ABBA Gold. By Elisabeth Vincentelli. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [131 p. ISBN 0826415466. $9.95.] Electric Ladyland. By John Perry. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [132 p. ISBN 0826415717. $9.95.] Sign 'O' the Times. By Michaelangelo Matos. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [121 p. ISBN 0826415474. $9.95.] The Velvet Underground and Nico. By Joe Harvard. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [152 p. ISBN 0826415504. $9.95.] Unknown Pleasures. By Chris Ott. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [xvi, 117 p. ISBN 0826415490. $9.95.] Continuum's 33 1/3 series is a collection of short books dedicated to rock's essential albums. The canon of rock music is a slowly evolving list perpetuated by magazines like Rolling Stone and MOJO, books like Dave Marsh and Kevin Stein's The Book of Rock Lists (NewYork: Dell, 1981), classic rock radio station playlists and countdown programs on music channel VHl. Author Nick Hornby humorously captured the personal implications of this musically obsessive pastime in his novel and the movie High Fidelty. Books in the 33 1/3 series focus on one album each and are 100 to 150 pages in length. Each author has chosen a record they love from the past forty years to write about. The books are highly personalized, but all follow the same basic structure: part 1 is dedicated to the author's personal connection to the record and why the record is significant in the artist's catalog and in the broader context of rock music history; part 2 documents the making of the record; part 3 is a song-by-song analysis of the album. Authors for the series are musicians and/or writers for notable popular music publications. Wisely, the series avoids records that have multiple or significant books dedicated to their study, like the Beatles's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Miles Davis's Kind of Blue. Instead Continuum has chosen mostly under-investigated records rang-ing from mainstream pop to underground classics. Outside of magazine articles, liner notes, fanzines, and artist biographies, these records are rarely discussed at length. Several books in the series cover records from the last two decades of rock. A sampling of five books from the series were available for review: Abba Gold by Elisabeth Vincentelli, Electric Ladyland by John Perry, Sign O' the Times by Michaelangelo Matos, The Velvet Underground and Nico by Joe Harvard, and Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott. Elisabeth Vincentelli's meditation on Abba Gold is illuminating. The book is a unique volume in the series since it explores a greatest hits compilation rather than an album proper. Her introductory essay addresses the value of best-of records, the importance of singles vs. albums in propelling musicians' careers and how a posthumous record can reintroduce a group fallen out of favor to a new generation of listeners. Vincentelli takes us into Abba's recording sessions as Benny and Bjorn's songs take shape. In the absence of great lyrics, the author shifts our focus to the music and performances. She describes their music videos vividly and speculates on the personal angst of the two women in the group. Although Vincentelli appreciates Abba without irony, she can't help a goodnatured dig at their seventies fashion excess. …


The advent of IoT brought about the paradigm of many interconnected devices, thus triggering the need for efficient collective attestation of a (possibly mobile) swarm of provers. Though recent work has yielded some initial concepts for swarm attestation, several key issues remain unaddressed, and practical realizations have not been explored. This paper aims at advancing swarm attestation by bringing it closer to reality. Towards that goal, the paper makes two contributions: (1) defines a new metric, called QoSA: Quality of Swarm Attestation, that captures the type of information offered by a swarm attestation technique, and (2) constructs two practical attestation protocols with different QoSA features and communication and computation complexities. Security of proposed protocols is analyzed and their performance is assessed based on experiments with prototype implementations.


Wind turbines usually present several feedback control loops to improve or counteract some specific performance or behaviour of the system. It is common to find these multiple feedback control loops in Floating Offshore Wind Turbines where the system perferformance is highly influenced by the platform dynamics. This is the case of the Aerodynamic Platform Stabiliser and Wave Rejection feedback control loops which are complementaries to the conventional generator speed PI control loop when it is working in an above rated wind speed region. The multiple feedback control loops sometimes can be tedious to manually improve the initial tuning. Therefore, this article presents a novel optimisation methodology based on the Monte Carlo method to automatically improve the manually tuned multiple feedback control loops. Damage Equivalent Loads are quantified for minimising the cost function and automatically update the control parameters. The preliminary results presented here show the potential of this novel optimisation methodology to improve the mechanical fatigue loads of the desired components whereas maintaining the overall performance of the wind turbine system. This methodology provides a good balance between the computational complexity and result effectiveness. The study is carried out with the fully coupled non-linear NREL 5-MW wind turbine model mounted on the ITI Energy's barge and the FASTv8 code.


This catalogue essay attempts to unravel how and why the cult of the image is most expressly manifest in postmodernism by a concern with hyper-reality or the simulacral – the revival of the Platonic idea that a copy is made of an original which never really existed in the first place. The high priest of such thinking is Jean Baudrillard, who insists that we take flight from reality by reproducing images based on other images with the result that we no longer have the propensity to tell representation and reality apart. The mass media have a crucial part to play here and there is obviously something in Baudrillard's argument when it comes to considering visual cultural forms like reality television and the constant rehashing of imagery in advertising and photography. Yet, when we consider the representation of the human body as a site for the exercise and regulation of power in advertising for Benetton and Levis 501 or Cindy Sherman's untitled film stills, it doesn't suffice to argue, as both he and Dick Hebdige after him have done, that all hyperreal texts are devoid of serious comment or political content. Moreover, Baudrillard's thesis capsizes the relationship that still exists between words and images in postmodern political posters by the likes of Barbara Kruger or photo-essays for The Face such as 'Strategies for the Unemployed' or 'Who's Shooting Who? In Beirut It Pays to Know Your Terrorist'. Thus, as I argue, we also need to consider Jacques Derrida's contention that the deconstruction of any text is more a matter of dealing with 'multiple reading heads', of resisting a system based on binary oppositions, and accordingly, a question of pondering the intertextuality of word and image.


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released NPDES storm water monitoring data from group applicants. This paper will analyze that data to determine which pollutants are present in storm water runoff from disposal, treatment, and recycling facilities. EPA created 29 sectors of industry based on similar types of facilities. EPA assigned all members of all groups to one of the sectors. The monitoring data will be analyzed by sector to determine specifically which industry discharged which pollutants in storm water. The paper's primary focus will be four sectors that included approximately 3,000 facilities. Several hundred facilities representing the hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal facilities; industrial landfills, land application sites, and open dumps; domestic wastewater treatment plants; and scrap and waste materials sectors submitted monitoring data. Each sector will be discussed and appropriate best management practices will be presented with the capability to reduce or eliminate the pollutants in storm water discharges.


The results of a multistep process to begin identifying best practices in deaf education are presented. To identify current practices, a survey was conducted of the literature, the Web sites of professional organizations, and states' education Web sites, which yielded a number of commonly discussed practices. Ten of the more highly cited practices in literacy instruction and 10 of the more highly cited practices in science and mathematics instruction were identified for additional scrutiny. Hundreds of articles were examined to identify research support for the 20 identified practices. Some practices had adequate research support; others had minimal support. The authors identify each of the 20 practices, describe the practice, present a summary of the literature that was examined, and rate the usefulness of the knowledge base relative to a "best practice" designation.


Drugs that inhibit signaling by pattern recognition receptors on microglia reduce neuroinflammation associated with synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease. This Podcast features an interview with Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss, Stefano Daniele, and Hang Yin, authors of a Research Article that appears in the 12 May 2015 issue of Science Signaling, about how α-synuclein oligomers stimulate neuroinflammation that may contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease and how drugs might be used to prevent this. Lewy bodies are protein aggregates that form in neurons and are associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia. One of the major components of Lewy bodies is midfolded α-synuclein, a protein that is normally abundant in the brain and thought to play a role in synaptic transmission. When α-synuclein does not fold properly, it forms filaments that aggregate in Lewy bodies and in neurites or are released from the cell. In addition to being toxic to neurons, these α-synuclein oligomers stimulate inflammation in the brain, which is thought to exacerbate disease. Daniele et al. discovered how α-synuclein aggregates activate microglia, which are specialized cells that provide immune defense for the brain, to stimulate neuroinflammation. They also identified drugs that can prevent microglial activation and inflammation in response to α-synuclein aggregates.


PURPOSE
To develop a combination of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (Doxil; Alza Pharmaceuticals, Palo Alto, CA) and docetaxel (Taxotere; Aventis Pharmaceutical, Parsipanny, NJ) that can be safely used for the treatment of advanced breast cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Forty-one patients with locally advanced (n = 10) or metastatic (n = 31) breast cancer received Doxil (30-, 40-, or 45-mg/m(2) intravenous [IV] infusion over 30 to 60 minutes), followed 1 hour later by docetaxel (60 or 75 mg/m(2) by IV infusion over 1 hour) in cohorts of three to six patients. Dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) was defined as febrile neutropenia, prolonged neutropenia, or grade 3 to 4 nonhematologic toxicity that occurred during cycle 1.

RESULTS
In conjunction with docetaxel 75 mg/m(2) every 4 weeks, the MTD of Doxil was 30 mg/m(2) and required granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) to prevent febrile neutropenia. Without G-CSF, the MTD was docetaxel 60 mg/m(2) and Doxil 30 mg/m(2) every 3 weeks; only 1 (7%) out of 15 patients treated at this dose level had cycle 1 DLT. Infusion reactions were common with Doxil with the recommended infusion schedule during the first cycle (55%) but were reduced with a modified schedule (7%). There was no clinically significant cardiac toxicity. Objective response occurred in eight of nine assessable patients with stage III disease and in 16 (52%) of 31 patients (95% confidence interval, 34% to 70%) with stage IV disease.

