In this work, calcareous nannofossils are identified for the first time in the uppermost Triassic sequence of the Lombardy Basin (Southern Calcareous Alps, Italy). Two zones are recognized, namely the NT2b (latest Triassic) and the NJT1 (earliest Jurassic). Two species resulted to be good markers to constrain the TJB interval: Prinsiosphaera triassica and Schizosphaerella punctulata . Nannofossil data are calibrated with C isotopic chemostratigraphy obtained for carbonate and organic matter. Size reduction of P. triassica and a decline in the abundance of Triassic nannofossils are detected soon after the "precursor Carbon Isotope Excursion (CIE) and culminated during the "initial negative CIE" characterized by lowest nannofossil abundances and small-sized P. triassica . The extinction of Triassic nannofossils occurred in distinctive steps within the "initial negative CIE", while the Jurassic S. punctulata is first observed at the base of the "main negative CIE". The latest Triassic nannofossil decline in abundance, size reduction and extinctions, represent a progressive deterioration associated to the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) volcanism. Our findings are consistent with nannofossil changes at supraregional scale and indicate that the massive CAMP flood basalts were preceded by initial volcanic pulses. We speculate that a combination of climate change, fertilization and ocean acidification started to influence the calcification process prior to the "initial negative CIE". Nannoplankton extinctions were not simultaneous and might imply limited capacity for adaptation in the early stages of evolutionary history. However, originations of new taxa soon after the disappearance of Triassic forms suggest the ability to rapidly overcame extreme stressing conditions.


When an oil phase comes in contact with an aqueous phase, emulsions are formed spontaneously in each phase even without surfactant. The self-emulsification seems inconsistent with the electron transfer model proposed by Anson, in which ferricyanide in the aqueous phase is reduced at the oil/water interface by decamethylferrocene of the thin nitrobenzene phase. Anson's experimental data were here reproduced at slow scan voltammetry. However, the electron transfer model did not agree with our experimental results at high scan rates, in that the reduction wave of ferricyanide appeared without decamethylferrocene. Ferricyanide was demonstrated to pass through the nitrobenzene film in the form of aqueous droplets, which were adsorbed on the electrode surface. Formation of aqueous droplets can explain electrode reactions at carbon paste electrodes without including redox species in paste.


OBJECTIVES
Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) provide a venue to foster evidence-based care. We tested the hypothesis that a higher level of participation in a dental PBRN is associated with greater stated change toward evidence-based practice.

METHODS
A total of 565 dental PBRN practitioner-investigators completed a baseline questionnaire entitled 'Assessment of Caries Diagnosis and Treatment'; 405 of these also completed a follow-up questionnaire about treatment of caries and existing restorations. Certain questions (six treatment scenarios) were repeated at follow-up a mean (SD) of 36.0 (3.8) months later. A total of 224 were 'full participants' (enrolled in clinical studies and attended at least one network meeting); 181 were 'partial participants' (did not meet 'full' criteria).

RESULTS
From 10% to 62% of practitioners were 'surgically invasive' at baseline, depending on the clinical scenario. Stated treatment approach was significantly less invasive at follow-up for four of six items. Change was greater among full participants and those with a more-invasive approach at baseline, with an overall pattern of movement away from the extremes.

CONCLUSIONS
These results are consistent with a preliminary conclusion that network participation fostered movement of scientific evidence into routine practice. PBRNs may foster movement of evidence into everyday practice as practitioners become engaged in the scientific process.


This study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of pre-treatment of
wood strands with low molecular weight phenol formaldehyde (LPF) resin to improve the
dimensional stability of oriented strand board (OSB). The origin and extent of thickness
swelling (TS) in OSB made from A. mangium Willd. were also investigated. Three- and
five-layered OSBs were fabricated with 5% resin solid based on oven dry weight of wood
strands (w/w) of phenol formaldehyde (PF) resin as a binder.
The origin of TS was determined by using coating method where the edges and
surfaces of the panel were coated with oil-based pigmented paint. To assess the degree of
TS, the OSB specimens were sliced/sectioned into four layers through the thickness
direction of the panel and were subjected to 24 hours of cold water soaking. The results
showed that the water uptake by the panel occurred mainly through the four edges. The
board surfaces absorbed 20% more water than those in the core. The distribution of TS
and water absorption (WA) for the sectioned layers were found to resemble that of the vertical density profile of the OSB panel. The surface layers of the panel had relatively
higher density, thus contribute significant influence over the TS of the board. The
Pearson ratio showed a very high correlation between the board density and TS (R2 =
0.87 and 0.96 for three- and five-layered OSB, respectively). The untreated five-layered
OSB (control) was found to be more stable than that of three-layered due to the presence
of higher resin content in the surfaces (fine particles).


Background: Weight reduction has been accompanied with a reduction in clinic blood pressure (BP) in children and adolescents; however, the effect on ambulatory BP (ABP) is uncertain. The objective was to investigate the impact of weight changes on ABP in obese children and adolescents. Methods: Sixty-one severely obese patients aged 10–18 years underwent lifestyle intervention at the Children's Obesity Clinic. Patients were examined with ABP monitoring at baseline and after 1 year of treatment (follow-up). To account for growth, BP and BMI were standardized into z scores, whereas waist circumference was indexed by height [waist/height ratio (WHR)]. Results: Patients experienced a reduction at follow-up in the degree of obesity [&Dgr;BMI z score: −0.21, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.32 to −0.10, P = 0.0003; and &Dgr;WHR: −0.02, 95% CI −0.03 to −0.004, P = 0.009]. &Dgr;24-h, &Dgr;daytime and &Dgr;night-time SBP and DBP in mmHg and changes in equivalent z scores were related to &Dgr;BMI z scores and &Dgr;WHR. These relationships were reproduced in multiple regression analyses adjusted for relevant confounders, for example, a reduction in one BMI z score corresponds to a reduction in 24-h SBP by 6.5 mmHg (P < 0.05). No relationship was found between changes in these anthropometric obesity measures and changes in clinic BP. Conclusion: Changes in obesity measures were closely related to changes in ABP, but not to changes in clinic BP, in severe obese children and adolescents after 1 year of lifestyle intervention. The findings emphasize the use of 24-h ABP measurements in children and adolescents.


In this paper we analyze an economy with two heterogeneous investors who both exhibit misspecified filtering models for the unobservable expected growth rate of the aggregated dividend. A key result of our analysis with respect to long-run investor survival is that there are degrees of model misspecification on the part of one investor for which there is no compensation by the other investor's deficiency. The main finding with respect to the asset pricing properties of our model is that the two dimensions of asset pricing and survival are basically independent. In scenarios when the investors are more similar with respect to their expected consumption shares, return volatilities can nevertheless be higher than in cases when they are very different.


The Investigation is concerned with the effect of p-substituents on the rates and activation parameters in the ionisation (S(_N)1 reaction) of phenylmethyl halides. In these systems, substituents exert their effect on the rate almost entirely by altering the electron density at the reaction centre(^1). The work was designed to yield information about the effect of changing electron demand at the site of p-substitution in the transition state. The reaction of p-substituted benzyl halides with slightly moist formic acid was studied initially. In this system, the electron demand at the site of p-substitution can be expected to be large but the results were unsuitable for discussion of substituent effects in S(_N)l reactions since this mechanism did not operate throughout the series. Completely S(_N)l solvolysis appears to require the presence of an electron donating substituent and may not be attained by the p-methyl derivative. An extension to aqueous organic solvents showed that completely S(_N)l hydrolysis requires the presence of a p-phenoxy, or better electron releasing substituent. The hydrolysis of p-substituted p'-nitro-, p'-hydrogen-, and p'-raethoxy-benzhydryl chlorides undoubtedly occurs by the ionisation mechanism. The electron demand at the site of p-substitution was expected to decrease in the order, p'-nitro > p'-hydrogen > p'-methoxy and it is consistent with this view that the effect of any one p-substituent on the rate follows the same sequence. The kinetic effect of these p-substituents arises almost entirely from changes in the activation energy although the entropy of activation is significantly reduced by the introduction of p-phenoxy and p-methoxy substituents. In all three series, reaction is facilitated by electron releasing p-substituents, particularly by those which are polarisable with respect to electron demand at the reaction centre. There is, however, no simple relation between the magnitude of these polarisabllity effects and the electron demand at the site of p-substitution. As a result, simple free-energy relations of the Hammett type(^2) are inadequate in accounting for the effect of p-substituents on the rates, even in the present three similar series. The Tsuno-Yukawa equation(^3), which attempts to allow for polarisation and polarisabllity effects separately, describes the present rates more satisfactorily, if the reaction constants are derived from the results for the two p-substltuents with extreme polar properties. However, this equation assumes a linear relation for the response of substituents to a demand for electrons. It is concluded that the effects of p-substituents are more profitably discussed by using Ingold's approach(^4) of considering the polarisation and polarisability effects, and the reaction mechanism.


Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions lead to negative environmental impacts and it is considered as an indicator for the larger group of gaseous sulfur oxides (SOx) in the air. In this paper, the dimethylamine (DMA) solution was used as the absorbent in a α-Al2O3 hollow fiber membrane contactor that is operated under several conditions of gas velocity, liquid velocity, and 290 K operating temperature. The effects of gas and liquid phase properties and module configuration on SO2 absorption efficiency in the hollow fiber membrane contactor were investigated. Simulation results showed that the changes of gas phase velocity, liquid phase velocity, and concentration have great influences on the absorption efficiency of SO2. An increase of the gas flow rate decreases the SO2 absorption efficiency, while an increase of the liquid flow rate has the opposite effect, increasing the efficiency. Because gas in the membrane module stays for a longer time, more absorption time promotes the gas and liquid reaction. However, the changes of the volume fraction of SO2 in the mixed gas are not significant to SO2 absorption. The simulation model could provide guidelines for selecting suitable fluid properties during the SO2 absorption process in a hollow fiber membrane contactor.


The optimum linear combination channels for an N-receptor polarization-sensitive imaging or vision system are found by using a principal-components analysis. The channels that are derived are optimum in the sense that their information contents are uncorrelated when considered over the ensemble of possible polarization signals. For a two-receptor system, the optimum channels are shown to be the sum and the difference of the outputs of the individual receptors. As a corollary, the optimal arrangement of the two receptors is shown to be a mosaic of identical, orthogonally aligned linear polarization analyzers. The implications of these results on the development of a representational scheme for polarization information are discussed.


This cumulative doctoral thesis contains 4 publications. Aim of the first study was to evaluate the influence of feline interferon-ω on the survival time and quality of
life of cats with feline infectious peritonitis. In this placebo-controlled doubleblind study, 37 cats suffering from feline infectious peritonitis were included. Inclusion criterion was a confirmed diagnosis of FIP. Cats were included from August 2004 to April 2006. They were treated randomly with either feline interferon-ω or placebo. Additionally, glucocorticoids, antibiotics, passive immunization, and symptomatic treatment were given. There was no statistically significant difference in survival time, quality of life, or any other clinical or
laboratory parameter (including complete blood count, serum biochemistry profile) in cats treated with feline interferon-ω versus cats treated with placebo besides number of lymphocytes. The number of lymphocytes was significantly lower in cats treated with feline interferon-ω. The cats survived between 3 and 200 days. One cat treated with feline interferon-ω lived for 200 days. This cat showed no symptoms for approximately 6 months, but had to be euthanized after 200 days due to a recurrence of FIP following secondary upper respiratory tract infection.
The aim of the second prospective study was to evaluate if clinical symptoms or laboratory parameters correlate with the survival time and to evaluate median survival time after diagnosis. In this study, 43 cats with confirmed feline infectious peritonitis were included between August 2004 and April 2006. Median survival time was 8 days and mean survival time was 15 days after diagnosis. Karnofsky´s score, number of thrombocytes, number of lymphocytes, concentration of bilirubin in serum, and the amount of effusion significantly correlated with survival time. A low Karnofsky´s score, low numbers of thrombocytes and lymphocytes, a high concentration of bilirubin, and a high amount of effusion were associated with a poor rognosis.
The third publication is a review about treatment of cats with feline infectious peritonitis summarizing all published reports and studies in the literature. A lot of drugs have been tested, but very few had proven efficacy. Nearly all the mentioned studies had no confirmed diagnosis of feline infectious peritonitis and no control group.
The fourth publication is a case report. In this report clinical signs, laboratory values, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of a cat with feline infectious peritonitis
were described.


Interview conducted with an MIT alumna as part
 of the Margaret MacVicar Memorial AMITA (Association of MIT Alumnae) Oral History Project.
 The purpose of the project is to document the life histories of women graduates of the
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Embankments and cuttings are used to provide a reasonably uniform vertical alignment to highways. Increasingly, emphasis is being given to the long-term maintenance of these earthworks. Their long-term stability is influenced by a number of factors but of particular importance is the pore water pressure regime. There is a need for accurate pore water pressure data to define in-service conditions and to identify potential and actual failure mechanisms. However, in the main, the pore pressure sensors that have been commonly used are either unreliable or cannot provide a continuous data set. This report reviews the theoretical background and the development of piezometers. It discusses the problems that might be encountered when using such devices, and describes the development, operation and use of a new suite of piezometric equipment designed to continuously monitor the variation in pore water pressure. Data obtained with the new piezometric equipment from a highway embankment are also presented and discussed. (A)


Objective: To investigate the efficacy of laser photocoagulation combined with ranibizumab intravitreal injection in macular edema secondary to retinal vein occlusion in long term.
Methods: 35 eyes with branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) and 37 eyes with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) treated with or without laser combined with ranibizumab were investigated in this retrospective study. Laser was conducted 7-10 days after the third ranibizumab injection if fluorescein angiography showed ischemic area. In BRVO, patients may receive both macular grid and local peripheral retinal laser. In CRVO, patients just received peripheral retinal laser. We estimated the changes in visual acuity, central retinal thickness (CRT), number of injections and laser over 14 months.
Results: Both BCVA and CRT improved significantly in BRVO (P<0.05) but only CRT improved significantly in CRVO (P<0.05) among 14 months. The mean number of injections was 4.06 in BRVO and 8.14 in CRVO. Mean number of macular grid and peripheral laser was 0.31 and 0.86 in BRVO. Mean number of peripheral laser was 0.41 in CRVO.
Conclusion: Laser photocoagulation was important to patients with macular edema secondary to RVO after ranibizumab injections and may reduce the number of injections relatively in long term.


Aim: This study evaluated whether saffron hydro-ethanolic extract, has a protective effect on kidney through reducing the oxidative stress and inflammatory response in aged rats. Methods: In this study the changes in activities of antioxidant enzymes, lipid peroxidation, glutathione (GSH) levels and the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the serum and renal tissues were evaluated by ELISA and RT-PCR, respectively. The middle and aged rats were given intraperitoneal injections of the saffron hydro-ethanolic extract for 4-week. After 4-week, animals were anesthetized with diethyl ether. The kidney samples were taken for biochemical analysis. Results: The results revealed the aging was associated with a significant decrease in the activities of antioxidant enzymes, and GSH content accompanied with increase in lipid peroxidation level in kidney of the aged rats. The increased levels of serum renal functional parameter, oxidative parameters and also pro-inflammatory cytokine levels were significantly reduced by the saffron hydro-ethanolic extract. The aged rats exhibited a dysregulation of the oxidative stress, and inflammation in the kidneys, but the saffron hydro-ethanolic extract treatment significantly reduced the expression of the inflammatory genes. Conclusions: These results provide a pivotal documentation that the saffron hydro-ethanolic extract has a renoprotective effects against the development of oxidative stress and inflammation in the kidney of old rats.


Software process improvement is a challenge in general and in particular for small‐ and medium‐sized companies. Assessment is one important step in improvement. However, given that a list of improvement issues has been derived, it is often very important to be able to prioritize the improvement proposals and also look at the potential dependencies between them. This paper comes from an industrial need to enable prioritization of improvement proposals and to identify their dependencies. The need was identified in a small‐ and medium‐sized software development company. Based on the need, a method for prioritization and identification of dependencies of improvement proposals was developed. The prioritization part of the method is based on a multi‐decision criteria method and the dependencies are identified using a dependency graph. The developed method has been successfully applied in the company, where people with different roles applied the method. The paper presents both the method as such and the successful application of it. It is concluded that the method worked as a means for prioritization and identification of dependencies. Moreover, the method also allowed the employees to discuss and reason about the improvement actions to be taken in a structured and systematic way. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Gangs in traditional Chinese society often arise from the lower social strata, where wealth, social status and kinship are inadequate to protect people from hostile or adverse environments. It is intriguing that modern futures investors in China, as owners of capital, would form a social structure that partially resembles the marginal groups of society. This paper portrays different social connectivity within the investor community of China's commodity futures markets, including organized battle team, proximity cliques, capital factions based on geographical or industrial affiliations, and charismatic leaders. It also explores how a capital faction's leadership, origins of capital and geographical location helps to shape some of its investment style and risktaking characteristics. Based on empirical ethnographic fieldwork in 2005 and documentary research on China's futures markets, the author argues that the textbook definitions of "hedgers", "speculators", "rational individuals" and "price discovery" are far from adequate to represent China's markets. In reality the markets are made up by flexible socioeconomic aggregates continually interacting with each other, whose characteristics are shaped by social connectivity and background affiliation. Price movements are a collective result of the purposeful actions of the market people themselves, not some latent information waiting to be "discovered" outside the human world.


Plant-based and flexitarian eating patterns are increasingly popular, and the food supply system has responded with a wide range of convenience products despite a lack of understanding regarding consumer views. The aim of this study was to explore consumer and nutrition professional (NP) perceptions and attitudes to plant protein, including plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA) within an Australian context. Using an online survey promoted via social media, 679 responses (89% completion rate), achieved an even spread across key age groups. A total of sixty percent reported following a special diet, with 25% vegan and 19% flexitarian. 'Health' was a key driver for diet type among the NPs (53.3%) and they were less likely to follow a special diet, while "ethical" reasons were cited by consumers (69%). Plant-based eating was considered a vegan dietary pattern and the most frequently consumed plant-based proteins were whole grains. Most (74%) had tried PBMA, but they were more frequently chosen by consumers, with burger patties then sausages and mince selected as a 'trendy' choice; taste was very important across both groups. Products mimicking chicken and fish were of less interest. Plant-based claims were observed by 78% but these were also of greater interest to consumers. Participants reported looking for whole ingredients and iron content and expected that both iron and vitamin B12 would be comparable to red meat. Sodium was the nutrient of greatest interest to NPs and, together, these results help inform the direction for product innovation, while also highlighting the need to assess the adequacy of the dietary pattern when promoting sustainable plant-based eating.


