Trending and Thriving, CRISPR/Cas has expanded its wings towards diagnostics in recent years. The potential of evading off targeting has not only made CRISPR/Cas an effective therapeutic aid but also an impressive diagnostic tool for various pathological conditions. Exosomes, 30 - 150nm sized extracellular vesicle present and secreted by almost all type of cells in body per se used as an effective diagnostic tool in early cancer detection. Cancer being the leading cause of global morbidity and mortality can be effectively targeted if detected in the early stage, but most of the currently used diagnostic tool fails to do so as they can only detect the cancer in the later stage. This can be overcome by the use of combo of the two fore mentioned diagnostic aids, CRISPR/Cas alongside exosomes, which can bridge the gap compensating the cons. This chapter focus on two plausible use of CRISPR/Cas, one being the combinatorial aid of CRISPR/Cas and Exosome, the two substantial diagnostic tools for successfully combating cancer and other, the use of CRISPR in detecting and targeting cancer exosomes, since they are released in a significant quantity in early stage by the cancer cells.


Prospective epidemiological studies across several populations have indicated that insulin resistance may be the primary defect in the development of type 2 diabetes (DM2), as it can be detected long before the deterioration of glucose tolerance occurs. The continuum of the disease progresses as insulin resistance worsens, and frank diabetes appears when the β cell can no longer compensate with increased insulin secretion. Thus, understanding the cellular events involved in insulin action, as well as the primary molecular site underlying insulin resistance, will have a major impact on efforts to develop new treatments for diabetes.

Insulin normally increases the uptake, storage, and oxidation of glucose in skeletal muscle. Insulin-stimulated glucose disposal is significantly reduced in insulin-resistant subjects, reflecting a defect in glucose transport, phosphorylation, and utilization or storage. Shulman and colleagues (1) have quantified glucose metabolism using nuclear magnetic resonance in patients with DM2, pinpointing glucose transport as the primary site at which insulin action fails. Because glucose uptake and metabolism are critical for the control of glycogen synthase activity by insulin, impaired glucose transport will also lead to a secondary reduction in glucose storage in muscle.

The stimulation of glucose transport by insulin involves the translocation of vesicles containing the GLUT4 glucose transporter isoform from intracellular sites to the cell surface (2). This is a multistep process involving the release of GLUT4 vesicles from their intracellular tethering sites, trafficking of the vesicles to the plasma membrane, and subsequent docking and fusion to expose the transporters at the cell surface. Thus, it is likely that the insulin receptor generates multiple signals to regulate this complex process. One critical pathway involves activation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase), which leads to the subsequent phosphorylation and activation of the protein kinase Akt (or protein kinase B). While some studies have shown that Akt is essential in GLUT4 vesicle translocation, others have disputed this claim (reviewed in ref. 3). Moreover, several other growth factors and adhesion molecules can activate PI 3-kinase and Akt without increasing glucose transport. Thus, the exact requirement for Akt activation, both as an integral signaling component of insulin action on glucose metabolism and as a potential locus for development of insulin resistance and DM2, remains controversial.

GLUT4 levels are not reduced in diabetic patients (4), indicating that the defect lies in the signaling pathways or the membrane trafficking machinery. In this issue of the JCI, Kim et al. investigated the involvement of Akt in the development of insulin resistance and DM2 (5). The effects of insulin on glucose metabolism and enzymatic activation in obese, insulin-resistant, and diabetic patients were compared with the effects in lean controls. To our knowledge, the authors have demonstrated for the first time that Akt is phosphorylated and activated in vivo in response to insulin in human skeletal muscle biopsies. Surprisingly, the degree of phosphorylation and enzymatic activation was comparable in all 3 patient groups, despite the fact that the stimulation of glucose disposal, PI 3-kinase, and glycogen synthase activities was severely impaired in muscle from obese nondiabetic and diabetic subjects compared with controls. These results strongly suggest that Akt does not play a crucial role in the development of insulin resistance in human skeletal muscle, or in the progression to frank diabetes. However, these data do not preclude the involvement of Akt in the normal regulation of GLUT4 trafficking by insulin. Indeed, the degree of Akt activation correlated well with glucose disposal rate in the lean control group.

The cause of impaired GLUT4 translocation in insulin-resistant subjects is thus still unclear. One possibility is that the defect lies downstream of Akt, perhaps in the yet unidentified substrates of the kinase. Alternatively, PI 3-kinase activation may stimulate the activity of another kinase, such as PKC-ζ, which, in turn, can mediate insulin-stimulated glucose transport (6). However, there are also likely to be other signaling pathways involved in insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation. A cell-permeable derivative of PIP3, a lipid signaling product of PI 3-kinase, can increase GLUT4 translocation in cells pretreated with insulin and the PI 3-kinase inhibitor wortmannin (7). However, PIP3 is ineffective in the absence of insulin, indicating that at least one PI 3-kinase–independent pathway is required for GLUT4 mobilization. This result may explain the inability of other growth factors to increase glucose transport, despite their robust stimulation of PI 3-kinase and Akt.

The precise mechanisms by which GLUT4 vesicles are released from intracellular sites and subsequently fuse with the plasma membrane remain uncertain. The docking of GLUT4 vesicles at the cell membrane is mediated by the interaction of the vesicular v-SNARE protein VAMP2 with membrane-associated t-SNARE proteins, such as syntaxin-4 and Munc18c (2). This interaction is also likely to be modulated by insulin, because of the dissociation of a regulatory protein that masks syntaxin-4, allowing for both the subsequent binding of VAMP2 and GLUT4 vesicle fusion (8). Interestingly, the regulation of SNARE interaction by insulin appears to be unaffected by PI 3-kinase inhibitors. It is tempting to speculate that PI 3-kinase activation by insulin mediates the release of GLUT4 vesicles from intracellular docking sites, whereas a second, PI 3-kinase–independent pathway regulates GLUT4 vesicle fusion with the plasma membrane (Figure (Figure11).

Figure 1

Insulin stimulates glucose transport through multiple signaling pathways. Insulin causes the release of glucose storage vesicles (GSV) from intracellular tethering sites. Additionally, insulin stimulates the binding of the vesicular protein VAMP2 to syntaxin-4, ...

The identification of defective glucose transport as the primary locus causing insulin resistance has been a major step forward, yet the specific molecule(s) that is compromised remains unclear. Although the patient pool was limited in size, and the results await confirmation in larger studies, the present work discounts the involvement of reduced Akt activation in the development of DM2. Clearly, attention will now be focused on molecules downstream of Akt activation, and on defining the players in the second signaling pathway, which may confer the unique ability of insulin to regulate glucose homeostasis.


Although an early and influential review led to the often-cited conclusion that color vision is rare among mammals, more recent findings suggest that it is actually widespread. According to Jacobs, all non-nocturnal mammalian species that have been adequately examined show some color vision capacity, although the degree varies enormously. Data on the presence and characteristics of color vision in the horse, however, remain sparse and none in the case of ponies. Eight Caspian ponies were presented with a series of two-choice color vs. grey discrimination problems. One mare pony was eliminated due to traumatic injury to the eye. Experiments were performed in a box of 3 × 3 meter containing a wall with two translucent panels that were illuminated from behind by light projected through color or grey filters to provide the discriminative stimuli. Ponies were first adopted to the stall (box) with two panels in it and then learned to push one of the panels in order to receive the food rewards behind the positive stimuli in an achromatic light-dark discrimination task. The ponies were then tested on their ability to discriminate between grey and four individual colors: red; 617 nm., yellow; 581 nm., green; 538 nm. and blue; 470 nm. The criterion for learning was set at 85% correct response, and final testing for all color vs. grey discrimination involved grey of varying intensities, making brightness an irrelevant cue. The ponies were tested with all four colors vs. grey discriminations. Except two ponies, the rest were successfully reached the criterion for learning blue color vs. grey discrimination. Only two ponies reached the criterion for learning green color vs. grey discrimination. Only tow ponies reached the criterion for discriminating red and yellow vs. grey. So the answer to the question "do the ponies see color" is yes, they can discriminate between the four selected color vs. grey.


Ancient DNA (aDNA) provides powerful evidence for detecting the genetic basis for adaptation to environmental change in many taxa. Among the greatest of changes in our biosphere within the last century is rapid anthropogenic ocean warming. This phenomenon threatens corals with extinction, evidenced by the increasing observation of widespread mortality following mass bleaching events. There is some evidence and conjecture that coral-dinoflagellate symbioses change partnerships in response to changing external conditions over ecological and evolutionary timescales. Until now, we have been unable to ascertain the genetic identity of Symbiodinium hosted by corals prior to the rapid global change of the last century. Here, we show that Symbiodinium cells recovered from dry, century old specimens of 6 host species of octocorals contain sufficient DNA for amplification of the ITS2 subregion of the nuclear ribosomal DNA, commonly used for genotyping within this genus. Through comparisons with modern specimens sampled from similar locales we show that symbiotic associations among several species have been static over the last century, thereby suggesting that adaptive shifts to novel symbiont types is not common among these gorgonians, and perhaps, symbiotic corals in general.


