Learning to consider the experiences and perspectives of those who are marginalized is difficult for members of a dominant group who have not encountered similar obstacles. According to Sonia Nieto (2000) and the National Center for Education Information (2005), student populations continue to be characterized by diversity while more than ninety percent of those in teacher preparation programs are mostly White, middle class, and from non-urban backgrounds. Comprehending this paradox is important for members of the teaching community to confront the deep social and psychological influences of the –isms that affect society and schools. In her book, Other People's Children, Lisa Delpit (1995) criticizes the deficits of teacher education programs that avoid and repress the multicultural voices found in American classrooms today. I support her argument to reform teacher preparation programs, but for the purpose of this article I will explore the responsibility of individual schools that presently ignore and deny the multicultural facets of a typically diverse classroom. In doing so, I plan to expose three main features of promoting social justice that I suggest individual schools be held accountable for in order to move toward the full inclusion of all learners and foster a democratic learning environment of informed and respectful young citizens. The conceptual framework for my argument is supported by Iris Young's (1990) definition of social justice education that challenges students to examine the inequalities that people experience as a result of their social group memberships, through systems of constraint and advantage reproduced through the social processes of exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. The three-fold approach I suggest schools adopt includes an on-going dialogue among staff that helps see beyond one's own perspective, creating a schoolwide team that is committed to educating others about relevant issues of equity and social justice, and fostering an intimate relationship with the school community. Many teachers, including myself, enter the teaching profession ill-equipped and unprepared to internalize and teach social justice. Novice educators often possess good intentions, but as Delpit points out in her probe of the salient issues of diversity and schooling, "For many who consider themselves a member of liberal or radical camps, acknowledging personal power and admitting participation in the culture of power is distinctly uncomfortable" (p. 26). As a result, all over the nation future teachers in higher education likely endure one required course in isolation that focuses on multicultural issues in education within other classes that honor a conceptual framework of the dominant culture at the expense of understanding the language and learning of diverse perspectives which are sure to be represented in classrooms they will teach. This cyclical and obsolete approach to teacher education perpetuates the system of social oppression and creates classroom dynamics that cause educators and students alike to fail miserably. Consider, for instance, the plethora of new graduates that enter the educational arena holding relatively high levels of privilege (i.e., White, educated, middle class, heterosexual, Christian Americans). I think these teachers quickly begin to acknowledge that there is a communication barrier, a disconnection between themselves and children who are outside and my even defy the dominant culture. But by the time they reach this realization these teachers have lost their status as a trainee and feel pressure to demonstrate infallible expertise. No longer experiencing the support of professors, supervisors, and the social network of a cohort, I think many initial teachers deny or ignore this dilemma for fear of surrendering teacher competency.


Argentina plays an important role in the global soy market as one of the world's leading exporters of soy products. In an effort to shift its agricultural sector's focus to value‐added exports and to raise revenue, Argentina's government has maintained a regime of differential export taxes on soy products. In addition to soy products, Argentina is a major producer, consumer and exporter of beef. However, over the last decade it has relinquished much of its world market share as its beef exports have fallen because the government has periodically imposed a ban on exports of beef along with maintaining an export tax. As the soy and livestock sectors are inextricably linked, owing to both industries' intensive land use and the utilisation of soymeal as a feed supplement for cattle, trade policies in one sector have pronounced cross‐sectoral impacts. This study develops a theoretical model of these different sectors and trade policies, incorporating the dynamic decisions of cattle stock management. The model is calibrated to real‐world data on the Argentinean economy, and the impacts of trade liberalisation are quantified. Key results show modelling the various intersectoral linkages and the dynamic implications of cattle stock is essential for obtaining accurate estimates.


The general method to investigate the impedance characteristics with a network analyzer is discussed. The common properties of the impedance are studied based on two-months observation of two 10-kV medium-voltage power networks. Meanwhile, the difference of the impedance measured at the headside and tailside of a feeder, the impedance characteristic impacted by the operating mode of the power system, the time variance of the impedance, and the characteristic obtained from a different coupling mode are also studied carefully. The results show that the characteristic impedance is in correlation with the power system structure and its configurations, and its value is about several tenths of ohms. The input impedance varies scarcely with the time. The capacitor group connected to the bus has no influence on the input impedance. And the input impedances in common mode and differential mode are both symmetric. The impedance value in differential-mode coupling is higher than that in common-mode coupling


The Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation (CWGHR) is a national, charitable organization that responds to the rehabilitation needs of people living with HIV/AIDS. It bridges the traditionally separate worlds of HIV, disability and rehabilitation. Through research, education and cross-sector partnerships it works to improve the lives of people with HIV.


One of the main endeavors in today's Life Science remains the efficient sequencing of long DNA molecules. Today, most de-novo sequencing of DNA is still performed using electrophoresis-based Sanger Sequencing introduced in 1977, in spite of certain restrictions of this method. Recently, we proposed a new method for DNA sequencing using base-specific cleavage and mass spectrometry, that appears to be a promising alternative to classical DNA sequencing approaches: Among its benefits is the extremely fast data acquisition of mass spectrometry. This leads to the combinatorial problem of Sequencing From Compomers (SFC), and to the definition of sequencing graphs. Simulations indicate that this method may allow for de-novo sequencing of DNA molecules with 200+ nt. An open problem in the context of SFC is that it does not take into account false negative peaks (missing peaks) that are common for real-world mass spectra. Here, we present a natural generalization of SFC, the Weighted Sequencing from Compomers (WSC) Problem, that allows us to cope with false negative peaks. We also show that the family of graphs introduced to solve SFC, can be generalized to capture the new aspects of WSC. Finally, we present a branch-and-bound algorithm to find all sequences that agree with the sample mass spectra with the exception of some missing peaks.


OBJECTIVE: Analysis of the effects of population-based determinants (maternal age, parity, multiple pregnancy and ethnicity) and of professional and organisational factors (conservative management in case of early preterm birth, the policy on prenatal screening and the Dutch obstetric-care system in general) on perinatal mortality. DESIGN: Population-based prospective cohort study. METHOD: In a regional cohort (Zaanstreek) of 8031 pregnancies in the period 1990-1994 data were prospectively collected in an electronic database by deliverers of primary and secondary care. Analysis focussed on the effect on perinatal mortality of maternal age, parity, multiple pregnancy, ethnicity and professional and organisational factors (the policy in case of early preterm birth, the policy on prenatal screening and the Dutch obstetric-care system in general). Perinatal mortality was defined as mortality from a gestational age of 22 weeks until 28 days post partum. RESULTS: The perinatal mortality in the Zaanstreek was 12.6/1000. Increasing the gestational age to 28 weeks decreased the perinatal mortality by 29%. The perinatal mortality in this cohort was significantly affected by parity, multiple pregnancy and maternal age (relative risk: 2.8), but not by ethnicity if corrected for the previous factors. Conservative management in case of early preterm birth and a restrictive screening policy for lethal birth defects were associated with an increase in perinatal mortality. In 31 of 92 singleton pregnancies followed by perinatal mortality, a relationship to substandard care was established. In 7 cases this relationship was probable and in 1 case the midwife was responsible. CONCLUSION: Given the magnitude of their effects, both independently and via interaction, stratification for maternal age, parity, multiple pregnancy and ethnicity must precede any interpretation and comparison of perinatal mortality rates. Although clinical policy played a modest role, a negative role of the organisation of obstetric care was unlikely in this cohort. A definitive judgement as to the quality of perinatal care would require extension of the evaluation to at least the entire first year of life in connection with the morbidity. The most favourable effects can be expected from stimulatory measures directed at lowering the age at first pregnancy


In the clinical sciences, systematic reviews have proved useful in the aggregation of diverse sources of evidence. They identify, characterize and summate evidence, but these methodologies have not always proved suitable for the social sciences. We discuss some of the practical problems faced by researchers undertaking reviews of complex and cross-disciplinary topics, using the example of mental health and social exclusion. The barriers to carrying out social science and cross-disciplinary reviews are reported and some proposals for overcoming these barriers are made, not all of them tried and tested, and some of them controversial. Using a mapping approach, a wide-ranging search of both clinical and social science databases was undertaken and a large volume of references was identified and characterized. Population sampling techniques were used to manage these references. The challenges encountered include: inconsistent definitions of social phenomena, differing use of key concepts across research fields and practical problems relating to database compatibility and computer processing power. The challenges and opportunities for social scientists or multidisciplinary research teams carrying out reviews are discussed. Literature mapping and systematic reviews are useful tools but methods need to be tailored to optimize their usefulness in the social sciences.


This article examines ethical considerations relevant to the formulation of psychological investigative interviewing techniques or methods. Psychology researchers are now devoting much attention to improving the efficacy of eliciting information in investigative interviews. Stakeholders agree that interviewing methods must be ethical. However, there is a less concerted effort at systematically delineating ethical considerations to guide the creation of interviewing methods derived from scientific psychological principles. The disclosures interviewees make may put them at considerable risk, and it is not always possible to determine beforehand whether placing interviewees under such risks is warranted. Thus, I argue that research psychologists aiming to contribute ethical methods in this context should ensure that those methods abide by a standard that actively protects interviewees against unjustified risks. Interviewing techniques should provide interviewees, particularly vulnerable ones, with enough agency to freely determine what to disclose. Researchers should explicitly indicate the boundary conditions of a method if it cannot achieve this standard. Journal editors and reviewers should request such discussions. The suggested standard tasks research psychologists to be circumspect about recommending psychological techniques without fully addressing the ethical boundaries of those methods in their publications. I explain the proposed ethical standard's necessity and discuss how it can be applied.


