Quantum chemical ab initio calculations have been performed on a model push–pull polyene. In these calculations the mean bond length alternation of the chain has been constrained to specific discrete values so as to yield various structures ranging from a polyenelike geometry to a zwitterionic geometry. It is shown that this purely geometric distortion of the nuclei induces relevant changes of the electronic properties such as molecular dipole moment, molecular polarizabilities, and hyperpolarizabilities. Also, simulated vibrational spectra are heavily affected by changes in geometry. By changing the molecular environment (solvent effect) the theoretically predicted molecular nonlinear optical behavior parallels the trends observed experimentally, thus showing the key role played by the bond length alternation parameter. In Appendix A the derivative relationship among hyperpolarizabilities at various orders as a function of the bond length alternation parameter is discussed.


The United States wants to increase senior citizens' access to prescription drugs at a time when spending on drugs is soaring. Is a national list of essential medicines the answer?

Many elderly people in the United States have no insurance cover for prescription drugs. Currently, one in four elderly people in the United States limit their drug use because of cost.1 The US Congress recently passed a bill that partially subsidises prescriptions for elderly and disabled people while promoting their use of private health insurance plans. Previous efforts to provide drug benefits to this population have been unsuccessful, however, largely because it would be hugely expensive. One way to extend access to drugs while containing costs is to establish a limited or essential list of medicines. This article discusses the benefits of such an approach and barriers to implementation.

One of the reasons that US drug spending is rising rapidly2 is shifting demographics. The group aged over 65 is one of the fastest growing parts of the population. This group tends to be more chronically ill and require more drugs. Another reason for the increase is the influx into the market of newer, more expensive drugs for many diseases.

The proliferation of direct to consumer advertising may also be contributing to the rise in drug spending.2 The United States allows adverts in the broadcast media that encourage patients to talk to their doctors about trying brand name medicines. More money was spent in the year 2000 on direct to consumer advertising of the anti-arthritic drug Vioxx (rofecoxib) than was spent on advertising Pepsi, Budweiser beer, or Nike's top shoes.3 But pharmaceutical company spending on consumer advertising is only a small proportion of the promotional budget, most of which is still targeted at physicians.4 The industry …


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and intrapreneurship within the context of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper builds on a historical review of the two main currents of the corporate entrepreneurship literature and the distinction established by French scholars between "traditional SMEs" and "miniature large firms".Findings – The paper summarizes various findings regarding the antecedents of EO and intrapreneurship in SMEs and elaborates a series of testable propositions linking EO to intrapreneurship.Practical implications – The paper posits the existence of different types of SMEs and suggests that the organizational and managerial antecedents of EO differ by type.Originality/value – The paper explores the relation between intrapreneurship and EO, thus connecting two unrelated streams of literature within the field of corporate entrepreneurship.


Cloning of cytosolic (GS1) cDNA and chloroplast glutamine synthetase (CS2) cDNA from Pisum satium was carried out previously in our laboratory. To identify the functions of the GS genes, we first constructed a plant expression vector, p2GS, harboring two different isoenzymes, GS1 and GS2 cDNAs, under the control of two constitutive promoters of rice, Actin1 (Act 1) and maize Ubiquitin (Ubi) genes. Then, using an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation method, we introduced GS1 and GS2 genes into wheat (Triticum aestivum) plants, producing 2GS-transgenic wheat plants using immature embryos as the explants. Presence of the transgenes GS1 and GS2 in wheat plants was confirmed by PCR and Southern blot hybridization analyses. Forty-one independent transgenic wheat plants with tolerance to an herbicide (Phosphinothricin, PPT) were generated. Results from Basta tests showed that the 2GS-transgenic wheat plants were endowed with herbicide-tolerant properties. Almost all of the transgenic plants were normal in morphology, and seed production was similar to that of the control wheat plants. Our study suggest that PPT resistance is conferred by effective expression of glutamine synthetases in transformed wheat plants, and glutamine synthetase genes can serve as a selective marker gene of wheat transformation system in our study.


Satellite telemetry is a valuable tool for examining long-term, large scale movements of highly migratory species. Tracking data can be used by resource managers to protect habitat and ensure recovery of threatened and endangered species. Few tracking studies have focused on habitat use patterns of juvenile, neritic stage turtles. Satellite tracking surveys were conducted to assess juvenile green turtle movements in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico during 2006–2010. Fifteen turtles were equipped with platform terminal transmitters (PTT; 3 rehabilitated, 12 wild). Mean track duration was 129 days (range: 16–344 days). A hierarchical switching state-space model (hSSM) was applied to extrapolate population level foraging/resident versus migratory movements. All turtles displayed residency in Texas bays during summer months (March-November) while five individuals exhibited seasonal migrations into Mexican waters following passage of strong cold fronts in December and January. Winter (e.g., Mexico) versus summer (e.g., Texas) core areas were not significantly different. Winter 95% contours were significantly larger than summer (summer: 125.4 ± 47.5 km2, n = 15; winter: 274.4 ± 252.9 km2, n = 5). Space-time hot spot analysis provided a new and unique approach for conducting spatiotemporal cluster analysis, and was applied to migratory turtles to determine monthly changes in distribution and habitat associations. Changes in hot spots over time were detected within the lower regions of the Laguna Madre with punctuated intervals of hot spot activity. Upper regions of the Laguna Madre were identified as new hot spots in the later part of the year (e.g., Fall/Winter). Within core areas in Texas, seagrasses comprised an average density of 32.4% while 87.5% of the total available seagrass habitat occurred within the 95% KDE contour. Based on PTT and historic tide station surface water temperatures, all turtles tracked over winter migrations and residencies (n = 5) remained within waters > 15°C, suggesting a threshold temperature at which migration behavior may be initiated. Continued recovery of threatened and endangered sea turtle populations depends on a comprehensive examination of patterns in habitat use. These data suggest cooperation between the United States and Mexico is needed to protect critical habitat and enhance recovery of this species.


A fundamental point of this paper is, that - given existing structures (!) - the persistent problem of high unemployment in Europe cannot be attributed to tendencies in "jobless-growth" but is mainly caused by the fact that GDP-growth has been - and is still too low. This argument is first based on the pronounced cyclical reagibility of employment and unemployment. A first glance at Figure 1 immediately reveals this cyclical reagibility of European labour-markets - which is, however combined with "hysteresis-effects", thus creating a tendency of increasing long-term unemployment. In the next section the question as to why growth-rates in the 80s and 90s were much lower than compared to the 60s and 70s will be studied. The connections between employment and economic growth will be discussed in more detail in section 3 of this paper.


Clustering algorithms are attractive for the task of class identification in spatial databases. However, the application to large spatial databases rises the following requirements for clustering algorithms: minimal requirements of domain knowledge to determine the input parameters, discovery of clusters with arbitrary shape and good efficiency on large databases. The well-known clustering algorithms offer no solution to the combination of these requirements. In this paper, we present the new clustering algorithm DBSCAN relying on a density-based notion of clusters which is designed to discover clusters of arbitrary shape. DBSCAN requires only one input parameter and supports the user in determining an appropriate value for it. We performed an experimental evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of DBSCAN using synthetic data and real data of the SEQUOIA 2000 benchmark. The results of our experiments demonstrate that (1) DBSCAN is significantly more effective in discovering clusters of arbitrary shape than the well-known algorithm CLARANS, and that (2) DBSCAN outperforms CLARANS by a factor of more than 100 in terms of efficiency.


In this paper, we consider the problem of space-time (ST) coding with unipolar pulse position modulations (PPM). The proposed code satisfies a large number of construction constraints that render it superior to the existing PPM encoding schemes. In particular, the proposed 2 times 2 code achieves a full transmit diversity order while transmitting at a rate of 1 PPM-symbol per channel use. The proposed scheme can be associated with M-ary PPM constellations for all even values of M without introducing any constellation extension. This renders the proposed scheme suitable for low cost carrier-less ultra-wideband (UWB) systems where information must be conveyed only by the time delays of the modulated sub-nanosecond pulses without introducing any amplitude amplification or phase rotation. Finally, the proposed scheme is symbol-by-symbol decodable where the information can be reconstituted by performing simple linear operations at the receiver side. A possible extension to transmitters equipped with three antennas is also discussed in situations where a certain number of feedback bits is available.


Fiducial markers are reference points used in the registration of image space(s) with physical (patient) space. As applied to interactive, image-guided surgery, the registration of image space with physical space allows the current location of a surgical tool to be indicated on a computer display of patient-specific preoperative images. This intrasurgical guidance information is particularly valuable in surgery within the brain, where visual feedback is limited. The accuracy of the mapping between physical and image space depends upon the accuracy with which the fiducial markers were located in each coordinate system. To effect accurate space registration for interactive, image-guided neurosurgery, the use of permanent fiducial markers implanted into the surface of the skull is proposed in this paper. These small cylindrical markers are composed of materials that make them visible in the image sets. The challenge lies in locating the subcutaneous markers in physical space. This paper presents an ultrasonic technique for transcutaneously detecting the location of these markers. The technique incorporates an algorithm based on detection of characteristic properties of the reflected A-mode ultrasonic waveform. The results demonstrate that ultrasound is an appropriate technique for accurate transcutaneous marker localization. The companion paper to this article describes an automatic, enhanced implementation of the marker-localization theory described in this article.


