The goal of this project was the characterisation of a new guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF protein) for Rac GTPases in Dictyostelium discoideum. GEF proteins function as stimulating proteins of Rac GTPases which are of central importance in the regulation of actin-involving processes. Actin is a major component of the cytoskeleton, constituting a dynamic network of filamentous structures which provide the basis for elementary tasks of growth, differentiation, cell movement and cell division.
The ameba D. discoideum is a haploid unicellular eukaryote. It serves as a model organism to study basic actin-involving processes in higher organisms. The D. discoideum genome has been fully sequenced recently and comprises a wide range of regulatory components for the actin cytoskeleton. The gene of a novel GEF protein with a coding sequence of 3597 bp was studied in detail. The gene was cloned and the sequence verified. The protein sequence of 1198 amino acids comprises three Calponin homology domains (CH) and one Dbl homology/Pleckstrin homology tandem domain which is a typical sequence feature of GEF proteins. On the basis of this domain architecture the protein was named 'Trix' in short for 'triple Calponin exchange factor'.
The CH domains were classified as type 1 and type 1 CH domain (type 3 - type 3 - type 1). This resembles a novel combination of CH domains in a Rho GEF protein. A recombinant fragment carrying the three CH domains was shown to bind and bundle actin filaments which is not explained by the functions that have been described for CH domains so far.
In vivo Trix is localised in the area of the actin-rich cell cortex as well as on the membranes of late endocytic vesicles. This suggests a regulatory role for Trix in the assembly or the disassembly of the actin coat that is associated with endocytic vesicles during the late stages of endocytosis. It was shown that Trix is mainly expressed during the vegetative stadium of D. discoideum which would be consistent with the increased endocytosis during growth. An association of Rac GTPases with late endocytic vesicles in D. discoideum was not described so far.
Trix displayed no GDP/MANT-GDP exchange activity with the Rac GTPases Rac1a, RacC and RacE, hence the protein could not be allocated to a Rac GTPase signaling pathway. Some of the interactions between exchange factors and their respective Rac GTPases are of a very specific nature. Thus a potential activity of Trix might be directed against a Rac GTPase that has not yet been tested. The activation of Trix might also depend on further uncharacterised regulatory components. Finally, the results of the in vitro assays might differ from the in vivo situation as it has been demonstrated for other Rho GEFs.
The Trix gene was disrupted in AX2 wildtype cells by a gene replacement approach. This allowed detailed characterisation of the protein's function in vivo. Trix is not an essential protein. There were no significant differences in the expression of important marker proteins, in phototaxis, chemotaxis, phagocytosis, cytokinesis, and growth of Trix- mutants. The mutant cells showed subtle changes in the organisation of the actin system as well as a slight delay during the developmental cycle. The most severe phenotypic deviation displayed by Trix- mutants consisted in a marked reduction of exocytosis. This provides further evidence for a regulatory function of the protein in exocytosis.
The data suggest that Trix plays a role in the organisation of actin-involving processes in D. discoideum, especially in the regulation of the late endocytic cycle. Trix could not be allocated to a specific Rac GTPase signaling pathway and definite structural or dynamic tasks on the basis of the protein's actin-binding and actin-bundling properties. The subtle phenotypic alterations in Trix- mutants might be due to a general redundancy in the functions of D. discoideum Rho GEF proteins.


While woody bioenergy opens up a new market opportunity for residual biomass, overharvesting of residual biomass can adversely affect soil health, water quality, timber health and stand productivity, among others. As such, it is important to understand the proportion of residual biomass forestland owners are willing to leave unharvested for soil nutrient and other environmental benefit purposes, their sustainability concerns, and policy preferences. Toward this end, we conducted a mail survey on 900 randomly selected forestland owners in Virginia and used ordinal logistic regression, cluster analyses, and Cochran-Armitage trend tests to analyze the data. Our analyses of the 121 most complete responses suggest that factors such as ownership tenure, mode of land acquisition, size of forestland, and forestland ownership objectives, among other factors, affect decisions regarding the proportion of residual biomass forestland owners choose to leave unharvested. Analyses of landowners' sustainability concerns indicate a clustering pattern, where concerns about sufficiency of best management practices and the potential implications of harvest decision on soil and water quality are among the statistical representatives of their respective clusters. Respondents likely to engage in harvest practices that do not leave any residual biomass on the ground have a preference for policies that help cover management cost. Decision makers administering or considering such policy proposals should be aware of the inadvertent effect such cost sharing arrangements can have in encouraging unsustainable practices. These results also hint at the potential need for combining such cost sharing arrangements with extension and outreach programs. By accounting for landowners' concerns and preferences, this study complements previous studies that primarily adopt engineering based approaches and solutions.


GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT ABSTRACT Novel quinolone derivatives featuring an 1,3,4-oxadiazole ring as a metal-chelating component and a benzyl group base on HIV-1 integrase inhibitors pharmacophore were designed and synthesized. An antiviral assay revealed that most analogues inhibited HIV-1 replication in the cell culture. Our results showed that compounds bearing small alkyl groups as R group were inactive in anti-HIV-1 assay, whereas compounds possessing benzyl or substituted benzyl at the same position showed good anti-HIV activity with the range of 20–57% at 100 μM concentration. Among them, 3-(5-((2-fluorobenzyl)thio)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)-8-phenylquinolin-4-(1H)-one (compound 13) showed reasonable cell-based antiviral activity (EC50 = 50 μM) with no considerable cytotoxicity (CC50 > 100 μM) in the cell viability assay, suggesting that it may be amenable to further development for identifying new anti-HIV-1 agents. Docking studies using the later crystallographic data available for PFV integrase corroborate favorable binding to the active site of HIV integrase, providing a basis for the design of more potent analogues.


We propose a method for training a deterministic deep model that can find and reject out of distribution data points at test time with a single forward pass. Our approach, deterministic uncertainty quantification (DUQ), builds upon ideas of RBF networks. We scale training in these with a novel loss function and centroid updating scheme. By enforcing detectability of changes in the input using a gradient penalty, we are able to reliably detect out of distribution data. Our uncertainty quantification scales well to large datasets, and using a single model, we improve upon or match Deep Ensembles on notable difficult dataset pairs such as FashionMNIST vs. MNIST, and CIFAR-10 vs. SVHN, while maintaining competitive accuracy.


Biotechnology is diversifying rapidly through the development and application of new approaches to genome editing and ongoing research into synthetic biology. Proponents of biotechnology are enthusiastic about these new developments and have recently begun calling for environmental movements to abandon their campaigns against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and for organic agriculture to reconsider its exclusion of Genetic Modification (GM). In this article, we begin by describing the diversity of practices that cluster under both the terms GM and organic and show that although there is a clash of different cultures of agriculture at stake, there is also a spectrum of practices existing between these two poles. Having established the terms of the debate, we then go on to analyse whether the organic movement should reconsider its position on GM in light of new plant breeding techniques (NPBTs), using the criteria highlighted as important by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) in their 2016 draft revised position on GMOs. Through this analysis, we suggest that given the in-context-trajectory of biotechnology development, the continued narrow framing of agricultural problems and the ongoing exclusion of important socio-economic, political and cultural dimensions, the organic movement is justified in maintaining its opposition to GM in the face of NPBTs.


This review article explores the evidence on child poverty rates amongst different ethnic groups in the UK. The Labour Government aims to end child poverty by 2020. Its strategy rests on improving employability, making work pay and expanding childcare provision. But child poverty rates among ethnic minorities are higher than among white people, which suggests that policies to reduce these have been ineffectual. The factors underlying this differential include labour market disadvantage, insensitive mainstream services and the language barriers that may cause low take-up of services, benefits and tax credits. The article concludes by suggesting a number of policy strategies that government could take to reduce the levels of child poverty amongst ethnic minorities.


IOData is a free and open‐source Python library for parsing, storing, and converting various file formats commonly used by quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, and plane‐wave density‐functional‐theory software programs. In addition, IOData supports a flexible framework for generating input files for various software packages. While designed and released for stand‐alone use, its original purpose was to facilitate the interoperability of various modules in the HORTON and ChemTools software packages with external (third‐party) molecular quantum chemistry and solid‐state density‐functional‐theory packages. IOData is designed to be easy to use, maintain, and extend; this is why we wrote IOData in Python and adopted many principles of modern software development, including comprehensive documentation, extensive testing, continuous integration/delivery protocols, and package management. This article is the official release note of the IOData library.


