We have studied the influence of degenerate four wave mixing (FWM) on the performance of the multiwavelength continuous-wave (CW) optical source based on supercontinuum (SC). By suppressing degenerate FWM, a 100-channel SC CW optical source with 25-GHz spacing for 10-Gb/s dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems is experimentally demonstrated. Confirmation is provided with the generation of CW channel with crosstalk of other channels less than -28 dB and the presentation of 10-Gb/s eye diagram and bit error rate (BER) performance.


A new type of an integrable mapping is presented. This map is equipped with fractional difference and possesses an exact solution, which can be regarded as a discrete analogue of the Mittag-Leffler function.


Lithium oxide (Li2O) has been suggested as a suitable breeder blanket material for fusion reactors. Li+ vacancies are created by neutron irradiation, forming bulk defect complex whose extra character is experimentally unclear. We present a theoretical study of Li2O using density functional theory (DFT) with a plane-wave basis set. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and local-density approximation (LDA) were used for exchange and correlation. Here we address the total energy for defect free, cation defect, cation vacancy and vacancy formation energy in Li2O crystal in anti-fluorite structure.Lithium oxide (Li2O) has been suggested as a suitable breeder blanket material for fusion reactors. Li+ vacancies are created by neutron irradiation, forming bulk defect complex whose extra character is experimentally unclear. We present a theoretical study of Li2O using density functional theory (DFT) with a plane-wave basis set. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and local-density approximation (LDA) were used for exchange and correlation. Here we address the total energy for defect free, cation defect, cation vacancy and vacancy formation energy in Li2O crystal in anti-fluorite structure.


We have interpreted the airborne gravity gradiometry data from Quadrilatero Ferrifero, an iron ore province in southeastern Brazil. Aiming at retrieving the geometry of the iron body, we have used a fast and novel gravity inversion method for estimating a 3D density-contrast distribution defined on a grid of prisms. This inversion approach combines robust data-fitting with an iterative procedure that does not require the solution of a large equation system. By using a systematic search algorithm, the estimated mass grows around prismatic elements called "seeds". The interpreter specifies the locations and the associated density contrasts of the seeds. Automatically, the inversion method fits the observations and favors compact gravity sources closest to the seeds. To produce a more robust data fitting than least-squares fit, the inversion method minimizes the L1–norm of the residuals. Hence, it allows the presence of large residuals, so that outliers produced by non-targeted bodies can be handled. By using 126 seeds which were assigned density contrasts of 0.5 g.cm-3 and whose locations were based on our knowledge about the QF area, we have retrieved a continuous elongated iron body that fits the observed components of the gravity gradient. Our inversion result agrees reasonably with previous geophysical interpretations. In addition, our result honors the borehole information about the iron body depth.


The graduate students admitted to the online and blended programs at Texas Tech University and the University of Memphis were surveyed about their respective university websites, or the institution's "virtual face." A total of 42 students rated 30 web-based services as "must have," "nice to have," "delighted to have (but not necessary)," or "I'm indifferent to this service" based on the Kano model of marketing research into customer satisfaction. The majority (11 of 17) of services in the "must have" category are essential for functioning as a student (e.g., course registration, program costs, helpdesk) while the social media services (podcasts and i-Phone applications) were in the "nice to have" category. Items of importance to the institution (history of the university, strategic plan, contributions to community) were in the "nice to have" or "delighted to have" categories. The continuing interest in viewing photos (of the campus, students, athletics) as a "nice to have" is intriguing for students in online and blended programs. Based on this research, several recommendations are offered to institutions.


In recent times, the pressure of daily living, especially in an environment of insecurity and economic gloom is likely a precursor to depression among Nigerian workers. This is the motivation for the present study. The survey research type was employed. The Prevalence and Causes of Depression questionnaire (PCDQ) was developed by the researchers to obtain information from the participants. Research questions and hypothesis were formulated to guide the conduct of the study. Data collected were subjected to simple percentage, analysis of variance and t-test analysis. The results revealed that majority of civil servant are suffering from depression. The study showed that depression is prevalent among women than their male counterparts. The study also revealed that job demand and poor remunerations are the major causes of depression among civil servants. The study recommended the establishment of counselling unit in establishments and ministries; counsellors should be made available for employees; the counsellors should be organizing health education from time to time on management techniques.


This paper analyses the evolution of poverty and deprivation. Besides, the study is focused on "consistent poverty", defined as the combination of income and living conditions. In the poverty literature, other papers show high exit and re-entry rates depending on temporary income shocks. These conclusions are tested in the case of deprivation and consistent poverty by using latent and mixed Markov models.
This study is based on the ECHP data for Spain (1994-2001)


The laser cladding of Fe power technology was used to repair worn plunger piston surface. The microstructure of cladding layer, binder course and the matrix were observed by OM and SEM. Besides, the micro-hardness of different zones was measured through micro-hardness testing. The results show that the matrix metal microstructure of plunger piston is made of ferrite and austenite. By laser cladding Fe-based power on base metal, the cladding layer grain is fine and uniform, grain growth has obvious direction and finally become dendrites oriented, the microstructure of cladding layer is both second-phase hard particles and Fe-based solutes. The combination between matrix and cladding layer is smooth, belong to metallurgy bonding. The hardness of cladding layer is higher than that of other parts in three parts, the max value of micro-hardness is about 1250HV, it can agree with wear resistance need of plunge piston surface.


A disaster management plan is essential because it can guide library personnel on what to do in a critical time. Using an eight-part survey instrument, this paper documents the impact of Typhoon Haiyan on 22 academic libraries in Northern Panay, Western Visayas, Philippines and the disaster management practices that were implemented. The results revealed that although the majority of the libraries do not have a disaster management plan, they all had common disaster management practices that enabled them to save parts of their collections. Moreover, the study revealed that librarians lacked knowledge and skills on disaster management. This paper was presented at the 40th International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) Annual Conference, Noumea, New Caledonia, September 14–18, 2014.


This volume was conceived as a "best practices" resource for teachers of ESL listening courses in the way that "Vocabulary Myths" by Keith S. Folse (and "Writing Myths "by Joy Reid) is one for reading and vocabulary teachers. It was written to help ensure that teachers of listening are not perpetuating the myths of teaching listening. Both the research and pedagogy in this book are based on the newest research in the field of second language acquisition. Steven Brown is the author of the "Active Listening "textbook series and is a teacher trainer. The myths debunked in this book are: Listening is the same as reading. Listening is passive. Listening equals comprehension. Because L1 language ability is effortlessly acquired, L2 listening ability is too. Listening means listening to conversations. Listening is an individual, inside-the-head process. Students should only listen to authentic materials. Listening can t be taught."


BACKGROUND
To evaluate the incidence and risk factors of incidental prostate cancer (IPCA) in a contemporary cohort of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) patients who underwent trans-urethral resection of the prostate (TURP).

METHODS
A series of 458 consecutive patients who underwent TURP were evaluated between January 2016 to June 2018. Evaluated factors included age (years), body mass index (BMI; kg/square meters), treatment with inhibitors of 5-alpha reductase, previous prostate biopsies, basal prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels (ng/mL), serum leukocyte count (n*10^9/L), weight of resected prostate tissue (grams), grade and stage of IPCA. The multivariate logistic regression model evaluated associations of significant clinical factors with the risk of IPCA.

RESULTS
Overall, IPCA was detected in 30 out of 454 patients (6,6%). A mean of 21,8 grams of tissue was resected. The mean number of positive chips was 5,6 (mean percentage 3,9%) with tumor grade group 1 in 22 cases (73,4%) and tumor stage cT1a in 23 patients (76,7%). On multivariate analysis, independent factors that were positively associated with the risk of IPCA were BMI (odds ratio, OR = 1,121; p = 0,017) and leukocyte count (OR = 1,144; p = 0,027).

CONCLUSIONS
In a contemporary cohort of patients undergoing TURP for the treatment of LUTS, the risk of IPCA was not negligible with a rate of being 6,6%. BMI and serum leukocyte count were found to be independent factors that were positively associated with the risk of IPCA.


The long-term relationship between 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and office BP in patients on therapy is not well documented. From a registry we included all patients in whom antihypertensive therapy needed to be uptitrated. Drug treatment included the direct renin inhibitor aliskiren or an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker or drugs not blocking the renin–angiotensin system, alone or on top of an existing drug regimen. In all patients, office BP and 24-hour ABP were obtained at baseline and after 1 year with validated devices. In the study population of 2722 patients, there was a good correlation between the change in office BP and 24-hour ABP (systolic: r=0.39; P<0.001; diastolic: r=0.34; P<0.001). However, the numeric decrease in office BP did not correspond to the decrease in ABP in a 1:1 fashion, for example, a decrease of 10, 20, and 30 mm Hg corresponded to a decrease of ≈7.2, 10.5, and 13.9 mm Hg in systolic ABP, respectively. The disproportionally greater decrease in systolic office BP compared with ABP was dependent on the level of the pretreatment BP, which was consistently higher for office BP than ABP. The white coat effect (difference between office BP and ABP) was on average 10/5 mm Hg lower 1 year after intensifying treatment and the magnitude of that was also dependent on pretreatment BP. There was a disproportionally greater decrease in systolic office BP than in ABP, which for both office BP and ABP seemed to depend on the pretreatment BP level.