Since 1978 the results of computational architectural models have been widely used to aid interpretation of ancient alluvial successions: here we present the first quantitative test of such models. We parameterize variables from field and magnetostratigraphic data collected from the well-exposed Pliocene-Pleistocene Camp Rice and Palomas Formations of the Rio Grande rift in south-central New Mexico. Computational runs establish that the LAB (Leeder, Allen, and Bridge) model correctly predicts the gross architectural patterns of ancestral axial Rio Grande half grabens and full grabens. Convergence of tectonic subsidence rate and mean sedimentation rate over the studied interval suggests that the dynamic basis of the models is correct; i.e., it is the tectonic "drawdown" of axially supplied sediment that controls the net preservation potential of alluvial successions.


A basic issue arising in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is the selection of the optimal path between any two nodes. A method that has been advocated to improve routing efficiency is to select the most stable path so as to avoid packet losses and limit the latency and overhead due to path reconstruction. In the existing system, the work in considers nodes moving along non random patterns where nodes start moving from the same location. It causes short route disruption. This fact makes the analysis more complex but at the same time permits to relate probability of link duration and/or availability at time t to the initial distance between nodes. To avoid this problem, In proposed system nodes moving along random direction model. The links along a path may fail and an alternate path must be found. Through our results, we study the problem of selecting an optimal route in terms of path availability. Finally, we propose an approach to improve the efficiency of reactive Routing protocols.


This research shows that elevated CO2, climate warming, and management impact shoot and root nitrogen concentrations in different ways in managed pastures. Management (clipping frequency) had the strongest impact on aboveground tissue N concentrations, while the impact of the climate change drivers on shoot N concentration was interactive and varied seasonally. Green leaf N concentrations were decreased by elevated CO2 and increased by more frequent clipping. Both warming treatments increased leaf N concentrations under ambient CO2 concentrations, but did not significantly alter leaf N concentrations under elevated CO2 concentrations. Fine root N concentrations were mostly unaffected by the treatments, although elevated CO2 decreased root N concentration in deeper soil layers. The interactive nature of the climate change drivers through time, as well as the fact that root N concentration response to the treatments was entirely different from aboveground responses, highlights the complexity in predicting plant N nutrition responses to projected climate change.


Abstract: Strain theorists acknowledge that only some strained individuals become involved in delinquency. Thus, a necessary research objective is to determine the conditions under which strain results in deviant adaptations. The goal of this research is to examine the conditioning effects of exposure to delinquent friends/peer pressure on the relationship between strain and delinquency. Whereas Agnew (1992, 2001, 2006) argues that a criminogenic environment will increase the effect of strain on delinquency, Warr's (1993) research indicates that other correlates of delinquency lose their influence when adolescents are enmeshed in a network of delinquent peers. In testing these competing hypotheses, the current research finds a preponderance of evidence supporting the latter position. Peer pressure and having friends that commit delinquency tend to reduce the direct effect of strain on serious delinquency, as well as reducing the indirect effects of strain on negative emotions and negative emotions on serious delinquency. Keywords: abuse, anomie theory, delinquent friends, and general strain theory. INTRODUCTION Exposure to delinquent friends and peers is consistently found to be a strong correlate of adolescent delinquency (see Warr 2002 for a review). Moreover, the impact of delinquent peers and friends, concepts generally associated with differential association, social learning, and subculture theories of delinquency, has for decades served as an issue of contention within the field of criminology in debates on the theoretical supremacy on control theories.1 However, simply examining the additive effect of central variables from various theories of delinquency, such as peer delinquency, represents an overly simplistic attempt to model a reality that is rarely additive in form. Rather, the social context and causes of juvenile delinquency are almost certain to involve the interaction of variables from multiple sociological theories of delinquency. Consequently, it is likely that delinquent friends and peers, in addition to their strong main effect on delinquency, also exert a conditioning effect within the context of criminological theories which do not include these measures as primary theoretical variables (for example, see Agnew 1991). The current research represents an effort to increase our theoretical knowledge of the conditioning role of delinquent friends within the framework of Agnew's General Strain Theory (GST). In his theoretical development and empirical tests of GST, Agnew (2001, 2006) suggests that the social environment of adolescents in general will influence whether they react to strain in a delinquent fashion. Regarding delinquent peers and friends specifically, he predicts that associations with criminal others will increase the likelihood of coping with strain in a criminal fashion, primarily because delinquent peers/friends are empirically associated with beliefs favorable to crime "that define crime as a desirable, justifiable, or excusable response to strains" (Agnew 2006:101). A number of studies empirically examine the conditioning effect of delinquent peers on the relationship between strain and delinquency, but results are mixed and theoretical conclusions remain elusive. Moreover, although Agnew (1992) argues that strain has a substantial indirect effect on delinquency via its impact on negative emotions, empirical and theoretical attention is sorely lacking regarding the conditioning effect of delinquent peers on these indirect pathways. Consequently, a primary goal of the current research project is to more thoroughly and explicitly develop our theoretical understanding of the conditioning effect of peer deviance on the direct and indirect effects of strain on serious delinquency. Towards this goal, theoretically derived hypotheses are empirically tested on a nationally representative sample of adolescents. GENERAL STRAIN THEORY Within the anomie/strain perspective made popular by Merton (1938), strain is viewed as the blockage of goal-seeking behavior. …


Lebanon, like most Arab countries, delegates authority in matters relating to what is referred to as "personal status" to religious courts. Almost all of the over four million Lebanese residing in Lebanon are officially affiliated to one of eighteen religious sects recognized by the state and are thus subject to one of fifteen personal status laws (PSLs, often also referred to as family laws). These laws underpin issues related to marriage and its consequences, such as divorce and custody and, in the case of Muslim communities, inheritance. By defining the roles, responsibilities, and rights of men and women entering into marriage, PSLs and the religious courts that adjudicate on all matters related to them have the power to greatly influence the gender dynamics of a country. Lebanon's patriarchal and discriminatory laws, both civil and personal status, have been described as contributing to violence against women and positioning them as second–class citizens.


The manner in which we dwell leaves scars upon the landscape. These scars are often left behind long after occupancy ceases. Countless derelict landscapes across New Zealand bear these scars left by human occupancy, but many are too advanced for remediation. Rather than removing scars, this thesis proposes allowing future generations to witness these scarred landscapes so that their intrinsic stories can provide important lessons for the future, while helping to provide unexpected new approaches to the revitalisation of these sites. Quartz Reef Point in Central Otago has been selected as the site for this design-led research investigation; it is an abandoned strip mine that appears so violated, that it has lost all apparent means of restoration or reuse. This design-led research project proposes that by building upon these scars, rather than ignoring or hiding them, these scars can be reinterpreted as lessons for the future that can help enable future generations to learn from past mistakes. The damage at Quartz Reef Point strip mine has been caused by 'scratching' the surface of the site so severely that natural systems have suffered inexorable damage. In the art of engraving, the surface of a copper plate is also deeply scratched––and the resulting 'damage' to the plate allows a story to unfold. This design research investigation looks at how the art of engraving can be applied to architectural design processes in ways that help tell the story of severely damaged sites such as Quartz Reef Point. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger's book The Hand of the Engraver: Albert Flocon Meets Gaston Bachelard is used to establish a framework for this investigation. In this book, the architectural engraver, Albert Flocon, shares dialogues with the architectural philosopher, Gaston Bachelard––two distinct points of view about storytelling. The thesis proposes that when these two points of view are integrated with the voice of the architectural designer, the thesis author, new approaches for meaningful architectural interventions can be discovered to help bring the story of Quartz Reef Point to life for future generations. Using Hans-Jörg Rheinberger's book The Hand of the Engraver as a generative starting point, the thesis investigation asks the research question: how can the engraver, the philosopher and the architectural designer be brought together to explore new ways of looking at scarred landscapes that not only reinvigorate them, but offer their tales as important lessons for the future? This investigation proposes that architecture can engage scars on the landscape in narrative ways that enhance visitors' awareness about the site and its tragic history. Jerome Bruner, senior research fellow at New York University, outlines a framework that he argues is necessary to advance a successful fictional narrative. Architectural heritage theorist Jennifer Hill discusses how retaining visible scars in the built environment can offer insights into how the ongoing transformations of a site contribute actively to the narrative of place. Environmental psychologist Jonathan Sime argues that contextual elements of derelict sites, in combination with a fictional narrative, can culminate in an enhanced 'sense of place' through unexpected architectural responses. This thesis proposes to integrate the theoretical arguments of Jerome Bruner, Jennifer Hill, and Jonathan Sime in a design-led research approach to the reinvigoration of severely scarred landscapes. In the thesis investigation, architectural elements and environmental scars are conceptualised as overlapping, each line advising the other. In this way, the thesis looks to communicate contextual narratives in a way that not only revitalises place identity, but also enables us to fully engage a site's heritage and learn from past mistakes.


The epigraphic document on which this paper is focused is a letter of the Macedonian king Philip V to the boule and the demos of the Athenians of Hephaestia, on the island of Lemnos, which was found in 1938 in the area of the late Roman Telesterion of the sanctuary of the Kabeiroi. A new edition of the inscription is here offered, along with a detailed epigraphic, historical and linguistic commentary. The text is not entirely preserved, and some points of it are quite difficult to interpret. However, the document is extremely interesting, less for its possible connection with specific events than for the information it provides on several historical issues of a more general kind: the relationship between the Antigonid kings and Lemnos; the inner organisation and institutions of the community of the Athenians on the island; Philip V's 'religious policy' as described by the king himself and by literary sources, and so on.


