Public transportation authorities rely on electronic fare transaction records for revenue collection, service planning, and performance measurement. When passengers make public transportation trips without interacting with the fare system, demand is underreported and fare revenue is lost. In some cases, this issue is studied through costly manual surveys that cover a small portion of stops and times. Based on disaggregate fare transaction data, this research introduces a framework and stochastic model for estimating fare noninteraction and evasion on systems without automatic passenger counting. The model produces estimates by stop and time of day that could be used by agencies to effectively target fare inspection and off-board validation resources, as well as to improve the accuracy of scaling for inferred origin–destination matrices. Applying the model to morning peak trips originating at inbound surface stations of Boston's Green Line, it is estimated that the authority loses $3,600 per weekday to fare evasion seen in about one-third of noninteractions and 9% of all trips. A card-specific parameter estimated by the model sheds light on personal attitudes toward noninteraction.


Know your tractor. Most farmers know their machines well, but what about new farm help, or a neighbor's tractor? Always look at the operators manual before operating an unfamiliar machine. Know the location of each control. Locations of important items, PTO levers for example, vary from one manufacturer to another. Be sure you can stop the tractor and its implements quickly if needed. It is important to perform a daily maintenance check on a tractor every time it is used. This will ensure that the tractor is in a safe and useable condition at all times.


The research described in this thesis focuses on strategies to enhance NBL immunogenicity to improve outcome of children suffering from HR-NBL. The main
objective was to find pharmacological and cell-based strategies to induce one of the most important prerequisites for cytotoxic T-cell engagement: cell surface display of MHC-I. The ultimate goal is to effectively engage T-cells, thereby enhancing anti-tumor cytotoxicity and creating immunological memory to prevent future relapse.

To improve the current therapy regimen, we need to understand why the current strategy fails. The pilot data of the functional, longitudinal immune monitoring strategy we developed shows clues for therapy improvement and emphasizes the potential of such a monitoring strategy to study therapy responses in patients. However, we can show the potential, but we do need collaborative approaches within the European association involved with neuroblastoma research (SIOPEN) to gain enough power to be able to draw firm conclusions in such a rare disease treated with many different treatmentarms.

We identified HDAC inhibition as a promising approach to induce surface display of MHC-I expression on NBL cells, thereby causing in vitro susceptibility to NBL-specific T-cell cytotoxicity. The HDACi Entinostat induces a general increase in factors important in both innate and adaptive immunogenicity, which, to our surprise, was accompanied by a switch towards a more undifferentiated, MES NBL cell lineage. This implies that chemo-resistant NBL cells are more sensitive to immunotherapy, and vice versa. These new insights in cell lineage plasticity in response to chemo- and immunotherapy stresses the importance of considering therapy timing to reach maximum therapy efficacy.

Immune monitoring during therapy revealed that, besides the low immunogenicity of NBL cells in general, immune cells themselves may be dysfunctional, which further complicates the generation of NBL-specific immune responses. Adoptive cell therapy strategies may therefore be required complementary to immunogenicity-enhancing strategies to maximize anti-tumor responses. This thesis hints to the potential of cell therapy strategies which combine natural NK-cell cytotoxicity with TCR-mediated cytotoxicity of T-cells in one cell to overcome MHC-I plasticity-related immune evasion.

Altogether, understanding of the impact of (timing of) individual components of the HR-NBL treatment regimen on tumor destruction, tumor phenotype, immunogenicity, and immune cell function is key to further improve efficacy of the treatment regimen. This thesis identifies and shows the potential of strategies to increase NBL immunogenicity to, among others, T-cells, to induce an NBL-specific immune response and generate immunological memory to prevent future relapse. This is a start, but translating our findings to a fully immunocompetent setting, together with investigation of other immunogenicity-restricting processes, is needed to bring mastering of this game of hide and seek to the next level.


The small guanine nucleotide binding protein p21(Ras) plays an important role in the activation of the Raf kinase. However, the precise mechanism by which Raf is activated remains unclear. It has been proposed that the sole function of p21(Ras )in Raf activation is to recruit Raf to the plasma membrane. We have used Drosophila embryos to examine the mechanism of Raf (Draf) activation in the complete absence of p21(Ras) (Ras1). We demonstrate that the role of Ras1 in Draf activation is not limited to the translocation of Draf to the membrane through a Ras1-Draf association. In addition, Ras1 is essential for the activation of an additional factor which in turn activates Draf.


In this study, fish bones as a waste product in fish industry was investigated whether it is suitable to chemical modification. The surface modification on the surfaces of bone particles was made on two step using silanization and schiff base reaction. In brief, the fish bones were cleaned in order to make them ready for chemical proceeding. Chemical modifications were performed on the surface of fish bone particles. Firstly, free amine (-NH2) group was obtained in molecule by silanization of the surfaces of fish bones with 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (S1). Afterwards, amine groups that exist on the surface of bones were reacted with 2-ethyl-2H-pyrazole-3-carbaldehyde (B5) that includes aldehyde groups. The materials gained were analysed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and zeta for their potency. In SEM-EDS analysis, the band of silicon (Si) and nitrogen (N) elements of molecules modified can be clearly seen. Bruanaver Emmet Teller (BET) surface areas of the materials acquired were investigated. BET surface area of the unprocessed apatite is 5.6 m2/g and the surface area of apatite modified with B5 is 1, 8 m2/g. The amount of B5 bonded on the surface of bone is calculated as 164 μmol/g. According to the results, it can be said that waste fish bones are applicable for chemical processing and they can be used in various fields.


Adaptive behavior relies on combining bottom-up sensory inputs with top-down control signals to guide responses in line with current goals and task demands. Over the past decade, accumulating evidence has suggested that the dorsal and ventral frontoparietal attentional systems are recruited interactively in this process. This fMRI study used concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a causal perturbation approach to investigate the interactions between dorsal and ventral attentional systems and sensory processing areas. In a sustained spatial attention paradigm, human participants detected weak visual targets that were presented in the lower-left visual field on 50% of the trials. Further, we manipulated the presence/absence of task-irrelevant auditory signals. Critically, on each trial we applied 10 Hz bursts of four TMS (or Sham) pulses to the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). IPS-TMS relative to Sham-TMS increased activation in the parietal cortex regardless of sensory stimulation, confirming the neural effectiveness of TMS stimulation. Visual targets increased activations in the anterior insula, a component of the ventral attentional system responsible for salience detection. Conversely, they decreased activations in the ventral visual areas. Importantly, IPS-TMS abolished target-evoked activation increases in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) of the ventral attentional system, whereas it eliminated target-evoked activation decreases in the right fusiform. Our results demonstrate that IPS-TMS exerts profound directional causal influences not only on visual areas but also on the TPJ as a critical component of the ventral attentional system. They reveal a complex interplay between dorsal and ventral attentional systems during target detection under sustained spatial attention. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Adaptive behavior relies on combining bottom-up sensory inputs with top-down attentional control. Although the dorsal and ventral frontoparietal systems are key players in attentional control, their distinct contributions remain unclear. In this TMS-fMRI study, participants attended to the left visual field to detect weak visual targets presented on half of the trials. We applied brief TMS bursts (or Sham-TMS) to the dorsal intraparietal sulcus (IPS) 100 ms after visual stimulus onset. IPS-TMS abolished the visual induced response suppression in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex and the response enhancement to visual targets in the temporoparietal junction. Our results demonstrate that IPS causally influences neural activity in the ventral attentional system 100 ms poststimulus. They have important implications for our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying attentional control.


For pt. I see ibid., vol. 18, no. 10, p. 909-16 (1999). Studies aimed at quantifying neuroanatomical differences between populations require the volume measurements of individual brain structures. If the study contains a large number of images, manual segmentation is not practical. This study tests the hypothesis that a fully automatic, atlas-based segmentation method can be used to quantify atrophy indexes derived from the brain and cerebellum volumes in normal subjects and chronic alcoholics. This is accomplished by registering an atlas volume with a subject volume, first using a global transformation, and then improving the registration using a local transformation. Segmented structures in the atlas volume are then mapped to the corresponding structures in the subject volume using the combined global and local transformations. This technique has been applied to seven normal and seven alcoholic subjects. Three magnetic resonance volumes were obtained for each subject and each volume was segmented automatically, using the atlas-based method. Accuracy was assessed by manually segmenting regions and measuring the similarity between corresponding regions obtained automatically. Repeatability was determined by comparing volume measurements of segmented structures from each acquisition of the same subject. Results demonstrate that the method is accurate, that the results are repeatable, and that it can provide a method for automatic quantification of brain atrophy, even when the degree of atrophy is large.


Aim: To examine constructions of community among retired migrants from the UK in the Costa Blanca in Spain.

Background: 'Community' as a concept has enduring theoretical and practical significance. Often discussed in terms of representing something lost yet recoverable, community has further relevance in understanding social change and continuity. Underpinning discourses of community, there is often a recurrent theme of loss and recovery which has utopian and nostalgic overtones and this permeates contemporary understandings of what community represents. This is also reflected by the Labour Government's appropriation of community as a panacea for social problems. Since the 1970s, migration to Spanish coastal resorts – costas - has significantly increased and retired British migrants constitute a large proportion of such movement. The development of theories to facilitate understanding of these new 'transnational' communities through lifestyle migration is a relatively new area of study and I aim to contribute to this. The idea that the absence of community is problematic combined with a romantic discourse relating to 'past ages'- or 'nostalgia' - warrants further exploration.