J is named after the Roman God Janus — the keeper of gates, the God of beginnings. Janus is depicted in Roman culture as simultaneously looking forward and backward, for each beginning is based on developments of the past. When I arrived at UC in 1995, UC President Jack Peltason asked me to develop a mission statement for ANR, to examine the administrative structure of the organization, and to plan for the new millennium. As I retire in 2007, UC President Robert Dynes has asked me to refl ect upon the changes that have occurred and to summarize the few that give me the greatest source of pride. Because this January marks my last editorial before retirement, I'd like to share my responses with you. I'm proud of the cultural changes that have taken place in our division. Driven by a need to serve a rapidly changing industry in a rapidly changing state, we now emphasize emerging issues in agriculture, natural resources and human sciences and position ourselves to address these needs. While we continue to serve broadly based stakeholders, we no longer focus on discipline-oriented and geographically defi ned goals. Rather, our decisions and directions are designed to address those areas where we can make the greatest difference. To effect this change, we started with a strategic plan — based on a mission, articulated by a vision and tempered by core values that ANR as a unit enumerated. The plan was developed with input from a wide range of sources and refl ection from many thoughtful people. Designed to be dynamic, it outlined criteria for determining program priorities that could serve as the basis for virtually all future decisions; the plan was not a road map, but a compass. In the current climate of change and quest for adherence to the highest and strictest standards, it is gratifying to note that we — as an organization — embraced ethical behavior as the fi rst of our core values. From our planning process came a set of strategic assumptions, midand long-term program priorities, and an in-depth look at our organizational structure. At the urging of many of our stakeholders, we developed a new structure that emphasized divisionwide planning, installed program leaders and rejuvenated workgroups, among other changes designed to emphasize opportunities and address issues. To help position our programs for 21st-century California, we asked distinguished UC scientists to think about the longterm future (the next 25 years) of California's agricultural, natural and human resources for special editions of California Agriculture to be published in the millennial year. The fourpart collection — on population, resources, food production and food security — (Vol. 54, Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5) continues to provide a strong basis for our thinking. I'm proud of our people. My 11 years at UC have been a rich time of working with a cadre of gifted academics, dedicated staff and insightful administrators. During the later 1990s, we began developing plans for the renewal of our programs that had been decimated by the budget cuts of the early 1990s. Our people looked forward: rather than trying to reclaim lost "turf," they anticipated new opportunities and directions. The cooperative atmosphere was inspiring. When the budgetary axe fell again a few years later, we were subjected to all of the negatives: program closures, layoffs, frozen positions, redirection of carefully saved funds. But, overall, we retained our perspective, embraced our priority-planning process, minimized our hand-wringing and fi nger-pointing, and responded positively to adversity. This is a tribute to all of our people on the campuses, in the counties, and in ANR offi ces based in Oakland, Davis, Kearney and Riverside. I'm proud of the increased visibility that our people and programs have gained in the system, on the campuses and with the public. With the cooperation of UC Presidents Richard Atkinson and Robert Dynes, we demonstrated to them and others many of the important programs that the University conducts throughout the state. After members of the UC Board of Regents walked through the lettuce fi elds and packing plants of the Salinas Valley, they better understood the issues surrounding Escherichia coli and Salmonella outbreaks; after viewing the limited damage of Pierce's disease in the Napa Valley, they could address the devastation later wrought by the appearance of the glassy-winged sharpshooter. When President Dynes introduced his concept of "Research-Development-Delivery" to the university community, we were able not only to demonstrate "R, D & D" in action, but also a system of delivery that is unparalleled. As UC wrestles with issues of diversity, we are able to showcase nutrition, after-school and youth programs that reach African-American, Latino, Hmong, Vietnamese and other underserved populations. Legislators from Sacramento and Washington and visitors from around the world have been able to see that we truly take the university to the people — all of the people. President Atkinson expanded the dialogue with our stakeholders by establishing the UC President's Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources. Both he and President Dynes have worked hand-in-hand with California leaders to identify the issues, foresee the direction of California's resources and defi ne the University's role in addressing them. The relationship between the University and the industry is strong. I'm proud to have served UC. Several of you have asked what I will be doing after retirement. I might go fi shing. Anne and I will travel and spend time with our children and extended families. I don't know how much — or how little — I'll be involved in ANR issues, but a part of my heart will always be with the University of California. Taking the university to the people Editorial


The choice of suitable semiconducting metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors for the detection of a specific gas or gas mixture is time-consuming since the sensor's sensitivity needs to be characterized at multiple temperatures to find its optimal operating conditions. To obtain reliable measurement results, it is very important that the power for the sensor's integrated heater is stable, regulated and error-free (or error-tolerant). Especially the error-free requirement can be only be achieved if the power supply implements failure-avoiding and failure-detection methods. The biggest challenge is deriving multiple different voltages from a common supply in an efficient way while keeping the system as small and lightweight as possible. This work presents a reliable, compact, embedded system that addresses the power supply requirements for fully automated simultaneous sensor characterization for up to 16 sensors at multiple temperatures. The system implements efficient (avg. 83.3% efficiency) voltage conversion with low ripple output (<32 mV) and supports static or temperature-cycled heating modes. Voltage and current of each channel are constantly monitored and regulated to guarantee reliable operation. To evaluate the proposed design, 16 sensors were screened. The results are shown in the experimental part of this work.


A 6-day-old, late-preterm male neonate presents to his pediatrician's office with bilious emesis and is admitted for further evaluation. He was born at 36 weeks and 6 days via spontaneous vaginal delivery to a 23-year-old G4P4 mother with negative serologies, negative antenatal Group B Streptococcus testing, and no significant prenatal events. His stay in the newborn nursery was unremarkable. The neonate is exclusively breastfed, has no history of rectal bleeding, and passed meconium within the first 24 hours.


Agriculture is practiced on 38% of the landmass on Earth, and having replaced natural ecosystems, it is the largest terrestrial biome on Earth. Agricultural biomes are typically focused on annual crops that are produced as a succession of genetically uniform monocultures. Compared to the ecosystems they replaced, agroecosystems provide fewer ecosystem functions and contain much less biodiversity. The large-scale conversion from natural lands to agriculture occurred centuries ago in the Old World (Africa, China, Europe, and India), but in many areas during the latter 20th and early 21st centuries, especially tropical areas with rich biodiversity, agriculture is an emerging industry. Here, displacement of natural ecosystems is also a late 20th-century occurrence, and much of it is ongoing. Regardless of where or when agriculture was established, biodiversity declined and ecosystem services were eroded.
 Agricultural practices are the second largest contributor to biodiversity loss, due to the loss of habitat, competition for resources, and pesticide use. Most (~96%) of the land used to produce crops is farmed using conventional methods, while smaller percentages are under organic production (~2%) or are producing biotech crops (~4%). Regardless of how agriculture is practiced, it exacts a toll on biodiversity and ecosystem services. While organic agriculture embraces many ecological principals in producing food, it fails to recognize the value of biotechnology as a tool to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. Herbicide- and/or insect-resistant crops are the most widely planted biotech crops worldwide. Biotech crops in general, but especially insect-resistant crops, reduce pesticide use and increase biodiversity. The widespread adoption of glyphosate-resistant crops increased the use of this herbicide, and resistance evolved in weeds. On the other hand, glyphosate has less environmental impacts than other herbicides. Because of the limited scale of biotech production, it will not have large impacts on mitigating the effects of agriculture on biodiversity and ecosystem services. To have any hope of reducing the environmental impact of agriculture, agro-ecology principals and biotechnology will need to be incorporated. Monetizing biodiversity and ecosystem services through incorporation into commodity prices will incentivize producers to be part of the biodiversity solution. A multi-level biodiversity certification is proposed that is a composite score of the biodiversity and ecosystem services of an individual farm and the growing region were the food is produced. Such a system would add value to the products from farms and ranches proportionate to the level by which their farm and region provides biodiversity and ecosystem services as the natural ecosystem it replaced.


An intervention is a counseling action an instructor may use to support a student who struggles to work productively in an online writing instruction (OWI) course. Interventions may increase retention and graduation rates at institutions as well as increase student and teacher satisfaction (Allen, Bourhis, Burrell, and Mabry, 2002; Archambault and Crippen, 2009; McCombs, Ufnar, and Shepherd, 2007; O'Dwyer, Carey, and Kleiman, 2007; Stein, Wanstreet, Calvin, Overtoom, and Wheaton, 2005; Sun, Tsai, Finger, Chen, and Yeh, 2008). In Moore's (1993) Theory of Transaction Distance, interventions are called "advice and counsel," and they are a crucial component of the program structure element in the theory. Many researchers recommend early identification and intervention for struggling students (Archambault et al., 2010; Simpson, 2004). For example, Simpson (2004) found that early interventions following Keller's (1987) ARCS model (Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) were effective in helping students complete a course. In addition, Simpson found that such interventions could be cost effective; however, there are many open variables when calculating cost. As researchers and online instructors, the authors recommend early intervention activities performed by email and text messaging at many opportunistic intervention points during the course of the instruction. As well, developing an intervention strategy prior to course beginning to assist in planning and preparation is advocated and recommended.


In this paper we present a structural approach to the study of government formation in multi-party parliamentary democracies. The approach is based on the estimation of a stochastic bargaining model which we use to investigate the effects of specific institutional features of parliamentary democracy on the formation and stability of coalition governments. We then apply our methodology to estimate the effects of governmental bicameralism. Our main findings are that eliminating bicameralism does not affect government durability, but does have a significant effect on the composition of governments leading to smaller coalitions. These results are due to an equilibrium replacement effect: removing bicameralism affects the relative durability of coalitions of different sizes which in turn induces changes in the coalitions that are chosen in equilibrium.


Abstract The discovery of the body of the historical Richard III under a Leicester car park in 2012 sparked fresh interest in one of England's most controversial kings. Accused of murdering his nephews—the Princes in the Tower—Richard's reign was cut short when he was defeated by Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII), at the Battle of Bosworth (1485). Richard was subsequently demonised in Tudor historiography, perhaps most famously by Sir Thomas More in his "History of King Richard the thirde" (printed 1557). It is to More that we owe the popular image of Richard III as a "croke backed" and "malicious" villain (More 37), an image which Shakespeare has been accused of further codifying and popularising in his Richard III. Today, the historical Richard III's defenders argue for the king's good qualities and achievements and blame early writers such as More and Shakespeare for demonising Richard; but, in Shakespeare's case at least, this essay argues that the possibility of a sympathetic—and even a heroic—reading of the king is built in to his characterisation of Richard III.


