Midkine is a heparin-binding growth factor that promotes the growth, survival, migration and differentiation of various target cells. So far, receptor-type protein tyrosine phosphatase ζ, low-density-lipoprotein-receptor-related protein and anaplastic lymphoma kinase have been identified as receptors for midkine. We found β1 integrin in midkine-binding proteins from 13-day-old mouse embryos. β1-Integrin bound to a midkine-agarose column and was eluted mostly with EDTA. Further study revealed that the α-subunits capable of binding to midkine were α4 and α6. Purified α4β1- and α6β1-integrins bound midkine. Anti-α4 antibody inhibited the midkine-dependent migration of osteoblastic cells, and anti-α6 antibody inhibited the midkine-dependent neurite outgrowth of embryonic neurons. After midkine treatment, tyrosine phosphorylation of paxillin, an integrin-associated molecule, was transiently increased in osteoblastic cells. Therefore, we concluded that α4β1- and α6β1-integrins are functional receptors for midkine. We observed that the low-density-lipoprotein-receptor-related-protein-6 ectodomain was immunoprecipitated with α6β1-integrin and α4β1-integrin. The low-density-lipoprotein-receptor-related-protein-6 ectodomain was also immunoprecipitated with receptor-type protein tyrosine phosphatase ζ. α4β1- and α6β1-Integrins are expected to co-operate with other midkine receptors, possibly in a multimolecular complex that contains other midkine receptors.


Energy harvesters collect and convert energy available in the environment into useful electrical power to satisfy the power requirements of autonomous systems. Vibration energy is a prevalent source of waste energy in industrial and built environments. Vibration-based energy harvesters, or vibration-based micro power generators (VBMPGs), utilize a transducer, a mechanical oscillator in this application, to capture kinetic energy from environmental vibrations and to convert it into electrical energy using electromagnetic, electrostatic, or piezoelectric transduction mechanisms. A key design feature of all VBMPGs, regardless of their transduction mechanism, is that they are optimally tuned to harvest vibration energy within a narrow frequency band in the neighborhood of the natural frequency of the oscillator. Outside this band, the output power is too low to be conditioned and utilized. This limitation is exacerbated by the fact that VBMPGs are also designed to have high quality factors to minimize energy dissipation, further narrowing the optimal operating frequency band. Vibrations in most environments, however, are random and wideband. As a result, VBMPGs can harvest energy only for a relatively limited period of time, which imposes excessive constraints on their usability. A new architecture for wideband VBMPGs is the main contribution of this thesis. The new design is general in the sense that it can be applied to any of the three transduction mechanisms listed above. The linear oscillator is replaced with a piecewise-linear oscillator as the energy-harvesting element of the VBMPG. The new architecture has been found to increase the bandwidth of the VBMPG during a frequency up-sweep, while maintaining the same bandwidth in a frequency downsweep. Experimental results show that using the new architecture results in a 313% increase in the width of the bandwidth compared to that produced by traditional architecture. Simulations show that under random-frequency excitations, the new architecture collects more energy than traditional architecture. iii In addition, the knowledge acquired has been used to build a wideband electromagnetic VBMPG using MicroElectroMechanical Systems, MEMS, technology. This research indicates that a variety of piecewise-linear oscillators, including impact oscillators, can be implemented on MPG structures that have been built using MEMS technology. When the scale of the MPGs is reduced, lower losses are likely during contact between the moving oscillators and the stopper, which will lead to an increase in bandwidth and hence in the amount of energy collected. Finally, a design procedure has been developed for optimizing such wideband MPGs. This research showed that wideband MPGs require two design optimization steps in addition to the traditional technique, which is used in all types of generators, of minimizing mechanical energy losses through structural design and material selection. The first step for both regular and wideband MPGs minimizes the MPG damping ratio by increasing the mass and stiffness of the MPG by a common factor until the effect of size causes the rate at which energy losses increase to accelerate beyond that common factor. The second step, which is specific to wideband MPGs, tailors the output power and bandwidth to fit the Probability Density Function, PDF, of environmental vibrations. A figure of merit FoM was devised to quantify the quality of this fit. Experimental results show that with this procedure, the bandwidth at half-power level increases to more than 600% of the original VBMPG bandwidth.


Among the current concerns of the emerging Semantic Web technology are various integration applications including integration of Web-Services for e-business environments. Recent trends consider Agent Technologies as possible active intelligent enablers for both the passive descriptive part of the Semantic Web (ontologies) and its programmatic components (Web services). Several reserch projects both in Europe and overseas prove that software agents may become a powerful and a flexible instrument bringing the Semantic Web alive. This course entitled "Agent Technologies on the Semantic Web" will survey some of these research achievements providing evidence of the "brain meeting brawn" on the emerging Semantic Web of collaborating intelligent software agents. Specifically the course will focus on one of the today's research challenges in the field - automated Semantic Web Service composition. Agents are the software which may use intelligent mechanisms for reaching automated agreements on tthe compositions of their services in a rational way. That is why the course will pay considerable attention to the aspects of automated utilitarian negotiations among software agents. It will be shown how distributed Agent- and Semantic Web Service-based architectures may be successfully implemented in distributed Information Retrieval.


This study investigates the use of reflective journals among UiTM TESL studentteachers during their 10 weeks of formal teaching practise. This study focuses on the use of reflective journals in tracing the classroom management concerns of the student-teachers during their formal teaching practise. In this study, teachers' classroom management is categorized into three categories that are establishing physical and psychological environment, and monitoring students' behaviour and learning progress. Aside from that, this study also attempts to find out the studentteachers' perceptions on the use of the reflective journals. The data of this research is obtained from document analyses from the student-teachers' diaries and interviews done with the student-teachers. The interviews were done on two of the four research participants due to logistic reasons. From the document analysis of the student-teachers' diaries, it is found that reflective journals provide evidence of the student-teachers' concerns in classroom management especially in terms of their class' psychological environment and how they are to monitor their students' behaviour and learning progress. Moreover, based on the interviews done, it is essential to note that both participants believe that reflective journal writing would be beneficial if the teachers know how and what to reflect on. The results of this study also show that the UiTM TESL student-teachers have a positive attitude towards the use of reflective journals during their formal teaching training. It is also found that reflective journals are beneficial in helping the student-teachers improve their classroom management concerns by encouraging them to become more critical in their thinking. The findings from the study can be taken as examples for student-teachers in the future on what and how to go about writing their reflective journal. Aside from that, this study is beneficial for future student teachers in exposing them the various categories of classroom management that they need to keep in mind in the near future. Moreover, the findings that have been obtained from this study is helpful in giving insights to student-teachers that reflective journals can be used as a very useful learning tool for them. However, it is suggested that future research should focus on investigating the quality of reflection by student-teachers. It is also recommended to future researchers to include observation as one of the research instrument while interviews should be carried out on the student-teachers' supervisor and mentor in order to obtain information on their opinion regarding the observations they have done on the student-teachers.


In this thesis, direct hydrogen Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems in vehicles are investigated through modelling, field tests and public acceptance surveys. A computer model of a 50 kW PEM fuel cell system was developed. The fuel cell system efficiency is approximately 50% between 10 and 45% of the rated power. The fuel cell auxiliary system, e.g. compressor and pumps, was shown to clearly affect the overall fuel cell system electrical efficiency. Two hydrogen on-board storage options, compressed and cryogenic hydrogen, were modelled for the above-mentioned system. Results show that the release of compressed gaseous hydrogen needs approximately 1 kW of heat, which can be managed internally with heat from the fuel cell stack. In the case of cryogenic hydrogen, the estimated heat demand of 13 kW requires an extra heat source. A phase change based (PCM) thermal management solution to keep a 50 kW PEM fuel cell stack warm during dormancy in a cold climate (-20 °C) was investigated through simulation and experiments. It was shown that a combination of PCM (salt hydrate or paraffin wax) and vacuum insulation materials was able to keep a fuel cell stack from freezing for about three days. This is a simple and potentially inexpensive solution, although development on issues such as weight, volume and encapsulation materials is needed Two different vehicle platforms, fuel cell vehicles and fuel cell hybrid vehicles, were used to study the fuel consumption and the air, water and heat management of the fuel cell system under varying operating conditions, e.g. duty cycles and ambient conditions. For a compact vehicle, with a 50 kW fuel cell system, the fuel consumption was significantly reduced, ~ 50 %, compared to a gasoline-fuelled vehicle of similar size. A bus with 200 kW fuel cell system was studied and compared to a diesel bus of comparable size. The fuel consumption of the fuel cell bus displayed a reduction of 33-37 %. The performance of a fuel cell hybrid vehicle, i.e. a 50 kW fuel cell system and a 12 Ah power-assist battery pack in series configuration, was studied. The simulation results show that the vehicle fuel consumption increases with 10-19 % when the altitude increases from 0 to 3000 m. As expected, the air compressor with its load-following strategy was found to be the main parasitic power (~ 40 % of the fuel cell system net power output at the altitude of 3000 m). Ambient air temperature and relative humidity affect mostly the fuel cell system heat management but also its water balance. In designing the system, factors such as control strategy, duty cycles and ambient conditions need to taken into account. An evaluation of the performance and maintenance of three fuel cell buses in operation in Stockholm in the demonstration project Clean Urban Transport for Europe (CUTE) was performed. The availability of the buses was high, over 85 % during the summer months and even higher availability during the fall of 2004. Cold climate-caused failures, totalling 9 % of all fuel cell propulsion system failures, did not involve the fuel cell stacks but the auxiliary system. The fuel consumption was however rather high at 7.5 L diesel equivalents/10km (per July 2004). This is thought to be, to some extent, due to the robust but not energy-optimized powertrain of the buses. Hybridization in future design may have beneficial effects on the fuel consumption. Surveys towards hydrogen and fuel cell technology of more than 500 fuel cell bus passengers on route 66 and 23 fuel cell bus drivers in Stockholm were performed. The passengers were in general positive towards fuel cell buses and felt safe with the technology. Newspapers and bus stops were the main sources of information on the fuel cell bus project, but more information was wanted. Safety, punctuality and frequency were rated as the most important factors in the choice of public transportation means. The environment was also rated as an important factor. More than half of the bus passengers were nevertheless unwilling to pay a higher fee for introducing more fuel cell buses in Stockholm's public transportation. The drivers were positive to the fuel cell bus project, stating that the fuel cell buses were better than diesel buses with respect to pollutant emissions from the exhausts, smell and general passenger comfort. Also, driving experience, acceleration and general comfort for the driver were reported to be better than or similar to those of a conventional bus.