Methods: Seventeen in-depth interviews were undertaken with a theoretically sampled group of women who had moved to the Costa Blanca from the UK. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using a narrative approach.

Findings: There are multiple forms of belonging to community. Representations of community are multi-dimensional, complex and overlapping in nature. Place continues to be salient, but belonging to places is now more complex as a result of transnationalism through lifestyle migration and increased global movement. Constructions of belonging to place are inextricably linked to networks and ethnicity.

Conclusion: Nostalgic constructions of community can be understood as an antidote to modernity and nostalgia denotes the mourning of a lost time as well as a lost home or place. In times of rapid social change, when people's intimacy with the world – represented as belonging to places, networks and ethnic group - is compromised, they seek to recreate it through nostalgia. Nostalgic constructions of belonging are key to how people give meaning to their lives. Different types of belonging are linked to community through a sense of nostalgic intimacy with the world. If intimacy with the world is compromised then nostalgia constructs and reflects belonging. In the absence of real intimacy or closeness, nostalgia is ignited through narrative and fills this gap. Nostalgia therefore, is a form of chronotope since it can be used to link time and space.


Developing and sustaining consumer based brand equity in the financial sector specifically within the retail banking industry is relatively difficult compared to the other sectors since it is associated with the customer's awareness of the existence of a brand reputed to offer exemplary services. This study explores brand equity from consumer perspective across the retail banking industry by comparing its dimensions across a domestic and global bank operating in the United Kingdom using a total sample of 317 current UK foreign and domestic banks users in order to test the hypothesised relationships from which the proposed model have been developed. Findings revealed that the relationship that exists between the capability of retail banking service providers to offer exemplary quality service performance associated with transactional and access convenience, bespoke functional values, easiness and reliability of technological banking portals usage as well as emotional motives inevitably brings to light the centrality of trust, loyalty and consumers' retention leading to positive attitudes, behaviors and perceptions. Further, the statistical results showed that there is no statistical relevance in terms of the differences between HSBC and Barclays banks users, nevertheless a small difference in means was identified. Consumers' trusted more the domestic bank and positively valued its service quality performance and usage convenience and recognized having an emotional relationship with their respective bank rather than a functional relationship whereas e-banking usage as well as functional values and financial benefits were more valued across the global bank. This research finding proposes relevant insights regarding the understanding of how brand equity is constructed from consumers' perspective within the retail-banking sector and assist global banks improve their branding strategies, face local banks' threats and improve their service performance. Results also fill the gap within the brand equity concept across the banking sector that has received little attention.


Electromechanical delay (EMD) is the time lag between muscle activation and muscle force production. It reflects both electrochemical processes (i.e., synaptic transmission, propagation of the action potential, excitation–contraction coupling) and mechanical processes (i.e., force transmission along the active and passive parts of the series elastic component). Consequently, it has been often used (more than 100 articles in PubMed) to evaluate muscle function, such as during fatigue tasks, in response to training programs, after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, and in patients with neuropathy or myopathy. EMD can be measured during voluntary, reflex, or electrically induced contraction. It should be considered a valid tool for evaluation of muscle function only if it not influenced by methodological artifacts. In our opinion, EMD measurements performed during voluntary contraction fail to meet this criterion, mainly because the electromyographic (EMG) electrode location may greatly influence detection of onset of muscle activation. In fact, because the onset of force production is due to the first recruited muscle fibers, it is crucial to detect precisely the onset of activation from these fibers. However, the use of classical EMG recordings, in which one pair of electrodes is placed somewhere between the motor point and the tendon, does not allow this to occur. Assuming a muscle fiber conduction velocity of 4 m/s, the propagation of the action potential from the motor point to a pair of electrodes placed 2 cm distal to the motor point would be 5 ms (in a fusiform muscle), which constitutes a relatively high error for EMD values between 40 and 60 ms. Also, due to the spatial heterogeneity in muscle recruitment, one would expect a nonuniform onset of activation within the muscle. In other words, intraand intersubject variations in EMD could be due in part (or totally) to differences in electrode location. To illustrate this drawback, we detected the onset of muscle activation from surface EMG recorded with an electrode array (64 channels; EMG-USB; LISIN-Ottino Biolettronica, Italy) during an isometric elbow flexion performed as quickly as possible. The results showed high variability in the onset times depending on the electrode location (up to 20 ms; Fig. 1). Because the use of electrode arrays would seem appealing, it does not totally solve the drawback just highlighted. The reason for this is that it mainly provides information from motor unit potentials (MUPs) recorded from the surface, where high-threshold motor units are predominant, and it cannot be used in all the synergist muscles involved in the task (e.g., deep muscles). In conclusion, for a proper interpretation of changes in EMD (across subjects and across time), EMD should be measured during electrically induced contraction by taking into account the difference between the stimulation artifact (very easy to detect) and the onset of force FIGURE 1. Experimental setup (A) and results (B). (A) The subject was seated upright. The angle between the upper arm and the forearm was fixed at 90 . He performed isometric elbow flexions as quickly as possible. (B) Electromyographic signals were amplified ( 500), bandpass filtered (10–500 HZ), and digitized at 4096 HZ. The onset of EMG activity was automatically detected (threshold 1⁄4 2 standard deviations beyond mean of baseline activity) and visually checked. The differences from the mean value calculated over 50 EMG channels are depicted. Note that the most proximal and distal lines of channels are not depicted. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]


Naturally acquired cellular immunity in individuals who have been exposed to HIV-1 but have remained uninfected may hold clues for the design of an effective HIV vaccine. To determine the presence and nature of such an HIV-1-specific immune response, we evaluated the quantity and fine specificity of HIV-1-reactive IFN-gamma-secreting T cells in a group of highly exposed seronegative men having sex with men. All 46 ES reported frequent unprotected anal sex with known HIV-1-infected partners at enrollment, and high risk activities continued in at least one-half of the volunteers for up to >6 years of observation. Despite the high frequency of unprotected anal intercourse and potential HIV-1 exposure, the vast majority of individuals demonstrated no or very low numbers of HIV-1-specific, IFN-gamma-secreting T cells. Even when HIV-1 epitopes were presented by peptide-pulsed autologous dendritic cells in 15 of the highest risk volunteers, HIV-1-specific T cells remained infrequent, and the proportion of responders was not significantly different from that in a lower risk seronegative control cohort. Only PBMC from two individuals who have remained uninfected to date exhibited distinctly positive responses. However, these responses rarely persisted over time, single epitope specificities were identified in only one volunteer, and HIV-1-specific memory T cell clones did not expand in vitro. HIV-1-specific, IFN-gamma-secreting T cells are thus unlikely to substantially contribute to resistance against infection in most exposed seronegative men having sex with men.


Contemporary peacekeeping operations carry out many disparate tasks, which has triggered a debate about "Christmas Tree mandates." Did the UN Secretariat or the UN Security Council drive this expansion? Using original data on nineteen UN peacekeeping missions, 1998–2014, this article compares peacekeeping tasks recommended by the Secretariat to those mandated by the Council. It finds that the two bodies expressed different preferences regarding the nature, number, and novelty of peacekeeping tasks. First, the Council dropped Secretariat-recommended tasks as often as it added new ones on its own initiative. Second, the two bodies disagreed more over peacebuilding and peacemaking tasks than over peacekeeping tasks. Third, the Council preferred to be the one to introduce novel tasks that had not appeared in previous mandates. Finally, among the countries that "held the pen" on peacekeeping resolutions, the United States was the most prone to dropping Secretariat-proposed tasks and the least willing to add tasks itself.


Online violence against women operates – in an increasingly digital society – as an obstacle to gender equality. The 2018-2023 CoE Gender Equality Strategy sets a benchmark for the initiatives and policy changes across Europe to achieve gender equality. The strategy not only recognizes that 'violence and sexual harassment of women in public space are strongly condemned [by the Istanbul Convention]' but also notes a number of obstacles to gender equality which are rooted in online behaviours such as violent and degrading online content (including violent sexual threats online) and sexist online hate speech. Most recently, the EU Parliament highlighted the need to tackle online forms of VAW, including online misogyny and online harassment.

Despite growing recognition at the European supranational level that violence against women is increasingly happening online, few steps have been taken in terms of law and policy making to combat these practices in a meaningful and cohesive way. In particular, limited attention has been paid to textual threats, harassment, and text-based abuse online, with the emphasis of legislators and policy makers falling predominantly on online image-based sexual abuse. Furthermore, fragmented approaches across European institutions and across EU member states compound this problem resulting in the current policy framework embodying the antithesis of equality when it comes to OVAW.

This article critically examines the shortcomings of the current approaches to law and policy, highlighting the failings to date in enacting changes to address gender inequality at the European supranational level. It concludes by proposing practical solutions to addressing OVAW, especially online forms of gender-based harassment and hate speech.


