BACKGROUND AND AIM
The helical axis approach can provide a comprehensive three-dimensional description of joint motion. An instantaneous helical axis (IHA) changes its spatial position and orientation during movement and the infinitesimal spatial motion of a joint segment is expressed as the combination of a translation along this axis and a rotation around it.
An analysis of the IHA behavior during movements has an important potential application in the description and differentiation of functional and dysfunctional joint movements. Currently most studies exploring the clinical application the IHA produce excellent qualitative results, but quantitative results are often lacking. The aim of this study is to provide a representation of the IHA as a function of the angular velocity allowing a further quantitative analysis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cervical kinematics was registered a non-invasive electromagnetic device (Polhemus-G4). One sensor was positioned on the subjects' forehead and one on the chest. The subject was asked to perform a series of head rotations at a natural spontaneous speed. The intersections of the IHA with a standardized coronal plane were computed and analyzed with the convex hull technique using different thresholds for angular velocity.

RESULTS
The IHA behavior and their intersections with the coronal plane during repeated active rotations is displayed with a three-dimensional visualization (Fig.1A). Intersections of IHA with the coronal plan are shown in figure 1B. Convex hull areas on the coronal plane according to different angular velocity threshold are shown in figure 1C.

DISCUSSION
A variability of IHA during rotation can be observed. As expected, at lower angular velocities the IHA are spread in a larger area because of the noise of the sensors has a larger impact on their computation. Nevertheless, at higher velocity, most of the IHA intercept the coronal plane in a restricted area and the convex hull is minimal.

CONCLUSIONS
The IHA behavior is more stable at higher angular velocity. Any quantity analysis of the IHA should consider a proper angular velocity threshold. The IHA behavior assessed with the convex hull technique shows an interesting potential for clinical application. A reliability investigation on a larger sample is required.

KEYWORDS: Cervical spine, head movements, kinematics, instantaneous helical axis.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thim van der Laan Foundation for funding the study.


Abstract. The initiation of the beatification process of catholic stigmatist Therese Neumann of Konnersreuth/Bavaria (1898–1962) in February 2005 marks the beginning of the touristic marketing of her birth place in the context of EU-regionalization. In the case concerned, I argue, the Postsecular emerges in the evolution of new forms of EU-regional governance and in the controversial valorisation of a catholic popular cult as cultural heritage . I examine postsecular placemaking in Konnersreuth as a process, in which actors of the local civil society, the official church and the EU bureaucracy stage Therese Neumann by the valorisation of her material heritage, by sacralization and profanation. In doing this, actors renegotiate boundaries and transitions between the religious and the secular sphere, as well as between the regional, the global and the singular universality of grace. In their productions of space, local actors mediate between tourist and spiritual experiences of authenticity, between the popular demand for heritage and the awaiting for the religious event of grace. The postsecular, I argue, emerges in the insistence of parts of the local civil society to authorize the deceased Therese Neumann herself as an – though unwilling – supranatural actor in the placemaking process and in their legitimation of their own (un-)willingness to participate in the sacralization and touristification of their heritage with the will of the stigmatist. The article shows, how religious belief can play the role of a ressource as well as a disruptive factor in postsecular placemaking processes and neoliberal governing by community .


Our roadmap to the cloud started with WorldCat Local as our catalog/discovery system. Next we moved to OCLC's WorldShare Management Services (WMS), a cloud-based ILS system/platform including the License module and WorldCat Knowledge Base we use to manage our e-resources. At the same time, the cloud also moved into public services with the use of the Springshare platform for our reference, instruction, statistics and room reservation systems. Staff scheduling is also in the cloud with Whentowork. All of these cloud based technology changes have revolutionized the way librarians and staff do their routine jobs. The impact on our workflow has meant that communication with various stakeholders is vital. Managing the change process was the most underestimated aspect of the implementation process. Still on the horizon are our consortial borrowing system and patron/demand driven acquisitions, both to be in the cloud. Cloud technology is transforming the way we assist patrons. Instead of a cloud-free future, we are looking forward to a future in the cloud!


The inherent lower bandwidth of a two-class BCI is still a major challenge in making BCI practical for day-to-day use. In this paper we present an intelligent adaptive user interface (iAUI) to facilitate enhanced robot control via BCI. The iAUI is a user-centric graphical user interface (GUI) that facilitates multiple controls needed in controlling a powered wheelchair or a robotic device using just a two-class motor imagery (MI) brain-computer interface (BCI). The iAUI offers a continuously updated prioritized list of all the control options (in the form of forward, left, right, backward and start/stop) for selection via a BCI by utilizing the information obtained from the sonar sensors mounted on the robotic device. Results on multiple participants in player-stage simulation as well as the physical robotic arena show that the iAUI addresses to a large extent the inherent lower bandwidth of a BCI for effective control of a robotic device.


Do "cultural factors" substantively influence the creation and evolution of property institutions? For the past several decades, few legal scholars have answered affirmatively. Those inclined towards a law and economics methodology tend to see property institutions as the outcome of self-interested and utilitarian bargaining, and therefore often question the analytical usefulness of "culture." The major emerging alternative, a progressive literature that emphasizes the social embeddedness of property institutions and individuals, is theoretically more accommodating of cultural analysis but has done very little of it. This Article develops a "cultural" theory of how property institutions are created and demonstrates that such a theory is particularly powerful in explaining large-scale institutional differences between societies. Empirically, it argues that, in the two centuries before large-scale industrialization, China, England, and Japan displayed systematic and fundamental differences in their regulation of property use and transfer. It further argues that these legal and institutional differences are best explained by certain aspects of social culture, specifically by the criteria for sociopolitical status distribution. Some of these criteria are distinctly "cultural" in the sense that they were probably generated by the widespread social internalization of moral values, rather than by utilitarian bargaining. Cultural paradigms can exist, therefore, in property institutions. If we assume, as conventional law and economics urges, that individuals generally approach property use and regulation through a self-interested and utilitarian mindset, their pursuit of personal utility can nonetheless be constrained or empowered by cultural norms of status distribution that determine their relative bargaining power.


This paper*1 considers the complexity of Muslim women's identities in the city of Cape Town in 2010. It is argued that emerging super-diversity in the form of African immigration, the commercialisation of Islam and increasing freedoms for women in South Africa impact on women's engagement with religion and diversifies their identity. The paper also offers glimpses into the diversity of Islam in Cape Town, suggesting that this religion is not monolithic in the city and that it is continuously diversified by processes of internal differentiation (i.e. institutional management of belief) as well as external social changes (i.e. the role of the local and national media and broader national politics on identity). In South Africa, unlike some European countries, Islam is not perceived as a threat to national identity. Instead, the history of apartheid (and essentially the suppression of diversity) is encouraging the creation of new spaces for the expression and experience of belief. However, these have not gone unchallenged. Other groups, seeking to maintain or achieve recognition and space in the city are resisting the Islamization of Cape Town. The discussion asks how the delicate process of diversity management will be achieved in Cape Town given its particular demographics.


Many parasites of mammals avoid elimination by varying their exposed antigens. African trypanosomes—deadly parasites of humans and livestock in tropical Africa—possess a comprehensive system of antigenic variation (AV). Trypanosoma brucei undergo frequent, stochastic changes to their variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) coats, and therefore a developing immune response will be only partially effective against the trypanosome population as some trypanosomes will have already switched to a different VSG coat. The source of VSG variability is an archive of ~2000, mostly pseudogenic, silent VSG genes, of which only one is expressed. VSG genes can also be segmentally recombined: 'mosaic' VSGs, constructed from more than one silent VSG donor, allow both the reparation of pseudogenes and potentially generation of additional VSG variability. The aim of this research was to investigate the patterns of segmental VSG gene conversion in T. brucei, and assess its contribution to AV. Multiple, longitudinal samples were taken from chronic infections to follow the course of AV, and VSG cDNA sequences were analysed, building a detailed portrait of VSG expression across infection. VSG variability during an infection was extensive, and segmental gene conversion was found to be a frequent occurrence from approximately week three. Two main patterns were found: (i) expressed VSGs readily acquired a 3' end different from their silent copy, a pattern that probably represents the 3' boundary of gene conversion occurring within the coding sequence; (ii) expressed VSGs often appeared in sets of related 'mosaics', whereby more than one donor gene had contributed to the putative epitope-encoding part of the VSG. To test whether varying donor contributions represents an additional source of antigenic variability available to trypanosomes, a set of five mosaic VSGs retrieved from a single infection was expressed in non-switching trypanosomes and used to raise antibody responses. Indirect immuno-fluorescence, complement-mediated lysis, and agglutination assays using both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies showed that although 4/5 mosaics were cross-reactive, one variant was completely antigenically distinct. Segmental gene conversion was therefore found to be both prominent in chronic African trypanosome antigenic variation, and capable of bringing antigenic novelty to an infection, with important consequences for the dynamics of AV, and the nature of selection pressure on the silent VSG archive.