This paper discusses the system of minority protection of the League of Nations. Minority protection occupied a prominent place on the League's agenda, which developed a significant expertise in the field. The League's system of minority protection is often regarded as an experiment. With regard to both material and procedural aspects this assessment is certainly correct. In particular, minority protection based upon legally binding treaties and declarations gave rise to the question of how individual and group rights should be treated within the frame of an international political organization. The paper further examines whether at least some of the elements of the League's minority protection system still persist in the context of contemporary international human rights law.


In the world of stock trading, charting is commonly believed to provide a better view to the stock prices rather than a table. While there are many chart types exist, candlestick is at the top of the heap. Candlestick chart considered gives a quick visual analysis of price action. But despite of its popularity, it is so hard to find a development tools that provide candlestick chart type. On the other hand, there is Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Built based upon the newest Microsoft technology, the WPF differs from the older Windows Forms. By using an Extendable Application Markup Language (XAML) file as user interface definition, WPF use DirectX to render the definition to graphics on screen. Using DirectX also means an ability to create animation and 3D object, things can't be found on Window Forms. Not only improvement in graphics, WPF also introduces a new way to bind data to its interface. Though it's not complicated, it requires a little work to implement. This article is going to use WPF to build a candlestick chart component. This component will able to display a candlestick chart on screen only by binding data to the component


Titanium dioxide is known as an effective semiconductor for photodegradation of dyes in aqueous solution using visible light. Natural sunlight was used to photodegrade Indigo carmine dye solution. This solution was used for growth of onion bulbs. Comparisons between untreated and treated dye solutions were made on the basis of certain growth and biochemical parameters in Allium cepa (onion). An overall increase in growth and biochemical parameters was observed in onion bulbs grown in TiO2 treated dye solution. It has been established that irrigation of vegetables with untreated industrial waste water causes accumulation of heavy metals in plants, which are toxic and cause cessation of crop growth, affects seed germination, lowers crop yield and results in various human health problems demanding that either this practice must be dejected or must be followed with some suitable management. The crops should be irrigated with waste water only after proper treatment. Thus, photoassisted degradation of the wastewaters containing dyes using low cost semiconductor material is a promising technique to treat waste water.


This article is about the story the Dakota people tell about the terrible truth of the Dakota - U.S. War of 1862, and how we might engage it today through restorative dialogue - the living heart of restorative justice practices that have begun to sweep across the world. Restorative justice practices are deeply influenced by certain Indigenous practices such as, most notably, the talking circle practiced in various parts of North America. The author later explains restorative justice in more detail with the premise that restorative justice acknowledges the damaged relationships, as well as the wrongdoing and focuses on healing for those involved, including communities and offenders. Applied within the criminal justice system, restorative justice shares the concern of retributive justice with putting right the wrong that has been done, but restorative justice takes a broader and deeper approach.


This Article examines the symbiotic relationship between copyright law and technology. I describe how an environment characterized by rapid technological change creates two conditions that determine the direction and evolution of copyright law: legal delay and legal uncertainty. I explain how uncertainty over the application of existing copyright law to newly emerging technology catalyzes the actions of copyright owners and users. I argue that uncertainty and delay (1) have an enabling effect on anticopyright sentiments, (2) lead to a greater reliance on self-help efforts by content providers and users, and (3) induce legislative involvement in copyright law. In the final Part of this Article, I consider how the framework of technological uncertainty and delay helps to explain a number of emerging issues in copyright law. I conclude by providing normative proposals for copyright reform. These proposals relate to the choice between standards and rules, as well as the role of courts, legislators, and administrative agencies in the development of copyright law.


In Classical Greece, works defining the nature of art appeared in the various disciplines like medicine, rhetoric, dietetics, architecture and painting. Hippocratic authors tried to show that an art of medicine existed indeed. They contrasted the concept of art with that of chance, not experience that Plato and Aristotle distinguished from art. In fact there are similarities and discrepancies between Hippocratic epistemology and Platoic epistemology. Hippocratic authors maintained that the products of chance were not captured by art. They distinguished the domain of art charactered by explanatory knowledge and prediction from the domain of chance ruled by the unexplained and the unforeseeable. They minimized the role of luck and believed the role of art. Hippocratic authors thought that professional ability contained both knowledge and experience. In Hippocratic corpus, experience is a synonym of competence and usually has a positive meaning. But Plato gave empirical knowledge the disdainful sense and decided a ranking between two types of knowledge. Both Hippocratic authors and Plato held that a genuine art had connection with explanatory knowledge of the nature of its subject matter. A common theme that goes through arguments about art-chance and art-chance is the connection between art and nature. Hippocratic authors and Plato regarded art as a highly systematic process. Art provides us with general and explanatory knowledge of human nature. Art and nature is a mutual relationship. The systematic understanding of nature helps us gain the exactness of art and an exact art helps us understand nature well.


Purpose: Recognizing the key role of AMH testing in shaping the medication and dosing protocols for IVF patients, our study aimed to characterize two common AMH testing platforms and compare the results from each. Methods: Standard AMH assay (no buffer) measurements were performed on the AMH Beckman Coulter Gen II device as controls, and samples (n=85) were run in parallel on the same equipment using the manufacturer's buffer pre-mix of bovine serum albumin with ProClin and Sodium azide as preservatives. Standard vs.modified (pre-mixed/ buffered) assay techniques were also compared retrospectively by using archived serum samples (n=214) obtained at our clinic. Results: Comparison of these two AMH measurement protocols revealed a mean increase in reported values of 39% (range -7 to +300%) using the latter technique, compared to standard assay method. Moreover, interassay variance (standard vs. modified AMH protocol) ranged from -7% to +300%. A retrospective analysis of archived samples found the modified assay method yielded median AMH values 41% higher than results reported by standard assay. Conclusion: While AMH has become increasingly utilized to estimate ovarian reserve, remarkable variation in AMH levels can be reported based on assay techniques. When comparing the standard (non-buffered) AMH assay to the pre-mix/buffered AMH assay, this study provides compelling evidence that the latter testing method will return a significantly elevated value. Clinicians should be aware of these differences and interpret serum AMH measurements carefully, particularly AMH data reported by laboratories using different assay methodologies.


This thesis explores representations of the child in contemporary literature, culture, and criticism. The authors and texts considered are primarily British and post-1979, but the thesis situates them within the context of post-war cultural history, and particularly in relation to changes to perceptions of the 'post-war' itself in the 1980s. From these texts, representations of the child that dramatise the child's entrance into authority as a problem for the adult, one characterised by symbolic or actual violence, ground a case that the child is required to correlate with a recognisable image of himself, one that actually limits his political potential, as the condition for his political or aesthetic representation. Violence against the child is the all-pervasive threat for failure to meet this condition.

Reading these depictions of violence towards the child, notably by Alan Hollinghurst, Ian McEwan, Peter Ackroyd, and Kazuo Ishiguro, this thesis builds upon existing critical work on the child as a current and continuing problem for authority. The theoretical framework derives from cultural history, from the political theory of Hannah Arendt, and from psychoanalysis, particularly as mediated through contemporary Queer Studies. This range positions literary authors as sometimes mediating between psychoanalytic understandings of the child and the political use of the child as representation of the future, a connection already central to the work of seminal contemporary theorists such as Lee Edelman.

The thesis argues that we face a historically specific and psychoanalytically resonant problem of the child and authority: a problem demanding attention to the way we read the child, and with broader implications for reading as the practice of literary analysis and interpretation (one with, as we shall find, a complicated relation to how political authorities require particular 'readings' of the child). Several texts discussed here constitute not only uncanny versions of cultural history, but also interventions against their own reading. These dramatise and resist a pronounced tendency to demand that the child becomes available for recognition, as the condition for its political and aesthetic representation, with violence ensuing for the child who refuses to meet this condition.


Ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) designed and proposed to influence muscle tone are generally called as "tone-reducing" AFOs, "tone-inhibiting" AFOs, or "dynamic" AFOs. These orthoses were originally evolved from the use of plaster casts to influence the positive support reflex or tonic reflex, which were either triggered by pressing reflexogenous areas on the plantar surface of the foot or suppressed by offloading them. The effects of wearing AFOs to influence muscle tone have mainly been studied in patients with cerebral palsy, stroke, or head injury. Although different AFO designs exist, it seems that there is a lack of evidence to demonstrate that these AFOs can actually reduce or inhibit spastic muscle tone. This article specifically reviews the classification of patient groups recruited in previous studies, the design characteristics of AFOs, and the clinical and biomechanical effects reported. The results of this review suggested that the level of evidence for AFOs being able to influence muscle tone was very low. Therefore, further research with randomized controlled trials is required to investigate their clinical effects.


Widely used in biomedical research, zebrafish (Danio rerio) are steadily gaining popularity as a model organism for studying neurobehavioral phenomena. Here, we focus on to the growing spectrum of zebrafish behavioral phenotypes and the 'bigger' biological problems these models help to address. Emphasizing the developing potential of zebrafish as a model organism in biological psychiatry, we discuss several questions related to this field: Do zebrafish have 'emotional'-like behaviors? What are their neural circuits, biomarkers, and ontogenetic origins? And, finally, how can we use this knowledge to build translational bridges to understand human emotions, motivation and personality? Representing a joint effort of several established neurobehavioral laboratories, this article outlines the mounting evidence to support emotionality in zebrafish and other fishes. This conclusion is important to justify the validity of zebrafish 'affective' paradigms and their utility for basic/translational research of normal and pathological behaviors.


