THE TRANSITION FROM HOSPITAL TO HOME IN PARENTS OF PEDIATRIC SOLID ORGAN TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS Stacee M. Lerret, BS, MSN, CPNP-AC/PC Marquette University, 2010 Readiness for hospital discharge is an under-investigated topic in pediatric solid organ transplant. The immediate post-operative period and first few weeks after transplant are a critical time period where patients are at high risk for transplant-related complications. A correlation design framed by Meleis" Transitions Theory were used to determine; (1) the influences of discharge teaching and care coordination on parent readiness for hospital discharge among parents of children who have experienced solid organ transplantation; and (2) the relationship of parent readiness for hospital discharge with coping, adherence difficulty, utilization of healthcare resources, and family impact in the first three weeks following discharge from the hospital. Qualitative data were used to supplement quantitative findings. Thirty seven parents from three pediatric transplant centers participated. Participants completed questionnaires on the day of hospital discharge and three weeks following hospital discharge. Regression analysis for quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data were used to identify significant relationships and themes. Results contribute to the understanding of important issues surrounding the discharge transition in a specific pediatric chronic illness population. Care coordination was associated with readiness for hospital discharge. Readiness for hospital discharge was subsequently associated with post-discharge coping difficulty, adherence difficulty with medical follow-up and family impact. Implications for nursing practice, nursing education and nursing research are identified. Identifying parents who are not ready to go home from the hospital following their child"s solid organ transplant provides an opportunity to offer additional transitional services so parents can effectively manage their child"s recovery and continuing care at home. Transitions theory provides a useful framework for conceptualizing and investigating the discharge transition of parents of children experiencing solid organ transplant. Results fill the current gap in knowledge and contribute to the advancement of nursing science.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
to identify barriers to and enhancers of completion of breast cancer treatment from the perspective of participants in a breast health navigator program.

RESEARCH APPROACH
qualitative, using focus group methodology and telephone interview.

SETTING
two teaching hospital ambulatory cancer centers.

PARTICIPANTS
women enrolled in the breast navigator program, including patients who completed (n = 13) and did not complete (n = 1) breast cancer treatment.

METHODOLOGIC APPROACH
researchers used semistructured, open-ended questioning to guide the interviews and elicit identification of barriers to and enhancers of treatment. A flexible approach was used and the interviews were recorded. Content analysis was used to identify themes.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
perceived barriers and enhancers of breast cancer treatment.

FINDINGS
the most common theme was the value of the education and information received from the navigator. Several participants saw this as the essence of the role. Assistance with managing symptoms, access to financial and community resources, and the team approach were completion enhancers.

CONCLUSIONS
completion of breast cancer therapy and care can be improved by recognizing the value the nurse navigator role brings to the patient experience and enhancing that role.

INTERPRETATION
the intentional presence of the oncology nurse and the nursing emphasis on culturally appropriate education and care can be seen as key competencies of the navigator. As the concept of the navigation process is expanded to other cancers, oncology nurses are particularly well positioned to advocate for the navigator role as a nursing domain.


The lipoyl domains of the dihydrolipoyl acyltransferase (E2p, E2o) components of the pyruvate and 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase multienzyme complexes are specifically recognised by their cognate 2-oxo acid decarboxylase (E1p, E1o). A prominent surface loop links the first and second beta-strands in all lipoyl domains, close in space to the lipoyl-lysine beta-turn. This loop was subjected to various modifications by directed mutagenesis of a sub-gene encoding a lipoyl domain of Escherichia coli E2p. Deletion of the loop (four residues) rendered the domain incapable of reductive acetylation by E. coli E1p in the presence of pyruvate, but insertion of a new loop (six residues) corresponding to that in the E2o lipoyl domain partly restored this ability, albeit with a much lower rate. However, the modified domain remained unable to undergo reductive succinylation by E1o in the presence of 2-oxoglutarate. Additional exchange of the two residues on the C-terminal side of the loop (V14A, E15T) had no effect. Insertion of a different four-residue loop also restored a limited ability to undergo reductive acetylation, but still significantly less than that of the wild-type domain. Exchanging the residue on the N-terminal side of the lipoyl-lysine beta-turn in the E2p and E2o domains (G39T), both singly and in conjunction with the loop exchange, had no effect on the ability of the E2p domain to be reductively acetylated but did confer a slight increase in susceptibility to reductive succinylation. All mutant E2p domains, apart from that with the loop deletion (LD), were readily lipoylated in vitro by E. coli lipoate protein ligase A; the E2p LD mutant could be lipoylated only at a significantly lower rate. Likewise, this domain exhibited 1D and 2D NMR spectra characteristic of a partially folded protein, whereas the spectra of mutants with modified loops were similar to those of the wild-type domain. The surface loop is evidently important to the structural integrity of the domain and may help to stabilize the thioester bond linking the acyl group to the reduced lipoyl-lysine swinging arm as part of the catalytic mechanism. Recognition of the lipoyl domain by its partner E1 appears to be a complex process and not attributable to any single determinant on the domain.


Contends that the notion of disturbing a system as the best way to understand it has profoundly altered the traditionally rigid boundary between scientist and S. This idea has evolved to become a systematic and distinctive approach that emphasizes active engagement with clients and co-learning. Three approaches to this type of effort are discussed: action research that aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to further the goals of science simultaneously; action learning that describes the complex collaborative relationships required of organizational change efforts; and action science that takes purposeful action related to a particular phenomena. Two case studies illustrate important aspects of collaborative social intervention from the researcher/consultant's side.


This paper presents preliminary results of a survey with Brazilian Information Systems researchers with respect to their experience as writers and reviewers of academic papers for scientific journals. Operational and ethical issues were addressed with the purpose of collecting material that could lead to debate among researchers on how to improve scientific reviewing and publication strategies in the country's journals. At this stage, very preliminary results are analyzed, considering that data collection is still under way. However, a few concerns could already be raised and trends depicted. In order to guide the analysis, the perspectives of a few authors that distinguish the pragmatic behavior, the ethical behavior and the moral behavior were taken into account, as it is believed that they help understand the pressures to which researchers are submitted these days. In that sense, the problem of ethics in research was included in the discussion, based on the reflection of certain contemporary philosophers about the reasons for a modernity ethics crisis, related to the rule of instrumental rationality.


Retailing and especially food retailing has always been a fundamental element for the organization of the compact and more liveable city furthering the relations of proximity. From the nineteenth century specially the system of public markets acquired very considerable importance and was considered one of the basic service of metropolis in the urban planning policy.
Despite this, liberal policies, new modes of transportation, delivery and selling, along with suburban growth and the relative commercial "sprawl", arising first in the cities in northern Europe and in the United States, undermined the development and conservation of this traditional public element, associated intimately with the compact city. In some southern and eastern European cities, markets are still functional landmarks. In Barcelona they have proven their considerable urban potential. In the 1980s, the extensive network of neighbourhood markets were seen as very effective focal points for restructuring a retail sector. Since then, municipal intervention in the reorganization of the city's markets and their immediate surroundings has formed part of an urban planning vision integrated into the defence of the neighbourhood structure, of close contact and, definitely, of the compact city. Barcelona has a clear policy of limiting oligopolies, and large commercial areas are seen as a threat to the equilibrium that allows for the coexistence of the traditional city and a high population density which helps to support public spending for the construction and administration of public markets, but also to enjoy the derived benefits.


Since September 11, the public health system has been plagued by concerns that it is inadequate to manage a bioterrorism outbreak. The federal government has promised billions of dollars to fight bioterrorism; and most states have announced plans to develop their own homeland defense systems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supports the promulgation of a Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (Act), which essentially presumes that state governments are powerless to manage public health emergencies.This article examines the challenges that bioterrorism poses for today's cities. The article first describes how bioterrorism fits into general public health issues. It then evaluates the state and federal powers available to manage bioterrorism incidents. Finally, the article proposes a practical alternative to ill-conceived strategies such as the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act. The authors conclude that while changes do need to be made in many state public health laws, the need for change is relatively minor. The public health system itself needs reorganization and adequate support, which will improve routine public health and better prepare the United States to manage a bioterrorism incident. More importantly, failings in the public health system result in the unnecessary loss of thousands of lives every year. These lives could be saved irrespective of whether the United States ever faces a major bioterrorism attack.