This paper describes a detailed investigation on the effect of microbial activity on apparent dissolved organic matter (DOM) sorption in batch experiments and means to control it. The adsorption and decomposition dynamics of DOM derived from three organic wastes (green manure, pig manure, and sewage sludge) were performed at 4 or 22°C in the presence and absence of 5 mM NaN 3 . No DOM decomposition occurred in sorption experiments performed at 4 or 22°C receiving NaN 3 , while significant reduction was noted at 22°C without NaN 3 addition after 24 h shaking. The sequence of DOM susceptibility to microbial decomposition in a 24-h period was: green manure > pig manure > sewage sludge. A shaking period of 2 h was found too short for notable microbial activity as compared with that of 24 h shaking but long enough to achieve equilibrium adsorption at 22°C. Therefore, sorption experiments performed at ambient temperatures with a long equilibrium period will overestimate the amount of DOM adsorbed and lead to an incorrect interpretation of the DOM adsorption behavior because of the involvement of microbial decay of DOM. It is recommended that batch equilibrium DOM adsorption studies be performed at either 4°C for 24 h or at ambient temperatures for 2 h, while addition of 2.5 to 5 mM of NaN 3 is also a possible alternative for an equilibrium period of >2 h.


The Internet is a communication channel where ideas and information may be freely and easily shared and communicated among members of diverse communities around the world. By combining the capabilities of latest computers, communication and multimedia technologies, web -base multimedia systems can be developed and delivered through Internet to the distributed users around the globe. Web-based multimedia systems provide an exciting means and communication channel for information access and sharing throughout the world. These systems have immense potential in public education, stimulating the learning process by exploring and doing, and by bringing children out of their school compound on trips around the world with just a few clicks. In this study, a web-based multimedia exhibition "Colours of the Wind" was designed and developed based on an existing exhibition that took the original form of static physical displays. The exhibition is part of a series of National Education exhibitions put together by the National Archives of Singapore to promote heritage information awareness among school children. As part of the design, a requirements gathering study was carried out with 77 university students to determine the users' requirements in terms of their computer and web experience, content expectations of online exhibition and their prior exposure to these systems. Based on these user requirements, a prototype of an online exhibition system was developed which was subsequently evaluated to assess the prototype and to elicit gaps in the design. In the evaluation with 30 students from the same pool form whom requirements were gathered, it was found that the online exhibition was well received by the surveyed community. The respondents were of the opinion that it has satisfied most of their requirements of an online exhibition apart from a search engine. They also felt that online exhibitions were the most flexible mode of delivering heritage information to inculcate awareness among the school children and public, particularly so, in the context of Singapore. It is because that Singapore is one of the countries of highest percentage of Internet users in the world.


Understanding the source of the superior generalization ability of NNs remains one of the most important problems in ML research. There have been a series of theoretical works trying to derive non-vacuous bounds for NNs. Recently, the compression of information stored in weights (IIW) is proved to play a key role in NNs generalization based on the PAC-Bayes theorem. However, no solution of IIW has ever been provided, which builds a barrier for further investigation of the IIW's property and its potential in practical deep learning. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for the efficient approximation of IIW. Then, we build an IIW-based information bottleneck on the trade-off between accuracy and information complexity of NNs, namely PIB. From PIB, we can empirically identify the fitting to compressing phase transition during NNs' training and the concrete connection between the IIW compression and the generalization. Besides, we verify that IIW is able to explain NNs in broad cases, e.g., varying batch sizes, over-parameterization, and noisy labels. Moreover, we propose an MCMC-based algorithm to sample from the optimal weight posterior characterized by PIB, which fulfills the potential of IIW in enhancing NNs in practice.


Six experiments investigate the effects of healthy ageing on autobiographical memory (AM). Previous work in this area has shown that older adults exhibit a deficit in recall of specific episodes from their personal past, yet there is evidence in the literature of exceptions to this rule. As yet, there have been few replications and little systematic exploration of the factors and processes that contribute to age effects in AM. Chapter 1 begins with an examination of age differences in memory for prospectively sampled recent everyday events – an area which, despite the growing interest in AM research, has remained largely unstudied. The results showed similar event memory for younger and older adults, and demonstrated both replicability and dissociation from more typical measures of AM (Experiment 2). Subsequent investigations focused on ways of cueing AM by manipulating the need for generative retrieval processing (Chapter 3), and the effect of increasing experimental control and measuring memory for the same staged event (Chapter 4). On all other tasks older adults performed more poorly than younger adults. However, a reanalysis of the data suggested that younger adults exhibit an elderly-like deficit on measures of memory for mundane, everyday events. Moreover, analysis of semantic memory within autobiographical narratives suggested that older adults recall more temporally abstracted information than younger adults (Chapter 5). The findings are interpreted within a framework which suggests that accumulating experience drives a shift from specific episodic memory representation towards a more abstracted schematic form. A parallel line of research investigated the effect of a wearable camera, SenseCam (SC), on memory for recently experienced events (Experiments 1, 4 and 5). SC use provided a general retrieval benefit, but the effect was the same for both younger and older adults, which supports the notion that poor memory performance in older adults is related to altered memory representation rather than deficient retrieval processes.


BACKGROUND
Scoring systems to evaluate children's human drawings for intellectual maturity have been found to have good intra- and inter-scorer reliability. However, there is some evidence (McCarthy, 1944) that such scores may not be stable over time.

AIM
The aim of the study was to investigate raters and occasions as potential sources of error in children's Draw-a-Person scores using generalisability and classical test theory.

SAMPLE
The sample consisted of 85 school children (45 girls and 40 boys) aged between 8 years 1 month to 9 years and 7 months.

METHOD
The Koppitz Draw-A-Person (1968) test was administered as a class test on two occasions with exactly a two-week interval between the occasions. All the children's drawings were scored by the same four raters.

RESULTS
Generalisability analyses of the Koppitz scores indicated that the variance components for raters and its interaction with both persons and occasions were very small, suggesting that very little measurement error was associated with the raters. However, the estimated variance component for the interaction of persons by occasions was substantial. With four raters and two occasions the generalisability coefficient was .47. These results were consistent with the classical test theory analysis which indicated generally high inter-rater reliabilities but a low test-retest reliability, based on a composite of the four raters.

CONCLUSION
If satisfactory levels of reliability/generalisability are to be achieved with the Koppitz scoring system children have to be tested on several occasions.


In this design case, a team developed a 3D interactive simulation for nursing students and professional nurses to train and practice pain assessment and management procedures. In the simulation environment, the trainees interact with three emotionally expressive animated patients. The three patients vary in their ethnicity, age, and emotion intensity. Successful completion of the scenario requires that the trainee perform of a series of pain assessment and management tasks.  The trainee is evaluated on the efficiency and appropriate sequencing of the tasks. The purpose of this paper is to describe the decisions made regarding the type of virtual patients used, the clickable objects, the pain assessment interview protocol, the visual representations in the simulation and the web portal. The paper also provides insight into the processes and steps taken during the design and development phases of this 3D interactive simulation including: the tasks analyses, motion capture, validation of the animations in the simulation, programming, and other tasks.


The venation patterns characteristics of different insect orders and of families belonging to the same order possess enormous variation in vein number, position and differentiation. Although the developmental basis of changes in vein patterns during evolution is entirely unknown, the identification of the genes and developmental processes involved in Drosophila vein pattern formation facilitates the elaboration of construction rules. It is thus possible to identify the likely changes which may constitute a source of pattern variation during evolution. In this review, we discuss how actual patterns of venation could be accounted for by modifications in different Pterygota of a common set of developmental operations. We argue that the individual specification of each vein and the modular structure of the regulatory regions of the key genes identified in Drosophila offer candidate entry points for pattern modifications affecting individual veins or interveins independently. Assuming a general conservation of the processes involved in different species, the transitions between different patterns may require few changes in the regulatory gene networks involved.


Atomistic simulations are powerful for probing molecules at bioinorganic interfaces and excellent complements to scarcely available experimental techniques. The free energy controls the adsorption behavior of molecules on nanosurfaces, and is therefore a quantity of particular importance. Advanced sampling techniques can efficiently explore the adsorption free energy landscape, but molecular simulations with classical (Newtownian) dynamics fail to capture charge transfer and polarization at the solid-liquid interface. First principle simulations do not suffer from this limitation but come with a heavy computational load. Here, we introduce an efficient protocol to explore the free energy of adsorption in the ab initio framework. This approach accurately models the complex phenomena at bio-inorganic surfaces on the nanoscale and properly samples the relevant thermodynamic properties. We present a case study of adsorption of the Lysine and Aspartate amino acids on the anatase (101) TiO2 surface with the tight binding method. The high values of the calculated adsorption free energies highlight the importance of a proper description of the electronic state for surface binding processes.


Our paper uses the events of the Arab Spring to examine amateur videos as a discourse
of conflict produced by untrained and unpaid individuals, often at great personal risk, and which is
taken up by, and incorporated into, news outcomes by professional news networks. The different
semiotic elements comprising amateur images used in news coverage create what we call an "eyewitness
texture" that reflects not only the generally low quality technologies in use and nonprofessional
camera skills, but the sensibilities of a public desire for proximity and immediacy,
which is sometimes utilised by news organisations as a means to authenticate their coverage with
affective and narrative features.
The corpus of our study includes the amateur footage used in news coverage of Tunisia, Egypt and
Libya during the first 100 days of the Arab Spring uprisings (December 17th 2010 to March 31st
2011) by France 24 and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Our paper uses a multipronged
discourse analysis to reveal a range of priorities at work in the selection and use of amateur
images. We notice that the inclusion of the eyewitness textures of amateur produced images in
some cases implied meanings that tied news narratives to larger and largely ideological forms of
discursive significance.