The tin doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films were prepared by sol-gel dip-coating process from InCl2.4H2O and SnCl4 in alcoholic solutions. The influences of organic ligands, including acetylacetone (AcAc) and diethanolamine (DEA), on the stability and the composition of the sols, and on the microstructure and properties of the thin films have been investigated. It is indicated that a suitable amount of DEA or AcAc helped to keep the stability of the ITO sols, and helpful for the formation of the homogeneous thin films. The TG-DSC and X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the organic ligands also had effect on the crystallization temperature and crystal structures of the thin films. The thin films with DEA as coordination ligands had a good crystal quality when heated at 450°C. As a result, it exhibited a better electrical property than that with AcAc as stabilizers.


Purpose of review The present review aims to describe the epigenetic alterations observed in oral cancer linked to the exposure to alcohol and/or tobacco. Recent findings Recent findings emphasize the importance of epigenetics in oral cancer progression and in how risk factors (as tobacco and alcohol) affect the basal epigenetic profiles. Deeper techniques and detailed approaches allowed the perception that individual CG changes and even subtle changes may represent important epigenetic alterations resulting in expression changes and other carcinogenic consequences. New classes of epigenetic alterations including noncoding RNAs have been gaining attention. Summary Many epigenetic alterations have been described in oral carcinoma progression induced by tobacco and/or alcohol, including: promoter hypermethylation in genes with tumor suppressive activity, global (genome-wide) hypomethylation, change in methylation patterns throughout the genes, alteration in noncoding RNAs, and histones modifications. These changes represent progress in the knowledge of how these risk factors act in a molecular level. There is an urgent need for large independent studies to move these potential makers further and validate them to identify risk assessment, early diagnostic markers, and therapeutic targets, as well as to be the base for prevention and intervention strategies.


Understanding the pathogenesis of the SARS-CoV-2 infection is key to develop preventive and therapeutic strategies against COVID-19, in the case of severe illness but also when the disease is mild. The use of appropriate experimental animal models remains central in the in-vivo exploration of the physiopathology of infection and antiviral strategies. This study describes SARS-CoV-2 intra-nasal infection in ferrets and hamsters with low doses of low-passage SARS-CoV-2 clinical French isolate UCN19, describing infection levels, excretion, immune responses and pathological patterns in both animal species. Individual infection with 103 pfu SARS-CoV-2 induced a more severe disease in hamsters than in ferrets. Viral RNA was detected in the lungs of hamsters but not of ferrets and in the brain (olfactive and/or spinal bulbs) of both species. Overall, the clinical disease remained mild, with serological responses detected from 7 days and 10 days post inoculation in hamsters and ferrets respectively. Virus became undetectable and pathology resolved within 14 days. The kinetics and levels of infection can be used in ferrets and hamsters as experimental models for understanding the pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2, and testing the protective effect of drugs.


The late Cenozoic lavas of the Raton-Clayton region of New Mexico can be divided into five groups: (1) the Raton-Clayton lavas, widespread alkali olivine basalts; (2) the hornblende andesites and dacites of the Red Mountain lavas; (3) a separate group of pyroxene andesite from Sierra Grande volcano; (4) a feldspathoidal group of basanites and olivine nephelinites; and (5) the Capulin-type basaltic lavas, which are characterized by abundant "cloudy" plagioclase phenocrysts. The olivines of the feldspathoidal rocks zone toward calcium enrichment rather than iron enrichment as in more silicic rocks. This trend can be related to the silica activity of the magma and to changes in pressure during crystallization. The pyroxenes in the lavas of this suite are rich in alumina, and those of the feldspathoidal rocks show strong sector zoning. Ilmenite from one basanite contains over 40 mole percent of the geikelite (MgTiO 3 ) component, and other oxides also have high contents of MgO. The distribution of Mg between oxide phases and olivine follows predictions from thermodynamic data, but does not agree with experimental results. The Fe-Ti distribution in coexisting oxide phases indicates oxygen fugacities near FMQ for the Raton-Clayton and Capulin basaltic rocks, and higher values for the feldspathoidal, andesitic, and dacitic rocks. Estimates of partial pressures of water based on the Kudo-Weill feldspar geothermometer range from 5 kb for a basanite, 2 to 3 kb for the andesites and dacites, to near 1 kb for the Capulin magmas. Fractional crystallization and crustal contamination do not appear to have been significant processes in the origin of these lavas. Partial melting in the lower crust (Red Mountain lavas) and upper mantle under different physical conditions seems to be a more likely explanation of the diversity of rock types displayed in this suite. High water pressures, in particular, may have played a significant role in the genesis of the feldspathoidal and Sierra Grande andesitic rocks.


would have been alike an asset to the profession and to the House of Commons itself. The past and passing generation of medical men are generally aware of this, but it is likely that the younger generation are completely ignorant of the efforts which have brought them a heritage of a better professional life than that extant thirty years ago, and it is probably the younger generation which has swayed this election. It is not only on questions of intrinsic interest to the profession-national health insurance. hospitals, organization of public health services-that medical influence should be exercised in Parliament, but the great problem of number and quality of the population now looming in the near distance, involving such human biological problems as sterilization of the unfit, birth control, reform of the abortion laws, and maternal mortality, will need adequate medical representation if legislation is to be effective and just. Again, there have been repeated attempts to foist an absurd system of medicine into official recognition, and it was chiefly due to Sir Henry's evidence before the committee of inquiry that the last attempt failed completely. It is said that public memories are notoriously short, but surely this shallow-pated amnesia should not inflict the medical profession.-I am. etc.,


In Islamic inheritance system it is usually discussed about the framework of Faraid (Islamic Law of inheritance), Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) and Hibah (gift). For wasiyyah, it is limited up to one-third of the asset value for the non-heirs whereas the other twothird of wealth is transferred to the deceased's heirs by using the Faraid. However the data had shown that number of people who doing wasiyyah is very low. As mentioned in Utusan Malaysian news, it is estimated that only ten percent of people are having the wasiyyah. Thus, this shows that many Muslim are not concern in writing the wasiyyah. As reported by Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Datuk Ir. Hanim in Utusan Malaysia news March 2016, the data has shown that there are around 60 billion of assets are not claimed by the heirs. This statistic are predicted to be increase every year. Therefore, at this scenario, it ffiggers the researchers to explore issues related to reluctance in writing wasiyyah. The purpose of this study is to identify which factors is actually contribute to reluctance in writing wasiyyah. This study had tested the factors such as knowledge, attitude, perception, organization and subjective norms. The data gathered had been analysed using the descriptive analysis, reliability test, correlation analysis and multiple regression to generate the result. Based on the result, only two variables had a significant relationship on reluctance in writing wasiyyah which are attitude and perception.


ABSTRACT This positional paper explores the role of personal networks (family and friends) in caring for people with mental health problems. Since the eighties, major changes have been made in the organization and focus of professional mental healthcare. Correspondingly, new expectations and changes in the division of care responsibilities between people with mental health problems, their personal networks and their professional care providers were created. In this paper, I investigate how the transition in mental healthcare changed the allocation of care responsibilities between personal networks, people with mental health problems and professional caregivers. I will consider why care responsibilities of personal networks have been taken for granted in these processes, and discuss whether personal networks should have a more prominent voice in the assignment of care responsibilities, and how this can be done. A theoretical framework of feminist care ethics inspired by scholars such as Margaret Urban Walker, Joan Tronto and Hilde Lindemann is used to reflect on the need for social inclusion.


DNA has been a pharmacological target for different types of treatment, such as antibiotics and chemotherapy agents, and is still a potential target in many drug discovery processes. However, most docking and scoring approaches were parameterised for protein-ligand interactions; their suitability for modelling DNA-ligand interactions is uncertain.

 This study investigated the performance of four scoring functions on DNA-ligand complexes.

 Here, we explored the ability of four docking protocols and scoring functions to discriminate the native pose of 33 DNA-ligand complexes over a compiled set of 200 decoys for each DNA-ligand complexes. The four approaches were the AutoDock, ASP@GOLD, ChemScore@GOLD and GoldScore@GOLD.

 Our results indicate that AutoDock performed the best when predicting binding mode and that ChemScore@GOLD achieved the best discriminative power. Rescoring of AutoDock-generated decoys with ChemScore@GOLD further enhanced their individual discriminative powers. All four approaches have no discriminative power in some DNA-ligand complexes, including both minor groove binders and intercalators.

 This study suggests that the evaluation for each DNA-ligand complex should be performed in order to obtain meaningful results for any drug discovery processes. Rescoring with different scoring functions can improve discriminative power.


Among the laws that compose California"™s primary welfare program is a rule called the Maximum Family Grant (MFG). Enacted in the mid-1990"™s, this rule places a cap on the amount of cash aid citizens may receive upon the birth of a new child. Recently, members of the California State Assembly have considered repealing the law on the grounds that it is discriminatory. These claims have been met with criticism, doubt, and confusion. In this essay, I will argue that the Maximum Family Grant rule is indeed discriminatory. Like other welfare and family cap legislation, the MFG rule unjustly redistributes social burdens onto the shoulders of poor households and poor children in particular. Such redistribution has demonstrably negative implications for those children"™s health, nutrition, and access to medical care. These facts, I will argue, suffice to ground the claim that the MFG rule and welfare caps like it are instances of institutional discrimination. This essay brings a distinctively philosophical perspective to an ongoing political debate about welfare caps and, I hope, provides some clarity about what precisely is normatively objectionable about the MFG rule and other legislation like it.