Automatically generating high-quality real world 3D scenes is of enormous interest for applications such as virtual reality and robotics simulation. Towards this goal, we introduce NeuralField-LDM, a generative model capable of synthesizing complex 3D environments. We leverage Latent Diffusion Models that have been successfully utilized for efficient high-quality 2D content creation. We first train a scene auto-encoder to express a set of image and pose pairs as a neural field, represented as density and feature voxel grids that can be projected to produce novel views of the scene. To further compress this representation, we train a latent-autoencoder that maps the voxel grids to a set of latent representations. A hierarchical diffusion model is then fit to the latents to complete the scene generation pipeline. We achieve a substantial improvement over existing state-of-the-art scene generation models. Additionally, we show how NeuralField-LDM can be used for a variety of 3D content creation applications, including conditional scene generation, scene inpainting and scene style manipulation.


Despite the fact that most school administrators were classroom teachers at some point in their educational career, there is little to no literature on the transition from classroom teachers to new assistant principals. What are their motivations for leaving the classroom and becoming an assistant principal? What are the perceptions of the assistant principal role? And how do these people plan and prepare for their new administrative position? The purpose of this study was to better understand the preparation and transition experience of those who became assistant principals, and aimed to add knowledge to the limited work on assistant principals. A survey of assistant principals who were within their first five years in the position was used. Each participant was asked questions based on specific points in time during their career (e.g. think back to when…) as well as open-ended questions where they could respond with more information. The study showed key aspects of the typical person who is in the transition process (e.g., earns/holds a Master's degree in Educational Administration, is motivated to help teachers grow and influence others, realizes the internship is most valuable to building relationships with the mentor and a collegial network, and takes on a positive learning attitude to overcome personal and professional challenges). The typical person realized the most important roles and responsibilities are to ensure and maintain a safe and secure environment for all students, student discipline, and the professional development of teachers. The person also realized a variety of roles and responsibilities that are unique to the assistant principal position based on school and district needs or principal preference. Finally, the person understood the biggest challenges in the position involve remaining calm in student discipline and Special Education (SPED) situations, balancing work and family time, and disagreement with administrators and teachers when the actions negatively impact students. Ultimately, this is a person who initiated a move from teaching in the classroom to leading in the front office as an assistant principal in a new administrative role.


Commentary: A widespread student national boycott of classes and protests against the government of Peter O'Neill in Papua New Guinea during May and June 2016, supported by many civil society groups and activists. The epicentre of these protests was the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) in the nation's capital, Port Moresby. Demonstrations stirred by allegations of corruption against Prime Minister O'Neill grew in intensity until police opened fire on peaceful protesters on June 8. The protests were largely organised by the elected UPNG Student Representative Council, which entered into alliances with other tertiary student bodies, especially at the University of Technology in Lae, and civil society groups such as UPNG Focus and the Community Coalition Against Corruption. The essential argument of the students was that instead of thwarting investigations into allegations that $30 million of fraudulent legal bills were paid to the legal firm Paraka Lawyers, O'Neill should resign from office and present himself to the police investigators for questioning as they had demanded. This article focuses on the student leadership's role and critiques the coverage of two major national press outlets, the PNG Post-Courier and The National, leading to the temporary shutdown of the university. It argues that there were issues of ethics and integrity at stake with both students and the news media.


INTRODUCTION
Sucking chest wounds occur when injuries penetrate the thorax and inhalation results in air entering the pleural cavity. Well documented in the prehospital environment, treatment should be chest seal application to attempt prevention of an expanding pneumothorax. However, a seal might occlude the pathway for the escape of air and lead to a worsening tension pneumothorax.

METHODS
The author conducted a literature search of studies reporting the efficacy of various chest seals for treating sucking chest wounds and the prevention of a tension pneumothorax. Study results were compared to current international guidelines.

RESULTS/DISCUSSION
Included were four studies testing chest seals in a swine model of hemopneumothorax. Vented and unvented chest seals stabilized cardiorespiratory parameters after an open pneumothorax, but only vented chest seals showed more success at preventing a tension pneumothorax. Chest seals with flutter valves seemed to be inferior. An additional study showed that vertical movements and soiled skin were more stressful on the applied chest seals. Eight international guidelines were identified: four focused on the tactical environment, and four appeared to be more civilian-oriented. Only two of the civilian-oriented guidelines did not prefer vented chest seals.

CONCLUSION
Vented chest seals seem to be superior to unvented chest seals, and most international guidelines have updated their recommendations for the use of vented chest seals. However, frequent physical examinations for early signs of a developing or worsening tension pneumothorax are the best medical care.


Abstract: This article explores the justice dimensions of the relationship between the Charter of Fundamental Rights and private law. It reaches three main conclusions. First, a partisan interpretation of the Charter and its horizontal effects in terms of controversial values would be difficult to match with the reasonable pluralism of worldviews characterizing the European Union (EU). Instead, the interpretation of fundamental rights should be guided by the demands of a political conception of justice that is acceptable to people adhering to divergent understandings of individual and common good. Secondly, courts and other interpreters of the Charter must distinguish between fundamental rights, freedoms, and principles in accordance with their respective moral content and cogency. The generic and hyper-positivistic reference to the 'constitutional' or 'primary EU law' status of the entire Charter is far too crude. In particular, human rights, which every person equally has by virtue of his or her humanity, should have much stronger force than merely instrumental freedoms and principles. Thirdly, the facts of the reasonable pluralism of worldviews and of the indeterminacy of the Charter and its horizontal effects together call for judicial restraint. Because the fundamental rights, as formulated in the Charter, strongly underdetermine private law rules and outcomes of civil disputes, courts should, in principle, be deferential in cases where the reasons and interests raised by a constitutional right claim have already been adequately addressed in a robust democratic process. From the perspective of justice in each of these dimensions, the Court of Justice probably has been too partisan and activist in some recent private law cases, such as Alemo-Herron.


ASTRACT: Inadequacy of pain knowledge is a common obstacle to successful pain control. Programmes for managing the pain is an important step towards increasing the knowledge about the pain. This paper discusses about importance of pain management wherein, a survey was conducted by to access the interest and attitude of medical caretakers towards pain management. Five groups were made each group comprising 20 nurses each. There were two experimental groups and 2 control groups. Pre and post tests were conducted and compared which provided best results towards pain management. One group was allowed to give pre-test before attending the training session and another group was allowed to give only post-test that was conducted only after competition of training session. Also training were provided wherein training sessions were divided according to modules and time duration was set for each module. The result showed that there was not much difference in knowledge of the nurses towards managing pain however, nurses with pre-test performed well than post-test nurses.


Over recent years, throughout Western Europe, there have been an increasing number of criminal convictions for the sexual transmission of HIV. In the UK, the recurrent theme in all the convictions has been one of recklessness (under section 20 of the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861) on the part of persons with HIV in their failure to disclose their status to a sexual partner. This paper casts a critical gaze on this criminalisation. It will argue not only that the criminalisation of the transmission of HIV rehearse constructions of sexuality as either active or passive and reinforce discourses that pathologise 'unsafe' sexualities by conflating them with promiscuity and moral bankruptcy, but that it also raises tensions and contradictions in the construction of rights and responsibilities in sexual decision making. It will consider the incongruity between notions of sexual desire as impulsive, spontaneous and unspoken and the expectation that a person with HIV can and should always exercise restraint, rationality and responsibility. This points to a further tension, whereby in the process of disclosing, a person with HIV is speaking the 'unspeakable', drawing on a limited linguistic repertoire with which to communicate and negotiate sexual desire. It will be argued that it is important to consider the context of a sexual encounter in determining rights and responsibilities. In a new sexual relationship, whilst acknowledging that we have some responsibility to our sexual partner, is a person's overarching responsibility to themselves, their own bodily integrity and sexual autonomy. Finally, there will be an exploration of the uniqueness of HIV and the impossibility / improbability of criminalizing the transmission of other serious STIs and will pose the question, "What is the difference?"


This article discusses the Inter-American human rights system's adjudication model in light of some of the conjectures on subsidiarity as a principle for international governance — that is, the degree of deference it grants to the assessment of a situation by the member state concerned. I inquire about the system's role as arbitrator of human rights cases within its jurisdiction, examining the dynamics of subsidiarity within the system's changing context. I find that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights tends to employ a maximalist model of adjudication. Such a model leaves little room for states to reach their own decisions and can be explained as largely resting upon the political context where the Court came to exist, almost four decades ago. I argue that there is a challenge ahead for the Court, namely, to reconcile both claims: on the one hand, states' demands for higher deference, and on the other hand, the importance of an independent and legitimate regional human rights tribunal.


This disserration researches for a problem-solving attitude in the Turkish print media's coverage of 15-20 November 2003 Istanbul bombings. For this study, a sample from the Turkish print media is maintained due to the ideological positions of each Turkish newspaper. Ideologies of the selected newspapers vary from leftist to rightist ideologies. The aim in the selection of the newspapers according to their ideologies derive from the question that whether newspapers coverage of the same event can vary due to their different ideologies. For the research of the Turkish print media's problem-solving attitude, a definition is formed on the basis of the relation between terrorism and the media. The problem-solving definition is composed of two main categories, which are 'problem recognition* and 'management of affect/emotions constructively'. Under the problem recognition category, the way of the problem framing and its assessment of root causes are scrutinized. Second category is researched for whether or not the Turkish print media try to manage and transform the negative effects of the terrorist events. In this study, content analysis method is used. Each selected newspaper is examined for their coverage of Istanbul 2003 bombings. After this analysis, the data found is categorized according to the problem-solving definition mentioned above In the results it is determined that despite the fact that Turkish print media have suitable narratives for the problem-solving definition, they generally lack a problem-solving attitude on the basis of their coverage of Istanbul 2003 bombings.