Animal studies suggest that lymphomagenesis can be induced by exposure to carcinogenic aromatic and heterocyclic amines found in diet, cigarette smoke and the environment, but human epidemiologic investigations of these exogenous exposures have yielded conflicting results. As part of our evaluation of the role of aromatic and heterocyclic amines, which are metabolized by N-acetyltransferase (NAT) enzymes, in the etiology of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), we examined NHL risk in relation to genetic variation in NAT1 and NAT2 and exposure to cigarette smoke and dietary heterocyclic amines and mutagens. We genotyped 10 common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in NAT1 and NAT2 among 1136 cases and 922 controls from a population-based case–control study in four geographical areas of the USA. Relative risk of NHL for NAT1 and NAT2 genotypes, NAT2 acetylation phenotype, and exposure to cigarette smoke and dietary heterocyclic amines and mutagens was estimated using odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) derived from unconditional logistic regression models. We observed increased risk of NHL among individuals with the NAT1*10/*10 genotype compared with individuals with other NAT1 genotypes (OR=1.60, 95% CI=1.04–2.46, P=0.03). We also observed increased NHL risk in a dose-dependent model among NAT2 intermediate- and rapid-acetylators compared with slow-acetylators, although only the trend was statistically significant (intermediate: OR=1.18, 95% CI=0.97–1.44, P=0.1; rapid: OR=1.43, 95% CI=0.97–2.14, P=0.07; P for linear trend =0.03). Compared with non-smokers, NHL risk estimates for current cigarette smoking were increased only among NAT2 intermediate/rapid-acetylators (OR=2.44, 95% CI=1.15–5.20, P=0.02). Our data provide evidence that NAT1 and NAT2 genotypes are associated with NHL risk and support a contributory role for carcinogenic aromatic and/or heterocyclic amines in the multi-factorial etiology of NHL.


The effect of grain size on the flow stress in TWinning Induced Plasticity (TWIP) steel was investigated via the X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements of dislocation density. The results indicated that the hardening behavior of fine grained samples (mean grain sizes in the range of 2.1-3.8μm) can be described as typical dislocation interactions. However in coarse grained samples (mean grain sizes in the range of 4.7-38.5μm) where extensive mechanical twinning occurs, another strengthening mechanism is required. Consequently, the effect of grain size on the flow stress parameters of the proposed equation was considered and it was found that in the fine grained samples, the Holloman analysis can describe the hardening behavior. However, in coarse grained samples, a second hardening term due to the strengthening effect of mechanical twin boundaries needs to be added to the Holloman equation.


The use of degradable composite materials in orthopedics remains a field of intense research due to their ability to support new bone formation and degrade in a controlled manner, broadening their use for orthopedic applications. Poly (lactide‐co‐glycolide) acid (PLGA), a degradable biopolymer, is now a popular material for different orthopedic applications and is proposed for use in tissue engineering scaffolds either alone or combined with bioactive ceramics. Interference screws composed of calcium phosphates and PLGA are readily available in the market. However, some reports highlight problems of screw migration or aseptic cyst formation following screw degradation. In order to understand these phenomena and to help to improve implant formulation, we have evaluated the effects of PLGA degradation products: lactic acid and glycolic acid on human osteoblasts in vitro. Cell proliferation, differentiation, and matrix mineralization, important for bone healing were studied. It was found that the toxicity of polymer degradation products under buffering conditions was limited to high concentrations. However, non‐toxic concentrations led to a decrease in cell proliferation, rapid cell differentiation, and mineralization failure. Calcium, whilst stimulating cell proliferation was not able to overcome the negative effects of high concentrations of lactic and glycolic acids on osteoblasts. These effects help to explain recently reported clinical failures of calcium phosphate/PLGA composites, but further in vitro analyses are needed to mimic the dynamic situation which occurs in the body by, for example, culture of osteoblasts with materials that have been pre‐degraded to different extents and thus be able to relate these findings to the degradation studies that have been performed previously. © 2011 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 30:864–871, 2012


The character in Abu Bakr Khall's novel, African Titanics, describes the world of illegal African migrants as they take their risky journeys to Europe. Sadly, the character's above description of his journey echoes the feelings of uncertainty and unpredictability many of our own immigrant students have told us they face. And it is not hard to understand why. The current climate in which the university finds itself is dominated by laws, policies, and political discourse that dehumanize certain students (Blow, 2016; Giroux, 2016; Kellner, 2016; Maker, 2016). Many of our students are "othered" in today's America by virtue of their economic class, ethnicity, and sexuality; however, immigrants, and particularly Muslim immigrants, are at specific risk from both the policies and discourses of the current administration. It would be naïve to think that our current historic moment is unique, though. Speaking in 1931, United States Secretary of Labor William A. Doak expressed a similar sentiment: "My conviction is that by strict limitation and a wise selection of immigration, we can make America stronger in every way, hastening the day when our population shall be more homogenous" (Watkins, 2000). In short, historically and today, the crafted identities in the international refugee and the American immigration regimes hinder recognition of the basic rights and humanity of migrants, thus institutionalizing oppression through supporting programs that prevent global mobility and serve to reinforce racism at home. This external racism of our immigration policies mirrors the internal one by naturalizing socially constituted subject positions that foster fear and hatred of the "other," thus emboldening exclusionary politics. This is not an abstract issue for the academy. Since Trump's election in November 2016, institutions of higher education have been struggling to deal with the surge in political, legal, and interpersonal threats toward immigrant students (Alexander, 2016;


Cyclic nucleotides regulate axonal responses to a number of guidance cues through unknown molecular events. We report here that Drosophila nervy, a member of the myeloid translocation gene family of A kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs), regulates repulsive axon guidance by linking the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase (PKA) to the Semaphorin 1a (Sema-1a) receptor Plexin A (PlexA). Nervy and PKA antagonize Sema-1a-PlexA-mediated repulsion, and the AKAP binding region of Nervy is critical for this effect. Thus, Nervy couples cAMP-PKA signaling to PlexA to regulate Sema-1a-mediated axonal repulsion, revealing a simple molecular mechanism that allows growing axons to integrate inputs from multiple guidance cues.


Motion can be depicted using literal pictorial devices (representing features present in the real world) and metaphorical pictorial devices (representing features that do not occur in the real world). How are literal and metaphorical pictorial devices used in comic book cover art? We analyzed the pictorial devices used to depict the motion running in 400 Silver Age (1956–1971) and Bronze Age (c. 1970–1985) superhero comic book covers (Frankenhoff & Thompson, 2012). Literal devices (such as arm and leg positions) were used additively; that is, artists preferred to use many literal devices. On the other hand, metaphorical devices (such as action lines) were not used additively; artists preferred to use only one metaphorical device. We propose the Literal Additive Metaphorical One-And-Done (LA-MOAD) theory to account for the use of literal and metaphorical devices in comic book cover art. The differential use of literal and metaphorical devices by comic book artists may be unique to comic book cover art, or it may reflect a basic function of our visual system.


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE
Acute nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) is one of the commonest sexually transmitted infections affecting men. The role of genital mycoplasmas including Mycoplasma genitalium in HIV infected men with NGU is still not known. The aim of this study was to determine the isolation pattern/detection of genital mycoplasma including M. genitalium in HIV infected men with NGU and to compare it with non HIV infected individuals.

METHODS
One hundred male patients with NGU (70 HIV positive, 30 HIV negative) were included in the study. Urethral swabs and urine samples obtained from patients were subjected to semi-quantitative culture for Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasama urealyticum, whereas M. genitalium was detected by PCR from urine. The primers MgPa1 and MgPa3 were selected to identify 289 bp product specific for M. genitalium. Chalmydia trachomatis antigen detection was carried out by ELISA.

RESULTS
M. genitalium and M. hominis were detected/isolated in 6 per cent of the cases. M. genitalium was more common amongst HIV positive cases (7.1%) as compared to HIV negative cases (3.3%) but difference was not statistically significant. Co-infection of C. trachomatis and U. urealyticum was found in two HIV positive cases whereas, C. trachomatis and M. hominis were found to be coinfecting only one HIV positive individual. M. genitalium was found to be infecting the patients as the sole pathogen.

INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION
Patients with NGU had almost equal risk of being infected with M. genitalium, U. urealyticum or M. hominis irrespective of their HIV status. M.genitalium constitutes one of the important causes of NGU besides other genital mycoplasmas.


This paper presents the development of the first sapphire micromachined wall shear stress sensor for high-temperature applications utilizing geometric moiré optical transduction. A folded tether floating element structure is employed to extend the linear operating range of the sensor. Picosecond pulsed laser micro-machining processes are developed for patterning of mechanical structures in sapphire, and a four-channel alumina fiber array with sapphire optical fibers is used to interrogate the moiré fringe. Platinum thin-film gratings and a stainless steel package enable a theoretical maximum operating temperature in excess of 800°C, and initial dynamic calibration in differential mode demonstrates a shear stress sensitivity of 76.8 μV/Pa at 1.128 kHz.


With hybrid and electric vehicle developments, battery-monitoring systems have to meet the new requirements of the automobile industry. This paper deals with one of them, the battery's ability to start a vehicle, also called battery crankability, through battery-resistance estimation. A fractional-order model obtained by system identification is used to estimate the internal resistance of lead-acid batteries. Fractional-order modeling permits an accurate simulation of the battery electrical behavior with a low number of parameters. Moreover, the high-frequency gain of the fractional model is directly linked to the battery resistance. A resistance-estimation method based on a frequency-invalidation method is, thus, proposed. It is demonstrated that the battery's available power that defines battery crankability is correlated to the battery resistance. Thus, a battery-crankability estimator using the battery resistance is suggested. Validation tests are carried out with various batteries. This estimator cannot be embedded in a microcontroller due to the linear-matrix-inequality-based optimization algorithm in the invalidation-model method used. A simplified algorithm is finally proposed, and its efficiency is proved.


