INVESTIGATION OF THE ROLE OF SKIN AND MUSCLE RECEPTORS IN PROPRIOCEPTION AT THE ANKLE JOINT IN HUMANS Catherine Rose Lowrey Advisor: University of Guelph, 2012 Professor L. R. Bent This thesis is an investigation of the role of skin and muscle receptors in proprioception at the ankle joint in humans. Somatosensory afferents provide the central nervous system with cues that code for movement and position of the segments, senses collectively known as proprioception. Intramuscular receptors, in particular muscle spindles, code for length and movement velocity of muscles surrounding a joint and therefore play an integral role in proprioception. The role of cutaneous receptors is less clear. When activated via skin stretch they create illusory movements of the limbs, and they are capable of responding to movements of the joints. To what extent these cues are utilized over and above input from muscle spindles remains unknown. In addition, there is evidence that cutaneous receptors may influence the sensitivity of muscle spindles by modulating their level of fusimotor activation. The aim of this thesis was to further examine the role of skin in proprioception and to determine whether or not skin of the foot and ankle is capable of modulating fusimotor drive to muscle spindles of the lower limb. The current thesis is comprised of three studies. The first experiment utilized a matching task at the ankle joint and determined that skin from the dorsum of the foot and ankle is necessary for accurate proprioception. The remaining two experiments used the technique of microneurography to record from single nerve afferents in awake, human participants. Initially, cutaneous afferents were isolated and recorded to determine the efficacy of using cooling over their receptive field as a method to decrease their sensitivity and output. Once cooling was established as an effective tool, the final experiment isolated and recorded from muscle spindles in response to passive, ramp and hold movements at the ankle. It was determined that a reduction in skin input (via cooling) altered the firing response of a portion of spindles. It is likely that this change in firing was due to modulation of fusimotor drive to the spindles. Collectively, the current work contributes the novel findings that skin on the dorsum of the foot is necessary for accurate proprioception at the ankle and that this is largely due to the role of skin as an independent proprioceptive channel. In addition, we have shown for the first time that a reduction in skin input from the foot dorsum is capable of modulating spindle discharge during a passive ramp and hold movement at the ankle, demonstrating a minor role for this interaction in proprioception. A secondary finding of the thesis was that cooling with ice is an effective tool for reducing input from all four classes of cutaneous mechanoreceptors.


Mainline Protestant denominations in the United States have a history of using divestment as an economic form of nonviolent moral activism. While such activism can have a domestic focus, at times church divestment efforts have emphasized foreign policy issues as an extension of church activism in the areas of social justice and moral reform. Churches have used economic activism such as divestment from apartheid South Africa and investment screens to prevent church pension and other funds from being used for products and services—such as alcohol, tobacco and munitions—deemed "immoral" by church bodies. The case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict illustrates the broader themes and tensions involved in church divestment debates, given the media coverage that has been generated by the topic due to the special relationship between Christians and the holy land and the troubled history of Christianity and anti-Semitism. Some Protestant denominations, particularly those with a history of engagement in Israel/Palestine, have responded to the Palestinians' call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to advance their freedom and human rights. However, such responses have not been immune from debate and controversy. Some mainline Protestant denominations, including the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), the United Methodist Church, and the Episcopal Church have debated resolutions dealing with church divestment from companies profiting from Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. Such resolutions have resulted in pushback from some parties, including efforts to criminalize boycott of Israel.


The Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (OCA) donated a 1-m Cassegrain telescope to be used for the dual satellite and lunar laser ranging system currently under development at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy in South Africa. As the very first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, the new system will be designed and developed as a permanent lunar laser ranging system with high precision laser and electronic equipment to achieve millimetre accuracy. Limited technical details of the telescope exist so tests were conducted to determine the optical characteristics and performance of the telescope and its mirrors. The optical performance of the telescope was validated through the analysis of transmission efficiency, structural efficiency and image quality. Spectroscopic measurements were conducted to determine the transmission efficiency of the telescope by taking into account all losses in light from the reflection of mirrors, transmission of lenses and the secondary spider central obstruction along the path of the proposed coudé optical path. A system transmission of ∼90% was obtained if a coudé path with no central obstruction is used. The primary mirror and its support structure was validated using finite element analysis software (ANSYS) to model the amount of deformation the mirror will experience under gravitational and external loading. Taking into account the lightweight nature (honeycomb structure) of the mirror, its material properties and multiple support mechanism, ANSYS was used to compute the gravity deformations experienced by the mirror as the telescope tracks from the horizon to zenith. The deformations when gravity acts along the axial support were in the range of 1/6th of the wavelength, which is below the maximum limit expected for such a structure at the given weight. In order to analyse the image quality of the system, an optical analysis software (OSLO) was used. Spot diagram analysis revealed coma as the dominant primary aberration in the system. The telescope is diffraction-limited for on-axis performance and yields a Strehl ratio of 0.78 for off-axis performance.


Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) has been identified as one of the major C sinks in the global carbon cycle, of which the exact size and spatial distribution are still difficult to determine quantitatively. Estimation of the amount of SOC present using remote sensing is mostly based on the overall decrease in reflectance in the solar reflective part of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, moisture content and soil roughness result in a comparable decrease, resulting in ambiguous identification of a specific soil type. Depending on the decomposition stage, SOC contains biochemical constituents like lignin and cellulose. Absorption features related to these constituents can be used to determine the SOC content of the soil. We investigated nine different soil types (n=40), originating from a wide range of climatic zones and a large variety in SOC content (0.06 – 45.1%). Spectral measurements of all soil samples were performed in a controlled laboratory environment. The ability of several spectral indices related to biochemical constituents' detection towards the quantification of SOC were tested. Good relations were found for indices based on the visible part of the spectrum and for the absorption features related to cellulose. Cross validation was used to evaluate the predictive capacity of the spectral indices. The results demonstrate that it is feasible to use spectral indices derived from laboratory measurements to predict SOC in various soil types. The results allow establishing a perspective towards spatial distributed mapping of SOC using imaging spectroscopy.


This work addresses the problems faced by small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SME's) in cost justifying new investments in tools, techniques and technologies, and presents a methodology which significantly improves on current cost justification te~hniques. The methodology provides a structured approach which leads a company through a series of workshops, which assist a company in establishing the full company wide benefits and costs associated with new manufacturing investment. A model, in the form of a workbook and the specification for a prototype computer based tool, of the tasks necessary in cost justification is presented. The model is used to structur~ the decisions relating to possible investments. The research work described involved two distinct stages. The first stage included a fifteen month involvement in the Finjust project a financial justification project sponsored by the DTI, in collaboration with Quintec Applied Systems, Mundy Johnson, Entrepreneurial Technologies and the University of Plymouth, where the author's individual contribution was for the identification of the links between business needs and technologies and specifying the benefits of the investments. The author's involvement in the project allowed the strategy to be tested in the collaborating companies. In the second stage, the major contribution of the research lies in the development of a new methodology, which whilst based on some of the principles of the Finjust project, incorporates many new ideas which significantly improve its value to SME's. Through the use of this work SME's are encouraged to improve ownership and commitment to the manufacturing solutions identified by fully involving relevant company personnel in the identification of business needs, the generation of solutions and the financial justification of proposed investments. This work also provides a mechanism to facilitate management development and training in financial justification by providing rationales for each activity, forms for the collection of data and tool kits to assist in the completion of specific tasks. The results of this work have provided the data necessary for the specification and building of an improved methodology in the form of a workbook.


The distribution of fixed steel offshore platforms around the world reveal a global fleet that
has exceeded or is approaching the end of the design life. In many operating areas, there is an
attraction to continue using these aging facilities due to continued production or as an
adjoining structure to facilitate a new field development or expansion. To justify continued
life extension of the fixed platform, various integrity assessment techniques are often used.
One of the major techniques incorporated is the phenomena of Local Joint Flexibility (LJF).
The derivations of existing LJF equations have evolved in many ways, including use of finite
element methods to predict the joint behaviour. There has been insufficient credible
benchmarking to large scale experimental test data.
In the early 1980s, AMOCO performed the only large scale test results of LJF which, prior
to this research, has not been in the public domain. A major objective of this research is to
develop a suite of improved LJF equations that have been appropriately benchmarked to large
scale tests. In addition, with the issue of the API RP 2SIM (2014) 1st Edition and the
development of the ISO 19901-09 SIM (DIS), this research also provides a basis for further
Asset Life Extension (ALE) of an aging fixed offshore platform in terms of ultimate strength
by using an improved suite of LJF equations. Furthermore, the research puts the structural
assessments such as LJF in the context of a structural integrity management framework,
which enables operators to manage their facilities holistically rather than isolated processes.
The research within this thesis critically examined the suitability of the existing LJF
equations, reviewed the guidance provided in the existing studies and described their
limitations for gapped K-type tubular joints. A comparison study and benchmarking study
demonstrated that a proposed finite element model provides a good fit with large scale
experimental data (AMOCO) and was used to develop a suite of improved LJF equations for gapped K-type tubular joints. The LJF equations derived from this research were validated
against the BOMEL large scale structural frame tests in terms of ultimate strength and
demonstrated an improvement on the current MSL-1SO equations for uni-planar K-type
tubular joints in the ISO 19902.2007 Fixed Offshore Structures code of practice. This
research also provides a basis to update current offshore structures codes and standards for
uni-planar gapped K-joints and also provide a standardized methodology for the derivation of
LJFs from credible large scale test data for other tubular joint configurations including multiplanar
K-joints, T-joints, Y-joints and X-joints.
The LJF equations developed in this research will have high impact in terms of the structural
integrity management of fixed offshore structures for OGPs globally, as they provide an
improvement to the current MSL-ISO joint equations, for gapped uni-planar joints. Offshore
structures are now able to operate more safely without compromising structural integrity and
incurring costly underwater repairs and inspections as before. OGPs are now able to prioritize
limited resources to other areas of concerns based on ALARP principles.


