Since World War II, efforts to improve schools have numbered in the thousands. Most efforts have concentrated on improving the curriculum materials used in schools or on "training" teachers in new instructional methods. Many of these efforts have gone under the banner of "building instructional capacity," a term that for decades has been featured prominently in conversations about educational reform. Unfortunately, three decades of research has found that only a few interventions have had detectable effects on instruction and that, when such effects are detected, they rarely are sustained over time. A review of research and professional experience with school improvement suggests several explanations for these disheartening findings. One is that schools are complex social organizations situated within, and vitally affected by, other complex social systems including families, communities, and professional and regulatory agencies. The larger social environment of schools constrains and shapes the actions of teachers, students, and administrators, often in ways that greatly complicate the work of school improvement. Challenges to school improvement are particularly acute in highpoverty settings where recruiting wellqualified teachers is difficult and where the emotional and health problems of students often deflects attention to educational issues or impedes work on them. As a result, many researchers now believe that school improvement involves much more than efforts to change interactions occurring within schools. To succeed, school improvement interventions also must attend to the complex relationships that exist among intervention agents, schools, and their social environments. Disciplines Curriculum and Instruction | Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Educational Administration and Supervision | Educational Methods | Education Policy | Teacher Education and Professional Development Comments View on the CPRE website. This report is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/cpre_researchreports/8 Instruction, Capacity, and Improvement David K. Cohen and Deborah Loewenberg Ball CPRE Research Report Series RR-43


Legislators at the state and national levels are addressing renewed concerns over the adequacy of hospital nurse staffing to provide quality care and ensure patient safety. At the same time, the well-known nursing shortage remains an ongoing problem. To address these issues, we reexamine the nurse scheduling problem and consider how recent health care legislation impacts nursing workforce management decisions. Specifically, we develop a scheduling model and perform computational experiments to evaluate how mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios and other policies impact schedule cost and schedule desirability (from the nurses' perspective). Our primary findings include the following: (i) nurse wage costs can be highly nonlinear with respect to changes in mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios of the type being considered by legislators; (ii) the number of undesirable shifts can be substantially reduced without incurring additional wage cost; (iii) more desirable scheduling policies, such as assigning fewer weekends to each nurse, have only a small impact on wage cost; and (iv) complex policy statements involving both single-period and multiperiod service levels can sometimes be relaxed while still obtaining good schedules that satisfy the nurse-to-patient ratio requirements. The findings in this article suggest that new directions for future nurse scheduling models, as it is likely that nurse-to-patient ratios and nursing shortages will remain a challenge for health care organizations for some time.


We present an extensive study of the BL Lac object Mrk 501 based on a data set collected during the multi-instrument campaign spanning from 2009 March 15 to 2009 August 1, which includes, among other instruments, MAGIC, VERITAS, Whipple 10 m, and Fermi-LAT to cover the γ-ray range from 0.1 GeV to 20 TeV; RXTE and Swift to cover wavelengths from UV tohard X-rays; and GASP-WEBT, which provides coverage of radio and optical wavelengths. Optical polarization measurements were provided for a fraction of the campaign by the Steward and St. Petersburg observatories. We evaluate the variability of the source and interband correlations, the γ-ray flaring activity occurring in May 2009, and interpret the results within two synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) scenarios. Aims. The multiband variability observed during the full campaign is addressed in terms of the fractional variability, and the possible correlations are studied by calculating the discrete correlation function for each pair of energy bands where the significance was evaluated with dedicated Monte Carlo simulations. The space of SSC model parameters is probed following a dedicated grid-scan strategy, allowing for a wide range of models to be tested and offering a study of the degeneracy of model-to-data agreement in the individual model parameters, hence providing a less biased interpretation than the "single-curve SSC model adjustment" typically reported in the literature. Methods. We find an increase in the fractional variability with energy, while no significant interband correlations of flux changes are found on the basis of the acquired data set. The SSC model grid-scan shows that the flaring activity around May 22 cannot be modeled adequately with a one-zone SSC scenario (using an electron energy distribution with two breaks), while it can be suitably described within a two (independent) zone SSC scenario. Here, one zone is responsible for the quiescent emission from the averaged 4.5-month observing period, while the other one, which is spatially separated from the first, dominates the flaring emission occurring at X-rays and very-high-energy (>100 GeV, VHE) γ rays. The flaring activity from May 1, which coincides with a rotation of the electric vector polarization angle (EVPA), cannot be satisfactorily reproduced by either a one-zone or a two-independent-zone SSC model, yet this is partially affected by the lack of strictly simultaneous observations and the presence of large flux changes on sub-hour timescales (detected at VHE γ rays). Results. The higher variability in the VHE emission and lack of correlation with the X-ray emission indicate that, at least during the 4.5-month observing campaign in 2009, the highest energy (and most variable) electrons that are responsible for the VHE γ rays do not make a dominant contribution to the ~1 keV emission. Alternatively, there could be a very variable component contributing to the VHE γ-ray emission in addition to that coming from the SSC scenario. The studies with our dedicated SSC grid-scan show that there is some degeneracy in both the one-zone and the two-zone SSC scenarios probed, with several combinations of model parameters yielding a similar model-to-data agreement, and some parameters better constrained than others. The observed γ-ray flaring activity, with the EVPA rotation coincident with the first γ-ray flare, resembles those reported previously for low frequency peaked blazars, hence suggesting that there are many similarities in the flaring mechanisms of blazars with different jet properties.


An old Italian proverb states that lies have short legs. In other words, in the end you get found out. This is exactly what happened to an Italian researcher who acted as a referee for a manuscript submitted in 2015 to Annals of Internal Medicine. After a negative report (which presumably led to the rejection of the submission) he submitted a manuscript which was essentially the same. But he and his accomplices got found out and paraded in front of the world in an earth-shatteringly polite "Dear Plagiarist" letter by the first robbed author: Dr Michael Dansinger. Dr Dansiger's letter is a model of polite logic and an ethical masterpiece, the fake article got retracted and the thief's institution contacted. No reply so far, a depressingly familiar theme in contemporary research. We wonder why we carry on with a system which is completely broken. Commercial interests, reporting bias, secrecy, ethically dubious studies and inertia are the ingredients of contemporary research and publication practices. Editorial peer review, a scholarly practice originating in a more genteel era, is clearly unable to do much other than lend a very thin veneer of credibility to this pandemic of junk which is threatening healthcare budgets and the ethics of the next generation of researchers. We need a complete reform of the system which could give back some credibility to the "e" of evidence-based medicine. Complete lawful transparency, public reimbursement of interventions only on the basis of independently generated evidence and research ethics as a part of an international curriculum for budding researchers are urgently needed. These should be linked to publishers' complete disclosure of their sources of income and custodial sentences for those who abuse positions of trust. Meanwhile, stay away from anything implausible and non-replicable (as they probably are).


Abstract The wide range of applications associated with nanocomposites is due to their improved properties when compared to conventional composites. In this study, commercial epoxy-based powder coatings were formulated with 2 and 4% (w/w) of an organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT) by incorporation in the melt state (extrusion). These composites were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XDR). The thermal behavior and stability of the epoxy nanocomposites were studied by TGA and DSC. The nanoparticle structure within the polymer matrix was analyzed by XRD and TEM. A predominantly exfoliated structure was observed by TEM, which was confirmed by XDR analysis. The study demonstrated that the nanoclay increases the glass transition and crosslinking temperatures and also enhances the thermal stability of the coating.


There is a large margin of error in death statistics. Mortality statistics for cerebrovascular disease show, however, the well-known rise in frequency with age, the higher frequency in men than women which is likely to affect all countries in the coming years, and the greater involvement of nonwhite Americans and Japanese than of white Americans and Japanese Americans. I believe that incidence figures, when they become available in future years, will confirm these findings. Environmental factors, such as a "water factor," also relate to cerebrovascular death rates. Possibly the biggest factor in the medical environment, causing artificial swings in both mortality and incidence figures, will be shown to be the changing diagnostic habits of physicians. From the viewpoint of etiology, the coexistence of hypertension and cerebrovascular disease dominates the epidemiological picture. The geographic distribution of cerebrovascular mortality in the U.S.A., and the higher mortality in Negroes and in the elderly, particularly relate to underlying hypertension. Ongoing and future population studies, focusing on morbidity as well as mortality, are likely to contribute much in clarifying the relative importance of other causal factors whose harmful effects can be controlled.


From the first flush of love, through courtship and vows of eternal fidelity, to serving the writs and drowning your sorrows, 'The Nation's Favourite Love Poems' will meet all your romantic requirements. In this selection of 100 popular poems, poets of every age consider that most universal of themes: love. As well as traditional lovers' favourites such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 'How do I love thee?' and Shakespeare's 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' there are contemporary voices such as Adrian Mitchell, Wendy Cope and John Fuller, whose erudite yet salacious 'Valentine' would melt the most fridgid heart. There are even poems for those more melancholic moments, Hardy's haunting 'After a Journey', for example, and Larkin's poignant 'Love Songs in Age'. So, wherever you are in the tunnel of love, dip into this book of poetry and you will be reassured to discover that at one time or another a poet has been there before you.


