The multi-label classification problem has generated significant interest in recent years. However, existing approaches do not adequately address two key challenges: (a) scaling up to problems with a large number (say millions) of labels, and (b) handling data with missing labels. In this paper, we directly address both these problems by studying the multi-label problem in a generic empirical risk minimization (ERM) framework. Our framework, despite being simple, is surprisingly able to encompass several recent label-compression based methods which can be derived as special cases of our method. To optimize the ERM problem, we develop techniques that exploit the structure of specific loss functions - such as the squared loss function - to obtain efficient algorithms. We further show that our learning framework admits excess risk bounds even in the presence of missing labels. Our bounds are tight and demonstrate better generalization performance for low-rank promoting trace-norm regularization when compared to (rank insensitive) Frobenius norm regularization. Finally, we present extensive empirical results on a variety of benchmark datasets and show that our methods perform significantly better than existing label compression based methods and can scale up to very large datasets such as a Wikipedia dataset that has more than 200,000 labels.


Background. Increased competition for surgical exposure and practice, smaller teaching platforms and shorter training times have an impact on the quality of training and competence of plastic surgery registrars. Demands for accountability and minimising patient risks are the driving forces for incorporating simulation in healthcare education. We addressed the problem of whether the features and uses of simulation would enhance postgraduate plastic surgery education and training and ensure more effective learning. Objective. To identify and describe: ( i ) how simulation impacts on student learning; therefore, how the effectiveness of learning may be enhanced in postgraduate and/or plastic surgery education and training; and ( ii ) which features and uses of simulation have the potential to enhance learning in plastic surgery. Methods. A descriptive design was used for the study. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with 8 national and international role players in simulation. Results. The results indicated a positive outcome of simulation, as it provides, e.g. a non-threatening environment for learning and improves clinical competency, ensuring an increase in patient safety. The features and uses of simulation render it an excellent method to enhance learning effectiveness at different cognitive levels and to fulfil a specific role in integrated and holistic training, while providing opportunities to practise specific skills. The lack of clinical opportunities can be addressed, and more clinical exposure and practice will result in fewer medical errors. Conclusion. Simulation-based education in postgraduate plastic surgery education and training proved to be an effective teaching-learning method, which provides solutions to current deficiencies, hindrances and gaps in health professions education. The research question was answered and the use of simulation is recommended to enhance plastic surgery education and training and promote safe patient care.


ABSTRACTThe sites of Luoyang, Zhengzhou, and Pingdingshan in Henan, China were selected to investigate the chemical compositions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). A total of 165 PM2.5 samples from the three sites were collected from October 2014 to July 2015. Water-soluble inorganic ions, elemental carbon and organic carbon, and other elements in PM2.5 were analyzed by ion chromatography, carbon analyzer, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, respectively. Results showed that the annual average concentrations of PM2.5 in the three sites were significantly higher than the Chinese national ambient air quality standard. The seasonal average of PM2.5 concentration varied with the lowest concentrations of PM2.5 in summer. Among these sites, the highest concentrations of SO42– and NH4+ ions were observed in Luoyang with the highest concentration of NO3– detected in Zhengzhou. SO42–, NO3– and NH4+ ions occurred as (NH4)2SO4 and NH4NO3. For seasonal variation, the highest concentrations for Al, Fe and Ca were observed during spring in Pingdingshan and autumn in Zhengzhou and Luoyang, respectively. Enrichment factor (EF), as an indicator, is commonly used to evaluate the contribution of anthropogenic sources, and high EFs of Zn, Cu, and Cd in PM2.5 indicate the extent of air pollution, which is generally caused by emissions of vehicles and industries. Risks posed by heavy metals on human health were assessed. The hazard index, which was used to assess the overall potential for noncarcinogenic effects, was higher than 1 in the three sites, indicating that V, Cr, As, Mn, Cd, Co, and Ni may cause accumulative noncarcinogenic health effects on humans, without the noncancer effect of each heavy metal significant. Cr in PM2.5 is a potential carcinogenic risk when inhaled by adults. Overall, the results indicate that PM2.5 pollution must be considered seriously in three cities.


A new challenge for surgical robotics is placed in the use of flexible manipulators, to perform procedures that are impossible for currently available rigid robots. Since the surgeon only controls the end-effector of the manipulator, new control strategies need to be developed to correctly move its flexible body without damaging the surrounding environment. This paper shows how a positional controller for a new surgical robot (STIFF-FLOP) can be learnt from the demonstrations given by an expert user. The proposed algorithm exploits the variability of the task to comply with the constraints only when needed, by implementing a minimal intervention principle control strategy. The results are applied to scenarios involving movements inside a constrained environment and disturbance rejection.


Mössbauer experiments were performed at room temperature using different experimental configurations on several series of nanocrystalline FeSiBCuNbX alloys (X = Zr, Nb, Mo and V) obtained after annealing treatments of melt-spun ribbons. The refinement of Mössbauer spectra allows the kinetics and the local structural rearrangement mechanisms associated with the nanocrystallization process to be compared. The hyperfine field distributions of the intergranular phase show the emergence of a bimodal behaviour that becomes significantly more pronounced from volumetric crystalline fractions estimated at ~20-25%, regardless of the nature of the substituting element. The hyperfine field distribution can be described by means of two Gaussian components, consistent with of a two-cluster-like model. Such a behaviour can be attributed to the presence of iron-rich and iron-poor zones within the intergranular phase, resulting from the diffusion process. These mechanisms are found to be independent of the nature of X. In addition, strong in-plane magnetic structures are evidenced for Nb-, Mo-, and V-based systems while the magnetic domains tend to be randomly distributed in Zr-based nanocrystalline alloys.


Antiretroviral therapy has given hope and expectations for a better life to HIV positive individuals, however, HIV medication cannot be effective without HIV positive individuals' compliance to it. This study investigated the ways in which living with HIV and taking medication is located within the psychological, social and cultural context of everyday life and relationships in Greece. It also examined gender and identity issues, which make compliance/non-compliance understandable from the HIV positive peoples' perspective. In addition, emphasis was given to locating compliance to medical regimes in which the perspectives of HIV positive persons were prioritised and understood in relation to relationships with health care professionals.
A mixed methods approach was undertaken to provide understanding of compliance and non-compliance factors to HIV medication in a holistic way. A self-completed questionnaire was used to examine the psychosocial factors underpinning compliance to medication. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were used to explore issues of identity, gender, relationship between doctors and patients and social understandings of HIV. Finally, self-completed weekly diaries were used to document compliance actions, thoughts and feelings in order to reveal the ways medical regimes fit into everyday life. The study was conducted in three Public Hospitals, one Governmental Hospice and one Non-governmental Organization. Eighty (63 males and 17 females) Greek HIV positive patients completed the questionnaire. Interview sample consisted of 7 and 3 males and females respectively. Finally, 6 Greek HIV positive males and 3 females completed the diaries of the research. The questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics via SPSS 11. In addition, a range of non-parametric tests (Mann Whitney and Kruskal Wallis) were used in order to check if ordinal variables influence compliance with HIV medication. Finally linear regression analysis was used in order to establish the influence of factors on compliance with HIV medication. Interviews and the diaries data were analysed though thematic analysis, focusing on identification of patterns and behaviours which were then interpreted in terms of themes.
The findings of the study indicated that, when support was given from life partners compliance with HV medication was increased. However, when support was given from family members, compliance with HIV medication was decreased. According to the findings, family dynamics have changed in several cultures over recent decades, partner roles have changed especially in the west and in Mediterranean societies. In regards to
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medicalization in everyday life, the study showed that when individuals were experiencing side effects, or had fears of future side effects, religious issues (punishment for homosexuality), loss of one's freedom due to medication, non-compliant behaviours could occur. Finally, the study indicated that some HIV positive individuals perceived their health levels as good and believed that not taking medication once or twice a week was a compliant behaviour. Hence, false perceptions regarding health levels and compliance issues could lead to non-compliant behaviours.
A further examination on the communication patterns of the family system and its impact on HIV positive individuals is recommended as it is clearly not very helpful any more. Further exploration of the general socio-cultural positioning of Greece is recommended as certain HIV positive individuals coped with HIV diagnosis and taking medication, by rejecting it. Finally, the need for psychological support is recommended as it is very rarely provided within the Greek health care system.


This study examines the impact of the principal financial crises in emerging markets in recent years on the incidence of poverty in the countries in question. The growth impact is first identified by comparing average per capita growth in the two years prior to the crisis to that in the crisis year and the following year. The poverty impact is then measured by applying the elasticity of poverty with respect to growth. Alternative estimates consider results of surveys in the relevant periods, where available. The central estimate is that some 40 to 60 million people were placed in poverty by the financial crises affecting Mexico (1995), Thailand and Indonesia (1997), Korea and Russia (1998), Brazil (1999), and Argentina and Turkey (2001), compared with total population of 800 million in these eight countries. By far the largest impact was in Indonesia, because of the severe income decline and the large base population in poverty. Those economies with relatively better crisis management (Mexico, Thailand, Korea, Brazil, Turkey) are found as a group to have experienced considerably milder growth and poverty shocks than those with unsuccessful management (Indonesia, Russia, and Argentina). These results underscore the importance of appropriate crisis resolution for both national and international policymakers. A technical appendix examines the elasticity of poverty with respect to growth on the basis of the underlying income distribution forms, for both the Pareto and lognormal distributions. The analysis establishes for the Pareto and confirms for the lognormal that the absolute magnitude of this elasticity is positively related to the ratio of average per capita income to the poverty line threshold, and negatively related to the degree of inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient.