Replication factor C (RFC) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) are accessory proteins essential for processive DNA synthesis. The function of RFC is to load PCNA, a processivity factor of replicative DNA polymerases, onto primed DNA templates. The central hole of the PCNA homo-trimeric ring encircles doublestranded DNA, so that DNA polymerases can operate for DNA synthesis with PCNA along a DNA template. The Pyrococcus furiosus RFC (PfuRFC) consists of a small subunit (RFCS, 37kDa) and a large subunit (RFCL, 55kDa), which show significant sequence identity to the eukaryotic homologs. The C-terminal region of RFCL has an acidic cluster of about 30 amino acids, which consists mainly of glutamic acid residues, and a following basic cluster of 10 amino acids, which consists mainly of lysine residues. These clusters of charged amino acids, which precede the C-terminal consensus sequence, PIP (PCNA interacting protein)-box, are conserved in several archaeal RFCLs. The series of mutant PfuRFC containing the C-terminal deletions in RFCL were constructed. The mutational analyses showed that the charged cluster is not essential for loading of PCNA onto DNA. However, the region containing the basic cluster is important for the stable ternary (RFC-PCNA-DNA) complex formation.


The late Cenozoic geomorphic evolution of Grand Canyon has been influenced by three primary tectonic and drainage adjustment events. First, 1 km of relief was produced along the Grand Wash–Wheeler Fault system beginning at 16.5 Ma. Second, the ancestral Colorado River became integrated with the lower Colorado River through Grand Canyon between 5.5 and 6 Ma. Third, the Colorado River was influenced by Plio-Quaternary normal faulting along the Hurricane and Toroweap Faults. Despite the relatively firm constraints available on the timing of these events, the geomorphic evolution of Grand Canyon is still not well constrained. For example, was there a deeply incised gorge in western Grand Canyon before Colorado River integration? How did incision rates vary through time and along the evolving river profile? What is the role of isostatic rebound and Plio-Quaternary faulting on the recent incision history of Grand Canyon? In this paper I describe the results of a process-based numerical modeling study designed to address these questions and to determine the plausibility of different proposed models for the erosional history of Grand Canyon. The numerical model I developed integrates the stream-power model for bedrock channel erosion with cliff retreat and the flexural-isostatic response to erosion. Two end-member paleodrainage and integration scenarios are considered. In the first model, I assume no incision in western Grand Canyon prior to 6 Ma. This model is equivalent to a lake-overtopping scenario for Colorado River integration. In this scenario, the model predicts that Colorado River integration at 6 Ma initiated the formation of a large (700 m) knickpoint that migrated headward at a rate of 100 km/Ma, resulting in rapid incision of western Grand Canyon down to the level of the Redwall Limestone from 6 to 4 Ma and incision of eastern Grand and Marble Canyons from 4 to 2 Ma. Widening of Grand Canyon by cliff retreat triggered flexural-isostatic rebound and renewed river incision of up to 350 m in Plio-Quaternary time according to this model. The model also indicates that Plio-Quaternary normal faulting significantly dampened incision rates in western Grand Canyon relative to eastern Grand Canyon. In the second paleodrainage scenario, I assume that a 13,000 km 2 paleodrainage crossed the Grand Wash–Wheeler Fault system at 16.5 Ma. The results of this model scenario indicate that relief production along the Grand Wash–Wheeler Fault system could have initiated the formation of a large (700 m) knickpoint that migrated headward at a rate of 15 km/Ma prior to 6 Ma to form a 150-km-long gorge in western Grand Canyon. Following integration at 6 Ma, the results of this model scenario are broadly similar to those of the first model, i.e., rapid incision through Grand and Marble Canyons from 6 to 2 Ma followed by cliff retreat, isostatic rebound, and fault-controlled incision. The results of the second model scenario illustrate that headward erosion of a proto–Grand Canyon could have been sufficient to capture the ancestral Colorado River east of the Shivwitz Plateau.


Tokyo Bay is one of the most eutrophicated bays in Japan, and mass occurrences of scyphozoan jellyfish Aurelia aurita have often been observed with progress of eutrophication. In the coastal environment, the abundance of substrates suitable for A. aurita polyps are obviously increasing by reclamation. However, most suitable substrates for settling, except in the bottom-layer in the innermost part of Tokyo Bay, are occupied by other sessile organisms such as mussels, barnacles or ascidians. The bottom layer is characterized by low DO concentrations (≦2.0 ml O2 L−1) that turn to hypoxia during summer, resulting in low recruitment and low growth of other sessile organisms. To elucidate the mechanism by which mass occurrence of jellyfish occurs, adaptative behavior to hypoxia in planula larvae and the polyp stage was experimentally studied. In the present study, planula settlement was promoted by a decrease in DO concentrations, and apparent growth of polyps and production of daughter polyps by asexual budding were also observed, even in the polyps cultured in hypoxic waters. Moreover A. aurita polyps cultured under hypoxic conditions began strobilation and ephyrae were liberated after the DO concentration levels were restored. It is suggested that the occurrence of hypoxic waters is rather favorable for the survival, growth and asexual reproduction of A. aurita polyps, and it can directly contribute to the consequent production of A. aurita ephyrae in the next spring within Tokyo Bay.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether attention, emotion, and cognitive regulation (CR) may be strategies to advance one's ethnic identity.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is presented in three parts. The first section discusses integrative inquiry (INIQ) (Bresciani Ludvik et al., 2016), a mindfulness methodology and mindful inquiry training program, as a potential pathway to help mitigate stress and enhance healthy development and well-being strategies that combat stressors related to ethnic and racial identity; and increase opportunities for positive ethnic identity development. INIQ was designed to influence areas of the brain associated with attention regulation, emotion regulation, and CR in order to decrease stress and anxiety, and heighten executive functions of undergraduate and graduate students. The second section discusses an exploratory study to see whether INIQ resulted in higher mean scores for participants on their ethnic identity, as assessed by the multigroup ethnic identity measure (Phinney, 1992).

Findings

The results indicated that there was a significant increase in pre-test and post-test scores for mindfulness (p=0.001) as well as the dependent measure for learning exploration (p=0.028) among 30 undergraduate, master's- and doctoral-seeking students. There was also a non-significant increase for clear understanding (p=0.15) and overall ethnic identity achievement (p=0.387); and non-significant decrease for ethnic belonging (p=0.424).

Originality/value

These findings suggest that INIQ may increase students' ethnic learning exploration, which is an important process in ethnic identity development (Phinney and Ong, 2007). This study also suggests that INIQ increases mindfulness in participants. The authors conclude with a discussion and recommendations to future INIQ and other diversity centered student support practitioners interested in influencing positive ethnic identity formation.


BACKGROUND
Published information about cancer screening in older Mexican-American women is scarce. This study reported the patterns of mammogram and Pap test use among older Mexican-American women. The patterns and associated factors were examined and compared with Healthy People 2000 targets.

METHODS
Data were obtained from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly, the largest representative survey of community-dwelling Mexican Americans aged 67 years or over, from the southwestern United States.

RESULTS
Among older Mexican-American women, 68.3% reported ever having a mammogram, and 41.2% reported having a mammogram in the last two years; 64.0% reported ever having a Pap test, with 43.6% reported having a Pap test in the last three years.

CONCLUSIONS
The data for older Mexican-American women demonstrated that they approached the targets for breast cancer screening, but not for Pap test use.


: The authors performed a comparative retrospective analysis of preoperative and intraoperative periods in 50 patients aged 70-83 years with coronary heart disease (CHD). A control group comprised the similar patients aged 40-59 years. The geriatric patients showed a higher incidence of arterial hypertension, respiratory and central nervous system diseases, cardiac arrhythmias, and anemia as an outcome. In CHD patients aged 70-80 years, balanced general anesthesia based on lower-dose midazolam and fentanyl, on subnarcotic-dose ketamine during the metered use of isoflurane and adequate infusion therapy provided reasonable hemodynamic stability during the induction of anesthesia and the preperfiusion period without administering cardiotonic agents. Intraoperatively, there was a more pronounced reduction in pulmonary oxygenizing function, body temperature and more needs for cardiotonic and diuretic therapy and erythrocyte mass after the basic stage of surgery.


ABSTRACT Using conversation analysis as methodology, this article provides a link between the local organization of talk and larger societal issues by investigating specific conversational sequences in which French speakers from different speech communities interact. It is argued that in addition to dealing with problems of speaking, hearing, and understanding, repair can simultaneously be used to negotiate linguistic membership. Repair can be used to establish, confirm, or insist on speakers' belonging to one particular speech community over another. Moreover, participants can use repair to express affiliation and disaffiliation with each other. The implications of this research are discussed, linking the organization of conversation with issues of language and identity, specifically with the social meaning of dialect variety in the Francophone world. Thus, this article demonstrates how phenomena commonly discussed on the macro level are realized and negotiated on the micro level.


This article describes the potential for using K12 education data to support school improvement efforts and the effective and efficient use of education resources. It examines the availability and transparency of education data in California as part of the Getting Down to Facts effort to improve education decision making in that state. The study addresses three broad questions related to the state's education data system: (1) What is the current condition of California's education data system? (2) What is being done to strengthen it? and (3) What are the obstacles and challenges to improving the system so that it can be an effective tool for helping policy makers and education leaders understand how schools are performing and how resources can most effectively be allocated?


The broad acceptance of a Web service standard has led enterprises worldwide to publish their services and make businesses via the Web on the Internet. Consequently, dependable Web service executions are a new challenge. Although existing work proposes to extend the Web service structure with fault tolerant features that support such applications, most of them meet only the reliability and availability requirements of single Web service executions, not properly addressing the problem of dependable Web service compositions. This paper overviews existing work on available Web service compositions and proposes a new approach to create highly available compositions based on a semantic replication scheme. A prototype of the proposed approach was evaluated in a series of experiments where Web service failures are considered and the related performance data are presented.


Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arbovirus that caused widespread panic beginning in 2015 in northeastern Brazil due to the threatening link between infection and fetal abnormalities such as microcephaly, spontaneous abortions, and stillbirths. Since the epidemic began, the virus has been further investigated, unveiling that the long-term dangers of ZIKV infection go beyond fetal neurological impairment. Characterization of the active infection has proven difficult as only 20% of infected individuals are symptomatic. Additionally, ZIKV is often misdiagnosed due to serological cross-reactivity with similar flaviviruses such as dengue, yellow fever, and West Nile. To date, there is no approved vaccine or therapy against ZIKV, highlighting the urgent need to accurately identify active infection to help minimize the spread of the virus. Herein, we describe a highly specific and sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect early active ZIKV using neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies isolated from infected patients in Brazil that do not cross-react with dengue viruses 1–4 and bind directly to a ZIKV immunodominant epitope. The calculated limits of detection of active ZIKV fall within the physiological ranges of the virus in human bodily fluids. This selective immunoassay creates the platform required for future translation toward a point-of-care assay for ZIKV, a necessity to diagnose active ZIKV in the remote regions of which it thrives.


A gritty and exciting science fiction novel, introducing aliens truer than fiction...Space opera is back with a bang! Lieutenant Joel Gilmore is part of a space observation team who find themselves attacked by the very aliens they are watching. It becomes a race against time for their fellow soldiers to rescue them, but in doing so, they unlock the shocking secrets of the solar system. With thrilling action sequences and brilliantly-characterised aliens, this science-fiction novelist is a one to watch - but be careful of the aliens. These are not Star Trek aliens with altered faces, but a glimpse of what really might be out there...


This study concerns the evolution of electrical contact erosion in low voltage 42V DC (24A) applications. The aim is to describe the erosion mechanisms of a single arc discharge at both contact surfaces during operation. To this end the experiments conducted are designed to produce results that enable close examination of the surface profile changes, volumetric contact material movements, and relative quantities of metallic and gaseous species in the arc discharge. The experimental procedure is arranged so that the contacts undergo a low number of operation cycles in order to limit the cumulative effects of arc erosion. To obtain results portraying the evolution of arc erosion in a 42V system the apparatus allows for interruption of the arc at any desired voltage level. A series of tests are conducted at specified voltage steps from arc initiation to extinction. The samples collected are analysed using a non-contact laser profile apparatus giving 2D and 3D surface scans. During each arc discharge a record of spectral emissions is collected by a spectrometer and later analysed to show the constituents of the arc. The data is represented with reference to voltage level and shows how the erosion evolution from a low number of operation cycles is related to arc phenomena. In addition the voltage profiles of the arc are recorded and represented by amplitude modulation. It has been found that the erosion site dimensions are related to the arc voltage fluctuations. In these tests a marked change of voltage slope is seen but is not found to be related to the metallic to gaseous phase transition as often thought.
It is determined that the anodic to cathodic arc transition is not due to a metallic to gaseous phase transition. Changes in surface profile at the cathode occurring during the cathodic arc phase, and before gaseous phase initiation, are affected by density per unit area of ions impacting the surface. The vaporization of the cathode requires a critical ion density. This determines the anodic to cathodic transition point. Conversely the anode is thought to endure intense electron sputtering throughout the arc lifetime and its volumetric loss is greater than that of the cathode.


Young people's interest in science and technology and their attitudes towards those knowledge fields has been an object for research for a long time. Current research points to cultural aspects and informal learning as important to understand these questions. In this study I use content analysis to compare what secondary students want to learn about in science and technology with what international popular science television program broadcast and present important similarities. I discuss the results from media theory as modernity having an effect on young people's experiences and that this can be important in understanding the way they encounter school science.


BACKGROUND: Although proxymetacaine and oxybuprocaine produce topical ocular and spinal anesthesia, they have never been tested as cutaneous anesthetics. We compared cutaneous analgesia of proxymetacaine and oxybuprocaine with bupivacaine and tested their central nervous system and cardiovascular toxicity. METHODS: After blockade of cutaneous trunci muscle reflex with subcutaneous injections, we evaluated the local anesthetic effect of proxymetacaine and oxybuprocaine on cutaneous analgesia in rats. After IV infusions of equipotent doses of oxybuprocaine, proxymetacaine, and bupivacaine, we observed the onset time of seizure, apnea, and impending death and monitored mean arterial blood pressure and heart rate. RESULTS: Proxymetacaine and oxybuprocaine acted like bupivacaine and produced dose-related cutaneous analgesia. On a 50% effective dose basis, the ranks of potencies were proxymetacaine > oxybuprocaine > bupivacaine (P < 0.01). Under equipotent doses, the infusion times of proxymetacaine or oxybuprocaine required to cause seizure, apnea, and impending death were longer than that of bupivacaine (P < 0.05). The decrease in mean arterial blood pressure and heart rate was slower with oxybuprocaine and proxymetacaine compared with bupivacaine (P < 0.05 for the differences) at equipotent doses. CONCLUSIONS: Oxybuprocaine and proxymetacaine were more potent at producing cutaneous anesthesia but were less potent than bupivacaine at producing central nervous system and cardiovascular toxicity.


Manufacturers of dental units have responded positively to the challenge from the American Dental Association (ADA) and the subsequent guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to deliver patient treatment water that is at least as pure as drinking water. Dental units are now routinely manufactured with anti-retraction devices that are designed to control oral fluids from being aspirated into the lines during treatment and many units have water systems that isolate source water from municipal water supply. The dental industry has also produced an array of devices and cleaning/disinfectant products to further facilitate the use of clean patient treatment water. Products that claim disinfectant efficacy must be registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If they are not EPA-registered, they can be labeled as waterline cleaners only. Waterline treatment devices that are sold separately and require connection to dental units must be registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as medical devices. Patient treatment water quality can be monitored by using in-office chairside kits or through commercial laboratory services.


We investigated ways in which undergraduates use optional learning resources in a typical blended learning environment. Specifically, we recorded how often students attended live face-to-face lectures, accessed online recorded lectures, and visited a mathematics learning support centre during a multivariate calculus course. Four distinct study strategies emerged, but surprisingly none involved making heavy use of more than one resource. In contrast with some earlier research, the general strategy a student adopted was related to their academic achievement, both in the multivariate calculus course, and in their degree programme more widely. Those students who often accessed online lectures had lower attainment than those who often attended live lectures or the support centre. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest that 'blended teaching environments' may be a more accurate description for what have previously been called 'blended learning environments'.


There is continuing debate as to whether nursing is an art or a science. This seems to be further fuelled by discussion about whether nursing is a profession. If nursing could be called a research-based science, would it become a recognized profession and be taken more seriously? This article relates the art/science debate to the teaching of wound care in clinical practice.


Software is increasingly expected to run in a variety of environments. The environments themselves are often dynamically changing when using mobile computers or embedded systems, for example. Network bandwidth, available power, or other physical conditions may change, necessitating the use of alternative algorithms within the software, and changing resource mixes to support the software. We present Containment Units as a software architecture useful for recognizing environmental changes and dynamically reconfiguring software and resource allocations to adapt to those changes. We present examples of Containment Units used within robotics along with the results of actual executions, and the application of static analysis to obtain assurances that those Containment Units can be expected to demonstrate the robustness for which they were designed.


We investigate the impact of droplets of dense suspensions onto a solid substrate. We show that a global hydrodynamic balance is unable to predict the splash onset and propose to replace it by an energy balance at the level of the particles in the suspension. We experimentally verify that the resulting, particle-based Weber number gives a reliable, particle size and density dependent splash onset criterion. We further show that the same argument also explains why in bidisperse systems smaller particles are more likely to escape than larger ones.


A teacher's approach to the teaching of music is greatly coloured by his/her own experience
with music. When student-teachers embark on the journey of becoming educators, they
already have a variety of previous individual experiences with music, and through
participation in their society and culture, they hold assumptions based on social
representations of music, musicality and music education within their society.
A person's relationship with music is often multi-faceted, based not only on previous
educational experiences, but also on experiences with music within the family, school and
wider community. In addition, the status and function of different types of music within these
settings can powerfully affect an individual's perspective on music.
The key purpose of this study was to reveal the complexity of student-teachers' relationships
with music, and contribute to knowledge on three levels. On one level extend our
understanding of how attitudes towards music and in particular opinions and beliefs about
musicality and music education come to be held. On another level, reveal the attitudes held
by student-teachers and so further inform the teaching undertaken in teacher education. A
further purpose was to compare Irish and Swedish student-teachers' experiences of music
and music education and in doing so, investigate how different school systems and different
cultural contexts influence the student-teachers' opinions and beliefs.
The subject of this study is two groups of intending non-specialist music teachers, one in
Ireland and one in Sweden. In order to get a comprehensive understanding and description of
the research area, their memories and opinions of music and music education have been
collected in a three-part data collection. These three data sets consist of a minor background
questionnaire, written accounts and interviews. The researcher, who is from Sweden, has
approached the two contexts from an ethnographic perspective by living, researching and
working in the two different geographical and cultural settings.
The findings in the study reveal how student-teachers' approaches to music and music
education are formed in the interplay between their personal, educational and societal
experiences with music and music education. These three components jointly shape the
complex web which illustrates the musical socialisation of student-teachers.