Globally aquaculture is seen as an increasingly important component in the quest to achieve food security in light of such drivers as a decline in capture fisheries, an expanding global population and climatic change. However, it is widely recognised that in many countries poor regulation acts as a major constraint on the development of the sector. This paper, using the Irish oyster industry as an example highlights not only how regulation can be seen as a significant source of risk in itself to aquaculture, but also how it also increases the level of other risks to the successful development of the sector. Mechanisms for increasing the resilience of the sector by dealing with these risks are reviewed and two possible approaches (supporting collaborative action and backing selected producers) to strengthening the structure of the industry are considered. Both approaches are shown to have strengths and weaknesses


SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITYA decade after seizing control of their destinies, the former East Bloc countries are struggling to emerge from an intellectual dark age for the social sciences--disciplines that were once subjugated to serve the state. With massive help from foundations in the West, new social science institutions are sprouting. Indeed, eastern European social scientists have no more rewarding subjects for study than themselves as the area undergoes an unprecedented social and economic transformation. But economic turmoil and tenured faculty members who are resistant to change remain obstacles to reform.


Background: Nurses as a member of the care team play an essential role in the care of patients at the end of life and their families. In this study, the correlation between nurses' attitude towards death and the quality of nursing care to patients at the end stages of life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) by October 2018 was reviewed.
Method and Materials: In this study, internal databases for Persian articles, including SID, MagIran, IranMedex, and also www.irandoc.ac site for dissertations were reviewed as well as PubMed, ISI web of knowledge and Google Scholar databases were assessed to study English articles by October, 2018 and ten articles were finally entered into the study.
Results: In this review, 1394 subjects were analysed in the ten selected articles, six articles in Persian and four articles in English including nine observational, and one qualitative study.
Conclusion: According to the results, nurses who had completed training courses and patient care workshops had a better attitude to the terminal stage of life. Accordingly, such training can lead to the development of terminal care.


This paper describes a kinetic study on reaction textures in eclogitic rocks from the Sulu region, eastern China. Some of the eclogitic rocks display a decompressional reaction texture, whereby kyanite grains are surrounded by plagioclase coronas and are never in contact with quartz. The change in mineral parageneses with progress of the reaction was predicted by constructing chemical potential diagrams in a model system. The chemical potential diagrams indicated that the chemical potential of 2Na2O + CaO (2µNa2O + µCaO) in intergranular regions between kyanite and quartz should decrease with decreasing pressure, whereas 2µNa2O + µCaO in intergranular regions between garnet and omphacite should increase with decreasing pressure. Thus, upon decompression, an inequality in chemical potential arises in the rock. To reduce this inequality, garnet and omphacite react to produce amphibole and plagioclase and release Na2O and CaO. Then, the released Na2O and CaO components diffuse into the regions between kyanite and quartz grains and react to produce plagioclase between them. This model also indicates that the chemical potential of SiO2 should decrease around kyanite grains during the progress of the decompressional reaction, and Si‐undersaturated conditions should have formed around kyanite grains in spite of the presence of quartz in these eclogitic rocks. Thus, spinel or corundum that are not stable in the system with excess quartz can form as a metastable phase, as observed in eclogitic rocks from the study areas. Phase diagrams in the system with excess quartz should be carefully applied for analysis of such reaction textures.


An essential branch of the adaptive immune system is formed by T cells which are produced in the thymus. The absence of T cells can be detrimental to the host as is the case in acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The goal of this thesis is to gain insights into the dynamics of different T-cell subsets in healthy as well as disturbed situations. This information is important not only in understanding how the immune system is regulated normally, but also in guiding therapeutic strategies when the immune system gets disturbed. By combining mathematical modeling with experimental data, this thesis demonstrates how the two can complement each other in quantifying the kinetics of T cells , and in resolving some of the discrepancies in previous kinetic estimates and in the mechanisms of T-cell maintenance in mice and men. In young adult mice, we estimate that naive CD4 and CD8 T cells have expected life spans of 48 and 91 days, while CD4 and CD8 memory T cells have expected life spans of 12 and 17 days, respectively. Our analyses show that throughout life, naive T cell production in mice almost exclusively occurs in the thymus, which implies that in the event of lymphopenia in mice, thymic output is central to successful immune reconstitution. In contrast, studies based on T-cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) have suggested that in humans T-cell proliferation plays a key role in naive T-cell maintenance during adult life. Our results therefore highlight an important qualitative difference in T-cell dynamics between mice and humans. Extrapolation of experimental results from mice to humans should hence be done with caution. Recent work using deuterium labeling from our group indicated that in human adults naive T cells are kinetically homogeneous and very long-lived. This is in contrast to the current consensus that recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) form a separate short-lived sub-population of naive T cells. In several studies described in this thesis, we find no evidence that RTEs in either mice or men form a kinetically separate sub-population of naive T cells. The typical decline in CD4+ T-cell numbers that is observed during HIV infection is accompanied by a shift in the kinetics of both naive and memory CD4 and CD8 T cells to faster turnover rates compared to healthy controls. Our analyses show that in HIV-infected individuals, naive CD4 and CD8 T cells have a 3.3-12 fold shorter expected lifespan, and CD4 and CD8 memory T cells a 2.8-3.1 fold shorter expected lifespan compared to healthy controls. The increased T-cell loss rates in HIV infection are accompanied by higher per capita production rates of both naive and memory T cells. In naive T cells , this increased turnover can explain our observation that longitudinal TREC dynamics after infection are biphasic. In this case, HIV triggers a massive recruitment of naive T cells into the effector/memory compartment where they are quickly lost. We also predict shortening of naive T cell telomeres after HIV infection contrary to previous findings that telomeres are normal in HIV patients. This discrepancy can be attributed to the effect of individual variations when extrapolating cross-sectional data to longitudinal dynamics. We show that changes in thymic output, and T-cell death and proliferation rates tend to affect average TREC contents and telomere lengths similarly. Especially when naive T-cell life spans are affected, as is the case in HIV infection, the observed TREC dilution can only be explained by increased proliferation rates. Reduced thymic output could however add to the observed decline of naive T cells. Indeed, our mouse model of HIV-independent chronic immune activation shows that chronic immune activation is sufficient to cause severe naive T cell depletion, while decreased thymic output aggravates the naive T-cell loss. This suggests that therapeutic strategies for HIV infection that are aimed at boosting thymic function may fail to reconstitute the CD4 T cell pool if immune activation is not simultaneously kept under control.


This article summarizes the 3-day international workshop Radio Stars and Their Lives in the Galaxy, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory on 2012 October 3–5. The workshop was organized to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of advances in stellar and solar astrophysics recently (or soon to be) enabled by the latest generation of state-of-the-art observational facilities operating from meter to submillimeter wavelengths. The meeting brought together both observers and theorists to discuss how radio wavelength observations are providing new and unique insights into the workings of stars and their role in the Galactic ecosystem. Topics covered included radio emission from hot and cool stars (from the pre- to post-main-sequence), the Sun as a radio star, circumstellar chemistry, planetary nebulae, white dwarf binaries and novae, supernova progenitors, and radio stars as probes of the Galaxy.


In this thesis we investigate the quantum aspects of black holes near extremality. In particular we seek evidence that a near-extremal black hole has a microscopic description in terms of a two dimensional conformal field theory (CFT). We first demonstrate how the low temperature expansion of the first law of thermodynamics leads to an expression for the entropy of extremal black holes which can be recast as the Cardy formula for the entropy of a chiral two dimensional CFT, in agreement with the Extremal Black Hole/CFT correspondence. We apply Sen's entropy function formalism to fortify this result by reproducing it in a gravitational setup. We extend our first law analysis to a class of near-Extremal Vanishing Horizon (near-EVH) black holes. These black holes have low entropy and temperature, and their geometries contain locally asymptotically AdS3 throats in the near horizon region. The low temperature expansion of the first law is compatible with the first law for a three dimensional BTZ black hole. As the BTZ black hole has an AdS/CFT description in terms of a non-chiral two dimensional CFT, our result can be viewed as thermodynamic evidence for the EVH/CFT correspondence, which states that gravity on the near horizon EVH geometry is described by a 2d CFT. A near-EVH black hole, or low energy excitation around an EVH black hole, is described by excitations of the dual 2d CFT. As case studies of our first law analysis and the EVH/CFT correspondence, we focus on two asymptotically AdS5× S classes of near-EVH black holes. The two cases have interesting individual properties and, by the AdS/CFT correspondence, dual descriptions as states in N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory . We can compare these (UV) pictures to the two dimensional descriptions that emerge from the near horizon, or low energy, dynamics. All EVH near horizon geometries have local AdS3 factors which become BTZ black holes when the configurations are excited from EVH to near-EVH. In the study of static black holes with three R-charges, we examine the non-BPS and nearBPS regimes separately. While the non-BPS near horizon limit is locally regular, in the nearBPS case the near horizon procedure requires focussing geometrically on a strip of the horizon, and the degrees of freedom of the dual CFT2 can be associated with stretched strings between giant gravitons in the transverse five-sphere. The near-EVH limit of non-BPS stationary charged black holes is obtained by taking the vanishing limit of one or both of the angular momenta. When one of the momenta is small, the AdS3 angle is a combination of azimuthal angles in the AdS5 and S regions of the geometry. Taking the vanishing limit of both of the angular momenta leads to a near horizon limit which contains a BTZ black hole that is non-trivially fibred by a three-sphere. For each of the case studies we use the AdS3/CFT2 dictionary to specify dual IR CFT2 descriptions of the black holes. We outline a map between the UV and IR near-EVH excitations and demonstrate how the first law reduces in the near-EVH limit to the first law of a BTZ black hole. As a consistency check we compare our results with those of the Kerr/CFT correspondence.