Voice has returned to both theoretical and artistic agendas. In the digital era, techniques and technologies of voice have provoked insistent questioning of the distinction between the human voice and the voice of the machine, between genuine and synthetic affect, between the uniqueness of an individual voice and the social and cultural forces that shape it. This volume offers interdisciplinary perspectives on these topics from history, philosophy, cultural theory, film, dance, poetry, media arts, and computer games. Many chapters demonstrate Lewis Mumford's idea of the "cultural preparation" that precedes technological innovation--that socially important new technologies are foreshadowed in philosophy, the arts, and everyday pastimes. Chapters cover such technologies as voice mail, podcasting, and digital approximations of the human voice. A number of authors explore the performance, performativity, and authenticity [(or 'authenticity effect') of voice in dance, poetry, film, and media arts]; while others examine more immaterial concerns--the voice's often-invoked magical powers, the ghostliness of disembodied voices, and posthuman vocalization. [The chapters evoke an often paradoxical reassertion of the human in the use of voice in mainstream media including recorded music, films, and computer games.ContributorsMark Amerika, Isabelle Arvers, Giselle Beiguelman, Philip Brophy, Ross Gibson, Brandon LaBelle, Thomas Levin, Helen Macallan, Virginia Madsen, Meredith Morse, Norie Neumark, Andrew Plain, John Potts, Theresa M. Senft,Nermin Saybasili, Amanda Stewart, Axel Stockburger, Michael Taussig, Martin Thomas, Theo van Leeuwen, Mark Wood


It has been established that ductal cells or precursor cells within the ductal tree of the pancreas can differentiate into islet cells. Although islet cells can also form exocrine cells, it is unclear whether they arise from precursor (stem) cells or from mature endocrine cells by transdifferentiation. Using a defined culture medium and technique for islet purification, for the first time we were able to maintain human islets in culture for more than a year. Multilabeling immunohistochemical and immunoelectron microscopic examination of the islets at different days of culture using islet cell markers (antibodies to hormones, neuron-specific enolase, chromogranin A) and ductal cell markers (cytokeratins 7 and 19, carbonic anhydrase II, DU-PAN2, CA 19-9, and MUC1) revealed that endocrine cells gradually transdifferentiate to ductal, acinar, and intermediary cells. Although islet hormone secretion ceased after day 28 in culture, endocrine cells were still detectable at day 60. However, later, all endocrine and exocrine cells were replaced by undifferentiated cells that expressed neuron-specific enolase, chromogranin A, laminin, vimentin, cytokeratin 7 and 19, &agr;-1-antitrypsin, transforming growth factor-&agr;, and epidermal growth factor receptor. Our data thus show that, under proper conditions, human islets can be maintained in vitro over a long period and that, in the culture condition, islet cells seem to transdifferentiate to exocrine cells and undifferentiated cells, which may be considered pancreatic precursor (stem) cells.


The aim of this study is identified the relationship among organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior and their dimensions and the affect of the relationship on call center employees. The questionnaire method has been chosen as data collection. The research population has been consisted of call center employees who worked in the Bursa and Istanbul. In the research sample has been consisted of 251 call center employees who is performing a call center in Bursa and three call centers in Istanbul. The study has two parts. In the first part, the conceptual framework of organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior and in the second part, findings and results are ranked as. This research results indicated that a high level positive relation among organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior.


The effects of a sudden rainfall (40 mm d -1 ) event on the surface waters covering muddy tidal flats were studied during April 2016 at the estuarine Cruces River wetland in south-central Chile (~40oS). The study area included flooded vestigial tree trunks, which is evidence of coseismic subsidence associated with the 1960 Valdivia earthquake as a source of environmental variability. The tidal flat with vestigial tree trunks registered the fastest and highest depth of inundation. In contrast, the tidal currents velocity and total suspended solids' concentrations were higher at the flat without trunks. Sudden rainfall events can significantly modify the characteristics of surface waters above sedimentary intertidal surfaces, where structures such as flooded trunks are present.


While writing this Article, I interviewed a journalist who writes stories about harmful technologies. To do this work, he gathers information from websites to reveal trends that online platforms would prefer to hide. His team has exposed how Facebook threatens people's privacy and safety, how Amazon hides cheaper deals from consumers, and how Google diverts political speech from our inboxes. You'd think the journalist might want credit for telling these important stories, but he instead insisted on anonymity when we talked because his lawyer was worried he'd be confessing to breaking the law—to committing the crime and tort of cyber-trespass.

Cyber-trespass law makes it illegal to access websites and gather information without a platform's permission. Some courts are treating all websites as "blackacres"—as enclaves of private property that platforms may govern much like people may exert dominion over their private land in the real world. This legal regime empowers platforms to selectively and arbitrarily grant and withhold their consent when people attempt to access their websites. Platforms have long exercised these gatekeeper rights through their computer code, restricting access through authentication barriers like password gates. But cyber-trespass law creates empowers platforms to limit access through legal code, using their terms of service or cease-and-desist letters to deter people from gathering information for any reason whatsoever.

This Article argues that this indiscriminate treatment of all websites as blackacres violates the First Amendment. Applying cyber-trespass rules identically across the internet transgresses core constitutional values by giving platforms unbounded discretion to impede consumption of information that's already within the public sphere. To avoid these unconstitutional applications of cyber-trespass law, courts should recognize two types of cyberspaces. In short, cyber-trespass law should have no force on websites that are accessible to the general public, while elsewhere it should. Whether a website is publicly accessible for constitutional purposes should turn on the social structure of communicative practices on particular websites, not merely whether a website sits behind a password gate. Adopting this framework would not only satisfy the First Amendment, but also protect privacy interests that are increasingly threatened in the digital age.


A transient simulator for interconnect structures that are modeled by lossy transmission lines is outlined in this paper. Since frequency-dependent RLGC parameters must be employed to correctly model skin effects and dielectric losses for high-performance interconnects, we first study the behaviors of various lossy interconnects that are characterized by frequency-dependent line parameters (FDLPs). We then developed a frequency-domain dispersive hybrid phase-pole macromodel (DHPPM) for such lines, which consists of a constant RLGC propagation function multiplied by a residue series. The basic idea is to first extract the dominant physical phenomenology by using a propagation function in the frequency domain that is modeled by frequency-independent line parameters (FILPs). A rational function approximation is then used to account for the remaining effects of FDLP lines. By using a partial fraction expansion and analytically evaluating the required inverse Fourier transform integrals, the time-domain DHPPM can be decomposed as a sum of canonical transient responses for lines with FILP for various excitations (e.g., trapezoidal and unit step). These canonical transient responses are then expressed analytically as closed-form expressions involving incomplete Lipshitz-Hankel integrals of the first kind and Bessel functions. The closed-form expressions for these canonical responses are validated by comparing with simulation results from commercial tools like HSPICE. The DHPPM simulator can simulate transient results for various input waveforms on both single and coupled interconnect structures. Comparisons between the DHPPM results and the results produced by commercial simulation tools like HSPICE and a numerical inverse fast Fourier transform show that the DHPPM results are very accurate.


Disability poses a serious threat to the financial security of disabled persons both before and after retirement. Most Americans grossly underestimate their vulnerability to disability, and do not appreciate the impact it can have on their well-being when retired. Fewer than one in three American workers are covered by employer-sponsored longterm disability (LTD) insurance. The decline of the defined benefit pension plan has made matters worse. While defined benefit plans often included some disability protection and were coordinated with LTD coverage, defined contribution (DC) plans generally include no provision to protect retirement security in the event of disability. This article explains several problems related to disability protection that arise with DC plans and long-term financial security. It proposes both public policy reforms aimed at increasing the coverage and adequacy of disability insurance as well as steps that employers and financial planners could take to improve coverage and adequacy for their employees and clients.


An analogy between thermodynamic and economic theories and processes is developed further, following a previous paper published by the author in 1982. Economic equivalents are set out concerning the ideal gas equation, the gas constant, pressure, temperature, entropy, work done, specific heat and the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics. The law of diminishing marginal utility was derived from thermodynamic first principles. Conditions are set out concerning the relationship of economic processes to entropic gain. A link between the Le Chatelier principle and economic processes is developed, culminating in a derivation of an equation similar in format to that of Cobb Douglas production function, but with an equilibrium constant and a disequilibrium function added to it. A trade cycle is constructed, utilising thermodynamic processes, and equations are derived for cycle efficiency, growth and entropy gain. A thermodynamic model of a money system is set out, and an attempt is made to relate interest rates, the rate of return, money demand and the velocity of circulation to entropy gain. Aspects concerning the measurement of economic value in thermodynamic terms are discussed.


The aim of this study is to investigate the ameliorative potentials of Cyperus esculentus (Tigernut) oil, in type 2 diabetes induced with the combination of high fat diet and a low dose streptozotocin (35mg/kg) in male Wistar rats. Forty rats weighing between 100-115g were divided randomly into group of five (n=8), 3 groups were subsequently fed with a high fat diet (HFD) for 30 days and the other 2 were maintained on normal rat chow (NPD). Results revealed an increase in body weight amongst the groups fed with a HFD and treatment with C. esculentus oil significantly (P<0.05) reduced the body weight (HFD+STZ+CEO). Glycated hemoglobin (HbAIC), G6PDH and α-Amylase activity were significantly stabilized in C.esculentus oil treated group. Oral glucose tolerant test with a load dose of 150 mg/kg glucose showed there was a rapid blood sugar level clearance in HFD+STZ+CEO as compared to untreated group (HFD+STZ). Atherogenic index (AIP) levels was significantly (p<0.05) lowered in the treated groups (HFD+STZ+GLI 0.262±0.40 and HFD+STZ+CEO 0.18±0.03) when compared to untreated groups (HFD+STZ 0.495±0.66 and NFD+STZ 0.495±0.57) as well as Triglyceride and VLDL levels. Enzymatic antioxidants activities were enhanced by C. esculentus oil. Therefore, C. esculentus oil may be used as either a therapeutic agent or as a dietary choice for the management of type 2 diabetes.