Irrigation and efficient water usage by farmers remain key agricultural problems in Pakistan. Technological approaches to water management specifically irrigation management using cloud technology is a recent innovation currently being trialed in Pakistan through a project conducted by the authors and funded by the Australian Centre for International Research. The paper reports on the perceptions of rural agents in Pakistan involved in the scaling out of new technologies to improve irrigation practices of a large number of farmers. The methodology adopted the use of focus groups with water professionals and extension agents as this approach has been proven to be a key effective method to assist rural agents to gather current information on irrigation problems and the scaling out process. Eight focus groups were assembled with an average of ten participants in each group. The findings revealed the current practices, positive outcomes and challenges to conducting farmer education in Pakistan. The importance of this research is its potential to improving work practices of large numbers of farmers that continue to be highly challenging. The study gives fresh insights on how farmer education methods could be achieved in relation to improving water irrigation through new technological practices of a significantly increased number of farmers.


Full-color guide - Make your trip to Japan unforgettable with illustrated features, maps, and color photos. Customize your trip with simple planning tools - Top experiences & attractions - Practical advice for getting around - Easy-to-read color regional maps Explore Tokyo, Kyoto, Kanazawa, and beyond - Discerning Fodor's Choice picks for hotels, restaurants, sights, and more - "Word of Mouth" tips from fellow Fodor's travelers - Illustrated features on Japanese culture, the best places to shop and things to buy, and cuisine - Best festivals, temples, and local specialties. Opinions from destination experts- Fodor's Japan-based writers reveal their favorite local haunts - Frequently updated to provide the latest information


Addressing the Supreme Court's decision last Term in Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates, P.A. v. Allstate Insurance Co., this symposium essay focuses on the debate between the plurality and Justice Stevens concerning the availability of as-applied challenges to the validity of rules promulgated under the Rules Enabling Act. Agreeing with Professor Allan Ides' article in the same symposium, this essay argues that Justice Stevens' proposed approach strikes a reasonable balance: State-specific as-applied invalidation of a federal rule should be permissible but rare. A survey of debates over facial and as-applied review in other contexts shows that the choice among facial review, as-applied review, and a combination of the two depends on both the institutional setting and the nature of the constraint that forms the basis for the review. In the context of Enabling Act review of federal rules, as-applied review is not unprecedented, and it has a role to play. Though the rulemakers are attentive to the limits imposed by the Enabling Act, they may not always be able to foresee a rule's future effects on substantive rights. Admitting the possibility of the occasional as-applied challenge to a rule's validity permits questions of a rule's effect on substantive rights to develop in the context of concrete cases, before judges who are likely to have some familiarity with the relevant substantive-law concerns. The information developed in such litigation can inform both a court's evaluation of the rule's application in the case before it and future deliberations of the rulemakers. As-applied challenges can cause uncertainty, can be difficult to resolve, and can impair the nationally uniform application of the federal rules. But the costs of state-specific as-applied review could be controlled by requiring a strong showing before finding a rule invalid as applied. There already exist other features of federal court practice that currently produce significant inter-state procedural variation. And the federal system asks state courts to tolerate similar disuniformity in state procedure.


Studies showed that odontometry can be used to analyse the influence of sexual dimorphism on the size of the teeth in specific ancestries. The aim of this study was to explore the bucco-lingual dimensions expressed as a ratio of human maxillary premolar crowns in males and females from polled ancestries. If this measurement could discriminate sex, it would have application in forensic cases, mass disasters and archaeology where the number of mingled human remains is high and the ancestry is unknown or multiple; Moreover, methodologies applied on radiographs or biochemical analysis in the laboratory is not always possible. The sample studied consisted of unworn premolars from 51 skeletal remains, 19 females and 32 males of known sex from collections: the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, England and the Natural History Museum, London and 100 archived orthodontic plaster casts of young adult dental patients (50 females and 50 males) of Royal London Hospital. Digital photographs were taken parallel to the occlusal surface and intercuspal distance and maximum bucco-lingual distance were captured using ImageJ 1.47v (U. S. National Institutes of Health, Maryland, USA), and the ratio of both distances calculated. Results were compared using a t-test and showed that for both upper premolars, the overall ratio was greater in males than females; however this was not significantly different to zero. The overall ratio for first premolar (P1) was less than second premolar (P2) in males and females. These findings show that maxillary premolar, measured in this way, are not significantly different and cannot discriminate between the sexes in this sample of different


The enigmatic and charismatic John Graham (1886-1961) was an important influence on his fellow New York artists in the 1920s through 1940s. Graham and his circle, which included Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, and Willem de Kooning, helped redefine ideas of what painting and sculpture could be. They, along with others in Graham's orbit, such as Jackson Pollock and David Smith, played a critical role in developing and defining American modernism. American Vanguards showcases about eighty-seven works of art from this vital period that demonstrate the interconnections, common sources, and shared stimuli among the members of Graham's circle. Three essays by notable scholars investigate the complex relationships among Graham and his New York artist-colleagues during this formative period. William C. Agee positions Graham and his circle within the movement of New Classicism, which drew upon classical and Renaissance examples in an attempt to overcome the devastation of World War I. Irving Sandler focuses on the social, political, and intellectual dynamics among Davis, Gorky, Graham, and de Kooning in the mid-1930s. Karen Wilkin discusses the circumstances that brought these artists together, their common commitment to modernism, and the fascinating artistic cross-fertilization evident in their work. This critical reconsideration sheds new light on the New York School, Abstract Expressionism, and the vitality of American modernism between the two world wars.


This document analyzes the results of a Web-based survey conducted by the Research Department to assess how the IDB is viewed by political and corporate leaders in the region. The questionnaire included 31 questions that compared the IDB to the IMF, World Bank, CAF, BCIE and CDB. The sample includes the responses of 336 representatives from the 26 Latin American and Caribbean IDB member countries. In general, the IDB has a better image than the other multilateral organizations in understanding development problems and contributing to their solutions. Its main comparative advantage is in the design of social service projects (education, health and social security). The IDB also is clearly perceived to outperform its peers in public sector modernization and infrastructure projects. The IDB's weakest areas are related to its efficiency (lengthy loan approvals) and efforts to help discipline macroeconomic and other policies. Respondents believe that all international organizations should expand their technical assistance and knowledge activities not tied to projects or loans. For the IDB, the survey results also assign a high priority to increasing projects in social areas.


Introduction: The prevalence of urinary tract infection (UTI) in different regions of Iran is not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of UTI among first grade primary school children in Gorgan, Northeast of Iran. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study was performed on 2145 first grade primary school children in the city of Gorgan in 2011. After history taking, all children were physically examined by trained personnel. Those who were suspected with UTI were referred to laboratory for confirmed diagnosis. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software (version 16) and chi-square test. Results: Among 2145 children, 1111 (51.8%) were male and the rest were female. UTI was confirmed in 146 patients (6.8%), 52 of whom were male (4.7%) and 94 were female (9.1%). There was a statistically significant difference in the frequency of UTI between the two genders. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that UTI is common in this age group in this region. Therefore, proper healthcare interventions should be considered for control and prevention of UTI complications among primary school children.


BACKGROUND
Neonates have a lower Na+/H+ antiporter activity on the apical membrane of proximal tubule than that of adults. The maturational increase in Na+/H+ antiporter activity occurs at the time when there is a rise in serum glucocorticoid levels in rats. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether glucocorticoids are responsible for the postnatal increase in Na+/H+ antiporter activity.

METHODS
Nine-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were compared with rats studied at 30 days of age who had either a sham operation or adrenalectomy (ADX) at nine days of age and with rats that had an adrenalectomy and physiologic corticosterone replacement (ADX-Cort) to determine whether glucocorticoid deficiency prevented the maturational increase in Na+/H+ antiporter activity. Na+/H+ antiporter activity was measured in proximal convoluted tubules perfused in vitro by the change in cell pH (pHi) following luminal sodium removal. NHE3 mRNA abundance was measured using Northern blot analysis, and NHE3 protein abundance was measured by immunoblot.

RESULTS
Na+/H+ antiporter activity was 93.8 +/- 17.7, 157.0 +/- 18.0, 356.7 +/- 29.9, and 402.5 +/- 14.5 pmol/mm. min in nine-day-old, ADX, ADX-Cort, and sham control groups, respectively. The ADX-Cort and sham control were higher than the 9-day-old and the 30-day-old ADX group (P < 0.05). Brush-border membrane NHE3 protein abundance in the nine-day-old and ADX groups were sixfold less than ADX-Cort and sham control groups (P < 0.001). Nine-day-old neonates had fivefold less renal cortical NHE3 mRNA than the ADX, ADX-Cort, and sham-operated control groups (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
These data demonstrate that glucocorticoids play a role in the postnatal maturation of the proximal tubule Na+/H+ antiporter activity and brush-border membrane NHE3 protein abundance. Glucocorticoid deficiency does not completely prevent the maturational increase in Na+/H+ antiporter activity and does not affect NHE3 mRNA abundance.


This article contrasts two different analyses – a diachronic Construction Grammar (CxG) approach and the Principles & Parameters approach of Willis (1998) – of the development of a verb-initial construction, Absolute-initial verb (AIV) order, in Early Modern Welsh. The P&P approach attributes the rise of AIV order in Early Modern Welsh to an abrupt and discrete change in the grammaticality of V1 following the resetting of the V2 parameter. We argue, on the basis of a detailed corpus study of the period c.1550–c.1750, that the historical data shows a gradual increase as well as significant sociolinguistic variation in the frequency of use of AIV order. We further argue that a diachronic Construction Grammar approach can better account for gradual syntactic change and syntactic variation, since, unlike P&P approaches, it does not seek to model gradual historical data in terms of discrete grammars and grammatical categories, but has a gradient conception of grammaticality and grammatical categories and can thus propose gradual mechanisms of change and integrate sociolinguistic variation directly in grammatical description.