Count data reflect the number of occurrences of a behavior in a fixed period of time (e.g., number of aggressive acts by children during a playground period). In cases in which the outcome variable is a count with a low arithmetic mean (typically < 10), standard ordinary least squares regression may produce biased results. We provide an introduction to regression models that provide appropriate analyses for count data. We introduce standard Poisson regression with an example and discuss its interpretation. Two variants of Poisson regression, overdispersed Poisson regression and negative binomial regression, are introduced that may provide more optimal results when a key assumption of standard Poisson regression is violated. We also discuss the problems of excess zeros in which a subgroup of respondents who would never display the behavior are included in the sample and truncated zeros in which respondents who have a zero count are excluded by the sampling plan. We provide computer syntax for our illustrations in SAS and SPSS. The Poisson family of regression models provides improved and now easy to implement analyses of count data. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Journal of Personality Assessment for the following free supplemental resources: the data set used to illustrate Poisson regression in this article, which is available in three formats—a text file, an SPSS database, or a SAS database.]


Abstract. Biogenic NO emissions from soils (SNO x ) play important direct and indirect roles in tropospheric chemistry. The most widely applied algorithm to calculate SNO x in global models was published 15 years ago by Yienger and Levy (1995), and was based on very few measurements. Since then, numerous new measurements have been published, which we used to build up a compilation of world wide field measurements covering the period from 1978 to 2010. Recently, several satellite-based top-down approaches, which recalculated the different sources of NO x (fossil fuel, biomass burning, soil and lightning), have shown an underestimation of SNO x by the algorithm of Yienger and Levy (1995). Nevertheless, to our knowledge no general improvements of this algorithm, besides suggested scalings of the total source magnitude, have yet been published. Here we present major improvements to the algorithm, which should help to optimize the representation of SNO x in atmospheric-chemistry global climate models, without modifying the underlying principals or mathematical equations. The changes include: (1) using a new landcover map, with twice the number of landcover classes, and using annually varying fertilizer application rates; (2) adopting a fraction of 1.0 % for the applied fertilizer lost as NO, based on our compilation of measurements; (3) using the volumetric soil moisture to distinguish between the wet and dry states; and (4) adjusting the emission factors to reproduce the measured emissions in our compilation (based on either their geometric or arithmetic mean values). These steps lead to increased global annual SNO x , and our total above canopy SNO x source of 8.6 Tg yr −1 (using the geometric mean) ends up being close to one of the satellite-based top-down approaches (8.9 Tg yr −1 ). The above canopy SNO x source using the arithmetic mean is 27.6 Tg yr −1 , which is higher than all previous estimates, but compares better with a regional top-down study in eastern China. This suggests that both top-down and bottom-up approaches will be needed in future attempts to provide a better calculation of SNO x .


ABSTRACT Paleocurrent flow direction in shale sequences can be inferred from sedimentary structures of associated lithologies, from orientation of fossils, from alignment of silt and sand-sized particles in shales, from mapping of scalar properties of a shale sequence, and from the orientation of concretions. Not all of these methods relate to shale properties directly, and most of them are very time-consuming and may even require fortuitous circumstances to be applicable. Consequently, even though shales constitute about 60% of all sediments, paleocurrent data from shale sequences are sparse. Thus, in order to improve our understanding of the evolution of sedimentary basins, it would be beneficial to have an accurate and conveniently applicable method of paleocurrent determination for shales. /P> The anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of a number of shale samples from the Precambrian Belt Supergroup carries a fabric-related magnetic lineation that coincides with paleocurrents indicated by cross-laminated silt beds within the shales. Magnetic foliation decreases as dolomite content increases because of diagenetic dolomite growth, but magnetic lineation is only slightly affected. These data indicate that primary flow direction as represented by AMS measurement of these samples is preserved and therefore the AMS method can provide a rapid and accurate way to determine current-flow systems in shale-dominated sedimentary basins.


Printed circuit boards (PCBs) requiring component attachment, whether leaded or surface mount technology, must have the exposed copper land areas coated with a protective finish. This protective coating must not inhibit solderability and at the same time must act as a barrier for preventing the copper from oxidizing and the inevitable assembly problems that would ensue for the end‐user. Globally, the predominant surface finish in the PCB industry is hot air solder levelling (HASL). Driven by the adoption of solder mask over bare copper, HASL was developed as a reliable method of applying solder to the copper surfaces after solder mask. During HASL, a thin layer of solder is deposited onto the exposed copper by passing the boards through a hot, molten wave (or pot) of solder and subsequently blowing the excess solder from the boards using high velocity hot air. This process has been increasingly under scrutiny due to environmental and safety issues (hazardous waste, lead exposure, etc.), technological limitations (fine‐pitch device assembly) and equipment maintenance cost. This paper reviews the major alternative surface finishes being currently deployed and additionally seeks to give an overall assessment of the broader environmental aspects of such finishes.


Spatially fractionated radiotherapy (GRID) was designed to treat large tumors while sparing skin, and it is usually delivered with a linear accelerator using a commercially available block or multileaf collimator (LINAC-GRID). For deep-seated (skin to tumor distance (>8 cm)) tumors, it is always a challenge to achieve adequate tumor dose coverage. A novel method to perform GRID treatment using helical tomotherapy (HT-GRID) was developed at our institution. Our approach allows treating patients by generating a patient-specific virtual GRID block (software-generated) and using IMRT technique to optimize the treatment plan. Here, we report our initial clinical experience using HT-GRID, and dosimetric comparison results between HT-GRID and LINAC-GRID. This study evaluates 10 previously treated patients who had deep-seated bulky tumors with complex geometries. Five of these patients were treated with HT-GRID and replanned with LINAC-GRID for comparison. Similarly, five other patients were treated with LINAC-GRID and replanned with HT-GRID for comparison. The prescription was set such that the maximum dose to the GTV is 20 Gy in a single fraction. Dosimetric parameters compared included: mean GTV dose (DGTVmean), GTV dose inhomogeneity (valley-to-peak dose ratio (VPR)), normal tissue doses (DNmean), and other organs-at-risk (OARs) doses. In addition, equivalent uniform doses (EUD) for both GTV and normal tissue were evaluated. In summary, HT-GRID technique is patient-specific, and allows adjustment of the GRID pattern to match different tumor sizes and shapes when they are deep-seated and cannot be adequately treated with LINAC-GRID. HT-GRID delivers a higher DGTVmean, EUD, and VPR compared to LINAC-GRID. HT-GRID delivers a higher DNmean and lower EUD for normal tissue compared to LINAC-GRID. HT-GRID plans also have more options for tumors with complex anatomical relationships between the GTV and the avoidance OARs (abutment or close proximity). PACS numbers: 87.55.D, 87.55.de, 87.55.ne, 87.55.tg.


Cloud computing is becoming the predominant mechanism to seamlessly deploy applications with special requirements such as massive storage sharing or load balancing, usually provided as services by cloud platforms. A developer can improve the application's delivery and productivity by following a multi tenancy approach, where variants of the same application can be quickly customized to the necessities of each tenant. However, managing the inherent variability existing in multi-tenant applications and, even more importantly, managing the evolution of a multi-tenant application with hundreds of tenants and thousands of different valid architectural configurations can become intractable if performed manually. In this paper we propose a product line architecture approach in which: (1) we use cardinality-based variability models to model each tenant as a clonable feature, (2) we automate the process of evolving the multi- tenant application architecture, and (3) we demonstrate that the implemented process is correct and efficient for a high number of tenants in a reasonable time. We use a running case study in the domain of medical software.


: The data on the influence of antioxidant vitamins (E and C) on the growth of induced and transplantable tumours in animals and on the development of cancer process in man as well as on the course of chemo- and radiotherapy are analyzed; a degree of vitamin provision of the tumour-bearing organism is discussed. Special attention is paid to optimal doses of the above mentioned vitamins. The necessity of combined application of antioxidant vitamins in cancer therapy is established.


Valid understanding of the relationship between cultures and persons requires an adequate conceptualization of the many contexts within which individuals work and live. These contexts include the more distal features of the individual's birth ecology and ethno-national group history. These features converge more proximally upon individual experience as "process" variables, through the institutional–normative constraints and affordances encountered through socialization into a diverse set of cultural groupings. This enculturation is then revealed in the individual's response profile of values, beliefs, choices, and behaviors at any given time. Cross-cultural psychologists have typically compared these encultured responses cross-nationally by averaging the scores of equivalent groups of persons across national groups, terming these average differences "cultural differences." This procedure has generated considerable resistance, primarily due to careless over-generalization of results to all members of a given cultural group. Critics of nation-based characterizations have challenged their methodological and conceptual inadequacies, but we now know better how to address the measurement-related aspects of culture-level "psychological" variables, such as individualism–collectivism. In challenging the accuracy of these measures, critics have also neglected to acknowledge the continuing predictive and discriminant validity of these dimensions of national culture. We here review the utility of more recent measurements. We then show how nation-level comparisons can be used by psychologists to improve our understanding of individual, rather than group, outcomes. Nations are heterogeneous amalgams of ethnicities, social classes, organizations, school systems, and families. Individuals' socialization into these groups affects their functioning at any given point in life. These enculturations are further dependent on their gender, age, and education. Assessment of culture's relation with individual functioning requires adequate measurement of both personality and normative aspects of situations in which behavior is enacted. Once this integration of cultural influences is achieved, the logic and methodology for integrating national culture into psychological models of individual behavior can be applied within any nation where research focuses on how within-nation cultural variation affects individual functioning. Culture, conceptualized as normative group constraints, becomes more widely amenable to study, and the hard lessons learned from cross-national research can be used to guide the practice of more locally sensitive research.


