymerization processes, we used traditional turbidity measurements of gelation. Based on the solubility experiments we concluded that over 85% of collagen had precipitated under all experimental conditions. The non-invasive in situ SHG imaging in this study is valuable because it reduces the possibility of artifacts associated with changes to the fragile collagen hydrogels taking place in the conventional electron and optical imaging experiments.


BACKGROUND: The respiratory volume monitor (RVM) (ExSpiron, Respiratory Motion Inc, Watertown, MA) uses thoracic impedance technology to noninvasively and continuously measure tidal volume (TV), respiratory rate (RR), and minute ventilation (MV). We aimed to validate the accuracy of the RVM to assess ventilation in neonates and infants by comparing it to spirometry. METHODS: We used the RVM and Respironics NM3 spirometer (Respironics NM3 Respiratory Profile Monitor, Philips Healthcare, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) to record simultaneous and continuous measurements of MV, TV, and RR. The RVM measurements, with and without external calibration, were compared to the Respironics NM3 spirometer using Bland-Altman analysis. The relative errors (Bland-Altman) between RVM and Respironics NM3 were calculated and used to compute individual patient bias, precision, and accuracy as the mean error, the standard deviation (SD) of the error, and the root mean square error. Bland-Altman limits of agreement (LoA) were computed, and equivalence tests were performed. RESULTS: Forty patients were studied to compare the RVM and Respironics NM3 measurements. The mean difference (ie, bias) for MV was 1.8% with 95% LoA, defined as mean ± 1.96 SD, in the range of −12.1% to 15.7%. Similarly, the mean difference (ie, bias) for TV and RR was 1.2% (95% LoA, −11.0% to 13.5%) and 0.6% (95% LoA, −3.7% to 5.0%), respectively. The mean measurement precision of the RVM relative to the Respironics NM3 for MV, TV, and RR was 10.8%, 8.9%, and 8.4%, respectively. The mean measurement accuracy for MV, TV, and RR across patients was 11.0%, 9.7%, and 7.1%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The data demonstrate that the RVM measures TV and MV in this cohort with an average relative error of 11% when using patient calibration and 16.9% without patient calibration. The average relative error of RR was 7.1%. The RVM provides accurate measurement of RR, TV, and MV in mechanically ventilated neonates and infants.


We study the conditions for the emergence of cooperation in a spatial common-pool resource (CPR) game. We consider three types of agents: cooperators, defectors and enforcers. The role of enforcers is to punish defectors for overharvesting the resource. Agents are located on a circle and they only observe the actions of their two nearest neighbors. Their payoffs are determined by both local and global interactions and they modify their actions by imitating the strategy in their neighborhood with the highest average payoffs on average. Using theoretical and numerical analysis, we find a large diversity of equilibria to be the outcome of the game. In particular, we find conditions for the occurrence of equilibria in which the three strategies coexist. We also derive the stability of these equilibria. Finally, we show that introducing resource dynamics in the system favors the occurrence of cooperative equilibria.


Floods hit Jakarta every year. The three-meter high floods, due to overflowing Ciliwung River, hit Kampung Pulo, Kampung Melayu, Jatinegara, East Jakarta (Wednesday, 13/02/2013). This paper aims to formulate the concept of watershed improvements in Jakarta. The concept promotes environmental innovation systems in the watershed named GPS2 (Green Pipe System State). GPS2 is a series of elements that are connected to one another. GPS2 important element is the principle of circular motion, the principle of water flow, the concept of using a pipe drains, the concept of river water filters that are free of trash, removal of the concept of river water to flow smoothly, the concept of green areas in the watershed, and the concept of with a maximum water absorption by trees and holes in the catchment basin and certain areas are frequently flooded. GPS2 system workflow begins with the screening of garbage on the main river by using circular motion. Garbage is lifted to the river bank whilst filtered water enters into the main channel then undergoes filtration on filter 1 to produce water clean. The water is removed and undergone a screening process again on the filter 2 and the resulting clean water is ready to circulate to the area around GPS2. The water flowed through the pipes supported by trees that also serves to increase the amount of green open space in the city. The water will be stored in the water tank or directly utilized by residents. In addition to filtered water flows, a small stream flowed even more clear to maintain the balance of the ecosystem. GPS2 has enormous benefits such as overcoming the problem of flooding in the capital of Jakarta, helping provide clean water, adding a green open space as well as addressing issues, in particular garbage in the river.


In 2010 Queensland experienced a sudden and significant reduction in road fatalities. While this result occurred despite the absence of any concomitant widespread policy intervention it did, however, occur in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. This paper describes a preliminary investigation of road safety related trends to understand both immediate and long term changes that culminated in the 2010 road toll. Accordingly, routinely collected data were extracted and visually examined by plotting percentage change trends over time. Effects of vehicle and road infrastructure improvements were also estimated. Results showed reductions in travel and general alcohol consumption as well as increases in unemployment that are likely to have affected the road toll. Differential fatality trends were seen across target/risk groups after accounting for exposure, with the greatest changes seen in the alcohol and speed related trends. Relative decreases were also seen for young driver/riders, particularly males, in both exposure and risk. Increasing trends were seen in enforcement activity, vehicle improvements and infrastructure spending. In the absence of statistical modelling lcausalr links could not be determined. Nevertheless, results suggested that the 2010 road toll reduction was due in part, but not solely, to the Global Financial Crisis.


Introduction: Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) are approved for use in the setting of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma with modest benefit. Enzastaurin is an investigational PKCβ inhibitor that has growth inhibitory and pro-apoptotic effects in both B and T-cell lymphoma. Specifically, enzastaurin-induced inhibition of PKC leads to rapid accumulation of β-catenin that triggers c-Jun dependent induction of p73, followed by apoptosis. We investigated the cytotoxicity and mechanisms of cell death of combination enzastaurin and low concentrations of HDACis in B-cell lymphoma and T-cell lymphoma cell lines and primary lymphoma/leukemia cells. Experimental design: Apoptosis was measured by flow cytometry and PARP cleavage. Phospho-GSK3β (S9), pS6, phospho-c-jun (S73) and β-catenin were analyzed by Western blot or quantum-dot immunoflourescence as measures of PKCβ inhibition. Cytotoxicity was determined by WST-1 proliferation assay and colony forming cell (CFC) assays. Results: As expected, enzastaurin induced dephosphorylation of GSK3β and S6RP associated with increased β-catenin expression followed by phosphorylation of c-jun (S73) and PARP cleavage in SU-DHL-6 (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma line) cells. Treatment with low concentrations of suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) showed slight or no changes in studied proteins. Combined enzastaurin/SAHA treatment resulted in strong synergistic apoptosis in two treated germinal center B-cell-like and two activated B-cell-like lymphoma cell lines, two T-cell lymphoma cell lines and four different primary lymphoma/leukemia samples. Similarly, combined enzastaurin/ valproic acid treatment induced synergistic apoptosis in SU-DHL-6 cell line, suggesting the synergy is generalizable to other HDACis. In comparison to the single agent treatment, combined enzastaurin/ SAHA treatment resulted in activation of proapoptotic MAPK, c-jun N-terminal kinase, further increase of phospho c-jun (S73) levels, increased FasL levels, and amplification of PARP cleavage. Quantitative immunofluorescence assay showed a more rapid increase of β-catenin levels with the combination than either agent alone. Furthermore, compared to the low dose SAHA treatment alone, hyperacetylation of histone H3 was detected in samples when Enzastaurin was added in combination with low dose SAHA, likely the consequence of displacement of HDAC by β-catenin. In addition, no change in CFC output in normal bone marrow exposed to this combination was observed. Conclusion: Enzastaurin/ HDACi therapy can synergistically inhibit growth and induce apoptosis in lymphoid malignancy through increased biochemical effects attributed to each agent. These data support further investigation of addition of PKCβ inhibitors to HDACi in order to increase their anti-lymphoma effects. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5411.