A number of synthetic approaches to the pyrrolo [2.1-b] this sole system have been investigated. Two useful preparative methods have been developed. The first is based on the cyclisation of the quaternary salts from 2-methyl- or 2-methylene- thiatoles and o-haloketones using sodium acetate in acetic snhydride and leads to a variety of 6-alkyl and 6-aryl pyrrolo [2,1-b] thiszoles. The second method involves the thermal cyclisation of the product from 2'-thiaxolyl lithium and epichlorohydrin and affords the parent base, although in low yield. An investigation of the properties of the pyrrolo [2,1-b] thiazole system has been carried out. The ready formation of trint trobenzene complexes of the alkyl pyrrolo [2,1-b] thiazoles together with the evidence afforded by ultra-violet and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, is indicative of the aromatic nature of the system. Pyrrolo [2,1-b] thiezoles readily from salts with picric and perchloric acid. Nuclear magnetic resonance studies have shown that this process, the simplest form of electrophilic attack, involves the 5-position of the nucleus. A brief examination of the electrophilic substitution reactions of 6-methylpyrrolo [2,1-b] thiazole has shown that substitution takes place extremely readily and that the first substituent group enters at position 5 the second at position 7. An examination of the properties of groups attached to the nucleus has been limited to methyl groups and it has been found in contrast to the analogous indolizine system a methyl group in the 3-position of pyrrolo [2,1-b] thiazole is not sufficiently acidic to allow proton abstraction by n butyl lithium. However methyl groups at the 5- and 7-positlon readily suffer abstraction of a hydride ion in analogy to the methyl indolizines. The results obtained, taken as a whole, indicate a lower degree of polarization of the ground state of pyrrolo [2,1-b] thiazole than exists in indolizine. Furthermore in the transition state of electrophilic substitution at positions 5 and 7 there appears to be a lesser degree of accommodation of the positive charge on the thiazole ring as compared with similar inter-mediates in the indolizine series.


Shortage of water availability and awareness of the need for sustainable resource management have generated a significant increase in the use of recycled water for irrigation and processing of crops and harvest products, respectively. As a result, irrigation systems face the challenge of neutralizing plant pathogens to reduce the risk of their dispersal and the subsequent occurrence of diseases with potentially high economic impacts. We evaluated the efficacy of an innovative electrolytic disinfection system based on potassium hypochlorite (KCLO) to inactivate major pathogens in hydroponically grown tomatoes: Fusarium oxysporum (Synder and Hans), Rizocthonia solani (Kühn), Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV). The electrolytically derived disinfectant was prepared on-site and added to the recirculating fertigation solution once a week for 60 min in an automated manner using sensor technology at a dosage of 0.5 mg of free chlorine/L (fertigation solution at pH 6.0 ± 0.3 and ORP 780 ± 31 mV). Tomato fruit yield and pathogen dispersal were determined for 16 weeks. At the applied dosage, the disinfectant has been shown to inhibit the spread of plant pathogenic fungi and, remarkably, plant viruses in recirculating fertigation solutions. Phytotoxic effects did not occur.


Previous studies on dilute, multi-pulsed, subaqueous saline flows have demonstrated that pulses will inevitably advect forwards to merge with the flow front. On the assumption that pulse merging occurs in natural-scale turbidity currents, it was suggested that multi-pulsed turbidites that display vertical cycles of coarsening and fining would transition laterally to single-pulsed, normally graded turbidites beyond the point of pulse merging. In this study, experiments of dilute, single- and multi-pulsed sediment-bearing flows (turbidity currents) are conducted to test the linkages between downstream flow evolution and associated deposit structure. Experimental data confirm that pulse merging occurs in laboratory-scale turbidity currents. However, only a weak correspondence was seen between longitudinal variations in the internal flow dynamics and the vertical structure of deposits; multi-pulsed deposits were documented, but transitioned to single-pulsed deposits before the pulse merging point. This early transition is attributed to rapid sedimentation-related depletion of the coarser-grained suspended fraction in the laboratory setting, whose absence may have prevented the distal development of multi-pulsed deposits; this factor complicates estimation of the transition point in natural-scale turbidite systems.


Purpose

Notwithstanding the rise of contingent faculty, tenured and tenured track faculty continue to play vital roles in US higher education and the tenure decision is central to the lives of many academics. While the literature is replete with anecdotes about faculty complaining about the process to which they were subject, there has been surprisingly little empirical research on faculty perceptions of the clarity and fairness of the tenure process and the relationship of these perceptions to work outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivational impact of these processes on faculty who are pre-tenure as well as those who had successfully navigated the tenure process.

Design/methodology/approach

Self-reported survey data were collected from 410 full-time pre-tenured and tenured faculty at three universities in the Northeastern USA. Participants were assessed on their uncertainty and their perceptions of justice in the tenure process as well as their affective and continuance organizational commitment and work engagement. Data were subject to exploratory factor analysis, correlation, and hierarchical regression.

Findings

The results indicated that there was a lack of clarity with respect to both the criteria for tenure and the procedures by which institutions made tenure decisions. The results indicated no gender differences in the perception of clarity, but the results suggest women perceived the tenure process as being less just than men do. Perceived justice was positively related to both affective organizational commitment and work engagement with affective commitment fully mediating the relationship with there being no relationship between continuance commitment and perceived justice. These relations held for both tenured and later career faculty and pre-tenured and earlier career faculty.

Research limitations/implications

The study extends understanding of the dimensionality of justice perceptions in higher education setting. The design was cross-sectional and data common was self-report.

Practical implications

The results provide empirical support to anecdotes of faculty feeling that tenure processes often lack clarity and appear to be capricious and unfair. It provides evidence that the negative impact of a process being viewed as unfair may affect the dedication and effort that the faculty who are granted tenure and remain at their institutions for decades afterward. At a time, when higher education is resource challenged, it behooves both faculty and administrators to critically review their tenure processes against best practices.

Originality/value

This study adds to the limited empirical literature on the tenure process and does so from a motivational perspective.


We analyse the effect of second- and fourth-order accurate central finite-volume discretizations on the outcome of large eddy simulations of homogeneous, isotropic, decaying turbulence at an initial Taylor–Reynolds number Reλ=100. We determine the implicit filter that is induced by the spatial discretization and show that a higher order discretization also induces a higher order filter, i.e. a low-pass filter that keeps a wider range of flow scales virtually unchanged. The effectiveness of the implicit filtering is correlated with the optimal refinement strategy as observed in an error-landscape analysis based on Smagorinsky's subfilter model. As a point of reference, a finite-volume method that is second-order accurate for both the convective and the viscous fluxes in the Navier–Stokes equations is used. We observe that changing to a fourth-order accurate convective discretization leads to a higher value of the Smagorinsky coefficient CS required to achieve minimal total error at given resolution. Conversely, changing only the viscous flux discretization to fourth-order accuracy implies that optimal simulation results are obtained at lower values of CS. Finally, a fully fourth-order discretization yields an optimal CS that is slightly lower than the reference fully second-order method.


Resistance development in pest insects has guided the advance of cleaner and more effective strategies for pest control. An interesting and promising strategy is the manipulation of insects via their gut microbiota. To evaluate the feasibility of this strategy, Diabrotica speciosa, a highly polyphagous pest insect from South America that causes substantial damage to several important crops, was reared under controlled conditions. Aerobic culturable bacteria were isolated from the gut of D. speciosa and identified using proteomic fingerprints obtained by matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization coupled to time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MALDI‐TOF MS), as well as by genomic methods via partial sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Seventy‐three strains belonging to 17 genera and up to 29 different species were isolated. γ‐Proteobacteria of the orders Pseudomonadales and Enterobacteriales were the predominant. A core gut microbiome for the genus Diabrotica could be inferred when microbiotas from different species from the genus were compared. Molecular and spectrometric techniques indicated complete agreement of genera classification, although cluster analysis revealed distinct taxonomic grouping patterns. MALDI‐TOF MS provided reliable identification of culturable gut bacteria, demonstrating similar efficacy, with cheaper and faster results relative to partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and also showed an interesting and unexpected phyloproteomic correlation.


Low-inertia microgrids may easily have a single load which can make up most of the total load, thereby greatly affecting stability and power quality. Instead of static load models, dynamic load models are presented here for constant current loads (CILs) and constant power loads (CPLs). Next, a flexible Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHiL) testbed is employed for the experiments in this work. The PHiL testbed consists of a real-time computer working with a power amplifier in order to perturb its voltage and frequency. A connected load serves as the device under test (DUT). Using the captured experimental data as a reference, a parameter estimation algorithm is then implemented. The resulting parameter estimates are used to define simulation models. Both the CIL and CPL dynamic models are simulated to produce waveforms that closely resemble experimental waveforms. The algorithm, referred to as an enhanced monte carlo algorithm (EMCA), is explained in this work. Finally, the EMCA's resulting parameter estimates are presented.