A field study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of air leakage sealing techniques for reducing air infiltration in houses. Presealing and postsealing air leakage tests were performed upon 82 single detached houses. All of the houses were located in Winnipeg or southern Manitoba, a region with an annual degree day value (Celsius) of about 5800. The sample group consisted of 56 conventionally constructed houses of varying size, style, occupancy, and airtightness and 26 nonstandard structures of smaller but identical size and age. This latter group was part of the Flora Place project. All houses were placed under a negative pressure, and leakage sites were identified using smoke pencils. Windows and doors were weather-stripped and other unintentional openings caulked and sealed using specified materials and techniques. Based upon the results of the study, the median reduction in airtightness of the conventional structures, defined using the equivalent leakage area at 10 Pa (ELA 1 0 ), was 31.6% with significant variations occurring both between houses of the same type and between different types of construction. When the houses are examined in groups according to type of construction, it is apparent that the greatest reduction in ELA (36.9%) was achieved in single-story houses. Houses constructed in somewhat more complicated fashion, such as split levels, exhibited less of a reduction. As a group, two-story houses showed the least reduction (24.4%), likely due to the indirect leakage between floors that could not be addressed properly. Within any group, houses with inaccessible air leakage points, such as in finished basement areas, showed the least reduction. The median reduction in the ELA 1 0 for the Flora Place houses was 42.5%, again with significant variations between houses despite their near-identical construction. Using the air leakage test data and a recently developed correlation model, an estimate was made of the naturally occurring air infiltration rates for all the test houses. This analysis indicated that the sealing produced a median reduction in the infiltration rate of 32.8% for the conventional houses and 46.1% for the Flora Place houses. Due to a lack of equipment, tracer gas tests were not conducted to confirm these values. Note, however, that the results of this study likely are representative of houses constructed only in Manitoba and possibly in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Since houses in the prairie provinces tend to have low air infiltration rates, the effects of air leakage sealing on houses in other parts of the country could be different from those found in this study.


"In the majority of the [fairy] tales, to be a heroine in even a limited sense requires extreme youth and extreme physical beauty; it would not be sufficient to be merely beautiful, one must be 'the greatest beauty in the kingdom'-'the fairest in the land.'"--Oates, "In Olden Times" 249 I begin by way of anecdote. In the early summer of 1962, during those last weeks in the life of Marilyn Monroe, I was ten years old and living in Dallas, Texas. My memories of that year are sketchy, but a singular moment has stayed with me. I was sitting inside a stifling car, waiting dutifully for my mother to emerge from a convenience store, in all likelihood a 7-Eleven. While my mother made her purchase, probably cigarettes, I cast about for a way to please her, no save her. Only the year before, she'd jumped from a moving car, and though she hadn't managed to kill herself, the fall did result in a skull fracture and a coma. I had reason to be nervous each time we set out in the car. Therefore, when she got back into the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition, I blurted out something so absurd and improbable that I flinch to admit it even today. "Don't worry, Mommy," I said, apropos of nothing. "When I grow up, I'm going to be Miss America." My voice was all conviction. Already, I was determined to transform myself into a beautiful princess, me--a plain child with no natural talents, a bespectacled bookworm of a girl. I was struck by the certainty that I could do this for her, that I must do this for her. On August 4, Marilyn Monroe would die of a drug overdose, but on that early summer day in 1962, the sun must have been shining in Los Angeles, just as it was in Dallas. Not to say the world was altogether beautiful, but it was certainly bright. Mary Jo Kopechne had just finished college. Joyce Carol Oates and her new husband Raymond had found work in Detroit and were thrilled to be leaving Beaumont, Texas, behind. The future, we believed, might well be better than the past, and why not? We could fly to the moon! John F. Kennedy was our president. Although Blonde and Black Water have much in common, one difference is readily apparent. In the jumble of books and papers currently crowding my desk, the short novel Black Water can be hidden by something as insubstantial as a pile of notes. A slim 154 pages in paperback, Black Water, is a petite book, small enough to slip in a purse. The largish font is easy to read, and the margins are generous. Even a slow reader--and I am downright poky--can manage it in one long gulp. Not so with Blonde. A weighty tome, the novel Blonde is apparent no matter the clutter. Size alone identifies it. In terms of heft, only my dictionary and thesaurus can compete. As it happens, both novels began as shorter projects and grew beyond the confines Oates imagined for them. In the Joyce Carol Oates biography, Invisible Writer, Greg Johnson explains that the novel Black Water started as a story based on the accident at Chappaquiddick, the 1969 tragedy that took the life of Mary Jo Kopechne and ended the presidential aspirations of Senator Edward Kennedy. But the short story of the "minutes/moments before death by drowning" (382) became a novel, one designed to be read in the length of time it takes the heroine to die by suffocation. As Oates explained to Ramona Koval in a 2002 interview, Mary Jo Kopechne didn't drown: She was trapped in the car. She was trapped in such a way that there was an air pocket. She was not drowning. Ultimately, she probably suffocated.... And this black water, as I imagine, this black water dripping down, but she was able to live for hours before the water actually suffocated her. (11) Oates had long been fascinated by the events of Chappaquiddick, but she was impelled to start work on the book in the summer of 1991, around the time William Kennedy Smith was acquitted on rape charges and the great Thurgood Marshall passed away. …


In this study, the evaluation of interfaces on iron boride Fe2B growth obtained by paste boriding process was carried out. Fractal geometry is used like a powerful tool for the roughness analysis present during iron boride growth. Experiments were performed in AISI 1045 steel at temperatures of 1193K for exposure times of 2, 4 and 6 h, and 1223K for treatment times of 2, 4, 5 and 6 h, varying the boron paste thicknesses in the range of 1 – 5 mm for each temperature and time. The fronts of the interfaces in iron boride coatings were characterized and digitized with mean of an optic microscope and Scion Image software. Self-affine methods were applied to the interface growths for validate the fractality of the system. It was established that the interface width, ω , scales to ω (L) ∼ L H , where H represents the roughness exponent of the boride layers.


Pursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960, and which came into force on 30th September 1961, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shall promote policies designed: − to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in Member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy; − to contribute to sound economic expansion in Member as well as non-member countries in the process of economic development; and − to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance with international obligations.


Utilizing solar
energy to generate clean water by interface solar steam generation is
considered to be a promising strategy to address the challenge of water
shortage globally. However, high evaporation rate and
long-term sustainability have rarely been achieved simultaneously,
due to salt accumulation, discontinuous water supply and insufficient
photothermal conversion. Herein, we demonstrate that a three-dimensional nanofibrous
aerogel (3D NA) with Janus layers enables floating on the surface water by
hydrophobic layer and continues pumping water by hydrophilic layer and
interconnected porous structure. More notably, an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) photothermal molecule is doped into
nanofibers for the first time, which was endowed with superior capacity of transferring
solar energy into heat. Combining these unique benefits, the presented 3D NA
exhibits extremely high evaporation rate (1.99 kg m-2 h-1)
and solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency (89%) under irradiation of 1 sun.
Besides, there is no significant change in evaporation performance after 21 cycles
in the case of seawater treatment, suggesting that the designed 3D NA possess
sustainable stability and self-cleaning function to restrain salt deposition. With
highly efficient evaporation rate and long-term sustainable solar steam
generation, such 3D NA can offer new strategy for desalination and sewage
treatment.


This article reflects the confluence of two contradictory streams of thought regarding language theory and knowledge organization. While linguists, philosophers, and cognitive scientists have turned away from structuralism and the notion of determinacy, knowledge engineers and specialists in information technology have embraced the semantic/semiotic triangle in their efforts to model information and knowledge for use in computerized environments, particularly to support the Semantic Web. The discussion begins with a view of traditional terminological concept systems and goes on to analyze a full range of knowledge representation resources, examining each with a view to its potential for distortion as a result of inherent indeterminacy. Crosswalks and interoperability play a role in linking critical resources.


I. INTRODUCTION Shopping trends in the United States have changed dramatically over the last few decades with the introduction of the large-scale discount retailer. Wal-Mart is the forerunner in the retail market and dominates competition through the use of its big box stores. (1) Started by Sam Walton in 1962, (2) there are now over 3,443 WalMart stores in the United States and another 2,757 international locations. (3) These "big boxes" consist of at least 100,000 and up to 235,000 square feet of retail space or more, depending on whether a grocery store is integrated into the building. (4) Wal-Mart chooses to build its stores as large as possible, allowing goods to be purchased from suppliers in bulk; the larger the stores, the greater the savings. (5) Wal-Mart then passes on the savings to its consumers, resulting in its mass popularity among the public and nationwide competition because smaller stores do not have the capacity to purchase in bulk to the same extent that Wal-Mart can. (6) In addition, consumers love the low prices that Wal-Mart provides, which are about eight to twenty percent below other retailers. (7) Despite all the criticism the company endures due to its health insurance policy, (8) low wages, (9) and environmental wastefulness, (10) Wal-Mart can bring a number of benefits to a community. Wal-Mart brings jobs and sales tax revenue along with low prices, including a recently-unveiled low-cost pharmaceutical program. (11) In addition, the company announced a major change in environmental policy through the construction of experimental eco-friendly stores (12) and a goal to conserve energy through the sale of fluorescent light bulbs. (13) The success of Wal-Mart's large stores encourages the company to build more stores, each bigger and better than the last one. Per the Wal-Mart Realty website, "Wal-Mart Stores and Sam's Clubs are often so successful that they outgrow their buildings and relocate to better serve our customers." (14) While the growth of the company is great for Wal-Mart, the costs to the public are plainly visible. As Wal-Mart continues to be profitable, the company wants the stores to be as large as possible. It is common practice for the company to pick up and abandon one store and build in another location down the road that is bigger. For instance, in Phenix City, Alabama, the company built a Super Wal-Mart while abandoning a traditional store just down the road, which remained empty for over six years. (15) Another example is in La Junta, Colorado, where an empty Wal-Mart sits only a quarter mile from a new store. (16) The abundance of big boxes created over the last two decades has caused vacant retail space to exceed the retail market. (17) As a result, abandoned Wal-Mart stores sit empty, creating large concrete and asphalt eyesores in communities. These giant empty retail stores have become prevalent enough to earn the name "greyfields." Greyfields can be defined as "old, obsolete and abandoned retail and commercial sites [with] thousands of square feet of retail space surrounded by seas of gray pavement." (18) These abandoned buildings tend to sit vacant for years and are one of the most visible indicators of urban sprawl. (19) The basic configuration of the big box, with thousands upon thousands of square feet, makes it difficult to find a new use for the building; the number of businesses that can use so much floor space is limited, (20) plus the lack of windows and interior walls deter potential buyers. (21) While communities around the country have found creative ways to reuse empty big boxes, such as for elementary schools, churches, and call centers, (22) Wal-Mart should be held accountable for the abandoned store that it leaves unoccupied. Though many people would like to see Wal-Mart prevented from abandoning smaller stores in order to operate its excessively large stores in their communities, the reality is that the company is not likely to change its company development philosophy. …


