The Maryborough meteorite is a new H5 ordinary chondrite discovered about 2 km south of Maryborough, Victoria, in May 2015. It is a single stone measuring approximately 39 × 14 × 14 cm and with a mass of 17 kg. Plentiful indistinct chondrules are up to 1 mm across in a strongly recrystallised plagioclase-bearing matrix. Olivine and orthopyroxene in both the matrix and chondrules are uniform in composition (Fo80.1Fa19.3Te0.5Ca-ol0.04 and En81.5Fs17.1Wo1.5 respectively).The main metallic phases present are kamacite, taenite and tetrataenite, often forming composite grains with troilite. There is no evidence for any shock-inducing event and the meteorite shows incipient weathering in the form of thin iron-oxide mantles around the Fe–Ni grains. A terrestrial age of less than 1000 years is estimated from C14 dating. While there are a number of historic reported meteor sightings in the Maryborough district, none can be tied to the meteorite's find site. To date, Maryborough is the third H5 ordinary chondrite and the second largest single chondritic mass, after Kulnine (55 kg), found in Victoria.


The aim of this primer is to provide a realistic appraisal of what toxicology is and what it can reveal. It summarizes the present state of toxicology, and the basic principles that are agreed on, and how they are applied. Difficulties besetting this science, and how these in turn are reflected in public attitudes and national policy are described. General principles of toxicology and how these general principles are applied in assessing the acute, subacute, and chronic effects of chemicals are first discussed. A description of risk assessment and risk management follows. Four case studies of different substances-cyclamate and saccharin; asbestos; formaldehyde; and benzene-s-conclude. Appendices list the national standards for primary drinking water, ambient air quality, hazardous air pollutants, occupational hazards, and OSHAdesignated occupational carcinogens plus a glossary, bibliography, and index. The book is generally relevant to occupational health and occupational health nursing. The information is as current as can be expected, considering the changing times and the new studies conducted and contemplated by OSHA and NIOSH on permissible exposure levels, i.e., benzene, diesel exhaust, grain dust, polychlorinated biphenyls , radon, welding, brazing, and thermal cutting. Not addressed are new PEL levels and/or new hazards added by NIOSH since 1985. (The reference used is NJOSH Pocket Guide to Chemica/ Hazards, September 1985.) Occupational health nurses can utilize the contents for reference, refresher, and preparation for certification only as a primer for toxicology. Not included but vital to the occupational health nurse are the nursing interventions, monitoring, BOOK REVIEWS


Abstract: Teaching computing courses is a major challenge for the majority of lecturers in Libyan Higher Education institutions. These courses contain numerous abstract concepts that cannot be easily explained using traditional educational methods. The main aim of this article is to present a conceptual framework for laboratory-based learning designed to teach a computer programming module with the help of an e-learning package. The framework could be used for a single module or one of several modules with a specific aim. The framework should be useful for designers of online learning modules and teachers who are interested in the design of online courses on the Internet. The proposed framework will enable the current generation of students to be better prepared for a workplace where computers, the Internet and related technologies are becoming increasingly ubiquitous.


We consider fluctuations of steady-state current activity, and of its dynamic counterpart, the local current, for the one-dimensional totally asymmetric simple exclusion process. The cumulants of the integrated activity behave similarly to those of the local current, except that they do not capture the anomalous scaling behavior in the maximal-current phase and at its boundaries. This indicates that the systemwide sampling at equal times, characteristic of the instantaneous activity, overshadows the subtler effects which come about from nonequal time correlations, and are responsible for anomalous scaling. We show that apparently conflicting results concerning asymmetry (skewness) of the corresponding distributions can in fact be reconciled, and that (apart from a few well-understood exceptional cases) for both activity and local current one has positive skew deep within the low-current phase, and negative skew everywhere else.


Most of human cognition occurs outside of conscious awareness or conscious control. Some of these implicit processes influence social perception, judgment and action. The last fifteen years of research in implicit social cognition can be characterized as the Age of Measurement because of a proliferation of measurement methods and research evidence demonstrating their practical value for predicting human behavior. Implicit measures assess constructs that are distinct, but related, to self-report assessments, and predict variation in behavior that is not accounted for by those explicit measures. The present state of knowledge provides a foundation for the next age of implicit social cognition – clarification of the mechanisms underlying implicit measurement and how the measured constructs influence behavior.


Ring chromosome 8 (r(8)) is one of the least frequent ring chromosomes. Usually, maternal chromosome 8 forms a ring, which can be lost from cells due to mitotic instability. The 8q24 region contains the imprinted KCNK9 gene, which is expressed from the maternal allele. Heterozygous KCNK9 mutations are associated with the imprinting disorder Birk-Barel syndrome. Here, we report a 2.5-year-old boy with developmental delay, microcephaly, dysmorphic features, diffuse muscle hypotonia, feeding problems, motor alalia and noncoarse neurogenic type of disturbance of muscle electrogenesis, partially overlapping with Birk-Barel syndrome phenotype. Cytogenetic analysis of lymphocytes revealed his karyotype to be 46,XY,r(8)(p23q24.3)[27]/45,XY,−8[3]. A de novo 7.9 Mb terminal 8p23.3p23.1 deletion, a 27.1 Mb 8p23.1p11.22 duplication, and a 4.4 Mb intact segment with a normal copy number located between them, as well as a 154-kb maternal LINGO2 gene deletion (9p21.2) with unknown clinical significance were identified by aCGH + SNP array. These aberrations were confirmed by real-time PCR. According to FISH analysis, the 8p23.1-p11.22 duplication was inverted. The ring chromosome originated from maternal chromosome 8. Targeted massive parallel sequencing did not reveal the KCNK9 mutations associated with Birk-Barel syndrome. Our data allow to assume that autosomal monosomy with inactive allele of imprinted gene arising from the loss of a ring chromosome in some somatic cells may be an etiological mechanism of mosaic imprinting disorders, presumably with less severe phenotype.