Thermally sprayed ceramic coatings can be used for wear protection as well as thermal and electrical insulation. When exposed to environments with high humidity, the water absorption of the ceramic coating has a tremendous impact on the electrical insulation. In thermally sprayed ceramic coatings, water can easily be absorbed by the porous microstructure of the coating. A general result of the water absorption is the reduction of the dc resistivity. However, in the high frequency regime of ac loads, contrary results were observed for sealed Al2O3 coatings on steel substrates. Specimens exposed to high air humidity have shown an increased ac resistance compared to dry specimens if frequencies above 1 MHz are considered. To analyse this phenomenon, a novel measurement technique was developed to investigate the influence of the water absorption of detached ceramic coatings on the ac resistivity at high frequencies. Moreover, the water absorption of the ceramic is measured gravimetrically. To ensure the results are also applicable to ceramic coatings on substrates, the morphology of the coating was analysed using electron microscopy and compared to reference specimens deposited on steel substrates from [1].


We have developed a fiber-optic-based probe for precise delivery of stimulation/excitation light pulses and detection of faint fluorescence signals for applications in neuroscience and optogenetics. In this design, a thin multimode fiber serves as the head of the probe to be inserted into the brain. This fiber is used to deliver light to the region of interest and guide a sample of the emission signal back to detectors. The major tradeoff in the design of such a system is to decrease the size of the fiber and intensity of input light to minimize physical damage and to avoid photobleaching/phototoxicity but to keep the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) reasonably high. Here, the excitation light and the associated emission signal are frequency modulated. Then, the output of the detector is passed through a time lens which compresses the distributed energy of the emission signal and maximizes the instantaneous S/N. By measuring the statistics of the noise, the structure of the time lens is designed to achieve the global optimum of S/N. We have also designed side-firing fibers and a micromechanical assembly for distributed light delivery and fluorescence detection.


This study aims at exploring the psychological determinants that influence job search intention
among fresh graduates. Digital innovations have changed the employment landscape that allows people to have
flexible job opportunities. Building from the theory of planned behaviour, job search attitude, subjective norms,
self-efficacy and perceived behaviour control were predicted to have positive effect on job search intention. A
survey was conducted and the results of the regression test show job search attitude, subjective norms and selfefficacy as determinants to job search intention, but the relationship between perceived behavioural control and
job search intention was found to be negative. In fact, the strongest linkage is between self-efficacy and job
search intention. The findings should alert employers, academic institutions and policy makers of the recent
trend in employment, as the fresh graduates are one of the most valued supply of labour force. The study also
highlights how digital era and the cyber community have shaped the younger generations perception of work
engagement as the transition towards social mobility.


Ambient noise harms a number of citizens in Europe. The major sources of environmental noise are that generated by cars in streets, parking lots, railway lines and airports as well as noise from local sources (fans, transformers). According to the methodology for noise measurement, engine testing has been carried out. The conducted analysis has been focused on engine capacity and the distance between vehicles and equipment. Equivalent, maximum and minimum sound levels at different frequencies have been measured accepting that errors may range up to 2 %. Maximum sound level has been reached using the engine of 2000 cm3 petrol capacity. At a half-meter distance, the equivalent sound level reaches 89 dB(A), whereas the noise level decreases moving away from the car. The obtained results of tested cars disclose that according to engine capacity, the majority of the investigated cars are technically faulty and therefore significantly exceed noise levels. Article in Lithuanian


This study presents a mathematical model for determining cost effective emissions' control strategies in Europe, by minimizing sulphur abatement costs subject to different pollution control targets. The purpose is to compare the efficiency of a uniform percentage emissions reduction with a scenario that takes variation in environmental conditions into account. Some alternative criteria for re allocating abatement costs between countries are considered, to see which countries are penalized and which are favoured by the proposed approaches, and which approaches should be "preferred" on efficiency grounds. Underlying the proposed model is the belief that a full cost-benefit analysis of acid rain abatement is infeasible. The model focuses on the costs of abatement and provides an estimation of the gains (or losses) that countries could achieve if they co-operate in their policies rather than act independently.


A normal pressure MWPC for beam diagnostics at RIBLL2 has been developed, which has a sensitive area of 80 mm$\times$80 mm and consists of three-layer wire planes. The anode plane is designed with a wider frame to reduce the discharge and without using protection wires. The detector has been tested with a $^{55}$Fe X-ray source and a 200 MeV/u $^{12}$C beam from CSRm. A position resolution better than 250 $\upmu$m along the anode wires and a detection efficiency higher than 90% have been achieved.


This study assesses the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) and human capital intensities on productivity of ASEAN5 (Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippine, Singapore and Thailand). The factors identified as influencing the labour productivity of ASEAN-5 are the individual contributions of capital deepening (intensity), ICT intensity, human capital intensity and the simultaneous contribution of the quality of these factors. That is expressed as the total factor productivity (TFP) intensity. The results show that the productivity growth of ASEAN-5 is input-driven. The study also finds that the impact of ICT and human capital intensities appears to have been reasonable with little contribution of TFP intensity growth. The results also confirmed that capital intensity had strongly significant role in achieving reasonable labour productivity contribution that produced by these economies through using huge input to produce output.


INTRODUCTION
Information describing medical interventions and patient outcome of very low birth weight (VLBW; BW <1500 grams) infants who receive neonatal intensive care is necessary to evaluate the quality of health care. We developed an electronic patient documentation system (EDS) called PCode to identify and select patient diagnostic (DX) codes and compared EDS to the previous paper-based documentation system (PDS). Our hypothesis was that EDS would capture more patient diagnostic codes than PDS.

METHODS
PDS was originally developed as a two page 'code sheet' which listed all 275 neonatal diagnoses/management options and corresponding 3-4 character diagnostic (DX) codes, organized by organ system. PDS code sheets were manually completed by one of three trained 'coders' for every neonatal patient. EDS was developed as a Java application with the 'coder' selecting DX codes from drop lists also categorized by organ system. The study intervention was patient code selection using either the PDS or the EDS system. Both systems produced a paper DX code summary. PDS data capture occurred from 11/1997-3/1999 followed by EDS data capture until 8/2000. The primary outcome variable was DX codes captured per patient. Data were analyzed using independent t-test and linear regression.

RESULTS
The number of diagnoses increased with decreasing birth weight. After linear regression was applied to control for birth weight, the number of DX codes was 31% greater in the EDS group, 7.2 +/- 2.9 DX codes/patient, p=0.008. There was a trend towards fewer erroneous DX codes in the EDS group. The most common DX codes were hyaline membrane disease, sepsis evaluation and hyperbilirubinemia, as expected for this patient population.

CONCLUSIONS
EDS captured more VLBW infant DX codes compared to PDS. These results support the transition toward electronic data documentation for the neonatal clinical environment. Electronically linking PCode to the patient database has been initiated and should reduce manual coding errors.


ABSTRACT In the shelf belt surrounding the Michigan basin, the A-1 Unit at the base of the Upper Silurian Salina Group comprises in stratigraphic succession the A-0 Carbonate, the A-1 Anhydrite and the A- l Carbonate subunits, The unit consists of six lithofacies representing three depositional environments: microlaminated mudstone and pelletal wackestone deposited in a shallow subtidal environment; planar stromatolite deposited in an intertidal environment; nodular anhydrite and indurated dolomite crusts formed on supratidal fiats and intraformational breccia and flat pebble conglomerate, formed on supratidal and intertidal flats and occasionally distributed to the nearby subtidal zone. With few exceptions, all carbonate facies consist of dolomicrite, are completely devoid of skeletal remains contain early diagenetic nodular and acicular anhydrite and authigenic framboidal pyrite. With the overlying A-2 Anhydrite, the A-1 Unit records the superposition of four successive sabkha cycles. At the beginning of Salina time (late Wenlockian-early Ludlovian?) intensive evaporation caused the gradual withdrawal of the sea to the central part of the basin and the progressive exposure of the circumferential Guelph carbonate banks and pinnacle reefs. The basal part of the Salina Group in the basin center area was deposited in a water depth of about 800 ft. The evaporative withdrawal led to the near complete desiccation of the basin during which time potash salts were deposited. The subsequent shallow water evaporite deposits of the middle part of the Salina gradually filled the basin. These deposits successively onlapped the basin margins along a surface which represents a regional unconformity. The A-2 Carbonate was the first Salina unit which eventually transgressed the south rn margin. It is most probably correlative to the Greenfield Dolomite on the Indiana-Ohio platform. The Salina B, D and F Salts were also formed in shallow water. Their deposition was contingent upon synsedimentary basin subsidence. Probably most of this subsidence took place during the relatively long time spans represented by the abundant carbonate horizons within and between the main evaporite cycles. Abundance of organic matter of algal origin and the prevalence of reducing conditions soon after deposition make ancient sabkha carbonates interbedded within thick evaporite deposits potential source beds for hydrocarbons. The environmental interpretation of the A-1 Unit provides insight into the problem of the origin of evaporite-encased reefs. What appears to be contemporaneous deposition of incompatible reef and evaporite facies is best resolved when viewed as a three-stage evolution comprising a reef-building period, an evaporative withdrawal phase and an evaporite deposition period.


User-centered design plays a significant part in product design. GOMS user behavior model analyze the interface from the aspects of both users and objects, which helps the designers to create a user-friendly interface in an efficient way. In this paper, GOMS model was used to predict the efficiency of the two versions of input interface on a touch-screen mobile phone. In addition, the experiment was conducted to collect the data under the real scenarios, and paired-sample T test was employed to analyze the data. The results indicate the GOMS prediction model can be used to evaluate the efficiency of the mobile phone interface.