This paper assesses the extent to which a countrys external capital structure can aid in mitigating the macroeconomic impact of oil price shocks. Two Caribbean economies highly vulnerable to oil price shocks are considered: an oil importer (Jamaica) and an oil exporter (Trinidad and Tobago). From a risk-sharing perspective, a desirable external capital structure is one that, through international capital gains and losses, helps offset responses of the current account balance to external shocks. It is found that both countries could alter their international portfolio to provide a better buffer against such shocks.


Laboratory experiments employing radiotracer methodology were conducted to determine the assimilation efficiencies from ingested natural seston, the influx rates from the dissolved phase and the efflux rates of 6 trace elements (Ag, Am, Cd, Co. Se and Zn) in the mussel Mytilus edulis. A kinetic model was then employed to predict trace element concentration in mussel tissues in 2 locations for which mussel and environmental data are well described: South San Francisco Bay (California, USA) and Long Island Sound [New York, USA). Assimilation efficiencies from natural seston ranged from 5 to 18": for Ag, 0.6 to 1% for Am, 8 to 20% for Cd, 12 to 16% for CO, 28 to 34% for Se, and 32 to 41 ':, for Zn. Differences in chlorophyll a concentration in ingested natural seston did not have significant impact on the assimilation of Am, CO, Se and Zn. The influx rate of elements from the dissolved phase increased with the dissolved concentration, conforming to Freundlich adsorption isotherms. The calculated dissolved uptake rate constant was greatest for Ag, followed by Zn > Am -; Cd > CO > Se. The estimated absorption efficiency from the d~ssolved phase was 1.53 % for Ag, 0.34 % for Am, 0.31 X for Cd, 0.11 % for CO, 0.03"' for Se and 0.89% for Zn. Salinity had an inverse effect on the influx rate from the dissolved phase and dissolved organic carbon concentration had no significant effect on trace element uptake. The calculated efflux rate constants for all elements ranged from 1.0 to 3.0% d-' The route of trace element uptake (food vs dissolved) and the duration of exposure to dissolved trace elements (12 h vs 6 d) did not significantly influence trace element efflux rates. A model which used the experimentally determined influx and efflux rates for each of the trace elements, following exposure from ingested food and from water, predicted concentrations of Ag. Cd, Se and Zn in mussels that were directly comparable to actual tissue concentrations independently measured in the 2 reference sites in national monitoring programs. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the total suspended solids load, which can affect mussel feeding activity, assimilation, and trace element concentration in the dissolved and particulate phases, can significantly influence metal bioaccumulation for particlereactive elements such as Ag and Am. For all metals, concentrations in mussels are proportionately related to total metal load in the water column and their assimilation efficiency from ingested particles. Further, the model predicted that over 96% of Se in mussels is obtained from ingested food, under conditions typical of coastal waters. For Ag, Am, Cd, CO and Zn, the relative contribution from the dissolved phase decreases significantly with increasing trace element parhtion coefficients for suspended particles and the assimilation efficiency in mussels of ingested trace elements, values range between 33 and 67% for Ag, 5 and 1 7 % for Am, 47 and 82% for Cd, 4 and 30% for CO, and 17 and 51 ?h for Zn.


The main aim of this thesis is to analyze the economic consequences of ethnic cleansing in the countries affected, with particular focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina. As one of the key distinguishing characteristics of ethnic cleansing is mass displacement of people, it focuses its investigation on the impact of ethnic cleansing on the stock of human capital in the country affected. Using the framework of the analysis of brain drain developed for voluntary migration, the further analysis is divided into two parts: the first part deals with the negative consequences of ethnic cleansing for human capital through emigration of highly educated (brain drain), while the second part deals with positive reverse effects of such emigration (brain gain). This should eventually allow us to estimate the net effect of migration on the stock of human capital in the country affected by ethnic cleansing. The analysis of the brain drain caused by ethnic cleansing starts with the development of a theoretical model that explains the impact of ethnic cleansing on emigration of highly educated individuals. The model is based on the models of self-selection and amended by incorporating a ―restoration‖ hypothesis, originally developed in this thesis. This model is then tested by two different empirical studies. In the first study, a household level data from Bosnia-Herzegovina was used in order to measure the impact of different factors affecting the household's decision to migrate. In the second empirical study, country level data were used to measure the difference in the magnitude of brain drain between countries with different histories of conflict. The second part of the thesis provides the empirical evidence on brain gain by using two different studies. In the first study, country level data were used to analyze the possibility of the ―incentive effect‖ that increases the stock of human capital in the country as a result of migration. In the second study, household level data were used to analyze the effect of remittances inflows on the increase of human capital through increased educational investments by households receiving remittances. By providing evidence on both brain drain and brain gain effects, this thesis gives comprehensive insight into the impact of ethnic cleansing on the stock of human capital in a country. The main findings of these studies are that the negative effects are stronger, while positive effects are weaker compared to the voluntary migration. This suggests that the net effect of ethnic cleansing on human capital stock in a country is likely to be negative. In addition, the thesis offers a new theoretical model of ethnic cleansing which can also, with minor amendments, be used in the context of natural disasters induced and development induced displacement.


Metal additive manufacturing (AM) is on its way to industrialization. One of the most promising techniques within this field, electron beam melting (EBM), is nowadays used mostly for the fabrication of high‐performance Ti‐based alloy components for the aerospace and medical industry. Among the industrial applications envisioned for the future of EBM, the fabrication of high carbon steels for the tooling industry is of great interest. In this context, the process windows for dense and crack‐free specimens for a highly alloyed (Cr–Mo–V) cold‐work steel powder are presented in this article. High‐solidification rates during EBM processing lead to very fine and homogeneous microstructures. The influence of process parameters on the resulting microstructure and the chemical composition is investigated. In addition, preliminary results show very promising mechanical properties regarding the as‐built and heat‐treated microstructure of the obtained material.


Moyamoya disease is an idiopathic disease characterized by the progressive stenosis and collateral development of the distal internal carotid arteries. In this disease, several collateral vascular structures develop following stenosis and occlusion. The ivy sign is a characteristic Magnetic rezonance imaging (MRI) finding frequently encountered in patients with moyamoya. It can be observed both in post contrast T1-weighted images and Fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images. While this sign manifests in the form of contrasting on the cortical surfaces due to the formation of leptomeningeal collateral development and increased numbers of pial vascular webs on post contrast images, in FLAIR images it originates from the slow arterial flow in the leptomeningeal collateral vascular structures. In this case, we presented the Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) signs of moyamoya disease and "ivy sign" in MRI and its development mechanism in a 16 years old female patient.


Abstract – Background: A principal design choice in providing steering wheel force feedback to assist drivers during lane-keeping is whether feedback should be provided for any error with respect to the lane centre (continuous feedback) or only when acceptable tolerance limits are exceeded (bandwidth feedback). Problem: Research has shown that continuously assisting the driver by means of steering wheel force feedback improves driver performance and reduces mental workload. However, it has been suggested that continuous feedback induces aftereffects during subsequent manual driving. Method: In a fixed-base driving simulator study, we evaluated driver performance and mental workload, while drivers (n=32) received corrective force feedback on the steering wheel. Five designs were compared, namely no feedback (Manual), discrete bandwidth feedback (Band1), bandwidth feedback with a hysteresis filter (Band2), continuous feedback with feedback gain used in earlier studies (Cont), and continuous feedback with a feedback gain twice as strong (ContS). While driving the participants performed a secondary peripheral detection task. Participants were told that the feedback was not fully reliable. Towards the end of the trajectory the feedback algorithm was shut down in order to investigate short-term aftereffects. After each trial the participant would fill out a NASA-TLX and a Vanderlaan-questionnaire to measure workload, usefulness and satisfaction. Results: All four feedback designs eliminated the large lane centre deviations that occasionally occur during manual control. Both continuous feedback designs yielded smaller lane centre errors than bandwidth feedback and manual control. Shortly after the feedback was shut down, ContS resulted in worse lane keeping performance than Manual and bandwidth feedback. The secondary task showed a lower reaction time for Cont compared to Band1 and the NASA-TLX indicated lower workload for continuous feedback compared to manual control. The satisfaction scale of the Vanderlaan-questionnaire showed a significantly higher score for Cont compared to Band1. When the feedback shut down, drivers supported by ContS showed a lower minimum TLC, higher mean and maximum absolute lateral error, and more near lane departures. Conclusions: Providing the driver with continuous feedback is an effective way to improve the lane keeping performance and is experienced by drivers as more satisfactory and intuitive, as compared to bandwidth force feedback and manual steering. Bandwidth feedback is equally effective in preventing excessive deviation from the lane centre and did not suffer from the aftereffects that the ContS system did. Stronger continuous feedback resulted in better lane keeping performance, but also in larger aftereffects. The Cont design had a good performance, was perceived as satisfactory and showed no significant short-term aftereffects. Nevertheless, future research should point out if long-term behavioural adaptations lead to stronger aftereffects for continuous systems.