The clinical features as well as prognosis of schizophrenia manifesting by acute transient psychoses at a mature age were studied in 80 patients. Two types of manifesting attacks were described: the first one developed as an affective delirious state with fantastic subject matter of delirious emotional experience and with clouded consciousness; the second one developed as an acute paranoid. The latent period characterized by contractive reactive lability preceded transient psychoses as the disease manifestation. Psychic disorders that followed depended on the reactive lability of the latent period. The clinical course was slow-progressive; the repeated "clishe"-like attacks developed transiently. External pathogenic effects influence on transient psychoses clinical course is discussed. The peculiar variants of schizophrenic psychosis developing as transient attacks, which appeared to be reactions by their mechanism but fhyft by their clinical matter, are also discussed.


Ambitiously, the UK aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. Since the use of housing accounts for about 27 per cent of UK CO2, and most new-build adds to the number of homes rather than substituting for them, housing's biggest contribution to better energy use and lower carbon emissions in the UK will come from retrofitting the country's existing stock. Moreover retrofitting particularly matters to registered providers of social housing, who seek guidance about the energy efficiency of their properties. This paper argues that an exclusive focus on just one of the technical, economic or social aspects of retrofit is inadequate. Using both theory and case-based experience, it discusses a number of ways, both technical and qualitative, of best measuring what retrofitting can do. It concludes that an integrated, comprehensive understanding of the retrofit process is essential to the making of informed decisions on the energy efficiency of homes, particularly at the scales required.


PURPOSE
This study aims to determine the effect of psychoeducation, given to nurses working in a psychiatry clinic, on level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding physical restraint.

DESIGN AND METHODS
This study was conducted with a randomized-controlled-study design. A total of 111 nurses were recruited and randomly assigned to experimental (n = 53) and control (n = 58) groups. The experimental group received psychoeducation, while no intervention was applied to the control group. This study was conducted in a psychiatric hospital located in the Eastern Anatolia of Turkey. A Descriptive Form and the Levels of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Nurses Regarding Physical Restraints Questionnaire were used to collect data.

FINDINGS
Statistically significant differences were found between the pretest and posttest total mean scores on the level of knowledge (P = .000), attitudes (P = .000), and practices (P = .000) of the nurses in the control group and the study group.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
An increase in the level of knowledge and positive improvement in attitudes and practices were observed in the nurses who received psychoeducation. Providing nurses with psychoeducation on physical restraint can positively contribute to improving their level of knowledge and to eliminating their negative attitudes and practices on this subject.


Teaching philosophy is much more than just teaching style, or a framework for a course. It can be defined as our beliefs about life that are carried out in our teaching practice, which serve as a foundation for our educational philosophies (Zinn, 2004). In general, teaching philosophy can be a tool for improving practice; there are several, significant reasons for exploring our adult teaching philosophies more fully (White & Brockett, 1987). In an earlier work, Apps (1973) identified the following benefits of developing a philosophy, including: informed and improved decision-making relevant to practice, more effective planning of educational programs, and analysis of situations. More recent works have expanded Apps (1973) description, showing that personal philosophies towards adult education are developed by factors such as positionality, referring to race, class, and gendered identity (Bank, Delamont, & Marshall, 2007; Brown, Cervero, & Johnson-Bailey, 2000); introspection and understanding of our individual roles as adult educators (Cranton, 2006; Heimlich & Norland, 2002); prior educational experiences (Taylor, 2003); and, consideration of philosophy as an opportunity to explore alternative viewpoints to our own (Beatty, Leigh, & Dean, 2009). The majority of literature addressing philosophies in adult education practice focus on how philosophy influences traditional, face-to-face classroom settings (Elias & Merriam, 1995; Strom, 1996; Tisdell & Taylor, 1999). However, little information exists that describes how philosophy relates to online adult education instruction. The purpose of this article is three-fold. First, it describes the intent and purpose of adult education philosophy. Second, it examines key differences between traditional and online instruction, with the main body of this paper focusing on the role of adult education philosophy in online education. Focusing on three, updated philosophies - humanism, critical-humanism, and emancipatory education--the final section explores how adult education philosophy undergirds and influences online education program settings, particularly from the standpoint of the instructor's role. The Purpose of Adult Education Philosophy Examination of individual adult education philosophies helps us to discover if our beliefs are aligned with our practice (Tisdell & Taylor, 1999). As Beatty et al. (2009) suggest, "Core elements of one's teaching philosophy can influence course design and the classroom environment" (p. 99). Also, our own self-awareness as educators, including relationships with students, colleagues, and roles in the classroom can lead to a more authentic practice where class structure, approach, and content is aligned with the perspectives of the educator (Cranton, 2006). As Driscoll and Carliner (2005) describe, "differences in reasons for teaching and the societal goals for providing education are the fundamental issues underlying an educational philosophy" (p. 30). Once we create a basic view of ourselves as educators, we can begin to determine which philosophical lens is best aligned with our beliefs. Adult education philosophy is typically divided by major categories: liberal, behaviorist, progressive, humanistic, and radical education (Elias & Merriam, 1995). This article focuses on three updated philosophies- humanism, critical-humanism, and empancipatory--as described by Tisdell and Taylor (1999), which were partially based on Elias and Merriam's earlier work. This article does not dismiss the perspectives presented by Elias and Merriam (1995). Rather, the three philosophies presented here describe what Tisdell and Taylor (1999) present as more current approaches aligned with adult education practice. Adult education philosophy is not limited to a traditional, face-to-face classroom environment. As adult education programs increasingly utilize online classroom environments, philosophy should inform practice for educators of these programs as well. …


Wet natural gas was dried by being passed through a carbon steel vessel that contained a molecular-sieve drying agent. The drying agent became saturated after several hours in service and was regenerated by a gas that was heated to 290 to 345 deg C in a salt-bath heat exchanger. The tee joint in the piping between the heat exchanger and the sieve bed failed after 12 months. A hole in the tee fitting and a corrosion product on the inner surface of the pitting was revealed by visual examination. Iron sulfide was revealed by chemical analysis of the scale which indicated hydrogen sulfide attack on the carbon steel. The presence of oxygen was indicated by the carbon and sulfur found in the scale on the piping and in the sieves indicated that oxygen combined with moisture produced conditions for attack of hydrogen sulfide on carbon steel. Turbulence with some effect from the coarse grain size was interpreted to have contributed. The piping material was changed from carbon steel to AISI type 316 stainless steel as it is readily weldable and resistant to corrosion by hydrogen sulfide.


Ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism of the diamond-bearing gneisses in the Kokchetav massif, USSR, has been dated at 530 ±7 Ma (2&sgr,) by SHRIMP ion-microprobe analysis of metamorphic zircons. Zircon xenocrysts as old as 2000 Ma have retained original isotopic compositions through the extreme metamorphic conditions and indicate that the protolith that was buried to diamond-forming pressures included Early Proterozoic components. Highly variable reset-ting of U-Pb isotopic systems in zircon xenocrysts at the time of metamorphism suggests that diffusive lead loss had commenced but was incomplete, a disequilibrium observation consistent with relatively transient exposure of the rocks to extreme crustal depths.


Summary.  Background: Concentrations of inflammatory and hemostatic variables are influenced by biological variation, which is the natural within‐subject variation over time. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine fibrinogen, C‐reactive protein (CRP), platelet aggregation, thrombin generation and prothrombin time (PT): (i) the number of repeated measurements needed to obtain the true habitual concentration of an individual; (ii) the recommended analytical imprecision for diagnosis and monitoring; (iii) the recommended analytical bias; (iv) the contribution of analytical imprecision to test result variability; (v) the index of individuality; (vi) the reference change value; and (vii) the seasonal variation. Subjects and methods: We collected 520 blood samples over a 1‐year period from 40 healthy individuals, and determined the between‐subject, within‐subject and seasonal variation in fibrinogen, CRP, platelet aggregation, thrombin generation and PT. Results: One or two repeated measurements were sufficient to establish the true habitual concentration, except for platelet aggregation and peak thrombin generation, where at least four and nine repeated measurements were needed, respectively. For diagnosis, the maximal recommended coefficient of analytical variation (CV) was 4%–27%, except for CRP (77.7%). For monitoring, these CVs were on average 3% lower. Recommended analytical bias varied between 1.7% and 33.2%. Finally, seasonal variation was observed in concentrations of fibrinogen and thrombin generation, which could explain approximately 11% of their total variation. Conclusion: This study provides insights into the biological variability of selected inflammatory and hemostatic markers, which can be used for sample size calculations and to determine the analytical quality specifications for their respective assays.


Hospitalized geriatric patients (N = 354) from an iodine-deficient area were screened with sensitive thyrotropin (TSH), free and total thyroxine (FT4, T4) and total triiodothyronine (T3) to determine the occurrence rate of clinical and subclinical thyroid dysfunction. The diagnostic value of the tests was compared to each other and to that of the thyrotropin-releasing-hormone test (TRH-test) in order to find the optimal first line screening test in geriatric patients. Clinical hyperthyroidism was found in 13, subclinical hyperthyroidism in 10, overt hypothyroidism in 6 and subclinical hypothyroidism in 8 cases. 20.6% of the patients were euthyroid but had subnormal TSH response to TRH, as a sign of possible thyroid autonomy. The low occurrence rate of clinical thyroid disorders (4.8%) does not justify the screening of geriatric patients in general, but the high probability of thyroid autonomy makes reasonable the investigation of every geriatric patient before iodine administration. Suppressed basal TSH and high FT4 were found to be both sensitive and specific in diagnosing clinical hyperthyroidism, but the predictive value was insufficient; elevated T4 and T3 are specific, but not sensitive. Basal TSH is sensitive, specific and has a good predictive value in diagnosing euthyroidism, whereas normal T4, FT4 or T3 are not specific enough for euthyroidism. Basal TSH is better as a first line test of thyroid function than FT4. A normal basal TSH confirms euthyroidism by itself. Other tests (TRH test, T4, FT4, T3) are necessary to elucidate the clinical importance of a subnormal or suppressed basal TSH.