OBJECTIVE
In this study, we aimed to determine the frequency of and the clinical and metabolic features of patients with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) at a single center in Turkey.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Patients over 30 years of age diagnosed with type 2 diabetes who did not require insulin for a minimum of 6 months following diagnosis were included. Data from 324 patients (163 women; 161 men), with a mean age of 54.97 ± 7.53 years, were analyzed in the study. Levels of antibodies to glutamate decarboxylase (anti-GAD) were measured in all patients, and LADA was diagnosed in patients testing positive for anti-GAD antibodies.

RESULTS
Anti-GAD positivity was identified in 5 patients (1.5%). Family history of diabetes, body mass index (BMI), age, sex distribution, insulin resistance, serum triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein were similar in the LADA and type 2 diabetes patients. Median HbA1c was significantly higher (10.8% vs. 7.38%, p = 0.002) and fasting C-peptide was lower (0.75 ng/mL vs. 2.82 ng/mL, p = 0.009) in patients with LADA compared to in those with type 2 diabetes. Among the 5 patients with LADA, 4 were positive for antithyroid peroxidase antibodies. The median disease duration was relatively shorter among patients with LADA (4 years vs. 7 years, p = 0.105).

CONCLUSION
We observed a LADA frequency of 1.5% among Turkish patients followed for type 2 diabetes. The presence of obesity and metabolic syndrome did not exclude LADA, and patients with LADA had worse glycemic control than patients with type 2 diabetes did.


A humoral factor having many of the physical properties of a glycoprotein and lacking many of the characteristics of other immunosuppressants has been detected in the serum and plasma of patients with active multiple sclerosis. Kinetic studies indicate that the earliest biochemical event inhibited by LTIF is the incorporation of labeled nucleotides into acid insoluble ribonucleic acid. This material, designated lymphocyte transformation inhibition factor (LTIF), inhibits blast transformation in mitogen-stimulated T lymphocytes. The serum factor is usually associated with active multiple sclerosis but is also detected in some lymphoproliferative disorders. Partial purification has separated this material from serum immunoglobulins, but these procedures led to an accelerated loss of biological activity.


The purpose of this study was to elaborate and validate data collection instruments in order to identify nursing diagnosis in adult patients in the perioperative period of a cardiac surgery. The data collection instruments proposed were based on Wanda Horta's conceptual model. The elaboration of the instruments was based on a literature review with the aim to find important signs and symptoms that could characterize nursing diagnosis. For the validation of the data collection instruments, authors elaborated a survey that was validated by five nurses. All the professionals who were asked to validate it answered that the instruments helped in the identification of the nursing diagnosis and that the data or questions were enough to identify changes in basic needs. DESCRIPTORS: data collection, nursing diagnosis, cardiac surgery


In this study, the bamboo fibre bundles (CAN retted fibre bundles) have been treated with sodium hydroxide at different processing conditions, in combination with potassium hydroxide and chlorine containing agent sodium chlorite solution. The purpose of this study was to develop efficient method for the extraction/loosening of bamboo fibres for further textile applications, therefore, lignin content, tensile strength, weight loss, moisture content, whiteness and yellowness indices were measured. Lignin content analysis of the extracted fibre bundles showed that there was a remarkable reduction in lignin content after these treatments. Scanning electronic microscopy of the treated bamboo fibre bundles showed removal of short elementary fibres from their surfaces in appropriate amount which further improved their overall physical properties of treated bamboo fibres.


52 lm, the GCL + IPL thickness in the lower segment is less than 50 lm, and the GCL + IPL thickness in the upper segment is less than 51 lm, with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 87, 5–93%, it can be argued that at this eye there is atrophy of the optic nerve due to MS. Conclusions: Parameters of RNFL thickness and GCL + IPL thickness of the S-OCT method have high sensitivity and specificity in the early diagnosis of optic nerve atrophy due to MS. The value of the average thickness of the GCL + IPL complex, determined by the SOCT method, is a reliable marker of the process of neuroaxonal degeneration both in patients with optic neuritis and in optic nerve atrophy due to MS.


The compressional-wave velocity structure of the crust of the Coast Ranges of central California was modeled from seismic refraction data reported previously. For both the Diablo Range (east of the San Andreas fault) and the Gabilan Range (west of the fault), two alternative velocity models were derived for each range by iterative two-dimensional ray tracing. Each pair of models shows a sedimentary layer and an underlying crust composed of three or four layers. For the Diablo Range, the velocities in the sediments range from 2.9 to 4.8 km/sec, and the depth to basement varies from 0.2 km within the central Diablo Range to a maximum of 3.4 km north of the Livermore Valley. In the Gabilan Range, the velocities in the sediments overlying the granitic basement are higher north of the Gabilan Range (3.6 to 4.6 km/sec) than to the south (2.2 to 3.8 km/sec), and the depth to basement both north and south of the range is less than 2 km.

Below the sediments and fractured near-surface material, a resolvable difference in the crustal velocity structure on opposite sides of the San Andreas fault indicates compositional differences at depth. The upper crust has an average velocity of 5.7 km/sec at depths between 3 and 16 ± 3 km in the Diablo Range and an average velocity of 6.1 km/sec at depths between 2 and 9 ± 1 km in the Gabilan Range. The lower crust has an average velocity of 6.9 km/sec at depths between 16 ± 3 and 30 km in the Diablo Range and an average velocity of 6.5 km/sec at depths between 10 and 24 km in the Gabilan Range. The models also show that the depth to Moho differs by several kilometers between the two ranges. In the Diablo Range models, the crust-mantle boundary becomes shallower from south to north, rising from a depth of 30 to 26 km. In the Gabilan Range models, the Moho is at a depth of 24 to 26 km, depending on the velocity assumed at the base of the crust.

Laboratory measurements of rock velocities and the mapped surface geology allow us to interpret the velocity models in terms of crustal composition. We conclude that the Diablo Range probably consists largely of metagraywacke to a depth of 16 ± 3 km, and gabbroic material below this depth. The crust of the Gabilan Range probably consists of granitic material to a depth of 9 ± 1 km and gneissic material below this depth. Franciscan rocks are not regionally present in the crust of the Gabilan Range. If the gneissic lower crust consists of the same rocks as are found at the surface in the Gabilan Range, then the presumed large-scale lateral motion of the Salinian block has taken place at or below the crust-mantle boundary, rather than along a mid-crustal slip plane.


The review summarizes data of recent studies on the impact of human gene polymorphisms on the possibility of HIV infection, as well as the specific features of its pathogenesis, the efficiency of HIV infection treatment and the likelihood of its complication. Main information on the mechanisms responsible for viral penetration into the sensitive cells, for immune response development and involvement of HLA and KIR molecules in this process are briefly outlined. Idea on major cell proteins affecting drug metabolism and excretion and encoding for their genes are generalized. There are many examples that show how different human gene alleles and their combinations affect the nature of the pathogenetic process and the occurrence and degree of adverse reactions. The first example of successfully using the prognostic genetic analysis (HLA-B*5701) registered in 2008 to upgrade the quality of HIV infection treatment is described in detail. Basic requirements for further genetic tests to use the optimal antiretroviral therapy schemes and to reduce its hazardous effects are formulated.


Voting machine failures continue to plague American elections. These failures give rise to legitimacy externalities and reflect resource disparities across election jurisdictions that pose persistent threats to electoral integrity. There is thus a need for greater federal oversight of the public-private partnership that is this nation's system of election administration. In this context, procurement contracts are an overlooked but likely effective regulatory tool. Such contracts resemble private commercial contracts, but must also adhere to regulations designed to achieve various public norms. This Note accordingly proposes an amendment to the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which would condition federal funds on mandated provisions of state voting machine procurement contracts. These provisions would require disclosable vote verification procedures, as well as the waiver of state and common law trade secrecy protections.


Iron‐bearing concretions are valuable records of oxidation states of subsurface waters, but the first concretions to form can be altered drastically during later diagenetic events. Distinctive concretions composed of heavy rinds of iron oxide that surround iron‐poor, mud‐rich cores are common along bases of fluvial cross‐bed sets of the Cretaceous Dakota Formation, Nebraska, USA. Concretion rinds thicken inward and cores contain 46 to 89% void space. Millimetre‐scale spherosiderites are abundant in palaeosols that developed in floodplain facies. Evolution of rinded concretions began when intraformational clasts were eroded from sideritic soils, transported, abraded and deposited in river channels. Alteration of siderite and formation of rinds occurred much later, perhaps in the Quaternary when sandstone pore waters became oxic. Dakota concretions are analogous to 'rattlestones' in Pleistocene fluvial channels of The Netherlands, and their rinded structure is analogous to that of iron‐rich concretions in the aeolian Navajo Sandstone of Utah. In all three deposits, rinded concretions formed when pre‐existing, siderite‐cemented concretions were oxidized within a sand matrix. Unlike fluvial examples, siderite in the Navajo Sandstone was autochthonous and of late diagenetic origin, having precipitated from carbon dioxide and methane‐enriched waters moving through folded and jointed strata. Iron‐rich rinds formed in all these strata because concretion interiors remained anaerobic, even as oxygen accumulated in the pore waters of their surrounding, permeable matrix. Iron oxide first precipitated at redox boundaries at concretion perimeters and formed an inward‐thickening rind. Acid generated by the oxidation reaction drove siderite dissolution to completion, creating the iron‐poor core. Iron‐oxide rinds are indicators of the former presence of siderite, a mineral that forms only under reducing conditions, during either early or late diagenesis. Siderite is vulnerable to complete oxidation upon exposure, so the distinctive rinded concretions are valuable clues that aid in deciphering diagenetic histories and for recognizing methanic floodplain palaeoenvironments and wet palaeoclimate.