Date of Award 1994 Document Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) Department Music First Advisor Jack Guerry Abstract This study examines William Bolcom's Twelve New Etudes for Piano as a contribution to the evolution of the concert etude for piano solo, describing them mainly from the point of view of technical requirements. Chapter One charts the course of the etude for piano solo in the twentieth century. Chapter Two looks at Bolcom's Etudes in detail, addressing the following: style and format, passage-work, leaps, chords, trills and tremolos, counterpoint, cross-rhythms, stretches, dynamics and tone, pedaling, and new techniques. In the course of the description, several areas are pointed out in which Bolcom has done something new or unusual within the genre, namely: the use of pop styles (especially those other than ragtime), programmatic titles, leaps as the technical focus of an etude, "split" chords, counterpoint combined with cross-rhythms, two completely new techniques (the lateral tremolo and the forearm glissando), and perhaps most importantly, emphasis on dynamics, timbre, and pedaling. It is these last emphases, together with the Etudes' humor and accessibility, that set these pieces apart and make them an important contribution to the modern piano repertoire. Chapter Three is a brief summary of the study, concluding that Bolcom's Twelve New Etudes are innovative in many ways, representing, along with his earlier set (Twelve Etudes for Piano, 1966), a significant contribution to the genre. Recommended Citation Jones, Henry Scott, "William Bolcom's "Twelve New Etudes for Piano"." (1994). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 5879. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/5879


The design of compact wideband microwave reflectometers for the purpose of inclusion in a breast cancer detection system is presented. In this system, a wideband frequency source is used to synthesize a narrow pulse via the step-frequency synthesis method. The reflectometer undertakes measurements in the frequency domain and the collected data is transformed into the time/space domain using IFFT. In order to accomplish reflection coefficient measurements over a large frequency band, compact wideband couplers and power dividers are used to form the reflectometer. Two compact six-port reflectometer configurations are investigated. One uses the Lange coupler and the Gysel power divider and the other one employs a 3dB slot-coupled microstrip coupler and a 2-stage Wilkinson power divider. The reflectometer employing the slot-coupled coupler and the Wilkinson divider provides a wider operational bandwidth, as shown by simulation results performed with Agilent ADS.


We propose a novel approach to the 'reality gap' problem, i.e., modifying a robot simulation so that its performance becomes more similar to observed real world phenomena. This problem arises whether the simulation is being used by human designers or in an automated policy development mechanism. We expect that the program/policy is developed using simulation, and subsequently deployed on a real system. We further assume that the program includes a monitor procedure with scalar output to determine when it is achieving its performance objectives. The proposed approach collects simulation and real world observations and builds conditional probability functions. These are used to generate paired roll-outs to identify points of divergence in behavior. These are used to generate {\it state-space kernels} that coerce the simulation into behaving more like observed reality.
The method was evaluated using ROS/Gazebo for simulation and a heavily modified Traaxas platform in outdoor deployment. The results support not just that the kernel approach can force the simulation to behave more like reality, but that the modification is such that an improved control policy tested in the modified simulation also performs better in the real world.


Background The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) reaches up to 20% in Spain's population over 80 years old. Even though several medicines are available today, there is limited evidence regarding their effectiveness, without forgetting their potential adverse events. Consequently, close therapeutic monitoring is necessary to identify cases in which there are no clear signs of therapeutic benefit. Purpose To analyse the use of anti-dementia drugs in patients diagnosed with AD with the purpose of optimising it in the future. Material and methods Retrospective observational study of poly-medicated patients living in nursing homes aged over 75 years, who took part in a medicines reconciliation project during 2013. Data collection included age, sex, degree of dementia, number of chronic drugs and type of drug to treat AD. Clinical guidelines were reviewed in order to check recommendations for AD treatment (Cholinesterase Inhibitors (CIs) are recommended in mild-moderate AD, whereas memantine is indicated in severe AD). Results Eighty four (13.9%) out of 604 patients analysed were being treated with anti-dementia drugs (59.5% females, with an average age of 85.9 years and taking a median of 10.5 drugs daily). Memantine was the most common anti-dementia drug among our patients: 31 patients (36.9%) were taking it, 17 in monotherapy (20.24%), and 14 (16.7%) in association with CIs. The most frequently used CIs were rivastigmine and donepezil, with 29 (34.52%) and 27 (32.4%) patients respectively. On the other hand, galantamine was prescribed in 12 patients (14.29%). With regard to the degree of dementia, 8 patients with severe dementia weren't being treated with memantine, whilst 4 with mild dementia were using this drug. Moreover, one case of association of donepezil and rivastigmine was identified. Conclusion Twelve cases (14.29%) were identified whose treatment did not accord with the clinical guidelines consulted. These findings reflect the need to revise and update treatments, adapting them to the medical condition of patients. References and/or acknowledgements UpToDate No conflict of interest.


The problem of deterioration of historical building materials, namely stone, wood and glass has become more and more urgent. Climate changes have increased the impact of natural decay whilst socio-economic requirements claim a more sustainable use of existing built heritage. The EU project NANOMATCH addresses this problem through the development of a family of innovative materials. These are specifically designed for the consolidation requirements of historical substrates and for the production of high performance products to fill the gap in the market dedicated to the conservation of built heritage. Metal-alkoxide precursors will be synthesized and their properties will be tuned based on the substrate characteristics of respectively stone, wood, glass to fulfil specific functionalities. The consolidation effects will be first evaluated through lab experimentation and subsequently the most suitable metal alkoxides will be tested in different European sites to evaluate also the environmental effects on their performance This will lead to a new generation of nano-products specifically tailored for historic materials in a context of climate change, emerging from the most recent and advanced research in the fields of conservation science and nanotechnologies. The development of suitable products for the treatment of historical materials will finally stop the inappropriate use of several commercial products, especially polymers. These have shown in recent years detrimental effects due to their fast deterioration and have also hampered the treated material as well. Central to the project is the synthesis of molecular precursors, nano-coating deposition and assessment of their conservation properties leading to the production of innovative products for the market of conservation in replacement of unfit traditional ones. The basis for their production and market introduction will be developed within the project


There is discernable evidence of the human presence having historically appropriated the 1300 kilometer long Vaal River of South Africa as it extends itself from the Drakensberg Plateau into the arid Karoo region. This hard-working tributary of the Orange River, which was instrumental as a supply of water to the Witwatersrand, in the era of the region's gold mines, has been used by humans in a variety of ways. First it was used as a route of communications, then as a borderline demarcating the territorial spaces of states and colonies. Later it was used for purposes of economic development. In the study the objective is to point towards the manner in which humans have influenced the river and its hinterland, particularly from the nineteenth century, up to the 1950s. The process of appropriation, it is argued, has had a different effect when humans laid claim to the river and its environment for social, economic and political purposes.


Introduction I remember the first full day I spent on a college campus. I was not quite 18, complete with a high school diploma and an eagerness and excitement that I had never previously experienced. I recall especially that first night: the requisite freshman "mixer" and both the adrenalin and trepidation that went with that moment. There was the wonder of new friends, the exploration of new places, and the learning my way around an environment that soon became familiar, friendly, and forgiving. This is a campus and place that will forever be entwined with those memories of self-discovery, intellectual enlightenment, and personal experimentation. For what is the undergraduate experience, if not a time to push all those boundaries and establish one's own? We all, I suppose, remember that time in our lives differently, yet there are common themes. For me, as for so many others, college was a moment of both freedom and fear, a time to reach beyond my known horizons to worlds, both physical and intellectual, that I had barely dreamed of before. It was a moment to see myself apart from my comfortable family life. For so many, it is this moment--often stretched out to years--that helps shape and define the directions of our lives. I have been struck for many years now by the power and presence of the college campus, its unique place and structure in our society, and the particular pressures that these places face from year to year and generation to generation. As is true for so many places of importance, campuses are valued for their meaning and history, yet are so often neglected, "improved" or even destroyed in the name of progress and advancement. It is a narrow and minimalist view of what we hold near and dear and of the meaning these places have in our individual and collective histories. If you visit the website of almost any university or college in this country, you will often see the oldest buildings on campus proudly displayed. You will read about legacy and tradition and campus history, as well as about the current and potential glories of these institutions. You will see that colleges and universities present themselves as the keepers and protectors of legacy--intellectual, academic, social, and physical. And then you may read about a new building that will replace an old one, a quad that is now a building site, or an "opportunity" presented by a donor that can simply not be denied. You may also read about campus efforts to protect that legacy, not only regale in it. College and university campuses present unique opportunities and challenges for historic preservation and campus planning. As the protectors of some of the country's best and most enduring architecture and designed landscapes, campuses are in a unique position to identify, understand, and preserve significant heritage resources. As stewards of these historic resources, colleges and universities are unlike any other large-scale entity, public or private. They exercise a unique degree of control, yet must also respond to legal and zoning requirements, various constituencies, and diverse interest groups. While the preservation issues and demands of these resources may seem usual, the institutional responses to them are often unique. Getty Foundation Campus Heritage Initiative: What Was Accomplished? Purpose. The purpose of the Getty Foundation's Campus Heritage Initiative was to assist colleges and universities in the United States in managing and preserving the integrity of their significant historic buildings, sites, and landscapes. The projects supported through this initiative focused on research and survey of historic resources, preparation of preservation master plans, and detailed conservation assessments and analyses. These grants, which did not support conservation implementation or new design, were for entire campuses or significant portions of campuses. Individual buildings were not eligible. …


Over the past three decades, we have been grappling with rapidly accumulating evidence that general anesthetics (GAs) may not be as innocuous for the young brain as we previously believed. The growing realization comes from hundreds of animal studies in numerous species, from nematodes to higher mammals. These studies argue that early exposure to commonly used GAs causes widespread apoptotic neurodegeneration in brain regions critical to cognition and socio-emotional development, kills a substantial number of neurons in the young brain, and, importantly, results in lasting disturbances in neuronal synaptic communication within the remaining neuronal networks. Notably, these outcomes are often associated with long-term impairments in multiple cognitive-affective domains. Not only do preclinical studies clearly demonstrate GA-induced neurotoxicity when the exposures occur in early life, but there is a growing body of clinical literature reporting similar cognitive-affective abnormalities in young children who require GAs. The need to consider alternative GAs led us to focus on synthetic neuroactive steroid analogues that have emerged as effective hypnotics, and analgesics that are apparently devoid of neurotoxic effects and long-term cognitive impairments. This would suggest that certain steroid analogues with different cellular targets and mechanisms of action may be safe alternatives to currently used GAs. Herein we summarize our current knowledge of neuroactive steroids as promising novel GAs.


