The quiet young girl with thick eyebrows arching over blue eyes sat quietly, waiting for her chin to be sewn, and took it all in. The room was nearly full. Most of the people waiting with her were familiar to her, seemed to know her, glanced from her to her mother and formed the unspoken gossip with their eyes. This was life in a small town. She avoided their stares much as she suppressed the pain of her chin. Looking through the door, she saw the starched white nurses waiting on the doctor. She didn't ever want to wait on anybody. She wanted to be waited on. The doctor had something in his right hand, brought it down to a bare leg, then away, then down and away again. The girl caught the pungency of iodine, the steel-sharp scent of alcohol. There were old magazines she didn't want to read and a chart of fruits and vegetables on the wall. She was bored. She was tired. She was hurting. Next, said the skinny nurse, and the young girl followed her mother into the next room. She sat on the table, tried to cover the rip in the knee of her jeans with a hand, and looked around. How old are you, honey? asked the older nurse with the glasses on a chain. Has she had her shots? she asked the girl's mother. Nine, said the girl. Yes, said her mother. They're up to date. Dee-Pee-Tee? Just last year, in school, answered her mother. Laughter shot from the adjacent examining room, then shuffling, a clinking of metal on glass, and the doctor breezed in. He was tall, young, happy-looking. He probably had kids of his own. My God, he said, what beautiful eyes! And your eyebrows, young lady . She takes after her father, said the girl's mother. Those are his bushy black eyebrows. Privately, the girl loathed her eyebrows. She would pluck them as soon as she got home to her room. Yes, said the surgeon, oh yes, I see . He knows about the divorce, thought the young girl. Everybody in town knows about the divorce. It's down to bone, said the surgeon to no one in particular. Pretty bad cut, actually. It'll take some time three layers. June, he said, lifting his head to the older nurse and nodding toward the waiting room, see if Bob can come down and help with them. The shot stung severely, and then her chin went numb. Stitching the wound took more than an hour-she was a pretty girl, after all, and the surgeon, skilled enough in plastics, took his time with her. Through the drape covering her face, the young girl answered with staccato yeses and noes the surgeon's questions about school, about play, about friends and pets and brothers and sisters. But with the mind of a discontented, troubled 9-year-old, she heard more than questions and felt far more than her simple answers. The surgeon's voice was not the harsh, abusive, slurred male voice to which she had been accustomed. This voice was kind and deep, holding gentleness rather. She felt touched by it and its caress, allowed herself to be soothed by it, permitted herself a small bit of hope and a fleeting arousal of what she would later call love. It's like Cassiopeia, said the surgeon. You know, the constellation Cassiopeia. Your laceration, it's a sort of lazy W, like Cassiopeia. And it was in this way that his pet name for her came to be. For the next 4 years, until puberty struck her like a hot shower, the young girl cherished that moment with the surgeon, frequented the hospital through any excuse to volunteer or visit, so she might happen upon him, to hear him call her Cass, to feel him touch the lazy W on her chin, and to bask in the attention of her secret, very part-time surrogate father. But together with Chance's shifts and realignments, with Progress' seeming advance and sorry decline, 14 years more passed by. For the young girl, now a handsome young woman in hip-length white coat, stethoscope slung around neck, pockets jammed with note-cards, black book, pins, percussion hammer, and tuning fork, these were years of frenetic pace and postponement-years of endless study and ceaseless competition, of anatomy and melancholia, of friends who never were, of slices of nephrons stared at through exhausted eyes rather than slices of life consumed through eager lips. These were years of quick sex for its own sake rather than relationships for the hope of intimacy, and, for the young woman particularly, these were years of searching for other surrogate fathers. In the dust of memory mingled with tragedy of another kind, she had long since forgotten her surgeon of childhood. He had moved on to the City himself, a casualty of circumstance and life, and she had supplanted him with others-for one, with the cardiologist who had taught her physical diagnosis and who had taught her as well that a patient was merely a good case, demonstrated great clinical findings and little else, and that there were other great cases to be found rather than any story to be listened to. From this man she moved on to the senior resident who taught her how to take the history while examining the patient at the same time and, by so doing, minimize time spent with each hit. She slept with this resident as though it were part of the rotation, and while he worried about keeping it from his wife, she worried about The Match. It was all part of the hardening-up process, a part of this training of the physician of today. Legacy and tradition were never to tread upon her character. She was always there, always on the wards, always to be seen, noticed, appreciated. When she wasn't on call, she'd read about the other students' admissions, deftly one-upping them the next morning on teaching rounds. This was how you got ahead. She quickly learned that the professors were human, most of them every bit male, and so learned to dress and comport herself with just the proper degree of seductiveness. In this huge new world of Medicine as Business, of patients as clients, and of doctors as providers, she too was a commodity, after all. And the bottom line for her, while not yet money, was clearly the top of the ladder. The first years of residency she merely endured. There was little else one could do. When not serving up caths for the cardiologists, she was sorting through the stroked-out gomers, trash bags, and drunks in the emergency room. She had long since forgotten the quiet calm of the community hospital whose halls she had walked as a child. Now, this waiting room held druggies poised to infect her with HIV, alcoholics ready to vomit on her, and the swinging, lurching wildness of the crazed dirtballs whom she would punish in return with Foley and large-bore Levine. The last residency year was better. She could glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel: the fellowship that would rescue her from this darkalley existence and deliver her to the high-tech, pristine calm of the consultant. There was odd relief, too, in helping those poor bastards beneath her in training contend with what she had only too recently had to stomach herself, assisting them with last night's hits and today's drooling dispositions. She knew the ropes now, could teach them the short cuts, the quick paths around the crap of patient care. The attendings sympathized, of course. This was the medicine of today, the business of having to earn all of one's salary through patient care, make money for the department, and please the chief so he could be away. This was the mythical time of universal coverage in which indigents' costs were covered by seeing ever more patients faster and more efficiently. This was the time of the in-and-out, touch-the-shoulder race of bedside teaching rounds. It was the era of case presentation, with films on the viewing box, data on the blackboard, bagels and coffee on the conference table. As a fellow, the young woman began again to be excited about medicine. Now one of the boys, she began to be treated like the men, except on that occasion when allowing herself to be treated like a woman might further her own career, all the while learning from the men of medicine how one gets by in a man's world. Medicine as a discipline became more focused, narrowed, manageable, her hours more reasonable, sleep coming more predictably and in greater quantities. Cases now were consults. Now she could be insulated by intern, resident, and attending from the dirtball and his obligatory rectal exam. Now she could think in terms of pre-excitation rather than palpitation, plaque formation rather than chest pain, and wires and devices, forgetting the tedium of a tiresome patient's fainting spells. Oh, still the occasional consult might bring her too close to the patient and that hell of early residency. Even now she might be compelled to linger at the bedside while some goddamn student with whom she had been saddled to teach and who wouldn't take it doesn't matter for an answer searched for the diastolic sound. That there might ever be in these encounters with patient and student the chance of missed occasion never occurred to this young woman who had been once long ago a constellation of infinite possibility. So it was this night. Once more she had been summoned to the maelstrom of the emergency ward. Yet again she leaned over this patient found down, careful not to touch him, placed the bell of her stethoscope over precisely the right spot and handed the earpieces to the student to get this teaching moment done with, while this patient, swimming frantically to consciousness and blue with cyanosis, gasping from dyspnea, soaked wet with the work of breathing, stared at her even as she felt his stare and loathed and avoided it, peered at her disbelieving and caught the thick, black eyebrows that had become her signature, caught the cobalt blue of her eyes, hurried his gaze frantically to the lazy W of her chin, recalled his own surgical precision, and eased within himself, thinking. Cassiopeia Thank God. I am in good hands.


We demonstrate wavelength locking of a diode laser at 760 nm with feedback from an elastic transmission grating in the Littrow configuration. The laser was in a single longitudinal mode with a side-mode suppression of 20 dB. By stretching the grating the laser could be tuned over a few nm. The grating was fabricated in a silicone elastomer (polydimethylsiloxane) by a moulding technique, and coated by a thin layer of Ti and Au to achieve an increased diffraction efficiency needed for efficient locking.


Many computer systems are designed according to engineering and technology principles and are typically difficult to learn and use. The fields of human-computer interaction, interface design, and human factors have made significant contributions to ease of use and are primarily concerned with the interfaces between systems and users, not with the structures that are often more fundamental for designing truly human-centered systems. The emerging paradigm of human-centered computing (HCC)-which has taken many forms-offers a new look at system design. HCC requires more than merely designing an artificial agent to supplement a human agent. The dynamic interactions in a distributed system composed of human and artificial agents-and the context in which the system is situated-are indispensable factors. While we have successfully applied our methodology in designing a prototype of a human-centered intelligent flight-surgeon console at NASA Johnson Space Center, this article presents a methodology for designing human-centered computing systems using electronic medical records (EMR) systems.