It is common to think of federalism as a governmental arrangement that entails competition among governments. Thinking this way, however, is problematic. A competitive system is generally associated with the notion of polycentricity, as illustrated by a market system of free and open competition. The structure of such a system emerges through a competitive process and changes continually as that process operates. By contrast, a federalist system of governments is typically designed as against being emergent, and with that design involving some assignment of powers, duties, and competencies among the member governments. A genuinely competitive federalism must thus be designed in such a fashion as to mirror the workings of a spontaneously generated order. While it is comparatively easy to think of competition among a horizontal array of governments, it is more difficult to do that when those governments are nested within a vertical array of governments. Furthermore, the problem of the anti-commons comes into play in dealing with federal systems because the inalienability of property rights within governmental entities works to stifle the continual adaptation in governmental structure that a genuine system of competitive federalism requires.


Providing healthcare is a multidisciplinary effort where Information plays a lifesaving role. Advances in health technologies have diversified the sources of information that can be analyzed and used for correct diagnostics and decision-making. Researchers and system developers in the field of telemedicine are consciously inventing and improving data generation, collection, and processing methods with a view to improving the quality of care and possibly reduce cost and effort need in providing care. Bringing newly developed technologies specific to information processing to the attention of healthcare providers (individuals or healthcare institutes) is vitally important to improve the quality of care. With this in mind, in this chapter the authors explain the importance of a number of health indicators that can be measured for data collection purposes such as temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate. This chapter also presents several latest technologies that capture data and process it to produce meaningful and visual information that can be used for diagnostics and treatment purposes such as X-ray, computerized tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound. The chapter highlights the importance of data mining techniques in retrieving the required information from an information-pool in providing the right healthcare. The authors emphasize the fact that retrieving the required information may not be enough to provide the right healthcare service since the retrieved information needs to be interpreted by healthcare professionals to resolve a healthcare case.


The compensation of frequency offset for differentially encoded 16- and 64-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) in the presence of laser phase noise is investigated. Differential encoding is employed to solve the four-fold phase ambiguity problem in a nondata-aided transmission system with square QAM constellations. Simulation results show that frequency offset and phase noise can successfully be compensated using a second-order digital filter loop for the square QAM constellations.


Abstract The past decade has witnessed a tremendous growth in the scale and policy influence of civil society in global health governance. The AIDS 'industry' in particular opens up spaces for active mobilisation and participation of non-state actors, which further crystallise with an ever-increasing dominance of global health initiatives. While country evaluations of global initiatives call for a greater participation of 'civil society', the evidence base examining the organisation, nature and operation of 'civil society' and its claims to legitimacy is very thin. Drawing on the case of one of the most visible players in the global response to HIV epidemic, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, this article seeks to highlight the complex micropolitics of its interactions with civil society. It examines the nature of civil society actors involved in the Fund projects and the processes through which they gain credibility. We argue that the imposition of global structures and principles facilitates a reconfiguration of actors around newer forms of expertise and power centres. In this context, the notion of 'civil society' underplays differences and power dynamics between various institutions and conceals the agency of outsiders under the guise of autonomy of the state and people.


Hypoxia induces a vast array of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in breast cancer cells, but their biological functions remain largely unknown. Here we identified a hitherto uncharacterized hypoxia-induced lncRNA RAB11B-AS1 in breast cancer cells. RAB11B-AS1 is a natural lncRNA upregulated in human breast cancer and its expression is induced by hypoxia-inducible factor 2 (HIF-2), but not HIF-1, in response to hypoxia. RAB11B-AS1 enhanced the expression of angiogenic factors including VEGFA and ANGPTL4 in hypoxic breast cancer cells by increasing recruitment of RNA polymerase II. In line with increased angiogenic factors, conditioned media from RAB11B-AS1-overexpressing breast cancer cells promoted tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells in vitro. Gain- and loss-of-function studies revealed that RAB11B-AS1 increased breast cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro and promoted tumor angiogenesis and breast cancer distant metastasis without affecting primary tumor growth in mice. Taken together, these findings uncover a fundamental mechanism of hypoxia-induced tumor angiogenesis and breast cancer metastasis.


Double burden diseases are a serious global problem, which is currently affecting many low and middle income countries, including Bangladesh. However, proper understanding of the need for a joint intervention against both infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases (NCD) has arisen only recently. Excessive intake of calories and poor health hygiene is one of the main common factors behind those conditions and risk factors, along with other lifestyle choices and genetic predisposition. The keys to controlling double burden diseases are primary prevention through promotion of healthy life style which is necessary during all phase of life. Action to reduce should focus on preventing and controlling the risk factors in an integrated manner. Intervention at all levels of society, from communities to governments, private organizations and non-governmental groups, is essential for prevention by amplifying awareness of people about a perfect and healthy lifestyle.


Air Mines The sky over the city's port was the color of a faulty screen, only partly lit up. As the silhouette of nearby buildings became darker, but more clearly visible against the fading blur-filter of a background, the realization came about how persistent a change had been taking place. Slowly, old wooden water reservoirs and rattling HVAC systems stopped being the only inhabitants of roofs. Slightly trembling, milkish jellyfish-translucent air volumes had joined the show in multiples. A few years ago artists and architects seized upon the death of buildings as their life-saving media. Equipped with constructive atlases and instruments they started disemboweling their subjects, poking about their systems, dumping out on the street the battered ugliness of their embarrassing bits and pieces, so rightly hidden by facades and height from everyday view. But, would you believe it? Even ?old ladies?, investment bankers or small children failed to get upset. Of course, old ladies are not what they used to be. It was old ladies themselves that made it happen after years of fights with the town hall, imaginative proposals and factual arguments. An industry with little financial gains but lots of welcome externalities was not, in fact, the ground for investment bankers. But they too had to admit that having otherwise stately buildings make fine particulate pencils with their facades was not the worse that could happen. Yes, making soot pencils had been found an interesting and visible end product of the endeavor, a sort of mining the air for vintage writing tools one can actually touch. The new view from the street did not seem as solid or dignified as that of old, and they hated that the market for Fine Particulates Extraction (FPE, read efpee) had to be applied on a matrix of blocks and streets that prevented undue concentration of the best or worse solutions. It had to be an evenly distributed city policy in order for the city to apply for cleaning casino money. Once the first prototypes had been deployed in buildings siding Garden Avenue or Bulwark Street even fast movers appreciated the sidekick of flower and plant smell dripping down the Urban Space Stations (USS, read use; USSs, read uses) as air and walls cooled off for a few hours after sunset. Enough. It was all nice to remember, but it was now time to go up and start the lightweight afternoon maintenance of their USS. Coop discussions had taken place all through the planning and continued through the construction phase as to how maintenance was going to be organized. Fasters had voted for a pro, pay a small amount and let them use it for rent and produce. In the end some neighbors decided they were slow enough to take care and it was now the turn. Regret came periodically, sometimes a week before, and lasted until work actually started. But lately it had been replaced by anxiety when it needed to be passed over to the next caretaker. It did not look their shift was good enough and couldn?t wait to fix it. Today small preparations needed to be made for a class visit next day from a nearby cook school. They were frequenters. It had not been easy, but it shouldn?t have been that hard. In the end, even the easiest things are hard if they involve a city, buildings and neighbors. On the face of the data, the technicalities and the way final designs had been worked out for adaptation to the different settings, the decision of where to go was self evident, but organization issues and the ever-growing politics of taste in a city of already-gentrified-rodents almost put the project in the frozen orbit of timeless beautiful future possibilities. This is how it was. A series of designs by XClinic and OSS had made it possible to adapt to different building structures, leave in most cases the roof untouched and adapted a new technology of flexing fiberglass tubes that dissipated wind pressure in smooth bending.......


A recent special issue of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education (Vol. 35, Issue 3, 2007) championed 'robust hope' as fundamental to achieving educational utopias, and yet key features of hope were largely overlooked. Although hope feels good and has utility in some circumstances, in other situations different motivations – positive (e.g. curiosity) or negative (e.g. frustration) – may offer greater pedagogical value. Given its intrinsic uncertainty, robust hope is often indistinguishable from vain hope (before the fact). Hence, robust hope may lead to: (1) failure; (2) an exacerbation of existing judgement biases; and (3) emotional reasoning. Given these attendant risks, best-practice principles require that the net pedagogical impact of robust hope be assessed. Occasionally, cutting one's losses is rational – not cynical or apathetic, as suggested by earlier contributors. Positioning robust hope as 'realistic risk taking' does not resolve the aforementioned problems. In the end, a combination of motivations (possibly, although not necessarily, including hope) will likely provide the best pedagogical outcomes.


A Boolean algebra is recursive if B is a recursive subset of the natural numbers N and the operations ∧ (meet), ∨ (join), and ¬ (complement) are partial recursive. Given two Boolean algebras and , we write if is isomorphic to and if is recursively isomorphic to , that is, if there is a partial recursive function f: B1 → B2 which is an isomorphism from to . will denote the set of atoms of and () will denote the ideal generated by the atoms of . One of the main questions which motivated this paper is "To what extent does the classical isomorphism type of a recursive Boolean algebra restrict the possible recursion theoretic properties of ?" For example, it is easy to see that must be co-r.e. (i.e., N − is an r.e. set), but can be immune, not immune, cohesive, etc? It follows from a result of Goncharov [4] that there exist classical isomorphism types which contain recursive Boolean algebras but do not contain any recursive Boolean algebras such that is recursive. Thus the classical isomorphism can restrict the possible Turing degrees of , but what is the extent of this restriction? Another main question is "What is the recursion theoretic relationship between and () in a recursive Boolean algebra?" In our attempt to answer these questions, we were led to a wide variety of recursive isomorphism types which are contained in the classical isomorphism type of any recursive Boolean algebra with an infinite set of atoms.