This article examines the treatment of the pelvis in the Pilates exercises "Single Leg Stretch" and "Leg Circles." The teaching practices of the hips, as commonly explained in Pilates educational manuals, reinforce behaviors of a noble-class and racially "white" aesthetic. Central to this article is the troubling notion of white racial superiority and, specifically, the colonizing, prejudicial, and denigrating mentality found in the superiority of whiteness and its embodied behaviors. Using the two Pilates exercises, I illuminate how perceived kinesthetic understandings of race in the body may be normalized and privileged. By examining the intersections between dance and Pilates history, this article reveals the ways embodied discourses in Pilates are "white" in nature, and situates Pilates as a product of historically constructed social behaviors of dominant Anglo-European culture.


This memo describes TCP/IP field behavior in the context of header
compression. Header compression is possible because most header fields
do not vary randomly from packet to packet. Many of the fields exhibit
static behavior or change in a more or less predictable way. When a
header compression scheme is designed, it is of fundamental importance
to understand the behavior of the fields in detail. An example of this
analysis can be seen in RFC 3095. This memo performs a similar role
for the compression of TCP/IP headers. This memo provides information
for the Internet community.


The construction industry has of recent been blamed for lack of innovation. Lack of innovation in the industry is believed to be responsible for the decreasing or stagnant levels of productivity in comparison with other industries. This paper reviews the major barriers and en ablers to innovation in general. Propositions were made about the factors that affect innovation in the construction industry which were then formulated into a questionnaire. A survey was made on building contractors in Uganda, a developing country, targeting those with financial strength, large in size, and with high capacity to carry out big projects. The identified factors were then ranked and correlated. The level of training in science, engineering and technical education, and the level of research and development at the industry level are looked at as the greatest innovation enablers in building that will drive fo rward labour productivity. The size of the domestic market and the level of security are the worst innovation barriers that lead to low productivity in the bu ilding industry in Uganda. Contractors, policy makers and the government should address the identified factors in order to improve productivity.


Equality has faded as a guiding ideal for legal theory and policy. An updated message of personal responsibility has helped rationalize economic policies fostering increased inequality and insecurity. In this revised message, economic "losers" should take personal responsibility not only for the harmful effects of their individual economic decisions, but also for the harmful effects of systemic failures beyond their individual control or action. In response to the 2008 financial crisis, this re-tooled message of personal responsibility promoted mass austerity in place of targeted financial industry culpability and penalty. By presenting unequal economic loss as the inevitable result of generally beneficial systems, this flawed logic concludes that the most legitimate response to systemic failure is unequal personal sacrifice, not political mobilization in support of stronger protection from unequal risk and plunder. This chapter explores how this message weakened the majority report of Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, despite its voluminous evidence of institutional problems. Further, it shows how this message inverts legal responsibility for devastating corporate wrongdoing, so that sacrifice by innocent victims appears to be more productive and proper than fair and meaningful law enforcement. Finally, I analyze how this troubling message is implicitly advanced in the seemingly progressive intellectual defense of equality by legal scholar Daniel Markovits. Markovits challenges the traditional personal responsibility argument that unequal poverty and insecurity stem from bad individual choices. Yet because he assumes that this inequality generally comes from benign institutions limited by natural scarcity, his reasoning nonetheless tends to suggest that responsible policy requires accepting substantial individual sacrifice by those who lose out. To instead revive the ideal of equality, we must go further to challenge the assumption that political economic structures and institutions regularly producing unequal and severe economic harm deserve submission rather than reform.


Purpose of review The last 15 years have witnessed significant improvements in technologies to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We review recent studies highlighting the potential for novel and standardized assays to provide independent prognostic information and develop more personalized treatment approaches. Recent findings Progress includes establishment of optimized real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR) assays for WT1 (commonly overexpressed and a putative therapeutic target) and mutant NPM1 genes. Moreover, sequential MRD monitoring using an internationally standardized PML-RARA RQ-PCR assay has been successfully used to guide molecularly targeted therapy in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). There have also been significant advances in multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) to detect MRD, with introduction of 6–10 color technology and improved understanding of the immunophenotype of leukemic stem cells. Summary Sensitive MRD detection using MFC and/or RQ-PCR has become feasible in virtually all AML patients. MRD monitoring is now considered a standard of care in APL. Recent studies provide a strong rationale for prospective trials investigating the merits of extending MRD detection to alter therapy and potentially improve outcome in other AML subtypes.


When students arrive at university there is an expectation that they come already equipped with the skills they need to read academic texts. In contrast, many students have low confidence in their ability to read challenging texts, often experiencing this as a barrier to engaging with academic practices. Recent research has identified the importance of affect in the university context, exploring the impact of emotions around academic practices such as critical thinking and interpreting feedback, but has not looked specifically at reading as one such key practice. This paper draws on this research and reads it alongside data gathered from questionnaires and focus groups conducted with one group of first-year undergraduates. We found that students have a complex relationship with reading for academic study, and that many experience significant negative affects and self-perceptions in relation to their academic reading tasks. We explore some of these encounters, engaging the student voice and using affect theory to unpack some first experiences of reading in higher education.


Upper tropospheric water vapor and clouds play an important role in Earth's climate, but knowledge of them, in particular diurnal variation in deep convective clouds, is limited. An essential variable to understand them is cloud ice water content. The Japanese Superconducting Submillimeter‐Wave Limb‐Emission Sounder (SMILES) on board the International Space Station (ISS) samples the atmosphere at different local times allowing the study of diurnal variability of atmospheric parameters. We describe a new ice cloud data set consisting of partial Ice Water Path and Ice Water Content. Preliminary comparisons with EOS‐MLS, CloudSat‐CPR and CALIOP‐CALIPSO are presented. Then, the diurnal variation over land and over open ocean for partial ice water path is reported. Over land, a pronounced diurnal variation peaking strongly in the afternoon/early evening was found. Over the open ocean, little temporal dependence was encountered. This data set is publicly available for download in HDF5 format.


The technological opportunities provided by digital learning environments for electronic communicative transactions between learners and teachers, now common in Higher Education in the United Kingdom (UK) challenge the traditional concept of a learner and teacher relationship. This paper considers electronic interaction between learners and module facilitators and draws on a small study that evaluated the experiences of twenty five post-qualifying health and social care practitioners studying on a BSc (Hons) Health Studies programme. A case study approach was used to explore how learners and module facilitators communicated and interacted using the electronic system as part of their support structure. The aim of the study was to explore in what ways interaction with teachers using electronic communication systems influence the learning confidence of learners studying at a distance. A key finding of this study indicates that learners and teachers developed close, partnership style relations that confirm interpersonal and social presence in a non-contiguous, technologically mediated learning environment (Morgan 2002). The possibility of developing close relations is explored in this paper in the context of a distance learning programme, a range of contributing factors and outcomes are suggested that represent close learning relations and implications for education practice and future research are discussed.


Background: Targeted campaigns have been reported to disrupt routine health services in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of this study was to evaluate the average effect of public health campaigns over 1 year on routine services such as antenatal care, routine vaccination and outpatient services. Method: We collected daily activity data in 60 health facilities in two regions of Cameroon that traditionally undergo different intensities of campaign activity, the Centre region (low) and the Far North (high), to ascertain effects on routine services. For each outcome, we restricted our analysis to the public health centres for which good data were available and excluded private health facilities given their small number. We used segment-linear regression to account for the longitudinal nature of the data, and assessed whether the number of routine activities decreased in health facilities during periods when campaigns occurred. The analysis controlled for secular trends and serial correlation. Results: We found evidence that vaccination campaigns had a negative impact on routine activities, decreasing outpatient visits when they occurred (Centre: −9.9%, P = 0.079; Far North: −11.6%, P = 0.025). The average negative effect on routine services [outpatient visits −18% (P = 0.02) and antenatal consultations −70% [P = 0.001]) was most pronounced in the Far North during 'intensive' campaigns that usually require high mobilization of staff. Discussion: With an increasing number of interventions delivered by campaigns and in the context of elimination and eradication targets, these are important results for countries and agencies to consider. Achieving disease control targets hinges on ensuring high uptake of routine services. Therefore, we suggest that campaigns should systematically monitor 'impact on routine services', while also devising concrete strategies to mitigate potential adverse effects.