It was not until the late 1960s that housing attracted much attention from academic social scientists. Since that time the literature has expanded widely and diversified, establishing housing with a specialised status in economics, sociology, politics, and in related subjects. As we would expect, the new literature covers a technical, statistical, theoretical, ideological, and historical range. Housing studies have not been conceived and interpreted in a monolithic way, with generally accepted concepts and principles, or with uniformly fixed and precise methodological approaches. Instead, some studies have been derived selectively from diverse bases in conventional theories in economics or sociology, or politics. Others have their origins in less conventional social theory, including neo‐Marxist theory which has had a wider intellectual following in the modern democracies since the mid‐1970s. With all this diversity, and in a context where ideological positions compete, housing studies have consequently left in their wake some significant controversies and some gaps in evaluative perspective. In short, the new housing intellectuals have written from personal commitments to particular cognitive, theoretical, ideological, and national positions and experiences. This present piece of writing takes up the two main themes which have emerged in the recent literature. These themes are first, questions relating to building and developing housing theory, and, second, the issue of how we are to conceptualise housing and relate it to policy studies. We shall be arguing that the two themes are closely related: in order to create a useful housing theory we must have awareness and understanding of housing practice and the nature of housing.


Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor in target tissues may guide the innervation of TNF-positive sympathetic axons in postnatal development. The extension and innervation of axons in the nervous system are guided by proteins and growth factors secreted by target tissues. Kisiswa et al. found that a reverse signaling mechanism involving tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor type 1 (TNFR1) and TNFα occurs during sympathetic innervation in postnatal mice. Transcript abundance of both Tnf and Tnfrsf1a in mouse superior cervical ganglion (SCG) gradually increased from embryonic day 13 (E13) to postnatal day 5 (P5), followed by a decline into adulthood. Tnf–/– or Tnfrsf1a–/– mice had a lower density of sympathetic innervation than did wild-type mice. In situ or in cultures from P0 wild-type mice, TNFα was abundant in the cell bodies (or soma) and branching structures (neurite arbors and fiber bundles) of SCG neurons, whereas TNFR1 was detected only in soma. Several SCG target tissues were positive for only TNFR1 or both TNFR1 and TNFα, but sympathetic fibers therein were positive for only TNFα. The length and number of neurite arbors in SCG neurons cultured from P0 or P5 wild-type, Tnf+/–, or TNFR1-deficient mice were increased by treatment with chimeric or soluble TNFR1 (TNFR1-Fc or sTNFR1, respectively), which bind TNFα and, in immune cells, stimulate a "reverse" signal. Neither TNFR1-Fc nor sTNFR1 had an affect in cultures derived from Tnf–/– mice or P10 wild-type mice, and pretreatment of the cultures with TNFα-converting enzyme (TACE, which cleaves and releases membrane-integrated TNFα) inhibited the effects of TNFR1-Fc on neurite length and numbers, suggesting that the TNFR1-Fc and sTNFR1 may be generating a signal through the membrane-bound TNFα on the axons to stimulate growth and branching. Axons exposed locally to TNFR1-Fc in a compartmental culture system showed increased growth and branching, whereas those exposed to soluble TNFα showed no change, further supporting the hypothesis that TNFR1 can stimulate signaling through axonal membrane-bound TNFα. Furthermore, TNFR1-Fc induced the phosphorylation of ERK1 (extracellular signal–regulated kinase 1) and ERK2 (ERK1/2) in axons in a TNFα- and intracellular calcium–dependent manner. Pharmacological inhibition of ERK1/2 or treatment with a calcium chelator inhibited TNFR1-Fc–induced growth and branching in cultured P0 wild-type SCG neurons. Together, the findings suggested that TNFR1, which is present in target tissues, acts as a ligand for membrane-bound TNFα in axons to promote the innervation of postnatal sympathetic neurons through a calcium and ERK-dependent mechanism. L. Kisiswa, C. Osório, C. Erice, T. Vizard, S. Wyatt, A. M. Davies, TNFα reverse signaling promotes sympathetic axon growth and target innervation. Nat. Neurosci. 16, 865–873 (2013). [PubMed]


Education for all is a bold, audacious statement. But that is the very goal of open education. Can you imagine a world where access to education materials is free? Where teachers and learners have the right to reuse, revise, remix, localize and translate those materials? Where copies of textbooks and course materials can be retained without cost? Can you imagine a world where teachers and learners co-create education together? A world where learners engage in assignments that generate global public goods benefiting everyone? You may say this isn't possible, but open educators around the world have been doing this for years. Building on the work of luminaries such as those featured in this book, open education has grown into a global movement transforming education. Each year, Open Education Global opens up nominations for awards to the entire global open education community. As part of the 10th anniversary of these awards, OEGlobal is publishing this Education For All book, collecting all ten years of award winners into a single volume. This book is a celebration of their achievements.


Objective: Royal jelly (RJ) is a honey bee product for which, anti-inflammatory properties were shown in vitro. Nanoparticles, including nano-silver (NS), are plausible inflammation inducers that act by activation of immune cells and consequent production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. This project aimed to explore immunomodulatory effects of royal jelly and nano-silver on the kidney and liver. Materials and Methods: In this project, 40 male rats were grouped as follows: 10 rats as controls, 10 rats treated with RJ; 10 rats treated with both NS and RJ and 10 rats treated with NS. Liver and kidney interleukin (IL)-1β, -2, -6, and -33 levels were determined using commercial ELISA kits. Results: RJ reduced kidney IL-6 levels in comparison to control and NS--RJ groups. RJ and NS reduced kidney and liver IL-1β levels. Kidney IL-33 levels were decreased in the RJ and nano-silver groups in comparison to the NS--RJ group. Conclusion: Based on this study, it may be concluded that RJ together with NS can play anti-inflammatory roles and may affect the function of immune cells.


Generalization networks are nonparametric estimators obtained from the application of Tychonov regularization or Bayes estimation to the hypersurface reconstruction problem. Under symmetry assumptions, they are a particular type of radial basis function neural network. In this correspondence, it is shown that such networks guarantee consistent identification of a very general (infinite-dimensional) class of NARX models. The proofs are based on the theory of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces and the notion of frequency of time probability, by means of which it is not necessary to assume that the input is sampled from a stochastic process.


To deeply remove dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) from oil, phosphotungstic acid (HPW) was supported on Cu 3 (BTC) 2 (Cu-BTC) by impregnation to improve the adsorption desulfurization performance. A series of Cu-BTC with different amounts of HPW were prepared and studied in batch adsorption desulfurization experiments. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), nitrogen adsorption-desorption were used to study the structural properties of adsorbents. Besides, reusability and adsorption performance under ultra-low sulfur conditions were also studied. The experimental results of adsorption desulfurization indicated that the HPW impregnation solution's greatest concentration was 20% and showed the best performance of desulfurization-the maximum sulfur adsorption capacity of adsorbent was 45.1 mg S/g. The ultra-low sulfur adsorption experiment showed the same result. In the model oil with a sulfur content of 50ppm, the desulfurization rate of 20%HPW/Cu-BTC reached 86.4 % , and the sulfur content of the model oil after adsorption was about 7 ppm, which could satisfy the requirements of clean oil. The results could provide an excellent adsorbent for removing DMDS from oil.


When people share updates with their friends on Facebook they have varying expectations for the feedback they will receive. In this study, we quantitatively examine the factors contributing to feedback expectations and the potential outcomes of expectation fulfillment. We conducted two sets of surveys: one asking people about their feedback expectations immediately after posting on Facebook and the other asking how the amount of feedback received on a post matched the participant's expectations. Participants were more likely to expect feedback on content they evaluated as more important, and to a lesser extent more personal. Expectations also depended on participants' age, gender, and level of activity on Facebook. When asked about feedback expectations from specific friends, participants were more likely to expect feedback from closer friends, but expectations varied considerably based on recency of communication, geographical proximity, and the type of relationship (e.g. family, co-worker). Finally, receiving more feedback relative to expectations correlated with a greater feeling of connectedness to one's Facebook friends. The findings suggest implications for the theory and the design of social network sites.


As Human population is increasing, a number of small towns are turning into big cities. But human race has developed itself in technological terms smartly, which is helping human kind to act efficiently and consume the resources appropriately. Collection of urban sprawl statistics of an area has become efficient by using remote sensing. In comparison to the traditional methods, the new method of using remote sensing for the detection and classification of urban sprawl has substantially enhanced. Using this data management has become capable of taking suitable measures for its residents. This work compares six supervised classifiers, i.e Maximum Likelihood, Minimum Distance, Support Vector Machines, Mahalanobis, Parallelepiped and Feed Forward Neural Network for urban classification. The data used is of SPOT 5 and criteria for comparison of classifiers is based on accuracy. Due to the absence of blue band in SPOT imagery the collected data samples for training tend to be complex and overlapping. Training data collected and divided into 10 different samples, show 82.74% accuracy for Artificial Neural Network. In comparison with Artificial Neural Networks, the lowest recorded results are of parallelepiped Classifier.


BACKGROUND
Culture is defined by the Webster's dictionary as acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational and technical skills.

AIM
To assess the general cultural knowledge of university students.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A test containing 58 questions about art, national and universal literature, national and universal history, mythology science and trivial national issues was designed and applied to 251 medical students in Santiago (149 from first year and 86 from fifth year, Universidad de Chile) and 138 agronomy students in Valdivia (61 from first year and 77 from fifth year, Universidad Austral de Chile).

RESULTS
All students answered the test. Medical students from first and fifth year omitted 19 and 15% of questions respectively The figures for first and fifth year agronomy students were 23% each. The percentage of cored answers among first and fifth year medical students was 50 and 59% respectively. The figures for first and fifth year agronomy students were 39 and 44% respectively. The questions with higher rates of cored answers were those about trivial issues.

CONCLUSIONS
There was a high rate of omissions and wrong answers about general cultural issues among university students particularly in national cultural subjects.