This book is the result of the extension and improvement of the article that, with the same title, was published in issue 38 of June 2017 of the digital journal BiD: textos universitaris de biblioteconomia i documentacio. This expansion and improvement has consisted in the addition of new sections that complement and deepen the argumentation already expressed in the article, together with the inclusion of new bibliographical references, as well as the
presence of an epilogue that, as a kind of philosophical and professional reflection, serves as a conclusion. In addition, a prologue has also been included, by the architect Josep Maria Miro i Gellida -responsible for the Nitidus studios- and who is the author of the future Provincial Public Library of Barcelona, which has yet to be built (and which is one of the oldest and most persistent demands of the librarian collective in Catalonia). As with the publication of the article, the book also aims to establish an evolution in the architecture of libraries throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. This evolution
highlights the different transformations that the library buildings have undergone, adapting to different forms, but above all to respond to the different social and cultural realities and also changing characteristics of each period and each historical moment. It proposes an evolution divided into 5 major architectural transformations. For each of these five transformations, one or more paradigmatic libraries from around the world are presented, clearly exemplifying the transformation to which reference is to be made. Each presentation is accompanied by an explanation of its main characteristics in terms of spaces and architecture, to finally argue this decision based on
quotations from external sources and also with its own argumentation. It should be noted that quotations from other languages have been translated into Spanish. The result is a chronological and historical evolution that serves to frame and contextualize, ultimately, the fifth and final current transformation of libraries. The book also includes an extensive bibliography that should serve as a starting point for future and new studies on the subject.


Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy has been used to determine carbon content in steel. The plasma was formed by focusing a Nd:YAG laser on the sample surface. With the use of time-resolved spectroscopy and generation of the plasma in nitrogen atmosphere, a precision of 1.6% and a detection limit of 65 ppm have been obtained. These values are similar to those of other accurate conventional techniques. Matrix effects for the studied steels are reduced to a small slope difference between the calibration curves for stainless and nonstainless steels.


For the past twelve months, members of the #9 team have read about, thought about and discussed how we can help the individuals and the organization that we care about engage in their work tasks in a more effective and healthy way, to remain innovative and agile, without compromising equilibrium and enthusiasm. At many points we have had more questions than answers yet we have learned a great deal. Collectively, the team has read over 75 relevant books and articles. We learned from those who are forging the path of innovation and well-being firsthand both outside of Cornell and inside CUL. Externally we learned from Cornell faculty and from innovators at other institutions. Within CUL, we listened to the comments of approximately 100 employees through a variety of methods. (A resource binder with summary reports and redacted comments from CUL employees will be provided to each LMT member.) This report synthesizes our understanding of the connections between innovation and burnout and makes recommendations for next steps. The team believes we have seen the start of the road toward innovation and engagement, and learned the markers that will help us find our way as we go. We hope that our work to date will inspire you to continue to build and broaden this path. This report is an invitation to join us on this journey of discovery. Like all journeys, this one begins in the imagination.


This study investigates the effects of the Commonwealth of Virginia's ban on direct wine shipments from out-of-state sellers on wine prices and variety available to consumers in the greater McLean, Virginia area. Our results indicate that Virginia's direct shipment ban reduces the varieties of wine available to consumers and prevents consumers from purchasing some premium wines at lower prices online. Using a sample of 83 wines judged to be "highly popular" in Wine and Spirits magazine's annual restaurant poll, we find that 15 percent of wines available online were not available from retail wine stores within 10 miles of McLean during the month the data were collected. The fact that local wine stores may not carry certain wines may result, in part, from other Virginia regulations that affect the structure of the wholesale market. We also find that the lowest quoted online price offered significant cost savings over the lowest local retail price in our survey for many types of wine during the month the data were collected. The extent of any cost savings depends on the price per bottle, the quantity of wine ordered, and the shipping method chosen. For wines costing $20/bottle or more, online purchase of a 12-bottle case could save, on average, 13 percent if shipped via ground. Average savings of up to 21 percent are available on a 12-bottle case of wines costing more than $40/bottle, and purchasers of these wines can save money regardless of the shipping method. Such savings, however, are not consistent for all types of wine; for bottles costing less than $20, consumers would pay an additional 8-83 percent per bottle online. In addition, some individual wines priced below $40 were less expensive in local retail stores.


This study reports on the in vitro antibacterial activity of hydro-distilled essential oil from Wedelia trilobata (L.) Hitchc leaves against Propionibacterium granulosum. The percentage yield of this essential oil via hydrodistillation was 0.21±0.01% (v/w). A total of 112 chemical components present in the essential oil from W. trilobata leaves representing 62% of the total oil were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The main bioactive constituents were monoterpenes, α-pinene (19.5%), α-phellandrene (7.4%), limonene (3.6%), oxazine (3.3%), and β-pinene (3.1%). This essential oil showed the moderate antioxidant capacity of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) compared to the trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity and gallic acid equivalent, and possessed anti-P. granulosum activity from the inhibition zone from the disc diffusion method. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC, 595±206 μg/ml) and minimum bacterial concentration (MBC, 1191±413 μg/ml) values of this essential oil were higher than the MIC (1.30±0.37 μg/ml) and MBC (2.61±0.91 μg/ml) values of commercial clindamycin gel and the MIC (52±18 μg/ml) and MBC (104±36 μg/ml) values of commercial benzoyl peroxide gel. The results provide new information on the hydro-distilled essential oil from W. trilobata leaves, which may be important for developing new alternative anti-acne products.


A cubic kilometer scale neutrino telescope Baikal-GVD is currently under construction in Lake Baikal. Baikal-GVD is designed to detect Cerenkov radiation from products of astrophysical neutrino interactions with Baikal water by a lattice of photodetectors submerged between the depths of 1275 and 730 m. The detector components are mounted on flexible strings and can drift from their initial positions upwards to tens of meters. This introduces positioning uncertainty which translates into a timing error for Cerenkov signal registration. A spatial positioning system has been developed to resolve this issue. In this contribution, we present the status of this system, results of acoustic measurements and an estimate of positioning error for an individual component.


Approximately 12,740 new cases of laryngeal cancer (LC) are diagnosed each year, often resulting in compromises to vital life functions. In particular, LC may be treated via surgical removal of part or all of the larynx (laryngectomy) resulting in major nutrition, respiration, and communication challenges; each which can substantially impact a patient's quality of life (QOL). At this time, there is little research available regarding patients' perceived QOL and preparedness for life after total laryngectomy. To fill this gap, a survey study, asking participants to rate their perceived level of agreement or disagreement with a number of statements regarding QOL and adjustment and preparation for life pre and post-laryngectomy, was initiated. Overall, the findings in this study indicated that respondents were generally satisfied with the education and support they received from health care providers pre and post-laryngectomy. Still, survey responses did indicate that specific aspects of care might benefit from additional improvement including p re and post-procedure counseling and education regarding recovery and stoma and tracheoesophageal puncture care, a team approach to patient care, provision of support to patients when navigating physiological changes post-surgery, and the provision of support for caregivers.


We report a case of malignant nodular hidradenoma in an old woman, who presented with a nodular swelling in the right side of nose near the medial canthus of the right eye. Wide excision of the nodular mass with a clear margin of healthy surrounding tissue was performed along with primary closure. Post operatively, adjuvant radiation therapy was given on a telecobalt machine due to the presence of high risk features. In general, malignant forms of hidradenomas are not usual and treatment strategies should be individualized.


BACKGROUND Odontoid fractures are the most common cervical spine fracture in the geriatric population; however, the treatment of type II odontoid fractures in this age group is controversial. OBJECTIVE To compare the short-term ( 60 years of age with a type II odontoid fracture managed either operatively or nonoperatively. METHODS We performed a systematic review of literature published between January 1, 2000, and February 1, 2015, related to the treatment of type II odontoid fractures in patients >60 years of age. An analysis of short-term mortality, long-term mortality, and the occurrence of complications was performed. RESULTS A total of 452 articles were identified, of which 21 articles with 1233 patients met the inclusion criteria. Short-term mortality (odds ratio, 0.43; 95% confidence interval, 0.30-0.63) and long-term mortality (odds ratio, 0.47; 95% confidence interval, 0.34-0.64) were lower in patients who underwent surgical treatment than in those who had nonsurgical treatment, and there were no significant differences in the rate of complications (odds ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.63-1.63). Surgical approach (posterior vs anterior) showed no significant difference in mortality or complication rate. Similarly, no difference in mortality or complication rate was identified with hard collar or a halo orthosis immobilization. CONCLUSION The current literature suggests that well-selected patients >60 years of age undergoing surgical treatment for a type II odontoid fracture have a decreased risk of short-term and long-term mortality without an increase in the risk of complications.