Objective: Primary aims of the proposed protocol are to determine the feasibility/acceptability of the active music engagement intervention protocol during hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and clinical feasibility/acceptability of the biological sample collection schedule. Design: The authors propose a single-case, alternating treatment design to compare levels of child and caregiver cortisol in blood and saliva collected on alternating days, when the dyad receives and does not receive AME sessions. Included are the scientific rationale for this design and detailed intervention and sample collection schedules based on transplant type. Setting/Location: Pediatric inpatient HSCT unit. Subjects: Eligible participants are dyads of children 3–8 years old, hospitalized for HSCT, and their caregiver. Children with malignant and nonmalignant conditions will be eligible, regardless of transplant type. Intervention: AME intervention is delivered by a board-certified music therapist who tailors music-based play experiences to encourage active engagement in, and independent use of, music play to manage the inter-related emotional distress experienced by children and their caregivers during HSCT. Dyads will receive two 45-min AME sessions each week during hospitalization. Outcome Measures: Eight collections of blood (child) and saliva (child/caregiver) will be performed for cortisol measurement. The authors will also collect self-report and caregiver proxy measures for dyad emotional distress, quality of life, and family function. At study conclusion, qualitative caregiver interviews will be conducted. Results: Planned analyses will be descriptive and evaluate the feasibility of participant recruitment, cortisol collection, planned evaluations, and AME delivery. Analysis of qualitative interviews will be used to gain an understanding about the ease/burden of biological sample collection and any perceived benefit of AME. Conclusions: Behavioral intervention studies examining biological mechanisms of action in pediatric transplant populations are rare. Findings will provide important information about the feasibility/acceptability of collecting cortisol samples during a high-intensity treatment and advance understanding about the use of active music interventions to mitigate child/caregiver distress during the transplant period.


RNA silencing, an evolutionarily conserved and sequence-specific gene-inactivation system, has a pivotal role in antiviral defense in most eukaryotic organisms. In plants, a class of exogenous small RNAs (sRNAs) originating from the infecting virus called virus-derived small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs) are predominantly responsible for RNA silencing-mediated antiviral immunity. Nowadays, the process of vsiRNA formation and the role of vsiRNAs in plant viral defense have been revealed through deep sequencing of sRNAs and diverse genetic analysis. The biogenesis of vsiRNAs is analogous to that of endogenous sRNAs, which require diverse essential components including dicer-like (DCL), argonaute (AGO), and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDR) proteins. vsiRNAs trigger antiviral defense through post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) or transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) of viral RNA, and they hijack the host RNA silencing system to target complementary host transcripts. Additionally, several applications that take advantage of the current knowledge of vsiRNAs research are being used, such as breeding antiviral plants through genetic engineering technology, reconstructing of viral genomes, and surveying viral ecology and populations. Here, we will provide an overview of vsiRNA pathways, with a primary focus on the advances in vsiRNA biogenesis and function, and discuss their potential applications as well as the future challenges in vsiRNAs research.


Systems with investment funds are allocated to many investors on the basis of their individual needs and objectives. The need for a retired man and the ability to draw a risk will be very different from that of a 30-year-old. That is why different types of investment funds meet the needs and objectives of investors. Sub-funds for the fund take the risk that the investor will cover his or her income and take risks. According to SEBI regulations, investment funds do not interfere with the planning to reach potential investors or construction products. These arrangements will meet the huge needs of different types of investors. India's investment funds currently offer various categories in more than 400 products and planned intersections. Previously, all investment funds corresponded to different types of conditions in the expansion method. There are many types of investment funds that are not dedicated to investors.


Purpose of reviewTo investigate the functional role of gut microbiota in diet-modulated diseases, evaluating probiotic administration effects by systems biology-driven approaches. Understanding the role of host–gut microbial and gut microbe–microbe interactions in either allergic and healthy children may assist in selecting effective and targeted probiotics for personalized therapies. Recent findingsFood allergy shows a significant increase, especially in Western countries where growing epidemiological data indicate prevalence of small family groups, limited rate of infections in childhood compared with low-income countries, high consumption of sterile foods, hence stimulating a poor trigger of the gut immune system. Therefore, new therapeutic strategies to treat food allergy consist of probiotic administration since early life, thus modulating gut microbiota through immune system stimulation at the mucosal level. SummaryCurrently, new insights for probiotic selection should take into consideration both phenotyping and genotyping bacterial features and host–microbial cross-talk at gut level, by employing multicomponent systems biology approaches to unveil gut ecosystem dynamics in terms of bacteria phylotypes and their metabolic activities. Moreover, new food processes need to be considered to assess the actual performance of probiotic strains administered to allergic patients. The advent of high-performance platforms employing genomic- and mass spectrometry-based techniques has opened new perspectives on the gut microbiota field, and may now serve as advanced tool to dynamically investigate the interplay between probiotics and gut microbiota ecology under allergic conditions.


Tensors are multidimensional data structures used to represent many real world data. In the context of supervised learning, Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are known to be very efficient for different classification tasks. In this work, we propose a kernel metric for SVM to deal with non linear classification problems. First, we use the Tensor Train Decomposition (TTD) to decompose a tensor into TT-cores of order three and two matrices. In order to mitigate the problem of non-uniqueness of TTD, we propose a kernel based on the tensorial singular subspaces spanned by TT-cores. The TT-based kernel function proposed is based on the tools of t-Algebra of 3-rd order tensors. We also show that it is possible to use different kernel functions on each TT-core. Numerical experiments on real-world datasets show the competitivity of our approach compared to existing methods and the superiority of our method when dealing with few-sample of high-dimensional inputs.


The continuing scaling of VLSI technology and the increase of design complexity have rendered the robustness of analog circuits a significant design concern. Analog circuits with strong parasitic effects can be modeled using a multi-loop structure, which is more sophisticated than the traditional single feedback loop structure and results in a more complex small signal stability analysis from the noise perspective. A Loop Finder algorithm has been proposed to allow designers to detect and identify noise-sensitive return loops, which are also called "unstable" loops in previous works,without the need to add breakpoints in the circuit. Besides, efficient pole discovery and impedance computation methods have been explored so that the Loop Finder algorithm can deal with very large scale analog circuits in a reasonable amount of time. However, this algorithm only works for circuits that can be described using a linear time-invariant (LTI) system model. Many practical circuits, such as switch capacitor filters, mixers and so on, have time-varying behaviors. To describe such circuits, a linear time-varying (LTV) system model needs to be employed. In this research, we first examine the stability property of LTV systems in time domain, mostly based upon the Floquet Theory. We then take an in-depth look at the transfer function of an LTV system in the frequency domain and build the link between it and the Floquet theory. Finally, we propose an efficient algorithm for identifying noise-sensitive loops in linear time-varying circuits. This methodology provides a unifying solution for loop-based noise analysis for both LTI and LTV circuits.


Human histocompatibility leucocyte antigen (HLA)-specific monoclonal antibody probes were used to determine the affinity constant, and cell-surface density of HLA class I and class II determinants. The measurements were estimated for single-cell units of B-lymphoblastoid cell line (B-LCL) and cloned activated T cells in different functional states. Each HLA subset showed unimodal affinity constant values for the interaction with the corresponding HLA-specific antibodies. Such values ranged between 2.2 x 10(7) M-1 (class I) and 4.0 x 10(7) M-1 (class II) for different histocompatibility epitopes. In both B and T cells there was a rank order of epitope expression, class I being highly expressed (5 x 10(6) epitopes/cell) followed by DR, DQ and DP, (1.1-3.0 x 10(6) epitopes/cell). Suppressive clones carrying functionally defined stimulating determinants previously designated 'DY' carried similar numbers of DR, DQ and DP binding sites to DY- non-suppressive clones, but showed selective increases of class II determinants reactive with broad class II-specific antibodies. The results are discussed in the context of the functional consequences of different patterns of HLA epitope expression in immune responses.