Networks are a catalyst for promoting common goals and objectives of their membership. Public Health networks in Africa are crucial, because of the severe resource limitations that nations face in dealing with priority public health problems. For a long time, networks have existed on the continent and globally, but many of these are disease-specific with a narrow scope. The African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) is a public health network established in 2005 as a non-profit networking alliance of Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programs (FELTPs) and Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETPs) in Africa. AFENET is dedicated to helping ministries of health in Africa build strong, effective and sustainable programs and capacity to improve public health systems by partnering with global public health experts. The Network's goal is to strengthen field epidemiology and public health laboratory capacity to contribute effectively to addressing epidemics and other major public health problems in Africa. AFENET currently networks 12 FELTPs and FETPs in sub-Saharan Africa with operations in 20 countries. AFENET has a unique tripartite working relationship with government technocrats from human health and animal sectors, academicians from partner universities, and development partners, presenting the Network with a distinct vantage point. Through the Network, African nations are making strides in strengthening their health systems. Members are able to: leverage resources to support field epidemiology and public health laboratory training and service delivery notably in the area of outbreak investigation and response as well as disease surveillance; by-pass government bureaucracies that often hinder and frustrate development partners; and consolidate efforts of different partners channelled through the FELTPs by networking graduates through alumni associations and calling on them to offer technical support in various public health capacities as the need arises. AFENET presents a bridging platform between governments and the private sector, allowing for continuity of health interventions at the national and regional level while offering free exit and entry for existing and new partners respectively. AFENET has established itself as a versatile networking model that is highly responsive to members' needs. Based on the successes recorded in AFENET's first 5 years, we envision that the Network's membership will continue to expand as new training programs are established. The lessons learned will be useful in initiating new programs and building sustainability frameworks for FETPs and FELTPs in Africa. AFENET will continue to play a role in coordinating, advocacy, and building capacity for epidemic disease preparedness and response.


The integration of social media characteristics into an econometric framework requires modeling a high dimensional dynamic network with dimensions of parameter typically much larger than the number of observations. To cope with this problem, we introduce SONIC, a new high-dimensional network model that assumes that (1) only few influencers drive the network dynamics; (2) the community structure of the network is characterized by homogeneity of response to specific influencers, implying their underlying similarity. An estimation procedure is proposed based on a greedy algorithm and LASSO regularization. Through theoretical study and simulations, we show that the matrix parameter can be estimated even when sample size is smaller than the size of the network. Using a novel dataset retrieved from one of leading social media platforms - StockTwits and quantifying their opinions via natural language processing, we model the opinions network dynamics among a select group of users and further detect the latent communities. With a sparsity regularization, we can identify important nodes in the network.


Erosion damage in hydraulic turbines is a common problem caused by the high- velocity impact of small particles entrained in the fluid. In this investigation, the Finite Volume Particle Method is used to simulate the three-dimensional impact of rigid spherical particles on a metallic surface. Three different constitutive models are compared: the linear strainhardening (L-H), Cowper-Symonds (C-S) and Johnson-Cook (J-C) models. They are assessed in terms of the predicted erosion rate and its dependence on impact angle and velocity, as compared to experimental data. It has been shown that a model accounting for strain rate is necessary, since the response of the material is significantly tougher at the very high strain rate regime caused by impacts. High sensitivity to the friction coefficient, which models the cutting wear mechanism, has been noticed. The J-C damage model also shows a high sensitivity to the parameter related to triaxiality, whose calibration appears to be scale-dependent, not exclusively material-determined. After calibration, the J-C model is capable of capturing the material's erosion response to both impact velocity and angle, whereas both C-S and L-H fail.


PURPOSE
To conduct a validation study of a Doppler guide wire for potential neuroendovascular applications.

METHODS
A 12-MHz, 0.018-inch Doppler guide wire was evaluated in eight swine under various blood flow conditions using two types of in vivo cerebrovascular models (physiologic and arteriovenous shunting). Flow conditions were mechanically and pharmacologically altered. Doppler average peak velocity was compared with volumetric blood flow, and flow profile corrections were calculated and analyzed. Qualitative aspects of the Doppler guide wire spectra were also assessed.

RESULTS
Plots of average peak velocity versus volumetric blood flow showed excellent linear relationships (r2 > 0.94), which were maintained at high flow conditions (average peak velocity, 99 to 236 cm/sec; volumetric blood flow, 392 to 889 mL/min). Values of flow profile correction varied from 0.43 to 0.94 and showed no consistent relationship to changes in volumetric blood flow.

CONCLUSIONS
The excellent correlation between average peak velocity and volumetric blood flow over a wide range of blood flow conditions and the additional qualitative information of the Doppler guide wire spectra establish a foundation for clinical implementation. The unpredictable variations of flow profile corrections remain obstacles for calculating volumetric blood flow based on Doppler guide wire average peak velocity.


Frailty is a loss of human function in one or more physical, psychological, or social aspects and predisposes older adults to experience adverse health outcomes. In Jordan, the older adult population has not been treated as a separate group with their own health issues. A reliable and valid frailty instrument for use with the Jordanian population would be beneficial for identifying older adults who are frail. The Tilburg Frailty Indicator is one of the emerging frailty instruments used to screen for frailty in older adults. The purpose of this study was to establish the reliability and validity of the Arabic (Jordan) version of the Tilburg Frailty Indicator in older Jordanian adults. A total of 109 Jordanian community dwelling older adults from Irbid, Jordan were recruited for this study and were screened for frailty by using the Arabic (Jordan) Version of the Tilburg Frailty Indicator, a 15-item questionnaire. Reliability tests were conducted by determining KR 20 values and calculating inter-item (Tetrachoric), item-total (Point-Biserial), and subscale-subscale correlations (Pearson's coefficient). The face, content, convergent, and divergent validity measures, and known group differences were used to test the validity of this instrument. The total score of the Arabic (Jordan) version of the Tilburg Frailty Indicator had good reliability (KR 20= 0.77) and good convergent and divergent validity with the corresponding scales: physical-TFI and the SF36-physical function (r= -0.317), psychological-TFI and GDS (r= 0.458), and social-TFI and the SF 36-social function (r= -0.304). In addition, known group differences showed that the Jordanian older adults who had comorbidities (n= 75, M= 5.6471, SD = 3.70) scored significantly higher on the frailty scale than those who did not have comorbidities (n= 34, M= 7.6133, SD = 3.10), t (107) = -2.887, p = 0.005). Hence, having comorbidities may contribute to frailty among older adults in Jordan. Conclusion: The Arabic (Jordan) version of the Tilburg Frailty Indicator is reliable and valid for use in Jordanian population.


Main subject of this volume is the history of psychiatric nursing . The contributors summarise the state of international research in this area – especially focussing on the relationship between the patient and the nurse. The topics range from the "hospitalisation and dehospitalisation" of patients in mental asylums using the example of Norway and Canada to the issue of how nurses with deviant behaviour were managed in Switzerland. Furthermore, this edition discusses the role of nurses in conducting so-called "Heroic Therapies" in Canada and Germany, such as shock and fever therapies. One section also looks at the situation of patients in Scotland and Austria, including children, in the asylum or clinic and within their social environment. Nursing in Germany experienced a fundamental change in the 1970s; what kind of nurse training and education made possible this reform is the topic of the last part of this edition.


We have isolated a cardiomyogenic (CMG) cell line from murine bone marrow stroma. Stromal cells were immortalized, treated with 5-azacytidine, and spontaneous beating cells were repeatedly screened for. The cells showed a fibroblast-like morphology. However, this morphology changed after 5-azacytidine treatment in about 30% of the cells, which connected with adjoining cells after 1 week, formed myotube-like structures and began spontaneous beating after 2 weeks, and beat synchronously after 3 weeks. These cells expressed atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). Electron microscopy revealed a cardiomyocyte-like ultrastructure including typical sarcomeres and atrial granules. They had sinus node-like or ventricular cell-like action potentials. Analysis of the isoform of contractile protein genes, such as myosin and alpha-actin, indicated that their phenotype was similar to fetal ventricular cardiomyocytes. These cells expressed Nkx2.5, GATA4, TEF-1, and MEF2-C mRNA before 5-azacytidine treatment, and expressed MEF2-A and MEF2-D after treatment. This new cell line provides a powerful model for the study of cardiomyocyte transplantation.


Relational classification on a single connected network has been of particular interest in the machine learning and data mining communities in the last decade or so. This is mainly due to the explosion in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ amongst others. In statistical relational learning, many techniques have been developed to address this problem, where we have a connected unweighted homogeneous/ heterogeneous graph that is partially labeled and the goal is to propagate the labels to the unlabeled nodes. In this paper, we provide a different perspective by enabling the effective use of graph transduction techniques for this problem. We thus exploit the strengths of this class of methods for relational learning problems. We accomplish this by providing a simple procedure for constructing a weight matrix that serves as input to a rich class of graph transduction techniques. Our procedure has multiple desirable properties. For example, the weights it assigns to edges between unlabeled nodes naturally relate to a measure of association commonly used in statistics, namely the Gamma test statistic. We further portray the efficacy of our approach on synthetic as well as real data, by comparing it with state-of-the-art relational learning algorithms, and graph transduction techniques with an adjacency matrix or a real valued weight matrix computed using available attributes as input. In these experiments we see that our approach consistently outperforms other approaches when the graph is sparsely labeled, and remains competitive with the best when the proportion of known labels increases.