The focus of this study is the capacity of sister city relationships to build international
peace under conditions of ongoing geopolitical conflict. Although credited with high
potential in popular, political and academic discourses, peace focused sister city
relationships have been the subject of minimal empirical research. As socially constructed
realities, these relationships offer an opportunity to uncover processes through which
personal and collective meanings are translated into structures of social inclusion and
exclusion at the local/international interface. As a concrete point of reference, I identify
the ideal function of sister city relationships as the boundary object, an abstract or material
intermediary through which actors from diverse social worlds work productively together
on shared projects. Employing a symbolic interactionist theoretical framework and the
research methods of observation, semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis, I
examine sister city peace proposals and relationships between American/Australian cities
and cities in Palestine and Iraq. I address deficiencies in the existing literature by
formulating an empirically and theoretically supported and testable analytical model,
comprising two components: the 'concept' (a blend of 'human family' and 'citizen
diplomat' tropes) and the 'structure' (the local authority/citizen group dyad).
The sister cities peace model is seen to break down under the pressure of
competing imperatives to manage risk, preventing the creation of boundary objects.
Instead, dissonance within the 'concept' component produces 'consensus objects' (U.SIraqi
relationships), which mimic boundary objects by creating a misleading impression
that communication across significant difference is being achieved in the interests of
positive social change. Incompatible meanings within the 'structure' component result in
'risk objects' (U.S./Australian-Palestinian proposals), which are deemed by local
authorities to be sources of danger and consequently ejected from council agendas. The
model is concluded to be highly flexible, but insufficiently robust to meet the high
expectations placed upon it. For citizen peace actors, its semantic plasticity results either
in engulfment of their universal sympathies by nationalist agendas, or disappointment and
resentment when their initiatives are rejected at the local scale. For local authorities, it
engenders acrimonious divisions within their municipalities and ambiguities in their
obligations to citizens. The single successful Western-Palestinian proposal examined is
judged to have succeeded due to an atypical absence of local opposition, but is considered
significant in other dimensions. The thesis concludes with a discussion of alternative
directions in sister city relationships and implications of the study as a whole for local
government policy and practice.


This thesis states that dynamic profiling of the memory reference stream can improve energy and performance in the memory hierarchy. The research presented in this theses provides multiple instances of using lightweight hardware structures to profile the memory reference stream. The objective of this research is to develop microarchitectural techniques to reduce energy consumption at different levels of the memory hierarchy. Several simple and implementable techniques were developed as a part of this research. One of the techniques identifies and eliminates redundant refresh operations in DRAM and reduces DRAM refresh power. Another, reduces leakage energy in L2 and higher level caches for multiprocessor systems. The emphasis of this research has been to develop several techniques of obtaining energy savings in caches using a simple hardware structure called the counting Bloom filter (CBF). CBFs have been used to predict L2 cache misses and obtain energy savings by not accessing the L2 cache on a predicted miss. A simple extension of this technique allows CBFs to do way-estimation of set associative caches to reduce energy in cache lookups. Another technique using CBFs track addresses in a Virtual Cache and reduce false synonym lookups. Finally this thesis presents a technique to reduce dynamic power consumption in level one caches using significance compression. The significant energy and performance improvements demonstrated by the techniques presented in this thesis suggest that this work will be of great value for designing memory hierarchies of future computing platforms.


In most health facilities in Kenya, the diagnosis of intestinal helminths has been and continues to be based on clinical criteria. This is the situation even in places where laboratory facilities are available. It was therefore the main aim of this study to determine the reliability of this method. The study was carried out between March 1989 and June 1989 among children attending a Nairobi City dispensary. A case-control study was conducted among the children aged 10 years and under. A case was any child 10 years and under who after medical consultation had an anthelminthic drug prescribed. A control was any child 10 years and under who after medical consultation had no anthelminthic drug prescribed. 201 cases and 201 controls were included in the study. Of these, 163 stool specimens were received from the cases and 162 were received from the controls. It was found that 47 (28.83%) of the cases had one or more intestinal helminths on stool examination. 16 (9.88 %) of the controls were also found to be infected with one or more worms. This over-diagnosis leads to the use of drugs and thus over expenditure on anti-helminthic drugs.From this study it was found that the following socio-economic factors were associated with the presence of intestinal helminths:
1. Father's education status
2. Mother's education status
3. Child's age
4. Father's age
Clinically, the important signs and symptoms that revealed an association with intestinal helminth infection were:-
1. Abdominal pain
2. Rumbling in abdomen
3. Pallor
4. Weight for age less than -2 standard deviations
5. Height for age less than -2 standard deviations.3
The present method of management and control of intestinal helminths has been shown to be expensive and wasteful. Setting up a laboratory with a trained microscopist is much cheaper and in the long run a more effective control strategy.


The goal of this paper is to examine stability in preferences using the Stigler-Becker state-dependent framework. Using a randomized intervention that changes the opportunity sets of individuals we construct a unique panel data from an artefactual field experiment and evaluate whether the change in the state space influences our selected indicators of preferences: risk, competitiveness, and confidence. We find that there is considerable heterogeneity of preferences across individuals at a point in time; risk and competitive preferences inter-temporally are consistent with state-dependent preferences, while measures of confidence seem to depend on past experiences.


The grand challenge for the 21st century is to harness the rapidly accumulating knowledge of Earth's biodiversity and the ecosystems that support it. Meeting this challenge involves managing two kinds of complexity: the biological complexity of the organisms and the sociological complexity of biological information mobilization. The Flora of North America (FNA) is an authoritative resource to help manage the former source of complexity, while Collaborative Publishing Services (CPServices) is a tool to help manage the latter. The FNA project is an example of a large-scale and complexly distributed scientific database publishing activity that has been tightly coupled with traditional, paperbound publishing practices, which have been able to scale to accommodate and manage the complexities involved in articulating its work. The network-based coordination environment, CPServices, instantiates a role-based view coordinative protocol which inscribes and circumscribes the dependency relations among actors, activities, and resources, thereby both reducing the cognitive load of individual FNA project participants and managing the Project's collaborative load. This paper construes CPServices' role-based view to be a species of a larger class of constructs, normative boundary constructs, which are invented and adopted to manage interdependent work in large, distributed projects of long duration. Finally, normative boundary constructs, in turn, are placed within an activity theoretic framework to better explicate their value and use in such collaborative work arrangements.


The research aims at evaluating the accession impacts on Romania's agriculture by analysing the comparative advantages in trade relations with EU. The method used the calculation of the trade specialization degree index constructed from the original Lafay index and adapted on the agricultural sector. While providing a rank of products by their level of specialization on the international market, the research results indicate a decrease of the specialization level and a loss in the trade diversification of the Romanian products. The assessments reveal that certain products previously expressing an export potential, have suffered in the post-accession period an important decline in their commercial specialization: such is the case of live animals and animal products, which, although still have positive trade balance, the net export amounts registered significant declines. The results identified similar loss for oilseeds, milk and dairy products.


Egypt's recent economic success will almost certainly be interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine the likely impact on the Egyptian economy of a significant reduction in tourism, payments received from the Suez Canal, and remittances from Egyptians working abroad because of the slowdown in the global economy due to the COVID-19 virus. Our results suggest that COVID-19 could reduce national GDP by between 0.7 and 0.8 percent (EGP 36 to 41 billion) for each month that the global crisis continues. Similarly, household consumption and expenditure is estimated to decline on average by between EGP 153 and EGP 180 per person per month, which is between 9.0 and 10.6 percent of average household income. The cumulative loss in GDP from these three external shocks alone could amount to between 2.1 and 4.8 percent of annual GDP in 2020 if the crisis lasts for 3 to 6 months. While the country's focus currently is rightly on fighting the health crisis and mitigating its immediate impacts, planning on how to re-open the economy should also start now.


Edward M. Miller 1 University of New Orleans The g Factor General Intelligence and Its Implications Christopher Brand John Wiley & Sons 1996. 253pp. (Withdrawn 1996) In late March of this year, a book by Christopher Brand titled The g Factor: General Intelligence and its Implications appeared in UK bookstores. It was published by John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, England. On April 17, the New York office of John Wiley announced in an unprecedented action that "After careful consideration of the statements made recently by author Christopher Brand (as reported in the British press), as well as some of the views presented in his work ..., we have decided to withdraw the book from publication. (Wiley) does not want to support these views by disseminating them or be associated with a book that makes assertions that we find repellant" (Holden, 1996). It is very unusual for a publisher to break a contract with an author and announce that the reason for this action is to prevent the dissemination of certain views. The question naturally arises as to what are the views whose dissemination they wish to prevent, and what is the evidence for these views? While Wiley has not been specific as to just what views that it was to prevent the dissemination of, one presumes they have to do with racial differences in intelligence and the implications for economics and for educational policy. Wiley announced (McMillen 1996) that they acted because of "deep ethical beliefs", but what these were was not revealed. One suspects they were that racial differences and eugenics should not be discussed, but that is merely a guess. Fortunately, the author of this review article had seen the Wiley prepublication publicity planned for the jacket (now available at http://laboratory.psy.ed.ac.uk/DOCS/crb/new.htm) and decided to review the book. He had obtained a copy, and started this review when the book was withdrawn. The fact that this book was withdrawn in an announced attempt to prevent the dissemination of certain ideas will modify somewhat the nature of this review. It will be longer than the usual review so that the reader will have the opportunity to know what Brand had to say. Also references will be provided so that the reader will be able to find the sources for what Brand claimed. Incidentally, the views contained in Brand's book were based on well established science. Brand's book is not primarily about racial differences or eugenics (the major policy recommendations relate to educational policy). However, since considerable controversy has resulted from Wiley's action, and most commentators have assumed that it was media attention focussing on Brand's observations about the statistical correlation between race and intelligence that prompted Wiley to withdraw the book, a somewhat disproportionate part of this review will be devoted to these aspects. There are several interesting features of Wiley's actions. In many countries there has been concern about domination of the economy by companies headquartered abroad. This concern has been especially strong with regard to national culture, and the industries that directly affect it, including publishing, motion pictures, broadcasting, etc. Usually a multinational firm tries to leave the impression that key decisions affecting the culture or the economy are made in the country affected. Wiley's decision is unusual in that it was announced in New York and made in the name of the chief executive, Mr. Ellis, even though the major effect was to cause the withdrawal of a book from British bookstores and to hurt a Scottish author. The very few hours between the adverse publicity in Britain and the decision of Wiley's New York executives to withdraw the book makes it unlikely that anyone in New York had studied the book in detail. An interesting aspect of the Brand case is that the Scottish Nationalist party, which is understood to believe that Scotland should not be ruled in all details from London, might have been expected to take the lead in preventing Scotland from being ruled from America. …