A reduction in CO(2) emission from Portland cement production can be achieved by energy savings associated with a lowering of the temperature at which the high temperature alite (Ca(3)SiO(5)) and belite (Ca(2)SiO(4)) silicates form. This can be accomplished by fluoride mineralization where a small amount of fluorine (e.g., CaF(2)) is added to the raw mix of starting materials. This work provides the mechanism for incorporation of fluoride ions in the calcium silicate phases of Portland cements which is important in the optimization of the fluoride mineralization. It is demonstrated by double-resonance (29)Si{(19)F} CP/MAS NMR experiments that the fluoride ions are exclusively incorporated into the alite phase of the two calcium silicates. The fluoride ions substitute for oxygen by a coupled mechanism that also involves replacement of Si(4+) by Al(3+) to achieve charge balance. Most importantly, (29)Si{(19)F} REDOR NMR experiments reveal that the fluoride ions are incorporated in alite with a site preference for the "interstitial" oxygen sites and thus not the covalently bonded oxygens of the SiO(4) units. This implies that only one-fifth of the oxygen sites in alite are available for substitution by fluoride ions which limits the gain in entropy of mixing that is a key factor for the reduction in upper temperature of the cement kiln.


Meningiomas are tumors that arise from the coverings of the brain or spinal cord. 5% of the cases turn into malignant forms with aggressive clinical behavior and increased risk of tumor recurrence. One hundred and five patients with meningiomas were operated by open surgery. To investigate predictors of meningioma recurrence in total 124 samples of 105 patients were investigated by iFISH. Dual-probe hybridization was performed to access chromosomal alterations of chromosomes 1p-, 9p- and 22q. Additionally, methylation of TIMP3 and p16 was analyzed with MS-PCR. Of the 105 investigated tumors 59.1% (62/105) were WHO grade I, 33.3% (35/105) were WHO grade II and 7.7% (8/105) were anaplastic meningiomas (grade III), respectively. The histopathological data correlates with the recurrence rate of the investigated meningiomas. Hypermethylation of TIMP3 was detected in 13.3% of all meningiomas: 10.9% in WHO grade I meningiomas, 25.0% in grade II and 14.3% in grade III meningiomas, respectively. No correlation of TIMP3 hypermethylation with tumor recurrence or WHO grade (p = 0.2) was observed. Interestingly, deletion of 1p36 emerged as a significant predictor of shorter overall survival (log rank test, p<0.001), whereas TIMP3 promoter methylation had no significant effect on overall survival (log rank test, p = 0.799). The results of the current study support the finding that the deletion of chromosome 1p is an independent marker of meningioma recurrence and progression (p = 0.0097). Therefore the measurement of genetic aberrations in meningiomas allows in a combined histological approach a more precise assessment of the prognosis of meningiomas than histopathology alone.


Rice is an important cereal to Ghana's economy and agriculture. While there is huge potential for lowland rice cultivation in northern Ghana, erratic rainfall and low and degrading soil fertility remain the key constraints of production.
The present study analyzes the adoption decision and the impact of bund technology and dibbling method on fertilizer demand, output supply, and net returns. The present analysis explicitly takes account of selection bias by employing endogenous switching regression and propensity score matching. The cross-sectional data set refers to the cropping season 2005 and consists of 342 smallholder rice farmers.
Results of the seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model suggest that the adoption decisions of dibbling and bund technology should be estimated jointly. Estimates indicate that bunds are more likely constructed on marginal land as a preventive technology, while dibbling method seems to be used complementary to good soil productivity. Adoption decisions are found to be related to economic constraints, particularly of labour and capital, while off-farm income appears to decrease the adoption of labour-intensive technologies. Furthermore, adoption seems to be strongly related to the use of interrelated technologies, the perception of technologies, participation in technology-related projects and farmer groups, plot-level characteristics, and geographic location.
To examine the impact of technology adoption, this study applies Mahalanobis metric matching with calipers and the propensity score as additional variable. This approach is particularly useful in the present analysis with multiple treatments. To check for the robustness of results, kernel based matching and nearest neighbour matching are applied. Balancing tests were conducted by checking the reduction of the mean standardized absolute bias. To control for hidden bias due to selection on unobservables, sensitivity analysis was done by employing the Rosenbaum (2002) bounding approach. Results indicate the significance of matching in reducing bias in the distribution of relevant variables between the treatment and control group and that the estimates are quite insensitive to hidden bias. Results of the Mahalanobis metric matching indicate that the adoption of bund technology has a positive and significant effect on fertilizer demand, as well as a positive, but insignificant impact on output supply and net returns. Adopters of dibbling appear to have higher rice yields, while no significant difference in net returns and fertilizer demand was found. However, data reveal a positive and significant effect on output supply and net returns when dibbling method is combined with intensified weeding. Furthermore, when dibbling is not only used as seed sowing but also as fertilizer application method, nitrogen demand is significantly higher.
The estimates of the endogenous switching regression model suggest that self-selection occurs. Labour and capital constraints, the use of interrelated technologies, social networks such as farmer groups, education, learning effects through the dissemination and the use of interrelated technologies, and the timely availability of land preparation equipment appear to be important factors in determining farm outcomes. However, the effects vary in the level and significance according to the type of technology and outcome. This supports the need to examine the impact of determinants separately for adopters and non-adopters.


We consider the problem of finding an optimal design under a Poisson regression model with a log link, any number of independent variables, and an additive linear predictor. Local D-optimality of a class of designs is established through use of a canonical form of the problem and a general equivalence theorem. The results are applied in conjunction with clustering techniques to obtain a fast method of finding designs that are robust to wide ranges of model parameter values. The methods are illustrated through examples.


This research has aimed to estimate the use of drug information sources by pharmacists in drugstores and pharmacies in southern Brazil. It consisted of sending a questionnaire through regular mail, contacting the pharmacist via phone and visiting the drugstores. Four hundred and eight (68.6%) of the 595 enrolled establishments answered the questionnaire. The information at pharmacies and drugstores is searched mainly to orient the patient. At drugstores the professionals have an average of 2.3 books, whereas at pharmacies they rely on 6.1. In a pharmacy, the chance to find more than five books is 27 times higher than in a drugstore. The more often available books are pharmaceutical specialties compendiums. There is access to Internet in 87.5% of pharmacies and 59% of drugstores. The National Agency of Health Surveillance webpage is the most accessed website, and the call centers of Pharmaceutical Companies are the most searched information service. Lack of time is the main alleged difficulty for searching information. The pharmacists working in the studied establishments miss appropriate drug information sources. Taking into consideration how important information is in the pharmaceutical practice, there is a need to emphasize this subject through an educative process, during undergraduate studies and continued education.


The carbon footprint and energy cost of irrigation are increasing due to the modernization of irrigation systems, which also necessitates highly efficient use of water resources. Alternatives to conventional energy sources to power irrigation systems are renewable sources, primarily photovoltaic energy. Photovoltaic energy has the main disadvantage of producing a highly variable amount of energy, which affects the irrigation uniformity. Modeling irrigation systems in an integrated manner generates useful information about system performance for technicians that helps in the decision-making process. The EVASOR (EVAluation of SOlar iRrigation systems) model integrates different modules to simulate the whole solar irrigation system using a holistic approach: (1) I-Solar, which simulates the instantaneous power generated by the photovoltaic system, (2) AS-Solar, which simulates the variable speed pumping system, (3) Solar-Net, which simulates the hydraulic performance of the water distribution network, and (4) PRESUD-Irregular, which determines the discharge and pressure of all the emitters of the subunits together with irrigation quality parameters (coefficient of uniformity (CU), emission uniformity (EU), and coefficient of variation of the emitter discharge in the subunit (CVq) for any pressure at the subunit inlet. The integrated model EVASOR determines the irrigation quality parameters of complex irrigation systems with information on irradiance, air temperature, wind speed, and water table level for any combination of open subunits. To validate the model, results are presented regarding a case study located in southeast Spain.


Despite decades of research, the ecological determinants of microbial diversity remain poorly understood. Here, we test two alternative hypotheses concerning the factors regulating fungal diversity in soil. The first states that higher levels of plant detritus production increase the supply of limiting resources (i.e. organic substrates) thereby increasing fungal diversity. Alternatively, greater plant diversity increases the range of organic substrates entering soil, thereby increasing the number of niches to be filled by a greater array of heterotrophic fungi. These two hypotheses were simultaneously examined in experimental plant communities consisting of one to 16 species that have been maintained for a decade. We used ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA), in combination with cloning and sequencing, to quantify fungal community composition and diversity within the experimental plant communities. We used soil microbial biomass as a temporally integrated measure of resource supply. Plant diversity was unrelated to fungal diversity, but fungal diversity was a unimodal function of resource supply. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicated that plant diversity showed a relationship to fungal community composition, although the occurrence of RISA bands and operational taxonomic units (OTUs) did not differ among the treatments. The relationship between fungal diversity and resource availability parallels similar relationships reported for grasslands, tropical forests, coral reefs, and other biotic communities, strongly suggesting that the same underlying mechanisms determine the diversity of organisms at multiple scales.