During the heavy-oil cold production process, producing sand and oil simultaneously causes a dramatic increase in oil recovery. The reason for the higher oil recovery is due to the wormhole development during production, where wormholes create interconnections between the boreholes in the reservoirs. Therefore, detecting the distribution of the wormholes is very significant for designing the well spacing and infill drilling locations. Time-lapse seismology could be a useful new technique to monitor wormholes based on the physical characteristics of wormholes, such as high porosity, unconsolidated sandfree channels, and foamy oil with gas saturation. This paper will discuss some ideas on how to detect wormhole distribution by employing the Vp/Vs ratio and AVO anomalies in time-lapse seismology techniques.


In this article, I explain the inadequacy of our current state of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of antitrust policy towards mergers. I then discuss the types of data that one must collect in order to be able to perform an analysis of the effectiveness of antitrust policy. There are two types of data one requires in order to perform such an analysis. One is data on the relevant market pre and post merger. The second is data on the specific predictions of the government agencies about the market post-merger. A key point of this article is to stress how weak an analysis of only the first type of data is. The frequent call for retrospective studies typically envisions relying on just this type of data, but the limitations on the analysis are not well understood. As I explain below, retrospective studies that ask whether prices went up post merger are surprisingly poor guides for analyzing merger policy. It is only when the second type of data is combined with the first type that a reliable analysis of antitrust policy can be carried out. There is a need both to collect the necessary data and to analyze it correctly.


Internet shopbots compare prices and services levels at competing retailers, creating a laboratory for analysing consumer choice. We analyse 20,268 shopbot consumers who select various books from 33 retailers over 69 days. Although each retailer offers a homogeneous product, we find that brand is an important determinant of consumer choice. The three most heavily branded retailers hold a $1.72 price advantage over more generic retailers in head-to-head price comparisons. In particular, we find that consumers use brand as a proxy for retailer credibility in non-contractible aspects of the product and service bundle, such as shipping reliability. Copyright 2001 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd


BACKGROUND: Infectious complications are a major concern after trans-rectal ultrasound-guided prostate needle biopsy (TRUS-PNB). Although Fluoroquinolones are currently the first choice, an increase in resistance has raised the question about its recommendation. Fosfomycin trometamol (FMT) is a wide spectrum oral antibiotic with low bacterial resistance reported. Therefore we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical studies to assess the comparative prophylactic effectiveness of FMT versus Ciprofloxacin (CIP) in subjects who underwent TRUSPNB. METHODS: A systematic review was performed between January 1970 and June 2017 using Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed databases to identify relevant studies. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis criteria was used for article selection. Outcomes of interest were febrile and afebrile urinary tract infection (UTI) and the presence of Fluoroquinolone-resistant (FQR) or extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing uropathogens in urinary cultures. RESULTS: Four studies including 2331 subjects were analyzed, 1088 had used FMT and 1243 CIP as antibiotic prophylaxis previous TRSU-PNB. FMT provided a significantly lower afebrile (OR = 0.21, 95%CI = 0.12 – 0.38, P < 0.001) and febrile (OR = 0.15, 95%CI = 0.07 – 0.31, P < 0.001) UTI than CIP. Among all urine cultures, patients in FMT arm also had a significant lower prevalence of FQR and ESBL (E. coli or K. pneumoniae) microorganisms when compared to CIP group (OR = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.12 – 0.21, P = 0.001 and OR = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.10-0.58, P = 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Antibiotic prophylaxis with FMT prior to TRUS-PNB was associated with lower rates of infectious complication when compared to CIP.


This research investigates the issue of conducting heuristic inspections along an extended array of dimensions that includes often ignored considerations such as motivational and persuasive factors. Two objectives are pursued: to offer a comprehensive perspective on the different approaches to heuristic inspections and their evolution in the last decades since their emergence, and to propose an approach that integrates the extended array of heuristic criteria. The motivation for the proposed approach and the issues faced are also discussed.


This paper addresses the problem of resource allocation in a multiservice optical network based on an overlapped-CDMA system. A joint transmission power and overlapping coefficient (transmission rate) allocation strategy is provided via the solution of a constrained convex quadratic optimization problem. The solution to this problem maximizes the aggregate throughput subject to peak lasers transmission power constraints. The optimization problem is solved in a closed form, and the resource allocation strategy is simple to implement in an optical network. Results are presented showing a total agreement between the derived analytical solution and the one obtained using a numerical search method. In addition, analytical and numerical results show that the proposed resource allocation strategy can offer substantial improvement in the system throughput.


Some authors in fact refer to episodes as chemical arachnoiditis. Jolles et al. at the National Institute for Medical Research, London, ( [1] ) discussed Drug-induced aseptic meningitis (DIAM), which they denoted as "uncommon." The authors remarked that most of the literature comprises anecdotal case reports. The major types of causative drugs are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), antimicrobials (antibiotics) "intravenous immunoglobulin, intrathecal agents, vaccines". The authors also noted the association between lupus and DIAM and the link with ibuprofen. They stated that up to 60% of patients with SLE are estimated to have CNS symptoms associated with inflammation at some time during their illness, and that this could predispose them to DIAM. They postulated 2 possible ways in which DIAM arises:


The NCEP Regional Spectral Model (RSM), with horizontal resolution of 60 km, was used to downscale the ECHAM4.5 AGCM (T42) simulations forced with observed SSTs over northeast Brazil. An ensemble of 10 runs for the period January–June 1971–2000 was used in this study. The RSM can resolve the spatial patterns of observed seasonal precipitation and capture the interannual variability of observed seasonal precipitation as well. The AGCM bias in displacement of the Atlantic ITCZ is partially corrected in the RSM. The RSM probability distribution function of seasonal precipitation anomalies is in better agreement with observations than that of the driving AGCM. Good potential prediction skills are demonstrated by the RSM in predicting the interannual variability of regional seasonal precipitation. The RSM can also capture the interannual variability of observed precipitation at intraseasonal time scales, such as precipitation intensity distribution and dry spells. A drought index and a flooding index were adopted to indicate the severity of drought and flooding conditions, and their interannual variability was reproduced by the RSM. The overall RSM performance in the downscaled climate of the ECHAM4.5 AGCM is satisfactory over Nordeste. The primary deficiency is a systematic dry bias for precipitation simulation.


Contents: Introduction, Alison Diduck. Part I Changing Intimacies a " the Theory: On the way to a post-familial family: from a community of need to elective affinities, Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim Intimacy transformed? A critical look at the 'pure relationship', Lynn Jamieson. Part II Changing Intimacies a " Empirical Research: Why marry? a " perceptions of the affianced, Mary Hibbs, Chris Barton and Joanne Beswick Why don't they marry? Cohabitation, commitment and DIY marriage, Simon Duncan, Anne Barlow and Grace James Cohabitation and commitment: partnership plans of young men and women, Lynn Jamieson, Michael Anderson, David McCrone, Frank Bechofer, Robert Stewart and Yaojun Li Marriage and the moral bases of personal relationships, John Eekelaar and Mavis Maclean The significance of marriage: contrasts between white British and ethnic minority groups in England, Mavis Maclean and John Eekelaar Regulation of intimacy and love semantics in couples living apart together, Bernadette Bawin-Legros and Anne Gauthier Cultures of intimacy and care beyond 'the family': personal life and social change in the early 21st century, Sasha Roseneil and Shelley Budgeon. Part III Why Legal Regulation At All?: The Marriage Act 1753: a case study in family law-making, Stephen Parker Debates and issues regarding marriage and cohabitation in the British and American literature, Jane Lewis Homosexual rights, Brenda Hale. Part IV Law and Marriage: The case against legal recognition of cohabitation, Ruth L. Deech Marriage and the good of obligation, Scott Fitzgibbon Just marriage: on the public importance of private unions, Mary Lyndon Shanley Contract marriage a " the way forward or dead end?, David McLellan The tide in favour of equality: same-sex marriage in Canada and England and Wales, Wade K. Wright Why marriage?, Martha Albertson Fineman Marriage is for heterosexuals a " may the rest of us be saved from it, Kenneth McK. Norrie We will get what we ask for: why legalizing gay and lesbian marriage will not 'dismantle the legal structure of gender in every marriage', Nancy D. Polikoff Law, women and the family: the question of polygyny in a new South Africa, Felicity Kaganas and Christina Murray. Part V Law and Civil Registration: The PACS and marriage and cohabitation in France, Claude Martin and IrAne ThA(c)ry Couplings: civil partnership in the United Kingdom, Carl F. Stychin. Part VI Law and Conjugal Cohabitation: Regulation of cohabitation, changing family policies and social attitudes: a discussion of Britain within Europe, Anne Barlow Legal treatment of cohabitation in the United States, Cynthia Grant Bowman. Part VII Law and Non-Conjugal Relationships: Why we should care about friends: an argument for queering the care imaginary in social policy, Sasha Roseneil Displacing the 'conjugal' family in legal policy a " a progressive move?, Lisa Glennon Name index.