Environmental laws often mandate specific environmental outcomes and require agencies to adopt plans designed to achieve those outcomes. But because of pervasive uncertainties, agencies are often unsure whether their plans will succeed. That uncertainty creates important dilemmas; decision-makers must decide how to balance risks of plan failure against the costs of possible over-regulation. This article explores and evaluates legal responses to those dilemmas. I find that planning uncertainties recur throughout existing environmental laws and will likely have important consequences for legal responses to climate change. I also find that environmental statutes and regulations use a patchwork of measures to manage these planning uncertainties. Decisions about planning uncertainty are frequently made on an ad-hoc, non-transparent basis, and preferences for plans with low success odds are common. That approach is problematic, for it impedes public participation, increases vulnerability to decision-making biases, and contributes to regulatory dysfunction. I therefore propose procedural and substantive reforms designed to improve the transparency of planning uncertainty management and to reduce the frequency of plan failure.


We address the problem of a swarm of autonomous mobile robotic sensors generating geometric shapes to build wireless ad hoc surveillance sensor networks. Robot swarms with limited observation are required to form different shapes under different task conditions. To do this, we propose decentralized coordination enabling a robot swarm dispersed across an area to form a desired shape. Our approach has n robots generate a circumscribed circle of a regular n-polygon based on local interaction with neighboring robots. The approach also enables a large robot swarm to form concentric circles through consensus. We mathematically demonstrate convergence confirming the feasibility using extensive simulation. Our results indicate that our approach is applicable to mobile sensor network surveillance and security networks.


Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the most frequent malignancy of the aerodigestive tract and the limitations in current chemotherapeutic approaches have yielded a poor prognosis. Synthetic double stranded (ds) RNA, which activate toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) and generate interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3)-mediated proapoptotic responses in cancer cells, are being investigated as potent adjuvants to chemotherapy. We had previously shown that cells derived from metastatic HNSCC were unable to activate prosurvival NF-κB in response to TLR3 ligand, resulting in an enhanced apoptotic response compared to cells from primary tumors. Here, we demonstrate that in metastatic tumor-derived cell lines, transcriptional downregulation of receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1), an adaptor protein of the TLR3 pathway, enhances dsRNA-mediated apoptosis due to a loss of NF-κB activation. This is consistent with our observations supporting the reduction of RIPK1 expression during the tumor progression of HNSCC correlated with an increased promoter methylation in matched tumor samples from HNSCC patients. Treatment of metastatic tumor-derived cell lines with a hypomethylating agent rescued the expression of RIPK1, demonstrating that promoter methylation may be responsible for the downregulation of RIPK1. We show that silencing of RIPK1 enhances the tumor promoting properties in HNSCC cell lines by increasing the rate of migration, EGFR expression and anoikis resistance. As the downregulation of RIPK1 expression contributes to the metastatic phenotype of HNSCC, but is essential for TLR3-NF-κB mediated pro-survival responses, we believe the results described here may open new prospects for using synthetic dsRNA to target metastatic tumor cells. In light of these findings, RIPK1 downregulation as a treatment biomarker, or combinational therapies with NF-κB-signaling inhibitors, could be used to enhance the immunotherapeutic efficacy of synthetic dsRNA. As the downregulation of RIPK1 has been observed in additional carcinomas, our findings suggest that synthetic dsRNA could be used as a broad anti-cancer therapy and that RIPK1 expression can be a useful indicator to predict the therapy response.


This paper explores Indian Sufi influences in Shye Ben Tzur's music. Ben Tzur is a Jewish Israeli musician who composes Sufi poetry in Hebrew and plays it to qawwālī music, the traditional North Indian Sufi music. Ben Tzur's songs are devotional and there are many Sufi references that invoke Islamic terminology. His music has been reviewed in numerous newspapers and his Jewish identity, coupled with Sufi themes, evokes questions regarding religious belonging. Even though Ben Tzur openly discusses Sufi influences, his music has remained uncontroversial. This article interprets this as a sign that the symbolic repertoire of Ben Tzur's music evokes associations with India and not with Islam and more specifically with India as a spiritual rather than religious space. The image of India as a spiritual land manages to subsume references to Islam and render them part of the "mystical East" allowing Ben Tzur's audience to consume Muslim themes outside Middle Eastern politics.


The length-weight relationships and the regressions between otolith size (length and width) and fish length of some mesopelagic and bathypelagic fishes living in the central Mediterranean Sea were provided. Images and morphological description of otoliths (sagittae) from 16 species belonging to the families of Gonostomatidae (1), Microstomatidae (2), Myctophidae (8), Phosichthyidae (2), Sternoptychidae (2) and Stomiidae (1) were given. The length-weight relationship showed an isometric growth in 13 species. No differences between right and left otolith sizes were detected by t-test, so a single linear regression was plotted against standard length (SL) for otolith length (OL) and otolith width (OW). Data fitted well to the regression model for both OL and OW to SL, for each species (R 2 > 0.8). These relationships offer a helpful tool in feeding studies and also provide support to palaeontologists in their research on fish fossils.


This research takes the form of ten journal articles and book chapters that were published between June 2008 and February 2018. This body of work encompasses outputs that are focused on community development, community arts, youth work and social movement praxis. These fields of praxis are understood as constituting a vital part of a variegated and differentiated Irish civil society and, while acknowledging their specificities, the body of work situates them together within the contested terrain of collective action. The Covering Document elucidates how, across the ten outputs, collective action is theorised: as the site of and target for complex and dynamic power relationships; as imbricated with various governmental projects through which multiple societal actors seek to mobilise citizens; as a potential site of and resource for resistance to particular expressions of government, ideology and power; and as developing alternative social relationships, organisational forms and modes of communication.

The boundaries between the state and civil society are imprecise and fluid: civil society and state actors seek to induce desired forms of conduct and relationships from each other. This research exposes and critically interrogates associated power dynamics, overlaps, and contestations, and how they in turn shape expectations of collective action. Drawing together findings from youth work, community development, social movement, and community arts praxis, the research illuminates; how and by whom collective action is rationalised and (de)legitimised; the changing role of the state in governing civil society; and the potential for collective action to prefigure alternative forms of relationships and to resist particular forms of government. Therefore, the body of work analyses how the meanings, forms and purposes of collective action are constantly reworked, just as they give expression to important societal struggles.

The Covering Document details the theory, methodology and methods that have underpinned the research. It offers an integrated thematic overview of the ten research outputs, highlighting their coherence, originality, and relevance for a critical analysis of the dynamics of collective action in contemporary Ireland. The research analyses the discourses of collective action as they have been expressed in key policy documents, in newspapers such as the Irish Independent and in the documents of protest of social movement organisations. It highlights and interrogates the political, economic and cultural context for collective action in 21st Century Ireland, paying particular attention to the ways though which the recent regime of austerity has impacted on civil society, the state and on relations between these spheres. The research is critical in orientation, but it draws upon and articulates diverse critical traditions as it analyses the power dynamics associated with collective action. Gramscian style, cultural materialist and Foucauldian governmentality perspectives are variously adopted and adapted within specific outputs. The Covering Document also outlines how and why the body of work troubles the boundaries between community development, community arts, youth work and social movement research and praxis. It calls for an articulated and dialogical theory and practice that challenge the assumed estrangement of these fields.

As the Covering Document outlines, the research records how state policy now seeks to govern youth work, community development and community arts organisations through an increasingly intrusive and prescriptive set of policy ordinances, self-reporting techniques, and accountability measures. Against that, it also points to the potential for collective action to re-politicise issues otherwise framed as non-political by policy-makers and media, to build and be based upon reflexive forms of solidarity, and to reclaim the arts and tactics of protest.


The Internet of Things (IoT) is being held back by divergent approaches that result in data silos, high costs, investment risks and reduced market opportunities. To realize the potential and unleash the network effect, W3C is focusing on the role of Web technologies for a platform of platforms as a basis for services spanning IoT platforms from microcontrollers to cloud-based server farms. Shared semantics are essential for discovery, interoperability, scaling and layering on top of existing protocols and platforms. For this purpose, metadata can be classified into: things, security, and communications, where things are considered to be virtual representations (software objects) for physical or abstract entities. Thing descriptions are modeled in terms of W3C's resource description framework (RDF). This includes the semantics for what kind of thing it is, and the data models for its events, properties and actions. The underlying protocols are free to use whichever communication patterns are appropriate to the context according to the constraints described by the given metadata. W3C is exploring the use of lightweight representations of metadata that are easy to author and process, even on resource constrained devices. The aim is to evolve the web from a web of pages to a "Web of Things."