Idle-listening is the biggest challenge for energy-efficiency and longevity of multihop wireless sensor network (WSN) deployments. While existing coordinated sleep/wakeup scheduling protocols eliminate idle-listening for simple traffic patterns, they are unsuitable to handle the complex traffic patterns of the random routing protocols. We present a novel coordinated sleep/wakeup protocol PowerNap, which avoids the overhead of distributing complex, large sleep/wakeup scheduling information to the nodes. PowerNap piggybacks onto the relayed data packets the seed of the pseudo-random generator that encodes the scheduling information, and enables any recipient/snooper to calculate its sleep/wakeup schedule from this seed. In essence, PowerNap trades off doing extra computation in order to avoid expensive control packet transmissions. We show through simulations and real implementation on TelosB motes that PowerNap eliminates the idle-listening problem efficiently and achieves self-stabilizing, low-latency, and low-cost relaying of data packets for random routing protocols.


Bulimia Nervosa is a serious and often debilitating mental disorder conceptualized as an endpoint along the spectrum of eating disorders, which ranges from normal eating and no preoccupation with weight to clinical eating disorders. Presently, little is known about what factors distinguish individuals who engage in behaviors in varying degrees of severity along the spectrum although there are indications that personality may be one distinguishing characteristic. This study explored the relationship between the Costa and McCrae's (1985; 1992) Five Factor Model of personality and the spectrum of bulimic behaviors and attitudes as measured by the Bulimia Test-Revised (Thelen, Farmer, Wonderlich & Smith, 1991) and the Eating Disorder Inventory-Third Edition (Garner, 2004) in 237 college females. Hierarchical regressions and partial correlations indicated that neuroticism was the only Five Factor Model domain uniquely associated with bulimic symptomology. Facets of impulsiveness, depression, and excitement-seeking were also associated with bulimic symptomology. Anxiety, a facet of Neuroticism, was not significantly associated with bulimic symptomology. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that bulimic symptomology forms its own factor and is not subsumed in Five Factor Model space, although facet impulsiveness and depression loaded onto the bulimic symptomology factor. These results suggest that individuals who possess personality traits of impulsiveness, excitement-seeking and depression are more likely to report bulimic symptomology. Prevention and treatment efforts may be modified based on these personality traits. Additional research is needed to determine the etiological role these personality factors may play in the development of bulimia. Additionally, the results of this study support facet versus factor or domain level analysis of the Five Factor Model."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


Lithium is an anti-psychotic that has been shown to prevent the hyperphosphorylation of tau protein through the inhibition of glycogen-synthase kinase 3-beta (GSK3b). We recently developed a mouse model that progresses from amyloid pathology to tau pathology and neurodegeneration due to the genetic deletion of NOS2 in an APP transgenic mouse; the APPSwDI/NOS22/2 mouse. Because this mouse develops tau pathology, amyloid pathology and neuronal loss we were interested in the effect anti-tau therapy would have on amyloid pathology, learning and memory. We administered lithium in the diets of APPSwDI/NOS22/2 mice for a period of eight months, followed by water maze testing at 12 months of age, immediately prior to sacrifice. We found that lithium significantly lowered hyperphosphorylated tau levels as measured by Western blot and immunocytochemistry. However, we found no apparent neuroprotection, no effect on spatial memory deficits and an increase in histological amyloid deposition. Ab levels measured biochemically were unaltered. We also found that lithium significantly altered the neuroinflammatory phenotype of the brain, resulting in enhanced alternative inflammatory response while concurrently lowering the classical inflammatory response. Our data suggest that lithium may be beneficial for the treatment of tauopathies but may not be beneficial for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Copyright: ß 2012 Sudduth et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


Genetic variance in characters under natural selection in natural populations determines the way those populations respond to that selection. Whether populations show temporal and/or spatial constancy in patterns of genetic variance and covariance is regularly considered, as this will determine whether selection responses are constant over space and time. Much less often considered is whether characters show differing amounts of genetic variance over the life-history of individuals. Such age-specific variation, if present, has important potential consequences for the force of natural selection and for understanding the causes of variation in quantitative characters. Using data from a long-term study of the mute swan Cygnus olor, we report the partitioning of phenotypic variance in timing of breeding (subject to strong natural selection) into component parts over 12 different age classes. We show that the additive genetic variance and heritability of this trait are strongly age-dependent, with higher additive genetic variance present in young and, particularly, old birds, but little evidence of any genetic variance for birds of intermediate ages. These results demonstrate that age can have a very important influence on the components of variation of characters in natural populations, and consequently that separate age classes cannot be assumed to be equivalent, either with respect to their evolutionary potential or response.


Aims. We have studied the afterglow of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) of February 18, 2006. This is a nearby long GRB, with a very low peak energy, and is therefore classified as an X-ray Flash (XRF). XRF 060218 is clearly associated with a supernova – dubbed SN 2006aj. Methods. We present early spectra for SN 2006aj as well as optical lightcurves reaching out to 50 days past explosion. Results. Our optical lightcurves define the rise times, the lightcurve shapes and the absolute magnitudes in the U, V and R bands, and we compare these data with data for other relevant supernovae. SN 2006aj evolved quite fast, somewhat similarly to SN 2002ap, but not as fast as SN 1994I. Our spectra show the evolution of the supernova over the peak, when the U-band portion of the spectrum rapidly fades due to extensive line blanketing. We compare to similar spectra of very energetic type Ic supernovae. Our first spectra are earlier than spectra for any other GRB-SN. The spectrum taken 12 days after burst in the rest frame is similar to somewhat later spectra of both SN 1998bw and SN 2003dh, implying a rapid early evolution. This is consistent with the fast lightcurve. From the narrow emission lines from the host galaxy we derive a redshift of z = 0.0331 ± 0.0007. This makes XRF 060218 the second closest gamma-ray burst detected. The flux of these emission lines indicate a high-excitation state, and a modest metallicity and star formation rate of the host galaxy.


This work focuses on the development of flexible strain sensors based on nanocomposites of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and carbon nanotube (CNT) buckypaper (BP). A one-step filtration process is used to fabricate the TPU-CNT BP sensors, providing tailorability of CNT:TPU ratio. The developed sensors retain the porous morphology of buckypaper even at relatively high TPU content. Characterization of morphology, electrical conductivity, and mechanical properties is reported. In addition, electromechanical response was investigated for both quasistatic loads (strains up to 125%) and cyclic loads (1% and 5% strains). Cyclic tests show a repeatable response that becomes predictable after a few cycles. The combination of mechanical strength, electrical conductivity, and constant and high gauge factor makes this material promising as a free-standing sensing material.


ABSTRACT Zines emerged as quintessentially print texts, with paper forming the vulnerable, palpable body of the text. Efforts to digitally archive zines promise to increase access to them and to extend their political projects. Particularly for minoritarian communities, digitization resonates as an urgent process with radical potential. Alongside such possibilities stand concerns about what it means and, particularly, how it feels to transform zines from paper to digital modes. Through engagement with the Queer Zine Archive Project and the POC (People of Color) Zine Project, we argue that transmediation of print zines into digital artifacts is rife with affective dynamics. In relation to these affective dynamics, we take a reflexive stance of ambivalence—not indifference, but rather a strongly felt set of disparate, sometimes dissonant or contradictory pulls toward and away from digitization. We offer the concept of trans(affective)mediation as an intervention that treats print zines and digital zines as distinct and distinctly affective domains, with distinct possibilities and constraints, coherences and incoherences, and intensities. Additionally, trans(affective)mediation names the third space between print and digital that calls for our care and understanding if we are to appreciate and even participate in the politics of queer, POC, and queer POC zine cultures.


This thesis examines how social enterprise is constructed in theory and practice. A critical approach is taken to questioning assumptions about complex issues especially the dynamics of networks and those facing uncertain and ambiguous situations. Due to limited empirical evidence, a qualitative approach is adopted to explore how network interactions influence identity, meaning and actions. The research from a 16-month case study was undertaken to understand how social enterprise is made sense of by those in 37 existing social organisations, intermediate support and commissioning agencies in West Yorkshire. An analysis of data collected from in-depth interviews, together with participant observation of network events is used to theorise that issues of identity and interactions between network contacts. It attempts to make explicit some of the identity construction and maintenance processes which take place in local networks.

The thesis contributes to knowledge in that it offers a 'little' narrative of social enterprise network interactions in context, presents an unfolding model for framing network processes and uses creative narrative approaches of stories, metaphors and visual methods, not well utilised in the field but borrowing from other fields. The value of these three contributions helps to develop an enhanced understanding of social processes involved in social enterprise actions. Because of its ethnographic and phenomenological approach, it adds to the theoretical narrative and offers rich insights into contemporary network practices. The originality of the study is an unfolding approach and an alternative research perspective with which to better understand the complexity of this diverse field of study. It uses participant drawings, metaphors and paradox to examine how practitioners viewed trust (and distrust), continuity (and discontinuity), success(and lessons learnt from failure). The unfolding nature of the study enables practitioners (and researchers) the ability to structure thinking but allows for flexibility in considering the influences of local context. By focussing upon a local context it contributes grounded data to support discourse in the social context of contemporary practice. It has attempted to foster discussion of social enterprise as a socially constructed phenomenon. This empirical work considers how everyday contemporary practices correspond to (or contrast) theories and models. It offers a pluralistic view and shifts the focus from a unitary perspective of individuals and individual organisations to enable academics, policy makers and organisational participants to consider and interpret different views of changes.