With governments worldwide attempting to increase the labour force participation of older workers in the context of ageing populations, both older workers marginally attached to the labour force (discouraged workers), and those whose labour force participation is affected by cyclical fluctuations (via the discouraged worker effect), are of particular interest to policy makers. Analysis of OECD statistics shows that discouraged older males workers, as collected and published by government statistical agencies, are both relatively low in number and also do not display any strong cyclical pattern. In contrast, results from a panel model of eleven OECD countries' older male labour force participation rates indicate that the econometrically estimated cyclical discouraged worker effect is the dominant influence on participation in recent decades. In comparison, the estimated influence of social security pension value on participation rates is relatively small. Further modelling reveals that the discouraged worker effect is asymmetric in nature, with results showing that the influence from a cyclical downturn in decreasing older male participation rates significantly outweighs the role of economic recovery in encouraging participation. The findings have important implications for policy reforms advocated by the OECD and ILO to increase older worker labour force participation.


Code it right the first time - and minimize claim denials and payment delays with today's most trusted pediatric coding and documentation guide. For beginners and advanced coders alike, this is the first place to look for pediatric-specific coding solutions! A widely used AAP exclusive, Coding for Pediatrics complements standard coding manuals with proven pediatric-specific documentation and billing solutions.
 This year's completely updated 22nd edition features updates from both CPT and ICD-10-CM most relevant to pediatrics to provide specific examples and guidance on how to implement the new codes. Some new and revised services under CPT include parent/caregiver health risk assessment and moderate sedation. The book's many clinical vignettes, as well as the many coding pearls included throughout, provide added guidance needed to ensure accuracy and maximize payment.
 In addition to revised CPT codes, new and updated features in this edition include
 New chapter providing information on coding for services by allied health professionals in the physician practice
 New chapter focused on coding for management of chronic and complex medical conditions
 More examples of coding for preventive services recommended by Bright Futures
 Coding quiz (approved for American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) for 4 continuing education units)


Failures of countries to set and achieve renewable energy targets are prevalent, producing uncertainty as to the possibility of renewable energy contributing to a reduction in global emissions. Lack of policy and incorrect modelling analyses are among the sources of these failures and understanding these two sources is crucial for improving confidence in renewables. We assess errors in projections pertaining to the capacity and production of renewable energy in the United States and those countries of the European Union that have strong commitments to green energy supply. Our results show that solar energy has the lowest level of uncertainty as it has the most achievable capacity projections. However, other renewables entail more attractive policies and further research is needed for the advancement of reliable technology and accurate weather predictions. Our findings also provide ranges for the projection uncertainties for six renewable energy technologies, drawing attentions to ways that the dominant errors in these renewable energy projections may be rectified.


Abstract. Laboratory procedures for blood cultures in a hospital in Phnom Penh were adapted to optimize detection of Burkholderia pseudomallei, an important pathogen in this setting. The effects of these changes are analyzed in this study. Blood cultures consisted of two BacT/ALERT bottles (bioMérieux, Marcy-l'Etoile, France). Growth was detected visually by daily inspection of the bottles. In 2016, the aerobic–anaerobic pair (FA/FN FAN) was substituted by an aerobic pair of BacT/ALERT FA Plus bottles. Blind subculture (BS) (subculture in the absence of visual growth) was advanced from day 3 to day 2 of incubation in July 2016. In July 2018, it was further advanced to day 1 of incubation. From July 2016 to October 2019, 9,760 blood cultures were sampled. The proportion of cultures showing pathogen growth decreased from 9.6% to 6.8% after the implementation of the laboratory changes (P < 0.001). Advancing the BS from day 3 to day 2 led to an increased proportion of pathogens detected by day 3 (92.8% versus 82.3%; P < 0.001); for B. pseudomallei, this increase was even more remarkable (92.0% versus 18.2%). Blind subculture on day 1 similarly increased the proportion of pathogens detected by day 2 (82.9% versus 69.0% overall, 66.7% versus 10.0% for B. pseudomallei; both P < 0.001). However, after implementation of day 1 subculture, a decrease in recovery of B. pseudomallei was observed (12.4% of all pathogens versus 4.3%; P < 0.001). In conclusion, earlier subculture significantly shortens time to detection and time to actionable results. Some organisms may be missed by performing an early subculture, especially those that grow more slowly.


Although support vector machines (SVMs) are theoretically well understood, their underlying optimization problem becomes very expensive, if, for example, hundreds of thousands of samples and a non-linear kernel are considered. Several approaches have been proposed in the past to address this serious limitation. In this work we investigate a decomposition strategy that learns on small, spatially defined data chunks. Our contributions are two fold: On the theoretical side we establish an oracle inequality for the overall learning method using the hinge loss, and show that the resulting rates match those known for SVMs solving the complete optimization problem with Gaussian kernels. On the practical side we compare our approach to learning SVMs on small, randomly chosen chunks. Here it turns out that for comparable training times our approach is significantly faster during testing and also reduces the test error in most cases significantly. Furthermore, we show that our approach easily scales up to 10 million training samples: including hyper-parameter selection using cross validation, the entire training only takes a few hours on a single machine. Finally, we report an experiment on 32 million training samples. All experiments used liquidSVM (Steinwart and Thomann, 2017).


Understanding electron–phonon interactions in metal-halide perovskites (MHPs) is critical for improving their performance in optoelectronic devices. Probing lattice vibrations with conventional spectroscopic methods, however, is challenging due to the sensitivity of MHPs to laser light, humidity, and temperature changes. Here we report low-frequency Raman spectra of the δ and γ phases, as well as mixed ion derivatives, of CsPbI3. These spectra were obtained by combining below-bandgap low-frequency Raman measurements using a 976 nm laser and nanoconfinement of crystals within inert scaffolds to stabilize the MHPs against temperature-induced polymorph transitions and humidity-induced degradation. Density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the main vibrational modes in the δ- and γ-CsPbI3 Raman spectra correspond to octahedral twisting and distortions. Effects of the A-site cation and halide on these vibrational modes were determined by analyzing low-frequency Raman spectra of CsPbIxBr3−x and MAyCs1−yPbI3. The Raman peak positions primarily depend on the lattice dimensions, regardless of the nature of the cations and anions, with lattice expansions causing a shift of the vibrational modes to lower frequencies.


One of the important issues of human resources management in healthcare system is to select green teams aiming at improving environmental management practices. This paper proposes a new general model for green team selection integrating sustainability criteria. The aim is to use case-based reasoning (CBR) systems with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in team selection process. We test the efficiency of the model using medical domains of different complexities and demonstrate how this approach can facilitate intelligent decision support by retrieving the best green team for each case that satisfies the most decision maker preferences.


Nootropics are also referred as smart drugs, memory enhancers, and cognitive enhancers. They are reported to improve mental function such as cognition, memory, intelligence, motivation, attention and concentration. They are thought to be work by altering the availability of brains supply of neurochemicals, by improving the brains oxygen supply or by stimulating nerve growth. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegerative disorder which affects older individuals and is the most common cause of dementia. It may progress to a totally vegetative state. Atrophy of cortical and sub-cortical areas is associated with deposition of β-amyloid protein in the form of senile plaques and formation of neurofibrillary tangles. There is marked cholinergic deficiency in the brain, though other neurotransmitter systems are also affected. Various measures to augement cholinergic transmitter in the brain have been tried. The relatively cerebroselective anti-ChEs have been approved for clinical use. There are number screening models available for preclinical evaluation of nootropics drugs. Newer models are developed in accordance with limitations of the earlier one. In-vitro methods inhibition of acetylcholinesterase activity is measured by determining IC50 with the help of Log probit analysis. In ex-vivo cholinesterase inhibition method the dose response relationship determined for drugs such as physostigmine and tacrine. Studies on molecular form of AchEs are carried in rat frontal cortex and striatum for drug such as donepezil, tacrine. Agents which are H3 receptor agonist are evaluated for [3H] Ach release activity in rat using rat brain slices. The binding affinity of potential nicotinic cholinergic agonist in brain using agonist ligand is determined by [3H]-Nmethyl carbamylcholine binding nicotinic cholinergic receptors in rat frontal cortex. In In-vivo methods the inhibitory passive avoidance the test are carried on animals to test the learning and memory capacity of animal by suppressing a particular behavior. It includes step down, step through, two compartment test, up-hill avoidance, scopolamine induced test, and ischemia induced amnesia, memory impairments in basal forebrain. In active avoidance conditioned stimulus is given to the animal, which gives noxious stimulus as a result. It includes runway avoidance, shuttle box avoidance, jumping avoidance. In discrimination learning animals have no choice between the conditioned stimuli. Studies on aged monkeys provides additional advantage for neurobehavioral animal model of aging in that many of behavioral processes thought to be affected by aging.


Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has been prevalent in Indonesia since 2003 causing major losses to poultry production and human deaths. Live bird markets are considered high risk areas due to the density of large numbers of mixed poultry species of unknown disease status. Understanding trader knowledge and perceptions of HPAI and biosecurity is critical to reducing transmission risk and controlling the disease. An interview-administered survey was conducted at 17 live bird markets on the islands of Bali and Lombok in 2008 and 2009. A total of 413 live poultry traders were interviewed. Respondents were mostly male (89%) with a mean age of 45 years (range: 19–81). The main source of AI information was TV (78%), although personal communication was also identified to be an important source, particularly among female traders (60%) and respondents from Bali (43%). More than half (58%) of live poultry traders interviewed knew that infected birds can transmit HPAI viruses but were generally unaware that viruses can be introduced to markets by fomites. Cleaning cages and disposing of sick and dead birds were recognized as the most important steps to prevent the spread of disease by respondents. Two thirds (n = 277) of respondents were unwilling to report sudden or suspicious bird deaths to authorities. Bali vendors perceive biosecurity to be of higher importance than Lombok vendors and are more willing to improve biosecurity within markets than traders in Lombok. Collectors and traders selling large numbers (>214) of poultry, or selling both chickens and ducks, have better knowledge of HPAI transmission and prevention than vendors or traders selling smaller quantities or only one species of poultry. Education was strongly associated with better knowledge but did not influence positive reporting behavior. Our study reveals that most live poultry traders have limited knowledge of HPAI transmission and prevention and are generally reluctant to report bird deaths. Greater efforts are needed to engage local government, market managers and traders in education and awareness programs, regulatory measures and incentive mechanisms. Understanding and evaluating the social responses to such an integrated approach could lead to more effective HPAI prevention and control.


This paper is made to describe the Quality Living category which is one of the main categories of the proposed sustainable rating & certification system for new construction in Egypt presented by the accredited Ph.D. research made for the purpose of promoting the sustainable building practices and embracing the potential of green buildings in Egypt.

The terms Quality Living, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Health & Wellbeing, as some of these terms are stated in different international sustainable rating systems, are all focusing to encourage the promotion of occupants' productivity, comfort, and well-being by prioritizing the social and environmental sustainable parameters within the building design to offer a better quality of life rather than keeping the economical concern as the only prevailing priority for new construction in Egypt.

The Quality Living category, as described below, is having an assembly of mandatory and scoring credits based on the sustainability three bottom lines; environmental, social, and economical aspects which can promote the quality living issues in new construction including the health comfort, air comfort, thermal comfort, visual comfort, nuisance management, and safety management issues.


OBJECTIVE
This study sought to determine the relationships between serum clozapine levels and therapeutic response.

METHOD
Fifty-six inpatients who met the DSM-III-R criteria for chronic schizophrenia and who had not responded to extended treatment with classical antipsychotics were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of double-blind treatment with clozapine at one of three serum level ranges: low (50-150 ng/ml), medium (200-300 ng/ml), or high (350-450 ng/ml). Baseline clinical assessments were completed before the patients' regular antipsychotic and anticholinergic drugs were discontinued. During clozapine treatment, serum levels were ascertained weekly to allow adjustment of clozapine doses so as to maintain each patient near the midpoint of his or her assigned serum level range. Clinical assessments were completed after 6 and 12 weeks of treatment.

RESULTS
The analyses of the results of treatment supported the superior efficacy of the 200-300 ng/ml and 350-450 ng/ml serum clozapine level ranges over the 50-150 ng/ml range, with no advantage for 350-450 ng/ml over 200-300 ng/ml. Sleepiness increased with increasing serum levels.

CONCLUSIONS
Serum clozapine levels per unit of daily dose were at the lower end of the range noted in previous reports, possibly reflecting the current study's dosing schedules of twice or three times a day, the 11- to 13-hour postdose sampling time, and the moderate doses given. Serum clozapine levels, if interpreted in relation to daily clozapine dosing schedules, postdose sampling time, and total daily dose, may help to guide dosing to provide adequate opportunities for therapeutic response and to limit certain side effects of clozapine treatment.


Many signal and image processing applications impose a severe demand on the I/O bandwidth and computation power of general-purpose computers. The "systolic" concept offers guidelines in building cost-effective systems that balance I/O with computation. The resulting simplicity and regularity of such systems leads to modular designs suitable for VLSI implementation. We describe here a linear systolic array capable of evaluating a large class of inner-product functions used in signal and image processing. These include matrix multiplication, multidimensional convolutions using fixed or time-varying kernels, as well as various nonlinear functions of vectors. The system organization of a working prototype is also described.


The enormous growth of digital music databases has led to a comparable growth in the need for methods that help users organize and access such information. One area in particular that has seen much recent research activity is the use of automated techniques to describe audio content and to allow for its identification, browsing and retrieval. Conventional approaches to music content description rely on features characterizing the shape of the signal spectrum in relatively short-term frames. In the context of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Hermansky \cite{Hermansky_1} described an interesting alternative to short-term spectrum features, the TRAP-TANDEM approach which uses long-term band-limited features trained in a supervised fashion. We adapt this idea to the specific case of music signals and propose a generic system for the description of temporal patterns. The same system with different settings is able to extract features describing either timbre or rhythmic content. The quality of the generated features is demonstrated in a set of music retrieval experiments and compared to other state-of-the-art models.


This chapter examines trends in expenditure and funding of Primary Health Care services. It builds on previous models to develop an updated funding norm for Primary Health Care services in the public sector. Spending on public sector Primary Health Care services amounted to R297 per capita uninsured in 2006 / 07 and budgeted amounts rise to R395 per capita by 2010 / 11 (stated in 2007 / 08 prices). An updated funding norm is proposed of R401-R444 per capita (2007 / 08 prices) for visit rates ranging from 3 to 3.5 visits per person per year. The majority of districts are currently funded below the norm and progressive funding improvements are recommended. However, these also need to be linked to performance and efficiency. Inequities between districts are large with per capita annual expenditure ranging from R191 to R633. Nevertheless, the differences in per capita spending on Primary Health Care are gradually declining. These differing expenditure patterns point to the need for a better developed and more equitable approach to determining resource allocations to health districts.


DOI: 10.7764/RDLC.16.3.518 Abstract Eco-bricks, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles filled with mixed inorganic waste, have become a low cost construction material and a valid recycling method to reduce waste disposal in regions where industrial recycling is not yet available. Because Eco-bricks are filled with mixed recovered materials, potential recycling of its constituents is difficult at the end of its life. This study proposes considering Eco-bricks filled with a single inorganic waste material to work as a time capsule, with potential for recovering the filling material when other ways of waste valorization are available within those communities that currently have no better recycling options. This paper develops an experimental characterization of density, filler content (by volume), thermal shrinkage, elastic modulus and deformation recovery capacity using four different filler materials: 1) PET; 2) paper & cardboard; 3) tetrapack; and 4) metal. Overall, Eco-brick's density, thermal shrinkage and elastic modulus are dependent on the filler content. Density and elastic modulus of the proposed Eco-bricks are similar to values of medium-high density expanded polystyrene (EPS) used in nonstructural construction, reason why we suggest that these Eco-bricks might be a sustainable alternative to EPS or other nonstructural construction materials.


Abstract Climate projections indicate that the frequency and severity of extreme precipitation events will increase over the next century. Although a large number of lakes across the globe are systematically monitored, it is rare to have a wide range of ecological indices measured at high enough frequency and over a sufficient time scale to allow characterisation of the response of a lake ecosystem to such events. We present data from Lough Feeagh, a relatively large oligotrophic lake in Ireland, which was at the epicentre of a once in 250-year precipitation event in July 2009 when 50 mm of rain fell in less than 2 hours. The effects of the resulting flood on the water column stability, chemistry, biology, and metabolism were examined, and data from multiple years before and after the event were used to ascertain the significance and longevity of any observed changes. The flood caused the water column to destabilise prematurely and depressed primary production. Bacterial biomass was high in the month after the flood, and zooplankton assemblages in late 2009 were significantly different from those of other years. Changes in all these variables combined to produce lower rates of gross primary production and higher rates of respiration than those measured between 2010 and 2014, resulting in more pronounced negative net ecosystem production than in the other years. Despite all these changes, the normal seasonal cycles resumed in 2010, and it appears that this rare but significant event did not have a long-term impact on the ecosystem functioning of the lake.


This accessible introduction to the world economy and to the theory and practice of globalization argues that key topics in international economics cannot be understood without a knowledge of international business, and vice versa. It reviews and combines insights from both literatures and applies them to real-world issues, clearly explaining the main concepts of international economics and business in a uniquely integrated approach. Written in a lively and accessible style, this innovative textbook covers all the main issues, including international trade, capital mobility, comparative advantage, foreign direct investments, multinational behaviour, financial crises and economic growth. It includes carefully selected international examples and case studies, and special interest boxes which clearly explain more challenging economic concepts. The companion website includes additional case studies, exercises and answers to exercises, data, illustrations and links to other useful websites.


Abstract Decorated ostrich eggs were traded around the Mediterranean during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Research on their origins has focused primarily on decorative techniques and iconography to characterise the producers, workshops and trade routes, thereby equating decorative styles with cultural identities and geographic locations. This is problematic, as craftspeople were mobile and worked in the service of foreign royal patrons. The present study investigates the provenance of ancient ostrich eggs, reconsiders trade patterns via isotopic indicators and characterises decorative techniques in order to assist in the identification of culturally distinct decorative styles or regional preferences.


Mechanical Engineering students acquire knowledge and skills in engineering design through several courses reaching from learning how to setup technical design drawings, CAD-courses, several courses dealing with machine elements and numerical analysis (FEM). In Mechanical Engineering the percentage of courses on engineering design covers, depending on the specific studies, from 10% in production engineering to 25% in engineering design of the overall credits. At the DHBW Engineering Design students are additionally encountered with a course on systematic approaches and processes (e.g. time to market process, agile project management, design thinking), diverse methods to facilitate and strengthen efficiency in the design and development process. In the last few years new concepts of education were implemented: Additive manufacturing allows the integration of prototyping, e-learning platforms allow the placement of pre- and post-educational content (blended learning) and therefore support open cooperation between students and lecturer.