Hybrid materials composed of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) and amphiphilic block copolymers (BCPs) combine desirable properties of NPs with the rich phase behavior of BCPs, making them attractive for use in biomaterials, responsive materials for sensing, active materials in robotics, etc. Specifically, triblock BCPs (e.g. BAB) with solvophobic end (B) blocks have been known to form micelle dispersions at low concentrations and gels at higher concentrations, making them a useful class of soft materials for a variety of applications that harness these solution structures of BAB–BCPs. In this work, we present a comprehensive study of the impact of NPs on the assembly of BAB–BCPs as a function of solvophobicity, BCP composition and NP affinity to either or both block(s) of BAB–BCP using a combination of coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and PRISM theory. The reason we use this dual theory-simulation approach is because PRISM theory provides structure and thermodynamic information for a given BCP–NP solution much faster than MD simulations, but PRISM theory converges to a numerical solution only for conditions where the solution is still disordered. So, we use PRISM theory to screen BAB–BCP solutions at low solvophobicity where the solution is still disordered, and identify signatures of gel formation and micro- and macro-phase separation depending on BCP composition, concentration, and NP affinity. Then using MD simulations, with increasing solvophobicity as the system orders, we quantify and visualize the shape and size of assembled cores in the ordered morphology, the conformations adopted by the A blocks and B blocks with and without NPs, the amount of NP uptake and the spatial arrangement of the NPs in the assembled structure. This paper demonstrates how one could optimally use both PRISM theory and MD simulations in a synergistic manner to screen a large materials design space for polymers and nanoparticle systems.


Cities are increasingly depending on energy‐intensive water sources, such as distant rivers and the ocean, to meet their water demand. However, such expensive sources could be avoided using alternative local sources of water such as wastewater, rainwater, and stormwater. Many cities do not have robust accounts of those localized water resources, as estimating those resources requires comprehensive accounting in complex urban water systems. In this article, we investigate whether an urban metabolism evaluation framework built on the urban water mass balance can help analyze these resources, especially in a rapidly growing developing city. We first refined the water mass balance equation developed by Kenway and his colleagues in 2011 for a developing country context with the inclusion of some significant components such as system loss. Then, we applied the refined equation for the first time to Bangalore city in India, a developing country, for the year 2013–2014 as a real case example, which is a rare water mass balance analysis of its kind. The refined equation helped analyze Bangalore's urban water system. The total available wastewater, stormwater, and rainwater were 656 gigaliters (GL). The gap between water demand and supply could be met if 54% of this recycled potential were harnessed. Wastewater had enough potential (362 GL) to replace the whole centralized water supply from the Cauvery. A scenario analysis showed that the gap between water demand and supply in 2021 can be met if 60% of total recycled potential is utilized. This approach can be used to help other cities identify the potential of alternative water sources and support integrated water planning and monitoring water metabolic performance.


The historic environment of north-west Saudi Arabia is likely to be severely impacted by the construction of the Neom mega-city complex and the development of the city's hinterland. This region, located east of the Gulf of Aqaba, has only been subject to limited archaeological survey in the past, limiting any assessment of this negative impact. This paper presents data collected through a remote sensing survey of the region undertaken by the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project, independent of the Neom project. It is argued that this data reflects a landscape of movement between north and south, with evidence of structures and monuments from at least the Bronze Age through to the pre-Islamic period, but little evidence of permanent settlement or agriculture. This should not be dismissed as a peripheral landscape, but one that contains rich archaeological evidence of concentrated activity, suggesting that some areas have held long-term significance to the people inhabiting and moving through this region.


Pulmonary Agenesis (PA) is a rare congenital malformation of lung development, and patients with comorbid Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) have substantially increased morbidity and mortality risks. We describe five pediatric cases born with unilateral PA who developed PH. By integrating our findings with those of 7 previously published case reports, we aim to provide a more complete description of disease features, prognosis, and the most effective treatment strategies. We found that male PA patients and those with right-side agenesis were more likely to develop PH. Moreover, half of these comorbid patients had congenital heart disease with left-to-right shunt. Early diagnosis and treatment, including surgical and medical interventions, are critical for preservation of cardiopulmonary function. All PA cases should receive regular cardiopulmonary function tests starting at an early age.


In this paper, we present an intruder detection system that uses a wireless sensor network and mobile robots. The sensor network uses an unsupervised fuzzy Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) neural network to learn and detect intruders in a previously unknown environment. Upon the detection of an intruder, a mobile robot travels to the position where the intruder is detected to investigate. The wireless sensor network uses a hierarchical communication/learning structure, where the mobile robot is the root node of the tree. Our fuzzy ART network is based on Kulakov and Davcev's implementation [6]. We enhanced the fuzzy ART neural network to learn a time-series and detect time-related changes using a Markov model. The proposed architecture is tested on physical hardware. Our results show that our enhanced detection system has a higher accuracy than the basic, original, fuzzy ART system.


In addition to the usual history and examination, a three-part noninvasive study has been used to evaluate patients for significant arteriosclerosis obliterans-extracranial at our institution. Of the patients having these tests during a 24-month period, 98 patients had a Doppler supraorbital flow examination, carotid phonoangiography, and oculopneumoplethysmography followed by extracranial cerebrovascular angiography. The initial interpretation of the noninvasive study and the arteriograms were reviewed retrospectively. Comparison of the initial and retrospective interpretation of the noninvasive studies and the arteriograms showed that most patients had multiple symptoms recorded and transient lateralizing symptoms did not correlate well with positive arteriograms, that neither a lesion of 50 per cent stenois or an ulcerative plaque (as expected) could be predicted, and that the corrected specificity and sensitivity for this small series were 75.3 percent and 95.2 percent, respectively.


Aims: To identify how many particles should be examined to enable a confident assessment of the presence or absence of iron stores and the quantity of iron in a bone marrow aspirate to be made. Methods: One hundred and ninety consecutive bone marrow aspirate samples were stained with Perls' stain and the iron content of 10 consecutive particles was recorded. The first particle found to be positive and the particle that was most positive were also noted. Results: A minimum of seven particles must be examined to establish the absence of stainable iron. A minimum of nine particles must be reviewed to see the maximum iron stores in 100% of samples and therefore make a valid judgment of whether iron stores are reduced, normal, or increased. By these criteria, 46% of the samples tested here could not be optimally assessed for absence of iron or maximum iron stores. Conclusions: The sensitivity of examination of bone marrow aspirates for iron stores can be optimised by increasing the number of particles reviewed to seven or more. This may require the staining of additional slides.


Mouse sarcoma cells derived from recent methylcholanthrene-induced tumors of known genotypes were inoculated into isologous or homologous hosts after incubation with serum or lymph node cells from different sources. Isoantiserum enhanced the outgrowth of the tumors in genetically incompatible, homologous systems, whereas in isologous systems it had no effect. Lymph node cells of preimmunized homologous hosts were inhibitory in both homologous and isologous systems. Homologous lymph node cells, taken from untreated mice, showed variable effects, depending on the system used.

Based on this experience, obtained with various experimental designs, all of which were concerned with some aspect of the homograft reaction, similar studies were carried out with completely isologous systems. Primary or first or second passage sarcomas were exposed to lymph node cells of isologous mice, pretreated with heavily irradiated cells of the same tumor, or of the primary autologous host. Lymph node cells derived from autologous, or untreated or pretreated isologous, hosts were inhibitory in a number of cases.