Early Internet scholars proclaimed that the transnational nature of the Internet rendered it inherently unregulable by conventional governments. Instead, the Internet would be governed by customs and practices established by the end user community in a manner reminiscent of the lex mercatoria, which spontaneously emerged during medieval times to resolve international trade disputes independently and autonomously from national law. Subsequent events have revealed these claims to have been overly optimistic, as national governments have evinced both the inclination and the ability to exert influence, if not outright control, over the physical infrastructure, the domain name system, and the content flowing across the network. These failures have done little to lessen the allure of Internet self-governance. In particular, some scholars have suggested that more widespread use of open source software would increase the Internet's ability to resist governmental control. This Essay explores whether more widespread use of open source software might provide the basis for the type of bottom-up ordering associated with the lex mercatoria. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a system of self-governance based on open source implicate the same questions of spontaneity, universality, and autonomy that surround the lex mercatoria.


Title of Document: THE NATURE OF BI-ETHNIC IDENITY IN YOUNG ADULTS OF ASIAN AND EUROPEAN DESCENT AND THEIR PERCEPTIONS OF FAMILIAL INFLUENCES ON ITS DEVELOPMENT Amanda Laurel Wagner Hoa, Ph.D., 2009 Directed By: Professor Allan Wigfield, Department of Human Development The purpose of this study was to identify the key constructs of bi-ethnic identity, the key familial influences, and other salient influences on bi-ethnic identity as perceived by young adults of Asian and European descent. The rapidly changing demographics of the United States provide an impetus for research on the developmental processes of biethnic individuals. In this qualitative study, participants were interviewed about their biethnic identities and possible influences on bi-ethnic identity development. Data analysis for this study incorporated techniques from grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) and analytic induction (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993). Five bi-ethnic identity types emerged from participants' responses to interview questions: majority identity, minority identity, dual identity, integrated identity, and unresolved identity. These identity types are a unique contribution to the literature in that they specify how individuals of Asian and European descent define themselves. Additionally, this study identified four facets of bi-ethnic identity that indicate how bi-ethnic individuals think and feel about their background: centrality, self-label, affirmation, and affect. Six categories of influences on bi-ethnic identity development emerged from responses to interview questions (parental, extended family, personal, peer, environmental, discrimination), with 18 subcategories. This study is important because most prior research on bi-ethnic identity has focused on uncovering developmental stages, while we lack understanding of the nature of bi-ethnic identity and influences on its development. This study was important given the dearth of research on bi-ethnic Asians, although future research is needed with other bi-ethnic groups. THE NATURE OF BI-ETHNIC IDENITY IN YOUNG ADULTS OF ASIAN AND EUROPEAN DESCENT AND THEIR PERCEPTIONS OF FAMILIAL INFLUENCES ON ITS DEVELOPMENT


Results are presented from an experimental study which demonstrates the feasibility of using an existing galling tester and test method as a screening device for evaluating thread compound additives for galling protection. The galling tester employs tubular pin and box specimen pairs fabricated from steel tubing used in the oil field. For the test thread compounds, four different additive packages were used, all with the same grease base of lithium stearate. For reference purposes, the lithium stearate grease base without any additives was tested as one of the thread compounds. The data obtained on contact stress at galling failure show that of the five thread compounds tested, the best galling protection is afforded by the API Modified thread compound, the industry standard for casing and tubing used by the oil industry. The other four compounds show lower galling failure contact stresses of varying degrees. Friction coefficient data obtained during the tests are also presented and discussed.


In this paper, we present WiFra, a new framework for the detailed simulation of very large-scale wireless networks. WiFra is based on the parallel and distributed simulation approach and provides high scalability in terms of size of simulated networks and number of execution units running the simulation. In order to improve the performance of distributed simulation, additional techniques are proposed. Their aim is to reduce the communication overhead and to maintain a good level of load-balancing. Simulation architectures composed of low-cost Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware are specifically supported by WiFra. The framework dynamically reconfigures the simulation, taking care of the performance of each part of the execution architecture and dealing with unpredictable fluctuations of the available computation power and communication load on the single execution units. A fine-grained model of the 802.11 DCF protocol has been used for the performance evaluation of the proposed framework. The results demonstrate that the distributed approach is suitable for the detailed simulation of very-large scale wireless networks.


Bats have the second largest diversity in mammalian classes after rodentia (Nurfitrianto et al., 2013). Bat population reaches approximately 1100 species (Teeling et.al 2005). In Indonesia there are 205 or 21% of known world bat species (Suyanto 2001). Bats are the only flying mammals. The ability bat to fly is supported by the shape of the extremities and also the adaptation of the cardiovascular organs. Based on empirical studies of cardiovascular was known that cardiac muscle mass is a good indicator for the degree of adaptive specialization of prolonged locomotor activity, in both birds and mammals. Data on cardiovascular muscle morphology and muscles that support flying ability will provide an overview of the behavior, ecology and physiology of certain animals (Bishop 1997).Several studies have been conducted to study the cardiovascular system of bats. Research on bat hematology profile has been done (Heard and Whittier 1997, Mclaughlin et.al 2007, Wawrocka and Bartonicka 2014, McMichael et al. 2015, Ratnasooriya 2016, Rashid et al, 2016, Rahma et al., 2018). Joseph (1908) says that every animal has a different size and heart shape to each other. This heart size difference is influenced by the size of the body and the high energy required by the animal (Joseph 1908).Bat's heart rate is known to increase during flight (Thomas and Suthers 1972). This is causes an increase in the rate of metabolism. Writing this paper will discuss about the uniqueness of the bat's heart so that it can support its ability to fly.


Since the antiquity, the "small rest" of faith in Life that persists, is a protection against the chaos. Local Development is the answer. Paulo Freire said: "My experience along with other experiences, are the basis for hope". Popular Education in health points to making a productive project with identity. Our example comes from Balsa las Perlas, a township on the banks of Rio Limay of the province of Rio Negro, Argentina. People settled in a territory known for its harsh climate and transformed it into a community claiming its rights. The interest of this very population led it to obtain a level II health care center, a permanent physician, the qualification of a local nurse and a health worker, radio communications with a network of hospitals and open doors to the participation of the people. This yielded its fruits later, since this place is never forgotten, nowadays, when it comes to granting state resources.


Partial discharge (PD) can provide a useful forewarning of asset failure in electricity substations. A significant proportion of assets are susceptible to PD due to incipient weakness in their dielectrics. This study examines a low cost approach for uninterrupted monitoring of PD using a network of inexpensive radio sensors to sample the spatial patterns of PD received signal strength. Machine learning techniques are proposed for localisation of PD sources. Specifically, two models based on support vector machines are developed: support vector regression (SVR) and least-squares support vector regression (LSSVR). These models construct an explicit regression surface in a high-dimensional feature space for function estimation. Their performance is compared with that of artificial neural network (ANN) models. The results show that both SVR and LSSVR methods are superior to ANNs in accuracy. LSSVR approach is particularly recommended as practical alternative for PD source localisation due to its low complexity.


This paper introduces an approach based on artificial embryogeny for truss design to address the problem of finding the best truss structure for a given loading. In this setup, the basic idea is to optimize the size and length of beams in a truss through the actions of a set of cells that are distributed over the very truss structure. Given information at the mechanical level (beam strain), each cell controller is able to modify the local truss structure (beam size and length) during a developmental process. The advantage of such a method relies on the idea that a template cell controller is duplicated over all cells, keeping the optimization search space very low, while each cell may act in a different manner depending on local information. This approach is demonstrated on a classical benchmark, the "cantilever": resulting organisms are shown to provide very interesting and unique properties regarding reuse of optimized genotypes in noisy or higher-dimension settings.


Personality traits have been reported to predict difficulties in performing instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) in old age, such as preparing meals or shopping. However, little is known about the reciprocal effects on personality. In this study, we examined bidirectional relationships between personality traits and the capacity to perform IADL using four waves of longitudinal data from 3540 older adults (aged 65 years and older) from the Health and Retirement Study. We applied a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model to separate between- and within-person effects across time and compared it to a traditional cross-lagged panel model. At the between-person level, higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness were associated with more IADL limitations. Within individuals across time, increases in neuroticism and decreases in conscientiousness and extraversion were associated with increases in IADL limitations 4 years later. In contrast, increases in IADL limitations only predicted increases in neuroticism and decreases in extraversion. These results indicate that some personality traits affect and are affected by limitations in functional capacities in old age. Results of the within-person model build a strong foundation for future personality interventions as a pathway to maintain high functioning in old age.