Plants are always been the greatest gift to them mankind's, from the domestication of the human life in the different centuries, they are directly and indirectly depend on the plants for the various kind of the purposes. They are the main sources of the medicines and the drugs for the treatment of the diseases, in this review article we are working on the one of the plant entitled as the Abutilon indicum of the Malvaceae family. This is the herb which is ephemeral, in nature, they grows best in the monsoon seasons and have always been utilized by the tribal communities for the treatment of the diseases.


Freud has little to say about "the dim and shadowy era" of earliest infancy. It was Melanie Klein, one of the greatest of Freud's disciples, whose pioneering investigations illuminated the baby's most primitive fantasies. The small baby, dominated by overpowering feelings of love and hate towards the mother, projects them outwards and introjects what it perceives of her, Overwhelmed, it splits itself and its mother into Good and Bad. Later, the baby has to "reassemble" the mother and come to terms with its own ambivalent emotions - an extremely painful process which underlies depression in adults. These developments preceding the Oedipus complex were discovered by Klein using her revolutionary "play technique" and are at the heart of her system. This collection of her writings is edited and introduced by one of Britain's feminist thinkers, the author of "Psychoanalysis and Feminism" and herself a practising psychoanalyst. It shows how much Klein has to offer: in understanding and treating psychotics, in revising Freud's ideas about female sexuality, in showing how fantasy operates in everyday life.


A networked integrated manufacturing system oriented product lifecycle based on multi-agent is presented, in order to meet the informatics of enterprises, solve the problem of "information islet" in manufacturing, improve design level and manufacturing quality, shorten development and production period and reduce production and service costs. The functional modules and system architecture are studied, key technologies including architecture of the networked integrated manufacturing agents, system integration, data sharing and transformation, task assignment and request information ranking of technical services are researched and a three-layer network configuration is structured based on multi-agent. Based on these, a prototype system of networked integrated manufacturing system oriented product lifecycle based on multi-agent is established. Running result of the system proves that the theories and technologies are effective.


ABSTRACT Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a condition that is characterised by an increase in the blood glycaemic level due to insufficient and defective insulin action in the body. The aim of this review was to examine the factors associated with adherence among individuals with DM. Method: A literature review was conducted on published work related to the factors associated with adherence among individuals with DM by searching online databases. Results: A total of 23 published studies that focused on the adherence to anti-diabetes drugs were reviewed. Fifteen cross-sectional studies identified several factors that were significantly associated with adherence, such as gender female (n=5), age (n=2), educational level (n=6), financial status (n=4), and knowledge or information about diabetes (n=4). Qualitative studies reported that family support and system-level facilitators were associated with adherence to the management of diabetes. Conclusion: It is suggested that diabetes education plays an important role in adherence. Health care professional should focus on the educational interventions to increase adherence to treatment. Keywords: adherence, diabetes mellitus


This thesis examines the history of Scottish settlement houses from 1886 until 1934. The Scottish settlements have attracted little attention from academics and no overarching study of these organisations has previously been done. This thesis seeks to address this lacuna and situate their achievements within the wider context of the changing role of voluntary organisations in this period. Using archival resources, it argues that settlements made important contributions to Scottish society through social work, training courses and adult education. They pioneered new methods, explored new areas of work and provided their local communities with access to services that they may not otherwise have received. This thesis demonstrates the way in which voluntary bodies evolved in response to local and national pressures and changing social attitudes in order to remain successful and relevant in a period during which their role was changing. There were six settlements in Scotland, each with their own agenda and areas of interest. The settlements remained distinct and independent organisations and there was a limited amount of cooperation between them. This diversity in both location and aims of the settlements gives rise to a range of themes that will be examined in the thesis. The original settlement ideal focused on ameliorating class differences by reforming the characters of working-class individuals through personal connection between them and middle-class settlers. The thesis will examine how this evolved over time. As the state at both a local and national level assumed more responsibility for social services, the role of settlements adapted to encompass training for professional social workers and as the working classes gained more political power the settlements sought to make them 'fit for citizenship'. Likewise, as the original settlement ideal had denied the legitimacy of working-class culture and community, this attitude also evolved and settlements began to focus on developing strong communities within working-class areas.


We have cloned and characterized a new member of the phosphatidylinositol kinase (PIK)-related kinase family. This gene, which we term human SMG-1 (hSMG-1), is orthologous to Caenorhabditis elegans SMG-1, a protein that functions in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). cDNA sequencing revealed that hSMG-1 encodes a protein of 3031 amino acids containing a conserved kinase domain, a C-terminal domain unique to the PIK-related kinases and an FKBP12-rapamycin binding-like domain similar to that found in the PIK-related kinase mTOR. Immunopurified FLAG-tagged hSMG-1 exhibits protein kinase activity as measured by autophosphorylation and phosphorylation of the generic PIK-related kinase substrate PHAS-1. hSMG-1 kinase activity is inhibited by high nanomolar concentrations of wortmannin (IC50 = 105 nm) but is not inhibited by a FKBP12-rapamycin complex. Mutation of conserved residues within the kinase domain of hSMG-1 abolishes both autophosphorylation and substrate phosphorylation, demonstrating that hSMG-1 exhibits intrinsic protein kinase activity. hSMG-1 phosphorylates purified hUpf1 protein, a phosphoprotein that plays a critical role in NMD, at sites that are also phosphorylated in whole cells. Based on these data, we conclude that hSMG-1 is the human orthologue to C. elegans SMG-1. Our data indicate that hSMG-1 may function in NMD by directly phosphorylating hUpf1 protein at physiologically relevant sites.


Abstract Variations in the taxonomic composition of ancient land snail assemblages can potentially reflect changes in past ecosystems. The use of fossil associations as a paleoenvironmental-paleoecological proxy assumes that the original biological signature is retained, but postmortem processes can distort it. In this study, the fidelity of land snail assemblages was tested by comparing taphonomic and ecological variables recorded by live and dead, middle Holocene and Upper Pleistocene land snail shelly assemblages from San Salvador Island (Bahamas). Shells of living organisms were practically unaltered whereas dead and fossil shells were primarily affected by fragmentation, ornament loss, color loss, and carbonate coating. Taphonomic features fluctuated across space and time likely due to variable environmental conditions and/or time of exposure prior to shell burial. Live assemblages showed good taxonomic agreement with dead assemblages, although the later exhibited a higher number of taxa and individuals than the former. Assemblages that were moderately (dead and Holocene) and strongly (Pleistocene) taphonomically altered did not differ in species abundances, suggesting that the original biological signal was preserved. In contrast, unaltered (live and some dead) assemblages differed taxonomically from moderately and strongly damaged assemblages, likely as a consequence of different scales of time-averaging rather than variable shell-specific destruction rates. Taxonomic richness and simple dominance of time-averaged land snail assemblages were similar at various interglacial time periods (∼125 ka, ∼5–6 ka, and today). Such apparently equivalent snail richness may suggest that the climatic-environmental and/or ecological conditions at those times were comparable to the present.


The new biology of the 1990s will integrate ecology and molecular biology in the service of agriculture. This new biology will surprise us. It will not present us with a cornucopia of genetically engineered chimeras. Nor will it present a plethora of chemically dependent cultivars, fragile in absence of expensive support systems. Instead, the new biology of the 1990s, grounded in ecological principles and deepened with new genetic insights, will make it possible to develop an agricultural production system that is more sustaining than it is today.


Peer review is a process for evaluating the quality of "work" of a scientist or professional as judged by others in the same or related field. In the context of the biomedical and health sciences, it primarily pertains to review of manuscripts submitted to journals for consideration of publication, abstracts for proposed presentations at professional meetings, and competitive research grant applications. Serving as a reviewer is a scholarly pursuit and a worthwhile endeavor, assuming it is approached in a conscientious, responsible manner. The purpose of this article is to define peer review and its various forms, suggest reasons for serving as a manuscript reviewer, discuss considerations prior to accepting a review assignment, and provide guidelines for the process.


Antiprogrammed death-1 (anti-PD1) and antiprogrammed death ligand-1 (anti-PD-L1) antibodies are effective checkpoint inhibitors that stimulate the immune system against many types of cancers. The flip side of these immunotherapies is the generation of immune-related adverse events, which can theoretically affect all organs. Among these side effects, lipase increase is frequently observed; however the meaning of this biological abnormality remains poorly understood. We investigate in this case study all the lipase increases greater or equal to grade 2 that occurred in patients receiving anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 treatments, to determine their biological and clinical significance. Twenty-one patients were retained with lipase increase related to the immune checkpoint inhibitor. Most of them (71%) were treated for a metastatic melanoma. The peak of lipase increase was observed at a median of 2.8 (range, 0.4–11.4) months after the initiation of the anti-PD1 or anti-PD-L1 treatment, which correlates with cycle 5 of treatment. Three of 21 patients (14%) had a clinical or radiologic immune-related pancreatitis that led to a permanent discontinuation of the treatment. In 15 of 21 (71%) patients, the lipase increase was not considered as clinically significant, and the treatment was continued without complications. The 3 remaining patients discontinued the treatment for progressive disease. These data indicate that lipase increase related to anti-PD1 or anti-PD-L1 is not associated with a significant clinical event in most cases. On the basis of these data, we propose that lipase increase in an asymptomatic patient and without radiographic abnormalities of the pancreas can be reasonably regarded as a not clinically significant event, allowing the continuation of the anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 treatment.