Since No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was enacted into federal law in 2002, states have been required to test students in grades 3 through 8 and again in high school to assess math and reading achievement. The federal law also asks states to establish the performance level students must reach on the exams in order to be identified as "proficient." According to NCLB, each school was expected to increase the percentage of proficient students at a rate that would ensure that all students were proficient by the year 2014. Student proficiency rates have been publicly reported every year for schools in every state as well as for the state as a whole. Importantly, each state chooses its own tests and sets its own proficiency bar. NCLB also requires the periodic administration of tests in selected subjects to a representative sample of students in 4th and 8th grade as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the nation's report card, which is administered under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education. The performance levels considered proficient on NAEP tests are roughly equivalent to those set by international organizations that estimate student proficiency worldwide. The availability of data from both NAEP and from tests administered by each state allows for periodic estimates of the rigor of each state's proficiency standards. If the percentage of students identified as proficient in any given year is essentially the same for both the NAEP exam and for a state's tests, it may be inferred that the state has established as rigorous a proficiency standard as that set by NAEP. But if percentages of students identified as proficient are higher on a state's own tests than on NAEP tests, then it may be concluded that the state has set its proficiency bar lower than the NAEP standard. Since NCLB was enacted into law, Education Next has used this information to identify the rigor of state proficiency standards each time the results from state and NAEP tests have become available. This is the sixth in a series of reports that grade state proficiency standards on the traditional A-to-F scale used to evaluate students. Each state is graded according to the size of the differential between the percentages of students identified as proficient by the state and the percentages identified by NAEP on the 4th-and 8th-grade math and reading exams. In the five previous reports (most recently, "Despite Common Core, States Still Lack Common Standards, "features, Fall 2013), it has been shown that proficiency standards in the average state have been set at a much lower level than those set by NAEP. Also, the reports reveal wide variation among the states in the standards they have established. Further, prior reports have shown that up until 2011 the proficiency standards set by states initially did not, on average, rise significantly. In 2009, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers formed a consortium that established the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), curricular standards that outline what students should know and be able to do at each grade level. Many states have committed themselves to implementing "college and career ready" standards, such as those outlined in CCSS, in exchange for receiving a waiver from many NCLB regulations granted by the U.S. Department of Education. So far, 44 states and the District of Columbia have adopted CCSS for at least one subject. One of the consortium's goals is to encourage states to set proficiency levels that are on par with those set by NAEP. In this paper we extend the five prior analyses by identifying the changes in state proficiency standards between 2011 and 2013, the last year for which the relevant information is available. We show that many states have raised their proficiency bars since 2011. Indeed, the 2013 data reveal that for the first time, substantially more states have raised their proficiency standards than have let those standards slip to lower levels. …


The main contribution of this paper is describing a traceable data analysis procedure for modelling scenarios using the results of a simplified Scenario Planning workshop. We first introduce our project where the ultimate goal is to develop a grounded model-based policy discussion tool for the Australian automotive recycling industry. We review current scenariobased model building techniques and highlight their practical gaps and then present the proposed procedure rooted in Qualitative Data Analysis approaches. We show how to update the Causal Loop Diagrams and Stock and Flow models and how to determine scenario conditions thus enabling a clear record of model building. Using an example from a real project, we highlight the main challenges of the procedure that are dealing with data scarcity, estimating new trends for variables, and deciding on the nature of the changes in the simulation models. The paper concludes by arguing how the procedure may benefit system dynamists that require a coherent and structured modelling trail or when it is more feasible to engage the stakeholders in an abbreviated Scenario Planning workshop instead of Group Model Building.


Doubly tainted by its associations with consumerism and the 'frivolous' world of couture, fashion photography has long been ignored as a serious site for academic study. Yet both the body and dress have proved keenly revealing of gender, race and sexual politics. Further, fashion photography has been transformed by aesthetic concerns, sexual politics and the pleasure of spectatorship - all of which suggest that its iconography represents a rich source for the analysis of how identity is constructed. Exploring representations of the feminine and the masculine body - from super-vamp to super-waif, from buffalo boy to new man - this book considers the social, economic and aesthetic factors that have been instrumental in forging an identity for fashion photography since 1980. Drawing extensively on fashion spreads from Vogue, The Face and Arena, the author takes as his starting point Barthes' axiom that the magazine is 'a machine for making Fashion'. He explores how meaning is constructed in word and image, but he refutes Barthes' claim that the fashion system is a vacuous form of signification. In evaluating the ostensible paradox between sexual objectification and spectatorship, the author also looks at what the depiction of both male and female bodies in fashion spreads reveals about power, knowledge and pleasure. How does the iconography of fashion gratify our desires? Who are these images for - men and women? men or women? Does fashion photography invent role models, or simply satisfy nascent cultural values of beauty and sexual attraction? Why is fashion photography considered a form of 'soft porn' for the delectation of men when women are by far the largest consumers of fashion periodicals? How do the investments of different producers and spectators - male and female, gay and straight, white and non-white - affect the fashion image? In answering these questions and many more, this book represents a significant contribution to the followi


The Gold Standards Framework (GSF) Care Homes training and accreditation programme includes ACP as one of the 20 standards. The accreditation process ensures the standards for quality end of life care are embedded and sustained within the care home, evidenced by portfolio, ADA audit and a visit. Evidence from over 2000 care homes trained, 200 accredited and 50 reaccredited after 3 years reveals sustained improvements in EOLC and ACP, showing a positive impact on the quality of care received toward the end of life and reduction on hospitalisation. Staff have managed ACP discussions well and they have direct impact on the reduction of inappropriate crisis hospital admissions toward the end of life. The GSF care homes programme achieves these sustainable improvements through a staged programme that focuses on the whole system within the care home.- use of ACP to clarify needs but other processes to meet them, to ensure care in alignment with preferences. ACP is taught in various ways as part of the training programme- taught theory, role play, 'goldfish bowl', case history, The portfolios of evidence demonstrate attainment of required standards, feedback from relatives and residents, and whole team involvement. If the work is not embraced by the whole team but undertaken as an isolated project, the impact is reduced and the changes are not sustainable. The reaccredited homes have maintained and improved their standards of care and ACP uptake- not just standard practice but enhanced practice- ensuring consistency and continuity


In this paper, we confront the problem of applying reinforcement learning to agents that perceive the environment through many sensors and that can perform parallel actions using many actuators as is the case in complex autonomous robots. We argue that reinforcement learning can only be successfully applied to this case if strong assumptions are made on the characteristics of the environment in which the learning is performed, so that the relevant sensor readings and motor commands can be readily identified. The introduction of such assumptions leads to strongly-biased learning systems that can eventually lose the generality of traditional reinforcement-learning algorithms.

In this line, we observe that, in realistic situations, the reward received by the robot depends only on a reduced subset of all the executed actions and that only a reduced subset of the sensor inputs (possibly different in each situation and for each action) are relevant to predict the reward. We formalize this property in the so called categorizability assumption and we present an algorithm that takes advantage of the categorizability of the environment, allowing a decrease in the learning time with respect to existing reinforcement-learning algorithms. Results of the application of the algorithm to a couple of simulated realistic-] robotic problems (landmark-based navigation and the six-legged robot gait generation) are reported to validate our approach and to compare it to existing flat and generalization-based reinforcement-learning approaches.


In recent years, Finland has closely cooperated with NATO and Finnish politicians emphasize that Finland may consider joining the Alliance at any point. However, this step is unlikely in the foreseeable future. Russia's aggressive actions abroad disconcert Finland; as this article shows, even after Russia's war with Georgia and the breakout of the crisis in Ukraine, the situation is not deemed serious enough by the Finns for them to risk a serious deterioration of relations with their eastern neighbor. Rather than crossing the interests of Moscow, whose perception of the world Finland has been able uniquely to understand thanks to its historical experience, the country opts for a more complex, yet also safer, path of balancing between ever-closer cooperation with NATO, and maintaining the status of a non-member country.


Palette images are widely used in multimedia and Internet applications. In this paper, a new method for data hiding in palette images with security protection by color ordering and mapping, as well as parameter randomization, is proposed. First, image pixels are classified as data embeddable or nonembeddable, and only the former ones are used to embed secret data. The proposed idea of data hiding is based on the use of a new type of color-ordering relationship, from which a color-mapping function is defined with binary values as output. When a secret data bit is to be embedded, a data-embeddable pixel is selected, and its color is adjusted to make the output of the color-mapping function equal to the secret bit value. The embedded secret data can be extracted correctly and quickly from the resulting stego-image by merely inspecting the outputs of the color-mapping function. Indetectability of the secret information embedded by the proposed method is also analyzed and confirmed. Furthermore, a number of possible security enhancement measures based on parameter randomization in the data-embedding process are proposed to protect the hidden data in the stego-image. The randomization effect is created by the use of a secret key and a number of random number-generating functions. The proposed data hiding method was tested with a variety of palette images. The experimental results show that secret data can be embedded and extracted successfully without producing visual artifacts in the cover image. A good balance between stego-image quality and data-embedding capacity can be achieved, which proves the efficiency and feasibility of the proposed method for practical applications.