Respirologists are often consulted in cases of chronic cough. Most patients have diagnoses of asthma, upper airway cough or gastroesophageal reflux disease. The present case describes a newly recognized cause of a cough in a patient who had undergone laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding for weight loss. The cough was persistent and severe for several months, and did not respond to any therapeutic interventions. Imaging studies were not helpful in making the diagnosis, which was confirmed by deflating the Lap-Band, thereby eliminating the cough. As more patients undergo bariatric surgery, physicians must anticipate and be familiar with potential complications.


Two of the most successful British novelists of the last fifty years, Kingsley and Martin Amis are both known for their savage wit and their indifference to causing controversy. In his critical biography, Neil Powell looks at the careers of these two very divisive, and hugely talented writers: how they were formed by their upbringings, developed as writers and in turn how they affected literature, and each other. He examines how success (which is the title one of Martin Amis' novels) affected their relationship, and themselves as writers (Kingsley: "Martin's spending a year abroad for tax purposes. 29, he is. Little shit."). Through this we see what it has meant to be a man, and a writer, (and, most importantly, a comic writer) in Britain over the last sixty years, following Kinglsey from jazz-loving iconoclast to Thatcher-loving Tory and Martin from wild young man of letters to God knows what.


Two intermittent fasting variants, intermittent energy restriction (IER) and time-restricted feeding (TRF), have received considerable interest as strategies for weight-management and/or improving metabolic health. With these strategies, the pattern of energy restriction and/or timing of food intake are altered so that individuals undergo frequently repeated periods of fasting. This review provides a commentary on the rodent and human literature, specifically focusing on the effects of IER and TRF on glucose and lipid metabolism. For IER, there is a growing evidence demonstrating its benefits on glucose and lipid homeostasis in the short-to-medium term; however, more long-term safety studies are required. Whilst the metabolic benefits of TRF appear quite profound in rodents, findings from the few human studies have been mixed. There is some suggestion that the metabolic changes elicited by these approaches can occur in the absence of energy restriction, and in the context of IER, may be distinct from those observed following similar weight-loss achieved via modest continuous energy restriction. Mechanistically, the frequently repeated prolonged fasting intervals may favour preferential reduction of ectopic fat, beneficially modulate aspects of adipose tissue physiology/morphology, and may also impinge on circadian clock regulation. However, mechanistic evidence is largely limited to findings from rodent studies, thus necessitating focused human studies, which also incorporate more dynamic assessments of glucose and lipid metabolism. Ultimately, much remains to be learned about intermittent fasting (in its various forms); however, the findings to date serve to highlight promising avenues for future research.


Disease summary: Hamamy Syndrome (HS) is a very rare disease initially described by Hamamy et al. HS results from a congenital homozygous mutation of the IRX5 gene on chromosome 16q12.2 [1]. At present, only 5 patients have been reported in the literature and one of them deceased. Mutations in the IRX5 homeobox cause a recessive congenital disorder affecting the face, brain, erythrocytes, heart, bone and gonadal development [2]. This suggests that IRX proteins may be crucial for the ontogeny and function of many organs both in new-borns and adults [2]. This syndrome is characterized by craniofacial dysmorphism including midface prominence ("bulging"), upslanting palpebral fissures with sparse lateral eyebrows, severe telecanthus, lacrimal-salivary apparatus agenesis, fronto-nasal abnormalities, thin upper vermillion border, protruding ears, myopia, mental retardation, sensorineural hearing impairment, enamel hypoplasia or hypodontia, gonadal anomalies, sloping shoulders, low posterior hairline, congenital heart anomalies (VSD, atrioventricular canal) with intraventricular conduction anomalies, pectus excavatum, hypochromic microcytic anaemia, and skeletal abnormalities of the long bones with recurrent fractures [2]. Anaemia, difficult airway and cardiac pathologies are the possible difficulties in the anaesthesia management of HS patients.


Public colleges and universities or state governments often ban the possession of firearms on public university or college property. These bans typically extend to student housing. While much has been written about campus bans on the carrying of concealed firearms, the topic of gun bans in the student housing context has been largely unaddressed in Second Amendment literature. This Comment seeks to fill that gap by evaluating potential student challenges to firearms bans in the student housing context in light of potential standards of review courts may apply and in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago. This Comment concludes that students may challenge firearms bans in student housing by characterizing student housing as homes for purposes of Second Amendment analysis. Given the close analogy between the homes in Heller and McDonald and certain forms of student housing, these challenges are likely to persuade a court to strike down student housing firearms bans that prohibit the use of firearms in self-defense in students' homes for violating core Second Amendment protections, especially in cases involving apartment-style student housing.


Engineering projects emerge as practical interactions designed to solve a problem, meet a need, or maximise an opportunity. Over time, this definition of a project has become stronger from a conceptual point of view. The prevailing technical ideal (the best solution) in modern times transformed itself into a "technical and economic ideal for the implementation phase". Since the 1970s there has been a strong level of awareness in terms of environmental aspects, with the aim of minimising the impact of these actions. In this context, the "accident" (philosophical term) arises which not only enables the analysis of projects themselves, but also within the context of the environment in which they are based. This social change became known as Post-modernity in subsequent decades, and is echoed by different experts. With regards to engineering projects, this new situation has a different focus which this thesis will aim to analyse, and subsequently develops more of a transformational ability within the territory. All of the above has created a new area of expertise with regards to engineering projects, which counted on the existing knowledge of old Project departments in Engineering Schools linked to the territory. As a result, and thanks to society's involvement through some business owners, this laid the foundations for what later became known as the Asociacion Espanola de Ingenieria de Proyectos (AEIPRO). Aeipro was created with the aim of encouraging relationships between University Departments involved in the Project field with the business sector, as well as promoting study, by means of an Annual Congress which has taken place every year since 1994. This series of Congresses led to a conceptual advancement which has been focusing on "new fields" of investigation in this area. With reference to this current study, it is important to highlight what are known as "social aspects" and their involvement in the formulation process of an engineering project. Currently, one of the most novel models which has arisen in this area is called the Working with People (WWP) model. This collaboration model integrates activities based on three key components which are intrinsic to the project: ethical-social, technical-entrepreneurial and political-contextual. Therefore, it is necessary to identify which of the agents involved are the key players in each of these components. This thesis includes a series of publications, which the author has developed further since the start of their professional career up to the current day, relating, developing, internalising, analysing and proposing a transformational project concept in the territory based on the WWP components which are developed and conceptualised throughout the study. A case study is used which involves a water supply hydraulic engineering project in 33 towns in the Cuenca province (PANIATS), and was originally considered purely from a technical point of view (based on achieving a specific objective), which was very limited from the start as there was no participation or acceptance amongst the population who considered it as something good (supplying the municipalities with drinking water instead of having water from high-capacity limestone wells) but not of great interest. In fact, subsequent delays with the implementation have not been met with any public opposition. Based on this project's analysis, a study is outlined which sets out all the potential that an engineering project has in the current postmodern context. As a result, consideration of ethical-social, political-contextual and technical-economic components forms the basis on which the solution shown in our case study is based. Failure to consider these components has limited and temporarily cancelled out its potential, including technical potential. This study hopes to demonstrate intellectual support as part of a technical, economic and social focus on the project across the 33 towns, so that its inhabitants accept the project and its potential as their own as well as mobilise themselves as a key opportunity for their future. Through a series of studies in the area in order to see the exploitation of hydraulic resources that were released, the aim is to show how as a result of adapting to the new WWP model it is possible to improve the standard of living, social structure and the success of a project, which could currently be considered a disaster.


We aim at merging technologies from information technology, roomware, and robotics in order to design adaptive and intelligent furniture. This paper presents design principles for our modular robots, called Roombots, as future building blocks for furniture that moves and self-reconfigures. The reconfiguration is done using dynamic connection and disconnection of modules and rotations of the degrees of freedom. We are furthermore interested in applying Roombots towards adaptive behaviour, such as online learning of locomotion patterns. To create coordinated and efficient gait patterns, we use a Central Pattern Generator (CPG) approach, which can easily be optimized by any gradient-free optimization algorithm. To provide a hardware framework we present the mechanical design of the Roombots modules and an active connection mechanism based on physical latches. Further we discuss the application of our Roombots modules as pieces of a homogenic or heterogenic mix of building blocks for static structures.