Objective: This paper aims to discuss the clinical effects of high-quality nursing for puerpera with pregnancy hypertension. Methods: A total of 88 puerpera cases with pregnancy hypertension were collected from March 2016 to July 2017. Cases were randomly divided into two groups: control group (n=44) and intervention group (n=44). The control group was provided with conventional nursing, whereas the intervention group was treated with high-quality nursing. Comparisons were made on psychological state, blood pressure levels, incidences of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, nursing satisfaction, newborn birth weight, and Apgar scores of the two groups. Results: Depression and anxiety scores of intervention group are significantly lower than those of control group (P<0.05). Diastolic pressure level and systolic pressure level of intervention group are far lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). Incidences of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in the intervention group reached 18.2% and 4.5%, respectively, which are significantly lower than those of the control group (38.6% and 20.5%) (P<0.05). Nursing satisfaction of intervention group total of 97.7%, which is significantly higher than that of the control group (81.8%) (P<0.05). Newborn birth weight and Apgar scores of intervention group are significantly higher than those of control group (P<0.05). Conclusions: High-quality nursing features outstanding clinical effect on puerpera with pregnancy hypertension, improves psychological state and blood pressure level, and increases newborn birth weight effectively. Hence, high-quality nursing is a characteristic of safety and reliability and worthy of clinical promotion and applications.


Abstract An elicitation task was conducted with speakers of Japonic varieties to investigate whether stimuli of varying sensory modalities (e.g. audio, visual, tactile etc.) were more or less likely to elicit ideophones or iconic words. Stimuli representing sounds, movements, shapes and textures were most likely to elicit ideophones, and this is posited to reflect the relative ease or naturalness with which these domains can be mapped iconically to speech. The results mirror macro-level patterns of linguistic diversity, as these are also domains in which ideophones are most widely attested cross-linguistically. The findings call for the revision of a previously constructed implicational hierarchy for the semantic development of ideophone systems, adding to it the categories of FORM and TEXTURE as domains in which ideophones are most likely to develop, after SOUND and MOVEMENT. Independent evidence for the revised hierarchy comes from a semantic analysis of the elicited ideophones, where it was found that domains early in the hierarchy were more likely to be sources for semantic extension, while later domains were more likely to be targets. These findings are expected to be replicable for other languages, and offer exciting new directions for research into the semantic typology of ideophones.


Increasing life expectancy, medication and disease burden, along with decreased functional status and organ reserve, place the elderly surgical patient at high risk for delirium in the peri-operative state. Alcohol abuse and an increased incidence of dementia may confound the picture. This overview describes definition, epidemiology, etiology, diagnosis, and therapy of delirium and explores the confounding effects of dementia.


In standard auctions with symmetric, independent private value bidders resale creates a role for a speculator - a bidder who is commonly known to have no use value for the good on sale. For second-price and English auctions the efficient value-bidding equilibrium coexists with a continuum of inefficient equilibria in which the speculator wins the auction and makes positive profits. First-price and Dutch auctions have an essentially unique equilibrium, and whether or not the speculator wins the auction and distorts the final allocation depends on the number of bidders, the value distribution, and the discount factor. Speculators do not make profits in first-price or Dutch auctions.


The present study carried out a comparative evaluation of 38 rice genotypes (including 17 landraces) for salinity tolerance at germination and early seedling stage salt tolerance of genotype is stage specific. Hence to understand the significance of the contribution of different salt tolerance mechanisms among genotypes, its primary requisite to reveal its tolerance level at an early seedling stage before. A refined scoring system for salt tolerance evaluation at the early seedling stage was designed to reveal genotypes salt tolerance in a given experimental conditions. The extent of genetic similarity was assessed by AFLP among 21 of them. Comparative analysis in similar growth conditions, stage and time-points provided a better understanding of theinvolvement of stress effect mitigating genes among diverse rice genotypes. This study evaluated salinity tolerance of several unexplored genotypes/land races to enable effective use of these in particular soil conditions and can be utilized to improve tolerance of sensitive but agronomically important landraces.


Fatty acid synthase is a key enzyme for the synthesis of milk fat in the ruminant mammary gland. In nonruminants, sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBP1) is a regulator of FASN gene expression, and SREBF chaperone (SCAP) is essential for SREBP1 maturation and activity. However, the role of SCAP on the regulation of FASN gene expression in ruminants is unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the transcriptional regulation of FASN by overexpressing SCAP in bovine mammary epithelial cells. A bovine SCAP expression vector, SREBP1 expression vector, and the promoter of FASN were cloned. The transcription factor binding sites of FASN promoter were predicted using bioinformatics analysis. After transfection with FASN promoter vectors in the immortalized bovine mammary epithelial cell line MAC-T, we co-overexpressed the SCAP + SREBP1 expression vector with pcDNA3.1 vector as control. The effect of SCAP + SREBP1 overexpression on the regulation of FASN was investigated using luciferase assay, immunofluorescence, Western blot, real-time PCR, and lipid droplet staining. We observed that co-overexpression of SCAP + SREBP1 significantly increased activity of the FASN promoter containing a sterol response element binding site. The FASN mRNA abundance and lipid droplet formation increased due to co-overexpression of SCAP + SREBP1. Compared with overexpression of SREBP1 alone, co-overexpression of SCAP + SREBP1 enhanced the nuclear translocation and nuclear SREBP1 protein abundance. Overall, as in nonruminants cells, results indicate that SCAP is essential for promoting nuclear translocation of SREBP1 and activation of FASN gene transcription, leading to lipid droplet formation in bovine mammary epithelial cells.


Background: Healthcare workers are at risk of acquiring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections, because of occupational exposure to blood and other body fluids. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is a short-term antiretroviral treatment used to reduce the likelihood of viral infection after exposure to the blood or body fluids of an infected person. Timely PEP after exposure to high-risk body fluids in the working area can reduce the rate of transmission of HIV significantly. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, practice, and associated factors towards PEP for HIV/AIDS among health professionals in health centers in the Harari region, Eastern Ethiopia. Methodology: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted using structured ques-tionnaires from March to April 2019. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS version 20, and the result was presented in the form of tables and figures. Results: Of 217 participants, 51.6% were male and 75.2% were in the age group of 20–30 years. One hundred thirty (59.9%) respondents had a year of service less than 5 years, and nearly half (45.2%) of the participants had a Diploma. The study revealed that 35.02% of the participants had inadequate knowledge of PEP. About 32.26% had an unfavorable attitude towards PEP. Of 124 (57.1%) exposed respondents, 54 (68.4%) tried to get PEP service and 49 (90.7%) started to use PEP. Twenty-six (48.1%) respondents started to use PEP within 6 to 24 hours after exposure. Sex, qualification, and attitude status were found to have a significant association with knowledge regarding PEP. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that a significant number of health professionals had poor knowledge and poor attitude towards PEP. Occupational exposures were common among health professionals. However, the practice of using PEP was low among health professionals. As a result, health facilities should strengthen and integrate routine PEP services by providing training to all health professionals.


Rainwater harvesting (RWH) has been practiced and promoted to address the temporal and spatial variability of rainfall, thereby enhance agriculture production in rainfed systems. The practices could also address the problem of land degradation. However, there is limited practice of approaching RWH from the perspective of managing both the water and land resources. This paper analyses the various combination rainwater harvesting practices (RWHP) on a single plot using multivariate probit. The result reveals that there is a significant correlation between the RWHPs and use of the practices is interdependent, depicting either complementarities or substitutabilities between the practices. The practices are influenced differently to the set of explanatory variables considered. This implies the different RWHP would require specific entry point and promotion strategy. This study suggests that policies that enhance the integration of RWHP would be central to exploit the full value of the land and water resource for livelihood support.


Rapid damage mapping following a disaster event, especially in an urban environment, is critical to ensure that the emergency response in the affected area is rapid and efficient. This work presents a new method for mapping damage assessment in urban environments. Based on combining SAR and optical data, the method is applicable as support during initial emergency planning and rescue operations. The study focuses on the urban areas affected by the Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami event in Japan that occurred on 11 March 2011. High-resolution TerraSAR-X (TSX) images of before and after the event, and a Landsat 5 image before the event were acquired. The affected areas were analyzed with the SAR data using only one interferometric SAR (InSAR) coherence map. To increase the damage mapping accuracy, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was applied. The generated map, with a grid size of 50 m, provides a quantitative assessment of the nature and distribution of the damage. The damage mapping shows detailed information about the affected area, with high overall accuracy (89%), and high Kappa coefficient (82%) and, as expected, it shows total destruction along the coastline compared to the inland region.


Scientific computing is being increasingly deployed over volunteer-based distributed computing environments consisting of idle resources on donated user machines. A fundamental challenge in these environments is the dissemination of data to the computation nodes, with the successful completion of jobs being driven by the efficiency of collective data download across compute nodes, and not only the individual download times. This paper considers the use of a data network consisting of data distributed across a set of data servers, and focuses on the server selection problem: how do individual nodes select a server for downloading data to minimize the communication makespan - the maximal download time for a data file. Through experiments conducted on a pastry network running on PlanetLab, we demonstrate that nodes in a volunteer-based network are heterogeneous in terms of several metrics, such as bandwidth, load, and capacity, which impact their download behavior. We propose new server selection heuristics that incorporate these metrics, and demonstrate that these heuristics outperform traditional proximity-based server selection, reducing average makespans by at least 30%. We further show that incorporating information about download concurrency avoids overloading servers, and improves performance by about 17-43% over heuristics considering only proximity and bandwidth.


: The data submitted point to the importance of the enteroviral infection, in particular, Coxsackie' B vira in the pathogenesis of many non-infectious diseases. Our studies explore the possibility for the Coxsackie B virus involvement in the etiopathogenesis of psoriasis. 25 examined patients with psoriasis revealed in 100% of cases antibodies to the Coxsackie B virus in diagnostic titres, with a number of patients having displayed a progressive increase in the titres of the above antibodies, which fact suggest to us that there may be an association between psoriasis and Coxsackie' B vira. The major proportion of seropositive psoriatic patients (88%) have been found to have antibodies to association of two, three or four Coxsackie' B vira, which fact can be taken as further evidence for their etiopathogenic part in the development of dermatosis. Antibodies to Coxsackie B1 and B5 virus have been shown to occur more frequently among seropositive patients, this underlying their particular importance in the development of psoriasis.