The need to high quality therapeutic proteins has grown significantly in the past 30 years. Recombinant proteins are often produced from vectors inserted into E. coli cell lines for large scale production. However, over-expression of the protein within the cell can lead to the formation of large, insoluble aggregates known as inclusion bodies. Native monomer protein can be isolated from inclusion bodies through a refolding process. This entails disruption of the aggregate structure with high concentrations of denaturant and renaturation in native-promoting solution. Our work characterises protein-protein interactions and aggregation between partially unfolded proteins during the refolding process. The protein-protein interactions are characterized in terms of the osmotic second virial coefficient (B22). A positive value indicates repulsive interactions while a negative value indicates attractive interactions. Measurements are carried out for lysozyme, ribonuclease A and preproinsulin as a function of pH, ionic strength and denaturant concentration, alongside a range of known refolding excipients.Past studies (Ho and Middelberg, 2004; Ho et al., 2003) have shown a link between higher B22 values in denaturant solutions and reduced aggregation during refolding. Our experiments have focused on the effects of urea and GdmHCl upon protein-protein interactions, alongside how ionic strength and refolding additives influence interactions between partially-folded states. At low ionic strength, solutions of urea increase net repulsive interactions compared to GdmHCl solutions through an attenuation of short-range attractive interactions. Electrostatic repulsive interactions are screened in solutions of GdmHCl due to the increased ionic strength of the solution; however short-range attractive interactions are also attenuated in a similar fashion to urea solutions. Protein-protein interactions in low and high concentration denaturant solutions have been shown to be highly sensitive to ionic strength and refolding experiments have shown that this correlates with increased aggregation during refolding. The solubilising additive Arg HCl has been shown to reduce short-range attraction between proteins in urea solutions, while the folding-promotor additives sucrose and hexylene glycol have been shown to have a more complex effect on protein-protein interactions in urea solutions dependent on denaturant concentration.Within the wider context of the field of protein aggregation and refolding, the work conducted here will contribute towards the understanding of how denaturants and solutes influence attractive protein-protein interactions and aggregation behaviour between unfolded or partially folded proteins.


The aim of this study was to investigate the patterns of attendance at School Dental Service (SDS) and reasons for attendance (treatment or prevention) for children in the Perth Metropolitan Area, in particular investigating the first year of SDS attendance and attendance until the year the child turned 12. The first 150 SDS records located for children from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study were used for this study. Patterns of attendance of children at SDS were described, as were associated factors (enrolment, age and nature of first visit, general nature of visits and number of visits) until the end of the year that the child turned 12. The age of the child at the first SDS visit ranged from 4 years 3 months to 14 years 11 months, with a median of 5 years 1 month. First visits were primarily for an examination (98%). Children had a median of 13 visits until 12 years of age, with 10% having less than five visits and 4% having more than 25 visits. These data provide useful information regarding attendance at the SDS in Western Australia which could provide a basis for oral health promotion programs.


Although many studies have been conducted to assess different aspects of pollution along the Nairobi Rivers, there is a need to collate this information in order to identify areas of concern and gauge the extent to which the rivers have been degraded. A Geographical Information System (GIS) tool was developed and used to construct thematic maps for water quality of the Nairobi Rivers Environmental data were integrated and an overall picture about the spatial variation in the water quality of the rivers was defined The water quality maps were derived from the results of previous studies for physico-chemical parameters like Total dissolved solids (TDS), Hydrogen Ions Concentrations (PH). Total Hardness (TH) and Nitrate (NOO concentration. The GIS maps showed not only contaminant distribution but also illustrated the need to improve the water quality management methods. Using the developed GIS water quality monitoring tool, water quality specialists can concentrate on analyzing data and presenting their results without bothering about the details of the software application being used. The GIS tool was developed using Quantum GIS (QGIS). This is a free open source desktop GIS. The data being anlysed was stored in MS Access database, which was linked to the QGIS. A map of Nairobi River basin was sourced from the ministry of Environment and natural resources. This map was scanned. Georeferenced and digitized. The coordinates of the monitoring points along the river basin and the corresponding water quality data were stored in the database. The database was queried to generate data meeting specified criteria, e.g. TDS of the monitoring points in a specified period. The generated data was then interpolated using the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation method, to generate water quality maps for each of the parameters; TDS.PH.TH. and NOv A combined quality map was then generated by integrating the four thematic maps. From this study, it was concluded that a multi-purpose GIS software tool can be developed and used to automate many functions of water quality analysis. Further work can be done to improve the tool by incorporating a menu to select all the quality analysis commands. Also a geospatial database, like POSTGIS, could be used instead of MS Access. In addition, a Global Positioning System (GPS) device could be used to accurately identify the coordinates of the monitoring points along the river basin.


This paper presents a sub-1-V fast-response hysteresis-controlled buck converter using adaptive ramp techniques. The proposed buck converter can be operated at a lower supply voltage and adopts the inverter-based low-voltage error amplifier, which is better than conventional two-stage amplifiers in the low-voltage applications. Using hysteresis-controlled and fixed-voltage band techniques, the proposed buck converter can improve the transient response. Moreover, the sub-1-V structure allows the proposed converter to consume low power dissipation. The proposed chip has been implemented with TSMC 0.18- μm 1P6M CMOS processes. The operating frequency of the proposed converter is from 0.5 to 1.25 MHz, with an inductor of 4.7 μH and a capacitor of 47 μF. Experimental results show that the proposed converter achieves fast transient response under 11 μs and can be directly powered with 1-V supply voltage. In addition, the output voltage is 0.5 V, the load current is 300 mA, and the power efficiency can be up to 91.5%.


Calprotectin is a small calcium-binding protein that when measured in human stool has shown utility in assessing the degree of bowel inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and in distinguishing IBD from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). However, most fecal calprotectin (FCP) assays are slow and inconvenient. This study examined the analytical agreement and clinical utility of a point of care (POC) assay for FCP.

 A fast (~5 min.), time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer based immunoassay (Procise FCP™) was developed for the POC measurement of FCP using 15 mg of fecal specimen eluted in collection fluid from the Procise Stool Collection Device™. The analytical agreement between the Procise FCP assay and a commercial ELISA assay: Inova Quanta Lite Calprotectin Extended Range was assessed using 46 leftover deidentified fecal specimens.
 Clinical performance of the assay was assessed using stored frozen stool specimens from a nested cohort derived from a prospective study of chronic diarrhea patients. Chronic diarrhea was defined as unexplained diarrhea of at least 4 weeks duration. Study subjects were males and females of ages 2 – 70 with no chronic liver disease and were consecutively enrolled. Diagnoses were made by attending physicians, and IBD patients did not necessarily have active disease beyond diarrhea at the time of specimen collection. Primary endpoint: Proportion of patients diagnosed with either IBS or IBD testing positive for FCP.

 Method comparison analysis was performed by Deming linear regression. A post hoc analysis of patients from the diarrhea study diagnosed with either IBS or IBD was performed. The significance of the proportion of patients diagnosed with either IBS or IBD testing positive for FCP was calculated using Fisher's Exact Probability Test. The assay was assessed at cut-offs of 50 µg/g and 120 µg/g.

 Figure 1.

 Table 1.

 Table 2.

 The Procise FCP assay shows excellent analytical agreement to another commercial FCP assay and can clinically significantly distinguish between IBD and IBS in chronic diarrhea patients. Thus, the assay can aid in the differentiation of IBD from IBS. Distinguishing IBS from IBD with a convenient POC format test enhances the clinical utility of FCP by enabling faster treatment response


Winner of the HW Fisher best first biography prize Spectator books of the year 2012 "Sunday Times", "Daily Telegraph", "Tls", "Financial Times", "Guardian", "Daily Mail" and "Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year 2011". "He were a dark prince, and infinitely suspicious, and his times full of secret conspiracies and troubles". (Sir Francis Bacon). In his remarkable debut, Penn vividly recreates the dark and turbulent reign of Henry VII. He traces the transformation of a young, vulnerable boy, Prince Henry, into the aggressive teenager who would become Henry VIII, and of Catherine of Aragon, his future queen. And at the book's heart is the tragic, magnetic figure of Henry VII - controlling, paranoid, avaricious, with a Machiavellian charm and will to power.


Abstract: We discuss both a method of interviewing about an individual's creative thinking and a method of recording an interviewer's behavior. From the viewpoint of scientific examination, interviewing is supposed to be an act of retrieving an interviewee's thoughts in a raw manner without being influenced by the interviewer's viewpoints or intentions. An individual's thoughts are, however, mostly tacit knowledge. Even the individual himself is not necessarily able to externalize it by himself. We argue, rather, that interviewing should be an act of generating a narrative in a constructive manner through active interactions between an interviewer and an interviewee. Based on this paradigm change, we have devised a method of interviewing using a memo tool so that the interaction becomes active. Moreover we have developed a method of recording an interviewer's behavior situated in the interaction in order to examine what kind of behaviors make the interaction active.