CONCLUSION
The recommended dose and schedule of this combination for further evaluation is Doxil 30 mg/m(2) and docetaxel 60 mg/m(2) given every 3 weeks without G-CSF. When used with G-CSF, it is Doxil 30 mg/m(2) and docetaxel 75 mg/m(2) every 4 weeks.


Abstract The environmental extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum and the subsequent warming and sea-level rise into the Holocene had profound implications for human behavior across much of the world. In northern New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines, shell adzes appear during this period alongside contact between islands. In this paper we present new data from the site of Asitau Kuru, Timor-Leste, to show that the creation of shell adzes and greater inter-island connectivity also characterizes the early and middle and early Holocene in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago of southern Wallacea. We suggest that one of the functions of these shell adzes was in making dugout canoes enabling regular access to neighboring islands; the import of exotic stone materials; long-term occupation of very small islands; and, with new hook and line technology, the capture of more fish. This evidence predates the Neolithic in the region and corroborates a linguistic hypothesis that there was a pre-Austronesian interaction sphere covering much of Wallacea.


The paper examines the causal effect of education on common individual mental disorders in adulthood. We use a representative population health survey and instrumental variable methods. The estimates point to mostly insignificant effects of education on common mental disorders. We find that the length of education reduces the BDI (Beck Depression Inventory) measure at the 10% significance level, but has no effect when using the GHQ-12 (12-item General Health Questionnaire) or the probability of severe depression as a measure of mental health. These results cast doubt on the view that the length of formal education would be a particularly important determinant of common mental disorders later in life.


Abstract. Fires are a global phenomenon that impact climate and biogeochemical cycles, and interact with the biosphere, atmosphere and cryosphere. These impacts occur on a range of temporal and spatial scales and are difficult to quantify globally based solely on observations. Here we assess the role of fires in the climate system using model estimates of radiative forcing (RF) from global fires in pre-industrial, present day, and future time periods. Fire emissions of trace gases and aerosols are derived from Community Land Model simulations and then used in a series of Community Atmosphere Model simulations with representative emissions from the years 1850, 2000, and 2100. Additional simulations are carried out with fire emissions from the Global Fire Emission Database for a present-day comparison. These results are compared against the results of simulations with no fire emissions to compute the contribution from fires. We consider the impacts of fire on greenhouse gas concentrations, aerosol effects (including aerosol effects on biogeochemical cycles), and land and snow surface albedo. Overall, we estimate that pre-industrial fires were responsible for a RF of −1 W m−2 with respect to a pre-industrial climate without fires. The largest magnitude pre-industrial forcing from fires was the indirect aerosol effect on clouds (−1.6 W m−2). This was balanced in part by an increase in carbon dioxide concentrations due to fires (+0.83 W m−2). The RF of fires increases by 0.5 W m−2 from 1850 to 2000 and 0.2 W m−2 from 1850 to 2100 in the model representation from a combination of changes in fire activity and changes in the background environment in which fires occur, especially increases and decreases in the anthropogenic aerosol burden. Thus, fires play an important role in both the natural equilibrium climate and the climate perturbed by anthropogenic activity and need to be considered in future climate projections.


ABSTRACT Controlling and optimising the alignment of liquid crystals is a crucial process for display application. Here, we investigate the effects of humidity and surface types on photoalignment of an azo-dye brilliant yellow (BY). Specifically, the effect of humidity on the photoalignment of BY was studied at the stage of substrate storage before coating, during the spin-coating process, between film coating and exposure, and after exposure. Surprising results are the drastic effect of humidity during the spin-coating process, the humidity annealing to increase the order of the BY layer after exposure and the dry annealing to stabilise the layer. Our results are interpreted in terms of the effect of water on the aggregation of BY. The type of surface studied had minimal effects. Thin BY films (about 3 nm thickness) were sensitive to the hydrophilicity of the surface while thick BY films (about 30 nm thickness) were not affected by changing the surface. The results of this paper allow for the optimisation of the BY photoalignment for liquid crystal display application as well as a better understanding of the BY photoalignment mechanism. Graphical Abstract


The consumer experience is central to tourism research and practice, where the concept
of experiential consumption and the process of co-creation are receiving increased
attention. In addition, interpretive storytelling is being advocated as a co-creation tool
that facilitates more pleasurable experiences for tourists. This study aims to contribute to
this emerging discourse by exploring how interpretive storytelling can act as an
engagement platform and value enhancing strategic resource that impels the value cocreation
journey and shapes the tourist experiences at a Historic House Tourist
Attraction (HHTA)?
Service Dominant Logic (SDL) emerged as the most appropriate theoretical lens to study
this topic due to its provider/customer balance, process orientation and application in
tourism research. However, a review of the literature on storytelling in the co-creation of
the tourism experience fails to provide illumination on the key issues required to answer
the proposed research question. Details on how the co-creation process occurs, the role
of the people within the experience and influencing dimensions are critically absent. This
study gives prominence to these factors through six units of analysis; it will identify the
co-creation process through the performance of stories; the role and function of the people
and how and when they derive pleasure (value); the influencing aspects of the
environment or place; and their perspective on how they feel and think during the
experience.
Observation is coupled with interviews to capture the dual perspective of both guides and
tourists in this ethnographic study and empirical investigation is situated in the context of
guided tours at Huntington Castle, Ireland as a single case site. Analysis adopts a narrative
approach of structural (how), thematic (what), and interaction (who, when and why)
analysis; Structural analysis focuses on how stories are formed and their classification.
Thematic analysis focuses on content to uncover similarities and divergences clustered
into themes. Interactional analysis examines the physical and dialogic interaction
between actors (e.g. guide, tourist and others).
Findings suggest that structured stories, regardless of genre, act as a platform of
engagement by stimulating interaction between guide and tourist. In these interactive encounters co-creation takes place through the guide's actions of interpretation and
performance and the tourist's integration of their own resources to produce physical,
sensorial, cognitive and emotional reactions. Therefore, the guide acts as an enabler and
the tourist as responder. Together, they co-construct the narrative in the mind of the tourist
and co-create the on-site experience at the HHTA. Value or pleasure is accumulated from
these episodic story based interactions and is determined by the tourist through post
experience reflection. The process and appropriation of pleasure is influenced by the
authenticity of the guide and storyscape (environment); the cognitive processes of
imagination and immersion; and, the affective responses of empathy and personal
reflection. The memorable effect of the stories and the attainment of learning, further
contribute to the acquisition of pleasure.
This study contributes by providing a theoretical conceptualization and practical
framework for the design and management of a Story Enhanced Tourism Experience
(SETE). Tourism scholarship is expanded by unifying storytelling and the marketing cocreation
theory to conceptualize this experience. The framework has an applied value by
providing managerial insights and strategic direction to national and international
attractions intending to enhance their tourist experiences through storytelling. It also
provides empirical support to the national policy emphasis on storytelling at heritage
attractions.


Heavy metals are one of the major pollutants in water and are very toxic. However, chitosan – a waste biomass of agricultural products possess the ability to chelate heavy metals in water. In this study, the application of snail (Helix pomatia) shell based chitosan for remediating heavy metals contaminated Osun River (OSR), Odo-ebu stream (OBS) and Aso well water (AWW), all in Osogbo community, Nigeria;  and the binding efficiency of chitosan for heavy metals in these water sources were evaluated. The result shows the prevalence of Iron (Fe), Cadmium (Cd), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Chromium (Cr), and Lead (Pb) ions in the three water samples with OBS and OSR having higher metal concentrations in the order: Pb > Cd > Fe > Zn > Cr > Cu compared with AWW which follows the order: Fe > Zn > Pb > Cr > Cd > Cu.  The concentration range of heavy metals in OBS and OSR were (0.0011 -2.831) mg/L and (0.0012 -1.687) mg/L respectively, while for AWW it was (0.0004-0.0237) mg/L and below the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) 2007  and World Health Organization (WHO) 2004; maximum permissible level of metal ions in drinking water. The prepared chitosan  is a selective candidate for remediating four heavy metals ions from these water samples, with the  maximum sorption capacities for the metal ions in the sequence: Pb > Cd > Fe > Cr. The  sorption behaviour followed a pseudo-second-order model, while the equilibrium data correlated well with the  Langmuir isotherm models with the RL values in the range 0 < RL < 1.
 Key words: Heavy metals, Helix pomatia, chitosan, dumpsite, equilibrium studies.


Granular soils exhibit a generally beneficial change in engineering properties with time after deposition or densification, during a process commonly known as aging. Soil properties reported to change during aging include the small strain modulus and stiffness, penetration resistance, liquefaction resistance, and pile setup. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the occurrence of aging in granular soils, including cementation induced by dissolution of silica and precipitation at the particle contacts, cementation due to microbiological activity, internal stress redistribution caused by particle crushing, and buckling of the load chains due to particle slippage. New evidence points out that internal and time-dependent changes in the soil structure caused by particle slippage and rearrangement as the source of the time-dependent variations in soil properties. This investigation is focused on the study of aging at the particle scale to determine its main driving mechanism and define the factors which affect it. Results from an extensive laboratory testing program and computer simulations based on the discrete element method provide insight into the causes of aging and its effects on the macroscopic properties of sands based on the analysis of the interaction between sand grains.