The chemokine RANTES has been implicated in neointimal hyperplasia after arterial injury. We analyzed the differential role of the RANTES receptors CCR1 and CCR5 by genetic deletion in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice. Deficiency in CCR5 significantly reduced neointimal area after arterial wire-injury, associated with a decrease in macrophages, CD3 T lymphocytes and CCR2 cells. In contrast, CCR1 deficiency did not affect neointimal area or cell content. Deletion of CCR5 entailed up-regulation of the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 in neointimal smooth muscle cells, and its antibody blockade reversed effects in CCR5 mice. Conversely, pro-inflammatory interferon-γ was increased in the neointima of CCR1 mice, and its blockade unmasked a reduction in macrophage recruitment. Our data indicate that CCR5 is more crucial than CCR1 for neointimal formation, and that its attenuation in CCR5 mice is due to an atheroprotective immune response involving interleukin-10. This harbours important implications for targeting of chemokine receptors in vascular remodelling. For personal use only. by guest on June 5, 2013. bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org From


This study aims to investigate the effects of ceric oxide and ferric oxide on the color of alumina-glass-composite (AGC). Uncolored glass and colored glass powder with 4% ceric oxide and 0.5% ferric oxide were fabricated. Primary mixture powder were made by mixing the two colored glass powder with 0.1g interval, and then 81 kinds of colored mixture powder were gained by mixing uncolored powder with the primary mixture powder. Molten glass was infiltrated into presintered alumina blocks. The colored AGC and VITAPAN-3D-MASTER shade guide were measured with spectrophotometer. Experiment results showed that the Yxy value of VITAPAN-3D-MASTER shade guide distributed from (185,0.378,0.340) to (121,0.443,0.341) and the Yxy value of colored AGC distributed from (227,0.352,0.343) to (102,0.489,0.364). There were 37 kinds of samples in the color range of shade guide. The color range of 81 kinds of AGC covered that of the VITAPAN-3D-MASTER shade guide.


Social networking sites (SNSs) might be important tools to contrast social exclusion in old age. However, the so-called gray digital divide (GDD) may undermine the potentialities of SNSs. Despite its relevance, there is very little research, which documented the characteristics of the digital divide in SNS use among the old-age population in Europe. Drawing on the "material access in resources and appropriation" theory developed by van Dijk, this work contributes to consolidate the body of research, documenting the nature of the GDD in SNS use in Europe and evaluating the role that older people's categorical, personal, and positional characteristics together with ICT characteristics play in gaining access to digital technologies. We analyze data from the 2013–2016 Eurostat Community Statistics on Information Societies (CSIS) survey and perform bivariate and multilevel regression analysis. Key findings are (i) the persistence of the intergeneration digital divide in old age together with the marked cross-countries differences in SNS use across European countries and over time and (ii) the stability over old-age generations, countries, and time of the positional categories associated with SNS use in old age, providing further empirical support to van Dijk's theory.


Scooter and moped sales have increased at a faster rate than motorcycle sales over the last decade in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States. This may be particularly evident in jurisdictions where moped riding is permitted for car license holders and a motorcycle license is not required, such as in Queensland, Australia. Having historically comprised only a small proportion of powered two-wheelers (PTWs) outside of Europe and Asia, the safety of scooters and mopeds has received relatively little focused research attention. However, the recent trends in sales and crash involvement have stimulated greater interest in these PTW types. The current paper examines differences and similarities between scooters (over 50cc), mopeds (up to 50cc) and motorcycles in crash involvement and crash characteristics through analyses of crash and registration data from Queensland, Australia.

The main findings include that moped and scooter riders are similar in terms of usage patterns, but the evidence suggests superior skills, greater experience and safer behaviour among scooter riders than moped riders. The requirement in Queensland for scooter riders but not moped riders to hold a motorcycle license, usually obtained through competency-based training and assessment, may help to explain some of this difference. Findings also suggest that scooter riders are safer than motorcycle riders in some respects, despite both being subject to the same licensing requirements which encourage participation in rider training. Safer attitudes and motivations rather than superior skills and knowledge may therefore underlie the differences between scooter and motorcycle riders. In summary, riders of larger scooters exhibit a combination of skills and behavior suggestive of safer riding than both their moped and motorcycle riding counterparts.

It is reasonable to expect that mopeds and scooters will remain popular and that their usage may increase further, along with that of motorcycles. This research therefore has important practical implications regarding pathways to improved PTW safety. Future policy and planning should consider options for encouraging moped riders to acquire better riding skills and greater safety awareness, as apparent among scooter riders, including rider training, education and licensing. As is noted in recent literature and reflected in some contemporary rider training programs, motorcycle safety may be improved by addressing rider attitudes more comprehensively in addition to developing skills and knowledge.


Cell type-specific expression of the human α2(V) collagen (COL5A2) gene depends on a cis-acting element that consists of two contiguous protein binding sites (FPA and FPB) located between nucleotides −149 and −95, relative to the transcription start site. The present study focused on the characterization of the FPB-bound complex. DNA binding assays and cell transfection experiments revealed that the bipartite core sequence of FPB (5′-ATCAATCA-3′) binds the PBX1/2, PREP1, and HOXB1 proteins, and this in turn leads to promoter transactivation. In the presence of all three nuclear factors, cooperative interactions between recombinant PBX1 and PREP1 or PBX1 and HOXB1 result in binding of the heterodimers to FPB in vitro. Similarly, overexpression of different combinations of PBX1, PREP1, and HOXB1 transactivates FPB-driven transcription. In contrast to the composition of the FPB complex purified from COL5A2-positive cells, the FPB complex from COL5A2-negative cells contains PBX2 and PREP1 but lacks PBX1. However, PBX1 exogenously introduced into COL5A2-negative cells cannot stimulate FPB-driven transcription unless co-expressed with PREP1. Within the intrinsic limitations of the experimental model, our results indicate that combinatorial interactions among PBX and PREP or HOX proteins are involved in regulating tissue-specific production of collagen V.


In this report, we inquire the role of new social media as a communication tool of EU Cohesion
Policy. Practitioners in the feld of public policy communication in general and Cohesion Policy in
particular tend to agree on the need to increase the prominence and effectiveness of new media as
key channels of strategic communication of both central institutions and national/local managing
authorities.
Social media in particular tends to be associated with the possibility of reaching the youngest
population (see for example the results of our interviews and survey in PERCEIVE Deliverables 3.1 and
3.2). However, their potential impact on communication strategies goes much beyond this point and
encompasses changes in the segmentation of target audiences (i.e. communities rather than the
general public) on the one hand, and in the way Cohesion Policy 'stories' are told on the other hand
(i.e. interactivity with audiences).
In spite of the potential impact of new and especially social media on strategic policy
communication, based on our experience in the feld as well as on a review of both academic and
practice-oriented literature, we argue that much is still to be learnt about how to realise this
potential. This is especially true given the scarce attention of academic research to the specifcities of
Cohesion Policy, among other public policies.
Therefore, in order to extend current knowledge on the communication issues highlighted above, we
present the results of empirical analysis we have performed with the aim of describing the new
(social) media presence of different key actors in the institutional feld of EU Cohesion Policy
communication in the current report.


REMEMBRANCE AND EDUCATION ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST AND GULAG CRIMES IN SELECTED MUSEUMS AND MEMORIAL SITES IN THE CONTEXT OF LEARNING FROM THE PAST AND HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATIONDiff erent historical narratives and collective memories linked to the constructions of national identity still divide Western and Central-Eastern Europe. The framework of Human Rights Education addressing universality and interdependence of Human Rights may have a potential to overcome divisions connected with national approaches to history. They may connect young people to "negative" memory and shameful, hidden, distorted historical narratives of the past of their own countries. The attitude of European societies towards the Holocaust is one of the themes still not included in many curricula. The history of the Holocaust and Soviet crimes in many countries still waits for contextual approaches. Museums and memorial sites in this context are carriers of memory of wars, genocides, slavery, totalitarian regimes, crimes against humanity, mass atrocities and memories of their victims. They are also signifi cant agents of historical socialisation. History education at memorial sites is a form of historical education based not on teaching about but rather on learning through the past. The text deals with empirical studies focused on education at museums and memorial sites and will explore issues related to education about the Holocaust and Gulag in selected case studies.


MemphiSTEP is a five-year STEM Talent Expansion Program at the U. of Memphis sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The project focuses on retention and persistence to graduation to increase the number of STEM majors and graduates. The project includes a summer Mathematics Bridge Bootcamp, research experiences for undergraduates, peer-student and faculty-student mentoring, grants for student professional organizations, STEM learning communities, and a faculty seminar on pedagogical approaches to STEM education. Although the project concentrates on all STEM areas across the campus and each year of a student's undergraduate career, mathematics as used in science and engineering is a focal point in many of the project's strategies and activities. The assessment results for the first summer Mathematics Bootcamp are presented in detail and lessons learned during year one for other components of the project are discussed. Results show that the Bootcamp was effective in fostering mathematics skills, increasing students' awareness of/interest in STEM courses and careers, and facilitating networking opportunities, such that STEM students may work collaboratively with peers and faculty members. Overall, the paper intends to highlight program activities designed to foster retention and graduation, as well as the successes and lessons learned from year one program activities employed by MemphiSTEP.