The clothing apparel industry has evolved at a tremendous speed, keeping with the needs and demands of people, their geographical location, climate, traditions and so on. In the midst of this continued growth, in the April 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse of garment factories in Bangladesh, deemed the second most horrific industrial tragedy after Bhopal, that has left 1000s dead, more wounded, some disabled for life, brand names such as Primark, Loblaw whose brands include Joe Fresh, and others that have denied connections such as Walmart, Carrefour, GAP, and so on, have become the focus of international community"s criticism where corporate social responsibility is concerned. Though most apparel brands claim that their products are "ethically sourced", their attempts to seek manufacturing plants in low-wage developing nations to drive down production costs and increase profits inadvertently gives rise to what is commonly termed as "sweat shops" (Arnold and Hartman, 2005) with forced labour and no regards for their health or safety. Almost a year after the worldshaking collapse, the victims, their families and the garments workers population in general continue to fight for their rights, better standards of living, safer working environments, that seem to be falling on deaf ears. Although this industry seems to be consumer driven, there seems to be glaring gap in the literature and practice that directly involves and uses consumers as a driving force towards ethical manufacturing. This paper revisits the Savar Tragedy using primary and secondary data to highlight the key issues related to the manufacturing industry, particularly the Savar Tragedy in Bangladesh, some solutions that have come in place and proposes future study into possible solutions that involve ethical consumerism for a sustainable future of the industry


This paper describes the events that transpired in the establishment of the Caribbean Primate Research Center (CPRC) and the role played by a number of individuals with interest in promoting primate research in Puerto Rico.


Interpenetrating composites allow a completely 3-dimensional matrix of two phases, in this case an alumina (ceramic) and aluminium-magnesium alloy (metal), to be developed. This 3-dimensionality yields a material with mechanical and physical properties that are superior to either the metal or ceramic individually. The composites were produced by heating an alumina foam and aluminium-magnesium alloys together in flowing nitrogen to in excess of 900°C. At these temperatures the alloy is drawn into the ceramic foam by capillary action. The infiltration process is dependent on the interaction of the alloy with the nitrogen atmosphere in the furnaces. This complex interaction and its affect on the microstructural development has been studied using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) coupled with Energy Dispersive x-ray Spectroscopy (EDS).


The article presents the analysis of the influence of anthropogenic conditions on the dynamics of life forms of meadow plants using the indices of the average number and stability of life forms based on data from long-term monitoring of Zalidov meadows of Kaluga region. It is shown that regular mowing leads to an increase in rod-root plants and an abundance of economically insignificant species. With regular moderate grazing, the number of long root-growing life forms increases, and the abundance of high-value plant species increases. It has been established that for rational use of Zalidov meadows, haying and pasture regimes should be alternated. The issues of the applicability of the indices used to identify general trends in the development of the meadow community depending on anthropogenic impact are discussed.


: The comprehensive scope of this evaluation plan, with both summative and formative components, will provide the data necessary to guide our decision making. Some aspects, such as sampling students' work, the use of simulation, and the testing of actual learning, strengthens this process. However, satisfaction with our initial attempts at evaluation has not clouded an attitude of scrutiny. Undoubtedly, revision of the evaluation methods will be necessary in the future as inadequacies are pointed out to us through experience. The faculty have become acutely aware that curriculum evaluation is a time-consuming, tedious process. However, the faculty, committed to bearing responsibility for student performance, have found their involvement educational as well as satisfying. A well-constructed curriculum evaluation system can give the teacher a sense of security; a belief that what works will be preserved while ineffective components will be deleted. As Dressel points out, "Unless continuing constructive evaluation is evident in some form, both teaching and learning degenerate to rote patterns that hardly justify the designation of education" (Dressel, 1980, p. 197).


Psoriasis affects between 1% and 3% of the population and there is no cure for this chronic skin disease. This article gives an overview of the condition and available treatments. It focuses on managing symptoms, the range of medications available and the impact this chronic condition can have on a sufferer's quality of life. The article looks at medication non adherence remaining the biggest obstacle to management of the condition and the debilitating effect psoriasis can have on an individual's self-esteem and general well-being. It concludes by considering the role of patient support services such as the touch programme.


ABSTRACT This paper addresses the social phenomenon of ageing and emphasizes the importance of past experiences of ageing individuals when creating new solutions to deal with the issue of elderly care. Thus, this paper explores what role the ageing community can play in creating new service solutions for social innovation in senior care and also looks to ascertain how past experiences of the elderly can empower them to develop their own services. A comparative analysis is adopted as a method to respond to these aims. Two projects are used for this comparative analysis. Life 2.0 focused on generating information and communication technology services to provide a platform of support in social interaction for ageing people throughout the EU. BoAi focused on exploring the possibility of transferring the 'good old days' into current elderly care services in China.


Abstract It has been suggested that Echinacea has anti-inflammatory activity in vivo. Nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and interleukin-1beta are important mediators in the inflammatory response. The effect of alcohol extracts of E. angustifolia (EA), E. pallida (EPA) and E. purpurea (EP) on the production of these inflammatory mediators in both LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages in vitro and murine peritoneal exudate cells (PECs) in vivo were investigated. As macrophages produce these inflammatory mediators in response to pathogenic infection, parallel cultures of macrophages were studied for phagocytosis and intracellular killing of Salmonella enterica. EPA and EP in vitro inhibited NO production and TNF-α release in a dose-dependent manner. RAW 264.7 cells treated with EA or EP showed decreased killing over 24 h, although EA enhanced bacterial phagocytosis. Upon bacterial infection, RAW 264.7 cells produce high levels of NO; however, an Echinacea-mediated decrease in NO production was observed. Echinacea alcohol extracts administered orally at 130 mg/kg per day for seven days had a weak effect on NO production and phagocytosis by LPS-stimulated PECs. The results indicated that all Echinacea species significantly decreased inflammatory mediators in vitro, however, only EA and EP reduced bacterial killing. Oral administration of Echinacea alcohol extracts did not adversely affect the development and anti-bacterial function of inflammatory PECs in vivo, however, NO production was decreased during bacterial infection of PECs.


This paper presents one perspective on recent developments related to software engineering in the industrial automation sector that spans from manufacturing factory automation to process control systems and energy automation systems. The survey's methodology is based on the classic SWEBOK reference document that comprehensively defines the taxonomy of software engineering domain. This is mixed with classic automation artefacts, such as the set of most influential international standards and dominating industrial practices. The survey focuses mainly on research publications which are believed to be representative of advanced industrial


Shanghai YinChaoChang a W722 lathe processing of metal parts, workpiece surface machining quality external circular no obvious problem, and the machine's vibration is small. But in the processing of main parts - rubber managers stamped drum, workpiece surface appear periodically outside round the chatter marks, general examination of hard to find the failure causes of machine tools. We adopt mechanical fault diagnosis technology to find fault location and fault machine of the machine, first nature of transmission chain of analysis and calculation, obtains each train parts, use characteristic frequency JGZY - 1C type mechanical failure diagnosis in the daily use of the lathe spindle 560 turn/points and 735 turn/cent two kinds of rotating speed sensor separately carried on the test, pick up the spindle box, respectively go knife box and slip board box to collect the vibration signal of signal filtered (stationary fault) and demodulation spectral analysis, got a lot of lathe vibration signal spectrum diagram. And the calculated value and vibration signal spectrum diagram compares analysis, find out the fault location and machine determine the fault properties. Replace the corresponding gear and bearing, fault phenomena disappear.


We investigated the influence of 10% substitution of rare-earth (RE) elements on the crystallographic, transport, and magnetic properties of La0.67–xRExCa0.33MnO3(RE = Nd, Sm, and Gd, x = 0.0, 0.1) manganite perovskite compounds. The bulk polycrystalline samples were synthesized using solid-state reaction method. The phase purity and crystal structure of studied samples were confirmed by room temperature X-ray diffraction followed by the Rietveld refinement analysis. A high temperature insulator to low temperature metal phase transition is observed in electrical transport measurement. We observed an enhancement in the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and magnetoresistance (MR) by partially substituting La with RE ions. The maximum TCR ≈ 22% and MR ≈ 96% are observed in Gd doped sample. The magnetic transition temperature, Tc, decreases from ∼254 K for the pristine sample to about ∼165 K for the Gd-doped sample. Our analysis of electrical and thermal transport data shows that the Small Polaron Hopping (SPH) is predominant at high temperatures conduction mechanism, whereas at low temperatures mechanism is dominated by electron-magnon scattering. The high temperature insulator paramagnetic phase to low temperature metallic ferromagnetic phase transitions are also observed in thermal conductivity and specific heat.


The ultrasonic wave can be used to study the compatibility between the solvent mixtures. The selective mixture of organic compounds minimizes the lignin present in the surface of the natural fibers by which the modified fibers may enable to be filler for making of composites. In present paper, date palm leave (DPL) has been chosen as natural fiber whose surface is modified with mixture of methanol and acetone. The ultrasonic velocities are determined in binary mixtures of acetone and methanol with different frequencies (1 MHz, 3 MHz and 5 MHz) at temperature of 303 K. The different acoustic parameters like acoustic impedance, bulk modulus, intermolecular free length and compressibility are computed from the ultrasonic velocities and densities. The variations of these parameters are discussed in terms of different intermolecular interactions present in the solvent mixture. The compatibility of solvent mixtures is determined from the nature of excess values of thermo dynamical acoustic parameters. The interactions of selected solvent mixture with surface of the fiber have been investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).