The diet of four syntopic carnivore species (caracal Felis caracal, water mongoose Atilax paludinosus, small grey mongoose Galerella pulverulenta, and yellow mongoose Cynictis penicillata) over a 12-month period in a coastal shrub ecosystem was examined using scat analysis. Use of prey by all four species fluctuated synchronously and tracked corresponding fluctuations in prey availability. This, as well as the use of relatively small food items (e.g. beetles, scorpions and spiders), indicate an absence of dietary specialization and an opportunistic feeding behaviour in the carnivores studied. Food niche breadth in all four species changed seasonally, being widest during spring and contracting gradually towards winter. A considerable degree of food niche overlap existed between species. Rodents (mainly Rhabdomys pumilia and Otomys unisulcatus) were the main prey items of all four carnivore species and were used heavily throughout the year, despite marked declines in numbers towards winter.


The generalizations found in biology, psychology, sociology, and other highlevel sciences are typically physically contingent. You might conclude that they play only a limited role in scientific investigation, on the grounds that physically contingent generalizations offer no or only feeble counterfactual support. But the link between contingency and counterfactual support is more complex than is commonly supposed. A certain class of physically contingent generalizations, comprising many, perhaps the vast majority, of those in the high-level sciences, provides strong counterfactual support of just the sort that appears to be scientifically important. This paper explains why.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Follow-up imaging data from stroke patients without angiographically apparent arterial occlusions at symptom onset are lacking. We reviewed our Emergency Management of Stroke (EMS) trial experience to determine the clinical and imaging outcomes of patients with ischemic stroke who showed no arterial occlusion on angiograms obtained within 4 hours of symptom onset.

METHODS
All patients in this report were participants in the EMS trial that was designed to address the safety and potential efficacy of combined IV and intraarterial thrombolytic therapy with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

RESULTS
Thirty-five patients were randomized to receive either IV rt-PA (n = 17) or placebo (n = 18), followed by cerebral angiography. No symptomatic arterial occlusion was evident in 10 (29%) of the 34 patients. Eight (80%) of 10 patients without angiographically apparent clot within 4 hours of symptom onset had a new cerebral infarction confirmed on follow-up brain imaging. The median 72-hour infarction volume was 2.4 cc (range, 1-30 cc). Four of the 10 "no-clot" patients had a favorable 3-month outcome as assessed by Barthel Index (score, 95 or 100) and modified Rankin Scale (score, 0 or 1). The six remaining patients had 3-month Rankin Scale scores of 1 (Barthel of 90), 2, 3, 4, or 5.

CONCLUSION
Acute ischemic stroke patients with a neurologic deficit but a negative angiogram during the first 4 hours after symptom onset usually develop image-documented cerebral infarction, and approximately half suffer from long-term functional disability. The two most likely explanations for negative angiograms are very early irreversible ischemic damage despite recanalization or ongoing ischemia secondary to clot in non-visible penetrating arterioles or in the microvasculature.


The concept of personalized medicine includes novel protein biomarkers that are expected to improve the early detection, diagnosis and therapy monitoring of malignant diseases. Tissues, biofluids, cell lines and xenograft models are the common sources of biomarker candidates that require verification of clinical value in independent patient cohorts. Targeted proteomics – based on selected reaction monitoring, or data extraction from data-independent acquisition based digital maps – now represents a promising mass spectrometry alternative to immunochemical methods. To date, it has been successfully used in a high number of studies answering clinical questions on solid malignancies: breast, colorectal, prostate, ovarian, endometrial, pancreatic, hepatocellular, lung, bladder and others. It plays an important role in functional proteomic experiments that include studying the role of post-translational modifications in cancer progression. This review summarizes verified biomarker candidates successfully quantified by targeted proteomics in this field and directs the readers who plan to design their own hypothesis-driven experiments to appropriate sources of methods and knowledge.


The advection-diffusion equation arises quite often in the context of sediment transport, e.g., for describing time and space variations in the particle activity (the solid volume of particles in motion per unit streambed area). Stochastic models can also be used to derive this equation, with the significant advantage that they provide information on the statistical properties of particle activity. Stochastic models are quite useful when sediment transport exhibits large fluctuations (typically at low transport rates), making the measurement of mean values difficult. We develop an approach based on birth-death Markov processes, which involves monitoring the evolution of the number of particles moving within an array of cells of finite length. While the topic has been explored in detail for diffusion-reaction systems, the treatment of advection has received little attention. We show that particle advection produces nonlocal effects, which are more or less significant depending on the cell size and particle velocity. Albeit nonlocal, these effects look like (local) diffusion and add to the intrinsic particle diffusion (dispersal due to velocity fluctuations), with the important consequence that local measurements depend on both the intrinsic properties of particle displacement and the dimensions of the measurement system.


Imago is an electroacoustic work written in 2002 by Trevor Wishart, one of Britain's leading composers in this field. Typically, Wishart realized the work using software he himself produced. The software package Sound Loom provides a suite of processing algorithms that can be applied to recorded sound files. All the sounds in Imago derive from the transformation of one brief recording. A wide variety of material results from the processing, ranging from short events lasting less than one second to long sustained textures. Often the sounds are the result of many stages of processing applied in sequence. The work itself is formed by the juxtaposition and superposition of the many sound files resulting from such processing. Usefully, both for the composer and the analyst, the software enables users to keep a record of the sounds and processes used so it is possible to trace the creative development of the work and relate this to the final composition.
This paper describes the approach taken to analyzing Imago. It is an approach that combines top-down analysis, interrogating the finished work, with ground up analysis – study of the creative process and tracking the development of the musical materials toward the completed piece. Only through this dual approach can a rounded account of such works can be produced. Since the work is a 'fixed media' piece, existing only as a sound recording (there is a descriptive score by the composer for sound diffusion purposes, but this is only in summary form), our analysis has largely been conducted within the sound domain. Innovative analytical software we have devised to assist with this will be presented.
This work is part of TaCEM, a 30-month project funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council.


Journeys into the 'inner Africa' : Christoph Martin Wieland and Volker Braun
This paper investigates the significance of the concept the 'inner Africa' in texts by Wieland and Braun. The 20th century author highlights the longing for warmth and openness symbolized by the African interior, but as is the case in Wieland's writing, Braun's poem also foregrounds the antithesis of colonization which destroyed the assumed purity of the native. Similarly socialist dictatorship under the GDR can be regarded as a process of colonization, treating its people as 'negroes'. In 'Transit Europa' Africans try to escape from their inner Africa, which has become oppressive and full of misery. It is shown that Braun's texts can be related to Wieland's works grounded in ethical reason as he had already identified Africa as a site for colonization and of the encounter with unconscious desires. Braun's ironic critique of power can thus be traced to Wieland's insights in the age of enlightenment.


Genomic prediction shows promise for personalised medicine in which diagnosis and treatment are tailored to individuals based on their genetic profiles. Genomic prediction is arguably the greatest need for complex diseases and disorders for which both genetic and non-genetic factors contribute to risk. However, we have no adequate insight of the accuracy of such predictions, and how accuracy may vary between individuals or between populations. In this study, we present a theoretical framework to demonstrate that prediction accuracy can be maximised by targeting more informative individuals in a discovery set with closer relationships with the subjects, making prediction more similar to those in populations with small effective size (Ne). Increase of prediction accuracy from closer relationships is achieved under an additive model and does not rely on any interaction effects (gene × gene, gene × environment or gene × family). Using theory, simulations and real data analyses, we show that the predictive accuracy or the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) increased exponentially with decreasing Ne. For example, with a set of realistic parameters (the sample size of discovery set N=3000 and heritability h2=0.5), AUC value approached to 0.9 (Ne=100) from 0.6 (Ne=10000), and the top percentile of the estimated genetic profile scores had 23 times higher proportion of cases than the general population (with Ne=100), which increased from 2 times higher proportion of cases (with Ne=10000). This suggests that different interventions in the top percentile risk groups maybe justified (i.e. stratified medicine). In conclusion, it is argued that there is considerable room to increase prediction accuracy for polygenic traits by using an efficient design of a smaller Ne (e.g. a design consisting of closer relationships) so that genomic prediction can be more beneficial in clinical applications in the near future.


This paper is concerned with the propagation of laser light through a slab of a randomly varying medium. A theoretical analysis is presented which relates the spectrum of the recorded-intensity field some distance downstream of the medium to the spectrum of the index-of-refraction field. For a homogeneous and isotropic random field, the 3-D spectrum of the medium is obtained from the 2-D spectrum of the photograph by dividing each component of the spectrum by the frequency raised to the fourth power. Free-space propagation outside the random medium is accounted for by a scaling factor. Experimental results are presented which support the theoretical analysis. The nonintrusive diagnostic technique presented here is applicable to photographs which contain partially developed caustic networks.