Abstract Background Large segmental bone and composite tissue defects often require vascularized osseous flaps for definitive reconstruction. However, failed osseous flaps due to inadequate perfusion can lead to significant morbidity. Utilization of indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence angiography has been previously shown to reliably assess soft tissue perfusion. Our group will outline the application of this useful intraoperative tool in evaluating the perfusion of vascularized osseous flaps. Methods A retrospective review was performed to identify those osseous and/or osteocutaneous bone flaps, where ICG angiography was employed. Data analyzed included flap types, success and failure rates, and perfusion-related complications. All osseous flaps were evaluated by ICG angiography to confirm periosteal and endosteal perfusion. Results Overall 16 osseous free flaps utilizing intraoperative ICG angiography to assess vascularized osseous constructs were performed over a 3-year period. The flaps consisted of the following: nine osteocutaneous fibulas, two osseous-only fibulas, two scapular/parascapular with scapula bone, two quadricep-based muscle flaps, containing a vascularized femoral bone component, and one osteocutaneous fibula revision. All flap reconstructions were successful with the only perfusion-related complication being a case of delayed partial skin flap loss. Conclusions Intraoperative fluorescence angiography is a useful adjunctive tool that can aid in flap design through angiosome mapping and can also assess flap perfusion, vascular pedicle flow, tissue perfusion before flap harvest, and flap perfusion after flap inset. Our group has successfully extended the application of this intraoperative tool to assess vascularized osseous flaps in an effort to reduce adverse outcomes related to preventable perfusion-related complications.


Sand-bed rivers differ from gravel-bed rivers in both hydraulic and sediment transport terms and they also differ in terms of channel pattern. Based on data from around 200 alluvial rivers in several countries, a systematic comparison of flow shear stress and stream power has been made between sand- and gravel-bed rivers. The formation of channel pattern can be regarded as the outcome of sediment transport and channel bank constraints In an alluvial river. To overcome the difficulty of quantifying channel bank constraints, channel width/ depth ratio and a dimensionless channel width index are used to reflect it indirectly. The sediment transport characteristics are expressed in terms of flow shear stress, stream power and the Shields stress tau* = dS/RD(50) or its simplified form of dS/D(50), where S is channel slope, d is water depth and D(50) is median size of bed sediment. By plotting the relationships between these hydraulic indices and the indices expressing batik constraint in a two-dimensional plane, meandering and braided channel can be divided by one line and sand- and gravel-bed channels by another. These lines are regarded as channel pattern thresholds. The result shows that on the whole, the diagrams using unit water volume stream power and dimensionless shear stress discriminate channel patterns are better than those using shear stress and specific stream power.


edited by J. C. H. Blom, R. G. Fuks-Mansfeld, and I. Schoffer, translated from Dutch by Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans. Oxford: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2002. 508 pp. $69.50.The History of the Jews in the Netherlands is a very good compendium that will prove to be of lasting value to scholars and interested laymen. In a free translation, this volume spans the entire history of Jews in the Netherlands from the Middle Ages to today. Its contributors have produced a work of considerable depth, detail, and scope: important trends and events affecting European Jewry elsewhere are incorporated in broad strokes but also in terms of specific consequences in the Netherlands, e.g., the Iberian Inquisition. Such comparative strands add considerably to the book's value.In the first chapter, for example, B. J. M. Speet provides a concise rendering of the Christian origins of antisemitism across Europe but also notes the social antisemitism stemming from the upheaval of the social order in the early Middle Ages. We also learn that Dutch antisemitism was tempered by the protection provided by ruling nobility who -- while considering Jews as "personal property" -- were crafting the beginnings of a legal construction of secular society in the Middle Ages and beyond. Of particular importance in this regard is the Religious Peace tract of 1578, and the protection extended by William of Orange, the father of the Dutch nation. Daniel Swetschinsky concludes that the position of the Jews at the beginning of the seventeenth century was one of "unprecedented trust" among Christian authorities, although this trust co-existed with a degree of separation that would become tragically problematic in the modern era.Jonathan Israel's chapter about the Dutch Golden Age goes even further. Well positioned in brokering, staple markets, and in the (rudimentary) exchange market, Jews in the Netherlands "from the early seventeenth to the end of the eighteenth century constituted one of the most influential Jewish communities in the world, and by far the most prominent in non-western Europe" (p. 86). Moreover, that influence grew elsewhere as Dutch global expansion led to thriving Jewish colonies in Curacao, Surinam, and other South American and Caribbean locations.In the eighteenth century, the reversal of fortune in the Dutch Republic had an impact on the situation of Dutch Jews (with immigrants from the east also having joined the Sephardim): Jews were both discriminated against and tolerated, with a range of nuances among Calvinists more divergent than the perception among Catholics of a continuous threat from Judaism. Yosef Kaplan concludes that Jews were better off than anywhere else in Europe, with non-Jewish attitudes complex and wide-ranging, "from radical hostility to a fairly tolerant and even philosemitic attitude" (p. 159).Trends toward assimilation from the middle of the eighteenth to the late nineteenth century continue under the influence of Enlightenment, emancipation, and the French revolution -- the Batavian Republic extended full civil rights to Jews in 1796. Renate Fuks-Mansfeld notes that gradual emancipation also had two peculiar effects on Dutch Jewry, i.e., the lessening control of old leadership but also more internal strife, as free(er) access to gentile society made Jews more susceptible to outside influences than was the case in other parts of the Diaspora. …


Preferential flow in hillslope systems through subsurface networks developed from a range of botanical, faunal and geophysical processes have been observed and inferred for decades and may provide a large component of the bulk transport of water and solutes. However, our dominant paradigm for understanding and modelling hillslope hydrologic processes is still based on the Darcy–Richards matric flow framework, now with a set of additional methods to attempt to reproduce some of the aggregate function of the two‐phase system of network and matrix flow. We call for a community effort to design and implement a set of well planned experiments in different natural and constructed hillslopes, coupled with the development of new theory and methods to explicitly incorporate and couple the co‐evolution of subsurface flow networks as intrinsic components of hydrological, ecological and geomorphic systems. This is a major community challenge that can now benefit from new experimental infrastructure, renewal of older infrastructure and recent advances in sensor systems and computational capacity but will also require a sustained and organized interdisciplinary approach. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Many industries rely heavily on embedded software and systems to maximize business value in their products. These systems are very complex and the architecture is important to control the complexity and make development efficient. There are often also connections between the embedded system and the different lifecycle processes, and hence to the enterprise systems supporting those processes. It is rare to start from scratch when developing new products, and instead these companies evolve their products over time, which means that architecting needs to be evolutionary. In this chapter, it is described what such an evolutionary architecting process can look like based on observations from industry, and how the process can be continuously improved using a maturity model. It is also presented how the embedded system relates to different elements of the enterprise architecture.


By means of acid elution two antibodies could be removed successfully from the circulating lymphocytes of 11 patients with certain varieties of scleroderma. One was specifically directed against nuclear antigen(s) of endothelial cells (NEC) of the dermal blood vessels, and another against nuclear antigen(s) of epidermal basal cells (NBC) of the involved and uninvolved skin of the patients. In two cases of acroscleroderma, the eluates failed to react with either endothelial or basal cells of involved or uninvolved skin. In none of 20 healthy controls involved in this study could an antibody be eluted from the circulating lymphocytes. The aforementioned antibodies do not bind complement in vitro and do occur in the serum of four patients. Circulating antinuclear antibody (speckled type) was detectable in two cases of scleroderma.


Lignocellulosic materials are regarded as an alternative energy source for bioethanol production to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Pretreatment is important for improving the enzymatic digestibility of lignocelluloses to increase the yield of fermentable sugars. Alkaline (sodium hydroxide and lime (calcium hydroxide)) pretreatment of coastal bermudagrass for enhanced reducing sugars recovery was investigated in this study. The effect of NaOH pretreatment at 121°C using 1%, 2% and 3% (w/v) NaOH for 15, 30, 60 and 90 minutes was evaluated first. Lower NaOH concentrations (0.5% and 0.75%) and lower temperatures (50, 80 and 100°C) were then examined. Lime (0.1 g Ca(OH)2/g raw biomass) pretreatment of the biomass was conducted at room temperature, 50°C, 80°C, and 121°C. Total reducing sugars, glucose and xylose were analyzed. The optimal NaOH pretreatment conditions at 121°C for glucose and xylose production are 15 minutes and 0.75% NaOH. However, to maximize total reducing sugars production, pretreatment at 121°C for 30 minutes using 1% NaOH is needed. The highest reducing sugars yield reached up to approximate 86% of theoretical maximum for NaOH pretreatment. Sodium hydroxide is more efficient than lime at 121°C for improved reducing sugars yield. Increasing temperature reduced the optimal pretreatment time at the same lime loading. The reducing sugars production under optimal pretreatment times was enhanced by 8% of theoretical maximum from room temperature to 80°C.


This paper estimates the impact of different categories of employment policy interventions on subsequent outcomes for jobseekers. We generate a range of estimates to help us distinguish programme effects from selection effects. We also examine the robustness of our findings for a range of sub-populations. Referrals to vacancies and job subsidies appear to be most effective in reducing the number of weeks of assistance or contact that jobseekers subsequently have with the public employment agency. The favourable estimated impact of subsidies is not evident until at least a year after the subsidy starts. There are only small differences in the estimated effectiveness across different ethnic groups. Interventions appear to be more effective for males than for females, and to a lesser extent more effective for younger than for older jobseekers. We find evidence to suggest that programme effectiveness is counter-cyclical.