The possibility to confine the light in optical planar structures represented the milestone for the development of integrated optical devices in different application areas, such as communications and sensing. In particular, rare-earth (RE) doped planar waveguides demonstrated to be an interesting solution in the realization of integrated optical lasers and amplifiers suitable for the generation/regeneration of the signal in metropolitan and local area networks. Nowadays, although these devices are commercially available, the major contribution of the research consists in discovering and developing better combinations of materials and fabrication processes, in order to reduce the costs and increase the performance of the aforesaid devices. In this context glass-ceramic waveguides, activated by RE ions, seem to fully respond to these requests. The aim of this paper is to offer a comprehensive review on the main results obtained in our Labs in the field of glassceramics. Fabrication and characterization of different silicate glass-ceramic thin films, doped with different percentages of RE ions, will be presented and discussed. The interesting results obtained make these systems quite promising for development of high performance integrated optical amplifiers and lasers.


Objective: The benefits of physical activity and physical fitness on the health of general population are provided with evidence.
We investigated association of leisure time physical activity with indicators of body composition and metabolic syndrome among less active, moderately active and active groups.
Design: Analysis of cross sectional self reported physical activity index and measured indicators of body composition and metabolic syndrome.
Subjects: A total of 100 male subjects, aged 25-50 years, who were part of a randomly selected sample and who agreed to participate in the study.
Measurements: Self reported measure of physical activity index, weight (Kg), height (meter), pulse (manually), blood pressure (mercury sphygmomanometer), various biochemical parameters (i.e. serum triglycerides, and fasting plasma glucose) is measured in all the subjects.
Results: High levels of leisure time physical activity were positively associated with the likelihood of being in the normal body mass index and lower % body fat. When physical activity score was correlated with the component of metabolic syndrome, we observed that there was significantly negative correlation between physical activity score and Systolic and Diastolic blood pressure, serum triglycerides, fasting blood glucose.
Conclusion: This study shows association between body fat, body mass index and leisure time physical activity. Low physical activity is associated with increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome. These findings will have important public health implications for the development and targeting of weight gain prevention strategies and life style modification may be beneficial in avoiding the risk of metabolic syndrome and its consequences.

Keywords: Body composition, Metabolic syndrome, Physical activity.


Introduction. Radicular syndrome manifested by lower limb pain and low back pain is a common clinical problem. Operative treatment usually consists of decompression with microdiscectomy from the posterior approach. In the last years minimally-invasive techniques are becoming more popular, one of them is transforaminal posterolateral endoscopic discectomy. Aim of paper. Aim of paper is to present the clinical results of patients with disc disease treated with endoscopic transforaminal discectomy. Authors also evaluate the number complication rate and analyze the risk factors. Material. Material consists of 57 patients treated surgically during a 20 months period, who underwent lumbag spine decompression and endoscopic transforaminal discectomy. There were 22 women and 35 men. Mean age at surgery was 38 years (min.17- max.79). Follow-up period longer than 3 months was in 52 patients (91%), longer than 6 months 47 patients (82%). Methods. We evaluated lower leg and low back pain intensity using the VAS score preoperatively and at follow-up controls. Above that intra-operative data were analyzed: length of surgery, approach side, operated level. Next the presence of any intra-operative and postoperative complications was analyzed and complication rate was calculated. Results. Pain intensity according to VAS score, evaluated 3 months postoperatively, for low back pain was 3.5 – decrease of 5 points compared with the pre-operative value. VAS score for leg pain was mean 2.5 – decrease of 6 points. There were 39 procedures on L5/S1 level, 17 on L4/L5, 1 on L3/L4, and 1 on L2/L3 level. Mean time of surgery was longest on L5/S1 level - 62 min. (min.40-max.90). Complications were present in 12 patients. 10 reoperations on L5/S1 level were performed, 2 on L4/L5 level. Rate of reoperation for the whole group was 21%. Conclusion. Transforaminal posterolateral endoscopic discectomy is an effective procedure in the treatment of primary disc herniation. Risk of major complications is low, and the method does not prevent other, more complex procedures when needed.


Research on the nature and distribution of Archean rock types in the Bousquet gold district, Abitibi, Quebec, provides new constraints on deposition, stratigraphy, and gold concentration. Facies changes and textures indicate that within the Blake River Group of the district, basalt to the east is more proximal to an eruptive center which shoaled upward, andesite was deposited in relatively shallow subaqeuous conditions as pyroclastic flow deposits and turbidites around volcanic complexes formed on the basalt eruptive center, and dacite accumulated as lava which erupted into a very shallow subaqueous setting. Turbidites in the Kewagama and Cadillac groups originated from the volcanic complexes and accumulated in the form of subaqueous fans, whereas those in the Pontiac Group are from an unknown source and accumulated on an abyssal plain. In this context, the Cadillac-Larder break formed initially as a low-angle normal fault zone. Field relations and petrography of the rocks in the district indicate that the stratigraphic section consists of generally well preserved and largely informable rock units. Opposing stratigraphic tops in the volcanic rocks of the Blake River and Piche groups suggest that they could be correlatives disposed on opposite limbs of a regional-scale syncline, the axial plane of which passes through the Cadillac Group. Accordingly, the rocks of the Blake River, Piche, and Cadillac groups may be part of a vast, largely subsided and reworked volcanic complex. The shallow subaqueous depositional environment of the andesite and dacite in the Blake River Group could have economic significance because boiling of hydrothermal fluid may have contributed to the concentration of gold in the Bousquet gold district.


This is a dissertation on research conducted studying the dynamic crack initiation toughness of a 4340 steel. Researchers have been conducting experimental testing of dynamic crack initiation toughness, K{sub Ic}, for many years, using many experimental techniques with vastly different trends in the results when reporting K{sub Ic} as a function of loading rate. The dissertation describes a novel experimental technique for measuring K{sub Ic} in metals using the Kolsky bar. The method borrows from improvements made in recent years in traditional Kolsky bar testing by using pulse shaping techniques to ensure a constant loading rate applied to the sample before crack initiation. Dynamic crack initiation measurements were reported on a 4340 steel at two different loading rates. The steel was shown to exhibit a rate dependence, with the recorded values of K{sub Ic} being much higher at the higher loading rate. Using the knowledge of this rate dependence as a motivation in attempting to model the fracture events, a viscoplastic constitutive model was implemented into a peridynamic computational mechanics code. Peridynamics is a newly developed theory in solid mechanics that replaces the classical partial differential equations of motion with integral-differential equations which do not require the existence of spatialmore » derivatives in the displacement field. This allows for the straightforward modeling of unguided crack initiation and growth. To date, peridynamic implementations have used severely restricted constitutive models. This research represents the first implementation of a complex material model and its validation. After showing results comparing deformations to experimental Taylor anvil impact for the viscoplastic material model, a novel failure criterion is introduced to model the dynamic crack initiation toughness experiments. The failure model is based on an energy criterion and uses the K{sub Ic} values recorded experimentally as an input. The failure model is then validated against one class of problems showing good agreement with experimental results.« less


These quotations are from letters written from ladybugs to butterflies at the conclusion of a unit exploring ladybug life cycles. As part of a larger garden project, we implemented a series of integrated lessons with second graders that fueled their excitement and culminated in the release of beneficial insects in our school garden. One of our goals for the unit was to have students connect life cycle concepts, which they had investigated previously with butterflies, to a new organism. Because of students' comfort level with these insects and their interesting life cycle, ladybugs seemed to be the perfect choice! We used a 5E format to structure our explorations (Bybee et al. 2006) and integrated several language arts activities to support our science inquiries. Using this approach seamlessly met both science content objectives and Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts in a way that captured and sustained students' attention. To prepare for this unit, we ordered ladybug larvae (see Internet Resources) and assembled materials for a habitat (see A Homemade Habitat, p. 65). Observing ladybugs offers opportunities to integrate language arts into a life cycle unit.


Even in this scientific and jet-age, some people still believe that variations brought about by individual differences (differences in behaviour, reasoning and approaches to problem-solving) are controlled by some "strange forces" that cannot be seen, touch or comprehend. These forces, they believe, are real, but beyond the understanding and comprehension of humans. Predominant in this view are those who hold that humans and the propensities surrounding their complicated behaviour are innately determined and fundamentally controlled by some "spiritual forces" animated by the soul (which can be good or evil). Even though modern science and technology have ruled out this belief system or concept as disingenuous, yet it continues to hold prominence among people of many nations, of which Nigerians are greatly involved. Even with its commanding number of Universities and highly learned population, people in Nigeriaoverwhelmingly have the belief that humans are not intrinsically and expressively responsible for their behaviour, rather it is "remotely" controlled by the evil spirits and their agents. Incredibly it may seem, this view is also held among highly educated Nigerians. Through scientific breakthroughs, the mechanisms through which behaviour emerges have been revealed, showing that human behaviour and cognition are animated and propelled by the brain cells, called theneurons. How this life-animating system functions to bring about myriads of complicated and astonishing physical, mental, cognitive and emotional activities are the sole aim of this article. This article gives a fundamental background under which the brain operates and coordinates activities that give rise to human behaviour. It is basically presented as an introductory approach to biological and chemical basis of human behaviour, giving professionals, searchers-of-trueknowledge and students a friendly perspective to conceptualize the brain's responsiveness to internal and external stimuli that generate human behaviour. After this exploration, the reader will come to understand how the brain is responsible for complicated behaviour previously attributed to evil spirit.


In the Florida Keys, the Rugose Spiraling Whitefly, Aleurodicus rugioperculatus, has become a "sticky" situation that is frustrating homeowners, landscapers, businesses, and governmental officials. The Monroe County Extension Agent has applied a variety of educational and control methods for dealing with this new insect pest. Educational approaches have followed both traditional Extension methods, such as: speaking on the radio, doing newspaper interviews, disseminating information through the internet, educating and utilizing the Master Gardeners, conducting site visits and holding workshop presentations Keyswide. Some non-traditional approaches have included presentations at City and County Commission meetings; developing an evaluation control method tip sheet for people to use to determine how effective or ineffective their control treatments are; and advising local college and high school students in developing a whitefly presentation and tri-folder brochure for use at the Key West Botanical Garden. Control methods also being developed or tested by the Agent include an experiment using aerated vermicompost tea as a root drench or as a foliar spray to determine its effectiveness in controlling the Rugose Spiraling Whitefly; and rearing and releasing the beneficial wasp, Encarsia guadalupae,and predatory beetle, Nepasphis oculata,along public right-of-ways and public parks.