Despite being 1.3 per cent of the total Australian population, Pacific communities are overrepresented in the youth justice system. This article identifies trends in the interaction Pacific young offenders have with Police, Children's Court and Juvenile Justice in New South Wales. Key findings were mapped through comparisons between 100 young offenders, 49 Pacific, 51 Non-Pacific. Results include Pacific youth feeling vilified by Police, more time in courts and having issues in complying with supervision requirements under Juvenile Justice. A need to promote culturally inclusive whole-of-community and whole-of-government approach is discussed in achieving better responses to assist Pacific youth and their families.


The focus of this thesis is to assess the strategic role and geopolitical significance of the Sinai peninsula in the Middle East in general and its importance for British colonial policy in particular. As Egypt became progressively more autonomous from the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century the question of territorial sovereignty arose, which moved the Sinai Peninsula from being a barren stretch of desert' with little economic value within the Ottoman Empire to becoming a disputed boundary region. The construction of the Suez Canal and its subsequent control by European powers, headed by Britain, further highlighted its strategic position. This led to a series of successful diplomatic efforts on the side of Britain, which had occupied Egypt by 1882, to include the peninsula within the boundaries of Egypt. After the military confrontation with Turkey during the First World War, and the subsequent breaking up of the Ottoman Empire, an international boundary separating Sinai from Palestine was established. Egypt became officially independent in 1922. However British control of the Sinai Peninsula continued until well after the Second World War. This thesis demonstrates the importance of Sinai for British colonial policy, which was reflected in the great efforts exerted to retain control of the peninsula as long as possible. The recognition of this importance was not shared by the nationalist Egyptian government. Thus Britain is to be credited for having pursued vital diplomacy to establish a recognized international boundary, as well as creating an effective administration system to control this remote border desert area in the form of the Frontiers Districts Administration (FDA), founded in 1917. The "reserved clauses" in the unilateral declaration of independence of 1922 gave Britain the right to provide for the defense of Egypt, which would mean that the Egyptian Army would remain under the control of British officers. The primary vehicle for government in the Sinai was the Frontiers Districts Administration, a department of the Ministry of War. This made it convenient for Britain to remain in charge of the peninsula by means of a British officer serving as governor of Sinai. This thesis shows that as the number of British personnel employed in the Egyptian government was drastically reduced after independence, Britain pursued a covert policy to retain as many Englishmen as possible in the FDA, for the purpose of continued control over Sinai. Even after the Second World War no efforts were spared to try to retain Sinai under British control, which became a central issue in the dispute between Britain and Egypt over the latter's independence and national sovereignty.


Many corporate commitments exhibit a combined financial exposure to both market prices and idiosyncratic size components (e.g., volume, load, or business turnover). We design a customized contract to optimally mitigate the risk of joint fluctuations in price and size terms. The hedge is sought out among contingent claims written on price and any quoted index that is statistically dependent on commitment size. Closed-form solutions are derived for the optimal custom hedge pay-off and for the asset holdings of two market strategies, one based on price-linked forwards, the other based on price-linked and index-linked forwards. Analytical hedges are obtained using a stylized lognormal market model. Detailed comparative statics provide a thorough analysis of optimal hedging pay-off functions. Performance assessment is conducted in the context of the US gas market and a prototypical urban region. Results suggest that hedging through suitable custom claims written on price and an additional index significantly outperforms standard price-based as well as mixed price-index forward hedging alternatives. Our optimal custom hedge could be adopted as a benchmark for the relative assessment of any risk management solution.


The Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) of a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) plays a crucial role in overall cell performance. It is responsible for the dissemination of reactant gasses from the gas supply channels to the reactant sites at the Catalyst Layer (CL), and the adequate removal of product water from reactant sites back to the gas channels. Existing research into water transport in GDLs has been simplified to 2D estimations of GDL structures or use virtual stochastic models. This work uses X-ray computed tomography (XCT) to reconstruct three types of GDL in a model. These models are then analysed via Lattice Boltzmann methods to understand the water transport behaviours under differing contact angles and pressure differences. In this study, the three GDL samples were tested over the contact angles of 60°, 80°, 90°, 100°, 120° and 140° under applied pressure differences of 5kPa, 10kPa and 15kPa. By varying the contact angle and pressure difference, it was found that the transition between stable displacement and capillary fingering is not a gradual process. Hydrophilic contact angles in the region of 60°<θ<90° showed stable displacement properties, whereas contact angles in the region of 100°<θ<140° displayed capillary fingering characteristics.


Two monoclonal antibodies termed MSN-1 and MRG-1 were raised against endometrial cancer cell line SNG-ll and ovarian mucinous cystadenocarcinoma cell line RMUG-L, respectively, and were found to recognize carbohydrate antigens, Lewis b (Leb) and bloodgroup A type 3 structures, respectively. Using these monoclonal antibodies, we examined phenotypic alterations of the corresponding carbohydrate antigens in gynecological malignancies including uterine cervical and endometrial cancers.Additionally, since galactosyltransferase associated with tumor (GAT), which is derived from cellular galactosyltransferase (GaIT), is frequently elevated specifically in the sera of patients with ovarian cancer, the localization of GaIT and GAT was investigated in malignant ovarian tumors. Light-microscopically, MSN-1 gave a positive reaction in more than 90% of the cases of endometrial cancers. The suborganellar localizations of MSN-1-reactive antigen in the cancer cells were almost all in the cisternae of the Golgi, while the normal endometrial glandular cells showed a few positive signals in the trans-Golgi only. Using MRG-1 we investigated uterine cervical squamous epithelial lesions as well as their normal counterparts. Normal squamous epithelium showed a strong positive reaction exclusively along the cell surface. MRG-1-binding sites in squamous cell carcinoma were not only along the cell surface but also in the cytoplasmic space where they resided on vesicular structures, as observed at the electron microscopic level. To detect the galactosyltransferase, we employed two monoclonal antibodies, Mab8628 and Mab8513. Mab8628 strongly stained intracytoplasmic structures in ovarian cancer cells that coincided with the trans-Golgi, as observed with the electron microscope. When Mab8513, which can recognize GAT more specifically than Mab8628, was applied to endometrial cancer and normal cells, an increase in the positive signals was found in cancer cells. These histochemical analyses demonstrated that the localization and/or amount of complex carbohydrates as well as glycosyltransferase is altered between cancer cells and their normal counterparts.