The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are internationally agreed goals that allow us to determine what humanity, as represented by 193 member states, finds acceptable and desirable. The paper explores how technology can be used to address the SDGs and in particular Smart Information Systems (SIS). SIS, the technologies that build on big data analytics, typically facilitated by AI techniques such as machine learning, are expected to grow in importance and impact. Some of these impacts are likely to be beneficial, notably the growth in efficiency and profits, which will contribute to societal wellbeing. At the same time, there are significant ethical concerns about the consequences of algorithmic biases, job loss, power asymmetries and surveillance, as a result of SIS use. SIS have the potential to exacerbate inequality and further entrench the market dominance of big tech companies, if left uncontrolled. Measuring the impact of SIS on SDGs thus provides a way of assessing whether an SIS or an application of such a technology is acceptable in terms of balancing foreseeable benefits and harms. One possible approach is to use the SDGs as guidelines to determine the ethical nature of SIS implementation. While the idea of using SDGs as a yardstick to measure the acceptability of emerging technologies is conceptually strong, there should be empirical evidence to support such approaches. The paper describes the findings of a set of 6 case studies of SIS across a broad range of application areas, such as smart cities, agriculture, finance, insurance and logistics, explicitly focusing on ethical issues that SIS commonly raise and empirical insights from organisations using these technologies.


Biosensors are often used to detect biochemical species either in the body or from collected samples with high sensitivity and specificity. Those based on piezoelectric sensing methods employ mechanically induced changes to generate an electrical response. Reliable collection and processing of these signals is an important aspect in the design of these systems. To generate the electrical response, specific recognition layers are arranged on piezoelectric substrates in such a way that they interact with target species and so change the properties of the device surface (e.g. the mass or mechanical strain). These changes generate a change in the electrical signal output allowing the device to be used as a biosensor. The characteristics of piezoelectric biosensors are that they are competitively priced, inherently rugged, very sensitive, and intrinsically reliable. In this study, a compound label-free biosensor was developed. This sensor consists of two elements: a Love wave sensor and an electrochemical impedance sensor. The novelty of this device is that it can work in both dry and wet measurement conditions. Whilst the Love wave sensor aspect of the device is sensitive to the mass of adsorbed analytes under both dry and wet conditions with high sensitivity, the sensitivity coefficients in these two conditions may be different due to the different (mechanical) strengths of interaction between the adsorbed analyte and the substrate. The impedance sensor element of the device however is less sensitive to the mechanical strength of the bond between the analyte and the sensing surface and so can be used for in-situ calibration of the number of molecules bound to the sensing surface (with either a strong or weak link): conventional Love wave sensors are not sensitive to material loosely bound to the surface. Thus, a combination of results from these two sensors can provide more information about the analyte and the accuracy of the Love wave sensor measurements in a liquid environment. The device functions with label-free molecules and so special reagents are not needed when carrying out measurements. In addition, the fabrication of the device is not too complicated and it is easy to miniaturise. This may make the system suitable for point-of-care diagnostics and bio-material detection.
The substrate used in these sensors is 64°Y–X lithium niobate (LiNbO3) which is a kind of piezoelectric material. On the substrate, there is a pair of interdigital transducers (IDTs) which are composed of 100 Ti/Au split-finger pairs with a periodicity (λ) of 40μm. The acoustic path length, between both IDTs, is 200λ and the aperture between the IDTs is 100λ. On top of the substrate and IDTs, there is a PMMA guiding layer with an optimised thickness ranging from 1000 nm to 1300 nm. In addition, a gold layer with thickness 100 nm is deposited on the guiding layer to act as the electrodes for the electrochemical impedance sensor.
The biosensor in this study has been used to measure Protein A, IgG, and GABA molecules.
Protein A is often coupled to other molecules such as a fluorescent dye, enzymes, biotin, and colloidal gold or radioactive iodine without affecting the antibody binding site. In addition, the capacity of Protein A to bind antibodies with such high affinity is the driving motivation for its industrial scale use in biologic pharmaceuticals. Therefore, measuring Protein A binding is a useful method with which to verify the function of the biosensor.
IgG is the most abundant antibody isotype found in the circulation. By binding many kinds of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, and fungi, IgG protects the body from infection. Also, IgG can bind with Protein A well so the biosensor here could also measure IgG after a Protein A layer is immobilised on the sensing area.
GABA is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system. It plays an important role in regulating neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system. The conventional method to measure concentrations of GABA under the extracellular conditions is by using liquid chromatography. However, the disadvantages of chromatographic methods are baseline drift and additions of solvent and internal standards. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a simple, rapid and reliable method for direct measurement of GABA, and the sensor here is an attractive choice.
 When the Love wave sensor works in the liquid media, it can only be used to measure the mass of analytes but does not provide information about the conditions of molecules bound with the sensing surface. In contrast, electrochemical impedance sensing based on the diffusion of redox species to the underlying metal electrode can provide real-time monitoring of the surface coverage of bound macromolecular analytes regardless of the mechanical strength of the analyte-substrate bond: the electrochemical impedance measurement is sensitive to the size and extent of the diffusion pathways around the adsorbed macromolecules used by the redox species probe i.e. it is sensitive to the physical area of the surface covered by the macromolecular analyte and not to the mass of material that is sensed through a mechanical coupling effect (as in a Love wave device). Although electrochemical impedance measurements under the dry state are quite common when studying batteries and their redox/discharge properties, these are quite different sorts of systems to the device in this study. Therefore, integrating these two sensors (Love wave sensor and electrochemical impedance sensor) in a single device is a novel concept and should lead to better analytical performance than when each is used on their own. The new type of biosensor developed here therefore has the potential to measure analytes with greater accuracy, higher sensitivity and a lower limit of detection than found when using either a single Love wave sensor or electrochemical impedance sensor alone.


This work presents a new diagnosis method for use in an adaptive analog tester. The tester is able to detect faults in any linear circuit by learning a reference behaviour in a first step, and comparing this behaviour against the output of the circuit under test in a second step. Considering the same basic structure, the diagnosis method consists on injecting probable faults in a mathematical model of the circuit and later comparing its output with the output of the real faulty circuit. This method has been successfully applied to a case study, a biquad filter. Component soft, large, and hard deviations, and faults in operational amplifiers were considered. The results obtained from practical experiments with this analog circuit are discussed in the paper.


Coalition formation is a fundamental problem in multi-agent systems. In characteristic function games (CFGs), each coalition C of agents is assigned a value indicating the joint utility those agents will receive if C is formed. CFGs are an important class of cooperative games; however, determining the optimal coalition structure, partitioning of the agents into a set of coalitions that maximizes the social welfare, currently requires O(3n) time for n agents. In light of the high computational complexity of the coalition structure generation problem, a natural approach is to relax the optimality requirement and attempt to find an approximate solution that is guaranteed to be close to optimal. Unfortunately, it has been shown that guaranteeing a solution within any factor of the optimal requires Ω(2n) time. Thus, the best that can be hoped for is to find an algorithm that returns solutions that are guaranteed to be as close to the optimal as possible, in as close to O(2n) time as possible. This paper contributes to the state-of-the-art by presenting an algorithm that achieves better quality guarantees with lower worst case running times than all currently existing algorithms. Our approach is also the first algorithm to guarantee a constant factor approximation ratio, 1/8, in the optimal time of O(2n. The previous best ratio obtainable in O(2n) was 2/n.


Post-disaster building damage assessment is an important application of remote sensing. The increasing resolution of remote sensing imaging systems and state-of-the-art deep learning networks has facilitated damage assessment. However, most existing methods in the literature concentrate on damage/non-damage classification only in specific disaster types/areas using pre- and post-event images. Furthermore, site visits are inevitable to assess the level of damage to structures. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to utilize deep transfer learning over a pre-trained network and extend it to a damage assessment framework. The network is fine-tuned to identify four different damage levels: non-damage, minor damage, major damage, and collapsed, using only post-event images taken from different disaster types/areas. To evaluate the proposed framework, we carried out three experiments on Hurricane Irma in Sint Maarten, Hurricane Dorian in Abaco Islands, and Woolsey Fire using post-event orthophotos derived from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images. The results of over 80% overall accuracy confirm that with a structured learning scenario, it is possible to use transfer learning on very high-resolution remote sensing images to classify the level of structural damage.