Production of hot rolled strip for oil and gas transport pipelines requires a fine and homogeneous microstructure and careful choice of chemical composition in order to meet strength, toughness, and weldability requirements. Whilst hot rolled coils to grade X80, produced by conventional continuous casting and hot rolling, are a commercial reality, there is great interest in producing API grades manufactured by the alternative (and more economical) thin slab direct rolling route. The current work has assessed the feasibility of producing hot rolled strip of grades X65-X70 using the endless strip production layout (ESP), originally developed at Arvedi. The study was carried out using a metallurgical modelling system based on empirical equations describing austenite evolution, transformation and mechanical properties. Using this approach it was possible to study the effects of initial slab thickness, reduction ratio and chemical composition on the mechanical properties of strips in a thickness range of 10 to 20 mm. In this way, for each grade, the optimum rolling schedules, microstructures and chemical compositions could be obtained.


Objective:Lower life expectancy in men is generally attributed to higher likelihood of risky behavior and because men develop chronic conditions earlier. If sex-related differences in survival are independent of preinfection chronic health and health behavior, it would suggest that survival differences may occur because of sex differences in quality of care and biological response to infection, and these differences may contribute to sex differences in life expectancy. We assessed if sex-related survival difference following community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is due to differences in clinical characteristics, quality of care, or immune response. Design, Setting, and Subjects:Prospective observational cohort of 2183 subjects with CAP. Measurements and Main Results:Mean age was 64.9 years. Men were more likely to smoke and had more comorbidity compared with women. At emergency department presentation, men had different biomarker patterns, as evidenced by higher inflammation (tumor necrosis factor, interleukin [IL]-6, and IL-10) and fibrinolysis (d-dimer), and lower coagulation biomarkers (antithrombin-III and factor IX) (p < 0.05). Small differences in favor of men were seen in care quality, including antibiotic timing and compliance with American Thoracic Society guidelines. Men had lower survival at 30, 90, and 365 days. The higher 1-year mortality was not attenuated when adjusted for differences in demographics, smoking, resuscitation, insurance, and vaccination status, comorbidity, hospital characteristics, and illness severity (unadjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.35, p = 0.003; and adjusted HR = 1.29, p = 0.004). HR was no longer statistically significant when additionally adjusted for differences in emergency department concentrations of tumor necrosis factor, IL-6, IL-10, d-dimer, antithrombin-III, and factor IX (adjusted HR = 1.27, p = 0.17). Patterns of biomarkers observed in men were associated with worse survival for 1 year. Conclusions:Lower survival among men following CAP was not explained by differences in chronic diseases, health behaviors, and quality of care. Patterns of inflammatory, coagulation, and fibrinolysis biomarkers among men may explain reduced short-term and long-term survival.


Alternative rations to maintain high live weigh gain (LWG) of Bali bulls fed leucaena basal diet over season had been studied under eld condition in Sumbawa district of West Nusa Tenggara Province. Twenty four male Bali cattle with an initial age of 17±3 months and initial body weight of 163±36 Kg were used. The animals were randomly allocated into four dietary treatments with six replicates per treatment. The treatments were leucaena solely ad libitum (LS); Leucaena 1.0% BW with native grass ad libitum (LG); Leucaena ad libitum with maize 0.5% BW (LM) and Leucaena 1.0% BW with maize 0.5% and native grass ad libitum (LMG). Native grass consists of grass, weeds and forbs that commonly fed to animal in the area. Live weight gain and feed intake were determined over 20 weeks. Body weight was recorded twice per month. The LWG was not different for bull fed LM (0.62 Kg/d), LS (0.57 Kg/d) and LMG (0.58 Kg/d) however higher than that of bull fed LG (0.48 Kg/d). Bull fed LM had highest total dry matter (DM) intake (28.7 g DM/ Kg LW) and no differences in total DM intake between bull fed LS (26.1 g DM/Kg LW) and LMG (25.8 g DM/Kg LW) while the lowest total DM intake had recorded in bull fed LG (21.0 g DM/ Kg LW). Addition of maize of 0.5% BW in the diet have no negative effect on leucaena intake resulted in an increased on total intake. Feeding leucaena restricted to 1% BW with maize 0.5% BW and grasses ad libitum resulted on similar total intake to LA diet while without maize and grass ad libitum resulted in lower total intake and thus LWG. The proportion of leucaena (50%) in LG diet may be inadequate to have similar response in intake and LWG to LS diet. Leucaena maize, LMG and LG diet can be used as an alternate ration other than leucaena alone to maintain high live weight gain over season under traditional fattening systems in Sumbawa.


Eye tracking is becoming more and more affordable, and thus gaze has the potential to become a viable input modality for human-computer interaction. We present the GazeEverywhere solution that can replace the mouse with gaze control by adding a transparent layer on top of the system GUI. It comprises three parts: i) the SPOCK interaction method that is based on smooth pursuit eye movements and does not suffer from the Midas touch problem; ii) an online recalibration algorithm that continuously improves gaze-tracking accuracy using the SPOCK target projections as reference points; and iii) an optional hardware setup utilizing head-up display technology to project superimposed dynamic stimuli onto the PC screen where a software modification of the system is not feasible. In validation experiments, we show that GazeEverywhere's throughput according to ISO 9241-9 was improved over dwell time based interaction methods and nearly reached trackpad level. Online recalibration reduced interaction target ('button') size by about 25%. Finally, a case study showed that users were able to browse the internet and successfully run Wikirace using gaze only, without any plug-ins or other modifications.


Abstract A new approach is presented for performing efficient molecular dynamics simulations of solute aggregation in crystalline solids. The method dynamically divides the total simulation space into "active" regions centered about each minority species, in which regular molecular dynamics is performed. The number, size and shape of these regions is updated periodically based on the distribution of solute atoms within the overall simulation cell. The remainder of the system is essentially static except for periodic rescaling of the entire simulation cell in order to balance the pressure between the isolated molecular dynamics regions. The method is shown to be accurate and robust for the Environment-Dependant Interatomic Potential (EDIP) for silicon and an Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potential for copper. Several tests are performed beginning with the diffusion of a single vacancy all the way to large-scale simulations of vacancy clustering. In both material systems, the predicted evolutions agree closely with the results of standard molecular dynamics simulations. Computationally, the method is demonstrated to scale almost linearly with the concentration of solute atoms, but is essentially independent of the total system size. This scaling behavior allows for the full dynamical simulation of aggregation under conditions that are more experimentally realizable than would be possible with standard molecular dynamics. ABSTRACT A new approach is presented for performing efficient molecular dynamics simulations of solute aggregation in crystalline solids. The method dynamically divides the total simulation space into "active" regions centered about each minority species, in which regular molecular dynamics is performed. The number, size and shape of these regions is updated periodically based on the distribution of solute atoms within the overall simulation cell. The remainder of the system is essentially static except for periodic rescaling of the entire simulation cell in order to balance the pressure between the isolated molecular dynamics regions. The method is shown to be accurate and robust for the Environment-Dependant Interatomic Potential (EDIP) for silicon and an Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potential for copper. Several tests are performed beginning with the diffusion of a single vacancy all the way to large-scale simulations of vacancy clustering. In both material systems, the predicted evolutions agree closely with the results of standard molecular dynamics simulations. Computationally, the method is demonstrated to scale almost linearly with the concentration of solute atoms, but is essentially independent of the total system size. This scaling behavior allows for the full dynamical simulation of aggregation under conditions that are more experimentally realizable than would be possible with standard molecular dynamics.


Four million undergraduate students enroll in regional comprehensive universities each year. Numbering close to 420, these universities have been called "democracy's colleges" in recognition of their role in facilitating educational opportunity through requiring low barriers for admission, emphasizing teaching as opposed to research, and engaging in the civic and economic life of their regions. These activities have given rise to the three elements of their public purpose; specifically, they are often student-centered, regionally engaged and open access. Despite the important function regional comprehensive universities serve, they are facing unprecedented challenges created by a neoliberal public policy context that narrows their purpose to their role in improving the market. Within a neoliberal public policy context, these universities are facing rising expectations, demands for greater private sector engagement, cuts to public funding and the introduction of performance based funding. This dissertation is a qualitative case study of the institutional responses of four regional comprehensive universities in a single state to challenges created by a neoliberal state public policy context. University stakeholders including senior administrators, staff, faculty and community leaders of the four universities were interviewed. Also interviewed were national policy and education experts and senior policymakers from the state under study. Findings show that a neoliberal public policy context coupled with declining student enrollments have forced the four universities into a series of Faustian bargains about which elements of their public purpose they can afford to maintain and which they must allow to be eroded. Specifically, the universities are eschewing access missions and becoming more selective in order to enroll students who will be more likely to graduate and improve the university's standing in performance based funding allocations. Some are also curtailing regional civic engagement efforts in favor of economic development. Findings also show that universities whose organizational identities embody their public purpose are better positioned to preserve elements of their purpose within a neoliberal public policy context. Finally, two of the universities were found to be striving to create alternative models of legitimacy focused on embodying their public purpose. Implications for public policy, educational opportunity and regional public life are described. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Matthew Hartley This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1925