The evacuation of pedestrians is the most important task when a building is subjected to a significant level of threat that compromises occupant safety. However, very few studies have dealt with the problem of controlling pedestrian evacuation in real time. Due to modern developments in sensor technology and computational facilities, it now seems possible to attempt a real-time controlled evacuation by instructing pedestrians to adjust their velocities according to an algorithm to effect an efficient evacuation. This paper deals with the development of such a control algorithm for an exit corridor where high congestion can be expected during evacuation. To accommodate the possible variation in the pedestrian density along the length, the corridor is divided into several sections. Using the conservation of pedestrian mass, ordinary differential equations that define the pedestrian flow in all sections are developed. For the system of state-space equations that define the flow in all the sections of the corridor, an optimization-based feedback control scheme is developed, which ensures the maximum input discharge subject to tracking the critical state and boundedness of the control variables. Simulation results are obtained, which indicate the superior performance of the controlled flow over the uncontrolled flow. The proposed flow control is also applicable to the regulation of vehicular traffic on a long section of a freeway in urban areas that receives input at several ramps along its length.


Following the first JET ITER-like wall operations a detailed in situ photographic survey of the main chamber and divertor was completed. In addition, a selection of tiles and passive diagnostics were removed from the vessel and made available for post mortem analysis. From the photographic survey and results from initial analysis, the first conclusions regarding erosion, deposition, fuel retention and material transport during divertor and limiter phases have been drawn. The rate of deposition on inner and outer base divertor tiles and remote divertor corners was more than an order of magnitude less than during the preceding carbon wall operations, as was the concomitant deuterium retention. There was however beryllium deposition at the top of the inner divertor. The net beryllium erosion rate from the mid-plane inner limiters was found to be higher than for the previous carbon wall campaign although further analysis is required to determine the overall material balance due to erosion and re-deposition.


This study was conducted to investigate the pattern of calorie and protein consumption by Hebron University students. A sample size of 238 students (males and females) of ages ranged from 18 to 23 years was the target of this study. A food frequency questionnaire and 3 days food record were designed and used, and a pilot survey was carried out among university students to identify the food items commonly eaten by them. Nutrient intakes were estimated by using WinDiets software with values based mainly on the food-composition tables. Results were expressed as mean and standard deviation (SD). ANOVA and Student's paired t-test were used for data analysis. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. The study showed that fathers of all students investigated were of secondary education or higher. However, mothers were of lower levels of education. The majority of students were village residents (55 %) while only 8 % were refugee camps residence. About 63 % of students consumed less than 3 meals per day. Regarding the physical activity level (PAL), most of students had low to moderate activities (88 %) compared to only 12 % of them who had high activity. Calorie and protein intake was not affected by gender. However, the intake of calories was lower than that of the WHO recommendations. Family income had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on both calories and protein consumption. Similar significant trends were observed in the effects of family size and number of sibling. The consumption of all nutrients concerned was higher in Fridays compared to the consumption in Saturdays and Mondays. However, this increase in consumption is not statistically significant. In conclusion, university students have bad eating patterns when considering numbers of daily meals and fat and total calorie intakes and protein and calcium intakes were comparable with the dietary recommendations of the WHO. More studies are needed to follow up the pattern of food consumption in more detail considering more universities in the country.


Tropical forest soils have potential to mitigate climate change and support biodiversity. Human activities in these forests threaten biodiversity and alter the ability of the soil to sequester carbon. Many tropical countries experience rampant anthropogenic activities in the forests, yet the extent to which these activities affect biodiversity and soil organic carbon and the relationship between the two is not well studied. In this study, the correlation of soil organic carbon (SOC) and ground beetles was assessed in both control and disturbed sites in Uzungwa Scarp Nature Reserve (USNR). Disturbance activities included logging for timber, tool handles and building poles; fire, hunting, footpaths, collection of fuel wood, and clearing for agriculture. Pitfall trapping, active searching during the day, and active night searching were methods used to collect the ground beetles. Soil samples were collected at three depths 0-15, 15-30 and 30-45 cm in twelve plots: six in disturbed and six in control sites. A total of 890 ground beetles comprising 30 species were collected. The species richness of carabid beetles was high in the control sites (26 species) and low in disturbed site (16 species), with the respective Shannon-Wiener being Hꞌ= 2.103 and Hꞌ = 1.327. The difference in species diversity was statistically significant. Abundance of carabid beetles was also significantly higher in control sites compared to disturbed sites. Mean SOC was low in disturbed sites and high in control sites at all three depths. In disturbed sites, the correlation between SOC and species richness was weakly negative but not significant, and positively correlated with abundance, though it was not statistically significant. In control sites, there was a significant positive correlation between SOC and carabid abundance, but not with species richness of carabid beetles. To conclude, protection of natural forests is prerequisite for biodiversity and ecosystem services. We recommend that management improvement is urgently required, because ongoing human activities seem to contribute to diminished SOC stock.

 Key words: Soil organic carbon, disturbance, ground beetles, correlation.


A study on skills among healthcare workers investigates how healthcare workers use skills in difficult caring contexts, aiming to describe how practical knowledge is employed in decision making in occuring situations. The dialogue seminar method, with it's elements of reading and writing to explore practical knowledge, was used to gather information. Contributing healthcare workers represent a multiplicity of experiences and perspectives. Their narratives on caring dilemmas are presented and used as framework for the study. The author creates an analogy between caring dilemmas and performing knowledge in professional art work. The narratives of the healthcare workers has been arranged in a documentary composition and on several occasion presented to a wider audience in order to make a reality-check on the study's conclusions. The study shows how terms from professional art work such as presence, interpretation and reflexive techniques are useful in understanding skills of healthcare workers. The investigation also points out problems related to the inability of healthcare organizations to comprehend and acknowledge the practical dimension of healthcare workers skills. The study has been carried out within the KTH Advanced Programme for Reflective Practice presented at www.dialoger.se.


Collective I/O is a widely used technique to improve I/O performance in parallel computing. It can be implemented as a client-based or as a server-based scheme. The client-based implementation is more widely adopted in the MPIIO software such as ROMIO because of its independence from the storage system configuration and its greater portability. However, existing implementations of client-side collective I/O do not consider the actual pattern of file striping over multiple I/O nodes in the storage system. This can cause a large number of requests for non-sequential data at I/O nodes, substantially degrading I/O performance. Investigating a surprisingly high I/O throughput achieved when there is an accidental match between a particular request pattern and the data striping pattern on the I/O nodes, we reveal the resonance phenomenon as the cause. Exploiting readily available information on data striping from the metadata server in popular file systems such as PVFS2 and Lustre, we design a new collective I/O implementation technique, named as resonant I/O, that makes resonance a common case. Resonant I/O rearranges requests from multiple MPI processes according to the presumed data layout on the disks of I/O nodes so that non-sequential access of disk data can be turned into sequential access, significantly improving I/O performance without compromising the independence of a client-based implementation. We have implemented our design in ROMIO. Our experimental results on a small- and medium-scale cluster show that the scheme can increase I/O throughput for some commonly used parallel I/O benchmarks such as mpi-io-test and ior-mpi-io over the existing implementation of ROMIO by up to 157%, with no scenario demonstrating significantly decreased performance.


The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created a no-win situation for educators: bring students back to campus and risk spreading the virus or teach online and risk insolvency As faculty work to plan even as situations change, they must build flexible course plans to weather COVID-19 while still meeting students' needs and expectations for teaching at their institutions We discuss how we quickly and successfully transitioned a Principles of IS Programming course from face-to-face to fully online instruction and how we planned to apply lessons learned from that transition to the next semester In addition, we describe how to organize courses and course schedules to maximize engagement and active learning while remaining agile enough to shift from face-to-face to online (or even vice versa if the opportunity occurs) We present this paper to help other IS instructors build a course plan to meet student needs for programming courses © 2021 by the Association for Information Systems


ABSTRACT In spite of the increase in the number of Distance Learning Programs (DLP) offered by higher education institutions, not all programs have been successful. Successful programs use different types of media resources for instructional delivery. An understanding of the factors affecting decisions related to the type and number of teaching media resources used in successful DLP could provide valuable information not only to those two-year colleges currently offering DLP but also to those planning to offer them in the future. Unfortunately, the majority of the research efforts done in the past focused on DLP in four-year colleges and universities and not on two-year community colleges. Information on the key factors affecting these decisions from the two-year college perspective could help them in budgeting and planning new or enhanced distance learning programs, make an efficient allocation of resources and also give hints on how to improve the competitiveness of the college in a rapidly growing industry. Limited Dependent Variable models were used in this study to analyze quality, technology and experience as factors affecting these decisions made by two-year colleges. It was found that the set of statistically significant factors affecting the decision to use a specific type of media used is not the same for each type of media. It could also be noted that these factors affect differently the decision to use a given number of teaching media resources. INTRODUCTION In the past decades, we have experienced rapid demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle changes. Examples include more participation of women in the labor market, additional two income families, declining birth rates, increased number of one-person households, more women in executive positions, higher life expectancy, and higher standards of living. All these changes, in one way or another, have increased the importance of the 'nontraditional" student (full-time employed, more mature, not able to attend regular classroom classes, with family responsibilities, goal-oriented) within the college student population. This increasing number of non-traditional college students has increased the demand for "non-traditional" educational programs, among them Distance Learning Programs (DLP). Distance learning provides access to many more students than just offering higher education courses in the traditional classroom manner (Yee, 1998; Perreault et al., 2000). Distance learning encompasses many different types of teaching media like Internet-based courses, the use of satellites, interactive television (ITV), teleconferences, one-way broadcasting, electronic bulletin boards, fax machines, cable television, toll-free telephone numbers, etc. (Au and Chong, 1993; Ball and Crook, 1997; Brown and Duguid, 1998; Hall, 1990; Kubala, 1998; Luna and McKenzie, 1987; Merisotis and Phipps, 1999; Opitz, 1996; Swift et al., 1997; Teleg, 1996). In 2002, 85% of 2-year colleges and 84% of 4-year colleges offered distance education courses up from 58% and 62% respectively in 1998 (Wirt et al., 2004). In spite of the increase in the number of DLP offered by higher education institutions, not all programs have been successful. Actually, there are more examples of failures than successes (Arkansas Department of Higher Education, 2004). Among other important characteristics, successful programs use different types of media resources for instructional delivery but concentrate in the use of just a few of them (Waits and Lewis, 2003). An understanding of the factors affecting these decisions could provide valuable information not only to those institutions currently offering DLP but also to those planning to offer them in the future. Successful DLP are offered not only by four-year colleges but also by two-year colleges (Williams, 2003). Unfortunately, the majority of the research efforts done in the past focused on DLP in four-year, masters, and doctoral programs offered by four-year colleges and universities. …