The paper uses two particular formulations of the Gini index to derive two different relative deprivation measures. We then generalize the formulation of these measures following Donaldson and Weymark (1980) and Berrebi and Silber (1985) and show how these generalizations can be considered as two different classes of indexes. An example illustrates how the use of the two classes of indexes can lead to different results in empirical applications.


It was found by Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 that the Global Merged Interaction Region (GMIR) still has effects on cosmic-ray transport in the heliosheath. The GMIR produced by the intense solar activities of 2005 September propagated into the heliosheath in 2006, causing several decreases in the cosmic-ray flux at Voyager 1. Motivated by these observations, we investigate cosmic-ray modulation by the GMIR in the heliosheath using a three-dimensional Galactic cosmic-ray modulation code that includes the drift effect, termination shock, and a propagating GMIR. The simulation reproduces all major modulation features found by previous cosmic-ray observations in the supersonic solar wind region. However, when the simulation is made for the heliosheath region during a passage of the GMIR, the cosmic-ray modulation shows a new feature. The cosmic-ray fluxes at many locations in the heliosheath region experience two distinguished decreases. One coincides with the GMIR's arrival at the termination shock, the other with its arrival at the observing points. Based on this feature, we use the Voyager observations of the 2006 GMIR modulation events to derive the radial distance of the termination shock of ∼91 AU and the GMIR shock propagation speed inside the heliosheath of ∼172 km s-1 for this event.


We analyze the problem of optimal public investment when government purchases of productive capital assets are financed through income taxes. Virtually all previous work in this literature has prescribed a share of public investment in GDP that is both constant and time consistent. This paper shows that this straightforward prescription derives from specific assumptions relating to preferences and technology. In a more general framework, the optimal policy is neither constant nor time consistent. With full commitment, a policymaker will typically choose a tax rate, or alternatively a share of public investment, that increases over time. He does not exploit the first-period non-distortionary tax on capital but instead delays taxation in order to generate a "take-off" phase with higher consumption and higher private investment. When optimal policy is constrained to be time consistent, long-run tax rates surprisingly emerge to be lower than under the Ramsey plan. Therefore, the inability to commit to future policy implies too little public investment in the long run. Finally, in contrast to previous work, we find that the efficient share of public investment in GDP depends importantly on the intertemporal elasticity of substitution, capital depreciation rates, and the growth rates of productivity and population.


Bortezomib (PS-341), a specific proteasome inhibitor, exhibits antitumor activity against a wide range of malignancies. However, the molecular mechanisms by which bortezomib causes apoptosis selectively in cancer cells still remain unclear. Ras signaling is involved in multiple cellular processes, including cell cycle progression, differentiation, and apoptosis, and can either promote or inhibit apoptosis depending on the type of apoptotic stimuli and the cell model. Here, we investigated the role of K-ras signaling in bortezomib-induced apoptosis. We found that K-ras-transformed cells were more susceptible to bortezomib-induced apoptosis than were nontransformed cells and that bortezomib-induced apoptosis was mainly caspase dependent in K-ras-transformed cells. We also found that mammalian sterile20-like kinase 1 (MST1) was activated by bortezomib in K-ras-transformed cells and K-ras-mutated cancer cells. Treatment of K-ras-transformed cells with bortezomib resulted in translocation of MST1 from cytoplasm into the nucleus and an increase of phosphorylated histone H2B and histone H2AX. Moreover, pretreatment with leptomycin B, an inhibitor of the nuclear export signal receptor, dramatically enhanced bortezomib-mediated MST1 activation, phosphorylation of histones H2B and H2AX, and apoptosis induction in K-ras-transformed cells. Knockdown of MST1 expression by small interfering RNA diminished bortezomib-induced apoptosis or caspase-3 activation. Our data suggested that bortezomib may be useful for treatment of K-ras-mutated cancer cells, and MST1 is one of the mediators for bortezomib-induced apoptosis in K-ras-transformed cells.


The article analyses problems in the agricultural development of non-professional agricultural production villages of Fenghua City. Firstly, low technical and scientific content of production and low standardization level. Secondly, scattered sales and non-fixed marketing channels. Thirdly, difficulties in group cooperation of farm crops with special benefits. Fourthly, imperfect service of rural committees of non-professional agricultural production villages in Fenghua City. A new rural cooperative is to be founded to help villagers in non-professional agricultural production villages of Fenghua City to be engaged in agricultural production and management activities, and to improve their overall incomes. On the one hand, a perfect and scientific cooperative operating system is to be built specifically including three functions. Firstly, fully playing the leading and bridging role of rural primary organizations. Seconding, fully carrying out the pushing role of capable persons in the administrative village. Lastly, fully playing the role of active participation and cooperation of villagers. On the other hand, constructions of normalization, standardization and brand orientation with special emphasis should be achieved under the guidance of local governments. The key of building a cooperative of non-professional agricultural production villages in Fenghua City is discussed. One is that rural cadres should have strong awareness of serving the people. The other is that governments at all levels should energetically support the establishment and management of rural cooperatives.


Ian Almond, Two Faiths, One Banner: When Muslims Marched with Christians across Europe's Battlegrounds. 246 pp., illus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN-13 978-0674033979. $29.95. Candan Badem, The Ottoman Crimean War (1853-1856). 432 pp., illus. Leiden: Brill, 2010. ISBN-13 978-9004182055. $229.00. Ol'ga Vasil'evna Didukh, Donskie kazaki v Krymskoi voine 1853-1856 gg. (Don Cossacks in the Crimean War, 1853-1856). 173 pp., illus. Moscow: VINITI, 2007. ISBN-13 978-5785604940. Orlando Figes, The Crimean War: A History. 540 pp., illus. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2011. ISBN-13 978-0805074604. $35.00. Iuliia Aleksandrovna Naumova, Ranenie, bolezn' i smert': Russkaia meditsinskaia sluzhba v Krymskuiu voinu, 1853-1856 gg. (Injury, Disease, and Death: Russian Medical Service in the Crimean War, 1853-56). 314 pp., illus. Moscow: Regnum, 2010. ISBN-13 978-5918870020. A. D. Panesh, Zapadnaia Cherkesiia v sisteme vzaimodeistviia Rossii s Turtsiei, Angliei, i imamatom Shamilia v XIX v. (do 1864) (Western Circassia in the System of Russian Interaction with Turkey, England, and Imam Shamil in the 20th Century [until 1864]). 240 pp. Maikop: Adygeiskii respublikanskii institut gumanitarnykh issledovanii im. T. M. Kerasheva, 2007. ISBN-13 978-5889410355. Until recently, the Crimean War (1853-56) has been much neglected in Russian history. Few English-language monographs devoted themselves to the Russian Crimean War. (1) The Soviet historian Evgenii Viktorovich Tarle wrote the last major Russian monograph on the topic during World War II. (2) As opposed to World War I and World War II, in which the tragedy of the eastern front is fairly well documented in the literature, the British experience dominates the general narrative of the Crimean War. (3) The 150th anniversary of the Crimean War has inspired new interest, however, among Russian area scholars. Although much of this work is popular or commemorative in nature, the books under review here offer a variety of innovative approaches to the war and make substantial contributions to the field. (4) The Crimean War was a Russo-Turkish War first and a European war second--or to borrow from David Goldfrank, the Crimean War consisted of "two wars and a diplomatic struggle," the latter referring to Austria's and Prussia's involvement from the sidelines. (5) Russia and the Ottoman Empire initially went to war in October 1853 over Russia's rights to intervene in the affairs of Orthodox Christians living in Ottoman territory. France and Britain entered in March 1854, after the Russian--Ottoman conflict had clearly turned in Russia's favor. The war had multiple fronts in the Danubian Principalities, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the White Sea, and the Pacific and ended with an Ottoman defeat in Kars in November 1856. (6) With Kars, Winfried Baumgart notes, Russia "controlled more square miles of enemy territory than did the sea powers." In Baumgart's reading of the treaty and preceding events, therefore, Russia came to the Peace of Paris not as the vanquished but as an equal participant. (7) The war heralded Russia's transition into the modern era by exposing class tensions and introducing technological and scientific advancements. As the most violent episode of the Eastern Question in the 19th century, it profoundly influenced the history of the Black Sea region, the Caucasus, and the Balkan Peninsula. After the Crimean War, Russia and the Ottoman empires swapped hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Christian refugees, in what Brian Williams has called the "Great Retreat" of Muslims from Europe. (8) Whether due to battles, population exchanges, or nationalist movements caused by the war, the present-day states of Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, and regions such as Crimea and the Caucasus all changed in small or large ways due to this conflict. Today, historians of these regions are investigating the Crimean War as a transformative event. …