In response to the global financial crisis of 2008, the Federal Reserve decided to develop and implement stress tests to assess the soundness of the financial system. Each stress test involves crafting a potential real-world scenario and then quantifying the scenario's effect on both financial actors in the economy and the financial system as a whole. There currently exist two weaknesses in the Federal Reserve's stress testing approach. First, the number of stress tests faced by each financial institution is quite small, with many such stress test scenarios mimicking past historical events that are not necessarily reflective of future situations. Second, the Federal Reserve's toolkit is not sufficiently macroprudential in nature, even though the financial crisis did cause many central banks to nominally transition from a microprudential regulatory approach to a macroprudential regulatory approach. In this work, we tackle these two issues. We show how to massively increase the number and types of possible stress tests without increasing the computational burden. To do this, we generate classes of stress tests with potentially very large cardinalities. For each class of stress tests, we then construct in closed form probability distributions that capture the range of possible balance sheet effects both for each individual financial institution and for the entire financial system. The approach that we take towards increasing the number of stress tests is fundamentally macroprudential. We moreover show how the topologies of the bipartite networks linking financial institutions to assets shape stress tests' effects on the financial system.


This paper explores different ways of modelling and simulating complex spatial and temporal events, such as battles, for which it has been practically impossible to (re)construct the thousands if not hundreds of thousands of variables of which they are comprised. This research utilises as a case study the Battle of Mount Street Bridge of the Irish Easter 1916 Rising, in which the number of British casualties has been fiercely debated. The research is framed within the theory and practice of digital scholarly editions, which provides a new paradigm for approaching virtual worlds in a contextualized and annotated environment. This paper also discusses the challenges of creating virtual worlds for online environments in which there is rapid obsolescence of software and platforms and an absence of standards.


The analysis of visibility between two points on the earth's terrain is a common use of GIS software. Most commercial GIS software packages include the ability to generate a viewshed, or a map of terrain surrounding a particular location that would be visible to an observer. Viewsheds are often generated using "bare-earth" Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) derived from the process of photogrammetry. More detailed models, known as Digital Surface Models (DSMs), are often generated using Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) which uses an airborne laser to scan the terrain. In addition to having greater accuracy than photogrammetric DEMs, LIDAR DSMs include surface features such as buildings and trees. This project used a visibility algorithm to predict visibility between observer and target locations using both photogrammetric DEMs and LIDAR DSMs of varying resolution. A field survey of the locations was conducted to determine the accuracy of the visibility predictions and to gauge the extent to which the presence of surface features in the DSMs affected the accuracy. The use of different resolution terrain models allowed for the analysis of the relationship between accuracy and optimal grid size. Additionally, a series of visibility predictions were made using Monte Carlo methods to add random error to the terrain elevation to estimate the probability of a target's being visible. Finally, the LIDAR DSMs were used to determine the linear distance of terrain along the lines-of-sight between the observer and targets that were obscured by trees or bushes. A logistic regression was performed between that distance and the visibility of the target to determine the extent to which a greater amount of vegetation along the line-of-sight impacted the target's visibility.


Context
Low-grade inflammation is associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Preclinical evidence suggests that resveratrol (RSV) has beneficial metabolic and anti-inflammatory effects that could have therapeutic implications.

Objective
To investigate effects of long-term RSV treatment on inflammation and MetS.

Setting and Design
A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel group clinical trial conducted at Aarhus University Hospital.

Participants
Middle-aged community-dwelling men (N = 74) with MetS, 66 of whom completed all visits (mean ± standard error of the mean): age, 49.5 ± 0.796 years; body mass index, 33.8 ± 0.44 kg/m2; waist circumference, 115 ± 1.14 cm.

Intervention
Daily oral supplementation with 1000 mg RSV (RSVhigh), 150 mg RSV, or placebo for 16 weeks.

Main outcome measures
Plasma levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), circulating lipids, and inflammatory markers in circulation and adipose/muscle tissue biopsy specimens; glucose metabolism; and body composition including visceral fat and ectopic fat deposition.

Results
RSV treatment did not lower circulating levels of hs-CRP, interleukin 6, or soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor in plasma, and inflammatory gene expression in adipose and muscle tissues also remained unchanged. RSV treatment had no effect on blood pressure, body composition, and lipid deposition in the liver or striated muscle. RSV treatment had no beneficial effect on glucose or lipid metabolism. RSVhigh treatment significantly increased total cholesterol (P < 0.002), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (P < 0.006), and fructosamine (P < 0.013) levels compared with placebo.

Conclusion
RSV treatment did not improve inflammatory status, glucose homeostasis, blood pressure, or hepatic lipid content in middle-aged men with MetS. On the contrary, RSVhigh significantly increased total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and fructosamine levels compared with placebo.


BACKGROUND
The catalytic direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide is a highly interesting alternative process to avoid the current anthraquinone route because it implies significant sustainability improvements. Among all the peroxide applications, its use as an electronic chemical requires very low metallic content. The employment of direct synthesis peroxide as raw material for the ultrapurification process has not been investigated before, so its viability is still pending evaluation.

RESULTS
Although the improvements of catalyst or reactor performance of the direct synthesis process were not defined as objectives of the work, a maximum peroxide concentration of 2.3% was obtained, which is a very good result considering the low pressure used. Some relationships between the measured metallic concentrations in the obtained chemical and the operating conditions have been very useful to identify the most important conditions (selection of appropriate quality chemicals and proper materials for the installation) to promote the production of hydrogen peroxide with low metallic content. The technical competitiveness of this alternative ultrapurification process was clearly demonstrated as the number of required membrane stages (from 1 to 6 depending on the product quality) is lower than that required by the traditional case. Besides, the process can be considered economically viable if the direct synthesis peroxide can be produced with a total cost below 36.5 $ m−3.

CONCLUSION
Further investigation, specifically focused on holistic approaches, is still necessary in order to assess the total costs of hydrogen peroxide production by direct synthesis. This way, the current available information could be complemented and the competitiveness of this direct route to obtain hydrogen peroxide for electronic grade chemical production could be more clearly defined. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry


The recent industrial action by health care professionals underscores the gloomy and progressively worsening state of affairs in the health care sector. The reaction of their employer (the Department of Health) has been one of scathing criticism of a professional group who have dared to go 'against their calling' and the Hippocratic Oath that they took at graduation, making health care professionals vulnerable by the very noble and righteous pledges that they have made. And of course, the Department, true to its machiavellian modus operandi, has chosen to exploit this vulnerability and hold these professionals ransom to the Oath. Moreover, they have tried to use the Labour Relations Act No. 66 of 1995 as a legal ploy to declare the actions by the health care professionals illegal.


Renewable energy technologies are increasingly seen as viable alternative energy sources to fix economic, security and environmental problems associated with the continued utilization of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Available global data suggests that wind energy has been growing fastest among renewable energy technologies. Yet, there are startling variations among different nations. This thesis will explore the implementation of wind energy policies in the United States and Australia. In particular, it seeks to unravel the puzzle as to why we observe such marked differences in the growth of wind energy in both countries. This is despite similar levels of wind resources and, amongst other things, are similar in both being federal democracies and strong industrialized economies. Drawing on an institutional approach to political science, it aimed to discover the differences by using two major approaches to implementation analysis: top-down and bottom-up approaches.

The top-down approach emphasizes the structures and mechanisms used by government institutions in implementing policy goals. In contrast, the bottom-up approach focuses on the interactions among the network of actors involved in implementation and how this influences policy outcomes. The results showed that it is the interaction of the top-down and bottom-up approaches that allowed for the United States to have a faster adoption rate than Australia. From the top-down approach, the existence and nature of the legislation including the economic mechanisms used proved to be more effective in implementing wind energy in the US than what is used in Australia. It was the combination of a number of pieces of legislation which set in place economic mechanisms and regulation and that these were available at the state and federal levels which proved to be a large facilitator to the wind industry in the US. The nature of Australia's legislation does not prove to be enough of an incentive for significant growth of the industry. In addition to the top-down, variables from the bottom-up proved to be important. The network of actors in the United States is larger and plays a more active role in facilitating the implementation of wind energy. There is a main trade association for the wind industry (AWEA) which works closely with government to assure the industries needs are being met. This is seen through the continuation of the Production Tax Credit and strong political support for the industry. The interaction of AWEA among other groups with government has allowed for the continuation of the PTC which is a large facilitator for the development of the wind industry. If it were not for the network of actors, these formal government mechanisms would not be in place. Furthermore, were it not for these formal government mechanisms, inter-market competition would not be as strong. Compared to Australia, the United States has legislation that works to create incentives and a competitive market for wind energy, in addition to a network of actors involved in implementation and has the ability to influence government to provide the incentives that allow the wind industry to grow. A comparative analysis has shown that the nature of the legislation and the network of actors are what have allowed the United States to have faster implementation of wind energy than Australia.

This thesis will show the importance of applying both the top-down and bottom-up approaches to implementation theory which has not been used explicitly for these two countries in this context before. In addition this thesis used applied implementation analysis which has not been done on wind energy policies in these two countries comparatively. This thesis, by applying top-down and bottom-up approaches, sought to enhance the understanding of wind energy policy implementation in a comparative context.