This paper reflects experiences in teaching creativity methods, e.g. brainwriting, brainstorming or TRIZ. It compares 'classic' lectures where methods are described by the lecturer ('teacher-centred' learning) to a concept of specific exercises, where students are asked to apply the methods in teams. This rather 'student centred' learning concept allocates time to discuss the methods and experiences made by applying them in class. At a later point in the learning process students get more information, reflective views and discussion points through an e-learning platform. In order to evaluate the students' perception of the learning concepts a questionnaire-based survey was conducted among altogether 150 students in four courses, three Bachelor courses of different Engineering programmes and a Master course. The survey evaluates 1. which learning concept according to the students helps to broaden systematic and methodical creativity skills best, 2. which creativity methods students consider to be applicable in industry and 3. if these methods are already applied in the students' companies. The latter point can be analysed as every student at DHBW Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University compulsorily has a contract with a company and spends half of the studies in on projects in industry. Thus, the paper gains valuable insights into approximately hundred companies of different branches and sizes. Besides the conceptual description of the learning approach on methodical skills and the survey itself, the paper also furnishes an overview of best-practice examples that aim at helping students to engage with the Engineering Design process, focussing in particular on supporting methods and their application in industry.


In terms of its impact on human health, arsenic is unique in that most of the evidence linking it to diseases comes from epidemiological work; animal studies have not provided good models. It is also unique in causing a large number of different damaging effects and, as more studies are conducted, more such effects are found. To date, we know that arsenic from drinking water can cause severe skin diseases including skin cancer; lung, bladder, and kidney cancers, and perhaps other internal tumors; peripheral vascular disease; hypertension; and diabetes. It also seems to have a negative impact on reproductive processes (infant mortality and weight of newborn babies). The toxicology of arsenic involves mechanisms that are still not completely understood, but it is clear that a number of factors can affect both individual and population-level susceptibility to the toxic effects of arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Current research is addressing some of these, including genetic susceptibility and lifestyle factors that may increase arsenic's toxic effects, such as smoking, diet, and concurrent exposure to other substances. The reversibility of some effects upon cessation of exposure is also being investigated.


Learn to Write the Hebrew Script presents a new and innovative approach to learning the Hebrew script. Drawing on the common ancestry of European and Hebrew alphabets and the natural inclinations of the writing hand, Orr-Stav shows how the Hebrew script may be understood and acquired almost intuitively through a three-step transformation of ordinary Roman-script cursive. Thoroughly researched but written with a light touch and the empathy of someone who's been there, Learn to Write the Hebrew Script uncovers several surprises and dispels much of the mystique of what is often an intimidating subject, making the script of the Old Testament much more accessible to millions of non-Hebrew speakers worldwide. "What sets this book apart is its novel approach to the subject, which offers the Western reader a far more accessible and less intimidating approach to the subject."--J.P. Kang, Princeton Theological Seminary "A completely novel approach to this knotty problem. For anyone who wants or needs to learn Hebrew, this book is a must, a valuable adjunct to any teaching aid." --Josephine Bacon, American Translators Association Chronicle "This quirky, unexpected, and utterly charming book offers a three-step method for learning to write Hebrew script, and the author has a gift for presenting the technical and abstract clearly and disarmingly."--The Jerusalem Report


A ray-by-ray integration (RBRI) method has been developed for the solution of light scattering by nonspherical dielectric particles. The principles of geometric optics are applied to solve the internal electric field within the scattering particles (near field) with the inclusion of complete phase and polarization configurations. The scattered field at the radiation zone (far field) and the extinction and absorption cross sections are obtained by integrating the near field along the propagation paths of geometric rays inside the scatterers by using a number of rigorous electromagnetic integral equations. In the computations of extinction cross section and single-scattering albedo, we demonstrate that the well-known anomalous diffraction approximation is a special case of the RBRI method when the scatterers are optically tenuous. The RBRI method is employed to compute the single-scattering properties of hexagonal ice crystals at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Based on the reference results computed by the finite-difference time domain (FDTD) technique, we show that the RBRI method is more accurate than the conventional geometric ray-tracing technique and the anomalous diffraction approximation. The extinction efficiency and the single-scattering albedo computed by the RBRI method converge to the reference results when the size parameters along the ice crystal maximum dimension are larger than approximately 15. Substantial differences in terms of relative errors, in comparison with the FDTD solutions, are still noted in the phase function and polarization patterns computed by the RBRI method for size parameters of the order of 10.


Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease that involves inflammation and joint pain and causes bone resorption. Irradiation with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is being evaluated for the treatment of RA, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are unclear. To determine whether anti-inflammatory effects are provided, LED irradiation was provided for rats with collagen-induced RA (CIA), and total RNA was isolated from the synovial tissues of CIA rat joints. Gene expression profiles were then monitored by DNA microarray. LED irradiation decreased the swelling in CIA rat knee joints. DNA microarray analysis demonstrated that expression of many genes was altered in RA, including increased MMP3 mRNA levels, while MMP3 mRNA levels were reduced by LED irradiation. These reductions in MMP3 mRNA levels by LED irradiation were confirmed by RT-PCR and real-time PCR. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated strong staining for MMP3 in the CIA group, and LED irradiation significantly reduced this staining. Clinical features of reduced swelling in CIA knee joints suggest that LED irradiation might be useful as RA therapy. Since MMP3 has been identified as an important factor in the pathogenesis of RA, reducing MMP3 expression by LED irradiation might offer an important mechanism for reducing inflammation in RA.


The study was planned to screen the marine actinobacterial extract for the protease inhibitor activity and its anti- Pf activity under in vitro and in vivo conditions. Out of 100 isolates, only 3 isolates exhibited moderate to high protease inhibitor activities on trypsin, chymotrypsin and proteinase K. Based on protease inhibitor activity 3 isolates were chosen for further studies. The potential isolate was characterized by polyphasic approach and identified as Streptomyces sp LK3 (JF710608). The lead compound was identified as peptide from Streptomyces sp LK3. The double-reciprocal plot displayed inhibition mode is non-competitive and it confirms the irreversible nature of protease inhibitor. The peptide from Streptomyces sp LK3 extract showed significant anti plasmodial activity (IC50: 25.78 µg/ml). In in vivo model, the highest level of parasitemia suppression (≈45%) was observed in 600 mg/kg of the peptide. These analyses revealed no significant changes were observed in the spleen and liver tissue during 8 dpi. The results confirmed up-regulation of TGF-β and down regulation of TNF-α in tissue and serum level in PbA infected peptide treated mice compared to PbA infection. The results obtained infer that the peptide possesses anti- Pf activity activity. It suggests that the extracts have novel metabolites and could be considered as a potential source for drug development.