The parametric estimation technique for a source emitting white Gaussian noise in the presence of white Gaussian noise background with an unknown covariance matrix is considered. Simultaneous estimation of both the source parameters and the unknown covariance matrix of noise background can be conducted when the source moves, i.e. its steering vector varies in time. For this scenario, the maximum likelihood statistic was derived for estimation of the source power and the noise covariance matrix. Simplification of maximum likelihood equations was performed assuming a great number snapshot vectors and low signal-to-noise ratio. The results of stochastic numerical simulation are given in case of a point source moving across the uniform sensor array (it was assumed that the source track lies in near-field zone of sensor array) in the presence of uniform noise background and strong interference. The effectiveness of the adaptive beamformer using the inverse estimate of the covariance matrix of non-uniform noise background was demonstrated.


Rachel Carson's landmark book Silent Spring (1962) critically helped spark modern environmentalism. Even now, its fluid prose remains evocative. The vivid imagery coupled with scientific information was both persuasive and emotionally potent. Carson's presentation drew on several themes. One was the balance of nature (1962/1987, pp. 6, 57, 66, 114, 246–248, 251). Through "eons" of history, she wrote, Earth's "developing and evolving and diversifying life reached a state of adjustment and balance with its surroundings" (p. 6). However, Carson urged, the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides threatened that vital balance:

> Man, too, is a part of this balance. Sometimes the balance is in his favor; sometimes – and all too often through his own activities – it is shifted to his disadvantage. (p. 246)

If organisms could not adapt to the "barrage of poisons" hurled recklessly "against the fabric of life," the balance would be lost and, tragically, humans and other species would suffer a world made "unfit for all life" (pp. 8, 156, 279, 297).

Decades later, in 1992, Al Gore, too, appealed to balance in another important book for environmentalism, as its title, Earth in the Balance , prominently announced. Indeed, the concept of balance in nature has a long history, and belief in it remains common in American culture (Egerton, 1973; Hull et al., 2002; Jelinski, 2005; Zimmerman & Cuddington, 2007; Clifford, 2009; Ladle & Gillson, 2009).

I would like to challenge the widespread view (this essay's sacred bovine) that the "balance of nature" concept justifies environmental values. Indeed, quite to the contrary, I contend that it fosters scientifically ill-informed perspectives that ultimately work against both science and the prudential aim of environmental sustainability.

Among professional ecologists, at least, consensus has fallen squarely against any inherent balance in nature (Egerton, 1973 …


We present a theoretical study of the statics and dynamics of a partially wetting liquid droplet, of equilibrium contact angle $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{e}$ , confined in a solid wedge geometry of opening angle $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ . We focus on a mostly non-wetting regime, given by the condition $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{e}-\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}>90^{\circ }$ , where the droplet forms a liquid barrel – a closed shape of positive mean curvature. Using a quasi-equilibrium assumption for the shape of the liquid–gas interface, we compute the changes to the surface energy and pressure distribution of the liquid upon a translation along the symmetry plane of the wedge. Our model is in good agreement with numerical calculations of the surface energy minimisation of static droplets deformed by gravity. Beyond the statics, we put forward a Lagrangian description of the droplet dynamics. We focus on the overdamped limit, where the driving capillary force is balanced by the frictional forces arising from the bulk hydrodynamics, the corner flow near the contact lines and the contact-line friction. Our results provide a theoretical framework to describe the motion of partially wetting liquids in confinement, and can be used to gain further understanding on the relative importance of dissipative processes that span from microscopic to macroscopic length scales.


This paper investigates the effects of environmental temperature fluctuations on the performance of a MEMS accelerometer. The model, vibration equation, and calculation of the output of detection capacitance for the accelerometer are presented. The fluctuations in temperature are considered when evaluating the actual performance of the device. The analysis results show that temperature fluctuations have a great influence on the output of the accelerometer although it has little influence on the resonant frequency of sensing mode and the sensitivity of detection capacitance. The performance deviations under the effects of temperature fluctuations are calculated accurately, which provides a reference for the design of temperature compensation method and robust design for the accelerometer.


Sodium Perchlorate is one of the major starting intermediate product for the manufacture of various Perchlorates viz, Ammonium perchlorate as solid oxidizer and Strontium Perchlorate as Secondary Injection Thrust Vector Control (SITVC) in launch vehicles. This critical product is manufactured industrially by electrochemical oxidation of Sodium Chlorate solution at the anodic surface. Lead dioxide is preferred in various perchlorate cells because of its low cost. Infrequent detachment of Lead dioxide deposits from the substrate during electrolysis is a grave issue confronted by associated electrochemists in bulk manufacture of chemicals. Moreover, a cheaper alternative for continuous manufacture of Sodium Perchlorate using Lead dioxide electrodes has been an onus among various industrial electrochemists.

 Development of a suitable compact flow through electrochemical cell using superfluous or detached Lead dioxide crystals as 'particle' electrodes is the major objective of this paper. This compact bed electrochemical cell, is extraordinarily helpful when confronting with lesser reactant concentration or time consuming reactions. Besides, this proposal adds on flexibility in trimming the size of cells when compared with bulky design of conventional cells. Another objective was to demonstrate continuous electrosynthesis of Sodium perchlorate using Lead dioxide without resorting to expensive Platinum.

 A suitable single bed and a dual bed compact electrochemical cell was made using HDPE body, perforated Poly Propylene distributor, detached Lead dioxide particles, nylon mesh, etc. Four such dual bed cells were made for final demonstration for continuous electro synthesis application.

 From various experimental trials, an optimum values for temperature, flow rate and current load were determined as 600°C, 800 mL/min and 80 A respectively, in single bed system. Inorder to avoid current penetration issue, dual bed cells were employed. Subsequently, critical operational strategy and systematic configuration for arrangement of dual bed cells were made for demonstrating continuous bed electrochemical cells.

 An average current efficiency of about 78.5% could be achieved which is 20-25 % higher than conventional parallel plate electrode system.


The autophagic response of the cell to nutrient deprivation or heat stress is characterized by an increase in the rate of cellular protein degradation. Using temperature-sensitive mutant cell lines that harbor a mutation in the ubiquitin pathway, we have recently shown that this response is dependent on a functional ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1. The ubiquitin pathway is involved in a multitude of cellular events including protein degradation, the best understood of these. Herein the activation of the ubiquitin molecule via E1 is followed by its covalent conjugation to acceptor proteins followed by proteolysis. It is therefore important to study the linkage between the autophagic response and E1. Using these same cell lines, CHO E36 and CHO ts20, we demonstrate that after heat stress or nutrient deprivation there is a rapid and reversible decrease in the buoyant density of subcellular vesicles containing lysosomal hydrolases, a characteristic found to accompany autophagy. This stress-induced change is found in all cell lines examined, independent of the activity of the E1. The light-density vesicles, which comigrate with endosomes on colloidal silica gradients, are not accessible to the endocytic marker transferrin-horseradish peroxidase (HRP) after cellular uptake and subsequent HRP-mediated density shift analysis. Furthermore, morphology of the isolated fractions from control and stress-induced cells was similar. These results thus demonstrate the changes in hydrolase-containing intracellular vesicles that accompany nutritional deprivation or heat stress and support the notion that the linkage of the autophagic response to the ubiquitin system is at a step in autophagy which does not affect the formation of autophagic vesicles.


Introduction Cross-sector collaboration on child obesity prevention is common, yet little research has examined the context of collaboration at the state level. This study describes secular trends in collaboration between state agency staff responsible for school nutrition and physical education activities and other organizations from 2000 to 2012. Methods Data from the School Health Policies and Practices Study were used to describe collaboration between state agency staff and 13 types of public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Breadth of collaboration in 2012 was examined across political, social, and economic conditions. Results Collaboration between state agency staff and other organization types increased from 2000 to 2006 and decreased or stabilized from 2006 to 2012. Breadth of collaboration was greater in states with a physical education coordinator, higher levels of poverty, higher prevalence of childhood obesity, and more public health funding. Breadth was similar across states by census region, political party of governor, majority party in state legislature, percentage non-Hispanic white population, high school graduation rate, and unemployment rate. Conclusion Cross-sector collaboration on school nutrition and physical education was widespread and did not vary substantially across most political, social, and economic measures. Expanded monitoring and surveillance of state-level collaboration would assist efforts to understand how state agencies work across sectors and whether this collaboration affects the support they provide to schools.


The absence of photoionization, in combination with sustained downward plasma motion at night, means that the F region can be severely depleted at the magnetic equator in the morning. As a result, at sunrise, there can be a sudden upward jump in altitude of the F region peak followed by a quick descent in association with the downward motion of the photoionization production peak. This constitutes what is known as the equatorial sunrise undulation. Its anecdotal existence has been reported over Jicamarca while it has been seen repeatedly over Trivandrum, India, during equinox conditions. By contrast, we find that the phenomenon is not as frequent at Jicamarca as at Trivandrum. Using incoherent backscatter radar data from Jicamarca, we show that the differences have an electrodynamical origin. The sunrise undulation gets masked when remnant plasma from the previous night does not move down to low enough altitude. The nighttime residual ion density and its altitude are found to be strongly influenced by the evening and nighttime electric field. There is a strong association between a strong plasma uplift at sunset and the appearance of an undulation at sunrise around the magnetic equator.