In underground hard coal mining, there are various types of natural hazards, which is related to human interference with the natural environment and the consequent disturbance of its equilibrium. The mining industry is an important component of the Polish economy, because coal is the basic raw material for power generation in the country. Therefore, there are numerous tests and studies to make the mining activities safe and effective. As a result, a crucial role is played by research and scientific work that result in the improvement of safety in this branch of industry. One of the areas undertaken by such research is dedicated to limiting the methane hazard in mines. The underlying cause of this problem is methane release from the body of coal and excavated coal, because this gas is flammable and explosive. These properties place the methane hazard amongst one of the most dangerous mining phenomena. The paper concentrates on the determination of methane concentrations in the area of ongoing exploitation, depending on airway geometry. The analysis is based on the model-based tests using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The related calculations were performed by means of ANSYS Fluent based on the finite volume method (FVM). The analysis was conducted on a numerical model, reflecting the real-world region of the exploitation. The input data for the calculations were obtained from the results of measurements carried out in real-world conditions. The model developed takes into account a series of solutions that are the original scientific achievement of the Authors. This particularly refers to the modelling of goaves with caving as a porous medium. The calculations made it possible to determine the physical and chemical parameters of an air-methane mixture in each point of the region analysed. This is particularly true of the most dangerous area, namely the outlet from a longwall. In the case at hand, the calculations were carried out for several variants of airway geometry. The methodology of model-based testing presented in the paper, taking into consideration the real-world measurements and the results obtained, is an example of how advanced calculation methods can be used for solving practical problems.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.24.5.21194


Abstract Within tourism studies, there has been a gap in attempting to understand chronic illness within the context of travel. Researchers examining affective tourism have noted that much of everyday life endeavours to create order through 'ontological security' for individuals. In creating this sense of order, positivity and emotional security are emphasised, while taboo issues such as death, pain and chronic illness are 'bracketed off'. Despite these attempts at bracketing, travel experiences can prompt individuals to reflect on their own mortality, existence and purpose, which in turn may reshape their travel experiences. For senior travellers, chronic illness may be part of their everyday reality, challenging the individual's sense of self, time and relationships with places, things and people. These topics can be challenging for data collection, because such experiences can be hidden, emotion-laden, difficult to articulate or difficult for others to observe. Researchers have noted the methodological challenges with the use of traditional data tools and have turned to creative visual methods to facilitate and gain deeper understandings of participants' experiences of chronic illnesses. We used one creative visual tool, the 'MeBox' method, to study the hidden aspects of chronic illness and to understand the embodied experience of chronic illness in the context of their travel. The 'MeBox' method was created to understand and communicate the participants' multifaceted experience of chronic illness. The 'MeBox' method contributes to tourism scholarship, particularly for sensitive topics, by facilitating the inclusion of participants' voices to capture their affective travel experiences. This method usefully represents the deeper emotionality of tourists' lived experience that may have otherwise remained invisible to others.


This guide addresses the underlying causes of failures in the performance of market systems, rather than looking at symptoms in individual chains. Value Chain Analysis and Development practitioners need to understand the nature of relationships between businesses in the chain and other relevant market players; they need to understand the role of specific market functions and (formal and informal) rules that govern the value chain; and be able to identify incentives and capacities of market players. This guide addresses Value Chain development from a market development perspective with a unique focus on how to achieve Decent Work. The essential question is thus: how can we achieve competitiveness while creating new jobs and income opportunities for men and women and promoting better working standards in value chains?


Recent research suggests that sexual recidivism rates have been declining, which contrasts with observations regarding general recidivism rates as well as perceptions of sexual reoffending risk. If sexual recidivism rates are in decline, it raises fundamental policy questions about the youth justice system's tendency to operate on the assumption that juvenile sexual offending is a risk marker for sexual reoffending in adulthood. A systematic review and a quantitative meta-analysis were conducted to determine the general, violent, and sexual recidivism rates of adolescent perpetrators of sexual offenses with data stemming from studies published worldwide between 1940 and 2019. A total of 158 empirical studies including 30,396 adolescent perpetrators of sexual offenses were retrieved to examine estimates of general, violent, and sexual recidivism. The study findings highlight that the risk of general recidivism (weighted pooled mean = .44) is substantially higher than violent (weighted pooled mean = .18) and sexual recidivism (weighted pooled mean = .08). The study did not observe convincing evidence that sexual recidivism rates for adolescent perpetrators are declining, but rather that these rates have been consistently low over the years. There was strong evidence that multiple study characteristics moderate the recidivism rates observed. Given the low weighted pooled sexual recidivism rate reported in the study, the use of adult-like strategies to increase public safety and prevent sexual recidivism seems misguided, not only because sexual recidivism is unlikely, but also because such strategies are not developed to address general criminogenic needs that may explain general recidivism rates observed.


AIM To elucidate whether an inhibited superoxide production (O2-) of neutrophils induced by commercial lactate-based peritoneal dialysates (PDS) could be corrected after a transient intracellular acidosis. METHODS The intracellular pH ([pHi]) of human neutrophils incubated in PDS was monitored with a spectrofluorometer with a pH-sensitive dye (BCECF-AM). Neutrophilic O2- stimulated by zymosan was determined in PDS with the superoxide dismutase inhibitable ferricytochrome c reduction, using a spectrophotometer. RESULTS The severe intracellular acidosis induced within 5 min by PDS at an extracellular pH of 5.2 could be promptly and completely recovered by a neutralization of the pH of media. However, O2- by neutrophils exposed to the PDS for as little as 5 min was drastically and persistently inhibited, even the acidic [pHi] of cells had been fully returned for 1 h. CONCLUSIONS The intracellular acidification of cells in the initial phase could be transient and reversible, but impaired cell functions, at least in part including O2- generating system, might be consistent and irreversible in the early stage of the cellular acidosis in the peritoneal cavity of CAPD patients. The findings above may be of particular importance in both clinic and cell biology.


We study price competition among primaries in a Cognitive Radio Network (CRN) with multiple primaries and secondaries located in a large region. In every slot, each primary has unused bandwidth with some probability, which may be different for different primaries. Also, there may be a random number of secondaries. A primary can lease out its unused bandwidth to a secondary in exchange for a fee. Each primary tries to attract secondaries by setting a lower price for its bandwidth than the other primaries. Radio spectrum has the distinctive feature that transmissions at neighboring locations on the same channel interfere with each other, whereas the same channel can be used at far-off locations without mutual interference. So in the above price competition scenario, each primary must jointly select a set of mutually non-interfering locations within the region (which corresponds to an independent set in the conflict graph representing the region) at which to offer bandwidth and the price at each location. In this paper, we analyze this price competition scenario as a game and seek a Nash Equilibrium (NE). For the game at a single location, we explicitly compute a NE and prove its uniqueness. Also, for the game at multiple locations, we identify a class of conflict graphs, which we refer to as mean valid graphs, such that the conflict graphs of a large number of topologies that commonly arise in practice are mean valid. We explicitly compute a NE in mean valid graphs and show that it is unique in the class of NE with symmetric independent set selection strategies of the primaries.


Potential risk of sudden death during sports participation makes screening of competitive athletes of vital importance. Congenital cardiac anomalies and non-atherosclerotic, acquired myocardial conditions are primary causes underlying exercise-induced cardiac death in young patients. Since cardiovascular conditions are the leading causes of non-traumatic, exercise-induced cardiac events, cardiovascular screening preceding sports participation in mandatory. The objectives of this study were to determine prevalence of cardiac conditions through cardiovascular screening of young athletes and to establish preventive strategy. The study was conducted at the Sports Medicine Center of Sarajevo Canton and at the Pediatric Clinic of University of Sarajevo Clinics Centre in the period 2007-2009. The study was supported by Canton Sarajevo Ministry of Health and Ministry of sports, science and culture. The study targeted a group of 214 athletes, 8-18 years of age with average age being 15.26. The group was subdivided into five groups according to the age. After taking the anamnesis (family, personal and cardiological) patients were subjected to the measuring of body mass and height, blood pressure and heart rate and oxygen saturation, recording of 12-lead ECG, specialist examination (pediatrician, sports medicine specialist and cardiologist) and complete heart echocardiography. No examined athletes expressed subjective discomfort. Congenital cardiac anomalies were not diagnosed in any athlete. Also, cardiovascular abnormalities requiring additional evaluation, positive cardiac anamnesis, abnormal auscultatory findings, hypertension or abnormal ECG findings were not recognized in any patient. Moderate correlation was found among the left ventricle mass and heart rate (p<0.05). In order to minimalize or even possibly prevent the risk of sudden cardiac death it is necessary to establish an adequate strategy of cardiovascular screening of young athletes.