Objective: To define spatial relationships between major intra-articular structures of the knee and the entry site of a tibial nail inserted using a retropatellar portal. Design: Cadaveric study using 16 fresh-frozen limbs. Setting: University-affiliated cadaver and anatomy laboratory. Results: The mean distance of the nail entry site and the medial and lateral menisci were 6.6 ± 3.2 mm and 6.4 ± 4.4 mm, respectively. The distance to the medial and lateral articular surfaces were 5.6 ± 3.6 mm and 7.4 ± 4.2 mm, respectively. The mean distance to the anterior cruciate ligament footprint was 7.5 ± 3.5 mm. The lateral meniscus was never injured during the procedure. The anterior cruciate ligament was undisturbed in all specimens. The medial meniscus was injured 1 to 2 mm in 12.5% of specimens. The intermeniscal ligament was injured 1 to 2 mm in 81.2% of the specimens. Conclusion: The intermeniscal ligament and medial meniscus are at the most risk during intramedullary nailing of the tibia using the retropatellar technique. This may be corrected by avoiding an excessively medial start point. Damage to the intermeniscal ligament and medial meniscus occurs more commonly with the retropatellar portal, but this damage was never more than 1 to 2 mm. This risk, however, appears similar to the pattern and incidence of injury that occurred in prior studies investigating tibial nail insertion through a standard patellar tendon approach. The retropatellar technique demands clinical investigation to further define both its safety and its use.


Here we describe a weakly interacting Bose gas on a curved smooth manifold, which is embedded in the three-dimensional Euclidean space. To this end we start by considering a harmonic trap in the normal direction of the manifold, which confines the three-dimensional Bose gas in the vicinity of its surface. Following the notion of dimensional reduction as outlined in [L Salasnich et al, Phys. Rev. A 65, 043614 (2002)], we assume a large enough trap frequency so that the normal degree of freedom of the condensate wave function can be approximately integrated out. In this way we obtain an effective condensate wave function on the quasi-two-dimensional surface of the curved manifold, where the thickness of the cloud is determined self-consistently. For the particular case when the manifold is a sphere, our equilibrium results show how the chemical potential and the thickness of the cloud increase with the interaction strength. Furthermore, we determine within a linear stability analysis the low-lying collective excitations together with their eigenfrequencies, which turn out to reveal an instability for attractive interactions.


Violence is a research topic that is fraught with difficulties. A notoriously sensitive subject, and one that is presumed to be largely hidden, researchers have long struggled with the question of how to measure its impact and how to explore its incidence. Arising from the ESRC's Violence Research Programme, Researching Violence is a practical guide both to theses problems and to the obstacles encountered when negotiating this uneasy terrain. Comprising the reflections of researchers who have worked on diverse projects - from violence in the home to racial violence and homicide - this book demonstrates the ingenuity and at times courageous actions of researchers having to think on their feet. It also investigates the ethical and emotional issues arising from working with the victims and perpetrators of violence. This book will be indispensable for students and academics doing research projects on violence.


Benford9s law predicts that the distribution of first digits of real-world observations is not uniform, but instead the lower digits (1, 2, and 3) occur more frequently than the higher ones (… , 8, 9). It has been shown that the use of Benford9s law may help as a validity check on databases, and that the first-digit rule may provide new ways to detect anomalous signals in data sets. In fact, nonconformity to Benford9s law could be an indicator of (1) incompleteness, (2) excessive data round-off, or (3) data errors, inconsistencies, or anomalies. This law has long been known, but has received little attention, in earth sciences. In this work, we first test the conformity of three volcanology-related data sets, and then we consider the relevance and potential utility of using Benford9s law to assess the integrity and authenticity of the presented volcanological data. The first two data sets are the area in square kilometers and age in years of collapse calderas extracted from the Collapse Caldera Database (CCDB), covering areas from 0.03 to 4700 km 2 and ages from a few years to 2000 Ma. The third data set is the duration in days of the volcanic eruptions that occurred between A.D. 1900 and 2009 according to the Smithsonian9s Global Volcanism Program catalogue (http://www.volcano.si.edu). Results obtained indicate that the volcanological data sets of this study follow Benford9s law. The present analysis shows that excessive data round-off, data errors, or anomalies may be detected when comparing the data with Benford9s law expected frequencies.


The performance of a zero-crossing-based optical spectrum analyzer is presented. With the use of only a single comparator, the analyzer circuit detects one zero crossing per Nyquist interval with a location accuracy of 1 part in 256. The dynamic range of sampling is limited only by the supply voltages of the comparator and the noise arising from truncation errors associated with computation. The 512-component spectra of various interferogram inputs are directly computed by Newton's formula from the measured crossings. The single-channel spectrum analyzer with a preselectable Nyquist sampling interval setting is constructed with discrete transistor–transistor logic and analog components. The ultimate performance characteristics of the analyzer are set by the response capabilities of the electronic components used.


BACKGROUND
The influence of higher physical activity on the relationship between adiposity and cardiometabolic risk is not completely understood.

METHODS
Between 2000-2002, data were collected on 6795 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) participants. Self-reported intentional physical activity in the lowest quartile (0-105 MET-minutes/week) was categorized as inactive and the upper three quartiles (123-37,260 MET-minutes/week) as active. Associations of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference categories, stratified by physical activity status (inactive or active) with cardiometabolic risk factors (dyslipidemia, hypertension, upper quartile of homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance [HOMA-IR] for population, and impaired fasting glucose or diabetes) were assessed using logistic regression analysis adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and current smoking.

RESULTS
Among obese participants, those who were physically active had reduced odds of insulin resistance (47% lower; P < .001) and impaired fasting glucose/diabetes (23% lower; P = .04). These associations were weaker for central obesity. However, among participants with a normal waist circumference, those who were inactive were 63% more likely to have insulin resistance (OR [95% CI] 1.63 [1.24-2.15]) compared with the active reference group.

CONCLUSIONS
Physical activity was inversely related to the cardiometabolic risk associated with obesity and central obesity.


OBJECTIVE
To examine individual and environmental factors associated with adherence to mammography screening guidelines.

DATA SOURCES
A unique data set that combines a national probability sample (1992 National Health Interview Survey); a national probability sample of mammography facility characteristics (1992 National Survey of Mammography Facilities); county-level data on 1990 HMO market share; and county-level data on the supply of primary care providers (1991 Area Resource File).

STUDY DESIGN
The design was cross-sectional. DATA EXTRACTION/ANALYSIS: Data sets were linked to create an individual-level sample of women ages 50-74 (weighted n = 2,026). We used multipart, sequential logistic regression models to examine the predictors of having ever had mammography, having had recent mammography, and adherence to guidelines. We categorized women as adherent if they reported a lifetime number of exams appropriate for their age (based on screening every two years) and they reported having had an exam in the past two years.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
Only 27 percent of women had the age-appropriate number of screening exams (range 16 percent-37 percent), while 59 percent of women had been screened within two years. Women were significantly more likely to adhere to screening guidelines if they reported participating with their doctor in the decision to be screened; were younger; had smaller families, higher education and income, and a recent Pap smear; reported breast problems; and lived in an area with a higher percentage of mammography facilities with reminder systems, no shortage of primary care providers, higher HMO market share, and higher screening charges.

CONCLUSIONS
A small percentage of women adhere to screening guidelines, suggesting that adherence needs to become a focus of clinical, programmatic, and policy efforts.


We present a numerical study of wave localization in a random system with resonant scatterers. We show that an increase in the dispersion of scatterer size is detrimental to the initiation of Anderson localization. In contrast, we observe strongly localized modes in successive frequency windows when all scatterers are identical.


The article features several methods of the pyrotechnic delay ignition (PDI) laboratory tests. PDI is used as an ignition source in rocket motor. PDI is used in the projectile with assisted rockets or antitank rocket projectile. The task of the PDI is to ignite the rocket motor with a certain time delay at a given distance from the projectile launch. Therefore, a proper operation of PDI affects the reliability of the ammunition and, above all, the safety of the shooter. The article describes the construction of the PDI and the pyrotechnic delay charge (PDC) – the main component of the PDI was outlined. Then several types of laboratory tests in different variants were carried out. In the tests a CO2 laser, the high speed camera and the optical and acoustic sensors were used. The authors also proposed a new method of the PDI research, which uses the real time radioscopy (RTR) with the possibility of observing the images in real time. The advantage of the RTR method is the possibility to observe the combustion front in the PDC. The received results were verified to evaluate different types of the laboratory tests.


We are at a crossroads with respect to the under-developed equitable defense of copyright misuse. The defense may go the way of its sibling, antitrust-based patent misuse, which seems to be in a state of inevitable decline. Or - if judges accept the proposal of this Article – courts could reinvigorate the copyright misuse defense to better protect First Amendment speech that is guaranteed by statute, but that is often chilled by copyright holders misusing their copyrights to control other's speech.The Copyright Act serves First Amendment interests by encouraging authors to create works. But copyright law can also discourage the creation of new works by preventing subsequent creators from using copyrighted work to make their own, new speech. Courts have long recognized this inherent tension, and have also recognized that the conflict should sometimes be decided in favor of allowing a subsequent speaker the right to make unauthorized use of others' copyrighted works. Accordingly, courts created, and Congress codified, the fair use defense to copyright infringement, which allows unauthorized use of copyrighted works under certain circumstances that encourage speech and creation of transformative works. The problem with fair use, however, is that the informational uncertainties and transaction costs of litigating the defense make the fair use right unavailable to many as a practical matter. Subsequent creators are left open to intimidation by copyright holders threatening infringement suits. By decoupling the copyright misuse defense from its basis in antitrust principles and basing it in First Amendment speech principles, the legal protections for fair use shift from theoretical rights to practical rights for many. Copyright misuse has two deterrent features that will allow fair use as a practical right. First, a copyright holder's misuse of its copyrights against anyone can be used to prove the defense of misuse. Second, once misuse is found, the copyright owner loses its ability to enforce its copyright against everyone, at least until the misuse is cured. Thus, by defining as copyright misuse the unjustified chilling of speech that some copyright holders perpetrate, the misuse defense will encourage important speech rights that are currently under-protected.