Hoffman, JR, Kraemer, WJ, Bhasin, S, Storer, T, Ratamess, NA, Haff, GG, Willoughby, DS, and Rogol, AD. Position stand on Androgen and human growth hormone use. J Strength Cond Res 23(5): S1-S59, 2009-Perceived yet often misunderstood demands of a sport, overt benefits of anabolic drugs, and the inability to be offered any effective alternatives has fueled anabolic drug abuse despite any consequences. Motivational interactions with many situational demands including the desire for improved body image, sport performance, physical function, and body size influence and fuel such negative decisions. Positive countermeasures to deter the abuse of anabolic drugs are complex and yet unclear. Furthermore, anabolic drugs work and the optimized training and nutritional programs needed to cut into the magnitude of improvement mediated by drug abuse require more work, dedication, and preparation on the part of both athletes and coaches alike. Few shortcuts are available to the athlete who desires to train naturally. Historically, the NSCA has placed an emphasis on education to help athletes, coaches, and strength and conditioning professionals become more knowledgeable, highly skilled, and technically trained in their approach to exercise program design and implementation. Optimizing nutritional strategies are a vital interface to help cope with exercise and sport demands (516-518). In addition, research-based supplements will also have to be acknowledged as a strategic set of tools (e.g., protein supplements before and after resistance exercise workout) that can be used in conjunction with optimized nutrition to allow more effective adaptation and recovery from exercise. Resistance exercise is the most effective anabolic form of exercise, and over the past 20 years, the research base for resistance exercise has just started to develop to a significant volume of work to help in the decision-making process in program design (187,248,305). The interface with nutritional strategies has been less studied, yet may yield even greater benefits to the individual athlete in their attempt to train naturally. Nevertheless, these are the 2 domains that require the most attention when trying to optimize the physical adaptations to exercise training without drug use. Recent surveys indicate that the prevalence of androgen use among adolescents has decreased over the past 10-15 years (154,159,246,253,370,441,493). The decrease in androgen use among these students may be attributed to several factors related to education and viable alternatives (i.e., sport supplements) to substitute for illegal drug use. Although success has been achieved in using peer pressure to educate high school athletes on behaviors designed to reduce the intent to use androgens (206), it has not had the far-reaching effect desired. It would appear that using the people who have the greatest influence on adolescents (coaches and teachers) be the primary focus of the educational program. It becomes imperative that coaches provide realistic training goals for their athletes and understand the difference between normal physiological adaptation to training or that is pharmaceutically enhanced. Only through a stringent coaching certification program will academic institutions be ensured that coaches that they hire will have the minimal knowledge to provide support to their athletes in helping them make the correct choices regarding sport supplements and performance-enhancing drugs. The NSCA rejects the use of androgens and hGH or any performance-enhancing drugs on the basis of ethics, the ideals of fair play in competition, and concerns for the athlete's health. The NSCA has based this position stand on a critical analysis of the scientific literature evaluating the effects of androgens and human growth hormone on human physiology and performance. The use of anabolic drugs to enhance athletic performance has become a major concern for professional sport organizations, sport governing bodies, and the federal government. It is the belief of the NSCA that through education and research we can mitigate the abuse of androgens and hGH by athletes. Due to the diversity of testosterone-related drugs and molecules, the term androgens is believed to be a more appropriate term for anabolic steroids.Androgen administration in a concentration-dependent manner increases lean body mass, muscle mass, and maximal voluntary strength in men. However, the upper concentration for maximum effects remains unknown.Combined administration of androgens and resistance exercise training is associated with greater gains in lean body mass, muscle size, and maximal voluntary strength in men than either intervention alone.Testosterone therapy is approved only for the treatment of hypogonadism in adolescent and adult men. However, the anabolic applications of androgens and selective AR modulators are being explored for the functional limitations associated with aging and some types of chronic illness.The magnitude and frequency of adverse effects among androgen users have not been systematically studied. Potential adverse effects of androgen use in men include suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, mood and behavior disorders, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, hepatic dysfunction with oral androgens, insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, acne, gynecomastia, and withdrawal after discontinuation. In addition, the polypharmacy of many androgen users (psychoactive and accessory drugs) may have serious adverse effects of their own.The adverse effects of androgen administration in women are similar to those noted in men. In addition, women using androgens may also experience virilizing side effects such as enlargement of the clitoris, deepening of the voice, hirsutism, and changes in body habitus. These changes may not be reversible on cessation of androgen use.In pre- and peripubertal children, androgen use may lead to virilization, premature epiphyseal closure, and resultant adult short stature.Since 1990, the use of androgens for a nonmedical purpose is illegal. Androgens are labeled as a schedule III drug. Possession of any schedule III substance including androgens is punishable by fine, prison time, or both. Prescribing androgens for bodybuilding or enhanced athletic performance is also punishable as noted above.Human growth hormone increases lean body mass within weeks of administration; however, the majority of the change is within the water compartment and not in body cell mass.Human growth hormone is unlikely to be administered as a single agent but often in combination with androgens.Combined administration of hGH and resistance exercise training is associated with minimal gains in lean body mass, muscle size, and maximal voluntary strength in men compared with resistance exercise alone.Human growth hormone is approved for the therapy of children and adolescents with growth hormone deficiency, Turner syndrome, small for gestational age with failure to catch-up to the normal growth curves, chronic kidney disease, Prader-Willi syndrome, idiopathic short stature, Noonan syndrome, and SHOX gene deletion. For adults, hGH is approved for the treatment of GH deficiency, AIDS/HIV with muscle wasting, and short bowel syndrome.The magnitude and frequency of adverse events associated with hGH use are clearly dose related. Potential adverse events include suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary GH/IGF-1 axis, water retention, edema, increased intracranial pressure, joint and muscle aches, and those of needle injection (hepatitis and HIV/AIDS). These should be the same in women as well as in men.Continued effort should be made to educate athletes, coaches, parents, physicians, and athletic trainers along with the general public on androgen and hGH use and abuse. Educational programs should focus on potential medical risks of these illegal performance-enhancing drugs use, optimizing training programs and concurrent nutritional strategies to enhance physiological adaptation and performance. In addition, educating coaches on setting realistic training goals and expectations for their athletes will help reduce the pressures to use illegal PED and assist in potentially identifying potential users of illegal PED.The NSCA supports and promotes additional research funding to be directed toward effective educational programs, documentation of both acute and long-term adverse effects of androgen and hGH abuse, strategies for optimizing athletic performance through training and nutritional interventions, strategies to help athletes discontinue androgen and hGH use, and strategies for the detection of abuse of androgens and hGH.


Various types of probabilistic proof systems have played a central role in the development of computer science in the last couple of decades. These proof systems deviate from the traditional concept of a proof by introducing randomization and interaction into the verification process. Probabilistic proof systems carry an error probability (which is explicitly bounded and can be decreased by repetitions), but they offer various advantages over deterministic proof systems.

This primer concentrates on three types of probabilistic proof systems: interactive proofs, zero-knowledge proofs, and Probabilistically Checkable Proofs (PCP). Surveying the basic results regarding these proof systems, we stress the essential role of randomness in each of them.


Importance
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Improvement in PTSD has been associated with improved self-reported physical health and hypertension; however, there is no literature, to our knowledge, on whether PTSD improvement is associated with T2D risk.

Objective
To examine whether clinically meaningful PTSD symptom reduction is associated with lower risk of T2D.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This retrospective cohort study examined Veterans Health Affairs medical record data from 5916 patients who received PTSD specialty care between fiscal years 2008 and 2012 and were followed up through fiscal year 2015. Eligible patients had 1 or more PTSD Checklist (PCL) scores of 50 or higher between fiscal years 2008 and 2012 and a second PCL score within the following 12 months and at least 8 weeks after the first PCL score of 50 or higher. The index date was 12 months after the first PCL score. Patients were free of T2D diagnosis or an antidiabetic medication use for 12 months before the index date and had at least 1 visit after the index date. Data analyses were completed during January 2019.

Exposures
Reduction in PCL scores during a 12-month period was used to define patients as those with a clinically meaningful improvement (≥20-point PCL score decrease) and patients with less or no improvement (<20-point PCL score decrease).

Main Outcomes and Measures
Incident T2D diagnosed during a 2- to 6-year follow-up.

Results
Medical records from a total of 1598 patients (mean [SD] age, 42.1 [13.4] years; 1347 [84.3%] male; 1060 [66.3%] white) were studied. The age-adjusted cumulative incidence of T2D was 2.6% among patients with a clinically meaningful PCL score decrease and 5.9% among patients without a clinically meaningful PCL score decrease (P = .003). After control for confounding, patients with a clinically meaningful PCL score decrease were significantly less likely to develop T2DM compared with those without a clinically meaningful decrease (hazard ratio, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.26-0.98).

Conclusions and Relevance
The findings suggest that clinically meaningful reductions in PTSD symptoms are associated with a lower risk of T2D. A decrease in PCL score, whether through treatment or spontaneous improvement, may help mitigate the greater risk of T2D in patients with PTSD.


This paper studies integrated silicon photodiodes (PDs) implemented in standard CMOS technologies. A new PIN PD structure utilizing deep n-well is presented, and compared with conventional vertical and lateral PIN PDs at 850-nm wavelength and different bias conditions. Prototype PDs were fabricated in a 0.18-mum standard CMOS technology, and their DC, impulse and frequency responses were characterized. A 70 times 70 mum2 PD with the new structure achieved a 3-dB bandwidth of 2.2 GHz in small signal at 5-V bias, whereas conventional lateral and vertical PIN PDs could only operate up to 0.94 GHz and 1.15 GHz, respectively. At 5-V bias, the impulse response of the new PD exhibited a full-width at half-maximum pulsewidth of 127 ps, versus 175 and 150 ps for the conventional lateral and vertical ones, respectively. At 15.5-V bias, the bandwidth of this new PD reached 3.13 GHz, with an impulse response pulsewidth of 102 ps. The responsivity of all prototype PDs was measured at approximately 0.14 A/W up to 10-V bias, which corresponded to a quantum efficiency of 20%. The responsivity of the new PD could be further increased to 0.4 A/W or 58% quantum efficiency, when operating in the avalanche region at 16.2-V bias.


Just two years ago, the Supreme Court considered Abigail Fisher's claim that the race-conscious admissions policy of the University of Texas at Austin violates the Equal Protection Clause. At that time, the Court unequivocally affirmed that student body diversity is a compelling governmental interest, but declined to reach the merits of the case and remanded it to the Fifth Circuit for further scrutiny of the means used by the university. This year, the case returns to the Supreme Court on the question of whether UT's admissions policy is sufficiently narrowly tailored to further its interest in diversity. In this issue brief, Vinay Harpalani, Associate Professor of Law at Savannah Law School, explores the themes that will likely arise in this newest iteration of the Fisher case and offers proposals to universities, policymakers, and advocates who seek to defend the use of race-conscious admissions policies in the future.


Higher education is in a period of flux. For many public institutions, state support has decreased over the past decade, resulting in the notion of doing more with less. Using an inverted triangle approach, this article examines how both institutions and departments are coping with their present reality using innovative and entrepreneurial ideas. First, the story of how public institutions in the state of Illinois are responding to decreased state appropriations and declining K–12 enrollments is discussed. Second, a rich example of how one institution completed the strategic planning process—from conceptualization to implementation—is shared. Finally, one department's multifaceted plan to handle declining state support is shared.