During muscle contraction, electrical signals are generated by the muscle cells. The analysis of those signals is called electromyography (EMG). The EMG signal is mainly determined by physiological factors including so called central factors (central nervous system origin) and peripheral factors (muscle tissue origin). In addition, during the acquisition of EMG signals, technical factors are introduced (measurement equipment origin). The aim of this dissertation was to develop and evaluate methods to estimate physiological properties of the muscles using multichannel surface EMG (MCsEMG) signals. In order to obtain accurate physiological estimates, a method for automatic signal quality estimation was developed. The method's performance was evaluated using visually classified signals, and the results demonstrated high classification accuracy. A method for estimation of the muscle fibre conduction velocity (MFCV) and the muscle fibre orientation (MFO) was developed. The method was evaluated with synthetic signals and demonstrated high estimation precision at low contraction levels. In order to discriminate between the estimates of MFCV and MFO belonging to single or populations of motor units (MUs), density regions of so called spatial distributions were examined. This method was applied in a study of the trapezius muscle and demonstrated spatial separation of MFCV (as well as MFO) even at high contraction levels. In addition, a method for quantification of MU synchronisation was developed. The performance on synthetic sEMG signals showed high sensitivity on MU synchronisation and robustness to changes in MFCV. The method was applied in a study of the biceps brachii muscle and the relation to force tremor during fatigue. The results showed that MU synchronisation accounted for about 40 % of the force tremor. In conclusion, new sEMG methods were developed to study muscle function and motor control in terms of muscle architecture, muscle fibre characteristics, and processes within the central nervous system.


Oncology in Primary Care is for primary care clinicians who need practical and concise information on caring for their patients with cancer. Written in an easy-to-browse format, chapters cover risk factors, prevention, screening, prognosis, and surveillance strategies - valuable information that helps primary care clinicians advise their patients regarding therapeutic and end-of-life decisions and become true partners in the care of their patients with cancer. Each chapter also includes an abundance of figures and tables to help clinicians find quick answers to questions commonly encountered in the primary care setting. Plus, a companion website is available allowing easy accessibility to the content. It includes a glossary of common cancer-related terms and an annotated list of internet and community resources for cancer care. It provides rapid access to essential information needed to assist in the treatment of complications of cancer therapy. It emphasizes prognosis, long-term effects of therapy, survivorship, and surveillance to help the primary care clinician manage co-morbid conditions and advise patients regarding therapeutic and end-of-life decisions. It includes access to full text and image bank online.


Various problems have often been observed recently on narrow detached house embankment grounds. In order to clarify the cause of various problems on narrow detached house ground, it is necessary to grasp the information in the ground in more detail. Currently, when making details of the ground, a method of interpolating between drilled stationary points by a linear method is main stream, and it is general that it is roughly grasped. In this study, we improved a Swedish Weight Sounding test (SWS test) to determine the physical properties of the subsoil underneath weak, narrow and heterogeneous detached house embankment grounds.Moreover, we predict the cross-sectional distribution of the subsoil characteristics using the Kriging Geostatistical method. Originally Kriging was not used as a strength prediction method in narrow detached house embankment grounds. The results indicate that the Kriging method predicts the subsoil cross-sectional characteristics with high accuracy, and it can be applied to subsoil characterization of detached houses grounds.


The PGT2 is a single-shaft gas turbine with a 2 MW ISO electric output that, after an extensive factory development program has been launched into industrial service with a number of cogeneration applications in small-medium size industries. The two-stage high pressure ratio compressor combined with the single-can combustor and the two-stage air-cooled transonic turbine provides a compact and rugged architecture. The turbine inlet temperature in the 1050–1100 °C class and the 12.5:1 pressure ratio provide a 25% electrical efficiency and a high exhaust temperature that make this machine attractive for a variety of both civil and industrial applications like hospitals and pulp and paper mills, textile, tiles, cement, glass and food production. The exhaust heat recovery boiler can be either a commercial unit or compact once-through type of proprietary design that is housed in a vertical exhaust duct to substantially reduce powerplant footprint area when space is limited. The first application that has provided the most extensive operating experience so far is cogeneration in a paper mill in central Italy. Detailed studies on the potential energy saving and on the return of investment cycle were made in collaboration with the client, and provided a valuable basis for further studies that led to additional orders for paper mills, textile and tile industries. The first installed unit is a package comprising a once-through-flow boiler that was full-load tested at the factory before shipping. Commissioning of the cogeneration plant was started in 30 days after shipment and the plant was taken over by the client in less than three months. A dedicated telephone line allows the power plant to be monitored directly from Florence, thus making it possible to gather operational data in real time and to provide this first customer with prompt assistance during the 4-year service and maintenance contract period.This paper describes the PGT2 design and performance features, the technical and economic evaluations made for the first application, the cogeneration plant layout and a summary of the most significant operational data collected in the initial months or regular service in the paper mill.Copyright © 1996 by ASME


BACKGROUND
Patients treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NAC) followed by esophagectomy are more likely to have negative margins at resection, be downstaged, and have improved overall survival (OS). The specific aim of this study was to analyze OS outcomes using NAC followed by esophagectomy at a single, tertiary care academic medical center.

METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed 106 patients that underwent NAC with platinum-based chemotherapy plus 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or capecitabine followed by esophagectomy from September 1996 to May 2011. OS was analyzed by the Kaplan Meier method.

RESULTS
Initial staging determined that of 106 patients, 62% had stage III (n=66), 31% stage II (n=33), and 7% had stage I disease (n=7). Following NAC, 92.5% (n=98) were resected with negative (R0) margins and pathologic staging revealed 59% (n=62) were downstaged, 9% (n=10) were upstaged, and 32% (n=34) remained at the same stage. A pathologic complete response (pCR) was achieved in 29% (n=31) of the cohort. Median OS was 35.2 months for all patients, 42 months for downstaged patients, 13 months when upstaged, and 17 months for those who remained at the same stage (P=0.08). OS by histological type was 30 months for adenocarcinoma and 71 months for squamous cell carcinoma (P=0.06).

CONCLUSIONS
NAC was effective in downstaging 59% of patients and effectively increased the chance for an R0 resection. These patients, in turn, had improved OS compared to the median OS. Patients with squamous cell carcinoma showed a trend towards more favorable OS.


IMPORTANCE
Intracranial stenosis is one of the most common etiologies of stroke. To our knowledge, no randomized clinical trials have compared balloon-expandable stent treatment with medical therapy in symptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the balloon-expandable stent plus medical therapy vs medical therapy alone in patients with symptomatic intracranial stenosis (≥70%).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
VISSIT (the Vitesse Intracranial Stent Study for Ischemic Stroke Therapy) trial is an international, multicenter, 1:1 randomized, parallel group trial that enrolled patients from 27 sites (January 2009-June 2012) with last follow-up in May 2013.

INTERVENTIONS
Patients (N = 112) were randomized to receive balloon-expandable stent plus medical therapy (stent group; n = 59) or medical therapy alone (medical group; n = 53).

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE
a composite of stroke in the same territory within 12 months of randomization or hard transient ischemic attack (TIA) in the same territory day 2 through month 12 postrandomization. A hard TIA was defined as a transient episode of neurological dysfunction caused by focal brain or retinal ischemia lasting at least 10 minutes but resolving within 24 hours. Primary safety measure: a composite of any stroke, death, or intracranial hemorrhage within 30 days of randomization and any hard TIA between days 2 and 30 of randomization. Disability was measured with the modified Rankin Scale and general health status with the EuroQol-5D, both through month 12.

RESULTS
Enrollment was halted by the sponsor after negative results from another trial prompted an early analysis of outcomes, which suggested futility after 112 patients of a planned sample size of 250 were enrolled. The 30-day primary safety end point occurred in more patients in the stent group (14/58; 24.1% [95% CI, 13.9%-37.2%]) vs the medical group (5/53; 9.4% [95% CI, 3.1%-20.7%]) (P = .05). Intracranial hemorrhage within 30 days occurred in more patients in the stent group (5/58; 8.6% [95% CI, 2.9%-19.0%]) vs none in the medical group (95% CI, 0%-5.5%) (P = .06). The 1-year primary outcome of stroke or hard TIA occurred in more patients in the stent group (21/58; 36.2% [95% CI, 24.0-49.9]) vs the medical group (8/53; 15.1% [95% CI, 6.7-27.6]) (P = .02). Worsening of baseline disability score (modified Rankin Scale) occurred in more patients in the stent group (14/58; 24.1% [95% CI, 13.9%-37.2%]) vs the medical group (6/53; 11.3% [95% CI, 4.3%-23.0%]) (P = .09).The EuroQol-5D showed no difference in any of the 5 dimensions between groups at 12-month follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Among patients with symptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis, the use of a balloon-expandable stent compared with medical therapy resulted in an increased 12-month risk of added stroke or TIA in the same territory, and increased 30-day risk of any stroke or TIA. These findings do not support the use of a balloon-expandable stent for patients with symptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00816166.