Executive Summary
• NHS Swindon has targets to increase the initiation and duration of breastfeeding to 6-8 weeks and beyond. A number of interventions have been implemented to increase local breastfeeding prevalence, including the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative and the family nurse partnership.
• Traditional health education approaches on their own do not appear to have much impact. Our own work and indicative results elsewhere position co-creation as a potentially highly effective strategy to use within deprived communities; its potential to embed behaviour change sustainably is clear.
• Integrating programmes that address cultural perceptions of breastfeeding with targeted work aimed directly at vulnerable segments, which in turn are co-ordinated with strong ante and post-natal support, education programmes and peer supported group sessions will maximise the chances of increasing breastfeeding.
• The UWE project team recruited women and some family members to individual interviews and women from four different categories (pregnant, did not breastfeed, tried breastfeeding but gave up and breastfed beyond 6-8 weeks) to focus groups. In total, 28 individuals took part in the project. Participants were asked a range of questions designed to elicit information about norms surrounding infant feeding, how decisions about feeding were reached, individual's knowledge concerning the benefits of breastfeeding and social and private attitudes towards breastfeeding.
• The norm in both Pinehurst and Penhill is to bottle feed babies. Mothers gained knowledge about breastfeeding for a range of sources, but the timing and volume of NHS leaflets could be problematic. The main reason given for breastfeeding was the associated health benefits for babies. The main reason given for bottle feeding were convenience and ease of feeding in public.
• Following these interviews, six professionals involved in services for mothers and babies were interviewed. This cohort was selected to include managers and practitioners from the midwifery and health visiting services for Penhill and Pinehurst.
• Lack of support for breastfeeding women is a problem. Contributing factors were thought to include lack of resources in the wider health and social care context, particularly with regard to home visits in the first month after birth. Provision of information appears to rely heavily on written literature, which women may not read. A coherent and integrated service was seen as the ideal to support and promote breastfeeding, but there was some concern expressed about how well the support workers and healthcare professionals worked together.
• The general consensus is that there is very little community engagement in these areas and many women are unwilling to access locally based groups where they might learn about breastfeeding or observe other mothers breastfeeding.
• Co-creation as an approach depends upon engaging and involving community members, and with levels of involvement and interaction in these communities so low, it was agreed to proceed with a continued focus on breastfeeding interventions, with Uscreates leading on designing and developing ideas, making and directing decisions and activity, and audience members contributing feedback and thoughts. The co-creation process was adapted to be delivered one to one with mobile researchers visiting mothers at home.
• A design exercise facilitated mothers to build up a description of the ideal support service along a number of descriptors. This activity led to the plan to re-design and re-launch the Breastmates service. This existing breastfeeding support service satisfied most of the requirements for an ideal service that mothers had described. These characteristics guided the re-design of the Breastmates offering to include home visits, and to promote both online and telephone support for urgent needs.
• Uscreates carried out a co-creation process with women in order to re-design the existing Breastmates brand and marketing materials. The marketing combined several support avenues and channels within one identity, presenting a more united front, and giving women a choice of how to access support.
• The overall recommendation after the pilot phase is to continue to use the co-created Breastmates brand, and roll this out across Swindon. With face to face engagement and promotion having the biggest impact on uptake and attendance, continue with this as the primary focus for promotion activities.
• The other attendant promotion components (Facebook, Breastmates site, Textmagic) should be tweaked as per the recommendations above, and continue as low cost methods to increase general awareness of Breastmates, and provide a professional and unified means of reinforcing messages delivered by the face to face activity.


This paper introduces a road map for ICTs (Information and communication technologies) supporting planning, operation and management of energy systems in smart cities. The road map summarises different elements that form energy systems in cities and proposes research and technical development (RTD) and innovation activities for the development and innovation of ICTs for holistic design, planning and operation of energy systems. In addition, synergies with other ICT systems for smart cities are considered. There are four main target groups for the road map: 1) citizen; 2) building sector; 3) energy sector; and 4) municipality level. As an example for enabling active participation of citizens, the road map proposes how ICT can enable citizens? involvement among others into building design. The building sector roadmap proposes how ICTs can support the planning of buildings and renovations in the future, as well as how to manage building energy systems. The energy sector road map focuses on city?s energy systems and their planning and management, including e.g. demand side management, management of different district level energy systems, energy performance validation and management, energy data models, and smarter use of open energy data. Moreover, the municipality level road map proposes among others ICTs for better integration of city systems and city planning enabling maximised energy efficiency. In addition, one road map section suggests development needs related to open energy data, including among others the use of energy data and the development and harmonisation of energy data models. The road map has been assembled in the READY4SmartCities project (funded by EU 7th Framework Programme), which focuses on the energy system at the city level, consisting of centralised energy systems and connections to the national level energy grids, as well as interconnections to the neighbourhood and building level energy systems.


Non-rigid 3D shape retrieval has become a research hotpot in communities of computer graphics, computer vision, pattern recognition, etc. In this paper, we present the results of the SHREC'15 Track: Non-rigid 3D Shape Retrieval. The aim of this track is to provide a fair and effective platform to evaluate and compare the performance of current non-rigid 3D shape retrieval methods developed by different research groups around the world. The database utilized in this track consists of 1200 3D watertight triangle meshes which are equally classified into 50 categories. All models in the same category are generated from an original 3D mesh by implementing various pose transformations. The retrieval performance of a method is evaluated using 6 commonly-used measures (i.e., PR-plot, NN, FT, ST, E-measure and DCG.). Totally, there are 37 submissions and 11 groups taking part in this track. Evaluation results and comparison analyses described in this paper not only show the bright future in researches of non-rigid 3D shape retrieval but also point out several promising research directions in this topic.


A time modulated RF atmospheric pressure plasma jet, operated in ambient air with a flow of argon with a few per cent of air, N2 or O2, was characterized by measuring the gas temperature with Rayleigh scattering, the absolute NO density with laser-induced fluorescence, and the emission of NO A and N2 C with time resolved optical emission spectroscopy. The gas temperature, NO density and the emission measurements are carried out both time and spatially resolved. The atmospheric pressure plasma jet has the advantage that the plasma dissipated power can be measured, and it was found that the gas temperature depends on the power, rather than the gas mixture. The NO density increases with increasing plasma power, and was found to have a maximum around 1.5 × 1021 m−3 at an air admixture of 2%. The N2 C emission is modulated by the 13.9 MHz RF frequency, while the NO A emission front increases with much slower velocity during the 20 kHz duty cycle, which gives an insight into the excitation mechanisms in the plasma. Through the addition of either N2 or O2 to the plasma it was experimentally confirmed that the production of atomic N radicals are of key importance for the NO production in this atmospheric pressure plasma jet.


Abstract. We have developed a fast, spatially scanning direct tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer (dTDLAS) that combines four polygon-mirror based scanning units with low-cost retro-reflective foils. With this instrument, tomographic measurements of absolute 2-D water vapor concentration profiles are possible without any calibration using a reference gas. A spatial area of 0.8 m × 0.8 m was covered, which allows for application in soil physics, where greenhouse gas emission from certain soil structures shall be monitored. The whole concentration field was measured with up to 2.5 Hz. In this paper, we present the setup and spectroscopic performance of the instrument regarding the influence of the polygon rotation speed and mode on the absorption signal. Homogeneous H2O distributions were measured and compared to a single channel, bi-static reference TDLAS spectrometer for validation of the instrument. Good accuracy and precision with errors of less than 6% of the absolute concentration and length and bandwidth normalized detection limits of up to 1.1 ppmv · m (Hz)−0.5 were achieved. The spectrometer is a robust and easy to set up instrument for tomographic reconstructions of 2-D-concentration fields that can be considered as a good basis for future field measurements in environmental research.


In this paper, a novel reduced-reference (RR) video quality assessment (VQA) is proposed by exploiting the spatial information loss and the temporal statistical characteristics of the interframe histogram. From the spatial perspective, an energy variation descriptor (EVD) is proposed to measure the energy change of each individual encoded frame, which results from the quantization process. Besides depicting the energy change, EVD can further simulate the texture masking property of the human visual system (HVS). From the temporal perspective, the generalized Gaussian density (GGD) function is employed to capture the natural statistics of the interframe histogram distribution. The city-block distance (CBD) is used to calculate the histogram distance between the original video sequence and the encoded one. For simplicity, the difference image between adjacent frames is employed to characterize the temporal interframe relationship. By combining the spatial EVD together with the temporal CBD, an efficient RR VQA is developed. Evaluation on the subjective quality video database demonstrates that the proposed method outperforms the representative RR video quality metric and the full-reference VQAs, such as peak signal-to-noise ratio and structure similarity index in matching subjective ratings. This means that the proposed metric is more consistent with the HVS perception. Furthermore, as only a small number of RR features are extracted for representing the original video sequence (each frame requires only one parameter for describing EVD and three parameters for recording GGD), the RR features can be embedded into the video sequences or transmitted through the ancillary data channel, which can be used in the video quality monitoring system.


Organizations increasingly seek to improve creative capability to enhance their performance. Therefore the
impact towards competitiveness becomes increasing important as most learning and training has focused on
accumulation of knowledge rather than ensuring practicable skill and knowledge transfer that is central to creativity. This study reported the impact of creativity to organizational competitiveness. The review confined to performance enhancement of creativity leading to organizational competitiveness which is a necessity to match with the transitional changes from knowledge based to creativity. This review unveils organizational performance for stronger and more inclusive growth based on key priorities that complementarily provide the basis for a comprehensive and action-oriented approach to innovation from knowledge creation to problem solving.
Creativity leading to innovation was found to be an integral part of organizational process. However, this
findings strengthens knowledge creation and innovation diffusion to enhance organizational competitiveness
using a modified version of Kianto Model.


We examine how to use emerging far-infrared imager ensembles to detect certain objects of interest (e.g., faces, hands, people and animals) in synchronized RGB video streams at very low power. We formulate the problem as one of selecting subsets of sensing elements (among many thousand possibilities) from the ensembles for tests. The subset selection problem is naturally adaptive and online: testing certain elements early can obviate the need for testing many others later, and selection policies must be updated at inference time. We pose the ensemble sensor selection problem as a structured extension of test-cost-sensitive classification, propose a principled suite of techniques to exploit ensemble structure to speed up processing and show how to re-estimate policies fast. We estimate reductions in power consumption of roughly 50x relative to even highly optimized implementations of face detection, a canonical object-detection problem. We also illustrate the benefits of adaptivity and online estimation.