This report offers a consensus opinion on the diagnosis of spontaneous canine hyperadrenocorticism. The possibility that a patient has hyperadrenocorticism is based on the history and physical examination. Endocrine tests should be performed only when clinical signs consistent with HAC are present. None of the biochemical screening or differentiating tests for hyperadrenocorticism are perfect. Imaging can also play a role. Awareness of hyperadrenocorticism has heightened over time. Thus, case presentation is more subtle. Due to the changes in manifestations as well as test technology the Panel believes that references ranges should be reestablished. The role of cortisol precursors and sex hormones in causing a syndrome of occult hyperadrenocorticism remains unclear.


Being wrong is an inescapable part of being alive. And yet, we go through life tacitly assuming (or loudly insisting) that we are right about nearly everything - from our political beliefs to our private memories, from our grasp of scientific fact to the merits of our favourite team. Being Wrong looks at why this conviction has such a powerful grip on us, what happens when this conviction is shaken, and how we interpret the moral, political and psychological significance of being wrong.Drawing on philosophies old and new and cutting-edge neuroscience, Kathryn Schulz offers an eloquent exploration of the allure of certainty and the necessity of fallibility in four main areas: in religion (when the end of the world fails to be nigh); in politics (where were those WMD?); in memory (where did I leave my keys?); and in love (when Mr or Miss Right becomes Mr or Miss Wrong).


Background The roofless have not been previously surveyed in detail looking specifically at their psychiatric status. Method All roofless people in a discrete area were interviewed in their 'skippers' using a semi-structured interview. Other roofless people helped in case finding and diagnostic validity was confirmed using a computerised case register. Results Sixty-five people were interviewed. High rates of substance abuse (n = 48, 75%), and very low rates of psychotic illness (n = 2, 3%) were found. High rates of serious physical morbidity, of imprisonment and of being the victim of a crime were found. Conclusion The roofless have multiple severe medical, social, and psychiatric problems. These all must be addressed when considering the provision of services.


Laura K. Allen, Arizona State University Scott A. Crossley, Georgia State University Erica L. Snow, Arizona State University Danielle S. McNamara, Arizona State University The Writing Pal (W-Pal) is an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) designed to provide students with explicit writing strategy instruction and practice. W-Pal includes a suite of educational games developed to increase writing engagement and provide opportunities to practice writing strategies. In this study, first (L1) (n = 26) and second (L2) language (n = 16) students interacted with W-Pal over eight sessions. We collected students' daily selfreports of engagement, motivation, and perceptions of performance, as well as their reported game attitudes (difficulty, helpfulness for learning, and enjoyment). Results indicated that, for all students, interactions with W-Pal led to increases in writing performance and more positive attitudes towards the system (engagement, motivation, and perceived performance). For L1 students, game difficulty was a significant predictor of boredom; however, for the L2 students, game enjoyment predicted both their motivation and perceived writing improvement. Notably, the L2 students' game ratings accounted for more variance in these daily reports than did the ratings of L1 students. This study suggests that L1 and L2 students experience similar benefits offered by game-based strategy practice in an ITS. Further, the link between game attitudes and overall daily perceptions of training may be stronger for L2 students than L1 students.


Acetaminophen (AAP) overdose causes severe liver injury and is the leading cause of acute liver injury in humans. The mechanisms participating in its toxic effect are glutathione depletion, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) is the principal biological methyl donor and is also a precursor of glutathione. In our previous studies we have documented a protective action of SAMe against various toxic injuries of rat hepatocytes in primary cultures. The aim of this study was to evaluate a possible protective effect of SAMe against AAP-induced toxic injury of primary rat hepatocytes. Hepatocytes were exposed to AAP (2.5 mM) or AAP together with SAMe at the final concentrations of 5, 25 or 50 mg/l for 24 h. Incubation of hepatocytes with AAP caused a significant increase of the leakage of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (p < 0.001) and decline of the activity of cellular dehydrogenases (WST1) (p < 0.001). Co-incubation of hepatocytes with SAMe at any dose did not improve these markers of cellular integrity. The functional indicators improved in hepatocytes co-cultured with SAMe - urea production was significantly increased when using the highest dose of SAMe (p < 0.05); albumin synthesis was higher in all cultured hepatocytes exposed to SAMe (p < 0.05). SAMe did not influence AAP-induced decrease of cellular content of glutathione. Mitochondrial respiration of harvested digitonin-permeabilized hepatocytes was measured; Complex II was more sensitive to toxic action of AAP, respiration was decreased by 20%. This decrease was completely abolished by SAMe.


Thin-film silicon solar cells are one possible answer to the increasing energy demand of today. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) plays a crucial role therein - as absorber layers, but also as doped layers to build p-i -n junctions. This thesis is devoted to a-Si:H, with the main focus on thin-film silicon solar cells, but also with applications for opto-electronic devices, detectors, and other types of solar cells such as heterojunction solar cells. We discuss models of a-Si:H and develop further the representation of defects by amphoteric states. Using a simple model, we show - in agreement with layer-by-layer simulations and experimental results - that trapped electrons tend to dominate the electric field deformation in the initial state, whereas positively charged defects dominate in the degraded state. Experimentally, we define the deposition parameter space accessible by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and explore that space by varying the deposition temperature, pressure, excitation frequency, power, and H2/SiH4 ratio for intrinsic absorber layers. This leads to a catalog of a-Si:H absorber layers with tunable properties and we incorporate these materials into solar cells. For every pressure, we find an optimum hydrogen dilution where the light-induced degradation of solar cells is minimal and comparable for all pressures. Using narrow-bandgap absorbers, we demonstrate short-circuit current densities of Jsc=18.2 mA/cm2 with a 300-nm-thick absorber layer and extract more than 20 mA/cm2 from a cell with a 1000-nm-thick absorber layer. Using wide-bandgap absorbers, we achieve open-circuit voltages (Voc) of 1.04 V and Voc-fill factor products of 739mV. For such materials, we find an increased Voc dependence on substrate roughness. This is investigated by transmission electron microscopy and is attributed to porous a-Si:H material grown above peaks on the textured substrates. Depositing absorber layers in a triode reactor, we achieve efficiencies of 10.0% after light soaking. Further, we describe observations of a reversible, light-induced Voc increase of solar cells with thin p-type layers, and decrease with thick p-type layers, with a magnified effect on rough substrates. Based on layer measurements and simulations, we attribute the Voc increase to the degradation of the p-layer and the Voc decrease to the degradation of the absorber layer.


The recent centenary commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising were notable for the considerable effort the Irish government put into making them inclusive. However, inclusiveness in this context masks the fact that the commemorations were exclusive of a particular brand of memory that traces in very uncomplicated fashion its own lineage back not just to 1916, but also specifically to the political violence utilized by the Easter Rising rebels. Not included within the state category of the inclusive, for example, was the second largest Easter Rising commemoration in the North, fronted by masked and uniformed figures. This article seeks to shed light on the tenebrous netherworld where the tradition of armed republicanism—through a combination of its own "purist" volition and state strategies of de-legitimization and marginalization—has been confined. It is written from the perspective that the dialectic between revolutionary memory and constitutional memory is an example of how the past is assessed through the prism of the present, and not with an eye for accuracy.


The tremendous growth in the field of modern communication and network systems places demands on the security. As the network complexity grows, the need for the automated detection and timely alert is required to detect the abnormal activities in the network. To diagnose the system against the malicious signatures, a high speed Network Intrusion Detection System is required against the attacks. In the network security applications, Bloom Filters are the key building block. The packets from the high speed link can be easily processed by Bloom Filter using state- of-art hardware based systems. As Bloom Filter and its variant Counting Bloom Filter suffer from False Positive Rate, Multi Hash Counting Bloom Filter architecture is proposed. The proposed work, constitute parallel signature detection improves the False Positive Rate, but the throughput and hardware complexity suffer. To resolve this, a Multi-Level Ranking Scheme is introduced which deduces the 13% - 16% of the power and increases the throughput to 23% - 30%. This work is best suited for signature detection in high speed network.


Communication between the nervous and immune systems involves the release of neuropeptides, such as calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), from sensory nerves during inflammation. CGRP may inhibit the activities of both innate and adaptive immune cells, but the molecular pathways underlying this function are largely unknown. In this study, we identify CGRP as a potent inhibitor of TLR-stimulated production of inflammatory mediators, such as TNF-α and CCL4, by murine dendritic cells. Inhibition of TLR responses was independent of IL-10 and did not involve perturbation of canonical TLR signaling, including activation of MAPK and NF-κB. Instead, the inhibitory activity of CGRP was mediated by the cAMP/protein kinase A pathway leading to rapid up-regulation of the transcriptional repressor, inducible cAMP early repressor (ICER). Ectopically expressed ICER directly repressed the LPS-stimulated activity of a synthetic Tnf promoter, as well as TNF-α protein production driven by the endogenous promoter. Inhibition of dendritic cell gene expression by CGRP was associated with the presence of a composite cAMP response element/κB promoter element. In a murine model of endotoxemia, CGRP markedly attenuated serum TNF-α levels, and this effect was associated with the up-regulation of ICER. Together, these results establish a novel pathway for the negative regulation of TLR responses through the nervous system that critically involves induction of the transcriptional repressor ICER by the neuropeptide CGRP.