This book presents the first ever English translation of the Medicina Plinii, one of the most influential books of applied medicine and self-medication in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

The work, which predates AD 400, was created as a quick reference work for travellers, and became and remained highly influential, as witnessed by frequent references to it and by various later adaptations. Only the rise of scientific medicine and pharmacology led to its demise and confinement in a small corner of specialist studies. It presents more than 1,150 healing methods and recipes mainly adapted from the encyclopedic Natural History of Pliny the Elder, arranged from the patient's head to foot in order that readers could quickly find treatments for their diseases. The Medicina Plinii is of dual interest to present-day scholarship: The book is a monument for the practical application of classical knowledge which has recently found lively interest in the history of science and medicine. At the same time the Medicina Plinii provides a fascinating insight into the realities of the world of Late Antiquity, and into the anxieties of the people living in the vast Roman empire.

This book will be of particular interest to scholars and advanced students in the History of Science and Medicine, along with a wider audience interested in medicine, and in life in the Roman world.


Although studying the users of security technologies already presents unique challenges for HCI, testing these technologies with users of all ages (including children and the elderly) introduces many other issues that must be addressed. Among these, understanding special ethical and legal considerations, addressing protocol compliance, and managing testing outcome expectations need additional attention. Based on our experiences in testing with users of all ages, we suggest some strategies for dealing with these kinds of issues.


Criminal responsibility now forms the subject matter of a rich and deep vein of criminal law theory. Taking up Farmer's exhortation to reflectivity in criminal legal scholarship, this article suggests that the prominent scholarly profile of criminal responsibility is a product of its particular qualities as an object of academic study, over and above its role in the criminal law. The significance of criminal responsibility in/for criminal law theory, which I call the meta-significance of criminal responsibility, has two aspects, corresponding to two of its qualities as an object of study. I suggest that, with synthetic and talismanic qualities, criminal responsibility has particular meaning both within and beyond the bounds of criminal legal theory.


In the sheath region at the interface between plasmas and solid surfaces, quasi-neutrality and, in the case of magnetized plasmas, drift-ordering are violated. These two assumptions are typically made in plasma fluid models; the presence of a plasma-wall transition region, typical of all bounded systems, hampers therefore their use. This problem can be overcome by introducing a set of boundary conditions (BCs) for fluid models that properly describe the physics of the plasma-wall transition region. While the classical Bohm-Chodura BCs for the ion and electron parallel velocities have been previously derived, no consistent BCs for the other fluid quantities existed up to date. Based on a recent theory [1,2], a complete set of analytical BCs for the density, temperature, potential, vorticity, and parallel ion and electron velocities, has been provided, which is fully consistent with kinetic simulations of the plasma-wall transition region [3]. These BCs have been implemented in a three-dimensional global fluid code, which is used to simulate turbulence in basic plasma physics devices and in the tokamak scrape-offlayer. It has been shown that BCs that faithfully supply the sheath physics to the fluid codes are crucial for the understanding of the equilibrium profiles, plasma recirculation, intrinsic plasma rotation, and blob propagation in basic plasma physics and fusion devices. References [1] J. Loizu, P. Ricci and C. Theiler, Physical Review E 83, 016406 (2011) [2] J. Loizu, J. Dominski, P. Ricci and C. Theiler, Phys. Plasmas 19, 083507 (2012) [3] J. Loizu, P. Ricci, F. Halpern and S. Jolliet, Phys. Plasmas 19, 122307, (2012)


Abstract The term ecotype was first introduced to the field of folkloristics by Carl Wilhelm von Sydow (1878–1952), who proposed the idea that folktales develop from base forms due to transformations triggered by specific environmental conditions before eventually stabilising within cultural districts. The general analogy was popular amongst folklorists who readily invoked the concept to deconstruct a wide range of genres including rhyming couplets, folk ballads, folktales, fairy-tales, personal narratives, legends and urban legends. It is unfortunate, however, that ecotypes have largely been ignored by scholars working in the fields of paremiology, especially when one considers not only the established inter-relationships between proverbial material and other folkoristic genres, but also the recent pioneering cross-cultural analyses of idiomatic expressions in European languages and beyond. This paper will provide a template for the analysis of folk expressions by examining the life history of an Irish ecotype, tied stones and loose dogs. It will show that folk expressions are a fertile area of research that can be deconstructed using literary and historical research based on the historic-geographic method. At the heart of this template, I argue, is the need to read texts within their contemporary cultural, historical and socio-economic frameworks to decode meanings according to instantiation, the motivations for their use, and the question of agency in folk groups. By collecting, examining and construing inter-relations between folkloristic texts across a range of cultural products – folklore collections, popular culture periodicals and political discourse – and by informed cultural contextualisation of its instantiations, we can re-construct the extensive cultural underpinnings that inform a range of everyday folk expressions.


Carotenoids, widely distributed in nature, are considered to be potentially beneficial in the prevention of a variety of diseases including cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and eye diseases. As humans are unable to synthesize carotenoids, the diet is the only source of these beneficial components. Carotenoid concentration in cow's milk varies greatly as a result of feeding practice and season, but no research thus far has investigated these variations in Jersey cows over an entire pasture season. The objectives of this experiment were to 1) determine the differences in concentrations of carotenoids and retinol in milk from cows consuming different diets, 2) examine the changes that occurred over a pasture season, and 3) assess the relationship of these components between a fresh, mozzarella cheese and the milk from which it was made. Individual milk samples were collected biweekly, beginning in May and ending in November, from 18 Jersey cows, 9 at an organic dairy fed on pasture and supplemented with total mixed ration (TMR) and 9 at a conventional dairy fed exclusively TMR. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyze carotenoid concentrations from each individual milk sample. Total carotenes, total xanthophylls, lutein, betacryptoxanthin, alphaand beta-carotene and 13cis beta-carotene were significantly higher in milk from the cows fed on pasture compared to milk from the cows fed TMR. In milk from cows fed on pasture, total carotenes, total xanthophylls, lutein, beta-cryptoxanthin, alphaand beta-carotene, and 13 cis beta-carotene varied significantly over the pasture season. In milk from cows fed TMR, only total xanthophylls, retinol and lutein changed significantly over time. Bulk milk samples were also collected biweekly at each dairy and made into Mozzarella cheese. HPLC was used to analyze carotenoid concentrations in the raw and pasteurized milk, the whey, and the cheese. Total carotenes in raw milk, pasteurized milk and whey were positively related to total carotenes in cheese, and total xanthophylls in pasteurized milk were positively related to total xanthophylls in cheese. Results indicate that even for Jersey cows, a breed known to have 'yellow' milk, pasture feeding will increase the carotenoid concentration in milk and its products and the concentration changes over time.


Cry Out Loud is a collaboratively produced film that explores the challenges that African nationals face as they make their lives in Khirki Extension, Delhi, India. The film, a project conceived by anthropologist Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan, puts cameras in the hands of a crew of young men from Somalia who live in Khirki Extension. Together, Dattatreyan and the crew narrate the stories of everyday life of Cameroonian, Nigerian, Ugandan, Ivorian and Somali students, entrepreneurs, and refugees that put into perspective the violent eruptions that occur during filming that targets Africans as undesirable outsiders and that have since catapulted Khirki Extension and Delhi into the media spotlight. (43 minutes, English subtitles).


We present a novel algorithm to determine the payoff-space of certain normal-form C1 parametric games, and - more generally - of continuous families of normal-form C1 games. The algorithm has been implemented by using MATLAB, and it has been applied to several examples. The implementation of the algorithm gives the parametric expressions of the critical zone of any game in the family under consideration both in the bistrategy space and in the payoff space and the graphical representations of the disjoint union (with respect to the parameter set of the parametric game) of the family of all payoff spaces. We have so the parametric representation of the union of all the critical zones. One of the main motivations of our paper is that, in the applications, many normal-form games appear naturally in a parametric fashion; moreover, some efficient models of coopetition are parametric games of the considered type. Specifically, we have realized an algorithm that provides the parametric and graphical representation of the payoff space and of the critical zone of a parametric game in normal-form, supported by a finite family of compact intervals of the real line. Our final goal is to provide a valuable tool to study simply (but completely) normal-form C1-parametric games in two dimensions.


The utilization of active canopy sensors in corn (Zea Mays L.) for in-season N fertilizer management has the potential to maintain optimal production and conserve fertilizer N resources. Canopy sensors can be considered a green technology in production agriculture by attempting equitable land stewardship and providing an economically viable N management practice. Robust and accurate algorithms to determine an appropriate N application rate based on canopy sensing is needed in order to effectively utilize sensors in Iowa production fields. The objective of this study was to develop N rate algorithms using active canopy sensors which can prescribe in-season N application to corn.