A spinal cord injury (SCI) is an extremely complex condition and is associated with numerous adverse health complications. One concern in particular is an increased prevalence and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Cardiovascular disease, which encompasses pathologies of the heart and vascular tree, is one of the leading causes of morbidity and premature mortality in this population. Current clinical practice guidelines for CVD risk estimation in SCI use traditional cardiovascular risk factors and risk algorithms validated in able-bodied populations. However, despite the increased prevalence of CVD in people with SCI, research has demonstrated no difference in traditional cardiovascular risk factors when compared to the able-bodied population. The aim of Chapter 3 was to explore whether traditional models of CVD risk prediction are accurate in estimating CVD events in people with SCI. Firstly, this study used retrospective data from 200 individuals with a SCI to prospectively estimate their 5-year risk of developing CVD using the FRS. The difference in clinical outcomes of individuals with a below median FRS (1.36%) were compared to individuals with an above median FRS (>1.36%) using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank test. The end point was defined as either a CVD event or CVD mortality. Across the 5-year period, 39 (19.5%) participants developed a CVD event, 10 of which were fatalities. The log-rank test demonstrated that individuals with >median FRS vs. <median FRS had a 3.2 fold greater risk for developing a CVD event. Secondly, this study used receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) with corresponding area under the curve (AUC) to explore the prognostic accuracy of the FRS in being able to predict CVD events in people with SCI. The ROC-AUC suggests acceptable accuracy of the FRS in identifying individuals with increased risk for CVD events (ROC-AUC of 0.71, 95% CI 0.62-0.82). Finally, SCI-related factors were explored using univariate cox proportional hazard regression to try to determine individual predictors for CVD. These factors were separately added to the FRS in an attempt to improve the prognostic capability of the FRS when used for people with SCI. Adding ASIA impairment (0.74; 95% CI 0.66-0.82), motor impairment (0.74; 95% CI 0.66-0.83), level of injury (0.72; 95% CI 0.63-0.81) or active engagement in sport prior to injury (0.72; 95% CI 0.63-0.88) to the FRS did not improve the level of discrimination. The findings in Chapter 3, together with other research, suggest that traditional CVD risk factors cannot solely be accountable for the increased CVD morbidity and mortality in SCI. Instead, the effects of chronic physical inactivity and extreme vascular deconditioning resulting from lower limb paralysis have been proposed as an alternative mechanism explaining the greater CVD prevalence in the absence of abnormal CVD risk factors. This provides a rationale for needing appropriate interventions targeting the deconditioned vasculature. Reactivating the muscles using electrical stimulation has shown to reverse the rapid vascular and muscular deconditioning that occurs in people with SCI. However, the majority of these ES methods are not easily accessible for individuals with SCI or practical for regular homebased use. The primary aim of the study outlined in Chapter 4 was to examine the acute effects of low intensity ES using a wearable clothing garment on macrovascular (femoral) and microvascular (skin) perfusion and oxygen consumption in people with SCI. This particular method of ES has significant clinical potential because it can be applied for longer periods and in a home based environment. Eight participants with a motor complete SCI received 4x3-minutes of unilateral gluteal and hamstring ES. Deep femoral artery (DFA) blood flow, oxygen consumption, and gluteal and hamstring cutaneous perfusion were measured at baseline and during each block of ES. DFA blood flow increased by 18.1% with the application of ES. Skin perfusion did not change during an individual block of stimulation but did progressively increase over time with repeated stimulation and was 80% higher during the last 3-minute block compared with the first 3-minute block of ES. There was no change in DFA blood flow in the contralateral control leg or in oxygen consumption. Individuals with SCI are subject to additional secondary complications such as skin ulcers resulting from poor microvascular perfusion and prolonged sitting pressure. This, along with the findings from Chapter 4, provide a compelling rationale for studies to examine the long-term effects of low-level ES on the vasculature, pressure ulcer risk factors, and the feasibility of home based ES devices such as a wearable clothing garment. The aim of Chapter 5 was to explore the changes in femoral artery diameter, basal blood flow, cutaneous microvascular function, limb volume and sitting pressure in people with SCI after 12 weeks of daily low-level ES using a wearable clothing garment. Twelve participants were instructed to wear the ES garment every day or night. The ES protocol lasted for 6 hours and consisted of 8x30 minutes of active ES with 15 minutes rest in-between. Three participants did not complete the study therefore data analysis was performed on the nine remaining individuals. After 12 weeks of ES, resting diameter and mean basal blood flow of the common femoral artery increased by 8.3% (P<0.001) and 43% (P<0.001), respectively. In response to graded local heating a significant interaction of heating stage and time was observed for gluteal CVC (P = 0.02) and %CVCmax (P <0.001) but not for hamstring CVC (P = 0.86) or %CVCmax. There was a significant increase in average thigh circumference (P = 0.008) and calculated thigh volume (P = 0.01) after 12 weeks of ES. A significant decrease in peak sitting pressure (P = 0.003) and pressure gradient (P = 0.007) was observed. Questionnaires were used to examine the feasibility of using the ES garment on a daily basis. Majority of participants wore the device at night whilst sleeping and indicated it did not disrupt their sleep quality. Applying the garment takes 10 minutes or less, can be worn under suitable clothing and does not disrupt daily living activities. More importantly, all the individuals who completed the intervention indicated they would be happy to continue using the device. The findings from this thesis suggest that, firstly, traditional cardiovascular risk factors and the FRS are able to distinguish individuals who are at a higher vs. lower risk for CVD, but the absolute prediction values markedly underestimate the occurrence of CVD in people with SCI. Additionally, the increased risk of CVD in people with SCI appears independent of level and severity of injury. Secondly, this thesis indicates that acute low-intensity ES using a wearable clothing garment improves micro- and macrovascular perfusion. Finally, the research undertaken in this thesis provides evidence that home based, daily, low-intensity ES using a wearable clothing garment represents a practical and effective strategy to reduce the risk of pressure ulcers, improve vascular perfusion and help prevent vascular complications in people with SCI.


Dirty data and deceptive design practices can undermine, invert, or invalidate the purported messages of charts and graphs. These failures can arise silently: a conclusion derived from a particular visualization may look plausible unless the analyst looks closer and discovers an issue with the backing data, visual specification, or their own assumptions. We term such silent but significant failures . We describe a conceptual model of mirages and show how they can be generated at every stage of the visual analytics process. We adapt a methodology from software testing, , as a way of automatically surfacing potential mirages at the visual encoding stage of analysis through modifications to the underlying data and chart specification. We show that metamorphic testing can reliably identify mirages across a variety of chart types with relatively little prior knowledge of the data or the domain.


Background: The objective of the study was to evaluate the expression of cell adhesion molecules [epithelial cadherin (E-cadherin)] and extracellular matrix protease [matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9] in preinvasive and invasive lesions of squamous neoplasia of the uterine cervix. Method: The study included 14 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and 43 cases of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) testing was performed for E-cadherin and MMP-9 using the polymer technique. The pathological prognostic parameters, like tumour grade, stage, lymphovascular space invasion and mitosis were compared with the expression of these markers. Results: The mean age of the patients with CIN was 40.1 years, and 50.9 years for those with SCC. Complete uniform membranous expression of E-caherin was demonstrated in the normal epithelium and most CIN (79%). MMP-9 was not expressed in the normal epithelium, whereas 43% of CIN (of which 67% were CIN grade III) were positive. Loss of membranous E-cadherin was shown in 88% of SCC, and MMP-9 with variable intensities expressed in 74%. A statistically significant association was established between the expression of these immune markers in preinvasive and invasive lesions, although there was no significant association with the prognostic parameters. In addition, the loss of E-cadherin was evident in patients with recurrence, while the expression of MMP-9 was demonstrated in 60%. Conclusion: The loss of membranous E-cadherin and the gain of cytoplasmic MMP-9 are markers of neoplastic transformation in squamous neoplasia of the uterine cervix. However, the expression of these immune markers in our study did not relate to the prognostic parameters, indicating the importance of these markers in early neoplastic transformation.


Following a decade of unprecedented investment, China now has the world's largest installed base of wind power capacity. Yet, despite siting most wind farms in the wind-rich Northern and Western provinces, electricity generation from Chinese wind farms has not reached the performance benchmarks of the United States and many other advanced economies. This has resulted in lower environmental, economic, and health benefits than anticipated. We develop a framework to explain the performance of the Chinese and US wind sectors, accounting for a comprehensive set of driving factors. We apply this framework to a novel dataset of virtually all wind farms installed in China and the United States through the end of 2013. We first estimate the wind sector's technical potential using a methodology that produces consistent estimates for both countries. We compare this potential to actual performance and find that Chinese wind farms generated electricity at 37%–45% of their annual technical potential during 2006–2013 compared to 54%–61% in the United States. Our findings underscore that the larger gap between actual performance and technical potential in China compared to the United States is significantly driven by delays in grid connection (14% of the gap) and curtailment due to constraints in grid management (10% of the gap), two challenges of China's wind power expansion covered extensively in the literature. However, our findings show that China's underperformance is also driven by suboptimal turbine model selection (31% of the gap), wind farm siting (23% of the gap), and turbine hub heights (6% of the gap)—factors that have received less attention in the literature and, crucially, are locked-in for the lifetime of wind farms. This suggests that besides addressing grid connection delays and curtailment, China will also need policy measures to address turbine siting and technology choices to achieve its national goals and increase utilization up to US levels.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how new public management (NPM) reform from the national level is implemented as practice in a local unit within the police sector in Sweden. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative case-study approach is applied using semi-structured interviews, participant observations and analysis of documents. Findings - The paper illustrates different kinds of resistance at the organizational level. The dominant form of resistance was found to be cultural distancing. The paper demonstrates a tendency among police officers to deal with a changing and more complex work context by embracing a traditional work role. Research limitations/implications - The paper shows that reforms that add complexity may fail because of potential contradictions and the limited capacity and motivation of employees to deal with the complexity in the manner prescribed by NPM. Practical implications - The paper shows that the popular trend to adopt multi-dimensional forms of control (for instance the balanced-scorecard approach) may fail if there is a lack of consensus about what goals and measurement are important and/or there is a lack of dialogue about how the new goals should be implemented in practice. Originality/value - Research about NPM-reforms in the police sector is rare. The original contribution of this paper is to study NPM-reforms with a focus on the role of complexity in relation to resistance.


Canadian jurisprudence is earnest in supporting diversity and religious freedom. It is in the context of the same-sex marriage debate, that commitments were made by Canadian political leaders, and by the S.C.C. in both the TWU 2001 and Reference cases to support diverse views on marriage and political liberation. TWU deserves its accreditation because of the following points: first, state "neutrality" requires the Canadian state to respect and conditionally defer to the morally laden belief systems of religious associations rather than to assume, as some seem to interpret the term, a commitment to no moral position(s). Such deference is not absolute, but should be extended absent an infringement of traditional health and safety concerns of the state. When TWU takes the position that traditional marriage is a moral truth, the state must, with the boundaries of health and safety, respect and protect it, even though it might not agree. Second, there is no law against TWU's practice of traditional marriage. Thus, it is hard to argue that to limit marriage to its traditional mode within a voluntary community somehow threatens the health or safety of others. Third, the concept of "Charter values," such as equity or pluralism, cannot properly mean the elimination of Charter rights, such as freedom of religion, speech, and association. Justice Campbell, was correct to note that the Charter cannot be the moral blueprint for our society, as the state has no secularizing mission. The Charter is not a sword to enforce state ideology but, rather, a shield to be used to protect individuals and groups from the state.