Slope stability is a complicated and broad subject that still does not have a well establish design slope standard. Thus extensive researches and studies need to be carried out. The stability of the slope mainly depends on many factors and one of the factors is the soil strength properties which are related to soil characteristics. This study is more focus on the soil characteristics that can affect the slope stability. Jalan Gertak Sanggul is one of the main roads in Balik Pulau that is used frequently by the public. In this study, assessment on unfailed slope along Jalan Gertak Sanggul is made where the soil samples were taken and tested in laboratory. The results that obtained is then used to predict the stability of the slope by using ROM Scale (after the name of researchers ROSLAN & MAZIDAH). The results obtained which is % of sand, % of silt and % of clay are used in ROM equation to predict the stability of the unfailed slope. Statistical method also used in addition to results analyses. The results from the assessment, majority of the unfailed slopes along Jalan Gertak Sanggul are under critical risk category. The slopes are still standing due to suction of unsaturated soil and vegetation on the slope, but the slopes still have high possible chances to failure any time in the future due to climatic changes. The main objective of this study is to predict of slope failure of unfailed slope using ROM Scale. ROM Scale is a simple method in determining the likelihood of slope failure. It is hoped Rom Scale can be adopted especially as guidelines to predict future slope failure in the country.


In The Four Loves C.S. Lewis critiques Augustine's view of friendship. A recent study of Augustine, however, has led Walter Hansen to conclude that Lewis was wrong about Augustine's view of friendship. Lewis could have relied upon Augustine as a great ally to strengthen his essay on friendship love; instead, "with trembling" Lewis rejected St Augustine's teaching. It is "with trembling," then, that Walter Hansen offers a correction to Lewis. Hansen argues not that Lewis misread Augustine but that Lewis and Augustine actually had the same perspective on friendship love.


Understanding of wave hydrodynamics and its effects are important for engineers and scientists. Important insights may be gained from laboratory studies. Often the waves are simulated in laboratory flumes do not have the full characteristics of real sea waves. It is then necessary to present reliable methods of wave generation in wave flumes. In this paper, the results of numerically simulated water waves using different methods are presented. A model was developed to simulate water wave profile using DSA, NAS and WNDF methods. The results showed that although DSA method provides better agreement between output and target spectra, it is associated with non realistic simulation of sea waves. In the other hand WNDF method involves better stochastic wave characteristics if a qualitative white noise is used. It is also possible to put some controls on wave characteristics as input to WNDF model.


Models can help software engineers to reason about design-time decisions before implementing a system. This paper focuses on models that deal with non-functional properties, such as reliability and performance. To build such models, one must rely on numerical estimates of various parameters provided by domain experts or extracted by other similar systems. Unfortunately, estimates are seldom correct. In addition, in dynamic environments, the value of parameters may change over time. We discuss an approach that addresses these issues by keeping models alive at run time and feeding a Bayesian estimator with data collected from the running system, which produces updated parameters. The updated model provides an increasingly better representation of the system. By analyzing the updated model at run time, it is possible to detect or predict if a desired property is, or will be, violated by the running implementation. Requirement violations may trigger automatic reconfigurations or recovery actions aimed at guaranteeing the desired goals. We illustrate a working framework supporting our methodology and apply it to an example in which a Web service orchestrated composition is modeled through a Discrete Time Markov Chain. Numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the approach.


The spread of misinformation, including "fake news," propaganda, and conspiracy theories, represents a serious threat to society, as it has the potential to alter beliefs, behavior, and policy. Research is beginning to disentangle how and why misinformation is spread and identify processes that contribute to this social problem. We propose an integrative model to understand the social, political, and cognitive psychology risk factors that underlie the spread of misinformation and highlight strategies that might be effective in mitigating this problem. However, the spread of misinformation is a rapidly growing and evolving problem; thus scholars need to identify and test novel solutions, and work with policy makers to evaluate and deploy these solutions. Hence, we provide a roadmap for future research to identify where scholars should invest their energy in order to have the greatest overall impact.


OVERVIEW: Information technology (IT) is the cornerstone of the modern new product development (NPD) process. A new generation of communication and collaboration tools has propagated into nearly all aspects of NPD. To better understand how these collaborative tools, such as wikis, cloud-based file sharing, social networking, blogs, and microblogging platforms like Twitter, are being used in NPD and what influence they have on NPD outcomes, we undertook a global study of collaborative IT tool use in 443 firms. We found that the usage frequency of these collaborative tools is currently low, but it is positively correlated with project performance. Our results also show that the best-performing projects use all of these tools more intensively than poorer-performing projects. In addition, the usage frequency of these tools differentiated the best from the rest in smaller and medium-sized firms but not in larger firms. Our findings suggest that NPD managers should encourage the use of new forms of communication and collaboration and should embolden and empower the migration toward these collaborative tools. Author Tucker J. Marion will host an IRI-sponsored webinar on this subject on April 1, 2016 at 12 pm EDT. Register to attend at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6567583436205158658.


Policy recommendations:

1.
Maintaining and strengthening the European Rare Earth Elements (REE) skills and knowledge base through research funding, science and technology education and international cooperation.
Without cutting-edge research and technical expertise, a European high-tech REE industry cannot flourish. The EC and Member States should support funding for research grants, scholarships, and training networks, and enhance European and international cooperation through coordinated calls, researcher exchanges, and joint high-level conferences.

2.
Creating the basis for informed decision-making on REEs through a European Critical Materials Observatory.
Mapping and monitoring of REE supply chains is necessary for informed decision-making. Expertise in Europe could be pooled in a virtual Critical Materials Observatory that provides the public with consistent and authoritative knowledge on REEs (e.g., information on advanced exploration projects, prices, key demand and supply trends, and the urban mine potential).
3.
Support promising technologies through funding industry-led pilot plants for innovative HREE processing.
The EC, industry and Member States should accelerate the commercialization and scaling up of key technologies through co-financing industry-led pilot plants. This should include pilots for REE recovery from heavy rare earths-rich minerals, direct-alloy recycling routes, process and sensor equipment for REE recycling, and REE recovery from industrial residues.
4.
Levelling the playing field for European HREE exploration through co-funding for prefeasibility and bankable feasibility studies.
Support from federal and state governments in the U.S., Australia and Canada has played a critical role in advancing project exploration. The EC and Member States should evaluate possibilities for supporting the extensive R&D necessary for pre-feasibility and bankable feasibility studies, to avoid high quality deposits in Europe simply going unexplored.
5.
Making waste management REE-friendly through eco-design, incentive schemes for collecting priority waste products, and streamlining policy and waste regulation.
The EC and Member States should promote recycling-friendly design to help identify and recover REE components in waste more easily. Potential incentives for stimulating REE waste collection should be evaluated and the shipment of REE wastes should be facilitated. More consistency should also be created in implementing and applying existing waste regulations.
6.
Boost supply security and de-risk strategic REE investment cases through enhanced cooperation among European end-users and other stakeholders.
Leading end-users should engage in strategic cooperation across industry and with governments. This could include setting up a voluntary European 'critical raw materials fund', establishing a 'European Resource Alliance' similar to the German Rohstoffallianz, and convening a high-level taskforce to examine ways in which public funding could support resilient REE supply chains for Europe.