Background: AOD9604 is the C-terminal fragment (Tyr-hGH177-191) of human growth hormone (hGH). Early stage studies with AOD9604 have shown positive activities on fat metabolism. As a result the use of AOD9604 to improve metabolic profiles may be plausible. For these uses, the safety of AOD9604 needs to be clearly demonstrated. Here we report the findings from studies involving the genotoxicological, toxicological and pharmacokinetic testing of AOD9604. Methods: In an Ames test, the mutagenic potential of AOD9604 was assessed. A chromosomal aberration assay in CHO cells was used to test the mutagenic activity of AOD9604 by its ability to cause structural damage to chromosomes. A bone micronucleus assay incorporated in a 4-week rat intravenous (IV) toxicity study was used to test potential micronucleus formation. In chronic toxicology studies in rats (6 months) and cynomolgus monkeys (9 months), the potential toxicity of AOD9604 was assessed after daily oral gavage. Pharmacokinetic properties of AOD9604 were examined in a study with pigs after oral and IV administration, and rat whole- body radiography after IV and oral 14 C-AOD9604 application. Results: AOD9604 was found to be generally safe after chronic oral application in rats and cynomolgus monkeys. There was no evidence of any genotoxic activities of AOD9604, as examined in an Ames test, a chromosomal aberration assay, or a bone micronucleus assay. Rat whole- body radiography revealed similar organ distribution after IV or oral application. Orally administered AOD9604 in pigs was well absorbed and results revealed rapid degradation kinetics. Conclusion: Multiple non-clinical studies revealed no evidence of genotoxicological or toxicological concerns regarding the safety of AOD9604. J Endocrinol Metab. 2014;4(3):64-77 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jem213w


The effects of grazing by the dugong Dugong dugon on benthic invertebrate assem- blages in seagrass beds were examined in subtropical Moreton Bay, southeast Queensland, Aus- tralia. During feeding, dugongs leave distinct trails through seagrass beds where vegetation has been removed and sediments disturbed. The abundance of benthic fauna was examined along 3 recently created feeding trails and compared to 3 nearby patches of ungrazed seagrass within the same bed. A controlled, manipulative field experiment was then conducted, simulating the effects of dugong grazing, but distinguishing between the effect of removal of vegetation and the disturbance of the sediment during feeding. Dugong grazing was associated with declines in the abundance of benthic animals by up to 85% along trails, with the most noticeable impacts on amphipods and polychaete worms. Simulated dugong grazing caused a significant decline in the biomass of seagrass, through the removal of the vegetation but also from the physical disturbance during feeding. The combined and separate effects on the vegetation and from disturbance were associated with: (1) significant effects of grazing but not of physical disturbance for amphipods, capitellid and opheliid polychaetes; (2) significant effects of physical disturbance with no additional effect of grazing for terebellid poly- chaetes; (3) significant effects of physical disturbance with an additional effect of grazing for tanaids, bivalves and sabellid polychaetes; (4) significant short-term effects after 1 wk, no longer apparent after 4 wk, for ostracods, nereidid and syllid polychaetes and nemerteans; and (5) no effect of grazing or physical disturbance for isopods and spionid polychaetes.


I. INTRODUCTION For some education leaders, the results caused them to remember Sputnik. (1) For United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, they were a "wake-up call." (2) The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) uses a standardized test to compare students' academic aptitude from sixty-five different countries. It is, in many ways, a measuring stick for a country's education program. (3) When PISA released the results of its most recent test in late 2010, the numbers indicated that the United States was behind many other countries in educational outcomes. Its test scores were merely average in reading and science, and well below average in mathematics. (4) By contrast, students in Shanghai not only had the highest scores of any country, but they scored as many as 104 points above average in mathematics, 74 points above average in science, and 63 points above average in reading. (5) In contrast, the United States only placed seventeenth in reading, twenty-third in science, and thirty-first in mathematics. (6) While the United States' results were consistent with past performance on international tests, (7) many were surprised to see how far Shanghai students had surpassed American students. In addition to lagging behind in the international education arena, disparities within the United State contribute to the well-documented racial and financial achievement gap. Minority students tend not to perform as well as white students on standardized achievement tests. (8) Although there is evidence that this gap is narrowing, (9) it still poses a significant barrier to many minority students. Moreover, there is evidence that the achievement gap is widening between affluent and low-income students. (10) As the financial gap between the wealthiest ten percent of Americans and the poorest ten percent has increased, the achievement gap between the two groups has grown by thirty to forty percent. (11) As a result of the startling statistics concerning America's academic achievement both domestically and internationally, various education reform movements have taken root. Of these, the charter schools movement has gained favor because it offers "two distinct promises: to serve as an escape hatch for children in failing schools, and to be incubators of innovation[.]" (12) Charter schools are ideal for education reform because they are autonomous public schools, meaning each school has the ability to develop new strategies to improve educational outcomes for students outside of the framework of a traditional school district. (13) In turn, other schools can replicate the most effective methods in their own schools. In this manner, charter schools ideally "deliver better results in return for greater freedom." (14) Studies thus far have shown that charter schools, overall, do not perform significantly better than traditional public schools, suggesting they may not be able to deliver on the promise of improved student achievement. (15) However, researchers are beginning to explore avenues for scaling the most effective charter school teaching strategies into failing public schools. (16) Moreover, new research shows that despite differences among state charter school laws, certain legislative policy choices create better student outcomes. (17) Missouri, for example, affirmed its hospitable policy environment in School District of Kansas City v. State. (18) Conversely, the Supreme Court of Georgia in Gwinnett County School District v. Cox (19) stifled student achievement by weakening its state's charter school laws. This Comment takes the position that all states can benefit from charter school policies that promote student achievement, and that the Supreme Court of Missouri can provide a model of the role the courts can play. Part II of this Comment will provide a detailed history about the development of charter schools nationally. Part III then answers the question of whether widespread support for charter schools is a wise policy choice. …


Background Associations between socio-economic status (SES), personality and inflammation were examined to determine whether low SES subjects scoring high on neuroticism or hostility might suffer relatively higher levels of inflammation than affluent subjects. Methods In a cross-sectional design, 666 subjects were recruited from areas of high (most deprived – "MD") and low (least deprived – "LD") deprivation. IL-6, ICAM-1, CRP and fibrinogen were measured along with demographic and health-behaviour variables, and personality traits of neuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism (hostility). Regression models assessed the prediction of inflammation as a function of personality, deprivation and their interaction. Results Levels of CRP and IL-6 were an increasing function of neuroticism and extraversion only in LD subjects opposite trends were seen in MD subjects. The result was ascribed parsimoniously to an inflammatory ceiling effect or, more speculatively, to SES-related health-behaviour differences. Psychoticism was strongly associated with ICAM-1 in both MD and LD subjects. Conclusions The association between neuroticism, CRP and IL-6 may be reduced in MD subjects confirming speculation that the association differs across population sub-groups. The association between psychoticism and ICAM-1 supports evidence that hostility has adverse effects upon the endothelium, with consequences for cardiovascular health. Health interventions may be more effective by accounting for personality-related effects upon biological processes.


This paper documents the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences in a sample of 130 young people aged under 18 who present high levels of risk in relation to serious violent, sexual or extremist behaviours. The paper also considers the impact of childhood bereavement which, although known to be a common feature in the lives of young people involved in offending, is rarely documented in Adverse Childhood Experience studies. The paper also presents potential evidence of gender effects and begins to reflect on how gender might interact with how young people, and the systems and professionals around them, respond to adversity in childhood.


At the moment, neonatal septicemia is one of the most frequent causes for neonatal morbidity and mortality. Recent data show a neonatal septicemia incidence of approximately 30 at 1000 live newborns, so 3 live newborns out of 100 develop a systemic infection in the neonatal period, with a 19% mortality rate. Each year the patology is responsible for 3.3 million deaths worldwide; most of them (over 90%) appear in Asia and Africa. In third world countries, neonatal septicemia is the main cause of death in the first 3 days of life, followed by perinatal asphyxia and congenital malformations. The diagnosis of neonatal sepsis is usually delayed, because blood cultures – gold standard procedure - are available only after 24-72 hours. Although blood cultures are efficient for the diagnosis, the tehnique requires a lot of time and a well equiped laboratory. An ideal diagnosis test for neonatal septicemia mainly needs to have a very high sensibility and sensitivity. It should also be cheap, easy to do, and quick. Neonatologists have a critic need for laboratory tests to help them in making a quick and efficient diagnosis, leading to a faster begining of treatment which can significantly improve prognosis. The present paper presents the actual stage in clinical transition to usefull markers in hasty diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.


In the development of photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) production, designing and optimizing photocatalyst nanostructures with efficient charge transfer and separation for catalytically active sites are still a great challenge. Herein, a well-controlled synthetic strategy is developed to prepare an Mo2C/TiO2 hetero-nanostructure, in which the TiO2 3D hierarchical configuration is loaded with highly dispersed Mo2C nanoparticles. This heterostructure achieves the excellent photocatalytic activity of 39.4 mmol h−1 g−1 with its rate ∼25 times higher than that of pristine TiO2. Also, our photocatalysts process excellent long-term durability (>20 h). The impressive photocatalytic H2 activity of Mo2C/TiO2 indicates favourable charge carrier dynamics, as determined by the results of photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL), surface photovoltage (SPV), and open circuit potential (OCP) decay curves. Moreover, this study provides a guide for researchers to design new functional materials with excellent hydrogen production activity.