Most plant production by emergent coastal marshes occurs belowground. This belowground production adds to the accumulation of organic matter sustaining salt marshes as sea level rises, thus preventing excessive flooding, eventual plant death, and habitat loss. The ubiquitous nutrient enrichment of coastal salt marshes stimulating aboveground plant growth may result in higher rates of inorganic matter accumulation that compensates for marsh flooding caused by sea level rise. Results from several short‐term experiments, however, demonstrate that root and rhizome biomass and carbon accumulation is reduced with nutrient enrichment, suggesting that eutrophication of coastal waters may not be a compensatory counterbalance to the effects of global sea level rise on salt marshes. We show that the net effects of 36 yr of nutrient enrichment in replicated field experiments do not lead to higher organic or inorganic accumulation. Enrichment reduces organic matter belowground and may result in a significant loss in marsh elevation equivalent to about half the average global sea level rise rates. Sustaining and restoring coastal emergent marshes is more likely if they receive less, not more, nutrient loading.


About a quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions are currently taken up by the oceans, decreasing seawater pH. We performed a mesocosm experiment in the Baltic Sea in order to investigate the consequences of increasing CO2 levels on pelagic carbon fluxes. A gradient of different CO2 scenarios, ranging from ambient ( ∼  370 µatm) to high ( ∼  1200 µatm), were set up in mesocosm bags ( ∼  55 m3). We determined standing stocks and temporal changes of total particulate carbon (TPC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and particulate organic carbon (POC) of specific plankton groups. We also measured carbon flux via CO2 exchange with the atmosphere and sedimentation (export), and biological rate measurements of primary production, bacterial production, and total respiration. The experiment lasted for 44 days and was divided into three different phases (I: t0–t16; II: t17–t30; III: t31–t43). Pools of TPC, DOC, and DIC were approximately 420, 7200, and 25 200 mmol C m−2 at the start of the experiment, and the initial CO2 additions increased the DIC pool by  ∼  7 % in the highest CO2 treatment. Overall, there was a decrease in TPC and increase of DOC over the course of the experiment. The decrease in TPC was lower, and increase in DOC higher, in treatments with added CO2. During phase I the estimated gross primary production (GPP) was  ∼  100 mmol C m−2 day−1, from which 75–95 % was respired,  ∼  1 % ended up in the TPC (including export), and 5–25 % was added to the DOC pool. During phase II, the respiration loss increased to  ∼  100 % of GPP at the ambient CO2 concentration, whereas respiration was lower (85–95 % of GPP) in the highest CO2 treatment. Bacterial production was  ∼  30 % lower, on average, at the highest CO2 concentration than in the controls during phases II and III. This resulted in a higher accumulation of DOC and lower reduction in the TPC pool in the elevated CO2 treatments at the end of phase II extending throughout phase III. The "extra" organic carbon at high CO2 remained fixed in an increasing biomass of small-sized plankton and in the DOC pool, and did not transfer into large, sinking aggregates. Our results revealed a clear effect of increasing CO2 on the carbon budget and mineralization, in particular under nutrient limited conditions. Lower carbon loss processes (respiration and bacterial remineralization) at elevated CO2 levels resulted in higher TPC and DOC pools than ambient CO2 concentration. These results highlight the importance of addressing not only net changes in carbon standing stocks but also carbon fluxes and budgets to better disentangle the effects of ocean acidification.


Proliferation concerns have generally been associated with the acquisition of the fissile material needed for nuclear weapons; however, the spread of the knowledge needed to build very light and powerful weapons that can be carried long distances by missiles is also a serious concern. Such knowledge could accelerate and destabilize regional arms races, and lead to the deployment of powerful weapons able to target the US and its allies. Classified weapons-related information has previously spread through the international effort to harness inertial confinement fusion. Success in achieving net fusion gain in the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory could lead to greatly increased R&D in inertial confinement fusion worldwide, along with increased proliferation risks. The authors write that these issues have not yet been adequately addressed and require direct and transparent examination so that means to mitigate risks can be assessed and residual risks can be balanced against potential benefits.


The animation of human characters entails difficulties exceeding those met simulating objects, machines or plants. A person's gait is a product of nature affected by mood and physical condition. Small deviations from natural movement are perceived with ease by an unforgiving audience.

Motion capture technology is frequently employed to record human movement. Subsequent playback on a skeleton underlying the character being animated conveys many of the subtleties of the original motion. Played-back recordings are of limited value, however, when integration in a virtual environment requires movements beyond those in the motion library, creating a need for the synthesis of new motion from pre-recorded sequences. An existing approach involves interpolation between motions in the frequency domain, with a blending space defined by a triangle network whose vertices represent input motions. It is this branch of character animation which is supplemented by the methods presented in this thesis, with work undertaken in three distinct areas.

The first is a streamlined approach to previous work. It provides benefits including an efficiency gain in certain contexts, and a very different perspective on triangle network construction in which they become adjustable and intuitive user-interface devices with an increased flexibility allowing a greater range of motions to be blended than was possible with previous networks.

Interpolation-based synthesis can never exhibit the same motion variety as can animation methods based on the playback of rearranged frame sequences. Limitations such as this were addressed by the second phase of work, with the creation of hybrid networks. These novel structures use properties of frequency domain triangle blending networks to seamlessly integrate playback-based animation within them.

The third area focussed on was distortion found in both frequency- and time-domain blending. A new technique, single-source harmonic switching, was devised which greatly reduces it, and adds to the benefits of blending in the frequency domain.


Abstract Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) cause damage to Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) cavity trees in the form of cavity enlargement or other excavations on the surface of the pine tree. However, it is not known whether Pileated Woodpeckers excavate more frequently on Red-cockaded Woodpecker cavity trees than on noncavity trees or how stand structure is related to the frequency of Pileated Woodpecker excavation. Also, it is unclear whether the cavity itself provides the stimulus to Pileated Woodpeckers to excavate or whether the presence of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and their activities are attracting them. We surveyed all of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker cavity trees (n = 202) and 110 control trees in the loblolly (Pinus taeda)-shortleaf (P. echinata) pine habitat on the Angelina National Forest for recent Pileated Woodpecker excavation and found that approximately 7.4% of all cavity trees were damaged while no control trees showed any evidence of Pileated Woodpecker damage. The rate of Pileated Woodpecker excavation was negatively associated with hardwood midstory height and density. Pileated Woodpeckers appeared to focus most of their excavations on Red-cockaded Woodpeckers cavity entrances. We suggest that Pileated Woodpeckers may be attracted to Red-cockaded Woodpecker cavity trees, especially the cavity, and that midstory removal used to improve Red-cockaded Woodpecker habitat may increase the incidence of damage to the cavity trees by Pileated Woodpeckers in the current fragmented landscape.


A transdisciplinary survey of practices that produce, analyse, and exploit risk and uncertainty, Collapse VIII: Casino Real uncovers the conceptual underpinnings of methods designed to extract value from contingency—at the gaming table, in the markets, and in life. The indictment of 'casino capitalism' and the centrality of risk to contemporary society are traced back to a ubiquitous image of thought that originated in games of chance, but which is no longer adequate to address a world whose realities are now shaped by risk models and trading in speculative futures.

To challenge the 'casino' model, Collapse VIII brings together philosophers who extend the thinking of contingency beyond statistical modelling, professional traders and gamblers whose lifelong experience has shaped their understanding of chance, researchers analysing the perception and treatment of risk and uncertainty in diverse arenas including derivatives trading, quantum physics, insurance, sonic experimentation, literature, futurology, mathematics, and machine gambling, and artists whose work addresses both the desire to confront chance and the need to tame it by bringing it to order.

The rise of machine gambling can also be read in an architectural register. Far removed from what was once 'learnt from Las Vegas', the occupation of erstwhile retail real-estate by machine gambling establishments has become a familiar feature of our cities. Jaspar Joseph-Lester's photo-essay focuses on the Wedding district of Berlin, remarkable for its concentration of these small casinos which come in a variety of shapes and sizes and yet have begun to form a recognizable architectural genre, albeit one that is largely functional—even if their facades continue to deploy a jaded vocabulary of Vegas imagery, these sites are as far removed from the palatial excesses of the golden age of the Strip as Schull's interviewees are from Dostoyevsky's gambler. In his examination of the architectural merits of these spaces Joseph-Lester riffs on Ed Ruscha's deadpan methodical approach (Some Los Angeles Apartments, 1965), documenting the situation and formal characteristics of these deracinated spaces for zoned-out gamblers.


Ets homologous factor (EHF) is an Ets family transcription factor expressed in many epithelial cell types including those lining the respiratory system. Disruption of the airway epithelium is central to many lung diseases, and a network of transcription factors coordinates its normal function. EHF can act as a transcriptional activator or a repressor, though its targets in lung epithelial cells are largely uncharacterized. Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing (ChIP-seq), showed that the majority of EHF binding sites in lung epithelial cells are intergenic or intronic and coincide with putative enhancers, marked by specific histone modifications. EHF occupies many genomic sites that are close to genes involved in intercellular and cell–matrix adhesion. RNA-seq after EHF depletion or overexpression showed significant alterations in the expression of genes involved in response to wounding. EHF knockdown also targeted genes in pathways of epithelial development and differentiation and locomotory behavior. These changes in gene expression coincided with alterations in cellular phenotype including slowed wound closure and increased transepithelial resistance. Our data suggest that EHF regulates gene pathways critical for epithelial response to injury, including those involved in maintenance of barrier function, inflammation and efficient wound repair.


Patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) have a 20-100 fold risk of premature cardiovascular death compared to age matched controls from the general population. These patients have many 'conventional' cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, hypertension, cigarette smoking and hyperlipidaemia. However, the relationship between the presence of these risk factors and cardiovascular outcomes is less clear in ESRD than in the general population. In the cases of hyperlipidaemia and hypertension a paradoxical relationship has been demonstrated where lower cholesterol or blood pressure is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. One factor previously demonstrated to be associated with poor prognosis is the presence of uraemic cardiomyopathy, found in approximately 70% of ESRD patients at initiation of dialysis therapy, usually defined echocardiographically as the presence of left ventricular (LV) abnormalities, including left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), LV dilatation and LV systolic dysfunction. However, echocardiography makes assumptions regarding LV geometry, which is frequently distorted in patients with ESRD. Furthermore any errors in measurements are amplified by the changes in hydration status which occur during the dialysis cycle, leading to changes in LV chamber dimensions. For these reasons, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR), by providing high fidelity measurements, potentially offers a 'volume independent' method of quantifying LV dimensions. Furthermore, by using gadolinium based contrast agents, tissue abnormalities particularly myocardial fibrosis, indicated by late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) may by identified.

The work contained in this thesis examines the relationship between cardiac dimensions, as defined by CMR and cardiovascular risk factors (both conventional and specific to uraemia). In a study of 145 patients with ESRD using CMR with gadolinium, two specific pathological processes were demonstrated. First, the presence of subendocardial LGE indicating previous myocardial infarction was associated with the presence of conventional cardiovascular risk factors such as previous ischaemic heart disease and diabetes. Patients with subendocardial LGE frequently had LV systolic dysfunction. Second, diffuse LGE, representing fibrosis throughout the LV wall was identified in patients with LVH. This was an unexpected finding and appears specific to uraemia. Using CMR, isolated LV dilatation was rare. These findings suggest that in uraemia two forms of cardiomyopathy exist- LV systolic dysfunction due to underling myocardial ischaemia and LVH which is a true 'uraemic cardiomyopathy' associated with diffuse myocardial fibrosis. Attempts were made to reassess the relationship between CMR and echocardiographic measures of cardiac dimensions. In keeping with a previous study, it was demonstrated that M-mode echocardiography overestimates LV mass compared to CMR in this population. Thus, CMR may be used to optimise echocardiographic formulae to calculate LV mass. Furthermore, it appeared that either by echocardiography or by CMR the chief determinant of LVH in this population was blood pressure, in particular systolic blood pressure. This has implications for treatment as recent studies aimed at correcting anaemia, previously associated with LVH, either to reduce LV mass or to improve survival, have generally demonstrated increased cardiovascular events with higher haemoglobin. Therefore, if LV mass is a goal of treatment, attempts should be made to reduce blood pressure further in this population.

The patients studied in these investigations were candidates for renal transplantation, the definitive treatment for chronic renal failure. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death both in patients on the renal transplant list, as well as post successful transplantation. There is a great deal of interest in identifying patients at high cardiovascular risk, to allow strategies to be adopted to minimise this risk, frequently by undertaking invasive investigation such as coronary angiography. In a survival study of 300 potential renal transplant recipients, factors associated with increased risk of mortality were increased age, ischaemic heart disease whilst receipt of a renal transplant was protective. Although the presence of LGE was associated with poorer outcome, this finding was not independent of other variables. One interesting finding was that patients with greater exercise tolerance, measured objectively using the full Bruce exercise test had better outcomes. This observation represents a simple pragmatic method to risk-stratify such patients. A study using the biomarker brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) a peptide released from the LV in response to stretch and hypertrophy, in 114 patients, demonstrated that whilst BNP has potential as a diagnostic tool for the presence of uraemic cardiomyopathy, in particular LVH, this peptide added little prognostic value.

As familiarity with CMR techniques developed, it became clear that vascular function could be investigated with this imaging modality. Previous studies using alternative measures of vascular function have suggested that arterial stiffness is an important predictor of long term outcome in patients with ESRD. A study of 147 uraemic patients using aortic distensibilty and aortic volumetric arterial strain as CMR measures of aortic stiffness demonstrated that both these parameters were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and mortality. To date there do not appear to be any similar outcome studies using these measures, although a number of authors have noted an association between aortic distensibilty and cardiovascular risk factors. These factors may represent potential targets for therapy aimed at reduction of cardiovascular risk in patients with ESRD.

One unfortunate development during the period during which these studies were undertaken, was the emergence of a link between exposure to gadolinium based contrast agents and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), a potentially life threatening skin disorder in patients with advanced renal failure. This finding lead to the cessation of contrast CMR studies. A retrospective investigation of factors present in patients in North Glasgow affected by NSF, confirmed that patients with NSF were more likely to have undergone contrast based imaging than unaffected patients, frequently undergoing multiple scans, with high doses of gadodiamide used. Until this issue is clarified, future scans using these agents in this population should be undertaken with caution.

These studies have characterised for the first time the relationship between both uraemic cardiomyopathy and uraemic arterial stiffness and both cardiovascular risk factors and long term outcome. CMR measures of cardiac dimensions and vascular function represent future targets for interventions aimed at reducing cardiovascular risk in patients with advanced renal failure.


Biochemical and hematological changes may show insight into metabolic events of menstruation. However, there appears to be paucity of information with regards to protein pattern in menstruation among the Igbo community especially since these factors are known indices in monitoring health and disease. Therefore, this work was designed to explore the changes in some biochemical and hematological indices during menstruation in young women of Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria. A cross sectional study involving 140 young Igbo women aged between 18 and 36 y was recruited in Enugu Nigeria and willingly participated in the study on the second day after the onset of menstruation and one week after. Blood samples were collected from all subjects for the measurement of both biochemical (total protein, albumin, globulin, phosphate, calcium) and hematological indices (hematocrit, hemoglobin and reticulocyte). Standard routine methods were employed for all determinations. The results showed significant difference (P 0.001) when compared. The same pattern of result was obtained when were compared on the basis of age, difference in menstrual cycle and number of bleeding days. The results suggest that menstruation affects globulin concentration in this ethnic group of Nigerians and this may have direct link and help in the explanation of some aspects of osteoporosis in women.


The origin, evolution and primary melt compositions of late Cretaceous high-K ultramafic volcanics and associated basalts of Eastern Kamchatka are discussed an the basis of a study of the mineralogy and geochemistry of the rocks and magmatic inclusions in phenocrysts. The exceptionally primitive composition of the phenocryst assemblage [olivine-Fo(88-95), Cr-spinel-Cr/(Cr + Al) up to 85] provides direct evidence of the mantle origin of primary melts, which were highly magnesian compositions (MgO 19-24 wt%). The rocks and melts are characterized by strong high field strength element (HFSE) depletion in comparison with rare earth elements, and high and variable levels of enrichment in large ion lithophile elements (LILE), P, K and H2O (0.6-1.2 wt% in picritic to basaltic melts). epsilon(Nd) values lie in a narrow range (+10.7 to +9.1), typical of N-MORB (mid-ocean ridge basalt), but Sr-87/Sr-86 (0.70316-0.70358) is slightly displaced from the mantle array. High-K ultramafic melts from Kamchatka are considered as a new magma type within the island-are magmatic spectrum; basaltic members of the suite resemble are shoshonites. The primary melts were produced under high-pressure (30-50 kbar) and high-temperature (1500-1700 oC) conditions by partial melting of a refractory peridotitic mantle.


It is a commonplace occurrence: a group of students gathers at the classroom window, watching the activities of birds and sharing their informal observations. But for Phyllis Whitin, her class, and her collaborator, David Whitin, what began as a common event grew into an uncommon journey of shared wonder and discovery. On one level, "Inquiry at the Window" is the story of an elementary classroom's yearlong study of birds. But it is also the story of children looking closely at their world, raising questions, confronting scientific problems, and becoming empowered by the fruits of their own efforts. It is the story of inquiry itself and an inspiration for any educator concerned with preserving and fueling the innate sense of wonder we all possess. In order to support their belief that inquiry is a spiraling, interwoven process, the authors do not offer a strictly chronological account of their year. Rather, they start with the premise that firsthand experience must be the beginning point for scientific study. We see students throughout the year sharing observations, interpreting their own scientific data, and constructing tentative theories. We also see them conversing with a community of learners that includes families, members of wildlife societies, and ornithologists--a remarkable process that generates further questions and legitimizes children as scientific thinkers in their own right. "Inquiry at the Window" leaves the reader not with a prescriptive formula to follow but with a vision of learning that celebrates surprise, thrives on doubt, and honors multiple perspectives. It will be a valuable resource for preservice and inservice teachers who want a close look at interdisciplinary learning.


BACKGROUND
Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has emerged as an acceptable treatment modality for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are deemed inoperable by conventional surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR). However, the role of TAVI in patients who are potential surgical candidates remains controversial.

METHODS
A systematic review was conducted using five electronic databases, identifying all relevant studies with comparative data on TAVI versus AVR. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality. A number of periprocedural outcomes were also assessed according to the Valve Academic Research Consortium endpoint definitions.