Although the Anti-Monopoly of China 2007 has been in force for nearly a decade, this Law either voluntarily or involuntarily keeps avoiding the Chinese banking industry. As a traditional state-controlled area of business, banking has been regulated and supervised in China by the domestic Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC). This has been as such since the date of the establishment of this agency, namely 25 April 2003. Yet, the CBRC's supervision has been a challenge for Chinese banks despite the fact that the top two or three state-owned commercial banks had been spearheading to become among the most profitable banks globally in the past few years. Chinese commercial banks, given the special status they enjoy, not only pose a threat to the competitiveness of the banking system, but also fetter the competition that potentially may arise from non-banking financial players. Given the continuous and steady growth of the banking industry, the current legislative approach needs to be improved. In the future and de lege ferenda, Chinese anti-monopoly enforcement agencies would take part in regulating the banking industry, as well as setting boundaries for the CBRC in order to limit its intervention powers and enhance competition among Chinese commercial banks. However, because the banking system in China is 'tainted' with national economic security matters, according to Article 7 of the Anti-Monopoly of China 2007, granting special rights or powers to the CBRC is necessary. Thus, this article demonstrates that the traditional way of regulating commercial state-owned commercial banks by the CBRC should be changed, and accordingly, both the CBRC and Chinese anti-monopoly enforcement agencies should work with each other harmonisationly to maintain the trend of stable development of the banking industry, especially these state-owned commercial banks.


Intent understanding is the problem of recognizing people's goals by passively observing them perform some activities and predicting their future actions. In this thesis, we designed and implemented an efficient intent recognition system with real-time capabilities for two different applications. One of the applications is to recognize intentions in highly populated multi-agent environments with real-time constraints. Lowlevel intention between all pairs of agents are detected through a novel formulation of Hidden Markov Models with perspective taking capabilities. This layer of our framework only captures interactions between pairs of agents. To move to a higher level and also detect intentions involving multiple agents we use a distributed representation of connecting intentions based on the idea of Activation Spreading Networks (ASN). We utilized an open source naval ship simulator and showed that our system is able to detect intentions reliably and early. Another application is to recognize intentions of humans by observing their activities with an RGB-D camera. Activities and goals are modeled as a distributed network of inter-connected nodes in an ASN. Inspired by a formalism in hierarchical task networks, the structure of the network captures the hierarchical relationship between high-level goals and low-level activities that realize these goals. Our approach can detect intentions before they are realized and it can work in real-time. We also extend the formalism of ASNs to incorporate contextual information into intent recognition. We further augment the ASN formalism with special nodes and synaptic connections to model ordering constraints between actions, in order to represent and handle partial-order plans in our ASN.


Poster presented at the 11th General Meeting of the Global Alliance against Respiratory Diseases.

- Health for all by 2030: wishful thinking or ethical duty?
- Digital health enters into habits, transforming access to health
- BreathingGames.net
- Do-it-yourself health tech: taking the lead on one's health
- A model for population-driven, Open Science interventions


Payments to physicians absorb the second largest share of the health care dollar in the United States. In 1979, the share was 19 percent of the total, or $40.6 billion (Gibson, 1980). The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) alone spent $8.6 billion for physician services, representing approximately 16 percent of all public funds disbursed under HCFA programs. This paper presents an overview of various issues concerning physician reimbursement. Several ma;or areas have been identi fied (access, cost, quality, and improving or refining the Office of Research, Demonstrations, and Statistics' { ORDS] research tech niques for analyzing topics concerning physician reimburse ment). Each area is introduced with a brief discussion of some of the problems associated with the physician reimbursement sys~ tems relating to that area. Selected results are then presented from the previous research in each area, along with descriptions of continuing studies currently underway. Each section con cludes with a discussion ofpotential future directions for new research or data development.


AIM
von Willebrand factor (VWF) plays an important role in the regulation of hemostasis and thrombosis formation, particularly under a high shear rate. However, the adhesive force due to the molecular interaction between VWF and glycoprotein Ibα (GPIbα) has not been fully explored. Thus, we employed atomic force microscopy to directly measure the adhesive force between VWF and GPIbα.

METHODS
We measured the adhesive force between VWF and GPIbα at the molecular level using an atomic force microscope (AFM). An AFM cantilever was coated with recombinant N-terminus VWF binding site of GPIbα, whereas a cover glass was coated with native VWF.

RESULTS
The adhesive force at the molecular level was measured using an AFM. In the presence of 1 μg/mL VWF, the adhesion force was nearly 200 pN. As per the Gaussian fit analysis, the adhesive force of a single bond could have been 54 or 107 pN.

CONCLUSION
Our consideration with the Gaussian fit analysis proposed that the adhesive force of a single bond could be 54 pN, which is very close to that obtained by optical tweezers (50 pN).


ABSTRACT Molecular analysis of bladder cancer is transforming our understanding of this disease. The relative abundance of bladder tumor tissue from these patients due to frequent resections provides a major opportunity to understand the molecular pathogenesis. Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer tends to be characterized by oncogenic activation events (FGFR3 mutation, PIK3CA mutation), while muscle invasive bladder cancer is more associated with tumor suppressor gene inactivation (p53, Rb). DNA copy number analysis identifies multiple regions of recurrent chromosomal gains and losses, many of which delineate known oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. High-throughput analysis of bladder cancer specimens is identifying multiple new targets that may be therapeutically tractable in subsets of patients, including Her2 overexpression and amplification, b-raf mutation, and TSC1 mutation. The clinical implications of the molecular events in bladder cancer have yet to be identified. Large-scale genomic efforts linking clinical data to outcome should lead to an improved understand of the molecular landscape of bladder cancer. Next-generation sequencing technologies are allowing the rapid assessment of molecular alterations, which may lead to clinical trials enriched for patients whose tumors contain druggable alterations. To capitalize on the genomic knowledge gained in bladder cancer, reliable molecular tests that are accepted by regulatory authorities, along with targeted agents aimed at actionable alterations are, need to break out of the current therapeutic stalemate. Trials targeting some of these novel alterations are beginning to enroll patients. Disclosure J.E. Rosenberg: 1. Imclone- research funding 2. Oncogenex- consulting 3. Boehringer-Ingelheim- consulting 4. GSK- research funding 5. Novartis- research funding


Distributed content-based publish/subscribe systems provide a selective, scalable, and decentralized approach to data dissemination. In a pub/sub overlay network, hop-by-hop routing allows brokers to correctly forward messages without requiring global knowledge. However, this model causes brokers to forward publications without knowing the volume and distance of matching subscribers, which can result in inefficient resource utilization. In order to raise the scalability of pub/sub, we introduce Popularity-Based Publication Routing for Content-based Pub/Sub (PopSub), which is specifically designed to raise the resource utilization efficiency. We define a utilization metric to measure the impact of forwarding a publication on the overall delivery of the system. Furthermore, we propose a new publication routing algorithm that takes into account broker resources and publication popularity among subscribers. Lastly, we propose three approaches to handle unpopular publications. Based on our evaluations, using real-world workloads and traces, PopSub is able to improve resource efficiency of the brokers by up to 62%, and reduce delivery latency by up to 57% under high load.


In the present work, we introduce the anodic growth of conical shaped TiO2 nanotube arrays. These titania nanocones provide a scaffold for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) structures with significantly improved photon management, providing an optimized absorption profile compared with conventional cylindrical nanotube arrays. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) modelling demonstrates a drastically changed power-absorption characteristic over the tube length. When used in a back-side illumination DSSC configuration, nanocone structures can reach over 60% higher solar cell conversion efficiency (η) than conventional tubes. The resulting η ≈ 8% represents one of the highest reported values for Gratzel type DSSCs used under back-side illumination.


Mobile social networks represent a promising cyber-physical system, which connects mobile nodes within a local physical proximity using mobile smart phones as well as wireless communication. In mobile social networks, the mobile users may, however, face the risk of leaking their personal information and location privacy. In this paper, we first model the secure friend discovery process as a generalized privacy-preserving interest and profile matching problem. We identify a new security threat arising from existing secure friend discovery protocols, coined as runaway attack, which can introduce a serious unfairness issue. To thwart this new threat, we introduce a novel blind vector transformation technique, which could hide the correlation between the original vector and transformed results. Based on this, we propose our privacy-preserving and fairness-aware interest and profile matching protocol, which allows one party to match its interest with the profile of another, without revealing its real interest and profile and vice versa. The detailed security analysis as well as real-world implementations demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed protocol.


Previous research has not addressed multiple role transitions for women; this is the purpose of this study. Women spend their days juggling multiple roles trying to do it all. Historically women's roles have been that of housewife and mother. No longer is the women's place only in the home. This research builds on the author's earlier semi-structured qualitative research inquiry, finding that many women try to do it all even when they know they are suffering physically, mentally and spiritually (Addendum A). My present work, which is heuristic in nature, discusses what I discovered during a year of journaling. The expectation is that the journal illustrates rich and robust descriptions of multiple role transitions. The most significant difference between my research study on multiple role transitions and the present study is the depth and quantity of information available for analysis from my journal entries. The study implies that self-preservation, attitude, and social support, were coping means I utilized with multiple role transitions when adding a new role as full-time student to my existing roles. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department Social Work


In June 2016, the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (Norhed) hosted a conference on the theme of 'knowledge for development'in an attempt to shift the focus of the programme towards its academic content. This book follows up on that event. The conference highlighted the usefulness of presenting the value of Norhed's different projects to the world, showing how they improve knowledge and expand access to it through co-operation. A wish for more meta-knowledge was also expressed and this gives rise to the following questions: Is this way of co-operating contributing to the growth of independent post-colonial knowledge production in the South, based on analyses of local data and experiences in ways that are relevant to our shared future? Does the growth of academic independence, as well as greater equality, and the ability to develop theories different to those imposed by the better-off parts of the world, give rise to deeper understandings and better explanations? Does it, at least, spread the ability to translate existing methodologies in ways that add meaning to observations of local context and data, and thus enhance the relevance and influence of the academic profession locally and internationally? This book, in its varied contributions, does not provide definite answers to these questions but it does show that Norhed is a step in the right direction. Norhed is an attempt to fund collaboration within and between higher education institutions. We know that both the uniqueness of this programme, and ideas of how to better utilise the learning and experience emerging from it, call for more elaboration and broader dissemination before we can offer further guidance on how to do things better. This book is a first attempt.