Introduction: Achilles tendinopathy is a painful, degenerative condition that limits mobility in daily activities and physical exertion. When conservative treatment fails, surgery is usually considered. There is a growing development of less invasive treatments to correct affected tendons. Background: Autologous Bone Marrow Concentrate (BMAC) contains concentrated growth factors, CD34+ stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells which have angiogenic, trophic, and anti-inflammatory effects on tissues and may be useful in the regeneration of tendon tissue. Aim – Case Report: We present a case of severe chronic MRI confirmed Achilles tendinopathy in a 56 year-old female treated with ultrasoundguided injection of autologous Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate (BMAC). Materials and Methods: In an office setting, bone marrow was aspirated from the metaphyseal area of the medial tibia and concentrated with a closed system. The resulting BMAC was injected intralesionally into the affected tendinotic midsubstance area under ultrasound guidance. Results: Eight weeks after intervention, the patient reported remarkably less pain and had resumed normal daily activities and intense exercise. Her ankle showed markedly less tenderness and progression toward homogenicity on the 10 weeks MRI with T1 relative strength intensity (RSI) improvement from 307.8 to 182.5 units at the most affected area of the lesion. Discussion: To our knowledge this is the first report of the successful treatment of Achilles tendinopathy using autologous BMAC. Conclusion: This case report of the non-surgical, minimally invasive use of BMAC to successfully treat chronic Achilles tendinopathy should lead to further controlled studies of this potential alternative to surgical intervention.


In the second half of the twentieth century, South Africa built up a reputation as one of the foremost countries of the world in terms of water infrastructure development. Dam projects such as the Orange River Scheme and the purification of sewage water to drinking water standards in the Namibian capital of Windhoek, were some of the many achievements that South Africa boasted.
How was it possible then for a country that was politically isolated to accumulate significant knowledge on the water sector and literally be on top of their game? A partial answer to this riddle is the Waterlit Collection (WLC), a collection of articles, reports and academic theses and dissertations collected and managed at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria in the years from 1974 until the mid-1990s.
This article provides a historical overview of how the WLC of the CSIR, funded by the Water Research Commission (WRC), was turned into a corpus of more than 300 000 documents. Local research output at the time, as well as some of the latest research findings in other parts of the world, became accessible to water researchers in South Africa. There is indeed reason to believe that the collection contributed to water research in South Africa during the years of isolation. The collection also facilitated some of the country's breakthrough technologies in the water sector.
The study also explores how the rapid development of information technologies in library science, computer science and the evolution of widespread Internet use influenced the collection, which currently forms part of the South African Water History Archival Repository (SAWHAR) at the North-West University's Vaal Campus in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng.


Fifteen of the most important and influential women fiction writers, critics, and theorists writing in France today are interviewed in Shifting Scenes. Although their writing and attitudes differ in many ways, their work is perceived in the U.S. to constitute "French Feminism," and has a marked impact on American feminist theory. Alice Jardine and Anne Menke interviewed Chantal Chawaf, Helene Cixous, Catherine Clement, Francoise Collin, Marguerite Duras, Claudine Herrmann, Jeanne Hyvrard, Luce Irigaray, Sarah Kofman, Julia Kristeva, Eugenie Lemoine-Luccioni, Marcelle Marini, Michele Montrelay, Christiane Rochefort, and Monique Wittig. The women were asked what it means to be a woman writer in France today and how each views her relations to her country's institutions, and the place of women writers in the canon. the answers are lively, unexpectedly argumentative, and diverse. What these highly accomplished women have to say about contemporary society, politics, literature, feminism, and their own work, will surprise, inform, and challenge.


This paper reviews the experiences of Viet Nam in improving its approach to regulatory management. Since 1986, Viet Nam promulgated and amended a number of laws and regulations to regulate economic activities in line with market-oriented reforms. A side effect of more laws and regulations has been the increasing compliance costs of the business community. Viet Nam then gradually introduced good regulatory practices, including regulatory impact assessment, online publication of draft, regulatory planning, etc. Numerous efforts were also sought to simplify and control administrative procedures, the most notable of which were under Project 30 since 2007 and Resolution 19 since 2014. Both Project 30 and Resolution 19 produced quick and material outcomes. Further meaningful reforms of administrative procedures depend on whether Viet Nam can build up sufficient confidence of stakeholders in the process. As the key lessons from Project 30 and Resolution 19, further improvement of regulatory management requires strong political will, involvement of relevant stakeholders, and enactment of separate bodies with a clear mandate and sufficient capacity.


Introduction: Thalassemia is the most common single-gene disorder in India. Hence, care of these patients becomes a priority issue. Objectives: This study was done to assess the clinical presentations and management practices in thalassemia. Materials and Methods: Case sheets of patients with thalassemia admitted over the past 10 years from 2005 to 2014 were examined and recorded in a validated pro forma. Results: Of the total 183 cases, 179 (97.8%) were of beta thalassemia major, 3 (1.6%) of beta thalassemia intermediate, and 1 (0.6%) of beta thalassemia minor category. The median age at diagnosis was 1 year. Hardly, one-fourth of the cases were diagnosed in the first 6 months. Majority of cases were under-fives 58 (31.7%) and were males 116 (63.4%). Fever was the most common presenting symptom 34 (18.6%). Pallor 179 (97.8%) followed by hepatomegaly 172 (94%) were the most common signs. Bone deformities were reported in 13 (7.1%) cases. Among the under-fives, more than one-third were underweight and more than half were stunted. The mean posttransfusion value of hemoglobin after 1 year of transfusion among cases was 10 ± 1.6 g percent. Iron chelation therapy using desferrioxamine was given to 51 (27.9%) cases. The mean age of starting this therapy was 11.1 ± 8.2 years. Splenectomy was done in 4 cases, all of them being cases of beta thalassemia major. The mean age while performing splenectomy was 10.7 ± 4.8 years. Lenticular opacity was present among greater proportion of thalassemia cases on treatment with desferrioxamine (P = 0.022). Conclusion: Several complications were identified among thalassemia cases. A multidisciplinary care approach is therefore required for solving these problems.


Improve design efficiency and reduce costs with this practical guide to formal and simulation-based functional verification. Giving you a theoretical and practical understanding of the key issues involved, expert authors including Wayne Wolf and Dan Gajski explain both formal techniques (model checking, equivalence checking) and simulation-based techniques (coverage metrics, test generation). You get insights into practical issues including hardware verification languages (HVLs) and system-level debugging. The foundations of formal and simulation-based techniques are covered too, as are more recent research advances including transaction-level modeling and assertion-based verification, plus the theoretical underpinnings of verification, including the use of decision diagrams and Boolean satisfiability (SAT).


The Electrocardiogram (ECG) reflects the activities and the attributes of the human heart and
reveals very important hidden information in its structure. The information is extracted by
means of ECG signal analysis to gain insights that are very crucial in explaining and
identifying various pathological conditions. The feature extraction process can be
accomplished directly by an expert through, visual inspection of ECGs printed on paper or
displayed on a screen. However, the complexity and the time taken for the ECG signals to be
visually inspected and manually analysed means that it"s a very tedious task thus yielding
limited descriptions. In addition, a manual ECG analysis is always prone to errors: human
oversights.
Moreover ECG signal processing has become a prevalent and effective tool for research and
clinical practices. A typical computer based ECG analysis system includes a signal preprocessing, beats detection and feature extraction stages, followed by classification.
Automatic identification of arrhythmias from the ECG is one important biomedical
application of pattern recognition. This thesis focuses on ECG signal processing using
Independent Component Analysis (ICA), which has received increasing attention as a signal
conditioning and feature extraction technique for biomedical application.
Long term ECG monitoring is often required to reliably identify the arrhythmia. Motion
induced artefacts are particularly common in ambulatory and Holter recordings, which are
difficult to remove with conventional filters due to their similarity to the shape of ectopic
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beats. Feature selection has always been an important step towards more accurate, reliable and
speedy pattern recognition. Better feature spaces are also sought after in ECG pattern
recognition applications.
Two new algorithms are proposed, developed and validated in this thesis, one for removing
non-trivial noises in ECGs using the ICA and the other deploys the ICA extracted features to
improve recognition of arrhythmias. Firstly, independent component analysis has been studied
and found effective in this PhD project to separate out motion induced artefacts in ECGs, the
independent component corresponding to noise is then removed from the ECG according to
kurtosis and correlation measurement.
The second algorithm has been developed for ECG feature extraction, in which the
independent component analysis has been used to obtain a set of features, or basis functions
of the ECG signals generated hypothetically by different parts of the heart during the normal
and arrhythmic cardiac cycle. ECGs are then classified based on the basis functions along
with other time domain features. The selection of the appropriate feature set for classifier has
been found important for better performance and quicker response. Artificial neural networks
based pattern recognition engines are used to perform final classification to measure the
performance of ICA extracted features and effectiveness of the ICA based artefacts reduction
algorithm.
The motion artefacts are effectively removed from the ECG signal which is shown by beat
detection on noisy and cleaned ECG signals after ICA processing. Using the ICA extracted
feature sets classification of ECG arrhythmia into eight classes with fewer independent
components and very high classification accuracy is achieved.