RESULTS
Fourteen studies were quantitatively assessed and included for meta-analysis, including two randomized controlled trials and eleven observational studies. Results indicated no significant differences between TAVI and AVR in terms of all-cause and cardiovascular related mortality, stroke, myocardial infarction or acute renal failure. A subgroup analysis of randomized controlled trials identified a higher combined incidence of stroke or transient ischemic attacks in the TAVI group compared to the AVR group. TAVI was also found to be associated with a significantly higher incidence of vascular complications, permanent pacemaker requirement and moderate or severe aortic regurgitation. However, patients who underwent AVR were more likely to experience major bleeding. Both treatment modalities appeared to effectively reduce the transvalvular mean pressure gradient.

CONCLUSIONS
The available data on TAVI versus AVR for patients at a higher surgical risk showed that major adverse outcomes such as mortality and stroke appeared to be similar between the two treatment modalities. Evidence on the outcomes of TAVI compared with AVR in the current literature is limited by inconsistent patient selection criteria, heterogeneous definitions of clinical endpoints and relatively short follow-up periods. The indications for TAVI should therefore be limited to inoperable surgical candidates until long-term data become available.


In the workplace, good punctuation is much more than a matter of correctness. It's a matter of efficiency. Professionals who aren't sure how to punctuate take more time than necessary to write, as they fret about the many inconsistent and contradictory rules they've picked up over the years. Good punctuation is also a matter of courtesy: In workplace writing, a sentence should yield its meaning instantly, but when punctuation is haphazard, readers need to work to understand – or guess at – the writer's intent. Weak punctuation results in time-wasting confusion, questions about professionalism, and some times even serious and costly miscommunication. Without using the jargon of grammar — and providing 18 common sense principles to live by — Punctuation at Work shows busy professionals exactly how the marks can be used to make meaning clear and emphasize ideas. All the marks are covered, with hundreds of examples taken from today's workplace. From hyphens and semicolons to brackets and quotation marks...all the way to ellipses (and the eternal struggle between "that" and "which"), this book explains the many ways punctuation makes things plain.


This study focused on obtaining sound quantitative data on the reproductive biology, length and age compositions and growth of the snapper Pagrus auratus in the waters off Carnarvon at ca 25oS and Perth at ca 32oS on the west coast of Australia and at ca 34oS on the south coast of Western Australia. Sampling thus encompassed both sub-tropical and temperate waters and the geographical range within which this species is abundant in Western Australia. The resultant data were used to explore the ways in which the biological characteristics of P. auratus differ with latitude and thus water temperature. An intensive sampling regime for eggs and spawning individuals of P. auratus was conducted in Cockburn Sound, a large marine embayment in the Perth region at ca 32oS. The resultant data were used to elucidate where and when spawning occurs in this large marine embayment and to determine more precisely the factors that influence the timing of spawning. The implications of the results presented in this thesis for the management of P. auratus, a species that has been subjected to very heavy fishing pressure in recent years, are discussed.

The time and duration of spawning of P. auratus in the subtropical waters of Carnarvon differed markedly from those recorded for this sparid in the temperate and cooler waters of the Perth and the south coast regions. Spawning at Carnarvon occurred predominantly in the five months between late autumn (May) and mid spring (September), whereas it took place mainly in the three months between mid spring (October) and early summer (December) in the Perth region. Spawning of P. auratus on the south coast occurred predominantly in October and November in 2003 and 2004 and scarcely at all in 2005. Gonadal recrudescence was thus initiated when water temperatures were close to their maximum but declining in Carnarvon, and close to their minima and rising in the Perth and south coast regions, respectively. The prevalence of fully mature and spawning females in all three regions was greatest in those months when water temperatures lay between 19 and 21oC. Collation of the data in this thesis and those provided in the literature for other populations showed that the spawning period was related to latitude, occurring far earlier in sub-tropical than temperate waters.

The females and males attained maturity at a far smaller total length (L50) in the Carnarvon region, i.e. 378 and 353 mm, respectively, than in the Perth region, 585 and 566 mm, respectively, and also the south coast region, i.e. 600 and 586 mm. The trends exhibited by the age at maturity parallel those for length, with the A50s for the two sexes increasing from ca 4 years in Carnarvon to ca 5.6 years in the Perth region and nearly 7 years in the south coast region. The L50 and A50 at maturity thus both increased with increasing latitude.

Marginal increment analysis demonstrated that, irrespective of the number of opaque zones in the otoliths of P. auratus, a single such opaque zone is laid down each year in these otoliths. Furthermore, the trends exhibited by the monthly marginal increments showed that the opaque zone is laid down predominantly in winter in the subtropical waters of Carnarvon, as opposed to mainly in spring in the temperate waters of the Perth and south coast regions. Thus, the timing of formation of the opaque zone in the otoliths of P. auratus along the Western Australian coast is not related to the trends exhibited by water temperature, but, in both the Carnvarvon and Perth regions, was coincident with the timing of spawning.

The maximum total lengths recorded for females and males in the Carnarvon region, i.e. 864 and 840 mm, respectively, were considerably less than the corresponding values of 1051 and 1056 mm in the Perth region, and 1083 and 1099 mm in the south coast region. Growth in the Perth and south coast regions was greater than in Carnarvon, as is reflected in, for example, the respective lengths of 820, 720 and 610 mm for females at 10 years of age, as determined from the von Bertalanffy growth equations.

The length and age compositions in the Carnarvon and south coast regions were essentially unimodal, whereas those in the Perth region were bimodal. However, the 'mode' in the length-frequency distribution for the south coast region was located well to the right of that in the Carnarvon region, reflecting relatively lower contributions by individuals of the age cohorts of 3 to 6 years. The marked bimodality in the length-frequency distribution for P. auratus in the Perth region was due to the presence of a group of mainly smaller individuals caught outside Cockburn Sound and another of mainly larger individuals that were caught in Cockburn Sound and which formed part of a spawning aggregation in that embayment.

The proportion of fish > 10 years old in the Carnarvon region declined markedly between 2003 and the following two years, presumably reflecting the effect of heavy fishing pressure. This contributed to the decision by fisheries managers to reduced the TAC in those waters after 2003. Age-frequency data demonstrated that annual recruitment success in Cockburn Sound varied greatly, with the 1991, 1992 and 1996 year classes being particularly strong, and recognizing that the relative numbers of the first two year classes did decline progressively between 2002 and 2004. Annual recruitment was particularly variable in the south coast region, with the catches of the 1996 year class dominating the samples.

The relative number of early stage P. auratus eggs in ichthyoplankton samples collected from Cockburn sound on each of four new moons during the spawning seasons of four consecutive years peaked in November in three of those years, i.e. 2001, 2003 and 2004, and in November/December in the remaining year, i.e. 2002. This showed that spawning in this embayment peaked during these months, at which times the mean sea surface temperatures ranged only from 19 to 20oC.

The prevalence of spawning fraction females in sequential samples demonstrated that spawning peaks at the new and, to a lesser extent, full moons. This helps account for the strong positive correlation between spawning fraction and tidal regime, with spawning being greatest when the tidal range is greatest.

Spawning times, back-calculated from the ages of the eggs collected during ichthyoplankton surveys in Cockburn Sound on each of 16 new moons within the spawning periods of four successive years, demonstrated that, in this embayment, P. auratus spawns at night and within the first three hours of the onset of the ebb tide. The distribution of egg concentrations on the 16 new moons showed that, each year, spawning occurred firstly in the north-eastern area of Cockburn Sound and then in the middle and finally north-western areas of this embayment.

In the Perth region, the marine embayments of Cockburn and Warnbro Sound act as nursery areas for P. auratus during the first two years of life. The majority of 2 to 5 year old fish and a large proportion of the 6 year old fish occupy the marine waters outside the embayments. The remaining 6 year old and almost all of the older fish begin to move in September into particularly Cockburn Sound, where they form relatively large spawning aggregations between October and December, before undergoing a massive emigration from this embayment in December/January. The limited returns from fish that were tagged in Cockburn Sound and were subsequently caught outside this embayment indicate that, following spawning, P. auratus does not tend to move in a particular direction.

Pagrus auratus stocks are heavily exploited in offshore, oceanic waters and in embayments, such as Cockburn Sound, where they are particularly susceptible to capture because of the tendency of this species to form spawning aggregations in these same easily accessible locations each year. The data obtained during this thesis show that the L50 at maturity of females and males in temperate waters, i.e. nearly 600 mm, is far greater than the current minimum legal length (MLL) of 410 mm TL. There is thus a need to increase the MLL and/or reduce fishing pressure on immature individuals in open waters. However, the effectiveness of an increase in the MLL may be limited because there is evidence that P. auratus suffers from fishing-induced barotrauma. Closures of specific areas during the spawning season of P. auratus, such as those that have been applied in Cockburn Sound and Shark Bay, are potentially a very effective method for reducing the effects of heavy fishing on spawning individuals.


The object of this study was to test individual differentiation between the emotions Hope and Challenge/Determination in terms of motivational, cognitive, and behavioral components. The former emotion requires a more globalized and potentially optimistic appraisal process while the latter is reliant on self-motivation to a greater extent in a short-term context. If individuals are asked to recall hopeful or challenging memories in open-ended and other appraisal-focused self-report measures are they more likely to be able to generally differentiate between the emotions? We found that psychological ownership and internal motivation in a task plays a pivotal role Determination while Hope relies on a relationship to external factors; both emotions utilize problem-focused coping to a greater extent than emotion-focused coping potential.