In November 2014, pop music icon and New York City's recently anointed 'Global Welcome Ambassador' Taylor Swift, perhaps the year's most ubiquitous American public figure, made headlines by absenting herself from a hip and increasingly popular venue: the Spotify streaming music service. Swift, whose popularity and income were unquestionably propelled by avid listening on terrestrial radio, YouTube and services like Spotify, had fired a warning salvo with a July Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, in which she stated unequivocally that 'music should not be free,' because, in her words, 'Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for.'This one-two punch set off a firestorm among musicians, music industry executives and music fans, who promptly divided themselves into two opposing camps: Swift's supporters, who view Spotify and its ilk as exploiters of artistry and debasers of culture, and Spotify's supporters, who view the service as an exemplar of media economics in the age of digital ubiquity and a bulwark against the deleterious effects of online piracy.Although both camps seem genuinely motivated by a principled love of music and a fundamental belief in some notion of 'fairness,' neither side got the story right, though each version contains elements of the truth. In order to understand fully the role of streaming in the evolving recorded music economy and to evaluate whether it's 'good' or 'bad' for musicians and fans, it's necessary to take a broader and more historical perspective, and to understand streaming in contrast to other modes of distribution and market exploitation. Since its inception, the recorded music industry – composed of recording artists, composers, record labels, publishers and a myriad of other stakeholders – has been a tumultuous, ever-changing economic battle royale. Each new law, technology or market shift has presented strategic threats and opportunities enabling some to gain a 'larger piece of the pie' while others divvy up the dwindling remains. Yet the market disruptions introduced by digital media at the turn of the twenty-first century have introduced a degree of volatility and uncertainty that makes the previous century's ups and downs look stable and placid by comparison. One effect of these disruptions has been to intensify the ongoing battle – legacy stakeholders seek to protect their margins and market dominance, rival upstarts wish to carve out their own slices and creative professionals see a long-awaited opportunity to exert some financial autonomy and creative control over the product.To the extent that these disruptions are covered in the press or understood by the general public, the situation is often depicted monochromatically, from the perspective of a given stakeholder. In addition to Swift's campaign against Spotify, other examples include calls for broadcast royalties for recording artists by musicians like Blake Morgan, campaigns for parity between online and off-line radio royalties by organizations like Pandora and, of course, campaigns for and against peer-to-peer distribution platforms by record labels and technologists.In this chapter, I present a nonpartisan analysis of past, current and proposed methods of 'slicing the recorded music pie' in the US marketplace,1 with the aim to clarify exactly what's at stake, and for whom, and to correct and counteract some of the more vitriolic and less accurate rhetoric that has governed the public debate of these issues thus far. I shall also provide a side-by-side comparison, in the form of a table, depicting the economic rewards for creators, as well as the cultural rewards and economic costs for consumers, of music distributed via various channels. It should be abundantly evident even without such analysis that there is no 'silver bullet' utopian scenario in which every party concerned, from artists to labels to consumers, benefits without a corresponding expense on the part of some third party – in other words, there can't be an infinitely large pie with an infinite number of slices. Nor can there be a single organization or sector that wins out at the expense of all the rest; compromise is inevitable, and the challenge is in shaping its contours, rather than avoiding it.Yet, while no single stakeholder in the recorded music economy can expect to see new laws, policies, economies and technologies conform exclusively to its worldview and agenda, there are still more and less equitable ways to divide the industry's wealth, and to develop methods to insure its continuing growth and innovation. Consequently, this chapter will conclude with a brief analysis of pending policy proposals, outlining what's really at stake and for whom.


We have recently characterized essential inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (IP 3R) and ryanodine receptor (RyR)-mediated Ca(2+) signals generated during the differentiation of slow muscle cells (SMCs) in intact zebrafish embryos. Here, we show that the lysosomal two-pore channel 2 (TPC2) also plays a crucial role in generating, and perhaps triggering, these essential Ca(2+) signals, and thus contributes to the regulation of skeletal muscle myogenesis. We used a transgenic line of zebrafish that expresses the bioluminescent Ca(2+) reporter, aequorin, specifically in skeletal muscle, in conjunction with morpholino (MO)-based and pharmacological inhibition of TPC2, in both intact embryos and isolated SMCs. MO-based knock-down of TPC2 resulted in a dramatic attenuation of the Ca(2+) signals, whereas the introduction of TPCN2-MO and TPCN2 mRNA together partially rescued the Ca(2+) signaling signature. Embryos treated with trans-ned-19 or bafilomycin A1, a specific NAADP receptor inhibitor and vacuolar-type H(+)ATPase inhibitor, respectively, also displayed a similar disruption of SMC Ca(2+) signaling. TPC2 and lysosomes were shown via immunohistochemistry and confocal laser scanning microscopy to be localized in perinuclear and striated cytoplasmic domains of SMCs, coincident with patterns of IP 3R and RyR expression. These data together imply that TPC2-mediated Ca(2+) release from lysosomes acts upstream from RyR- and IP 3R-mediated Ca(2+) release, suggesting that the former might act as a sensitive trigger to initiate the SR-mediated Ca(2+)-induced-Ca(2+)-release essential for SMC myogenesis and function.


Objective We evaluated the role of diosmectite as an add-on treatment to the 'recommended treatment' of acute diarrhoea in children. Methods We searched all published literature through the major databases: Medline via Ovid, PubMed, CENTRAL, Embase and Google Scholar till May 2014. Randomised clinical trials comparing diosmectite versus placebo were included (PROSPERO registration: CRD42014013783). Main outcome measures The primary outcome measures were duration of acute diarrhoea (h), and day-to-day cure rates (%). The secondary outcome measures were stool output (volume), stool output (frequency) and adverse events. Results Of 384 citations retrieved, a total of 13 randomised clinical trials (2164 children, 1–60 months old) were included in the meta-analysis. A dose of 3–6 grams per day of diosmectite was given for a duration from 3 days until recovery. Compared with placebo, diosmectite significantly decreased the duration of acute diarrhoea (mean difference, −23.39; 95% CI −28.77 to −18.01), and increased the cure rate (%) at day 5 (OR, 4.44; 95% CI 1.66 to 11.84), without any increases in the risk of adverse events. Diosmectite was effective in all types of acute childhood diarrhoea except dysentery. Because, most of the trials were open-label, and there was a high possibility of publication bias, the GRADE evidence generated was of 'low quality'. Conclusions Diosmectite may be a useful additive in the treatment of acute childhood diarrhoea. As the evidence generated was of 'low quality', future research is needed with higher quality designs before any firm recommendations can be made. Trial registration number PROSPERO registration: CRD42014013783.


The prevalence of obesity is increasing at an alarming rate in recent years. Many drugs for weight managing are available in the market; however their adverse effects and hazards have not been thoroughly evaluated, therefore herbal medicines are being proposed as an efficient, inexpensive and safe alternative. This review will address the current advances in using traditional herbal plants in obese and overweight humans and animals. Searching data bases were PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and Science direct, reported between 1990 and 2014. Articles were screened and selected by two researchers. Based on the available literature, abstract/full randomized clinical trials (RCTs), evidence studies, reviews, systematic reviews and books were surveyed. Studies with LI85008F, Itrifal Saghir, Hunteria umbellate, Morus alba, Melissa officinalis, and Artemisia capillarie, pomegranate leaf (PLE), NT (rhubarb, ginger, astragulus, red sage, and turmeric) combined with gallic acid (GA), ephedrine, caffeine, salicin, Adlay seed crude extract (ACE), Bufo-tsusho-san (BF) and Stimulant-free supplement (glucomannan, chitosan, fenugreek, Gymnema sylvestre, and vitamin C) show significant decreases in body weight. Only, NT (rhubarb, ginger, astragulus, red sage, turmeric) caused dose-limiting gastrointestinal toxicity. Additionally, Ma Huang and Guarana (ephedrine alkaloid and caffeine) caused mouth dryness, insomnia and headache. No other significant adverse effects were reported in all 31 trials included in this article. This review highlights the need for higherquality randomized, controlled trials to confirm the results.


Abstract. Methods for detecting and quantifying nonlinearities in nonstationary time series are introduced and developed. In particular, higher-order wavelet analysis was applied to an ideal time series and the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) time series. Multiple-testing problems inherent in wavelet analysis were addressed by controlling the false discovery rate. A new local autobicoherence spectrum facilitated the detection of local nonlinearities and the quantification of cycle geometry. The local autobicoherence spectrum of the QBO time series showed that the QBO time series contained a mode with a period of 28 months that was phase coupled to a harmonic with a period of 14 months. An additional nonlinearly interacting triad was found among modes with periods of 10, 16 and 26 months. Local biphase spectra determined that the nonlinear interactions were not quadratic and that the effect of the nonlinearities was to produce non-smoothly varying oscillations. The oscillations were found to be skewed so that negative QBO regimes were preferred, and also asymmetric in the sense that phase transitions between the easterly and westerly phases occurred more rapidly than those from westerly to easterly regimes.


While UML is recognized as the de-facto standard in modeling software systems, it is at the same time often criticized for being too large and complex. To be able to evolve UML to overcome this criticism, evidence is needed about which parts of UML are actually used. In this respect, a few studies exist that investigate which diagram types of UML are commonly used. However, to the best of our knowledge, in none of these studies, evidence is provided about which modeling concepts of UML are used. Thus, we quantitatively analyze UML models to determine on a fine granularity level the usage frequency of the modeling concepts provided by UML. In this paper, we present initial results of our analysis of 121 open UML models and compare our findings with the results reported in related studies about the usage of UML.