When studying violence and its consequences, it is necessary to conduct fieldwork in affected countries and communicate with the people on the ground. However, traveling and working within conflict and post-conflict countries comes with a particular set of challenges. This contribution discusses potential challenges that might arise when planning for and conducting fieldwork in a security-sensitive environment. It discusses unexpected instances that can occur before or during your fieldwork and what to do in a case of emergency. This article also stresses the importance of ethical responsibility before, during, and after fieldwork. Additional components of such responsibilities include respect toward the local culture, rules, and traditions as well as questions of race and power. Consistent awareness of such issues also stresses the significance of repeatedly reflecting on questions of who you as a researcher are, where you come from, how you are situated in the world, and what drives you. Successively, ethical responsibility does not end after your fieldwork but continues throughout the publication and dissemination of work. The article also discusses how to ensure confidentiality of interviews and privacy of respondents during publication and dissemination. Ultimately, this is helpful for students who are preparing for fieldwork in security-sensitive environments and encourages further reflection regarding necessary questions for such research endeavors.


Experimental research in traditional laboratories comes at a significant logistic and financial cost while drawing data from demographically narrow populations. The growth of online methods of research has resulted in effective means for social psychologists to collect large-scale survey-based data in a cost-effective and timely manner. However, the same advancement has not occurred for social psychologists who rely on experimentation as their primary method of data collection. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of one online laboratory for conducting experiments, Volunteer Science, and report the results of six studies that test canonical behaviors commonly captured in social psychological experiments. Our results show that the online laboratory is capable of performing a variety of studies with large numbers of diverse volunteers. We advocate for the use of the online laboratory as a valid and cost-effective way to perform social psychological experiments with large numbers of diverse subjects.


We examine how participation and positioning in global value chains (GVC) affect wages. We also examine whether this relationship is conditioned by a country's development level and labour market regulation. The results show that participation and upstream specialisation in GVCs are associated with higher wages but only in developed countries. In developing countries, while GVC participation is associated with higher wages, upstream specialisation exerts downward pressure on wages. For analysis focusing on the role of labour market regulation, we find that GVC participation only exerts a positive effect on wages under stringent labour market regulation. Under flexible labour market conditions, it exerts downward pressure on wages but allows for the effective reallocation of GVC workers into knowledge-intensive and high value added upstream activities in the value chain that are more productive and wage rewarding. Additional analysis on the effects of GVCs along the wage distribution show that participation and upstream specialisation in GVCs are associated with higher wages across all wage segments in the developed countries. In developing countries, GVC participation only benefits higher wage earners and make low-wage earners worse-off. Even when upstream specialisation is associated with lower wages across all wage segments, low wage earners are disproportionately affected.


Background: Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) has improved over the years and is increasingly being used for biomarker discovery directly from human tissue. Since DNA aneuploidy has been identified as a prognostic factor for epithelial malignancies, we compared diploid and aneuploid colon cancer tissues of the colorectum by IMS.
Material and Methods: DNA image cytometry determined the ploidy status of tissue samples that were subsequently subjected to MALDI-IMS. After obtaining protein and peptide profiles through direct analysis of both, fresh frozen and FFPE tissue sections, a discovery and a validation set were used to predict ploidy and disease status by applying proteomic classification algorithms. Identification of m/z values were performed by using nUPLC mass spectrometry from an adjacent tissue section. Clinical target validations were performed by immunohistochemistry using in-house compiled tissue microarrays (TMA).
Results: Classification algorithms categorized normal mucosa and colon carcinoma as well as diploid and aneuploid colon cancers correctly. Proteins could be identified to be differentially expressed between diploid and aneuploid samples that showed expression differences also in clinical samples using a tissue microarray of normal mucosa, diploid and aneuploid colorectal carcinomas.
Conclusion: Our data underscore the potential of MALDI-IMS proteomic algorithms for individualized medicine to reveal significant molecular details from distinct tumor subtypes such as different ploidy types.


VARLYAKOV, I., N. GRIGOROVA and T. SLAVOV, 2010. Effect of Hostazym C 100 on growth performance and some hematological and ethological indexes of yearling rams. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 16: 659-664 A scientific and economic experiment was carried out for testing the effect of the multienzyme fibrolytic preparation Hostazym C100 on growth performance, feeding behavior and some hematological indexes of yearling rams for a period of 100 days. Hostazym C100 has a predominant endo-1,4-â-glucanase and secondary cellulase, a-amylase, protease and hemicellulase activity and has not been tested on ruminants yet. The experiment encompassed 12 yearling rams of the Blackhead Pleven breed with an average live weight of 26.460 ± 0.220 kg at the beginning of the trial, divided into two groups – control and experimental. They were fed an equal ration containing 60% concentrate mixture and 40% meadow hay. Ten days prior to the trial, the ration of the experimental group of animals was supplemented with Hostazym C100 in a dose of 1 g/kg of concentrate mixture. The following effects of Hostazym C100 were found: reduction of the consumption of dry matter of the ration per 1 kg of weight gain with 3.6% and insignificant increase of the average daily gain, slight decrease of feeding activity at the expense of reduced feeding period and increased rumination period in standing position. No negative effects on hematological indexes were found.


The high contemporary salience in the social sciences of the topics of "trust" and "trustworthiness" has focused attention on the mass media's putative role in eroding trust. Intrinsically, the absence in the mass media of the dialogic and interactive element to trust building identified by O' Neill (2002) may suggest that the lack of trust and trustworthiness in the mass media is structural and recent penalties imposed by the UK communication regulator, Ofcom, on UK public service broadcasters including the BBC seem to support such a view. However, drawing on and adapting O'Neill, the author identifies two distinct potential media trust building strategies: one procedural (based in professional norms) and the second dialogic and interactive (nascent in "Web 2.0" applications). Focusing on UK Web 2.0 media sites the author identifies instances where the "dialogic" character of "Web 2.0" has established and enhanced trustworthiness. He argues normatively for a combination of "Web 2.0" interactivity and the adoption and implementation of self-regulatory codes in order to enhance the trustworthiness of the media.


Neurophysiological Correlates of the Critical Bandwidth in the Human Auditory System Grace Ann Bentley Department of Communication Disorders, BYU Master of Science The critical bandwidth (CBW) is an auditory phenomenon that has been used to study various aspects of auditory processing, including auditory masking, complex tone processing, and loudness perception. Although the psychoacoustic aspects of the CBW have been well studied, the underlying neurophysiology of the CBW has not been as thoroughly examined. The current study examined the neurophysiology of the CBW in young adults, as well as loudness perception in response to the CBW. Auditory stimuli consisting of complex tones of varying bandwidths were presented to 12 individuals (6 male and 6 female, ages 18-26 years). Complex tones were presented around center frequencies (CFs) of 250, 500, 1000, and 3000 Hz at bandwidths of 2, 5, 8, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz. Participants made loudness perception judgments while electroencephalography measured and recorded components of the event related potentials (ERPs) in response to the acoustic stimuli. Reaction time (RT) was recorded for each behavioral response, and the latencies of the N1, P2, C3, and C4 components of the ERPs were obtained. The results showed that RT increased with increasing bandwidth followed by a decrease in RT corresponding approximately with the CBW. This indicated that participants perceived a change in loudness at bandwidths greater than the CBW. Significant differences, p < .05, in RT were observed in bandwidths of 5 Hz and greater, although there was not complete consistency in this observation across all CFs and bandwidths. No significant critical band-like behavior amongst ERP latencies was observed. The results indicated that responses to acoustic stimuli originating in the superior temporal gyrus progressed to areas of higher neural function in the mid-temporal lobe. It was observed that each response must be processed temporally and independently to determine if a frequency difference is present for each stimulus. This observation is significant because this type of processing had not been identified prior to the current study.