Bulk n-lnSb is investigated at a heterodyne detector for the submillimeter
wavelength region. Two modes or operation are investigated: (1) the Rollin or
hot electron bolometer mode (zero magnetic field), and (2) the Putley mode
(quantizing magnetic field). The highlight of the thesis work is the pioneering
demonstration or the Putley mode mixer at several frequencies. For example, a
double-sideband system noise temperature of about 510K was obtained using a
812 GHz methanol laser for the local oscillator. This performance is at least a
factor or 10 more sensitive than any other performance reported to date at the
same frequency. In addition, the Putley mode mixer achieved system noise temperatures
of 250K at 492 GHz and 350K at 625 GHz. The 492 GHz performance is
about 50% better and the 625 GHz is about 100% better than previous best performances
established by the Rollin-mode mixer. To achieve these results, it
was necessary to design a totally new ultra-low noise, room-temperature preamp
to handle the higher source impedance imposed by the Putley mode operation.
This preamp has considerably less input capacitance than comparably noisy,
ambient designs. In addition to advancing receiver technology, this thesis also presents
several novel results regarding the physics of n-lnSb at low temperatures. A
Fourier transform spectrometer was constructed and used to measure the submillimeter
wave absorption coefficient of relatively pure material at liquid
helium temperatures and in zero magnetic field. Below 4.2K, the absorption
coefficient was found to decrease with frequency much faster than predicted by
Drudian theory. Much better agreement with experiment was obtained using a
quantum theory based on inverse-Bremmstrahlung in a solid. Also the noise of
the Rollin-mode detector at 4.2K was accurately measured and compared with
theory. The power spectrum is found to be well fit by a recent theory of non-
equilibrium noise due to Mather. Surprisingly, when biased for optimum detector
performance, high purity lnSb cooled to liquid helium temperatures generates
less noise than that predicted by simple non-equilibrium Johnson noise
theory alone. This explains in part the excellent performance of the Rollin-mode
detector in the millimeter wavelength region. Again using the Fourier transform spectrometer, spectra are obtained of
the responsivity and direct detection NEP as a function of magnetic field in the
range 20-110 cm -1 . The results show a discernable peak in the detector
response at the conduction electron cyclotron resonance frequency tor magnetic
fields as low as 3 KG at bath temperatures of 2.0K. The spectra also
display the well-known peak due to the cyclotron resonance of electrons bound
to impurity states. The magnitude of responsivity at both peaks is roughly constant
with magnet1c field and is comparable to the low frequency Rollin-mode
response. The NEP at the peaks is found to be much better than previous values
at the same frequency and comparable to the best long wavelength results previously
reported. For example, a value NEP=4.5x10 -13 /Hz 1/2 is measured at
4.2K, 6 KG and 40 cm -1 . Study of the responsivity under conditions of impact
ionization showed a dramatic disappearance of the impurity electron resonance
while the conduction electron resonance remained constant. This observation
offers the first concrete evidence that the mobility of an electron in the N=0 and
N=1 Landau levels is different. Finally, these direct detection experiments
indicate that the excellent heterodyne performance achieved at 812 GHz should
be attainable up to frequencies of at least 1200 GHz.


STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E.coli) are important human pathogens, which can potentially cause hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). An important predictor of serious disease is the production of the variant Shiga toxin 2 (Stx2). This thesis is part of a larger project that aims to establish a method forquantitation of stx2 in the form of a real-time PCR assay. We conducted experiments to find optimal culture conditions, performed DNA extraction and validation of PCR results. Furthermore, we have optimized the RT-PCR for both stx2 and the housekeeping gene tufA, and designed standard curves for calculating the efficiency of both of these. In this project we have produced experimental results which in the future can be used in the further development of an RT-PCR assay for stx2.


The increasing world-wide demand for mobility caused urban parking space to become a scarce resource. Searching for parking is not only annoying to drivers, it also represents a serious cause of urban traffic. A previous study found that vehicles searching for parking contribute as much as 30 percent to the total traffic [1]. To solve this problem, a comprehensive Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is necessary to supply drivers directly with information about open parking spaces in their surrounding area, so they do not need to "go and look" themselves. However, in order to create an ITS for urban parking, a detailed map with accurate parking area positions and additional parking information, like cost or parking restrictions, is required. Currently, no database provides this information above the level of individual municipalities. For mapping parking areas fast, cost efficient and reliably, a highly scalable process is required, which only relies on existing and disseminated technologies instead of exhaustive manual data collection methods. Remote sensing imagery and vehicle trajectories from probe vehicles, socalled "floating car data" (FCD) were identified as an appropriate data source, as these sources provide all necessary information and are available for most urbanized regions in standardized form. This study uses machine learning techniques to extract and aggregate parking area information from remote sensing imagery and floating car data. The multistage process for detecting parking area positions on images is based on GIS (Geographic Information System) data, a convolutional neural network for detection of parking vehicles and a recursive algorithm to derive parking areas from the position of individual parking vehicles. Subsequently, metadata about cost, user group restrictions and opening hours is added to every detected parking area. Metadata is obtained by analyzing characteristic temporal patterns in local parking behavior, which are retrieved from floating car data. In order to sense these patterns, machine learning classifiers are applied to a set of different features. To achieve higher accuracy, FCD data is enriched by context data, like demographics or points of interest. Results are validated using OpenStreetMap (OSM) data and through manually collected reference data in a test area in the city of Braunschweig in Germany. The developed process for parking area detection is robust and achieved a detection accuracy above 95 percent with respect to parking area capacity in fully exposed image areas. However, the process is not able to sense parking areas, which are hidden by objects like roofs or trees. The idea of metadata extraction from floating car data is very promising, as the average classification accuracy ranges already above 80 percent in the used training data set. The remaining error is mainly due to the fact that the amount of used training data currently does not allow a spatial classifier resolution high enough to capture parking restrictions of small individual parking areas. In future work it is planned to use more floating car data to improve classification accuracy further and to extract even more parking information from this data source. Parking area mapping based on remote sensing imagery may be improved by using a specialized convolutional network architecture for vehicle detection. Additionally, images from autumn and winter season, where more ground is exposed to the classifier, could be used in order to increase overall detection accuracy.


This paper researched the fabrication of perovskite (CaTiO3) synroc by self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) and the characterization of the products. This synthesis process is simpler, the fabricated synroc can immobilize waste loading up to wt( 35%) SrO with satisfied physical properties (density>4.2 g•cm-3, open porosity<0.2%). The microstructure analyses by XRD and SEM/EDS show that the major phase is perovskite which well agrees with the design. It proves that SHS offer a suitable Sr-waste synroc which is favorable for geological disposal.


There has been a dramatic advance in our appreciation of the richness of the molecular component of the interstellar medium, mainly brought about by combining laboratory spectroscopic measurements with radioastronomy search programmes. We now know that vast hordes of molecules lurk deep in the black clouds strewn among the stars of the Galaxy. They range from commonplace small species such as water and carbon monoxide through organic ones such as alcohol and formaldehyde to highly reactive ions and free radicals which are intermediates in the production of more complex molecules. The study of the microwave and infrared signals from these molecules has revealed, for the first time, the intimate details that surround the birth of a star. Some intriguing and rather exotic molecules, consisting primarily of carbon atoms connected in long chains, have also been identified. Not only are these curious molecules to be found in the cold tenuous dark clouds but they are also to be found streaming out of carbon-rich stars into the surrounding interstellar medium. Such stars also appear to be emitting copious quantities of dust. Laboratory experiments, stimulated by these observations, have led to the discovery of the hollow spheroidal carbon molecule, C60 buckminsterfullerene. This discovery has not only provided the key to the mechanism of formation of small carbon particles (such as soot) but also the first detailed understanding of their structure. These processes and the species that result may be directly related to those involved in the formation of the primordial macroscopic particle.


IMPORTANCE
The etiology of the increasing childhood prevalence of peanut or tree nut (P/TN) allergy is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the association between peripregnancy consumption of P/TN by mothers and the risk of P/TN allergy in their offspring.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Prospective cohort study. The 10,907 participants in the Growing Up Today Study 2, born between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 1994, are the offspring of women who previously reported their diet during, or shortly before or after, their pregnancy with this child as part of the ongoing Nurses' Health Study II. In 2006, the offspring reported physician-diagnosed food allergy. Mothers were asked to confirm the diagnosis and to provide available medical records and allergy test results. Two board-certified pediatricians, including a board-certified allergist/immunologist, independently reviewed each potential case and assigned a confirmation code (eg, likely food allergy) to each case. Unadjusted and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate associations between peripregnancy consumption of P/TN by mothers and incident P/TN allergy in their offspring.

EXPOSURE
Peripregnancy consumption of P/TN.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Physician-diagnosed P/TN allergy in offspring.