Waterlogging is caused when water stays superficially in the soil for an extended period of time, creating an anaerobic environment which decreases plant growth and grain yield at maturity. Despite the impact of waterlogging on wheat production both globally and in the southeastern U.S., very little is known about the genetic control of waterlogging tolerance in wheat. The objective of this study was to determine the amount of genetic variation for vegetative stage waterlogging tolerance present within a wheat recombinant inbred line (RIL) population and to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with tolerance and productivity. Experiments were carried out in both the greenhouse and the field using a RIL population derived from the wheat cultivars 'USG3209' and 'Jaypee'. The effect of vegetative stage waterlogging was determined by quantifying fresh shoot biomass, fresh root biomass, dry shoot biomass, dry root biomass, root length, chlorophyll content, tiller number, elongation, and plant height pre and post-treatment under stressed and non-stressed conditions. In both the greenhouse and the field experiments, biomass traits, chlorophyll content ere significantly reduced by waterlogging stress with percent reduction ranging from 10 to 54%. Significant genetic variation was detected for biomass traits, chlorophyll content, tiller number, elongation, and plant height post-treatment. Root traits showed high sensitivity to waterlogging and significant genotype by treatment interaction. Shoot biomass and root biomass were highly correlated, indicating the possibility of indirect selection for root biomass. The QTL analysis revealed 53 total QTLs, with 34 detected under waterlogging stress. These QTLs clustered into 19 regions distributed throughout the wheat genome. QTL on chromosomes 2A, 2B, 2D, 5A and 5B were found to localize with known genes regulating plant height and flowering time. Other QTL regions located on chromosomes 1B, 2A and 6B appear to be novel for biomass production specific to waterlogging stress and can be used for marker-assisted selection to more efficiently select for waterlogging tolerant lines.


"The Rise of the West," winner of the National Book Award for history in 1964, is famous for its ambitious scope and intellectual rigor. In it, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that a number of separate civilizations pursued essentially independent careers, and argues instead that human cultures interacted at every stage of their history. The author suggests that from the Neolithic beginnings of grain agriculture to the present major social changes in all parts of the world were triggered by new or newly important foreign stimuli, and he presents a persuasive narrative of world history to support this claim. In a retrospective essay titled ""The Rise of the West" after Twenty-five Years," McNeill shows how his book was shaped by the time and place in which it was written (1954-63). He discusses how historiography subsequently developed and suggests how his portrait of the world's past in The Rise of the West should be revised to reflect these changes. "This is not only the most learned and the most intelligent, it is also the most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to recount and explain the whole history of mankind. . . . To read it is a great experience. It leaves echoes to reverberate, and seeds to germinate in the mind."-H. R. Trevor-Roper, "New York Times Book Review"


Museum collections around the world contain billions of specimens, including rare and extinct species. If their genetic information could be retrieved at a large scale, this would dramatically increase our knowledge of genetic and taxonomic diversity information, and support evolutionary, ecological and systematic studies. We here present a target enrichment kit for 2953 loci in 1753 orthologous nuclear genes + the barcoding region of cytochrome C oxidase 1, for Lepidoptera and demonstrate its utility to obtain a large number of nuclear loci from dry, pinned museum material collected from 1892 to 2017. We sequenced enriched libraries of 37 museum specimens across the order Lepidoptera, many from higher taxa not yet included in high‐throughput molecular studies, showing that our kit can be used to generate comparable data across the order, and provides resolution both for shallower and deeper nodes. The filtered datasets (172 taxa, 234 464 amino acid positions and corresponding nucleotides from 1835 CDS regions) were used to infer a phylogeny of Lepidoptera, which is largely congruent in topology to recent phylogenomic studies, but with the addition of some key taxa. We furthermore present our TEnriAn (Target Enrichment Analysis) workflow for processing and combining target enrichment, transcriptomic and genomic data.


This Article examines the role of situational pressures, fundamental attribution errors, and legal frameworks in how professional sports actors respond to the threat and occurrence of calamities. Both natural and manmade threats to American health are likely to rise over the next decade. Such threats may include catastrophic weather, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and communicable disease pandemics. In response to these threats, professional sports leagues, professional athletes, fans, and media might engage in unprecedented behavior. Consider, for instance, increasingly-devastating weather patterns, and how they might animate leagues to relocate franchises to cities with more favorable forecasts. The same outcome might arise in the wake of a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. Similarly worrisome, a contagious-disease outbreak abroad might lead to scouting and signing restrictions on foreign players. Closer to home, a disease pandemic or a terrorist attack on a pro sporting event might trigger an indefinite cessation of operations. Professional athletes appear likewise vulnerable to league-transformative responses. For instance, persistent weather effects in the Gulf States might devalue opportunities to play for teams in New Orleans, Tampa Bay, and Miami. Such an effect may already be evident: the National Football League and National Football Players' Association are contemplating economic incentives that would facilitate the New Orleans Saints' assuagement of players reluctant to live in a post-Katrina New Orleans. Incidental and deleterious effects, such as the development of property stigma and the exacerbation of racial or cultural tensions, only intensify situational reluctance. Similar, yet amplified phenomena might arise should terrorist attacks diminish the appeal of playing in targeted cities. The same might be said in the wake of a disease pandemic: players may refuse to travel or protest to play with persons from certain geographies and cultures. Fans and media are, of course, just as likely to alter their behavior in response to the threat and occurrence of calamities. Most obviously, they may resist attending games should they perceive a sufficient possibility of harm, a phenomenon evidenced during the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003. On the other hand, they appear strikingly willing to endure catastrophic weather and natural disasters in order to attend games. Furthermore, they are generally tolerable of intrusive and delaying antiterrorism impositions, such as "pat-downs" and meddling screenings. Studying the behavior of professional sports actors invites inquiry into the potential effects of judgment errors. Social psychologists and a growing number of legal academics have identified the prevalence of cognitive biases and heuristics in human thinking. Cognitive biases and heuristics are "mental shortcuts" that enable individuals to manage a complex array of stimuli, yet they often distort decision-making in unappreciated ways. Cognitive biases and heuristics comprise part of a broader defect in human perception known as the fundamental attribution error, or tendency to attribute a causal role to easily-observable yet minimally-influential occurrences, while simultaneously failing to appreciate highly-influential defects in thinking. As a result of the fundamental attribution error, situational happenings —especially those that are dramatically obvious, such as startling weather events, horrific terrorist attacks, and contagious diseases — can meaningfully influence attitudes, memories, cognitions, emotions, and behaviors in unperceived ways. These phenomena beg an obvious question for legal scholars: Can the law be used to mollify the cognitive distortions and situational influences affecting professional sports actors, and can it direct them towards socially-preferred behavior? For instance, can cities employ stadium agreements to prevent weather-weary team owners from hastily relocating their franchises? Can players be contractually-enticed to ignore or discount situational reservations? Can players of foreign nationality contest heightened, possibly xenophobic restrictions on their employment? Can fans contest invasive searches of their body upon entering stadiums? Can media refuse to attend games without jeopardizing their employment? Broader implications of the same phenomena are even more engaging. Namely, in light of the diversity of American sports, might we consider the behavior of professional sports actors in crisis a bellwether for American behavior in crisis? That is, might a radical change in professional sports operations reflect a radical change in American attitudes and beliefs? With these questions in mind, this Article will examine external threats to American sports, related situational influences, and past and potential behavioral responses. It will also explore legal safeguards to potentially-deleterious behavioral responses, and conclude with general thoughts on professional sports as a proxy for American self-conception.


A propose for this article is to present information on the emergence of the knowledge field of sociology of work and labor studies in Portugal. The period of 1974-1984 produced an interesting bibliography in the fields of social stratification, labor conflicts and social history. However, and since the mid-1980s, significant changes have emerged. There took place an increased theoretical diversity and also there was a major preoccupation with the development of a more professional teaching of the discipline. At this time, the first graduated specialists in Sociology appeared in the labor market since 1980, working in municipalities, industrial firms, public health institutions, schools, or even in research and development (R&D) units. The Portuguese association in this field (APSIOT) organized many scientific meetings, debates with unionists, managers and politicians, beside the regular publication of review "Organizacoes e Trabalho" (Organization and Work) since 1989. It started the diffusion of a professional culture of sociologists who associate science and their occupation concerning themselves not only with scientific quality, but also with technical competence and social responsibility. At the same time, one could assist to the participation of sociologists in the social and organizational molding of new technologies in order to promote alternative production systems.