What is the status of technological applications in American libraries? How much "technology" do most libraries of all types and sizes really have? Does the literature, which delineates many success stories, accurately represent the status of implementations? What technological challenges are faced by practioners in the field--people who work in underfunded and understaffed libraries and spend each day trying to deliver the best service possible given their resources? How close are libraries in the United States to reaching their technological goals for delivering information services to users? Does every library have everything it needs? What are the problems and the challenges presented by technological applications? These are the questions posed in the authors' survey discussed below, and the picture that emerges is most interesting. Recent Surveys During the twentieth century, technology has played an increasingly influential role in the dissemination of information. Early microfilm collections and automated circulation systems have given way to OPACs and CD-ROMs, which in turn will evolve or be replaced by more sophisticated innovations. Large academic and research facilities are now almost entirely dependent on technology, but even small special and public libraries can hardly function without computers, modems, CD-ROM readers, fax machines, and other equipment. In the late 1980s, a number of surveys investigated the dispersion and utilization of technological applications in libraries and information centers. In the spring of 1989, for example, John Berry discovered that based on a survey of 2,000 Library Journal subscribers (with 1,003 responding), "more than 60 percent of the facilities either have an integrated system or will buy one within two years." Circulation followed by automatic cataloging are the modules most frequently cited. Berry notes that "more than 86 perent" of the respondents have microcomputers, which are used in many ways, but especially for word processing. The most interesting finding is that many institutions have had to upgrade their systems, often not long after the initial installation.(1) A 1989 survey of 294 OCLC facilities shows that 97% use microcomputers, a "tenfold increase" since 1983. A similar change is indicated for compact disk usage: a rate of 6% in 1986, when on average each library had but one product, to 66% by 1989, when the total had increased to five products. InfoTrac, ERIC, Psychological Abstracts, Books in Print, and Academic Index are the top five items used. Finally, 52% of these libraries use fax machines, primarily for ILL transmissions.(2) A series of 1987, 1988, and 1989 surveys of 16,547 American and European libraries, with return rates varying from 20% to 44%, shows that about half of the American and only 9.5% of the European institutions use optical products. Although the important American CD-ROM materials are used in Europe, none of the European items, e.g., Myriade or Verzeichnis lieferbarer Bucher, are used in the United States.(3) This is a detailed report and it deserves further scrutiny. In August 1989, the Special Libraries Association surveyed its 10,695 members. The study was designed to assess the current status and impact of technology, project short term technological requirements of the membership, and help plot future directions for developing technological tools and applications. Four thousand one-hundred sixteen individuals returned the survey, a response rate of 38.4%. Of the 33 technological uses, word processing was cited most often (88.7%), followed by online searching (87.3%), fax (72.8%), and telecommunications software (70.3%). Only 33% of the respondents use CD-ROM products. The application of technologies was perceived by 88.9% to increase the level of service provided, and 75.9% of the respondents perceived a greater level of user satisfaction as a result of technological applications within their operations. …


Radiotherapy effectively palliates malignant sources of pain. However, once enrolled on hospice, patients are rarely referred for this treatment. To develop educational strategies that can improve access to care, a survey of hospice providers investigated potential misconceptions about its benefits and availability. Individual surveys were distributed to administrators, nursing directors, and medical directors at 16 licensed hospices within 25 miles of a radiation oncology facility. Ninety-three percent of hospice professionals stated radiotherapy provides pain relief and is appropriate for patients with more than 1 month of life expectancy. However, less than 1% of their cancer patients had been referred to a radiation oncologist over the past year, citing concerns about cost and travel burden. Whereas most medical directors (75%) were aware it is just as effective when delivered in a single fraction, very few administrators (22%) and nursing directors (21%) had this knowledge. Meanwhile, reluctance of a radiation oncologist to offer single-fraction palliative radiotherapy was experienced by 43%. Access to palliative radiotherapy for this unique population can be increased by improving education for hospice administrators and nursing directors and reminding radiation oncologists that single-fraction palliative radiotherapy is acceptable and ideal for patients with limited financial resources at the end of life.


Aim: To verify self-reported information on prenatal drug use in urine because reporting in pregnancy is sensitive to stigma and might lead to misclassification. Methods: Using semiquantitative immunochemical analysis, the presence of the urinary metabolite (11-nor-Δ9–tetrahydrocannabinol- 9-carboxylic acid) was compared to self-reported prenatal cannabis use. Sensitivity and specificity for self-report and urinalysis outcomes were calculated and Yule's Y was used as an agreement measure. Results: Urine samples were available for 3,997 pregnant women. Of these women, 92 reported having used cannabis during pregnancy (2.3%) and 71 had positive urine screens (1.8%). In total 35% of the 92 women with self-reported cannabis use also had a positive urine screen. Positive urines were relatively frequent in women reporting cannabis use before pregnancy only (7.6%) and in women with missing information (2.6%). Sensitivity and specificity of urinalysis compared to self-report were 0.46 and 0.98. Sensitivity and specificity of self-report compared to urinalysis were 0.36 and 0.99. Yule's Y amounted to 0.77, indicating substantial agreement between the measures. Conclusions: Our findings illustrate the difficulties in obtaining valid information on prenatal cannabis use. To improve the quality of cannabis use data, we suggest a 2-step approach starting with self-report.


Scheuermann, B. & Webber, J. (2002) Autism: Teaching DOES Make a Difference. Belmont: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Intended for "practitioners who work with children and youth with low-functioning autism and related disorders (p. xi)," the book, Autism: Teaching DOES Make a Difference, gives a detailed look at a behavioral approach to dealing with autism. With very user-friendly language the authors have presented step-by-step, state-of-the-art information, as well as several resources including everything from sample data sheets to web sites for support groups. This book is an excellent resource for both practitioners and parents considering a program based on a behavioral approach for children with autism. Chapter 1, Overview of Autism, gives a history and description of the disorder as well as the diagnostic process and what a diagnosis of autism means. It also talks about the type of intervention programs that may be considered, giving an overview of three theories (perceptual/ cognitive, developmental and behavioral) but focusing primarily on the behavioral theory of intervention. The authors discuss what type of characteristics a teacher should display, telling what you should look for in a person being considered to teach a child with autism. Some of the characteristics they recommend are that the person be energetic, positive, organized and consistent. They also speak of how parental involvement with the teachers and the child's program is crucial. In Chapter 2, the authors discuss the basic behavioral principles that can be applied to "increase desired behaviors, decrease inappropriate behaviors, and teach new behaviors (p. 28)." They also discuss the importance of data collection, how to correctly take data, and how to evaluate the meaning of the data collected. The use of reinforcement and punishment are addressed, giving definitions of how to assess which consequence should be used. The use of either should be determined by the antecedent of the behavior or by what is maintaining the current behavior. When the antecedent that triggers problem behavior is identified, one can then determine what should be done differently in reaction to the behavior so that the behavior increases or decreases as desired. (Note: The term punishment is defined as "the contingent presentation of a stimulus immediately after a behavior that reduces the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated [p. 54]." The authors acknowledge that there are ethical concerns with the misuse of punishment and give detailed explanations of appropriate and inappropriate uses of punishment procedures.) Chapter 3 focuses on Reducing Challenging Behavior, especially those behaviors that are most commonly found in children with autism. The authors describe how to conduct a functional assessment of the behaviors to better understand why the child engages in a certain behavior. It goes on to describe how to develop interventions for specific challenging behaviors such as noncompliance, self-stimulatory behaviors, self-injurious behavior, and aggression. …


ABSTRACT The spectre of environmental 'domestic extremism' has long been postulated by police leaders and security analysts in Britain. It is a narrative that has justified the commitment of enormous amounts of government resources towards police intelligence work directed at non-violent direct action campaigns. Most controversially, this has included the long-term infiltration of environmental (and other) activist groups by undercover police. This article provides a critical analysis of the justifications put forward in support of the covert surveillance of environmental activists in Britain. The paper proceeds by way of a single case study – a high profile, environmental direct action protest in the north of England – in order to reveal the levels of abuse, manipulation and deception at the basis of undercover protest policing. Through their court case, the activists involved with this action were able to obtain rare insights into the police authorisation documents for the undercover operation that had led to their arrests. An analysis of these documents provides us with a glimpse of the contradictory justifications given by senior police officers for infiltration – now under scrutiny by a public inquiry.


Evidence-based nursing (EBN) means using the best available evidence from research, along with patient preferences and clinical experience, when making nursing decisions.1 Nurses are increasingly concerned about ensuring that care is research based, and EBN offers a strategy to help nurses achieve this goal by using 5 steps:

Step 1: reflecting on practice and identifying areas of uncertainty

Step 2: translating these areas of uncertainty into focused, searchable questions2

Step 3: searching the literature for studies that use appropriate designs to help answer the question3–6

Step 4: critically appraising the research

Step 5: changing practice if the research suggests this is necessary.

Previous Notebooks in Evidence-Based Nursing that have described the process of EBN 2–6 were written with busy clinical nurses in mind. The next series of Notebooks will explore step 4 in detail—how to assess whether research findings are valid and appropriate for clinical application.

The volume of healthcare literature has been described in graphic terms. Did you know, for example, that Medline has indexed more than 9 million citations in more than 4,000 journals since 1966?7 Clearly, no individual practitioner can read this volume of research; nor should they try, as only a small proportion of it is of good quality. The trick to keeping abreast of the latest research is to quickly filter the good from the bad. For example, staff of the evidence-based journals office recently calculated that of 136 journals read for 4 evidence-based journals ( Evidence-Based Nursing , Evidence-Based Mental Health , Evidence-Based Medicine , and ACP Journal Club ), an estimated 8% of 21 100 articles passed evidence-based methodologic filters (personal communication, A McKibbon, 20 Mar 2000).