RESULTS
Among 8205 children, we identified 308 cases of food allergy (any food), including 140 cases of P/TN allergy. The incidence of P/TN allergy in the offspring was significantly lower among children of the 8059 nonallergic mothers who consumed more P/TN in their peripregnancy diet (≥ 5 times vs <1 time per month: odds ratio = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.13-0.75; P(trend) = .004). By contrast, a nonsignificant positive association was observed between maternal peripregnancy P/TN consumption and risk of P/TN allergy in the offspring of 146 P/TN-allergic mothers (P(trend) = .12). The interaction between maternal peripregnancy P/TN consumption and maternal P/TN allergy status was statistically significant (P(interaction) = .004).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Among mothers without P/TN allergy, higher peripregnancy consumption of P/TN was associated with lower risk of P/TN allergy in their offspring. Our study supports the hypothesis that early allergen exposure increases tolerance and lowers risk of childhood food allergy.


Uri Orlev, the winner of the 1996 Hans Christian Anderson Award, is the most widely known Israeli author of children's books. Eight of his children's books have been translated into English, the largest number of any Israeli author who writes for children: six deal with Holocaust themes while two are contemporary picture books. To date, Orlev has written thirty books for children and three for adults in Hebrew. Like the tip of an iceberg, slightly over a quarter of Orlev's work is visible to the English reading public. Why were certain books chosen for translation? Are the untranslated texts inferior to those that have been translated, or are non-literary criteria at work? Does the choice to translate a text into English reflect something intrinsic in the text, or in the society that chooses to translate or reject a particular text? This paper examines Orlev's untranslated works, particularly the works of fantasy, while attempting to find answers to these questions.


The 1st edition of An introduction to plant structure and development (Beck, 2005; hereafter referred to as 'Beck, 1e') was reviewed in this journal by Peterson (2006), where it was welcomed as 'the best book on the subject of plant anatomy since the texts of Esau'. This is a claim that has been seized upon shamelessly by the publishers because that 'sound bite' is proudly displayed on the back cover of the 2nd edition (hereafter referred to as 'Beck, 2e'). Well, how does Beck, 2e, fare in that regard? A good question. And Beck, 2e, raises other good and pertinent questions. Intriguingly, Beck, 2e's 'Plant Anatomy for the Twenty-first Century' sub-title is also used in Beck, 1e, but only inside that book, not 'in your face' on the front cover as for Beck, 2e. Is its promotion to the front cover a mere marketing ploy implying Beck, 2e, is a markedly different text to Beck, 1e? Or is Beck, 2e, really a 21st Century text in ways that perhaps Beck, 1e, wasn't? Is Beck, 2e, a genuine attempt to give plant anatomy a make-over for a new age and a new generation of students, by combining anatomy with development? Perhaps even more fundamental than that: do we need another plant anatomy text? In particular, do we need a 2nd edition of one that only appeared in its 1st edition a mere half-a-decade previously (Beck, 2005)? Is plant anatomy such a fast-moving branch of botany that this is warranted?

Well, I think the answer to that latter question is a guarded, 'probably'. After all, for years many of us 'botanists' have been moaning on about how there is a pressing need to integrate the modern, slightly ethereal, molecular-biology-dominated developmental studies with the much more concrete and tangible anatomical side of things. Well, Beck is trying to do just that. Does he achieve it? How justified is the claim that in Beck, 2e, 'areas expanded and/or upgraded include the structure and function of the cytoskeleton … the role of auxin and other hormones in development of tracheary elements, as well as in cambial activity and tissue patterning, and the role of PIN proteins in the movement of auxin from cell to cell by auxin efflux transporters' (page xiii of Preface to Beck, 2e)? A good way to check is to look at the up-to-dateness of cited references by their year of publication, which reveals the following: 2004 (approx. 15 references); 2005 (year of publication of Beck, 1e: 3); 2006 (approx. 10); 2007 (approx. 4); 2008 (approx. 10); 2009 (0), and 2010 (0). Certainly, there are plenty of mentions of cytoskeleton and PIN proteins in relevant parts of the text, but with only approx. 24 references 'post-Beck, 1e' that claim looks a little 'thin' and unconvincing.

Additionally, we seem to be currently awash with dedicated plant anatomy textbooks and CDs/DVDs (and not forgetting the chapters on this topic in 'standard' plant biology/botany texts): Perry and Morton (1998), Dickison (2000), Crang and Vassilyev (2003), Evert (2006), Rudall (2007), Bowes and Mauseth (2008), Cutler et al. (2008), and Gunning (2009). By virtue of the subject matter most cover similar ground, but each tends to have or do something better than or differently to its competitors. In that regard, Beck, 2e, does what it says it does: it covers a pretty full range of plant anatomy, in a single textbook that is not over-large. It is well supplied with references and indications of further reading. It is lavishly illustrated (and generally – Fig. 14·5 is an exception – all but diagrams have indications of magnification), but they are all black-and-white. And therein lies my main problem with this tome. If the book is serious about marrying anatomy with development couldn't we have some colour images to show the distribution of PIN proteins, or to display some aspects of cytoskeleton structure/function/arrangement, or generally to illustrate the breakthroughs in understanding development and anatomy that are coming from such techniques as immunofluorescence or use of fluorescent reporter genes? Black-and-white is fine, but to me it looks more 'worthy' and staid (and – unfortunately – therefore 'old-fashioned') than modern and exciting – and 21st Century. Glorious colour would really show off what can be achieved if development is united with anatomy in a lasting, exciting, vibrant relationship rather than a more lacklustre, grey, shotgun-like 'marriage of convenience'. If Beck, 2e, really wants to work as 'an introduction to many of the exciting, contemporary areas at the forefront of research, especially those areas concerning development of plant structure' [page i], and if – as the back cover states – the book is to stimulate students to become leaders in teaching and research in plant anatomy, I think it will have to embrace colour. Maybe a companion website could be exploited for this?

On balance, I don't think Beck, 2e is much better – but is certainly not much worse – than the competing texts/CDs/DVDs (or even the mountain of material that is available – and usually freely so – nowadays on the internet). So, I'm going to sit on the fence as far as Beck, 2e, is concerned. Interested readers will have to decide for themselves if this book is for them. If you have Beck, 1e, you may want to wait a bit longer before 'upgrading' to Beck, 2e (or any future planned editions). If you don't have Beck, 1e, and purely in the interests of impartiality and inviting the purchaser to chose, you might care to glance through the book on line at www.books.google.com, where it seems to be readable in its entirety, for free. Or – and in no way am I or the Annals of Botany sanctioning or condoning this – you might want to visit www.ebookee.org, which, apparently, allows you to download a PDF version of the book, for free (presumably so you can view it at your leisure and destroy the file when you invest in the physical copy of the text). Finally, you might want to be swayed by the review in Amazon (www.amazon.com), where a 'Megan Mccullough' (of Blacksburg, Virginia, USA) states that 'This book saves my life on a regular basis'. A life-saving plant anatomy text? The 'best book on the subject of plant anatomy since the texts of Esau'? Over to you, dear potential reader!


In full sunlight (photosynthetic photon flux density, 0.4—0.7. μm, PPFD), stomatal conductance to water vapor (g) and transpiration rates (E) are usually higher, and water use efficiency lower, in C3 than C4 species. In the C3 grass Bromus inermis, the difference in conductance between full sun (photosynthetic photon flux [PPFD] > 1500 μmol°m—2°S—1) and shade (PPFD ° 400 μmol°m—2°s—1) was twice as large as in the C4 species Sorghastrum nutans (226.7 vs. 97.8 mmol.m—2.S—1, respectively). Similar differences were measured in four additional C3 and C4 grasses. Variability in PPFD incident on leaves is very common in grasslands, and stomata are known to respond relatively rapidly to fluctuations in this resource. This study evaluated the consequences of different responses in stomatal conductance between C3 and C4 grasses during periods of sunlight variability. Photosynthesis (A, measured as CO2 uptake) and g varied substantially in both B. inermis and S. nutans as PPFD fluctuated between sun and shade levels (4—10 min intervals). Time constants derived form first—order equations describing responses in g after abrupt changes in PPFD indicated that g approached steady—state levels more rapidly in S. nutans than in B. inermis. However, because of the greater magnitude of change in g between sun and shade PPFD in B. inermis, the absolute rate of change in g in this C3 grass was twice as rapid compared to S. nutans (25.7 vs. 12.4 mmol°m—2°s—1°min—1 for reductions in g, respectively). New steady—state levels in g were achieved in 12—13 min after a change in PPFD in S. nutans and 15—19 min in B. inermis. A statistically based two—state (sun/shade) simulation model was used to quantify costs in A and E of the nonsteady—state responses measured for both species as PPFD varied. Costs were calculated as the difference between model output of A or E based on field responses and model output based on hypothetical gas exchange responses in which A and g changed instantaneously. Results suggested that even though the absolute rate of change in g changed was greater in the C3 grass, costs in E during periods of short—term (2—6 min) variations in PPFD were as much as sixfold higher than in the C4 species. Lower cost in E in C4 species during periods of variable PPFD (due to inherently smaller alterations in g) is a previously unrecognized consequence of the C4 photosynthetic pathway. C4 species, and grasses in particular, often are most successful in high—PPFD, water—limited environments in which leaf—level variability in PPFD occurs daily from cloud cover and within—canopy shading. In these environments, stomatal responses that conserve water under nonsteady—state conditions may contribute significantly to the success of C4 species.