In the current Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) 2000, level of service (LOS) is defined as a quality measure describing operational conditions within a traffic stream. It is also stated in the HCM that "each level of service represents a range of operating conditions and the driver's perception of those conditions." However, drivers' perception of traffic operational conditions has not been explicitly considered in defining the LOS categories. This study develops and implements a methodology based on fuzzy clustering to define LOS boundaries based on user perception. The methodology is implemented for determining appropriate LOS categories at signalized intersections. These categories are also compared to existing HCM 2000 LOS categories. An existing database was used containing user perception-related data on estimated delays and ratings of LOS for signalized intersections, and a fuzzy c-means clustering technique was used to partition the data sets of the estimated delays and of the quality-of-service ratings into LOS categories. It was found that, based on the fuzzy clustering results, each estimated delay is classified into 1 major LOS category with 1 minor LOS category. Conclusions reached are that: 1) users can perceive 6 levels of service in a fuzzy domain in terms of drivers' time-estimating capabilities; 2) the current HCM LOS categories are appropriate for signalized intersections in terms of category range and number; and 3) revision of the HCM LOS definitions with consideration of fuzzy clustering would accommodate subjective variations and uncertainties in user perception and alleviate the existing concerns related to the rigid LOS boundaries.


We study renormalization of identities governing the dependence of 1PI Green's functions on gauge-fixing parameters. For general dimensionally regularized Yang-Mills theories with gauge groups being direct products of arbitrary compact simple Lie groups and U(1) groups coupled to scalar fields, we extend the well known analysis in Fermi gauges to the class of generalized 't Hoot gauges $R_{\xi,u}$, in which also symmetry under global gauge transformations is broken by the gauge-fixing procedure. We also discuss conditions ensuring homogeneity of the Nielsen identity satisfied by the effective potential.


Since it's serendipitous discovery by researchers over thirty years ago, the translocator protein (18 kDa) (TSPO) has been demonstrated to play an important role in a multitude of critical biological processes. Although implemented as a novel therapeutic and diagnostic tool for a variety of disease states, its most promising role is as a molecular target for anti-cancer treatments such as photodynamic therapy (PDT). This review gives an overview of the attempts made by researchers to design porphyrin based photosensitizers for use as anti-cancer therapeutics in PDT as well as improved imaging agents for diagnostic purposes. With a better understanding of the structure and function of the TSPO, the synthesis of porphyrins for use in PDT with optimum binding affinities will become ever more possible. REVIEW│ROGERS AND SENGE


The aim of this study was to compare the effects of warm up at high (set at 90% of Maximal Aerobic Speed) and low (set at 70% of Maximal Aerobic Speed) intensity swimming, along with the inclusion and exclusion of isolated kick practice on 200 m freestyle swimming performance in Age Group swimmers (defined by British swimming as 11-14 years). This study was approved by the University of Gloucestershire's Research Ethics Committee. Seventeen competitive Age Group swimmers (n = 9 males, age 12 ± 1.22yrs, stature 1.58 ± 0.10m, mass 49.3 ± 9.75kg; n = 8 females, age 12 ± 0.99yrs, stature 1.58 ± 0.09m, mass 48.6 ± 7.79kg) performed four 200 m freestyle time trials on separate days after a specific warm up design, either low intensity without kick, low intensity with kick, high intensity without kick or high intensity with kick. All warm up protocols included five minutes land warm up activities focused on mobilisation and activation followed by two minutes of easy front crawl swimming. The warm up protocols then consisted of six minutes of either low intensity or high intensity front crawl swimming and two minutes of isolated front crawl kick; respective to the warm up design. All warm up protocols finished with two minutes of easy front crawl swimming and a five minute passive recovery period. The key findings of this study is that there was no statistically significant change in 200 m freestyle time trial results of Age Group swimmers in respect of total time or split times when manipulating intensity and kick variables during the warm up. The two-way repeat measures ANOVA test showed that there was no significant interaction effect between Intensity*Kick (P=0.171 - ETA2 0.114), or main effect for Intensity (P=0.131 - ETA2 0.137) and main effect for Kick (P value 0.692 - ETA2 0.010). These results suggest that high intensity priming exercises associated with a speeding of V O2 kinetics has not improved performance which is in contrast to studies on 800 m running (Bailey et al. 2009). The results also suggest that swimming at a low intensity is sufficient enough to stimulate blood flow to the legs and increasing muscular temperature without isolated kick practices. This suggests that coaches may be correct in their current warm up protocols focusing on preparing for technical and tactical aspects of the event rather than physiological preparedness. Through examining the pacing strategies employed by 200 m freestyle swimmers, it would suggest that they do not reach their maximal workload until the final quarter of the event. This delay in maximal effort may allow the aerobic metabolism time to adjust to the exercise intensity thus diminishing the need for priming and a speeding of V O2 kinetics.


This case study focuses on the perceptions of frontline educators, including social workers and settlement workers, across all levels of two Canadian school boards in Central and Southwest Ontario. These jurisdictions attracted significant numbers of Syrian newcomers since January, 2016, both those sponsored publicly and privately, but also directly among Syrians themselves who had heard about the 'great reputations' of these school boards. The case study describes how educators responded innovatively – on the fly – to meet new needs, through policies, structures, staffing, partnerships and curricular changes. We documented educators' stories, hopefully capturing the optimism as well as the stress created by welcoming the newcomers. Our findings and implications remain tentative as in 'too soon to tell', thus the expressions of dilemmas in leadership and policy as we witnessed successes towards Syrian integration into schools, communities and Canadian society.


Background: Yet, we couldn´t find any reported case of a trauma patient, that describes a late onset complete paraplegia of the lower limbs caused by spinal chord ischaemia without a spinal (chord) injury. Leading causes are dissections of the aorta and their reconstructions. Case presentation: Here, we present a case of a 43 year old male patient with traumatic dissection of the external iliac artery and demolition of the iliac vein on the left side . Moreover, he was in hypovolemic shock. Injuries of the spine or the spinal chord were not apparent. He was able to move both legs on demand. After performance of damage control surgery at the day of the accident, the patient presented a complete sensoric and motoric deficit 7 days after surgery, the MRI showed a vascular myelopathy. Conclusion: The myelopathy could be caused by impaired arterial perfusion due to hypovolaemia and disrupted arterial flow on the Adamkiewicz artery. A venious congestion as well as fibrocartilary embolisation are causes that also need to be dicussed.


Previous research has shown that an acute (single) bout of aerobic exercise performed immediately before a fine motor task can improve the performance of that particular task as well as alter motor cortex (M1) activation. However, the intensity of exercise may influence the extent of motor skill acquisition and M1 activation. The primary aim of the current investigation was to compare the impact of moderate-intensity training (MIT) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on whole-body motor skill acquisition via a piano task. We also aimed to determine if M1 activation was a potential mechanism for any changes in piano performance. Nine participants (F = 7, M = 2) completed a control, MIT, and HIIT trial followed by a whole-body piano task in a randomized order. M1 activation (as measured by the difference in oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin (Hbdiff)) was measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during the post-exercise piano task. The results show that piano performance scores were significantly higher following MIT, but not HIIT, compared to control. M1 activation was significantly higher following HIIT, but not MIT, compared to control. These results suggest that MIT may be the optimal intensity of exercise to prime the nervous system for enhanced performance of a whole-body motor skill, while higher-intensity exercise may be most optimal to increase M1 activation. These findings suggest that similar exercise protocols may also be effective in improving the performance of other activities of daily living (e.g., woodworking, painting, showering, and shooting a basketball). This study also highlights the need to explore the longer-lasting effects and mechanisms associated with whole-body motor priming. oxygenation acute exercise the to oxygenation as a potential mechanism for any in motor skill performance.


Pedestrian injury is a major hazard to the health of children in most developed countries. Pedestrian accidents are one of the first causes of injury-related deaths and hospitalizations among children aged 5 to 14 in industrialized countries. This study has a dual objective: 1) to identify the factors affecting Italian parents' propensity to use private cars to accompany their children to school; 2) to analyze the availability of Italian parents to let their children walk to school alone. In order to develop this analysis, the data collected from a survey conducted in front of 9 schools (kindergartens and primary schools) in Catania were used. A path analysis was carried out to analyze these data. The results show that the habit of driving children to school is still very common in Italy. Main reasons why parents drive their children to school are the lack of safe home-school paths and the availability of regular or irregular parking spaces near the school. These results can be useful for those involved in transport planning and safety in order to implement effective actions aimed at encouraging the use of one or several human-powered modes of transportation such as walking or cycling. The results furthermore suggest that infrastructure-centered interventions, such as traffic calming measures and safer pedestrian crossings, can increase parents' safety perception of the home-school paths and thus raise the probability that children walk to school.


In 21 males (age 50-78 yrs) without endocrine diseases, plasma thyroxine, triiodothyronine, reverse-triiodothyronine and TSH were determined by specific RIAs in the early stage of an acute myocardial infarction. Blood was taken every 4 hours up to 43 hours after admission. The patients were separated in 2 groups, depending on the severity of the infarction (group A with 11 patients = severe infarction; group B with 10 patients = not severe infarction). 25 healthy men served as an aged-matched control group (age 56-83 yrs). Thyroxine in all patients (group A and B together) did not show essential fluctuations during the 43 hours of observation. The mean values were elevated, the individual values were predominantly in the normal range. There were no significant differences between the groups A and B. As well in the total-patients group as in the groups A and B already on admission, T3 was diminished and went on falling during the 43 hours. From 35 hours after admission, T3 was significantly decreased in group A compared to group B. On admission, rT3 was elevated in both the total-patients group and group A and B; it reached its maximum after 19 hours. Group A showed from 7 hours after admission a tendency more increased levels compared to group B. In all cases (total-patients group, group A and B) TSH levels were constant within the normal range during the whole time. The results suggest that in the early stage of myocardial infarction an important alteration in the thyroxine metabolism with enhancement of the inactive reverse-triiodothyronine production occurs very quickly. Moreover, the results show that this alteration may depend on the severity of myocardial infarction. Hypothyreoidism can be excluded because of the normal or elevated thyroxine values and the normal TSH levels.