Randomized Aggregatable Privacy-Preserving Ordinal Response, or RAPPOR, is a technology for crowdsourcing statistics from end-user client software, anonymously, with strong privacy guarantees. In short, RAPPORs allow the forest of client data to be studied, without permitting the possibility of looking at individual trees. By applying randomized response in a novel manner, RAPPOR provides the mechanisms for such collection as well as for efficient, high-utility analysis of the collected data. In particular, RAPPOR permits statistics to be collected on the population of client-side strings with strong privacy guarantees for each client, and without linkability of their reports. This paper describes and motivates RAPPOR, details its differential-privacy and utility guarantees, discusses its practical deployment and properties in the face of different attack models, and, finally, gives results of its application to both synthetic and real-world data.


This study develops and demonstrates procedures for modeling the impact of agricultural technology adoption decisions on consumption and nutrition in a subsistence-farming context. The method is based on expected direct utility maximization (EDUM) formulation and incorporates subsistence quantities for broad aggregates of protein, calories, and other consumption goods. The method is applied to a hillside farming system of southern Honduras where new sorghum cultivars and erosion control techniques are being introduced. The expected direct utility maximization model allows the estimation of the effects of new technology on consumption and marketed surplus in situations where marginal values of products vary by state of nature and are affected by consumption and production choices. The introduction of the new technologies in southern Honduras results in improved nutrition and substantial increases in marketed surplus. These effects are due to simultaneous changes in output and consumption patterns. This work extends the subject of household modeling to problems with risk, and thus complements prior work in both the integrated analysis of production/consumption decisions and stochastic decision analysis.© 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


Wild crop relatives are an important source of genetic variation for improving domesticated species. Given limited resources, methods for maximizing the genetic diversity of collections of wild relatives are needed to help spread protection over a larger number of populations and species. Simulations were conducted to investigate the optimal strategy of sampling materials from populations of wild relatives, with the objective of maximizing the number of alleles (allelic richness) in collections of fixed size. Two methods, based on assessing populations for variation at marker loci (e.g., allozymes, restriction fragment length polymorphisms), were developed and compared with several methods that are not dependent on markers. Marker-assisted methods yielded higher overall allelic richness in the simulated collections, and they were particularly effective in conserving geographically localized alleles, the class of alleles that is most subject to loss.


Advocacy - Sara Bell Arts: Drama Therapy - Andy Worth Assessment - Ruth Sadik Autism - Helen Kerrell Behavioural Phenotypes - Dianne Phipps Causes - Dianne Phipps Challenging Behaviour - Gary LaVigna and Thomas J Willis Children and Adolescents - Pat Talbot Choice - Pat Talbot Communication - Jane Hobson Community Learning Disability Nursing - Sara Bell Compassion - Glenda Hardy and Pat Talbot Complementary Medicine/Therapies - Phillippa J Newman Consent - Tom Mason Complex Needs - Teresa Whitehurst Development - Geoff Astbury Disability Studies - Andy Lovell Employment - Joanne Skellern Empowerment - Sara Bell Epilepsy - Paul Barber Ethnicity - Zenobia Nadirshaw Forensic Services - Andrew Lovell Friendships and Social Networks - Karen McKenzie Health Services - Martin Campbell Inclusion (Social) - Elizabeth Mason-Whitehead Intelligence - Daniel W Price-Jones and Alastair L Barrowcliff Learning - Penny Lacey Life Skills - M Thomas Kishore Life Story - Kristin Bjornsdottir Loss - Sue Read Mental Health - Amanda Sinai et al Multi-Agency and Multiprofessional Services - Chris Chennell Nursing - John Turnbull Older People - Nancy Jokinen Parenthood - Fintan Sheerin Parents and Families - Marion Redfern Person-Centred Planning - David Coyle and Julie Lunt Physical Health - Pat Talbot Psychological Therapies - Karin Lewis et al Rights - Tom Mason Service Philosophy - Beth Greenhill and Ged Carney Service Quality - Jim Blair Service-User Voice - Helen Elizabeth Dunn et al Sexuality - Margaret Douglas, Rachael Wood and Judith Sim Social Care - Tom Mason Social Model of Disability - Dan Goodley Spirituality - Mike Thomas Transition - David Abbott and Pauline Heslop Values - Jill McCarthy Vulnerability - Elaine Taylor


Since the Second World War, Great Britain has witnessed a recurring escalation and de-escalation of confrontations between extreme right-wing or anti-minority protest groups on the one hand and, on the other, militant anti-fascist or anti-racist groups, and latterly also a number of extreme Islamist groups. In this article, we trace the outline of four waves of these movement–countermovement contests in order to engage critically with ideas of what some academics have called "cumulative extremism (CE)". Contrary to the tenor of much of the public, policy and academic debate around such contests, we draw attention to what we describe as the missing spirals of violence. In order to better explain and accommodate these empirical findings, we argue that it is important to resist the temptation to reduce "CE" to a process of "tit-for-tat" violence. We outline four factors that have been particularly important in shaping patterns of interactive escalation, de-escalation and non-escalation in the case studies described: the broader strategic aims of activist groups; dynamics of intra-movement control and leadership; the actions of and activist's interactions with state actors; and emergent movement cultures and identities.


The absolute necessity of obtaining 3D information of structured and unknown environments in autonomous navigation reduce considerably the set of sensors that can be used. The necessity to know, at each time, the position of the mobile robot with respect to the scene is indispensable. Furthermore, this information must be obtained in the least computing time. Stereo vision is an attractive and widely used method, but, it is rather limited to make fast 3D surface maps, due to the correspondence problem. The spatial and temporal correspondence among images can be alleviated using a method based on structured light. This relationship can be directly found codifying the projected light; then each imaged region of the projected pattern carries the needed information to solve the correspondence problem. We present the most significant techniques, used in recent years, concerning the coded structured light method.


A research and community arts project with two key research imperatives:
- How can one meaningfully integrate multiple individual artistic contributions from participants drawn from the culturally and ethnically diverse backgrounds typical of Leicester (or other city), to develop further in the traditional sense of the 'composer', and the notion of 'professional' art in a professional arts venue? Can multiple uses of material generated through community arts processes, and differing 'levels' of outcomes, help to answer this question?
- How can music technologies maximise the impact of the content and context of the project, and site-specific requirements of commissioning venue? Bespoke 'systems' needed to be developed.

'Being Heard' applies techniques developed during my PhD in a community context. It was commissioned by Phoenix Arts and received financial support from East Midlands Development Agency. The concept of the project was mine. The project's realisation was assisted by John Richards (DMU outreach coordinator), Emily Belcham (Phoenix Arts education officer), and Karen Pirie (webmaster, BBC Leicester).

The 'project aimed to capture language spoken in Leicester. Poem and prose contributions were recorded by over 100 school children (who had first languages other than English or frequently spoken second languages) to a pool of material founded on soundscape studies approaches. Current issues of citizenship and diversity were addressed.

Outcomes:
- Multichannel sound installation running at Phoenix Arts (ca. 300 miniature loudspeakers in handmade system), April 1st – 4th 2004
- New revised version of installation presented at invitation of Soundcircus, Sonic Arts Network conference, Leicester, June 11th-14th 2004
- Archive of children's contributions hosted by BBC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/sense_of_place/2004/being_heard/being_heard.shtml
- Daily radio broadcasts (BBC Radio Leicester) on project (including selected materials) 29/3/04-2/4/04
- Tingull, Maungira, Aawaaz (8-channel acousmatic music) produced using some of the project material and premiered at Soundings festival, Edinburgh, 2nd May 2004


These problems facing many metropolitan regions in the U.S. are complex, open-ended and seemingly intractable. The obstacles to regional governance created by these "wicked" problems are the root of the criticisms of the consensus-based "self-organizing" strategies described by frameworks such as New Regionalism and Institutional Collective Action. The self-organized solutions described by these frameworks require substantial consensus exist among the participants and this creates a bias toward solving low-conflict problems where consensus already exists. We discuss the limitations of these two influential research programs in the context of wicked problems and draw on the concept of nested institutional action situations to suggest a research agenda for studying intergovernmental collaboration on problems requiring the development of consensus about the nature of the problem and acceptable solutions. The Advocacy Coalitions and Institutional Analysis and Development frameworks have been effectively used to explain regional collaboration on wicked environmental problems and likely have insights for confronting the wicked fiscal and social problems of regional governance. The implications are that wicked problems are tamed through iterated games and that institution-making at the collective-choice level can then be scaled up to achieve agreement at the constitutional level of analysis.


Sardar travels to Asian communities throughout the UK to tell the history of Asians in Britain - from the arrival of the first Indian in 1614, to the young extremists in Walthamstow mosque in 2006. He interweaves throughout an illuminating account of his own life, describing his carefree childhood in Pakistan, his family's emigration to racist 1950s Britain, and his adulthood straddling two cultures. Along the way he asks: are arranged marriages a good thing? Does the term 'Asian' obscure more than it conveys? Do vindaloo and balti actually exist? And is multiculturalism an impossible dream?