The notion of "period" has from its inception been a literary category. Robert Southey, among the first to collect poetry into disciplinary anthologies, divided poetry into two kinds by creating two types of poetry collections. His 1807 Specimens of English Poetry collects poetry that is of "historical interest" though small literary value, while his 1831 collection, Select Works of the British Poets, from Chaucer to Jonson, with Biographical Sketches, contains the "classic" English poets, as John Aikin puts it in the first volume published in 1820 but containing chronologically later poets. The first collection of "English classics" in which the table of contents arranges poetry by poet and poets by monarch's reign is George Ellis's Specimens of the Early English Poets (1790), the collection that, according to Stuart Curran, encouraged Romantic-era writers to situate themselves within literary history.1As early as 1986, Thomas Vogler critiqued the concept of literary period that began, he argues effectively, during the "period" of Romantic literature: "what we continue to call the Romantic period raises in history the question of history" (134). For Vogler, the problem with conceptualizing literature into periods is that we imagine ourselves, consciously or not, to be at the end of history when we invoke it. Vogler's contention about the conceptual baggage attached to the concept of periodicity makes sense given the moment of its emergence historically. The concept of periodicity arose during the height of millennial hopes, when writers did in fact imagine themselves to be writing at the end of history and, therefore, from that perspective of mastery, able to look back on the wide prospect of history and divide up its landscape into significant clumps. Vogler argues that the "spirit" we imagine each period to have is in fact simply a mirror, nothing real. He abides by Frederic Jameson's analysis of the use of periodicity by literary critics: whenever we define a particular Geist and look for it in an age, we will find it there, or at least find it foreshadowed.2 In 1993, to counteract the notion of a narrative unity that leads up to and ends now- whenever a literary critic's particular "now" might be-as well as the idea that each age has a spirit or unified aesthetic, Jerome McGann published The New Oxford Book of Romantic Period Verse. Its title suggests the argument made by the selection of poetry to be found inside. Many poets who wrote poetry during what we conventionally designate as the Romantic period-the Della Cruscans, for instance-did not in fact write in the high Romantic style.Periodicity is dead theoretically; it was dead by the year 2000. End of story? Not quite. Ten years after the publication of his book, McGann reacted to a new demand related to the digitization of literary texts. Romanticists and Victorianists needed two things: to be able to access and search in one place all the best digital materials available; and to be able to create such high quality digital editions and receive professional rewards for doing so (such as tenure and promotion), just as they would for a book. An editorial board's stamp of approval indicating that any given digital resource was of the highest scholarly quality would satisfy both requirements, and so McGann launched the Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-century Electronic Scholarship (NINES). A digital site that makes myriad separate web resources searchable at the same time-an "aggregator"-NINES allows searching the best nineteenth-century digital scholarship not only by the metadata of title, author, and dates, but also by word (McGann and Nowviskie): as much as possible, the index provides search returns from full text. One can see this as an online finding aid, or as a table of contents or index to the Internet for scholarly materials relevant to nineteenth-century scholars, though indeed anyone can use the site without charge.NINES was very successful, but there was a lot of pressure on the NINES group to serve as representatives of literary scholars in general when working with technologists, libraries, presses, and scholarly organizations. …


This paper examines the health effects of a fiscal food policy based on a combination of fat taxes and thin subsidies. The fat tax is based on the saturated fat content of food items while the thin subsidy is applied to select fruit and vegetable items. The policy is designed to be revenue neutral so that the subsidy exactly offsets the revenue from the fat tax. A model of food demand is estimated using Bayesian methods that accounts for censoring and infrequency of purchase (the problem of unit values is also discussed). The estimated of demand elasticities are used to compute nutrient elasticities which demonstrate how consumption of specific nutrients changes based on price changes in particular foods from the fiscal policy. Results show that while the fat tax decreases saturated fat intake, consumption of other important nutrients is also decreased, which may lead to negative health outcomes.


Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) plays a significant role in geophysical studies and remote sensing applications. SAR inherits the benefits of imaging RADAR over the other optical sensors such as working in all weather conditions and working independently of sunlight. In addition to these benefits SAR generates a finer resolution 2-D image compared to conventional (real) aperture radar. Due to the sole merits of Ultrawideband-Ultrawidebeam (UWB) Bistatic SAR, this thesis introduces and analyzes a fast time domain algorithm for its image formation. This algorithm inherits the advantages of time-domain algorithms over frequency domain ones. It divides the full synthetic aperture into subapertures. Each subaperture generates a polar grid image. The key point is that the subaperture polar images have very low resolution in cross range (the angular direction); this means that they can be calculated on a pixel grid that is coarse in the angular direction. The final image is obtained by combining all subaperture polar images after converting them to the final high-resolution Cartesian image, in this conversion interpolation is used. Since the subaperture images contain far fewer pixels in cross range than the final image, far fewer operations are required to be executed as compared to Global Backprojection GBP. Due to using the polar grid, the proposed algorithm is named Bistatic Polar-FBP (Bi-PFBP). It is found that although for N×N scene image with N aperture positions the Bi-PFBP computational load is less by approximately a factor of √N as compared to GBP, the image quality generated by each one of them is almost the same.


The inaugural title in the "Correlates of War" series from CQ Press, this 2-volume set catalogs every official interstate alliance signed from the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 through the early twenty-first century, ranking it among the most thorough and accessible reviews of formal military treaties ever published. Maps and introductions showcase the effects of alliances on the region or international system in century-specific chapters, while individual narratives and summaries of alliances simultaneously provide basic information, such as dates and member states, as well as essential insights on the conditions that prompted the agreement. Additionally, separate and/or secret articles are highlighted for additional context and interest. Supplementary features of this two-volume set include: a timeline cataloging major events in political and military history; guides listing allegiances by region and by century; and, an alphabetical treaty index; maps illustrating political boundaries across the centuries. "International Military Alliances" is an indispensable resource for any library serving students of law, politics, history, and military science.


Most analyses of the macroeconomic adjustment required to correct global imbalances ignore net exports of new varieties of goods and services and do not account for firms' entry in the product market. In this paper we revisit the macroeconomics of trade adjustment in the context of the classic 'transfer problem,' using a model where the set of exportables, importables and nontraded goods is endogenous. We show that exchange rate movements associated with adjustment are dramatically lower when the above features are accounted for, relative to traditional macromodels. We also find that, for reasonable parameterizations, consumption and employment (hence welfare) are not highly sensitive to product differentiation, and change little regardless of whether adjustment occurs through movements in relative prices or quantities. This result warns against interpreting the size of real depreciation associated with trade rebalancing as an index of macroeconomic distress.


A design of ultra-short integrated polarization rotator (PR) with nonlinear and flat-tip tapers is demonstrated theoretically. Based on mode-evolution theory and three-dimensional (3D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation, raised cosine profiled tapers are introduced and optimized in the transition region, which improve the polarized modes coupling and decrease the conversion length to 6 μm for the wavelength of 1.55 μm. Numerical simulations obtain extinction ratio of 32 dB and loss of 0.14 dB with practical material parameters. The method and result presented here can be extremely valuable for applications in polarization diversity circuits.


This article reviews and comments on Polyglot: How I Learn Languages, a recent English language edition of Kato Lomb's Igy tanulok nyelveket, which was originally published in Hungarian in 1970. The article situates the work and provides a brief biographical sketch of the author, followed by an outline of the book. The article then examines more closely some of the issues raised by Lomb, such as adult learning, awareness in language learning, attitude versus aptitude, the use of a multipronged approach, taking personal responsibility, the role of regularity, as well as that of active and explorative reading, and the development of the four skills. Finally, it highlights the ongoing significance of Lomb's seminal work for language learners, teachers and researchers. Polyglots have always excited the imagination of monolinguals. Kato Lomb (2008, p. 178)


Abstract Microgrids are playing an increasingly important role in supporting a more flexible, efficient, and reliable electric power system in the U.S. As with any major energy production facilities, Microgrids have various types of impacts on the local and regional economy. This paper evaluates three models— REMI, IMPLAN, and RIMS II—that are capable of estimating the regional macroeconomic impacts of Microgrid projects. The models are first compared and assessed based on a set of criteria for evaluating economic impact models in general. They are then applied to a comparative simulation exercise of the economic impacts of a stylized Microgrid project. The simulations indicate some variations in the results across the models. All three models indicate net positive economic impacts in the Microgrid investment year, with RIMS II yielding the highest impact and REMI the lowest. The simulation results differ more in the noninvestment years. Both IMPLAN and RIMS II estimate very small net impacts, while REMI yields steadily increasing positive impacts over the entire Microgrid operating period. Overall, we conclude that the REMI Model performs the best of the three models in relation to the evaluative criteria in general. We also conclude that the REMI Model simulation results for the stylized Microgrid project are the most accurate of the three models due to the Model's more advanced structure, forecasting capability, dynamic features, and ability to capture the price impact and cost pass-through effects that extend beyond ordinary multiplier effects.