To evaluate the effect of gender on the pharmacokinetics of vecuronium, we studied 30 patients (15 male and 15 female) undergoing elective plastic surgery with anticipated surgical blood loss of <300 mL under general anesthesia.General anesthesia was induced with thiopental 4-6 mg/kg and fentanyl 2-4 [micro sign]g/kg and was maintained with 60% nitrous oxide in oxygen and an end-tidal concentration of 1.5%-2% enflurane. After a 2-min infusion of vecuronium 100 [micro sign]g/kg, a modified fluorometric assay was used to determine the plasma concentrations of vecuronium for 5 h. The results showed that, compared with women, the plasma concentrations of vecuronium in men were significantly lower during the first 20 min and that the disposition kinetics of vecuronium can be best described mathematically by a three-compartment open model in the two groups. The volume of the central compartment and the volume of distribution at steady state were 39.6 +/- 8.6 and 164.8 +/- 29.3 mL/kg, respectively, in women. These values increased significantly to 54.4 +/- 14.4 and 201.4 +/- 75.8 mL/kg in men (P < 0.05). When the data were calculated on the basis of ideal body weight, the volume of distribution of vecuronium was also different between men and women (P < 0.05. The half-lives of fast distribution and distribution, the elimination half-life, mean residual time, area under the plasma-concentration curve, and plasma clearance were not different between the two groups. We conclude that the pharmacokinetics of vecuronium are significantly different between genders and that and men have the greater volume of distribution of vecuronium. Implications: The authors found that, compared with women, men had lower plasma concentrations of vecuronium after the IV administration of vecuronium and a larger volume of distribution of vecuronium. The pharmacokinetic differences may be related to the differences in the sensitivity to vecuronium between genders. (Anesth Analg 1998;86:1322-7)


Abstract. We present 2 years of NOx observations from the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory located in the tropical Atlantic boundary layer. We find that NOx mixing ratios peak around solar noon (at 20–30 pptV depending on season), which is counter to box model simulations that show a midday minimum due to OH conversion of NO2 to HNO3. Production of NOx via decomposition of organic nitrogen species and the photolysis of HNO3 appear insufficient to provide the observed noontime maximum. A rapid photolysis of nitrate aerosol to produce HONO and NO2, however, is able to simulate the observed diurnal cycle. This would make it the dominant source of NOx at this remote marine boundary layer site, overturning the previous paradigm according to which the transport of organic nitrogen species, such as PAN, is the dominant source. We show that observed mixing ratios (November–December 2015) of HONO at Cape Verde (∼ 3.5 pptV peak at solar noon) are consistent with this route for NOx production. Reactions between the nitrate radical and halogen hydroxides which have been postulated in the literature appear to improve the box model simulation of NOx. This rapid conversion of aerosol phase nitrate to NOx changes our perspective of the NOx cycling chemistry in the tropical marine boundary layer, suggesting a more chemically complex environment than previously thought.


Clinical and model studies indicate that low nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability due in part to profound hypoargininemia contributes to cerebral malaria (CM) pathogenesis. Protection against CM pathogenesis may be achieved by altering the diet before infection with Plasmodium falciparum infection (nutraceutical) or by administering adjunctive therapy that decreases CM mortality (adjunctive therapy). This hypothesis was tested by administering citrulline or arginine in experimental CM (eCM). We report that citrulline injected as prophylaxis immediately post infection (PI) protected virtually all mice by ameliorating (i) hypoargininemia, (ii) urea cycle impairment, and (iii) disruption of blood brain barrier. Citrulline prophylaxis inhibited plasma arginase activity. Parasitemia was similar in citrulline- and vehicle control-groups, indicating that protection from pathogenesis was not due to decreased parasitemia. Both citrulline and arginine administered from day 1 PI in the drinking water significantly protected mice from eCM. These observations collectively indicate that increasing dietary citrulline or arginine decreases eCM mortality. Citrulline injected ip on day 4 PI with quinine-injected ip on day 6 PI partially protected mice from eCM; citrulline plus scavenging of superoxide with pegylated superoxide dismutase and pegylated catalase protected all recipients from eCM. These findings indicate that ameliorating hypoargininemia with citrulline plus superoxide scavenging decreases eCM mortality.


This article explores the importance of critical discourse in physical education (PE) that focuses on how understandings of ability are defined, practised, and potentially altered. Research continues to indicate that physical educators continue to draw on narrow notions of ability which are influenced by the presence of a pervasive performative culture. Traditional understandings of ability often fail to reflect the wider aims of PE such as developing young people's physical literacy. The theoretical concepts of Bourdieu have been used to explain processes that serve to reinforce 'legitimate' notions of ability. The significance of the field of PE has been highlighted where habitus and capital inform understandings of ability in PE, and reinforce practices that privilege certain students. The data for this article are based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six PE teachers who were part of a yearlong study on young people's experiences of ability in secondary PE in England. Within interviews PE teachers defined ability in broad terms and differentiated between the purpose of PE and sport. In practice, teachers placed a distinct emphasis on defining ability in terms which privileged students who either had a reputation for sporting excellence or who demonstrated desired forms of sport-related physical capital in lessons. These discourses and practices were reinforced through individual habitus and through a sense of shared 'mastery of the common code' among the teachers. The findings have implications for understanding the tensions within the field of PE that have evolved from previous, and continuing, debates on the distinction between PE and sport and understandings of the purpose of PE. In addition, they highlight the challenges that teachers can experience in aligning their wider views of ability with their 'legitimate' ability-based practices and working towards supporting more equitable and inclusive PE experiences.


We consider a model of a random height function with long-range constraints on a discrete segment. This model was suggested by Benjamini, Yadin and Yehudayoff and is a generalization of simple random walk. The random function is uniformly sampled from all graph homomorphisms from the graph Pn,d to the integers Z, where the graph Pn,d is the discrete segment {0, 1, . . . , n} with edges between vertices of different parity whose distance is at most 2d+ 1. Such a graph homomorphism can be viewed as a height function whose values change by exactly one along edges of the graph Pn,d. We also consider a similarly defined model on the discrete torus. Benjamini, Yadin and Yehudayoff conjectured that this model undergoes a phase transition from a delocalized to a localized phase when d grows beyond a threshold c log n. We establish this conjecture with the precise threshold log2 n. Our results provide information on the typical range and variance of the height function for every given pair of n and d, including the critical case when d− log2 n tends to a constant. In addition, we identify the local limit of the model, when d is constant and n tends to infinity, as an explicitly defined Markov chain.


In the training of specialists in Physical education and sports field, the utilization of Web-based tools represents a relatively recent methodological approach. In the context in which a part of the students attending the initial preparation program participate in performance sports training, but the specialists involved into an educational process don't have any more the opportunity to take part in presential continuing training sessions, we think that we should initiate a new methodological approach to the process of building-up specific competences.
The present paper aims at checking the efficiency of a Web-based tool utilization to build up the planning competences of the future physical education teachers.
In this context, in order to design and develop the training activity, we used the exeLearning software, a tool that facilitates the creation and administration of the specific contents, but also the construction of some knowledge self-assessment questionnaires.
The learning object was used by 80 students in the final year of their psycho-pedagogic training program, participants in the Computer-Assisted Instruction course. Following the application utilization, students were asked to draw up a planning document and to express their opinion about the used tool efficiency. To this purpose, we created and administered an opinion questionnaire made up of 12 items grouped in 4 categories - attitude toward the utilization of such learning tools, benefits and difficulties related to the utilization of the created learning object, possible directions of application to different study disciplines (bachelor's level), effects on the learning efficiency. Answers were correlated to students' competence level resulted from their evaluation in the Computer-Assisted Instruction exam.
The conclusions of this paper highlight the possibilities to use the Web-based tool in the training of the future specialists in Physical education and sports field and they are accompanied by a series of proposals the application of which would bring real benefits to students.


Meniscus root tears represent an increasingly recognized epidemic that, if left untreated, lead to significant morbidity, including functional limitations and potential conversion to total knee arthroplasty. The mid- and long-term results of medial meniscus root repair are favorable in well-selected patients, with demonstrated decreased rates of osteoarthritis and arthroplasty when compared to partial meniscectomy and nonoperative management. Repair is advised whenever possible, since patients treated with meniscectomy or nonoperative management fare poorly in subjective outcomes measures including measures of pain, activity, and quality-adjusted life years. Furthermore, repair has recently been demonstrated to be beneficial not only at the level of the individual patient, but also in terms of overall societal healthcare costs. The following provides a description of the authors preferred method of medial meniscus root repair. Advantages of the presented technique include a biomechanically strong suture construct, no need for a posterior portal, and instrumentation designed specifically for the knee. The methods described represent a readily-employable approach to meniscus repair and preservation, an undertaking which is critically important to preserving knee function.