ABSTRACT This article investigates the Chinese government's evolving policies toward the emerging global norm of 'responsibility to protect' (R2P). While its principle of non-interference persists, Beijing has gradually acknowledged the responsibility to respond to humanitarian catastrophes in certain circumstances. Meanwhile, to ensure the concept's limited application and reducing the instances where it might breach state sovereignty, Beijing actively participated in relevant debates to shape R2P in a direction that gives primacy to capacity-building and preventative measures. After examining how China engaged with the R2P in the recent crises in Darfur, Libya and Syria, the article argues, perceived threat from R2P upon its regime security explains Beijing's continued efforts to constrain the norm's development, while its aspiration for a status of responsible power encourages the Chinese government to engage with R2P more actively and flexibly. The case of R2P thus sheds new light on the complex interactions between China and the evolving global order.


Machine learning has been widely applied to various applications, some of which involve training with privacy-sensitive data. A modest number of data breaches have been studied, including credit card information in natural language data and identities from face dataset. However, most of these studies focus on supervised learning models. As deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has been deployed in a number of real-world systems, such as indoor robot navigation, whether trained DRL policies can leak private information requires in-depth study. To explore such privacy breaches in general, we mainly propose two methods: environment dynamics search via genetic algorithm and candidate inference based on shadow policies. We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate such privacy vulnerabilities in DRL under various settings. We leverage the proposed algorithms to infer floor plans from some trained Grid World navigation DRL agents with LiDAR perception. The proposed algorithm can correctly infer most of the floor plans and reaches an average recovery rate of 95.83% using policy gradient trained agents. In addition, we are able to recover the robot configuration in continuous control environments and an autonomous driving simulator with high accuracy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to investigate privacy leakage in DRL settings and we show that DRL-based agents do potentially leak privacy-sensitive information from the trained policies.


This book presents lessons from the famous 'Invention Factories' past and present. Did you know that the incandescent lightbulb first emerged some thirty years before Thomas Edison famously 'turned night into day'? Or that Henry Ford's revolutionary assembly line came from an unlikely blend of observations from Singer sewing machines, meatpacking, and Campbell's Soup? In this fascinating study of innovation, engineer and social scientist Andrew Hargadon argues that our romantic notions about innovation as invention are actually undermining our ability to pursue breakthrough innovations. Based on ten years of study into the origins of historic inventions and modern innovations from the lightbulb to the transistor to the Reebok Pump athletic shoe, How Breakthroughs Happen takes us beyond the simple recognition that revolutionary innovations do not result from flashes of brilliance by lone inventors or organizations. In fact, innovation is really about creatively recombining ideas, people, and objects from past technologies in ways that spark new technological revolutions. This process of 'technology brokering' is so powerful, explains Hargadon, because it exploits the networked nature--the social side--of the innovation process. Moving between historical accounts of labs and factory floors where past technological revolutions originated and field studies of similar processes in today's organizations, Hargadon shows how technology brokers create an enduring capacity for breakthrough innovations. Technology brokers simultaneously bridge the gaps in existing networks that separate distant industries, firms, and divisions to see how established ideas can be applied in new ways and places, and build new networks to guide these creative recombinations to mass acceptance. How Breakthroughs Happen identifies three distinct strategies for technology brokering that managers can implement in their organizations. Hargadon suggests that Edison and his counterparts were no smarter than the rest of us-they were simply better at moving through the networked world of their time. Intriguing, practical, and counterintuitive, How Breakthroughs Happen can help managers transform their own firms into modern-day invention factories.


A static triaxial apparatus was designed and manufactured after consideration of shortages in traditional methods for force and deformation measurement. Compositions, structure and functions of this apparatus were introduced. Within this apparatus, an inner force transducer together with digital image processing technology was adopted in order to provide a more accurate measurement of test results. PC functions were modular designed, in order to make the complex processing of interactive features more clearly and easier operation. Finally, results of a typical CD test of saturated sand showed the good performances of this apparatus.


Uterine leiomyoma has become a significant health concern affecting one in forth women in reproductive age in Taiwan, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The associated symptoms can lead to reduced life quality and women ultimately seeking for surgical intervention. Adlay extract possesses anti-tumor activity and has shown to inhibit sarcoma cell proliferation and tumor progression. In present study, viability of ELT3 cells was tested to screen for different fractions of adlay extracts, as well as various phenolic compounds and flavonoids. The active adlay fractions and compounds were then tested on primary human leiomyoma cells. Cell cycle profiles of ELT3 cells were analyzed in order to determine the possible cause of growth-inhibition. Results showed that AHE-EA, ATE-Hex, and ATE-EA were able to inhibit the proliferation of ELT3 and primary leiomyoma cells. Among the tested compounds, Quercetin, nobiletin and eriodictyol, significantly decreased the viability of ELT3 and primary leiomyoma cells. Quercetin induced cell cycle arrest of ELT3 cells at Sub-G1 and G2/M phases. Adlay extracts exhibit growth-inhibitory effects on uterine leiomyoma cells. These effects may result from to the combined actions of different compounds, indicating a possibility of matrix effect from the compounds in adlay extract. Therefore, adlay extracts may be considered a feasible alternative therapeutic agent for leiomyoma.