Many multiresolution methods have been proposed. Most of them emphasize accuracy and hence are slow. Some methods may be fast, but they may not preserve the geometry of the model. Although there are a few real-time multiresolution methods available, they are developed mainly for handling large terrain models. In this paper, we present a very efficient multiresolution method for continuously reducing the resolution of a triangle model by incrementally removing triangles from it. The algorithm is simple to implement, requires no complicated data structures, and has a linear triangle deletion rate. We also present a method for caching the most recent sequence of triangle removal operations into a list, called the simplification list, so that it is possible to continuously increase the resolution of the model by inserting triangles in the reverse order of the sequence. We will compare our method with Hoppe's progressive meshes. Towards the end of the paper, we discuss the performance and memory usage of our method.


In molecular porous crystals {[M(III)(H(2)bim)(3)](TMA)·20H(2)O}(n) (M = Co, Rh, Ru), the structural property of confined water network and the dynamics of mobile hydrated protons have been examined by the measurement of infrared spectrum and microwave conductivity. The water network undergoes first order phase transition from the ice nanotube (INT) to the water nanotube (WNT) around 200 K, while the infrared spectral features for these states are almost equivalent. Consequently, the water molecules in WNT dynamically fluctuate in the vicinity of the regulated position in INT with maintaining the O-O distance. The additional band observed around 2200 cm(-1) reveals the emergence of an Eigen-like protonic hydrate, around which the O-O distance locally shrinks to ~2.56 Å. The microwave conductivity exhibiting activation-type behavior, isotope effect and anisotropy indicates that the water nanotube is a quasi one-dimensional high proton conductor. Together with the neutron experimental results, we have clarified that the proton and protonic hole are generated by the self-dissociation in some water molecules just hydrated to the carboxylate oxygen atom of trimesic acid. The Eigen-like hydrated proton and protonic hole contribute to the intrinsic proton conduction accompanying local distortions. The carrier density dominated by the intrinsic ionic equilibrium is not large, whereas the actual mobility, which is higher than 1 × 10(-2) (cm(2)/Vs), yields the present high proton conductivity.


This research article describes the remediation of moderate stuttering in an adult client who experienced speech dysfluency for more than 40 years. Treatment took place at an urban residential rehabilitation mission where the client was court sentenced for a history of felonies and current narcotic sales and use. In conjunction with the operant conditioning instruction of the rehabilitation mission, the Ryan Fluency Program was implemented along with the initial use of pause time in response to the complex needs of the client. The article provides an overview of the assessment (Fluency Interviews, Criterion Tests) and treatment program. At present, 2.5 years post-initiation of treatment, the client has reported and been observed to have achieved smooth, forward-flowing, natural sounding speech throughout his work environment, family interaction, and daily life.


The global financial and economic crisis has led to alarmingly high unemployment and underemployment in many European Union (EU) countries. Yet, surveys still find that more than one in three employers has problems filling vacancies. The latest European company survey, in spring 2013, found that about 40% of firms across the EU had difficulties finding staff with the right skills. A 2010 Eurobarometer survey found some 33% of employers identifying a shortage of applicants with the right skills as their main challenge in filling vacancies ( 1 ). Manpower's 2013 survey also found that, on average across 17 Member States, more than 25% of employers reported recruitment difficulties. Some 34% of these employers cite a lack of technical competences while 19% believe candidates also lack workplace skills.


The Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the most significant events affecting the largest number of countries at the same time around the globe. Governments instituted the closure of schools and lockdown of cities and other areas to prevent the spread of the virus. Students had to learn through online platforms meant to enhance continued learning. The current study aimed to explore the extent to which Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown impact families of students with special education needs. Qualitative approach was used; semi-structured interviews were undertaken using online communication tools via Google Meet platform and for data analysis Atlas.ti program was used for coding and categorizing. The findings revolved around main themes in the study include; behavior problems in the children, psychological distress for the parents, and difficulty of delivering the rigid content and schedules. Implications for school and social support are discussed for policymakers in Jordan.

Keywords: COVID 19, families, lockdown, students with special education needs.


Because of the problem of key joint or spline joint, the isometric polygonal profile connection was put forward, and the mathematical model of isometric polygonal curve was analyzed in this paper. Based on the periodicity characteristics of equivalent effective stress and total displacement in the whole structure through preliminary analysis, 1/3 structure of isometric polygonal profile shaft and hub was adopted during geometry model being established. The shearing strength in isometric polygonal profile hub and shaft, the main stress in hub and the total strain in shaft were calculated and analyzed based FEM.


SUPPRESSOR OF VARIEGATION 4 (SVR4, also called MRL7) and its homolog SVR4-like (also called MRL7-Like) were originally identified as important proteins for proper function of the chloroplast in Arabidopsis. Both are nuclear-encoded chloroplast-located proteins, and knockout mutants of either gene result in seedling lethality. Transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed that chloroplast development is arrested at an early developmental stage in both mutants. Accordingly, in the mutant plants severely decreased levels of photosynthetic pigments as well as subunits of the photosynthetic complexes could be detected. In absence of either of the two proteins chloroplast DNA organization was clearly affected. Immunological analysis revealed that SVR4 is a component of the transcriptionally active chromosome (TAC) from barley chloroplasts. Analyses of gene expression indicate that SVR4 and SVR4-like are required for proper function of the plastid transcriptional machinery. We propose that SVR4 and SVR4-like function as molecular chaperones ensuring proper organization of the nucleoids in chloroplasts.


Article history: Received 15 April 2016 Received in revised form 9 August 2016 Accepted 12 August 2016 Available online 13 August 2016 Objective: To study the associations between: 1) number of permanent outdoor play facilities per pupil and 2) the size of the outdoor play area per pupil with sedentary time and physical activity (PA) during school hours in six-, nine-, and 15-year olds. We conducted a cross-sectional study of nationally representative samples of Norwegian six(n = 1071), nine(n = 1421) and 15-year-olds (n = 1106) in 2011 (the Physical Activity Among Norwegian Children Study). The participation rates were 56.4%, 73.1% and 57.8% for six-, nineand 15year olds, respectively. We assessed PA objectively for seven consecutive days using accelerometers, the size of a school's outdoor play area (SOPA) using an online map service and the permanent play facility (PPF) provision using a standardized form during school site visits. We successfully measured SOPA and PPF in 99 schools, from which 3040 participants provided valid accelerometer data. We used generalized least-squares random-effects models with robust variance estimation to assess associations. Our results indicate that better provision of permanent play facilities may reduce sedentary time and increase time spent in light PA among six-year-olds. Permanent play facility provision was not associated with sedentary time or PA among nineand 15-year-olds. Associations found between outdoor play area size, physical activity and sedentary time were negligible. Future research should investigate what types of permanent play facilities may be associated with physical activity in both children and adolescents. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).


For more than two decades, Pinter had been most passionately engaged with world politics as a citizen; as an artist he has often sought to reflect this political engagement through his representation of the relationship between an oppressive totalitarian state and the dissenting individual. In interviews he claims that he was always a 'political playwright'. Yet it is not Pinter's overt political plays which interest me here. This thesis seeks to explore how Pinter was 'political' throughout his career, both in the plays that seem to separate art from politics, and the political activism he was engaged in right up until his death. Firstly, I will focus on the politics of personal relationships, relationships that are consumed with a battle for power between man and woman. Secondly, I will examine his symbolic response to world politics using such relationships as he had become famous for. Thirdly, I will look at his political writings, his poetry, journalism and public speeches which see his increasingly public role as political activist.


In recent years, the complex equipment/systems require a variety of materials with contradictory properties to improve performance and to reduce cost. This has resulted in increased demands for techniques to weld dissimilar materials and for use in large scale industrial production. Particularly the joining of AISI 304 stainless steel and commercially pure copper dissimilar metal couple is extensively employed for various industrial applications, i.e., in the field of electrical and electronics, cryogenics, power generation and transmission, food processing plants, neutron absorbent coolant system, automotive turbo compressor fan and shaft joints, etc. The main purpose of this combination is to utilize the high strength of the steel and high electrical conductivity of copper simultaneously with significant corrosion resistance.
The objectives of the present research work are to characterize and determine the weldability of AISI 304 SS and CP copper dissimilar metal couples without use of any kind of filler materials based on experimental, numerical simulation and statistical modeling approaches. The investigations are carried out by three different types of fusion welding processes such as continuous wave CO2 laser, pulsed wave TIG arc and pulsed wave Nd:YAG laser. The experimental work aimed to investigate the welding induces microstructure, microhardness, residual stress, compositional analysis and tensile properties of butt joint of SS-Cu weldments under different welding conditions separately. The numerical simulation (using ANSYS 15.0 FLUENT® environment) including weld pool shape and temperature obtained during welding have been investigated for laser welding and validate with the experimental results. The aim of statistical modeling is to predict and optimize the SS-Cu weldments in industrial application through desired weld structure with proper microstructure and minimum defects. The design of experiments (DOE) approaches are implemented to design the experiments, develop mathematical models and optimize the welding operations with proper parametric settings.
Although joining of dissimilar metals is a tough task due to their mismatch in properties like physical, chemical thermal, etc., the experimental results showed that a successful weldment of SS-Cu butt joint has been achieved by all three welding processes. The HAZ in CO2 laser welded specimens are found minimum i.e. 10 μm compared to other welding processes, and it is narrower for SS side in comparison to Cu side. The microhardness in the weld zone found to be more than the base materials. The numerical simulation results shows a good agreement with the experimental results in terms of shape of the weld pool and temperature profile for CO2 laser and Nd:YAG laser respectively. A greater fitness of the Taguchi orthogonal array design model for all welding processes, confirms from the corresponding ANOVA table, probability and residual plots. In pulsed TIG arc welding, the formation of weld craters at the end of the weld is resolved by varying ramp down time experimentally. Welding approaches like proper selection of input process parameters and preheating of welding specimens are successfully applied for improvement of weld strength as well as penetration depth during pulsed wave Nd:YAG laser welding processes.