This paper considers the proposed settlement agreement between Google and the Authors Guild relating to Google Book Search. Google boldly launched Google Book Search in pursuing its goal of organizing the world's information. Even though Google was sensitive to copyright values, the service relied on mass copying and thus Google undertook a substantial legal risk in setting up the service. That risk was realized with the lawsuits by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. The October, 2008 settlement agreement for those suits will create an important new copyright collective and will legitimate broad-scale online access to United States books registered before early January, 2009.The settlement agreement is exceeding complex but I have focused on three issues that raise antitrust and competition policy concerns. First, the agreement calls for Google to act as agent for rights holders in setting the price of online access to consumers. Google is tasked with developing a pricing algorithm that will maximize revenues for each of those works. Direct competition among rights holders would push prices towards some measure of costs and would not be designed to maximize revenues. As I think that that level of direct coordination of prices is unlikely to mimic what would result in competition, I have real doubts about whether the consumer access pricing provision would survive a challenge under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.Second, and much more centrally to the settlement agreement, the opt out class action will make it possible for Google to include orphan works in its book search service. Orphan works are works as to which the rightsholder can't be identified or found. That means that a firm like Google can't contract with an orphan holder directly to include his or her work in the service and that would result in large numbers of missing works. The opt out mechanism - which shifts the default from copyright's usual out to the class action's in - brings these works into the settlement.But the settlement agreement also creates market power through this mechanism. Absent the lawsuit and the settlement, active rights holders could contract directly with Google, but it is hard to get large-scale contracting to take place and there is, again, no way to contract with orphan holders. The opt out class action then is the vehicle for large-scale collective action by active rights holders. Active rights holders have little incentive to compete with themselves by granting multiple licenses of their works or of the orphan works. Plus under the terms of the settlement agreement, active rights holders benefit directly from the revenues attributable to orphan works used in GBS.We can mitigate the market power that will otherwise arise through the settlement by expanding the number of rights licenses available under the settlement agreement. Qualified firms should have the power to embrace the going-forward provisions of the settlement agreement. We typically find it hard to control prices directly and instead look to foster competition to control prices. Non-profits are unlikely to match up well with the overall terms of the settlement agreement, which is a share-the-revenues deal. But we should take the additional step of unbundling the orphan works deal from the overall settlement agreement and create a separate license to use those works. All of that will undoubtedly add more complexity to what is already a large piece of work, and it may make sense to push out the new licenses to the future. That would mean ensuring now that the court retains jurisdiction to do that and/or giving the new Registry created in the settlement the power to do this sort of licensing.Third, there is a risk that approval by the court of the settlement could cause antitrust immunities to attach to the arrangements created by the settlement agreement. As it is highly unlikely that the fairness hearing will undertake a meaningful antitrust analysis of those arrangements, if the district court approves the settlement, the court should include a clause - call this a no Noerr clause - in the order approving the settlement providing that no antitrust immunities attach from the court's approval.


Abstract. A global vertically resolved aerosol data set covering more than 10 years of observations at more than 20 measurement sites distributed from 63° N to 52° S and 72° W to 124° E has been achieved within the Raman and polarization lidar network PollyNET. This network consists of portable, remote-controlled multiwavelength-polarization-Raman lidars (Polly) for automated and continuous 24/7 observations of clouds and aerosols. PollyNET is an independent, voluntary, and scientific network. All Polly lidars feature a standardized instrument design with different capabilities ranging from single wavelength to multiwavelength systems, and now apply unified calibration, quality control, and data analysis. The observations are processed in near-real time without manual intervention, and are presented online at http://polly.tropos.de/ . The paper gives an overview of the observations on four continents and two research vessels obtained with eight Polly systems. The specific aerosol types at these locations (mineral dust, smoke, dust-smoke and other dusty mixtures, urban haze, and volcanic ash) are identified by their Angstrom exponent, lidar ratio, and depolarization ratio. The vertical aerosol distribution at the PollyNET locations is discussed on the basis of more than 55 000 automatically retrieved 30 min particle backscatter coefficient profiles at 532 nm as this operating wavelength is available for all Polly lidar systems. A seasonal analysis of measurements at selected sites revealed typical and extraordinary aerosol conditions as well as seasonal differences. These studies show the potential of PollyNET to support the establishment of a global aerosol climatology that covers the entire troposphere.


1. The response of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25-(OH)D] to artificial ultraviolet irradiation applied to a known area of dorsal skin was investigated in 18 subjects, small quantities of ultraviolet energy being used. Ultraviolet irradiation was administered on days, 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15 and 17, a total of 15 min being delivered over this time. In 15 subjects plasma 25-(OH)D showed a significant increase after a total of 15 min exposure but three subjects failed to demonstrate any increment. Plasma 25-(OH)D did not increase in any subject after 2·5 min of ultraviolet irradiation (irradiation on days 1 and 3). 2. Responses were compared in young and old, in male and female and in normal and osteomalacic subjects. No significant difference in response was found between these groups. 3. When plasma volume was taken into account, it was possible to calculate the increase in nmol of plasma 25-(OH)D/cm 2 skin irradiated. This was 0·024 nmol/cm 2 with no sex difference, over the 17 days of irradiation. 4. Exposure to ultraviolet irradiation over a small area of dorsal skin led to a rapid rise of plasma 25-(OH)D in most subjects with a subsequent plateau in subjects studied for up to 15 min total exposure. This contrasted with the prolonged increase in plasma 25-(OH)D continuing over several weeks in response to whole-body ultraviolet irradiation. This may indicate that cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D is rapid but limited, and that the considerable rise in plasma 25-(OH)D during whole-body irradiation may originate from vitamin D synthesized during the first few exposures.


In this paper we discuss the determinants which contribute to outbound tourism expenditures. The aim is to show whether and how different socio-economic factors in countries of origin are responsible for the demand, to spent money for tourist activities in foreign countries. While we are able to find a strict robust positive impact of all economic factors like the per capita income and the openness to trade on the tourism expenditures per capita as well as on the tourism expenditure per GDP, most of the sociological factors show rather a weak significance. However, there seems to be somewhat like a corporate openness to tourism as countries which are able to attract high inbound tourism receipts per capita also having high outbound tourism expenditures per capita as well. A further important finding is that people in democratic countries with a high level of civil rights spend a higher share of income for traveling abroad. Our results give us an indirect and encouraging hint that it makes sense for developing countries to sustainable invest in the tourism sector as an increasing willingness to pay for outbound tourism goes hand in hand with an increasing per capita income in the world.


Vetiver [ Chrysopogon zizanioides (L.) Roberty syn. Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash] commonly known as khas-khas , khas, khus-khus or khus grass belongs to the family Poaceae. The roots of this grass on steam distillation yield an essential oil mainly consisting of sesquiterpenes (3-4 %), sesquiterpenols (18-25 %) and sesquiterpenones (7-8 %). Among these, the major economically important active compounds are khusimol, α-vetivone and β-vetivone which constitute about 35 % of oil. The commercial grades, viz. Dharini ,  Gulabi and  Kesari and Pusa Hybrid-7, Hybrid-8, Sugandha, KH-8, KH-40, are available in North India and  South India, respectively for commercial cultivation. The insecticidal, antimicrobial, herbicidal and antioxidant activities of essential oil and its components like vetivone, zizanal, epizizanal and nootkatone are well known. This review is an effort to collect all the information regarding chemical composition and biological activities of vetiver oil.


Public sector information technology projects are important for delivering government policy, and one reason for their failure is lack of effective engagement between stakeholders. But current literature is unclear on what engagement is. The study examined engagement in five cases of successful project development, collecting data though documentation and semi structured interviews with internal clients and external IT consultants. Thematic and template analysis was used. Findings identified six interacting components of engagement to be three conditions of environment, participants and expertise that afford three interacting and cycling behaviours of sharing, sense making and adapting. The research thus contributes an original model of engaged behaviour that draws attention to components that help enactment of engagement between participants on IT projects.