Pirate radio still flourishes in dense, multiethnic cities such as Brooklyn, New York, despite the rise of Web radio. For immigrants in particular, radio sounds mark identity and community and (re)claim social spaces of work, commutes, and the home. It is not only lack of access to digital technologies or broadband that shapes radio's relevance, but also marginalized communities' specific needs, histories, and values. Paying more attention to embodied social engagement with ethnic pirate radio illuminates key dynamics in how and when communities adapt or adopt new technology or integrate it into "old" technology. The power to make culture more autonomously is important for communities that exist in a hostile cultural environment that seeks to limit or shape their presence. Radio centers specific values unaccounted for in dominant discussions of radio: collective intimacy and synchronous listening, which help to produce that cultural autonomy.


Smad proteins play a key role in the intracellular signalling of transforming growth factor β (TGFβ), which elicits a large variety of cellular responses. Upon TGFβ receptor activation, Smad2 and Smad3 become phosphorylated and form heteromeric complexes with Smad4. These complexes translocate to the nucleus where they control expression of target genes. However, the mechanism by which Smads mediate transcriptional regulation is largely unknown. Human plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1) is a gene that is potently induced by TGFβ. Here we report the identification of Smad3/Smad4 binding sequences, termed CAGA boxes, within the promoter of the human PAI‐1 gene. The CAGA boxes confer TGFβ and activin, but not bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) stimulation to a heterologous promoter reporter construct. Importantly, mutation of the three CAGA boxes present in the PAI‐1 promoter was found to abolish TGFβ responsiveness. Thus, CAGA elements are essential and sufficient for the induction by TGFβ. In addition, TGFβ induces the binding of a Smad3/Smad4‐containing nuclear complex to CAGA boxes. Furthermore, bacterially expressed Smad3 and Smad4 proteins, but not Smad1 nor Smad2 protein, bind directly to this sequence in vitro. The presence of this box in TGFβ‐responsive regions of several other genes suggests that this may be a widely used motif in TGFβ‐regulated transcription.


Authors Ward Cheney and David Kincaid show students of science and engineering the potential computers have for solving numerical problems and give them ample opportunities to hone their skills in programming and problem solving. NUMERICAL MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING, 7th Edition also helps students learn about errors that inevitably accompany scientific computations and arms them with methods for detecting, predicting, and controlling these errors. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.


Freshly laid eggs of Chelodina rugosa survived for up to 12 weeks when immersed in water and subsequently underwent successful incubation and normal hatching. Embryonic development was arrested during immersion, remained arrested in an atmosphere of nitrogen, and recommenced when eggs were exposed to air. The hypoxic conditions during immersion appear to extend the arrest typical of turtle embryos during their period in the oviducts. Freshly laid eggs of the temperate-zone C. longicoNis died when immersed for longer than one week and eggs of both species died when immersed after post-laying embryonic development had commenced. These results, supported by anecdoctal and experimental evidence, suggest that C. rugosa lays its eggs in saturated or flooded ground in the late wet or early dry monsoonal season. Embryonic development presumably remains arrested until water levels drop and oxygen tensions in the nest rise by diffusion through the drying soil. Partly developed embryos in nests that are flooded after laying would perish. In contrast, C. longicollis of temperate Australia nests only in relatively dry substrates, and its eggs appear not be have evolved the capacity to withstand immersion.


Architecture is now reliant on advanced visualizations. Indeed, visualization is the key to making planned projects and ideas palpable, and to winning the support of clients and other interested parties. Ambitious presentations can generate a clear advantage over the competition. In the real world, however, the manpower and time needed to develop high-quality visualizations are often unavailable. There is also a lack of professional literature on the subject. "Cut and Compose" is a feature-rich tool that allows architects, interior decorators, landscape planners, and designers to optimize their visual presentations. The program's extensive database is organized into six clear categories: people, vegetation, accessories, vehicles, the sky, and materials/structures. The objects are stored as color photos, black surfaces, and contours. Object codes allow one to retrieve vector .psd files from the DVD. Users can also add their own images. The publication includes a DVD containing all of the images featured in the book.


We have demonstrated some facile ways to fabricate the large area polymer surfaces with varying roughness followed by studying their anti-reflective properties. One of the approaches is based on electrospun nanofibers deposited on a substrate in an uneven non-woven matrix. This electrospun fabric was used as a master template to fabricate the negative replica of the fibers by soft lithography generating the roughness in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces. The second approach is based on biomimicking of flower petals. Petals are used as a master template to transfer surface features with hierarchical roughness over PDMS surface using replica moulding. As fabricated polymer surfaces with varied roughness have then tested for their anti-reflective properties using UV-VIS spectroscopy over a wide range of wavelengths and angles of incidence of light. These measurements show near zero reflection of patterned PDMS surfaces as compared to planar PDMS. This omnidirectional broadband anti-reflection behaviour of polymer surfaces can be used in wide variety of engineering applications including in solar cells.


OBJECTIVE Although pregnancy has been associated with an increased progression of certain insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) complications, particularly retinopathy, both the short- and long-term relationships between pregnancy and both neuropathy and macrovascular disease are poorly documented. This study was conducted to comprehensively examine the influence of pregnancy on the development and progression of IDDM complications. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using the Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications Study population (childhood-onset IDDM), two nested, pair-matched case-control studies were conducted. Women who had completed at least one successful pregnancy (n = 80) were matched to women with no history of pregnancy by age, duration of IDDM, race, and marital history. The first nested study (study 1) compared the prevalences of five IDDM complications between case and control groups. The second nested study (study 2) compared the incidences of the same five complications over an approximate 2-year interval during which the case subjects (n = 30) completed a successful pregnancy. RESULTS There were no significant differences in the prevalence rates of coronary heart disease, neuropathy, proliferative retinopathy, lower extremity arterial disease, and overt nephropathy by case-control status, while parity did not predict any complication in multiple logistic analysis (study 1). In study 2, there were small but nonsignificant differences in incidence rates of overt nephropathy and lower extremity arterial disease between the groups, whereas case subjects had almost 3 times the incidence rate of proliferative retinopathy (P = 0.58) and 10 times the incidence rate of neuropathy (P < 0.001) as did other matched control subjects. In multivariate analysis, parity predicted neuropathy incidence but did not predict the incidence of any other complication, including proliferative retinopathy. CONCLUSIONS Women with IDDM who experience a pregnancy may not be at an increased risk of diabetes complications later in life. However, in the short term, pregnancy may accelerate the development of some complications, such as neuropathy.


Summary
Spider monkeys and chimpanzees were given a series of three injections consisting of 17D yellow fever virus, followed by living West Nile virus, followed by a third injection which consisted of formalin-inactivated Russian spring-summer virus vaccine. On the basis of neutralizing antibody responses, the limitation of viremia, or both, developing when the animals were challenged with virulent viruses, these primates were judged to be protected to a considerable extent against Japanese B encephalitis, West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis, Murray Valley encephalitis virus, dengue types 1, 2, 3, and 4, two antigenic types of the Russian spring-summer virus complex, and Wesselsbron virus.
An isolate of West Nile virus was passed a number of times in chick embryo tissue cultures and purified by the plaque technique. The progeny of two virus plaques, in a concentration of 106 mouse intracerebral lethal doses, did not produce encephalitis in intracerebrally inoculated rhesus monkeys. These attenuated viral preparations, on the basis of intracerebral titrations in mice, had at least 1,000 times the virus concentration that was necessary to produce encephalitis with the parent type. One of these attenuated isolates still produced homologous and heterologous neutralizing antibodies comparable to those of the parent strain. The data indicate that this attenuated West Nile virus did not revert to a more virulent form after alternate intracerebral passages in rhesus monkeys and suckling mice.
The TP-21 strain of the Russian spring-summer virus complex was passed a number of times in chick embryo tissue cultures and purified by the plaque technique. The progeny from one of the virus plaques, in a concentration of approximately 300,000 mouse i.c. LD50, did not produce encephalitis when inoculated intracerebrally into rhesus monkeys. When this purified virus isolate of TP-21 was substituted for the formalin-inactivated Russian spring-summer vaccine in the triple vaccination procedure, considerable protection was noted in spider monkeys challenged with four members of the Russian spring-summer group of viruses.


Paltridge found reasonable values for the most significant climatic variables through maximizing the material transport part of entropy production by using a simple box model. Here, we analyse Paltridge's box model to obtain the energy and the entropy balance equations separately. Derived expressions for global entropy production, which is a function of the radiation field, and even its material transport component, are shown to be different from those used by Paltridge. Plausible climatic states are found at extrema of these parameters. Feasible results are also obtained by minimizing the radiation part of entropy production, in agreement with one of Planck's results. Finally, globally averaged values of the entropy flux of radiation and material entropy production are obtained for two dynamical extreme cases: an earth with uniform temperature, and an earth in radiative equilibrium at each latitudinal point.