The dynamics of the knee-joint-freely-swinging-lower-leg system of three sitting paraplegic patients was identified using a parameterized analytical model. Surface electrodes were used for stimulation. The output of the knee joint-lower leg system was the angular position, velocity and acceleration. A model structure was taken from the literature and its complexity minimized based on the experiments and offline identification. The resulting model structure facilitates possible recursive identification. Model parameters of the lower leg dynamics were estimated using a least-squares algorithm in combination with the Levenburg-Marquardt algorithm. The intersubject variability in parameter values for the knee joint damping and the gravitational component appeared to be small when normalized to the inertia of the lower leg. The identified model for the knee joint and shank dynamics accurately predicted passive lower leg movement and could be used to estimate the magnitude of active knee torque due to elicited quadriceps contraction. >


This paper presents a hybrid framework of feature extraction and hidden Markov modeling (HMM) for two-dimensional pattern recognition. Importantly, we explore a new discriminative training criterion to assure model compactness and discriminability. This criterion is derived from the hypothesis test theory via maximizing the confidence of accepting the hypothesis that observations are from target HMM states rather than competing HMM states. Accordingly, we develop the maximum confidence hidden Markov modeling (MC-HMM) for face recognition. Under this framework, we merge a transformation matrix to extract discriminative facial features. The closed-form solutions to continuous-density HMM parameters are formulated. Attractively, the hybrid MC-HMM parameters are estimated under the same criterion and converged through the expectation-maximization procedure. From the experiments on the FERET database and GTFD, we find that the proposed method obtains robust segmentation in the presence of different facial expressions, orientations, and so forth. In comparison with the maximum likelihood and minimum classification error HMMs, the proposed MC-HMM achieves higher recognition accuracies with lower feature dimensions.


OBJECTIVE
To review critically the features of measures of generic health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for disability outcomes research.

DATA SOURCES
A search of electronic databases, summary reviews, books, and government documents was performed. Comment and experiences from participants of a conference on outcomes research were also incorporated.

STUDY SELECTION
English language literature from scientists from a broad range of disciplines and research settings, including medicine, nursing, social science, and public health, and health services research and practice.

DATA EXTRACTION
A critical review of measures that have been or might be used to measure disability outcomes.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Commonly used generic measures of HRQOL can be applied to disability outcomes research with some caveats. Three common tools are the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), Sickness Impact Profile (SIP), and Quality of Well-Being (QWB) scale. The SF-36 and SIP have been used with some success in research with people with disability. The QWB scale has been used less frequently.

CONCLUSION
Most studies using generic HRQOL tools are of groups with specific impairments rather than heterogeneous groups of people with disability. None of the tools appears to measure HRQOL without some potential biases (eg, inappropriate wording) for people with disability, but more specific testing of these problems is needed. Also needed are studies to determine whether these tools can measure meaningful longitudinal changes.


This article discusses the possibilities of using big data and machine learning strategies to improve the provision of public services along many dimensions, including better access or quality and cost reduction. Several examples are presented for the case of water, electricity and transportation. The note also highlights the challenges faced by the infrastructure sector and, in general, by the public sector in relation to the possibilities and limitations of big data.


A series of 1163 total hip arthroplasties (THAs) using porous-coated femoral components were roentgenographically assessed for implant fixation. For 959 primary THAs followed from two to 12 years, the femoral revision rate was 1% and the ten-year survivorship rate was 96.4%; 150 young patients had a fixation failure incidence of only 1.3% at a mean follow-up period of 6.4 years; in 204 revision THAs, the femoral re-revision rate was 4% at a mean follow-up period of 53.4 months. Failures were largely related to inadequate femoral canal filling. Because of refinements in implant design and surgical techniques, a press fit of the implant is currently achieved in 94% of cases compared to 36% during the first five years. Porouscoated femoral components have yielded results equivalent to those with cement in primary THAs. Excellent results were observed in relatively young patients and patients with revisions.


There is a tension between present and future at the forefront of anarchist thought: if we reject authority, how can we bear the authority we inevitably have over those who come after us? This is not a problem exclusive to anarchism, but a tension that is also embedded in every politics that strives to both promote freedom and sustain itself as the best possible structure for the realization of that freedom. While "anarchist eugenics" sounds like an oxymoron, it was a theme developed in Spanish anarchist thought in the 1920s and 30s as it addressed this problem and struggled to sustain revolutionary practice. The cause of freedom and equality could be served and "the race of the poor" eliminated by sex education, free love and conscious generation.


A conjecture in quantum mechanics states that any quantum canonical transformation can decompose into a sequence of three basic canonical transformations; gauge, point and interchange of coordinates and momenta. It is shown that if one attempts to construct the three basic transformations in star-product form, while gauge and point transformations are immediate in star-exponential form, interchange has no correspondent, but it is possible in an ordinary exponential form. As an alternative approach, it is shown that all three basic transformations can be constructed in the ordinary exponential form and that in some cases this approach provides more useful tools than the star-exponential form in finding the generating function for given canonical transformation or vice versa. It is also shown that transforms of c-number phase space functions under linear-nonlinear canonical transformations and intertwining method can be treated within this argument.


We study the structure and stability of closed-ring carbon nanotubes using a theoretical model based on the Brenner-Tersoff potential. Many metastable structures can be produced. We focus on two methods of generating such structures. In the first, a ring is formed by geometric folding and is then relaxed into minimum energy using a minimizing algorithm. Short tubes do not stay closed. Yet tubes longer than 18 nm are kinetically stable. The other method starts from a straight carbon nanotube and folds it adiabatically into a closed-ring structure. The two methods give strikingly different structures. The structures of the second method are more stable and exhibit two buckles, independent of the nanotube length. This result is in strict contradiction to an elastic shell model. We analyze the results for the failure of the elastic model.


Although it has been documented that daily precipitation extremes are increasing worldwide, faster increases may be expected for subdaily extremes. Here after a careful quality control procedure, we compared trends in hourly and daily precipitation extremes using a large network of stations across the United States (U.S.) within the 1950–2011 period. A greater number of significant increasing trends in annual and seasonal maximum precipitation were detected from daily extremes, with the primary exception of wintertime. Our results also show that the mean percentage change in annual maximum daily precipitation across the U.S. per global warming degree is ~6.9% °C−1 (in agreement with the Clausius‐Clapeyron rate) while lower sensitivities were observed for hourly extremes, suggesting that changes in the magnitude of subdaily extremes in response to global warming emerge more slowly than those for daily extremes in the climate record.


In this study the surfaces of pure polyethylene and polyethylene filled with organo-modified vermiculite were prepared and compared. Both polymers were prepared from industrial polyethylene powders. The polyethylene composite were filled with 3 wt.% of additive. As an additive was used vermiculite with chlorhexidine diacetate (CA). CA is antibacterial agent often used in dentist medicine. The infection is major problem of implant surgery. Smoothening of polyethylene surface may result in difficult adhesion of bacteria and viruses. Combination of smooth surface with antibacterial effect should to be very promising material for implant medicine. Two processes were compared – heat treatment and chemical modification (boiling in hexane). Pure polyethylene shows deep depression and sharp tips formed by preparation process. The heating method creates finer surface and more flat surfaces without sharp tips. On the other hand boiling in hexane create surface with fine roughness resulting in dissolution of polyethylene.