An argument that qualitative representations?symbolic representations that carve continuous phenomena into meaningful units?are central to human cognition.In this book, Kenneth Forbus proposes that qualitative representations hold the key to one of the deepest mysteries of cognitive science: how we reason and learn about the continuous phenomena surrounding us. Forbus argues that qualitative representations?symbolic representations that carve continuous phenomena into meaningful units?are central to human cognition. Qualitative representations provide a basis for commonsense reasoning, because they enable practical reasoning with very little data; this makes qualitative representations a useful component of natural language semantics. Qualitative representations also provide a foundation for expert reasoning in science and engineering by making explicit the broad categories of things that might happen and enabling causal models that help guide the application of more quantitative knowledge as needed. Qualitative representations are important for creating more human-like artificial intelligence systems with capabilities for spatial reasoning, vision, question answering, and understanding natural language.Forbus discusses, among other topics, basic ideas of knowledge representation and reasoning; qualitative process theory; qualitative simulation and reasoning about change; compositional modeling; qualitative spatial reasoning; and learning and conceptual change. His argument is notable both for presenting an approach to qualitative reasoning in which analogical reasoning and learning play crucial roles and for marshaling a wide variety of evidence, including the performance of AI systems. Cognitive scientists will find Forbus's account of qualitative representations illuminating; AI scientists will value Forbus's new approach to qualitative representations and the overview he offers.


Deep neural networks (DNNs) can be huge in size, requiring a considerable a mount of energy and computational resources to operate, which limits their applications in numerous scenarios. It is thus of interest to compress DNNs while maintaining their performance levels. We here propose a probabilistic importance inference approach for pruning DNNs. Specifically, we test the significance of the relevance of a connection in a DNN to the DNN's outputs using a nonparemtric scoring testand keep only those significant ones. Experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves better lossless compression rates than existing techniques


The Jiangnan fold belt separates the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks in South China and has long been considered Grenvillian in age in order to place South China in central Rodinia. It consists of deformed Early Neoproterozoic strata that are unconformably overlain by undeformed Late Neoproterozoic strata and intruded by undeformed and unmetamorphosed granitic plutons. Zircons from the Early Neoproterozoic strata yield U-Pb ages as young as 830 Ma, and one granitic pluton has a zircon U-Pb age of ca. 827 Ma. The ≥830 Ma mafic rocks along the southeastern margin of the Yangtze block have arc-affinity geochemical characters, whereas mafic rocks younger than 830 Ma have typical ocean island basalt (OIB)—like compositions. Thus, we suggest that the Early Neoproterozoic strata were deposited on an active continental margin prior to amalgamation of the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks at ca. 830 Ma. The overlying Late Neoproterozoic strata were deposited in the intracontinental rifted Nanhua Basin at 820–730 Ma and probably reflect backarc spreading above the long-lived (950–735 Ma) oceanic subduction zone along the northern and western margin of the Yangtze block. This model is consistent with the secular tectonic evolution of South China during the Neoproterozoic. The Jiangnan fold belt is therefore not a Grenvillian feature as previously suggested, and there is no evidence to place South China in central Rodinia. Instead, we believe that South China was located in a marginal position relative to this supercontinent.


"From Popular Medicine to Medical Populism" presents the history of medical practice in Costa Rica from the late colonial era - when none of the fifty thousand inhabitants had access to a titled physician, pharmacist, or midwife - to the 1940s, when the figure of the qualified medical doctor was part of everyday life for many of Costa Rica's nearly one million citizens. It is the first book to chronicle the history of all healers, both professional and popular, in a Latin American country during the national period. Steven Palmer breaks with the view of popular and professional medicine as polar opposites-where popular medicine is seen as representative of the authentic local community and as synonymous with oral tradition and religious and magical beliefs and professional medicine as advancing neocolonial interests through the work of secular, trained academicians.Arguing that there was significant and formative overlap between these two forms of medicine, Palmer shows that the relationship between practitioners of each was marked by coexistence, complementarity, and dialogue as often as it was by rivalry. Palmer explains that while the professionalisation of medical practice was intricately connected to the nation-building process, the Costa Rican state never consistently displayed an interest in suppressing the practice of popular medicine.In fact, it persistently found both tacit and explicit ways to allow untitled healers to practice. Using empirical and archival research to bring people (such as the famous healer or curandero Professor Carlos Carbell), events, and institutions (including the Rockefeller Foundation) to life, "From Popular Medicine to Medical Populism" demonstrates that it was through everyday acts of negotiation among agents of the state, medical professionals, and popular practitioners that the contours of Costa Rica's modern, heterogeneous health care system were established.


The purpose of this document is to provide applicability of the Access
Node Control Mechanism to broadband access based on Passive Optical
Networks (PONs). The need for an Access Node Control Mechanism between
a Network Access Server (NAS) and an Access Node Complex, composed of
a combination of Optical Line Termination (OLT) and Optical Network
Termination (ONT) elements, is described in a multi-service reference
architecture in order to perform QoS-related, service-related, and
subscriber-related operations. The Access Node Control Mechanism is
also extended for interaction between components of the Access Node
Complex (OLT and ONT). The Access Node Control Mechanism will ensure
that the transmission of information between the NAS and Access Node
Complex (ANX) and between the OLT and ONT within an ANX does not need
to go through distinct element managers but rather uses direct device-
to-device communication and stays on net. This allows for performing
access-link-related operations within those network elements to meet
performance objectives.


This paper provides the first program logic for homogeneous generative run-time meta-programming---using a variant of MiniML by Davies and Pfenning as its underlying meta-programming language. We show the applicability of our approach by reasoning about example meta-programs from the literature. We also demonstrate that our logics are relatively complete in the sense of Cook, enable the inductive derivation of characteristic formulae, and exactly capture the observational properties induced by the operational semantics.


We exploit the variation in the admissions cutoffs across colleges of a leading Indian university in a regression discontinuity framework to estimate the causal effects of enrolling in a selective college on: cognitive attainment, behavioral preferences, and Big Five personality. We find that enrolling in a selective college improves only females' exam scores. Further, marginally admitted females in selective colleges become less overconfident and less risk averse while males in selective colleges experience a decline in extraversion and conscientiousness. Higher attendance rates among females explain the gender differences in returns to better college and peer environment.


Due to the potential of enhancing traffic safety, protecting environment, and enabling new applications, vehicular communications, especially vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, has recently been receiving much attention. Because of both safety and non-safety real-time applications, V2V communications has QoS requirements on rate, latency, and reliability. How to appropriately design channel allocation is therefore a key MAC/PHY layer issue in vehicular communications. The QoS requirements of real-time V2V communications can be met by achieving a low outage probability and high outage capacity. In this paper, we first formulate the subchannel allocation in V2V communications into a maximum matching problem on random bipartite graphs. A distributed shuffling based Hopcroft-Karp (DSHK) algorithm will then be proposed to solve this problem with a sub-linear complexity of O(N^{2/3}), where N is the number of subchannels. By studying the maximum matching generated by the DSHK algorithm on random bipartite graphs, the outage probabilities are derived in the high (two near vehicles) and low (two far away vehicles) SNR regimes, respectively. It is then demonstrated that the proposed method has a similar outage performance as the scenario of two communicating vehicles occupying N subchannels. By solving high degree algebraic equations, the outage capacity can be obtained to determine the maximum traffic rate given an outage probability constraint. It is also shown that the proposed scheme can take an advantage of small signaling overhead with only one-bit channel state information broadcasting for each subchannel.


Symbiotic Cognitive Systems (SCS) are multi-agent systems comprising both human and software agents that are designed to collectively perform cognitive tasks such as decision-making better than humans or software agents can unaided. Autonomic Computing Systems (ACS) are multi-agent systems that manage applications as well as software and hardware resources in accordance with goals specified by human administrators and users. SCS and ACS share some key characteristics. First, both are designed to extend human intellectual capabilities, and as such they require effective means by which humans can communicate their objectives to the computing system. Second, their natural architecture is a multi-agent system in which dozens, hundreds or even more semi-autonomous entities interact. In both SCS and ACS, issues of inter-agent communication and coordination come to the fore. We report our experience with a moderate-scale SCS prototype that helps human experts make decisions with financial impacts ranging from millions to even billions of US: corporate mergers and acquisitions. Taking advantage of the commonalities, we translate this experience into insights that may benefit future research on ACS, and recommend a stronger focus on agent-human communication and building realistic system prototypes.


Modding Mac OS X isn't about cutting up your Power Mac's case with a saws-all; it's about modifying Mac OS X's user interface and unlocking secrets and dispelling your fears of the Unix command line so you can take command of your Mac. Modding Mac OS X starts out with the very basics of showing you how to configure your Mac and do simple things like change Finder views, use an image from iPhoto's library on your desktop, and how to find and use screen savers. From there, Modding Mac OS X shows you how to:Find hidden features in your favorite applicationsDive inside application bundles to find hidden resourcesChange application and system-wide keyboard shortcutsWork with the Property List Editor to read and edit property list filesWrap your head around the defaults command to tweak an application's settingsHack on NIB files to change an application's interfaceControl an application with AppleScript, even if it isn't scriptableEach Modding example includes detailed step-by-step instructions that even a novice Mac user can follow, while also providing the necessary detail to satisfy the experienced hacker. The knowledge you gain from tweaking one application can be easily applied to the next.So go on, empower your inner Mac geek. You know you want to.