Anyone who has designed or implemented a research study knows that it can be difficult to do well. Researchers, like …


Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent forms of cancer in the world today. The search for effective treatment and screening methods is a highly active area of research. The Digital Image-based ElastoTomography (DIET) project is a new breast cancer screening system under development, where surface motion from the mechanically actuated breast is measured in 3D, and used as input to an inverse problem solving for breast elasticity. Cancerous lesions appear as high contrast features, being an order of magnitude stiffer than healthy tissue. The 3D motion capture is measured by an array of digital cameras using computer vision techniques. This thesis presents a complete imaging system and algorithms for the capture of 3D breast surface motion. The main components of the 3D motion capture system are the hardware and software image capture system, camera calibration, intra-image feature tracking, and 3D surface and motion reconstruction. Accurate algorithms for each of these components are developed, with a view to future development and potential modifications needed for a clinically-appropriate system. A number of the algorithms developed have potential applications outside of the DIET system. Proof of concept studies demonstrate the viability of the system, with full motion reconstruction being performed on silicone gel phantoms, designed to approximate human soft tissue, in a number of laboratory experiments.


The project Massive Unseen Companions to Hot Faint Underluminous Stars from SDSS (MUCHFUSS) aims at finding hot subdwarf stars with massive compact companions (white dwarfs with masses M > 1.0 M⊙, neutron stars or black holes). The existence of such systems is predicted by binary evolution calculations and some candidate systems have been found. We identified ≃1100 hot subdwarf stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Stars with high velocities have been reobserved and individual SDSS spectra have been analysed. About 70 radial velocity variable subdwarfs have been selected as good candidates for follow-up time resolved spectroscopy to derive orbital parameters and photometric follow-up to search for features like eclipses in the light curves. Up to now we found nine close binary sdBs with short orbital periods ranging from ≃0.07 d to 1.5 d. Two of them are eclipsing binaries with companions that are most likely of substellar nature (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Captivating, concise, and accessible, this Fourth Edition of Gus Martin's
popular text introduces readers to the modern landscape of terrorism.
Essentials of Terrorism: Concepts and Controversies covers key foundational
topics by defining terrorism and introducing its history and causes, as well
as discussing terrorist environments (domestic, international, religious,
etc.), tactics, targets, and counterterrorism. The Fourth Edition presents new
information regarding homeland security, emerging terrorist movements,
gender-selective terrorism, the Internet and terrorism, social networking
media and terrorism, religious terrorism, and media coverage of terrorism.
It also presents new data, case studies, photos, and maps to show readers
the locations of major terrorist activities and the devastation they have caused


Bible Translation: An Introductory Course in Translation Principles continues to provide crucial, practical training for those preparing to translate the Bible or contribute to Bible translation in other ways. The fourth edition of this classic textbook is a leading voice in addressing the following developments in the Bible translation world: The priority of oral communication and its value in drafting, testing, and polishing draft translations. The availability of software and online resources specifically designed for Bible translation; exercises and assignments include practice in the use of these resources. The increase in Old Testament translation projects worldwide; more examples and exercises from the Old Testament are included. The value of partnership and teamwork in translation projects, recognizing the different gifts, skills, and roles of those involved, helping each team member to serve effectively as a member of a team. The involvement of local churches and community in the translation process; planning for local responsibility, ownership and sustainability as fully as possible in each translation project. The importance of ongoing training for translators, including training translators to train others and preparing capable translators to serve as translation consultants in due time. The materials are designed for the classroom but are also suitable for self-study, for example, by those who are already qualified in biblical languages and exegetical skills and are training as translation consultants. A companion Teacher's Manual is also available. Documents, references, and links to videos and other published works can be found online at: publications.sil.org/bibletranslation_additionalmaterials. Bible Translation: An Introductory Course in Translation Principles has previously been translated in whole or in part into French, Hindi, Indonesian, Kannada, Malagasy, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, and Telugu. For information on translation or republishing, contact: publications.sil.org/about/contact.


As society has gotten increasingly digitalized, schools have made extensive efforts to accommodate to that development. With the digitalization of school, the special education practice and the roles of special education needs coordinators (SENCOs) and special education teachers (SETs) change. However, there is a lack of research examining this transformation, a gap which this exploratory study opens up for new understandings of. This mixed method study explores the special education practice in a municipality in Sweden, one of the most digitalized countries in the world. The findings show that SENCOs and SETs have highly positive beliefs about digital tools in special education, but at the same time their frequency of use varies greatly. Also, the study identifies special educational activities engaging with digital technology, describing a work practice with complex expectations of the special education professionals also in the area of digital teaching and learning. Furthermore, the competencies considered as necessary for handling the expectations are discussed.


The relationship between the layer‐mean radar reflectivity, Ze, and the columnar effective particle radius, Re, in evolving shallow warm clouds was investigated by numerical experiments using a hybrid cloud microphysical model and a forward simulator of satellite measurements. Changes in the cloud/rain droplet size distributions were traced in a kinematically driven warm cloud for various values of number concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and maximum updraft velocity. In contrast to previous interpretations of the observed data, we found four paths for the relationships between Ze and Re during the lifetime of a warm cloud. In the first path, both Ze and Re increase with an approximate sixth‐power dependency, indicating a stage of condensational growth of droplets without raindrops in the cloud. In the second path, only Ze increases rapidly, while Re remains almost constant (Resecond), indicating a stage in which few raindrops emerge in the cloud before appreciable precipitation occurs at the surface. This second path was newly identified in this study. In the third path, Re increases rapidly while Ze does not change greatly, indicating a stage of coalescence of droplets. Precipitation reaches the surface at the end of the third path. In the fourth path, both Ze and Re decrease, indicating a greater contribution of raindrop evaporation and weakening or termination of precipitation. The maximum values of Ze and Re and the constant value of Resecond for the second stage depend on the CCN number concentration and the updraft velocity.


During the last few years, a great deal of interest has risen concerning the applications of stochastic methods to several biochemical and biological phenomena.
Phenomena like gene expression, cellular memory, bet-hedging strategy in bacterial growth and many others, cannot be described by continuous stochastic models due to their intrinsic discreteness and randomness. In this thesis I have used the Chemical Master Equation (CME) technique to modelize some feedback cycles and analyzing their properties, including experimental data.
In the first part of this work, the effect of stochastic stability is discussed on a toy model of the genetic switch that triggers the cellular division, which malfunctioning is known to be one of the hallmarks of cancer.
The second system I have worked on is the so-called futile cycle, a closed cycle of two enzymatic reactions that adds and removes a chemical compound, called phosphate group, to a specific substrate. I have thus investigated how adding noise to the enzyme (that is usually in the order of few hundred molecules) modifies the probability of observing a specific number of phosphorylated substrate molecules, and confirmed theoretical predictions with numerical simulations. In the third part the results of the study of a chain of multiple phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycles will be presented. We will discuss an approximation method for the exact solution in the bidimensional case and the relationship that this method has with the thermodynamic properties of the system, which is an open system far from equilibrium.In the last section the agreement between the theoretical prediction of the total protein quantity in a mouse cells population and the observed quantity will be shown, measured via fluorescence microscopy.


The conventional CAD/CAM approach to design does not show the essential spatial relationships between user and product that are crucial for intuitive design analysis. As populations age and the home appliance market stagnates, Universal Design principles implemented with computerized virtual worlds become more important for meeting the ergonomic problems of heterogeneous populations that are increasingly difficult to adequately test with real-world subjects. Digital Human Modelling (DHM) is an emerging area that bridges computer-aided engineering design, human factors engineering and applied ergonomics. The most advanced forms of this technology are being used by many researchers for practical applications, including ergonomic analysis. However, a state of the art model of this technology has never been conceived for the conceptual design stage of a product development cycle as most conventional DHM techniques lack real time interaction, require considerable user intervention, and have inefficient control facilities and non-adequate validation techniques, all contributing to slow production pipelines. They have also not addressed the needs of the growing ageing population in many societies across the globe. The focus of this dissertation is to introduce a complete framework for ergonomic simulation at the conceptual design stage of a product development cycle based on parametric virtual humans in a prioritized inverse kinematics framework while taking biomechanical knowledge in to account. Using an intuitive control facility, design engineers can input a simple CAD model, design variables and human factors in to the system. The evaluation engine generates the required simulation in real-time by making use of an Anthropometric Database, Physical Characteristic Database and Prioritized Inverse Kinematics architecture. The key components of the total system are described and the results are demonstrated with a few applications such as kitchen, wash-basin and bath-tub. By introducing a quantitative estimation of ageing algorithm for anthropometric digital human models, products can be designed from the start to suit the ergonomic needs of the user rather than the biases and assumptions of the designer. Also, by creating a tool that can be used intuitively by non-specialists in a dynamic, real-time environment, designers can stop relying on specialists to test the safety of their ideas and start to effectively use data about populations to discover designs that can be used more easily by more people. Results have been validated with real human subjects indicating the practical implication of the total system as an ergonomic design tool for the conceptual design stage of a product development cycle.