On June 16, the SEC made public new rules intended to increase transparency and reduce conflicts of interest in the credit rating process for fixed-income instruments. The proposal may be most important for what it does not do: The SEC does not plan to forbid the "issuer-pays" system, in which the rating agencies are paid by the parties whose products are being evaluated. Although the SEC apparently has the power to ban issuer-pays and recognizes that the arrangement creates potential conflicts of interest, the proposed rules address issuer-pays only through a half measure that appears unlikely to be effective.


Developing and maintaining a digital library requires substantial investments that are not simply a matter of technological decisions, but include also organizational issues (user roles, workflows, types of contents, etc.). These issues are often handled by approaches based on a physical perspective that treats the stored information either in terms of data formats or physical space needed to archive them. All these perspectives completely ignore the semantic aspects of the digital contents. In this paper, we address such a semantic perspective. More specifically, we propose a service-oriented architecture that explicitly includes a semantic layer which provides primitive services to the applications built on top of the digital library. As part of this layer, a specific component is described: the PIRATES framework. This module assists end users to complete several tasks concerning the retrieval of the most relevant content with respect to a description of their information needs (a search query, a user profile, etc.). Techniques of user modeling, adaptive personalization, and knowledge representation are exploited to build the PIRATES services in order to fill the gap existing between traditional and semantic digital libraries.


This article discusses the major contributions (Krumboltz & Worthington, 1999; Lent, Hackett, & Brown, 1999; Savickas, 1999; Swanson & Fouad, 1999) to this special issue of The Career Development Quarterly on the application of career development theories to the school-to-work transition. Common thematic elements in these 4 articles include a focus on the individual who faces the transition from high school to work and an emphasis on the developmental aspects of the transition. The article concludes with a cautionary recommendation that theory-building efforts derived from the individual experiences of work-bound youth ought to be included in theoretical and intervention initiatives to facilitate the school-to-work transition. The four articles in this special issue reflect sophisticated thinking by some of the leading scholars in our field. One might suggest that the synthesis of the major theoretical perspectives in career development with the challenges of the school-to-work movement is a match made in heaven. As a whole, the articles by Savickas ( 1999), Krumboltz and Worthington (1999), Swanson and Fouad (1999), and Lent, Hackett, and Brown ( 1999) are thoughtfully written, innovative, and far-reaching in their implications. In fact, a significant part of my reaction to these papers affirms the belief that a careful integration of the school-to-work transition with the four bodies of theory detailed in these articles represents a great opportunity for both work-bound youth and for the continued vitality of the theoretical foundation of our discipline. However, when I consider these articles in light of the knowledge I have gained in my recent research into the school-to-work transition (Blustein, Phillips, JobinDavis, Finkelberg, & Roarke, 1997), my reactions become more complex and equivocal. In this discussion, I seek to reconcile these views to create space for applications of existing theories as well as new perspectives derived from the contemporary experiences of work-bound youth. COMMON THEMATIC ELEMENTS Much of the school-to-work literature, although rich with ideas from sociology, economics, and education, tends to downplay the experience of the individual (Worthington & Juntunen, 1997). The advantage of the articles in this issue, however, is that, taken together, they emphasize the psychological experiences of youth who are making the transition from high school to work. In contrast to the human capital theory assumptions that underlie many of the policy-based initiatives undertaken in this decade (Sweetland, 1996), career development theory emphasizes that individuals have the potential to exercise some agency in the school-to-work transition, assuming that certain psychological and social factors are in place (Krumboltz & Worthington, 1999; Lent et al., 1999; Savickas, 1999; Swanson & Fouad, 1999). The explicit application of existing career development theories, therefore, provides scholars with the conceptual tools they need to understand more fully the antecedents and consequences of an active and involved approach to the school-to-work transition. In each of these articles, the focus on the individual reveals important insights about how work-bound youth can optimize their influence in a process that is very much dominated by broader social and economic forces. Savickas's (1999) thoughtful conclusions about the importance of awareness, information, and planning are generally consistent with a growing body of literature on the school-to-work transition that has emerged from other scholarly arenas, such as sociological analyses and narrative studies of working-class youth (Borman, 1991; Evans & Heinz, 1994). Swanson and Fouad ( 1999) present an excellent synthesis of the challenges of the school-towork transition from the perspective of person-environment (PE) fit theories. In contrast to the evident focus on the environment in current discourse on the school-to-work transition (Worthington & Juntunen, 1997), both the developmental and PE Fit theories encourage balanced perspectives that focus on the space between the individual and the context. …


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of exercise and osteochondral injury on concentrations of carboxy-terminal telopeptide fragments of type II collagen (CTX-II) in synovial fluid (SF) and serum of Thoroughbred racehorses and to compare findings with radiographic and arthroscopic scores of joint injury severity.

ANIMALS
78 Thoroughbreds with (n = 38) and without (40) osteochondral injury.

PROCEDURES
Serum and metacarpophalangeal or carpal joint SF samples were collected from noninjured horses before and at the end of 5 to 6 months of race training (pre- and postexercise samples, respectively) and from horses with osteochondral injury (1 joint assessed/horse). Synovial fluid and serum CTX-II concentrations were determined by use of an ELISA. Radiographic and arthroscopic scores of joint injury severity were determined for the injured horses.

RESULTS
The CTX-II concentrations in SF and SF:serum CTX-II ratio were significantly higher for horses with joint injuries, compared with pre- and postexercise findings in noninjured horses. Serum CTX-II concentrations in postexercise and injured-horse samples were significantly lower than values in pre-exercise samples. On the basis of serum and SF CTX-II concentrations and SF:serum CTX-II ratio, 64% to 93% of serum and SF samples were correctly classified into their appropriate group (pre-exercise, postexercise, or injured-joint samples). In horses with joint injuries, arthroscopic scores were positively correlated with radiographic scores, but neither score correlated with SF or serum CTX-II concentration.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggested that serum and SF CTX-II concentrations and SF:serum CTX-II ratio may be used to detect cartilage degradation in horses with joint injury.


The purpose of this article is to provide an analysis on the use of Small Claims Courts as a mechanism to improve access to justice in order to support the ongoing reform movement in Latin-American countries in civil matters. In this region, this essential information is intended to be used by policymakers to help judiciaries to confront several barriers that currently face common citizens: lack of information, high economic cost of the judicial process and obtaining legal representation, corruption, extreme formalism, delays, and even the geographical location of the courts. The experience on the implementation of the Small Claims Courts in the United States, with the modifi cations made during the 60' and the 70's as a result of the consumers' movement, may contribute to the discussion in countries where is too much to be done in providing access to justice to groups of populations traditionally excluded, at least in many civil matters. With this purpose, the author have made an empirical research at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse of the Los Angeles Superior Court fi nding that even when some reforms could improve the system, with the proper incentives and with restrictions for corporate plaintiffs to avoid systemic abuse, this mechanism can become the people's court.


Intense pulsed neutron generation based on the principle of Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation (PI) technique Motloung, Setumo Victor M.Sc thesis, Department of Physics, University of the Western Cape The development of a deuterium-deuterium/ tritium-deuterium (D-D/ D-T) pulsed neutron generator based on the principle of the Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation (PI) technique is presented, in terms of investigating development of a compact system to generate an ultra short burst of mono-energetic neutrons (of order 1010 per second) during a short period of time (< 20μs) at repetition rates up to 1 kHz. The system will facilitate neutron detection techniques, such as neutron back-scattering, neutron radiography and time-of-flight activation analysis. Aspects addressed in developing the system includes (a) characterizing the neutron spectra generated as a function of the target configuration/ design to ensure a sustained intense neutron flux for long periods of time, (b) the system was also characterised as a function of power supply operating conditions such as voltage, current, gas pressure and plasma density.


The study contributes to the development of 'standards' for the application of matching algorithms in empirical evaluation studies. The focus is on the first step of the matching procedure, the choice of an appropriate distance function. Supplementary to most former studies, the simulation is strongly based on empirical evaluation situations. This reality orientation induces the focus on small samples. Furthermore, variables with different scale levels must be considered explicitly in the matching process. The choice of the analysed distance functions is determined by the results of former theoretical studies and recommendations in the empirical literature. Thus, in the simulation, two balancing scores (the propensity score and the index score) and the Mahalanobis distance are considered. Additionally, aggregated statistical distance functions not yet used for empirical evaluation are included. The matching outcomes are compared using non-parametrical scale-specific tests for identical distributions of the characteristics in the treatment and the control groups. The simulation results show that, in small samples, aggregated statistical distance functions are the better choice for summarising similarities in differently scaled variables compared to the commonly used measures.


The research presents a methodology and tool development which delineates a performance-based design integration to address the design, simulation, and proving of an intelligent building skin design and its impact on daylighting performance. Through the design of an algorithm and parametric process for integrating daylighting performance into the design phase an automated configuration evaluation is achieved. Specifically the tool enables design exploration of semi autonomous and fully autonomous configurations of an exterior building envelope louver system. The research situates itself in the field of intelligent building skins and adds to the existing solutions a validation of systems with interdependent louvers of varying tilt angles. The system is designed to respond to dynamic daylighting conditions and occupants' preferences. Within the framework of this study, Grasshopper, Rhino, Galapagos and DIVA, are linked and coded into one integrated process, facilitating design optioneering with near real time feedback. The paper concludes with a description of the tool set's extensibility, future incorporation of domain integration, and conflation of natural and physical system interaction and complexity.