This paper begins with an analysis of the charge injection error in the second-generation current memory cell. By combining the circuit-replication technique and the n-step principle, a new scheme for simultaneously cancelling both signal-dependent and signal-independent charge injection errors in second-generation switched-current circuits is proposed. SPICE simulations are used to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed cell for tackling the charge injection problem. Major merits of the proposed cell include capability to meet high precision requirements and applicability to any second-generation switched-current circuit configuration.


There is considerable interest in the use of flexible laminate composite materials to improve the deployable structures for space applications. Critical to acceptance of these materials is the ability to achieve high packaging strains without damage. However, there does exist more or less damage during the process of folding and unfolding for the laminate composites. Better understanding of folding damage, therefore, is needed for the design of laminate composites and folding pattern. In this work we present a study on the fold-resistant characteristics of two different laminate composites, which were fabricated by covering the aramid fiber/epoxy and carbon fiber/epoxy prepregs respectively with polyimide film on both sides. The results of tensile tests on 3-layer structure laminate composites show that the fold-resistant properties of aramid fiber/epoxy composites could be improved with increasing of the resin content and decreasing of the fiber bundle diameter. For carbon fiber/epoxy composites, the effects of resin content and fiber bundle diameter on reduction rate of fracture strength were more complex. There existed a best range of resin content and fiber bundle diameter. The microscopic observations show that folding resulted in piling up of resin and damage of reinforcing fiber, which would decrease the mechanical properties.


The humanities have an undeniable civic value. State humanities councils, in the programs they fund and conduct in the communities, contribute to civic enrichment, build public support for scholars and scholarship, and involve out-of-school adults in the life of the mind. Participating scholars report valuable results for their research and teaching, as well as psychic rewards that contribute to their overall professional growth. Though higher education s attitude toward such programs has been somewhat indifferent in recent decades, there are hopeful signs of change on


Despite warming regional conditions and our general understanding of the deglaciation, a variety of data suggest glaciers re‐advanced on Svalbard during the Lateglacial–early Holocene (LGEH). We present the first well‐dated end moraine formed during the LGEH in De Geerbukta, NE Spitsbergen. This landform was deposited by an outlet glacier re‐advancing into a fjord extending 4.4 km beyond the late Holocene (LH) maximum. Comparing the timing of the De Geerbukta glacier re‐advance to a synthesis of existing data including four palaeoclimate records and 15 other proposed glacier advances from Svalbard does not suggest any clear synchronicity in glacial and climatic events. Furthermore, we introduce six additional locations where glacier moraines have been wave‐washed or cut by postglacial raised marine shorelines, suggesting the landforms were deposited before or during high relative sea‐level stands, thus exhibiting a similar LGEH age. Contrary to current understanding, our new evidence suggests that the LGEH glaciers were more dynamic, exhibited re‐advances and extended well beyond the extensively studied LH glacial expansion. Given the widespread occurrence of the LGEH glacier deposits on Svalbard, we suggest that the culmination of the Neoglacial advances during the Little Ice Age does not mark the maximum extent of most Svalbard glaciers since deglaciation; it is just the most studied and most visible in the geological record.


The photovoltaic (pv) forced convection solar dryer comprises the solar collector, dryer and pv assemblies. It is designed for a continuous operation throughout the day. The direct solar irradiation is utilized during sunshine hours and it automatically switches power supply to the battery during cloud covers and non-insolation periods. The inclusion of a heat reservoir enables heat transfer to continue during this period. In this study, thermal and dryer analyses were done. Experimental investigations were carried out to evaluate the performance of the system by drying plantain chips. The useful power collected was found to be, 391.50W, collector efficiency, 65.6%, dryer efficiency, 39.6%, average drying rate during insolation, 0.0169kg/hr and total drying time was 23 hours. The maximum temperature attained was 55oC. The average drying non insolation period was 0.0112kg/hr. The capital cost is less than $350.


Climate change refers to changes in Earth's temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind, clouds, and precipitation patterns over time, and is an important topic today. Some changes may be caused by human activity while others may be due to natural processes


Executive functions (EFs)—a set of general-purpose control processes that regulate one's thoughts and behaviors—have become a popular research topic lately and have been studied in many subdisciplines of psychological science. This article summarizes the EF research that our group has conducted to understand the nature of individual differences in EFs and their cognitive and biological underpinnings. In the context of a new theoretical framework that we have been developing (the unity/diversity framework), we describe four general conclusions that have emerged. Specifically, we argue that individual differences in EFs, as measured with simple laboratory tasks, (a) show both unity and diversity (different EFs are correlated yet separable), (b) reflect substantial genetic contributions, (c) are related to various clinically and societally important phenomena, and (d) show some developmental stability.


Open source bioinformatics tools running under MS Windows are rare to find, and those running under Windows HPC cluster are almost non-existing, in spite of the fact that Windows is the most popular operating system. Therefore, we introduce WinBioinfTools, an open source toolkit containing a number of bioinformatics tools running under Windows High Performance Computing Server 2008. The current version contains three programs for biological sequence analysis: 1) CoCoNUT for pairwise genome comparison, 2) WinBLAST for biological database search, and 3) WinPSA for global pairwise sequence alignment. We show how the Linux/Unix components of these programs were ported to run under Windows. We also demonstrate by experiments the advantage of using a computer cluster compared to a single machine, highlighting the benefits of using the Windows HPC Cluster 2008. Furthermore, we compare the performance of WinBioinfTools on the Windows- and Linux Cluster.


Synthetic approaches to the 1,2,5-benzothiadiazepine 1,1-dioxides, sulfonamide analogues of the 1,4-benzodiazepines, are reviewed. The review incorporates the synthesis of bicyclic, tricyclic and tetracyclic systems, and includes approaches to sulfonamide analogues of the antitumour pyrrolobenzodiazepines, sulfonamide analogues of the tricyclic non-nucleosidic reverse transcriptase inhibiting benzodiazepines (such as nevirapine), and other systems of biological interest. Details of the reactions and biological activity of the 1,2,5-benzothiadiazepines are also given.


Suspension-cultured cells of parsley (Petroselinum crispum L.) were used to study the regulation of extracellular H2O2. After resuspension, the washed cells regulated the H2O2 concentration spontaneously to a constant level that was greatly increased when the cultures were pretreated for 1 d with salicylic acid (SA). The H2O2 level was further increased on addition of a fungal elicitor preparation, macromolecular chitosan, the sterol-binding polyene macrolide amphotericin B, the G protein-activating peptide mastoparan, or La3+. In all cases, this induced H2O2 burst was also greatly enhanced in cell suspensions pretreated with SA. Both the spontaneous and the induced H2O2 production were decreased by the protein kinase inhibitor K-252a. It is suggested that production of extracellular H2O2 occurs by an endogenously controlled plasma membrane enzyme complex that requires continuous phosphorylation for function and whose activity is increased by pretreatment of the cells with SA. This system can also receive various external stimuli, including those resulting from binding of fungal elicitor. SA can induce acquired resistance against pathogens. The conditioning of the parsley suspension culture by SA represents, therefore, a model for the long-term regulation of apoplastic H2O2 concentration by this signal substance, as suggested previously for the wound hormone methyl jasmonate.


The erosion, transport and deposition of tungsten in the outer divertor of JET-ILW has been studied for an H- Mode discharge with low frequency ELMs. For this specific case with an inter-ELM electron temperature at the strike point of about 20eV, tungsten sputtering between ELMs is almost exclusively due to beryllium impurity and self-sputtering. However, during ELMs tungsten sputtering due to deuterium becomes important and even dominates. The amount of simulated local deposition of tungsten relative to the amount of sputtered tungsten in between ELMs is very high and reaches values of 99% for an electron density of 5E13 cm −3 at the strike point and electron temperatures between 10 and 30eV. Smaller deposition values are simulated with reduced electron density. The direction of the B-field significantly influences the local deposition and leads to a reduction if the E×B drift directs towards the scrape-off-layer. Also, the thermal force can reduce the tungsten deposition, however, an ion temperature gradient of about 0.1eV/mm or larger is needed for a significant effect. The tungsten deposition simulated during ELMs reaches values of about 98% assuming ELM parameters according to free-streaming model. The measured WI emission profiles in between and within ELMs have been reproduced by the simulation. The contribution to the overall net tungsten erosion during ELMs is about 5 times larger than the one in between ELMs for the studied case. However, this is due to the rather low electron temperature in between ELMs, which leads to deuterium impact energies below the sputtering threshold for tungsten.


The formation of microaggregates of platelets and leukocytes and the infusion of these aggregated blood elements in pulmonary ultrastructure and function have been extensively studied. This study was undertaken to document the formation of platelet microaggregates during storage of platelet concentrate and to determine what effect the infusion of stored platelets has on pulmonary ultrastructure. The screen filtration pressure of platelet concentrate stored at 4 degrees C. for a period of 48 hours was measured after six, 24 and 48 hours of storage. Screen filtration pressure progressively rose from a mean of 47.20 millimeters of mercury to a mean of 237.40 millimeters of mercury at 48 hours, p less than 0.02 between six and 48 hours of storage. Specimens of the lung taken for biopsy from ten patients undergoing open heart operations were examined for ultrastructural alterations. Those specimens obtained following cardiopulmonary bypass, but prior to the infusion of platelet concentrate, showed only mild ultrastructural abnormalities. Those specimens obtained for pathologic study following the infusion of platelet concentrate exhibited extensive accumulations of platelet aggregates in the pulmonary microcirculation and widespread degenerative changes in the capillary endothelial cells, intra-alveolar septae and alveolar epithelial cells. In areas in which cellular discontinuities occurred, protein exudates, fibrin clumps and red blood cells were observed in the interstitium and in the alveolar air spaces. The storage of platelet concentrate results in the formation of aggregate material. The infusion of platelet concentrate results in the formation of aggregate material. The infusion of platelet concentrate results in the formation of ultrastructural lesions, similar to those observed in situations known to lead to pulmonary dysfunction, such as following massive transfusion, hypovolemia, sepsis and hypoxia.