Most hydrologic studies require knowledge of saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K s . This parameter is often measured using saturated soil cores and a constant applied hydraulic head device. A standard approach to reduce uncertainty in the result is to conduct replicate tests at a single hydraulic head gradient. Low-permeability soils are often tested at large hydraulic head gradients to decrease measurement time. Our objective was to test the common assumptions implicit in calculating K s from constant-head laboratory tests, i.e., the theoretical linear relationship between head gradient and flux density exists in experimental data, and the relationship passes through the origin. In this study, we used linear regression analysis to test these assumptions and determined K s from a broad range of head gradients for: 4.5-cm (diameter) by 10-cm (height) intact cores of sandy loam soil; 10-cm (diameter) by 10-cm (height) intact cores of clay loam soil; and repacked sand columns of various sizes. We found nonlinear relationships between hydraulic head gradient (i) and flux density (q) for tests conducted on intact cores of both soils, especially for head gradients greater than unity. When we calculated K s by linear regression of data from intact cores, we found average values approximately one-third greater than the "standard" method of averaging several replicate tests at a single hydraulic head. The difference between the regression and standard analyses was attributed to experimental bias, which is removed by the linear regression. Although no consistent i or q "thresholds" were identified to predict the onset of nonlinearity in i vs. q data, the intact core results imply that i < 1 and q < 5 x 10 -3 cm s -1 may be advisable.


Since 1994, the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been beset by prolonged instability and violence. Triggered by the events in neighbouring Rwanda--specifically, the war that was launched in 1990 in the north which ended with the genocide in 1994--eastern Congo's provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu have suffered greatly at the hands of armed forces, be they regional armies, rebel surrogates, or ethnic militias. From 1996 onwards, the bilateral relationship between the Rwandese and Congolese governments has played a critical role in shaping the situation in eastern Congo. After facilitating the installation of a friendly regime in Congo, Rwanda and Congo soon broke ties, creating a bitter and bloody enmity between the two countries that would endure for the next 10 years, marked by military confrontations, the pillaging of the Congo's natural resources, and the deaths of over 6 million people. In an unexpected twist in regional dynamics, in January 2009, Rwanda and Congo suddenly normalized their relations, becoming ostensible allies and jointly participating in military operations on Congolese soil, only weeks after being indirectly at war through the use of proxy rebels. This development was particularly puzzling, considering that in international relations friendly countries can often abruptly become enemies and go to war. The inverse--unfriendly countries suddenly becoming allies--typically takes several years. This paper analyzes the events that very quickly turned these enemies into partners and the implications for the Great Lakes region of Africa, as well as an overview of Rwanda-Congo bilateral relations since 1996. Following the cataclysm of the Rwandese genocide, an estimated 2 million Rwandese Hutu fled westward into neighbouring Congo (then named Zaire) as the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Force (RPF) rebels swept into the capital, Kigali. Among the fleeing refugees were perpetrators of the genocide, including much of the Rwandese army and its militias, which were given safe haven and support by Zaire's head of state, Mobutu Sese Seko, souring relations between the new RPF government in Rwanda and the old regime in Zaire. In 1996, Rwanda launched its first of many subsequent invasions of eastern Zaire/Congo, under the guise of a local rebellion, using the pretext that the presence of the Hutu forces directly across the border was an existential threat to Kigali's post-genocide regime. With support from Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and other regional powers, Rwanda overthrew Mobutu and replaced him with a sympathetic puppet, Laurent Kabila in 1997. (1) Within a year, Kabila had distanced himself from his former regional backers, firing his Rwandese Army Chief of Staff (2) and ordering all Rwandese troops out of the Congo. In August 1998, Rwanda along with Uganda launched a second invasion, again using the facade of local rebels and Congolese army mutineers. This second and wider war would engulf most of the major countries of the regime, including the military participation of Angola, Namibia, Chad, Sudan and Zimbabwe to defend the nascent Congolese regime, with Burundi joining the invaders. (3) The regional conflict would soon be known as 'Africa's World War,' characterized by the "systematic and systemic exploitation" of the Congo's natural resources by all parties, but particularly Rwanda and Uganda, (4) hundreds of thousands of women, girls, men and boys brutally raped, and the deaths of millions of civilians--the highest war-related death-toll since World War II. (5) Relations between Rwanda and the Congo reached an all-time low. The two countries were directly and indirectly at war, with Rwanda using local rebel proxies to fight some of its battles, while Congo armed, trained and supported the Hutu genocidaires, who, for simplicity, can be grouped into the FDLR rebels. (6) Hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of cash and minerals would be exploited by Rwandese troops and its rebels, and used to enrich Rwandese businessmen and the state; without exaggerating, Paul Kagame, the head of the RPF and current president of Rwanda, described the conflict as a "self-financing war. …


Armillaria mellea is a common pathogen of trees, woody shrubs and some herbaceous plants, causing root, root-collar and butt rot (Fox, 2000). On examination of a wilted broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), growing on the edge of woodland, near Reading, UK, in 1994, the main root and root-collar region was found to be colonised with mycelial fans, typical of Armillaria mellea. Rhizomorphs were found in the soil adjacent to the plant. The mycelium was isolated onto Malt Extract Agar and its identity was confirmed to be Armillaria mellea.

To fulfil Koch's postulates, ten potted dock plants were each inoculated with an isolate of Armillaria mellea by placing colonised sections of hazel (Corylus avellana) branch (≈6cm long by 2.5cm in diameter; West, 2000) adjacent to the tap root of the plants. Additionally an isolate of Armillaria ostoyae, which is a serious pathogen of coniferous trees, was tested against ten similar plants. After 7 months, the foliage of most plants (7 out of ten, for both isolates) was observed to be wilted or senesced. Examination of the roots and collar region of these plants showed extensive rotting and fans of white mycelium confirming infection by Armillaria. All other plants also had infected roots, but as the infection had not yet reached the root collar, the foliage had not been affected.

A. mellea and A. ostoyae were also found to infect artificially inoculated docks in field conditions.

Broad-leaved dock is a common perennial weed of short-term leys and permanent pastureland. Salmon (1923) had noticed that "Armillaria mellea" (at that time "sensu lato" - which in Britain was a complex of several species) spread from an apple tree to brambles (Rubus sp.) and docks (Rumex sp.) but the species of dock was unknown and it was not reported whether the docks were killed. Our study confirms that there is potential for docks to assist the vegetative spread of both Armillaria mellea and Armillaria ostoyae across pasture or other treeless habitats and into woodlands in a similar way to that proposed for Epilobium angustifolium by Klein-Gebbinck et al. (1993).


We introduce the notion of image-driven simplification, a framework that uses images to decide which portions of a model to simplify. This is a departure from approaches that make polygonal simplification decisions based on geometry. As with many methods, we use the edge collapse operator to make incremental changes to a model. Unique to our approach, however, is the use at comparisons between images of the original model against those of a simplified model to determine the cost of an ease collapse. We use common graphics rendering hardware to accelerate the creation of the required images. As expected, this method produces models that are close to the original model according to image differences. Perhaps more surprising, however, is that the method yields models that have high geometric fidelity as well. Our approach also solves the quandary of how to weight the geometric distance versus appearance properties such as normals, color, and texture. All of these trade-offs are balanced by the image metric. Benefits of this approach include high fidelity silhouettes, extreme simplification of hidden portions of a model, attention to shading interpolation effects, and simplification that is sensitive to the content of a texture. In order to better preserve the appearance of textured models, we introduce a novel technique for assigning texture coordinates to the new vertices of the mesh. This method is based on a geometric heuristic that can be integrated with any edge collapse algorithm to produce high quality textured surfaces.


With a focus on how trade, foreign investment, commercial arbitration and financial regulation rules affect impoverished individuals, Poverty and the International Economic Legal System examines the relationship between the legal rules of the international economic law system and states' obligations to reduce poverty. The contributors include leading practitioners, practice-oriented scholars and legal theorists, who discuss the human aspects of global economic activity without resorting to either overly dogmatic human rights approaches or technocratic economic views. The essays extend beyond development discussions by encouraging further efforts to study, improve and develop legal mechanisms for the benefit of the world's poor and challenging traditionally de-personified legal areas to engage with their real-world impacts.


This dissertation argues that theories of collaboration in rhetoric and composition studies have for too long relied on social constructionist epistemology to explain what collaboration is and how it works, resulting in a widespread, if not tacit reluctance on the part of instructors to encourage collaboration in the teaching of writing that goes beyond various forms of group work and peer-review. In an attempt to recover and renew the values of collaboration, I suggest that it can be re-conceptualized ethically as a discursive relationship collaborators foster with one another to invent discourse that transgresses and transforms the limits of what individuals are able to articulate alone. Moreover I use the rhetorical canon of invention to explain why social constructionist epistemology is incapable of theorizing collaboration other than as a "style" of doing work. I draw upon the tradition of classical American pragmatism, along with the more contemporary work of language philosopher Donald Davidson and other externalist theorists to theorize the techne of collaboration, which I argue manifests in the habits of dialogue collaborators foster to engage its inventive work. Finally, I explain how such a re-conceptualization of collaboration informs the pedagogical possibilities of post-process composition theory, which has waned in recent years for its lack of pedagogical articulation.