This paper extends UNU-WIDER Working Paper 2016/79, which examined the economic situation in Tanzania during the resurgence of gold and diamond production after 1999, with the situation that emerged as the country began to exploit its very large resources of natural gas mainly from the Indian Ocean. The mining boom after 1999 provided the authorities with significant lessons and opportunities associated with managing natural resource wealth. The present paper additionally examines some of the specific policy and regulatory decisions taken since 2015, and tries to assess how the multiple challenges of new natural gas wealth are being addressed. It concludes that the experience thus far is not encouraging.


In this piece, I take issue with one of the fundamental tenets of law and economics as it has been used to justify gender discrimination in the pricing of life insurance and annuities, namely, that individuals should bear their own identifiable costs so as to avoid misallocation of society's resources. Most scholars of the law and economics persuasion have argued that unisex pricing of life insurance products is a bad idea because on the average women live longer than men. They argue that it costs more to insure the life of a man because the payoff comes sooner and the present value is greater. Thus, to charge men and women the same price for life insurance would constitute a subsidy running from women (who would pay too much) to men (who would pay too little). As a result, men would buy too much insurance and women would buy too little. Using a simple example, I show here that gender-based pricing results in radically different outcomes for male and female consumers if one focuses on income rather than present value. Gender-based pricing means that a man must set aside more from his pay during life in order to secure the same insurance benefits as a woman. And a woman who uses the proceeds to buy an annuity must suffer lower benefits for a longer time than a man. In short, if one looks either at the periodic outlay by the insured or at the income available to the beneficiary under an annuity, gender-based pricing appears to be quite at odds with the reasons why people buy insurance and how much they buy. Perhaps more important, in the absence of market failure, men and women would bargain around gender-based rates (and in many cases they effectively do so), which suggests that it is gender-based rates that result in the misallocation of resources. The problem with gender-based rates lies in two unstated premises: (1) that the present value of lump sum insurance benefits is an accurate measure of value to a consumer, and (2) that unisex pricing will cause consumers to buy more or less insurance or annuities than under gender-based pricing. Most people buy insurance with a view to the income it will generate for the beneficiary. Clearly, people buy annuities to provide themselves income. In both cases, the value of the product inheres in the periodic income it generates and not the length of time over which that income will be received. Indeed, the very existence of annuities proves the point. Annuities exist only because many people are willing to trade a lump sum for an assured income. In other words, the essential idea behind an annuity is that people care more about income than about lump sum values. Thus, even though the present value of a man's death benefit is higher than a woman's death benefit because it will likely be paid sooner, what matters most to the consumer is the income it will generate for the beneficiary. This difference in perspectives is critical. Insurance companies live forever. People do not. Hence, although the cost of writing insurance and annuities quite rightly concerns the insurance company, it has nothing to do with the value perceived by the insured. Thus, because it is value and not cost that motivates someone to buy something, the idea that there is a subsidy implicit in unisex insurance rates is mistaken. For the consumer, the purpose of life insurance and annuities is to hedge against the risk that one will die early or late. The present value of the benefits is irrelevant. In addition, the most important factor that determines the amount of insurance one will buy is the amount one can spend up to the point of adequate coverage. Thereafter, it is unlikely that cheaper insurance will induce people to buy more. Insurance is a hedge, not a bet. And it makes no sense to hedge more risk than you have.


Leukocytes may be the source of inflammation-resolving lipid mediators after myocardial infarction. Calming the heart after a heart attack Although leukocytes can trigger inflammation that aggravates a heart attack, they can also produce bioactive resolving mediators that suppress inflammation. Halade et al. tracked leukocyte populations and measured the concentrations of proresolving bioactive mediators that attenuate inflammation in mice subjected to coronary ligation, an experimental method of inducing myocardial infarction that progresses to irreversible heart failure. Their analysis suggests that leukocytes were mobilized from the spleen to the infarcted heart to produce proresolving mediators and specific depletion of macrophages was associated with the biosynthesis of proresolving mediators. Thus, generally preventing immune cell infiltration after a heart attack may also delay healing and recovery by allowing inflammation to continue abated. Inflammation promotes healing in myocardial infarction but, if unresolved, leads to heart failure. To define the inflammatory and resolving responses, we quantified leukocyte trafficking and specialized proresolving mediators (SPMs) in the infarcted left ventricle and spleen after myocardial infarction, with the goal of distinguishing inflammation from its resolution. Our data suggest that the spleen not only served as a leukocyte reservoir but also was the site where SPMs were actively generated after coronary ligation in mice. Before myocardial infarction, SPMs were more abundant in the spleen than in the left ventricle. At day 1 after coronary ligation, the spleen was depleted of leukocytes, a phenomenon that was associated with greater numbers of leukocytes in the infarcted left ventricle and increased generation of SPMs at the same site, particularly resolvins, maresin, lipoxins, and protectin. In addition, the infarcted left ventricle showed increased expression of genes encoding lipoxygenases and enhanced production of SPMs generated by these enzymes. We found that macrophages were necessary for SPM generation. The abundance of SPMs in the spleen before myocardial infarction and increased SPM concentrations in the infarcted left ventricle within 24 hours after myocardial infarction were temporally correlated with the resolution of inflammation. Thus, the acute inflammatory response coincided with the active resolving phase in post–myocardial infarction and suggests that further investigation into macrophage-derived SPMs in heart failure is warranted.


Golden potato cyst nematode, Globodera rostochiensis (Wollenweber) Behrens, is one of the most important soilborne pathogens causing economic losses in potato. The nematode is known to occur in several countries including Turkey and has a worldwide regulatory concern. In this study, identification and genetic diversity of G. rostochiensis 35 I G. rostochiensis. The variation between G. rostochiensis populations was determined when examined according to ecological and pathogenic characteristics of nematode in Turkey. The cysts of G. rostochiensis were identified by measuring the morphological characters using perennial patterns, vulval cone, vulval basin and juveniles. Phylogenetic analysis of the Large Sub Unit (LSU) region of rDNA sequences was used to assess the inter or intra phylogenetic relationships between the nematode populations. The phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that the nematode specimens from Turkey cluster with Globodera spp. and signified the presence of single species of G. rostochiensis. As a result, morphological, morphometric and molecular methods were successfully combined for identification and characterization of G. rostochiensis. The frequency of G. rostochiensis in regulatory samples from potato-producing areas is becoming increasingly important. The morphological characterization has several complications in the detection of this quarantine nematode, using of this combination is beneficial for a reliable and quick diagnostic for these nematodes which is crucial for regulatory services and growers. The results might help to investigate different ecotypes of G. rostochiensis for comprehensive understanding about physiology, ecology, and biology of the genus Globodera for its effective management in Turkey. © 2020 Friends Science Publishers


Wide climatic variability is characteristic for large parts of China including events of extreme anomalies. This paper presents a time series covering the period 1958 to 1988 for monthly temperature and precipitation in China for a 5x5 km grid cell size. Monthly station histories (265 for temperature and 310 for rainfall), long-term averages of mean monthly temperature and rainfall on a 5 km grid, and a digital elevation mode (DEM) are the input data used to build the time series data base. Individual station anomalies in terms of deviation from the 31-year average were calculated and interpolated throughout China using the Mollifier interpolation technique. It uses a statistical approach to non-parametric interpolation. As a result data is available for monthly anomaly surfaces for all the years. By linking these to the long-term average grid maps we derive a time series of temperature and rainfall for China. Maps were produced for anomalies, and for absolute temperature and precipitation in each year between 1958 and 1988. Along with maps indicating variability at the stations, others have been completed based on the interpolated time series. Due to surface smoothing of the interpolation the variability of the interpolated time series is usually lower than the one based upon station observations. Temperature variability is quite low during the summer half. Anomalies are mostly less than 2 C in nearly all of China. During the winter months the anomaly increases up to 6 C with the highest variability in modern China and on the plateau. the pattern of monthly anomalies is stable in that relatively large areas show the same trend of deviation. Variability of rainfall shows large differences in spatial and temporal terms. Rainfall variability is highest during winter when rainfall is low. Especially the monthly data offer a comprehensive insight into seasonal differences in regional rainfall variability. In northern China's agricultural productive areas variability is high during the spring months, decreases in summer and increases as of September. In the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang river basin variability is high in July and August amounting to as much as over 50%. Variability is relatively low in Southwest China, which includes the fertile Sichuan basin. Also in China's northeastern agricultural areas variability is relatively low during the growing season. From a policy point of view it is also of interest to aggregate the data for certain geographic regions. Results for provinces and major watersheds are presented. The interpolated surfaces are validated by comparing them with the station observations available in this study. Anomaly surfaces validation is determined by the interpolation error. There is a good fit for temperature anomaly surfaces compared to observed station anomalies. Because of the high spatial variability of rainfall anomalies including the possibility of extreme events in selected stations, interpolated anomalies are usually reduced during the interpolation. The temperature and rainfall time series validation is, in addition by the interpolation error, influenced by the differences in the 31-year average observed at the stations and the average presented in the long-term average grids to which the anomaly surfaces are linked.


This paper presents Protected Execution Facility (PEF), a virtual machine-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) for confidential computing on Power ISA. PEF enables protected secure virtual machines (SVMs). Like other TEEs, PEF verifies the SVM prior to execution. PEF utilizes a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), secure boot, and trusted boot as well as newly introduced architectural changes for Power ISA systems. Exploiting these architectural changes requires new firmware, the Protected Execution Ultravisor. PEF is supported in the latest version of the POWER9 chip. PEF demonstrates that access control for isolation and cryptography for confidentiality is an effective approach to confidential computing. We particularly focus on how our design (i) balances between access control and cryptography, (ii) maximizes the use of existing security components, and (iii) simplifies the management of the SVM life cycle. Finally, we evaluate the performance of SVMs in comparison to normal virtual machines on OpenPOWER systems.