Mobile station position location is one of the important services, which are supported by 3GPP. In this paper, a data fusion model that based on only TDOA measurements and different stage results, which are calculated by the Chan algorithm is proposed. Simulation results in typical wireless radio propagation environments show that positioning accuracy of proposed method is better than the Chan algorithm when the location estimates are corrupted by the nonline-of-sight (NLOS) error and different measurement errors.


Brachiopods were once dominant in all the oceans of the world. but their distributions are non more restricted. There are few species which are found in shallow warm habitats and these are predominantly small. They have exceptionally low metabolic rates and exhibit low energy lifestyles. The majority of living articulate brachiopods are punctate (possessing mantle extensions. or caeca. which traverse the shell). Evidence produced hei-e suggests that the evolution of these phenomena may have been strongly affected by architectural constraints placed on articulate brachiopods by the use of the lophophore for feeding and respiration. They are essentially space limited because of the large volume needed for this organ. In some punctate brachiopods over 75% of their total body volume may be occupied by the lophophore and mantle cavity. This figure is only 60% in an impunctate (no caeca) species and may be only 20% in bivalve molluses. The implications are that caeca evolved to reduce pressure on space requirements, that maximum sizes may be set by the scaling patterns of space allocation and metabolic efficiency is a consequence of space constraints. Current distribution patterns may be strongly affected by the low metabolism and low energy lifestyles. The relative success of small brachiopods in warm shallow seas may have been facilitated by the scaling patterns of space allocations which show small specimens to have similar mantle cavity volumes to bivalve molluscs.


Despite regular inhalation of beta-agonists, topical steroids and anticholinergic aerosols and the achievement of therapeutic blood levels of theophylline, some asthmatics have rapidly fluctuating levels of peak flow measurements throughout the day. Often little or no improvement is obtained with larger doses of corticosteroids. Before embarking on more intense drug therapy, attention should be paid to conscientious adherence to the prescribed regimen and avoidance of aspirin and tartrazine, as well as to exposure to allergens such as those associated with household pets. A number of newer therapeutic options are related to the use of air jet or ultrasonic nebulizers, that allow liquid forms of inhalation agents to be taken slowly in the home environment. In this regard, combination therapy with a beta-agonist and the anticholinergic ipratropium has been shown to have bronchodilating properties superior to either agent used alone. Secondly, sodium cromoglycate in its liquid form appears to have bronchodilator properties; taken on a regular basis, four times per day, it appears to have a steroid-sparing effect. Two alternatives are available for increasing the intensity of corticosteroid therapy, other than by prolonged, high-dose prednisone. The first is that of high-dose inhaled beclomethasone (up to 2000 micrograms/day) using the 250 micrograms/puff inhaler. The second is that of intravenous therapy with methylprednisolone, recently shown to have lung permeability superior to that of prednisolone. Office patients can be treated with occasional or even regular 'pulse' doses of methylprednisolone, an approach that is now finding acceptance in the management of the inflammatory alveolitides.


In 1976,I traveled with the 40 dancers and musicians of the Philippine Bayanihan Dance Company on a ten-month cultural mission to Europe and the United States. I had graduated from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines the year before and completed my internship at the Veterans Memorial Hospital there, and I felt confident I could handle whatever medical problems the group would encounter. However, I had not expected my medical practice to go much beyond handing out medications for fever, cough, and colds and treating feet for splinters and cuts. I certainly had not expected to confront the first major medical problem of my medical career in East Berlin. While performing at the Palace de la Republik, a dancer fell and hit his knee. Minutes later, he had difficulty extending his leg. After an examination and x-ray films, the diagnosis of a torn meniscus was made. Surgery was


Objectives To describe the Minority Men's Oral Health Dental Access Program (MOHDAP) intervention and report participants' outcomes and satisfaction. Methods MOHDAP was designed to increase the oral health knowledge of low-income, African American men in Atlanta, GA, in 2013. A community-based participatory approach and needs assessment guided the intervention development, which consisted of 3 educational modules delivered over a 2-day period. All participants (n = 45; mean age = 50 years) were African American men. We assessed changes in oral health knowledge and attitudes at baseline and postintervention via survey. Results After the intervention, the percentage of correct responses to questions about gingivitis increased by 24.2% (P = .01), about use of a hard (instead of a soft) toothbrush increased by 42.2% (P < .01), and knowledge of ways to prevent gum diseases increased by 16.0% (P = .03). The percentage agreeing with erroneous statements decreased 11.3% (P = .02) regarding oral health-related fatalism and oral health self-care and 17.4% (P = .05) regarding saving front versus back teeth. Conclusions Community-based oral health educational interventions designed for African American men may reduce oral health disparities among this population.


Over the past decades, various methods for comparing the means of two log-normal have been proposed. Some of them are differing in terms of how the statistic test adjust to accept or to reject the null hypothesis. In this study, a new method of test for comparing the means of two log-normal populations is given through the generalized measure of evidence to have against the null hypothesis. However calculations of this method are simple, we find analytically that the considered method is doing well through comparing the size and power statistic test. In addition to the simulations, an example with real data is illustrated.


The use of computers has revolutionised teaching and learning in various educational institutions across the world more than ever before. Despite the improvement computers have brought to teaching and learning, most schools in developing nations have focused on using computers to improve students' achievement and attitudes and overlooked other learning outcomes such as social skills that could foster functional citizenship skills in students. It is in light of the foregoing that this study evaluated the impact of computer-assisted instructional strategy on schoolchildren's social skills in a developing context. The study is underpinned by the constructivist learning theory which provided the theoretical support for computer-assisted instructional strategy evaluated in this research. The data analysed shows that there was no significant main effect of computer-assisted instructional strategy on schoolchildren's social skills. However, male schoolchildren benefitted more from the computer-assisted instructional strategy than female schoolchildren. The study recommended the use of computers to complement traditional lecture methods in fostering the social skills of schoolchildren in developing countries. Future research could focus on blending computer-based instructional strategies with traditional teaching methods.


OBJECTIVE
This systematic review aimed to assess the clinical impact of neuromuscular electrical stimulation as a treatment modality for patients with oedema.

DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SELECTION
PubMed was searched up to July 2018 for randomized and non-randomized clinical trials comparing neuromuscular electrical stimulation vs no stimulation following the formation of oedema. A modified Downs and Black checklist was used to evaluate the quality of the evidence.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Initial searches yielded 150 results. Removal of duplicates reduced this number to 97 results. Seventy-five studies were excluded following a review of titles and abstracts. Full-text screening eliminated 15 studies. A final total of 7 studies met the inclusion criteria. Six studies supported the use of neuromuscular electrical stimulation for oedema reduction, and one study did not find an effect, but reported inter-group variance.

CONCLUSION
The results of this systematic review support the use of neuromuscular electrical stimulation for ameliorating the abnormal accumulation of interstitial fluid, which is clinically shown as oedema. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation is effective in a number of rehabilitation settings and patient groups, for treatment of both upper and lower limb oedema. However, further trials are needed to reinforce these findings.


Since 1969, Ethan Allen has been the subject of three biographical studies, all of which indulge in sustaining and revitalizing the image of Allen as a physically imposing Vermont yeoman, a defender of the rights of Americans, an eloquent military hero, and a master of many guises, from rough frontiersman to gentleman philosopher. Seeking the authentic Ethan Allen, the authors of this volume ask: How did that Ethan Allen secure his place in popular culture? As they observe, this spectacular persona leaves little room for a more accurate assessment of Allen as a self-interested land speculator, rebellious mob leader, inexperienced militia officer, and truth-challenged man who would steer Vermont into the British Empire. Drawing extensively from the correspondence in Ethan Allen and his Kin and a wide range of historical, political, and cultural sources, Duffy and Muller analyze the factors that led to Ethan Allen's two-hundred-year-old status as the most famous figure in Vermont's past. Placing facts against myths, the authors reveal how Allen acquired and retained his iconic image, how the much-repeated legends composed after his death coincide with his life, why recollections of him are synonymous with the story of Vermont, and why some Vermonters still assign to Allen their own cherished and idealized values.


The World Development Report 1993 announced that global life expectancy was then 65. Experience in the developed world suggests that the World Health Organization's dictum, 'health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being', is simply not attainable for the foreseeable future. As physical health has improved, mental problems have become more prominent and a sense of well-being has declined. Furthermore, as the population ages and medical technology improves, the cost of health care grows almost exponentially. Since the population of the developed world is continuing to age and aging is spreading rapidly throughout the developing world, knowledge is the principal way of dealing with this seemingly intractable problem: we must know, quantitatively, the age-specific causes of ill health, and we must know which means of prevention and treatment are effective. Finally, we must apply that knowledge rationally.