Earthquake cumulative frequency-magnitude (CFM) distributions are described by the Gutenberg-Richter power law where the exponent is the b -value. Although it has been reported that the b -value changes before large earthquakes, we find that an upper-truncated power law applied to earthquake CFM distributions yields a time-independent scaling parameter, herein called the α-value. We analyze earthquakes associated with subduction of the Nazca plate beneath South America and find a region of isolated seismic activity at depths greater than 500 km between 20° S and 30° S. For the entire record, 1973-2000, the earthquake CFM distribution in this isolated region is well described by a Gutenberg-Richter power law with b = 0.58. The data set includes several large seismic events with m b ≥6.8. A power law applied to the CFM distributions for short time intervals between the large events yields b -values greater than the b -value for the entire record. CFM distributions for the short time intervals are better described by an upper-truncated power law than by a power law. The α-value determined by applying an upper-truncated power law to the short time intervals is equal to the b -value obtained by applying the Gutenberg-Richter power law to the entire record. Temporal changes in b -value are due to temporal fluctuations in maximum magnitude. Analysis of four Flinn-Engdahl regions, two in subduction zones and two along spreading ridges, demonstrates wider applicability of the results. The α-value is an unchanging characteristic of the system that may be determined from a short-term record.

Manuscript received 2 July 2001.


We demonstrate wavelength tunability of femtosecond pulses over a range of more than 50 nm from a diode-pumped Cr:LiSAF laser. The mode-locking mechanism can be explained by soliton mode locking that is started and stabilized by a broadband semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror designed for low loss over the full reflection bandwidth of the underlying Bragg mirrors, which ultimately limits tunability. We obtain 45-fs pulses at 105-mW average output power and a maximum mode-locked average output power of 125 mW with 60-fs pulses.


One of the main challenges in network virtualization is the virtual network embedding problem (VNE). The objective of the VNE is to map a set of Virtual Network Requests (VNR) to physical nodes and links. VNR is composed by a set of virtual nodes and links with several demands (traditionally CPU and bandwidth) to be assigned into a set of paths in the substrate network with sufficient resources. Embedding can be optimized with regard to specific metrics. To help solving the VNE problem a mathematical tool has been proposed, called Paths Algebra, to deal with the VNE multi-constraint problem using linear metrics. Most of the existing VNE proposals treat the single-path virtual link-mapping problem as a mono-constraint. This paper studies, analyses and validates the mathematical framework of Path Algebra under selected linear (CPU, bandwidth and energy consumption) and non-linear metrics (availability and packet loss ratio), providing promising performance results.


Abstract Children living with prolonged parental custodial disagreements are in a vulnerable position and may be in need of child welfare assistance. However, the responsibilities of the child welfare service (CWS) in cases involving custodial disagreements are unclear. This article examines how parents with custodial disagreements narrate and make meaning of their encounters with child welfare caseworkers. These professional encounters occur in a legal grey zone between the family law system, dealing with issues of residence and contact, and the child welfare system, dealing with issues of possible child abuse or inadequate care. The article draws on interviews with 15 Norwegian parents, and uses clientization and positioning as analytic tools to analyse the parents' accounts of how they are categorized by the professionals. More precisely, by introducing the concept of client position, the article shows how parents describe their negotiations with caseworkers regarding what constitute problems in the family and how these problems might be dealt with. The analysis identified three main client positions being available for parents in grey zone cases: the legitimately concerned parent, the parent in conflict, and the parent lacking ability to care. Implications for the child's client position and prospect of child welfare involvement are discussed.


Solar water disinfection (SODIS) is the process of treating microbiologically contaminated water in clear plastic bottles through exposure to sunlight. One of the major limiting factors of this treatment is source water quality. This work investigates the impact of source water colour on SODIS efficiency and evaluates a natural coagulant for colour removal. The ability of Moringa oleifera seed emulsion to both clarify and decolourize source waters was investigated as a coagulation pretreatment for SODIS. This coagulant reduced the colour by more than two-thirds and achieved up to 1-log10 bacterial removal (90%). The combined Moringa oleifera coagulation-SODIS treatment sequence was tested in highly coloured natural source water and was found to reduce the sunlight exposure time required by up to 2 hours. However, despite being an effective clarification and decolouring process, the pretreatment may not shorten the overall treatment time because of its own labour and time requirements, potentially decreasing the treatment compliance rates. In addition, while total coliform and heterotrophic bacteria regrowth was observed during overnight storage of the treated water, no Escherichia coli regrowth was found to occur.


In this paper, the stability behavior of the first-order finite-difference time-domain algorithm for elastodynamics at the interface between two different materials is investigated. A necessary condition for stability is established, which, dependent on the material properties of the two media, might be more restrictive than the well-known Courant condition. It is shown that this more restrictive stability condition can be avoided if the material properties are averaged on the boundary.


Polar sea ice is a crucial element in the global climate system. Feedback mechanisms between a changing sea ice cover and shifts in oceanic and atmospheric circulation or the heat and gas exchange are, however, only poorly constrained. Palaeoclimate studies of sea ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions during past climate fluctuations, are an essential means to improve our understanding of how these complex processes affect climate - provided that proxy records deliver reliable information on palaeo sea ice conditions.
The most recent and probably most promising approach for tracking a palaeo sea ice cover is based upon the organic geochemical analysis of marine sediments and therein preserved biomarker lipids (C25 highly branched isoprenoids (HBIs)) that are produced by specific sea ice diatoms. While a C25-HBI monoene (IP25) has been frequently applied for Arctic Ocean sea ice reconstructions, hitherto only few studies focused on the Southern Ocean, where a C25-HBI diene serves as sea ice proxy. In any case, only the combination of the sea ice biomarker with lipids synthesised by organisms thriving in (seasonally) ice-free water, enables an unambiguous discrimination between an extended, marginal and reduced sea ice coverage. The so-called PIP25 index applies this, as yet qualitative, concept of considering a phytoplankton biomarker alongside IP25 and there are ongoing efforts to make this approach fully quantitative.
This presentation provides an overview on C25-HBI-based sea ice reconstructions, the advantages and limitations of the PIP25 index, and current approaches targeting at the development of a reasonably calibrated and hence quantitative sea ice proxy.


Cintia, a neuro-fuzzy real-time controller based on pulse stream computation techniques, is designed for applications in low-power embedded systems. The system mixes two approaches: neuro-fuzzy controllers and finite-state automata. We implement the former by means of a custom neural chip, the latter as sequential code on a traditional microcontroller. Cintia demonstrates the advantages of mixing the two approaches and the feasibility of embedded neuro-fuzzy control systems. A low-power, single-chip version is also under design. >


Compared to the traditional notion of logistics, a much more open and complex concept is rising in theory and practice, especially in the maritime sector. The complexity of the scenario makes us believe that standard skills to operate in logistics are a prerequisite but not sufficient. So, a revision and re-design of the standard competencies for both managerial and operational positions is needed. Aim of this paper is to start analysing logistics maritime competencies. The methodology is based on the comparison between the European Logistics Association (ELA) one of the world most recognised and accepted standards of competence for logistics professionals Qualification Framework (QF) and the needs expressed by Executives working for one of the top tier companies in the maritime shipping industry and three ports Authorities (two located in Italy and one in Spain).through interviews. Our conclusions show that most skills remain unaffected while some addition or cancellation changes should be made to the ELAQF in order to align it to the needs of the sector


SIR,-During the past six months I have seen six patients who developed acute hepatitis A within 2-6 weeks of their return from thirdworld countries. They were all young persons in their twenties and five of them had travelled overland to the Indian subcontinent. In two patients the illness was severe and jaundice persisted for more than six weeks. One patient, a young man of 28 years, developed acute hepatitis A three weeks after his return from a climbing holiday in Nepal. One week later he died from fulminant hepatic failure. Although these patients had had inoculation against smallpox, cholera, and typhoid, none had had immunoglobulin prophylaxis for prevention of hepatitis. Normal human immunoglobulin (gammaglobulin) prevents clinical hepatitis A. Pollock and Reid' showed that a single dose of 750 mg of immunoglobulin protects persons working abroad against hepatitis A. Therefore immunoglobulin should be given to all prospective travellers intending to visit countries where hepatitis A is endemic.


Clients of sex workers in Germany used to be unapproachable for issues of sexual health. Thus, prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases used to focus on sex workers only, even though many sex workers accuse clients preferring unprotected sex. When prostitution was decriminalized in Germany in 2002, a till then unknown platform emerged on the German internet. Clients set up forums for themselves and their peers. These community forums were primarily meant to serve as platforms for the exchange of information, e.g. on the quality of services. We describe the development and expansion of these web-sites for clients of female commercial sex workers, and the clientele and operation of such sites. To study and to describe the sites, a close cooperation with their webmasters and administrators was crucial. The clients' community forums mark a change in paradigm, as clients became an accessible and addressable target group for sexual health and prevention issues on the internet. The Sexsicher sites have been developed to adequately target this group.