The continuing evolution of herbicide resistance in major crop weeds is a driving force to develop new weed control strategies. The use of chaff carts and direct bale systems are two sustainable practices that have not been adequately evaluated. The objectives of this study were: 1) Evaluation of seed retention of important weed species at harvest, 2) Evaluation of chaff collection and chaff plus straw collection at harvest to reduce weed infestations. Preliminary results show that the efficacy of control, among other factors, will depend on the species characteristics and harvest time. The average percentage of relative weed reduction (for only one year of study) was 15% for the chaff collection and 22% for the chaff plus straw collection compared to harvest with the combine alone.


Many researchers studied the complexity of financial markets based on complex networks methods. The conversion of financial markets into complex networks is an open issue. In this paper, the data of 2571 stock companies in 2012 and the data of 2578 stock companies in 2013 are collected from Chinese stock market. Every year, data of these stock companies are randomly arranged. These data are then converted into some complex networks based on the visibility graph method. For these complex networks, degree distribution and clustering coefficient are considered. Our results show that the complex networks have the powerlaw distribution and small-world properties. The Pareto principle is also testified by the rank of average degree of companies in Chinese stock.


The research presented in this thesis explores changes in walking following a stroke, empirically at a group level and from the perspective of the individual. Walking does not appear to have been previously been systematically explored from the perspective of the individual stroke survivor. In the first phase of this research, quantitative methods were used to investigate existing gait rehabilitation interventions applied in a novel population. Problems with 'dropped foot' post-stroke are common and can result in trips, falls and restricted mobility. Electrical stimulation of the common peroneal nerve produces dorsiflexion and eversion to correct dropped foot and is associated with improved motor control and walking post-stroke, however most research studies have recruited people with chronic stroke to reduce sample variability. People who are less than six months post-stroke may gain added benefit from electrical stimulation as poor walking patterns may not yet have become habitual and the potential for motor recovery due to cortical reorganisation is greatest. A pilot parallel group partially single blinded randomised controlled clinical trial (n=20) identified statistically significant within group differences in mobility after the intervention period in both groups (maintained during follow-up). No statistically significant between group differences were observed apart from gait quality, which was slightly better in the intervention group. Participants in the intervention group also walked faster when stimulation was used than without it. The protocol was feasible and 144 participants per group would produce an adequately powered definitive study. Participants in the pilot clinical trial spoke about valued personal aspects of walking but these were not fully captured by the outcome measures and are not reflected in the published literature. To systematically explore changes in walking post-stroke in depth interviews with a subgroup of the original participants were undertaken using an interpretative phenomenological approach (n=4). The participants gave examples of post-stroke walking related changes in their self-perception, roles and their embodied experience of walking that are rarely mentioned in the rehabilitation literature, apart from in personal accounts written by people living with chronic illness. They spoke about walking within the context of activities that they identified as personally important. These participants valued being able to walk distances at a reasonable speed, being independent, safe and confident. They said that they missed their pre-stroke spontaneity, freedom, agility and their lost automatic body movement, which are not usually assessed in stroke rehabilitation research or reflected in published research. Areas for further work have been identified.


The view that promise is the moral foundation of contract law is familiar in the philosophy of private law. Theorists use the promise principle to judge the justifiability of contract law doctrines, and debate whether existing doctrines converge or diverge from promissory morality. This is now known as the 'contract and promise' debate. This paper questions whether promise is the foundation of contract. We do not claim that some other principle serves as a foundation. Rather, we explore whether any single moral principle can serve as the foundation of contract. We distinguish three possible ways in which foundationalism can be understood (necessity, primacy and presumptiveness) and argue that they struggle to account for the interaction between the promise principle and other principles that are relevant to the determination of contractual claims. In light of these problems, we argue that to the extent that the individuation of contract law is a desirable end, it must be done on some other basis.


New York Hospital is undergoing a $1 billion expansion that includes construction of a new building over the FDR Drive in Manhattan using air rights. The starting point for this building is a 485 ft long platform that spans 91 ft over six lanes of highway. Not only does the platform serve as the base for the 12-story hospital addition now being built above the highway, it also acts as a staging area for construction during the project. The seven-section platform (and the new building) is also engineered to meet seismic requirements that will soon be mandated in New York City. The platform is designed to be freestanding in the event a bulkhead fails during an earthquake causing the FDR drive to slide into the East River. Finally, the platform must fit the special requirements of a hospital. Ambulances and vehicles enroute to the emergency room can access it from ramps on the FDR drive, parking is provided, and the platform's upper level and the new building's other floors will be interconnected with the floors of the existing hospital to facilitate circulation between the structures. This article also includes a description of the difficult geotechnical conditions and the caisson construction required to support the 38 columns on either side of the FDR drive. Construction challenges are also discussed, such as the need to erect the platform sections from a floating barge within a five-hour window when the highway is closed.


Governments are often accused of responding only to short-term and parochial considerations. It is therefore remarkable
that representatives of 190 countries recently committed themselves at the Convention on Biological Diversity to
reducing biodiversity loss. This presents conservation biologists with perhaps their greatest challenge of the decade.
The authors of this Policy Forum describe approaches to identifying more of the earth's biological diversity;
understanding how biological, geophysical, and geochemical processes interact; and presenting scientific knowledge
in time to contribute to and achieve the 2010 target.

Himalayan Journal of Sciences 3(5) 2005 p.43-45


This study examines how Generation Y (Gen Y) consumers perceive the value of salon hair coloring in China versus in the United States. Findings from a qualitative study and the previous literature were used to develop a survey measuring Gen Y consumers' perceptions of quality value, emotional value, epistemic value, social value, monetary cost, time/effort cost, and health risk cost of salon hair coloring in the United States and China. Quality value, emotional value, and social value appeared to have a stronger influence on US Gen Y consumers, while epistemic value, monetary cost, and health risk cost appeared to have a stronger influence on Chinese Gen Y consumers. In addition, time/effort costs turned out to have the same level of influence on the two samples. The study results imply that retailers targeting China and the United States may need to use different marketing strategies in the two countries to ensure that the perceived value dimensions most salient to their consumers in each country could be emphasized.


GABAergic and glycinergic circuits are found throughout the auditory brainstem, and it is generally assumed that transmitter phenotype is established early in development. The present study documents a profound transition from GABAergic to glycinergic transmission in the gerbil lateral superior olive (LSO) during the first 2 postnatal weeks. Whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings were obtained from LSO neurons in a brain slice preparation, and IPSCs were evoked by electrical stimulation of the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB), a known glycinergic projection in adult animals. GABAergic and glycinergic components were identified by blocking transmission with bicuculline and strychnine (SN), respectively. In the medial limb of LSO, there was a dramatic change in the GABAergic IPSC component, decreasing from 78% at postnatal day 3 (P3)–P5 to 12% at P12–P16. There was an equal and opposite increase in the glycinergic component during this same period. Direct application of GABA also elicited significantly larger amplitude and longer duration responses in P3–P5 neurons compared with glycine-evoked responses. In contrast, MNTB-evoked IPSCs in lateral limb neurons were more sensitive to SN throughout development. Consistent with the electrophysiological observations, there was a reduction in staining for the β2,3-GABAA receptor subunit from P4 to P14, whereas staining for the glycine receptor-associated protein gephyrin increased. Brief exposure to baclofen depressed transmission at excitatory and inhibitory synapses for ∼15 min, suggesting a GABAB-mediated metabotropic signal. Collectively, these data demonstrate a striking switch from GABAergic to glycinergic transmission during postnatal development. Although GABA and glycine elicit similar postsynaptic ionotropic responses, our results raise the possibility that GABAergic transmission in neonates may play a developmental role distinct from that of glycine.


Quantitative definitions of what is unfair and what is fair have been introduced in multiple disciplines for well over 50 years, including in education, hiring, and machine learning. We trace how the notion of fairness has been defined within the testing communities of education and hiring over the past half century, exploring the cultural and social context in which different fairness definitions have emerged. In some cases, earlier definitions of fairness are similar or identical to definitions of fairness in current machine learning research, and foreshadow current formal work. In other cases, insights into what fairness means and how to measure it have largely gone overlooked. We compare past and current notions of fairness along several dimensions, including the fairness criteria, the focus of the criteria (e.g., a test, a model, or its use), the relationship of fairness to individuals, groups, and subgroups, and the mathematical method for measuring fairness (e.g., classification, regression). This work points the way towards future research and measurement of (un)fairness that builds from our modern understanding of fairness while incorporating insights from the past.


Spatial beam apodization is a critical part of the design of high-energy solid-state laser systems. Standard methods of making apodizers include photographic and metal-vapor-deposition techniques. Apodizers fabricated with these methods are subject to damage and deterioration from high-intensity laser pulses. An alternative approach is to use a serrated-edge aperture in conjunction with the spatial filter. This system can produce beams with smooth edge profiles. We present the theory of operation of the serrated aperture along with some useful design rules and describe the successful application of a serrated-aperture apodizer in the Beamlet laser system.