An atmospheric general circulation model is used to investigate the influence of the North Atlantic Ocean on
atmospheric variability. The study covers the period from 1950 to 1994. The observed sea surface temperature
and sea ice extension are used to force the atmospheric model. Several configurations of the oceanic boundary
conditions were made to isolate the role of the North Atlantic and to study its non-linear interaction with forcings
from other oceanic basins. The multi-realization character of the experiments distinguishes between the internal
random part and the external forced part of the total variability. The potential predictability can thus be evaluated.
The response of the atmosphere is also studied with a modal approach in terms of hemispheric teleconnection
patterns. The North Atlantic Ocean has a direct influence on both the Northern Hemisphere annular mode and the
Pacific-North-America pattern, leading to a weak predictability. However the direct response is largely modulated
by forcings from other oceanic basins. The non-linearity of the system compensates the predictable component of
the annular mode induced by the North Atlantic forcing. Furthermore it reduces the forced component of the
Pacific-North-America pattern, increasing its chaoticity.


HIV-1 envelope protein gp120 has been extensively studied for neurotoxic effects that have been attributed to the increased expression of various proinflammatory cytokines in the CNS. Recently we have shown that methamphetamine (MA) also increases expression of proinflammatory cytokines in astrocytes. However, combined effect of gp120 and MA is not known. The present study was undertaken to determine cumulative effect and the mechanism(s)/pathways involved in the functional interaction between gp120 and MA in SVGA astrocytes. Our results clearly suggest that gp120 and MA affect IL-6 but not IL-8 in a synergistic manner and this synergy was mediated by PI3K/Akt and NF-κB pathways. Inhibition of either of these pathways could abrogate the increased expression of IL-6 due to MA or gp120 alone, as well as the increased expression of IL-6 when the astrocytes were treated with both gp120 and MA. These results were confirmed by both, using chemical inhibitors/siRNA as well as western blotting. This study therefore provides novel information regarding the interaction between MA and gp120 in terms of the expression of IL-6 and the mechanisms underlying potential synergy between MA and gp120 in astrocytes.


In this essay, we propose a principled approach for government bailouts of critical/systemic firms who find themselves in COVID-19-induced financial distress. We also demonstrate why bankruptcy is the wrong tool to address the problems of these types of firms.

The current pandemic threatens lives and livelihoods across the world. A key difference compared to previous market shocks is that lockdowns and related measures have, in certain instances, made it impossible for businesses to conduct their operations. This has resulted in a very specific type of distress, one that bankruptcy is not in the best position to address effectively. If there are no revenues, the design of bankruptcy laws makes them an inadequate tool – and the sheer volume of companies going through the process may put severe stress on the system. The difficulties that the vast majority of companies are encountering may be better solved using different tools: bailouts, bail-ins or a combination thereof, deployed by the government in wide-ranging statutory schemes.

However, these schemes may not adequately address the issues of all companies; and the preservation of some of them – those that we refer to as critical/systemic – may be of such significant value to society that more intense assistance from the government is justified. We engage with the characteristics of firms that should be considered critical/systemic and the principles that should guide ad hoc rescues of those companies by the government. Firms are critical/systemic if their failure imposes significant negative externalities on the economy (or, conversely, their preservation generates significant positive externalities) or if they provide the public with an "infrastructure" not otherwise provided by the private sector. If firms are critical/systemic, the government should have the ability to bail them out, going beyond applicable statutory schemes and ensuring that the relevant externalities are considered when deciding whether to keep these companies as going concerns. Bankruptcy is a private process. It is not designed to vindicate such public considerations.

Government bailouts, however, should be governed by principles, as any government intervention in the economy, and its associated efficiency and distributional effects must be considered with care. The guiding principles that we propose and elaborate on are (i) proportionality, (ii) efficiency, (iii) equity and (iv) transparency. The application of these principles should ensure that, if the government takes ownership of a private firm through an ad hoc bailout, this is a tool of last resort, and not more than temporary – and that the pre-distress investors properly contribute to the necessary measures.


The protein RHAMM (for "receptor for hyaluronan‐mediated motility"; CD168) is a member of the hyaladherin family of hyaluronan‐binding proteins. RHAMM has a role in cell signaling, migration, and adhesion via interactions with hyaluronan, microtubules, actin, calmodulin, and components of the extracellular regulated kinase (erk) signaling pathway. Based on previous findings of potentially similar roles in neural cells in culture, we investigated the molecular characteristics, protein expression profile, and distribution of RHAMM in rat brain. Reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) using RNA isolated from adult rat brain yielded a single RHAMM sequence of 2.1 kilobases encoding a protein of 82.4 kDa. RHAMM is subject to alternate splicing in other systems, but no RT‐PCR evidence was found for splice variants in brain, although our analysis does not rule out this possibility. The amino acid sequence displayed homology with human and murine RHAMM (74% and 80%, respectively) but contained only one copy of a 21‐amino‐acid sequence that is repeated five times in the murine homologue. By using anti‐RHAMM antibodies, several RHAMM isoforms were identified in brain. Immunohistochemically, RHAMM was found in the vast majority of neurons and in many oligodendrocytes throughout brain, with heterogeneous levels among cell populations, and was confined to the somata and initial processes of these cells. RHAMM was detected in neurons of cerebral cortex and most subcortical and brainstem structures at postnatal day 1 and exhibited an adult distribution pattern by postnatal day 5. High levels were detected in oligodendrocytes by postnatal day 10. The widespread expression of RHAMM in adult and developing brain implies a role for this protein and its ligand hyaluronan in key events of cell signaling and cytoskeletal regulation in the CNS. J. Comp. Neurol. 439:315–330, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Background: Various studies suggest a comorbid association between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) indicating that there could be shared underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. Objective: This study aims to systematically model relevant knowledge at the molecular level to find a mechanistic rationale explaining the existing comorbid association between AD and T2DM. Method: We have used a knowledge-based modeling approach to build two network models for AD and T2DM using Biological Expression Language (BEL), which is capable of capturing and representing causal and correlative relationships at both molecular and clinical levels from various knowledge resources. Results: Using comparative analysis, we have identified several putative "shared pathways". We demonstrate, at a mechanistic level, how the insulin signaling pathway is related to other significant AD pathways such as the neurotrophin signaling pathway, PI3K/AKT signaling, MTOR signaling, and MAPK signaling and how these pathways do cross-talk with each other both in AD and T2DM. In addition, we present a mechanistic hypothesis that explains both favorable and adverse effects of the anti-diabetic drug metformin in AD. Conclusion: The two computable models introduced here provide a powerful framework to identify plausible mechanistic links shared between AD and T2DM and thereby identify targeted pathways for new therapeutics. Our approach can also be used to provide mechanistic answers to the question of why some T2DM treatments seem to increase the risk of AD.