Phytophthora cinnamomi is an introduced soilborne phytopathogen to Western Australia (WA) and impacts on 2000 of the approximately 9000 plant species indigenous in the southwest of WA. Amongst these is Eucalyptus marginata (jarrah), the dominant and economically important hardwood timber species of the jarrah forest. This thesis aimed to investigate the morphological, pathogenic and genotypic variation in two local WA populations of P. cinnamomi isolates. The populations were selected from areas where jarrah clonal lines selected for resistance to P. cinnamomi may be used in the rehabilitation of infested jarrah forest and rehabilitated bauxite minesites in the southwest of WA. Resistance against a range of isolates using different inoculation methods.

Seventy-three isolates of P. cinnamomi were collected from diseased jarrah and Corymbia calophylla (marri) trees from two populations located 70 km apart and these were examined for phenotypic and genotypic variation. Microsatellite DNA analysis showed that all isolates were of the same clonal lineage. In P. cinnamomi for the first time I show that there is a broad and continuous variation in the morphology and pathology between two populations of one clonal lineage, and that all phenotypes varied independently from one another. No relationship was found between morphological and pathogenic characters. The ability of isolates in both populations to cause deaths ranged from killing all plants within 59 days to plants being symptomless 182 days after inoculation.

Single and multiple paragynous antheridia formed along with amphigynous ones in mating studies with all WA isolates and a sample of worldwide isolates. Developmental studies and cytological examination showed fertilisation tubes developed asynchronously or synchronously from both antheridial types and indicated that either antheridial type contributed a nucleus for fertilisation of the oosphere. This is the first report of paragynous antheridial associations in P. cinnamomi. Antheridial variation is a characteristic that needs to be adjusted in the taxonomic Phytophthora identification keys.

In underbark and zoospore stem inoculations of three 1.5-year-old jarrah clonal lines (two ranked as resistant (RR) and one as susceptible (SS) to P. cinnamomi in the original selection trials) at 15, 20, 25 and 30 degrees C, it was found that the method of inoculation did not produce comparable results, particularly at 25 and 30 degrees C. At these temperatures, all three clonal lines had 100% mortality when inoculated underbark, but when inoculated with zoospores, one RR line had 60% survival and the SS and remaining RR line had 100% mortality. Generally, the level of resistance of all clonal lines declined with increasing temperature. Lesion development was measured at 20, 25 and 30 degrees C for 4 days in detached branches of an RR and SS clonal line inoculated underbark with four different P. cinnamomi isolates. Detached branches were found to be a potential screen for jarrah resistance to P. cinnamomi and to allow the identification of susceptible and resistant clonal lines at 30 degrees C.

Lesion and colonisation development of P. cinnamomi isolates were assessed in situ (late autumn) of seed-grown and clonal lines of 3.5 to 4.5 year-old jarrah trees growing in a rehabilitated minesite jarrah forest in underbark inoculation of lateral branches (1995) or simultaneously in lateral branches and lateral roots (1996). Trees were underbark inoculated in lateral branches and lateral roots. Colonisation was more consistent as a measure of resistance than lesion length over the two trials because it accounted for the recovery of P. cinnamomi from macroscopically symptomless tissue beyond lesions, which on some occasions, was up to 6 cm. In the two trials, one RR clonal line consistently had small lesion and colonisation lengths in branches and roots. In contrast, the remaining two RR clonal lines had similar lesion and colonisation lengths to the SS clonal line and may, therefore, not be suitable for use in the rehabilitation of P. cinnamomi infested areas. The relative rankings of the jarrah clonal lines by colonisation lengths were similar between branch and root inoculations. Branch inoculations are a valid option for testing resistance and susceptibility of young jarrah trees to P. cinnamomi.

The pathogen was recovered on Phytophthora selective agar 3-6 months after inoculation from 50% of samples with lesions and 30% of symptomless samples in a series of growth cabinet, glasshouse and field experiments. However, up to 11% of samples with and without lesions and from which P. cinnamomi was not initially isolated contained viable pathogen after leaching the plant material in water over 9 days. This indicates that the pathogen could be present as dormant structures, such as chlamydospores, where dormancy needs to be broken for germination to occur, or fungistatic compounds in the tissue need to be removed to allow the pathogen to grow, or both. These results have important implications for disease diagnosis and management, disease-free certification and quarantine clearance.

No clonal line of jarrah was found to be 100% resistant using different inoculation methods, environmental conditions and when challenged by individuals from a large range of P. cinnamomi isolates. Even the most promising RR line had individual replicates that were unable to contain lesions or died with time. This suggests that further screening work may be required using more isolates varying in their capacity to cause disease and a broader range of environmental conditions. Jarrah clonal lines that survive such rigorous screening could then be expected to survive planting out in a range of environments in the jarrah forest and rehabilitated bauxite minesites.


Over the last 10 years, sensitive advancement has been made in the study of genetic susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Complementary methodologies of linkage, fine-mapping and candidate-gene studies have led to the identification of a number of susceptibility genes and loci, including caspase activation and recruitment domain 15 (CARD15), major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and IBD5, whereas many other genes (nucleotide oligomerization domain 1 [NOD1], tumor-upregulated CARD-containing antagonist of caspase-9 [TUCAN], Toll-like receptors [TLR], interleukin 23 receptor [IL23R], multidrug resistance 1 [MDR1], myosin IXb [MYO9B], chemokine [C-Cmotif] ligand 20 [CCL20], human β-defensin 2 [HBD-2], autophagy-related 16-like 1 [ATG16L1]) are still awaiting confirmation. The CARD15 gene is currently the most widely replicated and investigated gene. The exact sequence of events that link CARD15 variants to early pathogenetic changes is unknown. However, the role of the encoded protein confirms the relevance of appropriate responses by the innate immune system to intestinal bacteria, including the production of antimicrobial peptides (defensins). With the implementation of new genomics and proteomics methodologies, genetic research will advance our further understanding of the clinical heterogeneity of IBD and tackle the complex interactions between genetic and environmental risk factors.


Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) increases cell migration and invasion, and facilitates metastasis in multiple carcinoma types, but belies epithelial similarities between primary and secondary tumors. This study addresses the importance of mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) in the formation of clinically significant metastasis. The previously described bladder carcinoma TSU-Pr1 (T24) progression series of cell lines selected in vivo for increasing metastatic ability following systemic seeding was used in this study. It was found that the more metastatic sublines had acquired epithelial characteristics. Epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypes were confirmed in the TSU-Pr1 series by cytoskeletal and morphologic analysis, and by performance in a panel of in vitro assays. Metastatic ability was examined following inoculation at various sites. Epithelial characteristics associated with dramatically increased bone and soft tissue colonization after intracardiac or intratibial injection. In contrast, the more epithelial sublines showed decreased lung metastases following orthotopic inoculation, supporting the concept that EMT is important for the escape of tumor cells from the primary tumor. We confirmed the overexpression of the IIIc subtype of multiple fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR) through the TSU-Pr1 series, and targeted abrogation of FGFR2IIIc reversed the MET and associated functionality in this system and increased survival following in vivo inoculation in severe combined immunodeficient mice. This model is the first to specifically model steps of the latter part of the metastatic cascade in isogenic cell lines, and confirms the suspected role of MET in secondary tumor growth.


We present an extensive density functional theory (DFT) based investigation of the electronic structures of ABC–stacked N–layer graphene. It is found that for such systems the dispersion relations of the highest valence and the lowest conduction bands near the K point in the Brillouin zone are characterised by a mixture of cubic, parabolic, and linear behaviours. When the number of graphene layers is increased to more than three, the separation between the valence and conduction bands decreases up until they touch each other. For five and six layer samples these bands show flat behaviour close to the K point. We note that all states in the vicinity of the Fermi energy are surface states originated from the top and/or bottom surface of all the systems considered. For the trilayer system, N = 3, pronounced trigonal warping of the bands slightly above the Fermi level is directly obtained from DFT calculations.


This course is founded on the notion that students will be benefited increasingly if they are engage with practicality along with the theoretical aspect


BACKGROUND
Although uptake of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is high in the United Kingdom, it is unknown whether the programme has been delivered equitably by ethnicity or deprivation. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with HPV vaccine initiation and completion within the routine HPV vaccination programme in the South West of England.

METHODS
Data were retrieved for young women eligible for routine vaccination from 2008/09 to 2010/11 from three Primary Care Trusts (PCTs)/local authorities. Multivariable logistic regression models were developed to examine factors associated with uptake of HPV vaccination.

RESULTS
Of 14 282 eligible young women, 12 658 (88.6%) initiated, of whom 11 725 (92.6%) completed the course. Initiation varied by programme year (86.5-89.6%) and PCTs/local authorities (84.8-91.6%). There was strong evidence for an overall difference of initiation by ethnicity (P < 0.001), but not deprivation quintile (P = 0.48). Young women educated in non-mainstream educational settings were less likely to initiate and, if initiated, less likely to complete (both P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
HPV vaccination uptake did not vary markedly by social deprivation. However, associations with ethnicity and substantially lower uptake in non-mainstream educational settings were observed. Research to identify reasons for low vaccine uptake in these population groups is required.