TRP channels represent a large family of structurally related ion channels. The LTRP members have long COOH- and NH2-termini, with the COOH-terminus having consensus enzyme domains (see Cahalan). The LTRPC7 channel (also known as TRP-PLIK) was proposed by Runnels et al. to have kinase activity that influenced channel activity, but according to Nadler et al. LTRPC7 is not a kinase. Rather, they conclude that the consensus kinase domain allows the channel to be regulated by binding Mg•ATP without requiring the hydrolysis of the ATP. Furthermore, Nadler et al. suggest that, under physiological conditions, LTRPC7 is selective for divalent cations and is not a nonselective cation channel as previously reported. Perraud et al. show that another member of this family, the LTRPC2 channel, may have a different enzymatic activity, as an adenosine diphosphate (ADP) pyrophosphatase. Indeed, the Nudix homology domain of the LTRPC2 channel, when purified as a recombinant protein from Escherichia coli, is able to specifically hydrolyze ADP in vitro. However, Perraud et al. do not provide evidence for the native or even transfected LTRPC2 channel to have this enzymatic activity. The LTRPC2 channel can be activated by experimental conditions that increase ADP concentrations, suggesting that the interaction with ADP may be relevant. Thus, LTRPC2 and LTRPC7 appear to be ion channels gated by intracellular ligands. It remains to be definitively determined whether they also have enzymatic activity in vivo. M. D. Calahan, Channels as enzymes. Nature 411, 542-543 (2001). [Online Journal] L. W. Runnels, L. Yue, D. E. Clapham, TRP-PLIK, a bifunctional protein with kinase and ion channel activities.Science 291, 1043-1047 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text] M. J. S. Nadler, M. C. Hermosura, K. Inabe, A.-L. Perraud, Q. Zhu, A. J. Stokes, T. Kurosaki, J.-P. Kinet, R. Penner, A. M. Scharenberg, A. Fleig, LTRPC7 is a Mg•ATP-regulated divalent cation channel required for cell viability. Nature 411, 590-595 (2001). [Online Journal] A.-L. Perraud, A. Fleig, C. A. Dunn, L. A. Bagley, P. Launay, C. Schmitz, A. J. Stokes, Q. Zhu, M. J. Bessman, R. Penner, J.-P. Kinet, A. M. Scharenberg, ADP-ribose gating of the calcium-permeable LTRPC2 channel revealed by Nudix motif homology. Nature 411, 595-599 (2001). [Online Journal]


This paper investigates how fertility responds to changes in the price of a marginal child and in household income. We construct a large, individual-level panel data set of married Israeli women during the period 1999-2005 that contains fertility histories and detailed controls. We exploit variation in Israel's child subsidy program to identify changes in the price of a marginal child (using changes in the subsidy for a marginal child) and to instrument for household income (using changes in the subsidy for infra-marginal children). We find a significant and positive price effect on fertility: the mean level of marginal child subsidy produces a 7.8 percent increase in fertility. There is a positive effect within all religious and ethnic subgroups, including the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population, whose social and religious norms discourage family planning. There is also a significant price effect on fertility among women who are close to the end of their lifetime fertility, suggesting that at least part of the price effect is due to a reduction in total fertility. As expected, the child subsidy has no effect in the upper range of the income distribution. Finally, consistent with the predictions of Becker (1960) and Becker and Tomes (1976), we find that the income effect is small in magnitude and is negative at low income levels and positive at high levels.


The idea of postcolonialism as signifying a break from the past, as the sign of the new, as a critical reappraisal in the context of imperialism and the rise of capital, and as a register of social and political assertiveness took shape as major geo-political changes were underway (the Iranian Revolution, the gradual decline of the Soviet Union, and so on). However, by 2006 when the word finally entered the OED, the citation and the definition embedded in it captured an important shift: "postcolonialism" as a proactive cultural logic aimed at the creation of an intentional object. The critical survey undertaken here suggests that the discourse of postcolonialism is now an intentional discourse with specific affects. These affects, as seen in the Anglophone bibliography on the subject of these past five years, may now be examined with reference to subjects and themes as varied as melancholia, shame, the horrors of poststructuralism, creolization, the vernacular, the cosmopolitan turn, the postcolonial "jew", the subaltern challenge, global warming, world-literary systems, traumatized bodies, among others.


Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) in western Canadian boreal forests is generally believed to occur as young, even-aged stands, as part of a fire-dominated landscape. However, the available quantitative estimates of the rate of disturbance by fire in this region differ markedly. One estimate is consistent with forests much older than are currently thought to exist. The theory of gap dynamics may partly reconcile the discrepancy, by suggesting a mechanism whereby old, uneven-aged aspen stands could develop and persist. We surveyed for canopy gaps in 44-67 yr old aspen stands in northeastern Alberta, Canada, and found that expanded gaps occupy 3.6-16.6% of stand area, increasing linearly with stand age over the sampled range. Gaps begin to form 40 yr after stand initiation, through the accumulated mortality of adjacent canopy trees. The densities of aspen (P. tremuloides), balsam poplar (P. balsamifera), and paper birch (Betula papyrifera) saplings were 2-3 times higher in gaps than in paired control areas under a closed canopy. Sample plots in older aspen stands in the vicinity had spatially heterogeneous, uneven age structures, consistent with gap dynamics. More extensive samples of stem-size-structure data and forest-inventory data sets indicate that this phenomenon is widespread. We conclude that gap dynamics can maintain near-pure deciduous stands in this region, in the absence of shade-tolerant competitors. A cellular-automata model of aspen-stand dynamics, with spa- tially random mortality, yields predictions consistent with our other results. It follows from the model that stable age structures develop within 250-300 yr, that mean canopy age is a biased estimator of stand age in stands older than 100 yr, and that small-sample maxima have unfavorable sampling distributions. Comparable biases may be present in ages esti- mated from aerial photography: significant areas of ''young'' aspen have age structures characteristic of simulated old stands. We present less direct arguments that other com- ponents of the Alberta boreal forest are also older than is generally thought, and we outline a new model of the regional forest dynamics. We conclude that vast tracts of boreal forest are now being managed on the basis of an incorrectly estimated age structure and a mis- conception of their landscape dynamics.


Objectives: The objectives of this study is to review the set of criteria of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) for priority-setting in research with addition of new criteria if necessary, and to develop and evaluate the reliability and validity of the final priority score. Methods: Based on the evaluation of 199 research topics, forty-five experts identified additional criteria for priority-setting, rated their relevance, and ranked and weighted them in a three-round modified Delphi technique. A final priority score was developed and evaluated. Internal consistency, test–retest and inter-rater reliability were assessed. Correlation with experts' overall qualitative topic ratings were assessed as an approximation to validity. Results: All seven original IOM criteria were considered relevant and two new criteria were added ("potential for translation into practice", and "need for knowledge"). Final ranks and relative weights differed from those of the original IOM criteria: "research impact on health outcomes" was considered the most important criterion (4.23), as opposed to "burden of disease" (3.92). Cronbach's alpha (0.75) and test–retest stability (interclass correlation coefficient = 0.66) for the final set of criteria were acceptable. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for overall assessment of priority was 0.66. Conclusions: A reliable instrument for prioritizing topics in clinical and health services research has been developed. Further evaluation of its validity and impact on selecting research topics is required.


A cohort design was used to determine the contribution of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychiatric illness to health care costs for adolescents and adults in the 3 years following mild or moderate-to-severe TBI compared to a matched cohort without TBI, controlling for confounders. In all, 3756 subjects 15 years or older from a large health maintenance organization database were examined. We identified subjects who sustained a TBI in 1993 (n=939) and selected three control subjects per TBI-exposed subject (n=2817), matched for age, sex, and enrollment at the time of injury. Unadjusted mean costs in 2009-adjusted dollars were compared using Kruskal-Wallis tests and Mann-Whitney U tests, and adjusted mean costs were compared using gamma regression analyses. Average costs were 76% higher in the 3 years after injury for the mild TBI group, and 5.75 times greater for the moderate-to-severe TBI group compared to controls. The presence of psychiatric illness was associated with more than doubling of total costs for both inpatient and outpatient non-mental health care. Gamma regression analyses confirmed significantly higher costs in patients with TBI or psychiatric illness. A significant interaction between moderate-to-severe TBI and psychiatric illness indicated a 3.39 times greater cost among patients with both exposures compared with those exposed to moderate-to-severe TBI without psychiatric illness. TBI and psychiatric illness were each associated with significant increases in health care costs; those with the combination of moderate-to-severe TBI and psychiatric illness had much higher costs than any other group.


Urban housing, land allocation and planning policy is compared for Kenya and Tanzania for the post-Independence decade. In both countries, performance has fallen short of policy goals, especially in terms of the inability to shift development from the centre and the difficulty in effecting programmes for the lower income groups. Still, policy in Tanzania, while more innovative, and more focused on the needs of lower income groups, has been beset by more severe bureaucratic problems of implementation tha.. has been the case in Kenya. The two countries' policies represent opposite dilemmas in the tension between equity and performance, these policy divergences are related more broadly to different elite political attitudes and structures, and to different patterns of urban income distribution.