ABSTRACT Lecture recordings are anecdotally associated with decreased rates of attendance at face-to-face classes. However, there have been very few studies that empirically analyse this contention, or which examine the motivations for student attendance at face-to-face classes. In this article we report on a study of over 900 undergraduate and postgraduate law students at The University of Western Australia. The study employed a mixed methodology approach involving a student survey, a manual count of attendance at face-to-face classes, and student focus groups to measure self-reported and actual rates of attendance at face-to-face classes and to identify factors influencing student attendance. A key finding is that lecture recordings are a significant reason for non-attendance, though perhaps not as all-encompassing a reason as anecdotal evidence suggests. We discuss the benefits of lecture recordings and the potential negative implications of non-attendance at face-to-face classes for students' academic performance, their sense of connectedness, and the development of specialist skills and graduate attributes. We also consider how universities, law schools and law teachers might respond to these challenges.


In this study, the physicochemical parameters of the river Majowopa were determined. The parameters assessed are temperature, pH, turbidity, conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), total solids (TS), total acidity, total alkalinity, chloride, nitrate, phosphate, sulphate, dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). The obtained result revealed that the average value of the parameters analysed are; temperature (27.99±0.51 °C), pH (6.76±0.08), turbidity (7.69±2.51 NTU), conductivity (124.90±18.42 uS/cm), TSS (18.29±2.27 mg/L), TDS (68.17±13.63 mg/L), TS (86.46±13.95 mg/L), total acidity (17.57±2.37 mg/L), total alkalinity (25.23±6.23 mg/L), chloride (27.91±1.92 mg/L), nitrate (10.14±2.28 mg/L), phosphate (7.62±1.85 mg/L), sulphate (32.72±0.87 mg/L), DO (1.60±0.55 mg/L), COD (23.79±5.45 mg/L), BOD (8.31±3.65 mg/L) and that these values are within the WHO allowed limits except for turbidity (7.69±2.51 NTU), nitrate (10.14±2.28 mg/L), phosphate (7.62±1.85 mg/L) and DO (1.60±0.55 mg/L). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) carried and the 95% confidence level revealed that the value of each parameter was significantly different (P<0.05) from one site to another. The variation of each parameter observed along the river was as a result of pollution from activities that take place along the river bank and the vicinity of the river.


Morris Arboretum's greenhouses are home to several hundred different plant species. This makes scouting and controlling pests more challenging than in a typical greenhouse production system. There are six common greenhouse pest categories at Morris Arboretum: aphids, mites, mealybugs, scale, thrips, and whitefly. Danielle N. Novick, last year's plant propagation intern, created a guidebook to help with identifying, informing, and controlling common pests and diseases (Novick, 2015). To successfully control pests in the greenhouse, the next step is to have the proper timing and a proactive release plan for control options ready. A proactive year-round calendar and action plan were created to predict the timing for controlling pest with biocontrols. Since aphids, mealybug, and mites are the most common pests in the greenhouse, this project focuses on controlling these more proactively, because there are predators for them. Biocontrols are readily available for controlling and reducing aphids and mites; however, mealybug biocontrols are less aggressive. Four different wasps for controlling aphids: Aphidius abdominalis, A. colemani, A. ervi, and A. matricariae were reared successfully for this project. A year round program for controlling mites was designed using predatory mites: Neoseiulus (previously known as Amblyseius) fallacis, N. cucumeris, Amblyseius swirskii, and Stratiolaelaps scimitus. Mealybug destroyers Cryptolaemus montrouzieri controls mealybug particularly citrus mealybugs, Planococcus citri, but this does not work well for longtailed mealybugs. The barley banker plant system was used to help disperse the aphid predators throughout the greenhouse in the late winter and early spring. To aid visual scouting, indicator plants have been incorporated into the greenhouses. Thus far, the proactive pest control plan appears to have the proper timing down, particularly with aphids and mites. Disciplines Horticulture Comments An independent study project report by The Martha J. Wallace Endowed Plant Propagation Intern (2015-2016) This report is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/morrisarboretum_internreports/26 Title: A Proactive Pest Control Calendar and Rearing Beneficial Insects Author: Victoria Bolden The Martha J. Wallace Endowed Plant Propagation Intern


Insect communities from a range of successional vegetation stages on the central North Island volcanic plateau were characterised and compared using Malaise trapped beetle samples. Results were derived from sampling series conducted in a total of ten sites over three separate summers. Divisive classification successfully grouped samples according to four main habitat types despite temporal and spatial separation of samples within these groups. A four-week period in early summer was found to be optimum for sample discrimination according to the main vegetation types. Component species and the functional (trophic) structure of samples showed a relationship with generic habitat types as well as reflecting attributes of the individual sites sampled. The most useful information was derived from the identity of the biological entities rather than simply from numerical relationships. Use of this pragmatic methodology has potential to improve our ecosystem understanding and the sustainable management of the dominant area of terrestrial biodiversity provided sufficient attention is given to standardisation, particularly of taxonomy. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


A series of experiments using nine treatment combinations comprising three tillage practices (zero tillage, conventional tillage and deep tillage) and three cropping patterns (wheatfallow- T. aman, wheat–mungbean-T. aman and wheat-dhaincha-T. aman) were examined in a split- plot design at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur, Bangladesh during 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 to study the effect of different tillage practices and cropping patterns on soil physical properties and crop productivity in a previously puddled soil. Soil physical properties viz. bulk density, particle density and porosity showed insignificant result due to tillage practices and cropping patterns but soil moisture retentive properties demonstrated significant outcomes. Deep tillage with dhaincha (Sesbania rostrata) and mungbean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek) biomass incorporation conserved moisture in the soil profile and improved other soil physical properties i.e. reduced the bulk density, increased porosity and available water content of soil. The highest grain yield of wheat and rice was recorded in the deep tillage with wheat-dhaincha-T. aman cropping pattern and lowest in zero tillage with fallow based cropping pattern.


This Article analyzes the recent trend of conservative judicial activism in the Supreme Court and searches for a principled reason to explain it. The conservative majority has struck down several laws in recent years, culminating in its invalidation of an important provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. While judicial restraint and originalism are currently seen as conservative principles, neither principle explains these decisions. The author argues that no principle can explain the results of these cases—rather, they can only be explained by the Justices' personal views and policy preferences. The author compares the conservative majority's pattern to that of the Warren Court, which largely invalidated laws only when footnote four in United States v. Carolene Products Co. would dictate that the Court should. Thus, neither unrestrained judicial activism nor total judicial restraint is appropriate. Instead, the author argues that a selective judicial activism guided by footnote four is the best approach. The author then concludes that the conservative majority is troubling because it is infusing its personal policy preferences into its opinions while at the same time convincing the public that it is acting in a principled manner.


Racialized Coverage of Congress: The News in Black and White. Jeremy Zilber and David Niven. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. 160 pp. $57.50 hbk. Editors and reporters who read Racialized Coverage of Congress: The News in Black and White-and all of them should-- will undoubtedly come away thinking, "damned if we do, damned if we don't." For too long the news media ignored news in the African-American community, but now that such news finds its way into the nation's newspapers, and some papers appear to bend over backwards to accommodate such news, the authors of Racialized Coverage of Congress are "steadfastly convinced that many standard media practices-- particularly those relating to covering African-American public officials- are contributing to a state of perpetual racial disharmony in American politics" (p.3). Professors and students-and they, too, should make this book a must read-may come away more unsure than ever about race and the news media issues. For the book goes beyond the oft-repeated warning against the use of race in crime and other inherently negative stories and raises serious questions on the use of race in positive stories about African-American politicians, specifically stories about representatives in Congress. Racialized Coverage of Congress wreaks chaos, if you will, with settled practice. What we thought was good coverage of African-- American representatives is, in fact, very damaging, we are told, and what we thought were issues of the past with regard to the use, or nonuse, of racial designations, are indeed questions of the future. Nevertheless, this is all good news. It shows the depth of the book's argument and the convincing nature of its evidence. Racialized Coverage of Congress is challenging, provocative, and alarming. All who are interested in a fair and responsible news media should give it the utmost attention. The authors conducted a content analysis of the coverage in selected major newspapers and wire services given to selected African-American members of Congress in the six years ending in 1999. That coverage was compared to coverage given to twenty white, male members of Congress who were roughly representative of whites in Congress, mostly Republican and mostly conservative. The authors interviewed selected press secretaries to congressional representatives to determine how the representatives intended to "sell" themselves to the public. The study found that when articles were about African-American representatives, their race was generally mentioned as was the racial composition of their district- even if the story had nothing to do with race, and even if the goal of the African-American representatives, according to their press secretaries and an analysis of their Web sites, was to present themselves as concerned about issues other than race. An example of journalists inserting race into stories where race was not a factor was the Clinton impeachment coverage, according to the book. …


The purpose of our study is to interpret and understand the collaborative process around a regional model that is based on state developed guidelines for people with dementia. We have chosen to focus on the importance of interaction and have therefore interviewed participants in the project's steering committee. This group participates in efforts to develop a model for dementia care in Halland.The project work in Halland, to develop a joint model for people with dementia and their families was initiated in the spring of 2011 and is due to finish at the end of 2012. The Halland model has been named "Annas led" and is about Anna and her husband Lars and living with dementia. The model is collaboration between the six municipalities in Halland and Region Halland, which operates health care in Halland. The goals are that people with dementia should not "slip through the net" and that there must be an equal and good care wherever you are in the county.The study has shown that cooperation works well in Halland. It has also been proven that Halland has a very good support structure that promotes cooperation in a positive way. The support structure takes care of all change projects in the area which the respondents believe is a crucial part for the cooperation to work in the best possible way. The interviewees also point out that an open climate, understanding, respect for different cultures and professions contribute to a good and positive interaction.