Vitamin D deficiency is implicated in several medical conditions and has several beneficial physiological effects. The adequate daily intake of vitamin D is between 2000-4000 IU. Nowadays, vitamin D deficiency became a phenomenon among people in Taif. Therefore, to what extent vitamin D deficiency is associated with epidemics and immune system efficiency. A total of 101 (59 males) and (42 females) were recruited in this study. Sera were extracted on the first day to estimate vitamin D3, immunoglobulins, cytokines, complement proteins, rheumatoid factor and C-reactive protein as a baseline. Participants were given 4000 IU/day of vitamin D3 orally for twenty days. On the twentieth day, sera were extracted for same parameters evaluation. After twenty days of supplementation serum vitamin D3 levels increased by approximately four folds in most subjects. This increment was accompanied with a significant IgM levels increase (31% in females) and (28% in males) in which P values <0.05 corresponding to baseline, and a slight increase in IgA, C4 and C3. Inversely, serum levels of IgG significantly decreased in female subjects in which p value was 0.05< corresponding to baseline. Moreover, both interleukine-7 and tumour necrosis factor-α levels decreased for about 50% in both female and male participants. In conclusion, twenty days of 4000 IU/day of oral vitamin D3 supplementation can change vitamin D status from deficient to normal levels in individuals that assumed to be healthy. Vitamin D improves both innate and adaptive immunity and can prevent autoimmune reaction, and might serve as anti-inflammatory agent.


We have previously isolated epidermal growth factor (EGF)-responsive multipotent progenitor cells from the early postnatal rodent cerebral cortex independent of generative zones. In this study we have examined the mechanisms regulating the generation of differentiated oligodendrocytes (OLs) from these multipotent cells. Although cultures of primary cortical OL progenitor cells propagated at clonal density spontaneously gave rise to differentiated OLs in defined medium, cultures of multipotent progenitors isolated from identical regions supported the elaboration of OL progenitors but not differentiated OLs. These observations indicate that the terminal maturation of OL progenitors derived from multipotent cells is dependent on signals present within the cellular environment. Application of cytokines such as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), or neurotrophin 3 (NT3) to clonal density cultures of cortical multipotent progenitors increased the proportion of OL progenitors but failed to support the generation of differentiated OLs. By contrast, application of factors that activate gp130/leukemia inhibitory factor β (LIFβ) heterodimeric receptors, such as ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), activated signal transducers and activators of transcription-3 in these OL progenitor cells and promoted the generation of differentiated OLs. Clonal analysis also demonstrated that CNTF directly targets OL progenitors derived from the multipotent cells. These observations suggest that two distinct progenitor cell pathways contribute to the generation of differentiated OLs during postnatal cortical gliogenesis. Although oligodendroglial maturation of classical OL progenitor cells is driven by cell autonomous mechanisms, our findings demonstrate that the generation of differentiated OLs from cortical multipotent progenitor cells is dependent on environmental cues, including activation of gp130/LIFβ receptors.


The goal of this paper was to explore the type of attitudes with regards to the ABC-model consumer has towards familiar brands that use copycatting as a persuasion attempt. This was done in order to highlight the phenomena and to determine if brand familiarity affects consumers' attitudes towards copycats. A qualitative research methodology was chosen and 25 interviews were conducted with the sample gathered from students at Linnaeus University. It was found that brand familiarity affects the consumers' attitudes to some extent when it comes to more familiar companies copying less familiar companies. Some participants were living under the impression that it was the less familiar company that was the copycat and formed their attitudes against that company based on that. This paper highlights the unfair advantage more familiar companies obtain when copycatting less familiar companies. It was shown that brand familiarity works in the favour for the more familiar company even though they are using a questionable method of persuading the consumer into buying their products. It was found that the participants followed the steps of the "experimental hierarchy of effects" in the ABC-theory regarding the formation of attitudes. Due to hedonic motivations, consumers showed to care less about the negative feelings about the familiar company copycatting. The strong emotional ties with the familiar brand had an effect on the attitude towards the familiar brand. Towards the end of this thesis, recommendations & managerial implications were presented. The consumers of 7xKex and 6xKex were very emotionally driven and managers should realize that not all brands reach that top-of-mind familiarity in Sweden. Managers need to be aware of this and avoid getting tempted by copycat behaviour.


The growth of employment has become a matter of grave concern in India for the past two decades. This paper – based on the unit-level data of the 61st and 66th quinquennial rounds on employment and unemployment released by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2005 and 2010, respectively – pinpoints some of the emerging issues and dynamics in various segments of the Indian labour market. It finds that, notwithstanding India's average annual growth of more than 8% and compound annual population growth of 1.4% between 2004/05 and 2009/10, the workforce grew at a snail's pace, hovering around 0.03% per annum. What is striking is that, considering the workforce by sex, about 21 million female workers, approximately equivalent to the population of Australia, were out of the workforce between 2004/05 and 2009/10. Interestingly, segregating the workforce by rural–urban sector, it would seem that, contrary to a quantum leap of 13 million in the rural male workforce, the rural female workforce recorded a decline of 19 million during the same period, of which scheduled tribe, scheduled caste and other backward class combined to add up to a significant proportion. Interestingly, a precipitous increase in the number of females attending educational institutions and domestic duties accounted for a large-scale decline in the female workforce. The findings presented in this paper point to the need for a concerted effort to mitigate widening gender disparity and shrinkage of the female work participation rate in India.


The Influence of Different Apple Based Supplements on the Intestinal Microbiota of Humans. Background and objective: The present project is part of the large ISAFRUIT project, where one of the objectives is to identify effects of apple and apple product on parameters related to gut health. In a previous rat study we observed changes in the intestinal microbiota of rats fed whole apples, pomace or apple pectin ([1], and we were interested in finding out if the same effect can be observed in humans. Method: The study was conducted as a randomized, controlled 5 x 28 days cross-over study with 24 healthy persons of both genders. The persons were following a pectin- and polyphenol free restriction diet during the control period, and in the four other periods it was supplied with four different apple based supplements. Between the diets there was a 2-week wash-out period still on the restriction diet. The four apple based supplements were: 1) whole apples, 2) clear apple juice (pectin-free), 3) cloudy juice (apple juice with pulp), and 4) pomace (press cake from the cloudy juice production process). Fecal samples were taken before and after each diet period. After DNA extraction, Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) with universal primers and specific primers for bifidobacteria and Clostridium cluster XIVa was performed. Bands differing between the periods were sequenced, and qPCR was performed to verify the changes observed by DGGE. Results: Changes in the microbiota was observed by DGGE in persons consuming whole apples and pomace. In contrast, the two juice supplements did not show any effect on the microbiota by DGGE. Conclusion: Consumption of whole apples or pomace is able to modify the intestinal microbiota of humans.


Backgrounds and Objectives: As industries are developed, human uses of the energy in the huge scale and release the loss energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation such as infrared into the environment, that it could affect on the man health. According to the available standards, if the IR-A could be controlled and consequently health of workers could be provided, it would reduce the total industrial expenses. Materials and Methods: To control this radiation, it is necessary to measure it and compare the results with the available standards. Hence, in this study, we try to measure this radiation in a unit of industy. For this porpuse the unit of steel company that settled in southeast of ahvaz is selected. Results: The determinations were done every month during one year in all selected units. These results are compared with the available standards, and finally the differences are statistically evaluated by some suitable statistical methods. For measuring the dispersal of ray in the diffrent height. bat hard data compared with ACGIH standard and SPSS software is used for changing Radiation. Conclusion: The average amount of IR-A at this industrial unit is 1.18 mW/cm2 which is more than the standard value in such industries ,and based on our fouding the natural solar source of this radiation increases such effects in out-door work places. Key word: Infrared Radiation, Steel Industries, Standards of Radiation *Corresponding Author: email@example.com Tel: +98 916 6020900 Fax: + 98 611 3361544 Iran. J. Health & Environ., 2009, Vol. 2, N0. 3 D ow nl oa de d fr om ij he .tu m s. ac .ir a t 2 0: 27 IR S T o n M on da y D ec em be r 17 th 2 01 8


Geographically distributed software development projects have been made possible by rapid developments primarily within the data communication area. A number of companies recognize that distributed collaboration has great potential for the near future. The article describes the empirical study of a cooperative student project located at two different geographical sites. The project was carried out at two universities: one in Sweden and one in Finland. The initial goals were to give the students the opportunity to learn about the practical aspects of cooperation between two geographically separate institutions and to study specific problems anticipated by the teachers with regard to communication, coordination, language, culture, requirements' handling, testing, and bug fixing. The article focuses on communication and coordination within the cooperative project, as these were identified as the most significant problem areas. We also thought that these areas were the most interesting and the ones most likely to lead to improvements. The article not only describes our findings but also gives hints about what to think about when running similar projects, both with respect to project related issues and teaching issues.