The signal transducers and transcription activators (STATs) and their endogenous inhibitors of the suppressors of cytokine signalling (SOCS) family are major proteins harmonizing the transmission of external signals from the surface membrane to target genes in the nucleus. To correlate the induction of SOCS 3 by interferons (IFNs) on messenger RNA and protein levels with STAT 1 phosphorylation in human malignant melanoma cell lines, we used a unique collection of 18 established malignant melanoma cell lines and six human non-malignant normal cells (two melanocytes, two skin keratinocytes and two fibroblasts). IFN-c induced SOCS 3 in 83% of melanoma cell lines, whereas IFN-a stimulated SOCS 3 expression in only 11% of cases. Similarly, melanocytes showed strong induction of SOCS 3 by IFN-c and, to a lesser extent, by IFN-a. In most cases, SOCS 3 expression was paralleled by STAT 1 phosphorylation at tyrosine residues (Y701). In several lines, however, SOCS 3 was not induced despite STAT 1 phosphorylation and, in a few lines, SOCS 3 induction occurred without detectable STAT 1 phosphorylation, indicating that STAT 1 might not be an exclusive inducer of SOCS 3. Similarly, non-malignant cells displayed STAT 1 activation and high levels of SOCS 3 expression after IFN-c (but not IFN-a) treatment. In conclusion, in contrast to IFN-a, IFN-c appeared to induce SOCS 3 apparently at the transcription level and exhibited higher cytotoxic effects regardless of the cell origin. Melanoma Res 15:481–488 c 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.


Part I: Ultra-trace determination of vanadium in lake sediments: a performance comparison using O2, N20, and NH3 as reaction gases in ICP-DRC-MS Thermal ion-molecule reactions, targeting removal of specific spectroscopic interference problems, have become a powerful tool for method development in quadrupole based inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) applications. A study was conducted to develop an accurate method for the determination of vanadium in lake sediment samples by ICP-MS, coupled with a dynamic reaction cell (DRC), using two differenvchemical resolution strategies: a) direct removal of interfering C10+ and b) vanadium oxidation to VO+. The performance of three reaction gases that are suitable for handling vanadium interference in the dynamic reaction cell was systematically studied and evaluated: ammonia for C10+ removal and oxygen and nitrous oxide for oxidation. Although it was able to produce comparable results for vanadium to those using oxygen and nitrous oxide, NH3 did not completely eliminate a matrix effect, caused by the presence of chloride, and required large scale dilutions (and a concomitant increase in variance) when the sample and/or the digestion medium contained large amounts of chloride. Among the three candidate reaction gases at their optimized Eonditions, creation ofVO+ with oxygen gas delivered the best analyte sensitivity and the lowest detection limit (2.7 ng L-). Vanadium results obtained from fourteen lake sediment samples and a certified reference material (CRM031-0401), using two different analytelinterference separation strategies, suggested that the vanadium mono-oxidation offers advantageous performance over the conventional method using NH3 for ultra-trace vanadium determination by ICP-DRC-MS and can be readily employed in relevant environmental chemistry applications that deal with ultra-trace contaminants. Part II: Validation of a modified oxidation approach for the quantification of total arsenic and selenium in complex environmental matrices Spectroscopic interference problems of arsenic and selenium in ICP-MS practices were investigated in detail. Preliminary literature review suggested that oxygen could serve as an effective candidate reaction gas for analysis of the two elements in dynamic reaction cell coupled ICP-MS. An accurate method was developed for the determination of As and Se in complex environmental samples, based on a series of modifications on an oxidation approach for As and Se previously reported. Rhodium was used as internal standard in this study to help minimize J non-spectral interferences such as instrumental drift. Using an oxygen gas flow slightly higher than 0.5 mL min-I, arsenic is converted to 75 AS160+ ion in an efficient manner whereas a potentially interfering ion, 91Zr+, is completely removed. Instead of using the most abundant Se isotope, 80Se, selenium was determined by a second most abundant isotope, 78Se, in the form of 78Se160. Upon careful selection of oxygen gas flow rate and optimization ofRPq value, previous isobaric threats caused by Zr and Mo were reduced to background levels whereas another potential atomic isobar, 96Ru+, became completely harmless to the new selenium analyte. The new method underwent a strict validation procedure where the recovery of a suitable certified reference material was examined and the obtained sample data were compared with those produced by a credible external laboratory who analyzed the same set of samples using a standardized HG-ICP-AES method. The validation results were satisfactory. The resultant limits of detection for arsenic and selenium were 5 ng L-1 and 60 ng L-1, respectively.


Adhesion and removal of dry and wet conidia of Botrytis cinerea and Penicillium expansum on dry and wet surfaces of grape and plum fruit were investigated. Conidia of B. cinerea adhered more strongly when applied in a water suspension or to the wet surface of grape fruit than when dry conidia were applied to a dry surface. Inoculation method did not consistently affect recovery of conidia of P. expansum from grape or plum fruit surfaces. None of the four removal methods (shake, sonicate, swab, and spatula) were consistently more effective over the range of inoculation methods and fruit surfaces used in this study.


Federal government documents tend to be all too often overlooked when providing general reference assistance, especially on topics involving state and local history. Reasons include the unique and often arcane nature of federal publications; unfamiliarity and trepidation on the part of many non-specialist librarians; and a lack of awareness of how federal documents might prove relevant to researching state and local topics.

One good example is the history of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC: 1934-35; 1938-69.) While many think of HUAC as a body that primarily affected politics at a national level, the committee held a number of hearings that directly discussed individuals, organizations, and events in North Carolina, and these hearings in turn impacted political and social developments in our state. This 50 minute presentation will discuss this neglected yet fascinating aspect of North Carolina history, while serving as a case study in how federal documents can shed light on state and local history. Time for questions will be included.; Presented at the North Carolina Library Association's Government Resources Section and Reference and Adult Services Section joint workshop.


Teaching heritage language is regarded as an act of social justice, but under what conditions and in what context? This article examines the educational practice of introducing heritage language to Chinese return-migrant children and Japan-born Vietnamese children. The language programs under investigation are conducted in a community education center and in an after-school setting in a public elementary school in a multiethnic neighborhood in Osaka, Japan. This study demonstrates how the local community's practice of heritage language learning dissolves the boundaries among ethnic minorities, bringing together all participants and cutting across ethnic lines. The result is empowering, but with a limited effect. At the same time, the institutionalized practice of heritage language learning at school becomes a marker for ethnic minorities and is used to maintain the boundary between ethnic minorities and Japanese, despite official discourses of minority education for empowerment. Ethnographic data show discrepancies between the views of teachers and communities about what ethnic minorities should be like and what they are hoping to find in Japan. The politics of heritage involves the legitimization of power and distinction, as well as the exclusion of those who do not have access to heritage. Situating each case within the politics of heritage, schooling, and Japan's multicultural initiatives, this article examines what is legitimized and what is excluded through teaching and learning heritage language in both cases and discusses the implications of heritage language teaching for immigrant children in Japan.


Similar to former British colonies, especially in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region of Southern Africa, Namibia inherited an educational system which was very much fragmented on racial and ethnic lines. One major education reform implemented soon after independence and consistent with the constitution and education policy directives, was that all schools were to be desegregated or integrated and were opened to all learners under a unified educational system. One of the goals to be achieved was equity in the distribution of educational resources and services which would result in better performance of learners previously denied enrollment into white schools which have had excellent infrastructures in both human find physical resources to support quality education. One of the concerns of the white principals, teachers, and parents was that the racial integration of schools would bring about lowering of academic standards enjoyed by the white learners before independence. This study compared and discussed academic performance of white and non-white learners, in the current integrated, school system and how educational standards were being maintained since integrated schools wrote their first examinations two years after the policy of integration in Namibian schools was implemented.


This introductory text provides students with a conceptual understanding of basic statistical procedures, as well as the computational skills needed to complete them. The clear presentation, accessible language, and step-by-step instruction make it easy for students from a variety of social science disciplines to grasp the material. The scenarios presented in chapter exercises span the curriculum, from political science to marketing, so that students make a connection between their own area of interest and the study of statistics. Unique coverage focuses on concepts critical to understanding current statistical research such as power and sample size, multiple comparison tests, multiple regression, and analysis of covariance. Additional SPSS coverage throughout the text includes computer printouts and expanded discussion of their contents in interpreting the results of sample exercises. 1. Introduction. 2. Organizing and Graphing Data. 3. Describing Distributions: Individual Scores, Central Tendency, and Variation. 4. The Normal Distribution. 5. Correlation: A Measure of Relationship. 6. Linear Regression: Prediction. 7. Sampling, Probability, and Sampling Distributions. 8. Hypothesis Testing: One-Sample Case for the Mean. 9. Estimation: One-Sample Case for the Mean. 10. Hypothesis Testing: One-Sample Case for Other Statistics. 11. Hypothesis Testing: Two-Sample Case for the Mean. 12. Hypothesis Testing: Two-Sample Case for Other Statistics. 13. Determining Power and Sample Size. 14. Hypothesis Testing, K-Sample Case: Analysis of Variance, One-Way Classification. 15. Multiple-Comparison Procedures. 16. Analysis of Variance, Two-Way Classification. 17. Linear Regression: Estimation and Hypothesis Testing. 18. Multiple Linear Regression. 19. Analysis of Covariance. 20. Other Correlation Coefficients. 21. Chi-Square (X2) Tests for Frequencies. 22. Other Nonparametric Tests.