The explosion in the use of software in important sociotechnical systems has renewed focus on the study of the way technical constructs reflect policies, norms, and human values. This effort requires the engagement of scholars and practitioners from many disciplines. And yet, these disciplines often conceptualize the operative values very differently while referring to them using the same vocabulary. The resulting conflation of ideas confuses discussions about values in technology at disciplinary boundaries. In the service of improving this situation, this paper examines the value of shared vocabularies, analytics, and other tools that facilitate conversations about values in light of these disciplinary specific conceptualizations, the role such tools play in furthering research and practice, outlines different conceptions of "fairness" deployed in discussions about computer systems, and provides an analytic tool for interdisciplinary discussions and collaborations around the concept of fairness. We use a case study of risk assessments in criminal justice applications to both motivate our effort--describing how conflation of different concepts under the banner of "fairness" led to unproductive confusion--and illustrate the value of the fairness analytic by demonstrating how the rigorous analysis it enables can assist in identifying key areas of theoretical, political, and practical misunderstanding or disagreement, and where desired support alignment or collaboration in the absence of consensus.


The obesity epidemic has generated immense interest in recent years due to the wide-ranging and significant adverse health and economic consequences that surround the problem. Much attention has been focused on behaviors that lead to obesity, in particular to over consumption of energy-dense food and to sedentary lifestyle. However, obesity is an extremely complex condition with poorly defined pathogenesis. Thanks to greatly enhanced research in the area, the discovery of pathways in the brain and peripheral organs that mediate energy homeostasis has provided a framework for understanding the biological basis of obesity. Metabolic Basis of Obesity adds an important new dimension to the growing literature on obesity by offering a comprehensive review of specifically how metabolic imbalance culminates in obesity. Developed by a team of expert authors, this important title discusses the principles of energy balance, genetics of body weight regulation, hormones and adipokines, and metabolic pathways in the brain, liver, muscle and fat, to name just several of the areas covered. The book also examines the connection between obesity and diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other complications. Current and future diagnostic and treatment strategies are also reviewed. Comprehensive and timely, Metabolic Basis of Obesity is an essential reference for understanding the burgeoning problem of obesity.


OPERA-model for abiotic degredation in air 1.2.Other related models: No related models 1.3.Software coding the model: OPERA V1.5 OPERA (OPEn (quantitative) structure-activity Relationship Application) is a standalone free and open source command line application. It provides a suite of QSAR models to predict physicochemical properties and environmental fate of organic chemicals based on PaDEL descriptors. It is available for download in Matlab, C and C++ languages from github under MIT license. Kamel Mansouri (email@example.com) https://github.com/kmansouri/OPERA.git


This paper examines the spatial distribution of crime among Chicago's suburbs by completing a spatial autocorrelation and regression analysis of crime occurrence rates. The results suggest that there is little interjurisdictional spillover of violent crime among the suburbs of Chicago. Rather, the clustered spatial pattern of crime and its decay with distance to the city of Chicago reflects the nonrandom spatial distribution of offender rates. The distribution of property crime exhibits neither spatial autocorrelation nor a relationship with distance to Chicago. Instead, it is closely associated with the location of retail and manufacturing activities. This suggests that the journey to property crime extends many miles and crosses suburban boundaries.


Micro-cracks are the main cause to structural failure. One way to circumvent costly manual maintenance and repair is to incorporate an autonomous self -healing mechanism in concrete. One such an alternative repair mechanism is currently being studied, i.e. a novel technique based on the application of biomineralization of bacteria in concrete. The applicability of specifically calcite mineral precipitating bacteria for concrete repair and plugging of pores and cracks in concrete has been recently investigated and studies on the possibility of using specific bacteria as a sustainable and concrete –embedded self healing agent was studied and results from ongoing studies are discussed. Synthetic polymers such as epoxy treatment etc. are currently being used for repair of concrete are harmful to the environment, hence the use of a biological repair technique in concrete is focused. Recently, it is found that microbial mineral precipitation resulting from metabolic activities of favourable microorganisms in concrete improved the overall behaviour of concrete. Hence in this paper define the bacterial concrete, its classification and types of bacteria, chemical process to fix the crack by bacteria, advantages and dis-advantages and possibilities of application of MICP (Microorganism used for Calcium Carbonate Precipitation in Concrete) in construction area by literature review are


Together with migration and rapid population growth, social relations of the city inhabitants began to deteriorate. Together with this, individualization and isolation of people which leads to social problems have been debated in the scientific literature from the 1960s. In this context, the ensuring of social cohesion has become increasingly important developing by public spaces and place making idea which include communitybased participation approach. However, placemaking idea is criticized because of being elitist, not to provide social equity and caused the gentrification by different views. The aim of this study is introduce that how placemaking idea has been evaluated which is developed by Jane Jacobs' "eyes on the street" concept and become related to social sustainability until now. As a research method, various case studies have been observed and literature review has been conducted. Result of the analysis, process and application differences of placemaking approaches have been examined. Thus, how placemaking approach to be effective in different places on social sustainability was discussed, hence the positive and negative aspects were revealed as well. Obtained results of this study are expected that contribute to the design and planning principles of cities to create engaged community. Keywords: Placemaking, community, social sustainability


Abstract The study contributes to the ongoing debate about the "privacy paradox" in the context of using social media. The presence of a privacy paradox is often declared if there is no relationship between users' information privacy concerns and their online self-disclosure. However, prior research has produced conflicting results. The novel contribution of this study is that we consider public and private self-disclosure separately. The data came from a cross-national survey of 1,500 Canadians. For the purposes of the study, we only examined the subset of 545 people who had at least one public account and one private account. Going beyond a single view of self-disclosure, we captured five dimensions of self-disclosure: Amount, Depth, Polarity, Accuracy, and Intent; and two aspects of privacy concerns: concerns about organizational and social threats. To examine the collected data, we used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. Our research does not support the presence of a privacy paradox as we found a relationship between privacy concerns from organizational and social threats and most of the dimensions of self-disclosure (even if the relationship was weak). There was no difference between patterns of self-disclosure on private versus public accounts. Different privacy concerns may trigger different privacy protection responses and, thus, may interact with self-disclosure differently. Concerns about organizational threats increase awareness and accuracy while reducing amount and depth, while concerns about social threats reduce accuracy and awareness while increasing amount and depth.


Ethical issues frequently arise in the production and exhibition of bioart, both as subject matter and as an issue in itself. This article explores how learning from the author's experiences as lead project artist in the Creative Europe–funded Trust Me, I'm an Artist project, along with her work as a freelance artist, which is deeply embedded in laboratory settings around the world, can help build capacity and opportunities for artists and scientists to work together in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations to address the societal and cultural implications of emerging bioscientific and biomedical research areas, attitudes to patient care, and public engagement in contemporary scientific research.


The mediostructure, that is the system of cross-referencing, is a lexicographic device that can be used to establish relations among different components of a dictionary. This paper focuses on different mediostructural strategies and their practical application in general synchronic dictionaries. The structure of dictionaries is discussed from a metalexicographic perspective in order to explain the system of cross-referencing. It is shown how textual cohesion, achieved by the interaction of the various structural components, is promoted by the use of a system of cross-referencing and improved by an innovative approach towards a mediostructure-orientated lexicography.


Aims: This study was undertaken to estimate the incidence of bacterial vaginosis (BV) and other vaginal infections during pregnancy and its association with urinary tract infections (UTI) and its consequences on pregnancy outcome, maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Settings and Design: Prospective cohort study. Materials and Methods: The present prospective cohort study was conducted on 200 women attending the antenatal clinic (ANC) of a tertiary hospital. All pertinent obstetric and neonatal data covering antenatal events during the course of pregnancy, delivery, puerperium and condition of each newborn at the time of birth were collected. BV was detected by both Gram stain and gold standard clinical criteria (Amsel's composite criteria). Statistical analysis used: Data were analyzed using SPSS version 9. Fischer's exact test, chi square tests and Student's' test has been used for analysis. The probability of 5% was considered as significant for continuous variables such as age, period of gestation and birth weight. Odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI) with 95% probability were determined. Results: The incidence of bacterial vaginosis was 41 in 200 patients. Adverse outcomes such as preterm labor, PROM and fetal complications were found more in pregnant women who had bacterial vaginosis (N=41), bacterial vaginosis with UTI (N=14) as compared to those without bacterial vaginosis (N=118). Conclusions: The incidence of poor pregnancy outcome was higher in bacterial vaginosis with UTI. Prevention of BV and UTI is cost effective to minimize the pregnancy-related complications and preterm labor to decrease in perinatal and maternal mortality and morbidity. We recommend all antenatal patients should be screened for the presence of bacterial vaginosis, other infections and UTI.


It is generally accepted that nuclear quantum effects (NQEs) trigger the transition to the nonmolecular form of ice under increasing pressure. This picture is challenged in salty ice, where Raman scattering measurements up to 130 GPa of molecular ice VII containing NaCl or LiCl impurities show that the transition pressure to the symmetric phase ice X is shifted up by about 30 GPa, even at small salt concentrations. We address the question of how the inclusion of salt induces the drastic reduction of NQEs by selectively including NQEs in ab initio calculations of ice in the presence of distinct ionic impurities. We quantitatively show that this is mainly a consequence of the electric field generated by the ions. We propose a simple model that is able to capture the essence of this phenomenon, generalizing this picture to other charged defects and for any concentration. This result is potentially generalizable to most "dirty" ices in which the electric field due to the doping is much more significant than local lattice distortions.