Background Highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) has only been recently recommended for HIV-infected pregnant women requiring treatment for their own health in resource-limited settings. However, there are few documented experiences from African countries. We evaluated the short-term (4 wk) and long-term (12 mo) effectiveness of a two-tiered strategy of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in Africa: women meeting the eligibility criteria of the World Health Organization (WHO) received HAART, and women with less advanced HIV disease received short-course antiretroviral (scARV) PMTCT regimens. Methods and Findings The MTCT-Plus Initiative is a multi-country, family-centred HIV care and treatment program for pregnant and postpartum women and their families. Pregnant women enrolled in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire received either HAART for their own health or short-course antiretroviral (scARV) PMTCT regimens according to their clinical and immunological status. Plasma HIV-RNA viral load (VL) was measured to diagnose peripartum infection when infants were 4 wk of age, and HIV final status was documented either by rapid antibody testing when infants were aged ≥ 12 mo or by plasma VL earlier. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the rate of HIV transmission and HIV-free survival. Between August 2003 and June 2005, 107 women began HAART at a median of 30 wk of gestation, 102 of them with zidovudine (ZDV), lamivudine (3TC), and nevirapine (NVP) and they continued treatment postpartum; 143 other women received scARV for PMTCT, 103 of them with sc(ZDV+3TC) with single-dose NVP during labour. Most (75%) of the infants were breast-fed for a median of 5 mo. Overall, the rate of peripartum HIV transmission was 2.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.3%–4.2%) and the cumulative rate at 12 mo was 5.7% (95% CI 2.5%–9.0%). The overall probability of infant death or infection with HIV was 4.3% (95% CI 1.7%–7.0%) at age week 4 wk and 11.7% (95% CI 7.5%–15.9%) at 12 mo. Conclusions This two-tiered strategy appears to be safe and highly effective for short- and long-term PMTCT in resource-constrained settings. These results indicate a further benefit of access to HAART for pregnant women who need treatment for their own health.


Detailed scanning electron microscope observations, coupled with elemental microanalysis, confirm the presence of a chemical remanent magnetization carried by authigenic greigite (Fe 3 S 4 ) in uplifted Neogene marine sediments from the Hikurangi Margin of New Zealand. Normal polarity samples from the studied section have declinations that are deflected ∼60° clockwise of reversed polarity samples, indicating the presence of two distinct magnetizations separated by several million years of tectonic rotation about a vertical axis. However, although multiple generations of iron sulfide growth are observed petrographically, we see no clear differences in the relative timing of greigite formation between samples carrying these two magnetizations. Not only can the diagenetic growth of greigite in fine-grained marine sediments occur long after deposition, obscuring tectonic and magnetostratigraphic information, but such remagnetizations are also difficult to distinguish from a more primary signal in the absence of constraints from field tests. Our observations emphasize that considerable care is necessary when interpreting paleomagnetic data from greigite-bearing sediments.


Abstract. Previous research has shown that methane may have been sustained at high concentrations in the Archean atmosphere, helping to offset lower insolation and solve the faint young sun problem. However, recent updates to the HITRAN (High-Resolution Transmission) line database have significantly increased the shortwave absorption by CH4 in comparison to older versions of the database (e.g. HITRAN 2000). Here we investigate the climatological implications of strong shortwave CH4 absorption in an Archean atmosphere rich in CH4. We show that the surface warming at CH4 abundances >10-3 is diminished relative to the HITRAN 2000 line data. Strong shortwave absorption also results in a~warm stratosphere and lower tropopause. We discuss these results in the context of contemporary research on the Archean climate and how these results could affect the formation of stratospheric clouds and an organic haze.


Design parameters of the ridger furrow opener directly affecting the furrow profile characteristics and the amount of applied water. Furrow-bed irrigation technique is usually used for water conservation, efficient fertilizer use and many other benefits. This study is to evaluate the impact of design parameters of the ridger furrow opener and planting methods on sugar beet yield and water use efficiency. Therefore, field experiments are conducted to (i) investigate the effects of share rake angles (20 o , 25 o and 30 o ), opener wing angles (35 o and 45 o ) and wing shape configurations (straight and curved) on the furrow profile characteristics, transverse scattering, draft force, and (ii) evaluate planting methods (i.e. ridges with 50 cm rows spacing and pair of rows on bed with 30, 35 and 40 cm rows spacing), the wing shape and angles on the emergence, sugar percentage, root and sugar yield, applied water and water use efficiency. The results showed that the curved shape and the wing angle of 45 o produced wider furrows than those produced by the straight shape and 35 o wing angle. Minimum transverse scattering is associated with the curved wing, wing angle of 35 o and share rake angle of 20 o . Increasing the share rake and wing angles increased the required draft force. The highest average values of root and sugar yields have been achieved at beet planting in beds with 30 cm rows spacing flowed by beds with 35 and 40 cm rows spacing, respectively. The lowest value of the water use efficiency is achieved at planting on ridges compared to the other planting methods. The maximum emergence percentage, root and sugar yields, sugar percentage and water use efficiency are associated with a wing angle of 45 o and the curved wing shape.


In the context of public budget cuts and rural areas facing depopulation and aging, local governments increasingly encourage citizen engagement in addressing local livability issues. This paper examines the non-engagement of mid-aged and elderly residents (45+ years old) in civic initiatives that intend to improve the livability of their community. We focus on residents of depopulating rural areas in the North Netherlands. We compare their engagement with the behavior of residents in other, not depopulating, rural areas, and urban areas. Using logistic statistical analyses, we found that the majority of the aging residents did not engage in civic livability initiatives during the past two years, and one-third of this group had no intention to do so in the future. In all areas, the main reasons for non-engagement were that residents had other priorities, felt not capable of engaging, or felt that the responsibility for local livability belonged to the local government. Furthermore, it appeared that non-engagement was predominantly explained by the unwillingness to engage, rather than by specific motivations or lacking abilities.


Many techniques and inventions in the field of automatic control keeps going forwards, especially that the introduction of modern computing provided a huge ground for innovation in this field. Intelligent control was one of the direct beneficiaries of the computer systems advancements. That led to new ways to tackle old problems like model inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Often, it is necessary to calibrate a certain parameters of a control system due to plant parameters fluctuation over time.In this research, an intelligent algorithmic tuning technique suitable for realtime system tuning based on hill climbing optimization algorithm and model reference adaptive control system (MRAC) technique is proposed. Although all adaptive control tuning methodologies depend partially or completely on online plant system identification, the proposed method uses only the model that is used to design the original controller, leading to simplified calculations that require neither high processing power nor long processing time, as opposed to identification techniques calculations. The main principle in the tuning process is to compare the output of the plant with a desired reference signal within an acceptable error margin. In order to investigate the ability of the proposed tuning method to deal with different system complexities, simulations of three different case studies were conducted. In each case study, different possibilities to generate the desired reference signal is discussed along with how much the complexity of the system would affect the end result. Also, in each case study a discussion contrasts the limitations and conditions needed to be identified to use the proposed method. The proposed design performed very well, improving overshoot and response speeds in example systems depending on reference response generation method. The results showed that using different methods to generate the reference response gives system designer flexibility over favouring a specific response characteristics or an overall decent response. The simulation results illustrates that the method schemes proposed in this study show a viable and versatile solution to deal with controller tuning for systems with model inaccuracies as well as controller real time calibration problem.


Objectives
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020 indicate that potassium, choline, magnesium, calcium, vitamins A, D, E, and C are underconsumed (i.e., shortfall) micronutrients. Intakes of specific performance-related micronutrients (i.e., calcium, magnesium, folate, choline, iron, zinc, and vitamins A, D, E, B1, B2, B3, and B12), may also be a concern, as suboptimal intakes may limit adaptations to unaccustomed physical training, such as initial military training (IMT). Protein-containing foods are nutrient-dense; therefore, dietary protein intake may alter the amount of shortfall and performance-related micronutrients habitually consumed. This study explored associations between dietary protein (PRO) intake and shortfall or performance-related micronutrient intakes at IMT accession.

Methods
A 3-month food frequency questionnaire was used to estimate habitual dietary intake in male (n = 276, age: Mean (SD), 21.1 (3.8)) and female (n = 254, age: 21.2 (3.7)) recruits. Multivariate-adjusted MANCOVA and ANCOVA models were used to identify associations between quartiles of PRO intake and shortfall micronutrients or performance-related micronutrients. Models were adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, race, physical activity, energy density, and total energy intake.

Results
Mean (SE) energy-adjusted PRO intakes were 29.3 (3.2), 36.0 (1.4), 40.8 (1.3), and 47.7 (3.9) g/1000 kcal for quartiles 1-4, respectively. Composite shortfall micronutrient intake differed (P < 0.001) by PRO quartile, as intake of each micronutrient, except vitamin C, progressively increased (all, P < 0.05) with increasing PRO quartiles. Similarly, composite (P < 0.001), and most individual (all, P < 0.05) performance-related micronutrient intakes, except calcium, were different across PRO quartiles. Calcium intake only differed for PRO quartile 1 and was lower than all other quartiles (P < 0.00).

Conclusions
These cross-sectional data suggest that habitually consuming more protein is associated with greater intakes of shortfall and performance-related micronutrients in young healthy adults entering the military.

Funding Sources
Supported by US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command; authors' views not official US Army or DoD policy.


The article presents the problem of designing and testing of multifunctional concealed bulletproof vest in which both soft and hard ballistic inserts are elastic and adjustable to the body of the user. The main challenge in the development process, was to create a hard ceramic-based armour system which meets the camuflage, flexibility and protection requirements. The vest must be as lightweigt as possible while maintaining the expected protective area and ballistic performance against various threats. Vest inserts construction is described and material selection proceedure is justified. The results of firing and stab resistance tests based on polish and foreign standards are presented. Soft fiber-based ballistic inserts were fired with the use of 7.62x25 mm TT and 0.44 Magnum SJHP pistol ammunition as well as fragment simulating projectiles (FSP). Flexible ceramic-based panels were tested with 5.7x28 mm SS190 pistol ammunition with increased penetration capability. Special attention was paid to the problem of ballistic resistance of the flexible inserts at the points of inflection. Additionally selected zones of the vest were tested for stab-resistance.