In the last few years, deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) has been used for the treatment of depressive disorders, which affect a broad category of people, from adolescents to aging people. To facilitate its clinical application, particular shapes of coils, including the so-called Hesed coils, were designed. Given their increasing demand and the lack of studies which accurately characterize their use, this paper aims to provide a picture of the distribution of the induced electric field in four realistic human models of different ages and gender. In detail, the electric field distributions were calculated by using numerical techniques in the brain structures potentially involved in the progression of the disease and were quantified in terms of both amplitude levels and focusing power of the distribution. The results highlight how the chosen Hesed coil (H7 coil) is able to induce the maxima levels of E mainly in the prefrontal cortex, particularly for the younger model. Moreover, growing levels of induced electric fields with age were found by going in deep in the brain, as well as a major capability to penetrate in the deepest brain structures with an electric field higher than 50%, 70%, and 90% of the peak found in the cortex.


Abstract The interaction between moisture and the macromolecular wood tissue is of critical importance to wood properties. In this context, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is very promising as this method could deliver molecular information on the submillimeter scale (i.e., along concentration gradients) about both free and adsorbed water and the cell wall polymers. In the present study, it is demonstrated for the first time that wood containing adsorbed heavy water (2H2O) can be studied by MRI based on separated images due to water (2H MRI) and cell wall polymers (1H MRI). Data confirm that in specimens equilibrated at controlled humidity there is a direct correlation between bound water content and relative density of the polymers in wood tissue; there is a strong variation across annual rings.


This paper presents an overview of a proposed framework for improving the quality of conceptual models developed in notations derived from UML. To this aim, wellness properties of a UML model are described shortly. Through a case study, we show that an ad hoc inspection process in accordance with this framework can be defined and performed depending on the conceptual modeling notation and typical real models. This study showed us that the application of the defined inspection process, which adopts concepts and properties available for formally defined notations, revealed many non trivial fallacies in models especially in derived activity diagrams.


A proof by pointing user interface component allows a user to direct the course of a proof assistant by selecting terms with a mouse. Such a gesture is interpreted as a high-level tactical which triggers a sequence of low-level basic commands for the proof engine. The algorithm inherently relies on a structure-conscious environment; as a novelty we show how proof-by-pointing may easily be integrated into an interface without a structure editor. We discuss in detail the use of nested selectable text regions for user interaction, the modifications necessary to the proof-engine output, and the algorithm for interpreting selections as proof commands, with particular reference to a concrete implementation using XEmacs and LEGO.


Objective Self-rated health is a powerful predictor of long-term health and mortality, hence the importance of a better understanding of its biological determinants. Previous studies have shown that low-grade inflammation is associated with poor self-rated health in clinical and healthy populations, but the evidence is sparse in men and completely lacking for men in late adolescence. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between low-grade inflammation and self-rated health among conscripts. It was hypothesised that high levels of inflammatory factors would be associated with poor self-rated health. Design Data from 49 321 men (18–21 years) conscripted for military service in 1969 and 1970 were used. Inflammation had been measured through erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Self-rated health had been assessed on a five-point scale, and was dichotomised into Good ('Very good'/'Good'/'Fair') versus Poor ('Poor'/'Very poor'). Data from 43 110 conscripts with normal levels of ESR, and who reported self-rated health remained after exclusion of those with ESR <1 and >11 mm/h. Associations were calculated using logistic regression analyses. Adjustments were made for body mass index, socioeconomic position, inflammatory disease, emotion regulation, smoking, risky use of alcohol and physical activity. Results High levels of ESR were associated with higher odds for poor self-rated health (OR: 1.077 for each unit mm/h increase in ESR, 95% CI 1.049 to 1.105). Conclusions The present study shows for the first time a significant association between a marker of inflammation and self-rated health in late adolescent men, adding to evidence of an association between low-grade inflammation and subjective health perception also in men, as previously demonstrated in women. Further support for inflammation as part of a general psychobiological process that underpins subjective health perception is hereby provided.


BACKGROUND
Diets reduced or low in carbohydrates are becoming increasingly popular. The replacement foods and their accompanying nutrients determine the health effects of such diets. However, little is known about the dietary intake of people consuming reduced or low carbohydrate diets.

METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, the dietary and nutrient intake of individuals aged 16-75 years consuming less than 40% of energy from carbohydrate (n = 430) was compared with individuals consuming equal to or more than 40% energy from carbohydrate (n = 1833) using the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey.

RESULTS
Those consuming less than 40% of total energy from carbohydrate reported a higher consumption of red and processed meat, butter, oily fish and vegetables, as well as a lower consumption of soft drinks and pulses, than those with a normal carbohydrate intake. After adjusting for socio-economic status, only red meat intake was different between the groups, and reached the maximum recommended daily intake daily intake. There were no significant differences in micronutrient intakes between the groups, although magnesium, selenium and potassium, along with fibre, were lower than recommended amounts across the cohort.

CONCLUSIONS
Individuals consuming reduced or low carbohydrate diets could benefit from replacing some red meats with white meats and vegetable sources of protein, and increasing vegetable intake.


Purpose: Radiosurgery plays an important role in treating patients with intraocular tumor and retained visual function aiming at organ-conservation. Gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery (GKRS) provides a relatively non-invasive and less time-consuming procedure for treating patients with choroidal melanoma comparing with plaque brachytherapy. It also has the potential radiosurgery to provide effective treatment for other ophthalmologic indication. We presented a new treatment protocol using GKRS to treat patient with intraocular tumor and evaluated the safety and precision of GKRS as a primary treatment for intraocular tumor.Methods: Two patients with uveal melanoma and one patient with breast cancer orbital metastasis treated with the Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion stereotactic radiosurgery in our hospital. Retrobulbar anesthesia following fixation of the treated eye by suturing two extraocular muscles to the stereotactic frame were performed in order to immobilize the eye in the whole treatment procedure. The dose to the tumor margin was 25-30 Gy prescribed at 50-55% isodose line. Contrast-enhanced MRI was used for Gamma Plan dose planning. CT scans were done after eye fixation, immediate before and after the GKRS to confirm the accuracy of tumor localization. We compared tumor volume, tumor and lens gravity point deviation, and tumor coverage in the 3 sets of CT scans to check the precision of immobilization and eye fixation.Results: The eye movement analysis revealed that the gravity point coordination deviation of the tumor and lens between CT-1 and CT-2, or CT-1 and CT-3 was less than 0.120 mm. At least 95% of the tumor volume was covered by the prescription dose in the 3 sets of CT image. After GKRS, tumor shrinkage and serous retinal detachments disappearance were noted by ophthalmoscopy and orbital MRI in two patients. No major complication was found during follow up.Conclusion: GKRS using our treatment protocol is a relatively non-invasive, organconserving, and less time-consuming single fraction treatment for intraocular tumor. Our eye fixation method reveals high accuracy. Larger study with long term follow up is needed to evaluate the dose response result of the patients.


From the 1930s to the early 1960s civil rights law was made primarily through constitutional litigation. Before Rosa Parks could ignite a Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Supreme Court had to strike down the Alabama law which made segregated bus service required by law; before Martin Luther King could march on Selma to register voters, the Supreme Court had to find unconstitutional the Southern Democratic Party's exclusion of African-Americans; and before the March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Supreme Court had to strike down the laws allowing for the segregation of public graduate schools, colleges, high schools, and grade schools. Making Civil Rights Law provides a chronological narrative history of the legal struggle, led by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, that preceded the political battles for civil rights. Drawing on interviews with Thurgood Marshall and other NAACP lawyers, as well as new information about the private deliberations of the Supreme Court, Tushnet tells the dramatic story of how the NAACP Legal Defense Fund led the Court to use the Constitution as an instrument of liberty and justice for all African-Americans. He also offers new insights into how the justices argued among themselves about the historic changes they were to make in American society. Making Civil Rights Law provides an overall picture of the forces involved in civil rights litigation, bringing clarity to the legal reasoning that animated this "Constitutional revolution", and showing how the slow development of doctrine and precedent reflected the overall legal strategy of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP.