Soil degradation is among the serious environmental hazards of this generation. It is threatening agricultural production and leads to food insecurity. The objective of this study is to assess current soil degradation status and soil fertility enhancement technologies practiced by the land owners. Data were obtained through questionnaires administered to 156 respondents selected randomly from all watershed classification schemes (upstream, mid-land, and downstream). Field observations, interviews and discussions with village elders, farmers groups, and village scholars were conducted using a check list of topics focusing on soil degradation, and attempts were made to combat the problem. The result revealed that 70% of farmers experienced soil degradation on their farm land and also crop productivity decreased from time to time.  Productivity cannot be boosted without intensive fertilizer application. Most farmers (>64%) mentioned steep slope, high rainfall, deforestation and poor soil cover as the major causes to soil degradation. Soil fertility amelioration measures like application of compost, construction of terraces, farmyard manure, fallowing, the protection of regenerating natural vegetation, and tree planting were practiced but adoption level of technologies from farmer to farmer is entirely dependent on their awareness level. Simple soil conservation technologies which are easily adopted by farmers should be available. Above all, education infrastructure focusing on soil conservation should be available for land owners.

 Key words: Soil degradation, soil fertility, soil fertility amelioration.


Images of scenes have various objects as well as abundant attributes, and diverse levels of visual categorization are possible. A natural image could be assigned with fine-grained labels that describe major components, coarse-grained labels that depict high level abstraction, or a set of labels that reveal attributes. Such categorization at different concept layers can be modeled with label graphs encoding label information. In this paper, we exploit this rich information with a state-of-art deep learning framework, and propose a generic structured model that leverages diverse label relations to improve image classification performance. Our approach employs a novel stacked label prediction neural network, capturing both inter-level and intra-level label semantics. We evaluate our method on benchmark image datasets, and empirical results illustrate the efficacy of our model.


Communication plays a decisive role to evaluate how corporate responsibilities are taken and to recognise the potential to meet the expectations of the various social interlocutors. Information about the system of corporate governance, in terms of structural and operating characteristics, allows the user to assess its suitability, particularly in the light of the growing corporate complexity and the increasingly risky challenges of globalisation. Legislative intervention and self-regulation, at a national and international level, is oriented primarily to encouraging transparency, in the face of behaviour that is not always sufficiently correct.


This paper presents a performance evaluation of Microsoft Windows Media Streaming (WMS) on an IEEE 802.11g home network. Empirical measurements are used to determine the viability of streaming High Definition (HD) and high quality video over a wireless residential network using currently available multimedia streaming software. User experience is evaluated using visual testbed observations and performance criteria that include playback time, transmission data rate, playout buffer fill percentages and wireless frame losses. While the experiments show that 8.1 Mbps HD content is not currently playable with acceptable quality using a WMS server over a wireless LAN (WLAN), this investigation demonstrates that WMS services can provide high quality streaming services over a residential WLAN.


This article provides an epistemological critique of informality by focusing on cultural governance in two cities of the global South, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Dakar, Senegal. Aiming to enrich debates about urban creativity and urban cultural policy, which are still mainly focused on and articulated from the global North, we consider the broad field of 'informality' research as an entry point for such a discussion. Using case studies from African and Latin American contexts, we focus on the interstices of cultural policy and the borderlands of (in)formality, examining how governmental institutions are entangled in informal processes, and how grassroots cultural interventions become part of mainstream cultural circuits. The analysis sheds light on how these creative spaces of cultural production, located in Southern contexts of urban extremes, contribute to the vitality of informal urbanisms and unsettle predominant views that see them merely as sites of infrastructural poverty and social exclusion. The article suggests that a creative remapping of informality, through an inquiry of the 'ins' and 'outs' of the cultural polis, could improve our translating capacity of academic discourse into institutional/policy-related operations.


Jasper Seamount is a young, mid-sized (690 km{sup 3}) oceanic intraplate volcano located about 500 km west-southwest of San Diego, California. Reliable {sup 40}Ar/{sup 39}Ar age data were obtained for several milligram-sized samples of 4 to 10 Ma plagioclase by using a defocused laser beam to clean the samples before fusion. Gee and Staudigel suggested that Jasper Seamount consists of a transitional to tholeiitic shield volcano formed by flank transitional series lavas, overlain by flank alkalic series lavas and summit alkalic series lavas. Twenty-nine individual {sup 40}Ar/{sup 39}Ar laser fusion analyses on nine samples confirm the stratigraphy: 10.3-10.0 Ma for the flank transitonal series, 8.7-7.5 Ma for the flank alkalic series, and 4.8-4.1 Ma for the summit alkalic series. The alkalinity of the lavas clearly increases with time, and there appear to be 1 to 3 m.y. hiatuses between each series. The age data are consistent with the complex magnetic anomaly of Jasper; however the dominant reversed polarity inferred from the anomaly suggests that most of the seamount formed at ca. 11 Ma, prior to the onset of Chron C5N. The duration of volcanism of Jasper Seamount is slightly longer than the duration of volcanism at Hawaiian volcanoes, suggesting thatmore » individual age data from seamounts may constrain the age of a seamount only to within about 7 m.y. unless the stage of volcanism can be unambiguously determined. Extrapolating from the results of our study, similar precision in age determinations should be possible on 50 mg of 1 Ma plagioclase from mid-ocean ridge basalt, opening new possibilities in the geochronology of young, low-potassium volcanic rocks.« less


Transient behaviors of plasma and in-vessel components have been investigated considering the divertor plasma state (detached/attached) transition. The SAFALY code consisting of a zero-dimensional plasma model and a one-dimensional heat transfer model of components has been modified to take account of the divertor plasma state transition on the basis of the updated divertor plasma physics. Several plasma events, i.e., over fueling, sudden auxiliary heating injection and confinement improvement events which would be expected to result in overpower, were selected for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the transient behaviors were calculated on the assumption of a combined failure of plasma control and machine interlock in addition with a postulated plasma transient. The results show that plasma burning passively terminates due to sublimated impurity penetration from the carbon target surface, but there are possibilities of dry out of the coolant for the high heat flux in sudden attached state transition under the multifailure of plasma control. However, effects by the aggravating failure of the divertor are expected to be safely terminated by the confinement boundary, the vacuum vessel and its pressure suppression system.


A critical presentation in English of Hali's epic poem, "The Musaddas" on "The Ebb and Flow of Islam" - a landmark in the development of Urdu poetry as of modern Indian literature. The first part of the book consists of a critical introduction and analysis of the poem, in the context of the historical, political and literary background of the age. The second contains an English translation of the poem, with facing Urdu text, an appendix listing Hali's revisions, a glossary of key words in the poem, and a full index.


The Bulletin welcomes announcements, including call for papers, conference announcements, grant competitions, news items, and other informative updates on happenings in the discipline. Such announcements (like those below) will first appear on the Bulletin's blog for timely distribution with occasional inclusion in issues of the Bulletin. There is no charge for announcements being included in Field Notes. Please email all announcements (of approximately 500 words) to the editors. Our editorial staff will also be watching for interesting items to include in this section of the Bulletin.


This note reassesses the basic result in Mukhopadhaya (2003) that, when jurors may acquire costly signals about a defendant's guilt, with a larger jury size the probability of reaching a correct verdict may in fact fall, contrary to the Condorcet Jury Theorem. We show that if the jurors coordinate on any one of a number of (equally plausible) asymmetric equilibria other than the symmetric equilibrium considered by Mukhopadhaya, the probability of accuracy reaches a maximum for a particular jury size and remains unchanged with larger juries, thus mitigating Mukhopadhaya''s result somewhat. However, the case for limiting the jury size – a recommendation by Mukhopadhaya – gains additional grounds if one shifts the focus from maximizing the probability of reaching a correct verdict to the maximization of the overall social surplus, measured by the expected benefits of jury decisions less the expected costs of acquiring signals.


Background and objective Post-operative analgesic consumption is often used as a surrogate measure for pain; analyses of mean data assume a Gaussian distribution and use parametric statistics to assess statistical differences, often in small samples. We used a large individual patient dataset to examine the distribution of analgesic consumption, the validity of such analyses and alternative dichotomous outcomes. Methods Analysis of individual patient data from 913 patients over 48 post-operative hours in five randomised trials. Patients had either epidural injection of placebo or morphine (as sulphate and extended release epidural morphine) and use of patient-controlled analgesia. Post-operative fentanyl consumption was calculated over 0–24, 24–48 and 0–48 h. Results The distribution of analgesic consumption for all patients over the periods 0–24, 24–48 and 0–48 h was exponential. Most patients used less than 750 μg fentanyl over 48 h; 34% used over 1000 μg fentanyl (100 mg morphine), 13% over 2000 μg and 5% over 3000 μg. Mean, median and mode were very different; 20% of patients consumed almost 60% of post-operative analgesic, and standard deviations were generally larger than means. A useful dichotomous outcome was less than 750 μg fentanyl consumed over 48 h, a level associated with very good or excellent patient pain rating. Use of very good or excellent patient pain rating differentiated between different doses of epidural morphine. Conclusion Because of a highly skewed distribution, post-operative analgesic consumption is an uncertain method of measuring analgesic efficacy of an intervention designed to limit pain during and after surgery.