In 1999, following a Foresight Project, the New Zealand Government released an investment portfolio for research and development. Concurrently, the Green Party initiated a Royal Commission on Genetic Modification to consider the ethical, social and scientific issues associated with agricultural biotechnology. This study evaluates the discourse used by stakeholders to debate the use of genetic modification in food production. It concludes that though these two formal methods of public consultation failed to achieve a unifying social and political consensus around genetic modification in agriculture, the exercises advanced the broader goal of iterative stakeholder foresight and innovation.


The Gram-negative bacterium Legionella pneumophila naturally parasitises environmental amoebae, but is also able to infect human alveolar macrophages in a mechanistically similar manner. This can result in the mild "Pontiac fever", a flu-like illness, or a potentially lethal pneumonia termed Legionnaires' disease". Crucial for establishing an intracellular replication niche is the Icm/Dot type IV secretion system (T4SS), which translocates approximately 300 different "effector" proteins into the host cell. These substrates enhance uptake efficiency into phagocytes and direct formation of a replication-permissive compartment, called the Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV), and ultimately the egress of the bacteria. Some of the effectors interfere with small GTPases, phosphoinositide metabolism or the ubiquitination machinery, and modulate host cell signalling and vesicle trafficking.
We developed a method to isolate intact LCVs by using immuno-magnetic separation with an LCV-specific antibody followed by density gradient centrifugation. Proteomic analysis of the purified phagosomes together with findings of previous studies showed, that the vacuoles harbour markers of the endosomal network, associate with mitochondria, early secretory vesicles and the endoplasmic reticulum, but avoid fusion with lysosomes.
Our investigations of the novel L. pneumophila effector RidL revealed that the LCV also communicates with the retrograde vesicle trafficking pathway of infected cells. This pathway recycles amongst others acid-hydrolase receptors, such as the cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate receptor (CIMPR), from the tubular endosomal network back to the trans-Golgi. This transport requires the multiprotein "retromer" complex, which consists of two major subunits: the heterotrimeric cargo-selective subcomplex comprising the proteins Vps26, Vps29 and Vps35 and the membrane-deforming heterodimeric subcomplex composed of any combination of the phosphoinositide (PI)-binding sorting nexins SNX1 or SNX2 plus SNX5 or SNX6.
Pull-down experiments with lysates of RAW 264.7 macrophages or D. discoideum amoebae revealed Vps26, Vps29 and Vps35 to be retained by the then uncharacterised protein RidL, which represented an intriguing, novel effector interaction. Like most T4SS substrate mutants, L. pneumophila lacking ridL showed no phenotype for growth in liquid AYE medium and uptake into phagocytes compared to wild-type bacteria. However, intracellular replication was strongly impaired for the mutant strain in several host cell lines. RidL is preferentially expressed in the late post-exponential growth phase and translocated in an T4SS-dependent manner at early time-points of the infection, suggesting a role shortly after the uptake of the bacteria. The effector exhibited a bipolar localisation on the LCV membrane, but upon overexpression the protein covered the entire vacuole. Interestingly, RidL bound the lipid phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns(3)P), a known eukaryotic endosomal membrane anchor, and also specifically bound to the retromer subunit Vps29. Although the protein had no effect on the acquisition of Vps26, Vps29 and Vps35, the percentage of LCVs positive for the retrograde cargo receptors CIMPR or sortilin was reduced in presence of RidL, suggesting interference with the retrograde transport pathway. Furthermore, significantly less SNX1- and SNX2-positive LCVs were detected in cells infected with wild-type L. pneumophila compared to the ridL mutant strain. Moreover, RidL competed with SNX1 for binding at PtdIns(3)P-positive membranes. To directly examine the influence of RidL on retrograde trafficking, the retromer-dependent transport of cholera and Shiga toxin inside cells was analysed in macrophages infected with wild-type or ridL L. pneumophila, and in HeLa cells ectopically producing RidL, respectively. In both cases, the trafficking was inhibited by RidL, and for cholera toxin the transport was arrested at the endosomal stage. In line with these findings, siRNA knockdown experiments revealed that a functional retrograde pathway restricted intracellular growth of L. pneumophila.
Taken together, we postulate that RidL (Retromer interactor decorating LCVs) inhibits retrograde trafficking at endosomes by binding to the retromer subunit Vps26 and/or by competition with sorting nexins, thus promoting intracellular replication of L. pneumophila.
Collectively, the results obtained in this thesis shed light on the host factor composition of LCVs and provide mechanistic insights into a novel L. pneumophila effector protein.


Abstract A national campaign of well testing through 2003 enabled households in rural Bangladesh to switch, at least for drinking water, from high-arsenic wells to neighboring lower arsenic wells. We study the well-switching dynamics over time by re-interviewing, in 2008, a randomly selected subset of households in the Araihazar region who had been interviewed in 2005. Contrary to concerns that the impact of arsenic information on switching behavior would erode over time, we find that not only was 2003–2005 switching highly persistent but also new switching by 2008 doubled the share of households at unsafe wells who had switched. The passage of time also had a cost: 22 per cent of households did not recall test results by 2008. The loss of arsenic knowledge led to staying at unsafe wells and switching from safe wells. Our results support ongoing well testing for arsenic to reinforce this beneficial information.


No two tourists receive the same experience which are unique to the individual (Lounsburya and Polik 1999; Walls et al. 2011; Sharpley and Stone 2012; Nguyen and Cheung 2014). Therefore, understanding experiences from the perspective of tourists has become an arena of growing interest to researchers. How tourists evolve across a heritage visit and construct their experience is an aspect that needs further development. Tourists are moving from passively gazing at built heritage and landscapes to wanting to participate in, and engage with, the destination (Urry 2002). Engaging in tourism is considered to be a "potential source of happiness and well-being" (Sharpley and Stone 2012, p.1). The best experiences are when a tourist takes an active part and is completely immersed in the situation that they are experiencing (Csikszentmihalyi 1992). Given the importance of creating an experience in a heritage destination and the increasing annual growth in tourists to such places, research into this area is important and timely. Researchers have recently proposed Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory as a useful framework for understanding the enjoyment experienced by tourists. The term flow refers to a state of consciousness that is experienced by individuals who are deeply involved in an enjoyable activity. The existing literature in the fields of heritage tourism and tourist experience demonstrates that although heritage experiences have been analysed, there is still a lack of research incorporating the flow experience perspective. Therefore, this study explores the field of heritage tourism and centres on experiences from the perspective of flow with the four realms (absorption, immersion, active participation, and passive participation) of the experience economy (Pine and Gilmore 1998). Using flow and experience economy, this study brings a detailed analysis of the processes at the very heart of the experience as tourists want to engage fully with the destination during their experiential process, thus enabling them to create and enjoy a highly personalised and flexible experience. A quantitative research approach is adopted using a self-completion survey to obtain the required data. The selected study area is Greenwich, London due to its rich maritime heritage and all-year-around appeal to tourists. Responses from a total of 648 respondents were analysed. An experience model was proposed and tested using structural equation modelling. An adapted scale of the experience economy's 4Es (educational, esthetics, entertainment and escapist experiences) was fitted into flow theory and proved reliable and valid for measuring tourist experience for a heritage destination. This study indicated a strong presence of flow experience was linked to enjoyment, telepresence, engagement and esthetics. First, when heritage visitors are in a state of flow they tend to be in an extremely enjoyable experience. Second, the increased enjoyment in their heritage visit has significantly and positively influenced tourist flow experience that leads to happiness and satisfaction. Third, it is noted that more well-educated and mature tourists seek heritage experiences. Fourth, the increased level of entertainment only leads to satisfaction rather than the tourists experiencing flow. Finally, it is demonstrated that a flow state happens in moments throughout their visit. The results of this study provide baseline data on the existence of the flow phenomenon in the heritage environment. It also provides knowledge about the factors associated with the flow experience and tourists' feelings and enjoyment in a heritage visit. This research, therefore, contributes to knowledge by providing an understanding of the important factors that contribute in creating a unique and personalised experience for tourists and, thus, informing destination management, marketing, positioning and branding.