Transport in the tropical lower stratosphere plays a major role in determining the composition of the entire stratosphere. Previous studies that quantified the relative role of transport processes have generally assumed well‐mixed tropics and focused on tropical‐wide average characteristics. However, it has recently been shown that there is a hemispheric difference in the annual cycle of tropical lower stratosphere ozone and other tracers, with a larger amplitude in the northern tropics (NT) than in the southern tropics (ST). In this study, we examined the ability of chemistry climate models (CCMs) to reproduce the hemispheric differences in ozone (O3) and other tracers (i.e., hydrochloric acid, or HCl and nitrous oxide, or N2O), and then use the CCMs to examine the cause of these differences. Examination of CCM simulations from the CCMVal‐2 project shows that the majority of the CCMs produce the observed feature of a larger annual cycle in the NT than ST O3 and other tracers. However, only around a third of the models produce an ozone annual cycle similar to that observed. Transformed Eulerian Mean analysis of two of the CCMs shows that seasonality in vertical advection drives the seasonality in ST O3 and N2O while seasonality of horizontal mixing drives the seasonality in NT O3 and N2O, with a large increase in horizontal mixing during northern summer (associated with the Asian monsoon). Thus, latitudinal and longitudinal variations within the tropics have to be considered to fully understand the balance between transport processes in tropical lower stratosphere.


Breaking contracts have a major impact on API clients. Despite this fact, recent studies show that libraries are often backward incompatible and that the rate of breaking changes increase over time. However, the specific reasons that motivate library developers to break contracts with their clients are still unclear. In this paper, we describe a qualitative study with library developers and real instance of API breaking changes. Our goal is to (i) elicit the reasons why developers introduce breaking changes; and (ii) check if they are aware about the risks of such changes. Our survey with the top contributors of popular Java libraries contributes to reveal a list of five reasons why developers break API contracts. Moreover, it also shows that most of developers are aware of these risks and, in some cases, adopt strategies to mitigate them. We conclude by prospecting a future study to strengthen our current findings. With this study, we expect to contribute on delineating tools to better assess the risks and impacts of API breaking changes.


This project is part of another project which is currently running at the University of Limerick (Ireland) and who is objective is to measure the concentration of haemoglobin (Hb) in blood using a non-invasive optical method. A sensor system, which basically consists of: four optical sources emitting light of different wavelengths; a photodiode which has a response in the appropriate wavelength range; a circuits for signal conditioning and low level processing of the information; and various software algorithms to interpret and calculate the Hb concentration. The main sensor elements are integrated into a finger clip. Despite advances in the development of monitoring systems for haemoglobin using non-invasive techniques, there is still a significant amount of research and development (R&D) required. One of the areas which requires further R&D is to minimise the unwanted effects of motion artefacts on the signal obtained from the photodiode. Through the development of hardware (e.g.: accelerometer, gyroscope, laser and monitor diode, etc.) and software (motion-resistant algorithms), it will gradually achieve the goal of highly accurate and immune to Motion Artefact. This project focuses on the software development. The main objective is to evaluate a number of methods which could potentially remove these motion artefacts through the use of adaptive filtering. One popular adaptive filtering techniques used in such situations is the noise canceller and this option will be explored in the project. In addition different adaptive algorithms will be compared in order to obtain the best solution. Simulations in Matlab and Labview will be used because the latter software is used extensively in the main Hb analysis programme. This project report has the following structure: - Introduction to non-invasive haemoglobin monitoring by LED based optical sensor system. - PPG signal features and motion artefact. - Theory related to adaptive filtering and adaptive algorithms. - Code and simulations in both Matlab and Labview.


This paper discusses key issues related to the conduct of monetary policy in countries that have Islamic banks. It describes the macrofinancial background and monetary policy frameworks where Islamic banks typically operate, and discusses the monetary transmission mechanism in economies where Islamic and conventional banking coexist. Most economies with Islamic banks also have conventional banks and this calls for a comprehensive approach to monetary policy. At the same time, a dual approach to monetary policy should be considered whenever the Islamic segment of the financial system is not as developed as the conventional one. The paper tries to shed light on potential spillovers between conventional and Islamic financial systems, and proposes specific recommendations on the design of Islamic monetary policy operations and for facilitating monetary transmission through the Islamic financial system.


The Online Bibliography of Electronic Lexicography (OBELEXmeta) is a bibliographic database which is developed for researchers working in the field of dictionary research. The platform is hosted at the Institute for the German Language (Institut fur Deutsche Sprache, IDS) in Mannheim. The poster presentation aims at presenting the current status of the ongoing project.


So much of global health governance focuses intensely on a brief moment in the human lifespan — from a safe birth to infant and child survival. Yet, with all the attention to this early window of life (infancy to age five), the opposite end of the life spectrum is comparatively neglected. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not mention a healthy lifespan or a healthy old age. This inadequate attention to the older years of the life appears to be a glaring omission given the universal challenges posed by aging societies. Aging is a demographic fact in almost all countries, but it is occurring more rapidly in low- and middle-income countries. Today, almost two in three people aged 60 or over live in developing countries. By 2050, nearly four in five of those aged over 60 will live in the developing world.Across the globe, declining fertility rates, lower infant mortality, and greater longevity drive population aging: people live longer because of improved nutrition, sanitation, health care, education and economic wellbeing. In many respects, therefore, global aging is a triumph of social and economic development. But sitting alongside the stunning success of longer lives (and the future prospect of still longer lives), are the personal, social, and economic consequences of a global demographic transition to a decidedly older population. A fundamental dynamic for global health in the coming decades is to find innovative governance tools to shape the way the international community can enhance the well-being of older people living in aging societies — from civil society, philanthropy, industry, and governments to international agencies and global public-private partnerships. Reflecting on the journey from the new millennium to today, there has been undeniable — although decidedly inadequate — progress. The 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on Aging ("Madrid Plan") framed aging policies as integral aspects of economic development and human rights — a form of mainstreaming we support. Yet, more than a decade later, the United Nations processes have failed to yield concrete changes in law and governance.The goal of healthy aging is unmistakable, and benefits everyone equally in society. Society should afford all human beings the opportunity to live dignified and long lives where they are healthy and active for as long as possible, allowing them to continue to enrich their own lives and that of those around them. The challenge of global aging is significant and universal. Almost 700 million people are now over the age of 60, and by 2050, 2 billion people — over 20 percent of the world's population — will be 60 or older. Recognizing the need to combat this population shift, Anna Garsia and Professor Gostin look at the impact this changing dynamic will have on global health and the structures currently in place. In this Article, Garsia and Gostin analyze the current state of affairs for older persons around the world, looking at both international and domestic efforts and ultimately calling for a course of action that enhances the application of existing human rights law while campaigning for a robust new international treaty on the treatment of elder individuals.


Debt sustainability analyses (DSA) are generally done in contexts of distress that feature large revisions of pre-established perceptions. Those contexts are usually largely uncertain. Much of the information from the past becomes obsolete as a guide for forecasting the debtor's payment capacity. In those environments, there is not an obvious superior approach for assessing sovereign debt sustainability. However, there are elements that must be part of the analysis regardless of the chosen approach. This paper offers clarifications on the foundations of a DSA and the elements that constitute it. It is argued that any framework for DSA must take three elements into account: First, the framework for DSA has to define the relevant constraints for assessing what is a state of sustainable debt. Second, it must define a model for projecting the capacity for stabilizing debt that incorporates the relevant endogenous feedback effects associated with the implementation of fiscal and debt policies. Third, it has to make assumptions about the distribution of shocks that affect the capacity of debt payment and has to deal with the heterogeneity of beliefs that underlie any DSA. The paper discusses the practice of DSA and how those elements are dealt with and analyzes the interplay between those three elements in an analysis of debt sustainability.


Public health in England developed during the first half of the nineteenth century with concern for sanitation in urban areas. Since that time environment, behaviour, social relationships, health services and genetic constitution are all recognized to contribute to health and disease in populations. Sustainable development is now of global concern, and its foundations-economy, environment and society-are similar to the determinants of health. However, while improved environment will have an important contribution to health, the broader social objectives are also needed to avoid the downward cycle of inequality and cultural deterioration that has occurred in some western cities. Epidemiological studies at University College London are particularly concerned with these social dimensions, and research opportunities exist for collaboration with environmental sciences in a number of areas, including intersectoral work, societies in social transition, collaboration with business, and research within through the European Union.


This article presents findings from a multisite case study that focused on three international videoconferences, which involved secondary students discussing controversial social issues. As a learning experience, the videoconferences helped students better understand their use of participatory media, authentic discussion, and public voice. Findings suggested that the students' engagement in dialogue with a diverse audience of peers resulted in students reflecting on the quality of their classroom discussions and their regular interactions with participatory media. By engaging in authentic discussion with peers outside of their typical school and social circles, students' better understood the purpose of their public voice. After reflectively comparing the videoconference experience to other participatory media and learning experiences, the students made decisions to use participatory media in the future to construct similar media-based authentic learning experiences. Thus, participation in the videoconference helped students consider and develop their civic agency. Implications for social studies educators are discussed.