Background The long-term clinical and physiological consequences of COVID-19 infection remain unclear. While fatigue has emerged as a common symptom following infection, little is known about its links with autonomic dysfunction. SARS-CoV-2 is known to infect endothelial cells in acute infection, resulting in autonomic dysfunction. Here we set out to test the hypothesis that this results in persistent autonomic dysfunction and is associated with post-COVID fatigue in convalescent patients. Methods We recruited 20 fatigued and 20 non-fatigued post-COVID patients (median age 44.5 years, 36/40 (90%) female, median time to follow up 166.5 days). Fatigue was assessed using the Chalder Fatigue Scale. These underwent the Ewing's autonomic function test battery, including deep breathing, active standing, Valsalva manoeuvre and cold-pressor testing, with continuous electrocardiogram and blood pressure monitoring, as well as near-infrared spectroscopy-based cerebral oxygenation. 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was also conducted, and patients completed the generalised anxiety disorder-7 questionnaire. We assessed between-group differences in autonomic function test results and used unadjusted and adjusted linear regression to investigate the relationship between fatigue, anxiety, and autonomic test results. Results We found no pathological differences between fatigued and non-fatigued patients on autonomic testing or on 24-hour blood pressure monitoring. Symptoms of orthostatic intolerance were reported by 70% of the fatigued cohort at the time of active standing, with no associated physiological abnormality detected. Fatigue was strongly associated with increased anxiety (p <0.001), with no patients having a pre-existing diagnosis of anxiety. Conclusions These results demonstrate the significant burden of fatigue, symptoms of autonomic dysfunction and anxiety in the aftermath of COVID-19 infection, but reassuringly do not demonstrate pathological findings on autonomic testing.


A large-scale railgun is being considered by the U.S. navy as a future long range (>200 nm) naval weapon system. The notional concept includes a 15 kg projectile with a 2.5 km/sec muzzle velocity. The choice of bore and rail geometry for such a weapon can influence key aspects of the total system design. This study explored a range of bore and rail geometries and looked at their effects on key railgun system parameters such as parasitic mass, inductance gradient, linear current density, required pulse forming network (PFN) size, and barrel mass. Preliminary solid modeling and structural analysis of the integrated launch package was performed in order to quantify parasitic mass. Inductance gradient calculations were based on a current density distribution analysis. A PFN/Launcher numerical simulation model was then used to determine linear current density and PFN size. Finally, barrel mass was estimated by structural analysis based on calculated rail repulsive forces. Trends and sensitivities of the different parameters to changes in the bore and rail geometries are presented and conclusions are given.


A series of new Schiff bases derived from benzothiazolone moiety were synthesized under thermal and ultrasound irradiation conditions, by reaction of 6-amino-benzothiazolone intermediates with various substituted 2- hydroxybenzaldehydes. The chemical structures of the prepared compounds 5a-5h were characterized by their melting point, spectral and analytical data. The newly synthesized compounds were in good agreement with the proposed structures. Ultrasound irradiations gave a lower reaction time to offer products 5a-5h in higher yields than those obtained by the conventional method where their yields increased from 67-87% to 91-98%. All the compounds were screened for in vitro antioxidant activity. The free radical scavenging activities have been determined by measuring their interaction with the stable free radical 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazylhydrate. Result indicated that the 6-(5-Bromo-2-hydroxybenzylideneamino)benzo[d]thiazol-2(3H)-one (5e) showed the most favorable antioxidant activity exhibiting IC50 of 32.55 μM.


In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, politics is decisive for change, but poorly understood, sometimes neglected and often depicted using rigid models. The new book 'Perspectives on Politics, Production and Public Administration in Africa: Essays in Honour of Ole Therkildsen' seeks to dig below the surface and do justice to the complexity of the politics of production and public administration in Africa. The book is a "Festschrift†in honour of Ole Therkildsen, Emeritus Researcher at DIIS. With his delightful ability to take a critical look at conventional views, his passionate engagement in discussions of development, his satirical comments on Danish politics, and his modesty regarding his own work, Ole is a much appreciated colleague and collaborator. The essays in the book have been written by specialists in development and African politics who have all interacted with Ole as researchers or development practitioners. The thread running through the essays is a common concern with politics, how it should be understood and how it shapes development by covering issues related to foreign aid, local government, public administration, taxation, agriculture and political systems.


Title of Dissertation: DISCERNING INTRA-METROPOLITAN PATTERNS OF PRODUCER SERVICE ESTABLISHMENT LOCATION USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS Francis E. Lindsay, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Martha Geores Department of Geography This research presented in this dissertation explores the spatial distribution of producer service establishments in the Washington DC area for 1997. Producer services are a distinct and important segment of the US industrial economy. These businesses provide the intermediary goods and services that are used as inputs for many other industrial sectors. Producer service employment and sales have grown substantially during the 1990s in relation to other portions of the overall US economy, surpassing growth in most sectors including other types of services. The majority of producer service research tends to focus on these services at the national scale or comparative studies of whole metropolitan areas. This work presents the findings for two complementary producer service research problems pertinent to intra-metropolitan spatial scale research, the contribution of face-to-face interaction to the spatial concentration of these services using sales between particular producer services, and the entropy (or diversity) of services within postal code areas and how this measure correlates to the presence or absence of particular producer services. The findings indicate that there is empirical evidence of a relationship between the strength of intra-sector trade and the degree of spatial concentration of producer service establishments. This analysis also demonstrates that some producer service sectors known to have weak trade relations to other producer services do locate in areas with a lower diversity of services. The results of this research add to a growing body of research and theory that centers on interpreting the role of producer services in shaping metropolitan economies. The spatial component of producer service establishment location in research is often neglected entirely or is superficially referenced. This geographic research provides the spatial dimension of producer service activities occurring at very fine scales within a metropolitan spatial economy. The results are only applicable to the study area but the methodology is useful and offers a potential for broader utility in producer service research endeavors.


This study focuses on how firms form and sequentially adapt their inter-organizational knowledge sourcing structures within research and development (R&D) alliances and how this process impacts their innovation performance. In contrast to the previous literature that mainly ignores the dynamic aspects of how firms adapt their search strategies, our approach accounts for sequential adaptation. Our proposed framework explores the role of simultaneous diversification and sequential adaptation of collaboration partners within R&D alliances according to specific innovation outcomes. The results emphasize that firms should not remain within the same search activities indefinitely, as nonadapting inter-organizational knowledge transfer structures lead to inferior performance. Notably, this study highlights important partner-type selectivity and identifies appropriate simultaneous diversification and sequential adaptation strategies in relation to specific innovation outcomes and firm sizes.


NOTE: The correct URL to access the Sybex interactive online test bank and study tools is www.wiley.com/go/sybextestprep. The books back cover, Introduction, and last page in the bookprovided the wrong URL. We apologize for any confusion and inconvenience this may have caused you. Comprehensive interactive exam preparation plus expert insight from the field CompTIA Server+ Study Guide Exam SK0-004 is your ideal study companion for the SK0-004 exam. With 100% coverage of all exam objectives, this guide walks you through system hardware, software, storage, best practices, disaster recovery, and troubleshooting, with additional coverage of relevant topics including virtualization, big data, cloud storage, security, and scalability. Get an 'in the trenches' view of how server and data storage administration works in a real-world IT environment. From the basics through advanced topics, you'll learn how to deliver world-class solutions in today's evolving organizations by getting under the hood of technologies that enable performance, resiliency, availability, recoverability, and simplicity. Gain access to the Sybex interactive online learning environment, which features electronic flashcards, a searchable glossary, test bank, and bonus practice exams to reinforce what you have learned. Using and understanding in-house storage devices and the cloud has become an urgent skill for any IT professional. This is your comprehensive, expert driven study guide for taking the CompTIA Server+ exam SK0-004 Study 100% of exam objectives and more Understand storage design, implementation, and administration Utilize bonus practice exams and study tools Gain a real-world perspective of data storage technology CompTIA Server+ Study Guide Exam SK0-004 is your ticket to exam day confidence.


This study involved distance learners who enrolled as part time students with the Allied Sciences Faculty, National University of Malaysia. Most of these students are adult learners who possess a Diploma in Health Sciences and are attached to various health institutions throughout Malaysia. These students had to take a preparatory reading course during their first year to facilitate reading health-related references which are written in English. In this course, the course designers assigned two assignments which the students needed to complete through the online forum discussion. The main aim of these assignments was to assist them in developing comprehension of the two units in the course materials which were in the form of hypermedia documents. Besides the given course materials, they were also encouraged to do further reading from the prescribed websites and other relevant sources related to the themes of the two units. Due to limited contact hours face-to-face, online forum is considered an important medium of communication particularly for distance learners who have little opportunity to attend face-to-face tutorials and discussions. Hence, this study was embarked on in order to find out the benefits of the online forum as a communication platform to enhance the students' reading comprehension of health sciences materials. This study adopts the qualitative approach whereby distance learners were interviewed to collect data. They were also given a questionnaire to corroborate the data from the interviews. The online forum threaded discussions of a set of class of 22 students were also analyzed. The results of this study prove that online forums do enhance the students' reading comprehension.