Abstract The objective of this paper is two-fold. First we present a methodology for using a combination of computer assistance and human intervention to discover highly algebraic theorems in operator, matrix, and linear systems engineering theory. Since the methodology allows limited human intervention, it is slightly less rigid than an algorithm. We call it a strategy. The second objective is to illustrate the methodology by deriving four theorems. The presentation of the methodology is carried out in three steps. The first step is introducing an abstraction of the methodology which we call an idealized strategy. This abstraction facilitates a high level discussion of the ideas involved. Idealized strategies cannot be implemented on a computer. The second and third steps introduce approximations of these abstractions which we call prestrategy and strategy, respectively. A strategy is more general than a prestrategy and, in fact, every prestrategy is a strategy. The above mentioned approximations are implemented on a computer. We stress that, since there is a computer implementation, the reader can use these techniques to attack their own algebra problems. Thus the paper might be of both practical and theoretical interest to analysts, engineers, and algebraists. Now we give the idea of a prestrategy. A prestrategy relies almost entirely on two commands which we call NCProcess1 and NCProcess2. These two commands are sufficiently powerful so that, in many cases, when one applies them repeatedly to a complicated collection of equations, they transform the collection of equations into an equivalent but substantially simpler collection of equations. A loose description of a prestrategy applied to a list of equations is:  emsp;(1) Declare which variables are known and which are unknown. At the beginning of a prestrategy, the order in which the equations are listed is not important, since NCProcess1 and NCProcess2 will reorder them so that the simplest ones appear first.   (2) Apply NCProcess1 to the equations; the output is a set of equations, usually some in fewer unknowns than before, carefully partitioned based upon which unknowns they contain.   (3) The user must select "important equations," especially any which solve for an unknown, sayx. (When an equation is declared to be important or a variable is switched from being an unknown to being a known, then the way in which NCProcess1 and NCProcess2 reorder the equations is modified.)   (4) Switchxto being known rather than unknown. Go to (2) above or stop. When this procedure stops, it hopefully gives the "canonical" necessary conditions for the original equations to have a solution. As a final step we run NCProcess2 which aggressively eliminates redundant equations and partitions the output equations in a way which facilitates proving that the necessary conditions are also sufficient. Many classical theorems in analysis can be viewed in terms of solving a collection of equations. We have found that this procedure actually discovers the classic theorem in a modest collection of classic cases involving factorization of engineering systems and matrix completion problems. One might regard the question of which classical theorems in analysis can be proven with a strategy as an analog of classical Euclidean geometry where a major question was what can be constructed with a compass and ruler. Here the goal is to determine which theorems in systems and operator theory could be discovered by repeatedly applying NCProcess1 and NCProcess2 (or their successors) and the (human) selection of equations which are important. The major practical challenge addressed here is finding operations which, when implemented in software, present the user with crucial algebraic information about his problem while not overwhelming him with too much redundant information. This paper consists of two parts. A description of strategies, a high-level description of the algorithms, a description of the applications to operator, matrix, and linear system engineering theory, and a description of how one would use a strategy to "discover" four different theorems are presented in the first part of the paper. Thus, one who seeks a conventional viewpoint for this rather unconventional paper might think of this as providing a unified proof of four different theorems. The theorems were selected for their diverse proofs and because they are widely known (so that many readers should be familiar with at least one of them). The NCProcess commands use noncommutative Grobner Basis algorithms which have emerged in the last decade, together with algorithms for removing redundant equations and a method for assisting a mathematician in writing a (noncommutative) polynomial as a composition of polynomials. The reader needs to knownothingabout Grobner Basis to understand the first part of this paper. Descriptions involving the theory of Grobner Basis appear in the second part of the paper.


Four core and six distyryl-extended methylated-meso-phenyl-BODIPY dyes with varying iodine content were synthesized. The influence of iodine loading and substitution position on the photophysical properties of these chromophores was evaluated. Selective iodine insertion at the 2- and 6-positions of the methylated-meso-phenyl-BODIPY core, rather than maximum iodine content, resulted in the highest intersystem crossing efficiency. Iodination of the distyryl-extended BODIPY core afforded intersystem crossing quantum yields comparable to 2,6-diiodo-BODIPY. Inclusion of an iodine at the para-meso-phenyl position generally enhanced non-radiative decay in the BODIPY excited-state, leading to lower fluorescence and intersystem crossing quantum yield values. Iodine substitution at the styryl-positions resulted in negligible changes to the excited-state dynamics. This study highlights: (1) the rate of radiative decay is similar in all ten derivatives (on the order of 1 × 108 s-1), (2) iodination of the 2,6-positions results in the greatest enhancement of intersystem crossing efficiency, (3) care must be taken when modifying the para-meso-phenyl position as it could have detrimental effects on the excited-state dynamics, (4) the excited-state is negligibly affected by iodination of the styryl groups, potentially enabling orthogonal functionalization without modifying the molecular photophysics, (5) distyryl extension of the chromophore core diminishes rates of non-radiative decay and intersystem crossing, resulting in higher fluorescence quantum yields and lower intersystem crossing yields in the π-extended derivatives compared to the core BDP derivatives, and (6) DFT calculations provide insight into the electronic and structural factors regulating intersystem crossing and vibrational relaxation in these molecules.


A place is needed for a 'cognitive iconology' within "visual culture." Like Logical Positivism before it, visual culture must reexamine its tacit assumption that conflation of psychosociological contributions to visual meaning is an adequate methodology, and that sociologism is a worthwhile overriding philosophy. Cognitive iconology isolates the psychological contribution to the study of images and does not monopolize it but isolates the foundational basis for it on which narrower interpretations must be built. With examples from the work of Titian, it is shown how the cognitive and 'cultural' contributions must work together to make meaning. Using the philosophy of Maurice Mandelbaum, and the example of Rudolf Arnheim and his analysis of visual art, a foundational approach of cognitive iconology to visual culture is sketched.


Many real world applications employ multivariate performance measures and each example can belong to multiple classes. The currently most popular approaches train an SVM for each class, followed by ad hoc thresholding. Probabilistic models using Bayesian decision theory are also commonly adopted. In this paper, we propose aBayesian online multi-label classication framework (BOMC) which learns a probabilistic linear classier. The likelihood is modeled by a graphical model similar to TrueSkill TM , and inference is based on Gaussian density ltering with expectation propagation. Using samples from the posterior, we label the testing data by maximizing the expected F1-score. Our experiments on Reuters1-v2 dataset show BOMC compares favorably to the state-of-the-art online learners in macroaveraged F1-score and training time.


In-situ analytics have been increasingly adopted by leadership scientific applications to gain fast insights into massive output data of simulations. Current practice buffers the output data in DRAM for analytics processing, constraining it to DRAM capacity un-used by the simulation. The rapid growth of data size requires alternative approaches to accommodating data-rich analytics, such as using solid-state disks (SSDs) to increase effective memory capacity. For this purpose, this paper explores software solutions for exploring the deep memory hierarchies expected on future high-end machines. Leveraging the fact that many analytics are sensitive to data features (regions- of-interest) hidden in the data being processed, the approach incorporates the knowledge of the data features into in-situ data management. It uses adaptive index creation/refinement to reduce the overhead of index management. In addition, it uses data features to predict data skew and improve load balance through controlling data distribution and placement on distributed staging servers. The experimental results show that such feature-guided optimizations achieve substantial improvements over state-of-the-art approaches for managing output data in-situ.


In a 1925 letter to Edward Weston, Tina Modotti emphasized the difficulty she experienced reconciling her art and her life: "Art cannot exist without life I admit but ... in my case life is always struggling to predominate and art naturally suffers." Today, more than 70 years later, the work of this renowned photographer continues to be overshadowed by her tumultuous life. A similar situation exists for Modotti's friend Frida Kahlo. In contemporary discourse, it seems that it is still not possible to discuss the artistic production of both women without focusing on their lives, particularly their emotional relationships with famous artists: in Modotti's case, Weston, and in Kahlo's, Diego Rivera. Obviously it takes time for the fascin-ation with the lives and appearances of these outstanding women artists to give way to a true appreciation of their work. One wonders if this is particular to women artists. Why, for example, have the dramatic life and good looks of Robert Mapplethorpe not overshadowed his photography? In Modotti's case, her photographs have yet to be properly deciphered, and her work still remains dislocated from the context of her contemporaries and the artistic movements of her time. While art and life cannot, as Modotti recognized, be wholly separated, it is now time to cut through the mythology that invariably accompanies her life, to begin an evaluation and appreciation of Modotti the photographer. Such a revision is encouraged by "Tina Modotti: Photographs," the first major retrospective of Modotti's photographs held in the United States (previous exhibitions have taken place in Europe). Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this exhibition of approximately 90 vintage prints provides a substantial cross section of Modotti's work. The show was curated by Martha Chahroudi, the museum's curator of photography, and Sarah M. Lowe, an art historian who also wrote the catalog essay. Although there is little new material in the show, it does provide a splendid opportunity to see a great deal of Modotti's vintage work in one place at the same time. However, there are some problems in the design and installation of the exhibition. The many different mats and frames jar, particularly the outstanding platinum print, Abstract: Crumpled Tinfoil (c. 1926), on loan from the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, which is sacrificed to a hideous green mat. In addition, the hanging of so many prints at eye level, on long walls, becomes monotonous. One hopes that these mistakes will be avoided at other venues. Unfortunately, an exhibition of this magnitude probably would not have taken place without the mythology that surrounds Modotti's life. For instance, plans for the exhibition floundered in 1994 when adequate funding was not forthcoming and the show had to be rescued by a hefty donation from Madonna, a fervent Modotti fan. In the accompanying fanfare the star auctioned her 1963 Mercedes-Benz to help finance the event. If the self-perpetuating Modotti mythology is to be dispelled, a careful examination of her work is needed. Modotti is considered one of the major prewar women photographers. In 1923, she moved to Mexico with Weston and studied photography with him. Together they introduced modernist photographic practice to Mexican artists. These artists, in turn (particularly muralists such as Rivera), influenced Weston and Modotti. The result, especially in the case of Modotti, who spent seven years in Mexico, was a marriage of modernist photographic aesthetics with Mexican revolutionary culture. She used her camera to depict life in Mexico during the tumultuous and vibrant post-revolutionary years. Modotti essentially photographed subjects that she loved. These included Mexican women and children, murals, painters and poets, swaying palm trees, stately sugar cane and what I would call the icons of the Mexican revolution: the ear of corn, the bandolier and the guitar. Her fascination with form is reflected in these images as it is in her exhilarating still lifes of such mundane subjects as an oil storage tank, scaffolding or the rims of wine glasses. …


This classic collection of short stories serves as the ideal introduction to Steinbeck's work. Set in the idyllic Salinas Valley in California, where simple people farm the land and struggle to find a place for themeselves in the world, these stories reflect many of the concerns key to Steinbeck as a writer; the tensions between town and city, labourers and owners, past and present. Included here are the celebrated tales, The Murderer and The Chrysanthemums.