The cranial neural crest has long been viewed as being of particular significance. First, it has been held that the cranial neural crest has a morphogenetic role, acting to coordinate the development of the pharyngeal arches. By contrast, the trunk crest seems to play a more subservient role in terms of embryonic patterning. Second, the cranial crest not only generates neurons, glia, and melanocytes, but additionally forms skeletal derivatives (bones, cartilage, and teeth, as well as smooth muscle and connective tissue), and this potential was thought to be a unique feature of the cranial crest. Recently, however, several studies have suggested that the cranial neural crest may not be so influential in terms of patterning, nor so exceptional in the derivatives that it makes. It is now becoming clear that the morphogenesis of the pharyngeal arches is largely driven by the pharyngeal endoderm. Furthermore, it is now apparent that trunk neural crest cells have skeletal potential. However, it has now been demonstrated that a key role for the cranial neural crest streams is to organise the innervation of the hindbrain by the cranial sensory ganglia. Thus, in the past few years, our views of the significance of the cranial neural crest for head development have been altered. Developmental Dynamics 229:5–13, 2004. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


CO 2 -rich fluid inclusions associated with silicate melts (glass) covering a wide variety of densities from 0.13 to 1.17 g/cm 3 are present in two suites of genetically different mantle peridotites from the West Eifel, Germany. The two suites consist of low temperature hydrous peridotites (la), which contain amphibole, and high temperature dry peridotites (lb), respectively. None of the inclusions is primary. Highest fluid densities of 1.17 g/cm 3 from the high temperature dry suite corresponding to a maximum pressure of close to 1.5 GPa and a depth of about 47 km compared to 1.05 g/cm 3 and a maximum pressure of 0.99 GPa, equivalent to a depth of 31 km, for the amphibole-bearing hydrous suite. Except for similar silica contents (49 to 59 wt. % SiO 2 ), melts from both suites are of different major element composition and origin. Small proportions of melt (1 vol.%) along grain boundaries in the lb suite were derived from the Quaternary alkali basalt lavas from the West Eifel which infiltrated the peridotites at mantle depths considerably greater than 47 km and were chemically modified by reaction with orthopyroxene. Melts in the la suite result from the breakdown of amphibole. Blebs of melt (glass) with microcrysts of clinopyroxene, olivine and spinel replace former amphibole. The wide variety of homogenization temperatures of fluid inclusions associated with the melts in the la suite is believed to be due to re-equilibration at crustal levels shallower than 31 km. This is consistent with the view that the hydrous peridotites were sampled from immediately below the Moho.


T cell surveillance is often effective against virus-associated tumors because of their high immunogenicity. It is not clear why surveillance occasionally fails, particularly against hepatitis B virus- or hepatitis C virus-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We established a transgenic murine model of virus-induced HCC by hepatocyte-specific adenovirus-induced activation of the oncogenic SV40 large T antigen (TAg). Adenovirus infection induced cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) targeted against the virus and TAg, leading to clearance of the infected cells. Despite the presence of functional, antigen-specific T cells, a few virus-infected cells escaped immune clearance and progressed to HCC. These cells expressed TAg at levels similar to HCC isolated from neonatal TAg-tolerant mice, suggesting that CTL clearance does not select for cells with low immunogenicity. Virus-infected mice revealed significantly greater T cell infiltration in early-stage HCC compared with that in late-stage HCC, demonstrating progressive local immune suppression through inefficient T cell infiltration. Programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1 were expressed in all TAg-specific CD8+ T cells and HCC, respectively, which contributed to local tumor-antigen-specific tolerance. Thus, we have developed a model of virus-induced HCC that may allow for a better understanding of human HCC.


The autocorrelation function, Corr(α, ω′) = \({\int}_{{-}{\infty}}^{{\infty}}\) α(ω + ω′)α(ω)dω, may be used to parameterise effective line widths of absorption bands in IR spectra. It has the advantage of not requiring any peak fitting to the primary spectra and can be applied to individual bands or groups of bands in a spectrum. A new procedure for analysing autocorrelation spectra which result from the application of the autocorrelation function to primary spectra is presented. The approach is well suited for quantifying line width variations in powder absorption spectra from sequences of samples with varying composition, degree of cation order or structural state. Worked examples are set out to illustrate different applications of the approach, including the characterisation of structural phase transitions in tridymite, Al/Si ordering under non-equilibrium conditions in Mg-cordierite, short range Al/Ge order in BaAl 2 Ge 2 O 8 feldspar and mixing behaviour in the jadeite-augite solid solution.


Female musicians who perform in tribute acts to male rock artists are an increasingly popular form of live musical entertainment, from Lez Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin) to Hervana (Nirvana). The purpose of this thesis is to explore the motivations for or rewards derived through tributing for women. Original interviews with artists and participant observation at performances are used for analysis alongside published interviews, videos, and website information. Discussions reveal how female tribute acts subvert the patriarchal dominance of rock music's history by re-imagining canonical figures as women, as well as how archetypal signifiers of masculinity can be separated from male bodies and performed effectively via a feminized embodiment. Additionally, tribute performance spaces serve as communal fandom gatherings where texts can be reinterpreted and transformed through collective participation by musicians and audiences alike. In sum, female tribute acts allow new creative possibilities for women's further involvement in rock and popular music-making.


Iatrogenesis is more common in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) because the infants are vulnerable and exposed to prolonged intensive care. Sixty percent of extremely low-birth-weight infants are exposed to iatrogenesis. The risk factors for iatrogenesis in NICUs include prematurity, mechanical or non-invasive ventilation, central lines, and prolonged length of stay. This led to the notion that "less is more." In the delivery room delayed cord clamping is recommended for term and preterm infants, and suction for the airways in newborns with meconium-stained fluid is not performed anymore. As a symbol for a less aggressive attitude we use the term neonatal stabilization rather than resuscitation. Lower levels of oxygen saturations are accepted as normal during the first 10 minutes of life, and if respiratory assistance is needed, we no longer use 100% oxygen but 0.21–0.3 FiO2, depending on gestational age and the level of oxygen saturation. We try to avoid endotracheal ventilation by using non-invasive respiratory support and administering continuous positive airway pressure early on, starting in the delivery room. If surfactant is needed, non-invasive methods of surfactant administration are utilized. Use of central lines is shortened, and early feeding of human milk is the routine. Permissive hypercapnia is allowed, and continuous non-invasive monitoring not only of the O2 but also of CO2 is warranted. "Kangaroo care" and Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) together with a calm atmosphere with parental involvement are encouraged. Whether "less is more," or not enough, is to be seen in future studies.


Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) has been one of the most important problems in bioinformatics for more decades and it is still heavily examined by many mathematicians and biologists. However, mostly because of the practical motivation of this problem, the research on this topic is focused on aligning long sequences. It is understandable, since the sequences that need to be aligned (usually DNA or protein sequences) are generally quite long (e. g., at least 30-40 characters). Nevertheless, it is a challenging question that exactly where MSA starts to become a real hard problem (since it is known that MSA is NP-complete [2]), and the key to answer this question is to examine short sequences. If the optimal alignment for short sequences could be determined in polynomial time, then these results may help to develop faster or more accurate heuristic algorithms for aligning long sequences. In this work, it is shown that for length-1 sequences using arbitrary metric, as well as for length-2 sequences using unit metric, the optimum of the MSA problem can be achieved by the trivial alignment.


We show that the path construction integration of Lie algebroids by Lie groupoids is an actual equivalence from the of integrable Lie algebroids and complete Lie algebroid comorphisms to the of source 1-connected Lie groupoids and Lie groupoid comorphisms. This allows us to construct an actual symplectization functor in Poisson geometry. We include examples to show that the integrability of comorphisms and Poisson maps may not hold in the absence of a completeness assumption.


Migration of participants in demographic and epidemiological studies results in missing data. One approach to reduce resulting losses in statistical power and potential biases is to follow up migrants at their new residence. We describe the follow-up of migrants who were eligible for participation in a trial of a new questionnaire to measure adult mortality in Niakhar, Senegal. We conducted a short inquiry in the migrant's last known household to obtain contact information and then attempted to contact and interview 661 migrants who resided in Dakar, Mbour, and rural areas close to Niakhar. About two-thirds of migrants were successfully enrolled in the study. Having a contact phone number and knowing the name of the head of compound at destination increased the likelihood of successful enrollment. Following up migrants in demographic studies is feasible in low- and middle-income countries, including long-term migrants who have not been contacted for extended periods of time.


Implicit representations of geometry have found applications in shape modeling, simulation, and other graphics pipelines. These representations, however, do not provide information about the paths of individual points as shapes move and undergo deformation. For this reason, we reconsider the problem of tracking points on level set surfaces, with the goal of designing an algorithm that — unlike previous work — can recover rotational motion and nearly isometric deformation. We track points on level sets of a time‐varying function using approximate Killing vector fields (AKVFs), the velocity fields of near‐isometric motions. To this end, we provide suitable theoretical and discrete constructions for computing AKVFs in a narrow band surrounding an animated level set surface. Furthermore, we propose time integrators well‐suited to integrating AKVFs in time to track points. We demonstrate the theoretical and practical advantages of our proposed algorithms on synthetic and practical tasks.


Collaboration is a key component of our practice as teachers and teacher educators and there is a need to develop generative models for collaboration among teacher educators. We have created and tested a model of collaboration. Data were drawn from: recordings of monthly group meetings; discussion threads and documents on our leaning management site; individual interviews with all members of the group conducted three times across the project; and reflections on these interview transcripts by individual annotation and group discussions. The model includes a collaborative overarching research project and, nested under this mantle, a series of focused research projects conducted by pairs of collaborators, international networking, and enactments of scholarship. A key element of the success of this model was the foundation of this research in arts-based inquiry. The model has enabled rapid and rich development of academic collaboration with flexibility to develop new practices and projects that benefits research and teaching.