This research project is an examination of the role of voluntary sports clubs (VSCs),
within a modernised political and policy process, in creating and sustaining forms of
social capital. From 1997 onwards, consecutive New Labour administrations concerned
with social inclusion and civic renewal have established a pivotal position for social
capital in many areas of social policy. In this context increasing political expectations
and policy demands are being made of VS Cs to contribute to this broader social
regeneration agenda. Social capital is a contested term between the democratic, rational
and critical strains of the concept, not least because each of which has its own conceptual
framework. In order to tease out the distinct differences between the competing strains of
social capital, and inform on its potential formation or destruction in VSCs, the concept
of the political opportunity structure (POS) has been employed as an analytical tool.
A qualitative case-study research method, within a critical realist methodology, was
chosen for primary data collection. This was based on a two-phase approach to capture
the perceptions of both VSC members and external stakeholders in relation to the
meaning, value and output of VSCs. Based on semi-structured qualitative interviews:
thirty-one for phase one and twenty-six for phase two, three case studies were generated.
This study shows that social capital is a powerful comparative and reflexive concept that
can facilitate a critical picture of how social relations operate at the micro level of the
VSC, and how these inform on a range of other social processes and conditions. New
Labour's modernisation programme was clearly indicated as a key structural process that
highlights the importance of structure and top-down processes in developing social
capital in VSCs at grass roots level. This research project shows how implicit tensions
between modemisation and mutual aid, when embedded in a voluntary based
organisation and serviced by a simplistic interpretation of social capital, tend to lead to
policy misdirection at best and at worst the entrenching of contradictory processes that
may destroy the very edifice that is targeted by much social policy.


Water limitations in the Mediterranean areas are very common and the use of saline water for plant irrigation is becoming a necessity. Salinity generally affects plant growth and physiological processes, and can eventually lead to leaf injuries and plant death. For these reasons, the selection of salt tolerant species is a priority for landscaping purposes in the Mediterranean areas. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of saline water on Phillyrea angustifolia plant performance. Seventy-five rooted cuttings were grown in the greenhouse in 4-liter pots and irrigated for 5 months with saline water at different NaCl concentrations for two consecutive years. In 2010, 45 plants were irrigated with 0, 40 and 80 mM NaCl water; in 2011, 30 plants were irrigated with 0, 100 and 120 mM NaCl water. No signs of leaf injury were observed in any of the two years or at any NaCl concentration. On the other hand, photosynthetic rates and stomatal conductances were reduced at all NaCl concentrations. Reductions in shoot elongation were significant in both years, while shoot diameter growth and dry weights were affected only by high NaCl concentrations in the second year. In 2011, plant dry weight was reduced by 52% at 100 mM NaCl and 55% at 120 mM NaCl. Roots were highly susceptible to NaCl with a biomass reduc¬tion of 64 and 66% at 100 and 120 mM NaCl, respectively. Both leaf area and dry weight were influenced by NaCl with a reduction of over 50% at 120 mM NaCl. No significant effect was observed in biomass partitioning with the exception of a decrease of partitioning to roots at the highest salt concentrations. Phillyrea angustifolia plants were able to survive to all ranges of NaCl tested but CO2 fixation and shoot elongation rates were already reduced by moderate salt concentrations.


The current nation‐wide reform of Chinese primary and secondary education prompted an empirical research project, "An empirical investigation of in‐service English teachers1 in primary and secondary schools and a study of a pre‐service language teacher education program", conducted at Baoding, China. This project is considered as potentially relevant to other Chinese and Asian nations that are engaged in the transformation of their provision of English language instruction. This project was developed in two stages: first, it sought data from in‐service English teachers, using questionnaires and interviews with English teachers from schools differentiated by geographical context and system; and second, these data were used to inform the design of a new pre‐service English teacher education program. In this paper, the consultative processes of Stage 1 are discussed and the teachers' proficiencies in the new direction of teaching English are critically examined. On the basis of these data, reflections and implications of the strengths and weaknesses of the present pre‐service language teacher training program are made.


A novel highly efficient regiodivergent Au-catalyzed cycloisomerization of allenyl and homopropargylic ketones into synthetically valuable 2- and 3-silylfurans has been designed with the aid of DFT calculations. This cascade transformation features 1,2-Si or 1,2-H migrations in a common Au-carbene intermediate. Both experimental and computational results clearly indicate that the 1,2-Si migration is kinetically favored over the 1,2-shifts of H, alkyl, and aryl groups in the beta-Si-substituted Au-carbenes. In addition, experimental results on the Au(I)-catalyzed cycloisomerization of homopropargylic ketones demonstrated that counterion and solvent effects could reverse the above migratory preference. The DFT calculations provided a rationale for this 1,2-migration regiodivergency. Thus, in the case of Ph(3)PAuSbF(6), DFT-simulated reaction proceeds through the initial propargyl-allenyl isomerization followed by the cyclization into the Au-carbene intermediate with the exclusive formation of 1,2-Si migration products and solvent effects cannot affect this regioselectivity. However, in the case of a TfO(-) counterion, reaction occurs via the initial 5-endo-dig cyclization to give a cyclic furyl-Au intermediate. In the case of nonpolar solvents, subsequent ipso-protiodeauration of the latter is kinetically more favorable than the generation of the common Au-carbene intermediate and leads to the formation of formal 1,2-H migration products. In contrast, when polar solvent is employed in this DFT-simulated reaction, beta-to-Au protonation of the furyl-Au species to give a Au-carbene intermediate competes with the ipso-protiodeauration. Subsequent dissociation of the triflate ligand in this carbene in polar media due to efficient solvation of charged intermediates facilitates formation of the 1,2-Si shift products. The above results of the DFT calculations were validated by the experimental data. The present study demonstrates that DFT calculations could efficiently support experimental results, providing guidance for rational design of new catalytic transformations.


This paper proposes new pulse analog modulation system; Pulse Interval and Width Modulation suitable for light emitting diodes. In this system pulses have information on both their width and interval between them. Pulse Interval and Width Modulation is characterized by the following compared with Pulse Interval Modulation. First: Pulse repetition frequency is reduced by one half. Second: Duty ratio is 50 % on the average. Third: More power is needed while carrier to noise ratio could be improved instead. The paper shows how it works and comparison with another pulse analog modulation such as Pulse Frequency Modulation or Pulse Interval Modulation. The paper also shows an experiment of twin channel transmission employing two light emitting diodes, two optical fiber transmission lines and two PIN photodiodes as an example of application of Pulse Interval and Width Modulation.


Deliberative exercises may re-invigorate civic life by building citizens' capacity to engage in other types of civic activities. This study examines members of a citizens' panel (n=56) who participated in a six-day deliberative event on climate change and energy transition in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) in 2012. We compared panelists' civic engagement, political interest, and political knowledge with those of the general population using a concurrent random digit dialing survey conducted 2.5 years after the event (n=405). Panelists are more likely to talk about politics, and volunteer in the community compared to their counterparts in the larger population. Examining three points in time, we reveal a trajectory of increasing political knowledge and civic engagement. Finally, we examine the mechanisms that mobilize panelists into greater civic engagement. This study illustrates how deliberative events could strengthen engagement in civic and political life, depending on the degree to which deliberation was perceived to have occurred.


Abstract. In this study, the first small-scale digital surface models (DSMs) of natural penitentes on a glacier surface were produced using a Microsoft Xbox Kinect sensor on Tapado Glacier, Chile (30°08′ S, 69°55′ W). The surfaces produced by the complete processing chain were within the error of standard terrestrial laser scanning techniques, but insufficient overlap between scanned sections that were mosaicked to cover the sampled areas can result in three-dimensional (3-D) positional errors of up to 0.3 m. Between November 2013 and January 2014 penitentes become fewer, wider and deeper, and the distribution of surface slope angles becomes more skewed to steep faces. Although these morphological changes cannot be captured by manual point measurements, mean surface lowering of the scanned areas was comparable to that derived from manual measurements of penitente surface height at a minimum density of 5 m−1 over a 5 m transverse profile. Roughness was computed on the 3-D surfaces by applying two previously published geometrical formulae: one for a 3-D surface and one for single profiles sampled from the surface. Morphometric analysis shows that skimming flow is persistent over penitentes, providing conditions conducive for the development of a distinct microclimate within the penitente troughs. For each method a range of ways of defining the representative roughness element height was used, and the calculations were done both with and without application of a zero displacement height offset to account for the likelihood of skimming air flow over the closely spaced penitentes. The computed roughness values are on the order of 0.01–0.10 m during the early part of the ablation season, increasing to 0.10–0.50 m after the end of December, in line with the roughest values previously published for glacier ice. Both the 3-D surface and profile methods of computing roughness are strongly dependent on wind direction. However, the two methods contradict each other in that the maximum roughness computed for the 3-D surface coincides with airflow across the penitente lineation, while maximum roughness computed for sampled profiles coincides with airflow along the penitente lineation. These findings highlight the importance of determining directional roughness and wind direction for strongly aligned surface features and also suggest more work is required to determine appropriate geometrical roughness formulae for linearized features.


External stimulus/loading initiates adaptations within skeletal muscle. It has been previously found that the cervical area has the highest loading while performing flying maneuvers under +Gz. The first purpose of this study was to examine the neck muscle response to the physical environment associated with flight training, incorporating limited exposure to +Gz force, in a Pilatus PC-9 aircraft. The second purpose was to examine the short-term range of movement (ROM) response to flight training. Isometric cervical muscle strength and ROM was monitored in 9 RAAF pilots completing an 8-mo flight-training course at Pearce Airbase in Western Australia, and in 10 controls matched for gender, age, height, and weight. Isometric cervical muscle strength and ROM were measured at baseline and at 8 mo using the multi-cervical rehabilitation unit (Hanoun Medical, Downsview, Ontario, Canada). Results indicated that an increase in pilot neck strength was limited to flexion while in a neutral position. No strength changes were recorded in any other site in the pilots or for the controls. These findings suggest that short-term exposure to the physical environment associated with flight training had a limited significant effect on increasing isometric cervical muscle strength. No significant changes were observed in pilot ROM, indicating that short-term exposure to flight does not effect ROM.