Going through the operation in past years, high-tech industry has formally acquired positive affirmation. The basic character of high-tech industry shows technology-intensive and capital-intensive high-risk and high-profit industrial characteristics based on innovative competition. Since the maturity of the Internet, the entire education environment is largely changed and expanded to comprehensive and diverse computer multimedia networks. The application of multimedia to innovation education therefore becomes the new core of business management in technology industry. Aiming at employees of high-tech industry in Fujian Province, total 450 copies of questionnaire are distributed in this study, and 341 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 76%. The research results show positive relations between 1.innovation education and technology innovation, 2.technology innovation and entrepreneurial competitiveness, and 3.innovation education and entrepreneurial competitiveness. At the end, suggestions are proposed according to the results, expecting to assist high-tech organizations in promoting technology innovation and entrepreneurial competitiveness through innovation education.


Viruses exploit the host cellrs own cellular machinery to propagate their existence. The macrophage is a key host cell that is invaded by the virus and it serves as a sentinel and pivotal mediator of the innate immune response. The idea that molecular mimicry is involved in innate immunity and plays a role in human disease has been previously proposed. However, the precise mechanism by which viral and host genes are regulated and whether there is evidence for molecular mimicry by the viral gene has not been well characterized. Here we show that the viral and host genes are regulated by a complex assembly of cellular transcription factors at their respective promoter regions. Through a team-based lresearch synthesisr approach we focused on constructing a systems level understanding of the host-viral interactions during the initial phases of viral infection. The aim was not only to be able to define control and interaction pathways but to also identify potential structural homologies between promoter elements in the interacting host and viral genes. Various avenues of systems biology and bioinformatics were explored, such as biological data-mining, provenance, and curation, in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of biological pathways. Our results demonstrated how networks and systems extracted from ldata-richr high throughput genomic and proteomic studies and from data-mining of scientific literature can be used to elucidate biological pathways that we constructed using in silco approaches. We anticipate our work to be an initial platform from which more sophisticated in vitro and in silico models for investigating host and viral gene interactions may be build. For example, a statistical model could be designed to investigate the probability of mimicry occurring in a biological system. Furthermore, inhibition of one or more of the cellular transcriptional factors used in the regulation of the viral gene promoter can be used as a major target of antiviral drug development.


In this paper, a novel principle of an active power filter based on the harmonic impedance control of a transformer is proposed for high-voltage power distribution systems application. A linear transformer with multiple secondary windings is adopted. The primary winding is shunted with harmonic-producing loads, while the secondary windings are connected with inverters. The primary harmonic current is detected and then tracked by the inverters with fixed compensation coefficient. When the harmonic current compensation condition is satisfied, the transformer can really exhibit nearly zero impedance to harmonic current and primary self-impedance to fundamental current. As a result, the harmonic currents in power systems can be led to flow into the transformer branch. The operation principle, the control scheme, and the harmonic current detection method are discussed in detail. Finally, simulated waveforms and experimental results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the active power filter


A number of histone demethylases have been identified and biochemically characterized, yet their biological functions largely remain uncharacterized, particularly in the context of human diseases such as cancer. In this study, we describe important roles for the histone demethylase KDM3A, also known as JMJD1A, in human carcinogensis. Expression levels of KDM3A were significantly elevated in human bladder carcinomas compared with nonneoplastic bladder tissues (p < 0.0001), when assessed by real‐time PCR. We confirmed that some other cancers including lung cancer also overexpressed KDM3A, using cDNA microarray analysis. Treatment of cancer cell lines with small interfering RNA targeting KDM3A significantly knocked down its expression and resulted in the suppression of proliferation. Importantly, we found that KDM3A activates transcription of the HOXA1 gene through demethylating histone H3 at lysine 9 di‐methylation by binding to its promoter region. Indeed, expression levels of KDM3A and HOXA1 in several types of cancer cell lines and bladder cancer samples were statistically correlated. We observed the down‐regulation of HOXA1 as well as CCND1 after treatment with KDM3A siRNA, indicating G1 arrest of cancer cells. Together, our results suggest that elevated expression of KDM3A plays a critical role in the growth of cancer cells, and further studies may reveal a cancer therapeutic potential in KDM3A inhibition.


Over the last decade particularly in the UK, the term NEET (not in education, employment or training) has been used excessively by the New Labour Government to deal with concerns of social and economic exclusion among the youth. This paper explores issues relating to the usage of NEET as a service intervention label and its compatibility with the group of young people to whom it refers. The process involves review of relevant literature on existing research into NEET with the view to assessing its usefulness as a descriptive label. It is argued that because NEET covers a wide range of circumstances that young people are in, its use as a policy target is problematic. Similarly, it is contended that the use of NEET as a key point of focus for targeting service interventions amounts to fire-fighting tantamount to the concentration of attention on those victims who can relatively be moved easily to EET (education, employment or training) destinations at the expense of others who could benefit from such attention but do not receive it. The paper concludes that since poor experience of education is only one factor of NEETness, a multi-agency approach (rather than an individualized approach) is needed to tackle it.


Many executives lack an effective framework for accurately classifying - let alone developing strategies for - their work relationships, leading to bad misjudgments and costly mistakes. The authors contend that professional relationships should be defined along one of two continuums: unconditional and conditional. Many career-ending mistakes can be traced back to a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference. Relationships that are independent of situation and context are called unconditional. At one end of this spectrum are friends; at the other end are enemies. A friend inspires unconditional trust, whereas an enemy is someone who continually works against another person's interests regardless of the circumstances. Although the most intense (and often the most time-consuming) connections are those with friends and enemies, the vast majority of business relationships are conditional, with allies and adversaries on opposite ends of the spectrum. Allies will promote another's interests as long as doing so also serves their own self-interest. In contrast, adversaries will work against someone because their self-interest conflicts with the other person's interests. The most important thing about such relationships is their transitory nature: An ally can easily turn into an adversary (and vice versa) given a change in circumstances.


Much has been written on malpractice in estate planning, but little or nothing on the damages recoverable from the attorney in such cases. A possible reason is that many of the cases consider only the issues involved in whether a cause of action exists, such as privity and the statute of limitations. In addition, many of the cases are decided on motions for summary judgment, precluding any discussion of damages. This article attempts to fill that gap. Following a brief review of the development and current status of the law of malpractice in estate planning, the article discusses the two measures of damages - the "lost bequest" measure and the "cost to fix" measure. On examination, these measures are really alternate expressions of the same damage remedy rather than separate measures. The bifurcation, however, appropriately allows the beneficiary, who is the injured party, to choose whether or not to remedy the attorney's error. The "American rule," disallowing attorneys fees as damages in the malpractice action, has caused some confusion. The proper rule is that attorneys fees to discover the error or to cure it are recoverable as damages. Several cases where this distinction is correctly applied are discussed. The article then discusses the major problem in the area-the dismissal of the action if damage has not yet occurred or is speculative. This is a larger problem in the estate planning area than in some other areas as the article illustrates. After discussing cases applying this rule, and recognizing that the rule wrongly rewards attorneys and penalizes injured parties, the article examines possible remedies. The remedy of postponing accrual of the statute of limitations, the major alternative to dismissal because of speculative damages, is rejected because of the delay inherent in that remedy. Following a brief discussion of damages awarded in cases similar to the speculative damage case, the article proposes a remedy which is equitable to both the attorney and the intended beneficiaries.


Contour grass hedges and micro-basins have been proved to be very effective in reducing soil and water loss on sloping croplands in tropical and subtropical regions, however they have not been evaluated adequately in temperate regions and as a result they would not be accepted easily and widely by local farmers. Therefore in this research, the soil and water conservation effects of two native grass hedges and micro-basins were studied in temperate regions of northern China by simulated rainfall under different slope gradients (5, 10, 15 and 20%) and rainfall intensities (36 and 63 mm/h). The results showed that in the regions Pennisetum (Pennisetum alopecuroides (Linn.) Spreng.) hedges averagely decreased overland flow by 68% and soil loss by 79%; Correspondingly Arundinella (Arundinella hirta (Thunb.) C. Tanaka) hedges decreased overland flow by 55% and soil loss by 67%. In a second set of experiments, when Arundinella hedges were substituted with micro-basins, Pennisetum hedges decreased overland flow by 44% and soil loss by 83%, while micro-basins decreased overland flow by 70% and soil loss by 62%. These results indicate that contour grass hedges and micro-basins are very effective in the control of soil and water loss on sloping croplands in temperate regions, even though they did not result sufficient for a thorough protection under steep slope and intense rain conditions.


Purpose —The aim of this statement is to present current and comprehensive recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of acute spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage. Methods —A formal literature search of Medline was performed through the end date of August 2006. The results of this search were complemented by additional articles on related issues known to the writing committee. Data were synthesized with the use of evidence tables. The American Heart Association Stroke Council's Levels of Evidence grading algorithm was used to grade each recommendation. Prerelease review of the draft guideline was performed by 5 expert peer reviewers and by the members of the Stroke Council Leadership Committee. It is intended that this guideline be fully updated in 3 years' time. Results —Evidence-based guidelines are presented for the diagnosis of intracerebral hemorrhage, the management of increased arterial blood pressure and intracranial pressure, the treatment of medical complications of intracerebral hemorrhage, and the prevention of recurrent intracerebral hemorrhage. Recent trials of recombinant factor VII to slow initial bleeding are discussed. Recommendations for various surgical approaches for treatment of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage are presented. Finally, withdrawal-of-care and end-of-life issues in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage are examined. ( Stroke. 2007;38:2001-2023.)