Mohs surgery is the current gold standard to treat large, aggressive or high-risk non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) cases. While Mohs surgery is an effective treatment, the procedure is time-consuming and expensive for physicians as well as burdensome for patients as they wait for frozen section histology. Our group has recently demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy using a noninvasive "spectral biopsy" (combination of diffuse reflectance (DRS), fluorescence (FS) and Raman spectroscopy (RS)) to classify NMSC vs. normal lesion in a screening setting of intact tissue. Here, we examine the sensitivity of spectral biopsy to pathology in excised Mohs sections. The system is designed with three modalities integrated into one fiber probe, which is utilized to measure DRS, FS, and RS of freshly excised skin from patients with various NMSC pathologies including basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), where each measurement location is correlated to histopathology. The spectral biopsy provides complimentary physiological information including the reduced scattering coefficient, hemoglobin content and oxygen saturation from DRS, NADH and collagen contribution from FS and information regarding multiple proteins and lipids from RS. We then apply logistic regression model to the extracted physiological parameters to classify NMSC vs. normal tissue. The results on the excised tissue are generally consistent with in vivo measurements showing decreased scattering within the tumor and reduced fluorescence. Due to the high sensitivity of RS to lipids, subcutaneous fat often dominates the RS signal. This pilot study demonstrates the potential for a spectral biopsy to classify NMSC vs. normal tissue, indicating the opportunity to guide Mohs excisions.


In 2000, in an effort to encourage older individuals to continue to work, Congress removed the Social Security earnings test, which beneficiaries view as a tax on benefits, for beneficiaries who attained the Normal Retirement Age. Previous analysis on the effects of the Social Security earnings test has not addressed the effect on women, who are a significant proportion of all benefit types – comprising 57 percent of all beneficiaries over 62, 49 percent of primary beneficiaries, and 99 percent of spousal beneficiaries. After the removal of the earnings test, female primary beneficiaries increase average earnings and labor force participation. Female spousal beneficiaries, however, do not increase their average earnings or labor force participation. In addition, the removal of the earnings test also encourages all women to claim benefits at an earlier age. As suggested by Gruber and Orszag (2003), the incentive to claim benefits at a younger age may have an effect on the welfare of Social Security beneficiaries, possibly increasing the poverty among older individuals.


The use of Smart Card Technology in the construction industry is untested. This thesis presents the study of framework for using smart card technology as a new means to reduce cost and improve productivity for construction companies. The purpose of this research is to investigate the applicability of smart card in construction sector and explore the potential applications of smart card for timesheet, labor payment, schedule update and job site access control. A smart card questionnaire was conducted to obtain input from construction senior managers and executives regarding the prospect of employing smart card in the industry. In addition, this research identified the potential applications of smart card with the most suitable infrastructure to the construction environment and the capability of card technology to mechanize the current paper-based timesheet and manual labor payment practice. This thesis presents also a proposed implementation process of the Construction Labor Smart Card (CLSC) and its labor payment application along with a cost comparison analysis between paper-based and smart card-based timesheets.


Effects of Ancient and Modern, Avoidant and Approach Stimuli on Visual Search Task Reaction Times The threat superiority effect refers to faster and more accurate detection of fearful stimuli. This has been explained as evidence for evolution, as ancient fearful stimuli are detected more quickly than modern fearful stimuli. The aim of this study was to investigate which of two alternate evolutionary explanations best explains the findings. Whereas Ohman and Mineka (2001) dealt only with avoidant responses, Lang suggested that stimuli may evoke either an avoidant (fearful) or approach response, associated with negative or positive valence, respectively. The experiment employed a same-different task where Age (ancient, modern), and Valence (approach, avoidant, neutral) were manipulated and presented to 37 (19 females and 18 males) patiicipants. Participants were presented with slides of 9 images, and asked to determine whether all images come from the same category (for example they are all flowers) or a different category (there is a snake among the flowers) as quickly and as accurately as possible. Ancient approach (horses) and avoidant (snakes) stimuli were detected faster than the neutral stimuli (mushrooms), but both modern approach (pizzas) and modern neutral (clocks) stimuli were detected faster than avoidant (guns) stimuli. These findings are most consistent with the evolutionary explanation of Lang (1995). It is suggested that the disparate results in the literatur~ may be due to confounds associated with stimulus similarity.


Background: Mortality of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is high and public access early defibrillation (PAD) improves survival. Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of strategic placement of automated external defibrillators (AED) at 24-hour grocery chain stores in metropolitan city. Material and Methods: A prospective five-year observational database of non-traumatic OHCA was assessed. Using geospatial information technology, we analyzed the locations of the largest chain of 24-hour grocery store, of prehospital ambulance stations, of total OHCA events, and of OHCA only at ground level. We presume to equip one AED in each designated store. Bystanders may get an AED from the nearest store to OHCA location. The buffer coverage of OHCA locations within a 100, 200, and 300-meter buffer radius (R) to the stores designated at that buffer set were compared. Results: There were a total of 8,094 OHCA locations, with 3,192 subjects at ground level. Among totally 677 stores in chain, the efficient number of stores designated for placing AED at 100-m buffer R would be 576; it would be 542 stores at 200-m R and 396 at 300-m R individually. The buffer coverage of total OHCA locations was 29.6% (n=2,396) at 100-m R by placing 576 AEDs, 69.2% (n=5,598) at 200-m R by 542 AEDs, and 86.5% (n=7,000) at 300-m R by 396 AEDs. The buffer coverage of OHCA at ground level was 26.8% (n=856) at 100-m R, 62.1% (n=1,981) at 200-m R, and 80.5% (n=2,570) at 300-m R. The averaged OHCA locations per AED covering were 1.5 to 17.7 in 5 years. For 17.7% (n=1,380) of OHCA locations not covered within 1.5-kilometer distance to ambulance stations (5-minute for ambulance response time), 45% (n=621) of them were covered within 100-m to 24-hour stores. Conclusions: Placing AEDs at 24-hour grocery stores in metropolitan city is highly efficient for OHCA location coverage, and complementary to area not covered by paramedics. It may provide bystanders easy and prompt access to an AED to improve usage, and is pivotal for PAD.


There is a growing body of evidence that children who possess both alphabetic and phonological awareness on school entry are in a good position to make the transition from emergent to conventional literacy (Nicholson, 2005; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). One of the challenges is how teachers can foster emergent literacy, including alphabetic and phonological awareness, within a holistic curriculum framework, such as New Zealand's early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki. Drawing on our respective research studies into children's literacy (Arrow, 2007; McLachlan et al., 2006), we will discuss the implications for an early childhood intervention project which is aimed at promoting phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge in children aged 3-5 years, through professional development of teachers. This paper examines the issues involved in challenging teachers' beliefs, the effectiveness of professional development, research with children and teachers and enhancing literacy opportunities in the curriculum.International Research in Early Childhood Education, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 84-94


Humans are, first and foremost, social creatures. And this, according to the authors of I'll Have What She's Having, shapes—and explains—most of our choices. We're not just blindly driven by hard-wired instincts to hunt or gather or reproduce; our decisions are based on more than "nudges" exploiting individual cognitive quirks. I'll Have What She's Having shows us how we use the brains of others to think for us and as storage space for knowledge about the world. The story zooms out from the individual to small groups to the complexities of populations. It describes, among other things, how buzzwords propagate and how ideas spread; how the swine flu scare became an epidemic; and how focused social learning by a few gets amplified as copying by the masses. It describes how ideas, behavior, and culture spread through the simple means of doing what others do. It is notoriously difficult to change behavior. For every "Yes We Can" political slogan, there are thousands of "Just Say No" buttons. I'll Have What She's Having offers a practical map to help us navigate the complex world of social behavior, an essential guide for anyone who wants to understand how people behave and how to begin to change things.


New sensing technologies like Microsoft's Kinect provide a low-cost way to add interactivity to large display surfaces, such as TVs. In this paper, we interview 25 participants to learn about scenarios in which they would like to use a web browser on their living room TV. We then conduct an interaction-elicitation study in which users suggested speech and gesture interactions for fifteen common web browser functions. We present the most popular suggested interactions, and supplement these findings with observational analyses of common gesture and speech conventions adopted by our participants. We also reflect on the design of multimodal, multi-user interaction-elicitation studies, and introduce new metrics for interpreting user-elicitation study findings.