Solid modeling deals with the representation, design, visualization. and analysis of models of 3D parts. While the embodiment of solid modeling technology in contemporary commercial CAD systems is finally beginning to fulfil the old promise of providing major improvements in the productivity of the manufacturing industry, solid modeling research remains in its infancy. Recent developments focus on advanced design paradigms, topological and geometric extensions of the domain and the performance and reliability of the fundamental algorithms. The current trend follows two paths: capitalizing on the concepts of features, constraints, and model parameterization, which provide a more intuitive and suitable design vocabulary than the traditional edges, faces, or Boolean operations; and incorporating information about the tolerances, assembly relations, and mechanical properties of parts and assemblies, which provides a suitable product database for the development of analysis and planning applications. We selected the articles in the special issue carefully, choosing from among the papers presented at the 1993 ACM/IEEE Second Symposium on Solid Modeling and Applications.<<ETX>>


This paper presents a general mean-field game (GMFG) framework for simultaneous learning and decision-making in stochastic games with a large population. It first establishes the existence of a unique Nash Equilibrium to this GMFG, and explains that naively combining Q-learning with the fixed-point approach in classical MFGs yields unstable algorithms. It then proposes a Q-learning algorithm with Boltzmann policy (GMF-Q), with analysis of convergence property and computational complexity. The experiments on repeated Ad auction problems demonstrate that this GMF-Q algorithm is efficient and robust in terms of convergence and learning accuracy. Moreover, its performance is superior in convergence, stability, and learning ability, when compared with existing algorithms for multi-agent reinforcement learning.


The mechanical properties of healthy and diseased bone tissue are extensively studied in mechanical tests. Most of this research is motivated by the immense costs of health care and social impacts due to osteoporosis in post-menopausal women and the aged. Osteoporosis results in bone loss and change of trabecular architecture, causing a decrease in bone strength. To address the problem of assessing local failure behavior of bone, we combined mechanical compression testing of trabecular bone samples with high-speed photography. In this exploratory study, we investigated healthy, osteoarthritic, and osteoporotic human vertebral trabecular bone compressed at high strain rates simulating conditions experienced in individuals during falls. Apparent strains were found to translate to a broad range of local strains. Moreover, strained trabeculae were seen to whiten with increasing strain. We hypothesize that the effect seen is due to microcrack formation in these areas, similar to stress whitening seen in synthetic polymers. From the results of a motion energy filter applied to the recorded movies, we saw that the whitened areas are, presumably, also of high deformation. We believe that this method will allow further insights into bone failure mechanisms, and help toward a better understanding of the processes involved in bone failure.


This paper presents striking evidence that option trading changes the prices of underlying stocks. In particular, we show that on expiration dates the closing prices of stocks with listed options cluster at option strike prices. On each expiration date, the returns of optionable stocks are altered by an average of at least 16.5 basis points, which translates into aggregate market capitalization shifts on the order of $9 billion. We provide evidence that hedge re-balancing by option market-makers and stock price manipulation by firm proprietary traders contribute to the clustering.


Over the last three decades, the prevailing view of information technology strategy has been that it is a functional-level strategy that must be aligned with the firm's chosen business strategy. Even within this so-called alignment view, business strategy directed IT strategy. During the last decade, the business infrastructure has become digital with increased interconnections among products, processes, and services. Across many firms spanning different industries and sectors, digital technologies (viewed as combinations of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies) are fundamentally transforming business strategies, business processes, firm capabilities, products and services, and key interfirm relationships in extended business networks. Accordingly, we argue that the time is right to rethink the role of IT strategy, from that of a functional-level strategy--aligned but essentially always subordinate to business strategy--to one that reflects a fusion between IT strategy and business strategy. This fusion is herein termed digital business strategy.

We identify four key themes to guide our thinking on digital business strategy and help provide a framework to define the next generation of insights. The four themes are (1) the scope of digital business strategy, (2) the scale of digital business strategy, (3) the speed of digital business strategy, and (4) the sources of business value creation and capture in digital business strategy. After elaborating on each of these four themes, we discuss the success metrics and potential performance implications from pursuing a digital business strategy. We also show how the papers in the special issue shed light on digital strategies and offer directions to advance insights and shape future research.


The need for simplification is often identified as a key consideration in any discussion of Australia's tax system. But just how important is simplification in the Australian context? And to what extent will it feature in any future tax reform post-Henry and Tax Forum? While there has been much discussion of tax simplification over the years, progress in achieving genuine simplification has been modest at best.This article reviews the tax simplification literature and analyses recent proposals aimed at reducing complexity. It canvasses the notion that simplification may be gaining some well-deserved attention compared to the other criteria of a good tax system. This may lead to reformers preferring measures that potentially reduce equity for certain taxpayers (and even possibly some efficiency/neutrality), in favour of a more streamlined and simplified system overall. Unfortunately, however, many of the simplification initiatives that have emerged from recent reform may not achieve the desired outcomes of a simpler tax system. The article concludes that in order to achieve genuine simplification, a mixture of policy initiatives and administrative measures are still required – together with bold political initiatives.


This paper reports the discovery of a rare partial skeleton of a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis Blumenbach, 1799) and associated fauna from a low Pleistocene terrace of the River Tame at Whitemoor Haye, Staffordshire, UK. A study of the sedimentary deposits around the rhino skeleton and associated organic‐rich clasts containing pollen, plant and arthropod remains suggests that the animal was rapidly buried on a braided river floodplain surrounded by a predominantly treeless, herb‐rich grassland. Highlights of the study include the oldest British chironomid record published to date and novel analysis of the palaeoflow regime using caddisfly remains. For the first time, comparative calculations of coleopteran and chironomid palaeotemperatures have been made on the same samples, suggesting a mean July temperature of 8–11 °C and a mean December temperature of between −22 and −16 °C. Radiocarbon age estimates on skeletal material, supported by optically stimulated luminescence ages from surrounding sediments, indicate that the rhino lived around 41–43 k cal a BP. The combined geochronological, stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental evidence places the assemblage firmly within the Middle Devensian (Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 3). This would agree with other regional evidence for the timing of aggradation for the lowest terrace of the Trent and its tributary systems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Every criminal defendant is promised the right to the effective assistance of counsel. Whether at trial or on first appeal of right, due process is violated when attorney negligence undermines the fairness and reliability of judicial proceedings. That, at least, is the black-letter law articulated in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984). In practice, however, the right to effective representation has meant surprisingly little over the last two decades. Under the standards that emerged from Strickland, scores of defendants have received prison or death sentences by virtue of serious unprofessional errors committed by their attorneys.This Essay canvasses a line of recent Supreme Court cases that have breathed new life into Strickland as a meaningful guarantee of effective defense representation. These cases - all of which involved sentences of death - pointedly reject the understanding of Strickland that made it exceedingly difficult to prevail on ineffective-assistance claims. Although the new line of Strickland cases were undoubtedly motivated by concerns about the proper administration of the death penalty, the more rigorous understanding of Strickland should not be limited to capital cases. Whether or not the death penalty is at stake, appellate courts should be vigilant in policing the effectiveness of defense attorneys so that the determinative factor in criminal proceedings will be the strength of the government's case on the merits, not the weakness of the defense put forth by the lawyers for the defendants.


Chemo- and site-specific modifications in oligonucleotides have wide applicability as mechanistic probes in chemical biology. However, methods that label specific sites in nucleic acids are scarce, especially for labeling DNA/RNA from biological or enzymatic sources rather than synthetic ones. Here we have employed a classical reaction, reductive amination, to selectively functionalize the N2-amine of guanosine and 2'-deoxyguanosine monophosphate (GMP/dGMP). This method specifically modifies guanine in DNA and RNA oligonucleotides, while leaving the other nucleobases unaffected. Using this approach, we have successfully incorporated a reactive handle chemoselectively into nucleic acids for further functionalization and downstream applications.


The increasing use of chitosan encourages the search for fast and sensitive methods to quantify its concentrations in water solutions. Recent colorimetric studies have suggested quantification by binding chitosan to Cibacron Brilliant Red 3B-A (BR) dye and measuring the absorbance at 575 nm related to the complex that is formed. This study presents an improved colorimetric technique based on the complexation reaction between BR and chitosan. However, instead of measuring the spectra of the dispersed chitosan-dye complex, the solution is centrifuged for the sedimentation of the colloids, and the concentration of the uncomplexed dye in the supernatant is measured. By performing this simple procedure, sensitivity can be improved to >2 ppm. Equilibration time did not influence the measurements. Charge measurements and bathochromic shift of the measured spectra might yield information about the mechanism of the interaction between the dye and the polymer.


Objective: Overall: To improve influenza and pneumococcal immunization rates in patients age ≥65 years by developing relationships with community organizations that would provide opportunities for community member education about adult vaccines. Pre/post Surveys: To assess potential changes in influenza and pneumococcal immunization knowledge and opinions in community members exposed to an educational presentation. Methods: Using personal and university resources, contact was made with several organizations serving the senior, underserved population in West Dayton, Ohio. An educational presentation about adult immunizations was developed and used at ten community events. The presentation included oral and written communication, and was based on the Health Belief Model. The presentation focused on dissemination of information both verbally and through low-literacy focused written information. Written material was also distributed through community channels. The effectiveness of the oral presentations was examined through pre/post questionnaires at five of the events. Statistical analysis was both descriptive and analytical. Results: Outreach was established to more than 1,000 individuals through direct mailings, flyers and oral presentations. Presentations were made at ten community events, where more than 80% of the participants were ≥65 years of age. Feedback about the presentations was positive. There was statistically significant improvement in answers to questions dealing with adult vaccination. Conclusions: Community outreach programs were successful in increasing awareness of the importance of adult vaccination among community members. Project was supported by a grant from the AAFP.