"Altered State of Consciousness" (ASC) has been defined as a changed overall pattern of conscious experience, or as the subjective feeling and explicit recognition that one's own subjective experience has changed. We argue that these traditional definitions fail to draw a clear line between altered and normal states of consciousness (NSC). We outline a new definition of ASC and argue that the proper way to understand the concept of ASC is to regard it as a representational notion: the alteration that has happened is not an alteration of consciousness (or subjective experience) per se, but an alteration in the informational or representational relationships between consciousness and the world. An altered state of consciousness is defined as a state in which the neurocognitive background mechanisms of consciousness have an increased tendency to produce misrepresentations such as hallucinations, delusions, and memory distortions. Paradigm examples of such generally misrepresentational, temporary, and reversible states are dreaming, psychotic episodes, psychedelic drug experiences, some epileptic seizures, and hypnosis in highly hypnotizable subjects. The representational definition of ASC should be applied in the theoretical and empirical studies of ASCs to unify and clarify the conceptual basis of ASC research.


THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES IN NINETEENTH CENTURY COUNTY TOWNS: A CASE STUDY OF THE COUNTY TOWN OF STAFFORD by Lynda May Holland MEd (Sheffield) Department of Labour Market Studies To date there appears to have been little academic research that concentrates on investigating nineteenth century professions and none that could be located which consider their role in relation to the development of small provincial towns during this period of occupational flux. For example Holmes (1982 ) and Corfield (1999 ) concentrate on profession in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; Abbott (1988) nineteenth and twentieth century profession in England, France and America and other researchers on the development of specific occupations such as medicine (Friedson 1970); accountancy (Matthews 2006); librarianship (Goode 1961) and although Larson's (1977) research locates the beginning of professional mobilisation projects in the nineteenth century, it is primarily concerned with the twentieth. This research therefore explores how professional services developed in small English county towns during the nineteenth century and uses the county town of Stafford as its focus. It takes the form of a series of three interrelated case studies that move from providing a macro view of professional life and work in Stafford; to a more focused case study of one specific occupation, that of chemist/druggist; to investigating one particular Stafford family that for several generations had members who worked as chemists/druggists. This approach provides an overview of the type and level of professional services on offer in Stafford during this period along with an in-depth analysis of one particular occupation. Research results indicate that profession as a concept held little value for the folk of Stafford throughout the nineteenth century and that professional services in the town were slow to develop, even during a period of rapid population growth. A range of twentieth century research theories and frameworks for categorising profession were tested and appeared not to be appropriate for accurately identifying professional work at this time and a nineteenth century framework is proposed. The growth of educational opportunities throughout the century and the use of profession as a marketing tool are however found to be intrinsically linked to the growth of the concept of profession by the end of the nineteenth century.


In Fairness versus Welfare (FVW), we advance the thesis that social policies should be assessed entirely with regard to their effects on individuals' well-being. That is, no independent weight should be accorded to notions of fairness such as corrective or retributive justice or other deontological principles. Our claim is based on the demonstration that pursuit of notions of fairness has perverse effects on welfare, on other problematic aspects of the notions, and on a reconciliation of our thesis with the evident appeal of moral intuitions. Here we summarize our three arguments and explain that Professor Ripstein's commentary largely fails to respond to them. (We will pass over some of what he says because it has little to do with our book, and we will not address his rather surprising attacks on our scholarship because the reader can readily verify their inaccuracy.)


Introduction Urinary incontinence with co-morbid depression has been found to have a significant effect on quality of life. Examining the associations between the psychosocial factors related to urinary incontinence and mental health may help in improving the care for patients with these conditions. The aim of this research study is to explore the relationship between mental health status and urinary incontinence, focusing on the role of psychosocial factors. Materials and Methods A search of Medline, CINAHL and SCOPUS databases yielded 15 studies on the topic, and 10 studies were found to be in scope. A metasynthesis using Noblit and Hare's approach of meta-ethnography was undertaken. This involved a number of steps including determining how studies are related and identifying major themes. Results Three psychosocial aspects of urinary incontinence appear to influence mental health status: living with, management of and attitudes about incontinence. Other smaller component themes included control, seeking help and personal beliefs. Discussion Psychosocial factors appear to mediate the relationship between urinary incontinence and mental health status. An increased awareness of the major psychosocial issues that can influence both incontinence and mental health may contribute to a better management of the condition as well as reduce the burden of the condition on individuals. Conclusion Incontinence and psychological wellbeing are intertwined and this adversely affects a number of aspects of life. Enquiring about the mental health status of those with incontinence should include an assessment of psychosocial factors to help reduce the burden of incontinence. To improve the management of these conditions, further research should investigate whether psychological issues precede incontinence or vice versa.


In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), energy of the sensor nodes applied by battery is the important resource. Data aggregation and routing, eliminating data redundancy and reducing traffic to improve the energy efficiency, is essential for WSNs. Hence, Cobweb Model and Data Aggregation and Routing Scheme of Cobweb (DARSC) are proposed in this paper. In Cobweb Model, the network topology is layered and the sink node is in the center, the sensor nodes need maintain the Neighbor_inf about their neighbors. In DARSC, data aggregation stage is used to eliminate data redundancy and data transmission repeatedly, and data transmission stage is used to select reasonable path of data transmission. The results of analysis and experiments show DARSC has outstanding performance in packets delay, dissipated energy and network lifetime.