We report on the photoluminescent (PL) properties of carbon nanodots (CNDs) doped with nitrogen and sulfur obtained by the pyrolytic carbonization of amino acids as precursors. Prepared CNDs exhibit stable PL emission under a wide variety of aqueous conditions. The results also provided the way to tune a PL intensity of CNDs by varying the amount of heteroatoms in precursors with a binary mixture of amino acids. The PL quantum yields of the obtained CNDs were determined to be from 0.079 to 0.571.


Abstract The purpose of this study was to analyze the racial and athletic identities of African American male college athletes to determine how the identities might impact the athletic and educational potential and performance of this specific group of college athletes. The study revealed that participants who responded negatively to a poor athletic performance were more likely to have lower levels of academic self-concept. In contrast, college athletes who highly identified with their racial group were more likely to have higher levels of academic self-concept. Overall, the findings reveal the intricacies and complexities of being an African American college student and athlete at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) in the US. As such, the article details the implications of the findings as they relate to African American culture, American sports culture, and higher education realities.


Whole body vibration (WBV) is a form of physical stimulation brought about by mechanical vibrations transmitted to a subject. WBV can increase attention in cognitive tasks in mice and men. However, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie this improved brain functioning. We examined whether WBV affects the cholinergic forebrain system of mice. Male C57Bl/6J mice (2 months of age) received WBV in a cage attached to a small vibrating platform (30 Hz with peak-to-peak displacements ranging from 14 to 75mm). WBV was applied five days a week for a period of five weeks with daily sessions of ten minutes. Control mice (pseudo-WBV) were treated similarly, but did not receive the actual vibration. Mice were sacrificed 24 hours after the last session and their brains were processed immuno cyto chemically for the acetylcholine-synthesizing enzyme cholineacetyl transferase (ChAT). ChAT-immunoreactivity was measured in the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM), the somatosensory cortex, and the basolateral amygdala (where the cholinergic fibers arising from the NBM terminate). ChAT-immunoreactivity was significantly increased due to WBV in layer 5 of the somatosensory cortex (by 23%; p< 0.01) and amygdala (by 21%; p<0.05), but not in the NBM as compared to pseudo-WBV. As increased ChAT-immunoreactivity indicates a higher cholinergic activity, these results reveal that the positive effects of WBV on attention are most likely (at least in part) mediated by an increased activity of the NBM cholinergic system. WBV could therefore be a suitable intervention strategy in conditions where a reduced cholinergic forebrain activity plays a role.


The No Child Left Behind Act has generated debate over issues including graduation levels; the ways states are implementing graduation rate accountability required under the law; and the best methods for measuring graduation rates. This study provides the most extensive set of systematic empirical findings to date on U.S. public school graduation rates. The findings include detailed descriptive statistics and analytic results for the nation as a whole, by geographical region, and for each of the states. The study also offers a detailed perspective on high school completion by examining graduation rates for the overall student population, for specific racial and ethnic groups, and by gender, and analysis of graduation rate patterns for particular types of school districts.


Abstract In this policy brief, we discuss the challenges of measuring productivity effects of automatization in a governmental payment service organization (The Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR, Palkeet) that has developed and applied digital robotics in work processes. To this end, we combine sociologic and economic research tools and traditions to provide a full picture of the transition. First, we analyse work at the level of individual tasks by using large-scale econometric models and HR-data; an approach that provides detailed digital job profiles for assessment. Secondly, we add the understanding of digital working by qualitative inquiry of employees' meaning making of working with robots. Our study contributes to the discourses of management control and adaptation to change.


This paper presents an improved machine learning approach for the accurate and robust state of charge (SOC) in electric vehicle (EV) batteries using differential search optimized random forest regression (RFR) algorithm. The precise SOC estimation confirms the safety and reliability of EV. Nevertheless, SOC is influenced by numerous factors which cannot be measured directly. RFR is suitable for real-time SOC estimation due to its robustness to noise, overfitting issues and capacity to work with huge datasets. However, proper selection of RFR architecture and hyper-parameters combination remains a key issue to be explored. Hence, a differential search algorithm (DSA) is employed to search for the optimal values of trees and leaves in the RFR algorithm. DSA optimized RFR eliminates the utilization of the filter in data pre-processing steps and does not require a detailed understanding and knowledge about battery chemistry, rather only needs sensors to monitor battery voltage and current. The developed approach is validated at room temperature using two types of lithium-ion batteries under a pulse discharge test. In addition, the proposed model is verified under varying temperature settings under EV drive cycles. The experimental results demonstrate that the DSA optimized RFR algorithm achieves RMSE of 0.382% in the HPPC test using LiNMC battery. Besides, the proposed method obtains satisfactory outcomes in EV drive cycles, estimating MAE of 0.193% and 0.346% in DST and FUDS cycles, respectively, at 25°C.


This book compares the educational experiences of adolescents from a variety of 'visible' ethnic minority groups such as Roma in Central Europe, post-colonial minorities in France and England, Turks and Arabs in Germany, and recent immigrants in Scandinavia. Focusing on underprivileged urban contexts, it reveals the structural inequalities and also the often conflict-ridden inter-ethnic relations which develop in classrooms, playgrounds and larger communities. Ranging from explorations of quasi-ghettos to experiments in racial and ethnic integration, the encountered situations shed light on the challenges of managing diversity in local communities and on an all-societal level. The contributions consider both the routine practices of ethnic distinctions and colour-blindness in schooling, as well as the ways in which various actors - students, teachers, and parents - experience and understand these practices. In doing so, this volume reveals that despite the broad consensus on equal opportunity as a desirable aim, ethnic differentiation remains a key source of exclusion across Europe.


Zinc finger protein 36 (ZFP36) is an RNA-binding protein that downregulates the translation of certain gene products by inducing the degradation of mRNA. ZFP36 is an immediate-early gene: its transcription is activated directly following appropriate cellular stimuli, without any need for intervening protein synthesis. Prominent mRNA targets of ZFP36 are tumor necrosis factor (TNF), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and c-fos. As defects in the c-fos and EGF pathways have been consistently found in cancers, ZFP36 is thought to be a tumor-suppressor. ZFP36 also is responsible for the suppression of TNF, giving it an additional role in the control of the inflammatory immune response. Thus, studying the regulation and action of ZPF36 may yield insights into mechanisms underlying cancer and inflammatory syndromes. To examine the regulation of ZFP36, two conserved regions upstream of the start of transcription were assayed for their ability to confer serum induction. Using a luciferase reporter gene system in HeLa cells, we show that neither region examined is induced by serum.


A detailed photoreflectance study of a GaAs-Al/sub 0.3/Ga/sub 0.7/As multiple quantum well of well width 260 A is carried out at 300 and 80 K. The pressure dependence of a large number of quantized states is observed. The sublinearity of pressure dependence increases with increasing quantum number. A model calculation that includes the pressure dependence of electron effective mass accurately describes the data. Transitions associated with L and X band extrema are observed and their pressure coefficients deduced.


OF DISSERTATION EXPLORING BISEXUAL-IDENTIFIED PERSONS EXPERIENCES OF BELONGING Belonging is a basic and fundamental human need (Baumeister, & Leary, 1995) that is associated with psychosocial health (Cohen, 2004). Unfortunately, community belonging is a challenge for those with a bisexual identity. Binegativity, minority stress, and the invisibility of bisexual-identities may interfere with attempts to develop a sense of community belonging (Bradford, 2004). Little systematic research has examined bisexual-identified people's perceptions and experiences of belonging to a community. This project addressed the question, "What are bisexual individuals' experiences of community belonging/social exclusion?" Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of 12 bisexual-identified persons. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2006). Findings indicated that bisexual-identified persons encountered stigma and at times concealed their sexuality in order to create community belonging. However, risking authenticity, rather than concealing identity, seemed to help participants deal with stigma and develop more meaningful community belonging. Bisexual-identified persons who risk disclosing their identity and develop a sense of authenticity may increase their opportunities for community belonging. These findings are discussed in relation to their implications for counseling bisexual-identified persons and educating the communities in which they live.


This thesis employs critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995) to unpick the
discourses surrounding British widows of men who died as a result of the First
World War. The war widows' pension scheme, as implemented under the Royal
Warrant of 1916, was the first (financially) non-contributory pension, and the first
specifically directed towards women in Britain. Implemented against a backdrop of
the first mass, industrialised war of the modern era, the discourses and ideologies
underpinning it are firmly rooted in those of the previous century.
At a time when the State was intervening in the life of its citizens in more extensive
way than at any previous time, it also sought to distance itself from these citizens
through the use of an impersonal style of communication. This was used to present
war widows' pension legislation that was framed around discourses of morality and
nationalism that masks underlying parsimony and patriarchy.
This thesis draws on a wide range of resources such as charitable records, media
sources and Hansard reports, concentrating on a selection of 200 individual case
files relating to claims for a war widow's pension, held in the National Archive,
Kew. Two case files are analysed in detail using discourse-historical analysis
(Wodak, 2001) as a framework for a linguistic analysis. The two case files chosen
represent widows whose experiences are typical of those found in the corpus. One
widow is representative of the sizeable group of women who had their pensions
stopped because of 'improper' behaviour, the correspondence in her file revealing
how discourses of morality, social welfare and national identity are employed
interdiscursively to deny her State funds. The second case study is more diachronic,
showing how one widow, in common with thousands of others, was denied a
pension on grounds on ineligibility. She employs discourses of social welfare and
nationalism to support her claim over a period of nearly 40 years. Over the course
of the 20th century, the relationship between the State and the public altered, and this
case file offers an opportunity to explore this in some detail.