An integrated model of atmospheric and hydrologic processes at regional scale over California has been developed in order to translate the large scale atmospheric conditions of critical climatic events to the region of California. It is capable of providing quantitative information about air-soil temperature, surthce water-soil moisture storage, wind, relative humidity, precipitation, net solar radiation, evapotranspiration and infiltration rates corresponding to critical climate scenarios of droughts and global climate change for studies of their water resource impacts and their environmental consequences. This integrated regional atmospheric-hydrologic model (IRAHM) of California has been applied to April 1989 historical period for its validation at 20x20 km grid resolution and its performance is satisfactory.


Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are considered as a potential biotechnological tool for improving phytostabilization efficiency and plant tolerance to heavy metal-contaminated soils. However, the mechanisms through which AMF help to alleviate metal toxicity in plants are still poorly understood. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of two AMF species (Funneliformis mosseae and Rhizophagus intraradices) on the growth, Pb accumulation, photosynthesis and antioxidant enzyme activities of a leguminous tree (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) at Pb addition levels of 0, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg kg-1 soil. AMF symbiosis decreased Pb concentrations in the leaves and promoted the accumulation of biomass as well as photosynthetic pigment contents. Mycorrhizal plants had higher gas exchange capacity, non-photochemistry efficiency, and photochemistry efficiency compared with non-mycorrhizal plants. The enzymatic activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidases (APX) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) were enhanced, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents were reduced in mycorrhizal plants. These findings suggested that AMF symbiosis could protect plants by alleviating cellular oxidative damage in response to Pb stress. Furthermore, mycorrhizal dependency on plants increased with increasing Pb stress levels, indicating that AMF inoculation likely played a more important role in plant Pb tolerance in heavily contaminated soils. Overall, both F. mosseae and R. intraradices were able to maintain efficient symbiosis with R. pseudoacacia in Pb polluted soils. AMF symbiosis can improve photosynthesis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging capabilities and decrease Pb concentrations in leaves to alleviate Pb toxicity in R. pseudoacacia. Our results suggest that the application of the two AMF species associated with R. pseudoacacia could be a promising strategy for enhancing the phytostabilization efficiency of Pb contaminated soils.


Abstract
 Water-filled tree holes (dendrotelmata) are mostly ephemeral micro-ecosystems characterized by high level of heterotrophic microbial activity sustained by allochthonous organic matter. In this paper, description of a five-year long observation of fungal consortia in a Norway maple tree-hole is presented. Overall, 139 fungal taxa were detected. Among them, Excipularia fusispora, Ellisembia leptospora, Rebentischia unicaudata, Tricladium castaneicola, Thielavia terricola and Alternaria spp. occurred most frequently. Our observations suggest that even an individual dendrotelma represents an exceptional microhabitat, forming a hot-spot for microfungi due to its role as a natural spore trap and its (temporarily) aquatic environment. Our results show that this aquatic micro-ecosystem supports highly diverse mycobiota with continuous temporal dynamics, with an important fraction of sporadic taxa.


This paper investigates the relevance of the sticky information model of Mankiw and Reis (2002) and Carroll (2003) for four major European economies (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom). As opposed to the benchmark rational expectation models, households in the sticky information environment update their expectations sporadically rather than instantaneously owing to the costs of acquiring and processing information. We estimate two alternative parametrizations of the sticky information model which differ in the stationarity assumptions about the underlying series. Using survey data on households? and experts? inflation expectations, we find that the model adequately captures the dynamics of household inflation expectations. Both parametrizations imply comparable speeds of information updating for the European households as was previously found in the US, on average roughly once a year.


Life-threatening fungal infections have increased dramatically in recent decades in immunocompromised patients. An estimated 40% of all deaths from hospital-acquired infections are due to infections caused by opportunistic fungi. The current treatment options are either causing serious toxicity, or becoming inactive against the drug-resistant fungal strains. Thus, the discovery and development of new antifungal agents that are economically feasible, have excellent therapeutic value, and address the problems of toxicity and species resistance is very important. We have recently designed and synthesized a series of chlorogenic acid-based peptidimimetics using structure-based methodology starting with cyclic peptides of the candin class of antifungals. These novel and totally synthetic compounds exhibit promising antifungal activity against pathogenic fungi with very low toxicity against brine shrimps. The possible novelty in their mechanism of action and economically feasible synthetic approach are the attractive features of this class of compounds that make them different from the already utilized antifungal agents.


Transgenic mice with altered methylation of PP2A reveal a new strategy for treating Alzheimer's disease. The serine/threonine protein phosphatase PP2A is a heterotrimeric protein composed of a scaffold subunit, catalytic subunit, and a regulatory subunit. Reduced function of PP2A has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease. C-terminal methylation of the PP2A catalytic subunit promotes the formation of the holoenzyme, and methylated PP2A has high activity toward tau, a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease. Leucine carboxyl methyltransferase 1 (LCMT-1) methylates PP2A and protein phosphatase methylesterase 1 (PME-1) demethylates PP2A. Nicholls et al. generated two transgenic mice, which either overexpressed FLAG-tagged PME-1 or FLAG-tagged LCMT-1 in neurons in the forebrain, including the hippocampus, which is affected in Alzheimer's disease. Western blot analysis of hippocampal lysates from these mice showed that the PME-1–transgenic mice had reduced PP2A methylation and increased tau phosphorylation at sites targeted by PP2A. In contrast, PP2A methylation was unchanged in the LCMT-1–transgenic mice, which may be because even in wild-type mice PP2A methylation is high. Compared with control mice, both types of transgenic mice had similar amounts of the amyloid peptide Aβ, a contributor of Alzheimer's disease pathology, and similar ability to develop long-term potentiation (LTP), a measure of synaptic plasticity that is associated with learning and memory. However, when subjected to contextual fear conditioning and water maze tasks, the PME-1–transgenic mice administered pathologic concentrations of synthetic, oligomeric β-amyloid (Aβ) exhibited poor performance compared with control mice without PME-1 overexpression or Aβ administrations. In contrast, the LCMT-1–transgenic mice administered pathological concentrations of Aβ showed better performance. Furthermore, consistent with the behavioral test responses, the LCMT-1–transgenic mice exhibited protection from Aβ-mediated impairment of LTP and the PME-1–transgenic mice exhibited enhanced sensitivity to LTP impairment by Aβ. This indicated that PME-1 increased the sensitivity of the animals and LCMT-1 reduced the sensitivity of the animals to synaptic impairment caused by pathological Aβ. Thus, this study suggested that enhancing PP2A activity reduced Aβ toxicity rather than Aβ production itself, which suggests that the toxic effects of Aβ could be therapeutically ameliorated without having to reduce Aβ production. R. E. Nicholls, J.-M. Sontag, H. Zhang, A. Staniszewski, S. Yan, C. Y. Kim, M. Yim, C. M. Woodruff, E. Arning, B. Wasek, D. Yin, T. Bottiglieri, E. Sontag, E. R. Kandel, O. Arancio, PP2A methylation controls sensitivity and resistance to β-amyloid–induced cognitive and electrophysiological impairments. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113, 3347–3352 (2016). [PubMed]


Thailand is entering into a new phase of educational administration under the new National Education Act of 1999 which requires all educational institutions to have internal and external quality assurance in order to ensure improvement of educational quality and standards at all levels (Section 47). This means that all educational institutions, especially in the private sector, have to undergo many changes, including changes in administration, teaching and learning processes, methods of evaluation and professional development programs. The current study focused specifically on the transformational leadership behaviour of principals on school culture. Culture is considered to be a key factor in determining whether school improvement is possible (Deal & Peterson, 1999). The study was conducted in two phases: quantitative and a qualitative, and carried out in the secondary schools of the Brothers of St. Gabriel, in Thailand. In the quantitative phase, the researcher used two instruments, namely the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ, Short form) developed by Bass (2000) to measure the leadership behaviour of principals, and the School Culture Survey developed by Gruenert (1998) to measure school culture. The results from the quantitative study were used to select a school for the second phase of the study that was carried out using a qualitative approach. The quantitative findings provided descriptive evidence that transformational leadership existed in the schools of the Brothers of St. Gabriel, in Thailand and the dominant culture of the Gabrieltie schools was Professional Development. In addition, the findings also revealed that there was a significant relationship between leadership behaviour and school culture. In the second phase, the leadership behaviour of the selected principal was interpreted based on transformational leadership applied in a school setting. This process was outlined by Leithwood (1996) as frame of reference to identify a pattern of leadership behaviour of the selected principal. The findings revealed that the selected principal exercised the qualities of transformational leadership to some extent. Some qualities were missing and some were practised to a moderate degree. The study helps provide guidance and direction to principals who wish to exercise their leadership in a more appropriate and relevant way particularly in a context of change.


This paper provides an analysis of policy discourse as it concerns Indigenous labour market development in Northern Alberta. In the process, the authors unearth the manner in which current federal and provincial government policy obscures a long history of attempted colonial domination with respect to Indigenous peoples in Canada more generally. Typically, economic booms are spoken of as an opportunity to democratize labour opportunities, through the discourse of "partnership" and "social inclusion" in particular. Ignored in this discourse is the reality that the exploitation of natural resources always takes place in particular political, social, cultural and historical contexts. Critical discourse analysis serves to expose these contexts and, in so doing, uncovers the critical role played by institutions, ideologies, and processes in constructing and maintaining existing inequalities. In the process of digging up the roots of current Aboriginal labour market development policy discourse, unveiled are the concealed power structures, misrepresented inequities, historical injustices, and biases of development.