Grid computing was born in the 1990s, when researchers were looking for a way to share expensive computing resources and experiment equipment. Grid computing is becoming increasingly popular because it promotes the sharing of distributed resources that may be heterogeneous in nature, and it enables scientists and engineering professionals to solve large scale computing problems. In reality, there are already huge numbers of grid computing facilities distributed around the world, each one having been created to serve a particular group of scientists such as weather forecasters, or a group of users such as stock markets. However, the need to extend the functionalities of current grid systems lends itself to the consideration of grid evolution. This allows the combination of many disjunct grids into a single powerful grid that can operate as one vast computational resource, as well as for grid environments to be flexible, to be able to change and to evolve. The rationale for grid evolution is the current rapid and increasing advances in both software and hardware. Evolution means adding or removing capabilities. This research defines grid evoi lution as adding new functions and/or equipment and removing unusable resources that affect the performance of some nodes. This thesis produces a new technique for grid evolution, allowing it to be seamless and to operate at run time. Within grid computing, evolution is an integration of software and hardware and can be of two distinct types, external and internal. Internal evolution occurs inside the grid boundary by migrating special resources such as application software from node to node inside the grid. While external evolution occurs between grids. This thesis develops a framework for grid evolution that insulates users from the complexities of grids. This framework has at its core a resource broker together with a grid monitor to cope with internal and external evolution, advance reservation, fault tolerance, the monitoring of the grid environment, increased resource utilisation and the high availability of grid resources. The starting point for the present framework of grid evolution is when the grid receives a job whose requirements do not exist on the required node which triggers grid evolution. If the grid has all the requirements scattered across its nodes, internal evolution enabling the grid to migrate the required resources to the required node in order to satisfy job requirements ensues, but if the grid does not have these resources, external evolution enables the grid either to collect them from other grids (permanent evolution) or to send the job to other grids for execution (just in time) evolution. Finally a simulation tool called (EVOSim) has been designed, developed and ii tested. It is written in Oracle 10g and has been used for the creation of four grids, each of which has a different setup including different nodes, application software, data and polices. Experiments were done by submitting jobs to the grid at run time, and then comparing the results and analysing the performance of those grids that use the approach of evolution with those that do not. The results of these experiments have demonstrated that these features significantly improve the performance of grid environments and provide excellent scheduling results, with a decreasing number of rejected jobs.


This article analyzes the role of competition law, regulation and asymmetric rules in the new Community regulatory framework for electronic communications, and more specifically the conditions for the intervention of the regulatory authorities and the imposition of "ex ante" measures. Although it was foreseen that the review of the original legislation which liberalized the telecommunications sector would have led to a reduction in the role of regulation in favor of a system where more weight would be left to the "ex post" application of competition rules, this goal has not been achieved. As a matter of fact, the role and the discretion of national regulatory authorities remains extremely broad and seems to be destined to last, and to remain a stable feature of the telecommunications sector. The analysis also focuses on the purported convergence between regulation and competition law and comes to the conclusion that the two systems continue to diverge considerably, despite the use of terminology which on the face of it would seem to be fairly similar.


The patient was a 40-year-old African American woman, with no significant past medical history, who presented to our medical center with a 4-week history of shortness of breath and lower extremity edema. The onset was progressive and initially occurred only with moderate exertion until about 2 weeks before presentation; at that time, her symptoms had worsened to the point where she experienced shortness of breath at rest. Orthopnea also developed at this time. The patient also reported intermittent palpitations, wheezing, and a dry cough of unknown duration.


Background: Workers in slaughterhouses engaging in unhygienic practices create conducive environments for zoonoses and meat contamination. Knowledge of hygiene practices and their determinants provides evidence for the design of targetedinterventions.Objectives: We investigated knowledge and determinants of hygiene practices among workers in slaughterhouses and assessed slaughterhouse facilities in Abakaliki.Methods: Workers in the Central Meat Market abattoir and Slaughter slab Abakaliki were interviewed in a cross-sectional quantitative study to ascertain their knowledge and hygiene practices while abattoir facilities were assessed using a checklist. Associations were analysed with Chi-square while predictors were determined using binary logistic model.Results: We interviewed 188 workers 75.5% and 85.6% of whom had good knowledge and good hygiene practices respectively. However, hand-washing before and after handling meat (44.1%), cleaning work surfaces with soap and water (45.2%) and sanitary disposal of waste (6.9%) were suboptimal. Knowledge of good hygiene practice was a predictor of good hygiene practice (AOR: 4.6, 95% CI: 2.0-11.3, p=0.001). Well water and borehole were present in both slaughterhouses and cold rooms were available in Central Meat market abattoir.Conclusions: The level of good knowledge was high and this was a determinant of good hygienic practices. Training on hygiene practices is recommended to prevent meat contamination and zoonoses.
Keywords: Knowledge; Hygiene Practices; Abattoir; Slaughter slab; Determinants; Ebonyi; Nigeria.


Menacing, nerve-racking, uncomfortably intrusive, the high school reunion has become a dreaded encounter with the past and present for many Americans. It is a moment of both heightened self-awareness and public presentation, insisting that people account for themselves, not merely to their own satisfaction, but to the satisfaction of others as well. For the author, this situation presents an ideal forum in which to explore the ongoing construction of identity in American society, and, perhaps, to ascertain just how people have managed to make sense of their lives, from then to now. As autobiographical occasions, reunions prompt us to examine our own life narratives, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and how we have come to be that person. But at the same time, they threaten the integrity of those very stories, subjecting them to the scrutiny of others whose memories of the past and ourselves may be altogether different from our own. Reunions, then, engender a fragile community held together by the resources of a shared past, yet imperiled by the tensions of competing histories. Inevitabley, they force a kind of biographical confrontation. This book explores that struggle, the desire to resolve the tensions between public conceptions and internal understandings, to maintain a sense of continuity between past and present lives, and to lay claim to both an integrated self and a unified life history.


Abstract
Parainfluenza viruses were isolated 165 times during 14 years surveillance of the illnesses of a general practice population of around 3700. Type 1 isolations numbered 57, type 2 isolations 22 and type 3 isolations 86, representing annual rates of 33, 13 and 50 infections respectively per 10000 of population. Type 4 parainfluenza virus was not isolated. Three major classes of illness gave the following rates: sore throats (Throats) nine, acute febrile respiratory diseases (FRD) 23, acute non-febrile respiratory diseases (non-FRD) 71. The illnesses caused by the three types isolated were similar. Type 1 infections were most abundant in November and type 2 infections in December, and only 11.4% of these types were isolated in the warm semester April through September. Type 3 infections were seasonally bi-modal, with a winter peak in January and an even greater prevalence (66% of the total) in the warm semester. Type 3 infections in the warmer months and in the later years of the Survey were usually more severe. Type 3 virus may therefore be heterogeneous, one subtype possessing and the other lacking the genetic mechanism of "cold-season' prevalence. Geographical discontinuity between summer and winter isolation strengthens the case for the existence of the two subtypes of type 3 parainfluenza virus. Type 3 infections caused the majority of the infections in very young infants. Type 2 infections were widely distributed at all ages. Females were attacked more often than males: type 1, 68.4%; type 2, 63.6%; type 3, 53.5%. Type 3 infections in males outnumbered those in females up to 60 years of age, whereas female predominance became apparent in types 1 and 2 before 10 years of age. All types were widely and sparsely distributed, areas of prevalence changing from year to year. Recurrences occurred only twice, both with type 3 infections. Six persons suffered both a type 1 and a type 3 infection, and one person suffered both a type 2 and a type 3 infection.