This is the first comprehensive study of the reception of classical architecture in different regions of the world. Exploring the impact of colonialism, trade, slavery, religious missions, political ideology and intellectual/artistic exchange, the authors demonstrate how classical principles and ideas were disseminated and received across the globe. By addressing a number of contentious issues, highlighted in some historical surveys of architecture, the chapters presented in this volume question long-held assumptions about the notion of a universally accepted 'classical tradition' and its broadly Euro-centric perspective. Featuring thirty-two chapters written by international scholars from China, Europe, Turkey, North America, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, the book is divided into four sections: 1) Transmission and re-conceptualisation of classical architecture; 2) Classical influence through colonialism, political ideology and religious conversion; 3) Historiographical surveys of geographical regions; and 4) Visual and textual discourses. This fourfold arrangement of chapters provides a coherent structure to accommodate different perspectives of classical reception across the world, and their geographical, ethnographic, ideological, symbolic, social and cultural contexts. Essays cover a wide geography and include studies in Italy, France, England, Scotland, the Nordic countries, Greece, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Germany, Poland, India, Singapore, China, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia. Other essays in the volume focus on thematic issues or topics pertaining to classical architecture, such as ornament, spolia, humanism, nature, moderation, decorum, heresy and taste.

An essential reference guide, The Routledge Handbook on the Reception of Classical Architecture makes a major contribution to the study of architectural history in a new global context.


This paper draws on a broader qualitative study of professional learning in schools of the Peoples of the Book (Christians, Jews and Muslims) in post-colonial Australia, addressing the role that the growing number of Australian faith-based schools play in shaping a just and inclusive Australian society. By reviewing material in the public domain, we consider in their projection to the public the stated and implied commitment of six Australian faith-based schools of the Peoples of the Book to a transformative, liberatory education. Drawing on Habermas' understanding of a religiously pluralistic democracy, we argue that faith-based schools should articulate their purpose and values to the wider secular society, recognizing that this task also calls upon the secular society to engage with the faith traditions, to strengthen mutual respect and tolerance. Although we find little consideration in the literature of the distinctive professional learning needs in faith-based schools, we examine Australian faith-based schooling through the thinking of Freire and the role of conscientization in transformative education. We argue that it is through the professional learning program of the school that critical awareness and indeed conscientization of teachers can be developed.


We described the preparation of the glycol chitosan/heparin immobilized iron oxide nanoparticles (composite NPs) as a magnetic resonance imaging agent with a tumor-targeting characteristic. The iron oxide nanoseeds used clinically as a magnetic resonance imaging agent were immobilized into the glycol chitosan/heparin network to form the composite NPs. To induce the ionic interaction between the iron oxide nanoseeds and glycol chitosan, gold was deposited on the surface of iron oxide nanoseeds. After the immobilization of gold-deposited iron oxide NPs into the glycol chitosan network, the NPs were stabilized with heparin based on the ionic interaction between cationic glycol chitosan and anionic heparin. FE-SEM (field emission-scanning electron microscopy) and a particle size analyzer were used to observe the formation of the stabilized composite NPs, and a Jobin-Yvon Ultima-C inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) was used to measure the contents (%) of formed iron oxide nanoseeds as a function of reaction temperature and formed gold deposited on the iron oxide nanoparticles. We also evaluated the time-dependent excretion profile, in vivo biodistribution, circulation time, and tumor-targeting ability of the composite NPs using a noninvasive NIR fluorescence imaging technology. To observe the MRI contrast characteristic, the composite NPs were injected into the tail veins of tumor-bearing mice to demonstrate their selective tumoral distribution. The MR images were collected with conventional T(2)-weighted spin echo acquisition parameters.


Nowadays, huge amounts of chemicals are commercialized, shipped, stored, and converted to ensure the commercial availability of goods of daily use. Different hazards are involved in the use of these chemicals due to their intrinsic physicochemical properties. Several accidents have occurred in the past due to these hazards in chemical and process industries with serious consequences for people, buildings, and the environment.

Safety in Chemical and Process Industries: A Comprehensive Assessment provides basic knowledge on safety procedures and experimental techniques for evaluating risks related to storage, transport, and transformation of hazardous materials. The book is designed for undergraduate and graduate students of Chemical, Materials, and Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, and Environmental Science.

Key features:

- Provides a strong foundation on safety management and risk assessment for chemical handling and management

- Tackles the management of contaminated industrial sites

- Focuses on the risk assessment to set remediation goals

- Includes information on Health Impact Assessments

- Includes detailed references for advanced readers at PhD or postdoc levels.

The book is organized in the following core topics that are part of relevant course modules:

- Fundamentals of thermal explosions and calorimetric techniques (Chapters 1-3)

- Homogeneous and heterogeneous explosions (Chapters 4-7).

- Consequences of fires and heterogeneous explosions (Chapter 8)

- Industrial hygiene and toxicology (Chapter 9)

- Preventive safety measures and protective measures (Chapter 10)

- Risk assessment for industrially contaminated sites (Chapter 11)

- Health impact assessment within environmental impact assessment studies (Chapter 12)


Models for Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROVs) are difficult to derive because their dynamics are strongly coupled, highly nonlinear and vary according to the vehicle's operating configuration. In addition, conventional modeling techniques require the use of expensive, specialized testing equipment. An alternative procedure using System Identification (SI) to process data gathered during simple free-running trials can generate fast, inexpensive and accurate ROV models. Three SI algorithms, Least Squares (LS), Extended Least Squares (ELS) and the Recursive Prediction Error Method (RPEM), are tested on simulated ROV data and compared for accuracy and economy. The vehicle studied in this paper, the UMEL Seapup, can be represented accurately by a linear model at the low speeds where accurate maneuvering control is most important and gain scheduling can be used to switch models at higher speeds.


Humans are remarkably sensitive to the statistical structure of language. However, different mechanisms have been proposed to account for such statistical sensitivities. The present study compared adult learning of syntax and the ability of two models of statistical learning to simulate human performance: Simple Recurrent Networks, which learn by predictive computation, and PARSER, which learns chunks as a byproduct of general principles of associative learning and memory. In the first stage, a semiartificial language paradigm was used to gather human data. In the second stage, a simulation paradigm was then used to compare the patterns of performance of the SRN and PARSER. After the human adults and the computational models were trained on sentences from the semiartificial language with probabilistic syntax, their learning outcomes were compared. Neither model was able to fully reproduce the human data, which may indicate less robust statistical learning effects in adults; however, PARSER was able to simulate more of the adult learning data than the SRN, suggesting a possible role for chunk formation in early phases of adult learning of second language syntax.


Background
Vancomycin is a first-line antibiotic used for the treatment of severe gram-positive bacterial infections. Clinical guidelines recommend that the vancomycin trough concentration be 10-15 mg/L for regular infections and 15-20 mg/L for severe infections. We investigated whether increasing the vancomycin concentration would result in better clinical outcomes with sustainable adverse effects (AEs) in the Chinese population.

Methods
A prospective, open, multicenter clinical observational study was performed in patients with gram-positive bacterial infections from 13 teaching hospitals. Patients received vancomycin therapeutic drug monitoring. Clinical, microbiological, and laboratory data were collected.

Results
In total, 510 patients were enrolled, and 470 were evaluable, of whom 370 were adults and 100 were children; 35.53% had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections (vancomycin 50% minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC50] = 1, 90% minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC90] = 1), and 23.19% had Enterococcus species infections (vancomycin MIC50 = 1, MIC90 = 2). The average trough concentration was 10.54 ± 8.08 mg/L in adults and 6.74 ± 8.93 mg/L in children. The infection was eradicated in 86.22% of adults and 96% of children. Thirty-six vancomycin-related nephrotoxicity cases were reported in the enrolled population. No severe AEs or deaths were related to vancomycin therapy. Logistic regression analysis showed that trough concentration had no relationship with clinical outcomes (adults P = .75, children P = .68) but was correlated with adult nephrotoxicity (P < .0001). Vancomycin trough concentration had an applicable cut point at 13 mg/L.

Conclusions
Our study shows that vancomycin trough concentration has no statistical correlation with clinical outcomes, and is an indicator of nephrotoxicity in the observed population. We found no evidence that increasing vancomycin trough concentration to 15-20 mg/L can benefit Chinese patients with complicated infections.

Clinical Trials Registration
ChiCTR-OPC-16007920.


Despite reportedly having less tobacco exposure compared with whites, African Americans account for a disproportionate number of smoking-related deaths. The purpose of this study was to compare the prospective associations between smoking and cardiovascular risk in whites and African Americans. Smoking status was obtained on 14,200 participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. Incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) was ascertained from 1987 through 2007. Adjusted Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the CVD incidence associated with smoking behavior. Over 17 years' follow-up, there were 2,777 cardiovascular events. In men, compared with never smoking, current smoking was independently associated with 67% (95% confidence interval (CI): 43, 95) and 72% (95% CI: 30, 126) greater risk of CVD in whites and African Americans, respectively. In women, the smoking-related cardiovascular risk was higher: 136% (95% CI: 88, 196) and 169% (95% CI: 126, 219) in African-American and white women, respectively. Early age at smoking initiation was independently associated with increased risk among all participants irrespective of race. Smoking cessation during follow-up was equally beneficial in both whites and African Americans. African Americans who smoke incur a similar level of cardiovascular risk as white smokers and would derive the same benefits from quitting as whites.